Dita - tout simplement

It's been ages.

2008-08-29T02:51:00.002+02:00

Ta..daa....!!!! yea i know! it's me!!!

this is a preview. bare with me for a real post coming (quite soon, i guess).

Send me your energy and courage for this long weekend coming, I've gotta finish my thesis and stay up ALL NITE!

Oh btw, I'm in KL, Malaysia now for those of u who dont know (and maybe dont wanna know) doing my internship until 30th sept. And this is like the 1st time im actually enjoying my training!

Ok, see ya around!

2008-04-10T18:42:00.003+02:00

C'EST FINIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PUTAIN.........J'Y CROIS PAS......MAIS.......CETTE FOIS CI, C'EST VRAIMEEENNTT FINIIIII!!!!!!!

C'est le dernier jour de nos partiels aujourd'hui. J'en ai chier pendant 4 jours, meme, pendant 2 ans d'aller en cours tous les jours, de faire tous les dossiers, d'ecrire pour les partiels.......etc. Mais aucun regret!!! AUCUN! J'ai toujours essayer de me convaicre que tout ca etait pour mon bien! Et la.....ladies and gentleman.......Ca y'est!!! Je n'ai plus de cours, plus de dossier a rendre, meme si le stage m'attend en Malaisie......mais bon c'est autre chose!! haha!

Ce soir, nous avons un dernier diner, payer par le CETIA. Je n'arrive pas a croire que c'est la derniere fois que je vois avec mes camarades de classe. C'est dingue!!

***************************c'est le temps de tourner la page ************************************

J'ai la tete vide

2008-03-18T18:23:00.006+01:00

What can I blog about?? The past weeks had been unintentionally unexciting.

I am still obidiently attending classes day after day. The weather still sickeningly cold despite the month of April is almost around the corner.

I am reading The Historian at the moment. This book has surely made me dreaming about eastern Europe all the way to Istanbul, Turkey. Our decision not to travel further to the east has left me all sad and uninspired. But we had to make a choice. We know very well that we will be needing the money as soon as we land in KL. A lot of money.

The ending is coming soon. One of the things i'm looking forward to is the annual gala! This time the theme is les annees 30, the 30's!! How am I supposed to dress up in something illustrating the era from 80 years ago!! I dont care, im going! this is the last time that we are all gonna boogy all nite long with free-flow toxicating drinks and drunken classmates!! What more can you ask for!

I'm looking forward to the road trip to Spain too with Pierre-Louis' parents. If everythng goes well, that is. Nothing is sure yet.

In front of Museum d'Histoire Naturelle

Some random dog poopoo nicely located

Farewell lunch for Bapak Konjen in Marseille

What we cooked for Soiree Asiatique. Soto Ayam a la Indofood

And finally, this is the view from my front door. Showing the small lively quartier of my neighborhood.

Winter...winter...go away!

2008-03-06T18:39:00.002+01:00

Come again another day....
Little Dita wants to play....
Winter on the green grass..
And winter on the tree...
Winter on a house top...
But not on me!

This post will definitely be depressing especially after what you've read on the post below.

The cold is back! Together with its chilling-to-the-bone winds and its ice rains!!
The weather has gone completely mad! and guess who else has gone completely mad too!!

ME!! ME!! and ME!!!

With 0-5 degrees outside doesn't help building my mood which has already been crashing since the past few days due to shitty group works.

**I dont stop staring at the calender, marking 27 April with colorful pens**
**Some girls can be just plain stupid eventhough they are 25 years old**
**Pierre-Louis' b-day is tomorrow and he's turning 24**

Warm February

2008-02-24T10:12:00.005+01:00

One of the things i love about Toulouse is the fact that it's 20 degrees outside in February! In the afternoon off course. But still! Well, it could be an effect of global warming or other temperature-is-rising theories. Why don't enjoy what we have today, rite?

More over, it was the weekend. So Evelyn, Pierre-Louis and I decided to enjoy the day to the max. We had lunch under the sunshine, in front of a beautiful church. It would have been a perfect picnic if we weren't shooed away by this cleaning service ppl. No worries, cuz we haf just finished our pizzas and soon left the spot and continued walking around the city.

This is what I'm gonna miss from France. Being able to walk around the small streets and admiring the architecture, picnicking in the park, or just simply sipping a glass of fruit juice on the terrace when the weather is friendly is really a bless. Sigh....

Anyway, back to the story.
Around 3pm, we were busy looking for bakery shop to buy some cakes for tea time! haha, we eat a lot I know. Since the salon de the was full of people and we couldn't find any empty seats, so we decided to buy some take aways cakes.

watching sunset over La Garonne

Sitting on the river banks enjoying our cakes with a bottle of cold Desperados was out of this world! We bumped into few people we know who apparently wouldn't wanna miss the warmth too. Looking at ppl jogging, cycling, walking their dogs, playing with their babies, playing guitars and singing, drinking beer with friends...

It's 1 am

2008-02-22T01:09:00.003+01:00

and I'm still up.

I had a great weekend. We spent 2 days in Marseille in South of France. Pictures can be seen on my facebook or friendster. It was great fun meeting Dessi and Evelyn again. We were lucky to have been welcomed to this young diplomat's, Mbak Dini, apartment to spend the nite. Saved us big bucks, man!

I think Marseille has great tourist attractions. Beautiful coast along the city, gigantic castles,cathedral up on the hill, etc. The low point is the dirtiness of the city. Garbage is everywhere. Streets are filled with graffities, not state-of-the-art graffities mind you. People "don't speak" french.

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Tuesday night pierre-louis, evelyn and I attended this free concert of Orchestra of Toulouse. It was not an amazing show, there were interesting classical pieces and some boring ones that made us dozing off. But it cured my longing for some classical music. How i miss playing my piano.

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I can feel my body switching off. It's rejecting lotsa things. I feel tired. Mentally and physically. And I don't think this coming full-week holidays will do any good. I have no idea what I need at the moment to boost my energy nor do I know what I want. It's annoying. I'm annoying. Everybody's around me is annoying.

2008-02-14T19:32:00.003+01:00

I know I know it's the day to celebrate L-O-V-E........ we're not doing anything. We have never done anything on this very day and we will never do anything on the same date next year and even gazillion years coming.

"What did he give you? Are you guys going for dinner tonite? Did u buy him a gift?"

"Huh? Gift? For what?"

".........................."

"Oh! for V day, oh im sure he dont even know what today's fuss is all about. Aaaah...no wonder i saw ppl carrying bouquets of flowers on the street."

talk abt flowers, why dont men just offer their women a hot, steamy, long episode in bed.
I'd love that...

Alhamdulillah.....

2008-02-12T18:52:00.000+01:00

I mean it. I really mean my gratefulness.

The results of 1st semester exams have been put up on the board. And I did, if I could say, quite well!!! I passed almost all subjects except, well same old same old, Law. However I scored 2 points higher than last year, I obtained 8/20 this year! Yeeyy!!!
And another one was Informatique, I got 9.50/20, hey i AM bad at this department.

So, voila! The rest were just fine. Not outstandingly excellent. But enough to make my day and to pop up the Bottle!. After all, all I can say is Alhamdulillah...

The bad news is...

I noticed that I am getting bitter. I complain a lot. I am sick of group works. I am losing patience. Everything is just wrong these days.
What does it mean???

Well, I am becoming french!!!! Oh mon dieu!

No offence to all the french out there, and don't get me wrong. French people are nice at some point, but you guys know very well that what I am becoming at the moment describes perfectly a typical french.

Aren't I right??

See! told ya it's time for me to go back. At least for the time being.

Atas rekues dari bu presiden Dita

2008-02-05T16:14:00.000+01:00

Saya persembahkan tim ski dan tari dari sanggar Toulouse ceria! hihi!

Sebelum pentas, foto2 dulu sama penari2 Pacifica

Ini lah teleski yg gue jatoh2 mulu, harus nya bisa berdiri gitu lho!

Neng Wida begaya sama ski, yang penting gaya ya Wid!

PPI toulouse dan org2 laen ga penting sedang ice skating

Pak Tri yg, ga di kelas, di ice skating, tampang nya seriuuuuussss......lg konsen

Hari pertama ski, abis siap2 pake sepatu dan siap2 gotong ski yg bueeraat mampus!

p.s: Foto2 laen dapat dilihat di facebook gue. okeh!

Hidup PPI Toulouse!!!! PEKIIIIK!!!

My bruises tell

2008-02-04T19:46:00.000+01:00

that I had fun going to ski trip!!!!

Photos will be upload much later since everybody has some and I didn't take that many cuz I was too busy balancing myself and concentrating how to slide gracefully.

I didn't fall that much, except the time when I had to take the teleski on which we should grip the pole, keep our ski parallel, stand up and relax and let the teleski climb you up the mountain. Well, it's not as easy as it sounds. at least for me. I fell 3 times just 3 seconds on it. How embarassing. And now I hurt my knees and my butt.

oh well oh well, but hey I had a blaassst!!!! It was the coolest thing ever to slide down the snow, turning left and right, the sensation of looking down the hill and trying to slow down.
Oh and not forgetting the gorgeous ski trainers!! So cute and hot in those ski suits.

Eeni meeni, mynie mooh.....

2008-01-30T18:29:00.000+01:00

I wish it would be that simple to make a decision. Dancing your fingers around the object and pick the pointed one.

I'm facing the time where I have to make a choice. Out of ALL things I favour, I gotta choose ONE. The fact that ALL CHOICES come calling me at once and the fact that ALL CHOICES smell like roses, doesnt make it any easier.

Oh hey, did u notice? I am actually G-R-O-W-I-N-G U-P

Look at that.... even most probably growing old.

I am all excited and nervous at the same time.

Image taken from http://pro.corbis.com

Good bussiness?

2008-01-27T11:25:00.000+01:00

Or not good bussiness?? Honestly, I didn't really care as long as I got rid of my books and not having to pack them and bring them all the way back to Malaysia and over weight my baggage.

I sold my novels, about 15 of them, including my Harry Potter's series, it was really heart breaking but still I had to do it. They made me a deal of 35euros in cash. Well. not too bad. We made a good use out of that money. Especially at this time when we need to spend for miscelleneaous stuff upon leaving.

Next items: Our furniture.

A vendre
une table basse
une petite table
deux etagers
deux chaises

Prix negociable.

Inhumanity

2008-01-24T18:21:00.000+01:00

That's rite, I call it inhumanity! They are soooo inhuman! stone heart! robot! grumble grumble grumble ^$&^#*(#!

After one whole week of continuous exams and presentations, what did we get??? one whole week of class of course and another group projects to do!!! Allez op, on reprends tout de suite! LIKE, HEYLOOOWW!!! OHMAAIGAAWWD!!!

time to rest....NOOOO..... time to recharge.....IN YOUR DREAM... mini break to watch grey's anatomy or play Zelda.....NOT IN A MILLION YEARS....

I thot I would have some time off post exams. Even our last weekend was booked to work on our sociology project, that was the weekend just after exams. really, im serious.

And now, we have to start preparing for our departure, if everything goes well, Insya Allah we will be in Malaysia in May.

The long list is waiting for us. There's my back account to be closed, our internet connection to be cut, our notice for the apartment to get our deposit back, our furniture and my books to be sold, my plane tickets to be booked...

And one more thing, our last europe trip to be organized!

Gosh....I really think it's time for me to go home...I'm crackin' up!

Dika (4th frm the right) and Bang Kadar (2nd from the left) have left. We are shrinking in number. So sad, too bad, not glad...

After clicking here and there......

2008-01-20T21:34:00.000+01:00

Check out my new template y'all!!!!

Woo hoo.....

Updates are coming soon, stay tune people!!

(Don't I sound like there is a crowd out there reading my blog and longing for some updates, oh how pathetic)

Amsterdam di Belanda

2008-01-09T22:00:00.000+01:00

I'm squeezing between my study hours (**ehem..**ehem**) to update this blog. So I hope you read it! So, read it!

Arrived in Amstel bus station in amsterdam at 6am after 6 hours of bus ride from Paris. Some reviews about Eurolines (the bus company we took)...their coach was not too comfy, leg rooms were not spacious enuff, the whole journey the driver didn't turn off the interior light which costed me bad sleep!! $%#!&^$*&^!!!! and there were ths 3 vietnamese friends who kept on talking the whole nite (no racism intended here, just amazement to the fact that they could keep yakking the nite away).

Upon arrival, we were searching for sumthg to eat and a cuppa coffee. nada! nil! zero! enol! So we waited till 7 at the station for cafe to open and the sun to wake up. And guess wat we ate for breakfast...a cuppa coffee and some croissant from "C'est du pain" so much for dutch adventure, huh...

Anyway, we started moving from the station at around 8am, outside still dark, no sign of any drop of sunshine. And BLOODY COOOOOLLDD!!!! FREEEEZZIIIINNGGG!!! like fridge freezing!

First thing's first: Tourist office. Got ourselves a map and a "I AmSterdam" card inclusive of transports, a whole list of free museums and entrance fees discounts, discounts in cafe, resto and such. We started walking in the cold (it was about -2 degrees outside, it's nothing for winter but hey i am a hot-blooded asian woman) and admiring the city with its pretty architectures, cute small shops, some food chain that dont exist in France.

First visit: Madame Tussaud. Quite expensive, we paid 15 euros after discount. The wax statues were quite disappointing and to make things worse they've got this Pirates of Carribean section where the concept is similar to Haunted House. There were people scaring the shit out of you, some scarry puppets with bloods and eyes coming out and all.... gosh...i hate that...i am a chicken for that!

I took pictures with bob marley, President of China, spice girls and the rest which i forgot cuz they didnt impress me. One of the worst wax made was Oprah Winfrey!!! like HELO! why her! She's like my heeeyroooww.....!!!

oh, and pierre-louis touched J-Lo's ass which gave a loud disgusting fart! Cracked me up man! haha...

Then we continued our visit, we had second breakfast at Mcd where pierre-louis tried McKroket. Not bad. Exploring the small streets full of shops are always fun! that's one of my fave things in Europe. Being able to walk outside, at the same time enjoying the glass windows of shops nicely decorated without having to go inside a mall.

We had lunch in this big chinese resto (Amsterdam's full of good asian food, indo resto are quite numerous) that Hera brought us to. The food was delishhheeeouuss..... we were bloated with noodle and peking duck...yum! Sadly, I didn't spend much time with my cuzin Hera cuz one thing or another... Kinda regreted it now.

With Hera, my cousin who's studying in the Netherland

The visit continued in Rijkmuseum where they have some masterpieces from famous artists such as Rembrandt, and whose name I forgot once I exit the door :) But I really enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum. I enjoyed his art, I enjoyed his story. I would like to have one of these at my home later...

Olive Trees

Almond branches in bloom

they are just so pretty....(imagining them hanging on my future living room)

Rijkmuseum

We visited Anne Frank House too. Too bad I haven't read the book cuz even without reading it you can feel the fear and the uncomfort of the 8 people in hiding, living in worry all the time at the back of a jam factory. It was really a memorable visit. I have no photos since it's not allowed inside.

The highlight of Amsterdam is done. other than that, I really enjoyed the pastry, the waffels, the kroket, the asian food...

and I went inside a "coffeeshop" where they sell joints. Everywhere smells like marijuana cuz people are just smoking it all the time, not on the streets though. We took a look at the Red Light district where women are selling themselves behind the glass window. they look like mannequins parading the latest fashion except that they are real girls in bikini, smoking, waving at u and showing off their best "assets" ! Yikes!

These girls are sure costly, if your budget is a bit restrained, why dont you walk down the small streets where you can find much less attractive women in tights, shorts and half-covered breasts BUT much fatter, bad make up, bad choice of clothes, big thighs, big arms, and all you CAN'T imagine :)

Oh yeah! It snowed for one night! it was magical! i loved it I was soooo excited (kampungan...biasa....)

There you go! One more city I visited. Oh how glad I am... five or six more to go.. Haha! Hope this upcoming sales wont dry up my traveling budget of 2008!

The rest of the photos are in my facebook

2008-01-06T10:46:00.000+01:00

I'm gonna have to update on Amsterdam trip...

Soon, very soon..

Tiny update for now..

2007-12-30T20:38:00.000+01:00

Heylow peeps!!! Hope you've had a verry merry x'mas and a blasting new year party tomorrow night!

I spent xmas just like last year in Pierre-Louis' parents' house in Tours. We had a long, elaborated dinner. This year menu was seafood, so we had prawns marinated in smoked tea which tasted absolutely divine! then we had scallop too in a pretty little glass, this one tasted very good but I didn't really like layer beneath it that brought out strong flavour of daun bawang.

