yet another weekend has passed. came back from london a few kgs heavier i think. ate very well, thanks to the sporeans who either whipped up feasts/ brought me around to stuff myself silly at restaurants/ accompanied me to throng oxford street and the likes of it. i enjoyed myself very much indeed, and to these fantastic ppl who have graciously hosted me with such hospitality, je vous remercie encore une fois. a special thank-you goes out to jas for having introduced me to hillsong london. tho i didnt get to attend the service, im sooo immensely glad that i had the sense of mind to come back and search for a branch in paris, and voila! they DO have one in paris, and im glad to make it my home church. best of all, the service is conducted in both english and french with the help of interpreters, and with songs of hillsong that ive been listening to all this while back in spore, praise and worship has never been better. they even have french lyrics, wah!! i was so happy that nite i attended my first service. im definitely gonna join a connect grp and attend whatever additional activities they organise.

this time round in london, the touristy options were less attractive than meeting up with ppl, tho i managed to cover covent garden, campden, south kensington, gloucester, leicester square, trafalgar, strand, west end ( and watched a musical too!!), and oxford street all the same during this short trip; and so im pretty much satisfied. comparisons between paris and london are inevitably made mentally to self, and overall i think i still prefer paris, tho theres so many things i feel can be made better. take the transport system for one: the tube is like so much better than the RER/Metro here anytime. the former is cleaner, more well-lit and has a much higher frequency than the later! not only that, its so easy to navigate with descriptions like 'north/south bound' its practically idiot-proof. i got a shock when i first got off at chatelet-les halles in zone 1 paris 6-7 weeks back. there are crowds everywhere and with 3 basements and 4 metro lines and 4 RER lines, i was more than overwhelmed. and there were so many overhead signs pointing to everywhere i wld have gotten lost had i been alone. also, the way the streets/ buildings in london are arranged in a clear manner(read: almost grid-like for those afore-mentioned areas) not unlike spore, so its quite easy to navigate on ur own, even for a newcomer like me. over here in paris, the roads curve and straighten anyhow like nobody's business, and therefore its quite easy to get lost. when i first took the bus here, i was standing and looking to the right for the bus all the while when suddenly, it pulled up from my left. crossing the road also requires a change of reflex, as now u have to look left first instead of to the right before crossing.

but london is much more drab as compared to paris, in terms of weather, architecture and people. there were only 1-2 days of nice weather when i went over there, on the other days its just grey gloomy skies/drizzles. ive been there only twice, but personally, i feel that the people here really dress better and with an almost inimitable elegant style; and theres a lot more sights, attractions and greater architectural wows here as well as compared to london. there is just this certain parisian charm that you feel while walking in paris, be it beside the seine or along the streets of montparnasse. its doesnt manifest itself in the form of haute couture that some of the parisians are dressed in, neither does it exude from the cafes and patisseries with their customers basking seemingly whole-day long in the sun. i cannot place my finger on it, but theres this subtle quality that embodies paris for what she is, and the same cant be said for london. perhaps it takes a longer sejour there than just 5/6 days to experience the british version of it.

for now, i think i need to improve my french further still and settle my academic stuff, before going on to break down more social barriers and make more real fast friends. only then wld i say that ive truely settled down.