French Wine Fair

從前覺得喝葡萄酒是有錢人玩意, 但自從去年的歐洲流浪記後, 發現了喝紅酒原來是一件很有樂趣的生活享受呢。法國雖有著「葡萄酒王國」之稱, 但在我逗留於巴黎的那3星期裏, 卻只感受到當地強烈的cafe文化, 一天喝上數杯咖啡對他們來說是何等閒事。而我只在這葡萄酒盛產地只喝過一次白酒, 想起也覺可惜。

真正感受到喝紅酒的樂趣是在翡冷翠的時候, 可以說意大利人把紅酒當水喝! 實在太普遍, 因只要花1歐元你便可以有一枝好喝的紅酒! 有一次我到一間像香港茶餐廳的小餐館吃午餐, 餐飲我點了mineral water。同桌的大叔和我閒聊, 問我"Do you like Italian food?" , 我說:"Sure!" 接著他問我為什麼不點紅酒, 我說我不喝酒的..... 他很驚訝地說: "You can't experience Italian food culture without tasting wine!"(差不多意思) 。現在回想大叔的說話, 真的很有道理..... 特別發現芝士和紅酒, 簡直是絶配! 對於我這個芝士迷, 真的是一大啟發! 接著在意大利的2個多星期, 雖然我沒買過酒, 但每天喝酒的機會很多, 特別是當有cooking class的日子和在Angel家寄居的日子, 紅酒永遠都會出現在餐桌上! Angel在晚上會突然問我喝不喝紅酒, 真有情趣!

回到香港, 常很懷念那時的生活點滴...... 兩個月前對紅酒的興趣又濃烈起來。對紅酒一點認識也沒有的我, 唯有靠同事借給我的漫畫和低B入門書、偶然喝杯紅酒多加認識。近來身體好像好了點, 不知是否紅酒的關係呢? 哈哈...

今天參加了在朗豪酒店舉辦的Wine Fair, 是《法國五月》的節目之一。有過百款葡萄酒試飲, 但我試了廿款便不行了:p 因為好喝的那些我忍不住喝多幾啖, 而專業的試飲是會吐出來呢 :p 若不是有芝士和餅乾, 我想我會倒下! (多謝Leslie照顧照顧!) 葡萄酒真的很有趣, 每枝的味道也是獨特的, 像每一個人也是特別的一樣呢! 最後匆忙地買了一枝只需$60(原價$108)的Bordeaux紅酒, 不過那時眼花, 好像買錯了......希望好喝吧:p

很掛念和Angel和Mia一起的日子......!!!
(她們的photo album)
Angel預備的晚餐(有紅酒啊)
一個墟
Salute!
在Rome的hostel內的晚餐(也有酒...)

18.6kg parcel from Paris

Oh babe, my 18.6kg luggage has arrived finally!!!
When I travelled from Paris to Italy, I couldn't carry such a heavy luggage (over 40kg) with me , so finally I mailed a part of it to H.K. first ... and you know, I've spent 130 euros! -_-
Very "yuk tong"!!!

I've waited for it for a loooooooooooong time!

emm.... oh yeah here comes my swimming suit! I will go swimming after the seasonal coldness!

Distant Friendship

這兩天Internet大塞，不知是否過去兩個多月已習慣了沒有Internet的日子，今次並沒有不習慣的感覺。不過在這非常時期不能連上一些重要的外國網頁，真的有點阻滯~~ 幸好不消兩天，大部份的網頁也accessible了，有關工作人員做事效率真快呢 (我常幻想他們是否滿身潛水裝備潛到海底修補電纜......哈哈)！

我本人對Internet又愛又限：愛它方便得不得了，卻恨它令人養成了庸懶的習慣；愛它能一時間聯絡各方好友，卻恨它令人忽視親力親為的關心；愛它造就了省時省力的生活，卻恨它令人把時間都白花了也不知 (尤其玩MSN時......) ; 愛它可讓我抒發個人感受，卻恨它反令我收埋自己...... 說到底，我深信「物極必反」，這兩天因為這而喊悶的朋友，小心不要上癮了啊！學會「慢活」吧～

