Herr Tong 正传

The cost of it all...

2009-03-01T06:26:00.000-08:00

How I miss the carefree days in europe... The weather may be cold but the people are warm (seems to be the exact opposite here). No matter how overwhelming school work seemed to be, a nice cuppa cappucino and stroll in the palace garden makes all weariness go away. Quite different from here where you can't stop for a second, for it's a big rat race here. There seemed to be only one definition of success here, no matter what is yours. Everyday, people live in fear of losing themselves. Nobody talks about it but I can feel it. Dear friends, if I ever become the very person I used to hate, please give me a tight slap.

Of accusations...

2009-02-19T18:38:00.000-08:00

I am sure everyone experience this at some point in their lives. How should one cope with the frustration of being accused (especially if its done behind your back)? I had a recent experience and coincidentally, 2 friends called me up to share their frustration of being accused of something, asking me for opinion. Not surprisingly, things looked a lot clearly when I was addressing their situation, which led to me realizing how simple it is to deal with these little annoyances.

The most difficult part of it all is dealing with your own emotions. I've came up with the following solution:

Golden Rule 1: Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you. (i.e. don't think of revenge)

Rule 2: Stay positive and don't get affected. This is the hardest but one must rationalize, why let such things affect you. Continue to be yourself and do everything with conscience. Keep up the spirits!

Rule 3: Truth will always prevail. Let others say what they want but truth will always remain, they'll lose their credibility later. Trying to prove innocent immediately would usually be seen as a form of self defence, so why bother?

I recalled a story from Ah Q 正傳 which goes like this:

Ah Q was walking through this very narrow alley. This alley is so narrow that only one person could pass at any time. Halfway through his journey, he saw his arch enemy, Ah Choo (made it name), walking in the opposite direction towards him. Somebody has to give way. Ah Choo said to him, "I will not allow any dogs and beasts to walk pass me". If Ah Q had insisted that he walk first, he'd be accepting the accusation. Of course he wouldn't want to do that, but that would mean he'd have to let Ah Choo pass him. So Ah Q said, "Oh, I'm just the opposite." and offer to let him pass. Obviously, if Ah Choo had continued to walk pass Ah Q, he'd be admitting that he's either a dog or a beast. Hence, he had no choice but to let Ah Q pass and acknowledge that Ah Q isn't a dog or a beast. What comes round goes round.

Growth - will that make everyone happy?

2009-02-04T23:42:00.000-08:00

The first thing I learnt from neo-classical economics theory is that growth is the most important thing in our economy. As an engineer, it gets a bit uncomfortable to hear how people talk about infinite growth within our closed system of scarce resources. Governed by the simple law of mass conservation, it is simply not possible to keep growing and growing. Sometime, somehow, the market would have to find its own equilibrium and starts contracting. And if political intervention comes in attempting to save the world, aren't we just planting a bigger time bomb for the future?

The next thing I learnt is that while economic growth is imperative, it does not necessary equate to happiness. While it is true that in poor countries, poor people are less happy and relatively well-off people are happier, the same does not apply to people living in affluent countries. Simplistically, the rate of diminishing returns. Poor people become happy when they become wealthier, but giving them even more money doesn't increase their happiness as much anymore. In this case, wouldn't everyone be happy if the rich people in affluent countries give up their wealth to the poorest people in the Third World?

Interestingly, the Kingdom of Bhutan uses Gross Domestic Happiness Index as an indicator of growth, as oppose to GDP. And coming back to the first point, can happiness increase infinitely, year after year? If GDH is used as an indicator of growth, wouldn't a drop in GDH make everyone unhappy and because they become unhappy, the following year's GDH will be even lower?

Why are economist so concerned about growth?

.

2009-02-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

I don't have a twitter, and I have a mouth but can't shout. I just want to say "Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

Thank you for listening and have a nice day folks.

Its alive!

2009-01-27T21:16:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, I'm gonna try reviving this blog from its dormant state and hopefully, bring the readership back up again..hmm I'm not putting high hopes because nowadays, nobody even asks me, "when are you going to update your blog?" anymore. Having been away for so long, maybe I should kick off with some updates about myself.

Right, so I just had a great semester last year and am in the midst of another exciting one. This is gonna be my graduating semester so I'm definitely going to make the best use of it. Those that are close to me probably knows that I've always had a innate interest for economics, so this semester I'm finally getting some formal economics education, by taking two classes: Principles of Economics and Economic Issues in the Developing Countries. I'm especially excited about the second one and hopefully it will be as stimulating as I expect!

Apart from that, I'm also involved in several other classes and the infamous Design II class, which I admit, is the hardest and most demanding project evar. Not forgetting that I've yet to complete my final year dissertation. I've to finish preparing the manuscript before March where I'll have a poster presentation. Hopefully my paper gets accepted, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for now.

I've recently participated in the L'oreal business challenge as well, which is basically a business case competition. With quite a bit of effort and good fortune, I'm happy to announce that my group made it to the next round. Our ultimate objective in this competition is to make it to paris for the finals!

Last but not least, I'm still looking for a job. Anyone wants me???

Keep dancing...

2008-09-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

I may have shared this Matt's video with some of you before. Just thought that I should put this link here so that more people can get inspired like myself. Very simple concept, just dancing badly with different people around the world. I can watch this over and over again. Its been a few months and I'm still watching it every now and then. I love everything about this, the concept, the music, the places, the people. Simple video with powerful message. So, what are you doing with your life?

Click here to watch. Its just 4.5 mins.

Back to School!

2008-08-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

Once more a student again! Although I was still officially a student for the past year when I was away, I didn't feel like one. Looking back, it has really been a fruitful year for me. Spending a year in Germany, where I have many treasured friendships from people all over the world. Completing a semester of exchange in a German University and getting to experience the renowned German engineering education first hand and of course, improving my German. Backpacking in 11 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Completing two internship, one in Germany and one in Singapore, where I gained so much valuable experience and met wonderful colleagues. Not forgetting that I also learned how to ski, wakeboard and dance!

Its now time to wake up from this long dream and come back to earth. Come next Tuesday, it'll be the first day of school for me. Its been about one year and four months since I attended a lecture in NUS. I'm a bit apprehensive about it, feels so out of touch with everything. Today, I came back to school wanting to start on some research for my final year paper. I am feeling so out of place. Even the stalls in the engine canteen changed... Hmm.. where do i belong? where do i belong?

End of internship...

2008-07-27T12:04:00.001-07:00

Its coming to the end of my internship here. 4 months passed really fast... I've really learnt a lot here, especially from my boss, who gave me a lot of opportunities. I had the privilege of attending many training courses, seminar and conference over these few months, which are together valued at about USD5000 for free. Apart from the money, its really about the trust he had in me. I'm glad to have worked with someone like him. Here's some pictures with my colleagues, whom I'll definitely miss!

There's no better way to receive than to give...

2008-07-27T02:52:00.000-07:00

Something made me happy :)

From: Nicholas
Sent: 23 July 2008 11:35
To: Zi Ming, Tong
Subject: Thankyou

Hello,Its Nicholas here, (the boy who nearly fainted on the street) I just wanted to thank you personally, as I didn't really get a chance as I was Confused and shaken and what had just Happened. I'm feeling better today after a good sleep, but still feel a bit sick, but I'm sure I'll feel 100% again soon. I'm really grateful as if it was not for you I'm sure my Situation would have been MUCH worse. Once again, thank you very much,

Best Regards,
Nicholas

Keeping this alive...

2008-07-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

Whew... its been 2 months since I've updated. Much Apologies :p I'm here to dispel a few myths:

First, this blog is not dead, I'll be updating it when I'm less busy :p

Second, there's no secret blog somewhere else people, forget all these conspiracy theory thingy..

Meanwhile, here are some photos from the National Day rehearsal I went few weeks ago. Its my first time attending the parade although I've been living here for more than 2 decades!

The usual Red Lion commandos airborne team

Flag fly past by chinook, this time with Apache escorts
F16s fighter jets drawing a heart shape in the sky
Revealing of the militart colours

Alright, I can't upload much photos because I'm at a cafe and the WIFI isn't that good... Till next time..

Aktuell

2008-05-23T06:02:00.000-07:00

Quick update since I'll be busy in the days to come..

General: Life's good. Fulfilling day everyday.

Family: My dad retired. Wonder what I can get him to do. Any suggestions?

Health: Been training up for my physical fitness test coming up this weekend, wish me luck peeps.

Work: Been hard at work for the past month. Lots to learn and I'm getting positive feedback from my boss which is motivating. Glad I took up the offer, I found new directions for my career too!

Social life: Great. Got to know a few new friends, new colleagues and reconnected with old friends.

Activities: Finally went to a dancing school and enrolled in a course. Dancing is fun :P

Mummy knows best

2008-05-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

I came home last Saturday afternoon after being attacked by bees while helping my friend chop trees in Sentosa. I'll come to why I was chopping trees later. I remember during military service when we're told the following immediate action if w're attacked by bees: throw smoke bombs, run against wind direction and cover neck with both hands kind of stuff. Well, its my first time being in such a situation and I can say is, all these are bullshit. Everything happens so fast, you won't be able to do anything about it except to not move and wait till the bees stop stinging.

Anyway, I ended up with 3 stings on my right ear. I was actually trying to move this deadfall without realising that there was a beehive on it. Here's a picture of the beehive:

Okay, back to the topic. So after getting a jab from the doctor, I went home to rest without telling any of my family members about the incident. Then in the evening, my mum came home from work, hurried into my room, check my forehead and asked if I was sick. How did she know? Nobody told her anything. Is there some sort of connection between mother and child in another dimension? Well, nobody knows but mummy just knows best.

And as for why I was chopping trees in sentosa on a saturday morning? I was just clearing some vegetation for photo taking of an archaeological project that took place 2 years ago. Check out how much the vegetation had grown:

Gun position, 2008

Gun Position, 2006

Yucks

2008-05-04T08:27:00.001-07:00

I've something disgusting to share. My toe nail just came out.

容易燒傷的男人

2008-04-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

Sunburnt. Red like a lobster. Ouch.

Wakeboarding Sunday

2008-04-27T02:49:00.001-07:00

Nice weather. Spontaneous people. Fabulous fun.

In Action are:

Captain Jimmy Wong

Chee Wei the Engineer

Pei Ling the Stock broker

Irene the PoetAnd of course myself the poor student. Getting ready here.

I'm trying to make it look easy
Riding the waves!

Boatman was going rough with me

Behind the scenes 幕後花絮:

Jimmy, Pei Ling, Chee Wei

Fantastic weather we have
Chee Wei, the professional wakeboarder
Irene & myself
Captain Jimmy acting cute & Irene
On the way out
Hero to the rescue

Somewhere off sembawang beach

Dog tired

Public Transport Woes

2008-04-20T05:23:00.001-07:00

I can't get into the bus today because people just refuse to move to the rear. Would have taken a picture to shame these Singaporeans if I had a camera.

Pain+ball Saturday

2008-04-20T05:23:00.000-07:00

Photos from Saturday's paintball session. In attendance, Stefan, Benny, TP, JM, Najib, YC, Alena, XY, Diana and the organiser, Siwei, oh and me of course. Its my second time playing this but I can really feel that I've grown old already. The first time I played was many years ago. Now, I run a lot slower, feels really clumsy, vey poor battle situation awareness and worst thing is, I can't even button up my army slacks...

On the way to Red Dynasty Paintball field,

Benny, the oil rigger on my left

This place is called Bottle Tree Park, there's a schrimp pond

for fishing and doing other leisure water activities

Group photo before the battle, with Siwei in his 'signature' pose

Safety Briefing and signing indemnity forms, its really funny when the staff asked the Germans to fill up their NRIC numbers on the forms.

Barrels on wall, ready to dash

Team Alpha moving really fast, beside me is Stefan in Siwei's fatigues

Enemy behind cover!

Thats me being tactical

Me again trying to make a dash after running out of ammunition

Was a very fun weekend, a much needed break after a hard week at work.

Good morning Singapore!

2008-04-15T07:46:00.000-07:00

In Germany, I used to walk into the office everyday, saying "Morgen!" loudly as I walk towards my seat and will surely receive multiple responses from the people sitting around me. Its the same thing as I leave the office with a "Bis Morgen!", which means "Till tomorrow".

Today, as I left the office, I said "Bye" and there was silence...

I shall try again tomorrow.

There's also this awkwardness about being new in the office and as much as I have been trying to find an opportunity to introduce myself to people, they shun eye contact with me. Anyone got similar experience?

The last ride

2008-04-11T00:45:00.001-07:00

Its sold yesterday. It had served us well for a good 5 years. I'm glad it was sold only after I came back, at least I got to drive it one last time. Unknown to many, I had developed an interest in cars only after I started driving this. It was the world rally champion the year we bought it. Each time I sit on the driver seat, there's immense energy that comes onto me. One can feel the power each time one taps on the accelerator and the car surges forward, like a bull ready to go loose. Its not easy to control this turbo machine, I did lose control over it, at least twice but the safety systems took over and tamed it back. (I am actually a cautious driver, apart from my 2 bicycle accidents in Karlsruhe, my record is pretty clean.)

I drove it one last time around school the night before and realized that time is passing indeed very quickly. I still remember rushing from faculty to faculty during my freshman year when parking in school was free, its scheiss teuer now and they charge by the minute. I remember speeding down the expressway alone in the middle of the night whenever I'm stressed out from studying. I remember the familiar route I take to get to my camp in Changi every morning during my military service. I even used it to do patrolling while on BDO duty. Wonderful memories...its been a good ride

Trivial Things that irks me

2008-04-11T00:45:00.000-07:00

- Please.Stand.On.One.Side.While.On.The.Escalator.
- Weather.
- Its so feucht my hair takes longer to dry.

My last 24 hours in Karlsruhe and first 24 hours in Singapore

2008-03-30T18:58:00.009-07:00

Went back to Willy Andreas Allee to visit these penguins, someone put a scarf around one of itDinner with Tasha

Spent 2 nights doing these farewell cards...

Breakfast with HansongCurrywurst und Rothaus bier lunch with Ping
Stroll around the Palace area once more
Yavor came to send me off at the hbf after surviving 2 exams that afternoon
She said she'll come and pick me up and she turned up without a car. Dinner with parents

Chilled out at Clarke Quay then Al Azhar supper with friends

Went to a friend's place for a chat and saw this. I was so sure I'm back in Singapore.

Stayed till 8am and went to meet another friend for breakfast at Bukit Timah. Had Fishball noodle, Soybean drink
Laksa
Carrot Cake

Feels like I'm only back for a holiday.

You know you've been away for too long when...

