Liew Seng Tat writes:

Bonjour!

Damn, I missed my French lesson again coz I was away in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Flower In The Pocket and one of my short films, "Man In Love" were playing in a film festival there. The film festival was very well attended. Both of my screenings were packed.

1. The audience in one of my screenings before the show started. 2. I was bullshitting my way in the Q&A session.

The festival areas used to be a port. They have some of their cinemas built in the warehouses. It's kind of romantic to have a film festival by the sea, overlooking the horizon with some ships in the far distance. Once, I swear I saw a mermaid waving at me between the ships...

But it turned out to be a long-hair hippie guy drunk in the sea, he wasn't waving, he was just drowning, struggling for his life.

Views around the festival centre. It's nice to walk along the port when you are pissed drunk.

Of 10 Greeks I met, 9 and a half of them smoke. Greece is one of the very few remaining European countries that hasn't banned smoking indoors, at least not until 2010. A friend told me 5 years ago, they could even smoke in hospitals!

Views in one of the warehouses. They served free beer here!

I tried Greek coffee(it's actually Turkish coffee but in Greece, they call it Greek coffee, well...). The coffee is murky because it's not filtered. You have to wait for the grounds to sink to the bottom before drinking it. They say the left over grounds can be used for fortune-telling. You just have to turn your cup over into the saucer. The coffee grounds will form some patterns that can indicate your future. My coffee grounds formed a pattern that resembled a male's sexual organ. Shit, I'm destined to be a dick.

I had my portrait pictures taken by the festival's photographer. They put make-up on me. I asked them to enlarge my eyes. They said it's impossible.

Takeshi Kitano was the guest of honour of the film festival. I was dissapointed not to be able to meet him in person because my schedule was always clashing with his. Or else I can have Greek coffee with him and read our future to each other.

I had some Ouzo for lunch. The person behind is Sergey Dvortsevoy, the director of Tulpan, which won the "Un Certain regard" at Festival de Cannes this year.

Aside from Greek girls, I discovered something more interesting. It's called Ouzo, a traditional Greek alcohol with a very strong smell of Anise plants. This alcohol is clear, but when you add water or ice to it, it turns white, like milky, spermy white. But dont worry, it doesn't taste like sperm, unfortunately. I brought some back to Paris. Whoever wants to try it, please leave a message here.

The readers who read this also read:
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #001 - The cold
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #002 - Speaking French
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #003 - Cooking
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #004 - How To Kiss A Dutch Girl
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #005 - My right hand
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #006 - Dead Fish Girl
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #007 - Thessaloniki
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #008 - Jesus put me in so much shit
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #009 - My paintings
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #010 - Merry Fucking Christmas
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #011- Pink Bras
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! post #012- Temporary Love

DISCLAIMER!
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! aka I don't speak French is written by the filmmaker Liew Seng Tat during his stay in Paris. He is forced to write about his experience in Paris and update at least once a week. The characters and incidents described in JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS! are always exaggerated, sometimes fictional and most of the time unpleasantly filthy. Please don't sue him.