welcome to konstanz

i decided to stay in konstanz this weekend to wander around the city and take a look at what i have not been looking out for the past three weeks. decided to take some photos so that i can show what life in germany/ konstanz is like.

well here's first stop was the weekend market! wochenmarkt.

along the street with all the stalls lining it.

vege??

meat??

pasta?

flowers??and then in the city there was a fireman exhibition/show thing...

photos of the streets along konstanz. and some views from the lake where i sat for an hour or so to sun tan and read a book... the last pic is specially for my brothers.. look!!! sailing boats!!!

ya. so that is life in konstanz. simple streets, ONE shopping centre, and the lake. weekend markets are common in all of germany.. so now, u guys know wat kind of environment i live in!!

Party!!!!!

some pics taken at the party we had last friday... now u can see who are the pple i have been with the past month.. solene. from france...

i donno what's his name. den, followed by felix, indochinese who studied in sgp for 12 years. he looks n acts like ah beng.. but actually quite nice lah. feels good to be able to speak singlish with someone... then, we have asami.

max from italy, and two polland girls. i can't spell their names.. but they are really nice.. a group photo!!

christy, muhan and i.

abit hi hor?? but it was one of the first photos we took. jostein, bianda, muhan, wang tong.. plus christy's forehead.

Pics from voralsberg

don't have much photos fro stuttgart. they are mostly with siwei. so, i thought i will just skip it. here are the pics from voralsberg, austria... we took cable car up and i was freaking out. scene from the cable car.

lars and i.. lars is from norway and towers above me at 1.88m. stupid fellow was supposed to 'protect' me cos i was scared.. but he ended up making fun of me. grrr...

christy and i with donbirn in the background.

i can"t remember the guy's name. but from left, asami from japan, priscil from indonesia, and then christy on the right most. christy and i... it was a difficult shot to take cos there was limited space... yuki and eiko from japan. they are exchange students in zurich... speak fantastic german.. hmm... i this this is the most fabulous waterfall they have... trekking in europe sia.. but in 3 layers of clothes. very tempted to jump into the waters and play just the rovers way of life... but that day was drizzling. freezing cold.

exactly like stong right???? so tempting. the waters are calling...

Pictures- meersberg & Heidelberg

Meersberg

at meersberg. a small city across the lake. from meersberg, u can take a pic with both switzerland and germany in the background. too small lah. cannot see clearly.

hui yan and i. konstanz is in the background across the lake and the second one is of the meersberg new palace. huiyan is from guangdong. here for her masters cos her bf is german...

i had my first ice cream in meersberg. shiok!!! and this little girl had such a big one!!!! so jealous! hers costs about SGD7. but see already also can make people happy. she was definitely enjoying it sia.. (sorrry. can"t turn the pic ard cos of some technical problem..)

Heidelberg
taken from the castle in heidelberg. below is the bridge and river..
muhan and i. muhan is from taiwan...sha da jie. thanks to her, i can use internet to upload these pics... she got internet in her room, but i don't have.. haha. so i am leeching on her somehow. but she is going to st gallen soon!!! sobz..
muhan, num hyong(from korea) and dong junfeng(china). dong jun feng is married!!! at the age of 26. faintz. but he cooks good food.. made ma po tofu for us the night before we went to heidelberg.

taken from the bridge.. can see the schloss(castle) at the background??? top right hand corner.. it is very pretty at night one, with all the lighting. but we didn't stay till late. only got postcards to see lor..

okey.. last pic for this post!!! we saw a couple having a wedding reception at one of the cafes along the street to the bridge. beautiful and happy bride.. they say that heidelberg is some romantic town... they were not the only couple we saw. there was another pair taking wedding photos in the castle grounds too.

PICTURES-St Gallen & Reichenau

St Gallen Pics
had my first wurst along the streets of st gallen. it was GOOOOOOD!!!!

Miriam and i got off at some train station. i can"t remember it's name.. and then we began walking along the lake-side. the houses had gardens that extended to the brim of lake constance.. simply blissful.
and with such good sun, of course u had to sun tan!!!! haha... the water was cold.. so we just tanned in our bikinis and jeans. hahaa.. just sat on the rocks for some time. a group had a party and even gave us some cake!! yum yum.

Reichenau pics

this was a house beside a small church. look at the pretty flowers!!! and guess what?? their back door opens to the river rhine!!! below is a pic of a flattened frog. jeremy, a life science student insisted on taking pics of it. poor frog is not only flattened. it was dried.

we saw apples, prunes growing all over the place. jeremy picked the apples and i picked the prunes. so this is the first apple i ate illegally. was just suay enough to get it sour....

a little cemetry outside the church... their cemetries are so colourful cos of the flowers. the ones we have in singapore are of boring grey, green and at most, yellow.

My new life...

