2 months after arrival...

By golly, time flies! It's already almost 2 months since I've arrived in beautiful (cold) Stockholm. Work has long since started - in fact, both school and work loads are piling up by the day. I've worked hard and played harder, learnt to be ever so much more independent, and met people whom I'm beginning to treasure more each and every day.

And, so as not to bore your guys, here are 6 things that I've loved about Sweden in the past 36 days:

1: The beautiful city of Stockholm!
Stockholm is absolutely a sight to behold! (Clo, i know it's not better than the blue skies in France, but i really really do love it! :P)




2: My crazy corridormates, who give me something to look forward to at the end of every tiring workday!

"The horrible brazilian guy who left.. Freddo, you will be missed deeply! :S And of course, there's also grandpa Soheil! :P"

"Crazy Annie and pretty Clo! What would I do without the two of you??"

"And here's the prettiest girl in the corridor... of course! :P"

I don't have pictures of Nicklas and Nikki, but oh, life here just won't be the same without them!!

3: Dearest Noripok and my wonderful batchmates and 'seniors'!

Dearest noripok came over to Stockholm just to celebrate LNY 2010 with us.. Without here, LNY would have been oh-so-dull.. Miss you noripok! :'(

Wonderful seniors and batchmates who have made this time here in Lappis ever so meaningful!

4: Learning to cook out of pure necessity!

Imagine ma, I can cook! And it's edible! And i haven't gotten food poisoning! :P

5: Great colleagues, and two crocodiles to peer at whenever I'm about to fall asleep!

So, I haven't taken any photos with my colleagues (it's a bit hard to do that at work), but I've got a real life croc in my current temporary office!! >.< I can't tell whether I should be fascinated or horrified. But yes, they keep things lively at work!

6: A lovely 'tour guide' - someone whom I look up to and respect.

So that person doesn't like taking photos.. guess who? But I really treasure the privilege of having someone so wonderful and inspirational right here with me, on the most exciting journey of my 22 (and a half) years.

And so, this is but a fraction of what I've experienced thus far. It's been an honour to get this opportunity to be here, and i keep reminding myself to make full use of each and every single moment. It's only a year, and i wish there was more time! But while there's still time, let's make the most of it! Carpe Diem! :D

With love to all in sunny Singapore,
me

the days before Christmas

Dear all,

Sorry for the sudden lack of updates! It’s been a terribly busy and tiring few weeks, plus the internet connection hasn’t been connecting for 3 days already :(

Christmas is coming! That’s good and bad news, all at once. Haha. The good news is that we’re all gonna celebrate Christmas and New Year! The bad news is that because we have to celebrate Christmas and New Year, we’re all busy with Christmas and New Year preparations. And while the good news is that while our lecturers have given us time off study to do these (somewhat last minute) preparations, the bad news is that my project is due on the 2nd of January! That means getting tired because of preparations and struggling to push out little bits of work at night – a terrible combination :( Trying to cope, but not sure how well it’s really going sigh.

But on to happy moments (because the bad ones aren’t worth taking note of), I’m in the dance team for Christmas! Hahahaha.. imagine that man! So far (and the performance is on Monday, just 2 days away!) I look like a jerky chicken dancing! *faint* But Jiaqi’s been wonderful (she choreographed the whole thing in 3 days!) and the dance team’s excellent! I’ve had absolutely no regrets joining the team – through dance I’ve made new friends and have had lots of fun! :) Jiaqi, Grace (yes, Grace is dancing too!), Keong, Cassandra, Jia Wei, May, Adrian and Nicky, if you get to see this, I just want to say that it’s been a lovely week dancing with you guys (although now I can’t stop thinking of the dance moves the second I hear Let’s Get Loud!), and I’m really happy to get to know you guys much much much better :) The following’s dedicated to you, each and every one of you, who have made my past week so enjoyable (albeit exhausted :P)

Jia Qi – Thank you for your passion to dance, for your effort in choreographing the dance steps even though you’re sick and tired. You’ve skipped meals, lost weight and lost sleep this entire week, and yet you’re still going strong. Thank you, for the empathy you’ve shown when things got shitty, for your concern and care and smiles when we were tired, for your encouragement when we felt we looked like shit, for your determination when it seemed like time was just running out. Thank you, for being you!