OK! I'm gonna stop now describing our xmas dinner. It will do better with pictures rite! Well, knt do it now, I have all the pics on my camera but I didn't have the usb cable with me. So, gotta be patient y'all!!!

I have been spending holidays here, at the house. Most of the time I do my assignment and studied a little bit for semester exams which are coming in about 3 weeks time!!!

But hold on there, I still have one more thing to look forward to...AMSTERDAM! yeap, im going on wednesday. Stay for 2 days and at the same time I get to see my long-time-never-see little cousin.

Homesick attacked me few times...

Okay peeps, until then! stay tuned for our xmas photos and winter holidays.

HAPPY FATTY HOLIDAYS!

2007-12-22T23:46:00.000+01:00

Ca y'est! Je suis en vacances!

But students will always be students rite....... with piling homeworks and never-ending assignments.
At least we are going to enjoy our Christmas dinner in Tours and continue our so-called holidays facing our laptop screens.

**log off from facebook, friendster and such!!**

Mark yesterday's date!!!!

2007-12-16T12:03:00.000+01:00

Because Pierre-Louis went shopping!!!! Yessss u got that rite!! S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G!!! As in, going into shops, trying on things and finally paying for them!!!

It's huuuugggee people, HUGE!!!! (it could be a national day)

Ok. maybe some of you don't know what the hell im talking about... so, here's the story...

Pierre-Louis is one human species that has not been shopping; buying clothes, shoes and other guilty pleasure items i mean in yeaaarrssss....!!! He has 5 year old sweaters, socks, pants, you name it! He hates shopping, he hates trying on clothes and he is very verrryyyy picky for shoes, or even clothes for that matter. And he doesn't believe in consuming unnecessary things. Well, he hasnt gone extreme that he lives in a cave, heating up from a bonfire, somehow he is extreme that he refuses to throw his shapeless underwear (don't worry it still can keep his down-there intacts) , i-can-see-his-toes socks, and his sweaters that has few threads of wool coming out already....

OK! You get the picture rite....long story shorts.....

Yesterday he decided that his old suit is not stunning anymore! He needs to look stunning for his upcoming interview this tuesday. He needs a i'm-gonna-bring-money-to-you-so-hire-me suit! So off we went at saturday moring 10.30 am for suit hunting, white shirt hunting and shoes hunting!

He found THE suit at Zara. I'm loving it too! He does look...well, stunning (subjective opinion coming from me!)

But the shoes searching was oh-so-tiring...... he did find a pair that pleases him (after 3 hours of going in and out of shops), but guess what! no size! "come back next week, ok...." the shop lady said.

Guess he has to sick with his old black shoes for now.

Pray for him so he will get that job and everything will Insya Allah goes well from there...

Number 100

2007-12-09T01:20:00.000+01:00

marks my 100th post!!!

That's right! I've written 100 precious, time-consuming, brain-draining posts!!!!

I've put up THIS long! dedication baby....dedication.....

Everyone MUST read this!

2007-12-06T22:43:00.001+01:00

MY X'MAS WISH LIST:

it's not like I celebrate christmas (no, I have not turned direction) it's just I love making what-I-want list and I dont reject any x'mas gifts :)

1. New sweaters...lots of it! I have my eyes on few pretty sweaters from Mango.

2. Books

3. New haircut (getting it soon)

4. A pair of jeans

5. winter coat

6. Nintendo DS and its games

7. Nintendo Wii

8. A pair of glasses

9. shorts for Gym

10. Jalan jalan ke Bandung, Bali, KL, Maldives...

Fatigue

2007-12-06T22:14:00.000+01:00

I went to gym last nite after being absent since last friday. Gosh! My muscles ached after a session of BodyPump.

Today was a long day spent in a classroom doing a project of Sociology du Developpement. From 9.30-16.00 we sat in front of our screen, thinking and typing our grille d'entretien and analyses d'entretien. I am gonna puke panini!

I still have 45000 things to do. I am moving forward, but slowly....not necessarily surely...

My mum sms me "Hey! We are in Bandung with tante nde, gallivanting in Paris Van Java mall!"

great....just great..... @%#$@$^&@#%$%!!!!!!!

I denied to be conquered by instant depression, solution: red cute CHEAP scarf from Zara Kids!!! Only 9.90 euros but oh-so -cuuuteeee...!!

PPI Perancis 2007

2007-12-03T17:28:00.000+01:00

Hope you had a great weekend, cuz I did! Tiring but great!

As i said on previous post, I spent my weekend in Paris to attend the assembly of PPI Perancis 2007.

So the five of us (Dika, Stephan, Bang Kadar, Pak Trides and I) left on Friday night, almost saturday morning (12am) from Toulouse train station: Matabiau.

On board we were so impatient to check out our compartment (we get to sleep on small beds) only finding that our compartment door was locked! Mister train only opened it up even after the train left. It was not all, our beds were not equiped with blankets, no pillows, no extra small boxes whereby we could find a pair of useful ear plugs, two candies to regulate morning breath :( , adn what else I couldn't remember.

After taking about 20 minutes to actually settle down complete with our blankets and yada yada, we fell asleep so save and sound.....zzzz....

We reached Paris at 7.30 am saturday morning. There was Rida who picked us up from Paris Montparnasse to bring us straight to KBRI (Indonesian Embassy) to have breakfast and start the meeting.

waiting for our compartment to be unlocked. Ya foto foto doooonk!!!

I was dead tired but excited at the same time, knowing that soon I was gonna meet a lot of people and was sure enough to eat good food until tomorrow!! Haha!

On the way to the Embassy. 7 Hours of bad sleep made no effects on our smile!

Nothing much on the meeting. We discussed many details on the rules and regulations, on voting rights, on president candidature, etc. It was a very long and tiring process to elaborate one by one. But at least now I know how it all goes and I learnt a lot about organisation.

Break time and lunch time were my favourites throughout the whole program. Besides getting to eat good Indo food, I got the chance to widen my networking. Never have I imagined meeting these people in France, and I kinda regret the fact that it was only now that I met them. It would have been lovely to bond earlier, rite!
These Indonesian scholars are spread out in the whole France, lotsa them study in La Rochelle, Lyon and Marseille and most of them are BGF receivers (Bourse du Gouvernement Francais = French Government Scholarship)

We left Paris reluctantly. Personally, I wasn't ready at all to leave, I wanted to spend more time with these people. Don't I sound clingy and desperate..... ?? I wasn't, really. It's just that I had the feeling being at home surrounded by these people, being on Indonesian "land", chatting away, laughing away in a language that I was born and very comfortable with... There was this sense of belonging that I have lost for quite some time which I was starting to get cosy with. It felt so different being a foreigner in a land so far away from home than being one in Malaysia.

p.s: Our embassy is huuugeee!!!! and guess who's our neighbour? Mr. Eiffel!!!

Posing with puppets with traditional costumes from Sumatra

2007-11-30T16:56:00.000+01:00

So, after 2 weeks of strike in my Uni, we have commenced the class again. Hardly two weeks later, it was blocked again! So we enjoyed tuesday and wednesday off last week.

I am going to Paris tonight to attend the General Assembly of PPI (Persatuan Pelajar Indonesia or Indonesian Student Association) Perancis. It could be very interesting to see how it all goes (voting for the Chairman, regulate the PPI laws, and all the blah blahs...)and of course, to meet fellow indonesians too!

I am gonna stuff myself up with KFC and Starbucks while im in Paris. Yea....toulouse is saaaaad....

So, have a great weekend people!! I hope i will, i deserve it after one shitty week!

Ciao et Bisous!

2007-11-16T11:15:00.000+01:00

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DONT JUDGE ME OF MY LACKING OF MORE USEFUL ACTIVITIES, AS LONG AS THE STRIKE GOING ON I'LL BE SITTING AROUND AT HOME, SUFFERING FROM THE COLD OUTSIDE AND LOVING MY LAPTOP not for academic homework ;)

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My beloved southpark and I

2007-11-16T10:43:00.000+01:00

He has pale skin, due to lack of sunlight at this time of the year. He always puts on his green/blue winter hat everytime he goes out, his warm scarf and black winter coat (could not found black winter coat). I added a teflon pan because of his love to cooking.
And I present you......ME!!! doesnt she look like me? curly, messy hair, light brown complexion, but no i dont put santa's hat when I go out, Im just feeling all...christmas-y.... And by this time of the year, Im very loyal to my brown winter coat, scarf and red gloves.

I put that smile, cuz I have nice teeth!!! huhuhuhu.....

Our Simpsons avatar!!!!!

A very very long weekend....

2007-11-11T09:31:00.000+01:00

It's not because french academic calendar is so generous that we had a very long weekend, as in from monday-sunday, it's because there was a student strike this week that we had no choice but cancel all the classes due to the gates, classroom doors were locked and blocked by tables and chairs. The reason why the had a strike....well, I dont feel like telling the whole story all over again maybe you can just google it or sumthg. I'm not a good blogger, eh?

So, what did I do to fill in my days....??? No class, lotsa projects, long list of to-do things.... should make an easy equation rite: lotsa time + lots to do = perfect!

But nooooo..... I am still procrastinating cuz this is wat Im good at! Im making the most of my off days lazing around...

I did some research for my training placement next year, I sent my CV thru Internet to some organizations, I hope one of them is a goal.

I did some reading here and there for my projects out of guilt!

Pierre-Louis also spent his time making Kueh Sus, or Choux in french for me!!!!! It was not bad at all or maybe it was just because I was really craving for it the whole week that I was getting annoying...

The Choux turned out delicious!

my favourite chef

Last saturday, we were invited to a housewarming party in Mbak Ary and family's house who just moved in town from Germany. So this family is quite unique...in the sense of the father was born in Germany from Indo-German parents, the mother is pure Javanese, the children look like typical Indo children but they DONT speak Indo at all!! the children I mean... Ok, they have grown up in Germany, been going to German school and they have German nationality and all....but dont you think it's a bit sad that they only speak a little bit of Indo?

home made Bakso, enaaaak....

Ada nasi tumpeng segala

The host

Student gang, ibu2 called us

Cake cutting class

We stayed like this for like....10 minutes. Everybody wants to take a picture from their own camera. Men were the victims.

Anyway leave that to my personal opinio. The lunch was greaaaatt!!!!! food spread was more than enough, taste was delicious, companies were nothing but noisy bunch of Indo women (remind me of my Mum's gang in Kuching) cracking jokes all the time until my stomach ache due to laughing too much. And I ate too much too. But the dessert...nothing to shout out about except the poppy seed cake and the caramel pudding which reminded me of home.

Saturday evening after the lunch party, my friends and I decided to go to Capitole to see the events of Festa Tolosa which started out great with lotsa small bands playing spanish, african, hiphop music, but getting boring towards the middle. So we left the venue and headed home unsatisfied and could not be bother to stay until 10pm for the so-called Hiphop dance battle (blegh!) since Pierre-Louis' foot getting sore (he fell down during gym, did I mention it?).

It's getting cold here....

2007-10-29T18:21:00.000+01:00

Yes! Autumn is here. The smell of cold has arrived. And I'm coooold....!!!!

No, im exaggerating a bit. It's not that cold yet. It has been a warm october and I hope it's gonna be the same for November.

No plan yet for Xmas holidays, maybe this year we will have the chance to go skiing. Finger crossed.

So far I have been quite happy with my time table for Master 2. Classes are in reasonable amount of hours. I have got enough free time as much as "learning" time (yea rite!)

The weekend was spent nicely. On saturday, I dragged Pierre-Louis to go to the gym with me to try "step" since there was a free try out for everyone. He was having a laugh of his life instead of working out. So was I!

He started laughing when the instructor came into the room. He was this cute bubbly gay guy with white trainings from head to toe. And he's so funny!

He kept laughing (pierre-louis i mean) when we started warming up, and finally he got lost with the coreography. It was fun for me, annoying for him.

On sunday, I met up with Evelyn who came down to Toulouse from Grenoble. It was fun to see her again. She decided to came by my house, then we headed to a salon de the to have delicious tea and cake. One of my favorite things to do in Toulouse. We had a good laugh, shared good stories, and more good laugh.

I didn;t take any pictures of pierre-louis in the gym, but I have some from our afternoon tea!

Lebaran di sini

2007-10-21T09:43:00.000+02:00

I haven't posted anything about Hari Raya here in Toulouse. Anyway, this is will no-pictures post because I didnt bring my camera over that day. There are some pictures but I have to link it to somebody's multiply page.

Last day of puasa usually full of meaning, we have won one full month of "resisting" hawa nafsu of any man can imagine and if we have been doing extra ibadah, we know in this holy month of Ramadhan we would be full of blessing from Allah SWT.
I miss listening to the loud and beautifully sang takbir from the nearest mosque and I miss the joy, I miss getting staying late at nite one week before Lebaran preparing cookies with my mom in the messy kitchen. Waking up in the morning of Lebaran getting ready to go to the mosque to pray with the whole family and meeting those familiar faces on the way and start to ask for forgiveness and bersalam-salaman.

What I really miss is the Lebaran feast and buffet spread at my grandparents' house and our "forgiving" session which includes sungkeman (when my parents and grandparents sat on the couch and us, the children and grandchildren will take turn down on our knees and ask for forgiveness from them). Everybody will cry at this moment.

* me stop dreaming* Here in Toulouse, I didn't go to the mosque because I didn't feel like going alone. But we were invited to a open house at Bu Ninik's place, like usual. Hehe... (she's so kind...) I had a great time, almost everyone was there. My indo gang (we had to walk from the bus stop to the house for like 15 min. in my heels!!), the indo women, their french husbands and their noisy children. Very very merry....

Food was great, there was ketupat of course, gulai kambing, lontong sayur, es cendol!!!, and the rest that I could not remember cus I ate so much I just started grabbing everything.
There was even bottles of wine!! Haha...... no, I didn't drink any.

A day well spent. Eventhough nothing compares to celebrating Lebaran with your beloved family, but hey, I couldn't complain this time.

Long overdue posts

2007-10-01T13:07:00.000+02:00

I have been wanting to blog about our trip to Stockholm, but gotten soooo lazy. Plus, we were busy cleaning up apartment, walking around in Toulouse, cooking for buka puasa (okay, im not THAT busy for this one), you know......useless stuff.

The old town with interesting architecture

Me eating my banana, we always packed our own lunch and eat it in the park

So yea...Stockholm. It was cold *d'uh*, pretty, clean, and the best is everybody speaks english!! Thank God for that because we were worried for not bringing swedish dictionary along. As you can see, we pretty much survived the daily life there.

Museum...something....forgot. Not a museum person I am.

In front of Royal Palace

Ryan Air was good. No delay no nothing, just a standard low cost airline. Somehow, eventhough we paid our tikets for 1 cent (42euro after tax), we had to spend for airport shuttle in Paris and in Stockholm, which came about 50 euros each. Huh!

Stockholm

Hotel was cute, an ancient boat abra kadabra-ed into a hotel located in waterfront facing the City Hall. Really lovely, except the part that they do not provide bed sheet! yea, laugh all u like... lucky we knew about it and brought our own. We are soooo not gonna pay 6 extra euros for stupid bed sheet.

Our hotel

Spent first day of course exploring the city which is made of 14 islands, so there are bridges everywhere. We even joined the boat tour together with all Chinese middle age tourists.

Cyclists are fierce!! They are serious when they ring those bells, means move away from the bicycle lane if you love your life.

However, everything is sooo expensive. Well, not much different from France but kinda confusing since they don't use Euros. We ate lotsa salmon and fish-like dish, one very good salad bought in the local market, tried the local pastries which did not deserve any shout out, even the coffees tasted weird.

Okay, back to the happy stuff. All in all it was a great getaway. I've always wanted to go to one of the skandinavian countries. There were definitely lotsa pine trees and cute-looking red houses on river banks on the way to the airport, lotsa blond people too. But the highlight of the trip was the ICEBAR!!! That was cool, literally. Everything made of ice, the bar, the table, the glasses, the wall, the floor, except the bar ladies. And we had to put this silvery-millenium eskimo outfit to fight the cold inside, since it's gotta be 0 degrees.

The ICEBAR!!!! And its curious bartender. That is pyramid of glasses.

Ice table

I was craving for hot dogs sold in those street hawkers like on TV, but booo hoooo, they are all made of pork. So there! I had kebab instead.sigh.....

******************************************

On different subject. Ifa finally made her way to Paris. Our meet was short and brief. She was tired and jet-lagging from the flight. She did not look so enthusiastic seeing Paris, quoting her "so this is Louvre museum, hmm ok, just another building" or "if your apartment is nearby I will be taking a nap or watching dvds" while visiting Eiffel Tower, mind you. Hehe.

