Okay this post marks the end of my first ever summer vacation.

Since the last update on the picnic at my host-uncle's house, the next day I went to Fribourg to meet up with Julie..

I was supposed to go to her house for a sleepover on Wednesday, the day of the picnic, actually. But then after she invited me, my host-mom then told me about the picnic, and says the WHOLE family will be there. I guess family before friends? :( So I told her I'd meet her on the next day, and so I did :)

I met her at the bahnhof, and then she brought me around town. After I bought something that I need, we walked to her school that she will be attending when school starts. Have I told you that the school holidays in Switzerland is different for every Kanton? For instance, Luzern and Bern and Solothurn and Basel and some other Kantons started the holidays at the same time, but Luzern has 1 more week of holidays, which means the other Kantons have already started school for a week. Zurich, on the other hand, started a week later than us, but has the same amount of holidays as Bern/Solothurn/Basel and all so we start school at the same time. HOWEVER, Fribourg, lucky Fribourg, started holiday at the same time as us, but they start school on September. WHUT. Okay back to story. Her school just underwent renovations so it looks really modern and big. It is much much much bigger than Kanti Schüpfheim. Then we went to the shopping center and just walked around trying to kill some time. And of course, I bought clothes, again. Guilty. But it was a Naf Naf skirt, original price 70fr, but the sale price was 12fr, plus I've been looking for that type of skirt, plus they have it in my size. After that we went for some ice-cream. And yesh they had Nutella flavour, Kinder Bueno flavour, Raffello flavour and some other flavour which were in French. Let me tell you, Nutella is already delicious. Nutella ice-cream is totally indescribable. Later we went to a little terrace coffee shop, where the view of the Altstadt from the terrace is just absolutely beautiful. Julie belanja-ed me a drink, and after enjoying the view, we walked down to the Altstadt. Yeah we just practically walked around and around, then when it was about 5pm or so we went into Coop and Julie introduced a typical Fribourg bread to me. It was quite good, to be honest. Then we went to a festival where they have international food for sale. No doubt, I went for asian food, well mainly because it's the cheapest one I found. It was a Vietnamese stall but they were also selling some kind of Cantonese rice with veggies. As a true Cantonese I ordered that. There was also some show, but then we left at 8.15pm or so and we said our goodbyes at the bahnhof and I went back. I really enjoyed myself. For one, we communicate in German, and since German isn't either of our mother tongue, we kinda speak it with our own accent, and in a tempo which we can both understand really good. That's one of the reason I hang out with her so much in school back then :)

The view from the terrace coffee shop

Some Italian flag swinging performance which was surprisingly quite awesome.

I was home alone on Friday, and I finally managed to pull myself jogging. I can honestly say that I improved, cause I finally jogged till the end of the road without stopping. That was all that was interesting that day, I guess.

On Saturday, though, the other AFS exchange students planned an "International Get Together and Chill Day" in Zurich. Well, actually it was Will who planned it, but yeah. I woke up at 8.30am automatically, because of some dream. Have you ever woke up and realized that you had a beautiful dream so you try to sleep and continue the dream? I always do that but this time, I woke up because my dream had a friend who was really annoying in it. She kept talking and talking and talking and *poof* I woke up from her annoyance. I tried to sleep, but then her face just keeps reappearing in my dream, and just keeps talking with that irritating voice. I gave up and just stayed awake, eventhough I was pooped. Ugh. Finally got to meet up with Catherine from New Zealand, because she left after the first week of Deutschkurs due to her already speaking the language quite fluently, and I've never seen her since. And yeah, Shu Chien, Jun Khee and Shu Jie came as well. We met up at 12pm and went to buy some food, and then we bumped into Anna from Australia and we went to the treffpunkt to meet up with the others. They were late so we went to the park first. We met up with Will from Peru when we almost reached the park, and then we just sat under the shade and chill. It was nice, but a bit boring, for me. They went swimming but I didn't bring my bikini along so I didn't go into the water. The weather was burning hot as well. Give from Thailand came later and we just talked about Mario Maurer, an actor from Thailand who is absolutely lengzai :D We, Malaysians, left early and went for dinner at our usual eating place in Zurich, Suan Long the chinese takeaway restaurant. I guess that was just it for the day.

