Off to the Netherlands!

After the really wonderful send-off by my relatives and friends (OMG...there's so many ppl! Rovers + Kraken + Scarela + S09 + Fuego + a lot more...) really thanks and glad to see you guys there, sorry that I had to rush off as I had a plane to catch! But seriously, I was glad for the turn-out, but I had to disappoint some by not having time to talk/take pictures, so hope that you guys dun blame me for it k?! :)

Thanks to the following for coming (and to those who sent their smses, thanks a whole lot! Lub u deep deep!):
My cousins, Cynthia, Tiffany, as well as my uncle and aunts.
26ths - Candice, Lianguo, Kheng Hui, Laiyee, Jorin, June, Heng Hong
27ths - Hwibee, Pei Geok, Geraldine, Mufeng
S09 - Guanyu, Weichuan
Fuego - Anqi, Weili
Kraken - Ryan, Ghim Song, Yvonne, Junrong, Weihong, Michelle, Aprine, Yingxi
Scarela - Ethan, Matthew, Samantha
Okailer - Yihui, Jian Long
Others - Amanda, Huijin, Sara, Yi Si, Zhanwei
And of course....my parents..

It was a heartwarming sent off, so I was still busy sms-ing after reaching the gate (phew) and boarding was easy and quick. Soon enough, SQ324 was already up in the air.

But anyway...the plane ride was kinda tiring, and boring. 12 hours ride is crazy. Luckily, I got enough sleep 'cos there was absolutely no interesting movies on board the flight, and I was left with a boring movie called J'et Aime, which totally bored me to oblivion. Haha. So much so, that I slept.

Woke up in the early morning (define morning on the plane??) and it was time for a little snack, as well as stretching of legs. Breakfast soon followed, and it was really really nice! Perfect food and start to the new day! :)

Also met a Dutch couple with their kids. They had gone over to Indonesia for holidays and were on the way back, and the father is an Indonesian Chinese living in the Netherlands now. It was a great conversation regarding the 2 countries, and we even exchanged contacts...a possible farmstay contact in Amsterdam. HAHA.

Reached Schiphol Airport pretty early (about 7am) and waited in the airport (whilst walking around looking to break down my big notes) for Aunt Babe, who was my father's friend. I had met her and Nicole during their holidays in Singapore, and they had arrived in the Netherlands just 2 days ahead of me.


Schiphol Airport: 19th August 2007

Schiphol Airport is really huge! Kinda finished exploring the entire arrival hall area, with their vast arrays of shops, and it is so much like Changi Airport! (though I find Schiphol more noisy and therefore, much more interesting.) There's a Yam Yam To Go shop, with its interesting design, as well as an outlet which sells fries! Simply great food...tsk they aint open only -.- Soon, we were on the way to Nieuw Vennep, a nice little town near Schiphol.

Nieuw Vennep is roughly 10 minutes ride from Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, so that's pretty near, considering that the train which took us here was a 'semi-fast' train.

After settling down and placing my luggage at Babe's house, Nicole brought me out to view the sights and sounds of Nieuw Vennep on an early Sunday morning, with most of the shops closed for the day. Sunday's a day for family for the Europeans, so most of the shops are closed and the neighbourhood's pretty quiet, which is good 'cos you can just walk around and enjoy the nice weather (cooling!) and the scenery. Can't believe I am in the Netherlands! OMG.


Sights and Sounds of Nieuw Vennep

Then...there is a very interesting place which we went...the Animal Farm. It's a nice smelly place with many animals, like donkeys, guinea pigs, chickens, rabbits, etc. Furthermore, the zoo keeper was hardly in sight; we could pick up (or try to) the guinea pigs and play with all the animals in the farm!



After all that, we went to get some lunch - French Fries, a frikandel & croket. Nice food!




stampot & rookworst

 
The flowers are very nice there too! Oh my...and after getting my train ticket, there wasn't much as could do, so whilst waiting for dinner (seen above), the 'army' of sotongs were very much a talking point. Haha.

Gonna do more updates. Jetlag settling in...now. *yawn*

Packing my stuff...

When I got my approval for SEP last semester, I couldn't believe it and couldn't contain my joy, at getting a placement in an overseas university. After all, I wished to really get a chance to be overseas and learn more about other countries' culture and society. It's definitely going to be a great learning experience, or so I believed.

As time passed, more stuff kept popping up. Rovers, treks, camps, orientation period. And while correspondence with the University there was slow and inefficient (Who thinks that NUS is more inefficient? I think NUS is quite good le...lol), I managed to map 4 of my core modules over, with some help from my lecturer.

But...as the date draws nearer, I realise that I'm actually leaving behind a lot of stuff...family, friends, Rovers, trek buddies, freshies whom I've just met and got to know, etc...

It's a wonder how your personal feelings for the impending overseas trip can change so rapidly.

As I'm packing and writing this post, I also realise how much I miss some of my friends, or going to miss them. At the very least, there is the almighty handphone here should the person not be free to go on MSN, or check the mail. Over there, gosh, I think Skype and MSN are the only tools to keep yourself sanely connected (somehow) with the people in Singapore.

Not to mention, things might just change.

A little uneasiness...a little wish that I had done more previously than just realising it now.

Time...time.

Okay, back to packing. Managed to get my main suitcase weighed and it was about 19kg. And that's prolly the winter clothes and doesn't include the normal daily wear! (E.g. t-shirts, jeans, socks, shorts, slippers, footwear, etc) Managed to get a MP3 player (Sansa 2gb), webcam (Creative) and a portable hdd, so that's kinda it.

And there's more things to get...
1) Watch (OMG)
2) Tupperware/storage box for sandwiches
3) Locks (more of those! for the luggage and bikes)
4) Pull-over
5) Cloth pouch (put on ur butt/body)

And more things to come are: IPPT, Rovers AGM.

I wanna meet more friends...but limited time. Sighs.

Current Mood: Confused Soul

Current Music: Redwan Ali - Would You Be There

Care Bear Care Bear ooh laa laa~~

And the end of Rag sounded the end of O-week, the start of a new school year/semester.

For me, in a week's time I'm flying off to the Netherlands, where I would probably face the same weather (rain) in a more cold (not to mention, windy) situation.

Funny how the days during O-week just passed me by. Could barely remember the first day of O-Week, when I was late. Or the days of talking cock, playing with freshies...Makes me remember the times during my freshmen year, when we were having fun playing games, with not a concern for the upcoming years ahead.

Gosh...year 3 already...time really flies. What have I done in NUS for the past 2 years? Hmm...Rovers was my main priority, and joining Engineering faculty events was secondary. And through my trips, I got to know a lot of people, though most of them were kinda like hi-bye friends. Committees were much better, in which u got to know people more, through work, through laughter, through *shrugs* arguments. And long-lasting friendships, definitely.

I always held the idea that camps and o-weeks are more to allow people to interact and socialise. To let them get to know new people, have fun, and see how the friendship goes on from there-on.

The most interesting way to transport Mashi-Maro!


And in it goes!


Tasting and smelling the unknown stuff.


A quick picture with the uncle @ Dily's


Mass Game!


Head smasher


Care Bears!


Guess where this is ;)


SP-Nite


Painting in the works!


He's just happy to be bua-ed


The girls having the time of their lives


Kraken @ O-Week!


Blindfold and eat Oreo game


This is one of the many pics we take with freshies who are both blinded. Muhaha. Tells u guys who are the ones playing with u dudes rite??


Spot-on!!!!


Care Bears @ SP-Nite


Kraken Rag


Weihong turning on Amanda (sounds wrong lol)


I pale in comparison to Aprine's kick!


Dinner!


Care Bear mascot


We love our Care Bear!!!


Having fun with our Care Bear


SpongeBob's Patrick - doh?!


Systems...check


Monster house mascots!


Amanda having her make-up put on


Me, Ryan, Huijin


Sara, Aprine and Me. Me attempting to do ballet (FAILED)


Yongkai & Me


Amanda & Ryan

Now...time to sleep. In fact I had typed these before I was carelessly conked up yesterday night. This showed that I indeed had too little rest. Tsk.

Rounded up the day with a visit to Suntec's food court (not impt) and Ben & Jerry's (impt!!)!!! With half of Care Bears there, and the rest being Kraken freshies, it was really a great get-together. A total of 4 Merlionsters were walloped during our stay there, so I bet that B&J must be damn happy for our presence la!

Luckily, had a ride home by Yvonne, so it was faster than I thought.

Heard about the Perseids Meteor Shower tml...dunno whether can see it or not...Hmmz.

School starting soon! Jiayou, all!

Current Mood: Sleepy

Current Music: Wu Yue Tian & Chen Qi Zhen - Si Ben Dao Yue Qiu

40 hours no sleep

OMG. I just set another record for myself. 40 hours of non-stop activity with no sleep (discount the winks which I managed to get whilst waiting for Amanda and Huijin for their food during lunch, and the bus ride from NUS to Vivocity.

Woke up at 9am on Monday to prepare to go to school, which included needing to settle my SEP questions with Prof Wang, rectify the apparent buzzing sound coming out from my newly-purchased X61, and to settle other Rovers stuff.

And it was a whole day of fun-filled activities which never ceased to stop. After finishing all my stuff, I joined my OG Care Bears at SRC for the Wargames, which was still ongoing. After that, was some quality time to interact, play games (like Ouch-Orbi-Orbi) and others, in between which there was dinner.

After dinner was settled, SP night was next, and we had to lead all the freshies around the SRC track to their stations. Huijin joined from helping out at float with Amanda, and it was interesting to see the games they freshies played, though it got a little too draggy.

Gonna get some sleep soon.

Current Mood: Sleepy

Project Surprise - Success!

I hereby declare Project Surprise a success! With help from Yi Si and Jac, my partners in crime, we've achieved the 'near'-impossible. Haha.

Just quite funny that she kept saying "Thanks"...lol. But I'm glad that she liked it all, despite us 2 having to wait for 2 hours whilst she and Jac and co. were over at West Coast celebrating her birthday. But luckily the 24-hour MacDonalds 'saved' us (and not to mention our hungry stomachs!) and we could literally talk cock and think of all the weird ideas.

Weird (and funny?) ideas included:
- Lining the floor with party poppers hoping she'll go 'pop' them *lol*
- Placing a Pooh Bear at the door-step
- Having a cake with 21 small candles (which was impossible given it was a regular cake only)

So long as she's happy, that's all it matters, right? ;)

Well now it's 3am...gotta wake up early tml to go school for O-week! Gosh...and more stuff like souvenir making and Muddy Murphy tml! Hmms...time time...I need more of them!

Sitting down, reading a card...


The birthday cake up close. 21 candles!


The Popper


Sitting innocently at the end...is the bear!


Surprise! (21 candles IS very difficult to light o.O)


HH & Me

Current Mood: Awake

Current Music: 王力宏 - 爱的鼓励

Sleepy (fun) Night

What would 3 people who are sleepy (and me hungry) sitting in front of a computer with NO dota and NO games do?

MSN is your bestest bet!

Had dinner at Chomp Chomp with Adeline and Jac after settling the return of stores and MF duty in school. Was tired and hungry whilst waiting for the 73, and I was stunned to see someone waving at me from within the bus O_O

It was Jac. And Adeline was sitting next to her. *haha*

It was such a coincidence! Which made it more easy as we all trooped over to the hawker centre to have some great Singaporean food - Hokkien Mee, Satay, Popiah, Oyster omelette (w/o oyster o.O). Food was appetizing and satisfied the basic requirement of filling up one's stomach...And off we went to Liquid Kitchen nearby to have a drink. The ambiance was quite good and I felt that if more people were around, the place would be much much more noisy (which would be more fun?) ;)

Still a nice option to consider when finding a place to chill out in! The fries there were pretty good too @ 4.80.

After that, we moved over to Ade's house and stoned/slept whilst talking rubbish. And the MSN came into play. Haha...

16 more days...

Current Mood: Sleepy