Mi.Ami

Luzern

2007-07-01T08:33:00.000+01:00

22th June 2007

luzern seemed much more beautiful than zurich. it was older and it has less of the orderly feeling that was starting to irk me. went to the lion monument then down to the old town and got immerse in shopping. there was sales everywhere. some of the clothes are like 50% off. a lot are less than 20francs. considered cheap when you live in Milan for 4 months.

the old town of luzern is bordered by a wall that used to guard the town. we climbed up the tower and walked on the walls. wah. it was another round of stunning view. luzern is really beautiful. the mountains are so near to it. there's water, there's mountain. nature all by its side.

we peaked down the wall on the other side. and guess what? we found hairy cows! OMG. so cute!!

went down to the other side of the wall which leads to a shortcut back to our hostel. the sun was setting. the scene felt surreal. was it a dream? no, it was real. i often have this feeling when i'm in switzerland. is this real? it's like from my imagination. it's just so beautiful. like part of the fairy tale image i had when i was young.

we passed by many beautiful houses including this cute little swiss cottage and a stunning modern house with underground carpark. sixiu says its her dream house. ha! i'm serious. it's really breathtaking and the windows reflect the sky.

people there manicure their gardens and maintain them really well. sunflower in the garden just makes me feel happy.

little girl having fun drawing on the ground. the life here seems so good.

we got onto the main road and tried to look for the supermarket. the people in switzerland are super friendly. before we even ask, this cyclist suspecting we're lost and looking for the hostel shouted out the directions to the hostel. LOL. super nice. also when we were in zurich, a man offered to help us take a group photo. we didn't even ask. he just saw us taking photos. i really like the people here.

23rd June 2007

next day we were going to the snow mountain Titlus. i was very excited. but first we visited the other part of the town where there was this disney castle-like church. on our way down the road, you see there's the mountain view in the backdrop of the town. everywhere you look, there's this beautiful backdrop.

the church turned out to have a cemetry. i took some photos cuz i wanted to compare with the cimitero in Milan. i haven't blogged about it but soon!! the organ started playing while we went into the church. i think it's a culture here. the church will play once in a while. it's nice. i like it.

the sunlight penetrated through the windows. it was pretty.

out of the church we could see the streets and the cloudy blue sky. we walked passed a shop and i saw the traditional swiss costume in the display window. we went to the lakeside. the weather was clear that day so we could see really far and. really pretty. there were ducks, tree-lined pathways next to the casino and a attempt at dragon boats. haha.

the dogs here must be in heaven. saw this white one. it was so happy! it was influencing me to be happy too. it kept wanting to play fetch and even before its master threw the stick, it was already in the water bouncing. it makes me wanna smile.

this is a swimming pool by the lake. i'm curious why people need a swimming pool here when they can just jump into the lake. but anyway, as you can see, you can swim out to the lake from the house. cool. but there was a sign when i was there that said you can't swim that day. maybe it's still too cold. i heard the water's 19 degree celsius only.

yeah. it was time to meet up with our tour guide for our mountain trip. took a cab down to near mount Pilatus (the place where you can get the best view for mountains) to meet up with a tour bus from zurich. the tour guide told us that there was a legend that friendly dragons used to inhabit Pilatus. so they painted dragons on the cable car. i dunno how eliable is the guide but i believe him anyway cuz it makes Pilatus more interesting. from there bus, we proceed to Titlus on bus.

wah. all the way, we saw great scenery. then we got on our cable car and went up up UP :) see the blue water, the tour guide later told us that blue water meant that it's cold. like 5 degrees celsius!

真的真的很美! it's amazing! that's the best i can describe how i felt. as we ascend, we heard melodious 'clang..clang...clang...' it was the cows in the fields and it was echoing throughout the valley. beautiful... in each souvenir shop, you can find the cow bells. now we know what it represents. haha.

up up UP and soon we were among the clouds. everything started to turn misty... and cold. the three of us had only our normal jackets thinking that the thick winter jackets will be provided. ha. we didn't want to rent so we brave the cold>.<

up on the snow mountain, the ice was glaring. i had no shades and it hurt my eyes. i was squirting. at the same time, the ice was slippery and we couldn't see far. exciting and fun to manage our way around. we were trying to find the ice flyer station where we could take a ride through the snow cap mountains and peak. burr...

finally took the ride. it was a very strange experience. i couldn't see far. everything was misty. occasionally, i see some structures or the opposite car coming into view. the mountain walls were sometimes close by and we pass it. our feet were dangling out there and there was nothing underneath us. where are we? a dream?

next we went to the glacier/ice caves. it wasn't so cold after we've been out in the open at 5 degrees. the lights were always changing mysterious colours and there was faint music in the background. fairly touristy. on some parts of the ice walls, there was funny hand depressions. looks like someone was displaying some kungfu here or sth. LOL.

soon it was time to descend and mountains came into sight again. the whole experience was so out of this world. was it even real, i thought.

and we were back in Luzern. the weather was still fine. we walked around a little and explored the newer part of the town (which is still like 200 years old). by this time, we were running out of memory and battery. we were sharing our resources so many photos are taken using sixiu or cindy's camera or using their memory card.

24th June 2007

went to the art museum where i saw Picasso and many other modern painters. it made me think a lot about painting. and i was impressed somehow.

this day was slow pace. we walked around leisurely and tried to see the remaining sights and spend our last francs.

then we took our 4.25pm train back to Milan. at the train station, there were people in traditional swiss costume and a band playing to welcome a group of people. they were raising flags. i thought they are swiss national players. such a warm majestic scene.

(pictures soon)

and so there is about a month left for me in Milan. i start to have mixed feelings. i have adapted to life here and i would really miss this life. at the same time, home is always the best place to be and i miss my mom and dad and brothers. and, my stupid elder brother is getting married this july on the 7th. i'm going to miss it :( i want to go home. but i want this to last longer too. i never want to forget my experience here in Milan. maybe this is what the blog is for.

Zürich

2007-06-29T12:08:00.000+01:00

20th June 2007

rushed the powerpoint presentation for my group. didn't know what i was doing was right or not. but just did it. was super tired. look at my face. hah. but anyways, i'm am going to switzerland! yay! i took the early bus and reached the station super early. checked out the train and realised that it's a super clean and cheery train. whoa~ so different from the freaking italian trains. the partitions were actually clear glass and inside there was usage of yellow. the whole space looked brighter and more spacious. i think that made travelling in it much more enjoyable. good.

sixiu and cindy joined me shortly after. it's been a while since i last saw cindy in venice (ha. i haven't blogged about venice and rome. soon soon... :P )

as the train proceeded to switzerland, it was very interesting to see that the train stations also start to get cleaner and cleaner. LOL. zurich has been voted the city with the highest standard of living. i guess that really true. at the train station, there is this enclosed shelter which i thought was very thoughtful of the swiss! when waiting for the train, the people can stay inside and be away from the wind or cold.

the scenery in switzerland is superb and breathtaking. like a miracle. how can there be sth so beautiful on earth? is this earth? the towns are so peaceful. the mountains are so amazing. from the train, the towns look like the toy sets children play.

reached zurich after approximately 4hours ride from Milano Centrale.

