my st gallen life

i realised that lazy me haven't blogged much about my life at st gallen, so here's a pic of my apartment. I have 4 other apartment mates and we're not exactly very close. More social talk than anything else. I hate it when they don't clean up the kitchen after they eat and makes the whole apartment smell of food. i barely do much here now except hide in my room to do work or sleep. Other than that, I'm with the rest at zhimin's and ian's apartment... doing our work, chilling and cooking over there. It seems to be the girls' hideout in general.


As for food, the group of us have been cooking everyday. soup, congee, pastas, rosti, variations of potatos. i made shephard's pie and panfried ham and cheese sandwich the other day! In general, the girls and more hardworking than zhimin and i. we have simple quick fix meals... we can make a meal in half hour if need be! :) Anyway, just some pics of our earlier products. I know it doesn't look that appetizing but it satisfies me :)
p.s. did you know that bratwurst sausages originated from St. Gallen? :P

Anyway, i have about 8 weeks more here and i haven't been using my secret stash of food much. haha. I still have so much local food left! so i'll be busying trying to clear all my instant noodles and instant rice and sardines and bakuteh packets the next couple of weeks!

uob mini card hoo ha

I was skyping with my parents the other day and my mum told me that she has just received my UOB mini card bill and that i had a bill of about 500 francs.

i was thinking "what?!! i haven't even used my mini card to buy anything! and why would i be crazy enough to buy something so ex?"

the only time i tried to buy something with my mini card was 10Euros of skype credits. which i accidentally billed it to zhimin cuz for some wierdo reason, i was holding his card and he was holding mine! (don't ask us how that happened) And he kept teasing me about it and insists that he should tax me on it.

(wait a minute... exchange of cards...500franc on a mini card.. sounds tooooo familiar)
"Mum, is it 545francs in Zurich?"
She gave me a positive answer.

(!!!!!) Mr Leong Zhi Min used MY card to buy his CHF 545 Tissot Watch! *growls*
shouldn't it be HIS job to buy me a 500 dollar watch?

Obviously, my parents response to this was along the lines of "how can you be so careless" etc etc., and it ended with "why my daughter so stupid one, seem to get the worse end of the bargain".


sigh.

bye bye ipod nano

I lost my ipod nano. that f-ing sucks. i dunno why it happened, cuz i consciously kept it.
it's not fair.
it doesn't even have a scratch on it.
it just ain't fair.

If anybody in singapore wanna lose weight, spend a month in switzerland. Food here is sooo expensive that I think all the singaporeans here are losing weight. Zhimin shrank a lot and lost all the fat he gained from internship and more :S ... I'm happily spending my time eating chocolate, milk and cheese and not have to worry about growing fat. gee. tt's a new feeling.

Anyways, i'm supposed to be doing my readings for tmr's class, Utopian Practice. I'm clearing it as GE Arts and it's kinda cool. And i'm glad i just have to worry about a pass/fail grade. It's kinda weird just going into my 3rd week of school here and everybody back home has either finished their exams or having them. (with the exception of modified term students like Amanda. hee)

I wish I can go for Dance Camp too. Really miss dance. Plus they are having workshops.... classes that i've always wanted to give a shot. oh well, you gain some and lose some.

back to my readings!

Switzerland Easter Trip

Last weekend, I went travelling around switzerland during the Easter break with Zhimin and Rox. Though most of the time the shops were closed, we still managed to see quite a bit of stuff :)

voted my fav place for this trip. The old town is really beautiful and brings one back in time. Zhimin and I managed to find a Salsa club which had a nice rough feel, the down point is that we went too late. We heard about 4 salsa songs and then the music changed to hip hop. Well.. at least we heard something. (boy am i deprived!) Shopping is alright, the church was gorgeous (we went back 3 times and different times of the day), and the bears were adorable. It is believed that Bern was named after the bears.

From Bern, we went to the French side of Switzerland. Everybody speaks French and the pple here are also more snobbish than the German side in general...

The three of us all didn't really like Lausanne. There wasn't much to offer and the town seem to lack urban planning. Luckily, the Chateau de Chillon (about 40mins away from Lausanne) saved the day. It was gorgeous. Very organised tourist site too.

