A Day in the Life of a Muenchener Austauchstudent

So there, officially I have been in Germany for one and half months and I have gotten my own room for a month or so.

Since I have nothing to do, I shall let you all into a peek of the life of my life in Munich.

Ok today is a Monday. So I wake up at about 645 am, knowing it will be a super long day, from 830am till 715pm before I could come back home... Sad case ehz... Monday most xiong day! That is damn good reason for Monday blues...

Nonetheless, I pulled myself out of my comfortable bed. Notice the expanding number of pictures on the wall? It's gonna increase as I do my travels or as I notice some nice postcards, it has already increased from Russell's card and Neuschwanstein postcard to Ludwigsburg and such.

Then I would turn on my workstation, start boiling water with the kettle, to start my day with a nice cup of nestle or milo. Check out the boxes at the sides and the one at the small cabinet for rough papers manz... Pretty proud of them, cos I thought them up myself :P Multifunctional boxes are. In case you are wondering, the box cut up into strips is my file dividers for my notes. Well, it will do until I could get sturdier materials when more notes come in.

That's my wardrobe if you are wondering; as I slide the door, you will get to see my stash: upper 2 for bags and personal articles, and bottom 2 are my food stash :P Notice the 3 boxes at the back of the 'Famous Amos' cookies? They are ALL maggie mees... Courtesy of my beloved mum from Singapore, in addition to the nestums, milos and tea. LOLX.

Ok, then I would make breakfast in the kitchen. This is my shared, Wohngemeinshaft kitchen. Cool ehz... A bit dirty, though the cleaners come in to clean once a week. So this is probably like not cleaned for days hehe... Check out the dustbin area... Can you imagine pizzas for lunch AND dinner EVERYDAY?! That's Martin for you. He is a German that doesn't eat anything for lunch and dinner except pizzas and beer probably. This is the result of his bingeing... Oh and Lin Tao's Minimart carriage... He's probably gonna host a party or something.

Then I would leave the house. Down the corridor, to the left is the bathroom where there are flaps of papers; right hand side, the one nearest to the main door is Martin's room, then nearer to mine live Martina and her boyfriend. They cohabiting, I think. Pretty normal here. If you have guessed it by now, I stay at the other end of the corridor nearer to the kitchen and dining area.

First lecture today is at LMU, Ludwigs-Maximillian University, which is not the uni I matriculated in. Nonetheless, I am able to take some of their modules, which are jointly offered by them and TUM. This is the Siegestor, 'Gate of Triumph', that stands on the road leading to the LMU. Looks like the Brandenburg Tor in Berlin and Arc de Triomphe in Paris, isn't it? Only much smaller. Very majestic though when you first see it.

Then this is the Faculty of Informatics and Mathematics in Garching, I have taken photos a few entries back. This is a close-up of the tubes, the ones that I thought was for fire-rescue. BUT, it is used by students normally to come down faster, I really mean it is a normal kind of 'transportation' for students. Cool huh? Well, I will do the school's intro another day.

While coming back, took a picture of this interesting advertisement: Chinese acupuncture by a German. Cool ehz? Haha. I can imagine Dad start to rattle off some proud chantings of how powerful Chinese medicine is blah blah... Ok my Dad's a pro-Chinese personnel, so.... Come to think of it, I am starting to miss home...

Sometimes, I will go supermarket for a while to buy some groceries or go gym. Or just walk around abit. Walking around in Munich is DEFINITELY much better than in Singapore. For one, you dun perspire and you enjoy sceneries and ogle at beautiful people. Lunch is usually at the Mensa (which is German unis' canteen) but today's different, cos I met up with Chuanjie to plan our Salzburg trip. So I had Burger King :/

Coming back at 1915, this is the red-white combi facade of my place. Quite classy, dun u think? Then usually I would go for a little jog, nowadays I can go to the gym finally after I got my Sports semester ticket but that would be at Olympiazentrum. Anyway, my route usually includes this Panzerwiese, 'Tank field'. It was originally a training grounds for US armoured vehicles. Flat, you can even see the Arena and Olympiaturm from here, you can imagine how far and wide this place is. Usually in the early evening, people will fly model airplanes and run their dogs, even sun tan. Well, they sun tan EVERYWHERE, so it's really not so special for them to sun tan here at this wide open space anyway. Gotta get used to running here at first, due to the chilling evening air. Sometimes, I end up whizzing at the end of my run.