I was not so sure whether she was tired or because she's just the kind of person who is not easlily impressed by something, or maybe she is just not a traveller....i dunno.

And we noticed (pierre-louis and I) that people do change with time and circumstances. Maybe we expected things to still be the same as in college 3 years ago. I guess we were wrong. As us, we have been through so many things here in France as well as Ifa in Maldives, I guess our lives have evolved so greatly that we did not realize it has changed us too. Let me just say that things are definitely not the same anymore. I could feel it from our conversation and behaviour, perhaps.

It was lovely seeing her, of course. But we should have expected the unexpected. And I am wondering now since Cecilia is sooo eager to come here, and we are both definitely sooo looking forward to meet each other, i miss her so much. Are things different now between us, has she changed, will she think I have changed, will we be close as we used to be. So many questions linger in my head about our friendship.

Let's just wait and see.

I am going back to class in 2 freaking days!!!!!!!!

Back to france

2007-09-23T15:36:00.000+02:00

Yeap, we are back from 3 days trip to Stockholm, Sweden.

More on that later, now got loads to do.

******

My dear Ifa is coming tomorroooooowwwww!!!!!!! OH MY GOOOSSSHH!!! bad news is that she's only staying for one day in Paris, cuz she's gotta event to attend to in Deauville. But what the heck, we are meeting up anyway!!! Woo hooooo!!! it's been.....2-3 years???

Buka puasa

2007-09-15T18:44:00.000+02:00

First day of Ramadhan passed by so sadly, besides being home alone in Paris because Pierre Louis had a dinner with his colleagues, which I refused to go to, as well because this is the second Ramadhan that I am away from home and I'm reaaalllyyy longing for buka puasa with family eating my mum's five-star quality cooking.

So, I just made myself some pasta for dinner and some fried potatoes for the break fast. Sad sad.....yea i know....

BUT!!! The second day, we spent the whole day in Paris, discovering new streets and districts, trying out Velib (bicycle rent provided by Paris' town hall) and went to Place de la Bastille and Jardin des Plantes. We were soooo tired, imagine without drinking and eating, lucky the weather was just nice and friendly.

Velib rental and parking. We press press and press on the provided machine to unlock the bicycle. First 30 min. is free. And you can find many Velib stations around Paris, so no problem in disposing the bike.

Us in Place de La Bastille. There was some tehcno parade going on, some kind of dance battle or sumthg. Which was lame though..

Jardin des Plantes

We decided to buy some Ispahan for buka puasa in Pierre Hermés shop and another tart made of capsicum and parmesan cheese and blue berries!!!!! ???????huh??? yea it did taste weird.

Pierre Hermés shop. It is beautiful and luxurious. And look at those pastry spread!! They are costly by the way.

This is Ispahan (the pink paste is crispy yet so soft, between there is generous amount of raspberries, litchi cream and some slices of the fruit), I fell in love the first time I tried it which was few years ago. And every time I'm in Paris, I definitely spend 6.50€ for one of these beauty...

So, we sat down in a park at 8 pm waiting for the time for buka puasa and galloped our beautiful little cakes like there's no tomorrow!!

It was heavenly........

I thought I was gonna die......

2007-09-12T10:14:00.000+02:00

No, seriously I really thot I was, I thot I would never see Pierre Louis again. Okay, it sounds a little bit exaggerated but you'll see...

The thing is, it happened last monday when I spent the whole day in Evelyn's apartment with Dessi, until she abandoned us that is...*ehemm ehemm*. We just, well....talked, lying on her bed, talk nonsense, cooked, ate, talked, it was a very productive day really... hee hee..

Time passed by, and my watch showed 18.30. Pierre-Louis called, we talked for a while and had to hung up 'cus the metro was making so much noise. Around 9pm, I tried calling him back to tell him that I was still at Evelyn's waiting for her to get ready to go to the train station.

I could not reach him, the phone was inactive so I thought he just fell asleep and forgot to recharge his phone.

When I reached home, I kept trying to call him like millions of time. Still no luck. So i left him messages that will make him soooo sorry and miserable for letting me worried so much. I was really really scared that something happened to him, like metro accident or sumthg or getting hit by a car........yea i was THAT worried, I mean come on, from 9pm to 1 am I wasz left blind-folded without knowing where he was and what was he doing.

I even called his parents to know if he called earlier, but nope.

And I could not call his uncle, whose apartment Pierre-Louis is staying in, cuz he's already in Corsica. And no, he doesn't haf fixed line. I even asked my parents to call, so my Dad did.

Usually it feels weird talking to to my Dad about boyfren-related matters, but I was scared to death this time, so I just broke down and cried telling him the whole story. As usual of course, he was so calm and relax that he told me to pray, sholat and baca Qur'an.

1 am, my phone rang!!!! And it was him!!!! So, I guess you guys know what happen next.... me, scolding him to the max. him, apologizing to the max too. But I could not have been happier.

Apparently, he fell asleep after taking down a panadol since he felt a bit unwell. However, his handphone was on and on loud-mode too. So I guess it's the fault of Orange (french mobile operator, like Maxis) who decided not to function properly that night!!! UUrrggghhh....!!!!

Well, what's past is past, now I'm in Paris enjoying the holidays with him. In few days, off we go to Stockholm!!!!

My first bouquet of flowers from a man.... really, seriously.

His expression of apology for making me worried. Isn't he just....adorable.....aaawwwwww....

Training ended, holidays started....

2007-08-31T14:07:00.000+02:00

12.15pm, left the office. Report done, all my jobs done, packed my stuff and left.
Woo hoooo...!!! c'est les vacances, enfin!

my training did not turn out too bad. Actually I did have fun during my training. I met very lovely people, specially Amalia, my boss who is a very nice woman indeed. She's funny, talkative, loves her cats to death, sometimes annoying but it's ok I still could handle it. We shared stories and gossips about the summer lecturers, about the students and of course about her cats.

Emotions: Happy, A bit sad and excited at the same time

Plans: Clubbing tonite, No idea for the rest of week until 11th Sept where I am leaving to Paris to see Pierre-Louis, except maximising my gym.

2nd plan: Off to Stockholm!!!!!! Insya Allah everything goes well.... i have been craving for this trip.

Been wanting to put up some pictures of my unofficial belated birthday party with "geng toulouse ceria" last weekend, but they are not in my camera.

The day I turned 23

2007-08-24T09:30:00.000+02:00

was very quiet and simple.

First of all, I was sick. The flu and cough attacked me.

All I wanted was to stay at home under the blanket and to eat hot steamy tom yum soup.

And that was what Pierre-Louis cooked for me, and he baked a brownie too.

We had our dinner, just the two of us with a bottle of champagne to create a festive mood :)

He got me a beautiful pretty watch and a pretty enveloppe with a "letter" inside.

Just like that, I turned 23.

Am expecting "more adult"-ish stuff to come up, we had already our heads stuffed with lotsa thoughts for the near future. Not easy, that's all I can tell for now.

Hours....Minutes...

2007-08-17T21:34:00.000+02:00

He's coming in five slow painful hours.........

After more than three weeks of slow painful waiting and of msn convo and of million hours of phone calls...

Sate, Gado2, Ayam Rica, Lamb Chop, Es Buah.........

2007-08-12T19:52:00.000+02:00

Sounds like a perfect Indonesian menu to me!!!

And that's what I had for lunch this afternoon. Yuummm......and yea, I did eat WAAYY TOO MUCH!!!

Bu Ninik, a so-called leader of Indonesian association in Toulouse invited us to have lunch at her lovely home this Sunday, in conjunction with departure of Mas Aloy. He's one of us, Indonesians who has completed his master and had to return to our beloved country.

The meal was great (which she cooked herself!!!), the home was beautiful, the companies were awesome. It was a great sunday afternoon indeed.

Started the day by attempting to "bakar sate". But in the end of course we were just yakking away while finishing the tit-bits (crackers, peanuts, coke, springrolls, etc.) leaving Pak Bernard alone grilling the sate with a HAIR DRYER!!! Ha Ha!!

Dasar tamu2 gak tau malu!! cuma tau makan!!!

Is it me...or...???

2007-08-10T15:54:00.000+02:00

Scene no. 1 : Thursday evening was walking back to the metro from the gym, with my MD on playing my favorite songs. Then there was this guy, nice looking, young (looking about 19-20 years old), wearing a black suit and a tie, stopped me suddenly....

Nice-looking guy (NLG) : Excusez-moi....etes-vous etudiante?

Me (still lost in my music, never thot anyone would talk to me since they should know I won't response, but this time, I did not know why I kud feel that someone is trying to talk to me, so I turned my head) : Mmm...oui.... (keeping distance)

NLG: Croyez-vouz au Dieu?

Me: ........................???????????????????????

NLG: Vous voulez croire que Dieu existe?

Me: .....................??????????????????? oui..............(silence).............je suis musulmane en faite...........

NLG: ah bon! vous venez d'ou?

Me: l'Indonesie

NLG: Wow....c'est un peu loin, ca.

Me: Non, c'est tres loin.

NLG: Comment sentez-vous.....(knt remember wat he said, but the point is, what do you feel abt God) ?

Me: Huh?..................je ne sais pas, ca va....

NLG: OK, mais pour moi, quand j'ai trouve Dieu, ca me rend bcp de bonheure.

Me: Ah...ok...mm... (smiling weirdly)

My phone rang... THAAANKK GOOOODD!!!!!! that's when I believe Allah loves me :) moreover when it was Pierre-Louis on the other end....

NLG left me his card with the address of the church and its website. Website??????

Scene no. 2: Wednesday night during dinner at Pierre-Louis' brother's place together with his parents. Dessert time, eating peaches.

Me - enjoying the sweet soft peach, peeling the skin, cutting it into small pieces and galop it in my mouth (bit by bit of course). All of a sudden...

Aurelien (Pierre-Louis' brother) : Dita!!! Ca se mange pas comme ca une peche!!!

Me: ?????????? (looking left and rite, expression of "what's goin on?" )

Aurelien: Arrete, arrete!! C'est pas polie....

Me: Ah bon? (a bit panicked due to fear of looking primitive in front of the parents, though I know very well that they are cool type of ppl, dont really care about things like this, but STILL!) pourquoi? Ca se mange comment alors?

Aurelien: (said nothing but showing me that face of "stop-it-rite-now-cuz-it-is-looking-really-disgusting-how-you-eat")

What I did was stop peeling the skin of the peach and just eat it like how I would eat an apple, bite by bite. I really thot it was because the peach's juice was flowing all over my hand and it looks messy, but when I saw everyone was eating peach like that, I was really confused.

My hypotheses: I cut the peach into small pieces and put it directly into my mouth with the knife. That was my guess.

See what I live here people! Knt even eat peach peacefully....wat the eff!

Scene no.3: In my office with Amalia (my boss) and The Ass (this stupid looking girl). Amalia bought some croissants for breakfast and started offering us to eat them.

A: I have some croissants here, let's haf b/fast together, what do you girls would like to drink? Tea, coffee?

The Ass: Cafe!

Me: Non, merci. I am fasting today.

A: Oh noooo.....then u're not gonna eat my croissant??

Me: Yea, I'm so sorry, why you didnt tell me you're gonna bring croissant today.

A: But u know very well that today is The Ass' last day. So we always haf b/fast together.

Me: No, actually I dont know. Sorry amalia.

A: But yesterday u didnt fast?

Me: We had a picnic yesterday remember? And on wednesday I had to do the Toulouse visit, so I couldn't afford to fast.

A: It's ok, eat now. It's still 9 am, still early, you can fast tmrw (she's joking)

Me: Haha....yea yea.....no thx really, I have to complete it, I have 4 more days to pay off. I'd like to finish it soon.

A: But you can't do like....one day fast, the next you don't. You said u had one week to repay. It's not rite, it's unacceptable.

The Ass: Yea, you knt do that, if you break the cycle in the middle of the week, you haf to restart it all over again.

Me (still think that they r joking): ..................................??????.................

The Ass and A: No, no, seriously.....Dita, you knt do like this... it's wrong..

Me: huh?? You guys serious? Of course I can....(silence)

The Ass and A: No no no u knt.....

Me: What are u telling me? You are not even muslims, why are u telling me this? (I swear I was in HUUUGGEEE awe)

The Ass: I know I am not, but my frend is and she said she has to do it in consecutive days.

Me: Oh really? Well, actually we can. We just have to complete the number of days that we did not fast last time. We can even do it on mondays and thursdays.

The Ass and A: No no no bla bla bla bla.....(still telling me that they were right and Im not supposed to do it this way)

Arguments went on and on. With The Ass of course giving me that face of "please-Dita-do-not-argue-with-me-cuz-I-know-everything-and-I-know-I-am-right" .......until I kudnt take it anymore and I grabbed a cup of coffee and tempting to make some coffee for me to shut them up. I was thinking that I can fast again tmrw, I am not gonna die, but I will be if I keep listening to this nonsense.

They were like....: Dita!!! wht are you doing? don't do this!! we were just discussing.

Me: discussing??? I think that was not a discussion, it was more like....a judgement of what I am doing is wrong. And how could you this when you yourselves are not muslims??

The Ass (still acting like nothing happened, everything was normal, telling me that i was over reacting...): bla bla bla...yada yada yada.... (mulut nya udah kaya pantat aja, segala yg busuk2 keluar).

Arguments going on, now it is about the fact that I was exaggerating things and they just wanted to discuss (bullshit). Trust me it is totally a waste of time discussing things with them because both of them always acts like they know EVERYTHING IN THIS REVOLVING DAMN WORLD AND OTHER EIGHT PLANETS AND THE SUN AND THE MOON!! (Am I correct abt the planets?) and they always cut people talking, and they talk and talk and talk......so that is why I never bothered exchanging opinions with them. Totally useless cuz in the end, I will end up listening to both of them yakking away.

Ok, back to the scene. I was sooo angry and upset that I started to cry ( When i lose my temper I tend to cry) while still arguing with them that they did not have to be so pushy regarding this matter.

The Ass - still talking.....showing me her old (shes around 30 years old), ugly, shitty i-know-everything face when I just said "Oh shut up, Ass!" (in french "ta guele!" which is very very rude). She started getting all dramatic of course.....

The Ass: I knt accept that you insulted me, Dita!!! This is unacceptable!!

Me: And you, you can insult me with your incompetence judgement???

(stormed ouf the room to smoke, The Ass I mean)

Me still upset and crying. All the tears were unstoppable cuz my anger still in climax. Amalia came to calm me down and said sorry and all. It was nice of her, at least she apologised for saying the things she said.

The Ass of course still oh-so dramatic about my insult. So I said sorry cuz I know it was very rude words to say. But she did not accept my apologize. And I said that how could she argue with me of things of religion. It's a very very sensitive matter and I said that I would never (not even bother) to try to argue about other religion which I am not a devotee of.

Long story short. She was cold the whole morning till the time we went home and still did not apologize to me for what came out from her ass, or was it her mouth? I forgot.

Scene no. 4: During lunch break about two weeks ago in the office. Everyone (teachers and trainees) was done with the classes and started to come to the office to return books and stuff. One madagascarian (correct?) girl gave me a brochure.

M girl: Dita, I have this brochure for you, maybe you can distribute it to the students. It's like a cultural show.

Me (looking at the said brochures which apparently was some kinda Gospel concert in Toulouse or sumthing) : Oh, ok. Merci. I am gonna put it on the board.

M girl: And you, you don't wanna go with me. I am going this weekend.

Me: Oh, no thanks.

M girl: Why not? They are good.

Me: Oh, sure. But I am a muslim actually I dont go to Gospel shows.

M girl: But it's not religious, it's cultural.

Me (Is she high or sumthg? HALO it's clearly marked GOSPEL concert....praising God...bla bla bla...): Huh? mmm...no, its ok. Thanx.

M girl: Oh since you are a muslim, do you mind seeing my friends, they are missionaries actually from the USA. They wanna talk to you about their faith?

Me: Huh...?????.....................They wanna talk to me about MY faith?

M girl: no no....about their faith to God and about the religion. When are you free?

Me: Mmm..why would they wanna talk about their faith to me? Why? I dont know anything about that.Why? Why?

M girl: Yea, that's why. And you can ask questions too.

Me: .............................................

M girl : Oh, and if you wanna convert you can, if not, it's ok, they just wanna talk.

Me: ............................................................................................. (still knt believe she just said what she said)

M girl: They are very nice people. So tmrw you're free??

