Archive for March, 2008

Let’s Visit: PARIS

March 28, 2008 · Filed under Bacpack and a cup of tea · Tagged , , , ,

For you who are about to take that plane to see France, congratulations! But one suggestion: due to the late arrival of spring, prepare some warm sweaters and jackets. Okay, so you want to see the real France, with its cancan spirit, to talk to that ‘I don’t speaks Engleesh’ people, to try those exotic foods (er… despite the bleeding steak, I can assure you that you will love French food), and to get a feel of that French exotism that only France can create… I’m sure that you are very excited to see Paris! But if you want to see France in its natural face, I suggest that you also visit some other cities, or even villages in France. Where to go? What to see? What to do? Guys, grab a pencil and a paper, coz I think I can help you with that…

Okay, let’s be realistic, even though France is just aslmost as big as Java island in Indonesia, we can not see everything. The trick is: to go to the places where you can really feel the French-ness of France, to the best places in France!

1. La Capitale PARIS

Who doesn’t know Paris? A city that is almost always associated to romance, love and adventure. I must say, this association is not totally wrong. Now, I’m sure that you already have that guide, that book about Paris, that explains to you the history of Paris, the statistics, what to see, where to sleep, what to eat…etc. Good move! Thefirst time I went to Paris, I did not have that kind of book. Luckily, I had a born-and-bred Parisian as a guide, who showed me the best of Paris. But if you don’t have your own Parisian, I strongly suggest you to own one of those books about Paris: either you buy it, borrow it from a library, or download informations from the internet.

Revenons à nos moutons (let’s get back to the topic), what to see in Paris? Wow, lots of things. The most famous sites are: The Eiffel Tower, The Museum of Louvre, The Museum of Orsay, The Montparnasse Tower, The Notre Dame of Paris, The Sacré Coeur Basilica, Avenue of Champs Elysées, Garden of Luxembourg, Garden of Tuileries, The Versailles Palace and garden, La Defense, Center of Georges Pompidou,… and lots of other big sites

The Sacred Heart Basilica

I’m sure that you have heard about all the places mentioned above. Let me just add some tips:

  • When you go to the Eiffel Tower, don’t forget to go up to the summit, where you can enjoy Paris from above! There’s a small train walking in a rail to take you up. Of course, you have to pay, but it’s worth it. For students, prepare your international student card, because you will have very interesting discount, and not just here, but everywhere! If you are one and you don’t own this card, just show them your regular student card on which is written the name of your University and your photo, and most of the time, they accept it (based on my own experience).
  • Still in Eiffel Tower, don’t forget to go to Trocadero, a place just across theTower. From here, you can enjoy the views of the Tower from hair-to-toe, or from summit to legs :) and take pictures with its complete body! You also can enjoy some art performances that take place in Trocadero. I’ve been there many times, and each time I found something new and interesting!
  • Preferably, to visit The Eiffel Tower twice: once at night, once in the day. You’ll be surprised by how different the Tower looks under the sun and with its lights!

  • While going to churches like Notre Dame and Sacré Coeur, prepare the flash of your camera. Also, prepare some small money. It’s always free to enter churches, but your donation is needed for maintanance of these very beautiful and historical sites.
  • When you visit Notre Dame, take a walk along the Seine River. You can take great pictures of the side of the Cathedrale, while enjoying the fresh wind coming from the river.
  • When you visit Garden of Luxembourg, try not only to visit the garden and the Senate House, but also the entourage of the main garden. You will find people doing sports, playing games, or sitting on benches or on the grass, just having sandwiches or picknicking. It’s a very good and friendly ambiance! Usually you can even join them (for example in a chess game), and as a bonus: you can practice your French!
  • While visiting Champs Elysées, also visit The Arc of Triumph. It’s situated at the end in the Avenue. I suggest you to take the stairs and go up The Arc. Well, a little exercise never hurts :) and besides, it’s a great view up there! Walking down the Avenue Champs Elysées, guard your wallet. Not only because there are lots of people there therefore bigger risk of pick-pocketer, but also because you will want to buy things :P In this avenue, there are the most expensive boutiques in Paris.
  • If you want to visit The Versailles, first look at the schedule of opening in its internet site. Because in some day, only the garden is open, the others, only the Petit Trianon… So, if you want to visit all area, do a little research. Second, come as early as possible! There are lots of things to see, and so little time, especially with the risk of getting trapped in a long queue! Third, bring your own sandwiches, drinks; for two resons: first, inside the complex of Versailles, there are some cafetarias, but very very expensive ones, and second because once you enter the complex, it’s preferable that you don’t get out to buy food outside the complex; you are not allowed to use your tickets twice. If you want to avoid long queue, you can buy your ticket from FNAC (an entertainment line), and from SNCF (the transport company), either online or visit their boutiques in Paris (there are a lot, don’t worry). Trust me, there is always long line in Versailles, so I recommend you to buy your ticket before going. (Price of tickets vary, it depends on the season, your age, and what area you want to see. But prepare some 25 euros per adult. Discount for students of arts and architecture.)

