Finally..

great.. i'm finally back in touch with the cyber world! gosh, the long wait was excruciating.. been away from Singapore for 21 days, and only today could i sit down and use the internet at my own disposal on my laptop.. have quite a lot to update but squeezing all i wanna say in one post is quite impossible.. guess i'll just let the pictures do the talking..

23 feb to 28 feb in Vienna was quite alright.. but there were simply too many appointments with parents' business friends that it somehow felt like i didn't quite see the city enough.. still, being around for 5 days left quite an impression..

and so, the pretty hotel we stayed in:

and some sights which brought back fond memories of last year's Deutschland:

a shot of us in front of the parliament house (what this building is.. or so, i think):

Oh and we caught some drama in a popular shopping area, Mariahilferstrasse: while walking there from our hotel after breakfast that morning, we saw and heard so many police cars speeding through the streets. Their sirens blasted through the early morning silence and we were thinking it must have been some hedious crime. Alas, when we came to our destination, a crowd had gathered where the police cordoned off part of the street, and curious onlookers (including us, of course) craned their necks to see what was going on. We later found out from a shopkeeper that it was a bank robbery. Man, with all those police cars, army trucks and what not, it was easy to believe that whoever was/were commiting this crime was not easy to deal with...

After a while, commandos arrived in full gear.. Woho, must be serious, we thought...

We waited in vain to find out what was going on, but were still clueless after 2 hours, so we left.. But later that night, we found out that it was actually a STUPID 'crime'. This mad man held the entire bank at gunpoint and demanded that all his friends be informed of his crime. Oh, and his gun was a plastic one too. Meanwhile, he asked for coke and cigarettes to keep entertained. Haha to think the police force was fooled by his 'crime' and played his game for 5 hours..

Anyway, we also drove to Wachau, and walked some peaceful villages, but everything was closed since it was winter time.. makes one think, what do these people do then??

On the 28th of Feb, we flew to Zurich via Austrian Airlines, and after settling some admin matters, we took a train to Moutier (another part of Switzerland) on the 2nd of March. There, we put up in the house of old friends. What a pretty room they let up for us!

And also travelled to other nearby little villages: At one of them, Murten, a carnival was to take place that evening and we managed to capture some moments before we left:

All the kids and even some adults were all dressed up in costumes of all sorts:

In Neuchatel, thanks to the great weather and clear skies, I was able to see the alps from across a lake.. It was breathtaking..

And so, I was back to Zurich to start a German Intensive Course on the 5th of March. My class has only 12 ppl, from quite a variety of nationalities.. Great fun, I must say, with a nice mix of internationality amongst the students, as well as a cute comical teacher whom we all call by name..

But the apartment where I have a room to myself in Zurich was such a let down for me. I was hoping it'll have the typical campus hostel mood, but my neighbours are all working adults of the nearby Psychiatric Hospital and not very friendly.. The type who just grunt a barely audible 'hallo' or 'morgen' when you try to greet them with all smiles in a cheerful tone..

Luckily I got along especially well with a Japanese girl from my class, Yuki.. Thank god for her, cos she totally understands my situation and has been able to make me feel much better too.. So we hang out quite often and walked Bahnhofstrasse (the orchard road of Zurich) together..

Here's a shot of the Altstadt (old city) of Zurich, where the streets are cobbled, narrow and often inclined at quite an angle..

Zurich's a beautiful city indeed, and i promise more photos! I'd think itll be prettier in spring, since I'm already seeing flowers pop up on lawns and grass patches. Oh! Just now, I saw the exact same flowers, on the lawn outside of my apartment, as those on the 'happy field' where we ate the strawberry cake in Dusseldorf last year too :)

Yup, this weekend, I was at Moutier again.. Haha Saturday (10th March), we went to an ice skating ring and I tried skating for the first time in my life.. Great fun!!! and i'd definitely want to try it again.. I could glide on the ice for abt 20 metres without wobbling, so it could be considered a feat for me..so this's where I skated.. there were other ppl who were zooming around, playing ice hockey, but we pretty much managed in our corner..

The next day, we had lunch at a farmhouse on the mountain top and there was snow all around! Yippee! My first experience with snow this time.. The sights were enchanting too.. Such a peaceful area..

So.. tt's all for now.. cos it's time to start on homework! haha will be back soon with more updates! Miss you all in Singapore!