Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em

Another Year...

2010-01-08T20:43:00.011+08:00

Actually I have nothing much that I feel like posting about. Just find that it's just another year... strangely I've worked for a pretty long time already... but the overwhelming amount of work just makes it fly by I guess. But it's only 'flying' based on a "look back and realise that I started work in June 09" kind of situation. The daily minutes, hours actually makes me tired and drained.

How can I explain myself?

It's something like, I feel energy going out of me like crazy, but the minutes and hours fly by because I simply have not enough time to do all that I want to do/ need to do. Griefs. And I'm not just talking about what I need to do for work, but also for other people around me and even for myself. Sheesh.

BUT let's not start the year with such emotions and thoughts. I'm happy to say that my quarter century age is due to come this year, but I am happy with what I have done with my life. Of course, there's more to work on, to improve, to change. But I just wanna say I'm proud of coming this far. Time to go further in 2010!!

Just to end this post on a lighter note, let me try to recap my happier moments in 2009... (It's based on my calendar records. I do not have super memory... haha!)

1 Jan 09 - Operation Marsbar =)

6-24 Jan 09 - Nepal: Amazing experience, out of this world. I had a great time with my squadmates - braving the cold, the 'waterfall' diarrhoea, the naans and maggie mee, the terrain. Loving the scenery, enjoying the tea, eating yummy dinners, talking, laughing and cheering each other on, watching shooting stars. Simply. Amazing.

26-30 Jan 09 - Fun in the sun @ Sabah with my family. Then kena burnt like lobster.

2 Feb 09 - Became radioactive for a day

7 Feb 09 - :)

10 April 09 - Yvonne and Daryl's ROM. One of my best friends! ;)

14 April 09 - Mortuary visit and viewed a full post mortem - and survived. Eeks but proud of myself.

Feb to May 09 - Weekly outings with my wonderful squadmates to various restaurants. Oooh the luxury and freedom.

7 May 09 - Passing Out Parade... a mark of completion and the proud feeling of being part of a parade. Proud of my squad.

8 May 09 - Sense of release, freedom? And yet sadness, knowing that another major part of my life has come to a close.

17 May to 20 May 09 - Chill out cruise trip with my momma. I love spending time with her.

23 May to 29 May 09 - HK and Macau... although it was rainy and mood dampening, it's the company that's important. Realised that Lowe and I 'click' as travel mates. Haha.

8 June 09 - First official day at work... the end of my super holiday... start of my nightmare job (ok, to give it some credit, I'll call it 'challenging'. Haha)

9 Aug 09 - Fortunate me, got to watch NDP live with Mel. Felt so part of my country.

16 Aug 09 - My first half marathon! I can't believe that I did it. :P

13 Dec 09 - Brother's baptism... rushed there after my 24 hour duty. And I was deeply blessed by his testimony - my bro's all grown up!

19 Dec - 24 Dec 09 - Fantastic break with a trip to Malaysia with my family. Really really really a lovely break.

All in all, I want to give thanks to God for being here in my life, through it all. =)

~ I find myself really happy with - when I think or be ~

Retail Therapy

2009-11-29T19:06:00.004+08:00

That's what I need now... haha. I'm having so much trouble deciding what to wear (even though I only need to choose on weekends) cos I think I'm bored with my clothes - either I keep repeating those that I like, or I now look fat in certain clothes, or I simply don't like some of the clothes anymore. Haha, don't mean to sound bimbotic! Anyway, I have not gotten anything new for about 9 months now... griefs! I'd like to have new clothes to wear, but to find time and energy to shop! Goodness, that's the hard part. :P

You'd Never Know When...

2009-11-18T23:07:00.004+08:00

You'd never known when you'd end up encouraging someone. I think somehow God factored that into His design. Why am I saying this now? Cos I have been receiving emails from a particular colleague. The emails contain fictional short stories that are like metaphors. Similiar to my earlier post on the Coffee Bean, Carrot and Egg. So anyway, my point is that I'm feeling pretty stretched this period of time... but I received a timely encouragement when I opened my email just now. I received this particular mail that lifted my spirit (Posted below). So it goes to show huh, don't unestimate a simple action - it could mean alot to someone out there! So that's why now I'm sharing this on my blog cos I think it's so meaningful and so appropriate to my circumstances now. =) I particularly like the ones in purple.

Things To Remember

I find what I look for in people. If I look for God, I find God. If I look for bad qualities, I find them. I, in a sense, select what I expect, and I receive it.

A life without challenges would be like going to school without lessons to learn.

Challenges come not to depress or get me down, but to master and to grow and to unfold thereby.

In the Father's wise and loving plan for me, no burden can fall upon me, no emergency can arise, no grief can overtake me, before I am given the grace and strength to meet them.

A rich, full life is not determined by outer circumstances and relationships. These can be contributory to it, but cannot be the source. I am happy or unhappy because of what I think and feel.

I can never lose anything that belongs to me, nor can I posses what is not really mine.

To never run from a problem: either it will chase me or I will run into another just like it, although it may have a different face or name.

To have no concern for tomorrow. Today is the yesterday over which I had concern.

To never bang on a closed door: Wait for it to open and then go through it.

A person who has come into my life has come either to teach me something, or to learn something from me.

~ You've made a difference. Trust in a God that is all powerful and loving. ~

Sighs

2009-11-17T21:04:00.000+08:00

As the title says.

Two Things in My Thoughts

2009-11-06T22:37:00.002+08:00

FYI: The previous blogpost was for fun. Haha... ~You know what I mean~

Anyway, the more serious thoughts that I've having these days are these two questions:

1) The value of life

I just started doing death cases. I think life is really fragile... it can go any point in time. And its the people left behind who would feel the loss. So live life to the fullest! What does that mean to me? It means not holding on to the temporary, living honorably, loving the people around, not holding on to the petty things like anger, bitterness, jealousy, etc. Basically all these are nicely elaborated in the bible! I hope to live the life that God has intended for me to live. =)

Anyway, value the life that you have. No matter how bad things may get, life is not yours. It belongs to God and partly to others as well. I think when one person dies, the person brings away part of another person's life.

2) The cost of justice

What is justice? Is it worth the cost? Who can determine who is right and who is wrong? I've concluded that truly truly, human level of justice is imperfect and merely the tip of the iceberg of what TRUE justice is. Re-emphasizes the point that only God is able to be the final, consistent, fair and able judge.

Anyway, it's really costly to have justice in this world - both monetary and in terms of time and effort. And if justice is costly even at the human level, imagine the cost of true and pure justice! I think that's why the cost of God's justice is Jesus. I can't understand it, but that's because I'm just human :P

Forced to do a blogpost

2009-11-06T22:36:00.002+08:00

~Nah! Rah! Grrrr! Hmmph!~

My Passing Out Parade (POP) Pictures

2009-10-24T23:15:00.001+08:00

Eh... I can't remember the date of this event either!!! Oh my gosh... haha. I think it was 14 May 2009? *Oops*

I'm one of the girls in front, just behind the parade commander... can spot me? Haha.

The gals of C1/08 and C2/08... with my Bruneian squadmates :)

A really cool picutre of the just SPF gals

Pinxy and me!! We look like kids.

Pa and Ma and me :)

My sisters-in-Christ!! Really so touch that they came to support me!! The flowers are from them... plus chocs :) Sighs, miss Bee! So long since we've had a chat.

Dinner time... so must wear this penguin-like attire... haha. With some of my fellow squadmates.

A year ago pictures... haha!

2009-10-24T22:44:00.000+08:00

PART 1: My Commencement... the day that I official graduate from my university... I think it was 14 July 2008. :P

My ISE mates :)

My Happy12Friends Gang... =)

My family without the "studio" look

My family with the "studio" look - I love the studio shots!!!

PART II: Hitomi and Andreas in Singapore

Andreas and Hitomi came over to Singapore (I can't even remember when!!!)

Taken in their hotel - Pan Pacific (Interestingly it's gonna be where Daryl and Yvonne will hold their wedding)

Shopping at Far East Plaza... we all bought the same pair of shoes! Haha, cos it was only $10 and Hitomi was the one who spotted it... Von and I would never have bought it if it was not for her cos it's the cutesy kind. Too bad I've only worn it once... :(

And dinner to end off the day!! We got almost the whole Finland gang to join us. It was a great day =)

Work is sometimes rewarding

2009-10-14T22:34:00.004+08:00

Since I keep going on and on about how terrible my work is (it still is... long hours, dreadfully never ending work, high stress, crap thrown at you), I've decided to add something nice. Just to end off my "Work is..." series. Haha.

Seriously, sometimes I find that I'm making a difference. But it's a rare feeling... mostly lasts for like 5 minutes. HaHA! I think sometimes I'm doing something good by removing some bad people from society. Other times, I'm doing something good cos I'm fighting for justice for some genuine victims.

One thing that I've learnt though, (Ariel will kill me for this... haha) crime is mostly because of silly people. Some commit crime from pure foolishness. On the other side of the spectrum, foolish people allow crime to be committed upon themselves. So you see, either way is not right.

Anyway, the rewarding part is when I remove those people who commit crime simply because they want to commit crime (i.e. no mitigating factors) and when I help victims who are unfortunate victims of crime (i.e. they did not bring it upon themselves from foolishness).

Another thing, I think MCYS is important, because generally criminals develop due to their upbringing. This reminds me of one of my most favourite movie and a quote from it:
"If you suffer your people to be ill-educated and their manners corrupted from infancy, then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded, Sire, but that you first make thieves and then punish them?" - Ever After

Ok that's all for tonight... so super duper tired, but somehow felt like blogging a bit. Nighty!

~ "Where's your sense of adventure?" ~

Work is extremely tough

2009-10-10T20:19:00.005+08:00

I'm suffering from a super jia lat fate for this month... I got four 24 hour tours... but the worst thing is the proximity of my tours... 6, 11 (only 3 days to breathe and complete my submissions) and then 22 and 26 (only 2 days?!!?!).

Actually I can swap if I wanted to I think, but it's such a hassle to find someone to change with me. So I just decided to deal with it. We shall see how it goes.

I'm also pressed on all sides for my project thingy in which I'm the chairman. ARGH.

I'm in whining mode... work is seriously draining... on thurs I went home at almost midnight cos I needed to finish up my submissions. Oh well.

But it's not only the physical element that is draining. I am also emotionally drained. =(

One good news: I finally managed to run today. FINALLY!! After almost 2 months. Griefs.

But at the end of all my whining, just like how a Psalm is like, I still want to give thanks for the things that I have in life. I have a wonderful supportive family, and great friends who are always willing to lend a listening ear. I am absolutely delighted to know that I have a God who loves me no matter what. And whatever that I'm going thru now is but a season in my life. Plus I get to eat good food =)

~ I am thankful to have you by my side ~

Work is destroying my running capability

2009-09-21T21:07:00.002+08:00

Haha!! Since my life is almost 70% filled with work stuff, I decided to start a series on "Work is...", just like how Friends the comedy always label their episodes with "the one with/that/etc...".

So, my episode two involves the sad fate that I've not run since my AHM. ARGH! How lazy I've gotten!! Cos I always give the stupid excuse that I'm tired (but to give my brain and body credit, I am really tired lah, but still...). Grrrrrr, my stupid brain is psycho-ing my whole body. No! I will not allow that. Ok, so my aim is that for this week, NO MATTER WHAT, I better go at least run a tiny wheeny little bit. Haha, hopefully in my next blog posting I will have a successful update. Haha.

Till next time! =)

~ You can do it... don't give up!!~

Work is destroying my stomach

2009-09-13T19:43:00.002+08:00

Sheesh... as what my title says... I think I'm developing gastric problems cos of my work. As some of you know, I work really long hours, and the worst is when I have 24 hr duty. I'm so busy and stressed during the duty that I don't have time to eat... sighs. Like for example, my most recent tour, I ate dinner at midnight and almost didn't eat anything until the next day dinner. And at one point I was in pain cos of gastric. ARGH. Seriously must learn to eat lah... but one step at a time lo... at least I'm still consistent about drinking water.

~ thinking of you and feeling proud of you ~

Coffee Bean, Egg, Carrot - Which one do you want to be?

2009-09-04T22:04:00.002+08:00

Once upon a time, there lived Mr Egg, Mr Carrot and Mr Coffee Bean. They all belonged to one Master and they lived in a shelf in the Master's kitchen.

One day, Master took out a big pot and filled it with water. He lighted up the stove and placed the pot on the stove. The water soon started to heat up and bubble.

Mr Egg, Mr Carrot and Mr Coffee Bean watched from their shelf, wondering what was going to happen to them. They all knew that the Master's intention was to place them inside the pot of boiling water.

Mr Egg thought to himself, "I must show that I am strong! I will not lean on anyone because I know I can make it through on my own"

Mr Carrot thought "Oh no... boiling water?! Oh no... I don't think I can go through this... Why must Master put me through this?"

Mr Coffee Bean thought "It's not going to be easy in that boiling water. Hmmm, but surely Master wants me to carry out His great purpose. I shall trust in Him, and I will do His will."

And so, Master did put all three of them into the boiling pot. And this is what they did:
Mr Egg hardened. Mr Carrot softened.
But Mr Coffee Bean did not change - In fact, he changed the water that he was placed in, such that it became a lovely aromatic coffee, pleasing to the Master.

Just to share some stuff, I think my work is crazy madness, but at the same time if I can make it through unchanged (i.e. coffee bean!! Yes!) I think I'll surely become a stronger person (stronger, but not hardened I hope!). Actually what I do is partially meaningful cos when the bad ass idiots get what they deserve it's a good thing... only problem is all the paper work. Haiz.

Anyway, I think that I'm really going crazy... haha, cos I dream about my work... I think I worry cos it's so easy to do something wrong... there's so many many procedures for so many different kinds of cases. And each case can also go a different route. Must learn to give to God my burden!

One thing though, as ZM and I were discussing, after seeing so many different kinds of lives out there... I think I appreciate my family, my friends and my background like mad... so really thank God for placing me where I am. If you think your life is like crap, think again! There's so many more messed up lives out there... Let's give thanks for what we are blessed with ya? =)

Army Half Marathon 21k

2009-08-20T21:00:00.001+08:00

Wooooo hooooo!!!! I did it! Haha... I'm very happy to say that I managed to run 21km in my life. Haha! I didn't think I could do it... actually I was very fearful the day before. Cos the most that I ever ran before was like 11km I think. =)

The run was good. Cos it was a nice route and could see many things around me. Plus there were really alot of people running, so it makes you feel more encouraged to press on! So I'm proud to say that I did it in 2h 45min. Hehe... at first I thought I would run for 4 hours... haha. So that's why I'm very happy with my timing!

After my 24

2009-07-04T22:46:00.002+08:00

ha... can't believe that I've already done two "tours" (i.e. 24hr duty work but in actual fact I'm working for 30++ hours)!

Just ended my second one today... sighs, hate the fact that all the pimples started to pop up half way thru!! Only half way and they were so obvious that another random colleague mentioned it as well. SIGHS. WHY?!?! Haha, as you can see, I'm whinning again. But this is important leh... I mean after all, which girl won't want to look good right? Booboo =(

When I got home today and settled down, I thought of watching a movie first, cos I thought maybe I should just don't sleep until early evening. But then when I started to watch a bit, my small eyes got smaller... haha, so that's when I knew that my body is saying "hello woman?! please go get a nap for goodness sake".

And I think it's now time for my good night's rest. =)

Whining the day before my D-day

2009-06-28T21:03:00.003+08:00

Strangly had the feeling of blogging. Haha... think it's cos I'm waiting for time to pass and to go to sleep early... which is soon (haha).

