I was just flipping through those photos of the 6 months and memories came flooding back. I miss Norway though it is extremly cold and things are expensive. And I miss my jet-setting lifestyle all over europe. So fun. Fun times don't last forever. I'm gald I had the chance to do that but I'm also sad coz it had ended. Yes, I might get so rich that I can go travelling all over the world next time but everything will be different. =\

I'm back in sunny Singapore. The flight back seems to be faster than the flight to Oslo 5 months ago though technically it took about the same amount of time. I think I sat around the same area too. But this time on my right it was a sec sch boy who had long legs and long arms and on my right a big ang moh grandpa. Both of them took up much space!! And there are also alot of babies bawling throughout the whole journey...so frustrating lah!

Muscles aching all over right now from heaving the 30+kg luggage from the hostel to the airport. What normally is a 30 min jouney took 1 hour instead. I'm now an expert in navigating around with 2 luggages, even on the escalator. Flight to Oslo was delayed by half an hour and then upon arriving in Heathrow Airport I had to rush to collect my luggage and then procceed to T3. I thought it was like Sg, where you can reach another terminal by the connecting sky train. But in Heathrow I had to take the Heathrow Express (the metro). Luckily it was free as I don't have any pounds with me. It was so tiring hoisting the luggages up and down the train. Grrrr. Then the flight to Sg was also delayed by about 45 mins...-_-"

What a way to end my overseas experience. Muscles aching all over and there is totally no jet lag at all. I ate and then plonked on my bed and fell asleep promptly, with the aircon on of course. It must have been the best night for my sis since in the past I would have refused to on the aircon. BUT my nose started to wheez just now. Haiz... My poor nose, back to its fragile state. I did woke up on the middle of the night very tempted to order Big Breakfast from Mac. Bahaha!

Now that this chapter of my life is over, this shall also be the last entry of this blog.

Its a gloomy, rainy day. The temperature shot up to 5 degrees today but the wind is howling mad-er than ever. It totally ruined our plan to go skiiing today! Just when I found out exactly where the skiing place is located. Looks like its is destined that I can't get my first ski experience. Grrrr.

Luggage all packed except for some miscellaneous stuff. Room cleared, its now so empty that it echos. Everything is all ready to go. I'm going to leave this place where I've spent the past 5 months in less than 48 hours. Am I sad? Not really. I don't have a preference for here or sg. Both places have its own pro and cons. Anyway I guess its never me to totally miss a place I guess. To me its all a matter of timing. Just like back in August, when its time for me to fly here I did so and now its time for me to fly back and I will. 5 months here will be memories. It has been a long holiday, not a total holiday per se but it is really sort of a semi long getaway. Away from the madness of everyday life in sg, away from whatsoever activities I'm involved in. The past 5 months had totally been about me, me and me. It was really simple life. Besides studies, I only need to care about mundane things like cooking, washing and travelling. Studies was in a way easier too, there is no 101 project/presentation deadlines to meet, there is no tests, no tutorials.

Its all a matter of getting used to. I got use to the life here and I guess I need some time to adjust back to the hustle bustle of sg but it shouldn't be a problem since I spent like 21 years and 7 months there as compared to 5 months here.

Its time for me to go prepare for the last dinner that I'll have here. Its a gathering with our neighbours. Hope the weather will be good tomorrow. It will be madness to lug 2 luggages with combined weight of about 30kg up and down the slopes, trains withthe rain is pitter-pattering down and the wind howling so madly I nearly got thrown off balance just now. And yes I've put on weight thankyouverymuch, don't need to ask me to eat more.

Switzerland

I'm back from my final trip for the year. Both Geneva and Prague were freezing cold and to think I thought we could escape from the cold in Oslo. We reached Geneva in the afternoon and what is this trip if it was all smooth-sailing. But then it was nothing extreme this time.

First of all it started with the visa problem for Orange. We weren't sure if she could get into switzerland and there is a need for some visa and the visa must be applied in person at the China embassy. There isn't any here and so we decided to take a gamble. At the Geneva airport there are 2 exits, one to the France side and one to the Swiss side and so the plan was for her to try to exit from the Swiss side and if she was denied entry, Momo will accompany her to exit from the France side and they will go look for her friend who happens to be doing an exchange there as well. So on that day, she managed to sail through custom without any problem. Oh yea! One problem solved. Next will be accomodation.

Apparently there is very few (if any) hostel in Geneva so we booked a room for 4 person in a 2-star hotel. The problem is there were 5 of us. We weren't delibrately trying to "cheat", rather it was because the hotel doesn't offer a room for 5 person. And that was the cheapest hotel we could find. Another problem was we weren't sure if Orange will be able to pass the custom. It was a very small hotel with a very small reception area. We were going "oh no oh no" in our heads as if it was those big hotels...you can at least walk in and out without the person at the frontdesk noticing. We actually managed to get our keys etc and all 5 of us managed to go pass the receptionist without her noticing anything but the suay thing is that we bumped into the manager at the lift landing outside our room! The moment I saw her I have a bad omen. I mean since she is the manager, of course she knows that the room can only stay 4 person and there were 5 of us. When we went out to get lunch cum dinner, the bad omen came true. -_-" Anyway it was a long story and I shall just say in the end we booked another room at a discounted price and we were utterly embaarassed.