at the big square inside the train station, there was a market.

wah. this is zurich. everything is so well maintained and orderly. the streets are clean and the people are friendly. on top of that, they speak english. cindy was saying we need not be afraid we'll be robbed cuz the people are richer than us. haha.

the zurich zurich town itself is next to the narrower part of the lake. the lake is actually very clean and clear. there are many swans and ducks in the lake. some people soaking their legs in the water. the whole pace of the town is slow. there is nothing to be worried about it seems.

sixiu told me that in zurich you can go for a bicycle tour. rent a bike to get around the town. so there was quite a number of cyclist i noticed. oh and on top of that, i also noticed that the pigeons in zurich are much thinner! remember the fat italian pigeons? the swiss ones look malnutrition in comparison. haha.

we were early for hostel check-in. after we were done, we went for a walk around the town. went to the Kunsthaus Zurich museum which is one of the largest collections in Classic Modern Art in the world (Munch, Picasso, Braque, Giacometti, etc.)

sixiu was telling us how great monet's paintings are. from up close, you only see swirls of colours. but from far, you realise that the swirls make so much sense. and the painting are so huge.

we went to the older town district where the expensive boutiques are. the street ended at the train station where we bought a day pass for 23 (!!) francs. freaking expensive. on our way, we noticed sth funny. in front of the restaurants, the people sit facing the streets instead of each other. so there was this two restaurants at the side of a centre main road. and the scene looked like there was two gangs. very comical!

after we got our day pass for the next day, we had a macs dinner and went back to the hotel for a short break. we came out again to see the town. we walked down the narrow alley to the main road and heard a band playing. it's something i like in europe. super nice when it's peaceful and there is some music. i think the band we saw was a military band or sth...

we loitered at the bridge where the band was playing for a while. then we took a walk to one of the parks in the town which opened out to the wider part of the lake. on our way, there was this woman standing at the very top window of this fairytale like castlehouse. wah. i was so captivated. like fairy tale princess leh. she must be damn rich. then, we passed by an outdoor dining place. it reminded me very much of bugis hawker centre.

finally we reached the park. there, we saw a lot of swans and ducks again! it was nice to see the sun setting and people canoeing/rowing boats. we chat in front of the nice view. happy and relaxed. weather in switzerland is really unpredictable. one moment it's bright and scorching, the next moment it threatens to rain. and yah, it did start to drizzle. so we all went back. it was late anyway. our pace back was fairly quick.

21st June 2007

this is the day we go to Rhine/Rhein Falls and Rose city - Rapperswil! Rhine falls is the largest (not necessarily tallest or steepest) waterfall in Europe. so we're excited. we have to take a train from zurich to winterthur then transfer to another train towards Schaffhausen. we were already on our way when activity in the town hasn't started. at the station, they have many shops underground just like citylink. (i just keep seeing bits of singapore in zurich.) the clocks in the stations are cute. they have this red second hand with a big circle at the tip. come to think of it, i've never seen train station clocks with second hands(or have i?)! does that show that when it come to clocks, they're the experts? hahaha..

the three of us were in the train busy taking photos cuz it so clean! wah lau. the freaking italiani treni. tsk tsk. the woman beside us laughed at us. we looked like we've never seen a train.

on our way. there were ominous dark clouds plus factory chimney emitting black smoke. scary. then it poured. but nonetheless, we still get to see good view. there was even a sunflower field!! super happy even though the flowers were facing the wrong side. ha. cows in switzerland must be in abundance and everywhere. but i like. moo moo. the train stations on the way were small and in the end, we missed our stop without knowing it was a stop. haha. overshot but it's good cuz cindy and i could get a chocolate drink for ourselves :)

got back to the station and climbed our way to the medival castle. at the back of the castle, there was a souvenir shop and that's where the entrance of the rhine falls is if you want to get a good view. entrance fee is cheap. just 1 swiss franc.

the waterfall was great and the journey down was so well designed. we started from the top overview of the waterfall where we could see where it was coming and where it was going. already, we could hear the loud gushing of the water. then we proceed down and went through some caves and steps and got closer and closer to the water. at one point in time, we were just right in front of it. the water was splashing over us and i really felt the power and impact of the waterfall. the water was so loud that we were raising our voices. my camera was getting wet together with my clothes. there was pearls of water on our hairs (head and hand) when we finally finished with phototaking!

i bought a cute littel cuckoo clock at the souvenir shop there :)

the weather turned good again. (see? weird weather) the field are ssssuper pretty! wah. i really don't know how to describe. these are the times i am irritated that my english sucks. our train went back to winterthur before we got onto another train to rapperswil. more good scenary :) and we reached.

spotted the first 2 roses in rose city at its medival castle.

we went up the hill and we could see from there the zurich lake and the longest wooden bridge in switzerland. in switzerland, you can see far and wide. there is space and depth in the scenary. there i also saw deers! they live in the small wooden house down the slope. i was so excited. first time, real and in a park.

as we descend, we went to the rose garden in rose city. the colour of the roses were so saturated. they are ravishing.

by the lake, a group of people were feeing the swans and ducks. we joined them. ah. there was this swan who was so aggressive it attack any duck that came nearby. it wanted all the food to itself. damn fierce. then as we threw bread into the lake, it came over to get all the ducks away from its sygnet. the sygnets were very greedy too. they swarm towards the bread and they stuck their heads out and tumbled over the large stones.

took a boat ride back to zurich town. it was included in our day pass. it was cold and the second class seats were outside. we decided to get something to drink so that we could stay in the cafe. i drank the coffee and i thought " har. this is capuccino meh?" so not the same as italiano capuccino. slow 2 hours ride. haha. when we went outside the wind was so strong that our hairs were parallel to the ground!

back at the town, we took a stroll along the shopping district again. saw the swiss national bank on our way. there seems to be an event. i thought about how movies always mention swiss bank. switzerland must be very wealthy. we bought something from a toy store then we went to eat at the restaurants. wanted to try their swiss cheese fondue. we also tried some assorted meat and escagot! escargot was really nice! i like the texture and the sauce. cheese fondue took some time for me to adjust too. it was a little strong but i soon like it. photos are still with cindy and sixiu.

after dinner, we went for a romantic walk in the park. we sat by the lake and ate apples :) a group of youngster came by and teased us by looking as if they wanted to take our bags. but they were just joking and walked away fast. it reminded us to be more careful. the sunset was purple and magenta. beautiful. because yian didn't go, i helped her do her characteristic jump. haha. not bad right?

it turned dark and we decided to find the pub where dadaism started. it was supposed to be near our hotel. it was exciting for me to walk through dark alleys. some of these places are cool. i feel transported back in time and maybe there was a secret discussion going on through the windows where the orange candescent light penetrated. we walked to the street mention on the tourist map but couldn't find a pub. walked around and around. aiyoh. ended up back at our hotel when we went through this narrow alley. i decided since we're back, just ask the counter guy. it turned out that the pub was really just like 100m/2 shops away from our hotel! it looks new to me...

