Grey's Anatomy and Greek Essay

I never thought i will able to stay up till 7am in the morning. When i finally finished Season 1 of Grey's Anatomy, i realised that the day was bright and sunny. Gosh it is that good! I slept till 3pm and finished up the last bit of my Ancient Greece Essay. What a relief.

I managed to finish up Season 2 ( i dont see why McDreamy is so "hot". His curly hair is quite disgusting.) A lot of medical terms makes understanding the plot hard, but of coz i dont pay much attention to those terms.

Im in my midst of downloading Full House, lame i know, i even have the dvd. Tell me what to do d/l?!! Any serial dramas worth the wait? My friends recommended 真情 ( A Kindred Spirit). But thats like crazy lah. Although i really enjoyed the show...

Now im in my room: did my laundry, packed my bag (going Germany tomorrow), bought the groceries, printed my essay...

Which reminds me how annoyingly difficult it is to PRINT an essay in this ulu town. I went to the main econs building and they refused to let me print my 2 page essay because quote, "the printer is only meant to print the request form for the library card". WHAT CRAP. Apparently i have to walk to the Alpha building to register, then walk back to the main building to buy my printing card and then walk back to the Alpha building to print my 2 page essay. How freaking idiotic can people get. Why cant they just sell Cash Cards or something so printing will be FAST CONVENIENT and IDIOT PROOF. i love smu.

But! im happy to say i received a sweet letter (or cash flow statement) from dear Miss Tan Yixin. Its a bit horrifying to see that my letter is made from a Cash Flow statement, nonetheless, i m so TOUCHED! I've promptly replied to u too! By the way, for those who feel that they can be as sweet as miss tan here, pick up that pen now!

ps. Yixin: my address is Tunavägan 39 H: 442, not Tunavägän 39 H:422. Not so many dots on top of the A ok. And wrong apartment number! siao eh luckily still can get my letter...

I have a presentation tomorrow. Pray i dont get picked for my question.

Project Work + Lund Festival

22 sept. The Asian contingent meet at 130pm (Yinghao got lost. for once!). I think we had the most efficient meeting! we went through the questions within 45 mins and tadah~ we're done.

We headed for the Lunds festival (supposed to once a year only) and saw stuff like.. roasted almonds (the way they roast chestnuts), some Lagen thing: cheese, sour cream, onions, shrimps. Yeah swedish delight.

Well again nothing much, we met a taiwan girl - Carol and another HK girl - Ho Ying along the way. We also met weicheng's cph friends. Two NUS law students and one berkley guy. We ended the night by congregating in Weicheng's room playing some numbers game. Steph must be drunk with water lah.. she kept losing.. Well we ended the night with more discussions abt germany etc. I shall start my next day with the aim to complete my Ancient Greece essay. Exchange is not all about travelling after all!

Mooncakes in Lund???

21 sept.yeah thanks to Shengwei and Melvin who managed to bring back some mooncakes (two yolk!) and lanterns from Amsterdam. It was then i realised that those two must have visited the *** museum when i saw mr mooncake's nick as "Long Dong Silver". Truely disturbing news for me. Imagine how tormented i was during my internship (mr long sat on my right). Go google "Long Dong"!

It quite funny. i dont think we ever spoke to the two NUS guys for so long in our lives. Such talking cock sessions are always a delight, esp when i have nothing else better to do... They also shared their secrets to boredom -- downloading 双天至尊，最后一个大侠 etc. Quite ridiculous how bored we can get huh? They also shared their travel experience. Miraculously they slept in the same hostel as us in Amsterdam, and it wasnt even cold for them!

Excuses not to blog

1. Too lazy
2. Server was down
3. Busy downloading movies
4. Busy doing research for Ancient Greece (ha! feels like its SMU again)
5. NOTHING TO BLOG ABOUT!!!

Lemme tell you abt my Wednesday lessons. Ancient greece was pretty interesting.. im starting not to enjoy the fact that the lecturer recaps the previous lessons for 1 hr each lesson. Its getting abit.. dry... Intro to Scand culure is a disaster. If you think going through each section of an ancient map is bad, try listening to the lecturer talk about some Finnish story book which you have complete no idea whats happening (coz he didnt give any readings on it). Well he was basically talking to the book too. Not a very engaging person i feel.

I started to wonder if i should drop this course. I've already printed the readings 87.5 SEK worth of sunk cost. And its SO BORING. However, we discussed about the Swedish politics today. Kinda interesting about how the Social Democrats lost their war after 70 steady years. OK i shall tahan!

