FINALLY BACKK (:

Yes, I'm finally back home - back to good food and cheap deals. My flight back go delayed by 1 hour from Bruxelles to Londres. So my luggage wasn't checked into the plane from Londres to Singapour. Hence, I only received it today. But, man, I really didn't expect my luggage to be so heavy. Had Xingyan and Xiuli help me packed my bag before I left, but when I reached the airport, guess how much it weighed --> 41 freaking kilograms!!!!!!!!!! Of course i had to repack, and I almost missed my flight after missing 2 trains to get to the airport. Thankfully, the check-in staff were very kind and helped me repack. I had to shed 9 kilos from my big luggage (damn those books) and in the end, I checked in my backpack and took out another bag to stuff all the books from the pink luggage. So I had 2 duffel bags and 1 laptop to handcarry all the way from Brussels to Singapore, AND 5 coats. It was so, very heavy I nearly died. Luckily, I met nice people along the way who offered to carry my stuff. Thanks to the Vietnamese lady and the Belgian gentleman (:

So now, I'm back in Singapore, and I'm working on my way to pig out for the rest of the holidays! But first, gonna get some rest first. It's good to be home, even though it's really hard to adjust to the sudden climate change. And now, I see everything in EUROS. Gosh, how can things be so cheap?

je pars.. :(

omg omg omg!

je pars, je pars, je pars!

i'm leaving i'm leaving i'm leaving!

it's too fast, 6 months passed by IN A FLASH. omg. my room is totally empty now. all my kot mates have left. i have the whole apartment to myself but it's EMPTY! :(

i hate to say it but i'll miss this place. even though it's small, dreary - it holds memories I will cherish. gonna take 22h to fly back to s'pore - boredom. hopefully they'l allow me to check in my baggage. oh ya, exam just finished this morning too! (:

i'm really gonna miss my little hole here.

je ne veux pas partir LLN :((((

:(

I'm really gonna miss you guys...

titles are boring.

And so, just came back from luxembourg today, je suis très fatigue. BUT BUT BUT I shall continue and finish with the greece trip. It is tough trying to pick like 20 photos out of 1200+ photos which I took, to publish it on the blog. Ack.

Ok, after Mykonos, we headed to Delos Island to check out the ancient ruins. The ferry ride was approx 35 mins to head there, and we only had one half hours to finish the whole thing (which we obviously couldn't), so we had to rush through the sights and in the end we missed alot of good ancient ruins. :(

Above is the Terrace of the Lions, which was dedicated to Apollo by the Naxians at the end of 7th century B.C. You can imagine how long ago that was. The lions, technically were in considerably good shape considering how they spent more than 2 milleniums subjected to the heat and rain, etc. Also, you can see that their mouths are half-open in an eternal roar.

Taking the first ferry out as we had to rush to catch our other ferry heading back to Athens. The boat had no more space left in the enclosed area, so we had to resort to sitting on the deck(?), and the waters were really choppy and occasionally crash into the boat. The old age must have really rusted my agility. Since I didn't move away fast enough, I got a little wet, but really, it was nothing of a big deal. Kept my burning skin cool (:

Above three photos were taken in Athens, as part of the archaelogical ruins.

icky mosquito

There is this irritating mosquito which keeps biting me! Argh! :X

Now i have more bitemarks to add to my collection gotten from Greece.

Wait and see you little black insect, once I see you I'm gonna smack you too oblivion. You'll be slobbering at my feet begging for mercy.

I hate mosquito bites, they itch. Boo.

greeeeeeece.

Bored of studying finance + REALLY tanned from greece + urge to update blog, hence my new entry after so long:

Only just returned from a 6 hour journey from greece near midnight, had a few hours of sleep, met chelsi in the morning to send her off in berlin, shopped around in delhaize, and then headed back to my reclusive hole to work on "Bond prices and Bond yields". Watched a bit of slow streaming korean drama (Queen of Housewives), and now contemplating whether to jog around the lake or listen to music and blog.

Cant believe it. Greece was my last holiday and destination of SEP!! And it was utterly amazing. The heat was blazing for every day that we were there, so now i'm as dark as a herbal chicken. It's amazing that i'm not burnt, and i'm thankful for it! (: Ok, so onwards is our journey in Greece. We had such an amazing time on the plane: yes, we sat on swiss air, SWISS AIR!!! (it was expensive, but the cheapest alternative) and wow we got snacks and drinks and we were like totally "OOHing" and "AAHing" after many months of enduring ryanair flights. Brilliant start to our trip.

