Concepts I finally understand (and appreciate a lot more) now that I'm in Europe

Up until about a month ago, there were some things people did that just didn't make too much sense to me.

• Guys paying for meals on dates 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. No, not at all. It's nice when guys pay for your meals. I guess it's one of the perks of being a girl :P

But coming from Hong Kong/China where you can find a lot of cheap good food anywhere you go (you can get a pretty decent meal for about 45 HKD, which is around €4.1 according to Google) I didn't think it really made that much of a difference whether I paid, the guy paid or we split the bill half-half for meals.

In Paris, though, a cheap-ish meal would cost about €12, and I'm sure a full three course meal at a nice restaurant would cost well over €25 per person. (That's around 275 HKD!!) So the cost of meals in Paris (as well as the general cost of living) came as a bit of a shock for me. That being said, I can now fully appreciate the tradition of guys paying for meals on dates...at least in Europe.

• Sending flowers to girls as gifts

I guess the tradition can be traced back to the good ol' caveman days...
Girl like pretty stuff. Flower pretty. I give flower to girl. Girl happy. D'ohhh.

Not that I dislike flowers - flowers can be nice once in a while - but flowers are highly impractical. They kind of just sit there and look pretty for the few days that they're still fresh, and after a while they just wilt away. I'd much rather receive something that would last.

Just a random florist's near Monmarte

White, yellow, shades of pink, take your pick :)

 But is it just me, or are flowers prettier here? There's something about these little florist shops in the corners of Paris, full of blooming buds bursting with colors. They look beautiful in the sunlight, and just looking at them, I catch myself smiling. They're a lot more appealing than the flower 'carts' we get on the streets in Shanghai, where you get flowers wrapped in plastic (or in colored paper, for a slightly higher price).

• Sunbathing

When I was growing up in Guangzhou (a semi-tropical area), we never had shortage of sunshine. Even in Shanghai and Hong Kong, it's pretty warm and sunny days are not uncommon. In fact, in Asia in general, many girls prefer the look of pale, fair skin (called 美白 meibai in Chinese, literally meaning beautiful-white) and physically dodge the sunlight by getting cover under shades and using umbrellas to create their own shades.

But here in Paris, people just can't seem to get enough of the sun. Even now, with the cold weather, I see the outdoor sitting areas completely full every time I pass by the cafes in Paris. In school, too, during the breaks in between classes, students crowd around in the open space outside the cafeteria and bathe in the sun when it's sunny out.

As for me, I've started appreciating the sun a lot more too, I guess because sun is rarer here (it was gloomy and rainy the entire first two weeks when we first got here) and practically speaking, because it's still winter here and it's warmer to walk in the sunlight. *Insert happy music here - i'm walking on sunshine, woo-hoo* :)