Lyngby Library

This afternoon we went to the Lyngby library, where I found myself borrowing 5 (travel) books and about 20 CDs. I must have enjoyed myself the most browsing through all those original CDs, and having no limits to borrowing! In fact, for that library, you are able to borrow as much as you can possibly carry for a loan period of one month. Similarly, for the DTV in DTU, you can borrow as many as you can carry for as long as 6 months, but if someone makes an online request for that book you have to return it in a month.

After the library visit, SY and I headed to do our grocery shopping in various supermarkets (cos different places offer different prices for the same product, so you got to know where to buy what in order to save that couple of dollars). Haven't I emphasized before how tiring grocery shopping without a the luxury of a car is a chore? Plus we thrifty students don't wanna spend money on the bus so we hike up with at least 15kgs of food/drinks in our backpack.

http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album13

Viggostuckenbergsvej

Ahhhhh....*rubs tummy*

Cabonara was goooooooood.

Aga invited our IntroWeek group to her house at 29 Viggostuckenbergsvej (I just had to put this down cos it sounded very much like some guy stuck in a burger) for dinner last night. Before I reached her place I was under the assumption it was going to be a Polish dinner and all, but the pasta preparation in the kitchen hinted otherwise. In fact, it was going to be an Italian sort of dinner (as you might have guessed from the cabonara that was mentioned before), with Alvise wearing his chef's apron, and taking care of his pasta and bacon concurrently.

Well, I now have some idea of how cabonara is made just by watching (hurray!), along with one new thing I've learnt about cooking pasta, a secret ingredient which adds flavour to the final dish (although one can't really taste it). Sorry peeps, can't give it away until I've cooked you all one pasta dish, so try and remind me.

Dinner started proper only after 8, when both the pasta and sangria were ready. Interestingly, we had no beer for the night, instead, wine, and sangria were abundant. What I really like about such dinners are really the fact that everyone has something to share about his language, culture, country, etc, and everyone started exchanging words of how to say this and that in their native language. I can't remember who was saying this, but it almosts sounds true enough that "Danish is like speaking German with a potato in your mouth" where Joel said "Danish is like speaking English backwards". But the best part was Mikolaj (from Poland) teaching us how easy it is to speak in Danish - sticking one finger in your mouth and pulling one side of your cheek, half-closing your mouth while you pronounce your words! We tried it for the word "Lyngby" where DTU is, and it actually works! Hilarious!

I don't know what got into us, but half the table of 15 was obsessed with the word "screwdriver", "ladle", and so on, in various languages like Polish, Italian, Danish, German, and I just couldn't remember what it was in Chinese... *slaps himself*. Here's only as much as the sangria and wine allowed me to remember:

Electric Screwdriver
Polish: Veerrrr-takka (with an emphasis on rolling your letter "r")
Danish: Bor-mo-skee

Ladle
Italian: Mess-te-row
Danish: Soo-per-skue (you have to say it reeeeeel fast)

It was difficult to pronounce some of their words and I couldn't even remember half of them, much less this Polish tongue twister they tried teaching the rest. I specially got a video of that so I would have somewhat of an impression when I return. IMPRESSIVE if I might say. I love table conversations, especially when Aga and Chiara's Apple and Chocolate cakes were the centre of attraction after the main course was over. Joel, Alvise and some of us were eyeing the "last" slice of apple pie and debating how to split them, steal them without others knowing etc, when Aga emerged from the kitchen with more of it! I had at least 3 slices of each, before we started taunting each other to eat some more, contrary to what we initially started doing.

Towards the end, when it was past midnight, most of my Intro group people had to leave to catch their last bus home, while my Chinese writings on their poster attracted a lot of attention. Basically, everyone who visited their house was to write some well-wishes and messages to indicate their "I've-been-here, and thank-you"-messages in whatever language before they left, and I, the not-so-good-in-Chinese-Abel decided to give a shot writing some lines on the wall. The moment the first few characters emerged, the Italians and Polish (cos those were the ones remaining) began focusing their conversations around it. I must admit, it was nerve-wrecking for me speaking in Chinese, much worse in words. But I pulled it off, and they were convinced that Chinese was a whole lot more difficult than Danish considering our hanyu pinyin of 4 sounds per character.

