Author: Rach

19. Year 3 College student at HKUST, Hong Kong University of Stress and Tension. (No joke.) Lived an unbelievably amazing life in Southern France last semester. Currently on my second exchange at Rutgers, New Jersey. Not quite like Europe but still it will be a different kind of good experience :) damn this is super outdated. 21. employed. yea, that's pretty much my life now. Update again: 22. Still employed (phew). Moved to Taipei, from Hong Kong. Got a bunny. Life is great :) 23. I love my job but am I approaching quarter life crisis? 24. Chinese believes that YOUR year (I'm a Rooster) is always the one with the biggest change...we'll see about that. 25. I refuse any quarter life crisis. I guess by now I'm an adult? 26. Huh, 2020 I DID not sign up for this?

Madrid Day 1

After spending a night at Madrid airport, we were off to visit the Madrid Palace and Plaza de Oriente and it welcomed us with windy but sunny weather.

There were kids who saw us and started doing gang nam style dancing … Strange but it happened 4 times in our trip.

We stopped by a library (I managed to recognize biblioteca despite my extremely limited Spanish;)
Then we got kicked out for reasons that I did not understand because the grumpy lady refused to speak English. (Perhaps it’s for playing with their seemingly ancient books? :p)

Then we visited a really warm but rather expensive market, Parque de Retiro, and a nice church. (Well they kind of all looked the same after awhile, but still worth paying a visit 🙂 and I promised a dear friend to visit churches and take photos.

<;;;;

It was already 2 pm and in Spain, that means lunch time! We finally joined my equally food loving friend Annie who is on exchange in Madrid for a Spanish tapas lunch. I had to eat 2 bread because well I wasn’t full with just one. It was 3.2 euros including a beer! I started liking Spain from that precise moment when I dive into the Jamon croissant along with a gulp of bubbly cold beer.

We also passed by Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Sol and witnessed a protest…That was when I realized Madrid is the capital of Spain.

Note to self: improve your poor geography.

The late afternoon was for shopping! Everywhere was rebajas. And I carefully spent just a bit :p
At night Siu lee(with a I can’t recognize him hairstyle) joined us from Valencia and impressed all of us with his Spanish (then we realized there were English on the menu.) xD

OH my the dinner was so good, yet only 10 per person ! We had sangria, oxtail stew, paella mixta, bread and tortilla.

It is really impossible if we were in France… I started to wonder why I forgot to consider food as a factor when I applied for exchange…

Growing up part 1

Those are raw carrots. Yes, I washed them, removed their skin and chopped them. To bring to school for “snacks”

SINCE when do I actually eat carrots? Well, I guess part of growing up, is to do things that are not the most desirable, by are good for ourselves.

My strategy is to eat it when I am most hungry. That way, my standard for food would reduce to zero and thus whatever I eat becomes 10 times more bearable. For carrots…it didn’t work THAT well but I am trying. 🙂

On the other hand, I have just finished this heavenly pack of chocolate: Creme Brulee flavor, there were actually burnt caramel crumbs INSIDE it. Oh my gooood. Now that I have finished it, I can buy a new flavor next time 🙂 When I am back from SSSsssssspain.

It is all about treating yourself a little better 🙂 every day.

Like a Child – Circus

Oh my, it has been ages since I have the time to write this. Too much planning to do, but I am glad I’m all set until Early March, and already starting to plan for April and May with my beloved roommate 🙂 There will be posts about my trips to 6 other cities by early Mar 😀 😀

So apart from researching on how to get to where and where to go next… we managed to make it to a FREE circus festival in Monaco (yes, again, it is quite a pretty place with nice people.) We have seen Monaco at it’s prettiest our first time, and this time it was just non-stop pouring -_-

Anyway Monaco is now officially my favorite country, because their hotels provide FREE FOOD! First stop: Silence Auction at Marriott Hotel. There were free Nespressor, Coffee, Tea, Juice Pastry ( I had one of each: Croissant, pain au chocolate and pain au raisins ^^) and fruits (which I did not eat… my skin wasn’t thick enough). And nothing can make me happier than free food. Well there were also circus related things that date back hundreds of years such as posters, photos, magazines etc. It was quite interesting (I don’t remember much apart from the delicious pastries and English Breakfast Tea :P)

Then we saw so many clowns along the way. They were adorable.

And it is the time for the preview of Circus show! I briefly remember that I have seen one, where there are animals and gummy bears, but I am not too sure if it was just a dream because it is too vague. This time, however, was such an old-fashion, traditional circus.

There were cages, hand-painted banners, red carpet, dome shape white tents, clowns, lions and tigers and horses and piglets OH MY Gooooodness and cotton candy and popcorn. That smell combined with horse shit is the defining smell of CIRCUS.

We sat down on a really good seat because we started waiting like 1.5 hours before it and I felt like a little kid. I could not stop jumping on my seat because I was just too excited. Although I felt like a kid, I am no longer one :/, so I was not invited to sit at the VIP row, which was partly reserved for kids, how sweet is that 🙂

Then the show start with an old man with beard, black hat and red blazer, boots and white pants. It was just like dumbo. It was a different experience really, it was colorful and cheerful. The lighting and performance was rather intriguing and eerie, but all in all very enjoyable.

Then we wrapped our circus day with an exhibition on circus costumes and paintings which was again, very colorful and cheerful.

It is an amazing day because 1) we never thought we will make it to something special like this 37th Circus Festival 2) it was never in our plan.

Perhaps sticking rigidly to a plan is not the best way to experience. Perhaps it is best that things go wrong (I.E. being pushed around, and hair pulled when getting on a bus in the rain, I do not understand why people never line up) and eventually you feel much more.

Timepiece (fancy name for expensive watches)

I haven’t been writing much because I finally have started classes~!

My second seminar is “How to build a Luxury Brand.” The guest speaker is in his mid 30s and he has worked in LVMH, Porsche and other European luxury brands. Then he opened his own business, Cyrus, on luxury watches. In his class it wasn’t much about how to build a brand; rather he was sharing his stories and personal experiences about his business. There are certain points that I really agree and was inspired. He talked about his grandfather learning German in his mid 70s. and “When there is a will, there is a way.”

He mentioned that his friends stopped being curious and daring after 30 and started having families and kids. “And from then on, their life is static. They are not going anywhere.” I sort of agree with him and perhaps it is really selfish; but everyone should have their own ideal framework of life and at this point, despite how good I can see myself as a housewife, I will probably stick to the no family framework.

And about his business, I could not follow half the time because I know nothing about diamonds or famous watches… (I could only pick up like Omega, Rolex, IWC Patek Philippe and that’s it) But I started to wonder, when people spend a big fortune to buy these “timepieces”, have they lost track of the essence of a watch, which is to be reminded of time so to BE on time? I agree that some people treat watches as accessories and that is another story; but when so much emphasis is put on how ACCURATE the watches are, it is completely futile when the watch owner does not have a proper concept of time. Being prompt is a virtue, and wearing extravagantly expensive watches does not guarantee this.

Have we, human, missed out the most fundamental essences in life, and focused on the wrong details such as the superficial and status instead?

Random…

This morning when I was woken up by outrageously noisy sound from outside at 8:30 am, I suddenly realized – I am in France. I am WAKING UP, in FRANCE. Such a strange feeling that I am still not used to after being here for 2 weeks.

Nothing much for these couple of days. There are however several rather peculiar incidences.

1) Time: 12:15 am Jan 14

Venue: outside of our apartment building

It was a buddy party yesterday and buses stop service at 9 so we had to walk back. It was fun walking back with not a single shadow on the street except the 3 of us. So we were chatting and laughing all the way till our lobby.

There is a black sensor thing that is attached to our home key to open the glass door at the lobby. We always have one that works, and one that doesn’t. At 12:15 am, we realized we took the wrong one.

So we are locked outside, panicking for 10 minutes. No one is going to leave the building until 6 am when they walk their dogs. It wasn’t freezing outside and I did not need to use the toilet, but waiting outdoor for 7 hours instead of curling up in my warm bed is just a very unwelcoming idea.

