Ich vermisse die Schweiz

Just received our transcripts today and it certainly brought back memories AGAIN, especially after talking to Leslie. Boohoo!!! It will be so different if we ever go back the next time cos we won't be able to experience the lives of exchange students anymore. =( But I'm sure the good memories won't fade away so fast as I have tons of photos to look at to relieve all those happy, unforgettable and nolstagic moments. =)

Ich vermisse die Schweiz..wirklich..

Best moments in Switzerland...(2nd edition)

Since we have finished blogging our travelling, I shall now blog about the Best Moments in St Gallen..It doesn't include travelling..just the times spent in St Gallen. It's not in order of preference..rather, it's in chronological order.

1) Swiss Chat at Backstage: This was the 1st time where we got to meet all the other exchange students, the 1st step to forming friendships and also the 1st step to establish the culture in 74 Rosenbergstrasse - never fail to be late. Heh.

2) Pub Crawl, then Trischli: The 1st time whereby we tried Desperado and it's really nice! It's QL's fave now but too bad, don't think there's Desperado in Singapore though. It was also the first time I tried Shisha thanks to the recommendation of my wunderbar housemate, Spencer. It was an unforgettable experience and actually tasted nice. =P And this was the time whereby we started to identify the potential Chiongsters..those who have yet to show their true partying selves. Haha.

3) Mount Saentis: We took a cable car up to Mount Saentis and were really excited! The scenery up there really took our breaths away. The snow mountains surrounding us, playing with the snow and ice outdoors, started a mini snowball fight and met 2 great Swiss guys! One of them, Samuel actually looked like Kaka! =)

4) 1st party at 74 Rosenbergstrasse! It was organised by the guys staying downstairs and they sent a mass email to all the exchange students. The turnout was not bad but we only went downstairs for a while. I remembered going upstairs for a mini gathering too and the rest thought I was lost somewhere in the house and looked over for me, even in the basement laundry room! Haha..

5) Hike to Bodensee for 8 hours! 8 freaking hours when we could take a train there for less than 1 hour! But it was a really good experience though..who else but us could really say that they have hiked to Bodensee?? Haha! I remembered there's a really steep slope and we were so afraid of rolling down, thanks to Spencer's navigation. =P But we managed to get down without any injuries..haha..And we took lots of pictures along the way too! The scenery from the top of the hills were breathtaking cos of the clear, blue sky. Even when the dark clouds started to gather, it radiated a different kind of beauty. Not even the rain could deter us! QL, SY and I sang while walking along the streets, getting delirious..and we truly understood the meaning of "so near yet so far". =)

6) First big snow! We were telling those 2 Swiss guys that Yahoo weather forecast stated that it would snow soon. They laughed at us, saying it would be a miracle if it did! =( Heh, but they had to take their words back cos it really snowed and it's quite heavy too! We were so excited cos it's our first time seeing snow. Yeah..a bit suaku.. =P But the rest of the ang mohs dreaded snow cos they thought it's very inconvenient. Yeah, it actually was..and I almost slipped a few times. =P

7) 1st choc fondue at my house! Yup, Rosenberg is really the gathering place for the Asians. Most parties were held in our house..heh. We were toying with the idea of making choc fondue and luckily it succeeded! It's really deeeelicious too!!

8) Chatting at Mac till 2! Yeap, we went to attend a small party at Bea and Kamila's floor..which is 2 levels above me. The group actually wanted to go to Backstage but somehow we were separated from them. In the end, Leslie, Valli, Sholpan (from Kazakhstan), Oezlems (from Austria), QL and I stayed at Mac, chatting till 2.

9) The guys downstairs organized this beer drinking competition. Rules of the game? They were supposed to drink a shot of beer per minute, up to 100 shots. The person who could last the longest would be the winner. But us girls didn't join and guess what were we doing there? Keeping track of the number of shots and time. Haha, doesn't sound too exciting but it's fun to watch people trying their best to down the shots, challenging their limits. I remember they stopped at 77 shots and Julien (French) was the winner, just like what Matthieu predicted.

