Pretty things and curious sights

was quite disappointed this morning cos didn't get into the photography class; but the thesis class in afternoon made me totally intimidated and stressed and in some sense it was a small consolation cos i realize i need to spend so much time on my research, esp given a class of seemingly very competent classmates.... sigh... one goal this sem is to try to read more widely and try to be less unknowledgeable... sigh. and right now life seems to be in a mini mess...
oh well. anyway, here's today's share of pictures. enjoy.

Pretty gate near Palais de Papes, Avignon

Lovely benches, Bratislava castle

ah. Time for a ham and cheese sandwich....

Candles in tinted jars, street stall in Ljubljana

no idea what this is; but they tried to sell it to me... (in a friendly way; unfortunately i didn't understand what they were trying to tell me) (Zagreb)

Beggar in streets, Prague

HEAPS of bread, supermarket in Bratislava

Flowers!

now for the non-tourist attraction pictures.... somehow the pics i hav below all show roses; i really don't fancy roses that much; it's just coincidental... (more to come next time! sorry i'm sounding as if ppl are keen to see my pics... =P)

a day at sch made me realize how much i'll miss this place after i graduate... and discovered that i could still undertand about 70% of what my sensei was talking about and felt really happy! but i have so much catching up to do. =( seems like watching anime did help a little though. and i hope i get into my Visual Studies 181... if so i will end up at the end of a semester with a mini portfolio of ("self-developed") black and white pictures... how cool is that =P

Rose potpourri (i think) in shop along street, Nice

Cute bunches of roses at flower market, Nice

Roses at flower market, Nice (actually the artificially-dyed ones are rather ugly...)

FAKE roses near market square, Zagreb. (ok i dun like fake flowers, but somehow they just 'popped out' at me when i was scaling the steps and so it was pleasantly surprising....)

Trip Highlights

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona (Gaudi never managed to finish his project)

Park Guell (another of Gaudi's creations), Barcelona

Palais de Papes, Avignon, France

Beach at Nice, France

On the way up to Casino, Monaco

University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Skofja Loka (oldest town in Slovenia but very picturesque)

unknown structure, Zagreb, Croatia

Statue on Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic

Glimpse of the Danube River and bridge from the Bratislava Castle, Slovakia

Home!
am finally home and somewhat jetlagging and thus blogging at an unearthly 4.45 am. United's Europe flights always seems to have ice cream and better food than its Asia-Pacific flights and i wonder why that is the case. strangely enough, it really feels like coming home though this is not really 'home'... i realized that i took a whopping 600 or so pictures (many of which are lousy though) and it's certainly not possible to upload everything so will thematically upload some over the next few entries.

after spending a night in Bratislava, in a noisy and slightly scary dorm room with seven (or six; if i assume that zy was not guilty) snoring males, i was really relieved that the rest of my hostel stays were certainly nowhere near the somewhat unpleasant experience last night. not that it was REALLY unbearable, but just somewhat unpleasant =P the best (and best value for money, too) hostel was perhaps the one in Prague, which had a most comfortable bed... and an extremely warm and soft down comforter!!! tonight´s room is alright; but certainly not worth the 30 Euros i had to fork out... oh well. no choice; this was the only one i could find online. anyway, am flying back tmr afternoon! excited to start a new semester again, but extremely unprepared for school =P

i realized how easily misunderstandings can arise when ppl dun really speak their minds and how often guessing what's on other ppl's minds can be unexpectedly difficult and very misleading... how true can my Charles Dickens quote (above) be??
am into the last 3 days of my Europe trip; am now in a very cold and gloomy Prague; hopefully weather's sunnier tmr =) the best thing i've noticed about Prague thus far (after walking around for about 3 hours or so) are some of their metro stations-- some stations have really cool and stylish 'walls'/facades or whatever you call it.... mmm.. i am referring to the 'wall' opposite the platform. certain stations have really simple but very cool designs; not things like murals/ famous pieces of art and what not; but just simple tiles/patterns that look really good. with simple silver letters spelling out the names of the station.... hmm. difficult to describe here but will post pics when i get back =)
and last of all, a piece of good and unexpected news to share- i got admitted into my PEIS thesis class! overjoyed but will have lots to worry about in time to come... =P

i seriously seriously miss Chinese food. i hate bread but no choice else i will starve. missed train to Vienna and am in some random Slovenian city. spent the past 3 nights in Ljubjlana, Slovenia and took a train to Zagreb, Croatia, yesterday--it was another of my wandering-around-city alone thingies and i was actually really happy to be just roaming around with no agenda... the feeling of being lost in a crowd with no familiar faces around... it just felt really foreign cos i didnt even see a single Asian face around but i felt perfectly happy to be immersed in a totally diff culture... hai. but i am starting to miss Berkeley hehe.

