been paying in Europe 2008

Hi herdies or to anyone else who is interested,

the three of us have set up a blog to rant about the europe trip and the address is http://binpeiying.blogspot.com

however there are no pictures at the moment cos we're too shag or too bz to do so! hope that those of you who sent us your home addresses receive our postcards soon!

In the meantime, we're left Venice today and are now in Berlin. Enjoy the 2 pictures from Venice, the sinking city.

viele Grüße aus Berlin von
Benhardt, Y (üpsilon), Pieter

To the herdies

Hallo! Bonjour! Buongiorno!

If you are reading this, send an SMS to ying with your home address in Singapore! We would like to send you a postcard from where we are when we receive the SMS.

best regards from Rome,
Bs, ying, Py currently aka
Bino, yingzaghi, pierro

Backpacking has never been so tiring

Day 3: Rome - Colosseum

But worth the effort. This Paris trip is very much different from the last one in 2006. Never walked so much all over Paris before, climbed so many steps and accumulated backache. But glad that we got through last night, the supposedly toughest night. Now the rest of the trip should be more relaxing...

Schweinsteiger, der Albtraum der portugiesischen Mannschaft

Schweinsteiger, the nightmare of the Portuguese Team

In World Cup 2006, Schweinsteiger was responsible for Germany's victory over Portugal scoring a 3 goals (one was deflected from a Portuguese defender). Tonight Schweinsteiger, or Schweini (as the German girls would call him), booked a place for Germany in the semi-finals! 1 chio goal and 2 wonderful free kicks to Klose and Ballack was all that sealed the Portuguese fate in the Euro 2008 campaign. Of course the Portuguese played very well too, especially the fast running Nani who almost cost Germany's game.

Now as I type this entry, the cars downstairs are horning like mad and shouting "Schweinsteig", which by the way, Schwein means pig, and steiger means climber, or riser. And here's to the guy who climb pigs

It was a great game today, a great idea to take Gomez out of the game. Frankly his Euro 2008 campaign has been crappy although he played very well in the Bundesliga for Stuttgart. The formation was tactical and flanks were good. But there is still a need to improve on their defence, the Germans don't seem to know how to run back quickly to guard their turf after an unsuccessful attack.

The semi final against either Turkey or Croatia will be a showdown. Against Turkey it will be because there are about 5 million Turks living in Germany (the biggest immigrant group in Germany), and also the area which I live in Mannheim is a Turkish district (but I won't be in Mannheim anyway). Against Croatia it will be a bigger showdown because of how the Germans screwed up in the quarter-final qualifiers against the Croatians.

Anyway I can forsee that I will have a difficult time sleeping tonight with all the noise going on. If only Ying and PY were here today instead of arriving tomorrow at 5am, I would not have to go to bed early and wake up early to pick them up, we'd definitely be on the streets partying now.

On a sad note, before the match started, I was having a mini grill by the Rhine river with Claire. Our last meeting. Felt very sad cos I won't be seeing her again. and I can say she's the first serious French friend that I ever made from working together for the International Marketing project. Her words, "we got stronger from the groupwork!" and she insisted that I must visit her next year in France or if she goes to Asia.

Multi-tasking with a time constraint

I think I felt more busy after exams than during exam periods. I have yet to start cleaning and moping up the room, still in the midst of finalising the details of the Europe trip especially vis-a-vis directions, and of course I not started packing my luggage, given that I just started doing my laundry and my clothes are not dry yet.

On the other hand I was glad I was still able to find time to go spa yesterday with Malcom at the historic spa town of Bad Wimpfen. I have to say that the salt content in the water was very high like those in the sea, Since its a historic town, it implies that the town itself is made up of half-timbered houses.

Bäckeri Weinstube - Bakery and Wine Traven

For a 'late tea' at the bakery I had this white confectionary cream looking cookie with a ball of strawberry icecream. Actually the cookie was meant to be eaten like a how one would eat a bread, but it was my first time eating it and I was wondering how I should eat it when I saw icecream. But it turned out to be a ultra sweet combination. In the first place the cookie itself is already so sweet.

