deja-vu v.2 [ rain... falling in my heart

Sunday, June 19, 2005

feeling horribly outdated once again. exactly the same feeling as last year when i came back from my scotland trip.

and very stressed. ok. maybe not very stressed. just.. stressed. i don't know how stressed. just stressed. ARGHHHHHHHH!!!! *screams and pulls hair* im talking pure crap!!! *slaps self*

sigh. ok. shall get down to describing the trip.

hmmmm... what shall i talk about. let's see. erm.. the architecture we saw.. *jaw drops* the language.. [ french ] *pulls at hair again* the activities from day to day.. the places we visited.. [ totally gorgeous ] and the.. *coughs*hotfudges*coughs* *bursts out laughing*

ok. let's see. i watched.. a total of.. *counts* about 12 movies on the plane. plus listened to my playlist over and over again at least twice during each trip. and made my way to the toilet a gazillion times. ok. that was totally not needed i guess. *zips*

movies watched:
hitch [ to paris ]
the pacifier [ to paris ]
house of fury [ to paris ]
13 going on 30 [ to paris ]
the incredibles [ to paris ]
phantom of the opera [ from heathrow ]
MIB [ from heathrow ]
MIB II [ from heathrow ]
the wedding date [ from heathrow ]
spanglish [ from heathrow ]
les choristes [ from heathrow ]
seoul raiders [ from heathrow ]

and they're showing my boyfriend is type-b next month!!! *bangs head against the wall* shucks. sigh.. guess i'll just have to make do with getting the vcd or dvd.

so let's see. arrived in paris on the first day at about 6 plus. it was raining slightly but as everyone would put it, the weather was gorgeous. totally like some outdoor air-condidtioned place. probably a little colder, but nevertheless.

first stop: perfume shop. the place where chanel and all those huge brands get their perfumes made. they can't sell the perfume to us with the packaging that chanel has, but we can request for certain perfumes, which are sold at about 75% of the market price. or something like that, according to my tour guide. travelled for quite awhile before going for lunch. my first meal in paris and i totally swore off its rice from then on. imagine, rice with chicken and mushrooms. that's quite ok. but imagine the whole lot being covered in this biege sauce which is supposed to be.. erm.. made from cream. or something. or milk. i don't know. but the main thing being that it's sour. ok. not sour. like.. sour power that kinda sour. just.. argh.. sour. as you can already see, my vocab's moving downhill very very quickly. *blabbers about some physics crap which is totally came-up-with and 99.9999% not true*

everything was great, dessert and all. but the main course was just.. weird. at least for most of our standards. we basically coated the whole course in pepper. which didn't really help very much. but oh well. it was just the start of my friends' many pepper-coated meals for the next two weeks. dessert was gorgeous chocolate cake. chocolate on the top, chocolate mousse in the middle, sandwiched between chocolate cake. yum. just that it was too rich for me, so i didn't really finish it up. ok. i didn't even finish half of it. but oh well.

after that was visiting of some places, a music museum and places were most of the french revolution took place or places of significance in the revolution. plus looking at the buildings in paris where most of the architecture is similar to the that of the 17th century. one word to describe it all.. gorgeous. just totally gorgeous. although there HAD to be some renovations done from time to time, but its just super nice. and thanks to that, you finally know what ugly buildings are and what defines them. *makes a face*

then it was kodak-time once again. for the buildings that is. everyone went crazy during the bus ride. the square was really nice, we visited the concorde and all. which meant more photo-taking. thank goodness i didn't bring my camera along. cause with all the explanation that we got, and the immediate switching on of cameras to take photos, i would probably forget the significance of half the pictures that i took. besides the really obvious ones that is.

then we arrived at the hostel. quite alright. probably the one hostel we had which had 2 storeys. erm.. lotsa people had flooding toilets but on the whole it was quite ok. from the first day to the last, i would always be the first person showering first, cause i just can't stand waiting till everyone has finished showering before i shower myself. just felt dirty. filthy. yucks. ok. nevermind about that. just needed to really freshen up after all those travelling we had in the bus, which meant sleeping half the time. though i swear i didn't sleep as much as compared to the beginning of last year. =) so i was the guinea pig for our rooming group. or basically our entire group. told them how to use the shower, whether or not the water was cold. so on and so forth. and helped warm up the water, so the rest had warm water when they showered. its super easy to know when the water's freezing cold. the rest just have to hear me yelping away, "oh my gosh! the water's.. *pause* *controls and decides not to use vulgarities* freaking.. freezing cold! argh!" before i step in again, and wait for the water to become warm. and the problem with showering in uk and france is that, most of the time, when the water's not at turned to the max for hot water, all you have to do is turn it ever so slightly towards the colder side, and you basically get freezing cold water, the very next moment. which means you usually have to be really quick with your bath, or end up being scalded by the water, or freezing and waiting for another century or so before the water becomes warm, freezing in the process. but oh well, not much complains besides that. just grateful that we have a proper bathing place.

dinner at a restaurant where we had to choose between pizza and pasta. and the servings were H-U-G-E. no kidding. but at least i managed to finish it off. custard pudding for dessert. yum. haha. and everyone was either very amused by our crazy waiter or freaked by him.

next day, breakfast, bread with jam and butter, plus expresso chocolate. then visiting of versailles. nice i tell you. but most found it vulgar and disgusting that such a beautiful place was built using the people's money while the people were dying of hunger. quite sad actually if you think about it. the whole place is like a reminder that we have to think of others at all times, even if we're right up above, and they're right at the bottom. cause versailles was probably the main factor, the spark which lead to the french revolution. but oh well. what's done's done. and the people of france did not tear down versailles, cause they thought that too much money had gone into it, and it would be a waste. basically, the architecture and all for versailles was really really nice. which makes you wonder how much had gone into the construction of the whole place. the gardens used to be 6000 hectares but it was now been reduced to 100 hectares or 10. forgot which. but either way, it's still crazy. really crazy. and the french really put a lot of effort into their work. like all the trees in versailles are pruned such that not even a single leaf is out of place, and every tree is standing in a straight line. super straight line.

had a picnic lunch in the gardens before moving on to look at the rooms inside. while we were told that no tours were supposed to be given in the palace, there was at least a group in each room where the tour guide was explaining something to their groups. so the rest decided to quietly follow one group of americans, listening to the explanations while pretending to take pictures, so we could move along with them. before we finally got caught. or rather, they got caught. hamsie pretended that she was taking photos and i wasn't even listening to the person and wandering off, so i didn't manage to catch anything. oh well. and hamsie saw *cough*hotfudge*cough* number one then. nothing much.. but oh well.. still can.

then basically after that, touring touring and more touring. geez. i just forgot most of the places we visited. but erm.. there was the eiffel tour. and i paid 17 freaking euros just to go for the night tour. cause apparently, the paris council or something has to pay for the lights which are switched on every night, which is supposed to be something very special about paris. so since it costs so much for them to switch all those lights on, we have to pay to look at it. which if you ask me is really very very stupid. *growls* but oh well. at least i managed to see a 'sparkling' eiffel tower. super nice. and i bought this glass eiffel tower thingie, with some lights below. so you put the eiffel tower underneath it and switch on the lights. so the colours will come on and it seems like eiffel tower is coloured. first it'll be blue, then slowly purple as a gradient before it comes red, then orange as a gradient before it comes green, then i-forgot-what colour before it goes back to blue. nice nice nice. and only 4 euros. after much bargaining. which i felt totally bad for. oh well. yes. so then i stoned downstairs cause the rest went up the eiffel tower, which cost them 8 more euros to go to the second storey and 13 more euros to get to the top. quite very cold. everyone was huddling together in this circle for warmth which was quite.. lame. but anyway, it was left with me, carmen and the choir girls in the end. and everyone went quite crazy, laughing around, horsing around, playing catching and talking crap. so everytime anyone turned to look at us, we immediately would start going "konnichiwa!!" with huge grins. cause they totally can't differentiate japanese from chinese from singaporeans. so oh well. we just ended up using konnichiwa. i guess the japanese embassy in france should be getting a complain soon that tourists from japan are making a fool of themselves and disturbing the public at eiffel tour. =X

then the rest came down and we heard some stuff about rude, exaggerating americans. like there was this girl and her friends who were on some school trip probably. and as usual, there was a queue to go up the eiffel tower. so someone, she got shoved into the lift, and pushed against the metal rails. so they were apparently quite desperate to get the whole group up, together. which was really very hard. then she started going all hysterical and saying something like.. "you're hurting me! ouch! ouch!" and after that she started sobbing and hugging her friend who comforted her. which is quite.. -.- like.. seriously.

then after that, they went on up, and she continued making a whole fuss about her being pushed in. her teacher or someone told her to shut it, but i guess she didn't really bother. "you're all animals. animals!" no comment. then after that, the poor lift operator said something like, "you talk too much." which you really can't blame him for. i mean, the lift's all crammed and all, and everyone's not really very comfortable, and there you have a stupid girl crying about how she's hurt like everyone's out to kill her. while crying away like she's from some soap. geez. then she went on to say.. [ this is totally quoted. word for word. ]

"you're a jackass. you know that? but you probably don't know enough english to understand that."

like.. what's her problem? that guy was only doing his job and trying to make everyone's trip up there a more pleasant one! there was totally no need for such insults! and according to those who were on the lift, she got told off by some other americans who were not from their group. but that didn't stop her crying and all. sigh.

