Say you miss me when I'm in Holland.

EURAIL Passes

2008-05-28T21:02:00.002+08:00

EURAIL passes are certainly a cheap way and convenient way to travel around Europe, especially if you're under 26 (cheaper prices for youths). Besides, train rides provide some really great scenery. You'd also notice how the landscape of each country can be so different, even if they are just bordering each other.

However, there is indeed lots to learn about using that EURAIL pass before you can actually ENJOY your ride, so let me share a few pointers of whatever I know:

VALIDATE your pass before using it!
Write down the date that you're going to use it before you board the train, or ASAP when you're on it
Keep your passport somewhere handy, conductors will check both your pass and your passport together
RESERVE seats if necessary

This is extremely important especially for Intercity Express (ICE) trains. We had to stand a large part of our 6 hour journey from Amsterdam to Munich because we did not reserve seats. The EURAIL pass DOES NOT guarantee you a seat. It only allows you onboard the train.

Don't reserve seats if not necessary

Not all trains are full, hence you'll get seats even if you don't reserve them. The best way to determine if there's a need to is to ask the ticketing office at the train station if there's likely a need to. We paid between 6EUR to 22EUR for each seat reserved. The cost varies from trip to trip.

Know which seats have been reserved, and from which station to which station (if you haven't reserved your own seat)

The ICE trains (and the DB German trains too, if I don't remember wrongly) have digital displays above the seats to show which seats have been reserved, and from which station to which station. If the display is not litted, congratulations, the seat has not been reserved and you're unlikely to be interrupted if you occupy that seat. If however, all the displays are litted, pick a seat that has been reserved from the furthest away station --- you'll get to sit for a longer period at least.

Conductors can be nice or nasty

Some will allow you sit in the first class cabin, even tho your ticket's for the second class (when there are no seats left in second class). Some will chase you away from family cabins even tho there's no family in sight that needs it. Just deal with it.

Can't think of anymore tips to post here, but hope these few help anyway!

The Last Day in Munich and the Beginning of our Nightmare

2008-03-02T17:26:00.003+08:00

On the last day, we decided to go for the half-day city tour of Munich offered free-of-charge right from our hostel (Wombat's Hostel).

A city tour is a MUST for Munich, especially if you are a history buff. Else, you'd just be walking along the streets of Munich, stepping on historical landmarks without even knowing it. If you happen to stay at Wombats, you should really go for it (just need to pay the tour guide how much you feel his tour has been worth as a token... he's good, anyway!)

Didn't take many photos, cos they're not really spectacular or anything, just historical.

English Garden, I believe

Guy 'surfing' in a street canal

Nothing much to say about the photos except that it's really cool to see people surfing in street canals! Wish this would happen in Singapore. Hah!

Anyway, after the end of the tour, we were about to be LATE for our train that we needed to catch to Prague!!! So we panicked and took a cab back to our hostel, bought plenty of bottled water and food to sustain us on our train ride, dragged our luggage to the train station.

It was craziness really, dashing around with all our stuff, in a place where majority don't speak English and trying to get help figuring out where on earth our platform is.

We made it anyway. However, we didn't manage to reserve any seats for our train because we were too late. NIGHTMARE. That means likely having to stand all 7 hours just like our train from the Netherlands to Munich.

Oh, anyway, I've decided that to interrupt this nightmare for the time being, the next post shall be on TRAINS! And what to do, and what not to do if you're using a EURAIL pass.

Schloss Neuschwanstein - Munich Day 3

2008-02-27T12:52:00.007+08:00

Schloss Neuschwanstein, or Neuschwanstein Castle, was the most irresistable attraction we totally had to visit just by browsing the pamphlets!

"Pretty" is certainly no understatement when describing the castle!!!

Apparently, this castle was the inspiration for the Walt Disney castle! Perhaps it isn't exactly magical, but it's certain impressive, considering it was built in the 1800s! Certainly very different from those greyish, sturdy-looking brick and cement castles with fortresses anyway.

Just take note of this yellow building for the moment....

Anyway, the castle is atop a hill, which means we had to climb all the way up to visit it. Not exactly challenging, but takes quite abit of effort! Just to show you how high we had climbed.

The same yellow building, now from how high we had climbed

And still higher!!!!

I must say the climb was worth every bit of it --- just for the scenery. I think Bavaria is a beautiful place... with all its hills and landscapes. Even as we were taking the train from Holland crossing over to Germany, we noticed the change in landscape... the hills and greenery is beautiful (which is why train is such a great way to travel too!)

Castle top peeking at us

Splendour!

The design is so... well... cute.

I really do like this castle!!! So imaginative for its time!!!

Close to the castle entrance

Anyway, I think it's not necessary to get those half-day tour packages. That's because it's very easy to catch a train to the station and get your own castle tickets (which is a guided tour). Getting to the castle is also not a problem because the signs clearly depict which direction to go. Save the money!

Very touristy tho

The castle had a superb, mystical guided tour, but ONLY because of our creepy tour guide. He was completely spooky and I'm sure everyone felt it too. He's not even old as you are probably imagining now. He was 23, at best and probably younger. Small and thin for a Caucasian.

He speaks really slowly and calmly.. with a thick accent. His actions are slow, to a point they seem delayed. It's surreal because everyone around him is moving at a certain pace and watching him is like watching a slow-mo figure in a film. He's a superb guide tho, not because he adds to the castle atmosphere brilliantly, but also because his knowledge of facts is astounding to the very details!!!

Anyway, no photos because cameras aren't allowed and we're rule-abiding tourists. Interior of the castle is really intricate and well-decorated. Beautiful as usual, bordering fantasy-like.

The rest of the photos were taken on our way down.. Nothing much, just nice natural greenery.

That's it!! One of the MUST SEE attractions in Munich! Amazing =)

Munich Day 2 - Munich City

2007-12-04T16:42:00.002+08:00

Munich is undeniably one of my favorite cities I've been too! Not even for its history, just being there and soaking up the atmosphere makes me want to return.

Evening Munich and Maggie

A church, of course

Street pianist in a tux and all

Maggie was fascinated by the fact that there were a few pianists playing their grand pianos on the streets. There were other musicians playing all sorts of instruments like violins, cellos etc, dressed in clothing befitting concert musicians...

Kids get their fair share of fun in Munich city...

And adults too...

And kids...

And more kids... (gulp.. was I the only adult there?)

No no.. there's still Maggie :)

Okay, so the deal was that someone (don't know who) would just leave all these toys around.. things like stilts, balls and all sorts of things I've had never seen before. And anyone's free to play with them! And people really do play with them!

I miss the atmosphere so much! It's carnival-like, even on a regular day! People are relaxed, as are we (perhaps cos we're on vacation, anyway). We could just roam around all evening in spite of our ACHING legs... I miss Munich. Grrr.

Lastly, here are some extra photos of Munich I found on the net that I also remember so fondly of Munich :) Hope you do too, Maggie.

Munchen Hauptbahnhof

Interior of the train station

(Maggie: Remember how we pulled out luggage and dashed like crazy? Lol!)

Wombats Reception Area

Don't they bring back such wonderful memories :) +smiles to self+

Munich Day 2 - Dachau Concentration Camp

2007-11-30T15:03:00.000+08:00

We arrived at Munich from Amsterdam at around 4pm, and so we spent the rest of the day mulling around the city nearby Wombats. We checked out the Tourist Information to collect brochures and figure out what to do the next 3 days at Munich.

Guess it were the history lessons in Sec 3 & 4 that made me wanna visit all those places that had to do with the World Wars. So, we headed for the Dachau Concentration Camp bright and early the next morning!

"Dachau was a Nazi German concentration camp, and the first one opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 miles) northwest of Munich in southern Germany." -Source: Wikipedia

These were the gates to the concentration camp.

Arbeit Nacht Frei - Work will Set You Free

The guide told us this phrase was used largely for propaganda purpose - to hide the cruelty of what goes on behind these gates in the name of re-education.

The expanse of the camp

The shacks that used to house the prisoners are now gone, but every slab filled with gravel you see now was the exact position that each shack used to be.

The few remaining buildings behind me

Reconstructed replica of how the bunk beds used to look like

Of course, prisoners did not have the luxury to have one bed per prisoner. I can't remember the exact numbers each shack housed, but it was ridiculous overcrowding.

Wash basin

Toilet bowls

Another segment of the camp

Doors to the solitary confinement cells

The rear of the building with the solitary cells

Prisoners were tortured and executed in this open area here just behind the solitary cells. Purpose was to let these prisoners hear, see & fear that the same might happen to them.

Where bodies were cremated

To escape - against all odds

To escape this camp, prisoners had to overcome three hurdles, well-depicted in this picture. Firstly, the grass strip. Anyone found on the grass strip would be shot immediately (there were lookout towers of cos). Second, the moat which was pretty wide (can't really tell from this photo). Lastly, the barbed wire fence.

The memorial reads "Never Again"

Post SEP - Munich!

2007-10-07T18:17:00.000+08:00

What better a way to end our SEP than with a MAGNIFICENT post-SEP tour!

Our first stop from the Netherlands was Munich, Germany!

It took us a 9 hour train ride from Groningen to Munich with 2 transfers. Our post-SEP tour began with a bang when we woke up 45mins late :P

Yeah, it was quite freaky. Our train was around 630am and we woke up at 550am. Hee! Thank goodness Tessa was there to give us a lift to our train station. Well, we made rushed like crazy but we made it.

The next bad thing that happened to us was that we couldn't find any seats for our 2nd and 3rd trains :( That was like, a total of 6hrs..... Well, if you're using the Eurail pass, always remember to reserve seats on popular long-haul routes.

Well, no matter, we got there in the end.

The blog post isn't going to be in chronological order, but in terms of what was most memorable at our stay in Munich.

Without a doubt, it had to be the...

...

BEER!!!

Yes, omg. From a beer-hater to a beer-lover, that's the kind of transformation a trip to Munich could do to you. (not forgetting also that, a 0.5L beer costs about the same as a 0.3L coke at a restaurant)

We had lots of good food in Munich too (I guess cos it was our first stop and we had plenty of money :) ) so here are pictures of Bavarian / German food :D

A combination platter of 3 sausages, sauerkraut (some salty cabbage) and a liver dumpling!

Maggie's pasta. The mushrooms were delicious!!!

My ugly hair.

"Noodle-pudding"

Maggie and I were curious how to make a pudding out of noodle, but it turned out to be like this --- hmmm. Like bread pudding. Disappointing but very nice anyway.

Next, is a very IMPORTANT part of our stay in Munich that complemented the BEER. It's the BEER GARDENS!!!!!!!!!!

In summer, all over Munich are these magnificent beer gardens where everyone just gather to have beer. It's kindda same as beer houses, except that it's open-air. The best thing about the beer gardens are the atmosphere. At these places, you'll NEVER feel as tho drinking is a vice.

There's just a very healthy, relaxed chilled out atmosphere. I mean, people bring their pet dogs and all. And of course, lots of good beer :D

I'm proud to say, in our 5 short days, we visited three of their major beer gardens, including the largest one!!

The Hirschgarten

This is supposedly the biggest of them all. Sitting capacity of 8000 people! Like what a big MERRY bunch!

The truck carrying the beer mugs :)

With the "beer-men"

Absolut Beer.

Maggie likes the beer better than her apple soda, can u believe it???

Our dinner at the Hirshgarten. A platter of Bavarian duck, pork kunckle and something else I can't remember now. The potato-looking-thing is not mashed potatoes but potato dumpling. It's a cross between potato and the glutinous rice dumpling, no kidding.

Veal steak in mushroom sauce. Absolutely YUMMMMY.

(You should have already noticed by now that if you are a beer and meat lover just like me, you really ought to be in EUROPE. :) )

Next up, at another beer garden! I can't remember what this is called, but it's in the centre of a market. Pity.

The third beer garden - The Chinesischer Turm

Shit. Check out how fat my face has become after all those beers by the fifth day in Munich.

Other beer garden related photos that I'm too lazy to sort. Bottomline is.... when you visit Germany, don't miss Munich. When you are at Munich, don't miss the beer gardens. When you are at the beer gardens, miss the beer and U really ought to be shot.

Queing orderly for their beers. How can beer possibly be a bad thing????

Check out the expanse of the beer garden!

Lastly, our hostel at Munich. Wombat's City Hostel. I'd give it 4 stars!!!

We slept in a all girls' dorm for the last three nights... Bad choice.

Honestly, my advice would be that, sleeping in a mixed dorm is better. Cos guys are ALOT quieter and they don't take 2hrs to wash up.

It's the beer, I swear.

Natrena Project, and many thanks =)

2007-09-15T15:39:00.000+08:00

The last bit about work! In our second week of attachment, Eli (the nice pharmacist who kindly arranged our appointments and guided us in our tasks) presented our with a current case and asked us how we will solve the problem. A four week old patient has tachycardia and need propafenone HCl for his condition. It comes as a intravenous solution in a 20ml vial, but his parents wish to bring him home so the drug is needed in an oral dosage form.

This is the drug, brand name Rytmonorm

There is one big problem - the solution is painfully bitter, one of the most bitter drug solution that exist, and there is no way the infant can consume it without spitting it out. So our task is to mask the taste and document our findings. And taste it to make sure it's palatable and suitable for an infant's consumption.

So we were given droppers and small cups for mixing and tasting

We tried syrup, salt, jam, peanut butter, milk and peace juice. Salt gave a precipitation, the rest results in inadequate taste masking. Then we tried the artificial sweetener found in the tea room and Prof Uges' office - Natrena. It is in tablet dispensed from a dispenser, and contains aspartame, saccharin, cyclamate, acesulfame-K and neohesperidine.

Natrena dispenser

However, only aspartame is proven to be safe for infants and approved by FDA. So we had to call the manufacturer and ask for the percentage of each component in the product. Eli always have to answer the call for us first because they always speak Dutch unless they are told that we are Singaporean or Asian =)

And we found out that only Natrena crystal powder contains only aspartame. So we went to a supermarket near the hospital and bought a bottle to begin our experiment...

Mxing Natrena crystal powder with propafenone HCl solution

Each dose is 5.14ml, and we used the maximum safe dose of 40mg/kg/day of aspartame, which equal to 1000mg of Natrena crystal powder per dose (4 doses daily). It was mixing a large volume of artificial sweetener with a low volume of solution!

The bitter taste was still present, and we have got pharmacists and staff at the lab to try the taste and give us comments. Still, it was the best result we can get, bitter still, but possible to consume. We compiled the evidence from FDA and the Natrena website, did the calculations, and sent the document with the formula to the relevant staff.

The next week, we saw the big Natrena bottle in the production department, and the formula was actually followed and doses for 2 weeks were made for the infant. We were very very glad that the formula helped the infant, and that he is now able to go home and take the medication orally after the taste masking.

We are very grateful to be given real current cases to work on, and that all the staff take our comments and plans seriously when they are supported by research and data from references. It wasn't just a practice, where mistakes were corrected by the tutor. We are very glad to be given the responsiblilty and trust in handling cases and solving problems, and our proposals implemented. UMCG is a truly academic learning hospital, the real current cases gave us very much inspirations, and we felt the trust and encouragement from the seniors and professionals.

Thank you for respecting our comments and work and taking them seriously, despite us being students and not yet licensed professionals. We will truly remember this learning journey of ours, and hope to guide our juniors in similar ways in the future.

Thank you Prof Uges, Eli, Bao mu, Prof Freylink, Hans, and everyone at the lab, production and distribution department who has helped us in one way or another. Please let us know if you are visiting Singapore or other parts of Asia by emailing us or dropping a comment in the blog! We'll be more than happy to show you around, like how all of you have been very nice to us in Groningen.

Thank you once again, for this wonderful learning journey and exchange programme of ours. We look forward to seeing you again in the near future =)

Last week at work - Distribution Department

2007-09-04T00:47:00.000+08:00

Distribution is the heart of the pharmacy in the hospital, where medications are distributed to their relevant departments, where drugs are label and stored, where medications are ordered from pharmaceutical companies and where continuous supply of medications to the wards are ensured.

This is where very commonly used drugs are stored, for example, paracetamol.

These portable scanners are brought to wards for pharmacy assistants to record what is required to be supplied to the wards. The scanners are then brought to the distribution department to verify quantity of drugs needed, and indicates where they can be obtained.

The required medications are then collected from the racks, and packed into boxes like the one in the bottom left hand corner of the photograph to be sent to the wards. Each rack is label in running order, like a library.

This is where less frequently used drugs are stored.

The medications are first sorted out and counted, and the identity and quantity of the items are checked against the supply form obtained from the system on a daily basis. Expiry dates are also noted and checked.

The barcode at the top right hand corner of forms corresponding to each medication is scanned...

... by the scanner at the bottom right hand corner, whose information will be transmitted into the computer system.

Name of medication and quantity received will be showed on the screen, and pharmacy assistants check against the medication boxes and their order forms.

The shelves then turn to where the particular medication is to be stored, and pharmacy assistants pull out the rack to place the medications to be stored.

This computerized storage system greatly reduce manual work, human error and increase efficiency greatly. Pharmacy assistants perform the daily routine, and pharmacist are notified when special cases arise, for example, when a rare medication is requested, or when the pharmacy assistants face problems and need to consult a pharmacist.

We're back home!

2007-08-23T09:12:00.000+08:00

We've arrived in Singapore as of last Friday!

Our holiday in Munich, Berlin & Prague had been extremely enjoyable.... ...! Despite the feeling of being lost and slightly overwhelmed by the catching up of work we missed in the first week of school, it was more than worth it!