Anyway, tmr will be my first 24hr work thingy... Argh! I duno how I'll be like. I think everyone think's I'm very stressed. But I'm actually not. Sure, of cos I feel like I'm not as capable, but I'm determined to give it my best shot. Argh... really dun like that people keep thinking I'm stressed. And I also get the impression that people think that I cannot make it. Sighs... I hope not.

Ok, I should stop whinning...

I hope I can survive this two weeks ahead... think it was God's intention that my 24hr-tour is tmr, so that I lean on Him for strength and not on man.

- I think I'm deeper into the relationship than I thought I was and now I'm feeling it ever so strongly -

Charmed season 5 episode 2

2009-04-10T21:01:00.006+08:00

Phoebe: What do you want me to say?

Cole: You don't have to say anything. All you have to do to free yourself is admit how you truly feel about me ... in your heart.

(Phoebe looks at Cole, knowing that he's right. She closes her eyes and bows her head. As she admits how she truly feels about her relationship with Cole, her mermaid's tail transforms back into her pair of legs. Phoebe frees herself.)

(Cole stands and holds out his hand to Phoebe . Phoebe takes his hand and also stands up. Cole removes his jacket and tenderly places it around Phoebe's shoulders.)

Phoebe : How could you be so sure?

Cole: I had a feeling.

(Phoebe, warm and wrapped in Cole's jacket, lifts it to her nose and inhales. She smiles and looks up at Cole.)

Phoebe: I do love you, and I always will. But it doesn't change anything. It doesn't matter. It's over between us.

(Cole acknowledges what she says and says nothing himself. The two stand alone on the beach and looking into each others eyes as the camera moves to the ocean waves behind them.)

~you won't know how much someone means to you until you open your heart to admit it~

It's almost a year since my last post

2009-03-29T21:17:00.006+08:00

Actually... this post is for something that I wrote on 23 Aug 2008 but I realise that I forgot to post it... and that actually it's just a super summary. But whatever, I shall just throw it in for the sake of throwing it in. Haha. :P

But just to add on... so many things have changed since Aug last year... reading the things that I wrote in Aug feels so strange now. *mona lisa / introspective mood*

P.S. my 2.4km run record is currently 12.01min! =)

Fusion Post of Past Events (23 Aug 2008)

Cos of absolute lack of time combined with laziness… I shall do a fusion update of my past 4 months… haha.

Major events in my life in the past 4 months:

May
- Hitomi and Andreas came to Singapore!
- Went to the zoo and felt like a kid again… so fun!

June
- Went to Bintan, loved the company and had a crazy 2D1N there
- Managed to run to Bedok Reservoir and back!
- Managed to run to East Coast and back!!
- Had a great church camp at KL
- Went to Langkawi and had fun!
- Went to Genting for day trip but was a bit disappointing
- Ate like a pig at my auntie’s place at KL and was extremely reluctant to come back to Singapore :)
- Had many sister’s gatherings, sleepovers and outings!!

July
- Commencement and family studio photo (which I love!)
- Cut my hair very short… and I think it’s ugly *eeks*
- Started “work” aka training, which has been fun and interesting :)

August
- Passed my driving basic theory test
- Got a surprise birthday celebration from my squad, haha
- Ran 2.4km in 12 min 48 sec!! Gosh gosh

Korea!

2008-05-07T21:03:00.013+08:00

There and back again! Haha...

Anyway, to start off, I wanted to say this "Terminal 3 is super duper fantastic and beautiful". Haha, I'm so proud of Singapore's Changi. Hehehe.

Next thing that I want to say... don't ever take a night flight that's only 6 hours long. It was bad!!! We boarded the plane at around 12am, and then at 3am we had to wake up for breakfast. Faints. I was so tired for the whole day.

Anyway, when we arrived at Seoul, it was freezing (please note that it was supposed to be spring going to summer)! Only 9 degrees... and I've concluded that I've lost all my Finland training. Haha. If I remember correctly, while I was in Finland, I was happy that it was already 9 degrees - so "warm". Haha.

So anyway, here are some pics:

Kyeongbok Palace

This was taken in a musuem in the palace, but I think it looks very delicious! Haha.

Kimchi making process... looks so life-like right!

Yongduam Rock at Jeju Island

Korean snacks... haha.

Songsun Sunrise Peak... it's actually an extinct volcano

Cheongjeyon Waterfall (before the water falls down)

This is what it looks like when the water actually falls, haha

A "fairy" bridge

Inside the teddy bear musuem... with me trying to pose with a mona lisa smile :)

Mysterious road! It looks like it's going uphill right? Yet when the engines of the bus was switched off, the bus actually moved upwards instead of down! Haha... apparently it's cos the road is actually downhill, not up. But it seriously looks like it is an uphill road.

At a hotspring spa... I just like this photo cos I think I look like an actress! Hahahaha!

Dr Fish therapy... where you put your feet into a pond of mini fishes which will come and nibble off your cuticles... it's very ticklish!

Cherry blossoms! We managed to catch the species which blooms the latest (so it's more pink than the usual ones)

This is a super fun roller coaster that caused me to scream like mad. Haha, look at how steep it is!!

And how big it is! Haha, I had so much fun on it.

Beautiful hor? I love spring flowers... hehe.

A super cute Korean girl! Haha, I think there was a wedding inside this church, and this girl is probably the 'flower girl'. So cute!

Me wearing the traditional Korean costume, Hanbok

All the gals in my tour group. My tour leader is so obviously Korean right? One look at this pic and I'm sure you can spot her.

the so-called free woman for now

2008-05-07T20:51:00.004+08:00

As usual, I've left my blog to the rotting bits during my entire last semester. Haha. Here's a nutshell of my last sem in NUS:

I finished my FYP! Woohoo!!! haha (this is an extremely belated 'woohoo'... cos my final report submission was on 21Mar, while my final presentation was on 17Apr). But it was a good experience for me though, cos I was fortunate enough to get a fantastic supervisor. :) Although my examiner is not as good though... bleh. Haha.

I only had 3 modules in this last semester - FYP, SDP and Indo2. The first 2 are project modules, so no exams. Indo is non-examinable, i.e. only tests. HAhaha, so I'm proud to say that I basically have no exams at all! Muahaha, so on 26 Apr, which is the start of the exams in NUS, I was happily flying off to Korea with my moma for a holiday. Hehehe.

But of cos not everything is over yet... for my SDP I still have two presentations for it next week... eeeks hor? Still got a little bit more to go lah... but I'm not complaining (I already got a very good deal this sem)!

So I have 1 month more to go before I stop being a FREE woman... sighs... I have to start work on 7 July. Gosh. It's freaky cos I have no idea what I'm in stall for. Argh!!!

Oh well, haha, what else can I do but make sure my time now till then is used wisely!

Random stuff: Gingerbread, Expensive lunch, Finnish book

2008-01-21T10:59:00.000+08:00

Quite long ago... haha at the start of Dec, Melissa and I attempted to make honey gingerbread cookies/men/trees/whatever-it-looks like! Hahaha... it tasted a bit stange but ok lah. Haha... I named some of them "aliens". Anyway, the whole process of making the shapes was super funny... cos it was too gooey, so we had to work really fast so as not to lose any of "their" heads or hands or legs. So we made believe like we were surgens and they were our patients... faking the emergency and going like "Yes! I saved his leg!" or "Oh no! I lost his head!". Haha. But its cos it was like 1am and we were both tired and crazy.

A super expensive lunch buffet at Swissotel The Stamford (The hotel at City Hall)... it was $40 for each person... but we had a $60 voucher... so saved a bit.

This is a very exciting book to me! HAha... actually I found it in the youth section of the library... haha, it's about an American girl who goes for an exchange program to Finland! It's very fun cos there was Finnish icons, foods, language in the book and I recognised almost all of it! :) The title is "The Finnish Line"... haha of cos the pun is "Finnish" vs "Finish". HAha.

Penang trip with my family

2008-01-21T10:43:00.000+08:00

Here’s some pictures of the trip with my family to Penang (Malaysia)… :)

The view from my hotel room

The famous Penang Char Kway Teow and Penang Laksa... yummy!

Look at this interesting sight... a rotten 'building' in between two rebuilt/touched-up buildings!

My super cute niece

Brother, Father, Mother by the Penang beach... haha, it's a twist in the Goldilocks story huh? Haha... where Pa Pa bear is the biggest and Baby bear is the smallest. Hehe.

Bro and me

Blogging about my ridiculously long ago Europe trip

2008-01-09T00:05:00.003+08:00

Sheesh!!! I can’t believe I’m going to start posting about my trip around Europe… which occurred 6 months going starting on the 20th May 2007… griefs! It’s not even 6 months… it’s MORE than 6 months already! Haha.

So what inspired me to get my butt, or should I say fingers, moving? Marie. Who is my Italian friend aka ex-flatmate. Haha… she said I didn’t give her a chance to see the pictures that we took together in Rome. *oops, sheepish face*

What I’m going to do is to put up a summary of the trip… before school starts. Because if I don’t do it now when I suddenly feel the motivation, then I’ll end up not blogging for another 6 months. Haha!

Anyway it doesn’t matter lah… I seriously doubt anyone will read it, haha. It’s for me to just have some written form of memory of the trip :P

Here goes!!!

P.S. If you keep seeing me wear the same old clothes, it’s because I really don’t have much to wear! Haha… I think I only had 5 tops… until I reached Barcelona and bought a whole bunch of new tops. But by then it’s too late already… only 5 more days in Europe.

P.P.S Here’s the “content page” of my trip… hahahaha! (I must be doing too many reports… final year and design project! Haha)

1st ENTRY: To London…which, sadly to say, was “Friday 13th times a million” bad luck city for us
2nd ENTRY: To Paris…which was simply terrific
3rd ENTRY: To Lucerne…which was quaint and serene
4th ENTRY: To Interlaken’s Jungfrau… which was simply breathtaking
5th ENTRY: To Venice… which was old and romantic
6th ENTRY: To Florence…which is the birth place of Da Vinci
7th ENTRY: To Pisa… which had a cute leaning tower
8th ENTRY: To Rome… which meant that I could meet Marie again!
9th ENTRY: To Barcelona… which Gaudi rules, and Zara reigns
10th ENTRY: To Madrid… which was our weird food place
11th ENTRY: To Dublin… which is the land of luck, leprechauns and Guinness
12th ENTRY: To London, again… for it is time to go home!
13th ENTRY: To Singapore… home sweet home =)

1st ENTRY: To London…which, sadly to say, was “Friday 13th times a million” bad luck city for us

2008-01-09T00:05:00.001+08:00

First, the BA plane that we took was so uncomfortable, worse than some of the budget airlines that we took.

Second, when we landed, we had to wait so long to leave the plane cos of problems with the gate. And worse still, there was a problem with the walkway so we had to climb off the plane using the steps, and then had to climb up the steps to the airport, with our heavy hand luggage!

Third, the immigration people were mean and super unfriendly. (Hope I don’t get in trouble for saying this! Haha.)

Fourth, Daryl’s luggage got left behind in Finland – helloooo?! Talk about super “sway” (i.e. unlucky to the power of thousands.)

Fifth, our hostel beds were shaking and squeaky. And the wash basin had two taps, one for cold water and one for hot water – which meant that you either freeze your hands to death bushing your teeth, or you burn them. *roll eyes*

Sixth, it rained the next day while we were there (although this is probably normal. Haha)

Seventh is the worst and WORST and WORSTEST of all (Pardon the bad English… haha). It was horrors of horrors for us regarding our flight out of London. Of course it started off as an error made by Yvonne and me… we looked at the flight time instead of the check-in time. *sighs* Anyway here’s the story.

At the start, at Victoria station, we found out that bus took 1.5 hr to reach. And anyway we missed the bus. So we hailed a cab to get to King’s Cross station for 13+ pounds, when actually we have the rail pass. Then we ran like crazy to find the train which was not directly at King’s Cross but a bit further. Next we jumped onto a train which saved us a precious 8 mins. But we weren’t sure so I was like a crazy woman asking people “does this train go to Luten Airport?!?!” in a frantic voice. Reached station and had to go down so many escalators just to exit the place. And then, horror, must take 10min shuttle bus ride to the airport. Reached airport and, horror, the queue was super long (not exaggerating). I went to last min check in queue and we managed to get ticket (felt like crying by then). But before that, there was this ridiculous (age around 30plus) guy who cut my queue saying that “My plane has left”. Like as if that was a valid reason, rah. In my mind, I was like “hello??! My plane is going to leave lor!”. Ran to departure, horror, the queue for scanning was so long! One by one, asked for people’s permission to overtake them. Then one guy asked us to just cut the queue if we are desperate. And so we did… by crawling under the table (which was the barrier). We were so stressed cos we were scared that the authorities stop us, or that people would scold us. Finally, when inside waiting area, I cried in the toilet from all the pent up stress. And then, guess what? Our flight delayed for half an hour. Diao. In the end, I was so tired that I slept like a pig on the plane which I never ever thought I could do. I fell asleep after we took off and didn’t wake up until when it was going to land. Even then, Daryl had to nudge me wake… I didn’t hear a single announcement. Haha.

Some of the only perks we had in London:
We saw the London eye from the plane before landing and it was really pretty with all the lights switched on. While in the plane, we saw a fox outside in the field. My first time ever seeing a fox! Haha. We received good news about Daryl’s luggage (thankfully it was not lost) the next day. The highlight of the day was a buffet meal at Pizza Hut! Ting Jun is so nice, thanks (not that he’ll ever read this. Haha)! =)

*sigh* how sad that this is the version of London for us. Much later on when we were leaving for Singapore from London on the 17th June, we had trouble in London again. That will be for a later post.

Hyde Park

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

London Eye

London's "red telephone box"

The Pizza Hut buffet that made me so happy :) and full. Haha.

2nd ENTRY: To Paris…which was simply terrific

2008-01-09T00:04:00.011+08:00

Of course it was terrific. By itself, Paris was good already, but after what happened in London, Paris was practically lala-land of happiness for us.

One amazing thing that we did on the first day: we didn’t take the metro in Paris (which is a big city). We walked!!! Almost non-stop from 930am to 8pm!!! My feet were crying. But the weather was great, in terms of coolness, because it was around 20 degrees – just nice. :)

Second day was Disneyland day… nice and fairytale-ish. Felt like a kid again! But super expensive though. :P

Third day was photo taking day… haha, we basically went to the important places to take pictures, and again, my feet was dying from all the walking. And this time, so was my face and arms – the sun was super hot and I kena burnt.

On the last day we went up the Eiffel tower… it’s really pretty up there! Because most of the buildings around the Eiffel tower are short, so there was a great view of the whole city.

The view from the "second floor" of the Effiel Tower

The view from the other side

The view from the top... you can't see the background properly in the picture... but it was quite fun being up there. Haha.

Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame de Paris

Look at the beautiful stain glass window from inside the Notre Dame!

The Louvre

The trees in this huge garden (I think it's the Tuileries Garden) are very cute! They are trimmed into a rectangular box shape.

Les Invalides

Moulin Rouge

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

École Militaire

This is how burnt I got from the super power French sun.

Disneyland Paris! (From the outside) It was so funny when we reached there... cos everyone was running towards the entrance from the train station... no one wanted to waste any precious time there! (Cos it closed at 7... so it every minute was important)

It was Disney Paris's 15th year anniversary when we were there.

Sleeping Beauty's castle!

Obviously... (if you have a Disney childhood), this is Minnie Mouse. Haha.

Pinnochio... haha, it's as if we are kids...

It's a Small World ride... it's very pretty inside... all the different famous stuff around the world.

