do science ppl have a look? do engineers have a look too?

was stopped by some insurance ppl just outside my fna tutorial class. there was this lady who stopped derrick and "correctly" guessed that derrick was from engin. m she also "correctly" guessed that i was from Science. i dunno how she did that, but it seems as if the words "Science" is branded on my forehead. the lady claimed that she graduated from Arts, but she might be just bluffing us, but who cares, rite?

even auntie also wan to bully me

okay, i may not be bowling well, but why must i face off with an auntie with 27 pins handicap?

n i only have 10 pins handicap.

to cut the long story short, anyone who is familiar with a bowling league, will understand that bowlers face off one on one, with each game total worth a pt.

There was this auntie, who throws her ball so simply and strikes just as easily.
and she just so happens to be my opponent for tonight.

okay, i lost to an auntie tonight. n i cant be bothered to defend myself anymore...

saying goodbye to Spain

after being in Spain for so long, it was time for me to return to Sunny Singapore. and how i missed all the local food.

wanton mee, chicken rice, hokkien mee, carrot cake n etc...

okay now i can almost understand how those exchange students feel when they stay overseas.(well almost) except for the fact that they stay overseas for longer periods of time.

Las Meninas (Maids of Honor)

After Cuenca, we proceeded to Prado museum where we saw Velázquez 's greastest work, Las Meninas (Maids of Honor). and its true that if u roll up a piece of paper and look at the painting, you will see that the characters in ther painting become sort of like 3-dimensional, which is really very amazing.

Cuenca

Casas Colgadas (Hanging Houses), the most famous attraction of Cuenca. you will see this on every Cuenca t-shirt.



Catedral de Nuestra Señora de Gracia



This is a photo of (almost) all the teenagers on the trip, and i have been using it so far as my MSN display picture. The reason why i say (almost) is cause there were like 3 other teenagers from another family, but strangely, they dun mix around with us, it was mainly because their mother always carried a stern look around, so no one dared to approach the mother or their children.





Cuenca is located about 160km away from Madrid, n you can get there within 2 hours of driving and also this will be the last town that we will visit in Spain. It is another UNESCO world heritage site. It may not be as big or have that much sights as compared to Toledo, but the scenery is still breath-taking.

back in Madrid

After Toledo, we travelled back to Madrid, that's when my brother got very excited when our guide told us that Santiago Bernabeu was located near our hotel. As a Real Madrid supporter, there was no way that he could miss this. And so after dinner, we took the Metro for 2 stops(MRT system of Madrid) to the stadium. It was a strange sight to see 4 blur Singaporeans buy tickets on the Metro, and travel on the Metro. We were always very mindful of the people around us and the surroundings(due to the fact that EVERY travel guide advised us to be on the look-out for pick-pockets) We were lucky to meet a nice Security guard at the entrance of the Metro who directed us to the correct line to take. There are actually 8 lines of Metro in Madrid. N i do NOT wish to find out where i would get to if i took the wrong Metro line, especially in a place where I cant speak their native language. You should see how excited my brother was to see the words "Estadio Santiago Bernabeu" and how he touched the hallowed grounds of the club he supports.

Toledo

This was taken when the local guide brought us to some shop, where they displayed a huge variety of swords and such. was tempted to buy a set of small swords but was discouraged from doing so by my superstitious parents; who believed that it was "unlucky" to have swords inside the house.

This is the old entrance into Toledo, where the people had to cross the bridge to reach the city.

The Burial of the Count of Orgaz


This is where we saw one of the world's best paintings. (According to our guide, this is the world's rated #3 painting, i tried to search for information online, and all i found that this was( and still is) a very famous painting, but i cant find the rating for it as claimed by the guide)

This is how the nuns make the Mazapan(an almond pastry that is the speciality of Toledo)


An outside view of the cathedral.

This is said to be the crown that was worn by Isabella.


This is the ceremonial altar, weighs at least 20kg and is made purely of silver and gold.(i cannot imagine the actual cost of this whole thing) According to our local guide, it is only used on one day in the year for a religious ceremony and is then kept inside the church for the rest of the 364 days.



Inside the Cathedral of Toledo, where a hole in the ceiling was specially designed to allow sunlight to come in and shine on the facade.



Toledo is actually the ancient capital of Spain, it was the Capital before it was moved to Madrid. Toledo is also famous for it's swords and you can see many tourist shops displaying swords.

Cordoba

Somebody defaced the English translation of this information booth of the Mezquita. =(



More group photos from inside and around the Mezquita.


This is the Patio de los Naranjos or Court of Orange trees, located at the entrance of the Mezquita.


Next stop: Cordoba
The most famous icon of this city is the Mezquita. It's pronounced as Mes-qui-ta not Mosquita or Mosquito, okay?

It used to be a mosque, until the city was conquered by the Christians and converted into a church. The Spanish rulers liked the red and white tile arch structure so much that they retained the archs while building the church inside.

Sidestory: after visiting the Mezquita, the guide gave us some time to shop around the area. N the guide reminded us to be craeful of pick-pockets and gypsies. N my brother took his advice too literally. There was this particular gypsy lady who went around the area asking people to spare her some change. The lady 1st approached Mr Ong(One of the people on the trip with us, he was travelling with his family), who gave a stern face, but guess what happened when the gypsy lady approached my brother?

haha, my brother shouted "NO" (rather loudly) at her, n the gypsy lady got so frightened, that she promptly run away. Well, I guess she did not expect a tourist to do this kind of things to her bah.