I know our blog has described activities only up to Week 3 in Groningen! Haha! That's because we're always lagging by one week in blogging and after we left UMCG after 4 weeks, we didn't have free internet access to blog anymore, so we didn't.

But it will be up, soon! I will not forget why I set up the blog in the first place ... ... To share our experiences but more importantly get people interested in SEP! So, late we are but finish it we must!

And of course, we would like to share very much with people like Nicole, Gwylim, Bao Mu, Tessa & everyone else we had met over there what we did then & a little bit on what we're up to now.

So... ... ... patience! It will be up :D

Third week of attachment - Production

2007-08-03T20:44:00.000+08:00

University Medical Centre of Groningen has its own production department, which produces medications for their patients under certain circumstances:

1. When the drug or formulation needed is not available in The Netherlands and Europe

2. Orphan drugs - too few patients need the medication and there are no pharma companies

producing it

3. Pediatric medication - no commerical products with the desirable dosing

4. Cytostatic drugs which are unsafe to produce in the wards

5. Diagnostics - tracers e.g. isotopes

6. Drugs for trials - pharma companies may not want to produce the drug and the placebo

Ok enough of the facts. Presenting to you the production area of the hospital!

On the left is the big tank that produces water for injection (WFI), which is monitored 24 hours to control quality of the water. On the right are some bottles used for different products.

The production area follows Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) rules closely. The sign shows BLACK ZONE in Dutch, where labcoat must be worn.

See, I wore my coat!

And Mandy pretends that she hasnt got hers on :)

Tank for washing of bottles before they are filled. WFI is used for the washing and the water is filtered. Notice the filter housing which is connected to the tube.

Still in the Black zone... autoclave for terminally sterilzed products!

Some equipment are sterilized here too. The autoclave operates uni-directionally, things go in here and come out from the door on the opposite side of the autoclave, to avoid contamination.

And the pharmacy assistant really opened the autoclave like this! Of course he was much more professional :)

Mad-ny at the control panel of the filling line. Don't push the button!

Ok let's get to work. Personnel have to gown up in a GREY zone to enter the clean room or sterile production area. A Grey zone is also used to transport materials from the black zone into the white zone:

Here is one of the platforms used to transport materials. GRIJZE ZONE is of course, GREY ZONE in Dutch.

And we enter into the WHITE ZONE...

Where a pharmacy assistant is at work! Notice her overall suit, hairnet and mask. Plant shoes are also worn in the sterile preparation area. The fume hood has laminar air flow which constantly blow air out (towards the technician) so as not to contaminate the product.

The white infusion fluid on the right is total parenteral nutrition that is produced here. The white colour is brought about by the lipids present in the infusion.

This shows the sterile production area, where infusions and eyedrops are produced.

By the way, the clocks in the production area are always one hour late in summer as the staff have not adjusted them after daylight saving last October. It should be 9.46am already!

Compounding tank in the sterile production area, where large volumes of solutions are mixed for filling into bottles or ampoules.

The ampoule man :)

He fine tuned the ampoule machine according to their sizes, fill volume, positions, etc. The ampoules are supplied sealed, the machine melts the mouth to open it, fill, and seal is by twisting like what we did at the lab. Of course many times faster, hence the product is exposed for only seconds and chance of contamination is very low!

The galenicals are produced here! Products include tablets, capsules, suppositories, solutions, syrups, ointments, creams, i.e. everything that's non-sterile.

The tablet coating machines

Visual inspection station, where products and labels are checked before release.

There are large scale production and production for individual patients. Large scale production is not so large, maybe 20 to thousand bottles, but some products have been in production for many years in the hospital and the hospital would not function like how it does now without the medications produced here.

Groningen - Part Three, The Tourist-y Stuff

2007-08-03T18:59:00.001+08:00

Northen Groningen

Tessa took us on a nice, long drive to the northern part of Groningen! We first drove to a seal sanctuary at Pieterburen. Baby seals are SOOOOOOOO cute.... Their eyes are just like those of Puss in Shrek 3 when he acts cute!

(We were really in a relaxed & holidaying mood then & didn't feel like taking any pictures...... so no pictures here)

And then we drove further up north to a harbour where we COULD take a boat to the Schiermonnikoog, an island off the Netherlands. (we didn't go there tho)

To the right of the harbour

To the left of the harbour

The part I enjoyed most was the long drive in the province! It was what I'd been expecting of the Netherlands countryside.... Just green & flat with lots of cows ('Dutch Lady Condensed Milk' is really popular in Singapore) .

Sunshine Tessa!

Just a random shot from the car

Maggie's companion for the trip, Miffy!

I really enjoyed the trip... Just a lazy Sunday spent on the roads, thanks to Tessa for driving us all around :)

The Martini Tower

Nice photo, yeah? From the internet of course :)

We climbed the Martini Tower! That was about 300+ steps worth of a vertical hike! Very tiring. The Martini Tower is the tallest thing there is Groningen & it's protected by law to be that way! We were introduced to the term 'horizon pollution' by Erwin and that's when tall buildings obstruct the view of the horizon.

The climb up itself was almost treacherous as the steps were spiral and steep at some points.

Check out the spiral steps!

We didn't bother taking any pictures from the top of the tower because the whole viewing area has been fenced up to prevent suicidal people from jumping off the tower (it has happened before) . Any pictures taken would have those metal mesh grilles in it too.

The best part of the whole tower climbing experience was the bells! There was this guy in charge of the tower and he let us try something very fun! Basically, to sound the church bells he would have to pull on this thick rope really hard so that the bell swung and struck something in order to chime.

Because the bell was really heavy, if you hung on to the rope & not let go when it swings back in the opposite direction, it could lift you up as well!

That's what I mean! (Check out Maggie's hair)

Me me me!!! I managed to fly to about my own height off the ground but Maggie couldn't capture it :(

Banishing Maggie to a corner of the tower for that!

Martinikerk

I.e. Martini Church! Maggie & I kind of stumbled into this church while roaming around in the city. A pleasant surprise I must say!

The organ

The pulpit and stairs leading to it

The organ & the main hall

The choir room's ceiling

Groningen canal tour

The canal tour was a must because we're in the Netherlands!!!! Plenty of canals here.

Maggie with her new cap from H&M

View from the boat

The bridge opening to let boats pass!

Blonde baby girl at the edge of the canal

My new brown cap from H&M!

Boat passing us by on the canal!

Such boats are a common sight in the canals of the Netherlands! I don't think it's very uncommon for a family to own a boat and to go off sailing somewhere... Sounds nice..... :)

Groningen City - Part Two, It's all about PANCAKES!!!!

2007-08-03T18:18:00.000+08:00

WHO LOVES PANCAKES SAY "AYE"!!!

And if you've said 'Aye!' , welcome aboard the Pancake Ship!

The Pancake Ship!

The Pancake Ship's actually a restaurant on the canal that serves pancakes! Kids obviously love the pancakes and I've never ever seen that many blonde children within a restaurant in my life before, it was almost surreal.

Tessa with a bacon & cheese pancake!

A close-up view of the pancake!

Absolutely delicious and SINFUL. Imagine a pancake glistening with maple syrup (not on yet) with melted cheese & streaky bacon!

The healthier Apple & Banana alternative!

(If you can see the frosted sugar & imagine the maple syrup on, then you know it's not that healthy either.... ... )

After this enormous meal (ONE PANCAKE EACH!) , we went home to catch HOUSE on TV &.... ... ... we bought a box (of 3's , which means one each for me, Mag & Tessa!) of MAGNUM! Not just any Magnum but Magnum Ecuador Dark (62% cocoa!) !

(when you see Maggie & I 2 sizes larger back in Singapore, remind us to lose some weight though you'll know that the damage was well worth it )

And no, we won't stop there in our quest for good food :) Check the next picture out! (This was taken on a separate day, of course!)

Poffertjes with beer!!!

Poffertjes is really typical Dutch & something that I REALLY like!! (though I can't decide which I prefer, stroopwafels or poffertjes) It's a bite-size pancake coated with lots butter (!!!) & frosted sugar. It's warm, so the butter melts (!!!) & it's SUPER nice to have on a cold day! (Not forgetting the beer, of course :) )

So there we have it, hollers on pancakes from Holland!!!!! Thanks Tessa for bringing us to these awesome places at the city centre for some awesome pancakes :)

Groningen City - Part One, Random Shots

2007-08-03T17:50:00.000+08:00

Part ONE! Just random photos of Groningen... No stories to tell, just photos taken when we're doing our daily activites!

A river/lake close to Tessa's house with many ducks & geese around

Just one (bird?) here

Maggie on the bridge over the stream

Told you there were plenty of them!

Me everyday in the morning having breakfaston the way to work!

