My 5-month stint in Sweden

Back in Singapore

2008-01-02T15:32:00.000+01:00

ただいま！！ I'm back!

What a start to the new year. Train accident between Malmö and Copenhagen delayed my trip to the airport by an hour. And resulting in me not having sufficient time to do my tax refunds! Crap.

*Notice of accident between Malmö and Copenhagen*

Final moments together in Lund and Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen... Thank you for coming down all the way with me to the airport and also for the presents last night and for the lovely cards as well. どうもありがとう！

*All my favourite food for the last time in Lund*

*Presents for me*

*Princess Cake to welcome the New Year*

*At Lund Train Station the next morning*

*At Airport*

Thank you for everything :)

Till the next time we meet again, vi ses!

My Last Day in Lund

2007-12-31T16:05:00.000+01:00

Alas! It's 31st December 2007 already. Tomorrow is the hateful day which will be filled with mixed feelings of depression, sadness (of leaving Sweden) and happiness (of meeting my family and friends).

*1st January marked on a calendar*

Huimin is gone, Mylene is gone, and today Clement, Ben and Kai (with Huiyi) have also left. And I'm most probably the last Singaporean here in Lund. Thank you guys for everything that you've helped me in, especially the final mission... and also for the wonderful times and meals that we had together. I'll see you guys back in Singapore. All of you came to the station too late and there were not enough time to take photos... urgh. Tsk.

I took a final walk down the streets of Lund after sending them off today.

*Asako, Me, Yukino*

*Sending Ben off*

*University main building and AF Building, Sandy road, Market place in Mårtenstorget*

*Final shopping in Coop*

*Asako*

*Yukino*

*My last time in TIGER with my favourite snack*

*One of the best confectioneries in town*

*Lunch on the floor*

My final days here were spent celebrating Christmas as well as Yukino's Birthday.

Firstly, Christmas was crazy, we actually stood outside Domkrykan (Lund Cathedral) before the midnight mass to sing carols! How cool can that be, especially when some American dude wanted to take a photo of us doing it. I attended my very first midnight mass as well.... I didn't quite understand what they archbishop was talking about.

*Christmas Dinner as well as Huimin's last with us*

*Check out Clement's nose*

*Absinthe*

*Sending Huimin off the next morning*

*Us*

Yukino's Birthday.... Yups, celebrated with Ben, some Swedish mates and the other Japanese. Once again, there were much food, but fortunately, we managed to finish everything.

*Midnight surprise*

*Birthday cake in the making*

*Everyone at the party*

*Present*

Happy Birthday Yukino!!

Okay, so I guess that's it. Going to prepare my last dinner here with everyone else, do some spring cleaning, and watch some fireworks from our windows to celebrate the new year.

Happy New Year everyone and may everyone have a great 2008!

Chasing the Northern Lights

2007-12-26T03:15:00.001+01:00

Our trip to Kiruna is over already (sad to say), but I must say that it is the best trip I have ever had. Although there were hiccups along the way, the entire trip itself was so enjoyable that I was kind of sad that the trip has already ended.

Well, speaking of misfortunes... As the Chinese saying goes, "祸不单行" which means "One misfortune follows another", our freaking train to Stockholm was delayed for 2 hours and we were stranded halfway as the train had to return in the other direction due to some technical difficulties. And it resulted in all 9 of us missing our flight from Stockholm to Kiruna! And the SJ officials had the cheek to say that it is not their problem that we missed our flight because they do not liase with the airline company. After months of planning, this really kind of pissed us off.

*5.28am at Lund Central Station*

And so, we had to book a standby ticket with the other airline which has an evening flight to Kiruna and we had to pay extra money for it. But in the end, it was still all worth it since everyone had fun.

*The lady from FlyNordic who helped us get our tickets*

*Us in Stockholm Arlanda Airport*

*Kiruna Airport*

Okay, so why did I say that one misfortune follows another? Well, we called the person who was to fetch us from Kiruna Airport to inform of the train delay, and he told us that the temperature in Kiruna is madness. It was supposed to be -30 deg C, but that day, it was +9 deg C!! There was no snow since it all melted, the snowmobiles could not be used, the dogs pulling the dog sleighs could not run, etc. My goodness.

*Camp Alta*

*The communist-wannabes*

*Our first meal in Kiruna*

But our perseverance paid off as we still pushed ourselves to go to Kiruna. The temperature dropped by the time we arrived at the airport. The temperature was also sub-zero on the next day when we were supposed to drive our snowmobiles to the Ice Hotel. The Ice Hotel was amazing, but sadly, the Ice Church wasn't ready for visitors.

*Snowmobile moments*

*Ice Hotel moments*

*At the Absolut Ice Bar*

Many snowmobiles overturned along the way too, and mine overturned too when we were heading back from the Ice Hotel to our hostel. Both of us (we were all in pairs) were rolling in the snow! Dangerous, but what an experience. In the evening, we headed back to Camp Alta to feast on reindeer meat for our super late lunch at 3pm. It already felt like it was dinner because the sky was already dark.

*Outdoor cooking*

Our third day was the snowmobile-cum-dog sleigh tour! We were embarking on our overnight Northern Lights tour on this day. The dog sleigh was really a cool experience as well! It was scary at first but I kind of got the hang of it after a while (although some people got into accidents). The camp site for the overnight tours was across a lake and we took a raft across it. It was almost like an army camp! We had to chop our own firewoods for our room's fireplace as well as for the BBQ house and Sauna house.

*Henrik and one of his huskies*

*Ready to go*

*The raft/canoe*

*Clockwise from left: Our room, lunch place, BBQ House*

Reindeer meat, fishes, and pasta is all part and parcel of our meals there. The most memorable part of the overnight tour I feel would be that on the morning of our fourth day where we brought our breakfast down to the frozen beach and ate there while sitting on the snow, watching the sunrise (even though the sun did not really rise). That was 21st December, also known as the darkest day of the year when the sun is at its lowest point. According to Arne (one of the staffs there) who was of the Viking descent, they used to celebrate their Christmas on this day before Christianity came in.

*Breakfast in the snow*

*Lying in the snow*

*Peter*

*Peter, Me, Arne - Brothers in arms they said*

*Reindeer-feeding*

We left the overnight camp back to our first accommodation via the dog-sleigh tours again. Again, accidents...... one dog-sleigh flipped and the snowmobile following behind it couldn't stop in time (because of some smart alec who has never driven it before didn't know there was such a thing called a brake) and it ran over two dogs. Luckily the snow was soft enough for the dogs to sink into the snow when the snowmobile went over them.

When we arrived back at our campsite, we went to the sauna! Woohoo... and I had the honour of entering the ice pool outside the sauna first! It was damn right freezing cold in that pool especially when you enter it without a shirt and just a pair of board shorts. After that, five of us were so crazy that we grabbed some reindeer skin and we waited outside for the Northern Lights to appear. I ended up falling asleep there, and waking up shivering in the cold. At least we saw the Northern Lights, albeit not a very magnificent one. It was dancing in the skies when we saw it, but few of us could get a good picture of it since it was so fast.

*Sauna*

*And into the Ice Pool*

*The Northern Lights*

The last day finally came when we packed up to return to Stockholm (which was freaking much colder than Kiruna). I had the chance to tour Stockholm once more since a few of us stayed for one night in a hostel there. The Christmas market was great although not as good as that in Vienna. But the shopping centres were full of shoppers. Everyone was doing their last minute Christmas shopping. Old Town was also more exciting since there were so many Christmas goods on sale and it was so crowded. Not to mention that I managed to catch the guards changing duty at the Royal Palace as well.

*Last glimpses at the frozen lake outside Camp Alta*

*Leaving Kiruna*

*Ben & I - Can't believe we actually brought 7 girls up north*

*Nordiska Museum Toy Collection*

*In Stockholm*

*Met up with Huiyi and Kai for dinner*

Now that we are all back in Lund, we are starting to miss Kiruna once again where there was abundant snow to walk on in a winter wonderland.

That's it.... it's almost the end...

2007-12-18T00:21:00.000+01:00

The exams are over. I passed. Happy? Maybe yes, maybe no. How nice of some people who want me to fail the exam just so that I can extend my stay by one more month to take the re-exam in January. Right now, you must be thinking "yeah yeah, go ahead and fail it. Miss the lessons back in Singapore." But I guess, it's not more of the wanting you to fail the exam for real. I was just saying that it was nice of them to wanting me to stay.

*Farewell BMC*

*Goodbye Universitets Bibliotek*

After the oral exam, had a mini celebration with Gudrún at this Irish Bar known as The Old Bull. It was a fairly nice pub to chill out in, one that I never thought I'd step in ever. The ambience was fantastic, and there was this table filled with customers whom I assume are from a choir group as they were singing Christmas carols as they're drinking and they sang fantastically well!

*The Old Bull*

*Nachos and Red Wine*

*Gudrún and I*

*A gift from Gudrún*

Came back home and hung out with my neighbours at the corridor because everyone is leaving within this week. It's kinda sad that everyone is dispersing so soon already. But 天下无不散之宴席. Like what I have told Gudrún, which she also agreed, at the bar earlier, "This semester has really been a dream. When I go back, it'd be back to reality... the harsh reality."

*My Belgian neighbours - Pieter-Jan(L) and Tim(R)*

*With Amie from N. Carolina in the U.S.*

I'll be leaving town for a week. I will be heading to Kiruna to freeze myself off! Woohoo.... Till then, vi ses!

Saint Lucia's Day

2007-12-13T22:17:00.000+01:00

Nothing much to say except that the Saint Lucia's Concert was really excellent. Basically St. Lucia's Day is observed to usher in the Christmas season. Street performances as well as the traditional Lucia concert takes place every year on December 13th. Lucia buns made with saffron together with the hot wine (Glögg, it is called in Sweden) were served along the town square while we were on the way to the Grand Hall. Never have the streets in Lund been so crowded before ever since I arrived.

*The street procession*

*Us at Lucia's Concert*

*What are they doing?*

The evening was filled with excellent voices and pieces from the pianists in the University's Grand Hall, and I really think this concert was much more worth attending than anything else. No regrets buying the tickets for it.

*Lucia is the one with the candles on her head*

So in the concert, as per the traditional Swedish Lucia celebration, Lucia comes in with her maids and candles, bringing the light of hope in the dark winter. Girls are dressed in white and equipped with candles. St. Lucy is also known as the patron saint of those who are blind according to what I've read online before. Here are some videos of the concert but I'm so sorry for the poor quality since I wasn't using a proper video camera.

The Opening of the Concert (Song: Santa Lucia)

Welcoming Lucia

Three of the many songs they sung

The Closing of the Concert Part 1 (Song: Santa Lucia)

The Closing of the Concert Part 2 (Song: Santa Lucia)

One and a half hour of songs to mark St. Lucia's Day, perfect, and I really loved the opening and closing song, "Santa Lucia". 4 hours after the concert has ended, the tune is still playing in my mind, making me unable to really concentrate on what I'm supposed to do (study!).

