Departure

I leave home in an hour, Lulea in 4 hours and Sweden in 8 hours.
I'm not feeling as mortified as I was yesterday...some excitement has kicked in but I'm still nervous.
Yesterday at church with the African family, the preacher prayed for those who would be traveling. I went up to him and said 'thank you for that, I'll be traveling alone from tomorrow till 4th november and I'm anxious about it'. He smiled and said, 'I don't know why, I just felt I had to say that in my prayer'. I love how my Father sees and meets my needs....I love Him.
Dale, Vishnu and Song were trying to make me feel better yesterday and Rett and my room mates were telling me how incredible it was going to be so I'm feeling alright.
This morning I got up early to takeout the trash and clean the house (cos it's my turn this week) and I saw a goodbye note from Andrea, and Katalin poped by just to say goodbye.
Song sent me a nice sms and I'll be seeing Vishnu at the bus stop to send me off. Facebook had so many kind messages too. I feel loved and so comforted.
The only thing left to do is call home, attah and shaun to say goodbye until I find the next internet cafe.
I covet your prayers for safety and good company =)
See you all soon!

Ratatouille

Since I'm gonna be away for 10 days, I figured I better empty out my fridge because everything in there were fresh vegetables that would not wait for my return. I had eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes, capsicums, mushrooms, onions, garlic....what to do?

Make Ratatouille of course! The French girls here thought it was a good idea too, so here goes my own spin on it.

1. Chop up the onion and garlic and set aside. Chop up the tomatoes and set aside. Chop up the zucchini, eggplants, capsicums, mushrooms and set aside.
2. Heat up some oil and saute the onions and garlic until nice and fragrant, then throw in all the vegetables except the tomatoes. Keep mixing until the vegetables go tender and you see that all the water is being released from them.

3. Throw in the tomatoes and mix well. At this stage, you can also add in some tomato paste if you feel that your tomatoes are not flavourful enough of if you want a thicker base, but the paste is optional. Then season with basil (I used dried), cumin powder (for a touch of indian), chilli powder, salt and pepper. And keep mixing until everything is well incorporated.
4. Cover and let it simmer for about an hour.
5. This is what you will get...
You can cook it for longer until you get a thicker base, its really up to you :)
This is how I ate my ratatouille...
With low fat yogurt on the side and 3 Swedish wheat crackers. Guilt free and delish!

I decided to freeze the entire pot of ratatouille so that I will not have to cook for 2-3 days once I return. Yup, I made THAT much!

"If only I could turn back time"....well now I can!

Daylight savings kicks in tomorrow guys, so as if a 6 hour difference isn't bad enough, from 25th Oct, it will be a 7 hour difference. I have already turned back my watch, phone and laptop in true, kiasu, singapore spirit. I was a bit worried if my flight timings will chnage but the other europeans told me not to worry and stop being silly. "Don't you do that in Singapore?", one asked, much to my amusement.

Anyway, it's not a welcome change to me, as I thought it was bad enough that the sun set at 4:30, and now...it's setting at 3:30. WAH PIANG EH!

It's so strange, this darkness thing. I only woke up close to 2pm today because I only got home at 2:30 after last night's Hawaiian and i had not slept the night before, so I was just flat out exhausted. So I wake up have brunch with the girls in my flat cos everyone slept in today...and then I sit down at my desk and notice that it was already dark by 5. Which meant I a total of 3 hours of sunlight. Not cool mother nature, not cool at all.

But what I wanted was a completely different experience from Singapore, and I sure and getting one. =D

Voy a España y Portugal

Yes peeps, as you may or may not have heard...lil' ol' Shila girl is going to Spain and Portugal next week and here's the interesting bit... she's going it alone.
Oh. Crap.
Yes, it was exciting at first, but now I'm just nervous. I'm trying to learn Spanish and Portuguese phrases that will help me while I'm there. I have also taken precautions I never would have bothered with if I was traveling in a group, such as paying more for a bus/flight than arrives in the day over one that is cheaper and arrives at midnight. But of course I did have to settle for night time arrivals at times.

Planning this trip was HARD. Harder than planning the Italy-Greece trip, because at least for that one I had people with me if anything went wrong plus Bryan speaks some Italian. This time I'm alone and I hardly know any the languages.

So why Spain and Portugal, and why now, and why alone? I feel the questions burning on your minds and tongues all the way from here.
Why Spain and Portugal: It's really out of the way (just like Greece) and if I were to use my rail pass to go there, I will be wasting precious days.
Why now: The week I'll be away (26Oct to 4Nov) is when all of my friends are going their own separate ways (except for Mel, who's staying put in Lulea). Vishnu's going to Amsterdam and Germany to see his dad, Song and Dale are leaving to I'm-not-sure-where, Bryan is going hiking in Germany. Its the one week buffer between quarters so we are all free.
Why alone:Song and Dale have been to Spain, Mel is going later once her boyfriend comes and Vishnu might just give it a miss altogether.

