grinda

(the following photos are unedited. the sky is really that blue. my camera was not on vivid mode. in fact, it does not have a vivid mode. the sky is really just that blue.)

after spending the first few days exploring the city centre, i figured it was high to do what i'd come to stockholm early to do. i.e visit the archipelago. my initial plan was to arrive a fortnight early and spend some time at the islands as a mini retreat of sorts. but i got my act together too late and the hostels on every island were fully booked. so i settled for five nights in the city centre and in retrospect, it's a good thing i didn't stay the few days at the islands like i wanted to!

there are countless islands in the archipelago but being the student on a budget, i chose the island that was the best 'value'. that happened to be grinda because it's a 90min ferry ride away (so it's not accessible by bus like vaxholm, the closest island) but not too far for a day trip. but grinda is so small and uninteresting that it did not qualify for inclusion in LP stockholm haha.

that said, it was just as i'd imagined it to be. before leaving for stockholm and before my island life plans were foiled, i'd entertained visions of myself sitting on a rocky outcrop plugged into my ipod and journal-ing furiously. i quickly found said rocky perch about thirty minutes after first setting foot on the island and happily camped there for a few hours overlooking the harbour. it was beautiful. the sea calm, the sky a brilliant blue and the neighbouring smaller islands like emerald drops in the sea. the seaside cafe was playing summer hits and i felt like queen of the hill atop my little rock. after the sun moved and started shining in my face, i too migrated to (literally) greener pastures. walked around the island a little more and discovered the south jetty and next to the south jetty was a big green field. i sprawled onto an unused picnic table (very glamorous, i know) and watched the sea breeze blow the clouds across the sky. the afternoon passed so fast and before i knew it i'd to catch the second last ferry back.

had a lovely day on the island but think i'm just about island-ed out now. beautiful as it is, i'm quite happy back in the city smack in the middle of all my creature comforts. but i enjoyed being alone on the rock and later in the field, at peace with the world and loving life.

teeth, interrupted

the funniest thing happened while i was brushing my teeth just now. and it's got nothing to do with my teeth. there's a huge vintage car rally going on outside and while i'm guessing it's vintage car, i'm not entirely sure. it could be some white supremacist protest, for all i know. so there were two leader clad women in the washroom with me. they might be hotel guest or they might be rally-ers who snuck in to use the loo from outside. anyhoos they see me start brushing my teeth and decide it's a perfect time to make conversation.

they begin by asking me if i speak english. and because i am annoyed that someone is talking to me while i'm very obviously brushing my teeth, i say grunt, "mandarin." back. which comes out, like, 'mah-in' because i can't ennunciate through toothpaste. they look puzzled and continue in english and i grunt again. thinking they'd leave me alone. this time, i try, "chinese", which they miraculously understand! but no! they persist! only this time they ask me questions in english, slowly. the first question they ask is "what are you doing?" to which i just about resist rolling my eyes and answer, "bwuh-ing teef!" the lady then takes umbrage at my obvious answer to her equally obvious question.

"nono, i mean, in stockholm! what are you doing in stockholm?"

"bwuh-ing teef!!!"

"of course you are! i understand. please continue your brushing. we can talk in awhile."

and to my absolute horror, she casually leans against the sink as i continue to brush and then gargle. i couldn't believe she was actually waiting!

to cut a long story short, she asked (again) why i was in stockholm and by this time i was irritated and said i was traveling. she expressed her surprise that i was travelling in stockholm. why, i don't understand. she asked if my parents were with me. at this point i got really annoyed and told her i was thirty years old and well capable of looking after myself (both statements made with plenty of literary license). all the while i'd to keep up my little lie of not speaking english so i spoke funny. "i is thirty year. parents no must come, no?" and "stockholm safe city for girl thirty year, yes?" but i did feel bad when she asked if i knew anyone here and when i said i didn't, she very welcomingly said, "well, now you know me! enjoy your stay!", patted me on the back and walked out. so maybe i was too quick to get annoyed with yet another friendly local but come on, there's a time and place for everything and interrogating someone while she's brushing her teeth will not achieve any desired outcome.

that said, i sort of regret being a retard and wish i could've reciprocated her warmth somehow. maybe she was tipsy and hence oblivious to common courtesy.

(and because i'd to keep up the guise, i smiled and said "thank you and have a pleasant flight!" when she left the toilet.)

iphone captures

cafe i sought refuge in during the afternoon storm

grand hotel by the waterfront

the bridge to gamla stan, the old town

open air orchestra concert during the cultural fair

park just outside my hotel (it has rats)

thoughts

it took me two days and a helpful dutch boy to figure out that there's wireless in my room. the hotel only offered free wired internet (i.e. from the sad communal computer in the lobby) and there was an exorbitant charge for wireless internet access. so for two days i've been circling the communal computer like a vulture, swooping down on it to email / text home whenever i could. but yesterday, the dutch boy told me there was an unsecured network that you could access from the deck! so this morning i brought my laptop onto the deck in hope of sponging off someone else's internet but alas, it was too bright and i couldn't see anything. disheartened, i came back to my room and tada! there was still connection! and then i realised that my room is on the right side of the hotel and that side miraculously has wireless access. if only i'd checked sooner! which explains why i'm able to update proper now.

the first two days in stockholm have been nothing short of wonderful. i used to think that the cariocas (people of rio de janeiro) were the friendliest on earth, after multiple positive encounters in rio this summer. but the stockites (?) give them a run for their money! since i hit the ground running two mornings ago, i've met kind locals. when i first surfaced from the metro and was looking at the map, a passerby stopped and asked in english if i needed any help. and random strangers helped me lift my blue house of a suitcase on and off the bus. and when i was seeking refuge in the rain at a cafe in the old town, a photographer at the next table saw my valiant attempt to balance my tiny camera on the rickety wooden ledge to take a self-portrait and offered to help me. which led to pleasant tea-time conversation about the city. they were most helpful, telling me which areas to explore and how to get about. interestingly, they'd noticed that i'd looked at the menu but not ordered anything (other than coffee) and they asked if i found the city expensive, which i have. and then they gave me this whole list of cheap eats and i was touched that complete strangers were genuinely concerned about my caloric intake! i mentioned in passing that i was looking for a card reader and this first thing this morning i receive an email with a photo of the cheapest available model and directions to the store, which happens to be right on my street! little things like that make me feel very welcomed in stocks. and yes, while i agree that you can never completely trust anyone, this short time away has ironically taught me to trust people.

i've been brought up to play my cards close to my heart, hold everyone at arms length and never divulge personal details about myself. my parents have my best interest at heart and after they watched taken (WHY PARENTS WHY WHY WHY???) they were even more convinced that lone female travellers are just asking to be sold to sex slavery. so they sent me off with horror stories and many a 'don't talk to strangers! not even the cabby! in fact, just don't take a taxi!' and i'm subconsciously second guessing everyone and wondering if they've a hidden agenda. which, as you might imagine, is incredibly tiring. doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that such paranoia will rob me of the full experience of living away by myself. so i'm trying to temper the caution with wisdom and taking it as it comes. if i meet friendly people, i'll be friendly back. i won't tell them where i'm staying but i don't see any harm in making small talk and learning from the patriotic locals who are only too happy to share their lovely city. i even had fun talking to a retired lyonnaise couple in the same cafe yesterday! in french! and i love how i'm speaking french in stockholm and i could tell them i've tried a bouchon in lyon and it was unpalatable because the calf stomach was bitter! the world is so small and stockholm so cosmolitan and i feel invincible and glad that i'm singaporean and able to take on the world, one nationality at a time :)

speaking of singers, everyone knows about singers!!! gone are the days when people think it's in china. the people i've spoken to are quick to show that they know pertinent facts about singapore, like how there's an expo where they've trade fairs (this was from a sofa salesman whose boss went to singapore for a furniture road show!), chewing gum is illegal, there's a single political party and the people are hyperefficient. all stereotypes, no doubt, but there's some grain of truth. and i'm in scandinavia but even here the locals know of the cheap electronics that singers has and how it is a model of modern economic success. singapore boleh! i saw someone with a hard rock cafe singapore shirt too, and that was pretty cool :)

