1st paper

Just had my first every exam in Denmark. The first one in a long long time. It's also the first one that I can actually bring my laptop in, switch it on and left it there for the whole duration of the exam. It was there for the sake of being there, being a kiasu Singaporean, I just brought it there to provide me a false sense of security. If I don't, I doubt I will ever get another chance to bring a laptop to an examination. The paper itself was of sec 3 physics standards and open book. In SG, I would have expected it to last 2 hours, but they gave us 4 hours and i managed to read 1 chapter of manga (just so I can boast to others), took a 5 min nap and had 1.5 hours to go before submitting my paper. The Portuguese guy next to me was even faster, he took almost 45 min less than me. I took a quite glance at his answer script and I guess he was just aiming for a pass, skipping the last question almost completely. The grading system here is very straight forward, something like the O and A levels, where a certain grade is given after you hit a certain mark. Much unlike the bell curve system in NUS where you will never know what kind of grade you'll get and you are praying that everyone do as badly as you after the exams. At least I know I won't fail here. 2 more exams to go before my end of sem trip!

Wonders of MSN

MSN does wonders. Why? I can get updates of the latest happenings from Singapore. All the exciting events and recounts from friends of mine who thinks I should be kept in the loop. What a good way to deter homesickness. Thanks to MSN, and the space , I get bits and pieces of what is going on in hall too. Some things just won't change.... I wonder what life during SEP was like? No skype, msn, webcam, and international direct call was the cheapest option to keep in touch with friends and family from SG. I would be a nightmare, won't it?

Kampsax Notice

The management from Kampsax (a hostel that is occupied by mostly Danish students, much like the 6 halls in NUS) must be damn pissed to put up notices on every single container in campus village (a congregation of container-like structures that is meant for international students, analogous to PGP with regard to only the population make up). I wonder who is the person caught stealing a barstool.

Yet another trophy-less season

Arsenal never fail to amaze me with the style of football they play. Yet, they seldom produce the result that the fans, or rather I, hope for. For the third consecutive season, they won absolutely nothing. At one point in time, the team had a 8 point lead and I thought it would be their season. Yet, a few weeks later, they self destruct and lost games they should have won, rued chances a few yards from goal, let it goals that should have never been scored and made defensive errors (please sell Senderos) as if they were school boys. The loss against Man U more or less sealed their fate, and they should really question their policy on the transfer market. If they only they have a little more depth in strenght, they may very well be en route to the the Champion League semi and EPL title. Sigh, another sad season when everything started so well only to disappoint once again.

Mythbuster

I am so addicted to Mythbuster that I am neglecting all forms of work. It must be the engineer in me that prompt me to watch MB. Yesh... I am typing this as another episode is being buffered. Isn't it cool to do things you always want to do? At least for me, I always have the urge to test whether certain things are true but never did I find any time nor will to carry them out. I wouldn't mind getting paid to do such stuff.

Budapest! Easter travel 08

Long due photos of Budapest, an amazing beautiful city with amazing night view, nice people along the street and incredibly rude service staffs at entrance of most sightseeing spots. It has an wonderful transport system that does it job. Prices there are comparable to Singapore and at times cheaper.

Funny commercials

after 3 reports and 1 presentation, I decided to youtube for some stress eliminating clips. Here's what I found

Daylight saving

Other than cross time zones, this is my first ever artificial shift of time. One less hour of sleep isn't that much but still significant enough to cause some rambling here and there.
The ideal of shifting time is still kinda new to me. I always thought that time is absolute and precious enough to piss people off when enough of it is wasted. I guess I was wrong. Time is more manageable, changeable and not absolute. Examples are in abundance. Singapore can alter its timezone to match the major financial hubs in Asia. Time can be push forward so that we can make full use of day light. Small islands in the pacific ocean can be put into "special time zones" to match their home country. It is fair to say time is just another human creation. However, people like me are still manipulated by it more than manipulating it. I guess I just need to try harder at managing my time (such as finding time to blog about my trip in budapest and prague). I shall start by sleeping now!

The day it snowed in Denmark

Being a Singaporean, tropican, equatorian,.... in short, someone who had never really traveled to winter countries implies that I have never seen snow prior to my trip to Kiruna, where I saw more than enough snow to last me a few years. However, the feeling of snow falling infront of your door step, your window next to your study table, the path you take everyday, is just something special. So our trigger happy selves took the better of us and we behaved like how you would expect tourists would, infront the Pyramids. Just that this time, there isn't any major photo-friendly backdrop, just pure snow flakes falling from the sky and a minimal amount of sunlight

Look at my surprised face! I always thought I have a careless attitude towards seeing snow. I was so wrong.

Look how high I jumped.( me, Jialiang and Kendrick)

More jumps to tame our excitment( me, Baolai and Kendrick)

Christiania

The weather here is so cold that I feel more nua than when I was in Sg. Which explain why I seldom update my blog other than the fact that there is nothing much to blog about. I have also reached the stage where I can wear singlet and shorts to stay in my room where the average temperature is 22 degrees and gain the ability to commute short distance in below 5 degree climate with shorts (,thick winter clothings) and havaianas flipflop.

