Bryan's Birthday and Chinatown in Copenhagen

We celebrated Bryan's birthday on 17th Sept in our container. Bryan is from USA and he just turned 22-the same age as me. Haha.... We prepared pasta and vegetable soup. Bryan is the nicest guy I met here. He is gentle, considerate and thoughtful. He will join us for our travel to Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. :)

Yesterday (Friday), Jon and myself went to the 'Chinatown' of Copenhagen. It was located just outside Kobenhavn H (Copenhagen Central Station, where you take trains to other parts of Denmark or out of Denmark). Although it is called the chinatown, but there are more Indian shops than Chinese shops. I'm happy to see many Asian brands there, but as expected, they are super expensive. I bought chilli sauce, which cost 15DKK which is about S$4.40 (you can get it for less than S$2 in Sinagpore) and 5kg of potatoes. Yes, 5kg! I love potatoes and it was cheap there-only S$5.80. A small tin of Milo cost about S$10-it's simply crazy. Luckily, I brought my own Milo from Singapore. :) Apperantly, the Europeans don't drink milo, only coffee and tea.

Anyway, here are the photos..

outside Kobenhavn H station
Chinese lawyer-anyone? :)
' Chinatown'
WOW!! Indomie...I must show this to my dad
Happy Birthday Bryan
Vegetable curry which I cooked. :) arriving in Kobenhavn H from Lyngby
Kobenhavn H station

YuiChi concentrating on his cooking
Artur helping to prepare the meat
me cooking for the pasta
vegetable soup which I cooked. :)

our container family

Random thoughts and photos

Just a couple of photos which I wanted to post but didn't do so because I was too lazy. :) Next Weekend we are planning to go to Sweden and there should be more photos coming up. One important photo which I think I must post is the photo of my parents and favourite auntie sending me off in Changi airport. I must post this photo because it was a very emotional moment, my mum cried a lot when I left, I saw tears in my dad's eyes too. My auntie was totally speechless and I can see the sadness in her face (Ankita said she saw that she was too sad to talk). I was also afraid that I wouldn't be able to overcome my homesickness, and my mum told me when I just passed the security that I can come back anytime I want, she said never mind about late graduation or buying expensive air tickets, just come back anytime I want, just treat all these as a holiday and an experience. But well, now I am well and happy in Denmark and homesickness becomes much less after I make so many new wonderful friends here.

Today is Bryan's birthday and we are going to have a big dinner in our container tonight. We wanted to buy a cake for his birthday but it was extremely expensive, even if we share the cost with 9 people, it is still too expensive. Well, that's the fact of life in Denmark. Then, we wanted to buy cake mix but we were afraid to take the risk because it might turn out bad, so in the end we only bought a small piece of cake just for him and it costs 18.50DKK, which is about S$5.40.

I went to Lyngby flea market with Tanunya last weekend by bike. It was really nice cycling in Denmark and in the cold. Hehe.... Tanunya loves flea market and I can understand why, things are sold really cheap because they are second hand stuffs. She has bought many clothes and a bag so far from flea markets. Each top can cost as little as S$3 and branded second hand clothes cost S$6 or more. However, I didn't buy any clothes from there because my dad wouldn't like it, he will say they are unhygenic.

There is going to be a big gathering in a Thai temple here in Copenhagen this coming Sunday and Tanunya, Jon and myself are going. :) I'm happy to find a Theravada Meditation centre here but I hope they will speak English instead of Thai.

my parents and favourite auntie sending me off in Changi airport

In front of our container V-our nice hostel
A typical flea market
containers in DTU Campus Village
my typical lunch box-it's expensive to eat even in DTU canteen

Emotions

Erwin called me a few days ago on skype (he urged me to download) and OMG we miss each other so much!! We won't see each other for about 1 and a half year and I'm gonna miss him. First, he went to US for work and travel during the 3 months holiday starting in May and on the day he returned to Singapore, I left for Copenhagen. Arrgghhh.... I wanted to go to the US with him, he has been inviting me to go together, but my dad didn't allow me and also because I have to stay in Singapore during that period to settle my Denmark residence permit and do many other stuffs. And now of course I'm in Denmark and he's in NUS. When I return to Singapore, he will leave for 1 year NOC in the US. So, effectively we won't see each other for more than 1.5 years. I told him I felt guilty that I stopped him from applying SEP to Denmark last year because I wanted to come to Denmark with Pooi Yean (my dad wants me to come with a girl) but it turns out that Jon is coming with me. If not because of me stopping him, the one with me now would most probably be Erwin and I would be so much happier because I like travelling with him. Erwin told me not to feel guilty because his ultimate intention is still to go NOC, so it is a good thing that he didn't apply for Denmark. In any way, I still feel I owe him something although he don't blame me.

It seems that all my friends in NUS are extremely busy at this moment of the semester, I must thank Linette for always updating me on what is going on in school with my close friends. I hope they will be able to pull through this semester and of course I would like to have time to chit chat more with Erwin again on skype. It's nice that the skype connection is good with him and not so laggy. When I was chatting with my sister on skype, it was very laggy and quite irritating, so instead my brother called me on my handphone. I was really touched when my brother decided to call me because I haven't heard his voice for quite some time and of course we started to talk nonesense. :)

Anyway, today is another free day-Friday!