說到「親力親為的關心」，今年聖誕節在意料之外在香港渡過，我真的感到香港越來越「冷」和「懶」。香港有很多親朋好友，但居然沒有收過一隻手寫的字（我自己也不是寫了很多），頂多收到Digital的「Merry Christmas」，但反而收到從遠遠的法國寄來的聖誕祝福！在27號收到了在Toulon認識的台灣同學Yi-Hsui怡琇、Yu-Ching玉菁和約旦同學Ammar的聖誕咭+CD-Rom，十分十分感動啊~!!!

那種心情真的不能言喻，尤其當我想到，不是很多機會可以3個人同時碰面、而且忙得有一段時間每天只以果醬塗麵包裹腹的他們，卻可以在兩個星期前把聖誕咭預備及寄出時...... 還有記得和Yi-Hsui同遊羅馬時，她很堅持要到郵局買郵票寄Postcards給朋友，而且還要分別買在羅馬和梵蒂岡的郵票，在不同郵箱寄呢（註：梵蒂岡位於羅馬裏面）！在Toulon想買郵票更加難，你說英文沒人會理會你，所以當我想像不懂法文的Yi-Hsui在郵局指手劃腳地買郵票的情景時，就更加感動！......還有！我不知那張聖誕咭他們是從哪裏弄來的，因為學校附近沒有文具店，我在Toulon時只見過downtown有一間，而且從宿舍到downtown要等一小時以上的巴士呢！(想起也可佈）

這份友誼，真的令我想哭！謝謝你們！

Back to the starting point

I've been back for 6 days, too much to tell that I don't know how to start...

I really think that I've experienced many miracles and blessings from God in the last 72 days... I must write down what I experienced or I will forget... Give me some times...

And I have about 5 GB photos... I wanna share the essence with you all... wait for me...

I am trying to be in tune with life in H.K. now... Pace, Weather, People, Transports, Informations.... In fact most of the things keep unchanged despite something in my home... Luckily the weather is much warmer than that of European countries, I love this weather in H.K... Autumn...

I slept till late afternoon for the first few days.. horribly exhausted...my health seems getting worse... "my friend" hasn't visited me for over 2 months... oh no, I am still far away from 更年期, ain't I?

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Sometimes even though I have zero regret for my decision to give up, I feel like I am 半途而廢 after coming back... thanks Joe Yiu's encourangement: 「你好勇呀，真的，我覺得你很勇敢，夠膽嘗試，一個女仔去到咁遠。你放棄個度既生活，但係無放棄自己，無放棄跟隨神，神亦無放棄你。唔試點知喎，後生應該試多D，試左都吸收左一次寶貴經驗。如果响果邊發覺唔適合自己仲堅持留响果邊我覺得好固執同浪費時間 , 所以我一萬個支持~!」

My bed, I am coming back!

For the last 70 nights of France-Italy-London journey,

I've slept on 12 different beds...

Tomorrow night I will be in my bed in ParkIsland!! Wow bed, I miss you!!!

Next stop

Just come back from my "Holiday in Rome"

Next schedule: Will start my trip alone again, frist I will take a 12-hr night train to Paris, then eurostar on the next day to London.

Due to limited budget, I've booked a 4-bed mixed dorm again... hope everything is going well...espeically for the weather... cold cold cold...

Come back after 5 days... see you guys.

Update

There are always things happened unexpectedly, and I always meet nice people during my trip. Angel (a friend of Yi-Hsui) asked me to stay with her 2 days earlier before Yi-Hsui arrives. So I can check out 2 days earlier... so great! And, Yi-Hsui could finally join me to Rome... what a good news!

The owner of hostel told me to pay for one more day as I left earlier (in fact I informed her of it 22 hours before!). Thanks God, finally it was resolved and I'd lost nothing.