Some photos before we reached our destination of the day, Christiania:

random street in CPH

famous candy shop, with a looonnnggg history

ancient lift beside the shop

Finally we reached Christiania in the early afternoon. In brief, Christiania is a place in Denmark that is not under the jurisdiction of the Denmark government. Their "special"autonomy allow them to sell soft drugs in the street aptly named, pusher street. It is not really a big place like the size of sengkang. Based on my own estimation it is at most the size of VJ. With 1100 residents, and buildings seldom exceeding one storey, I guess it can be quite cramp there.

Graffiti art in abundance

Snail

I suppose this is the real entrance to Christiania which we only found at the end of the tour.
On its reverse side, it states, "You are now entering EU".

After our short brush with drugs, we proceed on to visit the "gay" bars in the city since we have nothing better to do after our dinner and we happen to have a "gay map" with us.

Weekdays seem to zoom past you and weekends never seem to end. This is how I feel right now. Despite the sunny weather now, I don't really feel like going out as there isn't much to do. The few things that are left to be done are too expensive and way out of my budget. Now I find Singapore an interesting place. There are always movies to catch, majong to play, supper places to visit. Here, you can expect parties where everyone drink tonnes of booze at most.

Random pics of the day:

Hostel Fee Increase

How come prices of everything is increasing yet my allowance isn't. With the increase in hostel fees, it will cost about 1.9 K a semester to stay in hall, an increase of 270 bucks. This will definitely make poor students poorer. Is running of that hall really that expensive? In 3 years time, it will cost more than 2.2k per semester.

CNY pics

CNY entry

The weather is getting better as we speak. The sun is shining right into my room and I can wear a tee shirt in my room with the windows wide open. How I wish everyday will be like this. Just attended the indoor climate class. The comfortable temperature people desire is in the range of 15 to 20. I can't imagine the electricity bill if we do it in Singapore.

1st Day of School

Starting of a new term in an entirely new environment is not exact new to any Singaporean but this time round, it's an entirely new country, culture and climate for me. The day started off with a change of classroom which implies that I had to walk in the chilly wind for another 200m. From the 4 hours thereafter, I realised 2 things-- danish students are hardworking and the younger the dane the better their spoken English. The lesson style here is more personal. The prof made an effort to engage everyone in the small class setting which is different from the tutorial class in NUS. Tutors in NUS should buck up. Well, I miss international week now where there will always be someone to talk to.

building a tower to hold beer cans

New rm

This the where I am staying now..... It is exactly what it looks like, a container. Anyway the room itself is about the same size as my room in sheares, just that is less furnishing which makes the room looks kinda spacey.

Start of SEP

I am typing this at my extremely long transit wait at Amsterdam, Schiphol . It's 6.40am here and I have to wait till 10am for my connect flight to take off. Since I don't have any euros with me, I can't do any shopping and therefore, here I am, typing this.

The airline I took, KLM or Royal Dutch airline's flight isn't as bad as GL described. I managed to watched 3 movies (with a small screen in front of the seat not a common TV screen), Shrek the third, F4: Rise of the Silver surfer and Curse of the Golden Flower (lousy show) listened to a few songs and catch up with lots of sleep. The meals served are not exactly wonderful but you can't expect that much a few thousand feet up in the sky right?

Pre Road trip

After hearing almost as many horror stories from as many Malaysians in Blk C, I feel kinda worried about the trip. The flooding and demonstration just make things worse. Furthermore, my body is aching all over from 3 consecutive days of floorball-ing. Subtly, I've lowered my expectations for an exciting, exhilarating, fun-filled road trip to just a safe and sound one. But my 6th sense just tell me this trip will be a funfilled one.

Thundary Night

Lightnings! Haven't seen them at such close proximity for a long time. I wonder what the lightning struck. Everything seem to be in place. Maybe it's the ultra efficient lightning rods on top of every building doing their jobs. Adults pacify children by telling them that lightnings only strike those who commit evil deeds. What will the children think when they know there such a thing call lightning rod? Will children that grow up in this internet era think that it is okay to commit crimes since there is lightning rods to be struck in their place?

Mistaken identity

Received this message on facebook:

WOW! Was juz browsing thru and saw U sia! Peixin PRIMARY sch, Pri 1-1 and 2-1?!!! WOWW! HAHHAHAHhA! Haf A sMashing gOOd day! ENjOyz!

The problem is I am not from Peixin Primary School. Now I know there is someone who looks like me with the same name as me out there.

A Semester Cycle

Interesting mail I received.

Hope this is not what you are encountering now. hahha

New school semester:


At the first week:


At the second week:


Before the mid-term test:


During the mid-term test:


After the mid-term test:


Before the final exam:


Once know the final exam schedule:


7 days before final exam:


6 days before final exam:


5 days before final exam:


4 days before final exam:


3 days before final exam:


2 days before final exam:


1 day before final exam:


A night before final exam:


1 hour before final exam:


During the final exam:


Once walk out from the exam hall:


After the final exam, during the holiday: