Ferdi's

Rome

2007-07-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

I realise my Rome post is very long overdue and now since the exams are over, I have about 2 days to blog about Rome and the other stuff that happened over the last couple of weeks before I leave for Eastern Europe. Despite a really short 3-day visit to Rome, I think I've managed to visit most of the touristic sites and since there is no way one can see all of Rome in 3 days (or 2 weeks for that matter), I think a second trip to Rome is due within this life-time. This time round, I travelled with a completely different group of people and it was wonderful experience with Jeremy and Zhe Yuen from Einhoven plus Cheryl, Wei Yi, Haikal and the other Stolkholm people.

If you ever decide to visit the Colosseum and of course you have to if you're in Rome, take of guided tours which enables you to skip the long line of tourist outside the Colosseum, go straight in and most importantly, learn something on your visit. I mean, why travel if you don't want to learn about the history of the monuments you visit right? Travel tip 1101: Please read about the country you're going to visit before going. I think people who are on the 'been there, snap!, done that' mindsets are really a bunch of money-wasters. Anyway, back to Rome, the Colosseum tour also included a tour to the Roman Forum and the Palatino.

Inside the Colosseum

With Zhe Yuan at the Roman Forum. The ruins of the Palatino (the palace of the emperors) are on the hill in the backgroud.

Trevi Fountain.

This is essentially a wishing well - Make a wish and toss a coin over your right shoulder into the fountain, but don't even think of putting a finger to cool yourself down on a hot Italian summer day! An instaneaous whistle blow from the many security guards surrounding the fountain will follow. While we were there, there was this guy trying to fish out coins from the fountain and who totally ignored the whistles until he was surrounded by 3 policemen. Then what came next was a surprise to the hundreds of tourist surrounding. He took of his shirt and nose-dived straight into the fountain, went up falls and dived straight back in again. It was an awesome display of 'screw the authority'! Strangely, he came and walked away scott-free! Anna Nicole Smith payed a hefty fine doing that a couple of years ago.

Spanish Steps

Castel Sant Angelo with Chery and Wei Yi. This was the hide-out fortress for the Pope in times of invasion.

Glockenspiel-er along the Tevere River.

We spent our nights in the district of Trastevere which was the night spot of Rome. Not many clubs though but tonnes of bars along the small, winding alleys. And hordes of young party goers all night long. The parties and performances were not confined to this district but extended to the sides of the River. On one of the nights, around 20 xylaphone and glockenspiel players lined the River and created a really enchanting atmosphere.

HANG on, you gotta wait!

2007-07-03T07:35:00.000-07:00

I finally received an email response from the original (and only) makers of the Hang but the response wasn't very pleasing, unfortunately. Due to a great number of orders this year, they have stopped taking anymore orders for the rest of the year and I have been told to wait patiently for their personal invitation to go see them. Schade!

Ok if you're wondering what is a Hang? It is a flying saucer-shaped steel drum and each indentation on its surface gives a different note. The sound is simply soothing and magical and that is why I really want to have it! I first saw it played on a street in Amsterdam and the second time was at Gaudi Park in Barcelona. After talking to the player in Barcelona, I found out it is a real difficult process to acquire one.

There is only 1 maker of the Hang in the world and they live in Bern, Switzerland. Hang means human hand in the Bernese language and it is hand crafted and tuned individually. To buy one (which costs about 600euros), one has to email the makers (PanArt) and wait for them to arrange a personal meeting with you in Bern. The Hang is personally made according to the players' note specification. I really dun know how many Hang players are there today in the world, maybe about a 100, since they

only started making it recently. I think if I actually get my hands on a Hang, I would be the only Asian player. That'd be pretty cool huh? haha. Unfortunately, I got to wait and I don't think I can afford travelling to Switzerland any soon after this exchange. Check this site out if you're interested to know what it sounds like: http://www.hangdrum.com/index_en.php

Hang player in Gaudi Park, Barcelona

exams.. yikes

2007-06-30T02:42:00.000-07:00

The dreadful time has come again and despite being on exchange, I am actually feeling the stress. It's only 3 papers though but its hell of a lot of work when you got study in front of an online dictionary, translating words, understanding the sentence and then grasping the concept. It is draining! To say I've got 3 papers is not entirely correct; I have 3 oral exams. The reason: All the written exams are way past the 10th of Aug (home-coming) and after spending almost a month negotiating with the Profs and waiting for their secretaries to reply, I have finally confirmed my exam appointments. And its all freaking soon!!!

13th July: Werkstoffkunde und Pruefungen (Materials Engineering) - With Prof Christina Berger who happens to be the head of the whole Materials dept. Sometimes I regret not doing this module back at NUS last sem under Prof Christina Lim. (wats up with Christinas and material sciences??)

16th July: Volkwirtschaftslehre (Economics) under Prof. Bert Ruerup who so happens to be the Chairman of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Council of Economic Advisors. He as held the same post for the past 2 Chancellors as well. Now, I have to converse Economics (in German by the way) with him. Whenever I tell my German friends about this, its the same reaction "Oh shit! no way!"

20th July: Konstruktion im Motorenbau (Engine Construction) under Prof Lenzen. This is a masters-level module but honestly it is not that difficult except for the thousand technical terms in German which I have to memorize.

Plus I have 2 other modules which I am more or less done with. So will update you my dear readers if I have survived this ordeal on the 20th of July. Till then.. pray for me..

2 weekends back home...

2007-06-17T14:11:00.001-07:00

Despite having a another long weekend and initially planning to go to Paris to meet Gabriel, travelling and rock concerts took its toll on me. The past 2 weekends were spent in doing stuff in this area.

Greg (my flat-mate)'s birthday was pretty fun. Hanging out with a room-full of French people and with me and another german guy being the only non-frogs. Nonetheless, Greg's friends made him pretty high and made him do weird stuff. It was funny but cool. I think the French drinking songs are damn catchy, better than the German ones. Gotta learn some of them...

Greg's birthday

Drinking games..

Mannheim

Saturday was spent with Olga in Mannheim. She was kind enough to show me all the interesting sites and I must say that I have a pretty good impression of Mannheim despite what everyone says about it.

Luisengarten

tired huh?

Water fountain near the Wasserturm

@ Aunt Mathilda's

On Sunday, it was spent at Aunt Mathilda's place in Bad Homburg, north of Frankfurt. It was lovely afternoon with a really good, home-cooked indian lunch! My goodness, I missed home-cooked food only after eating there. Thankfully, she packed more for me to bring home. Bad Homburg is a really lovely town with many nice houses and a beautifull park. We went on a "Wasser- wanderung" (mineral water hike) through a park famous for its natural spring water and tried 6 different types of natural spring water. It was nice meeting Serena and Michelle, cousins I have not met before, who spoke German as their first language.

Aunt Mathilda, Uncle Fritz, Serena and Michelle in their backyard..

Rock Am Ring!!

2007-06-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

Despite the gloomy skies on Friday morning, the 3 rocker chicks (mel, char & h'annette) and me traveled down to Koblenz, a city beside the beautiful Rhein river to catch the shuttle bus to Nurburgring. Lugging a full bag of snacks, a tent and half a crate of beer, we were all set for 3 days of head banging and grooving to disco beats. We arrived at Nurburgring about midday and could already hear the drums from the Centrestage. After meeting the other Singaporeans, Gab, Ed, Cheryl, Ian & Davina, we took a long walk to our campsite where we set up our tent beside where Gab’s tent was. Despite the small area, it was an excellent location. We had a good view of the nearby hills, not too far from the stages and best of all, we were camping next to a bunch of mad Germans with a truck-load of cold beer. Thank God we made friends with them-free beer and music all day long.

Casa Viva Singaporea: Our humble campsite.

We had a pretty nice view though.

Happy campers at 3am - we were so dead!

Posing with our neighbours. They did nothing but sit along side the road, drinking, disturbing passerbys while blasting their music.

Poor girl.. caught in German cling wrap..

The rocker-wannabes... getting high at 12pm.

5-litres of Vetters from Heidelberg

Me and Ed.. all set in our Zero tshirts for the pumpkins.

Day 1

As we made our way to the stages, we caught the last few songs from The Used from afar. We managed to push our way nearer to the Centrestage to watch The Hives. Intending to keep pushing our way to the front the watch Muse, we were greatly turned off by the mad rough crowd during the next act, Billy Talent, and their punk, crappy 4-chord music. The Germans loved it, pushing and jumping around and not caring about the ladies who were being crushed in the mosh-pit. We had no choice but to push our way out of the dangerous arena. It was a good breather being out of the mosh-pit and after dinner, we made our way back for Muse. Unfortunately we could not get as close to the stage as we wanted to but nonetheless, it was an awesome performance by Muse. I always thought of them as Radiohead rip-offs but now, I think I’m beginning to like them. Maybe it was because we had a mad Muse fan among us, Annette! She owes me for sitting on my shoulders!

Muse!!

Annette's gonna kill me for this..... but she owe's me something too...

Deciding to skip Linkin Park, we made our way to the Alternastage to watch Arctic Monkeys. I was not impressed and left for the indoor arena to watch Funeral for a Friend. I guess the Germans are not big fans of them as the arena was not packed and I managed to get a place near the stage. It was really good, high-energy performance as they played all their hits. They ended with my favourite FFAF song, Escape Artist Never Dies.

Funeral for a Friend

I made my way out to join the rest to catch White Stripes. The duo’s performance was not really my cup of tea after watching FFAF but nonetheless, the drummer looked really cool. Chick drummers rock! They ended with their famous 7-Nation Army of which the riff was stuck in our heads for the whole night. By then, it was almost 2am and we were dead-beat tired and so decided to skip Evanescence and head back to camp.

Day 2

By the time we awoke from our slumber to the heavy German rock from our neighbours, it was already midday. We made our way to the arena where I and couple of others went to watch the heavy metal Lamb of God while the others caught 30 Seconds to Mars. After meeting up, we pushed our way back to the Centrestage to catch Kaiser Chiefs! That was a performance to remember. The lead singer went crazy running up and down the stage and climbing the scaffoldings while playing all their favourites such as Everday I love you less and less, I predict a Riot, Na Na Na and ended with Oh My God which had the 50 000 people jumping up and down. After such a performance, we had to sit out and rest while watching Mando Diao and Beatsteaks from afar.

Lamb of God

Kaiser Chiefs

Just before Beatsteaks ended, Ed, Gab, Annette and me (mad Pumpkin Fans) started pushing our way to the front. I never felt that kinda excitement watching a band before but the atmosphere, the crowd and the thought of watching The Smashing Pumpkins live was driving us insane. 45 minutes later, there we were, 10 meters in front of the Pumpkins stage, in the Pumpkins mosh-pit! Then the lits dimmed and the crowd went mad as Jimmy took his seat on the drumset, Ginger (new bassists who’s freaking hot) and the new guitarist came on. Billy Corgan came on a while later wearing a kimono-like gown and without saying a word, strummed the opening intro to Today. The crowd was insane as they jumped to Today. “The World is a Vampire” – Bullet with Butterfly wings came on next and this time, the crowd became really wild; pushing and body surfing. It was then I realized that this was gonna be an awesome performance. True enough, the next 2 hours were the most nostalgic concert experience I ever had. They played all the songs I wanted to hear plus some new songs from their new album Zeit Geist. It was also great to see hear some softer Pumpkins hits such as To Sheila, 33 and Disarm played on an acoustic guitar. The performance ended with the famous Zero, 1979 and Untitled. During the encore, a guest guitarist who looked like Santana came on and they played one of their new songs which more than 20mins of guitar solos exchanged between the 3 guitarists. Ich war zufrieden!

The Smashing Pumpkins - Their 2nd live performance since 2000.

Zero : god is empty just like you!

The Pumpkins Set list:
01. (01:44) Today
02. (05:13) Bullet With Butterfly Wings
03. (09:49) United States
04. (20:39) Bleeding The Orchid
05. (25:39) Stand Inside Your Love
06. (29:27) Cherub Rock
07. (34:13) Shame
08. (40:14) Silverfuck
09. (50:50) Thirty-Three
10. (54:47) To Sheila
11. (60:05) Tonight, Tonight
12. (64:43) Tarantula
13. (68:49) Starz
14. (72:53) Zero
15. (75:25) Disarm
16. (78:17) 1979
17. (82:30) Untitled
18. (90:12) Gossamer

Cherub Rock!!

in the pumpkins moshpit!

Day 3

After waking up at midday and getting really high from the free beer from our German neighbours, we made our way to watch Korn. Jonathan Davies came on with a bag-pipe just before playing Shoots and Ladders and it was really cool that this song ended with the bridge from Metallica’s One. Korn ended with their 2 famous songs – Freak on a Leash and Blind. Next, me, Annette and Cheryl pushed our way through to watch Velvet Revolver. This was another exciting performance and I never would have dreamed to see the members of GnR live. Slash was in his usual black hat, playing his sunburnt Ovasion. It was a pleasant surprise to hear Mr. Brownstone.

Velvet Revolver

Travis came on next and we were lucky to be right in front of the stage again. It was a strangely, lively performance which I thoroughly enjoyed. I especially liked it when the guitarist body-surfed the crowd while playing the solo for All I want to do is Rock! Scissor Sisters came on next for a really gay performance but it got the whole crowd grooving to their lively, disco beats.

Travis

Travis guitarist bodysurfing...

Scissors Sisters - What the hell are they doing on stage??

By then, we were burned out and cold and decided to skip Megadeth and head back to camp. Rock Am Ring was truly an experience to remember; feeling 16 and nostalgic was really super! My 125euros was really worth it! Thank you all my rocker friends for sharing this with me!

Rock Am Ring Rocks!!!

Prague

2007-06-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Prague is beautiful! Need I say more? Enjoy the photos...

Charles Bridge at night

The view of the Prague Castle at night from across the Moldau River

The Old City Centre

An old-timers jazz band playing the old city centre square

The 12-Apostles clock on the old state building. At the hour, a skeleton rings the bell on the clock and the 12 Apostles parade across.

The Prague Castle

The whole bunch of us on the square in front of the Prague Castle

With Annette with the bridge leading to the Prague castle in the background

The Prague Opera House - Rudolfinum

With Gab in front of the John Lennon wall

City of Puppets...

Prague with its amazing collection of hand-made puppets. We were lucky to catch Don Giovanni, a long-running Prague puppet show with music composed by Mozart.

Peddling along the Moldau River

Kutna Hura - The Bones Church

A day trip from Prague took us to Kutna Hura where we visited the famous church which is decorated with real human bones.. more than 20,000 skeletons.

Nothing beats a home-cooked meal at our hostel!

Barcelona

2007-05-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

A Day with Antoni Gaudi - Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia

With the best travel buddies - Mel & Char: Back facing the entrance of Park Guell with interesting gingerbread-like buildings designed by Gaudi.

Picnic at Park Guell with Chris and Anika, friends from the hostel. It was a lovely day and wonderful location overlooking Barcelona and a 3 piece band to entertain us.

The unfinished masterpiece of Antoni Gaudi - La Sagrada Familia. This cathedral is still undergoing construction and since 1886, it remains only 50% completed. However it was announced in 2000 that it should be completed by 2022. Now, that would defininitely we a sight to behold and maybe a good time to return to Barcelona.

One of the 4 facades of the cathedral. This being the oldest- The Nativity Facade. 4 bell towers rise highly above this. Altogether, the entire cathedral would boast 12 bell towers symbolising the 12 apostles, the Mary tower and the grand Jesus tower.

In front of the Hospital De La Santa Crue - A UNESCO monument consisting of yet again ginger-bread like buildings.

International Museum Day in Barcelona

We were extremely lucky to visit Barcelona during the international Museum day. This meant that all the museums throughout Barcelona were free for the day. Thus, we spent a day visiting around 6-7 museums all around Barcelona - from history to modern contemporary art.

Here with Nam in front of the Picasso Museum - This is definitely worth visiting even if its not free! See Picasso's works from his early days right through to cubism.

Having a picnic break during Museum day with Nam, Anna and Chris.

View of the musical fountains taken from the MNAC museum. The sunset over Barcelona that evening was awesome.

Las Ramblas

The most famous street in Barcelona - Las Ramblas. Here, we watched a Tango performance which was really not very good.

Even at night, Las Ramblas is bustling with activities with street artist and performances. Same paintings were really nice. If I had the money, I would definitely support these local artists.

Waterfront

After a typical Spanish dinner, we headed for nice walk along the waterfront.... followed by drinking.. as usual.. and latin dancing with some french friends we made at the hostel.

Barceloneta Beach

Our last day was spent lazying at Barceloneta Beach. This is definitely why I would like to return to the Med coast!

I would definitely recommend the Mambo Tango hostel to anyone visiting Barcelona. The owners are friendly, its cheap, clean and has a lovely lounge to meet people over dinner. Here with our self-cooked dinner with Nam and Mohammed.

Bamberg Weekend

2007-05-12T04:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was spent travelling with the Catholic Students group from Darmstadt to Bamberg. Situated in North Bayern, this city is nicknamed little Rome because of its long catholic history and cathedrals and also Little Venice because of the canals.

Probably the most famous site in Bamberg: The Altesrathaus, (Old Government building) which sites directly on the canal. The reason for this is that this building served both the town of Bamberg on one side of the canal and the episcopal town on the other side of the canal.

The paintings on the side of the Rathaus illuminated at night.

A restaurant also sitting on the canal itself.

We spent our night at the Camelite Sisters' Cloister. This beautiful building with well furnished rooms was surrounded by well-tamed gardens. Breakfast was excellent!

The door of the cloister. Notice the chalk writings on top. This can be seen on almost every household in Bamberg. To celebrate the feast of the Three Kings, children go around town dressed as the Kings asking for treats. The inscriptions state the year 2007 and C+M+B are the names of the 3 Kings.

Our very entertaining and intellectual tourguide of Bamberg. I had so much difficulty understanding his strong Franken-accented German.

With Fr. Janik who is the chaplain of the group. Here at the Rose Garden at Michaelsburg.

With Hendrik on Michaelburg. In the backgroud stands the famous 4-steepled cathdral of Bamberg.

With Jan on a sunday morning hike up to the castle on Alteburg. A good view of Bamberg lay in the background.

The castle on the top of Alteberg (old hill).

With Tobias at the castle.

Queen's Day in Amsterdam

2007-05-12T03:36:00.000-07:00

The capital city of Holland was my first trip out of Germany during this exchange semester. A beautiful, small, city with an endless network of canals and charming houses aligning it. The most amazing thing is the fact that everyone rides a bicycle in Amsterdam. Since it is almost flat, the easiest way to navigate the small streets beside the canals is by bike. That was how I got around during my 4 days there. I really appreciate Karen for accomodating me and being a great host during the 4 days.

This is probably my favourite picture of Amsterdam. Capturing the essence of the city - The canal, the bike, the boat houses and the houses aligning it. This was taken on the first morning there after an overnight bus ride from Frankfurt. The city was still asleep as me and Olga walking from Amstel station to Centraal.

After an afternoon of wandering Albert Cuystr. Market which was a massive steet market, selling almost everything. Here with my fellow Singaporeans Karen and Alfi and Chris from UK; all exchange students in Amsterdam

The old sheep in front of the Nemo museum at the harbour. Minutes walk from Karen's apartment.

Tranquil gardens of Begijnhof. This is one of the places where catholism was secretly practiced in the past.

At the Heineken Museum with Gabriel and Amy

Lovely Korean dinner prepared by Karen's korean friends

The Rijks Museum with famous Rambrandts paintings. Other must-see Museums in Amsterdam are the Van Gogh Museum, the History Museum and Anne Frank's House.

Queen's Night
The night before the 31st of April.

Amsterdam was filled with street parties the whole night long. Thats us dancing at a street party. Dutch DJs are pretty awesome with their House stuff.

With Alice, Harry and Jae at one of the street parties

Queen's Day - 31st April

According my Dutch friends, the best time to be in Amsterdam is during Queen's Day! This is when the whole city goes wild with partying and wearing orange. Queen's Day celebrates the birthday of the current Queen's mother. (They did not change the date for the new queen)

The boat parties were the best! Every barge along the canal had a DJ spinning and people dancing.. surprisingly not falling off.

The best dressed group in Amsterdam - really!

With Alfi - He's awesomely shameless!

If you every head down to Amsterdam, don't forget to take a night trip along the Red-Light District. It is almost a tourist destination. You may even find families and hordes of Japanese tourist along the streets. Oh yeah... and of course try some space cakes - their harmless.

TUD Orientations

2007-05-12T02:58:00.000-07:00

The first 3 weeks of the summer semester was a blast! Thanks to the various activities organised by the TUD Exchange Alumni and the almost daily parties. Below are some photos of some of the events:

Darmstadt Tour

The mini tour of Darmstadt ended at a Bier garden, naturally. Here's me with all the English-speaking guys from US and Aussie plus Mamoro from Japan.

Landesabend

Landesabend was an evening about getting to Germany. It was held at Brasil, a usual hang-out pub for exchange students. It was an interesting evening with German quizes and learning a bit of Hessisch (the German dialect of this region). Here's me with Adam from Sydey and Maureen from the states.

Blind Dinner

We were all supposed to cook something from our homeland and I bravely attempted pineapple rice, in a pineapple. It looked much better than it tasted! We were hosted by 2 Spanish guys Ignacio and Jesus which spent lovely Sangrias the whole night long.

KneipeRally

Unfortunately I accidently deleted all the photos from this event. Nonetheless, it was a crazy evening where the whole exchange community were devided into 5 big groups of about 20 students each... and we went around Darmstadt for a massive pub crawl, competing which group could drink the most. By the time we were at our 3rd pub, the judges at the pubs were already too drunk to keep count.. so eventually there was no winning group. The night ended at An Sibin.. the local Irish pub where all the groups gathered for a night of singing and dancing...

Heidelberg Tour

This was my 4th time in Heidelberg. This time with someone who actually knows its history and he explained the sites well. Heidelberg still one of my favourite cities in Germany and I would recommend any visitor to Germany to stop by there.

The Darmstadt group at Heidelberg train station

On the Altebrueke with the European guys: Juha from Finland, Sarios from Lithuania and Jonny from Hungary.

Drinking the strongest beer in the world (33%) with Ilse and Adam

Holy Week

2007-04-15T04:16:00.000-07:00

In Darmstadt, there is one main Catholic church called St Ludwig's and a subsidary Chapel called Josef's Kapelle. I started off attending sunday masses at St. Ludwig's at 10am. This was because St. Ludwig's church is hard to miss with its huge dome structure, standing high on a hill near the city centre. In fact it is one of the city's tourist attractions. Unfortunately, like most beautiful churches in Germany, more tourists pass through its doors than worshippers. Masses are all in German but after almost four months, following the mass became relatively easy (except maybe for the homily). Despite the few worshippers, the Catholic community here is really welcoming. On the first sunday I was there, I was browsing through the church bookstore for a German mass book so that I could follow the prayers during mass. Before long, I had a small crowd of 4 adults surrounding me, asking me questions and telling me about the catholic community here. One of the gentlemen even bought for me the German mass book and said it was a gift from the church.

St. Ludwig's Church

This was also when I found out about the Katholische Hochschulgemeinschaft (College Catholic Community) which consists of catholic students of both the university and the school of applied science, similiar to our CSS back in NUS. They have a separate sunday service at Josef's Kapelle (St. Joseph's Chapel) on sunday evenings, of which now I attend. Although I have not attended any of the other catholic activities organised by the KHG, attendance at mass was somewhat disappointing. Think of a weekday mass crowd back home in Singapore. Having a small community has its benefits too. I got to know the other catholic students and the priest-in-charge, Fr. Juergen Janik, takes the trouble to come talk to me after mass.

I attended the Palm sunday service at St. Josef and it was a really interesting experience. Firstly, the palms we used were not the regular ones we have back in Singapore but rather branches from what looked like grapevines. The service started off at the remnants of an old church about 500m away from the chapel. The old church was almost fully destroyed after the bombings and only three of its walls remained intact. It was not rebuilt after the war but serves as a reminder of the destruction that occured. After the opening reading and a short homily, we proceeded back to the chapel, holding the palms and singing hymns.

Maundy Thursday mass at St Josef was similar to the mass we have back in Singapore except for the washing of feet part. Laid behind the altar table was another long table with jugs of water and empty bowls. After the homily, the whole congregation lined up towards the altar and washed each other's hands. I guess this can only be done when the you have a small church community but I found this rather meaningful.

Good Friday service was held back at St. Ludwig's and this was the largest crowd for mass I have seen in Darmstadt so far. It was also the longest mass I have ever attended. The whole mass was sung in Latin by a choir in accapella. Even the whole Passion of Christ reading was sung in a 5-part harmony. This lasted almost half an hour. It was also interesting that all the crosses in the church were covered in purple cloths since Ash Wednesday and only revealed during the Veneration of the cross on Good Friday.

The Easter sunday service was wonderful. Joining the 30-member choir was the string quartet, a piano and the pipe organ. It really sounded like they spent months practising as the whole mass turned out to be somewhat like a mini-concert. All the pieces were again sung in Latin. This included Sanctus which I think lasted for 10mins, including a male soloist, female soloist and a piano solo! These pieces were so long such that each time they started, the older folks started to sit down.

The congregation on Easter Sunday at St. Ludwig's

The altar and the Easter candle at St. Ludwig's. If you look carefully at the main cross behind, you will notice there is no image of the crucified Christ. Usually, there is one and it looks like it has been ripped off for Easter.

The pipe organ at St. Ludwig's. After every sunday 10am mass, the organist plays a special piece to entertain the people.

chillaxing in Esslingen

2007-04-04T02:35:00.000-07:00

Esslingen's a small town on the outskirts of Stuttgart situated within the Neckar Valley and surrounded by vineyards. Thus this area is especially famous for its wines and champaigns. A charming small town which still has most of its pre-war buildings intact; not destroyed by Allied bombings like most other German cities because it was occupied by the US soldiers.

Here was where I spent a relaxing weekend two weeks ago. No hardcore travelling or sightseeing, just chilling out with the guys. Gab studies at the FHS in Esslingen and was kind enough to accomodate me and 2 other friends, Derrick and Zhifeng, from London. Yibin interns at Mahle near Esslingen and lives down the road from Gab. Met up with Xinli who interns in Stuttgart and Siwei (who seems to be everywhere in Germany). Since it was my second time in Stuttgart, it wasn't necessary visiting the tourist sites all over again. But if you love cars, the DaimlerChrysler museum is a must see. Stuttgart is home to Mercedes Benz and Porshe but I wouldn't recommend the Porshe museum to anyone. Overall, I guess it was a pretty good time to recuperate after a really draining last week at work.

A view from on top the city wall, overlooking Esslingen; cathedral and vineyard slopes

Me and Gab with yet another typical bahnhof pict.

As you approach Esslingen by train, it's difficult to miss out this really obvious phallic symbol with an appropriate name to it! According to Gab, it's one of the chimneys coming out of a pub-district called 'Dick'; something like Chijmes in Singapore.

The long climb up to the city wall.

Zhifeng, Derrick and me with the view of the Altstadt (old part of the city) in the background

3am: Gab's kitchen - After a guy's night of poker and beer, we had a girly cookover! My beer-sausage recipe got the thumbs-up from the guys.

Snowing in March?

2007-03-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

It was a really perfect day to snow! Ok, I'm being sarcastic. I woke up on Thu morning, the morning of my presentation, all set to put on my work pants and leather shoes and believe or not the picture below greeted me as I opened the window. Damn! I couldn't wear my pants and leather shoes for the presentation.. it was back to the usual jeans and boots. I waited 2 long months to see the first snow fall in Darmstadt and only ice rain greeted me. Of all the days, it had to snow today. However, it was only half a day of snowfall and by evening it was all gone. I'm no expert in weather but I heard that this sudden snowfall and drop in temperature is got to do with the last cold wind from the north. This also signals the beginning of spring!

Start of snowfall... 22.3.07.. 7am

Tschuss GM..

2007-03-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

I finally have the time to sit in front of the computer and blog! I sincerely apologize to all those who have been visiting my blog, only to see nothing new. My internship is over and I now I've got all the time in the world to blog, apart from writing a report for NUS and german classes at night.

The last few weeks have been crazy, preparing for my final presentation and tying up all the loose ends for work. Then came the actual presentation which was kind of a "sweaty palms" event for me. Despite doing it in English and having another fellow intern who was presenting on his work, I was nervous as hell! It probably had to do with the fact that I did not recognise half the people in the room and to make matters worse, there were two other colleagues on net-conference from US and Sweden. My boss really had an extensive invite list for us. Thankfully, I was not fielded as many questions as my poor fellow intern who is German by the way. He had it worse because he too had to present in English and answer questions in English. On the whole, it was really a test of confidence, public speaking and an introduction to corporate bullshitting.

Apart from work, we had a couple of fun activities organised during my last 2 weeks at GM. One of it was the department soccer match. Interestingly called "Kartoffeln vs Fruity", it was a game of Germans vs foreigners. Kartoffeln means potato and it refers to the Germans. I was amazed at the response for a soccer game as about 20 guys turned up to play at a really cool indoor grass court in Mainz. Unfortunately for the Germans, my team - Fruity, had many more players and thus there was always a fresh pair of lungs and legs to come in. No surprise, we won but I admire the Germans drive, enthusiasm and they fought really hard. I guess it was a really good bonding experience for the company and it always important for collegues to go out and have fun after work. I wonder if engineers back in Singapore have such stuff...

The other activity was a bowling night for my group. This was more of a family affair as spouses and children came along. Unfortunately, they cannot bowl as well as they play soccer.

A group photo of us at the alley. Dunno why everyone's so gloomy.. prob because this is the 5th attempt by the waitress to take a photo without shaking the camera.