2008-03-30T18:58:00.008-07:00

- Singlish does not sound as affectionate
- My friend threatened to take over the wheels when I start leaning on one side of the road when I drive
- I almost turned into opposite traffic a few times
- Deteoriated parking skills (I aimed for the regular parking lot at my estate and after getting off the vehicle, I realised it was parked on the lot beside it instead)
- The security guards are different and they don't recognise me
- The waitresses at my regular hangout changed
- I feel like I was bathing in a youth hostel when I bath at home

One year's worth of Letters

2008-03-30T18:58:00.007-07:00

Things changed..

2008-03-30T18:58:00.006-07:00

You know how fast Singapore develops when barely in a year,

- The Condominium across my house is gone and a new one is almost up
- There is a new expressway
- Roads outside my house changed from 3 lanes to 4
- Spotted a new pedestrian bridge somewhere near my house
- Robinsons building is gone, the open air carpark is also gone, the starbucks too
- Orchard plaza has a new facade
- There are more Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries
- There are many new taxis I've never seen before, and they look huge
- There's a new hotel at Tanglin which I don't even remember them building

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

2008-03-30T18:58:00.005-07:00

(This entry was written on 28 Mar)

I am waiting to board the plane now. I came with only a backpack and a luggage, but going back with additional emotional baggage and a heavy heart. It totaled more than 60kg and I had to send 20kg back by the Deutsche Post. I only got a pathetic 20kg limit from Quantas. I was lucky when the staff at the business class queue did not take notice of my 27kg luggage. I was on economy class but checked in at business class instead seeing that the line was empty. I had to carry the remaining 15kg as though its feather-weight to avoid suspicion.

Many people asked me today how I was feeling. It is not nostalgia, not sadness, not surreal, not even mixed feelings can describe how I really felt. I am rather numb the whole day and choose not to even think about anything. I kept myself busy packing my luggage, meeting people, and preparing farewell presents. These last two weeks in Karlsruhe had been a really fulfilling one.

It’s a good closure.

Appreciating myself

2008-03-30T18:58:00.004-07:00

Ever since my entry about the most outstanding youth in Taiwan gained popularity, Ping Bu had also started his series of entries on the different personalities. Here's a featured entry on ME.

2008-03-26T18:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, I didn't really go missing guys, and I actually tried to update my blog many times, most of the time I was disrupted while writing half way and I didn't know how to continue after that. There are so many things I wanted to say but it is really difficult to summarize everything into words, especially the feelings and thoughts about the transition back home. There are like almost 10 half-written entries archived in my blog right now and I'll try to finish them this week, before I start my internship next Monday and get busy once more. Some entries were written about a week ago before I came back and I'll still post them as they are so take note of the date when reading :)

Why is it snowing in March?

2008-03-25T22:26:00.001-07:00

Dodgy Company

2008-03-24T03:19:00.000-07:00

I've been contemplating for many days whether I should take up this internship offer. The thing is, this company is rather dodgy. They will not be giving me a contract, something which I find disturbing. After talking to several people, it seems like this is the norm in Singapore, where interns do not get any contract. Why is there such a contrast? Am I not viewed as one of their employees? Why are Singapore companies not treating interns professionally? I tried to do as much research as I could about this company online. But there are limitations as I am still overseas. After checking out their location on the map, it became even more disturbing:

-_-"

A company who's paying quite competitively and yet doesn't offer a contract. Hmm.. Am I getting myself into some sleazy business?

Bulgarian Breakfast

2008-03-21T18:59:00.001-07:00

Does anyone know that yoghurt originated from Bulgaria? And that the bacteria, Lactobacterium Bulgaricum was discovered there? Some scientist believe that this bacteria can only be found in Bulgaria.

I was invited by Yavor, my Bulgarian friend last month to his place for a traditional Bulgarian breakfast. Its really unique and I've never had breakfast like this. It mainly evolves around yoghurt.

White cheese crashed and added to egg,
before applying onto the bread to be oven baked

Ana

Desislava
Finished product Main ingredients

Yavor was generous and opened a can of special Paprika sauce that his grandmother made. He only brought 1 can of this from Bulgaria. I was told that people stay at home and make this sauce during communist era and his grandparents still love doing it now.

The sauce should fill the bread to the brim

Yavor is a crazy Dance Dance Revolution fan and he actually brought the dance mat from Bulgaria so we played for a while after breakfast. I remember playing this when I was around 13-14 years old. Brings back some memories from the old days. Man, I'm growing old. I can't keep up with the tempo like before.

Your-Lifestore.com

2008-03-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

I have a sleeping problem. Actually no, I have no problem sleeping at all, in fact, I sleep too much. I have a problem with waking up. I usually set at least 5 alarms just to make sure I get to lessons on time. And because I don't have a regular bed time, I have a very disrupted bio-clock. Sometimes I wonder if I can sleep through a fire. More recently, I disappointed people close to me just by sleeping through more than 50 miss calls. I've decided to rid this habit and since this week, I've been waking up between 9-10am. I'm not too sure how long I can keep this up and recently I found a very interesting product: Nanda clock.

"Clocky gives you one chance to snooze. If you don't get up, Clocky will jump off your nightstand, fall to the ground, and wheel around your room as if searching for a place to hide. Clocky is kind of like a misbehaving pet, only he will get you up at the right time. "
Anybody wants to get one of this for me?

This is voluntary advertisement for your-lifestore.com, a life style product store run by a friend. They are celebrating their 2nd anniversary. Do drop by to take a look at other interesting products :)

I DID IT!!

2008-03-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

woo hoo!!!~~!~!~

I finally completed my last examination in Karlsruhe!! Stoffuebertragung II (Mass Transfers II) - my most dreaded examination here, not surprising the worst one I had. There were so many questions I could not answer, or was not confident in answering. Apart from the fact that I only had one and a half hours of sleep the night before, I was also given a shell shock right before the examination. Instead of having just one tester, there was someone else who wanted to sit in, none other than Professor Dr Schluender, the man who came up with many of these concepts itself, which are being taught in mass transfer classes all over the world. The one who came up with Kg=f(NTU) and many others. Even the textbook I am reading is written by him. Its really stressful to explain these concepts to somebody knowing that he was the one who wrote all these theory. Nonetheless, sitting along side with famous people like that not only brought admiration but also made me realised that they too, are just human beings and that I could possible achieve something great in my life as well. Then again, how often do I get to learn Mass Transfer in a place where Wilhelm Nusselt studied and came up with the familiar Nusselt number that all of us are using now? He might even have used the same apparatus that I use in the lab! Okay, the equipment in Karlsruhe Uni is not that old.

Right after my exam the lecturer asked me what grade do I think I deserved, and I was very honest and told him that I knew I did very badly and I would be happy to pass. He then told me that this is a very difficult course and not many exchange students would have done it and having survived all those labs and report writing, he actually gave me a rather "good" grade - another 2.3. I said "good" because 2.0 - 2.7 belongs to the category "good" in the german academic system. I was so relieved now. I finally passed all my 6 courses!

Engineer wannabe

On my way back, I met Anna and Fatima, the two spanish girls who also just finished exam slightly earlier than me and we decided to bake a cake and chill.

Anna the main pastry chef

Its meant to be a strawberry joghurt cake. After its done, it tasted like Banana cake I wonder why

As we sat around the cake, more and more people from Fatima's flur came by and our group size increased from 3 to like 9. So we chatted from 4pm till 9pm, enjoying my post exam carefree mood. Just as I decided to go out for dinner with Sonja, the Indian neighbour of Sonja decided to cook indian curry for us. How nice. So again I sat at the kitchen till 11pm. So since Sonja is back at the hostel, I'm supposed to move to Weiting's place tonight, her boyfriend wouldn't allow me to share the room when she's back. I am so cheeky meh? Anyway, I can't belive I moved so many times this month.

Here's a peek at the room of 台彎傑出青年's room:

The rest of the night was spent singing KTV at Sonja's room till 3 am. What a way to finish the day of my last exam. I am so happy. I am so happy. I am so happy. I am so happy. I am so happy. I am so happy. I am so happy. I am so happy. I am so happy. I am so happy. I am so happy.

Life's Lessons: Value Creation

2008-03-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

Time is important and hence we need to use it wisely. I've always believe that value creation is important in anything you do, be it adding value to people or to yourself. It could be spending time with people improving relationships or just understanding someone else better. Whether you are spending time teaching someone something, attending a course or simply providing a listening ear, at the end of it we need to ask ourselves this question, "Have we learned anything and is there value created for anybody?"

Damn it, my exam is on Friday and I can't believe I just spent 5 mins downstairs listening to a Spanish tell me he wants to buy a bird.

Inspirational People

2008-03-08T04:34:00.000-08:00

During my time in Germany, I've the privilege of meeting many amazing people. People that inspires me, gives me new perspectives and makes me rediscover myself once again. If I could, I would like to write something about everyone of them. Today, I am going to introduce the ultimate outstanding youth of Taiwan, 傑出中的傑出，青年中的青年 - 郭偉廷。(for the sake of aurelia, it means "outstanding of the outstanding, youth of the youths - Kuo Wei Ting") Thats right, he's the Jay Chow look-a-like taiwanese. I'm not kidding, you people can compare the pictures below.

You guys know I'm refering to the one on the extreme right, hor?

Today, this young man will embark on a challenge that is more than 2000km, alone, on his bicycle. He will be doing a Tour de Germany in one month. Its not going to be an easy feat but there are many other things about him that inspires me, apart from this trip.

A picture of him leaving his hostel, his neighbours are almost crying.

Just kidding he's only rubbing his eyes.

Some background information about Weiting. He's a master student specialising in optics and solar energy in Uni Karlsruhe. Coming from 台大電機係 (National Taiwan University Electrical Engineering), he's already one of the top students in Taiwan. Apart from that, this is the second master degree that he is doing. He's indeed one of the most driven people that I've seen, who always demands the best performance in everything he embarks on.

He definitely has the intelligence and the attitude to succeed, but thats not all, he is very humble about everything. For example, I always thought that he only speaks English, Chinese and German but one day I found out that his Japanese is actually better than his German. Then a few months later I realised he knows French as well. He's always giving me surprises even though we hang out quite often. Just two days ago, I found out that he plays the piano.

So, besides being smart, having positive attitude, driven, multilingual and humble, he also have a strong character with lots of integrity. I discovered these through many conversations that I had with him.

Today, I am honoured to be cycling with him for the first leg, actually no lah, just cycled with him to the post office to collect his Taiwan flag, which he requested from the Taiwan Consulate in Berlin. He is not cycling without a cause, he will be hanging this flag on his bike as he cycles through the whole of Germany and let everyone he meets know that Taiwan is an independent country and has her own flag. Patriotic Youth!

Don't be deceived by the small load, there's a computer, and even spare tires in there

What makes him so different from other people is that he actually sets a target for himself and plans realistically to accomplish that task. He's someone who does more than what he says and showed me how action speaks louder than words. I witness his preparation process and how disciplined he was with his training regime. I was trying to persuade him to set off a day later since his equipment weren't all ready but he insisted on leaving today because he doesn't want to give any excuses to himself.

Upon self reflection, I am guilty for giving myself too many excuses for things that I did not accomplish. How many of us are capable of keeping to our words, especially things that we do not have to answer to anybody. I'm so tired of my procrastination habits and this is definitely something that I will overcome.

Taiwan consulate people forgot to throw in a stick to hold the flag
Ninja ist ganz schnell.

Thanks for the inspiration, it's a pleasure knowing you. I wish you all the best in your journey.At this point of time, I'd like to add that he is 26 and single. If any of you folks are interested, you may send me your CV and I can forward to him.

(Update: Wow I've received many positive feedback about this post. If you guys are interested to keep up with his journey, he's writing a blog at www.tourdegermany.blogspot.com. Its empty at the moment but he's writing everyday and will update once he finds internet access.)

Recent Photos

2008-03-05T21:49:00.000-08:00

Wrote quite a number of wordy post recently so here's some recent photos and events for the more visual readers. Opps is that an oxymoron? Anyway, I've been hibernating in Karlsruhe for the past month due to my exams and not been on any trip, so there isn't much activities going on, except for some dinners.

Ruby's Farewell

Not exactly a farewell anymore, because she decided that Karlsruhe is still the best place evar, with friends like us. After less than a month in Milan, she'd be coming back here in 2 weeks time. If you're not introduced, she's the girl on my left in this picture. If you're not sure which is me, then I don't know why you've even reading this.

Chinese New Year Dinner

Just a gathering for the Chinese friends we have, to lessen the homesickness during the CNY week. We ate in a restaurant so we didn't have to cook and wash, which was quite a good idea because more people decided to turn up.

The Principal caught Herr Tong for his long hair.

I look like I'm forcing this smile, wondering why.

Doesn't he look like Jay Chow?

We bought snacks and drinks to chill after dinner in the hostel

Philip, the German here speaks better Chinese than many in Singapore. Aurelia would be ashamed if she was here. Yes, Aurelia Lin Yu Yan, don't need to look around.

Guess who drank the most?

Fencing in Rastatt

Okay, this set of photos is taken very long time ago (2 months ago?), and I didn't compile this, Wayne did. I didn't wrote anything about it then so I thought I should write something now and also thank Familie Bochnig for the invitation. So last December, Ping's aunt, Siu Har invited me to her place for dinner and sleepover. Interestingly, she first met Siwei and I in Berlin during the tea session at the Singapore embassy, where I found out she's the aunt of Pingbu. She's a really good cook but unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the food. During that weekend, her eldest daughter, Olivia, had a fencing competition so we all went to support her.

Here's the set of photos Wayne did:

Here's Olivia, a very talented girl.

SiuHar and her hubby, role model of all parents.
Siwei and I, the extras, with Giulia, an equally talented girl.

Strange angle but nothing scandalous I tell you all.
Here's Wayne, Kokyong lost the 新加坡傑出青年 award to him, just by a little.

Good news or Bad news?

2008-03-04T05:14:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Tong,

on Friday I have to pick up my wife in the morning from the hospital.
I am sorry, but I have to postpone your exam.
I suggest one week later at 14:00 o’clock.
Is this fine with you?

Best Regards
XXXXXXXX

A Chemical Engineer's Joke of the Day

2008-03-03T12:15:00.000-08:00

Two hydrogen atoms bumped into each other recently.
One said: “Why do you look so sad?”
The other responded: “I lost an electron.”
Concerned, One asked “Are you sure?”
The other replied “I’m positive.”

Update: As requested, this is a "Chemist" joke of the Day instead. And Herr Tong isn't lame enough to come up with this, its off the net people!

Leap Year

2008-03-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Feb 29, the special day of the leap year. For some reason, I had no recollection of the last leap year in 2004 so I went to look up my photo albums. To my surprise, it was actually a rather significant day of my life. On Feb 29, 2004, I was in the jungles of Brunei, going through the last phase of the jungle survival course, Exercise Chillbone, more precisely, it was the last day of the grueling 10 days jungle survival. It was the day where I made the finale descent from Mount Biang and then swam over a river, while some instructor armed with machine gun stands on an assault boat, ready to shoot any crocodiles that swam by. This is how things like "leap year" become so insignificant when you are faced when a more overwhelming challenge. At times, I really feel that it is easier to survive alone in the jungle than with so many people in an urban environment, but today, I am glad that I am seating in the library, rushing lab reports and not somewhere out in the wild, plucking leaves off a tree and deciding if its safe to eat. If I could survive that, I'm sure I'll survive this!!! Its all about believing isn't it?

