25th December 2005 - Day 83

Most part of the day was spent in the plane sleeping and watching movies. The flight arrived in Singapore slightly earlier than the stipulated time of 1720.

After doing some Duty-Free shopping with Yun, I went back home.

So, there might not be any updates for these two weeks back at home.

24th December 2005 – Day 82

As expected, I wasn’t able to wake up at 0700 after such a long day yesterday. I woke up at 0812. Since I’m not able to make it on time for the 1200 flight, I might as well sleep in and try to catch the evening flight.

For the people who are still confused about what I’m talking, the situation is as follow:

• Before my Exchange Program, I thought that it would be a good idea to spend Christmas in Germany (or Europe in the general sense).
• I realized, that Christmas is more of a family festivity. Which means most of the people in my hostel will be going home.
• Nothing is opened on Christmas, since it is a holiday.
• Since the opportunity presents itself for me to fly back home, I might as well make full use of it.
• The ticket I got is for the evening flight on 25^th December.
• Here I am, going to try my luck by going a day earlier to see if there’s any empty seats left.
• But if luck runs out, then too bad for me, and I’ll spend a memorable Christmas Eve at Frankfurt Flughafen.

I prepared everything and left the hostel at 1615. Only Uedat and his friend were still in the hostel. Guess Uedat’s not going home for Christmas. After the usual exchange of greetings, I was on my way to the Hauptbahnhof.

The trip to the Hauptbahnhof was quite smooth. The bus and the tram came on time, and I was able to board the 1700 Inter-City-Express train to Frankfurt Flughafen.

The conductor finally checked my ticket!

I reached the airport more than 4 hours ahead of the scheduled flight time of 2220 in hope of standing a better chance to get on the plane.

After waiting for the counter to open at 1840, I asked the counter staff whether it was possible or not to make the change. I’m quite lucky that the flight’s not fully booked, and I managed to get on the flight.

Macdonald’s was closed due Christmas Eve, and so were many other shops, including duty-free shops. Looks like I can’t get my Ice Wine this time round.

With another 3 hours on hand, I was really quite bored waiting.

I found out that I was on the same flight as the meet-up-in-Köln friend. He’s going back to Singapore for around 2 weeks too.

It’s quite cool, there’s actually Wireless LAN internet access in the plane. But I’ll have to pay if I want to use it. Maybe in a few more years, the service will be free.

So, I guess I’ll be spending the rest of my time on board sleeping and watching movies.

23rd December 2005 – Day 81

Since the tour at the VW Gläserne Manufaktur will only start at 1000, I slept until it was 0900 before waking up. Nan was already awake by that time and he went to make his sandwiches. I simply took a plastic bag and threw the bread, salami and cheese in. I figured that I can make the sandwiches on the train.

Although we reserved our tour in English, we found out that the tour was only conducted in German. That makes me wonder why would they bother asking yesterday during the phone call.

The particular model of vehicle produced here is the Volkswagen Phaeton V10 TDI. It looks good on the outside and has some pretty interesting functions. For example, the driver and passengers inside the vehicle can actually choose their own preferred temperature.

Sounds like a complex case of heat exchange to me.

Volkswagen Phaeton

V10 TDI, like I know what that means.

There was also a driving simulator which many people wanted to try out. The guide said that the Phaeton drives and feels much better than the simulator. Well, they should give us a test drive of the vehicle instead!

We rushed off to the Dresden Neustadt Bahnhof after taking a few more shots. Nan thought it would be better if we went to the Dresden Hauptbahnhof. When we reached, we thought that the train was already gone or that it doesn’t stop at the Hauptbahnhof. But Nan was right, we saved ourselves some time and did not have to rush.

The next place we went to was sächisches Schweiz, or Saxony Switzerland. As said before, we followed the advice of the hostel owner and bought a Stufe 2 ticket and proceeded to Stadt Ratten.

The Dresden transport company designated the Stadt Ratten just outside of the Stufe 2 region, conveniently charging tourists who want to visit the Bastelei more.

When we reached, the whole town was quiet, which made us wonder what could be here.

Being lazy, both of us were looking for buses that would bring us up the Bastelei. However, it seems that the bus is located at the earlier train station.

Nevertheless, we crossed the river by a boat which was operated by making use of the water current and a thick metal cable.

I noticed that there wasn’t any rubber lining or tyres by the side of the boat. When we asked the operator, he replied,

“Wir sind in Deutschland”

and proceeded to do the hand-waving-in-front-of-the-face gesture. Did he meant that Germans aren’t very clever? Hmm…

The Bastelei is just a big boulder to commemorate someone. If not for the thick mist, it would have been wonderful. It was quite beautiful up there.

After the Bastelei, we went looking for a faster way down to Stadt Wahlen. There was indeed a bus stop, but the bus was not operating. We tried to hitchhike, but nobody stopped.

