After 1 month in Deutschland.....

Okay.. I know I've been too lazy to update my blog but still trying to fit in to the new environment... =P
Have been here for one month and ten days and still trying to get used to the cold.. lol.. Chinese New Year just passed by as a breeze as there is no big celebration here like Singapore. Was soooooooo homesick during those first few days and I would just die for some of the dishes on the reunion table.. You know what I mean.... Maybe next year I will go home for CNY... Still need some of these familiar traditions once in awhile.. *winks*
Mikka's parents are really nice.. For the fact that my Deutsch still sux, we had to trouble them when the building maintainence guy came along to fix the taps when we had our washing machine installed.. Gosh.. Was really surprised at how the parts were corroding.. Should have had these changed long ago... Thankfully they are staying really close by..
Had the chance to meet up with Dawn & Kel when they came down to Stuttgart for a visit. Picked them up from Stuttgart HBF and hung around in town for the day.. Even brought them to Lola's (Towers is actually the name of the place but I call it Lola's.. a joke from last time) in Ludwisburg, my favourite Irish pub so far.. =D Hopefully will be able to meet up with Dawn again, maybe in Bonn before she finishes her work contract.
Also met up with my friend Cindy from the Deutsch class @ Goethe in Singapore. Her husband works in Nürnberg and they go back to Manheim where her in laws are staying once in awhile. So, Mikka & myself took a day trip to Manheim for a visit... =D  All I can say about Manheim is.... its a city of cars & traffic lights.. LOL.. Mikka was going crazy at the amount of times he had to stop on one stretch of the road cos the traffic light intervals was like every 30 - 50 meters.. Maybe its really better to go around that town on bicycles.. keke...
So, what have I been doing for the last month... Hmm... playing maid, cook and carpenter... LOL.. Have been trying out different kinds of recipe and poor Mikka has to eat... can't complain.. heh heh.. I also built up a chest of drawers from scratch... First time in my life.. but it was quite fun.. At first it drove me crazy and I wanted to kick myself for even attempting.. Should have waited for Mikka to finish work and build that up together.. But after awhile, I got it.. LOL..
Will be starting school next Tuesday @ the Henke Schulungen in Stuttgart downtown.. Compulsory Integration course that I have to take... Course will stretch all the way to July.. Hopefully I can catch up cos I'm actually joining another class that has already started....
Ohh.. and my ex company (the head office) offered me a 3 day translation job.. and I have to go to the city of Bielefeld which is (accordong to Mikka) around 300Km away from Stuttgart. After that, I will go to Hannover with them and join Mikka to come home... =D But that means I have to miss school for 2 days.. Think should be no problem.. plus I have to make some money for my monthly train ticket.. keke...

Will update again soon... =D

A New Phase... soon...

I know that I have been neglecting my dear blog for quite awhile but it seems like there are a hundred and one things to do and there is simply not enough time.... So here's a little summary of what has and is going to happen... keke...
Handed in my resignation to the company at the end of last month.. Eversince, it has been looking foward to finally being able to wake up in the morning not having to stress to go to work.. =P At present, I am handing over my stuff to the new girl that they hired to take-over my position. So, I will be officially 'unemployed' by end September. Still have loads to do even after I have stopped work. Have to go to Immgrations - ICA - to pick up my passport, then the Ministry of Foreign Affiars (MFA) to get our wedding certificate stamped and finally to the German Embassy (Deutsche Botschaft) to submit my documents for my visa application at the end of next week. Guess this will drag awhile cos from what I understand, there are still documents to be translated into German for the application but I will not know what they are until I have submitted the initial papers. Did I mention before that I have passed my A1 for my German Language course at Goethe? Results were not fantastic but I didn't do too bad either *winks* Also, I successfully passed my Advance Theory Test for my driving (I have to brag.. I got 100% correct answers.. keke...). The next step will be to complete my remaining 3 lessons and book a Test Date for my driving test itself. Think that's all? Nein... far from that. Have to start packing up my stuff to ship over to my 'new home' in Germany.. Mom has been nagging me to start packing. I made a joke that she can't wait to 'get rid' of me. Lots of stuff to be shipped so that's gonna cost me a bomb.. keke... *wonders if Mikka would subsidize me something.. LOL*
Before I leave my beautiful ASIA to go to EUROPE, my dear friends - Keani & Lucy - decided that we have to go on a trip together so we have arranged to tour Taiwan a little bit from end Oct - early Nov. 10 days in total and we will be eating and shopping to our hearts content.. *HAPPEE* I will go more into this in a separate entry.
Besides my own 'events' there are lots going on around too. Jo is already about 6 months pregnant, which means my little niece would be out to see the world sometime in November. I promised to wait till I can finally see her before I leave.. As for our new venture in the bag business here, things are progressing well and we are growing steadily with a regular base of customers.. This weekend we will have our first ever 'Roadshow' as Adrian calls it at T3. Hopefully the response will be good. So much so for now.. will update again soon.

