Snowing in March?

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..

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!

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

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

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.