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bruneck!

2006-12-31T10:44:00.000-08:00

cote d'azur!

2006-11-28T15:48:00.000-08:00

poland roundup...

2006-11-18T16:56:00.000-08:00

daytrips out of krakow!

2006-11-18T16:54:00.001-08:00

and then to krakow!

2006-11-18T16:54:00.000-08:00

warsaw!

2006-11-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

poland posts long overdue - zakopane!

2006-11-18T15:31:00.000-08:00

yesyes its been a long time! i've been busy with work ever since i got back to paris, so much so i havent had the time to update! anyway, these photos were in zakopane, a day trip we made from krakow. it wasnt snowing there though, not like in warsaw, which was a good thing too, if not we wouldn't have been able to go up the mountain to catch such an awesome view of the town. and the sunset. and the mountains.

escape to warsaw!

2006-11-04T16:04:00.000-08:00

haha yes! escape from what? of course school la.. haha... just missing a few lessons of school, but i figured life is more important than school, so here i am in warsaw, poland! yea so many people have been asking why poland? which is precisely why poland cos i dont know why either and i'm here to find out.. haha...

oh yes.. and... (everyone has a first time) ITS SNOWING!! haha.. u cldnt believe how i was jumping around outside the airport in the snow the moment i saw it fall wahhaa! suaku singaporean.. its the 2nd night here now, i'm in the hostel now, and its still snowing heavily outside as i type.. and its so nice and cosy inside. i still cant quite get enough of the funny white stuff flying all over outside the window.

i MUST mention, strangely this part of eastern europe reminds me a little of JB. its just not as developped as the rest of western europe and its nice this way... and everything is SO DAMN cheap.. and the conversion rate for the polish currency (the zloty) is similar to that of the ringgit.. haha.. and even some spelling like "komputer" just reminds me of that wee-bit of mat-lang..

its nice also cos their isnt the regular tourist trail... in fact, there arent many "attractions" to start with in warsaw.. which is nice cos things are as they are.. such as the old towns that we visited... not specially glammed up to earn that extra tourist buck.

the shops along the streets in the old town were really nice. i felt like i was in an rpg game in fact.. haha... cos u have those antique shops selling old badges and cutlery and the likes... and some other shops selling leather gloves/boots.. some selling coats and all.. haha its like how you equip your character at these shops in the old towns before u get them out to battle...

and lastly, to end off, nothing beats meeting up with a close friend of yours halfway round the world... especially when she's exceptionally bimbotic and funny and crappy, just like me! in fact she's my travel partner, along with this other smu guy, for this short 6-day poland trip...

yup so we're done with warsaw, and will be heading south next towards krakow first thing tmw morning... yup, till then!

concrete!

2006-10-31T16:53:00.000-08:00

daylight savings! huh whats that?

2006-10-31T16:51:00.000-08:00

bordeaux trip - wine and vineyards!

2006-10-31T16:48:00.000-08:00

the vineyards are about an hour drive up from the nice town of bordeaux... well it was nice being in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by vast fields of nothing but vineyards! and the chateaus of course which is where the harvested grapes are processed into fruit tree grape juice. $2.50 per pack, buy 2 for 4.45 only! while stocks last!

fontainebleau on 14th october!

2006-10-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

musee d'orsay

2006-10-10T04:36:00.000-07:00

ah finally... we found time to visit one of those huge museums.. thanks to the prof who didn't turn up for our urban seminar... we were taken aback as to how long the queue was.. i mean.. its tuesday morning 10am! how more rare can a timing get - 10am on a weekday! and it wasn't even one of those 1st sundays of a month where museum entry all over france is free!

anyhows, the best part is that we've got our free museum pass! that's none other than our architecture school student card which allows us free entry into most museums in france! hurrah! wonder if we could have taken the express queue though. after all we're busy students u know, haven't got much time to waste on queueing..

its a really nice interior space - the musee d'orsay... it was converted from an old train station and put into use now as a museum.. have a look at the photos!

fongseng in france! malay stall we decided!

2006-10-10T04:30:00.000-07:00

wah haha! well we were staying up doing work last night or rather trying to get some work done (most of it was spent playing 7hand poker with fellow msnies) when we eventually got hungry! whats new... it was about 4am? and we decided on having supper - something which was closer to home... what could have been better than this!

one prata kosong, one egg prata and one milo dinosaur...
omg i started off with the kosong and i guess i was literally gobbling it down... havent tasted something so "supper-good" in quite a while.. and the dinosaur.. woohoo. i'll let the pictures do the talking.

you bet i was one happy man.

munich (besides oktoberfest)

2006-10-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

the bus ride there was way long... like 12hrs? but it was alrite as it was an overnight thing, leaving us charged and with a whole day to immerse ourselves in the festive mood when we reached munich the next morning..

that's "dolce".. a nice gal we met on the bus ride there and she was helping us with directions and what train to take... somehow she was more lost than us...

the 2nd day at munich was spent touring the town... and of course eating more bratwurst and german delights.. there was the nice marketplace area at viktualienmarkt where they have all the beer gardens and stalls selling sausages, pork knuckles, cheese, wine and the likes... quite a nice place to hang out with the sunlight streaming through the leaves in the beer gardens...

we also visited the olympiapark.. its kinda nice, cos the whole olympics park was built on this hilly landscape.. with a lake in the middle.. so they have the different sports complexes, the pool, gymnasium, track stadium all sprawled out across the landscape. and the architecture sorta responds to that landscape... its quite amazing really this piece of architecture bearing in mind it was used for the 1972 munich olympics, which means that it was built during that time... cos there's this tensile roof structure with curved plexiglass as is canopy, which is used all throughout the olympiapark... to me it still looks quite modernish.. whaddya think?

in the evening we went to the allianz arena.. yes, that bubbly balloony stadium. too bad didnt get to see it lit up, i think it happens only when there are matches...
yup, with that i round up my munich getaway! (which was at the expense of 2 classes -it was well worth it anyways... ) ah back to school life and work... merde!

short trip to munich, for what else other than beeR!

2006-10-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

ah me and kaixin headed down to munich for the oktoberfest.. even though it was the last day of the beer festival, we still decided on going cos i feel such events shouldnt be missed! and true enough, it was great... just being there to experience the liveliness of the festival.. come to think of it, its a lil crazy, people from all over germany, all over the world gathering in that one place to fill their bellies with beer! people singing dancing... drinking.. getting drunk.. haha... it was funny cos we stumbled across a casualty being evacuated in a trolley. it was 1pm then! i guess he had a tad too much to drink...

as for me, a 1-litre mug was more than enough... knowing how functional my liver is, it was enough to get me all red...the beer is a special oktoberfest brew apparently, it had this nice fragrant scent on it.. thank goodness, can you imagine one litre of bad beer.. haha puke. oh yes puke sounds familiar.. i wont go there.

ah well i'll let the photos do the talking.. oh yes and the video too.

restaurant @ victor hugo - just to clarify!

2006-09-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

haha lotsa people been asking me how broke i am now ever since my msn nick states that i've been eating restaurant food here in paris every night! haha you're wrong! in fact i've been budgeting just fine... and about the restaurant food every night? well i call it the restaurant victor hugo... cos thats where we live and eat every night! the food's as good as that of the restaurants... and even better cos there aren't such stuff like dumplings and chicken rice anywhere around here! im sure any of the guests who have tasted the good food here will agree to that!

and of course, this wouldn't have been possible without the master chef madamoiselle jiaxin! ah yippee blessed are we...

history of paris - 2nd site visit

2006-09-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

this morning we had a site visit for our history of paris module... it was in the 3rd arondissement of paris... along the border where the wall once stood, as some sort of a fortification of paris. now all thats left is the two gates, "porte st denis" and "porte st martin" which dont actually serve as gates, but more like historical monuments... before it gets boring, maybe we do a recap! yes, of my best friend in school...

as the french say - voila!

yes... dont know if you guys remember him, yup he's that cute professor whom we thought came directly off the harry porter set.. well i must say, as interesting as he looks, he's really quite a nice chap. although the visit is conducted in french, he'll always make an effort to summarize a few lines in english for us before we move on to the next spot, just so that we can catch on... if not i'd think we'd be so totally lost.. maybe, to give you an idea of how lost we are, i'll show you a clip of what it's like to try to understand someone speaking french. haha, and yes, just as i've promised a few posts back - there you have it! Mr Maede, in video format!

HOW TO UNDERSTAND ANYTHING SIA!

anyhow i hope you loved it - just as much as i do haha! we always feel that as long as we can catch about 20% of what he's saying, we're happy... haha... we're so in need of that book in english...

what you get when you live near the eiffel

2006-09-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

it has happened a few times.. i just think its hilarious and that i should share it...

well as you know we all live near the eiffel... so.. its pretty touristy this place. i was jogging the other evening, when i went past an american couple. it was along the street that has quite a symmetrical view, buildings on both sides, the road leading up to the eiffel.... yea, and the lady went.. "ohmygosh... this is the moment i've been waiting for! just look at that honey!" and then both of them stood and stared at the eiffel in awe...

likewise, today on the metro on my way back, two girls i presume from holland by the accent they were speaking in, suddenly realised that the view of eiffel was just out of the window... and you can see how excited they got just to see the eiffel!

well, there's always a first time i guess. what was mine like again?

oh what festival this week? oh.. oh yes, festival of gardens.

2006-09-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

ok its really funny how every weekend is like some festival in paris. well its good i guess cos it keeps the french occupied... at least they wont think of going on strike that often now that they've got stuff like.. mmm .. festival of gardens.

anyway, yea just to set it right, i didnt go to the gardens just cos it was festival of gardens... it was behind the museum carnavalet that i went to... it was recommended by our professor (oh yes that funny guy in that costume) so that we'd know a little more of the history of paris since we can't really catch on in class cos its conducted in french... yea it would've been a fruitful visit... sadly, it was all in french too. so.. well.. wasnt really able to appreciate the works in the museum much... nor learn anything much about paris' history.

ah but on my way out i stumbled across this book in the gift shop! glimmer of hope! i'm sure u know what it is just from its book cover design!

but damn its still in french... anyway it translates to - paris (its history, quarters and monuments)for dummies... i must go find myself an english version of it someday... then we'll finally know a bit more about paris' history heh.

fellow singaporeans in france!

2006-09-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

over friday night we had some friends from SMU (kangming, yuanshan, xiaolin) bunking in with us in paris! we met them on the plane.. that 3am flight leaving singapore.. quite a coincidence... and its good we're still in contact! they live near normandy... in a town called Rouen about an hour away from paris...
someday i should be heading there to check out the beaches and stuff...

and we had a really yummy dinner! fried fish fillet with salad all wrapped in the pitas skin! macham kebap!

the sacre coeur @ montmartre

2006-09-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

this was where they filmed a scene in the movie "amelie"... its the famous church atop a hill which overlooks paris... u can see the whole urban fabric of paris at one glance!

anyway yea there's this nice artist's village just behind the church... its really nice to watch them paint.. their brushstrokes, drawing styles.. etc.. its fun watching them draw the portraits.. especially so when u see that the portrait drawing isnt really quite like the model and how he tries to "salvage" the situation...

also caught some photos of the nice streets there and the parisienne shopfronts... i just think there's a certain feel to it.. which is why j'aime la france!

my studiomate cum projectmate!

2006-09-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

anyway after 3 whole weeks the studio groupings are finally out.... the four of us have been split into 3 studios. we were thinking how they'd split four of us into three studio groups (4,0,0 or 2,2,0 which is decent, or 3,1,0 which is evil, and 2,1,1 which is twice as evil)and yes, 2,1,1 we had. (jiaxin and kaixin, yuying, me) its good im alone i guess... after all i didnt come halfway round the world to have singaporean studiomates!

this sem i think our design project is to be done in pairs...

there u go! that's sarra my projectmate... she's from tunisia.. she's just switched over to this school here in france. its good that they speak a lil french back there, because she so totally understands everything in class... and the best part is, she's nice. cos she tries to help whenever i look blur and whenever she knows i'm lost. which is all the time... so its good i guess, she corrects my french i correct her english. she's nice. i'm nice. it's all good...

freeflow@shi'ans...

2006-09-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

ah where do i begin.

we were invited to shi'an and weeloon's place last friday night for a drinking session! and also to celebrate some friends' birthdays... hey their apartment was nice and cosy and in the lively district where moulin rouge is.. how apt that their apartment was located there cos we were blasting trance music and drinking the night away. (i bet if we do that in our apartment here it would take 10 mins before someone comes knocking)

so we started drinking... and drinking... we played silly card games too, and somehow i kept losing, so i kept drinking... and drinking...

it was good...

it was all good...

till.

then it was better... haha though my way back was still kinda with a heavy head... but i made it anyhow! thanks for the wonderful night guys! funny but i think puking actually had a positive effect on my body? like all the shit that's in there - stuff which've been stuck there for ages, all coming out at one go.. haha
so much so that i felt so good the next morning i was the first to wake up. and i didnt feel the least bit hungover. i was freshed instead, ready for the weekend. lol.

anyway.. i really gotta give it to the hosts... it was such a wonderful night.. the atmosphere... the improvised bar and bar drinks... the making sure everyone had a fair share to drink... yea.. i think its apt that i put this here...

sunset in paris

2006-09-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

ah these few days been kinda cooped up with work or.. i dont know.. just seem to be bogged down by stuff.. havent been able to get out and around much either, so i decided to get some air.. go running. as from the sound advice of waiyu :) ah yes and i guess it really worked! in fact, i really had a good time running... never realised that all the sights in paris can be reached just by running!

was running along river seine, as the sun was setting... its fun, cos you're just zipping through the endless tourists flooding the eiffel, the river, and whatnot... and for once you aren't one of 'em! it just feels great to be part of paris.. to be living here sorta.. and the best part is - u have it everyday... so its unlike that when you're travelling on holiday, and u try to cram and squeeze everything into that tight schedule to get the most out of your time there, and end up missing everything..

anyhow - here are the pics! enjoy 'em orangey!

crazy queue, museum morning, autumn shots, and the arc de triomphe

2006-09-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

Today was rather disappointing... went to church in the morning and after that was supposed to go to the president's office since its "jour de patrimoine" (day of culture) with hanan. When we got to the queue it was like u-wont-believe-it kind of long. I asked the French people directly in front of me in the queue how long it would take before we finally reached the office, and he said maybe four hours... having invited friends over to my place to catch the Liverpool-Chelsea and Man U-Arsenal games... I couldnt possibly have queued on... hence the disappointment cos its like istana where its only open one day of the year? Hah... but I've since gotten over it.. oh yes, and worse still, man utd registers their first lost of the season. To arsenal some more. And Chelsea wins undeservingly! So yea as I said today kinda sucked :P

Anyhow, hanan was a wee bit late this morning, so I was roaming around champs-elysee (the belt from the arc de triomphe all the way to the louvre) snapping some nature shots... the leaves are all turning that orangey shade of autumn now...

oh yes and I went into a museum too to kill time.. act artsy-fartsy.

We had sambal fish and ikan bilis with nasi lemak rice for dinner! Kudos to jiaxin once again... although the sambal sauce used wasn't exactly the perfect one, but it was good enough! We invited this guy who's been here for 5 years for dinner... he came straight after jc... cos he was packing up to do his final year in paris, so he has lotsa things to clear, which means we have lotsa things to take haha! So.. hmm I thought it'd be nice to ask him over for dinner, and learn all things france from him..

After dinner, since there was still a bit of the "day of culture" left (it's the culture weekend... sat and sun, where all museums and most sights are free entry) we popped down to the arc de triomphe - just down the street haha... never actually been up there... the last time was 2years+ ago with waiyu... it's a nice view from above, being right smack in the middle of the panopticon... its like at the end of each street u see something from the arc... yea.. well I guess it's a nice ending to the Sunday, despite all its misses (losses).

beautiful day. hmm.

