Sunday, May 28, 2006
Meaningful Lunch @ Ciao Ciao Kebab Place
Ciao is, conventionally, what we say at a parting. It feels especially apt that today's lunch was here.
I reckoned that today's lunch at Ciao Ciao was going to be the last eat-out session together as the whole SEP gang. Of course, we choose Ciao Ciao specifically because it holds so many memories for us. It is the place in Sweden where we ate out, the first place we took a group photo in the snow, the place where we patronized the most when we eat out... To me, it's a place which started our group bonding since it was where we have our first dinner chat.
I still remember Don and I were having difficulty finding our way from Delphi to the Centraal; we arrived the latest of all the people at (if I dun remember wrongly) 7.30 pm. It was cold then and the walk around Lund clothed in winter-wear was an amazing experience. Please forgive my ignorant excitment; afterall, it's my first time walking in the street at this low temperature.
Over lunch, Shar told us that Daniel thinks that this SEP gang wouldn't have got together if not for this exchange, i.e. we wouldn't have got to know one another in Singapore. To a large extent, I think it's true. Our personalities, interests and temperaments are so diverse. Furthermore, all of us are from different faculities (except for Don, Grace and Jan who are, together, frm Biz Sch). To know this group of friends is an affinity miracle. And I think it's this diversity that kept this group alive and very interesting. We never seems to run out of topics to talk about (though there is this 7-min of silence which we observed religiously :P).
So at the end of lunch, Grace took out pieces of paper and asked us to write our thoughts about one another. Each piece of paper is labelled with our names and it was passed around for people to write their thoughts on the paper's owner. I did this during JC and, the last time I did this was during YEP: Venture Vietnam 2002. It really gives me a chance to tell someone things which I don't have the courage of telling or, perhaps, I can't find the right timing to tell him/her. Besides being a time for reflection, the written thoughts from my friends abt me are really good momentos. For me to (indirectly) reflect on what I have done right/wrong and for me to remember the company my NUS-Lund Exchange friends have provided during the wonderful times.
I reckoned that today's lunch at Ciao Ciao was going to be the last eat-out session together as the whole SEP gang. Of course, we choose Ciao Ciao specifically because it holds so many memories for us. It is the place in Sweden where we ate out, the first place we took a group photo in the snow, the place where we patronized the most when we eat out... To me, it's a place which started our group bonding since it was where we have our first dinner chat.
I still remember Don and I were having difficulty finding our way from Delphi to the Centraal; we arrived the latest of all the people at (if I dun remember wrongly) 7.30 pm. It was cold then and the walk around Lund clothed in winter-wear was an amazing experience. Please forgive my ignorant excitment; afterall, it's my first time walking in the street at this low temperature.
Over lunch, Shar told us that Daniel thinks that this SEP gang wouldn't have got together if not for this exchange, i.e. we wouldn't have got to know one another in Singapore. To a large extent, I think it's true. Our personalities, interests and temperaments are so diverse. Furthermore, all of us are from different faculities (except for Don, Grace and Jan who are, together, frm Biz Sch). To know this group of friends is an affinity miracle. And I think it's this diversity that kept this group alive and very interesting. We never seems to run out of topics to talk about (though there is this 7-min of silence which we observed religiously :P).
So at the end of lunch, Grace took out pieces of paper and asked us to write our thoughts about one another. Each piece of paper is labelled with our names and it was passed around for people to write their thoughts on the paper's owner. I did this during JC and, the last time I did this was during YEP: Venture Vietnam 2002. It really gives me a chance to tell someone things which I don't have the courage of telling or, perhaps, I can't find the right timing to tell him/her. Besides being a time for reflection, the written thoughts from my friends abt me are really good momentos. For me to (indirectly) reflect on what I have done right/wrong and for me to remember the company my NUS-Lund Exchange friends have provided during the wonderful times.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Went to Watch X-Men + Show U around Lund
Paid SEK90 to watch X-Men: The Last Standing. Not bad as the third sequel in the series. I especially like the battle between Prof X. and Grey/Phoenix: good special effects + super tense moments + just a nice bit of character development. Overall character development is a bit weak and those who don't read the comic might be a bit lost and have lots of questions unanswered (e.g. how did Prof X and Magneto fell out); and for those who read the comic, don't be disappointed to find that certain mutants are not what they supposed to be as depicted in the comic (how come Prof X. passed Juggernaut without the slightest feeling that they are half-brothers? Marrow is not a male!) If you haven't watched the movie in the cinema, please please stay till the credits finish playing... there is a surprise!
