Yoohoo.

The corner of my room that is my point of contact to the rest of the world :) You can see Lyd's calendar sitting on the right side. And oh that's my new mug with orange polka dots! Hehe. Out the curtain is a path that leads to an adjoining hostel block, and it's really quiet most times.

What other details in my photo can you spot?

"Brace, Brace"

Today was a big headache for me. You see, today we had this talk about our course selection as exchange students. It turns out it's one big complicated process, bounded by many rules and administrative schtick. The British love their forms, and everything requires you to fill out a form. Maybe they just love paper, or they just love seeing words on paper. Maybe it turns them on or something. I don't know.

So it turns out my initial plan to count 4 pass/fails on exchange may actually be foiled, and I can only count 3, seeing as how the Management school here has this stupid rule that insists you take the majority of your courses within the school. I can't find any Marketing or Corp Comm electives within the courses we're allowed to take (which is only the year 3 courses), except for 1 course. But that one course (brand communication) is already fully subscribed. So there is a good chance I won't be getting it at all.

BAH. But okay it's not the worst situation to be in - I can still graduate in time and all that. I'm just fed up with their complicated course application system - makes me so thankful for BOSS. Heh.

Marc seems to be having so much fun on his exchange, going out almost every night, socialising and doing plenty of fun things. I'm so jealous because in contrast we're having a very quiet time here in Bath, with nights in and hardly much bonding among exchange students. Am I being mean for getting jealous?... Oh well it's not that I don't want him to have fun - of course I want him to have a grand time (as long as he doesn't forget about me!), but I'm just feeling a bit sorry for us at the moment. It's really really hard to make friends with even the people on our floor - because they are just not interested to include you in their plans, or invite you along when they go out. If it's hard with your own floor, imagine the rest of the exchange students who don't stay near you at all. Now imagine the rest of the school. HARDER.

Hopefully things over here look up soon. Today we had our first informal tea session and met a couple people; next Friday there is a series of social gatherings for exchange students that sound like a lot of fun. So let's hope things improve from here, or else I'll really turn purple as a grape from being so jealous. Hehe.

Oh by the way we realize the sports course offered at Bath is really popular. As a result there are plenty of what Americans would call 'jocks' everywhere. So it's pretty good in that every other male Bath university student (and well the females too I guess but who cares) is fit, strapping and average to above average looking. Hehehe. But what the hell, like I told Joycey, these Brit boys probably think I'm a PRC...boy. :( :( :( Not like they'll ever ever look my way. Boooohoo.

Omg my room is really freezing. Even though I've shut every opening in the room, the room is still very drafty. I hope my damn heater works in winter. And that they turn on heating soon dammit. brrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Yawnnnn.

Aaaaahhh. It's 9.30am here, and I just crawled out my warm comfortable bed not long ago. But the first night I got here - which is two nights ago - was a very different story.

The mattress we got is covered in this queer, stiff plastic cover, so after lining my mattress with my old sheets, they kept 'sliding' out of position revealing the plastic cover while I slept. Oh, and the pillow and duvet given to me by Housekeeping was SO BAD. Seriously. Both bore the smell of its previous user, who must have accumulated months of OIL GLAND SECRETIONS on it, because it smelled veryvery male and veryvery bad. But because by the time I discovered this housekeeping had closed (they get off work at 5pm), I couldn't do anything about it till this morning. So I used rolled-up PJs as a pillow, and grudgingly used the blanket, but not before spritzing it with my L'Occitane fragrance. Didn't sleep too well, as you'd imagine. Oh, and it was so cold I was curled up as a prawn all night too :|

Thankfully they had my pillow and sheets replaced this afternoon, and they're fresh and new and soft and clean. :) So yesterday night I slept MUCH better. And I also bought this lovely purpley-blue fleece blanket from Roseby's which kept me warmer.

Now I'm webcamming my sister and Joycey and I can hear them giggling away. SO FUN! I loves them :)

Flickr Instead.

H'lo guys, I know I promised a photo update here, but I realised it's much easier to upload everything to my Flickr Account. Please do visit there to look through my photos - they all have captions, so it's kind of a pictorial journey through what my experience in Europe was like. :)

Enjoy!

