exciting times indeed, well at least we're not in hibernation anymore, the bear has come out to play! Had kindava low key bday celebration with the folks, it started before I got to the lecture hall in the morning and someone wrote my name over the white board for all to see, and before I knew it, everyone was giving me bday hugs and kisses and cakes and songs, and it happened on the very same day we were to give our presentations on our project! Helluva way to take off that stage fright, I'll tell you that, not that I have problem with public speaking.

In the evening, just right after swedish class, I headed over to Maya's place where we were supposed to have a fika. We got in the building and everything was dim and quiet, and I was like: where's everybody? And then this twinkly sizzly light came on, the kinda fireworks kids love to play in the new year and doesnt produce a whole lot of smoke, and then the cake came out, candles and all, it was all just so sweet!

So we ate, we talked, we made plans, you know, just another ordinary night in this cold bitter winter. I felt myself at peace and reflective at the same time, happy that it doesnt take a whole lot to make me happy, and just be contented with the moment, happy that life aint stressful at the moment, happy for a bunch of good loving friends. Life is simplicity...

Last week was a whole week of pub crawl because Lisette has her bday, and they even made a nations-crawl monopoly drinking board game, minus the monopoly part and throw in the drinks and weird awkward questions when you hit 'chance'. It was all good fun, no one was particularly bothered with the project work we are to submit this week.

And in less than two weeks, we will board the Cruise from Stockholm to Riga and back for the weekend, the boat ride will take some 40 hours to-and-fro, imagine the amount of time on international sea! That's when duty-free kicks in, the purpose is not to see Riga, but to drink loads en route! Well I've been to Riga so I've done the whole Latvian thing, I gave in to peer pressure and canceled my skiing trip that weekend just to hangout with my fellow classmates! Over half of us have signed up (that's 40 pax to you), add another 100+ from facebook invitation to other students from the University, It's gonna be wild!

Truth is, this is gonna be one of the last group activity for us sustainable students as a class, and I would hate to give up the chance to mingle with these close friends that ive known for half a year. Everyone will go on to do different things in summer and come fall we will be doing different courses and such. And also, it costs us RM30 to do the round trip, with cabins and all, don't you just love the low season? Not very sustainable I'll admit, but hey, the ship is leaving WITH or WITHOUT us, so why not with us?

Will also be celebrating CNY with Elizabeth and all, she's from SanFran so she should know a thing or two about wrapping dumplings, i cant say the same!

Here's to the year of the TIGER!

 

My homemade bday cake with Marzipan frosting

Sledging Sunday

Niall having a go

pub crawl in session

Almost a third of the class came

Janbert, Yiran, and Christian

Our homemade board game

Fika in session

Javi having a go at leaving bday gal a wish

Uppsala


Well so im back to Uppsala! it's been an enjoyable holiday that lasted 25 days, was it long enough? well one could never have enough holidays right? Anyhow, it's back to the freezing town and studies commence almost immediately, it's more of an end actually, we had a paper on friday and that concluded my course of Systems Analysis.

Spring term starts on Monday, it's funny how they call it Spring term, since it's hardly spring and the weather definitely doesnt reflect it! Well i guess it's kinda depressing to call it the Winter term as that would be rubbing salt on wounds isnt it; it's bad enough that we have to work hard, and to work in winter at that!

To cheer things up a little, fellow classmates have been organizing parties and get together so that we can all hug and pat each other in the back, the holidays is over! Someone's mentioning something bout a skiing trip over the weekend and yet some others venture as far as organizing a trans-siberian trip! I'm all for traveling so im just gonna tag along and not have to worry bout logistics and stuff.

And the best thing that happened since the year started is I've finally got back my internet connection! I installed Ubuntu as my new OS alongside Windows and now it's working like magic, here's to open-source OS!

It doesnt work well with my usual streaming application but that's fine, i can manage without the distraction of watching online TV, as it is, im already spending way too much time online!

Winter landscape is absolutely stunning, minus the cold of course. We still have short day time but that will change in the course of weeks. It's also time for me to look for a placement for internship, and im still up in the air as to where i would go. I guess i will cross that bridge when i get there.

Until then, Happy year 2010 everybody!

 

                                                  Black Forest cake

Bak Kuk Teh

Pork and Egg

Winter playground

Frozen lake

                                                    Ice Hockey in progress

Jenny and I at the Uni

Sandra with her thai fried rice

Christian and Solene

Jub, SooJeong and Shihomi

Friedel and Alin

look at the thickness of the snow

walking on frozen lake

Black Forest, Germany


The holidays has begun and it´s been doing me lotsa good so far. I needed it as life in Uppsala is starting to feel like cabin-fever syndrome with the temperature plummeted down to -18 degrees and freak snowstorm runs wild.

