Wednesday, October 31, 2007 08:45 p.m.
It's halloween! :)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:41 a.m.
You know as Christians, we are told not to gossip behind people's back, to take out the log in our eyes before taking out the speck of dust in our neighbor's eyes and all that. Yesterday, I was mad pissed. Wouldn't you be too if your group mate conveniently forgot that she had to give a feedback for another group in class, didn't bother doing any preparations and instead ran off to Greece? I was pissed and disappointed because I expected more of this singaporean girl. The two times we had our project meeting for our presentation that was over a few weeks back, she sauntered in, almost half an hour late. Both times, we were ending our discussion. Yesterday was just over the limit. But you know, even though I was mad pissed, I didn't know how to react. Part of me wanted to just tell every single person I came into contact with how irresponsible and horrible this girl is. Yet I know inside, that wasn't really the right thing to do. So I end up keeping quiet and tried not to let it affect me. The point is, I don't know how to react as a Christian. Taking it in silently and telling myself that it's just another bad day in the journey of life and people do have crap project group mates didn't do me any good and I ended up venting my anger on E. It didn't help that I felt overwhelmed with the thousand other things I had to do and was so discouraged that so many things weren't turning out right. And I feel it's so unfair that people can do these kind of irresponsible things because somehow, if I tried pulling off such an irresponsible act like this, other people in this world wouldn't be so kind and they'll do everything to make sure everyone hears about what I did and simply tarnish my reputation without any guilt at all. So, really, in such situations like this, how should a God-fearing Christian react?Sunday, October 28, 2007 11:47 p.m.
There's apparently no more daylight savings for us in Denmark and so we're now 7 hours behind Singapore instead of 6. I think the daylight savings stops at 1am on the last sunday of October so this morning was a little confusing for me. I jumped out of bed because I saw that it was 10.45am. When I turned on my computer, I noticed it was only 9.55am and I naturally thought I saw my alarm clock wrongly. Well, turns out the boyfriend got confused too and so he called asking what time it was and mentioned how his phone beeped last night informing him about the time change. So technically while we were asleep last night, we gained an extra hour! Now, I'm just not too sure if I should go for my 8am class at 8am (as of the time I see now) or go for class at 7am (because it'll be 8am according to the old timing).Sunday, October 28, 2007 11:03 p.m.
We went to Legoland yesterday!! :) Legoland is in Billund, which is an industrial city in Denmark and it's also where Lego's headquarters is! Billund's about 2.5 hours away by train and it is located on the Jutland Peninsula which connects Denmark to Germany and the rest of Europe while Copenhagen is on an island called Zealand. Anyhow, Legoland was really quite fun!! Almost everything is made from Lego and it's extremely cute!! It's a very family-oriented theme park so the rides weren't even scary at all and it definitely cannot compare to Knott's Berry Farm or Magic Mountain. Some rides reminded me of what Disneyland has and Legoland is also organized in a way that is quite similar to Disneyland. If you ask me, I think I much prefer Disneyland because there's so much more to see and do and buy but Legoland was cute in its own way!
When we first entered Leogland, we were greeted by SIA's A380, all made in Lego! In the center of the park is this mini world, also all made from Lego bricks. We saw Amsterdam and its windmills, Germany and the River Rhine, Japan with Mount Fuji and rice plantations, Bergen, LA and Hollywood, NASA's JFK space center, the North Sea oil rig and even Copenhagen's Nyhavn (comes even with the canal cruise) and the Queen's official residence! I have no idea how those people constructed it with Lego but it was so small and cute!! Another part of the park had the 'wonders' of the world like the Taj Mahal, the 4 presidents of America, the Statue of Liberty and all that! There was even this model of a milk factory where you can see the milk truck coming in and bringing the milk to the supermarket and when you press this button, the lego cows will moo for you! Haha. Well, I thought mini world was really the best part of the park because it looked so real (the model trains were running along the railway tracks and just as the ships approached a bridge, the bridge would be raised up) and it's just amazing how they built it!
We walked around, had lunch at Captain Roger's fish&chips, went inside the aquarium, took most of the rides (the scariest one was the Xtreme Racers where you plunge 8 meters and then go up 8 meters again all in 2 seconds) and saw this really interesting family game where families compete with other families and they had to jump onto the fire engine when the fire alarm goes off, push down this pedal to move towards the fire scene and When they get there, they had to manually pump the water out and aim the hose towards the 'burning' window! Your family will win if you guys stop the house from burning and make it back to the starting line first! Haha.
E also decided to play some of the store games at pirate land so he tried one that required him to fish out 2 ducks from this pond and he won me a big duck and a mini duck! Haha. He played some other shooting game where he was required to accurately shoot down some pirate sand bags and we all know how accurate he can be and all so he won for me another 2 ducks! Haha. One medium size and one small one. So now we have a family of ducks!
After completing most of the rides, we walked around the park, checked the Lego shop out and tried looking for my Dad's Ferrari lego set but couldn't find it and then we walked over to the brick shop which looks like some candy store but it actually sells all the different lego bricks in all sorts of colours. We bought about 100g of lego bricks because E wanted to make a photoframe for the both of us, took this train made of Lego that brought us round mini world and took the train back to Copenhagen just as it turned dark! :)
Sunday, October 28, 2007 09:44 p.m.
