Melbourne Photo Diary (:

It's been a month since I got back from Melbourne, and the nostalgia is still there :') I miss it so so much!

Monday morning rush in Melbourne

I love Melbourne for its markets and homeware stores, its florists and fresh produce. I could have gone on a completely crazy buying spree, but the only thing stopping me (fortunately or unfortunately) was my lack of luggage space. I'm so gonna fly there with 30kg luggage allowance the next time I go. Haha I could start stocking up items for my future home perhaps? :P

Went on a wine tour with Sam and that was definitely one of the highlights of our trip ^^ This was at the Domaine Chandon winery, which is related to Moet & Chandon! 

Those gorgeous rolling green fields behind us :') Sam was just commenting on how the vineyards here look so pretty! Greener and lusher than those we visited in Tuscany. Perhaps it's because of the different seasons, or the mood we were in. But we really had an awesome time during this wine tour ^^ Gotta admit it was a little too much in the end. I had almost enough to drink by lunchtime :x 

Love this photo of us :))) 

WE NEED TO TAKE MORE PHOTOS. 

I'm having this inner conflict about taking photos nowadays. Always want to capture all these beautiful moments together on camera, so that I can look back at those days :') And we should always take more photos when we still look young and fresh, right? Haha. But Sam just isn't a fan of taking photos -.- and sometimes the act of photo taking just interrupts the moment that should be enjoyed at that point. Am I making any sense? 

One of the best lunches we had was during the wine tour at Rochford Winery. That wagyu beef cheek with mashed sweet potato bathed in red wine jus was to die for!

We sat on the green grass, shared a cup of gelato and soaked in the afternoon sun (:

I really appreciated the time I had for myself in Melbourne. It was a good balance, spending time with Sam and other people, and also having a break to just wander alone. I took the safer route so that  I wouldn't get lost, along the Yarra River. And it is so picturesque :') It would have been wonderful walking along that stretch with Sam too. But alone, I had the chance to fully soak in the beauty of my surroundings and enjoy the sights and smells. This feeling of space, even in the city is so incredible, and is one thing I really wish Singapore had. 

Thankful for the late sunsets there :) This was at 7.30pm and the sun hadn't even started setting. So glad for the long days which gave me extra time to explore all these places.

Full of awe as I stood at the magnificent Shrine of Remembrance :') It's much nicer when it's empty haha.

Watched the sun go down over the Melbourne cityscape (: 

Yet another experience of travelling together and we're improving each time! Hehh ^^ 

August

So, I got an extra two months of summer, and it's come to an end. Bittersweet feelings about this new threshold that I'm going to cross. I'm actually kinda excited to be learning new things, especially since it seems quite pertinent to my life, which is definitely beneficial for my self-improvement, and could potentially help me to help others as well. Yet, I'm dreading leaving behind the comfortable life I've been enjoying for the past 23 years, and going on to this new stage, which only promises to be more challenging than I can ever imagine. August was filled with many happy moments though :) Perhaps it was that feeling that I won't be having much free time soon, and so I grasped all chances to catch up with people, some of whom I haven't seen in awhile. 

After that 5 day trek in Nepal, I've officially concluded that I'm no trekking material. I've got absolutely no interest in it! Everytime mummy asks me to go, I can't bring myself to do it. Oops :P Only friends like these are able to drag me on another hike :P Thankfully Singapore's terrain is so much more friendly, which made it pretty much a breeze! The chats we had along the way, the spectacular view from the MacRitchie Treetop, hilarious encounters with wild monkeys and ending off with an ice cream waffles treat (which negated all our exercise for the day :P) made the whole experience so fun ^^ 

Blur pic :(

But so so happy to meet up with this girl again!! Literally my longest friend ever :) We've known each other since we were kids! But haven't caught up for probably like 10 years or something. When we met, we basically caught up and updated each other on our entire lives since before time immemorial xD So glad that we still had so much to talk about (and so much in common!) even though we hadn't met for years.

