Club can’t handle me

有件事情很奇怪。

當老外知道台灣並沒有非常多酒吧的時候，都很好奇我們平常的休閒娛樂是什麼？我說，當我們需要喝酒的時候，有時候當然會到酒吧喝，但是因為酒吧的酒很貴，在我們想要小酌時通常都會到便利超商買一打啤酒到同學家裡喝，要不就是騎車到某個黑黑的山上配夜景喝。平時大家聚會通常都是吃完晚飯之後就閃人，要不就看場電影續攤，很少大家一起去喝酒的機會吧！(這樣說當然有失公允，台灣人的生活型態很多種，我只能拿自己當代表作舉例啦...)

在宿舍的幾個朋友，在自己的國家都是每天泡在圖書館從早到晚念書，為求學業成績能夠保持全班前五之類的名次(因為找工作跟畢業名次很有關係)；課餘時間跑去打工賺錢，是因為通常大家都搬出原生家庭到外面租屋，吃自己用自己。幾乎沒有什麼生活娛樂。但是到了法國參加ERASMUS，請記得這個萬惡的縮寫，這七個字代表著輕鬆的學習，大量的假期與永無止盡的派對/clubbing和隨之而來的宿醉。記得有一段時間Jose得臉書狀態就是「ERASMUS=hang over」然後大家都在下面推讚。

來解釋一下ERASMUS學生生活的規律吧！一旦明天早上沒有課，大部分學生都會選擇go out一下，意味著晚上八點吃完晚餐之後在廚房繼續留著聊天到九點半，大家回房稍微整理一下臉書狀態、跟女朋友skype或是趕一下報告，半夜十一點集合，從冰箱拿出自己買的啤酒存貨開始喝，然後十一點半上公車到市區的酒吧喝。比較誇張的是會拿出紅白酒喝，但他們都很遵照一個原則就是：啤酒與紅酒不可混！因為是學生的關係，所以大家會偏向在家裡喝多一點，酒吧的酒500ml就要5歐，這樣的價錢真是貴雙雙。

通常趴踢的邀請函都會說22:00-04:00，所以當我們第一次一群亞洲人想要來體驗一下歐洲歡樂的氣氛時，十點到場之後發現只有小貓兩三隻，為什麼呢？大家都還在吃晚飯呢！真正的人潮高峰通常是在半夜兩點。

喝酒是為了要讓下一步─clubbing更加chill out，所以在走向club的時候有時候會向路邊小販買啤酒繼續喝。通常club外面都有保鑣確認你是沒有醉、沒有攜帶酒精飲料的狀況下才會讓你進入室內，不然就乖乖地在外面把酒喝完。進入club的費用在法國超貴，通常是12-15歐(480-600NTD)，附一杯飲料。

大約一點多進入club開始獵豔(就男性而言是如此啦...女生去club有很多都是只想跳舞的(認真貌)！)這時候大夥通常都會分開行動，兩個比較好的會一起走互相當彼此的wing man(如果很難想像的話就類似HIMYM的Barney與Ted)。半夜四點通常該得手的就跟人家回家了，不然大家就會乖乖地跳上末班的夜間公車回家睡覺(有時候會不死心的等到第一班公車，大概是五點半吧)。Keke在剛到里昂時常常被這些醉漢給嚇醒，因為我們睡在距離大門比較近的位子，所以他們回家亂鬧的時候都會被吵到。一開始很不習慣，但到後來已經成為常態了=口="

你或許會好奇，難道他們都是單身嗎？答案是：怎麼可能呢？但是也請不要把獵豔這件事情看得太嚴重，因為他們不分男女都不走冰清玉潔路線，性不代表愛，而且我們在ERASMUS耶！男/女朋友遠在天邊，他們又不知道花生省魔術！(情侶檔憶起CLUBBING的機率真的比較小。)

所以我們可以發現外國的宅男/腐女人數少很多，因為大家習慣night out去認識新朋友/炮友，如果要合理化解釋，這種類似的活動是社交場合啊！就跟你跟朋友約出去逛街或吃飯一樣，或者是參加同學辦的聯誼會，就是要增加男女之間認識的機會嘛！

在這樣的前提下，大家night out通常都會盛裝打扮，我之前說過，男生就是襯衫配皮鞋，女生是鎖骨、事業線是基本款，裙子不可以低過膝蓋，剩下的自己發揮。但是有一項衣著重點：不要穿太多！我會建議男生穿一件襯衫配一件夠保暖禦寒的外套或pull-over即可，因為clubbing大家都黏在一起，熱都快熱死。還有不要傻傻的整個錢包都帶出門，club不是展現台灣經濟實力的好時機。帶張學生證或護照影本、一點現金和宿舍地址就可以出門了。

