Hey All!
The wonderful weekend has just passed me by, and what a weekend it was!
I went for a long walk around the Altstadt (or the Innenstadt, where the castle and citywalls are) and got to see how romantic the old german city of Nürnberg is. And when I say romantic, I don't only mean romantic as in the castle is romantic, but as in the very distinct danger of knocking into a couple who just stop suddenly to kiss in the middle of the pavement. They say that Paris is a truly romantic city, I think Nürnberg should be included in the list too.
I did not walk alone, was with my new friend Ioanna (the greek girl, remember?) She was very nice, showing me which sights to take note of and was absent-minded in the endearing way. It was quite funny as both of us couldn't really read maps, so we just went around and around the city, listening to the occasional tour guides and stopping at different sights just to look at the buildings, smell the flowers, have a freshly-baked pretzel or a Nürnberger sausage. It feels wonderful to have a companion at your side again=)
The both of us were on a quest to look for a chinese book so that Ioanna could learn how to speak chinese in 2 weeks, but the Chinese books here are soo expensive! Instead, we found a book teaching tourists how to speak and use Greek, plus the CD, and the entire package was going for 5 euros! I grabbed it. So now I am learning how to speak greek, but frankly, even with Ioanna's explanations, it is all still Greek to me (haha, sorry but I could't help with that pun!) Let's see how much I can learn/ achieve in 2 weeks..haha. Right now I only know the word for 'hallo', or Kalim-ärra. (accent on the ä)
Now I suddenly have lots to do at night:
- watch TV to improve my German
- Learn Greek
- Learn French (i bought the same package too=)
- Write letters back home in Chinese
- write my blog (so sorry if I can't update it as regularly as I want to)
- Improve my cooking
- Go wandering in the woods and pretend to be Gretel (haha!)
- Learn the choral music that I am supposed to be singing with my Landlady in a 4 weeks' time
Feel like I am living the prime of my life =)
After the walk in the city, Ioanna and I met up with a few Chinese students who are studying in Nürnberg for dinner at an Italian restaurant. I ordered pizza, and I really love italian pizzas. Those at pizza hut or other fast-food outlets really cannot compare to a real italian pizza: they look like giant curry puffs, with lotsa cheese in them (to keep all the warmth in, the clever baker folds the pizza into half, they really SHOULD make all pizzas like that, tastes A LOT better this way) and it doesn't feel fat at all, cuz there is no extra oil added. Yummy. But that was not the highlight of the dinner=)
Our companions were really a funny lot of people! They are really very knowledgeable about a lot of things, so I got to learn much from them, and they always mix up some English words, thus I would correct them while they correct my German and Chinese. I even learned something about my hakka roots from them. Hakkas are called ke4 jia1 in chinese, meaning the Guests, because we were basically migrants from North China to South China, and because our dialects sounded different from the Southerners, we were 'guests'. Then, a few hundred years later, our dialect diverged from the original North Chinese dialect, thus our language became something so unique.
Our companions were very very lively. In the middle of our waiting for the dinner, one of them hit a pillar to test if it were made of wood, and as it was made of plaster, it sounded like he was trying to bring the house down (his girlfriend hid in embarrassment, but it was really funny then=) There is a feeling of camaraderie and belonging even when we came from various different lands.
Right, gotta go get my groceries now, all shops close at seven, and it is six now=P still have 25 min brisk walkajog home and to the supermarkets=P
love, ting
Monday, April 25, 2005
Friday, April 22, 2005
Know your country: for Singaporeans=P
Was rather embarrassed when someone asked me who Macpherson was and I had no idea. He must have been a rather important person to have a road named after him right? And the Siemens Building in Singapore is in this road some more.
Here is to all other hapless Singaporeans, snippet of info from the history website in Singapore:
St Andrew's Cathedral
This is the second building to be erected on this site. The original was built by G.D. Coleman and consecrated in 1838. However, the Church was demolished in 1852 following two lightning strikes. The present Cathedral was designed by Colonel Ronald MacPherson in 1856.
haha, lousy ting=P
will update more on Monday! Ciao bis dann!
Tings
Here is to all other hapless Singaporeans, snippet of info from the history website in Singapore:
St Andrew's Cathedral
This is the second building to be erected on this site. The original was built by G.D. Coleman and consecrated in 1838. However, the Church was demolished in 1852 following two lightning strikes. The present Cathedral was designed by Colonel Ronald MacPherson in 1856.
haha, lousy ting=P
will update more on Monday! Ciao bis dann!
Tings
Babe in the Woods
Hey all wieder! (again!)
It is the end of the week, and the end of my work day...just thinking about the walk home makes me freeze. Brr...it is really ironic, the sun shines like hell (as in hell in German, which means bright) here but it is freezing. I can't even jog anymore because because the cold is just too much...my nose simply freezes. When I go home, all I want to do is to cuddle up in my bed and shiver under the blankets (I exaggerate a little here, not all the time, but always when it gets dark.)
I went for a walk in the woods two days ago, and it was really breathtakingly beautiful. The ground is just covered with lots and lots of moss, so you get really soft ground to walk on, and the entire forest is full of pine trees. Because it was rather late in the evening, the sky was turning grey, and the forest looked almost...magical. I could imagine a dragon coming out from the trees. I have always wondered when I was little, how Hansel and Gretel could get lost in the woods. I mean, the woods I have seen back home always have maps in the middle of them, kinda takes the adventure out of wandering in them, don't you think? And here in these woods, I want to get lost in them, crazy though that sounds, so that I can feel like Gretel (always thought that Gretel was the cleverer one who outsmarted the witch).
This reminds me of a new term I have learnt today: Frauen Bewegung. To those who learn German, this does NOT mean Ladies' Exercise (I was standing up to do some stretching when my boss/colleague Jochen remarked Frauen Bewegung) but Women's Liberation Movement. I got the pun only about 30 seconds later, and thought it was very funny, but since it would be dumb to laugh at seemingly nothing in the office, I kept the laughter in. Hmm..everyone prob thinks I am some humourless gal=P
My boss/colleague Jochen really knows so many languages...he knows namely English, Deutsch, Japanese, and can even read some Chinese/speak it! Plus Korean (he has a key to how to read it) which is really amazing. He was relating an experience he had in a Chinese restaurant, and complained how you cannot tell the ingredients in a CHinese dish just by looking at the name, like how 'Toder Hund im See' can even be the name of a dish! (dead dog in the lake) HAHA!
