kunterbunt

day four. ideenpark.

2008-07-17T01:22:00.000-07:00

no lessons for today! woohoo! for we are going to the ideenpark (pronounced as 'ee-day-en-park). the NUSlers(referring to NUS students as we were affectionately called over there) were accompanied by our teacher (Frau Grieser) and the techy guy called David whom some girls have a crush on! hee not telling. oh anyway, ideenpark is situated in messe stuttgart beside a HUGE bosch carpark. can't miss it.

inside, there are many different-themed exhibition halls showing the future of our lives and the various new technology that could somehow or rather CHANGE our lives. something like that. you know those futuristic stuff they say. haha. most of us were really tired walking around and although some of the exhibtitions were interesting and worth looking, most of it were really sciency techy stuff. so some of us were turned off. haha and and.. everything was in german unless you make a request to the staff tending the exhibition to explain the exhibit to you in english. The designs and exhibits were lovely to look at. There were mock-up deserts, outerspace, north poles, machines, rockets, huge vehicles, cars blah blah..

lunch was great. i ate a half meter hogdog. obviously they folded the sausage into half if not i would be dragging it on the floor while eating. my friends and i plopped ourselves down on a patch of grass and started eating away. we felt that the grass was quite wet but did not really mind as so many other people were also sitting on the grass. just then i said, 'erm guys, i think i know why's the grass so wet..' i pointed to a girl just a few metres away. she was pee-ing on the grass :/

breakfast: crepe with quark(pronounced as 'k-vark') and.. poppy seeds! i got high after eating this.

U-Bahn. i love the colour and the clean interior. Destination: MOHringen!

teehee. big cucumber for sale! ok sorry a little mean here :x

movenpick hotel! yes it is made of ice-cream!

ideenpark meaning ideas park. naomin and me here. erm just below the sign.

this precious stone is named after me with a little modification. it's MOLYbdan!

participants go up the treadmill connected to a machine and ultimately a computer somewhere. it is a cool cartoon simulation of you running on a long and mudane path filled with big and small puddles (should suggest to the techy ppl behind this to add a bonus poo somewhere along the path) and the objective is to.. yea you're right! jump over the puddles duh! haha.

stainless cooking booth where kids get to cook for a live audience. the guy tending this booth looks like harry potter! so do not contact me unless you are the director for the next harry potter movie instalment.

you can eat this. i'm not joking! it's called PlayMais which is basically coloured corn puffs you can play with. omg. how unhygienic.

look at the length of those sausages. if i'm not wrong they are longer than your intestines.

a very cool futuristic model by mercedes benz.

challenge this programmed goalkeeper! no balls could get past him. this is the mini version. the life-size version was just next to this but not shown in photo here.

this boy is a natural model. he kept trying different poses. i just can't let his efforts go to waste!

our tour guide and me!

the banner says: dear ideas, welcome back home! haha. ok cheesy.heh.

in a studio watching a live talkshow!

proving the theory that the pendulum loses energy as it swings so it will not go back to its original height and whack the boy's head off. argh. if only we could defy the laws of physics.

'my hair.. MY HAIR!!' shrieks the pretty blond lady.

the muscle arm invented by a japanese professor. now that's a cool invention for the elderly. soon you will see elderly carrying big bags of rice home by themselves. hee. the german host kept on saying 'arigato' to the japanese prof and his students. HAHA.

the cool bionic merc again. it does not have a windscreen wiper as the windshield is made of a special type of material which magically dispels away water. it does not have side mirrors too as it adversely affects the whole streamline shape of the car. Instead, it has small inbuilt cameras. ok, i feel as if i am writing a thesis here but this is cool stuff so yea :)

Lightning man to the rescue!

we thought the brown balls round her necklace looked like dog poo. hee.

