Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Kobe Bryant is, "The Black Mamba". Directed by Robert Rodriguez.


This is the ultimate advertisement I think. Funny, good pace, filled with little swooshes here and there that you might or might not notice. Then again, I am a Kobe fan. Hmm. I would definitely get a Black Mamba if I come across it. =D

Sunday, February 20, 2011

This Valentine's Day.

"Love is a decision," I once heard from someone. A decision to take a chance with someone without hoping for any reciprocation, without caring that you will get hurt along the way.

After a year and 20 days and counting of being in a relationship, I think I can finally understand what that means. Honeymoon period has left us a long time ago, but I still love Kai Li as much as ever. We bicker at times, and get angry at each other for the lamest things, but sometimes just looking at her makes me smile.

Last Valentine's Day, we spent the whole night giving out love to others in the form of roses for Project XOXO. This Valentine's Day, we had the whole day to ourselves, and we spent it walking around town, exploring the old St. Servaas Basilica at Vrijthof, and then getting lost while trying to make it back to the Markt. It wasn't all romantic, because the relics in the church really freaked me out quite a bit, but it was nice to explore a medieval church together, kind of like a mini-adventure =)

Lunch at Vrijthof was a matter of hunting for stew that Kai Li wanted and in the end trying out Dutch food that we didn't know. In the evening, she found the Pierre Marcolini chocolates I planted in my bagpack "accidentally".

Not the most romantic date I could think of, no sunrises or seasides or even cards, but I was just happy to be spending time with her. It's difficult to describe, kind of like a warm feeling in the heart?

That soon gave way to some more bickering started by expired food. LOL. SO TOTALLY US LAH.

Friday, February 11, 2011

X-Men: First Class - Official Trailer



So exciting! Though the cast seems relatively unknown.. I'll definitely watch it when it comes out though!

Sans Shutter.

The lack of a camera is bugging me now. I walk the streets all day, and imagine what I can do with a camera, full of juice. The statues call out to me; they want to be shot, they want to see the beyond the corners they haunt through Facebook or Flickr, yet I cannot consent them. They must wait.

I got lost again today, on almost the same street. I saw the same church at Tafelstraat, and walked past that same row of cafes. Something there attracts me. I guess it's the quiet atmosphere even though it is in the middle of town? A random question. Why do we not have European styled buildings in Singapore? The most we see are white colonial buildings, none of the brick and mortar I see here in Maastricht. Gracia once said it was because of climatic reasons, and it was not practical to have buildings with thick walls in Singapore, simply because we do not need them. What then of the aesthetic aspect of it all? It certainly feels great being immersed in a town where all streets are cobbled and buildings look like they are a century old!

Kai and I had an Italian lunch at the Markt today. I ate a Spaghetti Carbonara while she had Funghi Pizza. Authentic, would say, but I think we both felt a little cheated because the man in the shop shortchanged us of the 20% discount we were supposed to get by €2. Being an exchange student here is a constant struggle because everything costs too much, and ING Bank is not acting fast enough for me to get my cash locked up with the Visa Office!

I had my second AIS lesson today, and spent a bit of time mugging the first chapter of the textbook in the UM Library. There was a huge rush in trying to get our textbooks in order these past 2 days, and we ended up photocopying all our textbooks from the library because it was much too expensive for us. The PBL system seems to be posing quite a problem for us, since we have never been used to actually preparing for lessons and speaking up so much in a small group for tutorials. I guess it is also good exposure for me to learn to speak up and stand up for my own views and opinions. Frankly, I think I might have had an easier time in my tutorials as compared to the rest. Then again, I haven't had Consumer Behaviour yet. I heard it's a killer.

The rest of today was spent once again in the library, accompanying Geraldine and Jessica to print their Macroeconomics and Strategy textbooks. The story of how Chew swapped courses is another epic tale in itself, too long to be put in words here.

Finally, we went for an exchange students Welcome Tea, where we behaved totally anti-socially by surrounding a table and ravishing the nuts and tacos in our own little circle. Then again, none of us were feeling especially sociable. Stress is starting to pile up and I guess everyone was thinking of studying more than anything else.

Before long, it was time to go home again. This time, I am quite glad to be back here. There is tonnes of preparation to do, and an upcoming Brussels trip to plan, so off I go now, until next time!

Monday, February 07, 2011

Bridgestone - Carma

Couldn't resist putting this up. It's just so CUTE!

First Day of School.


There's a kind of travelling you can only do alone. One that involves wandering the streets aimlessly without a map, getting lost, and finding your way back again. You can only do it alone because walking is like talking to the streets. It's taking time to take in what is in front of you and thinking of how people could have come up with such architecture. I love just walking down the cobbled streets and feeling the soul of the place, thinking about the multitudes of people who have passed by the very same road. What secrets did these stones witness? What grandeur? Or what pain?

Today was the first day of school at Maastricht University. I was the only one taking Accounting Information Systems and Internal Control (AIS) in this block, so I went to school alone on Bus 1. It was slightly strange at first to be doing something alone, and yet it was peaceful at the same time because there was no need to create conversation. Simply sitting on the bus, looking at the other commuters and enjoying the scenery outside.

It was confusing at first to get to the class because level 2 of Zone E was actually at level 1 of Zone F. I went instead to level 2 of Zone F, only to find that it led to level 3 of Zone E. A slight frustration yes, but it was quickly overcome by the cautiousness of a first-day student, wanting to find his classroom before lessons started.

The way the tutorial was conducted was foreign to me. There are 14 people in the class, and one tutor. We basically read 2 short passages from the Block Book, or what would be called a course outline in NUS, and then had to see if there were any 'difficult words' and 'problem statements' underlying these two passages. With the identification of the problem statements, we went on to discuss them and to say what our understanding of these problems were. Those that we could not explain away became 'Learning Points'. That, was basically the summary of The Maastricht Approach - Problem Based Learning (PBL). Interesting yes, but terribly confusing. You never know if you got anything correct until you actually read up on it.

After the very short session of school (it lasted 45 minutes when it was slated for 2 hours), I wandered to the Student Services Centre for a cup of coffee and a croissant. The idea was to pass the time so that I could wait for Orange Bike to open. In the meantime, I also went around the Market looking for the bookstore to see how much a textbook would cost me.

And then I got lost. And I loved it.

I found old churches looming in corners of the street, I saw a beautiful suspension bridge that I never knew was there, and then there were back alleys of cafes half-open because it was still early in the morning. Waiters were sweeping the streets preparing to open, and some others were laying the tables. There were inscriptions on the walls I couldn't make out which looked like memorial stones to famous people that I don't know. The air was cool, and there were canals coming out in between houses sometimes. I felt like I was in some place that I only read off old books.

I finally did manage to find the bookstore in the church, only to find that an AIS textbook would set me back by €51. That is about SGD 100? Money that I cannot bear to part with, especially in a place as expensive as the Netherlands. I'd have to consult the rest to see if we could share a textbook or perhaps I would have to photocopy the book off the library that I don't yet know how to use.

With all my things settled, I found my way back to Orange Bike to get my repaired bicycle, and it was off home! Not before I lost myself again though.. And that was an adventure too, because I got to see Malpertuisplein from the other side, and I got to go to random neighbourhoods.

Perhaps I'll enjoy Maastricht after all.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Amsterdam!

Maastricht is starting to get a little predictable, so we decided to spice things up by going to AMSTERDAM!!!! The land of Vandersexxx (Euro Trip reference) and coffeeshops!

So it is, that the 9 of us started out our journey by awakening at 9 am to take the train out to Amsterdam. Our first hurdle was the receptionist at the ticket counter. What happened was that we tried to purchase our tickets from the self-service counters, much like what we have at MRTs in Singapore. Karen managed to get an OV-ChipKaart from Yanling which gives us a 40% discount for up to 4 tickets. The problem was, there wasn't enough stored value in the card, so we had to go to the ticket counter to ask if we could buy our tickets there with cash instead! And since we were there, we decided that it was probably wise to buy another ChipKaart so that we can get more cheap tickets the next time...

Well, that turned out to be a mistake because we spent about 10 minutes queueing and filling up the form (which was in Dutch), only to realise that they needed a Dutch bank account number when we went back to the guy again. The exasperating thing is that they don't really care about you when you are standing there waiting to ask a question. The policy is really to just queue for anything, even if it doesn't require much effort from them. I guess it's a cultural thing?

