european escapades

2009-03-23T19:23:00.001+01:00

test

Signing Off For Now

2007-09-24T16:40:00.000+02:00

Yes, this is the end of my blogging season for now. As you can see, some of you like Esther and the rest replied to my previous mail, and I did not reply. Sorry for this, I haven't forgotten you! Doing this blog has been arduous, and I have been putting off lots of school work for this. How do people like Esther blog everyday? Ah ger, better go study ah. And I also kinda gave a rushed reply to Johnson and Gladys. Hope this blog gets you all updated. Sorry!

I also went to the Hague and Brussels. Some other time maybezzzzzzzzzzzz zz zz zz z z zz

OPM

2007-09-24T16:35:00.000+02:00

The overnight meeting was really great, and God showed up. We were all really touched and felt a strong breakthrough as we prayed for Holland and Delft. Wow!

OPM

2007-09-24T16:31:00.000+02:00

We had overnight prayer meeting too, to end Jesus Week on Friday night. It was held at this warehouse because Elrich's church just got burnt down a few weeks ago. So extreme! Talk about persecution. But everybody's ok lah, no one hurt.

2007-09-24T16:28:00.000+02:00

Me and Elrich praying for people outside the TU Delft Central Library which is by the way, a fine building by Mecanoo Architects. Elrich's my hero too!

2007-09-24T16:22:00.000+02:00

We're wearing this (CWO!) vest because of Jesus Week in school. Instead of the usual evangelism, we ask people for prayer requests. May God bless all those we've prayed for. Some people asked to pray for school results, a girlfriend etc, and we prayed for this Iran guy's family too. We had a whole load of fun.

Evangelism in School

2007-09-24T15:59:00.000+02:00

Janita and I also join a school evangelism team which goes around every lunchtime to the canteens to talk to people about Jesus. Going vocal with your faith really shakes you up in a positive way, as we have experienced. Over here, the culture is more free and people are open to talk about religion and stuff, so we had quite a few interesting conversations.

This causes me to reflect about our culture in Singapore. Over here, since there are so few Christians around, the on-fire Christians are really desperate for peoples' salvations. The guy in the middle here is Elrich, an industrial design student, and he does this everyday. There are no pop concerts, or high-powered family carnivals and all. It's just pure gospel. We can definitely be more direct with the gospel as it really is.

Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." (Rom 1:16) I guess this is what it's about..

Our Church in Delft!

2007-09-24T15:53:00.000+02:00

Jun Xian and I are currently attending Delft Christian Fellowship, an Indonesian-Dutch church which Janita also attends. It is a G12 church, so the pastor, Pst. Victor also knows Pst. Lawrence Khong and Pst. Kong. Although it is a trilingual service and there are some difficulties (they preach in Bahasa and translate into Dutch, we sit in a corner and someone translates for us in English), it's actually quite fun and the praise and worship is anointed. The people are also nice and discipleship is good. So this will be our church for the next 3 months or so!

TU Delft, Our School!

2007-09-24T15:07:00.000+02:00

Our school in TU Delft, the Bouwkunde or Building Knowledge Department. It is a huge department with 13 stories and 4 architecture/urbanism streams. School's great too, and we cycle there every morning. Basically we cycle everywhere in Delft because the town is not really very big.

Alien Invasion

2007-09-24T15:00:00.000+02:00

These few days, a London fun fair & Dutch Pasar Malam decended upon our little town overnight, and caused us to wake up in a state of shock the next morning. When we finally came to our senses, we went to take a ride on the Booster Maxxx, which is a this giant spinning pinwheel thing pictured here. While spinning on it, we could see the church and the whole of Delft-upside down! Weeu!

>>Delft

2007-09-24T14:53:00.000+02:00

Finally, after a month of travelling, I have settled into our fine little town, Delft. For those of you who do not know, Delft has one of the best universities in the Netherlands, and we're proud of our little town. The temperature's been wavering between cold and quite cold. This is a nice little canal outside our place at Papenstraat 8, so we see swans and little ducks raising their families outside every morning. Our apartment is smack in the middle of town, just a stone's throw away from the market square and main church. The church bells chime every 15 minutes (trust me, it's a bit much). In short, life is just great!

>>Back to Rotterdam for Benny Hinn!

2007-09-24T13:24:00.000+02:00

On my second night back in Holland, I attended Benny Hinn's healing crusade in Rotterdam. I went there alone and met with some of Janita's Delft church friends there. Janita's my friend from NUS Aki, and we used to do evangelism in NUS together. How amazing is it that God has brought us together so divinely in another country so far away! Anyways, the meeting was great, and there were many healings and salvations. There were a lot of Nigerians, Surinamese and Indonesians in the crowd too, and the people were dancing and jumping enthusiasticly, sometimes more enthusiastic than us in Singapore!

Everyone could tell that God is doing something new in the Netherlands, and even Pst. Benny commented that the atmosphere is very different since the last time he came. Sitting beside me was a Dutch man and his mother, who used to be a missionary to Thailand for 30 years. So amazing... They told me how Holland used to be a great missions centre, and this is the place where Calvinism started. Currently, it is one of the most secular places in the world, but God is really doing something new in this country. Please pray for this great nation! + Pray that Pst. Benny's first crusade in November in Cairo, Egypt will go through. Egypt is really the gateway into the Arab world, so this is important!

More on the crusade from Benny Hinn Ministries:http://www.bennyhinn.org/articles/articledesc.cfm/id/302

2007-09-24T02:21:00.000+02:00

2007-09-24T02:09:00.000+02:00

This is the Mozart Orchestra, where they're all dressed like Mozart & play only Mozart. I was wondering if it's a bit of a tourist thing, but they are really professional musicians, and I guess it helps to keep the musical history alive. It would be a pity if the people came to Vienna expecting, and not seeing anything. So it works both ways. The music was great to hear live, and the Mozart tunes stayed in my brain for about a week.

2007-09-24T02:05:00.000+02:00

Bar reception

2007-09-24T02:01:00.000+02:00

2007-09-24T02:00:00.000+02:00

The reception hall inside.

Mozart at Wien Staatsoper

2007-09-24T01:54:00.000+02:00

We went for a Mozart concert a the Wien Staatsoper, or Vienna State Opera. Vienna is the city of (classical) music as you know, so this is really a priviledge. Thanks Papa & Mummy for paying for this! Hopefully I can bring you here next time on my account. I will really try.

>>Vienna

2007-09-24T01:52:00.000+02:00

Train from Budapest to Vienna. These wind farms are magnificent!

2007-09-24T01:50:00.000+02:00

Bridge over the River Danube.

Righteous Gentiles

2007-09-24T01:34:00.000+02:00

This is a memorial to Hungarian Christian people who helped save Jews by hiding them in their houses during the Holocaust. The Jews call them "righteous gentiles (non-Jews)", and they are remembered here. The scary thing is that anti-Semitism is alive and well in many parts of the world, and crazy people still deny the Holocaust and want to destroy Israel.

In tough times, I still want to stand with the Jews because a long time ago, a Jew died for me. Besides, it's not a Christian thing; it's a human thing. I would do it for anybody, nomatter what they believe in, because everyone deserves the right to live. Sounds altruistic, so better not chicken out last minute ah, Zhenghao. Lord help me.

Weeping Willow

2007-09-24T01:23:00.000+02:00

At the backyard of the synagogue are a mass grave for thousands of Hungarian Jews and this steel willow tree, a memorial to those who died under Hitler. At this point in time, I wondered what made people hate the Jews so much? I think a large part has got to do with bad experiences and unfair prejudices which when full blown, became uncontrollable. Is there a group of people you don't particularly like? You'd better let it go man, cos it's such a dangerous thing. Racism stinks and it comes out from the nowhere but hell. Don't even tolerate it in small amounts man.