Suddenly so many pple coming to Lund huh. Elaine, Yixin, Gerald, Ming. Its gonna be damn fun lah huh. But good good! i got so many people to sell my stuff too! yeah! Aiyoh still must help Gerald and Ming source for bikes . They so kan jiong spider ah. Yes and i can sell my Ancient Greece and Intro to Scand books to Ming!! HOHOHO.

Where i have my Introduction to Scandinavia lessons... 

Studious Wednesday

You cannot imagine how excited i am to go for lessons!

I decided to take up Ancient Greece with Wayne and some other Japanese students - Tomoki and Tiger. It's pretty interesting to know about the Stone Age, Bronze Age etc, and i bought the text on the spot, even though im not officially enrolled in the course. Oh heck, im so bored already, i could just learn more about Ancient Greece anyways.

The Asian contingent went for lunch at Burger King, when i realised how much Tomoki looked like my brother. Single eyelid, sharp nose (ok sharper den mine..), thin lips, fair skined.. Everything except for the hair looks quite similiar le.. Tomoki has typical shaggy blonde jap hairstyle (reminds me that my brother used to wear that hair when he din bother to cut his hair in US) and is abt the same height as my brother. But Tomoki is broader and more meaty.. my brother is.. not meaty... --> im not saying yr skinny ok... I happened to have his not-so-nice pic in my hp, and Matthew (from HK) said that my brother is handsome! EEKS!!!

We went for our Introduction to Scandinavian culture & society class, and Wayne and Steph decided to pop in for a while. I could see how bored they were.. but i was still furiously copying down notes. Mugger sheng is displaying her power after 5 months of slacking!!

It has been an amazing afternoon and i've finally felt that my brain works...
Oh yes, i shall get a pic of Tomoki and try to do a spot-the-difference comparision with my brother's pic.

Baked Salmon with meatballs and potato cubes.. 

Crayfish Party

Alas something else to look forward to. We're joining Ann's mentor group for their crayfish party.. thinking of that just makes me salivate.. The party was at Ulrikedal (dunno how u spell it) but yah its ard Ann's place. Michele happens to be in Ann's mentor group too!

The crayfish is a little different from what we expected.. it looked.. more like baby lobsters.. but yeah its was quite an interesting way to eat it.. and its salty and tastes.. really like sea water.. but yah thats the Swede way!

Sunday, a day to slack

Steph, Yinghao, Cheewee and i met at Yinghao's place to embark on our bike excursion around Lund.

We ended up watching Yinghao cut Cheewee's hair, discussing abit on Farm stays and cooking lunch. I think i have a thing for cleanliness. Yinghao's pantry is Horrible mans. We decided we're too lazy to cycle aroud and left for Sparta to meet the rest of the Singaporeans.

Its was pretty fruitful meeting! We booked hostels for Germany (28th Sept - 1st Oct) and settled on Italy - London (14th - 23rd Oct) . Now the countries i really wanna see is Austria, Poland and maybe Czech Rep. Dunno if got time not le.. sigh.. start of another boring week...

A Bean's Birthday

Saturday September 9th. Another Singaporean gathering - also a good time to celebrate Wayne's 24th birthday!

We met at Willys to get some ingredients for our feast. Yinghao also brought 6 cans of beer! im already so intoxicated.. need a break mans! After our grocery shopping, we headed to Delphi (Juliana's dorm). I could sense this air of anticipation as all of us are expecting to see the reknowned shuai ge - Johan.

As usual, the higher your expectation, the more disappointed you might be. Johan was no longer the same stunning guy, but a normal looking guy wearing specs. Ann even commented that he looks like Harry Potter. But i still think he is not bad lah huh. While we're messing up the pantry, Johan was always there to help us find pots, hammers and dark soya sauce. He was so initiative and extended the dinning table for us (there were 12 of us). He is like Mr Ambassador lor. I think his gf must be damn lucky lah. Juliana was saying that he bakes for her (using a heart shaped mould) and whenever they have corridor meetings, he is the one making tea and coffee for everybody. Got so power not!?!

Dinner was fantastic - green chicken curry, black eggs (Cheewee's master piece), steamed eggs, grilled pork and potato soup. Ok maybe it doesnt look fantastic here but it was really good! The cake was a bit too much lah but yah im sure Wayne enjoyed every bit of it...

Corridor Party

At 7pm all of us (my corridor mates) gathered in the pantry to whip up some tacos for dinner. Its actually quite good! Reminds me of po piah... make yr own and roll yr own.. After dinner we washed up and it was time for Tour the Chambre! Pray that the drinks are not too strong mans..

First Room: Magnus' room. His room is damn cozy and nice lah.. got sofa and everything.. and his drink was Vodka Sprite with Raspberry. Too sweet for me but at least it was drinkable...
Second room: Usman's room. Drink was Sangria. It was quite light also and Ed basically diluted the red wine with sprite, oranges and spices. A different kinda drink i guess.
Third room: Zahair's room. Tequila shot. Xiong mans.. especially when u mix all the drinks ah.. my stomach was like feel weird already..
Fourth room: Andreas' room. I dunno what the drink was but supposedly 40% shot. It was horrible man, tasted damn yucky.. and he had a bar in his room.. stacked with cartons of beer...
Fifth room: Doretea's room. Vodka lime? I dunno mans i was just sipping away. I was too preoccupied looking for my mug (i need to eat cornflakes tmr..)

In fact, while i was looking for my mug, i met this guy in Magnus' room called Ola. Its funny the way he told me he lived here and obviously i have never met him. Make me so confused.. Some of us were in the pantry and he started saying he knew a Singaporean and asked if i would know his friend. Michele was so amused she was like " Do u know how many people there are in Singapore?" I said "4 million". Then Ola said, " oh his name is Jon. Studying Biz Administration". And i was damn stunned " i think maybe i know him... " Ola happily looked at Michele, " See! She knows him!"

He later brought me to Magnus' room and showed me the mails they sent to each other. Wahla~ its Jon Pan after all. I even saw Ridwan's mail below. Tsk tsk tsk.. still use company mail lor.. Ola was saying he'll be in Singapore working in December so it'll be good if all of us could meet up or something. Quite coincidental huh, i think he's even working in DBS. Well Elaine! It'll be good for all us to meet up! Maybe Ola could tell u more about Lund too! Somemore yr brother's good friend lor.. But i dunno if he'll be back in Lund during Spring.. if he will be then u got someone to take care of u guys! So lucky..

After all the Chambres, we headed for Helsingkrona Nation. The first nation we went was too full and i din know which nation that was anyway. We went to Helsingkrona and along the way, we saw this pond with a small "island" in the middle. I think its near LTH? Not very sure its so dark and im a bit sei already. Ed and Andreas was telling me about the 'lake-lake' and 'island-island'. Supposedly its a tradition for the technology students (in their own sections) to compete to own the 'island-island'. They will have to sing the present inhabitors of the island off and then swim over to occupy the island. Andreas was telling me that the sewage from the tech school actually flows to the pond.. that is quite gross mans.. Only crazy students would do that! Well apparently the Lunds University students have conquered the 'island-island' for the first time! This island-lake thing was always a tech sch thing so i dunno why and how students from the main uni came along and decided to occupy the island. But yah, this is Swedish student life!

When we reached the nation, we still had to queue to get in.. queue to hang our jackets.. queue to get drinks.. wah i really wanted to sleep already.. Luckily Ed brought me some water... My corridor mates are actually very nice people, they like really take care of one another. On the way to hang our jackets, Doretea was like holding my hand to make sure i dont get lost. While we were on the dance floor, Usman exchange places with me cause there was this rowdy grp of Swedes behind me. It was in fact very fun (and safe) to hang out with them.

We returned around 3am and it was not the end mans. We were back in our pantry.. Usman made popcorn and we were eating again. They were all talking about Ed's cap (he left it with me and he happily went to bed) and what to do with it. Zahair even wanted to leave it in the corridor next door! It was then i found out that 3 yrs back Zahair climbed in through dorm window and broke my shelf. Suddenly i dont feel so secure knowing that people could break into my dorm so easily huh...

Dinner with my mentor group

At last i get to meet my mentor group. We met at Lunds Nation and had a 'reasonably' priced dinner there. Din really like the pasta though. Its yellow with a lot of peas. There i met Rita and Matthew (HK students) and this extremely chatty Swede called Marcus (pronounced as Marcuuus). Its funny though he kept talking about our Singaporean accent and how he thinks its funny. He knew 2 SMU students who came to Lund 2 yrs ago and visited Singapore in January. Our conversation mainly revolved around language and cultural differences, sometimes i didnt know what to say anymore!

Also, this other mentor kept asking us about China. He must have thought that Singapore is a province of China.

I didnt bother to correct him as i thought about the days when i was in Ohio. Oh mans those people didnt even know what the heck was Singapore. The rare ones who knew only remembered Michael Faye (that was about 12 years ago). I still remember my elderly friend asking me if Singapore had a government and what fruits we grew. Imagine my amazement.

Well at least the Swedes here know about Singapore. Usman commented that he read that Singapore is 'ultra-modern' and so did Marcus. Erm but i really didnt know how to react. I'm quite used to being treated like a villager already.

I find myself constantly comparing life in US and life here. Before i came here, i thought it'll be the same, but well i was wrong.

In US, I didnt even have time to make a proper meal. Everyday was just instant ramen (and very cheap! Wal-mart sells everything!) But of course, life in US was sucky. Its terrible to work from 6am - 12am, not to mention that all insects come out to play during summer. However, it was the dorm life that was fun. 16 of us shared an apartment and it was cozy to get back home and see so many friends. Weekends were precious and we never fail to do something fruitful (shopping in US is fantastic!). The shopping malls were huge and if we were really bored, we could always go to the amusement park and take the rides.

Here. I have so much time on my hands. I only have 2 lessons a week and im spending the rest of my time downloading movies ( as i type, my toyko drift is abt done), writting my blog, looking up recipes etc. Food here is expensive and limited... My dorm is single bedder but i have 11 other corridor mates (mostly Swedes). Weekends are useless. All the shops are closed. And in the only big shopping mall, i failed to buy anything. But life is relaxing and i get to sleep really late everyday. Good thing is, this is the way i want it to be. Enjoy the fresh air.. cycle to Town.. and just not fret abt anything. Well not yet, but my trip to Germany has been giving me headaches. Hopefully my brother got me my Eurail passes (sms me if u got them! THANKS!)

Well maybe im more of a city girl. I dunno, i'll find out in months to come.

My first dish... Fried Rice with carrots, long beans and minced beef.  

Its Monday.. Tues.. and finally Weds

You know i've never looked forward to lessons. Until now.

ITS DAMN SIAN!!!!!

Everyone is having lessons now.. the Archi students started last week, many of the rest started on Monday, and me? Only WEDS! urgh its not a torture not having class, but its a torture not having friends to go out with (coz everyone is having lessons?).

Well Monday wasnt that bad, it rained the whole day. I got drenched while trying to find out where my Intro. to Scandinavia Culture lessons are and when i got home, i started planning for the Germany Trip. (Yes! im going for Oktoberfest!) At 8pm we had a corridor meeting and i finally saw all my Swedish corridor mates. There's this guy called Andreas who never utters a single word to me whenever im in the pantry. But amazingly he is quite a chatty kid. Got so shy not.. And i found out that he is the same guy who played Turkish/Middle Eastern music for the past week (so loud that even Weicheng could hear it). In fact all my corridor mates are very nice! Lemme see if i remember their names: Zahair (later know as the Hearts King), Usman (the corridor guard), Ed (super friendly guy who taught me how to cook rice. ok i learnt it myself actually), Andreas (my trusty neighbour), Michele (Swiz exchange student), Lina (very nice Swede. ok din speack much to her), Jimmy (giant who brews beer in his dorm...), Magnus ( he looks like he's going surfing everyday) , Kent ( Phd kid! smart ass) and some others i dont remember. Total there are 12 of us. Well after the meeting they began to play Hearts, so being kpo bored me.. decided to poke my nose and learn how to play. Its quite fun actually and much easier than Bridge. I even managed to keep the lead by Usman ( i took over his place).. until Zahair gave me the LADY and i went over 100 points. Thats why he is known as the Hearts king! We also split into pairs for the Friday's Corridor Party. There's a game called Tour the Chambre where each pair will prepare a mystery drink for the 10 people going for the party. Which means everyone will have to drink 5 drinks! And my trusty neighbour has decided to pair up with me. Die.. i hope they will be nice to a skinny asian girl like me.

tuesday. spent my time watching TVU, d/ling movies.. went over to Chee Wee's place to discuss plans for Germany... ok thats abt it mans. i even had time to watch Click, Snakes on a plane and Cruel intentions. Hoho my comp's hard disk is exploding.

and finally wednesday. Lessons was slack. It was only an hour. Met this really nice German girl called Christine! She lives in Sparta too so we both agreed to cook together one day. Yummy German pork trotters... After that i went shopping with Ann and Steph. Lund is really wet and boring. Rain rain rain. Sian bo? Well i finallly got my Scrap book. So now i can do some productive work over the next few days. I have no more lessons for the week anyway! Should have like gone to Austria or something.

Singapore Dinner

10 of us gathered at Chee Wee's place for a uniquely singapore dinner. We had curry chicken, bak ku teh, pepper beef, eggs with onions & pork, oyster veggie, potato salad, fruit salad and even ice cream. Its really damn good! Boy do i miss Singapore...

Novalund

Saturday must be happening rite? So we go shopping lor... we cycled to Spolatorp (Chee Wee's place near the train station) and continued the journey by foot. Next time when i have to go Novalund, i'll cycle all the way!!!

