~Ebony and Ivory~

Marathon

2008-11-19T23:17:00.002+08:00

Shuxian has decided to challenge herself to complete at least a half marathon next year. Who wants to join her in the training?

This would have sounded unbelivable if it were 5 years ago during my JC days, where PE or any form of exercise was virtually the bane of my life. But I'm actually looking forward to the sense of achievement!! Huge change huh..

=(

2008-11-13T14:48:00.000+08:00

Shu ist sehr enttaeuscht.

Golf crash course at Bishan Driving Range

2008-10-21T13:57:00.002+08:00

For some strange reasons, I never thought I would attend a golf course at least in the near future.

Woke up at 6++ am on Sunday (can you believe that?!) and reached bishan at 8am. The weather was sunny and SWELTERING! In any case, as we were told to wear Polo T-shirts and since we were facing the sun, I almost turned into baked-Shuxian.

For beginners, the other guys can beyond 100m. Mine always land within 50m no matter which club I use. Not that bad haha... considering that I was the only female beginner. (*self-deluding).

2008-09-29T23:31:00.004+08:00

Alright! Been a long time since I even logged into blogger to blog, the reason being me having nothing much interesting to write about. And even for now, my motivation to blog actually came from my tuition kid Candia, who suggested that I write about my driving lessons.

I first decided to learn driving in June because I hoped that I can achieve something in this 6-months period, during my contract with NUS. With my bad psycho motor skills, I decided that learning at the school was best since they claimed that their passing rate is higher than those of private instructors. (Well silly me, they wouldn't possibly claim a passing rate lower than that of private instructors, would they?) I was pleasantly surprised when I passed the basic theory test without any hiccups since I failed most of the the practice sessions badly. Imagine my surprise when I could pass the final theory test although I read the final theory book 2 weeks before the test and didn't even open the book again until 3 mins before the test. And now, it's the real driving lessons begin......

Wakeboarding

2008-08-05T22:47:00.002+08:00

Long overdue post. Wakeboarding with Herr Tong and a few friends.
Here's pictures of the guys... they make standing up look so incredibly easy.

And here's me learning from the boatman. I managed to stand up at first try too!

Surrealism

2008-06-25T21:56:00.004+08:00

15 years of education has just passed in a blink of the eye since my last graduation photo during K2. Now, it's barely a month till I wear the real graduation gown.

Relax… Finally

2008-06-03T14:49:00.002+08:00

Over the past month, I completed 4 consecutive exams, 2 full-day seminars, the usual piano lessons, teaching and tuition, family gatherings, skin centre appointments, a wedding photo shoot, 1 DnD, Kbox, catching up with friends, sending Anlin off at the airport and a short trip of 1 week to Melaka. It was really, extremely, absolutely, totally, and completely tiring, except for the time spent in Melaka.

In spite of not knowing where to start telling my tale, I can still sum up my entire month with one word, and that is Hectic.

Saturday, 17 May—Wedding Photo Shoot, Piano lesson, DnD, and drinks
Shuxian, who was supposed to start her day at 0700 overslept again. The unearthly hour is one main reason although she’s been trying to be punctual all the time. However, with her Power-preparation speed and rushing, Shuxian managed to reach Harbour Front in time and on time and even before the Bride and Groom! Besides the bride and groom, everyone present wore old clothes and some even permanently stained, even the camera man, who’s also part of the team. The ride from Seah Im Food Centre car park to Fort Serapong was thought provoking. It hardly felt like it was yesterday when I first started out with the team and *poof* it’s almost 2 years since! Green scenery emphasized that lots of time has indeed passed. For the photo shoot, just imagine wedding gown and tux in a forest, which eventually turned out fantastic!

When that was all done, the whole gang decided to go to City hall for chicken rice. Unfortunately, Shuxian had to rush off to teach and couldn’t stay for lunch. Her poor stomach had to be contented with Happy Meal from MacDonald’s and her poor students might have had a hard time trying not squinch up their noses because she hadn’t had the time to bathe beforehand. And thankfully piano lesson went as usual. Right after piano lesson, Shuxian again hastened home to get ready for her DnD. Her first DnD, it was enjoyable, food was great and the audiences were well entertained. Of course, there were the people who dressed up for the Masquerade theme for us to look at. After the dinner, a few of us went out for drinks at Bukit Timah. I was dozing off even as I sat and mostly listened. Thankfully Peiling sent me home and I collapsed into bed at 0400 the next day.

2008-05-13T00:27:00.001+08:00

Too lazy to change settings and add emails... so i've decided not to make this blog private

Time flies

2008-04-26T17:26:00.002+08:00

Tomorrow marks the start of the remaining 10 days of my student life....

Why do I have to take international econ this semester?!

2008-04-21T01:20:00.009+08:00

Itchy itchy. Haven't been doing any washing/cooking for a long time, and since returning from Germany, only cooked twice and baked once. Mere thought of holding anything with my whole hand/ anything that would put my palms in direct contact even dry objects irks me. Even the insides of my ears itch like crazy sometimes. I don't dare scratch my face lest I leave scars. I hate it when my lips itch. Cetrizine, my anti itch medicine, that is non sedating, is my only best friend now. I can't sleep without it.

The 'skin' turns me off. Looks rotten yea..

A: I'm really sorry if you still think that I was trying to be difficult. From the looks of it, most people would say "I've seen worse". It really still is not easy having to cope with being busy every minute. My hands are constantly kept busy because it sometimes feel as though there are tons of ants crawling all over me. That's why I didn't want to accept anything I couldn't be 100% sure that I wouldn't need to spend more money on in vain. Honestly, I don't think anyone can really understand how this feels, to see the skin break at a mere scratch, to get frustrated by the itch and get bruises all over the legs. But on the other hand, it's also no big deal, as lots of people have it worse than me, and they don't complain.

I am sad too, having missed this opportunity. Looking forward to your photos of mountains and other interesting stuff!!

Just a reminder :)

2008-04-16T13:22:00.000+08:00

I'm planning on making this blog private. Drop me an email or tag on the tagboard by 30 April if you want to continue reading.

Dorymory for me too!

2008-04-09T21:16:00.003+08:00

I forgot to mention just how much I've been sleeping in my previous entry. On Sunday, I basically spent the entire day sleeping. I went to bed at 2.30am and guess what? Yours truly was woken up by her mum at 5.30pm! That is 15 hours spent on the bed, no studying done and late to meet Maybeline for dinner at IMM. After dinner, went back to bed at 3.30am. Some will think that maybe after sleeping so much on Sunday, this horrible girl will be more energetic and wake up earlier on Monday. Nope.. Monday was tired day again and most people who saw me commented that I look tired and I should get more rest. HAHA.

Sleep Sleep Sleep

2008-04-08T11:03:00.002+08:00

That's what I do these days. Could it be due to my erratic sleeping patterns, leading to insufficient sleep? Or could it be due to the supposed-to-be-non-sedating anti itch medicine I've been consuming? Last class test of the final semester coming up next week and 5 more exams till the end of my student-status.

I hate the ERP. I hate the psuedo-public transport system. I hate the weather. I hate the stress. I hate itching.

Ok ok I'll stop whining.

2008-04-05T01:00:00.002+08:00

I'm planning on making this blog private. Drop me an email by 30 April if you want to continue reading.

April Fool's day..

2008-04-01T19:36:00.001+08:00

in a daze, inability to concentrate, tired

2008-03-22T01:53:00.003+08:00

To all my darlings and everyone who has wished me Happy Birthday, thanks for your well wishes :)

2008-03-22T01:37:00.002+08:00

Having a very bad month. Nothing seems to go right, and even when things go nice and well, the tear glands are just as productive as when things don't go as they should. I hope this all end soon.

schlecht gelaunt und traurig und allein

2008-03-16T14:18:00.004+08:00

Rain Rain Rain

2008-03-13T19:04:00.002+08:00

This rainy spell draws nostalgic feelings of my last summer in Germany, where I had to wear a thin jacket almost everyday at the beginning of the season. Presently in summer-all-year-round-Singapore, I also have to wear a jacket everyday because of strong winds accompanying the rain.

2008-03-09T23:17:00.003+08:00

I feel SOooo cheated. In the past, I usually bought music books and related stuff at Cristofori because I had a 20% staff discount until last March. However, I terminated my contract with them and from then onwards, had to get Anlin to help me buy them because she was still suffering under the bureacractic administration and enjoyed the 20% discount.

But I recently got to know about Sweet Classics at Shaw Centre when I needed to get the theory 2007 past year papers because Music Essentials and Cristofori both would not stock those papers before this year's exams; which is when I realised that I've been paying exorbitant prices for music stuff at Cristofori! For the most recent past year paper (2007), it only cost $7 at Shaw Centre. But at Cristofori, a 2006 paper cost $11.20. DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!! This also means that after the 20% staff discount, I'm still paying around $2 more than I should. Ok, I sound like I'm overreacting. But having worked in Cristofori for awhile, anyone would know that it's not exactly the best of companies to work in.

I'm never getting anything else from Cristofori again. Period.

2008-03-03T19:53:00.002+08:00

Der Test war echt schrecklich! Ich habe 20% nicht geschrieben, und habe keine Idee, was ich schreiben kann. Macht nichts! Das ist schon vorbei! Shu wird den naechste Test sehr gut schreiben!

NM1101E- Communications and New Media

2008-03-02T15:02:00.003+08:00

The bane of my life! *At least for this moment* I was encouraged by a friend to take this exposure module because it was 'interesting' and the tests and exams were rather easy, consisting of thin (but extremely boring) readings and MCQs for midterm test.

Unfortunately, the lecturers decided to change the test format a 'little' bit this semester, and included short-answers AND essay questions. Unfortunately, I can't help but fall asleep each time I start reading the readings too. This falling asleep has got nothing to do with being tired. The readings are simply TOO uninteresting.

Oh no, tomorrow is the midterm test and I still cannot concentrate on this SO VERY unappealing module.

On another note, this has got to be my worst semester in NUS. In 2 out of 5 modules, I have lousy lecturers, which in addition to yawning my head off for 2 hours, I can learn absolutely NOTHING albeit desperately trying to pay attention during the class. In 1 of these 2, besides the course syllabus, we are also expected to pick up basic linear algebra on our own if we have not learnt it beforehand. (New lecturer for this module, who completely changed the syllabus other lecturers have followed.) Yup and not to forget, NM1101E, the boring-est module I've ever taken. I don't even know what's the point of learning the things taught in class since I cannot relate to most of the topics.

Which means, that I'm in deep trouble. And this probably explains my worrying nightmare.

Worrying nightmare

2008-03-01T01:17:00.006+08:00

I think I should be very stressed. I had a nightmare last night, not a scary nightmare, but a worrying nightmare. (I've only had 3 nightmares in my entire life so far and they all visited me in my sleep on the same night when I saw 6 years old.) I dreamt that I failed one module during my last semester in NUS. It felt so vivid that I was even planning to go for special semester and try to pass that module so that I can go to USA in peace. URGH!

P.S.: I must stop myself from thinking too much, especially when there is nothing wrong. This is a mental torture and cheerfulness-depriving.

I hate school

2008-02-20T00:37:00.001+08:00

2008 CNY

2008-02-11T23:08:00.000+08:00

Somehow things don't always go the right way, or the way you want it to.

Had been a fervent procrastinator the past few days. I even became a horrible group mate, who didn't contribute much to the assignment due tomorrow, having been feeling unwell before CNY and subsequently too busy visiting relatives, collecting ang baos, and watching DVDs. I love the CNY for being able to have absolutely mouth-watering fabalicious soups!! Oh my.. I can still almost taste the chicken soup that was simmered for half a day. This year's reunion dinner has been slightly different and unique from previous years. I tried steamboat using broth intead of soups at a store in China during my visit last Dec and found the idea enticing so my family decided to use broth as soup base.

Otherwise, my 1st two days of CNY has been hopelessly routined and mundane just like every other year. I wonder if the elderly gets sick and tired of celebrating CNY the same way every single year. No don't get me wrong. I do enjoy CNY, the few days to slack and the family bonding time (esp with my dad around). But somehow, my family works a little differently. We tend to have more time for bonding sessions with our weekly visits to my grandparents' place while we have to rush from home to home to visit, never having more than that meager few hours at one place. Moreoever, different families have different plans, so we don't always get to meet each other except during the annual gathering on the 2nd day of CNY at my uncle's place.

Bored of the norm?

This year, the PSAQ set a new trend by visiting at each other's house and also to celebrate Q's birthday over steamboat on the 4th day of CNY. Will post up pictures of our delectable meatless steamboat when I get the pictures!

2008-02-05T00:21:00.001+08:00

I almost hate hearing that female voice that tells u that you've reached the voicemail.

this is a busy sem

2008-01-31T23:16:00.000+08:00

Endlich!

2008-01-23T23:55:00.000+08:00

2 weeks into the school semester, I finalised my modules and fixed my timetable. Though with much efforts made to bug the Economics department. Yoo hoo!

No more CORS!!!

Most "memorable" bidding experience

2008-01-16T00:59:00.000+08:00

This is ridiculous..

Cors is going crazy. It just isn't fair.. Why do some people get a few thousand points in their programme account and some just have that meager amount? School has already started yet many of us are left to grope in the dark. I still do not know what modules would I be taking and neither do I know my timetable. So far I have only secured 3 modules. I need 2 more economics (EC) modules to graduate and a quick glance at the list of modules offered this semester tells me that I only have 5 choices because I have either mostly taken all the others or there are a few exam clashes. 3 level 3000 and 2 level 4000 and one of these 2 is a compulsory module, so it would make no sense if I take that module. I'll be fighting a fierce battle against all the honours people. URGH!

For the past few rounds of bidding, I usually wait till close bidding before I bid. But it doesnt make any difference whether I wake up early to bid or not. The next minimum bid points are always close to or sometimes even more than twice the amount of points I have in total. 1330 versus 796. HA! I'm already out of the competition without having to do anything. What to do...

Anyway... wish me luck guys.... in being able to get my choices in the appeal (the easier modules).. thanks!

Song I copied from Anlin.

2008-01-10T02:36:00.000+08:00

I don't know the title though..But it's exactly the type of song, instrumental and melancholic, that will guarantee itself a space constantly in the "Recently played songs" tab of my Windows Media Player. I've been having it on repeat mode for the past don't-know-how-many-hours.. So I decided that I should upload it.. Enjoy..!

News Headlines- Vicious attack on Teddy

2008-01-02T23:20:00.000+08:00

On New Year's eve (31/12/2007), a tramatizing and upsetting incident left Teddy scarred for life. *See above*

The alledged suspects Anlin and Pei Shan are still on the loose and has not been located for questioning. When interviewed, Shuxian said that she laughs uncontrollably every time she watches the video. The police spokesperson said: "With the above video, we have sufficient evidence to charge the A but not P with serious physical assault." The police are still investigating this case, trying their utmost to uncover the truth behind the attack.

2008 Resolutions

2007-12-31T13:44:00.000+08:00

Procrastinate less!
Practice piano more consistently
Piano playing techniques
Sleep before 12 everyday
Make my bed every morning
Be punctual
Keep my room and wardrobe tidy
Jog consistently and get rid of unwanted flabs

Recount of 2007

2007-12-31T11:21:00.000+08:00

Time flies and 2007 will soon be over in a few hours' time. The 21 birthday, the long awaited freedom, new responsibilities...

2007...

**Made a new passport after I couldn't find it the night before my trip to China in Dec 2006.

**My mum allowed me to go Malaysia by myself (or rather with friends/without her) for the first time. I went to a Kelong with the Singapore Archaeological Team! I also experienced one of the worst seasick-ness I ever had. Although my friends were around me, trying to make me feel better by pressing certain points on my hand n face, I continued to feel faint and sick, wishing that we would arrive at our destination asap. I practically had to crawl up the ladder when we arrived at our destination. Thankfully the return trip was so much better and I didnt feel sick.

**This year, I spent one of the most memorable birthdays in my life. My besties Q & A 'tricked' me and P into going to Malaysia, in which I had thought we were just going shopping or to walk around. When we finally crossed the customs, P and me were blindfolded and led around in circles. When our blindfolds were removed, we found ourselves in a photo studio! For our 21, P and me received a nice photo album and a fabul-icious experience!

**Next comes the long awaited trip to Germany for exchange, I spent a short 4 months in Stuttgart and travelled quite alot. In chronological order, I went to Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary. A pity I couldn't visit more places, nevertheless, I had a few "Best Trips"! An account of my trip to Budapest (Due to time constraints, I didn't blog about this trip.

On 3 Aug, I awoke with a start and realised that I was going to be late! Brushed my teeth and rushed out of the house and ran towards the U-Bahn station for my first train. With my speed and agility, I was naturally able to board the first train with ease! After an hour of dozing on the U- and S-Bahn, I finally arrived at Flughafen Stuttgart (Stuttgart Airport); albeit feeling lost. It took me awhile to find the check-in counter for Germanwings. The queue was horribly long because it was one queue for all Germanwings flights. I was quite afraid I couldnt check-in in time for the flight. Lucky for me, they called for those without check-in baggage to check-in first. Flying alone is kind of sian, I salute friends who flying (flew) 14-15 hours alone. My flight was only a little over an hour! Then came the one stupid thing I did. I didn't have to waste time and money going to The Other bus interchange. There is a bus station for buses going to Budapest from the airport! It was easier navigating from Wien Flughafen (Vienna Airport) to the bus interchange since I visited Vienna with my mum a few months back. The remaining journey was rather uneventful and I slept my way to Budapest. Met up with my friend, a Budapestin at the bus interchange in Budapest and she was very nice to host me for 3 days!

Chain Bridge

Zsofia and me!

Fisherman's Wharf (looks like a huge sand castle right!)

Zsofia's fried noodles which looks totally n convincingly like our Char Kway Teow

Jewish Synagogue
Hero Square
Zsofia preparing food!
I wonder why escalators are built so tall.. it's quite scary yea..

It's a pity I couldn't get a good shot of the trains though. Hungary was forced to buy Russian trains and they are still using those trains!

The last trip of my SEP ended on 6 Aug in the evening, 1.5 days before I was due to go back to Singapore.

**My worst bout of eczema in 7 years.. eczema got so bad I burst out crying in a coffee shop uncontrollably .. opps.. It only recovered after I got a jab from the doctor at my butt.

**Finally visited my dad in China after 5 years of refusal to visit China. Enjoyed life quite a bit albeit being sick due to stomach indigestion and rashes at my belly button. I also had the most expensive breakfast in my entire life. S$200++, consisting of bird nest and dim sum in a 5 star restaurant. No I'm not that rich, but rather all food expenditures in Zhong Shan and Dong Guan are not on my account :P Didn't get to experience much of the ugly side of Chinese nationals thanks for having a chauffeur driving us around! Travelling took alot faster too.. except when there are traffic jams caused by accidents (which is a common sight in China. There was once we were stuck on hu3 men2 da4 qiao2 (tiger door big bridge) for 2-3 hours because of road renovations. The other side of the road was surprisingly just as badly jammed because there was a multiple collision of 6 cars. During the China trip, I visited dad's haus (Dong Guan), Zhong Shan (Sun Zhong Shan's hometown), Macau (Casinos and St. Paul's Church), Pan Long Xia Gu (Pan Long Valley) and Shen Zhen. Most of the photos are still with mum and her friend (Yu Ting).

Second last scary semester

2007-12-28T02:01:00.000+08:00

Woke up in shock at 11.30am this morning from a phone call. Shock lasted another 5 minutes while I started the computer and waited for the website to load. Shock continued for another 5 minutes while I calculated my CAP if I SU some modules. De-shocked and fear assuaged when it finally registered in my brain that I can finally graduate with MERIT!!

Now?

Swinging between feelings of disappointment and contentment. I can't decide on whether I should be happy or discouraged. In spite of my efforts, I still fell short of my own expectations and once again, failed to get any A.

Off to bed now!

Inertia to leave my house

2007-12-27T14:38:00.000+08:00

Addicted to the Dr. Cool! Asada is so COOL!

Click here!

Yes yes.. I know.. Shuxian sounds like a love-sick teenage girl, smittened by some strange actor :P

Rakuzen

2007-12-10T00:40:00.000+08:00

Delightful evening with the girls! A very belated celebration for Anlin, the last birthday girl in our group every year.

Huge servings! All the others were complaining that they couldn't stuff anymore food into their stomach after they finished their portion. Me on the other hand, wasn't that full after I finished everything. At least I didn't feel as though I was bursting with food. Kudos to eating slowly :)

According to Anlin, PAQS in the order of QSPA

That's exactly the reason why I cannot resist Sashimi even though I'm suffering from Eczema itch.

Speaking of which, Eczema has really put me through alot of agony the past 3 weeks. Think about it, insatiable itch that won't stop even as you scratch, even as you pinch yourself hard to put your mind on something else. I have it almost everywhere and they itch constantly. At times, I wished I had more hands in order to scratch more places at one time. Thankfully, there wasn't any eczema at any of the areas that would be deemed unsightly to scratch in public HAHA! However, it got so frustrating yesterday when I burst out crying in a coffee shop (opps!) and had no appetite for food the entire morning till noon. I decided to stop putting myself through the torture. I went to the doctor for a jab and got some medicine strong enough to curb the itching monster! Within hours, the itching subsided and I didn't look that much like a cooked red lobster, my hands didn't look like I have some rotten things for skin. Though I still feel a constant itch, it has been reduced to something more bearable and manageable.

Really hoping for a miracle development in Eczema medication since 20% of the population suffers from it.

Pros? Mum said at least it meant that I don't have to do any housework when the itching monster strikes. In addition, many have asked me to wear gloves when cleaning stuff, but the gloves makes my skin crack too! Weird huh.. Which is good because I hate doing household chores especially folding clothes. It's too boring. I rather be cleaning the kitchen sink, toilet or washing dishes when the itching monster becomes dormant.

Post-exams Resolutions

2007-12-06T01:10:00.000+08:00

1. SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP!!

2. Get rid of panda-eyes

3. Get rid of eye bags induced by sleep deprivation

4. Get some Me-time

Stress

2007-11-22T01:43:00.000+08:00

I hate having eczema.

It's so DAMN itchy. Why? It comes when I'm stress. It comes when I'm unhappy. It comes when....

I'm becoming an expert at resisting the insatiable urge to scratch. And I'm talking about real ITCH not the mosquito bites...

I need you, my precious Evening Primrose Oil.