22th June 2007

the next morning before we left for lucern, we went up the Grossmünster Church. so privelleged. we were the first that morning.

outside the church, there was a group of children with function reflector vests. the two women looked like they're in trouble as the children were all over the place doing funny stunts.

we went over to Fraumünster Church to take pictures of the famous marc chagall stainglass. when we were there, it started to rain. we stayed in and suddenly some guy from the church started singing in the middle aisle. his voice was beautiful and the acoustic of the church was excellent. his voice just echoed and resonated. it was very melodious.

we couldn't afford to wait for the rain to stop, so we dashed across the bridge back to the hotel. dropped by teddy's souvenir stall (swiss souvenir stall) to see if we could get something but no. and yeah. to luzern!

2007-06-24T22:54:00.000+01:00

i realised i never blog for super long time. really too busy. it's esame or submission period now. needa chong ah! yah... 加油加油加油!!

16th June 2007

Peck SUPERmarket. the most expensive food you'll probably find on Earth. ok, i'm exaggerating. but really the food here look superbly good. it is vvvery very nice. pretty. stunning. beautiful. so beautiful and exquisite and fine that it motivates me to be rich. some of the things here cost like 130euros/kg. i think this is the place for the true rich milanese.

18th June 2007

there was a fashion show in school. everyone was looking. the school is so happening!

San Siro stadio (and around) in 2 days

2007-05-17T00:28:00.000+01:00

15th, 16th May 2007

went to check out the biggest stadium in europe(?) San Siro can contain 87 000 spectators! it's damn cool. i think it'll be super 爽 to watch a real match here. the spectators are really close to the field and there's this enclosed/closing in feeling. i can almost visualise the fans shouting when the matches are played and the echos that resonates throughout...

on our way there. haha! so 配合.

passed by a horse racing turf and saw Leonardo da Vinci's Horse. wow, it's GI-GAN-TIC. super super.

ATM Strike!

2007-05-17T00:17:00.000+01:00

15th May 2007

after a few false alarms, ATM finally got their strike. the metros were stopping. Luckily yian and i manage to catch the train back home.

full day at school

2007-05-16T23:54:00.000+01:00

14th May 2007

a trike show and tell from existing company.

lunch.

lesson. eh? balloons? balloons with funny faces?

our turn to present. the professors here are really nice...

fun italian class :) curly hair Robert is behind. funny face professor teaching.

Happy Morning Walk

2007-05-12T14:32:00.000+01:00

12 May 2007

Today, I woke up to find all the other three girls gone! Haha, from the absence of their shoes, I gathered they went jogging. Oh, I wished I brought my jogging shoes… then I can exercise too. But, 就是没有. So, I brightened my day with two episodes of FRIENDS SEASON 2 then went out for a walk in the neighbourhood.

I really like the neighbourhood. It’s very peaceful on one side and then very happening also on our side, especially at the bar just downstairs. Plus, all the amenities are around the corner, which is really good!

Yeps. This is the other side of the neighbourhood. For a moment, I thought those taller buildings resemble our HDB flats. Sometimes, I think there’s really not much difference being overseas or in Singapore because Singapore is such an international place. What they have here, we also have in Singapore. Only when I see the older town centres and interact with and observe the people do I really feel the difference.

Peeping Yan Ling.

Amused by how the man splashed cement onto the wall to create its texture. I like the action. Oh, and look at the paved floor. I don’t understand why but it’s so soft that you can create depressions in them. I remembered the last time Yian wore her heels, she almost got stuck standing in a spot for too long. Ha!

The whole place’s filled with greenery and flowers. They’re really pretty! This is also something nice here. The flowers. Don’t find that much flowers that are as vibrant in Singapore.

Nice day. Met up with the girls after their jog and went to the market with neighbours. What a good start to a day!

Easter Hols - Napoli - Capri - Blue Grotto - Napoli city

2007-05-11T16:49:00.000+01:00

6th April 2007

To the beautiful island of Capri! the weather was fine fine fine. it was such a bright and sunny day. it made me feel happy. we enjoyed the vast blue sea, the clear blue sky and the clean white pebble beach in the town.

We went free and easy on this trip. So we had not much of a plan. Found a boat trip somewhere and decided to go. It was to the blue grotto. We hopped onto the cozy small boat after getting our tickets.

Gan, sixiu and I sat at the tip of the boat while the rest were at the seats. It’s a different feeling from the big cruise we took earlier on.

Outside the blue grotto, there were many other tourists waiting for their turn to get onto a smaller boat. We were baking in the sun.

After some time, it was our turn at last. the trip into the blue grotto is fun! You have to lie back and then the boat man will pull a chain along the side to slide the boat into the grotto. You see the hole is too short for us to sit upright! Whoosh~! In like 2 seconds and you’re in this heavenly place with glowing cyan water under your boat. It’s really cool. On top of that, the boatman will start singing some opera-type songs to enhance the atmosphere. Waah. Nice. But, the grotto is really small. I think we took less than 5 mins inside. If you guys happen to go next time, an advise would be not to tip the boat man. Cuz you don’t have to.

On our way back to the island, we manage to get everyone to the front of the boat. We were like VIPs! Haha. Just lazing around and basking in the morning sun. haha. Even took a nap there! How luxurious for a small boat trip. We really know how to enjoy ourselves. Haha…

Back on the island, we naturally decided to explore the island. Almost like a ritual, we got ourselves some gelato! Then, we started our long climb up the steep hill. It was steps after steps. It was like never ending! Furthermore, we didn’t know where the town piazza was exactly. On the way, we saw these 2 really cute dogs on the ledge of a wall. We wondered if they knew how to get down… ha.

Oh, and also, the place is full of lemon trees! I realized that Capri’s specialty is lemon products. Even lemon chocolate!

And we’re at the town! The view was breathtaking. So, we pulled out our cameras and started shooting. *snap snap snap. Oh, look at cute little orange bus.

There’s the piazza with a clock tower.

This whole area is filled with boutiques, people and food stalls! Anyway, there’s this Salvatore Ferragamo shop that’s all over the place. I think there was 3 within sight?

After indulging ourselves in awe, it’s time to catch our ferry back.

On our way down the hill.

Who’s first?

for our return trip, we managed to get a cheaper ticket for a transport ferry ride. those that can bring cars across the sea. i guess the price reflects the time taken for the ride. cuz this took about twice the time needed when we came and cost half the price. hmm. there were seats inside but we chose the outside seats. the breeze was in our faces and it got a little cold halfway. there was (absolutely) nothing in sight for half the journey and all you can see is blue sea, blue sky and bright warm sun. we got a little sleepy too. but soon perked up after a singing session. haha. were recalling those old songs we listened when we were in sec sch. the cheesy lyrics are so funny!

Back on Napoli, we went to nearby castle, palazzo and galleria. Palazzo was closed. We were shut out. The galleria looks suspiciously like the one in Milan. Hmmmm… the street names repeat all over the country and now even the buildings?

Then, we went to the shopping street in Napoli. Believe me, this street is a lot better than the ones nearer to the hostel we stay. At least there’s some order here. Anyway, check out giant clothes peg! yup. and actually, it's quite cool being in Napoli lah. the whole feeling here is very different from in Milan. there's this life and energy in the city. happening.

church and procession. found out about this catholic thing. so ate macs and went back to take a look. it's a solemn ritual.

(all pictures courtesy of Gan, Sixiu, Cindy, Anna, Meihua, Yianling and I)

Easter Hols - Napoli - Pompeii - (finally.)

2007-05-10T13:51:00.000+01:00

5th April 2007

we had a long ride on the train and dawn breaking as we arrived in Napoli... after meeting up with the torino girls, we navigated our way to the nice bella capri hostel in Napoli.

a look out of the hostel balcony: scary car-packed roads!!

after settling down, we set off for Pompeii. haha. amused by the giant aloe vera plant outside the ticket office.

scenery while walking towards the entrance of Pompeii.

yes. we're at the ruin city of pompeii!

had to walk a lot. the weather was fine (at first). the clouds were beautiful.

some pictures indoor.

through this journey, i discovered my special talent: posing for photos. just like our parents' times. haha. it was so comical that 2 other tourist joined us!

the happy gang!

the grand theatre. by this time, the sky had become overcast. the wind was blowing in our faces as we climbed to the top of the theatre. there was something very calming about being there.

soon, it started to rain and we started to make our way back to Napoli. on our way, we grabbed a mac. hungry stomachs can't wait!

back at napoli, we stopped by a pet shop on the way to look for dinner. the animals were so cute Anna keep asking to buy one back to Torino. LOL.

through the streets and buildings, we finally got to the antica pizzeria. it's a very famous pizzeria that Anna's friend recommended. we got ourselves Marinara (the original pizza with no cheese.) and margherita pizza! we sure were happy folks. here the people eat 1 pizza per person. look at the size! ha. we didn't join the customs and just shared ours.

ah. then the scary wait at the bus stop. haha. look at the cars zooming past and the narrow island we were standing on... aiyo... waited a long time for the bus that never came. finally we walked back to hostel instead.

(all pictures courtesy of Gan, Meihua, Anna, Cindy, Sixiu, Yian and I)

Day out!

2007-05-09T15:57:00.000+01:00

8th May 2007

random walk around Cadorna then towards Duomo. San Ambrogio church. small alleyways. random signs. small cozy shops. alley ways opening up into the large streets. gelato shop with no 5-foot ways. nice fondente & mandorla gelato! great shopping street: Via Torino. and home i go.

great happy day out.

days of my life

2007-05-09T09:07:00.000+01:00

6 May 2007

sunday out. checked train tickets for venice and vienna. yeah. we're going!
then went 10 corso como to check out the cool design bookstore and worldpress photos exhibition. nice place. white with well-maintained greenery.
after that, PRINCI pastries! gan got apple crumble, yian scones and some custard cake, and me? erm... something with almonds and some berry jam. raspberry? anw, made me happy :)
lastly, of course we have to end our nice day with some grocery shopping!! there's gan done choosing kiwis.

7 May 2007

i made fried rice! a bit dry in the end... but it's nice. hahah. of course things you cook are nice. but yian's lentichie or lentels are really good too! i like them!

Going to school on rainy days

2007-05-06T09:08:00.000+01:00

2nd, 4th May 2007

it has been cold and rainy for the past few days. starting to wear more clothes again. going to school has become troublesome too. cuz have to carry umbrella with our laptops. all hands occupied. show you pics. that day we were quite late, so gan and yian were eating on our way to sch. there is a narrow stretch of road before we reach the sch gate and because it was pouring, a large pool of water accumulated. haha. it was a close shave for gan and yian who were walking right next to the pool of water when a car zoom past! luckily they were fast to react and hid in that space on the left... hahahha... for a moment, meihua and i, who were behind, thought they disappeared. it was secs later when they emerge, head first to peep at anymore cars, before they came back out onto the road. LOLs...

Como Lago

2007-04-28T20:40:00.000+01:00

26 April 2007
after all the hectic-frantic Milan fair mad rush, Gan suggested a trip to Como Lago and so, we went! Yian fell ill on that day so yups only 4-1 of us.. The weather was cool and a little foggy. but anw, Como Lago is still beautiful. i like this place. after grabbing 2 tourist maps from the tourist point, we basically just followed the route on it.

first stop: Duomo at Como Lago! not as glamourous as milan's. it's more toned down and humble. a different period's work i think. beside it there's an old town hall (the pink,white,grey stripes one) and further left, there is a clock tower. the piazza in front of this duomo is fairly small and is lined with cafes. looks like a really nice place! the place is filled with narrow streets lined with shops. on that day, just nice, there's this man playing music, so it was veeerrry nice~~ imagine slow relaxing day+music! happy.
inside the duomo (anw, it means cathedral in italian). candles burning; light seeping through the window; quiet; colourful stain glass:)
next, we followed the tourist map we have and went on to look for the theatre, then a palazzo. the theatre's just behind the duomo. on our way to look for the palazzo, we saw pretty orange flowers :) then guess what? contrary to what we were expecting, the palazzo turned out to be this modern building that we felt was really out of place in the town. we actually walked right pass it the first time and were like checking the map asking ourselves 'how come never see the palazzo?' haiyo, 原来就是这个了...

the town centre's really small. we went on by foot to see the other attractions - the other church and a defence tower... nice.
soon, it was LUNCH TIME!! went back to the lake side to enjoy our packed lunch plus added mac food. i really enjoy just sitting by the lake, relaxing, eating, chatting. it's good to spend time like this...
after lunch, hehe... i suggested eating gelato. so yeahh~~ gelato! our neighbour told us a place where there's a church made of seashells and brad pitt&angelina jolie got married there. we wanted to get that out one... even got the bus tix.. but waited and waited very long for the bus... it was getting late and we have lessons in the evening... see, wait until start to check out the weird weighing balance (??!) by the lake and start self-entertaining...

in the end, we decided we have not enough time, so we'll come como lago again with yian next time to check that out. anw, we also want to go up the hill/mountain plus explore the other areas further away.

and so, we just walked along the lake to a land extension in the lake. there are boats all around. could also see some people canoeing in the lake. nice~.

towards the end of the extension, besides finding a young couple kissing and doing PDA, we also found lotsa locks! apparently, there's this belief that if you write your names and lock it, you will never part (or sth like that. there's even a song about this!). yeah. haha... romantic? at first gan and i saw this really big power lock and we thought that was the winner lock liao. but see, there's even more power ones that come with CHAINS. haha... ok... the benches there also filled with 'xxx ti amo xxx' (=xxx love xxx). yah...

hung out there for a while then needa go back to school. on our way passed by a pond in front of a hotel. look! got cute ducklings~~

Ahh... lazy relax day for us ah......................

Ikea trip 2

2007-04-21T20:21:00.000+01:00

14 April 2007

went Ikea on this saturday to get more stuff for the house. weather is still hot. i watched the Ikea shuttle bus driver hit his air-con real hard cuz it wasn't working. ...

