English.....?

I sent an email to the student office officer in charge of our exchange. yeap the polish girl-gosia who hardly smile. i asked if the scholarship we recieved is once off or monthly(of course i wish its monthly) and her reply was polite BUT it worshen my understanding of the matter.. read the following excerpts...

Hi gosia,

I heard rumours that the scholarship of 830pln is given to non eu studentsevery month. Is that correct or is it a one off payment of 830? Thanks alotfor your time.

Regards,
David

Her reply...

every month until you leave :-) that would be mean if u received money onlyonce ;-)

Gosia


So right now im completely lost still as to whether this payment is once off or not.. i pride myself as someone who can decipher vague, grammatically wrong and amatuerish english person. however much as i look at the email again and again, it doesnt solve my dilemma. if i read the first sentence, its hooray SGH, hooray POLSKA. however the 2nd sentence is a dampener to my obvious joy.. so what could it be? is the smiley face her attempt to cheer us cos its monthly payment? or a sinister and ill concieved joke that life is never that good so get real..

Sigh..

Sunday

Okae the past 2-3 days seem a sudden influx of 2 more sporean girls in warsaw. they are felix's frens and is now exchange in austria. so the unofficial statistics of sporean chineses in warsaw hits 7(plus 1 cora's fren). thats rather impressive huh. but 2 of them are back in austria so our population once again plummeted to 5. I want more chinese here..

I called some friends and my family ydae n i realise i forgotten how to speak mandarin. damn.. its like damn tough to switch to mandarin after few months of mandarin inaction. for those i dint call, its either i dont miss u or i MISS u but dunno what to say when i call..

So im should be travelling with claudius soon. the tentative plan is as such.. take a bus to prague then fly to amsterdam den to vienna and finally to budapest. it will be our personal eurotrip. i think travelling with him should prove fun. and he got free accomd in alot of places like budapest, vienna and prague. further more we trying to get tom to arrange accomd in amsterdam for us. its IMPOSSIBLE to find any hostel in amsterdam for that period now. sigh.. hope tom can help us out..

And hence if my eurotrip materialise, i will be back in spore b4 july. hooray.. can get ang paos for my impending bdae den. im sure to be totally broke when i come back. sigh.. but i already plan to work hard when i come back. im planning for a 2nd exchange. this time it should be either in bangkok or china. i wan to be near asians this time round..

Somehow i realise alot of ppl i know is planning on poland. im not sure if im a reason for it since i keep singing poland's praises b4 i come(note the word--b4). this is not to say warsaw is not fun or wat. it is fun but the fun is aso getting monotonous. before anyone start to ridicule me for being an oxymoron, i shall clarify. as i always state, life here is pretty much the same routine. u wake up, go class(if any or if u decide to go), den u go back surf the net, den drink den go club. in between of course there is ALOT of munching going on.

Ok this is turning out to be some similar ramblings from me. so i shall stop typing here. to all my frens in spore, take care n prepare my pressie! do wizinia(goodbye in polish).

headache

I dont wana complain but my head is really killing me.. its so damn pain. wish im in spore so i know how to handle it. if the pain persist, i will need to spend more money on doctor.. i hope not.. i have other uses for the money..

Pictures of bratislava

Bratislava airport

Street of bratislava
Devin castle Bratislava castle

overview of bratislava town

surprise windfall

I recieved an email last sat saying that SGH recieved a donation and is giving scholorship to non eu students. in the beginning i dismissed it as a scam thinking this cant be true. however i was silently hoping that it will indeed be real. today an email arrived confirming the validity of the scholorship. it is to be for a one time amount of 830pln(ard 420sing). the only condition is that i cant leave the cty before 15th june or for more than half a month before that. not surprisingly, i snap up the offer and ended 83o pln richer.. =)

windfall no 2. my comp saw a blinking signal from msn. i in my goggliness(i jus woke up), off the lappie.. when i on and i check my list, i realise its from jiacong. i ask him why he is looking for me and he told me he wanted to pay me the 200bucks he owed me for like... years?? i was almost incredulous and told him its okae since i had long written off that debt. now a bad debt have been recovered. thus i can debit bankand credit bad debt recovery? fark the accounting term but im really genuinely surprised. having said that, i have yet to recieve this sum of money thus maybe i should not celebrate too early.. but if it does materialise, this is really an invaluable addition to my depleting bank account..

I have a headache now.. a very bad one at that.. damn.. this is bad.. its like killing me and so far the medicine has yet to help. and this has prolly nothing to do with alcohol as i have like cut down by 80% of my intake of booze n parties? infact there is a huge tram party tml where u got onto a tram booked by our student body and boogey n get drunk over booze?? i bought the tix but now im giving it up. doesnt seems to have the energy nor liking for such activities anymore. i have mellowed.