So we walked through the quiet, cold and damp forest. Little Red Riding Hood must have been really brave (or really stupid) to walk through a forest alone. Luckily for us, there were no wolves.

After an hour or so, we reached Stadt Wahlen and managed to catch the train back to Dresden City. Both of us were quite tired by then and slept through the whole trip.

When we reached, we went around the Christmas market again and saw that prices for Dresdner Christstollen were slashed. It’s quite strange that most of the tin boxes were sold out instead of the Christstollen.

I had a dinner of grilled chicken with Brötchen before going back to the hostel to get my stuffs.

Back in the hostel, we met an American who did her exchange in France and a middle aged Mexican looking for female singers willing to work for nothing for three years. Yesterday, the Mexican was trying to convince another woman into joining him. He was really persistent about it.

But isn’t it a bit too extreme? No money for 3 years? We learn here that Was nichts kostet, wert nichts. So much for people following their dreams. Maybe they have better ideas about how to do it though. It’s not good to be too practical.

Nan accompanied me to Dresden Flughafen for the flight. I must say he’s quite a good companion for travel.

By the time I reached Stuttgart, it was already nearing 2200. I decided to wait for the 2338 S-Bahn for a more direct connection so I will not have to umsteigen 4 times.

By the time I reached back in Karlsruhe, it was already 0136. I took a scary S-Bahn back to Marktplatz. Scary because it doesn’t stop at every station. There was an old man who wanted to get off but couldn’t. Once I got off, I decided to walk back to hostel as it was safer that way. I don’t want to be transported to some place 5 kilometers away and have to walk back all the same.

I reached the hostel at 0230 and started to do some packing. Jason came over and passed me some books as his luggage was already 28 kilograms. I seemed to have quite a lot to bring back too.

So, will I be able to wake up tomorrow morning at 0700?

22nd December 2005 - Day 80

Nan and I woke up at 0745 after some struggle with the sleep monster. We went down to the counter and asked the person how to get to sächsische Schweiz. Apparently, this guy has quite a number of cheaterbug methods to getting there. Like paying one zone less. We also made a booking with the VW Gläserne Manufaktur for a visit tomorrow.

First stop: The local Bäckerei for breakfast. The things here cost about 60% the of those sold in Karlsruhe. It's relatively cheap, maybe because this was a former East Germany area.

Second stop: The Dresden Frauenkirche. This church was destroyed completely during World War II by the fire bombing. It was only reconstructed it the early 90's. As much as possible, orginal stone blocks were used. So you can see that there are patches of darkened blocks among the newer one.

The Frauenkirche

Statue of Martin Luther

The Iron Cross after the fire bombing.

Third stop: The Zwinger. This place houses a number of museums and galleries, notably the Gallery of Old Masters. For someone like me who don't know how to appreciate art, the rental of the Jahreskarte for the museum from the hostel at 1€ was a steal. Otherwise, it'll be 10€ for a day pass. But no pictures though. You'll need a special pass for it. I didn't know (feign ignorance) until some curator came and told me off.

We also visited the Armoury and the Mathematic and Physics Salon (which was a real bore). There's a Porcelain collection housed inside the Zwinger, But we did not visit it. The Nymphenbad, unfortunately, was closed as it is winter.

Fourth stop: Lunch. Lunch was at the Altemarkt Galerie. I had half a grilled chicken and a Brötchen for just 2,20€. I don't think I can find this kind of prices back in Karlsruhe.

Fifth stop: Some church near the City Hall. Originally, we wanted to take the lift up the tower of the City Hall. But it was closed. So we had to make do with the church tower. Not worth it, I say. You have to pay 1,50€ and tire yourself climbing up. Compare this to the City Hall tower. 1,25€ and there's a lift up. And it's higher too.

Sixth stop: Das Grüne Gewölbe. Or rather, The New Green Vault (the orginal one is under construction) which houses a collection of jewellery. The highlight of the collection is this green diamond (green because the diamond came into contact with some natural radioactivity), which is quite huge and under the watch of at least two cameras.

Seventh stop: The Weihnachtsmarkt. How can we miss the Christmas market here. It is supposedly the oldest Christmas market in Germany. But the problem is, there's simply too many stalls selling the Dresdner Christstollen. Every stall claims that that they are the original. I think the city of Dresden could probably have a Stollen day to clear the surpluses after Christmas.

That was about all we did for the day. We had dinner at Burger King, followed by a home-made beer back in the hostel and a chat with some of the hostel owner's friends.

I spent no time convincing them that if a couple were found kissing in public back home, a team of policemen would immediately appear and arrest the offending couple for further interrogation in the Police Station. Hah! No effort at all!

Nan and I went out later again and had Glühwein in one of the many pubs near the hostel. We even went out to buy Kebaps and ate it in the pub, much to the displeasure of the lady boss. She said there's a kitchen in the pub and we could order food from there until 2300. But it was already past midnight when we brought in the Kebaps. Not a very good justification for the lady boss.