Back to SMU to return our graduation gowns! And we went for Alumni Day together which turned out to be pretty blah. Haha the "free-flow champagne" turned out to be quite cui....we didn't even drink much of it in the end! But glad for the opportunity to catch up with the dearest superheroes ^^ Always such a joy to meet up with them! :))

JC Class Gathering! 

Have to say that it was quite a success actually ^^ Look at the number of people who turned up! Haha and we are all still the same after all these years. It's quite hilarious actually ;) 

Gathering with the hopers to celebrate Shan's birthday! :)) And we finally had the chance to meet her other half hehe. Whee always happy when the family grows ^^ And I'm so glad that so far managed to meet up with these important groups of friends at least once a month even though most of us have started working!

Met XT for lunch one of the days too! (: Hehe glad that we had a chance to catch up after meeting again during the class gathering.

Birthdays are always such a great opportunity to meet up!! :) Celebrated SK's birthday early since she had an off day then. Sad that quite a number of people couldn't make it :( Sam included mehhh. Poor boy was ill that day. But we still had fun with our cosy gathering nonetheless! And because I didn't have work (yet...) so totally had no time pressure and could chill very happily in their company :) Had two birthday cakes for SK, one with compliments from the restaurant! Haha turns out that their cake was wayyy better than the one we bought. Oops! If you see this SK, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! <3 

And finally! Sooo happy that we managed to catch Linwei in that super short period of time that she was back! ^^ Wheeeee. Tablemates reunited (: Hehe IJ friends are friends for life :') So thankful that even though Linwei only comes back once a year, and we usually only manage to meet her once, but we still always make it a point to do so :) please continue to come back!!!! We miss you!!

Ate a lot of good food this past week too. So happy that I managed to tick off quite a number of places on my foodie list! YAY!!! Satisfied :D And now, RW here I come.

Moments

Officially graduated! :)

It's such a surreal feeling, honestly. Donning the graduation gown & mortar board, limbing the stairs up to the stage (taking care not to trip and fall), shaking hands with the dean and receiving my scroll (or rather a blank folder haha) ... it's really the end of student life! A bittersweet feeling, thinking back at how much I've grown in these last four years. I'm really gonna miss school though! Although I'm really not a sentimental person when it comes to institutions (as in the school itself), but already, I miss the life, and the friends. The thought of not being able to see them as often as we get swept up into the world of working life, sigh :'(

Really thankful that I made such incredible friendships throughout my university life though! :') Some of the BEST friendships of my life, and I'm so sure that we can keep this up for the rest of our lives, which is such a wonderful thing to know :')

So much love! <3<3<3 Missing thad from the picture, but I'm so excited to receive our photoshoot pictures!! :) So so so many memories with this bunch. I'm so glad that we stuck together even though none of us made it through ballare haha. Never thought I would have ever made such close friends in a CCA, since it never was the case for me in the past. But we somehow just clicked, and I'm so thankful for a friend in every single one of these people. Almost every major (or minor) moment in university involves this bunch, and these were the happiest memories of my university life ^^ It's incredible how much we went through together! Studying together, pouring our hearts out to each other, chatting about anything&everything under the sun, catching the world cup together, travelling together (we must do that more!!), and now, graduating together :) So many things I treasure about the friendships with these people <3

Missing Dom & Shan! But hehh, these friends have seen me through the most shitty and unglamorous moments of university - OCSP and Nepal (the thought of it just kills me hahaha) - and still love me for it :) So happy that we've all finally found jobs just before officially graduating! <3 Having gone through some of the most challenging times together, I'm sure we'll go a long, long way :)

BFF :))))))) It was so unexpected that we ended up in the same university and same course together, and bidded for ALL our modules together #notkidding. Hehe so thankful for this girl <3 How we are so similar in personality and can understand each other so well because of that! (: Every time I chat with her reminds me why we're best friends, even if we haven't talked for a long time. Photo with our families together because we're almost like family to each other (: Love!!

To my biggest love, I'm so glad we're graduating together! :') You've been the BEST BEST BEST thing that has happened to me in the whole of my university life :) I'm so blessed to have you, and thank you for your being my greatest pillar of support in the past 2 years. Looking forward to creating even more memories with you as we move on to our next phase of life <3 I love you!!!!!!

Couldn't have done this without the most important people in my life :'))) Despite all the ups and downs, they've been the constant in my life, keeping me sane & happy hehe ^^ Wouldn't trade them for the world <3 Missing yi :( Come back soon!!!

It's a wrap! Thanks for the beautiful flowers, mummy & Sam's mummy :):) 

Bangkok in the first week of school! [Part 1]

hello!! (: starting on my bkk post first, even though this trip was later than my Aussie trip last december because i think this should be shorter haha. lots of backlog and i can't remember half the things that have gone on since then! xP whoops. haha hopefully because bkk was more recent so i'll do a better job of it! 

anyway, it was a #YOLO and #makingyear4count moment when my bestie & i decided to escape to bangkok in the first week of the school semester this year! ;) perks of having only a two day week hehe *allow me to gush about it for a moment* FINALLY EXPERIENCING THE YEAR 4 LIFE WOOHOO!!!! and i'm lovin' it! ;) it's so super shiok to 1) not have any accounting mods 2) not have any morning classes 3) only two days of school a.k.a. school feels like a weekend! or rather i have an extra-long weekend keke. too shiok. obviously i'm not thaaaat free (idk why my days still get filled up all the time. which has made it quite difficult to update this space :p), but this awesome timetable has really allowed me to find time to do many other things i love (: such as cook, bake and experiment with flower arranging! i guess you would probably have seen my cooking/baking adventures on instagram/recipes on my blog (lots more coming up!), but allow me to present the first ever flower arrangement i've done ^^ 

it's really an amateur one, and i think the flowers were rather cui because the florist was mainly stocking CNY plants rather than normal flowers (well at least they were on sale!! haha), but i'm still really happy i took the first step to creating this. i've got zero creativity really....need to improve on this (maybe that's why i decided to venture into flower arranging). anyway, if anyone is interested in giving me some lessons, i would be ever so grateful (: 

okay i digressed really far! :P oops! so anyway yep went to bkk in the first week of school. we almost didn't get to go because of all the bad news about the protests and stuff!!! :'( gosh it was such a nerve-wrecking week. we'd already paid and everything and were so excited to go!! but parents and friends were worried etc :/ anyway we managed to change our tigerair flight for a minimum fee to come back a day earlier so that we wouldn't get caught in the shutdown (for those who want to change flights to bkk, i think they will waive the change fee! check with them! cos they might pretend not to know -.- BE PERSISTENT) 

soooo okay bcos this post seems to be getting quite long already (haha), i've decided to split it into two parts

Part 1

Pratunam Morning Market 

Platinum Mall

Hotel

SIM Card

Travelling to the city centre from the airport

Part 2

Siam Centre/Square/Paragon/Market

Chatuchak

Union Mall

for shopping, we literally shopped from the CHEAPEST place, to the most expensive (or least cheap one).

our very sleepy morning faces zzz. because we woke up at 5.30am (OMG...) to catch the Pratunam Morning Market. it actually starts at 5am, and lasts till around 9am if i'm not wrong? we figured that it was no point going thaaaaat early because we heard that the stallholders would still be setting up at 5am. so we arrived there around 6am.

sun had barely risen at that time as you can see. so sleepy...but it was TOTALLY WORTH IT! ^^ all the stuff there were really really cheap. the rule of thumb seems to be: do not pay anything above 200 baht. they will also give wholesale prices if you buy more than 3 items. is it just me (i haven't been to bangkok for like maybe 10 years haha) or is there not much room for bargaining nowadays? i really have no idea! bcos a lot of them don't seem to allow much bargaining and being lazy as usual (haha), ngan and I didn't bother to bargain too much. the prices were pretty decent already anyway.

and this was our morning loot!!!! can you believe it?!!?!? hahaha just shopping from 6am-8am got us this amount of stuff :P hehe. *proud of ourselves* and everything was so cheap.