What was more interesting was perhaps our encounter with the restaurant manager at the Bahnhof. 9.90€ for Bayerische, American or Schwäbische buffet in which bookings have to be made 2 days in advance because they claim to prepare the food fresh. Speaking about Bayerische (Bavarian) food, I am so looking forward to going to München again because I am eat at this restaurant that serves great Pork knuckle and if I am in luck, the cute waitress might still be there.

Anyway back to the topic of the Europe trip, it seems that its so near but yet I don't seem to be well prepared for it. The two of my friends in Singapore however seem to be all ready for it, while I have not even read up on the places which I am supposed to be in charge. But anywhere I'd be away from the 20 June till 15 July and then away again before coming back to Mannheim to settle all the administration before going back home. So here are the places - Paris, Rome, Venice, Berlin, Prag, München, Madrid, Barcelona, Lausanne, Amsterdam, back to Münster to put up at my "German mother's" house, then stopping over at Köln before going back to Mannheim again.

And so these few days are especially tiring for me. Supporting Germany in the Euro, getting prepared for the trip has let me to sleep only 3 to 4 hours every night. On a happier note, I received my next result already for International Marketing. I did much better than I expected cos I really screwed up the final exam and ended up with a 2.3 and is really wonderful. I thought I would get something like 3 or 4.

Triberg im Schwarzwald (Triberg in the Blackforest)

Ruhig. naturnah. gelassen. (peaceful. close to nature. serene)

I ended my stay at the Blackforest area with a visit to Triberg on the 24th May. In a sense, Triberg was the last place which I visited before I started studying (from scratch) for my exams then. It is small but very laid back town within the heart of the blackforest area. With a population of only 5000 people, it gives the feeling of a quiet authentic German town by the woods. The serenity and natural beauty of the town is perhaps its most valuable assets, although most people would claim otherwise, saying that the two most important assets of Triberg are its world's largest cuckoo clocks (there's not 1, but 2 of the world's largest) and one of Germany's tallest waterfalls.

A view of part of the town built in between valleys and the lush Schwarzwald (blackforest)

Eine Stadt voller Kuckucksuhren (A town full of cuckoo clocks)

Indeed, the main enterprise of the city is centered upon the cuckoo clock industries. Shops and shops selling claimed to be genuinely made in Triberg cuckoo clocks, and some can be as expensive as a few hundred Euros. What attracted me was the design of each of the shops like in the few photos below.

Deutschlands höchster Wasserfall? (Germany's highest waterfall?)

The entrance to this area which is like a specially protected nature reserve of the black forest shows a sign saying that the waterfall below is Germany's highest waterfall. At a height of 496 feet, it seems to be so. However there are some claims online that there is another waterfall in Germany which is higher than this one, making Triberg's waterfall the second highest. Whatever it is, I have to say that I could actually feel the force of the gushes of the water as I stood close to it, looking at the water slapping the rocks.


And of course, unlike the nature reserve at Bukit Timah where they do not encourage you to feed the monkeys, here they actually sell a bag of peanuts for people to buy and feed the squirrels. However the squirrels here appear to be very shy. They would take the peanuts and then scramble back into the woods to eat at a distance, making it difficult to take pictures of them. And the above picture was the best I could do. After a while, I ate up the peanuts myself cos its acutally quite a handful of peanuts!

Die weltgrößte Kuckucksuhr (The world biggest cuckoo clock)

The house you see below looks like any ordinary medieval German house. However it is acutally not a house but rather a clock! Indeed, the Eingang (entrance) at the door is actually an entrance to enter the "clock", and when we went in, we saw the mechanism (gears, pendulum, etc) of the clock itself like in the 2nd picture.

If you'd understand the mechanism of the cuckoo clocks, all of them are driven by weights. Now "Gewicht" means weight in German, and the weight that drives the world's biggest cuckoo clock here is 70kg, which is actually slightly heavier than I am!

From inside the "clock", there is a backdoor to the backgarden, where this is how the clock above acutally looks like. We were lucky to arrive at 15minutes before 1pm, so we could actually see the bird cuckoo-ing. However the bird appears to be very dark, and so its not very well captured by the video. But check out the woodcuter and his axe! I did not notice it there until I played the video at home.

And we also saw some cows along the way too. Moo.

What I like about Triberg apart from its serenity is that actually this place is supposed to be touristic but apparently not so. And I kinda liked it although the township would definitely want more tourists. Morever the train services to Triberg arrive only once an hour compared to more touristic places like Heidelberg. But places like Triberg by the blackforest are really cool because they do not give you the impression that you are in a "conventional" German town.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vintagebin/24MayTriberg

Deutschland kommt weiter (Germany's progress)

Auf gehts Deutschland schießt ein Tor (Get up Germany and score a goal)

Finally I am done with all my exams today, and its great because I also just came back from the match between Germany and Austria which Germany 1-0 and we were all soaked up in the street partying after catching the match at the cinema.

My make up artist
Deutschland muss heute abend gewinnen! (Germany must win tonight)
Trying to look guai lan

Feiern auf der Straße nach dem Spiel (Street party after the game)

It was a great havoc. Policemen activated, roads blocked, beer sprayed at everyone, everyone getting drunk and doing all sorts of stupid things, fireworks launched, public damages occured as people made a big mess out of the major roads and climbed up traffic lights, all in the mood of celebration.

Wasserturm - Water Tower, the emblem of Mannheim

Die deutsche Nationalhymne

And of course, one of the most awesome national anthems in the world with a very beautiful melody. I have always thought that European countries have very beautiful national anthems. Although not a German citizen, I was happy to be able to sing it in the cinema before the match started.

Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
für das deutsche Vaterland!
Danach lasst uns alle streben
brüderlich mit Herz und Hand!
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
sind des Glückes Unterpfand;
Blüh im Glanze dieses Glückes,
blühe, deutsches Vaterland!

Check out the 2 cute German girls

Serious Business

Although Germany won by a free kick from Ballack today, I think their style of playing leaves much to be desired. Many of us agreed that if they continue playing like that they are going to be in deep shit when they face Portugal on Thursday. It is unlikely that they will continue to whack Portugal like in World Cup 2006. Today Germany's defence was quite slack as they allowed the Austrians several breakthroughs. Although they made several great runs down the flank by Lahm especially, most of the time they failed to add the finishing touch. And frankly speaking, after watching Germany play a few times, you could more or less catch their style of playing.

Thursday is D-Day when they meet Portugal. I hope they change their style and come up with something more refreshing.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vintagebin/16June06DeutschlandKommtWeiter

Ein sehr enttäuschendes Spiel (a very disappointing game)

Together with about 500 German fans in the cinema yesterday evening, I almost could not recognise that it was Germany playing for they played pathetically and miserably bad against Croatia. Sloppy defences especially that led to Croatia's second goal, and giving Croatia so much unnecessary space to move about. What were the defenders doing? What the hell was Ballack doing? Behaving like a big superstar but always blasting the ball into outerspace or passing the ball to nobody. And Gomez, always so eager to go forward that got himself unto unnecessay offsides. The half time substitution of Odonkor in order to inject some acceleration was a flop as well. He did not add any value to the German offensive and was certainly not fast enough. The icing of it all - Schweinsteiger got himself sent off (he deserved it) for pushing a Croatian player to the ground after the later had tackled him. Now he will miss the next crucial matches. As if Germany had not enough midfielders, with Schneider already out of the Euro due to neck operation.

Although I am not in a position to comment about the tactics and the technicalities of the game, the German team certainly let the country down yesterday. Everyone in the cinema could not believe it. The German girls dressed up so prettily in the national colours were close to tears. After the first half everyone thought that Germany would pull their socks up but it just went worse. It was only the last 10 minutes that they started to buck up a little, but it was all too late.

