Lund, Day 6 - Dinner Time!

The GOON says:
We had a very pleasant evening with our corridor mates. All of us made a dish. We tried a very interesting austrian dessert, only I don't know the name. Here are some pictures. We've got a good mix of students from all over the world here, and I foresee a very peaceful and interesting experience living with them. Seated in this picture are boy and I from Singapore, and friends from Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Canada, Taiwan and Japan.

Our Dinner!! Yes, it's RICE!

Our international group of friends!!

Lund, Day 5: Excursion Day!!

The BOY says:

Day 5: Well, nothing on day 4 cause it was relatively uneventful. Though we managed to get our local SIM card for our handphones, so we’re now officially able to sms our friends here in Sweden without having to pay exhorbitant amounts!

Today we went on an excursion organized by the university as part of our orientation programme. We took a 1 hour bus ride to the south eastern tip of Sweden to visit a Middle Age Castle called “Glimmingehus”, pronounced [glimminghews]. It is apparently the BEST preserved Middle Age Nordic castle in the entire region, built by a Danish Lord over 500 years ago. The castle is not a typical one we see in paintings and movies, with battlements, turrets and the works, but it does come with a moat! It used to have drawbridges, fenced gates but was of course removed for the safety of tourists like us. Within the castle there were servants quarters, soldiers quarters and bedrooms for the lord and lady of the castle. There was even an archer loft right at the top for the defense of the castle. This was certainly an eye-opener. Goon, being the technological “genius” that she is, forgot to charge her camera batteries so not long after we arrived at the castle, the camera was dead. I hadn’t brought mine so throughout the day, we depended solely on her handphone camera, so you’ll have to pardon us for the poor quality pictures!

Glimmingehus - The Castle

Here it is again with a view of the moat

Goon in front of Glimmingehus - it's HUGE

The Banquet Hall

The Soldier's Quarters

Stairs to the top!

The Master Bedroom, with a fireplace

A window with built in seats!

Goon standing under an archway in the room of the Lady-of-the castle

Goon and I at the castle's front door

Next, we were shuttled to the nearby port-town of Ystad, pronounced [istahd]. At first glance, it seems largely similar to Lund but during our guided tour of the place, we were shown many facets of this port city that gave it its unique identity. The tour there would have been a lot more enjoyable of not for the horrendous wind. It blew at us non stop throughout our tour, freezing our faces and hands whenever we wanted to take a picture!

The streets of Ystad

Another picture of Ystad's streets

A pond in Ystad, ducks and all!

One of the museums in town.

The Church of Mary, a local landmark.

A Latin School (one of few remaining)

The Ystad theatre, well known throught Sweden!

A wine glass to mark out Wine Street, how apt!

Good luck finding a tree like that in Singapore!

We arrived back at Lund at 4pm and took the chance to pop into the Domkyrka or the Cathedral to have a look see. The interior was as good as it looked outside but because of the lighting and our lack of proper photo equipment, the pictures just do not do it justice....

The Altar

View from the altar

A miniature model of the Domkyrka

A HUGE Lectionary

That's all for now I guess! Here's todays Swedish phrase!

Hur ar det? - pronounced [heur ehr dey]. This means. How are you?

Lund, Day 3: BLOG Post Number 1!!!

The BOY says:
Hi everyone! This is obviously not my BLOG (not that I have one) but everyone who knows GOON knows me so I’ll be posting my entries here for the next 6 months or so to update all on our adventures in Lund, Sweden and subsequently other parts of Europe! (GOON is still recovering from jet-lag… so its up to me to do the bulk of the BLOG updating…. FOR NOW)

It’s our 3rd day in Lund and its now 11.03pm on 10th Jan (which means its 11th Jan 6.04am in Singapore). For some of you it might mean that its time to wake up to go to school, for us, it’s almost time to go to bed. Much has happened since we flew off from Singapore on the 8th but this is the first chance that we got to be able to sit down and write BLOG entries.

DAY ONE, (08th Jan) - We arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark at around 7am. After collecting our luggage, we immediately boarded a train bound for Lund. It was a pretty short train ride, slightly less then 45 minutes but it gave us a good view of the Scandinavian landscape for the first time in our lives. There were no HDBs or tall commercial skyscrapers, just the occasional low-rise buildings and cottages sprouting out from what seems to us as the middle of nowhere. Rolling plains and withered trees, everything seems so surreal and fantasy-like.

When we finally arrived in Lund, we were finally hit by the cold winds of Sweden. It is really cold over here. Though officially, the weather reports a temperature of 5 degrees Celsius, but when the wind hits your face, it’s so cold, it stings. Thanks to the many generous donations of winter clothes our bodies were well insulated from the cold but nothing would be able to shield our faces. Eager to be rid of our heavy luggage and to be out of the cold, we quickly made our way to “The Train”, a youth hostel we booked for the night as our permanent hostel here won’t be ready till the next day. The Train is really a train, an old unused train that someone converted into a youth hostel. We slept in train cabins, each cabin having 3 single beds on top of each other, much like the famous KTM train from Tg Pagar to Malaysia you can take in Singapore. Most unfortunately, we could only check-in at 5pm so from 8am till 5pm, we had to “entertain ourselves”.

The Train, view from outside

The Cafe Cabin Car (that's the Swedish breakfast on the table!)

The Recreation Room Cabin (Yes, Europeans play Ping Pong)

We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of Lund. This town is really different from cosmopolitan cities like Singapore. All the buildings are at most 5-7 stories high and reflect old Nordic designs, definitely NOT modern! There are a few major roads here but mainly, the city comprises of cobblestone streets, shared by cars, cyclists and pedestrians alike, governed by nothing but zebra-crossings and good judgment by all road users. There are over 10 cathedrals here, each with its own unique design, we hope to photograph all of them for you to see!

View from outside the train station

Buildings in Lund (not very tall right?)

However, the problem with Lund is that prices are VERY HIGH. Almost everything is double or more compared to those back in Singapore. For example, a Burger King meal here cost 65 SEK, equivalent to about 15 SGD; a bottle of coke 15 SEK, equivalent to 3.50 SGD, a LAN cable for 120 SEK / 30 SGD. Because of this, food is scarce over here as its really too expensive, with main courses at restaurants costing between 20-40 SGD. Even a visit to the toilet costs over 1 SGD. Speaking of toilets, Lund has numerous public toilets available. What makes it so special, is that toilets or rather cubicles are erected in the middle of the streets. For 2 SEK you can lock the door to this cubicle, the size of a phone booth, often found in the middle of the streets. Just imagine doing your business while cars, cyclists and pedestrians are zooming around you, inches away from where you are “doing your thing”. INTERESTING……..

Fancy doing your business in here??

Our dinner for the night.... Is it any surprise we couldn't finish it?

The grass is greener on the otherside, the vegetables sure are fresher in Europe!

Next we walked around the town, taking in the sights and sounds, snapped a few pictures of landmark buildings and promptly went back and checked in at the train at 5pm and fell asleep at around 8pm. The sun in Lund sets at 4pm so the darkness coupled with our jet-lag made 8pm feel like 11pm and so we slept like logs…..

The town's landmark, The Domkyrka or the Cathedral

Cathedral side view

Another section of the cathedral

The main Lund University building and its grand fountain

DAY TWO, (09th Jan) – We woke up promptly on arrival day to a traditional Swedish breakfast. Swedish food is EXTREMELY healthy, and some of you might feel, EXTREMELY NOT WORTH what you are paying. There’s bread, cereal, muesli, fruits, eggs, ham, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce among other very healthy stuff. For those of you who can’t et enough of Delifrance and its over-priced sandwiches, you might consider emigrating to Sweden. Next, because we were late and GOON was feeling lazy, we dialed for a cab to take us to the University building (this cost us 89 SEK / 20+ SGD for a short 5min trip). We did all our paperwork and collected our key to our hostel and home for the next 5 months, Spoletorp.

Spoletorp comprises of 2 buildings, Spoletorp North and Spoletorp South. We stay at Spoletorp North or Norra Spoletorp in Swedish. GOON and I stay on the same corridor, she stays in room 409 while I stay in room 406. We share the corridor with 4 other people, a guy from Japan, Hiro, another guy from Germany Pantaline, a girl from Canada, Anna and another unknown tenant who has yet to check in. The 6 of us share 2 toilets, 1 male 1 female and a kitchen and a common living room area with 6 other students from the opposite corridor.

Our rooms have a VERY IKEA feel about it (with half the furniture from IKEA) and is quite spacious for 1 person. We have a table, a cupboard, 3 wall shelves, an arm chair, a computer chair, a nightstand, a notice board, a single bed, a sink and a good view out the window. Besides not having a personal bathroom and kitchenette, our rooms are really quite comfortable to live in and convenient as well with the city centre where all the shops and amenities are just 200 metres away.

My Messy Room

Me and Goon outside my room

The rest of the day went on simply enough, we grabbed bedsheets for our bed, some dinner and went straight back to our hostel. Both of us did not even notice it was GOON’s birthday till about 6pm and we were so tired by then already. So we went back, cooked spaghetti for ourselves and fell asleep at about 9pm. This decision came back to haunt us the next day, when we got up at 5am for sleeping too early…


DAY THREE, (10th Jan) – Our first day of the orientation programme! We started the day by attending our first lesson of our Swedish Language Course. It was a grueling 3.5 hours!! But we did learn some useful things which we will share with all of you guys!

“Hej”, pronounced [Hey] which means “Hello” in Swedish.
“Tack”, pronounced [Tahck] which means “Thank you”.

More to come with every BLOG entry! A few words a day!

We opened an account in Sweden today! However, we have also spent over 3000 SEK / 700+ SGD within this short span of time due to high prices everywhere.

We also met our mentor group and quickly toured the place. Apparently, ALL alcohol, besides beer is sold in shops designated and controlled by the Government and the legal age to purchase alcohol in the shop is 20 years old!

More to come from us at Lund! Do leave your comments! It's great to hear from home!

The GOON says:

It has been quite a journey here. All this way, and God's blessings never fails. We'll be posting up pictures soon, as soon as we get the chance to take them. Lund is really a beautiful town. It has got cobblestone-lined streets, with european architecture, and bicycles and cars and pedestrians that share the same roads, with hardly any traffic lights!

We've met and made friends with really wonderful people from all over the world, and we just came back dinner with 2 people from Finland, and 2 Germans. We've also met many Singaporeans here! 5 of whom are in my Swedish class! Haha, the boy and I cooked dinner last night, spaghetti, oxtail stew and warmed roast chicken and we shared with our German neighbour who just arrived.

Our new friends, too bad they're leaving for Germany soon!

And right from when we left you guys at the airport, God has been faithfully providing, sending nice people to give us directions and all!

Friends are like wine, the old ones are always the best!

Updates from Sweden. VERY SOON..

WATCH THIS SPACE

Driving

I drove jacqueline safely home today!!!.

Haha.

Still very exciting and scary!!

I passed driving!

I'm on the brink of my 21st birthday, and suddenly things are moving so fast, that I can hardly catch my breath. Things that I could only dream of are happening right now in the present! Turning 21, getting my driving licence today!, and leaving for sweden in 2 days time. I can really hardly breathe.

It was really God's grace, I couldn't have passed otherwise.

Driving home today in my father's van was really scary!!! The clutch's biting point was so high, and the van is so high, and the visibility is not as good as in the day.

I can really feel the weight of responsibility on a motorist's shoulder. One mistake, and lives may be lost.

I had 18 demerits, and 0 points in the circuit. AND I didn't even finish the route, yet i had 18 demerits! Imagine if I had finished the test!

Still grateful, and a little afraid of my newfound freedom on the roads.

Its really not easy to drive, esp my father's van.

Church 30th anniversary pictures

Free will and the universe

The worrisome self is starting its onslaught again. if it is not this, its that, and if not that, this. a ding dong merry round around 2 polar worry magnets, that suck the very life out of me, and make me fretful over the hole in the bridge.

In my mind, is a mental list of all the things I will lose, if I lose just that one thing, and a frightful movie of my world collapsing all around me. In this matter, my imagination knows no bounds. While its purpose is to free others from the confines of their present state, mine cripples and binds me in a distant uncertain future.

Even while looking forward to the Sweden stint with the boy, I fear for the time when we come back, and face that dreaded hole. This is not the way to live.

Free will - we love it and hate it. God gave us free will, a mighty brave thing to do, and He lets us experience what free will means, when He gives all our loved ones a will of their own. We experience His anxiety as we watch our loved ones make choices around us, and that is love in the deepest sense, to let go, and let the other have the freedom to choose.

God created the world, and designed it to be a massive treasure hunt. He put delicious secrets in the universe, and designed our brains to understand and seek them: the medicinal value of plants, the solar system, intricacies of the atom, uses of penicillin, radio and sound waves, unique properties of water, time's own fabric, lightning and electricity.
He gave us clues here and there, intervened in history to nudge a scientist in the correct path, whispered to inventors unbeknownst to them. Yet the arrogance of Man, attributed intelligence to their very own existence. God's gift to Man was knowledge, and He gave it solely to Man, not to animals, but the gift has corrupted us and made us proud.

I firmly believe, the only way to understand our very own existence is to know God, or we will lose ourselves in a labyrinth of knowledge, and never find the reason behind all the profoundities in the universe.

my choice

I will let him have the autonomy to decide whether he wishes to play computer games or to go play with the kids.

I will try not to think too much into his decision, and to extend it to other matters.

I will try to enjoy myself anyway in his absence.

I will try to find a balance between an independent life, and interdependency.

Life and death, leaving and arriving

These past few days have been a whirlwind for me, thrown into a whirlpool ever since my last paper ended. I told the boy, that the last paper is an unseen but very real threshold to cross, and beyond that, life takes on another pace of its own. True enough, everything we had suspended in lieu of the examinations came back to life with a will of its own, and we fell along the strong current.

Children's Camp was unbelievably exhausting, fun and most enjoyable. We loved every minute spend with them. I had the opportunity to really talk and enjoy myself with them all. Really hope that this relationship will continue, then when we all grow older, we will all become firm friends.

These days, I keenly feel I am gaining some perspectives on life and death. The other day the boy had to fetch Katrina to his grandfather's deathbed, he shared with me later on his ambivalent feelings towards hospital. Hospitals and Airports are places where the atmosphere is almost always choked with emotion. Departing and arriving, birth and death. In the airports, perhaps there is some hope for respite, for the person is merely going away for a while, but in the hospital, people come from and leave for another world. It is a place where people become fathers and mothers, and a place where they lose their own fathers and mothers, where life comes full circle.

Seeing Ezekiel at George's funeral brought back many childhood memories. More importantly, it reminded that time had moved on, and people had change.