'help me.. i'm going to faint..!'

very cute boy on the tram. i am NOT a paedophile.

dinner in the oven! it's called 'Flammkuchen' with onions and bacon bits. yummy!

summer university starts

2008-07-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

oh yippee. itinerary for today is a briefing in the main campus of stuttgart university and then a welcome party specially prepared for the summer university students and their respective host families.

i ate lunch at home first before my host mama fetched me to school. we had asparagus soup, oven-baked maultaschen (which means mouth bag in some german dialect) with tomatoes on top and salad. super-duper delicious! my host parents observed the way i ate and said i looked like a hamster which stores so much food in its mouth before starting to chew. ha.

the welcome party commenced at 6.30pm with an introduction of all the summer school teachers. nus was one class by itself and we saw our teacher for the first time. i made a sketch of her which should be quite well-known by now within my class. haha. it so totally looked like her. we were treated to a big buffet feast complete with outdoor american-style grill. cool. made a few friends and met a couple of german hosts as well. one of the friends i made was simon! and he is only 3 years of age! he is actually xueting's host family's son. there is this hilarious story linking simon, his mum and my host mama. please skip this part if you are just intending to see the pictures and read on if you want to know the story!

ok here goes: the 2 main characters of the story are Sabine Grutschnig (Simon's mum) and Sabine Michel (the 60-year old-looking lady who was partly responsible for organising and matching up host families with summer students). after the welcome party, i told my host mama that i made a very good new friend called simon. i thought that the various hosts should probably know each other so i went on further to ask her whether she knew a lady called Sabine MICHEL. my host mama said she knew her of course. and i replied her, 'yaya! she is simon's mum!' my host mama gave me a weird look and said nothing more. the next day, i felt that something was amiss so when i met xueting in school, i asked her what her host mama's surname was. she told me it was 'GRUTSCHNIG'. #*$@(*$!@(#@*$*#&!!!!!! oh nooooooo.... i had mixed the names up! wth! i went home quickly to clear this misunderstanding. and my host mama burst out laughing. She said, 'OH NOW i understand! i was very puzzled because Sabine Michel is not even married she is already nearing 60 and how in the world or WHEN in the world did she have a 3-year-old son called Simon!??!?!' wahahhaaha. omg. how could i be so blur. o.O

simon, his dad and me!

briefing in the LT

the graffiti on my table. duck kills duck. hmm interesting.

look ma! 2 pairs of arms!

the tram station outside my school.

graffiti just outside my school building. cool stuff.

the cheap bakery round the corner where we frequent during school breaks. there's really a wide range of breads. the biggest bread is like bigger than your face.

stuttgart turmforum 21. we went up the mercedes benz tower! leeseefei and me here! and i've got strands of hair tickling my nostrils. hee.

me = schlecker which sounds like SLACKER which is true of my character. HA.

ooh i like this. so creative. i hope you can see more than just the SUGAR word.

main shopping street with the castle on the left and king's building
(koennigsbau) on the right! and some random white umbrellas along the way.

i love this photo. look at the how this cloud actually 'shines' onto the angel statue. just look.. LOOK. haha. nice.

love the hairstyle dude. was actually trying to take the busker at the back when this man walked unknowingly into my picture. i thought the hairstyle was 'cool' so i decided to keep the picture and make him famous here. hmm. maybe should send this to david gan.

the math a level tys.

guess who!

we could only hang out at the children's books section and read THIS. and we still could not understand everything :x

the video monitoring sign amused me. cock-eye!

the packet drinks look like big lego blocks of volume 0.5L.

ferrero rocher garden edition! ok obviously the chocs don't grow in the garden. it's just something like a summer edition. flavours include lemon and strawberry. yum

these two pigeons kept playing catching at the train station. good entertainment.

noodle with erm meat. lunch after school at alfresco cafe. we took quite a long time to figure out where our food was coming from because there were no visible restaurants in sight! hmm.. maybe from the dustbin somewhere.

champinon salad. yum.

my camera on sale! wow. it's more expensive here.

spiderman came to my rescue! i forgot what dangerous situation i was in. oh. i thought i saw dr. octo somewhere.

haha.no comment.

my house from the outside!

day two. mannheim & stuttgart.

