A 'Movie''' X-m-a-s

When it's cold, freezing and too slippery to walk outside... It also means it is a perfect time for inhouse movies!! Germany broadcaster is definitely overly generous with good films on such an occasion. Imagine with cable, you could have more than 2 or 3 good movies going on at the same time at various different channels. And well all in GERMAN...

I caught an incomplete version of Aschenputtel (Cinderella, heard it's more the original version compared to the Hollywood kinda), also incomplete version of Vanilla Sky (starring Tom Cruise. Well it is a bit complicated to understand the story, even more in German:S), incomplete version of Sleepy Hollow (I really like this movie, I don't understand why people do not appreciate such "horror" films;))... The Whole Ten Yards (starring Bruce Willis, an OK killer-plot-comedy), Nightmare before Christmas (by Tim Burton, lovely songs but why in german:(((() and Wasabi (French-Japanese-Combi can be quite an eye-opener and a good laugh). Ooo, if you wonder why it's incomplete, it was because I didn't watch it from the beginning... only caught it half-way or something. :))

Oh I did caught bits and pieces of an OLD (really old) film starring Bruce Lee. It was quite funny to watch a "Chinese" film in German, but I fell asleep... it was already 2am so...

A 'White''' X-m-a-s

Imagine the beautiful white snow falling outside the window... you watch as the flakes drift about in the air before it lands on the warm ground and melts away... They seem like little insects flying all over, but they gave your skin such a tickle that you will shiver with its tenderness. You hold out your hands hoping to collect enough for a little snowball, those little flakes quickly condense with your warmth and quickly enough you are infested with his coldness. As your hands fondle the white snow laying all over, they are soon stinging from the numbness. Your poor fingers feel like they will break apart from that tightness, yet your little fanaticism has kept you going... and going.... and

... daaaa.....ng...

Du meine Güte!

Ich habe zu viele Schokolade erhalten. Ich wirdewerde zu dick werden.

As I was saying in German, I have received a lot of chocolates... this is going to be a FAT christmas for me:(

~ * Warmest greetings to Üuuuu * ~

No white christmas this year again... another warm Christmas day probably because it also means with the warmest greetings;)

For all of those whom are not in my emailing list, for whatever reason -- most likely, I haven't got your email address or it is not in my address book just yet... hereby, wishing you and friends/ family/ loved onessssss...


A superb time getting fat with all the festive goodies & a big feast...
A better new 2006 ahead with more things accomplished...
Wishing most of you an enjoyable time exchanging presents...
OR receiving "ang pao" from parents, grandparents...


p.s: "ang pao" means $$$$$ in the Chinese tradition...

Oh, so sad...

I didn't manage to win the bid on the Fisheye camera!!:( But I had my highest bid up and someone more stupid than me actually got it for €35 (plus postage) when the new one with 2 year guarantee costs only €5 more... yes, with postage included. I only wanted to pay a maximum of €25 for a second hand one, now I think I might as well save that for a new one!!

I'm also thinking of purchasing a new digital camera, my best travel companion Canon Powershot S30 has accompanied for over 3 years or 4... now it is old and a little crippled. But it still works. I guess it is time to hunt for a new one at the next PC fair in Singapore;)

Guess what...

It snowed today... just after I was complaining in the last entry. It is not the first encounter with snow, but this time it wasn't brief. Not just a minute nor just a passing moment. It was snowing exactly for some time. It is beautiful!!

Fortunately, we have a small balcony where I can always dash out for a shower in the flakes. For a lot of people in Singapore whom have not encountered snow, they are little "ice flakes". Remember those nice snowflake "design" you always encounter as a christmas font or an ornament, just like the one I show below... If you carefully examine one that falls on you, you can see that it looks exactly like it. How magical_{*********************}

It is snowing, it is snowing, it is snowing, it is snowing... hurrrayyyyyyyy.... YES,YES,YES!!! Wooooweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....

