So yeah I still havent seen Paris...and I do attend what they call HEC PARIS...My university is officially in the middle of the forest. If i hadnt said it its 20 min walk uphill from a town which only has a church,2 banks,a post office, a bakery and a train station...We dont have a common room which means parties happend in the hallways of the residence (not nice when u must study or want to sleep)...but its cool to bump into the same people all the time. Did I say that the uni restaurant made for lunch today the same they made for dinner..TSK.. by june I will officially be exhausted of eating cafeteria food...yuck! Plus they only open about 1 hour per lunch 1 per dinner...! But besides all the complaining life is good, enjoying my last summer beers and last days of holidays as I see how some have already begun classes. Getting to know more and more people and geting extremly confused as I hear and "talk" catalan,spanish,english,german,french,italian daily...this happens when the CEMS ppl live in the same appartment as you do.

Currently wondering who is in the party downstairs, so loud and im tiered, hopefully I fall asleep soon ....Next week I promise an update with how a class taugh in french is, and how my french class mates are. HEC is a very elite school in france, making its students belive that cuz they are in HEC they are the kings of the world..we will see how my classmates turn out, for now I have already met Fede (italian),Miquel(spanish) and Francesca (italian)the only 3 other foreigners that I think will be in my class...

New Home - Paris,France.

Wow!! I cant believe I left this in Singapore....after Singapore i had a 20 minute visit in China (running transit in HK) and then headed to Tokyo...then NL and since yesturday I officially live à Paris! Ulalalala too much to catch up on a blog. Japan definately deserves an entry and will soon come...but for now Paris.

First of all my good bye from Holland was very intresting, i didnt remember that mariastraat had so much alcohool stored in their house, trully suprising. Also being 5 and the last day 6 girls in a flat can be an experience.... As well I was well unaware of the disco that Irum had hidden in her room...but seems like things have changed a lot since the Womans have all formal jobs and are finishing or have just finished their internships. You can already imagine how things went if i mention that the last day in NL was spend in Ikea...but we had a nice celebration in Fiddler too...dinners and dutch traditions were involved in all days....

Paris, well i love to say i live in Paris but lets face it i live in Jouy en Josas.... No, sorry I live uphill from Jouy en Josas...but jouy en josas is a nice small town, tranquil and beautiful. Nobody would say this is close to Paris. Its basically 5km from Versailles...In fact by public transport it seems to take a long time to go to Paris they say about 1 hour...to be seen and soon reported. Well i officially dont have a kitchen, dont even have a shared kitchen or fridge, so I must eat all the time in the school restaurant. The restaurant opens from 7 to 9 for breakfast 1 hour for lunch and 1 for dinner...so better not mis the eating slot! The room is big, and im happy as I had to bring all my things from the Netherlands... A lot! Even unsufull things....but who knows when ill need them..i just dotn think im going to live again in NL so no need to leave things there. I still left a few behind that I shall pick up soon. So far the people ive met are quite nice so im not all alone, a lot more must come this week so lots more to know... Cant complain about the campus either, nice. Unforutnately there are only 3 toilets for the entire floor of rooms :S But everybody shares a shower and Ive got my own, so ive been lucky! Everybody has a balcony and I dont...but Whatever! :) So far only been to Versailles and just for a walk, had to take a train...you start valuing NS once you see the trains here but must say that so far so good...

aurevoir!

Singapore

This is my last post from Singapore. Currently at Changi airport...what i call the "international airport"...LOL...how in earth could Singapore have a domestic airport?I was so dumb that today when the taxi driver asked which terminal I was going I answered "the international one". He looked perplexed, so I said "hold on Ill check"..."ahh, terminal 1 please..". What a geek a country which is a city cant have a domstic airport!