I taught them why China was called Zhong Guo because they once believed they were in the centre of the world, and Italy was called "Yee-Da-Lee" because their horse-shoe-shaped country was "one big piece" (which I seemingly was so convincing in). They started asking me how one would text or type in Chinese using a phone or computer respectively, as they were under the impression that the keyboard would probably have a million strokes to combine before a character appeared on screen. Thankfully my trusty handphone came with the Chinese language settings so I could demonstrate how Chinese characters are chosen based on the English letters (hanyu pinyin) before one word appears.

It got more interesting when everyone tried drawing something out on a paper plate (cos there was no paper in sight) and asked if that mean anything in Chinese. Surprisingly, 75% of the time I could think of some character that looks remotely similar to their scribblings, and they too were impressed at how Chinese really is an art.

After the whole Chinese thing, and after ensuring they know English is our first language and Chinese, our second, we moved on to Singapore and its culture. Pavel (from Poland) remembered that Singapore has some death penalty in place for trafficking drugs and I re-confirmed his doubts. Monica (from Italy) and the others were stunned and simply couldn't fathom why that was equal in punishment to killing someone. And the chewing gum issue was only secondary. Heh. Oh yes, when I told them you could travel from east to west in 45minutes and north to south in 30minutes, with an area of 648 square kilometes in Singapore, they too were amazed. When I mentioned how Coke in Denmark is about 4 times that of beer while in Singapore it was the opposite, Pavel mentioned that the beer in Poland is 4 times less that in Denmark!

Reached back around 3am after a 15minute cycle from Aga's house, and got online with Iris in Phili, and talked till 5 when I concussed and awoke around noon today (It's 2 now). Too bad for us, she would be in London visiting her sis a week after we will be there. And it would be difficult to take leave to come Copenhagen anytime soon too. Let's hope Roland Garros (French Open) will bring us to Paris.

Fili invited me for his Italian dinner in our container tonight. Guess I'll miss the Singporean one and someone's first chocolate cake. I wonder when I'll get tired of pasta. Hmmm. Anyway here are the pics: http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album12 and you'll be glad to know www.myphotoalbum.com is now offering free video uploads! I've uploaded the Polish tongue twister by Aga and Pavel so you can see/hear what a real challenge is like. Bon Appetit!

What is SEP to you?

Okay, let's make this an interactive blog.

While I'm out busying myself in school attending (dreadful) 8am classes and those after-noon ones, here's something to keep us all occupied until the weekend comes and I figure what we wanna do again.

What is SEP to you? (And I mean other suggestions to the acronym S, E, and P)

I'll start first. And then you can leave a tag on my tagboard. Those I like I will post them up in the next blog, otherwise consider your efforts wasted. Heh. In case there are people who don't know what it's original meaning is, it actually stands for Student Exchange Programme - the very reason why I'm in Denmark now.

So then, SEP is:

Sleep-Eat-Play
So-Easy-to-Pass
Seeing-Edible-People
Studying-Excludes-Partying
Super-Eng-Programme (which I beg to differ)
See-Exciting-Places (thanks Val I like this one best so far!)
Somebody-Else's-Problem
Stupid-Education-Planning (stolen from Josh's blog)
Speak-English-Please
...

Are medics paid a lot?

I was too tired to blog last night after Fili dragged me out of my room to accompany him for (strawberry) tea in our kitchen with Chang and Colin from midnight to about 2pm, after which I had to come back and "finish" up my entry. I was a tad irked by his incessant coercion while I was in the middle of editing and uploading my pictures onto myphotoalbum.com and campusnet.dtu.dk, but obliged nontheless. We sorted things out and even talked about hall culture in Singapore and the dynamics of human interactions, although much of it was based on understanding it more in thoughts than in the exchange of words.

Anyhow, the point of this entry is really in its title.