In anticipation for the apparant boring evening tml since everyone be out on the party, i bought a book by george jonas. its titled vengeance-the book Munich is based upon. i also bought a dvd of the show Ali even though i got no dvd player on my lappie. going to borrow my roomy's lappie to view it tml. ahhh.. this will more or less settle my evening plus i got readings to complete too.

Today i thought about when im going back to spore. i have been asked this questions a gazillion times by friends n family alike. i dont really have an answer. i always answered when my money runs out. now im not so sure. i guess i will come back earlier. maybe end june or something. just a short tour of germany and i should be back in spore. i will try to find a job and of course before that ravage thru the pile of spore's food that i craved so much. Nasi lemak.. Aghhh...

Next destination?

Im cracking my head thinking where should i travel next? today i spent alot of time checking up on liverpool ticket details n it cost like around 150pounds for a lousy tix. actually i dun really mind forking up that much. imagine standing on the kop singing "you'll never walk alone". that adrenalin.. that rush to your head.. that joy that sweeps you off your feet when gerrard or fowler score.. if i ever get there to watch the mighty reds, i guess i will cry.. its the pinnacle of any travel. e epitome of great soccer teams. ahh.. my mighty reds.. if only the tix can be cheaper..

After spending time pondering where else to visit, i suddenly decided to check up on tix for cambodia n thailand. somehow im like more keen to visit these places again.. it might be for the fact that travelling kakis are easier to hunt for in these places or that i feel more at ease there. it could be the sense of familiarity and the comforting thot that ur close to home. i dunno why but somehow i jus wana go there.

However i be a complete loser, imbecile to travel all the way to europe and not see more right? eiffel tower? tower of pisa? bacelona? vienna? london? budhapest?? and of course liverpool..

"You'll never walk alone."

Back to normal life

Okae my friend is back safely in sweden. during the past week, we visited many places in krakow and bratislava. its beautiful in krakow. actually bratislava is pretty beautiful but somehow the place is not so appealing to me. visited devin castle in bratis however as its winter, it is not open to visitors. thus we just admire the castle from outside. i wont say its a wasted trip even though we travelled a while to reach devin. i would rather devin castle than those like bratislava or wawel castle in krakow.

spent quite alot of money so now im on a minimal budget lifestyle. went to carrefour to get the cheapest noodles, sauces and etc. i guess im also putting on quite a lot of weight. dont dare to weigh myself.. hoping for the best..

i miss home. i miss spore n i miss everyone back home. from my niece to urine to tk to my family to everyone. okae maybe i dont miss smu but i miss almost everything else. its still rather strange for a chinese to be stuck in europe. its like we stuck out like a sorethumb. i have not been obstracise or anything but still i prefer an environment which im not like some oddball that just dont seems to blend in with the rest. can i ever be a cameleon?? sigh..

i wana eat so many things. nasi lemak, normal rice, carrot cake, sting ray, soya bean milk.. ppl in spore dont be so envious of me.. life isnt always a bed of roses here. n its freaking boring at times. dont ever complain about how monotonous life in spore is cos here is much worse. there is no entertainment at night except clubbing and drinking which im getting extremely sick of.. the food is also not to my liking. i mean i like fried chicken n stuffs but not for every meals. ok i shall not sound whiney here.. there are of course "perks" being in exchange program. for eg, i study so much lesser.. no abhorable lectures, dumb seminars which u must speak up regardless whether u got any substantiable or valid points.. no redundant long winded meetings where only maybe 1 would suffice. yeap thats kinda cool.

im like hoping to go back spore asap. on e other hand, since im in europe it would be a treason not to explore more of europe. now i being to poland n slovakia (n also paris airport.. => ), i guess i need to check out abit more. but sunny spore is still my home n the place i miss. i will be back soon.

Next few days programs

today one of my friend is arriving from sweden to visit me. finally another singaporean.. n together with bartek n his gf, we are visiting krakow rated the prettiest in poland tml. i'll be back on sunday and on monday, i be going to tour another european cty..

Drumrolls....(dummm........)

I be going to SLOVAKIA notably Bratislava their capital~ i saw the pictures and is immediately captivated by it. funny that since young, i have never thought that i wana go poland or slovakia. more like italy, spain, czech, austria, england and something. you just wont know what fate has in store for u huh? where will i land up next?

My europe itinery is as followed..

1) Germany for world cup.. free accomd in stuggart n cologne sponsored by jan n adriaana.
2) Austria- vienna. Mozart's 250th anniversay..
3) Czech republic- what else?? PRAGUE!

and of course the rest of poland.. i will see if i got more money. i really wana go england to liverpool- the sacred ground of anfield to witness my heros in action.. gee.. i can hardly wait... when i got back to spore, i will save up for a final year exchange. this time i have decided.. it will be either china or thailand-the land of smiles..

more pictures

drinking party.. about to get wasted again..

dont u wish u were here too?? view from our house


snowy mountain..

skiing trip pictures

me n mexican ger-mira

young pro skiier in action. olympian in 15 yrs??

"animal game pose" which they have a diff name for. the ppl in my house!

ski trip 1st march to 5th

Im back from the mountains. i can finally say im a skier. this brings me closer to realising my dreams of taking part in the winter olympics. a small step for me, a giant step towards glory. the trip was pretty fun and i met many many nice n funny people. however it got off a bad start.. why bad? cos the leg room in the train is minuscule and i really mean it. plus when the person sitting opposite u is oblivious to my obvious discomfort and stretch out more, it further worshen my woes.. n angela(portugese) was sleeping in my place n its so cramp and stuffy(windows and door are close shut), i left to the cafeteria n sat there the whole night(ard 7hrs journey). so i dint know when we are reaching and i was alone so i did not sleep.

we reach krakow den transfer to a tiny bus with a driver fit for F1. he was that good and scary. negotiating the 1 lane curvy mountainous track, maneuvering between slower cars, sliding on the icy road, u say it and he does it all. i was frightened (first time since dh drove me yrs ago in a race with zhizhi).. and to top it off, cora who was sitted beside me developed motion sickness and horror of horrors... puke on me. so there u have it, an imperfect start to otherwise a very enjoyable trip.

okae so we reach skiing place n i put on the skis. i was bad.. so bad that i have to have an extra 30min with a personal instructor even thou cora n mira(mexican girl) are already zipping around effortlessly. blow to my manhood especially since mira is pretty cute. so i swore that i will master it somehow. i continued to try and soon i was improving bit by bits. den they say we r having dinner in the mountain restaurant so we have to take this ski train up... its freaking high n i have phobia of height. and suaku me dint know u can take down the safety catch.. so i was sitting alone(the rest were in pairs) with no safety harness. i was literally holding on for my dear life.. coming down was bad too.. =(

somehow or rather, jan(german guy) persuaded(more coerced i should say) in skiing in the top. the problems are 1st i got phobia of height and 2nd i SUCK at skiing. but i pressed on n i reached the top. alimony(dutch ger whom i dunno how to spell) taught us more. i fell like every 10secs but i got up immediately everytime. maybe its cause the girls were there, somehow i harness every ounce of my strength n bravery n pressed on. i managed to ski(or roll) down after some superhuman effort. so im not that bad huh. the surprising part is mira aso got a phobia of height and she dont dare to ski down so alimony had to help her down
we had snow slides in zakopane. we were too late n the ski trains were closed thus some of us went for a walk. suddenly we had a brilliant idea to buy those slides n sit on it n slide down. its an exhilarating experience. very fun. soon it degenerate into snow ball fights and snow wrestling. our underwear were soaked wet! den they decided to go to see ski jumps. those ramps wher u fly up n do some stunts? but there were no one skiing n we had to walk back. its blistering cold. the wind was pounding against our fragile body. its really fricking fricking cold. mira n me were holding on together for our dear lives. it must be bad for her too cos mexico is not exactly a cold country. n to top it off they decide to save 2zlotys n walk down to the town. tragic.. even thou i had mira for companion, its kinda too cold. yes "urine", i miss our sunny island.

hmmm.. i also had a rather animated argument with jan about our laws. he was lambasting our strict law n its inhuman to hang people or to cane ppl. typical europeans with their strong beliefs of human rights.. but what about the rights of those innocent victims of the criminals? surely their rights are more important? he suggested education n reforming but least we forget, spore currently enjoy one of the safest regime in the world. long may this continue. so praise our govt, i lurve u guys. improvements can be make but i would still give them top grades!

i also need to mention this french guy-benoit. he is freaking funny without intending to be. its due to his poor command of english n he had a hard time trying to express his feelings. but he is very nice n funny. he was like explaining how the french eat snakes when he actually meant snail.. tim was even asking him how do they place the snake on the table. do they cut it into bits n pieces, or they coil the entire snake on the table etc? n he still dint realise his talking abt snakes till ard 20mins later?? funny chap.

all in all, it was a great trip n i am soooo thankful that i decided to go. i was having last min hestitation of going for fear of spending too much n the cute spainish girls invited me for a party. lol. but thank god, i went. i wonder when will i get to slide down in my skis again. bagful of memories for the rest of my life..