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!

Things have been quite wild lately, Orientation week started and i made a bunch of close friends on my first day, gosh im loving all my new classmates already! Kehoe, Lise, Norran and I bonded almost immediately and we have been inseparable ever since, hanging out from morning till night, cooking and drinking together, it's been great fun!

the rest of the class seem like a cool bunch too, ive got my eyes set on a few that i know will definitely strike the same chord as me.

Summer is coming to an end and we have been busy soaking up the last of sunshine like a sponge, trying to get as tanned as possible for winter. Ive found myself a room in town and will move in come 1st of September, it's 1.5km to the campus and ive got myself a bike too!

will sign up for a swedish course when i can and hopefully i will be fluent in a new language when im done here. Here's to more cheerful days to come!

Uppsala, Sweden



So i got on the train and traveled along the Oresund Bridge connecting Copenhagen to Malmo. Things were pretty happening in Malmo, the sun's up high and everyone was in the mood for parties and sunbathing. August and i joined the festival in support of the Gaza plight and there were awesome musicians performing various gigs which lasted for hours!

we baked some bread (people do that alot in europe) with olives and sundried tomatoes and had some vegan food for dinner. I seem to be hanging out with lotsa vegans these days and havent eaten meat in days! No not even dairy products! And studying a course of Sustainable Development doesnt help, because people who do this program are very Environmental conscious, well one has to practise what one preaches right? And eating meat isnt very sustainable! We all know how much CO2 is released in farming. We'll talk more of that when i know more...

At night Janus suggested we should head to the ocean for a quick dip, and i was like: isnt it freazing in the water? and he went: well that's the whole point! apparently it helps him sleep better. So we got on the bike and rode to the coast, stripped and jumped into the dark water from the platform. The water was deep and icy cold and you have to get up quickly lest you develop hypothermia. We did few more jumps and it got better with each dip, you dont really feel the cold as much when your body temperature adjusts accordingly.

From Malmo i got a ride from three swedish girls headed to Goteborg to attend Madonna's Sticky and Sweet tour. It was a lucky day for me as i waited no more than 10 minutes, whereas the couple who were hitchhiking ahead of me had been there for more than an hour! The girls were awesome, we stopped midway for some fresh air and sunshine and food. And quite obviously money comes easy for them too, a ticket for the concert cost them €100 and they just attended AC/DC the month before where a ticket fetched around €130.

I stayed with Nick for two nights in Goteborg in which time the weather changed for the worse. I followed him on the job the next day where i experienced 'a day of trucker's life', from goods collection at the warehouse to deliveries all about town. He cooked an awesome pasta meal and also a big fan of Japanese food, that's why we went to the same jap restaurant two days in a row for lunch.

and then things didnt turn out so well but more of a series of unfortunate events. I was supposed to be headed for Mariestad where a friend was expecting me. Turned out i got on some wrong rides, headed for the wrong direction in the wrong motorway than ive intended. Well to sum it up, i got to Stockholm some 500km from Goteborg and spent the night there.

And then yesterday i took a train from Stockholm to my final destination here in Uppsala where my University is, a mere 60km away. I take it as a blessing in disguise that i get here one week in advance, even though i missed out visiting my friends in Mariestad, Orebro and Vasteras. I can always visit them some other time but my early arrival here means that i can sort out my housing in Uppsala quicker before the term commences.

Thing is, finding housing here is a tricky business. Hopefully i can find a place of my own before long and get settled down comfortably, afterall this is where i call home for the next 2 years at least. And thank goodness for having friends here too, which means i dont have to spend a fortune on hostels like some other international students do, and some for weeks! oh how could i live without them?



Visa större karta

Copenhagen, Denmark


So i left London in a haste and didnt have time to meet up with everybody, but that's ok, it's only a stone's throw away from the Scandinavia and a return ticket cost you next to nothing.

Got in to Aarhus before noon and quickly realised how expensive it is to live in Denmark, in recent years it has become one of the most expensive countries in Europe, on par with the UK and Russia.

I jumped on the bus headed to the city to meet with Joe and Louisa, and their new born cute as a pie baby Marius. When i got there, they have already prepared a nice little room up in the attic for me, with a million dollar view and an en suite bathroom. What more can u ask for?

for the next couple of days we were just cycling around town doing what a dane does best, having danish pastry in the park, went to the woods and the beach, having dinner parties, and getting to know people.

I then moved on to Odense, a city where Hans Christian Andersen was born. Deniz and Lars hosted me, and we also have visitors Emilia and Andrew from France and Canada respectively. They say the more the merrier, we cooked, we dined, we drank, we had long walks in the countriside and we slept in. Isnt summer just great?

Today i hitched two rides to Copenhagen and im staying with Jan. He's a vegan so we had lotsa vegetables and tofu, and we talked about sustainability, a subject in which he's really passionate about. It suits me since i'll soon be taking up that discipline but i doubt i'll be able to live without heating and to reuse my shower water. Again, thank God it's Summer!

Will be getting to Sweden this weekend.

Golders Green, London


We know how time flies but surely im not back in London already? It's sad but true, my seven-week recuperation period back home is up and it's time to move on again. Except i dont think im ready for what's ahead of me.

I tire easily these days and havent exactly been in the pink of health, was having a tough time with my nose during my 13-hour flight here and i think i must have caught a bug or something, not the swine variety i dont think.

I suppose i wont be doing much for my one week here in the city other than catching up with a few close friends and enjoy the last of summer. As much as i loath the heat back home i cant help wishing the sun would linger just a bit longer here.

you want what you cant get.

And isnt that true, im starting to miss the local food back home already, the food that i have taken granted of and wasnt the least excited about when it was offered before me.

I take comfort in knowing that the minute ive had enough of this oversea experience, i can just purchase the next ticket outta here and be back home in the same day, talk about the convenience of traveling these days.

but as for now, i can still handle the uncertainties that i see before me, i live for that! i just hope i can settle down sooner rather than later before it wears me out.

i'm a survivor and i know it.

And God bless the highspeed WIFI here!

Hackney, London



Let's start over. Travel's over, and im not about to recap every single moment in details, in a nut shell - flew out of bremen - survived a faulty aircraft - got back to gloomy (and much colder) London - Edinburgh - London - ready to head home

not that im suffering from writer's block, just that sometimes things happen so quickly and when you do find time to write about it, the thrill's gone, vanished into thin air, no more excitement whatsoever...

what im still excited about tho, it's that im gonna become a student again! the blog will then be renamed Marcus' back-to-school journal, and u know what, i should have more time to do more updates then, if the swedish weather is as bitter as advertised.

Receiving the notification few days back that i've been accepted into this world ranked #71 University was delightful, and that's an understatement! and the fact that ive made the selection despite presenting such a bleak CV totally made my day.

I graduated in year 2005 and have since done nothing even remotely productive (when it comes to career advancement). When i made the decision to go backpacking in NZ, i knew i was putting my career on the chopping block. Everyone was busy getting employed and climbing up the corporate ladder while i was soaking up the sun in a serene vineyard in Marlborough.

and after a one-year stint, i came over to europe to embark on my european experience and further reducing my bachelor's to digital papers. Have i once regretted doing what i did? No. This experience is invaluable, if anything, ive learned more than i ever will simply just jump into the ratrace upon graduation.

this is an experience of a lifetime, the surrogate gap-year i never had when i finished high school, and dont i wish for the millionth time that ive had a gapyear, things would be so much different then, i would never have gone for engineering, and instead pursued something my heart desires. Talk about mainstream career choice...

thankfully, i am able to make use of my bachelor's to pursue a Master's! and in this time of global economy crisis, pray tell if there is ever a better time to study such as now!

Im grateful of God's blessing that my dissertation struck a chord with the examiner, and God I AM ready to study again.

the countdown to fall 2009 has officially begun...

Stuttgart, Germany


So where was i? Right, i spent some quality days in offenburg in which time i've played farmer in Dominik's farm, played an enthusiastic soccer fan in three matches, and pretty much just partied hard for the benefit of my host.

time flies when you're having a fab time, and as much as i hate it, i gotta carry on my journey and Dom has gotta go back to the military, i know i'll always be welcomed back here as gran and grandpa love me to bits! he couldnt stop telling me bout the war stories of yesteryear...

Dom gave me a ride to Speyer where his camp is based, and i spent the day visiting Unesco heritage sites of the famous Dom and the surrounding churches and cathedrals, well what's new?

Got in to Heidelberg and that's when the weather took a bad turn on me, rain, snow, hail and whathaveyou started falling on me and despite the city being a popular tourist destination with a backdrop of a charming castle and mountains and valleys and the beautiful river Neckar, i was pretty much inbound for most of the time.

went to a good bday party and some hippie gathering and some wine and dine and that is pretty much it.

arrived in stuttgart yesterday and came here to Esslingen to see Ben. We met in a church in Hasting, NZ and have been friends since, traveled together for a while and were involved in lotsa church activities back then. Reunion is always good fun.

Will head to Fulda tomorrow and see what happens.

Spring09 travel

one interesting fact about Basel Airport, it has three different checkpoints for access to three different countries, namely Switzerland, France and Germany, and i quickly took advantage and checked them off my list one by one.

first stop was obviously Basel, followed by Mulhouse, and Freiburg - the infamous tri-city of tri-countries. En route to the blackforest, which was clearly the highlight of my trip, i spent some time in the town of Colmar.

Now that might remind you of this replica town we have in bukit tinggi back home, and may i commend that the developer did indeed do not such a bad job in the imitation, well at least the facade of it.

entering blackforest from Freiburg, met up with Sebastian and he wasted no time in introducing me the beers of the region, and we had a great nightout with his friends on an all-night bender. Woke up next afternoon and took a hike around the world-renowned blackforest for some fresh air, i really needed it!

and we know the blackforest is responsible for its cake and the cuccoo clock, so i did the obligatory task of savoring them as well.

Moving on, i proceeded deeper into the forest and spent some nights in the village of Waldkirch, Elzach, Haslach and Gengenbach, enjoying german hospitality to the fullest, the people here in the forest are just too nice! and that's an understatement.

Well, it's not just the german hospitality im enjoying, but the asians too! Stayed in the household of two families where the wifes are south-korean and Indonesian respectively. So yeah, fusion food is definitely on the table! and gosh, it's nice to taste real chilli again! and to practise my bahasa too, in the case of the german-indonesian household. Sascha is just too lucky to have an asian wife!

will be meeting dominik here in Offenburg later, it's definitely been a while! last saw him about a year and a half ago, and he's promised a party tomorrow, so we'll see!

maybe i should consider moving to germany eh?



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Pete and I





chinatown


wow, it's definitely been a while since my last post, it's not that nothing much has happened, it's just that im spending more time on facebook and updating my status there that i felt not so incline to do it here all over again.

it was a low-key celebration on my birthday, had a few to drink with my housemates and we talked till the wee hours. Pete came visiting and crashed in my room before flying back to Halifax, Nova Scotia and we had a good night out.