How to make Gan happy: Chocolat

2007-04-21T00:43:00.000+01:00

18, 19 March 2007

heh, this is the much delayed entry i promised earlier on!. haha. actually by this time, i think most of you already tried the gelato here. it's really shiok right?! esp the chocolate ones. pistachio is really good too! on that sunday, gan and i passed by this really crowded shop and decided to check it out. it was so good we were grinning from ear to ear lor. power chocolate flavours like orange chocolate, peperoncino chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate... so many so many! so good that we got yian and meihua to come again the next day! haha. it's a really nice place too. cute cow, nice ambience. serves caffe and chocolate cakes too :) MUST TRY IF YOU"RE HERE! the place's called Chocolat, near Cadorna.

Farm Trip 2: Cisliano to Corbetta

2007-04-18T16:23:00.000+01:00

11 April 2007

this time, i was more focused cuz the assignment is due is two days' time! yeah. somemore must chop chop go home cuz alone. yep. my theme is street networks. so i took a lot of photos of the roads. i can't emphasize it further that these places are really beautiful!!! yeah.
my finally two photos for the portrayal.

Farm Trip 1: Melegnano & San Giuliano

2007-04-18T15:32:00.000+01:00

29th March 2007

some of you might know yian and i are in this module which we have to design a service to connect the countryside (agricolo parco sud milano) to the city. then we have this first assignment which we have to take photos! it's really interesting cuz we have to try to portray the good and attractive side of the place. a test of photography skill...

after some adventure (miss train, no train, take metro, change bus, wrong bus, wait bus, miss stop, walk, ask, walk...) we finally reach the town centre of Melegnano! hurray! it's a beautiful town. we happened to be there when they have a market. quite happening.

this is one of the church we went to in the town. it's far from the town centre. but, town people are really helpful. there's this old man who offered to show us the way when we asked from directions. he brought us all the way there and even shaked our hands and wished us good day when we reached.

oh, then we wanted to see this other place on the map. we didn't understand the italian name tho. just asked around for directions. then it was really stupid. we were told to walk to dunno-wad semaforo (traffic light), go up somewhere, turn left, somewhere there. then we were lost. we ask ard somemore then this man told us to go back exactly where we came from! -_-" luckily we doublechecked with another man. and he went, 'ecco!' (it's just there!) and pointed to this memorial thing (the statue). nice!

after that, we continued our adventure. we wanted to go to a farmhouse. and from the memorial, there was no other way but to take the highway. huh?! the traffic is super busy cuz it's main road there. after a while, we got to the house you see above. it's beaufiful. especially the climber-type plants overhead. explored the courtyard a little before we realised there's a HUGE dog inside.

some nice views along the way.

next stop, a palazzo! the countryside is really beautiful. is really something you cannot find in sg. i really enjoy the view there. and the air is so fresh. everything about it is relaxing.
ha. but after that, we had to like walk, walk, walk, walk and WALK! where the hell are we??!
oooo, but later on, we found a casina which has a museo inside la. it's cool. shows all the old farm stuffs and some drawings of farms. and, there's also this cow shed. haha. look! there's a rooster communicating with the cows!! and there's one staring at me. i must be disturbing them...
finally, after so MANY hours of walking, we were on our way home :)

so it does rain in Milan!

2007-04-17T10:16:00.000+01:00

4th April 2007

it was after italian class. going home alone and it started to rain. luckily the houses here have balcony. stood under and waited for bus. zoom~~~

home with gan

2007-04-12T22:04:00.000+01:00

3 weeks passed without an entry! haha. school is getting busy. went naples and rome for hols and now rushing hw.

tonight, yian ling went to get a night shot of her abbazia (abbey) for tomorrow's submission. meihua went with her cuz not very safe at night.

so after italian class, gan and i went home together. we had spice chicken and peperoncino+sausages+mushroom+origano+tomotosauce-pasta. check out the broken plates from the last time we used the oven. haha. power oven sia. anw, the oven-baked chicken also power lor. spurted oil out like a fountain when gan slit it with a knife! check out how turgid it is! must have a lot of oil stored in there! oh my gosh. it was so classic! there was a trajectory of oil shooting out!! and i'm not kidding you!

pasta was hot. recently we're getting into the chilli mood. first we bought hot&spicy pringles. then peperoncino grains. then on the same day as the grains, i also 不约而同 bought chilli sauce from an asian provision shop. then, today we bought peperoncino powder. i think we really miss hot stuff man.

random updates:

the pet slug, chenchen2, is growing fatter (and orange-er) day by day as it munches carote.
yups, we finally got our message board
ooo.. look at the maps i've got. really crazy. cuz i needa go out to some countryside park to do research so i got all the maps. searching and looking out for buses, trains, roads, etc, etc. city centre map? parco sud mappa? milano provincia mappa? pubblici transporti guida? all also have.

tonight i think i have no time to sleep. report report...

A random day in school

2007-03-24T12:35:00.000+01:00

a crowded panifficio. a chinese food stall. the school compound.

***
i'm glad we finally found some modules we can take :)

Last week...

2007-03-20T22:11:00.000+01:00

13th March 2007 (tues)

welcome day at politecnico in the afternoon. received a few stacks of paper with instructions of how to register for modules, timetable of modules, application forms, x, x, x ,x... eramus presentation in good english. sth sounds like fun. hmmm... make or dun make mensa card?

14th March 2007

didn't go to sch. woke up too late... ended up in chinatown at Paolo Sarpi with yian while Gan&MH went to get groceries at COOP. found only 3 provision shops there. got ourselves red beans(!!), condensed milk and glutinuous flour... yeah. also some other foodstuff... chinatown... full of clothing shops... why.

15th March 2007

went to school finally to sit in for lessons so that we could choose our modules. yr2 studio that day was a specialised ergonomics class and they were going to design backpacks, sleeping bags or tents for a company called CAMP. also went for a eco-sustainability class called ambiente e cultura (...??) misleading.

(their studio or lab lesson. this room is quite big. got some other smaller LTs or CTs also...)

(ciclo di vita! life cycle! beardy guy is the lecturer. )

///in the night, we went to neighbour's house for PAARRTY!!!!!!!! (secret thought: they can really drink!) the food was great. we contributed chicken rice. camila, hoolien, paulina, lucas, carmeletta, hetter, aisah, marta! so many people! was given a geography lesson on what are the countries surrounding poland. haha...

16th March 2007

SLACK AT HOME. gan went ipercoop area alone to shop cuz cannot stay at home! MH, Yian and I went jogging and to search for legendary AMICO (friend) supermarket. nice jog! redeemed a little of those sinful food we keep eating...

17th March 2007

weeeekeendd! went to duomo area. ufficio postale was closed. yian couldn't post stuff. the duomo piazza was rowdy and roaring with cheers.

they were broadcasting ruby match. italy vs ireland. world cup? atmosphere: spirited.

as we walked across the piazza to look for the tourist office (so that we can get some milan maps), lotsa pigeons kept flying overhead us. prob cuz this girl was feeding them. some flew low. quite scary....
after maps, we checked out Luini at S.Radegonda 16. supposed to have great panzerotti or mini deep fried calzone. i like it. it's good! lotsa of people queuing for the food there. it has a 150year old history selling the stuff.

good!

then went zara and H&M. the shops are so far apart that after only a while, conquering only the two shops, we were tired liao...

headed home sweet home.