Rome Peekchurs.

Me at the Colosseum. It was blistering hot and packed with tourists, so much of its grandeur was lost on me.


Although on the outside, it does look pretty awesome in the light, eh? :)


The Roman Forum was a beautiful ancient archaelogical site, that included the homes of rich men, as well as several temples and important buildings in the Rome of centuries gone by. There was a temple dedicated to Julius Caesar there, built years after his death to commemorate where Marc Anthony delivered his famous speech and where Caesar's body was burnt.


Yang and me.


Heh heh. Did I shock you? This is some Cosmo UK magazine that we found in our hostel room, left by the previous owner. The hostel cleaners left the magazine on my bed, leaving it open at this particular page! How cheeky if it was intentional; how amusing if it was unintentional.

Bath.

And so we finally got here.

Bath is a very very pretty city perched on a hillside - and I never knew this till I got here. It's a scenic spa town turned rich man hangout, apparently. The weather here is sort of like London's, cold and chilly with some sunshine. Today is my second day in Bath, and it's been threatening rain all day. In the afternoon it was so windy my poor lemon cake (in hand) almost got blown away in crumb-sized pieces. Well, it was crumbly cake I guess.

Our first day in Bath was bad. Highlight of the day (if not for dragging our luggages till my hands were both blistered) : some ang moh guy flung one of those tiny milk cartons you get with cups of tea or coffee, out of his truck window, which sploshed a strip of milk nicely across my chest. Was it on purpose? Yes, all three of us think so. His timing was too impeccable for it not to have been, and besides the street was totally empty but for three of us, so he could have chosen to fling it out any other time than when we were passing by.

I was so shell-shocked when that happened I totally froze. No way, I thought. Did he really do that to me? And there was nothing I could do, because by the time I'd turned around his truck was already far down the road. So I just picked out tissue paper from my bag, calmly wiped myself off, and told the rest I'm fine. We continued walking as if it didn't happen. But inside I was crumbling. Some welcome to Bath. Later when I called my mum to tell her I was here, I had to hold back the sound of tears in my voice. I missed home so bad then.

Thankfully today there were no racist attacks on the way home, ahem ahem. Heh. But I guess now everytime I walk home I heave a sigh of relief then, that I get home un-milk-splattered. I mean, I'm trying to see light of the situation, which Joycey was clearly trying to do when I told her about it. She laughed really really hard when I told her I was a milk carton target in Bath. She found that genuinely funny, and I love her for that. Thanks for making me laugh at it too, Joyceykins. You da man.

I miss everyone back home. Having my own room here in Bath is nice, indeed, but it also makes you feel really alone. Sure, Mon and Yang are just across the hallway from me. But when you're alone in your room sometimes it just gets hard. Lyd's calendar sits proudly on my desk, and on it are several photos she pasted on it, of me her Ritz Neil and even Marcus. It is currently my sole source of homely comfort, and just makes me feel nice inside to know my friends are still there. Even when I get back home.

I am in my room now, freezing to the bone. My feet and hands are chilly, and I'm already wearing a sweater and jeans. Using the internet finally feels so damn good though. :)

Following this post will be a pictorial update, some choice pics from London, Barca, Paris, Venice and Rome. Just for you guys :) Enjoy!

Where's My Latin Lover On A Vespa?

I thought Europe was going into Autumn, but clearly in Rome, summer is still in full force. We melted today under the Roman sun. It was HOT. Hotter than Singapore, I dare say. My skin is still burning from the heat outside. Because at least in Singapore you can escape into the cool confines of an air-conditioned space every 100m you go. But here it's just wide open space most of the time. And indoors there is at best a fan or weak airconditioning. Meh.

Well, at least the sights made up for it. We went to the Colosseum, the Palatino and the Roman Forum today. These are areas of historical ruin dating back to BC, and much of what is left isn't very grand anymore. But nonetheless it was cool to have been standing where ancient Romans might have stood centuries and centuries ago. The huge flood of tourists kind of turned me off though, because I felt it took away some of the grandeur and sanctity these spaces should have.

We were lucky today - it's apparently Europe Heritage Day today and tomorrow, so we got free entry into the Colosseum and the Forum! Aweeesome. Hehe. Tomorrow we'll get to see the Vatican for free too, because 1) its the last Sunday of the month, and 2) its the Heritage Day thingy. Which is good because I am seriously running short of Euros.

Oh my god in Europe everywhere I turn there are boobs. Boobs boobs boobs. Everyone has huge boobs. It's horrific. These ang mohs must think I am prepubescent or something, thanks to my less-than-generous bosom. BAH. :( Yeah, this is what they call boob envy.

Heh. Okay. Now that I got that out of my system.

The traveling trio has slowed down to snail pace. We returned to the hostel around 4pm because we just couldn't suffer the heat anymore, and we're all tired and ready to settle down somewhere. Jeez. I'm really counting down the days till we return to London. 1 more day only!

Oh, and by the way, till now we still haven't spotted any really hot Italian men. I saw like one on the street that day, wearing a suit, looking all fly, but I bet if I looked down at his feet (was too preoccupied with his handsome face) he was probably wearing the wrong shoes or something. :( They all are kind of tubby most of the time. 'Tis a myth! I am somewhat disappointed I guess.

Okay I'm really tired now and starting to get hungry. Blog again tomorrow, maybe! Ciao bella.

My Random Roman Observations

I wanted to record down observations about the people here in Rome, just so I won't forget. So here it is. :) Hope it's not too convoluted for you.

Language is very round and lyrical, full of sing-song lilting. Often spoken at breakneck pace, with plenty of gesturing around. Fashion sense is more toward the tacky side, as compared to places like Barcelona and Paris. People are rather curt and rude if you don't speak English, but then you meet the occasional lovely friendly one.

Food of choice is often pizza, sandwiches or pasta. They seriously live off this stuff every day, it's unbelievable. McDonald's here is the same price, except in Euros. But they do like their food fast - lunch is often a panini and a coffee grabbed over the counter in ten minutes. You pay more if you want to sit down and enjoy it al fresco. Gelato stores are everywhere, and most of them are pretty decent.

Women seem to favor the tan, dark-haired, dark-featured look here. They're very curvy, you hardly see anything less than a B-cup over here. And their figures sure do go awry with age man... So in a way I'm thankful for the small boobs I have. But only to a certain extent (I am very aware of how unattractive I must appear to the caucasian male - no boobs, skinny, short hair).

Romans drive like mad people. They don't respect pedestrian crossings that do not have a traffic light, even if you are already beginning to cross. I guess this reflects a culture that is rather self-centred and brash, a culture where 'I'm always right and who gives two fucks about you uh'. Heh.

What also reflects this is how everyone litters everywhere, there is spit and dog poo on the streets, and you often find piles of puke around street corners (okay, that more of reflects a strong alcohol culture heh). And you smell pee along streets a LOT. It's kind of appalling, the standard of hygiene here.


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And I can't wait to get home!!!!

As The Romans Do In Rome

Buongiorno one and all!

I know it's been a long time since I last blogged, and boy have I missed sharing my thoughts here. :) Since my last post, I have been through Paris and Venice. Now we're in Rome, and the time is 11.03pm.

We arrived at the hostel a few hours ago, and the traveling has kind of got to our bones. Our hostel is called Alessandro Palace near Termini Station, and as we found out, our rooms were hardly palatial. They're clean, yes, but also very cramped, and there is no elevator. Thank goodness our room is on the second storey (which is actually the third floor from the ground, but oh well). Internet at the hostel also isn't free, and I find that a huge pain in the arse. And this stupid internet room is really warm and stuffy and noisy. As you can already tell, I don't quite like this place already.

But first, let me tell you about Venice. Venice is so perfectly scenic. I loved it. In fact, I'd say Yang and Mon had a grand time in Venice too, because it was so picturesque, with the quaint old buildings and the canal roads. I mean, come on, you don't have taxis, you have water taxis. And everywhere you go, there are cute little bridges for pedestrian crossings. Seriously, how can you not be charmed?

OH! And you know what, no one pays for their bus rides in Venice. We stayed at this residential suburb on the mainland (away from those canals and stuff so we had to take a bus into the mainland), and each time we noticed locals don't really bother paying for their bus fares. Soon we were doing the same. Free bus rides - and the buses are pretty new and clean too. AWESOME! Hehe.

I must say I imagined Venice to be really cliche and postcard-cheesy, but I really fell for it hard. For all its touristy shazzam and schtook, Venice at its heart is still purely romantic. Anyway, I promise to post pictures once I have my laptop in Bath.

Paris, on the other hand, was... sigh. :) It was lovely meeting up with Marc, although it was in the beginning a little weird... suddenly you have someone's hand to hold, a cheek to kiss, that kind of thing. And I wasn't used to seeing him in the flesh. But after a few hours it felt more normal, and I grew to really enjoy having him around. On the second day, Marc and I explored Montmartre on our own (yes! some personal time), the old Bohemian heart of Paris, and took shitloads of photos together. In them we both look blissful. Heh. It's nice. :)

On other days, we went to the Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, and of course we watched the Eiffel Tower light up at 11pm one night. Paris was however marred by the fact that each night, Marc and I had to commute for about an hour and a half to his hostel in Cergy. You see, his roommate agreed to stay in with my friends and take my place in the triple room I shared with them, while I took his place and shared a room with Marcus. Commuting was messy, tiring, draining, and I won't be doing it again if we can help it, because I felt like it took some of the joy out of my enjoying Paris. Oh, and we sort of argued a couple of times on the trip too, probably because we were both tired and edgy. But still. It wasn't so much what we saw or what we did, but that he was there to hold my hand while we walk, return my kisses and hugs, listen while I confide in him, smile at me and look at me the way only he does ... And I miss that already.

But anyways. Moving away from the mushy and onward to the present, tomorrow we'll probably be doing intensive sight-seeing to places like the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and the Villa Borghese. It's funny, I'm tired of traveling somewhat and I want to make my way to Bath and finally settle in (and have my OWN ROOM and OWN BATHROOM!), but I also don't want this jetsetting to end. Heh. Mon says that is good, because in the end it's all balanced out. Maybe she's right.

C - sorry I haven't replied your email! I've read it but yet to have time to reply. Will do so ASAP ya? And Happy Happy birthday to Jemboree :) Big hug. Sorry I can't be there friend!

Okay I'm tired and my credit's fast running out. So as the Italians usually say, arrivederci, darlings! I'll update again soon hopefully.

Don't Say Hello, Say Ola!

Barcelona, Barcelona. :)

We arrived in Barcelona on the 11th, and upon reaching our hostel on Passeig de Gracia, were raring to hit the shops. Until we were told that, um, it was a public holiday that day, and the shops wouldn't be open. Till tomorrow. B-A-H. Bahbahbah.

So our shopping spree had to be postponed till the next day. With no choice, we decided to make our way down La Rambla and explore the streets. La Rambla was bustling and there were many interesting street performers, but we'd been too spoiled by Passeig de Gracia (which is much wider and more scenic than La Rambla, in my opinion), so we weren't exactly impressed. We wandered off and found ourselves at the Cathedral something, and then made our way back to the hostel. Barca is beautiful even at night. We just absolutely dig the architecture here. It is also cleaner and less crowded than London.

The next day was rainy. Not that that affected anything. Mon and I still blew about 100 EUR each, shopping at H&M, Zara, Bershka, and Mango. I think she spent even more than me! Heh. I bought a really cute moss green dress from Zara that really reminds me of something Twiggy would wear back in her heyday, and cool oversized shades from Mango. Oh, and belts from H&M and Bershka, as well as a nice black sweater from H&M. YAY :) Barcelona shopping absolutely kicks ass, because prices are definitely cheaper than back home or London. Yeah yeah excuses excuses... *rolls eyes*

Todayyyy we got up and guess what, it was raining. AGAIN. But we braved it down to Sagrada Familia, and boy oh boy did I not regret it. It was awesome, simply breathtaking (quite literally, too). Having taken the elevator up to the turrets of Sagrada, we had to climb these narrow staircases to the top of the turret. When we got up there, the rain had passed and the sun came out. We took the opportunity to photo-whore like crazy. And if you know me well enough, you know I just don't do photowhore. Like, never. But I DIIID because it was just too nice to pass up the chance. :) Sagrada is grand, really grand. For once since reaching Europe, I felt like I was on an adventure. And that felt rather nice.