being alone has been awesome too. for the first time in my life i'm not in a hurry, sad but true. i've all the time in the world and the long daylight hours means i can bum around the hotel till 2pm and still go out with enough day light hours to do whatever i want to do. doing a district a day and that's the only thing i've planned for that day because if i didn't have the simplest of goals i'd just vegetate and watch movies on my laptop. so reachable goals are a good thing! and being accountable only to myself is a liberating feeling. i can go back to sleep after breakfast without feeling bad for holding anyone up or i can sleep in and not worry about my travel buddies waiting for me when they're all ready to go. it's just very different from traveling with friends and i don't miss company yet. but then again it's only been two days. i told the dutch boy this and he was appalled that i have no freedom (to him) back home. food for thought, i guess when there's always something to do and a time within which it must be done then you just get to it. but here, when i was waiting thirty minutes for the computer last night, i realised that i could wait for hours and there's no limiting factor, save my patience.

i love roaming the streets and walking everywhere in the perfect perfect weather because i know the days are only going to get shorter and in no time i'll be confined to the subway because walking on the streets will be reserved for masochists. occasionally, i feel as if i'm experiencing a delayed adolescence of sorts, having only left singers at 22 compared to people who've studied overseas since their teens. i don't regret the late exposure but in my head i sometimes wonder if it's just me or does everyone share the same wide-eyed wonder when they first experience a different country. and living in a country for a few months very different from traveling. i'm blessed to have spent a good quarter of the year away on holiday for the past few years and it's not as if i've never left singers. perhaps it's a psychological thing, like only because i know i'm going to set up home here for the next few months then i'm making an effort to interact wtih other people. and when i travel i'm usually with a bunch of friends and we're a very self-sustaining group.

ok! time to hunt down that cheap card reader, book ferry ticket to island for day trip and get some air :)

the hotel

shared bathroom

single room with stolen fan. there would be no ventilation otherwise

breakfast on the outside terrace

transparent curtains

the hotel from the outside

view from the front door

organised desk

breakfast (and lunch and dinner if you steal sandwiches :( )

spoilt computer

unimpressive, spartan but functional.

day 2

crashed embarrassingly early last night and sprung up after 12h of sleep this morning. waiting for breakfast to start then i'm off to explore the old town.

stocks is freezing cold at night and in the early morning, by the way. but maybe that's to be expeceted. apparently the sun set really late too, but i wouldn't know, would i :)

edit: turns out after breakfast i went straight back to bed and only just wke (it's noon!) maybe my jetlag is a special kind where i sleep at the right time but it affects the duration of my sleep instead haha. anything to justify my inherent sloth! well it's noon but not really because the sun still isn't at its hottest. think that happens around 4pm. odd isn't it? this whole different latitude thing takes some getting used to. but it's great because i can wake up in the afternoon and still have the whole 'day' ahead of me. i could get used to this long-term! very conducive to my natural sleep cycles. anyway i'm finally headed to old town, for real this time. great drive and determination! it is a good 4km walk away but i am too cheap to take the metro.

post-edit: 3h later i'm still in the hotel! was on the sun deck reading up before heading to gamla stan and was waylaid by three attractive dutch boys. so we ended up having a cookie party on the deck and talking about god, politics and taxes, the three topics that unite everybody. turns out that they're actually half decent, one of them even spent 6 years in the congo as a child with his missionary parents. and i didn't know that tax in holland was 60% for the highest income bracket! madness (to my singaporean mind)! even considering the welfare benefits the dutch get, i am so glad that i come from a country with low tax rates. not that i'm paying taxes yet, but still. oh and i accidentally disobeyed my father by 'talking to strangers'. oops. and after that it started raining and i've no brolly so i'm being a pansy and staying indoors. am upset that my gamla stan plans are being repeatedly thwarted!

good morning stockholm!

smooth flight from bkk to stocks! slept almost the entire journey, save for the pillow thief in the next seat. i'm appalled that she'd the gall to blatantly steal my pillow. her modus operandi was, rather unimaginatively, to sit on it and hug her own. and her impeccable toilet timing had her poking me awake the moment i had entered deep sleep and after my second valiant attempt to achieve REM, she did the exact same thing. hazily remember glaring and growling at her. maybe.