This is a better quality video of Lucia and her maids singing Santa Lucia.

And the girl who plays the role of Lucia, some say that she would be elected because she is one of the prettiest girl around in the town? Lucia was indeed very pretty when I saw her up close. Well, I'm not sure, but I'm really glad that they did not use battery-operated candles on her head, which some places do. It was real candles with real fire.

*Lucia*

*My classmate, Charlotte, was involved in the concert too*

Well, that's about it I guess. St. Lucia's seems to be the last day for everyone to gather together before they disperse back to their respective hometowns for the festive season. Soon, Lund will be a deserted town once again, and most probably with only Asians around since the Europeans are all heading home for Christmas.

The Last Day in BMC...

2007-12-12T17:11:00.001+01:00

A sad day, it has been, at my last day in BMC today. We had our last final presentations today followed by a short summary by Hakån, the Professor who is overall in charge of the course. The next time I go to BMC would be for the Exams on Monday, and only a few of my Swedish course mates will take the exam on that day since they can choose between taking it in December or January.

With all the final goodbye hugs coming, I seriously found it hard to contain all the emotions within me, but somehow I still did. It just reminds me of what I saw half a year ago in NTU Canteen 13, where I saw the Exchange students giving their final goodbye hugs. This day has arrived just too quickly even though I have already foreseen this day coming half a year ago.

During the final PBL Discussion yesterday, I had to ask this question to my prof.

Me: Hakån, when would I know my result, just in case you decide to fail me and I have to retake it in January?

Hakån: Don't worry, you will know it immediately after your oral exam in the evening on Monday. Or you can always invite me over to Singapore and I can let you retake it in a bar or maybe in Raffles Hotel.

Filip: Hahahaha, you're really bent on failing him.

Me: ..... ha ha.... okej...

*End of conversation*

My coordinator, Miriam Hansson, is also retiring on this Friday and it was another sad goodbye in her office.

Urgh, what a depressing week for me. And to top it off, the preparation for the Exams is driving me nuts. The questions from the past year papers are really too interesting and difficult that some of us couldn't answer them at all.

Something to look forward to though, Saint Lucia Day is just round the corner. It's actually tomorrow rather, and I have bought the tickets to attend the concert in the University's Main Building. A pity that I don't feel like going for the Christmas Concert tonight at the Lund Cathedral since I really want to finish as much work as possible before St. Lucia's.

Good luck to me.

Random Entry from Universitets Bibliotek (UB)

2007-12-07T13:14:00.000+01:00

I'm right now stuck in one of my favourite libraries ever (I've never liked a library so much before) reading up on Alzheimer's Disease. Not that I wish to, but everyone gave me the honour to be the Chairperson for the last PBL Topic for the semester - urgh, how sickening. Just when I thought I could rest after the presentation that almost made me schizophrenic.

Jag vill gå till julfest med många många julmat också !!!

Walking to the library earlier on has been great. Many plans were made along the way with the people walking with me... I hope things work out great!

Final presentation down....

2007-12-05T16:27:00.000+01:00

Finally, my final presentation is over. There was a huge relieve of burden after everyone clapped their hands. I really love the topic that I was presenting on because I really found it very interesting, to be able to enter the world of the Schizophrenics (not that I became mentally ill) but at least know or hypothesize what is going on inside their brain. On the other hand, it was kind of sad that it's over already... just like that.

What really are remaining are the final lecture on Alzheimer's Disease, my final research proposal, the written paper, and the oral examination (no it's not a dental check-up), and that really is it, end of a pretty enriching semester. If I were to say that I really look forward to the holidays, I would be a liar, really.

But many challenges lie ahead still, the kind of new courses that I'll be reading back in Singapore, accustoming back to 29 deg C (yes I am already complaining that 7 deg C here is WARM), etc...

I was very happy that my classmates were finding out more about Singapore from me and saying that they might want to come over to Singapore to study (maybe for exchange?). That would mean I MIGHT get to work with them once more as well as getting them to know more of my friends in Singapore too!

So far, only 1 person guessed correctly that I'm from Singapore. Guess who........... He's the caretaker of the building that I reside in now. He came up to repair my broken tap, and immediately he guessed that I'm Singaporean from the way I spoke. Smart!

The christmas feeling is here already, the decorations are all up, and christmas gifts are aplenty in shops. I personally bought a container of traditional Swedish gingerbread cookie which tasted pretty nice. I hope Christmas here would be a blast! (And may time stop on Christmas Day haha kidding).

*Lightings are up*

*That's an ice-skating ring with no ice. It's plastic with some chemical on it*

*Christmas Tree outside Biomedicinsk Centrum*

Oh, and 1 more thing... I don't know who this is from, but since it's in my letterbox, it has to be for me right? Whoever it is from and for whatever reason it is, you're welcome! =)

*Only a few people know that I have a presentation actually*

I made a trip down to Malmö a few days back to look for some Asian shops with Huimin. And we were so busy wow-ing at the long-time-no-see Asian food stuff that I forgot to take pictures of them. Urgh. But anyhow, we bought stuffs back for steamboat dinner! Woohoo.. can't wait for it. And I bought some 汤圆 for myself too of course since that was what I went to Malmö specially to get to satisfy my craving for it.

*On train from Malmö back to Lund*

*Peanut 汤圆*

*Sesame 汤圆*

*Red Bean 汤圆*

Dream Destinations Conquered : Vienna and Prague

2007-11-27T17:56:00.001+01:00

I'm back from my trip to Vienna and Prague with Yicui and Pooi Fun. It really was a dream come through for me, because Vienna and Prague are on my list of dream places to visit, and considering that I am doing both cities together in the same trip, albeit tiring.

The end of this trip also meant that I am one more step closer to the end of my exchange semester already. I guess this is my second last trip (the last before my exams) before our ¨graduation trip¨up north to Kiruna.

*Austria*

Vienna - the city of music and plays indeed....

Buskers, such as the Korean lady who actually had her piano transported, were performing right in the middle of the streets of Vienna. The wonderful sounds of the clarinets, accordions, and saxophones transformed the normally busy street into one with a classical feel to it.

*Wonderful street musicians*

We had the chance to catch Romeo and Juliet on our 2nd evening there. Kind of disappointed with the 1st part of the performance honestly, but I was determined to stay through all the acts since it was my very first opera and I felt the want to watch the whole play. Sorry to the two ladies who got bored but had to stay with me. To make things worse, we wanted to get really cheap tickets and so we bought the standing seats tickets which costs 3.50 Euros. Come to think of it, the tickets for the seats are just not so worth it because of the disappointing play. But it definitely was a good experience.

*Opera House*

*Romeo & Juliet*

*Queuing up*

*with lotsa food*

*Inside the Opera House*

The next evening, we headed to The Kursalon (a splendid building in Vienna built in Renaissance style) where pieces after pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Strauss Walzerkönig (King of Waltz) were performed by virtuoso musicians accompanied by superb opera singers and enchanting ballet soloists. A new goal in life for me - to catch one Wiener Philharmoniker performance right here in the city of music with my family! The monument of Johann Strauss could also be found in the park behind The Kursalon. Although not much of Beethoven was covered in our trip, we had to pay a visit to the moneument of Beethoven as well, which was just across the road.

*The Kursalon*

*The Stage*

*Beautiful room*

*The musicians*

*and their pianist for the evening*

*Johann Strauss*

*Buddies HAHA*

*Beethoven*

*and us*

*Open-air ice-skating ring nearby*

Vienna wasn't just about music and plays only....

The cheese sausage bun (it's called Käsekrainer) is shiok and I had like one for each of the 3 days in Vienna. We went to Café Sacher Wien in Hotel Sacher as well where its famous Sacher Torte, an exquisite chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam, is being served. Besides having Sacher Torte, we had an apple strudel as well together with warm drinks for our breakfast.

*Käsekrainer*

*Sacher Torte*

*Apple Strudel*

*Nice*

Stephansdom (St. Stephan's Cathedral) is Vienna's most instantly recognisable building with a romanesque and gothic form . It is standing on the site of a church which dates back to 1144 and its most striking features are its gothic spire and tiled roof.

*Stephansdom*

And as usual, there were museums and this time, we visited Mozart's House, where Mozart used to live with his family when he was in Vienna, as well as the House of Music, where we had the chance to play conductor to a virtual orchestra.

*Mozart's House*

*Nice but expensive*

*The virtual band & their conductor*

Lying between Vienna City Hall building and the Burgtheatre in the heart of Vienna, Wiener Christkindlmarkt (Vienna Christmas Market) had not been a letdown either. The traditional Christmas Market uniquely embraces the spirit of Christmas. Trees are adorned with radiant red hearts, angels, lanterns and other delightful ornamentations.

The whole concept of the market just gets you into the christmas mood with wide-eyed youngsters jostling for positions at the toy stalls, while adults delight in a vast array of enchanting Christmas tree decorations, traditional wares and gifts for all generations. And a bite to eat can be found in the shape of gingerbread, candyfloss and other typical Viennese specialities such as the baked potatoes. My personal favourite was this warm alcoholic drink called Hot Wine. I presume it is just red wine which is warmed up with various kinds of spices, the girls didn't like it but I love it lots.

*At the Christmas Market*

*Great food*

*A cup of Hot Wine*

*Beautiful decorations and lightings*

All is not quiet inside the City Hall building itself, where children get to design their own present as well as baking their own cookies in Wiener Adventzauber (Magic of Advent in Vienna). One cannot fail to marvel at the Christmas Workshop inside City Hall, with thousands of tiny hands industriously baking cookies, and making christmas gifts.

*Inside City Hall*

*Cookie baking*

*Design your own gift*

We also made a new Korean friend while staying at Wombat's Hostel in Vienna and we had dinner with her on our first night there at a cafe serving typical Austrian food.

*Our new Korean friend, Ji Yeon*

*Beef Goulash*

*2 dumplings with sausage and sauerkraut*

We visited a town that was off the city centre in Grinzinger. It is here that you can view the vineyards during the summer time, a pity that it is winter now. However, we managed to catch a sight from the top of the hill over Vienna.

*The quiet street of Grinzinger*

*Bus stop*

*us*

*The vineyard which was supposed to be full of grapes in summer*

*Flowers for Mozart*

*They use his name for everything*

Our final stop in Vienna was Schönbrunn Palace. From the exterior, Schönbrunn Palace is a remarkable baroque ensemble. From the interior... well we didn't see the interior because we were rushing for time and I guess it wasn't worth it anyway. I am tired of palaces and museums. The weird thing was that there was a motor exhibition in the palace that day with displays by the likes of Bentley, Porsche, Maserati, and many more. The monument of W.A. Mozart could also be found within the compounds of Schönbrunn Palace.