你或許有疑問？在clubbing要怎麼認識對方啊？答案是因為club的音樂都超大聲，想要講話時必須要口耳交接，挖靠，第一次接觸就可以如此近距離啊！像我這種正人君子或是只敢在嘴巴說說的，通常就是講講話就說掰掰！因為我不喜歡這種地方的人，對我來說太複雜了 XD。但是女生通常會希望比較有異性吸引力的男生採取主動的態度(這邊不代表女生說話)，有時候主動摟摟腰也不會太在意。(我觀察到的現象啦！)

另外這也可以解釋國外有很多當紅歌曲，是在這種場喝播放讓大家跳舞解悶的。國外歌手很多就算連抒情歌都要找DJ來做remix也是這個原因。還有那種舞曲大合輯始終在排行榜佔有一定地位也是原因。好的DJ有時候會穿插幾首Pop歌曲讓大家大吼大叫，Black Eye Peas的I gotta feeling，Katty Perry的Firework以及之前很紅的Lady Gaga都是選項之一。然後他們會帶動現場氣分，某些老招例如「台中的朋友請舉起手來～」替換成「說西班牙話的朋友請大叫」很好用，大家都很好拐。

所以通常隔天的早上事權宿舍最安靜的時候。因為大家都在睡覺哈哈！一直到下午兩點多會有第一批人出現，到廚房喝水，因為宿醉的最好解藥是灌下大量的水。這時候不要理他們因為他們也在頭痛，只想躺在床上休息。重點是晚餐時間，是每次night out的檢討大會，討論昨天大家的業績如何。以及今天晚上要不要再出去的提議。

這種clubbing有時候如果打上主題，會讓大家更有新鮮感，例如萬聖節大家都要扮鬼，感恩節就要辦火雞之類的；但是遇到那種節慶沙漠，又要想點新點子來讓大家玩，通常會利用食物來吸引群眾，例如棒棒糖趴、可麗餅趴之類的，Free food=people，這是黃金規則。

總而言之，clubbing可以算是年輕人的生活娛樂之一，也不要把club的人看得太壞，其實就是找點樂子而已。分享了許許多多夜店club的觀察報告，希望大家下次再clubbing的時候能夠玩得愉快！

刻板

之前網路上曾經風靡一時的「台灣人眼中的世界地圖」總是惹得我們哈哈大笑，大部分台灣人對於歐洲的印象就是個成天只會喝下午茶，大家用不著上班的地方；我把這張地圖翻譯給西班牙人Jose聽的時候，他變得很好奇大家對於西班牙人的印象如何，只可惜這張地圖沒有把歐洲國家寫的更詳細一點(或者是台灣人對於歐洲各國人的印象很模糊吧)，我對他說，西班牙如果直接按照字面翻譯，三個中文字分別代表(西方West、班級Class以及牙齒Tooth)，但三個字拼在一起時大家才懂你在說的是一個國家。我們心目中得西班牙人就是成天鬥牛要不就是蒙面正義勇士拿著西洋劍在人家褲子上畫著Z字的那些人吧！你們的好朋友是葡萄牙(Tooth of grape)。

台灣人眼中的世界地圖

Jose說No，No，No，西班牙人一點都不喜歡葡萄牙，因為葡萄牙很窮，西班牙人一點都不喜歡這個鄰居，他們語言也沒有很相通。而且歐洲人也不是成天喝下午茶，他們需要工作的！Jose解釋之後其實我對於西─葡的關係感到更為模糊，其實在下我對於西班牙的印象是他們曾經在15或16世紀很強，曾經佔領過台灣。但是後來不知道為什麼原因就在世界舞台上消失了，連小時候背的「俄德法美日澳義英」都沒有西班牙... (按：是因為西班牙內戰的關係)

當我2006年要去土耳其的時候，大部分朋友對於土耳其的印象總是沙漠、大家騎著駱駝在大太陽下行走，晚上住在帳篷或者是地窖裡面。我把這樣的刻板印象告訴我在土耳其的朋友們，他們還幫腔：對啊！我們甚至拿牛的胃裝水，沒有錢買得起鞋子...

仔細想想，就是有這種很奇妙的刻板印象，大家的話題才漸漸的出現，例如我們可以跟巴西人討論是不是你們國家的人都是私生活很亂然後男生女生都很會跳舞？問墨西哥人你們是不是每戶人家有多一個水龍頭是專門放龍舌蘭的？Adolf在德國是不是個很普遍的名字？義大利男生真的都那麼壞嗎？

更有趣的是聽那些歐洲國家的人對於彼此的刻板印象，也是另外一種新發現：

• 北歐(瑞典、挪威)─人都不怕冷，女生都是金髮正妹，而且很開放。
• 法國─糟糕的駕駛一堆，路上闖禍的八成是法國人。會找各種理由放假。
• 捷克─便宜的啤酒。
• 土耳其─德國一堆Kebap都是這些人帶來的。
• 英國─女生都不怕冷，在寒冬中還只穿細肩帶和不穿鞋，因為他們醉了...