embarked on mini adventure today and life is both terribly random and "exciting". hopped on 2-hr train to Geneva from Lyon, and it was rather therapeutic being alone on a train watching snow-covered landscape file past... mini nightmare came when i arrived to realize that last min-accommodation booked at Lyon is inaccessible via public transport and so have been wandering streets of Geneva lugging rolling duffel all around cos i refuse to pay 8 Swiss Francs for a locker... and in about 2 hours or so i shall hope very hard that i will manage to catch zy at train station, esp cos we didnt plan to meet there at all... now shall head back to train station and camp there for next couple of hours, with Swiss chocs i bought from the supermart to binge on... hmm what if no one turns up..... uh... guess the "fun" will begin then...

it's time to criticize myself instead; while some ppl HAVE to go to supermarkets; I never fail to slip into the Zaras and H&Ms whenever i spot them; i dun even buy stuff half the time but just can't resist myself from going in... and there was a sale at the Monaco Zara today! very rare. and i bought an impractical long coat =P sigh. it's good that i'm leaving land of outdoor carousels, tartlettes and baguettes for Central Europe tmr morning... no more Zaras for me (i think....)

am off to Cannes/Monaco today... just a very quick note on daily itineraries... the supermarket has been an attraction in every single city... the bigger the better.. cos higher chance of finding roast chicken. though i'm not exactly a supermart fan i have been highly influenced to be thrifty... but supermarts are however places to hunt down interesting french cookies for me =P i just hope i wun get sick of them soon... not to be evil; but am really amused how persistent companion is on finding cheap food when i'm undoubtedly the poorer person...

am in Nice but stuck with extremely slow connection and non-qwerty keyboard so feel very disabled... prob can't write a proper entry till like 2 or 3 days later...

i really had no clue how famous a team FC Barcelona was so when i said i didn´t want to pay 10 Euros to go into the stadium and museum think zy was a little shocked =P so instead decided to return to the Picasso museum as it was closed yesterday (New Year´s Day) but unfortunately it was closed today too cos they are closed on Mondays! aargh so very sad didn´t get to go in. but i chanced upon my KUKUSUMUSU store!! (where i bought my "stranger´s favorite" lil-monkeys- stack-up-to-kiss-giraffe-tee first summer in France) Consolation also came in the form of a free attraction that gave me breathtaking aerial views of the entire city... decided to just visit Park Guell (also by famous architect Antoni Gaudi) for a relaxing afternoon stroll and this totally random choice has turned out to be my favorite destination... Click here for pictures if you just want to have an idea of some of the highlights of the park.

just one last comment about Spanish dressing.... the most popular colors are undoubtedly black, brown; diff shades of olive/army green; deep orange and khaki... all very "earthy" colors... dunno perhaps cos it´s winter and coats generally dun come in other colors? but scarves also follow similar color tones... i was surprised that even many children dun wear very pastely or bright colors... i like how they dress... and the color combis... very cool. =P ya and so as a result i really couldn´t blend into the crowd lah. what with a light purple backpack and light blue skechers shoes... too ai4 yan3 le. and so high-sch kid-ish... haha. but i mean travelling mah.. cannot wear too nice things. get dirty or spoilt will xintong one... hmm.. i shall attempt a very gradual wardrobe revamp after this...

just spent most of the evening and night roaming the streets..... and i found two Zaras!!! within like few blocks of each other. unfortunately it´s not that cheap... but still cheaper. hehe and i bought one tiny thing just now... =P chanced upon this street with vendors selling really cute arty necklaces, earrings and bracelets... wanted to buy EVERYTHING... but obviously cannot. so just took pics... even though i´ve only spent like 3-4 hours or so walking around... can totally imagine this place being shopping paradise for ppl who can afford it... the poor me shall be contented with just a few cheap Zara steals... also look forward to seeing the famous architecture and museums in the day! am now waiting for bathroom to clear up and for travel companion to turn up... hope tmr wun be spent searching for a missing zy. j/k.

will be flying to Barcelona tmr afternoon and i'm reading reports of snowstorms and "wintry weather" on BBC. flights cancelled lah, snow everywhere... hmm. am actually trying to just bring one coat but now i have second thoughts. but nevermind lah; hope i can find cheap Zara in Barcelona! though i ought to refrain from getting any more long coats.... =(
long flight tmr; but it will give me plenty of time to figure out more camera functions; as I am really tempted to execute a particular plan of documenting someone's reaction to piece of news I am going to "break"... =P

Memoirs of a Geisha (spoiler alert; but not really also lah)

this movie certainly didn't do justice to the book; in fact it's rather disappointing. contrary to reviews i've read; i didn't think Zhang Ziyi was particularly impressive; Michelle Yeoh was ok.. and though i didn't think i would be bothered by the non-Japanese lead actresses....during the movie i did get somewhat irked by how un-Japanese Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh both looked...i mean not that it's their fault; but ya choice of cast is just like inappropriate. Gong Li can at least pass off a little in the movie... but if anything was good about the movie; it was probably Gong Li's performance... she was so good as the 'evil' Hatsumomo and i was quite impressed =P and there was some funny plot twist towards the end.. some American occupation of Japan or something that i didn't recall reading in the book and it was just so odd. but maybe my memory's just failing me. and last of all, i thought their accents were all really weird. it sounded a little like Japanese-accented English, but not really also. I read somewhere that they had to hire some linguistic expert to try to make the pan-Asian cast speak in a similar accent... what accent this is i really hav no clue... of course i am in no position to criticize their individual accents; but i mean for the purposes of the movie; it just didn't work out too well....
alright i'm complained enough about the movie =P i just had to complain how i didn't get my money's worth =P but nonetheless the beautiful kimono costumes were definitely eye candy for me =)

felt somewhat discouraged yesterday afternoon after spending the whole afternoon in vain trying to write prospectus.... but after giving it some thought last night and complaining about it to someone, i feel newly inspired! i shall try really hard this couple of days and make sure i churn out something before i leave for Europe on Friday. nevermind if it's not good enough; i have to try to make sure that i get admitted into the class at the very least.... and shall reward myself with Memoirs of a Geisha if i manage to finish it by midday tmr. i had better.... now for a nerdy afternoon of work!

feel somewhat xintong that i might have done something bad to my car by bringing it on the road trip and causing a mini glitch near the end... but at least that's repairable... am so thankful that nothing REALLY BAD happened... will however be pretty reluctant to drive own car for road trips again =P

much as i like to get upset sometimes over my lack of many friends, i however feel really fortunate that i happen to know some really wonderful and decent individuals.

it really feels very comfortable road-tripping with 'old frens'; and once again i got verbally abused by the two guys, for various reasons. well i guess it wasn't totally unreasonble to be picked on those things that i was picked on for, but i'm totally defenceless when these two join forces. i get mad; but it's a kind of will-forget-about-it-after-15min kind of mad; cos i wonder when we would ever do road trips again; or just be all together in the same place again; considering how each of us would prob be doing his/her own thing after we graduate...

these past two days i was also reminded of various things i ought to bear in mind; particular areas i'm so inadequate in and certainly should seek to make improvements to; how weak-willed i am; how when it comes to academic learning i almost always experience some kind of memory loss; how i'm so inferior in so many many aspects. and i'm also reminded of how i am really nowhere near what i might want to do in the distant future; nor am making any real effort to move towards that direction... also dun exactly know how being aware of these will really help. but hopefully i'll feel lousy enough to work on these problem areas and make the most of my last sem.

PS: i can finally eat normal food! and face is no longer very bloated =P but i have patches of blue black on both sides of my jawline.....

will be driving my Honda down to LA tonight (poor car...) and will be spending Christmas in San Diego... doubt will be able to blog till i come back from this roadtrip; so Merry Christmas to all my dear friends =) i'll return on the 26th.

Thanks to Netflix, i managed to watch Promises from the comforts of my bed; without even going to the video store to rent the dvd... i know Netflix has been around for some time, but i've never really bothered signing up....no time to watch videos during semester! but last week i was both free and boliao after finals and so decided to sign up for the 2-week trial subscription and be cheapo and watch say 3 or 4 shows i've always wanted to watch, for free... =P
the children in the documentary left a really deep impression; though they are only 11-13, they seem to be pretty mature for their age... and hold pretty individualistic views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict... but it's rather saddening too how because of this conflict many also hold grudges against children from 'the other side'. whom they might not have even met before...