Me: Mmm...I can't, I have to go to Basso Cambo to buy something. (i didnt lie, I really had to go to the supermarket)

Scene no. 5: A student from Dubai was arguing with Amalia about his courses and his yada yada...he did not speak very good french so I had to translate for him. Things got a little bit emotional between Amalia and him. And he asked me things that I did not know when suddenly he stated an unstateable statement to me.

Dubai boy: How come u do not know? But you got paid for this!!! And I paid to be here!!!

Me: Excuse me??? What did you say?? Please do not say things that you dont know. We are trainees here and we are definitely not paid.

Dubai boy: Really? How come??

I, who was quite upset, did not bother to explain, instead it was The Ass with his look-at-me-I-speak-English-with-an-American-accent who did it.

Note:
Is it written in my fukcing face that "You are all wecome to discuss and argue religious matters with me" that people keep annoying me with this??

And this is France for God's sake. A country that ban religious acknowledgement in public establishement, such as school. No cross, no veil, no other symbols of religion should be shown within school compound and during school activities.

So, is it me???

Is it french???

Is it just people around me??

I feel like shouting "Leave me alone! If you do not know anything about anything, SHUT THE F UP!!"

Mmmm...

2007-08-09T21:01:00.000+02:00

Salut tout le monde!

it's been a week since my last post. so...??? so, i dunno, im just saying. I have nothing to say actually, just would like to update things though i have nothing to update about.

well, today we had a picnic with the students of Universite d'Ete. It was very nice especially with the students who were so motivated putting their hearts and souls to their food. The spanish, italians and germans brought each of their own countries' specialities respectively. As a result, they were all looking so tired this morning due to "begadang" until 1 am the night before to cook. I salute them!!!! That's the spirit!!!

Me....I cut raw veggies, like carrots, raddish, cucumber, tomatoes and managed to make "bumbu pecel" which at the end everyone had a try!!! yeeey......quite a success, even the veggies.

Oh....there is this cute Swedish guy in the summer school. Tee hee.... No, darling I am NOT gonna flirt!! Just talk to him from time to time, since he speaks english so well and he has this oh-so-cute accent... and blonde blue eyes.... :) Gatel mode on.

One more week and pierre louis is comiiiiiinnnggggg!!!!!!!!!!!! For 5 whole days!!!! well...only.. sigh.. BUT YEEEEYYY no matter what!!

So far, my summer alone in Toulouse had not turned out that bad. I got to meet people too. Besides dealing with foreign students, I get to spend time with Evelyne, working out in the gym, watching movies, accompanied Brian to pierce his ear, luncheon with Anthea, exploring the city more than I have ever done since September last year, meeting up with pierre-louis' parents who are in town for two weeks, etc....
But still.....there is always something missing.... by now you should be able to guess.

It has been beyond hard to be away from him for 3 months.....three freaking months people!!! HALOOO... (you ppl must be like....wth..)

il fait super chaud!!!!!

2007-08-02T17:03:00.000+02:00

Finally summer is here!!!!! I said this because even though official date of summer (21st of june) has passed for almost 2 months, only these past few days the weather has been killing me and the sun finally decided to get back to work!! It is super hot here in Toulouse!!!! People are happy and all, enjoying the sun, digging their spaghetti straps, sundress, sun glasses, super short shorts to bare more skin!!

Nevertheless, I enjoy my training less since Daniela is gone. She was my bestest companion, also a trainee in Universite d'Ete and we have been getting to know each other. We would gossip, talk nonsense, organise few activities for the students, etc. She was a very nice girl, always has something to talk about and has so much energy and motivation to take care of the foreign students, who sometimes pissed me off. OK, "pissed off" is a rather exaggerated word to describe it. Yah...pokoknya bikin bete lah!

Now, Im in the office with my favourite colleague, Amalia, and two other not-so-favorite ones. Urrghh..... if you know what I mean, I won't describe them here but I am gonna say that they are not my favorite people in the world. Voila!

But hey! the good news is......I've lost weight!!!!!!! Oh my Gooood!!!! That means my work-out is actually working out! Although, i have not confirmed it myself, my weight loss I mean, but people has been telling me. So, YEEEEAAAYY!!!!! All the motivation and resistance to laziness had been paid off! And I started to form some muscles too... how cool is that!!

Okay, dont get too excited now, cuz if it says otherwise by next month, I'll be crashed... zen now....zen......

So, I have been going to the gym almost everyday now for the past two weeks and a half. I joined classes, I tried some of the machines, but I dont really enjoy it. Cuz basically you just cycle, run, lifting weights, but all by yourselves, no companions, no music, no crazy noisy gay instructor!!

I'm craving for McDonalds now and a good cup of McFlurry.... Ciao!

My muscles ache!!!!

2007-07-19T09:26:00.000+02:00

I thot I would never be able to get up from the bed anymore!!! Geezzz....it shows how deprived I am from sports for the last...hmm...two years!!

After I tried a try-out session of Body Pump in Movida Centre de Sante et Bien-Etre, I was dead! The next day seems like eternity, I couldn't move fast, even when I pray, I had to sujud slowly due to the pain on my arms and thighs....Urrgghh.....J'ai eu honte!!!

BUT BUT! It did not discourage me from signing up for the Gym cuz until this second, I am totally motivated and I am loving the classes!!! It's fun when we all work out together with music and a very gayish funny loud talkative instructor, he's so cute I wanna punch his butt!!

So, I have been going two days in a row even the receptionist was impressed...hihihi...
I tried Body Pump, Body Balance, Musculation, Step and Body Attack. I luurrvveee Body Attack, it gets you all sweaty at every inch of your body.
And I could feel that after working out, my body felt so light even though I got ache everywhere (it's ok...it's just the beginning, Dita!) and I could feel my muscles start to get the idea that they have been put to work!!

Now I'm praying that I will always have the motivation to go even after classes start!!

2007-07-17T10:14:00.000+02:00

In conjunction with my summer objectives, I am thinking of signing up for a gym membership. I can join all the classes available, I can use all the equipments, there's even a swimming pool inside.

Sooo.....

Great 5 days.....

2007-07-10T12:07:00.000+02:00

First day of soldes (sale), I was ready to spend, spend and spend, and guess what, I did!!! I felt sooo excited going around streets full of shops, trying on clothes, since I did not do so much of shopping since I am in France, except for a winter coat and one sweater because I needed those, not because I wanted those...
And then, a cute pair of flats since my old ones were died-ed.

For 100 Euros; I got myself 3 tops from Mango and Zara, nothing fancy, just 3 simple t-shirts. One pair of linen pants that I always loved from Benetton for summer, 2 lingeries from Darjeeling, VOILA!! Not bad rite. I went home all contented, tee hee...!! (however, the prices are marked down lower by now, I could have paid 50% lower)

Pierre-Louis came back to Toulouse for 5 days, he'll be leaving tomorrow and I am super sad... as you can imagine, my current mood is not so good. Btw, we spent our times together going to cinema, to the market, checking out shops, walking around the town, and others that I will definitely keep them to myself... (total silence).

My training goes pretty well, better than June at least. I get to keep myself busy with the foreign students, they are a bunch of interesting people, I must say. Especially the Japs. We organized a picnic for them, played games with them, visit around the town (which started disasterously, but turned out fine), etc.

Our fridge broke down!!!! Wth.... gosh I hope the owner is gonna buy us a new one or at least send somebody to repair it ASAP... geez..

Visual....

2007-06-22T19:52:00.000+02:00

Dinner at Jap restaurant in Paris

Mom enjoying flower gardens.

Sipping our Starbucks in Berlin.

Dresden.

Carcassonne, even my mom didn't refuse to pose under a sign.

Capitole, Toulouse.

With family friends' girls inDresden.

First day's breakfast in Dresden

Updates...

2007-06-22T19:36:00.000+02:00

Sorry....it's been like, a month since my last post. I have been having loads of things to do, and apart from it...well...just laziness..

Updates from me are...

* I have passed my oral presentation for my memoire (dissertation) !!! Can you believe that!! Omg....this one is a HUGE relieve.... and it went quite well. And the juries even told me not to worry for the results and that I could go home and sleep well...haha... And I've got compliments for my french proficiency from Mr. Olmedo, i just hope he was sincere... Woohoo!! I have another one more interview on Monday about my application to Master 2. I'm quite confident that it will go ok...

* My mum and brother came about two weeks ago, and already left. I had such a great time bringing them around Toulouse and Carcassonne, eventhough most of the times it was raining. It was quite tiring moments as well since we had to endure lots of trips on the train and planes to reach Dresden, Germany. But I was very excited about visiting the city which turned out really pretty and peaceful. We had the chance to step our feet in Berlin too. It was fun! Me and my bro exploring the city, taking lame pictures!

* I have started my training in the Universite d'ete. It is not a very exciting training, not much to do. However, the highlight of this training is that I get to spend times with Daniella, a Bulgarian girl who turns out to be a very nice, sympathique and funny girl. We spent our times getting to know each other, talking alot about our lifes, or sometimes just listening to Mdme Redondo (our responsable) telling her life stories, mostly about her cats! haha! And the good thing about this training is that, I have to force myself to speak french at ALL times, no exception! It is kinda tiring by the end of the day, but I feel accomplished :)

* Pierre-Louis is now in Paris, working again in the Louvre just like last summer. So, now I am home alone in Toulouse. It's kinda depressing sometimes....missing his presence, but I know I gotta make myself busy and probably should catch up with Bozena and Danielle and enjoy this coming summer!

* La Fete de la Musique was quite a dissappointment in general, nothing good to shake ur booty with except the percussion group who played for a while. The rest was just like the whole youngsters, drinkers and drunken Toulousains coming out that nite and breaking beer bottles plus the HEAVY RAIN! Quelle merde, on peut dire...

2007-05-25T08:44:00.000+02:00

I am Back!!!

After one tiring week in Italy, I am more than happy to be back in Toulouse, in my own place, sleep on my own bed....pheewwww....

The trip was enriching, tiring, exciting, culture-shocking and burning (literally, it was bloody hot in italy that i am super tanned rite now).

- Italians are so grumpy and unfriendly! (at least, that's my impression of most of shopkeepers and restaurant's waitresses/waiters. They have issues! PMS or menopause maybe)

- Italians trains are brutal! (the regional train and the city metro) Seriously, when it comes to stop, the driver (or maybe the locomotive) cannot brake properly ah, everytime we almost jatuh lah!!! ISSUES man!!!

- Mister Gladiators that we took pictures with were cheaters!! I think most of them are, the ones that hanging around outside Colosseum.

- There are gazzilions churches in Italy!! Like, seriously, every corner you go, you will definitely see one! I know that Christian used to have huge power in Italy, specially during Renaissance, but I have never really imagined the number of church going on there...

- The place is jam packed with tourists!! Oh dear..... I really wanna know what's gonna happen in the next ten years.

Me:

- is recovering from fatigue of TOO MUCH walking!

- is recovering from too-much-train-ride (20 hrs to return to Toulouse from Rome) syndrome.

- is recovering to reality (the fact that I have to put my nose onto the screen and be done with my memoire).

Yahoo!

2007-05-15T13:28:00.000+02:00

Hip Hip Hooraaaaayy!!!!!

I am SUPER excited, I am half-packed and I am planning what to wear, HAHAHA!!!

We are leaving to Italy in 12 hours time. We have been looking forward to this trip for like....FOREVER!!

First plan was kapoot, due to inconvenience of time (school schedule). But now, we are really leaving!! We are gonna have to endure about 20 hours of train, of course with few stops in Nice and Milan, all the way to Venice. I am prepared with thick novel of Sophie's World in french (if it becomes boring in the middle of the way, it's ok, at least I can use it to put myself to sleep)

Hope everything goes well.

We are travelling in cukup-cukup-budget sort of way, so....don't expect shopping trip or restaurant meals. We are doing it the hard way!

Au revoir, a la semaine prochaine!!!

2007-05-08T15:20:00.000+02:00

Pierre-Louis and I are currently in Tours, at his parents' house, yes. Our petite refugee is due to:
1. One of his brothers and the girlfren came over to Toulouse for holidays, so we lend them our apartement ,cuz seriously, if all FOUR of us stay in that tiny weeny unit, we are gonna end up suffocated.

2. It is more tranquil to work on our memoire here in Tours, no need to bother about meals and more over Pierre-Louis needs to conduct an interview in Blois (pas loin de TOurs) so voila, tout est explique!

3. I need my "small pieces of heaven" of those heavenly Brioche Chocolat....to motivate myself to work. yum...yum...

4. Need I say more?

I just hope that by the end of this week, when we return to Toulouse, we will find our apartement as clean as we left it, still in one piece, cigarette-smell free (she smokes), no funky stuff found in funky corners, bla bla bla....

I am reading Le Monde du Sophie (Sophie's World) en francais bien sur car le bouquin, il est a Mdm Genier. Mais, en fait, je l'ai trouver facile a lire surtout pour un roman de philosophie comme celui-ci. Donc, je vais essayer de le finir, en meme temps de travailler sur mon memoire......HAHAHA!! Si, ca marche niquel....

Bon, je termine la car il faut que je lache ma paresse.

Bon courage a moi!

I found my people!

2007-05-05T20:56:00.000+02:00

I decided to go to the indonesian cultural show today, though I was lazy at first.

What an adventure it was to get to the venue because we did not take the right bus line, it was not a mistake, it's just that the bus line we took goes to the same direction but NOT really to the exact place and the bus leaves one hour earlier (mind you, in France public transport gives less service on the weekend), so we thought we were just gonna haf to walk a bit more than we were supposed to.

So....what happened was....we weren't exactly sure in which direction we were supposed to walk...results....we got lost! Long story short....we found a nice man who showed us the way on the map and things became clearer, et voila! we reached the right place.

It was a cultural show much based on, well what else, Balinese culture (surprise surprise! yea, we ONLY have Bali on our gigantic country). The show was just OK, good effort but it was not interesting enough, same old same old.... I mean, we used to have the same thing in Kuching last time, Balinese dancer, food-tasting, bla bla bla.....

Ok anyway, a part from Balinese dances, there was this petite drama, it was quite funny and interesting besides the problem of audio system. Then, there was this "tari piring" and "tari merak" which could have been better.

Then, there was the FOOD!! Yeeeyy!! Not bad, not bad at all, it was worth paying 10euros (for charity, so that's fine). We were full, there was lumpia goreng for appetizers, as main dish there were "nasi putih" of course, then "semur ayam" which did not really resemble semur ayam, there was "tumis buncis" which was not bad and "bakmi goreng" which was classic... It tasted quite food for me who has not eaten Indo food for a while.

But the highlight of the day was the "rencontrer" with many Indonesians reside in Toulouse. I was quite surprised by the number. There were about ten students and quite a number of Indonesian women married to french. We talked, shared stories, laughed. It was definitely a very nice afternoon to have met all of them. At least i know im not alone, ANYMORE!!! Haha! And they are nice people! Cool!

If I get A, i'm a genius?

2007-05-02T11:35:00.000+02:00

My mum just told me that my dad and her were totally dissappointed by my brother's exams results. I knew it before cuz my brother told me that he was going to get quite bad marks for the last exams.

I did not know what was really going on there, maybe it was my brother's faults who did not work hard enough or it was just because the questions were too tough to handle because apparently he was not alone in the class who got bad marks. No comments on this one. But I think we have always been, at least me and my brother, pushed by our parents to perform better in school, academically, I totally understand, parents only want the best for us. And I know that this is the only wealth that our parents can "leave" for us, I mean I can imagine how much money they spend for us every year to pay our school fees.

But as I grow older, and the fact that now I am here in France, I really learnt that super duper marks are not everything. Of course, theres a lot of consideration to take in order for you to pass, the first one is our mark, but then there is this calculation thingy going on where you combine the first and second semester, then few subjects under the same category, bla bla bla..... ok fine! I don't get all that.
My point is that, just because my brother did not get A or B for english or physics, does not mean that he's stupid?????? or does it? Just because I obtained 7/20 for my Geography paper and Accounting, does not mean i'm stupid, or does it??

Holiday...?? NOT!!!

2007-04-30T10:56:00.000+02:00

So, exams are over last week. I thought I did not do so good. I mean, the questions were so misleading, not clear and...well...master-level of course, but I just did not have that kind of reflection towards questions like that.
Why don't we just see when the results are out. finger-crossed!!! Pray for me people, I wanna go to the second year... you know...

I got my wisdom tooth pulled out. It was such a gruelsome process in the dentist that day. He had to cut my gum open, saw my tooth into half, and saw it again into another half, then he combat with it to take it off!!! But surprisingly it was fast and SCARY! Feeling better now at least...

