gone back to the state of updating my blog..

goodness gracious!!!!

this afternoon felt totally like my first german vocab test back in semester 1.. late for class coz of some dumb technical error in the printer, which the administrator was unable to rectify... caught by surprise over the written german test, which i thought was meant for next week.. *bleah*

cold draft hitting the whole of europe.. thank God that i'm not in russia or in berlin.. thank God that i survived that freezing cold sunday morning, after which, your hands just kinda lose all sense of touch.. and it snowed yesterday night till this morning, followed by mini flurries.. man, if the snow was thicker, i would have lie in the snow and roll around in it..

oh, a bit of free advertisement.. go check out this site: smell of rain... one movie which my friend is starring in and i honestly think that it's pretty well done.. unfortunately i have no money to aid in the financing but i will definitely want to catch it when it is officially released..

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..

i was about to believe that it won't snow for some time to come.. but it did.. and i do love it when it snows.. well, at least in hamburg, coz it makes the weather better and not so cold as well.. beats not snowing, with strong winds.. that's worst..

i love fresh snow, when it accumulates and is left undisturbed.. gives me the opportunities to do silly things like, leave my handprints in the snow.. i love the feeling of walking on fresh snow.. the 'crunch' sound that it makes.. i love the sight of snow falling from the sky.. i love the feeling of snow falling on me.. cold it is, but no one gets that back in tropical asia.. if it does snow back home, everyone around the world has a great deal to worry about..

i dislike melted snow that turns into slush, which is totally wet and slippery.. i particularly have low affinity for snow that has gathered and hardened into ice coz it's really really slippery.. tested and proven.. enough said..

did i mention that it snowed in london for an hour on the morning i left for bath? it was pretty awesome, but snow in london?? and have i mentioned that it has been snowing since 330pm this afternoon?? but it has now tapered off to a mixture of snow and rain..

well, little things that will be greatly missed..

everyone's coming back..

jerome came back early this morning but of course, i was too sound asleep to know.. but i realised it coz the main door was unlocked.. radek just walked into the house 10 minutes ago.. so all that's left is paloma, who is supposedly to be back on wednesday..

checklist?? herr mathusall just and finally replaced our cooking stove, so now we have a workable oven!! woohoo!! but there's a whole list of 'to-be-done' before we can use the oven.. and we even have blinds in the living room to give more privacy to the house, since we are all staying on the ground floor..

so this marks the re-opening of school after the christmas break.. and soon the semester will end as well.. habe ich ein bisschen falsche gemacht? ich weiss nicht aber ich werde bald nach hause fahren..

asean party 2006

and indeed, it was really asean.. we had ppl from 5 of 10 asean countries.. namely, singapore, malaysia, vietnam, thailand & indonesia.. and so, we had food from all over the place.. we had indra making tempe.. siang fung cooking penang laksa.. can't remember the names of the rest of the food... eufo and me did instant mix of nasi goreng.. but we did too much rice.. so that's dinner tomorrow too.. or whatever works man..


a bit messy here.. but there's actually a lot of food.. but some got cut out of my photo.. *boo*..

dinner was great and after that, we had our honourable organiser, dan, who played the guitar for us and sang some really oldies..


after a while, ronny took over and went way 'soprano'.. and danny and farmi were trying desperately to shut him up.. well, it was a heck of a time.. dan gave us a free concert to guns & roses, ronan keating, all for one and many others.. my goodness.. it just reminded me of the good old days of union camp back in year 1, when we were still 'green' freshmen, subjected to the 'torture' of the seniors.. vulcans back then, was a singing bunch.. the girls made the guys joined evil and the vulcans took over the whole bus and literally the camp by singing anything and everything under the sun.. irritated the heck out of others though.. *bleah*.. it reminded me as well of the time back in nias.. when we were just sitting around in the eating area and abang franky would come along with his guitar and then we would all start singing, though i had and still have absolutely no understanding of the language.. hmm.. in some ways, i wished that some of my guitar-playing friends were around, then we could have all launch a good session of singspiration.. missing those singspiration sessions and cell group too.. hicks, gave youth camp a miss this year.. *boo*..

oh wells.. we cleared up close to 10pm.. hmm.. that marked one weekend less in germany and one day nearer to the end of christmas break.. well, i'm actually on christmas break till monday and my housemates will only be back next week so i have the whole house to myself!! quite a good feeling and cleaning up actually felt quite therapeutic.. *madness*.. and here's all of us.. a little slanted and dark though.. opps..

on a bimbotic sidenote, my reef slippers are disintegrating!!! oh my pretty yellow flowery slippers.. boohoo!!

it's time..

it's always the time of the year when all of us are supposed to sit down and think about the past year and reflect on it.. well, mine is more than a little too late.. it came 5 days too late.. blame me for being stuck in paris.. one place, which i don't think i will ever return to.. the germans will say, es gefaellt mir nicht.. that practically sums it all up..

read a few blogs since i got back this morning and not that i have done much reflections.. there's much which i'm supposed to do, for example: sleep!!! since it was quite an uncomfortable 12-hour coach ride back from paris.. oh, lesson learnt? no more coach rides.. i'll just pay for train rides..

2005.. it went passed.. just like that..

10th jan - 30th apr: semester 2 of ay 2004/2005
it was quite a painful semester with 7 modules and having 2 papers on the same day and ending my entire exams within a week.. it was painful enough.. but there were the moments of making friends with exchange students.. went to many 21st parties and missing many too.. 'killing' each other during lab sessions.. copying homework till the wee hours of the night.. my favourite studying buddies, whereby one has graduated and the other will graduate before i begin my 4th year.. my dearest cn6.. all the studying buddies in central lib.. enduring one last semester of german language at cls.. and most of all, planning for my upcoming exchange trip..

3rd - 21st may: my first stint as a waitress

23rd may - 15th june: trip to nias
this was really more than an experience.. it was overwhelming and it left me much questions.. it became a trip whereby i learnt about myself.. it was painful, but it had to be learnt somewhere.. it set me into a state of confusion but i'm still trying to understand why.. nias, gave a different light to many things.. it brought fear, it brought joy.. it built and sealed new and old friendships.. who can forget uncle's mega-watts smile, ibu's washing abilities, nenek's 'keeping the house in order', devin's suntan lotion, abang franky's batak food, abang taku's love for the kids.. and all those hours of just sitting around, enjoying each other's company though language was a huge barrier..

17th june - 23rd sept: working at uob
a reluctant return back home.. came back, burnt and totally kampong-style.. insanity but i started work immediately.. everyone scratched their heads, wondering what in the world is an engineering student doing in a bank.. it got to a point of getting so tired with work but yet, somehow it just went on.. skipped school to work despite having bid for all my modules and all.. made occassional guest appearances back in school but ended up disturbing ppl instead.. love my colleagues and miss them loads.. keeping contact is tough, but someday, i will try.. *bleah*..

1st oct - now: student exchange in germany
something i looked forward to since the days of immersion.. plans of turning it into an ia-session did not work out.. i'm just too lazy and tired to repeat the whole story here.. it was a roller-coaster ride that took a year to plan.. well, it is still a ride.. i came here, against all odds.. a year of planning, yet still coupled with so much hick-ups and stumbling blocks.. it came to a point of frustration and irritation but i went on with it.. so here i am, sitting in my hostel room, typing this very entry.. during the 3 mths here, i made friends.. friends from both asia, as well as from the european union.. friends from the trips which i took out of hamburg.. oh, in the 3 months, i toured berlin, koeln.. explored hamburg, but bit by bit.. finally left the country for stockholm, london & paris.. with less than 2 mths left of my exchange, it comes with a sense of what-ifs and what-nots.. many plans, perhaps will just go unaccomplished.. but with each closing door, perhaps a new door will open up.. but it is just a matter of time.. how long will the wait be? in the words of many germans here, i don't know..*laughs*... you must be wondering what have i been learning here.. in the light of the remaining time and with much to do, all has to be done before my departure..

in general...
sometimes i wonder, how did i go through this year.. a year when dynamics rules over equilibrium.. manchmal war es leicht, manchmal war es schwierig.. aber ich ging weiter..



thanks for all the support back home and here in germany.. thanks for all the friendships.. thanks for all the sweetness for the past year.. thanks for all your love.. it comes a point, whereby i have to stop receiving and start giving it back...

2006... in the new year..
there is much that i want and much that i will like to accomplish but i know well that by controlling much, i will eventually lose much as well.. all i can say about the new year is, cheers to the year that has passed and applauses for the new year.. it will never be an easy walk, but there are ways of making it easier..

to summarise the year before, in the words of robert frost..

two roads diverged in a wood,
and i-- i took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference..