horror of horrors...

Saturday, 25th November 2006 - 12:03pm Oslo time

Something scary happened in my neighbourhood! Yesterday morning, one of the girls in my block woke up to find a dead body lying outside her window! *gasp*

Poilce soon came and investigations began... They believe that it was a homocide! *double gasp* The victim is a 23-year-old man who was not a resident of my student village... Early reports say that there was a party going on the night before and perhaps a fight broke off before he was flung out to his death... Freaky!! Really freaky cos I can see the exact spot where he died if I look out of my window! Argh!

I hope he didn't fall to his death from my floor, cos it's actually the highest... *shudder* This strengthens my belief that alcohol is bad for you... A lot of parties go on at my block and it has happened once or twice that a fight has broke out... But I guess this is the most serious one... Let's hope for less drama in the next few weeks... The exams are enough to drive me crazy right now... Sigh...

the choked chicken...

Wednesday, 22nd November 2006 - 11:55am Oslo time

I am *dying*!! The exams have started! I am right now trying to finish a take-home exam assignment which is due on Friday... I am making progress, but it seems to be painfully slow... I've never had take-home exams before and I am really beginning to detest them... Mostly because I have *three* of them to do... Here's my exam schedule:

21stNov - 24thNov: Gender Equality Exam (8-10 pages, *NOT* double-spaced)

27thNov - 1stDec: History Take-home Paper (same length as above)

1stDec: Old English Written Exam in school

1stDec - 6thDec: Global English Take-home Exam (same length as above!)

5thDec: Fiction and Film Written Exam in school!!

To make things worse, the weather has been really bad lately! The hours of sunlight (if you get sunlight) are only between 9am-4pm and it's always raining! The only upside is that it has been a bit warm lately and by warm I mean 5 degrees C.... Sigh...

And to make things even worse, my classes are still going on!! Yes!! They don't have a reading week over here! So I have to juggle attending classes, researching on my essay, doing homework and studying for the exams!! Why, Norway? Why??!

I wanna go home now!! Waaaah! I also have my Norsk exam on the 15th of Dec, but that would not require as much effort or revision... *sob* If I don't survive, just wanna say I love you guys!

another quickie!

Thursday, 16th November 2006 - 8:45pm Oslo time

I have my exams next week!! Argh!

So this will be one of the very few updates you will see on my blog for the next few weeks at least... Sigh...

So we had history class today and it was the last time Thomas, Tommy and I were gonna be sitting together! *sob* We do have class next week, but Tommy says he might not be coming... So sad... After class, Thomas actually sat down for lunch with me and we were sitting in the canteen for more than 2 hours chatting!! It just seemed like a very nice thing to do... We discussed school systems, life in the military and even about languages... I will sooooo miss him la! Sigh... I shall bring my camera to the next class for a farewell photo with him... At least have some memory of the sweet guy...

Anyways, the weather in Oslo today sucked like shit! Like really sucky and shitty and a pain in the ass... And it didn't help that I had a lot of walking and commuting to do today... My jeans got drenched and so did my schoolbag, despite having the rain-cover on... @#$%-ing weather!

And thanks to the weather also, I experienced my first fall on ice... Here's how it works: It rains in the early part of the day and if the drainage at one place isn't very good, the water collect on the ground and forms puddles.... Then as the day progresses, the temperature drops and the water freezes to form ice... And even though temperatures are sub-zero, it can still rain, so what you get is smooth and wet ice... Smooth wet ice is everywhere, even on the pavements... And so I walked on some nice and smooth wet ice today and I fell!! Now I can really call myself Norwegian... =)

And I didn't fall on my arse, in case you're wondering... I fell on my side and managed to prop myself up with my right hand before I totally hit the ground... Hehe... So not so bad la...

That's all for now I guess... Till the next update then...

Ha det bra!

happy birthday babah!

Saturday, 11th November - 10:35pm Iceland time

Greetings from Reykjavik! I don't have much time, but I *MUST* do a birthday shoutout to my dad! Happy birthday babah! Love you lots!

And also to Fazleen too! I never forget her birthday of course! Hehe... Stay gorgeous always! =)

To Reza and "gue": Yes! I will come back with a Norsk accent! Happy tak?

it's like, month number 3!

Wednesday, 8th November 2006 – 11:56pm Oslo time

It’s my third month in Oslo! Yay! Cool huh? Cool and cold… Hehe… It’s so cold in Oslo now that your mug of hot water loses heat in less than ten minutes… Then it’s as cold as water you take out from the fridge… No kidding…

Anyways, my 3rd month photo was taken in Paris outside the Notre Dame Cathedral… I chose this picture cos I look drunk in it… Aunty Evelyn is beside me in the original version of the picture but I kinda erased her from it cos I do not want her to be embarrassed about being photographed with a drunk-looking nephew…

Oh, did I mention I am flying off to Iceland tomorrow? Well I am, and will be there for the weekend… Hehe… And I still haven’t posted my London and Paris update and pics! Aiyah, sian…