Then our savior appeared, who is also from our university. That is how lucky (and careless) we are.

2) Time: 11:45pm Jan 15

Venue: Home

So here I am, looking up where to go and how to get there, I realized something’s wet behind me… my bottle leaked again. I cannot get any clumsier. Ok no problem, I will just clear things out and let the bag dry. BUT NO WAIT, I have my bank notification letter for opening bank account inside,, and that’s how it looks like

Thank god I did not discover this tomorrow when I am in the bank, that would be really odd.

Today we went to Carrefour again, and I SAW THIS.

I thought I was in Heaven for 10 seconds. It wasn’t just chocolate, it was dessert flavored ones. Whoever came up with this brilliant idea deserves a Nobel Prize for Peace. Seriously, chocolate makes the world a better place 😉

The coco crunch mascot looks different here

And today the moon was smiling at me. 🙂

Second “country” I visited in Europe

We took 2 hours of bus to Monaco today and was out basically from 7:00-21:00. What a loooooong day of non-stop walking. At least now there is internet at home so I can serve my posts hot 😉

There is actually more to Monaco than Monte Carlo. We toured around the old town, the cathedral, the Palace (unfortunately not open during these cold months), the car collection of a Prince (!!!!!) , stamp and coins museum, Napoleon Museum and 3 churches. OH and we also went to Le Casino for the first time in my life. Good that the age requirement is 18 😉

Monaco is actually not that different from France. It is basically (France – dog poo + more English speaking people + many Ferraris + 3-deck-yachts)/300,000.

We walked a long way uphill to the Palace, to watch the guards change ceremony. Unfortunately the guards did not really allow us to take photos with him. On the other hand, police here are really nice (and good looking! 😉

There were strange big birds surrounding us begging for food the whole time…but we are just poor students so there is no way we are sharing food with them.

We wandered into a Napoleon Museum with interesting bits and pieces from hundreds of years ago. The coins and stamps museum was ok interesting although I did not understand why so many of the stamps of Monaco featured people without clothes.

Then we went to 3 different churches that varies in color and size. It was a peaceful experience. The big one is where Princess Grace Kelly was buried. There were photos of her all over the “country”.

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Then we went to my favorite place of today: Private Car Collection display of a Prince! There were really old Sherlock Holmes kind of motorcars and also awesome cars like old Lotus,Lamborghini, Maserati, Ferrari, RollsRoyce, Benz, and hybrid Lexus etc.

They were beautiful to look at. I mean my largest collection is probably candy wrappers when I was young until someone (probably mom) secretly tossed it away 😦 for fear of breeding cockroaches But this guy has hundred of cars just for himself!

Then we went to visit the famous Hotel de Paris which was really glamorous.

But it is nothing compared to Le Casino! The entrance was surrounded by luxurious cars. I lost count after seeing the 4th Red Ferrari, 3rd Porsche, 2nd Bentley and 3rd RollsRoyce… Then we got into the Casino after being checked 😀 of course they could not believe this young lady in front of him is older than 18. Once we stepped in, everywhere I looked was Gold, Shiny things, Flashing lights, and MORE gold.

Then it is time to head home because it would take another 2 hours. We almost got lost in Nice. But thanks to a traveller’s best friend: LEGS – we ran and caught the bus twice today.

Sometimes I don’t understand why we are exhausted everyday; then I realized if I want to see more, that is the only way to do it. Exhausting but fulfilling.

Finally the first free day tomorrow with nothing planned at all (ok well may be we need milk, eggs and fruits… but we won’t die without it 😉

Random things:

C for Cannes (A for Antibes, B for Biot lol and so on)

Off to Cannes today. Weather not that nice unfortunately but the place is fun nonetheless. There were many Cruella De Vils 😛 (Old ladies in fur with big dogs) and so many nice cars and yachts. (One was called Nonetheless, and one called Knot To Worry)

We arrived at 9 am and just walked around to get the map and figured out where to go. Then we ended up roaming around the old town and the Castle Museum. Free entry for etudiants. I love France.

