I am not fat.. I am just big in size!!

Spring

Gotten a little bit too lazy to write blogs these days. Weather is becoming cold. Moving into a house with a kitchen has been very very fun! Here is what I have cooked so far in the house.

noodles with meat sauce (zha4 jiang1 mein4)

My failed attempt on making mock abalone

Japanese curry with whole bunch of stuff that I found in the fridge. I have no idea what they are, I just threw it in.

4 seasons bean rice box (kan1 bian3 si4 ji1 dou4 )

meepok - apparently it is about 80% authentic to the singapore one

fried bak choy with link sausages in ricebox

fried cabbage with shrimps and fried chicken with onions

haven't been taking pictures of the other stuff I have cooked,

Satay, nasi lemak and preserved vegetables (mei2 cai4)

Raver strolled through the seasons at 1:57 PM

Friday Excursions Our on a Rheinfahrt

The program has came to an end. Well the learning german part anyway. I am attached to a professor in the university for 2 weeks of work and that means no more free afternoons! This is pretty shitty given the fact that the best time to take a day trip out to another city or town is the afternoon after your lessons, since lessons just last through the morning. Half the number of people will be leaving to travel or to go back home. The weather here is getting better and better! That means that it is about time for me to go swimming again! Other than the fact that I am starting to feel my pocket is getting smaller, everything else is just fine! Anyway.. This is just to continue on my 2nd week programme. We will usually go on a excursion on Friday, which means that there will be no lessons on Friday! Which is pretty good, as my brain can’t really take another word in german! It is hella lot of words to remember and apply! Plus you will have small test here and there. The only good thing is that I have the best teacher among all the classes! No other classes will have teachers that will help them to learn through playing games and role play! Plus it is the only class where English questions are allowed! For some reason, this post which is supposedly earlier is now later.

Awaiting our ride at the harbor port in koln… Yes.. The weather ain’t exactly what I will call good.. But it is almost as good as it gets during these week.. The weather is cold and I was simply too stubborn to bring out my jacket.

We are on our way down the river Rhine. Not the best of weather to go on a 2 hour cruise up the river rhine with no seats to seat down where it is sheltered. The designer of this particular ship is really smart to designate the inside space to restaurants! So you got to order something if you would like to seat down inside. Not the very best of situations when it is raining outside like now.. Picture taken with Joe. One of the dudes from WPI. I forgotten what does the school stand for.

Everyone freezing outside in a slight drizzle and eating all the food before lunchtime even arrived! The best thing to do when you are cold is eat.. get fat.. and hope the insulation helps! Haha! If you think that they are busy Sms-ing, you are hopeless

Interesting name for a town! Ass- Man- Hausen! I don’t know what is Ass in german so I shall leave it as it is.. So translated by me will become, ass man house! The best thing is that they write it so big and put it on the banks of river rhine so that everyone can see!!

Look at all the happy faces from the cold! Haha! People that were in the program as well from UIUC! Thats Amanda and Ben!

We have finally reached the koblenz port where we are supposed to climb a hill to the castle at the peak! That was one bloody tiring hike I tell you.. The rain stopped for a while but made the ground so wet and slippery. It was bloody dangerous and hard to climb the hill without falling! The best thing is that the tour guides didn’t take us up a paved road which was just a little further away! But the view from the top is really great

That’s me and Kelvin at the Castle. The view is really great! The river behind us and we got to see the entire town as well!

This is the castle. We are supposed to do this scavenger like thingy, where you will go around to find German description of that particular area and do a presentation. One, the place was dark and we didn’t have a torchlight and I twisted my ankle. Two, the description plates were really hard to find and the roads were slippery and we got a crappy map..

This is the part of the trip that is really worth it! All the groups were supposed to use aluminium foil and vanguard sheets to dress up one person in the group as a knight! This is the result of what happened after we dressed them up with aluminium foils! The best thing is that they will fight with each other! Which all the aluminium foils will drop and reveal all their insides! The guy with the beer belly and an armor that looks like a dress.. is the guy from our group! Haha! Seriously.. I think we dressed him up more like a troll than a knight!

