Fables and Reflections

Closing Down of Blog...

2009-09-19T05:22:00.002+02:00

Hi,

After returning to Singapore for some time, I realised that I've been neglecting the blog for a long time. Been too busy and all.

Furthermore, with an incident that painfully reminded the perils of owning online material, I am finally closing down my blog.

Its been a long run, but thanks for stopping by!

love,

jiehui

Tour of Capitals: Vienna

2009-06-16T13:49:00.002+02:00

Ah, Vienna. Vienna was interesting. Definitely more so than Bratislava. The fact that the Hofburg castle is actually open for public should give a hint. I did so many note worthy things in Vienna that it was definitely very memorable. One thing that I recommend when visiting Vienna is that to make sure that it is the weekends when you visit. I was so glad that, by pure blind scheduling, we wound up in Vienna over the weekends. There is SO much going on during weekends.

For example, the open air Market is the biggest during saturdays. There was so much variety there at the market. It is different from all the other open air markets that I had visited, be it in France or Switzerland. The range of goods available for sale is pretty mind boggling. They had a side for food and another side for a flea market and the items sold in both areas run from the high-quality wine down to the cheapest fake trinkets one could find. The range of things that one could find there is just mind boggling. Its like having a hyper department store out in the sun!

There at the market, we encountered a stall selling wine, Honey Wine. The stall owner let us have a taste of the wine and I must say, it is one of the best alcohol I had ever tasted.

Well, granted, I don't particularly drink much. Beer, red and white wine and the occasional mixed liquor that my sis happened to concoct at home are all about sum up my drinking experiences so I wouldn't really know how good alcohol tastes like. But that honey wine is really something. One thing nice about it is that it is sweet. Really sweet. Not really honey mixed with wine, but tasted more like honey flavoured wine. Afterall, it IS wine that was brewed from honey. I loved it so much that I started wondering if I could bring it back to Switzerland. Ah, but no such luck, I didn't get check in luggage for my flight back to Switzerland (cheapo flights lah...).
Even so, that didn't stop us from buying a bottle of that stuff to share back at the hostel. We even got so well along with the stall owner that he gave us a bottle, FREE OF CHARGE!! What a nice man he is!

Anyway, the best way to show you the coolness of the market is through the pictures that I have taken!
Look how crowded the market is!
The strange species of vegetables are pretty curious. So these are the types of vegetables that they eat...
Turkish snacks. Oh, one thing. In Europe, one can find turkish food like kebabs and that big column of meat on a vertical rotisserrie thing almost everywhere. Its like the cheap fast food here.
Random stall selling second hand stuff.
As you can tell, they sell mainly german books but occasionally, you can see some english books. Evidently, this stall owner is anxious to make this fact known...

Besides food, we also went to do some cultural stuff! Mainly, WE WENT TO AN OPERA!! :-D

Thats right folks, we went for an opera in Vienna! Isn't that really expensive, one may ask, and the answer is Yes, but....

So yes, the tickets into the opera are typically expensive. It could cost anywhere from 40 euros to 100 plus euros. However, the Vienna State Opera also allows people to enter and watch the opera at a much reduced rate - 3.50 euros. YEP! ITS less than 5 euros!! Since it can't be that perfect, there are drawbacks. You have to wait in queue for about 2 hours and after that, you have to stand through the entire opera. The ushers there are very anal about patrons not leaving the queue once they are in and the number of tickets each person are allowed to buy. One ticket per person. No more, no less, all for the same price. Strict, but made sense since there are loads of people trying to get in and there are very limited standing space at the back of the auditorium.

The best picture I have of the interior. The rest are too blur... Sorry about that...

The opera that I went for turned out NOT to be My Fair Lady, as I thought it was, but another REAL opera titled "The Gold Ring" based on a mythology that I had forgottened. It was sung entirely in German, but there were english subtitles available at the stands. However, because there was limited space, and I wasn't lucky enough to "chope" a space that was infront of the subtitle machine, I had to spend the opera alternating between staring down the chest of the japanese lady in front of me to get a look of what the hell they were singing, or trying to peek at the machine nearest to me. For the former method, I think the japanese lady had a notion that I might have been a pervert and so she completely blocked my view of the machine by putting her back to me. As for the latter method, my eyes couldn't squint out the words and I could only vaguely make out lines and squiggles, hard as I've tried though. In the end, I just chose to listen and watch. It is sufficient to say that I was so glad when the second act ended and we made a dash for the exit.

Oh, but though I didn't appreciate the opera, the interior of the State Opera and just the experience of attending one of these events is well worth the money, especially if you have an evening free. The interior is smaller than I thought, with less decorations, more boxes. The people dress up to go to the opera. Even the people who came for the standing area, several of them were wearing gowns, shirt and ties. Some even had those binoculars thing that looked like an artifact from the 16th century. (No idea why they needed it though. Maybe to catch sight of a piece of dinner from the singers' teeth. Who knows? ;-P )

The other cultural thing (or maybe religious...) that we did was to attend Mass at the Burgkapelle, the imperial chapel that is located within the Hofburg Palace, which meant waking up really early to get there. It was more cultural than religious for me because I was really only there for the chapel and their main attraction: The Vienna Boys Choir.

For the uninitiated, the Vienna Boys Choir is one of the oldest choir in the world. Formed in 1498 by Maximilian I of Habsburg, it is now one of the most famous boy choirs in the world (from wiki). Their concerts are pretty always really expensive to go but if you wake up really early to start queueing at the chapel, you can listen to them for free, but, as usual, at the standing area which is along the main aisle. On our way to the Palace, we met this young man in a suit and tie on the metro who got off at the same stop as us. Using our impressive abilities of induction, we deduced that this guy had somethong to do with our destination and so we asked him for directions. Indeed, he was heading to the palace for work as one of the helpers and he kindly offered to lead us to the chapel. During the short walk, he told us a little about the choir, him being one of them several years back. He said that the boys stay in the choir for only four years and that the whole choir was actually mde up of 4 (I think) smaller choirs. One of them is the Schubert choir, from which he belonged. So today's (or that day's) choir was sung by one of those four choirs, not the entire troop of them. Still, it was pretty cool, I think.

It was an hour and a hlf worth of waiting again for the entry to the chapel. Oh, one could get seats in the chapel instead of standing, for 9 euros, if I'm correct. I find the whole "you must pay to enter the church" thing ridiculous but I'm not saying anything more on it...

The interior of the chapel is every bit as grand as the exterior of it. Sadly, I don't have any pictures on it, I used my friend's camera because Olympus gives blurry results in low battery and dim conditions. Bottom line: Come back in about a week's time...

In the chapel, the cameras flashed. When the mass started, the cameras flashed a little more for a while. At the end of the mass, when the Boys came out, it was mayhem... There was this slight sally of people forward to take the pictures of them that I got even more squeezed than I already am. They didn't even care about the commotion they were causing. Its a mass and it haven't ended yet, for god's sake. To top the whole absurdity of it all, when the Boys finished the ending piece, everyone clapped. Gee, talk about sacred rituals... It was like attending the opera yesterday all over again. I don't know what to feel or how to react. I felt a little ashamed for those who clapped actually... Ah well, I rather not talk about this furthur here else it might run on several pages (and I REALLY need toget back studying again). Anyway, it appeared that it is a common occurance since neither the Boys nor the priests batted an eye. That's that.

Moving on, after the mass, since we were at the Palace already, we decided to tour around the Palace, visiting the museums they have there. The stuff on display at the museum was not so much on the Austrian history but more on the decadent lifestyle of the royals of that time. Yes, we went to visit their Imperial appartments and an exhibition of the imperial silver collection. Silver as in the cutlery collection. Don't ask me why, but yea, we spent an hour looking at plates, forks, spoons and knives used by the imperial family. Interesting stuff though. Some were so expensive that one could probably buy a car from a set of these stuff...

The more interesting exhibitions were the tour of the Imperial Apartments and the SiSi Museum.

While not as over-the-top decadent and did not scream as loudly "Look at me! I'm Bloody Rich" as the Chateau de Versailles, the palace gave a good idea of how the royal family, especially that of the second last, but one of their most respected ruler, Franz Josef I of Austria, lived.

Yes, picture time. Unfortunately, again, the pictures are with my friends. Sorry about that.
I would love to describe it all to you, but this is one of the times where words would not do much good except for your optometrist's business. I will, however, put in pictures from the net. Hopefully, thats better than nothing.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2374/2293280257_094948dd06.jpg?v=0

Dining room. Oh, note the napkins on the plates. Evidently, the way the napkins are folded is a state kept secret that only 2 person know. There are holes in the napkins to allow bread rolls to be placed in them.

http://www.rumormillnews.com/images/Kaiser%20Franz%20Josef.jpg
The Emperor Franz Josef I... He seemed like a decent emperor. Really hardworking, loved his subjects who in turn loved him.

http://www.jci.cc/images/33/30/Empress%20Sisi.jpg

Empress Elisabeth (known also as Sisi) of Austria, the neurotic wife of Emperor Franz Josef I.
She's a real beauty, this lady. From the Sisi Museum (yes, named after her, with displays about her life) it seemed that she really liked the Emperor. Too bad that he IS the emperor, because that meant that she had to be queen. She hated the attention it came with being a queen and it made her a little weird. It could be inferred from the exhibits that the Emperor loved her that he overlooked her oddity.

How odd is she? Well, she was obsessive about maintaining her figure, exercises a whole lot that she even has gymnastic hoops in her room, traveled a lot to escape from the courts and was really adament on not showing her face in public in her later years (so much so that she always carried an umbrella or wore a veil in public). Can't blame her though. No one said that it was easy being a queen.

Ah shit, look at the time. I've been writing this for 2 plus hours... Need to study...
Next up (when I have the time) - Tour of capitals: Prague.

À plus!

A quick insert

2009-06-15T21:43:00.002+02:00

Haha, never thought I would say this, but I missed those raging thunderstorms back home.

The storms are pretty mild here. Usually in the form of a mild drizzle.

Right now, there is a storm going on outside but its magnitude is nowhere near the magnificent ones back in Singapore.

Ah, I miss the storms... But only when I'm safe and warm at home and not out there in the rain.

Tour of Capitals: Bratislava

2009-06-12T23:52:00.002+02:00

Bratislava is the little known capital of Slovakia, a country nestled in the middle of Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine and Poland. After its seperation from Czechoslovakia in 1989, the Slovak Republic was established with Bratislava being the capital.

Bratislava seemed to be the poorer brother of its former sibling, Prague. It reminded me, in many parts, of Malaysia. More of those less developed parts of Malaysia, like Ipoh. There are little skyscrapers or modern buildings. The streets are dustier, buildings look older and the general feeling of the place is a little dilapited.

There wasn't a free tour of Bratislava. In fact, we did not intend to go to Bratislava at all. I just happened to see it on google maps and saw that it was a capital and so slotted it into the itinery. A one day tour of the place to see how it looked like.

I didn't remember much about Bratislava. On the first day that we arrived, we heard that there was this food festival going on. Thus, we set out to search for it. We asked this man in the park where the festival was supposed to be held and he kindly offered to show us the way. Well, turns out that the expo that he brought us to didn't exactly sell food. It was an exhibition for coins and there was a 2 euro entrance fee that we got duped into paying. To cut the story short, we ended up looking at coins instead of food.

However, there is a silver lining.
In the expo, they have a food stall thingy going on that sold lunch. Being famished from all that walking, we decided to settle ourselves and make full use of our 2 euro entrance fee.

Although Slovakia is using euros, their prices are still far from the price in France or Vienna so that meant that we could still have a decent meal. I ordered a sausage and a soup. The sausage had traces of lard in them again, but it was better than the one in Budapest. It had more flavour... But what I liked from that meal was the soup. It was the sour cabbage soup that I had mentioned earlier. Ahh... I don't have the pictures cos its with my friends. Have to get it from them. But anyway, it looks like shredded vegetable soup, and it IS shredded vegetable soup. Its just that it is sour. Like tom yam soup, but not spicy at all. Yea, that is a pretty close description.

After lunch, we just walked around the old town. It was a bummer that the Bratislava castle was closed due to reparations and the other castle, Devin castle, was a pretty long bus ride from town. In the end, we didn't go to the important destinations and had to be content with just the old town.

There wasn't anything much that we hadn't already seen in our tours. But, I have to point out a very curious church that we visited - the Blue Church.

Just like what the name suggests, the Blue church IS blue. From the roof down to the doors.
The architecture is curiously like the one in Budapest and I could have sworn that there were turkish influences on the design of the building.
When we arrived, it was in time for a session of mass. There was this kind elderly lady who beckoned us to enter the church, saying (more like gesturing though, cos we didn't understand slovakian). Inside was also a curious study of design. Yes, even the interior was blue. Blue in the candy sort of way... So this must be how Oz looked like from Dorothy's point of view, except that its all baby blue instead of green. Hmm. Interesting.
All pictures from the Blue church was taken off the big WWW. I don't think it was polite of me to be snapping my camera when a mass is ongoing. But evidently, many people don't think the same way, as seen in Vienna when I DID attend a session of mass. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. That is another story to tell. Stick around a little while I finish up Bratislava.

Anyway, the main highlight of Bratislava had to be the food. Really, I'm such a pig. First thing when we arrived is always to check out the local food market. Haha. Its a nice place, a good place to find out more about the local people and their ways. And besides, they often sell great cheap food!

But no more filet mignon for me in Bratislava. However, I did stock up on plenty of junk food to bring back to Switzerland. I had bought 3 giant Snickers, an Ice cream (my first Ice cream since Singapore!! Gelato doesn't really count...) and 2 bagfuls of nuts and dried fruits. Honestly, I think I'm so healthy in Switzerland because I am too broke to spend money on junk food... A pack of chips for 2 Fr (about SGD2.70)? No thanks, man!

Also, evidently, the beer here is pretty good too, so we bought a can of local beer to try. Not too bad, a little better than Tiger, I think, but I still prefer the german beer that I can get here in Switzerland.

What else is there to say about Bratislava? Hmm... Not much, I think.

Perhaps it would have been much better if we went to the outskirts of the city to the Devin Castle. After all, I heard that the view there is nice. Too bad we had so little time.

Tour of Capitals: Budapest

2009-06-12T20:33:00.009+02:00

Budapest, the capital of present day Hungary, has a long and colourful history from its humble origins of a Celtic settlement from eons ago to one of the most beautiful capital cities of Europe. It is not a joke that Budapest is made up of two cities, Buda and Pest. Honest.

Anyway, we attended this free tour that was held by this really cool guide. A great tip for those travelling on a budget like us students: Look for free tours and attend them! Its a really cool way of getting to know a city well. One thing that I pretty much dislike about travelling is the fact that I can look at a building and not know its significance. For all I know, I could be standing on some historical noteworthy place and wouldn't know! Its like finding gold but thinking it was lead and throw it away!

But I digress. The free tour was really VERY informative. The tour guide was very helpful and very knowledgeable about the subject. Being a history graduate and had studied english at a local university, she should be! She spent like 30 minutes explaining the origins of Budapest, the language and the many dynasties that came to rule. For brevity, I shall omit much of the history here, but it makes the tour of the place more significant when one realises the history behind major monuments and appreciate the city more. For example, when we first arrived, we found the people here to be pretty gloomy, as in general sales people and those on the streets.

There wasn't any buskers around and the people seemed to be unwilling to help strangers (e.g. us) and sometimes they are just outright unfriendly. Even the service quality left much to be desired. But the tour guide explained that after the second world war, things were generally very bad for the hungarian economy. Hungary had amassed huge national debts and the economy is not faring well, and the people are shouldering the brunt of the damage. Many people are working 2 to 3 jobs just to make ends meet. The tour guide herself is also holding multiple jobs, this tour job being one of them (we give tips...). From the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire to the economy crisis, the Hungarians were just hit with wave after wave of bad news. No wonder they have such dour dispositions. Made me glad that Singapore has such a stable government that has means to adapt to most financial crisis.