so on the way back, i totally conked out. which meant half or more of my 17 euros went down the drain, considering that when we made our way there, it wasn't exactly dark yet. btw, it was summer then, so the sun rises everyday at about 4 or 5 plus, which equates to freaked out oh-my-gosh-we're-late!! screams every morning before we realized we've been conned by the stupid sun. and the sun sets at about.. 9. or 8. depends. so yep.

then the next few days were spent with lots of touring. lourve was great. totally. and this time, i managed to see way more stuff then the last time i went. =) so the rest of the days were quite ok. frequent changing of hostels, where sometimes we would just stay in a hostel for a night, check in at about 7 in the evening and leaving early the next morning. toilets were quite ok. besides the one where the doors were translucent. but nevermind about that. mr g gave me a weird look when i told him about that. nevermind him. poo. >p but he's quite nice actually. =p

omaha beach was quite an emotional visit. you think about the lost of lives, and to think that people had died on the spot you're standing on, just for the freedom of europe. it's really quite sad. and all the things that the german did to the paratroopers who landed before d-day and were captured by them, it was totally gross and humiliating. argh. and all the videos that they showed us, of people dropping dead, even before they could set foot on shore. and to think that the americans, some who were really young, and had never seen war before, taking part in the war and dying, and to die not knowing who you are dying for, and for some, they don't know why they're even fighting for. and to think that they were not even obligated to fight the war. sigh.

went to england by ferry. before that, we had to say bye to andy, our driver. who was really really nice to us. like he's blond and really really cool, with all those muscles and all. but he's not dao or anything, always smiling at us and saying hi to us, helping us with our baggage. and he's really really sweet. but he reminds us so much of the terminator, that the geps made him say "casta la vista, baby" [ is that line correct? ]. which he did say. but i heard he was super embarrassed. haha. but oh well. and the moment i saw our new bus driver, i totally wished we had andy back.

london was ok. quite nice i guess. but mike had to leave halfway. we had nice guides all the way in france, and after we reached uk, things started getting bad. not that the guides weren't good. but its just that they weren't as interesting as those we had in france. and after mike left, things started getting quite boring.

cotswolds. nice. nice cottages and everything. yep yep. oh well. uk didn't have anything much. besides ironbridge. which was really quite good. besides that, well, the german students who were in the same hostel as us. they were seriously making too much noise with their banging of doors, and pissing everyone off with their never-ending 'ni-haos' which comes together with a 90 degrees thai-greeting kinda bow. sigh. got into a few.. confrontations with them. i think they should have learnt never never never ever to wake me up in the middle of the night, just as im about to get to sleep with your banging of doors. which was done on purpose. totally. cause i just end up banging my head against the top of the bed, which has me in a worse mood. and i think i scolded a innocent guy who was just returning to his room, but nevermind. oh well, just take it as a warning then. =p but just as i was about to return to my room, those german guys had to bang their door again. so yep.. kong long to the rescue. stomped off and banged on their door before telling them to for goodness sakes please keep their volume down. then taught them a few more chinese words besides ni hao, which was seriously getting quite boring. not vulgarities. just.. basic stuff. yep. after that, we really wanted to give them a thank-you note for keeping quiet for that night, and not saying ni hao to us when a whole group of them walked pass us. but i guess everyone really wasn't in a mood for fun anymore cause they were leaving. sigh.. abscence makes the heart grow fonder. ok. make that.. fond. cause i wasn't fond of them to begin with. weirdly, i couldn't sleep that night. no more banging for that night. sigh.

les miserables was really good. some of us went to watch it on friday. really really nice. im considering watching it again. *grins* but i was probably too tired after 5 hours of shopping and more shopping, so i guess i feel asleep towards the end.

so yep. after that, and almost 10 hours of shopping, we finally went to the airport. and that was all for our hist-lit uk-france trip.

ok. this entry just got from bad to worse. totally crappy to totally summary-writing. but oh well. let's see what else there is to talk about. erm.. hot fudges. yes. haha.. i think the entire group finally agreed on one hot fudge. and tried taking pictures. but failing horribly and we were soooo obvious. but oh well. i think he and his friends realized. then of course, there were a few more hot fudges around, but they weren't as major as the first one. so yep. guess that's about it. summing up everything for my trip.. gorgeous architecture, wonderful weather, travelling, wonderful tour guides, and hot fudges.

man. is singapore sad or sad.

this entry took me more than 3 hours. i rock. like.. yeah. whatever. *smacks head*

later: oh yar. and we visited a few harry potter shooting scenes. in oxford. where it was shot mainly. and diagon alley. =)

the rain poured at 5:51 PM

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