2007-09-24T01:20:00.000+02:00

They have frequent orchestral and cultural events in the synagogue, because I guess they just love song and dance! Here, they are rehearsing for a night show.

Budapest Synagogue!

2007-09-24T01:10:00.000+02:00

Gareth and Zitao with their kippahs (skullcaps) in Budapest Synaagogue, the second largest in the world after New York. The Jewish community was and still is quite sizable in Hungary, but they were decreased by something like 80% when Hitler killed them in WWII.

2007-09-24T01:06:00.000+02:00

Hungarian food: all meaty, preserved, oily, spicy and salty. Tastes great, and does wonders to your stomach the next day. Looks like economy bee hoon right...?

>>Budapest; Cheap Eats!

2007-09-24T00:57:00.000+02:00

We had a heavy lunch that day, as Budapest is nearly Singapore prices. This country was in the formerly Communist Eastern Europe, so prices are a lot cheaper. The service was the best we had in Europe, which typifies Hungarian experiences. We all loved Budapest a lot, mainly due to the people who are down-to-earth, humble and hardworking. There's a certain honesty about them that is really beautiful, I feel. But right now, the country is really booming economically and opening up. Let's hope this good nature stays...We all know things are not going to stay the same for long, so do come visit soon!

2007-09-24T00:54:00.000+02:00

Wizz Air Rome to Budapest!

2007-09-24T00:53:00.000+02:00

Great place for Zara shots as well.

2007-09-24T00:46:00.000+02:00

St. Peter's Piazza, built by Gianlorenzo Bernini in 1667. It was completely pleasurable.

St. Peter's Dome

2007-09-24T00:43:00.000+02:00

We also climbed St. Peter's dome to see a panoramic of Rome.

2007-09-24T00:42:00.000+02:00

2007-09-24T00:39:00.000+02:00

O people, repent and be saved!

2007-09-24T00:38:00.000+02:00

2007-09-24T00:37:00.000+02:00

St. Peter's Basilica

2007-09-24T00:25:00.000+02:00

Inside St. Peter's Church, named after St. Peter, or Peter in the Bible. Apparently, he is buried around here. Though there were a lot of people, there was a certain stillness about the place. We all just came out quiet and quite mellowed. God is in here.

2007-09-24T00:24:00.000+02:00

2007-09-24T00:22:00.000+02:00

Stepping out in style at the Vatican.

Ceiling Wonder

2007-09-24T00:18:00.000+02:00

Throughout the Vatican, the Popes' instructions to artists seemed to be "I don't want any blank space on the ceilings (and walls too)". As a result, we could never quite stop gazing up.

2007-09-24T00:03:00.000+02:00

Statue of Hercules. What astounded me was the open-mindedness of the past popes that collected all this art. They were actually pretty liberal in collecting all kinds of art known to the civilised world at that time, everything from pagan Greek and Etruscan art to stuff from Egypt. I'm a Christian, but would I buy a buddha statue and put it in my house for the art of it? Probably not, but this is kinda like what they did.

The popes had this thing called the "humanist traditions" of truth, goodness and beauty that they advocated, and made an effort not to white-wash the cultures of the people and lands that subsequently became Christian. In those times, the papacy had an almost monopolistic hold on the art of the times, perhaps directly or indirectly because of the above reasons. How advanced. That was real marketplace before the term came up. Let's follow suit and take the marketplace for the Lord!

2007-09-24T00:02:00.000+02:00

Egyptian Art at the Vatican Museums.

2007-09-24T00:00:00.000+02:00

>>Vatican City

2007-09-23T23:51:00.000+02:00

This is the entrance to the Vatican Museums, looking pretty much like an airport with the strict security and all. And for good reason too. The vast museums make up the biggest museum complex in the world, and contain many priceless treasures. The Vatican City is the smallest country on the planet with the Pope as its king. It is completely within Rome, has its own postal service, and is the seat of Roman Catholicism.

