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Deja Vu

2012-01-27T22:44:00.002+08:00

It's either I'm unlucky myself or I bring bad luck to the guys that I go out with. Both guys have serious issues with their careers just when I'm in their lives. This is like deja vu - knowing something is wrong with him, yet feeling helpless and just waiting for his next message. This feeling sucks, but there's nothing I can do about it.
Sometimes I think I should be nicer to myself and not play charity all the time. Which is why I think guys screw up my life. Wish they should just stop stirring shit and leave me alone.

CNY 2012 reflections...

2012-01-24T01:13:00.002+08:00

Well, I said in 2 entries ago that I would continue to update this online diary of mine. But just look at how conscientious I am in doing that!
over half a year has passed since my last entry but damn..it felt like a much longer time. So many things have happened within this 6+months that has helped me grown a lot as a person.
I changed my department for one - doing something closer to what I thought I liked (realize I used the word 'thought' because well..ain't that sure if that's what I really like to do yet) and have achieved some positive results from my work. Not all's rosy though...been through some rough patches like the loss of Grandma in June last year. It was painful because I didn't stay through her funeral having made the decision to go ahead with my France trip. I knew Grandma would want me to go ahead but nevertheless, left with a heavy heart. What affected me more was how the family broke up after that. I just felt sorry for Grandma that this was the result at the end of the day after her toils of over 80 years. Made me reflect on what truly is the real meaning of life. I haven't got the answer. Maybe I will one day. But I really hope Grandma - wherever she is - is truly at peace now.
Then, I fell in love. Again. Just when I thought that my frail heart couldn't possibly endure another possible fall-out. Just when I thought I was happily single. Just when I thought I didn't have feelings for someone I thought was just a very good friend. He made me fall, but didn't catch the fall. *ouch!* Went through a whole cycle of denial, questioning (why lead me on when he's not ready?), anger and then now into a period of acceptance. My conclusion from this entire episode is, that guys are never clear when it comes to affairs of the heart. I do feel sorry for myself really, that once again I allowed myself to fall for someone who couldn't love me for whatever reason. I think I deserve better, don't I? But, at the end of the day I know he means no harm and perhaps (whether his method was right or wrong) he had his own good intentions for me. I can only learn from this, pick myself up and move on. At the same time, still giving him the emotional support he needs at this trying period.
Life is tough. Sometimes I blame dad and mum for not preparing me for the bitchy side of life. I took quite many more years to really taste the bitterness of life, when I'm out of my comfort zone i.e. when my parents can no longer protect me.
I've learnt that pain is something that I will continue to encounter in life. And also that sometimes I need to accept pain as it is, cry my heart out, and let time take care of the rest. I've learnt that I'm more resilient that I thought I am. And I'm proud of it. I've learnt (still trying to prove actually) that perhaps the best way to get past the pain in life is to give. Even if it's at the expense of my own well-being.
I think 2012 will be a good year. And 2013 will be a better one (at least according to the Japanese fortune teller). Somehow though, I'm getting gradually tired as the day goes by, somehow losing my zest and energy to strive for better things in life. Trying to get that back again and I'm sure I can..it's just a matter of time. Well, 2012...time when I'm still nursing the pain of the past while also time I explore new territories. Constantly reminded by Steve Job's quote, 'Keep on searching and do not settle'. I hope I'll keep on searching - for what I love, be it my job or my life partner. I will find them. Someday.

Today will go down in history as the worse CFA exams I've sat for

2011-06-05T23:22:00.002+08:00

So today was my 3rd time taking a CFA exam. Nope, not level 3 but repeating level 2.
Today will also go down in history as the worse CFA exams I've sat for. Not just because the questions were so darn difficult - to the extent that easy questions scare me into thinking if I had interpreted anything wrongly - but also because it was probably the least organized test centre arrangement I had encountered in my 3 tries with the CFA exams.
Oh well, lady luck had us in the morning when it poured cats and dogs. And you know, it's never good to have heavy rains when you're trying to make sure you get to the exam venue on time. Well, I did (way in advance in fact, as I always do :)), but I'm not sure I can say the same for many others who had the exam doors close in front of them, before they could check into the exam hall. This was the first time the chief proctor had to send repeated reminders to the exit proctors to shut the door at about8.40am (when there were still a whole lot of people streaming in).
But anyway, not like it's my problem. I wasn't late. But I must say that i was slightly surprised to find that there's only one candidate personal belonging disposal area for the morning session. I vaguely recalled having many more bag disposal areas in the last 2 years. To my dismay, this was set up under a partially leaking tent and the rain continued to pour without any signs of cessation. So, with a heavy heart, I dumped my harrods bag (the green one with the map of London) at the furthest corner away from the other piles of bags which were over there. I thought I had a good spot, because it was relatively near the barricades. And I was hoping it would be easy to retrieve my bag later (but how wrong I was!). After the morning session, it was utter chaos. At the bag disposal area, I found the exact spot which I had left my bag at. But all I see was a huge heap of 'foreign' bags. On top of that, there was no way I could make my way in...I felt dreadful at once, and thought for a moment that I had to forfeit my lunch time. But, I eventually managed to muscle my way in, and I thank God for my good eye, when I managed to spot my nice green bag buried under a heap of other bags. I was so glad that I brought my harrods bag...for one, it's relatively water proof (well, 'relatively' because i realized some moisture still managed to get into the interiors of my bag)and also it's really durable. It can obviously sustain the heavy piling on top of it and the tugging and pulling that I had to subject it to while retrieving it. I love my harrods bag! Which makes me wonder, why some people would bring a longchamp and coach bag to the CFA exams -_-
Anyway, I was glad that for the afternoon session, they actually opened up another bag disposal area just outside the hall (inside the exhibition hall itself). I managed to find a spot close to the wall (figured if I placed my bag further back and against the wall, it will be subject to less piling up) and near the entrance to the exam hall. After the exams though, it was insane...the corridor outside the exam hall was too narrow to accomodate the thousands of people streaming out of the exam hall. It took me perhaps a good 10 mins just to make my way to the bag disposal area which was just about 2 metres away from the entrance to the exam hall!And then I can't see my bag again...and had to muscle my way in again...and do some 'digging' before I spot my green harrods bag. So thankful when I finally found it, and just quickly got the fuck out of there.
I also realize that I'll probably not do the CFA exams again anytime soon..I thought I had it this time, that I was more prepared than last year. But how wrong I was. Or perhaps I was just unlucky. The chapters that I thought were least important actually came out as questions. It makes me wonder how it's even possible for someone to pass the exams. It's just too much content to cover all grounds. And if one takes a gamble to focus only on the major chapters but the minor ones become the major questions in the test paper, then one will still fail. I really wonder...I know now as well that perhaps I'm not cut out for this.
Oh well, CFA I will miss you. Perhaps one day in the future, I'll meet you again. But not anytime soon...

Perhaps my writing will help me connect the dots in the future

2011-04-25T00:59:00.003+08:00

It's late, I know, but I felt I need to write something now.
Was reading my past entries today and it truly felt like I was reading a real diary. I was also somewhat surprised that I could express myself so well in the past (I'm less confident of my writing skills now). I also found it fascinating to rediscover some stuff that I've forgotten but was recorded in my writing. It's also amazing that my writing over the years have captured how I've matured as a person.
After all the above 'revelations', I realized that I had to carry on writing to preserve my thoughts and experiences which would otherwise be lost if I hadn't write about them. If anything, my experiences recorded in writing might help me connect the dots in my life in the future!
My past entries seem a little dreary. No, in fact they almost sound suicidal. I must say that I don't feel as dreary anymore, but in no way do I consider myself to be a happy person, yet. There are still some major issues that need to be fixed in my life. But I'm a lot more optimistic and treasure life a whole lot more.
I initially wanted to write a complaint about someone in this entry. But I decided against it just as I was penning down the previous paragraph. I can't explain why, but somehow felt it's a pain to write a complaint - in a way it will force me to re-live my unhappy feelings towards this person. Not worth it for a Sunday night. Instead, I would want to leave myself (and whoever in the world that may be reading this) this video, that never fails to trivialize my daily problems:

Sincerely weary

2010-11-21T15:41:00.002+08:00

It has been a question I've always asked myself - Why am I living on this Earth? I'm sure it's a question that all of us at some point of time, ask ourselves. But this question to myself is no longer the philosophical question that most people think they are asking. It's a practical question I ask myself in the most practical terms.
My usual (if not the only) answer to that question is that I'm living on this Earth is to make money for my parents. I don't really see any other reason or point why I need to continue living - I wake up everyday doing things I don't like. Even things that I used to love, seem really mundane to me now. I'm really emotionless. I think if I were in the coma, I would die immediately - for I have no will to live at all.
I am tired.

Somethings just never change...

2010-09-20T00:10:00.002+08:00

It's strange to see how monotone all my past entries were. Seems like nothing has changed. I was reading an article just now about Einstein's brain. And my thoughts just wondered..I had a strange thought that all my emotions - unhappiness and happiness and what not - are actually controlled by this mass of stuff in my head. And because of a certain way my brain is configured, that could explain why I am more easily depressed than others. It just feels weird that feelings - something so intangible - is actually controlled by this mass of stuff, something so tangible.

I just wish something good happens to me soon. E.g. a hot guy coming into my life.

I felt a lot of anger and hatred

2010-09-06T23:02:00.002+08:00

Buddha said,

"Hatred do not ever cease in this world by hating, but by love; this is an eternal truth... Overcome anger by love, Overcome evil by good. overcome the miser by giving, overcome the liar by truth."

If only I can do that. But sometimes I feel that hatred protects me from greater misery.

I am a stupid girl

2010-07-13T00:19:00.001+08:00

I laugh at my stupidity at times.
How can I believe all that to be real.
I must be kidding myself.
Nothing was real. I'm just a stupid girl.
I killed myself due to my own stupidity.
Now who's fault is that?

2010-06-19T23:56:00.002+08:00

Emotions are weird.
I was perfectly fine, and then I broke down uncontrollably for about a minute.
And now I'm fine again.

Everybody hurts, sometimes

2010-06-19T23:48:00.003+08:00

I wish I could also know what God's message is.
For it seems like I don't have a purpose in my life.

Back from Japan

2010-06-13T21:18:00.002+08:00

I'm back from Japan, and procrastinating the opening of my work laptop.
Really hate and dread work, but I must somehow face the music.
I think I'm not young anymore and such tiring trips are taking a toll on me. I doubt I will be able to make it through that many more tiring trips anymore.
All in all I came back feeling more "I-couldn't-care-less", somehow more numb in all aspects of emotions. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing.
My skin is really bad right now, and quite upset about it. It is like all my efforts to upkeep my skin has gone down the drain. It will be a long process to recovery.

No sense of self worth

2010-06-04T00:35:00.002+08:00

It's just sad that when you thought you were special to someone and that you gave your all into a relationship, only to realize that maybe you were not that special, and maybe you were just some sort of "company" to help that someone transition in life.

Why am I not surprised?
I doubt I can ever be special to anyone.
It has always been the case.
I hate myself and I hate my life.

I can only take comfort in the unconditional love that Sassy has given me for the past 15 yrs. I love her and I hope she can be with me for many more years to come.

Stockholm beckons..

2010-05-22T00:02:00.002+08:00

3 years on and I still have dreams about Stockholm..I kid you not.
Just the night before I dreamt that I was walking along the path to the bus-stop near my hostel (Lappis). But strangely it was night time, and I could see some sky scrapers in the distance (which obviously doesn't exist in real life). I felt weird after I woke up...the dream felt a tad bit sinister with the darkness and with the eerie silhouette of the distant skyscrapers.
Nevertheless, nothing can change the fact that I love Stockholm and I wish I can be back there again.
And you know what, my secret fantasy is to make out with a hot Swedish guy. May my dream come true.. *winks*

2010-02-09T23:21:00.001+08:00

I totally love Adam Lambert's voice.
He should have won American Idol, not like it matters since he's a lot more successful then..what was that guy's name again? The real American Idol is so forgettable...

Year 2010

2010-01-02T02:33:00.001+08:00

New year resolution 2010 (Not that I believe all this resolution shit, but this is wat I MUST accomplish!)

1) CFA lvl 2
2) DALF B2 Certification

Joyeux Noel et Bon Annee

2009-12-26T02:36:00.000+08:00

I can only wish for a much better year next year.
2009 has been so-so.

Same shit

2009-12-15T00:13:00.002+08:00

Today is really quite a shitty work day.
It really amazes me how some ppl can be promoted to be bosses when they are really incompetent!
Sigh...i really hate my life right now.
I really wish that this time next yr, I wun be lamenting over the same shit.

1.5 yrs on, not much has changed

2009-12-07T23:38:00.002+08:00

How strange, as I look back at my past entries, some written more than a year ago.
It amazes me to think that 1.5 yrs on, I still feel as shitty as ever about my job. The shittiness doesn't seem to diminish, but I've learnt how kan4 kai1.

1.5 yrs on. Older, much wiser, fatter, angrier, sometimes happier.
Many things have changed but my only one thought hasn't..and I think we all know what is it. The day I bid farewell to that place, might be one of the happiest days in my life, of cos depending on the circumstances when I leave, that could possibly be one of the saddest days.

I am not totally cold blooded, for there are definitely things/people that keep me sane while surrounded by brutal insanity. These are the things/people that might make me look back over my shoulder, but the worse things make me want to walk on forever, away from that building...

I still believe that things happen for a reason. It is not totally bad there. I have been given opportunities I must say. But I really don't enjoy what I do at all, and it's making me sad everyday.

I hope my birthday wish this year could come true, although I left it ambiguous that the eventual fulfillment of the wish might see me at a worse plight. In any case, sometimes I feel I am totally out of control of my life. I will leave it to my fate and my karma that I've accumulated in the past.

Speaking about karma, I ain't been doing that much good lately. Just putting me side by side to ppl like Jeff or even boy boy puts me to shame.

qui suis-je?

2009-04-13T23:03:00.002+08:00

I'm not suitable for the typical life.
Where a girl grows up, blossoms and matures, finds her prince charming, gets married, have her very own offspring, grow old together with her family and then die.
Strangely, something so typical seems so atypical to me. What seems ordinary, seems hard to achieve. Neither do I feel like I fit into the typical life.
It's too....

boring.

I could still remember

2009-04-06T23:42:00.002+08:00

I've been dreaming about Sweden recently.
The lake,what's written on the sand,the calm and peaceful feeling within.

A tad bit whimsical and confused

2009-02-18T00:38:00.003+08:00

On ne comprend pas le bonheur, sans la tristesse.

One cannot understand happiness without sadness.

Philosophers should know this theory.

Similarly, I wouldn't know what is hate without YOU.
For YOU gave me love.

Random conversations

2009-02-10T21:27:00.002+08:00

Oracle 1 said to me today:

"When I think of how much I earn everyday, it's really pittance. I think there are many people who spend a lot of their time doing work which they don't like and then spending even more to relieve stress after that. Too much time is spent on unhappiness and too much money is spent to create happiness. Why not just do something you like, you might just have more happy times and spend less anyway. And then you might have some money left to go for holiday which is what you enjoy anyway!"

My ans to oracle 1:

"Even if I'm willing to settle for less pay, it's hard to find something I REALLY like to do."

which reminds me of something I said to someone in the same office recently:

"Why is life like that? It's like we are born to go through difficulties."

For some reason, the people who heard that laughed. Never thought that truth can be funny..hmm

I'm back again! :)

2009-01-27T00:39:00.003+08:00

It's as though someone came and lifted the black veil that was covering my face. Suddenly I can see the colours and the beauty of this world once again.
I don't know what came over me the past few weeks or even past few months. Jan is determined not to be sad ever again. Alright, it's not quite possible...at least I'm determined not to be THIS sad ever again! :)
I am going to search for the tough cookie Jan again. The gal full of zest and positivity towards life.
Thank you qgwz for bringing me out of this abyss. And thank you la musique, for healing my battered soul.

I feel like I am ready to surge forward once more. Alright, maybe not now..I'm exhausted!
Now it's time for Jan to fall asleep and be a good girl. Tomorrow will be better. Will embrace the challenges life has for me. To life: I got you there didn't I? You thought you could bring me down. You wanted to punish me for being such a tough cookie. You wanted to show me that you can break me down. But NO!!! I have only emerged even stronger. So Life, why don't you make things easier for me now or I'll just show you my middle finger and carry on being a tough cookie. Either way, I'm on the winning end.

Happy cny to all!

