Well guys.. I know I haven't been updating this blog.
But now it's time for me to leave this country.
Just finished packing everything, the room that I have slept for 1 year is now empty.
I am glad to be going home, since few things that didn't really pleased me happened.
Flying in 10 hours and 51 minutes.
See you guys at the other side of the world.
About Me
- Cheng Mun
- Nothing much about me. I'm just a regular girl, studies in a regular school, do nothing but regular stuffs..BUT I AM MADLY OBSESSED WITH LEEHOM!!
Now that I've got your attention, please click here. I promise you this is not some ad or spam. Just write something :)
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Monday, November 26, 2012
I need to post some random stuffs so it'll look good in my blog archive.
Ok many things have happened since my last post.
(not in any particular order)
Goodbye Macbook.
Ok many things have happened since my last post.
(not in any particular order)
- Sprained my other ankle
- Went to a Homosexual Party
- Oktoberfest
- Went to Zermatt aka Toblerone Mountain
- Went to Konstanz, Germany for a day trip
- Went to Luzern Herbstmesse
- Went to Basel Herbstmesse
- WENT TO JASON MRAZ'S CONCERT OHMYGOODNESS Tour is a Four Letter Word *hearts* *swoon* *melts*
Goodbye Macbook.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
And so, the long awaited post about the AFS Work Camp.
First of all, no, we did not get money for working. Yes, we had to pay. Yes, we had to REALLY WORK. Yes, it was kinda excruciating. And yes, IT WAS AWESOME.
So on the first day, which was on Sunday 30th of September, I had to take the 12pm train to Zurich, cause it takes me 2 hours to reach Zurich. Blah de blah blah. Reached Effretikon at 2+pm and that's where we met up with all the exchangies who are going for this camp. Oh it was just 20 exchange students, and guess what? All Malaysians are in :) Yeah, well we signed up on the first few days after we got the letter because we were kinda kiasu that we couldn't get it but HEY. Whaddaya know? We all got in :D Before I forget, I shall list down the exchangies and their countries.
Malaysia : Me (duh), Shu Chien, Shu Jie, Pei San, Jun Khee, KC
Thailand : Baifai, Keow, Fon, Give
Japan : Yuka, Yuiko
Columbia : Sabina, Juan Carlos
Honduras : Carolina, Gaby
Peru : Andrea
Brazil : Alex
Costa Rica : Yoselyn
Paraguay : Amanda
So we had to take the bus from Effretikon to Kyburg Gemeindehaus, which was kinda 20 minutes of dizzy bus ride along curving roads. When we got off the bus, we met up with the leaders of the camp. Lemme list it out. Eliane, Florin, Dennis and Mauricio. Florin and Dennis are 19 year-old students who came back from an exchange year abroad and Mauricio, from Ecuador, was an exchange student in Switzerland 2 or 3 years ago and is now studying in Luzern. Eliane is just an AFS staff who volunteered for this camp. Seriously, the whole time, my mind was like "Holy mama why so lengzai". Well, forgive me for being a girl. I hope no one from camp finds this blog. But seriously, it was holy mama-ly lengzai. UGH haha we squeal to ourselves on the tiniest things. But now back to business. We walked to the scout house, which we stayed for the whole duration of the camp, and kind of settled ourselves in. We got the bunker room on the 3rd floor while the boys get the 4th. There were only 4 boys exchangies in this camp, so they got the smalles bunker room. After that we gathered at the dining room for a quick snack, then went up to the sofa room, where we had short introduction of ourselves and assigned ourselves chores during the camp. We played a game, where we had to write down what we like so far about Switzerland and put it all in a bag, then everyone pick one paper randomly and everyone has to guess who wrote it. Well, I wrote (I think) "Berge, Schnee, Sicherheit, Leute, Schule, Käse, Schoggi, and KEBAB" which means "Mountains, Snow, Safety, People, School, Cheese, Chocolate and KEBAB". I think Yos picked my paper and the moment she said Kebab, KC just shouted "MUN" and pointed at me. *sigh* Just so you know, I almost always suggest that we eat kebab for our meals whenever we hang out together, plus KC introduced us the kebab in Winterthur which is like superb, which makes me crave for it more. *sigh*. Anyways after that we played Hide and Seek, Swiss style. So we were divided into 2 groups, the hiders and the seekers. I was in the hiders group, along with Florin as our leader. This hide and seek is so much different. We don't just hide, we have to do markings and signals and directions to guide the seekers to the place we hide. So we made arrows using rocks and twigs and stuff. We reached a flight of stairs and we started walking down the stairs. Apparently it doesn't end. We walked and we walked and we walked, and I was worried about us getting up. With my physical state, I could be half dead when we reach the house again. We stopped, not at the bottom, but somewhere where we could hide in the middle of the mountain. I think this whole game took us about an hour or so, and the seekers hadn't even found us yet. Florin went back up to check up on them, and he came back down to tell us that they've called off the game and asked us to go back up to the house. Swear words were running through my mind. I mean, what if Florin didn't go up? How long would they even wait to come down and call us? And so we had to climb and climb and climb. Apparently again, some wise guy cleared all our markings and directions, so the seekers had no clue where we were. Bleh. Dinner was then served and we had spagghetti, if I'm not mistaken. After the meal we went up to the sofa room and just hung around and talk, then after that we went back down to the dining room, and I forgot what happened, but the day ended with us all partying and dancing and the last song we danced to was OPPA GANGNAM STYLE. Hell yeah. After that we Malaysians and the Thais stayed in the dinning room and we all shared the 2 mooncakes I brought cause apparently they do celebrate mooncake festival in Thailand and that day being the Mooncake festival, I thought it was right to celebrate it together with some mooncake my parents sent me.