這種討論總是會帶出一些很有趣的話題。但最可憐的就是那些大家都不知名的國家，總是會出現類似的對話場景：

A：Where are you come from?

B: I am from Slovakia.

A: Okay….

除非A對於歐洲歷史很有興趣才會了解斯洛伐尼亞之前附屬於捷克共和國之外，一般人總是會傻笑，然後終止這個話題。原因就是這些國家讓人認識的太少了。很不幸的，台灣也是屬於其中之一。當A把台灣跟泰國搞混時，你還需要非常慶幸的說，對他們都在亞洲。所以每當我成為B的時候，總是會再現文化大使得腳色，告訴那些阿啄仔HTC、Asus等他們平常生活聽到的名牌也是來自於台灣。不過也不是每次都是如此不堪，至少很多人知道台灣的首都是台北。

布達佩斯博現代博物館展出的「台灣響起」特展

Anyway，這不是一項簡單的任務，但當你讓某個人知道台灣是什麼的時候，世界上又少了一個謎團困惑大眾的心：）

Apply for Turkey VISA

Finally, I got my Turkish Visa!!

After the exhausted tough night, I went back to Lyon on 9am, and heading directly to the office of Turkey ambassador in Lyon. That was my 3rd time to go, for the first time, I arrived in Wed. morning, and the officer told me that the application of visa is opened on Tuesday and Thursday morning exclusively.

Then the next Thursday, I happily bring all my stuffs to the office, right before I entered the room, I found that I forgot to take my passport with me. WTF! Nevertheless, I asked the officer again what kind of things should I provide, and he added one thing: certificate of studying. Thankfully I asked him, or I would go there for 5th or 6th times.

Anyway, it’s glad to get the visa on time and really happy that I have to the chance to visit my friends in Turkey!!

Lyon still snow like hell.

Between Galion and Batiment A

Galion是我們住的宿舍，Batiment A是我們上課的建築物；這一周都在這兩棟房子之間徘徊。里昂最近的天氣有種回暖的幻覺，平常外面的陽光普照，就像是剛剛抵達這時初秋的天氣，然後白天竟然也有14度的高溫。不過聽說這只是變冷之前的假象而已啦…

從我的窗戶照出去…

我這幾天的生活很清心寡慾，因為已經答應自己從巴黎回來開始到學期結束之前都要好好待在宿舍補眠、準備論文、準備旅行需要的東西。所以日子也過得算是愜意，如果我寫出來應該會被在台灣的同學打死。

不是窩在宿舍看熟男不結婚(結婚できない男)，然後默默的上google搜尋國仲涼子的桌布，不然就是很熱中看mobile01上面數位相機的討論，因為我這台P家的FS7被我嫌棄了，新歡是O家的E-PL1，花了很多時間上比價網或者是amazon等待感恩節的特賣。

然後為了下個月長達一個月的歐洲旅行也必須要做足功課，因為我沒有很多本錢，所以抱著LP或者是論壇網站看旅行時要注意的事情。也正為了要不要多花100歐去阿姆斯特丹兩天而苦惱。

非常推薦的一本LP!!

然後是整理我之前的一些日記，比如說我正在慢慢連仔的倫敦遊記，或者是整理照片，發現了幾張很有趣但是尚未發表的照片。

ZARA的奸巧價標

我絕對推薦去西班牙的時候要去買ZARA，因為那邊的價格跟H&M差不多，但是款式比較流行也比較不會撞衫。再者，它的價標有專為西班牙、葡萄牙設計的紅標，可以說是比其他西歐國家的價格打個75到8折的價錢。以我買的這件外套來說，法國售價是79.99歐，到了西班牙只要59.99歐，而且他的價標根本就是黏在一起的(見下圖)!!

讓人疑惑的海鮮

台灣人很喜歡吃的花枝，在家樂福的售價也讓我很困惑，明明肉比較多的部分和只有零散的花枝圈，居然售價是一樣的!! (雞胸也比雞腿貴!)