One of our dinners at a restaurant in the City Center

The pot that's elevated contains beef in some brown gravy. To the left of it is red cabbage, which I didn't really like because the flavour is really strong. Well, potatoes is typical staple food here and you can't see it, but there's chicken sate on my plate!

The ceiling of that restaurant! Notice all the things hanging!

People waiting at one of the many bridges across a canal

The bridges 'open' at intervals to allow boats to pass through. Pedestrians & motorists just have to wait, of course :) This particular bridge is special because instead of opening upwards, it swivels to one side of the canal to let boats pass on the other side.

A church close to the hospital that we work at

Random photo taken on the bus on the way home

The Martini Tower in the background with some parts of the city centre captured

A cafe/restaurant that looks nice behind Maggie

Background - something like the city building of Groningen where people can get married and do other official stuff

Yoghurt Drink we had at La'Place, which is really similar to Marché in Singapore!

XXX

2007-07-31T17:24:00.000+08:00

We finally visited Amsterdam!!!

Now, the title of the post is 'XXX' because this is kind of a symbol that can be seen all over Amsterdam. I've just Wiki-ed it, and apparently, the flag of Amsterdam has these very same three crosses!

The main city square in Amsterdam, check out the grey skies

With this view of Amsterdam, it did feel pretty much like an old and tired city. Maybe it's cos of the weather, maybe it's because we were there early and there weren't many people. Still, I wouldn't call it a vibrant city..... more historical, certainly.

The Madam Tussaud building in Amsterdam (we didn't visit, tho)

On a bridge across one of the many canals in Amsterdam

This is sort of the typical street in Amsterdam, rows & rows of two to three-storyed houses that look like that. The flavour of Amsterdam is very distinct. I haven't yet been to any other European countries, so maybe that's why I feel this way. Not sure if other countries have that many canals, either.

A typically Dutch dish! Hutspot! It's something like mashed potatoes in gravy, with a slab of meat (beef!)

Celebrity endorsement for Hutspot!

Maggie & I loved the dish! Extremely filling (for hours) and delicious (though Dutchman Gwylim doesn't like it) :) It's actually a winter dish so it probably has the winter kind of calories too (sigh). After lunch, we proceeded to the famous red light district of Amsterdam!

Within the streets of the red light district

Can you see the windows with the red curtains on the right? Wherever the red curtains are, there you'll be able to find the women. We were there in the day so the red lights weren't on but a couple of hardworking ladies had already started work!

We saw a few ladies sitting behind the glass windows when we walked through a few streets... It would be too tedious trying to describe what it was like... so here's a picture I found on the web!

Focus on the window!

Yep, the ladies in lingerie (only!) do sit or stand behind the window panes waiting for people to walk past & decide if they want their services. The only misrepresentation the photo might give is that... well, not all the ladies we saw looked like that. Hmm... most of those we saw were either quite old, or quite big. We saw only one HOT lady, perhaps out of ten that whole day.

Being neither very artistically, musically or theatrically inclined, amongst all the nice, old musuems Amsterdam had to offer, we went to this....

Entrace to the museum, which was 5 storeys high!

In the musuem were exhibits that were obviously in some way, all related to sex. There's a huge variety, I must say, though I shall not post many pictures up (although you may ask to see them if you meet me) . We also watched some cartoons that were ermmm.... X-rated. Interesting at first but gets repetitive and boring after awhile.

The first ever .... ( use your own imagination here)

(use your own imagination here too :) )

Only pictures of machines here, no erotic pictures here....... Hahahahahahha. Well, there is actually one.

Hot hot hot!!!! (The elephant in the centre looks like Sharity, doesn't it!)

After the red light district, the next most exciting thing is to experience being in the vicinity of coffeeshops! (hurhurhurhur... as if)

There are plenty of coffeeshops in Amsterdam! In these shops, you can buy weed or hash (these are the only two things I know, so it's not exhaustive) legally (? : I'm not sure if it's legal, or if the law is just non-enforced here) . It's okay to use weed/hash within the shops but not on the streets.

Photo of a coffeeshop

I'd expected a coffeeshop to be somewhat, dark, shady, perhaps even sleazy. But no, they seem to be just like cafes (at least the ones we encountered). So there, time to discard those notions that drug use = crime. It's not always true.

Well, I-am-sterdam

The red-light district & coffeeshops. Boy, am I presenting Amsterdam to you in a very wrong light. It's strange how that in the many souvenir shops we visited, so many of these merchandise focus of the hemp leaf, weed-smoking, sex bla blah blah, with the word "AMSTERDAM" somewhere on the shirt, mugs or whatever.

A tee-shirt with a slogan that aptly describes what I'm talking about read, "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to Amsterdam."

Well, maybe. But bad girls go to Amsterdam to do the bad girl things. Amsterdam is more than just that. I am intrigued by this side of the city because it's just unthinkable to have something like that in Singapore. Bottomline is, Amsterdam is more than what you've seen in this short post and in the souvenir shops. Discover it the way you like best!

The Hague!!!

2007-07-29T23:18:00.000+08:00

The first day of our second weekend in the Netherlands was spent at The Hague! The Hague is where all the governmental offices are, like the buildings of the various ministries. Certainly not as tourist-y as Amsterdam, which we visited on day two (more on that, next time...) !

Our "tour guide" for the day is none other than Gwylim! As some of you may remember, Gwylim was in Singapore for SEP one year ago! It was really strange to finally see him again --- only this time our meeting place was in the Netherlands!

We saw many impressive and tall buildings but didn't take any pictures of them simply because tall buildings aren't that intriguing to us. We like nice gardens, greenery and not-more-than-three-storyed-houses :)

Maggie & Gwylim in front of a church

A pity we could not enter the church because there was some sort of event going to take place afterwards but oh well, no matter.

The cafe where we had our lunch

My lunch - a ham and cheese bagel :)

Maggie's sandwich (very thinly sliced beef)

View from the table we were sitting at

Wherever there's good weather, we always dine outdoors! It's really a pity to dine indoors when the weather is nice! I used to not be able to understand why Caucasians adore sunshine so much and love sun-bathing or picking the sunniest spot. But from those few gloomy, rainy days we had here, I think I know better now.

After lunch, we proceeded to Madurodam! It's a miniature city of all the important places in the Netherlands!

(Gwylim: Help! What is this building called?)

The Dom Tower in Utrecht, minituarized!

And again!

Yup, I'm sure you get the idea what Madurodam is all about. The thing I really liked was that everything built there is pretty detailed. Close up, you can really see all the fine workmanship of these miniatures.

After Madurodam, we took another tram to Scheveningen beach!

We tried something typically Dutch --- HARING! Haring is raw fish but not like Japanese sashimi. We weren't brave enough to try haring on its own, so we opted for the haring in bread with onions!

Maggie with a mouthful of haring and bread!

The close-up picture I took of it turned out blur, so here's the best picture I can find from the internet of what haring looks like :

A small fish, unlike the salmon sashimi

Maggie was the brave one! I ate only one mouthful and decided it was enough. Maggie finished the rest!!!!! +three claps for Maggie!+ But we both agreed we would not get a second helping for a long, long while. Heehee.

Just people sitting around near the pier

The beach!

The sand was pretty fine..... Slightly coarser than those of Siloso beach but lots of broken shells. In any case, much better than East Coast Park......

Maggie's new love interest - Not Gwylim but Miffy, the bunny on top

For those who recognised Miffy, I bet you didn't know Miffy's creator was Dutch! Miffy has a Dutch name - also probably the original - Nijnje!

Beer in the breeze on the beach!!!!! Gosh, how much better can it get!

Looking really cool only when you can't see most of my face :)

Maggie looking absolutely content, again!

View of the pier from the beach

Took a train back to Utrecht, where Gwylim stays in an apartment on campus, which we spent the night at ! Here's his student room!

Nice for a student room huh? But well, most of the stuff, including the flooring was fitted in by Gwylim himself so yeah, you could do that to your hostel room too :)

Okays that's about it for Day One of the previous weekend (behind time, again!) Blog on Amsterdam the next time!

A New Messageboard!

2007-07-26T16:31:00.000+08:00

As you can see, I've added a new tagboard to the right! I've heard that it's difficult to post comments on blogspot (don't know why), so hopefully the board makes it easier.

(Gwylim & Remco, please fill free to add in any details you wish....)

However, any requests for food items or whatever, please continue to post comments at blogspot because the tagboard comments are not permanent - once they are gone I won't see them & I may forget them!

Here are all my replies to the comments so far....:

Yilynn: I just found and read your comments yesterday... Didn't know where you posted them! Do remember to get back the money for the present from me when I get back! And.. take care :)
Yiting: Maggie loves Miffy as much as you do, probably even more. We'll get one back for you.

Liyun: I know you miss me, ~~you always did~~. KTV KTV KTV KTV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shuhui: HEY!!! Enjoy the last bit of your holidays, I know you've been working real hard!

Huixian: I've been very guai here... Fun, but guai fun. You know what I mean...

