Vous Parlez Très Bien Français

Woooohh.....kudos to Alliance Française Kuala Lumpur! And felicitations to Laure-Anne and Joshua too. Today Nathalie, one of the professeurs at IFALPES commented that both Chern Hwei and myself speak very good french (ehem...), and asked if we had taken a French course before while we were in Malaysia. I explained that we were both in the same class at Alliance Française in Kuala Lumpur. And she was like.....'Ahhh...now I understand....they have very good methods for teaching the French language.' Most of the people are quite surprised that we were able to handle the language quite well *cough* *cough*, as they have always had this impression that Asians have problems learning a European language.

Well, there you go.....MALAYSIA BOLEH!!!

A Forgotten Gesture

While doing a randonée to the Croix de la Croche today, I recalled something that I should have mentioned in my blog, sometime in April this year when I set foot again in Europe. I really don't know what triggered it. Nothing of real importance, just of a small gesture from a nice couple I met at the bed and breakfast in London, where I needed to stay overnight to take the early morning flight to Seville. We arrived Heathrow and were picked up at the same time, and that evening, since I was all alone, they invited me to have dinner with them (and they paid for it as well, of course).

Unfortunately I can't remember their names anymore, but still, I wanted to be reminded of them; of the nice people that I came across during my days of travel. Cheers.

Rendez-vous at Annecy

The weather has really been very kind to me today. I was not too sure if I would be able to made it to Annecy if it had rained, but the sun was shining all day. I had sent an e-mail to Mohammed earlier today to inform him of my arrival, and he was really kind to wait for me at the train station. Unfortunately the train was late (....biasalar, bukan kali pertama) and he had to wait blindly (he didn't have a phone) without knowing if I would arrive or not :P

We took a walk around the vieil Annecy, had 3 scoops of ice cream each (it was supposed to be the best in town), then walked by the lake. He also took me to see his place of stay, and we enjoyed a nice glass of wine just outside his studio, which was really neat as it was surrounded by greenery, and also the owner of the house was a nice retired man. Lucky for him!

Anyway, I did not manage to have dinner with Mohammed as the last train leaves at 8:19pm. We had a cup of coffee closeby to the station, then it was time to say goodbye. Anyway, he said he would be back to Chambéry again soon, and since he wanted to try some of Malaysian delicacies I have offered to cook him a HOT & SPICY Malaysian food. Ngiak ngiak ngiak.....

Photo time!

Never Ending Staircases

Coincidently while chatting with students from IFALPES last Thursday evening at the Cardinals, Ralf said that he was planning to go to Grenoble on Saturday. I couldn't have been happier and asked if he would mind that I tag along. I just didn't really like the idea of climbing up to La Bastille alone. Of course he didn't mind and we decided to meet at the train station at 9am in the morning.

Just a day before, I realised that the train would leave at 8:53am, while the next one available after that would be at 10:30am. I had no way of contacting Ralf as he did not have a mobile phone, and just had to keep my fingers crossed that he would arrive early. Luckily for me, he did arrive 5 minutes before, and we got our tickets just in time. Then he told me Kirsten was also coming along, and she didn't know about the train time table neither. With a stroke of luck, there was a minor delay with the train, and Kirsten got to the station just on time to buy the ticket and board the train....phewwww!

I guess we were really lucky throughout the whole day, with the sky being a little cloudy and greyish but it did not rain at all. We walked all the way up to the Bastille, of course with me whining again as usual (...I can be a real pain in the ass sometimes :P) We took approximately 45-50 minutes to reach the top....well, no one actually took note of the time, but it was written on the signs, time required to get to the top from the starting point. Coming down of course, was less stressful, as we took a diff route and there were much lesser stairs.

After that we had a really good lunch in a Chinese restaurant, before continuing to explore around the town centre. And finally, we had some coffee before heading back to Chambéry.

As usual, here it is, the link to the the to Grenoble album.

And by the way, here's the link to photos taken in Chambéry...just realised that I have never put up the link for this before....oops!

