Monday, May 02, 2005

This is my my my beautiful Sunday

It's been a good weekend. Friday night was the annual night for all party-goers in St Gallen. The streets were filled with people, and lots of booze and jarring music, naturally. The main event was this music festival called the Honky Tonk night. For CHF20, you get to as many as 20 participating clubs or bars to listen to live bands play. But really, blazing a hole in my pocket so early into the trip is not my idea of wiseness. Not that thrift is my forte, so this kiamsiap phase is really rarity at its best.

We went to a Pink party, hosted by a girl most of us didn't even know. Everything there was pink.. The lamps, the carpet, the wigs people were wearing, the sangria drink they concocted.. And there was so much booze around. The entire fridge was stocked up with beer, vodka and other spirits. There was even booze in the bathtub, in a pool of ice. And party capers as well.. All very typical of the country of hospitality-- Switzerland. :)

Ended up at Macs after we left the party. I've never seen Macs opened til such a late hour, and so jammed up with people here before. Ben was trying to convince us he was sober (til now I don't quite know), and Pearl was really stuffing herself silly. A cheeseburger, fries, apple pie and 5 McNuggets. Amazing for the diet (proclaiming) queen! Haha

Needless to say, I was pretty zonked out the next day. Didn't manage to make it to Berne. A 630am meeting time is impossible! I don't know how the others managed it. Saturday was really good though, because I managed to spend quality alone-time with Weiming. Our first, since we got here! Haha.. He had a good Asian meal (CHF15! Exhorbitant!) while I chowed down on bread, once again. :( And we went shopping! Dragged the poor guy along with me while I shopped and tried on clothes. Bought 2 T-shirts for the warmer weather that's already hit us now.. Haha the kiamsiap queen has a nose for bargains. And we combed the streets and saw the weekend fruit market. Juicy punnets of strawberries going for just CHF2.50, very cheap by St Gallen standards! And we went to the organ concert at the cathedral in the evening. Heavenly sounds... Truly heavenly.. It made me just look skyward, at the murals and cherubic structures above me, and I was reminded of how everything was carved out right from the beginning by the Lord. The purest and best form of architecture you could ever hope to find.

Today was tiring... Went for Mass in the morning with the rest. And again, it was a beautiful experience with tradition and heavenly voices. They had a real string orchestra and a choir in the front. You haven't heard a real church choir til you've heard this one. None of us understood a single word that was being said (I didn't know anything except for the Lord's Prayer) cos the service was conducted in German.. But it was just an awesome feeling of communion and absolute time with the Lord. Something I haven't felt in a long time.

In the evening, a group of about 7 of us went on a hike with Anna. She's really the nicest of all the facilitators in charge of our group. (I kinda pity her having to work under Prof Chong though. He is, well, strange, to put it best) We hiked up one of the 3 poles --hills that give a complete aerial view of the entire town. It was such a good day, I managed to make it through just clad in the T-shirt and FBTs I ran and played frisbee in earlier. The view is just amazing. It's a little like taking postcards in your head. The green of the fields, dotted with bunches of spring.. Dandelions, lavendar sprigs, baby's breath, tulips in the brightest shade of red, forget-me-nots, and bluebells. At the end of many uphills and downhills, you have in your hand a tiny bouquet of everything you saw. And the expanse of the land, and the lushness of the embrace of nature, makes you want to drop everything and just lie in the grassy fields. To think of nothing, and remember nothing. But just to look at the blue canvas above- close enough to touch, but yet so far away it is too majestic to withhold.

Switzerland is really heaven on earth.
Himmel auf Erden.


Laid bare at 7:41 am
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