30th October 2005 - Day 27

Just when I thought it will be a normal day lazing around in hostel.

At 1733 (1633), I realised that I have an extra hour.

The reason? Daylight Saving Time (DST).

As of 30th October, 0159 fell back to 0100 instead of the usual 0200 (Aiyah, it happened only once lah). So I actually found out about the time change quite late. Maybe that's why they placed the change on a Sunday (the last Sunday of October to be exact).

Today was quite boring. I spent the entire day trying to decipher a few pages of lecture notes. Not understanding the concepts, but merely translating them.

This cannot go on. I have to try to read in context. Otherwise all my weekends will be gone. And it's not like I'll have an extra hour every Sunday.

I just helped Stefan make his "Bloody Orgasm". Basically, it's just Sangria. The people on the floor couldn't agree on a name for the drink. It's the usual thing. What else did they suggested? Let's see.

1. Power Punch
2. Vampire's Kiss
3. Bloody Punch
4. Nightmare Punch
5. Bloody Orgasm

Power Punch got thrown out because it doesn't fit the theme of Halloween. Vampire's Kiss was out because apparently, there is a cocktail by that name. Bloody Punch and Nightmare Punch are simply disasters.

So there you have it. Bloody Orgasm. People may shun it due to it's name. But as we have learnt, consumers can be educated. Then again, the party's going to be held tomorrow. We see how it goes.

I've caught news that it would be a (or rather, two) super long weekend(s) for many in Singapore, in view of the two festive holidays on Tuesday and Thursday. Racial diversity can be such a good thing.

I'll have a holiday here too on Tuesday, though I do not know the reason for it. Alex told me it's for people to visit the Friedhof. I shall try to find out more.

Tomorrow, I'll have no lessons. Because the Übungen hasn't started yet. Which brings me to the question...

What am I doing in Karlsruhe with a super-duper long weekend?! Das ist schade. Quick! Last minute planing! Maybe nach Stuttgart oder Heilbronn oder was? And maybe Strasbourg on Tuesday!

If I manage to get up at 0700 on both days, that is.

So, time to search for information.

29th October 2005 - Day 26

Today, I found out the speed of wandern here.

Since I could not find anything to do for today, I decided to tag along an excursion organised by the Studentenwerk to Wissembourg, France.

I met Nan and Alex at the bus stop. They were going for the excursion too. There was a huge group of people waiting at the Hauptbahnhof . The trains (which only had 2 carriages) we took were mostly filled up by us. After an hour or so of train ride, we reached the quiet town. After some briefing by the guide, the Wanderung started.

At first I thought it would take at most 1.5 hours. I was wrong. The whole affair lasted from 1240 till 1650.

And the speed of wandern here? 6km/h.

It was quite a misty day, so didn't get to see much. Here's some pictures.

Some water body which I don't know what it is called

Misty day with lots of students

Trees. Duh.

This looks familiar...

Sign posting?

Observation tower? This must be a nightmare!

Whew. The cow proves that it is not.

Despite the misty day and memories of a certain island east of Singapore, I still found the excursion quite interesting.

Funny looking small flower...

Blue sky later in the day...

Old house for people to rest...

Everything looks brown...

Even the lazy cow.

Nan tried to convince some girls from China that the animal featured above was a sheep. Well, we can trust him since he has lived in der Schweiz since he was 6.

Of course he knows a cow from a sheep!

After the excursion, Alex, Nan and I went to the town centre and walked around. We decided to catch the 1733 train back to Karlsruhe. Since Alex hat in der Schule französisch gelernt and Nan speaks near native French, asking the way back to the train station was not a problem.

When we got back, we went to Die Kippe for dinner. Alex's Freundin, Shuting, was there too. It was quite enjoyable even though I didn't talk much. After that, we all got back to hostel.

So, Sunday's for schlafen, oder? Nothing else to do too, almost all the shops are closed. It's really a self entertainment day on Sundays.

28th October 2005 - Day 25

I had some difficulties finding the seminar room for lecture today.

The problem was, the timetable didn't include the room number. So I went around asking the people inside Gebäude 50.31. Apparently, no one in the building had any idea. I just tried my luck and looked at the timetable for the different rooms. And yes, I found the venue.

There were only 4 students taking that module. The lesson was quite boring partly because I didn't know what he was talking about half the time. He speaks clearly and slowly. That's why I still can catch something.

I rushed off to another lecture venue. I think I'm beginning to catch a bit more this time round compared to yesterday. If I was correct with my guesswork...

After lunch, I took a tram to Waldstadt (because I was lazy to get off at my stop) and decided that there was nothing much there.

I got back to hostel and the Postbank has yet again, sent my mail to an incomplete address. Which resulted in me getting the letters late.

I decided to go and bank in my demand draft as I was going to run dry soon. Besides, I haven't paid for my rent and insurance here!

I don't know how the banking system here works. I am really confused. But the lady at the counter was very patient with me. She tried to explain to me how to fill up the forms for deposits and such. Though I didn't catch much in the end.

"Es tut mir sehr Leid, dass ich keine Ahnung habe.", I said.

"Und warum tut es Ihnen Leid? Sie sind unserer Kunde!", she replied.

I got back here before 1800 and had a simple dinner of bread and ham, because the ham's reaching it's expiry date soon.

I'm quite sure that I won't be drinking tonight. Alcohol kills my brain cells, because they are all weak.

So, the weekend's here and I've no plans yet.

27th October 2005 - Day 24

This morning, I made an effort to wake up at 0700 so that I won't be late for the lecture at 0800.

I reached the lecture venue at 0755. When the lesson began, there were only 5 students. Guess it's because it's a revision lecture.

I brought my laptop along. As I was listening to the lecturer, I was able to check up the Wörter, die ich nicht kenne immediately. So it was not as bad as yesterday.

Then I had to rush off to another lecture. I was in such a rush that I left my pencil case behind. Luckily it was still around when I went back to retrieve it.

I fell asleep during the lecture. The lecturer was speaking so fast that I couldn't catch what she was saying. Scary.

I went to buy my lecture notes for the lecture tomorrow. One look at it, I know I'll have to put in more effort. The thing with the modules here. They all look ganz einfach in the beginning. But the truth is, they go on further with more concepts and ideas than compared to Singapore. Or rather, they focus on a different field here. Different ideology.

It's not that easy to pass here too. Considerable effort has to be put in. Especially when I'm not fluent in the language.

Did I mention about the lecture time here? It's 1.5 hours per lecture with no breaks in between. A good training ground for my short attention span. Like the crazy lecture yesterday from 0945 to 1300. Ok, there was a 15 minutes break between the two 1.5 hours slots.

I was really sleepy. So I got back before 1300 and took an afternoon nap. Ah, the joys of staying near the university!

Right now, there's someone howling away. Drunk. French.

There's this Oktoberfest celebration thing (it's just a reason to party, who cares about when Oktoberfest really is?!). First I went with my floormates. After which, I met Nan and had a second round. In total, I had 4 Weißwürste, 2 Brezel and some beer. Not the hardcore 1 litre Faß. At least not now when I still have to translate my lecture notes.

So, shower, translation, sleep.

26th October 2005 - Day 23

The reality that I'm having Vorlesungen auf deutsch has striked me.

I woke up at 0500 this morning because I had a bit too much last night. I threw a pizza into the oven and that was my breakfast.

After which, I decided to take a nap and wake up at around 0900 since my lecture was at 0945.

I woke up at 0950. But since the school was near, I reached the place at around 1015.

There were only 12 students in the class. The professor gave me the lecture notes and I tried to listen to him. I couldn't understand him at all.

It'll get better.

I went to another lecture venue in the afternoon to find out that the lecture will only start next week. Which means I was free for the whole afternoon. So, I went back to take my laptop to try the wireless network in the university.

After some time, I finally got it working. There was some error with my Rechenzentrum Account and I had it sorted out.

I met Nan again. I wonder why I seemed to keep bumping into him.

I went back to hostel at around 1735. There was a Flurversammlung at 2030. Basically, it's just a meeting for all the people who live on this floor. They discussed what they will be doing for the coming Halloween Party next week.

It was pretty fun watching them discuss and do things. It's not unlike us. Much of what they do depends on the initiative of a person (or a group of people). When the person's gone, the whole project just collapses.

After the meeting, I stayed behind and attempted to talk with them. I realised that, much of my understanding comes from their facial expressions (and to a certain degree, body language), and not from what they said. Lots of guesswork were done. I'm so sure that if they said no while they nodded their heads, I would have taken it to be "Ja"!

I tried a bit of the Sangria mix that they prepared yesterday. It was pretty good.

So, shower time. Followed by übersetzen of the Vorlesungsskripten.

25th October 2005 - Day 22

This morning, I attend my first lecture here in Karlsruhe, Projektierung von Chemieanlagen. The professor was some old man who was quite friendly. The class was made up of around 30 students, of which, almost 90% are Auslander.

The professor asked whether we would like the lecture to be conducted in German or English.

Guess what the class said.

They replied, "auf deutsch."

Which probably means that Ill have one more set of lecture notes to translate every week.

I met Nan (the multi-linguist from Switzerland) on my way to the Mensa. We talked about the living standards here, in Switzerland, and in Singapore. He thinks that this place is not as good as his country. On the other hand, I thought I quite liked it here in Karlsruhe.

I found out how long their "National Service" is.

"15 weeks."

"..."

He also found the diary products here below standard. Of course. What else do you expect from a country which gives you one of the best chocolates in the world? To me, milk is just milk is just milk. I really can't tell the subtle difference. Come on. I still can tell chocolate milk from strawberry milk.

To our surprise, we registered to take the same course.

To my surprise, the course was in English. Never have I been so happy to attend a lecture in English! Oh well, the happiness was short-lived and soon I was yawning and trying not to fall asleep.

I wasn't able to register for my language course here because there were lots of people waiting and I had to attend lectures. Maybe I shall try to find out where else they offer Deutschkurs. Or just register for the phonetic lessons to improve my pronunciation.

When I came back, I realised that Sebastian and Eric (floormates) are celebrating their birthday. It's nice of them to ask me to join them.

After the cake, they took out a bottle of liquor with a Birne inside. We each had a shot of the liqour. It was pretty strong. Then Simon suggested that they take out the Birne and eat it. The problem is, the Birne is inside the bottle. The gang of 6 (including me) tried to break the bottle using various methods, without creating too much of a mess.

In the end, we tied twine to the bottom of the bottle and poured liquid fuel. Then we burnt the twine. The glass bottle just cracked after a while and the Birne was taken out.

It tasted funny. It was firm, even though it was soaked for so long in the liquor. But it's definitely a good cure for a blocked nose.

Later, they decided to try making Sangria for the coming Halloween Party. It was pretty fun seeing them mix all the wine and fruits into a container. It tasted quite good as well. I really shouldn't have drunk so much. Now I'm a bit betrunken.

Today, I learnt about the Büffeltheorie.

"Buffaloes are herd creatures. They like to run in herds. Besides the usual stomping that you see, they are really united. The faster and stronger buffaloes will run slower to accomodate the slowest and weakest buffalo, so that they maintain the herd integrity.

So how do we make the herd run faster? Just get rid of the slowest buffalo.

The same goes for the brain. Your brain cells work about as fast as the slowest brain cell. To make it work faster, you drink some alcohol in the morning to kick start your day. Why? Because the alcohol will naturally kill off the weakest brain cell!"

Courtesy of Simon.

So, time to start the translation work.

24th October 2005 - Day 21

Probably due to the lack of sleep the previous day, I slept for nearing 11 hours before waking up at 1030.

I remembered something. There's supposed to be a Einstufung Test at 1430 at the Sprachzentrum for German. The test is voluntary. It will determine which german language course will best suit me.

