DM2007 (Danish Open 2007)

back from the equivalent of ultimate frisbee 2-day boot camp... nah nah, kidding of course... but undeniably, it was a tough 2 days... played a total of 5 matches... won 2 lost 3... after 3 games on saturday, it was expectably very hard for everyone of us to regain the forceful and aggressive play we displayed previously... instead, everyone was struggling and was always second to the disk each time... so like what i said today after the fifth match, we didnt lose to better players but we lost on fitness...

nevertheless, it was a great experience meeting as well as playing with other ultimate teams in denmark... and the #1 ultimate team in the country was really really impressive (we didnt have the chance to play against them cos of the ranking system, otherwise we would definitely be walloped by them), with good personal skills, excellent teamwork and their linkup play was simply breathtaking...

PS: will post up the team picture when i get it...

away for the weekend...=)

going to take part in the annual Danish Open (ultimate frisbee) with the local team (aalborg dinosaurs)!

fucking pissed!!!!!!

i cant describe my frustration now... someone was cooking when i was asleep and then accidentially left my entire pot of chicken soup over some heated stove, and well-done to whoever did it cos the entire pot of soup just boiled away and almost burnt down the entire kitchen...

the american roomie denied it was him...

and now, it's left to the polish and the french...

i dont care how fucking rude i may appeared to them, i will definitely bring up this matter to them when they get back...!

PS: it may just be an accident, but it's just one issue after another... i have been tolerant enough...

arghhh!! i need an outlet to vent my frustration!!

living with 5 other people in an apartment, is... well, challenging...

besides the limited facilities, which include ONE bathroom, TWO toilets and walls so thin that one could easily "engage" in another's conversation at night, i have to overcome the challenges of living together with people who come from totally different cultural backgrounds and whom, embrace different views of life...

for example, i have a huge problem trying to convey to people the IMPORTANCE of cleaning up after they are done with their cooking... used to be the french roomies; who, by the way, love to cook and with their abilities, will be considered as a crime if they dont do that... i can pick up some dishes along the way... BUT they have learnt to embrace cleanliness as part of their lives (not totally, but it's a huge improvement from the initial 2 weeks)... now another roomie decides to adopt the cook-and-the-rest-of-the-people-will-probably-clean-up-my-bloody-#@@%$^*^-f**king-mess stance... no offence to him (he's an american)... he didnt used to cook, in fact he bought some disposable paper plates/plastic forks and knives in order to cut down on the amount of cleaning... then out of the blues, he started cooking... well, put it this way, it's good for me to see that he is finally learning how to survive on his own instead of just munching away on pizzas and more pizzas for dinner... however, along with the cooking, he seems to conveniently forget to clean up EVERYTHING... so after each cooking session, he would wash up the pans but not the all the plates... to conclude, let's just say that he seems to be more forgetful as time passes...

organizing parties at home is perfectly fine with me (if you excused the 2 blocked sinks that followed after the parties...)... at least the hosts tried their best to clean up...well, not all hosts did that... last friday, american roomie celebrated his birthday with like 30 other students in the house... so glad that he enjoyed himself.. but what's left behind was a mess beyond my expectations... beer cans and more beer "pools" on the floor... and afterwhich, i took the initiative to clean up a little for him... but he did not even have the cheek to clean up the entire mess (i cleared away the bottles and mopped the floor the night after the party) the next day... apparently to him, he seemed to have an invisible maid... thats me...

PS: there are only 2 other sinks in the entire house, besides the one in the kitchen...

arghhhhh!!! and things turned for the worse last night... some friends/family members came visiting... and they decided to cook at 3 am in the morning... sigh... i woke up... no thanks to the laughters in the kitchen (my room is right in the kitchen, as in, there is a door that's next to the tv set which leads to my bedroom)...

maybe it's just me... been feeling feverish and weak since i woke up in the morning, that probably explains the short temper... maybe i am simply being a pain-in-the-ass, but think i will be putting up a post-it on his door later tonight, just to remind him that the invisible maid is about to go on strike...

i finally learnt how to prepare pasta carbonara!!!

holidays coming up + church-mouse lifestyle...

just discovered that i have 2 days of holidays coming up in october, but i realized that far too late cos most of the cheap tickets to various places in europe are sold out in anticipation of the long weekend (weekend + monday and tuesday)... and checking the websites for cheap airfare, it seems like i have been to, like 50% of the destinations listed... ha~~~ have to try find something new and affordable...

in the meanwhile, i am officially bordering the "church-mouse zone"... down to my last 800 DKK since i am still waiting for the scholarship allowance to be credited into my account... it's been a long 2 months of no allowance...=( still waiting... was promised by the coordinator that we would receive the money in the first week of september, but knowing the (in)efficiency of the university in portugal, it will be at least another one week before we see the $$ in the bank... arghhh... just have to continue my church-mouse lifestyle...

busy week ahead...

been too busy for anything else but my danish classes, assignments as well as cooking... think i have been spending too much time on preparing my lunchboxes...

and something interesting which i stumbled upon...

evolution of man...

one object, various thoughts...

man will always be man, no matter how young...

lunchbox for monday

lunch for monday... so proud of myself... =)

i miss....

i miss everyone back in singapore...

i miss the times when i can just sit in a coffee house and do absolutely nothing...

i miss the oily but delicious food in singapore...

