My routine

It's been quite a while since my last writing. I am occupied these days. I don't feel like days are running but I have so many things to do everyday.  Give me sometime to remember what have been through these days. A lot!

I have been exploring Paris very often during the weekend, visiting so many beautiful and remarkable places, knowing a little bit more about the history and the culture of the city and its people. I like being a tourist, but at the same time, I also like to understand their history that creates their way of life and thinking these days. It's more much more interesting than seeing building and taking pictures in front of it.  :P.  I also like my days now because I am now in the 'I-know-how-thing-works' period so I feel like really living here, not only passing by for several days or months. Well, I still have no idea about so ma y things but I am pretty happy with what I know and see so far.

Now I have my routine. I get up at 7 in the morning, get my breakfast (yoghurt+Cereal+Oats or milk or juice and jammed bread), get ready, head into the metro, take metro line 13 change to line 2 and then change again to line 1 before take the bus no. 244 to Val d'or station, which is 5 mins walk from the office. I come late several times but it's fine, I stay a bit later as well. On normal and good-mood day, I eat in the dining room woth all the french-speaking-only employees (I eat salad a lot these days). I go home by 5 and be home by 6p.m. Then I will enjouy a cup of tea or a glass of juice before reading or playing games. At around 8 I'll be eating together with Jessica, Sonia, Philip, Clemence, or anybody that I start the conversation with that night. :)
The length of my dinner depends on the topic of the day, it may take only one hour or even 2 hours. Haha.. I'm becoming french now.
Get back to my room, I'll either read or play some stupid games (Mele just told me to download an indonesian game called 'tebak gambar', a silly one but I keep on playing.)
What a 'basic' routine, but I like it. Then I always have something to do by the weekend. I join the walking tour around Paris, I go to touristic spots, I go to Sunday mass, I go to different traditional market most of the time, Go to supermarket as well to do groceries shopping or simply have a walk in the Seine river by my own and take a bus around the city. I get lost every weekend with different direction of the buses!

So far I really don't feel bored about my routine. I travel sometimes for the work, and it helps.   I feel that there are some things that are changing in me. I adore salad so much now. My food is not that greasy nor tasty or spicy anymore.  I enjoy the sun more. I take care of my body better than before.  I am not engaged to internet anymore. I have time for reading books now, but just not french grammar book. :(
There are so many things I don't want to forget from my life here, and I'll write them all hopefully very soon!

P.s.:while writing there, there are some people shooting for film in the appartment accross mine. Interesting!

Be sure of my decision

Last Wednesday, the 12, was not an easy day for me and my sisters and brother.  My mom had her cancer surgery on that day. We found out about her disease like around one month ago. And then we decided to check with another doctor in Jakarta, and the result was similar to the one my mom got in Malaysia. Then we decided that my mom would do the surgery in Malaysia, as she always go to that hospital and, in my opinion, that hospital is more efficient in doing everything, such as taking blood sample, etc. 

It was scheduled on Thursday but all of a sudden my mom decided to do it as early as possible. So when I woke up, at around 7am here, my mom was already ready for the surgery there.  I was pretty shocked that morning.  That day I had the training in Champs Elysees, and we had quite a long pause for lunch, so I went around Champs Elysees, going to some stores, etc. But my mind was not there at all.  The doctor said that the surgery will take around 2.5 hours but at the end it took more than 5 hours. During those additional 3 hours, I was pretty awful, like not knowing what happened and at the same time, can do nothing at all. What I can do all the time was looking at my mobile phone all the time checking if there is any news in our ‘sisterhood’ group, expecting any good news anytime soon.  My brother and my aunty were there to accompany my mom. 

At that time I felt so awful.  My family was occupied to prepare the ticket, the money, the departure, etc., and here I could do nothing except asking so many questions.   And then during the surgery, I was not there to accompany my mom, and could not imagine how awful the time of my brother waiting in front of the operation room.  I said to myself, ‘no, this is not what I want to face anymore in the future’, feeling so guilty for being able to do nothing.  

That moment makes me sure about the decision I already have in my head of returning home after the master.  Some of my friends keep on asking and persuading me to stay in France, as I can get a job, a better salary, a more exciting life in Paris, etc.  Until now, I know that’s not what I want.  For me, what’s the point of earning money for yourself, enjoying a glass of wine with your colleague or friends that you don’t really share everything with, enjoying buying branded stuff that won’t give you comfort during the lonely weekends.  I finally find out what kind of life I want for myself. I don’t care how great it would be to work in Paris, to have a French boyfriend, or whatsoever, no, it’s just not what I imagine about my future.  I don’t want to miss my nephews’ and nieces’ birthday, my brother’s graduation day, staying home with mom and dad, celebrating Chinese’s New Year together, etc.  There are enormous things I would miss just because of staying here.  And yeah also if somebody may be sick and need any help, I don’t want to be the only who only stare at her mobile phone all the time like last Wednesday.

It’s pretty funny though that a friend of mine keeps on asking me ‘will you stay in France?’ ‘why don’t you want to stay?’ ‘are you sure you don’t want to be here?’ almost every time we meet, which is almost every week.  I am even more confident to the decision I have in my head now, dear friend. =)

Mondial Spa

As part of my BR experience, I had to attend the Mondial Spa & Beauté in Porte de Pantin because we had our stand there.  I was pretty nervous because i have to, at least, prepare a short presentation about the brand, and be ready to answer visitor's questions about our brand, which I don't really master yet. And plus, it will be all in french. Oh yeah, not very easy for me. It went well, not really a lot of people visiting our booth. But I definitely wouldn't forget how I was trapped to do the skin diagnostic with the BR machine for 3 customers, thanks to my one and only partner, cadina.  Yeah, all of a sudden she proposed to customers to get their skin diagnostized using the machine and she asked me to do so. Okay in the morning, I tried once with her but it was only for fun. But then I can't say no in front of customer so I really had to do so. After one old woman, then another one, and another one. I had to explain about their skin type, answering all questions in french related to their skin conditions. Well, such an experience. 

The exhibition reminds le of the time I was representing atma jaya, especially the very first time when I had no idea how to explain to students.  I was in the same condition during that day due to my language issue. But I felt more comfortable now because I feel more confidence with myself and I know that was a process of learning.  I found out that i pretty like this kind of activity, and it might be a reference for me for my future career. I am on my way finding what I like to do for my life. 

One those good days in Paris

Have you ever feel happy in in a very normal day in the middle of working week? I do. Inspite of the fact that I keep on remembering what kind pictures (esp. The picture for my dad's bday) and videos (of my university) that I lost as I lost my mobile phone, today was a pretty good day.
The work was fine today. Then I got a package from the company, all the skin care products that match my skin type ( my skin was diagnosed 2 weeks ago, but I wasn't expecting this).  I have never tried their produtcs, but I know that it's an expensive one and it's getting very famous all around the world, as I am the one processing order from clients.  And I got quite a lot that may last for 3 months. So I am excited to try. I have been very interested to cosmetics lately. :)

On the way home, the metro gate wasn't working properly so I had validated my metro card but the the gate didn't open. I tried several times and it said that I have just validated my card so I can't do it again. Then I met a mature guy who told me that I have to wait for 5-8 mins before I can use my navigo again. Then he offered me if I wanna sneak in with his ticket to the metro. It doesn't mean I didn't have a ticket. But my monthly card was not functioning well. So I did sneak in together with his ticket. As we took same metro, M1, we talked a little bit. Surprisingly, he lived in Indonesia for 3 years for working. He is working with petrol, etc., so he lived in Balikpapan, Jakarta, Riau. What a coincidence! We talked during the trip, and it was a very nice conversation with him. We both agree that living in Jakarta is very nice, eventhough there are traffic, etc, but if you have money, life is so much easier in Jakarta. It's very different from Paris. He is a very nice guy indeed.

Then I arrived home, prepared dinner and I met my residence mate. They are very nice, and quite talkative, so you'll never be bored of cooking together during dinner time. There is a new guy, Filippe, French-Portugese-Brazilian, in the residence and he is nice too. He studied infirmary in order to be a nurse. But Now I know that studying infirmary doesn't mean that you'll only work in hospital. You can be a medical person in a huge company, to assure employees' health, you can work domesticly with old people, you can work at school, you can work at laboratory too. I never known about this before. And the other friend is studying geology-chemistry at Doctoral level. Wow! Don't imagine a nerd guy! He is young, nice and really talkative. He said that he was actually a piano and musical student before he decided to change the path by the end of high school. What a courage!

Soon after, I made a list of what I have to buy for grocery shopping on saturday. I also plan to go to Sacre Coeur for Sunday mass this weekend.  I have new mission while in Paris, to attend the mass in different churches every week. I also wanna go to the chruch that I went 4 years ago. I didn't remember the name, but I will find out.
Then I imported all the pictures from my camera and organized all of them. I had a look at some old pictures from Orléans, and those really created a smile on face. And voila, now I am writing for my blog because I feel happy today. There is nothing special about today, but I somehow feel this is a very nice day.
I think I will enjoy living in Paris. :)

After all the things that had happened, I began to say 'I wish now is March/April/July/summer/fall/holiday period already' less and less. I now can understand what the phrase 'time will never come back' means. Eventhough it's just an ordinary day, I will live to the fullest because It'll never come back.

I also get used to be by myself in so many different situation and places. I am less and less afraid to be in the middle of new environment. I feel that I adjust much faster to new situation than me 2 years ago.  If I look back, it was really crazy what I have been doing so far, but I did it, and I prove to myself that I'd better do it and get unexpected result than doing nothing for the sake of comfort.  I proudly say that my surviving level is definitely at the different level from the one 2 years ago.

Marché Bio Raspail

Un dimanche, j’ai décidé de découvrir la ville pendant le dimanche.  je n’ai pas voulu rester dans ma chambre dans un bon dimanche, donc j’ai décidé aller à un marché bio à 5eme arrondissement, qui s’appelle Marché Raspail.  J’étais vraiment surprise quand j’étais là parce que j’ai trouvé que bcp de monde aime le marché bio. Les produits coûtent plus plus plus cher que les produits normale mais il y a bcp de personnes qui les acheter.  Je connais jamais que le marché bio est vraiment un bon business ici à Paris. 

J’ai vu bcp de produits bio, le pain, l’œuf, le vin, le viande, le fromage, la pâte bu blé/farine bio, les légumes, les fruits, qui tous coûtent très cher pour moi.   On fait, je ne connais pas bcp au sujet du bio. J’ai une amie qui adore les produits bio. Peut-être je peux lui demander sur ce sujet.

p.s : J’ai acheté le pain aux raisins BIO =)

Ahhh..N’oublies pas noter la location. C’est vraiment unique car dans ce quartier là, ils habitent tous les riches de la ville. Donc il y a bcp de magasins très connus comme Hermès, LV, Bvlgari, Le Bon Marche, etc., mais dans l’autre côte de la rue, il existe ce marché 3 fois par semaine.