I got pestered by a guy who was trying hard to be optimistic about the reunification of Germany. He was 19 at the time of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It must have been quite difficult for some of them, being forced to change their way of life and thinking, and to adopt a new structure for society. He kept saying that I am from Hong Kong, despite me correcting him with several times with my Kuching-pura identity.

Oh well, we are all the same to them. Just like they are all the same to us.

So, slightly drunk people can be quite interesting to talk to.

21st December 2005 - Day 79

In order not to lose this room I have now for March 2006, I pulled myself out of bed at 0800 and went down to find the Hausmeister. After the morning routine of course.

He wasn't there.

Panic.

I found him in another building, chatting with his colleague. I asked him about the extension of rental period and braced myself for the answer.

I was supposed to find another person to settle the matter, and the person's Sprechstunde was yesterday evening.

Great.

I sent an email to the person and hope that she'll allow me to make the extension on 10th January 2006, instead of by the end of this week.

After that, I went for a tutorial with everything packed for Dresden. I was 10 minutes late because I missed the bus and missed one question.

The tutorial ended early at 1230 hence, the Mensa was not that crowded when I had my lunch.

After lunch, I remembered that my camera was left in the hostel. What else can I do besides going back to get it?

There was another lecture at 1400. I attended that. Before 20 minutes was up, the lecturer declared that she will not start anything new this week and wished us schöne Weihnachten. I still had more than 1.5 hours before the train comes.

I met Jason outside the lecture venue and chatted with him for quite a while. Then I made my way to the train station to catch the train to Stuttgart to catch my flight.

It's quite irritating when I have already paid my fares and no conductors comes onboard to check tickets. It makes me feel I paid for nothing.

Checked in my flight at Stuttgart Flughafen and waited for an hour doing nothing. On the flight to Dresden, I was asleep. It was a short flight of around 40 minutes.

At Dresden Flughafen, I bought the wrong ticket for the S-Bahn to Dresden Neustadt Bahnhof. I bought the ermäßigt ticket thinking it was for passengers with Bahncard. It was actually for children below the age of 14. Luckily, the conductor closed one eye.

From the train staion, I walked for another 15 minutes to the hostel. The hostel has quite a good atmosphere and it was clean. It has its' own beer made by some friend of the hostel owner. I found that quite interesting.

There was a Japanese girl in the room. Out of curiosity, I asked her whether the stereotyping of Japanese having dificulty with English was true as she spoke good English. She said that most of the Japanese can't pronounce English words correctly. I found out she's actually studying English in London at the moment. Will ask another Japanese the next time I meet one.

Nan arrived by car 15 minutes later. On hindsight, flying to Dresden from Stuttgart was a costly mistake that I made without having the necessary information while making the decision. Mitfahrgelegenheit would have been a much more cost effective method.

We went to the Döner shop for a late dinner and discussed our itinerary for tomorrow.

So, I think it would be quite interesting tomorrow.

20th December 2005 - Day 78

I went to ask for an extension for my room here in the hostel as one of my modules here will be ending in March. My rental period is only up till the end of February.

Initially, I thought that would be an easy procedure. Somehow, it seems that I would have to go to more than one person to get it done.

The second person I'll have to approach (after the lady at the Akademisches Auslandsamt) is the Hausmeister, who has an incredibly short Sprechstunde of 15 minutes from Mondays to Fridays.

15 minutes! I wonder what they are busy with for the rest of the 23 hours and 45 minutes.

I have to get it done by tomorrow as the lady from AAA said that the deadline is this week. I don't want to face the possibilty of having no place to sleep come March.

Why tomorrow? Because I'm going to Dresden and would only be back at around 0100 on Saturday.

Seems like I've been making lots of mistakes here and there ever since I arrived. This problem could have been easily avoided when I signed the rental contract. All I had to do was to tell them there and then to extend my rental period.

I had to choose the more challenging method, the one which will expose me to more dealings with the bureaucracy.

Why? Why?!

Not very bright, don't you think? The background's a bit unclear. Besides the camera battery, my camera's acting funny these days too.

So, more blood to be shed, and feelings of exasperation to be endured.

19th December 2005 - Day 77

It seems that after countless brainwashing sessions by the people here. I have finally succumbed.

I met one of my classmates in my German language course on the bus. He asked me again where I came from as he has forgotten.

"Taiwan? Oder?", he asked.

"China."

With that, I've just became a Chinaman.

I feel so ashamed of myself. Ich komme doch aus Kuching-pura! Now the french guy won't register that inside his head.

I must say. I'm quite amused that I actually said that I'm from China. You see now what a weekend of doing nothing has got me into?

Maybe it's a cumulative effect.

After lessons today, I went to the Stadtmitte to get my light bulbs. I got two 100 Watts light bulbs, like I said I will. Now my room is much much brighter. No more headaches.