另外例如Mathias喝醉的樣子讓我寫了醉文化那篇網誌，或者是很高興得收到了來自貝貝的明信片…

在廚房自拍

剩下不到一個月的時間就要離開我的小窩，好捨不得喔!! 但我卻在此時，感冒了…

聖誕老公公巧克力

期待冬季瑞雪的降臨…

醉文化

寫在前面：給台灣的朋友，如果你現在正好在里昂，請不要直接翻譯本篇文章給任何外國人知道唷^_<

其實你可以發現我每天都會喝一點酒，不會很多，除了比較好睡之外，慢慢訓練自己的酒膽，希望可以成功擺脫一杯就倒的美名。而在歐洲這個環境，以及周遭許多千杯不醉的德國人照顧下，其實我慢慢覺得喝酒是一件很有趣的事情。有時候經過酒精得催化，能共讓某些人成功打開心房，把比較有趣、真誠那面展現出來。

有個德國女孩叫做安，第一次遇見她時是在前往一個派對的路上，那時候她穿著黑色的緊身上衣以及紅色熱裙，穿著火辣是外國女生參加派對的dress code之一。他非常高興的自我介紹然後在路上跳舞，手上拿著啤酒一邊灌一邊講話，她的朋友說她喝了兩罐斯美洛冰火和兩罐啤酒就變成這樣了。那時覺得這個人很促咪，然後隔天在課堂上發現安根本就是不同的樣子，變成一個嚴肅、拘謹、甚至給人一種冷漠的感覺。那時候我才了解到原來有些人在醉前醉後根本就是兩個樣，而且根本不要相信任何人在喝醉時說的任何話，根本就是non sense。

中秋節派對那天我們買了一堆家樂福特價的啤酒，一罐售價是0.25分，折合台幣10元，就把一堆人給灌醉了。其中醉得最慘的是托比以及馬諦，因為是在宿舍辦派對的關係也不用擔心回不了家的問題，所以兩個人醉得很慘。馬諦是那種會在最後把自己的心事跟任何人講的人，看他這樣大辣辣一隻難過起來還真不知道該怎麼安慰他。然後托比醉了之後就會跟一隻猴子一樣在人家身上跳來跳去。甚至還差點惹毛荷西。是的，有些人在喝醉之後會呈現一種激進瘋狂的狀態。

奇怪的是上述的三個例子都是德國人喝醉，也許是因為德國最有名的慕尼黑啤酒節根本就是一場醉漢、廢渣音樂與昂貴啤酒的聚會，所以醉漢大多來自德國吧(誤)！

我發現自己在有點微醺之後(現在通常是1L的啤酒之後)英文會變得特別流利，我們有討論過這樣的情形可能是因為喝醉酒過後比較放得開，所以想到什麼就講什麼之下，反而比較能夠掌控這個語言。記得我在聖巴斯提安的網誌中，最後提到我喝醉的狀況，其實是不想寫出來讓外國朋友笑，所以乾脆在這邊用中文跟各位告解一下！

是的，本人又醉倒了…而且是在西班牙。

那趟旅程的每天、每個人晚上都會經過酒精的洗禮，基本上是先跑去bars喝啤酒，或者是到超市買啤酒回旅館喝，這樣的好處是比較省錢，因為club的酒超貴。然後在聖巴斯提安的那天晚上，我不知道為何地又想要喝個醉，所以就昭告天下說：我即將喝個酩酊大醉，請照顧我，謝謝！好像每次喝個爛醉都是經過計畫的…

然後我在墨西哥晚餐之後點了一瓶1.25L的蘋果西打啤酒，就是俗稱不容易醉的Cidre，自己喝完之後有點快醉的感覺，接下來在Jazz吧裡面又點了一杯烈酒Congac，速速的喝完之後已經感到不勝酒力。我發現要喝醉很簡單，就是迅速地喝下烈酒，根本來不及消化你就已經醉了。根據經驗，我喝啤酒不容易醉是因為都會一直跑去上廁所，把酒精排出體外所以就算喝了多一點也比較沒關係，但是烈酒不一樣，他是需要經過身體比較長時間的消化。記得我在這間Jazz吧裡面抽完生平第一根菸，顆顆，事後我都不記得了，馬諦還有拍照片存證= =

接下來我們進行到當晚的第二間吧，點了一杯啤酒之後，我已經感到茫茫然，然後忽然有個澳洲女生拍拍我的肩，在左手抹上鹽巴，右手交給我一杯龍舌蘭的shot。先舔鹽巴，喝下shot之後要趕快咬檸檬，根本不會酸，反而會有一種暢快的感覺，是的，就是這樣暢快兩次之後我便失去了意識…。

接下來的記憶是我坐在路邊吐，旁邊是帕可和馬諦在照顧我，帕可一直叫我喝水，他說我要趕快喝水明天才不會不舒服，然後馬諦是在旁邊找紙巾。然後他們一直問我"你幾歲？"、"你從哪裡來？"之類的問題，我當時只感到"幹！我好想吐！但是沒有東西吐好難過！" 於是，在擔心可能我是由於酒精中毒而無法發炎的狀況下，馬諦做了一個決定：他叫了救護車來！

