Thursday, August 30, 2007 08:48 a.m.
I got my international econs module!! Woot woot!! Thank you Lord!! It really made my day yesterday and I'm really thankful that I got it because it solves all my timetable woes and I still get to transfer 4 credits back to NTU, leaving me with only 4 core modules in my last semester! Yay! I know my parents have been praying very hard that I'll get this module so they were equally happy when I told them over Skype last night! My mastercard came in the mail yesterday and it got me jumping for joy for quite a while till I realized that my bank draft may not have been processed. Orientation yesterday was alright. It was just 2 lectures where they tell us more about courses, exams and housing and today there's another lecture on IT facilities. Tomorrow is officially the last day of orientation so my group has a explore Copnehagen tour and tomorrow night, Edwin and gang are coming down from Sweden so both E and myself are going to play hosts and tourist guides this weekend! I also found pretty cheap air tickets to Oslo (about 110sgd) so E and myself are looking to head up next weekend and have Kenneth and his girlfriend bring us around! :) Happy 21st birthday Juan Juan!! :) Hope you had a great birthday!Tuesday, August 28, 2007 05:50 p.m.
I still haven't got my international economics module and I'm really starting to panic big time. I managed to get one more econs module approved by NTU but unfortunately, I can't take it at CBS because it clashes with the other class I have. So I'm still back at square one and classes are starting next week. AH.Tuesday, August 28, 2007 05:16 p.m.
I had just finished breakfast this morning and I wanted to quickly leave home because it was threatening to rain and the next thing I knew, it started hailing!! It was really quite cool and for the next 10mins, small little ice cubes were just falling from the sky and hitting the pavement and the cars parked along the street. It was awesome seriously! My first time experiencing hail! Now Copenhagen is all sunny but the wind is still strong and it bites into your skin. I think I've come to realize that the weather changes very quickly here and it's always wise to have a nice warm jacket with you. First day of orientation today and we started with some lecture on Danish culture. It wasn't the most useful lecture because you can get most of the information from the arrival guide provided by the international office. The one thing that he talked about and really caught my attention was the part on religion where he said that all the danes pay 1.3% of their income to the state church (evangelical luthern) but only about 3-4% of the danes actually go to church on Sundays and in fact, most of them don't even believe in God. The lecturer also mentioned something like how there are no (or minimal) social activites centered around the church and most activities in Denmark are mainly centered around alcohol, clubs and parties. I think he also mentioned something like how the danes feel they have a right to challenge any religion and have no respect for religion and all and hence the Muhammed cartoon drawings a few months back in the danish newspapers which caused quite a stir (and some violence) around the world. It was also mentioned that danes rarely speak about religion and AH. It's quite a pity really. I remember doing one cell lesson and we were talking about how believing that a God exists is easier than believing a God doesn't exist. After the danish culture lecture, we had a campus tour which was the most disorganized, irrelevant campus tour I've been on. We were waiting at one of the buildings and there was no one to guide us and it was ridiculous! Half of the group left and I think by the end of the campus tour, everyone was fed up and irritated. It was seriously quite a waste of my time (and everyone else who went would probably agree) and thankfully, the next few days are lectures on the essential stuff that we need to know about. There's a potluck dinner tonight where everyone's supposed to cook something from back home and share it with everyone. I'm not too sure what I'm cooking or whether I'm even going (tiring day at school just walking around). E and myself caught The Simpsons movie last night and I think it's probably the most hilarious movie this summer and I really enjoyed it! :)Monday, August 27, 2007 09:16 p.m.
Just back from the information meeting in school where they provided us with more information about the school and the courses available. I think studying at Copenhagen Business School will be very different from NTU. Apparently, they use alot of cases for their teaching and it isn't really the lecture/tutorial style and it's completely cool to have a different viewpoint from the tutor and challenge him in class. This should be interesting and I still think I prefer the lecture/tutorial style but it'll be good to have some change. Thankfully, I had some insights into working on cases with the Citibank Case Challenge and all. Introduction week (or orientation as we know it back home) officially starts tomorrow and we've got activities and talks lined up for us. I hope my group mates are nice and I'm able to mix around. It feels like freshmen orientation all over again and I have the same worries as I did a few years back, just that now I'm much older and I'm probably more comfortable with being alone and being in my own skin. We went supermarket shopping today to stock up on apple juice, sausages, milk and we bought frozen prawns, chicken curry premix and oriental noodles! We had noodle soup for lunch and it was so satisfying dipping our prawns and mince meat into the vietnamese chilli sauce! Haha. We decided to try the curry paste we got from the supermarket and E was nice enough to marinate the chicken and cook it! It didn't turn out that bad and I like that it's thicker than the other premix I brought from home and it even came with a packet of uncooked rice that has spices on it :) Makes cooking chicken curry so easy!