I had a private cooking lesson with Andrea in this morning, he said he would be in Hong Kong for a couple of days during Christmas for conducting a training session in Sabatini! Wow, it's the Italian restaurant I've longed to visit since long ago (but still haven't had a try there). What a wonderful experience for me to cook and have lunch with such a professional chef in Firenze!

Bored

I walked to a place which is almost out of the map of downtown of Firenze ─ Cavini. For what? Gelato again! It had tons of choices of favours... yummy!

Then I went to Uffizi Gallery. It was quite disappointing since it wasn't worth 9.5 euros for me... even though it was quite fun to see various version of Jesus and Santa Maria. I just remember "The birth of Venus" which is the picture of Adobe Illustrator... haha... But luckily there was a temporary exposition holding at the same time, "The mind of Leonardo". I was excited by the original sketches of Leonardo da Vinci when he did the lost painting of "The Battle of Anghiari", he really did a lot of detailed research and anatomical study about how a piece of muscle contracted and relaxed!

After the visit, it still kept raining and I felt very cold, I couldn't help having a cup of hot chocolate in Rivoire which is famous for its semi-sweet chocolates. It was tasty and just costed 2.3 euros!

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Now a man is fixing the lock of my bedroom's door... it's only been repaired after one week!...

Daniel just left in this morning, I don't know who will come next...
Honestly, it's quite uneasy to stay with a strange man in the same bedroom for 5 nights... but if no one cares, who cares?

I've stayed for one week in Firenze already... I start to feel bored... Florence is so small that I think at most 4 days is enough here... but I have to stay one more week...waiting Yi-Hsui to come...

Pizza in Pisa

Today I went to Pisa with my roomate, Daniel. It just took 1 hour from Florence by train.

It was pissing down sometimes, but it was happy to have someone be my companion in this trip. Absolutely, all people would do the same posture beside the Leaning Tower of Pisa - Torre Pendente, including me! haha... ( I kicked it for another photo)

We had pizzas in a restaurant, but it seems that western people seldom share pizza together... so I have a whole big pizza alone... I had stomachache after the lunch even though I couldn't finish it!

Daniel went to Empoli to watch a ball game and I went back to hostel alone. I listened to songs of Leo Koo and suddenly I felt very upset... tears dropped from my face... last time I cried was the 1st day of arrival on Toulon... I discover that I've already been in Europe alone for 54 days...

See the photos

I love gelato!

Colorful combination from Vivoli- one of the best gelateria in Florence.

Found it on Via Isola delle Stinche7r

Shopping Day

Today is my shopping day! I went to the Central Market to buy some fruits and tomatoes, only 1 euro/kg of tomatoes on a vine! Crazily cheap! As I remember, 胡杏仁also went there to buy a huge steak with a chef in the TV programme of 《從世界出發》, haha...

I bought a flattening pastry there for lunch... quiche Lorraine, a quiche made with cheese and pieces of bacon, with 48g fat content for one piece! I hope I won't be suffered from heart disease! For the taste... oh...very salty... it seemed that I was having a bite on a hard salty cheese! Italian people must get used to eating salty food.

Then I went to the seem-to-be largest supermarket, Esselurga, 45 mins away from my hostel to buy foodstuff and shampoo, toothpaste...etc. Cereal is crazily cheap... a box of Kellogg's Special K only costs 1.6 euros...! (It's $39 in H.K.)

It was fully dark when I came out of the supermarket at 5:15p.m... I think I am rather like a local than a tourist here (that's why it's not dangerous for me to stay here...) ... holding 2 large shopping bags, dressing causally with messy hair... :P

Shot a picture at the river (Fiume Arno).

Florence seems to be very small.


See what I've bought! One-week stock!

Pasta Day

I attended 2 Italian cooking classes in a culinary school today. I had tried 4 different kinds of pasta with heavy sauces and 2 fattening desserts made with chestnuts for lunch and dinner. I felt very full but it's good to gain my weight back, haha... since I've lost some pounds after coming to Europe. I think it's easy to achieve this goal, at least you can find gelateria everywhere, like 7-11 in Hong Kong. Every cafe has its own gelato corner as well...wow, I love it.

I wanna try pizza here, but it's not fun to have pizza alone. For me, pizza is something that you have to share with friends...

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Met Mariaka from Australia and Hanna from Korea in the hostel. They stayed for 2 nights only and left already. Last night I had a non-stop chat with Hanna for over 1 hour...both of us are talkative :P... it's my first time to meet Korean girl, I think their english is much better than Japanese's! Today comes Daniel, a journalist from Brazil, he will stay for 5 nights. It's so weird to stay in the same room with another man but luckily, he is very nice. However, I couldn't hang up my underwear in the room :P

ALWAYS get bad news!!

Bad news always come to me...

Yi-Hsui said she may have to change 10-day trip to 4-day trip in Italy...

I have to stay here for 12 days waiting for her, and I don't wanna be alone for one more week in Italy after she leaves... but I couldn't change the schedule of train ticket to Paris...

I will be alone for 5 days in London later, too. I've already booked the air ticket from London to HK... can't changed the schedule at such a low price... (HKD 2009 for OASIS HK airline)

:'(

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God's word is my only source of strength

I used to read Our Daily Bread everyday when I was in secondary school. Now I love to read its online version. I find it more inspiring to read english version, and It even has MP3 that you can listen to.

Exhausted journey

Ended 3-week stay in Paris, took the night train to Florence by 12 hours... Luckily I was the only one in the 4-bed compartment, but it was too noisy and I couldn't sleep on the shaking bed in the compartment... oops, my panda eyes are getting more serious now...

Travelling from Paris to Italy was like having a battle... I had climbed upstairs and downstairs with my heavy lugguage for over 10 times... coz there was no elevator for the metro and train stations in both Paris and Italy!!! My legs are full of bruises again...

Staying in a 3-bed shared dorm in Florence now... only 16 euros per night... just had a chat with a girl from Australia... luckily there is ADSL connection... but no kitchen... I want to have a cup of hot water...

Too tired to write what I've done in Paris...maybe do it later...

Very very tired and sleepy...

Update

Moved out from auntie's home... Thanks for Mish's lovely sofa, I could stay in Paris for 5 more nights.

Planning to move to my dream place, Florence, by night train in this weekend. Before joining Yi-Hsui, I will have 12 days alone in Florence, may God bless me.

No shipping service in France, incredible...
I will take my 40kg luggage to London for shipping...x_x

Miss me or not

Do you?

I have been falling in love with Le Jardin des Tuileries,
Being surrounded by orange color of the falling leaves,
I was moved, in such a Jimmy-styled picture...

but I felt unreasonably cold in such a warm color...

NERVOUS . HELPLESS . LONELY . UPSET

I will leave on next monday.

But, everything is not going well... especially for the bank issue...

Let me continue what was going on...
Finally I sent the registered letter to my landlord at the post office on tuesday... now I just hope someone would rent the room and I could get my deposit back... it's what I regarded as one of the "nonsense" thing coz the deposit is non-refundable only if I break any rules listed on the contract... but I didn't! Anyway, now I just want to leave without any hassle!

For the bank issue, since none of the staff could speak english, I really don't know what to do if when I really had to close the account before I leave. I am very worried as I still have much savings in this account, so I decided to transfer it to my brother in HK before closing this account.

When I knew classmate A decided to skip the lesson yesterday, I immediately asked him to accompany me to the bank as he knows French. However, when we went to the bank, the teller asked me to book an appointment on the next day (even though I just want to ask a simple question) ... Okay, I would come again on next day, but since classmate A had to leave Toulon last night for one week, no one could be my "translator" anymore... so I phoned classmate B whether she could help me during the break of lessons, but she said she couldn't... so I wrote a letter and asked classmate A to translate into French for me... and he left last night... I felt very helpless...
After a few hours, classmate B got back to me and said she could help me...thanks God.