Basically I'm going to Granada, Lisbon and Barcelona. 2 nights will be spent on the road, but 8 nights will be spent in hostels or on the couches of some couch surfing member.

Websites that helped me with planning are:
1.Sleeping in Airports
2. Couch Surfing
3. Trip Advisor

Behold The Plan

I'm still undecided if I should bring my laptop or not...being connected for cheaper with Skype sounds really appealing...but I'm not sure if it is safe.
My thanks to Juan from Spain, who's also on exchange here, cos he allowed me to crash his lunch break to get some help when the spanish bus website was being difficult.

Warm weather here I come! Well...+13 degrees is very warm as far as I am concerned now =>

KLADDKAKA

Oh how I love Kladdkaka. It's a traditional Swedish dessert that is in fact a chocolate fudge cake! Chocolate cake is okay, but nothing satisfies me like a a good chewy fugde brownie, so this easy cake is just perfect fix for me. My thanks to Veronika, my Swedish friend who shared the recipe with me :)

Okay...so it's not a pretty cake, well it was never meant to be a pretty dessert really. Most cafes I've seen here serve it with just a simple dusting of powdered sugar. No frills, but I kid you not, scrumptious =D

Here's how to make your own slice of heaven!

100g butter (melted and set aside)
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
150 ml flour
60 ml cocoa
1tsp salt
5ml vanilla

preheat oven to 175 degrees C

prepare your baking tin: grease it with butter and then coat it thinly with breadcrumbs (this cake will stick otherwise)

Beat the eggs with the sugar until fluffy

Add all the ingredients except the butter into the egg-sugar mixture and combine well

Add in the butter little by little, mixing well after each addition

Pour into the pan and bake for 20-25 mins

The cake is ready when a tester comes out clean, but it should still be soft in the middle and not well-done, you will also notice that it is a very dense cake and will not rise much

Let the cake cool in the pan so that it can become chewy and 'fudgey'

N'joy! A small slice is all you need to be overcome with the pleasure sugar and chocolate bring, as this is one intense dessert experience...which is good, because then the kladdkaka will last longer =)

.......................................................................................
Communal living means caring and sharing. Whenever anyone bakes, we usually bring portions over to each others' apartments. This is how I divided the cakes I made today :) It's so fun living with so many cool, appreciative people around you.

Det Är Köld i Luleå Nu

It is cold in Luleå now. Last night I went over to Vishnu and Bryan's house in my PJs and a thin pullover, like I always do, since they only live 3 houses down, and once I was past the second house I started to feel really cold. My head was telling me "turn back now!" but I was too lazy, so I tried to cautiously jog over since the ground was icy and slippery. I was so happy to be indoors when I got there and then I was afraid to leave after. Bryan told me it was supposed to snow that night.

This morning I woke up at 8am to do my laundry (and try to study Swedish) and it was -3 degrees. So i put on a thicker jacket and walked out only to find my bike covered in little frozen water droplets and a very very thin layer of snow on the ground. The ground was really slippery too. Usually there are guys who come around and put gravel on the ground so we don't slip as much, but I left home before they came today so I almost fell about 3 times.



The days are getting shorter too...the sun comes up at about 7am and it begins to set at 4:30pm, so by 5:30 its already dark outside. Its so strange because I start feeling tired and like I want to go home, and I check my watch to find it's only 6pm!

It's really strange in the North of Sweden, because they get a summer and a long winter but their spring and fall is almost non-existent. In spring, everything blooms suddenly in a week, then it's summer. As for fall, everything is normal and suddenly the trees go bare at the same time and the icy chilly winds and snow come.

Deepalulea (18 Oct)

This one one fun night. As Vishnu said in the Facebook album, there is no need for alcohol, just have good food and great people and it is all set. Vishnu's mother had sent him some ingredients and had hand written all the recipes for him. So the amazing boy spent all day in the kitchen, cooking briyani, spicy soya sauce prawns, chicken curry and raita! It tasted stupendous.



He had also invited close to 30 people so the house was really packed. Where else will you find Scottish, Finish, Brazilian, Spanish, Polish, French, Singaporean, Australian, Puerto Rican, German and Swedish people celebrating Deepavali together?! I decided to wear my punjabi suit and add a bit more 'Indian' to the mix.


It was really cool also because almost all the guests brought desserts along so after the main meal we had a huge array of desserts to try. I'm tell you guys, this bunch of exchange students all have a culinary gift. My kulfi paled in comparison to a lot of the stuff on the table :p

The eating began at 7pm and went on till about 11pm. Then after helping to clean up, we rounded off the night just sitting around and talking, and finally by singing along to songs on someone's karaoke software in their laptop. Best party I've been to so far in Lulea, and the most wholesome one too.

International Dinner (17 oct)

This was really cool. Everyone brings a food from their home country and it's all laid out on huge tables, 'starters', 'mains' and 'desserts'. There must have been over 50 different dishes to try...from American "Better Than Sex Cake", Brazilian coconut shrimp stew, Italian Fritata, French crepes, Swiss breads, Trinidad and Tobago rice and beans, Puerto Rican Quesitos....and really the list goes on. It was amazing. Daunted by ho much I have been spending on food alone, I decided to go really easy and make coconut agar agar. Vishnu made payasam...which the Brazilians and a French girl claimed to be something from their hometown as well. Very strange but cool I guess.