Suffocating...

2008-03-01T12:59:00.003-08:00

I just discovered yesterday, that I am supposed to hand up all 6 lab reports a week before my exam this coming Friday in order to be allowed to take the examination. I didn't know this before. I have already passed my deadline I know but I am still trying my very best at this moment to finish it by Monday, so that I can negotiate better with my Lecturer. It is nearly impossible for me to meet that deadline as I just finished 4 exams and could only start writing them this week. Not taking into account that I had to prepare for 2 interviews and move out of my dorm. So far, apart from the initial 4 reports which my group members will be handing up on Monday, I have 2 more to finish myself. After spending 2 full days, I am still at the first report and no where near the halfway mark. I have no idea why I am even writing here but I have no where else to vent. I am totally stressed out. The worst thing is that this module that I've mapped is no longer available in NUS next semester and I absolutely have to take the examination.

February 29

2008-02-28T15:36:00.000-08:00

I am sitting now in my empty room, spending my last night in here in room E112, Hadiko K2. Tonight marks my last official night here, as I will be handing over this set of room keys that have accompanied me for the past 5 months to the Hausmeister tomorrow morning. This will also be the last Blog post from here. From then on, I'll be leading the life of a wanderer, roaming from room to room, friend to friend, till I return to Singapore. Well, I wasn't able to extend my rental for another month. Words cannot express my gratitude to Sonja, Light and Hansong for willing to take turns to accomodate me. Especially Sonja, who offered to vacate her room for few days in order for me to concentrate on my last exam next Friday. Friends like these are hard to find. Friends who would sit in the kitchen for one whole hour while I use her room (with better reception) for phone interview, twice. Friends who would make me nice toast sandwiches after hearing my stomach growl. Friends who cry instead of smiling when I give them my pots and pans while clearing the room, knowing that I'm going back soon. Thanks for everything.

As I cleared my stuff today, I was going through the big stack of travel pamplets, train tickets and receipts that I refused to throw since I came. It was like a journey back in time, as I went through every single item. It has indeed been a long journey. I even found the train ticket that I bought on my first day to travel from Frankfurt airport to Stuttgart. How surreal. Well, its not the time yet to conclude and reflect on whether I had accomplished everything that I had set out to achieve, because I still have one last hurdle to go. However, the learning value of this journey is already enough to make everything worthwhile. In any case, I have made a bunch of amazing friends, who are just like my family here.

I am only starting to understand why no man can be an island.

One last exam!!! GOGOGO!!!

2008-02-25T06:46:00.001-08:00

Finally cleared another paper today and have 10 days before the next. The weather for the past 2 weeks have been excellent. I really love spring. Its got to be the best season of the year. In spring, one can look forward to summer. The leaves are turning green again. I can't wait to smell the roses.

This was was I did in Karlsruhe last summer.

Exam Updates

2008-02-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

I am totally relieved right now. The most apt description of myself now is actually 'chronically sleep deprived' but I can't contain my excitment but to blog about this before I go and rest. Last night was the worst night I ever spent in Germany. I just came back from an examination called Sicherheitstechnik (Safety Engineering) and I can't believe I actually passed it! Before you get confused and ask why I get to know my results so early, thats because most Hauptfach examinations (Core modules) in Karlsruhe are oral based. Meaning you make an appointment with the Professor who would sit down and assess you, results are usually known a few minutes after your exam.

Like everyone else who've never heard of oral exam, I initially thought that its going to be much much more easier than writing an exam. Boy I was so wrong! My first two exams lasted 40 mins and 1 hour respectively and the one I just had was 30 mins. Here's how it goes, you have one or two professors/ lecturers sit down in front of you, an assistant (normally a post grad) who'll be there to record on paper everything that was asked and answered, and you'll be repeatedly bombarded with questions. Sounds pretty much like this:

In fact, thats how I feel during the exam. So besides the pressure of needing to think on your feet, you need to ensure that you give good quality answers, so oral exam is really much more demanding. Although the length of the exam is shorter than a written exam, its a lot harder and definitely more stressful. Not only will your presentation skills be scrutinized, your knowledge and depth of the relevant subject would be be thoroughly assessed, as the questions would usually test your concepts and it is often very clear how well you know your stuff in that long interrogation.

Back to the exam that I just came back from, the content covers not just engineering safety but also the processes for passing of bills, legislation and laws in European Union and Germany, with the focus on machine safety. Faced with a long list of definition and work flow charts on something that I totally can't relate to, I was demoralised by my high possibility of failing. I finally know how the law students feel. Having this exam just two days after the earlier one also meant that I didn't have enough time to prepare.

For a moment yesterday, I felt as though I'm memorising for my German Vocab test back in NUS once again. In every sentence I read, I'm bound to find words that I've never seen before, much less used. There were so many law related technical terms that I was on the verge of a mental breakdown. There was also no way for me to use the English terms as the lecturer had already told me personally that this course is in German and I am only allowed to do my exam in German.

Seeing that I've less than 24 hours left and I was still at the second chapter, I was paniking so much that I couldn't concentrate anymore. I tried to take a nap but ended up wasting another 2.5hours on the bed, wide awake. Insomnia had hit me at the wrong time. Well, it was more like because I worry, hence I can't sleep. I decided that it isn't worthwhile going crazy over this and I recalled a method of stress management, which is to give it up, so you can do better. So I mentally prepared myself to fail the exam and brace myself to disgrace NUS and Singapore in front of the professor the next day. I even visualized myself being scolded and prepared for the worst. After accepting the worst case scenario, I found myself more at peace and spent the rest of the night trying to cover as much as possible.

After throwing lots of smoke bomb during the examination and pretending that I studied very hard, I actually passed my exam. I guess the German smoke bombs are more densed here because the lecturer have to give me the benefit of doubt when I didn't explain some concepts too explicitly. Strange that failing an exam sounds less remote to me as an exchange student while I never had to worry about not passing in NUS.

Nonetheless, I would give the credits of me passing this exam to my Lecturer, who was so patient with me as I always took a long time to think and formulate my answers. He even helped me with some words when I can't remember the exact term in German, which basically gave me some free points. I was even more surprised when he gave me a rather decent grade of 2.3 which is equivalent to good! (German grades range from 1.0 to 5.0, where 1.0 is outstanding and 5.0 is a fail)

2 more exams!!! woo hoo!!

Fasching Fest (9 Feb 08)

2008-02-11T10:14:00.000-08:00

Strange that I'm blogging more often during the exam period. I find it extremely difficult to concentrate on studying here, with so many things happening around me all the time. Last Sat there was Fasching Fest, where everyone dresses up in funny costume and party. For the whole week, you see people dressed up in funny attire and go to classes. Seriously, how to concentrate when you see this guy sitting beside you in the library:

If you don't know who this is, this is Goten from Dragonball. I mean, if you want to dress up like a superhero must act like one also right? But this Goten really behaves like Mr Bean instead. After taking his seat, he picked up a 1 cent coin from the floor and asked me if I had dropped it, before proceeding to carefully scrutinize the coin and then put it into his wallet *imagine Mr Bean doing this in Goten's costume, with the Ah Gua style finger, you know like making a "okay" sign. Shivers.

Anyway, on Saturday night, I popped by the Fasching party, which was within 20 metres from my room at around 1am despite having exam preparation because one of my Turkish friend is leaving the week after. I was rather “sian diao” when everyone I know was drunk and doesn’t know what was happening.

Well, this will probably be the last party I’ll be participating in Karlsruhe. So here are some photos.

Since everyone was dressed up, I also needed to have some other identity so that people doesn't recognise him. Today, Herr Tong will teach everyone how to do stickoutyourtongue 多连拍:

Don't recognise me already right?
Can Arer, the Turkish who's leaving in a week
Gamze, also Turkish Mehmet hiding in a Cock's mask

After a while I got tired of sticking my tongue out.

Gustavo, the most hardworking Spanish around

David, Pingbu's neighbour with a unique senes of humour

Luis Pina from Chile
Pingbu partying hard, even after his leg operation
See his crutches, not part of the costume (although many of us not wearing any)

Extreme right: Franchesco from Italy
Ping giving a kiss to cute Oscar, from Spain

Prof Randy Pausch

2008-02-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

I missed 2 lectures in school today, but I caught an important lecture, a lecture about living. It was really inspirational. This lecture was delivered by Carnegie Mellon Prof Randy Pausch and titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". It is part of a series of "Last Lecture", where professors are given the hypothetical scenario that it is the last lecture of their life and they would talk about topics they hold really close to them. The only difference here is that this isn't a hypothtical situation for Prof Randy Pausch, who has pancreatic cancer and only a few months left. He is a Professor of Computer Science in Carnegie Mellon and a father of 3 kids, the youngest is only a year old.

Although the lecture last 76 minutes, do spend some time to watch it and I am sure that you'll gain some inspiration from this incredible man. Well, at least I did.

What was your childhood dream?

The lecture can be found here on youtube.

Happy Chinese New Year Folks

2008-02-06T10:58:00.001-08:00

Traditionally, Chinese New Year is a time for us to visit relatives and friends to find out if they have survived the attack of the "Beast", better known as Nian. This year, I'm very safe here in the west, because Nian doesn't exist in Germany. However, I'm still very concern about the ~~Ang Bao~~ people back home, did you all survive the Nian? Since its too expensive to call everyone of you and nowerdays everything so high tech, 拜年 of course also can do online. Here's wishing everyone a joyful and prosperous new year ahead :)

Before I continue to 拜年, here's some FAQs with regards to online 拜年:

Q: How may I pass you the Ang Bao if you don't 拜年 personally?
A: Simple. POSB Savings 126-69725-2. Remember to put your name/relationship under "Remarks" for the fund transfer.

Q: Fund transfer got no red envelope. How?
A: If you insist, send an empty red envelope to:
Klosterweg 28 E112, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany

Q: What about the mandarin oranges?
A: Scroll up.

Q: Whoa, how come money is real money, oranges is fake?
A: I'm not going to get the money till I go back Singapore anyway, so you can get your oranges later too.

Further questions can be directly emailed to zimingathotmaildotcom.

Here they go:

My parents: Wish both of you 身体健康,龙马精神,事事平安.
My brother Keith: For you of course 步步高升,财源广进! All the best for your new found career at Wyeth and erm.. part-time modeling *cough*ahem
My brother Ziyang: For my little brother who just collected his pink IC yesterday and officially out of the air force, wishing you success for your examination and your job interview.
My family: Even though we're not celebrating this year, if someone insist on giving Ang Pao remember to collect for me! And send my regards to these 2 other members:

Roy, Keith, Pohkhai: Happy New Year, sorry about not being able to do our favorite activity together this year. Lets do it more often when I come back! Meanwhile, reminisce on old times...

Oh, remember to send my regards to your parents! not forgetting Alina, Qiuling and Yvonne.

Kokpeng, Chenyuan, Terence: Huat ah! 恭喜发财! I seriously don't know if you guys read this at all but anyway, its been a long time since we've met, drop me a mail man, especially 劲哥 and Terence.

Cheewei, Peiling, Manyin, Edelene, CJ, Dickson: did I leave out anyone? Hope you all still meeting as "often", don't be too caught up with life ya, most of you all are still first year into your career so I wish everyone a fulfilling time and success in your endeavors!

My dear classmates of Class 1A, Angela, May, Dennis, YuehJu, Yanli, Charlie, Andy, Lydia, Darius, Haojie: Whether you are on exchange, on attachment, or doing FYP, 加油! but don't forget to have fun! One more year!!!

Stuttgarters: I believe this would be an exciting year for many of you, I wish everyone an awesome exchange experience and may everyday be a significant one!

Jason Shankar: Thanks for the hamper. Wish you ever success in adding value to people's life!

Sally Ong: Was actually looking forward to collect my first ang pao from you and visit your new apartment but looks like I got to wait another year. Wish you 早生贵子!

Liptong: How's everything in US? Did you take up the contract offer in the end anyway? Whether or not, I'm sure you'll do very well in this field. All the best in your exchange!

The list goes on but there's no point putting in names of those that have little probability of reading this blog so if you are reading this and your name is not here, email me okay? I will 拜年 personally!

恭喜恭喜恭喜你啊...恭喜恭喜恭喜你....

Journey to the East - Croatia Day 1

2008-02-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

22-23 Dec

To demonstrate my commitment to writing about my Eastern Europe trip, I shall use my study break to write about my first 3 days spent in Croatia. I am very dedicated okay, blogging even in the library. Well, there is a reason for a longer break because I’ve just solved this program that had been bugging me for several weeks, actually months. This would also stop some idiots who suggested that my blog is dying from all the rumour mongering.

Okay, back to my trip. Sole motivation for the journey to the east is because it’s exotic, everything is cheaper, beer is even cheaper and they used to be communist, okay that’s more than one motivation. All in all, these places just sounded very interesting so Kokyong and I bought a train ticket from Munich to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, which was going at an extreme reduced price of 29 euros.

For those who don't know Kokyong, he is really one of Singapore's most promising youth (新加坡杰出青年2007 runner up). Here's a promising photo of him:

Angelic no?

The rest of our trip was rather impromptu as we didn’t have time for planning due to our busy schedule and so apart from that one-way ticket; we had nothing much planned except for hostels for first part of our journey. It was good in a way as we didn’t have to rush through our trip and could stay in a place till we’ve enough of it. However, the downside was that we had to decide where to go next, find connections, book hostels and do research while on the move. There was also the lingering uncertainty that we cannot find a cheap connection home before school starts. But it all adds to the excitement I must say.

Our first challenge was to meet up. Thats right, to meet. This is contributed by the fact that Kokyong lives in the outskirts of Paris, although he might insist that he lives in Paris, like many other “Parisans”. Initially, he’s supposed to come down to Karlsruhe with this Mitfahr person who’s driving pass Karlsruhe, to meet me before we share a weekend group ticket to Munich. Just before his ETA, he emailed me to say he’ll be directly in Munich the next morning instead. I couldn’t believe that he actually EMAILED me for something that’s so urgent. I won’t even want to start on the point that he didn't label the mail as high priority.

First thought that came to me:

Then again, that’s how he usually does his stuff and I’m kind of used to it. So after it got over me, I decided to call him, and discovered that the driver fly his aeroplane as well. This meant that I had to find a cheaper way of going down to Munich alone. After calling all the drivers who posted on the Mitfahr website, I was still unable to find anyone who has a free seat as it was rather last minute. So I had no choice but to stick to the original plan of buying the 35 euros weekend group ticket. Because it’s a group ticket, I ended up lurking around the ticket machines at every stopover and peeping at strangers buying their tickets so that I can ask if they want to share my ticket. This is also where I realised that either I look scary to travel with or my selling skill sucks.