After Sagrada we went to the Picasso Museum. Eh, I never knew that dude painted! I always thought he'd just done his Cubist thing, but apparently he does really beautiful still-lifes too. He's awfully talented, and I think it's only because he is so well-versed in painting - such that he understands form and light and planes so well - that he can pioneer Cubism. Wonderful, though I'm too impatient to spend hours in museums.

Tomorrow we leave Barcelona for Paris. And I truly think I will miss Barcelona. It's not been an easy time for the three of us - I met extremely rude staff a lot of the time, who were condescending and curt, and Yang was rather frustrated at me and Mon for shopping so much. Et cetera, et cetera. But I will not forget Barcelona for its beautiful streets and laidback lifestyle. Mmhmm.

I'm crossing my fingers about meeting M tomorrow. It's been a whole month without seeing him - all communications have been mainly through the phone or internet. What will it be like? Will I still be excited to see him? Will it be less fun hanging out than I remember? Will I be really sad when I leave Paris again? Or will I miss having all this 'me' time? Hmmm. We'll see I guess, huh.

Travelling overseas with friends makes me think of New York so much, and I do miss the camaraderie we had there. Dang. Nothing can beat NY I think, and I must stop trying to make this trip measure up to that one. Indeed.

Whoopsiedaisies.

Hello you, from Charing Cross, London! :) I will be blogging about the chronicles of me and my (wonky) knees as they take me (as far as possible) through Europe and UK. Woohoo.

So I've been here in London for a good two days, and so far it's been one tiring trip.

We arrived at Heathrow Airport, all wide-eyed and bushy-tailed - despite enduring an 18 hour journey - hoping to breeze through customs and baggage claims and hit central London. But lo and behold, when we reached the customs, the entire lounge was filled with people, who were busy forming a snaking line around the entire area. We ended up being stuck in queue for two hours. TWO HOURS. Standing in line, picking up and putting down our heavy bags as we moved along at snail's pace. It was a horrendous welcome to London.

After reaching Covent Garden, we met up with my sister and Victor and Daniel (her good friends - LSE students). It was lovely meeting up with them, and especially nice to see my sister (who looked pretty good by the way heh). We had a late late dinner at Chinatown, where Mon and Yang and I were trying extremely hard not to fall asleep in our bowls of rice. By the time we got to Victor's place (where we're staying), it was around 12ish 1. We only managed to sleep at 3am, though. And even then I felt like I didn't really sleep much, thanks to the flattish pillow and the unfamiliar environment. But it was still sweet relief from the hell that is long-distance travel.

Today we visited Westminster, as well as the Riverbank near the London eye. It was really picturesque, and weather was cool and sunny, a good combination. Aside from that we also went to Portobello Market - it's really quaint and interesting, lots of curious little antiques to browse through. Too bad I didn't really manage to buy anything except for a ring (which wasn't even vintage, bah). There were really really nice vintage jewellry that cost like 100 pounds though. BAH. It's ok, tomorrow I will try to hit H&M and Topshop, hopefully I'll find my retail therapy there then.

However, in other news, those knees aren't doing very well. The area between my shins and my knees on both legs are aching as if they are about to break. I have as a result been grumpy, worry-ish and reluctant to walk. But I'm still trying to enjoy London as best I can, except I don't quite see how I can continue walking like that for the next three weeks :S Oy vey.

Ooh now everyone's camped out on Victor's couch, watching Sky TV, which is a Satellite TV network that's real nifty. There's like a million movies you can watch at any one time, like now they have Notting Hill and Star Wars and whatnot. I'm trying really hard to stay awake and think straight as I blog this now. Heh.

The days here move very very fast. Before I know it, the day's over. Time is really precious while you're overseas, I realise. If only I wasn't thinking about certain things that are weighing me down. Sigh.