I will be teaching a greek girl called Ioanna (like ee.yo.han.na) how to speak Mandarin, and she must master it within 2 weeks to win a bet. Don't tell me how that can be done...it just can't be done. She needs to know the four tones and all, within one day at least, so that she can learn enough words to converse in Mandarin in 2 weeks. I get to learn Greek in return=) I have been thinking of learning a German Dialect (over here they speak Frankish, but there are hundreds of other dialects, like Kölsch from Köln, Schwäbisch from Schwaben, Baden-isch or something from Baden-Württemberg, etc.) And guess what wonderful advice everyone has for me to learn a dialect? -get a German boyfriend. Hey, as if they hang on trees ready for harvest!" *incredulous*
Just realised that I missed home when I read the blogs of my friends and buddies...so many things are happening but I am just not there to chat with them and all...sorry gals! I will get a German Phonecard tomorrow...don't know if I would be able to make cheaper calls, but anyway, please contact me at my new company email ok?
Am leaving for home soon...wondering if I should have dinner. The girls here eat peanuts (not literally!) for lunch, while I eat comparatively humongous portions...the cold really gets to me=( Maybe I would balloon before I go back to Singapore, terrible, isn't it?
Alright, no one else is left but for me, gotta go!
Loveya lots, Tings
It is the end of the week, and the end of my work day...just thinking about the walk home makes me freeze. Brr...it is really ironic, the sun shines like hell (as in hell in German, which means bright) here but it is freezing. I can't even jog anymore because because the cold is just too much...my nose simply freezes. When I go home, all I want to do is to cuddle up in my bed and shiver under the blankets (I exaggerate a little here, not all the time, but always when it gets dark.)
I went for a walk in the woods two days ago, and it was really breathtakingly beautiful. The ground is just covered with lots and lots of moss, so you get really soft ground to walk on, and the entire forest is full of pine trees. Because it was rather late in the evening, the sky was turning grey, and the forest looked almost...magical. I could imagine a dragon coming out from the trees. I have always wondered when I was little, how Hansel and Gretel could get lost in the woods. I mean, the woods I have seen back home always have maps in the middle of them, kinda takes the adventure out of wandering in them, don't you think? And here in these woods, I want to get lost in them, crazy though that sounds, so that I can feel like Gretel (always thought that Gretel was the cleverer one who outsmarted the witch).
This reminds me of a new term I have learnt today: Frauen Bewegung. To those who learn German, this does NOT mean Ladies' Exercise (I was standing up to do some stretching when my boss/colleague Jochen remarked Frauen Bewegung) but Women's Liberation Movement. I got the pun only about 30 seconds later, and thought it was very funny, but since it would be dumb to laugh at seemingly nothing in the office, I kept the laughter in. Hmm..everyone prob thinks I am some humourless gal=P
My boss/colleague Jochen really knows so many languages...he knows namely English, Deutsch, Japanese, and can even read some Chinese/speak it! Plus Korean (he has a key to how to read it) which is really amazing. He was relating an experience he had in a Chinese restaurant, and complained how you cannot tell the ingredients in a CHinese dish just by looking at the name, like how 'Toder Hund im See' can even be the name of a dish! (dead dog in the lake) HAHA!
I will be teaching a greek girl called Ioanna (like ee.yo.han.na) how to speak Mandarin, and she must master it within 2 weeks to win a bet. Don't tell me how that can be done...it just can't be done. She needs to know the four tones and all, within one day at least, so that she can learn enough words to converse in Mandarin in 2 weeks. I get to learn Greek in return=) I have been thinking of learning a German Dialect (over here they speak Frankish, but there are hundreds of other dialects, like Kölsch from Köln, Schwäbisch from Schwaben, Baden-isch or something from Baden-Württemberg, etc.) And guess what wonderful advice everyone has for me to learn a dialect? -get a German boyfriend. Hey, as if they hang on trees ready for harvest!" *incredulous*
Just realised that I missed home when I read the blogs of my friends and buddies...so many things are happening but I am just not there to chat with them and all...sorry gals! I will get a German Phonecard tomorrow...don't know if I would be able to make cheaper calls, but anyway, please contact me at my new company email ok?
Am leaving for home soon...wondering if I should have dinner. The girls here eat peanuts (not literally!) for lunch, while I eat comparatively humongous portions...the cold really gets to me=( Maybe I would balloon before I go back to Singapore, terrible, isn't it?
Alright, no one else is left but for me, gotta go!
Loveya lots, Tings
Thursday, April 21, 2005
FOOD!!!
Hey all!
I think I am beginning to LUURVE my own cooking...which is a miracle, because I used to hate it. Now that I am in a foreign land, with new food and new flavourings, I am just experimenting with different dishes everyday. I just had an Eintopf (one pot) yesterday, with potatoes, carrots, Weisswurst and egg...and it tasted great=) Without any other flavouring but salt.
Oh yes, and now I understand why there was an entire historical hoo-ha about the Salt trade...and why Mahatma Gandhi started the salt march and all, because it is REALLY very important for flavour! It is hard to describe how HARD I searched for salt in the first few days...it is now so 'common' a commodity that the supermarkets do not have signs for it! How ironic. Therefore I searched 3 days for salt, before finding it just at the entrance of the supermarket, hidden beneath some conserves. And what a moment of triumph it was...Ting finds SALT!!
The next thing I will be investing in is a bottle of ketchup. Did I say that Germany is a Land of Opposites? Here is more evidence that it is immer noch so ein Land: The cheapest fruits here are..guess? Strawberries. These go for about 49 cents euro per punnet, while the most expensive are...Apples! My favourite fruits are so expensive=(, so I just have to make do with strawberries for now. Next cheapest are tomatoes, thus I am just eating tomatoes everyday. Potatoes are terribly cheap over here, that's why I want ketchup. Or pepper. But I must save up for that first...better finish the food in my fridge first! =) It is terribly difficult to shop and cook for one person alone. One must have many similar meals, (e.g now I have brocolli, carrots and tomatoes everyday) before one can buy other things for the fridge.
I am sounding more and more like an Ah Soh..haha, but I like cooking=) haha, my mom would be really proud of me, if she reads this, that is...
Ok, better get back to work, lazy bum=)
Oh, did I mention that the people here are really very nice? Will save that for the next entry. And that the woods here are wonderful places to get lost in? Will save that for later too, haha=)
love ya all, tings
I think I am beginning to LUURVE my own cooking...which is a miracle, because I used to hate it. Now that I am in a foreign land, with new food and new flavourings, I am just experimenting with different dishes everyday. I just had an Eintopf (one pot) yesterday, with potatoes, carrots, Weisswurst and egg...and it tasted great=) Without any other flavouring but salt.
