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| My dear Montrouge |
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| I wish I sleep in moonlight. |
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It was the beginning of 2002, when I came to France. A totally new place, without anyone I really knew well. I arrived at Porte d'Orlean, thinking dreadfully how could I remember the bus direction. -- In fact, I got lost soon, on the second day. With a bad sense of east-south, I walked to the other ENS student dormitory at Jardin. One young man at the door shew me the correct way by pointing to the PC1: "Don't forget to press the red button before you get down." "But ... where is the red button ?!?! ..." I asked, anxiously. "There are a lot of them. :-))" So my story with Montrouge happened from here. = * = I remembered the first mornings arrived in Montrouge, when I woke up at 4am each day because of the time difference. The air is all strange and mixed with a mystery, I lied on bed waiting for the beeping of my tiny electronic dictionary: I had no clock then and was so nervous to sleep over. At arround six, the milk man entered the kitchen, and with a huge noise he collected garbage, left several boxed of orange juice, and several "baguettes" on the table. -- I didn't know how to fit this size of huge and hard bread into my mouth in the first. And he was the first "social creature" I could encounter at Montrouge. I think he must be surprised to see at 6am in the morning, a tired, nervous, strange foreign girl standing alone in the kitchen, staring at Tour Montparnasse in the east and saluted him a timid "Bonjour"! But luckily, the "social creatures" arround neibourghood soon started a new page into this girl's life, some even became good friends, some stayed long in her memory. Thank God, many times after when I looked back on those passed days in Montrouge the B6, how lucky had I been to know them all -- and to know me better. = * = The funny cheese Aur�lie, Guillaume, Yves were the first close friends I stayed with. And the first evening I tasted les fromages ... = * = Night chats B6, the floor of chemists: Marie-Camille and "FX", Agatha, Elise ... they play cards almost every night. In the morning Marie-Camille would shout in the corridor "Aga~~~~tha ! Aga~~~~~tha !!" for coming to school together, that was really funny. One day at Porte d'Orlean, I heard someone called my name (only, French one) to carry up the bus. It was FX, and the first time on the foreign land that someone called me dehors, I don't know why I feel so warm when now recalling it. When Maria and Fabricio came, my life changed into a new stage ... Then Edwige, Frank, Cuma, ...(the Belgium chemist, but Oh! I forget him name! :( ) and Veronique, his wife; the Russian chemist and her daughter ... How I miss all of them !!! = * = My first invitation When awful experiences can also become lovely memory ... I didn't know how to cook until I came to France, it was a huge mistake. But I decided to invite ten friends to Montrouge for the first time in my non-cooking life. I kept breaking eggs, rushing down and up (because there are only limited ovens), shouting "not yet!!!" ... Luckily, my friends didn't blame me for the terrible disorder, but instead, they said they were so pleased, afterwards ! = * = A little bit of melody My fallen in love. But that's a secret that I would not share publicly. ;) -- Love is dreadful ... but how beautiful was that. = * = La Nuit de l'Ulm ... (to be continued) |
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