i miss gossiping...

i miss sun-tanning at the pool side at safra yishun...

i miss the familiar words and accent of our language...

i miss my bed, and pillow...

i miss the convenience of buying things in the wee hours of the morning...

i miss my terrapins...

i miss my cable television programs...

i miss the cheap movie tickets...

i miss playing football along the corridor with my young cousins...

i miss kicking my bro's butt...

i miss sitting in my armchair...

i miss going out to hunt for good food...

arrrgh, what's wrong with me?!

mouse?

whatever it is that i saw earlier in the kitchen, i will just pretend that i didnt see it... but pls pls pls pls pls pls pls pls pls let it not be a mouse...

i have my stockpiles of food for my hibernation period... ha~~~ i am a bear and winter is coming... nothing is going to stop me from continuing my accumulation of food...

i dreamt of my mom cook for me last night... it's been such a long time...

foodies!

due to the high prices of canteen food as well as the yucky nature, bringing one's own food to school has become a must... thankfully, i spent 6 months in portugal polishing my cooking abilities... presenting... some samples of what i had been bringing to school for the past one week...

pasta with beef sauce...

fried rice with broccoili...

rice with chicken cubes (2 flavors- pepper and tomato+carrot+red pepper)

tour de germany: hamburg

what i promised weeks ago... pics that i took of hamburg before leaving the beautiful city behind and embarked on my new journey in denmark...

and it was a coincidence that we had the hamburg alster festival... lots of food/ desserts/ drinks/ entertainment...

food!!!

and the candies!

these donuts are huge... at least 10 times larger than the normal ones...

not forgetting the drinks...

entertainment is a must of course...

lastly, the number one comfort food of all times... ice-cream!

oh, there seems to be some tradition that if you turn 30 and remains single, you will have to be "made fun" of by your friends, and whoever wants to participate...

the main "star" with the paper crown...

updates...

went for the 6-hour danish language bath on saturday, and mind you, it is definitely much more difficult than learning german... and later in the afternoon, i will be having my first proper danish class... according to my polish room mate, it's the longest 2 hours he had so far in school... so all the best to me...=(

tried asking for a change in accommodation... despite the fantastic location of my present place, coming home to a sink full of unwashed dishes and utensils last night, i snapped... well, the application was unsuccessful, mainly because the accommodation office is unwilling to help as it is probably too inconvenient to them... no point harping on the (un)cleanliness of the place, might as well focus on the good points of staying here... be positive... and then look forward to the next earliest possible date whereby i can change to a new place... that will be in feb 2008... and this time round, i will ask for a personal studio apartment (i am paying more for my current place than my friends who are living alone with personal toilet and kitchen...)

oh, as much as i hated the appalling level of cleanliness in my apartment, walking home at night gives me the chance to observe the stars... wow... it's like that time when i was on the mountain-top in australia... =D

back from hamburg

back from hamburg (EMMS workshop)... on top of all the pics which we took (will be posted up as soon as i lay my hands on them), there were lots of wonderful/frightening experiences/activities...

(i) prepared myself for the coming winter in denmark by embarking on a reckless shopping spree in hamburg... despite the high costs of shopping in germany, it is still comparably cheaper than doing it in aalborg...

(ii) achieved a "personal best" for my maximum speed... rented a 2.0 SAAB, but was given a VOLVO V70 space wagen instead... 200km/hr along the auto-bahn in germany (which has no maximum speed limit)... doing that in singapore will probably land me a date with the court as well as a revoked license with immediate effects...

(iii) driving on the right hand side... put it this way, it is simply too weird... not to mention the fact that our rented car was almost hit by another vehicle when i cut into his lane while turning... my bad...

(iv) interaction with my seniors from the previous EMMS editions... i belong to the 3rd edition... they can be pretty fun to hang out with sometimes...=)

busy busy

i am so sorry for the lack of posts recently... will definitely post up my pics from hamburg once i get back from the city this weekend...

and i am going to drive to hamburg... first time driving on the other side of the road... wish me luck...

chew on this...

aalborg vs hamburg

been asked many times over the last couple of days:"how's denmark?" and to get the record clear, let's summarize the main differences between aalborg, denmark and hamburg, germany...

(i) it's noticeably colder in aalborg... and much windy due to its location... as our international coordinator said in her welcome speech this morning:" wherever you are from, it's much worse here..."

(ii) the tap water sucks... it's much harder... in layman's term, it contains much more minerals, as such it tastes pretty awful...

(iii) more people here speaks english (effectively a bilingual society); socializing becomes much easier...

(iv) harder to get around... being a much smaller town (est 180,000 people), the transportation system is not as efficient as that in hamburg... no trams/ trains, we just have the buses... and even with buses, the frequency is much lesser (every 15min during the day)

(v) definitely much more expensive... how about S$4 for a bus ride or S$17-20 for a BurgerKing meal?

(vi) girls here look so pretty... so blond, so tall, so unbelievably-beautiful eyes...

(vii) food is REALLY REALLY bad.... absolutely tasteless... leandro once said, the further up north you get, the worse the food becomes... thought that german food is bad enough, but danish food wins hands down...

however, it may not be a true reflection of denmark and its way to living... living here for the next 12 months will probably rectify these or maybe throw up more surprises into my path... we shall see how things turn out then...=0)