I'm here you know I'll always remind you

hi!!

i am alive

wow 3 months must be one of the longest times i've not blogged for in a while.

it's currently week 13 (wth how even) and the sem will be over in exactly 2 weeks. omg

tbh this has been a really shitty sem for me. it's like everyone suddenly got damn smart in y4.

last week was probably the busiest week so far- had last min practices on sun and mon to work on a competition on friday called the rising star (more like the rigged star, but more on that later), and then worked on my 4372 essay on tuesday, had classes and a proj meeting on wednesday, went for a full-day interview on thursday (which was seriously shag af), and finally went for the rising (rigged) star on friday.

the compy was actually super fun cos of cool acts like the guest band subsonic eye, and a lot of ampd people were there and basically doing a lot of heckling. my band (which was originally having a lot of difficulties picking a song) played closer to the edge by 30 seconds to mar (classic!) and it turned out a lot better than expected.

anyway i say it was rigged cos the winners all had exactly the same style as last year (first place was again a contemporary dance group, second place was again a pop band and third place was.... wait for it..... the JUDGE'S SON. LOL)

but all else aside, it was rly a tough (albeit fulfilling) week. glad it's over!

okay see you guys in... more than 2 weeks from now. LOL

A live nativity scene

hi everyone

just a routine update on where i am in life now

so im finally back home in sg... and it's been pretty much the same i guess. hahaha. except for those new public bikes they have!

exchange was really probably the coolest thing that's ever happened to me. still can't believe i've been to europe and survived living there for 5 months. i feel a little older. LOL

the past 2 weeks was a pretty busy time- spent the first catching up with everyone and having all the food i've missed (nasi lemak, laksa, ramen, sushi, cai peng, to name a few)

was supposed to study for my finals (i arranged to take my exchange finals in NUS) on sun and mon with wq, but i got lazy after sun and decided to pangseh so i could nua on mon HAHA

on tuesday i studied in school, and then went for my monetary economics paper at 7pm, which was pretty terrifying cos they tested weird stuff like Tinbergen's principle, and i don't even know who Tinberger is and what he did to end up on my exam paper.

but can pass la i think.

wednesday was national day and it was pretty fun but not for any reasons patriotic. went out early in the morning to walk around at lorong halus with the fam, quite a nice place despite the rainy weather. then we had lunch at some teochew place... food is life

thursday, went to school to jam with friends and studied a bit afterwards. and then... the plan was to have dinner, pre-drink and go to emonite, but wth i drank too fast and didn't make it to emonite. never thought i would be that one friend -black moon face-

but it might have been a blessing in disguise instead, because i heard it was pretty bad, and also my friends went home pretty late while i got home at like 12am. LOL

plus the next day i had my game theory final at 3pm -black moon face again- having a mild hangover while sitting for a final is pretty nasty. thank God i only had to pass.

and thank God the paper was do-able!! they only tested the most basic concepts and none of the complex chapters. but #notcomplaining

woke up today feeling much better. and happy cos i'm finally done with my exchange modules!!! like... 4 days before the next sem starts. LOL

not really looking forward to next sem cos the workload sounds intense :( but oh well.

here's to a fruitful sem!!!

year 4 already omg. really damn fast :(

The last day

so... after i came back from heidelberg i was wondering where i could go during the last few days of my stay here, because i had nothing planned for the weekend after i finished my trade exam.

i was considering stuttgart and munich, but then i thought... why not be a tourist in konstanz?

and it turned out to be the perfect plan!

after my trade exam on thursday (which i dieded for), i went to find susanna (my hk friend) and her younger sister isabel, who had come to visit, in the stadt. we had coffee at the cutest cafe ever- deco was super nice, coffee was yums, less than five people around in the cafe which was awesome. in singapore every cafe is permanently crowded, even those tucked away in the corners of our heartland estates.

then we had dinner at susanna's place- risotto and salmon salad. always thankful for susanna, cos if not my nus-konstanz friends and i would be ded cos none of us can cook.

luisa was bummed out from the trade exam, so we went to have ice-cream at a place nearby. and the funniest thing happened- we were laughing loudly and for quite a while, and there was an elderly gentlemen sitting behind us with his grown-up children who offered to buy us all ice-cream because he found our laughter heartwarming.

it was such an aww moment. but we had to reject it cos all of us were super full from our ice-creams alr.

on friday after i ended classes, susanna, isabel and i went to mainau! it was the same like i remembered. cafe quite a scam imho though, but oh wells.

and then we went shopping at lago, they bought a bunch of stuff, and we met our friend luisa for dinner. had tacos at this place called california which was b0mb. it was my second time trying tacos i think? and omg they were so good. the cocktails were also amazing, but expensive. best tgif ever.

saturday, the same few of us went to the strandbad (my first time there, and regretting that i didn't go more), had a mini picnic and swam. they had this raft thingy floating in the middle of the sea and people were just diving off of it. it was rad.

strandbad was really pretty!! :(

then suhui and her bf zac joined us, and we all had dinner again at susanna's. she cooked ma po tofu with rice YUMS

we had tea and watched detective conan together cos it was storming so badly that we couldn't go home, and then the rain stopped and we walked 40min home in the cold. just like the old days

yesterday we went to wc's place for dinner, and susanna wasn't around, so we had to fend for ourselves. came up with mee goreng (with bacon LOL) and penne bolognese. wc's flatmates joined us too. (i think i will miss them; they've been so much nicer to me than my cold flatmates :( )played ball outside afterwards, and went for a walk. we ended up outside my place cos there was a party going on there. but i still had to go back to wc's because i left all my stuff there hahaha.

trudged back tgt through the super dark field and back, all of us fighting to be in front, and back again.

i'm honestly really sad to be leaving tmr. konstanz has been beautiful and peaceful, and going back to overcrowded, noisy, unfriendly sg just feels like a downer. and all the stress and competitiveness that will resume when the next semester starts... totally not looking forward to it. SO SAD.

really the only things i've missed are my rents, guitars and sg food.

oh wells, such is life.

will always be grateful for these past five months.

The last eight days

yep, left with just 8 days in konstanz.

it's probably going to fly by because i'm revising for a final on the 20th, settling last-minute admin stuff, attending the last few classes and generally preparing to go home.

i've so many mixed feelings about going home. there are many things i miss about home, but there are also many things i will miss about konstanz.

all in all, i still can't believe i made it to germany hahaha. can't believe all the preparation i've been doing for this since year 1 has amounted to this wonderful experience that is already ending.

i remember my first day here- landing in zurich, taking the intercity train for the first time, completely wowed by all the greenery that i never see (at least for long cos confirm got some new development project) in singapore. and then dying while dragging my luggage to my place up that slope and in the cold.

i got to know the other nus-konstanz people (so thankful for their presence), we had dinners together, died in the cold at night together, got creeped out by how quiet konstanz could be together.

and i could go on about the three-week travel break in april, the beginning of classes, the snow in april and the heat in june, and all the rest, but i would probably have to write a book about my exchange then. LOL.

i have tons of pictures, but i'm so lazy to post anything cos it always takes forever on blogger. hais. maybe someday.

but anyways, exchange was really the ride of my life. i never thought i would get to see europe so young actually. i always thought it would be at least in my late 20s when i played with snow in switzerland or ate a belgian waffle in belgium.

and europe... it's seriously beautiful. and i'm so glad this was the place i picked for exchange.

The blaze

it's kind of crazy how all these years later, i realise mcr is still the first band that pops up for most people when the topic or genre of 'emo' comes up (was just looking at the twitter page for emo night and the mcr logo was the biggest one on their digital poster).

looking back i guess they were really my gateway to emo. not quite sure if i loved mcr so much back then because i was actually into emo and just didn't know it yet, or it was more like mcr introduced me to the world of emo music. i think maybe it's the former.

i don't think i thought at 22 (technically still 21) i would still be listening to the same kind of music. it's funny how some things stay with us even after our teenage years.

and wow, third post in 2 weeks. is it obvious that i'm bored in konstanz? LOL

side note: i've always looked at the comments section on videos of my favourite movie scenes or songs, seen people saying "i watched this in class today!" and wondered "what kind of cool-ass awesome classes do you go to and where can i find them??"

but today in class (popular culture in the arab world) i got to be one of those people.

prof showed us this super rad song by a muslim-french duo that somehow has an even radder mv. apparently they're musicians, actors and filmmakers.

super thought-provoking clip, and i don't think i've ever seen musicians that actually act that well in their mvs.

really no ragrets taking this short but fun course. the discussions are always cool to listen to though unfortunately i hardly ever have any input because i can only think of things to say about singapore which wouldn't be relevant. even the assignments are fun, although it was pretty stressful to do them due to the very tight deadlines.

but anyway here's the clip!

