beautiful white flakes from the sky...

Tuesday, 31st October 2006, 6:57pm - Oslo time

Hey hey!! I’m back from my little holiday… If you’re sharp, you’d realise that I’m back one day earlier… In fact, I came back to Oslo last night… That was because I didn’t go to Zurich… Why? Hehe… Will tell you later…

But first, I have to tell y’all that it’s *snowing*!! I don’t care how jakun I sound but it’s freaking snowing and this is the first time in my life that I’m seeing (real) snow falling… ;p It started snowing at about 2pm today and I got really, really excited… After a few hours, the rooftops and the trees got covered in a lovely layer of white… Some snowflakes landed on my window and I could see how beautiful they were… And of course I went out in the snow… It was soooo much fun!! Like you’re surrounded by these light and fluffy and beautiful flakes floating around you… But of course, after you get out of the snow, it’s not nice when it starts melting…

Well, back to my story… Aunty Evelyn and I were supposed to fly to Zurich yesterday morning… Since we had to get there at 6:30am, Aunty Evelyn got a taxi booked to take us to the airport… So far so good… We got to the airport promptly… But that’s when the trouble started… I approached the girls working at the information counter to ask them where the check-in gate would be… They were very puzzled when I asked them about the flight… So I rummaged through my stuff, got the flight number and asked them about it… To my horror, they told me we were in the wrong airport!

So I got her to tell me the name of the right airport and we immediately got a cab out… The cab went quite fast but to our horror, there was a traffic jam and at its worst point, the driver couldn’t even above the second gear, if he could even move at all…

We eventually got to the airport and it was barely 20 minutes before take-off… I rushed to the airline office and begged the guy on duty to help us… He made some calls and eventually said “désolé” to me… I then saw the whole world crashing down… I wanted to just cry, but Aunty Evelyn got to me to relax and we decided to have breakfast and work out the options… Aunty Evelyn had to get to Zurich because her flight to Singapore takes off from there… I decided that maybe I should go back to Oslo since I would be able to only spend less than a day there, having missed the flight… So we went our separate ways… Aunty Evelyn booked a flight to Zurich and went to another airport while I managed to get a relatively cheap flight back to Oslo at the same airport I was at…

Well, it was a lesson learnt… Next time, copy down the name of the airport properly! ;p But I guess there was a blessing cos since I’m back home, I got to experience the first snow! Hehe…

Oh, daylight savings time has taken effect so instead of being six hours behind Singapore, Oslo is now seven hours behind… So if it’s 5am in Singapore, it’s 10pm in Oslo… Just for the interested parties… :)

Anyways, I had a great time in London and in Paris… Will post the updates and pictures soon… Gimme some time to clear my school stuff ya?

raya, anyone?

Tuesday, 24th October 2006 – 8:54pm Oslo time

It’s Eid!! :) And it doesn’t feel like it *at all*!! In the first place, it’s not even a public holiday so I still had to go for class… Because of that, I missed the Eid prayers at the mosque which wasn’t a big deal cos the atmosphere just wasn’t there…

Aunty Evelyn is still in Tromsø and she will be back later… She had a good time there and saw the Northern Lights!! I’m so happy that her dream came true…

We will be jetting off to London *early* tomorrow morning… Then to Paris and Zurich… It will be tiring but lots of fun I hope…

Ok, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone I know Selamat Hari Raya!! I seek forgiveness for all the wrong I have done to any of you, be them on purpose or by accident… I’m nice, so usually by accident hor? ;p

Enjoy your hols and I miss you guys!! Especially my family… And maman, don’t cry too much ok? I’ll be back before you know it… Love ya lots!!

Bergen update!

Sunday, 22nd October 2006 – 8:34pm Oslo time

Hey hey! I’m back! Bergen was great and as you can see from my (super smiley) picture, I had tonnes of fun!! Aunty Evelyn and I woke up early on Friday morn to catch out train to Bergen… The train ride was simply breathtaking! Professor Tara Mohanan who wrote me a recommendation letter to come to Norway had been to Norway herself and personally told me to take the legendary train ride to Bergen…Yes Reza, Bergen is part of Norway! Hwa Phaik would be so disappointed!! No standard! ;p I’m so glad I took her advice. It was amazing as you could see the four seasons unfold right outside your window…

We first went through autumn with the trees losing their golden leaves slowly and where wispy little bits of fog and mist encircled the tops of the mountains… As Aunty Evelyn put it, it was like being on the set of ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’… Hehe…

Then we got a preview of winter! I got to see real snow for the first time!! The Finse train station was the highest one en route to Bergen; it was about 1,200 m above sea level and there was lots of fresh snow there! It was really a moment of pure excitement for me as I stared in awe at the beautiful snow-covered mountains, the cold and still lakes which duplicated the amazing grandeur of the scenery and the vast fields of pure white with the random tree gone all dark and leaf-less… I now knew where the painters of gorgeous paintings get their inspiration from… :)
The rest of the train ride showed us bits of how spring looked like and of course, the remnants of what I remember as the Norwegian summer… I used to think that the pictures I saw in my geography textbooks and the screenshots I saw on TV were nothing but illusions; but after this train ride, I know that they are as real as anything else in my world… And of course, Mrs Lee’s geography lessons are etched so strongly in my head that I could playback a commentary in her voice about the rock and water formations which I saw as the train chugged along… E.g.: the formations of meanders and the scouring of river-beds… Only VS boys would understand… Hehe…

After seven hours on the train, we finally arrived at good old Bergen… I was anticipating a lot of rain, but the weather was okay when we arrived… We then made our way to the YMCA hostel where Aunty Evelyn had a room booked… The room was bare, but nice and new and clean… Good enough for two not-so-fussy travellers…

Then we went out to look for dinner as I had just broken my fast… Dinner was a restaurant where I had some fish and chips with a side of salad… Aunty Evelyn had tomato soup with some bread… It was really a great dinner at a lovely restaurant which had a great view of the harbour… And very reasonably-priced too, by Norwegian standards…

Then we went to walk around the harbour area a bit, explored the fort nearby which was way cool and bought some food which Aunty Evelyn could have for breakfast… Then we headed back to our room to rest and planned what to do the next day…

The next day, we decided to first head to the tourist information centre where we could buy tickets and find out if there were special offers we could take on… We decided to buy the Bergen Card which gave us free access to many places and I even got a student discount… Hehe…

After we bought our tickets, we went to Bryggen to take some pictures since we had time to spare before the first activity… Bryggen is the most popular tourist attraction in Bergen… The senget buildings gave me a headache but I still think they looked cute…

We then headed to the Fløienbahn to take the Funicular up one of the mountains… The view from the monorail was simply great; you could see the seven fjords and seven mountains that surround the city which we call Bergen... There was even a troll waiting for me there… Haha…

After that, we went to take the bus which took us on a ‘Bergen in a nutshell’ tour… The bus ride ended at Ulrikbahn where we could take the cable car up to Mount Ulrik, the highest mountain in Bergen… The ride was simply amazing as you felt as if you were flying up; mainly because the cable car was old and you could really feel the wind coming up from below… I think this made Aunty Evelyn very nervous, especially since she has issues with heights…

We eventually reached the top of the mountain and it was nice and windy and cold!! Just like how mountain tops should be… =) We explored the area and I tried to take pictures with my frozen fingers… Then Aunty Evelyn suggested that we take a short trek down to something like a crater lake; I just love her sense of adventure! So we walked and clambered our way down… It was way cool as I imagined myself to be like an adventurer on his next mission… We made it down with me slipping a little here and there (I was wearing the wrong shoes) and actually stepping into a disgustingly cold puddle which resulted in my right shoes getting soaked, but besides that, no real harm was done…

Then, we went back down the mountain and took the bus back to the city centre… We then headed to the Aquarium which was like a more run-down version down version of Singapore’s Underwater World… Nothing special, although the feeding show was quite amusing, especially since the Ken Doll on duty was trying so hard to be all enthusiastic in order to compensate for the animals’ lack of it…

The good thing was there was a food fest of sorts going on at the aquarium where they sold fresh and cheap seafood!! It was a like an anti-climatic wet dream for me as they were all giving out tonnes of free samples but since I was still fasting, I couldn’t touch a single one!! *sob* Aunty Evelyn had a jolly good time of course… But we decided to buy these huge hairy crabs which were selling at 15 kroners each! That’s super cheap…

The weather started getting bad and so we headed back to the hostel for a break… After we got back, I looked through the brochures and saw that many of the museums were already closed, so it was no point heading out again as there was nowhere else we could go although I would have loved to pay the Leprosy Museum a visit… A museum dedicated to Leprosy… Cool eh? So we both took a nap until it was time for me to eat…

We decided to eat the cheap but huge crabs and they were sooooooo nice!! Super fresh with lots of tender and juicy flesh and lots of roe too!! Very the happy! Hehe… After indulging like mad, we headed out for some real dinner…

We then ended the day with a nice long chat and then it was off to bed as we had to catch the morning train back to Oslo… The train ride back to Oslo was no last fascinating of course… We seemed to have been treated with a different kind of scenery altogether…

We’re now back in Oslo… Aunty Evelyn went out to explore Frogner Park and the palace on her own while I stayed behind to revise for my Norwegian test which will be on tomorrow evening… Wish me luck!

Aunty Evelyn is jetting off to Tromsø tomorrow!! Tromsø is a place in the northern part of Norway where it’s super cold and where you can actually see the Northern Lights… She told me that it’s always been her dream to see the Northern Lights and now is a good time to go and see them! I do hope she gets to fulfil this dream of hers…

Well, it’s time for bed now… Special thanks to Reza, Nurul, Hajar, Rohana, Aze, Christine and other friends who always spare the time to post comments on my blog… I appreciate you guys very much! :) Also a special thanks to Kak Tini and Nurul Ma’amon for the Hari Raya greetings… It’ll be so different celebrating it here!

the 2nd Singaporean arrives in Oslo...

Friday, 20th October 2006 – 12:29am Oslo time

Today is a great day! Well, technically, yesterday was a great day… Hehe… Aunty Evelyn is in Oslo!! *booty shake*

She arrived this morning and she is now sleeping very ‘soundly’ in my bed, in every sense of the word… ;pp

It was a walk down memory lane for me this morning when I took the train to the airport… I suddenly got flashbacks of my very first day in Oslo; the feeling of excitement and nervousness, the incessant worry that I would not be accepted by the university, that I would be a victim of some racist attack, etc… I merely smile when I think back of that very day, the 8th of August when I first landed on Norwegian soil and how silly and unfounded some of my worries were… Who needs to worry about racist attacks when you need forever to unravel Norwegian logic? Hehe…

So I brought Aunty Evelyn back to my place and taught her about the subway system as much I possibly could… I was very excited to open the treasure chest which my family sent… Hehe… And what a treasure chest it was… To be modest with my description, I would just say that the food inside would last me through an earthquake… ;p Thanks again to maman and babah and my siblings for all the effort… I absolutely love the little Hari Raya card you guys made me! It’s adorable!! Love you guys like crazy… :)

We are going to Bergen tomorrow!! Woo hoo!! Spending the weekend there… I seriously hope it won’t rain too much… *fingers crossed* Bringing my Norwegian notes along cos I might have to take my Norwegian exam on Monday…

So yeah, see you on a hopefully not-so-manic Monday!!

i said brrr! it's cold in here!

Wednesday, 18th October 2006 – 11:30pm Oslo time

Today is one of the worst and coldest days I’ve ever experienced!! *sob* And to make it worse, it was raining for pretty much most of the day!! :( In order to keep warm, I wore an undershirt, a shirt, a wool vest over it, a wool zip-up sweater over it, my rain jacket, woollen underpants and my jeans and gloves!! And of course, I had to bring along my brolly… Shiver much…

Today was a super busy day… I had eight hours of non-stop activity which included six hours of class and two hours with the two Toms for a study group meeting… I love them!! Hehe… It’s fun spending time with bitchy and corny and big-sized Norwegian boys… ;p Tommy was making lame jokes about the pope hating me (long story) and Thomas was talking ‘Norsklish’ or Norwegian English… It was cool… I’m so gonna miss those two when we don’t have meetings anymore…

I got back my Global English essay… My professor liked it! Hehe… *smirk* And Astrid told me that she thinks I write very good Norwegian compositions… *smirk smirk*

I then ended the day with dinner with my friend Vegard… It was fun… ;p

Aunty Evelyn is flying in to Oslo tomorrow!! Excited cos I wanna see another Singaporean!! Haha… Not so excited cos her flight arrives in the morning, so I gotta wake up early… *yawn* And of course, she will bring in the *BOOTY*!! She will be bringing along a precious, precious box from my family with tonnes of goodies inside!!

I am totally looking forward to these goodies, especially my mom’s cooking!! Special thanks and lots of love to my family back home for preparing this goody box for me!! Big hugs and a million wet and slobbery kisses! Hehe…

I invited Lindsay to come over and share the goodies with me… Cos I think she has never tasted real Asian food before… And I also want to test her tolerance for chilli… We’re gonna have a competition and I think she’s gonna lose! ;pp

Oh yes, here’s a special and a bit belated birthday shout-out to Ms Farida Alkaff… Happy 23rd birthday!! Hope you’re doing good and behaving like how a Dutch lady should… Hehe…

Oh yes, I will post up more pics of my Italian trip on my multiply page as soon as I have the time, ok?

Italiano update!

Ok, like this is very overdue but I’ve just had truckloads of work thrown in my face, so I didn’t really have the time… But here it goes!

I had to wake up darn early because even though my flight was at about 1pm, it wasn’t from an airport in Oslo itself, but in a town called Sandefjord which was two hours away by bus… And of course, you had to be at the airport earlier to check-in for your flight… You get the drift…

The check-in was uneventful and about 20 minutes before the flight, I decided to enter the boarding area… As expected, they had a security gantry where I had to get my bags scanned and so on…I walked through the metal detector without any alarm but when I wanted to retrieve my bag, the security officer stopped me… I was puzzled when one of them brought me to a corner… Strip search?!! Argh! Did I look too much like a terrorist?

She then asked if she could check my bag and I told her to go ahead… So she took out some stuff and checked the pockets… She didn’t find anything sneaky and then decided to put my bag through the scanner again… She then checked with her colleague about the thing which was ‘dangerous’… She then took out my pencil case and ‘TA-DAH!’ the culprit was found… The dangerous item that could blow up the plane to bits was my stapler… I have nothing else to say…

The flight was IRRITATING! Sad to say, Norwegians are quite a noisy lot… It was as if I was at the wet market! Bad! And there was this fat woman with an ass as wide as the aisle and she put her bag in the overhead compartment where my seat was! And she kept taking/putting back her bag!! Like make up your mind!! Of course, her jelly-like humungous ass kept hitting against my shoulder every time she came by!! EVERY damn time! *shudder* Nightmare la…

Yeah, so after a boring flight, I landed at the Bergamo airport where I was greeted by Roberto… Roberto is my friend Varigu’s uncle… I got to know Varigu from Singapore from a mutual friend and so Varigu talked to Roberto and he agreed to let me stay with him for my trip! Yay! MY BED!

Roberto lives in Bergamo and he lives in a nice house!! He’s an architect and I just love his house and his neighbourhood! I went crazy la… Hehe… He also lived just above a bakery, so it was really great cos there were nice smells all day long…

I didn’t do much after I landed besides unpacking my stuff and taking a shower… I *LOVED* his bathroom too… I actually joked that I could stay with him as his maid and I will die happy… Haha…

I then lounged around and watched some TV while Roberto prepared dinner… He made a really

simple meal using tomatoes and langellini… It was simple yet divine! Roberto then told me that he enjoys cooking and that he loved seafood!! I proposed myself to be his maid again and he just laughed… We also talked about other issues like politics (hehe) and marriage… Roberto was talking a little about his divorce… Let’s just say that I am now very ‘encouraged’ to settle down and marry… ;p

After dinner, Roberto brought me around and we chilled in a bar… It was really cool and I had a citrusy mocktail… I told Roberto that I felt that I belonged more in Italy cos many of them are dark-haired and are actually not as gigantic as the Scandinavians… He agreed and said that I actually looked like I have European blood and that people will not think I am totally Asian… Hehe… Blondified people don’t look Asian anymore… ;p

The view from my sky-light; no kidding! ==>

The next day Roberto took me to the ‘upper city’ of Bergamo… We walked around and explored the gorgeous old churches and murals and statues… It was totally cool… Then we took a monorail up a mini-mountain where we could get a gorgeous view of the ‘lower city’… It was lovely!

Oh, I forgot to mention that Italy was WARM!! I didn’t even have to put on my jacket… After the tour, we headed to the supermarket to do some grocery shopping… It was nice to see what Italians ate… Unfortunately, pork was a big thing for them, haha… They also like horsemeat… Don’t ask why… We bought lots of seafood stuff and veggies...

Then it was back home to prepare dinner… It was grilled seafood kebabs with salad and mussels! I was in heaven! Hee…

The third day was Milan day and also my 2nd month away from home! Hehe… Milan was great!! There was a gorgeous gothic church and the shopping area was a fashion wet dream… I toured around a little and then went to checked out the clothes outlets… They had all the names of course… I decided to be modest and went into Zara to check out the stuff…

Lots of new stuff for Autumn… I really wanted to get clothes for my younger siblings as they had a kids section, but I was scared I would get the wrong sizes and when it comes to estimating clothes sizes, I ain’t too good… Sorry kiddies at home! Hehe…

I bought myself a pair of shoes and a beanie for cold weather… Hehe… You just *HAD* to buy something… I was also eyeing this gorgeous leather jacket but it was €291!! Sigh… If it was cheaper, I would have so gotten it…

Paying for the stuff was frustrating cos the salespeople did not understand English!! I asked for a box for my shoes and they did not understand… They kept asking if I was ok with the price… Aiyoh, I may not know Italian, but numbers can read mah? I used sign language a million times before they understood me… But to their credit, I have to say that they were very polite and obliging… Thanks Zara people! :)

I was beat after that and I had a train to catch, so I left Milan and headed back to Bergamo which was two hours away by train… End of third day…

Fourth day was Venice day!! I had to wake up *REALLY* early cos Venice was a four-hour train ride away… So I took the 8am train and it was quite a nice ride… Pretty scenic…

I was glad to finally get there and the weather was gorgeous!! Absolutely gorgeous… The sun was out and the water was so lovely and blue… It was great… Roberto gave me a map where he marked out the important spots I should go to… Of course, silly me took the wrong bridge and ended up where the residential areas were… Haha… But I managed to find my way to the more ‘touristy’ spots… It was cool… Many little roadside stalls selling trinkets and lovely stuff… The bakeries and pizzerias provided lovely free smells and the hustling gondoliers livened up the atmosphere… Venice was such a dream…

I bought quite a few souvenirs, both for myself and my family back home… I got Along a calendar with pictures of hunky gondoliers because she was asking me if Italian people were gorgeous… I bought lovely ties for Babah, the obligatory fridge magnets and trinkets for Maman and t-shirts for the young ones… I hope I will be able to find nicer stuff when I head to the other European cities… :)

I ended my visit to Venice with a boat ride which was really super scenic and relaxing…

Well, the journey back to Bergamo was a bit frustrating for me cos I had problems finding the right train back and one of the staff members was very rude to me and of course, did not know how to speak English… Sigh…

Oh, and on the train back, I sat in the same carriage as a Filipina and when she asked me, she asked,

“Pinoy?”

I reeled back and denied it of course… I look Filipino meh? I’m Chindian!! But it was cool to chat with her cos she was the only other person besides Roberto who spoke English to me while I was there…

I took a nap on the train home cos it was dark and you couldn’t see anything… I was also damn tired from all the walking… Venice may be a small island, but it sure wears you out!

So yup, that was it… My Italian weekend… Hope you guys are jealous now! Haha…

PS: The real Italian pizza is totally different from what you get at Pizza Hut and is ten times more delicious, Italian pastries are scrumptious and Italian Nutella and Crema gelato is heaven!!

happy birthday christine!!

I *still* have no time to post the full Milan update, but I will try my best ok?

This post is specially for Christine Chen who turns 18 today!!

Many happy returns!!

Love ya lots and may you look more gorgeous as the years go by... =)

a quickie...

Hey peeps! I'm baaaack!! Milan was great, but like all good weekends, it means that I spent it without doing any *WORK*!! So it's time for me to catch up on some stuff and hence, you will have to wait for a while before the full Milan story comes out... Patience ya?

But of course, I wanna wish myself Happy 2nd Month!! Yup, it's been two months since I had been gone and I had the celebration in Milan! Nowhere else, my babies...

More updates soon!

Oh yes, special Birthday wishes to Hong "the himbo" Shangfeng!! Happy 24th Birthday!! Stay ah pek and himbotic always! Love ya babez and good luck for the AHM and Stand Chart Marathon!! If you're taking part la... Hehe...

as luck would have it...

Thursday, 5th October 2006 – 3:00pm Oslo time

Today seemed like a perfect day somehow… Everything went very well for me… Hee…

It was raining in the morning, but I was prepared for it… Had my warm clothes and my brolly and on the way to school, I pretended to be a train and blew out ‘steam’ from my mouth, just for fun… Hehe… A bit jakun/swaku la, but you can’t do these things in Singapore you know…

It was history class today and class seems to be better when you have friends with you… And she wasn’t reading so much today! Woo hoo!!

And dear Thomas was on a roll in today’s class… He answered almost every question which was thrown to the class!! In fact, all the questions except for one! He was able to talk about the bodhi satavans, the evolution of vedic brahmanism and the influences of Buddhism in the development of Hinduism… He’s crazy la…

I’m very malu now to call myself an Indian… But I *did* answer one question and it was a question he couldn’t answer… *evil grin*

The question was: “What is a linga?”

And of course I got it right… What can I say, I know my body very well… *wink*

I got Thomas to help me translate some letters that I received from the bank and he also helped clarify some bank-related questions which I had….

After class, I headed to the bank outlet on campus to check my account balance... The money from my deposit had been transferred! Yay! But I had to head to town to withdraw cash which wasn’t a problem cos I needed to go anyway…

It was cool cos the moment I got to the train platform, the train (to the bank) came… =)

I went to the bank to get my month’s allowance, and then, when I got to the train platform, the train to town came! I didn’t have to wait…

Then I went to the central station to get me some euros for my Milan trip… Hehe…

Then it was back home to chat with the family… It’s a good day… And a lucky one too… I got the trains coming as soon as I reach the platform and I spent no time waiting for my turn at the banks… I am also recovering well and am ready for Milan! Bring it on! ;p

passing the test under the weather...

Wednesday, 4th October 2006 – 7:04pm Oslo time

I’m unwell!! The ‘gravelly’ throat I had got a little worse and now my body aches a little… But no worries, I’ve loaded up on water and taken some Panadol… I should be fine soon enough…

I skipped Norsk class today cos I felt a bit more lethargic than usual, especially since I was fasting… But now that I can eat and drink, I feel better already…

I think the reason behind the bad throat I got this morning is the fact that I forgot to bring my scarf along to school yesterday… In addition to that, I only brought one jacket… It was a silly move cos now that autumn is here, it rains more often and gets colder as the days go by…

Note to self: going to school without your scarf and with only one jacket is plain silly!

Well, I made up for it today by wearing four layers on top and three layers below… Hehe… Of course, I also had my neck nicely wrapped up with my scarf so that it would stay warm and hence my throat would be able to recover more quickly…

Old English class today was ok… He was in a better mood and we somehow managed to get our brains back and hence were more responsive and not only that, our responses were right too! Phew! I don’t feel like dropping the class anymore…

Oh, good news!! They checked our kitchen again today and we *PASSED*!! Woo hoo! No saman! The inspector(s) left a note on the kitchen table which was in Norwegian, but I could understand most of it and there was a picture of a pretty flower on it, so that should be a good sign, right? Hehe…

Oh, and they want to have a fire-drill on Friday… Thank goodness I won’t be around that day… But here’s the funny thing; instead of evacuating the building, we’re supposed to lock ourselves up in our rooms when the alarm sounds… I guess these Norsk people like bak kwa a lot… ;p

PS: Wish me a speedy recovery so I would be able to enjoy Milan! =)

why like dat?

Tuesday, 3rd October 2006 – 8:20pm Oslo time

Old English class was *horrible*!! He seemed to be in a bad mood and it was the absolute worst class I’ve ever had so far!! He seemed to have adopted this aggressive stance since the start and it went downhill after that… You know, like sometimes a teacher sounds so pissed when he asks you a question that requires a really simple answer that you choke on it and you simply can’t answer it?? Well, it happened throughout the whole class today!

For instance, he asked the class for the present participle for “were lead” and then gave us ‘the look’… The whole class was engulfed in silence for two whole minutes before I meekly squeaked, “are lead”… It was *that* crazy…

I think that this be karma coming back to bite me in the ass… Cos I know that’s how many of my ex-recruits felt when I was drilling them around… Hehe…

But ya la, if I could drop this class, I would have done so *ages* ago!! Super, super sianz… I wonder if I could use Norwegian as a breadth module? If I could, then I would just drop this bloodsucking class and use Norwegian as part of my semester credits… Any NUS-ians here know? Tell me if you have a clue ya?

Anyways, I had a study group meeting with Thomas and Tommy (yes, the other big Norsk boy’s name is Tommy) before my class and I think it was fruitful… Thomas is really good with all his facts thanks to his excellent memory and Tommy is great with drawing parallels between the historical and the modern so that we could understand the arguments better… As for me, I sit there and try to look pretty? *grin* No la, I help to provide the Asian perspective on issues and my background in Asian history helps too… And I try to paraphrase everyone’s ideas so that they sound more academic… *smirk*

I like this study group very much… The two Toms are cool and we enjoy bitching about our beloved history professor, Pamela Price… Thanks Prof Price, you have brought us together! ;p

It’s like bleeding cold today… It rained and aiyoh, can die sia… My throat is a little ‘gravelly’ and that’s a result of overwhelming coldness/dryness.

Oh, and they had area inspection just now! *gasp* They did an inspection of our kitchen and bathroom about two weeks ago and we failed the kitchen test miserably!! Not surprising la, given that there’re slobs living amongst us… So the inspectors left behind a note threatening us --- we had to clean up by 4th October or they will send a cleaning company to clean for us and that bill would be charged to our rent… So the kitchen went through a major overhaul, especially the fridge… It looks so different now!

