My Summer in a Nutshell!

Hi everyone

Arne, Nicole und Noemi! :)

Wow, I'm terrible! I'm so, so sorry for not writing in so long! You'd think I had plenty of time during the holidays to update...

Oh well, here's my summer in a nutshell:

May
I took a summer course at McGill (Sociology of Crime), and travelled to Ottawa and Quebec City! End of May, my whole family came from Singapore for Jonathan's graduation, and we spent a few days down in the US, mainly to visit the Ben and Jerry's Factory with Tamar, who was the only who had never been there before.

June
Beginning of June, Jonathan and Tamar flew back to Singapore (Tamar still had school, Jonathan had an internship), and mom, dad and I flew to Switzerland, where we spent 3 weeks. Unfortunately, the weather was very cold. Nonetheless, we had a great time! We spent time in the house, relaxing, or visiting / being visited by friends and family. We also spent 3 days travelling through Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland (yes, it was a short, crazy trip, but it was so much fun!). I enjoyed being in Europe sooo much! But it was sad not having Jonathan and Tamar there - it was the first time we didn't all spend the summer in Europe together. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay, and it was much too short! At the end of June, we flew to Singapore.

July

Marko, Tamar and Noemi along the Singapore River

I spent the first two weeks of July in Singapore. Marko was there for the second of them. Then mom, Marko, Moira (who had just arrived), Jenny (Jonathan's girlfriend) and I flew to Sabah, Malaysia, to visit Bambangan. For those of you who don't know, it's a small village in the middle of nowhere (but it now has electricity!!), and we have been supporting the small primary school there for years (it's my mom's project).

Marko, Jenny, Moira and Noemi on a hike near Bambangan

It was a great 1.5 weeks! We helped the kids with maths and English, and we did a craft with them: we made tambourines from papier mache, and then painted and decorated them. It was so much fun! And it was so sad to leave, but of course we had to at some point!
Marko flew back to Germany the day after we got back. The rest of us spent the following week in Singapore.

August
We all went to the Swiss Club for the 1st of August (Swiss National Day). It was our first time going, and I felt weird, but it ended up being lots of fun! Plus they had free Moevenpick ice cream, all you can eat! :) The following day we left for Thailand via Malaysia by car. We visited Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang on the way to Krabi, Thailand, to show Jenny and Moira a bit of Malaysia. Thailand was great!

Books! I brought all these along on our trip. And we were supposed to pack as little as possible... :) I liked to say I brought more books than clothes, but I don't think that was quite true - but it was close!

It was so fantastic lazing around day after day! I read practically non-stop, that is, when I wasn't in the pool or ocean. On our second-last day we went on a snorkelling and diving trip (Jonathan, Jenny and their friend Chelsea who was staying with us in Thailand went diving, the rest of us snorkelled). Even though the morning was rainy, it ended up being such a beautiful day! We got to experience a beautiful day on the ocean, by beautiful islands. Typical (touristy) Asia. :) I loved every minute of it!

Saying goodbye to Moira at the airport

Of course, that came to an end too, and when we got back to Singapore (we drove via Malacca and went on a shopping spree there - it was so much fun!), we had to say goodbye to Moira.
And about 1.5 weeks later, I had to say goodbye to Singapore and my family (well, mom and Tamar - dad came to Montreal to help Jonathan and I settle in). That was really, really hard, almost harder than last year. But I have survived (though at times I thought I wouldn't), and have settled into my new apartment and a new routine here in Montreal. I hope to write how things have been going here, but I'm so tired, I'm going to head to bed now and update some other time. Besides, I think I wrote a lot (and it didn't even take me that long!). :)

A bientot!
:)