what i missed, what i miss and what i'm gonna miss

every weekend, i go galavanting somewhere out of Basel. be it prague, berlin or jungfraujoch. this weekend, i'm heading off to paris.

out of the 7 days in the week, only 4 is spent in basel. and when i'm in basel, i'm either in my room, the classroom or the canteen.

i'm so obsessed with visiting famous cities around europe, that i've completely neglected one very special city - Basel.

not that it's famous that makes it special. in fact, ask anyone to name a few cities in europe, basel would probably be one of the last few listed, if, listed at all. it's simply special because it's the first european city i've been to.

the herbstmesse - the fall carnival all around the city of basel, has just ended on sunday. and just then, did i realize that i've completely ignored the herbstmesse.

yes, i did go down to petersplatz to check out some booths, but i did so just because it's conveniently located in front of the university. had it been just 2 blocks farther, i would have missed it completely too.

needless to say, the bigger parts of the herbstmesse in barfusserplatz and messeplatz came and gone without leaving their well-deserved spots in my memory.

i missed herbstmesse. and it's completely my fault. i wished i had more time.

and shifting from what i've missed, i'm beginning to miss singapore/malaysia. the food, the people, gt5001 gang (cause i don't wanna have pimples) etc.

and i'm definitely gonna miss switzerland when i get back to singapore.

if only europe and singapore were just an hour by foot.

i wish. now back to reality.

i'm blond, but i'm asian.

let's get one thing straight, i didn't go blond cause i wanted to become more ang moh, i merely just wanted to stand out from the crowd. just like how you girls put on gaudy earrings and eye lash extensions. get it?

and i do get things easier by being blond. i no longer need to show my student card to the auntie in the canteen cause she recognizes me ever since the first day i flashed my student id. and that makes my life 10 times easier cause the canteen is seriously always packed during lunch time with the person behind pressuring the person in front to go faster. and the train conductor doesn't check my ticket after every stop, simply just cause he recognizes me.

i'm blond. i'm different. but i am asian.

ok, now i sound a bit like xiaxue. and she's also blond. shit. but that aside, the reason why i'm posting this is because i was actually mistaken as being swedish/danish.

not once. but twice.

now seriously, black roots are growing visibly (to my horror) beneath the once proud pure platinum blond hair and my features are very very asian (despite having blue colored contacts as well)

how can i be scandinavian? oh gosh. are they blind? or are they just ignorant? or maybe they've just not seen a blond asian.

maybe if i dye my hair green, they'll think i'm incredible hulk. wait, that's hulk's skin color, and not the hair. ahh, since they're so ignorant, they'll still think that i'm incredible hulk.

so green anyone?

10.10.09

next year, it'd be 10.10.10, how cool is that?

and seriously, i'm 24? more like 2+4, i'd say. however, i do take comfort in knowing that someone's always OLDER than me by one year. i'm not gonna point fingers again like i've done so in my birthday posts for the past few years, but he's turning 26 on 2.2.10. TWENTY SIX! my friend, that is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY past MID-twenties! i'm so mean, i'm always picking on him (opps).

oh well, at least one of my birthday wish came true, i finally got to see real snow in jungfraujoch on my birthday. and then, i saw this:
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20091012/NEWS/910129998/-1/rss05

shit, was totally eligible for the contest until i turned 24!

then again, the chance of me winning it would be like 1:100000000?

but no matter what, i had a great birthday weekend in grindelwald thanks to a bunch of new found friends in switzerland. i had a white blond birthday literally.

and the sleazy shirt is already one year old! time flies huh? (sighs towards gt5001 (typo la, sorry, haha) gang, i've not forgotten you guys, and i've been reminding myself about you guys very often, cause i don't wanna have pimples, hahahahaahahha......)

one month's gone

i can't believe it, it's already been a month since i've came to Basel, i've got to stop telling everyone that i've just arrived. oh gosh......that leaves me with only 3 more months here......

it doesn't feel like grad school though, i've been on holiday mood since the last paper on free radicals, which was like almost half a year ago (oh my gosh), and i'm still planning where to go for the next few weekends........paris is on my list. seems like i've got to strike out vatican city, since it's so far, and i bet i need a visa to get in. shit.

places i've been so far in europe:
Basel (duh)
Zurich (when i touch downed)
Kaiseraugst (which is like 20 mins from Basel)
Laufenburg
Black forest
Lausanne (pics will be uploaded soon in facebook, i promise)

I have to say that Lausanne is overrated. Basel, on the other hand, is underrated. If I were to choose between the 2, it'd definitely be Basel.

Lausanne is the capital city of the Olympics. they have this huge museum of the olympics which I had to pay 10 francs to enter. totally not worth it, from my point of view though. But fortunately for Lausanne, Lake Geneva was beautiful enough to make my short weekend in Lausanne worth while (not to mention the 60 francs train ticket).

I hope Paris would be as beautiful as I've imagined it to be. I hope the Erwartungshorizont won't spoil all the excitement (TS ppl should know what i mean). haha.

HW Lim et al.

it finally came true. The end of the chapter.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WBK-4X3788D-J&_user=10&_coverDate=08%2F26%2F2009&_rdoc=32&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%236713%239999%23999999999%2399999%23FLA%23display%23Articles)&_cdi=6713&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=119&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=927262eb016e8d4fc687d9e059c40941

no more curcumin. haha.

i'm a freshman.......again!

woohoo, never in my wildest dreams that this day would come, again......excuse me for being rather dramatic for something as simple as matriculation day, but yay! i'm 19 once again (and no, this is not a movie, it's real).

and there it was, the maze that i've been so confused about 4 years ago. this round, i was, in control, muahaha......and since it was arts matriculation day, i've put on my pure hazel contact lenses, put on my best shirt, pants and shoes, made my hair, and i looked convincingly like a year 1 arts student. i was only beaten by the girl with pink hair, argh, better luck next time.

and so i roamed across the MPSH with various seniors trying to promote their society/club to the confused year ones like yours truly. i saw museum club, VCF and many others that i was once so involved in. you know it was kinda weird having some senior explain the museum club bazaar to me cause i was the one who organized it last year......and you could imagine, when all was done, i was hysterically laughing my way off to woodbridge hospital.

and my matriculation card says that i'm in Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Well, i hope people won't get the wrong idea when i say i'm from medicine, this is my first year (for masters), haha.......

big-eyed monster

as i graduated, i had to walk through the whole maze of mumbo jumbo in MPSH 1 just to collect my mortar board and gown. it was just like matricalutaion day, just slightly better.

but wait. amid the whole mumbo jumbo, there were ppl who were promoting credit cards. when you were entering the hall, when you were in the hall, when you were exiting the hall, anywhere, everywhere, these ppl were omnipresent. their new pick up line? "sir, i'm not selling anything". apparently credit cards can't be sold.

the first few who approached me were males (or females?), i can't remember and i had no impression whatsoever of them. i smiled and moved on, the maze thing was confusing enough.

and then, when i had the chance to finally breathe fresh air after the whole mumbo jumbo, i was approached again. this time, by a big-eyed monster.

this monster had big green eyes, with nicely carved brows and perfectly fake lashes to go with it and like a venus-fly trap, i became dinner.

for the whole time, the only thing i remembered saying was no. no. no. but i gave my number in the end. looking back, how did that happened? must have been her big green eyes. and when i received a call a few days later, without the big green eyes staring down at me like a tigress toying with her prey, i could finally say "no!" with conviction and "neh neh, you can't eat me over the phone!" to go with that.

that is why, ladies, if u're ever going to go into sales, invest in the make up set and make sure u resemble a big-eyed monster. and also have a sexy voice when u call. it works.