Stayin in Paris

France was very good. I am glad I trusted my intuition. I'd had a keen sense that I should study abroad since December and generally expected the education and cultural immersion to be worthwhile. Academically, I anticipated that things would mellow after a rough start, which was mostly accurate. I did expect France would show me a nice time, which it outdid. I found myself appreciating my experiences at several points of time throughout. Separately, I became more responsible and sensible - more 'grown-up.' I realised some other important miscellaneous things as well.

I found that doing something for long develops a bit of an autopilot muscle and helps with bad mental habits automatically/spontaneously. I was toiling away for the first few weeks in Paris in an attempt to manage the inconceivable workload. Having not so much as glanced at French text in two years, the reading was hard and talking a little less so. I kept pushing and it soon became inherent - at which point I realised that I could ease u

Class and great teachers

Smoking and talking to Lee Lee curb side

kinda cool to learn abt brody's perfume knowledge and his stories

Sadness of discarding old worksheets and papers from class

Friendliness

Travel 1 for many days not 10 for few days

I have an opinion on travel. Trips to Dubai, Taiwan and now Paris - never for less than a week - indicate to me that I need a minimum number of days in a place before I can enjoy it. That is to say, a hop-around tour is not on the cards for any travel I plan. I'd prefer to spend all of those days in one city and really soak it in. Try living as the people do. See if I like it. I will eat their food and ruminate on it. I will sit outside as much as I can. I'll think about what the people/city are known for and look for my own explanations via observation. I think I will do close to nothing for at least a few of these days. In a sense, this is all to avoid the stress that comes with frantic travelling and an attempt to "cover" as much as possible. Why do we want to "cover" as much as possible? A few answers and criticisms.

A. Want to hit all the main spots. Most of the "main spots" are just places people talk a lot about. This means they have some appeal but does not automatically mean one will enjoy them individually. It also means that the expectation of greatness associated with their pursuit might make them slightly less meaningful upon arrival.

B. Want to feel like you made the most of your money. Quantitatively, you got "bang for your buck" - you saw as much per monie as you could. But this is an illusion. Seeing things is a two-act sequence: the first is physical, with the eyes, and the second is with the rest of your senses. The lesser time you give a place (and the more you grant to your stress) the lesser overall time you have to properly see it. You need to be at ease in order to sense a place properly. You're only really getting visual information through sporadic visits, not very different from visual information from an iPhone photo. In order to actually get "bang for your buck," then, you ought to give more time to fewer places. That's the only assured way of getting more information per monie spent

Phase is not identity