Fussball after bowling.. To my right is Stefan, the other intern who presented with me. He did a really good job despite it being in English.

Kölle Alaaf!

2007-03-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

I was once again back in the old Cathedral city on the Rhine, Köln (Cologne). This time not to sightsee but to experience one of the biggest festivals in Germany - Karneval. Dating back to the riotous Roman celebrations of the cult of Bacchus (the god of drunkeness and ecstacy), it still lives up to tradition even today. It is facinating to see the whole city dressed in costumes, drinking, partying, music groups and dance troops in every corner, eating like gluttons and simple forgetting the worries of the world. Karneval begins on the 11th of Nov at 11.11pm but massive celebrations begin on the Thu before Ash Wednesday and climaxes on Rosenmontag on Mon. Traditional also a Catholic festival, it is a time for the people to enjoy the vices of life before the beginning of the holy Lentern season. Pagans celebrate it to signify the driving out of the evil spirits of winter and the welcome of spring.

Festivities start on Thu with the Women's carnival where all the women of the city become superior to the men, walking around with scissors and cutting the ties of the men. The men have no choice but to let them do it. Saturday and Sunday are filled with partying and small parades around the city. The main parade begins on Mon at 11.11am and extends for about 5 hours, snaking through Köln. This year there were about 90 official parade groups plus many other unofficial ones. As the floats and the bands past, the people shout "Kemelle" meaning sweets while the paraders throw boxes of chocoloates, sweets and roses to the crowd below.

I liked this strange looking Dragon-dance-like display

Hands outstretched for Kemelle! We came back with bags full!

My favourite band, the pirates with Jack Sparrow as the drum major.

me, as reggae-man, with the guys on Rosenmontag

Having the best view of the parade with the Bayern-man..

With all the Singaporeans from all over Europe (Germany, UK, France, Netherlands) infront of the Dom which never fails to impress me.

Partying straight for 3 nights... street parties, club hoping and meeting international drunks. I liked Csaba costume the best though.. "Badman".

A delicious Peruvian dinner suggested by Stefan.. Here with Csaba n Csilla who was so kind to give us her place for the weekend.

Aachen

2007-03-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

Aachen Cathedral (A UNESCO World-Heritage Monument)

Stained glass backed altar of the Dom

A short trip from Koeln took us to another city, Aachen, on Saturday morning. A small city lying close to the border of Germany and France, it is renowned for its technical university and Cathedral. After visiting a quite a number of cities, Aachen seemed not different from the others. The usual sites include the Rathaus (government building), the Altstadt (the old-city), the local Braeuhaus (local brewery) and the Dom (Cathedral) which you can find in almost every German city. It was fun being with a whole bunch of Singaporeans but we all couldn't wait to get back to Koeln for more partying!

Quintessentially European...

The typical Bahnhof picture with Yucheng

The bunch of us in Aachen. It was good to meet Raj again, after meeting him for the first time in London 2 years back. Small world!

With Xinli and a nice view of Aachen and the Cathedral from a hill

All the chocolates in the world could not excite Siwei in Aachen. If you notice the clowns on display, this is a typical Karneval decoration. The clowns were believed to be the evil influence of the people during Karneval. They responsible for the vices, drinking and over-eating during this festive season. That is why they hung especially on the bars and pubs around Koeln and the neighbouring cities. These clowns will be burn on Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday; the start of lent) to signify getting rid of the bad influence and cleansing the people of their sins.

Bayer Birthday Blues

2007-03-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

I just wanna thank everyone for making my birthday special this year. Although far from home, it was hardly blue. Thanks mum & dad for yet another 10kg box of goodies! Thanks for all the calls, smses, cards (even online ones)! Thank you mel and char for the package (I dunno how the mailman managed to squeeze it into my tiny mail box, luckily it's not broken!) Thanks Siwei, Yucheng and Cheong Chye for running around Koeln at 10pm to get my birthday cake. Thanks to Charles and Dave for dragging me over to Leverkusen for the Bayer-Interns-corridor party. Thanks my jazz band for surprising me with a jazzy birthday song and champaigne. I'm truly blessed.

Pre-carnival party with the Bayer interns; a really cool bunch of people. Me and Charles got our faces vandalised with the singapore flag for not having a costume.

A truly multi-national bunch

2007-02-21T12:20:00.000-08:00

I never thought German could sound so different when spoken with a foreign accent. Here at work, it's a cacophony of accents with this truly international bunch of co-workers. Although it is tough to comprehend, it sure is comforting to note that half of my collegues have German as their 2nd or 3rd language, just like me. As such, no big vocabulary, complicated grammar structures (Mark Twain explains this well) and horrid slangs; which is great for me. Unfortunately, all speak fluent English and so there're not many chances for me to practice German! It's great to know also that no engineering department is complete without an Indian (not including me) and a Chinese. Ha ha! Since they are all only slightly older than me, it's great fun working with them. They're far from from the stereotypical boring engineers despite holding a minimum masters!

Here's part of my team: Salome from Portugal, Simone, Vincenzo from Italy and my boss Dr. Scherf. Here's taken at Vinc's 28th birthday party a couple of weeks back. Remind me to tell ya about the deadly concoction called "U-boat", which I was introduced to by some Russian girls, the next time we drink..

death of music?

2007-02-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

Spending 2 hours travelling to work and back everyday, I am oblivious to the scenery swishing pass me and the people opposite me. Why? Plugged into my new Creative Zen Neeon 6GB.. that's why! Now, I'm not complaining about the player.. 3000 songs, easy to use menus, pretty good sound with an equaliser built in, FM radio (whenever I feel German). It's an engineering wonder! But I am worried.. I have noticed a startling difference in the way I listen to music. With 1500 (I only half filled it) songs, I am definitely spoilt for choice and so when I get bored with a certain song, I flip to the next, jumping songs, albums, genres.

