striking the balance

Reading people’s blogs and stalking them on facebook, it made me wonder.

How do they balance having a boyfriend and meeting their friends up? (Haha, randommmm)

Thinking back, I think I’ve always failed at that. I either strike my friends out because of weekly plans with the boyfriend or like my last summer vacation, I spend heaps of time away from the boyfriend. Neither options are good ones.

Option one comes because somehow when you’re a couple, you like to make weekly plans. Like when you’ve accomplished one, what should you do next week? And then it becomes routine and it’s weird if you don’t meet weekly. Hmm, okay maybe this only applies for boyfriends in the army. THen when you have parties, gigs, whatever, your first thought is to add a plus one. I’m gonna go with the boyfriend. Or you’ll agree to meet your friends at someone’s performance, yeah sure, but the boyfriend will be coming too.

Then the other, you become pro-friends and if your friends have something going on, you’re gonna be there. Sorry, boyfriend. You automatically drop to second priority. Huh, this weekend? Errr. I can fit you in on Sunday afternoon?

The million dollar question is…

How on earth do people do it?

decisions

When you’re on your own, you realise you’re the master of all your decisions. It’s quite incredible though it can be overwhelming at times. There’s so much to decide!

There are trivial questions like whether you should spend extra euros during grocery shopping for items that you’ve never tried. (Some end up like crap. I’ve thrown away coffee powder and a whole bottle of pasta sauce.)

Then there are the kind of big questions like whether you should head to the train station on your own when it’s dark outside and jump the turnstile to avoid paying for the metro to get to a party you promised to be at.

The bigger questions would be where to travel to, who to go with, how much to budget for it, etc.

But the questions I ask myself almost all the time is whether I should go socialise or not. And normally I’m too lazy to. But when I do I always don’t regret it.

I’m getting better at holding conversations with absolute strangers these days. Woot. And I think skipping travelling for mixing with the others is actually a good trade off. Skipping alone time for it, may not always be the best trade off. But occasionally it is.

What else have I learnt?

1) That people thrive on parties, they go to one when they’re exhausted and stressed to unwind. I need energy to go to such things.

2) They drink a lot. I think we finished all 85 litres of sangria at the spanish party. There additional bottles of wine and whiskey too, I saw them!

3) Always mix with them when they’re drunk. They’re merrier and friendlier. Most of them aren’t too drunk to not remember the next day anyway. They can hold their liquor.

Wow, I lost my point in this. Oh right, I tend to end up in a position where I hesitate and require a decision to be made. I don’t think this occurs much at home. Because there’s not much holding me back on either side. It’s normally clear cut. How much to spend, what to eat, where to go, who to meet, etc. It’s easy peasy. But trivial as they are, they can be huge issues here.

Ooh okay it’s 2.30am, I’m not making very significant or coherent thoughts. Bonne nuit.

suddenly…

Earlier today, a senior was asking me about guys at my school and whether I feel lonely being single.

Strangely, I realised, I’m not lonely anymore.

I mean well yeah it still stinks to be in the country where PDA is the norm and everywhere I travel to is so crazily romantic.

But wow. I’m proud of myself!

just another manic monday

A pretty apt meme.

Manic Monday #187

• Is it easy or difficult for you to switch your body clock? Do you suffer from jet lag when traveling?

Coming to Europe was my first time being in a place that’s got a time zone more than 2 hours different than home. It felt like the longest day possible, travelling back in time, leaving at 1.30am, taking two 7hour flights with 3hours transit and reaching at 2 in the afternoon. I was just struggling to keep myself awake till nightfall. Jetlagged but struggled! And when I woke up the next morning, it felt alright. So I reckon it’s quite easy to switch my body clock!

• If you had to pick one place in your town to bring a tourist, where would you go?

Tampines. Because it’s got malls, it’s in the heartlands, it’s near great food places and relatively near the beach and is so close to airport. And it’s my kampong. Love it, miss it.

• When you travel away from home, do you miss it?

Normally I don’t miss it that much because I’m away for a week max. Now I do!

7 nights, 4 cities

26oct, 725 am (gmt +1), stuttgart hautbahnhof:

I love Germany. It’s safe(r), clean(er), less smokey, organised, etc.