基本上我進入西班牙是完全遊走法律邊緣的狀況，因為沒有官方簽證認可下可以算是違法入境(歐盟的邊境都很鬆)，但是一旦和官方組織牽扯到關係，第一個看的就是護照。就算我那時再醉，反射動作就是說我不要上救護車，因為一上去就大包了。好在聰明的馬諦知道我的狀況便給他們我的學生證，然後西班牙醫護人員看看我的狀況判斷還好之下只登記我的名字做報告用。我就被拖回旅館。

接下來的記憶就是斷斷續續的，我記得馬諦再我身旁有講話，然後我有睡一睡跑起來吐，但是又吐不出東西所以很難過。他們一直叫我喝水，所以最後我我乖乖聽話的喝水。然後是克里斯在當晚也醉倒了，不過我沒有看到他的醜態因為我乖地躺在床上休息。

後來才知道原來我們穿上了一樣的T-shirt然後拍了上面那張照片…然後我坐在路邊的椅子上一直吐得時候，把整雙鞋吐的都是，是馬諦幫我把鞋子擦乾淨的。帕可拿起我的眼鏡偷偷照相(下圖)，然後我被扛回旅館時直接上床睡覺，馬諦再旁邊照顧我兩個小時，因為他發現我睡到一半會呼吸中止，所以索性拿小說坐在我的床邊，只要聽到我呼吸中止就拍拍我的手讓我有意識。(原因是有很多人是被自己的嘔吐物噎死的) 聽到之後我非常感動馬諦的照顧，一路上就像是大家長一樣關心大家。

我在吐

我從倫敦回來是特別在哈洛德買了一罐糖果送給他，因為他奶奶常常從德國寄東西給他，裡面都是糖果和食譜。所以我猜他會喜歡糖果，而事實證明這糖果是他喜歡的一種。

昨天晚上馬諦喝醉了，而且是完全的大醉(跟我在西班牙差不多，但他不會吐)，在周一晚上六點。對外國人來說這是一件非常不專業的事情，在周間喝醉是不負責任的表現。況且他明天早上八點半有課！但是他的狀況下我巴不得他馬上喝醉最好是醉倒大睡一場什麼都不要想。沒想到這麼年輕的年紀下要面對這樣的戲劇性劇情，論誰都承受不住啊！昨天晚上也協助他上床睡覺，然後傳了一封FB訊息給他，跟他講如果有需要任何幫助請直說。(跟外國人相處的狀況下是當對方要求時提供友善的協助，而不是一股子熱情的做一堆事情)

外國人的醉文化，是交換期間一個很有趣的觀察。雖然說歐洲人看起來不怎麼需要工作，但是其實大家都很ㄍㄧㄣ，尤其是德國人平常ㄍㄧㄣ很久之後最需要酒精的慰藉。到目前為止體驗的算是所有交換生之中比較豐富的(或者是比較敢寫的，顆顆)我的心得是：每個人都要醉過一次，在你的好朋友身旁喝醉，知道自己的界限在哪裡。我這次在西班牙喝醉沒想到受到大家的掌聲，因為我有勇氣向自己的極限挑戰= =，這種價值觀真是有趣有趣…回台灣之後應該會有另外一種文化衝擊…

Dinner in a french family

In early September, Ms Drouet of EM forward a letter from Lyon International to us,
they’re inviting international students to local french family and having meal together.
It is quite a nice opportunity getting to know french people especially local family,
so I applied it and the family invited us last night to have a dinner with them.

There’s the other student from Slovakia, Lukas, was also assigned to the same family,
the lovely Fournel family.
The son of the Fournels, Pierre, picked us up at EM and drove us to his home, which is not that far from school, about 5 minutes later, we arrived the family.

20:00, As we entering the house, the Mom, Christine, welcomed us in the front door. And first thing first, Lukas brought a wine to them, and I brought 3 replicates of Jadeite Cabbage with Insects from Taiwan.

Jadeite Cabbage with Insects

This piece is almost completely identical to a piece of bokchoy cabbage. Carved from verdant jadeite, the familiar subject, purity of the white vegetable body, and brilliant green of the leaves all create for an endearing and approachable work of art. Let's also not forget the two insects that have alighted on the vegetable leaves! They are a locust and katydid, which are traditional metaphors for having numerous children.

Bring a bottle of wine if you’re invited to sombody’s seems a convention in Western society, I’ve seen this on movies, this is the other custom that I learned.

We were invited to take a break at the living room. They served little snacks and wine to us, the wine was bubble wine (taste similiar to Cidre but totally different), which contains less alcohol and the taste was light and fresh. We talked most about our countries and families, and their family members. And we mentioned the strike is happening firecely in Lyon center, I was curious about their(the locals) attitude toward the strike, and as I expected, a bit of tired of it if I am not misinterpreting.