Before I had this mp3 player, I was using the good old discman (without mp3 capabilities). I had no choice but to listen to whatever I had in there. So much so, I never jumped tracks, knowing full well if I did, I would have nothing else to listen to. In doing so, I was forced to listen carefully to each song, and the more I listened, the more I noticed about the musicality, the rhythms, the message the artist is trying to put a across. In the end, a song which I never liked first time round, could be my favourite song! There's so much in a song to listen to and lately, I have not been doing that. It is ironic that the mp3 player exposes you to more songs, but in the end, you appreciate less music.

Another irony here: The advertisement says: "Put a face to your music." Here, they are trying to advertise the replacable covers/skins of the player to suite the individual. The way I see it is this - When I buy albums, I like looking at the CD sleeves, with the album art, photos, writeups and lyrics - It sort of "put a face" or "put a picture" to the music I was listening to. Well, with mp3, I don't think many people look at the albums they bought this way or worst; download their music. I am guilty too. Now, is the mp3 really the death of music and artist appreciation? It's up to the individual to decide.

Switchfoot live @ Frankfurt

2007-02-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, Switchfoot performed live at Batschkapp, Frankfurt - Their "Oh! Gravity" Europe tour and it was one night to remember for me. Thinking that I would have to join a snaking queue before entering the concert (and not knowing the place), I arrived at Batschkapp an hour early... only to find that 1)No one was there 2) It was no Indoor Stadium, but rather an old shed-like building. I walked around to the side and saw a bus and a trailer hooked on to it. As i walked pass the bus, the door suddenly swung open and out came guitarist Drew Shirley and he was like "Hey man" and I was "Hey". Of course I did not really recognise him but i guessed as much he was Switchfoot. Then a couple of kids out of nowhere rushed past me to talk to him. So there I was, standing and listening to Drew as he entertained these star-struck people. But it was cool of him to hang around to chat with us anyhow.

Switchfoot Live!

Batschkapp is the type of venue I would like to perform in: Small hall with a stage at one end, bar at the other, mirrors on the side, capacity of about 300 people. As such the concert turned out to have a very personal touch.

Top:Entrance of Batschkapp Bottom:Me, Wendy & Ralph after the concert

Switchfoot was great; playing mostly songs from their new album "Oh! Gravity" (Thanks Teresa & Justin for buying me this CD for Christmas - its great to know all the songs played at the concert!) Apart from that, old favourites such as an acoustic version of Only Hope and This is your Life brought much cheer from the crowd. (I never thought there would be a mosh-pit at a Switchfoot concert) The concert ended with favourite Meant to Live and then shouts for "Zugabe" (German for encore) filled the hall. The band appeared back without frontman John Foreman - He was standing in the middle of the crowd as the band went on to play something I can't remember now. The last song was the hit Dare you to Move. I guess this concert was especially meaningful for me cause I have jammed or performed Switchfoot songs with almost all the bands I've played with: Always Marcia, IHM Band with Ajie & Julz, No signboard Seafood and MM. It was an awesome experience hearing these songs live!

Vocal controls for Jerome, John & Tim on the mixers

Vorsicht Knut!!

2007-01-29T13:41:00.000-08:00

Three weeks I bought a cup from Ikea with the logo above and I did not know the meaning of Knut. Vorsicht meant 'Causion' and I assumed that Knut meant something was falling; like the prices at Ikea's post-Christmas sale. Recently, a colleague from Sweden joined me for a 2-day training programme and saw my cup. He explained that Knut is a Swedish practice after Christmas. It involved taking your Christmas tree and throwing it out of your window. Now, why would anyone want to do that? (keep in mind that there is no such thing as fake trees like the ones we have in Spore). Actually, it does make alot of sense. After Christmas, your 'live' tree would start drying up and the leaves would certainly mess up your floor. Any attempt to pack the tree would result in branches breaking off. Thus, the best solution is to open the nearest window and toss the tree out. That way, less cleaning up to do. The fallen leaves and misteltoes would disintegrate into the ground and on the Monday after New Year, the cleaners would come by and pick up what's remaining of the tree.

That evening, my boss took me and Friedrich, my Swedish colleague, out for dinner and Apfelwein in Frankfurt. While walking to the restaurant, low and behold, we saw a Christmas tree lying on the sidewalk, its top stuck beneath a parked car. I found out then that this practice is also carried out in many parts of Europe. The moral of the story is: its safer walking on the main road than on the sidewalk after Christmas! Btw, Apfelwein is actually Apple wine; the drink of the people of my region, Hessen. If you ever come to Frankfurt, do try some.

The King's Castles

2007-01-29T12:53:00.000-08:00

Neuschwanstein in Autumn

On Sunday morning, Yucheng and myself hoped onto a train and travelled 2 hrs down south of Munich towards the Bavarian Alps. A journey to visit the most beautiful (so-called) castle in Germany. Schloss Neuschwanstein. Build by the mad King Ludwig II, (it was his hobby), this magnificient structure at the foot of the Alps was the inspiration for Cinderella's castle in Disney Land. However, this structure was never completed as the project was abandoned after the death of the King in 1886. Nonetheless, it was breathe-taking. Despite our tight schedules, we managed to squeeze an inside tour of Neuschwantein and Schloss Hohenschwangau; the original home of the King and it was from here that we watched the construction of Neuschwanstein. The interior of Neuschwanstein was dedicated to the works of King Ludwig's close friend and famous opera composer Richard Wagner. Though it was a tough walk up and a sprint down to catch the bus back, it was worth it.

The journey to Fuessen; the village below the castles

Hohenschwangau in the background

The entrance to Neuschwanstein

White Munich

2007-01-29T12:21:00.000-08:00

My last weekend was spent visiting some friends in Munich and although it was my second time in Munich, there was still lots to see and do. I really appreciate Yucheng for accomodating me and going out of his way to make my stay really wonderful. Thanks dude. Thanks Yi Bin, Kelvin and Deen for taking time off their busy studying schedule to hang out with me too. Munich was beautiful, covered in snow, making it almost feel like Christmas skipped 11 months. We really enjoyed our Saturday out in the snow; failed at making snow men, harmless snow ball fights and rolling down slopes. If only we had sleighs. Yeah, this was apart from visiting Residenze (Duke's home), the Deutsches Museum and shopping.