CNY was/is more of a somber affair, there wasn't any reunion dinner or any sorta celebration to begin with (lack of chinese friends is the key), and i truly missed the festivities happening all over town back home. Went to chinatown to get some of that spirit but somehow it's just not the same, it's way too cold to hangout too long in the open air...

and then it snowed. And the worst thing is, London was totally unprepared for it. The city has not seen a blizzard in over two decades and when it happened, it crippled the whole place in a blink of an eye. All transportation came to a halt and we became the laughing stock all over europe and the world. Things like that dont happen in Moscow or NY or Vancouver.

but how joyful everyone became! the snow was much welcomed in the midst of global economy breakdown, people took the day off to go sledging and to build frosty in the park with their kids, and i had my first snowball fight in london!

my spanish trip has been canceled, i am supposed to leave for santiago like TODAY, but the airline let me down and they refunded my money. and guess what, it's actually a blessing in disguise! most airports are grounded because of the icy runways and some poor people are still stranded in heathrow as we speak.

im scheduled to fly to Switzerland next month and i will just cross the border to france and thereon germany and make my way back to london from there.

till you hear from me again...

Phew, time certainly waits for nobody, the festive seasons came and went in a thrice, but not without some fun elements in the process.

the days running up to Christmas see a celebration of two of my roomates' birthday, and on Christmas eve the folks threw a house party at our place and we had a ball of a time. On boxing day we went shopping because of the post-christmas price slashed of everything, and followed by more parties, everyone's on hols so there simply any reasons why not to.

on new year eve, we went on the boat at the Victoria Embankment, at subzero temperature, hand clutching a flute of champagne, and witnessed the firework display at the Eye and also at Canary Wharf.

and dont ask me bout my new year resolution, what is it about people that they only resolves to do something good for themselves once a year? i dont buy into that concept at all...

Looking forward to travel next month and then i guess it's time to go back home. What with the pounds plummeting to parity with the euros, traveling in europe isnt that economical anymore, i think i shall stick back to exploring asia for now...

it's all good.

Battersea, London


So what's new, got in to London to start saving for my next trip, in which it's gonna happen for definite next feb as i've already purchased the airticket. It's a Santiago-bound ticket so i will be visiting northern Spain, Portugal, and plan to do southern france en route to Germany. I guess it's back to traveling in western europe again...

In the midst of credit crunch, i still couldnt resist the urge for some Malaysian food. So the other day we went to this malaysian restaurant for Char Kuew Tiew and Curry and roti canai, among other local favourites and had to fork out £22 each just for hawker food! Talk about daylight robbery.

Moved in to Battersea and sharing the house with Portuguese and Brazillians, all seem pretty friendly and outgoing so im looking forward to spend the holidays with the portuguese-speaking folks, there will be a giant house party this friday and non-alcohol drinkers need not apply.

oh yeah, have i mentioned? Met Simon Cowell the other day and he seemed like a pretty nice guy! His alter-ego when acting as AI judge was non-existent. I wasnt that star-struck as this is London afterall, if you really fancy u can meet a celeb every other day, just check out the newspaper listing for their whereabouts.

A blizzard is forecasted tomorrow so im hoping to hangout in the snow, it's about time dont u think? oh time sure flies...

Krakow - Banska Bystryca - Budapest

Budapest, Hungary

So i hitchhiked to Banska with minimal difficulty, the people are very comfortable with hitchhikers and they have often done it themselves before they own a car, and as i understand later, the goverment encourages such mode of transportation and used to offer rewards to drivers who pick up hitchhikers in those days.

Slovakia is famous for its mountainous landscape with friendly and approachable people. I stayed with Katarina and Peter and they brought me out to savour cheap slovakian beers. As it is, the Slovakians are giving up their currency and will start using euro in two months' time, so im really lucky to visit the country before it gets expensive!

