Chicken Soup for the Bored

The Land of the team which beat my Arsenal!

2006-06-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

Alrighty readers... Let me tell you something about Barcelona. It is the best city i have been to! We stayed at Khar Hau's place which is very near the bus station so getting there was no hassle for us. Usually, we had to take the shuttle bus from the airport, then take the underground metro, take some long train or the bus to finally get to the hostel but for Khar Hau's place, all it took was a bus ride from the Girona airport to the main bus station. So we arrived in the morning and we started our little Barca tour. By the way... the day we arrived was the day Barcelona was playing Arsenal for the Champions League Final. Man... thinking about it breaks my heart... but anyway, we asked Khar Hau to tell us where to go and we started our day with a nice walk to the city, the famous Las Ramblas.

Sights of the Sagrada Familia

Cowan looks like the chinese guy in the Matrix... shades all

View from the top...

Spiral view

A little history on the Sagrada Familia... The Sagrada Familia is probably Barcelona’s most famous and most controversial work of Gaudi. Gaudi started building the church when he was only 31, during the last years of his life he even slept in the crypt. In his vision the Sagrada Familia should become a memorial of remorse for modern materialism in Barcelona: 18 majestic towers shall be crowned by another one in the centre with a total height of 170 metres. If ever concluded, this would be the highest building in Barcelona. Unfortunately Gaudi died before he could finish building the Sagrada Familia... well he expected it anyway cause there is no way he could build this whole building in one lifetime! This building is massive! So several architects and sculptors have contributed to the fulfilment of Gaudi’s vision. Unfortunately, how fast the church can be completed depended on how much financial support it received and so... all the money the tourists pay to enter the Sagrada Familia actually plays a part in it's construction! At least i know my 5 euros is being put into good use. :)

So we walked around the Las Ramblas after checking Gaudi's main monument. We got kinda hungry and so we searched for a nice place to have some Paella. Unfortunately, we were so hungry that we went into the first Paella shop we saw... and it was ran by Indians. Well... Spanish food is great.. WHEN cooked by Spanish people, not by Indians. We asked the counter guy how much one Paella costs and he said 10 Euros. So we went in.. ordered.. waited a million years for it.. and worst of all.. it wasn't very good at all. So when we finished, we asked for the bill and a different waiter gave us a bill for 38 euros... meaning 19 euros for each paella. So we cleared up the so called... "misunderstanding" and in the end.. they showed us the menu and our paella actually costs 16 euros each. Haha... try harder if you really wanna cheat us idiots!

After a long day of sight seeing, we decided that it was time for some harmless shopping. We went to Zara boutique along Las Ramblas and ladies and gents.. it is true... Zara is truly cheaper in Spain! One pair of jeans costs only 36 Euros while everywhere else in Europe sold it for 49.90 Euros. Unfortunately since i spent too much on shopping already... i had to stop myself from buying anymore jeans. Oh well... Gotta know when to stop and now is definitely the time. :) We went back to Hau's place to cook up some dinner and of course... to watch the greatest game of the year so far! At first, Cowan and I wanted to watch it in a pub or a bar to soak up the Barca atmosphere. However, within 3 minutes into the first half, i decided to stay in Hau's place to watch the game because i couldn't contain my real emotions. I cheered whenever Arsenal had chances and jeered when Barca as attacking. Sooo... I would be putting Hau and Cowan's lives in danger if i do watch the game outside. So Arsenal scored first... looked like they were going to win.. and then suddenly Barcelona scored 2 goals to win the god damn game! I wanted to cry.. i swear.. but after much persuasion... we went down to the city to celebrate Barca's win. I didn't regret it because it was the best celebration i have seen in my life! Fireworks thrown on the streets, people climbing trees and street lamps, people peeing all over the place... people hugging us just cause we looked like we were singing along to Barca cheers... Great atmosphere i tell you... check out these pics!

I had to freaking pretend i was cheering for Barcelona... damn it!

Hau joined in the climbing!

Even the dogs celebrated...

So that was the end of the first night. Great sights, great atmosphere, great people.. only thing lacking was the great food!

The next day we woke up and took a nice long walk to the beach. We haven't seen a proper beach since we arrived in Europe so we were really happy to finally hit a proper one.

Sand... something my feet haven't felt in a looooong time.

Oh before i forget.. let me introduce this cat to all of you.. I sleep on the couch when i am at Khar Hau's and this adorable cat likes to join me on the couch at night... I miss having pets around me man. K Moving on...

Nice brother brother shot.

Today all the museums were free. At first we thought it was because Barcelona won the Champions League Finals but noooo... it was international Museum day and so entry to all museums . Loooove it!

Nice atmosphere for chilling... Soothing music with beautiful sights.

So we went to the Chocolate Museum in hope to get free chocolate since it was internatioanl Museum day. Did we get any? Nope! We did see some pretty interesting sights thought. The museum had a section where we could see through the glass how the "chefs" were making the chocolate and designing them into objects like this.

The white King Kong!

Damn Barca player.

Although we didn't get free chocolate... we had a 1 Euro cup of hot chocolate.. Literally hot chocolate ladies and gents.. it's like eating chocolate from the chocolate fondue... mmmmm

And this is me gleefully enjoying the warm chocolate. :)

K if you are wondering what the hell i am doing... i am actually fixing up Khar Hau's bathroom cause i broke the bath tub sheets. I won't say how cause it's too embarassing but i broke it and in the midst of fixing it up.. we decided to take so funny pictures. :)

The beginning of goood foooood. This is Churros with hot chocolate. You are supposed to dip the fritters into the hot chocolate... Niceeeee... the fritters taste something like Yew Char Kway in Singapore. I think something like this could do well in Singapore.

As you can see, i love Churros!

So Cowan and I walked to the most beautiful park i had ever seen in my life... Park Güell. Check this out... it looks like a scene from one of those fairy tale movies. Absolutely amazing!

We climbed to the top to find the Barca police taking a break off their jobs. Well, it does look like they are maintaining law and order but no ladies and gents, they were soaking in sun while admiring the pretty female tourists. :)

An aerial view from the top of Park Güell

Street buskers everywhere in the Las Ramblas... It adds a lot of flavour in the already existing culture-ful Barcelona and of course, it makes chilling along the streets much more enjoyable!

As usual Barcelona was done a while ago so i'll just post more interesting pictures!

Having fun amidst the pain of pressing the metal piece against the ceiling...

Ah Hau brought us to a restaurant near his place and this is when we finaly had REAL Paella... and it was soooooooooooooooooooooo goooooood!

This cat can sleep anywhere!

Alrighty then... that's pretty much Barcelona. I really wish i could write more but as i near the last 2 days of my Eurotrip... my laziness grows exponentially and thus, i think now is a good time to stop for this beautiful City!

London.. the land of the Gunners!

2006-06-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

And soooooooooo....

I am all alone in this god damn village and i have totally nothing to do. Guess it's time i updated my blog. I realized that my blog entries have been rather short on words recently. I will try... TRY to write more from now. Anyway i only have a few more updates before the Eurotrip ends so i will do my best to make my entries interesting!

London. You know: fish, chips, cup 'o tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary fucking Poppins... LONDON! Haha.. i took this line off the movie Snatch. So anyway, I arrived in London in the evening and met cowan to go to Gwen's place. Thankfully Cowan could find me accomodation in London and thus, I saved on a lot of money. So what did i do with the saved money? I went ahead and splurged it on Fish and Chips for our very first dinner! We met Roy and Jo who were also in London after thier short stint in Germany for the BSM course. Roy brought us to this restaurant called "Harry Ramsden's" where they served the best Fish and Chips. So in the menu there was this dish called "The Challenge" because it was supposed to be so huge that most people can't finish it. They would even reward the people who finished it with a certificate. Well to me, it was BULLSHIT! I finished it without a sweat and the worst thing was that they told me they ran out of certificates. Well of course they ran out of certificates! Anyone who ordered that dish could finish it! So anyway we had Fish n Chips, beer and a nice toffee cake and the whole meal totalled up to 15 Pounds. Well, only consolation was that the fish was pretty good and I haven't had good fish in ages.

Us outside the restaurant.

So after dinner we took a long walk back to Gwen's place and saw many nice sights along the way. Here is the London Eye at night!

This is non other than Big Ben :)

Oh yes, before i arrived in London, Cowan got us tickets for the Phantom of the Opera musical. It cost us 35 Pounds each and it was held in Her Majesty's theatre where the musical first started showing in. So i thought i would do a little impersonation... not bad considering that i haven't played the part of the Phantom since my college days. My close friends would understand this... :)

The next day, Cowan and I made our way to the Buckingham Palace to watch the change parade for the guards. Coincidentally we met Roy and Jo as we walking there and of course.. as Asians we had to take photos, photos and more photos. The change parade is unlike the change parade in our army. It is very grand and there are many components to it. Damn they even have a military band which played songs from the Beatles! Unfortunately we didn't see the Queen but it was good anyway. So we were playing a fool and took some funny shots right outside the gates of the Buckingham Palace.

This is the normal picture...

And this is the abnormal one! Check out this pic la.. Cowan is trying to be Buzz Light Year i think.

We look like sailors!

The British guard in close up...

The guards marching along the streets.

Ahhhh the sights of summer... beautiful blooming flowers

Broadway is dark tonight A little bit weaker than you used to be ...

Ahhh yes... SMU.. we are different.. Remember this pose from our poster boy? :)

The friendly guide who did an incredible job in explaining the history of the tower without failing to add drops of humour! These guides actually stay in the towers with their families and they are carefully selected from a group of men who have served as a British guard for at least 30 years. They must have excellent track records before they can even be considered for the Tower guide selection.

The London Bridge (it's just a normal bridge!)

This was the theatre where we watched the Phantom.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the play but we tried anyway!

The famous Harrods of England.

I had to take this pic man... man do i miss mahjong!

We went to the Portobello market the next day and trust me... it was amongst the best markets we have been to. Leon, you will love this place man. The market had a large variety of antiques items, second hand clothes, t-shirts, telescopes, food, shoes, hats, etc. A great place to spend the lazy Sunday afternoon!

I can't remember what this lady was doing but if i am not wrong, she was asking for little donations for her to take care of these stray dogs or something...