The view from Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church). In the background stands Frauenkirche with her two majestic bell towers visible from all over Munich city. By the way, I almost got frost bites up there!

The Deutsches Museum is the a must-see for any visitor to Munich, especially the technical dudes. It was my boss Dr Scherf who urged me to visit this place and it was definitely worth while. Live-size displays and planes, engines, machinery and many models to view. It will take a week to cover every single display but you will definitely be bewildered by these engineering mavels and there's so much to learn. If you only have 2 hours, you cannot miss the mining section which consists of 400m of tunnels dug beneath the museum to replicate actual mines with machinery inside. Awesome!

We met up with Gerri and her boyfriend who came down from London to visit me and ski! Well, they did much more skiing than hanging out with me haha. Here, we had drinks and supper at Augustinerbrau keller, a typical Bavarian beer hall. Lots of shouting going on in the background.

Jazz @ Heinrichs

2007-01-20T14:20:00.000-08:00

Monika, Matthias & Max

Last friday, I was invited back to the Heinrichs for dinner. The Heinrichs were the host-family that I stayed with the first time I was in Germany and being back after almost 2 years was a wonderful experience. Max grew up alot since the last I saw him, especially his hair which I am told has not been cut since the last time I was there. He's still as hyper and cute as before. The house looked the same, nice and cozy, and Maotsi the cat has put on alot of weight.

We had a lovely Raclette dinner which is a Swiss grill speciality. It consists of a hot plate on top which you can cook pototoes or meat and below the grill, slots for which you put your personal tiny pan to cook. On this pan, you can put any serving you desire or available for you such as salami, salmon, corn, mushrooms, onions, etc. You must then top it up with a slice of goat cheese or salted cheese. Once its done, the cheese melts on top giving a lovely golden brown pizza-looking dish and you scrape in on your plate to eat. The term raclette derives from the French "racler", meaning "to scrape".

After all the 'catching up' was done over dinner, it was time for our favourite pass-time, Jazz! Mathias was on his double bass, Monika on the piano (although her instrument is the trumpet) and me on the bongos, playing a couple of jazz standards for old times sake. It was definite fun and from now onwards I have become their resident percussionist; jam sessions every Wed night with the full band. They even wanted me to sing for their jazz choral which they play for but that I will put on hold for the time being. The Heinrichs home at Koelnerstrasse will probably be my 'home' away from home.

Bei Opel?

2007-01-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

my office - Opel headquaters in Ruesselsheim

Its true that this is where I intern, but I do not work directly under Opel. Currently I'm working for General Motors Powertrain and as you probably know, GM owns like 15 car brands including Opel, Saab & Chevrolet. I would like to tell you in detail what I do at work and what I see, but for non-car enthusiasts, you probably scroll faster than usuall. Btw, after signing a stack-load of secrecy documents and by-passing the numerous security gates just to get to my table every morning, I rather not say too much.

In short, I run engine simulations on the computer with actual data to determine the best powertrain combinations, fuel efficiencies, emissions and drive cycles of cars. haha. Don't be confused by the word powertrain; I do not work with trains. Trivia: A powertrain in a car is all the components that make the car move which includes the engine (duh!), the clutch, the transmissions, final drive and the wheels. The cool part of the job is that I get to see the test benches where they actually test these cars, the production lines and once in a while my collegues will sneak us into the workshop to take peeks at the new concept cars which are yet to be released!

But the part of work I look forward to most is lunch! My mum says I don't eat enough in Germany.. but she hasn't seen the Opel cafeteria. 3 course meals with a salad and desset buffet is probably the only meal I can afford to eat each day. Which is probably good coz it's really ex to eat out and I pay intern prices at Opel anyway. So why not stuff myself eh? haha.

i'm an alien, i'm a legal alien..

2007-01-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

It's been almost 2 weeks since I came to Darmstadt and things are going great. The first week was tough; running around the city, visiting various different offices, banks and meeting insurance agents, but I'm glad to say all this admin rubbish is finally settled! After suffering the first week in a temporary flat, I'm now in my new room in a different flat with 3 other guys (sharder!). This morning the painters came in to give my room a fresh coat of paint and according to my flat mates, this has never happened before. Oh well, I count myself lucky. Check out my bare, white room. I cant stand undecorated rooms! OK.. gimme about 2 weeks and I will get my room in order.

I'm currently sharing a flat with 3 other guys; a french guy Gregory, a german dude Sebastian and a bulgarian chap Pulmen. Greg tries his best to speak English to me although his german is much better and Pulmen cant speak English at all. So basically, when we all are together, its all German! 4 different accents of German! It is certainly improving my rusty german to some extent, I hope. However, its hasn't been much interacting with these guys as I'm out most of the time and they're all busy with exams. At least I'm getting to know Greg quite a bit while we cook our dinners. Yeah, Greg is a pretty good cook, and a healthy eater too so I'm picking up a couple of pointers from him.

My next post will be about work and I've got tonnes of stuff to write about but I dunno if I can... You see, I work in a high-security area and everything I see and do must be kept within. You never know what Google can bring up if I start to blog about it. Nonetheless, I will write within my limits... chao!

It has begun... (due to popular requests)

2007-01-14T05:36:00.000-08:00

As I grudgingly type the first words of my exchange blog, I have come to realise the importance of family and friends back home.. So here I sit in front of my laptop, remembering my experiences in Germany... I dedicate this blog to my family and all my wonderful friends back home in Singapore. You know I am missing you all right now. Let me start by thanking all the people who showed up at the airport to send me off. It was really very heartwarming.. Thank you!! (special thanks to Greg & Dwi for taking these photos). A big thank you to the Via Christus choir peeps that came.. although I regret not taking any photos with you guys. (Teresa.. I used to hate popiahs.. but I think those were the best I've ever eaten. I'm a fan now!) And a big thank you to the MM Altos.. who by the way tried their best to embarass me at the airport and even in front of my parents. You all succeeded! Thanks Aaron for coming down and giving me a copy of ya debut album! Sounds good man! Thank you everyone for all the wonderful gifts and cards. Enjoy the photos!

my family

The CSS bunch