I got my plane tickets to the Philippines and I will stay there until October, but who knows until when? I am on Sabbathical and I don’t know when I will go back to working and what exactly I would like to do again. Once again, I don’t know what lies ahead. I just see a nice silhouette of the future, and it looks fun, scary, and exciting.
3 things for sure, I will travel, learn and I will live life to the fullest.
Last night, at a party, I met a couple of Italian guys. One from Rome and one from Venice. Interesting fellas. One of them didn’t want to speak English with me because he wants to improve his French. And the the other preferred to speak in English or Spanish.
We talked about places we have been to. The English/Spanish speaking Italian told me he’s been around Asia a lot, that he has a Japanese baby living in Japan, and that he chose to go to Brazil instead of the Philippines. He asked me if I have been to Italy and I said never.
“You mean, you’ve never been to Roma?” he asked me, eyes wide open.
“No, I chose to go to Berlin instead for my last Eurotrip this year,” I answered, confused. Maybe something’s wrong with his emerald green eyes.
“But you won’t even go to Roma?” he asked again.
‘”You know,”‘ I began to say, ‘”Rome is not the center of the world.”‘
‘”What is, then?’” he asked.
‘”Actually, it’s Paris.”‘
But of course, I didn’t say that. Because it’s not true. And I read somewhere that only Parisians think that Paris is the center of the world.
Seriously, what is the big deal if I don’t go to Rome during my stay in Europe? I should ask the same thing to him about not visiting the paradise that is the Philippines while he was in Asia.
I was sick of having to explain myself why I’ve never been to “Roma”.
And so, I answered, “Because, I don’t speak Latin.”
And then they all laughed.
One morning, we woke up and there was a heavy fog settling in over the courtyard and the garden. It was so beautiful.
I realized a lot of things then – the most important of all is that I should stop complaining about everything, especially complaining about the place where I live in. For someone who grew up in a big city, I am used to all the action, excitement, danger, and all that. When I get hungry during the night, I know that MiniStop is just around the corner.
Moving to Paris was also not what I expected it to be. Sure they say it’s the City of Lights, but everything goes dark around 3AM. The metro stops at around 1AM and then if you don’t have a car, you’re stuck, unless you take a velib or a taxi that will burn holes in your pocket. But still, there’s a lot to do in this city.
I decided to learn French again and to be really fluent when I leave France, even if it means paying for expensive courses in Alliance Francaise Strasbourg. It’s never a waste when you pay for something that will make you learn. It’s time to stop being bored and to integrate myself into the Strasbourgoise lifestyle.
Hopla. Nichts mehr.
I recently bought a really cool camera lens from amazon. It’s tack sharp! I got tired of using photoshop and I don’t want to spend my days modifying stuff anymore. I am very impressed with the Canon 70-200mm f/4 L sans the image stabilizer because that would just cost me double.
chicken
Taken from one of the rooms in the house, the flower group looks really sharp.
flower and grass
green
Actually, the lens are more for portraits and outdoor, sports – or street photography. I can’t wait to see Kala and take artistic pregnant photos!
Anyhoo, here are some shots taken from my old 50mm f/1.8, which cost me almost nothing. So reliable for lowlight photography. And bokeh!
merguez after dinner
:-)
I like the bokeh in this one…
bokeh
I have been enjoying my last week in Paris by spending time with my friends like a tourist. I am looking forward to our move in Strasbourg, but when I was eating and drinking with my friends by the Seine, a wave of sadness hit me. These are the people who have been with me through thick and thin here. I was just walking beside Notre Dame last winter with Jela, freezing my ass off in -7 weather. And Pinky, who I just met, had been a great friend as well.
It was funny because in a way – the 3 of us – Jela, Pinky, and I all worked together for Total Woman magazine back in the Philippines, but I didn’t even know it coz I was a freelancer and I was communicating with her just through emails. Pinky, managing editor, assigned feature articles to me and to Jela. Small world really – and I met the two of them personally here in Paris.
One of my oldest friends from college, Sol, lived with me here in Paris for 2 months and I suddenly realized that I was gonna say goodbye to her again – in a way, she became like a sister to me.
Anyway, as the night went on, we walked around Notre Dame and watched some street acts – there were two men dancing with fire. Pretty amazing.
You can never be bored in Paris.
And this is the best and most disgusting part of the evening. I swear, all my wistful thinking went down the drain when we saw a guy pulling his pants back on after taking a big dump in the street. It looked almost like cow dung. What happened to just dog poops?
After this unbelievable scene, I went home traumatized, sat down on my boyfriend’s lap, hugged him, and put myself in a baby position in which he can rock me and tell me everything will be good again.
I haven’t been working since last week. We have been preparing our move to Strasbourg for the 3rd week of the month and so – I have some time left to practice photography and photo-editing. Yup – I bought a new camera! Woot! It’s a Canon EOS 500D (took the advice of a friend who is a professional photographer) and so I have been shooting like a freak in Paris.
I still have got to get that tripod. Wake up at sunrise and miss dinner tso I can catch the sunset! These are stuff I have to do if I want to photograph landscapes. But anyway, yesterday was a disappointment. I have a lot to learn and I am just sooo impatient.
This is the only photo that came out, which I think is kinda OK (after editing it in photoshop). Anyway, I remember my photographer friend told me that photos are usually 90 % photoshop.
These are kids in Champs Elysees – it looked like some sort of a field trip to me.
Olive mixed with olive oil, some herbs, and garlic
Recently, I’ve become a big fan of How I Met your Mother (OK, Nats, you win – you were the 1st one who watched this series – but still). Anyway, there was an episode about The Olive Theory. Basically, it works this way – the theory is based on that one partner has to hate olives and so the other one has to like them and to eat all the partner’s olives too, which creates a perfect balance.
Alain used to force feed me olives and I used to hate it – the smell, the grease, and the taste. I just think that there are other fruit appetizers that taste better than this one.Well, the good thing is, he really loves olives.
But in the time we spent here in France, I hate to admit it – but I’m getting fond of its taste. It’s a perfect, healthy appetizer or snack – especially when that time of the month is near and all you could ever think of is the saltiest thing you could put in your mouth – like potato chips OK! Olives are even better.
The taste is just perfect – but what does it mean now that we both really like olives? Anyway, call me a freak for giving too much interest in this theory, but in the end of the episode, Marshall (my favorite character) turned out that he really liked olives and that he just hid it from Lily (his gf of 9 years that time) because Lily loves olives.Ans this made me happy.
Is it that obvious that I’m spending Sunday afternoon at home doing a marathon of HIMYM, without having any plans to put on my jeans and go out even for just a whiff of air?
I’m acting like a bum – and I better get used to it pretty much soon.
Yesterday was the hottest day I’ve ever experienced here in France. The weekend was quite hot as well, but I was in Alsace – the air was clean and if I needed to cool down, I would just go back inside the big big house and drink a big bottle of fresh water. I even went biking for 10 kilometers – on shorts and bikini top (woot! i love alsatian summers!) and I got a great tan!
But anyway, here in Paris is different. We live in an attic apartment so we get all the heat – and yesterday, we totally felt like we were inside an oven. For the first time in months, I began to experience the headache only a summer heat can bring (or a Philippine heat). It was painful – and we need to do something about our living conditions.
At least in the Philippines, there’s an abundance of air conditioners. Walk down the Greenbelt 3 area and if you get hot, go inside the super cool mall. If the sun gets too hot and heavy, we go back to our apartment and turn on the air conditioner and put it on 16 degrees.
Yesterday, I had a dentist appointment. Usually, I dread this kind of stuff, but when we entered the office, it was heaven. Air condition galore. I couldn’t believe myself when I had to drag my ass off to go home after. I found it awesome hanging out in the reception area – reading awful dentist magazines.
Most of what I see here are heaters and open windows. Even at work, it’s too hot – windows are always open, but it ain’t enough. I’m beginning to miss winter – or at least, the beginning of spring.
Why is it that a French birthday lunch or dinner take so long – and then I feel so full after? It’s alway a five course meal – we were eating from 11AM to 5PM.
Around 11AM, we were having champagne, sandwiches, and pistachios – or what the French calls amuse-bouche. This was my breakfast since I woke up late and didn’t have time for my usual morning yogurt. I was stuffing myself full, which was not a good idea at all – but drinking champagne on an empty stomach is even worse.
At the restaurant – wherein we had another amuse-bouche and white wine. I kept on drinking, so I had to keep eating. The service was really good – and fast. After the amuse-bouche, the entree was served – smoked salmon with salad, some bacon, bread, and a block of foie gras. I was really starving, but I had to save room for the main course. I left out 1/4 of the block of foie gras and all the bacon.
It was pretty satisfying and I admit that I got a little bit stuffed, but thanks to some kind of digestif – lemon ice cream with calvados – I was able to prepare myself for the main course – steak with fries, vegetable omelette, and some kind of Alsatian flour/pasta, and of course, red wine. Had to skip the red wine – I think 1 glass of champagne and 2 glasses of white wine would be enough to last for the whole meal. I looked at the time – 15 minutes before 3PM. Amazing.
After eating everything very slowly, I was craving for dessert. What was happening to me? In Pinoy parties, I usually get a plate, go to the buffet table, and take everything in moderation – then eat everything in 30minutes. These Frenchies eat sooo long. I remember all the French lunches and celebrations I attended – and yes, it usually lasts this long. This time though, cheese was not served before the dessert. Thank God.
The dessert consisted of 2 chocolate muffins – oozing with chocolate fudge inside, strawberries and cream, chocolate and apple ice cream, and kiwi cuts. It was excellent.
Coffee followed.
At 5PM, everyone was done eating and talking. My rusty French was used to the maximum and I was tired. We still have another kaffee klatch to attend – I swear I couldn’t eat another bite anymore. But when we arrived, I couldn’t say no – I had 2 cups of coffee and a very small piece of cake.
When we went home, I did a little bit of sports – went biking around the village to burn off some calories and played some basketball. Then we began to prepare for dinner – *nod* *nod* – and ate what’s left of the 11AM amuse-bouche. Well, this time, I just had coffee. Again. And that, my friend, is the reason why I’m still up now.
So what? We didn’t go to Strasbourg last weekend. But what is the possibility of seeing President Obama and President Sarkozy (with first ladies) walking around these places?
The plan for the Easter Holiday is to go back to Strasbourg – visit Kehl – and then go to Baden Baden. Our itinerary was exactly like Obama’s. I heard though, that the French and German Police were all over these places during the 60th anniversary of NATO. Brr…nothing scarier than the German Police.