Anyway, on to more happy thought, the views of Budapest is not too bad. The architecture is european but has a disticnt flavour from Switzerland or France. Instead, if I have to describe, I would say it is mainly european, but with a hungarian twist. It has its fair share of Gothic and Baroque styled magnificent buildings, just like France and the other european capitals. But there is a kind of touch that reminded me of Turkey.

For example, there are buildings there that have roofs of coloured tiles and rounded domes, not those onion domes of Islamic structures, but more like those absurd old french style parasols that are streched length-wards, like a mushroom. This was probably a reflection of the Turks' rule during their period of conquests and expansion.

Buildings like the Musuem of Applied Arts shows one of the many buildings that were built in this style.
From Wikipedia.

I won't bother you with the details on what I did step by step like I did in the France Chronicles, so I'll highlight the notable ones.

Lets see... We went to the Great Market Hall that was much featured in many books and guides. Pretty interesting, especially on the upper level where the cooked food stalls and the touristy trinkets could be found. I had my first taste of Hungarian cuisine there, where I tried their Hungarian sausage and a cabbage roll. Totally did not know that Hungarians eat lard like meat till a friend mentioned. The sausage had chunks of lard that were visible. If I don't think about the lard, the sausage actually tastes pretty bland. The sausage that my friend had was better. Slightly spiced with much lesser lard. I loved the way the people here do their cabbages. They have it sour here. I tried some cabbage that were stewed in vinegar, sour cabbage soup that my friend said bore a resemblance to kimchi and the aforementioned cabbage roll was just delectable. It was just noodles wrapped in cabbage but the whole combination was really good. Made me wonder how they did it. I could have asked the lady behind the counters, but I had this feeling that she might bite my head off...
The round thing on the top left is the cabbage roll, beside it is the sausage. Check out those pieces of fat in them (blow them up)!
It was in Hungary that I became a Thousandaire. The exchange rates were like 1 euro to 242 HUF. I had changed 100 euros, so that made me an instant thousandaire. I could finally say that I had thousands to spare!

The prices in Hungary are great for meat deprived people like me. I ate a very nice Filet Mignon in a cafe like place for 2790 HUF. For the uninitiated, filet mignon is probably one of the most expensive cuts you can find in a cow because it is the tenderest part and each cow only has a small portion of it. It could easily cost above SGD 50 at a restaurant but if you don't let the 4-figure sum deceive you, it set me back at about SGD 20 or 10 Euros. Not too bad a deal at all!! It was great and I felt so satisfied after that that I probably went to sleep with a smile. :-D Jealous? Too bad! Haha. In short, it was a splurge well spent although that meant I had to be prudent for the remaining leg of Budapest.

Besides the meat, I had also tried the pastries there. We went to a place called Retesvar that was near the castle and tried a hungarian pastry named Rete. Its a studel with sweet or savory. It wasn't too bad, but the prices were probably a rip off due to its touristy location. But I read from another blog that the Great Market Hall has a stall that has great Rete. Should have tried it there. But anyway, I also bought several other types of hungarian pastries from a bakery near our hostel. Not too bad. Nothing fancy, just normal stuff that is good for tea.

Budapest is also known for its many thermal baths and spas. Baths and spas were brought in from the Romans, who had found and built many of the baths that are present today.So, being set to try anything Hungarian, we went to a bath! Just nice, our guided tour led us to one of the biggest thermal baths in Budapest, the Széchenyi Spa. (I won't even bother trying to pronounce the name. We just called it the S bath...)

The bath was... an experience. The main outdoor pool is really just a heated pool with jets of water around and a cool whirlpool place in the middle of it. Great to just sit at a fet and let the pulse massage your body. The pools in the interior of the building are just heated swimming pools. Like a huge pot of water where people come in to stew in. The place would have been paradise if it were private and I could stay in it all day long. Unfortunately, it wasn't private and we had to get out sooner or later. When we got out, the sun had set and so it was ass-bitingly cold. We had to scurry into the toilets like a bunch of soaked mices to get warm because they don't provide towels beside the pool, but near the toilets down below. It was a great experience, getting to soak in the warmth of the pool while admiring the moon behind the domed roof ot the bath. Where is that glass of champagne when you need one?! ;-D

Well, that was the more interesting aspect of the tour. For other interesting aspects, lets look at the pictures to jog my memory...

During our tour, the tour guide pionted out that this statue of a king (can't remember his name) is really famous locally due to a legend that a bunch of university kids started. That bunch of university kids had a tradition that was passed down from seniors to juniors that if one touches the horse's balls, one would have a great love life. We met this american guy in the tour. Being american AND a guy, he dared my friends to touch the balls just for fun. So, much to our amusement, and to a group of german tourists, these crazy kids (not boring ol' me though) went ahead to touch the horse's balls. Of course the crowed cheered. One of them even filmed the entire process! Haha, it was really crazy fun. The horse's testicles are all golden from the many such escapades in the past. The horse had literal golden balls!

Oh, before I forgot, I had a new companion on this travel. Joining me, Jessica and Esther, we have another person from NTU, Nicole! She provides much wacky antics and lame jokes to fill the gaps of our travels. :-D

Left to right: Nicole, Jessica and Esther.

I've left out some historical stuff and instead focused on the fun aspects. Of course I visited many historical sites and places, like the many churches and cathedrales, the famous Hero's square, the ironically named Freedom monument (statue of Liberty) and many others. However, as I didn't take many pictures on this trip (I was a little lazy...) I would have to wait till my friends upload their photos on facebook before I can post them here.
Overview of the Pest side of the Danube.

I'm Back (again)!!

2009-06-12T12:10:00.002+02:00

Hello! I'm back from my trip with some stuff to share!! Unfortunately, the internet at my place is pretty much down. Something wrong with the server that had been going on for some time already, it seems. Thus, I would be typing it out when I have the time back at my dorm, then uploading it on blogger when I'm in school.

Right now, I'm supposed to study in school. Study study.... So much to do, so little time...

Slacking Sunday (or saturday...)

2009-05-31T22:28:00.003+02:00

It's really bad, I know.

I should be studying in preparation for my exams, which is in a month's time, but yet I am on the computer for all of yesterday and a few hours today. Can't help it. Will definitely put in a little quality time with my books within the next 2 days before I head to Budapest.

But before that, let me show you a find that I had just found!
I was pottering around youtube when I stumbled across accapella groups. So, by a stroke of curiousity, I decided to youtude The King's Singers. Well, for those who don't know who they are, they are a bunch of guys who sing together but on a smaller scale than a choir. They are pretty fabulous, as fabulous as singing accapella goes, and their songs make a good lullaby. But here, the one I found, is really funny and interesting.

Check it out!! Especially the guy who can sing a soprano!

"Deconstructing Johann"

Lyrics:

J. S. Bach had a little problem.
J. S. Bach was in a fix.
J. S. Bach couldn't find an answer.
What to do?

I've written most of a rather fabulous work!
Toccata, it's in D minor, but now I'm feeling a bit of a jerk.
I can't think of what should come after it.

Now, said his wife, who was resting up after her 33rd child.
Johann, my dear, you should just go to bed.
Something always comes up.

Don't be a twit!
It's a real crisis and I'm working to a deadline.
What can I fit?
What to fit after the great toccata
Maybe it needs to be something faster
I haven't got a clue
and in a week the piece is due
I'm in a panic.
I'm stuck like glue.

Don't get your knickers in a twist, Johann,
'Those are only notes,' you've always said.
There's only twelve so use your head
How many arrangements of twelve notes can there possibly be?

That's a problem I don't want to deal with
How many permutations on C and D and E and F and G, A, B is a thing that I never heard of.
You can leave that to Arnold Schönberg
He is the person to do that twelve-tone thing

No! No!
It isn't the answer, I haven't the foggiest.
What am I gonna do?
I'm all in a panic
Aaah, no.

What can I do?
I've finished my toccata but I have no fugue

(Phone ringing)

Ah... and now I've got the fugue!

From Wiki:
Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers.

In music, a fugue (pronounced /ˈfjuːɡ/) is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred to as "voices".

Done with it!

2009-05-30T13:29:00.002+02:00

I'm finally done with school!!
Hooray!!

No more cryptic assignments and tough labs!
Why cryptic assignments? Honestly, if you take a look at some of the graph theory or probability and statistics questions, you would have sworn that they are greek. Not to mention that some of the notes are reworded in a way that is makes cryptology a prerequisite module to take before figuring out what they are trying to say.

Ah, I'm done with school, now for the exams!

Oh, about the exams, they are 4 hours long!! It's like even longer than the longest exam I had ever taken. Not to mention that I am so unlucky to have 2 exams on the same day, from 8 to 12, then from 2 to 6. It would be 10 hours of non-stop pain...

I fear for my sanity at the end of that day...

Let's talk about the weather

2009-05-26T18:29:00.002+02:00

The weather is turning hot here recently.

With the coming of spring, the warmth is to be expected. However, what I did not expect was how hot this place could be!

The past week had been dreadfully like Singapore!! The temperature was as high as 32 degrees and was pretty dry. I would be sweating buckets by the time I come back from school and would have to jump into the shower or take a swig of cold beer to cool me down.

Sometimes I wonder if Singapore was the same, but then, the humidity in Singapore is much higher with the occasional wind and not to mention the obsession with fans and air-conditioning and other what-nots that we use to cool ourselves down. Here, the people don't even know the meaning of a fan. My room only has a heater and so, to get past those warm nights, I sleep with my window wide open, sans blankets. Just don't think about the bugs that come in and it would be fine...

The afternoons are the worst. The sun can be relentless and the dry heat makes one burn up faster than a toaster oven. I think the reason why I might return darker than I left would have more to do with the sun here than my escapades around France and Europe.

Luckily, right now, it is raining. A welcomed reprieve from the usual glaring evening sun in my room. Because my room faces the west, I get a generous dose of the evening sun. Mornings are great for me to sleep in, but the evenings are just too hot for me to even open my window beause the air in my room is much cooler thn the air out there. So, because of this fortunate reprieve, I am going to enjoy my first hot cup of tea since the end of winter and look out at the nice gloomy sky.

A Reason to Rejoice... For a while...

2009-05-22T23:29:00.004+02:00

YAY!!!

FINALLY! After hours of slogging in front of the computer and bashing my head against my laptop, I am finally done with programming in C!! Well, at least for this sememster.

Argh, it is pretty official that I hate C. And when it suits me, I hate Java and all the other programming languages too. Thank God my future career doesn't revolve around it. My future is SO secure! ;-p

I'm not going into a whole diatribe about why I don't like C, but if one's knowledge of C is amatuer at best and is suddenly forced to programme in the Kernel with C, the experience would be nothing short of extreme torture.

But it is over! And I can say, there is a certain sense of acheivement when I submitted my last assignment about 10 minutes ago. Hooray!! NO MORE C for the rest of the semester!! I am SO NOT going to take any programming modules when I get back...

Anyway, I went to Lucerne yesterday. It was sort of a "get-away"-from-the-homework-that-I-had-promised-my friend-sometime-ago and-so-can't-back-out-even-though-I-had-a-deadline-to-meet thing.

Did I mention that I had gone to Lucerne previously before this? Well, that was 2 years ago and I still remembered the Swiss Lion monument, the watch shops that the tour guide herded us to to collect those gift spoons and the chapel bridge. However, because we went yesterday, which was the public holiday for Ascension Day, all the shops were closed. But no matter.That place is really a tourist district. The stuff there are all so overpriced that what I could get there, I could most probably get them in Lausanne at a cheaper price.

It was really one unlucky day for me yesterday. First, I left the house with the aim to catch the 0821 bus to the train station so that I would reach at 0830 to buy my ticket for the 0845 train. I had reached the bus terminal right on the dot, but to my chagrin, the bus actually left already. Let me briefly mention that the Swiss transport system operates on the clock. If the train leaves at 0845, it really leaves at 0845 sharp and not a minute later. Thus, imagine my surprise when the 0821 bus left without me! In short, I missed the 0845 train, which meant waiting for an hour to catch the next train to Lucerne.

Fine, I admit that I should have gone there earlier and so it did not really piss me off that much. Besides, I could browse through the bookstore at the station, so I was fine for an hour. BUT, the train ride there had seriously pissed me off. Originally a two hour straight train ride from Lausanne to Lucerne, it became a three hour train hop due to a train malfunction at a particular station. Thus, I spent 3 hours on 3 different trains, two of which I was stuck with family with noisy kids that my iPod couldn't drown out.

It was a good thing that I had decided to purchase a day pass for the swiss transport. At 54 Fr, it was pretty expensive, but still a bargain if I factor in the train ride (58Fr) and the boat ride that I took in Lucerne. Yes, I took a boat from Lucerne to one of the outlying villages, Alpnachstad. It was a furthur 1 and a half boat ride, then a furthur 30 mins ride on the cogwheel rail up the mountain there. Yes, the view was amazing on the way up, but it was a little too expensive for me. In the end, I had to borrow money from my friend just for the 36 Fr ticket to go up. My day pass evidently does not cover it and it would be bad to make my friends stay down. Sigh, in the end, it was 90 Fr on transport alone... Way more than what I would pay for 2 months of transport!! I still feel that the price of that ticket was too much, regardless of the fact that the rail is the world's oldest cogwheel rail.
It is a historical landmark. Does it justify the cost? Maybe... The train goes up at an incline of 48% and it was really steep. Lets just say that if it weren't for the powerful braking system, it would have been one hell of a roller coaster down...

But the view up there was amazing. The sky was pretty clear then, so we could see pretty far. The only glitch was... my camera phone was acting up again, so what pictures that I had taken weren't saved. ARGH.... Never mind, I took a mental picture. It was cool. And you could always google for the pictures. Besides, the top was pretty calming and good for reflective thoughts. Enough thought for a half hour stay anyway, since we had to catch the tram down.

Anyway, we were left with so little time after that that we could only visit 3 places for sights. It was an express trek through the town to get to the places, like Paris all over again. Overall, the day was not really fun for me, spending 90Fr on transport and 7 hours on traveling (3 hours to go, 2 hours to Alpnachstad and back, and 2 hours back to Lausanne) was not my idea of fun. Then again, not all experiences are sugar and fluff.

But to be fair, it had its redeeming qualities. The streets of the not-so-packed Lucern is nice to wander around if we had the time, and the boat ride, expensive tram ride and the summit were all picture worthy and awe inspiring experiences. It just happened that it wasn't a good day for me to step out of Lausanne. Maybe next time.

Oh, did I mention that I'ld be heading to Budapest, Vienna and Prague at the beginning of next month, before my exams? It would be a one week affair with Bratislava as a day trip. Hopefully it would be fun and rewarding.
The Swiss Lion Monument. It is great as a Desktop picture! Its the desktop picture of the computer at home. ;-D

Scenic Saturday

2009-05-17T21:48:00.009+02:00

I finally got round to visiting Vevey and Montreaux yesterday.

After hearing so many praises about these two places and how beautiful they are for the past few months, I finally made the trip down myself to see what the fuss was about. Nah lah, actually, I just don't wanna get stuck in my room all day since I have a rare break from my deadlines. So, it was off to Vevey and Montreaux we go.

From my friend, Vevey and Montreaux was all about the lake-side view. Both cities are very close to each other on the shores of one end of Lake Geneva. But, besides the view, it was also the annual Museum Night for most museums in Montreaux and Vevey after 5 pm. That was a definite reason for me to go since the entry to Chateaux de Chillon is at 10Chf on normal days. What to do? Poor student on a tight budget could only go to places for a very good reason...

There was this weekly saturday market going on at the big square of the village and it just so happened that they were also having a huge sale on second hand books. All books selling for an unbelievably low price! But there was one bad thing about it. All the book were in French... Ah well, but it was still very interesting to browse through the titles. I bought an Enid Blyton book (in French, of course) for 1 Chf only!!! Cheap right! My friend had bought another book, a huge thick book on the adventures in Switzerland. The organiser of the store could not find any price tag on the book, so after thinking a while, he sold the book to my friend for 1 Chf. I felt very cheated after that, but ah well, I got a French book that I could actually finish! LOL...