  • If you want to visit Paris and see historical and cultural things, forget La Defense, which is a very modern area of Paris. All you find is just modern high buildings… But if you’re interested, why not?

Besides these big famous sites, you can also try my suggestions:

  • The Montmartre area. It’s in this area you can find The Sacré Coeur Basilic. What I suggest is, take a walk in the area behind the church, where you can find small streets and painters in action. You can make a self portrait for around 20 euros, or buy a painting, or just enjoy the street artistic ambiance. Continue on walking around, you will find some interesting but forgotten things, for example the oldest windmill of Paris, some small museums, etc… And later, to ease the fatigue, try to visit Les Deux Moulins, the café which was used as a setting for the famous movie: The Fabolous Destiny of Amélie Poulain).

writer in front of Les Deux Moulins

  • While walking around The Latin Quartier, the area where Sorbonne is situated, try to visit some bouqinists along the Seine. They are the small kiosques along the Seine, and they sell old books and postcards. Very interesting! Also, try to visit The Theater of La Huchette, which is situated on the street that wears the same name. In this theater,there are spectacles of Eugène Ionesco’s masterpieces every day! So if you’re interested in theaters and speak a little French, this place is highly recommended. Still on the same street, there is La Cave of La Huchette. This is a very famous jazz café, where not only can you listen to jazz, but also you can dance (there’s a dance floor). This place was originally used as a hiding place during the war… But the place is well maintained, the music is good, and it’s a very worthy place to spend an evening.
  • Take a boat trip in The Seine! There are some companies providing this service, but the most famous one is Bateau Mouche (which literary means The Fly Boat). This boat doesn’t provide meal nor drinks, so if you want to have a romantic cruise with a candle lit dinner, you should choose another company! The Bateau Mouche starts from Pont d’Alma, one of the bridges of The Seine. And during the trip, you will be taken along the Seine, to see Paris’ best monuments, including Eiffel, Notre Dame, etc… it’s not expensive, and it’s fun! Prepare a scarf or a sweater, because the wind from the river may be violent…
  • If you like some artistic spectacle as I do, Paris must be exhausting for you, since there are hundreds of spectacles every day! You can find lots of theaters, opera, ballet spectacles… You just have to choose one! My suggestion is The Opera Bastilles. Now, this is a very famous place, but not all tourists go to watch some spectacles, for the reasons that I don’t know. If you don’t speak French, choose an opera or a ballet spectacle. To save some budget, choose a week night, not a week end. And it also helps if you go with a groupe, or if you’re a student.
  • Still in the Bastille area. Around this area, there are lots of good cafés and bars to hang out. This area is very young and social, which means you won’t not find a place to sit and talk and drink. But if you don’t drink alcohol, you have to be careful because at certain hours they don’t serve tea or café. But you can always ask for non-alcoholic coctails or juices.

Heu, I’m sure that you will find that actully, every place in Paris is worth visiting. But choose your own places, according to what you like and to what interests you. Let me give you additional tips for your visit in Paris:

  • To save some budget, avoid using taxi. Use the Metro and RER service (the subway of Paris), or the bus. But due to the traffic, I’d rather take the Metro. You can find Metro stations everywhere, but always watch your bags, watches, or cell phones!
  • You can ask for free the map of Metro and bus lines everywhere! But preferably ask for it when you arrive in Paris in the airport… You can also ask for it in the Metro stations, some big department stores (for example Galeries Lafayette), etc…
  • Learn a little French before coming… Just some little useful expressions to say: how do you do, how much does it cost, I would like some water, etc… It will be very useful!
  • I know that Paris sounds glamorous… But just bring your comfortable clothes (according to the season), comfortable shoes (girls, our high heels are not made for the streets in Paris), one or two formal clothes if you want to watch opera or ballet, and you’re ready!
  • What to eat??? Hah, welcome to France my friend. Try and dare your self to eat French food. If you’re afraid to wrong-order, ask the waiter first what it is. One suggestion, if you go to restaurants, ask for ménu, which doesn’t means the menu card, but a meal consisted of entry, main menu, and a dessert. Usually it’s cheaper to buy ménu than to eat à la carte, which means to choose one by one the entry, the main menu, and the dessert from the menu card/book. If you want to save some budget, try French famous sandwiches, or pizza, or Kebab (sandwich from Turki), or panini (sandwich from Italia), or the famous French crêpes!