Still in Malaga

My dad posing in front of the big Picasso poster.

along the streets of Malaga.



the 1st 2 photos are showing the Cathdral de Malaga. We were supposed to visit it but it was close for the Christmas holidays, so we ended up taking a short walk around the Cathdral. Malaga is also the birthplace of Picasso. (yes, THAT famous painter) i didnt know this little snippet of information til the guide told us and i saw those Picasso posters hanging everywhere in the city.

Malaga photo-stop

What the horse could be thinking:
"You got a problem with me?"

Flamenco

This was one of the optional tours on the Spain trip, we each had to pay like 30 euros to watch the Flamenco performed by the gypsies. The price included a free drink.(how much can a drink cost?) N if u add carefully, the cost for a family of 4 is actually 120 euros or SGD 240.(you can feed like around 8 people for that amount of money at a decent restaurant in Singapore) The whole performance lasted like an hour and a half, i wont say that the performance was horrendous but more of an okay experience. You can see and feel at the same time; that they were really putting in effort to put on the performance as they were all panting after all the continous tapping of the feet. The price is slightly on the high side but i guess this is what happens when you visit Europe, everything is expensive.

5-star experience (Granada)

got massage showerhead somemore!

Okay, the toilet bowl like thing with the seal is actually a thing for you to clean your butt, n this was present in every hotel in Spain we visited. There was actually someone in the tour(no names are mentioned here) who mistook it for something to wash his hair with, but luckily he learned of its true usage in the nick of time., before he did something that he will regret for the rest of his life.

LCD TV hor, dun play play!

okay, my first reaction when i opened the door into the room is "wah.... So nice ah!!!"
Honestly speaking, i cant remember checking in to a 5-star hotel in my whole lifetime.

After the visit to Alhambra, we were supposed to check in to Hotel Gran Luna(which is 3 or 4 stars, can't remember already) But we had a pleasant surprise, when our tour guide told us that we had a free upgrade to Hotel Nazaries (5 stars), courtesy of the travel agency. (yeah, of course happy lah, got free upgrade got people not happy one meh?)

break from Spain posts

There will now be a temporary break from all the Spain posts, as i blog about my brother's enlistment. There will not be any photos or anything, as i do not want to get into trouble with the law. okay?

It is a totally different experience when you go back to tekong as a trainee and you go back as a civilian. I guess after all that you have been through, you try to convince your brother that what he is doing is just a short stint and it will all be over soon.

When i look at the bunks and the recreation room that they show me, i could not help but have an evil grin deep down. Since BMT is approx ten weeks, they try to pack everything that you must know into these ten weeks, which usually leaves little room for free time. I can still swear "from the bottom of my heart" that in my whole stay in tekong, i have not stepped into my company's mess room at all.

I guess my brother must be feeling really un-easy in this whole NS experience, as he woke up at 5 am today and complained of fever and stomach-ache. (It may be because he was nervous) It was strange that during the whole enlistment process, he did not have the chance to meet up with his peers or friends from school. Maybe those assigned to his company today were mainly from other jcs bah.

The trainees at Tekong have a better life than back then. I can still remember my miserly $240 pay. If i'm not wrong, their starting pay is now $350. But the most important thing about staying in Tekong is .........

you get to save a lot of money(REALLY!), as you will NOT have the chance to spend money. The only way you can spend money is when you book out, which is only on weekends, how much can you spend on one week-end?

The recruits are now able to book out after 2 weeks, as compared to my 3-week confinement period, where your parents were able to visit you after 2 weeks and your 1st book out is after 3 weeks.

N if you really must know, my brother's 1st book out date will be 27-01-07. and he will be passing out of BMT on the 14-03-07.

My brother was feeling terrible throughout the whole enlistment process, most prob due to my "over-zealous concern". I helped him packed his bag, and chose a super-sized bag for him and made it as big as a back-packer. This sort of made him feel very malu as no one carried a bag as big as him, or bring as much stuff as he did. (But i did see some people using those trolley bags to enlist, haha, they think they go tekong for holiday is it?) In the end, we helped him remove some stuff from his bag and down-sized his bag, and then finally you can see him break out in a slight smile.

I know that he will most likely not be able to see this message, but i would still like to wish my younger brother all the best for his tekong experience.

Alhambra (Granada)

a group photo of everyone of the tour group.


Palacio de Generalife or Gineralife (the Muslim Jennat al Arif, "Garden of Arif," or "Garden of the Architect") (No, it is not pronounced as general-life, but ge-ne-ve-lift) This was the Summer palace for the Sultans of Granada.

A view of the city of Granada from the Alhambra.

Patio de los Leones (Court of the Lions) where the centre fountain is surrounded by 12 stone lions, but currently there are only 11 stone lions as one of the stone lions was taken away for re-storation works. the courtyard is also surrounded by 124 white marble columns.

The honeycomb roof inside the Sala de los Abencerrajes (Hall of the Abencerrages) where there is a story inside this hall. Rumour has it that the Sultan spotted a male with his queen, but he was not sure who the exact person was. He only knew that the man belonged to a particular family of the city, so he "invited" all the males of that family and promptly beheaded all of them inside this hall.


Patio de la Alberca (Court of the Blessing or Court of the Pond) where you can see the reflection of the surrounding buildings in the calm waters of the pond.


Alhambra which means "the red" in Arabic. It was a mosque, palace and fortress to the Sultans that ruled from Granada. Granada was the last Moorish stonghold that fell to the Christians. It is a UNISECO world heritage site, and to protect the Alhambra, they limit the amount of visitors that can enter into the place each day.