Andrea´s lovely visit to Germany

Andrea just went back to Singapore yesterday after a lovely 4 days spent here. It was simply awesome, just meeting up with her again after about 8 months of not seeing her! Realized that time might have passed but the friendship is just as close as ever, if not even closer. It was such a precious 4 days, enjoyed every second of it!

Let´s see. What did we do together. We went to Heidelberg on Saturday -together with my parents-in-laws. Stephan, Andrea and myself were so tired, we just slept the whole way there and back. It was lovely weather though, we did the usual stuff we normally do there, climb the hill to castle, took in the city-view, went to the river, took photos, eat! Hah, we had pure german food! Plus ice-cream, smoothies etc. The funny thing was that Werner felt tired cos Andrea and I were walking so slow! Haha, we call it the Singapore-pace of "walking" and the European pace of "walking".

On Sunday, Andrea went to my church, which contrary to her expectations, she found that it was very modern. So funny, she thought that the church would be a typical traditional european church - aka, the stand up sit down service. After church, we went to our parents to eat pancakes (yum!) and we went for a walk in the park in Ludwigsberg.

On Monday, we met in Stuttgart after my class and shopped a bit. We also cooked Laksa noodles from scratch for the first time ! So yummy! Though we were lacking the laksa leaves, it was such a lovely experience! Andrea was such great help in the kitchen! =)

I actually was crazy about cooking laksa after I tried it at my friend´s place - Serene. So I bought all the ingredients and just realized that nobody would eat it except me! So I waited for Andrea to come and invited my in-laws over to sample my 1st-time dish.

I´m so blessed with my in-laws. Indeed, they are such God-sent! They liked the Laksa that we cooked, or (maybe) they were pretending to like it so as not to hurt my feelings haha. Stephan doesn´t like curry or coconut milk, so I cooked him something else. The funny thing was that Andrea and I had stomachache after that - just a bit. Andrea says Laksa is a natural laxative, is that true?

Tuesday (May day), we went to the Fruhling´s Festival - which is the second-biggest festival in Germany after its more well-known brother, October Festival in Munich. We tried different rides in the amusement park, drank beer and in short, had a lovely end to Andrea´s 4 days here.

The first ride was like a roller coaster with your legs dangling in the air. It was worse than it looked! Andrea n I were screaming so much. The Viking was not that scary but I felt so sick after that. The person (who controlled it) must have forgotten about the timing. The viking was like double the amount of the time that I remembered. Plus it got higher like halfway, so glad that I didn´t puke across my seat!

We had such a lovely and enjoyable time. It was sad to see her go, but I´m nevertheless grateful to God for opening the way for Andrea to come down. Its so amazing that she managed to travel to Portugal, get a flight on stopover to Germany eg.

I believe that God plans everything and in His timing, He makes all things beautiful. During our long talks together, I realized that its so true that we can never compare our own lives to that of other people. Everybody has a different path to take and God has His timing and customized plans for each of us that He created. I think for myself, it would be to trust that God´s plans for me is just as perfect as those of other people and not to be envious or jealous when others seem to have it better than it. I´m not supposed to compare myself to other people (worse than me) and feel better either. I believe, I´m supposed to find rest being where God wants me to be and to be excited even more for what He has for the rest of my life.

Andrea´s trip here has made me so excited to go back to Singapore in August! can´t wait.... hee. But in the meantime, I got about 24 hours before Beks and Renita join me! Hahah, havoc for the next few days again, need to go pack the house and clean the toilet now! For more photos, can click on my flickr badge on the right side. =)