we headed to Platinum Mall after breakfast for more shopping! surprisingly covered Platinum mall really quickly. because it was just soooo messy (kinda like far east plaza) which was just too complicated to navigate already. we spent like only three hours there? haha so fast :p and i was absolutely appalled to see that some stuff were so freaking expensive O.O like 600 baht or sth?!?! i mean the quality was definitely good, but still, i was totally not prepared to buy anything in bkk at that price. in fact, i think other than my shoes, i didn't pay more than 300 baht for anything. haha.

i guess the best part of Platinum mall for me was the FOOD!!!!! on our first night we immediately headed to the Food Court on level 6 to get our thai food fix *woohoo!* pad thai and som tam papaya salad (stall 25 has many options! ask to try the fish sauce though, because it tasted real weird to us :p so you should ask to omit it if you don't like it). we also ordered the yam-flavoured mini belgium waffles (yummy!! wish it was hot thought xP) and the egg pan, which is the super duper cute dish you see there!!! it's sunny side up quails eggs! haha i'm super deprived of bangkok k, so please let me go crazy ;) i didn't experience all this the last time i came here (which was eons ago anyway). totally over-ordred and we were stuffed by the end!! but everything was so cheap (Y)

Platinum mall closes really early though. i think around 9pm? so be sure to go there early to shop/eat!!! i think by the time we went there, there were no more fresh waffles -.- 

okay shall stop here with the malls for now. but just some useful info to add! 

Hotel

we stayed at The 93 Hotel, which we booked through Agoda. if you think it sounds sleazy because it sounds like hotel 88, it's nothing like that. i thought it was pretty good! 

1. It was cheap

2. Good location (walking distance to Platinum/Siam area, and also right along the street where the Pratunam Morning Market was! so we literally could tumble out of bed and start shopping haha. VERY convenient)

3. Comfy room (the bed was awesomely comfy!! and it was sufficiently furnished/equipped. they even provide toothbrushes! haha not bad)

4. Decent restaurant (we had dinner there on one of the nights. i quite liked their green curry! and there is live music haha)

5. A pretty good massage just around the corner! okay this is quite hard to describe, but when you walk out of the hotel, turn right and walk along the main street and turn left into the first small street. there are signs pointing towards a massage place there. there are two directly opposite each other and we went to the one on the left TWICE because their foot massage was damn good especially after a day of walking & shopping hehe)

SIM Card

we bought it at the Suvarnabhumi Airport. at level one, there are quite a number of shops selling it for around the same price. we bought the one week SIM Card for 300MB of data (more than enough for our stay!) for 399 baht.

we were so amused at their mrt tokens!! haha super cute! you actually tap this little circle token just like an ez link card! anyway it's really easy to take the Airport Rail Link to the city centre. we took the train to the second last station, and this took around 30min and cost 40 baht.

and i shall save the rest for the next post, coming up in a few days time ;) stay tuned ~

Hello December! (:

hello! (: 

i'm a couple of days late, and i've gotta do the 'omg-i-cant-believe-how-time-flies-and-its-the-last-month-of-2013-already!' squeal that i've been seeing on quite a lot of blogs :p but it's true! it's amazing how this year has just flown past and we're into the last month. wow. and it's two days (or less actually!) till the end of my exams ~ liberation. i absolutely can't wait! 

these few days have just got me reflecting a little on my life so far. it's funny how this year seems to be characterized by one word - RUSHING. i don't know why that's the case! in fact, perhaps the whole of my university life was made up by a lot of that, but then again it's something pretty novel to me since i've lived most my life as a #lazybum hehe. i still am btw. anyway, i digress. it's pretty ironic (and i can imagine quite an uproar upon reading this) that even on exchange, i was rushing. hmm, at least in some ways, like to catch the train etc. and just this morning i was thinking, why did i rush for that train? i read this article on Thought Catalog: 10 Reasons why travelling makes you a better person, and this point was especially enlightening:

#5 Enjoying the moment: Forget the missed bus and enjoy the culture that can be experienced in one hour waiting at the bus stop. Stay in the present.