The black forest is snowcapped too, but not the few feet thickness as in sweden, the one here is powdery and soft, nice to walk on, but perhaps not to build snowballs! Ive been fed well with homecooked german food and yesterday we had the german-french Raclett which was my first. It´s pretty much potato and cheese and with the toppings of your choice, and then u grill it over this special device for a few minutes and it´s ready for consumption. Absolutely ingenious, as preparation is easy and no heavy duty cooking is required.

This wine region is famous for their wine too, and the best part is, it doesnt cost u a bomb! think €2 for a bottle of good wine, and im already planning to smuggle a few bottles back to Uppsala!

will be spending Christmas with Dominik and his family and New Year with Kew and Ejia. Then it´s off to Berlin to look up Jian and for my flight back to Sweden. I dont particularly look forward to the flying back part as few written tests are awaiting. But you gotta enjoy the moment!

i bought a new camera and should get the pictures running in no time. It is nothing fancy and i fought not to go with my favorite Sony brand but opted for another touch screen from Nikon. Sleek and futuristic is the word.

They say the temperature should drop this week and the snow will melt, but White Christmas really doesnt matter to me anymore, i will be seeing lotsa snow in the next two months! more than i could bargain for even.

so here´s to more drinking and be merry for the next two weeks!

updating my blog once a month doesnt seem like a lot of effort, does it? well i really should write more bout my life here in Sweden, truth is, there aint much that is happening these days except assignments and group works and exams and the weekly parties.

It gets dark at 3pm so u can imagine we dont really hang around outdoor anymore, it's always in the cozy nation bar or someone's room. Halloween party that took place last monthend was a blast, the only tragedy that happened is i got my camera stolen!

i cant care less bout the camera, it is easily replaceable, but the pictures are not! and ive taken lots of it in the past month too! i guess that's just how life is, that's how it rolls! and if u think about it, it aint the worst thing that could happen, it's only a camera!

lotsa unnecessary expenditure this month, like when i had to pay 180sek just to fix a flat tyre, it aint cool! can u imagine earning 120sek (rm60) per hour working as a bicycle repairman? blue collar jobs are highly paid in this country!

on a brighter note, niva is coming all the way from KL to visit me this week and will spend two weeks with me! the papers are also coming to an end and the holidays shall begin real soon, and then it's off to germany for a whole month!

i love sweden but it's good to get outta here for a while...

busy busy busy indeed! My computer has been throwing tantrum and doesnt connect me to the internet, and im starting to think that's a blessing in disguise, at least i can study more in my room!

this week sees the beginning of a cold spell and it snowed briefly yesterday, cycling is no longer recreational and all activities are indoor-bound now. We finished our first course and i think i did pretty well in the exam on tuesday (we'll see), and all papers are highly praised (maybe this is just the swedish way).

new course started right after without so much of a break, but that didnt stop us from getting a few much deserved beer after such hard work!We are studying in a different University now, in the countryside of Uppsala, brilliant bike trail through the woods and especially now when the leaves are falling and the colors stunning.

i feel stronger and healthier now because of so much biking and fresh air, and it's free fitness too! so what's happening next? oh ive got the tickets to Germany for three weeks over Christmas, it'll be great to get out of the cold for a while tho i doubt it'll be less chilly. But Christmas in Germany is always good fun, afterall didnt they introduce the Christmas Tree? or did the brits? well who cares!

School's started and there are lotsa readings to be done, no more spoonfeeding of the yesteryears, you're pretty much on your own now. Projects and assignments are coming at us at full throttle, and there are weekly papers to be submitted. That however doesnt mean an end to the endless parties, and that's why im loving my classmates so much!

All work and no play doesnt work with the europeans...

Another good thing about this programme is the field trips, we've been to the woods and water treatment plants to look at how various operations are being handled, first hand glimpse at the potential environmental careers.

and then we have the major cooking sessions, often whipping up gourmet meals from our tiny kitchen, as we have Lise our Martha Stewart in our midst. Yesterday we had a mexican affair, having fajitas and nachos with guacamole and tequila, good times!

I dont think Malaysian affair is coming very soon as im completely clueless when it comes to cooking.

It's getting real cold coming into Fall, the leaves are turning red and yellow and everyone's feeling mellow. I should get prepared for the darkness too, but i dont think it will be much worse than London.

We'll see what happens...



Lasagne!