It's been two months, and there will be another two.

It's a Saturday afternoon and the weather is being terribly unromantic. Think urban, cement, dust, humid, and 37 degrees. I have been stuck to my seat for the past two hours attempting to - complete a movie The Lobster (2015), marathon through Brooklyn99, checking my personal emails and finding ways to spruce up my uneventful Saturday. I completed the movie *pats on back*, am no where close to marathoning the 99, gave up on checking my emails and am still on my seat two hours later (which means my Saturday is bound to be pretty stale).

I only came back to joeeechua.blogspot because I received an email from a lady. She wrote to me about how she "stumbled" upon my blog and asked if I would be kind enough as to share my opinion about financial smth smth on my blog - basically creating content for her on my blog so that she'd get more awareness-slash-business. It was only after coming back to the blog that I realised that my last post was two months ago. I guess writing really isn't my thing at all. What I have been doing in fact is vlogging my weekends and that has been really fun. I already vlogged March and it was nice (to me). I continued to do the same for the months of April and May, and so here it is:

xShiok

Shiok Weekends | March : I did it!

Yay! I finally did it! I vlogged for a whole month during the weekends!!!!

I declare this a milestone. I am a procrastinator. One of my new year resolution was to do something interesting and I decided that the "something" shall be vlogging. And here I am, with my first vlog. *pats on my own shoulder* It was really fun editing it as I got to look back at my weekends and remember the good times.

Here's to the new month of April! We are one week in and everything is looking good :-) I am liking this year thus far.

xShiok

midnight pre-sleep thoughts: vlogging ideas.

I have been on a brooklyn99 marathon for three hours now. It's uh-mazing. I was just about ready to put away my laptop and sleep, when I realised its freaking 24th January already! Its the 24th day of the year, and I still have not figured out what my "adventure" part of my 2016 resolutions are going to be. I've had some ideas floating around recently. I was thinking that maybe I should start vlogging? (good idea or not?) The tiny fear of listening to my speaking voice on video is stopping me from doing it. What if I unconsciously put on an angmoh accent while speaking? hahahaha that'd would be embarrassing.

Whatever, I am going to do it. The idea for my year long vlog is to try something new every month, and video the whole experience down. It's a bit like Refinery29's Try Living With Lucie. It will be pretty interesting to see how it goes Singaporean-style. 

WATCH IT!  Try Living With Lucie. 

xJo.

HOW I AM SETTING MY 2016 RESOLUTIONS

vacation with the family

I am not one for resolutions. As a kid, I used to set these goals and I never stuck myself to achieving them. New Year resolutions were one of these goals. It was only until recently when I found myself setting realistic and step-by-step goals, that I could actually achieve them and it helped me feel better about myself. I felt great. I felt like I was spending my time wisely and productively. Just felt less nua about my life.

Having just turned 21 and feeling all adult-like, I feel like its time to set New Year Resolutions. It's kinda my way of setting a purpose of this new year. I've heard from adults (the ones who have been adults for a while) that time passes by so quickly when you leave school and start working. There are hardly any milestones - promoting to the next year in school, finals, end of sem deadlines, holidays, changing schools... Everything becomes monotonous, in a way. So, by giving this year a purpose, I might just prevent myself from becoming a monotonous adult. Maybe each year, I will challenge myself to do something cool/kewl - learn sewing, start a blog, start vlogging, i dknow. But it sounds like it would be really fun to do this resolution thing. Writing this paragraph alone has psyched me up quite a bit.

1// money money money

hmm... so i spend a lot but i don't earn a lot. i am starting this year with an awesome internship with an ad agency and i am really looking forward to it. it feels like all the stars are aligning this new year. i will be getting an allowance. i won't be in school so that's a lot of expenses cut. it's shouting to me: JOEY, ITS TIME TO SAVE MONEY! so this new year, i've chart out my savings plan with a pen and my diary and i hope to save enough money to purchase a few big-ticket items including driving lessons.

the only way to achieve this goal is really to chart out my finances properly and honestly. i haven't found a better way to manage my money at the moment other than locking my money up using OCBC's internet banking when you can set money aside for "goals". what it does it that you can set aside $X via ibanking to be locked away as "goals" and you won't be able to access that money through your card. the only way to gain access to that money again is to login to ibanking and withdraw $ from your "goals".

2// fit fit fit

i am currently weighing the heaviest in my life. i still have not come to terms with it, so i won't tell you how heavy i am. i have half the mind to psycho myself that its all muscles hahaha that way, i wont feel bad for weighing that much. i know i know people tell me that weight is a terrible determinant of your body health, fitness, slimness etc etc. that's why i decided that my new year resolution was not to lose weight, but to keep fit. GAIIINNSSSSS ~~~~~

ok no, i don't mean like pumped up ripped, but rather a nice lean body that I feel in control of. one that i feel good in. how i felt when i was on exchange was probably the closest i have felt to that.

throwback to when i felt good about my body

I exercised super regularly (INSANITY ALL THE WAY). No snacking. Cooked most of my meals (white rice, omelette, chicken breast, broccoli). I was still going out to drink. Ah~ Those were the good times. Now, I am back in Singapore. Feeling all nua and eating so much mouth-watering, delicious hawker food. 2016 is the time to feel that way again!!!!!! I CAN DO THIS! I won't be wearing a bikini soon but all is good. I just want to look good when I bathe too. 

So, my rough plan is to follow the Fit Girls 28 Day Jumpstart Guide. I will be cooking my own meals (they sound very delicious on the guide) and exercising even more regularly. 加油man, Joey! 

3// adventure adventure adventure

This last one still remains slightly vague. I'm looking to develop one of my "talents" if I even have one. Been thinking of doing some legit sewing, creating my own things. Maybe even selling them at cheap prices to cover the cost of the material. I'm still thinking. It could be blogging? Do you think people would care about my life enough to scroll through my terrible cringe-worthy writing? 

I'm looking at calligraphy too. YT has gotten me some ink from TW, and I will be heading to Art Friend soon to get a starter calligraphy kit. For all you know, I might be the next hippy calligrapher and people will pay me to design greeting cards and what not. hahahahaha aiya dreaming only la. 

yeah, still figuring this one out. 

it's been an amazing 2015, and i am going to make 2016 equally awesome. i started 2015 with an adventure of a lifetime with my exchange, and now i am starting 2016 with an internship. i am excited and so pumped up! leggo leggo leggo! 

here is me looking drunk af but i was really just in my pjs, out on my uncle's little private dock for his boats watching the new year fireworks that was fired up by everyone around us, and 5 minutes later we retreated to the bedroom to play robot unicorn evolution. yes that game still exists.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! 

xJo.

PLACES TO VISIT IN EUROPE & TRAVELING WITHOUT BOYS

4 months in the chilly and quaint Newcastle Upon Tyne in the UK, and 2 months wondering about Europe - Germany, Poland, Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.

Traveling in the Europe can be thrilling, exciting, and also scary - especially if you (a girl) are traveling with just another female. Before these 6 months, I would have been extremely adverse to the idea of being in a 2-girl travel group, but now - after having traveled Europe with another girl who gets lost half the time - I think that a 2-girl travel group is perfectly possible.

Being a 2-girl group definitely has its dangers, but my argument is that everything has its danger and if bad things were to happen, they are bound to happen irregardless of the situation. It's something I call 'fate'，命運.

Hopefully by sharing my travel experiences with you, I can make you feel a little more confident about traveling the UK with your girlfriend and do not be so caught up with trying to find a male travel companion.

Disclaimer: It is definitely still a safer bet to have a male travel companion, but I believe that if you are vigilant, observant, and quick-thinking enough, you can cope without a male companion. 

So here are my favourite European destinations from my trip to Europe:

1 - Munich, Germany

First on my list, München. The best parts about Munich were the company I had and the beer :-) Munich's beer, the best! Drink only. Really. Munich is littered with beer places, so just hop into any of the beer places and grab a 1-litre jug of beer. One of the places we went to was Hofbraühaus.

I think that there is quite a bit to do in Munich alone, from the English Park to their many many museums to their clubs. Apart from the things that Munich has to offer, we also set out on day trips via the train at Hbf (the main train station) to Neuschwanstein castle and also to Salzburg in Austria. (So I guess you can check two countries from your list in just one trip?) 

View from Neushwanstein. How pretty is this? *o*

Salzburg, Austria with ma homies. Missing Clifford cause he's the photographer. 

Munich is generally expensive. It's Germany (duh). So I don't exactly recommend staying there for too long. A 4 day trip will suffice. Furthermore, Munich is really safe :-) There are plenty of tourists around and the people didn't seem very interested in my belongings.

p/s dont miss the surfers at the English Park.

2 - Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon, lisbon, lisbon. This might be my true "first", if I were to just consider the city, minus the company. Everything is lovely in Lisbon! The people are absolutely friendly, the sights are so pretty, the food is one of the better ones that Europe has to offer, and it's really convenient to get from one place to another in Lisbon.

Before I continue to be all excited about my time in Lisbon, I have to give the biggest shoutout to our Airbnb host, Kleber and Kinho. Please, do yourself a favour and stay here if I ever decide to go to Lisbon! Click here for their listing on Airbnb. It is an apartment with two rooms that can accommodate 2 people per room at each time. The place is clean and situated in a wonderful small lane in an even more wonderful location. It's super near the metro, which means short distance to lug your luggage! Furthermore, there is a convenience store just downstairs (10 seconds walk) and a souvenir just beside it (12 seconds walk).

What made our time in Lisbon even better was how awesome our Airbnb hosts were!

Kinho, Adriel, Kleber, Me!

Other than having such friendly and accommodating hosts, there are quite a few things to do in Lisbon and also day trips!

Palacio Nacional de Pena has lots of colourful walls for you to take your next profile picture!

Palacio Nacional de Pena, Sintra. Day trip from Lisbon. Just a train ride away. Click for more information.

And if you have an extra day to spare, you might want to go to Cascais. Adriel and I were not particularly impressed by it and I ended up not taking up any photos. There is a beach there, which is not very nice. The beaches in Barcelona and Athens are nicer. But it's just my opinion la. So if you are still interested in going to Cascais, click here for more information.  

On the way back from Cascais to Lisbon. Sit on the left side of the train towards Cascais, and on the right side of the train towards Lisbon, for the view of the coast!

A word of caution about Lisbon before I move on: There are apparently well-disguised gypsies in Lisbon. A Chinese shopkeeper spoke to me while I was paying for my souvenirs, and warned me about all the possible scenarios. These gypsies are apparently disguised as tourists and they love Asians (cause apparently Asians are rich and easy targets). That scared us a bit, so we ended up carrying our bags on our front. Very fortunately, nothing happened to us while we were there. My advice: just be vigilant. Even with guy travel companions, gypsies will still attempt to steal from you. 

3 - Athens, Greece

Ancient ruins, beautiful night city lights, beer. The three things that pop into my head when I think about my time in Athens. Adriel and I were pretty worried about Athens before we reached. The girl had googled "tourist safety in Athens" and got terrifying results. Endless horror stories about snatch thieves. :/ In an effort to calm her (and myself) down, I even fb messaged a friend who has been there before as a tourist about how Athens was and what not.

When we were finally in Athens, we were pleasantly surprised. The Airbnb apartment we were in was damn pretty la. Minimalist all. Our hosts were like artists of sorts and can tell they were hipster-ish, but not the kind not make you feel super uncool about yourself. They seem friendly, but Adriel and I did not really had any chance to interact with them at all. The apartment was located relatively near to the centre, so.... I guess it is ok :-)

We were in Athens for only 4 days, which is not enough! There is so much to do in Athens. Ancient ruins sites, museums, day trips, beaches, food. So, one day for like museums, another day for the sites, another day for a day trip, another day for the beach, and like another day to like laze around.

Being a tourist at the Acropolis. There were so many times during my travels when I was so annoyed by the presence of the other tourists. I had forgotten I was a tourist myself. :/

Here is me being an idiot cause I had forgotten to bring my sunglasses and the sun was being an absolute B. Used Adriel's sweater to cover my eyes from the blinding light.

Temple of Poseidon, Sounion.

(someone please identify this weird looking plant. thank you.)

Sounion. It's a 2.5 hours bus ride from Athens via KTEL Attikis Public Busses. From Athens to Sounion, the buses run every 2 hours from 0630, until 1640 where it runs hourly until 1830. The way back: every 2 hours from 0800 until 1800 when it starts running hourly until 2100. Catch the bus from K.T.E.L. Nomou Attikis S.A. Kotsika 2 Athens 104 34 Greece. Google maps it. IT IS DAMN PRETTY SO JUST GO! Decided not to post photos of the beaches cuz spoiler. It looks even better in real life. 

Apart from the beautiful sights that Greece has to offer, be sure to do lots of souvenir shopping there! The souvenirs are SO PRETTYYYYYYYY with all their greek mythology design and replicas. Just so pretty. Plus it's cheap. cheap cheap lai lai just buy only. 

Just a tip and if you have the balls to be out late at night: At 11PM, buy beers from a kiosk, keep it in your bag, walk to this marble rock beside the acropolis, climb up the rock, sit there, open a can of beer with your friend(s), and enjoy the magnificent sight of the acropolis behind you and the city below you. It is magical. Thanks Kostas for bringing Adriel and I there. :)))))))

4 - Hamburg, Germany

I traveled to Hamburg during the Easter holidays, which means that the weather was still being ruthlessly cold. Despite the bone-chilling winds and the gloomy drizzle, I did enjoy my time in Hamburg.

While in Hamburg and exploring the non-touristy areas, we chanced upon a carnival! And I honestly think I quite zai! Won a care bear for myself, and some other stuffed toy for Adriel. 

Hamburg also houses a world-famous museum of miniatures. When we were there, the queue was not very long and the waiting time was approximately 30 minutes at the lounge. I don't remember it being cheap (it's Germany), but it was quite awesome cause they gave us free flow fountain drinks! Free anything makes me happy. Hehe! 

Apart from just being in Hamburg, we took a day trip out to Luebeck. It is a quaint little town with many churches, cobbled stones, and its history is linked with that of Hamburg. It is not much of a tourist destination, with little to do and see; hence a day trip is more than enough for you to explore Luebeck. 

Luebeck. Day trip from Hamburg from the Hauptbahnhof

Hamburg is not the most thrilling place I have been on my travels, it was laid back and slow. And that I appreciated a lot during my travels. Traveling can be fucking tiring, so when you finally reach a destination that is slow and just so damn chill, you'll appreciate it. The beer is still not too bad in Hamburg, but Munich's still the best. 

5 - Sevilla, Spain

Sevilla was where Adriel and I found out that we were mole sisters. Shoulder moles. And the right side of my face looks so photoshopped, as if I meitu-ed it until so sharp. But trust me, in fact I tried to photoshop the right side of my face to make it look rounder. Didn't work out obviously..... 

So Spain is the land of llaollao! I have only eaten llaollao in Singapore once, and it was with Anu's mum before I left for the UK. So below, was the second time I tasted llaollao. El llaollao es delicioso! Plus it was super hot in Sevilla, like no joke kind of hot (cuz summer). So the llaollao was super refreshing and also much needed.

Inside the Alcázar of Seville. It is basically a huge palace (and apparently the royalties are still staying in there) with a lot of gardens. Everything is very pretty in Mudéjar style.

Sevilla was lovely to Adriel and I. It was so safe, we did not have to worry about carrying our backpacks on our front. The people are also friendly even though they do have slight difficulties in speaking English. But they try their best to understand you no matter what.

Bullfighting ring/stadium in Sevilla. 

Sevilla offers rich culture and history, from the Alcázar to the bullfighting stadiums. I am personally against bull fighting, so I was glad that during my time there, there were no fights scheduled. If there were fights, Adriel and I would be torn between our morals and our want to "see the world and experience culture". However, if you are interested in watching a fight, there are fights scheduled on a weekly basis. Google before you book your flights so you don't fly in too late or too early.

Flamenco is also from Sevilla, but Adriel and I did not have the luxury to afford a concert. It would have been absolutely wonderful to watch a flamenco dance, but we just could not afford it. #budgetmax Nonetheless, Sevilla was still a really good place for us. If you guys have the mullah, please go for the extras that we could not afford!

To prove how pretty the streets and architecture of Sevilla are.

In all, Sevilla is a friendly tourist destination with much to explore (if you have the patience). If you are going to be in Barcelona or Madrid, please do travel to Sevilla as well? 3 days is enough, and 4/5 days if you are as slow as Adriel and I.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Congratulations on making it to the end of the post! I didn't realise that it was going to be THIS long. I even wanted to talk about every single place I went to, but hehe... got lazy. I hope that this post was at least slightly helpful for you to decide on where to go and also made you a little more confident to be in a 2-girl travel group.

Personally, I would not recommend being in a group of more than 2 or 3. A big group basically means having to accommodate with everyone's wishes and also it's harder to find accommodation. Furthermore, when you are in a large group with your friends, you are well within your comfort zone and you will find yourself unwilling to say hi to that other traveler beside you during the free walking tours. Stick with smaller groups and make friends as you travel :-)

I have caught the travel bug. I'm traveling to Thailand in August, and am kinda excited for it already. Haha, but this time it's with family. Wish me luck hahahaha

x Jo.