Do I look dangerous to you?

Anyway, I only managed to find 2 people, who paid me 5 yoyos each, meaning I still paid 25 euros for my ticket. Because I had 4 stopovers, and theoretically I could bring 4 other each time, I could have made 80 euros if I am lucky enough to find 4 people travelling to my next station each time. After being convinced that I could never make it as a salesman, we finally met up in Munich. That is also where I met Alex for the first time. He’s just another lame person who tagged along with us to Croatia and Hungary so I don’t have to introduce much more.

Here's a picture of Alex reprimanding Kokyong for chatting up a girl on
the train,sending her to her hostel and yet forget to get the contact

After resting one night in Munich, we woke up early to catch our cheap cheap train to Zagreb. Unlike Paris, Kokyong and Alex are not used to crossing roads the proper way in Germany, a very law-by-law society and Kokyong got caught by the police, who fined him 5 euros on the spot. He was very proud of his ticket and 1st souvenir he collected from the trip:

"I want to thank my father, my mother and everyone who supported me.."

Our ride from Munich to Zagreb is almost 10 hours even though it’s a direct train. Nonetheless, we passed by many scenic sights, and Alex took a lot of photos with his Pentax K10D.

Credits: Alex

Having taken so many train rides around the Black forest, I did my usual stuff:

Catching up with sleep

We arrived at late afternoon in Zagreb, but it was already all dark since its winter. The next challenge came when we had problem understanding the signboards as well as the names for the tram stations. This meant we couldn’t get to the hostel unless we ask somebody, so I went up the next tram that came by and asked the driver. Realising that he spoke no English, I pointed to the address on my slip of paper and gave him the blur look. He then waved his hand and asked me to get on board, so I waved the other two guys along. I figured this waving action must have built up instant rapport because along the way, I discovered that he actually didn’t know how to get to our hostel. As he continued to drive, he called his friend on his mobile to find out the location. After passing by the main city, we went to somewhere ulu and finally reached the end station. He told us that it was the furthest he can go and our hostel is along the same street, a hundred blocks away or something. He was so nice that he didn’t allow us to pay for the ride. We met him by chance the next day and took a photo of him:

Can you spot the Tramdriver? Credits: Alex

After settling down in the hostel, we went back to the city centre in search for some authentic Croatian food. We ended up in this restaurant which looks very decent and local. We ordered the usual hot red wine, a typical drink for winter in Europe and asked the waiter for recommendations of Croatian specialities, only to get the following reply, “This is an Italian restaurant.”

The two of them looking disappointed

Although we did not manage to get any authentic Croatian food, we figured that the night cannot end without any authentic Croatian Beer, so we started our search for a pub. Then, we started to realise that many people are staring at us like aliens. I remember very vividly, I was walking down the aisle into McDonalds to check out their prices and everyone, I swear, everyone in McDonalds turned and stared at us as I walk up to the counter, turned and all the way until I went out of the door. Wah, machiam like model walking down runway sia, minus the clapping and taking off jacket to pose part. This continued for every person we met on the street and every pub we went into. I guess they are just not used to exotic people like us. Talk about being a foreigner...

In revenge, we stared at these 2 bottles of Croatian Beer for the rest of the night

After our introduction to the town, we decided to retire early back in the hostel and hang around with the people there to find out what’s going on for the Christmas party the next day. Our hostel has 3 storeys with a nice common area on the top floor. When we went back, I could already hear people chilling out there so I went up and mingled a bit. There was an American girl, two Croatian guys high on weed and a Korean girl who was sleeping on the couch. They offered me drinks so I stayed and started chatting. Then Kokyong came along, said hi, sat for 30seconds and left. Unpredictability is his trademark. We continued to chat late into the night. Erica, the American even took out her stash of groceries and treated everyone to nice toasted sandwiches for supper. After supper, the two Croatian started opening the doors beside the common area and discovered a suite, with 2 single beds that’s very much like a hotel, unlike the normal rooms. So I went in, jump onto the bed and commented that it’s very soft, before I quickly drifted into deep sleep. It was already 5am.

I think I've spent too much time already going to continue next time, back to my books! Tune in regularly to find out what happens next when Herr Tong wakes up to another person beside him...

My The Very The Luxurious The Laksa

2008-01-27T13:12:00.001-08:00

My first attempt at cooking my favourite Singaporean dish. Not exactly cook but using the laksa mix from Asian Home Gourmet. The ~~choking curry smell~~ distinct laksa aroma lingered around my whole corridor after cooking and my neighbour had to ask me what I was cooking. I sort of ruined the dish by adding too much coconut milk, resulting in the sauce being too viscous. This 豪华 laksa consists of prawns, crab meat, chicken slices, egg and most importantly, 粗米粉, which took me a long time to find!

Review: The Asian Home Gourmet laksa mix is not too bad and the taste is almost like the real thing. But this doesn't seem to reduce my Katong Laksa craving at all.

Still alive!

2008-01-25T05:57:00.000-08:00

Exams is gonna take over my life in the next few weeks. Hope everyone understands. I'll try to do my east Europe posts slowly...

Hello? Kitty?

2008-01-19T06:27:00.001-08:00

I usually don't post anything other than stuff related to my life here in Germany. But this takes the cake:

On another note, I've been out of the army for so long that I can't imagine myself wearing the uniform anymore. But 2 nights ago, I had a bad dream. I was in fatigues, carrying out some mission, walking very long distance with all the damn barang barang and finally coming to some built up area where everyone was resting. I slowly took off my boots and saw blisters that stretched from my angle to calf and the medic was taking out my skin and flesh, yucks! I woke up in horror, checked the date, and realised that I'm supposed to be having a mobilisation exercise that day. So glad I'm overseas, seems like this will continue to haunt me until I'm 45 years old.

Tribute to my comrades having reservist now!

London (11-12 Jan)

2008-01-15T04:28:00.000-08:00

Over last weekend, I made a short trip to London. What?!!?? Again?? You just got back from east Europe backpacking! but who can resist buying a 20 euros ticket to and fro London (inclusive of tax)?

And so I started making my way to the airport on Friday evening, making sure that I've ample time to catch the last connection to Baden Baden Airport. In fact, I was so early that I even went window shopping while waiting for the S-Bahn to come. Just as the S-Bahn was about to leave the last station in Karlsruhe, it suddenly occured to me that I forgot my passport. Seeing that there was no way I could catch the next connection, which happens to be the last as well, I more or least decided that I could only try my best and cycle as fast as possible back to my hostel and see what happens next. Meanwhile, I called Siwei who found out for me that even the private van that ferries people to the airport will not get me to the airport in time. I got home only at 1915hr and the last train leaves 4 mins later. My luck changed when I saw my neighbour, Axel, a phd student loitering around the corridor. So I asked him for help and he agreed to send me to the airport. I gave him some money for his benzine of course.

After an hour's flight, I landed in London Stansted airport. One thing about budget airline is that their airports all very ulu. So the bus journey out to town is as long as my flight from Germany. After another hour of bus journey, I arrived at Baker's Street, where I'm supposed to meet Wenyong, another exchange student in Birmingham before proceeding to find John Wu, not the famous director but my BMT section mate studying in London who offered his place to accomodate us. We concussed for the rest of the night (and a little of the next morning).

Some church outside where we stayed

Its a nice apartment shared by a few Singaporeans

As we head towards the nearest Tube station to begin our day, I realised that there are many similarities between London and Singapore, well, for one, at least they drive on the "correct" side of the road, opposed to the rest of Europe. Their street signs and urban planning also have lots of similarities to Singapore, reminding me that we were once part of their vast colonies.

I never understood why the microphone is placed so low We finally reached the UNDERGROUD

Having bought the day ticket, we maximise it by stopping wherever we felt like it. We stopped by Liverpool station to have brunch before we moved on the the touristy sites. Spotted a long queue of London Cabs outside the Liverpool station waiting for passengers. I remember taking this once in Singapore. Anybody knows if they are still around?

We had very nice weather that day. Clear skies, some clouds, no rain and comfortable temperature. One Londoner told us that its the first day of the month where there isn't rain.

Suddenly, this controversial giant Gurkin appeared before our eyes. Its indeed very da huge.

Free Telephone in the past?

Nice weather
Looks like the Paris metro but far more efficient
And deep like Budapest and Prague
Parliment building

Famous Big Ben
Winston Churchill
London Eye, just a smaller version of Singapore's copied version

Suddenly there was police siren all over the place and many police cars circulating the area outside the parliment building.

Within a few minutes, a large crowd, obviously a protest starting coming onto the grass field outside the parliment building.
They are voicing displeasure over the support of Americans war, war crimes as well as the need to apply one week advance in order to hold this protest.
Having seen countless protests in Germany but yet to participant in one, Wenyong and I decided to join them in their march.

Got banners, cardboards and even doll okay, not suka suka one..

We did not march for a long time as I decided that I still need to clear the customs when I leave and the police presence is too overwhelming.

Wenyong leading the action

The london police all got different uniform but the funny hat is still the most comical

Full Frontal

After leaving the protest, we went across the dunnowhat bridge to catch a closer glimpse of the London Eye.

Don't ask me what Wenyong and him are doing, I really don't know Spotted some snipers following us, must be because of the protest
The London Eye was under maintainance, but we wouldn't have taken it anyway

Recognise this sculpture? Its the famous twisted clock by Dali
Westminster bridge I think
Basker pretending to be a dog
Like our youth park no?
Tired of castles and churches yet? I am. Here's the Tower of London, nothing much other than being fairytale-like
Holding on to a cup of very nice roasted nuts
Don't know what is this but looks nice
Thought that London bridge really fell? No, its right across can you see it?

Before we know it, the sun started to set and I decided to play with Wenyong's camera, which is able to adjust ISO, Aperture, Exposure etc Took a damn long time to stabilise this shot, because we didn't have tripod. I like how the rear lights of the vehicles zooming past turned out. Not the usual long straight lines but got the electrifying feel.

Underground mural depicting the history of England

Trafalgar Square and National Museum

Soon, our day trip came to an end and we proceeded to Leicester Square to meet Melissa for dinner. She brought us to China Town, where I had the best meal in the past 8 months since I came to Europe.

There were lots of Asian supermarkets and I saw my favourite Bing Bing Mi Guo. Spot the tears rolling from my eyes.
There were many Hongkong Style restaurants and we settled for this Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant, famous for their Duck and highly recommended by Melissa's friends.

Yangzhou Fried Rice!

Speciality Duck

Satisfied customers

Familiar brew of jasmine tea

Hanged around the area after dinner while waiting for the time to pass to catch my bus ride back to the airport and saw this Hummer Limou.

Can you spot the 2nd Cupid?
Flashy cars but pink limou??

After bidding goodbye to Wenyong and Melissa, I left for the airport as I intended to spend the night there till my early flight the next morning. The night passed quickly and soon it was time for me to board the plane the next day. As we flew back towards Baden Baden, the sun was raising over the horizon and the view was amazing.

The pictures certainly don't do it justice. As we approached Baden Baden Airport, the pilot made a bad announcement. The fog was too thick and he couldn't land, weather forecast that it will clear up so we had to wait. And so he circled around the airport for the next one and a half hour, occassionally walking out to use the toilet and make announcements like "Don't worry there's still fuel". I can already recognise the patterns of the fog underneath us, covering the airport after staring at it for so long. An hour and a half later, he decided to give up as the fog showed no signs of dispersion and he flew us to Strasbourg, France instead. From there, it was another hour plus of bus ride back to the Baden Baden Airport. So I took like 4 hours more than required to get back to my hostel and felt like the day was really wasted.

Check out the fog, you can't see whats below, its not clouds

Strasbourg Airport looking much better

Misconceptions

2008-01-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

Okay now I finally know what is going on. Just to clear some misunderstandings and avoid repeating myself.

1. I am back, meaning back in Karlsruhe, not back in Singapore.

I may as well clear the other one once and for all:

2. Sometimes, I wonder where you people get the idea from, but "Herr" is not my english name, it just means "Mister" in German.

Have a nice day people!

Back! without my Backpack

2008-01-06T03:07:00.001-08:00

Click to view a bigger picture

Yes the airline lost my luggage and I am still waiting for Lufthansa to trace it. Anyway, after 14 days, 3448 kilometers, more than 65 hours on the rail and bus, Kokyong and I finally managed to complete our eastern Europe trip. Its been an awesome journey, started with only a one way ticket from Munich to Zagreb, Croatia. As we wanted to visit the more exotic places in eastern Europe instead of the usual touristy attractions, we were also handicapped with language barrier, where most locals can't speak English. Nonetheless, we somehow managed to complete the loop, leaping from Croatia to Hungary, then to Romania followed by Bulgaria and finally ended up in Greece. The weather was below zero until we reached Greece and we were freezing most of the time but the whole experience was definitely memorable. As the chinese saying goes, 读万倦书，不如行万里路 (walking ten thousand miles is better than reading ten thousand books), but reading Herr Tong's blog is as good as reading at least a few thousand books because in the next few entries, he will be writing about his adventures in each city, together with lots of pictures (they are worth a thousand words each). STAY TUNED!

Meanwhile, I need my toothpaste and slippers!!!

Update: My backpack just came back from Milan :) Damn, he went one more place more than me.

Berlin (9-11 Nov)

2007-12-21T05:57:00.005-08:00

Okay last post of today’s rapid blogging – Berlin. Will be keeping this short as well. Siwei and I went to Berlin a month ago to attend the Singaporean gathering at the Singapore embassy. Main aim was to eat Laksa but it wasn’t available. Nonetheless, we had a great time in Berlin, got to know many fellow Singaporeans working in Germany and of course, got to eat many nice local foods like satay, curry chicken etc. MsShort-term-memory decided to tag along with me as she wanted to visit some professor who’s teaching in Berlin.

So both of us took the train to Stuttgart, where we met up with Siwei before heading to some ulu vahingen place to hitch our Mitfahr ride and begin our 8 hours journey to the capital of Germany. While I was at Stuttgart, I took the opportunity to go up to the visitor's tower at Hauptbahnhof since I've never been there during my 5 months of stay in Stuttgart.

Practising my spidermoves.

We were totally shagged out after the ride so we rested for the little night time we have left before setting off for our little day tour on the 2nd day. Suddenly, I saw the PRC tourist lookalike:

Wearing coat and all with jeans, snapping pictures away.