At this moment, I am still struggling with my memoire which does not seem to get any closer of being completed. I am so out of inspiration and motivation to write. Seriously. I was thinking that maybe I am really out of motivation to study at all. I feel so empty.

Oh blah! whatever...................................

I miss reading books, as in English books. I miss playing pieces on the piano.

I am dead scared and anxious and nervous for my oral defense for my memoire. I AM NOT READY.

I am looking forward for Italy and my mum and my brother to come. And my first training in summer.

A Girl Called Dita

2007-04-13T21:49:00.000+02:00

she's not feeling so good these days...

she misses her gurls back "home" so much. and intense chattings lately do not help much 'cuz it only made her missing home more...neither does a due dissertation. SIGH....

After a trillion years of M.I.A, suddenly miss Carolyne appeared in my MSN and I got sooo excited to be able to talk to her again. And that was exactly what we did, we chatted for hours! Until it was like 7 am back in Penang where she lives now - she even heard her roommate getting ready to go to work - it was nothing but FUN, EMOTIONAL (jangan perasan lyne, u know how much i miss you!) and best of all, she was cracking me up, like usual!!

We talked about so many things, about her work, about relationship - I could say "sex" in this case - about her family, about her growing up as a i-want-a-serious-job woman, rather than as a nun, hehe.... This is exactly how I get each time i'm around her, I just enjoy talking to her, i could talk about almost anything with her and she will be the best listener, well, she can be the best mocker too!! She will give us - 3 other wacky girls - the best, sometimes uncanny advice. OH, and she's like this walking dictionary/encyclopedia, man! Remember when we were in sushi king and u were talking about salmon belly.... the rest of us were like, okaaaay.....

I hope she gets to travel as much as wants to, knowing her desire to see the world and all that. SIGH....woman, put France on your first list, or maybe Maldives, OK!

*******

Last nite, I chat with Ifa who just came back from Tokyo!! She told me about her "busy" trip. Haha! As always....her stories of life never fail to put me in awe....hihi.

And she just made my day - well, my nite to be precise - by telling me that she read my blog and "accused" me of being so sweet and all.....(all together now!) AAAAWWWWW........

Lemme tell ya somthn' woman, when I said I miss single life is because you always drug me with all your romantic dates although with not-so-princes-charming men sometimes, but STILL!! I'd like to be swept off my feet from time to time.

NO....don't get me wrong peeps, I am at the happiest moment of my life being with Pierre Louis and for me he IS my prince most charming and I wouldn't wanna trade it with anyone else, but you know...sometimes being single has its own fun times.

Like indo gurls say "Saat2 PDKT, emang saat2 yang paling indah...." Ho oh bangeett!!

*******

All my condolescence to Cil who just lost an uncle. So sad we could not talk more that day, I understand if you were not in the mood...

I'm still waiting for our intense conversation too since you are always busy at work. But you will always be my "confused" girl la.... who at the same time always entertain me with the funniest stories of office bitches, cousins bitches, linda bitching (hehe), her bitching around (hihi) which by the end of the day leave me laughing out loud in front of my screen, and Pierre Louis will be like.....wth??!!

GOSH......you girls are missed to the max. We should re-live our luncheon one day, having ladies wackiest day-out!!!

btw, I just have to express out my anger from yesterday. WAT A DUMBFUCK BITCH YOU ARE!! PLEASE LAH...DONT EXPECT US TO RETURN AND BEG FOR THE STUPID VISAS!!

OH, AND I HATE PEOPLE WHO ARE SO FULL OF THEMSELVES!! UURRGHHHH.....PISSED ME OFF!!

and I am soo fuckin sick of writing my disertation, sometimes I just stare at my screen and dream away...

Gala (licence)

2007-03-31T15:23:00.000+02:00

Some pictures from the Gala that the degree students organized. It was just nice. Food was good. Companies were great. DJ sucked BIG TIME!!!!!!! They kept playing techno and dance music for the first two hours, the crowds were bored, some of them left early.

Towards later that nite, then only he played OK songs, then he kept playing french dance songs. It was fantastic for the french students, but how about people like me! Heylooww...

My classmates, everybody didn't know which cameras to look at. Results, le voila!

Some of girls from my class, left to right, Blandine, Carrine, Me and the Bulgarian girl, Bozena.

Brian was there too! He was my senior in Taylor's College and in Toulouse as well.

He was so wasted that nite, but we had fun.

Et finalement, moi et mon homme Shaolin. The chinese shirt he's wearing was a b'day gift from our classmate in Malaysia. He liked it a lot and even though the nite's dresscode was suit or tuxedo, he wanted to be different, like always, btw...and he got compliments! Haha...

Unwritten

2007-03-31T15:01:00.000+02:00

I have not advanced in my research-writing. I am definitely in deep shit. I should do half of it this coming Easter holidays.

I have not had productive weeks, I feel gigantic demotivation and laziness and procrasination coming through me all the time.

In two weeks I'll be having my 2nd sem. exams, oh dear oh dear......not again....

I wish people stop asking me when will I be returning to Malaysia (or Indonesia). I've had enough making people understand that I won't probably be coming home very soon. I will, as soon as I finish my master. I want to make my europe experience to the max. That's one of the reason I agree to come to France. End of story.
And no, we are not getting married anytime soon, not because I don't want to, and all this bullshit I-prioritize-my-career-or-we're-too-young-to-get-married issues. NO.NO. It's because we have a lot of unplanned things ahead of us that make us unable to decide what's next.

I am really looking forward to holidays in May. Booked our ways to Venice, Florence and Rome. Hope all goes well.

My mum and brother are coming in early June. GOsh, can't wait to bring them around Paris, Toulouse and get lost in Germany (quite nervous about this trip). I miss them loads. And of course, I'm excited about the goodies she's gonna bring me....hee hee...

The weather still sucks, we are supposed to be in Spring, like...a week ago, but it's still fucking cold, rainy and windy. I seriously starting to get fed up of WINTER!!! Go go go away..
Me want to put on my skirts, sundress, slippers, cotton pants please....

As for self-motivation, people have been telling how my french have improved greatly. YEY!! well hey, I've told myself I won't be coming to France for nothing!

I feel the need of retail therapy flowing vigorously through my vein, but can't seem to afford more than one item. Europe sux in this department.

My love life, beautiful and never been better.

Cassoulet oh lala!

2007-03-09T11:54:00.000+01:00

It has been a while that I wanted to try this restaurant in city center called "Bon Vivre". It is always full every dinner and I heard that they serve good food, with definitely "good" price. hihi.

And last weekend, we decided to have dinner there in conjunction with Pierre-Louis' 23rd birthday and a friend's 24th birthday.

I chose Magret du Canard grille avec des pommes de terre et legumes du jour. The duck meat was soooo tender and tasty and big too!! I was definitely full and satisfied!

And the birthday boy chose the house speciality Cassoulet which turned out to be damn good and the portion is huuugeee!!

It is a toulouse speciality made of white bean, duck meat and some sausages inside, baked in a clay pot.

Definitely a great evening with great dish and great company.

Joyeux Anif, mon cheri Pilou et Dianne!!! BISOUS a vous deux.

Finally!!

2007-03-09T11:39:00.000+01:00

Yes, finally!! I can sign in to my own blog!! Yeah, you read that rite!
I could not blog (not that I have anything interesting to blog about) for the whole week on account of not being able to sign-in! Wth....

So...here we go....I have news for, well, first of all myself, but if you guys want to know, why not!

The results of my 1st semester exams have been put up the board! Yiiikkeess!! So there it was, my name (easy to recognise as I have the longest first name in the class) and the whole marks that I have "succesfully" achieved...hihi..

I was quite content of most of my marks, I mean, hey this is my first exams in french, I should not, or in this case, anybody, expect too much out of me considering the fact that I have only lived here for 9 months! That's not alot.

So, I am not going to brag (like as if there is anything to brag about!) my marks here, but just to tell you the lowest i got was 7.60/20 (malu deh!) and the highest was 14/20 (not bad, eh!)

And what made me feel better is the fact that for certain subjects, I did not get the lowest marks (notice, I am the only not-french student here...) !! Huhuhu...

In this very blog as well, I would personally send my gratefulness to Mr. Boumegoutti, my geography lecturer who has been extremely generous in giving me 8/20 for his paper, haha.
Considering the "catastrophe" (that was the word he used in describing my paper because apparently, I did not even know that I had to choose 1 out of 3 questions to answer, so I did ALL!! See how genius I had become!) I did on the answer sheet, he has been very generous giving me 8!! Where, in my opinion, I deserved a....I dunno, let's say 2 or 4?? Hihi...

Anyway, all in all, alhamdulillah...really I think I did not too bad for the first semester!

Je vous remercie pour vos generosites et comprehensions, j'essayerai de faire mon mieux pour le deuxieme semestre!! (finger crossed).

My Gurls!!!

2007-03-02T18:19:00.000+01:00

Well, my two gurls in this case.

My darling Fathmath Ifasha, a bomb maldivian babe whom I was getting along with soooo well during our years in Taylor's College and who filled up my days with her cracking "stories" and her "brave adventures", just made my day...

She told me today through MSN that she's gonna go to Japan for a tourism exhibition for 3 days. Honestly and sincerely, was I happy and excited for her.
After ALL she's been through for the past a year, at least, she sooooo deserves it!!
YOU GO GIRL!!

I miss you hell load...!!! And make the most of it, yea!!

ps: try to "accidently" miss the plane and fly to France instead, try at least, ok!

Two nights ago, I had this incentive conversation with the oh-so-brilliant invention of the history of mankind, MSN Messenger (no, im not promoting...) with Mizz Nadiah from Singapore.

My long lost girl whom I've known for...6 years, but separated for 4 years, Haha! (you do the math) started the conversation which lead to a late nite nothing-but-fun-and-hilarious catching up talk!!

No, really, we seldom talked like that in MSN, it is usually some casual hi, hello and wat's new with you thingy. But I was so happy that we could talk "lots" that nite and really catching up on our "lives". Haha.

What was so sweet of her is the fact that she blogged about me just right after!!! Aaawww..... isn't that really thoughtful of her...

Sigh....how I miss my gurls so much...You guys are all sooo welcomed anytime if you wanna come by! *Hint hint!*

2007-02-21T12:23:00.000+01:00

"if you don't like the culture you're living in, make your own....."

I wish, it's as simple as that. here. in france.

on est en vacances? j'en suis pas sure...

2007-02-21T12:13:00.000+01:00

nous sommes en vacances pous une semaine.
mais comme on a pas de chance, il faut qu'on fasse notre memoire de la merde!!!!

on voulait aller faire du ski, pas assez de neige sur la montagne. (it's global warming, i tell ya!)
on voulait aller nager, la piscine est fermee pendant une semaine pour la vidange.
on voulait aller a l'italie, on attend un peu jusqu'au printemps.

so, you do the math!!!

il faut que je me mise mes fesses sur ma chaise et type away my 60 pages of memoire..!!!

et merde, merde, merde....!!!!

2007-02-12T13:21:00.000+01:00

I know I don't really have lotsa of free time, but I still take my own sweet time to drown myself with books which are not related at all to my memoire!

"Five people you meet in heaven", "Tuesdays with Morrie" both by Mitch Albom, "On beauty" by Zadie Smith, "Saving fish from drowning" by Amy Tan, "Everyone worth knowing" by the woman who wrote devil wears prada, "Angela's ashes" by Frank McCourt and "Incredibly loud and extremely close" by Jonathan Safran Foer.

And what have I read for my litterature review???????????.............

Rien, vrachement zero! en fait, j'ai lu quelques pages de quelque bouquins...il faut je m'y mets plus fort!!

Au secour....

more of Madrid

2007-02-10T12:34:00.000+01:00

continuons-nous alors.....

Guess what! We found Starbucks in Madrid, i know i know....wth rite..??

But hey! there's none in Toulouse and when we were in Paris we did not get to go there since I was juz weeks away from Startbucks in The Mall. hehe. So this time! we were really missing it, BIG TIME!! So, in we went, ordered our cappucino venti, vandalised the chocolate powder and invaded the huge sofas...HAHAHA!! uuuh...heaven heaven, oh and the 2nd time we went, we fell asleep on the sofa for like, 30 minutes and my friend told me that people were looking at us sleeping, either they took us like some freaks, or pity us cuz we were looking so tired....heheh...(self-pity).

We also ate loads and loads.....the foods are basically cheaper in Spain.

The last day, our spanish teacher treated all of us (like 40 of us) for a glass of wine or beer or coke whatever just to celebrate the end of our trip. She is just so nice and sweet, that woman!

Then, up we go hit the club!!! All like, 30 of us walking up and down the street looking for clubs that can give us free first drink!! HAHA!! We managed to get 2! Not bad eh....

The nite went really well, all of us dancing away, even the algerian guy...haha!

Some parade celebrating i dont know what we happened to see.

Et voila, notre prof preferee!! Hehe

Nice mascot huh, very spanish.

MADRID

2007-02-07T18:50:00.000+01:00

Last week my classmates and I, and Pierre-Louis bien sur, went for a study trip to Madrid.

You know what, actually this trip was meant for those who are learning spanish, and seeing that I am not (I am a foreigner, must learn french....sigh sigh sigh....yea yea yea...) I was not supposed to go. BUT, knowing that french students are sooo good in protesting and complaining...et VOILA! the rests of the students can go with them too! Transport and rooms paid!! Kesempatan doooonk....ya ga sih...

So, long story short, there I was sitting on a bus ready for 12 hours journey Toulouse - Madrid.

Reached the city exactly at noon, and ooh lala!! Qu'est qu'il faisait beau!! Sun shining and warm. Checked in and decided straight to start the city exploration! Wiiiii.....!!!

Having lunch in one of the local restaurants. Trying the different kinds of Tapas and Paellas. It was not bad but could have been better, specially the Paellas, the rice was not so cooked and the seafood looked not fresh.

Well, no harm, it was a try!!

Plaza de Toros. An arena used as an entertainement center during the olden days where people watch, what's the guy who kills bulls called again?, killing bulls.

But i'm sure Coloseum is waaaaay more impressive than this.

to be continued ok.....

I did it!!!

2007-01-28T18:25:00.000+01:00

Yes! that's right. I have sat for my first semester exams in french. HAHAHAHA.....!!

But trust me, it was frightening and brain-squeezing and moral-degrading.....haihh....

So, a mon avis, I did, well what can I say....I dont know really. I will tell you when the results come up. But definitely Geographie is dead, cuz you know what......***drum rolls*** I didn't even realize that we had to choose one of the questions to answer!!!! **ta..daaa...!!*** What worse thing could have happened than THIS!!! I actually did ALL 3 questions, im such a beyond dumb ass. Well for my defend, there was no indication saying that we had to chose one out of 3!! You see! can't blame me at all. Even though the lecturer already said that few weeks beofre exams, but HEELLOOOWWW...... it was few weeks ago, I, of all people, tend to forget things! More over, it was in french, he spoke faster than TGV train, and during that few weeks I gotta study and learn more things more important rather than remembering your "warning" which was as important as well.....but you know.... haiiih.... what does it take to put few words saying "Chose one out of 3 subjects below to discuss" Or " Vous devez choisir l'un de trois sujets dessous" .

Well, what's past is past. Now let's see what I did after exams.

-- Went to Kashmir to eat indian food which we missed a lot! And we did eat loads! 6 Nans, Lamb and chicken tandoori with some Dal.
-- Catching up shows on cinema, we watched Rocky Balboa, NOT my cuppa tea, just because Pierre-Louis been bugging me sooo much... ( what love is all about, rite??) Hihi..
-- Ate japanese food. Which was not really satisfying knowing the price we paid. Well, at least my craving was fulfilled.
-- Had tea and cake in our favorite salon de the in Toulouse. Yumm..yumm...

So, finger crossed for my results eh!!

Btw, it is FREAKING FREEZING down here!!! God, i miss tropical weather, sunshine, air-conned shopping malls, swimming pools, tennis court and yada yada yada......

2007-01-23T18:55:00.000+01:00

It's snowing outside. Rite now. How cool rite! My first snow ever!
I can go skiing!! (yea rite..laugh to self)

About today's exams.

GOD!!!! I wish i can juz die there and then! No, it's not the haiyo-so-hard-cannot-do-lah typical student post-exams whining I'm doing here. Not at all, I must spell it out clearly. It is far worse, waay waaay worse.

Remember the last post I said about being the proudest Dita on earth, I may haf to wait for that in a gazillion years. I have never felt so.......uuurrrrgghhh...!! (burry my head deeper than akar pohon beringin).

