21 June was a lot of things...

Forgot to mention in my earlier post that 21 June was Fete de la Musique (Festival of Music) and I took a walk around the centre of Paris with some frens. The atmosphere was great!!! There were various bands along the roads, playing all sorts of different genres of music; Rock, Pop, Metal, Country, or just simply nice-sweet-folks-singing, etc... And people were just flooding the streets! Some, who looked like they had drank a little too much, (or perhaps people in Paris are just naturally uninhibited...) were happily dancing away, oblivious to others around.

Amidst all of the arts, music and cultural activities here, I must say I feel like I've been given lessons in things that I would not have noticed or been interested in, in Singapore. Stuff like going to museums, attending art exhibitions, etc. Getting a dose of the 'wen hua' (culture) as we would say in Chinese. Perhaps it's not that Singaporeans are not a cultured people like the Europeans are, it's probably just that She, being a young country, has just not been so developed in this area (and also probably because we have been brought up to think that arts are useless since one can't earn a living through arts). But now, the Singapore government has been trying to promote the arts and for young people to become more aware of the arts, even though it might be in the form of another campaign... Isn't that why the (endearing durian-, or fly-eyes-shaped, though I'd prefer to think of it as more like durian than fly eyes... heehee) Esplanade was built?

21 June was also the official first day of Summer. Summer here reminds me very much of home... It's so hot I feel like I’m in Singapore! And the worst is that air conditioners don't seem to exist here! (Though when I think about it, I can understand why; since most of the year is cold rather than hot; only about 3 months of the year is actually warm/hot, heaters make more sense.) But can you imagine our MRTs and buses without air-condition? It's like that in the Metro, RER trains and buses here. So terribly stuffy and smelly! And working in the labs just feel horrible too, cos' our labs are not air-conditioned... Heat makes me feel really sleepy... *Yawns*