And so, we landed in Athens, and embraced the heat (35 degrees), a drastic change from LLN's 20 degrees with chilly breezes. We decided to scout around the port for the first day, and then headed over to the city centre on the second day. We stumbled upon Athen's flea market and bought a few keychains here and chatted with the shopowner who was in his 60s and actually sailed to Singapore when he was a teenager. It was pretty cool, and he was nice, cuz he gave us each a "greeky" necklace for free, as a souvenir, cuz we were, as in his own words"too beautiful".

Athen's famous flea market

Lunch: Moussaka - yummylicious (:

The purple flowers cascading onto the floor was gorgeous (:

Journey on to Santorini on a 7 hour cruise, it was nearly excruciating because I had a minor scare with my duffel bag, the zipper totally flew off! I was nearing despair, but thank goodness xiuli fixed it for me (: hehe. This picture was taken on the deck when we were scouting around the ship cuz we were too bored.

Yeah, and we managed to catch the sunset too. Of course, my pictures wont do it justice.

Day Three: Santorini, Perissa

Vulchida Beach - black sand.

HAIYAH!

Us in our rented car for only 25€! Haha we took turns driving. The aircon was amazing (: And who ever thought you'll get a car with only a quarter of a tank full?

Oia: land of whites and blues.

Sunset in Oia. Haha we spent a bomb sitting in one of the restaurants just to watch the famed sunset in Ia. But it was well spent, cuz we ate for like nearly 2 hours and entertained ourselves throughout the whole sunset. The food was only so-so. But the experience was amazing (:

More of the after-sunset shots featuring the ever famous windmills. wheee. really really pretty.

Moonlight reflecting on the seawater: doesn't it look eerily like a scene from a scary show? I love the effect.

The next day at Perissa Beach. We stayed at Anny Studios Perissa Beach, which was rated the best hostel/hotel on hostelbookers. And I could see why, 'cuz the service was good. Only think I dont understand about Greece shower system is that 1) No shower curtain; 2) Tiny enclosure for you to shower, effectively wetting the whole toilet. And only in the islands did we have salty water. So, we had to survive on mineral water throughout the whole trip.

Our pathetic bunk cabins on the 1st night in mykonos. reminded me of OBS and camps. my ants were crawling with ants and there were insects darting in and out of our cabin as our door couldnt close tightly. Also, water was FREEZING COLD. Thank goodness they had a "bunalow" to squeeze in 4 people so all we had to pay was an extra 8€ for our own ensuite: WITH an aircon (lifesaver) and hot water.

We stayed in Paradise Beach, which is apparently the most famous beach in Mykonos 'cuz of the nightlife. And on the first night, there was a full moon party and here is a glimpse of the moon making its first appearance into the night. At first, we thought it was a parachute but then we realized it was the moon. Sheepish.

This house is lovely. Love the shade of green (one of my favorites) - it's hard to find such a nice shade on a house! <3

Little Venice on Mykonos! (:

Walking through the city centre of Mykonos. It's really very quaint and nice to walk down!

ACK! Apparently there's a famous legend behind this pelican. It was wondering alone near the Little Venice area and in this shot, he is flying down so that he could drink water from the tap which is below from where he is perched.

Braving through the heat, we decided to walk from Mykonos town centre to the new port... ... BAD IDEA. we were so repulsed by the heat after 4 days of soaking in the sun, that we had to take constant rests on benches along the side road. Xingyan & I tried to hitchike, to no avail. Boohoo. :(

wide awake o.o

i realized that i havent been loyal to my blog at all, and that at some point of time amidst my travelling sprees, i forgot to spend some time rambling on about the happenings in my life. so, why not re-commence on blog-writing? i'm stuck here for the next few weeks, and my next paper is on this coming thursday(?) and i've 2 chapters left to study. hopefully, i've got all the important details memorized in my head. thank goodness it's a multiple choice paper with only 3 options to choose from. it's already 02h39 and i'm still WIDE AWAKE!!!

i'm bored. :( 

LONDRES!!!!

