my life here in France

Days and nights are getting colder and colder day by day. Work is basically the same every day, following plenty of orders by the fellow chef which to the extend they piss me off sometimes. Spending my free time online and watching french cable tv which i do not know what are they talking about .

Life here for me is just dull and miserable, no one to talk to accept my chef which he only talks about french history, working out in the gym, french rugby, sports and some other things which I'm not really interested in. Ugo is a great guy, he really is but we just cant communicate that well.

During working hours, all the others talks in french even while eating lunch and dinner together. I would be the one just staring at my plate eating quietly for there is not a single word i understand. As is I'm deaf and dumb. Chef do take me out along with his friends for dinner or just for some drinks, i really do approached that cause i get to go out and see more of toulouse and get to taste countless glasses of wine but the suffering i need to bare while they all were having fun, making jokes and laughing which i don't understand at all. look how dumb i feel.

Unlike the other 4 whom are in france now, at least they have some one to talk to but for me, I'm the only one here. Tough luck i would say.

So its november 23 today which means its only 11 more working days here and its 17 more days before I'm home, back in kl.

There is only a few more days here and i have a feeling that I'm going to miss this place and the people here yet I'm eager to get back home and there is a lot of things i want to do back home and most importantly i want my life back!

There is plenty of movies which i did not get to watch while im in france, many new games which I'm dying to play including the lattes Need For Speed Undercover www.needforspeed.com As for Dota there is a new version which have came out and i did not get the chance to test it yet.

Chili! Curry! i need you so badly! I will be back home soon, so wait for me. God, they do not have anything spicy here. All they got is only Tabasco Sauce, and its not even spicy enough for me. Man i really cant live with out spicy food.

Cant wait to get my life back but still will miss this place a lot.

off day on sunday

Yesterday evening, chef took me out and meat up with 2 of his friends and went jogging at a vary nice park. It was kinda far from the restaurant which took a 25 min drive to get there.

When we got there its 5.00pm and waited a while for his 2 buddies to come. Did a little warm up and so and started jogging. i am no match for those guys and got tyred after 15 min of jogging only haha ( i know I'm not fit at all and fat)

Lost them and i turn back to the car park and jog a little around there while waiting for them to come back. Sun went down at 5.30 and everything is dark and getting cold. For the 1st time in my life i did not even break a single sweat while jogging but end up my lips and ears were freezing cold, and yes it hurts.

After few minutes they got back and we went back to the restaurant to take a shower and all. Not long after that 6 of my chef friends came and we went out again for dinner. Every sunday we will go out for dinner but this time it was in a Chinese buffet restaurant.

Got in there, everything looks like a real chinese stall. all the staff were chinese as well (not bad), then chef told me 'Welcome home' haha, funny guy he is. There is this pretty chinese girl whom came up and great us (in french) 'potong stim', i swear to god i cant take my eyes off her. For god's sake, i did not see a chinese girl for so damn long since I'm in France and damn she is like a goddess then. 'what to do'

Ok enough with the chinese chick, got a table for 9, sat there talk a little then chef ordered these rosé wine. It was ok but i did not drank much not bad tough. God i was hungry at that time, did not eat anything since i woke up at 11.

Off to the buffet counter and time to munch! Buffet is buffet, eat all you can, so i took a little of this and a little of that trying each and every thing they have there. Not to say a big selection of dashes but its ok.

I'm a chinese and yes i know how chinese food taste like. Guess what, everything there is not even close to real chinese cooking. Ish, the only 2 things i find soso is the rosted duck and their plain white rice, thats all. even their fried rice suck! Imagine that.

So i told my self that i cant expect them to cook real chinese food because they are in France, so its ok. The funny part was even sushi was served there, "its a freaking chinese restaurant not japanese" oh well, french people don't know the difference anyway so its ok.

Took 3 plates of random food and 1 bowl of 'french-chinese' soup, feeling very full and yet still go for a bowl of ice-cream.

We all finished our meals, had a fun time there talking and making jokes 'as usual' then off we go to the cashier. The cashier was a mid-age chinese uncle, so i went up to him and said for one person in mandarin. He don't understand me, its ok fine this time i said in cantonese, he said some thing in french back to me.. I was like WTH, dude your are chinese and your don't speak your own mother language? what an embarrassment to chinese folks out there. Then i remembered the movie Rush Hour 3 when Chris Tucker slap a chinese guy for cursing him in french and Chris said ' stop humiliating yourself, your asian!'