There was another Flurversammlung today. The topic of discussion: What colour to paint the walls with. Since I'm a short time resident here, I didn't have any comments on that. Though I prefer the colour it is now - white. Most likely I won't be around when they do the painting.

So, viel Spaß to them.

18th December 2005 - Day 76

It's Sunday again. I stayed in the hostel the whole day.

Guess what I did? That's right! Nothing! Ambitious plans were made to finish a set of lecture notes and trying out one of the tutorial questions. It never happened.

The light bulb had to blow.

The whole day was quite cloudy. My room was dark. It made me quite tired trying to read anything. In fact, watching the computer screen was quite straining for my eyes. Now I think I have a slight headache from all the concentrating.

Argh! Help! New light bulb!

I should buy two light bulbs. Just in case another bulb somewhere fuses in another 27 days and it so happen to be a Sunday.

I look around the room and decided to try to come up of a list of things which I should bring back home. I realised I had only brought the bare essentials and nothing extra. I cannot think of anything which I've brought over from home, but did not use.

Oh yes. The grammar book. It's absolutely of no use since I now have a bigger and more comprehensive one.

I know for sure that when I finally go back home, I'll have so many things with me that I probably have to pay quite a sum for my excess baggage. As of yet, I still have not bought anything here for collection purposes. Nothing here has caught my eye. The things which I saw here, I could probably get it in Singapore. No doubt at a higher price.

Maybe I should see if there's any interesting german books which I can read for leisure in the future.

I'm beginning to understand the joy of knowing that Spring will be here (though I should have gone home by then). And Winter hasn't even started! I get tired once the sun goes down. Not that I am solar-powered. What else do you expect from someone who is used to having 12 hours of daylight back home?

"Ahh. It's still not so bright. It must be only around 0630 in the morning. Let me sleep some more."

0810 would be a better answer. And you're late for lessons.

So, only a few more days before I'm due for recharging.

17th December 2005 - Day 75

I woke up at 0420 as I was meeting up with Autumn and Augustine to visit Basel.

There was a direct train leaving for Basel at 0608 from Karlsruhe. We reached only at 0911 at the German side of the railway station, and took a 15 minutes walk towards the town centre.

Basel is not a town that tourists usually visit. There's not much tourist attraction in the town. One of the first things that I noticed was that all the fountains were still on. I haven't seen a flowing fountain yet in Germany. At least not on this trip.

We just walked around the town and visited the Christmas market there.

Overview of Basel from the top of a church

The Munster in Basel

Outside the Munster

A wall plastered with plates and saucers

Top of the church

Yeah, I think I had enough of Weihnachtsmarkt already.

Lunch was buffet at one of the restaurants in a Co-op. The pricing is according to the size of the plate you took. The larger the plate, the more expensive it was. There were only 10 dishes to choose from. According to Augustine, some of the stuffs actually were quite expensive outside.

Later, I realised that there were actually plastic boxes for you to pack your food in. Which probably mean that some tower builders could have two (or even three) meals for the price of one!

That would be fun. Something like a competition among friends. I took what I thought I could finish. The food tasted pretty good. And I felt like a bloated balloon.

So, if you eat something like that everyday (not very advisable though), Switzerland might not be as expensive as perceived after all!

16th December 2005 - Day 74

Being so well taken care of back home, it wasn't very often that I had to wash any plates or cooking utensils.

Under the tutelage of Carolin, I learnt how to do the washing. She has been the most helpful, though she was quite irritated by the simple questions I had for her as it seemed so obvious to her.

Here are the steps to getting your utensils cleaned. Please read carefully before proceeding to the practical part of the training program.

1. Fill the kitchen sink to about half full with tap water.
   
2. Add in moderate amount of dishwashing detergent (dependent upon the brand used) into the sink of water.
3. Put in all the dirty utensils that you might have, taking care not to let the water overflow the kitchen sink.
4. Using a sponge, clean the surfaces of the utensil of any food bits, grease, or whatsoever.
5. Leave the utensil you have just cleaned to dry.
6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 until all utensils you have put in the sink in Step 3 have been cleaned.
   
7. Optional Step: Dry the utensils with a cloth.

Note: Under no circumstances should you attempt to rinse the detergent-ed utensils with clean running water. You should always think of saving some water (and maybe the environment) before thinking of yourself. Besides, a little detergent left to dry on the utensils won't kill. If it does, you're probably too weak.

This step helps prevent constipation.

There you have it! Nice, squeaky clean utensils ready for their next use!

I'm sure you know by now what obvious questions I asked. I had read/heard it from somewhere before but didn't believe it.

So, I am sleeping early tonight as I have to wake up early tomorrow.

15th December 2005 - Day 73

Thursday is here.

You could probably guess correctly that I woke up a bit late and hence missed the bus.

Using my run/walk technique which I have perfected over the past few Thursdays here, I got to the lecture venue in a record time of 10 minutes and 23 seconds.

The door was still opened even though I reached at 0803. Normally, the lecture would have began. It turns out that there was a guest speaker today. This guy is in charge of some environmental protection department in Karlsruhe. Or is he in charge of Arbeitsschutz? I can't remember.

The topic he's dealing with today is dealing with the bureaucracy when some rich firm decides to build a Chemical Plant somewhere. He goes on further to explain what things the Behörde takes consideration of and how the process works.

Everything went on quite fine until he gave us an example about a Chemical Plant producing some specific chemicals, and gave us each a set of notes on some legal stuffs.

It's a joke. Even with a dictionary, I couldn't make out what the legal text was talking about.

I went to another lecture after that. And fell asleep twice, only to be woken up by the German sitting beside me by some irrelevant questions.

"What day is today?" and, "Du kennst deutsch, oder?"

I must say they were quite effective in waking me up.

Afternoon was spent back at hostel trying to get some work done. But I ended up cleaning up my room as I saw spider webs forming again.

So, time to go...to bed.

14th December 2005 - Day 72

The effects of staring at the computer screen for long periods of time is beginning to show.

I need to enlarge the font size of the browser before I can read clearly what it is. Otherwise, I have to strain my eyes, or stick my face close to the screen.

I wonder whether is it because of the cool (sometimes freezing) weather here. I have been sleeping for at least 9 hours every day. That is not so good as the days here are short and there's nothing much to do at night.

Much as I try to limit my sleeping hours, I seem to be able to accidentally hit the alarm off before it goes off in the morning.

Ausreden.

Wednesday. Phonetik lessons again. Today's class was quite simple. Just some tone differentiation between das Spiegelei and die Spiegelei. Or Delikatessen and delikat essen.

Because Phonetik classes are actually quite boring, the teacher-in-charge brings in articles which she thinks might be interesting. We've had articles on the invention of the motor car, the predecessor of the bicycle, Saint Nikolaus, and today, Christmas trees.

Actually, it's because there's not much to teach every session. That's why we need some time-fillers.

I'm beginning to think that my front tooth is giving me problems as well. There's a tingling sensation at my gums. I hope it's not decaying. Again. It's not the first time this tooth is giving me problems. The colour does look a bit funny though. This is bad.

I can't drink much milk, but I have to.

So, it's time to find a dentist here!

13th December 2005 - Day 71

There has been some improvement. I could actually understand a joke during lecture.

Maybe the lecturer wasn't joking.

The fruit of the day has been changed from Mandarin Oranges to Pears. I finished 5 kilograms of Mandarin Orange in 2 weeks. It was getting a bit too much.

After one week of self experiment, it has been certified, that I cannot drink more than one cup of milk per day. Drinking more than the prescribed amount would send me off to the Klo.

Today, the people on the floor celebrated Vivek's birthday. His birthday wasn't supposed to be today, but he's flying two days later back to India for the holidays, so they decided to hold the celebration earlier.

Vivek's the kind neighbour who places a surprise sandwich in everyone's fridge every now and then. It has proved to be a good source of motivation for me to wake up early the next morning. At least I know there's something that I can eat in the morning without preparing.

He hasn't been back in India for the past two years. He must be excited to go back home. He told me that he can't wait any longer.

He has also promised the others, to bring elephants along when he returns back to Germany.

I asked around and found that most of the people on the floor will be going home during the Christmas break here. Unless they quarrelled with their family. In which case, they'll stay here.

So, it should be real quiet here on the 24th of December.

12th December 2005 - Day 70

Without me realising, I slept for nearly 10 hours before waking up at 1200 as I did not set my alarm clock yesterday.

Nothing much happened today. There's still lots of work undone. Some dating back to five weeks ago. I spent some time surfing the web for news back at home. The following is old news to most of you. But, I'm quite impressed that the Singapore Artillery has yet another piece of weapon to show off in a short time frame of two years.

The Pegasus 155mm 39 Calibre SLWH (Singapore Light Weight Howitzer).

It's the World's first self-propelled and heli-transportable 155mm howitzer, mind you.

Now if it gets stuck while maneuvering in the muddy deployment grounds, they could just heli-lift it off. It looks interesting, probably because I'm not going to handle it.

Why on earth am I talking about this?

I'm reminded that there is an In-Camp-Training happening at some place on this date. Yes, I'm giving it a miss this year. Obviously.

So, all the best to those involved and have fun.

11th December 2005 - Day 69

The day started at 0430.

I forced myself out of bed and was out of hostel by 0505. It's quite a weird feeling walking to the Haltestelle so early in the morning in the cold. I was extremely awake despite having less than 3 hours of sleep.

Opposite the Haltestelle, there were two girls making a nuisance of themselves screaming away. They were probably drunk.

