cardboard love

be light, be life, be Berlin.

When we went up the stairs after alighting the underground train, we looked at the map and tried to look for our hostel. Saw a bunch of people outside a pub drinking and smoking and thought we should move away from them asap. Took a wrong turn and decided that the hostel should be just very near to the station, and the entrance turned out to be the pub which we passed by! Scrambled past the youngsters outside and went in. Turned out that the hostel is just above the pub, and they are essentially the same thing.

A soccer match was on that night so it was more happening than usual. The next day, we went on the walking tour where the guide was a history student before so he told really good accounts of the historical side of Berlin.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The memorial is made up of buildings of stones of different heights and sizes. It is "designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason." (source: Wiki) It is true in a way I suppose, K said it's like as you walk deeper into the maze-like structure, you lose sight of the people around you and everyone becomes suspicious of one another, losing sense of hope in a way as well.

Mobile hot dog seller

East Side Gallery - large intact section of the Berlin Wall with beautifully painted murals (one of my favourites of Berlin)

Still need to formulate an interpretation of this painting

When we went to Berlin, it was coincidentally the Festival of Lights, so many of the city's attractions were lit up with colours.

TV Tower

Brandenburg Gate at night

I uploaded more photos on Facebook along with descriptions for most of them if you are interested :)

<3 MLIA

Today I got back a history test. One question had finished with "the answer should be one paragraph in length." I didn't know the answer, so I simply wrote "One paragraph in length." My teacher gave me full credit, because I'm an exchange student, and thought I didn't understand her use of English. I was raised in an English speaking household. MLIA

Today, I was texting my boyfriend and he said he was hungry. I replied so was I. I called pizza hut and ordered a pizza and told them to deliver it to his house. In the next 20 minutes a pizza hut guy came to his door giving him a pizza already paid for. 5 minutes after he texted me thank you, an ice cream truck pulled up in my drive saying have whatever you want. I love my boyfriend. MLIA

Today, instead of working on my application to Stanford, I taught my dog to respond to Harry Potter spells. He now stays when I yell, "Petrificus Totalus," comes when I say, "Accio," and plays dead when I yell "Avada Kedavra." I feel that this was an acceptable substitute of my time. MLIA

Today I found out my friend was being a positive pregnancy test for Halloween. When I asked why, he said, "Because it's the scariest thing of all." I love my friends. MLIA

Today, I went to the vending machine after school. I put in my money and pressed the numbers but nothing happened. It had eaten my dollar. When I pressed the "return" button, the screen that usually flashes "Have a nice day" was broken along with the machine, so it started flashing "HaHaHaHaHa..." at me. I was hustled by a vending machine. MLIA

Today I was out driving for the first time. My mother told me to be calm and that nothing unusual would happen. Our neighbors then walked their goats across the street on leashes. My mother lied. MLIA

Today, while out driving with my Driving Instructor, he gave me a long winded speech about being ready for deer to jump out, and never to scream or slam on the brakes as we drove through a wooded area. As soon as he finished, a herd of deer jumped in front of us. He screamed like a girl, and slammed on the brakes. MLIA

a series of fortunate events

Before I continue the posts on Germany, there are a few things I would like to touch on.


(1) I got the first exam back, and I got a High Pass! It's something like distinction if you translate it over. It's graded in Fail/Pass/High Pass. Well but I still have to talk to the teacher to have it translated to alphabetical grading or numerical grading like 5/7.5 credits, because NUS is troublesome like that.

(2) My final two module mappings are approved! Geography department rocks my socks. They're like super prompt, unlike my home department :/ So that means all my modules are approved wheeee. Yeah I should've gotten them approved before I even come here but I keep procrastinating. Thank God they're all settled now! Now I just have to find a way to pass Consciousness....which would be difficult :S But that's another story.

(3) Started my third module today, after a 35min search for the elusive classroom :/ What's up with the campus!?! Classrooms all over. Yeah so I was around 40mins late. So paiseh! And I couldn't even open the door; someone had to open for me from the inside :S Well anyway the point is, the professor is really nice. Like, because a lot of students told him that they have to go away sometimes in the middle and were worried about the exams, he told us that (something along the lines of this) "It is good that you are traveling around. You have every opportunity to explore the rest of Sweden, Scandinavia, other places." Then I thought he was going to say something like, but don't let your traveling plans affect your studies, but no! He said, "...And this is essentially what you're here for (traveling around) .... I will try my best to help you (regarding working out examinations)." He is so cool. I think partly because the module that he's teaching us is on globalization? Lol. Well then I guess it's only apt that he's encouraging us to travel ^^

Yeah but because one of the take-home examinations falls right smack in the middle of my next trip, that means I have to lug the 2Kg Max all the way there to do the essay ...:/ Plus any textbooks and readings. And work while playing! Work and travel. And there is a whole lot of readings to do for this module. Okay but at least it looks a whole lot manageable than Consciousness, which I'm totally clueless about.

deutschland for a week (frankfurt)

In case you guys have been wondering why I have been missing in action for one whole week, I went to Germany! 7 days is quite long for a trip out of Gothenburg when school is still running, but visiting 3 cities of a country really gives you a more holistic feeling and vibe of a country, and I enjoyed this trip, despite the many scares i.e. incompatible air tickets, prospects of flying and getting to the hostel alone in the dark, running for trains etc.

Germany is much safer than I thought and expected, and Munich at night does feel like Singapore like Serene said. Our itinerary was Frankfurt-Berlin-Munich, and I felt that it was a good order, because it was a gradual climaxing. Frankfurt was peaceful, bluntly speaking it was unremarkable, but the tour guide (we went for a walking tour) did provide a good base of the history of Germany namely World War II. What I like about Germany and this trip is that it was a good mix of both history and culture, which Germany is full with. It's like a history lesson with lots of sausages/meat and beer going along with it. <3

Desperate times call for desperate measures - overweight baggage

We reached Frankfurt at around 740pm so we missed the 730pm airport bus and the next one was at 830pm, but due to some road accidents somewhere, the bus was late and as the trip to the city centre took about 1.5h, we reached our hostel at around 10.30pm I think. It was reaaalllly chilly that night while waiting for the bus and it was sooo crowded 'cos the bus was late! Ack.



We stayed at Frankfurt Hostel, its location was quite good, never mind the fact that the two Middle-Eastern men at the pizza place next door tried to chat us up (okay fine I'm exaggerating, just making friendly talk and we had to pretend we were Japanese 'cos when K said we were from Singapore the guy somehow heard as "Japan" lol). The atmosphere at the common area/reception surprised us when we first stepped in 'cos the previous hostels/hotels we stayed in was nothing like that. This was really like a hostel hostel, if you get what I mean. And 一山还有一山高, 'cos when we got to the hostel in Berlin we got another shock hahaha.


Anyway yeah, the common lounge was kinda filled with youngsters and some not-so-young people using their laptops, playing cards, drinking etc.

Römer square --- town hall of Frankfurt. Most buildings here were burnt down during WWII and rebuilt afterwards

Sat down for coffee break (ok in this case beer break I guess) slightly before the tour ended. The locals here drink beer at any time of the day, same as Gothenburg I guess.

First beer of the trip, still don't quite like it. But this Germany trip, I drank more beer than I had in my entire life, which has a lot to say about the beer in Germany. Or Munich in particular ^^.

View of Frankfurt from the Main (say mah-in) Tower.

Night skyline of Frankfurt.

One nice thing about Frankfurt is that it's a mix of old, new, and not-so-old buildings, like this photo.

Germany is really big on pork and meat in general. They sell these fatty deep-fried 三层肉 and pork ribs like Old Chang Kee sells fish balls.

Of course I didn't opt for the fatty pork :S Currywurst! And pork (I think) cordon bleu! I think the best currywurst of the trip. Currywurst --- bratwurst (either pork/beef) with ketchup and curry powder and maybe something more.

Had Chinese food for our last meal in Frankfurt 'cos I was really craving it since the rest had their fill in London which I missed out and the last time I had it was yes, when I was in London in August. Yummmmy. Restaurant recommended by Wikitravel, and me as well.

They were really generous with their prawns! Made me couldn't wait to go back to Crystal Jade when I'm back!

That's it for Frankfurt. Not much really, but a good start for a Germany trip. We went there partly 'cos the cheap flight (SGD20.00) was from Gothenburg to Frankfurt, so we had to go to Frankfurt in order to get into Germany.

For one lunch we went to Sachsenhausen, an area known for its apple cider wine (or something like that) but I guess it's more of a bar place 'cos all doors were closed when we got there in the late afternoon like 3 plus 4 for lunch, opened the door of a nicely built restaurant and had our first pork knuckles of the trip. Pork taste was too strong for my liking, and that the sauerkraut that is commonly found in German side dishes actually tastes like, or perhaps even is kiam cai, and apple wine was totally not to our liking, but ..... the food and beer only gets better, especially in Munich! Which I shall continue in the next post.

colours of autumn&seafood fiesta

I survived the first exam! Spent the past few days holing up in my room studying for it. After every test I always feel that I over prepared for it. Well, at least this time the words flowed like they should. It's weird, although you don't make a conscious effort to memorize the notes, the words you use during the exam are exactly the same sometimes.

When you get bored or stifled from the studying, you start to dig out all the junk food.

Reese chocolate that Henry bought from work and travel.

So the exam passed by uneventfully except for the fact that it was freezing cold in the morning when I walked to the exam venue which was quite a walk from the tram stop 'cos it was raining! :S But I loved the walk, 'cos there is this path that is lined with two rows of trees which have turned yellow already, and it was so beautiful! Always said that autumn is my favourite season but I've never really experienced autumn itself really, but this time I can say it without a doubt, that it really is my favourite season! Albeit it being a bit too cold. Wearing four layers, holding umbrella, body shivering, admiring the colours of autumn on the way to the exam hall.

After the hall met up with Kat and Lionel after they just reached back from London. In Singapore we keep saying that we wanna burn our books after our exams, but over here, I'll have to return to the library! So off I went. And since the library was opposite the Handels school which reminded me the Indian restaurant that Yokey went to when she was here, I set off to locate the restaurant. Aha! Wasn't too difficult after all. The menu looks good, and I'm definitely going to drag the rest there one day to have some good Indian food. Garlic naan, butter chicken curry, yummmy.

Went Haga to grab a warm chocolate to hide from the cold while I waited for Kat and Lionel to appear. Walked around and then to the Fish Church as it's the lobster season now and we wanted to get lobsters for dinner! But alas, the lobsters were freaking expensive! Like, SGD50.00 for one lobster. So in the end, we bought mussels, crab pincers, king crab leg (!!!), and shrimps. On the way back, we decided how to deal with these guys so that they'll be yummilicious, and we stopped by the alcohol shop to get white wine. Gothenburg has these shops that sell only alcohol that is super affordable. At each shelf of wine/beer, they have these cute little icons that show you what the alcohol is good for e.g. cow (beef), fish, duck, cocktail, drinking etc.

Yup, so the menu was decided on butter garlic crabs (supposedly chili crabs but we decided it was too high-level haha), baked mussels with cheese, butter garlic mussels with white wine, king crab leg and shrimps already boiled in salt by the merchants, and cheese fondue (an attempt to get rid of the turning-mouldy-huge-slab-of-cheese in my fridge). Yummmy.

The spread

Cheese fondue with white wine --- have it with bread


Hammering the pincers open --- with a cup HAHA ('cos that's the most plausible tool)

The king crab leg was superb --- salty enough yet the sweetness can be tasted, and the oh-so-fresh meat; butter mussels with white wine (voted favourite dish by all)

Savouring the king crab leg meat --- fingers in awkward position again

Heap of damage --- month's worth of cholesterol :x

A slab of melon ice cream for dessert :)

As usual with any cooking session, we simply overcooked (probably 'cos Steffi couldn't join us :[ ) and stuffed ourselves :x But well, we definitely were satisfied! Washed it down with chrysanthemum tea bought in London and green tea from Singapore! :)

Discussed about itinerary between Berlin and Paris in December till late because there is a gap there, and definitely tried all permutations in order to get the cheapest and yet most logical., and decided that Europe isn't very big actually. Working out travel plans definitely burns a lot of brain cells. Like, although it's cheapest to go to Milan, but it's pricey to get from Milan to Paris, and although we wanna go Glasgow, it's out of the way which makes it expensive as well. And inter-city France exploring is also not viable since it's just plain expensive (dunno why inter-city most countries so ex! :/) There goes my Lourdes, AH!

Yeah, so in the end we settled on London. Again! Lol. Kat would've been there the third time this trip. There's Boxing Day Sale anyway! Heehee. Have heard about "Boxing Day Sale" like it's something big so shall go there and see for myself how crazy it is! Yes, everything sounds good (though I've yet to squeeze in Budapest AH) and all we have to do now is to at least book the tickets so that I will feel more secure hahaha.

Speaking of sales, end-of-season sales have started in Gothenburg, and omg! Huge damage done today :X at H&M and Gina Tricot. But come to think of it, it's 5 items for SGD94! That's quite reasonable right right? This time we wised up a bit and asked for global tax refund.

göteborg in neon&sketches

the stars will continue to shine

I will keep your tears in the pocket of my heart and
nurture the roses into a garden.

what we stay alive for

It is gloriously sunny outside today, which is rare in rainy Gothenburg. As a matter of fact, the sky will be clear for once for these three days, what a waste! Since K&S aren't around, can't do the lounging-in-park thing with beer and prawns and books.

But it is deceiving, I remember. The sun may seem to be warm and shining, but once you go outside you'll be freezing your butt off. But oh wells, you gotta soak up the sun while it's still here. "Chance of snow" according to the weather forecast on Friday when I checked last night and I was like, wth?! It's only October now, like hello??? It's definitely waayyyy too early for snow. Then I checked again this morning (yes I'm obsessed with weather reports over here) and they changed it to "chance of rain" instead. Can't seem to make up their mind huh. But Serene is expecting snow this week, which was why I started to get obsessed about it and really curious, since Germany is further down South and Sweden is supposed to be colder! Thought I could escape to Germany for a while next week for some warmth, but well I guess that's not going to happen.

And I pronounce the heater in my room totally useless.




Tonight I am going to cook baked salmon steak with butter garlic and bread crumbs. Yummy.

because i can speak, read and write swedish now

After going for three out of five lectures and studying for one day and finishing the paper in less than twenty minutes, I do think I have a high chance of passing the exam. Not that I plan to continue Swedish lessons, but it's good for health to study for and at least pass an exam and to claim that you actually like, what, know 6 languages?!

On a scale of one to five (five being the most proficient):
English: 5/5
Chinese: 5/5
Japanese: 3/5
Teochew: 2/5
Malay: 1/5
Swedish: 1/5

Look! I can read an ENTIRE paragraph in Swedish. Heehee.

And write a paragraph in Swedish apparently, since the last section of the paper is to write a postcard to a friend about Sweden. This part stumbled me a bit 'cos the earlier parts were super simple questions, but this is how my postcard went:

Hi! How do you feel? (Apparently I mistook "How do you feel?" for "How are you?" :S To me it has around the same meaning). I am good. It is very windy in Sweden every day. I live in Gothenburg now. It often rains in Gothenburg. It is autumn now. I meet my friends at a cafe in Haga every Tuesday. We like to drink coffee together. (Lol).
(And not knowing how to end off, I just wrote --- ) See you!

LOL. This just reminds me of Japanese tests back home (but of course I will write something more profound lah).

Anyway, the rest just flew off to London tonight, making me a lonely soul for the next 3 days&nights, but then again I've got the first final exam on Friday, which makes me a should-be-hardworking soul as well.

Lionel came over this morning to take the night flight out and in just one morning we kind of decided on our January itinerary already, wheee! Now all we have to do is to convince S, and fit budapestzagreb&kiruna in. Or at least the first two.