The day turned out to be better after all.

So, two more down!

TWO DOWN!!!

2007-01-22T18:26:00.000+01:00

Yes, two subjects down!

Today I sat for Gestion des Ressources Humaines (HR) and Gestion ( Accounting)

The first one was tougher than we all expected before. And there were juz too many questions for 3 hours duration. I managed to do all questions Alhamdulillah... But I am not really sure that I will get a very good mark.

The latter, the most hideous, frightening, despicable, appaling, wicked subject of ALL!!! No offense to accounting addict out there, but it's just I could never get myself into liking it, EVER! Gosh..!! Maybe because of my brain limit of calculation and benefits/loss analysis or whatever that is, but Gestion, ca me fait vraiment chier!!!

However, I guess I did manage to do some require tables and "ribet" calculation. And I am optimistic to get 10/20!!! HAHAHAH!! That's the spiriiit!!! Join me, will you!!
God, if I really ever get 10, I will be the proudest Dita in this planet!!!

Pray for me people.

Tomorrow: Marketing and Economie.

Sigh.

Some site in Madrid, Spain. Just as a motivation cuz after this hell hole, we will be off to Spaaaiiinn...yeeeyy!!!!

2007-01-21T17:59:00.000+01:00

I feel extremely and abnormaly calm, relaxed and laid-back knowing that exams are starting tomorrow.

I wonder why?

All those make me freaking out even more.

Wish me TONS of luck, ok!!!!

2007-01-15T11:40:00.000+01:00

Exams are in one week time, ONE FREAKING WEEK!!!!!!!

That's all the time i haf to gulp and swallow all my notes in FREEEEENNCCCHH!!!!

AARRRGGGGHHHH......!!!!!!

I am freaking out, freaking out, freaking out!!!!!

note to self: if i did good for my exams, I , Pramudya Widita Isfandiari, sincerely determine to puasa for one week and absent myself from all the "interdits" and pray more.

2007-01-07T13:20:00.000+01:00

- Holiday is almost over. On monday i gotta go back to class. And i don't feel well.
No, i am not sick. I just don't feel well. Exams are coming in two weeks time. I am not ready. But i don't know what is to be ready. I don't know what they expect me to do, how they expect me to perform. I am not sure. I started studying, revising, reading my notes, understanding given articles. But, I am still not sure. -

- I was surrounded by 17 people. Everyone was laughing, joking, exchanging stories, catching up with one another. I understood what they said, or did not I? I followed their stories, or did not I? Everyone seems swimming comfortably, enjoying each others' company. Me, I was drowning not far from them. Maybe because I did not try to swim or save myself. But nobody seems to notice that, that I was sinking every minute among them.
I wanted to be there. I did. I wanted to celebrate new year with people. Having fun. Drinking. Eating. Talking. Laughing. Dancing away. So, did I do all that? I apparently did. But there was just something not right. I did not feel right. I felt, i dunno, misplaced. I was oceaned with people, partying, but somehow I just did not want to be there. I wanted to leave so bad. --

- I have never missed my family so bad before. But now I do. I really do. --

- What will you do after you finish your Masters? The golden question often fired at me. And sadly I gotta answer by "I dunno" most of the time. Eventhough in my head I have the answers, whether they are certain or not, it's my problem. I was imagining beautiful things, disastrous things, grown-up things. I imagined myself working or not, whatever. I pictured my wedding day. I pictured my life in the next 5 years, hoping so much there will be pierre-louis as my beloved loving husband and father of my child/children. I pictured sweet and bitter things of my life happening after France. The next chapter will be what? I have no idea. But I want it to be simple and happy. --

-- But somehow I'm scared. All the "what-if"s keep coming into my head.

Look what i've got!! Look look..!!!

2007-01-07T13:04:00.000+01:00

A pair of red leather gloves for my freezing hands, from the loveliest Mr. et Mme Genier.... Merci..

The brown porcelain bracelet from Pierre-Louis chayaank and the black and blue stone ring from Mamie... Merci..

This pair, I got them myself. They are super cute and adorable, dont you think??? (replacing my another lifeless pair of brown flats)

Protecting my cold feet from vicious winter cold that creeps inside the house. They are warm and cushy. I got them only for 8euros. Pas mal, non!

And a novel of " Everyone Worth Knowing" by Laura Weisberger from Sean. Merci..

HAHA!!!

Special Visit

2007-01-07T12:37:00.000+01:00

Guess what!! Ronald came to Tours that day on thursday to deliver his words that he was gonna visit me and pierre-louis.

So, he dragged himself out of bed that cold cold misty morning in Angers to catch a bus to the train station and the train left at 9.30am, (isit, Ronald??). He reached Tours at 10.30am (ok..ok..not so long journey, im juz exaggerating).

I was super excited to see him and being a sweet Ronald that he is, he brought me tons of chocolats!!!! YYYEEEEEYY....!!!!

We showed him around Tours. Visit Tours by foot. haha!

Had lunch in best kebab resto in Tours. Shared stories and experience in France. Our ups and downs (mostly ups for him).

Stopped by in pierre louis' parents house and introduced him to them. Talked and talked and more talked.

By 5pm we sent him back to train station to catch the train to Angers.

What a day! Tiring but fun, really refreshing to see some familiar face in France. And remember the good old days (ok, not too long ago, but STILL!) of Alliance Francaise and the best group of Slip Rouge. Haha!

First christmas in France....

2007-01-06T17:53:00.000+01:00

No, actually it's first xmas EVER!!! secara emang gue ga pernah tuh ngerayain natal... But even this time, I was juz attending the dinner and family gathering.

Pierre Louis and I spent christmas in Tours, his parents' house together with Sean, we brought him along with us.

We had dinner on xmas eve with the parents and his brother and his girlfriend, Anne.

We had some "molecular gastronomy" food as starter. First is the "fake caviar" made of fresh orange juice.

They tasted....hhm...well....a bit disgusting. HAHA!! it was pierre louis who made them since he was sooo into this molecular gastronomy thingy so he decided to try it for xmas starter. He succeded to impress everyone in terms of making caviar, but in terms of taste...yucky!! NEED IMPROVEMENT eh!!

Then we had foie gras (duck liver cooked in fat) too, which was one of my favorite menu.

Followed by lobster cooked in chestnut sauce. Incredibly delicious.

Next was roasted duck, classic xmas french dish. It was a bit burned and over-cooked hehe. Nevertheless it was still finger-licking good. And all this excellent spread were the results of the hard work of Ms. Vincent Genier and Pierre-Louis Genier. Bravo to them! Haha!

As dessert, we had mummy-made Xmas Bouche (a special french xmas cake) which was yummy.

Apologize for the absent of pictures but i was sooo into the food that i forgot to take photos of them.

Oh! And i've got presents too!

(what the fuck is wrong with my blog!!! I cant put up pictures!!! Guess better start a new one then...sigh...)

Why not some change, eh!!

2007-01-06T16:54:00.000+01:00

I cut my hair SUPER SHORT!!!!

Why??

1. The amount of falling hair everyday worry me
2. I hate sweeping the floor and finding lotsa hair everywhere
3. This is the chance for me to change and look different after so many years with the same haircut. Even if my short new hair does not turn fine, it's ok cuz i'm in France. Nobody cares. More people look worse than me sometimes. So what the hell.

However...

My hair turns out juz fine!!! Thanks to Sonia, a genius hairdresser who did magic to my long tangled hair into SUPER SHORT hair. Well, for the price I paid (pierre louis did, not me), I deserved a great cut!!

Happy Belated New Year

2007-01-06T16:52:00.000+01:00

to everyone...

may everything will be better this year...!!!!!

2006-12-12T15:05:00.000+01:00

Voici quelques images que j'ai prise il y a quelque jours a Toulouse. Et j'espere qu'elles vous plaisent. Bonne journee a tous, gros bisous!

La Garonne flowing through Toulouse city.

The giant pine tree in the middle of the park in Place Wilson ( it is real, mind you, not like the one in KLCC)

The Xmas market in Capitole, juz in the center of the city. Selling bunch of delicious fatty food!

They are sandwiches, topped with grilled cheese and charcuterie, pork mainly.

Best pretzel (or Bretzel) I've ever eaten!!! Warm, freshly baked and salty! Oh, and it costs a bomb! 2euros each!

Le Vin chaud, hot wine, boiled with some spices, like cinnamon, orange, lemon etc... It tastes...well...funny for me...
The larger view of capitole and Marche de Noel.

This one is a fake papa noel...hehe...

Us, freezing but could not stop eating!!!

2006-12-12T15:03:00.000+01:00

I feel such a world's greatest loser....!!!!

What am I good in, i wonder...

Even a simple thing I could not do it well....

Cursed Sushi Night

2006-12-08T20:25:00.000+01:00

I thought Halloween has passed but apparently Toulouse is still haunted or maybe it's the japanese restaurants were...

Ok fine....maybe it was juz my bad nite....sigh...

So, what's the story??? Here goes...Very simple indeed...

From a long tiring wednesday, I was so hungry since the class finished at 6pm ( we started at 8.30am that day) and I juz wanted to comfort myself by eating sushi... so Pierre-Louis, Sean and I left at 7.30 to go sushi party-ing!!! I was so,so,so excited since ive been craving for sushi all this while (see my previous post..)

We went to this restaurant called "Japan" (okaay...d'uh!) which turned out to be so pretty inside and huge, considering restaurants in France are very seldom big in capacity. And the decor is juz nice, so we sat down when suddenly they put some french jazz song... we were like...okaaaaay....very "japan" indeed.

The waiter came and handed us the menu, flipped here and flipped there... Oh dear....a part from being deadly expensive ( one full menu is like...24 - 40euros!) we could not choose what we want, it was all set menu and there is no pictures of what they consist of, i mean, we dont know what kind of raw eel or fish we r gonna eat??!!

So after lotsa consideration we decided to leave...YEESS we left!! U had no idea how bad i felt, but hey!! customers not happy here!!! ( They let us leave of course but this guy were asking us lotsa qstn on what the problem was, and saying that he can check with the kitchen and bla bla bla...but we strongly managed to exit the door..hehe)

Solution: walked in windy winter nite to find another japanese resto in town. We did manage to find one which apparently has good reputation (testimonial from close people). I was so glad UNTIL the jap resto lady boss said that "sorry....no reservation, we cant take you, it's really full tonite..." WHAAAAAAAAAAATT!!!!!!!
Noted, it was already almost 9pm, we were starving and it was fuckin freezing.....ok!!!!
You can imagine how FURIOUS i was....HEEY!! I was COLD, HUNGRY and REJECTED!!!! and I had a loooong rough day, so i needed those sushi.....uurrgghh!!!! CURSED CURSED CURSEEDD!!!

But hey, what do you know, like the french advertisement says....... "McDO, si tout etais aussi simple que chez McDonald" ( If everything as easy as Mcdonald), there it was, McDonald juz few steps away from the sushi resto, calling us to order Double Cheese Burger, medium with coke, s'il vous plait....

( Being a sweet, genuine, sincere person Sean is....the next day he bought me some sushi from that jap shop near Esquirol......aaaawwww.......i was soo sooo touched!!! Thank you my dear Sean, you understand me better than my own hunk!!!)

X'mas is definitely getting nearer.......

2006-12-08T19:41:00.000+01:00

Bonjour a tous et a toute!

It's been a while, yea i know.....but I really did not have anything interesting to blog about. Except the fact that i've been extermely lazy.

I know my list of things-to-do is getting.....sigh.....it's a gazillion meter now... but STILL!!! What do i do lately don't help at all in contributing in getting-things-done!

So I have been....reading novels, i'm reading Amy Tan's latest book now "Saving fish from drowning" the beginning is interesting, on account of me having only read 60-70 first pages....

So I have been.....going to cinema, even seeing movie which is not worth seeing for, like Happy Feet, well what to do, i can ANYTHING i want, HOW MANY TIMES i want since i have unlimited cinema card!! COOL huh!!!

And so I have been as well...wasting my time watching Prison Break the 1st season, I knooowww.....sooo out-of-date......but HEY!!!

And also, guess what!! I have juz come back from Marche de Noel in Toulouse.......Ooh lala...... xmas in europe is really beautiful.... Toulouse have magically turned to city of pretty lites.... aaww.... it looks actually like in the movie and those children books describing how christmas looks like.... except that there is no snow here in this part of france. And believe it or not....the temperature is quite hot knowing it's winter. Today was only about 10-12 degrees. which is nothing!!! Mais quand meme, jai froid au fesses!

In Capitol, the city center that is, there is a christmas market juz specially opened from 8-28 December. So the Mairie de Toulouse have built this cute small wooden "houses" which are in fact the shops, and they are decorated nicely and chrismast-y and some of them are selling delicious french delicacies of xmas...

So we went today, the first day yes...! Cuz i cant wait.....hehe..... So, the first shop already attracted me. Selling some chocolate dessert looking juz like cinnamon rolls but smaller, but it's not made of the same dough... Mais quest ce que c'etais booonn......!!!!!

Continued we walk.....I found another food stall, this time selling "Aligo" which is la puree de pomme de terre ( mashed potatoes ) avec du fromage fondu (with melted cheese) which tasted sooooo heavenly.....hhhmmm..... fatty but yummy....vraiment irresistable..... so we bought one small bowl..

Next stop, du Bretzel (pretzel) d'origine Alsace, which tasted not at all like Auntie Anne's. This one is salty, freshly baked and really tender.....ooh lala....

Je sais que je suis tres gourmande, et c'est pour ca que j'ai arreter a plusieurs "food stalls"

Next. We tried this cute macarron, which according to the seller, they are made without farrine (flour) and (i think) without eggs or something...it cost 1euro EACH!!! but it was worth it. The macarrons were very tasty (chocolat, framboise and almonde) and craquant. tros bon!

Not satisfied yet, we decided to have our "real dinner" which is a sandwich filled meat cooked in lotsa onion (YUUUCKK i know, but the guy convinced me that you cant taste the onion since it's slow-cooked), which actually i did taste the onion, but i tried to focus on the taste of meat which is tasty......hehe....

And, Pierre-Louis gave up, but ME, DITA! No waaaay......i thought i still have some room in my stomach, so i bought some "churros". which is a typical "funfair" food made of flour and egg and they put in some kind of machine that press the dough out and it then comes out long and ready to be fried....and you eat it hot with sugar or Nutella.....yuuuhuuuuu......perfect closure...HAHA!!

Et voila, the latest from me from Toulouse, where it starts to get freezing and I HATE IT!!!! UUrrghh.....!!

down down down

2006-11-23T18:45:00.000+01:00

I am very very demotivated....

that's all i haf to say...

2006-11-23T18:08:00.000+01:00

I am craving for....

huge plate of assorted sushi and japanese food.....

Sadly, I cant "search inside" for my sushi...I wanna real one.... due to its bomb-price here in France, I am not able anymore to go sushi-ing every weekend...

Pan mee....from petaling street.....oh dear....ohdear...

Bakso, dari abang2 bakso yang lewat depan rumah tercinta di jakarta.....aduh dduuhh....

EXACTLY LIKE THIS!!!!!!! Forget about French cuisine...this is what gonna satisfy me and giving me double orgasm!!!!!!

This is what i miss SOOOO MUCH...... SATE AYAM a la indonesia, NOT the malaysian ones..

THIS IS HEAAAVVEEEENNN..............nothing can beat THIS!!!!

And the last few years of my life have made me fell in love with this.......

LAKSA SARAWAK......the best laksa in Malaysia.....i swear.....hehe....

The one from "third mile" is ABSOLUTELY YUMMY........dear oh deaarrrrr....... and now that my family are no longer in kuching, mmm i wonder who can bring me to laksa hawker in kuching later.....

Then, one of the superstar.......OTAK OTAK a la indonesia, NOT the malaysian one, sorry but they suck...hehe.....

I dont know how long have I not been eating OTAK OTAK, it's been AAAAGEEESS....!!!!

One of the famous restaurants in Jakarta is "Ayam Goreng Suharti" and the fried chicken is THE BOMB and ABSOLUTELY to DIE FOOOORR!!!!!!......

Next, super food, super good and super delicious......PEMPEK Palembang....... who does NOT love this dish......i can assure you, they must be out of their MIND!!!!! Hahaha...

(what's wrong with the connection, can't upload pictures.....uurrghhh... ca me fait chier!!)

Anyway...the list will go on and on and on..... and quest que je peux faire en ce moment?? I am juz gonna cook my indomie telur, the best home-sick remedy.... (i know, i know that i can find many recipes in the internet, mais bon, what to do....i am not gifted in kitchen deparment....HELP!!!)

2006-11-16T12:21:00.000+01:00

so i have found my big theme for le memoire.

I have an idea of what im gonna write about and what Im gonna research for.

I got millions of things to research, thousands of data to find, put things together, analyse, relate them and make a hypothesis.

Oh dear......oh dear......... and where am i now??? Not even at the starting point.....sigh....sigh...

Gotta really, seriously put my ass ( and brain for that matter) to work!!!!!!

Instead of writing n'importe quoi on my blog, comme celle-ci par example!!!!

On a Fait Un Petit Voyage sur la Cote d'Azur...

2006-11-13T19:28:00.000+01:00

Bonjour a tous!

Nous sommes rentres d'un petit voyage de 4 jours sur la Cote d'Azur!!

There were few days off, no class, so we decided to move our butts a bit and pay the country a bit of visit.

We departed on Thursday morning, but it wasnt as smooth as we thought, cuz 2 days before il y avait une greve de SNCF a Toulouse, meaning there was a strike of the train company, resulting a 2 hours late of train circulation, so we waited for our train and waited and waited..... until the clock stroke 10 am, le train etait la!!! Phew.....

So, destination Toulouse-Cannes, it took about 6 hours.
We checked-in a hotel, then we strolled around the beach. I was quite dissapointed to see how Cannes really is. Of all the publicities of TV and photos, we have always seen that Cannes is an extravagant city full of celebrities during summer having parties on board of private boat......Well, I was definitely dissapointed somehow....

The beach in Cannes, along the Cote d'Azur, south of France. Qu'est q'il faisait beau la-bas, au moin de Novembre

I visited the place of where Festival de Cannes is held every year, which I found that KL Convention Center is waaaaaaaayy beeettteeeeeerr!!!!

You see.....I was walking my way down the famous stairs..

You won't believe that this is the venue that every year people are fussing about.....

Me, in front of Carlton palace, Cannes. The hotel is so pretty, specially at nite when it is lit by lights. I am sitting on their private jetty, so windy and chilly.

Day 2, destination Cannes - Nice. We were more satisfied visiting NIce than Cannes. The city is prettier and there were more things to see, including this chateau on top of a hill. We climbed the stairs to get the view of Nice and had lunch up there. Since we are budget travellers, so we had our salad, tomatoes and bread while enjoying the view of Nice below.

Us, in La Promenade des Anglais, beach front in Nice.

Day 3, destination Cannes - Monaco. It took about 1 hour train from Cannes. It was quite funny in the train. There was this guy who didnt speak french, so when the ticketmen was checking his ticket he had trouble understanding him. Moreover, he didnt have his discount card which the ticketman was asking for because this guy bought his tiket in discounted price. That's the rule here, you have to have your cards everywhere you go. So they started arguing in french and english, which I didnt see any end of it. So, here I came, as a hero hehehe....to translate what both of them were saying. Then, suddenly the guy with no card said to me to tell the ticketmen to fuck him if i have to pay fine of 35euros, the ticketman understood the word "fuck" apparently and wasnt very happy about it. Bref, it ended all fine, by the guy paying 20euros in the end. I was quite nervous for a while there.....phew....

Anyway, back to Monaco. Summary of Monaco is...DISAPPOINTING!!!! All the fuss and reputation being "the" destination of summer and all that glam are juz....sigh.....well... disappointing..... The city is like, one side full of glamours with all the hotels, cars, casinos, boutiques, etc and the other side is full of ugly appartment buildings, empty with no sense of good architecture at all, i mean for God's Sake, it's Monaco! Aiyoo....

Full of women walking around in GUCCI, PRADA, VUITTON, latest boots, latest bags, even latest men...meaning....they were old men holding hands with gorgeous young women.... aiihh.....

But the trip became better when we climbed up the Royal Palace of Monaco, the view from up there was nice, we watched the sunset and camera-whorring of course!!! Even the palace was a DISAPPOINTMENT!!!! it looked like this long building NOT LOOKING like a royal palace!!

The Ferraris parked in the center of Monte Carlo, No its not an exhibition, they are private properties. HHmm.....

View of Monte Carlo from up a hill. See those ugly tall buildings on the far side of the pic.

Me making a fool of myself in Nice, people were staring and wondering why this girl CAN'T do roller!!! Sigh...

Day 4, destination Cannes - Toulouse, HOOOOMMMEEEE.....!!!!
So, after a short holiday of 4 days, we took the train back to Toulouse on Sunday nite. Reached Toulouse at 5am, get some sleep and back to class at 2pm.....

Did not feel like going back to class at all....!!!!!! I miss the sunshine in Cannes...

Ma Carte Sejour, elle arrive!!!!!

2006-11-02T11:51:00.000+01:00

Last 2 days ago can be la plus belle journee de ma vie!!! Well, presque....

Pierre-Louis phone rang...the conversation went:

PL: salut, buli!! Ca va? ( aah...its his brother calling)
Aurelien: bla bla bla bla ( since i cant hear wat he said, logic no?)
PL: ouais ca va, la routine....
A: bla bla bla....
PL: ah bon!! cest vrai??!! de la prefecture?? putain, en fin.... bon, ecoute, je vais la chercher chez toi ce soir....
A: bla bla bla
PL: bon, demain alors....je te rappelerai demain,daccord!
A: bla bla bla
PL: daccord, ca marche, ca marche.....ok.....merci! bon soiree!!

Me, waiting for him to say the word......" your carte sejour is ready to be collected!!" (I KNEW IT!!!). Those were the most beautiful words he ever said to me for the past few weeks, after the web access thingy......WOO HOOOOO!!!!!!

I finally got to travel europe, except stupid UK!!! I need visa to go to UK!! wat rubbish, sigh...
Well, je m'en fou!, pour l'instant, je vais continuer le projet de " visit spain 2006" avec mon cheri.....finger-crossed....

Halloween Eve.....

2006-10-31T18:56:00.000+01:00

Tuesday nite, halloween nite...

I dont really care about all this halloween mood...and I dont see the city embraces the excitement of jack the pumpkin, except some bars and restaurant who put their decoration into spooky stuff.

So i realized its my first month in the uni. I do feel some improvement in terms of french, understanding and social life.

Im getting up slowly but firmly, lambat tapi pasti...

My achievement for the first month:
1. Improved my french, speaking and writing ( i guess....)
2. I have seen 10 movies in a month, since i haf unlimited cinema card, which cost Euro18 per moth, this is ABSOLUTELY A GREAT DEAL!!
3. I have taken care all of my administration stuff ( carte sejour, insurance, inscription, etc). These things really ca me fait chier!!!!!
4. I have understood the social problem of France, and a bit of mentality of french students...hehe...
5. I start to dress like a french, i mean, sometimes i got so lazy to dress up to go to movies, so je me suis habiller comme n'importe quoi!
6. I enjoy sooooo much french bfast!! A hot cuppa coffee with a fresh-baked pain au chocolat from la boulagerie a cote de chez moi.
7. I have actually, bit by bit, succeeded to jot down what the profs are saying, SOMETIMES... and even theres some blanks i left cuz i didnt noe wat they said. SIgh....
8. I have actually enjoyed going to the market and do grocery shopping with my darling pierre-louis, the market people are juz the nicest and friendliest people! They are so lovely and lively!
9. I have started buying roses in the sunday market because I admitted that I do like the beauty of the red, white and yellow roses. The colors are juz so strong and bold! (and the florist is a nice lady!)
10. I have found out that actually, I CAN live without TV!!! How amazing is that! And I dont actually feel soooo desperate missing millions episodes of desperate housewives, greyz anatomy, prison break, however I am still trying to find solution by " maintaining contact in malaysia" to supply me with DVDs of whole season hehehehe!!
11. I have learnt that people are not all cold and rigid..............

In spite of all those the above, I still have one major thing to do.... I gotta find my topic for Le Memoire!!!! SOOOOONNN!!!!!! No kidding!!!

p.s: should I write my memoire in french or english....??? BIG QUESTION!!

Hari Raya??? Today?? Really??

2006-10-24T18:47:00.000+02:00

Woke up at 7am, sms my parents, had my cup of coffee, had some yoghurt with mertilles jam, went to shower and got ready to go to class which started at 8 30am.

Walked to metro station in the cold windy morning, found the station is damn packed!! ( this is my first class that started at 8 30, so i never actually knew the exact condition of metro station in this hour, it was HORRIBLE!!!). I was horrified, what a thing to start my day.

Arrived at the uni only to find out that my classmates are not at the designated classroom, oh dear.... walked around and around until we found it, and mind you, the classroom required a quite long walk cuz it is located on the "savanah" part of the uni complex. Sigh....

Had to do this "usual game" that Mr Olmedo likes to do in his first class, did it in Taylor's before.

12.30 pm, lunch time, wanted to buy sandwich that ive been craving for during puasa time. Went to the sandwich shop only to found out that the queue is like soooo looooonnggg.....!! but finally, got my sandwich and some french fries and an apple.

Start economy class at 2pm. PLeeassee someone kill me!!! It was BLOODY BORING!!! And we had it for 4 good hours, mind you!!! But we "suceeded" to make the lecturer let us go 30 minutes earlier... well....not bad lah....

Oh hey! wat do you know!!......it's Raya today!!! HHmmm......

Hari Rayaaa!!!

2006-10-22T13:10:00.000+02:00

Selamat Hari Raya Iedul Fitri, Mohon Maaf Lahir dan Bathin.

Semoga ibadah kita di bulan suci ini diterima oleh Allah SWT.

Juz wanna shout out to everyone that.....I AM DYING TO GO HOME FOR RAYAAAA!!!!!

Its gonna be my first raya away, as in AWAAAY AWAAAAY from home.....hikss hiksss...

Well, haf fun, eat loaaddss!!!! Put on holidays fat peopleeee!!!

LOve you and Miss you.

Pics

2006-10-19T08:50:00.000+02:00

I got soooo excited wen i heard they are here in Toulouse!!! This is taken after having the cheese-fondant dinner. What a gastronomical experience that was...!! Mr Wong was havin some duck breast fried in hot oil, but the thing is, his pot of oil was slowly boiling...and it made the duck meat slowly cooked....tak sabar....

The cheese pot full of melted cheese of course..... Under the black thingy, there was a flame that keeps the cheese melting...it was goooood....but it was too rich. And we ate it with bread dipped in the melting cheese ( u see the basket full of bread ).

Another type of cheese. The big black thing holding the cheese is actually the cheese-griller. The part over the cheese is hot and it melts the cheese slowly. Then we scracth the cheese with the wooden spatula thingy then we eat it with meat n bread n potatoes. Delicious.....

The waiter setting up the heavy cheese griller on our table.

Cant believe i saw them in Toulouse. It was nice seeing them again. They brought me my orderes DVDs and coffee!! Salina's coffee!! HAHA...!!

Je me suis installee....well....presque...

2006-10-18T06:39:00.000+02:00

The week-absent of my blog has been caused by....well...nothing actually, i had nothing very important to be written down here. It's all because ive been trying to get myself used to again waking up every morning and transport my draggy self to class.....sigh.... its been too long!!!

I am so lack of motivation, i juz wanna get this semester over with, and have MORE HOLIDAAAYYYSSS!!!! This time it ll be xmas hols....mmm.....curious whats waiting for me in xmas hols. I'll probably go skiing....mm nice thots...well, ok...NOT exactly skiing, juz maybe parade myself into utter embarassement in front of those dahsyat skiers, and probably my own boyfren will abandon me in the middle of the snow cuz hes too tak sabar getting me on my feet on my ski and slide away by himself.....oohh.....sigh.... Well, maybe juz to show off pictures to u guys ok!!! it could be funny seeing me on my ski but NOT skiing, action only lah....

o yea.....so i got these Desp. Housewives DVDs from dearest salina, but my laptop is having trouble reading the file from the burnt-DVDs, so i gotta download some prgoram first before i start enjoying long hours of episode-marathon. sigh.....

Last weekend, we had a grand visit from Mr Wong Heng San!! our beloved former accounting lecturer back in Tyalors College....hahahaha.....!!!! It was sooo fun!! We talked and talked for hours, all of us had tea and cake, had dinner, had a intense discussion about the future of taylors college, about our futures, about sucky france, about sucky malaysia, about magnificent france, about magnificent malaysia. It was so much fun because we actually had real conversations as in, conversation between friends, not as in student-lcturer anymore. He is really a nice guy and real funny, specially at dinner when we had to eat all those cheese with bread and some meat, hahaha, and the potatoes!! Aiyuuh...yuh....messy already..!!

And last weekend as well that we had our first party, as in party with ciggies and alcohols haha!! It was supposed to be a "house-warming" party of one of my belgian classmates, Martin. Hes blond, mohawk hairdo, cute, sweet smile, sexy arms and has this funny way of talking....mmm.... (pierre u dont read this!!) It was in his tiny flat with about 30 people inside...!!! God, imagine the ciggies smoke after 2am?? not good!!! N, oh lemme tell u something, its been sooooo long since i did party like this. So after 2 european-i-dunno-wat-but-quite-nice-beers and few glasses of rhum and orange juice and about more-than-half-pack of ciggies later....i feel funny...hihi... and the worst thing.... we had to walk home, at 2.30am, in the cold windy toulouse nite and it took us, well only 30 minutes but with all the headache and the fatigue...and seeing some african prostitutes making business at nite not helping at all...fun nite tho...

Went to prefecture yesterday, started q-ing up at 7 30am. God!! The horror of prefecture!!, Well at least this time it was worth it, because finally its done!! My carte sejour is coming!!! Ok,in one month....but still!! Im soo sooo relieved, after 4 times doing the same thing in the prefecture, now its done. Alhamdulillah.....

Hari Raya is coming.....and im not really looking forward to it. Feel more depressed even. Cant believe puasa only one more week left.

Finally ive got:
1. My own web access at home
2. My tisseo card for the metro
3. My carte sejour coming in a month
4. My own bank account, oh it reminds me of the so bitchy bank lady clerk yesterday....aarrghhh...sooo annoying! if you cant juz pretend to be nice to customers then why are u in the front desk serving customers???!! IDIOT!!

And i MUST start:
1. Studying my subjects
2. Working on some assigments
3. Thinking, real thinking i mean, about my next dissertation, NOT AGAAAINN!!!
4. Start actually opening some reference website for material reading for socio tourism, instead of friendster, eonline, people blogs, yahoo, MSN.....sigh.....
5. Get some sleep now after sahur, cuz i plan, note that, PLAN to wake up at 9am and start studying a bit before the afternoon class.

Wish me luck people..!!

Ne t'en fais pas....

2006-10-12T18:14:00.000+02:00

Im getting stressed!!! im over loaded by something which is not even overloading yet!!!!

aarrghhh i hate this feeling!!

im soooo stressed cuz i start to feel i wont be capable of doing assignments, group work, exams and even Le Mémoire in FRENCH!! GOD, mind you, in French!!!!

i feel so pressured, double pressured, juz because everything wont be in english.

Btw, i finally made my way slowly, i tried to make frens and i think im gonna make it. Not everyone is as cold as stone, some people have hearts too u know.....

but im still stressed!!! group work for upcoming tourism forum, assigments, dissertation.....AARRRGGHHHH!!!!

and i only have until the end of April, before my first training!!! AU SECOUUUURRSS!!!!

First class

2006-10-04T12:11:00.000+02:00

People!!! Yesterday i started my first day of class!!!!!! in France!!!!

Ok, First impressions of the class and the classmates:

1. the lecturer speaks so fast, imagine economy subject, where the lecturer keep talking n talking, imagine in English, BUT it was FRENCH!!! im LOOOSSSTT!!!

2. the classmates mostly girls, in tourism class there are abt 30 of us, with only 3 guys including pierre-louis hahah!!

3. As a result, the class look so not lively, cuz the girls dont seem so friendly and they are like those groopies n all.

4. NOBODY is curious about the fact that there is a foreign student and there is someone who juz came back from malaysia in their class. I mean, imagine if there is an african or a puerto rican or watever in our class, wont u be curious and start asking question about God knows what to her/him??? Maybe thats what they are, ignorant. Except, there is one blond guy whom i forgot the name, hes quite nice and friendly. He looks more human than the others.

5. Most of them have the same hair, blond or dark hair with blond highlight....uurrghh!!! NO, i am not jealous!!

This blog is soooooo lacking ot pictures, no time and no internet of my own.

Forgive me.

