O Levels and JAE Results
Okay, so a while back I got my O Level results, which were...pretty bad by normal standards.
El: A2 (FML)
Math: C6 (???)
F&N: C6 (=.=)
Mother Tongue: C6
Humanities: B3
Sciences: B3 (?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Total for L1R4: 20 points.
So I sent in my JAE, and it goes like this:
Details blanked out, of course
And, I got my first choice.
NURSING HERE I COME
Updated by Theodora on 11:02 AM
Friday, December 31, 2010
Another year looms...
So for this year, I have:
Gone to Europe
Visited Venice
Gotten a Louis Vuitton bag
Got a job
Didn't cheat on anybody
Waded through O Levels
Not gotten pregnant
Dyed my hair
Dyed my hair RED
Met so many new friends
Finally decided on my future career(s)
Maintained most old friendships
Didn't make any new enemies (I think)
Seen snow
Felt snow
Tasted snow
Got a real diamond ring
Had a glorious holiday with my boyfriend
Got punk goggles
Lived for another year
Matured a bit more
etc.
Pretty good list. Thanks 2010.
Things to look forward to in 2011:
O Level results (dunno if this is something to look forward to)
Going to poly
Starting work (next week)
Nursing course in poly
Meeting new people
Meeting old friends
Turning 18 (legal!)
etc.
It's been a good 365 days, with another 365 more yet to come.
2011...a year I anticipate eagerly.
Updated by Theodora on 11:38 PM
Monday, December 20, 2010
Europe Trip Post
Warning: LOADS OF PICTURES.
We left on the 2nd of December. Okay, more like the 3rd, because it was midnight. We landed at Zurich in the morning there, had breakfast and went to the airport hotel, called Movenpick, to check in and rest.
This is the view from my hotel room:
My first time seeing REAL SNOW!
View from my dad and sister's hotel room:
'We rested a good long while, took naps, then went out around 5-ish for dinner at the airport mall. Took some pictures outside the hotel and inside the hotel. It was bloody cold as we weren't used to the climate yet so we didn't stay out for long.
All red-faced from the cold
After that night in Zurich, we went to catch the train to Milano, or Milan, to Venezia, or Venice. On the train we played cards and Scrabble.
Bored
Guess who won with 309 points? ^^
View from the train window
Reached Milano Station, had to find the train to Venice, got on it.
All tired on the train...
Except for me, wide-awake and listening to music.
Oh, and this is my Travel playlist that I listened to during the train rides, in case you're interested for whatever reason:
Billionaire - Travie McCoy feat. Bruno Mars
Cool - Gwen Stefani
Into the Night - Santana feat. Chad Kroeger
Dream On - Depeche Mode
Right Before Your Eyes - Hoobastank
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Nine in the Afternoon & But It's Better If You Do - Panic at The Disco
Way I Are - Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson and D.O.E
Move Ya Body - Nina Sky
Knights of Cydonia - Muse
Hotel California (Live Acoustic) - Eagles
Everyday Is Exactly The Same - Nine Inch Nails
Down in Mexico - The Coasters
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
We Sleep Forever - Aiden
Take Me Away - Killswitch Engage
Pretty Handsome Awkward - The Used
We reached Venice, walked to our hotel and rested for a bit. I was itching to go out, because truly, Venice is BEAUTIFUL.
We went to a nearby restaurant for dinner where I had THE MOST AWESOME LASAGNA I've ever tasted, then walked onwards past all the shops selling masks and souvenirs and cakes and chocolate and stuff. We walked on a little bit and saw this crowd gathering outside a shop, so we stopped to look at what was going on. I saw a man lying down, face-up, and another man pumping his chest. He had passed out on the ground and the other man was trying to perform CPR.
We walked on a bit and turned back.
When we reached the same crowd again we saw that there were two paramedics running into the crowd with a stretcher. They looked at the man lying on the ground and looked at each other. The man's face had turned blue.
So essentially, I had seen a death during my first night in Venice.
Moving on.
We went back to our hotel as it was cold and slept early.
Next day, we woke up early to have breakfast at the hotel restaurant.
This is the view from the patio outside the restaurant:
It's right on the canal. Beautiful isn't it?
We heard later on that there was a flood in Venice two days ago and the water level reached up to the knees. Ugh. Lucky us, we arrived there right after it subsided.
Continuing with breakfast...
Then after breakfast we took the water taxi to Piazza San Marco. Mum was nagging at me about my red fleece coat, saying it wouldn't be warm enough and I was only wearing it cause it looks good, blah-de-blah-blah. Pfft, whatever. Venice was in fact the warmest place we went to during our holiday, it was 10 degrees. But, mothers.