We arrived 2days ago, highly irritated because our train from paris was delayed by 4hours. Imagine waiting 4hours at the train station. In Sg, I get annoyed if I’ve to wait 8mins. In France, my patience extended to 20mins. 4hours is ridiculous! And it was because some stupid jokers vandalised the railway with god knows what and the slow people, as they are, took forever to take care of the situation. Seriously!

It got so bad that the media came after 3hours (also slow, wonder how they even catch up with news. Are they all equally slow to synchronise with one another?) and train staff were handing out notices to working adults as proof that this did occur and they weren’t lying.

But anyway, that aside, Gwenlyn and I met up with Suhui at long last. We were supposed to reach 3hours ahead but she ended up waiting for an hour. Okay, I’ll stop complaining.

I love their S-bahn and U-bahns too. So clean, so neat, so much space. Could top Sg’s I’d reckon. Sg’s mrt needs better seats.

With not much time left in the evening we just headed down to the main city center and found a mini carnival, about 1/20 of Oktoberfest’s in Munich but there was an ice skating rink. LOVE!!

We went to an old German town, Schorndorf, yesterday and it was the loveliest thing. The architecture looks identical in Strasbourg but I loved it anyway. The flea market was just fun to walk around at though we didn’t buy much.

Also headed to the Mercedes-Benz museum after. Coolest technology and best service ever! Makes ME wanna buy a car from them. Their audio guides were complimentary and it had this large power button we had to press and point to at each exhibition for it to scan the data and information would be read! We got to keep the lanyard too. Haha. but now I’ve too many pictures of cars. And every meal I had was sausage with a bun. (: Curry wurst, bratwurst, rote…Heaven!

Awaiting the arrival of the train to Zurich now. Travelling in threes is way better. So sad Suhui’s going back to Vienna tomorrow.

OH and daylight saving is over. So perculiar that I had to wind my watch an hour back!

27oct, 10pm, zurich youth hostel:

Switzerland is truly a first world country! I can definitely see why Singapore wants to model itself after Switz. Their trams, buses and trains are all incredibly organised. They all have screens that show the next 4 or 5 stops, how long it’ll take to reach those stops and what trains/buses/trams you can change to from there! Also they’ll show what timings those new trains/buses/trams will be arriving! Bloody hell, talk about convenience!

We took the train to Rhein Falls yesterday and it was just so darn gorgeous! My first ever waterfall! So worth the hour’s journey. It was just unbelievably picturesque. I just went trigger happy. The pictures probably look rather similar but they just felt and seemed so different there. Everything just seemed so postcard-worthy!

Today we walked around the city till we arrived at Lake Zurich. It was gorgeous like hell, with swans and ducks paddling around. So, so pretty! Took another gazillion shots here.

Realised that I enjoy places with water the most. Whether it’s a lake, beach, waterfall, I fall tremendously in love with them.

Also bought a swiss army knife (haha), ate movenpick ice cream and had cheese fondue for dinner. Incredibly filling though I didn’t like it that much. Chocolate fondue kicks some serious butt anytime. The cheese had a tad too much wine in it too! Hrm.

Also went to Lindt factory store and went bonkers. The moment we alighted, it smelled of heaven. It smelled so strongly of chocolate and it smelled much better than Boon Lay’s. Imagine gallons of melted Lindt chocolate, that’s what it smelled like. Loveee.

Lucerne tomorrow, hope it doesn’t disappoint!

28oct, 835 pm, lion lodge luzern:

Third night without wifi, I’m going through cold turkey! Haha.

Arriving at Lucerne, we realised our eurail pass entitled us to a free ferry trip along Lake Lucerne and gosh, it’s gorgeous! We could see loads of mountains, some with snow white peaks! We decided to go up Mount Titlus 2 days from now. That’s a heck of an expensive trip but I’ve never been up a mountain and it’s gonna be a snowy one! Whee (:

Not much today, lots of lazing about. Touring the city tomorrow, mount titlus the day after, geneva next and then it’s back to France! Quite exhausting, love Switzerland but happy with the thought of going back to my comfortable room (:

30oct, 950 pm, geneva youth hostel:

This morning we headed off to Mount Titlis, which was 3020 metres/10, 000 feet high. Even the cable car ride was rather freaky, esp the descend!

But it was gorgeous and well worth my 41francs. It was really tall and freezing. Had an amazing view! It wasn’t cold enough to snow but it was cold enough to maintain the ice glaciers on the ground. My poor leather boots were way too smooth to trek on it. I just had multiple near-falls and just tried to step on rougher grounds. Had no courage or adventurous spirit to trek far due to my shoes. sad.

But it was a gorgeous white sight. How white? Snow white. Hurhur. Okay.

We stopped by a town called Engelberg on our way back. It didn’t occur to me that ‘engel’ was ‘angel’ in german. The whole town had loads of angel statues! Even their canton flag has an angel in it. Interesting!

3hours train ride later, it was auf wiedersehen to the german-speaking lands and bonsoir to french-speaking geneva. The same chain of HI hostel looks way dodgier on the outside as compared to Zurich. They have 4hour lunch breaks at the reception. Shakes head. French people..

Funny how a 3hour train ride within the same country makes so much difference!

31oct, 643 p m, tgv train to paris:

Definitely looking forward to be back. Laptop free for 8days, that was crazy though I was occasionally online from my phone. IT addict. 21st century kid. Haha.

Must be an indication that I’m getting used to life in Cergy, since I look forward to be back. 7.5weeks to London, ie meeting my family. I reckon there’s going to be some running and hugging like a Korean/Japanese drama sans the background music.

Geneva’s city was alright. I loved how one departmental store had the staff dressed up in costumes for Halloween though. It was quite tough to hear them greet the customers with a straight face.

The weather’s been pretty chilly in Switz. I wonder if that’s the case in France. I’ll find out in just a jiffy but we’ve gotten so used to this chilly autumn that when we get into warm heated areas like the train for a long journey, we get very flushed like we’ve had too much to drink or are very embarrassed.

No wonder caucasians tend to look very flushed in sunny Sg! Wonder if I’ll have the same reaction when I’m back. I’m definitely going to complain about the weather for quite some time when I’m back in Sg…

More things I’m gonna miss: heavenly bakeries, layering, coats, boots, h&m, sitting by the lakes for packed lunch.

Goodbye Switzerland! Won’t be seeing you for quite some time!

fly me up to heaven

Earlier…

Ida         got me singin’ like na na na na everyday says (12:16 PM):
i showed him what u said bout him beating u
he said “i dont think so haha”
i said i dont think anyone can beat her

Ida thinks nobody can beat me, so I did a…

That, my friends, mean that I took a good leap to heaven.

HAHA, xoxo, happy birthday in advance my love!

<3

setting foot in scandinavia

Back from a weekend trip to Oslo. It started off so awfully!

For each Ryanair (a budget carrier) flight, there’s a scheduled shuttle bus from central paris to beauvais airport. To get to central paris and make it on time, I had to leave my dorm by 5, so wake up by 4am. For some stupid reason, I had set the wrong alarm and when I woke up, what was glaring at me was the fact that it was 5!!!

So I missed the scheduled shuttle. Thank god there was another shuttle half an hour later for another flight. OH and while rushing, I lost one (leather!) glove. I haven’t even worn it yet! Growl.

Upon reaching the airport, there was a beeline everywhere it was driving me crazy. Bloody slow and inefficient. The gates were supposed to close by 905 am but at 905 am, after jumping queue, I was just getting through custom checks. By the time I got to the departure holding area, I realised my gate wasn’t even open yet, so I guess thank god for inefficiency…

So I made it, had a wonderful weekend. Was wondering if I had worn too many layers there but when I arrived, it was freezing cold with crazy strong winds! Without gloves I couldn’t take pictures! It was probably french winter weather. I forgot how warm it is in france till i returned.

Shou and Leanne hosted Kailin and me and it was so much fun. (: all the food and snacks and leaves. So, so much fun. I laughed till I was tearing a few times and I realised I haven’t had that in quite a few months! Not since I left home. Not even the last few months at home, camps and breakup. I haven’t laughed so hard for ages! Bloody good weekend trip!