Last night when we took the 300S bus back from Lyngby station to DTU (because the fog wizard decided to cast it's weariness on all of us), an old lady tripped and fell while boarding the bus, cutting herself in her left shin which and bled tremendously. Darren passed me some tissue and a plaster to which I went up and offered her, but this other girl attending to her told me it was too small and thanked me anyway. The calm bus driver had already radioed the ambulance and police, and in just 4 minutes, I repeat, 4 minutes, the flashing lights of the ambulance was seen zipping in front of our stationary bus, and 2 medics hopped out and into the bus to bandage the wound and help her out of the bus. The police also arrived to record the incident and clarify certain details with the bus driver before leaving the bus to carry on it's intended journey. Everything happened so quickly it almost seemed as if the Danes were only quick to respond in emergencies as opposed to normal work.

Could the high taxation rate (of about 50% on salaries) towards the government truly create the welfare state as it is today? Are health care workers paid a lot or is the culture just this way? Whatever the case, that incident has impressed upon me that emergency responses are much more efficient than ours. After all, you don't see Singaporean cars giving way to ambulances and fire engines on the roads as immediately as the the Danes do. Even with flashing red and blue lights and wailing sirens, Singaporean drivers do not swerve their cars aside to let emergency vehicles pass momentarily.

Now that's something we need to inculcate in our culture.

Also, Denmark is similar to Japan in that people do make it a point to stand on one side (Danes on right, Japanese on left) when travelling on escalators. Those who want to walk by can do so with ease because other people are by the side, while those who are in no rush can stick on one side and let others by. Such strong culture of courtesy (if I may say) is evident in several places but Singapore. After my last trip to Japan and my practise to keep to the left on escalators, I'm even more convinced Singaporeans have much to learn about giving way. Even with signs put up to advise passengers and commuters at train stations, people can't be bothered. The next time you take a train, what will you do?

Okay, work beckons. Till next week or when something un-boring happens again, ciao! (the Italian way)

All work and no play makes me a dull boy

Well well.

It looks as if I'm having more fun at school than in school. In this respect, let me exclude Campus Village from the definition of "school" (despite it being situated within the university) for the sake of explaining fun. Technically, this technical school doesn't warrant enough activities (or girls) to make it fun. Practically speaking however, the international students seem to comprehend the whole idea of working hard and playing harder (okay the local Danes do too, but since they're not living on Campus Village where all the makeshift-looking-but-actually-permanent-containers-with-one-particular-room-G9-having-a-wonky-heater-that-PMS-es-once-every-month, ie, actually-works, we stick to the assumption that we international students create the life of all we know as "fun".

Okay, enough crapping.

I woke up on Friday with heavy snow brushing against my face as I walked to class 250m away for a 8am class (again). I must have slept through a good hour of the class till the first break at 9 when my self-declared "caffeine-insinuation-programme" regenerated part of my slumber against my all-time arch-nemesis, the Z-monster.


After class, I helped my tutor Ilmar (the Danish culture here is to call your lecturer-cum-tutor by their first names) push a cartful of equipment back to his office, after which he showed me his method of calculation to the simple question I posed him last week. He realised his question was ambiguous and promised he would input the data into MATLAB and let it recompute the results to determine if it was necessary to plot new graphs yada yada yada...He promised me by the next lesson he would have a answer to my query after he looks at the problem/exercise again.

Had I created unecessary trouble both for him and myself, and impressed upon him that I was one of those "nerds" that needed to know a simple answer to every question no matter what it took? After all, all I did last week was present him my solutions to the simultaneous equations that had 2 sets of solutions instead of his one. It's gonna be hard for him not to notice the only Asian kid in a 53-guys-2-girls-strong Dynamics of Machinery class which never ends before the full 4-hour slot. I need some anti-Z-monster potion and a USP-brain to interpret the alien subject that boasts MATLAB despite the my lack of experience/background in the subject matter.

Why school? Haven't you heard enough? I'm here to study of course...
But after the work, there's always something happening for the weekend.

Fili's buddy group was coming to our container for dinner, and he extended an invitation to Chang and I to join in. Dinner was set to be Italian pizza and pasta, and Alfonso's spanish paelja (I think it's pronounced pah-hee-lia). Because it's 4am and my brain's slowing down it's operating system, I shall let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album09

After dinner we headed off to Mikolaj and Matteo's house party #2 at Lundtoftevej (aka the red house). And since blogger takes eons to upload pictures, knock yourself out below.

http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album10

And finally, after a night of fun and revelry (if I may say so), I woke up this morning to join Darren, Grace and Yuan Shuo, with our plan to check out Christiania in Christianhavn. But before we did, we met up with Song Ning and Emmy at Copenhagen Central Station, where we checked out some Chinese/Thai grocery shop, and later proceeded to Skindergade for a buffet lunch costing about SGD$10 we found out in a tourist brochure for Copenhagen. Chang met up with us at the Samos Restuarant when we were halfway through lunch because he's willpower against the sleep wizard was incomparable.

Point to note: Photography is not allowed in Christiania, so the pictures you see uploaded were taken at the risk of being killed by *cough*drug-peddlers*cough* roaming about the "town", or more appropriately, slum. Okay maybe the killing was a bit of an exagerration. At most we'll be attacked and brutally intoxicated only. I'll elaborate more next time if I get the chance, but for now, 4 hours of uploading pictures and 2 hours of typing is exhausting me entirely.

http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album11

Good night.

What is FOG?

This is what "fog" on the weather forecast means.


From L to R: snow from last night covered my mailbox, leaving campus village for class, reaching the auditorium, inside the CAD lecture, and down at Lyngby where we bought groceries.


Thanks to Fili (and Colin) who made Pizza and Pasta dinner forLin Chang and I, it was my first "Italian" dinner in Denmark. I'm going to try and make pizza when I get back Singapore. Note the key word is "try".





Die, too much MSN and webcamming today.
Must do some work before the weekend. I wonder what's in store. =)

8am class again tmr!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

What would V-day be without friends?

Now this is going to be hard.

On one hand, my parents are reading this (together with my uncle, aunt, cousins, etc); and on the other hand, my newly acquainted Korean friends have found out about this blog (all thanks to Lin Chang also known as Dave which I’ll go more into detail later) and, as a result, probably expect me to recount “a bit” on the successful and impromptu party we Singaporeans (more like Siong Yang and me) decided to hold in one of the containers after visiting the Cellar Bar.

Maybe because I was one of the few who was disciplined enough to stay sober, everyone will begin to look at me and my blog to remember what happened the night before. After all, the “bartender” adopts a no-drink policy.

So….

What started as an idea to save money and drink in our containers at Campus Village instead of the Cellar Bar soon turned into a Singaporean-initiated party which, well, exhausted my supply of alcohol and their soberness.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the Flaming Lamborghini is now the official Singapore drink which the rest of Korea, China, Turkey, Italy, and USA/Bangladesh have come to identify with. I didn’t make a note, but I suppose I must have mixed and presented my avid fans with at least 20 rounds of whatever I had left to light up the Flaming Lamborghini. Together with the wedges and Danish biscuits I contributed, Siong Yang and I attempted to make the best out of however little supply we had in playing host to a 6-Singaporean-4-Korean-2-Chinese party (which later saw Fili from Italy joining us).

I remember SY telling me on our walk back to prepare for the party,

“ey, how ah? We only got 12 cans [of beer], you sure you got enough or not?”

Me: “Of course not lah, I only left a bit after the other night, who ask you so ye3 invite them when you don’t have enough supplies for yourself…I wanted to sleep one leh…”

SY: “Aiyah tonight is Lin Chang’s night, we must make it happen…how how…*turns to Andrew* Hey Andrew you think we can borrow beer from the other containers or not?”

And the rest of the conversation goes on about how we would first hold a beer can filled with plain water and await the arrival of the Koreans, thereafter coercing them to open their first can in my container, the supposed “party container”, a title carried over from previous semesters.

Fast forward 2 hours later, everyone except Andrew, SY, Yuanheng and I had had their 2 rounds of Flaming Lamborghini, with some of SY’s contribution of beer still in sight. Ji Su, the first to turn red, had already been pressured to leak out his crush, who is studying in Copenhagen. Despite attempts to pair him up with Mi-Ey (sorry I don’t know how to spell your name yet, so I’m gonna go with my gut instinct and say it as it is pronounced), they stood firmly rooted to their individual fairy-tale crushes. Although Su does seem to stand a chance with “his girl” in Copenhagen after he admitted he calls her every night. Oooops.