Don't you all think this is very PRC tourist? Caught him in action. We then headed to the Siegessäule, made up of cannons from different countries
Top of the Siegessäule
The Reichtag, which is the parliament house of Germany.
Happy children leaping for joy
& I flipped for joy as wellThe Brandenburg Tor
War memorial
Brandenburg Tor from the corner of the Room of Silence
I've nothing to add
This is why I was practising my spidermoves
Before we headed for the Singapore Embassy for the gathering, it started hailing, rock solid, albeit smaller, ice.
Entrance of the embassy

Embassador speech

Some people that we got to know Someone is not listening to Embassador's speech

All in all, was a very enjoyable afternoon spend in the embassy, socialising and that was also where I first met the aunt of Pingbu, who invited me twice to her house for dinner. We were the last group to leave the embassy. We then went back to Boxian's place, a friend of MsShort-term-memory, who is also from Taiwan and reading Law in Berlin. He was out for carnival and we had the whole place to ourselves, which is really nice.

Playing with the free gift in the goodie bag

It started snowing very heavily the next day and by the time we woke up, everywhere was covered with inches of snow.

We were making some drawings on this car and just before we left, I saw a man walking out of this house nearby so I made a joke and said that the car belonged to him. As we walked away, we saw him getting into the car. Without much contemplation, we all started running.
Next stop was to go back to the Reichtag to see if we could get in because the queue was too long the day before. As luck would have it, we didn't managed to get in still.

I decided to jump over the Berlin wall to find better fortunes.

True enough, siwei saw some familiar and realised that they were fellow singaporeans and that they were in fact, platoon mates during their Basic Military Training. One leading to another, we met up with this whole group of sgp students studying in Warsaw, Poland, as well as my SJI friend, Melvin.
This conman charges people exorbitant prices for stamping fake Charlie Checkpoint stamps on passports.

Melvin and I

Charlie Checkpoint

Berlin Wall

It was so cold that day we stole some heat form a museum nearby

Throughout the day, I was trying to call my Mitfahr driver to confirm the pick up location but he didn't pick up my call. At this point of time, I was starting to get worried but nonetheless decided to take the ride to Milka land.

This cow is actually a fake!
This as well.

After milka land, I started to get really worried about my Mitfahr back home in the night as I had an important class the next day. MsShort-term-memory and Siwei are going back separately. So I decided to give up on this driver and find another. After several calls, I finally managed to find another Mitfahrer going back to Karlsruhe from Berlin. I was elated and went for to eat the Sushi buffet that Siwei has always been recommending.

It was really good. This restaurant is actually run by a Taiwanese so MsShort-term-memory got very excited and took a picture with the boss.

Just as dinner ended, I received a call from my original Mitfahrer who said he forgot to bring his phone out that day. Stuck in the dilemma, I decided that this was his fault and told him I'm going to pang seh him.

On the way back, I found out that the Metros in Berlin had really tall ceilings.

Reic Sur Belon & Pont aven, France (1-4 Nov)

2007-12-21T05:57:00.004-08:00

I went to this place in the western coast of France for my best weekend in Europe, staying over at the house of my friend’s parents in law. For those who didn’t read Siwei’s entry about this trip, don’t. Its too long. Because the place was so nice, we’ve 400 over photos just on one camera. To spare everyone the trouble, its going to be summarised.

Participants: Euzenat Family, Ruby,Siwei, Herr Tong

We canoed:

We picked up oysters, fresh:

We played beach soccer:

We hiked along the coast:

And we feast on everything, oysters, rabbit, sausages, crepes...:

I said its gonna be short.

A tribute to my Kumpel, Siwei

2007-12-21T05:57:00.003-08:00

Tribute to Herr Li, Siwei

Sep 06 - 12 Jan 09

(oops did I let the cat out of the bag? don't tell him you know when he's coming back ya)

And so Siwei is leaving Germany already. Its been hell of a ride buddy and you made it possible, so this gay entry is for you. So why am I giving him so much credits? you may ask. Well, for one, he was the one who asked me to take part in the German Language program in NUS. We've known each other since the days in 1st Commando Battalion, during our NS days. In case you go, Whoa, they are commando ah? no, we're just Infandos, as we would like to call ourselves. Infantry in commando unit. Because we're the minority, there's only a few of us in the same bunk, faced with the "colour discrimination" of our berets (just kidding our unit very united one), we become very closed and had lots of fun together in camp. I remember Siwei being overly responsible for his work that he book in with his pink NRIC after ORD to do the remaining handing over work, something that my boss isn't really pleased about. Nonethessless, he was a very diligent officer. Yes Siwei, if you are reading this don't go gaga. Anyway, back to where I was, he was the one who encouraged me to join this program, being one year senior and having been part of it. When I first started learning German, he was the one who gave me extra lessons, corrected my pronounciation, and taught me lots of grammar. Without him, I might not have continued this far.

My experience in Germany would not have been the same without him, especially when I first arrived. He was the one who viewed my apartment for me when I was still in Singapore, without telling me that there is no furniture. He was also the one who adviced me not the buy the Bahncard, which was really a good deal actually. Now, he doesn't dare to give advice to anyone anymore haha. Actually, I never blamed him before. I always thinks he gives good advices.

During the time here, there weren't without conflicts, especially when it comes to travel plans and all that. But I think I survived well being the only person that is able to travel with you, because before I came, he usually travelled alone and even when he travels with a group, he eventually break off from it. In short, not many people can stand it. Sleeping over at the train station's bench on the first day of my arrival after a 14h flight, sleeping through the rain and a flooded tent during my 2nd day in Europe and tracking at over 3000m above sea level without anyone in sight on my 3rd day is not something everyone will do.

Perhaps he's used to travelling with somebody already as I was surprised when he called me last night, telling me "hey, i'm leaving tomorrow, alone, very dangerous leh". Haha.

Here's some of the places we went and things we did:

We camped at Interlaken, Switzerland We trekked in Jungfraujoch
We did our first road trip to Prague We basked in the sun in Karlsruhe
We visited Hohenzollernburg
We went for my friend's wedding in Rennes, France
We went to Oktoberfest in Munich
I did my first haircut on him
We went to Volksfest in Stuttgart
Siwei telling me that its the 6th piece he is eating
We went to Triberg in blackforest
We played soccer in Reic sur Belon, France
We took picture with the Ambassodor in Berlin
We act "seh" in front of the Brandenburg Tor
I watched him do gay ballet dance move in front of parliament house

The following are some glamourous photos of him (for Jenna's sake),

Look carefully

Face cramp from 自拍.

Leg cramp

Obiang Act cool
Yes, must look through the next 3 photos in sequence

another 自拍
Act cute
Indecent exposure in public
He idolize squirrels so much he actually kneel before one
Acting embarassed, actually he's not

Act cute ultimate

Everywhere must have at least one 自拍, even in the middle of the sea
Pink is the new Milka Chocolate, he goes to websites like these
He eats almost everything
Not a mistake, its still him

Everyone likes to take nice photos, no?

He goes all out to do it
Endurance is the key
Keep going
1,2,3! suddenly face change to Act cool mode

Okay das war es! Have a good trip Kumpel! See you back in Singapore.

Skiing in Feldberg, Blackforest (8 Dec)

2007-12-21T05:57:00.002-08:00

You may be wondering why Herr Tong is suddenly blogging so much in a day. Its really because I need to catch up with all the backlog before I leave for East Europe tomorrow. Else, there is no way to catch up because I'll be going to Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece/ Turkey.

Anyway, here's about my trip to Feldberg, in the Blackforest 2 weekends ago, after deciding to abort my Skitrip to Austria with Siwei, due to time constraints.

We set off in the wee hours of the morning around 5am because we need to catch a 3 hour long slow train connection to the blackforest using the group Baden Wuerttemberg ticket. Everyone is still in half woken condition, except me, who didn't even bother to sleep, haha. Whats the point of sleeping, I thought to myself. Tsiao Tung even brought along a big bag thinking that we're camping over there today, silly her, as always. She has really short term memory, which Siwei or Pingbu can easily vouch for.

Lots of people are heading there for snowboarding, the more popular sport these days for young people. I'll definitely be doing snowboard next time because it looked so fun!
Arrival at the Feldberg Ski facility, everyone looking more awake and ready to go, except me, who's dog tired because I didn't sleep. Whats the point of not sleeping? I thought to myself.

After changing into our gear, we took up the Ski day course which is not exactly cheap but was really worthwhile. By the end of the day we already managed to ski from the top of the Berg (hill) without falling. Its the blue intermediate route area by the way.
Herr Tong in action. 三连拍.

woohoo!

Here's the simple Ski lift that takes us to midway. You have to hold on tight and concentrate because otherwise you'll end up falling like me ~~and get dragged along, eating snow while trying to get up unsuccessfully and only to let go of the pole and get laughed at by the kid behind you.~~
I swear I didn't fall down that many times.
Boy Band style photo
This is the leacherous coach we had who kept kissing my friends whenever they answer a question rightly. I was almost pissing my pants when he started walking towards me after I answered one of his question. He was fortunate enough to avoid having having a ski poked through his eyes by only shaking my hand.
Taking the bigger Ski Lift to the top, from left, Jay Chou lookalike - Weiting, MsShort-term-memory - Tsiao Tung, and Ms TVB - Ruby

Some sights of the place, really nice as the weather was just right and there weren't too many skiiers as it was only the beginning of the season.
Its really not that cold.

Whats a better way to end of a day at the snow mountain with hot Turkish Lamacun, Kebaps, and Doeners?

Thanks Ruby, Carmen and Tasha

2007-12-21T05:57:00.001-08:00

for the wonderful dinner, great companionship and especially the effort you all took :)

These 3 girls cooked up a feast

Highlight was the Cola Chicken Wings
Papaya soup my dad always makes!

The Chinese gang from Taiwan, Canada, Hongkong & Guangzhou.

White Christmas

2007-12-21T05:57:00.000-08:00

These are taken from the rooftop garden of my hostel. Its going to be a white Christmas. But I'll be away in East Europe from tomorrow. Wonder hows it going to be, lots of anticipation. Many things are not set and I've not exactly planned everything. I don't even know how I'm going to come back, only bought a one way ticket. Will give live updates if possible!

Miscellaneous updates

2007-12-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

Someone complained that my blog is lacking in pictures, here are some miscellaneous activities during the last month which I took pictures of..

Fluressen + K2 Hausfest

I live in a student's hostel called Hadiko, in which there are 6 blocks, namely K1 to K6. What is unique is that this hostel is self run by the people that live in it. Basically, each of these buildings are further divided into Flurs (floor) where people living in the common corridor are called Flurmates. Each of these Flurs are responsible for certain task, as part of the hostel's daily operations. For example, some people are in charge of internet services, some in charge of running the pubs (there is one in each building), some in charge of getting the drinks for the whole hostel, some in charge of bringing drinks to individual floors, some in charge of washing machines, printers, computer pool etc etc. Hence, there is a strong spirit of camaraderie in most of these flurs, except mine. Anyway, one of the traditions of welcoming newbies is that the incoming have to cook for the whole flur, known as Fluressen, and this consist of about 13 people for mine.

I'm not going to comment on why my flur is especially weak on comaraderie as it is pretty obvious the moment I stepped into the kitchen on my first day: This pile of shit was left by the sink ever since the first day I moved into K2. Two months later, nothing moved an inch. I should be glad that it didn't continue to pile up though. I even suspect that the reason for them organising a Fluressen (where the newcomer, aka Me, will have to cook for everyone), is for someone to clean up this mess because there will not be enough utensils for everyone if we all eat at the same time. Cooking is of course, not really an issue since I cook everyday for myself anyway, so I cooked curry chicken for everyone (sorry no pictures because I had no time to get the camera). Being the clean freak that I am, I could not resist but to succumb to their trap and clean up the shit:

On the same day, we also had our Hausfest, basically a big party organised by my building and my Flur is in charged of the Garderobe, collecting jackets for people at 1euro. Was such a boring task that my flurmates brought out their PS and started playing at our corridor:
The one in red is my Flursprecher, Thomas, he's in charge of managing my Flur. Beside him is Marc and Birgitt.
I couldn't stand hanging out at the Garderobe and ended up in the party instead. Here is Pingbu, the only other Singaporean here, doing masters thesis, from Purdue Uni in the States.

A Korean Affair

Being the only 2 Singaporeans in Karlsruhe, Pingbu and I often indulge in one of our national trademark activity, which is eating. As students surviving on Stipends, we cannot afford to go to fanciful restaurants because eating out is very expensive in Europe, compared to Singapore. To advance to the next level of being Singaporean, we spend a lot of time going through receipes and come up with things to cook. One of the more extravagent meal was the Korean Affair.

Together, we whipped up a full course korean meal, made up of authentic ingredients found in the asian supermarket.

Marinating the beef in the special korean sauce we did from scratch, involving apple, pear, kiwi, cucumber, onion, vinegar, soda water etc etc. We got the receipe from the korean supermarket's boss.

Kimchi fried rice

Ingredients for Kimbap, a type of korean "sushi" Kimchi soup, Kimbap and other appetisers
Guests: Ian and brother
Axel, Kirsten, Grace

Exkursion - Karlsruhe Klärwerk (Waste Water Treatment Plant)

Had an excursion last week to the one and only Karlsruhe waste water treatment plant as part of my course and it was extremely benefitting. I was truly impressed by the knowledge our guide, the plant manager (I believe), had of the whole process. He had figures at the back of his head and could easily answer our questions like "what is the flowrate of that pipe?" when we point to a random point in the process chart. He described the whole treatment process in such detail that amazed me.

Here are some pictures:

It was a cold cold day trip

The stench here is horrible, I wonder what we're throwing in there. There is no hope for human race

Waste on the way to sorting machine
Our guide explaining the Activated Sludge process
First clarifying tank, they are damn huge

You won't believe how big these pipes are

The Trickling filter Sexy filter at work

2nd Clarifier

Apologies for the low resolution of the pictures, as I did not bring my digital camera and took them with my handphone camera. Nonetheless, engineering is also an art, no?

Process Control Room

Back, to where I was.

2007-12-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

I don't really know how to start this entry. It’s been a long time since I last wrote and many things have happened. It’s almost a month since my last entry and in retrospect, it seemed like everything didn't moved over the last month. Everything seemed to have come to a standstill, everything except time. Thinking back, there were so many things that I've set out to achieved but none of them are in progress. I did went to many places, did many things but all in all, I feel that there isn't any progression in my life. I really need to stop finding excuses for myself and get some motivation back.

I started out writing this blog because I wanted to document my journey here in Germany, keep in touch with family and friends back home and of course, allow myself to reminisce about my adventures in the future. I found it to be a wonderful way to share my experiences, whether it’s about my travels, school or German bureaucracy. Apart from sharing, it has also become a good way for me to conclude an event and move on to the next.

Those who know me fairly well probably know that I am someone who seldom divulges my thoughts. Somebody even describe me as "mysterious" in Facebook. That is actually a fairly apt description of me. Most of my entries are nothing more than superficial entries which do not reveal much about me, apart from the activity itself. Blogging from my heart makes me feel vulnerable so I’d usually prefer to blog from my brain and nothing close to my heart. Today is going to be an exception, because I want to move on and close the chapter that had been hindering me.

