Hey guys! No, I'm not dead, but I definitely understand why people who go on exchange can't update their blogs as often - there's just so much to do, especially this first month settling in! Thanks for still visiting, and I definitely will be posting more regularly once school starts on 21st October ;)


I don't have many photos of my first few days in Karlsruhe, but here is a pretty epic night in the middle of O-phase, or our orientation. We had a Karaoke party where every group had to perform a piece - ours was Barbie Girl (if you couldn't guess). I walk into a kitchen during the pre-party full of guys all dressed in pink and everyone yells my name because they probably thought i was dead after the first night of partying - but I wasn't! We win 3rd out of 15 places, so it's not bad! But i guess i'm pretty lucky to have such a close knit orientation group and meeting people of different cultures, and they really aren't very different - I mean, everyone is human and has the same needs, the same feelings of awkwardness, craziness, etc. especially after a few drinks!


Somehow I wake up on time for Weißwurst breakfast at Jonas' house - the only time I get to take proper pictures of everyone in the day time! What a good day - we eat till we're stuffed and immerse ourselves in german culture - the singing, the dancing, the beer, the dirndls and the lederhosen. If you want to see more pictures, this is the post :)


The first true day of fall - we actually see the sun. The past few days have been rain, gloom and doom, so it's great to be able to lounge on the grass with other students outside the exchange office building with Dani (from Spain!), who obliges to take photos of me jumping up and down yelling "Karlsruhe!!!"


Another night, this time with pre-party at Julius'! I finally get Giulia (from Italy!) to come along with me, she's been incredibly focused all week looking for an apartment, and also my roomie at the A&O while we figured out life ahead. So glad we're settled now with our apartments!


International dinner night is a big buffet where everyone contributes a little food from their county, and I don't represent Singapore all that well because, well, I lack a kitchen, and I was the only Singaporean! But for those who haven't tried Singpaorean food, there's nothing quite like it anywhere in the world :) Everyone put a lot of heart and soul into preparing their food (oops) so I really got to try so much. My favourite was a dish by Sigi (from the Netherlands!) - a kind of cold, sour fish which stings at first but is super addictive!

And now I've been hanging at Stefanie's place as her house guest! She's such a dear and has the most amazing room and clothes! She also always feeds me with yummy tea all the time and this Elderflower syrup + sparkling water concoction. Yum! Met Pieter her roomie from Belgium, who is fabulous and absolutely loves baking. This is his "biscuit" (pronounced bis-kweet) experiment while I was cooking Bak Kut Teh for them. It's really great cooking for people who super appreciate it and they said i am an awesome cook! YES. No one at home will believe this, but i would say that so far I have been doing decently ;)


Spontaneous night walk to check out Karlsruhe's red light district! Prostitution is legal in Germany (I never knew), so you can walk past and see all the prostitutes just like in Amsterdam, and the small street was really near school, to my surprise, because I've walked past it many times in the day and never saw it!

And that's all for now! Exchange is a privilege, not a right, and I'm grateful so much to my parents every day for letting me come all the way here (as expensive as it is). When we Singaporeans go for exchange, sometimes we have a tendency to group together, but I guess being alone has forced me to mingle and make friends, and I'm really glad for the full multi cultural immersion!

Anyways, will be posting Croatia OR Oktoberfest photos up this weekend, so do check back!