holla from london, 

just came back from watching 'Wicked' and it was awesome (: furthermore, tomorrow's gonna be s'pore day so that only means one thing... SINGAPORE FOOODDDDD!! :DD ehehehe. i miss miss miss the food and i heard that they're flying over the hokkien mee, carrot cake, chee kway stalls and OLD CHANG KEE over so i'm really excited about it. EVEN BETTER - food is free, dream come true!! (:

haha and i had a major shopping day today - it was crazy. there was like this aldo SALE SHOP i must highlight --> it was actually stated as part of the signboard! and the shoes were so so SO CHEAP! like the shoes were already discounted, PLUS extra 50% discount so the heels/flats were really cheap and SO COMFORTABLE that i actually bought 3 flats! amazing right? spent only about 30 pounds and it was totally worth it cuz the flats are really just so comfortable. so i came with two pairs and i'm going back with 6 pairs. AND it's only my 2nd day in london. i'm screwed (bought wedges from primark to match my new dress)

so now i'm in my friend's friend's place which is at westminster bridge road and i can see london!eye AND big ben from this room - it's amazing! (: photos are still in my camera, will upload them some time or later, hee. 

chickens in the tree?

hello hello!

it's been nearly a month and i think yes, i should finally update my blog. today was pat's birthday and we had a great time. she and mat cooked pork with cream sauce and rice; a fusion of western and chinese food + chocolate cake for dessert outdoors AND it was scrumptious (: coincidentally, the next door had a party for a guy who was celebrating his birthday too.. so we slacked in mat's room after that and at night we decided to have a walk to a nearby farm. 

ok let me tell you the story. last month, pat told us that she saw chickens living in the tree. giving the circumstances, we didn't believe her, because:

1) it was 3am 

2) she had a pre-drinking session before that

so when she told us she saw chickens in the trees we didnt believe her. but today, mat and her brought us to the place AND guess what, we were flabbergasted 'cuz what she said was true AND i'm seriously not kidding as i have pictures to prove! haha. it was saved on xingyan's camera and i'm transferring it to my comp now. CHICKENS LIVING ON THE TREES??!? it's true. mat went to shake the tree they stayed in and they fell to the ground, but one flew to the other tree. it was nearly 22h30 and i think he woke the chickys up cuz they started making a lot of indignant noises. i'm wondering, how are they gonna get back up? see, here are the pictures to prove:

ok, next up: overview on my trips to paris, dublin, switzerland and prague. man, i'm SO BEHIND!! plus i'll be heading to spain in 2 days.. AHHHH. currently in xingyan's apartment doing advanced corporate finance assignment while multitasking on the train rides we're supposed to take in spain. 

toodles.

back from tromsø & london!!

ok so many weird/funny/crazy things have happened the past few days.

1) cut my hair MYSELF today AND it actually looks decent and it saved me 24 € so i'm quite happy with it. same hairstyle, just shorter. perhaps, if finance doesn't work out i can always try hairdressing! i dunno, perhaps exchange has made me more wackier (and impulsive)? i also did xingyan's fringe and made her look かわいい but she says she's not used to it *sobs* hee.

2) just came back from tromsø for the purpose of catching northern lights, and desperate from the fact that we didn't see it the first 2 days, guess what the three of us (xiuli, xingy & me) did? you'll never believe it. since the helpers from the tourist centre suggested we try going to the street behind the tromso museum (the other end of the island which seemed very far away on the map but is only a 15 minutes bus ride away), we actually took (i wont say steal as we returned it!) comforters from the beds in our room and camped at that area, ON THE SNOWY ICE about 3 feet thick for nearly 4 HOURS waiting for the northern lights. 

obviously it didn't show as the clouds started piling up in the sky BUT there was a consolation! i saw my first shooting star, but my wish wasn't granted so i'm still a little disgruntled ehehe. Nearly froze to death, by the way. i was wearing my thin black boots (which had a good grip), but the 2 layers of socks were not enough to protect my poor toes. At the end of the trip, we were cold, grumpy, and we found out that our comforters & mat taken from the hostel were frozen as the snow had melted into ice by the heat emitted from our butts. It was super hilarious la. Below is the picture of the evidence from our mini adventure:

3) hmm, what else can i recall? oh yes. WALKING ACROSS THE BRIDGE TOWARDS ARCTIC CATHEDRAL. i don't have an actual photo to show you the blistering wind we braved through as my camera battery had died out and i wanted to save my other one for northern lights (which didn't appear). the journey there looked short but THAT WAS A LIE!! it was long and arduous and the wind just kept blowing and blowing and blowing. Especially when we got to the middle of the bridge which was facing the strait. If i stood still, i swear that i could have been blown away! Thank goodness for the metal bars surrounding the bridge - what a lifesaver. Albeit that, it didn't mean that my hands and toes didn't feel cold. Those poor little things... BUT on the bright side, it was good exercise, and fun! Reminded me of rainbow bridge in Japan that Dad made us cross during winter. But in this case, it is IN the arctic circle! brrrr.