Thought

2007-11-22T01:42:00.000+08:00

It's the downs that makes the ups in life

2007-11-12T19:28:00.000+08:00

This is tiring semester. I simply can't get enough of my favourite activity - sleeping.

2007-10-30T01:36:00.000+08:00

When you know it, you just do.

Crazy test

2007-10-25T01:29:00.000+08:00

I was overjoyed when I knew that I scored above average and pretty close to full marks for my lousiest module. But after calculating the descriptive statistics, I think I should still be content although the mode of the scores is full marks! Whoever heard of full marks as the mode?!

Old man playing piano

2007-10-23T01:34:00.000+08:00

Schubert's Impromptu Op. 142 No. 2.

I'm quite partial towards old men play the piano. I think it's largely attributed to ABRSM exams I took in the past. I started learning piano since I was 4, but stopped and dragged on for a period of time, which is mainly the reason why I still haven't gotten my Diploma. That and my lousy techniques plus shortie fingers too. I'm learning this song now. But only at the top half the second page.

Back to old men and piano, I remember I used to be VERY nervous and these fat and jolly looking old examiners from UK would be friendly and sometimes try to crack jokes to relieve the tension I was feeling. Maybe because I look scared to death and very small in size. The most 'memorable' exam was I think Grade 6 exam. No matter how hard I tried to recall, I couldn't get B flat minor scales. Worst still I prefer harmonic when it comes to scales so I was wondering why he couldn't have given me that instead of melodic or better still, B flat major! haha.. Talk about being greedy..

The same song but played by another pianist, a much younger one. Look at his facial expressions. It makes me curious to know what he is feeling. I wonder if he's enjoying the music he's making. He looks like he's eating something distasteful.

Disgusting humongous cockroach is dead!

2007-10-22T01:08:00.000+08:00

Herr Bean (mein Bruder) hat heute Geburtstag und hat auch die scheußliche Kakerlake totgeschlagen! Gott sei dank, es ist tot! Ich bedanke mich Herr Bean.
To ALL insects, DIE DIE DIE!!!

And I should STOP nagging.

PS: Zsofi, ich schreibe endlich etwas auf Deutsch! :)

Made up my mind

2007-10-19T00:52:00.000+08:00

Since my mum doesn't mind not attending my commencement ceremony (I'm the eldest), I'm going for WAT! *Aurelia, you can tell me the story anyway :)* Thanks for all the comments on MSN too.

It is a little frustrating to be liasing with Speedwing-theirritatingagency. I know their email is probably flooded with TONS of questions everyday, but they can at least address the email to you when they reply you! During the application process, I also encountered several problems with Speedwing. Firstly, they needed you to go down personally to make payment. Secondly, you can only pay by NETS. Third, the time frame allocated for payment each day is unbelievably short. Fourth, I was first told that I can get someone to pay on my behalf, only to be told the truth when Anlin made the wasted trip. Although she claims that it wasn't extra trouble, she still made the effort to go there! Fifth, I practically have classes during their payment time slots. Sixth, I had to be very diligent and start mugging by the time I realised that I had to go down personally.

As a result, I could only pay after the crazy week of tests, cancel piano lesson just to pay money, which was also the deadline. And in turn, I paid late and cannot be allocated my first choice Yellowstone. Crap!

Anlin and me will have to discard previous plans and re-plan. The current plan would be to wait for the new list of employers and see where Maybeline wants to go.

Dilemma

2007-10-17T19:04:00.000+08:00

Should I:
1. Go for Work And Travel USA (only tertiary students are eligible to apply) and miss the Commencement Ceremony
2. Skip USA and go for the Commencement Ceremony? Any comments?

Rants

2007-10-16T00:03:00.000+08:00

Great! Just great! I bought a 2nd hand textbook from this girl who sold it in such a condition that isn't worth the price I got it for.

It's my weakest module, Econometrics and I seriously loathe even attending it's lectures. The lecturer-cum-tutor speaks SOOooo slowly. Tutorials though only held on alternate weeks, appears to resemble a soldier going for war, fighting courageously in order to emerge a survivor from the ordeal. Ok all except the courageously describes me, that is. I shield my head from sight whenever it's questions time, wishing fervently that it isn't my turn each time it's someone's turn to present the answers. This screams YOU ARE SUCH A COWARD!

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, I EVEN BOUGHT THE WRONG BOOK!

I don't dare to go toilet because there is a ful-fledged cockroach residing in there. Time to ask Mr Bin to eradicate unwelcomed pests Mr Bin to the rescue!

Clumsy

2007-10-14T13:08:00.000+08:00

It's no surprise whenever I spoil things just by touching them. Most of the time I just meddle around a bit and Haha! the thing broke again.

I watched a Resident Evil: Extinction with Allan last Friday at PS. No my horrible stint of deadlines and tests are not over yet. But all work and no play makes Shuxian a dull girl right?

This the first movie I had to pay for myself ever since I returned from Stuttgart. Movie tickets are getting increasingly expensive in Singapore too. I paid $9.50. I decided that I wanted to eat popcorn since it's the only time I get to enjoy popcorn in Singapore. We put together $4.50 for a small box of popcorn and entered the cinema. As usual, you guys know how much I prefer sitting with my legs crossed even when I sit on chairs. In order to prevent my bag from dropping, I accidentally tilted the box and OMG, every single bit of the popcorn went where gravity directed! It's the first time such a thing ever happened to me and I'm glad I had started eating the popcorn as I was walking. Poor Allan paid $4 and couldn't eat any. I started laughing uncontrollably at the popcorn on the floor. Throughout the movie, I had to curb my urge to laugh again so I won't seem like crazy sadist who laughs when there are zombies running loose.

The problem with me is that I always like to watch movies like that before I enter the cinema. But once the show starts, much to my displeasure, I behave like a timid little Frog. Yuck. I don't watch half the gruesome scenes and stare at the floor instead. Ok I know it's a waste of money but I simply hate suspense. With the added effect from the background music, it just implants fear in me, when there's sometimes nothing to be afraid of. Allan even said a few times "There's nothing to be afraid of in this scene." Oh well..

Since my popcorn craving wasn't satisfied, I requested that my brother buy me popcorn on Saturday when he went for Resident Evil. He came home with a humongous box of popcorn which, tried as hard as I could, I only consumed half a box.

Differences

2007-10-14T00:59:00.000+08:00

Siwei's comment reminded me that it totally slipped my mind to contrast the STARK differences between public transport in Stuttgart and Singapore.

First difference: Regardless of it being the bus, U-Bahn, S-Bahn or some other trains, they always come punctually. Right to the minute. If the plan says the bus will come at 8:53, most of the time it will arrive at 8:53. Singapore? They came up with the IRIS and I don't see a reason why people should waste money sending SMS to check the bus timings since it most probably won't be correct.

Second difference: Going out/travelling in Stuttgart is so much more convenient. We don't actually have to pay before every single trip. Just buy a pass at the beginning of the month if you commute by public transport frequently. Almost hassle-free! Plus with my FOC Verbundpass for the whole semester, it was hassle-free. The pass was valid up till the end of last month and it was quite a waste I couldn't give it to Siwei or Ziming since neither look like a girl, I reckon.

Third difference: It is not uncommon to witness a strike Stuttgart but if it ever happens in Singapore, I think people might go ballistic. I glanced through a recent news report and the public transport workers are asking for a 31% increase in pay rise!

Fourth difference: Public transport means it is to cater to the general public, in fact that means just about everyone right? Why is there such emphasis on profit maximization? I refuse to feel justified towards the rise in fares for senior citizens because it seems that the increase is supported by facts that are distorted to deceive the general public.

Recent Bus Fare Hike (Super disorganised post with my thoughts all over the place)

2007-10-11T18:57:00.000+08:00

Is the bus fare hike really justifiable?

According to the ChannelnewsAsia reports, the rise in bus fare was approved after careful considerations about the increasing CPI and average monthly earnings. With that, senior citizens would have to pay an increase of 2 cents per ride regardless of the distance as of 1st Oct. Despite having 2 PT companies, buses from 1 company that run in a certain area are not subjected to competition from the other company, and thus we almost have a monopoly. When the senior citizen has to transfer buses in order to get around, the increase in 2 cents translates to at least 4 cents per journey, ensuring a significant increase in the bus fare per journey.

Additionally, senior citizens who have poor health, and cannot afford to walk 2 bus stops to the market will have to pay the same amount of bus fare as the rest who wants to travel longer bus journeys.

In my opinion, inspite of looking out for the poor and lower income groups, fare hikes are nonetheless an essential. This is to match the increase in CPI and other economic factors. However, the stagnant bus service standards do not justify for this increase. Take a look at the buses you are commuting with the next time. Are the window sills full of dust to the effect that one would feel disgusted propping one's elbows there? Is water leaking from the air conditioner due to poor maintenance? The irregularity of the buses?

Shh!

2007-10-10T09:50:00.000+08:00

*Shhh* I secretly suspect that I hate studying and doing work because I just cant wake up when there's work to be done. *Shhh*

Pleasantness

2007-10-09T00:50:00.001+08:00

What a relief! 2 down and 4 more to go.. At least Macro was manageable although I was so tired this morning. Being late didn't make things worse, I'm glad. But it was such a chore to force myself to read the questions carefully through my glazy, barely opened- eyes. Submitted the assignment and project proposal today too. 4 more obstacles to a nice long relaxed sleep! GOGOGO!

Imagine yourself scrutinising the computer, looking at statistical data and a friend comes up to you and taps your shoulder from behind. You turn around to say hi and your friend asks "Have you completed the assignment we are supposed to submit today?"You say "No", and your friend, who is forever on the Dean's List asks you an astonishing question. "Do you want to copy mine? I figured out how to do the question both of us got stucked at."

Now that's great! First you get to get good grades for the assignment. Second you also can to enjoy a little humour on the stressful week with tons of work piling everyday.

3 delightful little incidents to lift my spirits today!

Correction

2007-10-04T00:40:00.000+08:00

Starting from today, it's 5 more tests, 2 impending assignments and 1 proposal and the horror will only end exactly 2 weeks from now. Oh not to mention 2 IVLE tests within the next 3 weeks for the stats module I didn't even know until this morning.

Wish me luck in scraping together time for the (in)dispensible activity also called 'sleeping'.

YOO HOO!!

2007-10-03T01:15:00.000+08:00

Stocks went up!! I'm not sure why am I estactic about this, afterall I just bought them yesterday haha. Blame it on the stressful system in NUS. Mundane routine of trying to squeeze more information out of your brain while you work on assignments and doing your best to put more useful stuff into the brain. {Poor brain you know.. }. When was the last time I had some REAL EXCITMENT ?

Me tourist in Singapore?

2007-09-28T00:43:00.000+08:00

The first time I take 6 modules, the package comes combined with 6 mid term tests. Thankfully it's not 6 final exams.

Tuesday was Mid-Autumn Festival, also the first time I visited Chiantown during the fest. Aurelia and me both had no idea where the main activities were located and had to scout around for Tourist Information. We chanced upon the Chinatown Heritage Centre and I voluntarily took part in my first ever guided tour of Singapore that is not organised by the school! Haha.. The tour was supposed to be only for tourists, but because Lutz the Angmoh wanted to take part, the man closed an eye and allowed Au and me to join too.

During the Guided Tour

Au, Lutz and me with Lanterns. Jenn took the photo.

Very crowded Chinatown. Scary man.

Having spent last year's Mid-Autumn Fest serenely in a nice corner with a nice view, this year's noisy and crowded Fest is a nice change. *Smacks forehead* Crowded places are never good.

Where did my time go?

2007-09-21T18:24:00.000+08:00

Salmon Sashimi !

2007-09-15T22:47:00.000+08:00

How can I resist you?! *swoons over Sashimi*

Considering the amount of Salmon Sashimi I usually consume, I think I might just die from mercury poisoning one day. Raw Oysters too! I simply can't stop ! OMG Having it while with Kopfschmerzen doesn't reduce any bit of my enjoyment.

Things have been going smoothly for me recently but it doesn't mean I'm complaining. And I'm actually enjoying Macroeconomics 2. With a good lecturer and tutor, it's not as hard as I thought it to be 3 semesters ago. I not only know what's going on in class, but also understands the concepts! No thanks to a certain WWK for making it seem un-understandable.

Strange it seems, another lecturer, who's teaching Econometrics 1 talks REALLY slowly. Many people, me included attended the first lecture with much enthusiasm, only to end up having to refrain ourselves from falling asleep. He is so slow, I cannot understand him. By the time he finishes his sentence, I've already forgotten what he said at the beginning.

No matter how good a teacher is, it all depends on the attitude of the student. So why is it that at Primary 6, my cousin, with 2 weeks left to PSLE, cries when I set him homework to do? Worst, he cried as he did the specimen paper, making it look as though I forced him to study. The truth? I set him one Mathematics paper (2h 15 mins) and when I asked him why he cried, he said "Do so much!" I don't see him looking lethargic when he gets the play. I don't hear him complaining that he has too much time to play. Which Primary 6 boy cries when told to do homework? Which primary 6 boy negotiates with his mum, saying that he will not do homework if she doesn't let him play computer games?

Oh well.. it's better for me to just look forward to my next Salmon Sashimi cum Raw Oysters dinner!

At least I passed

2007-09-11T16:47:00.000+08:00

Sehr geehrte Frau Diel,

die Studentin Lim Shuxian hat mir eine Hausarbeit geschrieben, für die sie einen benoteten Schein bekommen kann: bestanden, Note: 3

Den Schein selbst kann ich Ihnen erst im Oktober schicken, da ich keinen
Stempel in der Hand habe. Ich hoffe, dies wäre in Ordnung für Sie.

Mit freundlichen Grüssen,

Katerina Zombolou

*The student Lim Shuxian has submitted her essay and passed with a grade of 3,0.
I can only send the certificate in October as I do not have the stamp at hand. I hope this would be alright with you.*

Strange dream

2007-09-02T16:13:00.000+08:00

I had a dream a few nights ago. I dreamt I was supposed hold on to some CD/DVD/VCD for safekeeping, which I kept in a brown envelope and held on my arm tightly while I walked across a shopping centre. In my dream, I was wearing a blue dress, very unlike any dress that I own in reality. In the dream, my task was very dangerous and highly classified, and a sniper was already paid to kill anyone holding on to the CDs. Anyway, as I was walking across the ground level of the shopping centre, I tripped and fell! Typical me right? My CDs all spilled out of the envelope and the sniper hiding upstairs saw everything, which means he now knows who the target is! I was so scared because I might get killed any moment from then. There was uncertainty because the sniper can choose not to kill me. I forgot what was the criteria. I was next supposed to carry the stuff and walk along the void deck of some HDB blocks. SO SCARED! After that had to take a car to some place. After that no more dream. My mum shouted at me to wake up because I ws late for school already heh..

Strange dream huh..

Very belated post

2007-08-27T00:33:00.000+08:00

I know this is long overdue. I was procrastinating like crazy and having to update after I'm back in Singapore doesn't make much sense. But now I'm writing because I don't want to leave a gap between the last part of SEP and back to normal life.

Stuttgarters Ballett

Sometime before the end of my exams, Ziming, Yibin and me went to watch Swan Lake by Stuttgarters Ballett at a public viewing somewhere outside Stuttgart Staatstheater. We had Chinese takeaway from the shopping centre in Koenigsstrasse to go with the dancing. Sort of like Ballet under the Stars at Fort Canning but better because firstly it's free and secondly the cooling weather makes everything more enjoyable. However, the rain was slightly irritating, coming and going the whole evening.

Next up! BBQ Party at Pfaffenwaldring (that's where I used to live before I shifted to Annette's place). Though it was held before the exams ended (for some), it was sort of like a farewell party. I haven't got all the photos yet, so it's hard to decide which photos to post. Here is one though.. a supposed-to-be small get-together ended up with so many people socialising!

For the exams, I literally learnt and studied everything during the exam preparation week, as I had hardly paid any attention during lectures held in German. Well ok only sometimes. The lessons were at 8 am, and at that hour, I was still half asleep although I was physically in class. In addition, they were in German and I doubt that I could have understood much when I'm not fully conscious. It was real luck that I could pass Marketing. But for my Mathematical Economics, I have to thank Ziming for his help and not to forget his hell training. He came over and taught me Maths everyday of the week after work. It was quite a shock when I found out 5 minutes before the exam started that calculators were not allowed in that exam. Also, we are allowed a formula sheet, which was personally checked by the lecturer cum invigilator before the exam. Yes.. every single person! Ok so I couldn't bring my calculator and not only did I not memorise any formulae, I didn't have a formula sheet too. On top of that, I realised I had forgotten to bring writing paper (you are supposed to bring your own paper for exams). A bad start, but the results? 45/75. Due to the time constraints, I studied selectively, choosing simpler topics in the past year papers. Despite the bad start, I scored 45 out of the 47 marks that I attempted! The lecturer was so impressed I think. He smiled the entire time we talk when I collected my script and repeated that it was a breeze to mark my paper. HAHA.. only 2 marks gone due to careless mistakes and that makes him so happy :)

Thanks Herr Tong. I owe you one!

After the exams, Ziming, Siwei and me embarked on a road trip to Prague! Yibin hitched a ride from Stuttgart to Munich, during which, we experienced some traffic jams. It wasn't all that bad, we still managed to arrive in Prague safely. Only slightly late. It's thanks Ziming again, for driving, thanks Siwei for navigating and thanks me for sleeping and eating sweets!

The car and us in Munich after sending Yibin.

Almost 200 km/h on the Autobahn!

Siwei looking happy at the German-Czech Border.

Charles Bridge in Prague.

Dinner. Nice? The dish with the rice looks like something from the Mensa though.

Duck with Bread and potato dumplings, with some weird vegetables.

Courtesy of Siwei we had some pretty nice photos of Prague's night view.

*Much more romantic than Paris is*

Fake Eiffel Tower.

Three Dwarfs
ET phone home.

More lousy English-Save the theory? Save me from her please

2007-08-21T11:07:00.000+08:00

Dear Lim Shuxian,

here is the Hausarbeit for your Schein:

"Please describe and explain the three paradoxes providing evidence
against the theory of the lexical phonologie. Try also to defend this
theory by finding arguments to save the theory."

I hope the theme of your homework is clear to you enough. We have dealt in
details in our seminar with this subject, I hope you remeber it. You could
also have a look in the book: Morphology (Francis Katamba and John
Stonham).

I will be on holidays from tomorrow until this weekend so that I will not
be able to answer any question. I will check my mail on next Monday again.

I hope all is well and I am looking forward to read your homework.
Best wishes
Katerina Zombolou

There is absolutely nothing that can be use to describe her

2007-08-07T14:10:00.001+08:00

Dear Lim Shuxian,

you are not the only student who didn't pass the exam. There is no otherchance for any of you to retake the exam, you can only retake the course.I have already reviewed your paper by myself because I did took intoconsideration your extraordinary circumstances. There is nothing to doabout your paper, it was not enough good to pass the exam. As I told you,my next sprechstunde is in October, if you can come, I will explain youthe details of your paper.

Best wishes,
Dr. Katerina Zombolou>

Dear Dr Zombolou,>> I read your email with great disappointment. As I had mentioned earlier, I> would not be able to graduate on time should I not get the credits for> this course. I believe that I have gained enough understanding of this> course to deserve at least a pass and I felt injustice that I am not given> the opportunity to defend my paper. I had achieved 43 marks and its not> too far from the passing standard. Being an exchange student, I am not> able to retake the exam and this puts me in a disadvantaged position> compared to my peers. I believe that the strict marking criteria had also> taken into consideration the fact that there is always a second chance for> every student, which I am deprived of. I am only requesting for a review> of my paper and as long as you agree, I can mail it to you. I am due to> graduate in 2 semesters and failing this module would delay my graduation.> I sincerely hope that you would reconsider my appeal in view of my> extraordinary circumstances.>> Thank you for your time.>>

Regards,
> Shuxian Lim

Dear Lim Shuxian,

>> I am terribly sorry but I do not have any other Sprechstunde in Stuttgart> until October 2007. I am not living in Stuttgart and I am not every day in> my office, especially in school holidays like now.>> Your test was not good enough to pass the examination. I have done> everything to help you but it was not possible. The only way to get this> schein is to attend the class again up October 2007 until Februar 2008.> But since you are an exchange student and you must go now, I am afraid> that there is no possibility to get this schein, at least not now.>> I hope you will be able to complete your studies without this schein.>>

Best wishes,
> Dr. Katerina Zombolou

>>>> Dear Frau Zombolou,

>>>> I am the exchange student from your class for G2 Basics of Morphological>> Analysis for the Sommer Semester 2007. I have enjoyed your class and>> since>> taking this course, I have been exposed to Linguistics and hence have>> taken an interest in this area. It is thus a shock when I saw that I did>> not pass the course. I am baffled and would like to know what went>> wrong.>> Also, looking back at my own script, I cannot figure out the reason as>> to>> why I failed the exam. As I know, the course has officially ended, but I>> would like to know if you still offer Sprechstunde. Is it possible for>> me>> to see you in your office during the Sprechstunde?

>>>> As I am an exchange student from Singapore, I am required to pass all my>> modules taken here at the Uni Stuttgart. For courses that do not>> contribute to my major modules, I am only required to get a pass in>> order>> to successfully finish my studies and graduate in time. Since my major>> is>> Economics and since this is the first time I attempt at English Language>> (Linguistics), failing this would mean a delay in my graduation. Thus, I>> would sincerely appreciate if you could offer me a Sprechstunde. As I>> would be leaving Germany to return to my home university next Tuesday, I>> hope that I am able to settle all the module matters before my return so>> as to continue with my final year which will commence in he second week>> of>> August. Hence I urge you to consider a Sprechstunde and to review my>> paper>> with me.>>>>

Thank you and regards,
>> Shuxian Lim

This is the kind of English of the person who failed me for an English module and refuse to be helpful in any way. This is not the first time she is TOTALLY NOT HELPFUL AT ALL. How she got her doctorate is beyond me. I wonder which lousy university awarded her the doctor title.

Going home soon

2007-08-07T14:10:00.000+08:00

Reaching Singapore around 5pm Thursday. But got to start travelling at 4pm on Wednesday

Changes and newer upcoming events

2007-07-26T18:07:00.000+08:00

~~26 July Mathematical Econ Exam~~
27 July Submit essay
27 July Interview
28 July Prague!
1 Aug Interview in Karlsruhe
3 Aug Budapest!

Upcoming events

2007-07-23T19:18:00.000+08:00

26 July - Mathematical Economics Exam
27 July - Submit Literature Final Essay
27 July - Telephone Interview with Hitflip
1 Aug - Interview with Consileon in Karlsruhe
2 Aug - Budapest

I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED!!!

2007-07-18T22:28:00.000+08:00

Marketing: Grundstudium (Oral exam), 1.15 - 1.30pm

Got to the classroom early and started pacing the corridor nervously. Think I was at that for 20 minutes. The exam was thankfully English but not so thankful because I didn't prepare very well for that subject. Out of 4 questions, I could only answer 2 and that is after lots of help and prompting from the examiners. URGH! I thought it was a gone case when I couldn't answer the first question which I only glance through when I was studying. Next came question 2 and 3 and 4 almost all the same case. I stuttered and stammered and gave answers that seemed to emphasize my lacked of studying :(

So when they called me back into the room to tell me my grade, I was immensely relieved yet surprised to know that I PASSED the exam. All that's important after lack of sleep, unbearable feelings of trying to stay awake, checking the dictionary for the same words lots of times....
I managed a 3,3 and the examiners have to be very nice people to even let me pass. WHEW... one more down.. one more next week and a final essay...

Summer Summer Hot hot!

2007-07-16T18:58:00.000+08:00

The weather is ...weird. It was around 8 degrees 2 weeks ago, 19 degrees last week and 33 degrees this week. I think it easily went up to some 34 degrees yesterday. Annette's room and the whole of the third floor felt like a furnance. *Sam, think you feel very glad that you don't live in that room now?* Even my room was warm! It's the coolest part of the house since it doesn't face the sun and is always in the shade. It seems almost strange that I had to open the door wide to sleep. There's just this suffocating warmth that makes you feel choked. Passed by Mineralbaeder (Mineral baths) on the U-Bahn and it's no surprise that the place was PACKED. I seriously wouldn't really want to go to Mineralbaeder on a HOT SUNNY day because of the crowd.

On another note, I finished paper number 2 last Saturday. It was a weird procedure. We were supposed to finish the paper in 1 1/2 hours' time and start at 10am. by 11.30am, only one person submitted the paper while all the others were writing anxiously. So the lecturer(in) told us not to feel stress, just take your time. Whoa! I eventually handed in my paper at 12pm, and there were many others still at it. Spent the rest of the afternoon studying at a friend's place. The weather was already very warm and her room happened to be one of the last few blocks before the forest :(

On Sunday, I overslept (again). Maybe it's because I need to study, but I've been sleeping alot. Woke up a few hours late for my study plan. Started on Maths since I don't want to waste time searching for the English versions of Marketing online before I get the book on Monday (today). *Thanks Jenn for sending me the marketing notes from NUS. I'm getting desperate.* Anyway, I was quite demoralised. For something I love to do, I got really sucky at it. Used to love Math and integration, differentiation.... etc etc because those are the stuff I could do without stress. In fact sometimes without studying, and I would spend time thinking about the question even as I was doing other things. So I sat down and found out that except for basic Integration, I forgot almost every other integration rule. Lacked of practice URGH! *Thanks Ziming for teaching me Math*

2007-07-10T16:13:00.001+08:00

First paper later! Wish me luck!

My Forte

2007-07-05T22:01:00.000+08:00

Hmm... my usual self re-emerged after being dormant for some time..

I spoilt Annette's oven cum stove yesterday by ACCIDENT. Ok I think it was most likely just a short circuit, but there was a 'pop' sound and the clock went off. Annette tried the stove and oven but both didn't work after that. URGH!

I was cooking Maultaschen in soup for lunch and was ladling the soup onto the plate when I heard a buzzing sound. I looked down and realised that it came from the oven clock because I held the plate with a tilt and the soup was dripping onto it. And so I quicklyturned to grab some tissue paper, meaning to wipe up the mess when I heard the 'pop'. Having to attend a ~~useless~~ tutorial in the evening, I felt bad that I couldn't stay home to let Annette know first and was even worried that she would think of me as a irresponsible person. When I got home first thing after class, I informed her about what happened. She was super nice about it and even told me regrettably that she can only get the repairman down earliest by next week and in the mean time, I can't cook there. I then offered to pay for the repair, but she rejected me and said she might have played a part in spoiling the thing too so I don't have to pay. Whoa.. totally unexpected man!

Bahnstreik

2007-07-03T20:01:00.000+08:00

My first taste of a strike in Germany today. Saw this message glaring on every signboard on the platforms:

Die Deutsche Bahn wird bestreikt. Momentan besteht keine Umsteigemoeglichkeiten zu Linie S1-6..

The S-Bahn workers, with the help of the trade unions will be organising strikes within this week to make sure they get their 30% increase in pay. Normally, such an unfortunate would not have affected me, but as I had to meet Ziming early in the morning to get something, the place had to be changed because he couldn't take the S-Bahn to work anymore. So how? It's just "It's not possible for any transfer to S-Bahn". How responsible. How convenient just to say that.

I didn't get a picture of the mad rush for the overcrowded U-Bahn, but the crowd was really quite horrible. Thank goodness the U-Bahn and bus services continued to operate. The scene at Hauptbahnhof at 7 plus this morning: many people trying to squeeze into U-Bahn, the U-Bahn personals practically became travel directories and people standing around looking lost. More strikes coming along this week until the wages go up. It's really inconvenient. Wonder what will happen if all the train workers go on strike at the same time. Bicycles and bikes will come in handy then heh.. because of the possible traffic jam.

On the other hand, it was quite an excitement for me to be able to experience a strike. This would be unheard of in Singapore. Maybe we should do that for more pay too.. heh.. I'm not taking our peaceful and mundane *opps* life for granted. One strike is enough. Just for the experience haha (Strange experience I want).. Oh yes and if I were to have to rush for a 8am class during the strike by the train workers, I would gladly go back home to the warm and inviting bed haha.. Too bad the S-Bahn doesn't affect me....

Kopfschmerzen

2007-07-01T17:33:00.001+08:00

ICH HABE KOPFSCHMERZEN!

Today's headache is real unlike yesterday :(

Sick?

2007-06-30T19:34:00.000+08:00

Forgot that I actually have a block seminar today.. yea Saturday at 10am. Although I set alarm at 8.30am, I thought that was just my own plan to wake up and do my presentation. So I woke up at 8 plus when Susanne (Annette's sister) told me that my alarm was ringing, woke up again i think at 10 plus when Susanne asked me why her discman can't work. I didnt know what was wrong, but later I dreamt that she didnt put in batteries. In the end I woke up at 1pm. Great! When the seminar was from 10-2pm and full attendance was required in order to pass the course. Rushed down to ask Annette what I should do next.

Ok back from the hospital.. Annette told me to say I got a bad headache today, had fever last night and felt like puking but the fever is gone now. Haha.. That's advice from a doctor telling you how to fake an MC. Wasn't that hard to fake since I always have swollen eyes, and I just needed to speak very softly and look very sian to look sick haha.. I am dead sick with a terrible headache. Anyway, my blood pressure was low too so it helped.

But then again, I am seriously glad that I missed the class. The module is "Morphological Analysis" which includes certain phonology topics and is taught in English. But the worst thing is that the teacher teaching the linguistic module with respect to English cannot pronounce words in English properly. I suspect she comes from Spain or something like that. I was in class yesterday doing an exercise she assigned us to do and I heard her say "These are some words in friends. Comment the data." Initially I was thinking what "Friends" and actually thinking that it could be in the TV series "Friends". Then I realised that she meant "French". OMG.. And I thought her usual "change" = ziange and "which" = wich were bad enough. I seriously think that the German students in the class can speak better English than her. But that's not the end of her bad English. We had to learn this term "Conversion" meaning that there are some English words that are used both as a Noun and a Verb. She spelled it as Convertion! Then thought about it for awhile and changed it to Conversion. Don't get me wrong I wasn't ranting or venting my frustrations again. I'm merely bewildered that they let someone who is not very good at a certain language teach the class, especially if Phonology is included. By the way, phonology is the study of the distribution and patterning of speech sounds in a language and of the tacit rules governing pronunciation. Oh well..

Went to the farewell party for the Summer University 2 days ago and saw Frau Herrmann. Ziming asked me to ask her if I see her about the contact list she promised to send to us last year. Then I realised everything is still stuck with Mister ... ! No prize for guessing it right because the answer is blatantly obvious. Frau Herrmann said she sent the whole stack of books (which includes the contact list and sort of a keepsake for the program and I saw from my friend's book that they even had a transcript from the University) to Mr Ow. So Stuttgarters, should we ask Mr Inefficient Ow for the books?

Salzburg!

2007-06-22T06:06:00.000+08:00

Initially wanted to travel to Salzburg with my mum's Eurail pass. First class with 2 free days left. But, the Germans have this weird culture. They don't send a letter to you if your name is not on the letter box. That means, even if the address is correct, they won't drop it into the box that's right in front of them. OK.. I find this extremely dumb but still have to accept their different culture. SO.. I didn't receive my first class tickets so I had to take the slow trains and leave the next morning. Then the pig in me made me wake up late the next morning and we missed the train we wanted to catch. But then again.. look at who was I travelling with and you'll understand why we missed the train and had to take the later one but longer hours. However that wasn't half as bad as the return trip. We read the Fahrplanauskunft (Travel information) wrongly and took the later train but ALOT longer too. 7.07 hours! OMG..

Ya.. the Darth Vader who sleeps with his mouth open facing upwards.

View from somewhere near the hostel.. The sky was purple and orange! The camera and photo don't do justice to the amazing view. :(

A speedometer that even tells you how fast you walk. Haha.. 4km/hr for me!

At the Schloss Hellbrunn and Die Wasserspiele (Hellbrunn Castle and The Trick Fountain)
...
got SOOooo drenched at the trick fountain because I was standing in the way of the water most of the time..

View of the big big world from Untersberg. Feel like I'm looking at a picture from some textbook.

See those mountains at the back? Can you imagine dancing and singing "The hills are alive...." there?

2007-06-19T04:04:00.000+08:00

Hey guys..

Can reach me at:

Hilschenz, Landhausstr. 86a

70190 Stuttgart

Germany

2007-06-14T22:05:00.000+08:00

Came across this sonnet by Shakespear during English Lit class.

Straight forward and honest. No lies or euphemisn. Enjoy.

My Mistress' Eyes are Nothing like the Sun.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go:

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she, belied with false compare.

2007-06-14T19:59:00.000+08:00

Baden Baden and Karlsruhe

Baden Baden, a not-many-things-to-see place has got the Caracella Spa which I think looks very very inviting and appealing. Might go next time if there's time.

First casino I entered!
Blur but nonetheless still proof that I'm officially of age to enter. Despite my young girl appearance heh..

Oh yes.. I was on the U bahn with Ziming after his work. He was wearing a shirt and pants hmm maybe that made him look much more mature than me since I was wearing i think shorts? Can't remember. Anyway, there was a lady sitting in front of us directly in front of me. Just before she alighted, she talked to me.

Lady: Entschuldigung, verstehen Sie Deutsch? (We were speaking in Mandarin before that because I was complaing about the Germans again haha.)

Me: Ja.

Lady: Wie alt sind Sie?

Me: 21

Lady (smiling in an amused way): Ich habe gedacht, Sie 14 oder 15 sind. (In my own words, I can't remember her exact words)

In English:

Lady: Excuse me, do you understand German?

Me: Ya.

Lady: How old are you?

Me: 21

Lady: I thought you were 14 or 15.

The lady seriously looked like she was bursting with curiosity to know how old I was. haha..

Ok back to Baden Baden.

2 men playing chess with huge chess pieces

White Spargel is not very surprising, but this is Spargel made of white chocolate!

Lunch that's valued for money! With a large bowl of strawberries underneath the ice-cream! All these for less than 20 EUR!

I'm quite tall right.. Can reach the top of the entrance of the city gate..

The Roemische Badruinen. Ziming secretly took a picture of this through the glass windows from the top. The stones look a bit greenish.

Another big teddy! The Titisee one went missing we have a Baden Baden one to replace it. No no.. I still prefer the first one. No change of heart haha

Karlsruhe:

Saw Siwei and his appetising Swedish Meatballs on his blog last time. We decided to give it a try making it too. Ziming with the pan.

Here is the Siweicancook cooking. We also have the Siwei Planet and Siweipedia.

Ta da! The end product!

Then it's breakfast time! We made croissants with the ready-made dough. Me pretending to fold the dough. Ok.. I'm not very good at pretending, but my hands were dirty or maybe clean.

The guys at work, putting cheese and ham into the croissants

See we have skill right.. Just look at that golden brown and the cheese that half oozed out in the oven..

We basically spent the whole day lazing about and slacking. 2 pigs sleeping in the Schlosspark.

Siwei, asleep, with a strawberry on top on his mouth.

To end, I really wonder what Dennis is doing in Karlsruhe

2007-06-14T18:51:00.000+08:00

More of Shu's Travels

Next stop: Wien (Vienna)

Got to Wien on a cold and dreary day. Dull grey sky, strong freezing winds. The weather was a lot worse here than in Interlaken when it snowed. We were freezing cold.

Here's a picture of me asking for directions and leading everyone to the right place with the skill and ease of a professional haha..

Looks like a normal dull-grey-sky day right.. Don't be deceived by the picture. It was drizzling and so cold that I didn't feel like moving.

Opps! The evidence..

See.. Buildings of these sort everywhere! Feels like back in some olden times heh..

Oh no.. In the palace I forgot the name..In front of horse carriages

Lunch in Wien! Best meal since Stuttgart. Things in Switzerland all cost a lot of money. Internet access in almost all hostels I've been to requires a (not very large) fee for an incrediblly ridiculous short amount of usage time. Something like 5 Fr for 2 minutes or 2 Fr for 5 minutes I can't really remember

Streets of Wien.

Next was Salzburg.. But I could only bring my mum and her friend there and stay for a night before I had to leave for Stuttgart to diligently attend my 200 EUR German classes.

View from the window in my the Guesthouse I stayed in Salzburg

Muenchen: At the Hofbraeuhaus, me and mum with beers!

Last stop was at Titisee: We took the slower trains from Stuttgart to Titisee. Had to change a few trains and one of the train would bypass Donaueschingen, where the Donau River flows through. I was looking for the river for what reason I myself don't know too. Then the lady beside us pointed the river out to me when the train passed by it. I was too excited (don't ask me why) that I misunderstood and thought she meant that it was already our stop. I panicked and hurried my mum and her friend off the train. HAHA.. I alighted at the wrong stop, just one stop before the intended destination and guess what? It was a nice and peaceful Sunday morning and trains to the next stop (3 minutes away) comes every 2 hours. Initially I read the departure schedule wrongly and thought the next one would arrive in 1 hour's time. We decided to wait since we might come to a junction if we took a risk and walk to the next stop. Oh forgot to mention that we had another connection from the next stop waiting for us. When the next hour came and still no sight of the train, we decided to try walking. Lo and behold! We came to a junction. Too bad.. walk back to where we came from. Back at the the wrong stop, a German guy passed by and asked what time (we were the only ones at the station) the next train will arrive. He decided to walk when he knew the time. We followed him and he chatted enthusiastically to me on the way. He doesn't really speak English and my mum don't speak any German.

A picture of the wrong station

Schwarzwald Eis (Black forest ice-cream)

Big teddy is not outside the same shop. Instead a small and unfriendly looking teddy took it's place:(

Ate at the same shop I went with Siwei, Tipin and Yizhen again. The shop with the humongous platter of food.

Black Forest cake with beer again

Hexe (Pork knuckles) served with a knife poked through it. Felt like I was in a precarious position heh

2007-06-12T04:56:00.000+08:00

Update for the past two weeks

My mum arrived in Frankfurt on 25.05.07. My initial plan was to go down to Frankfurt to pick her up from the airport. But as you guys know, the lousy Blockseminars that I had to take had a change in lecture timings, so I couldn't make it. Thankfully, Faith was nice enough to go down to Frankfurt to fetch my mum before going down to meet Jeremy. Thanks Faith I owe you one! Anyway, I rushed down to Frankfurt straight after lessons. Anxious and excited I anticipated seeing my mum. After the long torturous journey I finally arrived at the hostel where I told her beforehand to wait for me. She had asked me to tell the receptionist my name and go up to the room first but I didn't get that message so I waited like a goon do at the lobby for almost one whole hour (I was early and I thought she was late) before I sent her a sms telling her that I was at the lobby. Heh.. Shuxian can not only be on time but also early at times too.

At the beginning I sort of regretted planning my mum and her friend to stay in Frankfurt for 1 day after I realised that there isn't much to see in Frankfurt. But now I'm glad that I made that mistake. My mum didn't feel well after the long flight especially after the terrible ordeal of rushing from Terminal 1 to 4 in London Heathrow Airport and I was also afraid that they don't know the train system and will lose their way even before I get to them. She and her friend spent the entire afternoon sleeping in the hostel. Note to everyone: Don't take BA and especially don't transit in London. What's one word to describe their ordeal? Horrendous.

Went back to Stuttgart early the next morning and packed my bag for the trip. Mum and friend then walked along Koenigstrasse and Stadtmitte. I, very unfortunately, had to go to school for the dreaded Blockseminar. Pictures of fresh strawberries and cherries and tomatoes they bought at the flea market. (Tse Siang, miss your fresh tomatoes from Lugwigsburg? heh..)

After lecture we travelled to Zuerich.In front of Zuerich See.

That was when I taught my mum how to Schwarzfahren. heh heh..

Next destination: Interlaken!

Really.. Interlaken is a MUST go. We were (un)lucky enough to get snow while we were there! The snow wasn't that heavy but it was heavy enough for them to close the Jungfrau Railway. Thankfully it was open the next day so we could go up to the top. Total journey cost 135 Fr and that's a 25% with the Eurail pass. What was (un)lucky was that Stuttgart was Super warm on Saturday so we didn't think of bringing all the warm clothings. The drastic change in the weather was unexpected. Here's the mountain with a layer of fog.

Snow!!

Clear, blue water in the Lake

3 sets of footprints in the snow at Grindelwald.

The Jungfraubahn

2007-06-02T05:58:00.000+08:00

Checklist 2007

Places cleared

1. Heidelberg

2. Venice

3. Milan

4. Ulm

5. Speyer (boring place)

6. Nuernberg

7. Feldberg, Titisee

8. Strasbourg

Actually I can't remember which places have I blogged about haha. Next coming up. Places travelled with my mum and her friend.

9. Interlaken

10. Vienna

11. Zuerich

12. Munich

13. Bern (sort of)

I'm still waiting for some of the photos. And on top of the super huge workload from the English Lit. module that I think I ought to get at least 8 MCs for, I have to study for an exam next Wednesday for Basic Sentence Structure. It's conducted as a Blockseminar and definitely easier to remember what the teacher taught. The Blockseminar is quite good in that sense which means, I think I don't need to spend time trying to recall what I scribbled during lecture. Haha don't get me wrong, I'm not mugging. But there are quizzes and tests and referat pretty often I can't afford not to do anything. The most unfortunate thing that happened was me trying to force myself to concentrate on planning my essay on the way to Nuernberg. :(

2007-06-01T06:36:00.000+08:00

Freaking pissed

If this was my first trip to Germany, I might never come here again.

The endless irritaing circumstances.

The inefficiencies.

Only 2, but that's enough for me.

Since when do lecturers conduct a class which they find have too many students and even let students attend FIVE boring lectures sitting in an ovbviously over-crowded classroom before anouncing that the group has to split and join a new group? When 90% of the students can't make it for the 2nd time slot not only because it's a saturday, but also because of an exam clash, nothing is done and students are told "Too bad, take it next semester." Nothing is done even when the module is a pre-requisite for modules in the next semester. Lectures in the 2nd group are conducted in seminars and students are expected to attend ALL the seminars. The rule of the school is that students are only allowed to absent themselves for a maximum of 180 minutes per module and in this case, even if it's only one day, you are NOT supposed to be absent. Why? Because the dumb seminars are 4-5 hours long.

So what happens if you are an exchange student and you don't know your way around the school especially the way things work here and you end up having to change ALL the plans you made way before you even reach Germany? Who cares? Those are the rules and "No, I am not allowed to make any exceptions".

For a developed country, Germany exhibits real inefficiencies and inflexibilities. The slower way of life here is fine as long as they do not create unnecessary troubles at the expense of others. In fact, slower is nice and relaxing. Take another example:

Annette applied for internet in my room way before I moved in and I was supposed to be able to start using on 1.05.07. This is however not the case. The modem arrived before the scheduled date but it was the rule to pay for a man to come install something in the house. And that something was what I (the computer illiterate) can do without help. In my opinion, that was an absolute waste of money. Next, comes the worse part. The password and welcome pack were supposed to arrive in the mail before the man was supposed to come. Right, as you guessed, the password and welcome pack came after the man. Again why? Because the lady who was in charged of sending the welcome pack sent it A FEW days (more than 1) later than she was supposed to. So basically, Annette paid the man to do what I could have done myself.

On the other hand, this case is extremely efficient. My buddy told me that the Germans do make noise even when the public transport is ONE minute later than scheduled. So why can't they apply the same type of efficiency to other stuff?

Efficiency doesn't show itself in the Rathaus too. I was there to register myself and get the Aufenthalterlaubnis (Residence Permit) some time at the end of April. The queue was super long, the machine to press for number was somewhere in a little corner and the lady who attended to me didn't know how to use the machine to print the sticker. She had to ask her colleague like at least 5 times what to fill in here, what's the short form for my reason of stay blah blah, how to print the sticker and why isn't the printer responding although she pressed print a few times. A simple and I'm very sure usual procedure (the Rathaus in Vaihingen where I went, are where students normally go to register themselves), took a freaking 40 minutes. Yea I know everyone has their own first day at work, but shouldn't there be some sort of training beforehand? The unintended delay caused me to be late for an appointment with the Hausmeister and made me miss my tutorial. Which in turn caused more trouble because the assignment was to be given out that day and it was in German and that means I couldn't get any chance to ask the tutor anything I was unsure about and the next meeting was 2 weeks from then because of the many (yay good) public holidays. But it seriously cause me a lot of effort and pain to finish that assignment because of my lousy German and misinterpretations.

Ok ok I know I'm ranting but the list just goes on and on and on. More inefficiencies coming up next time. There are still like tons of incidents which already happened. For now, I think I'm going to email the sekretariat and act pathetic. Maybe crocodile tears might work better at winning me sympathy points.

2007-05-13T02:33:00.000+08:00

What was I doing the past 2 weeks?

My assignment for English Lit. but it's strangely in German. Can you imagine learning Chinese Lit in English? Not me!

University of Stuttgart/American Studies

Introduction to Literary Studies (G 1), Summer Term 2007

Holtkamp, Schubert, Riesch

Bibliographische Übung

(Abgabe im Tutorium am 09./10. Mai 2007)

Für alle Aufgaben gilt: Geben Sie jeweils die vollständige bibliographische Angabe an:

Aufgaben 2-4: Works Cited–Muster

Aufgaben 5-8: Fußnoten–Muster

Bitte geben Sie eine gedruckte Version ab (keine handschriftliche).

1. Nennen Sie fünf Fachzeitschriften, die für die Abteilung Amerikanistik und Neuere Englische Literatur (nicht Linguistik) von Interesse sind. Wo in Stuttgart finden Sie solche Zeitschriften?

2. Sie wollen sich über einen Schriftsteller informieren. Wo schlagen Sie nach? Nennen Sie drei literaturwissenschaftliche Werke.

3. Sie wollen die Bedeutung der rhetorischen Figur „Allegorie“ ermitteln. Wo schlagen Sie nach?

4. Geben Sie eine Bibliographie zu William Faulkners Schaffen an.

5. Welche Bücher verbergen sich hinter folgenden Signaturen?

VAM 7; FIT 5; CAM 01

VEN 6; DIC 1/1 (8)

T 3/4/6; LIT 25

6. Nennen Sie drei in der IB vorhandene Werke zu Henry James.

7. Sie benötigen für eine Hausarbeit Sekundärliteratur. Nutzen Sie die Database der MLA für Ihre Recherche. Beschreiben Sie Schritt für Schritt, wie Sie vorgehen, um die Sekundärliteratur zu erhalten.

8. In der Zeitschrift Amerikastudien/American Studies ist 2002 ein Artikel mit dem Titel „Unpremediated Music“ erschienen. Erstellen Sie die vollständige bibliographische Angabe zu diesem Artikel.

9. Erstellen Sie die Titelseite und Works Cited-Seite einer Hausarbeit zu Kate Chopins „The Story of an Hour“. Geben Sie unter Works Cited fünf Werke an (zwei Monographien, zwei Aufsätze, eine Literaturgeschichte), die Sie zur Bearbeitung Ihres Themas benutzen wollen.

With my horrible German, I initially thought I was supposed to re-write the Work Cited List into Footnotes form for question 8. Thankfully not. There were 59!! footnotes!! OMG luckily I clarified with my tutor. Haha. However, that means that I just wasted ALOT of time on a single assignment.

The 2nd day after I got back from Venice, I made Laura's cousin who stayed over in Stuttgart to watch the Beyonce concert climb out of the house through the window in the room Kanna used to occupy (that's in the 2nd floor). Because I came back the day before and found the door locked from the outside. And that means that if someone inside doesn't have a key to the front door when it's locked, he can't get out. So I locked the door the next day, thinking that there was no one left in the house. Haha. That was the day he (cousin) was going back home. My farewell present for him lol.

This week, I lost a notebook. I walked from the IB (Institues library) to the mensa, ate lunch and went back to the library. Decided to use the internet in the UB (university library) which was on the way. Left the UB around 20 minutes after I left the mensa and walked back to the IB. Something felt different when I was in the lift.
Lo and behold, my notebook was gone! I retraced my steps all the way back to the mensa, but still couldn't find the notebook. It seemed to have mysteriously vanished into thin air. Still bewildered.

And yesterday, I went to Strasbourg (France). Quite a nice place, nicer than Paris (*whispers* it's not as romantic as everyone thinks it is). Opps.. oh well.. at least it was to me. Only a day trip.. Photos will be up as soon as I stop feeling too lazy to upload them. :)

2007-05-02T20:41:00.000+08:00

ok.. Shall let Pictures do the talking.

Schwarzwald, Titisee und Feldberg

Going up Feldberg

Snow!!

Pile of stones?

Snow slide

A little Snowman

Titisee

LOOK AT THIS MEL!

................

Milan, Venice, Konstanz

On the way to Milan, this is somewhere in Switzerland. It's damn nice. We shouldn't have chosen to take the night train last year!

Cathedral in Milan. The bottom part was under renovation and I wanted to avoid that. Looks like a castle in the sky like this yea?

Streets of Milan

Shopping centre in Milan with all the branded stuff

A rose Bush in someone's balcony.

Venezia

View at night

Bodensee

Cool baby in the S-Bahn

2007-04-26T18:20:00.000+08:00

whoa anlin is very patient. after 112 MCQs..

You scored as Sirius Black. You are the most loyal friend anyone could ask for because you'd go to any length to ensure their safety and happiness. You're free-spirited and very difficult to confine to a caged life. You love being in the company of those you love and love to show them how much they mean to you. You loathe those who only live for self-gain and show disloyalty. You're a great person but sometimes its needed of you to think more rationally than being quick to jump into things.

Sirius Black

69%

Ron Weasley

66%

Percy Weasley

56%

Remus Lupin

53%

Harry Potter

50%

Severus Snape

50%

Luna Lovegood

47%

Oliver Wood

47%

Bellatrix Lestrange

47%

Hermione Granger

41%

Albus Dumbledore

41%

Neville Longbottom

41%

Lord Voldemort

22%

Draco Malfoy

13%

Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test
created with QuizFarm.com

2007-04-13T02:35:00.000+08:00

My first week in Stuttgart?

Quite terrible actually. First i had to drag and lug a heavy luggage with laptop and a hand carry bag all the way from Zuerich to Stuttgart. Then I had to almost forget my laptop in Zuerich and leave it on some trolley after I board the train. Next I had to rush about buying groceries and food and a phone card because no shops would be open the next day. Was too tired to cook that evening so i just ate some bread and went to bed. I don't think I bathed haha. Since the Hausmeister (they translate it as caretaker i think that's a bad tranlsation. Sounds like I live in a cemetary.) office was closed by the time I arrive in Stuttgart, my buddy had to collect my keys first. However, she didn't ask for bed linens and blankets(maybe she thought I will have), so I almost froze to death the first night. My bed was unfortunately far from the heater so I squatted beside the heater (heater was quite low on the floor). I was still shivering in front of the heater! Didn't felt any warmer even beside the heater. In the end I took all the warm jackets I brought to use as blankets. It was really DAMN bad.

But not the worse. I had called Siwei the previous evening and he asked me to call him when I wake up the next morning. I happily thought that was a fresh start to my day and tried to cheer up about being alone. To my dismay, I realised that ALL the food and aluminium foil I left in my LOCKED cupboard were gone. Till now I have no idea how it happened. It just happened! I went straight back to my room, sat on the bed and cried. Yes I always cry easily, but that was the 4th time since I reached Germany. Was already trying to hold back tears on the train from Zuerich. Cried after I bought the groceries and before I fell asleep.

Lucky for me, I didn't put all the stuff in that cupboard. Ate some bread mixed with tears LOL (not that bad) and met S. We went around a bit and then to his friend's place. Nice friend of his, lent me blankets and bedsheets, i ate lunch and dinner at his place. The next 2 days were much better. Oh yes I almost forgot to mention that my buddy left for Prague the very next day after I arrived so I was feeling lost most of the time. Had to time to do the free StudiTicket, so had to buy the freaking expensive day ticket to travel.

Since last year, I always thought I enjoy being alone. Now I really hate it. It makes me feel depressed and lost. Helpless and vulnerable even. Germans are damn tall I feel like an insignificant kid. Totally different from immersion, so much more enjoyable and memorable than this horrible week. Like Faith, initially I just feel like flying home immediately. Thankfully it's much better now.

Here's a few pics.

nice blur sky from Fernsehturm

yuck don't they look like meal worms?

shu trying to enjoy being alone

and a nice sunset to round the horrible week up

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

2007-03-30T11:18:00.000+08:00

LESS than one week to go..

I feel excited yet a tinge of dread everytime i think about the trip.. heh.. call me crazy but I'm definitely going to miss my friends and relatives.. Food is important too but i'm not too conerned about that since I'M STILL NUTS ABOUT BRATWURST !! (to AL: it's VERY NICE)

Strange I've never thought of myself as someone who likes to be alone, however I've been feeling increasingly at ease especially when i'm out alone. The thought of walking on the streets alone without any care in the world appeals to me. Maybe I just don't want to care about anything, growing up just sucks when U need to have more CARES (aka worries). I constantly worry about whether I have enough money to tide me through the next few months, yet I can't control the urge to go on shopping sprees. I constantly worry about whether I can achieve my target and improve my cap, yet I just want to lie down and do nothing most of the time. I even worry about what will happen to me if i don't worry about the future now. (yuck)! I want to be carefree, to go back to when there was no worries, no problems, a smooth-sailing life, with me studying diligently and getting the results I deserve, no bad memories..

I DON'T WANT TO CARE ABOUT ANYTHING!!

Thankfully, I still like to spend time with people, I'm not a loner.

2007-03-22T02:11:00.000+08:00

TAGGED!

Rule of the game: each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things or little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged must write in their blog 10 weird habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end, you must choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. NO tagbacks!

1) Scared of people (including myself) touching my shin, especially using 1 finger. I keep thinking the bone will break into half.

2) Make up weird names for my soft toys and pet.

3) Likes preserved mangoes but not fresh mangoes.

4) Prefers people under age of 3 to over age of 70 (except my grandparents).

5) Need to cry when I'm sad so that I can go back to normal.

6) Slapped my brother by accident once. I used to fight with my brother when we were younger. Once I wanted to pretend to slap him, but unfortunately my aiming was too good haha. My palm landed smartly right on his cheek.

7) Can finish the whole pot of soup all by myself.

8) Has different most favourite song at different times. Soometimes I can listen to my most favourite song straight on repeat mode for 4 hours, without getting sick of it.

9) Likes to do things at night (1-4am). I like to pack my room, cook/ prepare food.

10) Spoils things easily (Sometimes I just have to meddle with it a bit and the next thing I know, part of it falls off).

I tag:

1. Jenna

2. Zihan

3. Aurelia

4. Maybeline

5. Pris

6. Xingti

2007-03-21T01:08:00.000+08:00

All I ask of you

I love this!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Raoul)

No more talk of darkness

Forget these wide-eyed fears

I'm here, nothing can harm you

My words will warm and calm you

Let me be your freedom

Let daylight dry your tears

I'm here, with you, beside you

To guard you and to guide you

(Christine)

Say you'll love me every waking moment

Turn my head with talk of summer time

Say you need me with you now and always

Promise me that all you say is true

That's all I ask of you

[Raoul]

Let me be your shelter

Let me be your light

You're safe, no one will find you

Your fears are far behind you

[Christine]

All I want is freedom

A world with no more night

And you, always beside me

To hold me and to hide me

[Raoul]

Then say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime

Let me lead you from your solitude

Say you need me with you here, beside you

Anywhere you go, let me go too

Christine, that's all I ask of you

[Christine]

Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime

Say the word and I will follow you

[Both]

Share each day with me, each night, each morning

[Christine]

Say you love me

[Raoul]

You know I do

[Both]

Love me, that's all I ask of you.

