Winteru no Kokoro

i'm at mcdonald louvre museum, paris now. I'm so tired today. Been walking a lot, my feet are at their limit, so since i found wireless i decided to blog abt my travel so far.

Venice was great! Every corner of the city deserve a picture. And the weather are great when i was there. Will be much better if i didnt go there alone...

Milan was beyond my expectation. First nite there,, sandro brought me to meet his friends, some guys from uni of bocconi, es that bocconi and an NUS alumni?' gaha, cant believe i can still meet nus gals even in milan. Aftr that we go club at the most popular club in town, just cavalli, owned by THAT cavalli. That nite i didnt sleep at all. Damn tired but it was super fun haha. Networked a lot at least.

Next da i went alone to go arnd milan. Seriously, milan is not so good for tourist, thee's not much thing to see there except duomo haha. But milan was unforgettable coz sandro told me a lot of thing abt business in italy, and some insight abt life as a private eqt analyst. Learnt a lot!

Now i'm in paris. Been wandering arnd the city as well. Still got a lot things i havent visited. Hopefully can cover it all bfore i head to oslo

i still have 2 hours to go bfore my flight, so i think i should do smth. I checkd all my emails, fb, twitter etc and i got bored, so yeah, maybe blogging a good choice.

I'll write abt ryanair i think, haha not a so good topic but i dunno what else i could blog abt. Ryanair is a very popular budget airline in europe. their flight is damn cheap...yeah maybe not during weekend and holiday but wel...For example my 3 tix cost me arnd 100eur, a pretty good price for peak season like this .

Hmm. Blogging using my handphone is not so good...cnt see the fulls screen, but nyway..

Im still 2 hours away from my flight...wondering why i arrive soe earley zzz. Bttw, i juz boiught a pretty good travel guide book of europe. My mission is, by the end of this yr, i must have visited at least 75% of countries listed there haha. First trip gonna be italy, france and norway.

I juz realize that im gonna visit italy at least 3 times, one is now, 2nd is for atp rome nt month and for my summer sch in july hahaa. I think i'm really attracted to exotic south europe such as italy and spain...hua wanna go spain soon!

Haha, come to think of it, maybe for the nxt 1 yr this blog gonna transform to a travel blog lol..

What should i do now...still got 2 hours, still... Hahah it's very annoying to get bored like this. Actually i have the guide book in front of me now, but too lazy to read, maybe later at the plane

Its getting dark here. And theres a good looking waitress at where i'm eating now. Yeah, i'm wondering why all waitress here are good looking. Even at mcdonalds...not fair haha? Back in sg wee got aunty2@ mcd but here got pretty blond guy/gals.

And i miss starbux... Last reading week i almost go orchard strbux everydaay ti study, well yeah, waste of money but i really cant stand the nus environment any longer at that time. I need fresh air and new enviro, so yeah orchard will be the most convenient. If there's not that 1 shitty programming module, i'll be able to pull up my cap. Wtf. I really hate programming, it's like what the hell should i learn programming. I'm very sure i dont want to do it in the future. No way. Say no to programming!

But yeah, i just realiz that in this yr, i think starting from my last summer, i changed a lot. I now know what i wanna do in the future. I sstill remember clearly when suang ask me what is my future plan and i said i didnt know, when we were in first yr...even in my 2nd yr i still dunno..i thought it gonna be enuf if i just do well on my study, i eventually found it. But its not enuf of cors...although its qt late, but i fgure out what i wanna do, what is my strenght and all. I now understand more of myself ever than bfore, whic is a good thing.

One friend once said that ppl nowadays are too focused on actions that they stopped thinking. . It's true for my case...bfore i was too focused on having fun and htackling challenge that i nvr take time to instrospect myself.

Thanks to slack semester last autumn, and hours of htht with ivone and suang, i bcome more aware of my surroundings, incl myself. U can say that i bcome more mature, no? Well, at least i bcome more sensible on consequences of my actions...and human relationship. Bfore that i nvr really think abt it. I alwys take relattionship for granted, maybe bcoz i always had good friends, normal friends who have straight lives since i was child...

After i go abroad, esp here, i met a lot of interesting ppl whose life are totally different from mine. Which made me realize that there are really a LOT of ways to live ur life, not always to bcome the best of all, not always to achieve sth.

