Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Just a Random Update
I haven't got the energy to blog these days; and no wonder JT is complaining that I need to blog and post more often. Day in and day out, I am having 4 hours of class everyday. SEP in Lund for Chemistry majors is not at all slack. I will be posting more about my surroundings since I notice that very little entries are on my LT, the Kemicentrum, the vicinity of Delphi... Be patient, I'm waiting for spring to arrive in full bloom so that I can capture the most vivid colors for you. Well, just a short update of my happenings...
French-Canadian Corridor Dinner by Marie-Soleil (25 Mar, Sat)
We had our second corridor dinner on Sat. I cooked the first time; and it was later decided that all of us will take turns to cook for the corridor. Not many people turned up today. Out of a corridor population of 12, only 5 attended. It was a Sat, and most people went out for parties. Marie-Soleil cooked Shepherd's Pie; ironically, is called Chinese Pie in Canada. She explained that Chinese railway workers in Canada were given regular meals of Shepherd's Pie, therefore the name of the pie. It was pretty tasty: corn (a little too "corny" to my liking though), cheese and ground beef made up a large portion of the ingredients.
Dinner conversation topics were very cross-cultural. I can feel the enthusiasm everyone had to try to understand the culture in our home country. Lorena is from Columbia, Christopher is a Swede but had spent more than 12 years in S. Africa, Marina is a Swede with a Greek origin, Marie is a French-Canadian from Quebec and I'm from Singapore. Yup, and we had a very good time chatting. I think I contributed very little to the conversations since I am a habitual listener. Also, partying is almost always in our chatting topics and, like you know, I am a non-party person (aka boring person). Therefore, it explained why I hadn't contributed much to the conversations. Why am I not a party-person? Because the style of party socializing is not for me: too much booze, too wild and too loud. Too bad: for the dominant socializing activity in Lund is party.
Singaporean Dinner (26 Mar, Sun)
French-Canadian Corridor Dinner by Marie-Soleil (25 Mar, Sat)
We had our second corridor dinner on Sat. I cooked the first time; and it was later decided that all of us will take turns to cook for the corridor. Not many people turned up today. Out of a corridor population of 12, only 5 attended. It was a Sat, and most people went out for parties. Marie-Soleil cooked Shepherd's Pie; ironically, is called Chinese Pie in Canada. She explained that Chinese railway workers in Canada were given regular meals of Shepherd's Pie, therefore the name of the pie. It was pretty tasty: corn (a little too "corny" to my liking though), cheese and ground beef made up a large portion of the ingredients.
Dinner conversation topics were very cross-cultural. I can feel the enthusiasm everyone had to try to understand the culture in our home country. Lorena is from Columbia, Christopher is a Swede but had spent more than 12 years in S. Africa, Marina is a Swede with a Greek origin, Marie is a French-Canadian from Quebec and I'm from Singapore. Yup, and we had a very good time chatting. I think I contributed very little to the conversations since I am a habitual listener. Also, partying is almost always in our chatting topics and, like you know, I am a non-party person (aka boring person). Therefore, it explained why I hadn't contributed much to the conversations. Why am I not a party-person? Because the style of party socializing is not for me: too much booze, too wild and too loud. Too bad: for the dominant socializing activity in Lund is party.
Singaporean Dinner (26 Mar, Sun)
A Special Sunday Dinner (This photo is too freaking formal!)
Charlotte's Dad is a pilot and routinely fly to Europe; he flew all of us from Singapore to Copenhagen on 10 Jan 2006! This time, he brought Charlotte's Mum along and also goodies from Singapore. It was very nice of them to initiate the pot-luck dinner and bring with them Nonya kuehs and bak kua. Char's grandma cooked 炒馃 (please read in dialect) and it was brought all the way here; talk abt 爱心餐...Awwwww. Even all these were not enough, Char's Dad cooked eggs with onions and chicken and one other dish (I can't remember); served fresh and hot on the dining table.
One of the stereo-type I have about pilots is that they are very snobbish. Charlotte's Dad completely smashed my thoughts: he was very easy to talk to, cooks well and had no 有钱人的架子. Hmmm, we talked about guys cooking during the dinner; it seems that the guys among us like to cook alot. Any plus points for a guy that knows how to cook?
A slight episode was the half-cooked chicken Junyi and Kaixin brought. The chicken just refused to cook to doneness even after an hour or so in the oven. In the end, we had to cut the chicken up and steam it.
Organometallics Course
This is a very fast pace course taught by an organic chemist and an inorganic chemist. This is the first time I experience such a course and I am almost out of breath. Even the fastest USP course can't compare. The amount of new information and breadth of the syallabus is overwhelming, not to mention the 15 days of lab sessions. Chocked full of Master and Honors year students, it makes me the most junior student in the class. I hope I pass this course.
I talked to the lecturer during the break abt the grading system in Lund: Pass/Fail for all students (exchange or not). And he expressed that it allows lecturers to pose more "understanding-type" questions. Marking is also simplier since he can just read the scripts and get an idea of how well read a student is with the contents of the syallabus. I wonder whether the education environment under MOE will develop towards this. I think never. We are so caught-up with exams and grading that learning has taken secondary priority. The learning environment in Lund is pretty stress-free and I am not taking things for granted.
One of the stereo-type I have about pilots is that they are very snobbish. Charlotte's Dad completely smashed my thoughts: he was very easy to talk to, cooks well and had no 有钱人的架子. Hmmm, we talked about guys cooking during the dinner; it seems that the guys among us like to cook alot. Any plus points for a guy that knows how to cook?
A slight episode was the half-cooked chicken Junyi and Kaixin brought. The chicken just refused to cook to doneness even after an hour or so in the oven. In the end, we had to cut the chicken up and steam it.
Organometallics Course
This is a very fast pace course taught by an organic chemist and an inorganic chemist. This is the first time I experience such a course and I am almost out of breath. Even the fastest USP course can't compare. The amount of new information and breadth of the syallabus is overwhelming, not to mention the 15 days of lab sessions. Chocked full of Master and Honors year students, it makes me the most junior student in the class. I hope I pass this course.
I talked to the lecturer during the break abt the grading system in Lund: Pass/Fail for all students (exchange or not). And he expressed that it allows lecturers to pose more "understanding-type" questions. Marking is also simplier since he can just read the scripts and get an idea of how well read a student is with the contents of the syallabus. I wonder whether the education environment under MOE will develop towards this. I think never. We are so caught-up with exams and grading that learning has taken secondary priority. The learning environment in Lund is pretty stress-free and I am not taking things for granted.
