Tuesday, January 31, 2006

My Sonofon

By the way, my danish phone number is +45 4125 1464.

So you can stop messaging my Singtel number unless you don't mind me checking it once a week or two. For all those who already did, accidentally or incidentally, thanks and sorry for not replying.

Buddy Burger Dinner

Woke up this morning to draw money from the bank to pay my rent (cos my Danish ATM card hasn't arrived, I have to head down to the town centre to draw out money over the counter. And the Danske Bank in DTU doesn't dispense cash or allow deposits over the counter. They only allow you to open/close accounts and do other paperwork.) On the right is a picture of my bike, where the brake you see at the left handle isn't as effective as the foot brake when pedaling backwards. Today's weather forecast was mist/fog and so it wasn't surprising when I stepped out of my room and was greeted with a grey sky morning.



After printing notes in the library or DTV (Danmarks Tekniske Videocenter), Chang and I head back to our rooms to cook fried rice for lunch around 4pm. At 6plus, we headed out to the DTU main building to meet our buddy group hosts Dennis and Youssef, together with the rest of our buddy group pals. Dennis and Youssef had planned a burger dinner at their accomodation somewhere north of DTU and boy was their housing nice and cosy, and a whole lot cleaner than our containers. Plus, each room had a personal bathroom.




Above you'll see the thick beef patties, and below the empty buns. Put together with lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, mustard, ketchup and this wierd ramoulade sauce, the burger was awesome! And everyone agreed it was better than the ones at Mac. Below you see Joel biting into his 'big and tasty'. Dennis also bought a carton of soft drinks since everyone agreed they didn't want any beer tonight, strangely. Below you'll see 6 varieties of acidic destroyers that are mainly carbonated sugar water.


First class tomorrow at 8am, boy will it be hard to get up. Abel, out.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Reunion Dinner, the Danish way.

Alas, it's my first Chinese New Year abroad and what better way to spend it than with fellow like-minded Singaporeans who cooked (amateurish) but tasty "home-cooked" food for all.




More pictures in http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album03

After dinner was done, I skipped over to container V where my IntroWeek Group and other people had a crepes and sangria party. [Sangria is this Spanish drink comprising wine, lemon juice or lemon soda as a substitute, and cut fruits like apples and oranges. Veeeery nice.] By the time I reached it was half-past eight and Graziella had apparently finished making more than hundred crepes for the rest. But Alvise's sangria was still plentiful, with one last pot to go around.



I went back to container U where the Singaporean guys already started playing ban lat.
And being poor students we obviously played small, although at one point someone mentioned if we should start staking properties. Like we had any.



Oh yes! One more thing, I bought my 2nd or 3rd hand bike today from a Brazilian guy I met couple days ago, at 350kr, or S$94. One thing about bikes in Denmark, is that the average selling price for a brand new bike starts from 500kr or S$134, and that only gets you a kid's bike. A normal bike (w/o the fanciful suspension and stuff) for adults starts from 100okr at least, or S$270. The second thing about bikes in Denmark are that most if not all of them don't have handbrakes, instead, they had pedal brakes. It's weird when I first tried, but you need to cycle backwards in order to slow your bike down. No kidding.

And this is for my Aunt-I, who remarked that I hadn't posted any pics of my bed. After Ikea yesterday and a fully-mopped floor which my cold feet can strut across, here's my room.

From L-R: 1)my bed, heater and window, 2) study desk and notice board, 3) neat and fully stocked up cupboard, 4) entrance and cheap Ikea door mats!


Monday's my ONLY free day so I'm gonna treasure it. My first lecture/class begins on Tuesday, and from then, expect less of this blogger/photo whore. One thing about DTU is that their classes are in 4 hour slots, 8am-12pm or 1-5pm, or both (which my Wednesday class is). It's up to the lecturer to start with lectures, exercises, labs, discussion etc anyway he/she wants it. And we don't need to drop a module if we find it too tough until 1 month before the exam. That's the flexibility offered her as opposed to NUS' CORS system. Let's see how my four 8am classes and the stamina goes from here.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Ikea

This morning I accompanied Julian (the new French guy in our introduction group), Alvise, Graziella and her friend Frederique (I still can't pronounce her name right, yet) down to ISO at Lyngby where they bought groceries. And when I wanted to send my camera in for repair at the Lyngby Storecenter (which the lady said will take 3 weeks and cost 410kr alone or S$110 for service charges), my camera lens miraculously functioned okay. It's not perfect now, because the camera lens doesn't close smoothly but jerks itself back in, but at least it's not failing me, yet. *crosses fingers*. Also sent out a couple of postcards, each on with a 8kr or S$2.10 postage stamp. *empties pocket* So that's what writing your address in my book gets you. Heh.

Accompanied them back up to Campus Village before meeting Chang at 1pm to go Ikea. The French girls invited me over for a crepe dinner with their friends tomorrow evening so I think I'm gonna try and split myself between the Singapore "reunion" dinner in container J and theirs in V. Yes lah. *starts duplicating himself*

2 bus stops, 10mins, and approx S$3 later, we arrived at Ikea where we shopped for essentials. I forgot to take a picture but it doesn't matter since we bought it anyway: a frying pan that cost just 18kr or S$5, and a doormat for 6kr or S$1.60! Other than those on sale, prices are generally comparable to those in Singapore. Oh yes, Vincent! You remember this lamp we contemplated buying for Christmas last year?


We agreed it would be a pity not to try the resident restaurant there so we headed for an early dinner around 4pm. It was awesome to see their pasta on offer, going at 10kr or $2.60 a plate, and swedish meatballs (15 balls complete with fries or potato) going for 45kr or S$12 per plate. And so, yes Val Liew (cos there's a Val Shagday and Val Tan), I did try Swedish meatballs in Denmark! Heh.





Decided to stay "home" on my room this Saturday night instead of joining some friends in Copenhagen for the night so I could clean up, pack up, and rest. the past week had been real fun meeting people but the late nights tired me out so much so I figured it was best I stay cooped up in my cosy (and clean) room on this CNY weekend. My stomach's calling now, gonna head over to Chang's container to whip up some supper since our last intake of food was 6 hours ago.

Xin Nian Kuai Le, Wan Shi Ru Yi, Nian Nian You Yu, and Gong Xi Fa Chai everyone!


Oh yeah, before I forget, I should blog about how everyone probably thinks Singaporeans are part of China and the ratio of pigs to people in Denmark is 3:1. Next time!

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Double Catastrophe

Now I see the need to buy candles.
When most shops seem to stack up an entire shelf of those.

Last night, or rather, early this morning at 3.45am, Campus Village plunged into a blackout. There was no light or electricity in every container. My laundry was in the dryer halfway, and I was writing stuff when darkness fell. My battery pack was out of the laptop and so my laptop's electricity supply was cut off with a *zapp*. Drats. So yeah, to Aunt-I, right after you tagged my blog, I was already on the bed.

And that wasn't all. I dropped my camera (twice) during a lecture yesterday morning such that at last night's final party for International Students I couldn't take anything. And considering how much a photo fanatic (or some say whore) I am, it was cold turkey treatment. I'm heading down to the town centre now to check if I can repair my canon, and show my french friends where to buy cheap groceries. And if there's time, I wanna head to Ikea, and hopefully, prepare for another blackout.

Friday, January 27, 2006

The essence of cooking

Ahh. If there's one thing cliche every exchange student tells everyone back home, it has to be that of independence. You realise and appreciate how easy it is to eat about in Singapore, be it home-cooked food by parents or hawker centres selling cheap (and I really mean cheap) food. There's even 24-hour supper places you can hop over to in the middle of the night if you feel a tinge of hunger.

Not in Denmark.

For starters, it gets dark around 4.30pm, or at least during this winter season. And there's no culture of supper-ing. Danes usually eat a hot dog/cold sandwich for lunch, and a heavy meal for dinner. So for us Singaporeans adapting to food and culture here, our way of survival is cooking our own "chinese"-style meals. Surprisingly, I wasn't the only one who brought up a rice cooker (yuanheng and songning brought one each too!), but I was the only one with the privilege of baggage allowance to bring up an incredible 10kg of rice. *sticks tongue out*

Anyway, the point I was going to make is that of independence and how much time we set aside walking (until we buy a bike) to the supermarket at the town centre to shop for groceries. We not only have to think of:
- what we want to eat,
- how we want to cook it and how many people it will feed,
- how long we think it'll last in the refrigerator (since there's no freezer compartment),
- how heavy the food we buy will be (since we have to use our own plastic bags/carriers),
but also the preparation time before cooking the food.

Whilst tonight was only the 2nd time Lin Chang and I tried our hand mixing every damn sauce with most dishes, we still managed to impress the other Singaporeans with some methods/details of cooking, like chopping garlic to put in the oil and adding cornflour to create the stickiness in any gravy. With every luck, we managed to whip up 3 dishes and a soup in an hour. When school kicks in full-swing, we'll have less time.




After dinner I tried mixing up a flaming lamborghini which failed to light up. Chang and I both had a shot of a relatively warm drink before I made up something light for the rest. We went on to coffee, tea, and bridge before heading back to our rooms for the night. Last day of Introduction Week happens tomorrow, and my group is supposed to make salad for the dinner.

