Beautiful day

It's a beautiful day today. The sunlight has been streaming into my room for practically the whole day. Makes me almost want to go out...but instead we will be going out tonight, when the sun will already have set. Trying out a steamboat restaurant. I'll try to take photos if it looks good. lol

Only about 5 days and 5 tests to go, and then the semester will be over!

I'm doing it again

I just realized that I'm doing it again. Being crazily kind, I mean. (warning: that link will take you to a rant)

Will it be better, or will it be worse? No, it couldn't be worse.

Just pics

I think...I should upload these photos before I forget about them and/or have other things to post and put them on an infinite backlog. (which has happened before)

So here...another Facebook joke (which is kinda weird because a few minutes later, the word had changed to "status")


And then there is this image...what do you see? It's one of the images from our image-processing project (which I talked about two posts earlier)...in the middle of the processing chain. (I did not name this image! And I have no idea why its name is as such...)


Guess what was the image we were working on!

People are so weird...

There are these two guys. One writes with awful spelling and never notices where he puts capitals or small letters. But in a report, he detects each and every tiny mistake.

The other writes more "normally". But then in a presentation, he makes loads of mistakes.

When it comes to a new word, whose spelling would you believe? If everything had been done informally...no reports or presentations.

*****

Oh yeah, and it's supposedly snowing today. You can see some white dots on some parts of the ground if you look carefully. But the ground is mainly damp (you know how the road changes colour when it gets wet?)...like after a light rain. On some rooftops though, I can see some white as well... (from my room)

The temperature is back down since the beginning of the week...brrr... I just hope it will get warmer in March or April...until then the temperature can play roller-coasters for all I care!

Of being antisocial

In 24 hours it will be end of this project. I am talking about our image-processing project...which is done in a group of 3. For several reasons (which I will not elaborate here), this project has been awfully tiring and exhausting. We just did the presentation this morning, and our report has to be handed in tomorrow before 2pm (by e-mail).

And 2pm is exactly when our next exam starts. How nice of them to leave us the same amount of time to finish the report AND revise our exam. -_-

By the way, we already had an exam Wednesday morning...that was the first exam in the series of our final exams these two weeks. This week each option has their own exams (may I remind you that there are 5 final year options in GE, and I am doing signal and image processing), and next week there will be 5 "common" exams for all those in GE.

So this means that after the project, the only things left are exams. INDIVIDUAL ones. Oh, it will be good to NOT have to synchronize my work with other people.

I work better alone...I am so antisocial, aren't I?

Murder on board

I'm tired. There's quite a lot to revise this time round. But so as not to leave the previous post at the top of my blog for too long, here's a riddle I got from WW.

A man was found murdered on board in a japanese navy ship at 2am. Police questioned everyone on board.
Captain: I was sleeping when the murder took place.
Cook: I was cooking.
Crew: The flag was upside down so I was turning it.
Scout: I was scouting for enemy ship as there was a signal.
Anchorman: I was anchoring.
POLICE ARRESTED THE MURDERER IMMEDIATELY. Who do you think is the murderer? And why?

Answer below.













Answer: The crew because the Japanese flag cannot be upside down!

Goanboylered!

Like what I said before, sometimes you just have to say it so that someone will hear.

"Try to do something useful", he tells me!!

YOUR HEAD!!!

Une tendance à écrire tout et n'importe quoi en période de DS

Je devrais être en train de travailler, mais j'ai pas envie. Donc à la place, je suis en train de relire des anciens articles sur mon blog. J'ai trouvé ceci: Le démineur sur son CV? que j'ai écrit l'année dernière.

Finalement pour ma recherche de PFE cette année j'ai gardé le démineur sur mon CV...je pense pas que ça ait changé quelque chose. C'est vrai que cette année j'ai eu plus de mal à trouver un stage, mais je crois que la raison principale est que pour la plupart des offres il fallait postuler sur un site web (et non pas à une adresse mail) et donc la personne concernée (celle qui fait la décision, quoi) ne reçoit peut-être pas la candidature directement, ou tout de suite. Par exemple j'ai reçu deux offres après la date limite de dépôt des sujets...heureusement j'avais déjà trouvé mon stage à ce moment-là.

Cette année il y a une entreprise où on m'a parlé justement du démineur pendant mon entretien (l'année dernière personne l'a mentionné)...mais je sais pas si ça a augmenté ou diminué mes chances. Finalement je l'ai pas eu, ce stage...mais aussi je le voulais pas puisque c'était trop loin de Lyon et pas meilleur qu'un stage que j'avais déjà sur Lyon! Donc j'ai même pas envoyé un mail de remerciement après l'entretien...ça a peut-être joué sur leur décision!

Alors il y aura encore une décision à faire pour mon prochain CV...ce sera en Malaisie donc il vaudrait peut-être mieux ne pas parler du démineur... non? Enfin, on verra...

Comment peut-on ne pas adorer Luce?!

Here's an e-mail she sent us:

A Mesdemoiselles et Messieurs les Etudiants de 5 GE présents à Lyon:

Un pauvre petit manuel mauve de" Recherche Opérationnelle" traîne, corné et esseulé , sur la table face à la porte du Secrétariat des Etudes.
La destruction le guette mais, entre les pages, de petits feuillets perforés et griffonnés de notes hâtives suscitent le scrupule.
Merci pour lui au propriétaire de se manifester dans les meilleurs délais pour remédier à ce délaissement.
Ranger vos mouchoirs.
LV

All this to tell us that someone has left behind their "Recherche Opérationnelle" textbook. I'm trying to translate it the best I can (with a little help from Google) :

To all 5GE students in Lyon:

A poor little mauve "Recherche Opérationnelle" booklet sits, dog-eared and forlorn, on the table outside the secretary's office.
Destruction awaits, but between its pages, small slips of perforated paper with hastily scribbled notes raise scruples.
May its owner come forward as soon as possible to remedy this neglect.
Put away your handkerchiefs.
LV

:D

Go and read!

Rather busy, but I wanted to share this: Why I Believe Printers Were Sent From Hell to Make Us Miserable

It's really really funny...I love the picture of the hungry printer! (paper jam)

And also: The Saddest IMDB Profiles Ever

Hey, but at least they're there! lol

So the weather decides to do some acrobatics

Just at the beginning of the week, it was snowing, and the snow was there for several days. And now it's 10ºC outside.

I don't know whether this should be called global warming or not.

Je veux râler

Depuis une semaine (à peu près) il y a tellement de groupes sur Facebook qui essaient de regrouper des gens de telle région géographique ou de tel établissement (INSA en fait, j'en ai pas vu d'autre...encore)

Je crois que le premier que j'ai vu était pour des Alsaciens, puis il y en avait pour des Ardéchois, des Languedociens, et encore... Et tous ces groupes s'appellent "On m'a dit impossible de regrouper [nombre "énorme" entre 10 000 et 100 000] [Alsaciens/Ardéchois/INSA*iens/etc], on leur montre?"

Alors franchement il faut croire que les gens ont rien à faire à part se lancer les défis de "regrouper des gens de ta région, sinon t'as perdu!" Quel jeu d'enfant...c'est pas plutôt un passe-temps de collégien (ou plus jeune)? Dire que des étudiants d'INSA se mettent à le faire aussi...que deviennent les futurs ingénieurs?

Which language to use?

Facebook seems to be confused. These are the notifications it sent me when two of my friends clicked "like" on one of my links (which is, by the way, a hilarious scene of a few people with phobias at a phobic reunion)


As you can see, in one of the notifications it says "lien" instead of "link", which is simply the French word...which probably means that Pauline's using Facebook in French. It's the first time I've seen this bug though...does this mean that most of my friends (even the French) are using Facebook in English? :P

(I was going to post this yesterday, but with all those music videos it kinda slipped my mind after I had saved the screenshot)

Kavana and Ultra

Today it's Kavana's turn. I guess my search for Gary Barlow on Youtube prompted it to suggest a video by Kavana. And of course, as usual, I wasn't going to stop at one video...

Here's MFEO:



and Crazy Chance.



He does like dancing in enclosed spaces, doesn't he? :P It's a safe bet he doesn't have claustrophobia...lol

There's also another video of Crazy Chance, not the one released in M'sia, I think. I can't remember what other nice songs he had though.

And wow, in the related videos section I found this: Say You Do by Ultra.



I remember that I really liked this song last time, but I had totally forgotten the group :P

One thing leads to another

Do you remember Gary Barlow?

It all started when I visited David's blog (from where I got the video Hijau). He had written a post about the movie Stardust and he had posted a song from the movie, Rule The World by Take That. Now I'm not going to say much about the movie, though it did seem pretty interesting; what I want to share is the song.

However, embedding is disabled. :( So instead, I will embed another song by Take That that I came across: Greatest Day



And I found a trailer for their DVD:



The last song there is Rule The World, in case you want a "preview" before watching the video linked above.

And that is why I thought of searching for songs by Gary Barlow...I couldn't even remember what songs he had sung, I only remembered that there was at least one song I had really liked.

And upon finding that song, I realised that I had really completely forgotten it :P Especially the video...I had no recollection of it at all. Embedding is disabled as well (*sigh* Why are Gary Barlow fans so kedekut (stingy)? :P Or maybe it's Take That fans...), so you'll have to click on the links.

Here it is: Love Won't Wait. And another one is So Help Me Girl; I only managed to recognize this song from its chorus. I still prefer Love Won't Wait ^_^

Edit 3: Ooh I found Open Road. Nice one too.



(end of Edit 3)

Oh, and by the way, I checked out several other Take That videos...and one thing I noticed was that they are pretty lousy dancers! lol What they do is not dancing, it's more like arm-flailing and goodness-knows-what...n'importe quoi :P

Edit: Okay, I take back what I said about their dancing. Maybe it was just choreography.



Edit 2: And I found this song, Shine. It's great! ^_^



(by the way does anyone know how to make the video smaller so that it doesn't overlap onto the sidebar? It's already the smallest size available on Youtube...)

Down and down

Miracle of miracles, I won again. Today we were playing in groups of three, matches of 15 points. The winner would go to the higher group, the loser goes to the lower group, and the one in the middle stays put.

The prof put me in the first group (*sigh* I wanted to start in the second!) with the previously mentioned two. And I beat that 2nd-best guy 20-18. :O If we hadn't ended it on this point we would have played to 21...'cos the prof said that first to 21 wins even if we were at 20-20.

So I stayed put the first round...and the next I lost both matches so I had to go down, whereas that guy (let's call him J) (Oh what the heck, why am I preserving privacy anyway, he's called Joachim) moved back up. And then I lost both matches again, one against someone I had already beat before, this time I lost 18-16.

That was the last round for today, and we're supposed to continue next week (though we might not, if the prof comes with another activity for us). So next week I'm supposed to be starting in the third group. Unless, of course, there are absents or today's absents turn up...it happens all the time.

However, the 3rd-best guy (this one is called Loïc) beat me twice today...the first time really easily and the second time with a little more effort, but I was nowhere close to winning at all. Oh well, you can't have everything.

So basically I beat the best guy there today (if we are to count it using the "ranking" before the holidays lol), only to be beaten by everyone else, including people I've already beaten before. How ironic...

And that is how I ended up going down and down.

And by the way, maybe there should be a new ranking. lol

Musical in real life

Some stuff to share tonight. First, a sign about how to sellout correctly.


I guess those sponsors feel really disappointed every time someone does a "wrong" pose... :P

Then there is this wonderful musical :D



Another one (I prefer the first, though)



And another (this one seems to have been made earlier, it's of less good quality, but I like the policeman part more than the second one)



I love ImprovEverywhere! :D

Enjoy ;)

Of hate and politeness

WP used to think that she hated cigarette smoke above anything else. But now she thinks that she hates hypocrisy more. Because while cigarette smoke assaults you physically, hypocrisy assaults you mentally.

All this to start another thinking post. What can you make of someone who asks you to help her with something, and then never manages to find a time for that? What do you make of it when she suggests to do something and you ask her to suggest a time and she never does so?

Is that hypocrisy? Or is that just a kind of "politeness" at the beginning, a kind of polite suggestion that wasn't meant in the slightest?

Politeness makes us hypocrites, really. Or at least, liars. How many times have you not told the truth because it would not have been polite to do so?

What a coincidence that I read this right after writing this post. That's mental assault for you.

“Have you ever seen a dog get hit by a car, but walk away? There’s this impact, and you know something terrible has happened to that dog, but it walks away and it doesn’t seem to even realise the implications ... ’ cause it just goes on. But you know that something terrible has happened inside this dog.”

Of sportive destinations in Munich

On my last day in Munich, I took a day ticket for the whole public transport network (which includes getting to the airport) and so made the most of it by venturing out of the town centre.

My first stop was the Allianz Arena. Remember my visit into the miniature at the Munich airport?

where to get off

We can see the stadium upon coming out of the metro station
(the shadow on the top left is the fence of the overhead crossing which I was on)

I was there! lol

There wasn't anything special about the interior of the stadium; what's more, everything was closed and it was very cold, so I didn't spend much time there.

It was a lot colder there (and at the Olympic Park that I went to later) than in Munich itself, probably because these places were north of the town. In the town the snow had melted, but as you can see, the ground's still white around the stadium...

inside the metro leaving from Fröttmaning; it was empty because this was the first stop (only for certain times, usually the metro goes further than this station)

Before I left for Munich, Dinie told me that the metro there was great and that I'd love it. Taking the metro (S-Bahn) from the airport to town, I was wondering what was so great about it... It turns out that the U-Bahns (metros in the Munich centre) are newer than the S-Bahns (trains passing through the centre of Munich, but going further out of town, like the RER in Paris).

As I mentioned, my second stop was the Olympic Park (Olympiapark) Here's a map:


The guys I met the night before had said that they were staying there...probably in one of the blocks on the left. But they were working that day, so I suppose they weren't there anyway. I didn't walk all over the park since it was so cold, just went around taking a few pictures. It was nothing really special anyway...maybe because it was winter?

Olympic Tower
We can pay to go up, but the last trip up was at 11:30am and it was already about noon when I arrived there.

the swimming pool; it was wonderfully warm inside!!

The restaurant and souvenir shop on its left

The restaurant has Augustiner!! (haha Augustiner is gonna be my bière de référence from now on :P )

the SoccaFive arena

I think it's rented out because:


Inside:



The BMW museum is just nearby, but I didn't go there. I wasn't planning to go there anyway, and what's more, the guys from the beer tour told me that it was just like a huge car showroom.



I don't know which one exactly is the museum...probably the big one and not the tower.

And actually WW was really lucky I went to the Olympic Park...I wasn't planning to go there at the beginning, and that was where I found the Bayern Munich souvenir shop! I was initially going to visit the Allianz Arena and then the Nuremberg Palace (without going in, just looking and taking pics from the outside) But those guys (again lol) told me that the Olympic Park was a good place to visit, and when I asked the guy at my hostel reception whether the palace was close to the tram station (we have to take the tram there, not the metro), he said that the palace was nothing special anyway. Which was why I finally decided to pass on the palace and go to the Olympic Park instead.

That's all for my touristic pics...though I believe I will be doing another post about Munich, with all the "odds and ends" photos.

Did you know that...

The first blood transfusion was performed by Cornish
physician Richard Lower in 1665. Using hollow quills, Dr.
Lower pumped blood from one dog into another. Years later
another physician, Jean-Babtiste Denis, became the first
to transfer blood from an animal to a human.

The liver is found only in vertebrates and is the body’s
largest gland. It is also the body’s own chemical plant;
carrying on a dozen important metabolic functions as well.

Phineas Gage became renowned when he had a metal bar go
through his head and he survived. However, his personality
changed. A man who was once content and considerate, became
a man who was moody and foul-mouthed. His injury paved the
way for an understanding into how the frontal lobe affected
personality.

People with the rare condition called “synesthesia” not
only taste colors, but see words and feel flavors. Each
person is unique in how they perceive the world; some smell
colors or taste shapes, while others associate colors with
sound, perceiving each note as a different hue. The
condition has been linked to less blood flow to those parts
of the brain that receive sensory stimulation.

The ancient Greek physicians maintained that the balance of
the humors, controlled a person’s temperament. The blood
(sanguis), made a person cheerful; phlegm (pituita), meant
slow moving; Yellow bile (chole), made one hot tempered;
black bile (melanchole), caused depression. If any of the
four humors were out of balance, it reflected on the body
and mind as a whole.

