If you can't understand the characters above, they are just New Year greetings in Chinese. It's my second weekend in Tilburg, all is well cause I'm quite well connected to the world via internet now. Skype phone calls are quite cheap (approx 3.5 cents SGD per min). My last update was on wednesday, so I should talk about what took place between wednesday and today.
Wednesday: there were course enrolments and immigration talks (for applying residence permits)
We were informed that if we don't get our residence permits, we won't be able to travel out of Netherlands if we have a Single Entry Visa (which I do). The residence permit can take up to 3months to process and there's no way we can rush the immigration office. Now I have already bought tickets for London - Milan on 18th Feb. So if I don't get my residence permit in time, I'm quite screwed. I'll have to change dates which is going to incur costs and I don't even know if that's possible.
After the worrisome immigration talk, I went to the City Centre hoping to find something to buy. I ended up in Albert Heijn (AH), a supermarket. I was suppose to meet Celine there but she couldn't find her way and ended up being really late. I waited for so long and was quite pissed. The plan was to go back to Stapps (the place where I live), drop the groceries and go back to school for the program at the sports centre. I got a sports card that night for 83 euros. It allows me to play sports and use the gym there. It's quite well equipped and classes are for free. So I can join the spinning class and play badminton and pilates class and what not. Today I shall go for Pilates!
On Thursday, there was an orientation to the Library and how to search for literature and stuff. Then a city tour later in the day led by ESN. It started raining and it was freezing cold! I couldn't remember much of the places we walked, but we ended up in City Hall. Where we had a reception to welcome our arrival. A speech was given by the deputy Mayor and he was a funny guy. I wonder if that's Dutch humour cause he was being very sarcastic yet funny. We were told some history of Tilburg, for example this was where one of their Kings felt at relaxed and Vincent van Gogh had his drawing class here. It must be one of the most pleasant speech I've heard.
Tilburg is the 6th largest city in Netherlands but it has no Metro. Many visitors were looking for the Metro stations but since there weren't any, the Dutch added a fake metro!Check out this video.
This is right in front of the City Hall! A fake Metro map and an opening from the ground where you can hear the sound of trains stopping and leaving the "station"! How bo liao is that? =P
On Friday, most people went for the introduction camp organised by ESN. I thought there's gonna be a lot of drinking and partying, which I'm not that keen so I didn't go in the end. I didn't really wanna get sloshed and tired over the weekend so I took it easy, relaxed and cleaned up the apartment. I cooked several meals together too. I kind of just wasted Friday away cause it was raining a lot and I didn't feel like doing anything. At night, I had dinner at Celine's apartment. We had pizza and curry with Ho, Dong Joo and Ewa. Then Selbi came home with Ruslan and Jane and one other friend whom I forgot her name. It was really cool cause there're Koreans, Kazaks, Turkmens, Singaporeans and Polish!
Since Ho was leaving Netherlands, we decided to have breakfast early the next day. I offered to cook breakfast at 7.30 and we had a great time chatting.
This is Ho (above)
Ho, Me and Dong Joo.
Our breakfast spread. Scrambled eggs, fried rice, toast with jam, peanut butter and hazelnut chocolate completed with tea and apples. Yum yum.After Ho went left for the airport, Dong Joo and I decided to go to the Asian supermarkets. Since it was next to the Koningsplein Market, I suggested walking through the market as well.
Outside Sin Fa (asian supermarket), we met a friendly Dutch.
The piping hot deep fried fish is absolutely delicious in this cold weather.After the market, we went to another bigger Asian supermarket because we couldn't get some stuff from the first one. I bought many items for the steamboat there. I had to get it on a Saturday because many shops close on Sundays.
Picture of a church in Tilburg on a beautiful day.
On Sunday, we had lunch at Dong Joo's place. He tried to make bibimbap for all of us. Good attempt although it turned out quite different from what I've tried in Singapore. The key is to just add a lot of "gochu-jang"; the chilli paste.
Finally on Sunday night which was 除夕 (the eve of Chinese New Year), we had steamboat! We did it in my rice cooker. Haha.. We spent about 25 euros? for 6 people. We were all full by the end so I guess it's quite okay. We had some leftovers too. As we were eating, I suddenly remembered what we were missing... fish. 年年有余！ But the steamboat 没有鱼！ The closest we had was 鱼圆！ Haha.. well as the saying goes, 没鱼虾也好 （bo hrr hei ma ho) We had prawns!
On the first day of CNY （初一）, I went to school to set up my wireless account, collected my student ID and went to gym. The 15min abs workout was intense and crazy. The lady instructor was high powered and I couldn't survive the first 5 minutes. I simply struggled through the whole process. After which I went for Pilates, that was quite good except I was aching quite badly already. Plus I was feeling cold too. After the workout session, I went to buy fish. Cause I was deteremined to have surplus (余） this year! i Also bought glutinous riceballs! Even though it's not winter solstice or "yuan xiao" (元宵）. With the remaining ingredients from the steamboat, I cooked noodles using my mum's style of cooking. Although it doesn't look great, but the taste is very nice! I used ikan bilis, dried shrimps, garlic, scrambled egg for the soup, added cabbage, fish slices and meat balls too. I liked what I cooked. Haha.
My noodles!
Glutinous Rice Balls
My New Year clothes, new sweater and pants. Both from H&M. Haha.. cheap stuff.
Finally, my video greetings (in order) for my immediate family, relatives, copar gisbu and friends.
(For parents, siblings)
(For uncles, aunties, cousins)
(For Copar Gisbu)
(For Friends of blog!)
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