back from BERLIN...

an exhausting,but fun, 2 days in berlin...

highlights...
i) the german Bundestag... and the dome...

ii) lots of bratwurst mit brot... yummy!!!

iii) plentiful sightseeing...

iv)visited the zoo in berlin (its funnie cos its the first ever zoo outside of singapore that i visited...) & when CNN reported that there were thousands of visitors daily because of the baby polar bear, Knut, they are not kidding at all!! just how famous exactly is this 4-month-old baby polar bear? well, it usually take a person years in the hollywood scene in order to make the cover of the Vanity Fair (fashion magazine), this cute baby bear made it to the cover within 3months of birth... and yes, i did queued for an hour before catching a glimpse of the tiny celebrity...

v) the Brandenburg Gate (most recognizable icon of berlin)

vi) Potsdamer Platz = sony centre + LEGO discovery centre (remember? the tiny building blocks?)

not-so-positive lessons learnt:
i) ok, just one actually... never go to berlin unless assured of accommodation... well, was supposed to stay with a friend of my travel partner, but that "friend" mysteriously disappeared, and we almost ended up without a place to rest our poor legs... even though we eventually found a place to stay, it was on the floor of another friend's apartment, its was a lesson learnt... =p

ok, enough of just talking... a pic paints a thousand words... besides, i am so sleepy... enjoy!!

on the way to berlin... its was a 4.5hours train trip... flower fields!!

German Bundestag with the dome... and the internal structure of the dome...

Brandenburg Gate

oh, forgot to mention that the bear is the icon of berlin... here they are!

Potsdamer Platz... futuristic right?? & E= mc^2!!!

zoologischer garten + Knut the polar bear + other occupants...

miscellaneous places... i forgot to note down the names....

BERLIN trip

yuppie, BERLIN here i come!!! armed with just a pair of bermudas, i just hope that fine warm weather in germany will hold for the next 2 days!!!!

err... kebab counter: 10+4 (over the last 10days)

PS: yes, and that plate is still on the kitchen table... 72 hours and counting...

PPPS: pics of BERLIN to be posted asap...

updates

went for frisbee earlier... wahhaha... and further signs that my body is aging... (i) suffered a strained groin, despite me just throwing and reaching for the disk since it wasnt a real ultimate game to start with (ii) re-injuried my right elbow... but on the brighter side, i have (i)found out where the ultimate frisbee games are held in hamburg (they have a couple of leagues), and (ii)the coach today taught me how to do the backhand long throw (that explains the injuried right elbow)... and this coming tuesday is a holiday, and that there will be a whole day of ultimate frisbee, hmmm... wonder if i can just join in for a couple of games, probably just play for a few points each... hmmm... small skinny chinese playing with large gigantic germans... hhahaha...

and its funnie how one can eat something and leave the plate on the table for the next 2 days... thats what one of my roomies did, and no one is planning to wash up that particular plate... well, the plate is still on the kitchen table, errrrnnn, 2 days and counting... hmmm... wonder if the plate will turn moldy...

and lastly, i lost the ticket lottery for the allocation of the euro2008 tickets... no good, my application was unsuccessful... sigh...

man yoo 3 ac milan 2

after watching the match, i realized something... it didnt matter if man yoo lost/drew last night... but when i saw ronaldo (i) tracking back to defend, and trying to stop kaka, (ii) crashing into the signboard while trying to deliver a cross or how every man yoo player tried their best despite the obvious exhaustion on their faces, memories of the man yoo of the 1990s came flooding back... that desire to win, no matter how tired, how outplayed, how seemingly-impossible-it-looks-to-be, all these reminded me of why i supported man yoo in the first place...

so, irregardless of the results of the return leg in milan next week, i will still be proud of my team...

