Swiss Time

Sunday, April 27, 2008

7:14 PM

Chocolate Fondue

Once again, I thank whoever is up high for blessing me with this exchange, and this place to stay. Having seen people beset with problems with others on the floor they live in, I am really grateful that we were assigned to the 12th floor in Tscharnergut. People here are great. We come from all walks of life, from opposite ends of the world, but somehow, we all gathered here, in Bern. And its really incredible how we can become a group of friends who always get together and have dinner, then talk about anything under the sun until late at night.

Such is the dynamics on our floor. Everyone is friendly to each other, and it is rare that you see open animosity. In fact, I have never observed it in my time here. How great is that?

Ok ok, I bet many were expecting a light-hearted picture post with that kind of title, and it was originally supposed to be. (But sorry, i don't really like to do picture posts, haha) But I really wanted to express my gratitude for getting to stay where I am right now, since I almost did not get permission to even stay in the student hostel. (Erm, very long story, will only talk about it when I am in the mood. lol)

But yeah. Now for the light-hearted part! Hope people are still reading. Haha.

Charlene had the idea of having a chocolate fondue dinner with our fellow 12th floormates, and so we started to gather people, and buy all the groceries. And alot was bought: 4 bars of 300g chocolates, 2kg of bread, 6 apples, 2 bunches of bananas, and loads of baking stuff (to bake cookies for dipping).

So on saturday afternoon, I met with the korean girl on our floor to start baking the cookies.

I'm mixing everything together

We started with some chocolate ones (personal consumption, not enough to go round), and then the plain ones, and next were some hazel nut ones. Baked trays and trays of the stuff, as you can see here:

More were to come.. see all the cookie dough?

Yep, did ALOT of baking yesterday. And I realized that its really easy, I can almost remember all the amounts of the various ingredients needed already. No more cookie mixes for me! But I have not succeeded in baking cakes yet though, think I wasn't too familiar with the oven controls then. But I'll definitely try it before I leave Bern, since I found a fellow baker in the 12th floor as well! Haha.

So we had our ingredients ready, and then melted the chocolate into the fondue pots. Really easy actually, just break the chocolate up, and melt it over a low fire if you are scared that it would be burnt. Add some butter and milk to make the chocolate more runny, and a bit of alcohol. We had Bailey's, so it was doubly good - milky alcohol.. didn't even need too much of milk in this case.

And so everything was done, coupled with wine that the japanese guy went to buy, we were all set. And the dinner was great. Never thought I would have chocolate fondue for dinner, since it is supposed to be a dessert. Haha. Great food nonetheless. No need for expensive chocolate fondue packs or in restaurants when I get back to Singapore! Everything can be done at home. :D

After dinner, we just sat there and talked. Its really interesting how we are all just able to click somehow, and simply talk about anything and everything. I always laugh alot when I am with this group. Definitely something I will miss when its time to go home. We then started to play a game, which lasted us well into the night. We started the dinner at almost 8pm, and only started to disperse at nearly 1am. If it was not so late at night, I believe everyone would have wanted to continue the session.

But its always like this isn't it? A group of strangers get thrown together by some chance, and they click really well, and form a great bond. But once taken out of that context, this great dynamic is gone, mostly because the group almost never has a chance to fully reunite. That's life I guess, 天下无不散之筵席. With any meeting there will be a parting sometime.

Ok, I guess the knowledge that in around 1 month's time, I would be ending the school term here and going travelling almost immediately after is affecting me. Starting to think of what I would miss already!

But this floor will definitely remain one of my best memories of exchange. Thank you guys!

Kay Key