Whereabouts in Wien?

Due to the pushing forward of the O level exams so that results can come out in time for JC to start soon enough, yesterday, even though it's still safely in October, marked the last day of school. The time when we actually had to wait for week ten of the fourth school term to end before officially marking the end of school and going off on our holidays are long passed.

Actually, they still have not passed, though that's now the case only for the teachers, and not for the students, some of which are already back in their home countries/are leaving for a holiday as i type this. There still are three weeks left until the de facto last day of school, and it is at least until then before the teachers are free as well. There aren't really anymore lessons, of course, but there are various things that we still have to do, although on the plus side, the hours for the next three weeks are only from 8:30 to 12:30.

But then again, that is not the case for me, as come Monday i'll be starting on some two-and-a-half week full-day cca-related course in Choa Chu Kang. Not as ulu as say nie, but probably much more tiring. And with far longer hours (including travelling) to boot. Unfortunately, since i stay where i stay (and so few others stay where i stay - it's more of a curse than a blessing to stay here, i tell you), it is all but impossible to find someone to tompang along with, so i'll have to stick with public transport (and join the 59 percent of other S'poreans who do the same - and btw if they want to promote the usage of public transport for a start the higher-ups could consider actually using it themselves on a regular/daily basis, rather than merely during those token staged photo opp trips that are excessively covered by the local media).

From my place however, to get to CCK there are two possible routes, either the more straightforward (but less straight) route of taking the red line all the way up through Woodlands, or the quicker but more cumbersome route of switching at city hall/outram park and then again at jurong east. There also are buses i can take, but given the overenthusiastic security measures taken in light of the APEC summit meetings, which means that many roads along my area will be affected by closures and what not (chalk one more up for the curse column) and so there may be more jams than usual.

Well, on the plus side, one thing i can do while on those tediously long train and bus rides is start finalizing plans for the holidays. Have finally booked tickets after lots of delay due to busyness with school stuff (and as a result missing out on a ticket that was $200 cheaper), though the only place i'm definitely going to is where my flight there lands. The choice of this place to fly into is more a matter of convenience, since it's more or less close to most of the places that i really want to go to, and since i was there briefly about nine-and-a-haf years ago. And the main thing that comes to mind that i can do there (get a slice of Sachertorte) is probably something i won't end up doing anyways..