A bit disappointed abt the cinema though. The seats are large (a bit larger than GV's) and comfortable (with a lot of leg space). It's free seating so I was lucky that the cinema wasn't super full since I arrived late into the theater. The theatre is not equipped with Dolby Digital surround sound. The sound system felt weak; you can hear that it's just a pair of big speakers at the front (maybe with a pair of small ones at the rear of the theater, but definitely not digital surround sound).
Super nice timing: movie finished at 2030 and the sun was 1.5-2h to setting; I started to snap at Dormkyrkan basking in the golden ray. I have been waiting for the beautiful orange sunset rays for a long time. It has been cloudy and rainy most of this weeK.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Lundakarneval (19-21 Maj)
Left to right; top to bottom
1-4: Kommersen (a shopping area) where we buy the 4-year-once carnival souvenirs.
5: A sumo game which the players don a heavily padded and bulky costume to simulate sumo wrestlers' body size.
6: Watch Leonardo in one of the performance tents. I couldn't understand the Swedish dialogue but the expressions on the actors and actresses showed them all.
7: (To-be-uploaded)
8-9: Giant (2000g) chocolates to be won! Like a roulette game: no skills, pure luck.
10: Carnival entrance
11: Waiting by the road for the carnival parade to start.
12: Pple were doing whatever they can to gain height advantage.
13-19: Scenes frm the parade.
20: Colorful game store.
21: Lundakarneval silk screen at the main performance stage
22: Game store
23: Korv = Hotdogs
24: Project Sex (Sex = Six [in Swedish])
25: Speed dating at the carnival is a very bold idea in the carnival. I think it's a great idea but it will definitely not work in Singapore.
26: Wall of soft-toys
27: These two pretty gals came up to me asking me to take a picture for them. I asked for their camera but they said to use mine. Well, I thought I have to send it to them, right? Nope. When I got it taken, I asked for their email and they said:"You can keep the picture". People told me they were trying to hit on me. I think otherwise.
- Flickr is having a bug problem, the above slide-show may not display properly.
- If you can see the thumb-nail pictures, the selected and displayed picture in the main slide-show window is not displaying fully. Move your cursor out of the thumb-nails and onto the slide-show window to fill it with the selected picture. Move back down to thumb-nails to select another picture for bigger display.
- This is my first-time using Flickr slide-show to display my pictures. I found scrolling up and down the window too troublesome.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Last Lab Session - Coffee and Cake
Markus, who is darn good at solving problems during tutorials.
1st row: We were getting bored in the lab. To make life more interesting and to promote international interaction, my Italian lab partner, Marco suggested learning each other's language. There will be a sentence each time and we will take turn to translate them into our native language.
2nd and 3rd row: Around the lab where we work.
2nd and 3rd row: Around the lab where we work.
2nd row: Quentin (French course-mate); another cake; Hanna, Emelie and Me.
We're all enjoying this last coffee-and-cake.
The advanced chemistry course at Lund University has a tradition of a coffee-cake break at 1500 during every lab day. This makes senses since a lab day is long (0800-1500); the interaction and talking cock over coffee breaks the monotony of lab work.
There is also a list in which one can sign up to bring cake for the lab break one desired. I had mine last week and prepared a shake-and-bake cake. The form of the cake is too big and the cake turned out more like a brownie instead of being moist and soft. Over a lab course of 15 full days, we had a different cake each day. Not too fancy ones of course, but I can see that my European course-mates enjoy baking: trying out new recipes and some very good classic recipes. And everyone is looking forward to 1500 because (1) abt time to go home (2) seeing what cake is on the table.
Anyway, today is the last day which the class will gather at the lab (it's a clean-up day). To capture this moment of memory, I brought along the camera and started snapping! Oh yah, another thing I found out about my course-mates is that they're not camera-shy. This is a rather different behavior which my Singaporean friends. (Since this is a back-post, I will proof my point that Europeans are less camera-shy than Singaporeans once again in the Lundakarneval.)
I wonder if my Singaporeans course-mates will accept this concept of having a tea-break together during lab work days... Or are they workaholics?
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Spring in Lund
Friday, May 12, 2006
Full Moon in Lund
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Handwriting Analysis
Saw the link on SQ's blog (Thanks!) and went ahead with the test.
What does your handwriting say about YOU?
The results of your analysis say:
You plan ahead, and are interested in beauty, design, outward appearance, and symmetry.
You are a person who thinks before acting, intelligent and thorough.
You are affectionate, passionate, expressive, and future-oriented.
You are not very reserved, impatient, self-confident and fond of action.
You enjoy life in your own way and do not depend on the opinions of others.
What does your handwriting say about YOU?
The results of your analysis say:
You plan ahead, and are interested in beauty, design, outward appearance, and symmetry.
You are a person who thinks before acting, intelligent and thorough.
You are affectionate, passionate, expressive, and future-oriented.
You are not very reserved, impatient, self-confident and fond of action.
You enjoy life in your own way and do not depend on the opinions of others.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Lomma Beach + Kaixin's Birthday @ Herkules Bar
The shooting situation is tough for any camera: high field-depth in portrait, flash in tungsten lighting, low light condition. My toughest retouching assignment, yet: background underexposed, incorrect white balance, poor saturation and contrast.
After retouching: more even exposure, warmer tone, higher saturation and contrast.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Outdoor Dining @ Delphi
Weather was good so we dined outdoor. Well, maybe not that perfect afterall since we all felt a bit cold after 20 min into the dinner.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Weight Maintenance
I weighed myself at a second-hand store today. There was an old scale for sale and I took the chance to see how heavy I am now. With my clothes on, it read 59kg; so with my birthday suit, should be about 57.5-58 kg. Alec, who was away for a study trip in Italy for 3 weeks, said a few days ago, that I have become thinner (though I feel the same as before). Quite glad with my weight, I was worried that I might gain some extra kilos.
It's a miracle that I have maintained my "Singapore weight" since my life-style is quite different in Lund. In Singapore, I will run at least twice a week for about 5km each time, do chin-ups regularly, go gym less regularly (than chin-up) and eat quite healthily; so I guess weight maintenance is a given with this life-style. But in Lund, I have become a bit lazy; running is like once a week and chin-ups only with running sessions (gym is too expensive, so out). I loaded on carbohydrates: eat lots of rice, bread and noodles, eat all the delicious pastry the gals have made, made desserts for myself and all those sugar-loaded tea and coffee. So by right, I should have gained a bit of mass.
Perhaps, it's the cold weather that helped me burn all the extra calories. My room is forever cold and I have to wear a down-jacket to keep warm sometimes. Yes, it's that cold. The heater is working but maybe it's because I'm on the ground floor. Yurui was telling me that her third-floor room in Alberta (remember that it's like always negative temperature in this place) was warm, yup, so ground floor is the coldest in a building.
Or perhaps, I have a high metabolism rate...
It's a miracle that I have maintained my "Singapore weight" since my life-style is quite different in Lund. In Singapore, I will run at least twice a week for about 5km each time, do chin-ups regularly, go gym less regularly (than chin-up) and eat quite healthily; so I guess weight maintenance is a given with this life-style. But in Lund, I have become a bit lazy; running is like once a week and chin-ups only with running sessions (gym is too expensive, so out). I loaded on carbohydrates: eat lots of rice, bread and noodles, eat all the delicious pastry the gals have made, made desserts for myself and all those sugar-loaded tea and coffee. So by right, I should have gained a bit of mass.
Perhaps, it's the cold weather that helped me burn all the extra calories. My room is forever cold and I have to wear a down-jacket to keep warm sometimes. Yes, it's that cold. The heater is working but maybe it's because I'm on the ground floor. Yurui was telling me that her third-floor room in Alberta (remember that it's like always negative temperature in this place) was warm, yup, so ground floor is the coldest in a building.
Or perhaps, I have a high metabolism rate...
The Effect of Extended Daylight
The days are getting really long in Lund. According to Weather Underground, there is 16h 53min (2 May 2006) of visible light and the length of day is getting longer by about 4min everyday. I haven't seen the longest of day, yet. As the land of the mid-night sun, Sweden will experience very long day in June. In Stockholm, for example, sunrise will be at 0330 and sunset at 2200. And the further north of Sweden we go, like Kiruna, the daylight will be even longer: midnight sun phenomenon. I want to say something about how this extended daylight has affected me: my habits and mood.
Sleeping pattern is hit hard, I think, by the extended visible light. It starts to get dark only around 9pm now and the illusion is that it's like past 7pm. I will continue to work till about 2-3 am only to realise how late the night is. The opposite happens for waking up. Pretty strong sun light shines into my room at about 6am and I have the feeling that I will be late for class; I wake up only to find I can have another 1.5h of sleep. My sleep is disrupted a little at this point and my energy level is relatively low in the day. I'm sure you all can understand how difficult it is to pull through 4 hours of early lectures (8am-12pm).
Eating time is another part of the life style that has been affected. Breakfast and lunch are still normal; dinner is pushed very late. In Singapore, we eat, say like, 6-8 pm? And I can say that our hunger is controlled by light, well, at least mine is. So when the sun goes down, I will head to PGP canteen or, if at home, go to the hawker centre for a meal. But in Lund now, I sometimes eat as late as 9-10 pm (which is just an hour or so past daylight). And it's interesting to note that during winter, I wouldn't find my Swedish neighbors in the kitchen after 9pm (they have an early dinner habit); but in spring, it's common to see people in the kitchen at 8, 9 and even 10pm. When I eat late, I will tend to also sleep late and the whole bad sleeping pattern cycle repeats...
The limited length of time which I see sunlight affects my mood. Although sleeping and eating are affected adversely, I think my mood has improved during spring due to extended daylight! I especially like the still-bright sky after lab sessions, which ends at 4pm. In Singapore, it would have been dark or close to darkness if we have late classes. I hate the feeling of leaving home in the dark and going home in the dark; it's so depressing. In Lund winter, sunset would be at 4pm or so, just as bad.
Like Alec and Weihao said yesterday," Now, the daylight period is deceiving us about the concept of time". I agree totally. Lastly, the extended day explains why I have the mood to type my blog and eat Häagen-Daiz ice-cream @ my desk even though it's 10pm now - I think I have freaking a lot of time for study before bed-time (which is not true!).
P.S. Exactly 1 month to the end of term (2 June).
Sleeping pattern is hit hard, I think, by the extended visible light. It starts to get dark only around 9pm now and the illusion is that it's like past 7pm. I will continue to work till about 2-3 am only to realise how late the night is. The opposite happens for waking up. Pretty strong sun light shines into my room at about 6am and I have the feeling that I will be late for class; I wake up only to find I can have another 1.5h of sleep. My sleep is disrupted a little at this point and my energy level is relatively low in the day. I'm sure you all can understand how difficult it is to pull through 4 hours of early lectures (8am-12pm).
Eating time is another part of the life style that has been affected. Breakfast and lunch are still normal; dinner is pushed very late. In Singapore, we eat, say like, 6-8 pm? And I can say that our hunger is controlled by light, well, at least mine is. So when the sun goes down, I will head to PGP canteen or, if at home, go to the hawker centre for a meal. But in Lund now, I sometimes eat as late as 9-10 pm (which is just an hour or so past daylight). And it's interesting to note that during winter, I wouldn't find my Swedish neighbors in the kitchen after 9pm (they have an early dinner habit); but in spring, it's common to see people in the kitchen at 8, 9 and even 10pm. When I eat late, I will tend to also sleep late and the whole bad sleeping pattern cycle repeats...
The limited length of time which I see sunlight affects my mood. Although sleeping and eating are affected adversely, I think my mood has improved during spring due to extended daylight! I especially like the still-bright sky after lab sessions, which ends at 4pm. In Singapore, it would have been dark or close to darkness if we have late classes. I hate the feeling of leaving home in the dark and going home in the dark; it's so depressing. In Lund winter, sunset would be at 4pm or so, just as bad.
Like Alec and Weihao said yesterday," Now, the daylight period is deceiving us about the concept of time". I agree totally. Lastly, the extended day explains why I have the mood to type my blog and eat Häagen-Daiz ice-cream @ my desk even though it's 10pm now - I think I have freaking a lot of time for study before bed-time (which is not true!).
P.S. Exactly 1 month to the end of term (2 June).
