home, but sometimes still away lah.

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http://yan-wei-still-shoots-lah.blogspot.com/
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hrmm, self-explanatory. haha. go kua kua there too if you getting sick of all this delayed action retro-posting here lah.

madrid, spain (aka where we spent a night on a rock) // early early 26th june 2007.

we missed the train to valencia. thus we spent a night on a strategically located rock somewhere between the prado and another big building not too far from the train station. oke maybe the rock was more of a granite pedestal yet unoccupied by a monument or statue. but in any case, for this mostly sleepless and particularly memorable night on a rock, we blame and thank mango sales, ourselves, and the super strict madrid train station. we arrived 15 minutes before departure time but they functioned like an airport with security check gantries and gate closing times and so we could see our train but we were not allowed to board it. haha it was a long night with accounting, paranoiding, postcardwriting, randomdancing, feelingcoldandhungry, fightingtokeepeyesopenandhandsonallbags, and wahlaoinghaha, but thank God we survived.

madrid, spain // 24th to 26th june 2007.

hun mentioned again today the giant half of a watermelon that we ate with two tiny red gelato spoons somewhere in italy and that reminded me that a retropost on this blog was really overdue. so here i am picking and posting again.










we nearly fainted from the scorching heat after we landed in madrid but we managed to make it to our first hostal, hostal miguel angel, albeit the major lack of lights going up the pitch dark stairs with our backpacks and two other girls lugging suitcases. we walked a fair bit despite barely sleeping that first day but madrid was actually nicer than expected (based on friends' reviews). we ate at a local bar-cafe thing standing up at the bar with all the power grandmas and some uncles and aunties and the occasional gentle grandpa, saw a museum and walked around a heckload and sat in plaza mayor. after talking to an elderly indian man we met at the hostal on the first night we discovered many other places we could go to on the second day and even did some strategic bus hopping after killing our feet walking everywhere the first day. because of what he told us, we got to check out the real madrid football stadium, jumped madly to grab on to sculptured bulls outside a bullfighting stadium, found some interesting architecture, ventured into a semi atas neighbourhood, found a patch of park-fountain-monument where there were actually more locals than tourists, and even dipped our feet in pools amidst trimmed hedge mazes in royal gardens and of course met many power grandmas along the way.

sheep and bear adventures : brussels-leuven, belgium // 23rd to early 24th june 2007.

in brussels we met up with zhijun who was then doing a one month stint in a supermarket outside of brussels and he brought us around and occasionally carried our bag(s) too. we did the necessary brussels then headed to leuven, a sort of university town away from brussels and it was quite a nice place. there was a street festival going on (seems like this was the start of many coincidental street parades/festivals/parties we would unexpectedly run into later during our great trip).

i remember staring at this little girl on her father's shoulders while we were in a crowd that was watching abit-too-young-for-their-moves(but who's to say nowadays right..) dancers on stage. even when i first started shooting some years ago, i had always been fascinated by people's backs and what that revealed or concealed about them if you'd look closely enough. sure, a head-on face shot of someone may be punchier or be much more direct sometimes but from time to time, or maybe alot of the time, i still like to keep looking on even when people turn away.

solo sheep sojourns : eindhoven, delft, amsterdam, den haag // 19th june 2007 to 23rd june 2007.

i left london on a surprisingly sunny afternoon and landed in a freshly rained on eindhoven in the evening. it was still sunny though and i quite enjoyed walking around despite having heard about it being a rather industrial little town. there i stayed a night at president's place before taking the train to hun's place in delft the next day.





hun the brownbear was amidst rushing for a submission when i arrived so after a quick but wonderful bike tour of delft in the evening i was pretty much free to and very much encouraged to make my own daytrips to amsterdam and den haag (the hague) in the next few days before we left delft together for our sheep and bear adventures.





amsterdam was confronting. shops and signs and people everywhere - you really don't know where to look and where to go. the weather left me drenched to the core too so that didn't help. i did make it to the van gogh museum on foot though and i really enjoyed it.

i didn't have much time in den haag so i pretty much just walked down the main street while nursing a major and chronic craving for soto ayam....and then i found soto ayam! i was really happy and even had chendol after that too. haha. little joys.





delft actually also reminded of lund quite a bit (except it had alot of canals), so it was heartwarming though a little heartachey too.

solo sheep sojourns : london // 12th june 2007 >> 19th june 2007.

i left lund to travel on 12th june. my first stop was london for a one week transition between the lundlife and the summer backpacking trip. many of my friends and some of my family work/live/play/study in london so it felt like a good place for a relaxed extended stopover before i met up with the brownbear in delft for our sheep and bear adventures in europe (mostly in the countries along the mediterranean)...





in that one week in london i stayed with maner, aida, olivia and met james and barbara (cousin and his wife) for lunch too.

and so, i was always living at friends' places (thanks thanks thanks you all!!) and went out with them sometimes but i spent a fair bit of time walking all over on my own too which was lonely at times yet mostly rather rejuvenating too. spent alot of time in museums, parks, flea markets and maybe a little too much time in the underground. felt like a worm after all that tube-taking from the first few days so i made it a point to walk more instead of taking the tube in the last few days.

home and away.

yesterday president asked me what i missed most about lund and what was my most precious possession from lund..

i told her that at that moment of asking, i was really missing the running places behind sparta. strangely, i hardly took any pictures of it. the neighbourhood behind sparta was where i went walking and running, sometimes with friends and sometimes on my own. it was where i went to get away when the going away got too rough. it was where i could see the horizon when i ran, literally had more space to breathe(and this translates almost directly into emotional space) and felt safe even though it was hardly a familiar place. i guess it was a really open hiding place.

as for my most precious possession from lund, it's hard to say... things don't make sense without the memories and people they are linked with. i treasure the little gifts i got from friends there, memories of many meals shared, crazy self-invented trips, pictures i made throughout the six months on my own and with friends, and i still wear the bracelet that the girls in class got me at the end of the mad and wonderful semester i had together with them.

in other news, i went jogging with my brother at east coast park the other day, it had been a long time since we went on a jog together. after our run, we both felt like eating something, and it funnily turned out to be the same thing! sotongheads on a stick from old chang kee! (i still don't get why they call that bit of the sotong the head, aren't those tentacles legs??) and then i finally had bubble tea (honey ice blend!).

oddly enough, all my food cravings kinda dissolved when i got back to singapore, maybe cos i know that i can now eat the food anytime. but all the same, i was glad to finally have teochew muay with the eastern muay gang after so super long! the food is one thing, but the makan togetherness that is the essence of teochew muay was more the main thing lah. but i was also very happy to eat chai poh neng, fresh sotong, chai buay, and kiam neng again!! oh forgot to order fishcake!! haha nevermind, next round! soon!

hrmm, some of us are still on europe time in all senses of it, a little living in the six hours behind past and all but i guess we will adjust back to life here soon enough. i don't think i will be writing here much anymore, except maybe for lund related stuff. and to post up shots from the great backpacking trip with hun!

as for the friends i made on exchange that are all over the world now.. i know some of you want to know how i'm doing in singapore and all....so sorry that i won't be blogging much but do contact me on facebook or via email to counter the timezone barrier and stay in touch!!

the flown away days and the liao shang walk back.

alot was in my head as i went on my final walk. some words and images probably fell off my thought train along the way but here is what is left of it...

i spent the last few hours of sunlight in lund on my own walking from sparta back to marona's place. i had taken the bus to sparta feeling quite lost. i just recalled that i had wanted to take a few of those cute egg paper bags and also buy a few more little swedish picture books from ica-tuna, the supermarket that fed me for half a year.

as i walked i remembered paul saying that his last two stopover days in lund would probably be terrible cos he would literally see shadows of all of us, the people he had spent his time in lund with, everywhere in this street and corner with no one familiar around. i thought that was quite drama, but wah, tis true siah.

as i walked i was flooded with moving images of all the people - passerbys, friends, family and everyone in between - with whom i had walked, biked, driven, stumbled, laughed, ran, jogged, skipped and passed through these streets with.

as i walked i was thankful. for everyone and everything i have been blessed with in lund. days are impossible to re-live. we can only fondly remember and keep in touch.

leaving home was not easy. but going home hasn't been easy too.

home is where the heart is lah, but your heart fixed one meh? here, there and everywhere.

and so, this is goodbye to the goingawaydays. as for the people, we shall meet again someday! let's hope the world is as small as we all say it is. although i know i'm also the one who said the world is small but still not small enough sometimes.. ah well.

take care, be well, God bless and see you all here, there and everywhere.

posting back in time part two >>> 11th june 2007.

last big breakfast + last sunset. see you again in about a month dear lund! it is my last night in london now, will be off to see the president (of tpgg) soon tomorrow evening in eindhoven!