There is really nothing much at the shopping mall.. its quite small and has everything we have in Lund Town. Quite dumb le. Oh well i din buy anything at all (amazing huh!) They were selling loads of boots too but yeah its a need not a want. i shall kurb my instinct to shop!

We left the mall and went into Netto (supposedly the cheapest supermart), din buy much cause its hard to carry home w/o a proper plastic bag while cycling. We also visited Yinghao's place cause he lives just around the corner. Haha he has to climb up abt 4 flights of spiral stairs? How you carry your luggage up mans? Carry also go giddy. His room was quite cool though cause sofa and armchair! Quite cosy le. My room looks pathetic.

And of coz the rest taught me how to use Bitcomet (internet connection here is SUPER!) i have just finished d/ling some songs, now waiting for my Superman Returns to be ready. I also got TVU player, where i can watch Cartoon Network, HBO on my comp. Yay more entertainment!

Well i just finished watch Bourne Supremacy on HBO, shall go and cook my lunch now.

Relaxing Friday...

Its really tiring to travel mans.. i slept till like 11 plus and did some laundry.. really din do much! just the way i wanted it! We met the rest of the Singaporeans around 6 at the AF and watched to discuss our travel plans. We ended up going for the Vice-Chancellor Welcome Party (there really isnt any party nor food, just chocolate and Apple Cider). He ended his 'speech' in like 15 mins, and a group of pretty boys dressed in tuxedoes came in and sang a few songs. But hey, they are really good!

Is this how Swedes welcome foreign students?

Looking at the state of the "welcome food", we opted the better of the two evil - Falafel. Did i mention how we used to eat Falafel ever so often during the first week we were here? It was the cheapest fast food!

Somehow i became the coordinator for Northern Lights! Lets just hope everyone can make this trip together! I really wonder how cold it will get up there, -20? -30? Amsterdam was already unbearable... I also found out that Chee Wee and Yinghao are also interested in going Germany.. but dunno if our time table can fit not le.. sians.. my sept timetable is SO SLACK! i better be doing some travelling...

I AMSTERDAM

I just came back a 3 day 2 night tour in Amsterdam! Think i really enjoyed myself there!

Well we took a budget flight from Copenhagen to Amsterdam (only 1hr!) and checked into our campsite hostel. At first it looked alrighty... budden we came to regret that choice later..

We went straight to the Van Gogh Musuem (Wayne hated it). Its a pity i dint get to see the Starry Night (its at New York MoMA). After that we went on to the Heineken Experience! Its really cool! Really worth the 10 euros we spent on it. 3 free drinks and 1 free gift (bottle opener).

After that we decided to have soem Chinese food! Amsterdam has so many chinese restaurants (all spelt as Chinees, i dunno why) and all pretty affordable.

We returned to our hostel and to our horror, the place has no heater!! My gosh it was so freezing cold lah... i think it could be less than 10 degrees.. all of us were so cold we couldnt even sleep lor. u'll see 6 chinese hiding in the kitchen holding mugs of hot water. Luckily Wayne brought his kettle lor! If not we sure cannot make it! Amazingly i managed to fall asleep, so did steph and yinghao! Its really a torture mans. i was wearing 3 layers (including my winter coat), socks and shoes and i used my extra sweater to wrap around my head (well most heat escape from the top of yr head wad). I look like some matchstick girl who is suffering from fits or something. Too bad we didnt take any photos of how hilarious we look.

The next morning Steph and Wayne left early for their countryside day-tour while the rest of us decided to upgrade/change our hostel. Luckily we realised that there were cottages with heaters. Think only Yinghao and i were the energetic enough to do some city tour on our own.

We first went to a erhmm unique*** museum. i must say its very disturbing for me. Well if thats wad Amsterdam is famous for... We went on to see the Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace but closed for renovation) and the Nieuwe Kerk (15th century church) and the WWII memorial. We walked along the streets and saw the really old buildings, the 'coffeeshops' and many many gay pubs. We also had time to visit the Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historial Museum). That place used to a Jewish quarters and they even preserved the old synagues, giving a very good impression of how the Jews lived in the 17-18th century.

Koniklijk Paleis

Nieuwe Kerk

WWII Memorial

Joods Historisch Museum

At night we walked around the Red-Light District ( well Amsterdam is famous for that rite?) Obviously we didnt take any photos! Sure kena whacked lor.

The next day we visited Anne Frank's House! It super interesting cause they left it the way it was in 1945. All the secret passages and stuff were all there. If u r going Amsterdam, you should really see this.

On the plane back to Copenhagen