After all the hussle and bussle, my 14day European Wonder has finally concluded with a trip across the English Channel to Dover. I spent two days in London, and am now in Muenster, awaiting the start of the immersion programme. Cant believe I have been away for 18 days. Man. It feels like 5 days. Time really flies when youre travelling. The best part is- I am REALLY enjoying myself with NO curfew, no restrictions and stuff like that. It is really ironic cause now without a curfew, I am actually back earlier than 11pm. Yes. On My Own Accord. (: Its really too cold out there and no shops are open. Would love to drink but my friend over here is allergic to alcohol (of all things?!) and I dont have excess cash to splurge on drinks.

One thing though. Accomodation over the last 18 days really sucked like shit. There was once when I had to pay 1 Euro (2 Sing dollars) for a 5 minute hot water flow in Munich! Thats absolutely ridiculous. The system crashed on me. Its a lousy system, really. I was stuck in the COLD shower for like god knows how long. I thought I almost died. But well. Thank God thank God for Liz.. I survived.

Loved the great food over the past weeks. Man. Some sucked. Thanks to Craig for not 'whipping up a good enough storm'. His speciality, i.e.: Lagasnia wasnt *that* great after all. But nonethess,
I had:
Escargoes from France
Swiss Roll from Switzerland
Florentine Cream Gelato Ice Cream from Florence
Black ink Spaghetti and Home Made Raviolli from Venice (after TWO FAILED tries from the stupid cafes. DONT even attempt to TRY spaghetti from CAFES! They serve microwaved pasta. like who cant cook that right?!)
Wonderful yum yum bread from France and ESP from Venice. Something that you can NEVER taste in Singapore
Cornish pastry, Scotch Eggs and Chilli con Carne from London
Super smooth and not yuckified beer courtesy of an Australian guy (er i dont know his name) in the Biergarten, Munich.

Lovely. And yes, I put on hell a lot of weight. I reckon I put on at least 3kg. Yuppers! In a short span of two weeks. Now, thats TOTALLY unacceptable. Following this, I believe I will be eating a whole load of pork knuckles and sauerkaut and wurst salat. Okay. Like what the hell. I think I may have even put on another 3kg. So that makes it 6kg. Itll seem really tough for me to lose them when I return to Singapore. And itll take lotsa, lotsssaaa time I reckon.

I am craving for local dishes. Those are among the few things that I so badly miss in Singapore. I want to eat chicken rice now. Or perhaps fish ball soup would be good. Anything from holland V? I am sick of bread. Oops. I forgot. I shouldnt be thinking of food. Argh. I can barely fit into my brown pants now. Please dont tell me I put on weight when I am back. I gotta feeling I will get a terrible shock when I step on the weighing machine. Thats the FIRST thing I am going to do when I get home.

I am really very preoccupied with my weight. I am hell so fat. Eeks. I am gonna look horrendous with that balloned face, arms, tighs and whats not.

Okay. Enough ramblings I suppose.
I bought lotsa gifts for lotsa people. People who have helped me in one way or another. People whom I wanna show my gratitude to. Spent a bomb actually. Wanna know if youre in it? haha! We shall see. I am more or less done with the gifts. Dont know if the people will like them.

Anyway. Its really difficult to carry.. and let me tell you.. Carrying a 20kg bag up many flights of stairs and cars and slopes aint exactly the easiest.
So if Ive gotten you anything.. Wah lao. You had better appreciate it lah! Regardless if you LIKE it OR not. hahah.
Bye!

i know this is gonna disappoint some people who read my blog for travel information. haha. basically i am given this really lousy keyboard. am finding it really a nuisance to type. i typed a paragraph and i deleted it all.

i am not in a mood to blog.
but i just wanna testify gods love. truly and surely, he was with me all the way. i felt him during mass, in the morning, the afternoon, and especially late at night. i felt him when i almost lost my bag, i felt him when i didnt know what to do, i felt him when i was lost. i felt him when he made the wrong go right.

well, um, maybe the only thing ive got to worry about is my exponential increase in weight.

france serves the best kind of bread. nothing beats that.
tell you more about it next time.
im eating and sleeping like a glutton. my stomachs ballooning.

now, im in luzerne, sweiss. that means lucerne, switzerland. finally met the alps face to face this morning. the grandeur, the magnificence are amazing, astounding. as i climbed the mountains, as i experienced the beauty of nature, i immersed myself in gods presence.

spending like a mad pig. im running out of cash. havent gotten souvenirs for lotsa people at the moment. will be going to florence tomorrow. i want to go the churches in italy.

i feel gods amazing love burn stronger as i travel from a place to the next. its indescribable.

Last Friday, I woke up at 930 am after three hours of sleep. I had a really bad diahorrea which lasted for a fantabulous good two days. And to my pleasant surprise, I lost a kg and my weight hit a record low of 40.9kg. But, as usual, after consuming newton circus' chee cheong fun (please don't, DON'T ever patronise the stall), coconut and 7 sticks of satay, and loads of other fattening oily unhealthy food, they, in unison have taken a toll on my weight. I am back to 43kg, and am of course, really sad about it.

Anyhow, I think I disgressed. I spent the afternoon at Rebecca's house baking nothing. Haha. Not quite. We were supposed (and I stress on this word) to bake some muffins. Some general comments about her place: I will NEVER EVER want to live there! It has so many ants! You see ants everywhere. From the living room to the kitchen to the tables to the floor to the door. wherever. You get my drift. Thank goodness her room is ant-free at the moment! That was my only little dungeon which I could hide in.

Remembered her bag was once infested with ants when she came to class. Imagine the horror!!!! I was so freaked out, and am still freaking out at the thought of it. And hey, that resulted in me not sleeping in class for the entire day cause I was so afraid they'd crawl up my sleeve and my toes and my uniform and my hair. Eeekkkss!! Hahahaha! Okay, sorry. :(

So i decided to upload a few photos for some memories' sake.


This was our useless recipe. Raisin Muffins. Oh yes, now I remember. That was the exact name of our muffins.

This was attempt number one. The first layer, i.e.: the skin of the muffin was edible. Above average. Smooth. BUT, as you can see, the filling was too wet. Soaked and filled to the brim with a milky stench. Gluey. You'll basically puke after eating it. Oh. Too sweet! Jocelyn's fault. She's a bad baker, that you must understand.

So obviously, you know where the muffin went after that. Along with the rubbish, it must make the bin its home as well. Whose fault? There's only an answer to that! That jaws lah! Aiya. Always act like some pro. Haha! So master chefs, Audrey and Rebecca came to her rescue after that. Okay. So here goes.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST attempt one and two. Now with my expertise, the filling was of course better. But I wonder why the skin didn't want to rise as nicely as the first. I thought and pondered hard. It HAD to be the recipe! I read it several times, thoroughly of course, and even made sure nothing went wrong. Yet, the filling was soaked through with milk and butter and all sorts of mad stuff! Okay. Imagine how angry I was! I thought of sueing the person who wrote it. Even the batter looked weird and wet. Spot the alliteration?! Yes, it helps me to better emphasize my point.

Now now. You see, the three of us are very persevering and determined sorta people. So. The last resort, and the last straw- CHANGE the recipe! Whose idea? Of course all credits to Rebecca and I! Or is it Rebecca's idea? Never mind. Anyway, my point is.. it was definitely not Jocelyn's. Haha! We improvised and made it our own (you know basically how we change Shakespeare's works here and there so he can transcend all boundaries kinda thing?)

Similarly, I was hoping my muffins could transcend all heat and waveforms and boundaries. Never did I expect them to turn out like albinos! They were as white as snow. Like some schneemann in Schneeland! Auf dem Stuhl sitzen. Haha! I thought the muffins reminded me very much of some white dalmation with lotsa poker dots.

This is what improvisation can do to you. HAHA!

I was praying and hoping that at least these albino muffins were up to some decent standard so that we could eat them. I was even thinking of bringing some home to share it with my friends. Meaning- forcing Elizabeth to eat it on Saturday. Haha!

I took a deep breath. Sliced open the muffins.

So did the quality turn out well? Hmm. I shan't comment on that. But i'll show you something instead. Maybe this will give you the answer.

This is Jocelyn, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Jaws aka I-fry-salty-long-beans-in-black-sauce-soup. She looked rather elated as she served herself with a serving of Jacob Cream Biscuit. Courtesy of Rebecca's home.

THE END

Just finished an hour long conversation with my dad! I'm so, so glad for him even though he can get quite long winded at times. I was basically updating him on my trip and telling him which stuff I've already settled and have not settled and my rough itenerary. As the concerned dad, he was telling me to avoid any late night outs in London because racism is predominant there this and that. Haha! As the logic goes... Which father isn't protective of his daughter eh?

But thinking back on the conversation really makes me laugh. The highlight of it all: Believe it OR not: ALWAYS GIVE WAY TO ELIZABETH! hahaha! that's like the joke of the day! And he gave me at least more than ten reasons WHY AND HOW I SHOULD give way to her! LOL! I wonder if I'll eventually 'heed' that advice. So nonsensical! Hahaaha!
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I can't hear, still. I live in a blocked world.
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I can't wait for tomorrow! Going somewhere exciting. It's a secret. I am not telling.
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I want my family back in Singapore. I can't find someone to irritate at the moment. My place seems so much quieter without my brother.
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I have very lovely parents. My mum's getting a wind breaker for me. My dad's getting more memory cards for me. I love them so much!
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I can't wait to fly.
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I promise. Elizabeth's home is one of THE most fattening haven on earth!
It has been yet another 'eat-and-eat-and-eat' day for me again. It would have been O.K. if we played tennis this morning but noooo.... We were all too tired. So tennis was cancelled, and we feasted on fattening food for lunch. Courtesy of her dad who bought all the yummilious food from abroad.

I reckon it really takes sheer determination and lotsa SELF DISCIPLINE for a food lover to live in her home. I bet if I were to camp there for a week, I may put on like a kg or two. Haha!
So let's recap what I ate today.

+ Fruit Nuts
+ Some yummilious cheese thing (she tricked me into believing that they were fat free. what nonsense!)
+ oooooooohhhhhh and the irresistible SARDINES in (ta da..) Olive Oil! sigh.
+ One piece of raisin bread
+ Half a packet of potato chips. Courtesy of her brother who went down to buy for himself but greedy elizabeth snatched it away.
+ A packet of prawn-lime potato chips from I don't know where. It's damn nice. I finished half.
+ 2 Sweets
+ 1 pear

And when I came home,
I ate a whole plate of steam meat, tofus, 20 packets of seaweeds, 1 pear, and a damn big fattening yumilious dumpling from crystal jade. It was, um.., let's see now, too good to resist.

I'm perpetually a victim of food and cravings. Argh argh! If I were to go for a buffet tomorrow, I think I would seriously put on another kg. I've been eating so much ever since the holidays started. Life's always good with food! (: ten smiles to that!

I know I've an AWESOME God!

Thank You so much for everything. The week has been superbly fantabulous for me.
And I predict I will have an even greater one next week! (:

Come to think of it, I haven't really thanked Him for allowing all the europe plans I've made to go so smoothly. Firstly, it's really not cheap to travel to so many countries. Liz and I were working out the amount of S$ we should exchange.. And (drum rolls).. 500 Sing to Pounds, 1000 Sing to Euros, and probably about 120 Sing to Francs. If you do the math, it sums up to a total of $1650 (and still counting). In other words, I have more or less emptied my bank account. But my mummy's like the greatest being on earth. She's willing to lend me some money and she's gonna get me a windbreaker from Shanghai (I hope). Yea, at least that helps me to cut cost. It really isn't easy trying to fork out that much since I had barely $4000 in my account previously.
But I really THANK God from deep within for taking care of the financial aspect. It'll somewhat be settled soon. And I guess, at the end of the day, I don't really have to fret about not having enough money for accomodation or meals or sightseeing. All credits to Him and of course, my parents! Love them so much! They're like really supportive of me, and I probably won't be able to enjoy this much. I wouldnt even have the opportunity to study Deutsch there. So like thanks so much!

Secondly, I confirmed my return trip ticket two nights ago. I managed to get a seat on board SQ (erm..) on 14July. This means.. I will be taking the same flight back as Liz. Yay! At least I know I will not be stranded in some mad Frankfurt hauptbahnof or some airport or im park alone. haha!! I'm so glad for the company. you bet I'm very, I mean, very very delighted. Okay. Not exactly *very* grateful for her company lah, but still, it's better than nothing. At least, I know I can count on her and to think of it... She's okay lah. So yuppers! I am happy! ((:

The planning's going quite smoothly. There're hardly any hiccups (or am I speaking too early?). I must say the both of us are cooperating quite well. Better than expected. Much better, in fact. We even planned a list of what to bring there together.. Which is of course, very surprising. Haha, yes, I thought she would have deemed packing to be the easiest thing and wouldn't be willing to help me out. hahah! Oh well. And yup, we are en route to settling some last minute london stuff. Paris= 95% settled. Yupper De Do Da Dey! Thank God Thank God!

I've also 'more or less' understood how the GlobalRoam 108 works already. I can call home! Yay! Did some 'research' on the entire thing. Asked around. Got some information here and there. Overall, I have a much clearer picture now. Great! Thank God for being able to call back! I love hearing people's voices! Selected people only lah. If you want, you can always ask me if you're in *that* list ornot.

AND! A super duper big Smile to my cousin! He's so sweet. Offered to bring me to get my backpack in Lavender on an early Saturday morning! I mean, that's something I will probably NEVER do. not now. not in life. Volunteer myself early in the morning?!?! It just sounds alien to me! Was really surprised when he wanted to bring me to get stuff and recommend me things to buy and have lunch with me. Woah, I didn't know my cousin cared this much for me. Haha! So apart from a Super Great God, Super Great Parents, I have a Super Great Cousin too! LOL!

On top of my trip, I managed to eat some fingerlicking crabs, watched the Da Vinci Code (now, I really DON'T see a point in not wanting to watch because it 'might be against your' religion. ahh! it's only fiction. you don't get persuaded so easily? do you? plus, the movie aint all that convincing. not even half as convincing as the book if you ask me. so yea. it doesn't do dan brown's work justice. talk about it another time), gave math tuition, stuff like that last week. Did lotsa enjoyable things.

I'm looking forward to the next week (tomorrow, tomorrow, you're only a day away), and the following week. Haha! Yea, my last two weeks are gonna be quite interesting, I hope. Its peak- next week. Then I suppose it'll get suckier and suckier till I leave. HAha. Whatever.

But still, I wanna thank God! Cause God is sooooo good!
And... God, with all his richness, bought me some heavenly kinder bueno surprise today. I loved it! Thanks!

Mine. I stood on a weighing scale today. I put on weight. Great. Right.
I've been more spendthrift as well. I'm spending more than what I earn at the moment on food and entertainment. Spoardic urges aint good I must say. I usually succumb to my hunger and fingerlicking food. Arggh.

I'm really broke. I'm begging for a job. But I've no time for one. So I'm living off my savings. Dreads! I still have to spend so much more on other stuff. For entertainment and travelling purposes. Helfen mir, bitte!

Okay I had better stop it. It's getting too whiny. Tsuechs!

i'm travelling on time's wing's chariot. sure enough, i've passed many splendid tourist attractions. there're so many events which i'm counting down to. haha! some interesting, some not so interesting. but anyway, since i'm counting down.. 17 more days to paris! heeehaaa!