Gruselkabinett

Alright... what was the last thing i’ve blogged about?? Gosh.. it’s been such a long time since I last blogged… and I apologize for my fellow readers… sooner or later I’d lose my audiences for such delayed updates!

            Well, well, well… now for the updates.. My summer hols had started eversince the 6^th of July. On the 6^th itself, 2 of my Malaysian friends who are also spending their exchange year in Germany (Stef and Andrew), came to Berlin for a visit. They were visiting till the 9^th, just to catch the Fifa WM finals, and then went back to West Germany, where their hosts stay.

            We all stayed at a friend’s of mine,Gonzalo, directly in Berlin for these few days to save the trouble of having to return early to catch the last bus back to my village which leaves at 8.20pm everyday. I doubt that this friend of mine reads my blog, but thanks a lot for accommodating us!! You have no idea how grateful am I to you and your host family :)

            On the 6^th,  Gonzalo and I went to this bunker called Berlin Gruselkabinett (Berlin Cabinet of Horrors). A bunker is shelter from bombings for the people during the WWII. Strangely, this bunker is made into a haunted house of some sort! Well, something new because this bunker is way smaller and less interesting than the other bunker in Berlin. We started from the ground floor (it was a multi-storey building). Went down through the sempit stairway to find a dark, empty room. Once we stepped into the room (with me clutching tightly on Gonzalo’s arm), the speakers started booming noises or war and a narrator’s voice telling the history of the WWII could be heard. Unsurprisingly, everything was in German and we understood nuts. So we left that room and that floor (because that floor only consisted of one room) and proceeded to the next floor.

            The next floor was boring. All the history and new paper cuttings, bla bla bla, all in German. Quickly scanned through the floor, found nothing in english, and wanted to leave immediately. But had to wait for Gonzalo who was totally amused with the dates stated on the newpapers. E.g. 1946 or sth like that. The 3^rd floor was medical history. Also boring stuff.

Now, the 4^th floor was the exciting one!! This floor is where the ‘horror’ comes in… the whole floor is dark, and there were rooms with exhibitions. They made corpses or plain human out of wax. For example, in one room, 3 human models were made. One richly dressed man having his leg amputated by another man, USING A SAW!! The description at the side says that ppl of whatever-whatever century (can’t remember), had their body parts amputated that way. Why do they want to get amputated? I’m not too sure, but I think due to health problems, like tumour growth or sth like that. And most of them die due to overloss(does this word exist?) of blood. That’s not all. They even have sound effects of the breathing heavily, in pain and yelling. Sounds torturing and also obscene at the same time. :p

The other rooms were also very, very amusing, but I don’t intend to describe each and every one. It was unfortunate that we were the only visitors of that morning, so naturally we were the only ones on that floor. Somehow,  to make things more ‘exciting’, they hired this black-hooded guy (dressed sth like the death-eaters you see in the Harry Potter movie) to SCARE us!! Bloody hell! The surrounding is dark and the guy is also fully covered in black, so it’s easy for him to jump out any moment to give us a ‘lil surprise’, without us noticing him beforehand.. oh man, that guy must have had a very good pay, or else I’m sure he wouldn’t have made so much effort in giving us those ‘pleasant surprises’. Or probably he gets very amused at me squeeling whenever he pops out suddenly with his hideous mask! He pops out, I squeel, he goes into hiding again while we admire their art work of horror, and comes out to make me squeel again. There was this room decorated to represent a cemetery, where both sides were filled with towering models wearing that black-hooded cloak, and Gonzalo actually claimed later that the eyes of the models were moving from side to side, which I didn’t notice because I was too busy looking out for that Scary Movie guy- everything was so still- I knew he was somewhere in there waiting to pounce out on us- and I was totally right. And he even managed to scare me again though I knew he was there. *roll eyes*

When we about to approach the exit, the black-hooded guy gave me my last surprise. Or at least I thought it was the last. While laughing and trying to calm down from the shock, I didn’t notice that he went back into hiding and the next minute JUMPED OUT AGAIN!! §$)%(/)§$%!”/%)$§=?@##!!! Well, blame myself for being so careless not to watch out for him.. poor Gonzalo- guess his arms were bruised after all my tight clutchings.. hahaha!

After the visit to this Gruselkabinett, (me still cursing that Scary Movie fella), we met up with Andrew and Stefanie to go to the next Bunker. This bunker is called The Story of Berlin, made into a museum. we had a guided tour through the bunker, which was pretty informative, and then we made a tour around the museum by ourselves. This museum had very high-tech sound systems and other cool stuff, but we weren’t bothered to stop and read each and every description- it’ll take at least 3 days to finish them all! That shows how big it is… we quickly scanned through the museum and chao-ed because the guys were getting impatient.

Later that night, we wanted to catch a 3D movie using a discounted ticket, but that bloody cinema had to be closed due to technical problems. You can guess how pissed we got, considering that we had to take the train all the way there, run under the rain and to find the doors to the cinema locked. But we had a great day after all… for us girls, in particular- the shopping malls were opened till midnight just for the FIFA week! We were in heaven- all the shops were opened and yet the mall was pretty empty! You can imagine our joy then… right, Stefanie? :) but kesian the boys.. have to wait for us.. hahahha!

Gosh, I’ve made one day’s event into a Short Story! And I’m definitely not done with the following days’ event…! Pei Ying’s right- I CAN write a lot! ;)

Gah, I'm sick and I'm in a very bad mood... The weather is so damn hot... never would have imagined that Germany can get so hot- 33°C!! But apparently Germany had never been so hot even in the Summer for a long time already... I brought the sun from Malaysia with me.. :) They WORSHIP the sun, so no harm!

And, yeah, sorry for not updating my blog for a long time now.. Have not been at home lately.. gone travelling and stuff.. will update it soon. Promise!

Luv.

Japan : Brazil

I’m watching Japan against Brazil LIVE at the time i’m writing this entry. Japan had goaled ONCE! Woohoo! Yeap, I’m supporting Japan this time.. I mean, kesian them lah.. dahlah they’re so kecil, somemore have to play against the 4-years-in-a-row World Cup champion!

I admit, I know nuts about football, not to mention the World Cup. I don’t even know how many players are there in a team… But hey! Since I’m here in Germany where the World Cup is held, plus it’s the IN thing. If I don’t watch it, what else should I watch?! Anyway I can’t watch anything else even if I want to- we don’t have a tv. I mean, like I said, we do have a tv, ONLY lack the receiver.

So, I bet you must be wondering how the hell am I able to watch the game live when we don’t have a tv. Well, have I ever mentioned before that we watch some particular movies in the computer? My host dad watches the tv channels in the comp through a special programme; god knows what programme that is. Even that is very, VERY seldom, unfortunately. I think I would be able to learn a lot from watching tv, since the actors speak high german, anyway. But no receiver = no watching tv = still not able to understand that much german = depression.

DAMN! Brazil scored a goal, too! Now they’re draw. Somehow the Brazilians play their game in a very relaxed manner. Not anything surprising, though- after all they were the world champion 4 times IN A ROW.

Another reason why I’m watching football is because it’s held at the normal times when I am able to watch- not during midnight. Normally back in Malaysia, the World Cup games were held during midnight DAMN! Brazil scored again! Aww c’mon! let Japan win just once! Well anyway, back to my story.. The World Cup games were always showed late at night because they were played at day time in a country at the other end of the world.. or, let’s just say I don’t get many chances to watch the World Cup live; if not due to exams, it would be because of DAMN!! Another goal for Brazil! Arrrgh! Japan wouldn’t have a chance to win after all… gah. No mood to write further.

This seems to be a very peaceful game. There isn’t as much brutality as in the game between.. which was it again? Italy against USA, I think. That was.. urrgh! Total violence and brutality! Like, they were having the World War III or something. So many fouls, yellow cards and injured football players lying on the field, clutching their injured leg in agony…

I’m still wondering why is there this black guy called Alex in the japanese team. 1^st possibility, he DOES hold a Japanese nationality, 2^nd possiblity, he was bought over from another team by the Japanese football team. Anyone can tell me a 3^rd or maybe 4^th possibility? Don’t tell me he’s just a dark-skinned japanese because I’m smart enough to distinguish between an asian and a non-asian, though I may be super blur at times…

My eyelids are starting to get OH GOD. Another goal for Brazil.1:4 to Brazil. *groan* poor Japanese. Guess you’ll have to train harder next time. :/ oh, as I was saying, my eyelids are getting rather heavy right now… have not been sleeping too well the past few days. On Tuesday night, or rather Wednesday morning, I only had 2 ½ of sleep due to last minute homework. And what homework would I be even doing at all over here, you would wonder? Wonder no more, because I’m gonna tell you the answer anyway- it’s ART! (“du bist verrückt!” said Debora; literally means “you are crazy!”) Well, generally I hardly have homeworks here, except art and mathematics. But due to last-minuteness and the mindset of “aiyah, I can surely finish it in time wan..”, resulted to the 2 ½ hours sleep. Put lots of efforts in it, really. And I can say what I produced was satisfying; it’ll be better if I had more time. Well, I’ve already handed it in in time, that’s what mattered.  

Oh well, 4:1 for Brazil. They’ve reached their standard alright. A very harmonious game, though! Maybe the japanese should try inventing cheating-football-shoes or whatever, since they’re so creative in inventing the oddest but most useful things ever. …Or are they useless? *shrugs* oh, mata very letih.

Random Post...

Gosh.. I never knew Germany could get as hot as Malaysia!!  Well, not exactly AS hot.. but almost! At least over here, the sunshine is warm but there’s still constantly cool wind blowing. Besides, the sun doesn’t rise directly above your head here, so it doesn’t burn.

Now it’s still spring, approaching summer soon. But the temperature during spring can get really weird. For example, last week it was as cold as 11°C and these last 2 days were as hot as 32°C!! In school, the students are starting to wear as if they’re going to the beach.. haha! So colourful and revealing..!  Everything is possible here.. Students may wear slippers, mini skirts, halter-top, etc. to school. They are also allowed to dye their hair to any horrific colours, and no prefect will come up to them and say “dye your hair back to the original colour!” Hold it, prefects don’t even exist here! As far as I know, there’s only one ‘headboy’ in our school. Not too sure if he’s even supposed to be a headboy or not.. During my first few days of school the Headmaster introduced him to me, though I didn’t know what relation does he have with me. Seemed like he was someone important, so I just assumed him to be a headboy! He looks like every other boy, not having to wear uniforms or badges or anything… and I don’t have the slightest idea of what kind of role does he have as a ‘headboy’!

 A pity that it was cold and rainy last week, when my friend and I toured Berlin… However, I wouldn’t want to tour Berlin at such a hot temperature either! Hot and sticky is worse than being cold. Imagine walking through Kuala Lumpur during midday.. The warm sunshine is unbearable enough.. plus all the glass buldings reflecting the heat and the Mercedes and Protons giving out so much carbon monoxide.. Jeesh! Nah, come to think of it, too cold is also unbearable- I get hungry very often! My poor body cannot stand the cold.. It needs more energy to keep itself warm enough, which means I need to eat more, which results with unwanted fats, which results in depression, which.… Gah! Can’t make up my mind! Anywhere between 18°C and 28°C is the best. Just complaining for fun.

Hmm. Missing all my friends and family back in Malaysia..! Hope everyone’s missing me, too!

Note: check out the picture that I've posted into my Photoblog!

Berlin Trip

I had a Malaysian friend by my place over the weekend, also and exchange student. Chongshen and I had Pfingsten holidays till Tuesday, so he was invited over to visit Berlin.

            After arrival on Friday night, we immediately planned our trip to Berlin for the following day. We decided on our destination and planned the transport. The transportation system here in Germany is way more systematic than in Malaysia! There are timetables for the arrival and departure of the trains, and they’re really, really punctual. Making use of that, we planned our schedule for the next day.

            Our destination was Park Sanssouci in Potsdam, a park at the other end of Berlin. Everything was going on quite smoothly until we were about to board a bus to go to the park from the Potsdam train station- we realised that we forgot to plan our schedule back home!! That’s indeed a big problem, because we didn’t know what time was the last train back to the train station at my area! Fortunately I had Chongshen around, and he went to the information counter in the Potsdam train station to enquire for the schedule for the last train back.

            We got to the park and it was absolutely beautiful!! It’s a very big park which once belonged to a very, very rich lord. We entered the 2 big castles, one called Schloss(Castle) Sanssouci and the other Neue Palais (New Palace). Absolutely amazing! :) The ceilings and walls were richly decorated with paintings and carvings.. These kinda things suit me well because I appreciate art a lot, so I really enjoyed myself. We walked around the park which was HUGE- can’t really estimate because I just suck at estimating distances. Well, we spent the whole afternoon pacing around the park and we weren’t even half-finished with it. We only managed to enter a Chinesisches Haus (Chinese House) and came across another building called Orangerie. The Chinesisches Haus was rather interesting. During their time, one of the representatives sent to China came back with lots of wonderful stories of the chinese in China. The lord was so fascinated with his stories that he ordered his men to build a building with chinese art, according to what was described by that representative. However, the architects and artists could only create an artwork out of their own imagination because they have not seen real chinese before. So the carved faces looked more european than chinese.  That is what made it look so odd. But it was still quite fascinating, considering that they’ve created the whole thing purely out of imagination, and of course a little description from that representative. We couldn’t enter the Orangerie because some concert or sth was going on in there. Besides, we didn’t have enough time. So we snapped a few photos and left.

            2^nd day, we took the train to Berlin. We visited a museum called Pergamon Museum. It was a museum of the Roman, Islam and Mesopotamian art. It’ll be boring to elaborate on this museum.. But what it contained was wonderful! At least this museum provided english explanations. I enjoyed the section with the Roman art the most. I’ve made a conclusion from the visit to this museum: Roman art is mostly of human figures; Mesopotamian art mostly of symmetries and Islamic art is of motives. Well, one must have interest in art to be able to appreciate these things! :) However, one also needs lots of energy and make sure the tummy is filled before entering, in order to enjoy this museum- because it’s so darn huge! Could’ve spent the whole afternoon and evening in there if not because Chongshen wanted to visit other places as well.. Don’t get me wrong, Chongshen- I’m not blaming you!

            We came to the Berliner Dom which was just so magnificient, but we couldn’t enter because they were holding a concert in it. What a pity. I mean, I can always come to Berlin again- I stay 1 to 2 hours away from Berlin by train; but a pity for Chongshen coz he doesn’t have so many chances to come to Berlin.

            On the 3^rd day, we visited the Jewish Museum. Was highly disappointed this time… I expected to learn more about the 2^nd World War, about the Nazis and the Jews, but all they gave were the culture of the Jews, their art history, etc.. very little information about the 2^nd World War. Chongshen then visited The Story of Berlin (a museum), while I strolled along the Kurfürstendamm Straße, which is the main shopping street of Berlin. Gosh, nothing, absolutely nothing sold on that street was less than 3 digit!! Very amusing. It was a public holiday, everything was closed, so there were very few people on that street. Therefore I had a very pleasant and ‘private’ time, peeping into the shop windows and gaping at the price tags, which could go up to 5 digits for a necklace…

            4^th and last day, we visited the Schloss Charlottenburg. I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed the other castles and palaces, but apparently Chongshen wasn’t too impressed with it.. “they’re more or less the same” he said. Well, true to a certain extend, but they all have their own ‘character’ that the others don’t have.. Sounds sophisticated, huh?! Haha..

            Lastly, we did some shopping seperately and I totally regretted not buying a cardigan/ jacket that I really liked! I still can’t get over it… I should’ve followed Chongshen’s advice to buy it! Damn! I’m considering to go back and buy it.. but to go to Berlin again costs money.. and it’s not cheap. I don’t want to go back  there just for the sake of buying a jacket… but arrrgghh! Jeesh! Maybe I’ll really go and buy it some day soon….!

            Overall, I enjoyed myself, minus the transport problems. We faced a lot of problems regarding transport, but we told ourselves over and over again: learn from experience!  Learning from making mistakes is sometimes rather satisfying- at least you learn rather than depend on someone else. Well, we’ve learnt that we must make more planning ahead and especially check the transport prices beforehand.. I’m responsible for the fact that Chongshen has to pay way extra for transport and I’m still feeling guilty about it…! Thousand apologies, Chongshen!!

            I SHALL go back and buy that jacket! Wait for me, jacket! Hopefully the discount doesn’t end so soon…!