travel plans

Headache headache! so many places to go and so little time. I hope my plan works: next weekend - Sweden, Estonia, Lapland at end of Feb?, St petersburg in march, London during easter? I guess this is going to cost a bomb for me... maybe I should give Lapland a miss since it is within finland and it is probably going to be the most expensive but then again that is the place where I might see the northern lights and meet santa. Such a huge risk to take, I might not even see the northern lights (all depends on the cloud conditions). I don't want to end up in lapland skiing. Sorry, just felt like thinking aloud and maybe this can serve as a reference to my thoughts later on.

And I just had my shower which made me realise how much I miss the humidity in Singapore (seriously). The sensation of being drenched in sweat (the sensation from the sauna is nowhere near the authentic feeling from singapore). I miss sweating under the hot sun!

Alright enough of my ramblings... I shall upload some photos from the first sunday house party.
The singaporeans cooked tom yam soup.

Michael; I think he has a good sense of humour especially when you put him together with Matej.

Hansi and he said he was smiling or at least that was the best he could... I found this hilarious.

Fabian! My flatmate; he's in love with photography and he made a portrait of me; will upload someday.

Me and Friederike. I like her because we always have common topics to talk about.

Me and crazy Daniel. Apparently he saw the part where I said he was full of shit but luckily he wasn't angry with me but I changed the comment anyway. I got to watch my language. hehe.

Matej, me and Andrea! Matej is a real nice and funny chap, but he looks lifeless when Michael is not ard. Haha. Andrea is my flatmate. I'm thankful to have known him 'cos it was him who introduced me to this group of nice and funky ppl.

Rianne; the girl who gave me the chance to play handball in Finland. Thanks! I love the food you cooked that sunday!

Me trying to open the beer bottle the German way (with a butter knife), watched by Chris, another nice nice guy. I failed in the end (my first attempt so i guess not that bad)

This is Laia. She's Catalan (Spain). I know she's reading my crappy blog and so here's a tribute to her: Don't you think she is beautiful?

This is for my sis; the shoes I bought at Zara

Finnish handball

Oh yeah and I did manage to convince myself to make my way down to Helsingin Urheilutalo for the handball training today. I was a bit hesitant because I knew that i'm going to be smaller size than most of the players and talking about game experience.. I have only about a year or so. Am I going to make a fool of myself there? I didn't know but I thought who cares, even if I did make a fool of myself, I would probably not meet these ppl in my life again.
As usual, when I walked into the indoor court, the players stared at me with that "what are you doing here" look. But I didn't care. I stood there and observed while the coach shouted lots of instructions in finnish. Finally he noticed me and he came over and welcomed me with a warm handshake. He handed me the changing room key immediately. Wow no questions asked and I could join. How nice.
Because of the recognition of my presence by the coach, some of the players started coming over to make a self-introduction and it was really nice of them, I felt less alienated. Even though I could sense that some of them could not accept my presence yet but I guess it's normal; I shall give them and myself more time to break the ice.
As I was late because of lessons. I stood and observe after I changed thinking that I will probably not get a chance to touch the ball this time round. Suddenly, the coach pointed at me: "You put on the blue shirt!" Woohoo, I get to play! But I was a bit confused 'cos I hadn't managed to observe their style of play and I was really conservative, playing the normal wave throughout the match. More time i guess... shan't do stupid stuff now.
Oh my, their ball handling is really good. And I thought maybe it was because the ball was very sticky. Well I was wrong when I saw how fast they can pass and how sharp they were in noticing lapses in the defence. And when they take a shot... super powerful. I haven't seen a shot bounce off the top bar of the goal and flew to the centre of the court! strong! The wingers are even more amazing... with their twisting and fast hand actions... droolz... How I hope I can go back to singapore like them. hehe.
Looking forward to the training on wednesday. Physical training and individual skills... shall find out wat's the key to the amazing skill of the wingers. I don't know what's installed for me, but I will try my best and be as thick skinned as possible. I hope the coach won't ask me to leave. haha.
Oh yah... and just when I thought I should be fine, one of the players told me they are playing in division 1 and not 2. I hope I survive.

"Reunion dinner"

Sorry but this is going to be a photoless entry. We had a good dinner for new year's eve. Yes and I mean really good. We had curry chicken, bak kut teh, baked salmon, stir-fried brocolli with supposedly crab meat. And there was abalone and bak kwa. We even had chinese new year cookies and fresh longans. I have no idea where my friends got those from but i'm really thankful for their "preparedness"; so I didn't manage to experience a very different new year except for the fact that there were no ang baos. Will post more photos when I have more time. Really excited about my first handball training at a finnish 2nd division club.

Sledding

On our way back

Andrea finally able to make a jump from the small hump we made

Friederike on the sled pulled by Andrea; watched by michael

And I went sledding today which made me realise how much more fun it is to be a kid in Finland. There were some kids there and they made me look like someone with a deprived childhood (but i guess this time i have to admit to this; i never got to do in my whole life before)

On my 2nd ride down the slope, my glove fell off halfway and as I was walking up the slope I could feel my hand freezing... and then it felt numb... i was thinking oh shit... would my fingers fall off... so i started to keep moving them and thankfully, they didn't fall off. I thought that was really something; a singaporean finger surviving a -20 degrees celsius temperature. I'm beginning to appreciate and love the snow as they get thicker and thicker. And thick snow no longer looks like ice kachang now.. it looks like a giant cushion... it's just so comfortable to fall on them (provided there are no hidden rocks beneath of course)

Bar Iguana

Woah i'm really happy today because I may have the chance to play handball in Finland!!!woohoo. Maybe I can bring some of their set pieces back to singapore.
I went to Espoo today for a really nice dinner prepared the holland way. It was really tasty and i'm determined to get the recipe from her somehow... the best thing was that she plays handball! And yes she's going to help me ask for contacts... so i can train with the men's team; according to her... the men's team isn't that fantastic but i'm pretty sure i'm worse than them but practice makes perfect so i'm really determined to do some training here. hehe.
And we went to bar iguana after the dinner at her place. It was so hilarious when one of my italian friend nearly got chased down the bus by the driver because he brought a snow ball up the bus. Oh and we were having major snow ball fights throughout the whole journey when we were walking. It was really fun even though I felt kind of childish. The good thing is that no one cares about how others look at them and so we could do watever stupid things as long as it does not affect the others. It was enjoyable.
I'm still really excited at the prospect of me being able to hone my handball skills here. woohoo... ok i'm really tired... ciao

1st sauna party in Otaniemi

Jinfu and me at the party

My crazy spannish friend, Daniel; he's always so funny - free entertainment

He's holding a 'diploma' to certify that he ate the finnish snacks and jumped into the sea

My tutor, Elina and Aya, japanese exchange student

The finns love sauna (naturally because of the cold climate) but wat was interesting was that, they jump into the sea after the sauna; I heard that this was good for blood circulation but I decided that I might die of shock under that kind of sudden change of temperature so I gave it a miss. But I did try to do something like that at the place I stay; we had a sauna there. So we went in and when everyone was steaming, we stood outside in the cold with only our towel on. Well, it was not that bad and it felt really refreshing; guess I will jump into the sea the next time. And I had my taste of some finnish snacks. I especially like this candy salmiakki which was salty and smells of herbs. But I thot it was really unhealthy since it contains lots of salt. Well, the party was fun but I thought it could be better if I had joined my other group of friends at club oopperra cos there was a nice finnish band playing there that night. Well, I guess I will have my chance... 5 more months... hehe

olympic stadium tower

The 1st instance of the sun setting

This is like within 2 minutes

1 more minute later

And the sun is gone

The tower

The viewing area, irritating grills; had to put my camera outside to get good pictures and the strong winds always make me worry that my camera will fall down the tower

The sun shining on the city; notice that most of the buildings are pretty short

Buildings in city area

Stadium from the tower

As the sun was shining brightly, dai da and me decided that it was time to make our way back to stadion hostel. There was this tower there which allows us to have a bird's eye view of helsinki and so of we went with my camera and 6 batteries. Hehe (had to make my 2 euros entrance fee worth the money)

We reached there at around 2.30pm and quickly made our way up the tower (because the hours of daylight are really short here, possibly less than 3 hours on a typical day) Well, it sure looks like spring from up there and everyone is saying that this a warm winter. But, as we were on high ground, the wind was strong and it was really cold up there. I had trouble trying to steady my camera. So we went down the tower to warm ourselves before going back up (singaporean attitude = stretch the euro)

And that was not the end, we decided we had to wait for sun set (2 euros well-spent) and so we went down again to prepare for our 3rd trip up for the sunset. Well, it didn't take long for that to happen; short hours of daylight.