Ma Petite Copine

Ma chère Sarah
Qui est venue à Chambéry
Elle m'a amenée du chocolat
spécialement pour moi, le Cadbury

On s'est connues il y a un an
Ça a commencé à Seville, et ensuite à Madrid
On s'est rejointes aussi à Barcelone
Et puis ici, dans cette jolie ville

On a mangé de la fondue au fromage
De vin savoyard on l'a fait accompagner
Le lendemain, on a fait de la marche
La graisse superflue qu'on voulait bruler

Sitôt qu'ell est arrivee, elle m'a laissée
Dans un clin d'œil elle est repartie
Mais moi, j'attends la prochaine année
Qu'il y aura un rendez-vous en Malaisie ;)

Arrival of Fondateur Des Slips Rouges & A Farewell

Gan finally arrived Chambéry. That poor chap had to undergo several transits, which meant several hours of waiting at the airport, then when he arrived Lyon, he had to wait again for the train to get to Chambéry. He almost didn't recognise me as I was soooo tanned...hehehe... anyway, he had to wait again at the A.L.E. office, because there was like another 3-4 persons waiting in line (which was very rare for the ALE office). His turn finally arrived, settled all the deposits and stuff, only to find out that there was no one available to show him to his apartment. And soooo, I became the guide, and with a map, we tried to search his apartment. I guess his slips rouges probably weren't very lucky.

Several days later, we organized a farewell party in my apartment for Carmen and Carin who were leaving soon and Gan joined us. We had Spanish tortilla prepared by Carmen & the gang, Ratatouille by me, fresh garden salad and Chocolate banana cake (yummy) by Misaki, a Savoyard speciality* by Ryo and healthy fruit salad by Carin. Everything was sooooo good, and in the end, we had too much food in our tummies that we couldn't move. *BURP*

*01/09/06 - I just remembered the speciality was called Tartiflette ;)

3 in 1

Sorry I have been lagging again. I've got all my days and nights filled with trop activities that I get too mentally exhausted to update the blog. Last week I did 3 excursions with the school, which include 2 hiking trips, several cyling trips to St Alban Leysse, Lac du Bourget & Lac de St. Andre (almost 70km), walking, cooking, and homework of course, apart from my daily classes. Yeah yeah yeah, it's a bunch of crap. I guess I could have easily fill in a word or two in the blog if I really wanted to :P

Anyway, I have just updated the posts of my trip to Lyon, Beaufort & Vanoise

Parc Naturel Vanoise

I was worried it was gonna be another rainy day as the morning started out really gloomy. But when we got to Pralognan, weather was really nice, though a little cold. I thought the climb would take probably about 2 hours, but I was SOOOOO wrong! Mohammed had earlier told me it would take approx. 4 hrs but I didn't trust him. *sigh* After probably an hour of climb, I was then told by Jean-Charles that we have just reached the starting point, and from there, it would take approx. 2 hrs to reach the Lac des Vaches. Bummer! In fact we took a little more than 2 hrs coz it was really tiring and we had more mini stops along the way to catch our breath. Except for the group of petit espagnols who were also with us on this excursion, the rest didn't want to eat until we got to the lake, which was about 2pm. *stomach growling*

I was whining along the way (I am good at that). WHHHyyy?? Whyy did I pay 18 euros to torture myself?? Blah blah...and so on. But seriouussly, the view was MAGNIFIQUE!!! I wouldn't mind doing this ALLLLL over again (not on the same day of course). Check out the album to see for yourself. It felt like I was inside a postcard, so unreal.

After resting at Lac des Vaches for probably an hour, we had to finally leave. At 2010 metres above sea level, Frans and I stopped at a bar to have some drinks. Manyak cantik larr..... with all the beautiful mountains and greens entouré while you slowly sip your beer, (or in my case...a Coca Cola).

Q: Why did the caterpillar cross the road?
A: To commit suicide, of course!

I almost squashed that poor little creature when we continued our way down. It's just so hard to brake when the hill is so steep. It's a good thing he was really bright green that I managed to avoid him. I really wonder how long he would manage to stay alive with so many people coming downhill. :P My legs got really wobbly by the time I arrived the bus, and the next day, it was really hurting everytime I tried to walk down the stairs. Ouch!

To Vanoise's photo album

Beaufort & Lac de Roselend

We departed early in the morning to a fromagerie at Beaufort, yeeuuwww .... it stank. I tried to enter to storage area, but exited almost immediately as the smell was unbearable. How could people EAT this???? But Jean-Charles got some of it for us to eat during the picnic, and it wasn't so bad after all.

After the cheese factory, we went to see Lac Roselend, a really beautiful man-made lake, which was used as a dam. It was by the lake that we later had picnic, with fresh bread, Beaufort cheese and Vin de Savoie. Later we followed Jean-Charles on a little hiking trip in the hills. The hills are aliveeeeeeeee, with the sound of muuuusicccc ....... that was exactly how I felt when we went to the Cormet de Roselend at Beaufortain. Oh I just had to sing out loud! Erm....I was glad that did not cause a heavy thunderstorm though.

