Eiffel

Nah, two pictures of Eiffel by night! I'm too lazy to upload the rest!

I went to France with 2 bags and came back with 1.

Bonjour! I am home! Back to the comfort of my little own room. What a trip full of unexpected twists and surprises.

It's hard to put everything down into words. Let's start with the bad. Probably the worst thing I would have imagined happening on a holiday... getting your entire bag stolen. In Nice. It's such a jinxed place I will never go back there again i swear. not only did i lose my bag, it also cost us a bomb to get to paris from nice, leaving us poor to the bone in Paris! After losing my wallet last term, I have been super paranoid about my valuables, alas, fate has it that i was to lose not just my wallet but the whole bag as well. Including passport, camera and phone. The 3 most important things. I was careless for 20sec. I left my bag on the floor at the table to get some mayonnaise and that was all it took. I remember that desperate rush to the door to give chase, running down the dark alleys, not knowing where to turn to. And I knew it was gone. The Puma bag with our picture is dumped somewhere in the back alleys of Nice. The bag I so eagerly explain to everyone that it's the picture of us, the girl power of 64.

But it would have been silly to harp on it, so we just went on with the trip. Paris is indeed the city of Romance. Every turn, there were beautiful buildings, such fine architecture. The Eiffel is GORGEOUS and the very first night we were in Paris, it burst into a million sparkly stars, lighting up the entire Eiffel. And then of course we strolled along the famous Champs Elysees which we thought didn't live up to the hype, we much preferred Galleries Lafayette which is something like the Covent Garden of Paris. You know... Oxford street = champs kinda thing. THere were these suspicious Chinese touts along the Champs which kinda spoiled the experience abit... conmen! I really like the Arc de Triomphe too, this huge arc that Napoleon built to celebrate the declaration of France as a republic (hope i didn't get the facts wrong). The Tuleries Garden is really nice too, directly infront of the Louvre. I remembered reading about how Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu drove along the Tulieres Garden after they escaped the Louvre. Cool. But alas, fate was playing us out again because we couldn't enter the Louvre. We read that it was open till late on Mondays, so we decided to go in the evening, only to discover to our horror that it closes at 5.45pm. We wanted to go on Tuesday, our last day, only to discover to a bigger horror that the Louvre is closed every Tuesday. All the way in Paris and we didn't even get to go in! What to do... ?

Paris is just really different from Marseille and Nice. Our common favourite is this small town near Marseille called Aix-en-Provence, a pretty chill-out town where we sat at Uncle Sam's and ate delicious salmon Paninis and sugar crepes, just watching the world go by. There was a wonderful fine arts museum there as well. It's a charismatic town full of well-dressed French, busking in the sun, blatantly people-watching (hey, we should do that too... you know what the French do, they sit with their chairs facing the outside, how discrete can you get). It was also where i spotted the David Beckham look alike. Handsome man! We saw the student strike at Aix too, pretty cool, no violence or anything, just peaceful strike with a police car following behind, i think they were enjoying it, wearing ghost faces and holding placards that read "The French Revolution".

And anw... it's such a big world out there you wouldnt believe who i met in Paris! Teo Eng Siang, we just looked at each other for a second and i wasnt sure if it was him, and Andre wasnt with us so when he finally came along, we went on our quest of Teo Eng Siang, didn't take too long to find him and it was just kinda strange that the world is indeed this small. And Hf met her RJ friend in Paris too, shopping. Maybe it's the shopping maniac in all of us. All roads lead to shopping?

It was a wonderful trip, except the stuff that happened in Nice. The ride from Nice to Paris was surprisingly scenic, we all got along, laughed alot, ate alot of baguettes, played alot of Spades, walked till we dropped, and spent till we were broke. Thank goodness Jesse could speak French, otherwise, we're pretty much doomed cos the French just don't like/don't know how to speak English. Yeah, and we're all so impressed by his fluency that we wanna take up a third language too? The few phrases that i can remember are... palais vous anglias (Do you speak English?), Bonjour, Bonsour, Merci, Au Revoir. er... pathetic lah.

This morning, when I reached back hall, I had a wonderful surprise that left me wet-faced. A big thank you to Kelvin. And Mummy, I love you!

Now, it's time to get studying, ah, the inertia. The exams are one and a half months away, I can't wait for it to be over!

Off i go!

Oh, Les mis was a blast! I like it so much! Vera... I can so imagine you'd love this! Singing along to all those lyrics that you can memorise. Fantastic!

I'm off to France tomorrow, hope it'll be a blast! And away with the riots... please please! See you guys soon with pictures ;) Study hard for your exams!

How I wonder what you are?

"I wake up
Thoughts of you
Tattooed to my mind
As I wonder
What to wear
What to eat
Who to be
Will I see you again"

-with courtesy from miss hf's blog.

I wish I could wake up and forget this folliness on my part ever happened. Grow up Grow up Grow up.

The timetable is out!

