2012

The last day of 2011 is a hot hot day. And in that unbearable heat when I was unable to do anything else, I took some photos around my computer desk and edited them using some random photo app in my phone.

A nice wrap up of my exchange trip which is probably the main highlight of 2011 for me.

The 6 months after exchange was probably more of an adjustment period for me to review new considerations and decide on the appropriate roles to play and  fit into.

2011 依然没有我想要的奇迹

因为没有人能拥有一切
所以当我们一路走来
错过太多 失去再多 也得到很多
就这样又挥霍了一年

2012 依然不想有太多的期待

即时不相信能拥有奇迹
也想留下可能的空白
眷恋太多 失去再多 也渴望很多
明年的我该如何总结

Happy 2012 =)

仓颉

第二人生 is really nice! There’s no songs inside that I do not like so its all about the varying levels of “liking” for each song.

Some of the songs sound quite similar to their older songs but the lyrics are good enough for me to overlook everything else haha. Not many people can write a song about 洗衣机 and make it sound logical, although the last part about mothers was a little sudden. I like 阿信’s lyrics because he usually use imageries/ideas that always exist around us but we just never seem to notice or pay too attention to them. And its easy to understand so you can’t really miss the messages/meanings in the songs. I think I like songs because of their meanings and not that much on how nice or harmonious the melodies or arrangements are haha.

Anyway, my favourite has to be 仓颉, who supposedly created the chinese characters (not sure if he really exist though or its just one of the many legends/myths cause I was lazy to go read up more).  It has been stuck in my head since I heard it so I have been playing it mentally while attending christmas gatherings, eating or walking around these few days haha. I guess in a way, it’s a very accurate portrayal of my thoughts sometimes, and probably for many others as  well. I like to believe that, in the end, all that matters is leaving a memory behind.

生命有太多无法选择的无奈  所以我想试着去争取  这最后的选择权  留下那属于我的痕迹

仓颉

一颗葡萄有多甜美
用尽了所有的图腾和语言 描写
想一个人有多想念
那又是文字失效瞬间

结一个纪念的绳结
记录你离去后 万语和千言 瓦解
升起了慌张的狼烟
我遗落在最孤独史前 的荒野

多遥远 多纠结 多想念 多无法描写
疼痛 和疯癫 你都看不见
想穿越 想飞天 想变成 造字的仓颉
写出 能让你快回来 的诗篇

一只蝴蝶有多鲜艳
能不能飞越过 猜忌和冷漠 世界
给你的简讯和留言
说不清万分之一追悔

当星宿都沉默山岳
只盼你会抬头 看我寄托的 弯月
当一个文明即将熄灭
有什么证明你我存在 的岁月

多遥远 多纠结 多想念 多无法描写
疼痛 和疯癫 你都看不见
想穿越 想飞天 想变成 造字的仓颉
创造 能让你想起我 的字眼

多遥远 多纠结 多想念 多无法描写
疼痛 和疯癫 你都看不见
想穿越 想飞天 想变成 造字的仓颉
写出 能让你快回来 的诗

需要你 需要你 需要你 想逆转时间
回到 最开始 有你的世界
想穿越 想飞天 想变成 造字的仓颉
写出 让宇宙能重来 的诗篇

七十亿分之一

Before I get buried by the massive amount of words below, somehow release of results isn’t such a big deal to me at all. I forgot all about it until noon before I went online to check my results. Somehow my phone refuse to receive the results notification SMS until I restart it. And I didn’t even bat an eyelid when I saw my results.

第二人生 (supposed to be released on 16th and got delayed for some reason) is coming out tomorrow! 周杰伦’s one was delayed also so I’m not sure what’s the problem with producing cds nowadays. And I managed to stay away from previewing or downloading the album so as to keep some surprize/suspense (hopefully +ve ones). I was like really dismayed by 周杰伦 previously =(

I came across 七十亿分之一 by 黄鸿升 today. I was never really impressed by his songs much and I think think his voice is not really suited for singing, although it may be due to the fact that the song doesn’t suit his voice haha. But as a song combined with his voice, 七十亿分之一 isn’t that nice, not a song I would download and keep, and definitely not buying, but I quite like the lyrics. Firstly, it is VERY VERY long (they keep saying its 800+ words for the advertising efforts) and the words are crammed tightly together in each line so it feels like it will be nice to sing, somewhat like the rap effect. Secondly, I was quite amazed by the first stanza cause it strings the ideas together nicely and is very consistent, although some of the other parts seem to be abit inconsistent from the 2nd stanza onwards haha. I have absolutely no idea how he can memorize the lyrics for live performance and its not like he has much time to think before each line. And abit about the MV, I think some of the scenes quite nicely done but what’s up with the weird extremely-long-shirt-suit combo (looks weird no matter how I look at it).

黄鸿升 - 七十亿分之一

太阳 海洋 撞成地平线
就把我的世界都改变
第一个吻的时间 地球转了几圈
就在流星雨中瓦解
那一天 那夜 我灵魂里面
重叠了一个完美的画面
你瞳孔像一轮满月 静止在我眼前
从此以后没人比你更明确

陪你到雨季 陪着你到天晴
陪你日日夜夜守护一个奇迹
若不是上帝睡着 我不可能那么幸运
能遇见地球上 七十亿分之一的你
传说中每个人都拥有天上一颗星星的国度
都拥有一颗星的孤独
很多年 才邂逅一个人
在宇宙 连结成彼此的星座

直到 天空慢慢慢慢倾斜
直到我 默默埋葬了无邪
当时你 一片片捡起的落叶
碎成了 无限潜意识的遗憾
请还记得 谁第一次牵起手
谁记得 谁第一次不肯走
第一次 永远就停在那时候
以后 再想念也不能回头

风吹来了就去飞
列车进站了就跟着离开
青春流逝了就忘记去爱
当时光一滴滴蒸发
习惯了一切都理所当然
习惯你 成为我习惯的习惯

等到我 察觉到你的悲伤 (你的泪光)
都已经太晚了 (都已经太久了)
永远还是不够远
是什么 让不会改变的全都变了
终于落单的肩膀 终于悲哀的夕阳

想起你 天空就慢慢倾斜
拥有你 快乐才如此的强烈
为何你 一片片捡起的落叶
碎成了 无限潜意识的遗憾
请还记得 谁第一次牵起手
谁记得 谁第一次不肯走
第一次 永远就停在那时候
以后我 再想念 也不能回头

最后一次和你一起 看同一片繁星
以最近距离 却像隔了最远的星
上天已经 给我七十亿分之一的幸福
而我活该 执着 日全蚀的盲目
如果我们的以后 各自被拆散
到世界某一个角落
就算是 日和夜 夏和冬 都交错
换日线外 我也可以感觉你的笑

不认输 不让步 也不能嬴回失去的最初
很久很久以后 很多人海茫茫
只有你 只有你 最了解我的倔强
只有你 飞向过我的天堂

直到 天空慢慢慢慢倾斜
直到我 默默埋葬了无邪
当时你 一片片捡起的落叶
碎成了 无限潜意识的遗憾
请还记得 谁第一次牵起手
谁记得 谁第一次不肯走
第一次 永远就停在那时候
以后我 再想念 也不能回头

LALALA LALA LALALALA (OH 想起你)
LALALA LALA LALALALA (不回头)
LALALA LALALA LALALALA
LALALA LALALA LALALALA
LALALA LALA LALALALA (OH 想起你)
LALALA LALA LALALALA (不回头)
LALALA LALALA LALALALA
LALALA LALALA LALALALA

太阳 海洋 撞成地平线
就把我的世界都改变
第一个吻的时间 地球转了几圈
就在流星雨中瓦解
那一天 那夜 我灵魂里面
重叠了一个完美的画面
你瞳孔像一轮满月 静止在我眼前
从此以后没人比你更明确

THE “XQRJ” ARC +“EXCHANGE VISIT” ARC AND OTHERS

I actually have a backlog of many entries to cover since I have been rather lazy to blog these few days.

Sometime along the way, I was thinking if this was a manga, then this period of time can probably be spilt into arcs. Just for fun, this blog entry shall be spilt into 2 arcs and others haha.

“XQRJ” ARC

I watched 星空 and I thought it was nice, better than 那些年(although many people keep saying 那一年 instead). Although the plot is more for kids/young students but I think there are some things that you can only appreciate when you are an adult.