( I have to post this because I look tall for once 😉

It was donated by several rich aristocrat, rich man’s daughter and a journalist/soldier from many years ago and there were exhibits from Arctic, Latin America, Himalayan and Oceania etc.

This photo below is a currency they used to use to buy WIVES and FINE PIGS in Solomon Islands. YES, wives and pigs. I had to laugh at that. The brighter the color, the higher the value of this currency, so whoever has the sharpest one gets to buy the wife or pig that he desires the most.

There were also paintings from the 19th century and they were just like photographs. The castle itself holds all these exhibits and is a lot of fun to tour around too.

We climbed up 109 stairs to a clock tower that over looked the whole of Cannes. (These are old stairs only for display, thank god haha they have newer ones now)

Too bad the sun was on a strike today (haha french thing) if not the view would be 10 times nicer.

Then we started looking for the marches around (flower and grocery markets) and we passed by so many petit restaurants and shops “SOLDES” (On sale) until we made it there. Then we finally started shopping yay. And then we tried looking for another museum that is unfortunately closed today. It only opens on 2 days a week from 3-6pm. WHAT kind of musee does that? -_-

Anyway we have to come back again to the 2 islands outside of Cannes so we weren’t too disappointed. Then we walked around the port and down the beach for the sunset. Each beach is completely different: the Nice one was black rubbles, the JLP one is whiter and softer sand but this in Cannes, is darker and harder, with many many seagulls. The sound of waves tapping the coast was angelic. The sunset could have been better if the sun wasn’t on strike haha but we will return 🙂

What really touched my heart today was that 2 old couples approached us so genuinely when we were looking at our map-turning-it-constantly-not-sure-where-we-are-lookng-puzzled-and-confused. They spoke to us in French which I could only guess that she meant her husband has some Chinese blood too and she blessed us. Who knows that French people (especially elderlies) are that nice? People’s stereotype and misconceptions should really be reassessed.

One last joke: We can always run and make it to a bus. Even when we see it coming all the way from the other side of the street, we can still catch it for sure.

WHY?

Because more than often, the people boarding the bus are old and they move r-e-a-l-l-y-s-l-o-w. Lucky for us 🙂 And I love old people in France. They are lovely.

Jan 9 9:40pm

Strong, Independent Woman. (well, trying to be)

Awesome stuff, finally settled bank account AND residence permit WALA. Just some follow up to do but all that’s left for now is wait.

When we arrived home from school to cook lunch, we found a Carrefour DISCOUNT magazine in the lobby. Those that you will throw away instantly when you see it at home. But right here right now, things are very different. We immediately picked it up and started crunching it like it’s the most interesting book in the world.

So pork is on sale, canned ravioli too and also ham and… Oh! Buy 3 is cheaper …But we first need to settle bank account. We swiftly cooked carbonara and ran to BNP Paribas. Thank god Erika knows some french, or else we could have sold ourselves to the bank for life without knowing it. So I signed many documents in French and the T and C are in French… well hopefully nothing went wrong.

Then, we were off to a HUGE Carrefour that we discovered earlier. Somehow I felt excited for supermarket shopping. Like a housewife lolol (C 9) The Carrefour was so big that we did not know where to begin.

But who knows grocery shopping is so much fun?

There were cakes that’s meant to expire the next day so they were 3 euros for 4 hahaha and we bought that. The cake was divine! (This is just 1 cut into 3 pieces :p)

We were thrilled to see cheap things and started looking for the ones with the latest expiry date. It was honestly a lot of fun.

We kept buying and buying and realized we have enough food for the whole month… THEN, we have to CARRY them. We always forget to take that into account when buying, but oh well we always manage to get home with everything and still breathing!

Another fun part is we have a tiny fridge, so fitting them all in is like completing a big puzzle; already a major accomplishment in itself.

Now I can definitely see myself as a housewife 😉

Every piece of me is happy, I really am utterly blissful. I wish life can always be like this…and haha today I somehow ended up looking like a cowboy…

Well, Sundays in France means everything closed. Bizarre. Luckily, we still managed to see new things today. We fully explored the beach today and walked along the coastline all the way round Juan Les Pins. The sand was velvety and there were sparkly sun diamonds floating on the vast ocean.

