new year resolutions

okay so there's only a little more than an hour left of 2008, plus an extra second of course, and i've made decisions for the coming year.

it'll be another major year like last year, yes, a's.

so, in 2009, steph will:

study hard.
play hard.
取之社会，用之社会。

and i'll be ready for yog, olympic syllabus or not.

shadow of the day

omg i just realised linkin park was filling up the void during my time in germany. minutes to midnight, almost the entire album.

alena always played this particular cd while driving, sometimes she'll skip songs cuz she knows i don't like screamo, and it turns out the rest of the tracks i've been listening to was those songs.

and the radio station has been bombarding those songs too. whoah.

now "shadow of the day" brings me back to the dark roads of biebertal. not because there're no streetlamps (though there really aren't), but because the day's really short and we always go out in the dark and return home in the dark.

where everybody keeps right and the road has no markings and sometimes we'll see animals at the side of the road (alive, of course), and alot of times i'll look out and see snowy land(: and christel would have to keep switching her fog lights on and off because they're on only when there are no cars coming the opposite direction.

merry christmas!

here's a
very merry christmas to everyone!

You Are Merry and Spontaneous

You approach the holidays with joy and playfulness. You refuse to let the holidays be stressful. They should only be about fun. The holidays truly make you feel like a kid again. And you believe it's your job to make everyone else feel like a kid too! Of all the types, you're the most likely to give someone a gift early... because you can't wait. You're also the most likely to wrap your presents quickly - or not at all.

The Wrapping Paper Test

xmas quizzes

You Can Say "Merry Christmas" in 11 Languages

You can say "Merry Christmas" in: English Spanish Japanese Arabic German Italian Swedish Portuguese Dutch Korean Esperanto

How Many Languages Can You Say "Merry Christmas" In?

Your Elf Name Is: Buddy Sugar Butt

Son of a nutcracker!

What's Your Elf Name?

You Are Comet

A total daredevil, you're the reindeer with an edge! Why You're Naughty: You almost gave Santa a heart attack when you took him sky diving Why You're Nice: You always make sure the sleigh is going warp speed

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

You Are a Shortbread Cookie

You are very realistic about yourself and the world. You aren't much for dreaming or fantasizing... you're happy with your life as is. More than most people, you appreciate the value of hard work. And when the work day is done, you're all about simple pleasures.

What Holiday Cookie Are You?

You Will Get Three French Fries

Twelve babies drumming Eleven snowmen a-melting Ten reindeer a-leaping Nine ladies baking cookies Eight llamas a-milking Seven fruitcakes a-festering Six drunks a-drinking Five golden toe rings Four calling telemarketers Three French fries Two stale fruit cakes And a owl in a pine tree

What Will You Get for the 12 Days of Christmas?

so many things, so little words.

todayyyyyy.

sebas and i went out and saw this guy with a ridiculous shirt. it had "The Blue Sky" in german, printed in big fonts, front and back. A big photo of the sky with clouds was printed in front, and both front and back had a scientific description of the sky. in german.

i bet if it was in english the guy won't buy that shirt. and a clever guess tells me he doesn't understand german.

we had a three-hour lunch at seoul garden. i'm lucky my boyfriend's a rubbish dump. like my dad, whatever food we can't finish/don't like, just give him.

ehh my boyfriend cooked for me okay, you have anot. lol.

we headed to ikea after lunch cuz my mom wants me to get ice cream scoops. the thing you use to scoop ice cream, not scoops of ice cream.

and i went home to hear stories collected from my mom from her trip to ntuc today. (:

):

i don't want to be j2 yet.

fllllllllllll. is coming soon.

haven't been blogging regularly since i returned. facebook's unveiling more and more interesting stuff.

my beedle bard from u.s. is arriving soon.

completed my giessen austausch thingo. i bought a postcard from each place i went to, and if i couldn't then at least i'll have the tickets/coasters. so i put them altogether in an ikea frame that i went to buy with sebas. now i'll just have to wait for my dad to borrow a power drill so that it can be nicely displayed on my darker pink wall.

weien just forwarded me the youth partner activity schedule. the police wants us to do work on 31 dec. idk, my ultra huge yp shirt makes me not want to draw any connection with those people in navy blue uniform. there's an exhibition on tomorrow, i havn't decided whether or not i should turn up.

and...for those of you who are waiting to know my progress in holiday homework. i swear i'm telling the truth. i haven't even completed my chem bonding worksheet. i gave up on math. memorising organic chem equations hasn't gone past the first two.

one last thing. i'm already got clothes for cny.

schokolade.

so erm. i haven't got down to posting my germany pictures and alot of people have. including alena. i'll do it tomorrow. unless i die in my sleep or a terrorist bombs my block later.

i'm still happily diminishing my supply of germany chocs after every meal. and during random times of the day.

and my mom found my grapefruit labello while washing my fleece jacket. (:

sggggggg.

i'm back. but i left my pink grapefruit labello in the plane.

deutschland, tage 13

day eleven. we were supposed to attend regular lessons with our hosts but alena and sören and tabea had they're first hour off, so i was allowed to sleep in. then we visited aliceschule, a berufschule. it's a kind of school where they teach you specific trades, so after you grad you can go to work straightaway. kinda like ite and poly mixed.

we went to bake plätzchen. a kind of cookies. and we almost literally only did the baking part. oh wait. no. we din't even put it into the oven.

the dough was already made for us, one part sugar two parts butter three parts flour, and all we had to do was cut them into shapes and put onto baking trays, then take them to the baking room where a teacher would take over and put them into the oven.

and when everthing was done, we decorated the cookies. and ate them.

i was grouped with chuyun and shiru with an aliceschule student michelle, and we backed 90 cookies altogether. but just before everything was packed into small plastic bags for us to bring back, i think only half were left.

michelle was very funny. when we first started i wanted to roll one third of the dough. as in, flatten with a rolling pin. so i broke off one third of the dough, and she said, no, if you want to do, you have to do everything.

then i divided the rest among chuyun and shiru and we did everything together.

the cookies we made were two layered ones. the first layer is a full circle, and you put another donut shaped one on it after jam is put on the bottom piece. so in total we cut 180 little dough circles.

we had to put icing sugar on top, and i put alot on one to make it look nice, then michelle came over and tapped the cookie on the tray sideways, emptying the sugar. and she said, no, too much. this is enough.

lol.

then we copied a recipe for a kind of cookie than was "invented" by one of the teacher's mom. it's like fruitcake, but in cookie for. not nice, imo. but alena's mom liked it.

and for lunch us sg students had "authentic" german food. we were given knödel, which i don't like, and a kind of meat we couldn't tell was what (but tasted like duck but was too big to be duck)

and herderschule kids were given schnitzel and fries. envy much.

after everything christel drove me to get chocolates for you hungry singapore people. now my hand carry luggage is full of food.

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day twelve. we drove 2 hours to wiesbaden to get to the ministry of culture of hessen, supposedly to meet the minister.

we had to dress formally, so i borrowed alena's shirt and trousers. i had to stuff the trousers into my boots cuz they were too long. and i wore my own blazer.

so after 120 minutes of torture in the bus and a very long muddy route to the ministry, the people who talked to us (i have no idea who they really are) told us that the minister was out station.

so we listened to them talk, exchanged presents and got a file with stuff each, and we left.

and all these were done in 15 minutes. wunderbar. wonderful.

then we went to their parliament house. half of the place, okay maybe 90% of it, was kept in the olden state, with nice wall and ceiling paintings and nice floors and furniture. and when you step out of the music room, you enter the present. everything is modern. so one side of the door is the old kind, and the otherside is white and modern.

okay i confess. this trip i haven't been taking alot of photos. i left the job to the people who have nice cameras and can upload them onto facebook. so i can kope them.