Oh yes, for the record, we all knew Lin Chang a.k.a. Dave somehow convinced Mi-Ey to visit his room in M, but did so on the account of showing her my blog on his laptop in his room, I say again, MY blog! Yuanheng, SY, Andrew, and I were amazed and astonished at that remarkable feat (Song Ning was near gone so he was pretty quiet all night before he left halfway). After all, who ever attempted to "pick-up" someone special with showing her a technologically savvy guy's blog??? Okay, enough ego boosting, I don't want to lose my fans either. Since you were slightly high this time, I forgive you for openly leaking out my blog to her/them, next time - ask.

So anyway, Baek, You-hoon and Hong were the calm ones that didn’t seem to get knocked out (nor go red in the face), until the alcohol finally got to her and Hong started muttering stuff and walking about aimlessly. By 3am, SY looked at me and asked what we were doing when we promised each other to end at 2 to go to bed. SY was truly incredible. I mean, he is incredible, considering how good an actor he is when pretending to be high on alcohol when he gets high on adrenalin. His hearty chortle speaks (or squeaks) for itself too. Heh.

Chang, Yuanheng and SY were high on Beyond songs, which I could never fathom, especially when it was the same song/chorus/stanza that kept them at the top of their voices and foot-stomping action all night. The videos speak for themselves but I have no idea how to post them up, plus they are huge enough to put your com to hibernate mode if I tried sending them.

Just when things seemed to be coming to a close around 3.30am, Tolga (from F), Tsal (from M) and other a few others I never met streamed into my kitchen in G. I asked Tsal how he came to find out about this party (considering how it first started as an Asian Singapore-Korea gathering) and he said he only needed to hear the noise, smell the cigarettes and taste the alcohol (all of which is an exaggeration except the first) before he found himself in Club G, the container for the 14th of Feb. Parties in Denmark never seem to need a reason or time, just the people. We pulled through last night’s party without playing any music (although SY, Chang and Yuanheng’s voices could be considered to sound similar), nor any crazy games with forfeits. Well, not exactly. But still, such is the life of the containers in Campus Village, and I guess this is as close as I can ever get to experiencing “hall-life” in university, both of which happen out of NUS.

And speaking of which, the email sent by NUSSU yesterday informing us of a fee hike in tuition fees only served to generate more resentment for all paying their own tuition fees. That of course excludes scholars like Y******, G****, S*******. And here I have my friend Lia, who mentioned how she’ll be walking about school tomorrow dressed in black, for one purpose. Now all you lack are placards and a crowd.

But then again, like what SY says about “Lao Li”, you sure you wanna protest or even harbour that intention in Singapore? I doubt it. On the contrary, strikes happen rather frequently here in Denmark I know at least one friend who spent 1.5 hours walking to school one morning when his bus was nowhere on time or in sight. I myself haven’t been in the heart of the “action” to comment, and we also missed witnessing one protest outside Central Station last Saturday. I’m thankful and blessed to be living on Campus.

So then.

We ended approximately at 4am, after Chang got so wasted SY had to help him back to his room and everyone else was too tired (especially me) to stay awake. Filiberto and myself knew we would be teetering on the brink of slumber and alertness for the full day of class we were about to have if we still had not hit our beds immediately. Fortunately, we both managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 8am and arrive at class punctually. The rest of the morning, however, was a struggle I made with the Z-monster. And Alessandro and Gianluca who were sitting across the classroom asked me if I was busy staying up all night doing the torturous assignment, which I humbly declined to their awe. Singapore could soon be on the map to being “happening”.
Work’s piling up and for those who asked me about class, be patient, I’ll have to find an appropriate time to take pictures without the scrutiny of the Danes/classmates for that matter.

To the Koreans: Gan Bei!

Meanwhile, enjoy the pics! http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album08

Week 3 and counting...

To all those lovebirds out there, Happy V-Day.
To all those still hunting, take a break, drink a Carlsberg; true love doesn't exist anymore.
To all those waiting to be hunted, pretend you are ugly and you should just go for plastic.