Ticino - the Italian Switzerland

Spring is here!

just had my mini German test this morning. I think i created new german words :S

there's some University party at Zurich tonight. hope it's good and doesn't waste my time and $$.

update

Planning meals everyday is quite a tiring, and makes me kinda start to wish that there weren't 3 meals in a day :S The bright side of it is that grocery shopping is fun. I finally filled up my cupboard and my fridge with stuff that now i feel obligated to eat them all up....FAST. I've got lots of cheese in my fridge, and the thought of that makes me contented already :) The downside of grocery shopping here is that I have to wreck my brains to do so cuz a) i can't buy something irrelevant i.e. I must make sure i am able to cook it within the next few days or else it spoils 2) the more things i buy, the bigger the hole in my pocket.


Other than that, I think I ready to start a Migrol Fan-club. Migrol is the main supermaket chain here. and the beauty of Migrol is that is has BUDGET items. Budget eggs, Budget toilet paper, Budget towels, Budget cornflakes, Budget .... etc. (you get the idea). It's perfect for poor students like us :(





Anyway, yesterday a group of us Asians (2 Koreans, 2 HK, 7 Singaporeans) and 1 Canadian went to the nearby mountains (Santis) and a small town (Appenzel) to look see look see cuz German class was cancelled. It was an unexpected big group but I guess I'm thankful for the size. :) The mountains were gorgeous.. Santis is 2500m above ground and the snoooowww. haha.

The day was supposed to end off with a Cheese Fondue session organised by the Buddysystem. In general, we've been rather anti-social, and skipping their programmes cuz sick/tired, and were really looking forward for this. BUT call it poor organising skills. There were not enough chairs! It's a room that they rented and they didn't provide enough chairs! They offered us beer crates as chairs but honestly, i ain't that willing to pay 20 francs to sit on beer crates! growls.

Anyway, 8 of us left the place and decided to indulge ourselves.. and it was FANTASTIC. haha. We went into an Italian restaurant. It was the perfect way to end the day. The pasta, pizza and DESSERT were sehr gut! hee. We were lucky that the lady captain that day could speak pretty good English and was very helpful and patient with us.
It cost me 30 swiss francs, but think i'll definitely go back there again :)

Argh, time to sleep...got a mini German test tmr + i got to prepare my take-out lunch in the morning. eeks. Exchange somehow feels tiring.. and i haven't even started my term.

From St Gallen!

Hey all. I know that this entry is overdued. Well.. it ain't my fault if my internet decides to cock up in my first few days in st gallen :P

Anyway, it's currently snowing here. It's supposed to be spring now but somehow unexpectedly, the snow is here. Even the swiss pple were shocked. But the snow here is GORGEOUS. Apparently, there is pretty snow and not so pretty snow, and what we are experiencing here is pretty snow :)

There are 7 smu students here at st gallen. plus another 2 singaporeans who are doing their masters. The school's orientation program started yesterday and I think the main bulk of the program is the German classes. It's crazy. German ain't exactly the easiest language to learn. But it's a neccessity over here. For e.g. the school's computers and websites are mainly in German. Helllpp! I got a headache staring at them yesterday.

I kinda got lazy to post pictures up on blogger. Reasons being that it takes forever for me to upload and secondly, for some wierdo reason, my blogger is now in GERMAN. But! i've upload my pics on Facebook instead... so go get an account and add me!!! :)

Hope everybody is doing great back in sg :)

went back to school today for my resume critique, it was great bumping into those that i've haven't seen for a long long time. Pretty much bummed around in the lib with manda while we waited for nana for dinner. It's nice bumming around in school like that but i definitely don't miss studying. hee.

Anyway, we had dinner at Miss Clarity's Cafe, but i think the food was pretty disappointing this time. I think they overcooked most of their stuff. But company was GREAT! hee. miss hanging out with the two girls, especially alina! it's so difficult to get hold of her. *Growls*

I am STUFFED. I feel my stomach has expanded these days. Just last week, I had 4 buffets.. i am soooooo gonna grow fat.

anybody wanna buy 4D?

From 1 jan 2007 to 26 Feb 2007, my mum, my sis and i have all lost our phones for the first time in our lives. I think it's amusing. Odd as it sounds, I kinda glad i lost it now. it's like starting anew. Anyway, i got a new number and a new phone and from March 07 onwards, i'm paying my own phonebills! heh. I know.. odd to be happy over that, but i dunno.. just feels good :)

I'm thinking of buying 4D. I just dunno how to. lol. my last four numbers are 5910.. anybody wanna help? hahah.

another rainy day

i think i have 12 more days till i leave for switz for my student exchange. crap. feel kinda unprepared. excited yet worried. perhaps afraid that i will mess things up there. praying for the best.

I finished my internship exactly one week ago.. finally! haha. but the last month was enjoyable, after i've gotten used to things. Kinda like the place actually. quirky in a way, political too.. but somehow nice. Am interested in doing events in future also, but there are also a lot of other things to consider.

good and bad things have been happening. Still wating for the good good days :)

i was up talking on the phone till 5am last night. feels damn good. it's been a long long while since we talked like that.. even if it meant hearing your 'moses lim' type of stories.

Hope everybody else is doing great. Miss you all. *hugs*

a fruitful sunday

It has been a long long day... but a good one i guess :)

We had an event today at DE, some valentine's day couple cooking competition. When i first heard of this event, i expected it to draw the neighbourhood aunties. But i was pretty wrong. I think there was a very interesting mix of contestants. A mother and daughter both joined the competition with their other halves. Sooo sweeet. hee. The mother is daaaammmn young lah.. 36? and she has 8 kids. piang. But they were damn cute, very supportive throughout. I luuurrrvvee the youngest one! she's so pretty and cute.. always looking so blur. There was a British guy & Singaporean Chinese wife, another young malay couple, and the rest were 20 sth chinese couples (including prcs). One thing i realised during the process was that it was mainly the guys who were cooking, and not the girls! haha.. the new generation of couples! *yippee* I love the idea that guys can cook these days.. hee.. so i can nua. *grins* But i guess i will still definitely want to cook really great dishes for my other half :D

Anyway, the mother with 8 children won, very happy for her. Unfortunately, because of our irritating lying co-organiser, who kept reducing his prosmised prices last minute, the prices weren't that great. At least she had a fun time :)
But seriously, i don't understand how these kind of pple can exist and have the guts to organise events. grrr.

I was pretty much the event photographer today. *chuckle* yes me... me and my horrible photog skills. Well, the company owns a horrendous camera, so i figured i should just use mine and practice a little.. hardly get the chance to use it. Nobody gives me credit for it anyway. bleah (recalls Latin feste) .

After the event, zm and i went ecp to blade! I haven't blade for a zillion years since he bought me the blades, and the beginning was so terrible!!! Didn't even know how to move my legs. *sulk* Luckily, I kinda got a better hang of it after a loooonng while. hee. Thanks for your patience darling :P

oh.. and the sunset was great. i love the sky today lots lots lots. like a drawing. A huge one.. since there were very little clouds. The planes were circling.. lots of boats (i mean ships :P).. i like!

All in all.. i think it was a tiring but great day. Good enough to put me in a blogging mood finally! :)

Urgh. work can be a pain in the ass.

the remnants of my curls are officially gone.
i feel like a little kid again. :P

Yesterday, i went to to watch My Fair Lady. Free tics from the company :) think pretty much the whole office was at the esplanade. I enjoyed the show a lot.. though i didn't really fancy the female lead. But i was impressed by the chemistry among the ensemble, very very nice! I still like my musicals to be about the old english days, with nice old happy folk dances and perfect english. :P

And i'm glad that he enjoyed it as much too.

Argh. it's sunday again.. i don't wanna go to wooooorrrkk tmr...

the worst new year eve ever

never ever spend your new year eve with cramps, flu, working in a political environment and on the brink of quarrelling with your bf. It only ends up with you losing something valuable such as your hp, just cuz you let your guard down at the end of the day.

To top it off, never try cabbing home from town. only to realise that you forgot to bring your house keys cuz you were in such pain in the morning that it made the brain incoherant.

So the only thing left to do is to trigger the house alarm to wake everybody in the house up and announce your arrival at home at 6am in the morning.

