Continuing on my trip, the plane trip was really long. In all, it was about 16 hours. The morning in the plane was splendid. By the time the sun rose, the sky outside was a beautiful dark blue color and the clouds was sheets of cotton white. As usual, the stewardess feared that you starved during the night served up a selection of airplane breakfast. I took omelet with sausages, yogurt, some carrot cake, bread and of course my favourite coffee. Even after the hot breakfast came into my tummy, the temperature inside the plane seemed lower. I was so cold until I wrapped myself in the blanket. Oh yes, there were music for you to listen in the plane using headphones. The selection of music was really not my type. I didn't find any english stations. Japan and thai, yes but I don't understand. The television screen in the plane showed a Ben Stiller's movie in french. It was damn funny. That movie really woke me up. Haha. By the time I looked out of the window, I could see beautiful land down beneath the plane. I remembered seeing greeneries and rows and rows of cultivated land. Amazing. The plane soon touched down. Before landing, all the passengers were given a orchid to pin on ur clothes or belongings. It was our national flower, Miss Vanda Joaquim. Thai Airway's flower is actually our national flower. Hmmm. Okie, I had to drag my belongings, squeezed out of that tiny seat and finally drag in out of the plane. Passing the custom in France is really messy and hot. You can imagine so many people out of the plane trying to pass the only two doors through the customs. We queued the wrong side and had to requeue. By then, I was dying of tiredness from lugging my stuffs. The immigrant officer seemed to try to test our french and asked us a string of french words which we don't understand. At that point, I was stunned. I felt like telling him "je ne comprend pa", meaning "I don't understand." After a bit of frustration for him and me, I finally understand he asked me something like "Vous etes etudiant?", meaning "Are you a student?" Before that I kept telling him in english, "This is the first time I go the France." Haha. Miscommunication. Well, all of us suffered the same fate and we finally passed the customs. Phew. It was the start of another round of lugging our stuffs. My friends all splitted to look for trolleys and some of them were responsible for taking our luggages from the conveyer belt. It was quite a smooth process here. We took a mini van to our hotel in Paris, with the help of a black french lady customer officer. The driver was a Indian. My friends and I were sort of stunned because he spoke the language just like what we usually hear in Singapore! Haa! This man was quite nice. He gave us advices of what to do and not to do near our hotel, Hotel Luxia, which was located in not a very safe place. He told us not to turn right, which we later found that the right path leads to the "red light district" in Paris like Geylang in Singapore. Well, my hotel is still quite safe in all. The red light district was like 2 streets down our hotel. After he left, my friends discovered something dreadful. They asked me "WHere is your laptop??!!" I went stunned. Oh my.. They helped me called the driver and he came back with my laptop which was under one of the seats in the van that we forgot to take out. I was really lucky man. My laptop back contained all my important documents like birthcert, original and translated documents, etc. From that point onwards, I became really aware and careful of my stuffs that I carried with me. Okie, we reached the hotel at 9.30am in France time and tried to check in early. It was too early and we had to put our luggages at the hotel and travel to a nearby cafe to spend our time. I remembered drinking only a coffee at the cafe because I looked at the menu and everything else is expensive. Then, I discovered that I forgot to bring my cable with me. I was thinking is this the start of my bad luck? Forgot this, forgot that. What else would I forget? June accompanied me to a nearby shop to get cable. It was expensive. A 2.1metres cable costed S$20. I also visited the public toilet in France. I tell you, the toilet usage for 15 minutes costs 40 cents euro. That's 80 cents sg. Wah lau.. Like the urine got gold inside. I was urgent and had no choice. The toilet smelled but was surprising clean looking for a public toilet. While I peed, I was really scared that the door will suddenly open because the door is automated. Then, we went back to the hotel and still had to wait. When finally, the room for June and I was ready, all of us went up together. It was tiring man to wait downstairs. The room was quite nice and cosy. It was cheap in Paris standard. Costed 25 euros per night. The first day in Paris was not really exciting. We only ventured around our neighbourhood and brought some groceries. Do you know that the plastic bags in France neighbourhood supermarkets are not free? Each plastic bag cost 2 cent. I think Singaporeans would take for granted that plastic bags were free back in Singapore. It was really a shock for all of us there. By evening, I was feeling ready to cry. You know, the feeling of being in somewhere foreign, you can't speak their language, plastic bags you have to pay, everything costs double and people on the streets who seemed to be looking at you suspiciously? I made my friend bring me to use the public telephone and I called home. After a few rings, I heard my mum's voice and I really felt like breaking down. I tried to keep my cool and continue talking because the phone card was like a bomb, reducing my value every few seconds. So damn fast and expensive! I think it was about 11pm back in Singapore. I remembered my mum's reaction to all my words were "Harrrrr??" Haha. I told her all about the shocking facts about France. I think I only talked for 5 min at most. Haiz. I also called Mingshun. Also talked for only a little while. Felt so much calmer after calling people who are close to me. Dinner was bread with ham. This was really the beginning of the bread eating culture. Okie, I need to stop here. Tired. Continue next time.. Nitez..