Grace – Thank you, dear Grace, for being someone so sporting to join us in our dance! Despite your amazingly busy schedule, you’ve never failed to try you very best to meet us to dance, to practice the dance steps on your own, to put in your best effort whenever you dance! Thank you, for being a fantastic friend who cares – someone who wants the best for her friends. Your determination to succeed and give of your very best has inspired me greatly, and getting to know you has been one of the best things that have happened on this trip :)

Keong – It’s been great getting to know you! Over the past week, I realized that I’ve found someone whom I can rely on when it means not sleeping on the bus while going home late, someone whom I can talk to with ease and who can make me smile and laugh, someone who is thoughtful and tactful enough to gently chase me to sleep when I’m exhausted. Thanks for the concern you’ve shown while I was sick, and for the funny expressions that crack all of us up when we’re all tired at dance. It was fun exchanging stories! You still owe me your jacket! Remember hor! Haha.. Thank you! This past week’s been great because I’ve found a new friend in you!

Cassandra – Sweet, bubbly Casssandra! Thank you for being a wonderful friend! Although I have yet to know lots lots lots more about you, I’d just like to thank you for being a great ‘dance partner’ (well, you dance beside me haha)! Seeing you try your best even though it gets more and more tiring each time has given me the drive to give every practice dance my best shot as well :) It’s always fun to see you smile (even though sometimes the smile is a very tired one) and then give you a hi-5 in the beginning of each performance! Despite being exhausted by the dance, you’ve never once lost your temper aloud and have kept a tight rein over your anger. Thank you, for never once giving up!

Jia Wei – The joker in our team and the most enthusiastic dancer with the most stamina! (I swear, it’s due to too much anime watching) Thank you, Jia Wei, for continuously livening up our practices with your crazy moves, “look at me look at me I’m going to dance!” and “siam ah siam ah! Get out of my way!” Dance life would be drastically depressing without you around! Your stamina is amazing – each time the darn song replays you always have the energy to give it another go! (Of course, this also means that we end up having to follow, which means non-stop dancing until someone runs to switch off the music!) Thank you, for your never-ending stream of enthusiasm, for your boundless energy and for your amazing ability to brighten up the exhausted atmosphere around you! Dance would have been oh-so-dull without you around!

May – A patient teacher who is ever ready to learn and teach! Thank you May, for helping each of us to slowly get the ‘hand wave’, and for patiently teaching the ‘stand ins’ how to dance! You’re a thoughtful friend who always thinks for those close to you, constantly buying breakfast (and getting me to carry it! Haha) and looking out for them. Your ability to constantly practice to perfect your steps is amazing! All the best in luck and love *ahem*! Haha..

Adrian – Sigh, you ah, always trying to say something witty but always shooting yourself in the butt in the end… haha.. Kay, let’s put the constant wisecracks behind for now :P Thank you Adrian, for being a wonderful person whom I hope I’ll be able to call a friend. Your ability to tolerate my comebacks at you (well, considering you don’t have a choice since you aren’t exactly able to defend yourself anyway haha) is amazing! It’s always fun talking to you, and it’s been good getting to know you :) Thanks for the kuehs and tidbits, and for your willingness to share! :)

Nicky – Yo man! Haha.. Thanks for being a wonderfully enthusiastic dance partner, who doesn’t mind the constant stream of static I seem to give off every other second! Seeing you dance for the first time was super funny, and your constant effort to get the steps right is really really admirable :) Thank you, for always giving your best, for showing concern and for the coughdrops whenever my throat cannot-make-it anymore! Haha.. You and Jia Wei have to stop dancing whenever you hear the song intro man – we’ll go
mad if we keep dancing non-stop! Haha..

Jo! Our perfectionist picky dance assistant whose constant grumbles of our coordination (or lack thereof) has helped to push us to far greater heights! Thank you, for all the time you’ve spent watching us practice, for accompanying us and helping Jiaqi with the choreographing! Keep smiling! We’ll try our best to dance in time! :P

And that was the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Christmas dance team! Thank you guys, for tolerating my nonsense and for giving your best! You guys rock! :)

Today, I made a trip down to Grace’s place to 过冬至！ In Beijing, they don’t have 汤圆 during 冬至, they have 饺子! But first, Grace and I made a trip to a delumptuous (delicious and sumptuous) 点心 store very near her place for breakfast! Finally – good Beijing 点心！I love the 芝麻 paste for the 面茶! The 豆腐脑 is very much like our tau huay, except that it’s salty! (the soup is made of some mushroom broth), while the 香椿green been thing (ha! Grace is here so I’ve got the names :P) was melt-in-your-mouth delicious – so much better than the store bought things!

After that, we made a trip to 大观园, where 红楼梦 was being filmed! Grace cycled, and I ‘pillion-ed’ the bike! It was fun, but I think poor dear Grace was exhausted! It was lovely riding behind – never thought that I could feel so safe and stable :) Because Grace’s aunt can get us in free, this place is Grace’s childhood spot :) It’s a beautiful place, with wonderful scenery! It took 2 years to build, and was completed in 1987! Walking through the garden made me want to watch 红楼梦. How I wish I could stay here till spring and summer, when the flowers bloom and the scent of the flowers fills the air!

We made a trip to one a local Capital Medical University after that, where all the students there study to become doctors or nurses! Although it was small compared to other universities (I went to Tsing Hua University yesterday – it was HUGE!!!), when you consider that it’s a university solely meant to churn out medical students, then the impact of “I’m in Beijing” really hits you!

We went to Grace’s house after that! :) While her place is considered small compared to most houses in Singapore, it felt super warm and cosy! Her parents invited me into their house with wide open arms and spent an entire day entertaining me :) While Grace and I flipped through a mountain of photographs, Grace’s parents fed us with warm drinks. At lunchtime, Grace’s mum and dad taught me how to make 饺子! With experienced hands, both parents kneaded, divided and spread out the dough, then proceeded to deftly fold the ingredients into a perfectly shaped dumpling. It took me ages to complete each one! Heh, but they were really really patient! The dumplings were fried in a pan, and because it wasn’t steamed, it was called 锅贴 rather than 饺子. Freshly fried 锅贴 gives off the most wonderful aroma! Later, for dinner, Grace’s dad also taught me how to make 包子, using the exact same ingredients – just a different method of mixing and cooking! I also learnt how to make the flower 包子 that I’d been enjoying these past few weeks, courtesy of Grace’s father! I hereby dub Grace’s father a wonderful chef, and my cooking 师父! Haha.. Tasting the fruits of our labour made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and I couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret that I’d have to leave Beijing all too soon.

The journey back to school was a long one – Grace and her father took the pains to accompany me all the way to the Beijing train station – 30 minutes away from their home! Before I left, Grace’s mum insisted on patching my torn jeans (It ripped at the knee when I was playing basketball) and giving me more clothes to wear. Her parents packed 2 huge bags of food (bao and dumplings) for the rest of the students to enjoy, while bidding me to keep warm and drink more water in order to recover from my flu. It was really touching to be so warmly received by her parents, and their hospitality made me feel a glow of warmth spread inside :)

Thank you, dear Grace, for being such a wonderful friend, for always giving so much and for constantly thinking ahead for others. Beijing would mean so much less without you around. I’ll miss you terribly when I have to return. I hope you’ll be able to come to Singapore soon, so that I too, can return the love you’ve shown to me and all of us. Thank you, aunty and uncle, for being so so welcoming, for giving so much without ever expecting anything in kind. Thank you, for making Beijing a warm and welcoming place to be in, for the concern and all the consideration you’ve shown. :)

It’s been a really really good day.