Oh yes, and now I understand why there was an entire historical hoo-ha about the Salt trade...and why Mahatma Gandhi started the salt march and all, because it is REALLY very important for flavour! It is hard to describe how HARD I searched for salt in the first few days...it is now so 'common' a commodity that the supermarkets do not have signs for it! How ironic. Therefore I searched 3 days for salt, before finding it just at the entrance of the supermarket, hidden beneath some conserves. And what a moment of triumph it was...Ting finds SALT!!
The next thing I will be investing in is a bottle of ketchup. Did I say that Germany is a Land of Opposites? Here is more evidence that it is immer noch so ein Land: The cheapest fruits here are..guess? Strawberries. These go for about 49 cents euro per punnet, while the most expensive are...Apples! My favourite fruits are so expensive=(, so I just have to make do with strawberries for now. Next cheapest are tomatoes, thus I am just eating tomatoes everyday. Potatoes are terribly cheap over here, that's why I want ketchup. Or pepper. But I must save up for that first...better finish the food in my fridge first! =) It is terribly difficult to shop and cook for one person alone. One must have many similar meals, (e.g now I have brocolli, carrots and tomatoes everyday) before one can buy other things for the fridge.
I am sounding more and more like an Ah Soh..haha, but I like cooking=) haha, my mom would be really proud of me, if she reads this, that is...
Ok, better get back to work, lazy bum=)
Oh, did I mention that the people here are really very nice? Will save that for the next entry. And that the woods here are wonderful places to get lost in? Will save that for later too, haha=)
love ya all, tings
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
An idiot's Guide to the Ethernet and the Loch Ness Monster
19th April 2005
I have backdated some of my blogs, just in case none of my friends realize. Please look at my previous blogs if you think I have not updated my blog at all, especially for the 17th and 18th of April, because I will try to update my diary every weekday, when I have access to the internet through Siemens.
I will describe the first day of work in my previous blog, (what a curious way of phrasing a sentence! Just like me telling you what I WILL do in the PAST.) Meanwhile, here’s my second day:
I went to work to find out what on earth Ethernet is, and all those jargon of Switches, Hubs, Bridges, Repeaters, and what my department does in actual fact. Do you know what a PLC is? I wish I have an inkling of what it is remotely, but apparently it is supposed to be this terminal that directs your information to the receiver. I.E I instruct my younger sister boon boon to bring me some water (like real!) but because boon is in the living room and I in the bedroom, she cannot hear me. So my Jie, being in the kitchen, acts as the PLC, because she is able to receive the info I sent out and relay to Boon. And she does not only do this for me, but for my father, who wants to send a msg to my mom, and my brother, who wants to send a msg to coincidentally, boon too. So the PLC receives and relays messages (by repeating it to the next hub) from any terminal that is linked to it, just as my Jie repeats the msgs sent to her.
Now, the problem is that, my Jie has a limit to how many words she can listen to or speak at the same time. So if my dad and I both speak at the same time, she cannot receive anything. Thus this results in a collision. But clever us, me and my dad, both have the sense to wait till the other is done before speaking to my Jie again, thus we are equipped with what is called basic manners, or what the computer people call “Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection”, which is a scheme that governs the way computers ‘talk’ to one another. This means that each individual computer, when met with a collision, basically waits for a random period of time before talking again, and this amount of time, being random, hopefully prevents another collision. The more the number of collisions, the longer the period of time the computer waits. ( Just like me and my dad, I wouldn’t be so stupid as to interrupt him so many times at one go, would I?)
Are you lost yet? If you are, imagine that I had to read up on all these in German! It was basically dictionary day for me today.
Take a big breath, for here we go deeper. What are Switches and Bridges then? The problem with the old Ethernet that I have just described to you is that there is absolutely NO security. I.e All messages have to pass through a common medium (the air) and gets sent to all the terminals. So even I can get a message from my dad, which is meant for my mom. This means that I can eaves drop on all conversations, or even interrupt some, or confuse my Jie by bombarding her with many useless messages. Then her message-carrying speed greatly slows down, and meanwhile, I get to listen to all the messages (assuming that I can speak and listen at the same time=)) What switches do is to recognize what terminals usually receive messages from what terminals, and dedicate a channel to this way of communication. (I am a little hazy here, do feel free to correct me if you know more, please!) So security gets a LITTLE better, as Jie wouldn’t automatically tell me Pa’s message to Ma, BUT I can still intercept the message by various methods (by faking Ma’s voice, for example). And the speed that Jie does the message-transferral is much faster, and her bandwidth can be used to the greatest extent and advantage.
Still have to find out more about bridges, Gateways, smart Ethernet, etc. Can’t say more here=(
I had my first choir practice with a mature German choir tonight, and it is really one of those practices in which I laughed as much as I sang! My landlady invited me to practise in her choir as well, which is holding a small concert in a church on 5th June in Amberg. (not Hamburg) The Chorleiter (or conductor) was a standing joke=) He cracks really funny jokes in the middle of the practice. They have rather good resounding basses here, only a little tone-deaf though. There is one part in the Ave Maria, when they came in on a horrifyingly wrong low note (much too low, sounded like a foghorn) and they had to hold it through like NINE bars. Can you imagine the sound? The entire choir was in harmony but for THEM. I was so amused that I started on a fit of giggles and had to stop singing to control myself. Then the Chorleiter said, “Ich habe gedacht, dass die Loch Ness Monster in Schottland nicht mehr existiert, aber es lebt noch in unserer Probe.” (Translation: I thought that the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland has gone extinct, but apparently it is still alive and healthy in our choir practice.) It was then that I couldn’t control myself and HOWLED with laughter…HOW EMBARRASSING! But it was really really very funny! The people around me just looked so amused, and one said,” Sie kommen ja zurecht mit der Probe!” (Translation: You adapt well to the practice!)
Then there was another time when he tried to signal for us to come in loudly, so he opened up his arms like he had a big belly, and the singers thought that he meant for them to breathe in deeply, so everyone breathed in so deeply and held their breaths, and the next coming in was… abysmal, followed by laughter in unison. What really surprises me is the complete feeling of Gemeinschaft (community) over here…everyone knows or makes an effort to know everyone else, and goes around shaking hands and talking during the break and before the practice starts. It is wonderful, because the enjoyment is clearly visible.
Am having an absolutely wonderful time here in Germany. It is just a little too cold, like 7 degrees and it is raining outside, so I go around in almost winter clothes to survive it all. Don’t worry, I just look a little odd, while some people are just in simple shirts and jeans, because they drive to work, and I walk/jog through a forest for about 20 minutes before I get to the office. But the view is worth it, anytime.
Spring is a season to ‘spring’ for joy=) My Cherry tree is blossoming beautifully, hopefully the weather is not so cold that it freezes the bees and keeps them from pollinating my cherry blossoms. “Sakura…Sakura…” You really have to see it to sing the song from the heart, I guess=)
Love ya all, and best regards, (I can’t send you warm ones because I don’t have any..)
Ting =)
I have backdated some of my blogs, just in case none of my friends realize. Please look at my previous blogs if you think I have not updated my blog at all, especially for the 17th and 18th of April, because I will try to update my diary every weekday, when I have access to the internet through Siemens.
I will describe the first day of work in my previous blog, (what a curious way of phrasing a sentence! Just like me telling you what I WILL do in the PAST.) Meanwhile, here’s my second day:
I went to work to find out what on earth Ethernet is, and all those jargon of Switches, Hubs, Bridges, Repeaters, and what my department does in actual fact. Do you know what a PLC is? I wish I have an inkling of what it is remotely, but apparently it is supposed to be this terminal that directs your information to the receiver. I.E I instruct my younger sister boon boon to bring me some water (like real!) but because boon is in the living room and I in the bedroom, she cannot hear me. So my Jie, being in the kitchen, acts as the PLC, because she is able to receive the info I sent out and relay to Boon. And she does not only do this for me, but for my father, who wants to send a msg to my mom, and my brother, who wants to send a msg to coincidentally, boon too. So the PLC receives and relays messages (by repeating it to the next hub) from any terminal that is linked to it, just as my Jie repeats the msgs sent to her.
Now, the problem is that, my Jie has a limit to how many words she can listen to or speak at the same time. So if my dad and I both speak at the same time, she cannot receive anything. Thus this results in a collision. But clever us, me and my dad, both have the sense to wait till the other is done before speaking to my Jie again, thus we are equipped with what is called basic manners, or what the computer people call “Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection”, which is a scheme that governs the way computers ‘talk’ to one another. This means that each individual computer, when met with a collision, basically waits for a random period of time before talking again, and this amount of time, being random, hopefully prevents another collision. The more the number of collisions, the longer the period of time the computer waits. ( Just like me and my dad, I wouldn’t be so stupid as to interrupt him so many times at one go, would I?)
Are you lost yet? If you are, imagine that I had to read up on all these in German! It was basically dictionary day for me today.
Take a big breath, for here we go deeper. What are Switches and Bridges then? The problem with the old Ethernet that I have just described to you is that there is absolutely NO security. I.e All messages have to pass through a common medium (the air) and gets sent to all the terminals. So even I can get a message from my dad, which is meant for my mom. This means that I can eaves drop on all conversations, or even interrupt some, or confuse my Jie by bombarding her with many useless messages. Then her message-carrying speed greatly slows down, and meanwhile, I get to listen to all the messages (assuming that I can speak and listen at the same time=)) What switches do is to recognize what terminals usually receive messages from what terminals, and dedicate a channel to this way of communication. (I am a little hazy here, do feel free to correct me if you know more, please!) So security gets a LITTLE better, as Jie wouldn’t automatically tell me Pa’s message to Ma, BUT I can still intercept the message by various methods (by faking Ma’s voice, for example). And the speed that Jie does the message-transferral is much faster, and her bandwidth can be used to the greatest extent and advantage.
Still have to find out more about bridges, Gateways, smart Ethernet, etc. Can’t say more here=(
I had my first choir practice with a mature German choir tonight, and it is really one of those practices in which I laughed as much as I sang! My landlady invited me to practise in her choir as well, which is holding a small concert in a church on 5th June in Amberg. (not Hamburg) The Chorleiter (or conductor) was a standing joke=) He cracks really funny jokes in the middle of the practice. They have rather good resounding basses here, only a little tone-deaf though. There is one part in the Ave Maria, when they came in on a horrifyingly wrong low note (much too low, sounded like a foghorn) and they had to hold it through like NINE bars. Can you imagine the sound? The entire choir was in harmony but for THEM. I was so amused that I started on a fit of giggles and had to stop singing to control myself. Then the Chorleiter said, “Ich habe gedacht, dass die Loch Ness Monster in Schottland nicht mehr existiert, aber es lebt noch in unserer Probe.” (Translation: I thought that the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland has gone extinct, but apparently it is still alive and healthy in our choir practice.) It was then that I couldn’t control myself and HOWLED with laughter…HOW EMBARRASSING! But it was really really very funny! The people around me just looked so amused, and one said,” Sie kommen ja zurecht mit der Probe!” (Translation: You adapt well to the practice!)
Then there was another time when he tried to signal for us to come in loudly, so he opened up his arms like he had a big belly, and the singers thought that he meant for them to breathe in deeply, so everyone breathed in so deeply and held their breaths, and the next coming in was… abysmal, followed by laughter in unison. What really surprises me is the complete feeling of Gemeinschaft (community) over here…everyone knows or makes an effort to know everyone else, and goes around shaking hands and talking during the break and before the practice starts. It is wonderful, because the enjoyment is clearly visible.
Am having an absolutely wonderful time here in Germany. It is just a little too cold, like 7 degrees and it is raining outside, so I go around in almost winter clothes to survive it all. Don’t worry, I just look a little odd, while some people are just in simple shirts and jeans, because they drive to work, and I walk/jog through a forest for about 20 minutes before I get to the office. But the view is worth it, anytime.
Spring is a season to ‘spring’ for joy=) My Cherry tree is blossoming beautifully, hopefully the weather is not so cold that it freezes the bees and keeps them from pollinating my cherry blossoms. “Sakura…Sakura…” You really have to see it to sing the song from the heart, I guess=)
Love ya all, and best regards, (I can’t send you warm ones because I don’t have any..)
Ting =)
Monday, April 18, 2005
FIRST experience of TOTAL independence
Hey all!
I can finally get internet access, it being my first day at work today! The weekend has been really interesting, but I can’ write much now…cuz I am supposed to be working. Must try to be a model-worker here=) Will go home tonight, and write everything in my ibook, and post it here tmr ok?
Man, the keyboard here is ganz anders…(v different)
Hey pa, ma and everyone, pls communicate to me through my tagboard, cuz I cannot read my email as it is not allowed on company computer.
Love you all lots! Wait for my next posting!
Love, Tings
I can finally get internet access, it being my first day at work today! The weekend has been really interesting, but I can’ write much now…cuz I am supposed to be working. Must try to be a model-worker here=) Will go home tonight, and write everything in my ibook, and post it here tmr ok?
Man, the keyboard here is ganz anders…(v different)
Hey pa, ma and everyone, pls communicate to me through my tagboard, cuz I cannot read my email as it is not allowed on company computer.
Love you all lots! Wait for my next posting!
Love, Tings
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Hitler:The Shadow behind German Consciousness
I woke up after exactly 8 hours’ worth of sleep. Not because I was overly ‘fleissig’ or diligent, but because I had to use the loo. One should never underestimate the power of a cold toilet seat to wake one up from the sweetest dreams. It being only 5 in the morning, I puttered around the apartment, looking for something to do. Since the sun was already up so early, I went for a walk in the woods nearby, which turned into a jog, because the weather was much too cold to do anything otherwise. I love the forest. It is simply one of the most beautiful things in the world…the soft floor covered by dropped pine needles and cones, the tall, straight trees with the beautiful dark brown bark that makes the woods so mysterious; the budding blackberry bushes which will be wonderfully laden with delicious berries in autumn; the occasional bird or snail which risks giving you a greeting. And the wonderful thing is that they are all under the Landschaftsschutzgebiet, or protected areas. So these will have minimal human interference and will remain so, at least for the next 10 years.
Spring is a lovely season, so lovely that I don’t even mind the cold for once.
After doing some shopping for my poor fingers and for some breakfast (Turkish bread with honey, yum!) I spoke with my landlady regarding the handphone and adaptors. She would bring my HP to charge at her daughter’s house. I read from a guidebook about Dutzendteich, where the Nazis once planned to build monstrosities of buildings as their headquarters, and decided to explore that place.
Dutzendteich means “Dozen-lake”, and it is really a beautiful place, with swans and geese on the lake, places where people can skate-board, jog or ride their bikes, but the history of that place is terrifying, and engrossing. It amazes me, how real and how terrible Hitler’s power was, and I always wonder why have the people been so led by him? I have always thought of the truth behind those words: It is always easier to follow the crowd than to step aside to think differently, but it can’t just be that. The German Nation was a thinking nation then…it couldn’t have been possible for a crazy man to lead everyone astray just like that *snap*. The exhibition at the Dutzendteich Museum chronicles everything clearly and faithfully, and it just occurs to me that Hitler was perhaps the “luckiest” man in the world. He ALWAYS happens to be at the right place, at the right time, so that he could completely twist the popular ideologies then (Fascism, anti-communism, anti-republic) into a totally warped cult, which has the only main aim of making Hitler a god. Everything has the end purpose in glorifying Hitler, in making the individual seem small, and the state seem big, and Hitler, as the Fuehrer of the state and yet at the same time a ‘normal’ working-class man, larger than life and hence everything is a part of Hitler, or plays a part FOR Hitler. The plans the Nazis had for the place were humongous…they built a gigantic stadium to hold Hitler’s rallies, and places to house the people who were going for those rallies. (Nazis love to stage large events that make the individual negligible and the state and Hitler, everything.) The architecture of the building was to be long arched columns, which make the men small, and a large central stage for Hitler and his speeches. Hitler even built a 2 KM long ‘grosse Strasse” or Large Street, especially for the marching of the soldiers. The 2 km long strip was to connect the Reich to the Altstadt’s Castle, (you were supposed to be able to see the castle as you stand on one end of the strip) as to signify that Hitler’s Reich is one that connects back to the old, and would last forever. This still exists today, and all still laden with the granite from those days. Still in wunderbare condition. Amazing. The resources and technology used that time were truly something to be reckoned with.
Learned in the process of touring how to take the S-Bahn and how to navigate. Gar nicht schlecht, muss ich sagen (Not bad at all, I must say.)
Alright, must go to sleep now, will try to load these two entries in Siemens tomorrow. Just in case my family does not know that I can only use my blog, can someone who knows them or my home number just help me give them a call? And dear boon/jie, please post something on the tagboard to show that you all know, ok?
Love ya lots!!
Ting =)
Spring is a lovely season, so lovely that I don’t even mind the cold for once.
After doing some shopping for my poor fingers and for some breakfast (Turkish bread with honey, yum!) I spoke with my landlady regarding the handphone and adaptors. She would bring my HP to charge at her daughter’s house. I read from a guidebook about Dutzendteich, where the Nazis once planned to build monstrosities of buildings as their headquarters, and decided to explore that place.
Dutzendteich means “Dozen-lake”, and it is really a beautiful place, with swans and geese on the lake, places where people can skate-board, jog or ride their bikes, but the history of that place is terrifying, and engrossing. It amazes me, how real and how terrible Hitler’s power was, and I always wonder why have the people been so led by him? I have always thought of the truth behind those words: It is always easier to follow the crowd than to step aside to think differently, but it can’t just be that. The German Nation was a thinking nation then…it couldn’t have been possible for a crazy man to lead everyone astray just like that *snap*. The exhibition at the Dutzendteich Museum chronicles everything clearly and faithfully, and it just occurs to me that Hitler was perhaps the “luckiest” man in the world. He ALWAYS happens to be at the right place, at the right time, so that he could completely twist the popular ideologies then (Fascism, anti-communism, anti-republic) into a totally warped cult, which has the only main aim of making Hitler a god. Everything has the end purpose in glorifying Hitler, in making the individual seem small, and the state seem big, and Hitler, as the Fuehrer of the state and yet at the same time a ‘normal’ working-class man, larger than life and hence everything is a part of Hitler, or plays a part FOR Hitler. The plans the Nazis had for the place were humongous…they built a gigantic stadium to hold Hitler’s rallies, and places to house the people who were going for those rallies. (Nazis love to stage large events that make the individual negligible and the state and Hitler, everything.) The architecture of the building was to be long arched columns, which make the men small, and a large central stage for Hitler and his speeches. Hitler even built a 2 KM long ‘grosse Strasse” or Large Street, especially for the marching of the soldiers. The 2 km long strip was to connect the Reich to the Altstadt’s Castle, (you were supposed to be able to see the castle as you stand on one end of the strip) as to signify that Hitler’s Reich is one that connects back to the old, and would last forever. This still exists today, and all still laden with the granite from those days. Still in wunderbare condition. Amazing. The resources and technology used that time were truly something to be reckoned with.
Learned in the process of touring how to take the S-Bahn and how to navigate. Gar nicht schlecht, muss ich sagen (Not bad at all, I must say.)