A relaxing day

Today is Wednesday and it is my free day. :) I only have 3 days week, Wednesday and Friday are free for me. This kind of timetable is never possible in NUS, especially for engineering students. I'm beginning to enjoy my time here very much because I don't have any stress. There will only be 2 exams out of the 5 modules I'm taking here. The rest are assignments, projects and lab works. According to Wenjing, a phD student here in DTU, the exams in DTU are relatively easy because they simply repeat the same type of questions you have solved in class before. So NUS students should not have problems because we are so used to sitting for hard exams with unfamiliar questions. I hope what she says is true and I'm taking her words seriously because I don't study much here. I feel so carefree everyday because I just have to do my part for the assignments (which I don't have to spend much time on and I'm already ahead of most people I guess) and there are no tutorial questions to solve before class. Questions for practice are given in class and usually they can all be solved before lesson ends.

How I hope NUS can have such system, then students will be able to learn in a relaxed and interactive environment. I'm always reminded of how hell busy we were last semester with 3 deisgn projects, lab reports fortnightly, weekly assignments and never ending tutorials. It was the worst learning experience in my life and I hate being made so stressed up and busy without having time for myself. Luckily, that hell semester was over and I did relatively well in the end (I'm satisfied) and I'm now having a good break here in Denmark. If I had not come for exchange program, I will have to endure the same suffering in NUS again and maybe more because Davina told me it is double stress this semester. Haizzzz....

We made plans for our next travel during the 1 week mid-term break which starts on 13th oct. Since our friday is free, we have an additional day, so our holiday effectively starts on 10th oct (including the weekend). Right now our plan is to go to Berlin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels and if there is time to Ghent (Prof Mark Saeys hometown! haha...). Most probably we will be getting another Eurail pass for youth (it's so nice to be youth in Europe-below 26), which cost 234 Eur for any 5 days in 2 months in 4 neighbouring countries. I hope our plan will go smoothly and we will be on our way for another travel. :)

Anyway, I'm proud of my own cooking for dinner today. :) I cooked aglio e olio (Italian pasta) and it turns out really nice although it is quite oily. I'm not boasting to say that it is better than the one we had in Rome-Aglio e olio in Rome turns out to be too dissapointing for us.

my version of aglio e olio. :)

photos of Denmark

Last Saturday, Jon went to Copenhagen city center with Pei Yun, Wing and some other HKers. I stayed in the hostel with Tanunya because I wanted to catch some sleep. It was a good choice because I have time to clean my room, do my laundry, pick apples with Tanunya and do some cooking. On Sunday, I went with Tanunya to Copenhagen city center and surprisingly Jon decided to come with us as well. I guess he was too bored staying in Lyngby.

Well, I already attended 1 week of class so far and it's really pretty boring. About 70% of the stuffs I have already learnt in NUS and of course I have to refresh my memories too. All the modules I'm taking are advanced chemical engineering modules, mainly for Master and phD students. The system of class is different from Singapore in that we have 4 hours of lesson all at one shot for a 5 credit module. For 10 credit modules, it would be 8 hours of lesson all at once in a day with only 1 hour lunch break. Fortunately for me, I have three 5 credits modules, one 7.5 credits module and no 10 credits module. I have to stay for 3 more weeks in Denmark after the 13 week Autumn semester ended to complete one lab module before going back to Singapore. Because the classes are all 4 hours (usually 2 hours lecture, 2 hours exercises), I really feel it is too long and it gets boring. However, it might not be that bad afterall because I have only 3 days week because of such system. :)

For the 7.5 credits module, Chemical Engineering Model Analysis, I'm working with a Mexican guy for 4 assignments. His name is Rogelio and he is already a Master student. I'm glad that I'm working with him instead of Jon because I really want to try working with different people. He is very serious about the assignments and he really want to score because our grades are dependent on them and there is no final written exam for this module. So far, it has been a joy working with him as each of us has different capabilities. He is good with the theories and I'm good with Matlab programming, so I write the program codes and at the same time teach him some basics (he is rather new to Matlab). Some of the Mathematics are really not easy and we have to crack our brains together to work out something.

Tomorrow (Saturday, 06.08.2008), it's Tanunya's birthday and we have already given her a surprise celebration. We bought pizzas, french fries, sausages for party in our container and we also had Lithuanian cake (really yummy!) and snacks prepared by our Lithuanian friends. I really feel very happy today because everyone gets along so well with each other.
Anyway, here are the photos from my visit to the Copenhagen city center as well as a few photos from our container party. :)

P.S: the photos are not in order

the harbor

Lithuanian Snack (fried bread)
Pizza party
Bryan frying the french fries

the world of fairytales

The Little Mermaid (Edvard Erikson's work in honor of Hans Christian Anderson's beloved tale)
The harbor nearby the little Mermaid

The black house
The marble church
there are many colorful buildings in Copenhagen
the world of fairytales
a church

the palace
the fountain opposite the opera house
the opera house
harbor nearby the opera house
harbor nearby the opera house

the palace
the palace

the palace
the palace

a church

Taxi (it is extremely expensive to take taxi in Denmark. It cost ~S$150 to go from the airport to DTU. So, just take the public transport!)
some architecture
colorful houses

at the King's park. The word spells Under
the Castle at the back
at the king's park
some architecture

city center
some colorful houses
kids performing at the King's park. They are really talented
at the King's park
some more colorful houses at the back

Mc Donald in the city center (it cost more than thrice the price in Singapore)
S-Tog (the 'MRT')
my lunch box (on Sunday, all shops are closed except Mc Donald, 7-eleven and a few supermarkets)
city center

the round tower (Rundetaarn)