Paris - Brandstorm Days
Paris, which has been my dream destination since forever:P, is Beautiful. there is no other way to describe it:) It just is.Paris is the place where it all began due to it being the place that the Brandstorm International Finals (that's the reason why we were in Europe in the first place:P) are held, and it was also where my Europe trip ended as our flight ticket was a return air ticket for KL-Paris, Paris-KL. The initial few days were spent almost luxuriously if compared to the days after the Finals :Pwe stayed in Mercure HOtel, which was just a stone's throw away from THE landmark that symbolises Paris, who else if not the Eiffel Tower :). It was such a great spot to be staying...every morning when we walk out from the hotel doors we can greet Lady Eiffel a good day, and at night we can tell it "Bonne Nuit" before we went inside the hotel to sleep and rest...Due to this being a backdated blog, I can't really think or write the whole thing thing in a, uhm, smooth and chronological fashion, so instead I will just write down the highlights or things that pop in my mind when my brain scans through the part of my mind that stores the "Brandstorm Days" memories:P
L'Oreal Headquarters in Clichy
The first thing we did after resting a few hours in our hotel room was to go to the Brandstorm Rehearsal at the L'oreal Clichy HQ. We were one of the first teams to arrive, and after waiting for a few hours and meeting some of the other competing teams (where we impressed several Asian teams with our multi-lingualism, and we absolutely DELIGHTED the South Korean team by our knowlede of the traditional Korean Ming Meng Mon drinking game:P) we were brought to the room where we were supposed to present the next day. It was in the training center of L'Oreal in another building, and it was actually quite tiny & stuffy:P We
were briefed on what is gonna happen the next day, and after some Q&A session, it was time for us to go through our technical check-up ie check whether our slides are functioning or not. Though we are not supposed to, we did some minor changes to our slides :P Mostly spelling stuff and all that...With that done, we went back to the lobby to wait for a cab to bring us back to the hotel, but of course we took several pictures before that:P L'Oreal HQ has some very nice flower gardens, and it houses several moder at structures as well. There were a few framed L'Oreal posters and paintings here and there too...ah well, the French has always been know to be cultured no?;) The best thing when we saw our pic on the front page of the L'oreal Website on a PC that was in the lobby. The website featured news on Brandstorm, and there was a link to pics of some of the groups, and well, our pic was the icon you click on to get into the particular section :D So proud hehe...maybe we have the right "Brandstom" kinda look gua haha:pMeeting JC :)
We met JC in Paris!!! :D JC JC JC!!! :P She was in France to meet her Ah Boy and she took a trip down (or is it up?:P I dunno I am geographically chalenged too:P) to meet us in Paris the day we arrived :) It is so good to see her...JC is still JC, and her presence, chatter, loudness and laughter (well you know JC;) ) calmed me enough to make me not worry so much about the upcoming finals:P It being our first time in Paris, we ooh-ed and aah-ed over Paris together (It's Woonie's 2d time and Kok Hin is not known for his expressiveness:P),and the first thing she showed me when we first met was a dice she bought which showed 6 different positions of lovemaking...she suggested I buy it for Ah Khoon, and when I asked her what's the use of the dice, she promptly answered :"Throw the dice and whatever position you get is the one you have to do-lah!" I was left in stupefied silence ie "kezadaoan".
First Parisian Meal
We had our first Parisian meal after we went back to the hotel :) The four of us (Me,Woonie, JC & Kok Hin) went to a nearby cafe and took some time poring over the French Menu (with JC as translator:P) I had sandwich (which was called Croque Royale) or something, and found it quite aggreable :) I especially loved the sunny side up egg on top :) And we had Escargots!!! I never thought I will be daring enough to try it but then, everyone was game so I had it too :P It tastes quite okay, kinda chewy, and the flavour came not from the meat itself but mostly from the herbs it was cooked in. We also saw this very sweet looking French little girl having her meal with her mom...we couldn't resist taking a picture of her, which we later showed her...with disastrous results:( We made her cry :(...It being my first day in Paris and all, I also had lots of fun playing around with my camera :) With Woonie and JC being my main 'Models' :P Here are two picture picks of mine ;)
Brandstorm Meet & Greet
The Brandstorm OC organized a "Happy Hour" meet & greet session at Mercure Hotel for all the Brandstorm delegates to mingle around and get to know each other...It was my first time meeting an Israeli when one of the girls from the Israel team came up excitedly to us to mee t us:) She was sweet, but I cant remember her name! Agh!!!:p Anywayeveryone was pretty cool, but I found out that I was actually quite lacking in socialising skills. Woonie, JC and Kok Hin were good at it and found making conversation easyby mentioning stuff that they knew (example if they were talking to someone from Europe they would talk about EU, if they meet someone from UK they would talk about the Royal Family etc etc...) I was just quiet most of the time :P Sigh...wallflower of the night goes to Jess:P We hung around, drank some champagne...and then we left as JC was starting to get hungry:P By this time I think it was around 8pm+ but it was still so bright outside!!! That was my 1st introduction tothe long summer days of Europe :P We had dinner at another nearby Paris cafe, where JC had half a chicken "poulet", I think I had salad, cant remember:P and for dessertwe had creme brulee ( Yes Amelie's favourite:)) and chocolate mousse (which I ordered of course:P) It was just yum...:) I like European chocolate, they havejust the right amount of sweetness to it that prevents the chocolate taste from being overpowering so you end up wanting more after every bite,not like some chocolate in Malaysia where you get tired of it after eating too much :P Ahh....chocolate:)
posted by Jess at
11:07 PM
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