Life goes on… in Amsterdam!

It was just a short excursion. HP Zürich invited Vik for a job interview, so I just followed him there. 4 hours
drive to reach there from Darmstadt, along the way we passed by the
Black Forest (I’m talking about pine trees here, not the cake you eat
ya).

As Switzerland is not part of the European Union, crossing the border to Switzerland was so much different from crossing the border to Denmark. At Denmark, nobody was at the border to check us, unlike Switzerland, where the border guards stopped us and checked our passport. The thing which I still don’t
understand here is, the Swiss custom didn’t stamp anything in my
passport, just the German custom put a stamp indicating that I departed Germany (Aren’t the Swiss supposed to stamp something showing I
enter their country?)

Anyway, to drive in Switzerland, you need a vignette. It is a sticker which entitles you to drive on the highway (they called it autoroute) for 1 year. Vik bought the vignette before crossing the border, it costs him 28.50 Euro, which is about 40 Swiss Franc (no worries, can resell it on e-bay later). 

We went first to HP, where Vik had his job interview and I sat in the car, waited for almost 2 hours.Too bad the company is situated in Düdendorf but not the city centre, else I would have walk around the city myself. By the time we arrived at Zürich city centre, it was almost 5pm. Since we did not have Swiss Franc with us, we just walked around taking pictures. Saw some nice parks and gardens, main railway station, trams on the street (reminded me of those in Melbourne because they look alike), river Limmat, Grossmünster church and Zürich Lake. I like the shopping streets here, they look so typically "european". The police station looked so "leisure", it doesn’t appear like a police station at all. As I already reached my photo upload limit here on Friendster (and Flickr as well, bad), you have to click on the link below if you would like to look at some pictures taken there:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46469234@N00/sets/72157594213921165/

I saw quite a lot of Asians here, not too bad. Then I started to wonder about the official language in this country. Vik said it has to be German, even though their German has got a kind of accent. Then I found out the German people here speak is called Schwyzerdütsch, and that’s not all, this country has got 4 official languages! Nope, not English, but French, Italian and Romansh.

In general, I would say I like this city, it is clean and neat, and it is also the world’s top city for quality of living. Yet I can hardly imagine myself staying here (unless I am damn rich or I have an extremely well-paid job), because this is a very "pricy city", and burgers are most expensive here in this country as compared to other countries in the world!
If you are interested to know more about the price of burgers in other countries, visit
http://www.economist.com/markets/bigmac/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4065603

Haha, never in my life I appreciate RAIN so much! Since it is cool enough now, let me quickly post some photos of the BBQ evening here…
I had a wonderful time, I believe all those who attended felt the same way as I do. First we met at the rooftop terrace of the student appartment here, where Vik and I are staying now.
Mischa came early to help Vik set up the fire, he has been very helpful!

Then I carried all the food I prepared from the kitchen to the terrace. I walked like 20 times to and fro, good for me, haha…
Then all the "guests" arrived, we started eating, yummy, but was frequently disturbed by the bees there. I have no idea where they come from…
After food we went back to the room, and had some champagne. Then there was a power point presentation about me and Vik, how we first met each other until the day we got married. Then we had a very nice cake, too bad I didn’t take picture of that, but maybe Frank did, have to ask him… Anyway, after the cake people just stayed there, chatting with one another, and we had ice-cream as well, yummy (you can imagine how many calories I’ve taken in that day, bad bad…)

Of course, I was very happy and surprised of the presents we got that day. Other than vouchers, we got this "plant with money hanging on it", very interesting! And a really cool 3 in 1 device which functions as a sandwich toaster, waffle automat,
or contact grill! Then they bought us FOOD as well, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and some sauces… It was really a great evening! :p

p/s: for a few more photos, you are welcome to visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/46469234@N00/show/

These few days have been extremely HOT! As a result of the heat, I can’t turn on my laptop for more than 20 mins, I can’t sleep properly at night, and cooking becomes a sweaty task - not fun anymore. There is neither an air conditioner nor a fan in this room, if you are asking me why, that is because people in this country do not need them usually, unless when shitty weather like this happens, then perhaps people will start looking for a fan. I asked Vik how long more will I have to live in anguish because of the heat, he said it should be over by this week, I hope he is right (he’d better be, I don’t want to suffer from heatstroke or something like that).
Then suddenly it rained for about an hour just now, strong and COOL wind brought fresh air into this room again! I was so happy, so so happy, haha… Vik and I sat at the balcony for a while, let the rain drops fell on us, they can’t make us much harm, so it’s fine. I saw lightning and thunder, and Vik taught me something quite useful out of that. He taught me how to estimate the distance between my location and the place the lightning strikes (for those who already know how, you can skip the next few sentences). This is a simple version, for dummies (like me). What you have to do is to start calculate in seconds once you see the lightning, and stop calculating until you hear the thunder. The larger the number, the further you are away from the lightning, so you won’t be strike by it and you are safe. But if you see the lightning and hear the thunder at the same time, hmmm… To know more in details how lightning and thunder relate to each other, you can check this out: http://weathereye.kgan.com/cadet/lightning/thunder.html
Well, I guess I have to stop writing now. The pictures from yesterday’s BBQ evening are still in the digital camera, I’d better transfer them into my laptop before it gets hot again.

Man… It’s 10:09pm now, the girl next door is wearing her bathrobe, and she just borrowed a MEN’s shaving cream from my hubby! What is wrong with people in this world nowadays? And the most interesting thing is, she took it and went straight into her room (my hubby said she took the shaver with her as well)! Okay, I know her boyfriend is in her room, but still… A guy and a girl shaving in a bedroom??? Isn’t that too much??? Gosh… I am speechless…

Meet the Nikulins! Now this family has got a new member, the not-so-Nikulin one, haha… Of course I am referring to myself! I was so surprised on the day Vik and I arrived there after our registration. At first Vik’s sister hugged me, then followed by his father and his mother. So many presents awaiting us, 6 piece dish set, bed sheet set, flowers, greeting card, and a kind of "ang pao", hehe… Nevertheless, what made me felt so warm in heart were not those presents, but the hugs and words they said. My mother-in-law said she is happy to have a nice new daughter, hearing that, tears almost fell from my eyes… Suddenly I remember I experienced this emotion before, when Vik promised my mum that he will take good care of me before I left Kuantan one and a half months ago… Deep inside my heart, I am sure that the Nikulins do love me and I am blessed to be part of this family…

Yes, I am back from Denmark, and I am officially MARRIED! Thank you very much for all the nice and sweet wedding wishes, I am so happy to have friends like you all!
Ok, this is my favourite picture from the day of registration in Sonderborg, Denmark. You can find the rest of the pictures (not so nice ones) in my album ok?

Basically, everything went on well with the registration. The ceremony was held in English, but the lady sound so strange (due to her Danish accent), I almost burst into laughter at the first few minutes of the ceremony (hahahaha, now I can laugh). After she introduced herself, the Sonderborg Commune and the witnesses (a guy and a gal, the guy was also my photographer), she started to "preach" about how a marriage should be and so on (thank goodness it was not too long, because now that I try to recall what she said, I can remember only about 3 sentences…). Then she asked us to stand up, and the most important part of the ceremony took place - the "Yes, I do" from Vik and I. After that, exchanged of rings, and then she announced "You may now kiss the bride". Guess what? I waited for 5 seconds, nothing happened. Hello? I thought I am supposed to be kissed ler, what is Vik doing? Poor dear, rupa-rupanya, he did not understand what she said la, hahahaha, because of her strong Danish accent… So the lady repeated herself, and then we kissed… hehe… After kissing, we signed the papers, followed by the witnesses. Then the lady gave us a gift from the Sonderborg Commune, two wine glasses with the logo of the Sonderborg Commune printed on them, nicely packed.
The whole ceremony took not more than 15 mins. I was kind of excited and anxious (I didn’t even sit at the chair provided when I signed the marriage certificate) throughout the ceremony, that was partly why I did not smile at the camera (therefore most of the pictures look… you go see for yourself la). So that was it, we tied the knot… May this be the new beginning of an everlasting happiness! : )

p/s: the link to the album - http://rebecca0906.blogs.friendster.com/photos/wedding_pictures/

8th July 2006. In Stuttgard, Germany trashed Portugal and won the third place in FIFA World Cup 2006. In Darmstadt, Vik proposed to me and I say "Yes" to him. It was a simple proposal, with a big red rose, and a diamond ring, at home. But, that was actually my third time saying "Yes" to him (hehe, not going to eleborate on that here, but if you really want to know, ask me personally on msn ya :p).
So, that was it, a formal proposal from my soon-to-be-husband, something I’ve dreamt about not all of my life but almost one quarter of my life, hehe… I didn’t get anything extraordinary, neither 100 roses nor a 2-carat diamond ring (I got a 0.22-carat one instead, hehe), yet deep in my heart, I know Vik already tried his best. After all, what really matter is his love to me, and our love for each other. Without love, how can two persons from different countries with different cultural and family backgrounds join together?

