Touchdown in Denmark!

Thanks to all who came to send me off at Changi, especially Speng and Ah-Bing for coming after work (when Speng's attachment is actually in Jurong Island), Huiping and Alvin (and Weitong, SueAnn and Jermaine for sharing my present), and the UCC peeps like Keesiu, Chuhua, Hannah, Charissa, Yee Fang, Eugene and Jingkai who intended to surprise me but only fairly succeeded. And of course, to my partner-in-crime, Luyi who was so punctual that she braved solitude for the times I neglected her presence. Thanks to everyone who called/sms-ed me for not being there too, much thanks!

There are quite some pics I took, but I'll post them up when I get on my own laptop and my room connection. I arrived at Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen yesterday morning at about 7 in the morning, and waited for quitea bit before my baggage appeared on the conveyor belt, on the wrong one that is. I followed my parents who hitched a ride with the crew bus to First Hotel in downtown Copenhagen where they checked in, and where I arranged to meet my Danish 'buddy' Dennis so he could bring us to the university about 10km north of the city. All in all, I had 2 luggages, 1 haversack, 1 backpack, and 1 laptop bag which my parents helped me lug aboard the train and bus to DTU in Lyngby.

We bought a ticket for my parents and myself that costed 155dkk or approx S$40 for a two way trip to DTU and back. Here in Denmark the transportation is divided into Zones and travelling between zones means you pay a certain amount but you can hop on the bus or trains to get around. 20minutes on the S-train and 10minutes on bus 591 later, we arrived at my campus accomodation. I must say, it was fairly disappointing since red container boxes greeted us at first sight, akin to those foreign worker accomodations you see at construction sites back home. You'll see when I post pictures up. There I met the other 2 'buddies' in my buddy group, Youssef and Birol who also commented they were sorry I had to live in such 'poor' conditions. However, given the distance, I'd rather put up on campus than live outside since transportation would cost a whole lot more. Apparently, a monthly ticket (at student rate) for the buses and trains costs around 600dkk, or S$160. More on my room when I get the pics up.

I'm currently online in the hotel crew room where I'm putting up with my parents over the weekend, reason being it's not often they'll visit me (in fact probably not after this), and we might take a ride up north to Sweden tomorrow. Of course the other reason is there isn't much to do in the university until Introduction Week begins next Tuesday. It is, as what everyone complains, cold and boring in Denmark. Well I asked for it, so I won't complain, YET.

Weather usually hovers around zero degrees celcius, with cloudy skies that mask any sunlight in the day (even then daylight only happens between 8.30am and 4.15pm on average before it turns dark). What falls from the skies is more often flurries, or something between rain droplets and snow. It isn't cold enough for heavy snow, yet what falls on you looks like small snowflakes/crystals that you can brush off, or melt. If I'm not wrong this will hold up for a couple more weeks or months before spring takes over. My room heater had better not fail!

Food is expensive. Have I mentioned that yet? Okay maybe let me re-phrase. Everything is expensive! A MacDonald's Big Mac mealcosts about 55dkk, or about S$14. But the buffet lunch we ate yesterday at Pizza Hut was about 69dkk per person, or S$20, excluding drinks or the salad bar. And there were ONLY 4 varieties of Pizza available. Yarrr-meee.

Denmark is 7 hours behind Singapore, and after 12 hours of sleep (from 7pm to 7am) last night, my parents and I headed for the breakfast at the hotel below. Looking at the spread of fruits, bread, pastries, meat, cereal, eggs, coffee and juices available, you actually begin to understand why breakfast is the most important meal of the day. After that hearty breakfast, I'm ready to skip lunch and do an early dinner. And it might possibly the plan for the next 6 months. After all, one of the targets I had coming here was to lose weight (in the cold where exercising seems to be the last thing on your mind), save money, and travel. Hmm...the last two sounds contradictory. Oh yeah, I forgot I was here to study too. Heh.

I don't suppose anyone will sms me anytime soon, so when I get my danish phone up I'll let you guys know again. Don't worry when you guys sms my Singapore phone, you still pay local rates and not international ones. I however, may not reply since I will be charged international rates. Meanwhile you can still surprise me by sending me stuff at the address I posted up in the previous post. Till next time when I get back to my room and my laptop in DTU, take care and have fun studying! Abel, out.

Oh once again, let me post Keesiu's blog address so you'll get to read a bit about the UCC version of my send-off. That's www.livejournal.com/users/pixiezdust. Don't forget to gmail me those pics Keesiu. =)