10) International dinner! A night of delicious food! Yeah..probably heard about our fried rice and broccoli with oyster sauce. I still insist that it's really yummilicious! =) This was the night when we discovered Belle is actually one of us too! Another chiongster! So now, we have 4 Asian chiongsters. Leslie, Valli, Belle and myself. Haha. Leslie, Belle and I had a unsteady walk home but we were fine though. Not drunk..but a bit high..yet not one of the 'highest' we have gone through.. =P Oh, and Peter left on that day too. We were all really sad. Even though we didn't really interact with him, he would always take the initiative to talk to us whenever he saw us. And we missed his wonderful laughter too! Bwahurhur!=P His laughter is something which we have always tried imitating..but I think no one can beat his! =)

11) 2nd party at Rosenberg! That's the party which we enjoyed the most. When I said 'we', it means only Leslie, Belle and I. Sigh..the rest joined the party for a while before going upstairs. =( Actually, this party was an early celebration for Eugene's birthday. It was held after the Appenzell hiking trip and thus there's lots of Masters students attending this party. We didn't even know them but kept taking pictures with them. Haha. This is the consequence of mixing alcohols. We went on a dare, got really high and danced. Enjoyed myself thoroughly. =D

12) 3 days of heavy drinking, especially on Saturday and Sunday! We played some games and involved lots of drinking. Under the starry starry night and in the cold weather, alcohols really keep u warm. The game on Saturday wasn't that wild but the drinking was heavy. Luckily no one got drunk though. But it's a different case on Sunday. All Asians came over except for the Korean guys. We played lots of games and involved dares..one of the nights which I had lots of fun and laughter. Veeeery fun ah!!! The drinking was even heavier cos the stakes were higher. Haha. =D

13) Semester break party at Elephant! Leslie has been telling me that Elephant was supposed to be the best club in St Gallen. So how could I give up the chance to party there?? There were lots of HSG students there and we saw our buddies too. QL actually danced! =) But we were late, as usual..haha..but at least we stayed till the club closed. =) And..the Korean guys really surprised me! Heh..

14) Bad Taste Party at Elephant! Originally, only Cindy and Leslie wanted to go. In the end, all the Asian girls went! The process of dressing up is the most entertaining..everyone rushed up and down and getting people's approval and taking photos. Haha. By the time we were ready, it's already way past midnight and on the way down, I think we surprised Chris's friend with our get-ups. =) As it isn't a school party, there are some outsiders and irritating people..or rather, one irritating person who couldn't stop harrassing us. Yucks! But on the whole, apparently their bad taste isn't that bad taste..it's more of retro night. -_- But partying with everyone is and always will be fun! I can't wait for all of them to come to Singapore and party again! =D

15) World Cup 2006!! I knew there's a reason why I chose to go on exchange at this time. Haha, not really la..but watching World Cup in Europe is a bonus! At least I don't have to stay up or wake up in the middle of the night to catch the matches. World Cup is the time for the housemates to really sit together and interact. And being in a country which qualified for World Cup, it's even better. The patriotic Swiss and their crazy celebrations after they beat Korea was amazing. But still, Korea was out! *wails* At least I caught Casillas on TV quite a few times. =)

16) Baked cake and cookies for the first time for Jern's birthday! She's the only Asian who celebrated her birthday in St Gallen so we had to do something special for her. SY and I are really useless in the kitchen but we decided to do something for Jern! We baked cookies, following the recipe we got from SY's sis. Somehow..hmmm...it's a mix between cookies and brownies. Hahaha! I even asked Tae Wook if he thought it's cookies or brownies. He said confidently..brownies..definitely brownies.. -_- Haha, it's really cookies ah! Just that it's a BIT soft and a BIT too sweet. =P But at least, I can say that I've baked cookies/brownies before!

17) Farewell for our German tutor, Barbara. She's a wonderful person! Always so nice and understanding. All of us attended her last lesson and even took a picture with her! =)

18) Unifest!!! Also one of the craziest nights we ever had. Enjoyed the 1st live band a lot! Anyway, we met Chris, a guy we knew from our International Management class. Yeah..a really charming guy who knows that he's really handsome. Haha..so opinions of him differ. Anyway, he was helping his friend out at the MAPOW stall and gave us free pure Russian vodka shots. Haha, one shot and most of us were gone. We went dancing at the Elephant Lounge and obviously, were quite wild. We met Chris again and he offered us another round of shot. Leslie and I took up the offer..and god knows why we did. Perhaps we wanted to challenge our limits. Haha..but it wasn't that bad. At least we weren't drunk or what..after walking around the school, we were sober and able to walk back home at 5am instead of rolling down the slope. =P