Don't laugh when i say this... but after going to the market, we spent the whole afternoon watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. in Gwen's apartment. It was raining badly and so we couldn't go ahead with our sight-seeing plans. I think we watched at least 8 or 9 episodes in that afternoon itself. Hahah.. what a way to spend the afternoon in London yea? After that, we headed to Marks and Spencer to buy ourselves some cookies and snacks for our little roadtrip to Stonehenge. Gwen lent Cowan her car and so we planned to go for a long drive up to Stonehenge to see the famously mysterious stones. We bought 10 pounds worth of M & S cookies and we had NO trouble finishing them at all. M & S cookies are truly... the shit.

Cowan looking cool in the Beemer

This bakery, called Sally Lunns' is supposed to be a very famous bakery. Before we left for our road trip, Gwen told us that we MUST try the bread here. So we went to the little museum store did exactly what we thought Gwen told us to do. We bought a bun from the shop and unfortunately, it was just a plain bun which we could have easily found in a bakery shop in Singapore. So when we got back, we asked Gwen what the Bun fuss was all about. What Gwen actually meant was that we had to go to the pastry store and order something from the store itself. Haha.. so we stupidly spent 2 pounds on a piece of bread cause of our stupidy!

I was doing this because the sign said "No Alcohol". :)

This guy was making chocolate fudge. As he was doing it, he was explaining to everyone in the queue what he was doing in detail and how every step would affect the taste of the fudge. The fudge was expensive but they allowed free sampling so me and Cowan took a little piece. It was... DAMN GOOD!

A variety of flavors to choose from...

Stonehenge from afar

SMU jumping shots... getting a bit to cliche i think...

Why were these stones placed this way? The audio guide gave us many versions of the little myths that were created to explain how such massive stones could be laid down in such perfection especially when they were laid down so many years ago where men could only use primitive methods to lift the stones...

Cowan looks gay in this picture. The car is pretty apt for the picture too!

I look like i am gonna break into this M3. What to do... can't afford it for now so i have to steal it!

This is interesting... Anti-Climb paint. This house had it written outside the wall so that burgulars would know better than to try to climb the walls of this house... Didn't stop me though...

Welcome to my humble shop where i provide the best cookies in London! Haha.. we found this cookie store as we were heading to the London Stansted airport and man, those cookies were incredibly good. I had the Peanut butter cookie and the peanut butter was still hot as i took my first bite into the delicious cookie! Mmmmm

So that's basically it for London. We had a great time here and though everything was freaking expensive, we managed to get ourselves great buys! You will never guess it but we bought Loreal Remix Hair Stlying gel for only 2 pounds each. That's 6 SG dollars! It costs 12 Sg back at home so i bought 2 to stock up. We also tried good Chinese food which was ridiculously expensive as compared to Singapore prices. Cowan and I paid 5 pounds each for Char Siew with Roast Duck noodles. With that money we can order 5 plates in Singapore but the consolation was that.. it was very very good char siew!

So i would say... go to London! but forget about converting pounds to SG dollars because it will just dampen the travelling spirits. Next entry... SPAIN!

Chicken soup with Swedish Meatballs

2006-05-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

This was where our hostel in Sweden was situated in.... Ulu Land! Alright i won't be writing much on my blogs because i seriously cannot recall all the details of my travels... Sweden was done pretty long ago so i will just post some pictures...

Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

This is me trying to copy the J-Bahn Poster Ad in Stockholm

Cowan is trying to mess around with the guard...

Once again... we had to do it.. a Asian meal in Europe.. this time it was a Thai Buffet and man... it was SO DAMN GOOOOOOD!

I love these street stickers and posters...

This was how the Museum looked like... Pretty cool eh! The theme was so unconventional and yet, it managed to capture the history well...

Oh yes... we are always playing a fool... trying our very best to mock history and art!

Finally some nice water sights...

So this was pretty much Stockholm... i loved it sooo much... but we had bigger fish to fry... we had to head out to Uppsala for the Champagne Gallop... it was a yearly event where students in Uppsala party by popping champagne and spraying it all over the place.... pretty cool eh... the day before we headed out.. we were in H&M and then we saw some Asians... i kinda felt they looked like Singaporeans so i tried to listen for the Singaporean accent when they spoke and indeed they were Singaporean! So i told Cowan... "Eh bro... they are Singaporean.." Then Cowan turned around and shouted... "EH MAT!!!"

Coincidentally one person in the group of Asians was his old friend from RJ... haha... it's a small world after all ..

This was Mat and Cowan in Uppsala...

The start of the Champagne Gallop!

And then the partying began... you can't see the Champagne flying all over the place but trust me.. the party was wild... pity we couldn't get in though cause only students with special invites were allowed to enter the parties

So we met MORE Singaporeans and we had a BBQ with them!

These were the Singaporeans on exchange in Uppsala...

I have to say this again... It's a small world man... I was climbing up the gates to watch the Champagne Gallop celebrations and then i saw this girl (the girl in the middle) as i climbed up... we both looked at each other and said.. "Hey i know you!" .. hahaha.. She was my Secondary School mate and she was also in the Girl Guides... this might shock you fellas... but i was a Scout in my secondary school days... yes.. laugh it off you asses... so we hung around with Serene and friends and we had a great time BBQing and playing drinking games and all... It was great fun.. a little surreal to be frank.. but definitely fun.. The Uppsala Exchange gang took very good care of Cowan and I as they really tried to make us feel at home.. great company!

Now i can finally say i have met other Singaporeans who weren't from SMU in Europe...Okay folks... I will try to put in more details on my Sweden trip in time to come... it's just that i am kinda tired of blogging all my travels.. hopefully my writing mood comes back! So next entry... LONDON!

More Germs

2006-05-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

Alrighty fellas... long over due entry... this entry will be about.... MUNICH!

So after Heidelberg, Cowan and I headed down to beaaaautiful Munich! We left Alvin's aunt's place at 11.30pm to take the night train to Munich. It was a great plan cause in the end, we got to sleep pretty well in the train and when we reached Munich, it was 5am so we just had to hang around for a few hours before we started our Munich touring. It was still early so i kept myself awake by reading Angels and Demons. Cowan fell asleep in Burger King and he got awakened by the security at the Train station because no one was allowed to sleep over there. So time passed and finally, it was time to set off! We met Sabrina shortly after we checked into our hostels. Sab was already in Munich for one day because she was touring it with other SMU people and it was great cause she could tell us what was worth seeing and what wasn't. Man i have to tell you guys... this entry is so back-dated that i can't remember the details of the trip so i can only post pictures... all i remember was that we visited the Olympic Stadium first. As the name suggests...it was the Munich stadium where the Olympics was held in 1972.

We took these pictures on top of a hill... the view there was breathtaking i must say...

I know i know... a little too much posing but i had to do it!

Just the three of us...

So after seeing the sights around the museums, we headed down to one of my favourites for the trip... the BMW Museum! I wanted to get an M3 Keychain but i told myself.. no point getting the key chain until i actually own that car... which will be in about... 5... maybe 6 years? (Dreaming is free)

I love BMWs... but this is the ugliest BMW i have seen in my life.

I realized that... i am posing as if i am some Race queen model... ANYWAY... i love these vintage models...

Once again... Race Queen pose.. :)

My favourite logo of all time...

Soooo... that's basically it for the BMW Museum. We headed to the city and checked out the churches and museums there... It was a beautiful day and of course, since it was Easter, every shop was closed. We joined in for the Easter Mass but after a while, we got out because they all sang in German.

One of the important icons in Munich

Cow and i intended to go for a dip in this beautiful fountain...

K more tomorrow!

Last day in Vienna

2006-05-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

Sooooo.... i forgot to write about our last day in Vienna and since i cleared my course today... i think i will take a break and update my blog a little.

So we woke up to a nice morning and we decided to bring JZ around Vienna for a bit cause he hasn't really seen much of it yet. We went around the shopping streets and went to the Market as well. Well, the market was the kind which sold clothes, food and most importantly... Kebabs. Haha... well having Kebabs for meals was how we kept to our spending budgets before we blew it all away during the Snowboarding trip... well like i said.. it was worth it!

We stumbled upon a Sushi Buffet shop before we headed out for our snowboarding trip so we told ourselves that before we left, we had to treat ourselves to a nice sushi buffet. So we walked around and got lost along the way and walked somemore... it felt like we walked around just to make sure we would be so hungry and make our money's worth in the sushi buffet place... I am going to post some pictures of that and maybe a video in time. We made a little commentary on how we wiped out the sushi in the restaurant. Trust me.. we really did.. we know it because the shop owners were kinda pissed off when they collected our money... i don't know understand these Asians working in Europe... somehow.. they are very unfriendly to fellow Asians... Asswipes... anyway... pictures! (i will post some which i promised i would post in the previous entries)

Sushi gooooooooooooooood....

A good beer in Brastislava Airport... no we didn't use a nickel to pay for it.

This girl we met in the airport. She was taking a plane back to Frankfurt Hahn as well and since she was alone, we just chit chatted on the way back... so like typical Japanese looking Asians.. we absolutely had to take pictures (apparently the Japanese are always taking pictures)

K i have to go up to sleep a little because London awaits tomorrow. I'm going to meet Cowan, Royston and Joanne there tomorrow so it'll be great fun! Take care readers... more to come in the next week!

SMU culture really has its influences yeah?

Me and Cow running downslope

This was us at Balam's place. We watched the video showcasing his snowboarding trip as well the one about his exchange experiences in Singapore... The videos he made were extremely good! They kinda inspired me to make my own video when I finally have to leave Europe.. sigh...

K that's basically it for Vienna! Sorry for the late entry for this trip fellas...

Chicken soup in Germany

2006-04-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

I am so lazy to update my blogs that i have so much backlog now... Heidelberg, Munich, Hamburg... and in 1 day i will be in Stockholm and London.... so much to write so little time.. k let me try to update my blog before i fly off again.

Ah sooo... Cowan and I were supposed to head down to Spain but Cowan suffered from a bad eye infection. It was kinda serious and thus, the doctor advised him to stay in Oestrich Winkel so that he could observe his condition on a daily basis. Poor dude had to go to some clinic in Wiesbaden almost everyday. So we skipped the Spain trip and instead, we planned a little getaway within Germany. So we started out with Heidelberg because Alvin's aunty stayed there and we thought we would visit Alvin who was already there. We had no regrets on that trip because the sights were good and the shopping was the shit. However, since shopping was the shit, i pretty much blew my budget for the trip itself in Heidelberg when i had Munich and Hamburg left in the travel itinerary.. what did i buy? mmmm i'd rather not talk about it. :)

Okay photos photos... here are some of the photos we took.

