> sunshine * sunscreen <

Yup lots of both during the weekend that just passed.

Saturday, we went to the Zoo. Many many animals. Duh hah. It's really big, and we took quite a few hours walking through the whole place. Comparable to Singapore Zoo though, just that I think we've too many monkeys in the Spore one. This one had a Rainforest setting at the end, and the humidity coupled with the temperature... oh my... so warm!! But felt really familiar at the same time :)

Haha Sunday was even more eventful.. I went to Kondi with Yuki at the Uni's gym (free for all students). Haven't exercised for such a long time before that, and it was really strenuous! haha but got an enormous sense of satisfaction after that, cos it the workout felt super good. Oh but I was a bit surprised at the changing room. When we went in, there were only a few other women, and looking around, I didn't see any cubicles. Just benches with hooks and hangers, and a big mirror on one side. Then one lady started changing, and I understood.. Ok.. Haha later more came in, and some really change COMPLETELY! But the fact that everyone was so easy about it, made me hide my surprise, and go along. Though not that completely.. haha

After that, Yuki and I came to my apartment, to bake a cake. We were going to a picnic later on in the afternoon, where we were celebrating 3 of her classmates' birthdays together. Yuki had suggested baking a cake, and of course i gladly agreed. (haha come to think of it, it's my 5th cake in less than 2 months that I've been here.. I don't even bake this often in Singapore! But apparently, my accidental mistake in my first Chocolate Cake for Yuki's bday, gave me quite a reputation for 'that delicious choc cake')

Ok back to baking.. Haha ironic thing was, Yuki was more busy writing the cards and wrapping her presents, that I ended up baking everything myself, and then preparing lunch for us. But everything went well.. Until.. After lunch, we were clearing up the table, and Yuki alerted me to a bad sign. There, on the table of the common kitchen I use with 12 other people, was a burnt mark from my frying pan, which i'd put directly on the table!! Oh my!!! I tried cleaning it, to make it lighter, but to no avail.. duh.. I was worried, but found it so funny at the same time. Yup, the mark is still there.. haha and I think I've left my legacy here in the Personalhaus. Told the person-in-charge of the Personalhaus this morning about it, before I went out to school, and he said he'll take a look. Haha I told him I'd compensate if I have to. Seriously, even if it means I've to pay for a new table. But now, going into the kitchen and seeing that dark patch on the table really makes me feel embarrassed of myself. Haha lk, everyone else is probably thinking, 'which idiot did that..' Yea.. it's me.. haha Yuki took the following pic of it:

Yup, so last night, I was yet in another park, where we had a fire, and grilled our wursts. Everyone brought a little something too, so we had quite a bit to eat and drink. And of course, the sense of satisfaction, when the birthday girls blew out the candles on the choc cake i baked, and when everyone enjoyed it.. Perfect.. :)

So, this group of people at the picnic are from the Japanese studies department in the Uni, and though being swiss, I was pleasantly surprised when we struck conversation. They'd say "do you know Stephanie Sun?" (haha of course I do!) "Oh she has such a good voice!" And they'd carry on asking things like
"Do you watch Taiwan drama serials?"
"Did you watch Mars? It started with a kiss? Devil beside you? Love contract? Hana Kimi?"
"Do you listen to Huang Yida? Fahrenheit?"
"Oh! I love Zaizai! and Ariel Lin too! Jiro Wang's so cute!"

Hoho we were jumping together when we talked about all these. And boy was I super excited! oh course I knew these people and watched these shows! :)

So, one of the bday girls brought her best friend along. And he's Chinese! 24 yrs old.. But I realised most of the Chinese here speak Cantonese, and not Mandarin. This guy was born in Switzerland, and spoke Cantonese too. Nevertheless, he could speak a bit of Mandarin. So all the other people were quite curious, as to how come two Chinese can't really understand each other, and we got to the topic of dialects. Haha I was telling him I was most familiar with Teochew, which i can understand much better than i can speak.

Then he said "Oh! Me too! I only knew a bit of Teochew... Like.. Argh can't really remember.." So he stoned for a while, recalling what he knew, then suddenly, his face lit up. (Note: we were eating our choc cake while chatting, and I was about to put a piece in my mouth)

He blurted out "PANG SAI !!"