I went out at around 1142 to the Mensa for lunch. After which, I decided to do some reading up. So I flipped through my notebook and before I knew it, it was time to go.

The test started at 1435. The lady said that there is no time limit, but we wouldn't need more than 40 minutes to finish the 4 pages of MCQ.

True enough, I finished at around 1500. I thought it was a pretty easy paper. The sentences were structured in such a way that there were enough clues for me to deduce the answer.

Careless mistakes were made nonetheless.

I stayed there until the lady corrected my paper. I went over when she called my name.

"Wie lange haben Sie deutsch gelernt?"

"Zwei Jahre."

"Mit welchem Buch haben Sie gearbeitet?"

"Wie bitte?"

"Mit welchem Buch haben Sie gearbeitet?"

"Eurolingua Deutsch."

"Ihre Grammatik ist ziemlich gut. Es gibt nur ein paar Fehler. Ich empfehle, dass Sie sich zu DaF 4 anmelden."

I can't really recall what else she said. But I remember that she said there's no DaF 5 and that it would be better for me to attend DaF 4 to clear up some of the mistakes I've made.

Well, credits to the Lehrer und Lehrerinnen at NUS CLS! Looks like most of the necessary grammar has been taught (except for Konjunktiv und Partizip I, which I learnt here). What's left for me to do now is to polish up on my speaking skills and Wortschatz. Wow. Like, that's not a lot.

But I don't think I would want to join DaF 4. I looked through the course content and realised that many of the topics were already taught in NUS. I wouldn't mind if the course is free. But it costs 100€. Maybe I should try to read DaF 5 at the Fachhochschule instead. Aiyah, just go and learn some French lah! Yeah, right.

So, I'm going to cook some soup pasta for dinner. I await my first Vorlesung here. Auf deutsch!

23rd October 2005 - Day 20

Today, I woke up at around 0920. Decided to sleep in late because I stayed up late yesterday trying to match my modules.

I had the usual breakfast and 2 cups of coffee. Surfed the net around some Singaporean website for some Singaporean news.

I fell asleep from a headache in the afternoon. When I woke up at 1750, my head was still dizzy.

I had my dinner.

800 grams of Ravioli in Bolognese Sauce with pepper

If you are wondering whether I cooked that or not, don't guess. It came from a can.

I'm still quite dizzy from all the module search. Wonderful. I still have not revised for my German placement test tomorrow. The 3 weeks of German class has not made my German any better. I would not be surprised if they place me in some lower level class for beginners. My foundation in German really isn't good.

Right now, I can hear some ringing sounds from my computer. I must be hearing things, since the program that produces such ringing sound isn't loaded. There it goes again!

So, I shall attempt to do some reading before falling asleep.

22nd October 2005 - Day 19

As was said yesterday, I went to visit the Flohmarkt. But I overslept and woke up a bit late. Since the place is near where Autumn is staying, I went over to his hostel to meet him first.

The Wohnheim in Nancystraße looks new. Unlike the hostel where I'm staying at (Some people commented that it looks like a ghetto). They have newer furnitures too. But the room is not as big as the one here. But I'm happy that I'm staying here. It's like a hotel room for me. No kidding.

Here are some photos which I took at the Flohmarkt.

Flohmarkt on the road

They sell toys, handphone accessories...

clothes...

fresh produce...

but not cars.

Nothing much of interest for them

We couldn't find anything that we wanted, so we went back empty handed. Then we went to Europaplatz for lunch. Much to my surprise, the Postbank was still opened. So I went in and told them the stupid thing I did yesterday and asked them to reset the password for me.

Lunch was at this Asia Snack Shop. I had some simple fried noodles that costed 2.90€. I vaguely remember that the same type of noodles cost 30-40 Baht in Thailand. Next time, I shall try frying some noodles myself.

We went to waste out time walking along Kaiserstraße. Originally, we wanted to have a cup of coffee, but we ended up eating ice cream.

Then we came to this playground outside a Kirche.

Stephanskirche

Kids making themselves dizzy

Old time favourite

Kids really like to make themselves dizzy

Cross after the water-jet stop

Oops. Too slow.

Nothing much happened after that. I went back to hostel. On my way back, I just felt that Herbst is already here.

The leaves are turning yellow

Dinner was a disaster waiting to happened. This time round, I took out the meat early to thaw. So no problems with the microwave oven.

I sort of marinated the chicken with sesame oil, salt, pepper, and a bit of sugar. After doing that, I realised that I should have cut the chicken into slices first. Wonderful.

Nothing terrible happened though. I stirred-fried the chicken with some Salat using the Sonnenblumenöl that I shamelessly stole from my floormate.

The dish turned out quite alright. So did the rice. But I think it would have been better if I had some light soya sauce. Or marinated the chicken longer. Na ja, beginner's luck that it was edible.

Stefan (yet another floormate), made some Milchreis. It was supposedly a dessert and it tasted quite nice too. Not too sweet. But it reminded me of Quaker Oatmeal.

Have you seen him?

So, what shall I do tomorrow?

21st October 2005 - Day 18

Today is the last day of German lessons. The first part of the lessons went on as usual. For the second part of the lesson, we watched "Alles auf Zucker".

Each of us paid 0.50€ to buy the DVD. At the end of the show, there was a lucky draw to see who will get to bring the DVD home. The Lehrer got it. Actually, it was all in the plan. We wanted him to have the DVD as a gift of appreciation. But he refused any form of "bribery". Hence the idea of a lucky draw.

At lunch, I met Simon. Simon is a guy who stay on the same floor as me. He's a friendly person and likes to joke. He has stayed here in this hostel for...5 years. Long time resident, so wird gesagt. I had lunch together with him, another floor mate, and a friend of Simon. I didn't join them for coffee because I had stomachache.

The cause of my stomachache? I think it is lactose intolerance. Old already, then don't drink milk often, so now the body does not produce as much lactase.

I finally got my letter from the bank. They sent me this "starter package".

Wah. Like I would understand everything.

After that, I went out again to find out where some of the buildings are. So that I won't be that lost when lectures starts next week.

I got back here at around 1745 and was doing nothing much. Just sitting around and drinking peach tea. So I decided to start cooking my dinner.

Here's where all the disasters began.

I forgot to take the meat out to thaw. So I had to use the microwave to defrost it. But I forgot to switch the mode from "cooking" to "defrosting". You can imagine that the chicken fillet ended up with cooked sides and frozen centres.

Next, I put the pot of water to boil. After waiting for 5 minutes, I was quite curious to why the water does not seem to be getting warm at all.

I realised I switched on the wrong hotplate.

So now the water is boiling and the meat is cut. I threw in the flavouring and then the meat. After the meat is cooked, I threw in my pasta. A bit too much I must say. I'm not very good with estimating I guess.

I wanted an egg. So I opened the carton and tried to take an egg out. The egg shell cracked as I tried to pluck it out from the paper carton box. Apparently, the egg was too big for the space in the carton and they tried to force it in.

But at least, I managed to cook something out for my dinner.

Ehh. It looks edible.

I was exploring the Internet Banking of the Postbank after dinner. I didn't notice that my keyboard layout was in "DE" and so I just typed accordingly. Didn't get in. Then I realised that the Caps Lock was on too. But didn't get in too. I was very sure that I keyed in the PIN correctly. But since the keyboard layout is different, the PIN I typed in was wrong. And so, I locked myself out. Stupid. Guess I would have to make a trip down to the bank again on Monday.

So, I'll be visiting a Flohmarkt tomorrow. What would you do?

20th October 2005 - Day 17

Today, the Lehrer said something which I found to be quite true. A translated version (or what I thought I heard) below:

"A lot of people tend to overestimate their language ability. When they are in their language classes back at home, they score well, leading them to believe that they are quite good in the language. Until they come over here and realise that what they've learned is not enough."