To everyone else, Happy Friendship Day!

And to those in Denmark secretly reading this blog *stares at Siong Yang*, Happy wake-up-early-for-8am-classes-and-carry-on-mugging-day-just-like-any-other Day.

Thanks to Lin Chang who bought 2-pieces of salmon, we had our first fish dish since we arrived in Denmark 3 weeks ago. In case you don't know how precious and significant that dinner was, know that fish is expensive in Denmark. Somehow pigs here rule. After all, there are 3 times more pigs than humans in Denmark, yet ham is occasionally cheap.

Just came back from printing notes, reports, and a harry potter novel in the nearby databar. I'm kidding about the last one. The point is, in case I haven't told you before, is that printing in DTU is free. FREEEE! People (read: chinese) usually spend the time and effort to scan textbooks (not kidding this time) and notes and stuff to print, as opposed to photocopying. One time, I tried scanning 20 pages in 30minutes and after that I gave up. I'm gonna try to hunt down a chinese-chinese.

Well, for the right reason of course.

Oh and I should make another note, that Feb 13th was the day I received the first letter in Denmark when I opened the mailbox. When I saw the return address, I knew immediately my tennis kaki Quek was the kind sender, and even more surprised (in a good way) that it was a hand-written-letter-on-a-single-foolscap. Well it takes 9 days for it to reach me, let's see who can beat that. Heh.

Carlsberg Breweries

First of all, THANK YOU Mum and Dad for sending up stuff with Uncle Jimmy to Copenhagen! Whilst there are stuff I could posssibly get here if I search hard enough for it, the cost would still be exhorbitantly ridiculous. And since Uncle Jimmy was making the trip up here, it was perfect that he helped us with this favour. So when I was in Copenhagen in the afternoon, I passed by First Hotel to meet up with Uncle Jimmy, and collected a bagful of "re-supplies", including CNY loveletters (to my utmost surprise) and my adidas running shoes (so I can finally attempt to rid myself of an ugly beer belly)! Thanks to Uncle Jimmy too, I got a copy of The Straits Times! It's almost like mental stimulation or brain food knowing how close you are to news back home, in hard copy!

Okay, let me start with Saturday all over again after getting over with my thank-you speech.

We headed out to Lyngby at 11am for the Carlsberg Breweries in Enghave (2 train stops from Copenhagen) after hearing tonnes about it. We arrived and was greeted by the sign telling us how far we had to walk around the whole brewery in order to enter the place.



After several hundred kilometres of walking (and tourist-y phototaking of the surroundings), we arrived at the Carlsberg Museum. Normal admission per person costs 40dkk or SGD$10, but we students pay only 25Dkk, or SGD$6.70, and *drum rooooooooolls* it's inclusive of your choice of 2 (out of 8) types of brews at the bar at the end of the tour! There's even a stable where a couple of horses are housed.



Of course, the best wrap up to the tour had to be a visit to the sovenir shop and bar to claim our two beers! To anyone else who will visit the Carlsberg Breweries, you must try the Jacobsen Sanz Blonde (7.1%), most "value-for-money" because it's the biggest cup and strongest alcohol content, tasting good and not-too-bitter. Somehow drinking the beer in-situ and drinking them out in the commmercial market are two worlds apart. Really. We all got high after one glass and the second one simply convinced us a second trip to the musuem was in the works.



After we left around 4pm, we walked towards Copenhagen where Grace was supposed to meet her friend, and me, Uncle Jimmy at First Hotel. It was hilarious seeing and hearing Siong Yang talking and singing so much, who was high from 6 powerful beers he shared equally with Yuanheng. After that, everyone had much trouble holding back their pee we spent a good deal of time trying to find a toilet too.

After meeting up with Uncle Jimmy, we headed over to Central Station where Grace met her Singaporean friend studying in UK's Imperial, Vincent, who was here on holiday. We got hungry and I brought them all to Aladdin's Pizza just 5 minutes away, which my dad first recommended when I was in Copenhagen on the 2nd night. There, 8 of us shared 5 pizzas, with each pizza averaging 50Dkk or SGD$13 thereabouts, thus settling lunch and dinner at one go.


