Lausanne

i'm in the mood to blog today and that explains why this is the second post of the day. After my first post, i went to school and i'm glad i got some stuff settled. photocopied my notes for Optimierung(Non-linear Programming), and i will study for it and my econs after this post. I think i was overstressed yesterday cos i have been playing for like 3 months here? and the sudden need to study stunned me. Well, as much as pple say that u're supposed to enjoy on exchange, u're here to study also. so, i shall be kuai and study. if not, it's going to start piling like how it happens in NUS every semester.

Anyway, this post is about Lausanne. I was there for 2 days, just to visit Fawn. I met her on sunday and we just went to the lake to eat baguette with cheese and chill. it was splendid despite the simplicity.

On Monday, Fawn had classes in the afternoon. so, after we took green bean soup and salad for lunch, i went to the Olympic Museum while she went to school. Yes... we eat weird stuff, no, i didn't cook the green bean soup. haha..

The garden in front of the Olympic museum

close up

There were many interesting monuments around the garden. Like this sumo thing.. i donno what it's supposed to represent cos there was no tag to it.

then there were this spring like things... they represented like records for high jump/ triple jump and i cannot remember the last one.

then they had this. the yellow cube represents the amount of oxygen required by a person usually while the blue cube represented the amount of oxygen required by an athlete when he's at peak performance level. i think it's per minute. i can't remember.

then near the entrance, i found this pillar. it might not be very clear.. but on it, you can find the records of where and when Olympics was held.

And this is the entrance! with the high jump record. it's crazy.

Inside, they had this countdown timer to the Beijing Olympics.

There was a exhibition on sailing, to commemorate ISAF's 100th year. As a sailor, of course must go lah! ISAF stands for The International Sailing Federation.

yup... it was nice at the museum. Just nice, the countries who are bidding for the 2016 Olympics were there to make their speech. I think i saw Italy and Qatar. After the museum, i went to town, ard the cathedral and stuff. Lausanne is full of hills and u had to walk up and down in order to get from one place to another. therefore, because i was tired (and lazy) by then, i didn't take any pics. hee..

anyway, a pic of Lausanne Train Station.. it has the Olympic logo too!

and lastly, not to be forgotten, my host in Lausanne, Fawn and me!!!


okey okey. Xiaowen is coming tomorrow, for a week!! haha.. i wonder whether we'll get sick of each other by December. but i am glad she's coming around so at least i got someone to complain to if my modules don't work out. But my room is going to get abit crowded this weekend cos Shiyao will be coming too! on friday. and i'm going to attempt chicken rice!!! the outcome will be posted. I hope we can survive in my little room.. We'll head to Freiburg and Titisee on Sat. It is forecasted to be of good weather! 13dC. double digit is equated to happy me, cos it's like between -1 and 4 nowadays. alright.. i should study now. I've got Optimierung Vorlesung(lecture) and Übungen(tutorial) tomorrow. 4 hours straight! got to prep for it.. ciao!

my days in Grenoble..

Hi all..

I am back in Konstanz. in fact, i've been back since last Tuesday. It's the end of holidays, and i started classes this week. Lesson on monday with Econs in German was ok thanks to JC econs. but i was blasted with Maths Analysis in German. Oh god. i nearly fainted. i came out wanting to cry cos i didn't understand a single thing. Right now, it's stress over module hunting and stuff. i hope i get thru it fast.

Anyway, as promised, I decided to put up photos of Grenoble. I was there for two weeks, so it does deserve some photos.. hee hee. I'll do the photos for Lausanne in the next post.

This is the start of the climb to Rabot. the steps part..


first flight of steps


more steps..


there is another part of slopes, but no pics. paiseh... just know that we take 20 mins to climb to comfort everyday cos i don't have the bus card. it was good exercise nevertheless...

anyway, when u're in grenoble, u'll have to climb to Bastille. i don't know what it is.. some thing used in war last time. and it overlooks the whole of Grenoble. takes another 35 mins to climb up from rabot. Most tourists will take the cable cars.. but i'm scared of heights so i rather do it by foot. besides, we were already halfway there.

the cable cars for bastille. according to solene, ribbons are tied around it during easter cos they look like eggs.


try to look for rabot!


and there u go. it looks like it's on ground level. don't be deceived!


sunset in grenoble


sun setting


snow on the mountains!


grenoble at night


yes.. it's nice and peaceful on Bastille. most pple climb it for exercise sake. the funny thing was we got lost on our way down cos it was pitch black. but luckily we managed to find out way home tho it was a much longer way back.

and so... presenting to u, my bed in Rabot for two weeks. thanks to siwei for his sleeping bag. it wasn't that bad. at least xiaowen had a blanket for me. so it beats nothing.. i got pretty much used to it. and no lah. i wasn't abused or wat. i chose to sleep on the floor...


Thanks to Solene who introduced me to this chestnut paste when i went to her place for Crepes. it tastes like KAYA!!!! shioknesssssss... we found it in Carrefour. so, maybe they have it in Singapore also.. but in singapore, got kaya. so, i don't think it's needed.


okey.. to round it off, i was happy in Grenoble.

a weekend in swazeeland

i am currently in fawn's little room in her little room (as she describes) in little lausanne in switzerland.... no photos cos i'm lazy.

fawn's my little friend from sailing and she's studying in lausanne and will be here for 3 years. so nice nice me decided i will visit her!

left grenoble on friday morning with xiaowen for geneva. we were supposed to reach at 11.45 or so. it was to be a 2 hour train ride. but at 11.10, some person came to me and said something like... 'terminus'. the train has stopped. GET OUT. blur, we were like... wat the hell??? we were at some unknown place called Annency. we checked at the counter and everything and the next possible train to geneva was 1.5 hours later at 12.45, and we would reach at 2.05pm. plans to tour geneva were ruined. but guess wat? we found out that the train we were on WAS supposed to go to geneva. we were just in the wrong carriage. the train split into two mid-way.. and we were in the wrong half. so, yes. blur us.

we met a norwegian girl on exchange in freiburg and another german girl from leipzig who faced the same situation as us too. when we reached geneva, we were like... 'this station does not look familiar.' after checking the map, we were at some sub-urb train station of geneva. after figuring out stuff, we cheated the tram by not buying the tram ticket. it was only 4 stops!! the tram ticket was 3chf. ok.. heng heng nv get caught.

but anyway, we walked ard geneva, saw the jet, and tried to look for some smurfs thing but cannot find. we were to meet xw's friend, greg at the geneva airport at 4.30 anyway. so, we took the train at 4.27pm. geneva main station to the airport is only 5 mins. we are so bloody suay we got caught for not buying tickets. -_-''' the actual ticket costs 3chf. we paid 10.40 chf. ok.. serve us right. but pekchek sia... the moment we paid and got our tickets, it was time to get off... grrrrr...

the rest of friday went good. greg drove us to st maurice, his home town. a cosy little place. warm welcome from his parents and his big dog, tom tom. we went drinking and had dinner with his sister, maud. nice nice pple... then yesterday (sat), we were driven from st maurice to lausanne. visited a castle, went to another pub to drink and watch the euro qualifiers england agst i can't remember... sorry.. but my knowledge of football sucks. i was concentrating more on the virtual tennis match on the arcade game box than the football match on the tv.

greg brought another friend, pierre along and we watched the semi finals of rugby together. rugby, i understand more or less. and very exciting also!! pierre is very cool. he can speak chinese.. zao sia but still good enough. stayed in shanghai for 2 years.. can even speak abit of shanghai hua.

it was a nice evening... didn't drink much cos of my stupid allergy. got worried the moment i felt itchy... sucks. but it was fun lah. company of good friend and two gentlemen.

and so xw has gone back to grenoble and i am now with prawny fawn. hee hee.. it was very very nice to just sit by the lake and eat baguette with house brand migro cream cheese for dinner. haha... tmw we are gg to have pizza!!! and now, we will watch the other semi-final rugby match!! south africa vs argentina. i'm in to rugby now... haha.. interesting how those huge guys can run. i think when they fall, they'll look like telly tubby. hee hee..

