went on an 8-km walk with two japanese friends. about there. to see the "BIG TREE" and back. it was a nice walk although it drizzled halfway. and then we had a great lunch. haha, but i still hope i burned more calories than i took in.

Schwaebisch Hall from the top of the hill.

walked through a village. this house has freaking pretty flowers!!

the "Grosser Baum". right. we walked freaking 4 km for this?? there was a tree this size in front of my primary school!!

but oh well it was fun. besides, there isn't much else to do in town on a sunday. everything's closed. and it was a good way of experiencing nature. so ya, i don't mind going wandering again some other day.

today we went to a trip to the region of Schwaeb. Alb. it was crazy cold. about 10 degrees. that, to me, was real cold. anyhow. we set out at 7.30 am and reached home about 7.30 pm. 12 hours. hm.. well overall i liked the stuttgart trip better. haha. this one, well not too bad towards the end but the first two stops were.. not cool.

had 3 stops. 1. Schloss Lichtenstein. i checked this out online. it's nowhere near Liechtenstein the country (with e), which is next to Switzerland. and it's also nowhere near Lichtenstein the city, which is in germany but in Saxony (and we're in a different province, Baden-Wurttemberg). anyway, for the 2.5 hours journey we went through to get there, it wasn't worth it. there wasn't much to see cos we were only shown like 4 rooms?? looks quite cool from the outside though.


2. Baerenhoehle. this was the lowest point of the trip, cos we were so hungry, and so freaking cold. if it was 10 degrees outside, imagine, it was probably like 6 freaking degrees inside the cave. i wasn't so big on this because erm.. i HAVE SEEN a stalactite-stalagmite cave. besides the guide spoke with quite a strong accent and quickly, too, and with technical terms, i understood nearly zero. plus my brain wasn't thinking with all the cold. so it was really unimpressive. there were bear remains though (as seen below).


3. Schloss Sigmaringen. it doesn't look very nice from just outside. but this was the best part of the trip cos the interior was cool, albeit more "recent". and the guide was clear and informative. some really cool frescos, too. unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photographs within the walls of the Schloss.

freaks. look at this person's backyard. it's full of flowers!! (i think they're all roses. i think). the white and peach ones are bigger than my fist. it's really pretty. i hope the owner's not offended i took this picture. lol.


yesterday we watched this film called 'Das Wunder von Bern' about the 1954 world cup which germany won (which they see as really important in the re-building of the nation's confidence after the world war II). film was nice.. quite easy to understand, also because i could just concentrate on the subtitle. (german, of course, otherwise we'd be learning nothing.) as usual i find the ending far-fetched. but overall it was quite enjoyable. then, as yesterday was Bill's birthday (in blue), five of us went to "celebrate" at a Kneipe. then Turkey won the match against Switzerland and the roads were as noisy as they were on sunday when Germany won.


i met a madman yesterday. he talked a lot and was quite annoying but maybe i should consider that an opportunity to put my german to use. fortunately i wasn't alone so it wasn't so bad. we got a new teacher today. he looks like einstein. really. a bit. so far i like the old one better but i guess it just takes getting used to.

went on a day trip to Stuttgart yesterday. we visited the Mercedes Benz museum. the building's cool. you start at the top level and walk down. it's supposed to capture some historical stuff too, but i think it's like 95% on mercedes benz and the company history. and here and there, they throw in random bits of historical events. and that's only on the wall displays. i must have passed a thousand cars in there. all Merc. ya i was only interested in the early motors and the middle parts was kind of boring to someone who's not a car-enthusiast. but having said that, i must add it was okay enough to make me spend 2 hours plus in it.

i was totally not interested in the racing cars.

this one's cool man. it was made in 1991!!! it's so ahead of it's time.

well then we went to the Stadtmitte and walked around a bit. i had macs cheeseburger for lunch. costs 1 euro, so it's like double the price home. it tastes the same though. the Schlossplatz is cool..

i'm obsessed with toilets. this one cost me 30 cents. i'd say that although the idea of the all-automated toilet is cool, (and it looks cool) it's still kind of dirty.

ok it's actually still 6 June. it's 11.30 pm. i just came back from watching a local high-school theatre production with the other students, where i understood nearly zero. the play was called "Fruehlings Erwachen". after the intermission i totally blanked. the school was so far from the city centre.. and it was an upward slope all the way. (which fortunately made the return trip easy).

on the way back we passed by this cherry tree. and they all picked some so i did, too. well i picked ONE. lol. from the nearest branch. a friend helped me pick more cos i was too short to reach the other fruits. yes, and they are edible. i ate them without washing.

Erdbeeren!! from my Japanese classmate Emi, who got this from her friend. she must have thought i got depressed after not buying those strawbs at the market or something. haha anyway they are really nice. hm then i asked her how to pronounce my name in japanese and turned out it's "Ou Keishi". what kind of name is that??? lol.

my classroom. i sit where the blue bottle is.

i am so glad nothing's awry with my Lobelia. cos yesterday it looked... well, not promising. but maybe it was just the weather. cos today the sun finally shined again!! and it's warm (in a positive way). pretty weather.

so since the weather's friendly, i went to the post office and then to the general store to buy chocolates. and to walk around and take photos a bit.

the Goethe-Institut building. it was formerly a hospital.

St.Michael Kirche. the big staircase is also used as stage for outdoor theatre performances.

where i stay.

today was market day. the market days in this town are wednesdays and saturdays. so the teacher made us go to the market and interview people about their diet, health, organic and GM food, etc. i bought a small pot of mini blue-violet-ish flowers :) cos i have practically no friend here so i want SOMETHING to talk to. lol. nah i just like flowers a lot. i'm not good at this, though, i don't have green fingers [in sec2 i was the rep and all the plants freaking ROTTED and attracted a lot of ants :( ] so i hope this one has a better fate. it's called Lobelia. i didn't name it. lol. i mean that is the genus. i researched a bit on wikipedia and found out its english names include Asthma weed, Pukeweed and Vomitwort. some names.

and wth it means "malevolence" or "ill-will" in the victorian language of flowers. if i'd known i wouldn't have bought it. and for myself, too!! lol. but no matter. No wonder they were called Lotto and Lobelia in LOTR (Frodo and Bilbo's relatives).

i wanted to buy some strawbs too but i decided not to cos i didn't want to leave them overnight. i made soup for lunch and dinner. still not used to the amount i should put in, so i put in a lot of carrots (as with the previous tries) and i feel so sick of carrots now (as with the previous tries). and i'm eating more of this later. haha. but it's not so bad. at least i'd like to believe so.

[of red and yellow roses and which i should pick.]

my dear Lobelia: