Filming is finally more or less over. They're just gonna film cutaways today (i.e. no talking/interviews) and the crew is leaving Dresden on Saturday morning. Filming is really really tiring. But the thing that most gets to me is how I'm all ready to say something I've planned in my head...but the moment the words leave my lips, it sounds nothing like what I wanted to say. So I end up making lots of mistakes and having to re-do the same scene, line etc about 6-7 times. To me it's very frustrating, but it's not just that...it's tiring and annoying for the crew also...even though they are nice people.

But I'm really gonna miss them I think. It's always nice to have other Singaporeans around when you're so far away from home and never get to see your fellow countrymen for a long long time. Besides, they're all really funny/crappy. They make life more interesting for me; because of them, I've gone to places, like the Neustadt, which I wouldn't normally have gone to. And obviously, met some interesting people also. I don't know if I'll keep in contact with these new acquaintences, but hey, it was fun meeting them and seeing how different people live.

Speaking of fellow Singaporeans, I heard there's this girl, Angeline, supposedly from Singapore. I hope I get to meet her soon. But the past few times I've been disappointed, cos these pple are usually from China or somewhere else. Although it's interesting to be the only Singaporean student here, after a year, uniqueness gets a bit boring. But well, we'll just have to wait and see if she'll contact me. If not, well..then we'll just never meet, I think. TU Dresden has 24,000 students, 3000 of whom are foreign students who come from over 100 countries.

I've gotten my term paper for New Englishes back...the one I spent one month writing. I got a 1 for it (A, for the uninitiated). Yay!! The lecturer even said that I far exceeded the requirement for a paper in the Basic Studies stage and she'll use it the next time she holds this seminar on New Englishes. Cool...I thought my paper was pretty unacademic, considering I wrote on "Attitudes towards Singapore English". I had quite a lot of fun doing it, although I ended up writing it practically twice! I also got a 1 for the presentation that was a disaster..to me anyway...:) and a 1 for Reading Linguistics Classics. Yay! If only I could do as well for the rest of my subjects man!

We went to see a Tai-Chi demonstration yesterday. Turns out the Tai-Chi master was my ex-neighbour, Sun Wei! Cool eh? I was surprised...but happy lah...if I didn't know anyone, I'd have been really bored.

Tomorrow I'm going to Filmpark Babelsberg. That's in Potsdam, a city just outside of Berlin. I'm really excited because it's my first excursion with other international students from my uni. Maybe I'll make some new friends...or maybe I won't..doesn't matter, the idea of the film park is interesting enough for me already. :)

Next weekend, I'll be going to Oberbayern to see Neuschwanstein (the castle that the Cinderella one is modelled after). Actually I've ignored these excursions despite the fact that they're cheap and a great way to meet other foreign students because I'm too lazy to go queue to register or pay. But when my new neighbour, Fu Wei, said that she wanted to go for it and asked if I wanted to go along. So I said yes and now I'm just dead excited about it man! Kathrin, the girl we visited in the Neustadt, works at the International Office, and she organises these events and will be going along as well. Then when I went to pay for this excursion, I met another girl who convinced me that the Babelsberg excursion would be fun...so I signed up and paid for it at the same time. Seems like life has gotten a lot more interesting because of this show...it makes me wanna go and try out more things, instead of hiding in my hostel room all the time.

So how did I get involved in the show in the first place? Well, the production company/producer got the president of the SSAG to video us during our AGM barbeque as an audition. They actually wanted to use the president, but his girlfriend and parents objected to him being on tv, so the producer emailed me and this other guy she shortlisted. But he was too busy to meet her...and though I have a boring life that is not exactly appealing to TV viewers, I was willing to do whatever they wanted me to do (within limits, of course), so they decided to use me in the show.

But why did I agree to do it? Well, it ain't every day an opportunity like this drops into the lap of an ordinary, untalented, unwitty, plain person...so why not do it? Then I would never have to spend the rest of my life waiting for another opportunity like it...or wondering, "What if...?". But more importantly, I did it because I know most of my friends and my family have never been to Dresden or are unlikely to visit Dresden at all, or at least anytime soon...so I wanted to do the show, so that they can have a glimpse into where I study, where I live etc. There are only so many photos I can take...a video of everything would be the best way to show the kind of life I lead here (of course with slight exaggerations). Yes...these are the main reasons. I don't get paid a single cent. When we travelled to Berlin to film, I had to pay for my own ticket and accommodation...and I always pay for my own food when I go out with the crew for dinner...except for twice, when the producer treated everyone. I just like to gain new experiences, meet new people etc.