Sunday, August 26, 2007 10:58 p.m.
Edlyn came over for lunch and after that, we headed down to the City again! Thankfully, there weren't anymore gay/lebisan parades or any young punks dancing on the stage outside the mayor's square. The city was noticeably quieter today because most of the shops were closed. The sun was out and that was much appreciated but the wind really killed us. The temperature's about 16degrees but the minute the wind blows, the cold just bites into your skin! Anyway, since most of the shops were closed, we walked to Nyhavn which has the prettiest looking, most colourful row of buildings lining the canal! It's beautiful and it helped that the sun shining down on it brought out its colours. It really reminded me of Warsaw's old town and I could spend the whole day there just staring at the beautiful buildings. There's this thing about cute, old colourful buildings that really wows me and I really love Nyhavn. We didn't stay in the City for long because it was freezing so we made our way back, dropped by the supermarket and attended my residence's bbq out at the roof terrace!
Sunday, August 26, 2007 08:57 a.m.
Yestreday, after a hearty brunch of rosti, fish fillet and salad, E and myself headed down to the city (zone 1) to walk around and see what the city has to offer. We haven't ventured to zone 1 yet (we're in zone 2) except for that day when we had to go down to our city hall to get our social security passes done.
After a 15 minute bus ride, we dropped at the Tivoli Gardens (an amusement park right in the center of the city) bus stop and started roaming the streets. We didn't know where we were or what there was to see so we just walked and initially it felt like the city was very weird and warped. We had only walked about one block down when we stumbled across a gay/lesbian parade and there was loud music booming, men without shirts on tops of buses, people drinking beer and it was completely weird. There was also this hip hop dance thing going on at the Mayor's square and it just felt so out of place.
So for quite a while, we thought we had made the wrongest decision to study in Copenhagen. We also saw some monuments along the way but we didn't really know the history so E was making up a history lesson telling me how these people used to be lost so they are seen pointing in one direction etc. Haha, it made the whole walking around the city so fun. We also noticed that most old buildings had a sharp thing sticking up from their roofs. Haha.
Thankfully, after walking a bit further and making a few turns, we ended up at the district around Kongens Nytorv metro station where we saw the Christianborg Palace, the round tower and walked right into the pedestrian shopping districts where they have shops lining the sides of the streets! I love that street! There was like about 5 H&M stores on that same stretch, Topshop, Dior, Aldo, Roxy, Hermes and all the other shops we're familar with! I saw the Ordning&Reda store (they used to be in Singapore and I was a huge fan of their pretty products!!) and the store's still as beautiful as ever! I also got a new handbag from H&M because E was being nice and generous and he wanted to replace the bag he got for me in Canada :)
The shops close at 5pm so we took the metro back home and cooked dinner! It was simple pasta with sausages, mushrooms and fresh tomatoes! It wasn't too bad and I have to say our meals have been pretty decent for the last week. We're running out of ideas (and also pre mixes) so hopefully the food gets better still from next week onwards! Watched Die Heart 4 after dinner and it's probably the best action packed movie this summer after Transformers. I liked it! We're going to leave soon and visit the International Baptist Church in the city and see if we could settle at that church for the next 5 months.
Saturday, August 25, 2007 09:03 a.m.
We went over to Edlyn's residences again last night to have thai pineapple rice! I really liked it and we even had pork floss and raisins to go along with it! She invited her neighbour, Jose, a guy from Madrid to have dinner with us and so the four of us were eating and talking together in her room! Post dinner conversation with Jose was especially interesting. He was sharing with us about Spain, Real Madrid and Beckham, the problem Spain has with Moroccoans (a bit similar to the problem the United States has with the Mexicans), the problem of pickpocketing and theft on the streets, their famous siestas, the ETA, the Madrid bombings, the President and the way he runs Spain and so so many other things, it was very very interesting!! I loved it! It was just like another political science/geography lesson come alive and seriously, it was immensely interesting! Come to think about it, that's one of the many reasons why I chose to go on an exchange program. I wanted to make friends with people from all over the world and learnt more about their country, their culture, their way of life, their political system, their economy and to be honest, I don't think I could have done this back home in Singapore.Friday, August 24, 2007 09:14 a.m.
Dinner just keeps getting better! :) Last night, E volunteered to cook (first time in history) and so he whipped up a steak and even had a nice cold beer to go along with it! I have to admit, he's not too bad for a first timer! :)
Been spending the last 2 days trying to sort out the administrative stuff. We went down on Wednesday to our city hall to get our CPR (social security) cards done. That was fine. After that, we went to the bank and set up our bank accounts. That was also fine. Till they didn't accept my bank draft. So we had to go to another branch yesterday and thankfully, they accepted my bank draft. The problem is, my bank draft will take about 1-2 weeks to process and I'm running out of money. The even bigger problem is that they said they'll send some important stuff (like CPR card and bank information) to our mailbox. But to get to the mailboxes on the first floor, the postman needs to have the access code to the main gate and the main door. If the postman doesn't have the access code, he won't be able to come in and deliver our mails. I don't know what we can do about it (we can't even collect our cards from the branches) and I'm just praying about it. Hopefully our mail comes through!
Another issue that has been bugging me is my courses. I am currently enrolled in 3 modules but my fourth module, international econs is on waitlist. Therefore, I need people to drop before I can take it. I need to take it because if I don't, I'll have 5 core modules (3 Accounting, 2 Econs) waiting for me when I return next semester. I've heard so many bad things about the accounting cores, I don't want to be burdened with a second economics core. I don't know what my chances of getting international econs and there's no other way I can take any other econs subject because then I'll not be able to transfer the credits back to NTU. I honestly am quite worried about my courses but I guess the only thing I have to do is pray and wait patiently for the email telling me I've been confirmed. AH.
Thursday, August 23, 2007 06:03 p.m.
Two nights ago, we went over to Edlyn's residences for Nasi Lemak! We fried ikan bilis and miraculously, managed to find sambal chilli from the indian green grocer near her place! We also found the vietnamese chilli sauce (for about 12sgd) and we immediately bought it! I'm so glad we found the sambal chilli and chilli sauce! Makes me so happy! Haha. Anway, we also fried peanuts and made coconut rice! Yummy!! We even sat on the floor and ate from rice bowls! It felt so much like home! Her residences is a little far from where we are and it takes about 30minutes on the bus. It's quite a distance even from the bus stop and her place is very different from mine. She has to share her bathroom and kitchen with the floor so there's plently of interaction because you definitely need to step out of the room to use the toilet or cook your dinner. So hers is more like a dorm (typical NTU kind of dorm, just that it's cosier) but mine is more like a small apartment. I have my own toilet and own kitchen so technically when I get home, I don't have to leave my flat till I need to go out. It also means there's less opportunities for interaction since everyone can do everything in their own rooms. Both residences has its pros and cons and it was certainly nice seeing dorm style residences.
Yesterday night, she came over instead! We cooked curry chicken using the pre-mix I brought up and added in potatos and carrots. It was super super yummy and really made me miss home so much! We had quite a good laugh over the milk because we initially sent E down to get milk but he came back with some sour milk (yogurt I think) but thankfully on his second trip, he got it correct (only because he saw a cow on the packet). Haha.
Edlyn stayed the night and entertained herself with the computer because my residence had a get to know you party last night! Everyone was having beer (believe it or not, but beer is cheaper than water over here) and getting to know everyone at the roof terrace but we moved down to the basement when it started drizzling. This guy even made sandwiches and slapped on cheese and tomatos! It wasn't too bad because I got to know a few more people from this residence. I wish I had more time to talk to the girl from Hamburg and I met this american guy (Noah) and I was pretty impressed when I found out he knew about our marina bay project! :)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007 04:15 p.m.
I tried my small cute rice cooker just now! I decided to have fried rice for lunch so I cooked rice, ran down to the supermarket nearby to buy broccoli, onions, mushroom and carrots and came back home to fry them all up! It was a little blend because I don't have soya sauce but I like it! I even added some thai chilli sauce sauce (bought from a supermarket at Krakow for 7sgd) to give it some taste!
It's really cold now in Copenhagen. I think the temperature out there is about 15degrees but the wind just makes it even colder. Ah, I wore my shorts down to the supermarket and it's just one street down but my butt almost froze. We're going over soon to Edlyn's to do our laundry (she doesn't have to pay to use her washing machine at her residences but I have to and I'm being a cheapskate) and then we're going to cook nasi lemak!!
Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:55 a.m.
Pictures from Warsaw! Our accommodation in Warsaw really sucked (our toilet was choked and they provided lousy breakfast) and we were contemplating splurging and moving into Sofitel Hotel but being poor students, we had to be realistic. We arrived at around 10pm in Warsaw and thankfully managed to find our way to our accommodation. The next day, we walked from our place to the old town and the new town and it was a really beautiful walk! We passed by the Presidential Palace, the University of Warsaw, the Parliament house before we even got to the Old Town. The best part of Warsaw is probably the old town. Seriously. It has colourful buildings on all 4 sides of the town and I love it even though the square is quite small compared to Krakow. I could spend the whole day there just eating ice cream and people watching! :) New town wasn't as beautiful as Old town and after walking around those 2 towns, we went to the museums, walked to the stock exchange before going into some shops along the royal route!
