Lord of the Dance

I remember watching this video before somewhere, and I've got the music on my online MP3 playlist... and recently I am hooked on it again... So just to share with you guys this wonderful piece of music from Ronan Hardiman and the awesome performance "Lord of the Dance" by Michael Flatley... Enjoy

Visitors from Copenhagen

Yesterday, two friends - Yicui from SMU and Keiji-san from Waseda University, from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark came over to Lund for a short visit. We kind of brought them to the really few places of interest that Lund has.

*ben, keiji, yicui, me*

Our first stop was one of the Museums and their theme for this period of time is called "History of Sex". Ahh, some of you must be getting high... Yeah, but anyway, Keiji-san almost fainted when he saw the pictures in the art gallery, and here we are thinking that the Japanese are very open-minded since they have so much AVs HAHA... The curator also looked abit exotic (no i'm not saying that her dressing was very sexy) but she just looks different. I have taken pictures of those posters but I have decided not to post them here because I believe there are many viewers of this blog that are still not really ready (physically or mentally or both) to view such pictures since these are quite controversial images. And I also won't want to get into trouble by being accused of setting up some kind of pornography section in my blog. But if you really want, I can send it to you through MSN though.

After which, we brought the both of them to Lund Cathedral which was located just in front of the museum. Keiji-san was so hilarious, after visiting the church, we asked him, "Do you feel better now?" and he said YES!! Haha... Now we all know why the church is located so near to the museum.

Before the church visit, we also visited other parts of the museum and there was this section displaying all the different glasswares. Those things are really beautiful.

*beautiful, aren't they?*

And then there was this little garden outside, where we could pluck strawberries to eat, that is if we're lucky enough to find the strawberries.

*and indeed we're lucky*

*strawberries lesson*

Finally we had dinner at the pizzeria called "Ciao Ciao". Their pizzas are delicious, enormous, and CHEAP (less than S$10)... and the chefs were performing for us to see because they keep lifting their heads to see if we are looking before they threw the dough to each other - finally there are customers who appreciate their stunts haha.

*Viking*

*Mamma Mia*

*Columbo*

*see the flying dough?*

Today is boring. No plans.

Hence, I ended up watching the japanese anime, Bleach Movie: Memories of Nobody. It was a good movie with all the Captains making an appearance one way or another. But the ending was a sad one. Sighz, now I feel so sad too.....

Another random entry...

I got a free CD today while I was on my way to lunch. I don't know why it is free, I guess it was for advertisement? But the lady told me that the songs are in English and they tell a story. But I haven't had the time to listen to it yet....

*free CD*

The computer keyboards here are different from the ones we have in Singapore. Took a picture of it... you can see that there are 3 additional letters present - ä, å, and ö. Cool huh, makes it so much easier when you need to use those letters, otherwise you got to use the "Insert Symbol" function in some word processor to get the letters out.

*the additional letters on the right side of the keyboard*

This week's lecture series on cancer had some handouts given in Swedish!! The topic coordinator was so funny because she kept apologizing to me for the inconvenience I had during lecture because I don't really understand what the slides meant. And she even offered to translate 1 whole set of lecture notes for me into English. So I guess it will take a week or so before I can get it from her. Chatted with her for quite awhile too, and she told me that she was like me, an exchange student doing this exact same module here. She is from Germany, but now she's a postgraduate student here in Lund University, and she said that maybe one day in the future, I'll be the one sitting in front of the lecture theatre in Lund University just like her. Haha, what a great encouragement from her.

*thanks alot for taking the time to translate ^_^*

I went to Nova Lund today too. It's a big shopping centre on the outskirts of Lund, where most shops can be found. Went around window shopping, hoping to buy some cheap stuffs, but couldn't really find any in the end. I could only try them on, take some pictures and put the clothes back. There was this huge shop just selling shoes as well. The ladies shoes took up half the store, and the other half was shared by the men and children shoes section. Tsk, ladies and shoes.....

*i like this sweater - a whopping S$460*

*the big shoe store*

And I ate Happy Meal at McDonald's today and got a toy of the cat character in Shrek the Third.

*what is his name?*

I wonder what I should do this coming weekend. Everyone is out of town, in other parts of Europe and I'm stuck here. Zzzzzz.... It's been a long time since I felt so lost ever since I've arrived here, without having any plans of what to do.

Presentation #2 down.... Don't know how many more to go

Today is finally over!! One of the worst presentations that I ever had to do... on Cancer and Angiogenesis. All we had were chunks of review articles and we had to dig out every important piece of information and prepare the slides in less than one week just for that 15-20 mins of fame. And we had to present on how new FANTASTIC drugs can be designed for future possible therapies. If I could design a FANTASTIC drug, I wouldn't be sitting here in class okay? HAHA...

But still, it is a huge relieve that the presentation was over. Apparently I hid my nervousness quite well because the topic coordinator told me that I did well and I seem well-prepared (well-prepared my foot lor).

And I got a shock before the first group started the presentation. Because this is the first time ALL the tutors sat in for the presentation... Imagine the tremendous amount of stress all 10 presenters had. And the guy in the group after me was so nervous that he totally forgot what he wanted to say for like 3 minutes. There was a totally awkward silence in the lecture theatre and I guess he must have felt very bad. He was even telling me over lunch that he felt like a weakling who can't handle pressure.

But then I'm so proud of myself, I did the whole Powerpoint thingy myself! My partner doesn't know how to use it -__-". I think Europeans don't really like to use computers to do their presentations? Most of them either printed out on transparency sheets or they just display their artistic talents on the white board.

I must also thank my PBL group and my 2 tutors for the great encouragement they gave the day before during the PBL session. It felt quite good, with a little stress of cos, when your tutors tell you, "Good job the both of you, we look forward to your presentation tomorrow." HAHA...

But yeah, it's all over... Till the next presentation... I hope I get an easier one the next time round.

rrrarrghhh

I want THIS !!!!

Latest updates

Sorry for the lack of updates ever since the entry on my Norway tours. I've been pretty busy reading up on all the articles that we got during the lectures, and it really seems impossible to finish reading all of them. And I really don't know how the exams will be like since there are no other handouts or textbooks. So whatever......

We had potluck dinner last Thursday with our mentor group. The amount of food was more than what we could finish. There was French, German, Swedish, Hongkong, and Singapore food. And we had Swedish Idol to watch too at the same time. And one of the Swedish who was talking to me, told me that her friend is in the Idol competition and we were like watching her sing and cheered when the result was out because she managed to get through to the next round. How cool....

*that's the amt of food all of us put together*

*sophia, me, karin, martin (the 3 mentors)*

*barbara (austria), ??? (germany), me*

*the japs*

*us*

On Saturday, we had sort of a mini party with the Swedes. Well, they offered to cook rice and chicken initially, so I thought we would all just join them since they invited us and we do know them. BUT..... when I reached, they had their minds changed! They were too lazy to cook, and we ended up ordering pizza! Faints... I traveled so far just to eat pizza? I could just prepare the pizza in my own room lah! And so, I ate half the pizza and left half for the next day (save cost ma... pizza is not cheap when ordered from the pizzeria). We also had cider and some sweet white wine after that and started playing Texas Hold'em.

*sweet white wine*

*Texas Hold'em*

*became rich overnight (no money involved though)*

And on nights when they had nothing to do, they would start to gossip............

*gossip gossip gossip*

And just for Shuwan, who's always so keen to know what I'm having for my meals... hahaha...

*sometimes we would have pasta with meatballs or bacon*

*and sometimes western food - yes the swedish sausages look ugly*

I finally tried some Asian food sold outside here in Lund. Not too bad but quite expensive...

*45 SEK (S$10.36) for rice + 2 dishes*

*worse, 50 SEK (S$11.52) for this in my school!*
Terrible, but I had no choice, cos I only had little time for lunch, cannot go out of school to eat something else cheaper.

*and my jap neighbour baked cookies!! - and pls... the shape doesn't mean anything!*

I love Norway!!

Finally, I have some free time to update on my Norway trip. School work is really getting crazier as the weeks go by. I now have tons of review papers to read and I'm actually quite excited about finishing all of them (am I crazy?) but anyway.... let's go back to Norway.

This might sound abit crazy, but yes, we took a night bus from Lund which brought us to Malmö where we had to change to another bus which then brought us to Oslo. The journey was like 8 hours long and most of us concussed after some time on the bus. Really kinda 佩服 the bus drivers for being able to drive for so long in the night.

*bus to Oslo*

Day 1

And so, our tour starts on the next day when we arrive in Oslo at about 5.30am in the morning. We next took a train which brought us to Mydral. And guess what, the train ride was 7 hours long!! I've never ever traveled for such long durations before, with the exception of my plane ride from Singapore to Copenhagen of course. We had our breakfast on board the train since we packed lots of sandwich to bring along this trip. Not that it was very delicious, but stuffs in Norway ain't cheap at all, so we had no choice.

Thank heavens, the weather was fine. There are ZILLIONS of pictures which look similar and I don't know why. Most probably because we are all so amazed by the view that we just keep taking photos of the same thing over and over again, particularly the snow-capped mountains! Gosh...

*at Oslo Central Station*
-ben, me, huimin, zesamin, mylene, adeline-

*on train*

*breakfast*

*sceneries along the way to Mydral*

*me outside the train*

*halfway inside the train*

*our beautiful train conductor*

After arriving at Mydral, we waited once again, for the next train which brought us through the Flåm Tours.

*at Mydral station waiting for train*

*here comes the train*

*us on the Flåm Tours train*

*me*

*me, zesamin (charlene quek!! ur fren!!)*

*the picture speaks for itself*

*the waterfall*

*me*

*the wind was strong*

*our train conductors*

After the waterfall attraction, the train brought us towards Flåm where we boarded a tour boat which brought us through the fjords!! This is the main part of the whole tour, seriously. Even though it was just mountains after mountains, the view was just breathtaking. The amount of snow on top of the mountains, the way the mountains are shaped, the little villages in the middle of the fjords, and the super strong chilly wind - it's really unforgettable.

