i'd be lying if i said paris wasn't magical- but it was only for a day, and we were so poor we had to take the night coach over, spend the day there, and take the night coach back.

It was quite exactly like what hancheng said- the streets are dirty, though pretty.

There are bakeries around every corner, and it's sadly alienating- if you think you could survive without speaking a word of French, then maybe it's been over-optimistic. I'm not making any value judgements here, but from my personal experience, it was really quite chilly-

you get the feeling they just don't want to give in and speak a word of english to a hapless foreigner. What? Can you speak malay or mandarin or Japanese? i could do with basic of any of those. Oh come on. Then you rely on the helpless foreigner smile and the cheery 'bonjour!' excuse moi, point to name of place on map, and hope that you will somehow make out whatever they tell you, using gestures or gut feeling or whatever.

However cold- the place is magical. The streets have this wonderful nice rustic-ness to it, and people are so exotic- they come in all colours, shapes, sizes, only when they open their mouth, nothing comes out but french (which is a mesmerizing language no doubt).

I'd say for a day it wasn't too bad- Monmartre was beautiful, and having chanced upon one of the scenes where Amelie was shot was definitely the best thing ever. The Lourve was alright, and Towel de Eiffel was classic and magical near the end - as we were making our departure and saw it light up. Definitely the highlight of the day.

Coming back to Earl's Court- it's almost with a sigh of relief. Though the feeling may not be that i belong- it's definitely not one of foreign-ness, or alienation. In every tube train, for each single car, i see foreigners, locals of all kinds of race, nationality. And everyone speaks english- Maybe not the right English here, but it's their kind of English, and as long as it's English, that's good enough, good enough to get by. People are kind, are helpful, are welcoming. Well except for two teenages who said mildly racist things when they walked past (well not really, only one of them sang along to the tune of 'replay' by sean kingston, in which he replaced the chorus lyrics with 'chinese-chinese', which isn't really racist? i AM chinese.)

not much of days like these left, but i'm quite enjoying this.

But i'm also thinking i will go back to Singapore with a renewed appreciation of the place.

Though probably i will try to find all means and ways to leave again.

just feeling unsettled, all the time.

Sometimes moving around helps you find yourself.