Soccer and the likes

So last weekend was the UEFA finals and on the morning of, I went for my usual run to the neighbouring village of Garching. On my way back, I ran past the stadium and was greeted by this:

It doesn’t look as massive on my phone but there was a long line of people in red walking to the stadium making one hell of a ruckus. So I stopped to take this photo and the whole group of guys saw and hi-fived me as I ran past them haha. Soccer in europe is really a big deal and people do go all out to show their support for their home team!

Was almost reaching home and saw this newly erected piece of fun!!

OMG! I wished I had discovered it earlier! And they were spanking new and there were 4 of them in all! I was so excited I went for a swing yesterday haha. It was glorious fun.

How traditional can they be! I like!

Bayern jersey + lederhosen = yums!

I told you, the people here are really really supportive. Haha but it is indeed too bad that we lost! In the event that we won, I actually had half the mind of walking over to the stadium to bask in the celebrations but since we lost, I just went to sleep after haha.

But well, it is nothing shameful to have lost over penalties, even though we’re better at penalties than the english. Buttttt well shit happens and there’s the game stats to prove that we indeed played the better game! So boo chelsea!

Oh and before I go, check out how Hieu cut his nails a few days ago.

Not creepy at all.

Soon

Give me a few days to get my shit together, will post a multitude of pics from everywhere!

Well I have 2 excuses for you today…

1) wordpress keeps changing! everytime I log in, it is a new page with new layout and it is all very confusing for my aging brain then I lose interest and look up pictures of lolcats instead

2) I have been spending ALL my time catching up on missed TV! Therefore, I don’t have time to go through the million pictures to show you guys!

But I promise it will all be back to normal!

So here’s a never-before-seen picture of me eating 12 pieces of hotate.

My freaking eyeballs are BURNING

It is back to work this Monday! (insert BIG SAD FACE)

I’ve been trying to run away from the reality that is my research and it always comes to bite me in the ass. But today is going quite well I must say.

Minus the fact that Thomas (my lab mate) has a new student and she just opened a bottle of God-knows-what which was supposed to be opened in the freaking fumehood and now it is all diffused into my lab air and it freaking BURNS MY EYES.

I am literally sitting at my laptop crying. It is all very dramatic.

Ahh spain was such a nice getaway. I will put up some pictures from my dad’s new canon DSLR which I got to tinker around with. Hehe it is a good camera I won’t lie.

The only problem with Spain is their pickpockets! I’ve travelled quite a bit and to be honest, you ALWAYS have to be careful of pickpockets, even in Singapore. But in Spain, the pickpockets are REAL and DARING! My dad was pickpocketed twice! Well, both attempts were unsuccessful thank God, but it seriously happened to him twice!

And I imagine pickpockets to be like poorly dressed and male and scruffy but NO! The pickpockets are well dressed FEMALES! Basically normal looking girls, dressed in a nice top and jacket and pretty scarf around the neck. In barcelona, we were boarding the train and I was actually next to the pickpocket who was behind my dad.

I saw this girl with her hand trying to touch my dad’s butt and I was like what in the world is she trying to do, with her hand outstretched and wiggling, trying to go into my dad’s back pocket! So I quickly tapped my dad and she immediately withdrew her hand, boarded the train with us and hurriedly scurried away to the adjacent door to stand away from us.

SUCH NERVE!!! On hindsight, I should have tapped her hand instead and say naughty naughty in her face complete with wagging finger! But I was honestly scared at that time.

But well, thank God for protecting us and our belongings. You just have to be really careful while boarding the metro in madrid and barcelona! It is crazy because both attempts were in the metro!

The weather in munich is crazyassballs as usual but it is good to be back and to have my family at home when I come home from lab is the best thing ever. Kecoh ah, but fun.

I love barça!

The sagrada familia is so majestic in person!

Unfortunately I generally don’t like looking at statues so all I felt when I was there was that it was just really nice.

It is so massive that my eyes were just overwhelmed by the sheer size of it.

We will go to park guell tomorrow, another of gaudí’s masterpiece. I’m pretty excited because I’ve watched enough chick flicks to be in awe at park guell.

I am loving Barcelona so far. Alhamdulillah! We are also living near to the market in the city centre and we get fresh fruits for cheap!

Las Ramblas

We just got in to barça today and we are staying directly on Las Ramblas! Very exciting and I can’t wait to go exploring!

I am really impressed with the Spanish metro because the trains come every 3 to 5 minutes. Unlike trains in Munich which come every ten mins! But I still be loving Munich.

Okay shall go wandering now, hasta luego amigos.

Granada

Spain has so much character! We were in Granada today and I was in awe at their narrow cobbled lanes.

Perfect to just walk around and get lost in.

We were also at the Alhambra today and it was nothing short of magnificent.

That’s the Alhambra from afar!

We ended the night by watching a flamenco performance by gypsies in a cave! Super cool but I’m not sure how authentic the flamenco was, since I’m not exactly a dance enthusiast. I had a good time though.

Hope all you guys are doing fine!

Cordoba and Seville

This is Cordoba. The narrow brick lanes literally took my breath away. We visited the mosque-cathedral, which was initially a mosque then a cathedral when the catholics took over. They literally tore down pillars in the mosque to build their statues and stuff and that really hurt the acoustics of the prayer hall.

However the mehrab is still intact and still beautiful.

I didn’t know Spain had such a hatred for Muslims and Jews. During the time of the Spanish inquisition they burned Muslims and Jews who refused to leave and when they left, they started bringing in pork, (the Spaniards love their jamòn) which was a sure sign that this place is no longer home to Muslims and Jews.

It was quite disheartening to hear but Spain is still a really beautiful country.

In general I am quite reserved to interact with someone after knowing their they are Jewish by faith. I know it is bad since we are all abrahamic religions but the Jews have a long standing history of hating Muslims and I just generally want to avoid such things. But I don’t hate Jews, for the record, im just afraid they would say something mean or be mean to me.

So today we met this elderly couple from Argentina and my mom asked the husband what his name was, and he said it was ismail. They were Caucasian so my mum didn’t think they were Muslims so she asked uhh are you Christians, but it is still a strange name for a Christian since Ishmael was Abraham’s Arab son, so why would a Christian be named after an Arab.

So the guy sheepishly and also quite reservedly said that he was a Jew, perhaps also afraid that we may judge or dislike him for being one. And he went on to say that we should all go back to ancient times where all abrahamic faiths lived harmoniously together.

He said that nowadays we are so fixated on our differences that we don’t see what we have in common.
How true, and it made me realise that my fear of Jews is really stupid. They’re probably as reserved as I am and when we reach that point, no one wins and I could miss out on a potentially great friendship or whatever.

This trip is turning out so nicely and I am really grateful for everything. Afterall we learn something new everyday.

Cordoba is really really gorgeous.

PS: I don’t know how this post is going to turn out since I’m doing it from my phone, so perdon if it looks somewhat strange.

The weather here is also miles better than it was in Madrid.

España

I am sorry for the lack of update and I wish I had photos in my phone because I am in Spain now. Madrid to be exact and it is everything that I have imagined it to be!

The streets have so much character and there’s just so much to see and do. I am so excited! Will share more in the coming days!

Much love amigos!

Blue and Green

So last Friday I had lunch at the Math faculty for the first time! Hieu has always told me that the food is better there, although a little more expensive. And He was right! I had this fish thing with bavarian potato salad (my favourite!) and yoghurt sauce. Was so yums.

Hieu had the pan fried fish with rice because he doesn’t like the bavarian potato salad.

After that I got some ice cream because I saw this piece of funness and I just HAD to have it.

It is pure gluttony at its best. So that is why I am so fat now. I think I gained all the weight that I lost in KAUST! How short lived! Haha but my strict diet thing will start again!!!!!!! I promise myself!

I felt kind of guilty for eating the ice cream so I went on a 10km run to the neighbouring town on Saturday morning! I HAVE to show you how beautiful the day was. It wasn’t crazy cold or crazy hot. It was like a nice aircon temperature with sun. It was so awesome.

Such a beautiful day!

I got home, showered, and then played our latest game, Pandemic! It is an oldie but goodie!

Our game collection is expanding and I hope it keeps growing!

 

 

 

Cherry Blossoms

The weather is still crazy here but spring is definitely here. The temperature doesn’t really match the season for now but the evidence lies in the singing of the birdies and the blooming plants!

Over the weekend, Hieu and I took a nice leisurely stroll to the supermarket about 1km away. The weather was really nice, but I overestimated it because I was freezing in my sweatpants. We usually go to the mega cheap budget one (perhaps equivalent to sheng shiong) which is further away but recently Hieu has been going to this slightly more atas one (equivalent to cold storage) because the presentation is better, they don’t rush you out at the check out counter anddddddddd Hieu also discovered that they sold halal ham and sausages there too! So much win! So I’ve started shopping there too.

I also love going there because it is a comfortable distance to walk (sheng shiong is too far to walk and we have to go by bike) and I get to walk through the neighbourhood, which is so lovely at this time of year! But why I really love going there is the real possibility of getting ice cream on the way back, because the supermarket is just next to an ice cream parlour. And it is only 90 cents a scoop.

Because of my jakun-ness towards fruit trees, I only just discovered that these were cherry trees. Once I was fussing over how there were such pretty pink things on the trees and Hieu was like ‘Uhh you mean the cherry tree?’ Hmm yeah yeah.

This is what happens if you don’t sweep the street! So nice!

So after buying crap loads of fizzy drinks and iced tea, we decide to get ice cream yay!! Nothing beats ice cream being eaten from a cone! NOTHING!

No prizes to guessing which mine is! I usually prefer the milky, rich flavours like chocolate, cookies or hazelnut.. whereas Hieu prefers the fruity kinds. I think he had lemon and bloodorange. Furthermore, for me, chocolate is a must try in ANY ice cream place to determine if their ice cream is good! This was really good. And for 90 cents. It is a steal.

Well anyway it is a lazy Tuesday for me today! I actually went to get ice and set up my Schlenk line, ready to do some chemistry today.. until I went to the chemicals shop and they told me they are out of dry ice. And I cannot work without dry ice, so looks like I’m stuck writing reports today and also doing my german homework!

Yes I’ve gone back to learning german again! For someone who has lived in munich for almost 2 years now, my german is atrocious. So I did the evaulation test thing and got into a class yesterday. It is just once a week but for 3h straight. Pretty nice.

In my german class, there was a fair share of europeans and east europeans and russians.. and there were 6 people including myself, from NUS! Haha score! Well technically, only 2 of us are real singaporeans, the other 4 are exchange students from nus, but they’re originally from PRC. And the other singaporean girl is muslim too, and doing PhD as well.

Well it is definitely something I look forward to now. I mean, I’ve always loved learning german and it is nice to finally start learning again.