Looking at the way Austria played against Poland yesterday, it is not going to be an easy game for Germany this coming monday to play against Austria. If they are still going to be complacent and think that they are oh so great, then they're in for it. They have to win, otherwise they can say Auf Wiedersehen to the Euro. Hopefully the loss against Croatia is a wake up call for them. They better wake up their bloody fucking idea, like what we always say in the army. Or else they will continue to break 82million Germans' hearts and many others like mine.

A Tribute to John Miller Jones

NUS needs this kinda lecturers for econs

There is this course that I took called A Survey of USA, taught by this guy John Miller:

He looks like anything - mafia, rock star, drug addict, anything but a lecturer and of course, his classes are damn slack. During every lesson he looks as though he just had a puff of weed or a shot of heroin before that. And that's why I was damn slack for this course too and started to study only the day before the exam. So I went to the exam with the sentiment that I am going to write something out of nothing.

The day of the exam

It was supposed to start at 12pm but we were still hanging around outside the exam hall at 12pm cos there were 3 concurrent exams by 3 different lecturers, Miller being one of them. And so when we finally got seated it was already 12:15pm. The exam was supposed to last till 1:45pm, but ZR and I finished it by 1:00pm. Because it the seats in the LT were long benches instead of individual seats, it was troublesome for us to hand in our scripts cos we were not sitting the corner but rather in the centre, which means everyone have to get up for us to get out.

I looked at Miller who was at the corner staring away into emptiness and munching away on his bread. Feeling rather bored, I took out my banana and started eating in the exam hall.

15 minutes later, we saw someone handing in the script and leaving the hall. Already quite restless, we put our hands up and Miller came up to us. "You guys are returning to Singapore right? I'll send your results to the Academisches Ausländsamt. All the best and have a good trip back"

And we jumped out of our benches to the row below and made our way out. Later that day, I heard from Johanna who was in the same LT as me sitting for the exam that although the paper was supposed to last till 13:45, by then some people had not finished and so the timing was extended till 14:15. Where got such thing one?? How spontaneous!

My grade for this course

This morning I received an email from Miller:

Dear Boon Song,

You did well on the Klausur (84 pts.), and, along with the presentation, ended up with a 1.7 for the course. I’ll send the test and Schein to the AAA.

Yours, Miller Jones

(Klausur is written exam in German, Schein is certification)

My eyes nearly popped out when I saw 1.7 because I wasn't expecting it at all. For a paper which I spent half a day preparing for it, and a presentation which I spent 30minutes gathering everything from internet, it was really utility maximising and cost minimising (ratio of time spent to grades)

1.0 - 1.5: excellent – an excellent performance
1.6 - 2.0: very good; a performance considerably better than average
2.1 - 2,5: good – a performance which is better than average
2.6 - 3.5: satisfactory – an average performance
3.6 - 4.0: sufficient – a performance which fulfils the specified requirements
4.1 - 5.0: fail – a performance which does not fulfil the specified requirements

Now I am curious to see what are the other grades which I will get. As an exchange student our requirement is to get 4.0 as a minimum grade. That's the standard in order to get the minimum required grade in NUS.

But to anyone who is reading this post and considering to go to Mannheim for exchange, be sure to consider courses taken by him! How I wish my honours year econs modules at NUS next semester will be taught by lecturers like that.

Deutschland vs Poland

Germany will win tonight

With the Euro 2008 underway, it is a common sight to see flags hanging everywhere, shops, from balconies, car windows etc. Because Mannheim is a highly international city, there are many people from other European countries especially from Italy and Turkey living here. The more 'politcally correct' people, as Johanna says, will hang their own country flag as well as the German flag.

Anyway tonight Germany will play against Poland at 8.45pm German time (2.45am Singapore time). I was at Johanna's place yesterday and she was telling me that in her heart although she hopes that Poland will win (she's Polish), the chances are very low. Nevertheless she is still going to a Polish pub to support Poland, although she knows that it will be very dangerous on the way back. Its really admirable to observe how people are so passionate about their country even though they have been living abroad for so long, or they're not even born in Germany. The Turks are one such example, the third generation are born here and they have the German citizenship but on the streets yesterday you could see Turkish kids all over the place with the flags tied to their backs. And when the German reporters interviewed some Swiss fans yesterday after they lost 1-0 to Czech Republic and asked a 5 year old girl how she felt about the match, she broke down into tears in front of the screen.