Anyway, to Piazza San Marco:
On the water taxi
And when we arrived...wow.
It was AMAZING.
All those enormous historical buildings, each one a marvel in its own right. God, it was stunning.
Yes, people now, scenery later, promise.
See, scenery!
Bloody tall tower
Doge's Palace
Huggles
See those metal benches? Those were used because of the earlier flood, to walk on to avoid getting wet.
Oh, and there were TONS of pigeons flying about. Fat ones too, the kind you can catch and roast and eat if you're desperate. They're so fat that they can hardly fly high enough to clear your head. Plus, they're extremely greedy, so that if you hold a piece of bread in your outstretched hand, a whole line of pigeons will land on that arm and can only be persuaded to go away after vigorous shaking, and then running away madly.
I saw this guy sitting with his girlfriend outside a cafe. He wore a black beret and a pigeon landed right on it. His girlfriend laughed and laughed and took a picture. He stood up abruptly, the pigeon stayed on. He jumped and the pigeon jumped off the beret and landed back on it. HAHAHA.
The Redcoats
Metal platforms
Gondolas!
Fat pigeons
REALLY fat pigeonAnyway!
We walked on and bought some souvenirs from the shops, including glassware and hand-painted purses and masks.
We walked a bit further and went into a Louis Vuitton shop. Mum and Dad bought me my first LV bag, for like 635 euros, which apparently is much cheaper than in Singapore. Whooo!
We got hungry after shopping and went to a restaurant for a late lunch or early dinner or lunner or duncher. Whatever.
Trying on Shermyn's masks
Me with my mouth full of pizza
Then after that...
WE TOOK A GONDOLA RIDE!!!
FOR 80 EUROS!!!
WHICH IS APPARENTLY THE CHEAPEST???!!!!
Rant over.
Photos!!!
My beautiful mum
Our rower
A handsome gondola rower (he's probably married, Danil, relax)
Loads of other boats
Pictures are mixed up because I alternate between my camera and my dad's, so sorry.
Other peepur
My beanie's in almost every picture my dad took -.-
See?
And see again??
Glossed lips to prevent chapping
I know, an awful lot of pictures on the gondola here.
Ciao!
And we're nearing the end of our ride!
Took the water taxi back to Hotel Continental, dumped our stuff and went out for dinner.
Hideous photo, I know
That is red wine.
Kidding. Just cola.
Shermyn's eyes look as blue as her sweater.
Whuttayoulookingat?
Our waiter
After dinner we checked out of the hotel and went to the train station to catch the overnight train to Paris. It was a struggle pulling our luggage up though. Ugh.
We found our bunk and settled in. Me and Poo took the upper bunks.
It was SO cool.
Not my most flattering angle.
Yeah, we had that much luggage to bring along, so we had to put the heavy suitcases on the floor.
I look like L, of Death Note.
Sweet dreams :)
We slept quite soundly even though I was a tad scared of falling off the bed and onto the luggage or onto one of my parents, 'cause the only things preventing me from falling were the belts. Plus I was pretty small, so I wasn't sure if the two belts could actually hold me in place.
We woke up, got dressed and alighted. Paris was colddddd. We got a taxi, checked into the Victoria Palace Hotel and put down our stuff. Only one room was available for us since we checked in early, so we all bunched up to that room.
WOW.
It was HUGE!
And while we were in the room, IT SNOWED.
I WAS EXHILARATED.
Shaky with euphoria
SO PWETTY
Snowflakes keep falling on my head~
Went out to experience the snow:
Guy walked into the shot
Then we put on our gear and went out for a walk and had lunch at a Japanese restaurant. Food was okay-ish.
We went back and slept after a bit 'cause we were tired.
Next day, we went on the minibus tour to see the famous sights of Paris.
In the bus:
Magnificent hotel
Napoleon
Nutty French drivers
The Louvre! Didn't go inside though. :(
Then we arrived at Notre Dame!
Which is huge and imposing.
I was freezing, because my leggings were thin, hence my sour expression.
Then we went in.
Scary picture, sorry
The man in the yellow windbreaker is Mario, this nice Czech(?) man who was also on the tour with us.
Look at the stained glass windows!
Each a true beauty.
Captured with crappy photographs, sorry.
WA LAO, THE PHOTOGRAPHS DON'T DO AN IOTA OF JUSTICE.
*facepalms*
One of the nicer pictures I've taken thus far.
This too!
This too!!!
After that we had to leave for another church.
Moulin Rouge
Windmill
At the church
Was snowing slightly
No photos were allowed to be taken inside this church though.
