First Days in Frankfurt... Adventure into the Wild.

After a 5 hour ride from Hamburg to Frankfurt in Simon’s car, I arrived on Friday at the Industriepark at Höchst, which is outside the Frankfurt city centre. The Industriepark is very huge and it hosts many different companies. Bayer takes up 2 of the many buildings if I am not wrong. The trip to and from Hamburg cost more than 100 Euros=( We shared the cost.

After going through a lot of trouble trying to find out who I was suppose to report to, I was brought to my boss, a Swiss lady, Frau Martelletti, in one of the Bayer labs. She is indeed a very nice lady. She made sure my housing was ok, and helped me a lot with settling in. Till now, I have not started my Chemistry work in the lab yet. Still settling in. Will go to that in a while.

Settling down here was indeed stressful. I am not kidding. It got worse when I realize I cant really cook coz I dun have pots, plates, cutlery and had to get food (spent 60 Euros on that so far. Expensive). I also made a trip down to IKEA and got a nice blanket ( 25+15 Euros) and other necessities. Thanks to mummy, I did not need to get a pillow here. I brought a highly compressed and flat pillow from Singapore and it fitted well in my suitcase! I am really thankful that I did not get here alone if not I would have sat along the streets and cried, booking a ticket home the next day! Felt very cui and weak then. Did not want to be brave anymore. I am kinda in “DEBT” to Simon for all the help that he has rendered from settling my handphone, internet, bank, helping out with IKEA(for “forcing” me to buy a blanket if not I would have slept in my sleeping bag), transport and advices. And of course, I am in DEBT to him coz I owe him a lot of money. Will return him when I get my card and internet banking =)

Friday (1. Aug) was spent moving into hostel and getting groceries. The hostel here is super quiet! Totally not like Temasek Hall! I have been here for 6 days and I have seen less than 10 ppl in the hostel! Unbelievable!

Sat (2. Aug) was IKEA day! The IKEA here is suppose to be the largest in Europe(according to jochen). Wouldnt have made it there if not for simon's car!

Visited Jochen at Schlangen Bad which is near Wiesbaden, maybe 40 min from where I stay with car! 40 min Is considered near in Germany .

The visit to Jochen’s place was very nice. Jochen did his exchange at NUS for 1 year, hence both Simon and I know him=) His garden was superb! Colourful flowers. Apple trees. Pumpkin. Tomatoes. We had a BBQ as we sat in the garden, immersing ourselves in the nice scenery and weather! When I offered to help with the BBQ, Jochen and Simon said that BBQ is a MAN’s JOB! I never knew that! Maybe coz the guys all very lazy in Singapore and the girls usually have to do it! Haha….

Meeting up with people and friends feels very different from home. We usually visit them at their homes, eat good food, spend quality time and enjoy each others’ company. Also, because of the great distance you travel to meet someone, every meeting becomes very precious, at least for me! I am not saying that meeting up with friends in Singapore is not nice! It is just different!

After staying at Jochen’s house from 1230pm-4pm, we headed to Darmstadt to visit 2 of my Guest Family, whom I got to know when I first visited Germany during my German Language Immersion programme at Technical University Dramstadt. Time was well spend catching up! The 40 min travel time from Jochen’s place was worthwhile. Felt quite good/heart-warming/a tiny tinge of sadness when all the visits came to an end.

Sun(3. Aug) was spent just walking around the city that I stayed and realized that it is nicer than I thought! There were heaps of old nice buildings. Main river is about 30 min away by foot and nice weather!

That was how my first week end was spent! Super cool eh!
Mon, Tues and Wed at work was spent running around and settling all my admin work such as getting my identity card to gain entry into the Industriepark, had safety briefing, met the lady who is in-charge of my pay, received my personal desktop at work, registering myself at the town hall where I leave, doing medical check up, getting my residence permit and extending my visa. My visa is only valid till October ‘08=( Efficiency is really not the forte of the Germans. Everything is so troublesome and bureaucratic. I only manage to get my visa extended till March’09 when I internship expires. Paid €50 for that! Bayer not paying for that =( Need to pay again when I extend my Visa for exchange in TUM! PAY and PAY in Germany! Wonder where all these money goes to man.

Have been walking a lot since I got here! It is quite nice coz of the nice cooling weather. It takes me 20 min to walk to work and about 20 min to walk to Badminton! Guess wad. I found clubs to play Badminton! It is quite different from Singapore. Sports teams are not an emphasis in school. But they have clubs for Hobby groups and for the more PRO people in every town. I think that it is quite nice and convenient that way. I went to play at the hobby group and it was alright. Play for fun, I dun consider that sports. Going for training with the PROs on Thursday and will see how it goes=) I need to get a bicycle soon so that I can reach my destination in 5 min instead of 20 min! I walked too much le! Haha…

Here's my address if you would like to send me cold hard CASh (in Euros pls,thnx;) ):
Xiuqing Loke
Heimchenweg 86
Zimmer Nr: 22
65929 Frankfurt
Germany

handy: +49 (0)1708096793