But thats how i grew up. I get bored so easily and i always need challenge to stimulate me. I live on challenges. If there's no challenge i'll be damn bored and not feeling, u know, alive, like what i'm feeling right now T_T...

Hopefully this trip could bring back my energy. Thats why i didnt choos easy trip (fly, sleep at
hotel, sightseeing), but i choose to sleep at airport, get to know the local ppl and all. Meeting new ppl always excites me really. They're so different and there's always sth to learn from how they live their life...

I love being in europe in that sense. The ppl here are so different..lets see how italian and french and norwegian bhave haha..

Still 1 hour plus to my flight, sigh, but i think i've written enuf

I just feel that I don't really make the full use of my NOC opportunity here. Other than working and taking classes, I don't really do anything else. Well yeah, I did go to some networking events and all that, but don't feeling like I have accomplished something. There's no visible result so far..

I hate it because it makes me feel so useless. But there's nothing much I can do really, not a lot of things going on here in Stockholm (like competitions, events and all that), everything takes place in the damn Silicon Valley. And even if there's some interesting events going on, it'll be in Swedish! Hate it hate it!

Need more opportunities to try my luck once more and prove I can achieve something.

*and seeing my friends' facebook in SV/BV really made me envious T_T

I made some changes to my itinerary for Easter...

On 27 Mar I'm gonna have a day trip to Venice. Yeah Venice! Took a 2-hr train from Bergamo to Venice, then Venice to Milan in the afternoon. This gonna be fun yeah!
And from Oslo I'll not heading back directly to Stockholm, but instead going to...Bergen! I'm so tempted with the Fjords that I cant help it! Me and Sara would take bus from Oslo to Sogndal, see the fjords there and take the ferry to Bergen. This gonna be awesome. Amin!


Now planning my itinerary in Paris. I'm gonna spend 4 days there but I still dunno what I'm gonna do. Well, first day confirm go to Disneyland, second day doing tourisy stuff, third day maybe have a short trip to Versailles. Let's see!


Yeah baby yeah. I'm super excited now! Less than a week I'm gonna start this adventure. Better be prepared.

Btw, I plan to visit 8 UNESCO World Heritage List below:
1. Venice (the whole city is apparently on the list)
2. St.Maria delle Grazie + Last Supper, Milan
3. Versailles, Paris
4. Notre Dame, Paris
5. Palace of Fontaine Bleau, South Paris
6. Bank of Seine, Paris
7. Naeroyfjord, Norway
8. Bryggen, Bergen

My mission : 5 city, 8 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 10 days

I dont know whether it's good or bad. But lately I never thought about him anymore. Guess I start to forget him?

It takes a minute to have a crush on someone,
an hour to like someone, and an day to love someone...
but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

This quote, I don't know whether it's true. For me, yeah it takes a very short time to crush on someone (matter of days). But it's not true that it takes only a day to love someone. I took months or even years before I realize...And it's not true that it takes forever to forget someone, because, luckily I started to forget him, and prepare for the next stage of my life.

Yeah, I own back my life now...(should I be happy?)

Yeah, I booked all tickets for my Easter trip. It's the first trip I'm gonna do mini backpacking.
So here goes my itinerary :

26 Mar : fly to Bergamo, Milan
I'll arrive at 12am and I realize it'll be quite disturbing if I come to my host's house, Sandro Diazzi, at that time. So I'm still contemplating whether I should stayover at Bergamo airport or just take night train to Milan and go to his place. Hmm...after all staying over at airport would be adventure in itself, but it's quite dangerous (same goes with taking night train to Milan. I heard that Milan train station is not so safe at night, so yeah, let's see)

27 Mar : tour around Milan
I'm not sure what I'm gonna do in Milan on Saturday. Maybe doing some tourisy stuff like visiting Duomo, some museums, Milan stock exchange. Hopefully could go clubbing at night. Well, Milan is also famous for its nightlife other than its fashion :D

28 Mar : Skydive
I planned to go skydiving with Ramesh on Sunday at Casale Monferrato. Hopefully we can make it. I'm really looking forward to my first skydiving experience!
I'm not sure what I'm gonna do after Skydive, but I have 2 options : going back to Milan and watch ACMilan vs Lazio live at San Siro stadium or just touring the Casale city.

29 Mar : tour around Milan, flight to Paris
Last day at Milan. Not sure what I'll be doing. Maybe do some window shopping and visit some other popular spots
Fly to Paris at night. Arrive around 10pm, going to my Paris host's place, Magali Barot, to sleep and prepare for exciting Parisian tour the next day!

30 Mar : Disneyland Paris
I want to go to Disneyland as soon as possible to avoid the Easter crowd. So yeah. Hopefully I could enjoy it! Maybe going for a coffee or drink at night with Magali

31 Mar : tour around city
Doing some tourisy stuff again : Eiffel, Louvre, Notredam, Arc d Triomphe, La Defense
Move to Yejin's place at night :D

1 Apr : tour around city
David told me that you won't get enough Paris even for one week. So yeah I'll do another round of tourisy stuff. Versailles Palace, Paris stock exchange and other museums. Club at night?

2 Apr : tour around city
See above. another round of Paris touring!

3 Apr : fly to Oslo. Oslo city-tour!
Say goodbye to Paris. Catch flight to Oslo.
I haven't found my host yet in Oslo. worst case I need to sleep at hostel, but it's only 1 night after all, shouldn't be that expensive. So yeah, let's see.

4 Apr : another Oslo city tour. night train back to Stockholm
One day confirm not enough for touring a city. So here I am, another round of Oslo touring.
At night I'll be taking train back to Stockholm

5 Apr : an off day.
After traveling the whole week. I'm sure I must be very tired so I reserve a total day off before going back to work the next day.

Hopefully this trip will be very memorable and I could meet a lot of people along the way.

*refer to my latest post (just after this post)

One week can change everything.

One week ago I felt so useless being here. Not being productive and all.

But 2 strangers came to my rescue. They are couchsurfers who surf at my place. David, a Mexican-American came on Sunday-Tuesday while Yoko, a Japanese came Friday-Sunday.

My last week had been meaningful for me. I mentioned that I miss heart-to-heart and philosophical sharing session with Suang and Ivone, well I got it from them, 2 strangers who just happened to come to my place.

David shared a lot of things about his life to me. His own unique way to live life freely. It was very interesting, and inspiring. With Yoko it's me who talk how I live my life and how I ended up in this state now haha

They were good. and they opened my eyes that opportunity for learning is everywhere. Europe is indeed a very good place to learn (and travel)

I am scared.

What the hell I'm doing here in Stockholm? Everyday just do work and do technical stuff, and go to lecture learn technical stuff. Get restrained by the super strict program coordinator. Not going to any useful events.

While my friend back in Singapore got 7+ interviews for summer! Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, RBS, Bain&Co, Accenture to name a few. They're top firms you know.

And what the hell I'm doing here. Play skating every week. Talking about nonsense every lunch.

I am scared. I don't like losing out to my peers...

The adolescence that I'm talking about here is more about the searching for identity, that is. Well, I think I just began to grow up mentally last summer, when I interned at CS. Seriously, that simple internship changed my life forever. I started to learn about the importance of many intangible values like trust, friendship, leadership and all that. Previously I heck care about all those things, you know, I only care about fun and interesting things that would keep me out of boredom. I hate philosophy back then, after all I've been always an action-oriented person so I don't really want to 'think' to deep.

But really, from then on I enjoy human interaction and sharing session more than anything. I'd love to have a cup of coffee or dinner with someone and try to 'dig up' their experiences and thoughts. I became more sensible to my surroundings. Well yeah, I'm still selfish but I am no longer ignorant.

Yeah, up until now I'm still searching for my true self. Well, searching is not a right word...perhaps 'forming'? My true self if not out there, it's something that I must create myself.

Anyway, I just meet this stranger, a Mexican who's stayed at Texas but now teaching in Slovakia. He's very interesting and only in 3 days I learnt a lot from him. Well I told you, I receive knowledge more easily from the people who is enthusiastic about what they talked about (like American and Indian). His experience itself taught me that there are various things to live your life meaningfully. Everything is not about money and power. He used to think that way, he was business student after all. But well yeah, I don't know the real reason but he ditched all of that and became an English teacher at Slovakia.

Go the road less traveled or so people say. It's hard for a very business-minded and capitalist like me to think that the other way of life worth living. I'm very used to talk about everything in term of money, if not power and influence. Well, if you read Forbes often, you have no choice but to wonder how the people make it to the list and you started having ambition to be there as well someday...

But yeah, I guess my mind has changed a bit, thanks to his conspiracy theories and all that. I wish I could take another gap year to really go the road less traveled, before I really choose which way I wanna go