And guess what... i will finish my exams by 22nd MAY. Oh my... that's like how fast... the exams span all of one week. the bad thing is... IR is immediately after econs. BAH. Har? Hope i'll be all ready to conquer the papers by then, haha. That's like in 2 months time, in 2 months time... i'll be free as a bird. That leaves me almost a month before i go home, wonder what i can do with so much time. We'll see how it goes... but oh, i can't wait for 22nd May.

Come, let's bitch about the weather. Have I told you how I would always curse under my breath as i walk back home from school. Even though it's just a short 10 minute walk away. Yeah, i've been cursing for months, and i don't think i will stop cursing anytime soon. Check.. weather forecast for next 5 days.. is still.. what -1 to 6 degrees. NO!!! Check, Barcelona is 14degrees today. Ah, now i feel like going to Spain cos France is still so cold. NO!!! This is not happening!

Come, let's bitch about my pro-Singaporeanism. I wouldn't say it's a bad thing but I just realize I have practically zero foreign friends except for those in my IR class. IR rocks... see, studying international relations gives you international friends. Yeah, I was slapped in the face at the DPM Wong Kan Seng dinner when one of the guys i spoke to was scolding all those people who knew only Singaporeans. Like OUCH. Which is pretty true anyway. It was quite funny the way he said... "You come all the way here for an INTERNATIONAL education to make INTERNATIONAL friends!" Yeah, he must have said it twice. Spent practically the entire first term settling and adapting and I just heckcared the making more foreign friends part. So guess what my resolution for next academic year is... I'm going to make more foreign friends! Yeah, a resolution even before this term's over. And what is the action plan... I'll go back in June to train my rusty badminton skills again and join badminton next year, knowing how i'll always go back on my words, it is thus the duty of ping,lin,min to play with me. Regardless of how pro you guys are and how lousy i am.HAHAHAHAHA. Or, we could play beachvolleyball, and then see if my volleyball is up to standard. HAHAHAHA. Or... we should just do both!!! YES YES YES? And... pin,lin,min, guess who i heard is coming to LSE next year, i almost did a merlion when i heard it.

Alison was just telling me about how "things have changed" when she went back to Singapore in December... and that was only like 3 months after we left. Sounds so scary, 9 months after having left the beloved island, i wonder what would have changed?

I need a haircut. The ends are flying in all directions, dried and frayed. It's bad. Soon Soon. Maybe Friday.

And... the theme of last week was food. Emiley is such a great cook. Her bbq chicken is to die for, let me recap what we had... sambal egg, bbq chicken, mixed veg, gado gado, braised fatless pork, and tiramisu for dessert. Oh Oh Oh... Oooh, gasp! Fantastic stuff. I wish i could cook well too! You need passion for cooking i realize, where's the passion? And yes, i just got the recipe for the hwachong night truffle, sounds tough, but oh, it's just so nice. I'm gonna try it, one fine day. SPL dinner was just OKAE. Like i wouldnt pay that amount of money for that kinda food, but it's free so who cares? ;) And of course DPM, i was stuck with the PMO for so long, and a whole bunch of psc scholars talking to him about the civil service, like BOO!! I dont' care, just give me my laksa and char kway teow. Yeah, i was salivating as i watched EVERYONE around me holding mountain heapload of food on their plates. In the end, i didn't have time for a second helping of the laksa. BOOO! It was so funny, i was telling my mother that i paid 6pounds for a bowl of prawn mee at chinatown and she nearly fainted. Yeap, that's a really faint spell inducing price. I just can't boast about the Beach Road prawn mee enough.for $5, you get HUGE prawns, wonderfully tasty soup, generous serving of chalots and chilli. and a separate serving of ngoh hiang and lime juice to go with it. Oh, the $5 is only for the noodle. But wow, it's really THE best, i swear.

Theme of this week is ... theatre. Friday will be Asian boys, and Saturday will be ROJAK. Rojak better be good, I'm paying so much just to support Marvin. Monday shall be Les Mis, ooh, finally, i can't wait! And the holidays beckon. I just wrote down a whole list of things I wish would happen, oh, how i wish they will ALL happen.

Laughing at myself

I was working on the essay in the library today and i found myself smiling to myself more often than actually writing anything down on the paper. This is ridiculous!

Pasta

Sometimes, i just want to KILL myself! Agony... pure agony!!!

why oh why...

Did you know? I don't believe this man, just checked the weather forecast and it's still so cold until next Wednesday at least(as far as the weather forecast can go). Flor, your resources not reliable lah!!! This is so upsetting, I wanna peel off layers and go running, but the weather... tomorrow is...(drumrolls ...) 2degrees to 2 degrees. What is this???

I slept until the latest time yet, because of the slumber party at 419. Before that, we had steamboat and then our guest-of-honour made her grand entrance at 10.30pm with almond jelly, chocolate cake and we boiled some tang yuan. It was so funny and fun, girls rock! Hahahaha. And, thanks for entertaining my frivolous thoughts, all the endless possibilities, it all sounded so possible and i woke up this morning with a clear head ( vs spouting nonsense at 4am in the morning) to realize that perhaps it was just wild fantasizing. Haha, but it was good while it lasted ;)

The Big "I" returns, conquer the demon you must!