In this morning, we went to the bank at 11a.m. as scheduled, the manager said I couldn't use this account anymore, so I made a transfer to Hong Kong first. But I can only close this account only after 2-3 working days, so I have to come back to the bank again on this weekend... oh, everything is very complicated...

Then I went back to school to find classmate C to accompany me on this saturday (that's why I can online now) ... I really hope the transfer is successful and I could close that account!!!! You know, HSBC in HK told my brother that the transfer would not be successful if any one of the words is wrong... but I really can't trust the bank here... when the manager filled in the tranfer form with her PC, she translated my HK address in French and made so many typing errors, I corrected her immediately... and at the end I still found that she typed one word wrongly... but she said it was not important! As a manager of bank branch, she even didn't know how much the service charge was, and just asked me to reserve a certain amount of money in the account and got back on saturday... Sigh, I am really very worried...

Anyway, thanks classmate A, B and C...

Recently I have nothing to do everyday except dealing with those trivial and time-consuming but important issues, especially at night. I've nothing to do in my room... no TV, no Internet, no music, no entertainment, even no one talked with me here... so I went to bed at around 10p.m.... it's unbelivable...

Another thing bothering me is, my 40kg luggage... I really want to throw all my belongings away as I have to go to the train station alone by bus on next monday...

CRAZY!!

Crazy, I come back to campus in order to write a formal letter to my landlord notifying him of my departure... and I have to send the letter by mail, as well as asking for so-called "certificated letter" (Huh? What's that?) by the post office, which is going to be closed soon... How troublesome it is!! They are really stubborn and conservative... I could get nothing even I informed him 2 weeks before.... and I couldn't leave the appartment until getting the approval of the landlord... Terrible! I wanna leave this nonsense place ASAP!

Thanks Altavista, I can "write" a formal letter in French! Awesome!

By the way, In this morning I've done a "great" job... that is... I got my bank card from a bank and was able to check my balance at an ATM machine! I headed for the bank by a bus map and finally got everything done! I really think that for such a French idiot, I have done a successful task already...haha... you know, I was so scared that the teller wouldn't understand me, and the ATM would "eat" my card as I just pressed the button by guessing...

But after 1 hours, when I went back to the campus, Edwigh told me that I should close the account in person before departure... why can't I close it later, or on the Internet??? Sigh, I have to go to the bank to sign a piles of contract again!

Actually I've already reserved a train ticket on the Internet, but I have to postpone the date by 1 week just for such nonsense rules! -_-

I feel so helpless, I'm afraid that I am a trouble-maker in my classmates' eyes... all classmates are busy on attending their lessons... no one is free to help me... and after lesson the bank and post office would have closed...

A terrible week

- Some flatmates came back at 12a.m. but some woke up at 6a.m...everyday I couldn't have a good sleep since my room is just one-thin-wall behind the bathroom.

- Everyone in a supermarket stared at me as I did't understand what the staff was talking to me... finally I knew that he asked me to put my backpack at the entrance and got it back after shopping... but why could the other carry their own bags? Oh no, just becoz they took the shopping cart! Nonsense! Okay, next time I will get that huge shopping cart even I just wanna buy a bottle of water!

- I went to Aix-en-Provence with a Taiwanese classmate on last saturday, that was the only meaningful day I've ever had since I came here... but we spent 5 hours on transportation, and I got up at 5:30a.m... that was crazy... and it was quite scary to walk alone to the bus-stop in darkness and coldness... anyway...huh...

- It was quite horrible to make phone calls at a public telephone booth every night...

- How can the banks only open for 6 hours per day and they close on monday, sunday and half day of saturday? CRAZY! I've been here for 3 weeks but I don't even know the balance of my bank account!

