Tschüss!

After 4 weeks in Darmstadt – Germany, it’s time to say goodbye. *haaaa* Time really flies, ain’t it? I kinda grew to love this place and before I knew it, it’s time to go. It’s kinda a bitter sweet feeling but I guess that’s life – all good things must come to an end. But hey, Euro-trip here I come! :)

Before I continue, I just want to say that my deferment was unsuccessful. *haiz* Kinda upset about it because now my entire holiday schedule is screwed up. Who am I supposed to blame? MYSELF. I assume that I will be able to defer because of my practicum and thus, I went forward with planning for the Euro-trip. You know what people say about assume? Assume make an ass out of u and me. *haha* I’m an ass. :) But wait, that’s not all. The latest I can fly back with Emirates back to Singapore is 14th June because all the economy-class are booked from 15th to 30th June. How unluckily can I get?! No way, I’m going to shorten my euro-trip! Therefore, the only choice I’m left with is to find alternative route, which is from Frankfurt to London, then from London to Kuala Lumpur and lastly, back to Singapore. *whoa* Kinda hectic isn’t it? Hopefully I can confirmed the flight by next few days. If not, I’m totally screwed. I’m just going to get back to Singapore on the 3rd July and then… being charged. *haha* Pray hard that that won’t be my fate. Meanwhile, I’m not gonna let all these ruined my mood for the Euro-trip! :D Although my results for last semester kinda make me feel down but hey, NO MORE BIOLOGY!!! As I said before, don’t get me wrong. I do love Biology but just that I can’t do well – my grades have proven me right.

As I look back on my time spent in here, I realised that many things about Darmstadt/Germany that I think I might miss after going back to Singapore.

1. German Lessons
Frankly speaking, learning German is real fun! Probably is because we have a super nice teacher – Frau Roth. She is very encouraging and every time we answer her questions correctly, she will reply “Sehr gut (which means very good)!” is a thunderous voice. Although I must say, most of the time, we sounded more like speaking dialects than German. :p I wouldn’t say my German is proficiency enough but I’m definitely going to take up German lesson back in Singapore.

2. Waking Up Everyday To A Cup Of Freshly Brewed Coffee
Every morning, my host family will prepare a pot of coffee that is made from grind coffee beans and it’s really perks you up. :) Speaking of which, this lead to my next point…

3. Brezina Family
They are my host family during this 4 weeks and they really took care of me. :) Although communication is kinda hard between us (they aren’t proficient in English and I’m definitely not proficient in German), I still enjoy talking to them. :) Whenever they know that we have an excursion, they will prepared packed lunch for me. Oh ya, and they even know what I like to eat by observations. *haha* Although I must say, I eat almost everything I can see. :x The mum is a real good chef! I always enjoy her cooking. :) She knew that I love Thai food and she actually cooked a Thai meal just now. I like! :) I will definitely miss them a lot and I really hope that I can come back her to visit them in the future.

4. Currywurst
I’m sure the four of us – Jun Wei, Jane, Jocelyn and I, will agree on this. :D Oh ya, in Darmstadt there is this famous currywurst stall that sells currywurst in the level of spicyness from A to F, F being the spiciest (which they claim to be 400x spicier than Tabsaco). The four of us tried and Jun Wei and I triumphed. Ok lah, Jocelyn also but because she dropped the last piece (which is a tiny-weeny one), Jun Wei and I refused to say she completed. By the way, it’s call Fucking Burning Injection. I swear I will never gonna eat it again. :) But for other currywurst we ate, I’m so going to miss it!

5. Recycling City
Darmstadt is all about recycling. There’s recycling bins everywhere, there’s bottle recycling machines in most supermarkets, most of the supermarkets do not issue plastic bags AT ALL and people carry shopping bags/trolleys. I think it’s pretty cool that citizens are putting in effort in saving the environment. This is one of the practices that I will bring back to Singapore – I shall use less plastic bags. One step at a time, people. :)

6. Picnic In The Park
There’s garden almost everywhere in Darmstadt and there was once, where the four of us decided to have a picnic at the Herrgarten, which is near our University. It was real fun. :) We agreed that we are going to have more picnic when we go back to Singapore. But where? It seems like there isn’t much place in Singapore for picnic… :(

7. Searching For Asian Food
Ok, 4 weeks of not eating Asian food is really unbearable. :p To the point that we will ‘risk our life’ to go into a sub-urban area to search for Thai food. The food there isn’t spectacular but the warm tom-yam soup is enough to warm our hearts. :) There’s a lot of Asian food takeaway outlets in Darmstadt and it always make me feel closer to home… Oh man, I miss hell lots of Singapore food! One more month to go!

8. Cheap Beer
The beer here are dirt cheap – the cheapest I can remember is 0.39 euro, which is almost equivalent to $0.80 SGD. :) It’s not about the beer, it’s about drinking with your friends. In Singapore, to meet up and drink is like a ‘special occasion’ but here, we are like drinking almost everyday. I don’t know, drinking always make me feel closer to my friends. :) Oh ya, and I had a hangover once. Vomited. :x

9. The Cold Weather
Summer is supposed to be warm but this year, Germany is experiencing a cold summer. Although it can be real freezing sometimes (and I’m not a great fan of coldness), I still like it because I make me feels that I’m not in Singapore. Today is the first day that I actually wore shorts and slippers and walk around in the street. :p The rest of the time, I was wearing jeans because it was too darn cold. :D

10. Ice Cream
Needless to say, ice cream never fails to brighten my day. :)