I am going to share my experience of travelling to Paris -city of light, for Imagine Cup competition from 4th to 10th July. Since there are many great things to recount, I will be posting into different parts on different days slowly as I need to upload photos and type to share my wonderful experience. Before going there, I was very excited for the presentations for Software Design Category, to meet with people from different parts of the world and to shoot photos!!! Before going, I was quite busy with practice for presentations as well as doing programming for our application. Also, quite worried about getting Visa, because I needed to go to France embassy many times for application and get it only in the morning of the day that we going to Paris.
Day 0 (2 Jul 2008, Wednesday)
Went to France embassy in the morning to collect visa and then went hair cut. Then went back to school to return the CDs that I borrowed from school library and in the evening at around 6:30 pm, left home together with my parents and grandparents to Chagi Airport. Took bus and MRT there. Reached airport terminal one at around 8 plus and there found Yang Lin. Then waited for Ryan and Alicia.
Terminal 1, our departure place
At around 9plus, went to counter 13 to check-in and many friends and family members each and every team member came. Our course manager, Mr. Lim and our school's manager of student development and enrichment also came. Took some group photos as follows:
Team Mamagaia with Mr. Oh
Families, friends and teachers
We brought some equiptments such as temperature sensors, fish tank and laptops for our group demonstration and presentation. So, my hand-carry was also quite a lot: my backpack containing some documents and snacks (to eat there if hungry as I afraid I would not used to the type of food there), my camera bag which contained my 400D with kit lens, battery charger, CF cards, lens pen, Holga 120N with Ilford Delta 400 and Fuji Velvia 200 slides, and one laptop.
After settling customs and security, waited to board the plane. This is my boarding pass: AirFrance 257, Depture time 11:15pm.
The airplane that we took was Boeing 777-300. Quite big plane which has the seating capacity of around 350 passengers. It was my first time taking such a big airplane. I got the aisle seat but one passenger near the window wanted that seat, so we exchanged seats. Therefore, finally, I got the window seat. One good thing about the window seat is that I can view outside and can take photos. After delaying about 30mins, the plane finally departed from Changi Airport. As I was in Tempo (economy class), the seat was quite tight although got some good leg-room. It has in-flight entertainment system which offers movies, music, games and information. I tried to watch a movie but could not hear the dialogue well due to the noise from the engine. So, just swiched to Real-time flight information system which displays current position of airplane, and other parameters such as temperature, altitude, time, etc.
About one hr later, meal was served. I chose Sweet and sour char siu chicken with sauteed noodles and Chinese-style vegetables. When I looked outside the window, saw some lights and dark surrounding, quite hard to take photo since there were reflections in the window mirror. After eating, relaxed and fall asleep. The whole journey on the plane I was mostly sleeping, sometimes awoken for a short while and fall back asleep.
Beautiful Sun Rise over the Black Sea. Before taking this shot, I was falling asleep, and once I woke up, when I opened the window and saw it and then quickly take out my camera and shoot it.
Sunrise over Black Sea
After 12 hrs of non-stop overnight flight, the pilot announced that we would be landing in Charles de Gauelle Airport in 1hr time. Then, break fast was serverd. It was kind of European breakfast which contained bread, butter, strawberry jam, slices of ham, and orange juice. Not used to that kind of food.
Touched down at the airport at around 6:45 am. Looked for the officials wearing Imagine Cup T-shirts and saw them wearing green color t-shirts with the word Imagine Cup on them. The following is the group photo taken at the airport.
Photo credits: Team Solar Lunatics
When we walked outside of the airport, the cold weather greeted us. The air, the atmosphere was cool, and I guessed it would be about 18 degree Celsius. Waiting the bus to bring us to the hotel. After getting the bus, I choose the seat near to the window to shoot photos and started shooting photos of airport and its surroundings. The followings are some of the photos.
Charles de Gaulle Airport
Road to Disney land
No right turn, no left turn
Train
Narrow Road
First sight of Eiffel Tower
Day 1: Opening Ceremony
Caught up in traffic jam for some time. Finally, reached the hotel at around 9:30. Our hotel is Hotel Novotel Tour Eiffel near to Eiffel Tower.