My grandma's birthday today and so she called me in the afternoon and we were happily chatting away! I really miss her cooking. I told her about my recent failure in cooking steam eggs and how it turned out all watery and disgusting and she gave me her secret recipe which was apparently taught to her by her father! I tried it just now and my steam egg turned out really really yummy! :) It was firm and soft at the same time and it was so so good! :) I'm going to experiment and put in mushrooms next time and see if I can make chawanmushi! Haha. E and myself watched the Brazilian grand prix (I know we're a few weeks slow) as we had dinner just now and I think it's one of the races this season with the most drama! Haha. 3 mechanics flew as the car came into the garage, 6 cars crashed out and had to retire, Ferrari orchestrated their 1-2 win so beautifully and Raikkonen won driver's championship with just one point ahead of cry baby Alonso and Hamilton. Amazing. I can't wait to see the Singapore race for the Formula 1 next season!Friday, October 26, 2007 09:44 p.m.
Ching and Mark came over from Switzerland to visit for 3 days so on their first night here, we had a singaporean dinner at our residence! Dicks cooked black pepper chicken (with the help of Prima paste so it's kind of cheating), Ben prepared potato with onions and I cooked rice and vegetables! It was a really good hot meal for a cold night and it was really nice to be able to catch up with Ching in Dick's room while he went to buy coke and also over dinner! On Wednesday, the both of them wanted to do a canal cruise around Copenhagen and E and myself have never been for that so we decided to join them! We decided to take the seats outside the boat at the back (instead of settling for the warm seats inside) and we were freezing because the wind was so strong! Well, the canal cruise is an hour tour around Copenhagen's canals and it shows you all the different attractions we have here. It was quite a nice change seeing all the places from the water. The tour also brought us to the canals at Christianshavn and I didn't realize that Christianshavn had such beautiful canals with lots of small house boats docked and modern looking buildings by the side! It reminded me of Nyhavn, just without the tourists. I'm going back there one day to explore the area and sit by the canal (hopefully it isn't too cold!). We left the both of them to walk around Stroget because I had a make up international trade class at 5pm!
Thursday, October 25, 2007 06:57 p.m.
Every time I talk to someone from school back home in Singapore, they're always telling me how they're working their asses off to try to pull their GPA up, attending recruitment talks, networking nights and applying for all the jobs and how they're participating in competitions or taking up leadership positions in the halls of residence to boost their resume. If I was back in Singapore, I'll probably be doing the same thing and whining non stop on my blog about how stressed out I am. I am definitely concerned and worried since my GPA's pathetic, I've not applied for any jobs and my last semester looks like a sure die semester. But I'm in Copenhagen and I'm an exchange student and people here don't talk about GPA and jobs every day so naturally, my only concerns as of now are what I'm going to cook for dinner, the homework I have to complete for class and whether they are cheap air tickets to somewhere in Europe. And MSNing my friends back home with some hope that it'll give me some pressure only ends up making me want to slow time down and not go home in January. AHH.Thursday, October 25, 2007 02:57 p.m.
Venice was the last stop of our Italy trip and we got there at about 10 am on Friday morning. While we were looking forward to exploring Venice and seeing the gondolas, we heard horror stories from our friends about getting lost and how it's almost impossible to retrace your steps. I was naturally a little afraid (I didn't want to get lost and not be able to catch the night flight back to Copenhagen) but our Singapore Armed Forces trains their recruits very well by throwing them in the forests of Brunei so the boyfriend and Dicks managed to navigate and get us to all the places we wanted to see and still make it back in time to catch our flight. We didn't even get lost at all! :)
Anyway, Venice is a really charming and beautiful city!! It's now my favorite city in Europe and ranked second in the world after San Francisco! I like how there are so many narrow canals and bridges that you have to climb over just to get across! Every canal that we come across is slightly different from the other! The streets are all so narrow and you always find something interesting when you turn round the corner! There's no cars (or buses or taxis) in Venice and everyone either takes the river bus, have their own small boat or they walk! Even the TNT delivery men have to take their boat to the nearest canal and walk the remaining journey just to deliver the package!
From the train station, we walked towards the Rialto Bridge. You really can't miss it because it's probably the only bridge that brings you across the Grand Canal. The other way of getting across the grand canal would probably be to take the river bus. Rialto Bridge is quite similar to the Vecchio Bridge in Florence just that the view on top of the Rialto is much more beautiful than the view from the top of the Vecchio. The Rialto is all white and it's definitely bigger than the Vecchio! We took the mandatory tourist photos, passed by a fresh fish market that sold fish caught in the Adriatic Sea (E was so disappointed they didn't sell cooked fish! You should have seen his face) and walked on to St. Mark's square.
Well, in my opinion, I think St. Mark's square is probably the worse square I've been to in Europe! The buildings are all plain black and white (I much prefer brightly colored buildings surrounding the square just like those in Warsaw and Krakow) and it's quite a big square too so it doesn't feel warm and cosy. To make matters worse, the square was infested with pigeons! I think there are more pigeons than tourists but somehow, everyone was going to the middle of the square, stretching their hands out with food and letting the pigeons perch on their arms and on top of their head. It was disgusting!! I didn't even dare walk into the square. A basilica and a tall tower stood on the square but it wasn't that fantastic too in terms of architecture and design and there were lots of cafes around the square for people to sit, eat sandwiches with barely anything exorbitantly priced at 15 euros and people watch.
Thankfully, the area outside St. Mark's square was really beautiful and so we walked along the clear blue waters, took in the sights of the city, soaked in the Venetian air and did some shopping at the pushcart stores. I could sit by the waters and just stare out into the sea and admire the gondolas all nicely bobbling on the waters and look out at the grand palace across the sea on another island. Venice is famous for its masks and has a well established glass blowing industry so you can find delicate glass pieces and masks sold everywhere in the city. We wanted to go for a ride on the gondolas but decided against it because they were charging us 20 euros per person and to be honest, the gondolas look like some floating coffin. Haha. It was black and some gondolas had flowers draped over it. I didn't even think it looked remotely romantic. Haha.