2006-09-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

boring boring boring!!! its sucha draggy day at school...

the french are hmm quite inefficient people i guess. we arrived in school at 9 in the morning. but the tutors had not arrived yet. when they eventually did at nine fifteen, they went to get coffee at the cafe. and guess what, the venue still wasnt known for studio that day. its only like an hour later when things got started.

anyhow, its a relack-jack country i guess. i like.

we finally reached lunchbreak, and since we felt rather cooped up in school we headed off to a really nice park!

just glad that it was so much more exciting at night... its really lively, the fireworks show.. soooo many people turned up at la defense (coincidentally our site analysis site... see not bad ah we go for night study of the site too) it was interesting cos it was not like any other fireworks display. the fireworks are really low, and the grande arch sort of forms the picture frame for the fireworks... also, because all the buildings there are severely reflective due to their super-glazing... we get reflections of the fireworks on the left and the right side.. hence making it a.. umm.. surround experience.. haha.

also, there was musical accompaniment.. kinda like our musical fountain... and to various themes.. there were 4 parts... spanish first, chinese, italian, and lastly french... it was pretty good.. seeing how the fireworks artists tie in music and lights and colour and rhythm coordination... i believe it was a good half an hour of fabulous fireworks!

here's a video of the part that's the french theme. played to the amelie soundtrack for one part of it... cool beans! enjoy!

our nutty professor

2006-09-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

oh yes i MUST introduce you guys to our professor for the "History of Paris" module. wahahah... gosh for the first lesson we had last week, we just couldn't help but think he came directly off the set of harry potter or something... ah if u could hear him speak its even better... he has this funny way of talking and his facial expressions too are... hmm.. how should i put it...rather animated.

its funny cos today we had a out-of-classroom session around paris where he'd take us through the streets of a certain district and describe to us the architecture of the old buildings etc.. its a whole big group he's taking out, and yea i keep seeing the other students sneaking up a photo of him... its hilarious! and so i decided to be one of them... for the greater good!

ah the best part is, immediately after i took the photos, two mexican gals came up to me with their email addresses, asking for me to send them the photo of him. whahah. i guess its in really high demand here! (and what a wonderful way to make new friends too, aint it?)

rocks!
(oh yes, did i mention? he always wears the same costume erm outfit! that's just like... hmm... who was it.. hmm... ah yes ronald mcdonald...)

the week so far...

2006-09-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

guess we've all pretty much settled into the pace of things here... monday marked the start of week 2... with classes as per normal... on monday class starts at 2pm. i decided to blade to school just to get some life juice in... and yea well it wasnt that bad, just that 1 it was a bloody hot day and 2 it wasnt that near... like 50mins in total... but nevertheless some distance is good! after all blading gives u toned asses right? just glad i arrived on time and more importantly injury-free.

ah - here are some photos taken during class.

on tuesday we had a site visit to this place called val d'europe.. its like this new plot of land in the midst of development.. its for our urban module, we're studying how the buildings are planned out in that new district... its quite interesting tho, to know that prolly 2 years ago nothing was here, and now this whole town is built above the high speed train TGV line, with the shopping arcade cutting across, above the train line which heads toward disneyland (just 1 more stop from here)

first up are some pics of us on the RER train line, on the way there!

and of course, some pics of us at disneyland. purely on a site visit basis. bleah.

in the evening we headed out to this place called La Defense, its the CBD area of paris... with all the super glazed skyscrapers... yea... this was another site visit.. for our main design module.... but i had missed out on visiting this place the previous times i was here... so its not too bad a deal! its pretty interesting too, the way the whole plot is conceived...

sunday is good food day!

2006-09-10T15:48:00.000-07:00

site analysis + floor plan

2006-09-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

we spent last night watching "swimming pool" an RA film in french and english... on the nice blue couch.. not bad eh... we've got a DVD player... and next monday the cable TV will come too! which means i can watch EPL live! woohoo...

most importantly is the 24h natural airconditioning! so shiok lor.
had a really good sleep last night and woke at 1pm today... shiok! although still not enough to cover for the lack of sleep the whole week due to 9am classes.

anyway we're all really happy that all the appliances have finally arrived.. and the house feels so nice right now! with the warm orangey light in the living room and all... the washing machine and dryer have been working round the clock cos of all the overdue laundry haha! just glad i've got fresh undies to wear now. (i was down to my last one yesterday... -it was yellow in colour, just for the record)

anyway, in the afternoon we did some grocery shopping and then jiaxin cooked some nice pork with onions and some spaghetti... ahh really reminds me of singaporean food! and my gf still rubs it in, sharing with me her chomp chomp experience last night! ah... FUG! just glad that jiaxin is quite a chef here... if not.. haha...

thats the floor plan of our apartment... i think its large enough for us to live comfortably here... about 64m2 i think... since its pretty much a 8m x 8m floor area... kinda nice tho, i like the idea that we have a walk in wardrobe, and that we can walk through it to the showers and then the bedroom and then the living room.. the only fatal flaw is the kitchen - the door which swings inwards and blocks the way. thats a huge no-no for us architects cos its just plain impractical!

oh and in case u're wondering, the french dont shit and shower in the same toilet! so we have the WC on one corner, and the shower on the other! there's this thing that looks like the toilet bowl in the shower but it isnt! its a bidet.. for cleaning your dirty stinky arses... but since we have none of those, we dont actually use it.

and here's the site analysis of where we live! haha check out the urban layout here in paris man... kinda chaotic huh.. but its cool, cos at the end of every major road, if you dont see the eiffel, you'll see the arc de triomphe, if not, you've prolly gotten yourself lost somewhere outside of paris...

so our address is 181 avenue victor hugo.. nice up-class district with expensive boutiques lining the street below... the most sickening bit is that there are all those posh restaurants serving oysters and foie-gras and what not... and yea we hafta walk past them everytime.. haha.. but nevertheless.. its a really nice place to live in.. it feels safe here... this district is called trocadero if im not mistaken... the actual metro stop trocadero is nearby.. its where u get one of the best views of eiffel.. as it is from higher ground... so if you're coming to paris, remember to get off at trocadero to experience that best view!

and as u can see, we're on the road that leads straight to arc du triomphe! and the eiffel is pretty nearby too... abt 10mins by blades..

ah and yes that blue line is the metro route that we take to school everyday... well u see the part where it crosses the river seine? thats where the metro track is above ground and we actually get a really good view of the river and the eiffel tower while traversing it. so yup, my dream come true! getting to see the eiffel on the metro on the way to school everyday... haha... and those tiny lil human figures atop the tower every single day... its really one heck of a tourist-dollar machine!

presentation in french today!

2006-09-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

today was pretty exciting in school. well, we've been spending the week doing up this powerpoint presentation as the precedent study for Tower Hypergreen... and today was the day of the presentation! its kinda different from nus, cos its like the whole cohort gathers in this theatre hall, and u go up stage and present on mics. and dont forget the best part, we gotta do it in french! haha... anyhow, we managed to pull through... though someone said it sounds fringlish (ie. french + english + singlish) ah well.

i was in the group of 4 for this presentation with yuying, and 2 other french guys... charles and martial...

i just love his hair man... wouldnt mind having it for a month or two...

its been pretty nice working with them, they're nice people... its just that everyday we have difficulty understanding each other in french and english. we always try to speak in french, but after a while it automatically switches back to english. we conclude that their english is better than our french...

this is the extension block of the school... kinda cool huh, faint resemblence of centre pompidou.. i think its like 8 storeys high, only thing is, the elevator is out of order.. merde.

but do look at the courtyard! its a really cool hangout place.. u see people there throughout the day.. its like the "meeting place" and at night, it automatically converts itself to a drinking and smoking area... where students meet up and chill out... ah what lovely atmosphere. something u can never find in nus.

and i mustnt forget, the cafe just between the main foyer and the courtyard... its really cool like they have lounge music through the day... really convenient to grab a quick bite.. or a coke.. speaking of which, i've been drinking hell lotsa coke sheesh... its just really satisfying lah.

and here's a picture of the foyer area...

kinda like temporary structure to add zest to the space in an otherwise old building...

we havent got this weekend planned out yet... so we decided to hold a potluck cum housewarming since all our appliances have finally arrived and the apartment looks really warm and cosy now! so i sent out invites to all the singaporeans studying here in paris for dinner on sunday, to warm the house, and have a nice dinner!

no coup de boule this time, but an experience of a lifetime nevertheless...

2006-09-07T17:32:00.000-07:00

photojournals!

2006-09-07T16:36:00.000-07:00