looong entry coming up :P typed at home. hehhs.

14th October

After a 3-day break in long-diary-like-entries, I’ve decided to start again! :D hehhs. Just enjoyed a great meal, one of my best attempts at cooking to date. Basically I cooked si4 ji4 dou4 with xiang1 gu1, fried potato slices, and fried egg. The beans didn’t turn out too bad, quite cooked and tasty, and the egg was as usual well done (thanks to the non-stick pan more than to me). Potatoes were prepared by boiling first for 20 mins so that the skin was easier to remove. Indeed it is true (thanks yang for gd advice!) and then I sliced them. Sadly my knife-skills left much to be desired, and the slices were abit too thick. Then put oil in the pan, and fried them. Sadly, I think initially I put too little oil and cooked not long enough, and at the end too much oil. Erps :) nvm lah huh, first-timer that I am. Whee! And rice, after being left at ‘kept warm’ for almost an hour, with much less water as well, turned out better than the past few days!
Sorry for the long para abt cooking, for those uninterested or who don’t have to cook, well.. it’s new to me! So naturally I feel pretty excited especially when the food turned out decent :P ladidums, and a cup of milo sits in front of me while I type this :D

Anyway, the past few days have been good, better than the first few, I guess :) let’s see. On wed I went to the Dom. Forgot to bring my camera, that must be the stupidest thing I’ve done since I got here. It’s as beautiful as I remembered it from 2 yrs ago, and the tour guide was really gd too. Lots of history and religious relevance behind the cathedral (it is said that the 3 Kings’ relics are there), and it used to be one place pple make pilgramages to! Well well. Then climbed up the Dom, and the magnificent view made the 509-step climb worthwhile. It’s I think 300 feet or so high, took maybe half an hour to get up there.

Yesterday was Thursday? Yepps. Went to the Uni Mensa (aka cafeteria) to lunch. For €2.15 I got a pork-sth (I have no idea what it was) and super a lot of potato wedges. The whole thing is like twice to thrice the size of what you get in s’pore. When the Mensa closed, I finished only abt half, and couldn’t eat anymore. Scary huh. No wonder the pple here are big in size!

Subsequently went to apply fer my internet, house-phone and handphone lines. Not much of a hassle, and so the house-phone will be activated on 20th oct, internet 21st oct, and handphone is alr activated! Cheers :D calling’s expensive here, but I think I wont be using tt much anw so nvm :) whee!

Tdy went to the Max Ernst Museum. He is a painter/ sculptor/ artist who lived in the 20th century in Germany – France – USA. Think the art was gd, but I didn’t know how to appreciate it much. Pity eh? Hmm, enjoyed myself nonetheless, and learnt something abt art, his style, his ideas.

Hmm apart from stuff I did, the last 3 days represented getting to know pple :) its really nice and interesting to talk to pple fr different places. Let me try to recall e pple I’ve gotten to know :D firstly, there’re the Taiwanese. 4 of them here for abt a yr, and they’re really chatty and speak mandarin so yay! A Chinese from guang3 zhou1 is here aswell. There’s a Jap whos gonna study music (piano esp) here. A French who’s on a 2-week intensive course. An American who came here cos of her german boyfriend. Another American here on a programme to learn german and gain job experience. An Ethiopian who wants to study here.

And these pple tell me abt their countries. Tdy found out that Ethiopia is situated near the Horn of Africa, has 71 native languages if I didn’t hear wrongly, and also learn English in sch. English is taught fr 1st grade, and fr the 7th grade it is the medium of instruction. Their climate consists of 2 periods – wet period and dry period. Their temperatures range fr like 5 – 27 degC. Quite interesting, no? and he speaks gd english! Call me ignorant, but I was under the impression tt africa is not v advanced or modern, in terms of education. But what I learnt today, coupled w the fact tt there are pple fr Mali, Gabon (many!) and other African countries here, tells me that, yeah the literacy rate may not be high, education may not be widespread, but these countries are making progress.

On wed afternoon also went with some of them to a pub to drink some beer. It’s pretty normal here, even in the afternoon, to drink beer. Sitting outdoors enjoying the sun, wind and watching pple go by can be qt enjoyable :) drank some Kölsch, which turned out to be light and nice. And no, not pressured to drink, the jap in fact ordered an apply juice, but Kölsch is the beer of Köln, so mus at least try b4 I leave here huh? :)

Listening to mp3s now, and it so reminds me of home! But yeah, am feeling that I will indeed learn something from this experience – indeed I am learning how to manage my life, manage my time better, and plan ahead. Newest plans include:

1. going to Nürnberg or Switzerland during my Christmas break – would be planning with Leeting my other friend in Germany
2. going to Paris!
3. going to London! York! Cambridge! Oxford!

Meanwhile, collected brochures on cultural events in Köln :P shall be trying to attend some of the concerts or performances, learn to appreciate different types of culture. Hmmm tomorrow will try to go to Bonn for a day-trip! :) May it work!! :)

15th October

haha it worked! Went to Bonn tdy and had a pretty gd time! :D lets see, woke up at an early at 7 and left the house at 7:20am. Btw did I mention tt german trains come right on time and one has to check e schedule in order not to spend like 10mins waiting. Yups so caught e train, bought ticket to Bonn and hopped onto next train to Bonn. Journey took like 30mins? Yeahh. Very cold and foggy morning :( reached too early, so walked ard old-city-centre while waiting for tourist info office to open. Decided to skip all e museums since I prob wud be bored anyway, apart fr the Beethovenhouse :) its like the whole tourist industry of Bonn depends on Beethoven being born there, so cudnt give it a miss. Quite nice! Saw a 3D depiction of one of his operas, heard some music, saw some original manuscripts & music scores, and some musical instruments he used etc.

then decided to take a cruise down river Rhine (or Rhein auf Deutsch) to a town called Königswinter, which is at the foot of this mountain called Drachenfels. It also happens to be one of the "7 mountains" or Siebengebirge, tt lines the most scenic part of the Rhine. So enjoyed a 45min cruise, very shu1 fu2 feeling, better weather, nice scenery. :D at Königswinter I took a tram up the mountain (not that high actually), a very old and quaint looking tram. :) hmm then took many many pics up there. Pity the lousy visibility otherwise it wud look much better than it does. –nods– and walked down! On the way saw the pretty-famous Drachenburg (castle), so went in to take a look. Quite nice and big compound! Gd for strolling and dog-walking and scenery-enjoying. And weather just got better and better! :D yayness! Then came down and read while I waited for the cruise, went back to Bonn on cruise, and back to Köln on train. All in all a pretty relaxing and calm day. :)

and had a gd time cooking again! Simple stuff, I must admit, but little satisfactions can be gained fr these experiments when they succeed. Tdy did xiao3 bai2 (I realised they arent really xiao3 bai2 but shang4 hai3 qing1, its kinda different, the stalk is fatter & smoother) and chicken nuggets! Used my non-stick pan to fry, turned out qt gd I guess. And the veg just gets better! I realised that – I need to use more oil, I need to rmb to add sesame oil, and fry it longer so it becomes softer :) yayness! :D enjoyed my dinner. Actually wanted to cook some chicken, but the 2 thighs I bought got stuck together after I put it in the freezer. Couldn’t thaw it quickly so gave up, and put it in the non-freezer compartment hopefully it’ll thaw. Hmmm dunno whats the right way :( bleahs. Anyway will get more adventurous wrt food, think variety is gd too :D
Apology here to 78 pple – I received yang’s SMSes and in fact I replied (wonder if you got it) using my german number. Was out and couldn’t find an internet café near the city centre, then found out too exp, and then no time. Erps. Paiseh! Hope you all had a gd qing4 gong1 yan4 with steamboat!!

Shoutout to steph, fid, chow, ryan, yang – who have been frequently messaging me and updating me on stuff happening at home. Bad news is that replying an SMS thru my singtel hi-card costs $1.50 each, so I’m very sorry I cant afford to reply you guys! When I get my internet connection you can be sure that at least when I reach home I will definitely reply.
Okay think I shall sleep soon :P last night slept only like 6 and a half hours, so feeling tired today. Hurhur, and I think I shall leave showering and erm washing dishes, revising german etc. until tomorrow! Hahaha :)

16th October

whee! Had a super day by chance. Lets see. Basically it started off very normal, with me waking up at an early time of 8+ (apparently on Sundays germans sleep till 11 normally), and then deciding to go out to jog since the weather was still nice & warm. So jog jog jog, and then stumbled upon this path into which there are nice fields & apartments on one side. Went in, and guess who I met? The chinese whom I met a few days b4! He was at the playground w his son, so I said hi, and after jogging further, came back to talk to them. I asked him where I could play badminton & table tennis.. and then he said, his family plays! Whee :D so he invited me to play with them/ him (the son cant really play, he’s only 4) so I agreed! :D then spent like an hour playing table tennis and badminton with him/ his son hurhur. Whee. Nice env where he stays. Apparently they are rented apartments, and its like a small community, with a common playground and field (and sometimes table tennis tables :P) for a few blocks. The blocks tho, are only 5 stories high. So that concludes a great morning! :)

came back to cook lunch, yummy yummy though I suspect oily and unhealthy :P hahaa fried potato strips (aka tried to make fries), fried chicken (didn’t really know how to cut the thigh, next time will buy breast meat) and da4 bai2 cai4. yayness! Qt tasty (cos I’m qt sui2 bian4 and I like bland stuff :P) so yayyy :D

shall be meeting senior Jialin and maybe a few others for dinner later :D yayness! Talking in Singlish suddenly seems v appealling, and I think she’ll be bringing me to try some affordable turkish food! Yayness! :D need to ask her a couple of things – what is the cheapest way to travel, where she does her laundry (yes I regret to say that the past 10 days worth of clothes are still piled up at home, tho not a huge pile as I don’t wear a new set everyday), where she gets cheap lunch, what she does with her free time.. blahblah :)