Gimme a bit more time ok? It will come out, eventually…

Vaske-uke update: The sign of pure *EVOUL* is very near!! It’s like only one door away! *gasp of horror*

So we had “Global English” class today and guess what today’s topic was? Singlish!! Yay! My professor was soooo excited to have me in the class! Hehe… And of course, he asked me a lot of questions to confirm what he has been reading about… And he had been reading a lot about Singlish… And of course I was very proud to answer the questions… Hee…

My Norwegian classmates asked a lot of questions, especially about ‘la’, ‘sian’, ‘kena’ and many other things of course… But I forgot to teach them the word ‘ang moh’… Haha…

My professor also made me read excerpts of conversations taken from native Singaporeans and Malaysians… The Malaysian excerpt was between two makciks and I tried to make it as joyah as I could (Reza would have done soooo much better here! ;p) and after I was done, they actually applauded! They loved me! Haha…

And it was nice, to be in the limelight for a while… And after class, the professor thanked me and everyone clapped again… Hee! Ok, I am such an attention-whore sometimes…

Special online hug and support to my dear friend Tommy… Don’t be stressed ok? I hope you’ll do ok this time… Poor Tommy was so stressed that he was shaking while talking to me yesterday… It’s scary when you see big-sized Norsk boys shaking when they’re stressed out…

And also lots of love to Reza and “gue” (I know who you are of course! ;p) for the nice comments to my previous entry…

tribute to a friend...

I check my email everyday… And as usual, you have your daily dose of spam, messages from the yahoogroups, notes from friends and of course, messages from friendster… One of the features I activated in my friendster account is to have a reminder sent to me every time a friend has a birthday… It’s useful to do this of course as I used to store all the birthdates into my poor phone…

Well today, I received another reminder… And it told me that 7th November is Abdul Rahman’s birthday… He would have been 23… The thing is, Rahman is dead… He died a few months back and I still vividly remember how I got to know about it… I received an SMS from his number, telling me he was dead… It was really traumatising to receive a message ‘from’ a friend telling you he just died but I suppose that was the most convenient way for his uncle to do it…

So this is what happens after you die… Little bits and pieces of you carry on living… Your online journal, your friendster account, your email inbox, the pictures of you in someone else’s room…

Rahman’s death was very sudden and very tragic… I had known him for 10 years before he passed away… We went to the same secondary school and junior college and he was even one of the many recruits under my care… I remember how I would let him slip out of his bunk after the lights-out time so that we could just sit in a corner and talk about life… Those times were nice... I was not his sergeant and he was not my recruit; we were just friends as we were supposed to be…

Sigh… I feel so much sorrow in my heart right now…

I miss you Rahman, and I hope God will bless your soul…

the ice queen...

Sunday, 5th November 2006 – 10:45am Oslo time

The weekend is almost over! Sigh… Things have gotten less crazy now… I’ve managed to clear major bits of my school assignments… I’ve passed the second level of Norwegian! Yay! We have a small break from Norwegian class now… We will resume on the 9th instead of tomorrow…

I miss my family a lot… And my friends too… It seems that everyone is busy right now; either with festivities or preparing for the dreaded exams… I am very busy myself too…

Anyways, in this entry, I would like to talk about snow… Yes, snow… Hehe… Snow is white and nice and beautiful… When it covers the ground, everything looks so nice and clean… But snow can be a bitch too… Snow sticks on to the soles of your shoes and when you take off your shoes at home, the snow from underneath melts and creates a mess… Snow on the ground melts a little bit when there is a little bit of the sun shining and then when the night comes, the slightly melted snow re-freezes and becomes ice… Ice on the pavement is very dangerous… It slows you down and it makes the pavements and walkways slippery… But I’ve not slipped and fallen; not yet anyways…

So yeah, snow is like that… Beautiful, but cold and evil too…. But I still love snow… Hehe… I will miss snow when I come home…

Here’re some random excerpts from my conversations with Lindsay over lunch on Friday:

Lindsay: You should come for the international coffee hour at Château Neuf today.

Asraf: What time is it?

Lindsay: 4pm.

Asraf: It’ll be so dark at 4pm! It won’t be nice.

Lindsay: Well, it’s getting darker earlier everyday. You should have gotten used to it by now. And what’s wrong with being in the dark?

Asraf: Well, when it’s dark, people won’t be able to see me anymore.

Lindsay: And I thought I was the weird one.

On the way home…

Lindsay: Oh my god! You look like my dad when you have your hat on!

Asraf: Really? Your dad is Asian?

Lindsay: No, but he has blue eyes.

Asraf: Ah, so that’s what we have in common.

Lame, but I love it!! Haha… I am so gonna miss that girl when I’m back home in Singapore…

happy birthday azmi!!

I am still not done with my London and Paris updates; so hold on to your horses, very tightly...

What I would like to do though, is to wish Md Norazmi bin Taib a Happy, Happy Birthday!! =)) Woo hoo!! I shall not mention your age, but it shows... haha... Kidding babe... Thanks for being one of my bestest friends and I will see you soon! Miss ya lots and all our 'Starbucks sessions'... hehe...