Anyway the walk wasn't really that tough, just that I haven't had enough exercise that it was tough to catch up with the rest. Ard was nice to stay with me, although he could have easily stayed in the lead. Of course, I was not the last...hehe....half of the group of petit espagnols who joined us in this excursion almost gave up! Both my shoes and socks were wet after sinking my feet into "invisible" puddles of water. What looked like a decent grass patch to walk on turned out to be soft muddy ground underneath. (I had to soak the socks overnight and the water was like kopi-o....BLEhhH). Malheureussement, I also sprained my ankle on my way down, having stepped on another invisible hole covered by a patch of grass @!@$!@#%#@^. Yep, I know => I am SUPER clumsy. Probably it's a sign that I should lose some weight...my poor ankle can't support me anymore!





To Beaufort's photo album

How I Spent My Sunday Afternoon

Plucking "taugehs". That's what I have been doing this afternoon since it was so rainy and cold that I couldn't leave the house. Seriously, it's a good test of patience :D Of course, that was not the only thing I did. I have been saving some frozen crevettes in the fridge for a day like this. I found this nice recipe of Hokkien Prawn Mee, and decided to give it a try myself. But I didn't manage to get all the ingredients required, so I had to do some substitutes. I practically spent whole afternoon preparing the stock, but it was DEFINITELY worth it! It tasted just like the ones I had in Penang..... MMmmmm.. mmmm.. yummy ;) Care for a bowl, anyone?

*taugeh = beansprouts

Lyon & The Rain

It's the 2nd largest city in France (if I have my facts right). Compared to Paris, it's much laid back, but who am I to judge, having spent only several hours in this town? It was a little drizzly when we embarked on our journey, and we got into the bus just in time before the rain got heavy after our first stop at Perouges. We arrived Lyon close to noon time with sunny weather, only to be surprised later in the afternoon with a heavy pour, delaying our guided visit for a quarter of an hour. Just as quickly as it came, the rain stopped and after that came really clear blue skies. Although I was not really expecting any tough walking here, I climbed the hill TWICE on this very trip to see the Basilique! (it was with a diff group of course). *pant* pant* pant*

To Lyon's photo album

First In First Out

I probably need to attend a course on Fridge Inventory Management. Voilà my problems:

1. I can't keep track of the expiry dates of the meat and vegetables;
2. I over-shop. I go to the supermarket with 2 items on my list, and I checkout with 15 items in the trolley;
3. I thought I have shopped enough for one week, then I realised I need to go to the supermarket again after 2 days because I ran out of milk, eggs, etc. ;
4. I have limited fridge space, but I keep buying things in bulk because it's cheaper that way. The last time I had to leave some carrots out of the fridge, and they went bad after 2 days...erm...no, 3 days.

Anyway, I found a nice little solution for problem no. 2, i.e. if I only need one item from the supermarket, I get somebody else to do it for me....hehe.... hopefully I'd be able to find solutions for the rest of the problems soon. :P

L'excursion à Chamonix

Dimanche passé, je suis allée à Chamonix avec une excursion d'IFALPES. Il y avait peut être 40 personnes, compris aussi les étudiants d'Annecy. D'abord, il faisait très beau et il n'y avait pas beaucoup de nuages. Pourtant quand on y est arrivé, on voyait des nuages gris.

On s'est divisé en quelques petits groupes. Il y avait des personnes qui allaient marcher avec Philippe, le coordinateur, tandis que certaines personnes ont choisi d'aller à l'Aiguille du Midi ou la Mer de Glace. Moi, je me suis promenée au centre ville avec Anna, une fille russe. Depuis le centre ville, on pouvait voir le Mont Blanc. Du centre ville, on a fait une petite randonée jusqu'a La Praz, où nous avons fait un pique-nique. Et puis on a decidi d'aller à la Grotte de Glace. En route à Montenvers, où on devait prendre la télécabine, il a plu. Par chance, j'avais mon impermeable avec moi, donc je n'ai pas été très mouillée. Il faisait très froid dans la grotte, mais c'etait suprenant comment la glace pouvait soutenir la chaleur d'été!

On s'est retrouvé au bus à 17 heures pour rentrer à Chambéry. En rentrant, j'ai dormi dans le bus car j'étais très fatiguée. *béance*

Voilà les photos que j'ai prises à Chamonix.

Summer Rain

C'est triste! On my first day of class, I had to walk to school in the rain. Thank goodness I had not decided to let TW bring back my umbrella and my rain coat. Everyone was taken by shock that it has rained continuously for 2 days here, and it's really cold. The shops have a sudden surge in their umbrella sales, because many of those who came only for vacations did not have any with them. Who would have thought it's gonna rain during summer??? Both the bicycle and the pool pass are of no use to me now. :(

Par contraire, I am quite happy with my class. I was put in the Intermediate level after the test....Yaaayyy! I am no longer debutant. Everyone in class is nice, the pretty professeur as well, and we even have a special guest, Angie! She's the cute little baby Chi Hua Hua that belongs to Jeff, one of my classmates. He is inseparable from her, thus she studies french with the rest of us. Of course, she's almost like a vacuum cleaner, sniffing around the class everytime we return from a break.

Oh dear, next Friday it's gonna be my turn to do an exposé in class. We are supposed to just present anything related to our country, anything at all......hmm... what can I say about Malaysia?

S.O.S. Call to Malaysia

I had to make that call back home to ask my mom for recipe for Prawn with Asam Jawa. She gave me a packet of asam jawa (due to some miscommunication...I had not requested for it) and I haven't the slightest idea on what I could do with it. Serves me right for not paying attention when my mom does her cooking.

And so, after a quick lesson on the Skype, I did my experimenting on some frozen prawns I bought from E.Leclerc. Having a chef with 10 yrs experience staring at you when you are experimenting can be also quite nerve-wrecking. That's Ryo, my Japanese housemate who is forever curious when you try something new in the kitchen. He's really nice actually, giving little hints and advices every now and then :)

Well, in the end my assam prawn turned out to be quite alright, although not exactly the same taste as how my mom made it. Just a little bit of fine tuning would do. My steam rice came out perfect too! Not bad for a first try ;)

Weekend at Genève

My course won't start till the 2nd of August, so I am left with nothing much to do in Chambéry. Having done all I have to do, and I am so frustrated I can't find an additional courses to fill my time, and it's been so cloudy and rainy ever since I paid for that one month pool pass.

So I decided to spend my weekend in Geneva, and it's only about 1hr 20 minutes from Chambéry. Mattias said he'll finish his exams by Friday, so I could go over on Saturday. With his help, I found a nice place to stay at Youth hostel, and it costs me only 27CHF (that's about RM89) per night with breakfast inclusive! Of course it was a 6 bedded room, but it wasn't a problem at all, you get your own private locker to put your stuff in. Plus, the shower room is really good too with a power hot shower.

I arrived Geneva at about 9:30am and Mattias was already there waiting for me. That's really sweet of him considering that he partied all night long till 4 am the night before! We took a stroll around town, then met up with his friend Antoine (hope I got his name correctly). Then we drove to Evian (yes, that's where the Evian mineral water comes from!), back in France to watch the golf tournament, Evian Masters 2006. How funny. I have never been a fan of golf, neither do I know how the game works! :P Mattias explained to me a little so that I was not completely lost. Anyway, I did enjoy myself a lot, and I got to see Michelle Wie up close! (well, quite close)

We were suppose to take the boat to Lausanne, but unfortunately timing was not right, so we went back straight to Geneva instead. While I checked into the hostel, Mattias took a train to Lausanne to get his car. At night, after dinner, we took a stroll in town and stopped at a bar where 2 girls were dancing Sevillanas. Oh I was so tempted to dance as well, though I have completely forgotten what the steps were :P Later that evening, Mattias and I joined his friends, Andy and Rob at the Pré Fêtes de Genève.

The next morning I had to check-out by 10am, and Summer, a girl I met at the Youth Hostel, joined me. We went to the Cornavin train station to put her stuff in a locker, then walked to the Tourist Office to get a map of the city. I smartly thought I was suppose to leave from Gare des Eaux-Vives (whatever gave me that idea???!?!?) , so we walked to the closest park to have picnic. On the way, we stopped at Baby Plage, so that Summer could take a dip in the lake. As for me, I didn't want to be all wet and sticky in the train, so I stayed nice and dry and under the shade. Mattias joined us later about noon time, and then when casually we talked about the train station:

Mattias: Are you sure you are leaving from Gare des Eaux-Vives??
Me: Erm, I think so....
Mattias: Shouldn't you be leaving from the same train station that you arrived?
Me: It's NOT the same station??????
Mattias: Nope, you arrived at Gare de Cornavin.
Me: WHAT?!?!?

Ok, I got a little panic there (just a little), as the other station would take approx. 30 minutes walk from the plage. Lucky for me it was still early, and I had ample time to walk back. LUCKY for me, I didn't find out 10 minutes before the train leaves....*phew* or else I'd have to take the next train home. Hmmm...come to think of it, it wouldn't have been too bad at all, it was really nice to just sit by the lake :D

The Geneva photos are stored in my Europe Tour album.

