DTU Campus and Lyngby

Haven't been blogging recently as I was quite busy settling down and also with Introduction Week (something like orientation .. will update more about it soon). Well, here are some overdue photos of my campus and also the Lyngby district. Nothing spectacular though .. haha.

Lyngby: 15 mins away from campus by walking and this is the place where we get all our daily needs and groceries. Quite a boring place and the shops all close by about 6 pm (basically most shops in Denmark close around this time).


Lyngby train station






Going Ikea on the first day to shop for our necessities

DTU Campus: the colours of the buildings are really dull and in winter (with all the bare trees), this further adds to the dullness of the campus and makes one feel really depressed. Look at the pics below and you can imagine ..








Trees trees and more trees .. zzz

Well so this is the place I will be staying in for the next 4 months. So I guess I better get used to it, or hopefully when spring comes, the surroundings will be more colourful =)

Coming up: Copenhagen Trip and Introduction Week

Photo Updates

Departure at Changi Airport T3 on 24th Jan -Thanks to everyone who came!! Didn't manage to take photos with everyone though because I wasted a lot of time trying to unpack =(

Family

Fencing Gang

With Roy

Mark

Michelle

DTU Campus Village - made up of container rooms

Block P - where I stay in

The Kitchen

My room - Before & After

Sofa Bed

That's all for now .. going to cook breakfast. Next up - Lyngby and Copenhagen.

First days in Lyngby - Denmark

Hey people, haven't had the time to blog since I departed from Singapore. Finally found some time to blog tonight. I don't know why but the first day I was in Denmark, I was not excited at all and feeling a bit depressed, but I guess this feeling will pass soon (hopefully). A couple of screw ups at Changi Airport before I departed, like being forced to unpack and my luggage exceeding the weight limit, and my scissors being confiscated definitely did add to my depression I guess. Also, the bare trees in Denmark and overcast skies on my first there there made it worst. But I think the main reason is probably that I know that I will miss everyone back home in Singapore.

Really appreciate those of you guys who came down to the airport to send me off - Tian, Roy, Jess, Michelle, Mark, Jason, Weilun, Moses, Yaowen, Zer, Xinling, Maggie & Yianling. Really great to see you all there! And thanks to Zer and Xinling for the Ba Kwa, although I didn't manage to bring it over to Denmark due to my excessive luggage, the fencing gang for the interesting T-shirt and to Nicholas and Yianling for buying it. Also thanks to Roy for the farewell dinner the day before I flew off and to Jason too for the farewell treat =). Will miss all of you guys.

More about what I have doing the past few days. Basically, my university - Technical University of Denmark is located in Lyngby, a district in the Lyngby-Taarbaek municipality. Quite a small district with nothing much to do. The skies here get dark after 5pm and most shops close really early (around 6pm) so nothing much to do at night.

I finally realised what is the meaning of EXPENSIVE after I arrived in Denmark. Everything here is freaking expensive, clothes, food, etc .. at least 3 times of the price in Singapore. A meal here (which consists only of a hot dog bun) easily cost up to $10 SGD, compared to maybe like $2 in Singapore. And there is a lot of bakeries in Denmark, most of my meals are bread .. haha. The only cheap thing in Denmark is perhaps its beers haha - costs only like about 60 cents for a bottle of Dansk beer. So I realised that everytime before I buy food I gotta think for a long time before deciding on the cheapest. Even when we are shopping for groceries for cooking meals, we gotta compare prices (and seriously, cooking is the cheapest, although it is quite troublesome). Even the groceries cost a lot, for example, a whole raw chicken in the supermarket costs about $20+ SGD, compared to Singapore markets where you can get it easily for $5-$6. I guess you get the idea =(

Of course, the Danish girls are also damn 'chio' (pretty). But they are not very friendly though. Some of the Danes ignore you when you ask them for help for directions or translation on the streets, but there are some really nice and helpful ones.

Well I guess thats all for now .. very sleepy already .. long day. Will blog more about my container dormitory, our attempts at cooking meals, and trip to Copenhagen soon and upload photos.

Taiwan Trip 30 Dec - 5 Jan

Just went to Taiwan over the new year with Jason, Freddy and Moses. This is my second Taiwan trip this year! Just went Taiwan there during summer in July. Well at least it is winter this time round so I guess it is a different experience.

As usual, Taiwan is lots of fun with lots of good food, lots of clothes to buy and lots of pretty girls =). This time round we stayed in a hostel instead of hotel. The place we stayed in was called Eight Elephants (EE) Hostel, somewhere in Shida, near Guting MTR. The location of our hostel is quite good and the hostel is very well maintained and very clean, so I guess I did not get a 'culture' shock when I arrived at the hostel.

Our room

Living room

We took damn a lot of photos there over the 7 days I will just do a brief summary of the trip with some photos:

Day 1: Singapore to Taipei, followed by dinner at Ximending then a bit of exploration there

At Ximending

Day 2: Shopping at Wufenpu, visited Taipei 101 at night, followed by Countdown to 2008 at Taipei 101, lots of fireworks and the crowd was overwhelming!

Day 3: Visitied National Palace Museum, then Miramar Shopping Centre & the Ferris Wheel, followed by dinner and shopping at Shih Lin Night Market

Outside the National Palace Museum

Miramar Shopping Centre / Ferris Wheel

In the Ferris Wheel

Day 4: Beitou Hot Springs, Danshui Fishrman's Wharf, then pubbing at Roxy 99 with 2 of our newly made friends from EE hostel. Free Entry and 4 free drinks before 11pm .. super worth it =)

At Beitou

Hot Spring Hotel

Me and Moses doing the "Taiwanese pose" =)

Freddy, Moses and Jason posing and acting cute

Fisherman's Wharf

At Roxy 99 with our foreign friends

Day 5 - All of us woke up late due to pubbing the previous day, so we decided to do shopping at Ximending, Wufenpu and then visited Huaxi Night Market later in the evening.

Moses' favourite toy: Gundam, which he spent a lot of time and money on

Huaxi Night Market

Day 6 - Visited Yeliou to see the famous Queen's Head Rock and the scenery there. Went Ximending at night for dinner and desserts.

Beautiful Scenery at Yeliou

Queen's Head Rock

Yummy desserts from Ximending

Day 7 - Went to do some last minute shopping in the morning, followed by steamboat lunch then back to Singapore.

Steamboat

One last photo at EE Hostel

Our baggage after 7 days!

Well I guess I will not be going back to Taiwan soon, at least not for the next few years, although it is a really nice place. Will be exploring other places.

That's all for now, shall go back to packing my bags for SEP.

December Updates

Well been quite lazy to blog recently because I was really busy with preparations for SEP and meeting up with friends. Quite a few gatherings over the Christmas period and here are some updates, quite late though .. haha.

23rd Dec - Met up with Primary school friends for dinner at Changing Appetites at Marina Square, followed by movie - National Treasure. There were a few outings previously during the year but I was unable to meet up as I was really busy with school. It was a great time catching up with them as I haven't seen them for quite a while.

Primary School Friends - All of us with our gifts for gift exchange

24th Dec - Met up with a few army friends for buffet dinner at Sakura international Buffet followed by movie - I am Legend and then pubbing at Boat Quay. Photos are classified and I shall not be posting them on the blog haha =)

25th Dec - Xmas Gathering at Tian's place for the second year running. It was potluck and as usual, we had lots of good food which we cannot finish. After dinner we had poker/board games and then gift exchange.

Display of gifts


Zhenjin and me - we got water bottles =)


All of us

26th Dec - Post Xmas Dinner at Heeren Village with the fencing people, aka birthday celebration for Yianling. The food at Village is so similar to the previous Marche, nothing very fantastic or different. But I guess great company is more important than the food =)

Birthday Girl Yianling with her NYDC cake .. Nicholas being extra as he insisted to be in the photo haha


Jason got the most 'amazing' gift of the night - a pink wallet from Weiquan. Either Weiquan thought that a girl will surely get his gift or he is trying to be very funny .. haha


Group photo

For the rest of December, basically nothing much that I did except for some shopping and lazing around before I went to Taiwan for holidays from 30 Dec to 5 Jan.

Next up - Taiwan trip updates!!