We then got to Place de Chaplin, a little park where a statue of Charlie Chaplin stands, gazing out into the waters that are speared by a gigantic fork.

Yes, you've read it right. A huge stainless steel fork.

I have got no idea what the fork was for, but for Chaplin, it seemed that he was stayed in Vevey at some point in his life and so they built a monument for him there. I wonder if I became famous, would they build a monument for me here in Rhodanie? haha...

I digress, so let me get back on track by posting some pictures of me in Vevey.

The Enid Blyton book that I bought.
A French version of Jane Eyre that I didn't buy...
Along the streets of Vevey
The Fork that almost speared me. Look how pretty the background is.
A rendezvous with Chaplin.

After Vevey, we went to Montreaux for the next leg of the trip.

Little known to some tourists, Montreaux also has an old town. My friend, who had visited Montreaux countless times before, had actually not been to the old town, and so, we went exploring. The old town of Montreaux is charming, but of a different charm than the other old towns that I had visited, like in Nice or Yvoire.
Lakeside view inMontreaux

Because Nice or Yvoire are popular tourist destinations, the place would have some people on the streets, walking around or just sitting at the cafes, sipping tea, coffee or wine. But in Montreaux, the streets were almost deserted bacause everyone was down at the lakeside, soaking in the sun and sight. I'm not complaining, because the absence of people and the presence of many open shops and traffic made the stroll much more pleasant. And there was this spot in the middle of the town that had a waterfall in the middle of a neighbourhood. Imagine the residents there! A waterfall in the backyard, the magnificent view of the lake in the front! All the more spectacular without the tourists crowding around.The Backyard, and...
the front yard!

Montreaux also had its own Saturday market going on, but it was an antiques and other what-nots rather than food and bread. Many interesting stuff, but some of the stuff were overpriced, in my opinion. Still, it was an interesting experience.

We then walked a long way to the Chateaux de Chillon. The chateaux is in a neighbouring town, not in Montreaux, and so was quite a walk. Once we got there, there was a pleasant surprise.

I'm not sure if it was a usual get up for the Museum, but the people in the castle were dressed as medieval people! We were greeted by ladies dressed in the medieval gowns and there were musicians and jugglers performing in the main square in the castle. There were also several story tellers in different parts of the castle recounting stories to any who stopped to listen. I sat through a story on how one oarticular person became the bear constellation and another on Paris and Helen of Troy. Didn't understand much of it, but it was an interesting experience listening to strange ladies in long cream gowns, with belt and crowns of leaves, recounting stories in French.

A performer playing some strange instument. His right hand rotates a gear while his left presses on keys. It is like a mechanical violin-piano thing.
This guy can even perform techno songs on it...

Storytellers who had the rapt attention of both adults and kids.

A campfire....

To roast hot dogs on wooden sticks!! (Why isn't this guy in medieval costume like everyone else?)

The castle had been a source of inspiration to many writers and poets. Lord Byron was so inspired by a prisoner's account of his days in the castle's dungeon that he wrote The Prisoner of Chillon. Other famous authors who were similarly inspired were Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo.
Some lady who decided to freak everyone out by sitting near the entrance of the cellar. She was playing the role of the unfortunate maiden who had to sigh in dismay at the rate of growth of the weeds. :-D
Outside, in another part of the castle, there was a roaring campfire where tourists could sit around to roast some sausages. At 4 Chf a piece, it was a tourist blackmail. But the performers were performing there as well, and so we stopped for a little while to enjoy the show before continuing the tour.

After the castle, it was starting to get a little late, and so we decided to head back to Vevey to check out another museum there. Originally, we wanted to go to the Museum of Swiss Games. However, it was really far, about the same distance as the chateau was from the train station, and so we went to a museum that was much nearer, the Museum of Food. It was interesting. I was just glad that I ate dinner before entering, otherwise I might be tempted to pinch the displays off. :-P

Looks good enough to eat eh?

Evening view of the lake in Vevey.

Homework Break

2009-05-14T00:05:00.002+02:00

Hi,

Yes, I'm not dead from the work yet. And no, I'm not really serious about evolving into a total geek. Gintama is too much too give up on. :-D

Anyway, I sttended a showing of PolyJapan in school today. PolyJapan is a "club" that halds screenings for japanese shows, mainly animes, on a weekly basis. I know it was a slightly overdue visit, but I decided to pop by today's screening to see what goes on in the theatre since I had stayed back in school for an OS homework and had time to spare (since I finished about 2/3 of my stupid graph theory homework).

It was like a cinema, except that it was a lecture theatre. Someone brought in popcorn, and so it even smelled like the cinemas. They were selling japanese food outside the auditorium, like instant noodles and canned drinks from Japan. Evidently, the people here knows how to use chopsticks pretty well. My exchange buddy told me that most people here eat Asian food pretty often and so they know how to use chopsticks. Cool, but not really surprising.

There was nothing much to say for the show because I felt that the plot was really rehashed. Probably good for kids, but not for me. Gintama has spoiled my taste in animes... :-D Really, go check it out for a few moments of craziness in your life. Not suitable for too young kids though, if you get my drift. ;-P

ARGH!!!

2009-05-11T23:29:00.003+02:00

Annoying, annoying, annoying, annoying!!!!!

I've been staring at the same question for my graph theory applications homework for the past half hour and the problem does not seem to vanish from the question paper! Why didn't I have the power to glare away difficult questions?!

Argh!!!!

I feel so stupid sometimes. More so now that I'm in university than ever. University just makes me feel dumb. I look at those questions and I start to wonder if there was something wrong with my understanding capabilities. Why can't I seem to understand what the stuff is talking about? It doesn't help that these academic stuff seem to like to drown students in gallons of technical jargon and weird greek symbols.

Really, these people have to start to realise that the rest of the world is speaking english!

Its not just graph theory, but everything else too! I had gotten back the results for my latest prob and stats test and it was pretty bad. I don't think that it was a consolation that the test was just a "bonus" and that it didn't matter as long as one did well for the finals. Not when I happen to see a guy scoring 47/50 for the test, which was supposed to be difficult. And upon review of the answers, I realised that I didn't understand the concepts as well as I thought I had.

Argh... Seriously, I feel dumb...

The other modules, operating systems and digital photography, are still okay. Not like I am flunking them, but neither am I ace-ing them.

Was it a problem with my focus, or was it because I am not studying hard enough for it? Perhaps it was my study habits. I should start to reviewing the lectures everyday... Start to evolve into a total geek...

Dear all,

you are gathered today for the demise of the once fun-loving and vivacious Ho Jie Hui. She has vowed henceforth to become a total geek, devoting all her time to her studies and letting nothing come between her and her books except food, drinks, the occasional toilet breaks and Gintama.

With her evolution, it would not be surprising to see her sport thick glasses, messy hair with several bald spots (due to the excessive pulling of hair when frustrated) and a bad tea-breath from all the cups of tea that she consumes.

Let us take a quiet moment to reflect on the lost moments where she allowed you to annoy her because she had the time to be annoyed. Now, she would just be annoyed at her books. Joy to all who will be saved from her annoyance.

Amen.

:-D

Ahh... that feels much better. Hey, blogging (or whining about personal stuff) really does wonders for one's mood. Sigh... Back to staring at the next question of the homework. Damn...

Yvoire

2009-05-07T14:07:00.005+02:00

After working hard (or trying not to play too much ;-D) I decided to join my friends to a trip to France again. This time, it was on a tour, with a bunch of students, to the medival city of Yvoire.

Yvoire (yee-vo-ahr) is situated on the banks of Lake Geneva, which means it is about 2 hours of a leisure boat ride from Lausanne's Ouchy harbour. For 30 Fr, it was a pretty good deal. The trip included the transport to and fro with a guided tour of the city. Instead of saying that it is a city, it is more like a village that is really a tourist destination. Tourism is definitely the main trade there, as could be seen by the many shops selling really touristy stuff like toys or souvenirs.

One can certainly see how Yvoire got its reputation as one of "Les Plus Beaux Villages de France", or the most beautiful villages of France. It has a picturesque view of Lake Geneva and the buildings there are small and quiant (read: restored for tourism) and has a chateau, a garden and a church that are of tourist interest. Unfortunately, we did not visit any of these 3 places. :-p Well, it wasn't due to the lack of trying. For some reason that I did not catch (because the tour was conducted in French) the chateau seemed to be off limits and the garden had an entrance fee of 7.50 euros. Since all of us were not really interested in flowers and that we had only 1 hour left to explore, we decided to skip it. I think the flowers all around the village is impressive enough.

Indeed, you can really tell that spring is here. Not just the presence of the blooming flowers, but also from the swarms of flies that seem to decide on congregating in the village today. Maybe swarms was an ovverstatement, but the flies were definitely a nuisance. The absence of most insects is a definite plus for winter.

Moving on, the town of Yvoire has 2 ports and fishing seemed to be the number 2 dominant industry, after tourism. I didn't really understand what the tour guide was saying, but it seemed that in the middle ages, a duke realised the stategic position of Yvoire and decided to fortify the area in order to secure the lake for some battle. And thus, strong walls and the chateau could seen, restored to its formal glory as I believe, from its past disuse.

One could see that the French people took pride in preserving the place, even if it was only for tourism. The flowers looked very well taken of, the streets were clean, fountains of portable water were around. Even the medieval houses that are now shops and restaurants are all well preserved, with most windows having a trough of flowers adorning it.

Makes me think about Singapore. Sigh, due to the space constraints and the turnover rate of buildings, it is a miracle that we even have a building, not to mention several buildings, that are well preserved and still in use. I guess its because the usefulness of the buildings in a cultural and commercial sense (more commercial than cultural, perhaps) outweighs the costs of maintaining and replacing them with newer ones.

Anyway, picture time:
A monument for some war, I think, outside the tourism office. Note how the tulips are in bloom.
Tulips seem to be the favourite flower here.
The entrance to the village proper.
The chateau of Yvoire, as captured from over the head of an unknown guy.

Just a disclaimer: It is not that I like France in particular. I would LOVE to go to another country but it seems that just nice France is the closest country that I can go to without taking too much time to travel.

Anyway, I am planning for a trip to Budapest, Prague and Vienna with some friends for early next month, before the exams (I like to live dangerously... Or not...) That's 3 countries in a shot. Ha. Looking forward to it! Especially since I heard that one could get a good meal in Budapest for like 5 euros!

Definitely looking forward to some meat. MEAT!!! I can finally afford to eat decent meat then!!!
Not frozen, not in the form of some mashed up burger, but really SLABS of steak dripping with awesome-ness!

Ok, I better end the post here before I salivate all over my keyboard.

Ciao~!

Pictures Galore

2009-05-05T19:55:00.006+02:00

Sorry to take so long in posting the pictures. I had been busy studying for another test. Now that it is over (don't ask how it went...), I have a little time on my hands. So, here are the pictures!

Here are the three friends whom I travelled with. From left, Jessica, Esther and Felicia.
This is a park in France, near the Notre Dame.
This is outside a cathedrale that was closed in Cannes.
At Palais Longchamp in Marseilles
Some one was giving out free dessert as a promotion to their product. Free food means second helpings s'il vous plait!! :-D
A very cool picture of me taken by Esther. I look positively murderous!! :-D Watch out. Don't annoy me or I'll knock your head with my deadly camera and slap your face with my painful maps!

A quick break between studies

2009-05-04T20:22:00.001+02:00

I have forgotten how nice it was to have a shower without worrying that my teeth would shatter from excessive chattering...

Aftermath of the France Trip

2009-04-29T20:08:00.004+02:00

Hi!

Did you guys enjoy the Chronicles of France? Hope you guys didn't strain your eyes too much when reading those entries.

Anyway, I did promise to write about the weather before I left for France but I didn't have time, so let me make up by writing one now.

The weather in Lausanne is much warmer now. I can store the huge winter coat that I have and just wear the seater I have when I go out. However, the temperature can still get pretty cold sometimes, like the past 2 days where it had been raining.

We are in the transititon from winter to spring, although its now more spring than winter. The flowers are blooming and the birds are all coming out. Yea... Its definitely spring when the insects are out to bug you.

The trees were still bare and ugly when I left for France but after a few weeks, the leaves have grown back (and I realised that they were the same trees that I saw in France) and the neighbourhood seemed to have gotten more colourful.
This picture was taken just after I returned so the trees looked a little nicer.

Anyway, I had gotten back my results for the midterms. It turned out that I had not done as badly as I had thought I would get. Whew... The teacher was really very lenient in his marking (I think...) and so I got 58/78 (don't ask me why it had such a weird denomination) which is about 74%. Not too bad, but the average for the test was 80% (10 people got 100%... What the hell...) so I had gotten a little below average. But that grade seemed to be common, since the passing mark is 66% (or 4 out of 6 points).

Here, I don't have to worry about the bell curve, but I have to at least score 66% for a pass. Easier said than done... I'm trying. Its definitely not easy, but its attainable, something like the workload in NUS, except that its much easier since I don't have to make time for work and tuition.

Oh yea, I can post up the group pictures of me and my friends from the France Trip so I'll be doing that pretty soon.

See u ard!

How to read the Chronicles of France

2009-04-26T01:45:00.004+02:00

Dear people,

I have completed the Chronicles of France.
Unfortunately, I don't know how to post it such that the first book would appear right at the top.
As such, here is what I am going to do:
Click on the books below and it will jump to the proper pages so that you can read in order.

Book 1

Book 2

Book 3

Book 4

Book 5

At the bottom of each book is also a link to the next book, so you can read it all in one shot though I wouldn't recommend it as it would be too hard on your eyes...

Have fun!!

Last Book of the Chronicles of France

2009-04-25T21:59:00.005+02:00

Yay! Rejoice! We are at the last book of the Chronicles of France. 2 more days to go. Are you having a caffine high? Really, stay away from coffee. They leave your breath smelling bad.

Again, a gentle reminder to read this in a well lit room, with the screen 50 cm away from your eyes and turn off all your beeping devices!! (:-D)

Day 8 of the France Trip

I wasn't in the best of moods after being shocked awake so early in the morning, but since this was a vacation, my normal mood returned pretty quickly, after breakfast and a cup of hot chocolate at a roadside cafe. :-D I love doing that in France, especially in front of beautiful buildings. Its so frenchy...

We walked along the streets of Marseille and just explored the city since there were very little attractions to see. But, not before visiting some places that looked promising.

We wanted to go to Chateau d'If, the french version of Azkaban, opps, I meant Alcatraz. :-D
However, due to bad weather conditions, all the boats were not heading to the Chateau. And I quote the lady selling the boat tickets: "La mer, c'est ça" (the sea is like this) and her hand mimics the rolling wave action.

The port at Marseille is supposed to be busy with fishmongers with their fresh catch, but when we went there, it was pretty quiet. Perhaps we were too early... So, with our main attraction, Chateau d'If downfor the count, we had to go to the other places. So...

First, took a bus to the oldest abbey in Marseille, the abbey of Saint Victor, and took a look around. While there, we took a stroll (or rather, we got a little lost) around the area and saw this bakery that was famous for their navettes. Navette is a type of pastry that is supposed to be a Marseille specialty. I didn't buy my navettes from that store because it was so expensive! They were like 8 for 12 euros! No way!! So I bought the next best option, cookies. Haha... Anyway, while strolling along much later, I found another shop that sells navettes at a much affordable price, and so, I bought like 8 of them for 5 euros. So much cheaper right!!! But then I might just be paying for the brand and the packaging if I had bought at the first store.

Next, we went to the Notre Dame de la Garde, which was a really cool basilica. It is dedicated to Mother Mary with the aspect of her as the Lady for sailers and voyagers and so it has those marine crests around the basilica. Then, we to the Palais Longchamp, a really cool and magnificent place, actually, more like the facade of a palace, that had a huge fountain and really majestic columns. Great for pictures!

The Notre DameMe and the Notre Dame

Palais LongchampCloseup of the main guy in the fountain

After all those running around, we finally settled down and just took a seat at the opening of the port and watched the setting sun.

Day 9 of the France Trip

We checked out of the crappy hotel as early as we could and boarded the train to Lyon, making sure that we did not miss the train like the previous time. In the end, we were about 40 minutes early for the train. Ah well, more time for me to study...

We had breakfast at Macdonald's at the train station after before boarding the train to Lyon. It was my FIRST time eating Macdonald's in Europe. I hadn't even ate Macs in Switzerland cos it was SO expensive. But then when we saw the price for the brunch menu, it was really reasonable, 6 euros for a burger, a yougurt, 2 pancakes, a tea and an orange juice. I know, if you translate into SGD, it would be about 12 dollars and its insane to pay such prices for breakfast. But hey, we are in Europe, and 6 euros is really really decent for such stuff already.

So anyway, Lyon. Lyon was nice...

After checking into the hotel, we decided to chill a little in the nice hotel room and decide on our destinations. But the first destination that we have to head to was the tourism office.

Its like a habit. Once you get to the next town, locate the nearest tourism office to get a map and a transport pass, if needed. Maps are essential to travellers. I've lost count of the number of maps that I took from this trip. Many of them are pretty torn up by the time we left the city.

At the tourism office, we bought a city pass for the next day and I bought a book on Lyon. I figured that since we didn't know what was good in Lyon, and the picture book looked really nice, it wouldn't hurt to get one as a souvenir, like the one in Louvre or Chateau de Versailles. Never mind that my backpack was 10 kg and books are not the best things to bring along a backpacking trip...

Ah yes, did I mention that Lyon was nice... Its like a not so touristy Paris. Though Lyon has lesser attractions, it also has much lesser tourists, and it all added to its charm.
I think we are all suffering from the tourist-cathedral fatigue as we were already losing the enthusiasm of visiting churches that are out of the way. But, the Basilique Notre-Dame (another one for Notre-Dame) up on Fourviere hill is superb! Easily comparable to the Notre Dame in Paris! While the exterior is not as impressive as the Notre dame de Paris, it has 2 levels in the interior. The lower level is dedicated to St Joseph, the husband of Mary, while the upper level is dedicated to Mother Mary. Again, gold inlay, gold gildings, gold paint... Colourful murals, impressive statues, beautiful facades... The churches in France must have been really rich to do this huh?

Anyway, out of the Basilique, one could get a panoramic view of the city. Oh Oh!! Did I mention the very quaint tram that we had to ride to get up the hill? It was really something straight out of the old days! Too bad the picture I had for the tram was pretty bad.

Sorry for the sudden outburst... Umm... Let's see...

From Fourviere, we then walked down the hill and stopped by the Roman Theaters ruins that was near the Basilique. That place makes a great place for pictures too. I heard that it's used not for outdoor concerts.
On our way back to the city, we met this really nice lady on the bus. She was laughing at us during the ride as we were chatting about the places we should go to for dinner. Lyon was our splurge-for-dinner destination because we've heard so much (or rather it's my friend who had heard so much)about the gourmet in Lyon. Finally, unable to ignore her any longer, my friend said "why don't we just ask the lady behind you (me)? She have been listening and laughing at our conversation for some time already."

I was like: What? Are we embarassing ourselves? Not again?!

:-D

Anyway, the lady was really nice. We asked her about any restaurants or places where we could get good food for a reasonable price. Her instant answer was "In France?"
In the end, she pointed out a nice pub where we could have a decent meal and chill out for the evening for a reasonable price, and so, off we went to that pub.

So, to cut a long story short, we went to the pub, got dinner, then ordered beer on top of the wine that was included in the set. We all got rip-roarin' drunk and left the pub swiggin' on a bottle of wine.

Or so it would be if the alcohol was free and we were back in Singpore with someone to drive us home and we don't need to care about parents breathing down our backs. :-P

We had a fun time at the pub. We did order beer, but it was only2 mugs shared between 4 people, so it was ok. The food wasn't honestly great, but it was decent and affordable and the company was great. Thus, overall, it was a very enjoyable night. (The beers might have something to do with it too ;-D)
End of Day 9

Day 10. The last day in France!!

It was the last day of the France Trip and I was facing it with a mixture of Yes-I-get-to-finally-go-back-soon (I was kinda missing Switzerland... Or maybe just getting tired) and No-Aww...-I-still-wanna-stay-and-play-in-Lyon kind of feelings.

We checked out of the nice hotel that gave us extra towels and checked our baggage into the train station's baggage lockers before heading to the Old Town to do some exploration.

Today was basically a museum day, since our city pass includes free entry to museums and the free use of public transportation. We went to 3 museums.The Museum of Religious Art, The Museum of Automations and the Museum of Miniatures.

The first 2 museums were so-so, but the Museum of Miniatures was really awesome. Very detailed little pieces of art and stuff! One wonders how the creators don't suffer from extreme myopia...

After the museums, we went to this place where many shops selling Lyon specialties are. The place was really cool. I love that place... I bought a Lyonnaise Saucisson, cured meat that is a specialty of Lyon, and a big packet of soft sweets that I think is also a specialty. I was almost sad when we had to leave to catch the train back to Geneva.

It is very suficiant to say that I was very happy when I left France with a bagful of souvenirs and 4 blog posts full of memories.

Are you guys satisfied with my accounts?
Be nice, I spent an entire day typing these four posts instead of enjoying the nice weather at the lake. My eyes are about to pop out...

So as something nice for all you nice people who sat through god knows how many pages of stuff that I had written and almost 5 pots of coffee (are you still drinking that?) ...

A nice picture of me and the Palais de Justice in Marseille! And....
Me and the cheeses in the market in Lyon!
Autographed pictures are at 5 euros a piece. Grab'em while stocks last!! :-D

Book 4 of the Chronicles of France

2009-04-25T20:28:00.003+02:00

Ah... Hope you guys are not bored with the stuff yet. We are only at Day 6!! 4 more days to go!!

Day 6 of the France trip.

After checking out of the hotel in Nice, we boarded a train to Cannes, which is quite near to Nice. Everyone knows Cannes as the film festival place and honestly, I think Cannes is really ONLY a film place... In short, it was like Nice. Except that there was no old town for us to explore. Thus, we headed to the next best alternative after exploring the handful of touristy destinations the guide had for us.

And that brought us to Sainte-Marguerite Island.

The largest of the Lerins Islands, Sainte-Marguerite Island is better known for the fort that is there. Fort Royal is most famous for the prison that held the so-called Man in the Iron Mask. It mainly served as a prison for the royalty in medieval times and had seen many famous prisoners in its time.

Well, the island is pretty enough. From what I read, there was a lot of natural attractions on that island. It was better known for its natural attractions than the Fort. We didn't really explore the island because we had about 2 hours to explore the place before the last ferry leaves, so we only went to the Fort and the museum that was attached to it.

The Fort seemed pretty small, only about 2 stories tall and only the first floor was open for public. There were some scary murals done within the prison by some artist who voluntarily locked himself in to search for his inner muse. Also, there were exhibits that speculate the identity of the man in the iron mask but there wasn't anything concrete. The fort once held religious prisoners too, and so there were some interesting accounts of these christian pastors on exhibit.

The island was almost deserted. There were hardly anyone in the museum with us and that added to the scary factor of the Fort. But once you head out into the sun, the island would feel peaceful, almost idyllic.

For the most part of the remaining evening, there was nothing much worthy to say, except that we came into this nice Turking fast food restaurant that sold cheap (well, relatively cheap) food. The nice man behind the counter, after knowing that (and I quote my friend) "Je suis etudiante, je n'ai pas d'argent" or I am a student, I don't have any money, he very kindly gave us a jug of water (the others didn't seem to have one) and even offered me a dollar discount off my meal (mine was 6 euros, the others ordered 5 euros meal). How nice of him right! So people, next time you visit Cannes, go to the Turkish Kebab place that's near the fresh food market and patronise that shop. Just because he is a nice guy!

End of Day 6

Day 7.....

We head out of Cannes and to Marseille on Day 7. However, because we didn't check that the bus to the train station only arrives every 30 minutes, we were late for our train. After some exasperating conversations with the train ticket operators, we managed to secure tickets to the next train tht heads to Marseille free of charge, BUT at 3 hours later. So, with 3 hours to spare, we decided to hit the streets and do a little exploring around the city, the part that we haven't explored before. So, we sat in the sun and just lazed around the beach like a bunch of people on vacation, soaking up the sun in the freezing afternoon breeze. (Freezing? Yes, it was definitely freezing. It was sunny but cold because of the howling gales there.)

Anyway, three hours later, we were on our way to Marseille. A hiccup of the train service along the way saw us running after a bus to take us to Marseille after the train mysteriously stopped and we were ushered out of the train. Ah, my back was singing after the run. Singing with pain, that is.

I instantly took a dislike to Marseille after that.

For one, Marseille was almost as dirty as Paris. The people also seemed unfriendly and, although I know we should be used to it by now, they stare at us a lot. Like openly stare. I guess they don't really have a lot of tourists coming there huh...

Anyway, we covered 2 main "tourist destinations" in Marseille that afternoon. A copy of the Arc de Triomphe that was in Marseille and a block of flats that was special because it had each appartment (??) individually designed and it housed the offices for architects, a hotel and appartments that were for people to live in. An interesting appartment.

Since we took such a long time in getting to Marseille, we only had a limited time to explore before heading to the hotel for the night.

Oh ya, speaking of hotels, the one at Marseille was really one of the worst I've stayed in. It can almost rival the hotel that I stayed in in Hong Kong. It has a weird opening time for their reception (only in the mornings and evenings) and there is only one toilet for the whole floor to share. That meant going out of the room for the toilet but the shower is attached to the room (individual showers). And when one goes to the toilet, the auto light function might cause the corridor light to switch off by itself after some time and so you would have to grope your way back to the room. Argh, I can grouse about the hotel for another half page, but I don't think it would be polite...

Back to the story then...

On our way to the hotel, we stopped by a boulangerie (a bakery that sells a whole range of baked goods) for dinner. The shop owner was a very nice lady. We had a couple of incidents during dinner but she was very nice and cool about it. Before we left, she even gave us some pastries, free of charge! What a heart!

Ok, so I guess Marseille wasn't that bad after all...

That night, or the following morning, at about 6 in the morning, I felt the earth move. It was very slight, but I knew it was an earthquake, thanks to the stupid article that my friend happened to see on their local newspaper. The paper said that Marseille was near a faultline and was pretty likely to have an earthquake that was the aftermath of the one in Aquila in Italy. If I had not seen that article, I would have been oblivious to it and went back to sleep, assuming that it was just some fat guy rolling around in his sleep upstairs...

Nah, it's actually pretty unlikely that I would think that way since it really felt like the earth suddenly became like a wave, the whole hotel was like vibrating. And so, I could not get back to sleep, afraid that the stupid earthquake might wake someone up and they might start panicking and cause the others to panic. Sigh... Thankfully, they slept through it like 3 logs and hardly felt a thing. Ah well, I'm just thankful that it wasn't serious.

End of Day 7 of the France Trip.

Jump to book 5

Back to part 3 of the chronicles of France...

2009-04-25T15:48:00.006+02:00

I realised that I ran out of margarine after I had to throw out the little block that had looked bad after I returned from France... I don't think I can substitute margarine with cooking oil and the supermarkets are closed already... Shucks. So this meant back to dutifully typing the chronicles. Ah well, back to more of this then.

By now, I think it might be healthier to drink tea of chocolate instead. Too much coffee would be bad for your health. You could have some of the navettes that I had bought from Marseilles to go with your tea.
Just imagine it... Or lick your screen... :-D Just joking, just joking...

Remember to make yourselves comfy and read this in a well-lit room with the screen about 50cm from your eyes. Make the words bigger if you need by pressing ctrl down and scrolling the mouse wheel up...

Book 3, Chronicles of France
Day 4 of the France Trip

Day 4 was Easter Sunday, or Pâques in french and so, we decided to go to Versailles, the former capital of France after Louis XIV moved it there some centuries ago. Versailles is now just a suburb of Paris. A very fancy suburb.

Some of you would better remember it as the place where the Treaty of Versailles was signed at. To me, it's a place where a whooping castle and an equally huge garden is at. But as usual, there was a queue to get in, Luckily, we had bought our tickets beforehand and so we only needed to queue for entry.

The Castle of Versailles, Château de Versailles, is one huge and grand castle!!
Each room was lavisly decorated and sinfully furnished. I have never seen so many art pieces and gold in the same place before. Some of the pieces were the same as those in Louvre.

It was really cool! Each room has at least one painting or some gold somewhere. Really, the French Kings either had a lot of money or they were not spending their own money when they built this....

Words can't really describe the splendor of the place. That's what tours are for for you to experience it yourself. sigh, I wish I could properly express myself to tell you guys how awesome the place is. Even the pictures that I take when my camera is in a good mood is insufficient to do justice for such a place like that. So, for occasions like this, always be glad that there are guide books for the place! I bought the book on Versailles, so I can let the book tell you more about the splendor of the place - when you borrow it from me.
Pic of me in the famous Hall of Mirrors. There's really lots of gold here... And look, even the ceilings are completely covered with murals!!

The garden outside is, in my opinion, more noteworthy than the castle. Yes, gold is nice and all but sometimes the greenery is a nice change from that.

The garden is splendid! (I seem to use a lot of superlatives for this chateau but really, there is no other way to describe it!) I actually preferred the gardens to the chateau.

They must have hired a whole army of garderners to maintain this place! It looked great! There were statues of greek and roman gods, characters and others of the mythical world and many fountains.

The garden is so huge that it would take about 1 and a half hours of walking to finish the main path, and that is not considering the other trails that lead to other parts of the gardens! I can imagine that the french kings and Napolean would have ridden in the gardens. It would be really cool to explore the gardens on horseback!! But alas, we only have our feet to bring us around, and due to time constraints, we decided to just settle ourselves by the lake (THEY HAVE A MAN MADE LAKE!!!) and enjoy the view.

Pictures, pictures!!
This was taken by me...
This was taken by a professional from some website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alessio72/1278478665/

End of day 4.

Are you still with me? Ok good. It might get boring now, since we are out of Paris now. After all, 99% of the French attractions are in Paris, no? :-D
Alright, for the staunch-hearted, let's trudge on!

Day 5 of the France Trip...

We boarded a plane from Paris to Nice, which was just about 1 hour 30 mins away. After putting down our bags at the hotel (Thank god for that!!) we went exploring to the old town of Nice. The last time I was in Nice, it was just a stop over for a hotel, and so, I was curious as to how the city itself is like.

Old Nice is a charming place. The narrow streets and the easy pace of the people reminded me of that impression of Paris that I had at first. Narrow streets that wind and turn so that one can lose themselves to the charm of the town and people who are in no hurry to get anywhere. They can stop and say a few "konichiwas" or even strike up a conversation that is not too creepy.

We didn't really explored much, just a handful of touristy places that were on the map and guidebooks that labeled them as must-sees. We really took our time with Nice. We ate at one of those restaurant that was at the foot of a historical church out in the sun with a busker strumming classical tunes on his guitar. Some time later, a singing lady came to busk for money near the restaurant too, so we had lunch in the sun, at the foot of a beautiful church and to the music of authentic french songs (the lady was singing Edith Piaf!!). And for after lunch dessert, we ate gelato from the stores nearby. How great was that...

One thing to note was the italian influence in Nice. Because of its proximity to Italy, Nice has many italian restaurants and gelato stores are a common sight.

Before dinner, we strolled to the flea market and looked around a little before they closed for the day. There, we met this lovely lady who was manning a store. We struck up a conversation and chatted a little, IN FRENCH!! I am very proud to say that I understood 90% of what she said and that we had a decent conversation! (She was speaking slowly in easy words and pronouncing her words, so she was easy to understand)

We spent the remainder of the day sitting by the beach and watching the sunset.

In all, we left Nice with a very nice feeling.

End of Day 5...

For continuity's sake, I'm going to end book 3 here. See you in book 4! Before that, here's some pictures of Nice.
The narrow streets of old Nice.
Spring is in the air!
Beer and Lemon Gelato!

Jump to book 4

The rise of the iced coffee

2009-04-25T13:10:00.004+02:00

Ok, grab that unfinished cuppa from the fridge and lets continue where I left off yesterday.

Book 2 of the Chronicles of France

After lugging around my 10kg bag all over the 1st district of Paris, I was looking forward to having a good night's rest at a friend's friend's apartment. So, after meeting up with the aforementioned friend's friend, we headed to his place.

I'm grateful to have a place with a bathroom, toilet and heater to sleep. (That's all I'm gonna say.)

The next day, we woke up real early to get a headstart for the day. Or at least, that was the plan. By the time everyone got over our fatigue, it was already 10a.m. So we hastily cleaned ourselves up, ate breakfast, and headed to our first destination, Champs-Élysées.

Known to be "la plus belle avenue du monde", the most beautiful avenue of the world, it would be just that if there wasn't so much traffic and noise around. It really is just a much prettier Orchard road with more prestigious labels along the road, less glass and concrete and more stone and brick with lots of additional details on the buildings. Not to mention that there are monuments marking the start and the end of the street.

Most people around the world would be more familiar with the Arc de Triomphe, the huge Arc that marks one end of Champs-Élysées. The Arc is magnificent from afar. Champs-Élysées is really a very beautiful street. The rows of trees that flank the street, the architecture of the buildings and monuments at the end of the street regardless of which direction you take, it all has a very French-y effect (pardon for my lack of a better expression).

We mainly walked down the street, soaking in the atmosphere of it all while making our way to the Arc. The shops were just too expensive. Don't bother walking into shops that remind you of how poor you are... However, that being said, one couldn't resist going into Louis Vuitton. Well, one would be blind to miss the huge LV sign (gold plated, no less) on top of their building. I spent some time wandering around the interior of it while waiting for my friend to choose a bag (She used daddy's emergency credit card). I tried to call home to ask if anyone wanted anything from LV while I was here, but funnily, no one picked up the phone. Ah well, can't blame me for not trying...

After my friend purchased her LV bag, we went to the cheapest place we could find on Champs- Élysées for lunch and had our meal like a French, out on the sidewalk watching the traffic go by.

Next up, we went exploring around the other parts of Paris. My friends wanted to go to this place that sold really great macarons, Pierre Hermes. It was a piece of whatever-flavoured-macaron-you-had-bought heaven in your mouth for a price of 1.65 euros (about 3.30 SGD) for a little one. Its expensive, but really, you have to try macarons in France and Pierre Hermes is as good a place to splurge on as LV or other luxury goods. We bought 5 each (it came in boxes of 20s) and so I tried 5 different flavours of heaven. Was completely happy for the next few hours... :-D

All righty, next, we went to the Louvre. Was looking forward to it the whole day. The whole museum was filled with artworks! There were 3 levels, each with 3 parts to it. I spent more than 3 hours there and I had only went to abput 5 parts in total. I went into the part where Mona Lisa was kept but guess what, there was a whole swamp of people there pushing against the barricade, trying to take pictures of the painting.
See what I mean?
Frankly, I find it very amusing. There is like a thick layer of glass in front of the painting, a security guard and a barricade around that painting. It was the only painting that I saw that had such a treatment. But then again, it was the only painting I saw that had such a crowd around it.

Walking on, I explored the sculpture collection, italian and french painting collections. There were so many things that were picture worthy and I had to remind myself that I have limited battery and space for them. But I did buy a book on the Louvre and its collections. After all, they have better pictures and more explanations than the french ones that were available. (Why would an international museum like the Louvre only have explanations in French? C'est bizzare!)

Anyway, after the Louvre, it was already pretty late into the night, so we went back to sleep.
End of day 2...

Paris is really a tourist destination. One can instantly tell by a couple of indications.
1) tour buses
2) Hordes of people that are herded from destination to destination
3) Long queues at ticket booths to monuments.

The third day of our France trip started off with a tour of the Eiffel tower. Unfortunately, there was such a long queue for the tickets that we had to stand in line for the tickets for close to 2 hours. After that, we still had to queue for the lift to get to the top of the tower. That made a total of 3 hours of waiting just to get into the lift of the tower. It was exasperating and I was thankful for once that I had brought along my notes to study.

The view from the Eiffel Tower was amazing, as predicted, but nothing that you haven't seen from the Notre Dame. At least the Notre Dame had gargoyles and chimeras to pose with. But then again, it's just a touristy thing that one should do when one is in Paris. Thus, that 3 hours of queuing was well spent in my opinion.

For lunch, we met up with a friend of my friends who was also in Paris at tht time. We went to this little African restaurant that had just opened. The restaurant owners were nice. We even had a free glass of champagne to celebrate their first day of opening! The meal was pretty nice. I had blood pudding as appetizer (a friend chose it and I didn't know what it was at first, but it was really nice! Especially with the salsa that went with it!) and beef stew with rice for the main course. It was expensive to us, but probably cheap considering that it was Paris.

After the lunch, it was back to wandering around Paris. We visited Sacred Coeur and La Defense. The trip to La Defense was especially unforgettable.

La Defense is the business district of Paris, with nothing much to see except its Grande Arche, so it was a pretty boring trip that would be a waste of time. Or so I thought. But I was sorely mistaken, thanks to a very nice old man who took the time to show us around the region!!

This weird old man was really a nice guy! He introduced to us the other side of La Defense that was underneath its glass and concrete skyscraper facade. He was very entertaining and funny, sharing with us the art pieces and statues that littered the district like monuments do to the heart of Paris. This was the part that I liked about backpacking! The people that one gets to meet, the experiences that one would experience that is so different from the scheduled experience that tours tend to have. We would have NEVER met this strange man if we were in a tour! It was really great!

Ah... I should stop now for your sake. Its the end of Day 3 in France and I have 7 more days to go. While I don't think that I would have as much stuff to write for the later days, it is not a good idea to make you trudge through a few pages worth of blog post. Hell, you have a great deal of patience if you made it so far (with the help of several pots of coffee, I suppose).

So, i'll go make myself a btch of those cheese thyme biscuits while you guys rest your eyes a little.

A bientot!

Jump to book 3

Chronicles of France

2009-04-25T00:02:00.006+02:00

Hey people!!

I'm really really sorry for putting this off for so long. Its been a heck of a week since returning from France. Let me just grouse a bit about my studies first, s'il vous plait.

I had 2 midterms on the week after my return from France. So, in order to prepare for it, I had to carry around my file of notes for 2 subjects (it must have weighed 1 kg!! Way too heavy for my 10Kg bag!! But add I must, for I already feel guilty that I am not staying in Lausanne to study...)
Yea, I know you are doubting my ability to study during the trip, but I must say that I tried!! In the end, I only managed to study finish one subject (operating systems) which was pretty good, considering my only time for studying were during the flights, train rides, waiting in LOOOOONG queues in Paris, and the little time I had before bed.

Don't ask me how the midterm for Operating Systems went, though. I'ld be too depressed to tell you... Conversely, the other subject that I DIDN'T study so hard for (Graph Theory Applications) came out pretty ok. 20/30. Not impressive, but my teacher said that I did well (my teacher is a very nice lady, that's why). In any case, it was way better than I expected.

But anyway, I know you guys are itching for me to get on about France, so settle yourselves comfortably with a cuppa and some chocs or biscuits. For your comfort, please turn off all beeping devices and read this in a well lit room with the screen about 50 cm away from your eyes.

Let the story begin....

Long long time ago, or rather about 2 weeks and 2 days ago, 3 friends and I boarded a really early train to Geneva Airport to catch our flight to Paris. Initially, I was worried that my huge-assed backpack that weighed 10kg would not be allowed as a handcarry bag onto the plane. Luckily, after much pushing and punching, I managed to squeeze the bagpack into the measuring space for hand-carry. The 10kg bagpack was a little snug in the corners, but fit it did. And so, it was ok to be brought on flight.

The 1-hour flight was uneventful (what else could you say about 1-hour flights?) and we landed in Paris at around 8 plus in the morning. After spending too much time in the airport to settle some stuff (like to buy our transport passes and get maps and information) we finally arrived in the paris Paris!

We went straight to touring the place and I found out why people kept calling Paris the city of romance (or smth like that, I think). For one, the streets were just lined with buildings and trees that look really postcard worthy. There were so many statues and decorative carvings around the city. It was like the kings just decided to litter the city with statues of themselves and various carvings just for the fun of it. The trees are also something note-worthy. This particular species that line the streets of Paris has leaves that are translucent and so, instead of a shadow, the tree casts a green hue on the ground. Very romantic if you are at a park with those trees as shade.

Really, Paris is almost as bad as Rome when it comes to touristy spots. Like Rome, you could virtually turn round the corner of a neighbourhood and go, whoops, there's another monument/statue/cathedral to see. Its almost annoying in that sense. They just have so many bloody monuments!!

Sigh.... Ah well, back to the main story, if you are not bored.

To cut a very long day short, we didn't really visited a lot of places, but we did walk past or spotted many attractions (well, you can't really miss the Eiffel Tower thats sticking out over the short european buildings...). The highlights of the day was the Notre Dame de Paris.

Boy oh boy, the Notre Dame is one magnificent cathedral. Definitely a must-see in Paris, or France. Just the exterior of it is spectacular already! It must be, since we walked like 3 times round the cathedral and taking pictures of it from most possible angles. Yea... we didn't mind circling the cathedral so many times since it was so magnificent.

The interior of the cathedral was amazing as well. I don't take many pictures of the interior of churches and cathedrals as a habit but I had to stop myself from taking too many pictures since I had to reserve space for the remaining of the trip. However, my camera does not work best under the dim conditions of the cathedral interior. Thus, sadly, I had to delete all the pictures that were too horribly taken to be seen.

We also climbed up the bell tower of Notre Dame, the same towers where Quasimodo prowled in Victor Hugo's famous novel.

The experience was breath-taking. Literally.

Imagine this: Carry 10 kg of luggage on your back and wander through the streets of Paris for 3 hours. Then, climb up 400 stairs of the Notre Dame's bell towers with the same bag in ultra narrow, claustraphobic-inducing stairways and medieval stone steps. Imagine my euphoria when I came out and someone told me that I had to climb another 200 steps up!

Now, if you can't catch sarcasm, before, I'll tell you blatently that I felt like punching the face of the guy who said "Pas fini. Allez, allez!" (not finished yet. Go, Go!).

But believe you me, the view at the top is definitely worth the excruciating climb.

It was of a good weather that day in Paris and so we could see very far off the city. The top of the tower could be traversed, so we could get like a 270 degrees view from there. It was really great to be amidst the gargoyles and the saints of the cathedral's facade, looking down on what they have been staring at over the horizon. Not to mention that I can now boast of climbing 400 steps and making my way gingerly down after that with a 10kg backpack on my shoulders!

Ah... Due to time constraints (or rather a biological need to sleep immediately), I would have to continue this tomorrow. But in all, this concludes my first day in Paris. Well, almost, since there's more on the first day than just this but I need to leave this for tomorrow.

Most of you would have finished half of your cuppa already. Perhaps you can put it into the fridge to enjoy for part 2 of Jiehui's Chronicles of France.

For now, some pictures of the first day...

The trees that I was talking about.
Me and my 10kg backpack
Of gargoyles and chimeras that loom off the towers of Notre Dame
The facade of Notre Dame. I know it looks small, but its actually long, so its bigger than it looks.
Me, my huge-assed backpack, and a nice picture of the Notre Dame.

Till tomorrow then...

Jump to Book 2

I'm back!!

2009-04-20T21:08:00.002+02:00

Hi people!

I'm back from France with much to share.
Unfortunately, I've got 2 midterms coming up and a project to due soon (yes, I am a bad student) so I can't give a full account.

Be patient. I will devote my weekends to a full blown account here.

Ciao!

A day's trip to Basel.

2009-04-04T22:14:00.006+02:00

I've been kept plenty busy this past week studying for one midterm and finishing up the report on another that I don't have time to do anything fun. But ah well, next week is the Easter break that's coming up, so I'll be going to France this Thursday!!

However, I did go someplace today, like most other Saturdays. Saturday is like the only time I have of the week to go out to play... Ah, but anyway, I went to Basel today with several other friends to pick another friend up from the airport there. And since we're there, we took a quick look-see around Basel.

Basel is located in the German part of Switzerland, a good 2 hours plus ride by train from Lausanne. It's an old city, with many museums and old style architecture. Basically, we had limited time to visit the places we wanted to visit, so we only visited like a handful of attractions in Basel. But what stood out from the attractions that we went to was the City Hall and the Münster.

The City Hall (or Rathaus in german) is this red building in the Marktplatz (I'm guessing it means Marketplace...). It instantly grabs one's attention when you walk into that area. Its red walls stands out against the other buildings around it. The exterior walls are as colourfully painted and decorated as the inside of the place. Although I don't think we went in deep enough into the building to see how the building got its name, the decor of the building did impress me. I realised that murals are a huge thing in the old european times. Many old and important buildings that I visited had some kind of impressive murals somewhere. Even ordinary buildings have smaller murals that looked pretty nice. The only mural that I remembered seeing in Singapore was the Mr. Bean thing on the side of this building. I would see it when I'm on the train to school. Can't remember which area though... Somewhere in the west, if I'm not wrong.

After the City Hall, we walked on, following the route on the maps and visiting some odd statues and fountains here and there. We got to the river Rhine and this lady told us that we could take a boat across the river to get to the Münster pretty quickly. So, after a pretty enjoyable ride, we got to the Münster, which is another place that is pretty nice to look at. Its a church and there was a service going on, so we couldn't enter the church area. But we did explore the interior a little (where it was permissible)and take a few photos.

Nothing juicy to talk about Basel, actually. Maybe 'cos I spent too little time there. Maybe the next time there would be better. But for now, pictures!

This time, I shot entirely with the Olympus and my shaky hands somehow got less shaky today so I got a few more decent pictures than usual.
A picture of the Basel Theater. Just walked pass it, didn't enter, but from the ads outside, it seemed like a pretty hip place to go for a play or a concert...
The City Hall. Had to shoot at an angle to capture the clock tower...
Interior of the City Hall (1)
Interior of the City Hall (2)... The entire building is painted red with the murals painted above it.
The Munster from the opposite bank of the river Rhines
A nice shot of the Munster (well, at least I like this shot)

Random picture of me with a fountain. That statue is a dragon. Not very obvious, I know...
Well, stay tuned for pictures from the France trip. I'm looking forward to it.

I have to finish up any work that I have on my hands so that I can go to France in peace for the entire week so that means I might have nothing interesting to write about.

Shall I talk about the weather then? We'll see...

Until then, stay tuned. (yes, u can gloss over my entry on the weather. It will come in 4 days, before I leave for France... I forsee that that entry would be particularly boring.)

Chocalate Festival at Versoix!!

2009-03-29T00:43:00.005+01:00

It's the annual Chocalate Festival at Versoix, Geneva again and this year marks the 5th anniversary!

The festival was located in Versoix, a town that's in the canton of Geneva (yes, Geneva is the name of BOTH the canton AND the cantonal capital city) and is about 1 hour train ride from Lausanne. That town has several famous chocolatier, one of them being Cartier

I had been looking forward to it this whole week! Must have my fill of chocolates today!!

It was a less than enthusiastic start for the festival. It was raining for most of the day. Not those howling storms like back in Singapore, but still it was much colder and wetter than what I would have liked. I was enough to make me open my difficult-to-open umbrella and damage my friend's not so sturdy one. However, the day got increasingly better.

Well, first of all, a lovely helper lady told us that there was a free "choco train" ride to take us to the destinations in the town. That saved us the misery of trudging through the town like a couple of wet dogs... Next, There was a string of chocolate tasting at a chocolate factory that gave out fondue sticks as door gifts. Now I have a bunch of fondue sticks to add to those at home. Then, just when we were unimpressed with the size of the fair, we stumbled upon the place where all the main action was taking place.

Yeah, bring on the chocolates, man!!

It was really great!! Not to mention packed with people. The festival showcased several chocolatiers, mainly from Switzerland and France, with free flow of clhocolate and fondue to taste. Too bad the chocolate pieces were so small.

There were one or two that tasted weird but overall, the chocolates were great!! It was delicious, marvelous, any other adjectives that one could use to describe that piece of cocoa heaven that melts in your mouth!! There were a couple of samples that were really able to send one to heaven. Sigh, unfortunately, I only have that much money to spend and a piece of heaven, no matter how small, still has a hefty price tag attached to it. Sorry guys, I can't bring back a piece of heaven for you, but no worries, I did manage to get chocolates. Hopefully it's enough for all of you...

Anyway, after the main attraction, there was not much left to see in the town, so we decided to stop by Geneva on our way back to do a little exploration. So off to Geneva we went.

We didn't really visit many places in Geneva, just a couple of destinations, the Patek Philippe Museum and the Jet d'Eau.

I loved the museum!! Or rather the pocket watches that were on display. Really, I'm not that into Patek Philippe's watches but their pocket watches are some of the most intricate and detailed master pieces I have ever seen. The details on the cover, the size of the watches, it all makes one marvel at their ability to craft such pieces! Imagine! being able to craft a pocket watch smaller than the size of a pea, in the 19th century (1800++)! It was most impressive! I've never spent so much time in a museum and not get totally bored at the end. Definitely worth a trip down for those who like such stuff!

Jet d'Eau, literally means water jet, is the most famous landmark of Geneva (or so wiki states, but honestly, I've never really heard of it... :-P But I think I remember seeing it on a brochure somewhere, so I guess it's pretty famous) What can I say about a water jet?.... It's nice, yes, but that's all. If you ask me it would be a huge waste of money to spend all that electricity to pump water that high for asthetic value. But well, thats just the pragmatist in me speaking. No offence to any one out there.

And look what I saw in the tourism office? Its the return of the Blue Cow!!

Additional pictures from the Olympus camera...

2009-03-29T00:14:00.011+01:00

Hey! I finally bought some batteries for my camera!
You have no idea how much these cost here!! I only got them because they were for sale.
A pack of 16 AA for 14.90 instead of probably 20 plus francs. Its still way more expensive than what I would spend, but at least now I can use my camera instead of leaving it in the dorm when I go on excursions. I did buy rechargable batteries, but I think those got so litttle power that Olympus refuses to even start with them. Sigh, if I had known, I wouldn't have been a cheapskate and bought those expensive rechargables before I came...

Anyway, with batteries, I can finally upload the pictures that were in it. (Some stupid design that need batteries even when its plugged into the computer...)

There isn't many places covered, since I mainly shoot with my camera. Thus, only a couple of pictures from the school and the rest is from the Gruyeres trip where I borrowed batteries from my friend.

Pictures of my school campus. Taken on my first trip to school (2nd day of arrival)

Mural depicting a scene of a wall in Gruyeres castle (left)
Scene as seen from the castle (right)

The small town of Gruyeres (which is located ALL the way at the top of a hill...)

Clockwise from top left: The garden within the castle walls, one of the rooms in the castle, another room in the castle.

Its not that Olympus is a bad camera, it's just that it sucks away a lot of battery, I cannot use my rechargable batteries on it, and my shaky hands produce sucky results.
I honestly need a camera with anti shake detection capabilities...

To prove my point, I've deleted close to 30MB worth of pictures on my camera just because it's too blur to look at.

Yes, I'm a terrible photographer...

But oh!! Let me share with you my favourite picture from Gruyeres...

Nice huh?
Its a stained glass window of one of the rooms in the castle. It turned out great!!
It will be the desktop picture for my new ubuntu OS that I installed!!

Now I have 2 OS to play with, whoopie...

An exchange student's subsistence

2009-03-24T19:18:00.004+01:00

Remember that I had mentioned there were 2 hypermarts here in Switzerland? One is Coop and the other is Migros?

They are my source of subsistence. Migros for its budget items and Coop for the variety.
But really, once you take a look into my food cupboard and fridge,you will know which hypermart I frequent...

See the big M behind the budget labels? It stands for Migros.
Migros' budget house brands are big and/or cheap and mostly for stuff that could be kept for some time.
Its not the tastiest (like the yougurt, mayo and mustard) but its cheap! and it fills my stomach on an exchange student's budget in an expensive country.

I went grocery shopping today and realised that all the stuff that I had bought were Migros' budget stuff... (except fot the pasta sauce, cos Migros doesn't have a budget for that)

Even my chewing gum is a huge pack that cost only 3 Fr. Not the best tasting ones, but at least I've got something to get rid of my dinner breath.

Now I'm waiting for the Migros budget pack on fresh meat. That might never happen though...

Oh yea, the Easter holidays are coming soon in about 2 weeks. I'll be going to France with some other singaporen friends!! Paris, Nice, Cannes, Marseille and Lyon on a 9 day whirlwind trip.
Expected to spend a bomb on it...

After some calculations on my expected expenditure, I might need to survive on just Migros' budget stuff for the remaining of my months...

Thin walls

2009-03-22T21:29:00.002+01:00

Have I mentioned that the walls of my room is really thin?
I can hear what the people in the kitchen (2 rooms away) are doing if the raise their voices a little.
Right now, they are singing at the top of their lungs some italian song. Seems like they are having a smashing time. Oh yea, most of the people living here are italians, don't ask me why, but they are a nice bunch of people. They just like to have fun till a little too late into the night.

Oh yea, I just realised how thin the walls of my room are when my neighbour (who is an italian) sang along with the bunch outside while he was in the room.

I was suddenly very aware of the times where I crowed along to my ipod or whistled in my room... How they must be laughing in their jeans if they had heard me. I'll try not to die of embarassment the next time I meet them...

Ohmygawd math...

2009-03-19T19:34:00.004+01:00

Today, I was having graph theory classes.

It was boring and confusing, as usual.

Suddenly, I heard "... ohmygod G is the number of connected components in G."

Ohmygod? Whats ohmygod G?

I looked up at the board (I was writing something) but I still couldn't find anything to suggest that the teacher was suddenly feeling pious.

Several moments later, it became clear...

"... so, k = ω(G)...."

its omega...

To borrow something from colloquial language, LOL!
I must be staring too hard into my notes...
Note to self: Pay attention to what the teacher is saying from time to time to avoid embarassing yourself by bursting out laughing at him...

Sigh, its stuff like that that makes my day. :-D

The medieval town of Gruyeres

2009-03-15T21:12:00.007+01:00

Today's trip to Gruyeres was every bit worth the money and time I spent on the train, as well as the steep hill that I had to climb to get there. If I had said that I liked Bern, I loved Gruyeres.

Gruyeres (pronounced gRu-yeaRhr, yea its tricky...) is a town located in Fribourgh, a city just a stop away by train from Lausanne. A medieval town that dates back to the early 12th century, perhaps even earlier, it is probably best known for its pride, the cheese, Gruyere.

Besides the cheese, Gruyeres is also known for a tourist spot, mainly due to the Chateau de Gruyeres and the HR Giger Museum there. Most die-hard sci-fi fans would probably squeal at the mention of HR Giger, the noted creator of Alien. Alas, I''m not much of a sci-fi fan but more of a fantasy fan, so the Chateau was just to my liking. No wonder I love that place! A castle on top of the hill, surrounded by the huge mountains (a skiing destination) and the picturesque backdrop of unmelted snow, its a scene straight out of those Goodkind or Eddings books.

Let me gush on a little about the chateau... The castle is now a museum (like most of them are) but it also has exhibits of modern contempory art pieces (pictures that look straight out of some whimsical fantasy story. Again, I like...) and a photo exhibit of the nature arount Fribourgh. But, thats not all! Because it was once owned by a very rich man with some extremely talented artist friends, there are several rooms in the castle that are richly decorated and painted. In these rooms, colourful murals cover entire walls from ceiling to floor. It was simply breathtaking and I won't waste my breath describing something thatI can't show...

I've actually got more pictures on the olympus camera (I borrowed batts from my friend) but because I don't have batteries now (I returned them), I can't show you more. But, this is not the only rooms with full-room murals. There are also rooms with elaborate tapestries and other stuff. Other than that, there are other things that I liked... Luckily, I took the photos on my phone, so here you go...

After the tour of the castle, it was easily lunchtime. We are in Switzerland, the land of Heidi, expensive watches and delicious chocolates. But besides that, what else is Switzerland famous for, or more specifically, Gruyeres?? CHEESE!

Yes sires! And what is the most famous cheese dish in Switzerland? FONDUE!! But, besides that, we also have... RACLETTE!!!

Raclette is a way of eating cheese by melting it. It is not unlike a cheese fondue but the difference is you get a slab of cheese and place it under a heat source, scraping the hot and melted cheese off the slab and eating it straight on a piece of bread or potatoes.

One of the first things I had noticed when I stepped into Gruyeres was the signboard of restaurants for fondue and raclette. I was like telling my friend, "we SO have to try raclette". But then this raclette doesn't come cheap. Its 26 Fr.- a person. We can't share. So yea, I would have to eat homemade sandwiches for the next couple of weeks... But we are at Gruyeres, and its the first time I've seen raclette in Switzerland. Of course I had to try!

Like the fondue, it was an entire meal of cheese. We were just served a sizable chunk of cheese, some potatoes and a side dish of pickled cucumber and onions. I think 26Fr a person is not too bad, considering that a chunk of cheese that big can be pretty expensive.

It was divine... A little plain, but it was very good. It was a little scary seeing the little puddle of oil there. Its not everyday that I eat such stuff anyway, so yea. You can see how much we've eaten! Just compare the before (second picture) and the after one (last picture)!

After the cheese, we went to the cheese factory to see how they made the cheese. Like a faithful tourist, I even bought a small slab of cheese that wasn't too expensive and took a picture with their resident cow that's standing infront of the toilets.

Oh yea, I bought meringue there too! It was reasonable and had that little gold stamp on it that said Swiss Bakery Trophy. Unable to resist, I bought and tried it. It was really good! None of the eggy smell that most meringues that I've tried have. Very crunchy and crumbly and yet it all melts in your mouth. Excellent stuff!

There were more things to check out in the neighbouring villages but by the time we were done with our stuff in Gruyeres, we had missed the previous train and the next would be in 30 mins. No choice but to wait then, since this place is so far from the city and the village that we wanted to go, Bulle, is a few kilometres away. But then, there wasn't much stuff there... It was Sunday and all the shops were closed. The museum that was supposed to be open there was strangely closed with no visible entrance. This meant an early ride home for me to write this blog after putting away my stuff and having dinner.

It had been a fun weekend, but its back to the books now... The next break that I have seem so far away... Sigh...

Bearish Bern

2009-03-14T21:59:00.008+01:00

Bern, Bern. While it doesn't sound as nice as New York, New York, the place sure looks every inch as nice sounding as its name.

Today's Bern trip was mainly centred around the Old Town, which is the cultural and commercial heat of Switzerland's capital. It's very nice! I love the architecture there. The entire city looked like it was still in the 18th century but with a modern 21st century spin.

Most of the entire Old Town consist of short buildings, not more than 6 storeys. My buddy once told me the reason for the short buildings in general, but I kind of forgot... Anyway, the tallest building is the Chapter House (which unfortunately I did not visit). The building itself isn't tall, but a medium sized building among short ones make it seem like a giant. I've only seen it from afar, but it did look pretty impressive.

We started off at the train station, then, following the map, we found ourselves at a Flea Market outside the City Hall. The flea market had more stuff than the one at Riponne, I think. There were the usual cheese, meat, vegetable and bread stalls but the proportion of the variety sold were more equal than at Riponne. One would think that Riponne specialises in meat and vegetables or something... In Bern, the flea market sold cute stuff, stuffed animals, herbs, mixes, clothes that looked decent and expensive (hoo boy, are they expensive!)...
A stall selling cute stuffed animals...
A stall selling a HUGE variety of herbs and spices

Some of his wares...
Seriously, when I was at this stall, I thought something was decaying... Turns out that it was just the cheese... And they said durian stunk...

Anyway, I came across some stalls selling pickled stuff and those specialty german bread (did I mention tht Bern is in the german part of Switzerland?). I tried one of those german bread and they were pretty good. little not used to the taste of their spices but not altogether unpleasant. Pity that at 12 Fr a loaf, I didn't have the heart to buy one. Maybe a smaller and cheaper one next time...

However, I did buy some pickled olives! It's those type that are stuffed with things and marinated in oil. It wasn't cheap (at least for me)... I bought a small packet of about 100g and it cost me 3.60 Fr. Just to try anyway. I think it would go well with the ham and bread that I bought. haha....

Bern has many fountains. Each fountain has a statue of sorts on it. There is one ogre one, one musketeer one, one of a lady, one of the bible's Samson and, my favourite one of all, that of the justice, the blindfolded lady with a sword and a pair of scales.

Ok, pictures speak better than me, so I'll just give you a picture tour of what I had seen...
The City Hall, seat of power of the Swiss government.

Seriously, the reminders for easter are just everywhere! The choc Bunnies and eggs are just so elaborate!

The Swiss really REALLY like their meat and bread... MANY shops specialising on only bread or meat...

Fountain with a knight (the musketeer I think) and that with justice.

This is the clock tower, a close and far shot of the clock tower...
A visit to Einstein's house. Do you know that Einstein came up with his Theory of Relativity when he was only 26!! No one would doubt that he is true blue physicist. The outline of his house was drawn with greek letters to represent rooms.... Look closer and you can see that lamda is for nothing (the middle)... I don't think german has these letters right...

I went to several other places and took more photos. But I really lament the fact that the stupid Olympus sucks soo much battery and that the phone camera sometimes give shitty results. Sigh, I can't stand blury pictures so there's no point keeping them. These are about most of my well-taken pictures...

I'm so gonna buy proper batteries for the olympus tomorrow. Batteries are relly expensive here, about 12Fr for a pack of 6, about 2.5 times more ex than that in Singapore... Should have brought a whole 12 pack here when I came...

Next up: Gruyeres.
My friend and I decided that it might not be the best season to see Interlaken (and its expensive to go there...) so we settled on a place that's closer to Lausanne, which is Gruyeres.

I'll tell you more about it when I get back tomorrow, IF I'm not too tired to give you such a lengthy account...

Stuff that I had done in the past days...

2009-03-12T22:51:00.009+01:00

Well, I mentioned that the week for me was basically filled with long hours in front of the computer, banging my head on the keyboard. You can gather that my week was basically pretty uneventful. (Besides the EXCITEMENT of being forced to work till very late to rush the programme and the THRILL of frantically searching for answers and trying to get the damnable piece of code to run...) I think I wrote the most amount of codes for that project than I had ever done...

Between the code-crunching and lecture-trotting, I had lunch at the school's cafeteria. It was not too bad. I was preparing for a 9 Fr.- lasagne again but it seems that luch had more variation. Usually, when I eat in school, it was from the sandwich stand that sold those 5 Fr.- huge subs that I spoke of. But since I was with a friend, she suggested trying the cafeteria, so off we went.

How's this? Beef with hash and really cooked broccoli. They even throw in the fruit and the bread free. All for a decent price of 7 Fr.- The beef wasn't steak but it was better than a sandwich jambon again. It was pretty decent, but a little too salty for my taste. Definitely better than the lasagne that was too much.

After the deadline of the aforementioned dratted C lab, I was pretty free today! I had arranged beforehand for my exchange buddy to bring me around the city center for a look. It was a pretty short trip, about 2 and a half hours of sight-seeing, before we head off to school for classes. (Mine start at 4 on thursdays...)

I told him that I haven't visited the smaller churches and the museums around Riponne. So, starting from Church Saint-Francois, we took a walk round Riponne, heading towards the Palais de Rumine before going to Lusanne Flon to take the metro to school.

The Church is much smaller than the main one that I had mentioned before and it looked plainer. (Hint: less wall carvings and mosaic windows) It was just an interesting place to note, but nothing much to mention.... Oh ya, pictures...

The main altar...

The grand organ. It seems that it is common for churches to have such organs... It looked really similar to the one in the Cathedral...