and anyway we ate our lunch at the parliament house, where we had bratwurst. with a dessert, a salad, a soup and a drink. i think we were only entitled to the main and a drink, but no big person said anything. not even the dudes at the cashier. (we didn't have to pay)

yep then we visited the opel car factory, where i slept through the video introduction and took a picture with a bicycle taller than me. you know those old ones with the big wheel in front and the small one behind? yeah that.

and i answered a question correctly and got gummy cars.

during breaktime, even though the employees spen their time in the factory, they smoke. so chu yun and i were dying inside, and the tour guide said, "oh yes the smell of oil is quite strong here." and we were trying to explain to him that it's the smoke and not the oil, but he didn'e quite get it. chu yun says maybe he smokes too.

but almost everbody does over here.

and back at home we ate spaghetti that's one metre long. i helped cook the sauce.

and for desserts, we tried making crepes. the first two didn't turn out too well, but we got the hang of it and the rest were okay. ate it with haägen daz macadamia nut brittle.

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day thirteen. which is today. we were supposed to reach the radio station at 9.30. but it was snowing so badly there was a horribly stau, traffic jam, on the highways. so we couldn't take the highways at all.

we were meant to leave for frankfurt at eleven, but that was the time we reached the radio station.

and it wasn't anything special. only that they know we come from moelc. (the culture ministry didn't) i guess radio stations are pretty much the same all over.

and at the end i went to the toilet, and when i was out i saw nobody else there. then i saw nicole in her neon jackjet around 100m away from me, outside. so i walked damn fast and caught up with them. had to run the last 50m though, else the bus would have drove off without me. and herr spindler only did head counting when the bus drove off.

so we finally drove to frankfurt. we were given 7 euros each for lunch. i went with wu yang, shanni, xiwen, warren, diana and anusha, and nathalie, and we had bratwurst. in a bun, not like lunch the previous day. then i had a hot chocolate with cream. it had rainbow sprinkles on it, and shiru thought it was cute so she took pictures.

then we took a very short look at the paulskirche, church of paul, and we left. cuy there wasn't much to see.

we were meant to go to the kaisersaal, the king's room, but it was closed for today so we had the rest of the time at the weihnachtsmarkt.

bought presents, then we left frankfurt. with our stuff and us all wet cuy it was raining the whole time.

i left my umbrella in the umbrella bin of a shop. but we got onto the bus early and i was reminded of it by the empty umbrella case that fell out of my bag, so i dragged anusha with me back to the shop. the shopkeeper recognised us.

on the bus, wuyang needed a seat and he didn't want to sit with diana so i talked terms with him. he can sit beside me, but will have to take my bag and not talk. because once he opens his mouth chu yun will walk away and go sit somewhere else. she sits infront of me.

and when we got off the bus i was searching for alena again, and out of the dark she jumped at me from behind, with leau.

now we're leaving the house to go for dinner in a restaurant. tschüs!

deutschland, tage zehn.

well so today's day ten. i skipped two days, and i can't exactly remember what we did.

okay so on friday (it's still sunday here) we went to goethe's house. the area where the events in the book "the sorrows of young werther" took place. and in charlotte's house, which has become a museum, we were only allowed to take three photos each. but nobody cared luh.

oh i rmb which state alr. wetzlar.

and at the weihnachsmarkt there herr spindler saw zucker watter (candy floss) and he was damn excited. turns out he didn't know it existed in sg. he should visit pasar malams. he got a large one for 1.50 euro. the same amt, dom bought in chengdu for 2 rmb.

we baked gingerbread at home. finally i know gingerbread doesn't have ginger content.

and then we cooked chicken rice with the paste thing we bought from the asian supermarket. the chicken was overcooked because everybody was busy with the gingerbread, but the rice turned out quite nice. we didn't have sesame oil, so i substituted with another sort of oil that was green. it tasted a little similar, but the colour was sort of scary. they liked it nevertheless.

then yesterday was the weihnachtsbazar in herderschule. if you're wondering why i keep using that weihnachts word, that's because it means christmas. and christmas is a great deal here.

we had three hours to advertise sg to the students/parents in herderschule. no students came though, at least not the ones we were targetting. 10th graders.

fri evening i told alena's mother, christel, that my duty was from 11-12, but i have t be tehre at ten still. apparently she didn't hear that second part, so went i arrived at the breakfast table the next morning, everything was still and the table was empty. everyone was still in bed.

and alena only reached home at 4.15 that morning after a birthday party that i was invited to go but couldn't cuz i'm under eighteen.

but luckily the grandma was up alr, so she woke the mom. and she looked very flustered as she asked me if i wanted a tea, then explained to me that we won't eat breakfast at home because the weihnachtsbazar sells alot of food, so that's where we'll settle breakfast. i had a donut nevertheless.

the sg video they were showing in the room was dated 2001. the resolution was lousy. herr spindler got it from stb, and they said it was the latest.

halfway through we sang a birthday song for herr spindler. chu yun and her host maria baked a cake for him. so herr spindler's only one year younger than my mom.

after my duty time we went to the gießen weihnachtsmarkt. we had original thüringer there. it's a brötchen with a super long grilled sausage. damn nice, 2.50 euro.

then we walked around but didn't really get anything because even according to alena, the weihnachtsmarkt things are quite ex.

but we went to the fußgangerzone to buy clothes.

and a while after we reached home, we had to leave again for alena's grandaunt's birthday party. she is seventy years old and has hearing aids in both ears. but she looks much younger.

the food was okay, and fried stuff, like in all buffets, turned a little soggy. my schintzel was quite hard to cut. pork cutlet.

and i tried malt beer. didn't like it. it's supposed to be kids beer, cuz it's alkoholfrei.

then alena and i went home first cuz we were both very tired. i heard papa and mama come home though.

this morning i had one crossiant with five fillings. i discovered a really nice ham.

and at noon we left for the atta-höln. where there are very nice rock formations underground. but the trip there was like, one and a half hours.

we had lunch there, and i ordered herringsfilet. i thought it would be at least steamed, otherwise fried. it came somewhat raw, like sashimi. cold. and very salty. and there were three of them.

but i liked the bratkartoffel that came with it. that was the only reason why i chose that particular item anyway. i only ate one filet, but i cleared the potato.

while waiting for the tour to start, we went to the shop. i was looking ard thinking of what to get for people after we come out. but when we did, the shop was closed. but christel said she'll bring me there another day. and the trip to and fro used half of the car's gas.

regarding what's in the cave. it's wet. beause the rock formations are made from rainwater that seep underground to leave behind small particles, which form rock over time. every ten years, one mm of rock is formed. so what's in the cave is millions of years old. stones and crystals. we spotted a rabbit, a polar bear, a bird and a castle.

go google atta-höln if you want to see pictures. that's where i will get them anyway.

then we went home and alena suddenly realised she was late for her dance class. so we drove over, and her dad was at a speed of 186km/h on the autobahn. expressway. we dropped tabea off at leau's house, then went over to the dance school.

dad was the dance partner. they did stuff like cha cha, foxtrot, waltz...yeah. and i watched for one and a half hours. it was quite interesting actually, and the teacher's quite nice. and the other students don't dao you like people in sg will. they smiled at me everytime they danced past me, and one even spoke to me.

then we went to pick tabea up and home we went, to dinner of baked potato. there were two sauces, one was cream with chilli, cucumber, onions and garlic, and the other one was yoghurt sauce. i liked the one with the chilli, but the garlic scares me.

maybe christel will drive me to the atta höln tmr, cuz we'll be driving to get chocolates. for you people in sg.

amd günter, the dad, drove specially to a friend's house to get me the newspaper cutting of sg students' visit to gießen.