k, this entry is a race against the clock.  have about 5 min before i officially turn 29 (officially as in by local time.  by time of place of birth, i'm already 29, tho i was born in the afternoon so technically, i'll still be 28 well into the morning..)

 

anyhow, since last blog:

 - visitor: cousin came and visited, took her around gva, then she went off to verbier with her friends for a week of skiing.  she's australian (not known for their snow) so was good to get an email from her today saying that she's back in london, and survived the swiss alps. :)

 - 12 hr thesis: handed in the first draft of my thesis.  did it in 12 hrs.  not bad, eh?  i said that i'm getting emboldened by my ability in rushing in decent-enuf-quality things at the last minute.  jason says i'm just getting cocky.  i think he's right. lol

 - snowboarding: may have noticed the new pix i'v put up.  hit the slopes twice in a week!  first time since i left canada!  went to chamonix last wed - cannot believe that i hadn't been until last week!  cute little town, beautiful scenary, great slopes, still-decent snow.  then on saturday went (again) to avoriaz.  more snow than the last time, and discovered the whole back-side.  very nice.  if i'm still here next yr, will definitely try to hit that up again after fresh snow

 - swiss countryside: gruyere, of cheese fame, is only 2 hrs away, and again, can't believe i haven't visited it til i went on sunday, with ming and andy and two of their visitors.  cute tiny little old village.  the chateau was a bit hokey inside, and the giger museum (celebrating the town's most famous son HR Giger, who won an oscar for comin gup with the alien in the movies Alien) was .. let's just say more than a little bizarre, especially its place in the middle of this old ancient town on a hill.  the bar just across the street, just as bizarre.  pix to come.

 

ok, 11:59. time's up.

 

ok i suck.  i'm not answering emails, which is normal, but i'm not even updating my blog, which i started so that i don't have to answer emails. lol

 

so here we go, quick update time (which coincidentally is also cram-time to rush in the first draft of my thesis for next monday.  progress thus far: 0 pages)

 

the big thing that happened over the last month of course was chinese new year, which, this year, didn't happen for me.  i forgot to look up when cny was gonna be, and my friend told me back in dec that it's end of jan (thx a lot ming!), and i shoulda known better than to believe things that come out of her mouth.  in any case, because of that in early jan, i booked myself to go somewhere every other week in feb.  THEN i found out that cny was feb 18, the day after i arrive in cologne from venice.  so, i spent the most non-traditional cny of my entire life.  but no matter, it was super fun.

 

so i missed out on some of the festivities that mike had planned in GVA, and seeing as how it was carnival in cologne, any sort of cny celebration would not have had any chances of being visible!  i did pop in to a chinese fast-food place, ordered in chinese (cuz i had to!  ich nein sprechen deutsch, remember?) and got a 同胞 (compatriot) discount. :)

 

the following wkend tho, back in gva, sophia and patsy threw an awesome cny party at l'orangerie (a local bar/lounge-cum-club once ppl like me start dancing on the bar and benches), and that made up for it - was back in partying form after a long hibernation from the gang (tho i had to leave early the next morn so i was already gone by 1).  AND, as a present, from virginia who had just gotten back from a trip to hk, i got 牛肉乾 (chinese beef jerky.. mmm sweet meat) !!  that stuff's like crack, and i'm surprised that i haven't completely devoured the whole box!  V - love you for smuggling meat across the border for me!!! :D

 

so that's it.  just busy with the 2 jobs and researching for my thesis, and tending to my 'social network' as i felt that i'd been neglecting my friends for so long.  a colleague (fellow UN slave) finished his internship last week.. sad to see him go, sadder yet to realize that he (and many more who will follow over the next month) is moving on to better and more exciting things - the lifestyle that i'm used to livign! - while i'm still here drudging thru my degree in gva.

 

as for travel updates:

 

 - venice (was only there 1 nite, and due to my mistake, booked the hotel room for the wrong day (wrong month in fact), so spent the nite in the mestre train station, outside on the platform in the freezing cold, then hopped on the first train 5am into venice central stn and tried to sleep there til the train started moving again. lol  yeah, i definitely don't have the 'sheraton enzyme' that i wrote about in my 'yuppiedom' entry) - the carnival there felt kinda contrived and touristy.. heard waaay too much north american english spoken.  venice itself tho was amazing, very beautiful, worth the hype.  will be back to check it out in daylight.

 - cologne - have heard it's the most friendly city in germany.  can't judge, cuz it was carnival wkend, and the place was off the hook!!!  think oktoberfest meets halloween.  check out my pix for a glimpse.  i had to catch the train on monday and couldn't check out the big rose pardae on monday, but did check out the smaller school parade on sunday - complete with ppl with bags asking for candy from the ppl marching in the parade (see what i mean by being like halloween?!)  hiroko and patrick (and a friend visiting from jpn) came as well, so it was good catching up

 - hamburg - just got back yesterday (technically this morning, cuz the flight was delayed (again! - twice in hamburg, twice the flight back was waaay delayed) - easyjet had a sale, i wanted to escape - didn't call up hiroko and patrick since i'll see them again in may, and plus i needed to get a lot of reading done and mull over some things by myself.  sorry guys, if you're reading this!  i quite like hamburg.. big enuf but not huge, weather could be better.  nice vibe overall.  also did the weekend-ticket and checked out rural northern germany as well (bremen, goslar, and the long train ride in between them all..)  saw most of what i wanted to see in hamburg, good beer, good food, met some great ppl.. not that i was depressed but they gave me a good boost in spirits, and i really needed that.  thx stefan, for being an awesome tour guide!  :))

 - and in between these bi-monthly hops, i was supposed to hit the slopes in the mtns.  didn't happen.  snow's been getting better but still sux. and just due to circumstance.  and last wed i was planning on just hopping the bus for the day to chamonix (still haven't been yet, believe it or not!) but instead, because of an offer for a free lift, went to a nearby small tiny place for a couple of hours instead.  (thx tensin!  - this time i'm actually sincere, it was a fun little distraction for the afternoon)

 

my cousin's visiting on wednesday for a few days before she heads off to verbier with her friends, i want to hit the slopes somewhere on sunday, and i really have to work on my thesis between now and monday.  oh yeah, and to get ready for classes to resume next week (bleah!)  so i might be silent for a while (or not, depends on my level of procrastination. hehe)

 

so a very belated:

  恭喜發財
  豬年快樂