Outside Palais de Rumine, there was this huge stage and huge ice-way being constructed. It was for the Red Bull's Ice Crashed. (or something like that) My buddy told me that it was a competition where teams "ski" (or slide) down the ice track (and getting rid of competitors along the way). The first one wins.

It seemed pretty crazy! They constructed a whole ice track that looked absolutely dangerous right in a city center. The safety barrier that they constructed to along the trackes looked pretty squat, like a person could flip over it or something if they jumped too high...

The starting point, next to a statue of a Vaudois hero of the 18th century, Major Davel.
The starting point.

Its on saturday...
The end point. Note that they put a huge cushion at the end of it. How reassuring it is to crash into it...

Palais de Rumine was more interesting. We just mainly entered the building to admire the interior decor and design. (This place has elaborate carvings on the walls and above their doors) It had several museums in it that I would definitely go back for a closer look but I just took a glance on the outside. It has a museum on zoology, another on geology and a huge library where I could borrow books from. It just looked interesting lah. Down at the Flon, we went to the Flon Quartier, which was previously an industrial factory site back in those days. Now, its a revamped spot with flashy glass buildings between repaired old ones. Its a hip place with several art schools, pubs and clubs for the young and the hip.
Yea... I know this place well...
After all, I came here like 5 times to make my permit... The administration communale is like all the way at the back of this area.
But anyway, my buddy pointed out something that I did not notice for all the 5 (or 6 now) times that I came here. Guess what this is...

A toilet with glass walls in the side of the street... Haha!! How many of you guessed it?

Seriously, did I mention that the Swiss look deceptively sane? :-D First, the an ice track in the middle of the city, then a toilet with glass walls in a busy shopping area! Who would think of such stuff! The glass actually turns opaque when someone is inside and presses the occupied button. When it is empty, the glass is transparent. Crazy idea, but pretty useful if you suddenly have the urge to take a pee in a place where there are many buildings with more privat bathrooms...

On a whole other note, let me mention that I bought had bought a packet of thyme about 2 weeks ago. Seeing that its not going to transform into something magical without my input, I went to the web to search for a suitable recipe that I could make on a tight schedule and an even tighter budget. The answer: Cheese and thyme flaky biscuits

Great! Since I have the flour, sugar, salt(from the kitchen), thyme (and time), cheese and a bunch of other stuff, I made a batch of 'em today.
(I had also bought baking powder and the story of how I got them is another story too long to tell in this too-long-already post. :-D)

These are actually american biscuits, so the size of them are actually around that of a baby's fist. Pretty big. I made them "rocky" cos I didn't have a rolling pin to nicely roll it flat...

It was good! Much better than I thought they would be. I made more than this of course. I gave some to my buddy and he scarfed down 2 in a go, which means that he didn't really eat them out of courtesy. YAY!! A culinary success after the too salty curry!

Oh, I have to mention that I am going to Bern for a weekend trip with a fellow exchange student. If we're lucky, maybe we're head over to Interlaken for some sightseeing too...

Ok, back to my homework again. Have to actually clear some if I wanna go on that trip...

Laundry Sunday

2009-03-08T20:22:00.004+01:00

Hi...
Sorry for not really updating the blog for so long. Its been crazy hectic with a stupid C programme that was insanely difficult to do with the little knowledge of C that I have. Lets just say that I'm glad that I'm an exchange student and that module is not one of my core ones...

Anyway, I wrote this entry last Sunday, the day after my previous entry, but I did not post it. For some reason, I could not access my phone's memory...

I woke up early in the morning today at 8 am to do my laundry. Why so early? 'Cos its the only time slot available after I missed my previous slot on friday... Anyway, after dragging myself down to the laundry room, I decided that it was too fine a day to continue sleeping. So, I took a walk to the lake while waiting for the machine to finish washing.

It was really a clear day. Thankfully!!

It had been raining and raining for the past week. Towards Friday, it snowed pretty heavily again. I don't really mind snow but I don't like walking in the rain when it is freezing.

To prove my point that the day ws really a fine day, here are some pictures... One could see the Alps behind the lake. (and u don't need to squint all that hard to look at it)

I cooked curry too!! Haha... I didn't buy any meat yesterday, so I just made vegetable curry with onions, carrots and potatoes. The simplest curry ever! Just pop them into the pot and stew for over an hour!! :-D

Alas, it thought it might not be salty enough so I added more salt... Turned out to be TOO salty... Had to eat it with lots of rice. (Note: after eating it for the past few meals, I am convinced that it IS too salty. I still have half of it left. Should I throw the remaining ones away?)

In the evening, while I was coming home, I looked over the buildings and I saw the Alps again. It was even clearer than it was in the mornong! Too bad the photo didn't do it enough justice!! You could see the Alps clearly!!

2nd outing at Riponne

2009-03-07T14:09:00.005+01:00

I went to Riponne today!
Actually, I needed to get some stuff and so I reckoned that I mind as well wake up earlier to visit the Saturday market at Riponne.

The Saturday Market was really interesting! They had those vans from which butchers sell meat and sausages, fromagers sell cheese, and these rows off vegetable and fruit sellers on one side, then stalls of people selling random stuff like second hand goods, clothes and books.
Knick Knacks...
More knick knacks...
A stall selling only cheese
Vegetables... There are more vegetable sellers at another part...
The vans selling meat and sausages

A stall selling fresh herbs. Spot the types of herbs there!

I didn't buy much stuff. Some ground beef, some carrots and potatoes... Quite little, actually, since I've still got a full pantry back at the hostel.

Anyway, some funny happenings while at the market... See the row of jackets below?
Well, its those type of fleece jackets that one could wear as a substitute to the heavy jacket. I was looking through it (since the price was reasonable) when this elderly lady browsed through it as well. She looked at me and smilled, then whispered something like "these stuff here isn't good" and the she pointed to her jacket and said something like "mine is better". I almost laughed in her face! Of course hers was better, her jacket was fur!! It was really funny, but I just smilled and said ok (for the lack of better stuff to reply in french...)

Oh, and recently, I found the wonders of half-baked bread. Coop and Migros (the 2 big supermarts) sells these half baked bread that on just have to pop into an oven for 7 to 10 mins before eating. I bought them because they were on offer, but I realised that it was really nice! Fresh, pipping hot bread whenever you want. Its something that I would definitely buy again.

After school city exploration!

2009-03-04T21:04:00.005+01:00

Finally done!! My permit is finally done! After 5 trips to the permit office and being sent back each time because I haven't had the necessary items (seriously, these people cannot tell me all the info in one shot...) I finally completed the permit application! Ok lah, to be fair, I was forgetful once or twice during the 5 times so I had to turn back. So not completely the office's fault.

Anyway, I actually planned to go today morning so that I could swing by the morning market to take a look at it. However, my teammate wanted to work on the project since he would not be free in the afternoon so the morning market trip had to be postponed. I thought I would have to do my permit some other day but then I got tired of putting it off. Hence, after class, I hurried down to Lausanne Flon to catch the office before it closed. And thus, after 3 weeks, I finally applied for the permit successfully. Now its just a matter of waiting for the permit to arrive, which would take a month or more.

After settling the permit, I decided to pop by Riponne, another part of the city center, to fix my watch too, and that would take a month or more too. The lady at the watch place was really funny. She explained that it was most probably the battery's fault but they would still send it to the factory for a look, with an expression that said, I know! The factory takes a long time right!!
And then, some musicians started playing outside at the main square. The lady started laughing and explained that musicians often play there but that group of people playing were of "really bad style" or something along these lines. It doesn't sound so funny now that I put it into words... Hmm... just take it that I find it amusing lah...

Anyway, I think Riponne is a more exciting place to visit than Lausanne Flon. The shops there are mainly clothes or shops that sell something that I might actually be able to afford. The Flon has mainly banks and adminstative buildings I guess. I'm sure to have a more thorough exploration of Riponne when I have the chance.

I think I spent a lot of money today... 125 Chf for the permit, 38 Chf on books and 34 Chf on groceries... It actually is a pretty resonable expenditure if we were to not count the cost of the permit but my internal money pinching self is crying "too much!! must stop spending!!" haha...

I bought 2 books on french grammar and conjugaisions that a friend recommended. Oh yes, I think I mentioned a lack of bookstores in Lausanne before, I might have to take it back. Turns out that there ARE bookstores in the city, they are just at Riponne. :-D There is a pretty big bookstore at the Flon, but I think I never managed to see it till today.

I went into a bookstore in Riponne. It was rather big and grand looking. But what interests me was the extensive collection of comics (or BDs in french). They had one whole section that looked like more than half the collection in Kino at Taka(comics, not manga). The titles looked pretty interesting too! Sadly, they were so expensive!! About 22 Chf for one thin one. They sold a decent amount of mangas too, but again, they were really expensive, at 12 Chf a book. Seriously, I think people who could afford to keep such a collection would have to be filthy rich or just plain obsessed about them to buy them...

On another note, my food cupboard had never been so full before!! Mother sent a whole bunch of stuff from Singapore, with about 80 percent, I think, containing food. She also included curry and rendang paste!! WOOTS!! I was just dreaming of them today morning! :-D Excellent thing! Yea, I know, I'm a spoiled brat hunkering for some good ol' Singaporean food... haha. So, with the stuff from Singapore and my groceries from today, my cupboard and fridge are filled to the brim! YAY!! That means no need for groceries for the next week!!

Let me mention again that meat is really expensive here (or is it just me??)... I hardly eat any red meat to the extent that I actually think of steaks before I sleep. Really!! Whole chunks of beef or mutton (strangely though, it wasn't of chicken or pork...). Makes me feel like a weirdo... I don't dare to skip buying the meat now. I buy frozen meat!! HAHA, cheaper and more economical since I don't need fresh meat and its as good as them anyway. Yea, I've only bought chicken so far, although I splurged a little and bought some salmon. :-D

Never will I complain that the cost of living is high in Singapore again... You people back home, don't keep complaining that school food is expensive. S$3 for a lunch is really cheap compared to 5 Chf for a ham sandwich (although the sandwich is huge...)

Rows of chocolate rabbits...
One can always tell that Easter is coming up. The rabbits will never let you forget it...

Recap of the week

2009-02-28T22:17:00.003+01:00

Hi,

Sorry that I have'nt updated in some time. School was starting to get a little busy and so there wasn't much time for me to do anything else except to study, eat then sleep. Due to my lack of interesting stuff to write about, I will instead recap the past week instead.

Tuesday was the fondue party... Met lots of people there, talked to a bunch of them. Lets see if I will get a chance to speak to any of them again...

Wednesday was really boring... I went to see my coordinator about a module that I couldn't take then went for the boring class that I took to cover the module that I couldn't take. (that was a long story, that one...) After classes, I went to the computer lab to try to figure out how to do one of my labs. Lets just say that it went as smoothly as usual (for you people who know how my labs usually go...) I got tired of banging my head against the computer and went home at about 8 pm that day.

Thursday was spent in my room doing homework. Initially, I wanted to go to the city centre to repair my watch (it died on me again. Luckily, my mom had the foresight to get me to bring the guarantee along...) but then I decided against it and be a good nerd for a day and study before heading off to classes.

Friday was pretty different. I got stuck at the lab, got a little too engrossed in trying to solve the stupid lab that I only got out at about 10pm... Ah well, at least I finished one lab, one more to go.

That leaves with today. It was a pathetic excuse for a Saturday. I spent most of the day at school, in the computer lab with my teammate, trying to bash our heads over a stupid prgramme. Yes, I just LURVE programming... We decided to call it quits early after about 6 hours at the computer. Still have a huge chunk left to do...

Hopefully, tomorrow would be better. I have a language study session that should be pretty interesting followed by dinner with several singaporean friends. Its pot luck again, so that means that I would have to bring something. Perhaps I should get a cake or something...

Anyway,
Ciao!

Fondue, Fondue!!

2009-02-24T23:17:00.003+01:00

School has been pretty relaxing. Its still not so hectic yet, but it promises to be much so later. Not too bad, the change of lifestyle from that of mine in NUS is quite significant.

For one, my travelling time is significantly shorter. 30 mins as compared to a freaking 1h30mins of commuting, sometimes squeezing with the rush hour crowd. It is all very calm and relaxing to go to school. School is not boring, not really. It was just a little difficult to understand, much like in NUS too. Computing ain't exactly easy, ya know... Well, my courses are difficult, but with the same difficulty as that in NUS, so no real difference.

It had been fun so far, mostly everything, including the lessons (though some of them were just SO boring!!). I've met many people, most of them seem pretty interesting, although it might be a little difficult in communicating since some of them are not really fluent in english. I think I speak english too fast sometimes too, so I had to remind myself to speak slower when talking to them.

Anyway, there was a fondue party held for the exchange students today. It was cheese, not chocolate, fondue, but even so, it was pretty interesting since I've never really had cheese fondue before. Everyone just sat at the table and conversation went pretty smoothly. It was pretty
fun. (how many times did I say that... hmm...)

There might have been more to say, but I'll be repeating myself since I can't really think right now. Quite tired from 7 hours of lessons and 2 hours of socialising... Got to sleep...
Here's a little eye candy for you vultures out there.

Cheese Fondue, Traditionally served with bread.
And mummy, I don't wear the same shirt everyday. It just so happened that I was wearing it today. I do wash it, you know. I don't have that many long-sleeved shirts to rotate so by the pigeonhole theory (or something similar), one shirt would have to be worn more than once (or thrice by the number of times you've seen it on me...).

Tourist in Lausanne

2009-02-21T17:52:00.000+01:00

Lausanne (again, pronounced Loh-sahn, not lau-san) is a quiant town on the coast of Lake Geneva. Besides being known for the city with 2 prominent Swiss universities and the Olympic capital, it was also, evidently, an ancient roman city, much like Rome. Called Lousonna during the roman empire, it was mainly a port for ships plying the Lake. It was also a pretty small town, with about 1500 to 2000 people in the 1st BC.

How did I suddenly become so knowledgable about this? Easy, I visited the Roman museum and the Roman ruins that is just 15 to 20 mins walk away from my hostel. Essentially, I spent the whole of today exploring worthy sites that are around Maladiere, the area where the hostel is.

Really, what's up with these european cities? Like Rome, Milan or Paris, historical sites are like just round the corner. In this case, the ancient Roman ruins is now a "park" where people take walks there during the weekends, like today. Walk a little furthur up and you can see the Comite International Olympique. After taking a photo of the picturesque building and the statues beside it, just turn round the corner and you can see the Roman Museum, which actually houses the remains of an ancient roman mansion.

Suffice to say, I had a field day today. Very nice weather to take trip round the city as it wasn't very cold. If it was Singapore, I would probably have died from the heat...

The roman museum was very interesting. I'm actually impressed with the museum. It certainly is a very small museum in size, but it was very interesting. (Although I had a little difficulty as all the explanations were in French) The first floor was like a games station. You would have to search for the answers and write down the answers on a piece of paper. Of course they were questions on the Roman history.

It was very family friendly. The people that I saw there were mainly families, or an adult with kids, those kind of groups, you know. The kids were really engrossed in searching for the answers and it was really something I wouldn't expect to see in a museum, kids being interested, that is. Anyway, at the end of the games, you would input your answer (the numbers collected throughout the game) into a computer. If it is the correct sequence, the door would open. Well, obviously I failed at that, being the professor in ancient history that I am. The computer had a big "RATE!" (fail) and "REJOUEZ!!" (play again), but put together in a polite way, of course. The family who was standing beside me were laughing, haha. It was pretty funny at that point. You see, at the last station, it was something like a puzzle, and the family seemed to be at it for some time. Just nice, I helped them with some of the pieces (imagine me with my broken french going "ça, c'est la" and pointing at an empty space...) . So we got to the last station together, and the rest was history (no pun intended).

I really should have visited the exhibitions on the 2nd floor first, since some of the answers could be found there. But I doubt I've the stamina to go through all the french explanations anyway. In all, it was prety fun.

Besides the Roman ruins and museum, I went to the cemetary nearby too. In my defense, (before some of you question my sanity) the cemetary was featured in the tourist guide book for Lausanne. Also, I always passed by it on my way to school. So, I just popped over to take a look. The cemetary is supposed to be the resting place of Coco Chanel, the founder of Chanel, and a Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the moderniser of the Olympic games. I didn't see their graves but I did see a grave of a countess.

The grave stones are really elaborate. It is the western equivalent of the chinese style gravestone, but simpler. While the chinese tombstones' design look mainly the same, there were some very interesting designs here, especially for those tombstone of a recent year. I didn't take any pictures, so you would just have to take my word for it. What impresses me here was that the area looked so well maintained. The hedges were neatly trimmed, I can't see any visible weeds and no rubbish were in sight! The whole cemetary was very quiet although it was just beside a main road. In the day, it looked very peaceful and calming, but I can imagine how the place would feel in the night, with the ravens crawing overhead.

Oh ya, mentioning the ravens, did I mention how BIG those birds look like? Its about the same size as a chicken, I think, only slightly smaller. Its really all black and I heard that it attacks for food too. While those crows in Singapore claw your head to make you drop your food, I heard that these ravens only snatch your food away. Sounds better, but when you see a bird like that charging towards you, you really wanna get out of the way.

I also went to the lake today, Lake Geneva. I went earlier in the morning, trying to get a picture of the mountains (the Alps, I think) but they were blocked by some clouds and so were not too clear. I went again in the evening, the sun being nice and all, and the clouds had cleared, so I could take a good picture of the mountains and engage in a little cam-whoring (as fats put it ) so that mummy wouldn't feel that her money was wasted ;-D.

I picked an acorn up. Reminds me of the acorn at home...Me, cam-whoring with the acorn

can see the Alps behind?
Maybe this is clearer...
Flower arrangements with winter flowers for sale to place at the grave.
Entrance to the cemetary. The words on the pillars are excerpts from the psalm. In french, of course.
This too...
The International Olympic Commitee's headquarters, Chateau de Vidy...
Statue outside the IOC
Another statue outside the IOC...
The Roman Ruins... Funny that its all flat instead of the uneven ones we saw in Rome...

Me cam-whoring again...

You can see that these people really spend time with their families during the weekends, taking strolls, going to the lake, or visiting the museum. And that got me thinking about the way Singaporeans spend time with their families during the weekends. Our shopping centers are always so crowded with people during the weekends (and I don't mean with foreign workers) whereas the streets are so empty here. Maybe it would be a different case if I went to the town center, but the point is, I see more families taking strolls in the parks, strolling along the lake, or just playing at the playground. I can't help juxtaposing it with the families in the noisy, crowded shopping malls. Its just the difference in lifestyles, I guess. Singaporens seek to be entertained while the Swiss may prefer entertaining themselves...

First week of school

2009-02-21T08:42:00.000+01:00

The first week of school has started and ended. It has been eventful, in total, and I got a feeling that I would be very busy in the semester. Already, there looks to be 2 programming labs to submit in 2 week's time and a very difficult assignment (math...) to work on.

I've been roaming about the school, exploring the routes to classes and whatnot. I realised this place, though much smaller than NUS, is actually pretty nice looking compared to the old buildings of NUS. Well... NUS is of a different charm, much like the, I don't know, 70's or 80's of Singapore, with most buildings looking like they do, and not to mention the presence of so many tall, big trees. I've always liked the area beside the central library where there are several huge raintrees. It feels calming.

But I digress. Yes, EPFL, EPFL... The buildings may look normal on the outside, but I think the insides are really nice-looking. They have a lot of windows, for one, and the interior seem to give me the feel of being very cosy. You see, the buildings themselves are not huge, like some of NUS are, but instead, they have buildings linked together like with bridges and walkways, and in the lobby, they have couches placed (colourful ones, not those brown or beige ones that SoC has) and vending machines. This is the impression of the Informatique school that I have been in. I don't know if other schools are the same, so I can't tell.

Did I mention that the stuff here is expensive? Haha... I had dinner in school yesterday and I bought a lasagne. At first I didn't know what it was, it looked like just a dish with cheese on top, but I took it anyway. Then I realised it was lasagne. I think that was my first time eating a lasagne. It was 9 CHF, simply said. I think I hid my surprise well when I paid (there wasn't any price tag anywhere!!)

Anyway, it was pretty good. It had LOADs of cheese... Look at the pic below, only the middle part's pasta and a little tomato sauce can be seen 'cos the rest of the pasta was hidden in the cheese. The cheese was good, don't get me wrong. It was delicious. But after a while, the idea of eating more of it just turns you off, you get what I mean? Too much for me, I think. In terms of price and quantity. When I left, I felt a little need to barf...
Should I bore you with the modules that I am taking? They are all computing modules. Sadly, those interesting modules that I wanted to take are, how do I put it? Not available.
I wanted to take Business Plan for IT, which was a project-based module that teaches how to present you IT product and sell them. Unfortunately, I can't map it to the NUS module 'cos it was of a different "track". Oh, and also, there isn't any professor for the class so the poor people waited for 1 and a half hours for the professor before someone comes in to tell them that the professor who was supposed to be in charge had left the country so there was no one to teach and that meant no classes.

The other module that I wanted to take was Human computer Interaction, also another master course. Well, this case was interesting. Halfway through the lecture, during the mid lesson break, the professor told us that only master students specialising in software engineering could take the course. So I told her that I was an exchange student and my coordinator told me that I could take master courses and that I had done a module on software engineering before I came. Anyway, to cut the long story short, I nearly got kicked out of class. Haha... But then I asked nicely if I could stay and listen to the rest of the lecture (it was really interesting), so I only left when the lecture finished. In all cases, I think the ending would be me not being able to take the module since I may not have enough knowledge in the field for the professor.

Ah man, I was hoping that I could take that course instead of that really BORING course on Operating System. Seems like I need to take it now. Damn....

My other modules would be Probability and statistics (if the module mapping is successful), Graph Theory Applications (a really boring and truly difficult module) and Digital Photography. Oh, don't let the name fool you, Digital Photography is a computing course, not the arts one, so that means I have to do programming for it. Don't ask me how, just take my word on it...

Anyway, to end off, here are some pictures of the school.

Unplug the iPods!

2009-02-17T21:58:00.000+01:00

When people asked me how I find Switzerland, my first answer would be cold, followed by how quiet the whole place was compared to Singapore.

For once in 1 and a half, almost 2 years, I did not wake up on a weekday with the noisy construction going on outside. (Taking into account that my usual waking time is about 9-ish, 10 when the constructions would be going in full swing)

There was this pleasant silence that surrounds the whole place that feels serene. Even the snow falls silently, much silently than the noisy rain. You can almost feel the peace and quiet of the town when you go for walks to the grocery store or when waiting for the bus. Simply said, there is a lack of the background noise that one gets used to in Singapore. Its not too bad. Its not even a habit for me to bring my iPod out since I don't listen to it when I'm out anymore. I tried listening to it while waiting for the bus once, but I felt that I was destroying the serenity. Without even finishing off a song, I switched it off and never took it out again. Yet.

Lets just see how long it takes for me to get bored with the peace and quiet before I bring my iPod out on the streets again...

First lesson in EPFL

2009-02-17T20:02:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day of school, a.k.a first day of lessons. But because I didn't really know what lessons I had to go to, I only went for the information session that was held in the afternoon. Anyway, it seems like I didn't really miss much. Its like the first week of lessons in Uni, the lecturers will just go through some stuff that will eventually be repeated again later.

The main point was, I went for my first lesson today. Probability and Statistics. Sounds SO interesting right? Oh well, I had to make do with this since some of my mapped modules clashed with others. Luckily, the lecturer wasn't too boring and the class wasn't too hard (she was just repeating some of the stuff that I had already learnt in JC). Did I mention that she was teaching in english?

Well, all the lesson that I took were in english, I made sure of that. I know, what about learning french? Well, the idea was to put myself in a french speaking environment so that I will learn and adapt to the language asap.

NOTE: I said PUT, not THROW. I still wanna enjoy life a little and not worry what the teacher is saying constantly.

I did sign myself up for a french course and also this exchange thingy students who want to learn english who in turn can teach french. Now just have to wait for the reply.
Anyway, because it was snowing the whole day today (my boots even got a little soaked through at the end, how do I dry them??) I saw a snowman on the campus..

Yea... it was pretty cute...

Be a Chef Day!

2009-02-15T17:01:00.000+01:00

Today, as a follow up on yesterday's NUS exchange student's outing, the guys decided to have a dinner pot-luck at one of their hostel. Yes, pot-luck as in everybody has to bring EDIBLE food to the table to share...

Imagine my chagrin as I thought of my ham, lettuce, bread and cheese existence in my fridge. No wonder my first question when they proposed the idea was: Can I bring sandwiches?

Being the nice people they were, of course they said ok, but my sis would kill me for being so ... (fill in you own adjective).

So, on my way home yesterday, we stopped by the nearest Migros and bought some stuff. Finally, I bought meat that wasn't ham, fresh produce that doesn't come pre-packed and stuff that I might not buy if I were eating/cooking for myself.

The final tally came up to CHF 13.70, which I thought was quite reasonable since I bought MEAT (or rather 6 chicken wings..) and other stuff. Oh, and for your info, a clove of garlic is CHF 1.20 per piece. Even potatoes were cheaper... But its only the garlic, the meat, the eggs, and some other stuff that were crazily priced. Thinking about it, ham was pretty expensive too, the cheapest being CHF 3.50 for about 6 slices. Hmm... perhaps I should just eat rice with milk...

Anyway, after some thoughts about how to cook my dish, (honey baked wings were out, no honey, and baked chicken without honey just ain't right), I settled on stew.
Ah, the wonders of stew are just right beside those of roasts... Just cut everything up, place them in a pot with some water and just let it simmer away. Easy and delish.

I cooked enough to probably last me 4 meals comfortably, but with 6 people eating, I might have to fight to save some for later. Ah well, at least if they finish it, I'll know that its nice and I'll be happy. If not, then all the better! 4 meals without worries.

Here are the pics of it. Doesn't look much like a disaster, eh?

I must applaud my foresight when I bought these tupperwares :-)
I thought it was an overkill to buy 4 of them in one shot (it was packed in fours) when I only need one as a bowl and/or the occasional storage box. But since they were on sale, I thought I mind as well buy them. Look, they paid off!!

Now lets just hope that it tastes better than it looks in the pictures.

What I did today...

2009-02-14T16:56:00.001+01:00

Its a bumper day for blogger... 3 posts consecutively...

As the title suggests, its about what I did today.
Contrary to yesterday, today was pretty eventful. (Yes, I know, compared to yesterday, ANY day could be more eventful)

I met up with fellow exchange students from NUS and together, with one fellow student's boyfriend as a guide, we went on a little tour around the city center's library,the cathedral of Lausanne and Ouchy, the quay on Lake Geneve.

Some pictures of the city center...

These 3 pictures are taken at the outside the library. It basically overlooks the majority of the city center.
See mummy, Ive got a picture of myself and the scenery. Your money isn't wasted now!!

As you can see, the sky was still pretty dark cos it just finished snowing like 2 hours ago, but its pretty sunny now (at 5 in the evening...)

The huge organs in the cathedral, me with the altar at the back.
The altar, without me.
My personal favourite, an exterior shot of the cathedral.
This is one of my favourites too

After the cathedral, we went for lunch at a Kebab place, the cheapest kind of fast food available on a saturday. (not counting Macs, of course)

Then, we went th Ouchy, the quay.
Look ma, no wasting of money again!!
Some weird swinging thingy... Looks nice though

Some people playing chess on the sidewalk...
A carousel for the kids...

random pics 1...
random pics 2...
Look ma, no wasting of money!!

Ya, so ppl, as you can see, my mom believes that you are wasting money on a tour if you don't take pictures of yourselves with the scenery... For me, just the scenery is enough, but well, to each its own. Have to make the sponsors happy :-D

Just for the record, all the pictures were taken by my phone camera, sony ericsson with a 3.2 megapixel camera. Who said camera phone's pictures have to suck??

Duty calls

2009-02-14T16:49:00.000+01:00

I forgot that today was the 14th of feb, my brother's birthday until my friend kindly pointed out my lack of plans for THE VALENTINES...

As is within the duty of a sister, it is in my responsibility to wish a him happy 16th birthday and hope that he would be a more sensible person. (One could only hope...)

And so, let us lift our glasses (or cups of warm water in the frigid weather) to toast my dear little brother (can he still be considered little if he is physically bigger than you?).

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY!

love,
ur much too sensible and talented sister...

Jie Hui

p.s. as u can see, valentines day reminds me of my bro's b-day, not any romantic stuff. Shows u just how romantically inclined I am... Not that I mind, :-D !!

A day of snow

2009-02-14T16:39:00.000+01:00

Dear all,

Let me explain to you the reasons why I holed myself up in the room yesterday.
Yesterday was simply not a good day for a sight-see around the city.
The weather forecast read a -4 to -8 degrees celcius. Who would go romping around in such a cold weather? I prefer to stay in the room to watch Gintama and laugh till my sides split.

It was practically snowing the whole of yesterday. Look look, I even got pictures to prove!!

To prove my point, you can't even see many people walking about right? Right.
Too bad the snow didn't last till today, if not I'ld have tried to make a snowman.

Best regards,
Jie Hui

p.s. I'm really not being lazy and sleeping in the room all day, really I'm not. I'm just choosing the days where I can maximise my enjoyment of being outdoors and minimize the chances of freezing my butt out in the cold. :-D

Snowing in Lausanne - Big snow!!

2009-02-12T07:50:00.000+01:00

Guess what? It really snowed today! And its a definite snowing phenomenon, not the tiny one yesterday.
That might put a damper on my plans to go to the city center.... It looks really cold out there and the people outside are looking like eskimos.
Anyway, I managed to get those pictures that I took with my phone. The camera that I took with me is really one big battery mosquito...
Here they are:

You can see Lake Geneva at the horizon...

Just to show that it was really snowing...

Random pictures taken from my room...

Yep, there's a playground right behind my hostel. It looks rather quaint.

Snowing in Lausanne

2009-02-11T08:34:00.000+01:00

As I was making breakfast in the kitchen, I glanced out of the window...
Lo and Behold, it was snowing!!
But only for a little while... Maybe it will snow more later today.

2nd Day in Lausanne

2009-02-10T12:07:00.000+01:00

Hi there,

Its the second day that I'm in Lausanne. Yes, the weather is still friggin' cold but, despite the rain, it was actually warmer than yesterday. I actually liked today's weather.

Yesterday, it was pretty interesting. After alighting from the plane, I followed the crowd (who said it was bad to follow the crowd?) settle the customs and grab my bags. After a little wandering and searching, nothing too hopeless that the signs couldn't help, I found the place to buy the train tickets, bought them and was soon on the next train to Lausanne.

After reaching Lausanne, I took a cab to the hostel. There, I lugged my 20 plus kg worth of baggage up 2 levels and finall.y reached my room. The room is not too bad, a little small for my taste, but still very livable and is small in a cosy way. One thing that struck me first was how clean the room was... The building is either new or the housekeeper did a fine job in maintaining the place!!

Anyway, here's some pictures of the room:

the bed's headboard
the door(center yellow), cupboard (left white) and the toilet door on the right

the table and the filing cabinet ( the heater is the white long thing behind the table)

On the same level, there's a common kitchen where people can cook, and yes, I found a rice cooker there...

Anyway, I went out for the mart near the residence (about 10 mins walk). Along the way, I found the post office where I sent back home the library dvd which my klutzy brother left in there after watching.
During the walk, I found this:

A singaporean and malaysian themed restaurant!! haha
and also:

some asian (i.e. chinese, vietnamese and thai cuisine)

One thing I realised was that the things here are expensive!! My taxi fare from the train station to the dorm was 17 CHF!! And the trip was so short that I felt a little cheated... haha
a loaf of bread cost 2.20 CHF (about 3 sing dollars) and 2 bars of soap cost 2.50CHF.
It was lucky that I decided to bring some household stuff along.

Let me end this hanging... I've run out of stuff to say.
I should really brush up on my spoken french.....

Till later.