soooo singapore

I discovered this website in my quest to search for interesting recipes to try out.

http://www.makantime.com/index.html

And I realised it's so singaporean. So for friends who want to experience a little bit of what singapore is like, visit the site.

And I bet no singaporeans would want to disagree with me that the best way to get to experience singapore is through the wonderful and tasty variety of food we have. Eating is a social activity here and we often like to introduce one another to places that sell nice tasting food.

I have decided that I will try to make kaya in finland.

Wish me luck.

So predictable

Just when I have complained about the system NUS has, I came across this email about the outcome of the recent fee hike issue in NUS. When I first saw the heading of the email, it sounds good that the students' union had done something but then again even before the heading I knew what was the outcome - nothing changed. Yeah this is so typical in singapore... when you don't like something, you sign a petition. I guess you can't protest unless you want to get jailed. haha. So everyone feels good that they had "stood up" for their rights by putting their signature. In the end, nothing gets changed and we are still satisfied. Maybe that's why singapore is a safe country and i'm not complaining since this is good news for the Singapore Police Force. HAHAHA.

It sounded nice when they referred to students as stakeholders of the university but I guess they left out some details - stakeholders with minimum say in decisions (or maybe none) haha.
As much as we like to complain, we must realised that if we have a lot of say in decisions, it would also mean we will have much more responsibilities other than to mug and get good results. I guess the chaps who should be complaining will be the NUSSU, considering the responsibility they have in NUS and in the end all they could do was to arrange a formal session for the management to tell them why the fee hike has to go on. haha. sad case.

I guess all the proposed measures to inform students earlier before a fee hike would not improve the situation much... instead of students complaining after one day of the fee hike announcement, now we will have students complaining maybe 1 month before the fee hike. haha. No diff.

I thought the main concern here is that students want NUS to promise them improvements in their education. It's the same logic as getting your money's worth when you pay for a service. So much about service excellence when the educational institution is not even practising it. I guess they should start conducting a survey to get feedbacks from the students and probably they will realise that they should provide students with tutors who can teach. ok maybe i'm too demanding.. maybe tutors who speaks human language would suffice. haha.

It is true that the education abroad is free because the tax is high. BUT the difference is the institutions make constant efforts to make the system better for students which unlike NUS - achieve a world class standard. Yah and in the end NUS will be a world class institute with lots of grumpy students inside... how nice.

I guess it is just a different culture.

All NUS students should go for exchange

I have been reflecting and realised that i'm learning so much more non-academic stuff than when I was in Singapore. Like for example, i'm online now to search for the recipe for goreng pisang so that I can cook them for my friends here; in singapore, I will probably type something like "simulation and optimisation" into google all the time. I think exchange helps us realise that there is more to life than getting a good degree, like adapting to new environment, learning culinary skills, cherishing our friends, exposure to different cultures (which I think is really important since we are so globalised nowadays) and many other more important things that I think lots of NUS students are missing out.... we are trapped in our tiny globe of work and more work!
I'm not saying that it is not good to focus on academic areas but I thought the system that NUS has, is too demanding on a student's time. Like here in Finland, most of the students have done some sort of summer job or are even part-timing; I took a CV writing course here and I just realised how pathetic my CV looks in comparison to theirs - they had to question me why I put my NS under work experience. I was like "hey, we are all students, if I don't do that what else can I put under work experience?" Well, they proved me wrong... apparently, it is so common to have a whole list of work experience on your CV here.
I thought it was good if most students have the time to work as they are schooling because in this way, they can try and see if they like to work in the field of their study. At least, I know of quite a few finns who change their major after a year or so because of their work experience.
This kind of trial-and-error culture is really what we need in singapore - entrepreneurship that's what we call it. Singaporeans are too critical and harsh about failures.
Alright I don't know if I am making sense also.

So all NUS students should go for exchange to ensure that they have a well-balanced education.
I can't deny also that exchange is like a partial holiday for NUS students. But since most of us can't bear to deviate from the norm and have an official holiday for half-a-year or more, well this is the chance to take a breather and not feel remorseful. At the same time, it would be a good chance to slow down and reflect.