Alright, must go to sleep now, will try to load these two entries in Siemens tomorrow. Just in case my family does not know that I can only use my blog, can someone who knows them or my home number just help me give them a call? And dear boon/jie, please post something on the tagboard to show that you all know, ok?
Love ya lots!!
Ting =)
Friday, April 15, 2005
Germany:The Land of Opposites!
15. April 2005
Hey all!
Here’s to all those who think that being totally independent is something great: It is indeed a great feeling, to be fully responsible for yourself and to have so-called ‘freedom’, but trust me, it is very SCARY. Especially in a strange land, like Germany, where many things work in opposites.
Let me describe my first day here in Germany...
I came to the Frankfurt Airport, and congratulated myself as being smart enough to find the right gate, as I thought. Thus I sat down to enjoy the wonderful sunrise (will load it in once I have the time and know how to) Nearing the Boarding time, I thought it strange that no one was at the gate. So having picked my choice of free newspapers at the airport, I gathered my stuff, walked up and asked one of the staff. She was friendly, and told me that I was at the wrong gate; the airport has changed the gate. So a little worried but not alarmed, I went on my way to find the gate. Suddenly the lady I asked ran up to me, and said,”Tut mir leid, aber Ihr Flug wird ganz bald fliegen, also muessen Sie sich beeilen. Schnell rennen.” (translation: I am sorry, but your flight is leaving soon, so you must hurry. Run quickly!) So imagine me with both large handluggages, my newspapers and my windbreaker, running through people, saying “entschuldigung” all the time…and this is through Frankfurt Airport, a monstrosity of an airport. There are millions of gates to navigate, and the long colourful tunnel (remember the one we went through on our way to the choir Olympics?) full of people just taking their time to go somewhere. The many couples and elderly people I had to rush past and say sorry to, and finally I arrived at a gate, that led me to…a BUS. Frankly, I panicked, until I saw the sign: Zum Flug LH 770.
The airport was so large that it took the bus about 10 min to take us to the plane, and we alighted the bus, and boarded the plane. It is like in those movies, in which the president alights the plane and waves to the people, where there is a stairway that takes you up the plane, so what we need is a little imagination=) The great, important ting (haha!) moves up the stairs gracefully, smiling graciously to her people…and runs right smack into reality, with the loud droning of engines and the bitterly cold wind. *Here I must really thank the inventor of the windbreaker, it has saved my skin, literally, many, many times.
I met with a very nice couple on the plane, who offered to bring me to the Hauptbahnhof (howpt-bah-n-ho-f) where I could find my way to my apartment, in case my colleague did not receive my email saying that I would be arriving earlier. (I met many nice people on my flight, one of which is the Ukrainian guy who sat next to me. He came from New Zealand-right on the other side of the globe from Ukraine!- and is an electronic engineer, while many other New Zealanders are farmers…quite the opposites guy, isn’t he? Learnt quite a lot about New Zealand from him…like if you take the population of sheep and divide by that of the people, everyone has an average of 10 sheep.)
So, I reached the Nuremberg (or Nuernberg) airport, and no one was there to pick me up. But with some phone calls and all, I got picked up by my colleague, a Chinese called Mr Sun Yi. (Sunny, see, I knew you would be with me in spirit!) He is in his 5th year at the Nuernberg-Erlangen Universitaet, and he drove me to his hostel where he lived with his girlfriend. So the first ‘real’ language I conversed in in Germany was CHINESE. No one can blame me for getting my bearings wrong… Anyway, we went to their university later on, and I got to see the library there. Seriously, nothing is as bad as those horror stories I have heard of German Universities. And you know something? Germany really has a very international selection of students. Alone in Nuernberg there are thousands of Chinese students, and many Chinese businessmen. Also, bin ich in China, oder was?
I finally got checked in my apartment. And it is really a big apartment. I have
- A kitchen with everything you need to cook
- A Dining room with an antique cupboard, radio, fridge
- A Bedroom, complete with sofa, a TV with cable that gives you 30 + channels
- A Terrasse, or terrace, with a table and space to hang out my clothes
- A Garden, with a cherry tree that is in full bloom right now and will give me lots of cherries in June.
And ALL these for me alone, alles fuer mich allein, ganz, ganz allein.
What more can a girl wish for?
Yep, one only thing, I guess…an internet connection.
Thus I set off to unpack my things, and found out that, surprise! All the sockets and adaptors that I brought from Singapore cannot work, although they are 2-pin plugs, because the sockets in Germany sink into a circular hole which has a really funny shape. Being desperate, I wracked my brains (not many of them by then cuz I hadn’t slept for about 30+ hours), and found out that being a small town, my town (Altenfurt) does not sell any elektronishe Sachen. So I tried fixing the adaptors on my own, without a screwdriver, thus I used my kitchen knives. Let me just advise anyone who tries to do that NEVER to do that. I ended cutting myself two times, twice so deep that I used up my supply of handiplasts and had to buy more. And antiseptic lotion too. It is rather funny when you think back on it…two large bandaged fingers for the eyes of all those people to whom I asked questions. You see the same questions reflected back in their eyes: What on earth has this girl tried to do?
The next boo-boo (is that the correct word for it?) or mistake I made was to close my room door. I had the keys, but I just could not open the door, even if I pushed on it with my entire strength. My landlady had to go to her daughter’s house, so it wouldn’t have been nice to disturb her with a mediocre question like,” Entschuldigen Sie bitte, ich weis nicht, wie ich die Tuer oeffnen kann.” (Translation: Excuse me, I don’t know how to open the d*** door.”) Thus hoping that I would go for lunch and coming back to find out that it was all a very bad daydream, I went out to get a Doener, came back, sat outside my room door to eat, and all the time I was thinking: How comical. Here I am, with the keys to the door, nevertheless I am still locked out of my apartment. After I feel the strength from the Doener come back to me again, the door was, as expected, still locked. Out of desperation, I called my landlady, who told me to look for her sister, who was her neighbour. The good-natured old lady came in smiling friendlily, then she did a strange thing: she pulled the handle, which held fast, while turning the key, and then pushed the door open. WOW. The land of opposites…to open a door that opens inside, you pull it, and not push. Apparently it is ganz anders (holly different) in Winter, then you can just push the door open. Uh-huh..
I wanted to travel to the Altstadt (historical city-centre), but I guess I was just too overwhelmed by all these in one really long day (which lasted about 40 hours!)
So, all these in a day’s work. Frankly, I thought I wasn’t bad at all. I survived. Or is this the famous “Ah-Q” spirit?
Hey all!