The appartment

2006-09-29T15:29:00.000+02:00

So, we have settled down. We arranged the furnitures, we shopped for food in the market nearby, i love going to market here, the fruit and veggie look so fresh and we get our fix phone fixed and we are waiting for our internet line. Thats why im sooo deprived from cyber life now....sigh...

And as result, this blog will be abandoned for a while.

Oh....!!! RONALD is here!!! hes in angers, telah mendarat dengan selamat and he survived the train ride all the way to Angers St Laud!!

YEEEEYYYY!!!!! one more of Slip Rouges family is down!!! HAHAHA!!

Juz the week....

2006-09-23T13:02:00.000+02:00

Last weekend, we went to Toulouse, yet again, to transport the sofa and some other heavy stuff.

We settled the flat, went to Ikea to buy some furniture, went to Carrefour to buy a whole-life stock, really, I thot we were supplying ourselves for like therez gonna be an Armageddon or something.

We built the IKEAz DIY meubles. They look nice in the new flat.

Came back on Sunday evening. Reach Tours juz after midnite. Got hungry, ate tomato salad. No theres no mamak here, how nice if there was. Cross the road, walk for 1 minute, sit down and order your maggi goreng and teh ais. Sigh.... simple things like that make me miss Malaysia so much.

Spent the whole week in Tours, cycling to second hand electronic shop trying to find cheap TV. Where during the whole journey, I whinned and whinned for that the road were hilly, I had to pedal extra and at the end I hurt my butt for cycling. SIgh.... so spoilt me.

Got my hair cut, loving the shoulder-length curls. At least didnt spend € 38 for a hair cut for nothing.

Bought our cinema card for unlimited movies for a year!!! YEESSS for a year!!!! we can watch any movies, watever, whenever in france of course..... for a good deal.

Finally, my family are able to sms me now, after hunting for sim card, here and there, I decided SFR is my next mobile provider. And now i found out that my mum already started buying things for me and to be sent over. She bought a whole pack of, what else than..... Indomie goreng!!!! YUUUMMMYYY!!!

Watched I AM SAM last nite wit pierre and his dad, and I cried again, but not as bad as the first time i watched it. Beautiful movie that is.

Nothing of importance happened this week, except that we know we love each other so dearly and I am never letting anything more precious than a million dollar diamond go out of my sight.... or in this case... LIFE...

2006-09-10T11:35:00.000+02:00

I dunno how to start this post.

I am sad today. I am depressed. I am emotional. I have been crying the whole nite last nite. I am alone at home rite now and it doesn't help at all.

I cant believe I miss my graduation day today, which happens exactly now, Sunday in KLCC. It's not wearing the robe and the hat and all that, it's the get together, being reunited with all my classmates again. Meeting them again after almost a year, laughing, sharing stories, telling the latest news, bla bla bla...

I cant be a part of that. I cant be amongs my best friends to celebrate this day and laff our hearts out. U guys have no idea how jealous and sad I was when I heard everyone is coming and u all gonna be spending time together, catching the good old days....drinking, outing, gossiping, dining....

Then i started thinking, what am I doin here? All alone in Paris, instead of enjoying myself with them in KL. Why did i come so early? Why didn't I wait for the gradz day then only i leave? All these questions had been haunting me so much these few days, specially today.

I start asking myself, will my days will be better when i start college? Will i make new friends? Will i be able to adapt myself with the rest of the classmates? Will they like me? Will they find me weird? Will they talk to me? Will they help me with class projects and assigments or they will juz ignore me and talk about me behind my back?

It's not healthy to think too much abt it i know; but I cant help myself. I am scared. I am worried. I keep thinking of the worst things. I should juz stay positive. I should consider myself lucky hafin the oppurtunity that probably some one else would love to have it so much but could not have it. I should be thankful to be here, opening myself to a new world and learning things ive never learnt before, seeing new things, speaking a new language that many people wish to speak it, explore the country which many people wish to go to.

Many people said it's so cool, so nice, so jealous-ing, so envy-ing hearing that I'm in France now to study. And I always say to myself that it's not as nice as u guys might think. But then again, maybe i should start thinking so. I should start thinking that I am lucky, I should start thinking twice before to complain about small small things, I should start being thankful for what I have now, having to live with a nice family who takes care of me very well, having a boyfriend who put me above anything in his life and never stop to make me happy and make sure im always safe. having parents who support me till the end, financially and spiritually, cuz I know I dont cost cheap, for sure!!

I am jealous of my friends some times who already have jobs and earning their own living. And me, I'm still stuck here, studying. SIGH....... But how many times I heard people around me saying how happy and great it is to study or to already completed their masters. And I heard so many of my friends finding working life is not as fun as college life, its pressuring, its stressful, its tiring and bla bla bla.... So..I guess i juz have to absorb the best aspects in life, no?!

Well, I think i juz have to think twice before complaining about small little things. Now that I am here, I should start embracing the great opportunities coming ahead of me. I am in France to study, and i have the chance to improve my french, the language which everyone wishes to be able to speak, the country which is a cliché dreams of most people to visit. There are many great things here in France, there are soooo many interesting people here, God knows which origins they are from. There are so much more freedom to express urself here. U can dress up as u like, different from everybody else, u can put different colors of eye-shadows on each eyelid, u can wear a transparent blouse that ur bras almost totally visible without ANYBODY staring weirdly at u, judging u, wishpering about u or even giving those freaky horny stare.

And imagine all those traveling I can do here during holidays!! I have always wanted to backpack around europe and visit at least half of European countries. HAHA!! I wanna learn how to ski, to snow board (if i dont start screaming like a crazy asian tourist), to swim in mediterranean sea, to see tree leaves turning reddish brown in autumn and even Egypt and Marrocco is only 3 hrs away by plane!! How cool!!

So, what am I complaining about?? Well, im totally agree with Miss Ee May who said that life is juz like a blank white canvas, it's up to us to paint it colorful or colorless and to draw beautiful things on it.

Of The Week

2006-09-06T11:15:00.000+02:00

Why have I been deprived from my blog for a while? It's because last week i was occupied with the demenagement of Genier family. My time was dedicated for scrubbing floor, wiping cupboards, vacuuming dusty corners and transporting things from level 2 to the ground level. Until i sakit kaki u know...

Well, it's all done now. All moved to the new house which is much smaller than before. And everything is still a mess down there. Even i haf to sleep with piles and piles of books and BDs. What do you do in a time like this?? U escape to Paris!!!! TO SHOOOOPP!!! hahahhaha!!

Yeap, ladies and gentleman, im in Paris now, AGAIN OKAAAAYY.... understood well.... wat to do, theres no internet in Tours, nothing i can do to help them to arrange the stuff ( cuz i haf to rebuild all the tall tall shelves for the books, and its impossible for me to do it alone!), im all alone during the day, and most of all, theres no PIERRE-LOUIS!! So, i come and look for him in Paris. simple as that.

This is a news for small asian girls out there!! It's sooo damn hard to look for a winter coat that fits perfectly on us. Well, ok in this case, for me.

We were soooo tired from walking around Paris from one shop to another, looking for the perfect coat for me. yah...pierre yang jadi korban, kaki and punggung pegel2 hehee... We went to 4 Zara outlets!! to Mango, to H&M ( which sukcs big time!), to WE, to Alain Mannikain, to Naf Naf, and god knows what other shops we went in to.
So we went into Zara Kids, after trying and trying and whining, off and on and off and on, VOILAAAA!!! I found a perfetct one! My perfect size (11-13 yrs old), not too long from the knee, perfect arm length and fits my waist and chest perfectly!! YEEEYYYY!! i was so ecstatic! wrong! Pierre was more ecstatic than me, he even thanked God for this hahahhaa.... All his effort, back pain, legs pain, thirst, heat and hunger are all paid for, after goin in and out 4 Zara outlets and 2 Zara Kids and a zillion other outlets in Paris.

Mission of the day accomplished by me getting a winter coat and one nice pull, To Kill A Mockingbird novel from Fnac, 2 pairs of original socks, a daily-vaginal-cleaning soap (it's very important), some instant noodles and the biggest bottle of chilli sauce from Asian Supermarché.

Oh, when I was in Quartier Chinois, in Place d'Italie, it was so funny cuz i really felt like i was in China or Bangkok or something, even the centre commercial resembles the ones in Asia, u know like those sungai wang thingy. Seriously! haha. i was so amazed.

Another thing i noticed, all the asian restaurants, either sell chinese, japanese, thai and vietnamese food. and funny thing they sometimes sell either 3 of them in the same restaurant. I mean, I have never seen that before a restaurant specialized in chinese, thai and vietnamese food ALL in one. That was something. Oh, theres no Indonesian food!!!???? t'inquiétes pas, elle arrive!!

p.s: Je voudrais te remercie pour trouver (accidently with your sharp eagle eyes) le manteau marron et le joli pull! et for saving my life from cold winter.....later....

2006-08-27T12:01:00.000+02:00

One more member of Les Slip Rouges family had left Malaysia and merantau ke negri sebrang ( waaay waaaay sebrang. hehe)

Gan is here.

The famous Mr. Chern Hwei has joined us (me & si theng), landed safely in France.

No, i havent got the chance to see him. Would like to know how he looks like now. Haha!

First day in France, he sms-ed me and complained (already!) that everything is so expensive here. Oh well.....

One more left. Mr. Ronald-in-the-middle. Have you packed your bag? Will be glad to see you here again....

2006-08-27T11:58:00.000+02:00

so excited so excited so exciteeeeeeddd!!!!!!

ive been counting down the days since wednesday morning, 8 am, that is...

nooo...im not excited about Gan's arrival (dont be perasan first, ok!) tho i AM happy you're here. But it concerns another matter. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPeeeeyyyyyyy....!!

The Day Didn't Turn Up So Bad After All

2006-08-23T12:04:00.000+02:00

This is why I love Pierre-Louis so damn much... He surprised me with a special dinner, there were smoked salmon on the table, taboulle (is this how its spelled?), some sliced beef, and some "sparkling" boisson, hehe if you know wat i mean (cant type name here). And for dessert.... a delicious, melt in the mouth birthday cake ( chocolat outside, vanilla and i dunno wat cream on the inside and A LOOTT of strawberries and blue berries on top juz how i LOVE it), with number 22 candles on top of it! AAAWWWW......isnt he the sweetest guy in the world....

My 22nd Birthday cake, first bday nite in France....oh sooo delicious... mmmmhh......

My birthday present from Pierre-Louis, 3 pieces of canvas board, a CD of 100 pictures of what we lived in a year, a box of UHU tack-it and a RED (my fave color) birthday card full of words of love.... aaww....how can i not melt.... LOVE HIM TO PIECES!

Me and my birthday cake and two bunny fingers of Mr. Genier ( dasar iseng!)

Well, no need of explanation here... hehe... love him love him love him..!!!

Im 22 todaaaaay!!!!!

2006-08-22T19:39:00.000+02:00

Happy Birthday to me! Ok, according to the date of the blog, it was yesterday. But it is still 22 of august here in France. oh well, im 6 hrs younger here...YEYYY!! haha!

My birthday this year is definitely not as happening as the years before, as im sure u guys can imagine. I woke up with a surprise present from him, which was very lovely and i definitely love it. On the other side, I woke up with a huge hole in my heart instead of a jumping-joy.

Im alone here, accept with my dearest Pierre-Louis, but how joyful can it be without ur dearest friends beside you, laugh with you or AT you even, drinking with you, eating the birthday cake with you, taking hillarious pictures with you and all that.

Well, i admit today, my dear blog, that i feel lonely without feeling the presence of my precious frenz like i always had before. There are many people surrounding me today, wishing a delightful birthday and I was even busy with the house-moving thing, but still a big part of me feel extremely lonely without the laughter, kisses and hugs of my frenz and family back home.

The whole day today, Tuesday 22 august 2006, i was longing to go home, I was longing to be a part of their laughter, i was longing to be near my mum, my dad and my brother. I envy those of you who can see each other again in a month time for the graduation. U guys have NO IDEA how sad and upset i am to know that i wont be able to join all of you whom i miss dearly.... Im jealous and im envious....

ps: to Andri, selamat menjalani hidup baru ya bang...semoga semua berjalan lancar. Im verry sorry i cant be there, even though i wanted to be so much. Kamu pasti sibuk ya sekarang, it feels so weird that bukan aku yang disana dan mendampingi kamu, tapi I wish u all the best in life.

Little Big Things

2006-08-19T19:03:00.000+02:00

**As today i was bz packing, well ok, not TOO bz as i can still chat with frens, download songs, and writing this very blog, I had a little surprising visit from Clément and Carine!! Two of pierre-louis' good friends who came to visit Malaysia last year. And yea!! today i met them here!! in France, in Tours, in Pierre-Louis' house, omg how weird is dat... haha!! It was fun and funny.

** Pierre came two days ago, i was OVERJOYED!! We managed to "clear" things up. Things which had not been lovely for the past few days. Bought a new HP number for me. YEEEEAAYY!! i have my own phone now, so so glad. BUT how sucks it is that ppl cant reply my sms from Malaysia. Sigh....another reason why, im asking myself, did i come to this country...

**I love my Pierre-Louis, i know cliché, but it's true...love him from head to toe...back to front...HEHEHE!!

** I miss my family SOOO BAADD....i want my mummy...

** I miss cecilia, carolyne, ifa, salina, linda, hanna, owen and ALL of you...

** I miss tije, anisa and febi SOOOO MUCH!!

** I miss bayu, eka, diana, reza, azmi....

** I miss via, dina, eni, weni, flora...

** I miss Pierre-Louis.....

Dear diary...

2006-08-18T00:50:00.000+02:00

saya lagi sedih. dan saya lagi bahagia.

sayang sama seseorang itu indah. apalagi kalau dia bener2 sayang sama kamu balik. dan he treats u like "ratu sejagad" of his life, more over, when nobody treats u seperti dia sebelumnya, never in the past 21 years of ur life.

i love him more than anything. i want him always like ive never wanted anyone before. c'est incroyable mais c'est vrai!

it's really hard to be frequently away from him. during his visit or mine, days always go fast. tidak terasa, ternyata hari sudah berakhir et il faut qu'il parte. time is never enough for both of us. it is never enough to tell each other que nous nous manqons enormement. how much we hate to be part with each other. it's never enough for us, et c'est pour ca, a mon avis, qu'il a raison why he always express himself. and i hope i do it enough for him. cuz now i realize, time is never enough.

the joy and the little butterflies in my stomach wen i see him and jump in his warm embrace...it's wordless...tapi indah...

I conquered Le Pyrénées...!!

2006-08-17T20:44:00.000+02:00

well, ok not really conquered but I really did climb mount Pyrénées which took me 5 hours to go up and down the mountain. Me, Jocelyne and Vincent (pierre's dad) went down to Toulouse last weekend for 4 days, and on the 2nd day we went to Le Pyrénées and took the "easy" randonée because there was a first-timer, ME!!

It was not so easy after all because it was sooo tiring and it was so long, however the view from up there is amazing... cuz ive never really climbed a mountain before, i did it in my grandma's place in Cideng but it was never really been a climb (sometimes we even "climbed" by car, d'uh!), so this one was definitely an experience.

Then, the next day, when i still didnt recover my fatigue, AGAIN I had to wake up early cuz we were planning to go to the beach. This time it was by the Mediterranean Sea, on the south of France. It was beautiful and the weather was good. Jocelyne and Lucie (pierre's brother's gf) were so eager to go sun-bathing, me? mmm....not so much...HELLO!! je suis deja bronzée! so i stayed for like...15 minutes and went to buy ice cream instead and called pierre-louis who is in Paris and whom i missed so damn much. But the phone call didnt end up really "peaceful", I got really upset over some stuff and we "argued" like we had never argued since a long time. Well, in the end we hit a happy ending, like always... rite darling!! (however, i AM really sorry for you-know-what-happened).

We had interesting dinner. A huge 3 sticks of "sate" of beef and sea food accompanied with exotic sauces (including, indonesian satay sauce, which turned up did not taste like the original AT ALL, more like an indian curry sauce, they shud change the name)

I browsed around in IKEA the next afternoon, thinking of what to buy for the new studio room. Made my long list of purchase, i was so excited cuz i love doing this, making shopping list and ofcourse to SHOP!

Oh, I need winter clothes real soon, cuz its getting cold in here...YEY! more shopping coming....!!! Warm winter jacket, a winter hat, a pair of winter shoes and trousers, lotsa socks, and any other items needed. hehe. im NOT exagerrating here, i DO need to cover myself since i haf to ride a bike to the uni! imagine!

I like my new studio room, its not too big or too small. juz nice. Gonna make it real comfy. Rite darling!!