Im sick, or something is wrong. Dont have much energy and lots of headaches. Our luggages have both lost 2 kilos and I cant figure out why. Maybe we left things at shabs house? Hmm no idea. As far as i know we only left Miquels pink socks and pants. Its all my fault, i put my new red Angkor Beer shirt in his washing which made all his white stuff go red. Yeah, Yeah i know you shouldnt mix color and white... (whatever!). So he had to through out a bunch of his socks...oops! Tonight the roles had reveresed, he didnt sleep at all and I had a very nice night. Except for him waking me up at 3am to tell me he had lost all his money. When I woke up at 6 we found his money nicely placed in the place where it always was...what a relief! Hahah Miquel hasnt been allowed into the lounge this time. He always comes in as a guest but this time not. Anyways this lounge is definately not as nice as others so i think he isnt missing out on much. He is probably sleeping somewhere else in the airport.

Regarding Singapore its been a nice visit, but both of us were really exhausted. Yesturday we headed to my families center "vivo shopping mall" ..woho! Then we took a monorail to Sentosa island. Sentosa was nice, its like a resort island where you can waste all your money. Well we didnt go on any ride or have any great lunch but it was nice to see. I remembered sentosa quite differently. Sentosa is always under reconstruccion so they were builduing more and more attractions for tourists. What stroke me is that there were quite a few beaches. Really nice beache actually, white sand, palm trees...but the view was of huge ships and the port ...trully the last place you want to go to! Horrible!It felt really fake. We decided to make our way back to mainland by the cable car. Maybe not a good idea since we are both a bit afraid of hights. Specially Miquel who ended up closing his eyes for most of the way...the cable car was very very high. We also saw the Raffles hotel, which has beautiful gardens inside and passed through orchard street (big shopping mall where I got all the newest prada and gucci complements :P). On our way back we took the metro and walked what we thought would be a short walk. 1 hour later (after a 5 min. stop at the supermarket) we arrived home, exhausted...no comment. I then had a six feet under marathon and thats all I watched...

And now im heading to my last destination...last of this trip :( I cant believe september 3rd is approching, it felt so far away and now its almost here. Im heading to Tokyo (via HK..:) ). Im quite excited about it! I lived there from 1989 to 1990 and then went back to visit in 1992...since then ive heard a lot about Tokyo, ive heard my dad talk non stop about going back, but we never could. Now we are going. My parents are already there, and his friend is lending us his second appartment so we got free housing :) We will be there for 1 week, traveling around Japan. We already got our rail passes so we can travel all over japan with almost every train. Im so excited, i cant believe im going back...Cant wait to see the inmense city,japanese tv and all those famous spots i have been seeing in the pics of when I was a child, although I guess everything will have change a lot. And i really want to go to Ginza. The downpoint, its going to be sooo expensive. I think im going to want to buy so many small cute japanese things, but it will be expensive. Also, this week is when im going to regret having forgotten all my japanese...but hope to pick it up a bit.

Im happy we are changing planes in HK just cuz HK airport is one of the best of the world...so i feel like seeing it again! We do have a short connectionso I hope they work well with their logistics and our luggage makes it to Narita Airport!

Hope ( lots of hoping in these last paragraphs). I get a bit better to enjoy Tokyo at its most!! And I hope i survive the heat! After visiting my old home, Tokyo Ill be coming back home to NL, to face the reality of moving again to a new home in Paris ...

This is what i was talking about... Singapore and its laws, these are among others...

Smoking is not allowed in public buses, taxis, lifts, theatres, cinemas, government offices, and in air-conditioned restaurants and shopping centres. First-time offenders face a maximum fine of S$1,000. Smoking is allowed in air-conditioned pubs, discos, karaoke bars and nightspots.

As an extension of the "no littering" mantra, the import, sale and possession of chewing gum is banned. You are also not allowed to bring in chewing gum for your own consumption. In short, no chewing gum whatsoever.

To maintain the clean and green city, there are strict laws against littering of any kind. First-time offenders face a fine of up to S$1,000. For repeat offenders--it's a fine of up to S$2,000 and a Corrective Work Order .

The death penalty is mandatory for those convicted of trafficking, manufacturing, importing or exporting more than 15g of heroin, 30g of morphine, 30g of cocaine, 500g of cannabis, 200g of cannabis resin and 1.2kg of opium

Singapore, 24 August 2007

Dear People,

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