frutti.gummi

I'll be adding new photos occasionally as I take them. Just click on the Flickr box on the right when you feel like looking at pictures. Went to a huge park yesterday; walked for about 2 hours. The weather was quite nice albeit too windy sometimes. Lots of people flying kites there. The sky wasn't exactly sunny yesterday so the colors on some of the pictures are pretty dull :(

It started on Wednesday to attend German class in Aachen. I took the earliest bus out from my place to the train station at 5:37am, took a train to Cologne (30 minutes), switch train to Aachen (1 hour), and took the bus to the lecture hall. Travel time is about 2+ hours one way. I did the same today and I was late for class! It turns out that the train that I took on Wed was late so I was able to catch it when I arrived at the train station. Came home, checked the schedule and found that I could take the tram at 5:01am to the train station and will be able to catch the 5:31am train to Cologne. So, I don't have to be late =) But, I have to be up at 4am! The german class is 3 times a week, Wed & Friday for one and a half hours each and Sat(review) for 3 hours. I'm not sure how long I can keep up with this but hopefully long enough until I master the basic stuff. There's no other alternatives except for learning on my own which wouldn't work coz I'll be lazy.

Saw this McD in Aachen today. Found it funny that there's animals on top. Hehe.

I never realised how much roommates meant to me until I started living alone. Chatting, cooking, having a meal, watching tv, cleaning; everything is just more enjoyable when you're doing it with someone. Most importantly, there's people to talk to or disturb. Hehe. I mean, really talk to; not online. Having people around also makes the place livelier. And then, there's the convenience of having "proper" meat dishes at home. I never bothered to cook them as I only eat them because I need to. Can Subway substitute them? Look at my kitchen. That's all to it. There's no kitchen counter. Behind it is the wardrobe and the entry/exit door is in green. It's a tad small but still managable.

On the first night, the quietness and stillness of the room makes it a little scary. There was no sound at all! But I did finally fell asleep due to tiredness from a long crazy week.


Been over a week now and I'm slowly getting used to this change of environment; being alone in a super quiet room. The internet is my only source of entertainment in my room and it has served me very well.Thanks to everyone who chats with me online. I really appreciate it. :)

In case you're wondering why I'm not out and about, public transportation is expensive here and I'm low on funds. I'm waiting for my student travel card from school and then I can go out!

People had been asking me "So how's your German so far?" in the 2 weeks prior to my departure. I had been staying up late into the night, almost every night to learn as much German as I could. And, I didn't get far so I was quite worried.
Still, with limited German I managed to get on the bus from the airport in Cologne to Bonn. I know how to ask "Where is the bus stop?" and to understand the answer, it's a combination of the keywords:left, right, straight ahead, turn together with the directions they are making with their hands.
Everytime I want to speak German, I have to think of what words to use and how to structure it correctly and my vocabulary is very limited. There was once that I managed to say something without thinking first. I was standing in front of the Pizza Hut Express Counter just looking at the pizzas and a lady came to counter with a box. I smiled and said "Nein danke" (No thanks) and walked away feeling surprised. Normally, I would smile and wave my hand to indicate no.

I bought my first meal at McD. I figured that's the safest option since most young people here speak English :)

Most frequently used words so far:
Danke -Thanks
Vielen Dank - Thanks a lot
Guten Morgen -Good morning
Guten Tag -Good day/Hello
Enschuldigung - Excuse me/Sorry
Tschüss - Bye!

I have been lazy to continue my german lessons since I got here as I still managed to get by. Hehe.

Was lucky I managed to catch a flight to arrive here on a Friday so that I can get the keys to my room. My room has a little kitchen, a tiny bathroom, and a shared living/working/bedroom area. The best things about my room are the huge window and the mini fridge! My only complains are the super tiny shower space and the super hard bed. I do wish the floor is carpeted though. There's a small wardrobe to hang my clothes and there's plenty of shelves to put stuff.

The picture on the left is what I see when I look down from my window. The pictures below are views from my window from left to right.






Equipped with a visitor pass, I went to check out the museums. The Guggenheim Collection is awesome! It showcases feature pieces from Guggenheim musuems across the globe. There's also the Guggenheim Architecture where you see the models and design plans of Guggenheim museums which is pretty amazing. I took about 4 hours to finish them so image the floor space.
I also checked out the Kunst Museum next door which feature collections of August Macke; famous artist in the region.



By the time I finish both museums, it was already about 4:30pm and my legs were so tired! Still, I walked over to the other musuem that showcases the history of Germany. The descriptions are in German but they do have a guide book in English. I took a quick walk around the ground floor and found the setup creative and interesting. I shall go back there one of these days.

Took the train back to town and decided to visit Beethoven's house. Bonn is afterall Beethoven's hometown. Saw the original piano, the viola, original manuscripts and letters. The floor is very squeaky that I feel like it's gonna fall apart anytime. There's also the garden which is famous during spring when the flowers bloom.

The picture on the left is the alley between the house(R) and the garden(L).

Sometime in the fall of 2005, I took a few days off work mostly just to get away from everything. It was during then that I started going through the scholarship applications that mom has compiled for me. Utmost thanks to a kind friend for the usage of his peaceful place. After that, it's just preparing the materials and mailing them out without any expectations.

About six months later, I received an email that I got admitted to the programme BUT without scholarship. Oh well, at least I'm still one of the lucky 60 persons who got admitted. Was super busy with work so I didn't give it much thought.

Another six months down the road, on that fateful day which I checked my gmail, I saw THE email with the scholarship offer. And since then, it has been a crazy crazy six weeks.

And now, I've finally settled down in my new home in Germany. =)