But something nice happen during dinner though. We were searching for cheese fondue and we were examining the menu (more specifically) the price of the food one restaurant after another. When we finally went into one, the entire restaurant was empty since it was around 4pm. Weird timing. The waitress spoke very little English and we know very limited French and we had to guess what she was trying to tell us when she went rattling off in French! We ordered a cheese fondue for 3 and melted cheese for 2 to share among the 5 of us. Then in the midst of eating, she appeared with 2 more plates of melted cheese and once again began rattling off and we can only stared blankly at her and all that we caught was something like "order cheese fondue 3, melted cheese 2.... these 2 Ok". We were stumped for awhile and in the end we guess that she is treating is the 2 plates of melted cheese. We just ate and decided that the mystery will be revealed once the bill is here and true enough, the 2 plates were on the house. Wow...how nice.

The next day we took a coach over to the France side, Chamonix, in order to take the cable car up the Alps. It was freezing like mad and it was super windy up on the Alps. We went up to the highest point of Aiguille Du Midi (one of the mountain) which is 3842m up. Some of them complained of difficulty in breathing while I personally experience a spinning world especially when climbing up the stairs. The cable car brought us up to a point and then there were stairs leading to different heights and the higher we go...the more stars I start to see. It was more scary climbing down than up as you will look at the stairs when going down and once you look down...you can see the steepness through the gaps on the steps. My fingers nearly dropped off when I took off my gloves to take photos. Then the drama began when we were waiting for our coach back to Geneva. It was actually an airport transfer service. We booked for 6.45pm departure from Chamonix but we waited and waited and still no sight of the coach so we called the hotline and that is when we realized we overlooked the date for departure! I was sure I had indicated 19th Dec, 6.45pm as the departure but somehow the booking reflected it as 20th Dec, 6.45pm. *palm forehead* None of us realized it till the phone operator told us. Luckily the person was nice and told us to wait for the next pick-up at 9pm. He could have ignored us (like what happened in Barcelona) since it was our fault. The 3 of us huddled into a phone booth to keep out the cold wind. It was that pathetic. And when 8.45pm roll around and still no coach, Pooh called the hotline again and it was the same person who answered and he was so funny. He said "Don't worry, the coach will definitly pick you up at 9pm" Hahaha!! It is not fun to be stuck in the cold, of course we need reassurance. When the pick-up came at 9pm, we realized it was just for the 3 of us. Awww... so touched and I told Pooh I'm going to write compliment letter. Speaking of which, I haven not gone around to doing it. oops.

Shall let the photos show you my trip. Photos for Prague will be up soon, hopefully.

At the train station near our hotel.

Look at those clouds. We were that high up.

After that we went to search for a student-y burger place that the coach driver recommended, Poco Loco.

The hot chocolate that everyone loved except me. I had yet to drank a single cup of hot chocolate drink for this entire trip. First I dislike hot drinks and secondly hot chocolate is so sweet n thick. *shudders*

The Special Poco Loco burger. There are 2 slices of cheese, 3 beet patties, lettuce, tomato and chips inside. All for 7 Swiss Frank. Quite exp but is already considered cheap by the living standards there. Yum yum!

Binky Ong looking super satisfied with her burger.

And we shared a chocolate and banana crepe.

And with this pic, I wish everyone Merry Christmas!! It is so quiet here on Christmas eve as everyone is back home having dinner with their family.

Woke up bright and early today with the intention of going skiing. All of us were very excited about it BUT when we got to Holmenkollen... we found out that the arena that is open to public requires us to bring our own skate. Our classmates had previously rented the skis for skiing but apparently it was some othe place. It was so dissapointing... so we ended up taking some photos and then we went to Baker Hansen for some cakes.

Remember I had taken a photo of this exact same spot a while ago..? It was autumn then and now its winter...white frost on everything!

We (more specifically I) dumped alot of snow on her head but she didn't realize it till some time had passed.

The snow on the ground was sooooo thick...but it was man-made. They sprayed water continuously and with the freezing temperature...it became very fine snow for skiing.

The machine behind is spraying water and hence the spots on this pic.

Can you believe this!?

Tha'ts all. I'm off to bed. Will be in Geneva till 20th and then off to Prague. I'll be back on 23th. There are 2 dinner lined up... on 25th and 27th with friends and neighbours.

I woke up to a white frosty day last Saturday. Everywhere was covered with white frost. Temperature was around -6 to -11 degrees but there was no snow at all. While waiting for Pooh n Momo to finish their last elective paper, Orange, Binky and I went around Oslo and nearly freezed ourselves to death. I'm just going to let the photos do the talking as I'm rushing to post up all the pictures before I fly off tomorrow morning to Geneva and Prague. Its now 11pm and I need to get up at 6am!

A twig covered with frost. So pretty.

These kids were having a hockey match. Its so exciting.

Me standing in the middle of the lake. The lake was frozen and there were people skating, strolling, running and even bbq-ing on the lake, yes ON it.

That's a small island in the middle of the lake. Its now possible to walk aross and we did.

Huge piece of ice from the lake.

Forest leading to the lake.

BBQ-ing sausages using the twigs... such is the life of the family here. Sigh~

We went to United Bakery to have some lunch as well. The place was so cosy and nice especially when it was freezing like mad outside.

Binky looking very happy with the food.

After being "tai-tai" for one afternoon we had to go back and be "Maria" for the 2 who are still struggling away for the last lap. And we had laksa!! Yum yum...if only I have chopped laksa leaves, bigger prawns and tau-pok.