*at Flåm*

*sceneries of the fjords*

*me*

*me*

*me*

*me and zes*

*me and ben*

*us*


*us*

*found some warmth inside the boat*

*our destination - Gudvagen*

*me*

*titanic - king of the world scene*

*the captain*

*grass-roof of the little hut*

*the Viking*

Isn't the fjords pretty?? I don't know if these pictures actually depict the true beauty of the fjords but I do hope everyone would have a chance to go there, cos it really feels different to be there personally.

At Gudvagen, the coach came to fetch us to our next destination - Voss.

*coach to Voss*

And according to our plan, we are staying in Voss for the night to rest and also to have dinner. And it's the second time I'm staying in a Hostelling International hostel, the first being The Train back in Lund.

*our hostel*

*our room*

*heading for dinner in the rain*

*me and ben*

*the restaurant called Station*

*my dinner*

*us at dinner*

That night, the rain was so heavy, and together with the powerful wind, the only one umbrella that we had was destroyed. But luckily we have our hoods on our outer coat. But it was so cold even when we are wearing four layers and a glove. I bet it was about 6 degrees C out there man.

*the cui-ded umbrella*

Day 2

Breakfast, as usual, was served buffet style. In order to save our financial resources, we decided that we should all 打包 (take-away) some food for lunch as well, illegally of course. Breakfast was good... we had bread, jam, egg, crackers, cavier, liver paste, all kinds of hams and salamis, juices, fruits, and of course salmon! Cavier and liver paste are good stuffs man! I wonder if we can get them in Singapore.

*yumz*

And the view opposite our hostel is wonderful too... especially in the early morning, the snow-capped mountain looks very beautiful. And sightings of rainbows are not uncommon here. We caught side of rainbows almost at the different places we went to.

*rainbow*

And of course, before leaving the hostel, it was cam-whoring time again -__-".

*us*

*the water is freezing*

*i love the snow-capped mountains*

*eating flowers*

*SMU jump again: ben(SMU), adeline(NUS), me(NTU)*

*sara, the receptionist*

Headed towards the train station after that to catch our train which will bring us to the next destination, Bergen. Along the way.... pictures taking again.

*i like the colour combi of the sky and the snow*

*and i wanna be part of it, don't i beautify the whole scenery?*

*me and the troll*

*i love Norway (facebook moment?)*

*train to Bergen*

*me*

*standing on the track*

*Voss Station*

Upon reaching Bergen, we only had one thing in mind... the fish market!!! So we went around the city looking for it, and found it only after the guy at the Tourist Info Center directed us... It was very cold in the market and everytime you speak, smoke just comes out haha. The seafood there is yummy as we went round sampling almost the different seafood they have. The prawns and crayfish is very succulent. The mackerel and salmon is damn good. Whale meat sucks! I do not condone the killing of whales for their meat totally!

*Welcome to Bergen*

*view of the city*

*the fish market*

*they speak all kinds of language in the market. awesome!*

*prawns, king crab claws, crayfishes*

*mackerel, salmon*

*whale meat*

*this guy speaks chinese!*

*wanna try some salmon?*

*salmon baguette*

*prawn and crayfish baguette*

*i bought the crayfish one*

*UHMZ*

*this cute spanish girl tried selling us cavier*

*she calls me Singapore, so i shall call her Spain*

We had to leave Bergen for Oslo very soon.... and so we walked through the city towards the train station again.

*pavilion in the garden*

*us*

*huge fountain*

*train to Oslo*

The train journey back to Oslo is a 7-hour long one again, and it's the most interesting one! We were basically going back via the same route on Day 1, but all the scenery has changed!! Just in one night, fresh snow fell and covered most of the villages and mountains we see along the way. And the highest station on the whole route was full of snow! We just had to rush down the train while it is at the station to touch the snow and rush back up when the train is about to leave. I think the Europeans are very amused by us, seeing us so excited by snow haha.

*tried taking with the falling snow, but the falling snow particles are too small*

*snowy snowy mountains*

*this is ice and it's freaking cold outside*


*but this is SNOW!!*

*snow snow snow*

*even the hindi kids came down from the train to play*

It's kinda unbelievable but this is Finse station on our first day there...
And the next shows Finse station on our second day where we played with the snow...

We managed to catch snow at Finse, most probably because it is the highest station on the whole route, about 1222m above sea level.

When we finally reached Oslo Central Station in the middle of the night, we sat down to eat the mackerel and salmon which we bought at the fish market... they were really good. So we had 3 salmon dishes within 2 days in Norway!! HAHA. And we also spent the night roaming around the streets of Oslo, and resting in Burger King till 5am before heading back to the Bus terminal to catch the bus which brought us back to Lund.

*mackerel*

*salmon*

*Oslo Central Station*

*tiger statue outside the station*

*the police are everywhere*

*streets of Oslo*

this cafe has very bad service! i placed my order and walked out straight away without paying.

Day 3

And so it's finally time to go back to Lund. Good times always fly past just like that. Hope I can get to go see more nice places!

*saw this at the train station*

*to the bus terminal*

*our bus going to Copenhagen via Lund*

Next upcoming event... Potluck with mentor group on Thursday!