(They kiss. Raoul lifts Christine off her feet, into his arms and holds her)

[Both]

Anywhere you go, let me go too

Love me, that's all I ask of you

2007-03-15T01:53:00.000+08:00

Waren Sie bedrueckt?

Kueuzlich bin ich immer bedrueckt. Aber ich weiss nicht warum. Ich dachte, ob ich jetzt nur ein Kurs studiere, werde ich sehr entspannen. Also, ich fahre nach Stuttgart bald und fuer mein Austauschsemester verbringe ich 4 Monaten in Deutschland! Ich soll aufgeregt! In letzter Zeit hatte ich viele Probleme mit "module mapping" und verschiedenes anders. Mein Test war sehr schlecht und ich scheiterte fast. Am Dienstag war der Vokabeltest auch ganz schlecht und ich hatte viele Leerzeichen. In Deutschland sehe ich voraus, dass ich vielleicht viele Probleme haben werde. Ich habe Sorgen. Es ist einfach andere Leute zu erzaehlen, dass sie nicht so viel denken sollen. Es ist nicht so leicht, wenn man bedrueckt ist.

Letzte Woche hat meine Mutter sich eingeschraenkt, damit sie mich in Deutschlabd besuchen kann. YAY!

=( viele viele Fehler..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyone has any idea which of the 2 insurance is better?

TENET or AIG?

2007-02-28T13:51:00.000+08:00

歌手：五月天

最重要的小事

我走过动荡日子
追过梦的放肆
穿过多少生死
却假装若无其事
穿过半个城市
只想看你样子
这一刻最重要的事
是属於你最小的事
世界纷纷扰扰喧喧闹闹
什黱是真实
为你跌跌撞撞傻傻笑笑
买一杯果汁
就算庸庸碌碌匆匆忙忙
活过一辈子
也要分分秒秒年年日日
全心守护你
最小的事

我就算壮烈前世
征服滚滚乱世
万人为我写诗
而幸福却是此时
静静帮你提著
哈罗凯蒂袋子
这一刻最重要的事
是属於你最小的事
世界纷纷扰扰喧喧闹闹
什黱是真实
为你跌跌撞撞傻傻笑笑
买一杯果汁
就算庸庸碌碌匆匆忙忙
活过一辈子
也要分分秒秒年年日日
全心守护你
最小的事
最重要的事

你笑得像个孩子
每个平凡小事
变成永恒故事

2007-02-26T00:24:00.000+08:00

Recently there are many depressing posts in the blogs. It makes me feel depress too. Is it the stress from studies. Or is it simply the downs of life coincidentally at the same time. I wonder why.

Work is getting slightly better with some students. I learnt not to feel so pissed off and upset when my students misbehave or refuse to listen to me, yet at the same time bearing more responsibilities in their learning. I'm seriously going to miss little boy Victor when I stop teaching there. Very cheeky boy. The only singaporean student who lets me feel sad that I might not get to see him again. I started teaching him about 2 years ago when he was 5 besides those china students who are a breeze to teach. Practically non existent work needed to get them to know the necessary information by heart. Because they are the lovely precious of their parents who will go to great lengths to make them successful. Heh, I'm definitely not complaining! They make teaching a lot more relaxing and enjoyable.

2007-02-15T01:55:00.000+08:00

the least celebrations, but in fact the best v day!I'm as happy as every other normal day (not that v day is a special day), just that i'm not "happier only one single day of the year"!

got angry at 10 naughty little boys some who simply refused to obey instructions though.. Naughty and noisy boys are like stiff necks- you try your best to make it better (make them listen to instructions and co-operate) but to no avail.. hehe

besides all those.. eventful day today
1. i was late for a meeting with my co-ordinator (as usual but that's not the point here hee), had to print my detailed module descriptions, but the disgusting computer i booked in central library cheated me and showed "no network connection, computer cannot be booked". YUCK! had to re-queue for another one and just my luck, i had to wait 16mins for the next available computer when it was my turn..
2. ate a large piece of tiramisu cake for brunch
3. my hp dropped into some dirty and black area for draining rain water.. (there were ants crawling all over too).. totally disgusted.. rushed down to the nearest toilet and gave it a good rinse.. unfortunately, i forgot to dry the phone so the whole thing went crazy- changed it's language to chinese by itself, rejected my sim card. thankfully my hp recovered before i had to leave for volunteer work..
4. carried the damn heavy carton of 30 large mandarin oranges from rail mall all the way to anlin's place.. i walked up the slope all by myself carrying the oranges *beams proudly*
5. made a edible facial mask out of oats, tomatoes and lemon juice.. decided to give the taste a try since this is the first time i tried a "food" face mask.. haha.. there's a reason why it is a face mask and not meant to be eaten.. it tasted like PUKE omg.. had to drink a bit of the lemon juice to rid the taste.. double YUCK!

2007-02-06T12:32:00.000+08:00

heh.. here's the English version which I translated myself.

We confirm that Miss Lim ShuXian, has been invited to participate in an exchange program between her home university (NUS) and the University of Stuttgart. This will take place between 01.04.07 and 31.07.07 in Stuttgart. We appreciate if she can be issued a Visa starting 01.04.07.

The student is awarded a scholarship by the (DAAD) for the period of April 2007 to July 2007, a total of 480 EUR per month.

2007-01-31T00:20:00.000+08:00

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

wir bestaetigen, dass wir

Frau Shuxian LIM,

geb. 16.03.1986 in Singapur

zu einem Studienaufenthalt an die Universitaet Stuttgart eingeladen haben. Die Studierende nimmt an einem Austauschprogramm zwischen ihrer Heimatuniversitaet, der National University of Singapore, und der Universitaet Stutt-gart teil und soll von 01.04.07 bis 31.07.07 in Stuttgart studieren. Wir waeren deshalb dankbar, wenn Sie der Studierenden ein Visum ab 1. April 2007 ausstellen koennten.

Die Studierende erhält ein Stipendium aus Mitteln des Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes (DAAD) fuer den Zeitraum von April 2007 bis Juli 2007 in Hoehe von monatlich 480 EUR.

Mit freundlichem Gruss

Raphaela Diel
Betreuung internationale Studierende

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

yay! Despite knowing that this award is not hard to get, I still feel estatic! =) I got the Baden-Wuerttemberg Stipendium! With that, visa is free too heh.. Will be getting some money each month.. hehe.. I don't have to live in dire poverty now! But still very poor now though..

2007-01-26T23:49:00.000+08:00

*AL, saw this in flickr.. heh.. looks like maggie mee and I'm famished now! hehe*

Tiny new life is borned! This tiny and vulnerable bundle arrived barely a month ago and already, he knows how to be lazy hehe.. Sleeping soundly despite all my futile attempts at disturbing him..
Aaron

Ooo look at that cute little thing sleeping so serenely

his shy mummy sitting in front of me refused to pose for a picture

here's a picture of my annoying brother in my still neat and tidy *ahem.. ok rather neat and tidy* room before he enlisted
i seriously hope that he learns or at least show more manners at camp
but then again, sent off to tekong this morning by our mummy..

Like TS mentioned in his blog, I find it hard to imagine myself in my aunt's shoes. It feels totally alien when I imagine myself having to go through maternal confinement when here I am, still asking for allowance and piano lesson fees, thinking about how much more I can procrastinate before I really need to study( during the school sem)..

2007-01-13T01:49:00.000+08:00

Ex-co of slackers' club feeling unproductive now that everyone has gone back to school.. that's new from me i usually like lazing around the whole day doing absolutely nothing..

cant wait to get more jobs to boost my bank account.. getting desperate...

~~~~~~~~~

not being stagnated vs moving forward

2007-01-11T00:37:00.000+08:00

This really looks like it's an "after-photoshop-picture" to me..

2006-12-28T16:06:00.000+08:00

New year Resolutions~

Be ON TIME
Keep my room neat
Keep my important documents where they ought to be as soon as I'm done with them
Help out with household chores more often
Try to be less accident-prone
Be more patient
Make more time for piano everyday
Say bye to butterflies and flutter-bys
Stop being last minute
Be more diligent

For those who are wondering why am I still in Singapore

I spent the entire day of 26dec cleaning up the house with the very much appreciated help of AL. It's quite a miracle when 2 girls with the intention to clean up something comes together. One gets more motivated and less bored of cleaning up. So anyway my house is almost quite tidy and clean now that I don't really want my brother to come home: he just messes up the whole place by being inconsiderate enough not to bother about the house..sigh. By the time we are done with housework, it was almost 9pm! Quite bad that AL has to eat dinner so late with me. We called for Mac's delivery service and had dinner at 10. The unceasing rain continued relentlessly the whole day. Lucky for us, AL's mum happened to be on the way home from somewhere nearby and she came to pick AL up. Soon after, I decided to start packing though very late because my flight was at 8am the next day.

Then came the great shock. I couldn't find my passport. Combed all the possible places, called my parents in the middle of the night and even my brother who was at a chalet. By 4am, I still couldn't find my passport. Called SIA to postpone the booking in the nick of time to aviod paying for no-show. I should have started on my packing earlier. My laziness affected all the plans and efforts my parents painstakingly made for me. How guilty I felt, when my mum told me what she had prepared for me. Although I'm glad my mum is not hysterically angry at me anymore, I still feel very bad about the whole incident. And I haven't found my passport yet. SIGH

~~~~~~

Effort does not translate into results.

Disappointment isn't enough to describe how I felt about my results. I suffered a shock when I first knew of my results during the results leak. How could it be?! is there a mistake? It was consoling to know many others thought the results were not real.
After the actual date of release of results? The shock has settled and I have accepted the fact.

2006-12-11T14:49:00.000+08:00

I quote AL: "God may have created man before woman, but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece!"

A few days since I finished exams and what have I been doing?

1. Shopped a little
2. Went for steam boat at Marina
3. Concert
4. TEACHed alot (yuck)

I really detest teaching. I have to wake up at such an unearthly hour just so that I can try not to fall asleep while listening to really horribly un-practiced music. Yes, that's torture. I tried many ways: walk around the room (box may be more apt in describing that little area enclosed by 4 walls)...try to chit chat with them so that I can feel more awake... Try that EVERY single sunday.. Here comes the worst part.... Little kids who are EXTREMELY naughty and refused to listen to you when you are trying not to feel sleepy.

I DESPERATELY need more patience.

Concert was one of the best I've been to. It's an informal and interactive concert with the conductor talking to the audiences and describing the music instead of simply relating to the audiences through the music. Really like it alot!

Went jogging yesterday.. yes the laziest girl jogging.. I'm craving my first set of ginger cookies! BUT, I've lost the recipe and my oven's down. YUCK! sigh..When can I say goodbye to my butterflies?

Some photos:

yum yum

2006-11-29T01:20:00.000+08:00

most important person on my slapping list which i left out!

XING XIAO LIN-the pee-offs lecturer and his "me-be"

2006-11-27T00:59:00.000+08:00

I really feel like slapping myself!!!

The disgusting paper was not difficult, BUT....

I couldn't finish the easiest question! Got stuck at my favourite topic =(

A few men on my slapping list now includes:

1. Robinson Crusoe

2. John Nash for his troublesome games

3. Cournot

4. Bertrand

5. Stackelberg

On a more positive note, its 1 down and 2 more to go ONLY! =)