Spot on.

During a later period, the other Lehrer some of us to read a passage. It was a french guy's turn. The french guy, Francois, was reading slowly and I thought maybe it was a difficult paragraph. There was a long pause over a certain word. Then Francois reached for his bag and took out a 7cm diameter magnifying glass.

He apologized, "Tut mir Leid".

"Macht nichts," replied the Lehrer almost immediately.

I think Francois couldn't be older than me. He must have lots of problem with reading small text throughout his education. It must have been quite difficult for him to get this far.

After lunch, I went back to hostel to check whether the letter from the Postbank was here. But nope, it wasn't. So have to wait for another day I guess.

Then I went out again to the Rechenzentrum. I met Caroline on the bus. Caroline is my neighbour, she lives just next door. I asked her where I could go for the weekend. None are very good ideas, but still, she spent the time to entertain me.

After a rather fruitless stay at the Rechenzentrum, I went back to hostel again. Then I went out again to the Mensa. I had to meet the Hong Kong guy for dinner.

Dinner was not too bad. It was pasta with ham, french fries and some creamy dessert. All for just 2.45€! So I won't have to think about what to eat for dinner from Mondays to Thursdays, until I get so lazy that I don't want to leave the hostel.

Went to buy some pasta, chicken, vegetables, eggs and chicken stock. I decided I shall try cooking again tomorrow. Maybe I can cook a big pot and settle my dinner, breakfast, lunch and dinner again!

The travel bug hasn't hit me yet. I just don't feel the mood to wander around. Or could it be that the bug inflicts only students with enough Geld?

So, time to sleep.

19th October 2005 - Day 16

This morning, I woke up with a stomachache. I spent a bit more time in the toilet and was late for the 0850 bus. I reached the class at 0915, together with Sergio, who was also late.

The Referat went on quite smoothly, despite the fact that we didn't managed to print the Thesenpapier for the entire class. The Titel des Referats is "Die Azteken". Sergio did most of the talking in order to prevent me from screwing up. I only did a little part of the Referat. I didn't even know what I was talking about. All my sentences were like broken halfway. Mariam, a Spanish classmate, told me that I did quite well. I feel so consoled.

I went to tranfer the Guthaben from the temporary card to my FriCard and realised that they charged a fee of 2.50€ for the use of the temporary card. At the Mensa, I met Jason with some of his friends. I didn't talk much to him because I had something to do and had to go off first.

It rained this afternoon and it was quite cold. I went to the Rechenzentrum to get the Thesenpapier printed. I realised something interesting.

Total Capacity: 87.8MB

I remember that it was (and still is, I guess) only 4MB in NUS. Wow, such a big difference. Oh well, Universität Karlsruhe (TU) is well known for it's Informatik. 1 out of 4 Informatiker graduated from Universität Karlsruhe (TU). In fact, it is the oldest technical university in Germany. So it's quite reputable. But being the oldest doesn't necessarily mean it's the best.

It's strange. Photocopying costs 0.05€ but printing a black and white document costs only 0.025€. Ok, the paper quality for the printer isn't as good. But hey, I'll be more willing to print things off the net now.

I just spilled/splashed some coffee on my laptop. Heart pain. I shouldn't be drinking anything when doing work on my laptop next time. Or I just have to be more careful.

I just realised that the Mensa here is opened during evenings for dinner from Mondays to Thursdays. Which means that I can take the easy way out and go eat in the Mensa instead of eating bread or cooking a disaster.

So, maybe I should try the Mensa tomorrow evening and see how's it like.

18th October 2005 - Day 15

Today, I got my passport back from the Akademisches Auslandsamt. The Aufentshalterlaubnis is finally done! And I thought I would have to wait till the 9th next month for my appointment. So I went to the Deutsche Postbank to open my bank account. They said I should get my bank account number latest by this Thursday.

I also found out that I will need to pay a Gebühr of 15€€ if I were to bank in my demand draft. If I knew that earlier, I might as well withdraw the money from the ATMs here. So much more convenient too. Not like I've a big sum of money to transfer over.

Then I went to walk around the town again, and found myself at Penny Markt at Mathystraße, where I bought some stuffs for my dinner/breakfast.

At Durlacher Tor I had to wait another 20mins for the bus to come, so I decided to walk back to the hostel.

For dinner, I had instant noodles. It was particularly tasty probably because of the cold weather. After that, I went to find Sergio to complete the Referat, which will be due tomorrow.

Right now, the mexican guy has a problem. He recieved a DAAD Stipendium and went for a 2 months language course in Mannheim. Every month for his year-long stay here, he'll get 260€. However, he realised that he has another scholarship award, the Baden-Württemberg Stipendium administered by the university. Under this scholarship, he'll get 400€ every month. But the problem is, it is stated that if he is recieving the Baden-Württemberg Stipendium, he's not allowed to have another scholarship.

But he decided that he'll continue taking the DAAD Stipendium instead of breaking it to get another. Stupid, some may say. But he's honest enough (Ok, you can say that he wants his reputation).

Oh yes, we were supposed to be doing the Referat. I made some admendments to his powerpoint slides and he added some other slides. I wrote out the Thesenpapier. Everything's done quite quickly.

I was back in hostel in less than an hour's time. I did some practise on my part and some german homework.

By the way, I checked my mailbox and found my Fricard inside.

The FriCard without the photograph of the bearer

Just know that it functions like a matric card. It's also a chipcard with which I can use to pay for food in the Mensa. With this card, I guess that means most of the administration stuffs with the university is done.

So, back to rehearsing for tomorrow's Referat.

17th October 2005 - Day 14

Ahh. It's been 2 weeks since I'm here.

Yesterday, I fell asleep again. So today, I woke up earlier to finish up the Konjunktiv I Hausaufgabe.

After that, I went back to bed for a short nap. It was only when I realised it was already 0807 that I woke up. I think I'm really slow motion in cold weather. By the time I left, it was already 0845. So I might as well wait for the bus at 0850.

I got there at 0903. Not that late since many others in my class were taking the same bus.

During lessons today, I finally understood a bit more about Konjunktiv I, though it's pretty useless in everyday language usage.

After lunch, I went to register myself for the lab module. I was the first on the list. Guess that's because most of the other students are still having their holidays.

There was a welcome speech by the Bürgermeister at the Rathaus am Markplatz. I thought he was quite a funny old man. He looks quite approachable. He gave his welcome statement in English, Spanish, French and of course, German.

At the event, I got to know another Chinese who grew up in Switzerland. He can speak French at a native level, English at a near native level, German (I think he's damn good) and Chinese (we were conversing in Chinese all the time, although he admits that he can't write a lot of Chinese characters). Maybe he knows some italienisch as well!

In the evening, I met up with Sergio to prepare for the Referat on Wednesday. He's quite patient. Took the effort to go through with me some paragraphs and explained to me what it meant. By the way, the topic is about the Aztec people. Like I have any idea.

So, ich muss jetzt für das Referat vorbereiten. Bis morgen!

16th October 2005 - Day 13

It's Sunday again!

All shops (except bakeries which are opened in the morning, cafes and restaurants) are closed. So there's really no reason to go shopping.

Alex informed me that there's a Stadtführung Karlsruhe on today at 1400. Since I was free, had nothing to do, and didn't wish to rot in the hostel, I went.

The Treffpunkt for the Stadtführung is at the main entrance of the Karlsruhe Schloss. While waiting there, I saw some procession.

Seriously, I didn't know what this was for. I was just trigger happy.

I then joined the tour. The guide brought us to some garden near the palace but I've never been to. In this garden, there are plants from other parts of the world. Apparently, people in power in those days like to exchange plants with other kingdoms. I saw several palm trees that were in pots. Well, when the weather turns colder, they'll be brought into some greenhouse so that they won't die.

Is that a giant Aloe Vera?