I’ve never told anyone about her. The recent passing of her brought back many memories, most of them, already vague. She’s been living in a trance for almost ten years. As her memory faded day by day, she soon lost her ability to recognise anyone. Relationships soured as the illness caught up with her, making her act like a deranged women. It is indeed a scary disease, attacking not the body of the patient, but the mind. The effects of the disease only get worst by the day. It does not kill the patient, but leave her suffering in daze. Somehow, everyone was glad that her suffering was over.

The passing of my grandmother did left permanent regrets with me. She was the one who took care of my brothers and me when my parents were busy carving a career during our childhood. She was the one who inculcated many values in me, in many indirect ways. I am always filled with gratitude for her upbringing, which unfortunately, I had no more chance of repaying. I remember the numerous times I visited her last year in between my classes, watching her lie on the bed, body crouched once again like a baby, unable to recognise me or any others and occasionally giving loud screams as though she is in pain. She could no longer eat, walk, talk or do anything, except to lie on the bed. I did not know what I could do for her, except to visit her whenever I could. I did have a bad feeling about this before I left for Germany but I did not make the trip to visit her. This guilt will stay with me for a long time.

To my grandmother,

I am sorry for not making it back. I am sorry I can’t pay my last respects. I am sorry that I couldn’t do anything for you. I am sorry for not visiting you before I left. I am sorry for being stubborn about many things when I was young. I am sorry for hiding the cane. I am sorry for not holding your hands when you were limping. I am sorry for not spending more time with you. I am sorry for running around the house. I am sorry for being selfish. I am sorry for not appreciating you when you were sane. I am sorry.

I am glad the suffering is over for you. May you rest in peace.

Arrgh!

2007-11-19T11:27:00.000-08:00

I just spent a good 9 hours in the laboratory today, doing experiment for one of my courses. It started at 0830am and ended at 1715pm, without breaks, without lunch, just 9 hours staring at my apparatus and waiting for the time to pass and record results. It is an extremely frustrating thing to do especially when there are a thousand and one other things waiting for me to do. This course that I am taking here, called Mass Transfers II, is really taking its toll on me. On top of its lectures, we're supposed to conduct bi-weekly experiments (not forgetting the lab reports, in German of course), do a presentation and pass everything before I can be allowed to take the exam. Of course, being trained by the Chem Eng Dept in NUS to churn out a 40 page lab report weekly meant that reports aren't really the problem here. The real challenge I am facing here, is that before the start of every lab experiment, a supervisor would be there to give everyone an oral exam (aka vivá/Gespräch überprüft). I had my first taste of the viva here two weeks ago where my lab partners and I were made to sit down in front of the supervisor and grilled for two and a half hour before we were finally allowed to start our experiment. The first lab was really a diseaster as my group wasn't prepared at all and were dumbfolded at his questions. Even when I wanted to give a random shot by guessing, I found myself lacking in vocabulary and couldn't contribute much. Hence, I spent almost one night preparing for this lab today and barely caught 2 hours of sleep before the actual experiment. Fortunately, the supervisor for today was a rather nice lad and he let us off after 1 hour of "interrogation", this is however, still in stark contrast to NUS's viva where it never last more than 20mins. There is a vast difference between the 2 education systems, at least in the way the labs are being conducted. In Singapore, we're taught the theory in lectures and allowed to investigate the reliability of them during the experiments before analysizing them in our reports. In Germany, we're taught the theory in lectures, expected to master the theories, be able to derive the equations on the spot and give precise explanation about how the theories are valid, before being allowed to carry out experiments as a formality. No doubt the latter would produce engineers who're very strong in fundamentals, students have a lot more to sacrifice in order to survive here. As a matter of fact, half the number of engineering students here fail to make it to the second year. Its no wonder that it is the top university in Germany. Darn I didn't know that until I came.

White November

2007-11-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

I was pleasantly surprised to see my bike covered in snow this morning. I was in a hurry and didn't even noticed that everything around me became white overnight until I saw my seat covered with snow. Winter is here early this year. The snow continued until late morning but was very light and melted away soon in the afternoon hence I didn't got a chance to take any photographs. Its beautiful in its own way as it was not as crazy as the hailstorm I experienced in Berlin last saturday or even the heavy snowfall on sunday. The snow was so fine that you can't really touch it and yet its continously falling all around you. I also found that its always not as cold during the snow compared to before and after, something I appreciate very much because I really hate the cold weather. Hmm..if only every morning is so beautiful...

More Back-blogging: Triberg, Blackforest 21 Oct

2007-11-14T10:26:00.001-08:00

Okay this is not sooo long ago, only 4 weeks ago. Living on the edge of the Blackforest, this trip seemed is almost a must for me, even more so since I decided to give up joining the Blackforest marathon. So I got Hsiao Tung, my taiwanese neighbour and Siwei, my guide cum photographer to share a group ticket to Triberg, where the highest waterfall in Germany is situated (supposedly). We also witnessed the first trace of snow for this year, indicating that winter had already slowly creeped in.

The snow was falling but too light to be seen in this photo

Not really that tall
My photographer insisted on taking a picture with me so I gave in
Its really a nice waterfall

Looks like Japan no?

Siwei acting cute squatting in a stump

We spent quite a bit of time playing with these squirrels, they look really amusing especially when they grab the peanut from our hand and proceed to dig a hole to hid their supplies.

Trying to eat Ice Kachang

The Trio

As the water fall failed to occupy us for the whole day, we left early and went to the train station to search for another random destination. We ended up at Donauschengen, which was initially disappointing when we arrived but was surprisely nice and quaint as we explored the main town.
We later found out the the source of the Donau river came from here as well, according to this:

As there was a music festival going on here that week, they added some bamboo poles in this "Donau source" which produces "melodies" whenever someone walk pass the sensors.

Make a wish, make a wish...

Could not get into this church as it was closed for renovation

As we headed to the town centre, we spotted a group of musicians having an illegal protest rally outside the Rathaus. In order to prevent it from escalating to a riot, I had to intervene and try to disperse them. As I do not possess tear gas and water cannons to break up the protest peacefully (unlike the police force of some particular M-country), I could only try my best to negotiate.

One of the peaceful protestors then held me hostage with her French horn.
Hsiao Tung counter held their violin comrade hostage.
And Siwei got violated during the chaos.

The illegal assembly was broken up peacefully at the end of the day after all, when Siwei sacrificed himself to one of the protesters.

Back-blogging - Volksfest in Stuttgart, 6 Oct

2007-11-14T10:26:00.000-08:00

Procrastination is really a bad habit of mine which I want to change. The thing with blogging about trips is that you really need to conscientiously take note of details, take pictures and remember events while you are having a holiday. The most difficult task of all, is to actually blog about the event when you're back. Most of the time towards the end of my trip, I'll be telling myself, "omg this was an amazing trip I'll definitely tell everyone about it when I get back!". But in reality, I'll be busy when I want to blog, and lazy when I'm no longer busy - typical cycle of a procrastinator. Anyway, what I want to say is, I realised its really difficult to blog when the event is no longer fresh. So, for this trip made more than a month ago, I can't really remember the details, except for the sushi making session at Siwei's place, the taste still lingering in my mouth, just kidding its been more than a month. And since a picture tells a thousand words, I'll not elaborate any further. Oh by the way, Volksfest is the smaller version of Oktoberfest held in Stuttgart while the latter is held in Munich. As a background info, these two Main state (Hauptstadt) is always in competition. Not that I favour Stuttgart more, but I really found the Volksfest to be much more enjoyable than the Oktoberfest.

Sushi Making prior to Volksfest

Ferris Wheel from afar

Its held at Bad Cannstatt hence the name
Karri (Finland), Grace (Indonesia), Herr Tong, Hsiao Tung (Taiwan), Lucas (France)

Looks just like Oktoberfest

Finally got our 1 Litre BeerWe managed to take the roller coaster as well as the queue was shortSiwei, freaked out during the roller coaster ride
Rest of us, looking cool during the ride
Decided to take the Ferris Wheel to catch the scenary before we leave

Guess who is afraid of heights?
Bird's eye view of the festival
Siwei going gaga
Another shot from the cabin

verdammte Scheiße!

2007-11-14T01:30:00.000-08:00

DAMN!! so my dept coordinator changed and the old one did not even bother to tell me or forward my emails to the new one letting them go into the black hole. Lucky I called nus this morning else I'll probably be waiting till the end of the semester for my replies. Now, I'll have to wait for the whole approval process again and the person in charge of my curriculum is on leave, away from Singapore and no one knows when he'll be back. ARGH!!! I need some 鸡蛋面线 to change my fortune...

Overdose of cuisine et culture françaises

2007-11-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

I'm having an overdose of French cuisine and culture right now. After spending a wonderful weekend at the western coast of France, picking and eating raw oysters, canoeing along the river running to the Alantic ocean, appreciating French wine, cheese, sausages and living like a French for 4 days, I'm back in Karlsruhe, but not ending my affinity with the French culture.

Here is a snapshot of the cuisines (I'll be blogging about the trip later)

Yesterday, my internship supervisor organised another small farewell party for me at his home in Stuttgart. This was because he was away in Norway the day I left the company. He's such a wonderful supervisor indeed! Anyway, because he knew about my interest in wine and french cuisine, he made it a wine tasting night, where he actually chose 8 of his precious wine bottles from his cellar and prepared a script to introduce the origin of each bottle. Many of the bottles were more than a decade old and was really good. We had about 4 bottles of white wine as apéritif to go with the starters before moving to the sweeter red wine to go with the French style Rindfleisch von Rotwein (Beef cooked in red wine).

By the way, I don't know the French name of that dish and what I wrote is the German name which I read from the receipe he showed me, typed written using a typewriter and dated 1986. Anyway, I had a good time catching up with my colleagues and before I know it, I had to leave to catch the train back to Karlsruhe. I hope I'll get the chance to visit them again before I leave for Singapore though.

My Supervisor with his precious collection

And so I thought this was it, one continuous week of French cuisine. Just as I was about to leave last night, I received a sms from one of the French exchange student, who invited me to dinner at her place the next day (which is in an hour's time). This is so going to spoil my plans to become fatter, as everyone might know, the French always serve in small portions. Alright, got to go get something from the supermarket before I go over. Au revoir!

Hey what’s going on?

2007-11-06T17:35:00.000-08:00

Fret not! Herr Tong did not give up blogging, he’s just too busy with life’s little annoyances, as well as the many social obligations that are taking up too much of his time. It’s not an excuse when he said he don’t have time to write. The fact that he is writing this now on the train while heading to Stuttgart for his belated farewell party organised by his ex-boss is the ultimate proof of his commitment to this blog. Herr Tong is someone who needs lots of time for himself, whether to recover from a late night party or just to be alone for the day. The endless mapping woes ~~, daily exchange student parties and travelling~~ always took up most of his time here.

It’s been more than 2 weeks since he last wrote about his trouble with his module mappings and not getting any replies from the coordinator. He is still having the same problem and this had kept him occupied for the past 2 weeks. It has been a strange 2 weeks for him as he was kept very busy despite not having many classes. His mind was always preoccupied with his curriculum issues and that made him felt really busy even though he was actually not. Most of his classes were in the morning and he is usually free from lunch onwards. However, much of his time seemed to have vanished into some black hole and he still find himself rushing for classes, having lack of sleep and not having enough time for himself. In fact, the past 2 weeks gone by in a flash and he could hardly even remember the details to blog. Thus, this entry will summarise some of the key things/happenings for the past 2 weeks that left some impression in his head. In no particular order, they are:

Lecture: Professor, "I know you chinese can memorise a lot of things"
Party: 80% Alcohol
Food: Curry Chicken, Bak Kut Teh, Hong Kong style Pork Chop rice, Proscuito Ham, Chocolate coated Banana, oysters, French cuisine
Travels: Triberg, Blackforest, Reic Sur Belon and Pont Aven, France
Weather: Cold, Snowing in Blackforest
People: Crazy Spanish, drunk Turkish, hospitable French
Disappointment of the week: "Your mapping is not approved"
Mind boggling: S/U revocation exercise, Mapping

Okay, that’s a short and random update for now, my thoughts are still in a mess, I'll do a proper post soon!

Upcoming: Volksfest (very late I know), Blackforest, Reic Sur Belon and Pont Aven (France)

Update 1: I really hate Siwei for always blogging so soon and using all the nice photos.
Update 2: I just got caught for Schwarzfahren again on the way back from Stuttgart. I recall buying the “Whole net” ticket which turns out to cover only 2 zones. Argh, 40 euros!!!
Update 3: In case you might be thinking that I am a guest blogger, I’m not. It’s only because Herr Tong’s mind is so saturated right now that he can only describe what is happening from a 3rd person point of view.

First day of School

2007-10-22T06:28:00.000-07:00

While it is almost exam time in NUS, I only started the semester in Karlsruhe today. Its the first day of school and I did not attend a single lesson. I am back in my room now, rather lost. My mapping is still not approved.There are so many courses that I might potentially take that I do not know which one to go for. Many of the courses take place at the same time. Most courses do not have course description as well and I had to write to the individual professors in order to know if the course is suitable for me. All the previous mapping that I did in NUS is considered void as a key module that would not be available in NUS anymore is no longer available here as well. I have not gotten any reply from the Uni. I seriously wonder if I can even graduate on time.

On another note, I finally sorted out my visa today, at the price of 50 euros. I'm glad I asked a friend to come with me because I didn't bring enough cash. It is interesting to note that everytime I bring along a German friend, everything seems to go smoothly. They did not even have to say a thing, just stand beside me. Just like 3 weeks ago when another friend came with me to register and make the appointment. What is wrong with me?

Announcement 2

2007-10-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

Woot! I passed!

Blogging will resume with immediate effect. Herr Tong would like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement.

Herr Tong
Chief, HTBA

Public Service Announcement

2007-10-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

Herr Tong is currently studying for an exam on Friday, 19th October. As such, blogging and clearing of backlog would be disrupted during this period. We apologise to all readers for any inconveniences caused. Services are expected to resume on Monday, 22th October. We thank you for your kind understanding.

- Herr Li, HTBA (Herr Tong Blogging Authority)

Expectations

2007-10-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

Its nice to be finally able to sit down properly, and have a home cooked meal of 三菜一汤. Today, Hansong and I decided to whip up some nice dishes since we are always so busy during the weekdays. This has a special significance for me, in that I finally feel that I'm settling into this place. Notably, I've just realised that apart from the "western" mushroom soup, Turkish gulasch soup, I've not had proper soup since I step foot in Germany. I wouldn't really consider the rest as proper soup as they are basically just MSG in water. Back in Singapore, I used to have soup everyday, not because my surname is 汤 but because everyone in my family love soups. My dad, without fail, will make soup everyday, something I miss a lot here.

