Today is the 19th of June. Let’s just go by time. The day started off with me watching Friends until 9am (SG Time). Actually I was watching Jennifer Aniston. Anyway I can’t find anything compelling to do to make me want to go to sleep to prepare for the next day. Then I woke up at 11+ and went to Jussieu with Albert to do varoius things.
I passed Immunology! Which is magnifique because it IS immunology. Well non-bio people just won’t understand. And I actually scored rather high, yipee, I did find the 2nd exam too easy, but I thought other people should also be able to answer it. Anyway it’s done. Yay. Although the fear was more for the Other paper, which I shall not think about.
There was a strike! outside Jussieu. I’m not excited that there IS a strike, but that it’s outside my campus and it was by CNRS and other related ppl i guess. Anyhow they were campaigning for research. “Save Research”. something like that. By the time we came out and wanted to join in, they were breaking for lunch. Yes, after a tiring session on the road, they break up for a nice café lunch nearby. How nice. I still wish they had more stickers though.
I(He) Loves Paris. Then me and albert (alright ‘Albert and I’) walked over to Notre-Dame coz he wanted to buy zis shirt because he wants to wear it on the plane tmr when he goes back to Barcelona. oh-kay. I’ll miss him. I still had to correct more of his english though. How is he going to teach the kids english, haha.
Quick. After having discovered that instead of a free burger, I can get a discount off the full price at Quick, I think it’s reasonable to eat for 5,50€. So there. Although Macdo has potato wedges.. hm. Oh but Quick let’s you salt your fries yourself.
Iain M. Banks. Then I went over to my Trocadero library to borrow something to read. It’s abit far to be my neighbourhood library but I don’t know where all the rest are hidden. It’s nice to know that they stock Iain M. Banks here, not alot, but they do have it. Although Matter din exist. It’s still tough to read french. worse without dictionary or internet. While there, I flipped through some papers. Picked up Monday’s paper and found that Operation Escargot took place on Tuesday (mostly on tuesday) where the strikers jammed up some key roads. yeah I am so glad that I was unaffected, especially during for my exam on monday. whew-ey. The papers had a nice article with maps and all. very helpful. Oh there’re still protesting over the job cuts and fuel and stuff like that. You know what, I think the China government and the Chinese people got it all wrong. When the french were protesting about the human rights and tibet issue and the chinese got so upset, i think half the reason was that they were losing face, but also that they were simply not accustomed to this way of doing things. To the french, protesting is just protesting, it’s serious, but not the-end-of-the-world-serious. In some ways, it’s like having a party in the street, or having a conference in the street. People talk about things, people from both camps come out and interact with each other and with strangers… things happen.
Bikini parade. I saw this really hot and burnt babe. Well all the stores are taking out their bikini sections, with all the nice bikinis and unpredictable weather. Actually nobody’s wearing yet. But in a month, Paris Plage is coming! 21 Juillet – 21 Août. Unforch, I will not reall be in Paris by then. ARGH. Not argh because I won’t be around to see french girls, but because of all the festivities. It’s more than just a beach, it’s a freaking huge way to détendre (what’s that mean in english.. ‘relax’, ‘let your hair down’, ‘take your clothes off’). As usual, paris.fr website has details. They’ve got a giant 3km long picnic, opening performance by l’Ensemble orchestral de Paris playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony outside Hotel de Ville, accompanied by a choir. They’ve got water sports, pédalo (ah whatever the little boat thing you cycle in the water in), mini 12 ppl football, pétanque, taichi, rock-climbing, Segway, mini-golf, a temp library to loan books!, gym machines, table tennis, dances (bailotherapie, salsa, mambo…) ARGH. I don’t wanna go home. And I still can’t get over how great the Mairie de Paris is. It’s just so involved in life, so in touch with the residents, it’s where everything happens, it’s where the events are held, it’s where everybody walks through, it’s in the centre, it’s quirky, it’s passionate, it’s crazy, it loves you. And you know what, singapore DOESNT HAVE ONE. We have a national government that takes care of national and international matters. We have town councils that take care of neighbourhoods and rubbish bins and season parking. We do not have a city council that takes care of the city. Yes we need one because the garmin garment garmen is too busy worrying about big issues.
by the way I got something else to wish for: a Yann-Arthus Bertrand coffee-table book with aerial photos of Paris. it costs 50 euros but is too heavy to bring back. The photos aren’t as wow as his earth series, but, you know, emotional baggage.
Crêperie. I couldn’t resist it and had crêpes for dinner. Sometimes I’m not sure whether it’s because I like the nutella. But it’s also way cool to have nutella so hot it gives you heartburn. Ok I’m lying heartburn is when acid goes up (literally) your digestive system. But crêpes aren’t That Hard to make, especially if you’re not selling them. If you can’t be bothered with measuring eggs, milk, salt, flour, water, calories, butter, heat, oops too much oil, it’s perfectly greatly edible. Especially with nutella. Nutella is important. It’s also a fantastic way to use up all the previously mentioned ingredients in unhealthy speed. Who cares about some lumps and some flour on my black shirt. The bigger the pan, the better! Bigger crêpe holds more nutella! =] I don’t have enough nutella.