Vive La Francaise

As mentioned before, I am looking forward to a trip to England and France, and possibly another European country, about a year from now. I may be going with my band of cousins, or may be going alone. Taking into account the possible outlook, a girl’s gotta have a sound backup plan, so I’m researching French language centres in Paris that offer 1- or 2-week courses where I can study the language while also have time to go sightseeing on my own in case the cousins are not coming along.


Some finds from the Internet are looking quite good, but I will most probably go with L’Atelier 9 as they offer an intensive 20-hours week-long course for €225 (RM955), the cheapest thus far. Of course, the testimonial from former students sound good, too - I especially like the part where they're very flexible with dates and time, and how they "shock" you into speaking French by not using any books during lessons. Bring it on!

About this trip with the cousins, I’ve been planning so far with a cousin of mine, Zura, and we’re hoping the other cousins will join us on this Euro Trip so that we can relive our “Jaffar Kazens Trip ‘04” when we went to Phuket – our first holiday trip with no chaperones (well, we already were adults at that time, ages ranging from 19-24, but we’d never gone anywhere without parental units before).


However, it is still a long way away, and some factors may not be too supportive of this dream of ours. Zura is pregnant with her firstborn, (CONGRATS!), so when March 2011 rolls around, the baby would only be around 4 months old, and may not be ready for travel yet (although my mother thought nothing of hauling my brother and me to New Zealand when he was just one month old – this is a story I keep telling Zura heheh). Another cousin will be going to the UK in May, while another is going to Germany, so they may not be so ready to go back to Europe so soon. Meanwhile another cousin just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl two months ago, (CONGRATS, too!), so baby-logistics may prove a problem to the new parents (but I keep telling them how we brought Nada to Bandung at 8 months old, and it’s way easier handling a baby than a toddler).

Well, we can plan, so we'll see how it all will turn out! 

Photo: Orsolya Ganzler