I'm here to take the sky

hi

back here with a short update so i won't be like wait what happened in july 2017

sooo over the weekend my nus-konstanz friends and i went to heidelberg, and it was honestly really fun, even though the lack of sleep due to the overnight bus and the heat in heidelberg killed us. omg it was like 32 degrees but felt like 36 honestly. i only brought 1 set of clothes so i had to wear my pajama tshirt the next day (which is actually what i normally wear to uni in singapore actually)

hostel was pretty lousy, maybe just a couple notches better than the hostel i stayed in in glasgow (that one really) 

and wifi was also practically non-existent. 

i think the great company and beautiful heidelberg really made up for everything. 

had brunch at a local cafe in the altstadt

did the philosopher's walk

checked out the old bridge + monkey statue

went for the free walking tour (guide was also pretty lousy imho. i rmb him saying, "some famous jazz musicians played at this cafe, but i'm not sure who")

visited the church of the holy spirit (i actually really like churches although everyone says they're boring)

had gelato from a popular gelato place (i got yoghurt and it was bomb)

then we checked in to our hostel and literally nua-ed on our dorm floor (everyone was lying down except me) with our phones until it was time for dinnerrr

ate at schnitzelbank, recommended by sh's friend, and it was super good omg but not really cheap

we heard that by coincidence, there was going to be a fireworks display that night near the castle that only happens 3 times a year. super lucky!! did not plan for it at all LOL

so we bought beer from a local brewery which was also super good wow most smooth-tasting beer i've tasted 

and went to find a place near the bridge to sit. it was super crowded but we got a spot and then we got bored so we started trying to throw small stones into one of the empty beer bottles placed at a distance. 

and the fireworks were so worth it -heart eyes- 

at that moment it really felt like my exchange was ending and the fireworks were like a commemoration of my journey thus far :')

second day, we had macs breakfast LOL

then we went to the zoo! it was my first zoo in like years

was fun mostly because of the company. was slightly bummed that there were no reptiles :( and also all the cool animals like the bears, lynx and tigers were for some reason nowhere to be found.

ate kebabs for lunch, caught our bus and had a transit at freiburg

it's super funny that we were so familiar with the area we casually walked over to the food places, cause it was our third time there

ate noodles from an asian foodstall which were surprisingly good too yums

and finally, bus back to konstanz!

kind of sad that heidelberg was probably my last trip out of konstanz, cos i've a lot of stuff to do until i fly home in 2 weeks (omg 2 weeks... where time go?)

also i realised i didn't talk about my trip to berlin LOL. but nvm, we'll save that for another time. (or maybe not.) i also really loved berlin though. i think i generally love any city that has gr8 food. 

in other news, i'm taking a compact seminar that is 5-9pm every day this week omg ded. but fortunately the mod is super interesting (popular culture in the arab world) and the prof is a lad and lets us out 1 hour early. LOL. and it is sooooo worth it compared to taking an equivalent mod in NUS. the workload is like... three 1-page written assignments and that's it. and the course only lasts 5 days. YAS.

after this tiring week i'll have to cram for my final that's next thursday, plus settle all the admin shit, and then it'll be time to pack up over the weekend, enjoy my remaining time at the lake, clean up the apartment and leave for good. 

so many mixed feelings about exchange ending. and so little time to do all the things i wanna do :'( 

oh wells

BIS DANN

We are made from chemicals

drinking my pre-bedtime glass of milk on a quiet night, watching two good-looking lads perform a phenomenal cover of my favourite song.

doesn't get any better than this

Navy blue

sometimes it's the little things like a lazy day that remind you what life is all about. 

it's sitting at home just watching youtube videos, drinking green tea, making your favourite meals, enjoying fresh air because you finally bought a mosquito net and can now open the windows without being afraid of your room turning into a scene from fear factor.

it's also walking into the bathroom in the morning and realising your flatmate already set up the extra mosquito net you left lying on the shelf and forgot all about. and then them making an effort to converse with you despite the slight language barrier. 

yesterday was probably one of the shittier days i've had in konstanz for a few reasons, but today was wonderful. 

#thankful

Coming out of my cage

this is probably one of my favourite videos ampd has ever posted, because of how loud everyone was singing, and all the memories that come back with listening to and watching this- the sem where i took that horrible mod IO, the same sem i lived in RVR and did not survive hostel life, the sem i spent too many nights hanging out at the studio because i was living right next to it, the seniors i studied with who graduated and left me behind, and of course all the good vibes of this wonderful night- the unprecedented success of our concert, the carelessness we shared in singing along, the beer and vodka that ran out before halftime, the boxes of pizza that quickly followed after.

all regards to parentheses thrown aside, quiet nights like these make for an endless stream of thoughts, and tonight i am reliving my memories with ampd, realising how much the club has been a part of my university life and how deeply i will miss the warmth and familiarity of everyone's faces when it's time to go.

only a year till graduation. it's only the beginning, but it feels like the end.