After that we went on to the Eiffel Tower.
More in-bus photos
Ferris Wheel
It was snowing really hard by the time we got to the Eiffel Tower, and it was freezing cold. We queued up to enter the Eiffel Tower and take the lift up to the first level to the restaurant to have lunch.
I had turkey, foie gras and praline and chocolate cake. The cake was AWESOME.
While we ate...
Heavvyyyy
It was a bummer not being able to go out and see the view from outside the restaurant, but it was just too cold to be out.
So after lunch we went to the boat to take a ride on the Seine river.
It was a struggle walking to the boat as the ground was heavy with fresh snow, plus the wind blew hard and the cold was chilling.
Warm inside the boat!
A bird flew in!
Cute huh?!
Bloody snowstorm...
This large metal-phone-thing allowed you to listen to a commentary about the bridges we passed. On a side note, MY LV BAG IN THE BACKGROUND
The guy who was drawing in the snow
Then we went back to the hotel as it was too snowy to stay out for long.
Just as we got in and up to the room...
Grrrrrr! Snow stopped!
We went out for dinner at this small cafe called L'Horizon.
I had chocolate and banana crepes. Emphasis on the chocolate.
Because mine was like:
Most chocolate and a touch of banana.
They should've renamed it Death by Chocolate with a Bit of Banana Crepes.
Went back to the hotel, had a drink at the hotel bar. I had a non-alcoholic cocktail called a Poker, which was DAMN good, and a dish of strawberry ice-cream.
We went upstairs, played Texas Hold'Em Poker in me and my mum's room (we bought a whole poker chips set in Venice) and then hit the sack.
Next day...
Sleepy and grumpy
We went to the train station to get our tickets for the train to Germany, which was the next day.
'
After that we went shopping at Galerie Lafayette, and then back to the hotel to rest, and then out for dinner at the same cafe again. This time I didn't order chocolate and banana crepes, but had a ham omelette and we shared a pot (YES, A POT) of tiramisu. Mmmm.
Went back, packed up and slept.
Next day, we checked out and took a cab to the train station to Frankfurt, then to Wiesbaden. We arrived near 6 p.m. and took a taxi to the Achat hotel. Checked in, then went out for dinner.
From inside the restaurant.
Went back after a stroll to our hotel and slept.
The next day, we walked around and shopped a bit to kill time until my dad's friend, Thorsten and his sons, Fabio and Marco, and his girlfriend Katya arrived.
Small, pretty streets
With lovely big buildings
We also went to the Christmas markets. They were AWESOME. They sold so many beautiful amazing things, from anything to wooden swords to leather bags to toys. There were stalls selling food and hot red wine in mugs. When we met Thorsten later, he told us that the hot red wine sellers could earn profits of up to 400,000 euros in A MONTH.
Y'see, each mug of red wine costs 5 euros. If you return the mug, you get back 1 euro. If you don't, you get a nice little souvenir mug. They did a roaring trade as people kept coming back for refills and got drunk.
The Christmas markets were situated around this large red brick church.
Gloved finger the little black spot in the corner.
Train to take you around the markets
That evening we met Thorsten, Katya, Fabio and Marco and we went to have coffee and a cake. I had hot chocolate and some apple strudel. After that we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant. I ordered lasagna and was offered a glass of wine. The Chianti gave me a sore throat so I took a Spetzi (think that's how it's spelt) which is a mixture of Fanta and Sprite.
Then we walked around to the Christmas markets again.
Then we headed back to our hotel and slept, and the next day Thorsten and the boys picked us up to go bowling. Katya had to work so she couldn't come. :(
Me and Poo were in the boys' car and my parents were with Thorsten in his car. The boys drove REALLY REALLY fast, like 90 miles per hour, even on normal roads. O_O
After bowling, we went to their house. On the way there, we got separated from Thorsten's car by a traffic light and got lost, so we drove around aimlessly asking for directions from people on the street.
Eventually we managed to get to a gas station where Thorsten was waiting at and we sped off to his house. I fell asleep on the drive there.
I woke up to see the village and it was beautiful. Everywhere was snowy and grey and brilliant.
They had a dog called Mulan and we played with her, then the boys showed us their rooms and Marco gave me a rock/metal band catalog, which was awesome. Shermyn then hogged Fabio's PS2 while I played Marco's Wii with him for a while, then we went downstairs and explored the huge garden, then had to go out for dinner.
Me and Poo slept a bit on the drive to the restaurant, but I did wake up at one point to see a large deer at the side of the road with its bright eyes glinting at us. Marco explained that a lot of drivers often had accidents with the deer along the roads beside the forests.