After that, I spent my days lazing at home (mix of PC/PS3/some exercises) and doing my best to squeeze out inspirations for XQRJ. Apparently, 那些年 and 星空 weren’t as helpful as I thought in helping my ideas flow. And I really couldn’t find any nice spots in my house to chill out and focus on thinking/writing so I was stuck for many days. By the time I finish it, it was like 1 or 2 days before the dateline. After that I realized they postponed the dateline to 14 Dec. I submitted early and realized they require a demo of the lyrics, which was a real pain to do by the way.

XQRJ actually intersects with EXCHANGE VISIT for a few days so I shall just fast forward to the EXCHANGE VISIT arc.

“EXCHANGE VISIT” ARC

Basically I just took Adam (my buddy from CBS) and his friend around Singapore and somehow it was really tiring.

He arrived together with his friend on Mon and we met for dinner at Ding Tai Fung at Raffles City with the rest of my exchange group from NUS. After that, I took them to the Esplanade to see Marina Bay at night, and then to Orchard Road to see the Christmas decorations (although I was trying to postpone the Orchard Road trip to Thur instead so I don’t have to think of other places for them to visit). We got there around 10 and everything was closing so we just walked down from ION to PS and then separated there. I got home around 12 and only slept at about 2am.

The next day was USS with Kwong Yuan and Michell and the 2 of them and when I woke up at 730am, I already knew I was going to be dead tired for the rest of the day. I didn’t really sleep well so I’m not sure how many hours of sleep I got haha. We started USS with a long queue for Transformers ride (about 1.5h) and luckily, the ride wasn’t too bad so the long waiting time wasn’t for nothing. Next was the battle-star galactica roller-coasters which was yeah the usual thrilling roller-coasters. The rest of the rides were less thrilling than the battle-star galactica, with some tweaks here and there – like riding in darkness, or with sensory experiences so I don’t think I ‘m gonna cover much about them. We watched some shows inbetween as well and there were some really interesting ones here and there. We exited USS around 8pm then stayed around while Adam and his friend visited Hard Rock Café and the Casino, before leaving them to watch the Crane show (I’m not sure if I watched it before actually haha). After that got home around 11 to submit my XQRJ before midnight haha.

They went off to Indonesia for a 1 day trip so I had the whole of Wed to rest and recover.

On Thur, I took them to NUS (they wanted to visit the school) and I was horrified when they wanted to visit the harbour near NUS. Like why in the world would anyone want to go there and how in the world am I going to bring them to the harbour. They looked at the map and insisted on trying to get there from Haw Par Villa (closest MRT to the harbour) so we ended up there and walked to the entrance of the harbour where the guards chase us away, like duh). Went Chinatown after that but they didn’t really seem that interested so we saw 2 temples and walked to Marina Bay. They were really interested in all the CBD buildings so we detoured here and there cause they wanted to visit the buildings. Anyway we hanged around Marina Bay for a while before I decided to make my exit while they went to meet another friend at the esplanade.

OTHERS

Now that the XQRJ and EXCHANGE VISIT arcs are over, its probably time for me to take a break and rest, although I never really exert that much energy/effort but its just that they are like major events that breaks up the holiday routines.

After the omg kind of 惊叹号 by 周杰伦, I am waiting for 五月天’s 第二人生! As of now, it still sounds very promising, with OAOA, 星空, 诺亚方舟and 我不愿让你一个人. I wasn’t very impressed by the MVs for the 1st three songs though. 我不愿让你一个人 didn’t sound very fantastic initially and I thought some of the lyrics seem abit off but after a while, the tune got stuck in my head and I started to like the tune for the chorus and the bridge so I have been repeating it on youtube since I was lazy to go hunt for a mp3 version.

我不愿让你一个人 一个人在人海浮沉
我不愿你独自走过 风雨的时分

我不愿让你一个人 承受这世界的残忍
我不愿眼泪陪你到 永恆

也许未來 你会找到 懂你疼你 更好的人
下段旅程 你一定要 更幸福丰盛

那些年

那些年，我们一起追过的女孩.

I still think its quite a mouthful to read the title/handful to type it out =X Its quite a nice movie, although I still think its slightly over-rated haha. I miss about 10min of the starting cause the stupid 171 only came after 40min but I though the starting and middle seems a little dragged out. The school life should probably be quite accurate but I’m still a little doubtful about how much some of the other scenes, like being naked at home all the time? I’m actually fine with the 打飞机 scenes cause I can see why they should be there haha, but spamming too many of them actually makes the movie seem abit low class. They could have cut down the no. of scenes/references and just keep the more salient ones. I would have passed off the movie as being average if it was not for the ending, which was done quite nicely. I like how they use the flashbacks to flesh out the “missing” bits and pieces that were purposely left out previously and it serves the purpose of having that impact at the end. I must say I was excited for a while when they used 双截棍 as the background music halfway through haha, cause it really reminds me of the old secondary school-JC days. I actually zipped through the movie ost many weeks ago but the songs didn’t really appeal to me then and as expected, I changed my mind after the movie haha.

I’m still a little stuck in 那些年 kind of mood, very much like for 5cm per second. Its not the movie but the mood that I’m stuck in haha, partly due to repeating 那些年 and 人海中遇见你 on my playlist haha. Hopefully I can get some inspirations from this so I can make some progress on XQRJ.

And now I’ll wait for 星空 to start showing in SG. It will probably have a similar effect and mood to 那些年, although I have higher expectations for it haha.

星空

演唱：五月天
作詞：五月天(阿信) / 作曲：五月天(石頭)
編曲：五月天 / 監製：五月天

歌詞：
摸不到的顏色 是否叫彩虹？
看不到的擁抱 是否叫做微風？
一個人 想著一個人 是否就叫寂寞？

命運偷走如果 只留下結果
時間偷走初衷 只留下了苦衷
你來過 然後你走後 只留下星空

那一年 我們望著星空 有那麼多的 燦爛的夢
以為快樂會永久 像不變星空 陪著我

獵戶 天狼 織女 光年外靜默
回憶 青春 夢想 何時偷偷隕落？
我愛過 然後我沈默 人海裡漂流

那一年 我們望著星空 未來的未來 從沒想過
當故事失去美夢 美夢失去線索 而我們失去聯絡
這一片 無言無語星空 為什麼靜靜看我淚流？
如果你在的時候 會不會伸手 擁抱我？

細數繁星閃爍 細數此生奔波
原來 所有 所得 所獲 不如一夜的星空
空氣中的溫柔 回憶你的笑容
彷彿只要伸手 就 能 觸 摸

摸不到的顏色 是否叫彩虹？
看不到的擁抱 是否叫做微風？
一個人 習慣一個人

這一刻 獨自望著星空 從前的從前 從沒變過
寂寞可以是忍受 也可以是享受 享受僅有的擁有

那一年 我們望著星空 有那麼多的 燦爛的夢
至少回憶會永久 像不變星空 陪著我
最後只剩下星空 像不變回憶 陪著我

不用在意

躲在安静角落

如果你回头看 

不用在意

OLD EXCITING SONGS

And I suddenly remember this very exciting song back in the old days, 珊瑚海 being another one.

And I still think it has a very “pirates of the carribbean” feel HAHA.

SELF DIAGNOSIS

After some self-diagnosis, I think I’m sick!
And I think it’s a whole lot of trouble for myself from now on, sigh.

Although I never really go and search extensively about it but let’s just hope its not some long-term kind of thing. And I thought I can get away with my horrible lifestyle =X

其实也没有任何资格去抱怨着舍麽

我想我也理智得有点可怕

那些无处可放的情绪 就抛在不常看到的一角

然后海潮依然退涨 然后明天依然叠复

在不去猜想的日子里 等待那总会到来的结论

AS A CONTRAST

On this day,

the lights are too bright, the weather is too warm and when I fix the fan at myself, I feel like I’m going to suffocate. The music doesn’t seem right. The stupid 2101 notes isn’t organized nicely to make sense and the textbook has too much nonsense,  biz comm ppt seems too difficult to word and memorise. I am feeling whiny and frustrated and irritated and tomorrow feels like a long horrible day.

Sigh.

MY KIND OF NIGHT

Its that kind of night.

When I have work lining up for my attention but they’re not really urgent (or so I would think), and I’m just wasting time trying to find things to entertain myself but not really doing anything in particular.