Expecting to see riots as well as drunkards everywhere later in the evening. The sentiment here is that most people want Germany to win. It has been a long time since they produced results. Moreover, there are practical reasons to support Germany, even if one does not like the German team. This is because most of us here have bought the German Bahn25 card Euro 2008 edition, which is a card which is issued by the deutsche Bahn, the German national railway. With this card one is entitled to 25% off on travel on rail and public transport in Germany, and for every match Germany wins in the Euro, the card's validity will be extended for 1 more month.

The last time when I was in Germany was 2006, during the World Cup period. However I returned to Singapore on the 2nd day of the World Cup. This time I am typing this entry on the 2nd day of the Euro and I am glad I am in Europe following the Euro till the end, although I will be travelling for much of the later matches.

Konstanz am Bodensee (Constance by the lake Constance)

I fell in love with Konstanz

That was my MSN nickname after I came back from the hiatus. Konstanz made me think that it is the most beautiful place in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Much more than Heidelberg or Baden-Baden. Surprisingly it is not a very sought after place to visit by tourists. However Konstanz can be covered in 1 day and its not like big cities like Hamburg or München. But beautiful places need not be big.

The used-to-be imperial Postoffice. Built between 1888 to 1891, it is the office of the Sparkasse (a savings and financial association in Germany)

Markstätte, the "main street" leading to the Kaiserbrunnen (imperial fountain)

Schnetztor - a gateway built in the 14th century to mark the boundary.

According to the tourism website of Konstanz, it was mentioned that this is one of the few medieval defense structure left remaining. However, what gave me the impression was that the Schnetztor looked like a replica because the bricks were so perfectly layed and the walls were not cobbled.

Rathaus Konstanz

the courtyard of the Rathaus - a wedding was taking place

A hotel along one of the alleys

What we liked especially were these pastel coloured rows of houses tucked away in these backyard alleys.

Along the Rhine river. The river leads to the Bodensee (lake Constance) after the bridge.

Auf der Seestraße (On the Lakestreet)

This place is in my opinion, the most beautiful place in Konstanz. The Seestraße is a walkway along the Bodensee, it was also where we set up our grill and had lunch. The great thing about Germany is that whenever the weather is good, we could just get a portable grill (costs only 2€ from supermarkets), buy our food and cook it at some designated parks or by the river. And the total cost is still cheaper than eating a meal outside!

Anyway it was a great place to do a grill because of the wonderful scenery. The scenery plays a very important role in the overall utilty of the grill. For instance, at Mannheim, whenever we go a grill, it will either be at the back of our hostel facing industrial factories across the canal, or along the Rhine river facing Ludwigshafen. But in Konstanz it's along the lake, with crystal clear, gleaming clean water as you will notice from the pictures below.

It was along the row of the beautiful buildings that we sat facing the lake and cooked our food.

Our lunch

After eating we took a walk down the Seestraße and were delighted by what we saw.. it is truly beautiful from every angle. At the end of the pathway we saw many boats parked at the edge of the lake. It appears that this place is a popular place to do water sports and these boats or yatches belonged to people who actually rent parking places here.

After that we crossed the bridge to the side of the harbour where it was also another happening spot. My attention was turned to the Imperia statue. It's 9 metres high, and weighs 18 tons. It is a statue of a woman that is scantily clad, revealing part of her breasts. Imperia was a prostitute who plied her trade. The statue's hands are stretched out, holding 2 men. They are the Pope Martin V and Emperor Sigismund.

Along the harbour, more fresh flowers

Eating an icecream by the waters.

I really like the icecream in Germany. Its one of the cheapest street snack around and the best icecream are sold by the Italians. However I heard from Seok that the icecream in Italy are much more expensive than in Germany.