Greetings
Went to level 3 for registration, collection of Imagine Cup t-shirts and tried to get the schedule of the day. We were informed that we can only check-in to our rooms at 3pm. So, went to the luggage room to put our things. Then, also contacted with Mr. David Lim, Microsoft Asia Pacific ADE. Grabbed some light food (a kind of pizza) and drinks from pantry area.
At Registration area
After that, met up with Team Solar Lunatics from Singapore Poly photography category finalists to walk and explore the surroundings of the hotel. Our hotel is situated on the same road to the Eiffel Tower. So, we walked to the Eiffel Tower. On the pavement, there are many flowering plants. First thing that caught my eyes was Velib, France's public bicycle rental system, which was lauched on July 15 2007. From further readings, I got to know that duration of first 30 mins in rental is free and only will be charged after that first 30 mins. There are more then 700 hire points in which public can rent a bike or return their rental bike. There is also one machine system to control. Since it is written in French, I did not know the exact way to rent. But it is a very good thing to promote cycling as a form of transport which is cheaper and greener.
Velib
Moreover, there are cycling paths at the right hand side of the roads and sometimes near the pavements which provide safey of cyclists. I like all these ways to support cycling as I also like cycling and used to cycle a lot when I was in my howntown, Insein, Yangon, in Myanmar.
The eiffel tower, really high and big. Went under and around it and amazed by the long lines of queues of people waiting to go up to the tower. Snap many photos of the tower. In France, the area around Eiffel is called Tour Eiffel.
Public Toilet
Summer leaves
Eiffel Tower
Tour Eiffel in noir et blanc
Fly away
At noon, went back to hotel for lunch. First time having a European style lunch. Bread and butter are essential items in lunch tables. At 3pm, went to reception to get the key to our hotel room. Team Mamagaia and Mr Oh got the rooms at level 15. Me and Ryan got one room, Yang Lin and Alica, one and Mr. Oh, one room. The view from our room is not very interesting and we could not see the Eiffel Tower or Seine River as our room facing opposite directions from both of them.
View from hotel room
At around 5pm in the evening, went to level 3 to go to opening ceremony at Paris City Hall. The waiting to get the lifte was so long, waited about 10-15mins to get the lift! Then waiting for our turn to board the bus. They grouped the teams according to ascending orders of country name. So we got bus number 7, together with teams from Slovenia, Serbia, Spain, Sri Lanka, etc.
Team Singapore comprising Team Mamagaia (Software Design), Team Trail Blazers (Embedded Development) and Team Solar Lunatics (Photography), Photo credits: Team Solar Lunatics
The sights of Paris from the bus were amazing. It got big buildings, many statues and sculptures and monuments.
After we alight from the bus, it was very very windy, looked like going to rain. As they instructed us not to bring bags, I never brought my DSLR. So, this time, I depended my Nokia Music Xpress phone's 3.2 mega pixcel camera to shoot.
The city hall was very grand. The reception was also very good. The MC announced one country after another and we walked up the stairs at the end of which there were many media waiting shooting video and photos. The main hall where the opening ceremony was held is also very spacious and it had many paintings and ceiling lights.
Paris City Hall, a truly magnificent building with a lot of history behind it.
The City Hall, also known as the Hotel de Ville, has been located along the Seine River for more than three centuries. The original Hotel de Ville was established by river merchants who used to meet at the Merchants Trade Guild House, which later became the town council. In the 16th century the building was expanded to accommodate the growing needs of the Parisian people. It was renovated and expanded again in the early 19th century. The first “Hôtel de Ville” came to a tragic end when it burned down at the end of the second empire during the Paris Commune. When the Commune fell, the city held a design competition for a new building, and the architects who won created an identical design to the original. The current Hôtel de Ville was built in 1882. {from official Imagine Cup Live Space at http://imaginecupfinalsinparis.spaces.live.com}
The Deputy Mayor of Paris welcomed everyone to Paris by observing that “like the Imagine Cup, Paris is creative, imaginative, and a little bit crazy”
Dinner was served after the opening ceremony. The food was very little. Not used to that kind. But, I found many small tomatoes and ate them. I tried many types of food provided. Then I saw a part of Notre Dame church through the window and I took photo of it. In Paris, the daytime is very long, even at 10pm the sun haven't set yet.
Soon after we reached back to our hotel rooms, we fell asleep due to tireness.