2007-09-23T23:45:00.000+02:00

The Trevi Fountain, what I think is Rome's most fun and successful public space. Hoards of people splashing around and playing, and the workmanship for the fountain was great too! The whole thing was carved in huge chunks of marble and travertine, and the water is directed from natural springs, completed in 1762.

2007-09-23T23:41:00.000+02:00

The gigantic dome of the Pantheon with its mystical light. The construction is the largest non-reinforced concrete structure ever, so basically it's made from concrete powder and water. These ancient people were smart and resourceful.

2007-09-23T23:37:00.000+02:00

The Roman Forum, now in ruins. It used to be the city centre of the empire, and the whole place is just ruins built on more ruins. Very English Picturesque.

The Cross Carried

2007-09-23T23:25:00.000+02:00

There is a cross in the Colisseum now, because the pagan emperors used to kill Christians here for fun by getting them mauled to death by lions in front of a big crowd. The legend is that Paul was martyred here too-but it's a legend only. So if you're a Christian here, the question is: will you die for Jesus in the same way if needed? The answer must surely be "yes", but we all need God's strength to make that decision. When the day comes, I want to be able to say "yes", so Lord help me and us.

>>Rome

2007-09-23T23:14:00.000+02:00

I'm here at the Colisseum in Rome, with a nice tan to suit the place. Italy was hot hot hot, and dry too! This crumbling ancient stadium was massive and awe-inspiring. Fun fact: it was named after a statue of Emperor Nero which was nearby. The statue was called Colossus because of its huge size, hence the name "Colisseum".

2007-09-23T22:54:00.000+02:00

More final night shots of Florence with the Duomo in the background. Bye Florence! We'll be back!

2007-09-23T22:51:00.000+02:00

Back in Florence for our last sunset there...

2007-09-23T22:49:00.000+02:00

Zi Tao's big mouth..Haha!

2007-09-23T22:48:00.000+02:00

2007-09-23T22:47:00.000+02:00

2007-09-23T22:46:00.000+02:00

2007-09-23T22:43:00.000+02:00

The peoples' creativity inspired us to do our own out-of-context poses. I just had to do this Chinaman Wong Fei Hong pose for posterity. Hei ya!

2007-09-23T22:39:00.000+02:00

The Great Singapore Workout.

>>Pisa

2007-09-23T22:28:00.000+02:00

We took a half-day trip to Pisa from Florence to see the leaning tower. It is really the most overrated piece of freak architecture ever, completely not famous until it started leaning over. Something like a white tortoise or 5 legged frog-people just like freaky stuff...so wierd.

Here, you can see all kinds of tourists trying to hold the tower up in all sorts of funny poses. It's not working, baby...

2007-09-23T22:21:00.000+02:00

The interior of the dome. It was a really scary and claustrophobic way up, not to mention the endless flight of steps up.

>>Florence

2007-09-23T22:12:00.000+02:00

This is the Duomo in central Florence, which has the famous dome built by Brunelleschi in 1430. We managed to climb inside the dome to the top of the church.

2007-09-23T22:06:00.000+02:00

We took a train from Venice to Florence, but overshot and landed up in this ulu place called Chiusi-Chianciano. I bought a postcard here to remember this fateful place.

2007-09-23T22:02:00.000+02:00

Super sub-woofer room in the Italian Pavilion. Loud and trembling...

Jason Lim's Shattered Chandelier

2007-09-23T21:55:00.000+02:00

This is artist Jason Lim's work in the Singapore Pavilion, which is a chandelier made of small, hand-made porcelein flowers and little light bulbs. On opening night, he crashed the entire thing from the ceiling and destroyed it all, a culmination of 1 year's hard work. What guts...shiok ah!

The Singapore Pavilion!

2007-09-23T21:49:00.000+02:00

Yes, we do have our own art pavilion located in down-down town Venice, near the Rialto bridge. Inside, it looks like a palace compared to some other pavilions, which means we must have spent lots of money on this prime real estate. We too are positioning ourselves to be a major art hub. Way to go, Singapore!