Fine, i paid and get out with a big *sigh* i will not go into another chinese restaurant in France ever again. Real bad experience that was.

Got back to Pois Gourmand and all 9 of us went up to the tv room and watch a home video by my chef friends about the things they did in the old days. Basically they talk in french and i don't understand but all the time they were making jokes and acting like mokeys. one whole bunch of guys playing prank jokes on each other and so on.

Well it was funny to see them like that and i tough well, one day i will get a video cam and start recording stupid stuff me and my friends do and will have a good laughter when we look back at that video. haha

Albi albi albi.

Told David and Areff that i will be going over to albi to visit them when i come back from Barcelona. Since both of them came to Toulouse to hang out with me and all so i think it should be fair for me to go to their place and it turn out to be very nice.

Got the train ticket to Albi which coast me 11.70€ hop on the train, and the journey took around 1 hour. well i did not expect much in albi due that david has told me that its a country side and a very little population of people there but I'm fine with it, as long as i can hang out with my own people 'malaysian' after some time.

Arrived there at the station and there both of them are standing waiting for me. They took me around and the 1st place we went was the park, well the park is not very big nor beautiful but it is nice there, people with their dogs and kids playing and running. there is a small river there as well and there is when we saw the wild goose and a few wild ducks.

Not to say there is something interesting about the ducks and goose but we took a few picture of em due to David kinda fell in love with the duck and especially when it whack its tail XD while Areff saying that we should capture them and make foie gras out of them "the liver of a duck or a goose that has been specially fattened by gavage (force-feeding)" Yummy!

Next they took me to Cathedral St. Cecile, well honestly its the second church i have ever been in and it is not as good compered the 1st one i have been to 'Sagrada Familia'. Did not really spend a lot of time there because its almost closing time so we go off early then found our self at the back part of the church over viewing albi's river.

David then told me that he took millions of pictures of that river and yet he is still doing it that very moment. Imagine how beautiful it is. Well, sun is setting and so we walk back to their rental place called Foyer de Jeunes Travailleurs.

Foyer is something like a hostel for students trainees in albi, and yes most of them are french people, 2 malaysian 'david n areff' and one indian lady whom is from India (i think) and she is there doing her training as an english teacher in primary school in france. At least french people are learning more than one language.There were also, Ping pong table and french pool plus wifi access from 8 to 11 every night.

Was hungry so we went to this kebab stall just opposite foyer, and had the best kebab i ever have so far in my life. its big, full of meat, and not to mention the seasoning is just perfect. Now i understand why they like it there so much and its not really expensive at all, its just 4.50€

Time to sneak in to foyer... Sneak in?!?! 'well, basically the room is paid by their chef for the both of them only and i on the other hand do not want to stay in a hotel or it will coast me a boom so i have to crash over at their place for 2 nights'

Got in safely, no one saw me yeah.. spend the rest of the night talking about back home, our life back there and out training. that night i did not really get a good night sleep but im not complaining, its ok for me.

woke up in the afternoon, areff went down to cook some pasta. ate it later on then we went to a near by cc. areff was chatting with his wife and david is chatting with his family, how nice. Me on the other hand, test out the new Dota version and friendster, no friends nor family was online at that time haiz sad.

Spent a few hours there then went to Casino 'hyper market' and bought some chips and a dozen bottles of beer back to drink later that night. ate kebab for dinner again but this time is with beer. started with 2 bottles of Regular Hoegaarden each then a bottle of Heniken. well; we got bored in the room and want to play ping pong or pool down there so we did..

David surf the net while me n areff played french pool ' the table is shorter, smaller, balls are smaller, holes are smaller'. ish, its not east to play at all. we stayed there till 11 and its closing time. Bad news for me, one of the management staff saw me and told david that visiting hours is only till 10. no choice but to walk out of foyer. Areff went back to the room while david went out with me,

Nah its not that cold out there, its only 5° or less at night, winds blowing and the best part is, me and david are only in a single t-shirt and jeans. I have no choice but to sneak back in their room for the night but the problem is the management staff is there. walked to the cc and stay there for an hour, david said that the staff will be gone by midnight and it might be safe to go back in.

So we waited till 12.30 and go back to foyer, david went in first to check if there is anyone around. he came out just a few minutes after and said there is no people in there. ok good so i can go in safely. But there is a surveillance camera. Shoot, fine if there is no people in there i will just walk in with my head down and leave the first thing in the morning.

It took me around 10 minutes to calm myself down and go in there and get to the room undecided alone where david has went in already to make it look like we are not together so its least spacious. Finaly got in their room safely and we all keep quiet with the lights off acting as if we were already asleep.

Areff finished his new box of cigarettes in that two hours after i was sent out, pity him worrying about me and all. seriously, what i have been through is really tough. sneaking in like that and all, well david and areff went to sleep due tomorrow is their working day and me there playing some childish game called medabots on davids laptop all night till sun rise.

Pack my stuff, and leave foyer. Lucky that day was a holiday and no one is working so i walk out like nobody's bussiness. david show me the way to the train station and off he went to work. Took the next train got back to toulouse and rest for the day due tomorrow is back to work!

Trip to Barcelona Spain

Chef is going to Egypt with his wife for honeymoon which means its a holiday for all of us here in the restaurant.

Nov 1st is a holiday here in France and on the 11th as well. Restaurant Au Pois Gourmand is closed starting 1 of Nov till the 11th.

While my chef is going to Egypt, i travel out of France and to Barcelona Spain which was recommended by dad.

So i took Euro lines bus to Barcelona and the whole journey took 4 hours, no food provided (what to do, i got the cheapest transport to Barcelona) the ride there is ok, nothing to comment.

Arrived the bus station and found myself lost looking for the metro train station, walked for a few min and saw this huge building, at that time i was still lost and was still looking for the metro station. I recognize that tall building from far, its the famous Sagrada Familia so i walked there and was stunned by the huge church (Sagrada Familia)

Sagrada Familia by Antonio Gaudi - No.1 Barcelona Tourist Attraction (2,056,448 visits/year)
A Giant Temple designed by the master architect Antonio Gaudi. This building has been under construction since 1882 and they've still got another 30 to 80 years (depending on funding and resources) to go before it will be finished. www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/index.php

After a while taking pictures and all i get to the metro station and went to look for the Youth Hostel. There is where i spent my nights sleeping, its 16.10 per night and one room has 8 beds or so, shared by random people. I do not recommend it to girls due to safety reasons but as for me i find it quite reasonable for the price (its not that I'm cheap and all but think of it this way, 1 euro = 5 ringgit so I'm trying to save as much as i can)

It is a BnB type of hostel (bed and breakfast) but the breakfast is from 8 - 10 only. Out of the 5 nights i stayed there, i only manage to wake up just in time to take breakfast twice. Its not a five star hotel buffet breakfast what they have is only cereal, bread, butter, jam, coffee/tea and orange juice.

I was there at Barcelona celebrating my 19th birthday but I'm all alone. I do not know should i be happy or sad. Oh well, at least i can say i have been to Spain and got a lip piercing there on my birthday as well. 'damn proud'

Went to a number of places there during my 6 days there. The best is still the Sagrada Familia, the second best is the FCBarcelona stadium. Just for your info, I'm not a football fan or whatever you called it but once i step in side the stadium ground the view was spectacular! Got on the field and the manager's bunker and all, VIP seats and up to the camera spot and did i mention the footballers locker room, conference room and the museum in there.

There were a few more place i visited while i was there like the Spanish Village, Aquarium de Barcelona (nothing much really, it seems the same like every aquarium i have been to), The National Museum of Art (plain boring, was sleep walking there) and i did hop on a tour bus for a full day and it was really worth it.

The Youth hostel is located near Rambla de Sant Josep street which is the hot spot in Barcelona, where many hotels are located there, many tourist swarming the place and the streets are filled with food stalls, souvenir stalls and so on. It is so-called pasar malam there but the unique thing is it runs from morning till midnight. Well we can see loads of beggars begging for money all around the world but there they don't just sit there n beg for money but they perform something such as singing, playing instrument, panting, sketching pictures or peoples face, magic act, some even dress up as some monster/movie character on the side walk and that is what so cool about them.

Bought 2 bottles of Absinthe for only 28€ (cheap) but got con 120€ on the last day there, damn that §%$&#@, its 600 ringgit gone just like that! Oh well money comes, money goes.. This is life.

On my last night there i went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, it is basicly just the same like every other Hard Rock Cafe around the world but the purpose i went there is to enjoy my last day there and to buy the Hard Rock Cafe Barcelona t-shirt, for memories.