Later, we strolled about the main walking street to while our time before going back. We wanted to go to the Studenthouse (a bar for students only) where tonight's special was a 10Dkk (SGD$2.60) admission fee and 100 litres of free flow beer but after walking about till 8pm in sub-zero temperatures and realising it starts at 9pm, we gave up and headed back to Lyngby. After all, we had our fair share of alcohol early this afternoon at the Carlsberg Breweries on an empty stomach furthermore.



Okay, enough typing, I'm gonna go read my first english newspaper in 3 weeks now. Let's hope the Straits Times has good news to share. Here are the rest of the pictures... http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album07

Snowboarding in Isaberg, Sweden

What a weekend it was, after the Singaporeans’ drinking night on Saturday in the containers (ooops!) gave us a good sleep for Sunday’s ski trip, we woke up around 5am on Sunday, 5th Feb to head out for the Snowboarding/Skiing trip I helped organize, costing only 610kr (or S$160) for my snowboarding and 518kr (or S$140) for skiing, with the 2-way transport, equipment rentals and ski lift all included.

The coach ride from Lyngby to Helsingor where the ferry would take us across to Helsingborg in Sweden was approximately an hour, with the ferry crossing taking about 20mins. After another 2 hours of traveling across winter wonderland, we arrived at Hestrup where Isaberg, and the ski resort was. At 308m above sea level, we were finally awed when we saw the slopes with which our adventure was to begin.
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Amongst the 12 Singaporeans (or 10 Singaporeans, 1 Malaysian, and 1 Indonesian to be specific), only I opted for snowboarding because of my prior experience back in the US. In fact, this was to be only the 2nd time I was snowboarding! But practice makes perfect, and I haven’t yet mastered the art of not falling by the end of the afternoon.



The others had a great time, especially first timers like Yuan Shuo, Lin Chang, and Darren, who seemed to pick up the technique in no time. As with every outing, I seemed to take on the role of the resident photographer (again) and could have made big money if I charged them for the effort and time I sacrificed in framing wonderful memories for everyone. However, you know I’m too nice not to. Right?

On a similar note, most of us agreed that we spent more time posing and taking pictures than skiing (or snowboarding in my case), just like how Singaporeans tend to portray the image back home how great we are at skiing when we actually aren’t. But that’s a given, everyone needs a form of remembrance and someone will always volunteer selflessly because it gives him (or her) great pleasure in seeing happy faces that are grateful for my, I mean, his, efforts. Heh.




We left Isaberg around 4pm and reached back Lyngby around 8pm, where we scouted around for dinner on a Sunday night, which was virtually impossible, but arguably challenging. The group split up as some wanted to satisfy their hunger with kebabs in the vicinity (at least 30kr per person) and the others, including me, decided to hang in until we get back to Campus Village where we could whip up a decent meal.

And boy did we enjoy our dinner, with Yuan Shuo’s wanton look-alike with pasta sauce appetizer, Grace’s pre-main course baked potato with mayonnaise, Darren cooking his awesome (salted) chicken drumsticks in the oven, and my carrots and broccoli vegetable dish which everyone complimented (and as a result nicknamed me “mother”). Of course, who could miss the staple rice cooked by the rice I/C, Yuan Heng. After calculating the costs to convince us psychologically that it was more economical to cook in our containers than eating out, we worked out a cost of 10-15kr per person, more than half the price of those who decided to eat kebabs! Cheap thrill! But the meal was so gratifying everyone decided to head back for slumber. Thank goodness Monday’s my only free day so here I am blogging and after this, working on my assignments and readings before the dreadful week begins all over again tomorrow.

Too bad Legoland opens in April, as with the Tivoli in Copenhagen. Denmark’s going to be boring for a while now. Other than the tension with the terrorist thing I heard. Because we don’t have the papers or the watch the news (because there is no television in Campus Village), the only time I update myself about “the situation” here is with home news back in Singapore via the internet. What an irony. For now, we seem to be avoiding Copenhagen, just in case.

And here are the rest of the pictures which would otherwise take too long to post on blogger.
http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album06. Bon appetit!