So the next day, early in the morning, wake up and ate breakfast, then we had to walk to our work place. A guy explained to us about the "importance" of our work and the reason why we're paying to work. They wanted to keep the forest a "light forest" so that the trees won't grow and block the sunlight and endangered plant species could continue to grow. So our job is to cut weeds and those pesky newly growing trees and bushes. It was just a piece of land off the road, and there wasn't a proper way from the road into the forest. Plus, it was all steep down hill. With my experience of falling down, I was scared. Even with the hiking shoes I borrowed from my host-aunt, I still wasn't convinced that I wouldn't slip. We worked till lunch and then we went back up to eat and then after lunch we came back down to work until dinner time. Before dinner, we were allowed to go shower. We went to a nearby school and used their toilets and showers. It was so nice, compared to the camps and expeditions I've been in Malaysia. Proper heated showers, with proper changing rooms, with clean floor and clean shower rooms. Then it was dinner. I have to say, that we did not have enough to eat. We did a lot of hard work, but they cook just barely enough for all of us. Eliane left, but Andrea, also an AFS Staff came to replace her. We ended the night again partying and dancing our butts off. Before we went to sleep, we went up to the boys bunker and kinda like gossiped (in Mandarin, of course) till we couldn't tahan anymore.
On Tuesday, early in the morning, woke up again and had breakfast. Then off to work. My arms were already killing me for pulling those little trees the previous day. Thank god for Yoko-yoko. I had to apply it before sleep, and after I woke up. It was killing me. Fortunately, we only had to work half day. After lunch, we went to the castle in Kyburg as a "camp trip". A short while through the trip, Florin and Dennis had to leave, because they are still having school and AFS only allowed them to skip 2 days of school to join this camp. Gotta say, it was sad seeing them leave. "Somebody" was even sadder. That "Somebody" was like a leech since the first day we came, and honestly it kinda made me sick. We had to leave the castle at around 5.30pm cause that's the time they close. Back "home" we went to shower before taking dinner, and I found a tick on the back of my knee. The day before, Andrea already warned us because when Eliane went back home she found 2 ticks and asked us to take notice. At first I thought it was like "Pfft it's just tick." but when I saw it clinging on to me, I freaked. I thought it was just like a mud drop and I couldn't gently brush it off so I picked it out and looked closely. It had legs. 6 of them. And so, the 4 of us Malaysian girls spent like almost 30 minutes in the shower checking each others' body (I know it sounds wrong, but that's really how we did it) for ticks. We were late to dinner and everyone was waiting for us. This time, everyone learned their lesson. Eat fast or starve. We had to eat fast and refill our plates before the food runs out. We were like beggars. And yes, we ended the night AGAIN with dancing. Funny thing about today was, us Asians started playing those K-Pop songs like Nobody, Sorry and Gee, since they were so fascinated by Psy's Oppa Gangnam Style. Then we started dancing those synchronized, choreographed dance steps and we finally "took the stage". Usually it was the Latinos playing Latino music and just salsa or swayed their hips to the song but that night. THAT NIGHT. We were all doing like NOBODY NOBODY LIKE YOU *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* and GEE GEE GEE GEE BABY BABY BABY. There were all stunned with eyes wide open. Alex said it was a culture shock to them. HAH! Think we always sit down so calmly and watch you guys sway? Play the music of our people and you shall be in awe. And yes, we went to the boys bunker to continue our gossips.
The next day, we had to work the whole day. A new leader came, Maraika or something, from Germany. She's now doing volunteer work abroad, but she was never in an exchange year. Yeah I know this sounds mean but she was kind of an outcast in the camp. We've tried engaging her in a conversation but she just ends it. Just like that. And she doesn't talk to us. So we worked till lunch and went back and eat and then back again to work and then back again for shower and dinner. Since it was the last night in camp, Sabina and Carol found a spot somewhere far off in the woods for a campfire. And so we did went there after dinner and shower. It was a long walk and the weather was cold. We started off telling ghost stories. I started with the first story. I told them the story Teacher Yew told me and Emily last time, "The Ten Fingers". I've actually told this story to the Thais and Malaysians during our "mooncake festival celebration", so they were expecting it already. I'm glad to say I did manage to scare some people a bit. Maybe not a lot. Then Mauricio told this damn scary story that made Pei San cry. After that the night was so cold we kinda just spent the night standing next to the camp fire and listening to Baifai play her Ukulele. A group of us walked back to the house at midnight, and surprisingly at midnight, the moon was so bright we didn't even need a torchlight to see where we're going. We were so pooped, I was half asleep during our gossip session. Mauricio came up and we talked with him for a while, and he was telling us about his Uni here in Luzern.
On Thursday, the last day, Pei San and I were responsible for the cooking. We chopped about 14 apples the night before so we could sleep in a bit longer. We made Birchermüesli for breakfast because we're trying to cook everything in the kitchen and we're almost out of bread. After breakfast we had to go to work again, but this time Pei San and I went later than the rest because we had to stay back and wash the dishes. We also get to leave early from work to cook lunch, which was macaroni and cheese. It was the only day that we couldn't finish the meal, because we cooked 2kgs of macaroni. Then we were all assigned to different work in cleaning the entire house, mine being folding and arranging the wool blankets and pillows. Did I mention that they provide us pillows? I haven't had such a nice sleep in any camp, excluding the orientation camp in Malaysia cause that was in a hotel please. After that we took like plenty of photos before running to catch the bus. And so the camp ended, just like that.