Looks dreamy to me

The one tree with red leaves

More garden behind the building

After the walk in the garden, we went to some museum at Prinz Max Palais where we were shown a model of how Karlsruhe look like in 1834. I couldn't take the whole model. So here's a substitute for the model.

Karlsruhe Town Plan circa 1834

We went on further to Europaplatz, Ettlinger Tor and ended at Marktplatz. I shall leave the boring details out (because I wasn't really listening). On the Marktplaz, I saw this.

The blindfolded Grand Duke of Karlsruhe

There is some awareness week for the visually impaired and so all the statues in the city are blindfolded.

That pretty much concluded what I've done for this Sunday. After the tour, I went back to hostel to cook myself dinner and worry a bit about my losuy German and my coming Referat on Wednesday.

So, time to learn more about Konjunktiv I.

15th October 2005 - Day 12

This morning, I woke up at 0730. I still haven't decided on where to go for the weekend. But I didn't want to waste a Saturday at hostel doing nothing. Hence, I decided to go to Baden Baden to do some walking.

After the usual lazing around and coffee drinking, I finally set off at 1118. Just in time to catch the 1120 bus. However, I had to wait until 1149 before I could board on S4.

That wasn't all. Because this particular S4 doesn't travel the whole stretch, I had to get on another S4 at 1236. I finally reached Baden Baden Bahnhof at 1310. There, I took another bus to get to the town centre.

The town was quite lively. I think it was because of the tourists (I overheard many of them speaking in English). Here are some pictures I took.

Looks like some countryside view

Just found the orange tower eye-catching

2 Rows of Trees

A fountain and some don't-know-what-building

A typical street in Baden Baden

Seriously, because I didn't do much research about Baden Baden, I don't know what I was looking at or whether did I miss out anything interesting. Anyway, it's not that far away from Karlsruhe. I can always revisit the place in the future.

Some more pictures:

Tree in a park

Another 2 rows of trees. Notice the roads besides it

A building which caught my eye

Anyway, I was back in Karlsruhe by 1500. There wasn't much to do. I was thinking of steaming a chicken for dinner tonight. Enough of bread and ham I guess. So I went back to hostel and logged on to MSN.

I consulted my mother on how to steam the chicken through the help of my younger sister. I can only vaguely remember what my mother told me before. Besides, I've never tried steaming a chicken. I remember that the ingredients were quite simple. Just a chicken, salt and sesame oil.

After confirming some finer details with my mother, I went out to Postgalerie am Europaplatz to get my sesame oil. It's only sold in shops dealing with Asian foodstuffs. It's really daylight robbery. A 375ml bottle costs 3.99€. In Singapore, a 320ml bottle costs only S$2.60! Oh well, when you need to have it, you have to get it.

After getting the chicken and the salt next, I went back to prepare to chicken.

Defrosting the chicken really took up a lot of time. The rest of the steps were actually quite easy.

1. Get a pot filled with water. Bring to boil.
2. After boiling, put in the chicken into the pot and switch the fire to "medium".
3. Allow to cook for 15-20 minutes.
4. Remove the chicken from the pot.
5. Rub salt and sesame oil on the chicken while it is still hot (No kidding).
6. Chop up the chicken into smaller pieces.

This time round, I had my camera with me.

The finished product 1

The finished product 2

I also cooked rice again.

Cooked rice

Ok. I must admit the colour of the chicken doesn't really look very appetizing. But it was not too bad. After getting rid of the bloody pieces of meat, it was much better. Think I will have to learn how to cut up a chicken correctly. Some pieces were simply too big!

2 very patronising floor mates came over and gave it a try. They decided that it tasted ziemlich gut. Oh yes. It's edible all right. So that was my dinner for today.

There was a sit down, eat, drink and talk cock session with some of my floormates. Simon, Sebastian, Jan, someguywhosenameiforgot, and I were having some Nudelnsalat und Rotwein. Mostly, they were doing the talking and I didn't understand everything. But I guess it should help me with learning German in some way.

So, bedtime and I haven't started on my revisions yet!