P.S.: I have a lot to learn on being stronger. She is one strong woman though: http://shinscancerblog.blogspot.com/

Why would women want to give birth?

2008-12-21T16:50:00.003+08:00

"Giving birth is like pulling a fishball out of your nostril"- Analogy from my JC classmate, Celia.

"It's like having menstrual cramps, but not just at your abdomen, but all around your body" - Quote from HC Mama.

"It's so painful that you can't even sit on the toilet bowl after giving birth"- Quote from my Secondary School Lit Teacher, Mrs Ashari

Women naturally have a higher threshold for pain, to prepare them for the excruciating pain of childbirth. And I'm wondering whether or not this higher threshold is even enough to withstand pulling a baby out of the womb with the same proportion of a fishball to a nostril.

Ultimately, most women are still willing to go through the excruciating pain perhaps for the following reasons:

1)To bear an offspring for the man she loves
2)For security during old age (assuming that the child is filial, but nowadays it's really 50-50)
3)To feel like a woman (Some women feel that she's incomplete without experiencing motherhood)
4) Simply because she loves kids
5) Because it's a natural thing to do after getting married

The list can go on.

Why I would think twice before going through this excruciating pain:

1) I will want to die if the kid turns out to be a f*-up kid. (the kind that shrieks, wails and does stupid things)
2) I can forget about having any freedom in my life- can't do anything I want, go anywhere I want anymore
3) The possibility of being a housewife just to look after my kid dismays me
4) The possibility of the kid growing up and then hating me for being a bad mum
5) The time money and effort I will have to take to raise the kid is just tremendous

Currently the Cost-benefit analysis seem to indicate that the cost outweighs the benefits. The Net Present Value is negative.

Mums are indeed one of the bravest creatures on this planet. They took the highest risk ever. It's worst than putting your money into Lehman Brothers. I'm extremely risk averse.

It's easy for me to say all these now, but one will never know how it will turn out eventually. Who knows, I might stay single for the rest of my life, without having to worry about the excruciating pain of childbirth, or I might be churning out kids like nobody's business. Haha.

Merry xmas to all, joyeux Noel tout le monde! This is a boring xmas for me this year. Pls ask me out if you are dateless!

Back to square one

2008-11-22T16:34:00.002+08:00

Comme le passé, je m'assieds sur ma chaise en ecrivant devant de l'ecran de mon ordinateur. Dehors, il est en train de pleuvoir. Il semble que le ciel pleuve avec moi. En réalité, je ne pleut pas, mais mon coeur pleut. Comme d'habitude, je suis seule, personne n'est avec moi. Pourquoi il est très difficile de trouver du bonheur? Pourquoi je suis toujours triste? Pourquoi personne ne me rend heureuse? Je ne veux qu'une vie simple. Dans cette vie, il y a mon amour. Un homme qui me comprend complètement, qui m'aime sans conditions, qui peut me donner beaucoup de bonheur. Un espoir très simple, mais je n'ai pas. Peut-être il est mieux que je reste seul, parce que je pense que je ne suis pas covenable de tomber amoureuse.
Il me donne les temps heureaux, mais également, il me donne les pire temps dans ma vie. Je l'aime beaucoup. Mais il me fait la peine parce que je ne suis pas la femme qui peut lui donner le bonheur. Ces six mois avec lui, je ne les oublie jamais. Le premier homme qui j'aime comme ça. Quel qu'un que j'ai pensé que je peux se marier. Mais...la réalité n'est pas comme ça. Maintenant, je suis très fatigueé. Il faut que je me repose...adieu.

Words of wisdom

2008-11-12T22:08:00.002+08:00

Today's one of those days when "words of wisdom" from others keep floating into my mind.
As I was on my way home from work, at AMK mrt station to be exact, I thought about what my adventure training trainer said to us, "Don't learn how to do the wrong things right. Learn how to do the right things right". Somehow these words struck me particularly hard today as I see the relevance to the current situation in my life. Perhaps I had been concentrating on perfecting the wrong way instead of trying to find the right way to do stuff. I guess it's time to remove my mind from the narrow box, and expose it to more possibilities.
Finally, Bear's words (or was it porcupine's?) floated in my mind as well. "Learn to love yourself".
Do I love myself enough? Maybe not.

No air

2008-11-09T18:24:00.002+08:00

I like this version:

Aujourd'hui, j'ai une revelation. Je me demande pourquoi je suis triste tous les jours. Apres beaucoup de reflexion, je pense que j'ai trouve la reponse. Maintenant, je n'ai que un reve, c'est etre heureuse et retrouver ma passion dans ma vie. J'ai perdu encore beaucoup de temps et il ne faut pas je le continue. Je travaillerai dur, et je vivrai bien. Je trouverai un bon metier que j'aime beaucoup. Merci mes amis, pour me rendent toujours heureuse. Je ne vis pas sans vous. Merci pour les amities.

The 4 noble truths

2008-11-09T12:24:00.003+08:00

Someone once mentioned that Buddhism is the most pessimistic religion. And you can see why he said that:

The Four Noble Truths
1. Life as we know it ultimately is or leads to suffering (dukkha) in one way or another.
2. Suffering is caused by craving or attachments to worldly pleasures of all kinds. This is often expressed as a deluded clinging to a certain sense of existence, to selfhood, or to the things or people that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness.
3. Suffering ends when craving ends, when one is freed from desire. This is achieved by eliminating all delusion, thereby reaching a liberated state of Enlightenment (bodhi);
4. Reaching this liberated state is achieved by following the path laid out by the Buddha.

I personally do not see Buddhism as a religion but a philosophy. Buddha did not proclaim himself to be God. Neither does his teachings preach anything about God or a creator. Buddha taught us how to live and gave us some meaning to our seemingly meaningless existence. I do not rever Buddha as a God, but as a teacher. But somehow, even Buddhism gets glorified by man. Some simple teachings are interpreted and then re-interpreted until the simple essence gets lost along the way.

And it is only pessimistic if you are so caught up with meaningless worldly desires.

L'arc en ciel

2008-11-08T16:52:00.005+08:00

My favorite:

Amazing vocals from Hyde. Fantastic.

Une vie ennuyeuse

2008-11-02T09:48:00.002+08:00

Porcupine and I are probably the most boring ppl in this world. Or rather, when you put both of us together, we tend to do the most boring things.

Just like last night, we stared at a stupid arcade game for over 15mins? And also trying to figure out what was the jackpot price- It was a stuffed toy but it didn't resemble anything! Turned out to be a dog's face with a pumpkin on top of it.

Reminded me of our really boring 31st Dec 2007.When we had to call bear to suggest to us what to do. In the end we idled in MacDonalds and then went home. Just don't understand why we can't do anything interesting. It might be deja vu all over again this 31st Dec 2008. Or perhaps not?

Je me reveille..voir le ciel et le soleil. Je pense qu'il'y a encore les choses qui pouvent me rendre heureuse. La vie n'est pas toujours en noir. Je vivrai bien. Merci pour les souvenirs, merci pour ton amour. Je t'aime.

I count my blessings too...

2008-10-27T15:35:00.002+08:00

It's deepavali, raining cats and dogs, and I'm in my office doing work. Sad? Not quite. Let me count my blessings:

Thank you God/Fate/Karma/Me/You/My life and cycle of trials and tribulations for:

1) Giving me someone to love and who loves me

2) Giving me such great friends that stick with me through thick and thin and make me laugh when there's really nothing much to laugh about. haha

3) Giving me Sassy who has given me unconditional love for 13 years and counting

4) Giving me a family who is well and healthy and cares about me from time to time

5) Giving me a job that is challenging and prepares me for more hardship that is to come as I advance further in my years

6) Giving me the chance to learn a 3rd language

7) Giving me a healthy body without any major illnesses.

8) Giving me the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world

9) Giving me the chance to stand on stage and to sing

10)Giving me the chance to visit Anfield and to sing "You'll never walk alone" together with the Kop

11) Letting me view what lies beyond our earth with my naked eye- I saw Saturn, Jupiter and globular clusters of stars with my naked eye through a telescope

If I were to die, I think I wouldnt have much regrets. Although if you think about it philosophically, "regret" wouldn't have a meaning at all when I die. "I think therefore I am"

Deadpan

2008-10-20T21:22:00.002+08:00

Being with porcupine constantly reminds me of how sian my life is. Maybe because she's deadpan at times, and I'm always deadpan. Ha. So we reinforce each other. Just look at what we did on Saturday night and you can see that we really have no life. ha. I would like to speak for myself of course. Since porcupine is much more vibrant than me. She still goes clubbing and partying. Whereas me, I've retired from the clubbing scene when I was 22 or so. I need to find more exciting things to do. My life is too boring. Any suggestions?

Hamsaap ang mohs and great friends

2008-10-19T02:38:00.002+08:00

Tonight I've seen a bunch of old hamsaap ang mohs with SPG at CHIJMES. They are really hamsaap. But the music is good. Might potentially be our hangout in the future. Drinks were quite cheap. I had great company tonight. Thanks to both of you.

Business plan: customized sex toys to fit holes of different sizes.

It's Saturday and I'm watching sex in the city at my workplace

2008-10-18T21:29:00.000+08:00

It's a Saturday night, and guess what? I'm in my company together with porcupine. How interesting. And guess what, we were watching sex in the city at the refreshment area....
How boring our life can be. But I feel very relaxed and free. Thank you.

Expert in Grammaire?

2008-10-18T16:49:00.002+08:00

Yeah..maybe my French Grammar is good. But definitely not my conversational skills. Karen, my new colleague, has been studying French for 5 years. I'm taking the opportunity to speak as much French with her as possible. So much so that our voices seem to echo down the hallway and someone from the other department actually messaged me on office communicator, commenting on my conversations with her. Deux filles qui sont bavardes!!! (2 talkative gals)

Today my French teacher coined me the l'expert de grammaire. Of cos I'm humble and shook my head "non, non...ce n'est pas ca. Je suis tres mal a la conversation" (No..it's not like that. I'm very bad in conversations) The reason why I have a firm grip in grammar is really due to my teachers in NUS. Mlle Malwina (so pretty...I miss her!), Nicholas and Marie.

And it really doesn't make sense for me to be good in grammar and nothing else. What's the use if I can make good grammatically correct sentences if I can't even converse properly? C'est tres triste, non? C'est la langue de l'amour et j'ai appris pendant deux ans. Mais je ne parle pas bien. (This is sad. This is the language of love and I've learnt it for 2 years. Yet I still can't speak well)

Maintenant les affaires de l'amour me rends tres triste. Je vois la vie en noir et il n'y a rien qui peut me rendre heureuse. Pourquoi il est tres difficile de tomber amoureuse? Pourquoi il est tres difficile de etre heureuse avec quel qu'un? Je me le consacre mon temps, mon coeur, tous....mais il n'est pas toujours suffisant. Je n'ai pas le courage, je ne suis pas confiante. Je ne sais pas comment je peux vivre comme ca. Il faut que je trouve la reussite dans quelque chose. Si je perdais tous, je pense que je ne vis encore...

2008-10-17T09:48:00.002+08:00

It has been over a month since Abiel left. But just suddenly thought of what he said to me one day while we went to ta pao dim sum from the small dim sum shop downstairs at the Marketplace.

"There's no such thing as not being suitable to be attached. You just haven't found the right person"

Thanks to Abiel, I'm addicted to the carrot cake.

Just pictures...

2008-10-16T21:59:00.005+08:00

Milestones

2008-10-14T23:06:00.003+08:00

Very tired. Feels as though I haven't slept at all in days. Perhaps somewhat. My sleep hasn't been good quality sleep for quite some time.

I asked my friends today how they get through the days. The replies I got were pretty funny. And strangely inspiring. Johan drew little boxes to represent the personal time for each day. Starting from a very small box on Monday which gradually grow until a tall Sunday box. PJ told me that there's always something to look forward to. And you'll just get by by looking forward to the little "milestones" in a day and in a week.

Feels as though my life is rather stale now though. But just gotta keep the self-motivation going on. My milestone for this week? More drinks...and KTV on Thurs.

It's like this everyday

2008-10-13T20:17:00.003+08:00

Life's really a bitch for me now. Not very nice job, not much achievements, failures in many aspects..the list just goes on.

I wake up everyday, with a heavy heart. As I think about the chores I have to do for the rest of the day, I let out a deep sigh and drag myself with much effort from my bed.

I graduated from uni, hoping to achieve something with my career, to earn a decent living and reward myself with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. I've been working close to 4 months, and my bank account looks the way it was before I started working and I have no sense of satisfaction at all. Reality check.

As I drag my sorry ass to work everyday, I look up at the ceiling of Raffles City Shopping Centre and wonder why I was feeling this way. My job's supposed to be exciting, no? My ass always feels heavier as I approach the entrance to my workplace but my sorry body has to continue dragging my heavy, sorry ass, into the entrance and finally into the lift.

I will enter the entrance into the pantry and then to my desk. I will be greeted by my cluttered desk, strewn with papers and files and my nice pooh bear pillow smiling at me, perhaps somewhat mockingly. I will get myself a cup of water as I start up my little laptop, before I plonk down on my designer chair that cost over a 1000 bucks. And then work begins as I sigh and sweat over the 100 emails directed to me.

The clock ticks, then things don't feel that bad. My ass will be sore with all the weight by now. And then sometimes I will laugh, at my colleague's jokes. The clock ticks. And it's lunch.

Lunchtime. Nice time to catch up with my boy. sms. hope to get replies. Sometimes I look forward to lunching with porcupine and bear. Sometimes I'm back at my desk ploughing through my work, as I munch on Chippy's. Sometimes I will huddle at the huddle corner, and listen to my colleague's dirty jokes. I like lunch, because it signals the start of the end of the day.

I will look at my phone. Log book says missed call. Familiar number. I will dial and then some nasty woman who is pms-ing will talk to me in a super du lan way. And then I will just be irritated and frown. As I ponder, why these women are like that....crazy calls come in at times. Asking me to do this and that. Or perhaps pressing me for answers that I know not how to answer.

Meetings. They could drag for hours and hours. And damn..they ask me questions I totally have no idea how to answer. Try not to sound stupid.

Time flies, and it's 6pm. Wishing sometimes the boy can end early, and I have an excuse to dump my work and to enjoy times with someone who won't yell at me or talk to me in a du lan way. But sometimes, I have to stay back till pretty late. I sometimes will see Porcupine emailing me "bye" at about 5:30pm. And I get pretty envious and wanna leave too. 6pm. Hungry. will ask colleagues if they are hungry..nice time to go down to ta pao snacks. Beard Papa is my favorite these days. Cos it's sweet...when I'm stressed, sweet is good.

8pm. go home? Msg, see if we can meet. Hopefully can. Don't feel like going home to face the walls and think about work. work work work. My job is exciting. But very demanding, and not something that I'm suited for.

Life's really a bitch to me now...but what can I do? Just have to face up to it. Motivated by my disdain towards how thing's are going now...so motivated that I swear I will break out of this soon. Angry and frustrated. But still relatively sane. I need to get more drinks.

I miss school days

2008-09-21T18:27:00.002+08:00

I miss the carefree days and times spent with my friends.
And of cos, I get to wake up late too.

Really really miss school days. Working life sucks.

Hmm..are you serious?

2008-09-20T13:45:00.002+08:00

Was totally put off yesterday when someone said she's awed by SG's speech. I was put off because:

1) I've heard SG giving a speech before, and I seriously don't think he's even charismatic at all.

2) SG is a bootlicker and nothing else.

3) According to reliable sources, SG can't even defend himself properly when put into a situation when someone doesn't agree with his ideas.

4) Apart from typing "approved" or "ok" on emails, i haven't really seen him do anything useful, nor anything that deserves my respect.

5) Wayang, is the thing he does best.

Everyone deserves a right to his/her opinions. And that someone who is inspired by SG might have her own point of view.
But for me, SG is just an old man whom I don't give a damn about, much less carry his balls. Give me a break. ew~

Le garcon qui chante

2008-09-03T22:46:00.002+08:00

Shit, I actually got his name wrong in the previous entry. It's Jean Baptiste Maunier! To think I used to have a crush on him. Ha. He's such a cutie. Gals must see!

Jean Baptiste became famous with his role in Les Choristes. His voice is amazing. A pity that his voice has to break, so currently he's no longer singing but is still pursuing his acting career. C'est magnifique, non?

Chanter, c'est ma passion!

2008-09-02T22:52:00.002+08:00

I was taking a quiet little stroll by myself after work today. Closed my eyes and thought of the moments I had with NUS Choir. The times on stage and the songs I sang. Suddenly I felt like singing again. I really miss singing...a lot...Here's Andrew Loyd Webber's Pie Jesu. I like the one sang by Jean paul baptiste (gosh..did I even spell his name right?) but this is not bad either.

And here's my all time favorite!!! Luk Luk Lumbu, the hiao2 song for gals to seduce the guys. Hee. Performed by an Indonesian choir. Zai sound and zai choreo:

*argh* when can i sing again?!

Nonchalence seeps my passion

2008-08-30T09:26:00.003+08:00

Hi one and all. I wonder if anyone is still checking this page. It has been a really long time isn't it? Since my last entry, lots of things have happened. For one, I have started working and also, there's some progress at the relationship front.
Work started off really slow and I really hated it. I know myself. I adapt to circumstances, so if things are slow I'll just slowly adapt to it, and before long, I'll just lose my passion and drive for everything. And that was what happened. I lost my motivation totally, and I grew ever more so nonchalent as the days go by. I hate myself for being like this, totally helpless and lost, clueless, and totally passion-less. Where was the girl who used to be filled with zest?
I've also come to the realization that as I grow older, the things that used to excite me don't excite me anymore. I used to be excited each time I can leave Singapore to go for a short tour overseas, but now, going to places like HK or Taiwan hardly excite me. Even going to Europe and beyond hardly excite me now. I used to be fascinated by the night sky and what lies within. After seeing Jupiter and Saturn for so many times on the telescope, somehow I stopped wondering about the mysteries of the universe.
In brief, I've become nonchalent about practically everything that's happening around me. My job, my hobbies. And the more nonchalent I get, the more it seeps my passion. Day by day, Jan is growing to care less about the world and happenings around her. She's beginning to lose sight of the values she once held so strongly and the goals she had made ever since the day she decided to make good use of her life. Jan is starting to not know how happiness feels like, nor know how to enjoy the things she used to love so dearly. She's just a living corpse, quite emotionless about everything.
Am I just bored of life? Or have I done so much and experienced so many emotional up and downs that nothing is too great for me anymore?
Where's my music? Something that used to be my passion and the driving force of my emotions? I hardly even get goosebumps while listening to great music these days. I haven't sang in a long time-not even bathroom singing. I've always been into music since I was a little gal. To lose something I love so dearly really saddens me.
What happened to my reading? I used to read almost every week. Mum used to bring me for book rentals and I'll just get 2-3 books each time. As I grew older I switched to reading more non-fiction stuff and magazines like the economist. How about now? I read only about aerospace industries. I can't find the time or motivation to carry on with my reading practice.
Perhaps one thing I still enjoy doing is reading French. I've always wanted to learn a third language. Learning a third language encompasses so much more. It requires patience, motivation and dilligence. Learning a new language is not just about learning the language itself either. It's about the culture, the practices, the attitudes of the foreign people that you are being exposed to at the same time. I love French, and perhaps it's the last bet I have in making me feel like someone alive. If I lose my passion for this, I'll just be a lifeless corpse. Emotionless, without passion for anything and going with the flow.

Comment vivre sans passion?

La vie inexplicable

2008-06-08T09:22:00.003+08:00

I am quite amazed at how surprising it can be as life unfolds. Things that are happening to me now, in retrospect, seemed rather absurd and impossible. But yet it is happening. I'm just amazed at how things can develop into the way it is now.
Amazed...but yet at the same time quite happy? Although uncertain and scared as well. But this is life, as i told someone, it's the uncertainty that makes life interesting.
All this may sound cryptic now, but I believe the day will come when eventually everyone understands. Just gotta wait and let time tell :)

I'm alive, well and happy :)

2008-06-03T13:14:00.003+08:00

In case you are wondering what happened to me, I'm fine and extremely happy these days. And I hope such happiness will last, and it's not just another of those games that life plays on me.
Hope all of you are well too!

Can you please go away?

2008-05-07T20:35:00.002+08:00

"Can you please go away?" Is the phrase of the day, as spoken aptly by JY after Macro exam.
Haha...this is cos my prof keeps lingering around us looking at our answer scripts as we are doing the exam. I was quite irritated to be frank, because it's so uncomfortable to have someone staring over your shoulder while scribbling your answers. In my mind i was thinking.."He must be thinking how stupid my answers are and laughing at me silently". And just thinking about that distracts me. And he lingers around me not for seconds, but for a few minutes!!! It got to the point that I got so distracted I covered my answers so that he will go away.....and yeah..in my heart I was screaming "can you please go away?!" hehe...

I miss Europe

2008-05-05T00:04:00.002+08:00

I don't know why during this exam period, I keep thinking about the times I spent in Stockholm and elsewhere in Europe. And my heart sank
as I long to go back to Europe again. Too bad I'm a poor kid with no money to go to Europe as and when I like.

Strange images keep flashing into my mind for instance, like the London tube station. I keep seeing this image of the platform and the London tube symbol. (Porcupine and Bear, you should know what I'm talking about. Yeah the round thing that looks like SMRT's symbol..haha)
Don't ask me why such an image (of all beautiful images) keep flashing in my mind! haha.

And I thought about the trip I made to Northern Sweden to view the Northern lights as well, and my heart sank even further. I doubt I'll ever have a chance to venture this North again and perhaps that will be my first and last time I ever see the Northern lights in my life. Unless maybe one day i'm rich enough to go to Antartica. But actually Northern Lights are quite visible at Canadian latitudes as well. But I'm not such a big fan of the Americas =|

I'm also constantly haunted by dreams of being in my room in Stockholm..and I don't know for what reason. For what I can remember, I've dreamt about my room for at least 3 times already. And those dreams were not particularly good dreams. They were about something like me being trapped there or something. Haha.

Maybe exam stress is doing funny stuff to my brain. Back to the books.

Cogito Ergo Sum

2008-05-02T14:26:00.008+08:00

"Cogito Ergo Sum" or "I think therefore I am" by Rene Descartes remains as my favorite philosophical thought. And it is also my thought for today. Maybe I should re-read Descartes'Meditations after exams. Haha!

I'm still ploughing through revision notes, and for those who are too, jiayou!

P.S.: I look forward to the drinking session, Porcupine! And Bear never reply me...*sob sob* haha. I miss Swedish Vodka.
Update: Bear replied le...Timbre it is...I'll msg u all again on thur :)

Umbrella

2008-05-01T01:35:00.004+08:00

I don't know why I'm such a music buff these days. Maybe because I'm online quite a bit typing out revision notes for my exams and get to listen to internet radio- Yahoo launchcast player
I discovered Mandy Moore's cover of "Umbrella" by Rihana (or whatever..dunno her name) and I really like it! Honestly I hate the Rihana version..it irritates me whenever I hear that on the radio. But Mandy Moore's version really did justice to the song. Now I can picture an old loving couple under a big umbrella. Whereas for Rihana's version, I'll just be so irritated I can't be bothered to imagine anything. Haha...Here it is, Mandy Moore's Cover:

Leona again

2008-04-28T21:42:00.002+08:00

Hahaha I'm totally a Leona Lewis fan now...she's truly amazing. After browsing her performances during the competition, I'm totally blown away.
Almost every performance, Simon Cowell actually gave her a standing ovation. And this is amazing, given the fact that Simon hardly even gives positive comments, much less a standing ovation!
Here's "over the rainbow", a song she performed during the competition:
I truly think she's even better than Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. =D *speechless*

Leona Lewis

2008-04-28T00:09:00.002+08:00

This performance by Leona Lewis on American Idol blew me away!!! One of the best vocals I've ever heard!
After watching her perform on American Idol, I googled a little on facts about her and apparently she's from the British version of American Idol. And as mentioned by Ryan Seacrest, she's discovered by Simon Cowell..haha
Enjoy! The part around 3 mins+ is phenomenal when she did this high pitch thingy...and especially when she's on like 5 inch heels. Haha..absolutely phenomenal

A teaser for your brain

2008-04-26T12:47:00.002+08:00

I'm revising for my Behavioral Economics module now, and I came across this particular example:

“A town is served by 2 hospitals. In the larger hospital about 45 babies are born each day; in the smaller hospital about 15 babies are born each day.
About 50% of all babies are boys. However the exact percentage varies from day to day. Sometimes it may be higher than 50%, sometimes lower.
For a period of one year, each hospital recorded the days on which more than 60% of the babies born were boys. Which hospital do you think recorded more such day?”

What's your answer for this question? No prizes for the correct answer though :)
Those that are statistically trained should find this easy...haha

Au revoir les leçons françaises de NUS

2008-04-25T18:29:00.002+08:00

Today might be the last time I saw my pretty French teacher. Haha..she's really very chio. The epitome of European beauty. I will miss my French lessons in NUS!!! If someone ever asks me what did I remember most fondly about NUS, I would have to say French lessons ;D Although I'll be continuing learning French at Alliance Francaise, it will not be the same anymore, because I won't be studying with students from NUS. And I think studying with young people is a lot of fun. I can foresee a class of adults (or old people) in Alliance Francaise lo...
Anyway, went to collect my French final exam paper just now, and was half pleased half displeased with my results.
Pleased because I did very well for my essay writing! My chio french teacher said "très bien!" (very good) And it's really a warm feeling to see that my efforts paid off. I really spent a lot of time reading french newspapers, listening to french radio etc. etc. to boost my vocabulary. So i'm happy! *pats myself on the back* haha
But I'm displeased because I did badly for my reading comprehension. I thought that it's not that difficult, but turns out that I made a lot of mistakes :(
So all and all I think my good essay and bad reading comprehension negated each other. Haha
I felt a tinge of sadness as I said Au revoir (goodbye) to my French teacher just now.. :_(
I'm so glad that I gave up my biz minor to take French again. It's one of the best decisions in my life I think.,..haha
Jan is about to close a chapter in her life. I can almost breathe the air of freedom-- Another 2 weeks more!
For NTU folks--Enjoy your holidays!!!
For NUS folks-- Tahan!!! It's almost over
For Bear and Porcupine-- I'll see you 2 soon!!!!

ROAR

2008-04-09T00:27:00.002+08:00

*ROAR*
I just spent 3 hrs straight typing MY essay (which is supposed to be pair work by the way) but I still am proud to proclaim that it is MY essay, since ME spent DAYS on it, when my partner probably just spent 2 hrs at most looking at it.
*ROAR even louder*
I'm honestly so sick and tired now literally I can just lie down and die...If only earth were a better place with more lovable and less irritating people. Jan will be infinitely happier.
Now's crunch time...I have about 30+ or even more readings waiting f0r me. I'll probably be sickly and irritable recently, and I apologize in advance if I should snap at any of you unnecessarily :P

Pour les gens que je détèse beaucoup, il faut que vous couriez très loin de moi.

Frightened Bear

2008-03-31T23:38:00.004+08:00

Dear Bear,

Sorry to scare you with my unfriendly entries (according to Porcupine). Hee..these few days I'm feeling a bit stressed and slightly more irritable, so need to blog to fa1 xie4. Hope to meet up with you and Porcupine soon!

A very simple rule

2008-03-29T22:05:00.002+08:00

A very simple rule on how NOT to irriate Jan:

Don't tell me that you are busy with a project and a test when I tell you that I've sent you my part for a project.

It irritates me until I won't ever want to work with you or talk to you ever again.

For the record, I too have a test next Friday, and a referee report due. But did I kaobei? No, but you did and it irritates me! *angry*

Inefficient people

2008-03-15T23:38:00.002+08:00

To add on to the list of stuff that irritate me, recently I've been irritated by someone that lacks efficiency in doing work.
Seriously sometimes I hate doing work with a friend, because I will think twice before telling the person off. If it's someone I don't know, I will not hesitate to tell him/her off if he/she is displaying a lacklustre and inefficient attitude.
I absoulutely ABOHOR it when I ask someone to do something and that person replies with a message indicating that he/she is busy with something else and therefore can't put his/her 100% on the task. I am extremely put off and irritated by such disgusting attitudes!
For goodness sake, it's not as if I DON'T have other things to do as well!!! You are not the only one in the world that is busy!!! But no matter what we still have to complete the work right, so please bring your sorry ass down on your chair and freaking start working!!!!!!!
Absolutely hate it hate it hate it!!!! Hate inefficient people and those who don't have time management. As someone told me before "If a person is constantly busy, he/she probably isn't really that capable. For a truly capable person will always know how to manage his/her time well".
To hell with inefficient people...you guys are like fats clotting up blood vessels. *angry*

Things/People that piss me off (real real bad)

2008-02-25T23:07:00.002+08:00

In no order of severity...

1. Slow walking people that occupy the entire pathway.

I am a natural fast walker and I really extremely detest slow walking people that walk like 2 cm per step. It's ok if they leave a gap for me to get past, but NO..they stroll and walk like a tortoise occupying the ENTIRE pathway, like fats clotting up blood vessels. I really feel like boxing them!

2. People that are late.

It's ok if it's like 15 mins. But...30 mins and more??? what the....waste my time!!! ARRRRHHHHHH *angry*

3. People that ask me stupid questions. (This one is extremely severe...i will be super duper irritated)

There's a unique definition to 'stupid questions'. (dun mix up blur questions with stupid questions. Blur ques are ques asked when that person is really blur about things...but stupid questions are really STUPID. blur questions are fine...but not stupid ques!)

I dunno how to describe, but here's a conversation I had with someone which really pissed me off real real bad because of all the stupid questions that person asked me...

Person: Hey...you econs major right? I want to take this module ECXXXX next sem, is it difficult or not har?

Me: (Still at a very good mood, since this ques is still quite ok) Hmm..I think it's not accurate to ask an econs major, since it's our core module, I would say it's easy. But there's a lot of math la..if you like math then this shouldn't be a problem.

Person: Ok..How many people are taking this module ah? Alot of econs majors or not?

Me: (Getting irritated) Erm...I dunno.

*The reason why I'm irritated is because this question is obviously stupid. I already said it's an econs core module, OF COURSE THERE'S ALOT OF ECONS MAJORS TAKING LA!!! IF NOT ECONS MAJORS THEN WHAT? CHEM ENGINEERS? You tell me stupid or not...
And also, HOW WOULD I KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE TAKING THIS MODULE? I'M NOT THE CLERK FROM THE ECONS DEPARTMENT!!! So freaking stupid!!!

Person: Usually the econs ppl will take in sem 1 or sem 2? I dun want to compete with them leh...

Me: (EXTREMELY IRRITATED) erm...i really dunno

*This person is really testing my patience. I hate those kind of stupid and humji questions. Like scared this scared that. If so scared then DON'T TAKE THAT MODULE FOR GOODNESS SAKE! ASK SO MANY STUPID QUES TO WASTE MY TIME!!!"

wah..just thinking of that conversation makes me irritated.

No offence to that person. I was angry with the context, not the person. But ppl should stop asking such stupid questions lor...so irritating.

4. People that goes on and on talking and typing in my MSN window when my status clearly states "busy" and I'm responding with one or two words.

Because of such ppl, I have to appear offline on MSN, which makes it hard for me to message people for work stuff...*angry*

5. Aunties that refuse to sit down on an MRT seat or bus seat because someone just left the seat and the seat is still warm.

I'm like what is their freaking problem??? It's like sitting on a warm seat will cause them to grow something on their butts is it??? It's ok if the bus/mrt is quite empty you know...but if it's like super full and they are standing in front/beside the seat and clogging up ppl's pathway, it gets really irritating. Wahhh....i can't stand aunties!!!

6. Inconsiderate people that block the MRT door.

They rush in as though they are rushing for reincarnation as the Chinese saying goes. Freaking irritating...!!!

There's just so many things that pisss me off.. but because of time constraints, I'll stop here.

Astronomy Lesson for AIs #2

2008-02-21T20:33:00.002+08:00

I'll take a different approach this time, using possible questions AIs might ask, and then providing an answer to the best of my knowledge. (I admit I am not a professional astronomer, so my answers are not 100% accurate, but you can trust that it at least reflects 80% of the truth)

1. How possible is it to find aliens on planets like Mars, Jupiter, Saturn etc.?

Sorry to disappoint you, but there's probably no intelligent life form on any planets in our solar system.
For years, people have speculated the possibility of Martians living on Mars. But it is confirmed that no intelligent life forms whatsoever exists on mars. NASA had sent rovers that literally touch down on Mars and send back to us digital pictures of what it's like on Mars. It appears that Mars is dry and arid, analogous to deserts on earth, with no trace of water.

The possibility of life in the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) are even more remote. These outer planets are extremely huge, many many times larger than Earth, and these are called the "gas giants". Gas giants, like their name suggest, are made up of thick layers of gas. Jupiter for instance, has an extremely dense layer of Helium, Nitrogen and Ammonia.
You can imagine that if you ever visit one of these planets, you will experience a free fall of over hundreds of kilometres before you ever reach solid ground. Of course by then you would have already died from no oxygen and the pressure from the dense atmosphere.

The other 2 inner planets, Mercury and Venus are devoid of life too. Mercury closest to the sun, is also the hottest and the smallest planet. (since the demotion of pluto) It has no atmosphere, so the "air" is like a vacuum. It's anagolous to what it's like on our Moon. Venus, was found to be inhospitable as well, with large amounts of volcanic activity. Landing on venus will incinerate you immediately.

2. So....you mean there's NO aliens out there?

No. I mean there's no aliens in OUR solar system. Recall that there's billions and billions of stars in our galaxy, which means billions and billions of solar systems just like ours. Even though we can't find aliens in our solar system, that doesn't mean we can't find them in other solar systems. But because the stars are so far away from us, it will be impossible for us to send a space ship to another solar system.

3. Our sun will live forever....right..?

No. Sorry, but apocalypse is just a matter of time. It's not fiction that one day the earth will eventually be destroyed. It's a hard core FACT. Once our sun dies, our entire solar system will perish. But not to worry, we probably won't be able to witness armageddon because our sun is still young, a middle-aged sun, that still has millions of years more to go...

4. Are shooting stars suns that have died?

No. Shooting stars are probably meteroids entering our earth's atmosphere. Due to friction in our atmosphere, the meteroids get heated up and disintegrated before even reaching our earth's surface. (well..at least most of the time. Can't deny the possibility that a huge meteoride can hit earth and destroy it.

When stars die, you don't see them shooting across the sky. That's only in Disneyland. When stars die, they undergo an extremely huge explosion, emitting gamma rays (if you get hit by one you will die of radiation), destroying everything nearby. Sometimes when the stars collapse, they become so dense that they will form black holes, which are monsters in the universe. More of black holes some time later.

5. What's the galaxy nearest to us?

The largest galaxy nearest to us is called Andromeda. There are other smaller galaxies (much smaller than the Milky way) that are thought to have collided and merged with the milky way as we speak. Andromeda on the other hand, is an immensely huge galaxy, much like our own. The Milky Way and Andromeda are doomed for a collision course sometime in 1 or 2 billion years. When that happens, the 2 huge galaxies will merge, and that will be quite a spectacle!

To end off the lesson, the Astronomy Pic of the day from NASA's website:

Specially for AIs

2008-02-20T12:23:00.004+08:00

Ok..this post will be in English.

The purpose of this post is to educate the astronomically ignorant people out there, who give me a blank stare when I talk about alien solar systems and galaxies, and who think that our solar system is the only one in space, and that our sun is the only sun in the universe that harbours planets and the possibility of life.
Let's call these people the AIs. (not artificial intelligence, but the Astronomically Ignorant) I don't blame you if you are an AI. Astronomy can sometimes be too complex to be understood by human beings.

Let me first start the first astronomical lesson by debunking astronomical myths (or deemed to be reality by AIs).

1. Our Sun is NOT the only sun in the universe.

If you truly believe that our sun is unique, you will be shocked to realize that there are like billions, billions, billions, billions (this can go on to infinity....) of "suns" just like ours in the universe.

Let's put this into perspective. Our sun's gravitational force pulls together planets that orbits around it in a solar system. Our solar system (all the planets + our sun) is part of a galaxy called the Milky Way. In the Milky way there are BILLIONS of other stars just like our sun, each with the possibility of planets orbiting around it.

Our galaxy (the Milky Way) is ONE OUT OF BILLIONS of galaxies out there in the universe.

Do the Math. If each galaxy has billions of stars, and there are billions of galaxies, how many stars just like our sun do you expect in the Universe?

Just the thought of this makes it absurd to think that we are the only living creatures in the universe. If each sun has planets orbiting around it, and the possibility of life on them, then even if only 1 star in a galaxy harbours life, adding all galaxies together gives the possibility of billions of earth-like planets out there!

2. It is NOT true that it takes a few days (ok..let me be nice. a few years) to travel to the nearest star.

Ok. It is ABSURD and RIDICULOUS to ever think that we can build a rocket and fly to our nearest star just within decades.

Again, let's put this into perspective. Our nearest star is 4 light years away. Light years is the amount of time needed for light to reach us. And to human kind, nothing can travel as fast as the speed of light. So if it takes light 4 years to travel to our eyes, can you ever imagine how far that star is? The only way to ever travel to our nearest star is to build a rocket that travels at the speed of light, so that we can be there in 4 yrs. But as you know, with our current technology, it's not possible to develop such a rocket.

A normal rocket takes perhaps thousands and thousands of years before it can ever reach our nearest star. And mind you, not all stars are 4 light years away. It is ONLY our closest start that is 4 light years away. There are billions of stars out there that are at enormous distances away from us. Thinking that you can take a star tour even in our neighbourhood in 1 lifetime is insane.

I shall stop my post here. And let you think about it. The lesson will continue again soon.

I found this on Youtube. A MUST WATCH for AIs! After watching this vid, you will understand the pic on the right on the Hubble Deep Field Image.

La vie idéale

2008-02-15T23:12:00.003+08:00

Récemment, j'étais très épuisée et aujourd'hui, j'ai imaginée que je suis très loin de Singapour, en France peut-être, où j'ai la vie idéale:

1) J'aurais un chateau* dans Bourdeaux, avec un vignoble que je pourrais fabriquer des vins. En week-ends, je pourrais s'asseoir dans mon vignoble et goûter les fins vins.
(*Un chateau en France ne coûte que SGD 1 million. C'est un bon marché!)

2) J'aurais un beau et riche mari qui m'aimerait beaucoup. Il serait un chef d'enterprise, peut-être dans une banque. Il me donnerait beaucoup de l'argent et nous voyagerions ensemble, autour le monde. Nous aurions deux enfants, une fille et un fils et ils seraient intelligents et fidèlès.

3) J'aurais les amis sympathiques de nationalités differents- Espagnols, Suédois, et plusiers Singapouriens. Ils alleraient à chez moi chaque weekend et nous dînerions ensemble.

Le meilleure chose est il n'a pas les Singaporiens qui sont kiasu, grossiers, manque de considération etc. Evidemment, j'étais heureuse, ne pas stressée. C'est la vie!!!

Faire du shopping

2008-02-02T01:05:00.000+08:00

Aujourd'hui, j'ai fait du shopping avec Maman. Nous sommes allées à OG de Chinatown, mais je n'ai rien acheté. Alors après, nous sommes allées au le centre commercial de Compass Point. Et là j'ai trouvé une belle robe que j'aime beaucoup! Elle est un peu chère mais je l'aime pas trop trop trop plus!!! Alors, j'ai decidé à acheter cette robe. C'est la première robe que j'ai acheté pendant dix années?
Dans la semaine prochaine, je vais être très occupé. Il y a beaucoup de devoirs et leçons de "make-up". Et ce Lundi je dois faire une présentation. Maintenant je suis un peu éspousée. Si vous visitez mon "blog" fréquemment, vouz pouvez trouver que la musique dans ce site est change toujours. Parce que après j'entends une chanson quelquefois, je serai ennuyeuse. Alors, je dois changer la musique fréquemment. Maintenant la chanson que vous entendre est une chanson du film "les choristes". Ce titre est "Caresse sur l'océan". Les chanteurs de la chanson est les petites chanteurs de Saint-Marc. "les choristes" est un bon film, alors si vous ne voyez pas ce film, il faut voir!
D'accord, maintenant il est un peu tard. Alors je vais se coucher. Happy new year!

Today I went shopping with my mother. I first went to OG Chinatown but I didn't buy anything there. After that we went to Compass Point where I saw a really chio dress!!! It's a little bit expensive, but because i really like too much, I bought it anyway. I think this is the first time in 10 years that I've bought a dress? hehe.
Next week I'll be rather busy. There's just so much school stuff and make-up lessons due to the CNY holudays. Furthermore I have to do a presentation on Monday. Now I'm really quite exhausted.
Anyway if you visit my blog often, you will realize that I change my music quite frequently. This is because I get bored by a song after awhile, that's why I'm changing it quite frequently. The song you're listening to now is called "Caresse sur l'ocean", a soundtrack from the film "les choristes". It's a super nice film and one of my favourite films of all time. If you haven't seen it, it's strongly encouraged to do so!
Ok, now it's a bit late le..I shall go to sleep. Happy new year!

Un petit message

2008-01-26T02:12:00.000+08:00

Maintenant il est deux heures du matin et je ne me couche pas. J'ai fait mes devoirs et je m'ennuie après quelques minutes..hehe. Alors j'ai décidé écrire un petit message sur mon "blog". Les leçons français et très interessants et le professeur est très belle! hehe. Je pense que les leçons français sont le meilleurs leçons que j'ai fait à NUS. Je suis heureux que je m'arrete le "business minor", parce que je peux continuer les leçons français. D'accord...je dois continuer faire mes devoirs maintenant. Mes amies, a bientot!

It's 2am in the morning and I'm not sleeping yet. I was doing my school work for a few minutes after i became bored..hehe. Hence I decided to drop a brief message on my blog. My french lessons are really interesting, and on top of that the teacher is really pretty! (too bad I'm not a guy) I think that French lessons are the best lessons I ever had in NUS and I'm happy that I dropped my biz minor and hence able to continue with my french lessons. Ok..I need to continue with my work now. See you soon my friends!

Quand on aimons, la vie est en rose

2008-01-20T23:05:00.000+08:00

Ça fait longtemps que j'écris sur le garçon que je l'aime. Peut-être je n'aime plus parce que des garçon me font triste. Mais je connais un garçon récemment. Il n'a pas beau mais il est très intelligent, et grand aussi. Il est amical et il a les grands rêves. Mais...je ne le connais assez. Il y a un problème difficile. C'est très triste..je ne sais pas si je le connais plus ou je ne fais rien. J'ai honte de il ne m'aime pas et si je le connais plus, il me détesterai. Vraiment, je suis sûr il est le garçon approprié pour mois. Mais on n'est pas toujours sûr. Sigh..Peut-être je n'en pense pas maintenant.

SPECIALLY FOR PORCUPINE :P

It has been a long time since I wrote about guys. Maybe because guys make me sad.haha. But recently I met this pretty good guy with good qualities. He's not really shuai but he's very intelligent and tall. He's also very friendly and ambitious. Totally the kind I would look for. But I don't really know him well enough because of some complicated situation that I can't be bothered to explain. This is really sad. I don't know if I should just go on to know this person better or just do nothing (after all i have better things to do). Sometimes when i get to know guys better they will end up detesting me. Once bitten twice shy.haha. Actually I'm quite sure that this person is really quite appropriate. But one cannot be so sure always. Sigh..maybe i shouldn't think about this now.

Mugger days again (for the last time)

2008-01-17T20:21:00.000+08:00

Ce midi j'ai rencontré mon ami BS. Il irai en Allmande pour un semestre. Il m'a dit que je peux écrire en français dans mon "blog" si je veux améliore mon français. Alors, je le fais! Ce semestre est un peu difficile. Mais c'est le semestre dernière et je vais travailler dur. Comme le semestre première, je ne sors pas dans le weekend, mais je reste dans chez moi pour travailler. Janice deviens encore un "mugger". hehehe. Alors, mes aimies, vous ne me rencontre pas souvent.

8th Jan 2007: the day I left Singapore for Stockholm

2008-01-08T22:20:00.000+08:00

Time flies.
This day 8th Jan, last year, I left Singapore for Stockholm. It seems like a really long time ago. Sadly, the memories of Sweden seem to get more blurry as the day goes by. It's as though I've never left Singapore at all and Stockholm was just a dream.
I miss the snow....when I first arrived in Stockholm, I was miserable. There was no snow yet, and by 3pm, it's so dark already. It's cold, dark and miserable. But when the snow came, everything changed. The landscape, covered in sheets of white is simply beautiful. Even when the sun sets, the whiteness of the snow seems to illuminate everything. People were having snow fights, building snowmen at night, and I would just look out my window and see the snow gently falling down from the sky.
Then after awhile, the winter just became more dreadful. I couldn't wait for winter to end. I wanted to see the birds come back and the flowers blooming. Winter grew harsher, with temperatures dropping to as low as -17 degrees. Sometimes the sun will stay away for days and days. The sky will be gloomy for days and days. I really couldn't wait for spring to come. And when it did, I was elated. The yellow flowers bloom and dandelions were scattered across the fields. The birds came back and the seagulls soared above the lake.
And then it was time to go home. Now as I sit somewhere within the concrete jungle, it's hard to imagine how it was really like back then.

Ok..so it's 2008.

2008-01-05T10:51:00.000+08:00

Hahaha...you must be blind not to notice how terribly lazy I am!
Porcupine has been asking me for quite some time if I've been updating my blog. Ok.So here I am updating.
Nothing much interesting in my life. After exams I went straight immediately into another internship with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). I don't think everyone's familiar with what they do so here's a snippet: Essentially, CAAS manages Changi Airport, its day to day operations including retail & commercial activities as well as new investments (opening of our new Terminal 3!) and much more. In addition, CAAS also provides consulting services for foreign airports.
I was attached to the Corporate Strategy and Business Development Division to research on corporatisation. It was announced last year in Aug the decision to corporatise Changi Airport. What this means is that the management of Changi Airport will be given to a privatised company, in this case Changi Airport International (also a subsidiary of CAAS). CAAS will then act more as a regulator than an airport operator. Yeah..so my project pretty much is to study foreign airport corporatisation. It started off being quite interesting but gradually stagnated and became quite boring..haha. ok lah..I learnt quite a bit from this experience.
I was actually quite impressed by the arrangement they made for us yesterday, for our final project presentation. They arranged a board room for us, and invited the CEO/Director-General, Deputy Director General as well as the other Directors of the divisions specially to sit in for our presentations. The setting was surprisingly serious and formal. We had namecards placed in front of us on the table and the panel resembled something you would see in Donald Trump's "The Apprentice". It's much more formal than my presentation to my Exec Director in EDB the other time. I was the first to present, and it went pretty well I guess. After the presentation I was fired a series of questions from the Directors, but I think I managed it well enough. Haha.
After the presentation we had a tea reception in this mini ballroom like setting with a nice garden view outside. We mingled with the DG and other Directors and they are actually very amiable and open. All in all it was quite a good experience. It's not all the time I can get the opportunity to do a presentation in front of Senior Management, and I'm glad to have been given this opportunity. It's a training ground to prepare me for what's to come when I join EDB.
So...today I'm back to becoming a Student. Specifically, an Economics student. I need to get my mentality all back to Economics in order to churn out something decent to propose for my thesis topic. Meeting my prof on Monday, and I don't want to waste his time by coming without anything substantial. I'm turning to Alan Greenspan's book, "The age of turbulence" for some kind of inspiration. Ahhh...I hope my idol can help me. haha.
Anyway, stepping into 2008 felt nothing special to me. Haha. While people were counting down to 2008, I was watching "ke jia zhi ge" the repeat show on channel 8 and chatting with porcupine online. It's really nothing special lor. I only felt a bit sian because I'm gonna be 23 years old in a few months time :( so old!
My friend said I should make some kind of new year resolutions. All along I'm a bit guai lan. And I think it's quite stupid to make new year resolutions, because people seldom meet them anyway. So what's the point? But alright, I'll make some resoultions, but I won't call them "resolutions" (sound so dreamy and unrealistic). I'll call them my 2008 GOALS THAT I WILL ACHIEVE BY THE END OF THE YEAR:

1)Do justice to myself and get into the Dean's list for the last time in my life (hoho) and graduate with respectable grades.

2)Work hard in EDB and build up a strong foundation by the end of this year

3) Sign up for my Masters in Applied Economics (my love for macro and financial economics is the main reason for this decision)

4) At least attempt to pass my CFA in December. (Note that I'm being realistic here...I'm not 100% confident of being able to pass my CFA on the first try.)

That's pretty much it. Something reasonably manageable for just 2008. Anything more will be simply unrealistic.

I'll end off by wishing all of you a happy 2008! Stay healthy and strong my friends! see all of you soon!

Back again

2007-12-07T00:17:00.000+08:00

Sorry!!! I'm back after such a long time. Been busy with exams and all that. Haha.
Just a few hours ago, I heard a porcupine sing "One Night in Beijing" hahahaha. I still like the xin yue tuan's version though! *wink*
How's everyone??? Cynner gal we must meet up soon!!! I still owe u money!!!
Actually nothing much to blog about. Or rather I'm quite lazy. Let me rest for awhile...I just ended my exams this morning!!!

The week just flew by

2007-10-04T01:23:00.000+08:00

Mid-term break came and went. And this week is the start of school again. I realized that this week is really flying by so fast! Tomorrow is already Thursday, the last schooling day for me for the week. Also, tomorrow I will be having my Contract Theory test. After tomorrow I think my friends won't see me carrying the book around like a bible anymore. Sharon commented yesterday on why my book looked so lan4. Hahaha...I won't bring it around after tomorrow already lah...so save everyone's comments.
Recently because of the mid-sem break, I had more breathing space, and more time to do my stuff. But obviously since I'm not working 24/7 there's a lot more time for me to think about stuffs too. And I think I've mentioned this time and time again. Having too much time for me is not necessarily a good thing. Cos it's when I will think about unnecessary stuff and get all depressed again.
I think I've reached another crossroad. Somehow rather lost, uncertain and clueless. I realized that my life path is like a business cycle. It has peaks, troughs and accelerate when breaking out of the trough and slowing down when reaching the peak. I think I'm now nearing the peak, preparing for a plunge down into the trough. Just recently, I thought I knew what I wanted and what to do. But now....not really.
I realized too that I've neglected some of my friends. E.g. Bear, Porcupine and Cynner. Haha. For Bear and Porcupine, both of you have started a new phase of life...a part that I can't really relate to yet. But hope that both of you are doing great at work. And I think I'm now in for KTV le...sorry that I dao-ed that invitation the other time. The last time I went KTV was before I left for Sweden!!! :(
And I think I'm really sick of my hair. It has been looking the same since the last time I cut it short which was about 2 yrs ago? really sick of it lor...but then I also will 舍不得to cut. I wanted to cut Jolin's hairstyle but now I'm giving it second thoughts. Firstly I'm scared it doesn't suit me..and secondly even if it does, I might not know how to "hide" the long part to make my hair short..hahaha. I shall see after tomorrow whether I have the mood or not.. =)
Anywayz..please support: http://www.crafted-with-love.com/
All $$ spent on the accessories will be donated to animal shelters in Singapore. Even if you don't want to help the animals, the accessories are also worth buying. There are some pretty unique ones!

Me and my sad life...

2007-09-22T23:28:00.001+08:00

Okay this is rare...2 posts in 2 consecutive days. Perhaps cos it's the mid sem break, hence despite the upcoming tests, I have more time to lament.
I realized that ever since I came back from Stockholm, there's not one day when I can sleep peacefully. During the summer I was worrying about my EDB intern project and now I'm worrying about all the projects and also job-hunting. There's just endless worries! I bought a book, "How to stop worrying and start living" by Dale Carnegie, and I must say, it provided me with a partial remedy to all my problems. But why partial? Cos though I am not as worried and sian as before, I am still in search of happiness and there's still some worries I can never get rid of.
It makes me think that sometimes what's the point of living if all I do everyday is being bogged down by work and worries? (Don't worry, I'm not suicidal)There's no joy you know... :( and it's not like I've been through my mid-life crisis. For goodness sake, I'm still less than midway through my possibly long life and I'm already feeling like this!
I'm not really looking forward to the 1 week break tho...cos although it gives me time to study, it's also time away from social contact. Sometimes I can feel really shitty before I go to school, but once I'm in school and I see my friends and start talking cock, I feel better immediately. So being away from school means a break from my friends and Jan will sink into depression and melancholy once again.
Sigh..I'm a 22 year old girl. I should have a vibrant and happening life. I should be going out with my bf every weekend and watching movies. I should be indulging myself with shopping and beautiful dresses. I should be looking forward to the start of everyday. I should be hungry and yearning for a successful career. But no. I'm now at home blogging. And I will be at home again tomorrow studying. As well as the day after and the day after and the day after. Jan has a sad life..if you haven't noticed.

Androgyny is in, macho-ness is out!

2007-09-22T01:37:00.001+08:00

This is almost obsolete! I'm surprised Cynner and Porcupine still come over to read. Haha. I'm now at the midpoint of the semester already! How time flies...this coming week will be the mid-sem break. But it's not a break at all! More like a study week :(
But nevertheless, I gave myself a break tonight, to catch up on slacking and more slacking. I watched another disc of <<天下第一>> just now...starring my current favourite pretty (娘)guy, 霍健华！I dunno why I'm suddenly so crazy over him, since he didn't really catch my attention when I was watching westside story many years back.
I am going to search for <<風塵三俠之紅拂女>> VCD, also starring 霍健华 and shu qi. *sigh* why are there no 霍健华s in Singapore? SO SAD! Why do Singaporean guys think that macho and muscles are the way to go? Why do they think that androgyny is disgusting? My advice to our macho wannabes is that macho-ness is no longer everything. Androgyny is the "in" thing now! :)
And this reminds me of the <<校花校草追赶跑>> NUS episode. Why all the guys they look for are CMI one....Actually I don't blame them lah..cos there really aren't that many shuai ones in NUS. *Sigh* this is the sad story of a girl in NUS. Haha.

End of internship, start of school

2007-08-11T21:33:00.001+08:00

wow..been ages since the last post. And I promised to put up pictures of Stockholm and also have a concluding post or something. But as usual.....I'm too lazy :P
Time seems to fly pass damn fast....internship came and went before I know it. And my memories of Sweden is getting more blurry by the day.
Internship was great...in retrospect. I managed to score pretty well for my appraisal in the end. And therefore Jan's hardwork has been recognized and she is extremely pleased. Big boss looked pretty pleased too...hmmm...maybe I'll be back there again after I graduate? :)
I made friends with 2 Swedes that are on NUS for exchange, and so far my week off from work had been taken up by my 2 new friends. Showing them around S'pore and helping them settle down. It's so nostalgic, listening to them speak in Swedish. It was like music to my ears. And all thanks to ek and his gf for their help showing them around. Anti Singapore me don't know much about s'pore :P
School is starting soon...and so is job recruitment time. Economy is projected to sustain growth at 7-8% till next year. God bless the class of 08!
Another few paragraphs of incoherent blabber....till next time. when i feel less lazy to put up photos :P

A post dedicated to Year 21 on Earth

2007-07-15T20:32:00.000+08:00

As my 21st year on this earth approaches the end, I have some thoughts that I would like to pen down before I officially become OLD at 22 *gasp*. Horrors...people might roll their eyes at that statement (old at 22) but it's true what...for girls at least. It's our reproductive age! During our grandparents' time, I would have been blessed with at least 5 kids already...haha. Yeah...seems like I'm equating reproductivity with being old...but yeah..21st is just stepping into adulthood. But 22 is like officially an adult already.
Year 21 on this earth has been amazing..nothing short of exciting and full of adventures. I would say, it's probably the best year I had so far on this earth. Probably the year when I had seen the most, thought the most, grown the most, experienced the most, thus far.
Year 21 kicked start with me being involved with the Harvard Conference (HPAIR). I had always dreamt of some sort of event management at some point in my life, and I was given this opportunity to realize this dream. Prior to HPAIR, I was totally green in almost anything. I was a kid who was trying to force myself to gain some experience, without really being ready enough for it. HPAIR was a turning point when I met some really zai people who do things beautifully. People whom a kid like me could benefit from by observing and learning. My director is probably the most zai person I've met thus far. Not only is he damn good in his academics, he carries himself with such confidence and flair. He is also excellent at multi-tasking. I would have crumbled if I were given the amount of work he was given. I must admit, I was really intimidated to work with someone with such calibre. In retrospect however, I was really glad to have been given this chance to work with him and to learn from him. Then there was my chairperson, though I don't always agree with the way he does things, he is still one person I admire. He is probably the most disorganized person but at the same time the greatest leader I've ever met and worked with. To those fellas, I salute you, and thank you for giving me this opportunity to work with you. Of course the main highlight of the event was me, standing in front of a 700 delegation, hosting the cultural night without having any prior experience in emcee-ing whatsoever. When my friend asked me if I was willing to be the emcee, I thought that it would be kind of fun, and probably there won't be much opportunities for me to be an emcee in the future. That pretty much formed the basis for my craziness...when I actually took on the role without giving it a second thought. It was a crazy night...I was nervous throughout the whole event. But I managed to pull through albeit with some (minor) mishaps here and there. Thanks for the support from my fellow emcee. We made it through, and it was a night that I will always remember vividly. Thank you all for that amazing experience. The process was wretched, but in retrospect, I wouldn't have done anything differently.
I guess the next learning point in year 21 was when I abandoned my cohort to join my senior cohort for a semester of honours modules. It's nothing great actually, since there are many year 3 students before me who took honours modules before. And that's not what I want to highlight. I managed to be once again amongst a group of really intelligent, outspoken and ambitious seniors. It was a bit of a "culture" shock to me, because my cohort is kind of laid-back and less ambitious. Even the professors said that my senior cohort was the best cohort they had ever taught before. I got to work on 2 projects with my seniors. I will always remember the long hours after classes when we stayed back outside LT10, trying to figure out our own economic model! Ho-Peh-Chen-Ong model...haha. It was the first time as well that I had to do a presentation in front of 70 people in the LT. It was then that I realized my presentation skills really sucks. Maybe the thought of presenting something in front of my seniors sort of intimidated me. But I made it through anywayz...and I think it's the best semester I had in NUS. Thanks to my seniors..really enjoyed working with them!
Of course...the best highlight of year 21 was my trip to Sweden. I think a paragraph of words is doing serious injustice to what I've experienced during the 6 months in Sweden. It's really beyond words. It's the first time in my life I lived on my on for so long and in an unfamiliar environment. And because I'm living alone, it was 6 months of self-discovery. It was also a period when I really had the time and luxury to sit back, relax and appreciate the finest things in life. It also made me realize how wrong I had been living my life previously in Singapore and I also discovered finally what I really want. Some people may dread time alone, but actually I really love being alone. The independence, the freedom to do anything I want...Basically I was left to fend for myself in this foreign land. I became stronger physically and mentally. After coming back from Sweden, I feel like there's nothing I can't do anymore..there is this sudden boost of confidence and self-belief. I feel like I finally have the courage, strength and direction pursue things I never thought I was ever capable enough of pursuing. And I believe more strongly than ever in this phrase, "It's all in the mind". The friends I made in Stockholm also had a huge part to play in my learning process. In Stockholm, I met a girl with so much character and self-belief. I learnt to never give up from her. In case you are wondering, I managed to get 82/100 for my risk management. And it's not my credit totally...I owe it to Pearline, my best friend in Stockholm. Thank you so much for the encouragement. Also, Andy my HK friend whom I only known for 3 months but yet perhaps known better than some friends whom I had known for life. Andy is a deep thinker just like me, someone I could really relate to. Though we haven't seen each other for almost 4 months now, we are still very much keeping in touch. Also, there's Joanne, an independent girl and my travel kaki. She too, is an inspiration. She is one person who is not afraid to speak her mind, something that I can't really do. And if not for her, I wouldn't have a chance to visit Greece, Lapland and other parts of Europe.
Last but not least, I finally got my official internship in year 21 on earth. The orgnization may not be the best organization around. But I am truly thankful for the opporutnity to work in this organization. It is perhaps the most work-friendly place I've been to. Everyone knows how to relax, but they get darn serious too when it comes to getting work done. It is an opportunity for me to observe, learn, and talk to people. I'm still amidst getting my project done. Whether or not they are satisfied with it, I guess I've given my best.
Year 21 is just a start of adulthood for me. If I were to compare myself now and a year ago, I would say I was a completely different person back then. I'm really looking forward to year 22 and beyond. It's up to me to find the opportunities that will make my life exciting. And meanwhile I must also buck up to find that someone. Haha..
I would also like to thank my best friends in SG for all the years of friendship. You all know who you are lah...No need to mention. I love all of you and I know all of you too are embarking on a new phase of life. All the best to my jie meis who are going to start working. Work hard, but don't forget to sit back sometime and appreciate the things around you. *Hugs*

#

2007-07-15T10:46:00.000+08:00

Ok..I deleted the previous post despite quite an interesting three-some discussion going on there. The hate post seem to do injustice to this blog which is dedicated to my wonderful experience in Sweden.
I have tons of pictures and experiences that I've yet to post and blog about. Those who are free can check back soon. I'll probably dedicate another post or so to my experience before I bring it to a close. After my internship...sooooonn. (Can't wait for it to end!)

Back from an extremely long Hiatus

2007-05-28T21:08:00.000+08:00

I think nobody checks my blog now..lol..maybe only my Cynner-gal jie mei right? lol.
Sorry for the long hiatus. Been really busy ever since I returned from 2 almost back-to-back trips to Greece then to Liverpool.
Missed too many lessons for Risk Management! To make matters worse, this is literally a Masters level module. The people in my class are what? Finance Masters students. And me...I've only taken FNA2004 Finance. Lol. The assignments are killers for one..it requires the churning out of outrageous excel spreadsheets which I can never dream of doing it by myself. Luckily Pearline managed to entail the help of one of our fellow exchange students who is really a super nice guy who let us use his excel spreadsheets. And the theory is totally Greek to me. But good news is that the exams have no outrageous calculations involved and it's all conceptual questions. But even then, I still have doubts on whether I can pass or not.There are really too many times when I sat in class, understanding ZERO percent of what the lecturer is talking about and feeling demoralized and wanting to give up. But thanks to Pearline who encourages me not to give up, I've decided to just huo chu qu. Exam is on this Thursday!I've done my best for the preparations, so hopefully my best is enough to pass.
Everything is coming to an end...somehow the past few months seem really surreal to me, somewhat like in a dream. On hindsight, there's really nothing I would have done differently (Maybe not to take Risk Management!), and this experience that I had is beyond words, and literally life transforming.
I always thought that this will not be the last time I'll be in Sweden, but realistically speaking, it might very well be my first and last time. Once I've woken up from this "dream" I will realize that it's not very practical to pursue a Masters back in Stockholm given the high cost of living. (Unless some very nice company sponsors me for a Masters)
The break away from NUS is really much needed and much appreciated. And I think I'm ready to go back to NUS for one final year of NUS sh*t. Had I not gone for exchange, I'll probably be an exhausted and lifeless rag doll as of today. I'll reminicise about the days in Stockholm when stress/difficulties might overwhelm me in the future.
Sweden will always be a special place to me from now onwards, whether or not I have a chance to return for whatever purpose, it will always be a place that lives on vividly in my memories. A place that taught me to appreciate every single thing in my life, and a place that made me realize how wrong I've been living my life previously.
After my exams, reality will start to sink in that everything I'll be doing in Stockholm will possibly be the last time I'm doing that thing in Stockholm. The quiet walks along the lake, grocery shopping, walking to school...
For now, I first need to get pass the wretched exams! Please pray for me that I can pass Risk Management! If not I'll need to take an extra module for my final year in NUS which is already xiong enough...

Back

2007-05-07T19:06:00.000+08:00

Hi..Sorry for the long hiatus. When I came back last Wednesday night I actually typed a quick post but then blogger was configured in Swedish so I pressed the delete button or something and the entire post was gone.
Anyway had a great time away on holiday and now trying to catch up on my work which is piling up. Pics and stuff will be up soon once I have the time to transfer all the pics onto my comp.
The holiday away from stockholm was one of self-discovery. And it was also a period of time that I fully realize what great friends I have back in Singapore. Cos although I had great company for the trip, my constant thought while I was at those beautiful places was to have you guys there with me.
Though I don't miss Singapore that much, I certainly miss all my friends and family. I suppose only with you guys I can be truly who I am. Sometimes the socializing game is pretty tiring..and I suppose it's about time I pack and go home. It's still a month plus though.
Treasuring whatever time I have left here in this beautiful country, and looking forward to the day I can see you all again. Enjoy your vacation!

JaN est en vacances

2007-04-18T06:44:00.000+08:00

Je vais à Bruxelles ce vendredi. J'espère que mon français est assez bien. Parce que les belges ne parlent pas anglais et je vais mourir s'ils ne me comprennent pas quand je voyage seule! Alors j'ai étudié le français encore les derniers jours et maintenant je peux parler bien encore. Merci ours en pluche pour les leçons françaises. A bientôt mes amis. Je reviendrai à la Suède en le 2 mai.
In short, I'll be going to a French speaking country, and I will be returning to Sweden on the 2nd May :P
Bye my friends. See ya soon!
All the best to those having exams. Bon Chance! =)

Am I still not ambitious enough?

2007-04-12T01:49:00.000+08:00

I had a chat with one of my German friends today and apparently he was offered PhD scholarships in several renowned universities. And he also applied and was accepted in LSE. I asked him what he wanted as a job and he replied, "IMF will be good", in a as-a-matter-of-fact manner. And then he asked me, "so what about you?" I shrugged and replied,"Banking?" haha.
Amusing if you ask me...

Depression?

2007-04-10T06:13:00.000+08:00

Time just flew past so fast I didn't even notice it.
The few weeks of relaxation and fun activities I had after my exams have come to an end. I sent Andy off to the airport just yesterday and it was really sad. It's totally a different feeling of sending someone off because I won't know when is the next time I'll be able to see him again. Pearline is also not in Stockholm now cos she's touring Eastern Europe with her bf. Joanne is still on her trip in Southern France and won't be back till this Friday. Which means that I'll be alone for a few days. And for me being alone is not really a good idea because I tend to think too much about too many things which leads to depression :| And this has to happen just after a period of so many fun activities with my friends. It's like post-end-of-activities depression.
I realize that my adventure is nearing the end as well. I have just about 2 months left which is really short. And I'll be doing a lot of travelling in these 2 months so I hardly have time left in Stockholm. Stockholm is really a very nice place to live in. And I can never emphasize enough how great this place is. And this will not be the first and the last time I'll be here. Definitely.
But Singapore is still my home after all. I guess if I lived here like for years, I'll grow weary of the European lifestyle (or maybe I'll become like them! heh). I still can't really accept the way they socialize by partying and getting wasted. To me, making friends is not getting drunk together but by sitting down and having sincere conversations. But I'm glad to have made some good friends during the short stay here, both Swedish and International friends whom I hope to keep in contact with even after I leave.But yeah..I am already 'Europeanized' in terms of really learning how to sit back and relax. I really don't know if I'll be able to adjust back to the hectic lifestyle again. Or maybe I don't need to adjust anything but rather to incorporate relaxation into the "no-life" lifestyle I used to have.
I still have somemore pics that I haven't really uploaded of Taby etc. Soon, when I'm less depressed and less lazy :P
Will be leaving for Brussels-Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Athens-Santorini next Thursday. This will be my second time travelling to Frankfurt, and again just to transit :| But I'll be staying for a night in Frankfurt this time round though. I won't forget to buy gifts for you guys..don't worry! :P But chocolate lovers, I don't think the chocolates from Belgium will last till I come back :P Since I'll probably eat all of them even before I return..haha.

Food and Uppsala

2007-04-06T22:01:00.000+08:00

Lots of interesting things happening lately, but been too lazy or tired to upload any posts :P
Recently I've been eating pretty good stuff! It all started off with me cooking Bee Hoon (about 2 weeks ago). Okay..I know it's NOTHING compared to the nice food in Singapore. But we're really quite deprived so it's considered not bad already! I managed to find fish cake in the Chinese Supermarket. But it costs like 5 SGD just for 2 pieces. :| Anyway here it is:

Yup...and we had Swedish meatballs to go with it!">
And just the next day (or was it the day after next), we had tom yam bee hoon soup. Super shiok! Pearline bought a bottle of tom yam paste at the Chinese Supermarket as well as some wanton skins. So we made a whole pot of tom yam bee hoon soup..delicious!
Pearline's wantons:

The pot of tom yam bee hoon!:

After dinner that day, I found a chess set in my kitchen. And guess what, we really chi bao mei shi zuo, and started playing chess!:

Just a few days after, we had Andy's farewell dinner. Andy is a friend that we've made on exchange and also my corridor neighbour. He's only here for 3 months and he'll be leaving this Sunday :(
Yup..so we had his farewell dinner last Saturday which means even more nice food:
This is probably the best meal we've had so far! We had wanton soup, sweet and sour chicken, broccoli meatballs (Our very own creation :P), cai por eggs and Andy's tomato eggs. After that we even had dessert! Anlies our Taiwanese friend made sago and Andy bought some Greek dessert that sounds like a Japanese swear word. "Baklarva" or something. heh. Yeah so I've been eating reaallly good stuff recently. And of cos i've become fatter :)
Yesterday we (Pearline, Andy & I) made our way down to Uppsala, this small University town just slightly above Stockholm (About 40 min train ride away). Uppsala is really very quiet compared to Stockholm which is bustling with activity. There's nothing much there but this gothic cathedral and a few shopping places. But a nice place to visit (for a few hours only...) nevertheless. The winds were damn strong yesterday though..and I was only wearing one layer of clothing. So I was feeling quite cold most of the time. But I still had a great time! Here are pictures of the gothic cathedral:

A tomb, looks like of a King and Queen's:

The close up, reminds me of what I saw in Rome

After that we went for lunch at a Swedish fastfood outlet called Max. It's a lot nicer than MacDonalds can...the ingredients were very fresh!They should export this overseas!We visited Uppsala University too. Here it is, see if you can spot me in the picture :P

We bascially just walked around the small town. Andy said he was so glad he didn't come to Uppsala if not we would have gone to Stockholm everyday. Haha...it's really quite a boring town if you want exciting stuff. Yeah, but I would say it's a nice place to retire in :P I spotten a venetian like canal:

Because there was nothing much to do, we ended up shopping. I bought 2 pairs of earrings, a pink polo T and a pair of boots. I really really like that pair of boots!But we got ourselves into a really funny situation. Pearline wanted to buy a pair of shoes too but Andy just bought a new pair just a few days ago and he really wouldn't want to buy another pair if not he has to carry 4 pairs of shoes home! But because the shop was having an offer of buy 3 get 1 free, he ended up getting another pair of shoes. And we spent a freaking 1hr+ in the shoe shop..haha. And here's Andy and Pearline in front of the shoe shop that got us into trouble (of spending money that is..):

After coming back to Stockholm, we went to this Chinese restaurant for a Mongolian dinner buffet. It was super filling...I can't even finish my first round of food! And guess what, I heard lin jun jie's song. I just find it quite amusing to hear lin jun jie's song all the way in Scandinavia..haha.
Okay..I think I've uploaded quite a lot of pictures for once! I still have somemore pictures but that's for another day. Today's Easter holiday so I'll probably be staying home the whole day since most of the shops are closed.
Take care everyone!

=)

2007-04-03T00:59:00.000+08:00

I think I'm really someone who can't maintain a travel blog...haha...I'm always too lazy to upload pictures. I have quite a lot of pictures that I took recently and I'm just too lazy to upload onto the blog. I will do so soon...when I'm less lazy..haha
Anyway I did quite a lot of fun stuff! It's Spring so I'm out jogging along the lake near my hostel. It's so amazing to jog in temperatures like 9 degrees celcius and along a beautiful lake! It's really damn nice...I didn't sweat at all..maybe just a bit and there's no eeky sticky feeling after exercising.
And I had a picnic yesterday! It was damn nice to sit down by the lake, absorb the sun and just chill out with my friends. Had nice food to eat too =)
And today I went to Taby, the outskirts of Stockholm to the largest mall in Sweden. It's not really THAT large by North American standards or even Singaporean standards, but it was relatively big. I bought a skirt for like less than SGD25!
Ok pictures up soon... :P

Random Pictures of Stockholm

2007-03-28T03:19:00.000+08:00

I keep changing my image hosts...and apparently one of them ain't that good. This is my best explanation for the screwed up pictures below. Haha..and as usual Jan is too lazy to fix it. Anywayz, here are just some random photos...

This is the central metro station, called T-Centralen. On the digital board it says "Morby Centrum", the train that I will take back home to "Universitetet"

Not sure if I've uploaded this before. But yeah..this is part of the city centre. They have lots of such statues around. I think it's one of their Kings.

This is really the last picture I got of my favourite snow covered walk home. It was really very beautiful and serene when I walk home everytime from the metro station. Now it's Spring already, so it's not beautiful anymore :( All the snow has melted and it's just yellow grass all around.

Here's another pic of the route home. In the distance you can see the red buildings. That's my hostel, Lappis (The actual name is much longer :|).

This is a church opposite the bus stop I take the bus home from. Okay...might be confusing if you wonder whether I take bus or metro or both. Well, actually I can either take bus or metro. Sometimes I'll just randomly take any according to my mood. If I take the bus I will have to walk from my school to Odenplan (5 min walk) to take bus 40 that goes all the way to my hostel. Or I can take metro from my school's metro station Radmansgatan and change trains at T-Centralen to Universitetet where I have to walk my favourite serene route (again about 5-10min walk) back to Lappis.

Here's another view from the bus stop in Odenplan. It's just the view right of the Church.

I think this is an Abbey. The red building with the words cut of is Ahlen's City, one of the shopping malls in the city central. Ahlen's City is just the Swedish version of Wisma Atria.

This is City Terminalen, the railway station and bus station that has trains departing to and from other cities in Sweden, and buses that go to and come from the airports in Stockholm. Went there today to buy train tickets to Uppsala, a University town just somewhere South of Stockholm. Going there on a day trip with my friends Andy and Pearline next Thursday. And the train tickets (return trip) costs only 100 SEK!!! Which is about SGD20. Super cheap.

Nice chips to keep me company after the exams! They taste damn good...unlike the typical salty and unhealthy Jack & Jill potato chips we have back in SG :\

Just one of my countless meals over here. I was quite happy with this meal I suppose. Swedish meatball pasta..haha.Plus potato salad (the white stuff).

And last but not least, probably the last snow shower I'll ever see in Stockholm this time. This was when I was trapped at home studying for my exams. The snow showers just got heavier and heavier. It was kind of cool sitting next to my window and reading my notes while admiring the snow fall outside. I will definitely miss even little things like this. I don't wanna go back to SG.....
Yup...I'll be taking more pictures soon when I go out to town. My lessons don't start until next wednesday. And Thursday I'll be going to Uppsala for the whole day. I will take more pictures then.Take care guys!

Blackout

2007-03-27T14:46:00.000+08:00

Ok..I kNOW I was supposed to upload pics last night. But just when I opened my comp, there was a freaking BLACKOUT. Yes...no electicity at all until this morning....Damn..i'm really quite suay....
Going out again soon. So TONIGHT the pictures WILL COME! Hope there's no more such nonsense.

Ok i will post pictures soon

2007-03-26T17:33:00.000+08:00

Dear Friends...I know I should be posting and pictures should be up. Haha..but I will do it TONIGHT.Haha..Just been really lazy lately and pretty tired. Recovering from the horrendous 2 weeks stretch when I did nothing but study till wee hours in the morning only to wake up early again the next day to study again.
Anywayz my exams was over since last Tuesday. And International Corporate Finance wasn't as bad as I thought. I guess it didn't have to warrant that much study and freaking out after all! But I got somewhat upset when I saw 2 out of 3 questions were quantitative. I can't do the quantitative questions for nuts so I was banging on 2 qualitative questions (which was promised initially) and ended up had 2 quantitative questions. But I managed to do those 2 anyway and crapped my way through the last question. So I hope it's enough to pass!!! (Like I said my expectations here is very very low)
School was supposed to start tomorrow but apparently they changed lecturer for my Risk Management Course so lectures are pushed backwards :| I still have another module "Macroeconomic Policcy Analysis" I LOVE THIS!!! Super interesting!!! All Economics students should love it. They are gonna invite guest lecturers from the Central Bank and government bodies to lecture on how monetary and fiscal policies are carried out in REAL LIFE. I can never get such stuff in NUS where all I study is what Tobin model and all those stupid Mathematical stuff...
Jan is treasuring every moment of her remaining time in Stockholm. The longer I stay here the more I don't feel like going back to Singapore. Forget about the food man, I have all the cute guys in the world here. Super nice people, efficiency (comparable to Singapore at least), CUTE and HOT guys EVERYWHERE (even the bus drivers, train drivers, construction workers are cute...and i'm not exaggerating), excellent education, no freaking hot and humid weather, 4 seasons, slow pace of life, H&M stores everywhere!!! Super nice clothes can!!!Not like lousy Singaporean fashion which is all the same bloody kind of clothes and don't mention Far East please. And and..I can wear boots and stockings here and nobody will think I'm a bitch. Amazing life here lah...who wants to go back to Singapore? My ideal plan is to get a Swedish bf/husband and settle down here. Haha...my neighbour is quite cute and I think he's single. *dreams* Well, gotta get back to reality soon. But I'm seriously not giving up the prospects of coming back to SSE to do a post grad. I love Stockholm too much. And it just kills me to think that I'll only be here for 5-6 mths and that's it.
Okay...going out to city centre soon...pictures up tonight!

P.S.: Daylight savings started yesterday so now I'm no longer 7 but 6 hours behind Singapore.

Random thoughts to kill the stress bug

2007-03-14T03:24:00.000+08:00

1. My ceiling light (the main light in my room) blew and I have to study under romantic conditions. To add icing on the cake, tomorrow's my exam.

2. It's Spring! Finally...temperatures are no longer sub-zero.

3. I tried making curry flavoured pasta today and it tasted not bad.

4. I'm so proud of myself after I handed up my last Finance assignment. It was supposed to be group work but Jan did it SOLO. And was a relatively decent piece of work :) (I'm starting to like Finance and fear less of it!)

5. I realized my caretaker's name is Henrique Larsson :|

6. Feeling stressed that exams are here...It's the same whether you are in NUS or not. Trust me...exams are equally bad no matter where you are.

7. Confirmed my Europe tour this Spring to Amsterdam, Greece and Belgium. I AM GOING TO ATHENS!!! My wildest dreams are coming true.

8. Am going to try to cook Singaporean dishes after my exams.

9. Missing everyone back in SG, my dearest family and friends. Plus my two doggies.

10. Have to go back to studying now!

Best Wishes to all of you,

Love Jan

Won't be posting often till March

2007-02-28T05:46:00.000+08:00

Hello Friends, I probably won't be updating much since firstly, there isn't really anything interesting that's happening so I don't have any nice pictures to post. Secondly, I'll be pretty busy all the way till after my exams which is the 20th of March.
I'll probably post some random daily pics as soon as I'm free. Wanna let you guys have a glimpse of what I see on the way to school and home :P I'm gonna bring out my cam everyday from tomorrow onwards, hopefully I'll be able to video record the snow falling. It's particularly beautiful during the evening when I'm walking home from the metro on this particular stretch of road. It's quiet and serene, and with the snow falling silently from the sky it's just...beautiful.
Spring is coming. Though I want some warmth, I'm definitely gonna miss the snow. So I hope I can catch more snowfall before Spring comes.
I've decided not to go Russia in the end :(
I'll be going to Belgium and the Netherlands instead :) That'll be in April though.
Back to work. Take care guys!

Happy Happy Happy

2007-02-20T08:50:00.000+08:00

I am very happy today!!! I started out feeling quite upset, I'm very happy now! :) All thanks to Pretty Boy and my wonderful friends!!!
I was quite upset this morning because I woke up early anticipating the contruction workers to come in to my room to work on my toilet. The guy promised me last Friday he'll be here at 8am and I told him that I have to be out of home by 9am cos I have classes at 10am. BUT..I had to wait till 10am before he finally came! Which meant I missed my lesson. I was upset because that's when I get to see Pretty Boy. But..I had to go to school anyway to discuss my project with my group members. We decided to go to the computer lab. And when I entered the lab, I saw Pretty Boy!!! AND HE SMILED AT ME!!! After that I just got into a dreamy state, and whatever my group members said to me were like bees buzzing...(If they see this they'll probably kill me) And for the entire group meeting I wasn't concentrating at all. Haha. AND...I JUST HEARD HE'S COMING TO NUS NEXT SEMESTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AND AND AND...HE'S COMING SPECIFICALLY TO THE ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT!!!!!!! *Sighs happily* :) It's really amazing that he's coming to NUS!!!!Now I can show you gals who I'm talking about :)
Another thing that made me happy were the letters and packages from my dear friends in Singapore. Thanks to HY for the pineapple tarts!!! Thanks XY for your card!!! Thanks JY for your cute clips!!!!
I was probably a saint last life to accumulate such good karma to have such nice friends this life. And also used some good karma on Pretty Boy coming to NUS as well :)
Jan is happy today. Happy new year folks!!! :)

P.S. It's snowing very heavily now...makes me even happier cos everything will be white and beautiful when I wake up in the morning :)

Kiruna Trip--The first and the last time I'll ever do such a thing

2007-02-16T14:46:00.000+08:00

Hi folks, finally the post on Kiruna. I'll start off first by giving a narrative, then pictures will come after that.
Just some background info, Kiruna is this very Northern part of Sweden (And Sweden itself is already very North), so you can imagine how cold it is. The temperatures when I was there I think ranged between -30 to -20 degrees celcius. So you might wonder, who's insane enough to travel up there??? The answer is, it's only up North where you could do certain things that you can't do in the South of Sweden (even if Sweden itself is already very North). Such things include: 1) Dog sledging/snow mobiling 2) Northern Lights- This natural phenomenon in the sky that you can only observe very up North and only during winter. Even during winter, it is not 100% that you could catch the Northern Lights. You need a little bit of luck as well. 3) Visit the Ice Hotel 4) Eat Reindeer Meat (Sorry Santa)
Hence it is for the above mentioned reasons I was insane enough to go up North with insanely low temperatures. And so, I embarked on this trip with 6 other Singaporeans. (NUS Law students to be exact...But they are very nice people contrary to the stereotypical impression!) We took a 17 hr long train ride from Stockholm to Kiruna. It wasn't that bad..the train was clean and comfy. Just a short while before we reached the stop at Kiruna, we put on layers and layers of clothing to be prepared for the cold. I had 4 layers of clothes on the top of my body, plus a down jacket. For the bottom, I had 2 layers of thermal wear, plus pants. For my feet I had 2 layers of socks, plus my Nike shoes. Additional stuff include a beanie (is that how you spell it?lol) scarf plus gloves. And so we wrapped ourselves up like some fat ba4 zhang3 but when we alighted at the stop in Kiruna.....-_-" It was warmer than Stockholm lah!!! When I left Stockholm I think it was about -8 degrees..In Kiruna it was -5 degrees.
You may wonder why it's so warm when I mentioned from the very start that it's supposed to be freaking cold. Well, firstly cos the temperatures up North is really unpredictable. The range can be pretty wide. And secondly, the place where I alighted was the Kiruna city itself. The actual place that I was to go was even further up North from Kiruna city. It's into some wilderness very very up North.
So we spent the night in Kiruna city. And that night we visited the ice hotel as well. I was quite disappointed because on TV they make it sound so impressive. But I was like.."ok loh"...Or maybe I just don't have enough artistic genes in me to appreciate the architecture as a form of art.
The next day was the start of all the misery....I swear I've never been this miserable before in my life! The cold was so unbearable that I want to cry. Even the guys (who supposedly are supposed to be damn tough right..after all your army training) can't tahan the cold at all. Anywayz..yeah..the next day the guy who we signed up with for this trip picked us up at our hostel and drove us to outside the city into the wilderness with one small miserable cabin. Our entire trip consists of 7 of us plus 26 other students from another city in Sweden, Jönköping. When we arrived at the cabin, the other students were already there, and we were told to go into that small cabin to change into proper gear.. Because the freaking cabin is soooo small, it can only fit 8 people each time, which means that people gotta wait outside till the people in the cabin are done with their changing. And, the temperatures at that place was already below -20 degrees!!! We had to put on this special kind of overalls and boots. But really, whether I wear those or not, there's no difference at all...I still felt freaking cold. The cold was so bad that I can't feel my feet at all!!! I've never experienced such a thing before. I totally can't feel my toes!!! We're quite worried we will have frost bite or something. 2 of the guys cannot find a pair of fitting boots so they went with their normal shoes. And I could see it was super painful for them. At least for me I just couldn't feel my feet..I think for them they experienced quite a bit of pain.
Anyway that guy in charge of the tour (his name is Henrique) had to brief us on how to drive the dog sleds and the snow mobiles. But he talked a lot of cock lah....so he spent a good hour plus and poor us had to endure the freaking cold. There were a few dog sleds and a few snow mobiles...what happened was that he divided us into groups, so we rotated between the dog sleds and snow mobiles along the way such that everyone would have a chance to ride on both. Though I was miserably cold, when he brought out the huskies I was quite excited. They were very tame and they don't bite at all. I played with a couple of them..heh. The snow mobiling was quite miserable for me. Henrique didn't allow those without driving license to drive the snow mobiles..and each time only one person can drive the snow mobiles anyway. So most of us were packed at the back of the snow mobiles in either a sled or a crate. Haha..we felt like some refugees man...It was quite horrible because we were at the back of the snow mobiles, so when the driver starts the engine, there will be bursts of exhaust. So you can imagine we were breathing in all the fumes along the way. Furthermore because it was travelling quite fast, the icy wind was constantly lashing at our face...it was utterly....miserable. The view was breathtaking though. We were literally in the middle of nowhere. We were surrounded by nothing but mountains and plains, all covered with snow. So it was extremely beautiful.
Dog sledging was much better!!! I really enjoyed riding on the dog sleds. The huskies run damn fast...so it was quite thrilling (minus the icy winds). And they like to shit and urine along the way...quite funny. When you see that they want to shit, you gotta step on the breaks. So your eyes must be constantly at them all the time. But it was damn fun!!!
The journey took about 45min-1hr before we reached this part where we had to stop. By then we were already like ice blocks. And to our horror, we had to WALK a few KILOMETRES around this frozed river, just to get to our cabin. It was rubbish lah...the snow was so thick that it went up all the way into my knees. It was very very very hard to walk. But the good thing about it was that all the walking warmed our bodies up..so by the end of the walkI got back a little bit of sensation in my toes.
So, we reached the cabin site. To our ultimate horror again...we had to chop our own firewood! Recap: We had at least been exposed to the freaking cold for 3 hrs....and we couldn't have immediate warmth! But I'm so glad that I'm a girl at times like this. All the freaking men got so hyped up about chopping wood, trying to show off their macho-ness that all the gals had to do was to stand around and wait. (albeit in the cold) Our Singaporean guys didn't have to do much either...cos the ang moh guys were really damn enthu. The Henrique guy split my group into 5 and 2. 5 people could sleep in the big cabin with a fireplace. But me and my friend jo ended up sleeping in a 2 person cabin which HAD NO FIREPLACE!!! All we had was a puny gas flame that can only warm my pinky I tell you...it was pathetic. Anywayz cos it's the wilderness and all, there's obviously no electricity. No electricity means no washing/bathing facilities as well. And the toilet is really just a hole lah...the guys were lagi worse..cos they don't even have a toilet! They had to do it in some bushes. It was quite poor thing cos the cold was so unbearable...so imagine you have to strip your pants under -20 to -30 degrees conditions. lol. Even in the toilet (it's like a hut) I already felt freaking cold. And because we are wearing overalls and so many layers, each time we wanted to do our business, we had to strip like a few layers. And it took a good 5 mins to strip everything. And by then you already feel so cold you don't feel like peeing...It was miserable...but in retrospect I thought it's quite funny...haha
Anyway something nice was that we had lunch almost immediately after we finished with the firewood and settling down. We had pasta with REINDEER MEAT!!! At first I thought it was very cruel to eat reindeer meat. But then if you think about it, it's cruel to eat any kind of meat. Just because Reindeer is an exotic animal, people tend to think of it as cruel to eat it. So I was like..wth..just eat man! And it tastes good!!! Apparently they had their own reindeer farm..so they slaughter their reindeer fresh. I won't want to think too much into the slaughtering though...
At night we had reindeer meat again for dinner. There's like ONLY reindeer meat and pasta there lah...not like I mind anywayz. It tasted good. After that we headed outside to catch the Northern Lights. Despite the cold, I guess we managed to forget all about it for awhile to admire the galaxy...haha...cos it's in the wilderness, the skies were very dark so we could see many stars in the sky. When we walked further out though, at about 8pm...we managed to catch the northern lights! At first it didn't seem like something that magnificent..we could only see tinges of greenish luminous light in the sky...One of the guys brought a tripod so he managed to get pretty good pictures on his cam. After awhile the greenish light started to glow and spiral..it was quite fantastic!!! I have no idea what causes the Northern Lights. But I heard from my friend that it's too chim to understand anywayz. But yeah..pretty amazing.My friend hasn't send the pics of the Northern Lights to me yet, so I'll not be posting them up now. Probably in the next entry.
After the Northern Lights, came the most miserable part of the entire trip. Remember my small cabin with the puny little gas flame?? I won't be surprised if the temperatures in the cabin were at least -10 degrees. How to sleep in such conditions??? With all my previously worn layers of clothing, I snuggled into a sleeping bag and covered 2 layers of blankets and I still felt cold. Especially my face cos it's exposed to all the cold. And when I breathed, my nose hurt cos it's all icy cold air that I'm breathing in. In the end I had to cover my entire face to be able to sleep. It's probably the most miserable night I ever had.
The next day was even colder than before...It was so cold I felt like dying lah...it's really very miserable. We had BBQ for lunch at the BBQ hut..and for once we had chicken rather than reindeer meat.. We were to leave in the afternoon that day, and it was quite sway that we took very long to BBQ our meat. So we ended up rushing through our meal and then we headed back to where we came from. The journey back was much more unbearable than the journey to the cabin site. Partly cos it was much colder, and partly cos I felt damn uncomfortable without bathing or washing up for such a long time. But I made it alive back lah...haha..And that freaking Henrique treated us even worse than his dogs. He made us stand in the cold while he went to keep his dogs in the kennels. He could have opened the cabin door for us to change but he didn't!! So we were all freezing like hell outside. What an ass..
I think I've said a lot...that's why I needed a new post entirely :) Ok, now..for the pictures!!!

An ICE chapel at the ice hotel..very cool!

Interior of ice chapel

The absolut ice bar in the ice hotel. Pretty much like the Stockholm ice bar.

Outside ice hotel
Outside ice hotel 2

Description of my favorite room in the ice hotel

The room itself, The Virgin Angel

I think I took this pic on the snow mobile. I really have no idea what that stupid black thing is on the left. But it serves to emphasize the beauty of the sun's rays anyway

A husky urinating...I just wanted to get a pic of it lah.. :P

Dog Sledging..!!!

What I see along the way. It's really in the middle of nowhere. If Henrique just threw us there we could just die man..

Huskies and their sleds. At the place we had to stop and walk to our cabins.

I absolutely love this pic...It's the frozen lake near the place we caught the Northern Lights.
Yup..that's about it...I spent like almost 2 hours doing this. Gotta start on my assignments! Tata!

Reality sinks in...

2007-02-14T19:25:00.000+08:00

Hi friends,

I know I haven't been posting for quite awhile. Been working on assignments and projects ever since I returned to Stockholm on Monday. It's literally the same hour I reached Stockholm, that I had to go to school to meet my group mates. The trip to Kiruna was nothing short of exciting and MISERABLE. There's much to talk about the trip, so I'm gonna devote an entire post on my trip to Kiruna. I guess in retrospect, it's one of the most outrageous thing I've ever experienced in my whole life. Probably that'll be the first and last time I'll experience such stuff. I'll save the juicy details for later! I will upload the photos too...you can catch a glimpse of the ice hotel! (Which actually wasn't that fantastic in my opinion)
Perhaps the weariness from the trip plus the endless tasks on hand made me feel a little out of sorts recently. Was walking home yesterday and just felt this heaviness in my chest. Had been very long since I had one of those quiet moments by myself. The snow was falling when I was walking back home and I suddenly felt this tinge of saddness. Sometimes you can't really explain why. Perhaps I'm just the typical emotional cancerian. But then it is during these kind of quiet moments that suddenly you take time to let reality sink in. And I wondered why I was here, and what I have done and accomplished and how beautiful the surroundings were around me. I think I'm truly blessed to be in Sweden, and I've learnt so much over here, more than I could have imagined. I think it might be a cliche, but I will be back in Singapore as a different person. Check back for my new post on Kiruna, ice bar and what nots. Soon..I promise! Happy Vday everyone and Happy Lunar New Year too!

Out of Stockholm

2007-02-08T20:51:00.000+08:00

Dear Friends,

I'll be gone from Stockholm for about 5 days, be back on Monday. Don't miss me too much! Haha...Just in case the President wants to meet me, tell him I'm in Kiruna :)
And if you really need to contact me urgently, my no. is +46 737423538. Take care!

Burning midnight oil

2007-02-04T10:11:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, cos there really isn't anything interesting going on for the past few days. What have I been doing? STUDYING. Yes..JaN the mugger is mugging again :) I realized that I was too overwhelmed by the new-ness of everything that I lost my focus and forgot my goals and purpose for coming all the way to Stockholm. One of the main reasons for me coming over here is to challenge myself, to see whether I am just good in SG or am I good as well internationally. And I will never really get an answer to that if I just come here and slack, will I? But of course it will be madness to study as hard as I do in NUS. What's the point of making my life so miserable? :) So the bottomline is, to put in my best effort, but not to fall into the trap of mugging senselessly like in NUS.
The more I stay in Stockholm, the more at home I feel. Sweden is really quite a nice place to settle down. It's as safe as Singapore (maybe even safer), there are cute guys all over, welfare state (extremely high taxes though), friendly people almost everywhere and generally the efficiency level here is quite high. (relative to most European countries)I really don't mind like working here for a few years. Well, one never know what lies ahead, maybe I'll get a job posting overseas in Stockholm after I graduate. (Well, recruitment drive as soon as I return to Singapore. Reality will smack me in my face as soon as I return...)
You guys will probably roll your eyes when you see this, but to be frank I'm quite stressed up now..lol. I am leaving Stockholm next Thursday to Lappland (Kiruna) for 5 days, and I have 3 assignments due on following week. Which means I have to finish everything by Thursday. And I dunno why, but I am blessed with particularly "xiong" modules this period. I'm struggling with my Finance assignment now, and I know myself that I suck bigtime in Finance :P (Hey, that's why I'm an Economics major..and contrary to what most people think, Economics and Finance are very different!)So why am I taking Finance modules here? It's for a very kiasu reason. To prepare me for my Corporate Finance module when I return to NUS. :)
Something to look forward to tomorrow though, going to the icebar in Stockholm. To chill out (literally too!) after working so hard. Also looking forward to my Kiruna trip. I think you guys will probably think I'm mad, but I'm most looking forward to playing with the huskies...lol. And frankly speaking, I'm more interested in Dog Sledging than Northern lights :X Maybe I just miss my doggies too much.
Okay, it's like 3:30am now...Should I continue studying? lol...

SSE dinner + lake escapade

2007-01-29T23:58:00.000+08:00

Ok Girlfriends, let me introduce you to Fredrik something something hansem...(really..his last name sounds like hansem. And how apt!):

Not the best picture of course, but don't complain! Haha..my friend just so happen to take this pic by accident during the SSE dinner :P Anyway, just one of the zillions of eye candy around.
Anyway, had the first formal welcome dinner last Saturday, and it was very interesting! Apparently it's a tradition to drink and sing...so that's what they did, they drink and sing! There was like a song sheet and each time they want to drink and toast each other, they have to sing! And the songs have those action-action things that you gotta do. Very very interesting...haha. They have this shots on the table which were very strong. I drank a sip and my entire face burnt. So my buddy quite happily helped me drink the rest of my shot. I stuck to the wine. That was enough :)
Some photos taken at the dinner! First up, me and Andy (HK/Canadian) fellow SSE student and my neighbour as well! We got to know each other first in school and I only knew he is actually staying a couple of doors down the corridor much later.

This one's for the guys...this is Anlies from Taiwan. She's quite pretty but too bad this pic is a little blurred:

And here's me with my student buddy John. I was fooled by his relatively "guai1" appearance..for he is not guai at all. He drinks, smokes and party like every week. Haha...

Anyway the Swedes are very particular about table etiquette.So me being a Singaporen through and through, don't really know much about table etiquette. I was like quite puzzled why everyone was standing and not sitting down. Until I was told we can only sit down when everyone is here. *embarrassed* I must really go for some etiquette training man. Cos the way they eat is so cultured. And all the while I was feeling super uncomfortable. But I enjoyed it nevertheless. I know it sounds contradicting but you know what I mean lah...
Anyway Pearl and I got to know some more Singaporeans from NUS. And there's this guy who explored the areas near our hostel and discovered this lake. He likes photography so he goes there pretty often to take pictures and to feed the ducks. So we decided to join him on Sunday for this short hike to the lake. (It's really like a hike. We were out for 2hrs+)And the view was breathtaking...not just at the lake but on the way there. I didn't capture all the magnificent sights on camera, as you would have already know, my camera can't stand being out in the cold. But I was at least able to capture some pictures. I particularly love this pic of the highway. For some funny reason, it reminds me of the highway next to MacRitchie..haha..you know the road that we will always run on for cross-country? haha...

