trigger | happy

Tuesday, October 31

Off to rest of Central Europe

Ok im all packed and ready for my trip. For the next 12 days, i'd be heading to Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic. Train leaves in a little more than 2 hours. See you guys when i get back, hopefully with lots of pretty pictures ;)

4:44 PM

Sunday, October 29

Life as an Exchange Student
Being an exchange student is really no joke. You have to juggle school work, social activities and travels altogether. It's like being a student back at SMU with all my extra curricular commitments..only that the priorities are reshuffled.

Traveling, from research through internet or natives, sourcing of tickets and accomodation, coordinating with friends, planning of schedules to the actual trip itself takes up 50%, socialising 25%, classes 10%(technically, it should require more attention than that), cooking and other household chores 10%.

That pretty sums up my exchange life. Unless you do not intend to travel much, life is bound to be pretty hectic. Nevertheless, it's a very liberating and rewarding one.

1:15 PM

Friday, October 27

Serena in Poland Part II - Krakow Day 1

It felt like i didn't sleep for long. Went to bed and next thing i knew it was 6.30 and time to get up and head to the train station. After arriving in Krakow Station, we met up with Chris, a friend of Sam's who was hosting us at his place. Chris not only offered us a place to stay, he always made sure our stomach were filled everytime we got home. He'd make tea, bring out cakes, and toss out whatever Polish food he could find in his refrigerator to let us sample. Chris loves to talk, he even warned us about it. He told us we could stop him anytime if he got carried away, but it was actually interesting listening to him go on about life in Poland. Basically this young man specialising in Energy and Fuel wants to get out of Poland when he graduates to work in Germany, where the prospects as of now are significantly more promising. After a tour around Krakow with Chris, whom we felt was qualified enough to be a professional guide, we were left to venture around on our own for the night. visited the Galleria Krakowska, a brand new shopping centre outside the railway station. On the tram home, Serena realised she stepped on some poop. Little did we know that it was going to be our source of luck when the next day came along...

9:55 PM

Serena in Poland Part I - Warsaw
It was a jam packed day in Warsaw. After taking Ser to sample some Polish food, we walked down Nowy Swiat street towards Old Town. Along the way, we bumped into my buddy Agata. You see, Agata is studying at 2 universities at the same time and she was making her way from Warsaw University to SGH(Warsaw School of Econs). Since there was still time, she decided to show us the brand new library of Warsaw University. Compared to SGH, this school is so much larger and newly restored. Kinda has the old SMU feel except with more intricate colonial buildings. Anyway the library was way cool, there was a beautiful garden tucked away at the top of the library and boy the view was so pretty. It's now officially my favourite place in Warsaw. Without Agata, Ser or my roomie and i wouldn't have found our way here, it was the ultimate place to sit and read a book or just simply admire the view.

After that, Agata left us to explore Old Town on our own, which wasn't much of a problem since i have been there before. In the evening, we stopped by this place that Agata recommended for cakes. This cosy place was called "To Lubie", and the staff were so friendly. Already before we even stepped in, they were posing for us as we were trying to take pictures from the outside.

After Old Town, we walked to Warsawa Centralna to get our train tickets for the next day to Krakow. Decided to drop by Jincai and Jasmine's place since we were in the vicinity, it was a great opportunity to show Serena their nice apartment with the million-dollar view of the Palace of Culture and Science. Also met up once again with Agata and her boyfriend, who invited us to a house party at Regina's(Agata's best friend) pad in Praga.

Praga is located on the other side of the Wisla River. It was apparently known as a rather dangerous district but still we made it there and back in one piece. The party was really fun, there were about 9 of us and as we toasted to drinks, we taught them our style of toasting..YAMMMM SENG! I think they were very amused to learn how long we could actually hold our breath. Also taught them the Animal game and it was so hilarious, even Ser said she hasn't laughed so hard since she left Singapore. As a forfeit, Adam had to call his room mate and sing "I believe i can fly" to the tune of the Polish anthem and that was really funny too.

It was 2.30am when we got home and 3.30am by the time i had showered and packed for the trip. Bedtime was at Jin's room (which had a spare bed) while Serena slept on my bed.

View from the garden on top of the Warsaw University Library

Great place for dates too

Behind some alley in Old Town

Mermaid of Warsaw!

Act Cute

Act Cool (Esther, for you again)

The Barbican. "My Heart Will Go On" was playing in the background..i wondered where that came from

So all this time it was this fiddler playing all those classic songs.

12:05 PM

Tuesday, October 24

Part IV - Bye bye Gdansk

The long overdue photos from the final leg of my Gdansk trip!

Farewell Baltic Hostel, we will miss your comfy beds but not your unisex-shower-rooms-with-no-doors

The Shipyard Monument.

This set of towering steel crosses was built to commemorate the workers killed during the 1970 shipyard riot in Gdansk.

*Pant pant*

What a view!

Almost there..

This cross atop the hill that we spotted from a distance was the reason for our hike up the hill. We had no clue how to get up there...but finally we made it!

I "heart" Gdansk..

But i can never resist food

Read between the lines!

9:59 PM

Monday, October 23

Serena was here for the weekend since Friday and i showed her around Warsaw and Krakow. It was amazing because everywhere we went, we would meet new and familiar people by sheer chance, and sometimes it led us to some unplanned and spontaneous encounters..how serendipitous, makes you realise the world is truly a small one. I'll elaborate more another day, very tired now. Slept in 3 different places for the past 3 nights!

4:50 PM

Friday, October 20

Something's wrong with me. I keep falling down these days. So Paisay!
First i slipped while climbing up to my bunk in the dark. Later in the afternoon I 'skipped' a few flights of stairs cos Hae Ran was teaching me how to irritate Kim in Korean. The next day, we were late for class and running to school like idiots. We passed this baby who had a smug smile on his face. I tried to be funny by asking "what you smiling at" in hokkien. I turned around and next thing i knew, i was on the floor.

11:47 AM

Part III - Gdynia