Launch of the AIDA

alright, here's what i promised you... it's the launch of the cruise ship AIDA last sat, and apparently this launch costed 5million euros...err... didnt titanic sank on her maiden voyage? wahahah... sorry sorry... just kidding...

on the wrong side of 25...

at a all-time low... i need something to re-vitalize me... what could that be?? a long trip somewhere maybe? shopping therapy? food?

been feeling so depressed recently... where is the sunshine in my life...?

cold....

bbbrrrrbbbbb... it's 6 degrees out there....

ok, been slacking a little too much than i would like... but it seems that the pace of study is much slower than that when i was in portugal... funnie...

trying to blog something here before i leave for school later (again, cos i have a class at 8am in the morning) for another class at 2:30pm...

i) 3 months of german lessons in portugal enables me to do only 2 pages of my german placement test yesterday... 2 out of like 12 pages... hope that i will be streamed into the most basic course, cos i seriously do need to brush up on my foundations of the language... oh, i signed up for swedish language class too!!

ii) the super hot and sunny weather over the weekend was just a decor!!! can you imagine a difference in the daytime temperature of 20oC? on sunday, the daytime temp hit a whooping 28oC, and yesterday, the temp was 8oC, and for goodness' sake, it wasnt even raining, its like sun sun sun...

iii) should i or should i not go to berlin next weekend? train ticket prices range from 50-70 euros.... and if i add in 2 nights of accommodation + food + a little shopping, maybe i will spend 150euros for 3 days... hmmm, seems a little too expensive doesnt it? well, comparing a trip to KL and a trip to berlin...hahahaha... okok, there isnt any basis for comparison... wahhahaha...

iv) tried using the clothes dryer for the first time in my life... amazing... perfectly dry clothings in 90min... amazing!! and it just cost me 1.20euros... thats a fair exchange, considering the time i have to wait for my clothes to dry usually... so this is my plan for the next 6months, accumulate as much dirty clothings as possible, then wash and dry them all at one go... fingers crossed that the dryer stays healthy...

boring....

was reading about some stranger's blog about the times she had in US as a student... oh, coincidently, she is a singaporean... hmmm, it looks like she had lots of fun as a student... and i am still wondering what happened to her, since her last blog entry was in nov last year... however, lots of thoughts came flooding back...

my uncle once mentioned that i am someone who always wanted to leave singapore for the greener pastures overseas... whahaha... now that i am in europe, the grass here doesn't look that much greener than that back in singapore... =p

i miss the times when i can just pick up the phone and within 30min, we will be on our way to some eating place in the middle of the night... dressed casually in a worn-out t-shirt and shorts... here, i am to pile on several pieces of clothing, and there won't be any eateries opened after 10 or 11pm at night...

guess i got a little home-sick after reading her (the stranger in US) entire blog... who knows, i may just go crazy and bonk down a grand total of 750euros (err... that’s slightly more than S$1500, which is like 60-75% of the take-home pay of some of my friends) on return air tickets to singapore... like what i did in dec last year...

and i'm so bored now... maybe its due to the fact that school had not gone into full-swing yet... lots of holidays and cancellation of classes made my first 3 weeks in TUHH a start-stop-start-then-stop again schedule... i need to get into the momentum of studying again...

and there is another holiday coming up on the 1st may!!! labor day exist in germany too... and according to one of my lecturers, he won't be conducting classes on the previous day... err... funnie... labor day is on tue and what? there may be an unofficial holiday on monday?? whoa... must find out more about this... cos if that’s the case, then i will have another long weekend again!! i can go to berlin in this case!!! =)

as for my housemates... staying in an apartment for 5 students... kitchen is huge and it comes with a sofa... actually, i don't know where that sofa came from, cos most of the other apartments are sofa-less... everyone is great... and there are representatives from 3 different continents - 2 from france, one from poland, one from columbia and me from singapore... and our apartment seems to be a gathering point for many many other frenchies... and now i understand why my housemate was telling me in the first few days when i got here:" there are 2 guys who are always here in the living room, it's like they live here"...

fun things aside, there is just a little problem... people like to leave their utensils unwashed for days... and the kitchen seems dirty and that no one likes to clear the bins... sigh... remembered that i had to vacuum the whole house and then mopped the kitchen + wash the toilets during my first weekend here... and leandro told me:" don't do that too often otherwise people will take me for granted.." hahahah... and it's not me being a cleanliness freak, cos the other 2 singaporeans in the next apartment told me the same thing too...

oh yes, there are2 singaporeans living across my apartment... sometimes its nice to have someone to speak to in singlish... still trying to rediscover my singlish, but its coming back... wahhaha... and after spending 6 months in portugal whereby i was deprived of any asian influences, i was surprised to see that there are so many asians around, also the numerous number of asian supermarkets around my apartment... bought a grand total of 6 individual packs of instant noodles recently... instant noodles got my vote for the greatest-ever food invention!!! and god bless the inventor of instant noodles (who died earlier this year in jan)...

update

kebab counter: 10... sigh, i needed one so desperately to give me a boost for my next few days...

ok, promised you the pics for the fish market... wahahah... forgotten to take any pics there... but it's like such a happening place... OMG, my fellow singaporean even tried to bargain for lower prices using german... i can only hope to be half as good as him in terms of german language... arghhh... i need to work harder... and there is a german language placement test coming up this coming wednesday...

ok, here are some of the singaporeans (as well as one from finland) whom i got to know... oh, this place, its just a tunnel underneath the river... from one side to the other side of the river...according to the signboard, we were 12m below the river... cool...

oh, in case i forget tmr, HAPPY BIRTHDAY huiniang!!!!

bad hair day... or rather, not-too-much-hair day...

kebab counter: 9 (temptations do happen, and sometimes it does get too overwhelming... but the one that i ate today is easily the worst of the 9 kebabs)

it's funnie how hairdressers interpret my words "not too short pls"... to them, "not too short" means having to snip off 70% of whatever i have on my little head... happened in portugal twice, and now, this happened in germany...

arghhhh!!! if i ever become filthily-disgustingly rich, i will fly my hairdresser from singapore to wherever-i-may-be every 5 weeks or so, coupled with first-class accommodation...

so for now, i won't be appearing in any of the pics that i may take... oh, will be going to the "fish market" tmr... apparently, it seems like this place is a must-go for all the students here in hamburg... for whatever reasons which i will find out tmr... will post up the pics asap...=)

vices engaged...

vices engaged in over the last 15 days in germany:

- visited the red-light district in st pauli... hee~~
- eaten 8 kebabs...
- eaten 2 packs of ritter sports chocolate... into my 3rd pack now... 2-4 pieces a day is apparently too much...
- slept too much...
- slack too much...

and a @###$#@@@#@#%^^&* asshole just tried to stick his *(*&(&&^!!##@@ brainless head through my window!!!!! what an absolute asshole!!!!!! i live on the groundfloor, and my window faces the pavement outside, and it is theortically possible to climb in from outside... i wanted to slam the window when i saw his fingers, but i decided that will only piss him off, and who knows what he will do next... so i just shouted out, and he ran away laughing... @#$$%#$%^&&^ asshole!!!!!

arghhhhhhhh!!! to pissed to continue with this entry... arghhhh!!!!!!!

kebab counter: 8... one to reward myself after my run...

but then again, i am piling up the calories faster than i am burning them... ha~~~ think i will get sick of eating kebab eventually...

arghhh... where is my sunshine?!!! i hate the germany weather....

boring weekend for me...

kebab counter: remains at 7 so far

ok, enough of slacking over the last 3 days... now it's time to start studying again... school is starting again after a long weekend (yes, you heard it right, in europe, we have another day of holiday... easter monday)... and i must read through my notes on the operation of TEM and SEM again... due to the fact that some of the technical modules are not being offered this semester, i have to take microscopy for my module again... arghhhh....

so plans for monday...
wake up at 11am (latest) followed by lunch at Ashar's place... studying is next and then maybe i will go for a jog, depending on mood and weather... and to stop eating kebab... and to cook instead... speaking of cooking, here's my dinner earlier...

kebab once again...

10 days into my 6-month stint in hamburg (germany) and i realised the following...

(i) we have better-insulated apartments... as compared to buildings in portugal, i feel immediate warmth whenever i go into any buildings... and it's not just the central heating system, cos it does not feel chilly in my room even though the heater is turned off...

(ii) portugese gals are better looking... wahahahah...

(iii) food shucks here... i miss the codfish already...

(iv) in singapore, we have the AA (Alcoholic Anonymous) and things like that for the various addictions... and in our apartment, we have the KA (Kebab Anonymous)... and my introduction will go:" Hi, I'm Vincent...and I am addicted to kebabs... I don't like them, but I need them!!!" thats according to my french roomie... think if the kabab stores have some kind of promotions, such as a card which allows one to collect stamps per kabab purchased and 10 stamps will give you another free kabab, we will have free kabab every 2 weeks.... that's how often we ate kebabs....

and i ran around the lake today!!! though i just did the smallest possible circumference... ahhahaa.... and this was what i thought about myself...

determination to complete one round... 10 marks out of 10
stamina... 1 /10
resolution to run the largest possible circumference.... 10/10
determination to have a kebab after the run... 10/10

yes, you may have guess it again... ate my 7th kebab today... and from now on, every blog entry will include a "kebab counter".... omigodddd, there goes all the calories burnt during the run...

thurs + easter friday

the first few days when i arrived in germany, i was showered with glorious sunshine... however, the good sunny times didn’t last... just like that Sebastian (my german friend) told me during the last time:" in germany, we get 2 days of spring followed by 2 days of autumn..."

thursday...
finally managed to get up after lazing in bed for almost 30min, and the first thing that greeted me when i went out of the hostel was this misty and cold weather... argh!! why did i give up portugal for this weather?? and things got worse almost immediately... took the wrong bus and ended up at the bus stop at the other end of the university, and after hurrying to the class, to my horror, the lecturer didnt turn up!!! all these at 8am in the morning!!!

luckily for me, redemption came in the form of my lunch... see all these desserts!! hahaha... they have something like this everyday!! and blocks of chocolates... it's difficult to avoid getting fat..

and for easter holidays, the stores started selling these... chocolate buggies...

easter friday...
went on my self-exploration trip of hamburg... ok, i left the house at 12noon and came back at 2:30pm... this is one lesson i learnt...

NEVER assume that weather in hamburg (or germany) will be as kind as 10oC... dont understand what i am saying?? when the weather forecast says that its going to be 10oC, they didnt factor in the wind conditions...

so, i got to hamburg all decked up in my new pullover... 1 piece of thermal wear + 1 undershirt + 1 pullover = my resistance against the 10oC... but the wind blew my resistance to the ground... hahaha... at the end of 2 hours, i couldnt even feel my fingers when i tried to take pics...

hamburg was nice (i covered only a little part of it) but the greyness of the weather made everything seems so dull... thats the parliment house.. trust me, it is much nicer and majestic than it looks....

and the swans... lots of them!!!

welcome to the land of adidas!!

BURGER KING @ some nice building

update

repeat after me...
" KEBAB IS NOT ONLY FATTENING, IT IS EXTREMELY UNHEALTHY!!"

~~this, after tucking into my 6th kebab doner tute in one week...~~

on a happier note, i found a lake!! err... not "found" as in "discover", but "found" as in stumbling across the presence of a lake in harburg... oh man, it reminds me of the time which i spent in stuttgart when i would go running around the lake over there... so now, there is no excuse to not run during my free time...which, coincidentially is not a lot...

got my timetable for this semester...

monday--- 08:00 - 19:00
tuesday--- 11:30 - 16:30
wednesday --- scheduled for german language classes
thursday--- 08:00 - 16:00
friday --- 12:30 - 17:00

reminds me of my year 3 in ntu... packed timetable coupled with a couple of business modules + some really tough engineering modules... went for "project management" yesterday and it was sooooo interactive... throughout the 3 hours, the students spoke more than the lecturer... well, me have been used to the interactive engineering-style format, so it's something new... take it as the opportunity to learn then...

and this coming friday and monday are holidays!!! easter friday and monday... and i better stock up on my food supplies in case everywhere is closed for the easter holidays... and i will be doing my "exploration tour" of hamburg on friday... will post up the pics... so excited...

"Wear a bra, Posh"

hahahahah.... an article which i picked up from the straits times online (2 April 07)

"NEW YORK - Don't be too posh to wear a bra, Victoria Beckham has been told.

The editors of American magazine Us Weekly have pleaded with the former Spice Girl to cover up when she becomes a Los Angeles resident this summer because they are tired of seeing her braless.

The editors have penned a letter to her, posted on the magazine's website.

They write: 'There is nothing Posh about forgetting to wear a bra when gallivanting about in thin T-shirts, as you've unfortunately been known to do.' It is obvious to us that the bra may be a foreign concept to you - much like American football, or the good sense to avoid Tom Cruise - so allow us to explain: You're a 32-year-old woman with perky breasts that apparently like to breathe.

'Keep shunning that bra and in five years you'll end up with pendulums hanging off your clavicle that hubby David Beckham might mistake for soccer ball bags.' "

logic vs cravings

as i stood outside the kebab stall for a whole 10min earlier this evening, 2 "schools" of thoughts were battling each other for supremacy...

KEBAB vs CARROTS+EGGS+BROCCOLLI
UNHEALTHY FOOD vs HEALTHY FOODYUMMY FOOD vs much less YUMMY FOOD
Come-on-it's-just-one-more-kebab vs I-just-had-one-4-hours-ago

hahahaha.... too lazy to cook for dinner since it's already pretty late, and since the kebab stall is situated between the supermart and home, i was so tempted to just succumb to having kebab for dinner... and ashar didn’t help much, cos he wanted to go for his 2nd serving for the day... but in the end, faced with the prospects of an ever-expanding waistline, i decided to be more rational and stick to my healthy recipe of “rabbit food” instead....

oh, hamburg or harburg (where i am) is a heaven for asians... the entire stretch of road leading from the S-Bahn station to home is scattered with "asian-shops"; the shops where you can get all those asian food... ranging from all the different types of sauces to frozen roti-prata!! hahaha... not good... i will end up eating these unhealthy food again?? think i better cook more often at home...

school supposedly started for us today... well, almost... according to the schedule, we have 3 different lectures on monday, but 2 of the lectures will only start in 2 weeks' time... for the remaining lecture, we stayed in the lecture hall for almost 20min, before deciding that the lecturer would probably never turn up, and we left... for another bout of shopping... hahaha... oh, i bought a all-white pullover =) will wear it out for my explore-hamburg-weekend... afterall it's easter weekend, so i should go out and see hamburg, instead of staying inside my little "hole"

and more interesting news, there are 2 singaporeans living just opposite my apartments!! finally!! all those "lah", "got meh", and "hor"... hahahah... both are exchange students from NUS who had just completed their internship with some german companies and will be here for another 4 months for this semester as exchange students... but strangely, i seemed to have lost my ability to interact in singlish... err... maybe it's just the lack of practice... and i don't seem to "click" well with them...hahahaha... in fact, i feel more at home with the malaysian gals whom i met during my trip to madrid earlier...

ok, weather was perfect for the last 1 week!! and i hope that this nice weather will stay for the next couple of days, at least until i finish my explore-hamburg-weekend... but i was speaking to a german guy earlier today, he told me that winter this year was really warm, cos usually in april, hamburg will get her fair share of snowfall... sooooo, pls pls let there be some snow... just a little, since i don't have sufficient warm clothings... and weather forecast predicts that tmr is a cold way, with the minimum temp going below 0oC.... hee... let there be snow pls!!! in the case of even the slightest snowfall, my camera is already on standby...