I'll upload the photos soon, cause it's 10.31pm and way past my bedtime.
AND SO the photos.
First of all, no, we did not get money for working. Yes, we had to pay. Yes, we had to REALLY WORK. Yes, it was kinda excruciating. And yes, IT WAS AWESOME.
So on the first day, which was on Sunday 30th of September, I had to take the 12pm train to Zurich, cause it takes me 2 hours to reach Zurich. Blah de blah blah. Reached Effretikon at 2+pm and that's where we met up with all the exchangies who are going for this camp. Oh it was just 20 exchange students, and guess what? All Malaysians are in :) Yeah, well we signed up on the first few days after we got the letter because we were kinda kiasu that we couldn't get it but HEY. Whaddaya know? We all got in :D Before I forget, I shall list down the exchangies and their countries.
Malaysia : Me (duh), Shu Chien, Shu Jie, Pei San, Jun Khee, KC
Thailand : Baifai, Keow, Fon, Give
Japan : Yuka, Yuiko
Columbia : Sabina, Juan Carlos
Honduras : Carolina, Gaby
Peru : Andrea
Brazil : Alex
Costa Rica : Yoselyn
Paraguay : Amanda
So we had to take the bus from Effretikon to Kyburg Gemeindehaus, which was kinda 20 minutes of dizzy bus ride along curving roads. When we got off the bus, we met up with the leaders of the camp. Lemme list it out. Eliane, Florin, Dennis and Mauricio. Florin and Dennis are 19 year-old students who came back from an exchange year abroad and Mauricio, from Ecuador, was an exchange student in Switzerland 2 or 3 years ago and is now studying in Luzern. Eliane is just an AFS staff who volunteered for this camp. Seriously, the whole time, my mind was like "Holy mama why so lengzai". Well, forgive me for being a girl. I hope no one from camp finds this blog. But seriously, it was holy mama-ly lengzai. UGH haha we squeal to ourselves on the tiniest things. But now back to business. We walked to the scout house, which we stayed for the whole duration of the camp, and kind of settled ourselves in. We got the bunker room on the 3rd floor while the boys get the 4th. There were only 4 boys exchangies in this camp, so they got the smalles bunker room. After that we gathered at the dining room for a quick snack, then went up to the sofa room, where we had short introduction of ourselves and assigned ourselves chores during the camp. We played a game, where we had to write down what we like so far about Switzerland and put it all in a bag, then everyone pick one paper randomly and everyone has to guess who wrote it. Well, I wrote (I think) "Berge, Schnee, Sicherheit, Leute, Schule, Käse, Schoggi, and KEBAB" which means "Mountains, Snow, Safety, People, School, Cheese, Chocolate and KEBAB". I think Yos picked my paper and the moment she said Kebab, KC just shouted "MUN" and pointed at me. *sigh* Just so you know, I almost always suggest that we eat kebab for our meals whenever we hang out together, plus KC introduced us the kebab in Winterthur which is like superb, which makes me crave for it more. *sigh*. Anyways after that we played Hide and Seek, Swiss style. So we were divided into 2 groups, the hiders and the seekers. I was in the hiders group, along with Florin as our leader. This hide and seek is so much different. We don't just hide, we have to do markings and signals and directions to guide the seekers to the place we hide. So we made arrows using rocks and twigs and stuff. We reached a flight of stairs and we started walking down the stairs. Apparently it doesn't end. We walked and we walked and we walked, and I was worried about us getting up. With my physical state, I could be half dead when we reach the house again. We stopped, not at the bottom, but somewhere where we could hide in the middle of the mountain. I think this whole game took us about an hour or so, and the seekers hadn't even found us yet. Florin went back up to check up on them, and he came back down to tell us that they've called off the game and asked us to go back up to the house. Swear words were running through my mind. I mean, what if Florin didn't go up? How long would they even wait to come down and call us? And so we had to climb and climb and climb. Apparently again, some wise guy cleared all our markings and directions, so the seekers had no clue where we were. Bleh. Dinner was then served and we had spagghetti, if I'm not mistaken. After the meal we went up to the sofa room and just hung around and talk, then after that we went back down to the dining room, and I forgot what happened, but the day ended with us all partying and dancing and the last song we danced to was OPPA GANGNAM STYLE. Hell yeah. After that we Malaysians and the Thais stayed in the dinning room and we all shared the 2 mooncakes I brought cause apparently they do celebrate mooncake festival in Thailand and that day being the Mooncake festival, I thought it was right to celebrate it together with some mooncake my parents sent me.