4) Okay this doesn't really count as wacky, just that it was my first & super fun experience: dog sledding AND skiing, first and second day respectively. Let's talk about dog sledding first. In our quest to seek the northern lights, we paid 1,220KRO for the dog sledding and a hot meal. Although dearest Miss Northern Lights didn't make an appearance despite the relatively clear sky (apparently it was magnificent the previous day & we missed it since we were in london), we had lotsa fun doing the dog sledding. Altogether, there were 12 dogs pulling about 500 kg of us including the heavy suits we donned + the driver of the sled and man, those dogs sure had good exercise. There was especially 1 dog that we noted, right in front of us (a white husky) which had regular peeing intervals. heehee. Plus, their butts kept shaking!

After our dog sledding and patting the 300 dogs on the compound + carrying this baby husky which was so cute & cold it was shivering, we proceeded to our hot meal: reindeer meat. Yes, I was shocked too but it actually tasted pretty good - like mutton meat and soup for the stew. 

It was dark so I couldn't see what I was eating. But looking at my photo, I must say that the portion is so little, should have asked for more! 

Item 2: Skiing. I really really really enjoyed it! The skii instructor was nice too, we decided to hire him to bring us to see northern lights that night too, but instead, we met with a snowstorm. Really, we had no fate with Ms Aurora Boreallis. Well, what made it enjoyable was that I didn't fall after skiing down 2 steep slopes, but towards the last part, my balance got the best of me and I fell while meandering down this windy slope. I found out that falling down was actually fun & part of the experience! hahaha. It didn't hurt one bit! 

Yup, so I guess those were the highlights of our tromsø trip. Shall update you on london - WAH: 4.95 pounds chinese buffet, sainsbury & primark - i love london!

Carnival Cologne

hey!

just came back from Carnival Cologne today in Germany, the journey there took us about 3 hours there and another 3 hours back, but it was pretty fast. haha so we had to meet at 07h30, and you know how things dragged.. so we reached koln at about 11h-ish? not very sure though, heh. hmm, on the bus, they played an obscene show with naked people and was really an eye-opener for me, having lived in a censored world..

So when we reached Cologne, I was surprised at the lengths people did to dress up (partly because I didn't research prior to the trip)! Interesting would be an understatement. So when we reached, we were each given a piece of map and a bottle of white wine to share between 2 people - the alcohol level was 10.5%, toxic! haha. What was it called again - Mai-tranc? I'm not very sure , but all i can say is that even shared amongst us 6 people, we only drank 3/4 of the bottle heh :p but the wine was surprisingly good and it tasted light so we took our time to savor it throughout the day.

Yeah, the route of the carnival began from the cathedral (seen from the pictures below), one of the biggest churches in the world. It was really magnificent, the gothic architecture, everything! j'adore cathedrals. hehe :D Especially those with gothic architecture, and i could recognize it from afar. However, I didn't get a chance to enter the cathedral, boohoo, but i got quite a few pictures of it. Even with my wide lens camera, i couldn't get the full shot of the cathedral, furthermore some parts of the church were undergoing restoration so there were construction going on.

Funny people dressed in spotted costumes - they were hip old ladies!

Ok i'd indulged myself in some 自拍 moments, heh. 

just being random

hey dee, you left for hk alr? pls be safe ok! AND i'm so jealous that you get to feast on dim sum and my dearest 干炒牛河 at mido's cafe. Ultimate UNFAIR. :( poo. AND yes i did try calling back many times.

it's nearly 4 am now and i'm still awake, just skyped dad since it was about 9am back at home but i think i woke him up since he fetched dee to the airport to hk. hee. hmm fb is being a ne and rejecting all the photos that i've been trying to upload of ghent. sigh i'm currently sipping my green tea and pondering if i should upload pics on my blog & further stump my internet connection since i'm simultaneously streaming a drama right now. 