Alex from Australia, Will from Peru, Me and Shu Jie from MALAYSIA and Give from Thailand :)
Photographer : Jun Khee from MALAYSIA

So today, the last day of summer holidays. I woke up with the feeling that I will waste this day by sitting in front of my mac the whole day. But then, after breakfast, Julia came and ask if I wanted to go "Wandern" with them. As I know, "wandern" means "wonder" so I thought it was just like a jalan-jalan enjoy the weather/scenery kind of thing, so I said yes. When we were good to go, I saw Kim the dog in the car, and Julia and Joel were packing backpacks with 4 big water bottles and apples, and my host dad bringing along his hiking shoes. And at that instance, my mind went "What did I just agreed to?". And so, we went to Heiligkruez, a small, small village in Hasle which was on top of a hill, and from there, we went mountain hiking. My host-dad pointed to the mountain and said "That's where we're going" and I was like "Oh good". Luckily I had my sun glasses on so I think they couldn't really see my expression. Of course, I was much slower than them, but I'm proud that I didn't give up, and didn't ask for breaks and all. I just kept up with my pace, but they did stop to wait for me. Once I caught up, we just went on straight again. Come to think of it, I think the last time I went for jungle trekking or mountain hiking was since Mount Kinabalu. We went on top of Ferneren, some mountain that is. When we finally reached the top, I could practically see the whole of Entlebuch, Hasle and Schüpfheim. We took a short break, enjoyed the view, and then we went down with another way. We didn't go straight down, we went to a hilltop restaurant for something to eat. After that we just went straight on down. I don't know what I hate more, going up or going down. All the time I was praying that I don't sprain my ankle again, because the road going down were all rocks and stones, plus I'm wearing that shoe of mine which keeps bending my ankle when I walk on flat road. And Thank God I reached the car safe and sound. It was a 3 hour hike, and although it was super tiring at first, but I felt really really good after the hike. What a nice way to end the holidays :)

Over the horizon, you can see Germany :)

So now I gotta go sleep, cause school's tomorrow. Julia's in the same school with me now, so we'll be walking to the trainstation everyday together now :) Plus they finally finished with the construction work on the rail way, so the train is back in order now. Wish me luck for the first day of school!!

The week after Germany was boring. Like, real boring.

I was mostly alone at home, my host sister being in Saas-fee and my host brother going to his cousin's to overnight and my parents working and all. If I remembered correctly the weather wasn't really good as well so I couldn't go out. The thing I remember the most is watching the Olympics.

TV Channels here don't show badminton. I mean, they have like more than 8 channels showing the Olympics and at least 6 of them are showing the same damned thing, which is not badminton. My parents had to skype call me and I watched the finals through the crappy skype quality video. At last Jun Khee found a link for us Swiss to watch the live stream online.

On the 8th of August, Jun Khee, Shu Jie, Shu Chien and I went to the Verkehrhaus in Luzern. It's also called the Transportation Museum. It's a really big museum with all the antique trains and cars and model ships and planes. It actually is a really cool place, but we made a big mistake. We went there around noon, and we all hadn't had any lunch yet. So we spent the whole time crying hungry. The cars section was pretty awesome. They had like miniature cars displayed in separate numbered display cylinders and it is all on a conveyer belt high up on the ceiling. Then there's a little machine below and you just key in the number of the display you want to check out, and then the display just somehow comes down to you. The design is absolutely genius. We also went to the helicopter simulator. Jun Khee was the pilot and we were all the passenger. We almost crashed, by the way. After that we went on a jet simulator, where it is only for a captain and a co-captain. Shu Jie and Shu Chien went first, Shu Chien being the pilot. Jun Khee and I went after them, me being the pilot. The jet simulator was much more fun than the helicopter simulator, because for one thing, the jet simulator actually moves whereas the helicopter simulator just has a screen of the outside view. We were strapped in pretty safe and tight, and I did a 360 degree turn with the jet. It was so thrilling! After that we just walked around and just try to finish the whole museum. After that we had dinner at Coop Restaurant, where we had our first dinner together for the first time in Switzerland. We even sat at the exact same spot. We were kicked out by the people in Coop because they close at 7.30pm and we were still sitting there, chatting our hearts off.

