16/08/07
went to meet prof esa in school at 3pm. he was really friendly. briefed us about the requirements of the courses and advised us on the number of modules to take. 2 per quarter is the norm and 3 is manageable but not 4(which is the number of modules we have in quarter 2) as it will be too intense and almost not possible to cope. he navigated us on the school website too and printed out our timetables out. hopefully there are no more changes but so far only the lecture timings are reflected. each lecture is 1hr 40mins. long!!!! no wonder 4 modules is tough haha.
we camped in library for most of the morning and lunch time before heading to ICA(another supermarket in campus). we had a set meal of hotdog bun and a can of drink for 15kr at a small eatery. alan and meng ate donuts again but i enjoyed some digestive biscuits for me. the euro shopper brand is the one to look out for in ICA as the products are more affordable. and the digestive biscuits worked! i went to the toilet immediately when i reached back room..you know..haha..
there's this innovative idea by the swedish to encourage its citizens to recycle. not sure whether is it just lulea or the whole of the country. there's this can recycling machine in almost every supermarket we've been to. for every used can you put into the machine, it's a refund of 50cents. there's 1kr, 2kr and 4kr for different sizes of bottles too. the refund is in the form of a discount receipt which u can present to the counter the next time u shop at the supermarket.
xiao meng and i had porridge for dinner. maggi instant porridge. so glad that we got bring, at least it offers an alternative from pasta or rice hehe. talked to mike and stefan(a new found friend haha) and discovered that the average swedish pay is 18000kr, 2nd hand car also need 25000kr la! crazy man..no wonder the cost of living is so high. xiao meng's internet connection got problem..so sway la..now only alan and i can go online..time to update the blog and do up the photo album!
17/08/07
woke up late today. we hitched a ride from fredrik to town and for the 2nd time we ate max la. so expensive, gotta cut down! felt quite moody throughout the day, can't pinpoint the reason though. we went shopping at willy's! haha bought the 40kr nutella and did some grocery shopping. the bill came up to 355kr. want to faint liao. alan and meng are good la, they know their cooking well! haha..picking the veggies and seasonings..
the highlight of the day was going to kronan to get our 2nd hand(or actually duno reused hw many times) bicycles. we took bus 6 to kronan and then tried to look around for the place called attervin!*&@£^ something something. but the place looked deserted and the shop was closed la! super cold just standing in the wind. so we called anna and she recommended that we go back on monday.and so the adventure begins. the next bus back to the city was a 2hr wait and it was already 515pm. we decided to ask for directions to walk back. ran into this tourist and he pointed us the way and we walk and walk. until we ran into a swede with his angry dog who kept barking. turned out that we were walking in the opposite direction! heng ar..the track back home took us 45mins and cloes to 5km..wuu..not a difficult feat but with a bag full of cans and seasonings on my back(12kg??), it proved to be an endurance test haha. but we walked past some nice houses. with their own gardens with nice nice landscapes hehe.
bought a 50kr pillow, heartache hehe. rewarded ourselves with pasta at night. ate with this french guy called jean-charles. super friendly but bit too friendly for our liking haha. he bought beef to eat with us..haha..so it was a bonus, super full..
18/08/07
lazy sat it is. stayed at hostel for the whole day to catch soccer games. no bicycles and so lazy to walk out because it's raining. we had char mee for lunch and fried rice for dinner! yeahoo. also got to know a 19 year old swede name richard. he's a real giant. almost 2m tall! his head can hit the door frame la..blur..
we had a nice chat and he mentioned that the average age for girls to start working here is around 28! hw blissful! then the army selection also quite cute la. go for 1 or 2 days of psychological and physical tests then they will select u based on results to serve 1-3 years depending on your vocation or don't need to serve also. well as with every system there are bound to be loopholes which ppl exploit. but richard said that the tests will be reflected in government records so if anyone tries anything funny, it won't look nice on their records haha.
first time using the washing machine here man. took real long for one wash, close to another hour. and another hour to use the dryer for the clothes! xiaomeng super sway..everything on his lvl also spoilt..haha..washing machine..dryer..time for him to feedback to Lulebo! hehe..watched Love Letter before we slept. just like the good times in NTU hehe..
