Originally published on Nov 6, 2016.
1. On the train to France, there was a french kid and his mom seated behind us. As the kid was speaking, Mae commented, “ang sarap pakinggan ng accent nila“. (It’s so nice to listen to their accent).
A while later, the kid got motion sickness and started vomiting. To which I thought, ‘pareho lang din naman tunog nila sa atin pag sumusuka’. (Turns out the sound of vomiting is the same regardless of your accent).
2. Upon arriving in the train station we fell for a train ticket scam. A black guy approached us and “helped” us purchase tickets. It was only when we got home after searching online that realized we paid 15 Euros for what should have been only 3 Euros.
Then, while passing through the train barrier (where you were supposed to insert your tickets) we saw a group of black men just hop over the barriers. Apparently this was a normal thing to see in most train stations as well.
Upon exiting the train station near our AirBnb we seemed to have been located in a ghetto area. Throughout the street, a lot of black men were just there, loitering at 2pm in the afternoon.
Stereotypes confirmed.
(Yes I know majority mean no harm, the welcoming experience just made us feel a bit scared for our safety.)
3a. The Louvre is the worlds largest collection of old art stuff. And after seeing the Mona Lisa, it was pretty much random paintings, sculptures, and excavated antiques for the next 2 hours.
My main source of entertainment was staring into the eyes of the sculptures of dead Pharoes while saying “Imhotep1” 3 times to see if something happens.
3b. In the Palace of Versailles there was one room of a queen filled with paintings of herself. She had the same expression on all, but different outfits.
Turns out #OOTD was already a thing back then. (OOTD = Outfit of the Day).
3c. In all the paintings of the kings, queens and other important people, they were well posed and dressed in gowns and formal coats.
This makes me want to have my own painting. But I want to be painted wearing my blue boxer shorts and a white t-shirt, while holding a slice of pizza mid-air and the cheese about to drop on my clothes.
Then I would have it framed in the living room of our future home, so that all our future guests can marvel at it just like how royalty did it in the past.
4a. The French way of speaking is fascinating. Some consonants in the middle of the word end up being ignored. And the vowels ‘a, e and i’ all sound like “ou”, while the “o and u” sound like “i”.
So for entertainment, Mae and I were trying to predict how the names of the train stations were going to be announced.
In our 4 days in France, we never got one right.
4b. The weekend prior to leaving for our honeymoon to Europe, I started saying everything in a bad Italian accent. Mae-a waza annoyed-ah!
4c. I have acquired the skill of saying everything in a bad French accent. Mi es nout amouoused.
5. I would like to congratulate and thank Mae for surviving 16 straight days with just me.
And for fitting all her clothes in a small luggage bag.
And for picking out the best places to see and food to eat!
1 – Imhotep – From the movie, the Mummy (1999). There was a scene when all the people were chanting “Imhotep” repeatedly and walking like zombies.