frutti.gummi

I didn't know that this lake is only less than an hour away by train. When we set out in the morning, the weather was cool and mostly cloudy. While my friends prayed for sunshine, I just hoped that it wouldn't rain. There were a few beaches along the lake and they were still quite empty. We picked a shady spot and laid our stuff down. Then we decided to take the paddle boat out to the lake. The weather turned partly cloudy with cool breeze. Wished I have a boat of my own so I can lie there as long as I want.

After we came back from paddling, I stayed in our spot to finish reading Train Man while the others went swimming. Even though it started to get crowded, I was surprised that it wasn't noisy. I get to enjoy my book with a beautiful view and pleasant weather. So glad it wasn't hot like it had been for the past week; over 40C!. As we were heading back to the train station, it started to drizzle. We realised we were late so we had to run to the station and were lucky enough to catch the train. After a couple of minutes, rain started to pour. Then I started hoping that the rain would stop when we get off and it did!

The exam period sure felt like a very long time even though I took a one week break to go on vacation. The last exam turned out better than I expected. I did quite badly in explaining the algorithm of my applications. I was just spilling out formulas which I memorised the day before. He was expecting some sort of presentation like a set of slides but we weren't aware of it. His assistant told him that she told us that we need not prepare slides. Well I managed to show him that my application works but I doubt he understood how I made it work. He asked to explain the code and I started taking a long route instead of showing him directly the important parts. After a couple of minutes, he suddenly just asked for my exam book. When I passed it to him, he said he'll give me the marks after they look at the other student's application. He somehow made me feel that I'm wasting his time.

I was very nervous during the wait and tried to distact myself from listening to the other student's exam. They seemed to have a better strategy with him and he was using the blackboard to explain stuff. Each of us have different projects so I can't tell whether the explaination is good or not. After the student finished, I thought they would need some time to discuss our marks. A minute later, he told us that they propose the high score. I thought it didn't apply to me until he asked me if I'm ok with the score. I said yes. Then he continued to propose that he would give us the highest possible score if we do some documentation. The other student agreed and so I followed suit. He asked if we could trust us and give us the score now and expect to get the documentation later. He then wrote the scores in our exam books. After they left, we started working on the documentation and finished it a few hours later. This morning I got replies from them that they liked my slides. Phew!

ich habe meine Deutsch Prüfung bestanden! :D

When I arrived at the train station, I was only expecting Laurent and was suprised the gang of friends were also there to meet me. We went for dinner at a nearby little asian shop. The food portion is huge, probably similar in size to the portion in Chicago chinatown. The next day, we met up with Jose and had dinner in front of the Rathaus. We chose the restaurant next to Starbucks so that we could go there for coffee after dinner. I found out that both of them loved the huge comfy chairs there as well. Hehe. Unfortunately, Starbucks was closed after we finished dinner. I think it closed at 8pm. So decided to go to one of the ice cafes for ice cream. They sell very fancy ice cream combinations just like here in Italy but only for 2/3 of the price. We looked at the menu and chose the smallest type and it still turned out to be big. Bigger than the picture really.

After my German exam on Friday, I walked around town and did some shopping. Then, I went to the bookstore to get some books to read during the vacation. There are so many nice books and it was difficult to decide what to buy. I picked a few books and went to the seating area and started to read the first few pages to see how I like them. I was reading Mitch Albom's latest, For One More Day, and when I stopped and looked up I saw that I've already read 50 pages. That's about a third of the book. Since I have time I decided to finish the book. I skipped a couple of sub stories but in the end I know whether it's a ghost story or not.

We went to Cologne on Saturday. Our itinerary include KFC for lunch, shopping for backpack, shoes and sleeping bag, and watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. They weren't many people watching it and there's no commercial. I think the cinema in KL would still be very crowded.
On Sunday, we had a bbq session at the park and were worried that it might rain. The weather was cool and the sky was mostly cloudy. It drizzled lightly for a few minutes while we were grilling the meat. Then the clouds moved away. The weather was just perfect. Cool with the sun mostly covered by clouds. The breeze is a bit chilly though. When I got back to Italy, I'm dreading the hot hot sun again. Going to be staying home as much as I could.

If I really tried, I think I might be able to write this post in German.

We ordered a pot (2 portions) of typical Bavarian dishes. It consists of sausages, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, knodel dumplings, schweinshaxe (pork meat), and deep fried super crispy something which we think is pork skin; all in rahm sauce. Although I'm not a fan of pork, the food is tasty. However, towards the end of the meal, it starts to taste saltier. I guess that's where the huge mug of beer comes along.

Located to the south of the main chain of the Alps, the Dolomites are notable for their composition of pale colored dolomite-- a limestone like rock formed beneath deep, ancient seas-- atop darker volcanic bedding. These fabulous vertical reefs glow in the changing light and present a startling and dramatic contrast to the pastoral beauty beneath. It took about 2 hours by bus from Trento to Passo Pordoi and then cable car up to Sass Pordoi at 2950m. The entire experience has just been breathtaking. I've posted some photos in my Flickr set and they did no justice to its beauty.

After a week of eating lots of meat, fried stuff, and desserts, I decided to have some lighter asian style food with light broth.

Ohh... I've spent so much money in the past month. I knew I bought various stuff but the total amount only hit me when I checked my statement. Bits here and there really adds up. And it's not so noticable when the transaction is non cash. I've bought quite a few flight and train tickets. These add up to a significant amount but at least I earn miles with my flights. Also bought some books from Amazon. And there are still more books that I wanna get. The one week vacation had cost on average 100€ a day with 40% on transportation, 25% on accomodation and the rest mostly on food, some admission fees and etc. I'm not sure if it's expensive but it does make it an enjoyable vacation :D

The night train from Vienna to Verona was the most uncomfortable of all train rides I ever had. Even worse is that we had to be on it for about 12 hours! It was so different from the German night train that I took last time. If I knew it was an Italien operated train, I would not have booked the train. We should've just taken a flight. When we board the train at about 19:30, it was extremely hot and stuffy. There was no AC. We complained it was too hot and the conductor just rolled down the windows for us and said it'll be cooler later when the train starts moving. We went to check on the other cars and they were nice and cool. We wanted to move to the other car but the conductor said we're not allowed to do so. We can only stay in the compartment that we have booked. Sigh! I guess we're really unlucky to have been assigned to this lousy car. It got a bit cooler (from the wind) when the train starts moving. Then the conductor came and asked us to shut the window and said that the AC is now functioning. Well, after we shut the window, the AC was still not cool. Anyway, we got to enjoy the amazing mountain view only for a while as it started to rain and the sun was already setting. Then, we went to bed early but couldn't get much sleep.

Back from a week long vacation in Munich, Salzburg, Vienna and Budapest. Been very lazy at home since. It's so comfy and cool; don't feel like doing anything at all. But then, I still have 2 more exams next week so have been reminding myself to study. I'll post the travel stories later. Nevertheless, some of the photos have been uploaded to Flickr.

Eventhough this is one of the simplest pasta to cook, I haven't been making it. Maybe because it's meaty. Today I decided to give it a try and made a green salad on the side to go with it. Now I remember how tasty it can be; juicy bits of meat on hot pasta. At first I planned to cook the sauce for 90 minutes like the recipe Christine posted on her blog. As time passed, the smell of it made me more hungry so I only managed to cook the sauce for about 45 minutes and it's already tasty.