The end came and went

life the past few days has been slow but im lovin it

went to classes last friday morning, decided to go buy some groceries but i suddenly got the worst menstrual cramps ever, so i had to limp slowly home with my backpack and heavy grocery bag in the burning sun.

took a panadol and miraculously recovered in 2 hours, so i went to see some eurokonstantia thing near the uni with my friend jasmine cos we wanted to catch some live bands, but rock night wasn't really what we expected, so we spent the night sitting outside drinking and munching on fries with her ukrainian friend. (why does beer and junk food go so well together?)

walked home in the cool dark night which was so nice. #things i will miss about konstanz

found a giant spider in my room when i got home, freaked out but took care of it rather quickly despite my sleepiness, thanks to the liquid courage.

yesterday... i don't remember what i did although i feel like i did a lot. i think i just did my tutorial and watched buzzfeed videos HAHA

woke up before 12pm today, did my laundry, ate lunch, watched vines, gonna do my game theory tutorial now.

wow my life could be a richard linklater movie.

i'm gonna miss this nua life + freedom so much when i go home in like 5 weeks :/

The second hand unwinds

1. updates on life. point form for first time in long while cos too lazehh

2. blog title is coincidental reference to my watch which keeps lagging and misleading me. i was taking my own sweet time studying today cos my watch said it was 8.40pm, but the sky was strangely dark outside and i checked my laptop, turns out it was 9.05pm. felt like i just lost 25min of my life.

3. speaking of studying, there was a funny moment just now while we were all studying tgt in one of the group study rooms in the library (they have like 50 of these amazing little seminar rooms here, as compared to NUS which has three times the student population and five times fewer of those rooms in CLB. unbelievable). we looked up at one point and were like, why are we studying so hard just to pass?

i guess it's kind of funny how the attitude and willingness to learn just changes so much without the pressure of grading and competition in NUS. really loving my student life here, and how i have a workload that actually allows me to breathe. all of us pretty much dread going back to NUS.

4. also had oily chinese food today for dinner, cost about SGD7. it was from the little chinese restaurant a floor below the uni canteen- we'd been meaning to try it for some time now. it was underwhelming, but oh wells, was a funny experience actually eating from one of those stereotypical american chinese takeout boxes you only see in movies. (didn't come with fortune cookies though.)

5. i realised a few days ago that 2 of my exams are in august. facepalm. gonna take them in SG by hook or by crook cos ain't nobody going through that whole german bureaucratic nonsense just to stay half a month more and take 2 exams.

but this means my last day of school will be 20 July. so... to fly back early to sg alone, or to travel around (maybe to croatia or something), then fly back on 1 Aug with my friends? really cannot decide sia. on one hand, i get to go home early, settle down, chill a bit before i take my exams and start the next semester. but i have to take a train and fly for a total of 17-18 hours alone. on the other hand, i get to travel to another country, and then fly back with my friends!! but all the travel planning, and the giant amount of travel money... and the extra settling-down time i'll lose. omg i really dk.

6. in other news, next 1-2 weeks will be pretty busy- going to zurich with the uni this coming saturday!! excitinggg. then next week i'm going to lucerne + interlaken, and the week after, to pompeii and naples. it's crazy cos i always see videos of lucerne + interlaken on fb, and now i'm actually going to go there. can't believe it.

7. random fact: i've developed a newfound love for full fat milk. it just tastes so GUD.

8. the weather has been really changing of late, and after 2 months plus of being here, i've finally changed my jeans (yes, i've been wearing the same pair of jeans for >2 months) for a lighter pair of jeans and my jacket for a lighter spring jacket. yayyyyy.

on the down side, i wake up feeling a little sweaty these days, even though i've already adjusted the heater to its lowest temperature. #signs of summer

9. i know it's kind of early to be thinking about this, but damn i'm gonna miss the friends i've made here on exchange when it's time to go home. but tbh... it's just one person HAHA she's a hongkonger who's somehow infiltrated our nus clique, her name's Susanna and she cooks amazing meals. just putting it here on my blog so i will remember her many years later when i come back to read my archives. (omg so sad.)

exchange life would not have been the same without her presence for sure; she's the most extroverted out of us by far, and she's been like glue, meshing ice-cream sticks together.

i am terrible at goodbyes.

Time after time

Just realised my profile pic on blogger is from like 2012, wow

JC was some strange times man

I am back blogging after only two days!! (Is it? Didn't check)

Actually I'm just bored of doing my soci reading and randomly felt like blogging (how rare)

I realised I didn't really update about life in konstanz in the previous post. There's so much to say, but every time I open Blogger I just forget everything.

Iirc life has consisted mostly of cookouts with friends, buying groceries (last Monday my friends and I discovered Kaufland... it was straight out of a dream), attending classes and trying to plan upcoming trips out of town, which is tough cos I've been to most of the nearby cities, and flying out to anywhere further requires a 30 CHF train ride to Zurich airport..

The other day I was eating my chapalang rice for lunch while sitting in front of the laptop surfing youtube in my tshirt and sweatpants, procrastinating on chores and homework. It was such a standard moment (wow sounds so physics-y) but I felt so cool. LOL. Like I had finally experienced what it means to be a student living overseas. Young me would be proud.

One of my favourite things to do here is just be outside. It's been two months and I'm still in awe at how charming this little German-with-Swiss-influences town is. There's nothing to do here, and I love it. I asked my german flatmate who's been living here at least 2 years: "What do you do for leisure in Konstanz?" And he said "Oh, well, I go to pubs sometimes... watch soccer on tv..."

The most happening things here are Barry's, a club that offers free entry on Monday nights, Kula Bar (located in a really ulu area, but surprisingly crowded and noisy inside, just like 90% of places in Konstanz), and chilling by the famous Lake Constance with 1 euro ice-cream, catching the occasional whiff of weed.

The uni is a 10-minute walk from my apartment complex, which I love. Just gives me so much more time in a day to do other things. Just recently it also occured to me that Konstanz is so small we only have buses. No trams or trains within the town.

I didn't like the design of the uni much at first but for some reason it's really grown on me. It's mostly primary colours around, with a lot of glass windows, and it looks like a kindergarten. LOL. Very strong contrast to the castle-style unis of other cities like Tübingen or Freiburg. The canteen food however is hypertension-inducing. Weekly salt intake fulfilled with one meal.

German coffee is really bad, which apparently is a well-known fact. But there's a vending machine near the canteen that has really good coffee for half the price of Campus Cafe. LOL

And Germans are soo nice? Every German I know has been nothing but friendly and welcoming to me, and even though they're very private people, they're definitely nowhere as closed-off as Singaporeans towards foreigners.

I'm taking four courses at uni- three econs and one soci. The workload is nowhere as crazy as NUS' and I love the pass/fail grading basis cos it really takes the pressure off of studying and I feel a lot more genuinely interested in my courses.

Lastly, one of my favourite parts of konstanz (if you haven't already seen my snaps) is the field that lies between my apartment complex and Jungerhalde. Omg it's so pretty in the day? It looks exactly like a movie setting. The flowers are starting to bloom there, and it's just so amazing when you look around and all you see are trees and grass, the blue sky and tiny little flowers everywhere. Tried so many times to take pics and snaps but nothing does it justice.

Walking through this field at night however is a totally different experience. It was so dark my vision was blurry- felt like I'd never known darkness until I walked through that field. The other downside is the mud!! Rain or shine, day or night, somehow I always make a huge mess of my shoes just walking there. I now have a rag dedicated to cleaning my shoes every time I come back from Jungerhalde.

Now, back to my reading

BYE


Edit: While Germany is a nice place with a relatively low cost of living compared to other european nations, please don't come for exchange. There's simply too much red tape and bureaucracy, and it's honestly quite disgusting, for lack of a better word. Let me give just a few examples
Compulsory opening of bank account: EUR 150 admin fee (not to mention the numerous times you will have to re-send your account application forms to germany because you will fail at least one time thanks to morbidly incompetent staff at the local German Embassy (actually just one lady in particular))
Compulsory visa: EUR 90 admin fee
Compulsory insurance: At least EUR 30 per month, the ones the Uni highly recommends are about EUR 100 and they don't tell you about the budget ones unless you ask
Plus, idk if it's the same everywhere or I'm just too sheltered as a singaporean, but coming here has me realize how if you are a poor powerless student nobody cares about you; even if something happens to you that is some random admin person's mistake, you will be forced to pay for it... quite literally pay for it. Whatever the amount.
Between less than five of my friends and I, the german system has failed us too many times. One of my friends is in a terrible predicament rn thanks to the wonder that is German efficiency, but that's a story for another time.

I know it's been a while

Hi

If you are reading this fresh post... you must be my biggest fan

Hi jiams

Sooo it's been another month since I last updated, and so many things have happened I don't even know where to start

Trip to Scottish Highlands > Edinburgh > Aberdeen > Glasgow > Amsterdam > Brussels > Prague > Bratislava > Budapest was

A M A Z I N G

Thoroughly enjoyed myself those 3 weeks. Felt like the best time of my life. Only regrets: Didn't spend enough time in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Edinburgh was so beautiful! Glasgow was also beautiful but in its own way, idk how to explain it but the city just has this run-down charm. I think I just love Scotland. Would totally go back. And the Scot Highlands tour was bomb, so was Aberdeen which for some reason has the same grey buildings everywhere, and also their beach which was really quiet yet nice. Seagulls and strong winds were everywhere though. But loved Aberdeen for its quietness.

Amsterdam was very touristy and 'youngin' as Jess (my travel buddy up till Brussels) puts it, also very shady. Technically we also visited Den Hague because our airbnb was there (Ams airbnbs and hostels were way too expensive), which looked like a great place to live.

Also went to Keukenhof tulip gardens- very beautiful but not sure if worth my 24 euros since I'm not the type to take lots of pretty pictures, went there mostly just to see see. It was too crowded too, and that kinda marred the experience for me. Beautiful tulips nonetheless

Van Gogh museum was pretty rad but we got in late and I didn't have time to leisurely finish going around :(

Didn't have much to do in Brussels. Ate belgium waffles which I think are overrated, went to 3 museums (I fell in love with Magritte museum), found a place that served great value Chinese food.

Flew alone from Brussels to Prague which was pretty scary. Made it to my hostel in Prague in one piece, where I met up with Lianne and Clarissa. Prague was also really touristy albeit beautiful (LOL this must be most used word in this post), preferred Cesky Krumlov which was quieter and food was pretty dang cheap especially compared to Prague. Also it snowed while we were there and while it looked amazing, it was really freezing

Bratislava was great, especially the food which was cheap and good. Budapest was a great way to end the trip, it would have been one of my favourite cities ever if not for the locals who were pretty unfriendly and occasionally rude. The food was the cheapest out of all the cities. Found a Chinese place with amazing noodles (we went there twice hahaha) and I had probably the best pasta I've ever had there, which only cost SGD6.

Okay time to clean my room and cook dinner bye

I always restate it

I hope you feel that heavy gloom when you're all done up in a crowded room
And your life trips up over those shoes that you paid too much for but not in dues
And I'll be watching from a distance
Wouldn't wanna miss this
Was it fake the whole time
Was it just instance
Man it's so personal yet it's business
I want it to hit so close to home

Been listening to this song so much! can totally feel the feels from Parker

Anyway... I'm finally back! Been meaning to blog but rly no time I don't even know how

So much has happened in the past one month. Went from super homesick and oh lawd why did I come to germany to omg I never want to leave. Learned a LOT about culture and whatnot, and improved a bit at small talk... I think. Maybe not.

Konstanz has been thoroughly beautiful and I'm so glad the school allocated me to this uni and not my first choice, Mannheim, which I've heard is super boring/depressing. Staff at the uni are super helpful, the teachers are great, the lake of course is gorgeous, and I barely knew the NUS people that I flew here with, but now we hang out like every day and I'm not sick of their faces yet, so. Really thankful for everything that has gone so smoothly with exchange (excluding the visa cockups and other admin problems my friends have experienced. So much for german efficiency, seriously. It's a myth.)

Also, all the travel and insurance fees is no joke. Still not entirely sure if all the trouble, time, effort and money was worth it, but at least I really like it here.

Summer's round the corner and the lake will be even more beautiful then (but apparently hordes of tourists flock here in the summer too)

Still can't believe it's been a month and GO-Konstanz is over. But omg 3 weeks break!!

I'm so excited for the next few weeks, cos I'll be travelling starting tmr, all the way till the day before my first day of school. But it's also kinda scary cos I'll be embarking on my first flight alone tmr, to London. !!

Places I'm going: 3 cities in Scotland > Amsterdam > Brussels > Prague > Bratislava > Budapest

This is gonna be the holiday of my life :') wish me luck.

Earl Grey

when i first heard this song i kind of dismissed basement as just another washed-up pop punk band but after i listened to the whole album 'i wish i could stay here' i realised the beauty of it.... i read a chapter of a book without understanding the whole story

updates on life!

it's been a wonderful week, i've been preparing for exchange and meeting up with frenss and today i finally held my passport with my visa in it in my hands! it's been a long painful process of admin preparation and paying huge painful admin fees all in order to get this visa, and i finally have it!! today is such a happy day. i thank God for the successful process. there were days when i couldn't sleep properly because i was having bank account application problems and worrying that i wasn't going to get my visa in time, but thank heavens.

last wednesday i was desperate so i prayed to God to please let me get my visa on thursday, and... the approval e-mail really came on thursday. hmmm.

i realised i haven't talked about the gig i had on 26 jan. it was really fun, definitely my favourite set out of all sets i've played, cos pop punk and heavy stuff hehe. plus it's always fun to play with friends instead of people you've just met. sadly turnout wasn't substantial, definitely cos of bad timing (it was the day before lunar new year eve) and poorly planned publicity, but oh wells. 自己爽

on sunday i also went back to school so we could re-record our set for fun, and it was gr8, we had supper like we always do after gigs and jams and i felt a little sad cos it's my last supper with them till august at least. but yknow, i bet time is gonna fly by and tomorrow i'll be like omg it's august and i'm back from exchange

also had dinner yesterday with melons (bak kut teh!! i'm gonna miss bak kut teh like crazy, it's one of my favourite sg foods) and had a mini celebration for wumsy who turns 22 today. happy birthday jiams!!!! love you ❤️

i've been doing some planning for europe travels and it's so stressful tho i haven't really done much. but i'm sure it's gonna be all worth it.

meeting the fellow nus to konstanz kids tomorrow for lunch. hope we mesh well so we can be future travel buddies hehe.

i still can't believe it's the last few days leading up to my exchange in germany. literally spent years planning from this, since i applied for LPP in like... june or july 2014? it's crazy. i feel like this is gonna be the highlight of my life since after this i'll just come back and start mugging to pull cap in year 4, and then it'll be time to hit the workforce... then working life... much dread.

speaking of working life, internship officially ends in 2 days! really.... damn fast... "i can't believe it" is probably the catchphrase on my blog now

but i still need to go back to return the access card, shag.

okay time to sleep good night!

But you still come up

something about this song just keeps me coming back to it

point form cos i'm too lazy to organise

1. feels like it's been forever since i last blogged but it's only been less than 3 weeks? waow. this is prolly evidence of how anxious i've been waiting for news about my visa. i've been putting off thinking about packing cos of this, and also cos i'm just nervous about going on exchange hahaha plus laziness

this is gonna be my first time in europe, and it's also definitely the furthest i've -
okay wait i just checked, morocco is further from singapore than germany, so. second furthest country i'll be flying to.

and i went to morocco on a holiday tour, while in germany it's gonna be free and easy AF.

2. i wonder what the neighbours think cos every time i bump into them i'm in my pjs heh am i bumming around?? mysteries of the world

3. internship is coming to an end in less than 2 weeks! oh my. i remember heading to the office on my first day, thinking bout how this was gonna be my life for the next 3 months. and in a flash, it's coming to an end.

i'll always be eternally grateful for having found this internship- it was so free & easy and allowed me to spend time with my fam and catch up with friends before i leave for germany. i've had the time to do all the things i want (like spend an hour drinking teh downstairs) without being confined to a cubicle. thank God for SMCs and cool bosses.

4. i've been watching The Office US lately. it's a gr8 show. i love Stanley... i'm halfway through season 3 now and pretzel day was one of the funniest scenes i've seen.

okay bye back to watching

Animal nitrate

Hello!

I've been procrastinating on blogging, but I guess I have to cos idw to look back and be like what the heck happened in January 2017

So hi, future me! Life has been... quite the same since December. One highlight is that I currently don't have much to do at all for my internship. That's aside from working from home. I love my internship.

So technically I have a lot of free time. I feel like I should be doing something productive like brushing up on my bass or picking up a new skill, but the other part of me is like, you'll never get to enjoy such a nice long break once you start working!

Highlights of the month include buying a new bass bag and selling my old fender one. I also got my bass set up with this guitar tech guy that is so low profile he doesn't have a Facebook page but someone set one up with details on how to contact him. LOL. He's rated 5 stars on the page, and reviews say he's the best guitar tech in Singapore.

Went down to his shop in penin, and it's like a super tiny workspace about half of the usual shop unit area. But he was super friendly and got my bass done in 40 mins for less than the market rate. Totally 5 stars material.

Another highlight is me buying an mp3 player to use in Germany, for all the long hours of travelling. It's a sansa clip sport!! They don't sell it in Singapore anymore but I found someone on carousell who imports them from the US hehe.

Chinese new year is this weekend! It's super early this year. I rmb as a teenager I used to hate chinese new year. It's definitely evidenced in my 2008-2010 February posts.

I'm just looking forward to all the good food. Hehe.

Oh and the video above is a song I really like from Basement. I don't think it's my favourite, but I LOVE the vibe. Need more songs like that in my life. Also googled gigs in europe 2017 and Basement is playing in the UK but on like 1 March omg whyyyy. I really wanna see them live ugh

Okay back to surfing youtube

Without feeling indigo

hello finally back

can't believe it's dec 30 alr!!

i usually do a recap thingy at the end of the year, but i'm feeling so lazy to do so. in short, i think 2016 overall has been one of the more ups-and-downs years of my life?

^
this is when i tried to blog and i got lazy and started watching youtube instead HAHA

it's in fact 7 jan 2017 already.... omg

december was mostly just a pretty awesome month. spent most of it jamming pop punk with ampd friends for the next gig, fretting over my visa application stuff, watching tv with my parents, rediscovering good music and drinking lots of tea.

i've been super into Basement's album I Wish I Could Stay Here, and random songs from Neck Deep, and my current favourite song is Nerve by The Story So Far. it's.... FEELS.

soooo my first post of the new year!

like i mentioned, 2016 was a super happz year. school, gigs, preparation for sep, my first internship... as you can probably already tell, i'm very lazy to go into details. please refer to posts of 2016 for more info.

but speaking of sep, i still can't believe that i'm leaving for germany in 7 weeks. all the endless preparing for this moment, and it's finally almost here.

i remember the day i received my NUS acceptance package, and looking through the brochures and stuff, and seeing the LPP one. then i applied for LPP, took four sems of german, and spent a good amount of time applying for SEP. and then i received the email that i was accepted for SEP, but it still wasn't over yet... i had to apply to konstanz, get the acceptance letter and apply for my schengen visa, amongst a bunch of other things.

had so many admin things to do that i was stressed and couldn't sleep for some nights cos i was worried that i wouldn't get my visa in time for my flight. but fortunately it's almost all over and soon i'll be flying off.

i have so many mixed feelings about SEP. i've always been super homely, totally not the adventurous type, so this is definitely gonna be a huge leap out of my comfort zone. on one hand i actually feel kinda sian that i won't be going back to school next week with all my friends. it feels super weird. i also feel quite guilty about my parents funding my trip... it's expensive to exchange in europe and i'm scared i won't make the trip 'worth it.'

but on the other hand this is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and i've worked too hard since the start of uni to pass this up. so... here's to a great five months of exchange!! i hope. i'm so NERVOUS. and super excited at the same time.

pictures beloww

LOL accurate

Can't remember if I mentioned it,
but I got 2 free tickets from youth.sg to catch Cirque Adrenaline
and write a short review for them afterwards. Lianne came with me!
It was super worth it?? The tickets were second row seats
and we googled; they were worth $135 each omg.
And the circus was awesome! 

Had dinner at the marina bay mall food court and bought my favourite tea!!
But Lianne didn't like it cos hers was too sweet/milky :(

When will my lover return from the war?

She looks so disgusted HAHA damn funny

The theatre looked atas

While waiting for show to start

Show started!!

I must say that I was personally ogling the circus performers' bodies the whole time...
Their physique is incredible omg.
Also developed a newfound respect for circus performers.
It's such a hectic and demanding lifestyle.
And they have to be dancers, actors, comedians, gymnasts and acrobats all at the same time.
Respekt

Sphere of Death: the most heart-pounding act for me.
I feel like this was dangerous on a whole new level compared to the other acts,
cos if one guy drives just a tinge out of beat (they were going at insane speeds around the wheel),
then everybody is doomed.
I would upload the video I took but idk why Blogger doesn't let me.

Block 85 dinner with shijia & weiqiang one random night.
Feel like eating oyster omelette now

We also walked all the way to Fat Cat for dessert after that.
I rmb it just rained so the weather was nice and cool.
This is really my favourite kind of hanging out-
eating good food with good friends and then walking, talking and laughing about lame stuff

tl;dr Chilling is my favourite hobby

Christmas cookie from a family friend. So cute!!
Tasted equally cute

Okay bye HAHA