Thursday, April 27, 2006
Lonely... Miss my dearest...
Bored.. class is uninteresting.
SIghs
8 hours of classes a day!!! How how? can't stand it... bleargh! should have brought my book..
Haiii....
5:44 PM
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Yesterday was such an amazing day!!! We had SO much fun together, making lame jokes and “training” together.. Haha!
First everyone took the train to this village called Stein am Rhein (or something like that). And it was such picturesque small town with fountains you can drink from, cherubs hanging off buildings and Michelangelo-like paintings decorating the buildings… We took loads of pictures but unfortunately, none of them were mine coz my camera batt died!! :p don’t know how it happened coz when I switched it off the day before, the batt was full… then it was flashing red when I turned it on in the morning ? Oh well… It helped me make more friends at least coz I was trying to get into everyone else’s pictures so I could kop them!! *grinz*
We had delicious ice cream here!! Never mind that the weather was chilly and the fresh wind was making my hands cold, the strawberry yoghurt ice cream was superb and only cost 1.60 swiss francs! ?
Next we hopped onto the train again to get to the village/ town called shaffhousen (I think I’m spelling everything wrong! Lolx) we had lunch here (I ate the sandwich I prepared at home) while a number of those I walked with had the famous beef sausage (no idea how to spell it’s actual name) with bread and mustard that some guy was barbecuing outside one of the shops :p I’m gonna go budget man… I’ve better things to spend on than food ;)
Anyway, after lunch, the guide told us that it’d be a 30min walk to Rhine Falls, the place we had come to visit. So we started walking… And walking… And walking and walking and walking. Took lots of pictures along the way but 30 minutes came and went and we were nowhere near the waterfall!! (maybe it was the pictures.. haha) At any rate, I got to know a guy called Eugene along the way and he’s got a fixed line in his hostel!!!!! ? I wanna fixed line too… then I could call back every night and pay only 0.08 francs a minute! Oh well… I could still buy the card and use his phone to call, but it’d be really weird talking to you yi and being mushy in front of some other guy.. :p (don’t worry dearest, he knows I’m attached) grinne.
As it was, we took almost an hour to get there but the sight was entirely worth it! It was like a Niagara falls in miniature and we were so close that the spray was drizzling over us… The water was gushing powerfully down the short cliff yet there was a rock jutting out amidst the waterfall where people could take a boat to reach there and climb it! Really wanted to get to the top of that rock but we didn’t have enough time ? ?
Later a bunch of us decided not to waste our train day pass and visit Lake Constance before heading home. When we got to the town (Krueizlingen?) however, we discovered that the last train to St Gallen leaves in an hour! So we rushed down to the lakeside to see if we could take a ferry to another town instead of trying to catch the train but there were no more ferries running for the day ? At any rate, there was a beautiful, tranquil park by the lake, a little family centre for kids and things and we decided in the end to have dinner there and catch the 7.02pm train to Romanshorn where we could change trains to St Gallen.
It was already 6.30 by then so we only had half an hour to eat! It was fun though, sitting outdoors (feels picnicky;) but the food took awhile to come, so it was that at 7, we were rushing to pack our half-eaten food in aluminium foil and ran to catch the train with plates of food in lifted in the air! Hahaha, somehow, we decided that this shall hereby be the new swiss Olympic sport!! It’s called… TRAINING.
Grinne…
This sport requires one to run on the railway behind the train and attempt to catch it. If one is too slow, however, and there is an approaching train, points are given for successfully lying flat on the tracks while the train passes over (beer-bellied men are advised to dig a hole for their tummies and lie on their fronts instead).
Hahaha… We were sooo high on adrenaline when crapping this up just after boarding the successfully ‘caught’ train.. *grinz* Sooo funnnnn…!! I like this group of friends: Benjamin, his gf (Chin se?), Jacob, Eugene, Ah Hok (Swee Hok), Ah Long (Yi Long), Brigette and Lin Ting. Damn nice people ? ? Ben, Chin Se, Eugene and Jacob will also be coming with me to Interlaken to do fun, adventurous, life-threa.. erm, perfectly safe activities there ;) heh…
Switzerland rocks, but I wish you yi were here to enjoy it with me… That would be the epitome of perfect!!! Attending class together, staying together, cooking for each other, walking hand-in-hand beneath the flowering trees and hiking up mountains together, not to mention all the traveling and activities we could do together… We could even start a salsa class here!! ;) grinne… miss my dearest, but we’ve been calling and sms-ing each other so much that I BET papa will flip when the month’s bills arrive. :P haha, die…
Okay I’m continuing this entry from yesterday, which means the above events were for Saturday and I’m writing what happened on Sunday now and today, Monday (the first day of school :p )
Sunday… CHURCH!! :D praise the Lord! I can’t stop giving thanks for all the blessings He’s showered upon me… And all the thanks in the world is nothing compared to what He’s given me already. A stable childhood, comfortable lifestyle, loving family, great friends and an absolutely WONDERFUL boyfriend ? ? ? That’s not including the daily miracles He does and the way He paves the way and opens so many doors of opportunities for me.. Thank You Lord. Thank You… For everything. You know my heart Lord, and I give You all my thanks, from the depths of my soul, I praise You.
Please continue to guide me as I go through this month in Switzerland… Though I stay alone, I’ve not felt alone at all for Your presence has been so strongly with me. I pray that my relationship with You may continue to deepen and strengthen even as You are the pillar of my strength and my constant companion here in St Gallen and everywhere I go. Thank You Lord… Watch over my family and my friends back home and wherever they may be. Thank You for all the people praying for me and all the love You’ve given me… Watch over You Yi especially as he grows in You. Guard him and guide him in everything he does for he yearns to know You Lord; show him Your power and mercy and help him dedicate himself to you, that he may flourish in Your great love and bear fruit… Thank You Lord… Thank You for bringing us together and making us that we may share this life together in Your loving presence.
I love God ? The service was wonderful… I didn’t understand a tHinG, but now I know how to say “Jesus Christ” in german ;) hahaha. And the group I brought with me wasn’t Christian but I hope and prayed that during that time of worship the peace of God would come upon them and that they would feel His presence around them and respond to His love. The guy sitting next to me, Eugene, was actually from a Catholic school for 11 years of his life yet he has stubbornly resisted the call. So I invited him to come to church with me when we return… Hopefully he will finally get to know Christ.
Apart from that, the abbey was beautiful… It’s a catholic cathedral actually and the service was catholic, but like I always say, God is God ? we all accept Christ so we’re all Christians. Haha. Took some pictures but I plan to go back and visit the rest of the abbey. That was just the church bit but there’s still the abbey library and everything… It’s one whole big building that was the point from which St Gallen sprang. Apparently some monk was traveling and searching for a place to set up a monastery, and a bear that was following him spared his life on that spot or smthing like that… So he took it as a sign from God and set it up there :p
That was told to us during the buffet lunch we had later with all the vips (eg. smu provost, st.gallen principle n vp, our profs etc).. Really rich food and it filled me up so well that I didn’t have to have dinner that night ?
I’m kinda getting tired of typing, haha, so I shall summarize the rest.
Sunday was the last day for some annual spring carnival and flea market at St Gallen so we went straight there after lunch, played bumper cars (haha), walked around the flea market (things I would buy if I had the money: handheld massager, sFr 49 *soo tempting* things I wouldn’t buy if you paid me to: Australian souvenirs) and left.
Climbed up one of the hills around St Gallen (it’s sorta like a big village/small city nestled in the hills) which had 3 lakes on top. Much asking of directions and aching muscles later (if you think trekking through bukit timah hill is challenging, try climbing THIS), we finally reached the lake. It’s beautiful. Not the most beautiful place I’ve seen but the tranquility, the fresh air and the wonderful view makes it one of my favorites… A must see if you come to St Gallen ?
Climbed down, came home, blah blah blah…
Today’s the first day of classes. Just small reception plus intro session & forming of project groups… We figured out why the classes are so long now… Numerous breaks. ;) Anyway, I was online during lunch waiting for you yi to get home. Talked to mummy & papa on skype which wasn’t very good, surprisingly. Ah Long, Hok, Bridgette, Linting and I then went to Migros to shop for a few more groceries (all I bought was milk, bananas and sausages :p) dumped them at home then had to head back to the uni for a campus tour with a dreadfully hilarious guide!! He made soooo many lame jokes but he was so funny!! Haha. Personally, my favorite place is the GYM. The temperature down there is… mmm… beyond hot. So happy I brought my shorts :D hahaha (just kidding dearest!! Hahaha) Just as an aside, the student population gender distribution is 28% female and 72% male *rubs hands together gleefully* GRIN. Not that they were very impressive or anything (all the impressive ones congregate at the GYM! Hahaha), I much prefer my dear. ?
Anyway, it’s getting late and I keep waking around 5.30, 6am (don’t mind, get to laze around in bed first) so I should end here. School tmr ? It seems I’ve become the unofficial coordinator of weekend trips as quite a number of people wanna do what I wanna do. Haha. This Friday, there’s a music festival in town called the Honky-Tonk Festival where bands play in pubs all over the city and 20 francs pays for the shuttle bus as well as entrance to all these places ? Sat there’s class in the morn but we’re heading to Bern in the aftnn (maybe pon class in the morning and go Zurich? Grinne) then Sunday we’re going Appenzel(?) to check out the outdoor voting thing and head to Mount Sentis from there.
Also booked the Interlaken Adventure thing for the following weekend. YARRGHHH! HANG GLIDING!!!!!! Hehhehheh…
Can’t wait!!
wish you were here…
5:01 PM