Thursday, April 26, 2007

200407 - FIRSTs of all... Nach Stuttgart


We had our FIRST Mitfahr experience! Woho! Ok Mitfahr is this in-thing in Germany for travelling cheap. Literally it means "to go with". So basically there is this Mitfahrgelegenheit website where the drivers who are going to different destinations will post their time and place and preferences and other information. So if you are going Stuttgart on this day preferably this time, email or call the driver up, arrange to meet and voila! You are on your way. It is DEFINITELY with caps, the cheaper way than the train or the plane. My trip up to Stuttgart per person costs only 12 bucks and back another 12 bucks = 24 Euros. The cheapest train trip up (only) would have cost 27 Euros! Coming back another.... Imagine the money we have saved!

In addition, we get to meet Germans, speak German and know more about alot of things. Like this time round, there is this lady studying at TUM as well, in a major call "Restaurierung". No, it has nothing to do with restaurants or the likes of it. In fact, it is a major, dealing with restoration of monuments, artefacts, art and such. I don't think we will ever have that in Singapore... Imagine a faculty that deals only with how to clean up the Merlion and Sir Stamford Raffles Statue. *dotz*

Anyway our FIRST night in Stuttgart was our FIRST BBQ in Germany! At Ti Pin's apartment block. In the picture above, you can see Ti Pin's German friend, Nikolas (Stimmt? Wenn nicht, schick mal an mir) and Cher Chin (Stimmt auch?). His German friend is probably one of the most friendly Germans I have met so far, very conversant and very warm. For an aeronautical engineering Masters student, he seemed too interested in biology though. But I am not complaining haha...

Cher Chin's coming to Germany is pure chance. Cos he had thought Stuttgart was an English city, since it was in between 2 others on a list he thought contains all the English unis and it LOOKS like a good university of engineering. I must say he is very brave indeed to base his choice on pure assumptions LOLX... He is a superbly friendly guy after he starts to warm up. Looks like he is destined to come here manz. There was a lady as well, Shuxian. A little on the "sha3 da4 jie3" kind, but nonetheless cordial and even cute in an intrinsic sort of way.
BBQ was nice and warm, despite the cold temperatures then. That night, the stars speckled the clear sky. You all should have seen the twinkling stars. It was a sight to behold. With newly found friends, it's amazing how we can talk about almost anything under the 'moon': from introducing ourselves, to Fuehlingsfest, to Singlish, to even the bright spot beside the moon that night.

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