The next day, we all woke up late so we didn't have time to make an early morning walk around the old town. What a pity really because I think it'll be nice to see Warsaw's old town without people. Anyway, we flew back to Malmo, took the airport shuttle down to the main train station before taking our train back to Copenhagen! :)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007 09:45 a.m.
Pictures from Krakow! I love Krakow because it's such a cozy city and it helped that we secured very good accommodation! Arriving at 6am in the morning, we decided to walk across old town square to our accommodation and that was the wisest decision. The town was deserted and we took very good photos of the town! After having a quick breakfast at our accommodation, we walked around the Jewish Quarter and after that, went to visit Wawel Castle which is about 200m from where we lived! The castle wasn't that magnificent as Prague's castle but it's cute in some sense because it has round towers (instead of those sharp ones) and it overlooks the river! After exploring the castle, we explored old town! We walked through the streets, wandered into some shops, stopped for ice cream (1.20sgd for damn good ice cream), chased the pigeons, watched the sun set and the city lights come on and see the street performers. Krakow's old town square is the largest in Europe but I really love it. Probably the best old town square I've been too even though I love the buildings at Warsaw's old town.
On the second day, we took a day tour to Auschwitz Concentration Camp which is about an hour away from the city. Auschwitz is the famous and largest torture camp for the Nazis and it was seriously history lesson come alive. We saw the camps in which the prisoners lived (terrible living conditions with barely any sanitation), walked on the death railway (the railway where the train brings in prisoners from all over europe and where at least 50% of them die even before they get to the camp because of lousy condition onboard), saw the ruins of the gas chamber in Camp 2 (the Nazis destroyed it when the liberation troops were approaching) and saw the memorial erected for the victims.
At the main Auschwitz camp itself, we went inside one of the gas chambers. It has this errie cold feeling to it and you can hardly imagine that at least 1000 people died here everyday. Hilter and his man conned the victims into believing that they were going for a shower and they had to undress and go into the shower room (or gas chamber) and they turned on the motors to drown the cries of the people while introducing the gas through the roof. I don't understand how the leaders can be so ruthless and cold! Next to the gas chamber, there's a crematorium and really, that whole place just feels so cold.
We walked into some of the barracks, saw the exhibits which consisted of the Jews hair (their hair was shaved when they entered the camp and the german army sent it back to Germany for their textile industry), their belongings and all because Hilter and his army told the prisoners that they were being relocated to somewhere better in the East and so the prisoners brought all their belongings but Hilter and his army ended up taking them all and giving them away as rewards to guards and all. Terribly ruthless. We also saw the death wall (where prisoners were shot), the starvation cell and all the different torture cells. It's really a good place to visit but also very very sad. I myself cannot imagine going through all this.
On our last day in Krakow, we took another day tour to Wieliczka Salt Mine which is basically an underground salt mine 130m below ground. We walked through 3 levels of the mine (there's 9 levels in total), got a glimpse of the miners and what they did in the past (the mine was closed in 1964) and went to the cathedral which was entirely carved out by salt. The miners carved out the last supper painting and it's probably the most beautiful painting I've seen because it has this 3D effect to it. Very beautiful. Everything in the cathedral was made from salt and even the chandeliers were made of salt crystals. I tasted the wall (got a Eeewww response from E) and it tasted salty too! After the tour, we walked around some shops and mailed postcards back home, 130m below ground!
After the salt mine tour, we walked around Krakow's shopping center (very modern looking - think of KLCC) and splurged at H&M. Haha. I couldn't resist the temptation to shop. After that, it was the 3 hour train ride to Warsaw. The train ride was pretty smooth, just that getting the train tickets from the unfriendly and rude ticket ladies was a nasty experience.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007 09:21 a.m.
Photos from Prague! We visted Wenceslas Square on the first night because it's just down the street from where we lived and we ended it off with dinner at some pub at the basement (we nicknamed it the dungeon) which served up pretty good food for decent prices. On the second day, we visited the Prague Castle where we got to see St. Vitus Cathedral, St. George's Basilica, climbed 287 steps up to a tower to get a panoromic view of Prague and walked down Golden Street (which apparently is the most famous street in Prague). Prague Castle is beautiful, seriously. The best of all the castles I've seen so far but it reminds me of those castles you see in Germany too. We crossed Charles Bridge after lunch, walked through the old town and went to see the famed Astronomical Clock. This clock is also probably one of the nicest clocks I've seen and it gives the date as well as the sun rise and sun set timing and a whole lot of other information and it seriously a beautiful piece of work and I cannot fathom how those people of old constructed this. Every hour, when the clock strikes, the window on top of the clock opens and there are some moving figures. We were initially expecting something very magnificent (and I guess all the other tourists gathered there as well) but when we realized it was just the bells and moving figures and it was over in less than 30 seconds, everyone sighed at the same time and after that, everyone clapped. It was super anti-climax but the reaction of the crowd was hilarious! Well, after walking around the streets, we headed back to our accommodation, got out bags and took the 9 hour overnight train to Krakow!