Venice Biennale

2007-09-23T21:26:00.000+02:00

We also visited the Venice Biennale, the biggest and most important art show in the world. Each participating country has their own pavilion where they showcase their works to the international art-viewing public. Pictured here are 2 motor-rotated works from the Georgian pavilion.

Altogether, the works were refreshing and formed a counterpoint to Venice's rich history. The city has intelligently positioned itself as a festival town, leaving visitors coming back for more each time. Besides the art show, there is also the architecture, film, dance, music, theatre and historical writing biennale, of which the Venice Film Fest is the most famous.

2007-09-23T21:19:00.000+02:00

View of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge. The canal which runs through Venice, was the main transportation hub for this tiny trading kingdom which lasted for 1000 years before being absorbed into Italy. Facinating history...

Venetian Masks!

2007-09-23T20:34:00.000+02:00

Venice is famous for these masquerade dressups which people wear once a year in the annual Carnavale, or Carnival. The masks are commonly sold in shops catering mostly to tourists.

2007-09-23T14:35:00.000+02:00

Many many pigeons. And the scary thing is they are fat, and usually fly just 2cm above your head so you always have to duck.

2007-09-23T14:32:00.000+02:00

Many many pigeons.

Piazza San Marco

2007-09-23T14:30:00.000+02:00

The main square of Venice, the Piazza San Marco. It is a really grand affair, as you can see. This is where Jay Chou shot his album cover for November's Chopin. It was quite a feat to get the square empty, as it is always filled with people and pigeons-many many pigeons.

>>Venice

2007-09-23T14:21:00.000+02:00

Yes! We are finally in Venice, a magical place like none other on earth. We've just gotta take a poser for this moment!

2007-09-23T14:18:00.000+02:00

A huge conference with the Pope in Loreto, Italy.

2007-09-23T14:14:00.000+02:00

Inside the Duomo. Looks like a scene from the Da Vinci Code, with candle lights and all. But seriously, this has got to be one of the most beautiful churches I have been into so far.

2007-09-10T01:51:00.000+02:00

The domed roof of the galleria. The sad thing was that the architect fell from a scaffolding here to his death while building this.

2007-09-10T01:48:00.000+02:00

This is the shopping mall beside the Duomo, it's called the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel II. Prada, Gucci and LV are all here. I call it the temple of consumerism.

>>Milan

2007-09-10T01:42:00.000+02:00

The Duomo (church) in the centre of Milan. It's at least 700 years old, and is really magnificent. We got to go up the roof too!

2007-09-10T01:37:00.000+02:00

We couldn't stand it anymore, so we went back to Nice for a Chinese buffet dinner. Not quite nice, but what do you expect in France? Yay!!

2007-09-10T01:36:00.000+02:00

And there's jellyfish swimming in it too! Can you spot it?

2007-09-10T01:34:00.000+02:00

We actually had a lot more fun in Monaco than we thought we would have. Mostly soaking up the blue waters.

2007-09-10T01:32:00.000+02:00

Yachting spectator stands

2007-09-10T01:29:00.000+02:00

>>Monaco

2007-09-10T01:21:00.000+02:00

We took a short bus ride to Monaco, the 2nd smallest country in the world, just 1.5 km long. The place is just jam-packed with real estate, big boats and big cars. Owning a medium-sized yacht here would make you feel poor. But the trick here is to be contented and happy with whatever you have. That's something money can't buy. I saw a Chinese woman sweeping the floor at the train station that night. She could be the poorest person there, but that smile on her face was a happy one, and I respect that very much.

2007-09-10T01:17:00.000+02:00

Me having fun on the beach. At this point in time, I remembered at the corner of my mind that friends in Singapore were doing work in school.

2007-09-10T01:12:00.001+02:00

2007-09-10T01:09:00.000+02:00

This is not a postcard.

>>Nice

2007-09-10T01:00:00.000+02:00

Nice is a city in the South of France, commonly known as the French Riviera or the Cote d'Azure. The French Riviera is a string of little pretty cities dotted all along the South coast. The Mediterranean weather makes it a perfect holiday destination. Nice is quite the capital, but there are smaller towns like Monaco and Cannes. I had no idea when I went. Nice is nice...really nice!

Unite Rooftop

2007-09-10T00:54:00.000+02:00

Le Corbusier's work was largely inspired by the machine age, and the house as a "machine for living". In this case, it was the steam ship. This roofscape gives it away slightly.

2007-09-10T00:49:00.000+02:00

We also went to the Unite de Habitation by Le Corbusier, a founding father of Modernist architecture. This is like the first HDB building ever created in the world. All the people pictured here are architecture students. We just had to take this picture to prove that we came here. Awesome!

>>Marseille

2007-09-10T00:40:00.000+02:00

We took an international train to Marseille in France, and it was quite a shock, because it almost totally did not conform to the image of France that we imagined it to be. In general, the place was quite dirty, and there are only about 50 percent French people. The rest are immigrants from Turkey, Morocco, Senegal, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Nigeria. France used to colonise many of these countries, so there's a big North African-Middle Eastern connection.

2007-09-10T00:37:00.001+02:00

Brings you back to childhood, doesn't it?

2007-09-10T00:35:00.000+02:00

Tibidabo Amusement Park

2007-09-10T00:28:00.000+02:00

One of the most magical places I visited in Barcelona was this 100 year old amusement park in the clouds overlooking the whole city. It was a very strange feeling, because there is a big church just beside this place, and all the rides are the very old, vintage kind. There are lots of families and people just playing and being very happy. Are we still on earth?

2007-09-10T00:26:00.000+02:00

Me & Park Guell lizard.

2007-09-10T00:24:00.000+02:00

Gaudi's famous Park Guell (an abandoned condo porject, now a park) lizard.

2007-09-10T00:20:00.000+02:00

Die Morgen (The Morning) sculpture does a Beyonce.

2007-09-10T00:16:00.000+02:00

Gareth's donkey kick.

The Verdict: an Unkempt Moment

2007-09-10T00:10:00.000+02:00

After visiting it, we conclude that the pavilion is really as good as the people say it is. Its timeless design still makes for some brilliant architectural moments! Here we did some shots you normally would not find in prim-and-proper architecture books. Enjoy!

The Barcelona Pavilion!

2007-09-10T00:04:00.000+02:00

We're finally here at Barcelona Pavilion, built by German architect Mies van der Rohe in 1929 for the Barcelona World's Fair. It is modernist architecture's most important shrine. The funny thing is we read so much about it in books that to finally see it makes us have the strange sensation of wanting to bow down at it. Haha... Just to give a sense of how forward-looking it was at that time, we were building shophouses in Singapore in the 1960's.

2007-09-09T23:59:00.000+02:00

More Gaudi stuff: Casa Milla, a 100 year old condo project. These things are chimneys on the roof, not monsters.

2007-09-09T23:57:00.000+02:00

More Gaudi stuff: Casa Batllo, a private house.

The Church Where God Discipled Me

2007-09-09T23:46:00.000+02:00

After the Sagrada, we went past this church on the way to the Picasso Museum and I said, "Ok, let's go in for 5 minutes". It was not the most manificent or famous church or anything. However when we went in, the organ started to play and God's presence just fell on the place. My friends and I were just awe-stricken, and we stayed longer than 5 minutes. It was such a gentle rebuke, but I just felt the Holy Spirit just impressing into me these 2 points:

1. Don't put off anything because people spilt their lives on this. I looked at the stones, and it really was stone upon stone. They certainly didn't do it in "5 minutes".

2. It's not how famous or big the church is. It's whether God is in there or not. Big churches also need God's presence in order to be great.

Catenary Model

2007-09-09T23:39:00.000+02:00

To determine the catenary arch angles for Sagrada before the age of computers, Gaudi did an upside-down Sagrada model with strings and mini sand bags.