i mean, i know that missing a train probably has more negative implications than this, but that's beside the point. it wouldn't have hurt to try anyway. but this is it: enjoying the moment. exchange was probably one of the rarest times that i could take the time to enjoy the moment, simply because of how slow the life in Europe is, and the fact that studies didn't really matter. not that i didn't enjoy it, but i could have definitely lived in the moment more. i could have savoured it better, like a ferrero rocher that you try to hold on your tongue for as long as possible, enjoying the flavour before it disappears. #italyanalogyfail #alwaysthinkingoffood

it's always when something is taken away from you that you learn to appreciate it better. well, exchange is never going to come back again, but there is still a month left to 2013! (and i'm SO going back to Europe). let's not go into the details of this crazy semester, where rushing was taken to a whole new level. i think it's also partly to do with how slow i am at doing everyday things. oh wells. point for improvement there! 

anyway, it's December and exams are ending! so many things i want to do and so i've gotta plan my time well.

i wanna learn how to make flower arrangements! (: anyone who has any idea where i can do so, or is interested in teaching me, please do let me know! ^^ 

i think i'm actually going to be a nerd (learning from my smugger boyfriend :p) and buy my textbook next year and start reading it! no, not because i'm trying to study during my december break (such actions are not within my repertoire), but because i really want to get down to learn more about investing and i think this is a good way to begin!

i can't wait for my holiday!!!! going to Aussie with the family this month and i am so stoked :D my travel bug has been stagnant for way too long. vineyards here i comeeee ;) hehe.

and there is a whole long list of other things to do. honestly don't know how i'm going to fit everything in. including updating my blog (i've got a TONNE of backlog posts that are unwritten #killme) and i want to change my blog layout/design (no idea how to make it look nicer sigh :/ if anyone is willing to teach me again, i would greatly appreciate it!). but i will try to plan my time properly. most importantly, 

Live

i want to be like this. can't wait for this semester to end. please. faster. oh well at least the end is in sight.

and i get so easily distracted! it's times like these when i get the most jumpy and unfocused (which is exactly when i shouldn't). anyway, i've decided to embark on a new project. one photo a day, for the next, oh i dunno, few months perhaps? i want to buy a new camera, but before i get one, i want to make sure that it is a worthy buy. a photographer once told me that the key to a beautifully taken photograph is not in the camera, but in the amount of thought put into composing the photograph. makes sense :) so i'm going to try it. beautiful photos can be taken with any camera, including my S3, and that's how i'm going to start. 

this is such a random post.

Counting my blessings

it's been a long time since i've done an unscheduled post. but today i'm just super duper tired, and so sick of studying already. feel like ranting, but i shall not do it here. haha i think i've ranted enough to the people around me already. anyway the main point is that this semester has just been so horrifically sucky so far, and it's only going to get worse in the coming weeks. i'm dreading it so bad, and i just want the december holidays to come soon. like please. just make the time fast forward till then.

in the midst of this, i'm just trying really hard to stay happy, and reminding myself about the good things i have, rather than the bad. gosh i'm not usually so negative! anyway, i just thought it'd be a good time for me to count my blessings and put it down in words. this is something i try to do on new year's eve, looking back at the rest of the year, but i think now is timely enough to do so. i need a reminder anyway. haha for once i'm treating this blog like my real diary (my poor diary has been buried in my drawer since school started :'( boo..). anyway, i'm well aware that other people might have even better experiences etc, but i shall try not to think about that now yeah? so here goes (:

1. Going on exchange :) my dream since entering university, can't believe it finally came true!! Visited 7 countries and 19 cities and took a few thousands of photos. I was lucky to have had the most wonderful hosts while i was visiting some cities, and this made my experiences in these places even more wonderful. Had the chance to visit Yi in her university too! Check out my exchange adventures here! (: Super lucky to have had the opportunity to go there with Sam, since we didn't even apply together, and we learnt an incredible deal about each other during the whole process :)

2. Sam <3 my pillar of strength, and my big love :) i'm so glad that our relationship improved tremendously since we came back from exchange :') i always feel so blessed that we can tell each other anything, and that he's always there for me, encouraging me, cheering me up when i'm down and celebrating my successes with me. I'm so glad to be inspired by him, and i learn new things from him all the time :)

3. Family. the most important people in my life, who would never judge me and are always there for me and love me. no matter what. not seeing them while i was away for 5 months in Europe only made our reunion in London even sweeter ^^ love how we always have SO MUCH FUN. the coolest family i could ever have :)

4. Our new home. Renovations are almost done! and i have my own room (: can't wait to organize our housewarming!! (although i really hope that we do so only after all this craziness is overrr). all the hotel stays that came with it was a super plus point as well! ^^ having a gorgeous pool view at The Sentosa Resort while mugging for my midterms was one of my highlights of the year, and i'm even more excited to blog about my stay at my favourite place (soon!!)

5. Blog. Yup, this blog! (: haha finally kinda 'launched' it to people i know. still really shy about it (Sam will know that i don't like people to watch me while i'm writing). i always admire people who can write well, and i hope to be like that one day! definitely a long way to go for improvement, but i'm really touched at all the opportunities that have come my way because of this so far! Love all the food tastings that i've been to (yummyyyyyy, i had the opportunity to eat enough mooncakes to last me the whole season!). Received pretty parcels in the mailbox ^^ and had the chance to try out pampering beauty services at Ladyfinger and My Cozy Room. Really thankful for all these opportunities and the people behind them! (:

so yes, i AM lucky. lucky to be alive, lucky to be staying in Singapore (totally realized this during exchange), lucky to have the chance to go to school and make it to university. it's my last year! and there is just what, 1/4 of the semester left? i can do it!!! and so can all of you (: this is such a rambly post with no pictures, but to all of you reading, jiayou! 

What I've learnt about Italian food & dining experiences

[pic is from the post on drink me bar]

this is going to be quite a long wordy post haha. it's mainly all my anecdotes (and a chance for me to whine about how annoying it is haha) which shaped my understanding of the italian food culture. but if you're coming here, i believe it will be useful to know!

1. Meal times

In our first 3 days in Italy, poor sam spent everyday starving because we couldn't find food. irony #1 here is that even if you have money, you can't buy food if it's not the right time. italians (or maybe Europeans in general) eat dinner REALLY LATE. and note that in italy, the further south you go, the later dinner starts. for milan it starts around 8pm. lunch probably is somewhere between 12pm-3pm, but in between lunch & dinner, it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to find a restaurant that will serve you a decent meal when you're hungry.

Being typical singaporeans who eat at every time of the day, we were STUNNED to find that at 6pm, no food places were open (usually you can find pizzerias open in the city centre, but we were in the residential area so no food at all) and we were starving!!!! but in italy, too bad. suck it up xP

2. Apperitivo

A  saving-grace is their concept of apperitivo! (: probably one of the things i loved most about italy. this is a really cool version of happy hour (and this usually starts around 6/7pm so you can get your food fix here if you're hungry) where you buy a drink (can anything from €5 to more than €10 if you're in some really posh bar, though i've never tried those before) and you will have access to a buffet line of food where you can stuff yourself silly haha. of course it's not like a proper buffet (because it's so cheap). typically it's bar snacks, like sandwiches, chips, hams and things like that. but if you know where to go, you can get places which serve pastas and more substantial food. sometimes even dessert!

3. Courses

italian dining has MANY courses. and it's simply mind-boggling for foreigners to comprehend this sometimes. i was doing a project about Slow Food, and i was reading about this whole multi-course thing that is part of italy's culture of enjoying food. pretty interesting, if they actually practice it nowadays, but as you'll see in my next point, they seem to have almost completely lost it -.- 

these are the courses of a full italian meal: antipasto (appetizer), primi piatto (first course - pasta/rice), secondo (second course - meat/fish), contorni (side dish - vegetables), dolci (dessert). throw in a couple of drinks at the beginning (apperitivo) and end (digestivo) at the end of the meal, and you get a grand total of 7 courses!! *.* so complicated. 

what i really don't like about italian food is how they have to separate every.single.part.of.the.meal.into.a.different.course. like the meat, veg and carbs are all in separate portions! which makes is ridiculously expensive, and way too filling. on the other hand, simply eating, let's say a pasta, on its own just seems like a terribly unbalanced meal. and i really dislike how their veggies are in such a small portion and are often cold -.- gosh...how i missed my caifan 2veg+1meat when i was there!!!! 