Anyways, we eventually did manage to board our train just in time for Amsterdam. It was a whopping 2.5 hours train ride filled with lots of snoozing and mahjong-playing on my iPhone on my part. When we finally arrived, it was a mad rush to try to find the Tourist Information Centre so that we can join the day tour around Amsterdam. That didn't turn out too well because we ended up being too late, and the tour had already left for the National Monument.

So we went looking for them. And find them we did. But guess what? The tour was full, and we had no choice but to wander off alone in search of our own version of Amsterdam without a guide. Which was fine to me, because I always like finding out my own impression of places without knowing about it secondhand first, even though insider information would have been helpful. Then again, I guess different people have different expectations and thoughts about the matter.

Since we were lost, we decided to head for KFC for lunch so that we could plan our next step. And the next step was the Sex Museum that was just near the Central Station. Since I can't exactly put these things on Facebook, I am going to put it on Flickr! Just make sure you are above 18 to see it okae? It was a little bit too much for me, so much sex in one place, yet at the same time, it was kind of boring because there wasn't anything especially interesting there at all. Well, it was eyeopening at least.

IMG_1114

After the Sex Museum, we proceeded to Anne Frank Huis, the secret annex where Anne Frank of Anne Frank's Diary fame stayed in during the Nazi occupation. It was quite disappointing for me to see a modern looking building in its place instead of an old WWII house I expected. After the tour though, it was explained that Otto Frank, Anne's father, didn't want the house to be left dilapidated and simply a historical monument, but rather something that would remind people to fight against discrimination. And that is exactly what they are doing even today. Part of the centre hosts educational tours to actively discuss topics on discriminatory practices around the Netherlands.

The museum itself was organized around Anne Frank's writings about the place, with large quotes from the diary pasted on the walls to describe each room. In each of the rooms were some relics from the old house. Most of the furniture though, were removed. There were also various video interviews with people who have known Anne Frank and helped them to hide during the Occupation. Although it was a larger museum than the Sex Museum, this was much more digestable because of the lesser amounts of information they tried to display in each room. When you left, you really felt for the dire conditions of the Frank family and had a feel for how their lives must have been... The museum definitely achieved its aim of letting the visitors see how discrimination against a certain race or religion causes is undesirable and horrible.

Our final stop of the day was the Red Light District tour, for which we went back to the Tourist Office. At the juncture, I would just say that a picture says a thousand words, and post some pictures up here. Note though, that we were strictly not allowed to take photographs of the girls for the sake of their anonymity, so it's only photos of everything else!

It was interesting to see the sex workers in the windows, but it was much tamer than I expected. The scene in Pattaya is much much more "dirty" for the lack of a better word. Here, it's all business and all the women are fully clothed. Nothing disgusting about it at all. Oh, but most of the girls are quite hot =) One observation though, most of them have great butts. LOL

One of the only 2 wooden houses in Amsterdam: In the Monkey

CONDOMS.

A Condomerie, where they make bespoke condoms!

The famous Casa Rossa!

A railing with the design of a woman being penetrated.

After a loooong day, the guide brought us for drinks at a pub and then we headed back to Maastricht. Tiring but really fun! Can't wait to go back there again to see the other sights! Perhaps this time, it would be less sex, and more culture.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

除夕。

Yesterday was Chinese New Year's Eve, and possibly the first one that I spent away from my family. Over here at Maastricht, we decided to do a little bit to celebrate Chinese New Year by making yusheng and steamboat for dinner.

Today was Residence Permit day, so we set out to Bonnefantenstraat 2 to make that. Managed to skype my sister and my grandmother a little bit in the morning, but the time difference really sucks such that there is very little overlap between my waking hours and theirs. And when it's evening in Singapore, it's the time when we are out settling things and running errands. =S

Anyways, today turned out to be quite horrible for me. I never knew it would be so difficult to deal with people in exchange. And these are people whom you cannot run away from. There is no returning home at the end of the day to cool things off because we are facing each other everyday. I have been trying my best help out and all, but I guess everyone sees things a little differently bah. It feels like we are already splitting into cliques so early into exchange, and that feels sucky.

Ahs. Life is tough.
 
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