(the above was written about 3 days ago, when the internet was (still) down)

Pictures up for grabs!!

Breakfast - courtesy of Grace!! To the left is 香椿, followed by 面茶, then 豆腐脑! :D

Homegrown pumpkin, part of which ended up being my dinner porridge! :P

My 饺子 lunch, 锅贴！Piping hot from the pan! mmmmm!

Bao!!! Freshly bao-ed and waiting to be steamed!!

The master chef, Grace's father! haha..

Who says working can't be fun? haha.. we drew this on the dough using 芝麻paste before spreading it evenly and properly :)

The Master Chef at work! :P

Happy happy family! :) Thank you, 叔叔 和 阿姨 for being so very hospitable!!! :)

The best days of my life

Friday was the day i climbed the 万里长城 for the 3rd time! haha, it's the first time i climbed it in the winter though! Boy was it cold!!! ><

Satisfied and victorious people near the top of the 长城！

You see the blue water tumblers? Ｔhey actually lugged that all the way just so they could eat cup mee at the top of the 长城！

For those who know me a little better, you'd know that the best parts i love about travelling is not the scenery, nor the shopping, nor the weather. It's the day to day culture, the lifestyle of others living in different parts of the world. It's the history of the country, the culture (not the festivals, but the origin of these festivals) which captures my heart.


The past two days were the best days of my life since my arrival in Beijing. On Saturday, i went cycling with a small group of Batch 4 people. Led by Grace (our friendly and most amazing BiTC friend), the 7 of us took a lazy swing on the streets of Beijing. Beijing's traffic is crazy! Cars sped past us, while cyclists would squeeze past us! haha.. i had a great time :) With Grace around, cycling around felt safe and peaceful - something i doubt i would have felt if i had done the same thing alone!

We had steamboat at a famous restaurant - not 小白杨. Honestly, i've forgotten the name of the restaurant. haha. I'll edit and update when i do get the names. The soup was fantastic, but the companionship was still the best :) Our bill came up to a massive amount of 73 rmb per person! haha.. But it was worth every bit of it - after all, you can only do some things once :)

We visited a 胡同, and roamed the streets where music instruments were really cheap! 毛笔s and tea shophouses lined the street, and it gave me a sense of deja vu as i passed through the 胡同. I got this feeling that i'd seen it before, perhaps when my parents brought me to Beijing many years back.

We cycled to Wal.Mart after that and picked out several local delights (tidbits) to satisfy our curiousity and sweet teeth. Wal.Mart here allows you to sample lots of food! Quote from Grace - 这里可以尝试食物而吃饱的！haha..

Sunday was a half day's work and clean up time. After 2 consecutive days of running around, i decided to stay in the hostel and 'nua' after that. haha. I barely had any breakfast or lunch cos i didn't have the appetite for more fast food or maggi mee, so i decided to skip my meals. I was about to skip dinner when Grace messaged saying she brought food! :D Her dad cooked extra for me, and i had a personal 打包 for dinner, and boy can her father cook!! Homecooked food never tasted so good! It tasted better than any 70 rmb meal i've had so far! Thank you Grace, and Grace's parents - for being wonderful, thoughtful and caring! I'm glad i came to Beijing, and i'm glad i got to know you! :)

It snowed today! We woke up to meet a fantastic view - the school was covered with a thin layer of snow! It was as though someone had taken icing sugar and scattered it everywhere! Beautiful! Just as class was starting, snow started falling again! By lunchtime, we couldn't resist and went out to play in the snow :) i happily swung round and round with my tongue hanging out to catch the snow flakes! haha.. Snow tastes good!

Introducing the Lebrond! haha.. this is Ethan, one of the crazy basketball guys who can REALLY catch onto basketball really fast!

We can never get away from vandalising things.. even if it just lasts till the snow melts/more snow falls!

PICTURES!!!

IT'S BACK!!! THE INTERNET'S BACK!!! I CAN FINALLY SEE THE REST OF THE WORLD!!!

haha. Quote from Cheryl, my roomie: I hereby name the internet here – Tortoise!

Honestly, u’d think that a fast advancing country like China would have good fast connection (especially in an IT school) but the internet here’s really crap! Anyway, the network’s been down perpetually for a day now, so I’m typing this out on good ole Microsoft Word :D

Haven’t updated much – Friday and the weekend was filled with much activities! Friday was a no school day again :( Instead, we went to 天安门 and 故宫, as well as lunch etc in the more urban side of Beijing. I’ll kop the pics from the sharing folder later and put them up :D Having been to天安门 and 故宫 several years back, I must say nothing’s really changed. But there’s much to see (I sure didn’t cover the whole thing the last time or this time!) and lots of pieces were forgotten, so it was still a great trip. The only thing sad was that I had this terribly bad stomach the whole time. It’d hurt on and off, like contractions when getting a baby! I swore I’d never get pregnant after that! Haha..

We had lunch at Macs after that! Some of the guys in my group have already started to miss Singapore food, and Macs was the closest we could get to “a taste of home”. The burgers haven’t started to shrink here yet (unlike those back home), while the prices are pretty reasonable - $16 to $18 for an EVM! It’s like Macs in NUS in the olden days!

Saturday was a free and easy day :) I met up with my ‘grand coach’ and got to eat steamboat lunch with him and his daughter! :) His daughter’s only 15, but she’s taller than me already! *boohoo* I shall… jump more! *laughs* of course, it’s pretty futile now. I enjoyed myself lots. I only wish my 普通话 was better and that I knew him better – it would make talking so much more pleasant! *runs to start memorizing the 词典* Steamboat was fantastic – they cut the machine-cut the meat so thin here, it’s AMAZING! The moment you dip the meat into the pot of bubbling hot soup, your meat turns a delicious pinkish brown! Transfer that steaming hot bundle of joy into the dip provided, then into your mouth, and you’ll get a succulent mouthful of juicy meat sure to make your mouth water with delight! Pictures up soon! Grand coach treated! Many many many thanks 宋教练！

My classmates were all out to the mall when I got back, so I sat down to try to get some work accomplished. All this while, I’ve been experimenting on the different forms I can do for DNO, wasting much time the past week. After many hours of frustration on Saturday, I came to the conclusion that the initial basic form was the most ideal in terms of function, and decided to work from there. Thanks to Saturday’s work, I’ve finally got past all the hesitation of working on “my circles”.

Sunday came and went in a breeze. We had half day work in the lab, which wasn’t very fruitful to be honest. After which was cleanup time! We cleaned the common areas, washed our clothes, cleaned and mopped the bedroom, changed the sheets… The list went on and on! Laoshi was so proud of our hard work when we were done, he took us out for steamboat (again) and surprise-treated us! Thanks Laoshi! Paying for 24 students meals isn’t cheap, and the effort you’ve put into taking care of us these few days is really really a blessing to many of us!

Monday’s work in the lab was really great! Despite being sick (I’m down with runny nose and phlegm again), things were rather good and I’m about 75% finished on my exterior! Gambate! A few of us went to the sports hall after that to play badminton. I went – but ended up watching the Taekwondo training instead. Kinda miss Taekwondo. The team we watched today seems very new, so their moves weren’t refined and they were still training the very basics. What was interesting to note however, was the amount of emphasis and time spent on warming up and on the basics. There was no sparring today. Instead, almost 45 minutes were spent on warm ups while the rest of the time was spent of basic kicking moves. Nothing like what you’d get in Singapore. Back home, you’d get 15 minutes of warm ups, 30 minutes doing patterns, 15 minutes practicing kicking and 30 minutes sparring! No wonder we don’t get the basics right!