Tomato&Egg soup, Fried Vege with Mushroom, Steak in Krauterbutter,Fried rice, Minced beef in Paprika

Despite the uncertainty that I'm still facing ahead of me, I'm sort of numb to all these bureaucracy and taking things as they come. I'm happy that I've got a roof over my head and proper food to eat, compared to 2 weeks ago when I was moving from friend to friend's place, skipping meals and such. At least now I've a proper routine.

A friend came over today and commented that I have a decent room, albeit the fact that I was complaining that its noisy and dirty on the first floor, has a strange odour, have showers without doors (the females staying on my floor seems okay with it) and a dirty kitchen with a mountain of unwashed dishes, spoilt oven and no proper kitchen equipment. Perhaps I have been looking at things too pessimistically, ever since my series of unfortunate events, that I never realised that I should in fact, be grateful of many things.

Here's a picture of my room a month ago while still in Stuttgart:

Here are pictures of my room now in Karlruhe:

I even have my own basin in the room

Let me not have anymore expectations and take each thing that comes as a bonus.

Oktoberfest (22 Sep)

2007-10-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

I went over to Munich for Oktoberfest the weekend after I ended my internship. It wasn't anything close to what I imagined to be, and much more chaotic than I had expected. It was an experience just to be there, but I will probably not be back there again. As almost all available accomodation in Munich was booked throughout the period of the festival, it was impossible to get any proper accomodation. Siwei and I did not expect our group to grow to 6 people and were earlier thinking of just crashing at his friend's place in Munich. So once again, we decided to pitch tents. Our preparation started the previous evening, where all of us gathered at Siwei's WG to pack our equipment and sleep over, much to the displeasure of Hendrik, his housemate. We woke up at 5am the next morning to take the early train to Munich, so that we can arrive in Munich by 9plus and head to our campsite as soon as possible. Upon reaching munich, we discovered that there is not available transport to the campsite so we had to trek another ~3km.

The season is changing

Its nice walking without shoes when the road is cold

After setting up our tents, we rushed down to the Oktoberfest site. I think my suay-ness started from there because we kept missing the trains by a few minutes and have to wait for the next one which is 20+mins later. By the time we got down to Oktoberfest, its already crowded with people. We also didn't manage to catch the parade, which marks the start of the festival.

The venue is much bigger than I thought. Its basically like a gigantic "pasar malam", with lots of amusement rides, lots of food, lots of souvenirs and of course, the Brewery Tents.

It took us quite long to find this Augustiner Brau tent, where the queue looks reasonably "short" so we decided to try queuing. After 2 full hours of queuing, we finally made it to the entrance. Not because the people were going in, but because the others in front of us gave up. The entrance is heavily guarded by many security guards, occasionally throwing troublemakers out of the tent and we managed to catch some of the action being so close to the door.

Augustiner Brau

Finally at the entrance First aiders in action
Siwei in action
Famous Pork knuckles

Famous Siwei

We finally left the queue after 2 hours and went to get the normal beer from Paulaner instead.

Last night at Beatleboop WG (20 Sep) + Last Day of Work (21 Sep)

2007-10-08T15:26:00.001-07:00

Before I drown in the snowball of events, I guess I will have to start back-blogging from now. Siwei, my most loyal reader, has been asking me this almost every time I see him online, "Are you blogging now?", "When do you intend to blog?","Not blogging?"... And to satisfy him, I'm going to put my homework aside and do this entry, where I left off the other time.

My last night at Beatleboop Wohngemeinschaft was actually the most happening night of my entire stay in this shared appartment. This was because the new housemate, Masanobu (Jap), moved in the same night and brought 2 friends along to celebrate. I only knew he was coming but didn't expect a party. I was having plans to make Muffins for my colleagues that night but since everyone was hungry, I cooked what a singaporean exchange student is best at, "Fried rice" for everyone and had to postpone my muffins plan much later into the night.

Me, Janusch,Ester,Friend1,Friend2,Masanobu

And so, a typical German way of starting and ending your stay at a company is to make some pastries and bring a few bottles of juice and champagne to work. The cons of working in an MNC is that your small department consist of at least 30 people. It took me almost 2 full hours to finish making 36 muffins, thanks to the Dr Oetker and his famous receipe.

I decided that I should make something special for the 6 people in my team and so I chose 6 of the nicest chocolate muffins and wrapped them up.

End product

Using wrapping paper and some strings, I even made a nice little bag and dumped in lots of sweets and chocolates. I actually spent a few nights making these bags and my colleagues didn't believe me that I made them. Buying it would cost me about 2 euros for each of them but the wrapping paper I used to make them cost less than that.

Full glory of the goodie bag

My colleagues on the other hand, counter surprised me with a farewell party after I surprised them with the gifts. The only pity was that my supervisor is away in Norway.

The Environmental Consulting Group Farewell gift for me too
A travel book
The Energie Technik Gruppe

In retrospect, it had really been a wonderful experience for me. An opportunity that didn't come by easily and I've learnt a lot throughout the internship. To those who are keen in taking up an overseas internship, I would strongly encourage you all to go for it, it'd be a decision you'll never regret.

I will survive...

2007-10-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I'm back, in one piece and still alive. But I've lost quite a bit of my spirits, in my fight against the Queen of the Evil and my ultimate test of "The German Exchange Student". The past 2 or rather 3 weeks had been a difficult time for me, with so many things happening within this short period. I am finally settled, in the sense that I got my room, my internet, got my class, and a busy timetable with lessons from 9am to 6pm without any breaks except on Mondays and Fridays where I have an hour of rest in between. All these will continue for the next 2 weeks before my next appointment on the 22nd Oct, where I'll know if I'll be uprooted once again. In the meantime, my heart is still not settled.

I've a big stack of notes to ~~read~~ translate now so I'll leave the stories for another time. Meanwhile, here's a chronological list of events since my last post:

20 Sep: Welcome party for new Housemate cum farewell party for me
21 Sep: Last day of work + surprise farewell party
21 - 23 Sep: Oktoberfest, Munich
23 Sep: Night infiltration into Karlruhe, move to Gabriel's place. First meeting for Orientation-Phase, Uni Karlsruhe
24 Sep: Official introduction to Uni Karlsruhe, Welcomers Party at Hadiko. Tried to get my room but unsuccessfully.
25 Sep: Matriculation, O-Phase party at Stadtmitte
26 Sep: O-Phase Party at Oxford Cafe, Kronen and KAP
27 - 28 Sep: Visa renewal - Day of unfortunate events + Moving to Karlsruhe
29 Sep: Moving from Gabriel's place to Pingbu's place + O-Phase Tram Party
30 Sep: Moving from Pingbu's place to Hansong's place + Intercultural Food night
1 Oct: Registration in local residents' Office but not successful + Language Placement test but computer down + Tried to get my room but unsuccessful
2 Oct: Successfully registered in local residents' Office + Moved into my own room
3 Oct: Public holiday, Siwei came from Stuttgart
4 Oct: Realised I got into a shitty class, tried to change, unsuccessful
5 Oct: Tried to change class again, unsuccessful
6 - 7 Oct: Went back to Stuttgart for Volksfest
8 Oct: Successfully changed my class. Joined a block seminar which essentially took up the rest of my afternoons in the next 2 weeks.

Its getting better day by day...

I will survive...

Guest Blogger - Herr Li

2007-09-29T11:16:00.001-07:00

This is no xiaxue-ish gimmic to increase clicks on this blog... Think of me as a spokesperson for Herr Tong...

But before the updates come, Herr Tong foolishly handed me his username and password to his precious blog account. Being the evil blogger that I am, I was thinking of ways I could "beautify" his blog. Changing it into the vomit inducing pink layout like xiaxue's was a possibility hahaha.

Crap and all aside, another possible title to this entry could be "Herr Tong's A Series of Unfortunate Events"

As we last left off, Herr Tong was towards the end of his internship in Stuttgart. He was ready to embark on his new life as an exchange student in Karlsruhe. After his weekend trip to Munich with his friends, he carried onwards to Karlsruhe to register as a new student and take part in the orientation activites. Things were going so ar so good: He got an empty room from his friend to stay in before he got his own room, he got to know many new friends.

However, Herr Tong's sleeping curse resurfaced on Thursday, when he was supposed to wake up at 9 am to collect the rental car to drive from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart. His friend, Herr Li, who was currently doing his internship in Stuttgart, thought of calling him at the room at 9 am, but decided against it as he thought that Herr Tong would have long left the room. And so, it was only after 12pm that Herr Tong woke up. He frantically cycled to the car rental, but was involved in a small accident along the way. Luckily, both parties were not seriously hurt, with Herr Tong only suffering minor cuts. Meanwhile, he decided to call Herr Li to try to help him postpone appointment at the residence office in Stuttgart to extend his resident permit, while trying to get to the car rental. Herr Li managed to get through to the number of the residence office, only to speak with the Queen of Evil Beuracracy, who said that unless he made it at 13:45 pm, he would have to proceed to room 110 to make a new appointment.

When Herr Tong finally arrived at the car rental, he was horrified that 2 of his normal credit cards failed to work (someone should be paying their bills on time... tsk tsk) and that his only hope, the VISA Minicard, was cruelly ridiculed by the lady as being "fake"... In his desperation, Herr Tong committed one of the deadliest sins: To take a taxi in Germany. Finally reaching Stuttgart with a taxi fare of €***, Herr Tong was only granted an audience with the Queen of the Damned and her subordinates... Without even taking a look at his documents, the Queen and her subordinate played a cruel game of human ping-pong, refusing to extend his resident permit. Herr Tong's valiant attempt in blasting them with a stream of pure English ray was only deflected by the Queen with her "You are in Germany not England" talisman... Utterly disgusted by the beuracracy, Herr Tong left the office extremely dejected.

Meanwhile, Herr Li was trying ways to break into the Queen of Evil's inpenetrable fortress, in hope of lodging a complaint. Even though he has reached a significant level of assimilation, he realises that unless he is one of them, he does not stand a chance to lodge a complaint. Dejected, Herr Li decided on a place for dinner that would probably raise everyone's morale: KFC from good old Colonel Sanders. Herr Pang, former president of a powerful organisation, decided to grace the event as well. Ordering the legendary "Thursday 6 piece chicken for €5,50", the trio had a good time sliming the system and eating their 6 piece chicken with chilli-cheese fries. Herr Li was also ridiculed by the rest as being "cheapskate" , taking advantage of the all-you-can-drink and order only one drink to share among three people.

Feeling slightly better and hearing advice from his friends, Herr Tong decided to try his fortune in Karlsruhe, making his way once again from Stuttgart to Karlsruhe. His hope is to register himself as a resident in Karlsruhe on Monday and secure an appointment to extend his resident permit before it expires. As he currently staying with another aquaintance, Herr Han, he does not have the Internet access to update his blog, which is why, I, Herr Li, is taking over this task.

Herr Tong is probably now in a street tram, circling the city of Karlsruhe, and having a crazy party inside with the rest of the students. (Correct at the time of publishing)

Herr Tong would greatly appreciate well wishes from his loyal readers. Please wish him luck for the coming weeks ahead settling into his new place.

-Herr Li, Guest Blogger
29. September 2007

Sad

2007-09-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Going to leave my company by the end of this week. It dawn on me today that I'm leaving this place soon, very soon. Was initially supposed to work till end of this month, but I cannot afford to miss my orientation and start my semester in a mess. I guess my supervisor was shocked as well, when I told him I have to leave. He can't even have a concluding session with me, as I shook his hand before he leaves for Norway again. Everyone around me seemed to have already become part of my everyday life. This week, I don't want Friday to come.

Untertürkheim Weinfest

2007-09-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

Last year during my German language immersion course in Stuttgart, I had the privilege of staying on a Wineyard (Weinberg), with the family who produced the famous south German wine named Trollinger. This year, they invited me to their Weinfest, a festival lasting 4 days where they showcase some of the best wine they made for the past few years. Showcase meaning can drink, not see only :) Over the past 4 days, Untertürkheim (where I stayed) was packed with people, not just people who lived around but people coming from different parts of Germany.

The whole street was blocked off for this event, right outside Weinmanufaktur, the building where the making of the wine takes place, a short walk down from their house. I initially didn't know where the event will take place and their son forgot to convey my message to her mother so they didn't know that I was coming. And no one was picking up the phone when I was on the way there so I thought that it'll be a wasted trip. I was so glad when I saw the tents. When I arrived, I was trying very hard to locate my host and almost didn't recognise him when I was staring at him in the face because he was dressed in formal shirt and tie. Normally, he's in his cover-alls as he needs to work on his fields.

There is a choice of outdoor and indoor seating. Indoors you get to enjoy the band and some singing performance, outdoor you get to enjoy the rare sunny weather and many games prepared.

The indoor bar counter and bandstandMy host giving a speech
The turnout was really good
Lots of games available for the kids
These games were all rented from the local child care
The carousel is obviously not from the child care centre
Ever seen such a gigantic stacko?
This is what happens when it falls

There's this really fun soccer game where you use the magnet underneath the table to control your players He almost cried when I won him in the soccer game
There's even air gun station!

Because everyone was so busy, I took a walk back to the house to check out if anything changed. I didn't have much time during my last visit. Saw these lovely grapes on my way as I pass by the field like I used to. Those grapes were not there last year. I cant help but to try some.

Took this picture and when I compared to the same one last year, nothing changed, except that someone else is occupying my room now.
After coming back to the festival area, Frau Warth was taking a break and decided to give me an impromtu guided tour at their factory. I got to see the whole wine making process and the tanks where they kept a grand total of 1 million litres of wine. Each is about 2 storeys high. She then brought me to their secret keller where they kept all the best wine. The barrels are more than a 100 years old and were there since 1904! Each of this barrels have an engraved picture, which shows what this wine was made for. For eg, there was one to celebrate 100 years of Mercedes Benz, another for Millenium year, and another for this important person's birthday etc.

Here's the Store room for this festivalNew storage tanks
Old storage tanks but still in use
Secret Keller where they kept the best wine.
The barrels that are more than a century old
Ever seen 150kg worth of grapes hanging from the ceiling? They are real.

Praktikum Report

2007-09-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Been a busy week, trying to finish my report for my supervisor. Thought that a simple report wouldn't take such a long time and I had one full week to work on it while all my colleagues are on holiday. After 5 days, 10100 words, my report came up to be more than 60 pages, in font size 10. Felt like a thesis more than a report. I'm so drained...

Schwarzfahren

2007-09-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

Schwarzfahren - Fare dodger. This is what the online dictionary translated it to be, although I beg to differ. I've never been a dodgy person. I'm still feeling a bit 冤枉 about the whole thing. In short, I got caught this morning for traveling without a valid ticket. The fine, "by right", is 40 euros, but I get to pay 10 euros if I pay within the next 10 days.

My contention is that, I bought the 50 euros monthly ticket every month. This pass allows me to travel 1 zone to work everyday and anywhere around Stuttgart after 12 pm. So, I just found out today (after getting caught) that the 1 zone which my pass is valid for refers only to the zone from my house to my office and not from any other place outside this boundary. The story was, I stayed over yesterday at Siwei's WG (original intent was to do something about his Heat & Mass Transfer exam but end up fixing up cupboards and furniture at the Gucanin's new house). Anyway, thats beside the point, so this morning I had to go to work from his house instead of my house. Just a quick ride over 2 bus stops and I actually got checked. The innocent me actually showed the person my monthly pass proudly. I've always believed in "不知者无罪" but as everyone knows, Germans are law-by-law people, so there's really nothing much I could have done. To further prove that I am not aware of the rules, I got on to the S-bahn right after getting caught without a valid ticket again. I only realised it when I was on the bahn thinking about the validity and zones of my pass that I actually schwarzefahren again. Deep sleep function was quickly activated just in case I get checked again. I'm glad I didn't.

So ein Pech!

Killesberg, Stuttgart

2007-09-09T11:52:00.002-07:00

Not wanting to waste my sunday doing nothing, I cycled to Killesberg in Stuttgart, the same place I went last year. It was nice to reminisce about the immersion course, which seemed to have happened just yesterday.

Last year:

This year:

Only me this year

The small playland seems to be more happening this year

View of Stuttgart from the top

Invisible housemate

2007-09-09T11:52:00.001-07:00

The day I first saw my new housemate moving in was also the last day I ever saw him since a week ago. I'm refering to the new guy who works at Porsche. I've always wonder why he's never around. Today, I found out why:

You know how a person is very much associated with the things he uses? I found this in the bathroom this morning. On the left is Caffeine Shampoo, the right is Anti-Hangover Shampoo.

The Caffeine Shampoo does this:

"Stimuliert die Haarwurzeln schon beim Waschen, fuehlbar mehr Haar... Hair Energizer"

"Stimulate the hair roots with every wash, noticeably more hair"

The latter:

"bringt dich von 0 auf 100, egal wie kurz die Nacht war"

"brings you back to life no matter how short the night is"

I assume the first is to use right before he goes out and the second for him to use before he goes to work. No wonder he's never around. I wonder where he hangs out in the night with his long hair.

"Johnny the hairstylist" returns

2007-09-08T04:10:00.000-07:00

After complaining about my hair cutting attempt, this somebody asked me to cut for him also. Ahem. You know you really shouldn't condescend someone whom you're getting a service from?

Ready to be butchered.

Just kidding, I am not an evil person. The end result turned out quite nice and I really liked it. Once again, because I only have the layering scissors, I heavily layered his top, sides and back, so it looks pretty wild. All in all, it wasn't that bad at all.

Here are the "After" Pics:

Side view

I did a 'V-back' for him

Front view of the ultra layered top

Hmm... I think I should start charging a fee.

Infinite Loops Part II

2007-09-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

First, I emailed the administrator at my host University asking her if I can matriculate a few days later (due to my work). I got this automatic reply, which basically says that she's on a holiday and urgent matters should be forwarded to this other man.

Here is the auto-reply:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,ich befinde mich in der Zeit vom 03.09.-16.09.2007 im Urlaub und kann Ihre e-Mails daher in dieser Zeit nicht beantworten. In dringenden Fällen wenden Sie sich bitte an Mr B Mr.B@aaa.uni-karlsruhe.de

Due to vacation I can not answer your e-mail from the 03.09.-16.09.2007. In urgent cases please contact:Mr.B@aaa.uni-karlsruhe.de

Mit freundlichen Grüssen
Lady A

So I did as adviced and forwarded him the same email asking if he could answer my queries but I got this reply instead:

Ihre E-Mail kam erfolgreich an und wird so bald wiemoeglich gelesen.Ich befinde mich zur Zeit im Urlaub und lese meine Mail nur unregelmäßig. In dringenden Angelegenheiten wenden Sie sich bitte an Lady A, Lady.A@aaa.uni-karlsruhe.de (phone:+49-(0)721-XXXXXXX).

Your mail message was received successfully and will be read as soon as possible. I am currently on vacation and will read my email not regularly. In urgent matters, please contact Lady A at Lady.A@aaa.uni-karlsruhe.de (phone:+49-(0)721-XXXXXXX).

Whee..another infinite loop I am trapped in. Lady A forwards to Man B and Man B forwards back to Lady A. So who am I supposed to look for? Concidentally, this is 2 weeks before exchange students from all around the world come down and start their semester. And the 2 person in charge goes on holiday. Can't they at least get someone else to answer our questions??

Blah.

"Johnny" the hairstylist

2007-09-04T14:08:00.002-07:00

After 3 months of not cutting my hair, I decided that it was enough. In fact, this was how I looked like before cutting my hair:

Okay, just kidding, you can refer to my previous entry for the most recent photo with Gianni. Anyway, my hair was so thick and uncomfortable and there is no way to style it even if I use all my wax because its too long and heavy. After hearing about the story of Siwei and his German haircut, I am rather reluctant to walk into the saloons here. And since I was told that I ought to try everything while on exchange program, I decided to try being my own hairstylist. So I went to buy this layering scissors from town, and it cost me 11 euros (still cheaper than cutting in a saloon here).

And because I only have the layering scissors, I could only do layering and not cut it short. I had planned to leave it a bit long for winter anyway so I decided to make do by only thinning the layers. I started off layering the top, tried to remember how it was cut back in Singapore. I think it helps alot to use the special scissors because I found it really easy to cut. Furthermore, I wasn't worried it'll ruin the shape because it doesn't change the length of the hair by cutting selectively. How do I look?

I trimmed the sides a bit too.

Hmm, now I got to think about how to cut the back.

edited: sorry guys no before/after pictures here, just look at how I look "before" if you scroll down a little to the previous post!

Crazy Moving House month

2007-09-04T14:08:00.001-07:00

Must be the fengshui. Barely into the 3rd day of the month and today I withness the 4th house moving that is associated with me. First, my housemate, Tarek moved. Then, another housemate, Gianni (in the picture) moved. Was glad that I was around to help, I wonder when we'll ever meet up. Few hours ago, a new tenant moved in. He works at Porsche and sounds like a nice guy. Hopefully he don't mess everything up because we just cleaned the whole house. Anyway, another month and I'll be out of here to Karlsruhe.

Gianni stunned by the flash

On Sunday, I went over to Gabriel, one of Siwei's friend and my Bekannter, to help him, or rather, his family move. They have been moving for almost 2 weeks already and everything was still in a mess when I drop by on Saturday so I decided to help out. I was really glad I did. His parents are not very young and his mum could not carry any heavy stuff other than doing some packing. Gabriel and his siblings were not there all the time too. I think our presence did help speed up the process by quite a bit. In the end, we spent 10 full hours at his place, bringing things from his 4th storey apartment down. In the end, I went to work the next day with aches all over me.

Siwei found these pink furry handcuffs while packing

Hohenzollern Burg

2007-09-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

Just realised that I haven't been putting up pictures in a while. Here's some from the weekend trip to Hohenzollern Burg 2 weeks ago. Peiyu, the exchange student came down from Constance to join us and we met her for the first time. To celebrate the occasion, we had a BBQ at my place. Not exactly at my place, but in the park near my house. Its rather nice to be able to BBQ in a park, just with a few people and a nice portion of food. We made a big bowl of salad, grilled chicken wings, German sausages and some seasoned sticks of meat. Unlike the usual BBQ in Singapore where you have to grill a 50 chicken wings and 50 satays, the amount is just right and we didn't end up over eating. In fact, it was the most refreshing way of BBQing.

Salad is one of my favourite in Germany
Prepared by Peiyu
See the Fairytale like castle on the mountain top? Thats Hohenzollern Burg.
On our way up
The castle gates

From the castle gate, the whole route up to the main compound its actually built in a spiral form, I think the purpose was to transport horses, troops and equipment up easily. Right in the middle of the spiral is a garden.

See the flowers in the garden? Can imagine the Princess and the Knight spending time there.

The white patch looks restored.

I am somehow charmed by these spiral staircases.

Looks like a watch tower

Guard duty personnel

Our budget homemade fried rice

The main castle compound

Bang! Someone tried to scare Siwei when he did this.

Don't know who but looks cool

Another spiral staircase, charming no?
One of the last few pictures from the outside

Even the view out there looks awesome

My house got robbed!

2007-08-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

At least thats how I'm feeling at this very moment. Empty. Everything is gone. The 2 washing machines, the dishwasher, the clothes hanger, the toaster, all the kitchen ware, bowls, cups, plates, utensils, iron, iron board, vacuum cleaner.. All gone.

The robber is none other than my housemate, Tarek. He It He decided to move somewhere nearer to his workplace and before I know it, he's gone. I was still talking to him yesterday about helping him to move. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to him, much less take a picture. He's quite a nice dude but I didn't have much chance to talk to him because he comes home very late everyday. I only realised like yesterday that he's spanish and that he could speak Arabic, Spanish, Italian, German and English. I always thought none of them speaks English. Its strange how the whole house becomes so much emptier. I'm feeling rather empty too.

Another housemate, Gianni, an Italian, is also moving tomorrow. He's the one that I'm closer to. He's still not home yet but I hope I'll at least get a chance to take a picture with him. Haiz, people come and go. What to do, I'm actually feeling more upset that I have no more dishwasher and washing machine than anything else. *pragmatic Singaporean*

(If you are wondering why I can't decide on the gender of Tarek, thats because I really can't.)

German Bureaucracy

2007-08-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

I've heard many horror stories about German Bureaucracy, the endless amount of red tapes that one can experience and the extensive amount of time needed to complete a simple procedure. This is not surprising in a country where even fishing requires a license. Here's my visa story:

I applied for a one year's visa from the German embassy in Singapore. And it cost me S$130. Among the documents required were:
- Employment contract from internship company
- Admission letter from exchange host university
- Bank statement showing you got enough money to stay there and not leach on their social benefits.

Then, I received a 3 months visa instead and was told that its the norm. Everyone is supposed to get it extended while in Germany. Fine, so after registering myself at the local town office the week after I arrived, I asked the counter lady where do I extend my visa. I was given a piece of paper containing a list of numbers and was told to call the number corresponding to my surname's alphabet. And so I begin to call about once every week, at least 30 times per try (no kidding). No one seems to be working there. About a month later, someone picked up my call. The appointment was set to be another month later.

After a full 2 months in Germany, I finally reached the "Beamtin" (Civil Servant) who was working on my visa, or rather, on whoever's surname with alphabet T. Anyway, after submitting all the documents, which she already had from the Singapore embassy, she said my travel insurance is not allowed and I am to buy the local public health insurance. As such, she'll only extend my visa for another month till I get the insurance. 20 Euros for another month.

I understand the need of having a health insurance, but don't quite understand the inconsistency of it all. A few exchange students that I've asked, did the same thing as me, internship and exchange program, and they did not have to buy any local insurance to extend their visa. In fact, they weren't even questioned about this. Apart from rambling here, there is basically nothing that I can do about this, except to buy the insurance.

The very next working day, I contacted the public health insurance guy and he enthusiastically sent me all the forms, got all the documents done up and said that all he needs now is my matriculation certificate from my exchange host university. The problem is, I can only get my matriculation certificate after go to the university. But I need to extend my visa before I go to the Uni, otherwise I risk being deported back to Singapore right after my internship ends (together with my visa validity). I'm now stuck in this infinite loop: Buy Insurance in order to ->Get Visa in order to -> Go Karlsruhe Uni in order to -> get matriculation certificate in order to -> buy insurance in order to -> .................

Now, someone tell me how to solve this.

(PS: I've contacted the Uni, who told me there is no way for me to matriculate early. This means matriculation will only come after buying the insurance. hmm.. is there a paradox?)

About self awareness

2007-08-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

Because Siwei is once again holding on to the pictures of my most recent trip to Hohenzollern Burg, I'll have to blog about something else this week.

Today, while I was on the train, I realised that the two person sitting across me were wearing exactly the same colour scheme: black shirt, brown coat and blue jeans. As they weren't sitting across each other, they probably didn't realised it. So I was sitting there, thinking how silly they looked, two adults wearing such similar clothings, like a pair of twins. A sudden thought then occured to me that it will be even more silly if I was also wearing the same thing. Then I paused, think, and looked down at myself: black polo tee, light brown coat, blue jeans. Oh shit.

I got off the next stop.

Gosh!

2007-08-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

My presentation is finally over. whee! Many thanks to those who "drück mir die daumen"!

Shooting Range

2007-08-12T05:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my colleague invited me to the Shooting Range, I must say that its really an expensive sport. We spent an evening and expended 50euros worth of ammunition! (Just the two of us, not including his friends.) It was also my first time handling a shotgun, the recoil is surprisingly quite okay, perhaps its because of the competition ammunition that they use which reduce the recoil. Here are some photos:

(edit: My colleague paid for the ammunition, I only paid 10euros for using the range)

A overview of the 25m range

0.38mm pistol rounds
Our shotguns
He's the pro with 12 years experience!
My colleague, Peter, loading his pistol
A close up of his pistol
Me having a go with the shotgun These guys are preparing for some Meisterschaft (competition).
Peter is quite good at shooting
My turn with the pistol, got problem with the single action cocking

(for those who knows what I mean), I can only make do with the double action.

Bobo shooter taking his aim.
My results, not too bad its been many years since NS!
We placed bowling pins there for shooting too.

Quite fun to see them ~~fall~~ fly, in a different way.

This is a shitty post

2007-08-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

Seems like nothing much is going on in my life so far so I'll blog about one of the more intimate things of my life - shitting. I have recently developed great pleasure in using my office toilet to shit, and I've convinced myself with many reasons why I should do so. Here we go:

5 Reasons for shitting in the office toilet
1. Its super clean. (at least much more compared to my house)
2. I save money on toilet paper.
3. I get to use high class Kleenex toilet paper.
4. Its quiet and a good place to think. Statistically, a high number of the most complex problems I encounter was solved in the toilet.
5. I'm being paid for it.

And yes you guessed it, the idea of this post came from there too.

More random stuff

2007-08-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

Sushi is actually quite easy to make! (sub standard one of course). Below is my California roll drowning in caviar.. We had a sushi party last week when Dave and Cailing came down from Hamburg. None of us had experience of making them but it turned out very well. Definitely going to make sushi often when I'm home.

This is a mountain bike I just bought, second hand, from another exchange student going back to Singapore today. Unfortunately the bicycle chain broke before I even got to ride much. The nice fella bought a new chain and even the tool to replace the chain this morning and passed it to me just before he got on the train to catch his flight. Really glad to meet nice people like him. I wanted to pay for the parts but we compromised in the end and decided to share the cost because he felt bad about it.