Tuesday, May 06, 2008 @Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Sakura festivalSome japanese that lives in Denmark decided to plant some cherry blossoms here in the park next to the little mermaid. Some said that the cherry blossoms here is not as pretty as the ones in Japan.. oh well... e weather in Denmark is prob much colder and more windy than Japan. Nonetheless, we had lotsa fun having a picnic in the park and watching the various performances and programmes on going the entire afternoon. In the 2nd pix .. we took a picture w some danes.. they really love jap cosplay! they sewed their own costumes and wear them on occasions like this.
After the festival, we head to yock song's place and realised that there are some free city bikes near his place. so we decided to try cycling here in Denmark( last picture in the sakura sheet)! Ah.. e seats r too high for us.. argh how come e bikes only cater to the danes height? wad abt the shorter asians? gee
A
curry feast at yock song's place after cycling. We made curry puffs from scratch!! Yiling frying the fillings of the curry puff, ruo and i making the dough, I frying the curry puffs. A great sense of satisfaction.. really tasted very gd:) but sinful..:S super heaty hahaz
3 pots full of curry with the same ingredients- cabbage, chicken, potato but we used 3 different curry paste- singapore curry, nonya curry and curry fr denmark.
Dinner w Nina, Tarquinio and Arsenio. Ruo and I made hainanese chicken rice and the chinese dessert- bean curd skin w gingo nuts and barley.. my favourite! Nina made a philippino chicken dish and Arsenio made an african dish.. consist of beef.. some kind of nuts. quite unique :)
Dinner at Yeseul's place. Dinner prepared a korean meal for us. Korean curry rice, kim chi, kim chi fried rice. Yiling and I brought along newly created fruit fondue.. we consumed a total of 1kg choc bar during the night! U can see everyone busy concentrating on eating. It was really authentic korean food..yum yum
ok.. i know that these pictures are too small to be seen clearly.
much clearer? These r my fav pix taken in legoland fr my camera
The group pictures taken at legoland.
Legoland- 3 may
As u can see fr e video below.. It aptly portrays wad i have experienced at legoland. The weather was superb that day.. the company was fun..we had lots of fun being a kid once agn. N do u know that lego was originated from Denmark? Vaidotas is a Lituanian guy who is from one of my classes in CBS. I have never heard of his country before, but I have learnt a bit from him after chatting w him in legoland.
From wikipedia: The Republic of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Respublika) is a country variously defined as being part of Eastern or Northern Europe.[2] Situated along the south-eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, sharing borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of the Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest. Lithuania is a member of NATO and of the European Union. Its population is 3.4 million. The largest city and capital is Vilnius.- gosh.. Lithuania is bigger than Singapore but the population is smaller than us! We r really all cramped up on an island in Singapore :S
Dinner at emdrup. We had dinner with the hong kong people! We cooked our all time favourite- premixed heabal chicken soup.. n everyone loves it;) Tom attempted to cook pasta w salmon but it was rather bland:S but nevertheless... it was a great try.
I just completed my 1st oral exam today. 2 more written exams to go..!
Labels: denmark
Monday, March 03, 2008 @Monday, March 03, 2008
I was reading the daily devotions book and this verse strikes me:
'Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus'
- 1 Thessalonians 5:18
I like this verse because it is so often that I will complain on my misfortunes than to think on the bright side of life. Everything that occur is part of god's will and I will continue to trust in hIm, knowing that HE provides. He is the center of my focus and I will choose to glorify his name whereever I am.
Labels: denmark
Friday, February 15, 2008 @Friday, February 15, 2008
To fenella: Happy 21st birthday girl! Sorry that I can't be there to attend your birthday but I know that u will have a great time w ahhmm..;) may all ur wishes n dreams come true! pls eat more on tt day.. u need to put on more weight! :P
Yesterday was kian fong's bday! happy bday! We had a gd meal of bah kut teh and his cake was a nice strawberry tart fr the famous danish pastry store here. It was really gd! I have redemned myself as a 'useful' person by washing the all e dishes. Boy, there was really alot of things to wash n e pots r heavy. Was chatting w ubah over the Indian culture in US while washing the dishes n it was really enriching to hear abt her lifestyle.. her career in the airlines industry etc.
Today I went to IKEA, tour the whole place n just bought a lunch box from there. It is just like the Singapore's IKEA- no difference! I also went to Kongens Nytorv to ice skate in the open w all my valentine dates.. hahaz.. my danish buddies n friends and I had a great meal once agn. hahaz.. I COOKED FOR MY BUDDY! muahahaz.. so proud of my accomplishment ;) I cooked tom yum soup and laksa for them. The tom yum soup tasted gd but a lil too spicy for my danish friends. My buddy said that her tongue was burnt n her taste buds feel numbed!
For the laksa, it was even more hilarious. I was frying the laksa paste w coconut milk and everything was fine until I added the HUGE pile of noodles! The noodles soaked up all e remaining laksa paste that we have and there was no more paste for the chicken drumsticks! so i had to fry the chicken drumsticks with some other seasonings. I read the instructions for the laksa paste agn n realised that the paste was only for 3 servings but I am cooking a 6 person's share of noodles.. ok lesson learnt- bring more paste next time! But we had a good time. Hygge- a danish word that means cosy time for chatting with close friends over meals. I really enjoyed such sessions here and have been doing it often.
Labels: denmark
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 @Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The food i have been eating thus far, in almost chronological order:
The sumptous Danish dinner when I first arrived in denmark- traditional Danish meatballs!
Our 1st home cooked food- instant noodles n garlic bread..! hahaz
Our home cooked food:
Cooking done by e 4 NTU gals for JY's bday!
CNY eve- steamboat.
The mee sua tt i cooked for lunch-
Honing our culinary skills each time we cooked at home for dinner-
A feast at JY's home on 10 feb as we explained to their danish buddies the significance of CNY and the goodies. We REALLY cooked and ate alot tt day.
My best dinner at home! hahaz.. cos I cooked it. We had seafood soup w scallops inside.. fried veg n mushrooms.. curry w chicken and potatoes! I'm so happy to cook all these .. I think my culinary skills should be o an adequate standard when i returned to spore. I can prob cook for u all when i return back =)
I would like to thank my mummy for her recipe that she sent to me online.. n all e sauces that she bought for me before i leave for denmark. It was really a great help! I have learnt many lessons during cooking too.. like don't buy too many food esp vegetables because they will spoil quickly, potatoes start to grow from the buds when it is kept for a long time.. must check for the expiry dates before buying any food! Don't worry, I will never be starving agn =)
Labels: denmark
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 @Tuesday, February 12, 2008
this is e website of where i am going.
I will be going to see the northern lights and do other snow activities from the 18 feb night and will be back on 24 feb.
In tromso, I will be staying w 6 other singaporeans.. so accomodation is cheap=)
Apparently, on e 21 feb at ard 4am got full moon eclipse! hopefully i can see the spectacle.. *cross my fingers
I will be staying in oslo, norway for a night too. Can prob tour oslo for a short while before heading back.
Labels: denmark
Sunday, February 10, 2008 @Sunday, February 10, 2008
2nd wk at CPHGuys.. this post is suppose to be the thursday, 7 feb entry but I delayed it cos yl and i had to share one internet cable and had to research for our travel trips at the same time.. e tourist attractions and hotel rooms.. so there is this delay.. I will be posting more updated entries soon!
I have gone for copenhagen fashion wk.. e runway show on friday and just returned back from my one day trip to malmo, sweden today, 9 feb. I know tt the pix here r really small.. but i will be posting the pix on facebook really soon!
entry on 7 feb:
Tired.. really tired. Fatigue is starting to hit me. Have been out partying too much. The air here is really dry n I feel that my skin is starting to peel. Time to slap on tons of moisturizer. Today is the first day of CNY. Normally I will be up to bai nian to my parents and grandma and head out to one of the aunt’s place for mahjong session or head down to marina’s river hong bao. But today, I woke up late.. with a dry sore throat. I was home e whole day- did my laundry (FINALLY!!), research on the tourist attractions in berlin and book my hostel rooms for berlin. Berlin seems to be a cultural place.. a fusion of the past and present’s architecture. Hopefully we wont get too lost in berlin and I hope that we will be safe in berlin. I’m starting to feel apprehensive of traveling alone w YL.. 2 girls in a big city. I will have to be super alert now of any strangers.
Adeline.. think positively- THE WORLD IS MY OYSTER =)
I will be exploring denmark this and next wk. This Saturday.. I will be traveling by train to Malmo.. the 3rd largest city of Sweden and e nearest to Copenhagen.. It is like Singapore going to JB. Really looking forward to see the turning torsel.
Hopefully the 3rd wk of feb I can see the northern lights in Kiruna. Lapland, the place where I wanna go. I remember watching the Korean drama serial called xue zi nu wang.. the snow queen I think and they mentioned the beautiful snow place called Lapland. I want to go to the Ice hotel there and see the northern lights there too. Probably can head back to Stockholm, capital of Sweden, after that. Apparently, Stockholm has the most number of pretty people around. I probably can find many many eye candies there =)
Below is the schedule of my travel plans:
26 feb to 1 mar: Copenhagen to berlin and back to Copenhagen
The trip to berlin is a short trip.
This is my 3 wk backpacking plan during the Easter break:
5 mar: Copenhagen to Milan (and probably to Switzerland? If we can find transport there)
11 mar: Milan to Paris
15 mar: Paris to Barcelona
21 mar: Barcelona to London
28 mar: London to Copenhagen
This is really a budget trip- the total budget airfares so far amounts to only S$420! Hahaz.. both of us really spent a lot of time scrutinizing the budget airlines online before coming up w this travel plan. I will prob be spending v little only on food n transportation. NO SHOPPING! Ok .. or minimal shopping during that period cos I wont be able to carry them around when I’m backpacking! We are splitting the job on researching on the tourist attractions there and the accommodations there. If u have any idea of any MUST SEE places in these above cities.. do drop me an email or facebook me =) With all these traveling, I am probably skipping 2 to 3 wks of lessons. Guess I had to self-study for some of the courses.
The highlights from 2/2 till today
SHOPPING!! Hahaz.. I know I am not suppose to be spending lotsa stuff on unnecessary items but rest assured that the stuffs tt I bought is really e best steal.. at 70% off.. Zara and Accessorize was really a shopping haven. I have decided to avoid going down to the main shopping district near Norreport station.
Below is a sample of what i have bought fr zara.. 12 sing dollars per piece..! great for the cold weather here ;) I have bought some gifts back for some o u too! if u have any things u want me to get fr europe n it is in my travel plans.. do drop me a msg!
The welcome dinner on Saturday, 2 feb 08
They turned one of the schools to a party place. The cafeteria is a dining area.. Outside the lecture theatre is the dance floor.. there is also a pub and live band in another room. It is a V interesting concept of transforming the school into a party place.
I really enjoyed interacting w all the international students.. exchanging cultures and lifestyles. This guy from Holland was seating next to me and I really enjoyed talking to him. He is a chef and he can cook really well ( he cooked for most of his resident mates during dinner). He looked really like shane from westlife!! Argh.. it is a pity I forgot to bring my camera along..hahaz
The small chat w Cassim was inspiring. He is already 42 years old and pursuing his law degree in uk. He is an exchange student just like any one of us. He was earning BIG bucks in some investment banking stuff but he give up the life of luxury to study! He has relived my medicine dream- which I have put aside for a long time since I pursued my acct degree. He has encouraged me w all the stories of people he met- doctors wants a change of environment and pursuing a law degree.. people studying medicine at an older age etc. I feel that in Singapore, people are more practical. People are always in the rush to finish their studies, do their best and earn big bucks, the dream of living luxuriously- driving a Bentley.. convertible.. owning private properties etc. Who truly enjoy what they r studying? Who can study for leisure and not for money? I can forsee that I can be v successful in the commercial world.. earning big bucks if I really want to. But would I be willing to give up all the luxury then to study? I am not sure.
Dinner at Wan Shan’s residence, 3rd feb Sunday
Mr first spore meal here. I was really touched to eat my first bowl of rice. The 3 guys were the ones that whipped up the delicious meal. Hahaz.. the girls were just sitting around chatting .. taking photos etc. But we wash the dishes after tt =P
Jia Yun’s 21 birthday!5th feb Tuesday
HAPPY BDAY JY!!
We cooked Chinese food and baked choc cake for jy. Which was an accomplishment! 4 pampered girls who never touch the stove in spore can actually come up w some decent dishes! The pix says it all =)
Reunion Dinner, 6th feb Wednesday
YL and I got a little lost as this was the 1st time we went to jia ming’s place. We took the express train which passes his station! Luckily YL was alert and notice that jia ming’s station was not reflected in the electronic board on the train.
I had a great meal! Steamboat at jia ming’s place. Once agn.. most of the food was prepared by the guys. I think the girls here are really blessed =) We saw a few fireworks started by the Chinese neighbours. It feels great mixing around w the Asians- the Chinese, Taiwanese, Koreans! Hahaz.. we do share some similarity in our cultures.
No school the next few days. Going to catch up on my studies, research on Berlin and Paris! Tata.
Labels: denmark
Friday, February 01, 2008 @Friday, February 01, 2008
Being in CBS denmark is the greatest blessing that god has given to me.. It just seems so unreal .. as if im still in a dream. I am really in DENMARK..? hahaz.. e cold shivers fr e bitting wind says it all.
There have been lotsa "waves" that occurred as I take e big leap to denmark.. but through it all.. i tided thru them and god has been w me thru this.
1. The baggage overload incident
As some o u know.. I brought 3 check-in baggages and was SEVERELY overloaded! In my frenzied moments, my cell prayed for me and calmed me down. I was seriously expecting to pay the excess baggages, but God was my provider =) I was finally able to bring 2 baggages of total 47kg to Denmark FOC!
2. My danish buddy- Benedickte
Thank god for such a lovely girl. She was really sweet to come over n fetch yl and i to our residence despite her busy schedule. Apparently, not everyone gets a danish cbs buddy.. and it is thru her that I know many other international students durin the danish buddy dinner. I know e HK exchange students who may be my travel mates since some o them have 2 day lessons on scheduled on mon and tues too!
Benedickte is like a big sister to me. It seems like it is god's plan cos when yiling said that on thurs she will be going to her danish buddy's place for dinner, I thought that i would prob stay in my hostel n cook really simple meal then. However, that day, benne sms me to come over to her place for thai food dinner! I taught her how to use e chopsticks and have lotsa fun exchanging culural information. apparently, all danish guys MUST kneel down n propose to the girl before marrying the girl.. hahaz.. i guess they r really romantic people. I was havin dinner at benne's house when it started to snow! but only for a short 2 hrs.. so yeah i missed e snow. But i guess i will most prob see the snow next few days as the temperature gets colder... when it is already fluctuating ard ice pt.. BBbbRrrrr...
A picture o Jinny, Benne and Me! she cooked sweet and sour chicken w red pepper, tomato other veg.. hahaz.. n she thought tt it was a thai dish! I will make tom yum soup for her one day and show her wad is a thai delicacy ;)
Benne and me by the pseudo fireplace in her rm! hahaz.. cos it is not working and there are just candles inside.
3. SMU frens
It is from the danish buddy dinner that I get to know debbie, an exchange student from SMU. From there i was introduced to all the other smu exchange students. They r prob the godly friends tt god has planted ard me.. cos most o them r christians and had been to church e previous sunday in CPH! i will be joinin them for sunday service this sunday at 1230 pm. I'm feeling really blessed cos I need not source for the church in this cold weather =) apparently the church provide free hot beverages after the service! im so looking forward to that since my kettle is rustly n it is difficult to make hot drinks in my appt.
4. Jinny
How I met Jinny was such a coincidence! YL and I were trying out this new bus route and before we left the bus, Jinny appoached us and ask if we were heading to CBS, our uni! Then.. from our walk to sch, we know tt she is actually fr e same residence and same orientation grp as me. Jinny is a christian and will be joining me this sunday for service too =) Im so happy that there are now more godly people who will accompany me ard CPH.
5. Wan shan
There is a strange habit of mine to drift towards any black hair person when I entered a foreign class. Wan Shan is such a person when I was late for IT introduction to CBS class. Wan shan is an SMU student and she invited yl and me over to join e smu peeps for steamboat dinner next wed .. CNY eve! hahaz.. so happy get to mingle and eat chinese food..! it Will be a homely feeling =)
6. Jesse
She is the girl that is in my orientation grp.. i only found out when I was out today for the cultural tour ard CBS- we visited the queen's palace.. watch towers.. gardens.. will prob post those pix on facebk soon. She was actually fr e same residence as me too! We lived on e same floor. today we just had a Svanevej party at the basement and I get to know even more international student- thanks to jesse.
These are my cultural tour mates.. jesse is the caucasian girl beside me. She is from e states!
7. Yiling
Of course, i cannot forget my best rommie- yl! It is because of her, I am not afraid o travelling. She knows e metro.. e train station.. map reading.. navigation etc. best o all we do almost eth tog cos we had e same timetable! hahaz.. not tt i cant read e map but w her.. i can do less work! But Im mostly e one who approach e passerbys for directions when we r lost. We got lost together on monday night after a party and walk in the cold for abt 20 min.. freezing badly. But with her ard.. walking at 1am seems safer and im comforted that god sent along w me such a fren like her to denmark.:)
8. NTU peeps
I met Jia yun for dinner today! This is e 3rd gd meal i had e entire wk. 1st was on monday w my buddy, 2nd was on thurs w my buddy agn. Sadly to say.. i have not been having gd meals n I refuse to spend on such expensive food.. will rather stave than eat.. hahaz..can to think my appetite was huge back in spore even tho im a slow eater.
We went to a kebab restaurant and the food was DELICIOUS!!! portions were HUGE! i couldnt finish my food and we packed them for tmr breakfast.hahaz.. im so thrifty right? I reckon I was so hungry that my stomach shrank already.
Yiling and her fish burger.. we havent been eating fish for a few days!
My super huge kebab pizza! happy happy :>
JY and her huge pizza! She couldnt finish and they packed theirs for tmr breakfast too =)
Ruo wei and her pizza sandwich... it was delicious- ok im feeling hungry now as im typing this.
Us from NTU! yay.. still lookin strong and healthy! must stay pink in health and we prob maintain this slim in this circumstances.
9. My food
Ok.. i have been really eating simple food. I have yet to learn how to cook the instant tom yum soup.. chicken soup etc.. must start fr basics. I will try to make better food next wk.
The 1st meal tt i cooked on wed- yl went to buy essential groceries while i cook this meal. Garlic bread and noodles w eggs. hahaz.. yiling is staring at e hot hard bread.. cos I mircrowaved it.. and cos it may be too long.. the bread is super hard tt some o them is impossible to bite it.
On thurs.. i cook this for tea time while yl chatted online. It is much better cos there is hotdog. not too bad. Will increase e cooking difficulty level next time.
10. Danish folk dance
attended a dance in e evening on wed. The dance is such that we get to change our dance partners frequently, so we get to know more people. I danced w so many tall caucasians! hahaz.. gosh.. it was really funny.. It feels tt they can almost carry me. But some o my dance partners r really cute ;)
11. My timetable
I had only 5 cores that matches the CBS. I was lucky that all 5 could be registered. However, I think I will be dropping one o my cores as it clashes w my other subjects. This leads me to a 2 day wk for the 1st 6 wks w wed to sunday off. I will be contacting tsu or hazel when im headin to uk etc. meanwhile i will be going to sweden norway etc e nearby places for travelling over e wkends. I will be plannin e trips these few days. I wanna visit spain portugal france italy greece uk switzerland germany sweden norway. Ok.. if i could really visit all these countries finish by e end o e exchange i will be contented already.
12. My contact lenses
I was dozing off during one o e danish romantic comedies shown in school on tues evening. When I woke up towards e end o e movie, my eyes were dry and one side o my contacts fell out!Somehow, I was amazingly calm. I sat on my seat and look ard for e hard lens. Yiling and jinny were helping me to search. Jinny roughly searched my scarf and found nth. I started to pray that my contacts will be found soon and no one will step on my contacts. Yiling then searched my scarf the second time thoroughly and found it! Thank god for that.
13. My handphone charger
I forgot to bring my handphone charger over to denmark! ARGH..I charged my hp last min and forgot to bring it along. But luckily I found a 2nd-hand hp shop and they sold me the handphone charger for DKK50 abt S$15. It is a reasonable price to me compared to the exhorbitant price of DKK200 quoted by one o e dept stores.
14. My internet
I finally got my internet on wed night! after we realised that we had plugged the telephone wire to the internet circuit and vice versa .. so initially we thought tt both our internet connections and telephone got prob! oh well.. at least we got things up and working! and the best thing is that our appt phone has got free incoming calls from overseas! e no. is +45 35864107.. do contact me thru this line in case of emergency. If u need my hp no. just tagged me or send me a msg.
ok.. im super duper tired now. This is briefly wad happen to me the entire wk. I will be goin grocery shoppin tmr and tmr night is my welcome day dinner.. so must dress up. Who says tt it is rediculous to bring dresses along here? im gonna lend yl one o my dresses too =)need to get ready for it too! tata
Labels: denmark
Thursday, January 31, 2008 @Thursday, January 31, 2008
thank u.. you you and you for all the efforts .. time spent to send me off.
becos o me.. family reunion dinner is brought forward
becos o me.. sj and sharon stayed over at my place to pack w me
becos o me.. e cell came down ,prayed w me, n calm me down.
becos o me.. mich n min came all e way down n bring new year goodies to me.
becos o me.. yutez pris anna ming sent me off w such a pretty book.. which is now my expenses bk.. keepin track o the money i spend each day. im budgeting at S$4500 for food & transport for 6 mths, pray tt i can cook better food n keep to my strict budget.
THANK U.. n I WILL MISS ALL O U LOTS!!!
This is e collage o my rm.. it is supposed to be e LARGE shared rm.. how stunning can this get. So MANY utensils and furniture r missing la..sheesh.but oh well i shall stop complaining on how cold e weather is.. how small and ex rm is.. how ex e food is.. n focus on livin here.. e culture here.. e pple here.
A snapshot o the scenes in copenhagen. The streets, buses, roads, my SCHOOL! I kinda like the leafless trees here.. cos i have never seen one b4.. it is so bare n gives me a sense o helplessness in the cold.
abt 80% o e exchange students are caucasians.. really really pretty girls walkin down e streets.. dashing guys zooming past u in bicycles.
My CBS buddy- benedickte!
She is really really nice.. an eg. o a pretty danish. She is 174cm tall n yeah her features r sharp. She can speak engish v well too! e 1st day i arrived she brought me ard to settle some admin stuff.. behind us in e pix is their city hall. There r white doves hovering ard e sky there.. v pretty.
This is an eg o a traditional danish meal. Benedikte invited me to her house on e 1st day n prepared this sumptous meal. It reminds me o swedish meatballs tt is available at ikea..but much much nicer. Danes love to drink beer n wine.
Hahaz.. my dressing in denmark not too bad eh? I dont wanna look like a country pumpkin :S
My new fren here- Jinny fr Korea. She lives in Svanevej.. same residence as me and in the same orientation grp as me.
Wan Shan.. SMU exchange student whom we bump into coincidentally durin e IT info session. She is in e same orientation grp as yiling. really happy to meet local pple =)
Jen, my orientation grp fren too.. she is fr US.. Boston. Her grandparents r vietnamese.
Behind me is one o my school buildings. Copenhagen biz school is like SMU. A few buildings scattered ard in e city.
k.. goin to slp soon.. been online for e longest time. There will be a long day tmr. My roomie is so soundly aslp now.. will update agn!
Labels: denmark
The first wk i refused to spend at least 10 bucks fr the cafeteria in school.. so i used to drink just choc milk or hot choc in school during lunch.. i will be getting my lunch box fr ikea to bring my original home cooked food to school. =)
Don't e pastries looked delicious? danish pastries r e BEST! i tried the choc crossiant and it was DELICIOUS!
The kebab pizza near our place! it was the cheapest fast food around my area.. n v filling too =)
DInner at wan shan's place.. an international gathering o taiwanese.. koreans.. n of cos sporeans! e guys whipped up this delicious meal.
Dinner at benedikte's place. She cooked sweet and sour chicken w noodles.
Our delicious choc cake fr e supermkt for our lunch.
This is an eg o a traditional danish meal. Benedikte invited me to her house on e 1st day n prepared this sumptous meal. It reminds me o swedish meatballs tt is available at ikea..but much much nicer. Danes love to drink beer n wine.