Grüezi!

Thanks to all who took off time from your busy schedules for farewell teas, gatherings and send-off. Your effort and gifts are very much appreciated!

wow, so here I am in my room, blogging away in after some far-away time in a far-away place, yet feeling quite at home having made contact with the students at my residence. Have to apologise for very late updates! I had always made a conviction to blog in the night after cooking dinner but sadly to say it's often that my eyelids fail me. For the past few days I've been sleeping 10pm, and waking up at 7am, and hence I believe I'm still living in the Singapore time-zone, but I'm already slowly extending my bedtime hours to 12midnight.

In Zürich
Surroundings wise, at lower grounds, it looks very much like a simple city with an excellent transport system where the trains, trams and buses are amazingly clean and the fact that it is always on time really fascinates me.

They are pretty generous when it comes to room space. My room is big and it could possibly even be occupied by 2 more beds. Anyone coming to visit me? I'm sharing a flat with 3 other mates, and up till now, only 1 has arrived, another will be arriving today.

The recycling system is very elaborate. Residents are expected to sort out garbage into metals, glass, paper, carton, and plastic. The rest like organic waste goes into a Zuri-Sacke that is priced at 2 CHF to discourage residents from simply disposing waste without the proper sort-out.

There's free flow of Evian water from my tap. Unlike the tapwater in Singapore, which is portable yet funny tasting, the tap water in Zürich taste like Evian. Little wonder why Zürich scores as the city with the highest quality of life.

ETH - Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

ETH Main Zentrum

Exterior of ETH Main Zentrum



Interior of ETH Main Zentrum



City View from ETH Main Zentrum

There are 2 sites of the University. The Main Zentrum is located at the centre of city. The 2nd day in Zürich was spent roaming around the city myself, and coincidentally met the other Singaporean who arrived on the same day. Heard about his "tragic" story when he arrived. In fact it also happened to me but luckily mine didn't process till the 'panic' stage. What happened was that both our taxi drivers have never heard of Bulachhof (my residence). However, my taxi-driver, with 22 years of driving experience in Zürich or so he claims, wisely drove to Bulachstrasse (Bulach Street), eventually finding Bulachhof without a hitch. Phew! As it was lunch time, I was hungry like anything from the mopping on all fours like a maid, a hasty decision was made in a Thai Sun Restaurant to bomb 19CHF on Thai Red Curry and Mineral water. As all good things do come in the end, I spoke to the restaurant owner to inquire about the amenities (like the supermarket, banks, ATMs, asian shop) in the vicinity. Without this, I would not have settled nicely during the 1st night in Zürich.

ETH Hönggerberg

My lessons are conducted at ETH Hönggerberg - a new site for science and technology.





This is the outdoor pavilion of the Mensa (student's canteen)

Food and Meals

Dinner is prepared in our humble kitchen to save us from the killer prices of eating out.

Dinner on the second day - Pork chops. Broccoli with champignons. Strawberries.
Thomas is from NUS Architecture - Made in Austria. Founded in Singapore. T is really really good at cooking. I'm saved! haha



Dinner on the third day - Chicken Rice! Potato Carrot Soup. It was prepared with T, and 2 other Japanese guys (Nori + Susumu).

I'm also very very very pleased to know that ETH Zürich is offering a Stipendium of 1500 CHF monthly to a NUS student on exchange, and hence I am receiving 725 CHF monthly (NUS decided to split it between Thomas and I) to finance my exchange! woots! Intensive german lessons start next Tuesday, so till then and tschüß!