So the next day, early in the morning, wake up and ate breakfast, then we had to walk to our work place. A guy explained to us about the "importance" of our work and the reason why we're paying to work. They wanted to keep the forest a "light forest" so that the trees won't grow and block the sunlight and endangered plant species could continue to grow. So our job is to cut weeds and those pesky newly growing trees and bushes. It was just a piece of land off the road, and there wasn't a proper way from the road into the forest. Plus, it was all steep down hill. With my experience of falling down, I was scared. Even with the hiking shoes I borrowed from my host-aunt, I still wasn't convinced that I wouldn't slip. We worked till lunch and then we went back up to eat and then after lunch we came back down to work until dinner time. Before dinner, we were allowed to go shower. We went to a nearby school and used their toilets and showers. It was so nice, compared to the camps and expeditions I've been in Malaysia. Proper heated showers, with proper changing rooms, with clean floor and clean shower rooms. Then it was dinner. I have to say, that we did not have enough to eat. We did a lot of hard work, but they cook just barely enough for all of us. Eliane left, but Andrea, also an AFS Staff came to replace her. We ended the night again partying and dancing our butts off. Before we went to sleep, we went up to the boys bunker and kinda like gossiped (in Mandarin, of course) till we couldn't tahan anymore.
On Tuesday, early in the morning, woke up again and had breakfast. Then off to work. My arms were already killing me for pulling those little trees the previous day. Thank god for Yoko-yoko. I had to apply it before sleep, and after I woke up. It was killing me. Fortunately, we only had to work half day. After lunch, we went to the castle in Kyburg as a "camp trip". A short while through the trip, Florin and Dennis had to leave, because they are still having school and AFS only allowed them to skip 2 days of school to join this camp. Gotta say, it was sad seeing them leave. "Somebody" was even sadder. That "Somebody" was like a leech since the first day we came, and honestly it kinda made me sick. We had to leave the castle at around 5.30pm cause that's the time they close. Back "home" we went to shower before taking dinner, and I found a tick on the back of my knee. The day before, Andrea already warned us because when Eliane went back home she found 2 ticks and asked us to take notice. At first I thought it was like "Pfft it's just tick." but when I saw it clinging on to me, I freaked. I thought it was just like a mud drop and I couldn't gently brush it off so I picked it out and looked closely. It had legs. 6 of them. And so, the 4 of us Malaysian girls spent like almost 30 minutes in the shower checking each others' body (I know it sounds wrong, but that's really how we did it) for ticks. We were late to dinner and everyone was waiting for us. This time, everyone learned their lesson. Eat fast or starve. We had to eat fast and refill our plates before the food runs out. We were like beggars. And yes, we ended the night AGAIN with dancing. Funny thing about today was, us Asians started playing those K-Pop songs like Nobody, Sorry and Gee, since they were so fascinated by Psy's Oppa Gangnam Style. Then we started dancing those synchronized, choreographed dance steps and we finally "took the stage". Usually it was the Latinos playing Latino music and just salsa or swayed their hips to the song but that night. THAT NIGHT. We were all doing like NOBODY NOBODY LIKE YOU *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* and GEE GEE GEE GEE BABY BABY BABY. There were all stunned with eyes wide open. Alex said it was a culture shock to them. HAH! Think we always sit down so calmly and watch you guys sway? Play the music of our people and you shall be in awe. And yes, we went to the boys bunker to continue our gossips.
The next day, we had to work the whole day. A new leader came, Maraika or something, from Germany. She's now doing volunteer work abroad, but she was never in an exchange year. Yeah I know this sounds mean but she was kind of an outcast in the camp. We've tried engaging her in a conversation but she just ends it. Just like that. And she doesn't talk to us. So we worked till lunch and went back and eat and then back again to work and then back again for shower and dinner. Since it was the last night in camp, Sabina and Carol found a spot somewhere far off in the woods for a campfire. And so we did went there after dinner and shower. It was a long walk and the weather was cold. We started off telling ghost stories. I started with the first story. I told them the story Teacher Yew told me and Emily last time, "The Ten Fingers". I've actually told this story to the Thais and Malaysians during our "mooncake festival celebration", so they were expecting it already. I'm glad to say I did manage to scare some people a bit. Maybe not a lot. Then Mauricio told this damn scary story that made Pei San cry. After that the night was so cold we kinda just spent the night standing next to the camp fire and listening to Baifai play her Ukulele. A group of us walked back to the house at midnight, and surprisingly at midnight, the moon was so bright we didn't even need a torchlight to see where we're going. We were so pooped, I was half asleep during our gossip session. Mauricio came up and we talked with him for a while, and he was telling us about his Uni here in Luzern.
On Thursday, the last day, Pei San and I were responsible for the cooking. We chopped about 14 apples the night before so we could sleep in a bit longer. We made Birchermüesli for breakfast because we're trying to cook everything in the kitchen and we're almost out of bread. After breakfast we had to go to work again, but this time Pei San and I went later than the rest because we had to stay back and wash the dishes. We also get to leave early from work to cook lunch, which was macaroni and cheese. It was the only day that we couldn't finish the meal, because we cooked 2kgs of macaroni. Then we were all assigned to different work in cleaning the entire house, mine being folding and arranging the wool blankets and pillows. Did I mention that they provide us pillows? I haven't had such a nice sleep in any camp, excluding the orientation camp in Malaysia cause that was in a hotel please. After that we took like plenty of photos before running to catch the bus. And so the camp ended, just like that.
I'll upload the photos soon, cause it's 10.31pm and way past my bedtime.
AND SO the photos.
The chore plan |
Mooncake sent from Malaysia brought by me |
Malaysians with Eliane |
Just a random group photo |
With Florin. I really like that pullover of his. |
With Dennis, doing me "signature" move on the dance floor |
Malaysians! |
Yours truly :) |
Malaysians with Andrea from Peru. She was the only one who understood our Asians jokes. She's awesome like dat. |
We are neighbours :D With the Thai gang |
Malaysians with Baifai. |
With Mauricio. I look so much wider standing next to him D: |
The first *incomplete* group photo we had |
We had to write our names on our cups so we don't have to wash them so often :\ |
With Amanda in the middle |
With Dennis |
with Florin |
with Baifai. She's one awesome gal. |
with Mauricio |
Slacking at work to take photos like this. |
So we had to pay 100fr and write a thank you card to this Herr Frei because we are doing his work. Seems legit. |
So this is the place where we had to work. I swear to you, all these bushes were gone on the last day. Cr: Khee |
I was actually holding up the whole line. Cr: Khee |
Holding up the line AGAIN. Cr: Khee |
Cause we fabulous. Cr: Khee |
Don't let those 2 fool you. The gaya came only when camera around :P hahah nawww just kidding. Cr: Khee |
So this is the dining room, where all parties and meals take place. YES, it was tiny. Cr: Khee |
Don't we look medieval? Cr: Khee |
We had alphabet soup for lunch one day :D Cr: Khee |
Break-time during work. Chocolate biscuits never tasted so good. Cr: Khee |
All the shoes were arranged by Baifai and Give. Srsly, they also cleaned the ground floor and the toilet. Cr: Khee |
Look at the tired faces. That's Alex and Sabina on the front. Cr: Khee |
So this is our scout house. |
And teh back view of it. |
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Okay so back to the updates.
Monday. 24th September. God today I'm writing this on 24th October. Exactly a month ago. Okay back to updates.
The whole week was "Sonderwoche" in our school. It literally means "Special Week". What's so special? The whole week, you only focus on one subject. I don't know how is it, but for the 4th year, they were supposed to focus on their Schwerpunktfach, and mine being Music. Apparently it was stuffs related to their Matura exams, so it would be a whole useless week for me to attend classes. Instead, I had to help out at the office. Yippee yai yeh.
On Monday, I had to help Frau Wicki, the school secretary. I kinda just pasted address stickers on envelopes and did about 500 photo copies and stuck those registration forms into files for new students along with Manuela, whose class was in Prague, and she went last year (she is repeating the same year this year), so this year she has nothing to do as well. Oh I forgot to mention that I was sick this week. It was kinda a hard time for me because I felt dizzy almost 24/7 and sniffing uncontrollably and the weather wasn't helping much as well. Monday we finished around 11.30am so I get the whole afternoon free.
On Tuesday, though, we had to help the school custodian. I know. We had to clean the store room, move heavy stuff from the front door of the school to the back door of the school. Please be reminded that we are BOTH GIRLS. PLUS, the heavy stuffs were either covered in cobwebs and dust, or covered with dead, squashed spiders. They were speakers, freaking heavy wooden boards, some dunno-how-many-100-meters-long cloths, glasses, boxes of candles, boxes of plants etc. On the plus side, the custodian belanja-ed us some pastries. Since Manuela and I were so hardworking, we hardly took any breaks, and finished before 12pm. The custodian even told us, "Slow down, if not there won't be any jobs for you two anymore."
Here's the funny thing. They actually have nothing left for us to do, but just because they need to keep us till a certain time, they actually spent some time thinking what we had to do. So basically what we did was for nothing important, just to kill our time. The work we had to do, seemed like I was in detention. Cleaning, moving, blah blah blah. It seemed like what they used as punishment back in Malaysia. Imagine. Working and working and working, then a teacher sees you, and asks why are you doing all these work, and then another teacher would say "Oh, because she broke some rules and this is her punishment." and I had to work in shame.
On Wednesday, holy mama. We were helping Frau Schnider, the other secretary. We actually spent the whole day stuffing envelopes. We started off photocopying, then we had to paste those printed address stickers on envelopes first, and then we had to stuff 2 papers into each envelopes. How many envelopes, you ask? 725 envelopes. Yeah, you read it right. It took us 5 hours. FIVE HOURS of sitting in the glassroom and stuffing envelopes. Then we had to print the stamps on the envelopes, which I admit is a fun and new thing for me. You just place the envelope in the machine, and it prints of the barcode scan of the stamp. Lucky we didn't have to lick and paste the stamps. Oh my god. Frau Schnider then fetched me back to Hasle so I didn't have to wait 45 minutes for the train, that's one real good thing. I had 2 papercuts that day and it hurt like hell.
On Thursday, we were back to the custodian. Today was just cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning. We had to wipe the stairway railings, which I don't understand why, and then sweep the leaves outside, and then vacuum some rooms, clear out some gymnastics stuff and vacuum, wipe windows and doors, sweep dried leaves again, recycle some stuff, and move some cloths into boxes. It wasn't as tiring as Tuesday, but we had to stay till about 4pm for this. Well, because of all these cleaning, I've been to places in the school that I'm sure most students never went, like the abandoned teacher's room, where it's now just a dark, dark room filled with leaked water, the basement store room, the furnace room, the equipment room and all.
On Friday, it was our last day of "detention". We had to help out at the school office, but the French teacher needed our help. We went inventory checking instead. It was a shelf full of French novels, exercise books, tapes, albums, CDs and we had to check everything. I was supposed to *attempt to* read out the title of the book or tape or album or whatever and Manuela was supposed to cross it out on a list. Of course, my French pronunciation was crappy. Most of the time I just pick the book/CD/tape/etc. up and show Manuela the title, and she'll read some twisting French word. After that it was lunch and we had almost the whole school to ourselves, because everyone finishes school that day before lunch. After that we were left to help Frau Schnider, but she had only so much work for us. All we had to do were stuff some envelopes and edit some calender thingy on the computer and voila, we're done.
