berlin ist sehr kalt (24/3)-day1

so the trip to berlin was really amazing... i saw Daddy God's hand in lots and lots and lots of things.

it all began at 0200, meeting at the busstop opposite eugene's place (and saying bye to ian)... called amelia at 0215, the night bus to victoria was due at 0230, and i couldn't get through. due to lack of sleep (and i think dependance on God) we were just super high and waited... singing random sunday school action songs lol. then ame called at 0225 and said 'i just woke up!!!!' but it was okay cos we were still early. next bus at 0300: trooped back into eugene's place (saying hi to ian) waited for ame, hung around till 0250, then went out to wait in the cold (saying bye to ian again. lol) when it was almost 0300... ame had a scare cos she couldn't find the pouch with her money and thought it was on her bedside table. then it appeared in her bag. and then she couldn't find her oyster card - and we were about to pay for a single ticket... when it too appeared in her bag. haha God provides XD.

and so we were safely on the bus *phew*. and trying to make sure angus would get on the same bus as us i was calling calling calling. and THEN. the bus driver didn't stop for him!! so we ended up at victoria and waited for another 30 min. now we were gonna have to rush. we missed the connecting bus time 0330 but managed to get on the next one, reaching stanstead airport at 0510. had to hurry through the check-in: but i got my bag checked... all because i forgot about the can of green tea i had meant to drint at the busstop! argh. and they nearly confiscated the heatpack joseph got me for christmas =(... but ohwell. with all the delays, we still managed to safely board the plane! *grace grace. haha* flight time: 0625

[what awed me was that none of us were impatient... stressed, probably, but not impatient with each other... simply trusting God to get us to each destination safely and get up the plane on time... amazing - my faith in humanity is restored. lol.]

pretty red passports!it's too early in the morning to be awake... zzzz.looks like a private jet haha.but inside: you find a bunch of crazy toots!eugene k.o.junli & amelia too =P

we reached berlin safely. thank God... after all the close shaves (heehee... i'm reminded of sweeney todd) and stepped out into the... 0 deg weather *brrr*. took a walk to the train station... berlin hauptbahnhof and fought with two ticket machines to get a group day pass. (the machines were supposed to accept our notes and give change but didn't want to... my first test of german... comprehension of ticket issueing machine -_-") managed to get on the right train safely - the train map looks a bit like the super complicated london one - only in german. and off to the hostel we went.

my, eugene looks happythe PAP wave! you are here: Berlinsaw this from the train - all you need are red and white shades for the flag... hmmmand so we entered the land of graffiti

we were all rather zonked... but well... high. dumped our bags at the hostel and proceeded to look for brunch around the area while waiting for the walking tour which started at 1300. with much indecision... we ended up walking the street quite a few times taking really crazy photos. had brunch in asia kitchen in the end... -_-" but the kebap i got from the joint restaurant was awesome! it was quite the funky experience... sharing food like family - ie. take one or two bites and pass to the next person. happy-fying... really. hanging out with people who know how to relax and not be ji jiao about things.

our hostel was called 'circus' - fitting innit? for this bunch of animals^^check out the man's boobs man!angus has a fat ass. the chair says so.ame would like some botox for higher cheeks angus has a death wish i think =.= or maybe he's too sleepymy brunch *yum* (i kept saying 'how to eat??' cos i couldn't open my mouth big enough to take a bite)

we then caught the 3rd Reich walking tour that left from our hostel... and we were blessed with this really knowledgeable guide who had really amusing stories to tell and opinions to share. basically spent 5 hours walking around the central part of berlin taking siao photos and videos =). I really thank God for the people that I went with, 4 future 'chers-to-be... who knew how to let loose and enjoy themselves... and be crazy without trying to 'save face'.