After being shot in the abdomen, Alexis St. Martin was
treated, but the hole did not heal or close. To keep the
contents from oozing out, the wound had to be stuffed with
a cotton cloth. He allowed his surgeon, William Beaumont,
to do experiments using samples of his stomach contents.
The experiments helped in identifying the stomach acid
(hydrochloric acid), and to study the stomach’s movements.

Pretty interesting...
(from here)

Of coincidences

Oh, and right after writing that post, I went on Facebook and found a friend request from the Pauline I mentioned. Hmm...will it snowball? (my blog is linked from Facebook)

And I found out that she shares my birthday! This is the first time I've found someone who shares my birthday...I know a whole bunch of people who have their birthdays around mine, but not anyone on the same day. Till now, of course.

(the title refers to the two coincidences, the timing and the birthday)

Of being "too" Chinese

Just thought this might be noteworthy. Especially since I wrote about this before.

Anyway, it was a classmate this time...he didn't react as "surprised-ly" as Etienne, but he did admit he'd always thought that I came from China, together with my other Chinese classmates (come to think of it, I wonder whether some people think that my Vietnamese friend in GE is a Chinese too...)

This time, the discovery was brought about by our poly (textbook) for speech processing. Inside the cover was a quote from Confucius, and he was asking me, wasn't this guy banned in China? (or something like that) I slipped in a "warning" - "I don't come from China" - before replying...

Oh yeah, and the term started on the 21st of September, so this guy discovered it in less than 4 months, which was quicker than the one at my internship :P

There was another guy, also in my class this year who discovered a little earlier (a few months ago) Looking back at my time-table, it was the 16th of November. A Chinese guy had been invited to give us a lecture on a piece of research he had done. He was from the Harbin University of China, and my classmate wanted to know whether I had heard of the university. So same thing, I slipped in my "I don't come from China", and he went "oh, really?" (or something like that)

You see, they usually just ask, thinking that I'm from China. And if I were to simply answer, they would just continue thinking that...

As I mentioned in my previous post, it isn't likely that these people will come to my blog. But either way, I'll just say this: It is at least nice of them to have talked to me enough to finally find out that I'm Malaysian. More than half of the class (my new classmates) have never actually spoken to me before, nor acknowledged my presence.

So, Jacques and Julien, you guys are cool ^_^

Oh, and Pauline probably found out today at the same time as Julien since she was sitting just next to him. There are still a few people who have already spoken to me a few times and are quite friendly, but I still wonder whether they know I'm Malaysian or whether they have simply assumed their guess that I'm from China correct.

A voir... ("to be seen", literally)

Of "the end" approaching

I have written rather candidly in my previous post. In part, it's because the guys I were talking about don't read my blog. There is no way they would know of its existence, anyway, since I only see them at badminton and we don't even actually talk to each other. (or else I am very unlucky. lol) But in any case, it's not like I'm saying anything bad about them.

This post is another reflection on how things are. Before, when I wrote about stuff like that, I was always keeping in mind that these people might come to my blog one day. But somehow, in this final year in INSA, I feel a sort of finality coming, I feel like everything will come to an end, and my choices are made taking this into account. It isn't as if I don't think of the possibility that people who don't read my blog now might drop by one day, and might stumble onto one of my posts about them. It hasn't slipped my mind. I just feel that it is way too far-fetched.

I just feel that I won't meet anyone new in INSA and get to know them well enough to actually become friends.

Or is that being too pessimistic?

But maybe it's not pessimistic because that is just how it works.

Oh, and by the way, my wish was not granted. And snow is forecasted till the end of the week. I guess the snow took a break during the holidays as well.

First badminton session of the year

I suddenly won today. I beat the 2nd best guy in our badminton group (in sports class). And twice. :O

I don't really know how it could have happened...usually he beats me pretty easily. And the last session, before the holidays, I beat the (maybe) third best in the group. That was pretty unexpected as well...and I was so happy. lol Though maybe it was because he was a bit tired by the time he played with me.

Both these guys have already beat me oh-so-easily before. Once was during a sort of internal championship (with a little luck in the drawing of opponents), where I finished 3rd (I say they're the 2nd and 3rd best...at that time the "best" wasn't there) I played with both of them in the "3-way finals", and lost to both. And lost easily. So I really don't get how I managed to win today. And twice. The holidays must have done something to him. lol

And oh yeah, it felt good to play after 3 weeks :)

Uncertainty everywhere

I think it's been some time since I wrote a spontaneous post like this, just to give some news on what's going on. I don't know how you people like this kind of post, but I feel like writing one, so here goes!

It snowed last night...the weather forecast said that there would be "a few flakes" last night and this morning. (oh yes, the weather forecast plays an important part in my life in France). But instead of a few flakes, there were quite a lot...not big flakes, but by the time I looked out of my window last night, there was already a white coat on the cars and bushes outside...and this morning it was all covered. The snow was at least 5cm deep (probably more...I'm really bad with visual measurements)

And this year's internships...I got one last month, but I was still searching. I was thinking all was probably lost when today I suddenly received a phone call from a lab asking me to call back. And when I did, I was told that I had the internship if I wanted it. As he said, the ball's in my court now...and I'm not quite sure what to do. I really thought I wasn't going to get that internship...

The thing is, I just went for another interview today, which kinda went well...okay, it really went well. The guy said that we would need to do an interview with the actual company people tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, and that I would know right away whether I'm accepted. It sounded like he was in charge of finding someone for the company, and that most probably the company would just accept the person he had chosen. I also found out that I had a "rival" for that offer...and that he had already accepted an internship somewhere else. (I'm the pathetic one, still looking) So it's looking pretty optimistic for this one...though of course anything can happen.

And I still don't have all the info about this internship to say whether it is the one I want... Uncertainty everywhere.

(If this post seems to be "blur", without much details, it's meant to be that way...explaining everything would take too much time (and words) )

Oh yeah, and I hope the snow will melt soon (I mean fully melt, so that there's no trace left), 'cos I don't have practical shoes for this weather. (or more like this kind of ground) My shoes are pretty much all "dead", even my sneakers have a dangerous hole in the sole, which isn't "through" yet, but might be if I'm not careful. And when I was in Munich, snow and pebbles found their way into that hole and got packed tight inside...it scared me for a moment, I thought the hole had gone through 'cos the snow was making my foot really cold! (thank goodness it was only conduction ("only", hmph... and "conduction" for cold instead of heat...what a choice of wording, huh?) )

So...practically all my shoes are only fit for dry weather. So for goodness' sake dry up quickly, so that I can go out without worrying about footwear!

Northbound

Heading north from Marienplatz:

the National Theatre

next to it

Munich Residence

further along (still the Munich Residence)

the first doorway in the previous photo

the second doorway

through it: a Christmas market inside the Munich Residence

an interesting dustbin (I seem to be always taking photos of dustbins :P )

chocolate fruits again...this time I bought one

the dark-choc coated mandarin orange (yum :D )

Back out on Odeonsplatz:

Theatinerkirche (another church)

the Field Marshal's hall

the entrance towards the Munich Residence's garden (though there was no greenery; everything was under the snow) You can see the signboard saying Hofgartenstrasse.

along the side of that doorway

on the right, upon going through that doorway (on the left is the garden)

between that previous photo and the garden

garden

snow

towards that "thing" in the garden

inside that "thing"

that long corridor between the garden and the Theatinerkirche is where the drawings were

After that I went to have lunch, since it was about noon I was starting to get rather hungry :P (you see? I saw all the sights of Munich in a morning!) After lunch I headed towards Isartor to check out a museum listed in the city guide I got from my hostel.

the Isartor gate/doorway (Isartor is one of the metro stations, also a square, I believe)

local curiosity museum dedicated to two (local?) comedians

I went in because it was recommended as an "interesting" visit by the Wombat's guide, and it only cost 1.99€ for students (2.99€ otherwise, unless if you're 99 years old and you come with your parents, in which case it's free (this info is also courtesy of Wombat's)) but unfortunately everything was in German so I couldn't understand much of it.

Check out the opening hours...and I think Wombat's wasn't lying 'cos I see a 99 on the door...

I think I won't put any more photos of the museum here...I'll reserve that for another post (if I finally decide to write it)

Then there's the hunting museum, also recommended by Wombat's as a less-serious visit. I didn't go into this one...mainly because it was late, but the entrance fee was also higher (about 5€, 4++ I think)

outside the museum

Oh, and by the way, I didn't spend the whole afternoon in the first museum...I went back after that and took a rest at the hostel...then I felt bored and decided to come out walking again, which was when I went looking for the hunting museum. I had already walked past it before noticing it, since it was on the way to Marienplatz.

Instant chicken curry

I went to Carrefour earlier today, and look what I found:


Chicken curry in a box! (Okay, the colour is very very light...but that's French curry for you!)

But...a second look and you see "A tartiner" on the box. That means "to spread". As in...on bread. Eeeww...... I definitely don't dare to try that.

What's more, it was in the cold section...where the stuff are used directly without heating. I cannot imagine cold, bland curry on a piece of bread. No way...

But it was the last box on the shelf. Hmm...people actually like this stuff?

Drinking the night away

Okay, not exactly. But I went on this beer and food tour in Munich. You might already know that I like trying out local dishes when I go visiting a new place, and this tour included a platter of traditional Bavarian food. As for the beer...it was more of an information tour on the history of beer-brewing, with an opportunity to taste different beers. And since I would never try any beer otherwise (I don't buy beer to try it because I'm afraid of ending up throwing the whole can/bottle away), I thought "why not?"

And it wasn't as if I was going to walk around Munich a second time at night... (the tour was at 6pm)

We met (again, since it was with Radius Tours as well) at the train station, and this time I met two Malaysians and a Chinese (from China, I mean) who were joining the tour as well. They were students from Melbourne doing their final year project in Munich for a few months. They had to go to work the next day, so I'm not sure why they chose that night to come for the tour...but I guess it's lucky for me ^_^ So I kinda stuck with them throughout the tour, and they helped me take several pics of me with beer :P

Our guide started the tour by bringing a tray full of glasses of beer out of the Radius Tours office. We each took a glass, and while we drank he told us about the beer we were drinking. It was Augustiner beer, and I don't think it's that famous, because he started off by showing us the bottle and telling us that we had probably never heard of it before :P (I, of course, had never heard of it before...but that goes for many other beers, I think)

And that was probably the first time I actually liked the taste of beer...it just wasn't as bitter as other beers I've tasted. And it wasn't just me, either...the Chinese guy was going on and on about how good that beer was (and later on I learned that he was the most "alcoholic" (the other guys used that word!) of the three. lol)

Oh yeah, and the guide also told us that beer used to be given to the poor (with bread) because it was their form of nutrition, and that Augustiner's last "owner" (it was a family brewery) was a wealthy spinster who died heirless, so she set up a trust for the beer, with 50% of the profits to go to charity. All this to say that "beer is nutritious, and if you drink Augustiner beer you will be contributing to charity, so let's drink!" lol

(By the way, our guide on this tour was Roland, the second guide who was on the Neuschwanstein tour. They did say that they did several different tours...I guess that keeps them from getting bored :P )

Now, enough talk. First stop: a beer and Oktoberfest museum

Museums Stuberl

a "refrigerator", according to our guide, to cool beer. Unfortunately he didn't go into the details of how exactly it was used.

beer containers (with lids to keep out wasps, or to avoid any presents from birds or trees while drinking in the shade of a horse-chestnut tree ;P )

The guide said that horse-chestnut trees were planted over beer cellars to keep them cool in the summer. Which was where the tradition came of sitting and drinking under a horse-chestnut tree (since in summer you look for shade), making those trees a must in an authentic beer garden.

I took several other photos of the different display cases, but I'm not going to put them all...I think these are enough!

a box with 4 or 5 locks (I can't remember) to keep the secrets of beer-brewing

I don't know what this is; maybe some beer-savvy person can tell me?

the Oktoberfest display, with our guide next to it (he was moving about, which is why his face is blurred)

He proceeded to show us how to hold a beer keg "properly", since he said "You don't want to stand there with your beer, looking exactly like a tourist!"

me with one litre of fake beer (the mousse looks especially fake, doesn't it? It wasn't even sponge...it was hard)

There were a few cute cartoon drawings on the wall, amongst which, this one :D

At the end of the museum tour, we watched a DVD video abour beer-brewing and then headed to the tavern for some beer-tasting.

our first glass of beer

the coaster

the back of the coaster, with the six primary breweries of Munich (they call it the "big six"; those 3 guys I met were already talking about it back when we were having the Augustiner beer)
(Oh yeah, and bräu is pronounced as "broi", as in "broil")

They brought us pretzels to eat with the beer.

And that's the second glass we got to try...I couldn't really taste much difference from the first, probably because I first finished the first before starting the second (so I couldn't taste both at the same time). Oh and by the way, those were 0.1-litre glasses.


Halfway through my second glass, they brought us a third glass. (of course, some people had already finished their two glasses...but not most, fortunately! So I didn't feel too slow :P ) This one was wheat beer, and I'm glad I decided to take a sip of it once it arrived, because it tasted awful. I had to wash away the taste with the other glass, and later I even gave it a second try (maybe it was just the first sip?) but I still didn't like it, so later I passed it to a guy who had finished all his three glasses. (some hadn't) And I wasn't the only one who didn't like it; one of the other Malaysians didn't like it either!

leaving the beer museum, we passed by the Isartor gate (I don't know why they had that symbol there...)

Second stop: Hofbräukeller, a beer garden where we were to have dinner. Beer wasn't included this time, but we could order it separately. I sat at a table with the 3 other Asian guys (there were 3 tables for us, 2 long ones and one round one, and we were on the round one), and we were the only table without beer (cheapskate Asians... :P )

the Hofbräu coaster

the other side (there were several different sceneries)

our reservation
(See the two overturned glasses? They were to put the platter on)

weisswurst (veal sausage)

It isn't a soup, it's just served in water. The guide told us that it was supposed to be eaten with sweet mustard, but I didn't like the taste of that mustard...even the normal mustard (which I don't like very much) was better. But I didn't especially like this sausage...it was a bit like the boudins we find in France, but I prefer boudins.

the platter (for all of us)

sausages with sauerkraut (pickled cabbage; we can find it in France as well, but I found this better because it was less sour), with pork meatloaf at the back (I liked the meatloaf ^_^ )

pepperoni sausage (I didn't like this one, it tasted a bit raw)
I didn't like the raw ham much, either.

cheese with paprika (some mixture...I can't really remember what was in it, but it tastes really good!)

The round slices are leberwurst (liver sausage); it's like pâté. The two Malaysian guys didn't like it; I found it okay, but can't eat too much of it... On either side are just normal ham and cheese...

posing with the platter

basket of pretzels (I only thought of taking the photo at the end) They also brought a basket of brown bread.

at the end of the meal (the only two things I took but didn't finish)

and the platter at the end...surprise, surprise, those guys aren't that big eaters after all...but I think it was because they took quite a lot of bread. I only took a slice of bread and a pretzel.
(The poor guy didn't expect to be in the photo...and I forbid you to make fun of him; he was the one who took the photo of me with the platter. And the table at the back is with our tour as well)

some decoration on the wall

some guys on the tour
One of them asked me "Don't you want a picture of us?" as I took the previous pic. So I obliged.

something at the entrance (I don't know what it is...again, maybe some beer-expert can help me there?)

leaving Hofbräukeller

and heading to Hofbräuhaus

This is where the tour ends, probably because most people would want to spend the night here. From what I've read about Munich, this is the most famous beer hall there, but there is nothing authentic about it. I would have gone to take a look even if I weren't joining the tour...

entrance

inside (on the right is the souvenir shop)

the menu (they have it in English)

me with one litre of beer (real, this time :P )

The two Malaysian guys ordered it to share...I didn't order anything because the smallest amount was one litre, except for the wheat beer, which was in a 0.5l glass. The Chinese ordered that.

And we asked a waitress to take photos for us.

from left: Lee, Tony and Justin
(oh yeah, and they ordered some pancakes with applesauce, which was pretty good...but I was so full I just tried a little)

If you are ever going to Munich and are interested in going to these places, here they are on a map (click to enlarge):

first stop - purple marker
second stop - yellow marker
third stop - red rectangle

We took 3 trams to the 3 different destinations, first the 17, then the 18 and the 19. How coincidental ;P By the way, I didn't go to the east side of the river by myself at all...the furthest east I went was Isartor.

(I haven't yet finished writing about my day walking around Munich, but I thought it would be appropriate to start the year with a "drinking" post ;P )