My god.. For a long time, I couldn't stop laughing.. Then he said a few more other phrases, but with a serious Swiss/foreign accent that made it all sound soooooo funny!

After all the eating, we all sat down to unwind, and chat. So the three couples sat on the grass, a group sat nearby, and I sat down with 4 others at a bench. It was getting dark, and cooling, so a relaxing and lazy mood we were in. Still a lot of nonsense chatting though.. haha then interesting thing #2:

So, we were translating a phrase in various language.. Deutsch, Swiss-deutsch, French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese.. Then one guy turned to me and asked in german,

He: " So how do you say it in Thai?"
I: " ????!!????? I don't know! I come from Singapore, not Thailand!"
He: " Oh! I though Singapore was the capital of Thailand!"
I: "....................................... hhahahahahahahah......................"
He: " Oh yea, that's Bangkok. Oh or is it in Malaysia?"
I: " NO! Thailand's a country, Malaysia's a country, Singapore's a country.."
He: " Oh really! So what's the capital of Singapore?"
I: " Singapore."
He: " Right.. and what do you speak there? Singaporish or something?"
I: " Erm we speak English, and Chinese, Malay or Tamil"
He: " Oh really! I see..."

He was thoroughly laughed at by the whole table, but being the witty one, thereafter, he'd turn to me once in a while and ask jokingly "So what's it in Thai?"

Oh my oh my.. haha but it was great fun, and I must say, everyone were really sweet.

Today was my long day at school, and I was soooo tired at the end. Plus, my muscles all over my body are aching slightly from Kondi. Effective exercise huh..

Haha ok, tomorrow's my free day, so i'll take things slowly.. Yup, that's all for now.. Off to bathe.. Ciao!

Summer in Spring??

The weather now's like that in July last year when we were in Germany! Cool mornings and evenings, and warm sunny afternoons up to 25 deg C. So i'm back to 'Spore' clothes now. Haha and after the weekend in the sun, i'm already a few shades darker!

Saturday, we had a picnic in a big big park. Found a large picnic spot, and made ourselves at home. I prepared potato salad and a peach cake, with Yuki and Eiko earlier in the morning, which everyone said were good :) We also had a fire, and grilled wursts, which we ate with bread.. yummy!

After eating enough, it was time to move! haha out came the football and volleyball, which we played in random groups on the vast greenery.

Then it was slacking time, when we chit-chatted the afternoon away under the trees. Yuki and I laid on the grass in the sun for quite some time too. Haha when will (/can) i ever do that in Singapore, given the determination of our sun to practically burn you in 2 seconds? hmm..

Sechselaeuten also took place this weekend, and it's a traditional festival of Zurich to celebrate the end of winter. The city centre area is turned into a large funfair, with booths (selling food, accessories, balloons...) set up everywhere. All kinds of vehicles are not allowed in this area too.

So on Sunday, I caught the children's parade. Little kids dressed in costumes, mainly from the medieval times, and walking through the city, throwing sweets at the many many onlookers lining their path.

Haha somewhere towards the end, there was also a showcase of groups dressed up according to nationalities.. That's China below: (haha see the dragon behind?)

But today (Monday), is the actual and main parade of these celebrations. People dress up and parade through the city centre. And watching them, i somehow felt.. nostalgic.. haha i have no idea why though..

So groups of people decked in colourful costumes according to occupations paraded to the beat of their accompanying band:

Oh yea there were so many horses that after the parade, you had to walk the streets cautiously, cos it was so much easier to step on horse shit than not to. And I felt so sorry for the poor animals as I watched them pull the wagons and carriages, with so many decorations and people sitting inside..

So, more occupations.. These below are the tai-tais then..

Another band..

Oh yea, haha i forgot to mention: I was actually standing along Bahnhofstrasse :)

And these are.. erm soldiers? or bodyguards?

Oh and one more thing.. Realised almost all of the paraders have flowers in their hands? The audience sitting in the first row along the streets (mainly women) usually had bunches or stalks of flowers, which they went up to paraders they knew to present them with flowers and three smacks in the face.. *muack muack muack* haha so you can roughly tell who're the anti-socials amongst the paraders.. ;)

So, the parade lasted 3 hours, from 3-6pm. At 6pm, another major activity was starting at Bellevue.