At Coop Restaurant

BTW it was also the same day that all Malaysians have free Baskin Robins ice-cream.

The next day, Megi and I went to Anja's house for a film night. Anja came by my house to pick me up, her driving and her dad sitting next to her. After picking Megi up from the bahnhof, she drove us to Sörenburg, where her house is. We watched The Da Vinci Code first, in German with English subtitles. Anja prepared chips, popcorn, peanuts, gummi bears and soft drinks. If you've seen what and how a film night is in those American movies, this is exactly how it was. Getting comfy in your PJs and watching a movie with friends while snacking on junk food. After that we continued watching Love Vegas, which is actually What Happens In Vegas, starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. We went to bed at around 2am. The next day we had breakfast and the Megi and I took the bus down back to Schüpfheim because Anja had to work.

10 August. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO.

11 August. Shu Chien, Shu Jie and I went to Zurich for the street parade. When I told my host family I was going to the Streetparade, they were in total shock. They asked me to be careful and such, don't buy drugs from people selling it roadside, take care of my drink because people might spike them and all. I didn't know what big deal it was until I was there. Initially I was thinking of buying a beer to drink before going out to the street parade, but then when I saw the surroundings, no more beer for me. I had to be 100% wide awake and alert. We didn't like the atmosphere a bit, because everyone was like shouting mad (happily) and drinking alcohol and there was almost shattered glass from the beer bottles everywhere on the floor. It was just noon and there were already drunken people. We went to Manor Restaurant to escape the craziness for a while for lunch, but then the lunch became an hour and a half chit-chatting, and then window shopping in Manor. Around 3-ish or so we went out, and the situation was still the same. We decided to go check out the techno music concert at the end of the street. This was what I got along the street.

Zurich main street.

It doesn't matter how old you are, I guess :\

They just saw me carrying a camera, and shouted "PHOTO" and posed for me.

Because sitting on a bench is too mainstream

This is what she looks from the back, and on the front she just had 2 black spots the size of a 5fr coin covering just her tits.

I promised Amanda that I would take some photos of lengzais for her, and I did :D Well, they were all wearing sunglasses so.. Everyone looks better with sunglasses on. But nevertheless, they looked :D

Today, 15 Aug, my host mom's side of the family and a big picnic with the whole family at her brother's house in Entlebuch. Actually it was mostly just me being awkward, sitting there not talking much because everyone was speaking in Swiss German. I had the chance to finally see the milking process, and be less than 1cm close with a cow. I've even petted the cows, and a 3-day-old calf. I even drank the milk that's fresh out from the cow's "boobs". Honestly, a city kid being in a farm is a bit funny to the village people. My host relatives were all like "You haven't seen the milking process??" "You've never been to a farm??" Yeh. At least now I'm a city kid with farm experiences. I even like the smell of hay now. Oh and I kinda almost got ran down by a cow. I had no idea that cows are so frigging hude up close. Their nose is the size of my palm. And the 3-day-old calf is even bigger than some of my 18 year old friend. Heck I even know a 22 year old girl who is smaller in size than the calf.

SOOOO here comes my Germany post.

So on 27th July I went to Germany with Shu Chien, Jun Khee and KC and we stayed at Kar Yee's house in Weztlar.

They were already in Zurich since morning, so I went there at 4pm to meet up with them, but our train was 6pm. Turns out that Shu Jie, Jun Khee, KC, Kar Yee and Jannik were on a boat in the middle of the lake so I waited in the train station alone. Well, not alone. I bought A LOT of food from Migros and it kept me busy in the waiting room. It was supposed to be my dinner, but I bought really really a lot, so I just started eating it slowly in the waiting room. Shu Chien arrived before they came back from their boat-rowing-ride and then shortly after that they finally came. Although Shu Jie and Jannik were not following us to Germany, they came with us till Basel then they went home. And so the train ride begins. It was about 5 hours of train ride till Wetzlar, and we arrived at about 11pm or so. We didn't really sleep a lot in the train. I just remember we talked a lot and we started playing some iPhone logo quiz game. That completely absorbed me into the game and it was frustrating when you see the logo and you know what it is but you don't know what it's called. Jun Khee was giving out silly answers and at one point, it was so absurd I actually spat out my ice lemon tea in the train.

We missed the opening ceremony of the Olympics because we were on the train. Boo.

Okay so the first official day in Germany we went to Köln. It was a weekend, and the awesome thing in Germany is that we can buy a "Schönes Wochenende" group ticket, which literally means beautiful weekend group ticket, which is 40 euros and up to a group of 5. We were only a group of 4, but then equally divide it out, it's just 10 euros for the train ride for the whole Germany. I mean, I can't even get to Zurich with 10 euros, and this is for the whole Germany? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. First thing I thought about in Köln is that "Wow, so this is where Lock See lived for a year." We met up with Ying Jee and then we went to buy some post cards. After that, we walked around the city 'cause we were hungry. We walked and we walked and we finally bought some bratwurst and currywurst and for me, pizza. Have I mentioned that things are like so super duper cheap there compared to Switzerland? It's so unfair. After that we went to the tourist information center to buy tickets for the city tour mini train thingy. There was 2 trails for the round trip, and we picked the one that leads to the Chocolate museum. We got on the first train, but apparently it was the wrong train, so we got off. A bunch of ignorant, arrogant, racist bastards (sorry for the language) were freaking laughing at us, saying that we were poor and didn't have enough money to buy tickets and were kicked off the train, in German. They were even pulling the edge of the eyes to imitate the "typical asian eyes" look. Idiots. Okay back to story, we went to the chocolate museum, which was actually a Swiss chocolate brand, Lindt. Ironic, ain't it? A bunch of tourists from Switzerland (well, from Malaysia, but hey! We're visiting from Switzerland) visiting a Chocolate museum in Germany which belongs to Switzerland. I thought we get to try a whole bunch of chocolates in the museum, like the Kambly chocolate factory back in Switzerland, but no, we only got a chocolate waffle straight from the chocolate fountain. We got to see how the machines pack the chocolate, though, and it was AMAZING. I mean, who came up with the design of the whole machine? It's like, CHOMP, and then the chocolates are made and CHOMP the chocolates are cut into pieces and CHOMP the chocolates are wrapped.

After that we took the train again and went back to the place we started. On the way back, we smelled some out-of-the-world, aromatic asian food. We saw a Chinese restaurant owned by Chinese people and we went in and asked about the price. It looked reasonable so we booked a table for 6 at 8pm. THEN hehehe we went shopping. I was determined to buy a pair of new shoes because my shoes were the reason I kept spraining my poor ankle. Don't believe me? Ask my friends. I could walk normally and then *crack*! My ankle is bent into an awkward angle. We searched and we searched and I finally found a pair and I bought it. Happily. There was also a Cotton On shop, which I miss very very dearly, and I bought a hoodie for 20 euro. It's actually for men, but it was comfortable and big and pretty, so I thought, the heck with it. The streets were full of street performers. This one was exceptionally weird.

OKAY NOW THE DINNER.

Can I say that this is the best, I repeat, the BEST dinner I've had since I left Malaysia? We were starving when we entered the restaurant, and we used quite a long time to pick the dishes because we had to consider about the price, and then when the food came, it was like some holy light shined on our table. I AM NOT EXAGGERATING! Lemme show you the FOOD.

We were so hungry, we tackled on the chickens before I got a chance to snap a picture

It was really, really AUTHENTIC Chinese food, with real 麻辣 flavour. The best part : the rice is FREE. Yeah everyone ate at least 3 bowls of rice, and it was average 8 euro per person for this dinner. Can you even imagine?!? Here in Switzerland it's already 10 euro for a plate of Fried Rice. PLEASE. After that our stomach was sooooooooo satisfied. One thing that kinda turned things around were that our train got canceled. It was already the last train connecting to Wetzlar, and it got canceled without any reason. We went to the information counter and kinda "complained", so the guy arranged a taxi to pick us up from Siegen to Wetzlar. We were home 2 hours later than planned and everyone was dead pooped.

