missie_misterie

 so.. mummy left yesterday afternoon. that marks the end of the transition period. daddy left last wednesday and ive been spending quality time with mummy over the weekend. went shopping and had afternoon teas (: it still feels surreal that im alone in this foreign land. the house felt very quiet after mummy left yesterday. okay its not a house, its a tiny apartment. haha. okay pictures up soon i promise. ive been so lazy to upload photos plus ive been watching brothers & sisters. got to start catching up on my reading tonight! tutorials start tmr and ive got homework to do! boo ):

just had bread for lunch cos i was too lazy to cook. now i know why singles never cook, mostly buy takeaways. but! ive been ambitious and i stored loadsa stuff to start my cooking endeavours. i bought jap rice, seaweed and the mat to make sushi. i got some canned pickes to eat with porridge, sausages for hotdogs, meat and vege for soups! haha i really hope i cook them before they go bad! and my fridge and freezer is tiney weeny! i didnt have enough space in the freezer to put all the meat and i put some nearrr the freezer. now when i open the fridge, theres this smell.. like something went bad already. and the thing is i dono which one!!! ): so i just faster close the fridge and i'll find it when i wanna cook lah. sheesh man. 1st day living alone and i have to deal with rotten food! BOO

okays its 1144am here and ive got class at 1! gotta start changing and all! i will blog soon!!

i just had orange and my throat feels weird. grrrr

 last 2 exams in smu in the morning. go go go!!!

 my 7 mth resolution with ongs and ng. lets hope we can make this work!

i guess the australia plan should be more or less fixed already. of course that depends if the uni wants me. but i think it shld be fine.. even if melb doesnt, monash should be okay? and matt took on the UOB job already. an initial 6mth contract and if he performs well, it'll be a perm job. im happy for him. that he managed to find a job in this crisis, the pay's quite good too.. considering the recession. well, but that means we'll be apart for a year. i dont know whats wrong with me.. thats what i wanted from the start right? i kept telling myself.. a break for the two of us will be good. we've been together all the way since year 1 december.. we even went sweden together.. travelled together after exchange.. so some time apart will be good for us. a test of the relationship? but now that it really is happening.. im missing him even though july's a couple of months away.. grr im sucha needy gf.. bahh. i know i'll treasure the remaining few months i have with him. and maybe i'll come back in december during the break. then it wont be too bad right? 

 in a couple of days i'll be taking a huge exam. i know its just math and verbal but maybe cos i havent been practising math for about 4 years, i feel quite lost. i have been quite stressed up for this exam. havent been slping well recently. ahhh please pray hard for me. a lot of people know that im taking the exam (grp mates, smu mates) and everyone has been asking hows prep coming along. matt says theyre just concerned for me.. i know that.. its just so stressful. everyone says do us proud, do smu proud. it adds to the stress!!! moreover im not doing well with the practices so. oh crap. i know. just do i best. i know.

 


me loves (:

 i love my darlings. theyre the absolute bestest friends i can ever have. hugs (:

i miss jonkoping and the times we spent together.. i miss dinners with yeung and matt, bitching sessions with amanda and chian as well as supermarket outings with zee! hahaha we were so bored that we had dates to check out the cheap supermarkets around town.. haha. if only time could turn back.. if only..

 argh so tired of all the career planning, mba shit. and the thing is i have barely even started. :(

 yoohoo! i finally managed to get secure internet connection! currently in madrid. hostel here´s awesome, like a hotel for a fraction of the price. includes breakfast too and its pristinely clean. loving it here. my previous hostel in barcelona suckeddddd so badlyy.. i felt so dirty sleeping on their bed and i got a rash on my neck. not sure if its because of the pillow or a heat rash. eewwww grosss. barcelona has been awesome though. fantastic shopping and gaudi´s work of art has been stunning. loved sangria and tapas too!! found this great and cheap tapas bar near the beach which served superb foie gras y baco burger. awesomeeee. im hungry as i type this now. its 144am but im waiting for my laundry to dry. the machine screwed up and flooded the entire place. now we´re left stranded waiting for it to dry in the middle of the night. im sleepy ):

and i digress. back to barce, we went tanning at the beach with jacq! met up with her and kind of explored the city together. got burnt together at the beach too! ahahah. my whole body´s red now with my legs suffering the most. painful when i bathe with warm water so i gotta bathe in cold water!! sighss. the pain of getting a tan huh. 