Running about 15 min to 30 min, I will come back for a shower, then walk around and meddling with the plant sometimes. Check out the bloom. And by the way, it's 8pm and this bright, so the brightness will last till about 9 pm. At first, it really gave me a warped sense of time. Well, get used to summer.

Then make dinner. Usually Jason and CW come over and 3 of us will make dinner together. Well, this time they are on a trip to Vienna, so I am making pasta today, finishing pasta and the sauce up HAHA! This is our combined stash of utensils. Not too much ehz. Cheers to minimalism manz!

Ok then, the day usually ends with me in the room. Obviously. Either doing some work, which, believe me, is VERY very hard. Try answering 'Advanced Bioinformatics', a level 4000 and 5000 equivalent module in NUS, the German questions in English and listening to the lectures in German. Catch no balls. OR I will watch dramas and animes OR I will DOTA and listen to music on my blasters....

Then I will sleep, usually about 12 midnight. And then here we go again...

Nice, well-paced day with little stress whatsoever. Doing laundry, washing the dishes, cleaning the room and making meals became a routine and part and parcel. Things I once took for granted.... Things you never really appreciate until you stay alone. Well, I guess I am still human. *pinch myself* Yahz ok I am....

*Yawnz* Lights out.

270407 - Fruehlingsfest in Munich

Deen, Jari, Linka, Maria, Jason, CW and me went to the Fruehlingsfest in Munich as well. Just to see how is it different from the Stuttgart's. It's definitely smaller than the Fest in Stuttgart; we walked like 3 rounds within 45 minutes. But it only occupied a very small portion of the Theriesenwiese, as compared to the Oktoberfest where the entire Wiese was filled. So the one in Stuttgart has really more to boast.

I tried another ride which I wanted to try in Stuttgart but nobody wanna. Here Jari and Linka wanna go too! Linka is Jari's friend, from Austria. Her German is very fluent too, like Jari... Oh how I envy haha... My German is always tongue-tied. The ride was cool lahz, got wet after that cos of the water. But I still find the roller coaster more exciting and thrilling....

We met at the Paulaner's tent for dinner. People were already making merry. There is this game where people has to climb up to the top of the pole. There was a band cooking up the atmosphere. In the second picture, the lady is wearing a traditional German dress called a "Dirndl" and men wear "Lederhosen". German men and women wear that especially during such occasions. I was late for almost an hour to meet them. Reason being I was cleaning the toilet and the bathroom... Ok dun diaoz me... I know it's lame.... Kenna scolded by Chongwee "flying his and Jason's pigeons"... Well, I thought it was my turn to do duty this week and I was cleaning my room and doing the laundry, so might as well. Din know I would drag so long.... Ok enough of that.... I offer you all an apology - sumimasen.

Maria and Jason left shortly I came. :(

The finale of the Friday's Fruehlingsfest is the FIREWORKS which we missed in Stuttgart and which I thought was nowhere like Singapore's (Singapore throws fire up into the sky like no need money one :P). Nonetheless, a little pleasant excursion to wind up the entire day.

SPECIAL THANKS...

... to Tipin and Yizhen for bringing us around and letting us stay at your accommodation.

... to Nikolas, Cher Chin and Huixian for keeping us company esp for the BBQ, Nikolaus amidst his thesis writing and CC and HX for the effort in preparing the food and waiting for us in the cold.

... to Yibin and Gabriel and girlfriend for taking time off to join us despite having been to Oktoberfest.

220407 - Palaces

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Last day in Stuttgart was a trip down to 2 palaces, Ludwigsburg and Favourite.

Ludwigsburg is a baroque-style palace of Duke Eberhard Ludwig, who first built it for the rulers of Wuettermberg. There is nothing much to behold on the facade (like what Ti Pin said,"It looks like a Buero ('office' in German)"), but the interior speaks for itself: opulent, gaudy and pompous - 100% Baroque. But the initial intention of the Duke for Ludwigsburg was as a hunting lodge, but apparently some unexpected twist of fate, he met a lady and they settled finally down there, where he moved the centre of administration from Stuttgart to the town of Ludwigsburg. There, the first king of Wuettermberg, King Friedrich, was coronated, under the influence of Napoleon (again; he had a hand in Neuschwanstein as well... that man...). So Ludwigsburg Schloss became his centre of admin and power.