London was really tempting to go to again, all because of one thing (since I've just been there in August) --- the CHINESE FOOD zzzomg. Dim sum, egg fried rice, chili dumplings, green green kailan with mushrooms and whatnot, even sub-standard porridge! :'(

Sometimes I suffer from serious acute withdrawal symptoms. I will start conjuring up my lunch and dinner table in my mind the first few days I return to paradise of good food called Singapore. And omg I will tell myself to stop thinking about it and get on with life. Then I will start cooking up a storm in my mind thinking of what to cook for the next few meals and what ingredients I would need and make a little mental note and calculation. For example, I still have 3 pieces of salmon and 2 chicken thighs in my freezer, so I will finish all these in the coming days, and then for the next week I will buy frozen dumplings from the Asian food store and eat them for (almost) every meal the next week. My stream of consciousness goes something like that. :)

I forgot how to tell the time though :x

list of places to satisfy my craving of S'pore food

in no particular order:

01 coffee shop zhi char with family
02 maxwell food center/gluttons bay/chomp chomp with block gang/Kat&Steffi (haha! So that we can reminisce together) - char kway teow, BBQ chicken wing, oyster omelette, fried hokkien mee, sambal sotong ... you get the drift.
03 geylang mee sua etc with block gang/flaggers
04 thomson prata house with flaggers
05 watami with MXY
06 crystal jade XLB steamboat buffet with flaggers
07 liang seah street steamboat with block gang
09 crystal jade/imperial treasure dim sum with sisters
10 crystal jade kitchen/la mian xiao long bao with outkastx/MXY
11 zam zam with outkastx
12 home-cooked food with family esp. simple Teochew dishes
13 wasabi tei with sis/xt/s
14 fish head curry (zzzomg!) with h

school and such: 12 angry men with no end in sight.

Came home from class last night at 9.30pm and I'm going to class again soon! Ahhh. My second course started last night from 6pm to 9.00pm, but we were dismissed at 8.45pm. Yeah, my second course. So far I have only been taking one course, hehe!

This second course is really interesting, it's on parapsychology. Maybe the point of having 6pm-9pm course is to highlight the dramatic effect of having this lesson at night. But anyway, some of us are requesting to move the lesson into the afternoon. I mean, winter is coming soon and they want us to go for class in the darkest and coldest of winter?! It's so depressing.

But anyway, this course should be quite interesting, never mind the fact that it sounded really cheem last night. I think I should able to catch up when I get my hands on those textbooks. Parapsychology! Haven't even heard of those stuff being taught in NUS. From what I know, the department in our university even took off a chapter related to this from the exposure module, which was one of the more interesting topics. Consciousness, hypnosis, altered states, you know.

And one of the coolest things studying here is that the lecturers who teach you are actually researchers, like those who've had their research and journal articles published, and most of them are or were practising clinical psychologists/therapists and organizational consultants. The lecturer for parapsychology, because it's such a new field that few would venture in, is one of the pioneers in that field. I mean, the people who wrote the textbooks were his colleagues!

[add]

Just came back from lesson, and seriously, why does it have to rain every time I go hunting for textbooks?! Argh. Plus on an empty stomach until 4pm. Sigh. At least this time it was easier. Got 2 out of 3 books that I need. Doubt I'll read them all anyway. Thought that I would buy the smallest of the textbook 'cos it's like a summary of the concept and very concise like what the lecturer said but it's not available in the bookstore, so I just placed an order on the net. Like, on the Swedish book website which apparently everyone here uses called Bokus. The website doesn't have English version, they only provide a translation of a few keywords from Swedish, so basically I completed an entire order including setting up a new account all in Swedish! Zai lah. Heehee. Free shipping within 8 days! The book is really small so I hope they'll just drop into my mailbox so I don't have to collect it from the local office :/

Anyway, for two of our three oral tests we watched the films 12 Angry Men and No End in Sight, and I like how they incorporate films into the course to illustrate the concepts more clearly (forgot to write that down in the evaluation oops). I haven't taken this course in Singapore yet so I don't know how they carry out the teaching of this module, but I'm quite sure this is not done. I took MNO before and the films they show us are so totally boring and just pure vomiting of the theories from the textbook. These two films are very aptly chosen and very thought-provoking, you should go watch it!

So my first course is coming to an end, which is fast. It has barely been two months! Had my reservations about this course initially, of course. I mean, I intended to take Group Dynamics sometime or another, but as this was one of the two Psychology courses in this university, I definitely had no choice but to take it. The exercises were a bit demanding, but I really enjoyed the seminars. I meant to write about them right after the first session but I think more things kept coming up that it slipped my mind.

