Bonjour!

New chapter has begun..

Lunch : Kebab

Well, well, well. Finally, I’m in France!! It was a great 20-hour (12 hours was on the plane to Paris and 8 hours was in the bus to Royan) journey to the place I’m at now, the village of Royan.

The statue is called Macadam Kid

As soon as we arrived at the airport on the 2^nd of June, we were greeted by some officers and some of our seniors (bikin panas eh, terer suda diorang cakap french). However, we were told by the officers that 20 of us will be going to Royan and other 9 will be going to Colmar. That was a bombshell, shock, surprise, bolt from the blue, blow for us because all this while we were told by our coordinator in Malaysia that all of us will be going to Royan only. What to do? C’est la vie~ (That’s life~) Unpredictable aye?

First dinner ramai2 with Bruno

As for my first impression of France or to be specific, the place I’ll be staying for the next 3 months, Royan, I would say that it is a very beautiful and clean village. It is located near the beach!! How awesome is that?! The people here are great too! They are very friendly because whenever I went to any shop; it is like they know everybody. Very friendly lah.

In terms of the weather, it is totally different (duh) from Malaysia. It changes quite fast here, tidak tentu-tentu ba (irregular). It will be summer at the end of this month and the average temperature is somewhere around 15-18 ºC. So far, I think the hottest was around 25 ºC. Soooo, I am like a “milo panas yang kena kasi masuk fridge secara tiba-tiba” when I first arrived here, would take a while for me to adapt to everything.

Middle : Samuel (Housemate for 2 weeks)

For the first month, I’ll be staying with my foster family (Actually, the family consists of only 1 person) His name is Bruno Harutto, a retiree, his family lives in Paris but he’ll be staying in Royan alone during summer. He’s cool! Luckily,he mulau-mulau juga skit, not that serious and kadang2 bikin panas.Hehhhehe. There is also another Malaysian and Swiss student living in the same house. However, the Swiss student has finished his term in CAREL and left for Marseille(I think) to work. And another student from Sweden; a girl, a year younger,has just arrived in Royan and she’ll be staying in Bruno’s house for the next 2 weeks.

Presenting..BRUNO and his boat

Fete de L'avion (Aviation Festival)

About the language, I’ll be learning French for 3 months in C.A.R.E.L (Centre Audiovisuel De Royan Pour L’etude Des Langues).After that, I’ll be going to IUT Blois to do my foundation there for 11 months. On the first day of class, I just experienced the blurriest moment in my life. Imagine going to a lecture without understanding 99% of what the teacher said (seriously); just imagine how my face would look like at the end of the class. However, I do realize that it will always be like that at the early stage of any learning process especially when learning a whole new language. Haihh, u can do it Alvin! SS suda ni. I have made a lot of progress for the past 2 weeks and it feels great when you finally understand what the French are talking about, tidak la u just ‘Oui, oui’(Yes, yes) or ‘Non, non’ (No, no).

Will stare this every morning

About the food, I must tell you this, everyday cheese, butter, milk and hard-rock bun (Yang pakai gigi palsu tu, be careful la ah :P ). I can foresee how I would look like after 7 years (would be very cute) Hehehhehe. The food here is very filling but it won’t last long till you get hungry again. Bon appetite!

I went to the so-called famous Le Phare de Coudouan. IT WAS AWESOME but I got darker :( The weather was just perfect. Will blog about the visit in the next post. Some information about the lighthouse from Wikipedia:

" Cordouan is a lighthouse located 7 km at sea, geographically located near the mouth of the Gironde estuary in France.

The oldest lighthouse in France, it is very large and very ornate, and was made a historical monument in 1862, at the same time as Notre-Dame de Paris. "

Anyway, I have been exploring Royan village ever since I came here and there is still a
lot more to come! I’ll keep you updated through this blog aites.

Notre-Dame de Royan