And I liked Oslo because it’s got everything. Buses, trams, metro, ports, fortresses, grand parks, malls, shopping streets, best hot chocolate i’ve ever had, etc. To top it off, it was so safe and everyone seemed harmless. The only thing was that every single thing costs a bomb. Norwegians who travel to Asia must be living like royalties.

We also talked a lot about what we should do when we get back. First gathering could be steamboat. First day of school, we’ll meet for macs breakfast. Hahaha.

But we were so certain about whining about the weather in Sg. Getting back to France I think it’s warm though it’s probably around 12 degrees. Norway was close to 0. I think Sg’s weather is going to kill us all.

We also agreed that we were all kind of tired of travelling, it’s funny. It really is quite exhausting. We’re all craving for time to just slack days away. And we think that europe’s beginning to look the same oops. But playing in the park with heaps of fallen leaves was da bomb. Feels much more like fall now. (: really hope I get to see snow!!!

The flight back was rather awful. I was sleeping till all of a sudden I woke up feeling terrible. True enough my vision started getting blurrer and I was just so uncomfortable in any position but I was dizzy so I couldn’t stand up either. Thankfully I had mars bars with me so I ate one and felt better. Had that feeling one too many times in my life, wonder what’s wrong with me. Hmm.

Note to self: pack snacks and chocs for future flights. Haha.

sans dire un mot

Without knowing what the lyrics is, this song fits what I’m feeling lately. All I know is that the title means ‘without saying a word’.

By far my favourite French song.

Hate times like these. I want to curl up in bed and have this song play in loop and whine all day.

Maybe I need someone to serenade me like Emmanuel Moire…

what i love

I realised everything in this page has been all sad and sappy and reminiscing but that isn’t doing justice to this place. While I miss a lot of things at home, and some very different things here annoy me, there’re a lot of things I love about here!

• I love the half an hour (downhill) walk to school in the cold, and trying to check if it’s cold enough for misty breaths. HAHA. I might regret loving this in winter.
• I love seeing people holding on to baguettes, which is an indication that the boulangerie (bakery) is nearby! And their boulangeries have the best bread and spread!
• I love how everyone says bonjour and au revoir walking in and out of the lifts though I don’t know them at all.
• I love paying for my groceries at the counter with the cashier and not the automated machine because she would say the price really quickly and I’m trying to learn how to recognise numbers in French.
• I love trying to order in French in bakeries, cafes, etc. I think they can see the effort and are normally extremely nice to me.
• I love how diversified my project mates are. For European Economics, my group mates consist of 1 slovakian, 1 german and 1 chinese. For Purchasing, 1 chinese, 1 french. For E-business, 1 portugese, 1 russian, 1 swedish. For Sales Force Management, 2 dutch, 2 germans, 1 singaporean. But we haven’t started on projects yet so I don’t know, the diversity might be a disadvantage too. But it’s cool!
• I love listening to people talk passionately about their hometown, which is ever so different from home.
• I love how interesting French rap sounds. LOL.
• I love watching the French on the streets. I forgot how Singaporean fashion is, because sometimes I think about bringing such stuff home – layering, jackets, boots, then I wonder if it’s really too hot and undoable. Or will I get stared at? Hmmm.
• OH and I love the eiffel, still.

C’est la vie!

journey of thoughts

Theory #1: I thought I missed Asian food so much that I would pounce on any Asian supermarkets and buy off everything from their shelves.

But while I was at Chinatown in Paris yesterday I didn’t feel like buying a single thing. I saw pandan cake, tau sar piah, chili sauce, frozen siew mai and spring rolls, bee hoon and such. I kept thinking, I’m in France, I’ll buy frenchier groceries. If I miss Asian food I can cook it with what I have in hall. No need for curry paste!

What I truly missed was the coffeeshops and bakeries atmosphere. Sure their cafes and boulangeries triumphs ours any day but I’m a true Singaporean at heart. I would come back here but I wouldn’t live here all my life. Choose coffeeshops over cafes!

Theory #2: I miss my friends.

Okay this theory is true but I think my greater worry wasn’t about not being there with them. My greater worry was them moving on without me.  For some people I think we’re talking less and our little short conversations are getting colder. But occasionally we have that one good conversation and it puts me at ease that everything’s still the same.

Things are good, things are good. I think I’m discovering little by little that I’m adapting to life here!