DETENTION = OVER.
AUTUMN BREAK = BEGIN.
On Saturday, I went to Zurich to meet up with the other Malaysians, except for Shu Chien, because we were supposed to do her birthday present that day. We went shopping for a little while, bought the materials we need and went to Coop Restaurant to do the present.
Took from Shu Chien's instagram. |
I had to also go to H&M to buy some socks because it was the AFS Workcamp the next day and I had to wear these ankle-high hiking boots and I didn't have any high ankle socks. I'm really tired of spending so much money, but these were important. After doing the presents and all, we took Gleis 7 to Winterthur for Kebabs. KC didn't join us because he had a party, so it was just Jun Khee, Shu Jie and I. I gotta say, that was the best kebab I have ever tasted. And the cheapest! It costs only 6fr for a mini döner box. Don't be fooled by it's name. The "mini" is actually just enough for 1 meal, and they are really generous with the sauce and meat and fries and this is the only kebab shop that puts in salad in the döner box. I arrived home at 12am midnight, and I had to continue packing for the camp. So I slept at 3am.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
So the new week begins. I can't recall anything special on Monday, but Tuesday was the first Philosophy test for me. I tried my hardest, I swear, but all I felt that I was writing were bullshit. I couldn't understand the question properly. I had to try. I feel like Herr Duss, our Philosophy teacher, has kinda high expectations for me. Marcos, Isaac, Gabriel and Julie were exceptional in Philosophy. When I first got into the school, they were always telling me how Philosophy was the best subject they could do, and how awesome the teacher is, and how interesting the class is, and Anja and Megi once told me, that Marcos and Gabriel had a class debate during Philosophy in German. I was really amazed by that. I still can't fully understand what's going on in this class, but I'm really trying.
Wednesday, I went to Taekwando training with Anja. I had to say, I was pretty nervous. I was the only one without the uniform, and I was so afraid that I would make a complete idiot out of myself. We started off with a game, which looks like volleyball but instead of using a ball, they used some kind of shuttlecock. After that was the kicking exercising and all. I guess I could say, not to brag here, that I did pretty well for a first-timer. Oh and by the way, there's this 8 year old kid who has already a black belt and was leading the class. That kid's insane. I swear. After training, we tumpang-ed a ride from Toby, a friend of Anja's to the bahnhof. There, we waited for her bus and my train along with her cousin and another friend. I've gotta say, it was fun :D I don't mind going back again. Hopefully I can go back with free classes. Oh and a shout-out to Mr Chang Jun Qiang because his birthday was on this day.
For sports on Thursday, we had this thing called OL, aka Orientierungslauf, which means orienteering running or something like that. We had to run around Schüpfheim and find these stapler puncher thingy and punch it onto a card and then run back to the school. It was weird. Seemed to be that everyone hated this thing. It was a first for me so I don't know how bad or good it feels. (btw it's Ding's birthday)
Friday was my first piano lesson this new school year. After the piano lesson, I went to the Chinese-Thai restaurant that was newly opened near my school with Anja, Martina, Julian and Karin. It was a lunch buffet and it cost 22fr with drinks. It was not bad, but not worth 22fr. I could hear my heart break when I paid my bill. At the evening was a concert by Karin Marbacher of 5Pa. She's in my Schwerpunktfach Musik class, and this concert is her Maturaarbeit. In Swiss, their SPM is called Matura. Well, Matura is actually higher level than SPM, perhaps STPM maybe? And they have these assignments they need to do, which are called Maturaarbeit. So Karin's Maturaarbeit was this concert. I went with Livia and her boyfriend. She sang and played the flute, and for our door gift, it was pretty little rocks, which means something but I forgot. After the concert, we went to Due, a bar/pub in Entlebuch again. I find this bar/pub so much better because you're not allowed to smoke inside, so it's pretty nice. Living in a small town means bumping into a lot of people. I bumped into 2 host-cousins, and a lot of people from school who graduated last year. This time we went home a bit earlier because Livia's boyfriend, Raphael, wasn't feeling too well, and he was the driver. I didn't mind at all because I was tired myself.
Saturday was nothing much. At the afternoon, we went to a big Migros for groceries shopping in Wolhusen. Julia bought a DVD. A French film called "Intouchables". We watched it that night after dinner. Of course, they watched the German dubbed version, and they turned on the German subtitles for me so I could understand better. I understood most of the film, and it was a beautiful movie. Very touching, and based on a true story. It was about a man, who is paralyzed, who hired a guy to help him with his daily activities, and how they bonded and changed each other's lives. Seriously, anyone who's reading this, you should go watch it if possible.
On Sunday, Julia, Joel and I went with the Freizeitklub Hasle (direct translate "Free Time Club Hasle") to Schüpfheim to make Ravioli. It's kinda like dumplings but the fillings are cheese. We walked from Hasle to Schüpfheim with other families and when we reached there, the owner told us about the history about the company and how to make pastas or something like that. It was all in Swiss German and I was busy munching on the cheese and chips they provided for us. We didn't really make the raviolis ourselves. We just mixed the cheese, put it into a container, attached it to the machine, and just collect them when the machine is finished with packing the raviolis. After that we got to eat the raviolis we "made" and it was frigging delicious. I was sitting with Julia and Jana, and 3 little girls. They're so sweet. They asked me "who are my parents" and I told them my parents' name and they asked what's my family name. When I told them it was Loke, their faces went "huh?" and asked where are my parents now. I told them "in Malaysia" and the confused look went harder. Living in a small village, you tend to know almost everybody living there and where. So then they asked about my full name. They find my name so funny, and then I taught them my Chinese name, which they had a blast repeating it out loud to everyone they see. After the whole thing and when we were back in our house, Julia turned on The Hunger Games and Jana, Julia and I watched it together. Have I mentioned that Julia is now kind of obsessed with The Hunger Games? And a bit of Josh Hutcherson? I feel so proud :D
Wednesday, I went to Taekwando training with Anja. I had to say, I was pretty nervous. I was the only one without the uniform, and I was so afraid that I would make a complete idiot out of myself. We started off with a game, which looks like volleyball but instead of using a ball, they used some kind of shuttlecock. After that was the kicking exercising and all. I guess I could say, not to brag here, that I did pretty well for a first-timer. Oh and by the way, there's this 8 year old kid who has already a black belt and was leading the class. That kid's insane. I swear. After training, we tumpang-ed a ride from Toby, a friend of Anja's to the bahnhof. There, we waited for her bus and my train along with her cousin and another friend. I've gotta say, it was fun :D I don't mind going back again. Hopefully I can go back with free classes. Oh and a shout-out to Mr Chang Jun Qiang because his birthday was on this day.
For sports on Thursday, we had this thing called OL, aka Orientierungslauf, which means orienteering running or something like that. We had to run around Schüpfheim and find these stapler puncher thingy and punch it onto a card and then run back to the school. It was weird. Seemed to be that everyone hated this thing. It was a first for me so I don't know how bad or good it feels. (btw it's Ding's birthday)
Friday was my first piano lesson this new school year. After the piano lesson, I went to the Chinese-Thai restaurant that was newly opened near my school with Anja, Martina, Julian and Karin. It was a lunch buffet and it cost 22fr with drinks. It was not bad, but not worth 22fr. I could hear my heart break when I paid my bill. At the evening was a concert by Karin Marbacher of 5Pa. She's in my Schwerpunktfach Musik class, and this concert is her Maturaarbeit. In Swiss, their SPM is called Matura. Well, Matura is actually higher level than SPM, perhaps STPM maybe? And they have these assignments they need to do, which are called Maturaarbeit. So Karin's Maturaarbeit was this concert. I went with Livia and her boyfriend. She sang and played the flute, and for our door gift, it was pretty little rocks, which means something but I forgot. After the concert, we went to Due, a bar/pub in Entlebuch again. I find this bar/pub so much better because you're not allowed to smoke inside, so it's pretty nice. Living in a small town means bumping into a lot of people. I bumped into 2 host-cousins, and a lot of people from school who graduated last year. This time we went home a bit earlier because Livia's boyfriend, Raphael, wasn't feeling too well, and he was the driver. I didn't mind at all because I was tired myself.
Saturday was nothing much. At the afternoon, we went to a big Migros for groceries shopping in Wolhusen. Julia bought a DVD. A French film called "Intouchables". We watched it that night after dinner. Of course, they watched the German dubbed version, and they turned on the German subtitles for me so I could understand better. I understood most of the film, and it was a beautiful movie. Very touching, and based on a true story. It was about a man, who is paralyzed, who hired a guy to help him with his daily activities, and how they bonded and changed each other's lives. Seriously, anyone who's reading this, you should go watch it if possible.
On Sunday, Julia, Joel and I went with the Freizeitklub Hasle (direct translate "Free Time Club Hasle") to Schüpfheim to make Ravioli. It's kinda like dumplings but the fillings are cheese. We walked from Hasle to Schüpfheim with other families and when we reached there, the owner told us about the history about the company and how to make pastas or something like that. It was all in Swiss German and I was busy munching on the cheese and chips they provided for us. We didn't really make the raviolis ourselves. We just mixed the cheese, put it into a container, attached it to the machine, and just collect them when the machine is finished with packing the raviolis. After that we got to eat the raviolis we "made" and it was frigging delicious. I was sitting with Julia and Jana, and 3 little girls. They're so sweet. They asked me "who are my parents" and I told them my parents' name and they asked what's my family name. When I told them it was Loke, their faces went "huh?" and asked where are my parents now. I told them "in Malaysia" and the confused look went harder. Living in a small village, you tend to know almost everybody living there and where. So then they asked about my full name. They find my name so funny, and then I taught them my Chinese name, which they had a blast repeating it out loud to everyone they see. After the whole thing and when we were back in our house, Julia turned on The Hunger Games and Jana, Julia and I watched it together. Have I mentioned that Julia is now kind of obsessed with The Hunger Games? And a bit of Josh Hutcherson? I feel so proud :D
Goodness I have been putting off this blog for a month now! So my last post stopped at the Herbstwanderung. Here are some pics.
Just so you know, I'm looking at my agenda now and writing according to what I wrote in my agenda. It's been too long.
I was extremely exhausted when I came back from the hiking. My muscles didn't hurt that much, only when I sat down for too long and then stood up suddenly. It has that same pain I had when I was in Form 1 in that leadership scout camp. I went to sleep early as well and the next day I woke up with no muscle pains. I was still tired, yeah, but my legs still functioned properly. Helllll yeah!