hit the ground running at 0635h (!) and made my way to the hotel. so much for being an intrepid explorer and checking myself into a 10bed mixed dorm, which i did book initially but ended up cancelling, although that is a story in itself. i take for granted the ready availability of free luggage trolleys back home and spent a better part of my awake time on the plane hoping for a free trolley. thank god for trolleys and elevators for without them there is no way i could have lugged my weight in baggage from airport to central station to suburb station then 1km to hotel. and the hotel receptionist lied! she claimed it was a 5-10minute walk from the station and maybe it is, for regular pedestrains. it did not take lone asian female lugging her aforementioned weight in baggage 5-10minutes. multiply by 10 to figure out actual time. and my trolley bag had cranky wheels so we were quite the sight, my bag and i, rolling sideways like a crab along the pavement. and the pavements! why why why are they tiled??? the joints in the cement kept impeding the wheels. again, thank god i did not stay in the hostel which happened to be in the heart of old town. because old town is charming and, like many other old towns, filled with equally charming cobblestones that make rolling a trolley bag the size of a baby elephant a most unpleasant task. anyhoos, i'm spending five nights here and then moving into the university accommodation on monday. am not looking forward to the commute and carry.

had an eventful first day. soon after checking in and freshening up i headed to the city centre to meet a family friend for lunch. overestimated the time it'd take to get there (hotel is central! yay!) and had time to buy a stockholm simcard that only speaks swedish. but i am undaunted because i have googletranslate! and a brain :) lovely lunch at the zink grill where the restaurant is built around a zinc bar that the proprietos fell in love with in paris and brought back to stockholm. it serves a mean grilled selection and i had a curious duck fillet cooked in a vacuum. didnt take a photo, unfortunately, but it is definitely one of my (few) stocks must-gos if i have visitors. visitors who don't mind buying me lunch, that is. but back to the duck! it was moist and tender and because it was fresh, as opposed to duck margaret it wasn't too salty. yummy stuff! met Z for the first time and he strikes me as a grandfatherly type but oh myy he is so well-read and open-minded in a way i wouldn't expect someone of his generation to be. he shed some light on swedish culture and gave me a much welcomed insight into their psyche. it was good to hear a local's perspective and see how it matched up with my own preconceived notions. i left lunch enlightened haha.

wandered around after lunch visiting the same haunts i saw when i was last in stockholm, about three summers ago. it is as if time stood still and whatever stuck in memory was still there when i returned. i saw the galleria that S and i shopped for belts at, the coffeeplace i lazed around at with my family and the familiar shops with their familiar facades. it felt like a homecoming of sorts and it is good to be back, and for so much longer this time. bought some fruit and back at the hotel to rest up before heading out tonight. can't believe the sun sets at 10! it's surreal to suddenly have such long days. summer makes everything look nicer :)

off to stocks!

it's been a crazy past few days, filled with family, friends and food. eventually realised that i didn't have all that much stuff to bring with me and packing wasn't as painful as anticipated. in fact, i even had space for a slow cooker (!) which i decided to hand carry on second thoughts for fear of breaking it.

so i'm hand carrying a slow cooker to stockholm. one would think the swedes have no native means to make soup.

blogging from a coffee place at the bangkok airport. thank god for wireless the price of coffee. then again, i think i might've just paid sgd5 for an americano. eep!

looking forward to sleeping all the way to stocks. busied myself with the reading material i brought for the sin-bkk leg and i've fnished reading 1) LP stockholm 2) travel journal 3) digital camera manual, albeit 3 years late 4) slow cooker manual.

ok! time to call home ;) will update when i get to stockholm.

to quote j, ikea nows!

more phood

thursday 060809 dessert

monday 100809 lunch

wednedsday 050809 lunch

will miss

these two.

chinese food fix

dinner with the family and it was good to spend the last night with them.

crispy pork and jellyfish

deep fried whitebait

corn soup with chicken

home-made tofu

steamed groupa

apple jelly with chrysenthemum

lazarus island

at the top of my hitlist is the archipelago, which i can't wait to visit soon after arriving in stockholm. however, it'd be vaguely unpatriotic to have explored the islands off the coast of sweden before i peer into my own backyard. so on my last evening here, we hopped over to lazarus island and sat in contemplative silence on the beach. the water was crystal clear (most unusual!) and it was surreal to remain in singapore territory but feel like we were on holiday at an exotic beach destination.

seafood dinner on national day

one last fix at my favourite seaside restaurant before i go! my gracious hosts ordered the usual and the usual never disappoints.

prawn with mayo

fish paste dough fritters

barbequed squid and seasoned jellyfish

beef on hot plate

seafood roll

the piece de resistance - salt baked crab

am probably doing myself a disservice by posting the mouth-watering photos because i foresee many cold and hungry nights ahead :(

patrioticism

yesterday was national day and while i'm far from hyper-patriotic, most times, i'm proud to be singaporean. there are times, however, when hearing 'waaaahhhhhhh!!! so cheeeeeeeep!!! better hurry buy!!!' sends shivers down my spine and make me wish i wasn't associated with the country.

but yesterday, there was atypical graciousness in the air and despite being caught in a traffic standstill, there was no horning at all! even when some impatient drivers exacerbated the situation by making illegal u-turns, none of the inconvenienced motorists beeped their displeasure! it's sad that i'm unaccustomed to gracious behaviour on the road but better annually than never. caught a little of the parade at home and felt an upsurge of pride as i watched the nation flex her considerable muscle.

more than fleeting emotion, however, i was reminded of how it's a place i'm very blessed to be in. i've benefited from the stability our island's enjoyed and am cat-content with what i have. with my impending departure on the back of my mind, it was an apt reminder of how rooted i am to my home and how i look forward to returning in half a year. when i return, the ever-changing landscape would have sprouted more buildings, there will be new malls and old haunts might have vanished but that's part of the beauty of being on the cutting edge of everything. plus the food's amazing and where else does one find the very best of each cuisine?

have spent the past few days eating my way to remembrance and have very safely eaten enough local food to satisfy me till january :) photos of that to come!

steamboat

steamboat is usually a chinese new year dish but one of my favourite adults very kindly planned an elaborate steamboat dinner for before i leave. i didn't realise how much effort 1 x steamboat would require but the lovely lady went to the market thrice on three consecutive days to ensure the ingredients were at their freshest. but the great lengths she went to make it a steamboat to remember were well worth it and i enjoyed every drop

a foodie friend once told me that food cooked with love is immeasurably better than food cooked without and i never really believed her until tonight.

welcome

hello friends,

most, if not all, of you who're reading this probably received my farewell text. looking forward to the national day long weekend before i leave and won't be updating much until i reach stockholm.

thought it'd be fun to post about my exchange experience, albeit a year later than my peers. if inquiring minds wish to know why i'm going on exchange in my final year, it's because i was holding out for something that wasn't to be and forfeited my exchange place in year 3. when what i was hoping to get into fell through after a year of uncertainty, the faculty was extremely supportive and understanding. the powers-that-be i.e. the vice dean, could've said that i couldn't have my cake and eat it. he could also have said 'too bad. deal.' but i'm grateful that he instead broke protocol and exceptionally allowed me to go on exchange in my final year. the regulations are that i need to spend my final semester back at my home university though so i can only go for a semester, which works for me because i'm quite happy to come home after half a year, or so i say now :)

that said, it does feel vaguely unusual to be embarking on something my peers have just returned from. just as everyone is re-adjusting to life back home and settling down for final year, i'm packing my bags and readying myself for some fun in the sun. not like i'm going to see much sun during the nordic winter. however, i do have the pyschological benefit of going on exchange after securing a training contract. i know where i'll be starting work at! it's such a bonus to leave for a semester without a care in the world and i'm almost delirious that there's so much to look forward to in the months ahead.

how does this sound:

august '09 - january '10 6months exchange (pass / fail)

january '10 - april '10 4months final semester

may '10 - july '10 2months graduation trip

july '10 - december '10 6month post-graduate course (pass / fail)

january '11 start work!