This is the Space Mountain. A roller coaster that is so super fast and crazy... it's the craziest ride I've ever taken before! At the start, normal roller coasters will move slowly up the slope and then start going down and doing all the crazy loops and all that. But the Space Mountain is not like that at all!!! It woooshes up immediately at a super high speed!

This is a picture of the picture that the roller coaster camera took (haha, save $$ ma). It's a bit blur cos Yvonne had to secretly and quickly take the picture. But it actually shows both of us screaming. Haha.

I think I look quite cute in this hat with all the luscious curls.

Then comes the Disney Parade! (Here are some of the many floats and characters then were in the parade.)

Toy Story

Timon and Pumbaa

Jasmine and Aladdin

Beauty and the Beast

Snow White and her Prince

Cinderella and her Prince Charming

Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip (Sleeping Beauty)

Princess Ariel and Prince Eric

3rd ENTRY: To Lucerne…which was quaint and serene

2008-01-09T00:04:00.009+08:00

The train journey to Lucerne wasn’t great, but the beauty of the town cancelled out the tough night’s sleep on the old train. Lucerne is like a town from a magical storybook. It just gives you a feeling of peace and calmness which I’ll never get from being in Singapore (haha, no offence to Singapore). The weather was good, so it amplified the town’s beauty – blue skies, clear lake, old-fashioned bridges, short pretty houses and people moving around unhurriedly. *dreamy sigh of contentment*

I’m sure Melissa would love this place. Haha.

Storybook sweetness

The Lion Monument

Chapel Bridge

Took a boat ride around the area... it was quite a long ride cos it's actually meant for travelling to other parts and not for tourists. Enjoyed the ride at the beginning, but later on I was so tired from the overnight train journey that I fell asleep. Haha.

The fabulous view from the hostel room window! :)

4th ENTRY: To Interlaken’s Jungfrau… which was simply breathtaking

2008-01-09T00:04:00.005+08:00

To start off, the scenery on journey by train from Lucerne to Jungfrau was lovely. That journey is known as the Golden Pass and is known for its scenic views. It was really a treat to see such natural beauty which cannot be found here in Singapore.

The Interlaken railway station

Unfortunately, there was a lot of bad weather for the first few days that we spent in Interlaken. So because of that we couldn’t go up Jungfrau, which is one of the mountains peaks of the Swiss Alps and it houses the highest railway station in Europe. Interlaken ended up being so cold that on the second morning, it snowed! In spring! Fortunately our hostel was warm and cosy :)

Very pretty right? HAha... I mean the background... *ahem* and me. Haha (nah kidding lah). As you can see, I'm wearing my jacket cos it was super cold on this day.

Look at the beautiful background! I love the scenery... *dreamy*

Extreme sports is also quite common in Switzerland... as you can see from the picture. And look at my horrible tan... haha, because of Paris.

Anyway, we finally managed to go up to Jungfrau and it was a fantastic experience. There was a magnificent view – just pure white snow and mountain peaks. My eyes would have suffered if I didn’t have a sunglass! It was also freezing because it was -7 degrees and we didn’t have our thick winter wear you see. Anyway, in my title I wrote breathtaking right? Well, it was breathtakingly beautiful, and also literally breathtaking. Cos the air is much thinner at that height. Hahaha!

Look at the price!!! My eyeballs nearly fell out of my socket when I saw this... 5 Euros (which is S$10) for this cup noodle which is only about S$1 here! Griefs... and the craziest thing was that there were many Koreans (or Japanese) eating it!

Look at the train! It looks so fake! Like it is a toy train or something... but it's not! Haha... cool huh?

Interesting fact: meat fondue = steamboat. :)

Anyway, I love the breathtaking views in Switzerland!

5th ENTRY: To Venice… which was old and romantic

2008-01-09T00:04:00.003+08:00

The towels that were placed on our hotel beds were folded into heart shapes! That’s how romantic it is. Haha.

Ponte di Rialto ("The Rialto Bridge"), a famous bridge which spans across the Great Canal

The beautiful, romantic view of the Great Canal from the Rialto Bridge

Anyway there were many glass things that were sold in shops because Venice is famous for the murano glass. There were also many masks which were really elaborate and glamorous (and expensive) – I would really love to wear one to a masked ball!

Of course there was also the gondolas which we didn’t take because it was simply too expensive. In reality, the gondolas are very grand and pretty… but you can’t see that clearly from this picture.

And pigeons! Goodness! Piazza San Marco ("St Mark's Square") had hundreds of pigeons all over the place!

St Mark's Basilica

St Mark's Clock

A zoomed version of the clock

This is the Bridge of Sighs... how it got it's name is very interesting. It is connected to the old prisons, and it is said that when prisoners were brought to their cells, they would sigh when they get the last view of Venice from this bridge.

6th ENTRY: To Florence…which is the birth place of Da Vinci

2008-01-09T00:04:00.001+08:00

I didn’t like Florence much cos I ended up with food poisoning on the first day… sighs. Florence had a lot of museums which really wasn’t my cup of tea. Not that we went inside any museums also, because the queues were simply too long.

The only historical thing that really attracted me was Michelangelo’s David… which I didn’t get to see either cos I was sick and the queue too long. Fortunately I could take a picture with a fake. Hahaha.

Michelangelo’s David

But the Duomo is really quite impressive I guess, it’s very big and iconic in Florence. We also managed to get inside without queuing much because we were lucky enough to be there when it just opened. Haha.

See how huge it is in comparison to the other buidings around it! And guess what? The above picture is a zoomed version using Yvonne's camera! It was so far away but still, look how clear it is! Haha... her camera is super zai.

Because I was sick, I could not eat from this famous ice cream shop which had many many flavours of ice cream! :( Boohoo.

And just some other stuff, Florence is known for leather, so there were many shops selling leather bags, belts etc. Florence is also the birth place of the famous Leonardo Da Vinci. I took a picture with “him”. Haha.

This is Ponte Vecchio ("Old bridge" in English)

7th ENTRY: To Pisa… which had a cute leaning tower

2008-01-09T00:00:00.001+08:00

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was unexpected… haha because it was so short!!! We bought tickets to go up, but there was a ½ hour time limit, so we were taking pictures like crazy, as fast as we could. Haha. It was fun climbing up the 7-storey Pisa Tower because it felt like topsy turvy inside there! Why? Cos the steps were spirals and combined with the tilting of the tower, I felt like falling while climbing the steps. Haha.

The Pisa Tower

One of the spiralling steps

The view from the top

The Pisa is round, this picture is taken by Daryl from the other side

Just a lame pose, hahaha.

Piazza del Duomo

8th ENTRY: To Rome… which meant that I could meet Marie again!

2008-01-08T23:07:00.000+08:00

Rome was exciting because Marie (my lovely ex-flatmate) was our tour guide! Haha… she could tell us all the historical and of course, architectural stuff (She studies that) about Rome, which was great because I could truly learn about the city from a local. =)

The more than 2000 years old Colosseum, Marie and me

The beautiful night view!

The Pantheon

Piazza Navona

Spanish Steps

Trevi Fountain

The Roman Forum

La Bocca della Verità ("Mouth of Truth" in English). There's this legend that says that if you put your hand in and tell a lie, your hand will be chopped off.

Michelangelo's Moses

Marie also brought us to a super big ice cream shop that sold more than 70 over flavours of ice cream!!! As you can imagine, haha, I was in ice cream heaven.

Different flavoured chocolate mousse

All the rich crazy chocolatey flavours! I loved the rocher flavour.

Fruit flavoured ice cream... can you spot the kiwi, coconut, pineapple, strawberry, lemon, banana and rock melon! haha

I don't know (can't remember) what these flavours are... haha

The more creamy flavours... one of it is a very yummy "Irish coffee" flavour.

And this is interesting, around Rome there are these water points that look like decoration… but it’s actually water for you to drink! It’s like really cool water coolers… haha. Obviously I would never have known that if it wasn’t for Marie.

Marie also brought us to eat at this Italian restaurant because the food was good and cheap (which it is because the price is the same as a restaurant in Singapore). It was fantastic to finally eat authentic Italian pasta. And we had this really interesting and super-lious dessert called cestino… it is a waffle bowl that had a delicious cream with strawberries inside.

On the second day, we went to Marie’s apartment in Rome cos she and her flatmates cooked dinner for us! So sweet right? Haha. It was nice to meet her two flatmates Fabiola and Elisa. Marie mentioned before that many female Italian names ended with “a” and many male names ended with “o”. (Marie’s full name is Mariantonietta). Anyway, they cooked ravioli, saltimbocca (which literally means “jump in your mouth”) and baked potatoes. Yummy!

Ravioli set on the table for us.

saltimbocca “jump in your mouth” which is Marie's fav :)

We went to the Vatican City on the third day… griefs. The queue to get into the museum was so super duper super duper long! This is even though we were there at 9am (it opens at 10am)! In total, we queued for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Never in my life have I queued that long. By the time we got in, we were so tired from the queuing that we didn’t want to see much. But I enjoyed being in the Sistine Chapel quite a lot… looking at Michelangelo’s amazing work.

Inside the Vatican Museum.

Then we went to the St Peter’s Basilica which is also part of the Vatican City.

Inside the church is another famous sculpture, Michelangelo's Pietà, which was one of his earlier works - makes me feel sad to look at this sculpture. Actually, I didn't know that it was Mary and Jesus in her arms after the crucifixion. I just thought it was a mother mourning for her son's death... which is technically true.

The Vatican city is guarded by Swiss guards whose uniforms are completely unlike the normal guard uniform. Haha, a bit like clowns right?

Anyway, two really interesting things happened in Rome:

One,
Did you know that we saw the pope??!! Not that it means much to me personally, but I think it’s like seeing the president or someone important in the world. Haha, who would think that I would see the pope on my trip in Rome!

Acutally I'm not 100% sure that it's the pope, but it seemed like him. Cos there were many people waiting for him to appear and police surrounding the area.

This the church were he was at. It doesn't seem like there's much people, but actually there are... the picture's misleading. Haha. This is the church near Marie's apartment also.

Two,
Bush came to Italy on our last day in Rome and we witnessed a huge huge huge rally against him! Never seen such a thing before, duh, such things are illegal in Singapore. There were tons of policemen to ensure that the crowd didn’t go out of hand.

The many many police cars at the back.

A small teeny part of the massive rally.

One of the many anti-Bush banners.

To end off, I’m going to say a bimbotic thing. I love the look of the Italian men compared to every other European country that I’ve been to. I think I like the dark hair, deep eyes look. Hahahaha!

9th ENTRY: To Barcelona… which Gaudi rules, and Zara reigns

2008-01-08T11:16:00.000+08:00

I found Barcelona to be a beautiful seaside city! I loved the place. For one thing, Gaudi, this famous architect, who built quite a few buildings there, made the place feel wacky and fun. Why? Cos he used mosaics! After seeing so much grand, huge and magnificent churches and other important buildings in the previous places that we went to, seeing Gaudi’s buildings made me feel happy and light for a change. Haha. Seriously! Don’t get me wrong, all the other grand buildings were impressive, but after a while, too much of it cause me to feel a bit oppressed. As a result, almost everything in Barcelona seemed different and unique!

Gaudi's buildings

Of course we visited the very important thing (I don’t know what to call it because it’s not a church, it’s not a building, I don’t know what it is actually) in Barcelona. It was also so different from everything that I’ve seen. I’m not even sure what it’s made of, but the sculptures of Jesus and all that look fascinating.

Anyway we also went to visit the football stadium, which was a bit disappointing because it was really dirty – there was a match just the night before so they haven’t cleaned it up yet.

And there was this fountain in the middle of a park which I completely fell in love with. It doesn’t look so nice in the picture though… but in reality, it’s big and beautiful, although it’s man-made.

Barcelona had this market place that was similar to our wet market but more high class. Look at all the gross looking stuff they sold! Haha!

Ok, this is not the gross part... haha but the nice part - the fruits are all so fresh and inviting! And I think I blended in with this stall. HAha.

Ok the gross part!!!

I think this is pig's nose.

My mom said that these are lungs.

Brains!

Kidneys, I think

And finally... heads!!! Ewwwwly looking heads.

10th ENTRY: To Madrid… which was our weird food place

2008-01-08T11:00:00.000+08:00

I stupidly booked the wrong date for the Madrid hostel… and so we ended up in a more pricy hotel cos everywhere else was booked… sigh. Thankfully Yvonne and Daryl were very supportive of me :). Thanks you guys!

On a lighter note, I enjoyed visiting the football stadium here. It was big and beautiful. Haha. Plus, it helps that I happen to like Fabio Cannavaro. (Not that I’m a football person though)

Inside the Santigao Bernabau Stadium

The Madrid bear symbol

We also went about eating really weird local stuff. Hahaha, it was a fun experience… here’s what we had for dinner:

orejas (pig ears), pulpo (octopus tentacles), lamb's brain and callos (bull kidneys).

orejas (pig ears)

pulpo (octopus tentacles)

lamb's brain

callos (bull kidneys)

11th ENTRY: To Dublin… which is the land of luck, leprechauns and Guinness

2008-01-08T10:50:00.000+08:00

Dublin was actually not one of the places that we intended to go, but Ryanair had this cool offer that we simply had to go… it only cost us 10 Euros (S$20) to get from Madrid to Dublin, and another 10 Euros to get from Dublin to London! I simply have to speak like a bird: “Cheap cheap cheap!”

Anyway, Dublin was freezing while we were there, probably because of all the rain. We ended up wearing multiple jackets again. Haha really déjà vu.

Despite the weather, and the fact that Dublin doesn’t have much to see, we loved the place. I think it’s because it’s mystical in a way, as if there’s magic in the air. And of course also because it had many cute souvenirs. Haha.

The Dublin Castle... and me wearing double jacket again.

Guinness pictures:

I like this Guinness advert... haha especially since I was dressed in Black anyway.

12th ENTRY: To London, again… for it is time to go home!

2008-01-08T10:35:00.000+08:00

When we got back to London… we had a bit of trouble again… part of the Tube was under repair… and just nice, it was the part that we needed in order to get to our hostel. Griefs. In the end, we took a long time before we reached our hostel.

Thankfully, that was the end of our trouble in London. After this, everything was good again. We met the nice boss from our hostel who booked a cheap “underground” cab for us to get to the airport. This is really thank God because we had so much heavy luggage and if he didn’t help us, we would probably have taken the tube and “died”. Why? Cos I could hardly even move with all the weight on me. Later on at the airport I found out that my backpack weighed 17kg (including laptop) and my check-in luggage weighed 24kg. I still can’t believe that I carried 17kg on my back! Faint.

Anyway the last meal we ate before we left was at this Nepalese restaurant which was cheap and delicious! The place was recommended again by the nice boss. It was really good eating something asian-ish (and curry!!!) after so long. :)

13th ENTRY: To Singapore… home sweet home =)

2008-01-08T10:28:00.000+08:00

The flight back home was comfortable and the food was the best aeroplane food I’ve ever eaten. Stepping back into Singapore ground and seeing my family and friends after so long was a truly emotional moment. Even now, after so long, I can still recall the powerful feelings I experienced at that point in time. It was a combined emotional rush of relief to be home, love for my loved ones, excitement to be back and other feelings like happiness, tiredness and heat (haha). All I could do was to hug them and cry and feel overwhelmed.

I really enjoyed and learnt a lot from my exchange to Finland, Europe. It truly is a once in a lifetime experience. I thank God that I have the opportunity to experience this because not everyone is so privileged and blessed with finances to go. The whole thing cost a bomb… S$17K, but the scholarship and award covered S$13K for me. Gosh, I’ll never forget this entire exchange experience! =)

home!

2007-06-19T18:43:00.000+08:00

Just got home last night... haha, yay!!! Home sweet home Singapore!

This is really my last post in Finland

2007-05-20T13:07:00.000+08:00

Today I leave Finland for good… deep sense of sadness to leave this beautiful, peaceful, cold place.

But I’ll be having a long holiday traveling and then it will be home!

See all of you soon!!!

Goodbyes…

2007-05-19T14:11:00.001+08:00

Today I’ll leave my nice big room with a lovely sea view – I’ll be staying over at my friend’s place tonight cos it’s nearer the airport. Already I’m so sad to leave the apartment and the school… what’s more Finland?

Anyway, this may be my last blog post until I get back from my Europe travel… so see everyone back home soon!!!

Dinner gathering

2007-05-19T13:52:00.000+08:00

Last night we had one last dinner together in Finland at Fu Xiang’s place… it was so nice! Cos there were all of the Singaporeans and some of our flatmates!

From left: Tuomas, Adriano, Carlos, Alvaro, Ivan, FX, CK, me, Nancy, PH, Daryl, Yvonne, Morwenna

Fu Xiang and Chee Kiang cooked this yummy lasagna, Ping Hong and Ivan cooked Japanese curry potato and chicken, Yvonne and I baked an apple crumble =)

Then I had a car ride back home from Tuomas and Nancy… it was the first time since going to Changi Airport that I sat in a car! Haha… it was on the “opposite” side of the road… hehe =)

Savonlinna

2007-05-19T13:50:00.000+08:00

I still don’t have all the photos yet… but I guess I can just write some stuff about it briefly (cos not enough time anymore!). The most major stuff that happened are:

We rented bikes and I cycled for the first time in my life across a distance of 40km!!! My butt totally died. Haha
At one point cos I was dreaming… I swerved and fell… result: 2 bruises on knees and 1 bruise on my thigh cos the metal keys pressed into my body when I fell.
At some point it was really hilly and I felt like we were just going up (which mean cycling like crazy) and then down (which is so fun. Haha)
At another point, the road was totally flat – but the wind was opposing us like crazy… so basically we were fighting against the wind.
There was a castle there, the Olavinlinna, which is my first castle that I’ve been inside to… It's very interesting... I will definitely put pictures of this when I get them.

one of my few pictures that I have with me now

Random Thoughts and Travel Itinerary

2007-05-16T05:10:00.000+08:00

Thought No. 1: The sun is crazy here… haha! It is peeking out at 330am… and it disappears only at 1130pm. In other words I got sunlight almost all day long.

Thought No. 2: I was listening to the theme song of Da Chang Jin and climbing up a hill using a bunch of step-like rocks (it’s the short cut to my place from the bus stop) and carrying a lot of bags (from traveling, shopping, groceries etc) and I felt like I was in a Da Chang Jin moment. Haha.

Anyway, I’m leaving Finland on 20th May to start traveling more of Europe. Here’s the plan:

20 – 21 May :: London, UK
21 – 25 May :: Paris, France
25 – 27 May :: Lucerne, Switzerland
27 – 29 May :: Interlaken, Switzerland
29 – 31 May :: Milan, Italy
31 – 2 June :: Venice, Italy
2 – 6 June :: Florence, Italy
6 – 9 June :: Rome, Italy
9 – 12 June :: Barcelona, Spain
12 – 14 June :: Madrid, Spain
14 – 16 June :: Dublin, Ireland
16 – 17 June :: London, UK
17 – 18 June :: overnight plane to HOME SWEET HOME!

Last Saturday’s dinner at David’s/KS’s

2007-05-16T04:15:00.000+08:00

I just got back from Savonlinna (which I will post on it after I get the pictures). Now is more of a belated post on a dinner hosted by KS and David – from Hong Kong and Germany respectively. So of course the dinner was a delicious fusion of the two cuisines! Haha.

the yummy food!

Left most is Edward Kim (from USA who's half Korean from his dad), right of him is David (from Germany) and bottom right is KS (from Hong Kong who studies in Tsing Hua Uni)

My last week in Finland

2007-05-13T05:39:00.001+08:00

It is now officially my last week in Finland… exactly a week from now i.e. 20th May, I’ll be leaving Finland for good and saying sad goodbyes to this lovely place I’ve come to know and love… sigh. Bittersweet is exactly what I’m feeling right now… tick tock… precious moments left to use as fully as I can!

Travel Helsinki and Sauna!

2007-05-11T16:02:00.000+08:00

Finally yesterday I traveled Helsinki, Finland with Marie… haha, so last minute right? Anyway, Finland is not really a touristy place to me… in a day you can cover the major places of attraction!

Here are just two pictures of what I feel are the nicer places…

The rock church which is very cool (in terms of “woah cool man” and not cool as in cold. Haha) cos it’s made of rock! Inside is very pretty too cos of the design.

This is the Sibelius Monument which again is distinctly special cos it looks like something out of this world… haha. It’s an art of pipes!

And oh ya, while walking about, we came across this place!!! Singapore! It’s under renovation so we weren’t sure what it was… possibly a restaurant, which is weird. Haha.

This is the sauna place Yvonne and I went to yesterday evening… it’s super shuang to do sauna in Finland!!! The sauna was super hot and when we want to cool down, all we have to do is go outside to the open. I feel so relaxed at that up to now I still feel mushy. Haha. Had a lovely evening of sauna here... =)

Seurasaari

2007-05-07T17:08:00.000+08:00

It’s an open air museum/ park in Finland… I went with Marie yesterday, and when we got there the wind was so strong! And we were laughing over these “seagulls” (not sure what they are but I think should be similar to seagulls)… cos they are the type of birds that glide rather than flap their wings. This means that they rely partly on the wind… and it was so funny because we saw them struggling against the direction of the wind and then suddenly they will give up and “wooosh” get swept away in the direction of the wind! It’s such a funny sight.

One of those birds

Another interesting thing is the squirrels – they are quite used to people feeding them, so they will come to you if you squat down and hold out your hand, even if you have nothing in your hand! Haha… anyway the squirrels are soooooo cute. Haha.

Squirrel!

We were able to get so close that Yvonne could take this picture using my camera… that means without her Canon power zoom! Haha.

Other than these, the park is mainly trees (the speciality of Finland) and the sea and some wooden houses which are what the people stayed in/worked in long ago. Just a sweet simple park – sorta like the nature of Finland (minus the beer drinking) haha.

At the park

First restaurant dinner in Finland

2007-05-07T16:39:00.000+08:00

I’m leaving Finland soon… haha so must at least try something more grand in Finland rather than just my own boring cooking!

Anyway on Saturday I went with (from left) Marie, Anna and Johanna (pronounced as “Yohanna”). They are all so pretty right?

It was such a lovely place… can’t really describe it, but it was so nice to just eat and chat there! We all had a great time I think =)

From left: Marie, Anna, Johanna, me

And I also learnt how to make Tiramisu from Marie! It's super duper yummy!

Yvonne and I also tried for the first time to make an apple crumble… haha it was quite nice except that we didn’t put enough sugar on the apples! But never mind… cos now we know!

Hot Sauna and then… woo hoo! Cold sea!

2007-05-07T16:33:00.000+08:00

Yups… I’m not lying… the title says exactly what I did! Ok, let’s start from the top. In Finland, sauna is a super tradition – apparently the no. of saunas is such that there is one sauna per 3 Finns! Anyway other than the sauna being a tradition, taking a dip in the sea after the sauna is also a tradition! And it doesn’t matter even if it’s winter – they will just dig a hole in the ice and then get into the water… talk about wooooah.

Anyway, I didn’t have the courage to do it in winter. Haha, but I did it last night… which was almost as cold as winter (it was 1degree last night). Muahaha – so I can now proudly say that I’ve gone into a freezing sea in Finland. Hehe. It was quite fun actually… cos at first I only put my feet in… and I was like “Alamak! Damn cold!” then after that I got my whole body in… for only less than a minute lah (I said dip… haha not swim). Then I just stood by the sea for a while, and that’s when a nice feeling will come cos the 1deg environment felt tingly “warm” in comparison to the sea. Haha.

And oh ya, did I mention that in Finland, you do sauna naked? Hahaha! But I was not brave enough… so I still had my towel wrapped around me. And I got to see a lot of naked girls… which felt weird at first... but then after a while I got used to it... haha.

I walked down this platform to get to the sea... (but it was darker when I got into the sea cos I went in after sun set)

Vappu/Wappu

2007-05-02T19:33:00.000+08:00

On May 1 is this big event Vappu in Helsinki… but festivals are celebrated on the eve, so the stuff actually happens on 31 April. So anyway, on this day Helsinki get really crowded with students as they prepare for this significant event of “capping” the statue Manta at Esplanadi Park.

They are washing the statue

Then she is capped

Once she is capped, then everyone will put on their caps

Anyway, on this day, many students from universities will wear their overalls – different departments have different coloured overalls. And their overalls will have different “badges” on them, cos it’s up to you to decide how you want to decorate your overalls. Here are some examples of the colours:

Purple

Pink

Yellow

This guy has a lot of badges!

Haha I bought one so I wore one too! My department's colour is white with rainbow stripes. It was really fun being part of the amazing student culture that they have here! And actually on this day, many people will drink like crazy… so a lot of people were holding wine glasses and beer cans/bottles.

Helsinki Zoo

2007-04-29T03:41:00.000+08:00

Today the Singapore gang went to the Helsinki Zoo! It’s not fancy and beautiful like Singapore’s zoo… it’s more like a park. I shall put up some pictures and tell you about the lion story!

The entrance to the Zoo…

Monkey, duh. Haha but quite a cute one

An eeeky anaconda!! Haha this picture is to make my mom get goose bumps Haha!!

A really disgusting duno-what

This is a mongoose… and guess what? Haha one zoo “tour guide” took some rose beetles (which was an exhibit opposite from the mongoose) and fed the mongoose!!! Hahaha it was quite a funny scene… an exhibit feeding another exhibit. *faintz*

This is a real crocodile… riiiight

Camels!

Brown bears

3 owls in a row! Haha so cute

Ok, there are more animals but nothing fantastically different; these are the slightly more blog-worthy ones.

Now for my lion story!!! Ok see this lion? It’s less than a meter away from me… security is not very high you see. Anyway, stood there for quite a while talking and making noise to see if he would “wake up” and face us… and we were all joking about grabbing a long stick (which so happened to be one the ground in front of us) to poke it.

I forgot to mention that animal rights people please dun get offended.

Anyway, ya, so I was saying that in Singapore you’ll never get this close to a lion! So close that you can actually put your finger in there and touch its fur (which of course you would probably not get your finger back, haha). Anyway we lingered there and then I got tempted to try getting its attention.

See this little stick? I threw one at him… and then *jaws music*. The little twig brushed the lion’s mane and wow, he’s reflexes are amazing!

In a split second he practically jumped up into this position with a growl. And xia4 si3 (stunned) the guys who didn’t know that I just did that. Haha.

So then he turned around to face us… which was totally fun cos we got to take so many close up pictures with him!

And then… he stretched and gave a huge yawn!

close up of the yawn!

And then after a while… he returned to his backside position… haha.

That’s all! But it was really cool to have a chance to be so close to a lion!

“Overview”

2007-04-26T00:55:00.000+08:00

HAha… I’ve just flooded my blog with 5 new long posts about each country which I visited… so this is a warning and an overview! Haha!

Berlin – fantastic for all it’s history stuff
Prague – food fest cos of the Easter market
Vienna – picture taking and I find that it’s a beautiful place
Brussels – ASAP, chop chop see stuff
Amsterdam – fun fun fun
Stockholm – only a short while there but it seriously feels like 3rd home (cos it’s similar to Finland, except that they have more people living there. Haha.)

Anyway, just to sum it all up, I enjoyed my Easter trip and it was great that everything went pretty smoothly on the trip!

Germany - Berlin

2007-04-25T17:13:00.000+08:00

Okays… I’ll start with three things which are completely irrelevant but cute/interesting… haha, firstly their traffic light!

See the green man?

Now the red man!

The second thing is that while we were in Berlin, the sun was super strong and it was actually hot! I didn’t have to wear my jacket! For the first time in Europe I walked out of my room (in this case hostel room) like as if it was Singapore. And guess what? I got sunburn! So fun! But even though it was “hot”, it’s still not like Singapore hot. Haha.

And the third thing is… guess what? The world is getting small, seriously. Cos I crossed paths with Michelle in Berlin! Goodness! Haha, again nice to see a familiar face!

Ok back to serious stuff. Berlin is a very historical place… and I totally loved learning about the history! Gosh… I think I’m still a history bug at heart. Haha. I’ll love to share all about the stuff I learnt… but that will make my blog too wordy. Haha, so sadly I’ll have to skip that… anyway, here are some of the many pics!

Holocaust Memorial – this design for the memorial has a lot of symbolism… and it was inspired by the Jewish Cemetery (which was the one I visited in Prague! – this is why I said to take note of that picture)

Brandenburg Gate*

Berliner Dom

A lovely rainbow which was in the garden (Lustgarten) in front of the Berliner Dom

A memorial to the books Hitler burnt… it’s a room of empty shelves build underground at the spot where the books the burnt. Again, it has a lot of symbolism involved.

Gendarmenmarkt – there are two identical churches here facing each other (again for historical reasons)

Close up of one of the churches

The Berlin Wall - with Yvonne and I doing a wu liao pose. Haha.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church*

Siegessaule

Reichstag*

On top of the Reichstag

Inside the observatory… can you find mini me? Haha I doubt it.

Ok! Serious stuff over. Here are some pictures of a chocolate version of some of the above places!!! Amazing right?

Brandenburg Gate

Reichstag

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

And of course… food!

My third ice cream in Europe! This one is the cheapest and really nice to eat! Again, it’s Italian ice cream… =)

This is a famous currywurst store (the hostel people told us)… currywurst is a sausage (Germany’s famous for that) with curry ketchup and curry powder on it.

This is a super yummy kebab! It’s very very nice to eat lo! As a side note, Germany is the one which started the doner kebab (bread with the meat)!

Czech Republic – Prague

2007-04-25T17:08:00.000+08:00

I’ll start with the hostel… it was also a unique hostel cos our lockers where located below the beds!

Haha… and for the first night I had a good laugh because this was what happened:

Me: after you lock the bed where are you going to put your keys?
Pinx: I’ll just put it in my fbt pocket (in case you don’t know fbt is the brand of shorts that we wear)
Me: huh… isn’t that so comfortable to sleep with keys in the pocket?
Von: actually, do we need to lock since we are sleeping on top?

And then I could not stop laughing for a while at my own blurness. Haha.

Anyway, an irrelevant point: the hostel owner, Lubo, was a very funny guy… not in terms of jokes, but in terms of his mannerisms… haha, he looked abit like and spoke like Borat!

Now for some pictures of famous Prague stuff…

The Astronomical Clock

Charles Bridge

Prague Castle

Jewish Museum (one of the 6 synagogues which are now functioning as museums)

This is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Prague and it is believed, that it is also the oldest Jewish cemetery in whole Europe… and the fastinating thing is that people were buried in layers due to limited space… the most crowded part is up to 12 layers! And take note of this cemetery because I will refer to it in my Berlin blog post.

Ok, now about the Easter Market!!!

It was this that made the time in Prague so fun! Cos we got to shop around for things and to try many different Prague food here! Haha… I shall put the pictures in the order of the yummiest one coming first (but seriously almost all are really delicious).

1) Trdelnik – it’s like sweet biscuit and bread combined… will surely sell like crazy in Singapore if we had it at home.

2) Grandma Pancake – like really thin pita bread with tomato, herbs and cheese inside.