The restaurant was lovely. It was a large stone house with spits to roast the ribs on. The ribs were absolutely delicious.
Thorsten and Daddy
Me, Marco and Shermyn
After that, we were sent back to the hotel and slept.
The next morning, when I was showering, I noticed it had snowed in the night. (Yes, in the hotel bathroom, the window that faces the shower doesn't have a shade so I can see to the building across). The rooftop was covered in snow.
This is the hotel garden.
We did some shopping around, and I went to The Dome, this really awesome goth/punk shop.
Outside The Dome
Goodbye to Germany!
And we head to Zurich, and from there to Luzern.
New goggles I bought at The Dome:
Cool right???
We arrived in Luzern and checked into the Hotel Flora.
Hotel room
Then we went to this nice restaurant called Mostrose for dinner (where we would also be having dinner at for the next few nights). We walked on the famous wooden bridge which used to be a torture chamber.
Outside the Mostrose:
The snow in Switzerland is beautiful, unlike Paris'. In Paris the snow was more like ice water. Here, if you catch the snow on your sleeve, you can study it and really see the beautiful crystal shape of it.
I certainly did. ^^
Good food
I likey my new earmuffs!
On the bridge
Pretty lights
We walked back and slept.
Next morning, we had a late breakfast at the hotel restaurant and went to this building called Bucherer. It's a watch shop mainly, but it boasts of a large mechanical clock inside the building called the Aion rolling ball clock.
We went shopping there and bought a lot of Swiss Army Knives, then walked out and had a bit of munchies at a place called Cafe Emilo's.
We walked back soon after that.
BIRDS!
Greedy birds actually. (You'll see why later.)
I went up to the hotel room and watched MTV while Poo sat downstairs at the lobby using the computer there. My parents went out to walk about. After about half an hour there was a knocking at the door, so I went to open it. I looked through the peephole and saw my mum. And this girl with red glasses and a purple jacket.
My brain was confused. This didn't look like Shermyn.
I opened the door and IT WAS LE-YI!!!
We hugged and I met her mum and Zhaoye and stepfather. We were like OMFG IT'S YOU SRSLY?! and were totally jubilant. I grabbed my stuff and we quickly went out.
Big peekture to prove it!
We had dinner at Mostrose AGAIN and then chatted happily together as we walked along to our hotels.
On my second last day of the vacation, I went with Le-yi and Zhaoye's tour group to the Swiss mountains.
On the bus
Didn't take much photos up there because it was freezing. Air was thin and the temperature was -12 degrees. We had a bit of a trek higher up the mountain then went down to the cafe to have hot drinks and soup. We then had a snowball fight outdoors. :D
I made some new friends: Timothy and his sister Rachel, and Iky.
We went out together after the excursion to the same Cafe Emilo's for lunch, then we kids went on to walk down the shopping streets.
Iky
Timothy and Zhaoye
Le-yi with an icicle, Rachel, Timothy, Iky and Zhaoye around a fountain
I love this honest sign.
We bought bread at the train station and walked back to the same wooden bridge/lake area and fed the birds. They came at us like in the movie The Crows. Holy cow. And one of the birds shat on Zhaoye. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
We emptied our store quickly and trotted to my hotel, where we played Blackjack.
Iky and Rachel
Stripping off the bulky jackets
Afterwards, the others left and my family and Le-yi's family went to Mostrose AGAIN! for dinner.
One reason we liked that restaurant so much (besides the food) was the waiter, a short bald cute guy called Patrick with a tiny tongue and ear stud. He was funny and friendly. :D
And after that we parted back to our hotels.
I had to wake up at 3 a.m. to take a shower before we left for the train station because we had to catch the 4.55 a.m. train direct to Zurich Airport. At the airport we waited and waited for our flight, as it was delayed due to a snowstorm brewing outside.
Eventually we got on, but had to wait for another three hours IN THE PLANE before we could take off due to clearing of the snow and ice off the runway. Phew.
Arrived back in Singapore 13 hours later.
Alright!
So the things I've bought on the trip were:
Louis Vuitton bag
Goth skull goggles
Small mirror
Paris souvenir purse (with a Made in China tag)
A Venetian mask
Two pairs of guitar earrings
White and red earmuffs
Camouflage Swiss Army Knife with my name engraved on it
Swarovski pink crystal pen
Swarovski snowflake earrings
Souvenir tiny Venetian masks
And certain people's Christmas gifts
THANK GOD I'VE FINISHED THIS AND CAN SLEEP NOW. Goodnight ^^
Updated by Theodora on 1:29 AM