*The treble clef*

*Mozart*

*Good buddies as well*

*Schönbrunn Palace*

*The Bentley and its owner*

That very afternoon itself saw us flying to Prague where the capital city of the Czech Republic awaited us. So let's Czech it out!

*Czech Republic*
This city is infamous for its pickpockets and the very thought of it kind of brought us to a high alert mode. The city centre of Prague itself were full of casinos, erotic sex shops, clubs and dangerous-looking individuals. However, do not be fooled by this menacing façade because Prague is definitely one beautiful city on its own. The nightlife of the city was filled with colourful lights everywhere and buildings looked really impressive with the widely-used light effects from spot lights, the city is alive in the night! At dawn, Prague proved to be even more charming.

Traditional Czech food consists of lots of pork, especially pork knee, and one traditional side dish is the dumplings. Dumplings here aren't those that are wrapped in yellow skin with meat within. Dumplings here are basically just huge pieces of bread-like food.

*Traditional Czech Food*

The Old Town is jam-packed with plenty of people heading for the various shops that could be found there. It is basically a shopping district and there was an abundance of food stalls around on the streets, and this is where I found my favourite Hot Wine once again! I really couldn't give it a miss. Other than the Old Town, we visited one landmark in the New Town as well, and it is known as the "Ginger and Fred" dancing building.

*The Astrological Clock*

*one of the longest escalator I've ever taken*

*Metro*

*The National Museum*

*The "Ginger and Fred" dancing building*

Prague Castle, situated on top of a hill, is where the Kings and Presidents of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic had their offices. Within the Castle compound are the Basilica of St. George, the Basilica of St. Vitus, the Old Royal Palace, as well as the Dalibor Tower (where it once functioned as a dungeon for prisoners, especially political prisoners). We also had the opportunity to climb up 287 steps to the top of the tower of the cathedral. It was tiring indeed and some people had to paused halfway to catch their breath. Right at the top, an impressive panorama of the entire city awaited us. Other than that, I didn't really enjoy the Castle very much.

*A Church inside the Prague Castle*

*Guarding the Castle well*

*Take the Challenge*

*View from 287 steps up the Church's south tower*

One of the reasons why Prague was a dream city for me to visit was the Charles Bridge that crosses the Vltava River. I remember when I was in JC, I saw this TV programme in which the host brought the home-viewers to the Charles Bridge where about 30 different statues were erected there and one of them was that of St. John of Nemopuk.

A little history in a nutshell... John of Nemopuk was the confessor of the Queen of Bohemia and when the King ordered him to divulge the Queen's confessions, he chose to remain silent. At the behest of the King, he was thrown into the river from the spot where his statue stands today on the Charles Bridge. Legend has it that if you make a wish while touching the little golden man falling from the river in the sculpture below the statue, your wish would come true.

During the night, Charles Bridge is a quiet witness of medieval times. But during the day it changes its face into a very busy place. Painters, owners of kiosks and other traders compete for the attention of numerous tourists crossing the bridge. This is also where most people have their pockets picked.

I have never thought that I would one day actually step foot onto Charles Bridge. On our first night in Prague, we visited Charles Bridge but I kind of didn't dare to walk through the tower that guards the bridge for I simply couldn't believe that Charles Bridge was just right in front of my very own eyes. When I finally walked onto the bridge, I felt a gush of emotions running through me and I simply had to slow down my pace to admire every part of the bridge. We visited the bridge again the next afternoon to attempt to capture some pictures which we couldn't in the night, as well as on our last day in Prague to catch the sunrise. And Charles Bridge was indeed enchanting at dawn.

*Tower guarding Charles Bridge*

*Charles Bridge*

*Jesus Christ?*

*St. John of Nemopuk*

*Touch the falling man on the right and make a wish*

*Charles Bridge at dawn*

*Yicui, Pooi Fun, and I on Charles Bridge at dawn*

*Sun is rising*

*My personal favourite*

We ate at this Chinese restaurant too. Even though the servings were small, they were extremely tasty - probably because we haven't eaten 煮炒 for a long time.

*Soup*

*Fried Bee Hoon*

*铁板豆腐*

And the lady serving us was very kind to us, so I shall help her to advertise a little... For anyone who is or plans to go to Prague and happens to see this blog entry, please do try out the food at:

Jin Yan Jiu Jia
锦宴酒家
Štěpánská 57, Praha 1
Tel: 224210299
Opening hrs : 1100 - 2300

That's all for my latest updates. It's time to start on my report for my exam, and my final presentation and start mugging for my final paper too.... What a low blow to such a wonderful 6 days in Vienna and Prague.

Thank you everyone from NTU Hall 12 !!

2007-11-26T20:14:00.000+01:00

Thanks a lot, my friends from NTU Hall 12, for the birthday card =)

It's a really pleasant surprise indeed when I opened my mailbox today. The surprise just chased away my tiredness....

*I've got mail from Singapore*

*Birthday card*

*woah*

I really appreciate it all, thank you everyone and Shuwan for designing the card, and Chrissy who volunteered address as the return address hahaha!

An evening I'll never forget...

2007-11-19T02:00:00.000+01:00

Before I know it, my birthday dinner, at my place in Klostergårdens, on Saturday is over already. It just seems to be so instantaneous - *poof* it's gone, just like that. It's like weeks of planning and thinking of what food to prepare just for one seemingly-short but a very happy evening - I had the urge of just abolishing the thought of having a dinner during the process 'cos it felt kinda troublesome, especially with the work I have to finish, but the thought of having an "evening of my own" kept me going.

I've never ever organized such a dinner for myself before and I'm glad that I did this time, taking the opportunity of not having to mug for exams when it's my birthday.

Like I told Huimin, even my 21st birthday wasn't so happening (thanks to BS102)... And every year I see my hall mates in NTU getting drunk because they had receive a toast from everyone present. Fortunately, I didn't have to go through all that because it was the exam period, but this time I couldn't escape... thanks to Clement, Kai, and Ben. I'll never forget the Kahlua and the Polish Vodka... and beer with vodka really sucks...

This is from the night before at Sparta when I got the Dunkin' Donuts as my birthday cake...

I'm still very surprised they actually carried the donuts all the way from Berlin to Lund on the train... haha. Thanks!!

So the day of my birthday dinner came... 9 persons including me and I only have 5 sets of dining utensils, 2 chairs and 1 small table. Started to borrow tables, chairs and utensils from neighbours next door, downstairs, upstairs, everywhere.

Everyone wanted to cook something even though I said that I'd do all the food myself, so that night I made buffalo wings and drumsticks (chicken), my specialty 蛋花汤 (basically just soup with scrambled egg, tomatoes, and pork), and rice, while Clement and Huimin did black pepper beef, fried cabbage and Swedish kladkaka, and Kai did his beef rendang! Yukino and Asako were doing something secretive in their room and it turned out to be another "birthday cake". It was actually crepes with fruits in it, and there were 16 layers I heard.

Mariel, on the other hand, brought another surprise for me! She made this HUGE birthday cake with German chocolates in it... So touched....

*the huge birthday card*

Another friend of Huimin (and now of mine too) from London School of Economics (LSE), Yifang, came too. Thanks for coming =)

*that's Yifang from LSE*

Oh man, I'm so gonna remember this night forever, my first "happening" birthday celebration...

*black pepper beef, cabbage, buffalo wings, soup, beef rendang*

*Huimin, Yifang, Yukino, Asako*

*Mariel, Benedict, Kai Hong, Clement*

*Swedish kladkaka and the crepes*

*Glad that everyone enjoyed the dinner*

*Thank you everyone*

Pleasant surprises

2007-11-16T23:32:00.000+01:00

Thank you everyone for the birthday surprises this year....

Shiping, Zesamin, Huimin, Adeline, Benedict for the birthday cake in Riga.
Yukino and Asako for the marshmallow-chocolate fudge-banana dessert.

*this is super duper nice*
My family for the birthday call on the phone.
Anthony and Shuling for their dedicated entries.
Liyin, Caddie, Ariyo, KB, Shujing for the birthday wishes on my tagboard.
Kah Suan, Yuhui, Natasha, Huimin, Yicui, Nicholas, Emily, Andrew, Cecilia, Pieter, Andy, Erik, Adriana, Kengo, Yukino, Asako, Yew Hong, Eng Lye, Cynthia, Dennis for the birthday wishes on Facebook.
Benedict for the Emihls Gustavs Chocolate.
Huimin, Clement, Kai Hong, Mylene for the wishes sent via SMS from Berlin and Lund while I was in Stockholm.
Weibin for the birthday card.
Siew Hoon for the e-Greetings card.
Clement, Kai Hong, Huimin for the birthday surprise during dinner earlier on.....

Surprise number 11 was 12 Dunkin' Donuts all the way from Berlin and a gift from Espirit. Thanks alot =)

*Dunkin' Donuts*

*my goodness*
This is not a birthday surprise, but still one of the surprises this week....

*I found this on the whiteboard outside my room*

*turned out to be cookies from my neighbour*
Someone just knocked on my door a few minutes ago as I was doing this entry... My neighbour, Rakel, just came by to wish me Happy Birthday too...

So many surprises within a week.... thanks alot people! =)

Riga + Stockholm

2007-11-16T12:36:00.000+01:00

Back from Stockholm finally. The first day was a very terrible one for me because of so many unlucky things that had happened.... but I shall not talk about it here. I'll leave the Stockholm part of the trip for the 2nd part of this entry... So let's go to Riga first =)

*Latvia*

My trip to Riga (capital city of Latvia) has been a pretty good trip even though our first day was totally wasted due to delay by RyanAir. It was so weird that their First Officer is nowhere to be found when the plane is already about to depart from Stockholm Skavsta Airport. Urgh.... In the end, we arrived at Riga super late, and hence there goes our first day.

*snowing in Stockholm*

*the plane taking us to Riga*

*Lidosta Riga Airport*

We spent our first evening there searching for the tourist office followed by looking around town for our hostel. Both places were so well hidden haha. The people in Riga had really long faces, they don't smile, they don't say things like "excuse me" or "sorry". The place had a really unfriendly atmosphere, but I guess it is just natural for the Latvians to act this way?

*computer at our hostel.. notice the wallpaper? It's Singapore's national day parade 2007!!*

After we found our hostel, we treated ourselves to some nice food at a restaurant just below our hostel. Things in Latvia are not as cheap as we had expected earlier. The price tags are really just deceptions, you know? They display price tags indicating that items were, for example, 0.69 Lats, and it looked really cheap. But when you convert it to Singapore dollars (multiply by 3.14), you will just feel like putting your wallet back into your pocket and walk away.

After which, we spent the rest of the evening walking around the city to kind of orientate ourselves to the area. That was when we saw from far, the 26th floor of a building with really nice lightings. It turned out to be a pub which we would visit on the 2nd night. Along the way, we saw the Freedom Monument, as well as the Laima Clock.