Dicks had to meet his friend to pass her her birthday present so we walked back to Rialto Bridge and we bumped into Xiao Hui!! Haha. What a coincidence really. We didn't join them for coffee because we wanted to walk along the grand canal and explore the small lanes around the Rialto Bridge before catching our train to the airport.
Once again, we flew back to Stockholm with Ryanair (another opportunity to walk to the plane) and when we got off the plane at Stockholm, it was freezing! We had to spend another cold night in the airport because our flight reached Stockholm at midnight and the earliest train back to Copenhagen was at 8 am the next morning. The guys woke up just as the sun was rising and went out into the cold to take photos of the sky and them doing gung-fu fighting with smoke coming out of their mouth. Haha. We had to change trains at Malmo so we took the opportunity to have our chinese box before coming back to Copenhagen! :)
Thursday, October 25, 2007 02:31 p.m.
Our second last day in Italy was spent in Florence. We had a really good breakfast and made our way to the Uffizi gallery. It's probably one of the oldest museums in the world and it has a really large collection of paintings. We waited 2 hours to enter the museum and once you enter, you basically walk along the main corridor and enter the first room and one room leads to you another and there was a total of 42 rooms.
Well, the paintings are arranged in chronological order so when you first enter, you see the 13th, 14th century gothic art pieces followed by the 15th century renaissance pieces. I was quite disappointed at the beginning because I couldn't quite appreciate the first few art pieces (it was like painted in gold and bright silver colors and the people had this gold ring round their faces?). Thankfully we bought the Uffizi gallery guide book that gave us a description of the paintings in the room and we had the audio guide and as we progressed forward, the paintings got more modern and I could better relate to them and that was when it started getting interesting. We saw the paining on the sacrifice of Isaac and the painting on the birth of Venus (probably the most famous painting there) and just sitting down there, reading what the art experts have to say in their analysis of the paintings and then looking back at the paintings was quite good. I was mentally exhausted when I came out but it was definitely worth it going in. You just need to be patient and take time to read, understand and stare longer at the paintings.
We bought lunch from this store near the Uffizi that sells different types of italian dishes. It's something like our mixed rice store that we have back in Singapore except that this is more chic. Haha. I had some seafood with vinegar and cherry tomatoes with basil for appetizers and spinach risotto with green peas for mains and it was so damn good! I wish we found more of such stores in Italy because I think that was the best meal we had!
After lunch, we bought another gelato and walked along the river banks to the Vecchio Bridge. It's apparently one of the most beautiful bridges in Florence and the only one that wasn't destroyed by the Germans as they were retreating. The view from that bridge wasn't too bad and there were alot of goldsmiths and jewelry shops along the bridge.
From the Vecchio bridge, we walked back to the City center, passed by the Academia and saw the replica of David. David's probably Michelangelo's most famous sculpture (just like how the last judgement is his most famous painting) but we decided to give the academia a miss and head straight for the Duomo. The Duomo is the most magnificent church in Florence and I think it's the nicest church I've seen so far in Europe. It's very different from the other churches and it has this white and green facade with lots of smaller paintings on it. It really stands out and I cannot imagine how much work was put into building it. The inside wasn't that fantastic (it was like any other old grand church in Europe) except that they had this really ancient clock that can tell when the sun is setting. I stared at it for a while, but I couldn't make out what time the sun was setting for the day. It's like the astronomical clock in Prague. Nice to look at but I've no idea how to read the time. Haha.
We walked around the streets near Plaza Duomo, did a bit of shopping at Zara (I got a new pair of jeans sponsored by the boyfriend!), the guys bought this Vespa shirt they've been eyeing all along in Italy and we bought authentic italian pizzas back and ate at our accommodation's roof terrace! :)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 11:37 a.m.
On our fourth day in Italy, we got up bright and early to take the train to Pisa. It was going to be the four of us traveling Italy together for the rest of the time because Pooi Fun only joined us for the Rome leg. The train ride was about 3 hours long and we got to Pisa before lunch. Pisa is a really small and quaint town and there's really nothing much to do there besides seeing the leaning tower of Pisa. One thing for sure, I sure did feel like I was in Italy when I was in Pisa! Rome was nice and there were a lot of things to see and do but I think it lacks the italian charm. You don't really feel like you're in Italy when you're in Rome.
Anyhow, the leaning tower of Pisa, the baptistry and the Cathedral of Pisa is all situated on the field of miracles. It's a really nice place to just chill out, have a picnic and bask in the sun! The 3 buildings are all in white marble, the skies were blue, the sun was out and you have the city walls and Italian mountain ranges in the background! You really cannot ask for more! When you sit on the field of miracles and stare at the three structures, it seems as if the leaning tower is playing peek a boo with you! Haha.
Before I got to Pisa, I didn't think the leaning tower was really leaning but when you see it with your own eyes, the tower is really really leaning. It's definitely the most amazing building I've seen. I've no idea what they're doing to support it and strengthen it and I've no idea why they even built that tower a long time ago in the 13th century. Was it built as a watch tower? Did they know that one part of the ground is subsiding? Whatever the case, it really is leaning and it's just an amazing sight and I still can't believe it's leaning. You've just got to see it to believe it.
We walked around Pisa before taking the train to Florence (an hour away) and had dinner at some sidewalk restaurant before retiring for the night.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 11:15 a.m.
