Back to posting, after like... forever... Haha.
Back from my summer hol trip to Austria and Germany. :D Vienna, Salzburg, Mondsee, Munich. Wheehee. Had a bit of language trouble with the locals since we're nobodys in German. D: I loved Mondsee because the atmosphere was just totally relaxing. Imagine. A really wide lake with clear water, and mountains in the background. Always around, every day, for you to gaze at. Well for me, 1 night. D: It's a small town, with cathedrals, and a small town area with shops and restaurants. But I think cycling around in the forests on the bicycle tracks will be really fun. Austrian food is quite nice; I love the dumplings! Haha, I ate so much I got sick of them. Went to visit Mozart's birthplace and residence. Saw Beethoven's Eroica house too (where he spent his summer working on a symphony named Eroica but didn't complete it). My sis and I got a hand-drawn portrait of ourselves on an A3 sheet of paper by a roadside artist in Vienna. My mum managed to bargain to 30 euros. Sat there for about 20mins for the artist to draw. :P Turned out that my portrait look prettier than me. Haha! Longer eyelashes than usual, neater hair and fringe etc. Pity I don't have high cheekbones. Heh. My mum did loads of shopping, like searching for small figurines/sculptures to put around the house. Cute, but I thought she bought a bit too many for the first round. Oh wells. The bad thing about the trip was that I had a sudden bout of stomachaches and bloating and I couldn't eat when I was hungry. How torturous. Like I've been injected with amylase-inhibitor or sth of that sort. Anyway I've posted the photos of the trip on Facebook, so feel free to look! :D
Yay, 19 August, school reopens! :D My 1st day of school. In a mixed school. Perhaps not. MOELC can be counted as my 1st day in a mixed... learning environment. Haha. But yeah, it was fun both ways, mixed or not. So hopefully I'll have a great time at ISB. ;D Heh I seriously need to make friends as fast as possible! Need to be more sociable. And perhaps braver. :P Yes, do what I did in P1. But I kind of forgot the style and strategy. D: Haha wtv.
Thinking about P1... I was just so innocent! 1st day of school and I went home telling my parents I've made friends with the whole class! Well, nearly the whole class. There weren't any cliques, cos everyone was new; and everyone was just so nice to each other. Oh my wonderful memories of MG primary will never fade. And then for the next 8.5 years from 2001 I spent my life there! Wow.
My subject combi for Grade 9 and 10: English, French, German, Physics, Chemistry, History, Geography, Drama, Maths. Yay I'd better ace them. Or else I'll be lagging behind Singapore standards. :P
And Kenny made my day for telling me I got 88.sth% for Controle 2! Haha. And like I didn't study as hard as I did for Controle 1 but got a higher score. So weird. But now here when I watch French shows, I can't understand. I can pick out a few words and phrases here and there, but not in time to piece everything together. Anyway no offence to the French, I find French movies/shows quite boring. :/
I miss Singapore. And I was missing Malaysian food. D: Gotta get over this soon. OH! And congratulate me, I've managed to stay the same weight for 3mths+! Haha YAY YAY YAY! I need a round of applause for encouragement for my challenge for the next 3 months! Hopefully this can go on for the next few years... ;) I need to love salads as much as I love fries. Argh. This is hard. Because I hate salad and its dressing.