Oh, i have to mention about the fantabulous supermarket called ALDI which are at the suburbs of LLN which sell cheap groceries that put del-haize to shame! i didnt have any money so couldn't buy anything BUT going there tmr since we wont be going anywhere this weekend. Instead, we'll have a lonely celebration at Le Piano to celebrate our one month anniversary in LLN. haha it's been ONE MONTH alr can you believe it? 

let me see if i can still upload pics here cuz i gave up long ago due to my slow internet connection.. :( if you dont see any photos, i failed.

我想要杀他们!!!!!

WAH BIANG 我这样子真的不能睡觉! 他们吵的要命, 还有明天又有九点的课程, 真是要我的命啊!! SIAN...

已经快要十二点了, 我想还是去冲凉吧, 今天我想不用睡了啦, 我不如学法语.

对了, 还有功课还没做! 惨了.

一生懸命！(:

KENG WOON

My first successful keng woon, relatively that is. I stayed in my apartment to cook keng woon and guess what it WAS tasty, hence successful :D thumbs up, here's what i added: some chop suey mix (msg, but who cares, it added to the taste), leeks (really sweet, i shall buy more), and ham which was originally for sandwiches but sacrifices had to be made. Maybe it was delicious only because my stomach had started growling since two hours before? But that can't be right 'cuz i ate 3 sandwiches for lunch + 2 slices of buttered bread in lecture. 

Hmm...

i love keng woon. if only they had cheap prawns..

brugge ♥

Wah, now i'm more awake - just now in xingyan's room i was like "zzzzzzzzz" but now i'm totally awake so i guess i shall upload the rest of the pretty photos heehee. had lasagne for dinner today - only 1.29€, cheap ah! but bought it from del-haize at special price. it was pretty good, gonna go stock another one up after french (if it's still there!) :p

SIAN ah, while (again) waiting for the photos to upload i shall upload you about my life. 08h30 french class tomorrow. it's past ONE, my hair is wet as i'd just bathed and i have to wake up at 07h00. hmm, but a plus side is that i'm gonna save money by making my own sandwich, stocked up on concombre (really sweet), jambon and raisin bread!!! haha and these are the things which i usually dont eat back at home! since i'm really craving for my keng woon (cries), i shall attempt to cook it with leek (oignons jeunes) and some chop suey mix which i bought at del-haize earlier in the evening. which reminds me, my butter is still in the fridge!

WHAT AN ERROR?? what's wrong with google?

The Old St John's Hospital. Behind is the cathedral which is currently undergoing restoration. Didn't listen to the guide 'cuz i was too busy snapping pictures, heh :p

Nice. 

The swans were really cute. Took many shots here. Since the scenery was gorgeous, xingyan & i were always trailing behind snapping shots of the sun, clouds, trees and historical buildings. haha, so in the end, we didn't listen to most of what the guide said. *sheepish grin*

Ok i give up, the rest of the photos just wont load as my internet always times out :X

brugge <3:普通话

Brugge - 在 14/2 的那一天:

我们把东西放在房间里后, 就开始走到 brugge 的 city centre 里.

在路上，我们拍了很多照片－风景真是美丽及了！风和日丽～

Ok, so i give up on writing my blog in chinese, it's gonna take FOREVER if i do that, hee. Below is like the "grand place" where the tall building is the tower which we wanted to climb up. BUT since we had to rush to over to the meeting point for the city tour, we could only walk pass it. In the movie 'In Brugge', this was where Ken jumped off to save Colin Ferrell. Man. Next time, i'm gonna climb it, if there is a next time.

Below is a photo of us trying to find the FRIES place. We were supposed to meet within this vicinity for the city tour with the rest of the group, so we decided to find for fries as we had no time for lunch. In the end, it was closed - missed it by half an hour. Whoever heard of a FRIES shop ONLY opening for one-half hours? 

As the tour got delayed by nearly one-half hours, we decided to entertain ourselves in the "naked women square", as we termed it, since the weather was great. An added plus, the clouds and the sun were really beautiful. Couldn't resist the many shots.

So we waited and waited from 14h30 until 15h45, and it finally came! Next up: city tour by foor.