Okay, so what do you think bout Paris? I looove Paris! But in my opinion, Paris doesn’t show the real France anymore. It has become so touristic, and modern in the same time, that all you find are tourists or working tired Parisians. That’s why I suggest you, that if you want to have a real French adventure, you should visit another cities or even villages…

To be continued…

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Beef Steak à la Serina and Olivier

March 27, 2008 · Filed under Bacpack and a cup of tea · Tagged , , ,

What is it like to be in a ‘mixed’ relationship?

Well, my guy is French, and if there’s an award of The Most French Person, I think he has a big chance to win at least the second prize (while me, maybe I’ll get the two millionth position or something). So, as a French who is very proud to be one, he thinks like a French, he watches those weird European movies (one day I’ll have to talk to you about it), he speaks French (d’oh…), and he EATS like a French. He likes those bleeding steaks, creamy pasta, onion cheesy soupe, blue cheese with I-don’t-even-wanna-know-thing on top of it… While me, I’m okay to eat French food, but I always say no to those things mentioned above… (just imagining the smell of that blue cheese makes me sick… God!)

But, what I love about him is, he actually LOVES Indonesian food (who doesn’t, btw? Hehehe). The only problem is: he can’t eat Indo food three times a day. While I can’t eat French food three times a day. So, we created this system: what we will eat depends on who cooks it. But when we cook together, we combine things. As a result, some new interesting recipes are born. But our most successfull one is this: The Beef Steak.

This is what you need to make it (for two people):

  • two beef steaks (you can find it easily in the supermarket)
  • two or three medium potatoes
  • two carrots
  • three cloves of garlic, chop them
  • black pepper
  • canned peas
  • Indonesian sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) – can be found in big supermarkets, or in Asian markets, or surely in Embassy of Indonesia.
  • olive oil
  • salt

And this is how you make it:

  • Make some small punctures with the tip of a knife in the beef steaks. Then, inside each of these punctures, insert the chops of garlics. Put some sweet soy sauce on top of them, followed by black pepper. Leave them to marinate for twenty minutes.
  • Meanwhile, peal the potatoes and carrots, cut them the way you like them, and boil them with a small amount of salt until they’re half done. Drain them.
  • On a pan, warm a small quantity of olive oil. When the pan is really hot, put in the beef steaks, followed by the potatoes and carrots. Add some salt, black pepper, and sweet soy sauce.
  • Cook the beef steaks on both sides. The time of the cooking depends on how well-done you want them cooked. Before you serve them, add the canned peas and let it warm.
  • Serve with fresh baguette.

So, do you want to try it? It tastes very different from the normal French beef steaks!
:)

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Gna gna gna… Learning European Language

March 26, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

Let’s face it: learning new language is hard. The first foreign language that I learnt is English. It was hard, I must say… But I managed to make it my second language. Then I got to learn French. Well, if you want to get a constant head ache during the class, take French class. Those who think that English is difficult and want to change their mind, they should learn French. Now, Do I still get head ache after five years of learning French and being personally in France? Heu, honestly: what the hell are they saying in TV? They don’t speak French, they speak the French of today, which, may I say, seems like a whole lot other language. But I don’t get discouraged. More over, I got too encouraged. People say that German is far more difficult than French, so I started learning German… (well, in order to change my mind about French, but apparently I’m mistaken)

Now, the constant head ache begins…

So, what actually makes learning European language (or another new language) hard?

- First, I have to say the uncomfortable feeling for the newness. Before even starting anything grand like the grammar and stuff, a person who learns new language must get over this feeling of newness first, this sense of ‘I don’t belong here’. Certainly there are new alphabets, new pronounciation, new stuffs…! For example, in French, we know several ‘e-s’: e, é, è, ê, ë. In my maternal language, we only have one e. As someone who has spoken years of another language (in my case, Indonesian) the letter é doesn’t seem so different from the letter ê or ë in French. I have to face this newness in variety of ‘e’, because apparently if I use é instead of ê, the whole meaning changes. Sometimes we just give up and follow this ‘I don’t belong here’ sense, because it’s not so good to have that feeling, and stop going to the language class or call off the whole thing.

- Those pronounciations, oh God, those pronounciations… Well, some people just give up when they face this pronounciation trap. Some language is very hard to pronounce. For example: the letter ‘u’ in French is pronounced like saying Indonesian ‘i’ and Indonesian ‘u’ in the same time. Hah, try that! Most people just forget about it and say the ‘u’ the way they say it, but again, most of the time, it changes the whole meaning.