4. Service

good service in italy is interpreted as FAST service. this was something i didn't know at the beginning and i was getting really annoyed with the service staff who seemed to always be chasing us away - attempting to clear our plates even before we'd finished eating, presenting us with the bill once everything was cleared. it was really getting on my nerves! so much for Slow Food yeah? -.- 

after that i realised that it was simply because that was what they were conditioned to do. not that i liked it any better, but i guess the understanding just made it easier to swallow. i suppose it's really important to manage your expectations when it comes to visiting a new place. there were definitely instances where we had outstanding service though (: even though most italian staff aren't able and aren't willing to speak english, it makes us appreciate it even more when we meet staff who are ever-so-willing to help.

5. Wine/Drinks

another thing that really irked me (not just in italy...france was like this too) was how in restaurants you're always expected to get a drink with your food. i just feel that they're so stick-in-the-mud sometimes and there is no freedom at all! >:( i think it's just an absolute waste of money to have to pay for bottle of water, just because it's presented to you in a pretty bottle, when i have perfectly drinkable water in a bottle in my bag -.- it's not like their water there is cheap. it's sometimes even more expensive than buying a beer, but so, i don't like beer and i wouldn't order it. sometimes they even expect customers to order wine. and yes, of course i would LOVE to, if i had the money, but unfortunately i carry a bag of gold with me tyvm. us poor students on a shoestring budget often have to suffer under the dirty looks of the service staff when we dine out. which is why i'd much rather cook.

6. What Italian food is about - regional & simple

kk enough complaining already :P haha i just didn't have a fantastic experience with italian food. but one thing i really appreciated was the freshness of their ingredients! :)) because italian food focuses heavily on regional cooking, each part of italy is special for a different way of cooking pasta, and the second courses are very much dependent on what is available in the region for harvesting. for example, seafood in rome is awesome! while you should definitely try the steak in florence ^^ things like that. you can check out this website to find out what are the must-eats in the region you're going to, and enjoy your dining experience in italy! ^^ 

Reminisce

i was just going through my photos to find the pizza place we first ate in Castellanza. and it suddenly just brought back a whole slew of images of this place. it's been only about a month since i've got back to singapore, and it already feels like the past half a year is somewhat like a distant memory. something i'll look back on fondly, knowing that i'll never have another experience like this again (or maybe i will...haha if i dream enough :p).

i realised i didn't post many pictures of life in castellanza. probably because it was just way too boring there. haha after the first two weeks we kinda figured there was really no point staying too long in this town, nor Milan, because either of these places had nothing much of value really. but i do miss those days, when life was really about just planning the next trip :p in between lessons, during lessons and after lessons haha. yep, that was my life for 4 months :P and i really enjoyed doing this. from being a complete noob at the start, i think i became quite good at it towards the end ;) and i did feel a sense of accomplishment planning our final italy trip! ;) 

haha we really didn't take a lot of pics actually. because *AHEM* sam doesn't like to take photos -.- something we are probably going to disagree on forever :P haha. these pics were in our first week or so in italy! (: when i was still relatively slim then... -.- haha. our first taste of limoncello, which we immediately concluded that it tastes disgusting! like drinking lozenges O.o 

i always have mildly retarded expressions on my face...trying to look greedy but #fail.

and now this is one greedy boy :P

heehee. this is our favourite pizza place! okay i know i said that Pizzeria Mondello has the best pizzas, but this was the shop that we patronized so often ^^ more for the kebabs though! because it is the most balanced meal we could get. LOVED the kebabs, although im sure there are better ones everywhere else in europe (this seems to be their kind of fast food! which i like way more than macs actually :D). and we went there so often, usually before and after every single trip haha, that the staff could recognise us ;) guess it's quite interesting to be a minority and stand out in the crowd for once! ^^ unfortunately i can't remember the name of this place, but it's the ONLY kebab shop in castellanza and it's right next to school, soooo i'm sure it's easy to find ;) this town is not big at all :)