There are only 6 people in my seminar as I mentioned --- 2 Swedes, 2 Japanese, 1 Spaniard and me. It was a nice mixture I felt, and it was good that there were locals in my group so I actually felt that it was "Swedish Group Psychology" and not just Group Psychology. The seminars went pretty much unattended by the tutors, not that it made much difference. So we would read 4 chapters before each session (which I barely finished everytime), and just discuss the readings. So we would just talk. And I mean, just talk! Talk about group relations, what we read in the textbook, what we see outside the textbook, politics, gender, Christmas (lol) in different countries, work life, life itself, cultural differences. Basically it was just like a chatting session (I mean, of course we did discuss about the textbook). But in the process we, or at least I, learnt a lot about other cultures, right from the horses' mouths, and I really liked it. It is definitely better than just going clubbing or partying to make friends with people from other nationalities when you can't even hear them above the music and noise level. I remember the first time I walked out of the first seminar, I felt ... refreshed? Refreshed about the way lessons, or group discussions are conducted here. Refreshed that I kept smiling to myself. It felt good.

I hope the subsequent courses will also be enjoyable.

of home-cooked local delights&mooncakes (!!!)

The only good thing about going to school to take the test tomorrow is that I get to go grocery shopping on the way home after that! ^^. Grocery shopping is fun, really. Pulling the trolley behind you, conjuring up dinner menus in your head, asking the locals what something on the packaging means, having locals speak to you in Swedish and you just nod and pretend you understand LOL.


Yesterday was Mid-Autumn Festival so we decided to have our very own mini celebration! Fun-ness. We decided to cook wanton mee and curry chicken! Weird mix, I know. We always have strange combinations when it comes to this kind of dinner parties. The last time we had spaghetti with tomyam soup and Chinese-style stir-fried vegetables. Haha!

Mixed the sauce ourselves! It wasn't too bad considering we were lacking in oyster sauce and dark soya sauce and had too much noodles to mix it well hehe!

Look, we even had prata to go with the curry! Yummmy.

The curry is oh-so-good. Kat is good at this :)

Chefs for the night! "Too many cooks spoil the broth...no! 'Cos we're all cooking different things"
Haha!

Yes, mooncake even in Gothenburg. And green tea to go along with it :)

Had leftovers so I mixed them all up for lunch today and it became curry chicken noodles with wanton! Yummmy.

As what K said, one of the most funs of exchange comes from cooking together once in a while, overcook, stuff ourselves silly, and just hang out.

When Lunders come visit

After visiting Lionel and co. in Lund, the next weekend they came down to Gothenburg.

Penguins in a park - Slottskogen, just outside my school
(Who needs zoos when you can find penguins in a park?! Lol.)

The first night Kat and I cooked dinner while they went on the Paddan Boat Tour. A thought someone stolen her camera when she alighted her bus so they went to make a police report but actually she left it on the bus, and two weeks after they returned, we managed to get it back from the Lost & Found section. Yay!

It's really difficult to cook for 7 people! :X

Tomyam soup! As always, haha!

We had spaghetti with meatballs, tomyam soup, stir-fried vegetables, sausages, and prata! Plus the pizza that A bought to share :)

The next day we went out to sea - visit the southern archipelago.

The third island in the archipelago that I visited - Styrs ö


Picking apples from the trees! They're so tiny it's cute.

Sunset in the city centre - This will always be one of my favourite views of Gothenburg

The 2nd night we had BBQ at Kat and Steffi's place. Try having a barbeque on a 8 degree celsius night! Brrrr.

After the BBQ I couldn't wait to go back to Singapore to have a BBQ! Haha 'cos the food is so much cheaper there and so many more varieties! BBQ, anyone? :)

Fika in Cafe Husaren - What's a trip to Gothenburg without visiting Haga and the cafes there?

Apple cake, yummmy.
They have apple cake, apple crumble and apple pie. Take your pick!

Fetaost (a kind of cheese) & Spinach pie, nice!

Having the 5 of them over makes it really crowded in my room, but it was fun 'cos it was so lively with them around! It was good that they were here for 2 nights, no more, no less. 'Cos the first night that they were gone it felt so quiet in my room again. If they were here for a longer time, I would've needed to get used to being alone again :(