The sun sets really quickly, I was basically trigger-happy, trying my best to capture the moment in as many angles I could for that few precious minutes.

Oh and I forgot to mention, we could also see the moon at the opposite site of the tower... so basically you can see the colour of the sky fading from bright orange to purplish red as you turn from the sun side to the moon side; really breath-taking. I filmed that down with my camera and luckily I managed to capture the difference in shades of the sky. After the sun set, dai da and me rushed to school for our first sauna party.

museums and reindeer meat!!!

I know this is a repost but I thought the last post had a bad description. haha. The lady in blue really looks like liv tyler in real person (elf princess in lord of the ring)
And here we are at the restaurant called kuu which means moon in finnish. It was really a posh restaurant and for a moment I thought I was going for fine dining judging from the knives and forks that were laid before me. Luckily it was not and the portion was huge enough. I had porykanista (I hope i spelled it correctly) It was sauteed reindeer meat with mashed potatoes and fresh cranberries. It was really really tasty. Taste a bit like mutton but 100 times nicer. haha. It was quite expensive 16.80 euros but I thought it was worth it for eating santa claus' transport. I wanted to take a picture of the dish but the atmosphere was too posh for that and my finnish tutors were around... I guess I will do that on my next visit when i'm with my s'porean frens; I intend to go there again before I fly back to s'pore.

We went to another art gallery and sad to say I did not manage to appreciate those paintings... Well they were beautifully done but I could not appreciate their value beyond that (fortunately, it was free entry, haha) But this was one painting that I particularly liked; the expression in the girl's eyes; it's a kind of helplessness and despite her young age, she knew she had to help (she's carrying a thin branch) I thought this was really a good one.

At the museum

I thought I had wasted 4 euros when I first entered the museum when I saw the rocks and pebbles on display. Luckily, it was not as boring as it seems. I realised that the whole museum was carefully arranged in such a way where it took you on a systematic chronological path to learn about the finnish history. They have really informative and interesting write-ups but I didn't manage to finish reading them all because we were rushing for time to visit another art museum. The finns have never failed to impress me with the way they consider human factors in their designs be it their basket in the supermarket, layout of buildings, safety features. They are really good. I'm not sure but they give me a feeling that they really put in lots of efforts when they want to do something. Impressed.

Alright i really got to leave soon. moi moi (bye bye in finnish)

taking the easy way out

The super grand church at Senate Square

Me at Senate Square

Ferry terminal at helsinki city centre

To IKEA with my finnish tutors and exchange students; my tutors were really nice, at least the nicest ard. They plan so many trips, to bars, skating, finnish dinner..... more photos later

Learning to play spannish cards from Daniel (left of picture). It's something like bridge but more fun (at least I thought so). I told him to get a pack for me when he goes back to spain in Feb so I can go back to s'pore and teach those who are interested. Btw, it's not poker cards that we are using.

I cooked, hehe

Wet clothes left at the balcony for too long; luckily they didn't break

Freezing our ice-cream in the balcony; why do you need a freezer in winter?

Shopping mall (sello) near my place

View from my room

dinner at my place

My neighbourhood on a rare sunny day

The street along where I stay

Alright I had intended to account for every single day I spent in Finland so far but I just can't find the motivation to start recalling the events. So I shall do this haphazardly (whenever I feel like it). At least, I will have more stuff on my blog for reading; I hope. Anteeksi (sorry in finnish) for making this blog look like a photo blog. Well, I started my finnish classes... they were really interesting but this is really a difficult language; it sucks that I cannot show off more of my finnish because my keyboard does not have 2 vowels they use. School started but i'm not at all feeling unmotivated because they do not use the bell curve here for grading and I finally felt how is it like to be learning stuff purely for the sake of gaining knowledge; in singapore it is for passing exams and getting 'A's. As good as it sounds, exchange has started to make me appreciate myself being singaporean (seriously).

