IT'S A PANDAN LIFE ...!

                                                  Eiffel, here I come!!! So, picking up from where I left. From Lisbon, Kak Wan and I flew to Paris. Reached Charles de Gaulle airport in the afternoon. My friend, Putra, and his girl friend had already arrived in the morning. Before we departed, he'd already given us instructions through Whatsapp on how to get to our hotel in Opera, Paris. So the minute we landed in Paris, we took the Roissy bus, which took us straight to Opera. It cost us 10 Euros each. Day 1 When we reached Opera, Putra was at Galeries LaFayette, the Paris-version of Harrods. He told us to meet him there. It wasn't that far from the bus stop. Also wasn't very far from our hotel, Prince Albert Opera Hotel. Also wasn't very far from the  Opera building, the setting for Phanton of the Opera. We checked in to the hotel. It was so, so, so different from our 4-Star hotel in Lisbon *grimace*! The room was so small! I couldn't believe my eyes. Bu

I've always wanted to visit Portugal. After watching Samantha Brown, I was enticed. But all of my travel-potential friends didn't seem the least bit interested when I mentioned it. So I just buried Portugal deep in my heart. When I learned that I could actually apply to go to a conference overseas once throughout my PhD studies, I was elated, and started looking for a conference, with the hope that I could find one in Portugal! I got my wish, and until today it is still hard for me to fathom out how lucky I was :-)! My application for funding was approved after 3 months. Earlier on I had geared my paper to suit the conference's varied themes on trauma. Luckily, a small part of my on-going thesis touches on trauma. As usual, the minute I knew it was approved  I started to worry how I was going to travel to Portugal alone. I suppose if I were a man I wouldn't worry at all about travelling alone. When I submitted an abstract to the conference committee, I 'd forwar