throughout the tour i was actually swamped by this overwhelming feeling. for every bombed out shell that they hadn't restored (cos berlin is bankrupt =S) or that they kept as a memorial... having studied full history in sec school... i knew what had happened - and this was the visual impact. bittersweet actually. cos the buildings were like fragments of ruin of a past age... and the new things were 'pushing them away'. i wondered - how it could be, that i didn't feel anything for the people who died, but wondered about the people who had to live on. brooding on this however, was not possible with the bunch of ppl i went with =).

i learnt that day... how much a kind word could mean... and i was awed by how frequently we teachers used them. just observing the 4 of them... how we waited for each other to take photos, helped carry things, fed each other lol., constantly checked to see if everyone was alright (angus was falling asleep everytime we stopped walking), did crazy things together... all while being really tired from not having slept properly the night before. i never realised that kind of quality in people before... and simply took it for granted - that is, being appreciative and supportive of people - but watching them and thinking about the people i hang out with in church, i was awed by the God-transformation (in all of them)... people who are so secure in Him that they are able to care for others. these people were secure to the max... unafraid of doing crazy things or going out of the way to help. i was blown away, then, by the goodness of God... when i realised that these people had been planted in my life by Him, people i'm privilleged to know and form Godly friendships with. such solid evidence of His goodness (and amazing to think i'm being transformed that way too... i wanna be more like these people man...)

"thank You Daddy for today... it's been beautiful."
"you're welcome. it was nothing... coz I love you"

teacher on excursion: line up two by two and put your fingers on your lips boysoutside the Berliner Dom (a cathedral) - with eugene bullying junli in the cornertheir television tower (apparently when the sun shines on the dome bit it forms a cross!)angus falling asleep walking lol.spring! (but average temperatures were close to -5 everyday 0_o)they were lazy to rebuild the building so they plastered it up and put plaques in the approximate position to commorate where the people who lived there lost their livesbunny rabbit monster... i love teh way the green powerpoint looks like its eyethe beautiful weather Daddy blessed us with (and every cloud has a silver lining!)the unnamed jewish memorial (which reminded me of unmarked gravestones)but it's so cool... a place waiting for you to play hide-and-seek in =Pthe guys on the other hand, saw it and thought it'd be a perfect place for combat training. lol.amelia standing at the border of east and west berlinparliment housethe poor fenced-in berlin wall. heh

to document our day 1 madness:


at the end of the tour we were really tired... so bought some food at a pastry shop and shared everything =P and just stoned there for a while - relak one korner. went to the suggested museum "checkpoint charlie" but decided not to go in cos it was late and we were all too stoned to understand anything... so browsed the gift shop and left. (following the call of the stomach lol.)

then we took the train back to the hostel to check in and get our room. the room was awesome... most hostels are rather cramped and use bunk beds, this one had enough space for us to sit in a circle on the floor, we had a single bed each, a bedside drawer thing each, and a coathanger thing. =D. we then quickly left the room on a hunt for dinner (before we k.o.ed on the beds lol.) - looking for the elusive bratwurst restaurant (which didn't exist cos it was actually finger food... but we wanted to sit someplace warm). and again... while everyone was hungry... no one was impatient or angry - that was really precious... that we took the time for each other, trying to find a nice place to eat on a whim.

angus on the train trying to keep awake (check out the eyebags)budget lampshade: get a bucket, cut a hole!our nice spacious room we had all to ourselvesupside down macs that we saw!what we gals imagined we'd look like after the trip - eating eating eating eating eating.. man...imitating mr hotdog man

and there ended the first day in berlin. with eugene who knocked out once he was on the bed, our problems with having only one set of bath things solved as we simply waited for each other to be done (cheerfully i might add. though it was 1am and we were all tired. amazing.) i was strangely driven to do qt properly this trip... maybe it was the good influence and fellowship (saying grace together is really precious to me man...) and ended the day turning off angus' reading light cos he fell asleep on his bible lol.

for once, in quite some time this year... every fibre of my being was happy and satisfied.

"goodnight... love you Daddy"