I'm quite suprised to see so many people on the tram. Most of them were probably returning home after partying last night.

I reached the Hauptbahnhof at 0548, and went to buy the ticket from the DB Automat. I also printed out the train details of the connections I was going to make later. I am still quite impressed by this service. It makes everything so much more convenient for the commuter to get from one town to the other. The printout is free. Maybe that's where part of the train ticket price goes to.

The train conductors are quite hardworking. I didn't expect anyone to check my Fahrschein so early in the morning.

First stop: Konstanz. The train went through the Black Forest region and most parts were covered with snow.

What I see out of the window

At a particular train station, I saw a convoy of tanks being transported by rail.

Wonder how much does the Deutsche Bahn charges the Bundeswehr

I reached Konstanz at 0917. It was quite cold as the sun has just appeared. My fingers were numbed by the wind.

If you're wondering why there are no photos, that's because my camera battery gave up on me. It might be due to the ambient temperature as I had no problems with it back in hostel.

Yes, it was fully charged when I brought it along.

I walked around the town. Since it's a Sunday, most shops are closed. Nice window displays. But I could only look from outside. I got tired of the place and left at 1138, two hours ahead of my planned departure.

Next up: Ulm. I took the train to Ulm in a largely unconscious state. Until a mischiveous little girl came and knocked me on my head. Her mother apologized. There wasn't anything interesting on this stretch of journey. No snow or forests. But lots of entertainment from the above mentioned girl who was bawling away because she wanted to occupy two seats. It was quite crowded so her parents didn't allow her to do that. The girl then shouted at her mother.

The mother then raised up her left hand, and in a quick motion, brought it down to meet the right cheek of the little girl. The girl was left visibly shocked with a sharp tinge on her cheek.

Of course that didn't happen. Parents here are generally extremely patient with their children. They'll try to reason with them, though it wouldn't work anyway. The child usually quieten down when they realise it doesn't get them what they want (or the attention of their parents).

I reached Ulm at 1355. The Weihnachtsmarkt there was quite lively. I brought some gebrannte Mandeln. It's basically almond nuts coated with burnt sugar (caramel).

I then visited a Brotmuseum and spent an hour inside learning about bread. How bread came about, what bread is made of, baking of bread using the batch and continuous methods, and the blah blah usual stuffs.

Diese Darstellung bedeutet, dass ohne Trinken und Essen keine Liebe gibt.

The fainting woman in the middle is Aunty Venus. She thinks she can live on love alone. Hello? Eat bread and drink something leh!

Featuring: tallest church spire in the world

There's always something that each town can hao lian about. Either that, or it's on the UNESCO World Heritage List or something equivalent. Ok ok. We call that identity.

"In Ulm, um Ulm und um Ulm herum"

Ulm even has it's own tougue twister!

Last stop: Stuttgart. I went to Stuttgart only because I have to umsteigen there in order to get back to Karlsruhe. Since there was a good one hour before my train, and the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof is located near the city centre, I went to the Weihnachtsmarkt for a walk. There's a small skating rink at this Christmas market. Generally, all the Weihnachtsmarkt here are all about the same, except when there's a certain theme.

All the Christmas markets here really saved my Sunday. Otherwise I don't know what else I could do in one hour.

The train back to Karlsruhe was 10 minutes late. You should have seen how the situation at the train station was like. Kiasuism is universal.

So, time to get some sleep.

10th December 2005 - Day 68

It is amazing, that I...

• can actually spend more than 6 hours on a set of lecture notes without really understanding the content.
• only woke up at 1410 today, effectively destroying any chances of going anywhere, since the sun will set at around 1630.
• wasted half an hour of time in an attempt to save a measly 1€.
• found the 6th Asia Shop here while wandering away. There might be more to be found.
• finished 3 kilograms of Mandarin Orange, in a period of 1 week.
• am actually going to wake up at 0400 tomorrow to go somewhere.
• do not really have an idea of what place "somewhere" will be yet.
• am forcing myself to go somewhere because I'm too lazy but know I should not stay in hostel.
• know it will well be another wasted day if I stayed in hostel.
  
• ate supper so that I will not have to spend time to eat breakfast tomorrow morning.

So, time to sleep, though I have a feeling I might wake up late again tomorrow and not going anywhere.

9th December 2005 - Day 67

I woke up at 0930 this morning. Usually, I would have woke up an hour earlier as there's a lecture a 0945. But I recalled the lecturer saying that the lesson will be on Monday. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't. I decided to leave early to print the notes for the next lecture.

I passed by the lecture venue for the 0945 lecture and saw the lights on.

That was how I skipped the first lecture here. I still went in, much to the surprise of the lecturer and the two students who were there. Normally, there's six students. Guess I was not the only one who heard wrongly. The lecture ended 15 minutes later and I apologized to the Professor for being so late with some lame excuses.

All these brains you are about to see were found somewhere in a quiet part of the university. I came across this place only because I was running late one day and tried to find a shorter route.

Brains on display

The normal brain

The normal brain, but slightly over-used

The unused brain left to waste

Possibly due to drug influence

Clarity of thoughts perhaps?

The stubborn old mule

Quite interesting. I don't know what's the meaning of all these brains on display. It's subjected to personal interpretation since there's no information anywhere in the vicinity.

I learnt two new words today. They are Schwarzwälder and Kirschtorte. Yes, yes. All of you knew that already. But, it's more effective learning when there's the actual sample and you get to eat it.

So, which page did the lecturer stop at?

8th December 2005 - Day 66

As usual, I woke up slightly later this morning, was not able to catch the bus, and had to run/ walk to reach the lecture venue.

The run probably made me stay awake for the rest of the lecture.

After lecture, I went to find the Sekretärin der Diplomprüfungskommission as she sent me an email yesterday, asking me to confirm my status here at the University. Finally. Seven weeks after I emailed her.

I'm quite surprised when she asked me if I was attending lectures here and taking exams, or just attending the lectures. Maybe not all exchange students need to transfer credits back to their home university.

I am getting dangerously optimistic again. This is a serious condition which leads one to believe that he or she is more than capable to handle the current task(s) at hand. This belief however, is not necessarily true.

I like it, when people get into a difficult situation which they placed themselves in, and start blaming everything else for it.

For example: Aiyah, I have to do another semester at my home university because I went for some Student Exchange Program in some country where the language of instruction is not English, but did not meet their passing requirement.

Totaler Quatsch.

We know who we're talking about.

So, that person better do something about it.

7th December 2005 - Day 65

So much for a busy day.

The lesson at 1545 was cancelled, as the person in charge had to settle his own stuffs. How last minute. The other lessons went on quite smoothly with me understanding about 20% of what's being taught.

"Quite smoothly" is a relative term. Compared to 5%.

Phonetik lessons are getting quite interesting. Today, we had two contenders trying to outspeak each other on the issue of Dialekt and Akzent. They were arguing to the point where their faces and ears turned red.

Today is some cleaning up day here at the hostel. I did my fair share by scrubbing three to four square metres of floor in the shower area. It was quite boring. So I filed my nails while doing it. Accidentally.

Reward for scrubbing the floor

The reward appears to be deformed. Because I forgot that I put it in my pocket.

So, time for a late dinner.

6th December 2005 - Day 64

The number of people attending lectures these day is decreasing.

Today is one of those days where I have difficulty picking up words in German. I think I'm better off not attending lectures in that case.

Tomorrow will be quite a busy day. My lesson starts at 0945 and will only end at 1900. Fifteen minutes in between lessons to allow me to walk to the next lecture venue. They have a lunch break of one hour here between 1300 to 1400. Which also means that the Mensa would be extremely crowded.

After spending 4 hours on a particular set of lecture notes, I finally got a gist of what it's talking about. The lecture hours here are decievingly short. The amount of stuffs I've to read piles up quickly without me realising it sooner.

Soon, my room might be full of Blutacks and pieces of papers stuck on the walls.

So, good night to yet another uneventful day.

5th December 2005 - Day 63

After bugging the professor for about half an hour, I think I understood the paragraph now.

The weather here today is quite good as well. Even with the wind chill factor, the temperature is around 5 degrees Celcius.

I should make a trip down to the Bürger Büro this coming Thursday. Just to confirm with them that I need not do anything for the letter they sent me earlier. I don't want to be evicted because of not replying it.

The reality of taking six modules here (five now, one more in the lecture-free but exam-full period) in German has hit me yet again with the unbelievable amount of unknown words in a page of lecture notes.

Knowing the words is one thing. What about understanding them when they are put together in a paragraph?

Apparently, I was not in the right state of mind when I made the decision.

Reading in context is dangerous when one is not in the same train of thoughts as the lecturer. Sure. It can be a joke sometimes. Like the time when I thought a red light district in Hamburg was a church where many people visit to worship. But it's not so good when your lecturer thinks you are not serious and decides to fail you.

I hope I look foreign enough for the lecturers to take me as a exchange student. Then again, I look Chinese (and on a few occasions, Korean) and all Chinese (from China) are here for full time studies. I just love the way people stereotype things. It simplifies everything. No need to spend unnecessary brain power and time on something that looks so obvious.

By the way, there are PRC students here for exchange programs as well.

So, salvaging the situation in progress.

4th December 2005 - Day 62

Sunday is here again.

Nothing much happened today. It's a usual Sunday spent lazing around. It's exceptionally warm today at 10 degrees Celcius, despite the light rain for the whole day. The heaviest rainfall here would probably look like a drizzle by South East Asia Monsoon standards anyway.

I was stuck at this particular paragraph in my lecture notes. I still cannot figure it out after two hours. It's time to seek help from the lecturer tomorrow.

There's a Flurparty here tonight. We started off making (and eating) Pizzabrötchen. Then Stefan proceeded to concoct his Glühwein. They heated up the mixture of red wine, orange and apple juice and rum ad placed a Zückerhut directly on the pot. After which, they poured more rum on the Zückerhut and set it on fire.

Pouring rum over the Zückerhut

The blue flame normally means it's not that hot, says Simon

Yup. He's not drunk.

It was not too bad. The warm alcoholic drink would taste better if one was standing out in the cold. I don't really like it though. I would puke if I drank anymore of it.

Since this is a Flurparty, the rest of the people invited their friends along. Once again, with my limited vocabulary, I attempted to give a Geography lesson to the misinformed (but interested). Though it might not have cleared up their erroneous perception completely, it certainly helped improve their understanding on the other part of the World.

I would have gone away with the impression that Germans are genuinely excited about their course of study, hearing one of the guys speak about his technical subject with such fervour unseen (yet) in any Singaporean student. Until his girlfriend (who is in the same course) came over and begged him to talk about other things.

It was quite an enjoyable evening, though my effort of trying to soak up some German failed miserably.

So, back to more guesswork with the lecture stuffs.

3rd December 2005 - Day 61

Today I woke up with two places to visit in mind - Rastatt or Bruchsal. I haven't been to both of these towns and am quite interested in visiting their Schloss.

On my way to the Hauptbahnhof, I saw this Anzeige on the tram.

Reward: Maximum of 4900€

Things like that are interesting only because I don't get to see it often.

By the time I got to the Hauptbahnhof, I decided to go to Bruchsal as the train was leaving in 10 minutes time. I noticed that there were lots of policemen/women standing around at the train station. There must be something happening soon.

I wandered around in Bruchsal town centre for a while. The Weihnachtsmarkt there is really quite small in comparision with the one in Karlsruhe.

The Courtyard of the Schloss

The designs are painted on

One reason why it's better to visit in Summer

Is Beck's really so popular?

It was a cloudy afternoon. Everything appeared quite dark in the picture. I didn't go inside the Schloss as I was not in the mood to appreciate the displays. Maybe the weather wasn't cold enough.

I spent about 2 hours in Bruchsal and went back to Karlsruhe. When I got back, I was quite surprised to see the Police still there. The train station seems to be swarming with Police.

I could not take the trams from the Hauptbahnhof. According to the electronic display, there was a demonstration going on. Though I couldn't see any.

When I got back, I learnt that there was some Neo-Nazis (around 250) demostrating in Rastatt earlier in the afternoon. Which was why the Police was stationed, in case they made it here. But they didn't manage to make it here, and the Police had a quiet afternoon. The only demostration that happened here in Karlsruhe was a peaceful one against the Neo-Nazis at the Kronenplatz.

So, maybe it was good that I did not go to Rastatt instead.

2nd December 2005 - Day 60

Despite sleeping for slightly more than 7 hours accidentally, I fell asleep ten minutes into the lecture.

Somehow, the lecture was interesting enough to wake me up a few minutes later. My eyes stayed wide opened amid the numerous diagrams and pictures flashed across the Powerpoint slides.

I think there's a slight improvement today. I was actually able to jot down some of my own notes by the side of the diagrams.

Wow...

Big deal.

I found out from the lecturer that I would need to find another two students to sit for a particular exam. The mündliche Prüfung is always held in groups of three for this module. Now, that's another incentive for me to polish up my German. Sentences would have to be formed fast. At least faster than the other two students in order to secure a passing grade.

How very exciting.

The trip to Nürnberg (or Nuremberg) is put off until next weekend as there appear a cheaper mode of transportation. In view of my questionable spending habits, even an Euro saved today will come in useful tomorrow.

I wonder how I can finish two litres of cooking oil.

I bought a bottle as Yves had used up mine on Monday. Then he came knocking on my door just now to return me a bottle of cooking oil. I think I should do some deep fried chicken soon.

So, I'm going to look for places to go tomorrow.

1st December 2005 - Day 59

I went for a haircut this morning after my lessons.

It is quite interesting to note that they used a electric shaver and a razor blade to cut my hair. The scissors was only used for trimming the edges of my straying hair. I thought the hairdresser wanted to shave me bald when she used the razor blade.

The hairdresser has worked there for 25 years. She speaks with a different intonation. I think I will go back again to listen to how she says genommen. It's pretty unique.

It's the start of a new month. Which means I have to pay for the internet access again. I'm only remined because I cannot get online earlier. Luckily Erik was around, so I just paid him the fees and he got it working again.

I might go get the ticket to the Weihnachtsmarkt in Nürnberg tomorrow. I haven't got any other plans for the weekend. And nothing interesting is happening here. Wait. Is Nürnberg called Nuremberg in English?

So, what else can I do on a weekend?