The third day in Rome was spent roaming around the streets and just slowly taking in the sights of the City. We started the day climbing the spanish steps. I think it was built to connect the plaza at the bottom with the church at the top. Nothing really fantastic about it (think the white stairs at Sentosa) and the view from the top wasn't that spectacular too but it was a must-do thing for any tourist in Rome so we did it! Haha. At least we got to take pretty photos!
After climbing down the Spanish steps, we walked towards the Pantheon and along the way, walked down Rome's main shopping street (I saw a Gucci bag for only 400euros!!), had another gelato and walked pass their Parliament (a group of protesters were waiting outside for the session to end). The Pantheon is one of the better preserved buildings in Rome and I believe it was originally a pagan temple but for a while now, it's a christian church. The outside was really old and magnificent looking (imagine that huge structure in the middle of some city square in the past) but the inside was really disappointing. Well, apparently the open hole that we see in the roof was quite an architectural accomplishment because it's quite impossible to carve out such a perfect hole even in today's time with all the machines and all. There was also a tomb of someone really important (a saint maybe?) but we all had no idea who he was.
After the Pantheon, we walked to plaza Nuovona, walked around to the river and across the field where chariots used to race before making our way back to the Colosseum at night and ending the Rome leg of our Italy trip at a restaurant which was really packed but served up the best italian food we've had in Rome!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 10:59 a.m.
Our second day in Rome was spent at the Vatican City. We got there at around 10 am after having breakfast at this bright cheery bakery and the queue was unbelievably long. We thought we were early and the summer crowds have gone home but we were obviously wrong so we ended up standing in line for 2 whole hours before we even managed to enter the Vatican museums. Thankfully, the 5 of us entertained ourselves, we bumped into Sherry and some other CBS people and we even manage to spot the italian da paolo just outside the Vatican! Haha.
We finally made our way in and the Vatican museums has one of the largest collections of paintings and sculptures in the world. When you first enter the Vatican, there's this pine cone courtyard (because there's a huge pine cone there) with a huge bronze/gold ball in the center. After that, you enter into the buildings and you end up walking through hallways and hallways of paintings, tapestry, sculptures and all. It's like never ending. The walls, the ceilings and the floor all have something on them and thankfully we rented the audio guide that told us what each hallway was about and what were some of the more significant paintings. We saw the fall of Lucifer painted on the ceiling, a hallway full of tapestry (of which one stood out because it was the resurrection of Jesus and Dicks pointed out that no matter which angle you look at the tapestry, Jesus seems to be looking at you), paintings of the Last Supper and also a painting of the Godhead.
Walking through all these hallways leads us to the Sistine chapel. It's the place where the cardinals gather after the pope dies to elect a new one and there's a chimney there which they use to burn the vote slips to give the results to the faithful waiting outside. The Sistine chapel is filled with frescos (painting done on when the plaster of the wall is wet) and most notably is definitely Michelangelo's painting of the Last Judgment that stretched from the top to the bottom of one side of the chapel's wall. Michelangelo also painted the frescos on the ceiling which is a series of 9 paintings consisting of 3 episodes. 1 episode of 3 depicting the creation of the world, the other episode on the creation of man and the last episode on Noah, the flood and the time he got drunk. At first sight, the chapel looks really messy with all the paintings on it. Plus, the lighting in there isn't that fantastic. But when you listen to the audio guide and analyze the frescos carefully, you realize it tells a really beautiful salvation story and that the Sistine Chapel is really like a story book with pictures. The commentator mentioned that Michelangelo was a really gifted artist because he could put his knowledge of the salvation story (something that was quite abstract to people at that time) and paint it out so beautifully such that ordinary people are able to understand the salvation story. I have to agree with it. The other sides of the Sistine chapel have frescos of Jesus' ministry on earth and also one of Jesus passing the key to Peter.
After sending our postcards back home, we got out of the Vatican musems (I think we spent a grand total of about 4 hours in there), took a lunch break before moving on to St. Peter's square and the basilica. The basilica has that famous window/balcony where the Pope comes out once in a while and waves to the faithful standing at the square. The square had chairs all arranged because the Pope was scheduled to give a sermon on Wednesday. The basilica doesn't look that magnificent from the outside but it's really huge inside. I don't think there's anything really special about the basilica except that we saw bits of a mass and the priests walking off after that. The SMU kids (Pooi Fun, Dicks and E) spent time jumping around the square (why do all SMU kids do that?!), we walked around the square, spotted the Swiss Guards (they look so cute in their colorful costumes!!) and took a picture with the policeman before having dinner at the restaurant near our place which looked good but was the worse meal we had in Italy.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 10:16 a.m.
Rome!! Getting to Rome was quite an adventure because we had to fly out from Stockholm's airport so Pooi Fun (another girl from SMU), Dickson, JS (french canadian guy who lives at our residence), E and myself had to train up there and stay one night at the airport because our flight was early Sunday morning and they didn't have any night trains. We actually put 4 chairs in a row and slept on it. The airport was freezing and it's probably the worse sleep we got, but definitely an experience. I don't think we'll be doing it anytime soon. It was also our first time taking Ryanair and we were all naturally excited that we got to walk to the airplane! No aero bridge or bus bringing us there or anything like that!
We arrived early Sunday morning in Rome, washed up (they had the cutest girly toilets!) and had pizzas at some small cafe near our place for lunch. The cafe really reminds me of the hole-in-the-wall pizza place in Sixth Avenue but this was definitely better! After lunch, we decided to walk to the Colosseum and take in the sights of Rome. We passed by the St. Marie church, walked up this flight of stairs because we thought there was something nice at the top (we were disappointed) and finally we got to our destination! The Roman Colosseum!
The colosseum used to be an open air theatre for the Romans and it's situated in the center of the city because the Romans then wanted everyone to be able to come for it. It's pretty much ruined now (but beautiful even though it's ruined) and it's really huge! I suspect it could fit at least 100,000 romans in the past! Can you imagine when the performance is so good and the crowd is all cheering? Their cheers could probably be heard all over Rome! We walked up to the top arena first, made a round round the Colosseum (it really is a huge stadium) before walking on the ground level. There's really nothing much to see but when you picture this thing how many hundred years ago and what they did and marvel at how the colosseum has turned out to be, it's really wow.
After the colosseum, we walked over to the Roman Forum, went up Palatine Hill to get a good view of the ancient ruins of Rome down at the bottom and walked around the standing ruins of ancient Rome. I'm not too sure if Greece is like that but much has been destroyed over time but when you stand on top of the hill and look down, you can only imagine how it was like in the past.
From Palatine hill, we walked through some streets, passed by some churches, had our first gelato and made our way to the Trevi fountain. This white marble fountain is right in the middle of the city and is now nestled at some intersection where the different shopping streets meet. It's really placed in the middle of no where but it's huge and you can even hear it before you see it! I kind of like it actually because it's quite a nice random sight. The aqua blue waters kind of go with the white marble and I really wonder where the water comes from. A water pipe? Or some natural spring somewhere? You're supposed to throw a coin with your back facing the fountain because legend has it that if you do that, you'll be able to return to the Eternal City.
We had dinner at some sidewalk restaurant nearby (food was ok but the waiter was entertaining) and made our way back to the Trevi fountain again to see it at night before we settled for gelato from this Valentino store (the best one in Rome) and made our way back to rest for the night!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 01:06 p.m.
To celebrate the end of international econs, the boyfriend cooked another sunny side up for dinner last night and put it on top of my rosti! :) Yay for boyfriends who can cook sunny side ups that have flow-y yolks and crispy sides!
Monday, October 22, 2007 07:21 p.m.
My international econs final is over!! Woot woot! I think the paper was quite easy and I'll probably score if I studied much harder. Right now, I'm bordering between the I think I should be able to pass and but I'm not too sure if I'll pass since I messed up question 1a, 1d, 2c and 4c. Anyway, taking the exam this morning was quite an eye opener. there was another group of students taking their HR exam in the same hall as us and theirs was an open book exam and hence they were allowed to use their laptops. Most of them, if not all, brought their laptops (some even brought 2) and they even brought along their printers to print their answers at the end of the exam. Most people I saw carted all their books to the exam hall in the small luggage trolley bag! Since my paper wasn't open book, I had to write my answers on this stack of carbon paper and at the end of the exam, I have to put the first 3 copies in 3 separate envelopes and I keep the last copy. I also didn't realize you could munch and eat something throughout the paper in Denmark till I saw a guy open a can of coke, another guy 2 rows in front eating a banana and the girl in front of me take out her muffin and coffee. It's definitely very different from taking exams back home in Singapore. Well, yesterday was designated my full day of mugging for the finals so the boyfriend took on the role of cook and was tasked with making sure I was well fed so that I can fully concentrate on preparing for the finals. He was supposed to cook carbonara pasta for lunch but along the way, improvised by adding in some garlic sauce and other random stuff, he named it Carbonana in the end. At least it was decent so I've got no complaints! For dinner, he fried a fish fillet, fries and made me a sunny side up (his first time doing it) and had corn for sides! It was a really good meal! He even washed all the dishes and cleaned up so I was really impressed! Thank you sweetheart! :)
Sunday, October 21, 2007 11:10 a.m.
We're back from Italy!! :) In 6 full days, we visited the Pope at the Vatican City, fought the crowds at the Colosseum, roamed the ancient ruins of Rome, leaned against the leaning tower of Pisa, said Hi to David along the streets of Florence, saw the Birth of Venus, ate gelatos and pizzas everyday, and fell in love again while climbing the bridges that brings us across the thousands of canals in Venice. Thankfully, we're back in one piece and I've still got my international econs final exam tomorrow morning at 9am so the updates on Italy will come when I'm freed tomorrow. Ciao!Friday, October 12, 2007 01:59 p.m.
I took these pictures just right outside school just now! I like how the leaves on the trees are all a warm shade of orange and when the sun shines down on them, I think it's a really beautiful sight! In a couple of weeks, the trees will be completely bare!
The mid term break is finally here!! :) It was also my last international econs class today because it's a quarter one class (that means I have 3.5 hours of classes twice a week instead of the usual 3 hours of lessons once a week) and everyone was happily streaming into class today with their huge backpacks! I know at least half the people in the class are either going to catch a flight/train to somewhere in Europe right after class. Some danish guys drove one of their parent's car down to school because they're off to Germany after class! I know of a crazy couple who's going to cover Berlin, Rome, Milan, Amsterdam and Paris all in 10 days. And they've just spent last weekend in Barcelona. Haha.
E came to meet me after class, we had lunch in school with this girl from NUS, made a quick stop at the supermarket and the bank before coming back home. My tutor was revising the trade models in class today and I realized I barely know anything about it like who produces what, who gains from trade, how the income is distributed or what happens if relative wages increase and all so I'm going to re study the trade models (I bet you 100kr it's going to appear in the finals) and somehow finish reading the remaining 8 chapters before leaving for Italy tomorrow.
Thursday, October 11, 2007 01:32 a.m.
H: I'm going to find some other guy!!E: Go lor... I don't take threatens!
H: Erm, you mean threats?!? Haha. Now you know why there's no way in the world we can finish arguing properly because most of the time, he says something really funny and we both end up laughing till our stomachs hurt. Haha. Or he just tries to skirt the whole issue altogether, which is not entirely good but we're working on it.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 06:54 p.m.
I found a weighing machine in Berlin, weighed myself and realized I've put on 7kg since the last time I weighed myself at Ikea!! I think the Ikea trip was only 4 weeks back so I've put on 7kg in 4 weeks. Oh the horrors. I have another 13 weeks here and assuming I continue to put on 7kg every 4 weeks, I'll most definitely come back to Singapore looking like a really round ball. And you know how everyone says that you have to eat more during winter to keep yourself warm? That's nonsense. I eat so much, I end up putting on so much weight and I still feel cold when I go out.Tuesday, October 9, 2007 07:23 p.m.
International econs final exam in less than 2 weeks and there's 17 chapters altogether but I'm still at chapter 6!! I wouldn't be fretting so much if I had the whole of next week to study but it's the mid term break and the four of us just have to make use of that week long break and go down to Italy!! I think I definitely need a lot more discipline when it comes down to studying so I think I'll hand over my laptop to the boyfriend for the next few days and not let it distract me while I try to make sense of what Krugman is talking about.Tuesday, October 9, 2007 06:12 p.m.
Another reason why I think the boyfriend has got to be the sweetest boyfriend in the whole wide world: We were in Berlin and some guy stepped on my shoes and the laces came undone. He notices that my laces are out and I'm disappointed that my shoes aren't that cute anymore and bends down immediately in the middle of the university square and ties it up nicely :)
Monday, October 8, 2007 05:38 p.m.
We're back from Berlin!! Berlin is a really beautiful city. It had a bit of the old and the new and the city had a really long and interesting history! I can't think of another city in the world with that much history! They were once part of the kingdom of Prussia, conquered by Napoleon, ruled by the Nazis for some years and after the war, the city was divided into west and east berlin (the communist state) and finally about 17years ago, the Berlin wall fell and they were reunified and now it's the capital of Germany. There's really a lot of history and stories between those milestones. There were some major reconstructions going on in some parts of the city and I reckon that if we come back a few years later, the city would be very different! We arrived in Berlin at 6am on friday morning and made our way to our accommodation. Had McDonalds for breakfast (our first in Europe) before dumping our bags and taking a slow walk to the Brandenburg Gate at East Berlin. We walked pass a park and the leaves on the trees are starting to turn orange! It was a lovely sight! An interesting thing we found out is that the traffic lights that tell you to cross the roads are different in East and West Berlin! In west Berlin, you have the normal traffic lights that we see on most streets but in East berlin, the traffic lights are slightly different! It's really quite cute and I was pretty fascinated with it! Haha.
Anyhow, we joined this highly recommended free Berlin walking tour. They work on tips so it's supposed to make the guides feel motivated enough to give you a very interesting tour and a detailed history of Berlin and I think it's quite a success! :)
We started off at the Brandenburg Gate. It's a famous landmark in Berlin where it was once used to collect toll from the people and past conquerors used to walk through those gates. The statue on the top of the gate was once dragged to France by Napoleon because he fancied it but they managed to go all the way back to France and bring that statue back. Now it sits on top of the gate and the goddess's eyes looks down at the French embassy that's on the square. Haha. The Berlin wall stood just outside the gate but it's has obviously been torn down now. Brandenburg Gate is also the place where they used to have celebrations when they conquered different countries and all. The Hotel Adlon at the Brandenburg Gate square was apparently where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from the window. We wanted to go in and have a quick look at its interior but they didn't allow visitors in during the weekends!
After Brandenburg Gate, we walked to the Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. There's about 2500 over different sized concrete slabs on that site and there was some debate on whether the memorial should be only for the murdered jews and whether it should be on that site. It's interesting because when you stand and look at it from the sides, you think that it's just a flat piece of land and the concrete slabs aren't as tall. But as you walk further in, you realize the ground gets deeper and the concrete slabs are much taller and you feel really small.
From the memorial, we walked to the site where Hitler killed himself and his lover, Eva. It's now a carpark lot and there's nothing really interesting about that place. We passed by the SS headquarters. It was built to look formidable and at the front, there's this green picture of the people who protested against the government and was later killed or arrested by the soviets. On the building itself, there's a mural of how communism is supposed to be like (like equality between bosses and workers) but that was not how it turned out.
We continued walking till we reached the last few standing remains of the Berlin wall. It really is just a wall with lots of graffiti on it. That was how the people used to protest against the wall. The wall was put up overnight so if you're from West Berlin and on that fateful night you crossed over to East Berlin for some drinks and partying and you passed out there, you wouldn't be able to cross over when you wake up the next morning. They erected the fence overnight, restricting movement between east and west berlin because the east government realized they were suffering from a brain drain. Less than a week, the wall was erected. Between the walls, there's this death strip where if you're caught trying to escape from the east to the west, there are orders to shoot you down. I think a total of about 2500 people were shot down along the death strip but that was still a one in six chance that you can escape and cross over to Berlin. There's this story about how 2 men dressed up as cows and mooed their way across the berlin wall. Haha.
After the Berlin wall, we walked on to checkpoint Charlie. It's the last border stop before you cross from the west to the east. There's this small cafe there where apparently the american CIA used to camp there and spy on the east. I suspect it's something like the border between North and South korea, except there isn't any wall in their case and I think the border is much much bigger. As I was crisscrossing across the intersection, it suddenly struck me that I wouldn't be able to do that 17years ago without being shot down or bumping into the wall. I still can't believe a wall used to run through the city.