A view from the ridge lines... The brown patch is a castle called Schloss Heidelberg. It is the most beautiful Schloss i have seen so far in my opinion.

Drinking and reading early in the morning (9am to be exact)... nice...

Apfelstrudel Mit Vanilla Eis... damn nice right. We had this in some arty farty cafe and so the food decor was quite elaborate.

Action-pack picture... :)

Cowan was doing a damn Vogue shot... cool la he.. moooooooooooooo

Part of the ruins of Schloss Heidelberg

Drinking with the naked man... I love Germany... drinking in the morning is such a luxury!

Cowan is destroyed... lost too much money in stocks and now he is taking the easy way out... poor guy... Alcohol is truly bad for you

Damn it man... this is a very "couple" like shot.. and i am taking it with Cowan... Time to straighten things up... literally!

Cowan has learnt the art of elevation. Suck it David Blaine

Okay as you can see, we're taking crazy shots. I was making use of the "Shoot and Select" function on my camera and it turned out to be one of my favourite functions.

This wine barrel is located inside the Schloss Heidelberg. It's so huge that i couldn't take a full picture of it. As you can see, we're truly drunkards... in our neverending conquest to consume liquor :)

After Schloss Heidelberg, we decided to walk down the shopping streets. That was where i went mad... but of course, i didn't forget to take some beautiful pictures of a very unique shop amidst my shopping madness. The sights in the shop itself were absolutely breathtaking... They had a Christmas section and although the items were expensive, there were definitely worth the price. We were not allowed to take photos but.. that didn't stop us as you can see from the below pictures :)

Okay fellas.. once again... i need to scoot off for a bit. I have to do some work so i'll update my blog tomorrow or something... Ciao

Snowboarding Trip!

2006-04-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Alrighty readers, I have to apologize for late updates on my blog... Haven't really gotten into the writing groove... But I think I will try my best to start writing again. I had better start now because I have to write about our trips to Heidelberg, Munich and Hamburg.

Ah So! Snowboarding trip... hmmm have you all watched the video? Haha.. I think it's pretty much that... But maybe I will just talk about it a little.

So we woke up early in the morning and I made a little sandwich with some ham, salami and pasta sauce in the kitchen hostel which Serene stayed in. We were a little groggy at first because we barely slept much but we knew the adrenaline and excitement would set in once we were on the way to the Ski Resort. We took the bus and train and finally we reached ... Semmering! (The name of the Ski-Resort)

I told Cowan, we might not know how to snowboard yet. But it's all about the impressions we give so we must look like we are pros... But of course.. My video proves otherwise. :)

So we got to our hotel and it was awesome. It was quite posh... Well as compared to the shithole which apparently was called a hostel, it was a palace. These were some pictures we took at night.

Cowan sleeping after the tiring day of snowboarding

JZ had to sleep on the Sofa-bed. But it was comfy so we didn't feel that bad.. hahaha and he got the TV!

Alright more details on the snowboarding... I borrowed snowboarding gear from Ballam and Beni... Once again... Thanks heaps Ballam and Beni! So I put my gear on and walked down the slope. JZ and Cowan rented their gear and when we were ready... Cowan and I thought that we should do the beginner's slope first before we even try to move on to the Blue slope. The Blue slope was somewhat for people in between the beginner and intermediate level. The slope looked really gentle... And we thought.. We can do this... No problem at all! Well, we had no idea. The moment we put on our boards, we went down and 5 seconds later we were on our butts. This went on for about 2 to 3 tries and gradually we found ourselves falling less. After each try our legs got increasingly tired because the slope we have to climb from the bottom of the slope was a pain in the ass... Literally. It was made worse by the fact that we were wearing snowboarding shoes and so our legs were sorta locked in a certain position. After busting our asses for another 6 tries... We decided that we should hit the Blue slope. Man.. We didn't regret at all. But of course, we took some glamour shots before we hit the slopes cause we wanted to make sure we looked good cause we figured that the falls we were gonna take would cramp up our style. :)

So we hit the blue slope and initially it was really really tough. We were trying to grasp the technique of turning while moving fast and every time we cut the ice we fell. This was until we met this guy who looked quite pro. Cowan asked him for advice and so he gave us a little 5 minute crash course on the basics of snowboarding. The 5 minutes did wonders cause we were finally doing things right and we were finally having fun!

Our savior... hahaha

Actually i can't fine many words to describe my snowboarding experience but i have many beautiful pictures and videos so i'll let them do the talking yea?

Cowan and I inside the cable car as we escalate to the top of the slopes

We were kind beat on the second day... well from here it's kind obvious.. hahaha

Cowan looking cool as he gets ready to hit the slope

Snapshot of me hitting the slope as well....... Hawaii... Actually me and Cowan were just posing to look like we're damn pro... As i said... It's okay that we're not good.. Just have to look good doing while we're doing it.. :)

Mr JZ with his cool alien workshop shades... hahaha

One of those crazy pictures we took..

A view of the slopes from below

I was damn tired after the second day man...

What's a tiring day without a nice pint of ice cold beer?

So our snowboarding trip ended on a high. I have to say that our trip back to Vienna was a sad one because we really wanted to stay longer in the ski resort for more snowboarding action. When we returned i had the Cheese hot dogs once again and so that made it a little better. Welp that's all for snowboarding fellas! There is one more part to this Vienna trip so stay tuned for that one!

The Euro Trip : Vienna, Austria (Day 2)

2006-04-06T03:48:00.000-07:00

So day 2... we woke up once again, made waffles for breakfast once again and we went on our way to see other sights in Vienna. After looking at the map and planning our sight-seeing route, we decided to visit the Schonbrun Palace first. The interior of Schonbrun Palace is really nothing much... to me and JZ... it was just someone's house! The interior is beautiful but what we loved about this historic site was not the palace... but everything that surrounded it instead. The park at the back of the palace was stunningly huge. We took some SMU pictures but they are all with JZ so i can't post them out now. I will post them once JZ sends it to me yeap? We climbed up the park and this is how it looks like from the top...

I always believed that somethings cannot be captured with a camera... cause from up there.. the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.... OR i could be a very lousy photographer.

From the bottom.

After this, we brought JZ to the Nachsmarkt for lunch. What did we have? Doner Kebabs! K we are quite boring people but the Kebabs are really superb. We walked around the market and found a few shops which actually sold Chinese food and Chinese ingredients. Soya Sauce, Sesame Oil, Kung Pao paste, Curry sauce.. you name it.. they've got it. In fact, they have more pastes than we have in Singapore. However, all the items in that place was kinda overpriced so we didn't bother to buy anything from them. A tin of Wasabe Green Peas costs 3.30 Euros, but we could get that for 4 Sg dollars. So... after that we walked around and found the next Schloss to visit. I can't remember the name of the Schloss but Cowan does so i'll update you guys on the name when he gets back from Wiesbaden. Anyway... this Schloss cannot compare to thee Schonbrun Palace but it was worth taking some pictures nevertheless.

Cowan forever molesting things la...

After this, we went to meet the rest for Dinner and this time, we met another Asian who stays in Europe. Toto was born in Hong Kong and he stayed there till he was 6. He moved to Austria after that and he has been there ever since. Toto is a funny guy and we cracked up a couple of laughs about many things. The restaurant we went to was supposed to be a typical Austrian restaurant but the funny thing was that all the wait staff were Asian. Quite amusing! After dinner we did the Japanese thing again...

So after that, we went to Balam's place cause Balam wanted to pass me his Snowboard for my snowboarding trip the next day. During the trip to his place, JZ was fooling around with his camera and so we decided to take some funny shots... check out this one by Bryan!

Great pose by Bryan!

JZ acting cute...

This cool dude is Balam.

okay more to come.. for now.. soccer training

The Euro Trip - Vienna, Austria (Day 1)

2006-04-04T03:08:00.000-07:00

Ah So... The next place I have conquered in the Euro Trip conquest is Vienna, Austria! Once again, Cowan and I packed our stuff pretty quickly and gotten ready for our sight-seeing cum Snowboarding trip.

This is the first time we went out of Germany by flying... and what better way than to fly with the friendliest airlines, Ryan Air. When I say friendly, I mean friendly to our wallets of course. Ryan Air offers one of the cheapest air prices in Europe so instead of using our Eurail Pass and boarding the train to Vienna (which will take us 9 hours), we flew up to Bratislava from Frankfurt Hahn Flughafen in 1 and a half hours. We had to take a shuttle bus to Vienna after that. The Frankfurt Hahn airport used to be an army airbase and it was obvious that they maintained the army feel and "decor" very well..so much so that it felt like I was going for my airborne jump rather than going for a short holiday. We collected our tickets at the counter, checked in, and boarded the plane eventually. However, unlike our normal Changi Airport practice where we walk through the tunnel straight to the entrance of the aircraft, we had to get out of the airport and walk along the airfield towards the aircraft... Check this out!

Getting ready to parachute my way down to Bratislava!

So the ride was very simple. No food unless requested for... of course one has to pay a ridiculous amount for the kind of food they were serving. Cowan and I were hungry but thank god for the 8 Muesli Bars we bought at our supermarket for 1.50 Euros, we got by pretty easily.

We reached Bratislava at 9.30pm and we were so excited to see what it was like? Of course we knew it was nothing like how the movie Eurotrip portrayed it to be... But we were curious nonetheless. I really don't know where the hell the script-writer for the movie got the idea that a nickel could buy over an entire hotel. I was telling Cowan, if we had offered a nickel as tips to the people there, we would probably get slapped around big time. We weren't ready to get killed in Bratislava so we tried to keep as low profile as we could. This is how the shuttle bus in Bratislava looks like.

We were actually thinking of sleeping over at the Bratislava Airport.. which was kind of a dangerous idea. Thankfully, the bus which was supposed to leave at 11 left at 10 instead so we could reach Vienna at 11pm. We called up our fellow exchange mate Serene and she told us we could bunk in at her place. We have to thank Serene because sleeping over at airports was painfully cold and miserable! So I got directions from her and walked to her place by 12.00am. As we strolled up to Serene's place, we looked around us and somehow, Vienna seemed like the most beautiful place in Europe. I will show more pictures of that in a bit. At this point in time, Cowan and I were extremely beat and hungry. This is when we saw... the Wiener Wurstlestand. We were supposed to call Serene once we reached her place so that she could open the main hostel door for us... but the sausages were calling out to us and we had no choice but to give in!

As we were ordering the KaseKringer, which is a sausage filled with piping hot cheese, two Caucasians saw us and told us... "These sausages are very good! It is as good as Ramen!" Once again, Cowan and I are taken for Koreans/Japanese. Oh well, we didn't bother explaining that we were Singaporean because the sausages were ready and we were just too hungry to talk. Our first bite into the KaseKringer was just orgasmic as the cheese spurt out in front of us... mmmmmm... Thinking about it makes me very hungry. Ich Habe Hunger! So we met Serene shortly after and shared our exchange experiences so far. In the next morning, all 3 of us had a waffle breakfast with honey. Here's another picture!

Cowan with his million dollar smile :)

The cow and I looked through the Vienna guide and decided where we should cover in our first day in Vienna. We decided to go to the Kuntshistorische museum because it was the most famous museum in Vienna. The museum was really amazing because they showcased historic monuments from Egypt. They had mummies, tombs, urns, old jewelry, etc. Check them out!

Does this look familiar? They used this on the set of The Mummy.

Cow has the habit of digging on noses... on others' noses to be precise.. hahahaa

I love these Egyptian Statues... but that doesn't mean I can't fool around in the museum!

Who is the odd one out?

This artist was making an exact copy of the painting in front of him. Watching him in action was kind of therapeutic.

Medusa...

An interesting depiction of the 4 seasons...

After walking through the whole museum, we got hungry and so we thought... let's look for some Schnitzels! Schnitzels are supposed to be the most famous dish in Austria so we wheaten around scouting for nice restaurants. We ended up at a outdoor restaurant right smack in the middle of the shopping area, Stephansplatz. It was a great experience because in Singapore, sitting outside in the sun would just involve pespiration and unsatisfactory. For once, we felt damn Atas...

This is us acting "Crass"

After the refreshing beer and delicious Schnitzel (k it wasn't that good but because of the ambiance, we were happy), we made our way to Hofburg to see the buildings around that area.

The numerous horse carriages... I told Cowan it would be cool to sit on one of these carriages but it would be kind of gay if only 2 of us guys went together... haha.. The horses were beautiful BUT the horse dump all over the floor left a painful stench.

Cowan took a shot of me while I was reading the Vienna guide and it turned out really nice...

The owner of this dog was playing fetch with it... dogs in Europe are just so well trained.. I miss my dog la..

Any resemblance? :)

So after a short day of sightseeing, we decided to go for some Vienna Shopping! We went to Stephansplatz so check out the shopping scene there and once again, we saw the same names and brands. H & M, New Yorker, Hugo Boss, Zara, Diesel, etc. We found a shop called Gill which sold products from most brands. These included Diesel, Hugo Boss, D&G, FCUK, etc. However, there was a brand which really caught our eye because it was called "AMK". Man this brand can never be brought into Singapore because it would sound too damn cheenese. Since Cowan and I stayed in the North area, Ang Mo Kio specifically, Cowan decided to take one for the northies.

The Brand might sound shitty but one pair of jeans costs at least 150 Euros! I think Singaporeans won't even pay 15 dollars if they did price their jeans at that price. So we walked around and we saw this H & M Boutique that was like no other H & M boutique we have seen so far. This one seemed like the higher class H & M of all the chains but the clothes inside were of the same price though. I must say H & M in Vienna has a much wider selection than the ones we have in Germany. I looked around and saw this pink shirt for 12.50 Euros. I would like to state now that... i own NO pink shirts but somehow this one seemed nice and since it was so cheap... i got it. My very first pink shirt. Haha... Well, I don't know if I will wear it in Singapore but I will make sure I wear it enough here in Europe to make my money's worth. So after shopping around, we met Serene and Bryan for dinner. This other dude, Balam also came and he actually did an exchange in SMU last term. Balam is a great guy and he comes from an interesting background. Asian looking, born in Germany but studying full time in Austria. We occupant them for dinner because we have already had Doner Kebabs at the Nachsmarkt. After that, they brought us to this place called "Zanoni Eis". Serene insisted that they served the best ice cream and so we had to try it... so we ordered 5 different dishes so when all came, the table looked like colors from a whole Crayon pack! The ice cream looked so good so I had to take a picture. Check this out!

We met an Austrian who said we Asians are always taking pictures... Well.. She was very right!

After our superb ice cream, we were daaaaaamn full. JZ arrive in Vienna then so we all went to meet him and in the end, he stayed with us in Serene's place as well. We went for drinks at a little pub near to Serene's hostel. It was the typical students lounge kinda pub with pool tables, fussball tables and a large screen which played some MTV videos. We sat there and chit chatted till we got a little tired and finally we went up to rest. It was damn funny because we were thinking... if either Cowan or I woke up and accidentally stepped on JZ... I think we would seriously crush him... poor dude. Thankfully he is quite skinny so 3 of us could squeeze into the room and still sleep comfortably. That was the end of day 1 ladies and gents. By day 1, I have already fallen in love with Vienna because everything about the place is just beautiful. BUT... there is more to come in the next entry so.... continue reading!

Continuing...

2006-03-25T03:37:00.000-08:00

Well here i am to continue on the "Singing in Germany" entry... actually i don't have much to update you guys on... There's the biggest EBS party going on tonight so maybe i'll have more to write on tomorrow... guess i'll just post my photos yea? Sorry if i don't sound as happy as before readers... Undergoing Project "Cold Turkey" now so it's making me very grouchy... so as i said... here are the pics!

The guys...

Can you all see what and where i am pointing? :)

This is Benito. He is a really nice chap from Spain. He is a huge Madrid fan and we watched the game between Madrid and Arsenal. Then, Arsenal won and at the end of the game he asked me dejectedly... who do you support... i said under my breath... "Arsenal".. i swear his whole body just sunk right before my eyes.. haha .. i felt damn bad la..

The Godfathers of the different families in Wiesbaden are having a meeting.

As you can see... Cowan is gleefully parading his new pairs of jeans. And they cost.... 10 Euros each.. and i couldn't find any cause they were all at least W33. WHAT THE HELL! I haven't found any particular good buys yet... and i really hope i can find my dream pair of Diesels soon.

Well that's it for today... got to do some work now so.. you readers take care!

Singing in Germany

2006-03-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

It was time for us to go for a acoustic concert held by a German EBS student and a former exchange student from the USA who is currently doing his internship in Germany in a little pub called Batalome. So before that, Cowan told Jan (the german performer) that we would like to borrow his guitar to practice cause we love to jam. So... knowing that he knows we perform as well... i told Cowan... we had better prepare some songs just in case we get called up to play a song or two. We were listening to some songs and i chose the songs i could definitely play and sing. Collide, You're Beautiful and Best I've ever Had. Yes Yes.. yaaaaawn... I have sung these songs a million times with my band but since I am familiar with those... we thought it would be the safest bet.

We arrived in Batalome around 10 and we looked around the place. It had a very typical cosy pub feel to it.. nothing like Wala Wala though... no drum sets.. just a space made for 2 guitarists and a singer maybe? Yea... so we ordered our beers.. chatted a little with the other international students... and that was when Mr. Cow told one of them that I sang in SMU. Shit... that was where it started... the lead Singer Sean was called up... was told that i perform.. and then ... before we knew it.. we were pulled up to perform. I felt a little rusty cause i haven't sang in ages but we had fun playing for the EBS students nevertheless. Here are some pictures!

K i won't be able to finish the blog... but i will... gotta go back up for dinner.. :)

That's Jan on the left and Sean on the right.

That's Cowan and I making a fool out of ourselves

It was a fun night with lotsa beer and great bonding!

Thats Ben looking like a Vampire. He's a cool dude.. but of course.. he is Ben... Heheheh

Okay more on this blog tomorrow :)

The Eurotrip - Amsterdam

2006-03-16T03:30:00.000-08:00

So once again, we woke up... washed up... and made our away down to the train station. I was really tired and i am always quiet in the morning. I am the kinda guy who doesn't really like to talk much in the morning so Cowan is always wondering if i am pissed or grouchy. Nah.. i am just a quiet morning person. We took a pic on the train while i was in the midst of sleep so you can see the forced smile on my face here.

The train ride took 3 and a half hours and within 20 minutes in Amsterdam, we spent 28 Euros. Haha... no we didn't shop, instead we paid for entries into 3 musuems. By then, it was time for lunch and we were very hungry. Unfortunately, we had some accomodation problems as we booked our accomodation really late. We could only secure bookings for Sunday but not for Saturday and so we scouted around the area for hostels. Thankfully, the hostel which we already had a booking for told us to ask Kabul's Hostels for vacancies. We dumped our stuff and headed out to grab some chow. We walked around our district and i have to warn anyone who intends to travel to Amsterdam... bring more money. Everything is just damn expensive there. Every meal is at least 7 Euros and cheapers meals wouldn't be enough for 3 hungry men as well. So we went to this shop to order fallafels and fries. The asshole shopkeeper was a fucking grouchy idiot and he served us like he was giving the fallafels for free. So anyway we got our stomachs filled and we headed out to the musuems.

First museum we went to was the Van Gogh Museum. We had to take a tram there cause it was a long walk from our place and it was really cold out there. The tram ride costs 1.60 Euros! I miss Singapore's public transport badly already. I am not that much of a sucker for Art but i went anyway... just to make sure that i had visited the damn museum while i was in Amsterdam! The museum was huge and there were some pretty paintings. Unfortunately, i cannot show you any pictures of that because no cameras were allowed into the museum. After 1 and a half hours of looking around... we headed back to the hostel. HOWEVER, on the way back... we saw the Holland Casino... and then... we gave in to the temptation... hahah.. we were hoping for the "win lotsa money with just 10 dollars" scenario so we tried our luck. Unfortunately... our hopes didn't materialise and we lost a few Euros instead. But oh well... my first time in a Casino so... it was a fun experience!

Lose money still must smile for the camera... neh neh

So after that, we went to look for places to eat... and then... the funniest thing happened... we found a chinese restaurant which served chinese food and dim sum. The best thing was that it was "All you can eat for 1 hour" for 7.50 Euros! K... this part ain't funny... the funny part is coming... :) So the lady who served us was a Singaporean! What are the chances man... she was the first Singaporean we have met since we arrived in Europe (minus away the other students here on exchange). So we started talking and she told us that the owner/cook was a Singaporean as well. She introduced us and we said hello. Then we dug into the food. I tell you... Chinese food never tasted so goooooood. There was kali cai, gu lu yok, fried drumsticks, onion chilli, fried eggs, 2 versions of fried rice, ee fu noodles, etc. It was daaaaamn shiok. However, we got so carried away with eating that we forgot how much our stomach could actually take. One by one we went up to the washroom to clear the system.. if you know what i mean... then here comes the funny part... the Singaporean lady asked us... "Do you all have girlfriends".. so Cowan told her i was the only unattached one... So she said... "I have a beautiful cousin! She is 18 and she is studying here (as in she lives in Amsterdam)... give me your email and i will introduce you to her la.. then you all can go out" I was thinking... does it work that way here! So straightforward?! Hahaha... i hope not... so we laughed the topic away and told her that we would be back... We knew that we won't be back cause 7.50 Euros is a little too steep for us. So we walked all the way back to the Hostel in the damn cold to aid the digestion of our filling dinner...

After dumping some of our stuff, we headed out for drinks. We stayed 2 minutes away from the red light district so we decided to check it out! Actually... Amsterdam is really a little overhyped because what you can see there is probably the same as what you can see in our motherland. So we walked around... went drinking a little and decided to call it a night because we had a long day of museum-seeing the next day. The place we stayed in was sorta shabby and we shared the room with a few other guys who were here on their little holiday trip as well. So we were in the room with a couple of guys who were really... reaaaaally stoned. It was an amusing sight but anyway.. so we slept the night away and then we hit Day 2 of Amsterdam. We had 2 more museums to see.. one being the Rijks Museum and the other being Anne Frank's house. I wasn't particularly excited about visiting the Rijks Museum but i was very very excited about seeing Anne Frank's house. We could take pictures in the Rijks Museum so here are some of the shots i took.

I think this is called "The Night Watch"

You all watched the The Chronicles of Narnia? Looks like the closet yea?

After Rijks, we made our way down to Anne Frank's by foot because we figured that the trams were too pricey for us. So after walking for quite a bit, we reached Anne Frank's house. It has been re-done so we couldn't differentiate her house from any other house out there. However, some of the rooms inside the house were preserved and it was overwhelming to be there. There were presentations made about Anne Frank and how her father decided to publish her diary. Anne Frank was probably one of the many Jews who had gone into hiding and yet, her story is known by all. I would say that Anne Frank's diary served as a reminder to all of us that, regardless of race or religion, we are equals. Once again, we couldn't take photos in there so i can't show you all the sights i saw inside. I think... Anne Frank didn't just tell her story... she told the story of every Jew who suffered because of the Holocaust... Well these are pictures of how her house looks like from the outside.

Anne Frank's house from the outside...

So after Anne's... we were VERY VERY hungry... so we walked back to our hostel and on the way back.. we said...hey... let's go back to the Chinese restaurant. Everybody had the same consensus cause we were starving... but this time.. we would eat slowly and enjoy the food.. unlike the day before where we gobbled up like barbarians.. hahaha..

So when we finally reached the place... the same lady saw us and this time she said... "Eh my cousin is here.. come i introduce!" I was like... WTF! And then she said something which really really shocked me.. "When you marry her, you can come to Holland and stay here"...

Marry!?! Is that how is works in Amsterdam? Wah... it was freaky i tell you... so I was just being nice and said hello but went on to grab our food hurriedly... So after we finished our meals.. we were making small talk with the Singaporean lady and after i changed the topic of marrying her cousin whom i didn't even know... she said that Cowan looked Malaysian, Fangkai looked Korean and i looked Japanese... and then the second bomb... "Hey i know a Japanese girl also... very pretty! She can speak Japanese, English and Dutch... very very pretty... come la you give her your email address la..." Hahaa... good stuff right... After a while we felt a little uneasy and so we thanked them for the wonderful food and got the hell out of there. We walked around for a bit, had some drinks and crashed out in the hostel as we were just shacked out from all the walking...

A little picture of the Chinese restaurant...

Okay ladies and gents... enough of words... here are some pictures taken in Amsterdam!

They call this the "Big white dick"... i wonder why...

Crazy... there is already a countdown to Christmas in Amsterdam... 290 days... still a long way to go man!

Who is not supposed to be in the picture?

In the hostel bar...

This is really nice. People were actually playing this life-sized chess game on the streets.. Reminded me of the scene from Harry Potter.

That's it for Amsterdam fellas... i'm getting kinda tired from writing so i'll just sign off here... take care!

The Euro Trip - Belgium

2006-03-15T01:23:00.000-08:00

Readers... this is going to be an interesting blog for all of you. So let's begin our Eurotrip experience.

Cowan and I were sitting on the sofa, lazing the Thursday morning away. We were supposed to go to Wiesbaden in the afternoon with Sabrina because our Eurail Passes were detained by the Frankfurt customs for god knows what reason! I think they thought we were terrorists and that there was poison in the envelope... the envelope which contains two tickets... hmmm.. it must have looked so suspicious that it scared the shit out of the custom officers.

So i was snoozing and lazing and suddenly, the bell rang and Sabrina went down to check it out. Suddenly, she shouted for Cowan because the mail was for Cowan. And than i just shouted... WOO HOO!!!!! Haha... that's because the only mail Cowan was expecting was the mail containing our Eurail Passes... so... he went down to school and checked for the train timings... and he came back and said... "Ben... how fast can we pack?" :) I have to say sorry to sabrina cause we left her behind in Germany and Alvin was somewhere else in Germany with his Aunt. But it's cool cause she went up to look for him a day afer we left.

So we packed in 30 minutes... kinda felt like i was in the Army once again cause i was throwing stuff into my bag and packing my toiletries in super quick time. We got on our bikes and biked down as fast as we could to the Oestrich Winkel train station. In the end, we missed our train and the other one didn't arrive until an hour later. So we walked around the area looking for a place to drink... just to celebrate our first "Out of Germany trip". We found this little bar and it was still closed. It was already 12pm and everything seemed closed. What the hell is everyone doing at 12? People need to eat! Anyway...we knocked on the door and asked it there was anything to drink. This time, our German really helped a bit cause we asked... "Trinken? Bier?" The old man who answered the door said..."Ohhh. something something Shlafen (which meant sleep)" I said "Nein..." So basically we said we didnt need to sleep and we wanted to drink some beer. He got us a bottle each and this is the photo we took.

So we were having our nice beer and waiting for the train the come. That was the start of our Euro Trip! We got on the train and everything was smooth sailing until we took the Thalys train. It was supposed to be a luxury train service and our Eurail Passes didn't cover that. So... we got chased down the train and we had to find our way to get there by normal trains. So we went down took another train and finally... we reached Belgium - Leuven.

We met Fang Kai and of course... we took some photos!

Taken by the Leuven Station

We bummed at Kai's place for a while and then we went for dinner. Things are generally more expensive in Belgium as compared to Germany but somehow, the beer is cheaper. I don't get it though, both countries are so well known for their beers and yet Belgium is cheaper. Oh well. We went for dinner, had some drinks and then we met some of Kai's friends. They were German students on exchange to Belgium so it was kinda cool as there were sharing with us where we should go in Germany.

My Favourite beer of all time. This one is called the Hoegaarden Grand Cru and it's supposed to be stronger. I think this version is the best because i like Hoegaarden but it can be a little too light at times. Pity that they don't have this in Singapore...

The night ended with us having supper at some shop which served superb french fries. They called it the Frites Spezial or something like that. It had fresh onions on top with chill sauce dripped all over the fries.... mmmmmm... super...

The next morning, we got ready to head out for Brussells. Before that, we checked out the Market street for breakfast. That place was so good for food i tell you. They had roasted chicken, Belgian Waffles, Hot Dogs, Bockwurst mit Brochen (which we are so sick of), Escargots... and many more. We got ourselves some waffles and to top that up... we had escargots. Well, if you think about it, it's really a weird combination of food for breakfast but what the heck, we won't be in Belgium again so we wanted to try it nevertheless.

Belgian Waffles are the shit. Imagine waffles with Caramel all over... mmmmm..

Here we are... having Escargots early in the morning... :)

We headed out to Brussells and the place was quite nice. We went through a couple of musuems but i won't show you all the pictures here. I will be coming up with a Shutterfly account so you can all go there to see the pictures yeap. We saw the peeing boy and so we decided to take a little spoofy picture.

Brothers.. so must pee together...

Do people like to pee in public in Belgium?

Okay enough corny jokes. So we walked around and Kai told us there was a Mercedez Benz showroom here which housed the SLR. Being a car lover, i really really had to see it. It was ironic though, cause we were studying in Germany, the very country where Mercedez Benz comes from and here we are in Belgium checking out the Merc Showroom. Oh well... it was all worth it... check it out!

When i do win the Ang Pow Toto, i will buy this car. I think i will strike next year la.. so i should make an order for it now. :)

Here are some other pictures we took in Brussells.

Desperate housewives :)

Cowan is molesting one of the Smurfs in the Comic Museum!

So... after several seeing several Museums, we got tired and returned to Leuven for dinner and yet another night of drinking. We met two of Kai's Swedish friends and they were very nice. They were telling us what to do in Sweden when we finally get there and all. It's great to meet all these international students because they give us very valuable information on their home countries. Of course, we return the favour by telling them about Singapore and Asia on a whole.

So.... that basically sums up Belgium for me. Waffles, beer, french fries, 1 Euro Ice Cream which was damn good, Museums, Merc Showroom, Shopping, and... that's about it. I hope you all like the photos! My next entry will be on our Amsterdam trip. It's time for lunch now so i have to go back to cook up something to fill my stomach. A hungry man is an angry man... and an angry ben is a crazy ben so... time to retain my sanity... haha... have fun reading guys and gals!

