frutti.gummi

After I finished at the consulate office around 11am, I went walking around town. Saw most of the major sights and the shopping district. I came across a japanese supermarket at a corner and saw people moving stuffs into the shop. Surpringly, it's not fancy at all but looks like those ugly chinese supermarkets. I saw signs for sushi and I thought this place should be cheap since it's in a "market" and walked to the door and found that it's closed on monday. Sigh! I'm not sure if I can remember how to get back to that street coz it's slightly off the main streets. Then, the inside of Cathedral of St Bartholomew, also known as the Kaiserdom is just amazing and the music from the huge organ is heavenly. I somehow felt uncomfortable taking photos inside, like I'll distrupt the holiness of the place. Also walked along the river and finally back to the train station.

Now I know why people prefer to take the train than flight. There's no checking-in with the train, the seats are bigger, more comfortable, more legroom, table and power outlet for your computer (some trains have wifi too), you can use your phone, bigger toilet, and great view! I didn't try the restaurant but the food does look tasty. The best part of this train journey is the view along the Rhein as the train runs along the river somewhere between Mainz and Koblenz. You can see the river, little towns by the river and mountains in the background. Too bad couldn't take photos as the window is very reflective.

Went to Frankfurt today to apply for my Italian student visa. Finally get to experience the faster German trains. The journey is about 2 hours. I almost didn't manage to submit my application at the consulate office. When I arrived at about 8:45am, the person handling visa is not there yet so I was asked to wait. I waited for about 45 minutes outside the room but no one showed up. Then I thought, "Oh no...maybe that person is not here today". I already had quite bad luck with my German visa that I needed 3 appointments to finally get my visa done last Thursday. All my friends managed to get theirs done in just one appointment and we have exactly the same situation, just different officer. Anyway, another 15 minutes later, a lady approached me and asked me what I was doing there. When I told her I came for the visa, she said the person is not here today. Seriously, just my bad luck. But she was nice and gave me forms to fill and took my documents. Then, she told me that I can keep my passport and the person will contact me next week to make an appointment to come again. I asked if I could get the visa immediately when I come the next time and she just said maybe because she's not sure if anything else is needed. Oh I sure hope so. A trip costs me almost 60€ and that's already the discounted price!

I've completed one class! :D Submitted the 20 pages long seminar paper and gave the presentation this morning. Presentation wasn't very smooth coz I had to present it in a different way that I prepared for it. Nevertheless, the professor said despite my confusion with the slides, it was good overall. Hehe. I hope he's not just being nice coz can't really tell. When he replies our emails, he never addresses us by our names; it's always "Dear Student" and it's always just a few sentences. Then again, I'm surprised he remembered my name when he announces that I'll be the next speaker. Maybe I give him too much trouble. Haha. Still, there are two more papers to finish for the writing class. Just waiting for the feedback on the short paper now.

Another nice event today is it finally snowed! Well, more like flurries but it still manages to make the ground white in color. I guess that's about as much as we get here. Maybe there's more in Aachen. Shall see tomorrow. A friend also said that this year is one of the coldest in Bonn coz the temperature fell to like -8C and friends are already complaining cold. It has only been below 0C for this week. I hope it continues to be sunny and cold. I like it.

Oh, I did finally went through the materials for that class over the past weekend and I got most of my questions answered by the TA. I wasn't so 'lost' afterall. This weekend, gotta go through the past 3 weeks materials for Virtual and Augmented Reality class coz I didn't see it in the server. So I emailed the professor and he said it has been there all along and when I looked again, these new files are on the top of the list. Earlier, I just scrolled to be bottom and didn't see anything new beneath "file 9". yah, "file 10" would appear on top. silly me.

A small corner shop japanese restaurant serves noodles and rice dishes. It's a very popular place as there just isn't much authentic japanese restaurants around here. There were 3 groups already in queue when we got there so we had to wait for about 30 minutes outside in the cold to get seated. The place smelled nice as it's a open kitchen concept. I had the Tokusei Shio ramen which is the recommendation of the day. I quite like the soup but there's just too much noodle and little meat. Usually Tokusei would have extra meat not less! My friends also had ramen, one had curry and the other had the spicy one. The spicy ramen tastes quite similar to Korean spicy soup though. When we were dining there, I noticed quite a number of japanese patrons. Well, if it's edible by Japanese, it's good enough for us. Hehe. Oh but it's expensive!

I miss Japanese food so much!

Been feeling lousy this whole week. Couldn't sleep at night so ended up having difficulty getting up in the morning. And I also blame the weather for being so gloomy. Since I have no classes in the morning this week except on Monday, I could only drag myself out of bed past 10am. Sometimes I would still be daydreaming. Then I spend 1-2 hours with my morning routine; breakfast, check weather, check mail, etc etc. Before I know, it's already 1 and it's time to go for class. Then I realised I haven't taken lunch and I'll be hungry at 4 during class. The timing is just so screwed up! And when I get home from class, I don't feel like working on assignments. It's like when you go home after work, you leave work behind. Arrgghh this doesn't work when you're studying. Plus, I feel more alive working on work problems than doing my school assignments. I guess probably I have no interest in the subject and I still have not much understanding of the subject. Which is why I have been planning to review the subject since last Christmas but I have yet to get to it. I shall be determined and start doing something about it this weekend. Can't afford to flung the final.

Went for lunch after german class and it turned out to be the four of us again. This time the Spanish guy's Indian colleague also joined us. We decided to have Italian and since the name of the dishes are in Italian, we have no problem with the menu. Hehe. After lunch, Eileen had to do shopping so the rest of us decided to catch a movie in Cologne coz it'll be easier for me to get back to Bonn. We drove there and for the passengers in the car, it was our first time on the autobahn in a car. And yes, some parts of the highway has no limit. When we got into Cologne, the directions to the cinema was quite complicated so we decided to park the car and take a cab. Was lucky we found street parking and only had about 30 minutes left before parking is free (after 6pm) so parking only costs us 1€. Next, we had to look for taxi stand coz you can only take taxi from there. Found one nearby and it was my first time in a german cab. The back just barely fits the three of us with our coats on. I didn't remember Merz having such small space. Well, perhaps our coats really took up space. We paid almost 8€ for 2+ km distance. Taking a train or bus would end up about the same price. Bought tickets for The Prestige and went walking around the area.

We ended up choosing a local bar and the atmosphere was quite lively. We had a funny time ordering food too. Laurent asked if there's chicken with french fries in German, and the waitress said schnitzel (deep fried breaded pork) with french fries. So, he said he'll only have french fries. Then, Jose ordered "Weiner Art" from the menu on the wall and asked if that's chicken in English and the waitress said yes chicken, very good. After the waitress left, Laurent and I were puzzled coz the waitress said earlier there was no chicken. Then Jose said maybe there's no chicken with french fries. Then we started laughing. That's very German indeed! Hahaha. Earlier in the week, Laurent used the wrong color plate at his cafeteria for pasta and he couldn't pay. He had to go back and use the plate with the correct color for pasta. When Jose's food finally came, it turned out to be schnitzel! He was quite mad but he still finished the food.

We went back to the cinema after food and found it packed with people. It's a small cinema with 3 theatres. I've already heard some friends complaining about cinemas in Germany and our German friend told us that's the typical cinema here. We don't have a choice anyway if we want to watch movies in original language. Well, we could also go to Netherlands. Perhaps they have better cinema there.

Finally bought myself a bottle for wine after resisting the temptation for months. After I got the wine together with my groceries for the week home, I realised that I didn't have corkscrew. Well, was kinda excited so I went out to the nearby store to get it. The corkscrew turned out to be more expensive than the wine itself! Anyway, popped the cork, had half a glass and found that the taste is nice but very very mild. It was a cheap bottle after all and I paid for it with the empty coke cans I returned. Yeah, I used to drink quite a bit of coke. Now, it's only one can a week. Later, I used the wine to cook risotto with mushroom and shrimp for dinner. The flavor turns out quite well and that's pretty much my achievement for today. Still have about 2/3 left. Perhaps I shall have another half a glass later and use it to cook chicken tomorrow.

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It's finally here! And it's got almost everything that I want. I don't use 3G here so it's not so important. A bit skeptical on how well qwerty works though. Kinda have to relearn typing with the thumb. Still, feel pretty glad that I decided not to buy a PDA phone last month. Oohhh...can't wait for it to come in Q4.

Still hasn't got used to attending classes. I was yawning quite a bit during the 11am class on Monday and only managed to get off bed at 11am today. As the school break progresses, I eventually slipped back into my normal operating hours from about 10am to past 2am. If I managed to get up at 4am tomorrow to go to Aachen for german class, then I think I can fix the hours. After spending a week speaking English, I find that my German has deteriorated a little. Words doesn't come to mind as easily anymore. The same happened with the German lecturer in class on Monday. At times, he was struggling to get the words out in English. Well, the good news is I managed to finish the first draft of my seminar paper! Couldn't believe that I could actually produce a 20 page paper. Two more days to work on the paper before submission is due. Then gotta work on the powerpoint version of the paper for presentation next week. In a way I couldn't wait for the semester to be over but then it means that finals is only a month away.

Vacation was pretty fun and relaxing. The weather was a disappointment though, being wet and gloomy almost every day. And severe wind was predicted for new year's eve and a lot of cities in UK cancelled the celebration. For safety reason, I stayed home and watched the new year's programme on tv and it turned out that it wasn't too bad in London. Sigh! Maybe another year then. I braved through the strong wind and rain with an umbrella the night before new year's eve and still got all soaked while walking across the Millenium Bridge from Tate Modern. Despite the super lousy weather, I managed to see the major sights, shop, eat a lot and met up with friends :)

Upon arrival at the airport, I felt so relieved that I finally can understand the people around me. No more straining the ear to try to understand what people are saying. Stuffs are as expensive as in Germany but the sale items are really a bargain. They have some nice markets too and I find Camden Lock quite similar to the Bangkok markets. After shopping at Harrods, as we were walking around the building, I smell something familiar but couldn't make out what it was. Then, I saw the sign. Krispy Kreme! :D Too bad I couldn't get a dozen coz I was leaving the next day. I was actually planning to watch a movie like every other day coz I miss going to the cinema quite a bit but finally we only managed to catch Happy Feet.

During the first few days, I still tried to work on my paper while waiting for my housemates to wake up. And I felt that I'm wasting a lot of time watching lame old English comedy at home during the night. But I didn't want to seem unfriendly so I stayed in the living room watching whatever programs they were watching. As the week progressed, I managed to relax and not think about how much time is being wasted. Hehe. So, did not get much work done afterall. Now that I'm home, I gotta continue working on my paper and start working on the other assignments. Wish I have one more week before school starts.