Here’s to all those who think that being totally independent is something great: It is indeed a great feeling, to be fully responsible for yourself and to have so-called ‘freedom’, but trust me, it is very SCARY. Especially in a strange land, like Germany, where many things work in opposites.
Let me describe my first day here in Germany...
I came to the Frankfurt Airport, and congratulated myself as being smart enough to find the right gate, as I thought. Thus I sat down to enjoy the wonderful sunrise (will load it in once I have the time and know how to) Nearing the Boarding time, I thought it strange that no one was at the gate. So having picked my choice of free newspapers at the airport, I gathered my stuff, walked up and asked one of the staff. She was friendly, and told me that I was at the wrong gate; the airport has changed the gate. So a little worried but not alarmed, I went on my way to find the gate. Suddenly the lady I asked ran up to me, and said,”Tut mir leid, aber Ihr Flug wird ganz bald fliegen, also muessen Sie sich beeilen. Schnell rennen.” (translation: I am sorry, but your flight is leaving soon, so you must hurry. Run quickly!) So imagine me with both large handluggages, my newspapers and my windbreaker, running through people, saying “entschuldigung” all the time…and this is through Frankfurt Airport, a monstrosity of an airport. There are millions of gates to navigate, and the long colourful tunnel (remember the one we went through on our way to the choir Olympics?) full of people just taking their time to go somewhere. The many couples and elderly people I had to rush past and say sorry to, and finally I arrived at a gate, that led me to…a BUS. Frankly, I panicked, until I saw the sign: Zum Flug LH 770.
The airport was so large that it took the bus about 10 min to take us to the plane, and we alighted the bus, and boarded the plane. It is like in those movies, in which the president alights the plane and waves to the people, where there is a stairway that takes you up the plane, so what we need is a little imagination=) The great, important ting (haha!) moves up the stairs gracefully, smiling graciously to her people…and runs right smack into reality, with the loud droning of engines and the bitterly cold wind. *Here I must really thank the inventor of the windbreaker, it has saved my skin, literally, many, many times.
I met with a very nice couple on the plane, who offered to bring me to the Hauptbahnhof (howpt-bah-n-ho-f) where I could find my way to my apartment, in case my colleague did not receive my email saying that I would be arriving earlier. (I met many nice people on my flight, one of which is the Ukrainian guy who sat next to me. He came from New Zealand-right on the other side of the globe from Ukraine!- and is an electronic engineer, while many other New Zealanders are farmers…quite the opposites guy, isn’t he? Learnt quite a lot about New Zealand from him…like if you take the population of sheep and divide by that of the people, everyone has an average of 10 sheep.)
So, I reached the Nuremberg (or Nuernberg) airport, and no one was there to pick me up. But with some phone calls and all, I got picked up by my colleague, a Chinese called Mr Sun Yi. (Sunny, see, I knew you would be with me in spirit!) He is in his 5th year at the Nuernberg-Erlangen Universitaet, and he drove me to his hostel where he lived with his girlfriend. So the first ‘real’ language I conversed in in Germany was CHINESE. No one can blame me for getting my bearings wrong… Anyway, we went to their university later on, and I got to see the library there. Seriously, nothing is as bad as those horror stories I have heard of German Universities. And you know something? Germany really has a very international selection of students. Alone in Nuernberg there are thousands of Chinese students, and many Chinese businessmen. Also, bin ich in China, oder was?
I finally got checked in my apartment. And it is really a big apartment. I have
- A kitchen with everything you need to cook
- A Dining room with an antique cupboard, radio, fridge
- A Bedroom, complete with sofa, a TV with cable that gives you 30 + channels
- A Terrasse, or terrace, with a table and space to hang out my clothes
- A Garden, with a cherry tree that is in full bloom right now and will give me lots of cherries in June.
And ALL these for me alone, alles fuer mich allein, ganz, ganz allein.
What more can a girl wish for?
Yep, one only thing, I guess…an internet connection.
Thus I set off to unpack my things, and found out that, surprise! All the sockets and adaptors that I brought from Singapore cannot work, although they are 2-pin plugs, because the sockets in Germany sink into a circular hole which has a really funny shape. Being desperate, I wracked my brains (not many of them by then cuz I hadn’t slept for about 30+ hours), and found out that being a small town, my town (Altenfurt) does not sell any elektronishe Sachen. So I tried fixing the adaptors on my own, without a screwdriver, thus I used my kitchen knives. Let me just advise anyone who tries to do that NEVER to do that. I ended cutting myself two times, twice so deep that I used up my supply of handiplasts and had to buy more. And antiseptic lotion too. It is rather funny when you think back on it…two large bandaged fingers for the eyes of all those people to whom I asked questions. You see the same questions reflected back in their eyes: What on earth has this girl tried to do?
The next boo-boo (is that the correct word for it?) or mistake I made was to close my room door. I had the keys, but I just could not open the door, even if I pushed on it with my entire strength. My landlady had to go to her daughter’s house, so it wouldn’t have been nice to disturb her with a mediocre question like,” Entschuldigen Sie bitte, ich weis nicht, wie ich die Tuer oeffnen kann.” (Translation: Excuse me, I don’t know how to open the d*** door.”) Thus hoping that I would go for lunch and coming back to find out that it was all a very bad daydream, I went out to get a Doener, came back, sat outside my room door to eat, and all the time I was thinking: How comical. Here I am, with the keys to the door, nevertheless I am still locked out of my apartment. After I feel the strength from the Doener come back to me again, the door was, as expected, still locked. Out of desperation, I called my landlady, who told me to look for her sister, who was her neighbour. The good-natured old lady came in smiling friendlily, then she did a strange thing: she pulled the handle, which held fast, while turning the key, and then pushed the door open. WOW. The land of opposites…to open a door that opens inside, you pull it, and not push. Apparently it is ganz anders (holly different) in Winter, then you can just push the door open. Uh-huh..
I wanted to travel to the Altstadt (historical city-centre), but I guess I was just too overwhelmed by all these in one really long day (which lasted about 40 hours!)
So, all these in a day’s work. Frankly, I thought I wasn’t bad at all. I survived. Or is this the famous “Ah-Q” spirit?
Saturday, April 09, 2005
start of it all
Hey all,
Just started my blog today, after a long, tiring day. =) It is frankly rather exciting, to be posting your thoughts online where everyone can see it, and sometimes I will find myself at a loss for words to say, because you won't know exactly how much you can say, or how to draw the line at what you cannot say.
Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to update all of my loved ones on what I am doing, my thoughts of some stuff and all, and you are definitely welcome to leave messages, especially if they are reactions to some of my opinions...I would love to hear alternative views=)
I walked through Macritchie today with Sunny, and we walked all the way through from the entrance at Lornie Road to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, then we lost our way somewhere and exited at Swiss Club Road, which was about 16 km in all=) I have to say something about the beauty of our nature reserves here, because seriously I think they are one of the most under-appreciated resources we have here in Singapore. Throughout the entire journey, we were surprised by so many varieties of plants, leaves, flowers, sights and smells (of the flowers, though unfortunately there were cars in some stretches of the road.) We saw this amazing blue butterfly/moth which had a white 'tail' the end of each wing. It is such a joy to just perch on a log and watch these beautiful insects land on blades of grass with their wings folded up at first, and then to slowly open up to expose their beauty. We even had the good fortune to see a moth, shaped like a dead leaf, fly across our path, and perch on a plant just as though it is a part of it! And a brown, 1 m long lizard crossing our path with a determination and drive that was comical: it had its head down, and was staring straight at the road ahead of him, like he was never going to be daunted by any fellow traveller in the course of his journey, and just snaked across steadily. Two Cockatoos too(sorry for the pun), released by bored pet owners, make their presence known to all inhabitants of the rainforest with their piercing caw.
It was not all that physically exhausting though, because we even had time and energy to watch Vin Diesel afterwards. Frankly I think the movie is crap, just some rather slapstick humour, some even quite er...propagandistic? Or should we use the word, racist? Because as usual, the bad guys are North Korean Communists who are trying to steal US state secrets, for the perpetuation of their own nuclear weapons. I mean, how much more cliched can it get? One of my friends said," I am glad that they were not chinese," which made me grin at the unlikely prospect of it all, for which movie director wouldn't know the importance of cordial ties between US and China? But upon consideration, what if the movie producers did feature them as Chinese? Would we, Singaporean chinese, still watch and laugh, in the public's blind consumption of all things western and american? Perhaps I am being rather harsh in my judgement here, or thinking too much, for as they say, it is only a movie, and a comic one at that. Perhaps the greatest strength of a person, or of a people, is the ability to look at themselves, the stereotypes, and just to laugh it off as something totally ridiculous, or laugh at it as a reminder of some weaknesses.
Had a birthday celebration cum farewell party at home after that. Am dead-beat, but I am ever thankful for this wonderful lot of friends. Truly I have been blessed with many good friends, and i am just ever so glad to have them. Friends to do things with, to talk things out with, to get advice from, to comfort, to care for...these are all life's treasures. Frankly, Friends Forever is an ideal, that we can rarely reach to. However, that little time in one's life when you get to know a friend, to influence and touch him/her, and vice versa, is already a wonderful gift, which is something that one would treasure even more, especially when one realises the transience of this form of love.
Darn, I tend to spout out too much when I am writing, so chang2 qi4. But would just like to end off with this last message, to remind myself sometimes, if I ever forget...
"Friendship is transient, no matter how true it is. People may change, move to other places, or you may simply lose touch. Understand this, know this, and cherish all opportunities of maintaining this tenuous relationship..."
That's a leetlesometing for us to think about=)
Just started my blog today, after a long, tiring day. =) It is frankly rather exciting, to be posting your thoughts online where everyone can see it, and sometimes I will find myself at a loss for words to say, because you won't know exactly how much you can say, or how to draw the line at what you cannot say.
Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to update all of my loved ones on what I am doing, my thoughts of some stuff and all, and you are definitely welcome to leave messages, especially if they are reactions to some of my opinions...I would love to hear alternative views=)
I walked through Macritchie today with Sunny, and we walked all the way through from the entrance at Lornie Road to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, then we lost our way somewhere and exited at Swiss Club Road, which was about 16 km in all=) I have to say something about the beauty of our nature reserves here, because seriously I think they are one of the most under-appreciated resources we have here in Singapore. Throughout the entire journey, we were surprised by so many varieties of plants, leaves, flowers, sights and smells (of the flowers, though unfortunately there were cars in some stretches of the road.) We saw this amazing blue butterfly/moth which had a white 'tail' the end of each wing. It is such a joy to just perch on a log and watch these beautiful insects land on blades of grass with their wings folded up at first, and then to slowly open up to expose their beauty. We even had the good fortune to see a moth, shaped like a dead leaf, fly across our path, and perch on a plant just as though it is a part of it! And a brown, 1 m long lizard crossing our path with a determination and drive that was comical: it had its head down, and was staring straight at the road ahead of him, like he was never going to be daunted by any fellow traveller in the course of his journey, and just snaked across steadily. Two Cockatoos too(sorry for the pun), released by bored pet owners, make their presence known to all inhabitants of the rainforest with their piercing caw.
It was not all that physically exhausting though, because we even had time and energy to watch Vin Diesel afterwards. Frankly I think the movie is crap, just some rather slapstick humour, some even quite er...propagandistic? Or should we use the word, racist? Because as usual, the bad guys are North Korean Communists who are trying to steal US state secrets, for the perpetuation of their own nuclear weapons. I mean, how much more cliched can it get? One of my friends said," I am glad that they were not chinese," which made me grin at the unlikely prospect of it all, for which movie director wouldn't know the importance of cordial ties between US and China? But upon consideration, what if the movie producers did feature them as Chinese? Would we, Singaporean chinese, still watch and laugh, in the public's blind consumption of all things western and american? Perhaps I am being rather harsh in my judgement here, or thinking too much, for as they say, it is only a movie, and a comic one at that. Perhaps the greatest strength of a person, or of a people, is the ability to look at themselves, the stereotypes, and just to laugh it off as something totally ridiculous, or laugh at it as a reminder of some weaknesses.
Had a birthday celebration cum farewell party at home after that. Am dead-beat, but I am ever thankful for this wonderful lot of friends. Truly I have been blessed with many good friends, and i am just ever so glad to have them. Friends to do things with, to talk things out with, to get advice from, to comfort, to care for...these are all life's treasures. Frankly, Friends Forever is an ideal, that we can rarely reach to. However, that little time in one's life when you get to know a friend, to influence and touch him/her, and vice versa, is already a wonderful gift, which is something that one would treasure even more, especially when one realises the transience of this form of love.
Darn, I tend to spout out too much when I am writing, so chang2 qi4. But would just like to end off with this last message, to remind myself sometimes, if I ever forget...
"Friendship is transient, no matter how true it is. People may change, move to other places, or you may simply lose touch. Understand this, know this, and cherish all opportunities of maintaining this tenuous relationship..."
That's a leetlesometing for us to think about=)
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