Godfather part 3

2006-03-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

No no... this is not a mafia entry readers. If you read my previous entry you would understand why i name this entry... The Godfather part 3.

As we watch a lot of movies to kill time... most of the movie contents always lingers in my head. Love Actually, As good as it gets, Serendipity, My Sassy Girl... damn it... i think i had better start watching some Action movies before people start calling me a girl. So anyway, I watch these movies and sometimes, it gets to me. A lot of people say, single life rocks because you have a world of freedom in your hands. Well, that can be true if your girl or boyfriend is a control freak in your life but i guess if you find the right one, he or she will give you the freedom you want. Well, although relationships do involve sacrifices, i've always believed that no one should sacrifice the things that they already love to do. Of course, this would exclude drug consumption, smoking and drinking. It is true that single life is free. There is no one to answer to for all the actions one makes. You wake up when you want to, sleep when you want to, go out when you want to, eat when you want to... well... that's the life i am leading here in Germany now! But of course, that's because i am not living with my parents.. but you guys get the picture.

It's funny how attached people are always saying how much they miss being single. And then single people will tell their attached friends how lucky they are and how much they miss being attached. When will us human beings ever be contented with what we have? So i started to compare the two situations and having tasted both fruits... i would say that it is so much more beautiful being attached. It's like waking up to a lazy Sunday afternoon, knowing for sure that someone you love is probably thinking of you now...whether is it in the train, during the walk to school, during lunch, or even in the company of a good looking friend... the certainty of having that someone think of you is probably the true form of comfort. For a person who is single, waking up in the morning would be probably involves these steps.

Scenario 1
1) Brushes treeth
2) Grabs breakfast
3) Goes online
4) Ask his/herself.. "Who can i ask out today?"
5) Goes out
6) Comes back
7) Sleeps
8) Wakes up

*Repeat steps 1 to 8 and you will see how it is like to be single. Well let's see how it's like for an attached person. So he/she wakes up...

Scenario 2
1) Calls boy/girlfriend
2) Listens to how cute his/her boy/girlfriend could sound when he/she is still sleepy... (either that or he/she would sound super grouchy cause she/he woke her up)
3) Brushes Teeth
4) Grabs breakfast for him/herself and grabs boy/girlfriend's favorite breakfast dish
5) Have breakfast together
6) Wonders where to go
7) Have a great time
8) Go home

Well of course it's nice to also tuck him/her into bed but usually the guys do that for the girls. So anyway... repeat steps 1 to 8 and that's probably a glimpse of what it feels like to be attached to someone. Which would you choose? Well maybe I really am a hopeless romantic but i would choose Scenario 2. Or maybe, i have been watching too many movies involving love and thus, I, being a person who never believed in blogging, had finally given in to the seductive attractions of blogging. For those who are attached, do not take the small things for granted. The wake up calls, "I miss you" text messages, favorite snacks which your loved one buys you every now and then... all these might go past us like how Taxis drive past us everyday. We see it and we don't appreciate it as much as we should. But one day, if Taxi services ever stop, you will start to miss it terribly because of how convenient it is. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that a relationship provides convenience. Everything always seems more beautiful and precious only when you have lost it. Leonardo Da Vinci's work wasn't worldly recognized until he died. Ludwig Van Beethoven's music was not appreciated until he passed on too. So... to all attached people, don't make the mistake of appreciating what you have only when you have lost it. Let's appreciate what we have while we have it. Well since life is so unpredictable, not everything lasts forever. So if we can appreciate what we have, while we still have it, at least when it's all gone and lost, there won't be much to regret for.

Walking after you...

2006-03-08T05:26:00.000-08:00

Why the name for this post? I don't know... because I was listening to Foo Fighter's Walking After You and i have been wanting to follow up on the serendipity post. So i guess the song was the catalyst!

Sooooo.... many friends have told me that they like the Serendipity post.. Well i am glad you all enjoyed it! Here is a sequel to that post. Well it might not be as nice as the previous one, it might be.. but if you haven't read the first one, do read it before you get to this yeap? This post is like the Godfather 2. It could be a great movie, maybe even better than the original Godfather movie but no matter how much you enjoy the Godfather 2, you have to watch the Godfather to understand and appreciate the Godfather 2. Nice analogy? Well i ripped it from Serendipity. :)

Anyway, this post is going to be about... love... actually... hahaa. Well we were watching a couple of Romantic comedies and somehow, those shows got me thinking and once again.. I have this mad rush to write about romance. Since my serendipity post was about hope, I figured that.. maybe this blog should serve as a wake up call for others. I hope most of you have watched Love Actually because it is by far the most romantic movie ever made. So for those who haven't, please go down to Video Ezzy or... go to www.aresgalaxy.net and .. you'll know what to do next. :)

Many scenes from Love Actually actually serve as encouragement to our lives. Having a crush on a fellow classmate and learning to play the drums to impress her, having your loved one pass away, loving someone but not having the guts to admit it, falling in love with your best friend's wife. Well, all this could happen to us. But many of us are fortunate, because we don't usually have to handle such intense emotions. Well, imagine falling in love with your best friend's wife/husband. Imagine having to face the married couple everyday and having to act like everything is cool whenever they hold hands or hug each other. Should you feel happy for your best friend? Should you feel sad that the person you love can never love you back the same way? Well the answer should of course be the former, but how many people can actually swallow that pain and accept things as they are? Being in love with a person and trying to keep yourself distant and unfriendly to that same person. Now that's tough. Of course, Mark (the character in the movie) did accept it gracefully after a while. He spelt his love out in words on big cards while the soothing music of "Silent Night" played in the background.

"With any luck, by next year...I'll be going out with one of these girls. But for now, let me say... Without hope or agenda... Just because it's Christmas... And at Christmas you tell the truth... To me, you are perfect... And my wasted heart will love you"

Well the script writer is one hell of a genius to be able to come up with something so romantic i tell you. But please, please gentlemen, watch the movie, enjoy the romance but don't be a copycat and try to use the same romantic move on that special someone. It's only beautiful when done by Mark in the movie. Remember piracy is a crime. So be original. :)

Well my point in all this is that... life could be as shitty as that and yet we like to complain at the small things in life. Of course, we're Singaporean. But let's leave that out for now. Let's try to tell ourselves that, it could be worse than this. All of us have been through our ups and downs before and we have all pulled through them eventually. So whatever it is you are sweating right now, sweat it but wipe it off with an absorbent towel. Take it in your stride and tell yourself... this is just one of the many obstacles I could face in life. So if i can't cross this obstacle, how am I to live life? Hope that this entry is good chicken soup for the hurting!

Berlin Berlin Berlin

2006-03-06T02:55:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since i have created any posts... but trust me... this one is going to be a really interesting one. So on Friday we had our first exam. We took this photo when we were studying for the exam. Cowan and I have been quite bo chap so in the end, we had to wake up at 5 am in the morning to go to school to revise. The snow was so nice and thus... we took this photo.

Snowing in Oestrich Winkel

So the exam was for our German 101 course and I think all of us should be able to pass. The exam was like a freaking Primary school English paper where you have to name fruits and objects, create sentences and do up a 30 word write up about yourself. Haha.. this is what i wrote:

In German. Ich bin Benjamin Boh. Ich komme aus Singapur. Ich habe drei shwester. Ich bin drei und zwanzig jahren. Ich bin funfzen August gerbutstag. Ich habe drei Freundin. Sie kommen aus auch Singapore.

Translation: I am Benjamin Boh. I come from Singapore. I have 3 sisters. I am 23 years old. My birthday is on the 5th of August. I have 3 friends. They are also from Singapore.

As you can see, it truly is of Primary school standards. So after the exam, we were on our way to Berlin! We paid 105 Euros for the trip which includes transport to and from Berlin, accomodation for 2 days and 2 nights, 2 breakfasts and 1 lunch. I wouldn't say it was cheap but i guess it was alright cause we really needed a trip away from our small village. Before we got to the bus pick-up point, Tim (this australian dude who is doing his PHD thesis in EBS) and I headed to a supermarket and got ourselves a 6 pack of beer each. They wanted to have a little party in the bus so we thought... what the heck! It was snowing very heavily in Oestrich and because of that, the estimated travelling time which was supposed to be 7 hours became 10 hours instead. The auto bahns were all jammed so it was a fucking pain in the ass for the drive up. Then to "ease" the pain, they played a Jean Claude Van Damme DVD in hope to kill our boredom. Well Jean Claude Van Damme movies are really screwed up because they are always about the same shit. A breif outline of every Jean Claude Van Damme movie:

Man loves woman. Woman gets taken away by the Mafia. They threaten to kill her. Man who was supposed to be peace-loving decided to get out of his cave and became a super fighter. Always showing his muscles and flexing them during each fight. Man saves woman. A steamy sex scene. And they live happily ever after.

And the worst part of it all was that, it was freaking in German. Well, not like his shows ever consisted of any intellectual dialogues anyway. But it was too diffcult to understand the show just by watching the body language and so... i decided to sleep. In germany, the bus drivers HAVE to take breaks after every 2 hours of driving so that they do not get exhausted and cause accidents because of that. It was a good thing because we could then have toilet and food breaks every 2 hours. During our breaks, we would have snow ball fights and hell it was fun. Unfortunately, i did not wear gloves during these fights and so, my hands were numb by the time we were done with packing and throwing the snow balls. After the long and painfully boring journey, we finally arrived in Berlin! The bus went straight to our hostel so that we could dump all our bags. It was already freaking 11 when we arrived so instead of dinner plans and the such, we headed straight to the club. These are pictures of our hostel.

The shared toilet.

Our corridor...

Okay once again... i am really not a photo whore so i don't have that many pics... but i'll do what i can.. haha... So the club we went to is called Havana Club. That club felt really shady to me but i tried to enjoy it nevertheless. We got ourselves drinks and danced to all the R & B music. However, the DJ went retarded on us and started playing YMCA. Truly, what the fuck? So we were dancing and having fun and suddenly we were forming a circle with one person dancing in the middle once in a while. Suddenly, our circle got bigger because some german turks decided to come in for a dance-off. They were like... dancing in the middle, challenging us to dance with them... fucking hilarious shit i must say. So once in a while one guy from our side would oblige and so he would go in to dance. After a while, it just got really childish and so we decided to screw them and we broke away from the circle. Then, this turk walked to our canadian friend and told him ... let's battle... i am not talking about one on one combat battle... cause you know.. if it comes to that.. i am damn game for fights :)... it was a god damn dance battle.. what the hell! And he took it damn seriously like his life depended on it... we just got so amused and laughed our heads off. For those who watched Zoolander or Starsky and Hutch, recall the scene where Owen Wilson had a walk off with Ben Stiller, or you could recall the scene where Ben Stiller was dancing off with someone in the club... Yeah we were doing that kinda shit.. so hilarious what these dudes in the club can do..

So day 2 of Berlin... Sight seeing! We went around the eastern and western side of Berlin to look at the museums, the memorials and the other sights in which Berlin is known for. Here are some pics.

The memorial of the holocaust...

The Berlin gates...

Remember Micheal Jackson held a baby out of the window... it was here at this hotel called Hotel Astoria where it all happened! He stayed in the Presidential Suite which costs 8,800 Euros a night. Madness!

The view from the Reichstag

Somebody drew out a heart on the frozen lake... romantic...

The remains of the Berlin wall... i wanted to chisel one portion out as a souvenir.. :)
More of the berlin wall... apparently this stretch is the longest stretch of the remains of the Berlin wall.

An exhibition called Melancholie

The building was designed by an architect who tried to make the ceilings of the bulding to look like Mount Fuji i think...

So that's it for sight seeing... After all this touring and such, we went for some Berlin shopping. For those who think it would be cool and cheap... you are wrong... In Berlin, shopping is really expensive. A pair of Quiksilver slippers would costs me 10 Euros in Singapore but it costs 18 Euros here. However, what was cool was the flea market. The best part was that the things that was sold there were things i am really into. VINTAGE! They sold gramaphones, old army helmets, old watches, old spoons, old books, old Adidas jackets... the flea market truly made me feel at home. However, because Berlin is known to be a touristy spot... the prices of all these items were too high. I am not the kind of Singaporean who likes to bargain and what's worst is that i can't bargain in German so... i didn't buy anything. :( .. I did have a very good Apfel (apple) crepe and a piping hot Bratwurst mit Brochen though... so it was all gooooood...

After shopping and dinner... we broke up into groups and looked for bars or pubs where we could chit chat and drink... the clubs in Berlin were rather classy but i have to tell you... German waitresses are horrible. We were going to pay for our drinks and so my Portugese friend Diogo wanted to give the waitress 5.50 euros for his drink which costs 3.50. He was going to give her 50 cents so that it would be easier for her to give him 2 dollars change rather than 1.50 of change in coins. So when he presented a 5 dollar note and 50 cents in coins, she was like.. what is this?! in a fucking rude manner... When she poured the beer from the bottle into the glass, she simply poured it in without making sure there would be no foam in the glass. What a bitch... It's Germany... shouldn't they be competent in the skills of pouring beers? So, we got so pissed we decided to leave and walk around to find another bar... so in the end... the whole group gathered and some were game on pubbing... some clubbing... Cowan and I decided to join the clubbing party because supposedly there was a club which played very good electronica music. Well, we were in Berlin so we wanted to check out the Electronica scene. So we took the train and got down... and we looked around us... it looked like freaking Bratislava... haha... i am not joking.. all dilapidated houses with no soul in sight... we asked Fabi (our coordinator for the trip) if he knows where he was going and he said... Trust me...

So we did... and we walked along the quiet street.. and then he made a turn.. into a damn factory and construction site.. and at this point of time.. I could only say.. Welcome to Berlin!... as much as it was worrying.. it was a great experience because the club we had been to yesterday was like any other club in Frankfurt or Mainz so we wanted to see what a real club was like..

So finally we were there... and trust me... it looked like shit... freaking old house .. i have a picture of it but u can't really see it because it was taken at night...

This is Fabi...the dude who brought us to the club... k in front of him is the building but unfortunately... it was too dark and i put my camera on Flash mode so... you can't really see it.. i have a picture of it in the day.. but let me describe this club first. So... we went in and we saw this huge scary ass shit bouncer with tattoos and piercings all over his face... some people got rejected in front of us so we got worried that we might be bounced off too but in the end.. we got in without any problems.. However, at the queue... we looked around us and all we saw ... were guys... like 100 guys and only 4 girls... so we started to worry... because in Germany.. Saturday night was supposedly Gay night... We asked Fabi if he was sure that it wasn't gay night and he said no... it was all goood...

When we got in... the club was really empty and they had 3 floors to the club... i can't show you pictures of the club because they kept my camera. So anyway... the club looks like a construction site. Haha.... tyres as seats... Concrete slabs all over the place... and the people there... oh my god... the guys were wearing leather outfits... shorts... tight fitting shirts... and shit like that so this time we told Fabi... "Fabi.. it's gay night.. and we're gonna kill you"... hahah ... of course we were joking and... it was one hell of a good experience to watch the alternative lifestyle in close proximity so we decided to stay on and watch the show... It was mad i tell you.. gays started pouring in and we saw some guys wearing only a leather vest and a pair of leather pants which had a open patch in the ass to show their bare asses... how wicked is that!? On the dance floor, they took off their shirts and danced together... woooo...hahaha.. we were freaking shocked man... but as i said.. it's all about the experience and so.. we just let it slide... So after getting ourselves some drinks... we were dancing around and we saw the most public show of affection amongst the alternative living.. they were kissing all over the place... hahahah... For those eating and reading this.. forgive me... I saw this dude wearing a leather vest and thongs man... i really wished i had camera then but too bad... at least i knew why they confiscated our cameras... The club was awesome la... We were there at 12am and Fabi told us that we were too early... man in Singapore 12am is the damn peak period but here, we were the early birds. However, as it reached 3am, the whole club was packed... by mostly the alternative people of course. Our friends were getting bored by that time and thus, they decided to leave. However, Diogo, Jean (our canadian friend) and myself.. we decided to stay on with Fabi and so we partied all the way till freaking 7 am in the morning... hahaha... we definitely did not regret staying on because at 4am.. Women started filling the clubs and finally there was a balanced proportion of men and women. And at 7am when we were leaving... hordes of people were just arriving and depositing their jackets to go into the club... what do they do? Wake up in the morning and say.. "Okay let's go club!" It was truly mad... here's a photo of the place in the day... haha... never have i taken a photo of a club in the day so... here's a first!

Diogo and Me leaving the club at freaking 7am...

I am grateful to Fabi because at least we got to experience what a true club feels like in Berlin.. haha... so we got back home at 8am.. had breakfast at the hostel cafe... and we went to sleep at 9am. We thought we could sleep till about 12 and then do some sight-seeing before we head back to the bus at 2pm but the stupid hostel wanted us to check-out by 10am. So... with only 30 minutes of sleep... we packed our shit and then went on our sight-seeing trip once again... We found a Dunkin Donut chain and so we decided to get ourselves one donut... the donuts here are freaking expensive man... 2.20 Sg for a donut.. i remember in Malaysia donuts were only 1.20 or something.. bloody rip off.. but well... we were tired.. and we needed something sweet to cheer us up so ... money well spent... So finally we headed to the bus and we made our way back... man never have i slept so soundly in a bus before.... Diogo, Jean and I just konked out once we got to our seat. After one of our breaks, we watched "As good as it gets" and this time..it was in English. Thankfully! The show is really really good... real good acting and plot i must say...

So that's it for our Berlin trip... for those reading this and are thinking of going to Berlin... give yourselves at least 3 to 4 days to enjoy Berlin because the city is beautiful and 2 days are definitely insufficient. Wow... this is a real long entry.. and i am gonna take a break from blogging from a while.. so take care my fellow readers... We will be going to Belgium and Amsterdam pretty soon so... more photos and entries then! Tcshuss!

More Chicken Soup

2006-02-21T12:51:00.000-08:00

Hellau!

The French Connection and Team Singapore in Mainz Carnival!

I found my marriage ride... this car is perfect!

Hey readers, i guess i haven't been updating my blog... but i'm just too lazy to write much and for those who know me... you know i ain't much of a blogger so i'll summarize all the stuff that might interest you.

So where did i stop... hmmm k so far the courses here are really interesting.. but for a marketing and IS student... They FUCKING SUCK! So for those who are not in the finance majors.. don't come to EBS. So other than that... we have been to several house parties and they are pretty alright. I won't say they are the shit because they really cannot compare to our New Year partty at Plaza Parkroyal.. haha... The only interesting thing about these parties is that we go there by our bikes... yes we cycle to a party.. haha.. i asked the cow how the hell we would go back if we were to get pissed drunk... and he said.. don't go back lor.. sleep there lor... good answer! So we had to control our alcohol consumptiong cause it was a pretty long journey... but all in all, it was alright..

So we went to Mainz two days ago for a field trip and it was a pretty place... however, being the idiot that i am.. i only wore 2 bloody layers when the weather was 0 degree celcius.. haha.. so i really suffered for quite a bit everytime we were outdoors... The sights were kinda interesting because Mainz was preparing for their major carnival on Monday which would house at least 50,000 people... so they were all dressing up in funny costumes and hats.. we are most probably going there on Monday to see the sights and party with the people there.. hopefully it's good!

We went to frankfurt yesterday for the second time. Although it was the same place, we enjoyed ourselves more. The weather was good, we found more sights to see, and we found better shopping areas! We went to one of the musuem churches and it was astonishingly beautiful... it felt a little like how Dan Brown described the churches in his books but of course, Rome would be a true depiction. However, what we saw yesterday was enough to leave me in awe. Somehow as we entered the church, we felt an aura of serenity and it was just very comfortable. We took a couple of pictures but i won't post them now because there is a problem with the internet connection. The biggest mistake we made was having ice cream in the god damn cold. When i finished my cone, I felt a cold rush and my legs were trembling. Haha.. it was quite an expereince. We then went shopping and we found this shop called New Yorker which sold clothes at extremely low prices. I got a fleece jacket for freaking 9.90 Euros. Haha.. great place to shop.

We are going up to Berlin next week for 2 days. Really looking forward to it because everyone is telling us to go to Berlin cause it'll be a ball... welp we'll see how that goes.. till then... Tschuss!

Pictures for all of you!