After what was meant to be a satisfying day’s work on Tuesday, I realized that I’d made a terrible miscalculation. AARGH! Will have to rework on that model thing again… gah. Still got a cough, so now I’ve got a sexy voice! Haha.. life is meaningless without taste man.. i wanna get my tastebuds back, fast!!! haha...

Love hearing from you guys! Do email more! :D

Cheers,
huihui

Tada! Finally! Pictures!!!

That's me and my two roomies, Cheryl and Vion, as well as Eugene (in front)!

This is 福口居，the second steamboat place i had with my classmates!

I have no idea what on earth i was doing. ignore me. The guy to my right is an expert in food, the the guy next to him is Danny, who has the ability to perform the 2 finger pushup, and do the handstand for all eternity. haha. He's also very 欠打.

THIS is the wonderful succulent steamboat meat! The meat is frozen solid, then sliced into impossibly thin slices of equal thickness - perfect when dipped into boiling hot soup!

Mouth watering yet? :P

This is lamb's kidney. It... doesn't taste as nice as i'd hoped. haha. it still got swiped clean tho.. haha..

One week in Beijing!

Dear all,

Sorry for the late replies to some - fell sick on thurs so i was in bed all day :( It's really different falling sick over here man! For one, to get to the school's in-house medical centre, it's a walk through the cold, right across the campus! We were joking that if we were really deathly ill, we'd be dead by the time we got there! The doctor also keeps encouraging us to go to the hospital cos we have travel insurance - one of our friends got sent there yest morning and the experience was.. well.. interesting. There were rows and rows of shops outside the hospital selling the same thing - coffins! >< imagine the survival rate of going to the hospital.... So far, about 4-5 of us have taken ill.. mostly stomach flu cos the food here's more oily and takes more effort to get used to. To be really honest, i kinda realise that nothing much can beat our wonderful variety of food available to us singaporeans. No wonder they say that Singapore is food paradise - they weren't kidding! (or maybe school canteen food's just.. bad, haha) Gotta tell you about the interesting thing that happened today! It was washing day, so i hung out my wet, washed clothes outside my bedroom window to dry. To my amusement, 'smoke' started to rise from my clothes! (It's really due to the difference in temperature of the clothes and the air) My roommates claimed it'd dry faster, it having drier air out there and all. When i came back in about an hour, i went to check on my clothes and realised that they'd frozen stiff! The water content in my clothes had frozen to form "ice suits" of clothes! haha. It was really hilarious. Should have taken photos, but was too concerned about rescuing my frozen clothes from the cold then! haha.. lesson to learn - clothes don't 'hang outside to dry' in winter! Heh, besides killing my clothes, we also went out the entire of today - to tiananmen and some other hotspots.Another workday burnt. Photos coming right up! Still having a little indigestion and a bad throat, but all's good ;)





Just a little look at some of my fellow BiTC mates here :) to be really honest, i haven't remembered most of their names yet!


Will check back in soon, but right now it's bedtime - before sick becomes too sick! haha.. ;)

Cheers!

Day One!

I'm in Beijing! It's really cold here, when we went out in the morning today it was -1 degrees! >< haven't taken much pictures, but will send some along when i do!

Workdays are really short here - 9am to 11am, and 12 to 4. It's also compulsory to do CCAs and other activities, so our free time is pretty much taken up too :S So far it's just been really fun and tiring all at the same time. Sitting in heated rooms makes everyone fall asleep - not just me :P we're barely working today cos we just had a major tour of the school and its environments, and will be going to buy some neccessities later on. The cold really makes you realise the need for good warm clothing!

Anyway, here's just 2 beautiful shots from the plane window. The sky was irresistably beautiful during take off while frost formed on the window by the time we were about to touch down.. Beautiful!