19) Last party for Cindy at her house! It's amazing man..I don't know how we could stay awake till 5am and walk home from her house! The Korean guys, especially Young Wook is the King of games. His games were really interesting yet suggestive at the same time. Haha..great time..we didn't drink much though. Who says u need alcohol in order to have a great time? =)

20) Last dinner with Cora! It was quite an impromptu dinner..all of us decided to join Cora, Daisy and Louisa for dinner at Marktplatz Restaurant cos Cora was leaving the following day. T_T So sad ah!!! Nonetheless, the dinner was good..the company was even better..and of course, we took tons of photos at the restaurant and at the red carpet area! =D

21) Leslie's birthday celebration and last night together! We celebrated Leslie's birthday 1 week earlier cos we wouldn't be there for her on the actual day. SY and I baked cookies again and Jern and Bhavani baked cake. Hmm..the cookies ah..still tasted the same as the 1st time..but probably not as nice I think. I don't know why. =( Anyway, it was a confusing day and everyone was unsure of the schedule and timing. It's the last day of our exams and some people had papers in the evening..and we also wanted to attend the Farewell Barbecue after the birthday celebration. So, it's hard to control the timing and by the time we reached the place for Barbecue, it's already 11+. Obviously it's over and people were partying. However, it didn't seem to be fun and we were contemplating whether to enter cos once we did, we had to pay Fr 5 for entrance fee. And we heard from some friends that there's no more drinks left..so we didn't enter in the end. Instead, we went to QL and Daisy's house to drink and play games and due to the lack of sleep from the previous night, we could only stay up till 3am and went home. Sadly, it was our last night together. An emotional night for us cos we wouldn't see the Koreans the following day. =( Since it's our last night, Leslie and I wanted to make full use of the night instead of letting it pass by just like that. So both of us drank at the balcony and living room till we fell asleep. It's really sweet though..Leslie, my fellow chiongster and look-alike. =D

22) Last day in St Gallen with the rest of the Asians. SY and I left our packing for the trip till the last minute and we were busy packing the entire day and other admin stuff all the way till dinner time. Leslie, Jern and Daisy cooked dinner for QL, SY and I. So nice! It's our last dinner together. ='( Awww..of course we had to take pictures..and we also took pictures with Eugene, Nico, Chris and Pol. The only pictures we have of them..haha..We tried to control our tears all the way to the train station. That was when the flooding started..really sad ah! All of us couldn't stop crying and hugging..Belle finally joined us and we cried even more! But we still managed to take a group photo together! =) But I'm sure we will meet one another soon! Probably in December!! ;D




And of course, I also enjoyed every other day spent there..but there's too many to blog about. =)

Lugano (28th to 29th July)

Lugano is our last stop and concludes our 23 days of travelling! We were really physically tired by this time and didn't feel like walking much already. But Lugano is a great place for us to relax and we could walk around leisurely, taking in the beautiful scenery. It just felt good to be back in Switzerland, regardless of which part of Switzerland, even the Italian part, which is Lugano. =)

We sat at playground to watch those cute kids playing! We really enjoyed it..but some kid kept spraying water at us..=( haha..

Lake Lugano

Cool toilet bowl ah! Ask QL how it works..haha..

Train up to Mont Bre

At the top of Mont Bre

London (23rd to 27th July)

London! It's quite ok..I really have nothing much to say about London. =P But the weather was good..It didn't rain I think..surprisingly..and oh, how can we forget the Stonehenge? I think that's the only highlight of the London trip for me..haha..cos we didn't get to meet Prince William or Prince Harry la..haha. Anyway, it was uneventful for us cos both of us were not feeling well on the last 2 days..not enough rest I guess..poor us.. =)

The Parliament and Big Ben
Close up shot of Big Ben
Westminister Abbey
Buckingham Palace
Changing of Guards Procession
The Guard has been changed without us realising..heh
Better view of Buckingham Palace
Kids playing at St James Park..soooo cute!!
Fountain & National Gallery (below) at Trafalgar Square
BA London Eye
British Museum..my favourite place in London..with wonderful rooftop (below)

Chinatown

St Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Kensington Palace where Princess Diana used to live. And below is the house where author George Orwell used to live..it's in Notting Hill..we found it by chance while wandering around..

This is the house and shop in the movie "Notting Hill"..it's really at Notting Hill..DUH..but that's not Hugh Grant at the doorsteps though..DUHHH =P

Stonehenge at Salisbury! And also a cathedral at Salisbury (below).

And how can we forget Ryanair??? =)