Now I fully understand why government agencies are still sending their scholars overseas despite the fact that we have a TOP 20 university in Singapore.

A good balance, that's what it is all about.

Snow flakes

Oops, in the midst of my excitement to post all the photos from my trip, I left out this particularly interesting one. Have you ever wondered why the "snow flakes" design in your windows wallpaper is of that asterisk-like design?

Well, I observed this in Turku. the snow in helsinki is ice-kachang... but those in Turku... they have a shape. take a look...

The white thing is a snow flake. Does it resemble that of your windows wallpaper? Interesting... i'm apologetic for referring to snow as ice-kachang.

oops

Alright it's finally up. well I messed up the sequence so please read from bottom up. (the first article is titled "Destination: Rovaniemi"

Destination: Turku - last stop

Turku was once the capital of Finland. This city has a long history and it was finally time for Kuo Yi to give us a lesson about Finland.

We arrived at Turku at 8.00am on Sunday morning. The city was really quiet then, sort of reminds me of singapore on the first day of chinese new year. I felt the buildings here had a really unique design from helsinki and rovaniemi. I guess it was because many of them were really old.

We visited the Turku cathedral which was the mother church of the Lutheran Church of Finland and the country's national shrine. It is over 700 years old! Of course, part of it was rebuilt after the Great Fire of Turku in 1827 which destroyed most of the town. I think you should be able to notice from the picture that the bottom half of it is stone and the top is bricks.

We even had the opportunity to attend their sunday service. Wow, their choir was good although we had no idea what they were singing. haha. The worship they have here is really traditional and very much unlike those in Singapore. Maybe that's why most of the ppl i see there were middle-aged and above whereas in Singapore, it's common to see groups of youths. But I really thought this was the way a worship should be - traditional and unique.

Turku Cathedral

Turku Cathedral - entrance

Interior

From the place we sat

We visited the museum of Sibellius. And this is the portrait of Sibellius who wrote Finlandia. A great man in Finland.

After that, we came upon this river when we were walking towards the castle of turku, that resembled slightly of singapore river but wider. There were many wild ducks along the river and they were really beautiful.

There were many ships along the river too. Unfortunately they are only open for visiting during summer.

And we finally reached the castle of turku. Well it was a bad idea to travel on sundays in finland because most of the places were closed pretty early. And so we only managed to visit the perimeters of the castle. It was better than nothing.

So we departed from the castle after the terribly long walk there. We decided to roam the city and we came across another pretty church - St Michael's Cathedral:

And that was the end of my road trip to lapland and Turku. Next up - Stockholm then St Petersburg :D

Rovaniemi city

We still haven't recovered from the excitement of seeing the northern lights the previous nite. Nevertheless, we got up at 9am so we could explore the much neglected city of Rovaniemi.

Museum of the northern lights

We visited the museum of the northern lights. It was really nice especially when we could relate the scene last night with the exhibits and explanations. Alright let me try to explain the phenomenon of the Aurora:

The Aurora Borealis is the result of atoms and molecules hitting against the atmosphere of Earth. The solar wind blows at these atoms and molecules which are then attracted by the north and south poles of the Earth (so theoretically, you could see this in the south pole provided that there is land mass there) The colour of the Aurora is then determined by the percentage of Oxygen, nitrogen and other gases in the atmosphere. Green is the most common form because it's associated to Oxygen. Other colours are red and violet.

I hope I remembered all these correctly.

Foot trail on a frozen lake

The frozen lake

Frozen sea with foot trail and snow mobile trails.. nice place to snow mobile

Walking on the frozen sea

Nice view along the sea

Admist the fog

Dai Da admist the fog along the sea

Sunset; beautiful

path along the sea

Rovaniemi city centre

AURORA BOREALIS!!!

We walked away from the city and attempted to go to this place called the sky hotel. Yep it was located on a hill top away from the city. It was a long walk up a never-ending slope before we finally reached the place.
The sky was clear and we saw so many constellations along the way.