Settling down

I went to school early Wednesday morning to take the pre-entry test, only to find out that I have to wait till 2nd August, to take the test with the rest of the group that starts on the same day.

Then I had my bicycle rented, only to find out that there are no parking space in my apartment for bicycles. I had to carry the bike all the way up to the 3rd floor coz it couldn't fit into the lift. Anyway, now I tied it next to the tree in the lawn downstairs, couldn't be bothered to carry it up and down the stairs everytime I need to use it.

After that I wanted to do my laundry, but there were no washing machine. Gotta hand wash lah, what to do?

Then I tried looking for courses of Yoga or Dance or anything at all, to fill my time, only to find that EVERY single clubs and associations are closed for summer holiday and only re-open for registration in September.

ARrrgghhHH....Okay, okay, so yesterday I paid for a one month pass to use the swimming pool. It's really nice to take a dip in the pool in a hot summer like this. And guess what?? It's raining cats and dogs today!!!

OOOOoohh Làaaa Làaaaa!!!

Indomie for dinner

Just touched down Chambéry a few hours ago..... damn it's HOT! How disappointing, I was hoping that the temperature would be a little lower than the rest of France, considering that Chambéry is surrounded by mountains. Am keeping my fingers crossed it will be better tonight.

I was so busy unpacking that I forgot to do my grocery shopping before the shops closes at 7:30pm. Bummer. Lucky for me, thanks to my darling, I have several packets of Indomie Mi Goreng as my dinner backup :D

Will try to update my blog as soon as I settle down: grocery shopping, laundry, rent a bike, take a pre-entry French test (again...arrggh..!)

More Tortures for the "Puteri Lilin"

After Paris, we proceed to Avignon, Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. The rooms in Avignon and Aix was climatisée, so TW was less grumpy. At least he could have a good night's sleep. But still, it's like walking in an oven when we did our sight-seeing. So while we were in Aix-en-Provence, I left him in the hotel room to sleep while I went exploring :P That way I could go shopping peacefully without a bee buzzing next to my ear.

Anyway, while we were in Marseille, we managed to take the bus to the beach area, because he wanted to see if women really did go topless while sunbathing. So I let him see it for himself lor.... Ö

For lunch we had it somewhere near the vieux port, a big dissapointment, I must say. Since TW didn't want to go round looking and comparing the menus because of his blisters, we decided to just randomly choose one, well, the closest one to our position was more like it. I had a quick glance at the menu they put outside, and it seemed alright, so we sat down. At first, the owner greeted us with all smiles, and then gave us a menu to look at. I found that the menu was slightly different than the one I glanced at the entrance: this one was in English, and had only the pricey food items on the list. Then I requested for the French menu, only to find that there was also the Set menu on it, which was not on the other English menu. We both ordered the set menu, with entrée and a main course.

I guess the owner was not too happy that we chose one of the cheapest menu.....coz after that the service definitely deteriorated; he was busy serving the rest who ordered expensive dish like the bouillabaisse, then after the entrée, we had to wait very long to be served the main course, and at the end, when we wanted to pay our bills, he insisted that we had to pay by cash because credit card was not accepted, then proceed to accepting somebody else's credit card. Seriously, I was not in a mood to argue with him, but TW did not want to give in, and argued with the owner until he was willing to give it a try with our credit card. His reason was that his machine would not accept a card without a chip, but he denied us even without checking if our card had chip or not!! The transaction went through fine, and we left without leaving any tips, OF COURSE!!!

I forgot the name of the restaurant, only remembered that it had something that started with the letter "R". Serves me right for taking so long to update this post :P (19 Oct '06)

Photos for Avignon, Aix-en-Provence & Marseille

PAS DE PHOTO, SVP!!!

The guard had to scream across a crowded hall to stop people from taking photos. I don't understand why some people can be so stubborn. Despite being told off several times, these people still don't get it. In certain halls of the Louvre, there were signs in all possible language that say, NO PHOTOGRAPHY ALLOWED. And yet, people just click away. I had to tell one lady off, but she just smiled at me and walked off, continuing taking photos of other works of art.

I really don't know who has more rights, the museum, who owns the art collection, or the visitors, who paid to see these exhibits and wants a photo as a souvenir, as something to show to their friends that they've been there. Of course, when we paid for the tickets to enter, we agree to abide the rules of the museum. The same with performances, just when you are enjoying the show, you see flashes coming from the audience. Arrggghhh, I just get so irritated when people TAK FAHAM BAHASA!!!