When I look up and there’s nothing much to look forward to, and I don’t have any concrete short-term plans for the days ahead.

And its just a bit on the cold side, with this thin layer of silence and air all round when I look out of the windows, so its like the lights are brighter and the sounds are louder.

And everything seems just right. The lights aren’t too bright, it isn’t too humid, the music is just nice with the right tempo and pace and not too distracting.

When my mood lands in a particular state that doesn’t fluctuates at both ends.

And I think its all right to drop everything, to get lost and not bother about finding the way back, to lose things and not be bothered about them, to feel and not be bothered about the consequences, to do things and think that they don’t really matter at all.

And when I think to myself that its nice to just indulge in this moment, like having nothing and not wanting anything, just for tonight.

So that when I wake up tomorrow, wishing for and wanting anything and everything, I still know that there was such a moment in a somewhere at a sometime.

秒秒的瞬间

五月天 – OAOA

I have to say it’s a rather typical 五月天 upbeat song. There’s nothing much to comment for the MV either cause I don’t think there’s anything special, just that I like the beat of the song and especially the line “我相信 秒秒的瞬间 我不信 年年的永远”. However, I fail to understand the significance of OAOA and I’m too lazy to go online and look for it so I guess I shall leave it at that. And I think I will prob go watch their 3D concert movie if its not very expensive haha.

田馥甄 - 还是要幸福

I went to buy her album! One of the very few albums (countable with 1 hand) I buy in a year haha. It’s a very 寂寞寂寞就好 song, which I don’t really mind since its nice enough. She has some other more unique songs in the album which are quite nice as well but I think I prefer her 1st album more. And I seriously think she is one of the few singers that is marketed and positioned correctly. There should always be some natural progression towards maturity/seasonedness and I seriously think it’s a bad idea to stagnate at the same image for too long – especially if you debuted as those cutsey/idol kind of singers or group. And in this regard, I think 杨丞琳 has been doing a pretty good job as well cause you can actually see the direction she’s heading in.

I am not sure why I actually have the time to be blogging here cause I feel REALLY busy this week. I just found out I have a mid-terms next Mon! (I’m quite sure at least 60% or even more of the students didn’t know until he announced it during lecture on Mon). And on top of that, there’s the usual workload of stuff to take care of, just that I seem to be exerting a lot of brainpower every week this semester. I think its mainly because of my nm2208 module, for which I have to squeeze my brain out to come up with design ideas and concepts which are hopefully creative enough.

And I don’t know if I should go for MAF this year! I was thinking maybe can organize something haha but now that I’m so busy and with the mid-terms on Mon, I’m not even sure if I should be there.

HMMM…

又不是这样就不孤独

I heard it on the bus to U-town the other day and somehow, it seemed much nicer than the few times I listened to it on my desktop or mp3 player.

Now I like the way it swells up and envelopes. There’s no need to continue when its not ideal, or that may be what I would like to think. But you can’t change the fact that the world is just like that.

Dramatic Drama

My room’s done!! Actually it was done a while ago but I was just too lazy to do any posts so yup, just for the sake of continuity from the last post. So now, there’s 2 new big wardrobes in my room, along with my old computer desk and 3 remaining bookshelves/cupboards from my old room. Its much neater, cleared of all the junk/storage stuff that doesn’t belong to me or my brother, and there’s this empty gap along one of the wall reserved for a TV (not sure when it will happen). As for the colours, the paint didn’t turn out quite what I had expected but I guess its okay, just a little bit too much of blue around. Overall, I think I’m quite happy with the look of my new room, although there’s still not much motivation for me to spend more time in my room, cause the only spot for me to laze around is on my bed, and it isn’t all that comfortable or private since its in the middle of the room. But at the very least, now I have a bigger space outside due to my new computer desk haha.

Oh and I got a new phone – samsung nexus S. Although its not the latest, the biggest or the best phone around now, I’m still very happy with it. Or it may just be the initial excitement for the transition to a smart phone with data plan, but will have to pay about $10 more than my previous plan. I think there’s lots I can do with a smartphone but I haven’t really been maximising its usage yet, cause I haven’t been out that often during these few weeks but we will see how when school starts haha.

I watched Norwegian Woods recently but I found it quite difficult to follow the story or the characters actually and it seems like I have forgotten much of the story. But luckily I bought the book a while ago when I saw it on sale in Popular so I will probably read it to refresh my memory before I can make any comparisons or connections between the 2. I think there’s something lacking in the movie but in the first place, Haruki Murakami’s books are pretty much “unfilmable” anyway, unless you put in tons of narration which would defeat the purpose of adapting it into a movie.

醉后决定爱上你 is ending soon – 1 more episode to go! I think it has dragged on long enough so yeah about time for it to end. The middle was a little too draggy when they keep on throwing new and not very necessary arcs into the story, but I like the latest episode because they tie up most of the arcs and characters rather nicely. Halfway though, I started thinking whether this might be the last episode after all but turns out there’s another one next week. And some songs just sound incredibly nice when they’re coupled to shows or scenes that make sense to the viewer, but when you isolate them and listen to them separately, somehow they don’t really seem that impressive. There are some nice moments in the latest episode, with the correct character with the right song at the right stanza. Actually the cut below is really long but I was really more impressed by the scene in the last 2 min of the video with 放了自己 by 魔幻力量 haha.

And I think a drama should be like that. It may be unrealistic in many ways but it should be able to deliver the correct emotions and impact to be a dramatic drama. I think its quite sad to have a drama that’s not dramatic actually, although most people would prefer them to be more realistic haha.

And school’s starting! I ‘m sorry to say but I’m actually quite looking forward to it haha. Seems like quite a lot of people are going for exchange actually, so I will probably not see that many people in school. And I have about 3 modules on my own as well, so its not like I have much time to hang around with people anyway. But as with all fresh starts, you always tend to think they will be the best initially.

WHEN THE WORLD TURNS FASTER

The 10 days long ICT was quite slack for me and I didn’t even have to go outfield or do much training. Most of the time, I was preparing stores for training instead but I’m not complaining, still better than wasting my time doing training and other saikang, although I did do COS for one of the days when there was a night’s out. That aside, this ICT was somewhat very alarming for me. It makes me feel like I have been standing there forever when everyone has moved on ahead of me.

And after getting a new computer desk and attempting to reorganize my room to accommodate my old one, the flooring in my room finally gave way and after much heaving and cracking and popping, there’s like a long fissure in the branching around on the floor. So now we have to redo my whole room. Spent the whole Saturday clearing my room and removing all the furniture, and now my living room is choked full of things and my brother and I have to sleep there as well. To restore my room, we have to get clear all the ceramic tiles in my room, remove the fitted in wardrobe. redo the cement, wait for it to dry, repaint the room, get new wardrobes, shift back furniture and things, and that will probably take 2 weeks or more. To be honest, I always have random impulses to throw away everything in my room and start anew, so it may be that this is actually a good opportunity for me. But still, I think its coming at too quick and too sudden a pace to redo everything at one shot, so it feels quite overwhelming, not to mention the hefty costs involved and that my dad has no taxi to drive now and seems to be having some difficulty in finding a replacement.

Finance outing was strange initially – I couldn’t figure out why nobody was asking about SEP so its weird when I have to fill the silence by asking about things in Singapore all the time and nobody gave much of an answer so I kinda gave up after a while. Or it may be that everyone was just waiting for the gossips and revelations to start. Not that I have not thought about it before, but now Weiren is also attached! I guess I wasn’t expecting that haha, but I don’t mean it in a bad sense, just that I didn’t think it would have to be this early. Oh well, I guess it’s just one of the wonders of SEP.

So, what to make up of this past 2 weeks? Its like everything is moving so fast and I’m not ready to deal with them yet. For certain things, I must admit I do not know where or how I am going to proceed.  As for the rest, maybe I know what I have to do but I just didn’t expect it to be this fast.

Jun Ming messaged me just now saying that he ran some 八字 test for me online or something. Apparently mine is not bad and that I am supposed to have a smooth sailing life or something like that, although he doesn’t know enough to go in-depth. But still, I seriously wonder what to make out of that.

SEP .

      <<好的事情>> 严爵   
     休息是为了走更长的路
     你就是我的旅途
     都是因为你 我一直漫步

     想要跟你一起走到最后
     但我遗失了地图
     谁给谁束缚 谁比谁辛苦
     爱到深处才会领悟

     好的事情 最后虽然结束
     感动十分 就有十分满足
     谢谢你 是你陪我走过那些路
     痛 是以后无法再给你幸福
     好的事情 也许能够重复
     感动时分 就算纷纷模糊
    不要哭 至少你和我记得很清楚
    爱 是为彼此祝福

13 countries – 27 cities.

I think that’s not too many (relative to the whole of Europe), but enough for me for exactly 5 months of SEP.

So what to say at the end of it all? It was fun, liberating, far-away and troublesome at times. I am so glad that I took the chance and went for the SEP while I could. Apart from the cost savings by travelling as a student/youth between 18-26 years old, I think the knowledge/fact that you’ve been out there at the places/sights in your early 20s is something special. Like you can tell yourself that you have been to this and that place last time when you were still in University. I’m not sure if its related to young vs old (although nowadays I always think I’m quite old already) but maybe more of a gap between the studying/student era and when you actually start working. I think we will lose a lot more by then, so its always nice to try to leave something there – like a bookmark or marker, so we can still see it when we’re pretty far down the road.

As for Connection, I actually missed out a few cities due to various reasons but I think it was a pretty good attempt thus far. In one sense, its like me and the many mes before this at various locations at various points in time. But in other sense, I guess it can be many other things.

And now that I’m back in Singapore, I start wishing for the lackadaisical days back in Copenhagen. To be accurate, I miss SEP much more than I miss Copenhagen, cause there are just so many things that I do not have to deal with I’m there. Yet, its still feels good to walk among Singaporeans or to be able to get all kinds of random food at the nearest shopping center/hawker centre.

NS makes it worse by adding in all its unwanted obligations (one of the things I really really hate), as if I don’t already have enough to handle when I come back. If going back on a sunday for mob activation wasn’t enough, I have to waste another day tomorrow going for a briefing for my upcoming ICT.

And无奈 is really all I can say, sigh.

On a brighter note, I finally got my SEP photo mural up on the sliding glass panel next to my computer, consisting of 40 photos selected from all my entire SEP collection. And I don’t think anyone can guess it, but I have a “Most Representative Photo” which sits in the middle of my photo mural haha.

And the “Most Representative Photo” is…

10 years down the road, I think I will smile at this blog entry.

VIENNA, PRAGUE AND PARIS.

Here’s the long overdue blog entry for my trip to Vienna, Prague and Paris!

To be honest, I had lots of doubts about traveling with just Adam but since he initiated the idea, I really couldn’t find any reason to turn him down. Although I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have suggested such a trip together in the first place, not because there’s anything wrong with him but I just know that it will be a bad idea and there will be lots of clashes or awkward situations. But well, against all odds, it happened anyway so we toured Vienna and Prague together before I headed over to Paris on my own while he went to London.

Right from the start, everyone was telling me Vienna was boring and that there weren’t much things to do other than visit museums and watch classical concerts. I thought Vienna wasn’t that bad actually and I didn’t actually finish doing everything that was written on my list. I did the customary Schonbrunn Palace and City Center walk (although it was really just walk to each important building, take 2 photos and then move on). Other than that, I went up on my Riesenrad in Prater’s Amusement Park and visited the really nice Hundertwasser neighbourhood. I really like the way he combines elements of nature into the houses, although I must say his very quirky and cartoonish designs are a little beyond me. The museum is even worse as it showcase all his cartoonish sketches and drawings which are really difficult to make any sensible interpretations. On a side note, I visited the HR Ginger (creator of the aliens in the Alien movies) exhibition which was held there and there were really lots of freaky exhibits. Museum Quartier was exceptionally boring and I only visited a Space exhibition there and that’s about it as everything else seems to be closed or under renovation. Adam knew a lot about the city and the buildings so I managed to learn a little something about them while walking through the city centre with him. Some salesperson wanted to sell us tickets to a classical concert and I was prepared not to go but he kept lowering the price and extremely-interested Adam kept asking me to go, so yeah I attended this classical concert which was quite nice but it affirms the fact that I cannot appreciate such things.

Prague reminds me of Singapore in many ways and I guess that’s why I like it a lot. And of course, there’s the astronomical clock that really appeals to me. Charles Bridge is nice as well although I think its slightly over-rated. The things in Prague are really cheap as well but with limited Czech Krones with my me, I still have to scrimp and save abit. We realized it was Museum Night (when many museums are free and open until late at night) and we joined in the queues for some of the museums as well. Although I must admit I was rather annoyed when Adam insisted no going for some more museums even though it was getting cold and the rain was getting heavier by the minute. We walked through the rain to my museums and my bag and water-proof jacket was starting tog et abit drenched. And in the end, there were long queues at the museums so we had to give up and go back to the hostel =X I was really pissed the next day when he intentionally/unintentionally asked some sensitive questions but oh well, after a brief period of strained moments, things got better after a while but I guess we both realized that we weren’t that synchronized for this trip together.

After he left for his bus to London the next night, I had a bit of time to myself so I went back to the city centre and Charles Bridge to waste the time away. And I think its much better when I visit places at a slower pace cause I tend to see and notice and think about more things generally. With Adam, its always like rushing from place to place, not to mention he walks at twice my speed and I always have to speed up my pace. Its moments like this that I prefer traveling by myself haha.

After a somewhat long bus trip, I arrived in Paris, which wasn’t exactly as nice as I thought (although I heard enough warnings from others prior to my trip). The city was quite grey and just not very romantic or nice. But being by myself, it means I have more freedom and flexibility, and that was a nice break from Vienna and Prague. I took my time to settle into the hostel and planned my itinery before heading over to Arc de la Defense, which was a nice CBD looking area with really modern buildings, quite different from the rest of Paris and most of Europe that I visited  and I kinda liked it there.  I chanced upon some random ceremony at the Arc de Tromphe and stuck around to watch some generals and VIPs just to waste some time so I could go up to see Paris nightlights at night. Went to recce the Eiffel Tower area as well but I only went up the 2nd night. I wanted to climb all the way up to the top but I couldn’t find the ticket desk at the 2nd level of the tower and I bumped into Natalie and her dad as well, so I decided not to go up and just stick around the 2nd level, where the view was awesome enough. I guess the part about the romantic Paris was just about the Eiffel Tower itself, cause the view was super nice and they really light up the tower nicely (with hourly light shows) to enhance the atmosphere. I did the lourve as well and it was a really enormous museum! I walked until my feet wanted to drop off and I didn’t even examine most of the exhibits closely. And I skipped the top level as well cause I really didn’t want to see anymore paintings after Italy. Mono Lisa wasn’t that impressive but I suspect it may be just because I didn’t know how to appreciate this kind of stuff.

That kinda concludes my last trip for SEP, although I must admit this entry was hastily and “distractedly” done cause I’m too lazy to go through everything properly and I’m quite kinda trying to get used to things back here in Singapore haha. I will try to do a proper entry next time to conclude on my SEP but that’s about it for now.

DIMINISHING NUMBERS

Today, I feel like everything is in diminishing numbers.

And when I feel like that, I don’t really feel like doing anything, like a sudden sense of lethargy. so I’m turning down all other options and just hiding in my room.

Its just a sense of diminishing numbers.

ITALY IN 10 DAYS

ROME
I like Rome a lot because it has many breath-takingly huge and magnificent places. Colosseum and the Roman Forum were like really huge and vast, not to mention the gigantic Trevi Fountain and the nice Spanish Steps. Its quite cool to be able to wander around history-rich places, where its like you’re in the present connecting the past and the future (haha I thought of this randomly sometime when I was in Rome). And I really liked this stadium place on Palatine Hill! cause it had those kind of long nice grass that bend in the wind, so its like you can see the ripples moving through them whenever the wind blows.I spent quite some time stoning at the Spanish Steps as well cause I had some free time to kill after visiting all the big-ticket items on my list. I think its nice to have really nice places to stone and waste the time away, like the many piazzas and the Spanish Steps ( probably not Palatine Hill which costs money to enter or Trevi Fountain which is really too crowded for comfort).
Vatican City wasn’t really my cup of tea although I still went for the museums and St Peter’s Basilica. And I just thought all the money that goes into these places can be put to better use elsewhere but more on that later.
FLORENCE
While Rome was like magnificent and breath-taking, Florence is probably more of the artsy city. The main attractions like Uffizi Gallery and Academia were all like paintings and sculptures and I didn’t really enjoy them that much. Academia was still okay cause the statue of David was really quite awesome but Uffizi was like “I think I’m wasting my money”. That aside, the leather market was interesting but I didn’t buy anything even though I walked through it like 10 times in total within 2 days. I was actually looking for this particular stall that sells like sand photoframes (I don’t know what they are called or how to describe but its actually like hourglass but the sand inside will give different formations and shapes each time you turn it around). I saw it on the first day but didn’t buy cause I thought can go back and get it the next day. I couldn’t find it the next day even though I searched like every corner of the market, so I guess i was not fated to get it =(
The view from Piazza Michelangelo was super nice and I went up twice in total, although I still never get to see the lights of Florence at night from up there cause the weather wasn’t that good the second time I went up.
PISA
Pisa was a nice break from the busy streets of Rome and Florence cause there were less people and tourists around (except near the Leaning Tower). I spent 15euros to climb up the Leaning Tower and it was quite interesting actually, although I think the view was only so-so. But it was still fun to climb up the slanting stairways and crawl around on steep slanted steps at the top.
CINQUE TERRE 
Heavily publicized by Glenn and I guess its really quite an exciting place if you hike from village to village. I only did 3 of the 4 routes between the 5 towns cause one of them was closed on that day, but 1/2way through the last 2 hikes, I was like “I must be crazy to be hiking around in Cinque Terre”. The first route was like nicely paved and all that so it was a piece of cake, but the other 2 I did were like climbing up and down steps and slopes and narrow pathways with the cliff on one side. I wasn’t really decked out in hiking clothes and gear as well so it was quite tiring to do all the hikes on a hot day.  But I guess it was still fun to do cause at least there were some nice views along the way.
VENICE
I really imagined Venice to be much nicer but I guess its wasn’t that bad cause they had some really nice canals here and there. There weren’t really many things to do in Venice so I had quite a bit of free time to wander and sit around stoning my time away. I spent some time obsessing over some nice bridges in Venice and I think the bridges probably left a deeper impression on me than the gondolas or canals. But really, Venice has some nice places for me to just chill and waste time away so that’s a plus point.
And I just have to talk about Basilica of San Marco in Venice here. It was like grand until I thought it was so 荒谬. The interior is like gold everywhere you look! (I don’t suppose it was just gold paint) And if you just melt the gold and give it to some 3rd world country people, I think they can live quite comfortably for a while. Even St. Peter Basilica wasn’t so 荒谬 (or its just that I didn’t notice) so I really don’t see why they have to do until so 夸张 in Venice. But I suppose I can understand why people would want to build or possess buildings that are as grand as possible, so maybe its just part of human nature.
MILAN
After all the not-that-modern cities and villages I have visited over the last few days, I was actually quite happy to see modern facilities and stuff in Milan. Milan has seriously limited stuff to do as well, which I did in 1/2 a day before making a day trip to Lake Como on the second day. But anyway, the Duomo is quite nice and its strangely exciting to go walk around its rooftop. But other than that, Milan just strikes me as being modern.
And I never see any 小铁匠 in Milan!!! Even my attempts to take a photo of the guitar shops failed cause it was always closed whenever I went so no 他就站在街角的旧报摊 眼睛盯着隔壁里的厨窗 一把吉他远远欣赏 as well =X
LAKE COMO
I was strangely excited about my day trip to Lake Como for unknown reasons and I really though Como (the town) is quite nice with a nice promenade and lakeside view. I took a 16.6euro (!!!) ferry to Bellagio (supposedly the most beautiful town on Lake Como) and I was so disappointed when I get there cause I couldn’t really see why its supposed to be so beautiful. The cruise itself was okay only cause it like like many Cinque Terre towns along the lakes and after a while, they all look the same. The only thing worth mentioning was that there was this island on the lake, with a shop or a villa on it, and I have a thing for this kind of island haha. It was abit cloudy and rainy that day so the views across the lake were like muted or foggy, so that may be why Bellagio didn’t really seem that nice to me, although it has nice stairways haha.
So, at the end of 10 days, I was quite tired and ready to go back. That’s when I thought its time to go back and take a rest. I guess traveling is starting to lose its magic for me haha, or it may just be that Europe starts to look the same after a while so there’s nothing really new to see. 1 more trip and 3 more cities to go and then its time for me to head back to Singapore. I wouldn’t say I don’t miss Singapore but I think there will be things I will miss after I go back as well. Guess you just can’t have everything at the same time.

THE REST OF SCANDINAVIA

I went for a trip to Helsinki, Oslo, Norway in a Nutshell scenic route and Bergen with my parents and 2 other relatives. Actually I was having lots of doubts and worries before the trip but it didn’t turn out that bad in the end, although some parts of the trip made me a little frustrated and angsty at times.

Helsinki and Oslo were quite boring cause there’s weren’t much to see or do there. And its harder to enjoy anything when I’m traveling with my parents and relatives, who are like many times my age and lack similar levels of energy and interest. They brought quite a lot of things for a 6 days trip in their hand luggages and it was stressful whenever I had to try and find our hotels/hostels while minimizing walking so that they don’t get tired out that fast. And as it turns out, it wasn’t that easy to find the hotels and hostels so we took a few wrong turns here and there and had to walk a lot more. Its also quite difficult to take many photos when I have to hold maps and navigate my way around all the time. To avoid walking that much, I just bought 23h travel passes for everyone in Helsinki and Oslo, and basically zipped around on trams and buses. While the distance was more less shortened with less walking, they had problems with the weather as well – they didn’t like the cold and they didn’t like it when it was sunny cause it was too hot and they wanted to walk in the shade, which made it cold again =X I fell sick halfway through Oslo as well and had sore throat + cough which made me more irritable and tired throughout the rest of the trip, so it was irritating having to deal with so many things at the same time.

The thing I wanted to see most – Tempelliauko Church was closed until 1st June for renovations! so there’s really not much to say about Helsinki other than Sibelius Monument (which was as cool as expected) and some nice lakes here and there. Oslo had a nice park – Vigeland Sculpture Park, which is just fun to walk around and look at all the strange and artistic sculptures, which are more like expressions of the whole range of human emotions to me.

The scenic route from Oslo to Bergen is super nice, although the first leg of the journey was rather boring. There were like 5 different segments of the route – train from Oslo to Mydral, train from Mydral to Flam, cruise from Flam to Gudvangen, bus from Gudvangen to Voss and finally, train from Voss to Bergen. The Flamsbana from Mydral to Flam was super nice and the train just takes you along the mountains and tunnels and you get to see all the amazing waterfalls and nice villages from the tracks. They even stop halfway for you to take photographs of this very nice waterfall.

Cruise from Flam to Gudvangen was quite nice also, with a lot of nice scenic places to take photos of. And you get to see all the nice houses along the fojrds of Norway and wonder how is it possible to get such a house in such a nice peaceful place. I’m not sure if these houses are close to my ideal house in the future cause they look really nice but there’s a lot of other elements to my ideal house that is missing here.

Bus from Gudvangen is exciting cause there this series of 99 hairpin turns (I wasn’t counting but there was many many turns that it felt like it was never-ending) that the bus makes on its way down a mountain. Its really steep and the turns are really sharp so its quite exciting to experience. The old driver is super pro to be able to get us safely down to the bottom haha.

After all the nice and exciting stuff above, the train ride from Voss to Bergen was rather boring in comparison, although it still offers some nice views of the lakes and fjords and houses.

Bergen felt like a disaster at first cause we arrived around 8+ in the evening and after we had to wait 1h for the stupid bus which comes every 50min at night before we could get to our hostel. It didn’t help that it started to rain and I wasn’t that sure where exactly to stop to get to the hostel but thankfully, there were some nice people around to help us find our way there. The hostel was located halfway up a small hill and it was quite a nice pleasant place, even better than some of the hotels we stayed in over the last few days. Too bad we only spend like 1 night there and checked out before 10am the next day. Bergen itself is a nice small town with nothing much to see, except for a nice view from ontop one of the 7 mountains around it and a rather interesting fish market. We took the funnicular up one of their mountain – Mount Floyen and it has a erally nice view of the city and the sea from above. To pass and waste some time before going to the airport for our flight, we went to this park in Bergen and I liked it there a lot cause they have like super nice cherry blossoms there, coupled with a nice strong wind with petals floating around in the air. Its just very romantic and very movie/drama-like . Actually I’m not sure if they’re cherry blossoms but I think they are haha. The colours wasn’t that nice actually but I edited the photos to make it look nicer haha. I spent ages and many photographs trying to get photographs of the falling petals but it was like impossible with my lousy skill so too bad.

And another thing that I spent ages trying to catch was a suitable picture for Norwegian Woods (Haruki Murakami reference if you know). I haven’t really had the time to go sift through all my photos but a temporary one will be this and I will change it if I do come across a better one haha.

Now that my trip with my parents is done, it just means I have about 1 more month left to go before the end of SEP. With Italy coming up next and probably 1 or 2 more trips to plan, things seem to be ending too soon! Sigh…

WHEN YOU DRIFT LIKE THE WIND

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Barcelona and Madrid

Barcelona

1st impression I had of the Spanish were that they were unfriendly people with lousy service. I was trying to get some directions at the information counter at the airport and all I got were short rude replies that doesn’t answer my questions, and she told me to go and look for the tourist information counter elsewhere instead, and its not even like she doesn’t know the answer to my question. And the stupid train refuse to come so in the end, I had to take a 5.3euro bus to the city centre instead.

And I missed Glen and Queenie after I got down from the metro cause they were at the opposite platform. I heard Glen call my name but I couldn’t see anyone on my platform and the train was blocking my view so I thought I must have heard wrongly and went out of the station into La Rambla and it was like totally havoc outside with throngs of tourists. So after about 1/2 – 1h of wasting time, we finally found one another and headed down to the hostel. And that’s when I realized that their easter trip has been quite weird/awkward cause their other 2 friends had some rather nonsensical issues with the 2 of them, and therefore they have been like travelling separately the whole time. Guess I’m not the only one who’s complaining about my exchange group, although mine seems to be much better now compared to theirs.

Anyway, spent most of my Barcelona trip admiring Gaudi buildings, which I thought were really quite nice. Sagrada Familia may look a little haunting on the outside but it was super nice inside with all the coloured glass and lighting. Its probably the best church/cathedral I have seen so far. After a while, I kinda think all that Gaudi mosaic pattern is actually quite cool and if not for him, Barcelona wouldn’t be that interesting haha.

I hated the tourist crowd at Barcelona! It was really irritating having to wait in line to take photographs, and its quite impossible to take any shots without tourists getting in the way. Cause of that, I didn’t really like Barcelona for a while haha, although I’m a tourist there as well.

Bullfighting was like “wow cool” from bull 1 to 2 then “okay” from bull 3 to 4 and “again?” from bull 5 to 6. Although I must say some of the matadors inbetween gave like flawless or more spectacular performance, but it was basically the same old routine over and over again. And I thought it was abit too cruel for the bull as well so it probably affected my enjoyment of the bull-fighting towards the end. Glen and Queenie seem to be really impressed by it though haha.

Madrid

I really thought Madrid was super plain, except for the fact that we visited Cuenca to see the “hanging” houses. I don’t really have much to comment on Madrid, except we did some shopping there although its not exactly cheap as there’s no sales going on. We had tapa there as well, but it was so-so only cause we had it at some random bar and its not like a specialized tapas restaurant. But I did like this fountain place that we came across in one of Madrid’s park areas. It had like really nice trees that were going right out of the water and it just look very nice with the surrounding area. It would be interesting if I can plant it back in Singapore haha.

As for Cuenca, the modern town is just blah but the old town is quite nice with all the cliffs and rock formations. The “hanging” houses aren’t really hanging cause it was more like the small balconies that were hanging over the edge of the cliffs. But I thought like balconies were meant to hang out anyway, so I don’t really see what’s the big deal about them, although they look pretty cool as houses built on cliffs. We went into one of the hanging house which is actually a museum with some abstract art exhibits. I found some very nice ones there that kinda appealed to me cause I could project my own thoughts and interpretations onto them. I wanted a poster of one of them but ended up with a postcard cause i ‘m not sure if they were selling the wall-mounted ones for 3euro or that it meant smth else + the fact that nobody could understand english so should just save the trouble. but it was nice to be able to find a real-life representation of some of my thoughts =)

It wasn’t that hard to travel with Glen and Queenie actually, but sometimes I think we just don’t mesh very well at all so its hard to carry on conversations for long when we are not really interested in what each other is saying, more so for Glen than Queenie obviously. And I don’t like to entertain people much so sometimes its abit troublesome with Glen around. And I wonder if I should join them again in June for another trip, sigh.

Brussels + Bruges + Amsterdam

Brussels

My bus was to Brussels was delayed by 3h so I only arrived at 830pm in the night after a long frustrating 20h ride. And I’m quite amazed I managed to survive that haha but I was a little worried when I arrived in Brussels cause I read online that the train station and metro weren’t exactly very safe places to be at night but luckily there was still abit of light left at 830pm so I could find my way to the hotel safely haha. Fortunately nothing bad really happened to us in Brussels so that’s something to be happy for. But I did think Brussels was quite boring cause there really isn’t much to see and explore, but they do have excellent waffles and chocolates everywhere. Although I didn’t buy much there, it was still nice to hop into the shops and try free samples of their very nice chocolates =)

 

Bruges

This is my favourite city in Europe so far! When we arrived by train, I already had the impression it was like Oxford but in place of the missing colleges and old medieval buildings, it had lots of canals and cobble stones and greenery and a more old-town feel then Oxford. I really liked the place a lot cause it gives a much better vibe than Brussels and it has really nice canals with nice paths, trees and houses all over, which more than make up for the lack of attractions there. On hindsight, I think it was even nicer than Amsterdam. I thought it would be an extremely nice place to retire and just waste the time away haha.

Amsterdam

While I liked Bruges’ canals more than those of Amsterdam, I still like Amsterdam a lot cause it has like a massive network of canals that doesn’t stink at all. Actually, there’s nothing really special about Amsterdam in the day but its at night that I really like the city. Its quite nice when all the lights come on at night along the canals and bridges, although I thought it can be nicer if they add more greenery and lights to it. And of course there’s the red light district which is just interesting to wander through at night and see all the glowing red “displays” haha.  Amsterdam is nice in a decadent sort of way and I think its amazing how they can be whoever they want or play whatever societal role they want legally.

We also dropped by Keukenhof to see the tulips! It was really all over the place but I was quite disappointed that we didn’t get to stroll along whole fields or stretches of tulips. There was this huge long stretch of tulips being grown in farmlands but that was blocked off, so we could only see those that were planted and arranged in the main areas. Even so, there were enough tulips to overwhelm you and some parts of it were really breath-taking and yeah, nice-smelling haha. But it was so hot that it became like Singapore so we were quiet lethargic and exhausted to appreciate everything after a while, not to mention we have been doing lots of walking over the past few days.

Okay, that’s the end of it for now cause I have to start preparing for my Spain trip now and my flight is like at 6+ in the morning so I don’t really have time to go into much details for this blog entry haha.

And while I was typing this, some people just walked past my window (which happened to be connected to the rooftop of another building). And I cannot help but think some “Western” people (not only students) are damn retarded.

WHAT’S LEFT IN WORDS - UK

I should be studying now!! but I want to wrap up my UK trip before I move on to all the other stuff waiting for my attention, although I still need to get a new camera before I can end it. Because I lost my camera and all my photos in Oxford (^$#*&$@) I will have to transfer everything into words and paragraphs before I forget everything haha.

30/3 Manchester

Whitworth Art Gallery – Afflecks – Town Centre – Albert square – Manchester Cathedral – Chinatown + random streets - Didsbury

First stop was Manchester! basically I was only there to visit Queenie and Glen and there seriously isn’t much to do there. Went around a little with Queenie first cause Glen was in London watching a match and only came back in the afternoon to join us. Current exhibits at Whitworth Art Gallery were  a little boring but I thought some shops in Afflecks were quite cool – it’s like bugis street but they have shops selling random things like those ancient telephones etc. We had dim sum lunch with 2 of her exchange friends and collected Glen at the coach station afterwards. Things became nosier after he joined but I guess its to be expected, since Queenie and I aren’t the type to talk much anyway haha. Wandered around town abit more with Queenie cause Glen had some group meeting, and then went back for dinner at their place before going down to Didsbury to have light drinks.  Apparently we talked abut rude people in UK and also about some stupid people back in Singapore (I mean in general) when they complain about all kinds of random stuff.

Basically, that was the gist of it for manchester. But I thought their place was quite nice to stay in as well. They have this flat system where there are 3 – 4 single rooms within 1 flat and all of them share a common kitchen and rooms as well. Its more like a hall system than what we have in Copenhagen, and its really much more livelier and happening. I think sometimes its nice to have the 热闹 atmosphere, even if you’re not part of it =)

31/3 London

South Kensington - Leichester Square (I thnk) – Chinatown – Mama Mia Musical

Took a 5h+ coach down to London and I spammed a lot of pictures along the way cause the sky was super nice. There were quite a lot of clouds but they have like patches of space here and there for the sunlight to shine through and you can really see distinct shafts of light shinning down from amongst the clouds. Met up with Dawei at the train station after that and headed down to his place at South Kensington, which was smacked in the middle of 3 museums (though I didn’t visit any of them haha). the exterior and hallways were kinda like those run down hotels? but I think his house is quite cool (actually I think anyone’s house is cool if they like have it for themselves) and it was only there that I realize that he was staying with liang cheng (back in SG) and philip (and I was like hmm… interesting). Haven’t talk to Philip at all for a long long time and yeah he hasn’t really changed much. And I was under the impression that they were all living happily under the same roof, which turned out not to be the case haha. We went to catch Mama Mia after that and I think its really those kind of fun festive musical with all the familiar songs, although I don’t really know the lyrics to 1/2 of them haha.

1/4 London

Imperial War Museum – Covent Garden – Trafalger Square – London Eye - Big Ben – Westminster Abbey – Buckingham Palace – Wicked Musical

Went to queue early in the morning in the freezing cold for Wicked tickets, but by the time it was our turn, the cheapest best tickets were sold out already so we got the next cheaper ones with slightly worse seats. Actually I was only planning to watch 1 musical but since it was so highly recommended, I thought might as well go and catch another one haha. But I felt abit bad cause Dawei had to rewatch like 2 musicals with me, although I suggested watching other things but naturally he didn’t take the suggestion haha. Imperial War Museum was so highly recommended that I thought it will be like super nice but in the end it was just nice and interesting cause they had like all the planes and tanks and artillery models there. The exhibitions on WW1, WW2 and so on were like too overwhelming cause they had too much information and stuff. Covent Garden and Trafalger Square were nice but I liked the area around London Eye, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey better cause they were like next to the river with nice views and it was just nice to walk around the area. Or maybe I just have a bias tendency towards  London Eye and Big Ben haha. We met up with Hong Zhen there and went for dinner afterwards at a Spanish restaurant. It was kinda hard to catch on sometimes cause after such a long time, I really didn’t know anything about the stuff happening in London, and I haven’t really been actively keeping in touch with everyone else as well. Hong Zhen probably knows much more about what’s going on with the rest than me even though she’s not in Singapore haha. And I would think there are advantages and disadvantages to being the only few in NUS, pretty much how I prefer to have my own private place then living with other people all the time. Its comforting to know that I’m not the only one who keeps meeting people with no awareness/sensing about the people and the things happening around them. We rushed off for the musical after that and Wicked Musical was super nice! There’s more story and character developments and the plot is nicer also (stuff that I liked).

2/4 Bath + Stonehenge

Bath: Bath Abbey + Roman Baths + Sally Anns - Stonehenge

Basically visited Bath for the Roman Bath. When I first saw it from the train, I thought its quite a nice big town with all the aged buildings. It was like really fresh from London at first but after a while everything looks the same everywhere haha. The Roman Bath is very nice for pictures and I spent like most of it trying to find and do nice shots, which was quite difficult to do by myself haha. Sally Anns was so disappointing! I didn’t really have any expectations for it in the first place but it was really just a bun loh. Stonehenge was okay, although a lot of people will complain about the distance and not much to see, but it wasn’t really that far from the stones and yeah I think its still nice to go and take a quick look.

3/4 London

Camden Market -  Spitalfields Market – Tower of London – Tower Bridge – Golden Hinde – Millenium Bridge – Globe Theatre - St Paul Cathedral

Went to Camden Market in the morning but the stupid tubeline was down so we had to take a detour to get there. There’s a nice Aldo store there with super cheap shoes and that’s where I got my 3rd pair of Aldo shoes for my SEP haha. Other than that, there’s a lot of souvenir stuff at Camden Market but its hard to buy since I haven’t really planned like how many and who to get for. And there’s all kinds of nice-smelling and rather exotic food there! Spitalfields is about the same I guess but we didn’t really take a close look at the all the stalls there haha. Tower of London was like blah haha and tower bridge was much nicer, although the weather was still abit cloudy and not that great for photos haha. We went across Tower Bridge and 1 round to the Millenium Bridge, passing by Globe Theatre and Golden Hinde along the way. I think it would have been nice inside Globe Theatre but there were some performance going on and it was closed and I didn’t really want to pay to go in haha. St Paul Cathedral was yeah, a cathedral (by now I have seen like tons of cathedral in europe haha)

4/4 London

Oxford: New College – Magdalen College – Some Meadow

Oxford day since Dawei hasn’t been to Oxford and Hong Zhen was really enthusiastic in recommending Oxford/Cambridge. We arrived in the morning and hopped onto the Oxford sightseeing bus (which I thought wasn’t really worth it cause it just bring you around to see random places which you don’t know anything about) before meeting the rest later. Dawei’’s and Hong Zhen’s friends brought us around after lunch and it was much cooler to visit the colleges and visit all the Harry Potter filming locations – dining room and hallway. I liked the way they integrated their colleges with gardens and nature in generally and it was just nice to walk along all the small paths, though not really that 小桥流水 in Oxford haha. Somehow, we ended up talking about HC since all of us were from HC and it was just amazing haha. And there was this super nice meadow with a giant lake and nice green fields with horses and cows. The wind was really strong there and it would have been much better if it wasn’t so cold. And I lost my camera after that! Actually I’m still not sure if it dropped out along the way back or I left it on the table and somebody koped it without me noticing – and just like that, all my photos are lost! =(

5/4 London

Oxford Street

Last day was shopping day, although I didn’t buy much except a pair of jeans + a shirt + some socks from Primark (really dirt cheap like they say). I wanted some jeans at Topman but they didn’t have it! I saw it on sale at other Topman shops in London but they didn’t have my size so I was hoping Oxford Street Topman would have it. And since I can’t get what I wanted, I thought might as well just grab dirt cheap stuff from Primark. London is like an amazing place to shop and its not even the sales season yet haha. And I stupidly forgot my time was 1h faster than London’s so I was actually rushing through the whole thing to get back in time so that we can eat dinner together before I fly off. We ate Nando’s in the end and I treated Dawei to dinner for his birthday, although I had some trouble getting him to take the money from me HAHA. I flew back to Copenhagen after that so that ends it here for my UK trip.

*about my lost camera
Actually I don’t really care about the camera, I was more concerned about the missing photos in the end haha. For a while, I felt like I wasted my previous 6 days and the time everyone spent to bring me around Manchester and London cause I have 0 photos to show. Although it shouldn’t be that way cause at least I’ve seen and experience everything 1st but still, its like such a waste! Sigh, at least my parents didn’t really say much about it haha and now I have the option to upgrade to a better camera (possibly a dslr although the bulk and big size still turns me off somewhat).

“在那些遗失的照片中，
那一刻的我究竟在想些设什么?”

How long did it take?

Lack of updates cause I really haven’t done anything exciting recently.  I have been stuck in copenhagen ever since my kiruna trip and now I’m in the midst of exams and not in the mood to study. How hard can just passing be? but I will never feel secure about going in unprepared so yeah =(

And I think there are certain days which feel more SEP-ish than others. Like when I was enjoying the sun and the warmth, and fighting with the wind which was trying to push me back  with every step I took. Or when I was walking down the familiar route to school and I suddenly thought the streets are different and this is not Singapore.

I like the freshness that comes along – when I realize I’m on exchange again.

北极圈

There’s plenty I can write about my trip to Stockholm and Kiruna but somehow I just want to leave out the details and concentrate on the more important aspects rather than the mundane “did this went there” blog entry.

I must say I was quite worried and anxious over lots of things the night before my trip. Its really the first time I go off by myself to such a far-away place and so many things could potentially go wrong. I missed my 1st train the next day and it wasn’t really the best start to the trip but I guess it was still alright. Somehow I got myself into the swing of things after that and things started to progress more smoothly.

My train journeys were really long and I had more than enough time to stone and think about all kinds of stuff, though I must admit sometimes I was too lazy to think and it was just easier to blank out haha.  Sometimes it was just relieved at being by myself and sometimes it was just wondering if things could have been better.

“ 也许会希望有个朋友在我身旁
   也许实际的距离真的无法去跨越
   。。。
   我选择去相信
   那些漂浮着的思绪 会化为空中的云朵
   天空跨越着距离 ”

When it was cold and cloudy and I couldn’t find a place to watch for the lights on the 1st night, I thought perhaps this trip would be a huge disappointment indeed. But one way or another, since I’m there, I may as well just go ahead and hope for the best the next day.

When I realized the other people on the tour are all students from some random university, I was hoping that there will be some asians or singaporeans among them. And when I was trying to be nice and started to talk to them, I got a random excited response from someone else, “Are you from Singapore?” “I can tell from your accent!” And that was how I met the very nice people from Jönköping University, who just let me join in and hang around even though I was some lone random stranger from nowhere.
 
When I continue to be stumped and amazed at how I could cliché with some of them and how everything seems to be turning out so nice. I was so surprized and grateful haha. We didn’t know each other well but we could be there to talk and walk each other through random idiosyncrasies and thoughts. We wandered and walked around the frozen lake, taking in the sights and just not saying much =)

When we continue to stare at the cloudy sky, looking for the stars that will signify clear skies. We sat on the snow in a circle, with our backs leaning against one another so that we could have a 360 degrees view of the sky. We planned and plotted not to sleep the whole night just so that we could continue to wait for the northern lights, although we went to sleep eventually.

When we wrote our names in the snow and tried drinking from the river in the middle of the frozen lake. We bumped around in the snow and slide down the snowy slopes – by ourselves or together.

These are some nice stuff that I did with my new friends there and I really couldn’t understand how that was possible. They probably saved my northern light trip haha.

When I had to leave, I was feeling quite sad cause it was just so fun to be there with them. They even offered to let me bunk in with them even though I never pay for anything so that I can stay one more night to look for northern lights! For a while, I was slightly unbalanced by it but I guess some things are just not meant to be, so I ‘m only making things worse for myself when I 跟自己过不去. I was quite sad to leave Kiruna like that, when I haven’t seen the northern lights and when I have to leave all the fun and nice people behind. Hopefully they will be able to see the northern lights cause even though I couldn’t see it, I did ask them to see the northern lights for me haha.

And I think it was a worthwhile trip afterall.

“ 我只想说
   我已经尽力了
   能做的我也做了
   能希望的我也试着去祈祷
   当希望落空 当事与愿违
   也只能笑着说“I’m not lucky enough”

   却很庆幸
   在这孤单忐忑的旅程中
   遇见了一群热心慷慨的朋友
   那一瞬间的相遇
   改变了原本单调的旅程
   一起找寻北极光
   一起体验那种种的第一次
   即时失望也有人陪伴我走过

   一直到最后
   能说的也只有“谢谢”与“再见”
   就算有再多的不舍 就算留下了遗憾
   还是离开了北极圈
   那就这样吧
   留下那一丝丝的遗憾
   并希望我所欠缺的luck
   为他们绽放那一瞬间的极光 ”

Berlin!

After some last minute hassle and dis-organized planning, we finally got ourselves to Berlin for a short 2 day trip! Its really hard to find a place to go on such short notice cause everything is super expensive if we don’t book in advance. The bus ride took about 7h and it wasn’t really that comfortable but I guess I can put up with the discomfort if I can save some money haha. Halfway through the journey, the bus went up into a ferry which carried us across the sea to Germany. I thought it was super cool haha cause its my first time travelling in this manner. Not that I have never been on a ferry before, but I just thought it was like a cool idea haha. Anyway, I tried to sleep for the rest of the bus journey but I wasn’t really successful cause I couldn’t find the optimal sleeping position so I kept turning and adjusting throughout the night haha. We reached Berlin around 630am in the morning and it was raining and super cold. The temperature was supposed to be around the same as Copenhagen but for some reason, it was just really cold there, even when it was all bright and sunny the next day.

We managed to get ourselves across to the other end of Berlin (where our hostel was) and threw our things into the luggage room first so we wouldn’t have to carry them around. We tried their 5EUR breakfast buffet which I thought wasn’t really that fantastic or worth it, cause it was just like different cereals, breads, hot drinks, some meat and cheese. But since it was raining and we didn’t know where else to go to find breakfast, we just settled for the hostel breakfast. After that, we headed straight to Brandenburg Gate for the free tour and basically went around the city looking at all the historic sights and buildings. I thought the tour was pretty interesting but like in Copenhagen, we have to walk a great deal and my new sneakers isn’t really suited for this kind of “long trek” so my feet was like aching a lot at the end of the day. After that, we had a very very nice curry wurst at a place called Curry 36 (I think it should be quite famous in Berlin cause there’s like a long queue for it haha). Hot fries + mayo + curry powder + wurst in the cold weather is just perfect haha. Last stop of the day was at Ritter Sport Factory where we just bought lots of chocolates. I bought like 2 packets of mixed ones and a box of assorted chocolates to distribute and “maintain relations” haha.

For the hostel, there were 5 of us in a 6-bed dorm so it was quite unlikely that anyone else would bunk in with us but they were like so worried about it all night. There were 4 beds at one side of the room and another 2 beds at the other side of the room. Looking at the combination of people there, it was no surprise that I ended up on the other side by myself (which I didn’t mind cause it just meant I have more space and privacy for myself). It was nice to just lie around on the bed while doing random things like listening to my mp3 player, entertaining and penning down random thoughts without having to explain or be disturbed by other people.

The whole of next morning was spent visiting a concentration camp, which I thought was quite disappointing cause there really wasn’t much impact to the thing and after a while, I got tired of looking at the same things. Should have visited other places but nobody else wanted to visit the places I’m interested in haha. I wanted to go visit this museum of science and technology (there’s an airplane parked over the rooftop or smth) cause it sounded like it had really cool plane exhibits and other stuff, Potsdammer Platz and this Panorama Café (which gives a 360 degress view of Berlin), as well as the zoo (they all stared at me when I mentioned the zoo, but I read online its really nice and the photos also look quite nice haha). It reminds me of the time when I was in Taiwan and nobody wanted to go up Taipei 101 to look at the night lights… sianz. That aside, we wasted some time heading to this Topography of Terrors exhibit which was like almost the same as the concentration camp (I’m not sure why we were so cultured and everything) but yeah so we went in for like 15min then headed back to Curry 36 for curry wurst dinner again =) After that we went to Kurfurstendamn (which was supposed to be like their shopping street) and Ka De We (a very big shopping mall) but the things there are like over-priced for me. We went into H&M and Zara to take a look but I didn’t anything in the end although I saw this nice-looking jacket at Zara on sale for like 26EUR. But I only had like 1+ EUR in my wallet cause I forgot to transfer money when we left this morning haha. After that we headed back to the hotel and slept early cause we had to wake up at 5+ am for the bus back to Copenhagen which doesn’t really have anything worth mentioning.

Overall, quite a nice trip although it could be better. And I was really thinking I should have applied for exchange in Germany instead. Not only are things cheaper there, but its like a million times more interesting than Copenhagen haha. Oh well, I guess some things can’t be undone so I shall have to stick to Copenhagen and work it though. I only spent about 100EUR in total in Berlin (excluding the bus transportation to Berlin and back). But I managed to buy this Brandenburg model for like 10EUR to add on to my collection at home. I think it will be super cool if I can like go around and collect models of iconic structures in various countries. And I have another photo to add on to my Connection photo album (left side of the blog)!

And I really hope my Sweden Northern Light Trip will work out next week!! Even though I may have to go myself and I may not get to see the Northern Lights at all, I still want to try for it haha. I can’t imagine what will happen if I do see it though, quite exciting just to think about it. And I hope I will have many many more trips to go after this, but after Sweden, I probably will lay low for a while to save more and make up for the Sweden trip haha.