But it's pretty isn't it? And here are the duckies! They actually quack....haha..ok...I'm being idiotic here. We fed them expired bread :|

The duckies were at the part of the lake which hasn't frozen. Here's the part of the lake that is frozen:

The view was really breath-taking...maybe I'm not really a good photographer, but somehow the picture hardly reflects how beautiful it really was. I have a couple of other pictures but I shall not upload them, for I am lazy! haha...Alrighty then, going off to Kiruna next week. Take care guys :) Although I love it here, sometimes I'm can't help but count the days left before I can go home :P

Weather sticker

2007-01-29T03:27:00.000+08:00

I've added a weather sticker as you can see...It's much easier now if I wanna check temperatures in Stockholm. I'll just visit my blog :) And also for you guys who are curious about how cold I am in Stockholm :)
Just had a formal welcome dinner in SSE last night. More to say and more pics to upload. So check back soon! Will update as soon as I get my project proposal done :|

Eye candy everywhere

2007-01-26T09:13:00.000+08:00

I've been too busy with school work lately that I've forgotten that I'm in the land of hot guys. After completing two of my assignments, I did myself a favour by reminding myself that practically all the guys are damn hot and started to appreciate where I am again :P
Seriously..the Swedes are really damn hot...both guys and gals. My friend who has been to practically every Europe country agrees that the Swedes are ranked in the tops of the most good looking Europeans. (She said the Brits are ugly tho...hoho)
They dress very nicely, they are well-mannered and they are damn hot!!! (okok..I know it's the third time :P)
And Mr. Pretty cut his hair today. WHICH MADE HIM PRETTIER. Hey Hey, it's all your fault that I am starting to appreciate androgynous men :P He's really super pretty...!And in his own pretty way, he's pretty hot too.
Yup, so Jan should enjoy all the eye candy when she still can. I'm so sorry my fellow countrymen, but we are really a bunch of ugly people. Let's face it. HAHA

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow ...

2007-01-23T02:28:00.000+08:00

Remember the pic I uploaded with the view from my window? The view now is quite different...the snow now's much thicker than that! I would say it's about 4-5 inches thick now? Makes walking very difficult:

As you can see, it's not very nice wearing sports shoes in snow. My feet gets very cold and wet...urgh
Here's a pic of my "backyard". Looks very beautiful with the snow:

Anywayz Pearl wanted to make a snowman, that was why I was out the first place. Hoho..so we made our very first snowman. He looks very "Alfredy" so I named him Alfred. Here's the incomplete Alfred with no eyes, hands and mouth:

He's a mini snowman, just about the height of my waist. How apt, since Pearl and I are like halflings in a giant world :| Here's the more completed version of Alfred who is so cute...:

Cute isn't he? He's still there at the backyard when we last checked :) If we're free and if the temperatures don't rise, we're gonna make a friend for Alfred. Some guys actually made a tall female snowman (but nowhere near Alfred). How do I know it's female? Haha..cos it has boobs! The snowman has really huge boobs...and you might guess as much, it collapsed the next day because the boobs were too heavy. Haha..I thought it was quite hilarious. Anyway, yes..the temperatures are dropping to lows of -7 degrees celcius. Almost felt like my ears are gonna drop just now while walking home from school. The snow is nice but definitely not the temperature...
Anywayz, school has turned hardcore now...been busy the entire afternoon doing my group assignment...and I've another 2 more assignments due. Sigh..I thought I should feel less busy! I managed to get into a group with 2 Swedes, a guy and a gal. The guy's pretty good looking..hoho! The funny thing is that the 2 of them have to speak to each other in English just because of me. And it's just this Swedish culture to feel good only when everyone comes into a consensus, so the discussions was geared towards that direction, which I found it quite interesting. It's like in Singapore, we don't care whether everyone comes into a consensus, and that almost always never happen. Anyway, quite interesting working with them. (And may I stress again, the guy is pretty good looking :P)But I hate it when my Singaporean accent sticks out like dunno what...I tried my best to hide my Singaporean accent but to no avail. Sounds quite awful you know :p
And ooohh...Hey Hey, I've found an androgynous guy that you might like in one of my classes. He's very pretty! Tall and lanky. And his actions are very gentle. :) I really think he's very pretty...I hope to get a pic of him to show you! Even my friend (who don't have any inclination towards androgynous guys at all) thinks that he's very pretty. haha...
Ohwells..nothing really interesting coming up, but I'll be going up North of Sweden to Kiruna (where the ice hotel is, but I'm not going to stay there cos it's freaking ex) on 8th feb. Temperatures are -18 degrees there now...haha..mai siao siao.. :P

Friday: Means stay home to do assignments :(

2007-01-20T02:59:00.000+08:00

For once, let me start with a pic. Here's what I've been eating everyday (Yes..I eat this everyday:

Yeah I know, it looks quite delicious in the pic. But trust me, you won't want to eat the same thing everyday!I think I will be an expert in cooking pasta when I go back! After 5 months of cooking pasta that is...Anyway it's getting colder in Sweden, temperature now is about -4 degrees celcius. I woke up today and saw a thin layer of snow covering the ground. The view from my window:

I guess it must be pretty cold today. But I spent the entire day at home doing my assignments. *sigh* I don't have as much drive as I do when I'm back in Singapore. So it really is a chore doing assignments here.
Anywayz, as promised, here are some pics I took during the ice hockey match on Tuesday night:

This is the outside of the stadium (the circular dome-shaped thingy). Again it was freaking cold and I was quite happy to grap a quick shot. (hence it's not very clear). And here's the inside of the stadium, where I was seating:

We got really good seats at the grand stand. I was just 5 rows away from the rink. My friends and I were enthusiastically taking pics of the stadium and I think those people seating around us must be pretty amused by our actions. And here's some crazy Swedes who wanted me to take a pic of them:

The atmosphere there was great. Like I've mentioned before, ice hockey to the Swedes is like football is to the English. And take a look at this vid, shows the fans cheering away:

The atmosphere was fantastic. People were boo-ing, cheering and screaming away throughout the entire match. I actually took a lot of videos and pics but I'm just lazy to upload all of them :P Here's a pic of the players:

Ice hockey is an extremely violent game! Players smash themselves against the glass (or plastic) barrier between the rink and the stands. The pace is extremely fast as well and sometimes I have no idea where the ball has gone to. The home side is called D.I.F, their jersey is the more colorful one, and they are like in 6th position in the league. They were playing against H7 which is on the top of the table. And H7 beat the home side hands down with the score ending at 3-1. I still know nuts about the rules of ice hockey, but I'm definitely intrigued by the game. I won't mind catching an ice hockey match again next time if I have the opportunity. But I doubt so I will again in the near future. (remember the tix are not exactly cheap you know)
Well, I will be spending the weekend completing my assignments. Sian...Probably won't be updating much for the next few days cos I probably won't be doing anything interesting.
Take care guys!

Thinking of Chicken Rice

2007-01-16T20:18:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone, hope all's well for all of you.
Sorry for the lack of updates. I don't know why but time passes very quickly over here, and I usually return home quite late and spend quite awhile preparing dinner. And before I know it, it's night time and I'll be very tired (still recovering from jet-lag) so I'll just sleep pretty early. Anyway, hence the lack of updates.
School started yesterday, and already I spotted people mugging. *gasp* I thought that I will only see this in NUS. I definitely underestimated the ang mohs. They are pretty hardworking too! Had my second lecture today-- International Corporate Finance. The module is pretty interesting but the lecturer is Italian so I had a hard time figuring out her accent. My mind wasn't really functioning well either, perhaps cos I haven't been studying for almost a month. So I had a bit of trouble understanding the lecture. But not to worry (hopefully)...cos it's just the beginning :)
Yesterday's lecture was on Public Finance, and the lecturer was stuck in Malmo (another city in Sweden) because of a storm raging in the South. So a relief lecturer came and he sped through an academic paper. The whole session was nothing but Math, which is typically how Economics is taught in NUS. NUS is perhaps one of the most mathematically focused varsity in the world in terms of Economics. I was talking to a couple of exchange students, and they were alarmed that the first lecture was already this Mathematical. So this is one thing I'm thankful of to be in NUS. At least I will not be at a disadvantage!
Generally I expected more interaction between students and Professors here. There are certainly much more interaction because the classes are very very small. Like the Public Finance lecture I had yesterday, it had only about 20-25 students. So far I kind of like SSE.. (so far..) Hopefully I won't be too stressed out. It's quite sad to be stressed out during exchange. But there is of course a reason for SSE to be one of the best business schools in Europe. And never underestimate the Ang Mohs!
I really miss Singapore's food though. I have a sudden craving for chicken rice. How nice if I could have a plate right now! It's really sad to think I won't be eating chicken rice till about 5-6 months later, which is a really long time!!! Perhaps the only good thing about this lack of food here is that I'll probably drop a few kilos. Over here, I'll just eat cornflakes and/or Muesli for breakfast in the morning, then I'll tahan till dinner time before I'll cook pasta. (Yes, I eat pasta EVERYDAY) Pasta's probably the cheapest food I can find here. So you lucky Singaporeans, enjoy your glorious food!!!
Anyway tonight I'll be watching my very first ice hockey match. One of the things I wanted to do in Sweden actually. I guess ice hockey to Swedes is just like football to the English, so it's a shame not to catch a match. We paid quite abit for the tickets, but it'll probably be the first and only time we'll be watching ice hockey in Sweden, so we didn't mind splurging just a bit.
And here's some pics that I took a few days ago while I was out in Gamla Stan:
We ate out for lunch at this really cheap kebab place that cost 19kr (4 SGD)for a pretty large kebab.It's the CHEAPEST food in Stockholm (maybe the whole of Sweden) and it's really dirt cheap. The next cheapest food is already about 12SGD.

That is the fullest I've felt since I'm here. Most of the time I'm constantly hungry.Anyway after lunch at the kebab place, we went to this Chinese grocery store just up the street. And gosh...I find lots of Singaporean food there. There's SUPER Cereal, Singaporean Chilli crab paste, oyster sauce etc. etc. Guess if I really miss home I can go there and get some Singaporean ingredients.
Anyway here's some pics of Gamla Stan: (I can't really take that many pics cos on the day we were out, temperatures dropped to sub-zero and my camera auto shuts when it's too cold)

This is the outside of a church. I like to visit European churches because the architecture is really beautiful. Below is an alter inside the church:

And here's a pic of a shopping street, it stretches for a few kilometres from one end to another and we're right at the centre of it. The girl's Pearl and she's also from NUS Econs:
I didn't really take many photos like I said..yup so that's about all I have at the moment. I will bring my cam to the hockey match later.
Alrighty, I'll update again soon. Take care guys.

P.S: I just realized that my entries are ridden with awful grammatical mistakes. Please pardon my English :P (well...at least I KNOW they are mistakes :) )

Picture presentation

2007-01-13T04:21:00.000+08:00

Dear Friends,

Hope everything's well for all of you. Thanks for your emails and thanks for talking to me on MSN!
I've finally ended my orientation today, so I'm not in a hurry to sleep tonight. So I'm here uploading all my pics.
As promised, this is a pic of the entire Stockholm School of Economics. I tried my best to capture the entire building. Well, it was super cold so I wouldn't say it's well taken either:

This is actually the main building of SSE. There's another building, but that building only contains the PC labs and IT support and perhaps house some lecturer offices. Most of the lessons as I've heard, will be held in this main building.
I went for a city bus tour yesterday and we stopped at this place where you could practically view the entire Sweden.

This is the Stockholm city hall as seen from the above mentioned area. Another two more pics that I took:

The sky is not like that everyday though. As I've mentioned in the previous entry, yesterday was the first time since I arrived in Stockholm that the sky was so blue and beautiful. Today was back to grey and dreary and it started raining again after snowing a little last night. I'm starting to get used to the weather though. But I will never stop missing the sun.
Anyway today was the first time since I arrived in Stockholm that I ate out in a restaurant. The food here is very expensive so all these while I had been cooking. But because chicken is so expensive here, I haven't tasted chicken ever since I left Singapore. And I hardly eat any meat here since it's all so expensive. So usually I'll just cook pasta and some vegetables and eggs. So when I finally ate chicken today, it felt so good. I realized that my body is quite weak due to the lack of meat. Here's my lunch at the restaurant:

This meal is not very expensive. But in terms of eating out at this restaurant everyday, in the long run, it will still burn a hole in my pocket. So I'll probably just eat out only once per week.
After lunch today, we had a reception with the President of SSE. A pretty nice fellow. And I couldn't contain my excitement when I saw that there was wine on the table. I was maybe the first to take a glass of wine from the table. In such a dreadfully cold weather, it was heaven to drink wine.
It was about 4pm in the afternoon when we left SSE. To show that I'm really not bull-shitting about the lack of sun, the following pictures are taken when it's about 4PM:

We took a stroll around central Stockholm and we arrived at this flea market in front of the Nobel prize hall.

This is the Nobel prize hall where the Nobel prize is given out each year. The last Nobel prize was just given out last December 10th. The pic is not very clear since it was so dark (even at 4pm!!!). Will get a better pic when there's light.

Just a random street scene above, still in central Stockholm. And here's a pic of a natural ice skating ring (albeit a small one) that we stumbled upon while walking to the subway:

It would be a nice experience skating on one of those, but though the ring is free, you must have your own skates which I don't. Too bad.
Anyway that's about all the pics I've taken so far. I'll take more pics when I go sightseeing at Gamla Stan tomorrow.
I will update whenever I am free. School starts for me on Monday. My lessons end pretty early so I'm actually quite free..haha. Take care guys, miss ya'll!

Love, JaN

Second Day of Orientation

2007-01-12T05:06:00.000+08:00

Hello friends,

Haven't been updating much because I'm too tired and also cos my internet connection is quite erratic. Still suffering from jet-lag..I feel tired almost all the time. Once I lie down on my bed, I will fall asleep immediately.
My friend messaged me this morning saying that it snowed last night and when I looked out the window indeed it snowed!The ground was white, covered with a thin sheet of snow. Finally the snow is here...it's supposed to be here like weeks ago. It's a rather late winter indeed. Temperatures dropped till 0 degrees celcius and maybe even -2 degrees celcius. But for the first time since I came to Stockholm, I was greeted by the beautiful warm sun. I was out waiting for the bus when the lovely sun just peeked out of the clouds and spread it's warm rays on the cold streets. I really miss the beautiful sun. The sky was also blue for the first time I since I arrived in Stockholm. Before that it was a gloomy sky with sheets of grey dark clouds. A gloomy sight.
Today we went for a short city bus tour around Stockholm. Stockholm reminds me of Frankfurt. Cos there aren'nt many ancient architecture and it's mostly quite modern commercial buildings and shopping centres. But the sights are still wonderful. Especially with the beautiful sun today as the backdrop. I have a few pics which I will upload sometime later but not now because I'm really extremely tired. Orientation today also comprised of a lecture on the evolution of the Swedish Economy. I was too tired to pay much attention to the lecturer. I thought that it was quite boring to be frank, but the rest of the exchange students seem rather attentive. Maybe it's just me. I also had my first Swedish language lessons today. It's weird because learning Swedish just make me miss French even more. There are a couple of French exchange students and I'm always delighted to hear them speak in French. Wonderful language. Swedish too of course...but I have a tendency to prefer languages of Latin origin such as Spanish and French. But that's not to say I don't like Swedish. I love learning new languages.
The Swedes are generally very nice people. They don't look at you at a different (bad) way just because you don't look like them (blonde hair blue eyes..well..at least most of them have blonde hair and blue eyes). They very much treat you like their own once you start speaking to them. Unlike my experience in Italy, people don't STARE at you just because you are Asian. Over here I feel like I'm part of everyone else. There isn't any feeling of exclusiveness.
Anyway here's a pic of the front entrance to my school:

SSE doesn't look like a school at all. It's rather small (for those in NUS Arts Fac, it's probably just slightly bigger than AS7). And as you can see that's the entrance to the main building. You could pretty much walk pass the building without realizing it's a school. I managed to take a pic of the entire school today (almost) but like I said I'm pretty tired now so I'll transfer it to my comp tomorrow :P
Sorry for the lack of pics, because I wasn't really sight-seeing for the few days that I was here. Mostly I was settling in and doing grocery shopping. But I'll me going to gamla stan (old town) this Saturday where for once I will actually be sight-seeing and touring Stockholm much like a tourist. Do expect more nice pics then!
Alrighty, take care my friends. And before you start thinking how nice it is to be overseas, I wanna tell you how nice it is that you can see the beautiful sun everyday :) Treasure it. I will from now on.

Love, Jan