The week went on quite normally, and then on Friday (14th September) after school, I went to Zurich. It was actually the last day of Deutschkurs for the Newbies and it seemed to be a "tradition" for the Oldies and Newbies to meet up in the Zurich park on the last day of Deutschkurs. God, time passed really fast. It seemed just like yesterday that we were newbies and were attending this "End of Deutschkurs" Party at the park. And now we're attending as Oldies. I went earlier and met up with Jun Khee, Pei San to go to H&M to help Julia buy a cardigan, and went a bit of shopping for myself as well. I bought a green scarf, which I love the colour a lot. We met up with the others at the park around 6pm or so. There was already a lot people there. I remember seeing Michael first, and then Will was there with his guitar, and then a whole lot of other people. There were more Asians compared to last time. 8 newbies from Thailand, 7 newbies from China (I think) and some from Hong Kong and some from Japan. Of course, we spoke Mandarin with the people from China and Cantonese with the people from Hong Kong. We stayed till about 8pm and left to the bahnhof to get some dinner at the Migros Take-away. Photos:
Saturday evening (15th Sept) was a brass concert at the Restaurant Engel in Hasle. Livia invited me to go with her and her sister, and her boyfriend plays the horn in the band. Bumped into Tony, my host-mom's brother-in-law and Gregor, my host-dad's brother-in-law was in the band as well. After the concert, Livia and I walked to Entlebuch to a bar called Port. It was kind of my first "ausgang". I got to know Livia a lot more. She was an exchange student in Fribourg and in England. She loves studying languages and is now learning Mandarin. I tried an Entlebuch speciality : Kaffeeschnapps (aka Coffe with alcohol). It was surprisingly yummy. We met a few people who studied in the Kanti but graduated, and a friend of Livia, David sat with us. He even bought us both a glass of Sex On The Beach, each, which was really nice of him but unnecessary. I was so paiseh to accept his drink because it costs more than 10fr each. There was also this guy, whom we have no idea who he was, asked if he could sit at our booth because he was alone, and started talking about his life. He said it was obvious that I'm not Swiss (duh) and doesn't believe that Livia is a Swiss, because she speaks perfect High German. No matter how hard Livia tried convincing him, he still doesn't believe it. Around 1am or so, we started walking back to Hasle. It was about 20-30min walk, and I don't know why, I always feel colder after I drank alcohol. I was basically shivering. Luckily I had my newly-bought scarf with me :D
Just so you know, I'm looking at my agenda now and writing according to what I wrote in my agenda. It's been too long.
I was extremely exhausted when I came back from the hiking. My muscles didn't hurt that much, only when I sat down for too long and then stood up suddenly. It has that same pain I had when I was in Form 1 in that leadership scout camp. I went to sleep early as well and the next day I woke up with no muscle pains. I was still tired, yeah, but my legs still functioned properly. Helllll yeah!
The week went on quite normally, and then on Friday (14th September) after school, I went to Zurich. It was actually the last day of Deutschkurs for the Newbies and it seemed to be a "tradition" for the Oldies and Newbies to meet up in the Zurich park on the last day of Deutschkurs. God, time passed really fast. It seemed just like yesterday that we were newbies and were attending this "End of Deutschkurs" Party at the park. And now we're attending as Oldies. I went earlier and met up with Jun Khee, Pei San to go to H&M to help Julia buy a cardigan, and went a bit of shopping for myself as well. I bought a green scarf, which I love the colour a lot. We met up with the others at the park around 6pm or so. There was already a lot people there. I remember seeing Michael first, and then Will was there with his guitar, and then a whole lot of other people. There were more Asians compared to last time. 8 newbies from Thailand, 7 newbies from China (I think) and some from Hong Kong and some from Japan. Of course, we spoke Mandarin with the people from China and Cantonese with the people from Hong Kong. We stayed till about 8pm and left to the bahnhof to get some dinner at the Migros Take-away. Photos:
with exchangies from China |
Proud from Thailand!! Our "neighbour" |
Ale and Sabina |
Maruly, who took the train with me everyday from Luzern to Olten during Deutschkurs. |
Juan Camilo, whom I haven't seen since Deutschkurs ended |
My Peruvian buddy, Will |
With the aussie mate, Michael |
Saturday evening (15th Sept) was a brass concert at the Restaurant Engel in Hasle. Livia invited me to go with her and her sister, and her boyfriend plays the horn in the band. Bumped into Tony, my host-mom's brother-in-law and Gregor, my host-dad's brother-in-law was in the band as well. After the concert, Livia and I walked to Entlebuch to a bar called Port. It was kind of my first "ausgang". I got to know Livia a lot more. She was an exchange student in Fribourg and in England. She loves studying languages and is now learning Mandarin. I tried an Entlebuch speciality : Kaffeeschnapps (aka Coffe with alcohol). It was surprisingly yummy. We met a few people who studied in the Kanti but graduated, and a friend of Livia, David sat with us. He even bought us both a glass of Sex On The Beach, each, which was really nice of him but unnecessary. I was so paiseh to accept his drink because it costs more than 10fr each. There was also this guy, whom we have no idea who he was, asked if he could sit at our booth because he was alone, and started talking about his life. He said it was obvious that I'm not Swiss (duh) and doesn't believe that Livia is a Swiss, because she speaks perfect High German. No matter how hard Livia tried convincing him, he still doesn't believe it. Around 1am or so, we started walking back to Hasle. It was about 20-30min walk, and I don't know why, I always feel colder after I drank alcohol. I was basically shivering. Luckily I had my newly-bought scarf with me :D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)