Giggling kids were everywhere and it was just great to feel the sunshine soaking into my skin and hair.

We shopped around and I spent 60 Euros on a jacket and a sweater. (It was NECESSARY!) Then we got lost again but people were always willing to help so we managed to get to Antibes after.

We were just roaming around but ended up in a Noel Carnival that was to end on Jan 6! Of course it was just for kids, but it was nice to see something happening on a DEAD Sunday where most shops were closed.

We also discovered a flea market and we definitely will go back again on a Saturday morning.

Then we just randomly turned and kept walking until we were facing the sea again. There were yachts and castles. The sky was painted in watercolors, rosy pink blue purple all fused together. How can I EVER get tire of this?

Then I tripped… too concentrated on admiring the beauty of the sky; I completely ignored the blockage right in front of me. OUCH >.< My knees are blue now hahaha but at least I did not fall down so it’s all good.

Note to self: try to be less clumsy I beg you… those eyes you have are also for looking out for danger and not just admiring lovely things!

It was already dark at 5:30 so we had to go home and cook dinner. Nights were still very cold despite the warm mornings. We had chopped potatoes, carrots and onions with beef kind of stew and rice cooked by our beloved roommate. It was delicious though I was still only 70% full. At least I was having a healthy diet. May be I will just get a banana and sleep early. Somehow we are not doing much but I am tired at night nonetheless. I planned to wake up earlier to run but the sky is still pitch dark at 7:30 so what choices do I have? OR may be it is a matter of determination?

Tomorrow off to school again and do grown up things like opening bank account and doing residence permit.

Wish me luck!

Jan 6 8:55 PM

A magical place

First week in France is almost over! We finally found a supermarket in Antibes where we can buy food, and we spent around 35 Euros for groceries, meat and chocolat powder. We can now have mashed potato, carbonara or bolognese pasta or hamburger or rice with tomatoes or carrots or eggs and stuff (YES I am trying to eat carrots although I still think they should just be for rabbits…) for 2 weeks.

We settled bus pass and collated all potential bus maps that we might need. Then today we were out for Biot! It’s a town nearby and it’s famous for the making of glass; they said that the perfume bottles from Grasse and oil bottles from Provence are all made in Biot.

We got off like 8 stations early and walked for 45 minutes extra before actually arriving a tourist spot. We walked along highways but luckily, did not get run over.

There were a lot of absolutely gorgeous houses along the way and I thought perhaps one day I can afford one. (I checked! They are only 300,000 Euros!)

I would wake up to a small balcony with elegantly designed black rails and white elongated windows; where sunlight floods into my room and glistens upon my white sheets and fluffy pillows. I would get up and make tea in pretty chinas and have scones with homemade jam and fresh cream for breakfast. I would be reading a fascinating book with small dog Marshy on my lap and patting Mallow the big white dog….Well, enough dreaming. Moving on.

We finally found the first stop, la Verrerie de Biot, where they make glass. It’s unlike the States where everything is purely for presentation and showing off. The 4 old man were working on their respective masterpiece (some makes candle stands and some does wine glasses) in a relaxed but steady pace. They were very absorbed in what they were handling and completely ignored the people surrounding their workstation. It was warm and you could smell the burning of glass. Then we looked at the glassy artwork around it and headed off to our next stop, Biot Vieux Village.

The bus driver said Ni Hao to us and then we arrived the escalated Village. Quoting my roommate from Mexico, the place was just like the town Beauty and the Beast was based on. There were yellow and cream colored houses; outdoor ice-skating rink made with wooden fences; small cafes with petite tables and chairs and small fountains. Oh and there were many mini coopers and alfa romeos.

There was magic in the village. The air was cold but the town warmed my heart. The twinkling lights were glittering and glowing in my eyes. My mind was drunk with the charm of Biot vieux village and all my troubles vanished into the winding alleys.

Jan 5 22:34 pm