*Freedom Monument*

*Laima Clock*

*city centre*

The word "Laima" seems funny. But I guess it is their national brand. Even chocolates were "Laima" chocolates. On the contrary, as we walked along the street, I saw a shop with the name "Laipa". That was really funny.

I bought a bottle of water from their supermarket as well because the tap water in Latvia is not drinkable (at least for us). And by mistake, I bought the wrong water and I got sparkling water instead.... and I had to open the bottle outside of the hostel because the gas was all rushing out!

*water splashed all over - feels like I was arming an explosive*

The buses in Riga operates in an interesting manner. You don't enter from the front door (it never opens for commuters). You enter from either one of the two back doors, and you pay the money to a bus conductor (not the driver) who sits on a designated seat in the bus! How boring it must be to have to be on the bus the whole day... But well, it's their livelihood, not everyone is fortunate enough to live in a more developed country with high technologies.

*The designated seat for the bus conductor*

*The bus conductor counting her tickets*

On the 2nd day in Riga, we visited the Central Market where all kinds of groceries and food were sold. We tried a few pastries here and there along the way, and the best one was this donut which tasted like our 油条 ! Very nice!

*Central Market*

*These buildings house various stalls inside*

*donut with sugar*

*shopping for cheap gloves*

We visited the Open Air Museum. It was really open air and it was freezing. The Open Air Museum exhibits the lifestyle of 3 different generations of Latvians in the past, the kind of buildings they live in, the kind of food they eat, the toys the children play etc... It was interesting to know how their forefathers lived in the past and the most important thing there was the food! Because we were always hungry (at least I am), so food was very important and the good thing is that the food was delicious!

*To the Open-air museum*

*Latvia's Open Air Museum*

*open air*

*typical houses*

*a threshing barn*

*design your own headgear or mask for free*

*the interior of a room*

*these ladies serve hot tea and fried apples - nice when weather is freezing*

*hot tea and fried apple*

*in front of a food stall*

*this porridge was very tasty and warm*

*us with the porridge*

*saw them playing with wooden fishing*

*and i decided to give it a go*

*and succeeded*

*there was a performance... in Latvian -_-"*

*porridge - latvian style*

After a long day at the Museum, we went back to the city centre where a surprise for me awaited.... While having dinner at Hesburger (a fast food chain), Shiping and Benedict suddenly appeared from somewhere with a cake! It turned out to be a birthday cake for both James and I. It was funny that James thought it was for me while I thought that it was for James. The girls are good at confusing us all the while. But thanks alot people... Appreciate it lots!

*Caramel Sundae from Hesburger - nice!*

*James and I*

*cake cutting*

After dinner, we walked around and noticed that there was an event going on and very patriotic songs were being played! Could be because Latvia's Independence Day was like within a couple more days, and so there was this event and people were lighting candles and placing them everywhere along the streets.

*candles everywhere*

*us at the event*

We then went to the pub on the 26th floor of this building which I have mentioned earlier. It had a nice overall view of the city from that height and the Latvian beer (Aldaris) that I had tasted quite good actually. And it was the cheapest drink I could find in the menu.

The next day, Benedict and I came back to Stockholm while the others stayed on in Riga to visit other attractions. But before our afternoon flight, both of us went around the city, to parts of town which we haven't really seen yet. It was snowing quite heavily that morning and it was beautiful, albeit freezing.

*outside the hostel*

*some shots with the buildings*

*what a weird object*

*heavy snow*

*Statue of Roland - don't know who he is lah*

*Sweden*

And so we returned to Stockholm in Sweden. As expected, RyanAir delayed our flight time again... urgh...

Okay, back to the very first day when I first arrived in Stockholm, we visited the Vasa Museum, which exhibited the Vasa (the 17th century 64-gun warship that sunk on her maiden voyage and had been salvaged). The museum was very impressive, especially with the Vasa in it, it was really awe-inspiring. It was a pity that it had to sink just after beginning her voyage. It was believed that the King then had rushed for the works to be completed but nobody dared to voice their concerns that the ship may not be fully ready for sailing yet.

Now let's fast forward to when I arrive back in Stockholm from Riga. We visited a friend, sort of a family friend, Inger, at the EDB Singapore office. It was the first EDB office to be set up here in Europe according to her. She is actually a colleague of my aunt who works in EDB in Singapore. So Inger bought us dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant which served really nice food even though the rice didn't really tasted like authentic Japanese rice. Thank you so much for the nice meal Inger!

*Little Japan*

*Tori Katsu*

*Banana Split*

*at the restaurant*

*EDB Singapore*

*Inger and I*

The next day was spent touring around Stockholm. It was snowing on this morning - must be Heaven's birthday gift to me haha. There were young children playing at the playground and the whole scene just looked very beautiful.

*I love this view*

*outside Stockholm University hostels*

We visited Stockholm City Hall (within it is a Blue Hall where the Nobel Dinner was served every year for the Nobel Laureates), a glassware shop, the Old Town, the Royal Palace, and the Nobel Museum. There wasn't much pictures taken because it was really very dark already at 4.30pm. Shucks, I have to visit Stockholm again if I get the chance to, especially in summer.

Anyway Benedict was so nice because he actually bought me a present!! It was Emihls Gustavs Chocolate from Riga! I found it like on my backpack the next morning when I woke up. Thanks Ben!

*Birthday Note*

*drools...*

*2 chocolate balls for me*

Anyway, Stockholm City Hall is the Municipal Council for Stockholm and it is, as I've mentioned, famous for the Nobel Dinner for the year's Nobel Laureates in the Blue Hall.

*Stockholm City Hall*

*I shall have my Nobel Dinner here someday*

*Alfred Nobel*

*the Council meeting room*

*one of the many beautiful chandeliers*

*Golden Hall*

*stairs leading to the Blue Hall*

*the Blue Hall*

*utensils fit for Nobel Laureates*

*it's chilly outside City Hall*

*at the Nobel Museum*

*I decided to ask some smart questions*

*Nobel medal*

*Ben and I outside Nobel Museum*

Since it was my birthday on this day too, Benedict has decided that we should eat a better meal and so we went to Mongolian BarbeQue where we paid slightly more than S$30 for a buffet meal! We ate until we almost puked, I guess it has been a really long time since our stomachs took in so much food at one go. And the dessert was like ice cream with goreng pisang (my 2nd banana-ice cream-combination dessert).

*tepanyaki style*

*the amount of food we had*

*i can't wait to eat*

*the goreng pisang-icecream dessert*

The hostel that I stayed in in Stockholm was very nice! I think it really is worth the stay because they provide free sauna, internet access, warm showers, and they organise trips for us on Wednesdays and Thursdays. A pity I was only there for that 1 night because I was returning to Lund via the 5.20am train the next day to go for lessons haha - carrying my barang barang to school -_-"

And so I went back to Lund alone, waking up at 3am in the morning to prepare. It's a miracle I didn't fall asleep in the class. And traveling alone means taking photos by myself again, urgh... A 4-hour train ride meant that I could either sleep, or prepare my work for class in 4 hours time. So I decided to do my work since I couldn't sleep at all... and after which, I decided to pamper myself a little, and went to the Bistro wagon and had a mini-breakfast there.

*Stockholm at 4am*

*station only opens at 5am, it was only 4.25am when I arrived*

*hmm, which track is my train going to be on?*

*track 10*

*me*

*Bistro wagon*

*kinda pathetic huh... but it's cheap*

*I decided to sit here and eat....*

*....and watch the view outside go past me*

Happy Birthday to me... Grattis på födelsedagen =)

Urgh...

2007-11-03T19:38:00.000+01:00

I'm so hungry and I'm waiting for Yicui and Benedict to like arrive at my place for dinner.... Everyone's like enjoying themselves now that they have finished their exams for their first term here... too bad for me, my course doesn't divide the semester into two terms.

And now I am only like at article number 3 out of 13 articles.... geez

I had Japanese sushi last night for dinner!

*salmon*

*japanese rice and the omelette*

*so tempting*

*ready to eat!*

It's so interesting that there was this video on VideoJug.com that teaches us how to make Japanese rice and how to eat sushi haha, and we were all trying it out. Yups... Mission Japanese Meal in Sweden a success!

Spare Me My Life!!!

2007-11-02T13:38:00.001+01:00

I didn't want to do this but I can't resist the temptation... I copied this like from Yuhui's blog HAHA....

I almost spilt all my orange juice that I was drinking out!

And I still can't stop laughing... my goodness...

I was robbed by 2 men! Spare Me My Life!! The ultimate.. "Let's Go Dutch!"

One more presentation down.... One more to go?

2007-11-02T11:20:00.000+01:00

The presentation was finally over two days ago. It's a huge relieve of a heavy burden because I really suck at Genomics... urgh.. But it was one presentation well done once again! The whole situation leading to the start of the whole presentation was quite funny.....

8.15am -
My partner and I reached BMC (my school)... Jittery feelings with butterflies in our stomachs

8.45am -
Maria : Urgh, I had to be the 2nd last group to present (we were Group D and there were 5 Groups)...

Me: Well, we have no choice since the lecturers always want to start from Group A.

8.50am (in the lecture theatre) -
Prof Holger : So how do you guys usually start the presentation? Is there a specific order?

Me: Yes, we always start with Group A.......... (long pause).... But we could start first if you want!

Maria: Yeah of course!

Prof Holger: Okay great.... I shall start with Group D then.

Me: (in my mind) shit... it won't be nice to start with D first, because it will seem that we really asked for the 2nd last group to start first....

Me: Erm, shall we start from Group E instead? So it will seem like we just reverse the normal order.

Prof Holger: Sure, no problem...

9.00am (everyone is sitted) -
Prof Holger: Would all you be shocked if I get Group E to present first this time round...

Group E: GULPS! (and so they went forward to try opening the presentation on the laptop BUT it doesn't work somehow! it just won't open!)

Prof Holger: (after 10 mins) I think we shall not waste time figuring out how to open their slides... let's get Group D to present first...

Maria & Me: *stares into blank space.... shocked*

Yeah, so that's how my partner and I really got to be the first presenters for that day eventually... Sorry for the long convo above, I just want to write it down for myself to remember.

Anyway, I spent my whole afternoon yesterday in the library. I really love the library here especially in this study room where no laptops are allowed. Really appreciate that type of silence. The room is just very conducive for studying especially when there are tons of articles for you to read.

*the really quiet study room*

*the lamps are cute*

This week's topic in class is HIV and AIDS. The best week so far, and everyone agrees too... the previous weeks were just... urghhh... And for this week's PBL, I became the secretary. The last PBL on Genomics, I was chairman haha... Speaking about PBL, it reminds me of what happened during the first discussion....

Initially everyone just looked so tired and dead and not really active during the discussion... So halfway through, I said something that made everybody's eyes lit up... "Do you guys want a break now? 10 mins..." HAHA....