It is my first time to a real french house, so I spent quite a time observing the decoration and the spatial arrangement of the house. They framed photos everywhere, mostly the family members and they have different styles of cabinet. The most interested thing I found is their wine cabinet in the living room is Chinese style, but totally integrated into the atmosphere in the room.

Since the father was late to home, we’re invited to the dining room to have our meal at 21:30. The entree was mushroom with tomato and garlic sauce, the mashed meat jam and boiled little pink radish. I like the mushroom very much, the flavor was quite strong coz they us a misterious herb (I guess it was sichuan pepper) to spice up the taste. The meat jam was also nice with bread. The radish was brittle and now I can buy that vegetable from Carrefour (I didn’t know how to deal with the radish before).

The main dish was chicken with plum, which is Christine’s special dish. The chicken was sunk in the sweetness of plum, and the combination of salty and sweet was perfect. I spent quite a time to enjoy the taste and became the last one finished the dish. Gus gus (misspell) was served as staple food, and I liked this thing from north Africa, look like millet but tast differently.

During the main dish, the Dad came home, Jean was worked so late that he couldn’t join us in the beginnng. We talked about the food in our countries, the wine and the family again on the diner table. After the chicken, the fromage (cheese) served.

I have to say that I like the food in France but cheese is out of that range. After we had a hard time with cheese in Rennes, I promised myself never, tried that thing again. But since they talked a lot about the molded goat cheese, I sip a little and yes here comes again, the strong flavor ran through my mouth that I have to drank wine to rinse the smell. But I liked the dessert quite well, it was orange cake with rum, the other specialty of Christine. The caked absorbed the rum and it tasted humid but sweet at the same time.

After the meal, we’re invited to the living room again, with our wine and tea or coffee. We spent quite a pleasure time chatting to some interesting issues, like language genious of our friends (people that can speak more than 5 languages), stike in French and average salary or rent of dormitory in different countries. I drank the last kind of wine there, it was the wine of peal, contains 40% of alcohol. I drank a shot and it was burning my throat and after I swellow, felt the liquid came to my stomach. They said this kind of wine can help you with digest, you bet!

After all, we left the family around 00:00 and Pierre kindly drove us back. It was a great dinner and glad I grabbed this opportunity to know more about french people and making new friends. We promised them that we’re having an International dinner, Slovakian and Taiwanese food gonna served their stomach! :)

Lukas with the family

New window blinds

That’s my expression thin morning.

Someone’s knocking my door this morning, I was still falling asleep,
and someone just uses his key to open my door, and try to wake me up.
I opened my eyes and try to figure out who’s that man in the morning,
it was the janitor/gate keeper/careman in the dormitory.

He said that “Change, window.”

Yes, I got it, I need to change my window blind, it was almost broken,
on the second day I arrived here, I found that the window blind was broken.
I pulled the blind aside but failed to shut down, and since I stayed in ground floor,
now everybody can watch “Ming-Chia’s dormitory life show”
So I mentioned the situation to the janitor and he said “OK” to me.

Then 2 days later, someone just came into my room,
they fixed it but said to me “It’s fragile. You need to use it smoothly.”

I thought it was Okay and let’s wait and see.
The janitor came to me 2 weeks later and told me that they’re going to change the window blind today! (that day, i mean)
So I waited them for the whole afternoon but no one came.
I thought it was a joke or something, and forgot it right away.

Then it’s today, the other 2 weeks after the notice,
he bumped into my room with 2 plumbers.
Out of councious, I shocked in the first hand and tried to grab my things and got out of my room. Of course I remembered to wear on my pants and a jacket.

Finally they changed my window blind, which took them a whole month,
including the 2 weeks notice. That’s French :P

Strike!

Oopsy, it seems we can not going anywhere this week coz of the strike seems to be more serious than before. The nationalwide  strike in protesting at pension reform is heavily disrupt our lives.

Almost every transportation is influenced by the strike, Lyon is also included, but I have to say that I bought the transportation pass this month is such a stupid thing.

France24.com provide a survival guide for travellers and it says that

Rail:

International:

EUROSTAR (To London): Normal service
THALYS (Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands): 80% of trains running
LYRIA (to Switzerland): 80% of trains running
ARTESIA (France-Italy): Service completely suspended
TALGO (France-Spain): Service completely suspended
Trains to Germany: 66% of trains running

National:

TGV (From or to Paris): 25% of trains running
      - Northern routes: 50% of trains running
      - TGV Inter-province (avoiding Paris): 20%
CORAIL: 33% of trains running
TÉOZ: 33% of trains running
TER: 40% of trains running

 

WHAT THE HELL OF THIS SITUATION!!!!

What do you know about Taiwan?

Things are like this: Aneta’s visit Toby and I guided her Lyon city,
we went Hotel de ville, old town and bellecoure for lunch, and during the dessert time,
we discussed about the impression of each other’s country.