19/08/07
first sunday and it was really a super lazy weekend. the furthest we ventured out was to the supermarket konssum. haha. meng and i were on our way back when we saw a guy doing the willy on his scooter! furthermore he did it while his scooter was going up a gentle slope. stunning. basically spent the weekend watching the korean gameshow Love Letter, playing PSP, watching soccer and fidgetting with this blog! So angry with it. I realised that the IMac's dimensions cannot be used for the blog's template as it will not appear the same on Microsoft Window interfaces. hence i will need to go to alan's place or meng's place when his connection is ready.
oh ya the smallest denomination that the swedish has is 50cents. hence when we go shopping, they either round up or down the total amount. so it's a lottery when we go shopping haha. not bad leh, we had curry chicken with pasta for dinner just now! haha..and we went to pick up whatever qp left behind for us at chenkai's place. he's staying at block 9 which is nearer to konssum. more and more french coming in! invasion la..help~~ got 5 koreans also! finally some asians..blurrrrr.
tomorrow's orientation but i think we will give it a miss. we're going to get our bikes instead and hopefully the weather will be fine so that we can go exploring! yeah~! haha..heard from meng that the temperature's going to drop till 9deg tonight..brrrrrrr..nose's been bleeding everyday..too dry weather according to alan. hopefully will be better~
22/08/07
been rotting in hostel! wait and wait for ck to arrive in the evening and he finally arrived at 9+! took cab which costed him 200kr. wuuhuu. we went to get our bikes b4 ck arrived and we were too late! the good bikes were snapped up early in the morning and then we spent 300kr each on not so good bikes lor. then combed the entire town area for a bike lock! in the end came back to ICA to find it! angry sia..haha..make ourselves so tired..
there was this nice resident who invited us to his garden to take pictures when we were on the way to kronan. he saw us snapping away opposite his house. he has a really nice garden and to think that it'll be wasted in winterr. but they are retired and they have a lot of time for it hehe. indeed like what richard said, the swedes are friendly!
attempted to commit suicide by going downstairs to withdraw money at night with only a thin jacket on and short pants. could breathe out smoke already liao lor! immediately ran back room haha..
23/08/07
wa lucky man today, thought i pay 500kr extra for my rent. was worried as i counted 13500kr ytd but when i paid just now the lady said i only paid 13000kr. weird..lucky i came back to do my accounts and found nothing wrong! had tasty burger for lunch today and our 1st swedish lesson! real rush. 45 mins to account for 2 lessons worth. blur..must practise..
ah kai got his bike already! 400kr..from a professor here! nice mountain bike! then we went exploring the neighbourhood and took some nice pictures hehe. ytd was tempted to buy this pair of shades at 560kr. so nice lla..but it's a want and not a need so mayb not..sobs..gotta cook! haha..then practise! found out that my 1st qrter papers are 6hr exams! blur..
24/08/07
saw this little kid riding his bicycle near the sch ytd. think maybe 4 yrs old. he was riding a 2 wheel bike! no wonder the swedish are so good at riding bicycles..seen quite a number of teenagers riding free hand and going past bends with ease haha. attended the 2nd swedish lesson in a proper classroom. the classroom is like a primary school classroom in singapore! except that the furniture is..u know..up one la. i was fascinated by the 3 sliding chalkboards(yesh! they use chalkboards!) which the teacher can slide up and down to the ceiling. need a picture for that haha, hard to describe. student orientation is a big thing here! asked richard how long will the student activities last and he mentioned a month!
finally done with the blog after fidgetting with it in the library for close to 4 hours! so happy..but needa sort out the font colour as it isn't so easy on the eyes. went to ck's room to view the pics taken so far and a lot of his pics taken on his europe trip last month. we are planning for our trip too! hopefully there's enough time for us to roam the nice places in europe. oh yah it's the last day of summer today and alan managed to grab some more bargains in town with his shoes and pants! haha..bargain king..amazing. then finally my legs are starting to look dry and frosty due to dry skin. time for moisturizer..