We took a lunch break at checkpoint charlie and then continued on to this really beautiful square in Berlin. The opera house sits on one side of the square and on the opposite sides, there are 2 identical looking churches. The first was built so that the protestants can get their english services every sunday. Then the german Lutherans felt it was unfair and started making noise so the king had another one built just across the square so that they can have their german language services. The churches look exactly similar except for one of two things!
We walked on to this museum that was once the police headquarters. There's nothing inside except for a statue of a mother crying and carrying on to her dead son. That place somehow feels very cold. We crossed the royal bridge and landed ourselves in Museum island which was declared a world cultural heritage site. As the name suggests, there's about 3 museums on museum island and it's also the place where the Berliner Dome stands! The dome is really magnificent and very very beautiful. It's another place where I can sit and stare the whole day! We sat on one of the steps and the tour guide told us the story on how the Berlin wall fell. There wasn't any war and all but quite simply, it was caused by the boo boo of the press secretary of East Berlin. Haha. It's very interesting and I was captivated! You know how we used to go on those social studies history tours around Kampong Glam and all that? Those history tours really can't match up to a history tour of Berlin!
From museum island, we could get a good view of the television tower. It was built by the east berlin government and I think they wanted to show the west what they had and they were equally as well to do and capable. A little like how North korea builds up that fake village at the border to show the South that the North is quite a fun place and everyone's well taken care off and all and they have nice houses to live in when nobody actually lives in that village. Well a few days before it was officially launched, the government decreed that churches had to take down their cross or something along those lines. Obviously there were protests, but when the television tower was revealed, the sun shone down brightly and lo and behold, a cross showed up on the tower itself!
The tour ended at Museum Island so E and myself took the opportunity to wander down Unter Den Linden (a boulevard in Berlin with lots of high end shops along it) and somehow, there were lots of car showrooms and all and E's such a big fan of cars, we ended up wandering into them as well. We stopped for some currywurst which is german sausage with ketchup and curry powder and fries on the side, walked around some more and landed ourselves at some thai-chinese restaurant for a hot plate of noodles before we went back to our place!
On our second day in Berlin, we decided to sleep in a little and have a late brunch. We walked from our place to Potsdamer Platz and along the way, wander down some streets and see what Berlin has to offer! Along the way, we came across this art museum and there was this super long queue (longer than the Hello Kitty queue) and so the boyfriend and I were naturally curious. We don't understand a word of German so we didn't know what was happening and we were just looking around when E suddenly said "Oh! I think the people are lining up for a sale!! You see the people going into the building? There are clothes hanging on the clothes rack!" I looked closer and I almost fainted because the people that were going in there were actually taking out their coats and leaving it in the cloak room while they roamed around the exhibits and E thought it was a clothes sale. Hahaha.
We finally got to Potsdamer Platz and they have really modern buildings there. I suspect it's their version of our shenton way/marina bay. The Berlin wall used to run through this area too (hence some remains of the Berlin wall still stands there) and I believe it was totally flattened during the war but now, there's tall skyscrapers which I think is supposed to represent the new berlin. They had this Sony Center (very interesting roof), Daimler tower and it's a square with tall glass buildings that have very modern looking architecture! It kind of reminds me of One Raffles Quay. We went to do some shopping inside Potsdamer Platz Arkaden which is a 2 story shopping mall with the usual shops like H&M, Esprit and all. We stopped for hot dogs before we continued on to the United Buddy bears open air exhibition just down the road!
The mascot of Berlin is the bear and so this exhibition had all bears designed by different artists from the different countries. I think the aim of this exhibition is to put forth the important message of tolerance. It was really quite a cute sight and the ones that caught our eyes was the statue of liberty bear, the bear from greece which had that crown of leaves on its head, the swiss bear and I think the cuban bear that had a cigar coming out from its mouth! The danish bear looks a little gay (daisies painted on its body and pink lips) and we couldn't find the bear from Singapore! Either we can't find a good singaporean artist that can paint a bear or we don't want to be part of this united nations bear and promote tolerance. Haha. It was also nice knowing that the company I worked for in LA is one of the sponsors of this exhibition :)
After the exhibition, we took this hour long walk back to our place and walked along the streets at our place. There's a lot of shops there because it's the main shopping district and I think it's cheaper to shop in Berlin than in Copenhagen. The same sweater that I got from H&M in Copenhagen was about 38sgd but it was only 10euros (22sgd) in Berlin! Dinner was KFC because E craved for some fried chicken and so we ordered this family bucket. I think it was the longest KFC meal we had and I was so full after that. Now he's satisfied his cravings so we won't need to have any more KFC till we get back home!
Our last day in Berlin, we got up early instead, bought Dunkin donuts to eat along the way and made our way to the Reichstag. Just outside our place is this church that we always pass by to get to the main sights in Berlin. The top was blown off during the war and it still stands today except that it has no sharp top! It's really quite a beautiful church and there's this stained glass building just next to it! We walked pass a chocolatier down at Unter Din Linden and they actually made a chocolate of this church!
Anyhow, we went to the Reichstag which really should be known as the German Bundestag because the Reich (or the Nazi Government) has long ceased to exist. So it's the Reichstag building but its correct title is the German Bundestag. This is Germany's Parliament building and nearby, there are offices for all its members! The building itself is really old looking (like our high court) but there's this modern looking glass dome above it.
This dome was once burnt down and that was how Hitler seized power. He was second in power and he overheard that this famous mad man (who used to admit to committing to crimes he didn't do) burnt it down so he rushed to the Chancellor and told him that he had to hand Hitler power so that Hitler can stop all this burning because he apparently heard rumors from the ground that the mad man will continue to burn more buildings down in Berlin and soon there might be some huge unrest. The Chancellor who was quite senile at that time, stupidly passed a decree and gave Hitler the power. After that, it was revealed that it was actually Hitler's men that burnt down the dome because there's only one man that had access to the parliament and it was one of the key members of Hitler's party so it cannot be possible that the mad man burnt the dome down.
Well, the dome has now been restored and we can actually walk up to the top of the dome and get a 360degrees bird's eye view of Berlin! From the dome, you can look down at parliament and so if there's a parliament session, you can actually watch from the top and see them passing laws and making decisions! When the MPs look up from their seats, they too can see the people and it's a way of reminding them that the reason they are elected is because of the people and it's supposed to remind them to be accountable to the german people in whatever they do.
After climbing down the Reichstag, we walked pass Brandenburg gate and walked on to Potsdamer Platz again where we went for our last lunch at a german restaurant. E had schnitzel pork with an egg on top and sauteed potatoes as sides while I had pork knuckles with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes for sides! It was a really good meal and a splendid way to finish Berlin :)
We popped by the supermarket, loaded up on Ritter Sport chocolates before we hopped on the bus back to Copenhagen! The bus ride isn't that long because of the ferry crossing. To get from northern Germany to Copenhagen, there is no bridge so everyone has to get on this ferry. The cars and our bus was on the lower deck and we were all made to leave the bus and stay on top till the ferry docks in Copenhagen. It's similar to the car ferry we have between Singapore and Desaru. This time around, the ferry crossing was 1hour 45 minutes but the previous time, it was only 40minutes. I think it's because we were at different ports. Well, we got back at around 11.30pm and after showering up, I crashed out and almost couldn't wake up for international trade class this morning.
Thursday, October 4, 2007 08:49 p.m.
I've no friday class this week so the boyfriend and I are leaving in a few minutes to go down to Berlin for the weekend!! I can't wait to see the remains of the Berlin Wall, learn about the history of the city and all the events that took place there, buy cheap Ritter Sport chocolates and eat currywurst! :)Tuesday, October 2, 2007 11:38 p.m.
The boyfriend's birthday dinner last night and so a few of us from our residence got together and cooked him a scrumptious spread! It also turned out to be some sort of a mini cooking competition among the 4 of us cooks. Haha. Stephen fried Salmon with bread-crumbs and put it in pasta sauce and he definitely beat us all in his presentation. Ben made 2 different types of vegetables. Dickson was supposed to cook sweet and sour pork but he read the name of the paste wrongly so it really is sweet and spicy pork and he added eggs to it so it tasted exactly like chili crab and I made Japanese chicken curry with potatoes and carrots! Haha. It was a really really good home cooked meal and naturally good conversations followed :)
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 08:05 p.m.
Crashed E's EU class again this morning and this time round, they had a law lecturer from the University of Oslo and she was expounding on the way laws are passed in the EU and what the decision making process is like as well as the role of the European court of justice and what the other bodies of the EU represent. It's very interesting because I often read news about the European council of ministers and how one country is vetoing this resolution or how some referendum is passed in some member state but I've no clue on what's going on or what the whole issue is about or what's its impact. It's also interesting because she explained the instances when the EU law overrides the member state's law and presented several case law. It makes me want to make a trip down to the Benelux countries and Germany and see where all the different EU bodies that we always talk about in class are housed in. We dropped by H&M after class (I managed to get some more stuff!), came home, had a quick lunch and went out with JS (french canadian guy that lives in our residence) to meet Dickson and get our train tickets to Stockholm so that we can fly out to Italy. That more or less settles our Italy trip and I think we're good to go! We paid quite a bit (almost 800sgd in total for accommodation and getting there and back) but I think Italy should really be worth it and I've heard it's a must go when you're in Europe! I can't wait to see the Pope and eat gelatos! Supermarket shopping with E after that, came home to cook dinner and now I'm supposed to be studying but I really can't get my mind to focus and start reading the international econs textbook.Monday, October 1, 2007 10:46 a.m.
To celebrate the boyfriend's 23rd birthday, we went to Gothenburg on Saturday! Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden and it's 4 hours away by train from Copenhagen. It's also where Volvo headquarters is located and we were supposed to visit their museum but E decided to give it a miss because it's located on the other side of the river.
Anyhow, when we got there on Saturday morning, we headed straight to their famous fish market, Feskekorka! The Swedes know it as the fish church because the market is housed in this building by the canal that looks like a church! Anyway, E loves fish so we had his birthday lunch at this restaurant at the fish market and boy, the fish was super fresh and the food was excellent!! We half suspect they're a half-star michelin restaurant! I haven't had such fresh seafood and fish in a long long time! The boyfriend had fish au gratin with potatoes on the side, I had shellfish pasta and we shared the fish soup that had thick chunks of salmon and herring! It was really one of the best meals we had and we walked out, very very full and satisfied but also a few hundred kroners poorer.
After the fish market, we walked into another market, Saluhallen, where they mainly sell meat, huge sausages, cheese and fresh vegetables! I wish Copenhagen had this kind of fresh markets! We can't even find good fish here in the supermarket and we don't have any other vegetables except carrots, broccoli and cauliflowers! After Saluhallen, we made our way to the city square, where we spent the rest of the day roaming around, walking into shops (E bought a new pair of loafers for about 240sgd!!), stopped by some churches along the way and visited the Goteborg Opera House along the harbour, had McDonalds for dinner (our first McDonalds meal since we arrived in Europe) and took the last train back home to Copenhagen!
Monday, October 1, 2007 09:41 a.m.
The boyfriend turns 23 today!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART! :)
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