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