Nice and Monaco

last weekend was spent in Nice and Monaco with Xiaowen. We set off on Thursday afternoon and were on time and all. but when we 2 minutes to departure, the train was cancelled. We went to the ticket office, and requested for a replacement ticket. In the end, we got an even faster train to Nice. But seriously... 7 hours of train ride can KILL. haha... anyway, we were glad we found a nice cosy hostel. for 17 Euros per night, with bed linen and towel provided. we chosed a 10 bed dorm, but were given a 8 bed dorm. and we were the only ones in the room that night. shiook. It was good that the hotel had a kitchen which allowed us to prepare our own dinner and lunch.

well, anyway, we set off early friday morning in search of the beach... it was just one straight road down the city centre. pretty small, but at least, tourist-friendly. the information counter pple were very nice also... my impression of France has improved alot..

Some monuments in Nice.. We had a nice slow lunch at our favourite fastfood restaurant-QUICK. yum yum... the wedges rock!and headed to the beach after that to NUA. The beach is wonderful... i set foot in the Mediterranean Sea!!! the waters were so clear and blue.. and thankfully for the great weather. i have not worn sleeveless top and bermudas out ever since i arrived in Germany. It was a really relaxing day... we just took photos and photos and lie down on the beach. Oh yes... the beach is weird. they don't have sand. they only have pebbles... painful to walk on..OK. only this portion of the beach has sand. so it's really weird. i donno whether they imported the sand or the pebbles to make the beach nice... but anyway, the horizon is beautiful... it's not like singapore where there are plenty of tankers and heavy metal ships outside east coast park... the only ones that are in the horizons are cruises.. after that, we found something to climb. i think it's got to do with Rabot (xw's residence. i will explain in the next post.)and we heard water... so we went to hunt for the waterfall. a total almost 400 steps i think... at least, there was a pretty rainbow!i think we were the only tourists who went to carrefour. we had loads of time, so we just followed the map. really proud of xw cos her map-reading skills are improving!!! and on our return, we were just in time for the opening ceremony of Tatoo. It is a military band festival held every two years, for 3 days. and we were lucky enough to be present on the opening ceremony. On saturday, we set off for Monaco. i keep calling it Morocco. i don't know why.. but it's worlds apart. Took us about 45 minutes by bus from the bus interchange in Nice. 1.30 Euros per trip per person. the bus runs every 15 minutes... so it's pretty good. It takes routes by the side of the mountains and hence, the view is wonderful.

Upon arrival, we climbed up to the palace grounds, and were just in time to catch the changing of guards.

from the palace, u can look down to see the port of monaco. no... no port like PSA. this port is for Private yatchs or cruises... the red n white stuff at the bottom of the pic marks the Grand Prix track. Yes... the yatchs can be bigger than pple's house. we tried asking some pple on board one yatch if we could enter to take a look.. but a pity that the owner was not around, so we couldn't. The owner came from Argentina and decided to stop by Monaco so his kids could start classes. it was magnificent. we saw one that costed 80,000 Euros. and it was like 5 times smaller than the humongous ones.After that, we went in search for the Casinos and nice cars. Finally found it, but we had no luck with the red and yellow lamborghinis. only saw a grey one. but it was SOOOO dirty. heart pain sia.. we managed to enter the free-entry casinos... but didn't dare to play. gambling can be bad... hee hee. presenting, an array of nice cars. suddenly, mercedez seemed like second class.
this Ferarri is drop-dead gorgeous. but the owner spoilt it with HELLO KITTY decorations. FAINTZ. someone has to tell her that hello kitty does not go with ferrari. horses and cats do not mix.

the engine of the ferarri.There was this tour group who paid two Ferarri drivers some money to give the tour members rides with the Ferarri... once in a lifetime. i guess it's worth it!and so, i end it off with my new car... hahaha.. the one n only grey, dirty lamborghini. if i owned it, i would clean it very single day and kill whoever lays a fingerprint on it.

So, right now, i am still living with xiaowen in her little but comfortable room. we will be heading to Geneva to meet her swiss friend, Greg on Friday. and i will finally begin my journey back to Konstanz on tuesday.