For memory’s sake

My first true party today with alcohol as main dish, followed by dancing (or jumping to be exact) and chatting. Starting with decent performance by the Swedish, we tasted beer, feeling a bit disappointed. However, it’s just the beginning of a bigger journey. The supposedly main serving came in small portion of salty chicken and potato, which I ended up giving to the next chair person.

The real shock arrived when bottles of wines are offered to each table. The guys are quite greedy asking for more although one bottle was supposed to be shared by two persons. Anyway, it’s not wine, but rather sirup-taste wine!

Disappointment can be seen on every face since we paid 200sek for a real alcohol party, neither beer nor sirup! But the angry sheeps needed not to wait long when the little shot appeared. I think it should be more suitable for hand-washing, killing bacteria instead of drinking. I still took the risk, sip and swallow, sharp and sweet. Yeah! I did it! How did I feel? Ants were crawling all over my stomach, together with heating body, nevermind, the interesting part is still ahead.

We were fed with cake covered by a certain type of cream which I vowed to look for it next time visiting supermarket. Another alcohol shot came, yellow in color and looked heavier in dose. We finished it nonetheless since all of us were quite high after the first shot and bottles of sirup-like wine.

On another note, Swedish are not shy, or maybe they know how to be open at the correct time. As I don’t think people who can sing “we drink and f**k” on the stage are shy at all.

The party was wrapped up by bar-type activities in the next room, this is the time for you to see how some people behave when they get drunk, up to your  fantasy to imagine!

In general, nice experience though, got to witness another facet of student life.

As far as I could remember, this is the 1st time for years I get such a severe allergy. Every part of the body is swelling causing pain in every parcel of cell. My arms and legs became itchy last night when I realized they turned purplish with lots of redish rash while showering, thought it was just due to air exposure like the day before so I covered myself with longer sleeves and pants. Off I went to bed. For some reason, I got up at 4.30, feeling hot, ached that I could not withstand the bed any further. The shocking moment comes when I saw a weird creature in the mirror with thick lips, single-lid eyes, runny nose and rashy face. And now my fingers can beat guys’ in terms of size, lots of water must have been injected into my body.
Well, I still can blog, it shows that i’m not dead or hospitalized yet. Gone my weekend plan. Grrrrr

We went to school, feeling slightly excited wondering how professors here conduct their lectures…
Having in mind NUS mentality, we mistook that each lecture is only two hours, which in fact turned out to be 4 hours with 1 hour luch break. Since we had 2 lectures clashed, we decided to attend half here half there, furthermore the 1st one was too boring (Applied Maths), we left for the 2nd lesson (Urban planning theory). Neither of them is interesting though, I felt sleepy throughout disregarding the fact that I’ve slept for 9 hours the night before…
I predict a hard time going through these lectures. Sigh.

Yes, as desired, I did it and I’m still save sitting here blogging.

Once upon a boring afternoon, I decided to take risk and penetrate the nearby forest, right behind the hostel. The path is quite common used with lots of footprints, the 1st part is rather user-friendly, clean and clear enough for me to recognize a grave. Many girls might jump up and down knowing that lots of blueberry, grassberry can be found in the forest, I’ll drop by the forest more often when spring comes, yum yum…

At one cliff, the view is super romantic, suitable for couples.

Spot one radio hung on the tree, the person must be very tall. An interesting idea though.

On the lake, where people do iceskating. How to recognize a safe lake to step on? The one with lots of footprints without any sudden disrupted footsteps.

It seems that I’ve gotten accustomed to the coldness here, feeling normal with -8 celcus degree. Hence I’ve decided to make the trip longer, the result is me getting back home at 7.30pm with a “scratching” stomach.

The journey is interesting, starting with the new simcard, followed by a tour at Stockholm city hall- one of  Sweden’s symbolic buildings where they hold honour dinners for Nobel winners. It was built almost 100 years ago, trying to accommodate Italian architecture, just as many structures dated back then. There’re several intersting facts about this “iconic” building. The “blue hall” is ways from blue, but rather red, this is due to the architecture’s inconsistancy, which causes numerous changes inspired by his trips around the world during the construction period of the hall. Also, some “embarassing” mistakes were found in the “golden hall”s wall decoration, such as a headless knight (whose head can be found on another wall) or the “three” crowns symbol with only two were make. Guess what caused the mistakes? Cheap labor from Sweden (not China) tends to cut everything short, especially time, thus led to inevitible mistakes. According to the tour guide, they would have hired German labor instead. Btw, the hall is really “golden” with four golden walls. Lots of other funny facts but I shall not list out all though…

This is her

Dining hall for Nobel winners (up).

I love the roof (viking-house type)

Men and women must always be together:

There’re always one male and one female on each side of the window in this room.