She’s from Finland and I always confused those Scandinavian coutries with Norway, Sweden and Finland, but I knew that Santa and Nokia are two major products from Finland and there are so many lakes (made by galaxy) in her country since I was a serious student in geography class.

Then it’s her term to say something about Taiwan.
But she’s got no idea which I totally understand because we’re so far away from each other, but the point is, I , a native Taiwanese, could find a proper way to introduce my country.

I tried to introduce from our geographic location and our political issues with mainland China, and the next thing came to my mind was some high tech company brands like HTC, Acer or Asus. Yes, she recognized that brands but there’s no direct connection to Taiwan.

How about our culture?
It’s quite hard and meaningless for us to define what is the culture in Taiwan since we’re a combination of many different things, Japanese and American cultures are two major impacts and people in Taiwan can easily adapt new stuffs. It is the characteristic of an island country, we depend on imported things even included the cultrue. No, we don’t have that much historical buildings or even history but we’re kind proud of ourselves with making a economic growth during the 80s. We regard us as the most gunuine decent of Chinese culture.

People of Taiwan
I think people of Taiwan are commonly friendly and easy-going. Take me for example, I’d like to be an open-minded person and willing to experience exotic things or talking to many people as well. Yes, we have some stereotype of each culture but who has not? Besides I think people from Taiwan are down to earth and hard working.

Ever since I became an alumni of AIESEC and I seldom got the chance to introduce my country to foreigners, so maybe I shall start again.

Superstore

I’m talking about my academic life here,
it is quite strange that I have to admit I didn’t too much effort in studying,
but at least I didn’t skip any courses so far!

Jose’s presenting.

I am taking 4 courses this semester, 2 for the whole semester, 2 for half.
Business to business marketing and 2000 years of European history are the two courses
began in Sep and last until Dec,
Service operation management and European business system are half-semester,
so that the contact time will be 6 weeks separately.

If you fellow my facebook status, you’ll notice that I am struggling with 2000 years of European history, I took this course is that I thought I would be fun to study European history in Europe! But it turns out to be translation of historical terms and endless essay.
I am going to do a presentation next week so I am kicking my ass to focus on
Feudalism in medieval Europe and try to figure out the legislation and jurisdiction at that time. Optimistically thinking, I regard this task as introducing complecated products to clients and try to improve my skill of communication, which is applicable in the future. Also, students are required to hand in one page summary of obligatory essay each week. Since the loading are quite thick but the professoer is sophisticated and talktive, we like him a lot.

B2B marketing is the other course that I am kind of interested in and it has a trong connection with my thesis. I will introduce this session afterwards.

Last but not least course during the first period is Service operation management. The reason why I took this course is that I don’t have other options to choose and accroding to the syllabus, this one seemed interesting and useful if I decided to attend service industry. But it turns our to be … hmm … not that interested because of the lecturer is good at researching especially using formulas to figure out the best way of operation, instead of teaching. He tried to draw our attention by playing funnt videos but it seems empty and most of the time we don’t get his point in the vid.

I did a presentation for the course, Superstore, our case company and we were discussing about the correlationship between operation and service quality, and mentioned internal marketing and so on. I think the case it self is not that hard and our team, Amelie, Alison and I try to use the simplest way to solve the questions. I think it is quite interesting to discuss with others things we’re not familiar with.

Moon fest party!

Moon festival is one of the most important fest. in Chinese society,
the other two are Lunar new year and Dragon-boat festival.
These festivals are set to gather together with family,
take moon fest for example, we usually have a family dinner and watch the full moon together afterwards.
You can find the fests on lunar calendar, 15 of August in lunar calendar is the day we believe the moon would be the most reounded during the year,
which is a symbol of our tradition rounded table in every family.

This year, we are having the moon fest with our friends in Lyon.
So we decided to have a little party at our own kitchen,
and served original Taiwanese foods and snacks to them.
We’ve prepared the food for 2 days.

Left to right: Coke eggs(braised eggs，糖心蛋), Druken chicken(醉雞), Salad

Chinese dried pork
(This is the one of kind in Taiwan)

Braised pork(滷肉飯) and Scallion soup(大蔥湯)

and of course, lots of beer!

It is kind of weird that every family would barbeque during the moon fest,
it’s def. not the traditional way to celebrate, but you can imagine that
if the weather’s fine, why not barbeque outside and watch the moon all along?

Barbequed meats and toast

Unfortunately, we don’t have any tools foe grill in the domitory,
so we fried the meat with sause instead, together with roasted toast.

Slides of moon fest

Also, Paul, our CEE, chief entertainment executive, prepared a slide for introducing the origin of moon fest, we played this slides during the party.

There were so many people helping us to cook, esp. our German chef, Nora,
she did a good job in roasting the toasts.