well, and now im in madrid. it has been kinda boring so far. dont really fancy madrid. taking a day trip out to toledo, a medieval town, tmr. hopefully it´ll be interesting. bullfighting´s a big thing here too so i guess i´ll watch it before i leave. but i dont know if i´ll be able to take the gore and brutalness of it all. we´ll see. 

okayy im really sleepy. dont feel like typing anymore. heading to rome, florence and athens after madrid. then back to copen and jkp to get my luggage then home. sigh, its really coming to an end huh. 11july´s the date guys! mark it down! heh. ive been craving sg food ALOT these few days. matt and i will list it down and start drooling. haha. oh man im so hungry now. okay ending it here. tata!

hey guys, sorry i didnt blog for so long. i left jonkoping already! travelled to stockholm and paris. stockholm for the celine dion concert which was awesome. loved loved her. paris was eiffel and the works. missing the sunset from the eiffel and arc de triomph. currently in nice. using the hostel,s internet which is free but the keyboard,s french style so im desperately trying to type zhile looking at the letters! i just wanna say im safe and missing all ,y beloved! will try to blog soon! loves

while the three of us were busy mugging in the common room today, one of our corridor mates came to bid us goodbye. he's the first one in our corridor to leave. it suddenly hit me that it's really going to end soon. we'll be leaving in 2weeks ourselves. im dreading it :(

its 10pm now. had a project due 5pm today. us being exchange students obviously didnt do work until the last minute (i think its just me). so the past 2 nights we were up doing it till the wee hours of the morning. last night was the ultimate. we started from 9pm after dinner and did all the way until 4am. eugene, having finished his project, started cooking breakfast for us at 5am cos we were all hungry. so we had a hearty american breakfast. sausages, omelette, hard boiled egg, hashbrowns, french toast with kaya, sunny side up. all of that polished by the 3 of us. and that was at 6am in the morning. eugene actually used 15eggs to cook that spread. he only told us when we finished the food. my cholesterol gonna shoot skyhigh when i go for my next checkup. ive never eaten so many eggs in my life!!! 

matt and i were still not done with the project so we got back to it till 8ish. by then i couldnt tahan anymore so i told him i had to sleep. i wasnt productive anymore. so i slept till 1, my alarm was set at 12pm though. haha. woke up and continued doing. submitted at 459pm when its due at 5pm. omgggg adrenaline rush i tell. i had a panic attack cos i kept bugging matt for his part and he scolded me for rushing him. BUTTT its due at 5pm!!! i said to be done w yr part by 4pm then we can discuss and edit report and stuff. he was only done at 445pm! omgggg and by then he hasnt added in his appendixes and all that. omgggggggg. seriously panic attack. i was trembling and on the verge of tears already. boohoo. now you know i really cannot take extreme stress. after we submitted it took awhile for me to calm down. grrrr.

oh wells its over now. tmr im heading to sch to start on my 2nd assignment which is due on sunday. and presentation's on monday. and a project from another mod will be announced on monday too. thats due june10. exams on june 3rd and 4th. alamak. you tell me how to enjoy my last 3 weeks here! i havent been to the neighbouring towns and dont think i'll have time to already! ): must be punishing me for being too slack last quarter. 

alrights. im zoning out already. gonna zzz. ciao!

the weather's been insanely hot recently. sunny all day long which has been gorgeous but theres the influx of flies/bees/mosquitoes! and the kitchen's so dirty cos of lazy people who dont clean up after themselves im so worried cockroaches/rats will be next! ):

anyway back to the weather, it has been at 25degrees almost everyday. my room doesnt have aircon or fan but only a heater. thank god the heater's switched off already. so the room's been so stuffy and hot! i have to open the door to let some air in. i cant open the window as well cos flies will come in which is mega irritating! i really think when i go back sg i'll melt. oh and something worse, i always thought sweden is COLD to the max. i'll get frost bite or something. so i didnt bring any tshirts/shorts for home wear. only to wear out when i travel ard europe in june. smart right. so now im wearing long sleeved tops and pants when its so hot!! I FEEL INSANE. and stupid. when all the angmohs start wearing their tank tops and micro mini shorts out. boohoo. i feel like an idiot! ): i need to shop for summer clothes nowwwwwwwwwwww

this sucks. and im stuck at home working on a bloody finance project due on thurs. only 2 people (matt and me) per group and we have to come up with a 15page report by thurs. great. we're still stuck at coming up with the values. so im hot, irritated, busy and stressed. 

i want winter noww

i know i know.. ive been gone for a long time :( so sorry! ive been too busy/lazy to blog. go figure. trying to treasure my time here as days fly by. i'll be gone from this place ive called home for the past 4mths in a couple of weeks. sobs. cant believe my exchange is going to end just like that. it seems not long ago when i just departed from T3, teary-eyed and sobbing in the plane. now i have a few weeks left, the farewell dinner in school next week and a month long of holiday before i arrive back in singapore. 

ive been walking to school quite abit recently. because the weather turned warmer and i wont get a chance to walk by the lake to school in the future. ive been through winter in sweden and im so glad spring is here. i hear the chirping of birds when i wake up as compared to the howling of winds during winter. when i step out of the house, theres greenery everywhere. the birds, bees and disgusting flies have come back to life. oh the flies are absolutely gross, its the kind that flies around in swarms. and they appear out nowhere and i'll just walk straight into them. YUCKS. ive had a couple land on my face while i try to smack them away. so gross. but the lake has been gorgeous now that we have sun most of the day. water glistening in the sun. as we sit by the lake, we have ducks and swans around us. beautiful. i'll miss all of this when i go back. 

my corridor has been quite quiet of recent. no idea why. amanda's gone. chianhui's hardly around, either travelling or in her room. my other corridor mates are either not home or clubbing somewhere. seems like everyone's going home soon. it'll be my turn in a couple of weeks. when amanda left, all of us were heavy-hearted. we knew we'll see each other in a month or two. but its just the act of farewell that breaks my heart. its hard to say goodbye to someone you've barely known for a couple of months yet been through so much. ive never had a heartfelt talk with anyone here other than her (not including matt). i just felt so comfortable with her as though ive known her for ages. one by one, all of us will leave this place. even though we may not live together in the future, i know that i will always remember my vilhemsro mates. 

in the month of april, i know i did not blog much. just an update. my parents visited me here in my small town. we went to berlin for a couple of days. had a city tour as well as the tour of the concentration camp. it was a horrifying experience and we were lucky to meet the survivors of the camp. hearing their experiences made me wonder how could anyone ever torture them in that manner. were they not human beings themselves? well, this should be left for another time, another story. onto a lighter note, we did tonnes of shopping in berlin. this is what happens when a poor girl is left in scandinavia which has atrocious shopping. she goes wild in berlin. haha. i think my dad is upset he came to visit me cos i burned a big hole in his pocket! haha. just kidding. i think he was over the moon to see me, like my mum. haha. i was so happy when i saw them, i couldnt stop crying. yes i know, crybaby. when i saw my parents i cried, when my parents left i cried even harder. haha. i told u i was bad at farewells. but i had a great time when my parents came. and i'll see them in less than 2months, which will fly by. i dont know whether to be happy or sad that im going home soon. happy that i'll be with my family and friends again. sad that i wont get to live the same carefree lifestyle as i did back here in sweden. everything here is so laidback and relaxing. i dont ever feel stressed here. well, except 1week before the exams and i know i havent done much studying in the past 2 months. heh. oh well. i'll just take it as it comes and just enjoy the time i have left here. 

ive planned my after exchange trip already. exciting!! i actually had it planned a long time ago but had to make major modifications cos i wanted to watch the celine dion concert in stockholm on the 7th of june. so i was supposed to travel a few places with zee and eugene but had to cancel that cos celine dion is a once in a lifetime thing!! sorry guys! oh well, at least matt's not unhappy about it. (: ahhh im excited abt celine dion! always wanted to watch her live but never got the chance. she held fort in las vegas for the last dono-how-many years but everytime i was there in december, its her break! bad timing. this time i told myself i must get her concert tix! at first it was sold out by the time i wanted the tix, but i think someone cancelled their bookings and i managed to get them! well, not the price category i was hoping for, but a tier higher. oh well, i was still willing to pay the price so heck it! (: (: (: daddy's sponsoring (: hahahaha. thanks daddy!

okok back to travel plans. heres the details.
7 June - Stockholm celine dion concert
8-15 June - France (Paris & Nice)
16-23 June - Spain (Barcelona & Madrid)
24-30 June - Italy (Rome & Florence)
1-4 July - Greece (Athens)
5-8 July - Denmark (Copenhagen)
9 July im heading back to Jonkoping to get my luggage and 10 July going back to Copenhagen to fly back to Singapore!!! (: (: i didnt want to stay that long in Copenhagen but i couldnt get earlier flights back to Singapore. SQ only flies 3times a week to Copenhagen and 5 & 8th July are all fully booked. so i decided to just stick to 10July and i'll arrive back in Sg on 11July at 520am i think. so 5-ish am. something like that. anyone coming to pick me up??? (: (: must hold banner that kind. hahahah! (: (AMANDA!! *hints*)

okays im off! gotta go bathe and watch some drama serials. tmr gotta start on my project which is due in ard 2wks! exams are on June 3 and 4 so i gotta start studying for that too! im taking 2 finance mods this quarter which is quite taxing. dont really understand the class most of the time so gotta self study alot! okays ciao my darlings who are still reading this dead blog. lovee

im back from the UK!!!! (: (: London was awesome. i caught les miserables there. didnt fancy it that much. i preferred phantom much more. liverpool was boring but the soccer match was great. the atmosphere was so intense. i wont have time to blog the entire trip though cos exams are in a week. grrrr have to chiong!!! play too much now no mood to study!!! will blog more when i have time!! im uploading the pics on shutterfly. catch it soon!

okay i better hit the books!! wish me luck! i'll need it

heyyyooo. im finally back after a long hiatus. hahaha err quite long lah. too lazy to blog. tried to blog a couple of times but my IE crashed on me after typing a few lines so i was too lazy to start it over again. alrighty pictures time! the long awaited photos of kiruna!




plane just touched down at Kiruna. all of us were ecstatic by the amount of snow and clear skies (:


vrroom vrroom snowmobile!! i like! oh i drove one of these during the tour and i was quite bad at it! ): i think it was like dangerous driving cos the tourguide came to ask if i had a driving license!! ): (he only allowed those who had license to drive one of these) SOBS!!! during the tour, the snowmobile was pulling like a crate full of people (other tourists), then each of us had a turn to drive it. i think i accelerated too fast den everyone was shouting and screaming. hahahahahaha shitttt ):


our footprints!! guess which is mine (:



the famous ICEHOTEL. after 2 hours in the icehotel, our toes were frozen and we couldnt wait to get out. even with triple socks (2wool), snow boots and heatpads stuck in between the socks, my toes still got numb! ): it was quite scary cos i cldnt feel them even though i knew i was wiggling them. temp at icehotel that day was -10degrees i think. attire for the day was double long johns (1wool) and thick jacket for the top, double long johns (both wool) for the bottom with ski pants, hat, ski gloves, and balaclava if necessary. i really felt like a FAT DUMPLING. but i could roll around in the snow without worrying about water seeping through (:


thats me playing with the snowsled and me after i fell from it! boohoo i couldnt balance while going down the slope and ended up rolling on the floor!! my friend even took a video of it! alamak!!! ): ): and no.. im not posting the video online...


reindeer skin doors! they were smelly!  


fooling around with snow. the snow was too fine to have a snowball fight or build snowman though. ohhh did you know that snowflakes really have that snowflake shape -.- as in like a star that shape??? i never knew!!!! i thought it was just a shape for ornaments. but on one of the nights in kiruna, it snowed really heavily and really have the snowflake shape!!! AWESOMEE!!


3 of us from SMU currently studying in Jonkoping. yayy had alot of fun with them!


heheheh surprisingly my butt wasnt cold! maybe cos i didnt sit long enough. haha


well the caption says it all. since we're here, we had to have a glass of ABSOLUT vodka in the famous ice glass


yum yum yum! alcohol keeps me warm in that butt freezing temperature. as my lips touched the ice glass, the cool sensation of the glass plus the vodka sliding down my throat. hmmmm the experience is unexplainable, you gotta try it yourself!!! the ice glass was very slippery though, we had to hold it carefully. that drink costs us 100sek! (ard 25sing)


near our accommodation (camp ripan), there was a lappish hut where we could build a fire while waiting for the northern lights. the lights are the main reason why ive travelled a long way from jonkoping. its the main draw for me. sadly to say, i didnt see much while i was there. i stayed for 4nights but it was cloudy on most days and even snowed heavily on one night.. ): i was only lucky on one night, which was the one that we waited in the lappish hut, i saw a tiny weeny little bit of the lights. it came up in a green glow.. slowly transforming to a white streak and finally disappearing in a matter of minutes. while keeping warm in the lappish hut, we had to constantly go out to check if there were lights. i was standing at the door most of the time as the fumes from the fire irritated my eyes and i couldnt keep them open in the hut. but it was too cold outside so i had to stay near the fire to keep warm yet keep my face at the entrance. haha. i was tearing from the fumes most of the night. well at least i got to see the lights that night.. thats some consolation..


thats the girls in the lappish hut.. you can see how smokey it was! our clothes were really smelly the next day!!


waiting for our tour guide to arrive. we signed up for a 2day1night northern lights tour, which included dog sledding and snowmobile. bad mistake. rubbishy tour. in the end it was more like a f&e tour which lets u dog sled and drive the snowmobile as transport to the camp site. 7 of us were squashed into a room. toilets were.. nature style.. theres a toilet seat but u pee and shit into this dump. so u open the toilet cover and u see all the shit and pee at the bottom. a hugeeee wasteland. needless to say how it smelled like. -vomits- as for the guys, they pee near the trees, where theres a huge P sign. i have no idea where they shit though.


yay huskies!!! ultra cute and ultra friendly!!! they were locked up in tiny cages and kept barking when we arrived. after they were let out, they kept peeing and pooing all over the place. YUCKS. the smell was horribleeee. but they were really cute!!! and the owners never feed them water cos they get water from snow! while running along, they kept eating the snow. damn cute. 


thats me dog sledding. luckily i didnt fall this time, though it was quite slippery. stressed!! i think im really clumsy. keep falling! cycle aso fall, sledding aso fall. one of my smu friends ask me, why you always fall down one ): SOBS. 


classic


6 Singaporeans and 1 Taiwanese doing stupid stuff (:


The Thorne River is where they get the ice to build the Ice Hotel. in spring, when the ice from the ice hotel starts to melt, it goes back into the thorne river. they call it the cycle, meaning they never hurt the environment, just borrowing the resources. they have ice bars in stockholm and tokyo too. all the ice comes from this river as well. they actually ship/fly (i dont know) the ice all the way there just to build the exact same ice bar.. amazing..


hee hee. me being retarded. we were walking on the frozen lake, where the view was awesome. and there was a boat so i made matthew take a photo of me.. i was wearing a balaclava, as you can see.. its covering my neck. its supposed to cover half my face, only exposing the eyes, i just pulled it down to pose for the camera. balaclava rocks my socks. it kept my nose and mouth warm. nice


we couldnt build an actual snowman.. cos the snow was too fine.. i think. so we could only build a snow mountain. and gave it a face. heh. thats matthew's hat on the snowman's head. haha. 


fooling around with the reindeers before we got scolded by the tour guide. kns. they keep ordering us around and even scolded us. they ordered us to chop firewood the moment we reached. if not we wont get lunch. and on the intinerary, it stated something like, to give us a taste of living a lappish lifestyle, chopping firewood for warmth and night.. blah blah. tskkkk didnt say they'll give us an attitude and not feed us if we didnt chop enough!!! ):


see!! even specify what kinda size to cut. ahklhfakjshfkjsdhjsh!!!


hmmmm this is what i loved about the tour.. the cabin on the left (with thick snow on the roof) is where 7 of us squeeze in. this picture was taken the morning after the night of heavy snowfall. absolutely stunning. i was awed by the silence of my surroundings. all i heard was water flowing from the thorne river. other than that, absolute silence. this is what i call, my white winter.



 
can you see the snowflake shape???? we tried really hard to capture it. heard we had to use the macro function and keep our hands really steady and all. ahhh we tried our best. but it was awesome. (:








heheheh we were kneeling by the ice and trying to take a sip of the icy cold thorne river. surprisingly the water wasnt that cold, maybe it was because the environment was colder. the water was refreshing and a little sweet. who knows what went into it. my friend pee-ed into the river a couple of days earlier. he wanted a part of him in the future ice hotel. so if any of you visit the ice hotel next year and see a yellow streak, you know why. haahahaha


ice fishing!!! ultra cool huh. too bad we didnt get a chance to try it out. i heard you got to be absolutely quiet if you wanna catch anything at all.. all of us were talking and laughing.. i doubt that guy got any chance of catching anything.


we also tried our hand at skiing!!! yay!! very very very fun! i absolutely loved it!!!!! though we fell countless times but it was exhilarating!!! going downhill was mindblowing. i was so afraid i will crash into trees!!! luckily i just fell into lumps of snow. haha

the night before our flight, we slept in an igloo. yes an igloo. i freezed my butt off in there! we're supposed to be sleeping in an ultra warm sleeping bag and on reindeer skins. we werent supposed to wear thick clothing if not the sleeping bag wont work. so i just wore a layer of long johns under my pjs and double socks. i also brought in heat pads and snuggled into the sleeping bag. but i couldnt sleep cos my toes were freezing and luckily i had my balaclava with me cos the neckhole of the bag was huge. i could feel the cold air seeping into the bag! we also wore hat and gloves and scarf. ahahaha. sounds alot to sleep in huh. i only slept for a couple of hours and couldnt wait to get out of the igloo. i cant find the pictures of them now.. so i'll try to post them up if i do! heh.

the final view of Kiruna as we waited in the airport. we woke up at 4am cos our flight was supposed to be at 7 but it was delayed for 2hours so we took the chance to catch the sunrise. its goodbye Kiruna, hello boring Jonkoping once again.

anyhows, that was my Kiruna escapade. awesome stuff. it was definitely too short a trip, considering i didnt see the lights. blame it on my bad luck then. some of my friends went a couple of days earlier and they saw the whole sky lit up by lights. the lights even went on for a couple of hours. sobs. rub it in guys. ):

i just came back from Helsinki today. dont have the pictures yet. will be blogging about that soon. till then!

i just got a 2nd hand bicycle yesterday and it costs 500sek which is abt 120sing. which isnt that bad if i manage to sell it off before i leave. this means that i wont have to get the monthly bus pass which cost 485sek per month!!! can save quite abit of money (: 

so we left our bikes at the train station and went to the cheap grocery store, willys, to get stuff for the wk as well as for kiruna trip. because the accommodation and flight to kiruna costs us alot so we're gonna save on meals and intend to bring stuff to cook. we'll be staying in this family cabin which has kitchen facilities so we'll bring pasta, maggi mee and stuff. after we were done with grocery shopping, we lugged the stuff onto the basket on my bike and the guys stuffed some into their bags. my bike was the only one which cld fit a basket thus they dumped quite abit in the basket. in the end it was so heavy and i cldnt balance my bike!!! the basket was put at the back of the bike, on the right hand side. it was the first time cycling back home so we didnt really know the way. we didnt realise there were so many slopes to cycle and i was struggglingg and panting.. omg im so unfit. i aso fell a couple of times cos i cldnt balance the bike when i braked. ): the 2nd time i fell, i just lay on the grd cos i was so so tired. my knees were quite wobbly and legs like jelly when i got home. haha. in the end i got abit of scrapes on my knee and a huge bruise ): SOBS.. my butt aso hurts quite abit today. sobss such an unpleasant first bike ride home. i dont look forward to cycling anymoree ):

oh when we just got our bike, we were cycling to the train station and we didnt know we cldnt cycle on the pedestrian path. we got stopped by this mad woman. she just held on to my arm and tried to stop me without giving us any warning. i cldnt stop and fell off the bike. we were so pissed we just kept shouting at each other. we then found out she was a policewoman and if she was in uniform she would arrest us. but we argued that we just got our bikes 5minutes ago and we didnt know of such a rule!!! and she shouldnt have just dragged me off my bike. BITCH! arghh im so angry. in the end, we apologized and said we wont do it again. but we were cursing her under our breath. arghhh

oh wells. that was our eventful first day of bike riding. u see.. life is so boring here if i don travel that i have to blog about cycliing home. haha. i'll post about oslo later. been quite lazy the past wk to blog. hehs.