Favourite Schloss is really only a hunting lodge for the rulers, an extension of the Ludwigsburg and the Duke's immeasurable desire for pleasure. Hunting was done extravagantly, it was said as many as 600 animals died in one single hunting session. The little woods surrounding the lodge serve as the hunting grounds. Today we only saw 2 deer...

One interesting thing I saw when we were travelling back to get our stuff before we head back to Munich: speed dating on the train! WOW! Speed dating on the MRT! Suck that!

220407 - Fruehlingsfest

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Because we played "Ficken" yesterday till midnight, we woke up at about 11 plus :P Good night's sleep indeed.

Oh yes, Ficken = 'to FUCK'. So yahz... It is a nice game but I feel it doesn't bring out enough the anger and belligerence of the word. Oh but it was fun.

Morning breakfast was a Baden-Wuttermberg specialty - Maultaschen (literally = 'mouth bags'). It is very much like the 'wan tan' we have back in Singapore, probably a little more squarish. I like the breakfast, simple and tasty. There is our cook-cum-host, Ti Pin.

Fruehlingsfest (literal = 'Spring festival') in Stuttgart is said to be the next big thing after Oktoberfest in Munich. Well, since I cannot catch the latter, might as well attend the former. So here we have, the Fruehlingsfest! Super crowded and super cool! Check out the rides and food! Exactly like the kind of amusement parks. Just that here, it's cooler, bigger and people are more into such entertainments. There, we met up with Shuxian, Yizhen and Xinli and Co and Yibin, Gabriel and her girl also... Let's see if how the Munich Fruehlingsfest compares to this later when I get back...

I had my FIRST big ROLLER COASTER ride! I get to sit at the front. I want to try it again!!! Bwahaha! Oh manz.... It was exhilarating! We saw a couple of other rides that we wouldn't definitely see at all in Singapore but probably like in Japan or Malaysia. Dangerous and heart-gripping ones.... And of course, dizzy ones... Those that were out to make you puke... Ewwww..

Most importantly, there's food here. There's this thing called "Schokoladefruechte", basically means "chocolate fruits". I bought a banana dipped in thick chocolate, it was so so sweet! LOLX! Then there was an apple dipped in candy; pure candy. Huixian couldn't finish it. I doubt I could too. HAHA! To think she wanted to hold her stomach to buy one. Feuerwurst ('fire hotdog') tastes good too and there is roasted peanuts (gebrat Erdnuesse) and almonds (Mandeln)!

We stayed till late then we adjourned to a local typical German pub. Where they give out free peanuts at midnight and sparklers. Where we met this hapless man on his bachelors' night; yes he is getting married next week. He was made to buy underwears from the female customers in the pub!! haha... Yizhen and Gabriel's girlfriend were sporty enough to give him theirs for 20 bucks each. There is Ti Pin signing on the guy's T-shirt for Yizhen. Poor guy. And he said his wife is probably doing some other crazy thing as well.

It was hella day AND night.

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.

A Pleasant Surprise

It's a wonderful day today. Met nice professors, nice people at TUM Garching campus. Hopefully, people would be as helpful and friendly as them...

Evening came back to a pleasant surprise: a belated birthday card from my long lost primary school friend, Russell! You cannot imagine how over the moon I was. We were best friends in primary 4 and lost contact after we were streamed to different classes thereafter. So it's 14 years! Can you believe it, almost a decade and a half! OMG! And he dint send it from Singapore wo, he sent it from Australia... That was sweet... Ok I am touched.... Very touched... And what astounded me was the fact that he found me via Friendster! And there I was thinking Friendster was some Thing that nobody uses anymore. Haha.... Ok Uma and Leeanna go ahead and gloat.

Pasted the card together with my Neuschwanstein postcard beside my bed's wall... I felt really really really blessed suddenly :p

Russell if u are reading this, THANKS A MILLION! Really made my day. We will definitely catch up when u graduate and come back from Australia. You can count on that!

Oh and check out the sunset scene from my room... This is the moment when you just stand by the window, look out and just breathe in the view. Life is always still full of good things, unexpected or not, isn't it?