Update: Stuttgart, April 12-13

At the spring festival in Stuttgart. This is the outside of the ride we took..

Some flying ride.. the dots up there are people and flying seats..

the three girls..

ferris wheel...

and dinner at night, cooked by shareen, aurelia and kanna. I just provided eye-power. =p

good weekend. =)

My rooom... =)

The view from my window... =)

My first laundry pile drying under the photos on the wall...

my table, which is stocked up with snacks. and do you spot the big tub of nutella? It's terrible. It says 'eat me' every other second.

shelves... 

and teddy on my bed. =)

a weekend to be thankful for.

Let's see. photos later k? I've got no more space in my com. for photos, thanks to all the movie videos that i've gotten from friends. =p

Saturday: finally managed to go ice skating! but oh my gosh, the place was utter chaos. Kids were throwing themselves on the ice, initially they were even chasing a small rubber ball around! I was so scared that i was going to be in the line of the ball or the kids or something. But it was good though. The place was relatively empty, as compared to the rinks in london. There I could just practice going faster, with an absolute clear path (cos all the kids were just throwing themselves onto the ice in the middle). Nice nice.. =D

Sunday: Went to church and lo and behold, they're letting me practice! =D .. I only got the chance to ask the Kantor after service, and during the entire service i was just praying that God will make it happen.. the church had a relatively decent organ, good acoustics.. and i guess one can say that I was really desperate to get a place to practice. And you know what's the most wonderful thing, I asked the Kantor when are the best times to practice (ie: when the church is usually free), and he said on tuesdays and fridays, which are (lo and behold again) my free days! The 'coincidence' was just too much. It's as if God's saying, 'don't doubt me, I'm here.' ... =D ... and truly, He is. There is really no way that this could have happened without His hand in it.

Psalm 93

1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed in majesty
and is armed with strength.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be moved.

2 Your throne was established long ago;
you are from all eternity.

3 The seas have lifted up, O LORD,
the seas have lifted up their voice;
the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.

4 Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea—
the LORD on high is mighty.

5 Your statutes stand firm;
holiness adorns your house
for endless days, O LORD.

...

i've realised how much i've taken for granted.. how much i've complained about, when in truth, there really is nothing that I should be complaining about. For everything i have now, is so much of a blessing. When one compares with what's 'better', one often forgets to remember about what one already has. I guess i've been too focused on the 'better', forgetting that in truth, i don't deserve any of these at all and everything comes as a blessing from our mighty Father God. Now as I start to settle in, and on hindsight, looking at the times that when i'm all alone, I can only look towards Him, I realise that maybe that's His way of bringing me back to Him, closer to Him.. creating the opportunity that would never have been there had I been too comfortable with life. And on this hindsight, everything seems so different... and i'm thankful. so very thankful, that my God, Who is mighty and armed with strength and robed in majesty, is holding my hand every step of the way.

to everyone: thanks. =)

Through this time, I've just been constantly reminded about how very small I am, and how very very much I need God. 

To the St. Anne's family: I miss you guys to bits. I never realised how much morning prayers and lunchtime concerts have formed part of my life until now. I've even taken to unconsciously putting my coins into stacks. (alex will know why. =p ) And thank you so very much for your prayer support. I can never tell you how much it means to me.

Just want to share a song, from Point of Grace: You'll never walk alone.

"Along life's road
There will be sunshine and rain
Roses and thorns, laughter and pain
And 'cross the miles
You will face mountains so steep
Deserts so long and valleys so deep
Sometimes the Journey's gentle
Sometimes the cold winds blow
But I want you to remember
I want you to know

You will never walk alone
As long as you have faith
Jesus will be right beside you all the way
And you may feel you're far from home
But home is where He is
And He'll be there down every road
You will never walk alone

Never, no never

The path will wind
And you will find wonders and fears
Labors of love and a few falling tears
Across the years
There will be some twists and turns
Mistakes to make and lessons to learn
Sometimes the journey's gentle
Sometimes the cold winds blow
But I want you to remember wherever you may go

Jesus knows your joy, Jesus knows your need
He will go the distance with you faithfully."

two weeks since leaving good old london...

It's been two weeks of a roller coaster ride.. Let's start from the very beginning..

Arrived in Heidelberg on the 1st of April, with heavy heavy bags that my poor babe had to carry. Landed to administrative ridiculousness, with Heidelberg's administration hailing as one of the more primitive of universities' I've encountered. Or maybe I've just been taking NUS for granted. In NUS, where matriculation only consists of one step, where one collects everything from the same place, where people speak english, where most things are organised and electronic... Just think of Heidelberg as the opposite. I'm still adamantly lamenting that Heidelberg has almost absolutely nothing. 

Went to Lindau after that for a blissful few days, with good food, lots of time, no administrative stress...

then back to Heidelberg. The first few days alone were just miserable. Everything's so different here. It's like thrown into a place 10 years behind. Everything is done by paper work, not extremely fantastic in the organisation department, in german,... and just generally very different from the fuss-free, easy life i led back in both Singapore and London. Every lecture's conducted differently, with each lecturer having his/her own method of conducting the class and of signing people up. There're even different certificates one can get out of taking the same class. And whoa. the workload's just madness. But thankfully that's the workload for the music module i'm taking, so i guess i don't mind that much that it's a tad bit a lot more than what i've been used to. And another thing, module mapping has just been so utterly cruel.. and to save myself the stress and headache i've decided to do a special semester in NUS when i get back so that I can just take 4 modules here, and hopefully be able to concentrate on music once i manage to find a piano or an organ. (now that's another problem..... -.- 

ya. generally. i need all your prayer help.

first few days in Deutschland... (not heidelberg, yet.)

visiting at Lindau, an island at Bodensee.. nice little town.. nice, but little. but still nice.

went shopping at Ravensburg, and found this little 'bridge' in the middle of nowhere that looked nice. The rest of the town doesn't look like that though. =p .. oh oh.. but there's this interesting see-saw where instead of sitting, one stands on it.. quite fun. =D

Crystal World! that was really really a treat for the eyes. SO so so so many crystals.. and really interesting displays too..

and finally.. the Alps. =D ... snow. at long last.