The BIG I

"I" has been bugging me! I wish it just dropped down from the sky. I love magic, stuff dropping down from the sky. How unrealistic. BAH! But what's got to be done has to be done... I mean serious business here.

I met my IR teacher today and i absolutely love him. He's so kind and encouraging I almost feel bad that I didn't do my work better, seriously, i almost felt embarrassed and that's a really weird feeling, never imagined a teacher could invoke such emotions. Anyway, yeah, he's the perfect American gentleman, I LIKE! Polite, humorous, smart, charismatic. awwwwwww! I saw his research paper on public diplomacy and nearly fainted, it's supposed to be a 330 page report! Brilliant stuff.

Less than 2 weeks to the end of term, getting fidgety and restless. I wanna go France already. An essay more to go, can't believe the academic year is more or less coming to a conclusion! Like werrrrrrrt! Too fast... too fast!

Looking forward to a weekend of great FOOD! Singaporean style on Saturday, Thai style on Sunday and Wong Kan Seng style on Monday. Yay ;)

Online shopping

Spent the past 3 hours browsing online. Saw a whole load of nice stuff! Oh well.. talk about wasting time...!!! Mad about flats.

cheaters!

EH! somebody stole my brand new bottle of jam! I don't believe this! Maybe someone broke the entire bottle and is too cowardly to admit it! And i just bought 2 croissants that were supposed to be reduced price but they charged me the original price! Why am I paying the original for nearly expired croissants! Irritating!

pictures for you!

US!


Volleyballers, kinda. Haha! Me, adrian, justin, mich, jiaying


marvin and me.


director sengteck and me


Girlies! Eehui, Angela, me, Gillian and Chermain


Thank you you guys!

Anyway! i'm so pissed! I wanted to delete one particular photo that was repeated and stupid blogger deleted all the photos i painstakingly uploaded! This sucks! So, the number of photos have been reduced to these few. Angry!!!

drained but happy ;)

Ah! Yesterday's performance was a blast! I forgot my lines without knowing! How cool is that! But yeah, i enjoyed myself so much, my last one hour 20 min of fame. Hahaha! I am so glad everyone liked madam white snake! I've probably done it so many times to actually find "her" that funny. But oh well! Now that SPL is over, it feels kinda weird to not have to go down to london bridge everyday! Ah, the audience's laughter and applause it what's gonna keep me going back for more of it. I'm a "hopeless attention seeker" in that sense, i love the feeling of everyone watching me act. Hahahahahahah!

London games today, played volleyball where we got "thrashed" but still emerged second cos there were only two teams playing! Haha, yay, got a medal. What's worst.. its LSE vs LSE. And netball, was well COLD. I hate playing in the cold! Oh i miss mih so! That last glimpse... how precious! Now, i'm thinking of when i will niagamihees. BLAH!!!

I'm zonked now... BIG time. And down with a sorethroat. I need rest.

Oooh.. the adrenaline... i like

Last night was a blast! In spite floundering my lines, i was on such a high... except the initial few minutes after the show, where i thought i screwed up. The audience didn't even know the show ended until backstage started clapping... i nearly died! But thank you so much for all your encouragement, feedback, comments, i knew all the effort hasn't gone to waste. Thank you you all for the flowers as well, as jx said, yes, i felt like a big star! I wonder why i was so frustrated just a week or so back... but thanks Gerald for encouraging me to never give up what i love doing.

Tonight, will be the last night. Of all my Hi my name is tracy tan's. I think i'll miss it when it's over. But man, i'm going to put in all my heart and soul... i promise.

Just a sidenote... tasted the most amazing milkeshake ever. It's banana peanut butter milkshake. I know it sounds gross, but it's really fantastic! I think 3 ppl sharing is a good number, cos it's a pretty huge glass and you can't drink too much cos u'll get sick of it. It's the kind of thing that you can't have too much of. AHh.... was on a peanut butter high! Anw...flor! your peterpan peanut chunky butter is really good! The peanut is easier on the mouth than skippy, skippy's peanut is abit too hard, tends to cut your gum as you chomp your bread. Haha! And i'm so glad you caught the meaning behind the voice messages ;)

The BIG day

The Big day is finally here. I have so much confidence in our production! Our last full dress and i flopped my lines and completely didnt appear to do my scene at a certain part. Gosh, how freaky. But all is ironed out and i'm sure things will work out tmr and friday. I'm so excited!!! But i'm so tired tooooooo.... but i'm so excited tooooooo. Blah, extremely incoherent now, my eyelids are half closed again. Of all weeks to change class time, it had to be THIS week. 9 am class, it's 1 am now... i'm so dead meat. And i haven't finished my homework for tomorrow! Ooops.

SPL... bring it on!