So many friends were invited and we’ve also prepared two dishes for vegetarians,
one is salad and the other is Taiwanese fried vegetable.

Alison invited her friend, Sophie to join us, and she can speak quite lot of Mandarin.

From left to right,
Gloria, Me*, Kris, Joey*, Jose*, Federico, Mathias*, Carlton, Toby and Cynthia.
The names with star are the ones sharing the same kitchen.

I was telling about the story of Cheng-Er, the lady live on the moon,
and her pet, the Jade rabbit.

I brought a package of pineapple pie here and some Chinese friend contributed 4 moon cakes, so these are the dessert of the night.
Along with the moon cake, we also served Taiwanese oo-long tea for everyone.
(Of course the liquid in my cup was tea!)

 

These are the staff team of the party,
Left to right,
Alison, kitchen assistant,
Ya-wen, Temp in kitchen,
Fookie, kitchen assistant,
Joey, Chef,
ME, cooker,
and Paul, CEE.

We had a high time and since everybody’s leaving, we stay in the kitchen playing cards until 5:00 in the morning…

Skype with Ciel

Long time no see.

St Malo is awesome!!!

i am at st malo, small city by the sea in nothern brittany, the
weather was sunny all day and the sea is fxxking awesome! Yes, i had
the fruits de mer plateau again, and this time was shared by just 2
people, made my stomach's full of crab, prawn, oyster and etc. So i
skip the dinner and ate only water and peach.

--
Best regards,

銘佳

--
高銘佳 Ming-Chia Kao/Eric
國立政治大學企業管理研究所
Mobile:+886-96 12 91 012
E-mail:ericisme@gmail.com <E-mail%3Aericisme@gmail.com>
http://homeawayeric.blogspot.com

Hill and Paintings on the wall

每年12月，里昂舉辦光明節，
總是會吸引許多聖母瑪利亞的迷哥迷姐前往朝聖，
尤其是在這個小山丘的聖母院，會擠滿滿滿的人向聖母致意。

前往聖母院之前，必須先從地鐵站轉車，
里昂這邊TCL的系統是這樣的：
你可以購買1小時有效的車票，無論是搭乘巴士、捷運或者是纜車、tramway，
只要在一個小時以內刷到票進到車站就算你的。
這張票的一般價格是1,6歐，學生價是1,2歐。
另外是購買學生月票，沉默成本為購買卡片的費用5歐，
然後每個月加值25歐可以吃到飽，
但是它是以月為單位，所以九月底買月票是很不智的行為。
從EMLyon到Lyon市區，必須要乘坐巴士到捷運站，然後轉車，
所以幾乎每個學生手上都有一堆車票XD

纜車的車站很傾斜，無法好好站著。
由於是上山的軌道，所以幾乎都是過山洞的路，
一出山上的車站，就是聖母院了。

聖母院分上下兩層，我們先進入下層地窖參觀禱告堂，
其實我一點都不懂為什麼要分成兩層，
但是下面這層主要是以六角星為布置主題，裝潢也比較黯淡，
但是從地底下往外看，光影交錯的感覺有另外一種虔誠的風味。

來點盞光明燈吧2歐

從地窖往上走，有沒有向上天堂?

然後是上面那層比較金碧輝煌的裝飾，還有著名的彩繪玻璃。
一入門是正妹大天使守門，

天使很正

進入主堂之後，挑高的屋頂樹立起凜然起敬的莊嚴，
陽光透過彩繪玻璃照映在瑪利亞潔白的雕像上，
彷彿讓他有了另外一種表情。
虔誠的信徒們紛紛坐在木椅上禱告，或者是端視著一個又一個的基督故事。
(以上這段文字可以拿到每個教堂講)

你覺得人生很不順嗎？
還是有事情想找人傾訴？
歡迎利用教堂的告解室。

  本教堂共有7個包廂，請及早預約

里昂的代表─獅子佇立在教堂大門口守衛

從山上望下去里昂市區

大樹與慵懶的人

玩到太嗨的青少年

這個小山丘的另外一站是古羅馬劇場與高盧博物館，
本羅馬劇場已經被列為世界遺產之一，此外由於是週四參觀博物館，
所以free！

古羅馬劇場

  路邊撿到的松果

博物館的旋轉梯，很有意境

古羅馬某物

由於本博物館是從一樓往地下五樓下逛，
所以昏暗的燈光營造出來很催眠的氣氛，
逛完之後大家都異常沉默，因為很想睡覺。

里昂的濕壁畫一直是著名的景點，
走在里昂的街頭，常常會有驚喜發生，
因為一片大大的牆上，畫著令人備感親切的人物，
或者是一扇假窗、假門、站在銀行門口的人們可能都是畫出來的。
更好玩的事，那些畫可能每年更新，車庫裡永遠是最新款的車。