- The structure of the sentence may be a necessary difficulty too, because the difference of geography makes people structure their sentences differently. In English, like in Indonesian, you usually follow this structure: Subject + Verb + Object. But not every language follows this same structure.In French, don’t be surprised to find the object before the verb. In German, sometimes you have to look in the end of the sentence to find the verb. This is very hard to get used to. The big trap is when you try to make a sentence and you don’t know the entity of the word: either it’s subject, verb, adjectif, adverb… The other trap is: you don’t think that it makes sense. But for the native speakers, there’s no other logical way to do it but their own. At this point, students start to GRHHHAAA!

- Last but not least, the Grammar… (do you hear the horror music when I say Grammar, or is it just me? Heu…) Of course, if you’re very very lucky, the grammar of the new language looks a little bit like your language’s. But in most cases, especially when you’re non-european learning European language, you’re not even remotely lucky. European languages know this grammatical rule called the Conjugation, which is the change of the infinitive (verb) according to the subject. The verb is just the same, but for each subject (I, you, we, he, they) we will see the different versions, because for each subject, the infinitive (the root of the verb) must be conjugated. Trust me, it sounds easy. But it is not. To make it worst, there are some types of conjugations. For example, verbs ending by -er are conjugated differently than verbs ending by -ir, -oir, -tre, etc… and we have to remember them all. To make it even worst, each tense also has their rules of conjugations, for example conjugating the same verb in the present tense is totally different with in the future tense… And how many tenses are there? A lot! And this is THE MOST DIFFICULT THING when you learn European language: the conjugations. Of course, there are also other grammatical rules that make you want to scream while learning it, but in my experience, conjugations is where almost every student fails. Well, besides the conjugations, there are also rules about adjectives, adverbs, pluralities, … not to mention lots of small details in grammar… No wonder when learning European language, students feel ‘enough of it, get me out of here’…

CONCLUSION: okay, it’s hard. I know that it is hard. But hey, when there’s a will, there’s a way. According to my own experiences of high and low in learning European languages, there are some tricks we can adapt to help us ease our pain a little…

- It’s new? Of course. What to do about this uncomfortable feeling? Well, I always try to first: accept the newness. Just accept it, without trying to analyze how weird it is, without thinking that you HAVE to accept it. Just be relaxed and accept that it’s new and different. That would calm you a little. And second: start to think that all this newness is not at all menacing, but fun to know. Be glad when you learn that in German you pronounce ‘j’ as [yot], or when you find that for French, the letter ‘w’ doesn’t ressemble to double u, but to double v, that’s why they call it [double v]. Just think of it as a new funny fact to know. Step by step, you can feel an interest grow, to learn more and more funny and interesting facts about this other language.

- Pronounciation is hard? No problemo. Learn to pronounce them one step at a time. Can’t say the perfect French ‘u’ yet? Heu, maybe tomorrow. Just remember, language is not learnt in one day or two, but in months or even years. You will get that perfect pronounciation, just stick to it, be patient, and while learning other things, the correct pronounciation will come by itself.

- Conjugation is hard, huh? Don’t be pessimistic about it. Every time I find it hard, I don’t say: Ooh, it’s hard, but I say: Ooh, it’s challenging. Nothing I like more than conquering the challenges of the new language. But I can’t give you other advise for conjugation but: learn and memorise. It’s not an easy job, but when you succeed to memorise one rule of conjugation, you will feel soooo good. And don’t forget to reward yourself with a very good ice cream or a romantic date. And then, just remember this good feeling after having conquered a challenge, and you’ll have the motivation to go on for the second, the third, the fourth,….

- When I started learning French and I found my self in a quitting mood, I borrowed a book or a DVD about France, the culture, the famous sites, and the views. Everytime I got amazed… And started thinking… what if? What if I was there, under the Eiffel Tower, or walking down The Champs Elysées, with the colorful autumn leaves falling around me…? Or: What if I lived in France, crossing La Seine every day, meeting cute French guys, and eating exotic food? And you know what? That motivation of learning French always came back. And better yet, it came back with a new motivation: Someday, I will be there. And look at where this motivation takes me…

Well, it may be hard, that French or German or Spanish… But always try to see it in another way. Don’t feel menaced or uncomfortable, because when you’re patient enough, you will find yourself talking the language one day. Find a source of personal motivation on keep on learning, just like what I did… Don’t forget that practice makes perfect, and making mistakes is what makes you learn.

So, good luck! Bonne chance! Viel glück!

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A blog is born

March 19, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized

Hello, soon here news from Serina!

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