techincally there's nothing exceeding stressful or demanding for the next 18months. what a luxury :) and then i start work! which i'm excited about but not in any hurry to begin. so yay to anticipation and yay to having what looks like a glorious 18months ahead.

so if you want to keep tabs on me (oh how i flatter myself), return to this page as and when you wish to indulge me.

best,

T-7days

a week to go pre-departure and i'm nowhere near as ready to leave as i'd imagined myself to be.

there are people to meet, places to go and packing to be done, although i must say it's harder physically (refer to previous post) than emotionally to ready myself. having anticipated going on exchange for close to six months now and i'm besides myself with excitement at the prospect of soon being immersed in a different way of life.

it's been a fruitful holiday thus far. spent the first month in south america, the second learning french and the third catching up with the nearest and dearest. south america was amazing and i can't wait to backpack around europe, practice my extremely basic french in france and maintain my support network while i'm away.

i do recognise that six months is both a very long and a very short time and as i stand on the cusp of departure, i hope that the time won't fly by because this could very well be my final fling :)

baggage

not unsurprisingly, i'm limited by the weight limit.

if i'd my way, i'd gleefully cart my few worldly possessions to stocks with me. i'd painstakingly pack my entire wardrobe, the few pairs of footwear i use and all my books into my spanking new trunk and arrive in sweden looking a little like a snail with its home on its back. i'd bring oodles and oodles of clothes and not have to repeat an outfit or wear the same article twice. i'd also have an endless supply of home food comforts because it turns out that each box of prima mix that i've been so kindly gifted with weighs a ton.

BUT i was too cheap to spring for a student ticket back in january when i booked the flight and the ticket i bought only allows me 20kg check-in luggage.

this 20kg is, however, grossly insufficient. to my horror, once i put in the library of lonely planet books (europe on a shoestring, sweden, stockholm) and the hodge podge of other guidebooks i've managed to amass pre-departure (paris, anyone?), my suitcase was pushing 12kg.

so in an attempt to score myself some extra baggage allowance, i've been advised by people in the know to make my way down to the airline office and lay on the charm.

wish me luck!

edit: YES! 10kg MORE!!!

procrastination

after the initial excitement of receiving notice from the embassy that my visa was ready for sticking (as opposed to collection because i need to leave my passport with them overnight for their special glue to dry), i completely forgot to submit my passport for sticking!

well, not exactly forgot but because the embassy is only open 11am-1pm and i've french class 9am-12pm monday to friday, it leaves me with a tiny time window to get it done. it's been awhile since the embassy emailed and i sure hope they haven't revoked the visa in the interim!

in other departure-related news, it turns out that something's cropped up on the homefront and i'm likely to delay my outward bound flight. so much for doing the lone female asian backpacker thing for a fortnight prior to orientation!

edit: turns out i remembered wrongly and the embassy is open 9am-12pm. learnt the hard way when i stood outside the reinforced door and patiently rang the bell at polite intervals for 10minutes, before reading operating hours sign. bummer.

warmth

met with j for tea. he's just come out of self-imposed home quarantine (because he's civic-minded that way) and i needed to get the oracle(s) from him, as well as d's address, the nice boy who is guarding my (soon-to-be) stuff in the interim. thank god i can move into j's stockholm life, if only possessions-wise, and am very fortunately inheriting, among other things, a heater, kettle, textbooks and notes.

but the take-home from tea that really really excited me was the prospect of my very own sauna. well, 'very own' is a bit of a stretch but apparently everyone and their mother has a sauna in sweden, and where i'm staying is no exception. this personal sauna is now an integral part of my body heat conservation plan come winter! in fact, i might just hibernate in the sauna and emerge in spring.

equally importantly, i now have the names of and directions to the asian grocers (absolutely crucial) and am relieved to find out that there are communal washers and driers, albeit of the non-human kind, in the building. things are shaping up! now i just need to decide if it's practical to go to stockholm armed only with a dutch oven and the set of clothes on my back. because the 20kg weight limit is forcing me to choose between being warm and being full. while i'm certain i can buy clothes there and not a dutch oven, i'm equally certain that i can cook with another pot.

and so the p(l)ot thickens...

all systems go

just a quick one to say

and it's T-3 weekends!