- I have to pay for the rent for 3 months even I just stay for 3 weeks... I couldn't have the deposit refunded even the semester hasn't started yet...very very upset...give my money back!

- Got nothing to do on sunday, so I spent 5 hours to view all digital photos in my harddisk... which are photos since 5 years ago... full of sadness...


Where is my HOME?

Advice Please!

The life here is absolutly different from english-speaking cities, and remember, it's not Paris... so let me show you how they are different by listing pros and cons...

I'm gonna make a decision very soon... please tell me how you think if you have any comment...


Pros

01. An opportunity to learn French
02. A quiet and peaceful place to live in (with a population of only 300,000)
- Overall good weather with over 290 sunny days annually
- Most people are friendly and gentle - Low crime rate

03. Can really concentrate on studies in my appartment (as there is no entertainment at all, not even a TV...)

04. Low living cost
- Earn a British master's degree with low tuition fee, it's 6-10K euros cheaper than studying in U.K.! (Note: 1 euro is around HK$10.)
- Just 20 euros for a monthly pass for all buses and boats.
- Food and drinks are inexpensive if you prepare by yourself*.

05. A good starting point to travel around Europe
06. May look for an internship for the 3rd semester (if I can find any)
07. Acquaint myself with management knowledge in the course (which I think is boring but useful)

* As a food lover, hanging around CarrFour (a big supermarket here) has become my major entertainment recently. You can find many interesting products that you rarely see in HK at a low price. You can just spend around 1 euros for a large baugette, a large piece of cheese, a bottle of jam / olives, a box of cereal bars / biscuit, 1kg fromage blanc / yogurt, 1kg fruits...


Cons

01. Absolutely inconvenient
- Poor transportation: You are like a handicapped if you don't have a car.
> Only 5 buses reach the campus for a whole day (believe it or not?)
> Have to wait for the bus for a long time wherever you go (I waited for totally 3 hours on last saturday)
> No bus after 8p.m. (I walked to home for having missed the last bus on the Mid-Autumn Festival)
> Most buses are out of service on sunday

- All shops are closed on sunday (I nearly died of hunger and thirst on last sunday when I moved to my new appartment)
- Have to walk for at least 30 mins (from appartment) if you suddenly want to buy something
- Can't buy any large things without a car
- Have to wash my clothes by hand throughout the year
- You can't find any public services during lunch time (12-2p.m.), even for banks...

02. The course lacks resources and isn't systematic
- You don't know who to contact if you've got any problem.
- You don't know where you will have your class until the last minute.
- Can only search for any resources from the Internet

03. Terrible campus
- No facilities in the campus e.g. water machines, Xeros machines, library, common room, sports centre... (a place just for having lessons!)
- You can't even have a decent place to study or discuss project with your classmates
- Situated in an isolated area, surrounded by roads and highway only, nothing to eat, shop, play... can't even buy a pen here! - Only one washroom in the campus (as far as I know) - Only one small computer room with only 9 computers for public use (with French Windows installed, French keyboard...that means can't use at all)
- The student cafeteria is as small as the snack booth of a secondary school, food is expensive, too.

04. No spiritual / social life
- No church at all
- I just have around 15 classmates in my course (and that's all who can speak english) - People seldom hang out here
- No large shopping malls (not even in city centre)
- No night life (it's like a dead city after 8p.m.)

05. French only
- You are like an alien to everyone here if you don't know French. (Sometimes I do confused that why I am here, too)
- Entertainment can't really entertain you e.g. all movies, magazines, books and even posters are in French only. NO ENGLISH!
- Can't go far, coz I can't get lost.
- difficult to communicate with everyone (even with my flatmates), ask for any help, make any phone calls, buy anything without a price tags...

06. 0thers:
- Die hard if I get sick, I don't even know how / where to buy Panadol here...
- Have to show my birth certificate translated in French officially if I wanna stay over 3 months. - Have to apply for Internet in the appartment on my own, and have to wait for 3 weeks.
- I can't print anything at all