Yeah, but this week, I'm Mr. Secretary... wahaha... so.... let's look at pictures... The job of the secretary is to draw and write out what is being mentioned during the discussion... And my poor art has resulted in this...

*a cannot-make-it HIV particle*

*but the infectious cycle still looks acceptable*

And yes... I have a picture of my PBL group, but with Christine missing. We haven't seen her ever since her mother passed away last Saturday and there were speculations that she will not be completing this semester. Sighz...

*Maria, Me, Filip, Linnea, Emma, Elin, Ludvig*

And today is the first time I saw a train going on the tracks that is just opposite of where I stay...

*the sign there says "Se upp för tåg" which means "look out for train"*

*but there was always no train seen*

Singapore was on this week's Dagens Teknik!

To be exact... Singapore Airlines is in the news....

*our A380*

Sometimes, I really wished I had pursued my dream of being a pilot... urgh...

I wonder how much ice cream I have ate already.... Already I have like 4 tubs of them in my room and I've already finished 1 tub.... gosh...

*Meet my collection of ice cream*

*a Swedish old lady told me this was her favourite, so I bought it*

*I was attracted to the marshmallows*

*Why don't we have this in Singapore??!*

*Finished Vanillia ice cream - actually it was for desserts (eg. choc fondant) use*

I did Teriyaki Chicken for lunch today... 2 pieces...

*marinated*

*into the oven you go*

*oishi!!*

But Wilfred says I should have used more teriyaki sauce and grilled them longer... but I was too hungry to wait that long since I didn't have had time for breakfast today wahaha...

Okay, time to read my 13 articles on HIV.... c'mon, may we all find a wonderful therapy to AIDS soon... urgh.... >200,000 articles on HIV and AIDS, but still no cure. Geez...

1st November.....

2007-11-01T01:37:00.000+01:00

Yeah, it's already November - nothing to be really happy about... just that it was Halloween's and most people were dressed up for parties, how cool is that... but the rest of us just have to stay in and do our work. Good luck to everyone who are having their exams like in 7 hours time =) Trade Theory.... dunno what that is haha!

Yups, although we didn't really get to go to parties, we had dinner still and did something different... We had "Krispy Kreme Doughnuts" Chefs' Hats, brought back from London by Clement, to wear while we cook... Huimin's phototaking skills cannot make it.. the pics are so blur.

*The 3 Musketeers*

*me*

*kai*

*clement*

*these guys are just sick people...haha*

This whole week has been madness.... Meetings, presentation, lab work... urgh almost going nuts. Now that the presentation is finally over like since this morning, I feel slightly relieved, but I guess I have to do one more presentation soon again. Something bad happened to one of my PBL groupmate's family. Christine's mother just passed away, and it was just very upsetting to hear of such news. I hope she still can come back strong and complete the course though.

Lab work is almost complete, I just have to hurry up with my report and preparation for Poster Presentation Day.... urgh.... But lab has been fun with PhD. student Anna and my classmate, Hedvig.

*Hedvig, Anna, Me*

so that means I have 2 more reports, 1 more presentation, and 2 research proposals to go! I have to start NOW!!!

The days are really getting shorter here haha... The sun is gone usu after 4pm...

*this is taken at 5.30pm*

That's all for updates I guess.... Loving the cold and being able to smoke without having to have a cigarette at all.. Haa

Okay.... it's winter already?

2007-10-28T12:23:00.001+01:00

Okay I guess it really is the winter period already? Time is really pushed back by one hour from today onwards, and still yesterday Kayo was asking me when Daylight Saving Time will be over... what a coincidence.

But it's great to learn that suddenly you had 25 hours to utilise today!! Which means, I can complete an hour more worth of work today! woohoo... (which means I'll lose an hour when I return, bah)

Oh and yes, this just means that I'm officially 7 hrs behind Singapore time as of today ^_^... not 6 hours anymore...

Time Confusion!!!

2007-10-28T10:43:00.000+01:00

Is Daylight Saving like over already? I woke up to find my alarm clock and the clock on my mobile phone to be 11.15am, but the clock on my laptop says 10.15am (Daylight Saving Changes is adjusted automatically on my laptop)...

So to double confirm, I went online to Google for the time now.... However different webpages gave me different times... I'm so lost.....

Time to go to the library =) and I shall check the time out there too...

A rare period when there is more than one NTU student in Lund

2007-10-28T02:55:00.000+01:00

Visitors from Jonköping came two days ago to Lund... haha... Benjamin and Richard from NTU came down to Lund for a short visit and I was hosting them (but I was a poor host since I didn't have the time to bring them around due to my upcoming presentation and report deadlines). But I'm glad they enjoyed themselves in Lund, Copenhagen and Malmö on their own haha, so at least I don't feel so bad.

*Benjamin, Me, Richard*

We had a gathering once again with some Japanese at Sparta, and this time we cooked chicken rice!! Although I did get sick of chicken rice while I was in Singapore, I admit that I kinda missed it a little bit here... just a little cos I miss Oyster Omelette much much more! Haha... And I managed to get to meet the other group of NUS students finally....

*Finally used it... thanks guys for this Prima Taste thingy*

*Cooking the rice*

*Steamed chicken in the cold water*

Okay break time is over, time to carry on with my proposals.... woohoo... I'm high on assignments now.....

Polish Kids

2007-10-24T23:32:00.000+02:00

Eh miss wong yuhui, since u love the polish kids so much, here are some pictures of them for you!! HAHA....

Don't they just make you smile......

Wonderful Kraków

2007-10-21T00:52:00.000+02:00

I'm back from Poland!! Woohoo...

*Poland*
Kraków is really a great place to be in, the Main Square, the buildings, the pubs, the places of interests.... they were all just very very nice. And most importantly, things there were CHEAP... they were at least of the same price as that in Singapore, and there were many things that were even cheaper as compared to that in Singapore. Not to mention that I've got some of the really good deals in this shopping centre which is like their Vivocity (but not that large though).

If time permits, I'd really want to shop for a few more days there. It's like there is a wider variety there, and it's where I could gain back my normal weight because I have no qualms about buying food to eat (since it is so cheap). Gelato-style Italian ice cream only costs S$1 per scoop there and I eat it every night. I was also very touched when I saw KFC (like finally)... Haven't seen KFC ever since I came to Europe, and I really miss it. Or rather, all of us missed it so much that we chiong-ed for it when we found a place to sit at.

Okay, enough talking... pictures time...

*Malmö Airport*

*Välkommen Ombord*

*Ben & I*

*Katowice Airport*

*the mini bus that brought us to Kraków*

*Mama's Hostel - we stayed here*

*reception desk - 24 hour functional*

*the common room of the hostel*

*the rooms*

*Back Alley of our Hostel*

Around Old Town

Old Town is the main city square of Kraków and it is the heart of the city where many activities are taking place. You get to watch street performances, look at the beautiful buildings in town, hire a horse-taxi (and feel like you're Cinderella in her horse carriage), and of course chilling out in a pub with your friends at night.

It is also in Old Town that you get to visit Wawel's Castle and the various Synagogues (these are Jewish house of worship) and of course the usual churches in town.

*Night View of the Cloth Hall*

*Day View of the Cloth Hall*

*St. Mary's Basilica*

*Interior of St. Mary's - I think it's too elaborated, too much gold*

*Watch Tower*

*Main Market Square*

*Church of St. Peter and St. Paul's*

*Interior of the Church*

*The beautiful church organ*

*Horse Taxi*

*Street of Kraków*

*Wawel's Castle*

*Me in front of the entrance to the castle*

*Buildings within the Castle*

The people in Poland seldom see Asians, so while we were there, everyone's eyes were glued on us. When we sat down to rest, a group of Polish kids suddenly thronged towards us to take a photo with us. When the first group was done, a second group of them rushed over! Were we the exhibits or what? HAHA... cute kids though.

*photo with the Polish kids*

*Polish food - rice with minced meat wrapped with cabbage*

*The New Jewish Cemetry - there's a monument for the all the Jewish who died in WW II*

*Inside Tempel Synagogue*

*Shopping Centre - it opens till 10pm!*

*does this shop sell very expensive clothes?*

*KFC!!! Finally!!*

Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp

Click on the link above to read more about the Concentration Camp...

Quite a sad place to be in - to understand what the prisoners of the largest Nazi extermination camp went through, the number of people that were killed - it really is upsetting. Even just before reaching the place, the sky was looking gloomy and the cold wind was blowing. What an apt entry to a place where millions of people, especially Jews, who were exterminated during the Third Reich. I enjoyed the trip still because I love this kind of history thingy.

This is the Main Gate to Auschwitz Camp I - Prisoners march out of this gate everyday to go out to work like slaves for AT LEAST 12 hours before they could return, some carrying dead bodies of those who died while working. At the top, it says "Arbeit Macht Fret" which means "Work makes (one) free". But freedom was never granted to the prisoners who are treated like sub-human beings.

*Blocks of barracks*

*Blk 11 - The Death Block, enlarge picture to read wording*

*The Death Wall outside Blk 11*

*Largest public execution*

*Public Execution - the prisoners were hanged here in front of other inmates*

*Location of the Gestapo (Nazi Germany's Secret Police) Camp*

Camp Commandant, Rudolf Höss, was hanged here, where many prisoners suspected of being involved in the camp's underground resistance movement were once hanged, after the post-war trial

Crematorium - where many dead bodies were disposed off after the prisoners are mass-killed in gas chambers. I didn't take pictures of the interior as a mark of respect for the millions who died here.

So far, those pictures were from Auschwitz I. A larger compound, Auschwitz II aka Birkenau, was built 3km away and housed even more prisoners. This 2nd compound is where the Selection Process took place. The Selection process is one where the fates of many who arrived were decided by Nazi doctors. Those fit for labour were kept as prisoners, whereas those deemed useless (the young, the old, women with children, pregnant women) were separated from the whole group and directed to the Gas Chambers. Children, especially twins, and single women were usually kept for medical experiments!

The Nazis lied to the people (who were supposed to die) that they were going to take a bath, and that they have to strip off their clothes and enter the gas chambers fitted with fake shower heads. Once they were all inside, the lights were turned off and Zyklon-B was poured into the chambers from chimneys. These prisoners died a slow and painful death. All their belongings were sent back to Germany to be re-used.

*The Gate*

*a wooden barrack*

*usually more than 2 prisoners had to share one bed on each deck*

Prisoners are usually allowed only to use the toilets twice each day. The toilet smells very badly but it was to the prisoners' advantage because the Nazis will not hang out around here due to the bad smell, and prisoners used the chance to exchange news.

*look at the size of the compound*

*Monument*

The Nazis destroyed all of the gas chambers and crematorium in Birkenau on the last days of Auschwitz existence to erase all evidences of their mass extermination of the Jews

*the lake in which ashes of the cremated bodies are thrown into*

The weather was super chilling when we left the place. Really can't imagine how the prisoners can withstand the cold in their thin and dirty prisoner uniform... sighz...