18th March 2007

MH and Yian went church. Gan saw free admission for castello sforzello museum. we were therefore split into 2 grps. the castle overwhelms. arggh. but museum turned out not free....

and so... we decided to check out the beautiful garden park behind the castle: the fun fair(will be blogged soon...........) from 2 weeks ago was still there... went beyond park to after the Arco della Pace in search of recommended apertivo bar Blangra(?????)bar (honest. that's the name) found a....erm.......... woman lying next to the shop window? dare not go any closer... and immediately assume shop is closed in my head...

(Nice structure. decorated with umm... not so nice grafitti...)

after that, we took tram back to train station and passed by "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (must look at next entry for the answer!) gan and i were very excited! ha! now i know how to make gan happy! maybe i'll compile a book called 'living with gan'. ha!

on the way home. met Yian and MH at the home train station. turned out we were on the same train and they were also visiting museums. and theirs is free!!!!!!!! i want to go! ... ok. next time.

*****

yep. one week. so fast.

Arrivederci Torino

2007-03-20T00:12:00.000+01:00

12 March 2007

finally, it's time to return the rental skiis and head back home to milano. after a hearty breakfast, we carry all our barang barang and arrive at jolly sport.............................. to find that it is C.L.O.S.E.D. on monday mornings! why like that? we kept asking the cleaning lady to let us put our skis inside and we come back later but she kept insisting that it is not possible. in the end, we just went to the backyard to put down our things first. as we were discussing, the lady keep coming out to tell us she is not responsible for our skis... there seemed to be no solution and some of us decided to go eat gelato instead to cheer ourselves up. but to our horror, they found that the gate we entered was locked!! horror of all horrors! they were sort of panicking i think. but sixiu and i were too busy playing nintendo DS and PSP respectively. haha.. by the time i got up, they already managed to get a resident to open the gate for us.... erm ya... and so... we proceeded with plan to eat gelato.

then, sixiu and cindy walked us back to the station for our ride home... they would later go back and return the skis (and the skis would already have been brought into the shop before they even reached it...)

(yian on train)

and.... we were glad to be home again in familar and safer milano. torino in my opinion is more dangerous. there are always random ppl talking to you or forming groups just sitting around... must be careful if you go.

ski day!

2007-03-19T22:21:00.000+01:00

11th March 2007 (day 2)

the next day, we woke up as early as 4am to catch the bus to france for our ski trip. BUT. we missed the bus because we were late. so how? we couldn't take 'no skiing' for an answer cuz we already carried the f**king skiis so far and we're gg home the next day. SO, yep we decided to explore the snow mountain in torino by ourselves instead! another adventure~ !

the train passed by many beautiful, majestic mountains and peaceful villages...

we were hungry when we arrived. so we had brunch at one of the cosy restaurants in the village town. there were cheese-filled burgers and power coffee with chocolate. what's it called again? macchiato??ah. classic photo of the day: sixiu, the ski rack! we conveniently followed yian's example on leaning the skis on sixiu. haha...

and we're set to ski! (finally. after getting our student card, ski pass and putting on our boots.)

at this time of the year, the snow is actually melting already... we were REALLY LUCKY to still be able to ski. anw, the skiing place is full of pro kids who look as young as 5 years old! they ski down the steep slopes like nobody's business lor...

us in action! if you ever go to europe during winter, you die die also must try skiing!!!!!!!!!!! it's so cool! feel the wind in your face and the adrenaline rush as you ski down the slope. then when you fall, it's not painful at all! cuz all the snow cushions you. super super super 赞! anw, check it out. we even came up with innovative use of skis! just sit and slide. got more control like that. ha!

of course, we didn't forget to take a break from all that skiing so that we can take happy photos :) (see our snow man there? looks quite big but actually hor... is only like a palm's height...)

had a great time there! this is the man at the ski lift. my card was faulty and he gave me a new card. but dunno why still cannot. he was very kind to keep opening the gate for me. i give him thumbs up! last bus? ok hurry hurry! (even if it means packing right in front of the shop with people walking by...)waiting at the bus stop... look at sixiu ah... hands stained green cuz of lak sek gloves...

and, back at the station, we waited for the train back to torino... totally shagged out man.

that night, we quickly cooked and ate pasta b4 gg to bed. really buay dong liao...
....but it was fun :)

To Torino: DAY 1

2007-03-19T08:05:00.000+01:00

ciao! long time no updates liao. here's our torino trip day 1. (finally got down to writing and uploading all the wonderful pictures..)

10th March 2007

the day started out REEALLY early at 530am in the morning as we prepared for our trip. all of us except gan didn't have a sleeping bag. so... we decided to bring our blankets over. sweet. check out the step-by-step demonstration below on how to pack blankets:
it was really hilarious watching the two of them wrestling with their blankets before finally strapping them to their already chunky bags. even though we were going away, our food, as usual, is good and sumptuous ;)

finally we're on our way to the train station. look at the sizes of our bags! Gan had a little problem getting out of our tiny door haha.
and so we went to the centrale station, i was awed by the size and grandeur of the place. i really felt tiny in there. it was fairly bustling there and we bought from the electronic ticket machine.
a group photo before departure.

on the train:
haiyo. turned up all the people at the platform were waiting for the same train. when the signal board showed the train platform, everyone rushed onto the train. REALLY EVERYONE. suddenly that binario was empty. gan and i waited for mh and yian to come back from their scouting session. by the time they came back, we had no seats liao. ha. but lucky we got our big bags! so we just sat on it. the morning sun shot bright warm rays through the windows giving strong highlights on our faces and casted long shadows on the ground. there was chatting but we spent most of the time making ways for the people who wanted to get on or off the train! haha... we were in their way :( finally finally, we arrived at Torino Porta Nuova! sixiu and cindy were late in picking us up because of a miscommunication and we ended up loitering around unfamilar torino station. we were greated by bald scary trees and network of cables closing down on the place. gan and i also couldn't help but notice how FAT the pigeons here were as compared to singapore. round and puffed up. cute.

after we put down our bags, we went to the ciocolato fair at piazza vittoria, the largest piazza in europe=) we sampled free chocolate and some of us even had chocolate icecream! ha! jealous right! i especially like the chocolate with orange ice-cream that cindy got. yumyum~ i got separated from the rest of the group in the queue as i enter the free chocolate sample tent with the earlier batch. shot a photo of them outside still queueing.haha.

next we went down to the 'no matter how you take also beautiful' river next to the piazza. haha. crazy shooting session. and really stunning view.

then we went to the ski shop to rent the ski or sci (shh-i). sixiu and cindy decided we should take a long route to view the town and so we did.
aiyo. really har... bring 6 girls out, 6 different cameras in the same place. you do the multiplication yourself la hur. when we compiled our pictures, its like 'millions' of photos of the same thing over and over again. quite funny la hur. yeah. this is our 'favourite tree'. got all the different angles. with lamp post or with building or with people. can choose from the collection liao. give you guys a sample here. look at us shooting away. haha. i shot a lot too... the italians must be thinking where these girls come from. nv see flower tree before issit? haha...

in the same park, there's also this tree that we all agree need some hair conditioner.

at jolly sport (the ski rental place):

dunno take how long there la... try and try. the people there are friendly tho. we had to carry everything and walk a few streets to the bus stop to take bus back sixiu&cindy's place. walk to bus stop already damn tired... yeah. tired faces.

but we didn't stay at home for the night la. went out to have aperitivo.

on the tram ride to the place, the milan gang demonstrated our train ride formation. haha... i will grab the train poles on top and everyone grab the next person beside. tsk. these ang mohs.. nv take into consideration their asian counterparts one leh....

yeah. and this is aperitivo in torino. the drinks are super colourful. taste good too. then the food here also more healthy than the one we went. cheers!

