Way of Life

Current location: Strasbourg, France

I discovered the reason why Europe holds such importance in me.. It's their way of life that attracts me honestly.. I am currently staying with a French family in a small town located near to Strasbourg.. I met this friend when we were backpacking in Vietnam anyway...

She lives with her parents and they have a beautiful house with 4 bedrooms, 2 showers and toilet, a decent living room and kitchen, a nice garden, swimming pool and a nice guestroom :)

My friend's Sophie anyway. She's a nice girl and if she ever goes to Singapore, I'll make sure she receives twice the level of treatment she's providing me now.. First, she took time off her lunch break from work to go to Strasbourg train station to pick me up and drove me to her house and prepare lunch for me. Everything had to be done within 2 hours!

Of course she had to go back to work and she gave me directions to go to town by myself but I didn't. So, I stayed in her house with her mother and her little brother. It's pity I couldn't speak French because her family members do not really speak English. But that did not stopped any form of interaction. Her little brother and I exchanged conversations using an online English-French translator! Isn't that amazing? As he's still young, his sentence structure isn't too good so he can't reallytype sentences but with my little knowledge and exposure to the languqge, I could make out what he was trying to say. We discussed about him going for vacation in Morocco. Both of us like the place a lot..

We played French version of UNO (they call it Solo here) and I taught him how to play SNAP. We exchanged magic tricks, played memory games and even attempted to do a jigsaw puzzle together but it was not completed as Sophie and I had to go her friend's birthday party..

The party was just a small gathering between their small clique but it was really nice... They spoke French all the time as that is their first language and also the language they are most comfortable with.. However, I really appreciate their effort in trying to make conversatios with me in English... Sophie looked like mother at the gathering because most of the time, she was trying to take care of me and translate for me..

With that and my promise to her younger brother that someday I will communicate in this beautiful language with him, I will start to learn my French when I get back!

From the conversations, I realised that people in Europe are really passionate about living that's why this region attracts me so much.. They are students like us; study and work during vacations and not some rich kids who live off their parents.. They knoz how to take time off their busy schedule to spend time with their family and friends, enthusiastic about accomplishing things in life, most of them do at least 2 sports or speak at least 2 languages, and they don't whine about life all the time unlike Singaporeans.. Furthermore, everyone respect another person's freedom and will..Thar's why I love Europe..

Everyone has their own path and destiny so they don't care what their friends are doing.. As long as they are doing what they like, leading the lifestyle they want, all other things are secondary.. Many people think that these Europeans are able to do so because their country is rich, they have a welfare system so they don't have to slog and zork as hard Asians but I can tell you that's not true at all.. Their currency gives them a higher spending power only when overseas.. Otherwise, in their own nation, it makes not much difference..

Think about this..A lot of people always think about having tons of money in their bank account, being able to live a luxurious life is the best thing one can accomplish in life but in order to have lots of money, you will have to slog your life out first.. More often than not, you get caught in a rat race become money's slave.. That shouldn't be the way.. Humans are the most intelligent animals on earth so instead, we should let MONEY be our SLAVE!! Yes, no one can survive without any money but so what if you slog your life out to earn lots of money? The outcome will most likely be that you don't have a life, you fail to appreciate things in life, you never stop complaining due to the stress you have to cope with and at the end of the day when you have to take your attendance with GOD, you realise you accomplish nothing..

I can say that the Europeans are successful because they never ever let themselves become money's SLAVE.. :)