Pee: Don't read too much into "the best part"! You're not missing anything here ~~though you always do.~~ Remember to help me bid for German!

Khu: Why am I not surprised that you're the first to request for food! Hurhurhurhur. If your journal gets published I'll buy you one pack okay, if not just ONE waffle for you.

David: Hello noob blogger. Is Qiushen anything like Khu? You must be having so much fun with Khu............... Hurhurhur.

Think you've seen a nice house?

2007-07-25T20:29:00.000+08:00

Tessa brought us to her parents house two weekends ago. I shan't even try to describe the house to you, please see for yourself.......... .... ....

...

Big, pretty house with a thatched roof!

The thatched roof sure looks good but it has to replaced every 40 years. What's more, it's expensive to replace and home insurance also becomes more expensive because thatched roofs catch fire easily. So, beauty does come at a price!

Maggie with the de Vos family!

(Back row: Carels, Elsbeth, Tessa, Maggie. Front Row: Elsa, Svea / Svea, Elsa)

The guest house ( Would be content just to have a house like this next time!)

Somewhere to sit at tea overlooking the garden

We had yummilicious Danish cookies (from IKEA!) for tea & tiny pears that fell from the trees in their very own garden. It's kind of a pity that we only took pictures within the house when it got darker so the next few pictures are all kind of dark.

Absolute pity that a cosy living room should look so dark & gloomy :(

The kitchen

Ah. Warm & nice with the lights.

Now, wait till you see what comes with the house.

A hugggggge garden!!!

Big part of the garden

No fences mark the boundaries of the garden. There's just this little ermm... stream of water (covered with moss) that lie behind the two trees you see, and then it's a maize plantation!

One of the few times in my life I voluntarily WANT to sit on the grass

Flowers in another part of the garden that I couldn't capture in the other picture. The black thing Maggie's patting is not me. It's Svea. It's really amazing how Elsbeth & Carel can manage such a big garden all by themselves!

Everything in this picture is so pretty....

(Tessa, can we have pasta one more time? :) )

Elsbeth & Carel prepared a barbeque for us! I haven't actually had a barbeque within someone's house as far as I can remember! It's either at East Coast Park or at someone's condo bla bla bla.

Cold Tomato-y (Spanish) Soup to begin the meal

No more pictures with food. We were too busy eating :) Heeehee. Just imagine nice, barbequed hamburger patties, sausages, satay (meat on sticks) kindda thing ok? Except they're done perfectly, not charred, not still red & raw or too oily :) Carel did all the BBQ-ing & Elsbeth prepared most of the other things like the soup, the salad, bread etc. We just ate. Hehehe.

They ate me up for dinner so I'm no longer in the picture

Everything in the picture, the tables, chairs, umbrella and people were not there initially! Everything was moved out from somewhere just so we could have a nice bbq overlooking the garden... I guess it would be totally worth the trouble ( I'm just guessing cos it was Tessa's parents who prepared everything, not me) though so few people in Singapore would do it. (of course, we don't have a garden to overlook in the first place....... ... ...)

The sunset at about 9plus after dinner

Really glad that we came during summer. The days are long - the sun rises at 4plus in the morning and doesn't disappear completely till half past ten. It's not humid, the weather's cooling, though a little too cold when windy sometimes. Just like Singapore, the sky rains whenever it feels like but well, it's ok, we're used to carrying an umbrella around.

Anywayyyyyy, apart from the eating and lounging around at the house, we did something healthy too! We went for a walk at some sort of a nature reserve nearby the house in the afternoon!

The dogs at the back of the car.... really close

Elsbeth with Siamese twins!

Purple riding hood in the enchanted forest

Purple riding hood on the bridge crossing over to the dark woods

Big bad wolf in the dark woods

Purple riding hood - GONE

Big bad wolf below the observatory tower with a round tummy :)

Looking out from the tower for new prey

Scanning the fields.... Nothing to be found :(

The way down from the tower

Purple riding hood resurrected!

Yet another relaxing, enjoying - but to us a completely new way - of spending a Sunday. We wish very much to thank Elsbeth & Carel for being such great hosts for the day. Tessa too, of course but there's so much to thank for as well.

Home Sweet Home :)

2007-07-24T00:20:00.000+08:00

No one would understand why Maggie & I are enjoying it so much over here unless you've seen how the place we stay at is like!

So, two weeks after living here, may I present to you....

...

... our host, Tessa!

Well, of course she's a very important reason why we've been living it up here.... She's let two strangers stay at her place, cooked for us, brought us around to her parents' place(that's another post all by itself!) , her brother's student house, on a car ride around the city and so much more of course!

I'm even blogging on her laptop right now, digesting her home-cooked dinner, half-watching her tv, so there.... you see the point.

I'm a little lazy to arrange the photos in a nice story-like order so it's gonna be in a little bit of a mess..... but here we go anyway!

Drops & Stroopwafel

Two "typical Dutch" food items! The drops are made of liquorice & isn't really the kind of candy that everyone would enjoy. But, the honey-flavoured ones are truly good for the throat. I know cos I had a sore throat & felt much better afer having those!

The stroopwafel is well.... one of my favourite Dutch foods so far! It's crispy, not the typical kind of Gelare waffel of cos. It's a wafer, more of. With something like jam in between, it's really nice!

(Note: If you would like to try any of the food I post on the blog, just leave me a comment & I'll bring some back to Singapore for you!)

Pizzas! Cost about SGD2.80 per box from the local supermarket! Really convenient .... to just put in the oven & very tasty!

Pretty dinner plates make an appetizing meal....

... but what would plates be without the food!

The kitchen with plenty of sunshine!

The dining area

This is the front door of the house! The T&s stands for 'Tessa & Svea', Svea being Tessa's labrador :)

The neighbourhood - Taken from our bedroom window

Speaking of the neighbourhood, I must say that the people here are really friendly. I don't just mean hi-bye friendly, I mean like, they do go out of the way to help you.

When Maggie & I were practising riding our Dutch bikes (define: bikes as bicycles) , Tessa's neighbours came over to attempt to help us learn how to ride them. And of course, there's the hi-bye friendliness, people just say 'hello' when they walk past!

The other side of the neighbourhood

The bathroom!!! Like a hotel, right?

Tessa's living room! The sweater draped over the chair is mine .... so it's actually very neat without me around. Oops :P

The candles there are not just for decorative purposes! Tessa actually lit them one night when there was a thunderstorm & I liked them alot!

Svea!!!!

Svea loves rice just like us :)

This is our first time being in such close contact with a big dog! She's really 'human-ized'.... Can't describe it any better than that. But now I know why the cliche goes that a dog is a man's best friend.

Our typical dinner! No, we do not have pizzas every night! Tessa's a good cook & she's been making dinner most of the nights......!

How can you not be hungry?

Now, this photo is here because the empty space behind me is where we practised riding our bicycles!

And this photo is here because everyone knows Maggie has violent tendencies..

Maggie torturing & cutting up the pig. Well...... pork.

Curry, almost done!

Well, this is actually our FIRST MEAL prepared with our very own hands! Far far away from home. Parents, please be proud of us :)

I realize there's no picture of the bedroom here! Weird since we spend most of our time there sleeping but anyway, that's for next time. Haven't uploaded that onto my camera!

So yeah, that's basically it! Really really lucky & thankful that we've gotten such a nice place to stay at..... Can't think of any thing else I'd wish for or change right now.

First week of work!

2007-07-18T17:57:00.000+08:00

( Note: Post Edited on 24th July)

I know it seems like we're only having fun and games here but that's not true! We're learning alot too!!

We've truly put ALL our pharmaceutical analysis knowledge here to good use. Seriously, in the past, lessons about HPLC, GC blah blah was just theory & fluff. But after coming to this lab, it all really makes sense!

Of course we've seen these stuff in our labs during the practical sessions. But practical sessions, no matter how 'practical', can only be THAT real. What we've seen here is the application of those things we thought were so irrelevant. Will show you why now!

Small portion of the lab with the reagents.

Alot of the reagents are produced by the lab itself because they have a production facility. Well, most chemicals, so long as they are not the commercial immunoassay stuff, I think!

Most of our stay here this week we've been shadowing Albert-Jan (aka Bao Mu (babysitter in Chinese)) , so he's the one who's been showing us everything!

Presenting to you a HPLC (high performance liquid chromtography, for the uninitiated) machine!

Coupled with a UV-detector

The HPLC column on the outside

Side view of the machine

The metal thing to the right of the machine close to the door is the valve with the loop thing that Prof Ho explained to us. Didn't really understand then anyway, but now I know what he's talking about! Some things you just have to see it for yourself.

Thanks to Albert-Jan's drawing!

Can't really remember which substance we used the HPLC to analyse already because we've observed A-J doing so many!

A-J has been explaining things really clearly & in detailed. It doesn't matter that we're not ever going to do any work there, he still does make every effort to explain the principles & that is very, very nice of him.

Maggie with the Gas Chromatography machine

The GC machine was used to analyse the levels of GHB (a rape drug) & ethanol levels!

It's quite cool watching the whole procedure because this is FOR REAL. A true analysis... Not for fun or practice :) And now we truly understand how the labs work (maybe not the Singapore ones, I don't know) and we understand the beauty of pharm analysis!

The GC columns!

Other HPLC columns

Maggie going to be as round as the conical flasks in no time....

Maggie trying to burn down the lab

Stupid face of mine beside the ICP machine

A-J used the ICP machine is used to measure Lithium levels! Cos Lithium is a Group 1 metal, remember? Hehehe. Lithium......... Caught a Sandra Bullock movie "Premonition"on the KLM flight here & she was taking lithium for mania. Maybe we would get her tested...

Cool lab chair

Feels like a horse saddle

Tools to keep the lab healthy

A nice pipette (multi-pipette) that dispenses the same volume each time you press it!

Multitube vortex that saves time

Calibration of pipettes! We did this!

GCMS machine , which we haven't used

Analysts hard at work

A fume cupboard

Maggie with Immunoassay machines

Cool immunoassay autosampler that analyses the quantity of substances such as cocaine, cannabis or therapeutic drugs like antibiotics

Just another fume cupboard

Another machine, don't know what (yet) :)

Yup, so here's a true blue analytical lab for you! Things that are found naturally in the body are not analysed here (like eletrolytes, i think) but in the clinical chemistry lab. This lab analyses substances foreign to the body for the purpose of therapeutic drug monitoring, detection of drug abuse etc...

This week we're doing somethings different but more on that another time!

P.S. Don't bother diluting your urine if you've used illicit drugs because they measure the creatine levels & they'll know if it's diluted!

Weekend at Utrecht

2007-07-17T19:54:00.000+08:00

New pictures added!!! These are taken & kindly sent by Petra! Thanks Petra and rest well now that you are home!

More pictures at the bar!

Sara & Petra

No more comments to add about the pictures, they're just new ones that I haven't posted yet!

Well, for those wondering how the bar was like, if it's anything like Singapore's ...... well, yes and no. We have bars in Singapore that look like that but people don't dance in such bars, just drink and chill. Alcohol is definitely cheaper... A glass of beer ranges anywhere between 2 to 4 Euros = 4 to 8 SGD. As for the music.... Hmmm.. Different. It feels more like Mambo night, with a mix of Dutch & English music.

Ok, end of the post update!

WEEKEND AT UTRECHT

Bright and early on a Saturday morning, Maggie & I set off for the Groningen train station for a 2hr train ride to Utrecht to meet 2 other exchange students & the Dutch students from the pharmaceutical society!

At the Groningen train station

Maggie in the Eurail train!

At Utrecht Centraal

Boris wore his labcoat for easy identification at the station. It was quite funny!

We had lunch here, just by a canal!

We had a healthy sandwich each. Large but manageable :)

With paddles.........

Debbie (a Dutch student) on a canoe

Boris, Sarah (Barcelona) & us on a rowing boat!

My turn to row with Boris!

Rowing is so much harder than canoeing, especially when two different people row together.... Just needs perfect co-ordination to row in a straight line.

Having my first beer since I set foot on Holland (Heineken by the way) !

I've been good, really, not drinking much at all. Teeheehee. We had a really nice dinner, I had spareribs which we nice! Paid for by the society, we're very appreciative :)

Whole bunch of us! Extreme right is Petra (Czech Republic)

The Dom Tower

The Dom Tower of Utrecht is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands, at 112 metres (368 feet) in height, and the hallmark of the city. The tower was part of Dom Church, the medieval cathedral of Utrecht, and was built between 1321 and 1382.

The oldest building of the University of Utrecht

In a bar! Where we danced to some nice happy music!

Thanh, Me, Maggie in Thanh's room, where we spent the night

Shiqi & Huixian, this photo was specially taken for you!!! This is Thanh, I'm sure you remember him from IPSF 2006 Cairns. You know what was the best part? We stayed in his room for a night!!! Hahaha :) It's nice to see him again!

Life at work!!!

2007-07-16T15:42:00.000+08:00

One week here now, appropriate time to post abit about what we do at the hospital!

Because Prof Uges is in the field of Toxicology, even though we're working at a hospital, we're actually attached to the analytical lab right now!

University Medical Centre Groningen

Toxiocology section of the lab

Maggie (centre) before she starts eating potatoes

Maggie one week after eating potatoes!

Me & Albert-Jan

Albert-Jan has been a huge part of our stay here in the labs! He's the one showing us everything in the labs and taking us out to lunch, ensuring that our food is paid for. We are very grateful!!!

What's this!

toilet :)

Prof Uges' room

Where we blog everyday!

Where we have coffee at 10am & 3pm everyday!

Piece of "Dutch"cake!

can never be glamorous eating this :)

normal coffee break with people from the lab!

our typical lunches! (Paid for by Prof Uges :) )

lunch at the staff restaurant :)

If we look like we're getting fat in the photos, we probably really are cos we eat almost as much as the Dutch too! But really, we're too happy to care :)

Remember the piece of pink cake up there? We've had cakes and tarts about three times last week! That's because it's common culture here to buy cakes/tarts for everybody when it's YOUR birthday! Yes, the birthday person buys for everyone!

Day One in Holland!!!! (With Photos :) )

2007-07-12T21:09:00.001+08:00

Here are the photos! Let's begin with Day Zero, at the airport!! Sis, Jiefu & baby Ashton plus Dad & Mum were at the airport to see me off. But the only photo in my camera I have is with my mum! So here:

never realized i'm that much taller than mum!

I took a KLM flight, so there were mostly Caucasian passengers onboard. I was sitting in the middle seat, with a motherly blonde lady on my left & a Mr Bean-lookalike on my right! 12 hours on the plane was quite a torture, my butt still hurts a little now!

I arrived early, at 5am & waited for Maggie to come! We then boarded the train from Schipol Airport to Groningen city.

train station beneath the airport, very convenient!

on the train, all bright and sunny but about 23 degrees :)

Arrived at Groningen at about 11am where Prof Uges picked us up and drove us to his beautiful home!

no kidding when i say "beautiful"!

see the smiles of the urban child :)

complete with butterflies!

me in a dreamy state!

Prof Uges & Maggie with a wheelbarrow of flowers!

Scroll on to the next post to read more! :)

2007-07-12T20:37:00.000+08:00

It was a day of enjoyment & comfort! First up, we had ice-cream puffs with hot chocolate in the garden! After that was done, we had lunch which was well, refreshing!

Prof Uges with lunch!

not a typical kind of lunch in Singapore...

Attempted to take a nap in the open after lunch on these chairs!

falling asleep soon.....

Unsuccessful attempt at napping! When the clouds moved away, it was just way too sunny to fall asleep. So we got up for a walk!

We went to sort of a nature reserve near the Prof's house. It was very nice and cooling!

on the tracks leading to the reserve!

sunny & cool at the same time, no need for jackets!

some scenery...

stopped by this cafe by the lake for some afternoon tea!

see the table? we're just at the edge of the lake!

After which, we walked back home for ...... some food! Whooopeee :)

everything in the open of course!

toast & wine :)

After tea is dinner of course! Prof Uges drove us to the Golf Club near his place where we had dinner! Dinner was pasta with salad! The whole day's expenses were paid for by Prof & we are so amazed at his generosity & hospitality!

Ok! That's it for Day ONE (after so long!) More about Tessa's place & work next time!

Some old pictures!

2007-07-11T17:26:00.001+08:00

Some pictures taken awhile ago! Outings with TKGS (high school equivalent) old girls from a week to two weeks back :) Heehee!

@ NYDC outside the heerens after a long day's work

claudia & i @ sushi tei, paragon

claudia's leaving for shanghai on the NOC (NUS Overseas Colleges) Program for one year! this outing was the last we'd be having together for at least a year because she's flying on the 18th of July!

Yilynn & i @ a toilet, somewhere

It's been very nice to see these pictures in my inbox when I'm so far away from home! Thank you Yilynn for sending them :)

Will post the Holland pics when I bring the cables to work :) Cheers all!

2007-07-10T20:39:00.000+08:00

We're Here!!!

Hello all, we're here! Maggie and I are doing very, very fine here so please don't worry for us. In fact, we're enjoying it very much and living it up!

It's only been Day 3 in the Netherlands & Day 2 at the hospital but we're feeling very much at home! Everyone here has been extremely hospitable & we feel warm, safe & happy :)

I've got very pretty pictures in my camera but we're in the hospital right now so I can't upload them! It's a pity, I would love to show them to all of you ASAP!

We haven't even been to any tourist-y places but we've been fascinated all the same! It's just the way of life here that's so different, so pretty :) It's a small city here & we really see things like those in the movies!

Quiet, small neighbourhoods, lush green grass, pretty flowers (and bees!). What we call a "picnic" in the garden (not a public garden, a real garden behind a house!!!) under the sun with some wine and toast is what we had at the Professor's house which had a gorgeous garden! Pictures will be posted later :)

The weather's been mostly great, sunny but cooling (about 20 degrees)! It's been raining sometimes tho, but mostly it's been great!

Well, probably the only 2 bad things I can think of that has happened so far is that I sort of fell from a bike the first day cos the Dutch bikes are SO tall and solid heavy! I'm fine, just a scraped knee. Most people get around the city on bikes so we're trying to do the same but well....

Fortunately we were practising in the garden only but unfortunately, we were pretty bad at it. So we've been taking the bus :( We're going back to practise again today.

The 2nd thing was that we got lost yesterday for about an hour in the RAIN! Yeah, it was cold and we were kind of miserable & scared. BUT, the Dutch people are really helpful so it all went well and we're glad we got the chance to see for ourselves the friendliness of the Dutch people! I guess it's kindda a good thing because we were forced to open our mouths to ASK for help. We'd be too shy otherwise.

And if even the Dutch strangers are so helpful, even more so our friends over here! Professor Uges has been a GREAT host, really going out of his way to make us comfortable. And he's even paying for almost everything here - our food, accomodation and buscards! We're extremely touched by his hospitality and generosity and we're sad we can't reciprocate much at all :(

The house we're staying at is beautiful & so is its owner (winks at Tessa: I know you'll be reading this :) ) & so it its co-owner (Svea, Tessa's Labrador) . Our room is beautiful and we're very well taken care of by Tessa too! It's been great really, we feel totally at home (it's our 3rd day!)

Okay, that's it! I could go on for hours but I'll let the pictures paint their thousand words. More later :) Take care all!

Last post from Singapore!!!

2007-07-07T10:46:00.000+08:00

Dear all,

I have decided not to bring my laptop because you heartless people............ have refused to comment on my site! (Sorry Eu, I deleted the post that you commented on. Hehehe.) I don't want to blog already!!! +stomp stomp+

No lah, my haversack's too heavy already, I don't wanna put another 2kg stone in with a $2000 risk. So... I may not be able to blog as regulary as I was intending to (I'm sure there'll still be computers though) .

Flying in 12 hours time, now I'm more or less packed. Just need to go for my haircut at noon, get some Clarinase, Ventolin, Vit C and I'm ready to go.

Didn't really sleep well last night, I guess it's the pre-trip blues as usual. My constant worries about not packing enough ~~disposable underwear~~ and just the prospect of missing home. Thank God mum helped me squeeze all the stuff into my luggage too.

People, I will miss you. Yah lah, I know it's only 6 weeks but STILL!!!!! Some special shoutouts:

HAMLET: I will be back soon and we shall have our KTV!!! Arghhh. (P.S. Liyun & Ting: You were the heartless people I was refering to just now. You were supposed to say you'll miss me in my blog!)

Claudia: God bless you, I wish you success and much much more importantly, happiness, in Shanghai.

Fadhly: God bless you too, I wish you fulfilment & that you'll finally find what you love to do (and that HOT BABE to boot!!!!!!!!) Take care in Sydney!

FAMILY: Well, actually I haven't told you all about the blog address yet :P . Will do so later. Take care and I'll miss you all and home-cooked food!!!

Sarah: Thanks darling for helping me with the nerdy stuff. Who else could I trust more.

New-found friends at Janssen: Work hard for your presentations and have fun!!! I definitely miss spending time with you guys at work!

Aye... that's about it. The next time I'll be posting, I'll be truly HOLLERS from HOLLAND :)

The Pre-Departure Frenzy

2007-07-06T18:47:00.000+08:00

I've checked in for my flight! Internet check-in of course, it's still 28 hours to my flight. I kinnda like the KLM internet check-in feature, except for that I had troubles printing my boarding pass both from my laptop & desktop, so that's left for tomorrow.

I had this minor panic attack yesterday when Maggie said, "Do you realize the next time I'm seeing you, we'll be in Holland already?"

Gosh, I definitely didn't realize. I am unsettled about taking such a long flight on my own, I've never done it before. Then again, foget the long-flight-part, I've never even flown alone before. Oh shit.

To further add to that, I finally emerged from that state of denial that "I HAVE ALOT OF TIME LEFT TO PACK" yesterday afternoon. I wanted to start packing on Tuesday but my family got hit by the idiotic stomach flu bug, all I did on Tues and Weds was puke, sleep & watch tv while waiting for the next puke urge.

When I next woke up, it was already Thursday and I hadn't packed at all.

and ....

Thank goodness for OUTSOURCING!

When I was buying travel insurance online last night I saw that my debit card expires 08/07! It was yet another "oh shit" discovery. I'd booked a couple of hostels for August with that card --- If it expires 31 Aug, fine... if it's 1st Aug--- DIE no place to stay already. Hahaha.

Yeah, so it was 10pm or so and luckily the DBS website says customer service is 24 hrs so I called & +phew+ it's 31Aug :)

And this morning I woke up (almost with a jolt) and remembered that I hadn't activated my roaming service! It was 7am. But having great faith in outsourcing and that my call would probably be answered by someone miles away where it was working hours (or maybe not but who cares) , I just called 1626 anyway. And it worked! Got it activated :)

So there, outsourcing is cheap and it makes me happy too :) (btw, the operators had nice funny accents, Filipino or something? I quite liked them!)

Thank goodness for Maggie

Thank you so much for buying all the ESSENTIALS that we need, raincoat and all!

And this pouch!

Maggie bought this cos Europe isn't really safe especially at the railstations but I started using it early in Singapore! I didn't have the time (and was too lazy) to make 2 trips so I went to the money changer with 3000 SGD, had it changed, and then went last-minute shopping.

It felt really safe! I definitely wouldn't have done any shopping without it and gone straight home. I was carrying this huge watsons bag of pads & disposable underwear & toiletries, plus takeaway lunch for my brother and me, plus an umbrella in the hot sun I would so totally have been robbed (not in Singapore actually) hehehe.

Alright I have to go, more things to do!!!!!

So many things to do!!!

2007-07-01T22:45:00.000+08:00

I have so many things to do before I fly! I am SO glad that my internship ended earlier or I'll be so short of time.

I realize how tired I've been. I've had no problems sleeping for 11 hours and then napping for 3,4 hours in the day these two days.

This is me when I just wake up:

Well anyway, I bought a medium-sized haversack on Saturday. I figured there was no way I'm gonna be able to lift my monster suitcase to the overhead compartments on the trains. I'm gonna split my load into this havesack and a medium-sized suitcase instead.

patho textbook to show relative size!

The last time i brought my sis's 60L macpac haversack to Laos I nearly died. It's just way too heavy for me, I could barely walk the length of a soccer field. The large trolley luggage is nice to pull along but a total nightmare where stairs were concerned.

Well, I guess this will come in handy for our weekend trips to Amsterdam and Belgium too! Oh and it's water-proof! Important because Tessa says it's been raining 60% of the time in Groningen!

I've been good today!! I packed my room, cleaned the cupboards and tables (with Dettol too!!) and sniffed like a leaky tap thanks to the piles of dust. +pfffft+ I've also FINISHED the 2000-word preceptorship report. I almost feel saintly : ) +beams+

P.S. I'll be turning on the comments soon so feel free to tag!

Accomodation, check! Rail passes, check!

2007-06-24T21:46:00.000+08:00

Went to j3travel at china square central on Saturday to collect our rail passes! Guess how much our passes cost? SGD659!!!! And that's not even including our reservation charges, which is about SGD30+ per reservation for a seat, for those trips that we need to reserve.

prague excursion pass (top) & eurail benelux + germany pass (bottom)

we got the 10 days germany + benelux pass that should serve us pretty well! By the way, Benelux counts as one coutry in Eurail. It comprises Belgium, the Netherlands & Luxembourg!

fortunately, the prague pass works out for us because it borders Germany :D

our nifty instruction manuals, guides & train timetables!

Oh yes, we can actually get these Eurail souveniors by filling in some survey! I love the Eurail dual-time clock! I'm so totally gonna fill them up after our trip :) Hee! So 'auntie' right!

the piece of paper that costs SGD 400+!!!

Anyway, the bright blue background for all these photos is my bedsheet! Yeah, I'm a true-blue gender-bender. Hehe.

And we've booked our hostels too! We've staying at Prague-1 hostel in Prague & Wombat's Hostel in Munich. Booked them from hostelworld! Very good booking system, fuss-free! Hope that everything goes smoothy! The 'ratings' system makes it very easy to compare the hostels too!

Alright, that's all.... less than 2 weeks before departure!!! Whoooppeees :D

Socks that Rock :)

2007-06-07T17:16:00.000+08:00

Warning: Slightly frivalous entry ahead.

We bought some socks!

When Nicole, the German pharmacy student came over to Singapore last year, she was fascinated by the pair of socks I was wearing cos they don't have them back in Germany.

Well, Maggie and I finally managed to find them at Far East Plaza and so we bought 2 pairs for her :) Well she totally deserves them cos she's like suuuper nice and we can't wait to see her again when we're in Germany!

what do you call these socks?

2007-05-25T22:31:00.000+08:00

Ticket bought!

As the title says! $1380 ticket. Do you see that hole in my pocket?

KLM Royal Dutch direct flight to Amsterdam. Departs SIN at 10.45pm on 7/7/07. You're welcome to see me off :)

And I've applied for the PSS award for students going for overseas programmes. That's an award of up to $1000, so it'll definitely lighten my load by alot. My interview's coming up on the 2nd of June, so likewise, well-wishes are very welcome.

In case you guys didn't know, Sarah's already in Canada right now for her exchange. She's been posting on her blog pretty regularly about her adventures, so feel free to visit her blog at www.eshortone.blogspot.com.

It's always good to read up!

2007-04-08T18:21:00.000+08:00

Maggie and I picked up a leaflet from STA last Thursday showing accomodation fares. We were delighted to see a hostel in Prague going for just SGD25 per night! We're cool with hostels and dorms after surviving Gilligans and its bedbugs in Cairns.

So, I googled 'Hostel Vesta Prague'. The first hit I got said this:

"The Vesta Hostel is located in the very centre of Prague in the Art Nouveau building of the Wilson Railway Statation - on the fifth floor of the Southern Tower. The Wenceslas Square is a five - minutes walk from there, and the underground station is directly in the Wilson Railway Station building (metro line "C"). The hostel has a capacity of 60 beds. Each bedroom has two to six beds with a shared bathroom and two doublerooms with private shower and toilet. There is a 24-hour service at reception. The hostel provides refreshments, breakfast, and a safe is available for valuable items."

Not bad at all! Good location!

Then, I decide to google "Hostel Vesta Prague reviews". This is what I got:

"Hostel Vesta is situated in a very good spot for easy quick access to Wenceslas Square. However, it is right on top of an area referred to by the locals as "Sherwood Forest" due to the amount of crime there. The only real way to access the square safely is via an underpass that was filled with drunks and drug addicts every time we went through it. The hostel itself is clean and cheap (the cheapest in Prague I think) and the dorms were nice and roomy, but the staff, although not rude, are totally uninterested in providing any kind of service. We were forced to carry around all our cash and passports on the first night, as they were unable/unwilling to open the safe for us to store them. I would not recommend this hostel to groups of women, large or small. I would recommend it to groups of blokes/stag parties looking for a cheap place to sleep and nothing else. Don't leave anything vaguely valuable in the dorms."

"Very unfriendly staff, unpleasant area, and not safe for women. They have very basic facilities, and no electricity. "

Scary!!! There are loads more of scary comments like people shooting up at the underpass etc.
To be fair, there were a very small number of good comments, which makes me wonder if they are talking about the same hotel. +shudders+

Made a booking for my ticket!

2007-04-08T17:20:00.000+08:00

At long last, I finally made a booking for my ticket!

KLM student fare - SGD1080 Amsterdam Return Ticket. That's hmmm... class Q I think? The 3rd cheapest. I didn't expect seats to be snapped up so quickly, how could there be so many students flying to Amsterdam?!

But there's still a hurdle before I confirm the ticket! I need a letter of acceptance by the university/hospital in order to nab the student fare! The agent at j3travel has kindly offered to request KLM to block the seat for me whilst I wait for the letter. I hope I get it soon!

Oh by the way, in case you're also looking for airtickets, you can try these 2 websites (both have student fares):

1. www.airfares.com.sg
2. www.j3travel.com

Though both offered me about the same price, the staff at j3 was much more friendly and efficient, I felt, so you can try them.

Oooh. Conspiracy.

2007-04-08T17:18:00.000+08:00

It’s 8.44am!!! 16 minutes to lesson and I’m going to do a zippity-zip blogpost!

Yesterday I finally got the SEP confirmation email about the hospital placement. The last line mentioned the name of the Prof that had been contacting Maggie and is the Prof in-charge of our exchange.

When Maggie told me that he’s quite a renowned toxicologist in the Netherlands, I was like “oh, cool!” But this morning I googled his name and TA-DAAAAA!

One of those plots u see in a movie with a plot based on conspiracy. Based on the articles, Prof Uges was involved in the autopsy of the ex- Yugoslav President! Like how cool is that. If I become a toxicologist, I also want.

Here are two links to the story!
http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/3468/43/ - Has a tiny picture of him too.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/03/13/milosovic/

Okay. 8.51am. 6 minutes to write that. So slow!!!! Time to pack my bags and fly to class. Tata!

Where Am I Going?

2007-04-08T17:08:00.001+08:00

For someone with a sense of direction and geography as bad as mine, I’d better check out early where I’m headed to!

Map of Europe

There there! Netherlands is there between Germany and the North Sea! Gosh, I’ve never heard of the North Sea before. My geography is really inadequate.

Map of Holland

We’d be going to the city of Groningen for our exchange, which is what everyone seems to describe as a ’student city’. It’s seems quite far away from Amsterdam tho!

Alright, just this little bit of information for the day! I’m having a little trouble navigating and posting these pictures up. More trivia and information coming up I guess soon!

Originally posted: 30 March 2007

The Great Air-Ticket Hunt

2007-04-05T21:22:00.000+08:00

As the title suggests:

I’ve been keeping tabs on all the possible avenues of getting a cheap air ticket.
Last friday, Sarah, Maggie and I headed down to Suntec for the NATAS fair. But it was so crowded and chaotic, plus with a $3 admission fee, we just decided not to go in at all.

Instead, we went to the exhibition below for some “Branded Goods” fair. Stuff there were really cheap, but alot of them were just quite “lup chup”.

Back to the point, we wound up at Marina Square’s PriceBreaker and I was quoted $1600 for a return ticket! Gosh. That’s a tad too ex. In the end, after scouring all the websites, I didn’t find anything good from the NATAS fair.

At least, I spotted something at airfares.com.sg today. $930 KLM student fare without taxes. I guess with taxes it’ll add to about $1400 still. But it’s ok, I guess I’ll hold out, knowing that at least there’s this offer. Most agencies I’ve called told me to wait till May for July’s promotional prices. So, I’ll wait.

Originally Posted : 26 March 2007

One Step Closer!

2007-04-05T21:20:00.000+08:00

The past Tuesday was a thrilling day!
I received the email for the offer of my industrial internship! I called back and we managed to confirm the dates for my internship! Whoopeee! 10 weeks,from the 2nd of May to 6th July.
Maggie emailed Job, the Netherlands SEO that evening and ever so efficiently, he replied that same night, saying the dates we’ve requested are available. He’s always been so nice and fast So there there, 9th July to 3rd Aug for my SEP.

The feeling’s really great and different right now, knowing what I’ll be doing for the coming holidays. Although I’ve been in a dreamy state lately, drifting off to Holland in spirit ever so often, I do feel a rush of excitement everytime I think of the holidays. (To my dear classmates, thank you very much for trying to Zhao1 my Hun2 (meaning ‘call back my spirit) during class, please continue to do so. Hurhurhur.)

Above all, I’m just really thankful everything’s been smooth so far. I know that I’ve been lucky, because everything turned out so well. I’m glad I made the right choice not to wait for USA to offer a place, despite it being my first choice. If I’d waited, I would not have been able to confirm my internship so quickly, or perhaps even get it.

Well…. this is really just the first step! I’ve yet to book my airticket, or plan my post-SEP travel! I am so thankful to Maggie also, who has constantly been nudging me all the way to make up my mind, and liasing with all the people overseas. (I think I’ve sent only 2 emails vs. her 20 emails to date. I promise I’ll buck up from now!)

Originally posted : 24 March 2007

And so it begins.

2007-04-05T20:51:00.000+08:00

This blog isn’t going to be about my life, well not for most part of it. This blog is dedicated to the IPSF Student Exchange Program that I’ll be going on this July ( I do hope that everything goes well and I indeed will get to go to Holland).

I’m starting this blog because I know (and hope) that I don’t wish to forget anything about this SEP (which I am going to spend a few grand on….) . Also, I hope to share with all about what I’ll be doing, the entire process from application to the trip so that those who are interested may be inspired to apply next year! Hur hur. Sounds corny uh, but no kidding.

Perhaps I’m counting my chickens (or chicks?) before they hatch, perhaps my SEP will turn out to be the suckiest ever. I doubt it, for if anything at all, I’m going to have some serious fun there. Hurhur.

Aite, the first post and I’m going to spare you from the grandmothers’ stories. Done with the intro, check the blog for more updates!

Originally posted: 12 March 2007