2 gone - now left 2

After our annoying French gal left, me, Anna and Carol ( another flatmate ) were jumping with joy and celebrating the HAPPIEST day in our apartment !!!! No shite dishes to clean, no need to babysit her, no need to tolerate her MSN sessions and impoliteness and best thing of all is no need to pretend to like her anymore.

However, today is a Sad sad day...Anna ( my closest flatmate just left back to Finland this morning ). I only slept 4 hours as she had to go at 5am. Back to when I just arrived Switzerland, she was the one who picked me up at the airport with the rest of the @ers, help me to translate German to English, brought me to early beer, called me out,and invited people to our apartment so she could cook for everyone :) How sweet...she is the kind of friend you know when you can count on whenever things dont fall in place. I am still fortunate to meet her, as we are planning to travel to Sweden when I visit her in Finland ( keeping my fingers crossed :p )
Anna's Farewell Dinner - at my apartment's balcony ( this balcony is so cool, it interlinks to my neighbours ( yea..my cool neighbour Martin :p ) also, a place we set up party and dinner provided the weather is not verrückt :p )


Fabian(my LC's LCP) & gf, Anna, Carol(my flatmate) & Bf

Missed Bus..Part II

Aaahhh...today is horrible! I am extremely frustrated and exhausted. Remember I was saying I missed the trains and busses and all. Now is Part II. This morning I missed my bus, so I returned home to finish some business lying around, then as soon as I came out to catch the next bus, again, I realised I missed the bus.Dammmnn..It stopped right in front of the station and I wasn’t even giving second chance of running over as I was too tired, too sick of giving my body a hard time. This month is definitely too much for me. I recalled once I missed the bus, I had to run 20 mins to the train station to catch the designated train so I wont be too late for my appointment ( which I already was :p ). Because I am now in Switzerland, you have to feel bad anytime you are late even just few minutes and worst if you couldn’t turn up. The only thing that can put me into so stressed up is this rules about punctuality and timely schedules. Sounds easy to you ?? nah..trust me not a single bit.

Yesterday night was again party !! After a semester-end party at our student apartment, off we went to the Technikum ( the technical university in Winterthur ) for 2nd round. I love this outing very much because it reminded me a lot of my past internationalism clubbing atmosphere and feelings. My flatmates (Finnish and Swiss) and ex-flatmates (Dutch and Polish) and I were dancing our heart out, just imagine me on stage (but lucky there wasn’t any :p ). and everything, nothing but dancing, it was great. In fact, these bunch of people are the most awesome people I have met in Switzerland. Neither one of them can stop talking, and crapping, they were all out-going and typically representing their countries’ identities and looks. Polish gal with heavy Russian accent, Finnish gal as fair as snow white, Dutch guy standing more than 1.8m and Swiss gal, as sweet as everyone. This was the perfect combination, but not long. They will all leave (except the Swiss) back home next week..arrrrggggg….

Sisters Reunion at Zurich

My sis finally touched down..so happy !! I not only got to reload my stocks but managed to brush up my Cantonese. Hey, it sounded little rusty, no joke... When I tried to order some Chinese food in the restaurant previously, I sounded like a typical banana gal. Yes, I know I am but I already improved a lot as time went by right? But it had to be on that particular place and time, my Cantonese had to sound so bad. It sucked , sounded almost as when I was in Form 2 or 3 just started to pick up Cantonese :p

My sister arrived on a bad weather day, so we only had short sight-seeing at Luzern, an extremely popular touristy city (especially for the Chinese and Japanese). I would say Luzern is by far the most beautiful city in Switzerland. Since I had no new friends or so with me, I could go up to any degree of silliness or laughter with my sister. We gallivant along the Luzern Lake, Water Tower, Chapel Bridge, Old Town, City Hall and Lion Monument – although historical, but we spent more time having fun with our camera than to admire and explore the aged-old buildings. With beloved ones close to you, no doubt, trips are much more memorable and pleasurable ( no rushing and keeping up the tempo :p )

My crappy sister in Luzern

Miserably painful first & last Chinese meal

Yesterday was a tough day. I had the strangest feeling in my life, sudden reminiscence and flashbacks struck me - how I miss my circle of friends – the party and non-party buddies, food and family back home. I finally felt what my friends gone through – the homesick attack. But somehow rather, I knew I was not close to the extreme – I was actually anticipating my sister’s arrival this weekend. She is flying to Zurich ( for her SIA duty ) and I believe she was my good reason I was already missing home.

Last Wednesday I went to a Chinese Restaurant ( Singaporean ). Not that I miss Chinese food but only for the good sake of my friend’s birthday request. I once promised myself I will never step into any Malaysian-related restaurant when clearly nothing match the price and quality we have back home. However, being in a foreign country, you do not have much say, I had to tolerate and abide by the majority, and the price to pay was completely unbearable. My hard earned RM60 went to just a bowl of Laksa, so miserable because when I thought about it again, I could have easily bought a considerably good Swatch watch by just forking another RM50-RM60!!!

While eating, Rahel ( my swiss gf ) who also took Laksa like me, ate with a stainless steel spoon, instead of the typical Chinese elegant-looking glass spoon which came along. So I asked her why, and when she said “Nah..this spoon does not fit my mouth” I was LOL. I wasn’t expecting anything like that from her. I burst into laughter, practically I was so loud that I could only hear myself in the restaurant, really. When I really laugh, you know I don’t stop. And that was how serious I was but after a while it wasn’t funny anymore but to me, it still was and I had to force myself into looking serious. No fun but my whole point was little things like that are beautiful cultural differences, clearly a clash of the West and East, isnt it? :)

Like when I just arrived work with my muffler and suit, my colleague was asking if I was cold. And I replied “of course, I was walking from the train station”. Then off she laughed again. I don’t really know what was exactly so funny, but yea…Of course, I am Asian ;)

Have you missed trains that were just in front of your eyes??!!

I decided to write something today. It shouldn’t always only be wonderful moments, right? Yesterday, I experienced extreme foolishness, coupled with slight embarrassment. As usual, I left work to the train station and as soon as the train arrived, I walked to the door , but realised it 1st class entrance. So, I walked further up ( taking my own sweet time – step-by-step ) to the 2nd class entrance ( as per my ticket admission ), press the button several times but the door didn’t open and how was I not surprised anymore that within seconds, it just fled off!!

It left me behind even I was apparently just right in front of the train with 2-3 steps away !!! It wasn’t like I didn’t know but just wasn’t dare to think about it.

Even after a month now, I am still experiencing the blank expression whenever I missed the trains, trams or buses. I knew that punctuality and urgency are equally important, but sometimes I just couldn't bother much. As long as my habit persists, I will have myself to blame and feel pathetic for. I know…and with the train’s embarrassment, I had to hide myself behind the poles, hoping nobody far end saw how *doink* Asian people could be especially me !! Consequently, I waited another 30 mins for the next train.

Btw, I just realised yesterday that the most enjoyable way to read one's blog is through hardcopies. I do it all the time while I am waiting idly. Time flies really fast without you realizing and trust me, you do not only develop better interest in someone’s blog but higher chance of listening to your inner voices and feelings. For all the 40 or more times I did, it is still working ;)

Thanks to Fat Boy Slim & Stress & St.Gallen!!

Monday today..I feel so shit!! So bleary and groggy. Waking up in the morning was never so difficult like today!! I have a feeling I am experiencing the worst case of extreme fatigue right now, this very moment. But you know what, I am happy this is for a good cause after all :)

Last 3 days ( Friday to Sunday), the biggest sold-out camping party took place for the 29th time at St. Gallen (as usual), with some 30,000 youngsters coming from all parts of Switzerland. This is for sure nothing new if you were an European, you come together in big groups, majority by trains with the mass weight of sleeping bags, backpacks, tents, mats, stools, shoes, beers amounting to min of 2 or 3 bags but when I saw this sight, this spirit and enthusiasm of all people, my entire horizon broadened few thousand times more, really. I was in awe simply observing people, the atmosphere and sight, such an incredible feeling. From school kids to young working adults, nobody was stranger to each other. Everybody talked to everyone, even the 20-minute toilet queue for the first time saw no sign of muttering, especially me!! ;) My first time entering gents’ was fun, allowing me to chat with most people which were erhemm..who else but mostly guys ;p The queue was however shorter, rahel’s (one of my closest Swiss gf) initiated the idea and yea..she was cool; spotted talking to guys all the time, but lucky me, I benefited just by being her parasite. :)

If you have been to one, you know this party was more than a music festival. Many didn't watch the music performances but were doing some other crazy things around their camping spots. And what did they do?? They tried to trip passer-bys with camouflage strings, jumped on neighbour's tent to gain attention, spilled water with soap / foam onto the ground to watch people's ass slipping and falling onto the mud, and threw bottles of beers to other tents just like battle of the beer. yes, some people could call them f***king asshole but still, on a festival like this, everyone knew it was mere laughter. Especially for people like me to watch, it was very entertaining ;)

Coming to music, most performances were great, if not excellent! There were famous Foo Fighters, Fat Boy Slim, R.E.M. , Audioslave (namely the internationals ones) and other local, German (the group ‘Stress’ has now become my fave),Spanish and Swedish bands. Just as many typical European’s concerts, the audience never failed to cheer and groove till the last beat. If you visit my photo albums, especially the bunch of synchronized hands up in the air, you know I had a perfect view of the stage and audience, thanks to my guyfriend carrying me up ( I assumed I wasn't too heavy since he could hold me for 15 minutes ;p ) Having such a huge openair with day-long music concert, I really couldn’t recall how long I have been dancing and how much I have already been walking. ;p

Saturday party night was most memorable. Me and my friend finished up one whole bottle of vodka, surprisingly we were still very sober ( my guess ie dancing and several times of madness downhills running were our secret remedies ;p) It was also a night with many entertaining bands, from early evening, we danced and drank all the way till 5am! Last band ended at 4am, most entertaining one, having something like an ‘AIESEC dance’ initiated by the band. They led spontaneous dancing sequences and some energetic 20,000 people down the stage were dancing together, in the same direction and timing and all. Well, of course the difference with this to AIESEC dances is that you do not have 30 people stepping on your shoe while you are dancing and another few thousands people back and front dancing out their 'territory', hence pushing you to nowhere. ;p but it was so fun.

I have so many good experiences and I reckon I would be able to go on forever with this. All the fun I had is not cheap though. Know how much I paid? haha..it was freaking RM400 for the 3 day festival!!! Basically we were not paying for the show but I would say mostly for the space we set up our tents, the toilets, the freedom to litter, the many people we met and of course no denying it was most of all the whole holiday atmosphere.

Well, I shall now leave you with the photos. Remember people, being young is always a privilege. It’s the time to flaunt the triple ‘E’ - energy, exuberance and enthusiasm...because at the end of day, I would have never made the most of this festival if I was simply 10 years older. :)


Me & Kai in Openair St.Gallen



Put your hands up in the air