Start of semester!

So after my room degraded to a new state of messyness, its back to normal, sort of. I have too much stuff, not to mention that huge stack of old notes on my table. I am not looking forward to the new semester. I just wanna get past it and go to easter break haha. Anyway. exam coming! study study!

Back

So 3 weeks passed rather quickly. Now back in my dorm, thank goodness there is no roommate =D But my room is in a horrible mess now, with things all over the floor. 3 weeks of souvenirs, maps and miscellaneous stuff is so so so difficult to manage. Not to mention I GOTTA STUDY. So CYA!!! 

Schwarzwald

In Freiburg now, sitting in one of the cafes with available internet. Lizzy is off to Mass, and I just finished deciding which modules can be mapped. Which module I am going to take is another matter though. Looks like next semester will have a lot of lectures, which I do not like. Boo. I want to head out into the sun and to Titisee and Schwarzwald. Even if I only slept 3 hrs last night.  

How to control your friends 101

Get them addicted to Heroes.
Get them addicted to Korean Dramas.
Make them all excited about TV and more. 

*evil grin* =D 

Strasbourg

In Strasbourg now. Its really quintessential frenchness here. People dress differently, the buildings are different. As much as they say that Alsace is a previously German region, it is still very much French. People here hardly know any german, which is totally surprising. But anyway, main point. Improbability probably dropped a 100 points yesterday evening. In Heidelberg, and losing any hope of meeting Christina  or any SG people as a matter of fact. And so I was being resigned to going to Heidelberg, the place with the highest concentration of SG students, without seeing anyone. So Lizzy and I went off to dinner and came back. I saw people from the window, and I was like oh crap, people in the same room. Coz Lizzy and I were hoping for a quiet night without any other people. But then, I got in, opened the door and it was like OH MY GOSH. My jaw literally dropped.  Coz not 1 but all 5 + 1 of the Heidelberg exchange people were there, packing their stuff. I got an enormous big huge shock. It was AMAZING. So I did get to see them after all. And that was really nice. Even though it was for a couple of hours, coz dinner, sleeping, and added onto the fact that we had to leave early for Strasbourg too. But that was some serious stroke of luck, coz what are the chances, coz the time I spent in Heidelberg was so short, and the overlapping times when they were in Heidelberg while I was there too was less than 12 hours or so. And also the chances of being in the same hostel, and not only same hostel, but identical room. That is just totally amazing and cool. I was really happy at the end of the day, but also a bit sad, coz I only got to see them for such a short period of time. I should make a trip to Heidelberg again sometime. And also to Köln and Berlin. I love those places.  But anyway, its been more than halfway through the trip, and it has been really enjoyable so far. And even though it has been quite rather tiring ( less than 8hrs of sleep most of the days) it has been really fun and nice and I do like looking through different places. I am quite fortunate to be able to travel.  =)

Internet search

So, I had this lovely long post written out, but the ugly internet cut me off and my whole post failed to autosave which was a total bummer coz I totally forgot what I was writing, and I can’t repost it. 
Anyway, update. 
Visited: Berlin! Düsseldorf! Köln! Trier!
Next stop: Heidelberg (on an ICE! so exciting) PS. Sorry I wanna take an ICE, not leaving Deutschland until I manage to take one)Future stops: Strasbourg (Frankreich), Freiburg, Konstanz
Weather has been really wonderful, until today. Today is gray, wet and dreary. It hit really fast and bad. Yesterday it was still completely blue and clear skis. Made for wonderful pictures.  Anyway, today, train-ing to Heidelberg, hopefully will meet some SG people there. And yah fun fun. I can’t wait to take the ICE. Short updates on things I have done.

Visited the Reichstag, German History Museum (note: if you are going there, it takes an entire day, no joke.) Saw the Brandenburg gate, the real one for once. And Zoo Berlin! Saw Knut and the rest of his Polar bear family. And a lot of other cool stuff too.Düsseldorf was quite pretty, saw some of the biggest shopping streets there are. Ate my long awaited Ramen. And it was pretty authentic too. And stocked up on some nice stuff like Japanese curry, nori sheets, inari etc.

Amazing Asian food grocery stores there.Köln cathedral was quite amazing, german cathedrals are sort of different from the rest due to the fact that they have been damaged by the war and stuff. And visited the oh so good chocolate museum there. And walked around a lot. Bought a dirndl at C&A, amazing buy of 29 euroes for a 3 set piece. Was amazed by it. Trier was a really small city, but add good weather together with roman ruins, makes for a perfect day out. =)

So thats a really short cut post of what I have done so far. Till next time! Ciao Ciao.  

Leaving on a Jetplane

Tuifly flight to Berlin. About 12pm.See me in Deutschland!=) 

Life after Venice

Before I spam WordPress with lots of photos, lets fast forward to these couple of days.

Thursday was spent on an evil indulgence. Shopping. I got some essentials for my upcoming trip. Including a backpack coz my usual one will cause me a lot of pain and also coz I need to lug my laptop around in my upcoming trip. Not good. But will have to. But anyway, I went to H&M again. How can I NOT step into that marvelous place right?  Just say, I love white trench coats, perfect for spring. Imagine pairing it with heels and I will look oh so smashing. I didn’t see the other stuff I wanted to get, which means I am still patiently waiting. But I will wait. That trench coat too, I am waiting. If I am still thinking about it after my trip then YES I am getting it even though it costs 40 euros. I feel like this evil spender. I found replacement camera battery for the battery I lost on the train, which was great. And also got other random stuff. 

Then it was the more mundane stuff, like meeting my lab partner to discuss the plant physiology lab report. And trying to study but ended up watching randy pausch’s really inspirational lecture. Now I know, my exchange is a big head fake, and that for my upcoming internship, the brick walls are just there to show me how much I want things. And I anticipate a big brick wall in the name of NUS but I will try to work something around it.

Today was spend meeting the IRO head of Innsbruck. I was sad to learn that the agreement with NUS and Innsbruck is actually ending. How can they do that! Innsbruck is like AMAZING place. It will really be NUS’s loss if they do not renew the agreement. Coz I think I have had a much easier experience than other people in Germany, and I really enjoy myself here, and its so unique, the heart of the mountains. None of the other Germany Exchange students have something like this. They BETTER renew the agreement!And so my talk with IRO head meant that Innsbruck was highly flexible about it, which I was happy. He also gave me some valuable advice, which I really will take into consideration. And after that was talking to awesome zebrafish prof, about this seminar which me and my partner screwed up but now got it worked out. And then, talked a bit about the internship. Surprise surprise, half a year of project is enough to do masters. I am still keen on doing the internship, but this makes me interested in getting my masters in Innsbruck =D Innsbruck seems happy enough and flexible enough to allow me to do the internship as part of my masters, going back to NUS to finish my bachelors in the middle of doing my masters here, and then coming back to finish up masters. I really hope I can do that, it would be awesome. 

So its time to head butt my brick wall, NUS. Lots of emails to come up. I do hope we can work something out, between NUS and my wants and Innsbruck (which will say yes to everything =P). I just gotta remember Brick Walls are there to show how badly you want something.  And I do want this. Tackle the Brick Wall!

There and Back again

Venice was cool. Photos to come. I have been wasting a lot of time. I should be studying and writing reports if i want a smaller workload during my germany travels but I just seem cant to do it. But anyway, I will be off to Germany on Monday. Rather exciting. This time, coz its such a long trip, my computer is coming along with me, also for me to do work. Anyway, internship. Looks like I am on my way to doing an internship. That means another half a year here at least. I don’t know how I am gonna take that. I shall see. Its all not settled yet. But I am negotiating my way around.  我想对心爱的家人和朋友们说一声新年快乐，恭喜发财。我好想念大家。这个新年少了团园饭，真的感到有点不安。好像心中少了件重要的感觉。我希望大家身体健康，朋友们学业进步，为我吃多点新年糖果！=)

Holidays!

Will be busy packing for Venice tomorrow. All I hope is that I have enough space in my camera to take all the gorgeous pictures I am sure I will want to take. But before I can actually do anything I have to finish writing my plant physiology lab report. What a pain. Hai. And also once I get back I will have to do a couple days of hardcore studying so I can take an exam. Which is scary coz its an oral exam and thats worrying coz I heard the prof can sometimes be nice yet sometimes nasty. And also count the fact that I missed the last 3 classes due to my Übung. I am worried. I do not have ANY time at all to study. oh crap.