3) Roasted pork in hot dog bun – yummy!

4) Potato Cake – like potato pastry with garlic and melted butter spread on it

5) Roasted almond with sugar – very nice also!

6) Czech wafer – it reminded of the Apollo wafer we have at home, but the hazelnut flavour is quite nice.

7) Langose – this is like a huge circular you tiao with cheese… it’s not as nice as the rest, but still not bad.

And we also had fresh stroop waffles!! This is not in the list because it’s Holland food. Haha, but we didn’t have the chance to try the fresh ones in Holland, so it was very nice to eat them here. The owner comes from Holland… and the waffle is really delicious.

Ok that’s all for the Easter Market food… haha now I shall talk about my most lovely meal in Europe so far. We went to this restaurant and I had rabbit’s leg in cream sauce and jasmine rice… oooh, it was so nice and only cost 8euros! Maybe you are thinking “8euros is S$16… cheap?!” but it is in Europe terms! In Finland for 8 euros I can get a McDonald’s meal and with about 2euros left for a doughnut. That’s it. But in Prague, I had a lovely restaurant ambience and delicious exotic food! Rabbit tastes like very soft chicken.

Austria - Vienna

2007-04-25T17:01:00.000+08:00

Vienna was nice because there was very minimal need to spend money there! Haha. Anyway, it truly is a very musical, artistic place. And Pin Xiu joins us here! It was so nice to have her with us =). The below pictures are just some of the many places we visited in Vienna… haha, see below these following pictures to read more about the less touristy stuff. Haha.

Kunsthistoriches Museum

Nationalbibliothek

Parliament

Vtoivkirche

Really beautiful flowers near the Vtoivkirche

Schönbrunn

United Nations Organisation (UNO) - we spotted the Singapore flag and were so excited over it. hahaha... must be because we miss home.

Prater Amusement Park - a significant landmark in Vienna cos it's a really old ferris wheel

More lovely flowers at the amusement park

Stadpark

Kursalon

Belvedere

OK! The nice pretty pictures end here. Haha… now for the more wu liao type of things. Haha!

Our hostel had triple decker beds!!! Haha, never seen these type of beds before.

Opera Toilet – amazing right?! Haha I told you Vienna was musical.

The most yummy pizza that I’ve eaten so far is from Vienna… gosh the amount of meat for a price of 2.50 euros!!!! Ok, I look greedy here I know, but it's shared among the 3 of us hor!

My second ice cream in Europe! This one is super duper yummy – I think it’s Italian ice cream. Anyway, their “one” scoop is actually 3 small scoops of different flavours… mine was rocher, nutella, stacciatella (similar to chocolate chip flavour).

Look at this!! I found this absolutely artistic and beautiful and math-ish at the same time. Hahaha! It was located at one of the train stations. It’s a very long stretch of mirror with the value of π (pi) = 3.14…… all the way!

And this!!! These are real painted egg shells… they were absolutely beautiful – I wanted to buy the entire shop home… they were so pretty and delicate!

Belgium - Brussels

2007-04-25T16:58:00.000+08:00

Brussels was more a transit place for us (cos flights to and out from Brussels was cheap) than an actual place for us to explore (we didn’t have enough time in this trip to stay longer in Brussels).

Anyway, this is the Grand Place.

And this is the lovely Manneken Pis! Haha – he’s so cute in “real life” because he’s so small and tucked in a little corner! We saw him naked, but they will dress him up in different costumes now and then! So cute right?

His actual size in comparison to me. Haha.

The famous Belgium waffles! Yummie!

My first outdoor ice cream in Europe! It got cold after a while especially after the sunset. Haha!

Anyway, we slept in the airport in an attempt to save money on accommodation and so that we can say that we have the experience of sleeping in an airport! Haha… it wasn’t great, duh, but oh well, for the experience!

This is my sleeping corner. Haha.

And this! Can you see my shoes being pressed by the bench legs? Hahaha! My shoes were “crocodile-ing” so I had to glue them back. Current status of my shoes: they are on the verge of relapse again.

Netherlands (aka Holland) – Amsterdam

2007-04-25T14:39:00.000+08:00

The main streets where all crowded with tourists and locals which was nice (it’s a totally different feeling from Finland). Haha, and it felt a bit like being in Singapore again except that it was quite cold!!! There was a lot of wind which made the place cold.

We took a canal cruise which was fun cos I don’t remember doing this in my holidays, haha. While on the boat, we learnt that the houses were so narrow cos it was cheaper to build deep inwards rather than wide. They were also flat cos the stairways were so narrow that furniture had to be shifted in from the windows!

Of course, I also walked down the infamous Red Light District of Amsterdam... which was an eye opener... cos there were really red lights at the windows which had girls flaunting their stuff behind the glass... wearing very minimal clothes. There was also a bunch of "theatres" which offered their audiences live sex shows. Hai, felt sad about the girls. Side note, this area is actually the safest area in Amsterdam (one of the tour guides said) because many policemen patrol the area!

On the left is are the “red glass rooms” where the girls would be “working” and when a deal is made they will draw the curtains. The Moulin Rouge thingy in the middle is one of the theatres which I was talking about.

And guess what? Just behind the Red Light District is Chinatown!!! Haha I was so excited cos it’s the first time I’ve seen a Chinatown in Europe (Finland unfortunately does not have one… we only have ONE Asian shop… haha believe it or not.)

See, haha I found Singapore in Amsterdam. Heehee.

We also went into the Heineken brewery! It was a super fun brewery! There was a lot of fun stuff to do while learning about brewing beer – there was one simulation in which we were beer bottles. I realise that I cannot say what it was like without making it sound boring… so I can’t explain the fun in words… haha you just have to be there to enjoy it.

Heineken beer

Finished!

HaHa!!! Just kidding lah… you think I can finish beer?! Pleeeaaassse… haha that wasn’t my cup… mine was Pepsi. HahaHaHAHhaa – you could choose between which drink you wanted. Since I don’t like drinking plus I cannot make it, I took the Pepsi. Hehe.

Heineken is from Holland! Haha, duh.

Anyways, I also visited the Amsterdam Arena which is a beautiful stadium! Here are some pictures

The outside

The inside

Inside the control room!!!

Inside the press room!!!

These are the two most significant things which I ate in Amsterdam!

Fake Chinese food which I’ve wanted to try for a long time already cos of the box (which you always see on TV. Haha) It was ok lah, the best part was that they had super hot chili which was yum yum, especially after not having chili for such a long time.

Stroop waffles!!! Oh man, they are fantastic… please go eat them if you ever get the chance. Wanted to bring home so that family and friends can try… but then it’s the fresh type so it expires too soon… booboo.

And finally… we went to Zaanse Schans to see windmills, went to a cheese shop and ate a lot of different types of cheese, and also visited a wooden shoes factory.

Zaanse Schans looks like a place inside a storybook... very lovely

Windmill upclose

Ate lotsa cheeeeese! haha

The wooden shoes place...

Oh yeah! We met Stella in Amsterdam too… haha. Cos we stayed in the same hostel. So fun to meet familiar people!

To end off…

we saw the famous Holland lilies from inside our train to Belgium, Brussels… haha. They were beautiful!

Sweden – Stockholm

2007-04-25T14:11:00.000+08:00

Ok! Finally I’m blogging about the first part of my trip… the Viking Ship to Stockholm and Stockholm itself (we only spent like 7 hours there cos unfortunately we could not get the ship tickets which leaves on an earlier date.)

So anyway, here’s one picture of the ship which is so comfortable that each time we took it (so far we have taken Gabriella, Rosella and now Mariella) we slept so comfortably – from 9pm to 9am!

So in Sweden… well, don’t have much pictures of it cos we’ve been there once before. This time we got to walk about in the Old Town which was really fun. See this picture of Easter chocolates (literally Easter, haha)!

It's all chocolate!

We also visited the Vasa Museum to see this ship which is really old. It sank in 15 minutes after it set sail on its maiden voyage, unfortunately…

This is just the scenery of one part of Stockholm… haha I just felt like putting up this picture because I think I look super overly sweet. Hahaha!

This is the very first budget flight that I’ve ever took in my life… haha it was an interesting experience because of 3 things that happened which never happened to me before
1) It was free seating so everyone was like rushing to get in
2) I actually saw another plane fly pass while I was inside this plane
3) When we landed, people clapped! Like as if we just watched a performance… haha.

Aiyo...

2007-04-23T02:37:00.000+08:00

I say "aiyo" cos I have 2 weeks worth of travelling that I'm supposed to blog about... BUT it's so overwhelmingly much that I'm very lazy to do it... so I guess I will do it when I feel less lazy. Haha...

Actually I got back on 16th April... just that I've been watching (I am totally addicted to) Grey's Anatomy. Finally yesterday, I've finished watching what I have so far, that's why I'm finally putting up a short little blog post to say how absolutely lazy I am feeling right now. Haha.

I'll try to do it soon... haha, no promises.

Anyway, I totally enjoyed my time in church again today... although I had to drag myself out of the room (cos I've been a couch potato) which took all of my will power. I really like my church here... one thing that I will miss other than the "free aircon" in my room. It's so hard to say "oh, I'm leaving and not coming back..." - makes me feel so so sad. It's such a sweet little growing church with fantastic sermons, improving worship singing and growing worship team, lovely people, simple heart for God. It's really cool to see the church grow, seriously cool.

And oh yeah, since I got back from the Easter trip, I'm having a serious case of homesickness... oh well, must get over it cos I must treasure this last month that I have left!

Easter trip!

2007-04-02T04:47:00.000+08:00

Yvonne, Daryl and I will be away for a long time… 2 weeks! Starting from tomorrow… I’m scared! Haha, cos traveling independently for such a long time for the first time! This is our “itinerary”

2 - 3 April: Sweden, Stockholm
3 - 4 April: Belgium, Brussels
4 - 7 April: Holland, Amsterdam
7 - 9 April: Austria, Vienna
9 - 12 April: Czech, Prague
12 - 16 April: Germany, Berlin

And then home sweet home Finland (2nd position after Spore… but I’m currently extremely in love with Finland, haha)

And then… *jaws music* we must pia for our project presentation on 18 April.

And I’m sad cos I missed April’s Fool Day without even realizing it… did play prank on anyone! Booboo. Haha, bright side – I didn’t get “played on” either. Which means all my church friends are really sweet people. By the way, today we had visitors at our church from the boat missionaries... unfortunately, I cannot remember the names of the boats, but church friends you should know what I'm talking about, haha.

BBQ and Stockmann shopping

2007-04-01T01:18:00.000+08:00

Because I was studying for today’s exam… haha so the BBQ is a late post. We had a mini BBQ with Hitomi and Andreas on Thursday. It was so interesting! Having a BBQ in Finland, out in the cold, by a frozen sea, with a lovely setting sun. =)

Just a dolphin person... haha!

Today after my exam, we went to Stockmann to see what we can buy, cos it was having a huge sale, supposedly. Everyone was walking about with the yellow Stockmann bag! It was as if everything was so cheap… or free even. But nooooo, things were still so expensive… so I wonder what people were buying. Maybe for Finland it’s cheap already? Haha… I duno.

Irrelevant note: this is officially my 100th blog post. Hahaha!

Drunk guy and birthday party

2007-03-28T04:33:00.000+08:00

Today two unrelated eventful things happened… this is going to be a very wordy post… but I recommend reading it if you have time.

Drunk guy

This morning, at 430am, while I’m sleeping – and in a very deep state of sleep – I thought I heard a knock on my door. But it was so vague that it didn’t really penetrate my consciousness until the next knock. I got up to open the door… but not really expecting anyone cos I thought I was dreaming. But Lina was at the door! (Lina’s my flatmate).

She told me somebody had been trying to get into our apartment for the past 15min! At first I thought “ah?! Break in??” but she went on to say it was probably someone so drunk he didn’t know that he was at the wrong house. We didn’t know whether to open the door to tell him that he was at the wrong place. But in the end we decided to open it… not very smart actually, but cos we knew that Marie had two visitors (one guy and one girl). So we were thinking “well, at least if anything, we can get them up and it will be 5 to 1 with a guy on our side”.

So ta-da! We opened it to see a big sized drunk man. He kept insisting that he stayed here! And he kept trying to get in while saying all the time “I live here, I live here. I got the keys”. No matter what Lina said he replied that.

And then… *jaws music* he pointed to my room and said “that’s my room!” At that point in time, I panicked a bit. I was thinking “Alamak! I don’t want a drunk man to fall asleep in my bed!” That’s when I went to my room, grabbed my keys and locked the door. The guy was just standing outside my door, he didn’t try to budge in, though he said “what the f***” Then I think he tried his keys on my door (but I can’t remember whether he did), and that was when it hit him. Haha… and he was like “What floor is this?” and we were like “3rd!” and then he went “I live on the 4th floor… I’m so sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…” he apologized all the way out of the apartment.

What a night/day! Fortunately, nothing serious happened due to our stupid move. But then again, I think Lina would have been very disturbed by the key noises he was making as he tried to enter, especially since her room is so near the door (which I agree is unnerving… feels like someone is breaking in).

Birthday Party

Tonight was the surprise birthday party for Yvonne, and a non-surprise birthday party for Hitomi… haha let me explain. I organized a birthday party for Hitomi, without telling Yvonne that it was a double party so that it will surprise her. So it started off with a dinner party for Hitomi with just Andreas, Daryl, Yvonne and me. Then the guys (PH, FX, Ivan, Chee Kiang) rang my doorbell fifteen minutes later. Haha, they brought the lighted candles in and started to sing the birthday song while I got Yvonne the mudpie which I made previously… and Yvonne had no clue at all (even after the birthday song started) until she saw the words on the mudpie cake!!!

Then after that we sang another song for Hitomi with another cake – chocolate cake – which had her name it on written in sugar. Haha. It was such a nice moment… the singing and celebration. And later in the evening Dirk dropped by, but Marie wasn’t around, so I invited him to join in… making it even more like a party cos more people! (There were 10 in total).

"Happy Birthday" "Posters" and the bday girls

Hitomi's chocolate cake with her name in sugar

Above is Yvonne's ice cream cake (aka mudpie) with chocolate words

So anyway, we ate a lot of stuff! Mee Fen (aka Bee Hoon), sushi, pizza, nuggets, green bean soup, and of course the two cakes – I was so full after all the food. And we ended off with a bottle of champagne! We did a really loud “yum sheng”! Haha. (Of course I drank only a few sips. Heehee) And I concluded that my mini kitchen is amazingly equipped with sufficient plates, cups and utensils for 10 people!

champagne with all the mugs/glasses available in my kitchen... haha, looks so odd but cute right?

The whole gang... and all inside my room! It's cool to be able to have a sufficiently big room to have this party.

I had a great time in church today

2007-03-25T20:27:00.000+08:00

As the title says… haha. Today was great… first there was this nice testimony from this guy. About how he had been spiritually dry, and the worship just lifted his spirit. Sounds like nothing much, but it was how he spoke – with heartfelt emotions and gratitude =)

Then the sermon was fantastic! (Actually Pastor Shaun’s sermons have always been very nice, today’s was simply more exceptional). It was about the alabaster jar again… yet although it’s a familiar story I think I learnt more from this message than any other message I’ve ever heard preached/taught about it.

After the sermon there’s always sharing (my church here has a more relaxed environment, so Sunday services are like service-cum-cell group). And I really enjoyed today’s sharing too!

And at the end, we sang this song that I’ve never heard before, but I think it’s an old song… I love it – but sadly I can’t live up to the lyrics...

Basically, it was a great morning… the sun was shining, the sky was clear, (irrelevant side note: the moon can also been seen even though it was 1pm. Haha), the food at the service was delicious – thanks to Katya, Ps Shaun’s wife (there’s refreshments at the services… very nice and homely feel right?), I feel more and more at home with my church and new friends, and the service was simply lovely. =)

Here’s the lyrics to “Surrender”

I’m giving You my heart, and all that is within
I lay it all down for the sake of You my King
I’m giving You my dreams, I’m laying down my rights
I’m giving up my pride for the promise of new life

And I surrender all to You, all to You
And I surrender all to You, all to You

I’m singing You this song, I’m waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss
For the sake of knowing You, for the glory of Your name
To know the lasting joy, even sharing in Your pain

1 hour… poof

2007-03-25T05:54:00.001+08:00

Today for the first time I’m going to lose 1 hour of my life due to daylight saving changes… so officially, my 3am will become 4am… gosh. Haha.

Anyway I went shopping with Hitomi today. It was fun cos we both bought the same top! (Girls like to do such things – generally speaking of course. Haha).

working on our project a in lovely environment

2007-03-23T23:15:00.000+08:00

This is the very comfortable, aesthetically beautiful, quiet place that we have in our department where we have been doing our project for the past few days! Makes the project seem so much better right?

Side note: Today Yvonne and Daryl played a prank on me… which was absolutely hilarious… Steven and I were laughing like crazy over this:

A bunch of stuff

2007-03-22T03:53:00.000+08:00

I have a bunch of miscellaneous stuff to update… haha.

I’ve been to an ice hockey match (yesterday)!

It was fun to watch! (Price was quite “fun” also… 26euros! Faintz) but anyway, it was worth it cos I know it’s like once in a lifetime! Plus it makes a set – cultural ballet in Russia, and now sports in Finland. Haha.

Anyway, about the match… the home team lost 2-4 unfortunately for them. But the last goal was really a lucky goal. Cos there was only 1 minute left and the score was 2-3, so the home team substituted the goal keeper such that the whole team of 6 could be on the attack. Then while everyone was on the other side of the court, the opponent tried to clear the puck back… and ta-da! Amazingly, it went straight into the goal from across the court! Other than that, there was some drama in terms of fighting… but honestly, it was quite fun to watch them fight… (heehee, evil laugh). But overall I had a great time watching the game – the guys are so good in their skating control! The entire game actually looked graceful but at the same time violent. Hahaha.

in the stadium

at the start of the game... with the cheerleaders in the middle

during the game

I had a candlelight… toilet!

The light in the bathroom fused… and amazingly, the toilet does not allow any light in at all! It was pitch black, i.e. I can’t even see my hands, even during the day! (I think cos the insulation is good so that we don’t feel cold… cos no light in probably means not much air can get in either.) So Lina placed a bunch of her aroma candles in the toilet and her lighter… so each time we went to the toilet we lighted the candles… but it was not romantic (haha duh!)… it just reminded me of fright night! Eeeks.

I had a mix-up fun dinner

Today I cooked miscellaneous local stuff for Lina and Marie. Haha… I cooked prata (the frozen type… and made in Singapore! hahaha), tang yuan, tom yam mian xian and chrysanthemum tea (packet type of course). And I also baked another chocolate cake which is perfect!!! As in it really tastes fantastic and it’s not over cooked nor under cooked – perfect!

Spring is officially here

Lina said today is the official start of spring. Heh.

Tallinn, Estonia

2007-03-17T20:55:00.000+08:00

Just came back from Estonia last night (Friday)… but it was only a day trip cos the place to visit – old town – in Tallinn is not very big. We took an overnight ship (although the journey is only 3 hours, haha) and watched movies in the cabin cos Fu Xiang brought his laptop!

People kept saying Tallinn is cheap… but gosh! I don’t think so lo… maybe just slightly cheaper for some things like chocolate and postage. Souvenirs were so expensive!

Anyway, here are some pictures:

Tallinn has alot of old fortress remaining... behind us are some parts of it... and we are just doing a lame pose. haha

More fortress

Zoomed version of the above

Town hall... the centre of the old town

This is where we had lunch... haha, but not beer. Cos a friend recommended this place for food. It's really nice cos of the ambience.

See, even the toilets are part of the ambience

And the menu! Haha

I just thought that their traffic light symbol was cute cos of the bicycle.

Most of the places are about buildings... haha, so I uploaded them in Flicker cos they probably would just look like buildings. HAhAa. Click on Flicker to see them if you're interested. hehe.

Fazar chocolate factory visit!

2007-03-15T05:11:00.000+08:00

Today was so fun… haha, cos I ate a lot of free chocolate and bought a lot of “cheap” (I put “” cos it’s cheaper than in Finnish supermarkets, but I won’t say it’s cheap) chocolate!

Ok here’s the gist: I visited the Fazar chocolate factory in Finland. Karl Fazar is a Finnish brand of chocolate which is really nice to eat! Anyway, during the visit we got the chance to eat as much chocolate as we could. Hahaha! And after that I bought quite a bit of chocolate to bring back home for my family and friends! But please don’t expect a lot cos chocolate is very heavy… I think I bought almost 1.5 kg worth of it, but it’s not really a lot considering the number of people I have to give it to. *sorry peeps!*

At the entrance to the factory – Hitomi, me, Yvonne

We started off with a presentation/video… typical visit factory type of necessary propaganda… haha but the videos were not the formal type and were quite lame. Hahaha! Anyway these are really cute rocking chairs found in the video room.

We didn’t get to see much real chocolate being made cos of the strict hygiene standards… haha, look at Yvonne and I with the hygiene caps! Anyway we are standing beside the old machines used long ago to make chocolate.

We all crowded around this “chocolate bar”. Hahaha and ate free chocolate like crazy people.

This pillar is filled with chocolate candies!

This is a really special chocolate that I bought…

It’s a real egg shell (washed and cleaned) and filled with chocolate!!! And all must be done manually by the staff. So cool right? Cos its going to be Easter, so there’s this special chocolate – it costs S$3… gosh! But must buy cos once in a life time. Haha.

coffee moment

2007-03-13T05:41:00.000+08:00

Last night I had a nice little coffee session with Marie. Haha… I basically experienced a typical Italian breakfast, at night! Hahaha. Anyway, the metal thingy in the middle of the table is something all Italians have to make this super expresso type of coffee really fast! Well, I didn’t drink it pure cos it’s too “heavy”, but the way she prepared it for us last night was to put a bit of the expresso and lots of warm milk! So it was like a latte… very yummy! And plus the chocolate cake that I baked and girlish talk, we had a wen1 xin1 coffee moment. =)

By the way, this is Andres and Hitomi with me in the middle. Haha.

my “Chinese” dinner

2007-03-11T07:09:00.000+08:00

Summary:

Tonight was the first time I held a dinner… in the sense that I cooked for others… and it was a failure in terms of the food I cooked… *faint* haha… my fried rice was too dry. Hai, I can’t even get fried rice right! Fortunately, the company was great. I had a fun time talking and laughing with Marie (my housemate), Hitomi (my Japanese friend) and Andres (her Mexican husband).

Let’s start with food:

I cooked fried rice and fried vegetables. Which were edible. Haha. And I also baked a chocolate cake (which I think is nice, haha) and gave them pineapple tarts to try. Haha… although Andres questioned it’s authenticity as Chinese since they were tarts. Marie also baked some pastry thingy with homemade cream inside. It was very nice and sweet! Hitomi made salmon sushi! Ooh it was so delicious, especially the wasabi!

Now the “laugh until cheeks pain moments” (I quote Hitomi):

We laughed so much… from 8 till 12!!! I can’t really remember everything already… basically it was because Andres is the “gao xiao” (i.e. jokey) type of guy. And cos I was so comfortable, I fell into my bimbo mode… in other words, saying silly or diao stuff that causes people to laugh at me (oh gosh… no face le. Haha). Anyway, he “say me” until I had to say “thaaaanks” in the Edelene way quite a few times! And I rarely use that lingo here! (NB. Unless you understand my lingo and history, the previous sentences would have made no sense to you)

Anyway, it was a funny – in the haha way – night! Some things I discovered:

Singapore was referred to as “Nazi Disneyland” in an airplane booklet (Andres was the one who read it)! Haha… why? Because it’s so nice and clean and fun and perfect, but it’s full of rules! I felt that it was such an interesting phrase. Haha
Durian is such a fascinating thing to non-Southeast Asians. Haha… the same airplane booklet described the smell as disgusting. I think Andres and Hitomi will go and try it… but will probably suffer through the experience! Haha.
Marie was so amazed that NUS only gives you one shot at your exams… cos here in Europe, you get to retake a few times, until you are satisfied… haha, cool right?
Nokia is amazing… according to Andres, who works for Nokia, they do all sorts of stuff to the phone to test its endurance… hai, Nokia is zai… pity that the designs are not as pretty as the Japanese/Korean phones. By the way, Andres has a 1000 Euro (gasp! S$2000) Nokia phone which is a really good 3G phone with a camcorder!!
Hitomi told us that in Japanese… there’s 5 levels of you, and me. What I mean is, for example in an extreme case where you are very high ranking, I will use the 5th level of “you” when refer to you when I speak, and the 1st level of “me” when I refer to myself. (in which 1st is lowest, 5th is highest) But most of the time they use middle level. Haha.

Exams…

2007-03-09T23:59:00.001+08:00

I just finished two exams here… gosh! Exams are super duper different here… I don’t need to feel stressed over “not enough time”. Then I can slowly think out my answer… instead of doing “flying pen”.

In other words, it is so much less stressful compared to NUS… help!!! NUS is crazy! I can’t go back there?! I’m so dead for my final year when I get back. (But on the bright side… I think I learn more in NUS – kills me to say this)

Home food

2007-03-08T01:04:00.000+08:00

I know I talked about how much I love Finland in the previous post… but there’s one huge lack – local FOOD! Gosh, you know I love food… (and actually I’m really enjoying all the cooking that I’m doing here. The food is actually nice to eat hor. Haha.) but there’s things that I can never get here, like spicy ramen, laksa, nasi lemak, ban mian, zhi char… and so much more! But actually, the only thing I’m craving for, which I finally discovered recently, is the hot hot hot spicy ramen. Haha, definitely one of the first things I’ll “attack” when I get home. Haha and of course ban mian. =)

Anyway, my point is, I went to the Asian shop yesterday, and bought some stuff that was quite expensive but local, so I couldn’t resist spoiling myself.

From left: mian xian, garlic chili, roti prata and tang yuan!

And here’s my pineapple tarts (thanks Happy12Friends!)… half way through already… sob sob.

Actually, I have an exam in two days... but argh! I can't seem to study... so decided to "doodle" away my time blogging.

Falling in love with Finland

2007-03-05T06:15:00.001+08:00

I love this place… but before I start saying why, I must clarify first that I still love Singapore. After all, Singapore is my home country with the great sun and great food and the list can go on, but this is not a post on Singapore, haha, so that’s for another time.

So anyway, why do I love Finland? (haha… but every point has it’s pros and cons.) Here goes:

1. Their transportation is fantastic. Do you know that they have timetables for what time which bus will arrive for every bus stop? And the more amazing thing is that buses (and trains) will arrive at the precise time that is given! Let’s say the bus is supposed to arrive at 14.37… guess what? It actually does arrive at 14.37! (to me, it’s 99% of the time accurate)

Bad news: if you miss it… that’s it. There is no hope when it comes to their transportation.

2. I love the air. It’s super fresh here… It’s wonderful! And the coldness/ coolness!!! And the snow! Haha.

Bad news: it gets kinda too cold in winter… haha, but since I’m here only for 6mths, it’s enjoyable. Haha. Another downside is that not much sun… oh well. That’s not what I’m here for anyway. Hahaha.

3. The people. They are nice and their accent is easy to understand (for me). And they are very honest people! Seriously, I’m not worried about thieves and all that… cos it’s safe here because the people have good hearts, not because of the law. (of course the law enforcement is good and all that, but if the heart is good, it’s so much easier to enforce the law right?)

Bad news: sometimes, I feel very “ah tiong” here… if you don’t get the word, ask me personally, haha.

4. My apartment – my room is so comfy, I have a sweet little kitchenette to cook, and a clean toilet that’s just beside my room which makes it so convenient.

Bad news: how can I go back to RH again? Haha… my apartment is too wonderful.

5. The water is great! Out of the tap, I get to drink icy cold water (the water in Finland is good so I can drink straight from the tap)… and if I turn it to the other extreme, the water will be extremely hot… even I cannot take it. So I only turn to ¾ when I bathe… and I love bathing in hot water!!!

Bad news: I think I’m addicted to ice cold water now…

6. Things are simple here… people just live simple lives. No one works too much, people can have time with their families, have time for themselves.

Bad news: so that’s why there’s absolutely no 24hrs store or hotline or anything 24hrs here. And on Sundays, huge department stores (e.g. Stockmann) and huge shopping centers (e.g. Sello in Leppavaara) are closed!!! Unbelievable right?

7. It just feels like second home now. Especially when I came back from Russia, I felt such a sense of home when I arrived in Finland. To see signboards in Finnish (and understand some words cos of my Finnish course) and see friendly faces again. =)

Russia - St Petersburg

2007-02-28T03:26:00.000+08:00

It was great going to Russia. I mean, how often can someone say that “hey, guess what? St Petersburg is such a beautiful city!” ? Anyway, so here’s like a not so brief summary of my trip!

Going there

The visa to get into Russia cost me €61 (S$122) !!! Apparently, how expensive your visa is, will reflect the relations between Russia and that particular country. Haha… so Singapore is probably not that “gum” with Russia. Haha.

So anyway, on 22 Feb Thursday at 7am… I boarded the bus that would bring me to Russia… the journey was quite long. I think we reached our hotel only at about 3 plus.

This is the castle of Vyborg (the town that is just after the border between Finland and Russia). Look at the people on the frozen sea surrounding the castle… they are doing winter fishing!

My hotel is at the end of the road… notice the high rise buildings… there are quite a lot of them in St Petersburg, which I didn’t expect to see.

It was only -13 degrees… but because of the strong wind… I’m pretty sure it felt colder than that.

The hotel we stayed in… 4 stars supposedly. Take note of the steps at the back (they look small in the picture) … I’ll explain why later.

Cars

The vehicles in Russia are horribly horribly dirty… their windows, especially the ones at the back, can be so dirty that you can’t even see much through them! So I suppose they don’t bother and just drive… haha, which is true from my experience. We tried to cross at a traffic light… but the cars don’t stop. It’s up to you to figure out when is the right moment to run! So we ended up waiting for 3 light changes before we finally made it across (thanks to following one of the locals. Haha)

People

The Russian people in general are not friendly… they don’t smile at you very much… only happened to meet one or two nice ones.

Places we visited

The first meal we had was in KFC! Hahaha… actually I was quite happy to eat there even though it tastes different… cos Finland doesn’t have one! And it’s so dangerous in Russia that they even had a signboard that said “Dear guests, your belongings should not be left without supervision” and they had a security guard inside the restaurant as well.

Russian KFC

An ice bar!!! Haha… everything you see that looks like plastic are actually made of ice.

This is a lighthouse from very long ago… if you can see, there’s a half naked guy standing there. Who is he? Haha, he’s one of my tour mates from Spain… and that crazy guy actually took off his shirt and pants (only underwear left) to take a photo! And it was so cold!!! Haha… but it was entertaining to watch him. Haha.

The seven Singaporeans outside Our Saviour on the Spilled Blood Cathedral. It’s a really beautiful cathedral… just that you can’t really see it in the picture cos it’s so dark.

23 February was Red Army’s Day or Men’s Day in Russia! Haha… it is a public holiday so we got the chance to watch some of the men march down the street. They are in black uniform so they belong to the Russian navy.

This is at the central square in St Petersburg… it’s so marvelously grand.

Another view of the central square, with the Winter Palace behind me.

The night view of the Winter Palace, also known as the Hermitage Museum… which is the best/second best (cos it’s competing with the Paris one) in the world!!! I didn’t know that until I went to Russia.

Inside the Winter Palace… super grand!

At the main staircase

One of the grand halls… there are many many many grand halls.

This is supposed to be a replica of what is inside Vatican City which the public do not have access to. I got to see this in Russia! Cool huh?

One of Leonard Davinci’s paintings… apparently there are only 14 originals left in the whole world, and the Hermitage has two! Did you know that the painting was painted in this order: bones, flesh, skin, clothes! Amazing.

This is Kazan Cathedral… another beautiful and huge building.

Can you see the small little red dot under the arc? That’s me! (not Singapore… haha, lame)

After this we went for dinner at Subway… and two guys attempted to pickpocket Daryl! They were surrounding him and pretending to ask him to buy some stuff. But Yvonne saw one guy trying to pull down one of the zips on Daryl’s jacket! She was so angry that she brushed his hand away and scolded “stupid ah!”. But fortunately at that time we were entering Subway already, so the guys stopped bothering Daryl. It was lucky that the guys were not professional – cos we have been warned by our guide that St Petersburg’s pickpocketers are really professional. But anyway Daryl kept all his stuff safely inside so he was not worried.

This is Mariinsky Theatre… I got to watch a Russian ballet here. It was really good, although the first dance was a bit boring.

We got the highest seats at a student rate, so it was only €10… those really good seats on the first level can cost up to €100 or more!

A snapshot of the ballerinas in action

After the ballet... we had to make our way back to the hotel ourselves... so we took Russian public transport... that was an experience by itself! Firstly, at "bus stops" there aren't any signboards stating the bus number. Secondly, it was a mini little van packed with people! (But not all the buses are like that lah, there are the normal looking buses, trams and metros)

St Isaac's Cathedral – another beautiful building (I think you are probably getting sick of me saying how beautiful the buildings are… but there’s more… Haha, so be prepared.)

Cathedral of St Peter and Paul… this is the first and oldest cathedral in St Petersburg. It is so tall that you can only see a small Yvonne, Daryl and me.

The interior – the church is also where all the royal family tombs are housed.

This is the pulpit which the priest or pastor (not sure it’s called in an Orthodox church) will stand in to preach.

Cruiser Aurora… a ship with a super rich history… except that I can’t remember anything. Oops, haha.

Cathedral of the Smolny Convent – one of the tsarinas ordered the building of this cathedral because she wanted to become a nun in her old age… except that she died earlier from sickness I think. Beside me is Thorsten, from Germany

Me in a Russian hat! Haha… it’s too big

Pushkin summer palace… belonged to one of the Catherines… haha, can’t remember which one (first or second).

Look at how beautiful the hall and the ceiling is!

This guy… who’s name I also forgot (Russian history is too rich… my brain has not enough space, haha), he is the one who came up with the periodic table! Haha… so those who hate chemisty… this is the guy.

Lenin! Haha… and I’m imitating him

A pretty pink church… and I forgot the name

The Russian dinner… left most is Alvaro from Spain, and Gaurav from India (who is studying in NTU in Singapore)

Ladies in traditional Russian costumes, singing Russian folk songs.

Ok… here I’m going to talk about the dinner. The food was quite nice… but it was after the dinner when all the action started. The Russian ladies were performing some tradition songs for us, and getting us to join in some dancing and games. It was so entertaining.

More action came unexpectedly after this… cos the place where we had our dinner also had a wedding dinner going on… so some of the drunk Russian guys came over to celebrate with us and treated us to vodka! When I say vodka… I mean vodka – pure 40% vodka. Actually during the dinner there was already a small glass for each person, but I gave mine to Ping Hong. But after the whole dinner, the atmosphere was so nice with the Russian guys celebrating and everyone toasting to friendship… so I ended up joining in… I think we did 3 or 4 toasts.

Although each toast I only had a little bit in the glass, I probably ended up drinking one full small glass. It’s actually not a lot, but cos I don’t drink so I got affect by it after more than an hour later when we got down from the bus at the hotel. Everything started to become back and soon all I could see was the bright lights from the hotel! I couldn’t walk straight either cos my head was too heavy. It was a terrible terrible feeling. So anyway, remember I talked about the steps to the hotel at the start? Well… in the end, Ivan had to piggy bag me up those steps… (thanks Ivan!).

That’s when I started to recover… as I walked from the lobby to my room, my vision gradually returned to me. All the while I was aware of what’s happening la, cos my hearing was perfectly fine. So anyway, that night I drank so much water to dilute the alcohol that I ended up going to the toilet 4 times in 4 hours. Conclusion: don’t drink if you can’t drink. I’m not proud of this incident… but it was a learning and actually interesting experience.

Enough about me, now to talk about others… haha. I drank only 1 glass… but many other people drank so much more. Like the Spanish gang… I think they drank almost half a liter of vodka each! Then they got really high and were doing all sorts of stupid stuff. Two of the guys were dangling the girlfriend over the staircase railings!!! We were so worried that he would really drop her! But most of the other people were ok, probably cos they are used to alcohol. Fu Xiang drank 8 glasses I think, but he was ok, and also took care of me (thanks fx!).

The groom is the one in coat and pink shirt

The last day, 25 February, we visited the Baltika brewery in the morning… it was so cool. The amount of high tech machines packing all those beer is amazing! And there was free beer after that… which I didn’t drink, of course. Haha.

This is the Russian Red Army uniform in the olden times. My tour guide, Bair, is the one on the left… haha, he specially dressed up for this particular stop. Pity that I sprained my leg (again… hai) cos of the uneven snow, so I didn’t get to listen about the history.

Our tour group picture!

Here are some freebies I got! A Russian badge which says “Russia” in Russian, a cup from Baltika Brewery, and I won a bottle of champagne from a lucky draw. Haha… luckily not vodka.

So anyway, to sum it up, it was a really great trip… even though when I got back on Sunday, I had Finnish exam the next day. Haha… but it was ok. Yups, that’s all for my super long post… more pics, go click on Flicker on the right side of my blog!

Back... but will post later abit

2007-02-27T07:08:00.000+08:00

I got back two days ago, and I just got the pictures today... but I'm taking a super long to sort them out (and I'm still in the process!!!). Why? haha, cos there's more than 2G worth of pictures! (of course that's for all 7 of us combined) It's 1 am now... and I'm not done, so I'm going to sleep and post on Russia another time.

Lapland – Rovaniemi and Inari

2007-02-21T01:47:00.000+08:00

Just got back from Lapland late last night... =)

Before I start off… let’s clarify what’s what…
Laplands: this area which is so up north that it’s within the Arctic Circle
Rovaniemi: the start of Lapland in Finland and where Santa Claus stays
Inari: even further up north where the Sami live
Sami: a group of people who are the original people who stayed in the Lapland

*this is going to be long!!!*

That’s so Finnish-ly nice

On the overnight train to Rovaniemi, we were in sitting in a café/drinking place playing “dai di” but we didn’t buy anything… then one drunk Finn tried to chase us away cos he wanted to the seat. So we got up to leave, I mean , since we didn’t buy anything so he’s justified to do so. But then the other Finns in the place told us to stay! They were all like “he’s drunk, just ignore him and play”. It’s so nice to see all of them support us, even though we didn’t “deserve” to stay there actually!

That’s so Santa

When we arrived at Rovaniemi, we visited the Santa Claus Village… Finland’s speciality! Haha… but it’s nothing much one lah… just that it’s where the “real” one is from… kids actually do write to him!

Apparently Singapore is 9394km from Santa

A real fire place in Santa's office

Letters from Singapore

That’s so beautifully white

The Santa Claus Village was located in the middle of no where… haha (actually it’s at the start of the Arctic Circle) so it was just trees, trees and more trees. But gosh, it’s so beautiful… I felt like I’m not on this earth, but in a winter white fairy land!

The view from a tower

Isn't it so white? (I'm the one in red)

That’s so woooo… piAk

While in Inari we tried kick sledding and a teeny bit of skiing on the frozen lake! It was fun. Haha… although on the first try… I fell and looked like a starfish on the ground. Hahaha, feel free to laugh when viewing the video! Haha I laughed till I cried… but it was a bit pain lah. Haha.

View my fall here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD8KlZSJLSs

The kick sled

On the frozen lake - 2nd largest in Finland

The five of us

On top of a snow heap

That’s a reindeer

Yups! I fed reindeers… haha. but they are very scared-of-people-animals. Cos they are not the “commercial” reindeers, so they hardly have contact with people. View me feeding one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ-sExLTNIg

me and the reindeer

A running reindeer - cool pic right?

That’s a Sami costume

Ellamaari – that’s the name of the Sami we visited. And she showed and told us about the background of the Samis. It’s very interesting… sadly they are a small bunch of people… and the language and culture is dying out.

Ellamaari and her husband's wedding picture. Looks like a prince and princess wedding right?

Me in a Sami winter costume!

That’s sparklers

Haha, to celebrate a bit of Chinese New Year while in Lapland, we bought some sparklers to play with! It was freeeeeeezing out there in the dark lake. Haha, but it was fun while it lasted.

That’s how cold it was

When I said it was freezing… I meant it wholeheartedly. It was -27 degrees. How cold is that, you may ask… gauge how cold it was by the description of what I wore on my feet:
Layer 1 – tights
Layer 2 – cotton socks
Layer 3 – woolen socks
Layer 4 – heat pack
Layer 5 – my boots which has a fluffy woolen layer

And guess what? At first when I didn’t have the heat packs, my toes were freezing. With the heat packs, I felt “normal” without feeling the heat from them, although they were pretty burning hot. Amazing!

That’s a gamble

We didn’t see the aurora borealis (northern lights)… so we took a gamble to stay one more night to give it a shot (cos the sky was so much clearer that day). And yes! Our gamble paid off! It was amazing… out there in the middle of a dark frozen lake… we saw the fireworks of nature. You have to see it to be completely amazed at the wonders of nature. We only saw green colour… but hey, better than nothing! (pictures thanks to Fu Xiang's photography skills!)

the sunset

the northern lights!

To see more pictures, go click on "Flicker" on the right hand side of my blog!

Valentine’s Day – Steven’s version

2007-02-15T00:26:00.000+08:00

Haha… Steven got my surprise present on Valentine’s Day itself! Phew, I was afraid that the mail would “fail” me… haha, but the letter was in pretty bad shape when it arrived… look:
SingPost repacked it… cos I think along the way, somebody suspected the chocolate for something more dangerous than just a chocolate… so he ripped it open – from the bottom! Haha… then he probably thought to himself “Silly girl!”. HAHAHA.

Anyway, that’s my gift to Steven… a chocolate bar from Finland (which my other friends will receive also when I get back ok?) and a simple card that says “ajattelen sinua” which means “thinking of you” in Finnish. =)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

2007-02-14T00:00:00.000+08:00

Hi dear,

I miss you, haha, especially on this day =)

Love from,
Me

P.S. I love the card you sent!

Look at the cute card from Steven!!!

Church Part 2

2007-02-12T03:17:00.000+08:00

I went to the church again, but a different "branch" today. It was so nice! Because the setting was more informal and so I got to know more people. I'm still quite alone in a sense, but at least I'm getting to know more people already! Today I got to know this really pretty Finnish girl, Johana, who's very friendly, so I'm glad. And I talked more to another Finnish girl, Terhi. And I was introduced to many Africans who were all so friendly! The African girls are really cool. By the way, I'm the only Chinese I've seen so far there. haha.

Although fellowship is not as strong here for me... maybe because I'm new so it's abit harder. But I feel that their fellowship is quite strong in general. Anyway, what I really want to say is that although their praise and worship is not "fantastic" - not everyone will stand up, and they only have one organ and the songs can sometimes jerk to a stop (sometimes I find it's "worse" than in cell group were we used to not even have a guitar player) - but GOD is so wonderfully felt there!!!!!!!! Even though there's nothing much to boast about in the music... but gosh, it's all about the heart because I find God's presense so real there... you just feel like crying. I find that it's because people are real there... so God is real. =)

walking on the sea and another dinner!

2007-02-11T06:14:00.000+08:00

I walked on the sea!!! Hahaha. But that’s old news, cos I did that 2 days ago… just that I only got the pictures now. Haha. Anyway, it was a cool experience! It was fun making snow angels on the ground… yups! I literally laid down on the “sea top” haha!

The four of us enjoying the "sea top view" haha.

the whole thing is iced sea with snow toppings

my snow angel! (obtained from lying down on the sea and sweeping your arms and legs to get the figure... hehe)

The new news for today was that I had dinner at Lorenzo’s place. It was so nice because he made such tasty Italian food for us! There was Floron from France (I don’t think I spelt his name correctly), Dirk from Germany, and Lina and Marie my housemates. I wish I could cook something from Singapore/ something Chinese for others too. Haha oh well. Then the trip back was so funny… cos we ran for the bus… and then later ended up missing the stop, so we took another bus back from Tapiola… haha but it was the joke of the day. =)

A Freezer Experience

2007-02-07T21:51:00.001+08:00

Haha, with reference to my previous post…

Today was still around -15 to -18 in the day time. And I decided to stick my head into the freezer when I returned back to my place. Haha… and since the freezer was only -15 degrees… it felt like absolutely nothing to me!!! Hahahahaha. Just sharing my head-in-the-freezer experience. Heh.

Cold day

2007-02-07T04:55:00.000+08:00

I think it’s inevitable that I slip and fall on my butt one day. You see, two days before, the temperature rose to 0 degrees… so everything because slushy cos the snow started to melt… then from then till now… it got colder and colder… so every froze back. And what do you get? Ta da! ICE. So walking is like a chore, and dangerous. *Jaws music*

Today it was the coldest that I’ve experienced so far… -18 degrees. (But it’s gonna get colder, and next week I’ll be going to Lapland which is up north of Finland and is likely to be -20 or lower over there). If you open your freezer and put your face inside there for a while… that’s roughly how I felt! My cheeks were so frozen that I felt like the meat I see at the NTUC frozen section. Haha!

Church Day

2007-02-05T01:44:00.000+08:00

Finally today I attended a church (no more online sermons!). It was such a great great great feeling to be literally in the house of God again! Oh man, you can’t imagine the great love and presence I felt just being there. And I was filled with so much joy that I my eyes kept tearing up when I was inside the hall and during worship.

the hall -

the PA side of me couldn't help but notice this: white speakers! haha

The church is an international non-denominational one, so it didn’t have the “life” that I’m so accustomed to. I miss the power packed type of worship from Harvester (appreciate it my fellow bros and sis!!!) But I’m not grumbling! Because every song that was sung I knew!!! You cannot imagine how glad I was to be able to sing those songs! And to add on to the nice-ness, today happened to be communion day too. =) AND oh ya, guess what? They use real wine! Hahaha… diluted lah, but nevertheless it was wine. Hehe.

The pastor’s sermon was not bad, but I already knew that their sermons were not bad from the online sermons. By the way, they have three pastors who will rotate each week. One of the pastor-wife team was happy to speak to me for a while because they have mission works in Indonesia, so they often go to Singapore as well, to get to Indonesia. How cool is that? Finns doing God’s work in Indonesia!

But one thing that I was sad about was that the people are not very friendly in a sense. What I mean is that they would not come up and take care of you as our church would. So I was pretty much on my own. (My friend wasn't feeling well so he didn't go today) But you must understand that it’s because of the Finnish culture – You must make the first move, then only when they finally warm up to you, then you’ll have a friend. The bottomline was… haha, I felt alone in terms of fellowship, but spiritually soaked in God and His people.

Something totally irrelevant: Singapore won Asean Cup! Yeah!

I shall stop now… should go cook and then finish my Finnish. (hehe, couldn’t resist the pun).

“International day”

2007-02-03T07:12:00.000+08:00

Today was a very nice day for me… because I got to have lunch and dinner with people from different countries. =) I think the whole process of knowing another person’s culture (especially food culture… haha, such a Singaporean at heart). So fascinating!

Anyway, first we (me, Yvonne, Daryl), had lunch with this girl from Japan… her name’s Hitomi. Too bad I don’t have a picture of her this time round… haha but we will have lunch again next week! so I’ll remember to bring my camera!

Then dinner! Woo hoo! I got to learn how to bake a chocolate cake and pizza from my Italian housemate!!! Her name is Marianttonietta, I hope I spelt it correctly. It’s so long right??! Haha… a six syllabus name! Quite cool huh. Anyway, yummy! (I’m referring to the food.)

the half eaten choc cake

So we had dinner together along with Lina (my other housemate from Belgium who spent the first 5 years of her life living in Zimbabwe and whose nationality is actually Bulgarian) and Lorenzo!

Lorenzo and Marie!

Lorenzo is an Italian who has been to Singapore three times! Cos he dad used to work there… for a year actually. And he loves Singapore and it’s so fun just talking about the different aspects of Singapore together… hahaha, until we made Marie feel like going to Singapore too. Hahaha! It’s simply amazing… things that you take for granted, but it’s so different for other people. For example, he was gushing over the taxis – because you can flag them down anywhere and it’s cheap (for him lah… and now I’m feeling that way already. Haha!) And he was talking about unusual fruits like starfruit, dragonfruit and durians etc… and about how he must speak in a certain slang to get understood. It’s so funny! And so true! Gosh. I had such a great time. =) Oh ya and one more thing, I discovered that it was unusual for them to see me walk around in my room without slipper or shoes! It's not a normal sight/habit for them, haha.

Here’s a clip of how he had to say “Great World City” and “Pagoda” before he got understood by the taxi driver. (I did an imitation of how he said it)

http://www.esnips.com/doc/a75924d0-2ae9-49e4-add5-6a541507c5c5/Singlish

A glass, a card, a day, a pail, a thought (all of which have no-link)

2007-02-01T16:54:00.000+08:00

I broke my glass cup yesterday… so sad… but luckily there’s another one. I broke by the dumbest manner possible, here’s the story: One day, I was thinking of drinking a hot cup of hot chocolate… so I poured boiling water into my cup… and then I realized that I actually don’t want to drink that… so I emptied the hot water and instantly filled it with icy cold water and AHA! It broke into half instantly. Griefs.

The one on the left is the good one which I use now

And I also registered for a library card! Cos it was free… haha. Well, at least there’s a small English section… so that I can entertain myself through some books rather than just from my laptop! Anyway, their library privileges are amazing… I get to borrow up to 40 books at one go, for 4 weeks! Not that there are so many books that I want (haha… finding one nice one is enough for me), but don’t you think those are pretty impressive numbers?

My library card

Oh ya, and yesterday was Winterday in my school… students will just play some simple games in the snow. The students will play against different departments, and they will wear their overalls. It’s this special suit thingy that each student will have. Haha… it’s not like it’s very pretty (heeelllooo, it must be practical here to keep people warm), but I think it’s special!

We saw white, green, black, red and pink yesterday... I think there are more colours which we have not seen. The ISE dept here wears white! haha... pretty!

And I bought a pail for €1.50 (S$3) cos I handwash all my clothes here!!! Unbelievable right? Haha… cos I must pay to use the washing machine nearby, and the one that’s free is a distance away… and I’m more lazy to wear all my winter stuff just to go over there to wash my clothes.

My pail

One more thing, I realized that when it rained here (the period of time when I first arrived)… there are no lightning or thunder… interesting hor?

I got my $3000 le

2007-01-31T15:39:00.000+08:00

Apparently, NUS finally did some thing... haha, they put in $3000 into my POSB account le. =) It's nice to get "free" money.

About previous post: just ignore it... people have their ups and downs... just wanted to record a "down" in my blog for a change (and to express how I feel)... who said that a blog must always be filled with sugar and candy?

I always dui4 bu4 qi3 Yvonne on this trip

2007-01-30T21:42:00.000+08:00

Title speaks for itself. Sick of myself.
*in a feeling-like-puking-my-brains-out mood*
NB Do not comment on this post

€5 Sweden trip and a church mate!

2007-01-30T04:54:00.000+08:00

On Saturday, I left for a trip to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden… and I just came back today (Monday). It was cool because I only spent €5 (i.e. $10) to get there and back by a ship!!! Cool huh? Haha… but we only spent 7 hours there, because it take 16 hours by boat… haha so most of the trip was spent sleeping on the ship.`But it was great because the ship’s cabin was just like a star cruise type of cabin! (and for such a good price!)

Our ship: Gabriella

The cabin for 4 people (two upper bunks)

Sunrise from the boat... at 9 am, haha.

Anyway, at Stockholm, the scenery was beautiful. We walked around the “old town” area and I felt like I was in a world different world… because they had streets that I’ve only seen movies. Very sweet and quaint =)

The ISE gang in Sweden

The Finland gang + Ping Yong (one of the twins) - Daryl (the photographer)

This is actually a famous street in Stockholm... it's the smallest street

And interestingly… Stockholm has a lot of these types of statues everywhere… haha, and most of them are naked! Hahaha.

Singaporeans! (The whole Finland gang of 7, and 4 others from Sweden)

One thing that I thank God for is that I discovered that Ivan (one of the Singaporean guys who is also studying in Finland for his exchange programme) is also a Christian! And God is good… because before the trip, I decided to go to this particular church which I felt was not bad because I have listened to their sermons online. And when I was talking to Ivan, I found out that he went there once before and that he will continue to go to that church too! So just like that, I have a church mate, so I don’t have to feel so alone when I go to church!!! Haha. Sweet.

Anyway, I’m tired and sleepy, so don’t really feel like blogging… haha.

Snow, Snowman, Snowboots

2007-01-26T23:27:00.000+08:00

Did I say that it snowed like crazy previously? I’m wrong… today showed me the real meaning of “snowing LIKE crazy”. It snowed heavily the entire day, and the winds were so powerful! I was walking to the bus stop when one huge gust of wind came, and it moved me a bit!!! (And I’m heavy! Gosh… ) Basically I was walking with my eyes half closed the entire time because it was snow frenzy day. But, it was beautiful. The entire place was more white than ever before… and you almost cannot differentiate between roads and sidewalks.

So, three crazy people, namely myself, Yvonne and Daryl, decided to build a snowman. Haha. Here are some pictures of it! (Btw, the white circles are falling snow)

And I also bought a pair of boots today because the other pair was getting a “crocodile sole”. And it’s not mine, so it’s not very nice to keep gluing it back and using it. Anyway, it’s the January sales (they have sales in Jan) so I managed (with a lot of effort because the sale was ending and many of the good stuff have been bought) to find one pretty, cheap, practical and comfortable pair! It was on 50% so it cost me €27 (i.e. S$54) which is cheap for a pair of boots. And the sales girl was so nice cos she said “I’m so happy for you” when I finally found my boots… because she saw me go in and out of the shop many times trying to find a good pair!

I traveled alone for the first time

2007-01-25T23:46:00.000+08:00

Today I traveled alone for the first time into unknown territory… armed with only a map and my mouth. Haha… but the people here are quite nice so it was almost without at problems that I found the place (I was going to the Doctorate of Immigration) with only those two “weapons”. Buuuuuuut, my hands were totally “gone” by the time I reached the place!!! They were cold to the point of pain, and yet ironically at the same time they were so name that I almost could not move them! Griefs… haha… conclusion: I cannot walk about in less than -10c without double gloves.

Everywhere was white and beautiful because it snowed like crazy yesterday… I tried to take a video if it… but when I watched the video… it just looked like a show with bad reception (cos of the white stuff all over the place).

So instead of a video, I think it’s more appropriate to describe the snow by saying that it felt as if I was inside one of those glass balls where you shake it to have the snow effect. Haha.

And one more thing, I fell down for the first time today… hahaha! It wasn’t a butt-fall… more like a knee-fall… not a serious one fortunately, more like an amusing one! Hahaha.

Anyway, here are some pictures from today’s trip:

On the left is my student card from my school here (which is Helsinki University of Technology)... the picture's in black and white, haha, so I find that it looks very appropriate for an obituary! Funny, in a morbid way. On the right is my Finland "EZ Link Card". It also works by tapping it, Finland is a high tech place when it comes to their transportation! Look at the next picture to see the interior of one of their trains! (And this is an older train... the newer ones are even nicer).

Here's a picture of one of their Metro stations. I like the station name.

Haha... and this station has a really unique lift...(you can't see it in this picture, but behind the glass is where it will travel) the lift travels side ways... following the angle of the escalator down!

I took this picture from inside the train... and the white thing you see there? It's not land... it's the sea!

Goodness, I do bathe here

2007-01-24T02:40:00.000+08:00

Haha, today I was chatting to Linny when she asked the famous question: “do you get to bathe there? Is it very cold?” Haha, this question has been posed many a times since I’ve arrived. So I’m going to write about it now… haha!

I do bathe lah! Haha… my room has a heater so it’s like around 20 plus degrees all the time. The toilet has a larger heater, so it’s the warmest in a toilet. It’s very nice to bathe here because the water can be adjusted to a very hot temperature, which feels fantastic.

My clothes are hanging on the heater... haha (that was before I had housemates)

As a side note, the water can also be adjusted to a freezing temperature. I always drink cold water here because, like Singapore, I can drink the water straight from the tap. So it’s like my own water cooler from the tap! Haha.

~Rakastan sinua kovasti~

-10 degrees and Saunas

2007-01-22T21:04:00.000+08:00

Today it finally hit -10 degrees! Haha… but when the sun rose it went up to a "hotter" -8 degrees. Anyway, I decided to take a walk out to experience something that I’ve never experienced before! Haha, it was very cold, but it got quite nice after a while… cos I think I’m in love with the weather here and there was nice fluffy snow everywhere (and of course, because the sky was clear and there were no torturing cold winds). But I think if i stayed out longer I would become frozen.

Anyway, here is a picture of a sauna house near my place. Sauna is a great tradition here in Finland, and normally the people will be naked while they do the sauna.

And then after they feel warm and toasty, another tradition is to jump into the freezing sea. Yup! You read it correctly! Haha… they will do that!!! And if the sea is frozen, they will dig a hole to jump into the sea. I have no idea how it feels like… but I’ll try it when it gets warmer in Spring! Haha… but I’ll wear my swimming suit lah. I’m not so bold. Hahaha.

They will run down this "lane" and jump inside the sea! But normally there will be these wooden planks placed there so that people can run towards the deeper part of the sea.

Other than that, I also visited church which is very near where I stay… too bad it’s services are in Finnish. Anyway, this is what it looks like. Quite pretty! Haha.

the exterior

the interior

the book of Genesis in Finnish

And to end off totally irrelevantly, I bought more food stuff today… one item that deserves to be mentioned is the broccoli. I walked up and down the same place for a long time… haha deciding whether or not to buy a bunch of fresh broccoli worth €1 (i.e. S$2). I think the sales people thought I was mad. But finally, haha, I bought it! Later when I got back to my place and put the groceries into the fridge, I felt as if the fridge was not cold at all... haha.

The Eternal Coolness of an "Air-con" Room

2007-01-20T05:03:00.000+08:00

That title is supposed to imitate the movie title “The Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind”. Haha… ok lame, I know. Anyway, my point is that I’m beginning to really like the cold here. (Especially if there is no wind). I like my room which feels like its air-conditioned 24/7. And I love the air outside, it’s so fresh and cool (although it’s going towards cold… it’s starting to go below -2 degrees).

Actually before I came, I thought everyday I would wake up with sinus, or a runny nose. But I’ve not had any except for the morning after I arrived. This would sound gross, but I think my mucus is dry from the dryness in the air here! Haha, that sounds so weird right?

Other than all that about the wonderful air, I’ve discovered that I actually love cooking! Hahaha! Although I cook very simple things… but at least I’m finally cooking (and still learning) and I’m enjoying it. Haha.

This is a picture of what I cooked for dinner yesterday and today… looks very similar because the ingredients are the cheapest things I can get so I always eat the same or similar things for dinner. Looks like nothing fantastic, I know, but hey, I’m new at this and it tastes great (looks are deceiving, ok? Haha).

It's melted cheese on top, in case you are wondering. Haha

From left: Pasta with tomato sauce, ham, meatballs, chicken, veg, egg.

FYI, in case you cannot figure out what I cooked (haha!)

A short “Thoughts” post

2007-01-19T00:47:00.000+08:00

Today I had two terribly boring lectures… so I spent a lot of time thinking about the people back home. Haha. Then now as I’m typing this, I’m still thinking of people. Haha, duh.

So anyway, I really hope that when I go back, I’ll have my “joy aura” back. That’s my spiritual wish (I don’t want to use the word “goal”… haha, feels too goal orientated if I used it) for this year I guess. =) Oh ya, I’m almost finishing Matthew! So cell group: I’m being accountable! Haha.

And I want to thank Jeremy Foo for what he said! I’ll steal his words and say that “It warmed my heart!”

And I want to add that I’m finally using my name “Hope” here. Haha… feels weird actually since it’s not really a name name, but who cares? Haha

This is going to be an “anything that comes to my head I will write” post

2007-01-17T17:36:00.000+08:00

Yups, so yesterday was the first day of school, so called. Haha… cos in the end we had to walk out of a lecture! So embarrassing! What happened was that the course that we are taking only starts lecture the next week. So the time slot for this week’s lecture was taken up by another course! It was embarrassing because there were 4 of us… and all Asians… the ONLY Asians there… so it was pretty obvious that we did a stupid thing. The bottom line was that in the end, I didn’t have any lectures yesterday! *pengz*

But the lecture theatres are seats are cool!

The chairs are folded when not in use

Then after you sit down, you pull the table towards you

So the table has a joint such that it can move forwards and backwards

As I’m typing now, I hear a lot of sounds from above. You see, the walls (and ceilings) here are very thin I think. Cos I can hear his walking sometimes when he walks heavily. And I can hear him shifting his stuff. And I can hear him flush. Haha! And once, during the first week of January, I think he held a mini party… so I was hearing terrible techno music at night! (I managed to make out one song by the Vengaboys. Terrible night) By the way, I just heard some talking! That's a first... normally I don't hear talking... are the ceilings getting thiner? Griefs!

Ok and to end off, yesterday I sorta learnt how to make baked pasta from my Italian housemate. Haha.

More snow and shopping

2007-01-14T21:33:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we went to Leppävaara… it’s a like a shopping district. It looks quite pretty and all those ‘escalators’ behind me are actually travellators. Haha. Cool huh.

And I bought my first top from Finland! I love it a lot and it costs €7.45 only… (only in terms of in Finland. Haha, cos that’s actually S$15 which is ok in Singapore) And I also saw this really pretty jacket that I liked a lot… but it’s €50 (i.e. S$100) so all I could do was to take a picture of it. Haha.

Anyway, before we left my ‘home’, I got Yvonne to take a photo of me with the snow… haha, and a video below… but the resolution dropped after I uploaded it… so the snow is not obvious… *shrugs* haha.

a wuliao video of the snow. hAha

2007-01-14T20:17:00.000+08:00