Monday, August 20, 2007 10:42 p.m.
I took a bus down to school today to meet E after his danish language classes and we took a walk round the campus and took some photos of the school to send back home and we ended up having lunch (steak with potatos and salad) at the super cool canteen at the Economics block. I love our campus buildings (so much glass and natural light) and it's seriously a nice change from NTU. Just look at the pictures of school, you've got to admit, it's even nicer than SMU!
After the really good lunch (cheap by Denmark's standards), we decided to walk back to the residences to figure out how long it'll take to walk to school. So we walked and along the way, wandered down some streets and walked into 4 supermarkets to find out what they're selling. There's this one particular supermarket that I really like because it's neat and tidy but it's also the most expensive one and we're only going there to buy meat because it's the freshest. E went back and we did our own unpacking and cleaning up (I'm no way near done but at least I'm making progress!) before we cooked dinner (pasta and warm potato salad) and now we're back in our own rooms because he has to study for his language class tomorrow!
Monday, August 20, 2007 11:45 a.m.
Greetings from Copenhagen! :) After a week of traveling around eastern europe, i'm finally back in Copenhagen. We landed at Malmo airport (a swedish airport) yesterday and then trained back to Copenhagen. It wasn't a long ride back but boy was it expensive (60sgd just to get back from Malmo to Copenhagen). Thankfully, my buddy (a guy appointed to help me get oriented) picked me up and drove his parents car so it wasn't that difficult getting my luggage back home. We had quite a good chat and he's a really nice guy and we were laughing at how heavy my luggage is. Haha. After we got into my room, he brought me to take a bus down to school and walked around the campus! I love the campus (especially the econs block where I'll spend most of my time at). The campus is much much nicer than SMU's city campus and I can't wait to start studying (I hope my enthusiasm doesn't die next Monday)! My residence is not that bad. No complains actually. I've got an ensuite toilet and kitchen (cooked instant noodles last night though the pots are still in the sink) and it's pretty huge for a dorm room so no complains. The only complain I've got is that it's quite dusty and I have lots of cleaning to do and unpacking but I don't know how to get started and seriously, I'm just thinking of my maid. When I moved into the rooms at NTU during my first semester, I had my mother (who made me sit on top of the table while she mopped the floor) to help me clean up. Now I have nobody and I can only whine to my mother over skype. Anyway, the last few days spend in Eastern Europe was really really fabulous! Eastern Europe is gorgeous and I want to go back and visit Krakow again and go to Budapest. If you ask me which city I love the most, I won't be able to tell you because all 3 cities were unique on their own and I loved different aspects of it! Anyway, during the last few days, we visited the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, went to the underground salt mine (130m below ground) then trained to Warsaw and spent Saturday and Sunday there before coming back! I love the old looking buildings at Warsaw and it was just nice walking around the streets without a map and just losing ourselves! Pictures will be posted up soon (1216 photos taken throughout the whole trip!) once I clear my room! Right now, I've got to shower up and get to school! The sky has just turned grey so I'm really scared it starts pouring so I'm going to rush down to school! Probably going to do some supermarket shopping later (I've got no toilet paper in my room) and explore my neighbourhood and it's cold up here in Copenhagen. My mum warned me that it is expected to rain over the next few days but my cute pink/grey umbrella got spoilt in Prague. AH. I dare not tell my mum because she'll go "see! I told you to bring a bigger and stronger umbrella! The winds are so strong you underestimated it!"Wednesday, August 15, 2007 09:25 p.m.
Greetings from Krakow! After traveling for 9 hours on the train, we arrived in Krakow this morning at 6am! The train was quite an experience and it wasn't as bad as we had expected it to be. It's pretty safe and there's really not much to complain about (except for the small dirty toilets). When we left the Czech border and crossed into the Polish border at around 2.45am, the immigration officers came on board and knocked on our doors to stamp on our passports. Kind of like a rude wakeup call but I thought it was quite cool. Saves us the trouble of walking down and all. Apparently if you don't have the necessary visas, you'll get sent back on the next train! Well, since we arrived at 6am, we decided to take a walk across Krakow's old town to our accommodation. It was a wise choice (despite the morning cold) because the town was completely empty and we took lots of beautiful pictures! When we returned to the old town in the afternoon to explore the streets, it was packed with people. It doesn't help that August 15th is a public holiday here in Poland. Anyway, we went to Wawel Castle today (after a while, all castles look the same) before we explored the old town. As usual, the old town (or market square as it is known) is terribly beautiful with old looking buildings, cafes lining the side walks, horse carriages bringing tourists around the sights, street performers, tons of pigeons and a clock tower. It's beautiful. I love roaming around the old town, looking at the buildings, walking into the shops and I'll rank Krakow above Prague (too touristy) and Krakow's probably my second favorite city after San Francisco! The rooms we got in Krakow are absolutely cozy! Breakfast is provided free every morning and they've got big clean, cozy looking rooms! We're going to take a day trip to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp tomorrow and the day after, we'll be heading to an underground salt mine in Krakow itself! Will update again when I get hold of a computer. Right now, I can't stop thinking of bak chor mee. I'm sick of eating sandwiches and more sandwiches.Tuesday, August 14, 2007 07:31 a.m.
Hello from Prague!! :) After traveling like 20,000 miles, hopping on 3 different planes and transiting at airports, we're finally here! Thank God for the safe journey! I'm actually quite scared of taking planes right now, I officially hate plane food and I'm so not looking to the flight back home. Anyway, we had about 4 hours at the Copenhagen airport yesterday morning before we boarded for our flight to Prague and man, Copenhagen is really expensive! We walked into 7-11 thinking we can pick up a drink and a 500ml bottle of cokes costs 6sgd. A can of beer is cheaper though at only 3sgd. The donuts are 3 for 8sgd and a hotdog and drink is about 10sgd. We ended up eating Burger King but even so, we had the kids meals which was only 9sgd instead of the adults meal which would be about 13sgd. I have no idea how I'm going to survive here in Copenhagen but looks like there's really going to be alot of cooking in and less eating out! Prague on the other hand, is much cheaper (thankfully). It's a really lovely place and the weather's perfect! The buildings are really old looking but beautiful and even the public transportation system looks decent. Everything has been really good so far (Thank God again) and even our rooms turned out much better than we had expected! We're just worried about losing our belongings and getting pickpocked because apparently Prague is famous for that. After arriving here yesterday afternoon, we headed out to the main train station to get out overnight train tickets to Krakow. We walked around the new town square, had a really delicious dinner at some pub at a basement (which only cost us 30sgd) and headed back to our rooms to get a proper sleep. Today's going to be a long day because we're headed to a few places before we take our 9hour train ride to Krakow! Will write again if I come across the internet and the pictures will follow when I get back to Copenhagen!Sunday, August 12, 2007 11:50 a.m.
I was supposed to spend my afternoon packing yesterday but my cousins and my aunt came over so we all ended up chit chatting and halfway through, I walked to the train station with my cousin to pick up the DVDs that Leroy had nicely burnt for me so that I can watch them while in transit. Thank you Leroy and Juan Juan! We came back home and we found out that my mum and my aunt had decided to give each other a make up course. Dinner afterwards at some authentic hainanese restaurant, came home and my mother freaked out so she packed everything for me and in between all that, E came over to say goodbye! I can't believe I'm leaving so soon. Getting a little scared now because I read so much about pickpocketing in Eastern Europe and I'm getting worried. Ah.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 01:21 a.m.
The cell girls came over tonight for steamboat and we had so much food, we ate till our stomachs nearly burst! But I really like it when we can all eat together and just talk and laugh around. Met Dan, Jac, Yaozhang (so glad I saw you today), Chang and Yado after the steamboat at Newton to have even more food and chit chat. We were reminiscing the days when we used to hang out more often, go on car rides in Yaozhang's bat mobile and do stupid things together (Remember that time we played some stupid war game where we hid in Yaozhang's car and tried to hide from Chang and the rest at Yado's house and how we actually crawled on the road to sneak up on them?)! Haha.
As always, at all our supper meetings, we have our stupid moments and quote-worthy statements. Yaozhang was telling us about this girl and how he remembered 2 clothings of hers only. Yado, being the ever sneaky one, whispered to Chang, "Bra and panties - 2 pieces of clothings". We both didn't know what they were laughing about but when we realized what Yado had said, the four of us were laughing like there was no tomorrow. Hahaha. Only Yado can come up with such a statement. Haha.
Friday, August 10, 2007 04:46 p.m.
Attended the National day parade with the family yesterday after we had lunch at my Aunt's place. I really enjoyed myself and the parade wasn't too bad except for the performance bit which I found was rather meaningless. The only nice part about the performance is how the sounds and lights all nicely blended in together and I think that really saved it. Other than that, I love this new venue! Marina Bay is really a nice place and the tall office buildings at Raffles Place provided a really nice backdrop. The fireworks were spectacular and much longer this time round and we could actually see them lighting them off from across the bay! It was also thankfully not that hot yesterday because we only went in at 5.30pm and there was a cool breeze which made the parade even more enjoyable! :)
Wednesday, August 8, 2007 11:41 p.m.