Describe a bad winter day

The wind is blowing hard, the trees swaying like they are dancing... I can hear the howling through the thick window panels that are shielding me from the horrible cold. The pot of plant in the balcony that I pity, is trembling like a nude beggar in the street. So defenseless. The currents in the water surging like they can sweep you along effortlessly. I fear to stand like those trees with the wind piercing into my face, the coldness seeping through every leakage in my layered clothing. It rained so hard that you could hear those splattering against the glass. I can't believe how nice and warm it is to be in a house now, sitting by the heater and sipping hot tea.

The sky is so blue, yet the wind is killing, the christmas songs are singing yet the Santa is not here, the tea is turning cold yet I am still feeling cold, it is winter yet why isn't it snowing!!!!!!!!!!

Zertifikat

I received my certificate for the German Language Level A1. It says, "1.3" for the grade. I guess this is the overall grade inclusive of the oral examination then! I didn't expect I'd be so good... It was a lot of stress, a lot of fun and a nice experience to do it in Germany itself. Let's hope it comes to good use later on;)

Lomo for Luna-me

My craziness over Lomo cameras recently has a relapse!! I was once fascinated by the artistic pictures these cameras could take, but wasn't keen enough to buy one. But these few days, I accidentally chanced upon one of the Lomo cameras again. And.... this is going to be serious. I want one!!

Check out Lomography.

I am aiming for the Fisheye Lomo now. It does absolutely adoring shots... how can I not love it;) Hope to bid it at eBay. I don't know if it is a designer point of view, some people think these are just toys or a stupid infatuation with these things. I think I am infatuated somehow!

Nürnberg, my 2nd Luv

The best in Bavaria!!!!

I am not kidding, people whom like to see Germany should make a "must go" destination to the Bavaria part of Germany. Nürnberg is the only city down there that I've been to, I really like to see München too but didn't have the money and time permitting. However, thanks to Nürnberg, Bavaria has since left a deep impression and I definitely like to see more again. Then thinking of it again, it could be the Christmas festive that does so much for the city too - it certainly has the atmosphere.

My favourity city still remains Edinburgh (in the UK & Ireland) and now I've to categorize another of my favourties... My favourite city in Germany is Nürnberg. I'll do a brief summary of what we did there;)

On the first night, Angela and her brother whom flew from London met us up, so did one of Flo's buddy. It was a good crowd, we done the Christkindlesmarkt and showed off our big appetite!! Kartoffelpuffer, Fleischkäse, Lebkuchen, Nürnberger Würstchen, Kirsch Gluhwein, Heidelbeere Gluhwein... It was really fun going around eating and eating... no wonder I have a tummy now:( Then we proceeded to 2 pubs later on to have a little drink.

The second day was mainly sightseeing: Kaiserburg and its museum, which is already fascinating without entering. The guided tour in the castle was in German, even though I have since learned a bit, it didn't help me enough to understand:( Next, Lochgefängnisse is where they used to held prisoners. This one is more visually entertaining and you can imagine how they were locked up, tortured and had to live and shit in a confined space. On the last day, we visited Dokumentation Zentrum where they showcase the history about Hilter, the Nazis, the poor Jews... It was a tedious audio guided tour, it took us a couple of hours but not much went into my head. It shows that I'm not so much of a HISTORY person;)

We also had a traditional pub lunch, Eisbein mit Sauerkraut. OH MY GOD, yummy but fatty!!! This is the occasion you should give up all the sausages for such a delicacy!! The second night was followed by endless eating at the Christkindlesmarkt again.

On the last day right after the "historic sightseeing", his friend brought us to Adidas warehouse. As he is an intern with Adidas Germany, we get 30% off the usual price in the warehouse, got priority to enter the employee's shopping arena where the latest Adidas fashion is. What an opportunity eh!!! Don't be too envious because Adidas stuffs afterall aren't cheap (in Euros somemore!). I did bought myself a "cool" bermudas, cool in the sense that it's thin and good for hot weather! Not for this winter. And... a top as well, which looks more fashionable than practical - this is the problem with girls. They always prefer pretty things to practical ones;)

Just an hour before we left Nürnberg, his friend had a surprise for us (such a darling). He got us both a free pair of shoes each - from Adidas, of course. Now you've the rights to be jealous. But for your consolation, the size of the shoes are not the right fitting as they are sample pairs and come in only fixed sizes for men and women. Mine is only half a UK size bigger so I figure I can manage with thick socks, hehe... Afterall it is better to be bigger than smaller!!

