To go or not to go?

Sometimes I don't understand my parents. Actually most of the time I don't. Last year while choosing the date of my return flight from Lyon to Singapore, I wanted to come back earlier but my dad said, "Just put it on the 10th July, like that you have more than 1 week to travel around Europe".

So now, after telling my parents my plans to travel to Budapest and to Berlin and to Barcelona, they suddenly feel uneasy.

"Who are you going with?"

"No one" I replied

"What!!? No friends?? All your friends in London, in Germany and those in France? Go traveling with them!"

"They have already gone back home. Most of them are not around."

"How about those people in France?" asked my dad

"Some have exams. The others don't want to go with me."

"Eh, traveling alone ar....You want to come back earlier?"

"What?! You last time said I should stay for 1 more week to travel. Now, you say come back?"

"I thought you have friends to travel with mar.."

"I came here alone, didn't I?"

"Aiya, I leave the decision to you la.."

"If you leave it to me, I'll be traveling then"

"Got other friends or not? Travel within France la. Go Paris?"

"Paris is not safe lo...France is in fact not as safe as the other countries"

"You decide lo..."

Sighs...this is always the strategy he uses...make me feel guilty. I guess they also miss me alot. But if not now, when??

Yeah, Budapest is not safe but it is still safer than JB. Berlin is not safe either, but it is still safer than London or Paris.

Cusiner

Cooking, that is what I had picked up here in France. I never cook at home, never touched raw meat, and never cooked anything besides pasta and instant noodles. Somehow, 5 months of being in France had changed me about the art of cuisine.

I'm still far from mastering culinary arts. I have experimented on various dishes and invited friends to join me for meals. This week, I had like a few people coming over to my place to eat on weekends. This is (I guess) the response to my complaint about feeling lonely here in Lyon last weekend. Somehow, I find that this weekend filled with activities and I enjoyed cooking and cooking for them.

Nostalgia

It was only a year ago, at this same day, that I went to US with a group of my friends for work and travel. Somehow, last night, lying upon my bed, the memories of it all flooded my mind. It was indeed an experience. How would I describe it? Describing it as 'good' seems superficial because it leaves out many things. On the other hand, saying that it was 'bad' is not appropriate either. It was truly an 'indescribable experience' as Wendy had put it(Although he meant it as a negative sense).

Ironic. While I was there, towards the end, I was so glad leaving. I wanted to leave everything there, the place, the fellow colleagues, the friends, everything. But somehow, last night, I began to think about them, somehow, suddenly, I missed them...I remembered the good times I had with them. Eating lunch everyday in the canteen with the same group of friends. We were always bragging about our tips and complaining about our workloads. I remember us going for roller coaster rides after our work. And how Utt and I will take the front row with hands up. Yes, and later when the Taiwanese came and how they were quite nice to me. LOL, I realised that I have many friends in Taiwan as well.

I wonder how my host family is doing. Wendy and I used to go visit them and talked about inheriting their boat or their red mustang convertible. But sadly, she never called us after we had rejected going to her daughter's graduation party. Well, there goes our boat.

Me, Wendy, Jenny, and her son(I forgot his name)

All the memories...

LOVE STORY (Taylor Swift) meets VIVA LA VIDA (Coldplay) - Piano Cello - by Jon Schmidt

Quite a nice song! I really like the way they play it. But this is definitely a pre-recorded edition, at 3:26 background voices start coming and and at 4:26 the crashing cymbals followed by the bells followed by the string quartet. Correct me if I'm wrong. Such an ingenious arrangement...kk when I go back home, I shall attempt to play this song...haha..note: "attempt"...