And after going to a club here, I don't think I will want to go to one in singapore anymore. The atmosphere is different and it is really more fun here. You get to meet ppl and get acquainted with them. Now this is what I call a real club. But then again those in Singapore are much safer I guess... at least for girls who get too drunk.

Oh and zara is the cheapest boutique here and so I got all the clothes I needed for this -20 degrees temperature country. I guess I will be too branded when I go back to Singapore. Haha. I actually have many more photos of the night view of the city area but it takes a really long time to upload those. So I have done it only selectively. Ask from me when i'm back in Singapore. Btw the internet connection I have here is 512 because I live off campus (shucks!)

Just when I thought my blog was the most outdated, I saw Jinfu's. He has only one post so far! HAHAHAHAHA. Ok I will try to make this longer in the 30 minutes I have left before i'm off to barfly. I think I shall start a new post... this is too long I guess.

timpurinkuja

I especially like this picture (jinfu is getting 1st class service)

Well the 3rd day in finland was our moving out day from stadion hostel. Timpurinkuja (pronounced as tim-pu-rin-ku-ya) is the street name of my 6 months of residence in finland.

Me and Jinfu

This was at a small shopping mall near my place. Timpurinkuja is a really nice place.. with 4 supermarkets and 2 shopping malls (one really big one) within walking distance. That explains why I have to pay 299 euros a month (without meals). I hadn't realised this when I first arrived that this was a really convenient location with many buses and trains. However, what irritated me was the fact that the shops here were closed on sundays. It's like so different from singapore where most shops are 24 hours. I guess I had to get used to that.

too much fun

I'm sorry people; have been really busy socialising that I have no time to continue with my blog. But I promise I will do it once I find the time. There are just too many activities going on at nite and I dun wish to be regarded as "dao" by rejecting their kind invitations. Well reindeer meat is really tasty. hehe. I really need to sleep; wonder where they will be asking me to go tomorrow. Good nite.

new year

And it started snowing on new year's morning. I was really excited 'cos it was my first time that I saw snow. Although I was really tired from the previous nite's walking ard the city centre but I decided that I had to get out to experience all this. Well, so I got out. It was really nice; instead of rain you have this. I tried to taste it too.
Well, for those who thot snow was magical. (I know i'm going to be a spoiler) but snow is just like ice kachang falling from the sky. HAHAHAH
Bad description but I think that's the most accurate description. Despite it being ice kachang (hahaha) it was really nice.
I heard that in places further north in Finland. When it snows, it really feels magical; I think I can only tell you in February, hehe.

new year's eve

Statue at Senate square

This is senate square where the mayor was going to give a new year's eve speech. I have no idea what kind of speech was that though. Yeah and my dressing is really outlandish. Can't help it because i'm totally not used to the weather. The finns call 1 degrees celsius warm; I was like what?


That was the extra large kebab I was talking about although it looks small here.

stadion hostel

olympic stadium

Because i arrived on the new year's eve, I couldn't move into my apartment and so I stayed here for 3 days. It's actually a hostel at Finland's famous olympic stadium. Surprisingly, the rates are cheap and it's a place for backpackers; a bit ulu but nice place.

Fortunately, there were already 3 of my friends who had arrived before me. So they brought us to the city centre. We had our extra large kebab (which was really expensive - 4.95 euros = S$10 ) There were lots of fireworks that nite but we couldn't capture any because we did not have a tripod, but it was really beautiful.

finally... after 11 days

I've finally managed to overcome my laziness to start this overdue blog.
Well, Finland is really a nice place. The people here have got lots of integrity and are helpful, kind and considerate (I think Singaporeans have a long way to go to be like them). You can leave your bike unlocked in a public area and it will probably not get stolen. There are so many loopholes in the system that people can exploit but surprisingly, NO ONE DOES IT!!! i'm totally impressed.