OK..Austria..

16 dec 05, Villach, Austria,

it's just 6.30am here and its 1.30pm there in m'sia...just had my bfast..in this building, there are 12 of us, so called, OJTs (meaning trainees). Lucky for me, for being a muslim, i had my own room with a separate kitchen..but so far, the guys have been cooking just whatever stocks and rations they brought from back home, i i have no issues having them lepak-ing in my kitchen..

Austria is 7 hours delayed from malaysian time, but as of this date, my body clock is still following malaysian time, so, if talking about my sleeping time here according to m'sian time, i'd sleep around 3am or 4am and woke up around 1pm..heh, sounds like me huh? ;)
But by referring to Austrian time, i'll be going to sleep around 8pm or 9pm and woke up around 6am..well, actually, i've been waking up around 4am and 5am..guess, no, obviously, my body is not well adjusted to the time difference..

It's winter time here, so, expected, the day time is much shorter. 7am here is just like 7am in m'sia..but, 4.30pm is like 7.30pm..and going off from work around 5pm is like going out for dinner at 9pm back in msia..so imagine..i go to bed at 8pm here..pretty interesting huh..

here's another interesting fact, the temperature is below 0 degrees C, so, basically, on a normal morning, the temp would be around -9C. Even so, i thought the weather would be damn cruel to my body, esp to us who have not faced winter weather before..but so far, i don't have that much probs i thought i would..except, when walking outside in the streets, u tend to have a little annoying running nose, and yea, ur nose bleeds, but it will be frozen inside ur nostrils..urgh, imagine how uncomfortable that would be..well, a friend asked, what to do to about that..well, when u're outside..u don't pick ur nose in public rite..use the tissue or hanky for instance if u really cant stand it..usually, when u're already in ur room or a building where its warmer..dats the best time to blow ur nose, cause by then, it wont be too frozen, id say..so, u won't injure the soft tissue in your nostrils..(well, certain ppl have certain concerns and curiousity, rite..so i try my best to give the best picture for them..)

A couple of days and nite here, i felt like i was going to catch a fever..but hey, that won't be a good impression on the 1st week of ur new job, aight..i have already prepared some safety precautions, some critical meds..for flu, fever, pain killer, cough..vitamin C..so..i'm ok.. (but ooh..i forgot my stomach ache/reliefs, or diarrhoea..damn..lets hope i won't have that..apparently, i have it quite often compare to other ppl..)

The lowest temp here, so far is -9C, that's when we first touched down in Klagenfurt airport on Monday morning. Then it got warmer during the day...the highest..if u're lucky, would be 1 or 2C but on the avg is -1 or -2C, but then, i am not usually outside in the cold weather..i've always been inside the buildings of course, either my room or work place..so..its pleasantly warm inside..but from what i've heard, the winter weather will be at its peak, sometime in jan or feb..so..bring it ON!!

So far, i haven't got the chance or better, i am not that lucky, to see snow falling in front of my eyes, but i'm quite certain that it does at nite time, during bed time. but uh..i don't think, i am that dumb to stay up and wait or watch the snow fall..it'll be too cold until ur brain froze to get back to sleep..no way..and besides, watching the beautiful snow fall..alone..uh..heh, no, thanks.. (but it would still be nice to have had that opportunity to watch a snow fall..) one more thing, if the snow falls tonite, imagine tomorrow morning..ur car will be covered with snow..and it will be extra brain frozen situation for u the next morning..seriously, its really..really cold even without the snow fall..

OK, on monday, we arrived in Vienna (Wien) Airport around 6am..there was a lil turbulence prior to landing..to my own suprise, i was nauseous..i almost throw up..heck, i hate vomitting..so i took the paper bag and start breathing in a out of it..(the trick is to breath in CO2..it somehow calms down ur nauseous..)

i was quite ok when we touched down, took some pictures with the group..and then an hour after that we had to take a small plane to klagenfurt airport, which was very nice since i was sitting by the window, and i could see the sun rise..beautiful dawn..

anyways, i was browsing thru the catalogs during the flight, when suddenly, again, i started feeling nauseous..and again, i was breathing using the paper bag...damn..i hate it..but it was so awful, i really couldnt stand it..for once, i'd rather throwing up than suffering that nauseatic feeling (do i spell it correctly??)

unfortunately, i did not vomit when we finally reached our apartments..so, i've been living with this nauseous feeling ever since...

Food wise is ok, like i used to tell my buddies, i have no probs with or without rice..hah, one of them said, if thats the case, i will nvr loose weight..haha!
well, here, the most important meal is eggs..they don't serve eggs at the canteen unfortunately, maybe during bfast, i dont know..im only there during lunch..lucky for me they serve fish meat there..otherwise, i wont be eating meat at all...hey, u need meat to keep urself warm..

That monday afternoon, our 1st day, the heater was not functioning in the room..i was sleeping..trying to cure my nauseatic feeling when i woke up to a really cold room..i could even feel it up to my bones..sincerely, it really tested my spirit there..haha..was i really going to stay here, at this season, for almost next 3 months??

well, where we're staying is a suburban area..north of villach town..its a farm area..in front of the place is a cown barn and a few yards away behind the house is a pig farm..damn..the pigs are almost as big as the cows back home and the cows' heads are almost as big as half the size of m'sian pigs..bloody hell..haha!

so, what i'm saying is, it's a suburban area, its an old style house..you have got to burn the wood planks for the heater to function and also for the hot water...so, at around 3pm..one of us met the landlord..and she was burning the planks..about an hour after that..it got warmer..well, what i did was...turn on the kitchen stoves..!

after a few days, i'd say i have slowly adjusted to the weather..hopefully, i won't be any crueller..

The Villach town is very nice…small town yea..but quite big actually, not that bad at all..and it’s very, very clean…the guys here celebrate xmas on the 24th..this is news to me, English speaking countries (US, UK) ja yg celebrate on the 25th..so-nyer..by 24th eve, akan ada colourful xmas trees decoration in town.1 or 2 days before xmas, shops will be opened as early as 5am and they'll cut the prices like hell..heh..thats what they said, we're still converting the expenditure here to RM...time 4.5 or 5 to make it easy..and yea, its rite, jacket and winter wear is quite cheap and variety of choices..kewl ones...and the style is btr..of coz..not made in china rite..hehe..

Alrite, time to go to work now..