always.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

VILNIUS ROCKS!!

I'm in Vilnius, baby!

I have been hearing stories from a friend about this city, about how beautiful and chillaxing it was. About all the sights that this place had to offer. But initially, no one else I knew really planned to come here cuz the Baltic states were reputated to be small and didn't have much to offer. But I'm glad I came here. The capital of Lithuania really lives up to its name.

Living near the city centre, there are plenty of places of religion, each with it's own splendour, style and unique decorum. Most of them are not really the Catholic ones which is so common everywhere else in Europe too. So the religious buildings themselves all have very refreshing different architectures!

Food is awesome too!! Everything here is extremely well-priced, which is G-R-E-A-T, especially when you compare to the exorbitant prices of Scandinavia. The last time I had such food was in Poland, where we were ravaging good restaurants, eating big plates of meat and drinking wine at prices that was the cost of my food at lunch break over here in Uppsala.

Now it's just a repeat of that, whacking meaty and traditional Lithuanian dishes, desserts and cocktails!! We shared a beetroot soup with potatoes, 3 main course meat dishes, 3 desserts, 3 cranberry juices and 3 cocktails here, and it all amounted to a grand total of $S18 per person only!! And it was a proper restaurant.

OMG what a pleasant surprise to come here. What was meant to be a slack nua holiday to study bio notes for exams became a proper sightseeing trip =)) *LOVES*

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Time, Home and Exchange

This is something I really need to manage before it eats me up.

And leaves me trailing behind.

__________

Was just going through some photos on my brother's facebook. Really reminded me of how much I missed home. I really want to see everyone again, and do all the things I'm used to doing back home. But then, I know once I go, I'll really miss Uppsala and exchange life too. I'm thinking of doing an "Uppsala-Stockholm Run" on one of the last few days here, where I'll just move around all the places I always go to taking my parting shots.

Whenever my dad videocalls me and half-jokingly exclaims why he sent me here when I hardly seem to be studying (though I really learn things from my modules!), I'll always respond that he sent me for "experential learning". Then he'll always say "Yea, yea, yea.. Excuses." And we'll laugh over it.

But actually, I think it's very true. When you're out by yourself without your family there, you're really forced to grow up fast. It's like the Shape In or Ship Out theory. And you learn more about who you are, how you're like, how you work and what you want. That's with the help of reflective conversations with friends over a good dose of food sometimes.
__________

Going to head to Riga and Vilnius tonight with Junyi and Mel. Another nice laidback weekend ahead with these crazy people =). Looking forward to it!

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

go away.

I don't know if it's the lack of carbo, or the messy room, or the screwed sleeping cycle or the weird ever-changing weather. But I'm suddenly feeling in an all-time low, accusatory and frustrated mood right now. I'm still rational and I know it's definitely not permanent and I need to snap out of it. But for now, I just need personal time. Don't come near me. *snarl*

bomb from bio, past events and swine flu scares

I'm pretty psyched. I just came back from copenhagen (which was great in a chillax way) and my bio class just dropped an assignment on me cuz I missed an "important" class. Which no one informed us about. We were only supposed to do 2 exams. And I'm really very dead cuz I'm still super behind in my 500-600 pages worth of single-celled organisms readings. Now there's this assignment as well which my lecturer just dumped 7 extra chapters worth of readings in my email, totally killing my smu inbox.

Out of the 24 days I have left in Uppsala, I have 21 days to my 2nd exam (the 1st exam and assignment I can choose when to do before 18th may). Of which, 10 days or more, I'm out of the country. So effectively leaving me 11 days to do my 500-600 page readings and writing the assignment and squeezing in the exam while I'm at it. OMG. HOW!! I really have no mood to study, especially with the trips to Riga, Vilnius (and the Hill of the Crosses!) and Gotlands coming up. I just want to shop for nice spring clothes, read my books on a mat under the sun and cool weather, and whisk off to pretty places and explore away.

__________

I did have a fabulous time the past few days partying at Uppsala thanks to Valborg to celebrate Spring. That was followed by a fantabulous holiday off in Malmo and Copenhagen spent with great company.

In summary.. Took a train down to Malmo with Junyi and Xin Jie, and we were having pleasant time exploring the place. Malmo is rather pretty, though it was a bit small and all the shopping was closed for that day (phew!). So most of the evening we were there was spent taking loads of pictures!

Headed down to Copenhagen that night and I separated with them to stay with Lincoln, Sue Ling and Howe. Met up with Junyi and Xin Jie again for a lovely walk down to the Little Mermaid, this time in Spring! Too bad they had to leave so early in the afternoon. The rest of the time, I was hanging out with the dear Copenhagen people, terrorizing them to play Munchkins and checking out the famous Tivoli amusement park. Haha ok, that's the pictureless version of the story. Will do the pictured version if I feel like it.

__________

Now the situation is pretty sucky over at the Europe side too. Before heading down to Copenhagen, we just got the latest news flash that all the suspected swine flu cases in Denmark was cleared, so we proceeded with the trip. Then on the train to Denmark, my dad smsed and said there was one confirmed case there! ARGH. In Copenhagen airport somemore!! It was contained there, but I really hope that the person didn't spread it to anyone else then. It was rather worrying, and everytime someone coughs or sneezes, the self-denied pushed-out fear of swine flu just appears right in your face again. Hope that everyone over there, as well as those in the affected areas, will be safe.

I'm just grateful that people in Copenhagen are behaving sanely, and it felt like there was absolutely nothing happening at all. Unlike Singapore which really has nothing happening at all, in terms of swine flu cases, and is being absolutely kiasu "executing draconian measures", taking temperature, doing contact tracing and quarantining people. Not that it's really a bad thing too if it really can prevent the virus from spreading. It's just that it's more troublesome and stressful.

Now most of the exchange students have two big worries on their mind, other than the fear of contracting this stupid virus at this point - is it safe to:

travel after exchange? would we need to change all our travelling plans and forfeit all the tickets/accommodation? should we go straight back home instead?
transit at whichever airport we need to transit before going back to Singapore? or stay put at where we are till the affected transit areas become safer?

That being said, the remaining exchange students don't really care since it seems like it's no that easy to contract the virus (as long as you're not in the human-to-human strain area) and it's even harder to die. So.. let's hope that's the case.

__________

you're doing your own thing instead of following the crowd because
you seek acceptance, and following the crowd gives you that acceptance.
then you realize that the crowd looks down on people following the crowd because they look down on those seeking acceptance,
so you stop and do your own thing
so that you get acceptance from the crowd by not seeking acceptance.

isn't the whole thing ironic?


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Hit counter code here	Saturday, May 09, 2009 VILNIUS ROCKS!! I'm in Vilnius, baby! I have been hearing stories from a friend about this city, about how beautiful and chillaxing it was. About all the sights that this place had to offer. But initially, no one else I knew really planned to come here cuz the Baltic states were reputated to be small and didn't have much to offer. But I'm glad I came here. The capital of Lithuania really lives up to its name. Living near the city centre, there are plenty of places of religion, each with it's own splendour, style and unique decorum. Most of them are not really the Catholic ones which is so common everywhere else in Europe too. So the religious buildings themselves all have very refreshing different architectures! Food is awesome too!! Everything here is extremely well-priced, which is G-R-E-A-T, especially when you compare to the exorbitant prices of Scandinavia. The last time I had such food was in Poland, where we were ravaging good restaurants, eating big plates of meat and drinking wine at prices that was the cost of my food at lunch break over here in Uppsala. Now it's just a repeat of that, whacking meaty and traditional Lithuanian dishes, desserts and cocktails!! We shared a beetroot soup with potatoes, 3 main course meat dishes, 3 desserts, 3 cranberry juices and 3 cocktails here, and it all amounted to a grand total of $S18 per person only!! And it was a proper restaurant. OMG what a pleasant surprise to come here. What was meant to be a slack nua holiday to study bio notes for exams became a proper sightseeing trip =)) LOVES 12:50 am · Thursday, May 07, 2009 Time, Home and Exchange This is something I really need to manage before it eats me up. And leaves me trailing behind. __________ Was just going through some photos on my brother's facebook. Really reminded me of how much I missed home. I really want to see everyone again, and do all the things I'm used to doing back home. But then, I know once I go, I'll really miss Uppsala and exchange life too. I'm thinking of doing an "Uppsala-Stockholm Run" on one of the last few days here, where I'll just move around all the places I always go to taking my parting shots. Whenever my dad videocalls me and half-jokingly exclaims why he sent me here when I hardly seem to be studying (though I really learn things from my modules!), I'll always respond that he sent me for "experential learning". Then he'll always say "Yea, yea, yea.. Excuses." And we'll laugh over it. But actually, I think it's very true. When you're out by yourself without your family there, you're really forced to grow up fast. It's like the Shape In or Ship Out theory. And you learn more about who you are, how you're like, how you work and what you want. That's with the help of reflective conversations with friends over a good dose of food sometimes. __________ Going to head to Riga and Vilnius tonight with Junyi and Mel. Another nice laidback weekend ahead with these crazy people =). Looking forward to it! 5:15 pm · Tuesday, May 05, 2009 go away. I don't know if it's the lack of carbo, or the messy room, or the screwed sleeping cycle or the weird ever-changing weather. But I'm suddenly feeling in an all-time low, accusatory and frustrated mood right now. I'm still rational and I know it's definitely not permanent and I need to snap out of it. But for now, I just need personal time. Don't come near me. snarl 3:05 am · bomb from bio, past events and swine flu scares I'm pretty psyched. I just came back from copenhagen (which was great in a chillax way) and my bio class just dropped an assignment on me cuz I missed an "important" class. Which no one informed us about. We were only supposed to do 2 exams. And I'm really very dead cuz I'm still super behind in my 500-600 pages worth of single-celled organisms readings. Now there's this assignment as well which my lecturer just dumped 7 extra chapters worth of readings in my email, totally killing my smu inbox. Out of the 24 days I have left in Uppsala, I have 21 days to my 2nd exam (the 1st exam and assignment I can choose when to do before 18th may). Of which, 10 days or more, I'm out of the country. So effectively leaving me 11 days to do my 500-600 page readings and writing the assignment and squeezing in the exam while I'm at it. OMG. HOW!! I really have no mood to study, especially with the trips to Riga, Vilnius (and the Hill of the Crosses!) and Gotlands coming up. I just want to shop for nice spring clothes, read my books on a mat under the sun and cool weather, and whisk off to pretty places and explore away. __________ I did have a fabulous time the past few days partying at Uppsala thanks to Valborg to celebrate Spring. That was followed by a fantabulous holiday off in Malmo and Copenhagen spent with great company. In summary.. Took a train down to Malmo with Junyi and Xin Jie, and we were having pleasant time exploring the place. Malmo is rather pretty, though it was a bit small and all the shopping was closed for that day (phew!). So most of the evening we were there was spent taking loads of pictures! Headed down to Copenhagen that night and I separated with them to stay with Lincoln, Sue Ling and Howe. Met up with Junyi and Xin Jie again for a lovely walk down to the Little Mermaid, this time in Spring! Too bad they had to leave so early in the afternoon. The rest of the time, I was hanging out with the dear Copenhagen people, terrorizing them to play Munchkins and checking out the famous Tivoli amusement park. Haha ok, that's the pictureless version of the story. Will do the pictured version if I feel like it. __________ Now the situation is pretty sucky over at the Europe side too. Before heading down to Copenhagen, we just got the latest news flash that all the suspected swine flu cases in Denmark was cleared, so we proceeded with the trip. Then on the train to Denmark, my dad smsed and said there was one confirmed case there! ARGH. In Copenhagen airport somemore!! It was contained there, but I really hope that the person didn't spread it to anyone else then. It was rather worrying, and everytime someone coughs or sneezes, the self-denied pushed-out fear of swine flu just appears right in your face again. Hope that everyone over there, as well as those in the affected areas, will be safe. I'm just grateful that people in Copenhagen are behaving sanely, and it felt like there was absolutely nothing happening at all. Unlike Singapore which really has nothing happening at all, in terms of swine flu cases, and is being absolutely kiasu "executing draconian measures", taking temperature, doing contact tracing and quarantining people. Not that it's really a bad thing too if it really can prevent the virus from spreading. It's just that it's more troublesome and stressful. Now most of the exchange students have two big worries on their mind, other than the fear of contracting this stupid virus at this point - is it safe to: travel after exchange? would we need to change all our travelling plans and forfeit all the tickets/accommodation? should we go straight back home instead? transit at whichever airport we need to transit before going back to Singapore? or stay put at where we are till the affected transit areas become safer? That being said, the remaining exchange students don't really care since it seems like it's no that easy to contract the virus (as long as you're not in the human-to-human strain area) and it's even harder to die. So.. let's hope that's the case. __________ you're doing your own thing instead of following the crowd because you seek acceptance, and following the crowd gives you that acceptance. then you realize that the crowd looks down on people following the crowd because they look down on those seeking acceptance, so you stop and do your own thing so that you get acceptance from the crowd by not seeking acceptance. isn't the whole thing ironic? 1:43 am ·