Cuisson en general!!! ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ

So it's almost halftime and I cannot believe how fast time has passed...

What is my impression so far?

There are times where I am glad that I am only here for one semester.
But there are also times where I wished I would stay here for yet another semester.

Currently its the latter one. I'm having an awesome time here. I love spending time with the people here and I love going to Paris and exploring this fabulous city. Although we only live in JJ, I still like it here, I like the nature and the calmness that comes with a small town like JJ - a good place to reflect over life and do a lot of sports!

So yesterday we had the Cuisson Dinner at JJ's Pizzaria. Everyone who didn't go, YOU MISSED A LOT OF FUN...!!!

We were there with about ~100 ppl? (and if it wasn't as many ppl, it def. felt like that in the small restaurant).

So what is a "Cuisson Dinner"?
Basically it's all about drinking wine (as always...). Every single time someone would start the "Cuisson" Song which goes like this: "Cuisson en Allemands, Cuisson en Allemands, cuisson cuisson cuisson en Allemands, allez allez allez!" ( yea I know, not the deepest lyrics you guys have probably ever heard, but while being drunk, deep heavy lyrics would not work that well - especially in French ;) )

Anyways so the translation would be something like: "Go drink Germans, go drink Germans, come on come on"
Every German person in the room had to drink after singing the song and of course the word "Germans" in the Cuisson song is substitutable with every other word, (Internationals, Asians, Americans, Canadiens, Chinese ppl, ppl's names etc)
...And so you guys can probably imagine that sometimes it can be a very big disadvantage if you are very diverse and fall into most of the groups they were singing about... *sigh*

Eating Pizza, drinking wine and singing the "Cuisson" song, everyone was pretty drunk and happy after about 5 minutes! ;)

But the party wasn't over, after the Cuisson we went to the POW (Party of the Week) and had a brilliant time. The motto was "Explorateur, Tomb Raider" and so I dressed up as Lara Croft ;) and got into the Party for a reduced price of 3 euros :p

my first conclusion for the first 5 weeks is:
awesome traditions they have at HEC, great education (ha!), very nice people, i hope it stays that way...!

我想我爸爸.... :/

nothing much happened really in JJ...bad weather and everyone's getting sick around here.

I'm in a bad mood so here's something nice to look at:

(zu viel) Sport ist Mord...

dang my bones and muscles hurt... and yet I played tennis today... I hope everything is gonna be better tomorrow, cos Sisi and I wanted to go for a run in the gardens of the Chateau of Versailles! yeah...

anyways ppl where asking for a photo of my "brown" hair... here we go (and they only look that brownish in the light and that is totally fine with me. :) )

*bises*

und da waren die haare plötzlich (dunkel) braun...

yeaaa :) i dyed my hair this afternoon and now it shines very brown-ish, it looks good, and i also got a tan just by sitting on my balcony and studying GDB (*würg*) (and by running and playing soccer of course :)) So now people would probably consider me as from Malaysia or Singapore... -yeah..

WELL, it's said, that French people do like to do demonstrations or "manifestations" in French. I have the impression that they do it, not to really reach a goal but rather to -you know- get together, maybe talk about the newest gossip in their home town or they do it just out of the feeling of solidarity?
Anyways, so our wonderful cantine had a strike today... what does it mean for us? Well, we do not exactly live in the centre of Paris and neither have we any other food place in the next 1000meters, so our options for today were:

1. eat nothing (and lose weight)
2. begin an anti-protest against the strike (yea this one i totally made up...)
3. go to the Kfet "Cafeteria" of the Campus and try to get one of those very yucky Pizzas (after having waited for about an hour in line...)
4. be smart and have supplies at the appartment ( a.k.a. Chips, Chocolate, Cookies)

well i would have prefered option 1 but I did option 4 ;)

bisous

i'm only a girl...

i joined the womens soccer team... and i got hurt.... soccer is such a brutal game *waaah*

Pictures tell more than words....

Since I know that reading long blog entries can be really painful, I cut it short this time by showing some highlight pictures (I know from my own experience that laziness always wins over long blog entries ;) )

My campus is awesome, i always go there for a run... i LOVE the nature!




Some Impressions of 1. Versailles, 2. Montmartre and Paris at day time





Paris by night, 1. eating in a American diner, 2. eating Sushi, 3. at the Seine, 4. Arc du triomphe, 5. Tour Eiffel, 6. Pub Crawling






Bye guys :)



p.s. copyright of the respective owner...

Paris, je t'aime cependant

So here is the thing:

i noticed two very significant things this weekend:

First, Paris is soooooo fucking expensive.
Dude, I spent around 300 Euros for three days (but including my wonderful jacket!)
I think the biggest chunk of money was spent on clothing and food.
-So that is why Parisiens are either very skinny (because they don't afford food and if they do they only get reaaaaally tiny portions) or they are broke (since they buy so much food in order to get full) ;) That is of course only a hyperthesis...

Second, I drank soooo much alcohol in the last 2 1/2 weeks while being in France. I think I have not drunk that much the whole entire last semester and I would not consider myself as a heavy drinker compared to other HEC people... oh by the way there are 4, F O U R Party of the Weeks this week. Instead of having only ONE party of the week (like the name would imply) why not have 4 POWT? Life is to be lived, isn't it....?

anyways. I think these 2 points were very essentiel to disover this weekend.
I had a wonderful time in Paris, I went shopping, partying and chilling at the Notre-Dame.

If you guys have a chance, come to Paris, you will love it there.

Some random facts:
1. this paper due to friday is just killing me... why, why for god's sake do we have to TRANSCRIBE things?! it costs sooo much time!

2. I love my room. I see the sunset from it yeahh

<3
Christine (with my badass leather jacket!)

Der Weltenbummler

EDIT:

I have to add another dream:

I want to go to Latin or South America and learn Salsa and Tango!!!!!!
I love the music and the passion of the dances!

It was a rainy day today, but I still went for a run and while I was running, I thought of my dreams which I want to realize in my life, so here they are (and feel free to help me realize any of them :) )

1. Standing in a white bikini at the beach of California, being all tanned and having a nice surfboard in my hand.
(yes, of course I do not only want to pose like a surfer, I also want to be able to surf!)

2. Renting a loft and atelier in Paris downtown with a nice view onto the river Seine and the Eiffel Tower
(and pretending to be a crazy artist who stays up all night painting,- but not soo crazy that I would do drugs and become some green vegan...!)
- This dream is new, we went to Paris yesterday... I am so in love with that city... I feel so extravagant and sophisticated when I am there.

3. Continuing and finishing my books I started to write
(does someone want a signature already? :) )

4. Speaking 7 languages
(arabic would be a nice 7th language!)

5. Buying a good Canon camera
(that is actually not hard to archive, is someone willing to give it to me as a gift?! :) )

L'enfer c'est les autres

I should probably be in bed by now... its for 4 a.m. and I still feel the alcohol in me.. whatever... as long as it is possible to write I think everything is fine...

oh mein gott, dass muss jetzt mal kurz auf Deutsch gesagt werden:
2 1/2 Jahre in München an der Technischen Universität München haben mich echt geprägt... die Umgebung,... der hohe Männeranteil... mensch ich wusste ja gar nicht mehr wie nervenaufreibend es ist mit Mädchen einkaufen zu gehen (und wenn es nur im IKEA war), das sieht ungefähr so aus: die eine nimmt sich einen Teppich mit, weil sie denkt, es wäre sooo toll für die nächsten 3 Monate in ihrem Zimmerlein einen Teppich zu haben (das erhöht das Feng Shui in unserem spatanischen Zimmer!), und noch eine Decke dazu (es ist im Sommer ja bekanntlich sooo kalt !) naja gut und je länger man durch den Parcours im IKEA durchläuft (mit Umwegen, weil man Sie dann irgendwo bei Kerzen und Spiegeln verliert), desto mehr werden Sachen dann wieder zurückgelegt, letztlich hat sie eingesehen, dass der Kauf des Teppichs ihr wohl doch keinen so großen Wert in ihrem Zimmer schaffen würde (aber es hat ungefähr eine halbe Stunde gedauert ihn auszuwählen... mensch auf der Welt gibt es ja soooo viele Farben!) Letzlich hat sie sich ein paar Kleiderbügel gekauft....oO uargh, wie haltet ihre Kerle es nur mit Mädels aus bei Einkäufen?! Da dreht man doch durch?! (Ja wir waren danach auch noch Klamotten shoppen -.-) *puuuh* i need to get used to it again i guess...

anyways... so clubbing tonight in Paris was def. an experience... they only played house music (i know that def. one special person would have loved it...) and so I had to get more drunk to reaaally appreciate the mellifluous sound and melody of house music (urgh) but the drinks were waaaay too expensive, one drink with alcohol was 15 euros and a bottle of water was 10 euros... die Franzosen, die spinnen doch!...but we still did have a good time, and in the end I got my drink without having payed the money ;) its so nice to be a girl sometimes haha....

oh my god and after the club, on the streets of the Champs Elysees, there were so many rude guys who would try flirting with you and touch you... for real, I would be really scared being alone at the Champs Elysees, but we girls were lucky having some international boys with us, who acted as our heroic boyfriends ;)

anyways...i still love Paris :)
its awesome, come visit me guys

XOXO
Christine

some impressions

Party of the Week

ohh ... yea guys... it was definately a good party (at least for the beginning, but after having so much to drink i guess it was irrelevant what kind of music they played).

Oh my gosh, I saw a guy who exactly looked like my ex boyfriend, that was definately creeeeeepy... he was tall and had black glasses (yea the actual person lost those wonderful pair of glasses... so sry for that!) But he was def. not as hot as him (yea dude, that was a compliment!) still, it scared the hell out of me... nicole told me that in the world, there are 6 people exactly like you... wtf?! weeeeird!

anyways... I had a really good time with my girls! and it was def. helpful that all drinks were free.... I guess I still feel some alcohol left! yahooooo

yea, so thanks guys from the HEC IS team, they did a really good job with the POWT.

....And the party's gonna continue on Saturday at Queens in Paris FO SHOOOOOO! So guys come and join if u re free!!!!



bisous christine

i'm the hero!

Sitting in a class full of French people speaking French way too fast, exchange students hardly participate in class - it is just too scary to say something in French for fear that people will look at you and your poor French... so it seems..

and today in class, I rose my hand and answered a question of my teacher (what risks can occur with companies following a low cost strategie...? *zzzZzzzZZz*) wow my heart was pounding reeeeally fast, while raising my hand, but I somehow managed to respond 3 phrases in French fluently, yeah... I'm the hero!!!! hahaha

Anyways - so I just got back from the Karaoke. It was a lot of fun! Oh my gosh we sang that one Chinese song and I couldnt believe that I was actually in France... (way too many Chinese (or Chinese speaking Singaporeans/Canadians or whatever ;) ) exchange students here!)
so the song is: Tong Hua from Guangliang, it's about a fairy tale prince, aww it's such a romantic song!
We were screaming that song into the mic!




enjoy!!! :)

P.S. I am sooo looking forward to Saturday: IKEA!!!! and partying in Paris!

Francais, c'est la merde!

I need holidays...

for real. Its been one day of classes, but I still haven't fully recovered from my exam time in Germany and with only 2 days of holidays before coming to Paris, my motivation is currently somewhere around minus 100!

Stratégie was pretty boring today, questions were asked like: "What is a strategy?" (the answer was 5Ps, 5 Cs etc. , leadership, values, corporate culture blabla) and "What is a business unit?".
- I am wondering if French people have never heard of these things before, is that possible?! In Germany we did those things in the very basic courses!

Yea, and I was definately not prepared for the French placement test... wow... it took us 2 whole hours to take that freaking test! It was like a TOEFL test maybe ( I have never actually taken that test before...). We expected it to be a small test only lasting 30 minutes maximum...so it was pretty depressing sitting in the computer room for 2 hours. And yea, French is definately an annoying language... gosh I got a headache while reading those stupid texts in French (who cares about why birds form a "V" while traveling to the South?!) At least we had the drinking night activity today... so relaxation for everyone!

Oh, by the way I am already planning my extended weekend trips, so anyone feels like getting a tan, surfing on big waves, or chilling at the beach, join me :>

bisous à tous!

i got a french cell phone number!

So today was the first day of school, veeeery exciting ... no the introduction was pretty boring acutally, but afterwards I was able to switch some classes, so now I don't have classes on Mondays and Fridays which is reeeeally awesome, because I have an extended weekend now and I can travel around!
After organizing my courses, we went to Versailles to get a French sim card. First I thought the rate was pretty good, but I only wrote 2 or 3 short messages to some French numbers and they drew 8 (!) Euros from my credits! Thats insane, I def. should complain!
We also went to the Chateau de Versailles and came back to campus for the French dinner and the Speed Dating. Before that, I went out for a run at the lake. Gosh it's so beautiful there, the sun was setting down, while I was jogging and it was already warm - a first glimpse of spring. Do you guys know the smell of spring? It just smelled like that! Fresh and clear. I'm starting to love that campus, although it is in Jouy.

I just got back from the French dinner and the speed dating which was fun! French guys are def. hotter than any other guys I met so far haha.

Tomorrow will be my first class in French so I'm pretty excited about it.

Gnite and special shout out to my girls ;)