PHOTOS!!! credits to Christy, my new friend from Hongkong. borrowed her SD card reader and so, here u go!! some random pics first of my new life. next few posts will be of my trips.

in the train from zurich to konstanz, with all my luggages.







my room when i first opened my door.. got another pic, but i can't rotate it. so, only posted this one up.







and my room now... swop(much thanks to the bedsheet i brought, my room is a thousand times more homely then most of my friends'.) another view.. from where my laptop was.








and Wolly(my sleeping buddy)!! see?? the bedsheets were all plain white. Boring!!







met shuxian for just 20 mins, 3 hours before her return to singapore.







one of my blockmates cooked for me one day cos i was complaining about eating pasta everyday for the first week with no meat intake at all... we were supposed to cook together, but i was glued to the internet in school and came back late. he cooked everything that night. felt like home sia!!! but now, i eat rice almost all the time.







ya.. alot of photos liao hor??? i shall upload more the next time. can someone please enlighten me on how i should upload multiple photos at one go??? i think it is easier and i can put more photos up also. thanks thanks!!!! drop me a mail..

still alive.

haha.. i haven't been blogging cos i have received complaints that it is too wordy. so, i am waiting to see when i can post pics as well... den it will be more interesting. soon soon.. maybe in a day or two!!!

Reichenau

Reichenau is a small island perhaps 9 km from Konstanz. Because Jeremy ( the NUS guy who did exchange in Konstanz last semester) was around, we decided to make use of the good weather and cycle there to look see look see. According to him, the island is on the list of UNESCO sites. i had no idea what it meant, so i just googled it. It is termed as the Monastic Island of Reichenau.

It was a pretty nice trip, and who says only night cycling will give u butt ache?? my butt was damn painful by the time i reach home la. Anyway, i stole my first fruit there. we plucked prunes and apples, but the stupid apples were sour. gross. and there were lots of tomatoes as well. three simple churches, and many gorgeous houses with beautiful colourful flowers in the front yard and their backdoor opening to the river rhein. most of the pple were farmers and it was really cool watching them plant the seedlings. have photos of the place, but again, cannot upload.

hmm.. well, classes have started. we are forced to speak alot of german. and i guess we all try. i myself am trying to get used to having to give explanations in german. like u don't understand a german word, someone in class will have to explain it to u in german. the teacher is rather strict with us when it comes to conversing. we're kinda not allowed to speak in other languages except in german. and the moment u have ur hands on ur wörterbuch (dictionary), u see her at the corner of ur eyes. STRESS.

feel rather bad for all the words only and no pics.. but keeps u guys in suspense eh?? i will upload them as and when i can la.. ok. i have got to go to the supermarket to buy some food for dinner tonight. i feel like my grandma. cos she used to go to the market daily, and i never understood why since my family did groceries once a week. there's something called being too free. and now, i also understand the annoying need to plan what to cook. i understand now why my mother yells at me in frustration everytime i bother her in the market/ supermarket.

living alone, calling a foreign country 'home'

It has been 5 days since i arrived in Konstanz. I have managed to get myself oriented, having gone through the city, and university.

So far, every single day when i wake up, there's still some desire to go back home. some apprehension about how my day will be. but i strongly believe that it is because i had arrived early, and was probably too free. and when u're free, and u face four walls in ur room, u just start missing home.

but things are getting better. when i was washing my clothes today, it jus occured to me it felt like when i was staying in hall. here, i have the freedom to do anything i want, at any time. everything was my own responsibility, and to my own discretion. how this overseas experience turns out is up to me. it struck me that i am merely just choosing a path slighltly more challenging, throwing myself in a foreign land so that i am forced to grow up faster.

i am glad that this thought struck me today. because of it, i am feeling much better now. so far, when i wake up in the mornings, i start to have tears in my eyes. maybe cos stupid me decided to put my family photo on the wall where i can see it the first second i open my eyes in the morning, if i am facing the wall. u see.. it's the same thing even in sgp. i can get bored to tears altho i am at home. we go to school for three months, den when we suddenly have no school, we get lost. the only difference now is that i am overseas, away from the comfort of home. so, i don't think i will miss home so much anymore from tomorrow onwards. lessons are starting and i will not be so free anymore. i will have a routine lifestyle like i had in singapore. so, i guess, in a few weeks time, i should be all used to the life.

and with this thought, i have decided that i shall try to mix around more with the locals here. it is difficult, like how i will nv imagine mixing with exchange students in NUS. but i shall work towards my aim of fluent german by feb 08. initial plans of running to the library in the afternoons so that i can go on msn and talk to my family and friends are now banished. i will just go online as and when i am free, like when i was in singapore. altho my lifestyle now is to be slightly different, my habits can remain. tt's me! wherever i am.

yup! tt's just what went through my mind today. and i decided to share it with all of u who read. i shall go back to my hostel now... gotta bathe n prep for my dinner. i am getting hungry..

St. Gallen

am at St Gallen with Miriam to meet Philip. They're Frau Geiser's (my german lecturer) daughter and son. went ard st gallen today cos we both had nothing on. Miriam studies in Konstanz and i'm really glad she's around to show me stuff and just be able to spend time with. drills me on my german pretty much. which is good.



We had risotto for dinner. Philip cooked... and it was WONDERFUL. it was the first time i never got sick of risotto.

anyway, st gallen is pretty small. greatest thing is that i got a pullover for 2 franks!!!!!!!!! tt's like 3 dollars. hahaha. made my day alot really.

things are still ok. missing family once in a while is probably normal. but i think it's getting better. i know the town now, i cycle all over the place, and i'm now just trying to get used to the fact that i'm going to be calling Konstanz home for the next few months. It's going to be ok... and i know it will be. esp since i have wolly with me.

mean while, friends, TAKE CARE!