I lost the bus, but I found a great friend,

I arrived in Porte de Bangolet just on time, and the bus that I took to Berlin was still there in the station, I asked the driver to enter, but he told me to check in first, as I had a luggage with me. I told him that if I check in, the bus will leave, but he doesn't speak English neither French, so finally I lost the bus, and I couldn't take the reimbursement at all. I decided to come to Gare de l'Est to find the train to Berlin, as I don't want to miss my hostel booking again. When I arrived in the station, there were no more trains to Berlin, and I found that the east most city of France that stands close to Germany is Strasbourg, therefore I decided to go to Strasbourg. I arrived in Strasbourg at 11h30 PM, and there was a rain before I arrived, so I feel so fresh arriving in the city. I though that I will go around the city until the morning, and then take the train in the morning to get to Berlin.

I went around the city for about half an hour, and then I decided to sit down and connect to the Free WIFI that available on a little road to check if there is bus going to Berlin on that night. When I was trying to connect to the network, there were some people passed by, among them there was a girl passing me with her bicycle. A few seconds later, the girl came back to me. She was still sitting on her bike, and then she asked me if I need a help. I told her that I just want to connect to the internet to find if there are bus leaving from there at that time. She was really helpful, she said that if I want, I could come with her to her place, as there is internet there, and she said that I can also sleep there, as she has two more sleep-able places on the floor. I said that it should be really great if you let me stay a night. After that I prepared my stuff and then coming with her. She got out off her bike, and walking with me by holding her bike.

While we were walking, she asked me what I am doing in Europe, and also about my trip, she asked me where I came from, when she know that I came from Cambodia, she said that she used to think that Cambodia is in Africa, not in Asia. I asked her why she was dare to come to a stranger and let me stay in her place. She said that my face is not looked dangerous, and she told me that she used to face the same problem on one of her trip which she had to sleep in the train station, so she could understand the difficulty. I asked her where is she comes from and also what is she doing here in Strasbourg. She told me that she come from a countryside closes to the city, and she is there for her studying, she was studying English-German and Swedish. She has been there for 5 years, and after the first two years, she went abroad to Sweden for learning Swedish, to Austria to teach French, and also went to London. Now she is doing her master, and she is now writing her thesis about the Film Festival. I also asked her if she speak the dialect or the French at home, she said that when she was young, her parents was speaking with her in the dialect of her region, which is more close to German, but after she went to school, they started to talk with her in French, as the school is teaching in French. But she still manage to speak the dialect, and understand it. When her grandmother came to visit her, her grandmother tried to talk with her in French, but she is not good in it, so she told her grandmother that let her speak in the dialect, and her grandmum said that she could speak it.

It took around 10 minutes to reach her place. The place is on the back of a building, it is on the ground floor with just a single ground floor house. The room is really nice, it is just around 5mx3m, there is a stove and a fridge close to the door, and her bed at the end of the room, and the close up with a table in the middle right side of the room. The place that I was going to sleep was her little saloon that can be extended as a sleep bed. She extended it for me to sleep in the middle of the room. After took out my shoes and also put my stuff in her room, I asked what is her name, so since we walked down the way, we didn't know the names of each other. Her name is Milène and I told her my name is Sovann, she repeated it, and then she asked me if the name sound like "So-One", and I said yes. She asked me if I need something, and also told me where is the toilet and the bathroom, she also told me to close the windows, as if it is open the sunshine will wake me up in a really early morning. After I took out some clothe and she changed her clothe for sleeping, she went to her bed, and I laid down on my place. We started our talked again, I asked her about the stuff that she put to decorate the ceiling of her room, she told me that it is call "L'amour en cage", it means Love in the cage, she said that the tree maybe origin from Japan. It looks quite similar to a plan in Cambodia. She said that she tie the fruit to a long line, while she was talking with her talkative friend, after he finished his talk, she show the line full of the fruits to him, to demonstrate him that how long did he speak. She tie the line with the L'amour en cage on the ceiling, by tie it to the light in the central of the room, and she ties also on the ceiling a line of yellow-orange-green leaves that is the gift from her sister. In the wall of her room, there are some black and white images, one of it is a deer, she also put the image of the deer again on her door.

She asked me how many siblings do I have, I told her that I have 2 sisters and one brother, and I am the last one, she said that the last one should be the spoil one. Then I asked her the same question, and she told me that she has three sisters, so all of her sibling are girls, and she is the third one. I asked where are her sister, she said that her oldest sister is teaching in the region and now she is building her house with her husband and they are going to have a baby soon, so she is going to be an aunt really soon too, she was really exciting when she told me about that, she also told me that she really love her sister. Her second sister is now living with her boyfriend in London and her last sister is studying in the region. I asked her so how often that she met her sisters, she said that she always meet her youngest sibling in every 2 weeks in her parents' house, but as now she is busying with her thesis, so she decides not to go home, as if she goes back home, she cannot manage to do the thesis, as she always go to the back yard and playing with her parents' pets. They have donkeys and also a dog of two years old, and other. Her parents' house is just about 60km from Strasbourg, and she has to take a train in order to get there, and she need to go another 10km from the train station, so sometime she asked someone from her parents' house to bring her, or asked someone to come with or she takes her bike with her, as they allow passenger to take the bike on the regional train. She also asked me if I have any pets, and I told her that at my home, we have 3 dogs.

She told me about her Philippine friend, and she said that in January next year, she will come to Manila to visit her friend, and I propose her to come to visit Cambodia as well, and so I will take her around, and she said that she will check it. Following that, we were talking about rice, and then we come up about the tea, I said that everywhere they drink the tea, and she asked do they grow tea in Cambodia, and I said that yes, but not that much, and I told her about jasmine tea in Cambodia. She was also talking about the tea and coffee keeping us awake, while there is a kind of drink that make us sleep. Then I told her also that in Cambodia we have a leave that they eat to have a well sleep, and I also tell her that in Cambodia, in some recipe, we put the coconut milk, and with the coconut milk, it make us sleepy after the meal. I told her that in Cambodia, we also eat insect, and I told her maybe it is disgusted for her to hear about that. She said that she has a friend from Colombia, that she met in Sweden, he used to cook a kind of ant as well, but she didn't try it. She said that she just not use to eat something like that. I also told her that in Cambodia, they do eat the red ant that living on the tree, she though that the ant living on the tree or on the ground are the same, and I said no, they are different. The one living on the tree, it take a few of tree leaves to make it nest, and if you come close to them they will bite you and also spray acid from its bottom to the place that it bites you, then she said that she won't come to Cambodia, hah hah, she was laughing like Dalai Lama. I said no no, it is just living on some tree and if she doesn't come close to them, they won't do anything. She also asked me about snakes in Cambodia, and I told her that there are so many different types of snake in Cambodia, from the poisonous one to the one without poison, from the small one to biggest one, the python. And then she said she won't come to Cambodia again, hah hah, I said that they don't attack us until we step on them. I also told her about the eating of spider (it is not spider) in Cambodia, and she said that she does allow the spiders to live in her ceiling, as they eat the small insect. I told her to ask to those spider to share her the house's fee, and then we lough. She told me that in France there are two snake, and one of them is poisonous and there is the kind of snake in her region, and it has black and yellow colours. I was also telling her about the python that is really big and it attack the other animal by using it head, and then it ripe the animal before swallowing the animal. She said that the snake, can separate it jaw, it is why, it is capable to swallow the big animal, she said that soon some people will also try to separate their jaw in order to swallow the hamburger, it sounds really funny, hah hah. I told her also in Cambodia, we have a cute bear, which have yellow colour on their chest. After that nice dialogue, we went to sleep, she put her phone to alarm at 8h in the morning, as she has to go to work at 9h.

In the morning, after got up, we said good morning, and then she asked me if I want tea or coffee, and I said that I just need a glass of water. She gave me a glass of water, and then she went to take a shower. After taking a shower, she made a cup of coffee, and then she looked for a map of Strasbourg for me. She couldn't find it, so we came to the table, while she was taking the coffee, we started another conversation, I told her that her room is really nice decorated, and then she started to talk about Computer Engineering, she said that once she was trying to take a course online of the computer programming, but she gave up after two weeks, and she also told me that in the next semester, she is going to take a supplement course of Astrology, as she is interested to it. She said that she was good with the physic when she was in the high-school, so maybe it will be useful for her astrology course. I gave her a ten thousand Riel currency of Cambodia as a souvenir for her, and she asked me what is the building in the currency, I told her that it is the Royal Palace, and she asked me if Cambodia still in a monarchy, I said yes, I also told her that there are a lot of temple in Cambodia and I asked her to come to visit, and I will take her around. After that, we got off her house, and on the way, we continue our talk about her trip to Manila in January, she said that she just need to buy the flight ticket, and then her friend will welcome her for everything, as a thanks, as he used to come to visit her in France with his wife, and their baby, and she took them around. We walked until a place that is close to her working place, she told me to follow the tram C to get into the city centre, and also to come to the diverse direction to go to the train station, and then we hugged and said goodbye. She told me where to visit in the city centre, and also suggested me to come in the breaking point at 12h PM, so she can take me around, but I said thanks, as I will leave Strasbourg before that time.

Strasbourg becomes much nicer after I know Milène, what a nice friend, she lough and smile so so beautiful, we talked seem just like we have known each other long long time ago.She is so friendly and gentle, without her, maybe I will sleep under any bridge there in Strasbourg. Milène, it is hard for me to find an appropriate adjective to describe you, ;) love and respect.

After that a couple of month, she came to visit me in Cambodia ;)