"Wieliczka" - Salt Mine

This excavation site is really awesome. The tour took about 2 hours, bringing us down to the deepest point of 135m underground. Sculptures made from salt minerals were everywhere, and there was even a chapel known as St. Kinga's Chapel. This chapel is open also on Sundays for church sessions, and also for weddings and Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Cool huh... Check out the pictures man...

*walking underground*

*sculptures made of salt*

*Me outside St. Kinga's Chapel*

*St. Kinga's Chapel*

*Us in St. Kinga's Chapel - Zesamin, Me, Adeline, Shiping, Huimin, Ben*

*The Last Supper made from salt minerals*

This is the lift that transported us all the way up to ground level from 135m underground. It's really the miner-style elevator and it traveled at such a high speed that for a moment I thought I was on a roller coaster ride!

*i wanted to lick the salt on the wall*

We bumped into those Polish kids who took photos with us at Wawel's Castle again while we were at the Salt Mine! They were all so excited at seeing us again haha... and one of the girls even changed her digital camera's memory stick to show me the picture we took at Wawel's Castle. Most probably she thought that I've forgotten who they are so she wanted to remind me with the photo. Smart girl, but well I didn't forget who they are in the first place! Haha.

We had lunch after the tour, at this Polish restaurant that was recommended to us by a Polish who is on exchange in Lund as well. 6 of us and a total of 11 plates of different food! All the other customers were like staring at us because usually one person only eats one plate of food due to the quantity of food given. But the price was too cheap and it was too good to give the various kinds of food a miss. Three Polish girls from the other table were like staring and smiling at us all the way - obviously they were waiting to see if we could finish everything! They finished their own food long ago and only left after I finished the last piece of bread on the table!

*my fried carp*

*mushroom soup in bread*

*us after a satisfying meal*

*I like this night view of the watch tower and the cloth hall and the sky*

We then met this Singaporean who just completed his Masters at Birmingham University in England. All of us then went to a pub to chill out and tried some Polish Beer, which was really good, although we got a little tipsy towards the end. And it snowed! It was falling snow... not just snow lying on the ground! It was really very nice to be able to stand on the road and looking up to see falling snow.

*can see the falling snow?*

Hair Cutting in Kraków

Adeline and I had been dying to get our hair cut for like donkey years because it was so long already. And I'm really not accustomed to keeping such long hair. So we were like so happy when we found this Polish salon that can give us our hair cut (including hair wash) at one of the cheapest price you can find in Europe. It was like S$15 for me and slightly more than S$25 for Adeline.

But it was so hilarious because the hair dresser didn't understand English, and there was this customer having her hair done halfway who actually helped us with the translation. It was very nice of her, really appreciate her help a lot.

*the salon*

Time to return to Lund

Well, the good time had to come to an end somehow.... So it is finally time to go back to Lund although none of us really felt like leaving Kraków...

*one last shot of the city street*

*IKEA sighted along the way to Katowice Airport*

That bus outside ferries us to the plane that is waiting... Adeline was so BLUR!! she didn't know that such a bus exists in some airports and she thought that we were taking a bus back to Malmö!! haha.. goodness.

*airport roads*

*boarding our plane*

*I waved to the people in the viewing gallery haha*

*It was very crowded in the plane*

*clearing customs at Malmö Sturup Airport*

Anyway, something occurred and I noticed this for the very first time. When the plane touched down on the runway, everyone would cheer and clap their hands. It's like everyone is happy for one safe trip and applauding the pilots for their great wonderful plane-handling skills. It's little things like this that make one's day. Kudos to the pilots!

Baby Ally Whatever

2007-10-11T19:08:00.001+02:00

Dinner at Klostergården + Trip to Denmark

2007-10-07T20:28:00.000+02:00

Last Thursday was the first time I organized a dinner in my room. Why my room? Because they like my room which I don't understand why. They said "no specific reasons". But anyway, I guess it was a great dinner because so much food was prepared.

*meal preparation*

*main course*

*dessert by asako-san*

*yukino & asako*

*yukino, asako, kengo, mingkeato (HAHA)*

*yoji*

They started going crazy after dinner and began to play with my lamp.....

Yups, so that was the dinner before our respective trips to Denmark. I am going with fellow Singaporeans while they are going with their own friends.

Day 1

*Denmark*

We bought this "Sound Tour" card which allows us to travel up to Helsingborg first and then crossing the straits to Helsingor in Denmark by this huge ferry. The ferry's interior was amazing. They had restaurants, bars, convenience stores, etc.

*the trains in sweden look beautiful*

*Helsingborg Central*

*the inside of the ferry*

*lovely colours*

*people bring their vehicles across the straits as well*

*on ferry*

*ben, me*

*goodbye sweden*

*hello denmark*

*Hamlet's Castle*

*Helsingor*

The only attraction in Helsingor was the Hamlet's castle. The whole town seems pretty boring otherwise. Hamlet was a Danish prince in Shakespear's play "Hamlet". Well, I shall leave the literature part of this to Wikipedia, so you guys can check out who Hamlet is if you have never taken Literature =) Anyway we didn't want to pay to enter the castle, so we only managed to take pictures outside of the castle haha.

*Hamlet's Castle*

*beautiful blues*

After touring Hamlet's Castle in Helsingor, we took a train down to Copenhagen to meet up with Yicui, who is doing her Exchange in Copenhagen Business School (CBS), to go visit the Rosenborg Castle (where and the royal crowns and jeweleries were exhibited) and also to embark on the Canal Tours.

Rosenborg Castle

*Christian IV's Crown*

*Queen's Crown & The Crown of Absolutism*

*The State Sword*

*royal stuffs*

Canal Tours

*low bridge*

*Opera House*

*one of the beautiful residential bldgs along the canal tour route*

*the city's library - Black Diamond*

*The Little Mermaid*

*Supreme Court*

*the finance office - that's 4 dragon tails intertwined*

*spiraling stairs up a church*

After the Canal Tours, we took the Metro (which is like our MRT in Singapore) and it felt like we were in "Back to the Future" as the train moved. We headed for Danish pastries.... all of it look super delicious and I was so tempted to buy one of each to try. Haha... but I got the strawberry tart in the end, which tasted very good.

*Metro*

*Back to the Future*

*Danish Pastries*

*Strawberry Tart*

Afterwhich, it was time to head back to Yicui's place at Osterport (still in Copenhagen) for dinner and to sleep for the night. We bought alot of groceries, enough to make us dinnr for the night and the next day's breakfast, lunch and dinner.

*Osterport*

*ben frying the rice*

*yicui and mylene*

*i'm doing the next day's meals*

*fried rice*

*healthy soup*

*me, yicui, ben*

*hotdogs for the next day*

I can't believe it when they say they have never seen anyone steaming hotdogs or ham before! I mean, the hotdogs and hams I've been eating since young are steamed ones and I was doing it for the next day's breakfast and they were so shocked! Haha... but well, they liked it in the end still....

Day 2

We went down to Copenhagen Business School (CBS) where we were supposed to board the bus that takes us to Legoland!!! Woohoo.... Thanks to Yicui that we can get to go there at such a cheap price, because the school is organising this trip. And the 3 of us were supposed to pretend that we were students from CBS haha. Legoland is a really wonderful place, it brings back childhood days memories... those lego pieces, those pirates and their ships and their treasure chests.

*at CBS*

*green lights on the road - airport runway?*

*beautiful view along the way*

*us at Legoland*

*fellow tourists*

*even the bins are lego-ed*

*maintenance in progress*

*rabbit saw me (HAHA)*

*zzz*

*oops, my ice cream dropped*

*that's Hans Christian Andersen!!*

*marching band*

*Singapore Airlines A380 model*

*all the Singaporeans with the A380*

*British Airways concorde*

*Bergen (Norway), where we had salmon at the fish market*

*the fish market*

*yicui, me, mylene in front of Bergen*

*rocket taking off*

*Canal Tours*

*The Royal Residence*

*top view of Legoland*

I have many of such pictures but it's very tiring to put up so many... We next went to this Atlantis thingy because I thought initially it really had something to do with the lost city of Atlantis. But it turned out that it was just another underwater world! Disappointing.

*Atlantis*

*in the middle of an aquarium*

We also went to play with the rides that were all over the whole theme park. The rides were relatively not so scary (still thrilling though) because most of the visitors here are small kids I guess.

This Power Builder is shiok! You get a memory card with a chip in it, and you go to a computer to set the moves of the robotic arms that you want and the level (1-5, with 5 being the craziest) you want the arms to go at. Naturally we chose level 5 haha... and we were swung round and upside down like crazy..

*playing in the shop*

*witch & wishing well*

And so, the fun time always comes to an end very quickly. We had to leave Legoland and head back to Copenhagen where the 3 of us had to return to Lund by catching a midnight train! But before that, Yicui's landlord let us try the cheese from her own shop. I didn't really want to try it but well.... out of courtesy sake, I gave it a try. It was not too bad (1 from Spain, and another from Amsterdam), but I still didn't feel like finishing the whole slice of the cheeses.

And Yicui must have felt like a superstar when we each took a photo with her at the train station before leaving HAHA... but yups, thanks alot for hosting us while we were in Copenhagen!

*yicui & ben*

*yicui & mylene*

*yicui & me*

*it's still my 自拍 skill that's the best*

Complete Stress Reliever

2007-10-02T10:35:00.000+02:00

Laugh till stomach pain....

Long day in the lab

2007-10-01T17:47:00.000+02:00

First, I woke up 15 minutes before I had to reach the lab at 9am.

Second, I realised I had to walk faster than usual because I take at least 30 mins to walk to school.

Third, I increased my speed even more because it came to my mind that you have to pass through many corridors, entering PIN codes after swiping the access pass along the way just to reach the stupid lab.

Fourth, I ended up finishing my experiment earlier than my partner who was there on time.

Fifth, the moral of the story is, "When you're running late, slow down your pace."

Haha, anyway today was really a tiring day, having to spend the whole 9am-4.30pm in the lab. But this is the last time I'm going to the lab until 11th Oct because my supervisor is going to Barcelona!! Woohoo... Today I did ELISA for the first time. It was pretty interesting, with many of the lab techniques that I've learned before being used, so that explains why I could finish the experiment before my partner does ^_^

*one of the many corridors of labs I had to pass*

*my very first ELISA*

*my workbench*

*results at the end of the day*

Noticed it was pink at first, now they are yellow. Let me tell you guys why it is so. Because..... because.... I'm just such a talented magician ^_^

The lab areas have a very nice coffee area where we could eat our meals too... and I found a whole box of many different Lipton teas in it in the pantry.