Everyone, meet America's Junior Olympics Waterpolo champion!! :) My cousin who was shorter than me last year is now my height and his hair is completely bleached from all his waterpolo training, junior lifeguard summer classes and swimming lessons. He's darker than me, weighs the same weight as me (can't reveal the weight because it's a sensitive topic) and look, he's so strong! He managed to split the crab into two so that we can get the meat! He's so nice, he remembered we used to fight over Reese's peanut butter cups and bought some back for me so that my butt can grow bigger and he even got another kitten in America so that when I go back there, he can irritate me with three cats! Haha.
Dinner tonight with my Aunt, my cutie cousin (he hates it when I call him cute), my 2 older cousins and the folks at some place in Geylang that serves up pretty good hokkien mee. I still prefer the crabs at Ang Mo Kio and I absolutely love their crab bee hoon! My mum just saw my cute rice cooker and she's so proud of me. I still don't know how I'm going to pack everything though. My dad, on the other hand, is convinced that I'm just going up to Copenhagen to cook and travel and not study. Haha.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007 02:46 p.m.
I'm starting to get a little scared. I'm leaving in 4 days and I haven't even started packing. All my winter clothes are just dumped into my suitcase and the other random things are just lying around my room. I'm worried I won't have enough space. On top of that, I've got so many other things to do. I've got to settle my bank draft, change money, read up on Eastern Europe, go supermarket shopping to get the necessary food stuff, buy another universal adaptor and I'll probably need 2 full days to do all that but I still got to attend the national day parade tomorrow evening, go for family dinners, bring my cousins out to Sentosa and spend time with people and AH. How am I going to ever get packed and ready for Denmark?Wednesday, August 8, 2007 12:48 p.m.
I bought my rice cooker yesterday afternoon! We were at Bugis getting our international student ID cards done (don't know if it's actually useful) and while walking around, we found a rice cooker! It's slightly more expensive than the one I saw a while back and it's bigger (can't put it in my suitcase) but this comes with a steaming plate! I can't wait to start using my rice cooker to cook rice and all sorts of soups! Mum bought me japanese rice and seaweed so I'm going to make sushi when I'm in Denmark!
After buying the rice cooker, E and myself went down town, met Steve halfway and dropped by Far East to develop my photos and have coffee. Dinner at Newton (we had a feast!) with Adrian, GuangZhao, Zhen Yang, Steve, E and myself before we moved over to Dempsey Road for ben&jerry's. E and myself dropped by Adrain's place and after that, we went over to Matthew's place to catch up, chit chat and have some wine on his roof terrace with Charmaine and him.
Monday, August 6, 2007 10:22 p.m.
The orientation group at yesterday's welcome day! I wasn't really looking forward to it because I was reallly tired and I had so many things to settle but it didn't turn out that bad! One guy is from my jc and there's another guy from my tuition class back in Sec3/4. The world is so damn small. I feel really old and senior when I see all these fresh faces around and it scares me a little that I'm going to graduate in 2 semesters. Other than that, it's nice being able to help people get acquainted to the school.
Got to go pick my Aunt and my cousin (The one who woke me up every single morning while I was in LA and is now a junior Olympics waterpolo Champion!!) up from the airport and we're going to have bouncy fishball noodles later! My older cousin and I made a pact to scream "You're hot!! We love you!!!" when my cousin steps out of the arrival hall and embarrass the crap out of him! Haha.
Monday, August 6, 2007 12:09 a.m.
Upper Room service with the folks on Sunday because they were going to bring me for necessary shopping. We had brunch at Pizza da Donato then headed down to town to look around! They got me my backpack (my first in almost 6 years?) and I think it's really cute and I can't stop carrying it around! Haha. It fits my laptop really perfectly and there's enough space for 2 days worth of clothes! My sister thinks I look like a secondary school kid when I carry it though. Got another camera battery and the iPod charger too. Went over to my grandma's and she cooked all my favourite food! She even prepared sambal chilli and fried onions so that I can bring it up with me to Denmark! I'm still thinking if I should get a rice cooker because I doubt my kitchen has a rice cooker and it'll be nice to have rice some days and at least I can make my own sushi! Went to the Cheesecake Cafe with Juan Juan and Leroy after dinner and at 8pm, they're sold out on my peach jelly cheesecake. Impossible seriously. I think it's their best cheesecake on offer and they don't have it. Came back and watched the end of the Hungarian grand prix (thank goodness Alonso the cry baby didn't win) and the first half of the Charity Shield match between Man U and Chelsea. Orientation back in school tomorrow and after that, it'll be full swing to get all my things settled and stuff packed!Friday, August 3, 2007 03:09 p.m.