The thing is, we were expecting the inspectors to come *tomorrow*, but they came today… Ok, so there was only one person… She came today instead! Caught offguard sia… And the worst thing is, she came while I was in the shower! So I bumped into her while I was heading back to my room, looking like some ah pek with my towel around my waist and with some toiletries in my hands… Very malu!!

When she saw me, she asked,

“Har du vaske det?”

And I just answered “Ja,” giggled weirdly and ran back into my room… In case you’re wondering, the question she asked was “Have you been washing?”… So she assumed I was washing the shower… Err, I was actually only washing myself… ;p

Aiyah, I just hope we pass la… If not, must pay the saman… So sian…

Oh, oh, I saw a car accident of sorts yesterday… I was on the way to Norwegian class when I saw a car skid across three lanes before hitting a pothole near the kerb… It was kinda freaky la cos it was really loud and it happened right in front of me… You could smell the burning tyres...

The kaypoh in me went closer to see what was going on… I also wanted to see if the driver was ok la… Can help to call ambulance mah… A few other passers-by also came along to get a closer look… Then the whole picture became clearer --- the car was being chased by a police car which was why it was speeding and thanks to bad luck, it skidded off the road… The driver and his passenger were ok and he was desperately trying to pacify the angry-looking policemen… Hehe… Poor thing…

Oh well, just another day of adventures in Blondiland... Time to indulge in some cookies! =)

ponder, ponder, ponder...

Tuesday, 3rd October 2006 – 12:19pm Oslo time

I feel very lazy today… I don’t feel like going for my study group and I especially don’t feel like going for Old English class later…

Old English bites… It’s a freaking dead language, why bother analyse it so much? Half of the analyses we make might be straight-on wrong also… So, why?

So we would understand the language that we all speak today? Understand why certain syntactical constructions are possible and others are not? Understand the origins and historical significance of the words that we use everyday? No need la… Can use the language to communicate effectively can already what? Bleah…

Alright, so I’m not in the mood for Old English class… Am I ever in the mood for it? Hehe… Sian la… I better get ready now though… Don’t want to be late for my meeting with Thomas and other big Norsk boy whose name I hope to find out by today…

PS: I got myself an umbrella! No more wetness! Woot!

not-so-manic monday

Monday, 2nd October 2006 - 4:58pm Oslo time

Window people came by!! Actually only one person came, but he finished the job!! My windows are done! Woo hoo!! Now my room is clean and the curtains are up... Nice again...

Today is a cold but more relaxed day... I'm quite happy too... Laundry went on without a hitch! Yay!

I passed my Norsk exam! I'm in the next level class now...

I like Blondiland... =)

free smells on a sunny sunday...

Sunday, 1st October 2006 – 1:59pm Oslo time

It’s a very lovely day today! It’s really nice… It was raining like super madness the whole of yesterday… In fact, it was so cold yesterday that when I went out to run errands, I put on my woollen underwear so as not to freeze to death… But surprisingly, I slept without needing to use the heater… The process of blondification seems to have accelerated a little… Hehe…

I bought a new lightbulb for my lamp, but it seems to be the wrong one… I think I bought it a size too small… I can screw in the bulb, but the light gives out this psychedelic kind of effect when I switch it on… It’s because the lampcover is made out of woven material and when the light shines through the gaps in the cover, it creates this funny shadowy effect… Now my room looks like a seedy Geylang brothel when it’s night time… Maybe can start business liao… Hahaha… Kidding la, I’m still fasting ok?

I wish I could go out for a walk, but I have to clear my homework la… I have a paper due next week, but I plan to finish it this week cos this weekend is Milan weekend! Yay! I am really looking forward to this cos it’ll be my first holiday trip since I got here…

So yupz, time to focus on the books for now…

The thing about having your room right next to the kitchen is that when your floories are cooking, you get to share the smells… Well, this is not a good thing when you can’t eat! Bleah… Four more hours to go…