2008-07-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

we woke up to a scrumptious breakfast spread prepared by the lovely kityeng! wah.. she started digging out all the breakfasty food she had. i was so amazed with the cereal. Do you know that the thickness of the cereal box is thicker than any dictionary! it was SO BIG. wahaha. and apparently that was the only size they had. wow. we asians really eat chicken feed here. you can see the big feast we had in the picture below and the cereal box looming above all the other breakfasty stuff. ROAR!

we then headed to mannheim castle which was big and really beautiful inside! we were given audioguides to obviously guide us as we walk through the castle at our own pace. we treaded over the beautifully maintained parquet flooring while admiring the exquisitely-furnished rooms. each room had a distinctive character that was so intriguing and contained tapestries and portraits of the royalty that used to occupy that very room. the ceilings were filled with amazing paintings of Gods and angels and semi-naked men and women. Just then, i realised that i was wearing my ugly dark blue flip-flops. :/

we did not have time to visit the water fountain(Wasserturm) and the Jesuit church because we needed time to eat lunch, pack our luggage (yea the 100000kg worth of luggage) and to catch our train to stuttgart. so we bade our kind host kityeng farewell. you know initially, i thought her name was kity eng. haha. apparently it was kit yeng. but i still call her kity. :)

after 2 hours or so in the train, we finally reached stuttgart hauptbahnhof (main train station). the moment we reached the platform, xueting, jojo and i went our separate ways as we were promptly collected by our host families. wahaha. this nice lady came up to me and asked me if i was tess. and soon after i was in their car back to my new home for the next one month. omg. help me.

breakfast fit for the queen = me. muahaha.

the dog was smiling for the camera! :)

mannheim castle which was really long. this was as far and wide as my outstretched arms could cover. if only i was a chimp so my arms could be longer!

i bet you could see this damn colourful tram from outer space. me with the driver!

aww.. it was time to say goodbye to our wonderful host.. KITYENG.

can't help it that i have long legs and need to occupy two seats! haha.

in-train entertainment. diary + music = zzz

see that tower with the mercedes logo on top? it means we have arrived in STUTTGART.

my room.

still my room. just another angle. I LOVE THE BED. it's so comfy i feel like i'm sleeping on clouds every night.

day one.heidelberg.

2008-07-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

after dumping our 100000kg worth of luggage in kityeng's apartment, we headed straight for the beautiful town of heidelberg! we walked through the main shopping street called 'hauptstrasse' which was lined with many beautiful and interesting shops. there were many alfresco cafes too-- like the ones you see in hollywood movies where the illegal transaction always takes place. cool stuff.

anyway, i felt as if i was in pet kingdom. there were dogs everywhere!! HERE, THERE, UNDERWEAR!!!! everywhere*. big, small, fat, thin but all adorable to my eyes! and the dogs don't bark at all! i guess they were busy shopping too! kityeng said i was a dog-spotter while jojo commented that i was a dog-paedophile. thanks -_-.

we headed to heidelberg castle up next! and woohoo! this is the first castle that i will be going too! but you see guys, heidelberg castle is a ruin = spoilt. haha. but nevertheless, the architecture was still breathtaking and mind-blowing at the same time. KABOOM! in there, we ventured into the pharmacy museum and into this beer hall which houses a SUPER BIG beer barrel!

oh and that night, something happened on the tram! if you would like more information on what happened on the tram, please feel free to contact me. haha. :D

double-decker trains! *goes crazy*

sitting on the 2nd level of the train. i was too blind to see the '1' sign on the top right-hand corner which meant 'FIRST CLASS'. we got chased out after that! :x

there's graffiti everywhere! even in my dreams!

oh man, if singapore had this machine. i will so marry our prime minister. :x

i have absolutely no idea why he kept staring at me. i felt like a freak ok.

these cute lil' things continuously line germany's roads.

omg. the freakin' statue kissed my hand!

vodafone guy.

main shopping street in heidelberg.

i wonder if the bird poo-ed on his head.

chillin' out is what i do best! :)

sorry JOJO. just JOking :D

statue of our beloved Mother

Knights ahoy! erm. i mean enguard!

another angle perhaps

please don't ask me what pose was that. it wasn't deliberate.

going into hogwarts hall! actually it was just the old beer hall

kityeng and i just finished the entire barrel of beer! this is the smaller barrel. wait till you see the bigger one!

ok. i know this photo is a little dark BUT you can actually spot me on top of this huge barrel!

going into the Pharmacy Museum!

the doctor's in the house! yes may i help you?

we donned these clinic dresses and...

wala! another important day at work!

bleah! brown tufts of stuff. not good not good.

croc says: i'm flying. i'm actually FLYING!

you see this emblem on all pharmacy stores in germany

this machine is really good for stiff necks. it first wrings your neck and then it screws your head off. how clever is that! ok. just joking.

i so totally need this! in case you can't see, it says 'anti-stupidity pill'.

what what?!

funny kityeng.

hey, this guy ripped my pose from the picture above! grr.

don't we just blend in with the whole castle architecture?

it's either the slope is very steep or i have acquired new flexibility powers.

tsk tsk. garbage man jia zhua ah! deduct your salary!

the very nice ritter hotel with an old-world architecture. i own this by the way.

oops. lost!

chinese restaurant where all the chinese flocked to.

the river neckar.

heidelberg castle.

my car. ok. does anybody know the brand and model of this car?

how artistic. the cat's a natural poser!

all the cars park like that! i wonder what will happen if we do this in singapore. i hope no traffic police comes to read this. hee.

smart car! the person next to it is apparently not very smart though.

is it a beer? is it a cola? it is.. COLA-BEER!

our dinner! clockwise from extreme left bottom: food, food, food and food. hahaok. baggette, flammkuchen with bacon and onions, sausage platter(yea i know it doesn't look like sausage here. it has been julliened apparently) and maultaschen(german specialty)!

trying to be bogay with an innocent black olive in my mouth. :p

it says 'dog toilet'. how cool is that!

the duck statues have come alive! run!

let's GO!

2008-07-11T02:28:00.000-07:00

So yea! i'm all revved up and ready to go even though i just had 4 hours of sleep the previous night. you know why. ok here's why. my mum mentioned that the washing machine was too empty SO she took out my bedsheet and pillow and bolster sheets to fill up her washing machine. i just could not sleep on the strange sofa in my bro's room! tossing and turning. well not really tossing(imagine myself being a piece of roti prata and tossed around.haha), mainly turning. grrrr. last night already and i can't sleep on my comfy bed! and it would be quite pointless to put new sheets since i would be going away for more than a month. -_-

oh my flight was delayed twice as well. but at least that gave us time to eat at coffee bean! our $50.20 meal and we just paid $0.20 because we had a $50 voucher(mine and xueting's combined)!! :D

and basically i slept throughout the whole flight, only catching snippets of 27 dresses. and wiping mucous off my nose as i was having my sinus. :)

all geared up and ready to CHIONG ARH!

T3 is no longer the brand of the facial foam but of Changi's new terminal!

>SQUASHED<

yay! fat again and full of cha siew!

Princess Aurelia in da house!

loves of my life

wonder what awaits us o.O

drools!my drink is on the extreme left. it is called 'malibu dream' and it tastes like shampoo'

just touring around T3.hee

introducing Pablo! he owns a seafood company! i told him about DODO fishballs on the plane.

no comments. see for yourself.

nice eh?

introducing nice Polish old man! he kept going to the toilet and he sat at the window seat! gah!

without this, i can kiss europe goodbye

a little better than the (#*$&@(*#$ dinner

trumpets blow to signal my arrival! BEE BEE BOH BOH!

ahem!

2008-07-11T02:14:00.000-07:00

oh wow. i have a blog. i OFFICIALLY have a blog! yay. haha. and i used to think that blogs are a total waste of time. anyway i still do. =) oh wells, i shall state my official purpose of setting up this erm... nice bloggy. i have just had the most wonderful experience of my life (well i know there are more to come but this is the best so far) and i want to share it with you! In short, this blog's gonna basically record (almost) everything i have done in EUROPE! yes not EYE-ROPE but YOU-ROPE!! -_- so pictures of places i have been to will be up real soon! Let me just tell you where i have been: *drumrolls* Germany! London! Belgium(transit only.. counts also la. hee) Amsterdam! Austria! Italy! Switzerland and... Bonjour bonjour.. ooh lala Paris!! ok now i have to figure out how to upload pictures and stuff. Please enjoy while i take you on a magical adventure to europe! =)