*coffee area*

*pantry*

*Lipton*

*look at the different kinds of tea*

Yups, and we can drink those for free haha. And because I'm Singaporean, I did the usual thing, I kop-ed some of the teabags and brought it back to my room, especially the unusual ones like "African Rooibos", "Persian Earl Grey", and "Russian Earl Grey". Russian Earl Grey smells exotic, but has a pleasant taste to it. Haha. Yumsss...

Chocolate Balls !!

2007-10-01T00:33:00.000+02:00

I was bored today, having to read the articles which I don't understand at all after finishing two articles. Quite a sad case right? Finished reading, but nothing is registered in my mind. Zzz... Medical Immunology, sighz... Is my exam going to be okay? I hope so.

But anyway, I was bored, as I was saying. So I went out to town to get stuffs to make chocolate balls haha. After finishing making the chocolate balls, my hand was full of chocolate and I had to lick them off since it'd be a waste to wash them down the basin HAHA! I didn't lick my whole hand la, only fingers =)

*preparing the ingredients*

*mix mix mix*

*almost ready to serve*

*chill before serving*

Well, so I got my Japanese neighbours up to try the chocolate balls because they have always made food for me to try haha... so far, there were cookies, apple cakes and more... so I thought I should also do something.

*served (best with coffee)*

*yukino (sleeping?), me*

*asako, me*

*yukino, asako*

*us disturbing yoji who went back to do his work*

Anyway, I think I had an overdose of chocolate. The chocolate balls were so chocolatee and I think I've got a headache now from that overdose.... Another long day in the lab tomorrow from 9 till 4... zzz... Bed time! Oyasumi!

Lord of the Dance

2007-09-30T01:05:00.000+02:00

I remember watching this video before somewhere, and I've got the music on my online MP3 playlist... and recently I am hooked on it again... So just to share with you guys this wonderful piece of music from Ronan Hardiman and the awesome performance "Lord of the Dance" by Michael Flatley... Enjoy

Visitors from Copenhagen

2007-09-29T12:11:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, two friends - Yicui from SMU and Keiji-san from Waseda University, from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark came over to Lund for a short visit. We kind of brought them to the really few places of interest that Lund has.

*ben, keiji, yicui, me*

Our first stop was one of the Museums and their theme for this period of time is called "History of Sex". Ahh, some of you must be getting high... Yeah, but anyway, Keiji-san almost fainted when he saw the pictures in the art gallery, and here we are thinking that the Japanese are very open-minded since they have so much AVs HAHA... The curator also looked abit exotic (no i'm not saying that her dressing was very sexy) but she just looks different. I have taken pictures of those posters but I have decided not to post them here because I believe there are many viewers of this blog that are still not really ready (physically or mentally or both) to view such pictures since these are quite controversial images. And I also won't want to get into trouble by being accused of setting up some kind of pornography section in my blog. But if you really want, I can send it to you through MSN though.

After which, we brought the both of them to Lund Cathedral which was located just in front of the museum. Keiji-san was so hilarious, after visiting the church, we asked him, "Do you feel better now?" and he said YES!! Haha... Now we all know why the church is located so near to the museum.

Before the church visit, we also visited other parts of the museum and there was this section displaying all the different glasswares. Those things are really beautiful.

*beautiful, aren't they?*

And then there was this little garden outside, where we could pluck strawberries to eat, that is if we're lucky enough to find the strawberries.

*and indeed we're lucky*

*strawberries lesson*

Finally we had dinner at the pizzeria called "Ciao Ciao". Their pizzas are delicious, enormous, and CHEAP (less than S$10)... and the chefs were performing for us to see because they keep lifting their heads to see if we are looking before they threw the dough to each other - finally there are customers who appreciate their stunts haha.

*Viking*

*Mamma Mia*

*Columbo*

*see the flying dough?*

Today is boring. No plans.

Hence, I ended up watching the japanese anime, Bleach Movie: Memories of Nobody. It was a good movie with all the Captains making an appearance one way or another. But the ending was a sad one. Sighz, now I feel so sad too.....

Another random entry...

2007-09-26T23:57:00.000+02:00

I got a free CD today while I was on my way to lunch. I don't know why it is free, I guess it was for advertisement? But the lady told me that the songs are in English and they tell a story. But I haven't had the time to listen to it yet....

*free CD*

The computer keyboards here are different from the ones we have in Singapore. Took a picture of it... you can see that there are 3 additional letters present - ä, å, and ö. Cool huh, makes it so much easier when you need to use those letters, otherwise you got to use the "Insert Symbol" function in some word processor to get the letters out.

*the additional letters on the right side of the keyboard*

This week's lecture series on cancer had some handouts given in Swedish!! The topic coordinator was so funny because she kept apologizing to me for the inconvenience I had during lecture because I don't really understand what the slides meant. And she even offered to translate 1 whole set of lecture notes for me into English. So I guess it will take a week or so before I can get it from her. Chatted with her for quite awhile too, and she told me that she was like me, an exchange student doing this exact same module here. She is from Germany, but now she's a postgraduate student here in Lund University, and she said that maybe one day in the future, I'll be the one sitting in front of the lecture theatre in Lund University just like her. Haha, what a great encouragement from her.

*thanks alot for taking the time to translate ^_^*

I went to Nova Lund today too. It's a big shopping centre on the outskirts of Lund, where most shops can be found. Went around window shopping, hoping to buy some cheap stuffs, but couldn't really find any in the end. I could only try them on, take some pictures and put the clothes back. There was this huge shop just selling shoes as well. The ladies shoes took up half the store, and the other half was shared by the men and children shoes section. Tsk, ladies and shoes.....

*i like this sweater - a whopping S$460*

*the big shoe store*

And I ate Happy Meal at McDonald's today and got a toy of the cat character in Shrek the Third.

*what is his name?*

I wonder what I should do this coming weekend. Everyone is out of town, in other parts of Europe and I'm stuck here. Zzzzzz.... It's been a long time since I felt so lost ever since I've arrived here, without having any plans of what to do.

Presentation #2 down.... Don't know how many more to go

2007-09-26T15:32:00.000+02:00

Today is finally over!! One of the worst presentations that I ever had to do... on Cancer and Angiogenesis. All we had were chunks of review articles and we had to dig out every important piece of information and prepare the slides in less than one week just for that 15-20 mins of fame. And we had to present on how new FANTASTIC drugs can be designed for future possible therapies. If I could design a FANTASTIC drug, I wouldn't be sitting here in class okay? HAHA...

But still, it is a huge relieve that the presentation was over. Apparently I hid my nervousness quite well because the topic coordinator told me that I did well and I seem well-prepared (well-prepared my foot lor).

And I got a shock before the first group started the presentation. Because this is the first time ALL the tutors sat in for the presentation... Imagine the tremendous amount of stress all 10 presenters had. And the guy in the group after me was so nervous that he totally forgot what he wanted to say for like 3 minutes. There was a totally awkward silence in the lecture theatre and I guess he must have felt very bad. He was even telling me over lunch that he felt like a weakling who can't handle pressure.

But then I'm so proud of myself, I did the whole Powerpoint thingy myself! My partner doesn't know how to use it -__-". I think Europeans don't really like to use computers to do their presentations? Most of them either printed out on transparency sheets or they just display their artistic talents on the white board.

I must also thank my PBL group and my 2 tutors for the great encouragement they gave the day before during the PBL session. It felt quite good, with a little stress of cos, when your tutors tell you, "Good job the both of you, we look forward to your presentation tomorrow." HAHA...

But yeah, it's all over... Till the next presentation... I hope I get an easier one the next time round.

rrrarrghhh

2007-09-25T18:08:00.000+02:00

I want THIS !!!!

Latest updates

2007-09-24T21:44:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the lack of updates ever since the entry on my Norway tours. I've been pretty busy reading up on all the articles that we got during the lectures, and it really seems impossible to finish reading all of them. And I really don't know how the exams will be like since there are no other handouts or textbooks. So whatever......

We had potluck dinner last Thursday with our mentor group. The amount of food was more than what we could finish. There was French, German, Swedish, Hongkong, and Singapore food. And we had Swedish Idol to watch too at the same time. And one of the Swedish who was talking to me, told me that her friend is in the Idol competition and we were like watching her sing and cheered when the result was out because she managed to get through to the next round. How cool....

*that's the amt of food all of us put together*

*sophia, me, karin, martin (the 3 mentors)*

*barbara (austria), ??? (germany), me*

*the japs*

*us*

On Saturday, we had sort of a mini party with the Swedes. Well, they offered to cook rice and chicken initially, so I thought we would all just join them since they invited us and we do know them. BUT..... when I reached, they had their minds changed! They were too lazy to cook, and we ended up ordering pizza! Faints... I traveled so far just to eat pizza? I could just prepare the pizza in my own room lah! And so, I ate half the pizza and left half for the next day (save cost ma... pizza is not cheap when ordered from the pizzeria). We also had cider and some sweet white wine after that and started playing Texas Hold'em.

*sweet white wine*

*Texas Hold'em*

*became rich overnight (no money involved though)*

And on nights when they had nothing to do, they would start to gossip............

*gossip gossip gossip*

And just for Shuwan, who's always so keen to know what I'm having for my meals... hahaha...

*sometimes we would have pasta with meatballs or bacon*

*and sometimes western food - yes the swedish sausages look ugly*

I finally tried some Asian food sold outside here in Lund. Not too bad but quite expensive...

*45 SEK (S$10.36) for rice + 2 dishes*

*worse, 50 SEK (S$11.52) for this in my school!*
Terrible, but I had no choice, cos I only had little time for lunch, cannot go out of school to eat something else cheaper.

*and my jap neighbour baked cookies!! - and pls... the shape doesn't mean anything!*

I love Norway!!

2007-09-18T14:43:00.000+02:00

Finally, I have some free time to update on my Norway trip. School work is really getting crazier as the weeks go by. I now have tons of review papers to read and I'm actually quite excited about finishing all of them (am I crazy?) but anyway.... let's go back to Norway.

This might sound abit crazy, but yes, we took a night bus from Lund which brought us to Malmö where we had to change to another bus which then brought us to Oslo. The journey was like 8 hours long and most of us concussed after some time on the bus. Really kinda 佩服 the bus drivers for being able to drive for so long in the night.

*bus to Oslo*

Day 1

And so, our tour starts on the next day when we arrive in Oslo at about 5.30am in the morning. We next took a train which brought us to Mydral. And guess what, the train ride was 7 hours long!! I've never ever traveled for such long durations before, with the exception of my plane ride from Singapore to Copenhagen of course. We had our breakfast on board the train since we packed lots of sandwich to bring along this trip. Not that it was very delicious, but stuffs in Norway ain't cheap at all, so we had no choice.

Thank heavens, the weather was fine. There are ZILLIONS of pictures which look similar and I don't know why. Most probably because we are all so amazed by the view that we just keep taking photos of the same thing over and over again, particularly the snow-capped mountains! Gosh...

*at Oslo Central Station*
-ben, me, huimin, zesamin, mylene, adeline-

*on train*

*breakfast*

*sceneries along the way to Mydral*

*me outside the train*

*halfway inside the train*

*our beautiful train conductor*

After arriving at Mydral, we waited once again, for the next train which brought us through the Flåm Tours.

*at Mydral station waiting for train*

*here comes the train*

*us on the Flåm Tours train*

*me*

*me, zesamin (charlene quek!! ur fren!!)*

*the picture speaks for itself*

*the waterfall*

*me*

*the wind was strong*

*our train conductors*

After the waterfall attraction, the train brought us towards Flåm where we boarded a tour boat which brought us through the fjords!! This is the main part of the whole tour, seriously. Even though it was just mountains after mountains, the view was just breathtaking. The amount of snow on top of the mountains, the way the mountains are shaped, the little villages in the middle of the fjords, and the super strong chilly wind - it's really unforgettable.

*at Flåm*

*sceneries of the fjords*

*me*

*me*

*me*

*me and zes*

*me and ben*

*us*

*us*

*found some warmth inside the boat*

*our destination - Gudvagen*

*me*

*titanic - king of the world scene*

*the captain*

*grass-roof of the little hut*

*the Viking*

Isn't the fjords pretty?? I don't know if these pictures actually depict the true beauty of the fjords but I do hope everyone would have a chance to go there, cos it really feels different to be there personally.

At Gudvagen, the coach came to fetch us to our next destination - Voss.

*coach to Voss*

And according to our plan, we are staying in Voss for the night to rest and also to have dinner. And it's the second time I'm staying in a Hostelling International hostel, the first being The Train back in Lund.

*our hostel*

*our room*

*heading for dinner in the rain*

*me and ben*

*the restaurant called Station*

*my dinner*

*us at dinner*

That night, the rain was so heavy, and together with the powerful wind, the only one umbrella that we had was destroyed. But luckily we have our hoods on our outer coat. But it was so cold even when we are wearing four layers and a glove. I bet it was about 6 degrees C out there man.

*the cui-ded umbrella*

Day 2

Breakfast, as usual, was served buffet style. In order to save our financial resources, we decided that we should all 打包 (take-away) some food for lunch as well, illegally of course. Breakfast was good... we had bread, jam, egg, crackers, cavier, liver paste, all kinds of hams and salamis, juices, fruits, and of course salmon! Cavier and liver paste are good stuffs man! I wonder if we can get them in Singapore.

*yumz*

And the view opposite our hostel is wonderful too... especially in the early morning, the snow-capped mountain looks very beautiful. And sightings of rainbows are not uncommon here. We caught side of rainbows almost at the different places we went to.

*rainbow*

And of course, before leaving the hostel, it was cam-whoring time again -__-".

*us*

*the water is freezing*

*i love the snow-capped mountains*

*eating flowers*

*SMU jump again: ben(SMU), adeline(NUS), me(NTU)*

*sara, the receptionist*

Headed towards the train station after that to catch our train which will bring us to the next destination, Bergen. Along the way.... pictures taking again.

*i like the colour combi of the sky and the snow*

*and i wanna be part of it, don't i beautify the whole scenery?*

*me and the troll*

*i love Norway (facebook moment?)*

*train to Bergen*

*me*

*standing on the track*

*Voss Station*

Upon reaching Bergen, we only had one thing in mind... the fish market!!! So we went around the city looking for it, and found it only after the guy at the Tourist Info Center directed us... It was very cold in the market and everytime you speak, smoke just comes out haha. The seafood there is yummy as we went round sampling almost the different seafood they have. The prawns and crayfish is very succulent. The mackerel and salmon is damn good. Whale meat sucks! I do not condone the killing of whales for their meat totally!

*Welcome to Bergen*

*view of the city*

*the fish market*

*they speak all kinds of language in the market. awesome!*

*prawns, king crab claws, crayfishes*

*mackerel, salmon*

*whale meat*

*this guy speaks chinese!*

*wanna try some salmon?*

*salmon baguette*

*prawn and crayfish baguette*

*i bought the crayfish one*

*UHMZ*

*this cute spanish girl tried selling us cavier*

*she calls me Singapore, so i shall call her Spain*

We had to leave Bergen for Oslo very soon.... and so we walked through the city towards the train station again.

*pavilion in the garden*

*us*

*huge fountain*

*train to Oslo*

The train journey back to Oslo is a 7-hour long one again, and it's the most interesting one! We were basically going back via the same route on Day 1, but all the scenery has changed!! Just in one night, fresh snow fell and covered most of the villages and mountains we see along the way. And the highest station on the whole route was full of snow! We just had to rush down the train while it is at the station to touch the snow and rush back up when the train is about to leave. I think the Europeans are very amused by us, seeing us so excited by snow haha.

*tried taking with the falling snow, but the falling snow particles are too small*

*snowy snowy mountains*

*this is ice and it's freaking cold outside*

*but this is SNOW!!*

*snow snow snow*

*even the hindi kids came down from the train to play*

It's kinda unbelievable but this is Finse station on our first day there...
And the next shows Finse station on our second day where we played with the snow...

We managed to catch snow at Finse, most probably because it is the highest station on the whole route, about 1222m above sea level.

When we finally reached Oslo Central Station in the middle of the night, we sat down to eat the mackerel and salmon which we bought at the fish market... they were really good. So we had 3 salmon dishes within 2 days in Norway!! HAHA. And we also spent the night roaming around the streets of Oslo, and resting in Burger King till 5am before heading back to the Bus terminal to catch the bus which brought us back to Lund.

*mackerel*

*salmon*

*Oslo Central Station*

*tiger statue outside the station*

*the police are everywhere*

*streets of Oslo*

this cafe has very bad service! i placed my order and walked out straight away without paying.

Day 3

And so it's finally time to go back to Lund. Good times always fly past just like that. Hope I can get to go see more nice places!

*saw this at the train station*

*to the bus terminal*

*our bus going to Copenhagen via Lund*

Next upcoming event... Potluck with mentor group on Thursday!

Plans for Thurs-Sun

2007-09-13T08:57:00.000+02:00

Woohoo... Norway, here I come!!

Please, please... don't rain.

My new friend!!

2007-09-12T17:15:00.001+02:00

Here's my new friend, Gudrún Eiríksdóttir from Iceland. We're the only 2 exchange students in my course for this semester haha.... The only 2 non-swedish speaking minority....

*pretty right?*

My very first Icelandic friend and she was like describing how beautiful the landscape in Iceland is to me... make me so gian to go Iceland, BUT it's really freaking expensive to travel to Iceland. And she also mentioned that living in Iceland is super duper high expense as well... Worse than in Norway and Sweden.

Sigh... Iceland.... maybe when I got more money next time ba hahaha...

Hooked on Green Day Songs

2007-09-11T15:44:00.000+02:00

Basket Case

Minority

Updates...

2007-09-10T23:57:00.000+02:00

Saturday

We had a gathering with the student mentor group on Saturday, and it was supposed to be a BBQ session, but it became a dine-in session because of a not-so-good weather. Actually it was only very windy, but the student mentors said it'll be hard to start a fire... so... yeah. And we have one very interesting mentor, because she eats meat but NOT those from animals that have 4 legs! So basically she eats only chicken and fishes. No ham, no beef etc... And we also bugged them to teach us to make Swedish chocolate balls... yummy...

*nicely packed vegetables*

*trolley for kids*

*check out my new light-sabre*

*kai and huimin*

*student mentors - karin behind martin*

*one choco ball made*

*huimin, mylene, benedict*

*me & kai*

*posing with the meat*

*us with student mentors (sophia, martin, karin)*

After the gathering, we went to pluck fruits, basically just apples and pears, at a nearby area... Seems like everyone just comes and get fruits for free lah, so we aren't the only ones.

*check out the apple thief*

*our reward*

And in the evening, we prepared a feast for guests that we have invited. We had 2 from Hong Kong, and 2 from Japan. We prepared 肉骨茶 (bat kut teh) for dinner, and made apple crumble for dessert. FYI, the apples in the apple crumble are from our "loot"!

*apples*

*a total mess while making apple crumble*

*dinner*

*dessert*

*all of us*

Sunday

I went to purchase some tickets today! We're heading for Norway on Thursday. Yups... don't care about school work for now since everyone says not to care - even my dad says so -_-". Yups, and on the way there was this huge procession going on. It was for the battle, or an annual competition, that will take place in the afternoon among the different departments under what is known as Lunds Tekniska Högskola (LTH for short) - I guess it's some kind of engineering faculty.

And once again, we made apple crumble today. And on top of that, we made our own version of the Swedish chocolate balls. Changed some of the ingredients used and let the Swedish students in the dorm try and they love it! Singaporeans can make wonders too haha...

*the crumble is damn hard to make... do until sian*

*preparing the apples*

*don't they look yummy?*

*finger lickin' good*

*ready to serve*

*dinner*

*power dinner - full of carbohydrates*

*time for the dessert!*

Monday

It's a rainy day today... It rained from early in the morning till hours after my lessons ended... Okay basically, it rained the whole of the day until about 2pm, and I had to take the bus to and fro school. Oh, and check this out... something fell on the glass panel at the bus stop the night before.

*hope nobody got hurt*

I also went to IKEA in Malmö. It was a free trip organised by IKEA for students and we had a free meatball meal there as well! IKEA Malmö is 1 of 17 IKEA outlets in Sweden and it is the 3rd largest in Sweden. I didn't buy anything there because my own room here is basically an IKEA Showroom itself, with almost every single utensil and furniture from IKEA. So well-furnished already. I practically just went for the free meatball meal.

*IKEA*

*Entering IKEA*

*I like this one*

*And these ones*

*don't you all find this familiar??? HAHA*

*hungry...*

*the most impt thing for this trip!*

*for the free meal of cos!*

*yumz*

And when I got back from Malmö, it was time to head for dinner, and today we were invited by our fellow Thai exchange students for dinner. They prepared some Tom Yam dishes which were super duper yummy and I'm gonna learn how to make that Tom Yam soup thingy man... and on the other hand, we prepared super duper spicy chicken curry and maggi goreng haha. Didn't know initially, but 3 other Europeans joined us! And I'm so surprised they can take the spiciness so well... They looked so worried at first that they might not be able to take it haha.

*what a spread*

*us*

Yups, I guess that's all for now. Looking forward to the Norway trip, and also to the Pot Luck dinner with the student mentor group the week after!

Lousy Lunch (LL- still muz eat)

2007-09-06T13:51:00.000+02:00

Lousy lunch I prepared today....

My ham omelette became fried egg with dry ham.... and my meatballs expired and I didn't buy any extras....

So it was only....

But not too bad still lah...

And this weird scientist wrote a 13-pages long article... how to finish by tml 8am when there's another 6-page one to read as well?? *pulls hair*