Sleepless in Paris - Day 5?

Tip of the day for when you are in Paris:
"Look down when you're walking, or you will be stepping in dog poop, and stay in denial for an hour saying, no no it's chocolate ice-cream"

Funny scene happened yesterday, you know at metro stations here they distribute free newspapers, those that have light articles and a lot of ads. Anyway, after I got into the metro, the doors were closing, then people ran fast towards the door (I used to wonder why they did that, now I do it too), so I think the driver saw them and opened them again, but they closed so fast, and this woman's newspaper got stuck while she was still outside, unlike the usual, they re-opened the door, but the newspaper fell down, so she bent down to pick it up, and another woman came in the metro running and the door closed again, and the first woman got stuck outside, for a free newspaper! Haram!

They sell fruits here on carriages on the corner of the streets, it reminded me so much of Lebanon: "2 Euros, 2 Euros les cerises, venez achetez de cerises, 2 Euros. Madame, vous voulez une Bakette (basket?) de cerises pour 2 Euros?"

Several times, I come to refer to the hotel I am staying in as home.

The below pictures were taken in Mont Martre, where Scare Coeur is.



An old house, so beautiful.

Sleepless in Paris - Day 4

Ah well! One thing in Paris for sure is that the bathrooms are always clean, because they're scarcely used! French people don't hate me, but am just doing some statistics here and comparison with my home land!

Sleepless in Paris - Night 3

De toute façon... My utter shock today was how expensive this restaurant I got invited to is, and I swear I wouldn't eat the things in it for free. You know, moule, escargot, faux filet, bli bla blou... And all the time I spent today were either at work (stayed till 19h30, like yesterday, and then went to meet my cousins, stayed in the resto till midnight, then metro, BLEH)

I slapped myself today when I noticed that I started thinking in french. My eyelids have been closing since morning today, I think I really should get more sleep...

In conclusion, Paris day 2, Night 3, was okay. I can do better tomorrow!

Oh and I bought a bag (SUKKUMEN = Sac à main) today, because mine is torn in some places! yey for me, it was cheap 27Euros, which is almost 42USD, which is 63000LL! AHH

Oh, okay fine I get it, people love reading here, but I didn't know that it went that far, today a girl was walking in the metro station holding a book and reading it, not a small newspaper article or something, no a whole book, while walking!!

And I saw several women wearing business skirts riding a bike. And several riding a motorbike! That I like!

Sleepless in Paris - Day 2

As much as I was amazed by Notre Dame, I have to tell you, Paris smells like Pee! Anyway, day 1 covered work, had some problems adjusting my working environment to here, but at the end of the day it worked out! When I was leaving, it was raining a little bit, so I bought an umbrella! Yey for me. Then met my friend, went on the bus and I saw the Louvre (from far).

The hotel reservation problem has been solved, so am staying in the same hotel. But I was kinda downgraded, I was moved from a bigger room to a smaller one. *cries*

Here are some pictures :D Turned out I have a memory card reader in the laptop, silly me, I didn't notice it yesterday!




I am thinking of calling in sick tomorrow to work :P Mih

Sleepless in Paris - Night 1

I really surprised myself! I actually was not afraid on the plane tonight (more like yesterday)! I was cool, read the newspaper, watched a coupla movies! All good.

Then I arrived to the Charles de Gaulle airport, went in a taxi to my hotel to find that my reservation was cancelled, but you know what? I didn't care, luckily I was able to reserve for the night, and we'll see about tomorrow! Then my friend came over and picked me up. We went to the Opera, place de vendome, champs elysees of course, had a drink and grabbed a quick chicken burger from QUICK! Finally, I went back to the hotel by myself, alone, in the metro, can't believe I just did that! It really is so simple!

Someone told me to grab every opportunity that hits me in the face, and I am trying to do that. Let's just hope I stay awake for all of them, coz am darn tired and sleepy!

No pictures yet, I brought the wrong cable for the cam with me from Beirut! Alileh rasseh?

Poor Jessica Biel

First item to be crossed over from my new todo list (which has been set since October 2007) is the 2nd checkpoint! Paris, j'aghive. This list is a hard one, a long term one, but there is always hope.

Checkpoint #6 is probably the hottest one, and people waiting for me to actually accomplish it... but seriously! Jessica Biel? Me? She's trying her best, but it's a tough one. She even sent me an email begging me to tell her my secret, I told her: "Jess, sweety, take a hold of yourself, I really do nothing, this is how I am, but you, you have to work out 6 times a week, with weight cardio, jogging and all that, and eat a strict diet... you have to, little people like you struggle to become amazing like people like me!"

She cried, and thanked me endlessly, after praising me for an hour!

Yep, that was my dream yesterday :P

It's not midnight yet

It's not midnight yet
I can still stay awake
I don't want to go to sleep
I want to go to a lake


Ok ok, enough with the lousy poem attempt. It's just that it is not midnight yet, for me, it means am not breaking the rules, the rules that nobody put, nobody knows of, and nobody follows, except for me. This is my time of freedom, my time, for me, and I get to do whatever I want, before I go to sleep. I can still stay awake, because it is not midnight yet. It is my time for me.

Crazy thoughts and whatnot

Write from the heart. A piece of advice I received lately. How do you write from the heart? Do you like connect your keyboard to your heart? Or do you move your eyes to your heart?

It is amazing how we know that when we think, it's actually from up there, from that egg shaped ball that we call head. Even if we don't study the anatomy of the human body, we can sense that all the processing of the perception of the outside world is done inside our own Arnabita! It looks like one, it also looks like naked walnuts, or like irish cream thrown in liquor, also known as BRAIN DAMAGE shot :P

Can you imagine if your eyes were in your stomach? or better yet, on your toes? Okay crazy thought, but what if, our eyes remain in the same location as now but our brains are in our foot. We'd be dumber, you know, since it will take longer for the perception of the outside world to reach the brain, and then its response to travel back up, possibly out from your hands or mouth or even your eyes. You know, eyes are not only an input device (computer term, i.e. Keyboard and Microphone), it is also an output device (also computer term, i.e. Screen, Sound Blasters). Because I personally can speak with my eyes, I actually once ordered a hamburger with them!... Without onions and with cheese.

Maybe this is why it is faster to speak than it is to write or type. It's all related to how far an organ is from the brain! So genius of me!

Ok really, am not high on anything. I am just writing from the heart. I got a feeling that I am going to click on the SAVE NOW button instead of PUBLISH POST. I am so silly. And I like it :)

You know what? I am gonna click on ....

It's always personal!

People tend to misunderstand all the time, which leads them to assume things and jump into conclusions, and take actions. Actions such as stop talking to someone, learning how to dance, learn a new language, learn how to fight, fight back, learn some mean quips, hate, judge, curse, hurt... The list is long.

On a very low level, individual to individual, sometimes things can go bad. And in order to comprehend someone, many things should be donw such as understanding where they came from, slowing down on the judging, trying more to reach out, transforming our hate into love, all that in order to be able to fix things. But, it's so hard sometimes, so difficult, and it does now always deem successful for us to fix things.

So how about a high level. Although the word "high" is not really meant in its honorable state here. How can, two groups of people, listening to one side, seeing one point of view, afraid of the other group, scared for their own exisence, beleiving in a certain idea... How can they understand where the other group comes from, slow down on judging this other group, try to reach out more to them, transform their hate into love, their xenophobia into trust, in order to fix things?

Balance of evil and good in this world, some say it's necessary, but what happens when evil is more ubiquitous than good, when balance is no longer just, when bad things occur more than good things, and when people drown and sink into hurting more than helping?

And what is worse, some think that they're helping while they are really hurting!