Where what seemed like the whole of Zurich gathered by that time, the Boegg (snowman figure) was lit.. We were saying bye to winter officially...

And it started burning...

By the time the Boegg actually caught fire and started burning, we could hear 'explosions' from it. And everyone cheered..

So, the thing is, the people here say that the longer the Boegg takes to 'explode', the better Summer will turn out to be that year. This time, it took about 19 mintues, i think.. and that's considered long. But i can't imagine! Now is already 25 degrees, so in June? 45 degrees?? oh my.. let's hope Summer will really turn out fine :)

After that I went on the Ferris Wheel with Eiko and managed to snap some pretty scenes or Zurich from the top:

Hmmm i actually took some great videos too.. But, heh, i don't know how to post it here.. :S I guess the pictures will suffice, huh.. Yea..

Ok, that's all for now. Super sleepy!! haha night night!! Miss you all!! :)

Easter

The Easter weekend lasted from 4pm on Thursday (5th Apr) to Monday (9th Apr).. And it was great :)

Thursday I had lessons in the early afternoon, then went out to walk walk with Yuki. Haha i've read several times about the Lindenhof in Zurich, but somehow didnt quite know my way around. But on thursday afternoon, our taking the wrong train turned out to be the 'right' way to the Lindenhof, as we found out unintentionally..

So, the Lindenhof's actually a rather high place where you can get a good panorama of Zurich city. We started snapping away with our cameras and wanted to take a picture of ourselves with the view in the background, so looking around, we saw an old couple and a young soldier. Haha managed to convince ourselves that old people might not know how to use the camera, so the young soldier we will ask *grin* More importantly, he actually looked quite good :)

So he willingly helped us snap a picture, and even asked if we wanted one more pic. Great, haha why not.. haha we didn't mind smiling for the camera when the person holding it looked like he did :) We later thanked him and started walking away, then Yuki stopped in her tracks and pulled me in to whisper, "Charlene, keine!" (it means 'none'!) I scrolled through her pics in her camera, and found out that the soldier didn't take a single picture!!

We were debating whether we should go back to the spot to take a proper picture, but decided against it to avoid embarrassment both for us and the soldier who was still sitting there. "We'll come back another time" we thought.. yes we will.. to get a proper picture..

Haha so for now, it's just pictures of the panorama..

And old men playing giant chess..

Haha friday morning, Yuki and I took the train to Moutier to spend the Easter weekend with the Hofers. Yippee.. That day, after arriving, we took lunch, before going out to have a walk along a lake. Trekking in the slushy mud while enjoying the beautiful scenery.. Relaxing...

Saturday, we drove 2 hours to France and visited three small towns in the region Alsace.

First was Turkheim.. Man, immediately as we drove through the town entrance, our sleepy eyes were as opened as can be.. it was soooo beautiful! Almost EVERY window was decorated with Easter bunnies and colourful eggs and pretty flowers!! Let the pictures do the talking..

After lunch, we went to Riquewihr.. which was also sooooooo prettily decorated..

And the last town was Colmar, where we took a short trip on a tiny train that went around the city, with accompanying audio guides..

Sunday was Easter Sunday, and we were told that it would be a relaxing day, since everything was closed outside.. But after breakfast, Aunty Brighit was telling us how they'd 'celebrate' Easter sunday..

The Easter Bunny would come the night before, while everyone was asleep, and hide baskets of Easter gifts for children who were not naughty.. (somewhat like Santa, huh).. Just that this one, you had to find the basket.. and you'd hear 'Water', 'Coal' or 'Fire', meaning you're very far, rather close or very close respectively, to the basket.. Haha so Yuki and I ewnt searching for our baskets.. and it was soooo pretty!! (haha using this adjective a lot in this post)

We later took a walk outside, up to one of the shorter mountains of Moutier.. where we got yet another bird's eye view..

And to the next topic.. FOOD!! haha I've probably ate enough during the weekend to provide enough energy for two weeks or something!! Just a fraction of it is...

Ok, that's all for now.. haha gotta go to school! till the next time, *MMMMMMMMUUUUUUAAAAACKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSSS*