catching crooks: May 2006

to leave...

To leave a place where you feel a sense of belonging to is always tough. I used to wonder why people cry when they leave while the others who are still around can usually control their emotions.

Now, I fully understand why. It often hits you the hardest when you are the one leaving the group. I feel sad that I will not see some of my friends whom i met in finland in the next few years. We usually think of all the possibilities to meet again but more often than not... the reality does not allow us to capitalise on such possibilities.

Fortunately, we have the internet... but i guess it's really hard to talk after a few years when all of us are doing different things and exposed to different kinds of environments. I guess that is life.

I miss you my friends. I miss Leppavaara. I know i will be back in 10 days but there will be so many of you gone by then.

I miss you all. Thank you for everything! All the best to you guys! I really hope to see you all again... in singapore or even in some other part of europe.

I have never yearn so much for an affordable teleportation machine before.

Lily's farewell

We had an outdoors bbq at Otaniemi for Lily's farewell. The weather was beautiful and the place was nice.

My flatmates and the bbq pit

Our dear Lily

The beautiful sunset... i'm so going to miss watching beautiful sunsets when i go back to singapore.

This is the season for farewells... That's the only drawback of exchanges... All the best Lily and hope we can meet again someday =)

my finnish tutors

I have finally manage to take "proper" pictures of my 3 nice finnish tutors:

Marika

Elina and...

Sami

I sincerely thank them for their efforts to make my stay in Finland a nice one. Thank you!

Wappu

The 1st of May in Finland marks the start of Spring. There's usually a major celebration in the city centre.

students clean the havis amanda statue as part of the celebrations

Haven't seen helsinki so packed before... basically i was "pushed around" so i had no idea where i was walking to when i hit the streets

The next day, we headed off to Kaivopuisto park to have a picnic... apparently, this is the usual way of celebration for the finns. Look at the crowd in the park and observe that almost everyone has the teekari cap on.

The park... first time ever... helsinki is packed with life. It was a nice sight though.

Revitalised!

My laziness has once again gotten over me. I reckon if I do not update my blog any sooner, i might as well remove it. Well, after some motivation from q, i've decided to try and recap and provide all the missing entries...

Let's start with my easter break where i spend it in latvia and estonia.

So we took a ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, rent a car and drove to Riga, Latvia where we spent 2 nights and then back to tallinn, Estonia.

On the ferry with Anja (Nicole's dog)

"Marriage" bridge... apparently each lock represents one wedded couple. The groom will carry the bride across the bridge and then place a lock there. [Riga]

And what happens if you divorce and marry again?....