So the next day we went to Frankfurt. We went up to the top of a building, which was kinda a tower, or something, I'm not sure.

After that we met up with Mala, a friend of Kar Yee's and an ex-exchange student whom Kar Yee's host mom hosted 2 years ago.

Then we went to walk around and ate some Ice-Cream, and then we went back to the train station to meet up with Lee Chen. We took the tram, thinking that the train group ticket was inclusive of trams. With our incredible luck, there was a conductor checking tickets halfway to the train station. He was scary, but luckily we didn't get fined. We didn't mean to NOT buy a ticket. We really didn't know. So yeah, we met up with Lee Chen. Actually we just walked around and around in Frankfurt cause most of the shops were closed due to it being a Sunday. There was a lot of XXX shops, cinemas and hotels, by the way. It was so weird because they just display everything so openly. And awkward!

We saw someone drinking pearl tea so we went searching for a shop. We found one shop and just went inside, and BOY THE PRICE IS SURE CHEAP!! Compare to Switzerland, AGAIN, take a look at how big the size of the cup is when it costs 4.90 francs.

WHEREAS in Germany, the big one costs 4 euro.

And it tastes SO MUCH better than the one we had in Switzerland. Although it can't be compared to the ones in Malaysia, and the pearls taste weird, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. After that we practically just walked around and took photos. We also went to the bridge where couples carve their names onto the lock and then lock it on the bridge and throw the key into the river, indicating that their love will last forever.

We went back around 5pm and bought some meat and "drinks" from the supermarket in Wetzlar and then we walked back for a BBQ dinner. After the dinner we drank our drinks, and some friends of Kar Yee joined us later. Derrik, who is a Malaysian who came to Germany when he was 15 to study, and 2 of his friends. That night was really an unforgettable night for all of us. Tragic, but funny.

Everyone couldn't wake up the next day so we just spent the day around in Forum, the shopping center in Wetzlar. Nothing much about that day, just that at night they were trying to make me drunk, with no success because I fell asleep halfway through.

The last day, though, we went to the Altstadt, which means the old city of Wetzlar. We had lunch there and then finally we found a hair saloon and KC, Jun Khee and I took the risk and got our hair cut. It was 14 euro for ladies and 12 euro for men, still much cheaper than in Switzerland.

Before the haircut

We took the 3pm train back to Basel and then back home.

I can honestly say that I really, really enjoyed this trip. I was laughing non-stop and I don't even remember what I was laughing about. But, this was really an amazing trip and food was paradise!

So as I said in a previous post, the German Malaysian exchange students are here to visit!

I spent Sunday night in Basel train station with Pei San, because we wanted to save some money from train ticket. I could save 20fr and I don't know about her. It was a terrible experience, I would not want to do it ever again. It was freezing cold, and we had no where to sit or sleep. They closed and locked all the waiting room, so we had to just sit on the floor at the train station. We got so bored, we even danced in the middle of the night at the train station. Of course, we made sure that no one was around. I taught Pei San part of the Danza Kuduro from Testimonial and we were goofing off to Gee and all those significant dances. One way to keep our body warm. It was an agonizing wait until the sun came out. We wanted to find a park so we could lay on the grass and take a nap, but the morning dew was not friendly to us. The whole field of grass was wet, and all the benches were in shades. We had to look for a spot with sunlight shining on it, because we were THAT cold. I gave up and just sat on a bench, waiting for the others to arrive at the train station. We went back to pick them up, and started introducing some Swiss German and Migros and Coop. They bought the Swiss Youth Pass for 200fr, which includes 4 days of any public transportation fee and free entrance to 400 museums. It is actually really worth it for them because unlike us, they don't have the halb-tax card which you need to only pay for the half price of the transportation ticket. It really saves a lot money. For example, from my house to Basel costs 20fr for me, but for them it would be already 40fr for one way. They don't have Gleis7 as well, so it would be 80fr a day already for them.

I was in Basel for the Foxtrail class trip. So I brought them to the places I went during the foxtrail. It wasn't much, but I was the only one who has been here, so we had no choice. We played Truth Or Dare before our picnic dinner at the park Pei San and I went earlier, and the most memorable thing was Lee Chen breaking the bottle while attempting to pop open the glass bottle.

The next day we went to Zurich. I met with them around 3.30pm because I had to stay home and feed Kim as no one was home. We had another picnic at the Zurich park, which then lead to discussion topics which are inappropriate, which then lead to frisbee playing. I know it doesn't make sense, but hey, that's what we did. We girls were doing a bit of man-hunting because the park was more crowded than it ever was, and we were the only group with full-on clothes on. Everyone else was either in their bikinis or just in their swimming trunks. A swiss guy came and joined us playing frisbee, and he knew how to speak Chinese. We didn't talk much with him, Jun Khee did the most talking. After that, I went home because it takes 2 hours for me to get home, and by the time I reached home it was already 11pm.

Wednesday we went to Bern. I joined late, again, because they actually planned to go to the Paul Klee museum thingy which we need to pay, so I told them I would join them later, after they finished visiting the museum. When I arrived, turns out that KC's host-bro, Jannik, joined us. We had lunch in a pizzeria and then after that those with Swiss Youth Pass went to the Paul Klee museum because they didn't go earlier, and Jun Khee, KC and I decided to stay back and bring Jannik to the Bundeshaus because he's never been there and it's free. We'd go for anything that's free. After that we went to look for bears. Bern is actually famous for bears, and there's a bear enclosure somewhere outside the city and we went there. It was by the river, so after that we just sat by the river and soaked our feet and enjoyed nature. After that the ones with GA and Swiss Youth Pass followed Pei San to the "Top of Bern" while Jun Khee, KC and I went grocery shopping for that night's dinner.

We were all sleeping over at Jun Khee's house and cooking dinner there. We had to rush to Coop, which was closing, but we went in anyways. The lights closed while we were inside, not completely, but dark enough to send a message that they're closing. We had no choice but to try if the Migros or Coop at the trainstation actually has fresh veggies and meat. We were in luck, because there was, and we bought chips and drinks and eggs and rice and everything. We waited for 45 minutes but they weren't even close to arriving, so we decided to go back to Jun Khee's house first and start with the cooking. They arrived an hour later. There was a bit of conflict that night, partially because everyone was tired, and hungry, and frustrated about how expensive Switzerland is. All 11 of us slept at Jun Khee's house, on the floor, on the sofa, on his bed, on his host-dad's bed, everywhere. It was not a good night's sleep.

Ying Jee went home a day earlier than planned. The rest of us went to the Kambly factory around noon, because everyone couldn't wake up early. We had our lunch tasting free chocolates. Free lunch, YAY! After that we went to Luzern and I brought them to the Transportation museum. We were really late, so they were left with only 1 hour of visiting time in the museum. It's a really big museum, and they had to pay for the entrance, plus if they went in, they don't have time to go for the scenery cruise tour. So they decided to skip the museum, and go on to the cruise tour. After buying their tickets, I brought them to the famous Luzern bridge, which is said to be the oldest wooden bridge in Europe. We, swiss exchange students, paid and went on the cruise trip as well, we all debated on it for a long time, and I didn't plan on going. But I didn't regret going on the cruise. It was just a 1 hour boat ride along the Vierwaldstaatersee, the big Luzern lake. The scenery was magnificent! The clear weather made it much more beautiful and worth it. After the tour, we went to the famous Luzern lion monument, and then after that we just went into Coop restaurant and ate dinner there. At first we planned to go to Opera, a club in Luzern, but then the plan canceled because most of them had less than 5 hours of sleep for the past 2 nights, and spending the whole night in Opera seems impossible for their body anymore, for mine as well. So the plan was canceled, and everyone went back to where they're supposed to sleep.

And the next day, they all went back to Germany, except for Kar Yee, who traveled with us to Germany, because we were staying in her house, Shu Chien, KC, Jun Khee and I. And this will be on another post, some time later. It's 1.20am now, and my eyes can hardly open anymore. Ciaos.