Neighbourhood supermarket discovery

2007-03-14T09:47:00.000+01:00

9th March 2007

today, Yian and Meihua brought us to the neighbourhood supermarket, on the way, the trees were beautiful and the weather was good. spring is here and the flowers are already blooming :)

Adventure Aperitivo Trip on Women's Day

2007-03-13T23:11:00.000+01:00

8th March

Today, we went out to Naviglie to check out the Aperitivo or Cocktail hour buffet there. Just by getting ourselves a drink, we could eat free flow of food in the pub buffet table!

(Note the transportation) We took a bus to Bovisa, changed to train to go Cadorna, then metro to Porta Genova station and on our way there, we saw many women carrying these yellow flowers. And we were like ‘hmm…??’ , dunno what was the occasion. So we quickly grab the tabloid papers that ppl were always distributing and realised that today is 三八妇女节!

Yep. And so meihua bought a bouquet of those tiny buds of yellow flowers to celebrate also. Cost us 1euro. Happy Women’s Day to all women out there. Haha.

After that, we carried on our aperitivo search. this is the neighbour around the Blue Canal Pub where we eventually settled down and ordered our drinks.

The place is great. I got myself a Margarita strawberry; Gan got some mint thing; Meihua Tequila sour, Yian some B******************** -dunno-wad. Good food + live band = linger till quite late. it was really enjoyable sitting there chatting. thk my drink was a bit strong and after 3/4 glass i was quite 'loosen up' already. haha. but still sober la... We found ourselves leaving at 10+pm and almost wanted to stay a while longer cuz at the door, we saw a newly put up sign that says ‘streape tease 2300’(??!)

But ah well, we didn’t. We tried to head back home. And…(ta-dah!) our adventure began!!

first, we missed the Cadorna stop and alighted at Lanza instead. We had to cross over and take the opposite side back to Cadorna. When we got back to Cadorna to changed back to train, we realized that train service had stopped! HAHA. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Haha! So funny. SHIT. No choice liao. Needa find straight bus home. At the place we live, there is only bus82 and there are two types of bus 82. one that stops only at Bovisaca and another that really goes all the way to where we stay (Novate Milanese)We asked the policeman at the train station where we could find a bus82(novate Milanese) bus stop. He gave us some directions but ho-ho. We overshot the bus stop and walked very far. When we came back to the bus stop, we realized: oops, wrong bus’ bus stop. So we decided to take the metro to another metro station that has our bus’ bus stop. At first we wanted to go centrale because that is the terminal of the bus. But cuz we consulted the man in the metro control station, he told us we can go Maciachini. So we went all the way to Maciachini station and found the bus stop. BUT! Erm… The bus home stopped service at 8pm. Great! We had no choice but to take bus82(bovisaca) that doesn’t go home but somewhere near...

still, we weren’t sure of where to stop and also decided to try changing to bus41 to get somewhere nearer home. It was really ridiculous because after we changed bus, we realized that we were actually going about a loop and ended up alighting at a stop we passed by on the first bus. Haiyo. It was really cold at night: 13 degrees Celsius. I was only in a t-shirt and white sweater. Frreezing man.

Gan and Meihua checked out the map at the bus stop. The scene was quite comical cuz the map only showed the vicinity of the bus stop and the map was really high up. The two of them like hopped on and stood on the seats before they could see the map. It was really dark and Gan used her handphone to light up the map. We realized that home was out of the range of the map and we don’t really know how to go home! Nonetheless, they copied the map on the tabloid papers we got earlier and we tried to walk home.

although we meet with the unexpected, it’s really weird how things work out at the end if we just stay calm and positive. somehow, either there's something called luck, or there's God cuz luckily before today, we knew there were two types of 82. If not we would have died when the bus looped back and we don’t know what happened. Then it was also lucky that we took the tabloid papers just now because if we didn’t we have no paper to copy down the map! And tonight, the sky was clear and we could see stars. For me, this is the first night that stars could be seen. Nice! The other days when I did look at the night sky, I could only see the usual bright satellite. Even though we didn’t have a complete map home, we manage to find our way by cooperation and combination our knowledge of what we saw on our bus route. We identified the landmarks and eventually found our way :) It was quite fun! (If you minus the cold wind and the fact that Yian is wearing heels…) The company was great and everyone was very positive. We were still laughing when we finally got home, safe and sound and happy. Haha. What an adventure. (And something to blog about. Yeyy…! But I don’t think I want to try that again. haha! ;~)

(home after 37minutes of walk and 2 hours of being lost.)

Friendly Neighbourhood + Home Introduction

2007-03-08T14:59:00.000+01:00

8th March 2007

CHAPTER NEIGHBOURHOOD

just now we went to our friendly neighbourhood gelato shop to get ourselves an ice-cream. this is the second ice-cream i have here at Milan and they are terrific! i got myself a hazelnut+chocolate and vanilla sugar with chocolate strip one. the other time was zuppa inglese and limone. shiok man. go home dun appreciate the NTUC ice-cream liao. Look at our 幸福 faces :) esp meihua. so contented. haha.

look at our attire. neighbourhood walk calls for neighbourhood attire. cool~

and this, is our friendly neighbourhood. it's lined with many shophouses.

as we were walking back, we were attracted by the aroma of bread. neh, this is the shop. it makes you salivate just smelling the food! then, even more when you LOOK at the food. see for yourself. wa-ah. so many varieties and all look delicious.

this is the street which we live on: via repubblica (read as vi-ah re-pu-bbl-i-ca) check out the stop sign. modified and improved leh.

CHAPTER HOME

this is our home. Yian is opening the door and gan is walking towards it. then evil evil Yian locks meihua and I out. hmphf!

we live in one of the many flats inside: Begonia.

there are two layers of door and inside is our cosy home. it's really small and once you step in, you can see the kitchen cum living room cum bedroom for Yian and Meihua. see Meihua there? Gan and my room is right in front of the main door, on the right of the photo. you can't see much from the photo cuz it's blocked. opposite the kitchen is the toilet. 麻雀虽小, 五脏具全. we've got everything we need in our little home.

Living room cum kitchen cum bedroom:

this is the place where we will have our dinner and watch 金枝欲孽 together, our favourite entertainment at night. those women are really cunning and everyone likes everyone else. haha. italian tv ain't too bad either. can watch MTV channel.

view out of the window.

Plenty of food:

in the land of pasta, of course have to stock up on the variety of pasta. how can go italy and never eat pasta??! ha-ah.

then this is the biscuit that all four of us enjoy. is quite cheap at only 1+euros. has olive old extract and rosemary in it. so it tastes super fragrant.