Then what is going to happen next, is our marriage registration, which is going to take place next Thursday in Sonderborg, Denmark. Seriously, I have no idea why am I feeling so calm and so peaceful now… Am I not supposed to be anxious, excited and thrilled? Perhaps these feelings will come later, ya maybe… Wait, I think I am feeling something now, I am worried… Gosh, are those people going to speak English with me? Or German? Or Danish? Can’t be Chinese right? I hope I won’t turn up like a fool on my own marriage registration day… By the way, does anyone has any idea what should I wear on that day?
Whatever it is, I will definitely try to get someone ( I don’t care which language the person speaks) to take some pictures of the registration. Let’s hope that the pictures will look good, so that I can upload them here, otherwise  there will be nothing which I can share with you guys ler, hehe…

"God has no mercy on Germany, my heart breaks not once but twice. We’ve done whatever we can, our journey stopped here. Germany, I’m still proud of you!" - an sms I received from a friend back home, after Germany was beaten in Dortmund for the first time ever, sigh…
What can I say? All my previous imaginations vanished, Germany is not going to play in Berlin anymore, on 9th July… Aih, even Vik can see the sorrow in my eyes… Feeling so lost suddenly, sigh… I really thought there will be a chance during penalty-shoot-out, who knows it all ended during extra time, sigh… Azzurri, why do you have to be so mean? You killed our dreams, sigh…
I think I’d better go to bed… writing nonsense already, am I? goodnight… sigh…

What is Heinerfest? Many of my friends on MSN asked me this question. So I’ve decided to write something about this Heinerfest here.
Heinerfest (pronounced as hai-na-fes), is one of the largest city celebrations in Germany. It takes place only once a year, in the month of July (usually 5 days around the first Sunday in July). This year, Heinerfest started on 29th June, and today 3rd July is the last day of this event. Since I am the "free-est" person in the whole city of Darmstadt (I truly believe I am), I go there everyday (tonight there will be fireworks, so I am not going in the afternoon).

Day 1 - I was there with a Chinaman! Hahaha… This guy’s name is "Zhou AiJun", I call him Joe. We got to know each other from the same online German learning website where I found SooLing. The atmosphere there was quite serene on the first day. We took a walk around the whole area of Heinerfest, played some games, and took some pictures. I was so happy to have won a Goleo playing one of the games.


Day 2 - Went there with Vik, Frank and Dietrich. Frank loves Jazz, plays saxophone and has a wife from Shang Hai. Dietrich is still writing his thesis, like Vik. We were there after watching the quarter final of Germany vs. Argentina. So you can imagine how the atmosphere was. Vik and I took a ride in the Giant Ferris Wheel, and then the four of us played the so called "Washing Machine". I seriously think this thing has another name, it should be called "Make-You-Wanna-Puke Maschine" or something like that…

Day 3 - My happiest day at Heinerfest! Hahaha… That was because I got to eat this very delicious "Obst Schocolade", direct translation will be "fruit chocolate". Due to the bad experience from the day before, we did not play any games today. Just walked around and ate some snacks. After that we sat at a corner and the guys (Vik, Frank, Matthias and another Matthias) drank beer, I had a Coke. Then we chatted and lepak until almost 2am baru balik rumah… I was so tired… 

Day 4 - Matthias wanted to eat ice-cream together, so we decided to meet up and visited Heinerfest again… This time Christine (Frank’s wife) was with us, and I got to speak "China Chinese" with her. She was discharged from the hospital the day before (due to an operation which I am not supposed to share), but looked okay. So the guys talked about their computer stuff, while Christine and I talked about our lives in Germany, as a foreigner who married a German, hahaha…


Day 5 - Today. Will go to the Heinerfest in the evening with Vik. Just want to watch the closing of the celebration with fireworks.

To all the Heiner (the Darmstadt population), Heinerfest is more than just a celebration, it is an indication of hope, as this celebration was grounded in the year 1951, after the destroyed city of Darmstadt was reconstructed!