My little story of Nürnberg has come to an end, hope you've enjoyed ;)

Surprising results =)

I was grieving over my test the whole of yesterday, after counting and realizing a couple of stupid mistakes. Yet today, a miracle happened;)

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

We had a oral test with our teachers in group (me and two other students together). Surprisingly, one student who just finished before us came forward and told me," Hey Trixy, die Prüfung, du hast eins komma sieben punkte!" I didn't understand initially how the grades work... I think it wasn't as bad as I thought. And when we entered the room for our oral test (think this will contribute to the final score), we had a short conversation to test how fluently we could speak. I made a few mistakes but I just had to, instead of staying mute. The teachers then revealed our results to us...

I scored 1.7, so did the other guy in my group. And the highest grade someone scored for this test is actually 1.7, but of course that person is not me. But I'm glad enough, in fact overwhelmed by my results. We have a total score of 70 for the paper, and I got 62.5. Ahh, so much better than I predicted. The girl who scored the highest actually got 73 out of 80 (but they are in the faster class so they had 10 questions more than us in the same test). So we can't really compare.

Fehler, fehler... fehler...

People always copy because they are in search of the right answers... however I am getting all the wrong ones :(((((

Fehler deutsch = Mistake english

Copying is also a Fehler!!! Sobs.... But it has to be my fault, can't blame the guy who has kindly offered me his answers... can I? He's so kind to share, yet he's giving me his mistakes as well. So now we can be wrong together. LOL. OK, in case you are lost somewhere. I am talking about the German test I had this morning. I just realized a lot of stupid mistakes... A few times I wrote EXACTLY the right answers and I choose to edit them. So now, more fehler!!! Stupid me :(((

For e.g. there's the feminine, masculine and neutral for the nouns... this particular word I had the correct gender but I was hesitating between the two (female or neutral). I decided to ask my neighbour ;) He shrugged but finally reluctantly chose the former. So I followed along... haizzzz. I need to bang my head on the wall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously....

I'm not kidding....

Seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously I think my brain is rusting after years of leaving school.

I can't seem to remember words. Teach me how to memorize.

Kinder Mix for a "kind"... like me

This is for my countdown to this year's Christmas ;) With 6 Überrachungeier!!!
Actually I would prefer the one with 24 x Kinder Surprise, but not good to get so FAT for xmas ;)

A happy Friday

Besides the fact that I am going to have my Deutsch test in 4 days' time... I had a pretty pleasant week. School is fine, it makes all my time disappearing too fast -- wonder if that is good or bad!! One, it kills the boredom that usually bugs me when I have nothing to do. Second, I am learning something new and perhaps useful. Thirdly, I am running out of time for my own leisure -- taking things at my own pace, e.g. reading... and picking up new skills, thinking about improving my illustration!!

Oh ya, before I run too far away from my topic today, I was saying about "A happy Friday". My new friend, from Taiwan, joined me for lunch at the Mensa (Uni. canteen). Let's call her Lily. She's very easy-going and I think we hit off pretty well. She met Flo, my bf, and now there's at least someone I can speak to, gossip with... practise my Mandarin and German with. How nice! We used Mandarin on MSN and I enjoyed it, though I had to pause for some seconds thinking up the "han yu pin ying" for the Chinese characters. The fact that most of my Singaporean friends do not feel comfortable writing and reading Chinese made me lost touch with it. But now, it's back on!!

Hurrayyyyyy!!!

I hope my new friendship with Lily is something fruity, merry and jolly... ;) I'm not pinning hope about making a long-lasting friendship but it can be nice to find someone you can get along after over a year of constantly being on the move.

p.s: BTW, Blog-city, I agree too you did a really fantastic job on the text editor menu :))) Now it is far more flexible. Thumbs up!