Happy holidays!!!

Okay, I don't really have much to blog about since I'm usually stuck at home at my computer, slaving away at my thesis! ("NOT" to the last part, haha!) Seriously, I am rather busy with work at the moment so I won't be posting much this next month or so, UNLESS something interesting happens and I just HAVE to let people know about it, hehe! >;D Anyway, just wanted to wish everyone:

merry.christmas

&

happy.new.year

Many best wishes to all! See you in the new year! Ja ne! :)

[anime.character.of.the.blog: hououji.fuu of magic.knight.rayearth]

Ureshii desu!!!

That's nihongo (japanese) for "I'm happy", hehe! Anyway, just wanted to write a quick blog about the recent good news I have! One of my closest friends, who happens to be my current housemate in Dublin, has just gotten engaged! Yayyy! I actually found out last Sunday but could only say it now, since I had to wait till she told the people she wanted to tell in person. God, it was such hardwork keeping it a secret but I did managed, hehe. ;D And guess what, she has asked me to be one of her 2 bridesmaids! It was one of her Christmas presents for me! I'm really honoured and happy to have been asked, as it's something really special. I won't let you down, mon amie! :)

[anime.character.of.the.blog: rakushun of juuni.kokki]

A first for me!

Right, I'm currently back in Dublin till early next week, for meetings with my supervisors and fixing some loose ends. Had a meeting with one of my supervisors the other day and it went quite well, in my opinion - always a good thing since it makes me very motivated with work and all. :)

Anyway, on the day I arrived in Dublin, I noticed something strange. I couldn't speak English properly! [horror] What I mean is that there was no flow in my speech! Stringing two sentences together took some effort! What happened??? Things like that don't even occur when I'm exhausted! Then, it dawned on me. Since I've been back in Berlin, I'm surrounded by a fair number of Bruneian-speaking Malays (hehe, I say this because some of them are from Sarawak!), hence by default, I'm speaking Brunei Malay a lot of the time! Plus, I'm exposed to the German language! So I'm guessing that having to switch back to full-time English, it took my brain some time to adjust, hehe.

I know, you're thinking - what about when I'm back in Brunei for holidays and having to return to Ireland? Well, I figured that out, too. The flight from Berlin to Dublin is only 2 1/2 hours, whereas the flight from Brunei to Dublin is at least 18 hours. Hence, I had a longer period to readjust my speech, and I don't notice any speech difficulties as I wouldn't be speaking to anyone much during the flights.

Anyhow, my English is back to normal, took several hours, though. My friends were having a great laugh about it, hehe. I thought it was an interesting phenomenon. I'm sure it happened to a lot of people who are multilingual, but it was a first for me, so I thought it was rather strange. I know now to be prepared for it.

Weekend trip to Mannheim and Heidelberg.

Last weekend (02-03.12.2006), I tagged along with my parents and their colleagues and friends on their visit to Mannheim (near Mainz and Heidelberg - see map in previous post - hehe, see, it's handy!), where the majority of the Bruneian students were located. I was a bit nervous about meeting them, to be honest. It's been so long since I had to interact with Bruneians who aren't family or friends. What was I worried about! The students were really a good bunch of people, great fun and easy-going! Had a great time! :) After the official meeting, we all went bowling, and later, for dinner at this Turkish restaurant called "Istanbul". Here is a group photo at the bowling alley:

[Sorry. Mallie, thought the photo with you making the face is funnier, hehe!]

Anyway, was extremely pleased with myself since I managed to remember the name of each student. I think I still remember them as well! :) Oh, yeah, met my cousin from Kuala Belait for the first time (can't believe it happened in Germany, of all places!) - she's cool and really nice! :)

[my cousin, my parents and me!]

[here we are again!]

As well as Meela's cousin, who kept saying "Good job, team!" - hehe, funny guy! ;P This is for you, Meel! ;D

[my parents and Meela's cousin]

On the sunday, after visiting the students at their residences, we decided to head over to Heidelberg for a bit of sightseeing. I love Heidelberg! Old but beautiful! Went to visit Heidelberger Schloss (Heidelberg Castle) - an absolute must! Standing from the castle grounds, looking down towards the city, it reminds me a bit of Firenze (Florence), which I liked as well. Anyway, if you want to know a bit about the castle, go to this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg_Castle (courtesy of Wikipedia)

I should really read it myself, hehe! ;P Anyway, here are some photos to give you an idea of the brilliance of this old city:

So after the weekend, my verdict is - anyone who are visiting Germany must definitely try to go to Heidelberg if at all possible! :) Oh, yeah, and thanks to Uncle Kifli for organising the lunch on saturday and the Bruneian students for entertaining us during our visit! It was a great trip! :D

My first entry!

Well, I gave in - will now start to post stuff on my blog. I'll see how it goes, not sure if this is my kind of thing. I prefer webdesign and the blog gives me a bit of that (although don't know much about CSS yet but I'm a quick learner!) since my website is currently is on hiatus. This blog at least won't take too much time out of work, which suits me at present! :)

Anyway, let's see, what to talk about. Well, I've recently moved to Berlin-Tiergarten after living in good ol' Dublin for almost 10 years! It's a bit strange living in a new country, didn't feel like this when I moved from Brunei to England, and then Ireland for my studies. I guess it's because of the language barrier. I don't know much German yet, so it's tricky to communicate - do I start immediately speaking English to the Germans or attempt to communicate in German? Which is preferred? Who knows! Anyway, I have decided to take lessons in the language in the new year! Can't wait! I love learning languages, although I'm a bit pissed off that my French and Japanese, and even my mother tongue (Malay) are so rusty. Will have to fix that, but one thing at a time, hehe.




Oh yeah, here's a map of Germany - it's actually for me that I put it up. I was chatting to one of my dearest friends (who happens to be German) about Germany before I moved and the topic of where different cities were in the country came up. My knowledge in that field is rather embarrassingly lacking, hence the map, hehe! Anyway, my friend's mum owns a chocolate shop in Aachen! Lucky! Who wouldn't love to have a mother like that! Will have to visit the place one day.


Anyway, that's it for my first entry. Not very exciting, I know but who cares. Hmmm, it seems like I might just keep this up. It's quite relaxing! ;D Auf wiedersehen!