End of term for SEP .. Some random thoughts

Haven't been blogging for about 2 months cos I was too lazy to do so =). Tonight marks the last night for myself in Denmark before I embark on my end of semester trip tomorrow. First I will be going to Prague myself to meet up with Tian and Jess, after which I will join up with the rest of the SEP gang in Madrid, and travel to Barcelona, Paris, Interlaken, Brussels, Vienna, Salzburg and Berlin, before heading back to Singapore end of June.

This 5 months exchange programme in Denmark has been one of the best experiences in my life till now, something that I will remember in the years that come. The study abroad experience in a foreign university has been an eye opener and very different from the system back at NUS. The whole student experience had definitely been enjoyable and slack .. to a certain extent =) which I am sure all the others will agree with me.

Of course, all the weekend and holiday travels to nearby European countries definitely made the whole SEP more enjoyable as I got to see a lot of new things and learnt much about the different cultures and way of lives.

All these memorable experiences over here however would not have been possible without the company of GREAT FRIENDS =). There were ups and downs, good times and bad times but the presence of these guys definitely made the whole exchange a more wholesome and colourful one. Going out to Copenhagen, travelling to different countries, buying groceries, cooking, baking, eating, chiong-ing projects, sleeping in lessons, etc .. we practically did everything together. And I remember the late night chats with some of you guys. All these things definitely brightened up my whole SEP =)

Some of the people who made my time here:

To Xiaoli aka container mate - The only girl from NUS in DTU who is always so LOUD and CHEERFUL and always makes her presence felt haha .. thank you for always helping me with my chores, banging on my door in the morning to wake me up, washing up the dishes, the small treats you buy for everyone, being so thoughtful, etc .. and the little surprise on my birthday =)

To Kendrick - Mr NICE guy .. although you might be a bit too white in skin colour, likes to imitate me to irritate me (no effect on me though haha) and might get a bit emo sometimes =) Thanks for lending a listening ear and giving good advice, being crazy and appreciate my cold jokes haha and baking the fantastic oreo cheese cake for my birthday!

To Baolai - the EMO and the EYE for detail guy .. Thanks for always baking and cooking nice dishes for all of us .. being so thoughtful and helping .. cutting hair and taking photos for us .. your interesting blog posts (although sometimes it is at my expense haha) .. the tiramisu cake and chocolate fondue for my birthday =)

To Jialiang - who loves to eat fried onions and always so stubborn in his views .. those debates we have about everything under the sun never fails to amaze me and I actually had fun engaging in them haha =) Thanks for the ice cream treats and printing notes for me!

To Junhao - Mr Myth Buster .. Thank you for cutting and washing up the dishes during meal times .. volunteering your room for us to put our luggage .. your 'not-as-funny-as-mine' jokes (haha just joking) and always entertaining us during our 'dai dee' games by simply being 'suay' haha =)

To Joel - Mr Eat-a-Lot Muscleman 1 .. it was great knowing you guys and the happy-go-lucky attitude of yours definitely brightened up our SEP! Had loads of fun hanging out and travelling together with you guys to Sweden .. Thanks a lot for the invitation to dinner during my last few nights here .. see you in Interlaken!

To Joey - Mr Eat-a-Lot Muscleman 2 .. yes Joey you are big enough .. dun need to train up anymore or you will become the Incredible Hulk haha! Yeap it was great knowing you too and travelling with you to London and Sweden .. had fun chit chatting with you, although you are always rushing off to chat with your girlfriend online haha =)

To Brandon - Mr POPULAR (especially with girls) .. the last but definitely not the LEAST! It was really fun talking to you and thanks for always lending a listening ear and sharing your experiences and interesting views and stories with me .. really learnt a lot from you through these sessions and it was great fun hanging out with you cos your presence is always felt (in other words - kao peh haha .. just joking) .. Thanks for helping me bring back luggage to Singapore and everything else .. stay cheerful!

You guys ROCKZ!! SEP would be really different without you =) Thanks for making my time in Denmark such an enjoyable one!

Back from Italy

Hi all!

I am back from Italy after a long 9 day Easter break. The pizzas and spaghetti there were fantastic and there were lots of things to see. Had an enjoyable time there. Will be updating about Italy soon .. when I am not feeling so lazy =)

Anyway I have just set up an online photo album so that I don't have to upload so many photos in my blog =)
http://albums.koffeephoto.com/user/TpWkEt9MY6Vui-1lAJSqRyFe/

Day Trip to Helsingor & Helsingborg - 8 Mar 2008

Paid a visit to Kronborg Castle which is in Helsingor, 45km north of Copenhagen on Saturday with the rest of the gang.

Kronborg Castle is one of northern Europe's most important Renaissance castle and was built in 1577. In fact, it inspired Shakespeare to make the castle the scene of Hamlet's life. Kronborg Castle is located by the sea and the scenery was beautiful. Ok enough of history, here are the pics ..


Kronborg Castle in the background


From the inside of Kronborg Castle

There were also many paintings depicting the history of Denmark inside Kronborg ..



The King's dining area


Ballroom


Sleeping Chamber


Castle Chapel


All of us


After spending a few hours exploring Kronborg, we then took a ferry from Helsingor (Denmark) to Helsingborg (Sweden), which was only about 20 minutes away.


On the ferry to Helsingborg


View of Helsingborg from the ferry

More photos of Helsingborg ..


Town Hall


Karnan Fortress


The tower of Karnan which has guarded Helsingborg for more than 600 years

Myself at the top of Karnan Fortress

All of us

We then had dinner in Helsingborg at this place called Asia Kock - which serves teppanyaki buffet.

Yup, thats all for my Helsingor/Helsingborg trip. The recent few posts have been quite rushed because I am trying to finish blogging and not accumulate blog debts before I leave for Italy tomorrow for my Easter break. Will be spending 9 days in Italy vistiting Milan, Florence, Pisa and Rome. Looking forward to it =)

More updates when I come back!!

Oslo Ski Trip 29 Feb - 2 Mar

Over the weekend from 29 Feb to 2 Mar, we went Oslo in Norway to ski. There was a big group of ten of us who went skiing this time round: 6 Singaporeans, 2 Australians, 1 American and 1 Korean.

Basically we flew there on Friday night and went to ski at Tryvann Vinterpark on Saturday, which was this ski mountain located only about 30 minutes away from central Oslo, the city.


Dan, Xiaoli, Me and Jiwon posing outside Oslo Central Station before setting off for our ski trip


On the bus to Tryvann Vinterpark


Tryvann Vinterpark - the place where we did our skiing!


On one of the ski slopes


Beautiful landscape from the top

We skiied till about 5 pm and then went back to Oslo for dinner.


On the bridge to OsloCity - one of the shopping centres in Oslo

On Sunday, some of us decided to explore the city of Oslo while the others who wanted to ski for a second day went skiing again. For me, I chose to explore Oslo as I wanted to get the best of both worlds .. to ski and explore!

So here are some of the attractions we visited on Sunday


Oslo City Hall


National Theatre

Outside the Royal Palace

Parliament House

The 7 of us forming the letters "OSLO UNI" outside the place itself =)

Oslo Opera House which is still under construction .. Baolai and Kendrick (with his Norway hat)doing a jumping pose


Along the harbourfront - Baolai, Me and Sam

Akershus Fortress

Nice view from the top of the fortress

Well hopefully that summarizes most of our Oslo trip. Too bad there was not enough time for me to ski for a few more days! Otherwise the trip itself was not too bad =)

Kiruna & Stockholm Trip 20-24 Feb Part 5

Day 4 and 5 - Kiruna City Centre and Stockholm

The last 2 days of our trip was spent walking around in Kiruna City Centre and Stockholm.

Kiruna City Centre is quite a small place, more like a town actually. Here are some of the landmarks:

City Hall in Kiruna - Stadshuset


Kiruna Church


All of us wih one of the church buildings as background.

That Saturday afternoon, we flew over to Stockholm to spend our last 1.5 days there. Stockholm was definitely a more exciting place than Copenhagen and Kiruna. The place is bustling with life and the streets are more crowded and well lighted with colourful lights. Also, the shops close much later and things are cheaper in Stockholm compared to back in Denmark =)


In Stockholm ..


Joey, Me and Joel on one of the shopping streets

Stockholm by night:



All of us by the river, with Alfredo (who is Brandon's friend doing SEP in Stockholm). Alfredo kindly agreed to show us around that night and the next morning despite having lots of assignments to hand up the following week.

The next day on Sunday, we did more exploration in Stockholm ..


The scenery by the river was really good!


Outside the Nobel Museum


The Royal Palace


We managed to catch the Change of Guards at the Palace at 1 pm.


With Kendrick - The National Museum as background


Another picture of Joel, Me and Brandon by the river


Stockholm City Hall

Yup, basically thats all for our 5 day trip to Sweden! Had loads of fun with the whole gang and we got to know each other better after the trip. Sweden was fun!!

Hopefully my Sweden post is not too long. I will try to summarize my other trips next time!! =)

Kiruna & Stockholm Trip 20-24 Feb Part 4

Day 3 - Northern Light Tour

The 2nd day of our Northern Light tour, also the last day. That morning, we woke up early to try out cross country skiing for about an hour followed by ice fishing.


A photo of all of us during skiing - Baolai is in front because he fell on his butt while trying to ski to his position for the photoshoot (notice the empty space at the back) .. haha

Ice Fishing: We did ice fishing on top of a frozen river. A hole was drilled into the ice and we had to wait with a bait for the fish to bite ..

Frozen river beneath the snow ..


Waiting for the fish to bite ..

While we were waiting around for the fish to bite, some of us got bored ....

Some of us started to make a snowman ..

Baolai and Xiaoli shaping the snowman

While some of the more adventurous ones (more specifically Brandon only) got hungry and decided to try the bait ...


Brandon trying to taste the bait. Then I "accidentally" pushed the bait into his mouth. So he got a first hand experience of how the worm tasted. Sorry Bran my fault!! =)


All of us with the snowman (with the decorations on the snowman donated by Kendrick)

After 1 hour plus, we caught a GRAND TOTAL of ..... 0 fish! Haha!

Then we decided to have a snowball fight ..

Always beware of the people who are closest to you, aptly shown by the photo above =P

Apparently Kendrick masterminded the snowball fight (for everyone to aim me) and Brandon, my teammate 'backstabbed' me - he was the first one to smash snow on me from my back! Haha but I fed Bran the worm so we are quits =)

The snowball fight:


After a tiring day, we went back for lunch at the campsite before our journey back to civilisation.


All of us with our Lappish hut


Lying on the snow in a ring


One last photo with Taube at the end of the tour

Although we did not get to see any Northern Lights during our 2 day tour, it was a fantastic trip and all of us had loads of fun as we got to try many new things and enjoyed the beautiful scenery in the wilderness. Definitely would want to go back again if I have the chance!

Last but not least .. here is some eye candy =)

AURORA!! - We took photos of postcards with aurora HAHA!