View of Rovaniemi city from the hill top

We had a first glimpse of the Aurora when we reached the hill top; we saw a couple of ppl there and we decided to verify what we just saw. Yes! it was really the aurora. But it was really heart-breaking when they told us that there was a bigger scale one 10 minutes ago. We thought we missed it....

Fortunately, we decided that we can't be that unlucky. We waited and waited. Then it started to appear again... it was so magical. Everyone was hysterical, the group of japanese with us started screaming. I couldn't believe my eyes... unfavourable weather forecast, only 1 night in lapland and I saw it.... the Aurora Borealis....

The first signs of Northern lights (left bottom corner)

The strip of greenish lights above the brightly-litted city; a pity that I did not have a tripod with me

It's really hard to describe. Those who saw it will agree with me that words can't do the Aurora Borealis justice unless you see it for yourself. Spectacular, magnificent...

Lapland objective met.

Igloo Bar

And this was Igloo bar. It was built by running water over a big balloon.

Igloo bar

Interior of Igloo Bar

Interior with flash

Santa Claus Village

After having breakfast at Rudolf hostel, we headed for santa claus village.

Just when I thought the scenery in Rovaniemi city was fantastic, I was wrong. As the bus travelled away from the city... oh my god. The scenery was just too amazing --- totally white. dense acres of pine trees that were covered with snow; everything felt so magical and I finally start to feel like winter for the first time in Finland -- this is the real winter wonderland, I thought to myself.

Journey to the village

At last we reach santa village after 20 minutes on the bus. Yeah and as usual it looked too commercialized but still it was beautiful. We headed for santa's main office to catch a glimpse of him before his bed time. We wandered around the village but everything was too commercialized and so I decided we should venture away from the village so that we could get closer to the beautiful nature. I shall let the photos do the talking:

Giant snow man outside santa village. Yes it's real snow.

In front of santa's main office

Vandalising the thick snow wall. HAHA

Arctic circle centre, notice how clear the sky was. hehe.

And I finally had a chance to use my sunglasses

winter wonderland - mesmerizing

The "playground" we found

My snow bed - very very comfortable

With blanket

This was how thick the snow was

The number of dives we did

Santa knew where s'pore is; where's my presents?? got to interrogate him. hehe

Good idea to kidnap his reindeer in exchange for all my presents

Snow mobile!!!!

After getting our snow mobile licenses from santa. haha

A last glimpse of santa's village

Destination: Rovaniemi

It was 7.00pm. I arrived at the railway station in Helsinki, ready to catch express train 61 to Rovaniemi (lapland). There I met a new friend. He is from Taiwan and is joining me and daida for the trip (or rather I was the one who joined them). Kuo Yi had done some research on the cultures of societies (民间文学 - not sure if I did a right translation) According to him, Finland was the first country to recognise this as a school of thought and then it spread to US, England then to Japan and China(who is still reluctant to accept this idea).
Apparently, the Finns were in search of a national identity after the numerous wars they have been through (winter war, etc) so there was this great man, Sibellius, who wrote a song, Finlandia that united the country. How amazing was that? I guess they should hire him to help singapore to write her national day songs.
It was really interesting listening to him on the train ride. He really value-added my trip to lapland since my only objective was the northern lights. (aurora borealis)
Unfortunately, there are no photos of the scenery of the journey bcos it was at night when we travelled (for the sake of saving on hostel charges and time).

enroute!

It was a 12 hours ride before we reach Rovaniemi. Prior to this, the weather forecast was not promising at all for an aurora sighting but I decided that the forecast can't be that accurate and I left it to fate.
So when we stepped out of the train. MY! Clear sky!!! totally opposite of the weather forecast. Dai Da and me just couldn't stop grinning.... Aurora Borealis!!

Rovaniemi is totally amazing - snow's thicker, finer, whiter! To describe snow as Ice Kachang here will never do it justice. Can't wait to dive into it man.

Rovaniemi city

I like this picture

Hostel Rudolf