I then headed on to Budapest which is gonna be the highlight of my travel. Ive always wanted to visit the city and i know im gonna have a good time with szabi my ex-roomie bringing me around. We used to have great fun when we were sharing a flat in the hip area of Hackney and then he had to go back to hungary to kickstart his bachelor's degree in Uni (he's my age!). I like that we share the same philosophy in life and that there are so much in common between us.

so even though he's got exams going on, szabi was bringing me all over budapest to the best clubs and bars and the trendiest place in town. We met some of his friends and they are all as cool as I am... :p

I was really depressed on the last night because i was going on a london-bound flight back to the gloomy and stormy land, but u know what, good things dont last, so why not just get on with it and not look back. At the very least memories are there to stay...

im just happy that ive made some valuable friendships that are gonna last for a long long time to come...

and also because ive gotten lucky in budapest... :p

Kaunas - Suwalki - Warsaw - Lodz - Tychy - Krakow

Krakow, Poland


Whoa it's gonna be another long post with minute details. My journey from Kaunas to Suwalki was not without drama, it took me three rides altogether and i was picked up by three police officers on the second (thank goodness it's not illegal to hitch here, i might have been incarcerated!). None of them spoke english so i kinda gestured that im heading to Poland, and that's exactly where they brought me to, the Lithuanian-polish border, and getting a ride from there was as easy as pie, i simply approached a truck driver who was only too glad to have me on board.

Got in to Suwalki and realized i would be gaining two hours that day, winter time is on. Mike and his parents were most hospitable, the table was laden with food that could feed an army! and everyone just sat there watching me eat, something about feeding a starving traveler that people find pleasing to eyes...

the usual drill ensued, mike brought me to the local bar and bought me local beers at the same time proclaiming them as the best in town. We also had a go at his Ukrainian wine collection, and damn, good wine dont necessarily have to come with a price.

the next day after a heavy breakfast, Mike's dad brought me to the best hitching spot just slightly out of town, and insisted that he waited with me while i hitched, and when i got one in about five minutes, he interviewed the driver and declared his approval. These two estonian dudes that gave me a ride were awesome, they were Munich-bound but they took me to warsaw anyway. Along the way non-stop offering me food and beer, do i really look like i need a good feedup? I had some really good texan beef jerky and estonian beers, just to be polite!

Warsaw being the polish capital immediately means loads of people and traffic, and having lived in London with a population of more than 10 million and counting i wasnt overwhelmed. I quickly befriended a polish tram ticket-inspector who was quite eager to get me to my destination and to let everyone around him knows that he speaks that word or two of english, the dude was practically talking to me in polish the entire time! So i got on the tram without a ticket and soon arrived at Filip and Martha's place.

we spent a good weekend together going sightseeing and meeting friends amd having vegetarian meals. The good thing about traveling in poland is, you never seemed to need tickets for public transports, and as martha pointed out, just pretend to be a stupid tourist when asked to produce a ticket by the conductor, it's not like they speak english anyway! well thankfully i never have to practise that, yet.

i then headed on to Lodz to visit Marek and Rafal, of whom i spent Easter with earlier this year. Since running into them in Venice in february, ive been seeing them like every few months or so, in london and in poland, that has gotta tell you how small europe actually is. We had a good party celebrating Marek's bday in which i dont recall much of the second half of the party, i kinda passed out after like a gazillion shots of vodka. well it happens.

It was good times but i have a schedule to follow, so i left Lodz for Tychy after three nights for an intense history lesson. and Jozef did a brilliant job educating me at the German concentration camps- Auschwitz. I remembered seeing the exact same place on Oprah's once and the memory is still vivid, it felt surreal walking down that same path as ive seen a sobbing Oprah did. It was an oppressive place, i will tell you that right now, and definitely not for someone not emotionally prepared.

The Nazis killed some one million jews and tortured thousands there. I stood at the exact same barracks where the people were kept prison and looked at the same wall where they were murdered. Let's not forget the gas chamber. And all this happened on Halloween's day. Eerie...

over the weekend the poles were commemorating the deads and visiting graves of loved ones, one would mistaken it as lantern festival when the entire cemetery lit up at night from the candles. Totally enchanting.

We made pizza again yesterday, i think im really getting good at this! Krakow's brilliant and prettier than Warsaw, well the latter was wiped out completely during WWII so i dont think it's fair to make a comparison, but the constant rivalry between the two cities are obvious and intense.

Will be going to Slovakia next...



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