2006-02-21T00:36:00.000-08:00

The one in the middle is a FUCKING good basketball player. The one on the right is my buddy. Good looking eh! and the one of the left is a cock...
Our welcome party

First 2 hours in our room

The previous exchange girls left a thong in the balcony....oooooooo

This horse is damn beautiful!

The bear wanted to fight so how could i say no?

Me and Cowan acting like Italian gangsters...

A great dinner experience

2006-02-20T06:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I had the best Linguine Pesto ever. It was really the shit. I have never tasted Pesto that's so good in my life and we had it for only 7 Euros. Good stuff. Anyway, we had our first day in school with the other exchange students. They are pretty alright but there really are a lot of french students. Some of them were from Spain, Portugal, Canada and somehow, we Singaporeans are the only Asians around. The people are quite friendly and we met the two Portugese dudes who are going to stay with SMU's William Hung. Of course i can't say his name cause he might sue me for public defamation but anyway... after getting to know them better, we decided to warn them about... hahahaah... you guys know who and what i am talking about. All they said was... Fordes! (It's fuck in Portugese) So we tried to convince them for 10 minutes that we were not joking and we tried hard to make them believe us. We succeeded in that but after that, we had to handle their shock so i think i had better talk to the dudes and buy them a couple of beers later. There's gonna be a welcome party for the exchange people later and all of us will be there. Lots of booze awaits and my buddy promises to get drunk with us so it should be damn fun. Alright fellas, I don't have many photos to show you guys cause i really ain't a photo whore... hahaha... in other words... i am too damn lazy to take out my camera most of the time so for pictures... take a look at Cowan's blog.

Oh yes, as i said i met many of the other exchange students and this french dude we met is damn good looking. Really model look i tell you. For those reading this blog and wondering why i keep talking about the good looking guys... it's simply because this is a general blog for all you readers regardless of guys or girls... for women updates... please MSN me or request for a personal "For Men Only" Blog so that you can read more about the women we have met. :)

So we took our first German course today so as this blog is the Chicken Soup for the Bored... let me give you guys a little crash course on German now.

Question
German: Hallo! Ich bin Ben. Wie ist ihr name?
Eng: Hello! I am Ben. What is your name?

Reply
German: Hallo! Mein name ist Kate Beckinsale. (My idol now) Wie geht es Ihnen?
Eng: Hello! My name is Kate Beckinsale. How are you?

Reply back
German: Danke gut, Und Ihnen?
Eng: Good thank you, and you?

Reply again
German: Auch gut, Danke!
Eng: Good too, Thank you!

K that's it for now. Stay tuned for more of German 101 by Benjamin!
Oh for those who know me well, you should know that i hate it when people call me Benjamin because it's just too formal. However, the french version of my name sounds damn cool so i will teach you guys how to pronounce Benjamin in french soon. Then Benjamin would be the preferred choice. Hahaa.. Got to run off now. So everyone, Tschüss! (Bye!)

Serendipity

2006-02-19T08:19:00.000-08:00

So we had a nice lunch today... cooked up some stuff and all of us snuggled to watch Serendipity. All that led to me walking down to school with the fellas to add an entry to this blog. And unfortunately people, it's not about our exchange experiences, but about life experiences in general. So this is how it goes...

Serendipity: Finding something unexpected and useful while searching for something else entirely. A fortunate accident is what some like to call it. For those who have watched the Serendipity movie, good for you. It's a great movie and i believe some will walk out of the cinema thinking, "Awww that's about the sweetest movie ever."
However, some might be thinking, "What the hell, that love story just doesn't seem possible!"
Well there is one thing we should all learn from that movie and that is: To let go of life.
No no... i don't mean one should kill him/herself. I mean... learn to let go of the thought that you can control everything in life, that life is just a script waiting to be acted upon. Everyday we try our best to shape our lives the way we want them to be shaped. We study the courses in which we hope will be useful in our dream career paths. We run to shape our bodies to match the celebrities we see on TV. Fight club in particular. hahaha...

If that's not bad enough, we often make the biggest mistake by forcing love. In every relationship we get into, marriage seems to be perpetually in the picture. Well i cannot say that we should never consider it because if we don't, then there is nothing to work towards. However, what i am saying is that, if ever a relationship doesn't work out, one should never sulk, bitch, become a skeptic of the thing called love. Because the outcome of a relationship is seriously unimportant. What matters most is that we seize the moment and enjoy the journey. In life, we would probably have met many people, started and ended relationships with some and in the process, went through many happy and sad times. Somehow or rather, we tend to always remember the sad times. When speaking of the previous relationships, we always speak of the bad times first. We will talk about how bad the break up was, how much we wished it didn't happen and all. Well, I think it's about time we changed that. Let's remember the good times because ultimately, no relationship could have started and ended without good times. I am sure there are times we look back at out past relationships and thought... wow... that person really made me happy once. So when it ends, we feel frustrated because we cannot experience the same happiness we used to enjoy. We hold on to things, wishing for that one day where things will return to the same but we fail to see the bigger picture. That people move on, things change, and our lives will turn unexpected turns in the course of time whether you like it or not. Some say there are many fishes in the sea. The lovefools who are heartbroken will say, i only want this fish. Well, it is true that there are many fishes in the sea, but more importantly, life does not evolve around finding that one fish and keeping that one fish in your pond because seriously, there is so much more to life than that. Learn to let go of the thought that we must find THE ONE in our lives. Let the cards fall in place and you will see that life is so much less taxing in a way. For my friends who are feeling down because of relationships, i hope you read this to find answers to your confusions. Be open to meeting people instead of telling yourself you only want that one fish because you'll never know what might happen.

I have learnt tat things always happen for a reason and frankly, fate and timing has a big part to play in shaping relationships. I have seen it happen to a good friend of mine and really, as freaky as it sounds, Destiny is truly amazing. The things that happen to us now, regardless of whether they are good or bad will shape our lives for something better.

Frankly i have no idea why i am writing this blog but i have been wanting to write something about Serendipity so here it goes. Who knows when an fortunate accident might happen to you? Who knows what you might find when you are actually looking for someone else? If you feel down fellas, don't fret because it will all work out to something else. Whether or not life will be better, who knows, but at least be sure that our lives will change and when there is change, at least we know that there will be new experiences to look forward to. I hope i am making sense here because all these thoughts are in my head but i don't know if i am putting them down in words well enough for all you readers to get the gist of it. Well that's it from the hopeless romantic for now. Trust me... my blog site won't have much of this personal stuff so don't get all freaked out that I have suddenly caught onto the blogging trend. Take care people!

Living the Lonely Planet

2006-02-19T02:41:00.000-08:00

Finally... After months of procrastination, doubt and preparation, we are all here in Germany! The one thing i can say for sure is that i will curse the Singapore weather when i finally step back into our motherland. So for now, i will savour every second of the thin cold air which gives us the only opportunity to wear nice jackets and look like Mafia bosses without breaking a drop of sweat.

I've been here for 4 days now and i have to say i am getting pretty bored already. We stay in a very small university town so there is really really jack shit to do. The first day was pretty cool as we went for a German lunch (it wasn't good cause it was supposed to be a budget meal) which costs us 10 Euros. Then we went to the supermarket and bought loads of food to last us for the next couple of days. It's pretty fun doing grocery shopping and cooking for ourselves because back at home, meals are often consumed outside so we stick to a fixed menu list when it comes to food choices. Hay Mee, Char Kway Teow, Cai Peng, Wanton Mee, Bak Chor Mee, Bak Kut Teh, etc. Down here we get to buy whatever we want and cook it however we like it. It's pretty interesting because as of tonight, we will be cooking up some Asian dishes for our German friends and we intend to create fusion dishes. Imagine, Chicken Drumstick meat with bak kut teh... haha... i don't know how it will taste but heck it... the Germans won't know it's not our authentic version of Bak Kut Teh anyway. Speaking of food, the one thing that is really enjoyable about our meals is that wine is coupled with almost every lunch and dinner. Normal wine sets us back at around... 1.60 Euros... that's bloody 3 dollars Sing for every bottle of wine... and it's true fellas, wine is cheaper than coke. I went to a German restaurant and i ordered lemonade only to realise that it costs 1.80 Euros while a glass of wine costs 1.60 Euros. Hahaa.. no wonder the age limit for drinking for the germans here is 16.

We have seen a couple of sights here and Frankfurt is the most memorable so far. The sights are so beautiful. I took a couple of pictures and i will post them up once we get internet at home. Okay for the people going on BSM Germany.... STOP SPENDING MONEY SHOPPING IN SINGAPORE BECAUSE the shopping here fucking rocks. I say again... IT FUCKING ROCKS! Roy stop buying your airforce ones cause the shoes here... WOOOOOO... no joke man... i wish i didn't buy anything for the new year in Singapore cause the selection here is just so much better. Some things are as pricey or even pricier but in general, the clothes here are nice and cheap. We reached the Frankfurt train station yesterday and as we walked towards the shopping district, we saw sex shops, sex shops, and more sex shops. Hahaa... it was pretty amusing as we stepped into the shop and there was just heaps of porn in front of us... and they sold all kinds of dildos, condoms, magazines for guys and girls, etc. It was just damn fucking funny. Check this out... one pack of durex 3 pack condoms costs 4.62 Euros.. that's freaking 9 bucks sing... i think the Germans don't give a shit about protection during sex cause the condoms are just crazy expensive...

K now for the people. I think our German buddies are nice and generally people are okay. I won't say the people are friendly cause they seem grumpy all the time... but we have met some pretty nice people. We went clubbing last night and it was bad. Bad Bad Bad... but it was bad because it wasn't their premier club so that explains the poor standard. A bottle of beer costs us 3.80 Euros, shots were at motherfucking 8 Euros and check this out... to open a bottle of Tequila costs..... 250 Euros!!! Madness... But yea... better learn to appreciate Zouk, Bala, Siam, MoS etc guys and gals...

Oh ladies... i must tell you... my Buddy is damn bloody good looking. He has clear blue eyes and seriously if i were gay.. i would fall in his arms... but too bad.. i am too damn sraight so! I will take pictures with him and post them up for you girls to drool at. He might be coming to Singapore for his exchange next term so maybe we can go clubbing together... :) So all the single girls reading this... enjoy.. hahaa..

Alrighty then, that's about all i have to say for now. It isn't much cause really... we haven't done jack shit but we will and when we do.. I will update you guys...till then... Ciao Ciao! :)