Welcome 2007.
So much for making a new year resolution.
i just feel as if i'm falling into a never-ending hole.

i dunno how to pick myself up.

End of the year post

Apologise for the lack of updates, i don't exactly spend a lot of time online these days. :P

I'm now interning at Quebec Leisure, currently doing events at Downtown East. yes.. Downtown east.. where all the little kids and families go and spend their weekends. bleah. (P.S.Calling out to all easterners.. visit me for lunch!!! haha. my lunch break is from 1-2pm. Probably can stretch up to 2.30pm.. depending on whether i busy or not.)

So pretty much.. my working hours are 10am to 7pm. It's nice cuz I don't have to wake up so early. But kinda irritating cuz i'm starving by the time i reach home (about 8+ pm) and I actually lose my appetite. Eat dinner, wash up... 9+pm? And i happily spend my rest of my days watching Bleach!!! hee. I'm addicted. So yup! no time for updates!! haha. I'm just lazy. :P

2 more days to the new year. I'll spending my new year eve in Downtown East working. bleah. Let me know if you are miraculously going there. haha.

This year has been a tough year. For me, and many others around me. Hope 2007 will be good to all of us.

End of the year post

Apologise for the lack of updates, i don't exactly spend a lot of time online these days. :P

I'm now interning at Quebec Leisure, currently doing events at Downtown East. yes.. Downtown east.. where all the little kids and families go and spend their weekends. bleah. (P.S.Calling out to all easterners.. visit me for lunch!!! haha. my lunch break is from 1-2pm. Probably can stretch up to 2.30pm.. depending on whether i busy or not.)

So pretty much.. my working hours are 10am to 7pm. It's nice cuz I don't have to wake up so early. But kinda irritating cuz i'm starving by the time i reach home (about 8+ pm) and I actually lose my appetite. Eat dinner, wash up... 9+pm? And i happily spend my rest of my days watching Bleach!!! hee. I'm addicted. So yup! no time for updates!! haha. I'm just lazy. :P

2 more days to the new year. I'll spending my new year eve in Downtown East working. bleah. Let me know if you are miraculously going there. haha.

This year has been a tough year. For me, and many others around me. Hope 2007 will be good to all of us.

End of exams! and my new toys

Yippee! i'm finally free! Well sort of (still got do my bp report tmr-bleah). The paper was memory work.. so hopefully i did fine...better if more than fine :)

There is no better way to celebrate the end of exams/term but to go shopping! I spent a whopping $376 today! lol. I went to the IT fair in EXPO first, then went to watch casino royale and did a little shopping in PS. hee.. and guess what.. think i'm a little addicted to IT fairs this year. I kinda like the place.. esp when i go there knowing that i get new toys and that mummy will pay for it. hee.
Anyway, purchases for the day: (in order of purchase)

• A set of 4 MAC lipgloss. Well.. i'm not sure whether i made the right purchase, considering i hardly use makeup and could have just settled with one tub and half the price. lol. But i like the shimmy shimmy colour. It's the first time in my life that i'm buying makeup! (ok. maybe sounding little bit bimbotic but well ... trying to learn to be a girl. heh. But gonna give one tube to my sis. as payment for loaning makeup when i needed them. :)
• One really really small and chio black colour 80GB hard disk drive for myself
• 2 Webcams for my exchange days
• 1 more normal 60GB Seagate hard disk drive for home use
  
• and a blusher! I finally got my blusher! now the only prob is that i can't seem to remember where i put my blusher brush :S the colour is called pixie! haha. i obviously couldn't decide what colour i was supposed to buy, but i seem to have a expert shopping with me. (hint: think of a particular someone who loved to go back to the makeup artist for touchups during Rummage) :P
  

Now next in my shopping list:

• Office clothing. since i'm starting work on Monday and i apparently need to wear office wear *sulk*
• a nice pretty pouch for my hard disk drive cuz those stingy pple there didn't supply one.

now off to play with my new toys!

one down, one more to go! yippee.
my prof's weird. on our last page of our paper, he wrote in huge fonts:
" That's the end! Bye!!!!!!!!"

liar. still got one more project that needs to be submitted to him.

can't wait for thursday. what should i do. what should i do!!?? hee