Male and female pillars, not sure which is which though, up to individual to interpret.

The golden hall

I’m not grass, grrrr…

This is partialy made in Sweden:

On the mood to go, I made my way to Vasa museum, where the salvaged ship is conserved. She sank in 1628 after less than 30mins sailed, such a shame for a national-pride war ship. (Communistly), no one was to blamed for the tragedy. The captain knew about the instabibility of Vasa, yet he didn’t dare stopping the King, who was too desperate. Afterall, no one could stop fate.

Here she is.

She was painted with 20 different colours

This is another “she”, not sunk yet.

He is not around.

He is doing something over there, might be sleeping and snoring.

He goes out and has fun with friends, eating lots of good food.

He’s enjoying family moments.

He’s walking up and down, touching his stubborn hair, he might have his hair cut to make him cleaner and clearer.

He’s thirsty but never wants to drink water.

He’s staying up late to do nothing but surfing.

He gets up in a lazy afternoon, cook himself a nice soya/fish sauce dish.

He’s sitting there listening to the rain.

He is not here.

The weather is slightly warmer today (1 cencus degree), hence I felt nice getting out of the hostel. It is suitable for a trip to the lake near by, which is frozen during this period. One friend told me about the lake and fortunately he warned me not to step on the ice surface, ortherwise I would have been under the water by now.

The area is peaceful and fresh with some people jogging with their dogs, which seem to be a common pet here. Across the lake is a hilly residential area, such a nice place to stay with wawterfront view.

Self photo-taking by hanging the camera on the tree, so smart I am, haha

Finally I’ve started my travel plan, pretty productive in the sense that I got to places I like. Today’s destination is Gamla Stan (Old Town), there are more sites to see than expected, hence by sun down, I could only visit the church and the Royal Palace. Definitely I’ll go back there another time.

There’s more snow today.

Traditional Christmas decoration, which can be easily found at any windows.

Wonder how they can survive standing there in this kind of weather, these guards are generally friendly and helpful.

Gamla Stan, symbol of the area.

  Lunch at a dungeon, it’s quite cozy ironically.

 The palace is fantastic, with real crowns, over 300 year-old structure, but too bad no camara is allowed. Can have a look at the facade.

The weather was cold and I had to run here and there to get things done, found the way to my hostel as well as collect the key from KTH Library. Finally, I got into my room, nice and big, must be double the size of RH room with attached bathroom, fast internet and the best part is that wifi is available, which saves us sgd50 getting a router (I share room with another person). Apart from the missing sweet company, kitchen is far superior to RH’s, having bigger size with 2 compartments and more well-equipped, hope I will make full use of it,

Outside the hostel, I still hopelessly feel excited over snow.

 After settling down, we headed for IKEA and groceries, of which only the first one was fulfilled since we got lost due to confusing bus route. Hence I ended buying dinner from ICA at cut-throat price instead of nice hot cooked soup. The intended dinner was milk and cucumber which turned out to be yogurt and god-know-what vegetable. No thanks to my zero knowledge of Swedish. Anyway, I love the yogurt.

I predict a hard time moving around Sweden, but I will work my way out so not to worry.

Since I haven’t moved in my hostel yet, everything is not settled and it’s such a mess, the body is tired after one day roaming around and trying in vain knowing the city better.

Stepping into Arlanda airport, the first impression was “not as good as Changi”, anyway it’s just and entrance. Felt hot, hence a bit disappointed since I was looking forward to a freezing weather. Fortunately(?), I got cheated by the airport heating system, once i get out, I SAW SNOW, yes, snow, white and cold, finally I can touch and feel it. According to my roomie, I was overexcited.

Getting to the budget hostel, we were suprised by the fact that the hotel is a ship on its own, which means not only we have a seaview but we are on the sea, but that’s the only good thing of the hotel, food and room fee are expensive, adding on to my huge expenditure within several hours landed at Stockholm, the room is small without window, the first room has no wifi and I had to request for change of room. Anyway, it’s only a matter of one night so nevermind.

Rygerfjord (the j acts as i when pronoucing)

After breakfast, we headed for school, using train. One interesting fact about metro here is that pets are allowed “in station and train”.

A shivering dog inside the train, felt pity for him (yes, him, I’ve checked carefully)

After running around, and 4 attempts, we got the monthly train card (concession card in S’pore), which took us to KTH, here are some shots at school. Not to forget,  unlike NUS where the entire university is gathered at one area, KTH is rather scattered.

a leaf got frozen in the lake, I was looking for any creature got preserved underneath the ice, but too bad…

Around my “hotel” area, an old town with typical european structure:

Get prepared for another day moving around, hope I won’t get lost, or rather enjoy the feeling of being lost.