My last day at my Aunt's and I'm glad I'm not staying any longer because there's really quite a lot to do here. I was supposed to have finished this survey on listed companies a week ago but then random things started popping up and I had to help my cousin with it and we had a whole string of meetings to attend. First it was to gather information about our accounting standards and how they apply to a particular situation so that we can draft the press releases and all. Then I had to draft the writeup in the annual report for a listed company and other random things that needed my immediate attention just popped up. When I first came here, I thought I could try out all these nice looking eating places around the office but I've only eaten around our office area 3 times in 3 weeks. We're always having customer lunches or lunch meetings with the banks and I'm glad from next week onwards, I can wake up slightly later though I suspect I'll have even more random things to settle. Lunch with my eldest cousin and two of my colleagues just now at Maxwell Market. I love love love their chicken rice. Apparently the fish slice noodles at Maxwell is really good too but the queue was really long! I'm really going to miss eating fried prawn noodles, chicken rice, oyster omelette, bak chor mee and popiah! Had a good chat with my cousin about free will, the doctrine of election and about leading cell groups and in between all that, he recommended all the nice places to visit in Italy so now I'm even more excited about traveling and exploring Europe. I just wish it wasn't that expensive!Friday, August 3, 2007 02:49 p.m.
There's one thing I'll never understand here at Shenton Way. What's with putting the tissue paper packet on the chair/table to reserve your seat while you go buy your food?! It's honestly very aunty and it really annoys me! It's fine if it's your umbrella or your books or whatever, but not tissue paper packet!! I've seen Shenton Way ladies spot a table from afar and somehow throw their packet of tissue paper such that it lands nicely on the table and then they'll slowly walk over to the table. It's to prevent anyone that's standing near that empty table from getting it before she gets to the table. Haha. I have never 'choped' seats with tissue paper and I told myself that I'll never ever do it. There was this one time I had lunch with CH at Soup Spoon and he put his pass on the table while we went to get our soups and this group of ladies actually put his pass at the dustbin and happily sat on our table. So apparently, only tissue paper packet works when you want to chop seats. Haha. I remember the first few days at the bank when I went out with the school guys for lunch and they wanted to chop seats and they asked me for my tissue paper but I didn't have it and they were horrified because they thought all girls carried tissue papers to chop seats. Haha. There's another thing that really irks me too. I hate it when you order dishes to share and then people just take all the food from the different plates and stack them on their plate of rice. It's ok if you just take a bit from every plate and put it on your plate of rice but I hate it when they take alot from each plate and then just stuff their face with the food? Or when they take alot for themselves and forget that the dishes are meant to be shared? Alamak.Friday, August 3, 2007 09:33 a.m.
Our eastern Europe trip is all booked! :) Like finally. Woot woot! We decided to strike out Budapest because it's quite out of the way and the train ride there is about 10 hours long. So now we're just going to do Prague, Warsaw and Krakow! We found this flight that flies out of Warsaw to Malmo (Swedish airport) for only 70sgd (inclusive of taxes) so we're taking a one way flight from Copenhagen to Prague and hop on that cheap flight back to Sweden from Warsaw and take the train back across to Copenhagen. Malmo is only 20 minutes away by train from Copenhagen and from Malmo airport to the train station is only 45 minutes by the airport shuttle so it shouldn't be too bad (I hope!). Now that all the booking and planning is out of the way, I'm starting to get really excited! I'm praying real hard we won't have trouble getting from one place to another or with our lodging and that everything turns out according to plan and it'll be a smooth and enjoyable trip! :)Thursday, August 2, 2007 11:27 p.m.
Spent Wednesday afternoon in school because we had the student leader briefing for this Monday's welcome day. The games they are going to play and all is exactly the same as last year's and so the briefing was really quite boring. It's just that the program for the day is slightly different and I think they're trying to do it a little like those admissions talks that we conducted. Korean lunch with Juan Juan before the briefing and I went to cut my hair really short after the briefing. I hope it grows out soon because it's really very short! Before that, I went to see the Dentist. I haven't been to one ever since I took out my braces (3 years back) and I had expected stuff to build up and all but I didn't realize that it was that bad. It didn't look like I had alot of dirty stuff on my teeth. Anyway, the dentist used this really cool laser thing to check my teeth. If my teeth is decaying, it'll make this mosquito sounding noise. If it isn't, then no noise comes out of it. Super cool because my teeth in front were ok but the ones at the back of my mouth were making that irritating noise. Turns out he had to do a filing and do some major cleaning up and I'll have to go back on Saturday to see him and clean my upper half. It isn't the normal kind of cleaning because he's going to do a local anesthesia so that it won't hurt and all I feel is the virbration. I'm starting to chicken out and I don't feel like seeing him but I think I better let him finish up the job or else I'll have to wear those fake teeth when I'm 30. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------