This is a view of the koblenz town with the river beside it.

Typing this out in a train station! Man the only thing I hate about European countries is that they smoke a lot down here and apparently no one around you will get affected.. Because all the bloody germans are all smoking their guts out! The only people that are innocently affected are the tourists like me! Well, I don’t really mind smokers, but smoking legally in all places like trains, stations, even in shopping centers! Well.. all in all, Germany is still a really nice place!

Raver strolled through the seasons at 5:24 AM

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Some of the videos that I came to meet when I am in darmstadt! Pretty darn interesting

Oh this video is really cool! Especially towards the end!

Some of it is quite hilarious.. all the stuff that bart did! haha! This is the part at the starting of all the simpsons, where bart is made to write lines for all the mischievous things he pulled! I like the one that says... I will not end the pledge of allegiance with hail satan!

This is a really funny thai ad

Raver strolled through the seasons at 5:32 AM

Lindau: the weekend trip out!

This is the morning that I depart to landau from Darmstadt hauptbahnhof. The weather, still really cold out here.. But feeling quite excited to tour around the town that many have said it is really beautiful!

Crossing the sea to the island of landau! Also known as bodersee. A cool view!

When I got there, there were plenty of people like standing around the railing looking out!

Yepz. That is what it looks like. They are having this event, where they will put aeroplane looking things on top of the ramp and let it roll down the ramp, and see who will fly the furthest. Seriously, I stayed through almost all the flights, all of them fly almost the same distance, which is like 3 meters from the end of the ramp! Good job on trying to fly far mates!

The entry gate to the port of landau. I would love to take the cruise to visit the surrounding, but I am short of time and short of money. One cruise cost about 12 euros! And I don’t think it is that worth it to go around the island in this weather.

This is what it looked like from the other side of the port. All the people gathering around looking at a plane bound to crash in the water and giving huge applause! All the sadistic germans. The cool thing though, was not the plane thingy flying into the water, but the fact that I could more or less what the emcee was trying to say over the mike!

This is a video clip for one of the plane crashing into the water. Seriously, it didn’t even fly! It is just a plop and there goes like 3 months of work on the plane!

Now this is what they will do after they have plooped into the water. It is crazy.. The whole team starts running down the ramp one by one.

crash 2.. Sorry, but after this, the man was stripping and taking of virtually everything he has on him! But he is one crazy dude. Why do I say so? Because after he got out of the water, I saw like 5 bottles of beer in front of him! I mean, that’s the culture of the germans! Woo hoo! All the beer that they have since they are kids must have screwed up something in their brain..

One of the small little gardens by the port of landau. It is actually pretty cool! It is like every small little bit of concrete around the port of landau is covered by people seeing the sea fly event (oh yes.. This is the event's name in german!) but this small garden is empty!
I have the impression that the germans will want to sunbath out here!

That’s me! In front of the coastline!

This house actually looks like a monster house! The door being the mouth and the windows being the eyes!

This is the coastline of landau.. It actually resembles our beloved sentosa in Singapore! Seriously! Either that or pulau tekong for the BMT.. One of the this.. But I will prefer sentosa!

Street of landau. Not many people, but this street is filled with shops of all kinds on both sides of the road. And the pedestrians simply bochup any cars that go through here.. It is amazing the number of roadkills in germany is still that little! I am super glad that I am a pedestrian over here and not a driver =)

One of the many churches in Lindau.

A convertible mini cooper! They have a car exhibition over there. Apparently, there is always a car exhibition when there is an event in whatever events there are! I am not gonna complaint! I like nice looking cars!

Leaving back towards Darmstadt again. Well, it is almost 9 already. The sun starts setting over here in germany at aroung 9.30 and even at 10, the sky is still blue! Dark blue.

Interesting stories that I have heard from other people! Firstly, you can still get an accomodation even without any available hostels! Simply just go drinking, and apparently, someone might offer you to stay over at their house for a night! Secondly, a guy got drunk, wallet got stolen, and found out that his credit card as an additional 1500usd to his bill!

Alright,Will try to update the rest of my exchange soon.

Raver strolled through the seasons at 9:28 PM

After 1 month of exchange in germany

I have been in Germany for 1 month for an exchange to Darmstadt... Everything has been fun so far! I feel that I have been pretty lucky so far for all the trip to other parts of germany and manage to meet up with the festival in that city! Like I met up with munich's birthday when I was in munich and I met up with the sea air flight festival when I was in lindau and of course, not to mention the 4 days of heinefest in Darmstadt!

Through this trip, i realised Europe is more fun to travel in when you know a little bit of their language. For me would be German. I have the opportunity to learn and speak german at the same time over here! I wont say that I can speak a proper sentence in german now.. But I can still get by if the waiters in the restaurant speak slowly and try to keep it as basic as possible =) I also learnt that the more you drink, the better is your german speaking! Not to say that you will not scare the hell outta the people around you first!

School is pretty cool! Other than the fact that I get to learn a little bit of german, to help me get around germany with lesser trouble, I have a great bunch of people learning together with me in germany! If you thin that learning formulas are tough, wait till you try out learning it in german! It is one hell a feat! I usually sleep at least once in the class! I have a great teacher, but I just don't have a long attention span.. The best thing about after school is discussing where to go after class! Afterall, lessons are in the morning and you can have the afternoon and night to yourself! Plus I have a really cool host family! Other than the fact that she has 2 really tao1 children, and 1 really shy eldest. The house is great, with a nice garden with a pond and everything! I even learn how to make pizza from scratch!

Munich still remains as my favourite city in germany! On top of its cool structures, great beer, marvellous food and all the great sights, the other factor that I like munich a lot is actually the hospitality that Hwee see and her sisters have shown me! I am glad that she has given birth to her 2nd daughter! The baby has finally decided to come out afterall after all the delays! I think I can never get sick of all the good food and beer and nice cars that munich has to offer!

Frankfurt is really great! It is not like the typical kind of cities where you will find all the skyscrapers trying to fight whose building is taller! If not tall enough, make sure you add a big ass antenna at the very top of your building to win the race! Just like sears tower in Chicago! Afterall, height of the building is not dependent on the number of floors you have in the building, it is dependent on how high is the highest point of the building!

Heinefest is a festival that is pretty cool when you really get into the spirit of celebrating! Until now.. I still do not know how did it come about and who is the festival remembering. The only thing I know is that it is an Oktober fest like event that is held in darmstadt, beer will have a higher quality during this period of time and the central downtown area will suddenly be really crowded on a sunday! Also, this is the time that most probably you will get pretty high from drinking and all the partying! This is also the time when you will run out of money really quickly but it is also the time that you will be digging for money from everywhere, like collecting bottles (you actually get paid really well by going to pubs to collect bottles and returning them for 0.50 euro) like a garang guni man! All the things that you will do! even become those Hobos that are looking through the trash!
My host mom was like going.. YOU SHOULD GO FOR THIS FESTIVAL! VERY FUN!... Didnt really quite get it until she mention the part bout it is a drinking fest! Like Oktober fest but cheaper!

Berlin is pretty cool! It has some cool structures and I don't think I will ever get bored of looking!! I have to say that I have tasted the worst sausage and fries here though.. The sausages are way too crispy and have a really bad smell to it and the fries just taste of oil... It is a city in the day and by night.. the lights in berlin makes it look like a small town.. There is seriously not a lot of lights! You can't relly explore around! But the night life here is pretty good! i just went for pub crawl and get to know lotsa crazy americans! I also got the chance to meet up with some brits! They start to get drunk on the 2nd stop! How do you know whether they are drunk or not!?! When they start to sing loudly and you just cant understand it but you know that they are definitely out of tune and start to push people around to get more drinks... they are drunk =)

Things that I have encountered in berlin.. I got a free house drink from this chinese restaurant and a whore tried to pick me up...

It is one month already and my exchange is halfway through... In another months time.. I will be back in singapore and another 2 more weeks, I will be on my way to UIUC again! can't wait to get back to UIUC! And begin another year of crazyness!

Raver strolled through the seasons at 5:01 AM

2nd Week: Still learning basic german..

Nothing really happened during the second week.. Other then for the school lessons that are on going everyday that are getting tougher and tougher.. I don't really remember what happened on what day.. so I shall just put everything I can remember in for the 2nd week...This is what happened from the Monday to Thursday of the 2nd week.. This is the period of time that I have not entered into the compulsive drinking days yet! haha! It is really nice to drink with your friends over here and apparently, people around you start to speak better german when they are drunk! Weather for the 2nd week.. Still soo cold.. Cant get around without a jacket and it is raining almost every single day!

This is the sport facility.. It is really bare and looks really really old...
The only good thing is that it has lots of space for you to play in !
We came here to play frisbee!

It is like every single german will own a dog.. And the strange thing is
that they do not like you to touch their dogs.. Either that or they are
so racist to feel so unhappy whenever a chinese came over to pet their
dog.. I am not the one to pet the dog arh! haha.. But the dogs are
smelling each others ass.. wisest things to do..

Feeling bored from waiting for the stupid S-bahn train back to darmstadt..
This is taken in the frankfurt train station! So took this picture when the train information to go to darmstadt came on..

Being briefed about all the stuff to prepare for the berlin trip..
All the stuff about no alcohol and stuff like that.. Thats me
and Margie! Can see that ll the other people in the background
aren't really paying that much attention

My try of cooking chow mein with all the ingredients in the kitchen..
Not too bad a try though!

I got to see this parked outside the canteen! someone actually
drives a lamborghini to school! Can't help it but to take a picture!
It is a nice car!

Trying to get all the stuff to come up soon!

Raver strolled through the seasons at 2:10 PM

MUNICH AGAIN OVER THE WEEKEND

It has been the heinefest in darmstadt this few days! It means, lots of drinking and partying and almost getting drunk! I already know a few people that has been getting drunk during this few days! They are really fun when they get drunk! They will be doing all sorts of crazy things and almost every word that comes out of their mouth will become something funny or a joke! haha! I love heinefest over here! It is like the best time that I got in the whole exchange so far! I got to drink bavarian beer, though they do not come very cheap, but nonetheless, I don't mind paying lots to drink good beer! Haha! German learning has become a lot tougher with some small test here and there but on the whole it is still really really fun! You will have your lessons in the morning until lunch time, then you will be having your own time to hang around town, take a swim(not in this bloody cold weather though.. it is like winter over here!).

My planned itinery for the weekends here will be like this..

1st week: munich
2nd week: lindau
3rd week: heinefest
4th week: rest from berlin trip
5th week: amsterdam
6th week: munich
7th week: spain
8th week: singapore

Time here is passing really really fast... It is kinda sad that all the
strawberries have been picked.. So there is no more strawberries
picking for me anymore.. But doesn't matter! I will be going back to
drink in heinefest tonight again!

1st Weekend: MUNICH!

Thats me posing at the tram station in front of my host family's
house before leaving for the main train station in darmstadt. It
is bloody early in the morning and the sun is already up! It is
bloody cold and the train is not coming! I am already falling
asleep at the tram stop!

Lunch in Munich! The thing that I have not eaten for sooo long!
Thats schweinebraten with sauerkraut salat and a long glass of
weissbier... We decided to have our lunch at weisses brauhaus.
The dish is a lot like roasted meat wif a beer gravy on top of it!

The BMW headquarters that is in munich! It is one hell a big building
that is still undergoing some construction here and there.

This is the BMW museum. Don't expect to find any of those cool
looking cars that you find on the road like Z4 andstuff like that. I
actually thought I could find cars like that over here.. I was wrong
man.. I only found the cars that are the really old models. The latest
was only up to year 2000. But it is really cool! You get to know that
BMW (pronounced as Bae M Vae here) produced bicycles before!

This is the olympics tower in munich. There was some kind of
festival going on in the area. There was a lot of people and tents
and all sorts of events going on. I never knew that there was an
olympics held in germany before!

Dinner! This is the part that I have missed the last time here in
munich! The ribs and beer from taxis garden. This is a beer
garden that serves really good beer and food! I felt full.. But
I still ate a lot!

Dineer with hwee see and her family. I got to see all her sisters again,
which is really nice! They have been very very hospitable to me in
this visit and the last few! Even when I was in geneve! Those are the
big pretzels that you will find common in oktober fest on the tray!

Taken from the top of the St Peters Cathedral. I was glad that
the weather is great that day! Sunny with nice wind blowing!
The top was also filled with many people! All here to celebrate
Munichs birthday that day! To get to the top of this tower, you
gotta climb 306 steps! Counted all of them!

The view of munich old town taken from the top of the St Peters
cathedral! Nice weather out that day! The climb and 1 euro was
all worth it! Though there was a lot of squeezing around the top due
to the number of people who decided to all climb the tower at that
time!

People were dressed up for the Munichs birthday! I got to see a
lot of people dressed up like the old times and walking around the
streets that day! There were plenty of tents being set up to sell
lotsa beer, wurst and accesories.

There were people that were dressed in this and parading down the
streets with guns and a flower sticking out of the barrel. It is even
interesting to find that some of them are like slacking in a corner
drinking lots of beer. It is amazing how the germans can drink for
the entire day without getting a little bit of tipsy or even look like
they have been drinking for the whole day!

Tables and benched were being setup in every single wide open area
to sell beer and lots of food to people! It gets seriously hard to travel
through the city that day.... But.. it is really nice to be drinking in this
atmosphere! There used to be chestnut trees all around a beer garden
to provide shade for the people drinking instead of like out in the open.
But they like the sun anyway..

I have no idea what the people are doing. But in the middle of all the
festivals and stuff like that.. People are building houses in the midst of
all the people walking here and there! Somehow.. I think this have
something to do with the tradition for Munich's birthday.

Englischer gardens.. Everyone is coming out to enjoy the sun!
Especially when it has been rainy and cold for the past few days..
Of course they will take the chance to come out and enjoy the sun
and the nice weather.. With or without any clothes! I got to see
some doing naked sunbathing..

Chinesch tower(I do hope that I got the spelling correct! Haha)
The last time I came here.. The tower is not open, it isn't now
either. But the number of people around drinking in all the 3
beergardens around the tower is really people mountain people sea!

This is a short clip of the germans doing something like the surfing
which is pretty cool and I wanna try but don't have a swimsuit

Haha! can't help it! I like nice looking cars! And the number of nice
looking cars here in germany is aplenty! This is one of them from
Alfa Romeo! Man.. by sitting at the bus stop, you get to see a lot of
expensive cars like mercedes and porsche and lamborghini and
BMW!

Went to visit the residenz platz again. But this time, I didnt have
the time to visit inside the residenz.. But it was nice to visit munich
when they are having a festival, especially when the weather is so
good!

Hope to have a nice weather in Berlin next week! From the looks of
things, it is gonna be fun! with visits to beergardens and water parks!
There will even be like a scavenger hunt as well! It will be soo cool!
Can't wait to hit the road! Going to Saalburg to see the Roman ruins
tomorrow! Will try to update again ASAP! I need to keep writing to
have something to write about for my report back in UIUC....

Raver strolled through the seasons at 8:14 PM