Garbage disposal:

here in europe, you have to separate the garbage into paper, plastic, glass, food stuff and others. so we obediently 入乡随俗.

next, toilet:

really really really small. esp the W.C area. just enough to sit in. oh, and they have bidet here but we don't use it. i think yian use it to wash her leg though. not sure. it's really cold when you take off all your clothes to shower. so usually all of us will steam up the place first. the shower heater is a bit coo-coo one. suddenly very hot, suddenly ver cold. space inside is quite small also. i find it difficult to squat or bend down inside. only can stand straight.

and this is Gan and my room:

see my bed with my socks etc. gan's beside mine. i packed up a bit liao lah. utilised the drawer. see gan on the bed? yah, usually i'll sit on the bed to use my laptop too.

view out of window in room:

garbage truck usually come at around 6am to collect the rubbish i think. i saw once, lights flashing and noisy but normally i sleep through that.

this is gan trying to take a photo of her levis jeans. she wants to see what difference will there be after 6months when she go home. hmmm. haha.

yep. and that is all for today's tour. look out for the next episode on the more fun and glamourous part of milan city! ciao~

(hmm, very troublesome to load one by one. i shall have to think of a better way to show you the photos... how how?)

Recollections 2 - First Day Away

2007-03-08T10:28:00.000+01:00

3rd March 2007

on the plane, half asleep...

BREAKFAST!! is the second meal. Omelettes! ...i forgot to take a short of the supper. was chicken noodles i think. all taste great. SQ is fantastic! the inflight entertainment, ahah, nothing to say liao. watched Babel and Stranger than fiction. Leaving Night at the Museum to watch with GR! also got games and tv on the plane. shiok!

This is gan, and me. we got out of the airport and were at Malpensa train station trying to figure our way to get to Saronno. which platform to take the train, when does it come, where do we validate our tickets, etc etc. Tickets cost us 6euros. ex. tsk tsk. we were lunging our luggage around and all wrapped up in the thick clothes.

Yeah, this is Gan inside the train. the train is REALLY weird. you have to press on the train door button and open it yourself. then it will automatcally shut and you have to open it yourself too from the inside. The inside is super hot. we eventually started to take out our external clothes cuz we were sweating underneath it! i took this photo from the outside cuz the train stopped there for a while. think it was too early, maybe only 7am, so nobody was on the train. the lights were also dim. we almost thought we were on the wrong train. THEN, luckily i got back into the train quite fast. cuz the train suddenly just started moving without any warning! we were chatting halfway and the objects outside the window started to shift. hmmmm. we realise that they are very punctual when it comes to train timings. they will write when the train arrives and when it will leave. then no warning, just move at the stated time. whew~ never get 失散.

we finally met Yian Ling and Meihua at Saronno after a 14min ride and transferred to the next train to Novate Milanese, the place where we're all staying. There's a central yard surrounding by the different rental rooms of the owners or ppl staying here. the pink block is the landlord's house. heard that they are actually not very nice. never really seen them. so *shrugs.

Yian Ling, Meihua, Gan and I actually live inside the brown door. second one from the left, second level. will do a formal introduction of the house another day! been busy with the admin stuff. paid a lot of money too! tell u soon. wait for the next entries.

yeah, this is Yian Ling waving at me. She's on the narrow corridor that leads to our house. This place is quite international. next door there are some other students also studying at Polimi. but i think they are much older. one of them is doing masters already.

Meihua and Yian Ling. Pretty gals!

ooops. heh, this is Gan and my room. messy messy messy. i just took everything out and after a while, we decided to head for IKEA!

At the HUGE bus stop. large countries really can afford such huge bus stops even though there's not many people waiting for the bus there. we waited for our shuttle bus to take us to IKEA. as you can see, that orange moving object over there is the bus! basically you don't have to pay if you act like you have a bus card. there's nowhere to pay on the bus. you have to get a bus ticket at some newspaper stand or subway station machine before you board the bus. then you validate it on the bus. but it seems like you can don't pay cuz nobody checks. unless you sway meet conductor la... the same thing for train. only metro have to pay cuz there's a gate like our MRT station.

IKEA HOTDOG. mini-size bread, super long sausage. hmm. the plate is about the size of my hand. slightly smaller. so you can gauge the size of the hotdog. Ikea here in milan is pretty much the same as ikea anywhere else. it's a container block like the one in tampines, or so my friends say.

Meihua and I. were on our way to IPERCOOP. a supermarket near our house. we stock up on our food supplies then headed home to cook PASTA. yum...

the finished pasta. with cheese on top. good stuff. must try.

dinner scene. so nice. never had such a dinner at home before. i like the feeling. very cozy.

After dinner, gan and i were quite tired liao. we watch a bit of tv then cannot liao. thk only 10pm time in Milan but we K.O. really needa sleep. haha. yep. so that was the first day in Milan.

WATCH OUT FOR THE NEXT EPISODE ON www.ciaodamilano.blogspot.com haha.

Recollections 1 - The Departure

2007-03-05T09:00:00.000+01:00

2nd March 2007

Given the character of my family (cool about all things), I thought that they would just let me go to the airport myself. But on the contrary, my mother and brothers (+girlfriend) came! The only one left out was my father. But he did wish me bon voyage before I left my house and I really felt a lot of love that special night.

After the frantic last minute packing, we heaved the heavy luggage into Weiyang’s van and rushed to the airport. On my way, Janice and Siew Kuang messaged. They wanted to see me off too! And Janice would be coming with Huiboon. I was touched by their willingness to go out of their way to send me off.

didi and mama

guangrong:)

At the airport, the van group consisting of Mama, Weiyang, Guangrong, elder brother, young brother, Xinying and I, headed to the SQ lane 7 check-in counter in Terminal 2. I cut the queue to join Gan further up the front of the line. We checked in our luggage and were happy to find that our total weight fitted nicely. No baggage excess charges. Ha-ha. Meanwhile, my Mama was nagging to me regarding taking care of myself (her way of showing concern) and my elder brother and Xinying was nowhere to be seen. I realized that their real aim of coming to the airport was to eat here. “So much for being concerned about me” I thought.

My younger brother, Guangrong and Weiyang stood nearby. We took some photos at the check-in counter vicinity. My younger brother and I exchanged childish languages and sarcastic remarks. (Evidence of our closeness) Guangrong was very cheerful and helpful.

the gang (huiboon, janice, me, gr, weiyang)

After checking in our luggage, it was another frantic period. Janice and Huiboon came. They were hungry so my mother stuffed me some money and I bought the gang some Bengawan Solo kuehs and cakes. Then I had to go to the toilet. After that, I took more photos of the group. I hugged and kissed my Mama even though she was unwilling and almost wanted to squirm out of my arms. I chatted with everyone. And in a flash, it was time to go to the gates. Gan was waiting for me but my unfathomable elder brother and Xinying was still nowhere to be seen and Siewkuang was still on her way. I had to make Gan wait and we were getting late.

siewkuang!

brother and xinying!!!!

Finally, when I was about to give up on waiting, three of them came. Third round of photo-taking! I didn’t want to leave anybody there out of the picture. That feeling of someone coming to send me off really strings something in my heart. I want to remember that.

(and finally, this is...)

gan.