For now, the bed's calling.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Too lazy to post, so here's pictures from DTU and friends 2 days into Introduction Week.

http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album02

Knock yourself out while I go cook lunch now.
The sun's out today! But there's still tonnes of snow around.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Introduction Week Day 1



After the first day of Introduction Week, we headed over to the cellar bar in DTU's main building. These are some of my 11-member group featured. It's now into Day 2 and I've got to rush for the programme now, and this afternoon we're heading to Copenhagen for a tour. More updates to come! Meanwhile the link for my pics are rectified already...click on the link in the previous post!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

DTU, Copenhagen, Sweden, and Dragor

Wow. There's so many and so much I can barely think of how or where to start. Let's work backwards, starting from the last 2 hours I spent at container Z where Chang's portuguese friend Joel invited and introduced us to more international students. Chang and I already had dinner, whipping up a few dishes of our own, our very first mind you. Emmy joined us too, since she stays 6km out of campus with her landlord, and since food nor internet isn't included, we figured it was better off she joined us for dinner. We'll do better next time, having learnt that 2 teaspoons of cornflour for the stir-fried beef is too sticky and lettuces should be used for salads instead of cabbages. Lucky thing I brought up the light and dark soy sauce, as well as sesame oil up, only thing we didn't bring was oyster sauce since we couldn't find plastic bottles.

We didn't stay longer at container Z after 5 guys who returned from their road trip entered the kitchenette, emptying their haversacks with bottles of liquor, 4 cartons of different types of beer (that's 4 x 24 = 96 cans) and smiles ready for the night session. Chang and I decided to "turn in" for the night to prepare for Introduction Week which begins tomorrow, or rather, later today. But as you know, midnight's still early and I'm here blogging to feed you starving guys and gals.

Thursday, 19th Jan.
Arrived at Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport, and followed my parents' up the crew bus to First Hotel at Vesterbrogade to check-in. Met one of the 3 buddies, Dennis, who brought me and my parents, to DTU to check-in into my accomodation at Campus Village. As promised, pictures of the container where I live.



After checking-in, we headed down to the town of Lyngby to get my CPR, or social security number of sorts, without which you can't open a bank account in Denmark. After lunch and a little walk around town, we headed back to DTU where I packed some stuff for the weekend getaway. I decided to return to Copenhagen with my parents to spend the weekend with since they were in town, and there was nothing for me in DTU yet (pretty borin place mind you, other than the fun in campus village that's soon to come I think).

Back in Copenhagen, I was at one supermarket and compared prices of some beers, where a bottle of Heineken costs about S$1.90 a bottle, half the price of a Tiger, which costs about $3.60 a bottle. There are cheaper beers lah...but I'm not into that, yet.




Friday, 20th Jan.
Woke up for an early hotel breakfast, which was superbly fantastic, and as mentioned previously, makes you understand why breakfast is the most important meal of the day.


Took a walk down to Walking Street, and visited the famous Little Mermaid, but was miserably disappointed when I found out what it looked like. Without any obvious signages or anything fantastically luminous, the statue looked like (see pic 1). And on closer inspection, she looked like (see pic 2). So there you go, the little mermaid of Copenhagen, Denmark.




At night, we headed back to the Hotel vicinity for chinese food, as recommended by Dad, and braved a snow "storm" after dinner on the way back. Apparently I heard from my buddies the next day that the snow was so bad in the afternoon they had to close the airport and trains.




Saturday, 21st Jan.
Off to Malmo in Sweden for the day! For 3 of us, the return train fare to Malmo and back costed us 344dkk or about S$92, since it went under the bridge that spanned the sea between the two countries. I must emphasize how seamless it was transiting between the two countries as there was no passport check or any sorts, and travelling from Denmark to Sweden was merely another train stop. If only Singapore-JB was this convenient.



Shopping in Sweden is generally cheaper than in Denmark, and the Zara sale we saw confirmed it. For the girls' sake, here's a sampler of how cool/cheap their stuff are, and just so you can get jealous...

Spag tops at $11, jeans, jackets and skirts at $27,


And Nel, as requested, I found your birkenstocks, but they cost S$150 on average. I doubt you want me to go back...heh. Plus the variety of designs available then wasn't wide enough.







Sunday, 22nd Jan.
After church in the morning, we headed off to the little quaint town of Dragor, a little south of Kastrup Airport.


In the evening, we returned to the chinese restaurant Golden Bamboo for one last hearty meal before I left my parents for DTU.


Anyway, it's coming to 2.30am soon and I'm getting tired...blogger does take ages to load pics. So, for more pictures, click on http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album01

Till next time!