The German Swiss Border

Actually it is easier to access Konstanz from Switzerland than from Germany because because Konstanz is located at the tip of southern Germany at the Swiss Border and it is actually enter Konstanz to access by trains calling at the Swiss station at Kreuzlingen (Swiss city facing Konstanz)

Zollamt means Customs Duty office. This was once the place where people who wanted to drive into Switzerland had to declare goods. Notice that in Switzerland the alphabet ß is not used. In Germany and Austria, we would use the ß in words after long vowels or dipthrongs, for example, for the word street, we would write Straße. However in Switzerland and Lichenstein, ß is being replaced with ss. That is why Straße appears as Strasse. However this ß does not have a capital equivalent. That is to say if were to write in blocks in standard German, it would be STRASSE instead of STRAßE.
Having an hour to spare before our train arrives, we took a walk into technically Switzerland and headed back, so you can see, we walked into German soil again.

If I have the chance again, I would really want to redo what I did that Friday afternoon. Have a grill along the Bodensee or just simply sit there and watch the world go by. Konstanz is really a beautiful place and its easy to see why I fell in love with it.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vintagebin/23MayKonstanz

Was ich in den letzten Tagen gemacht hab (What I have been doing the last few days)

With 3 papers this week, there is a need to feel anxious and study. If this was NUS I think I'd have started the mugging about a month ago, but I realised that my studying stamina has dropped a lot since I came here. Mugging in the library used to be my speciality in NUS and I felt just like that these few days. As I mentioned, the period which I sat down to seriously do some work over the weekend was definitely longer than all the cumulative time spent over the past 4 months on my work.

But I do like the library here. Apart from the fact that occassionally you shift your attention away from your desk and ogle at some German chick walking past, I think its much better than NUS, in terms of facilities and comfort. As you can see below, for every table there is a table lamp, as well as a socket and a lan point (the 2 silver "squares" next to the lamp. the first one is the switch of course). As well a metal fixture for us to lock our laptops. Very ergonomically designed indeed. And the chairs are those office designed chairs which are comfortable and yet you won't get backaches after sitting there for a while. Where did Uni Mannheim get all the money to engage in such things? Well, it seems that this Uni is the top Uni in Germany in receiving donations from the private companies, big firms and individuals, which probably explains why their endowment is so much. Definitely it does not come from the student fees, for previously university education is free in Germany and now it costs 500€ per Semester, (which is still lesser than NUS), which makes me think that discounting the exchange rate which drives up the cost of living to around 2 times or slightly higher, it can be quite attractive to study here....

Also, there's a media library in Mannheim in which you are free to walk in and watch any DVD you want, and the collection is awesome. They even have Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together which I tried to hard to find in Singapore but could not!

And finally I am so addicted to this song after listening it on the German radio. The lyrics are a little cheesy though.

Ich weiß nicht mal, wo du grad bist,
ich weiß nur zwischen uns das ist vorbei.
Du bist mir einerlei, denn ich bin endlich frei.
Naja, kann sein, ich liebte Dich,
doch heut tut's mir schon lange nicht mehr weh.
Aber manchmal bei Vollmond, da schlaf ich nicht ein und fühl mich verlassen, verloren und allein.

Dann hör ich deine Stimme in der Nacht.
Du sagst: Irgendwann wirst du wieder bei mir sein.
Dann schließ ich meine Augen, und würd' so gerne glauben,
es gibt ein zweites Leben für uns zwei.

Das Glück, es war nicht lang mit dir, doch du hast mich so tief berührt, so tief.
Ich weis nicht wie es kam, doch dann ging alles schief,
Ich glaube ich lieb Dich nicht mehr sehr,
ich lebe noch, doch vielleicht nicht mehr so ganz.
Doch immer will ich mit dir eins sein beim Tanz
Dann bet' ich, dass du wieder herkommen kannst.

Dann hör ich deine Stimme in der Nacht.
Du sagst: Irgendwann wirst du wieder bei mir sein.
Dann schließ ich meine Augen, und würd' so gerne glauben,
es gibt ein zweites Leben für uns zwei