Back to Driving lessons....

After a BIG break from my driving lessons due to my wedding, moving home and exam, I was finally back to learning how to operate that mean machine called 'Auto'..... My first lesson back in the driving school was a compulsory lesson for the Automatic car... (i'm actually learning the manual) Cool!! Its really like what Mikka says.. an arcade machine... LOL All you have to do is accelerate or brake.. Reminds me of the Daytonas in the game arcades... keke... I was actually wondering to myself why don't they just make all cars automatic.. saves the hassle.. *chuckle* Anyway, last Sunday I was back on to my normal 'Manual' lesson... I really hate the slopes!!! Kept dying off there.. I actually got it.. clutch and accelerator perfect! Guess what? The handbrakes had to play a joke on me... It was more or less stuck and I couldn't release it.. When I finally did manage to move it down (after much pulling and tugging) the balance was gone and the car died... *sob sob* The instructor knew that it was not my problem so she passed me thru for this lesson anyway.. =P But I sure hope I don't get that car again for my next lesson again.... Tomorrow is next lesson.. wish me luck!!

Prüfungsangst (Exam Stress)

Will be having my Start auf Deutsch - A1 examinations on Saturday.... Super stressed out!!! Haven't had time to do much studying cos of the moving lately.. Hopefully everything will be more or less in place so that I can finally sit down and hit the books. Thank God for nice classmates... Have been borrowing notes and getting hints and tips from all over the place. Feel so bad that I can't join them for study groups. Just hope that everything goes well... 

Driving lessons?? Me??

Went to my 1st driving lesson last week... The driving centre - SSDC - has just moved from its old home in Ang Mo Kio to Woodlands. Things were a little confusing at the school maybe cos it was the 1st day that they moved over. I couldn't find the vehicle that I was assigned to but I found  the instructor who was as confused. We later found out that our originally assigned car was in the workshop... The first thing that came into my mind when I was behind the wheel was.. "I can do this!!" The instructor went on to explain the controls and switches etc etc... My task for the lesson was basically starting the car, move off and going round and round the circuit.. The instructor was telling me that the circuit back in Ang Mo Kio was better.. Bigger and more spacious. Better for learners. I personally felt that the circuit in Woodlands is kinda scary.. Small, narrow and lots of blind spots.. Maybe its goods training for me... keke... I'll be goin for my 2nd lesson on Friday (too bad for me the dates are fully booked till then) and I hope I dun knock into or break anything... LOL..

German language course - A1

I'm down and out today.. A visit to the doc told me that I'm down with gastric flu.. Wonder where I got that from. Anyway, might not be a bad thing cos I have time to update my dear blog.. *giggle*

As I mentioned in my earlier post that I have been waiting for the registration at the Goethe Institute to open for term 5 of this year, I finally managed to get down to the school last Saturday and *viola* - registration is complete. I will officially start lessons on the 16th October 2009 *yay* and after that every Saturday lessons. ~Back to school~
While I was at the school, I paid for the 1st term (there are total 3 terms for level A1), my 'membership' with the school for a year and also for my textbooks for the course.. Took a little peek into the textbooks and thought to myself.. Ok, by the end of my 3 terms, I should be able to understand all these.. LOL
Sorry to say that my limited vocab of the language is still resticted to simple words like - Danke schön / Entschuldigung & 'Da bin Ich'.. *chuckles*  (sorry Mikka, but I try my best...)
Just to be more precise about the course structure in case anyone out there is thinking of taking the course too, level A1 consists of 3 parts - 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 (therefore 3 terms) and each term will have 10 lessons (once a week). If you have time to do the full-time course, the duration will of course be shorter cos the lessons run through the week (Mon-Fri) during the day. Just hope that everything goes fine and that I will be able to complete the entry level by May next year.

German Course... At long last...

Was faithfully checking the registration openings for the German language course by Goethe Institute Singapur for the past few weeks..
Today I finally got some good news from the school.. The registration for term 5 of this year is finally open. According to the German Embassy (in both Germany and Singapore), I will have to complete my A1 / A2 (not sure for B1 - have to re-check this once again) in order to complete the Resident visa application. Which means... another 30 weeks of school (minimum) for me... Honestly, I don't remember when was the last time I really touched a text book... LOL.. Well, just hope that everything goes well and I will be able to complete my course soon. *GRINZ*