Nvm nvm nvm. Looking forward! :)
The Enchanting Twilight
Labels: Austria, Germany, School reopens
Wheee! Enough about sad incidents. On to happy memorable ones! That's actually what my blog's for. ;D
1 Aug: SWISS NATIONAL DAY! Now Switzerland's 718 years old! WOW! Compared to Singapore turning 44 in a few days' time. Haha. The 2hr-long fireworks were amazingly loud and BIG. It was by the river, and since I live 2 streets away from the river, I thought I could watch the spectacular fireworks from the balcony of my apartment. AND YES, I did! Haha. It was just so beautiful. It was so bright it lit up half the night sky. And Singapore's few fireworks totally can't beat the Basel ones. Haha! There was one firework that kept "growing" larger, for quite a long time. Then it gradually started shrinking and finally one spark was left. And poof it disappeared. How entertaining. :P
The next day I went for a drive through the Black Forest in Germany. It's full of pine trees that appear black during the winter in contrast with the snow. I saw ski-lifts here and there during the drive. Not utilised now of course. But well I guess the ski resorts there are really great! That reminds me, I haven't skied for about 3 years! :O I need to learn to ski again. :P
Stopped by at Colmar, a small French town, for dinner. Yay I put my knowledge of speaking in restaurants to good use. :) It was quite late so the shops were all closed and the city centre was quite deserted, except that the cafes were open. I might visit Colmar again. Heard it's a great place to buy shoes. And it's the little Venice of France! ;)
Oh, school's starting soon! 2 more weeks! Yay! Home can be a bit boring sometimes... Honestly, I've forgotten all the Maths and Physics I've learnt this year already. Sigh. Need to tune back. Hahaha.
The Enchanting Twilight
Labels: Germany, Swiss National Day
1st German lesson on Sat: YAY! I was so excited. :D Learning a new language is always so fun. :) But well, it was a family lesson, which meant my parents and sister are my classmates! :D D: Don't know if it's good or bad... Haha. 1st up, my dad, who doesn't take notes at all and just stares at the teacher, hardly getting anything (I know from the look in his eyes). 2nd, my mum, who's a crazy note-taker and pronounces every word really loudly (but wrongly) and quite attentive. 3rd, my sister, who takes quick notes in the textbook and looks on with keen eyes, every word that comes out of her mouth is nearly accurate, thus the teacher says 'Genau! (translated: right!)' to her a lot. 4th, me, the person who asks a lot of questions (until my mum actually finds me a bit irritating) taking neat notes in a huge notebook, linking the differences and similarities of German, English and French together. (This actually makes learning European languages a lot easier.)
Then we went to Lorrach, Germany, for another grocery-shopping trip, and of course spent quite a bit of euros over there. Small town, quite quiet and peaceful, lovely scenery... :)
Sunday: We got free passes to the Giacometti exhibition at Fondation Beyeler, Basel's famous museum! :D Took a look at the unique skinny bronze sculptures Alberto G. made, and Giovanno G.'s (AG's father) cool post-impressionist paintings and portraits. The museum grounds were really beautiful, corn fields by the side and a tranquil pond just outside. The paths and museum walls were made of red bricks, and it looked really beautiful in a cool summer setting. ;)
We returned home and after dinner, my sis and I decided to be hardworking students and took out our German books to revise and complete our homework. :D Our parents, not wanting to lose out, followed us to the dining table. The revision didn't go that well, because we spent about 20mins on the 1st page as my parents had pronunciation difficulties and my dad just kept forgetting what each line meant. IT'S JUST GREETINGS and he can't remember which is which. Tell him, he says oh okay, and doesn't even write the translation down!! D: Then he'll ask me again. OH NO. My mum, on the other hand, took lots of notes but can't seem to pronounce the 'z' and 'ch'... Sigh. It seems like my parents aren't doing a good job in setting a good example for their daughters. Well my sis and I had a great time laughing at them. I know we're horrible.
Eg. Austria is Osterreich in German, and my mum accidentally pronounced it as Ostrich. FUNNY OMG. No is Nein in German, and my dad keeps saying Nay. NO LOGIC GOSH... My dad doesn't seem to know that conjugation exists, and we learnt the conjugation of the verb 'to be' (Etre in French, Sein in German) in which he forgot.
You know my best study partner has to be my sister. We can correct each other, trusting that the other is right. And no stupid funny incidents happen. We both completed all our homework, 4 activities. :D My mum only managed to finish 1 and she was so drained. My dad was already too exhausted and drained to do any activity, so he chucked his book away. Sigh I hope we get to somewhere.
Hopefully I learn German well. No, in fact, I MUST. Sorry French, I'm leaving you in 2nd position for now.
The Enchanting Twilight
Labels: German, Germany, Giacometti
