Lille

Arrived in Paris at 640. Caught the TGV to Lille at 7.50. Stupid SNCF told us the platform 10 minutes before the train departs. Everyone was rushing to the train. And my theory on the french was right, they can queue but in the end it's the barbaric act of pushing took place. No one's sitting beside me so i took the sit. When i bought the ticket, i strictly demanded for a seat in the direction of the train, but they said it's not possible. Now i know why, because 95 percent of the seats are facing in the same direction. Meaning if someone wanted a seat opposing the direction of the train from Lille to Paris, he has a very thin chance of getting his seat.

Arrived in Lille at around 9. When i got off the train, and walking towards the main hall, i was imagining how would syazwan 'sambut' me. I was quite taken aback when i realised that he wasn't there. I tried to call his house, but no one answered. 10 minutes later he appeared from the metro station, looking sleepy, and said that he had forgotten that i was coming. How dare he!

We walked to his house, crossing the centre ville. Lille is not a very big city. Compared to Strasbourg, i think it's a bit smaller. But when you combine the other 2 city, you'll get the Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing Metropolis. And it's huge i tell you. I was surprised to see the streets deserted since syazwan's been telling me that Lille is a 'lively' town. It turns out that the 'lively' businessmen of 'lively' Lille, still have the same mindset like the rest of France. Business from 10 to 6, Mondays are half days, and closed on Sundays. Well... ok, they do open on Sundays, in Lille that is... and Paris as well. Ok so only in those 2 cities.

I imagined that syazwan's house is more or less the same as Rod's in Paris. But i was wrong. It looks more like the Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam. Old, gloomy and made out of wood. But at 200 per month, with electricity included and near to almost everything, there's nothing to complain about. Except for the fact that it is in a suspicious looking quarter.

Rested for a while, then i met with Goh and Farid ( 2 seniors from La Rochelle), later i met Ajak (also from La Rochelle), and then Zarul, the one i met at Rod's place a few months ago. Syazwan and i then went to his campus, by metro. I totally believed the fact when they said PUTRA is the longest driverless train in the world. But when i saw the one in Lille, i have my doubts. I stretches from the end of Lille, until the end of Tourcoing, which is a few baby-footsteps away from Belgium. There was nothing much in syazwan's campus. But it was big. Some 10 different institutions (as in like 10 different schools, totally unrelated to each other) were sharing the same ground. After that, we went to Roubaix to eat KFC. It's weird that i've never liked KFC in Malaysia, and it took me 8000 miles to actually like KFC. Tak pernah-pernah suka KFC, tiba-tiba datang France, suka pulak. Then we went window shopping at an arcade. It's like a factory outlet, buy 2 stuff and get the 3rd for 1 euro. Nike, Reebok, Quicksilver, Lacoste, everything was there. But since this is not Germany, it's expensive, and they don't have my size...

Went back to his house by tram. God, it took us so long, that i slept on the way. After resting a while in his house, we went out again this time with goh. We went to Furret du Nord, the biggest bookstore in the world. A building, 8 stories high, full of books. I was in heaven (just like toh when he enters Migro). And you wouldn't believe the crowd inside. It was packed with people, and the amazing thing is, almost everyone carries a book (to be bought i presume). I mean, when you're in MPH Mid-Valley, yes there are a lot of people, but they were not fascinated to see the books, they're just there to pass their time. But these people in this bookshop are totally nuts about books. We're like.... like.... brothers. I know i couldn't explore every corner of this wonderful world of books, so i went to the english section. But since prices are about the same as in amazon.fr, i might as well buy it online.

They cooked steamboat tonight. But i was full. I ate kebab before that. Just to jaga hati, i ate some. The crabstick was nice, but the soup or water or whatever you call it, to boil the stuff was too 'pedas'. We watched dozens and dozens episodes of Shin Chan that syazwan downloaded until finally, everyone dozed off.