SHOPPING! (partly out of necessity)

Ok, I must qualify this. I have put on 6KG in the 2 and a half months I've been here. And as depressing as it is to go out and shop for bigger pants, I had to bring myself to do it. But I bought them bigger also to allow for space for the extra long-johns and leggings I'll be using in winter. What made shopping better was the huge sale at H&M!I bought 4 pairs of pants, a lavender flapper girl dress, a top and skinny suspenders all for a grand total of SGD$144.60 :D
It's my birthday present to myself and from my parents, cos I used the birthday money they gave me to pay for half of it. So yay! I have more clothes to pick from...but this does not mean I'm not sticking to my diet...I want to fit into my old jeans still!

Flash Mob!

About 30 of us have been secretly practicing a dance routine to MJ's song "Bad" for about a week now. So today our efforts paid off when we did the dance in the middle of the school cafeteria at lunchtime. It was really cool, because we all walked in at different times and did our own thing, for example I was in the food queue talking to some friends.

So then the music began and a few girls started started to the shocked of everyone...

And then 3 more joined in and just as they were doing the third twirl...it was my cue to join in so I just ran out of the queue and joined in the dance cutting my friend of mid way in his sentence.


Then at differnt intervals more and more people started to join in. It was the coolest thing ever, everyone was cheering and clapping. Then the song ended and we grabbed our stuff and cleared out of the place as if nothing happened =)

We are now planning a bigger one to perform in the center of Lulea town!

Home made Indian Ice Cream - Kulfi!

On Sunday night (18th Oct) Vishnu had his 'Deepalulea' dinner (pictures and updates akan datang). So I decided that I'd make an Indian dessert. I wanted to make carrot halva, but it's kinda strange that many people do not like carrots. Then I wanted to make Laddoo, but I didn't want to do deep frying or go buy ghee that I'd never use again after that. So I decided, (as if it wasn't cold enough) that I'd make Badam Kulfi or indian almond ice cream.

Its really easy to make, but it takes like a crazy 8354356 hours for the milk to reduce so I was standing over the stove string for what seemed like an eternity... cos I made 3 portions at one go, so there was a lot of liquid in my pot. So if you want the gratification of eating good hand made ice cream and happen to have an entire afternoon free, here's the recipe :)

This recipe is for one portion and it should be enough for 6-8 people.

What you need
1 liter of milk

1 big slice of bread (crust removed and cut into tiny pieces)

1 teaspoon corn starch

1/4 cup sugar

3 strands of saffron (optional)

60g chopped almonds (dry roasted)

seeds of 5 cardamoms, ground (dry roasted to release the fragrance)

Fresh fruits like mango or strawberries (optional)

Method
1. Dry roast the almonds and cardamom together

2. Take 1/2 a cup of the milk, the chopped bread and the corn starch and whizz it in a blender until it becomes a paste

3. Pour the remaining milk into a non-stick pan and bring it to a simmer, making it it never boils, keep stirring gently until you see that it has reduced to half of the original amount.

4. Next add in the bread mixture and stir until it thickens again.

5. Then add in the sugar, saffron if using and 3/4 of almond-cardamom mixture and keep stirring well until it thickens up and becomes like a cream. It should easily coat the spatula you are stirring with.

6. Pour it into a tray or individual moulds and sprinkle the remaining almond-cardamom over the top of the kulfi. Then cover it with cling film, making sure that the cling film is touching the top of the kulfi so that a skin does not form. Then freeze it for 6 hours.

7. Serve it plain or with with mango and strawberry pieces.

I was actually surprised that people liked it, I really though the cardamom would make it too strange to eat for the non-asians. So my kulfi making days are far from over :)

The Coolest Sunday Morning yet

Yesterday morning, Samuel Awe (Ah-weh)- one of the nice people I met in th eEnglish church service 2 week ago- called me at about 8:30am to tell me there was going to be an English service at his home at 11am. Samuel is one of the many African PhD students here in Lulea Tech University. As I didn't know where he lived exactly, I met him at the church near his home and he took me to his place. On the way to his place, he told me that that his wife had just delivered their third son last week and after the service they were going to officially name the baby and have a dedication service.

Church in a home setting like this was really really cool, in fact because my home church in Singapore is a small family church, it felt familiar. We sang hymns, we prayed, there was preaching and there was a summary and Q&A as well. Plus there were cute little kids running around the living room, so yes, just like Changi Baptist Church :)

The message was taken from Genesis 34, about Shechem and Dinah. We learnt the importance of weighing our choices, heading God's wisdom in making decisions, valuing the things of God and not the world.

The baby naming and dedication was awesome, I felt so privileged to be able to witness this and be there for it as I was practically a stranger to this home and the friends and family in it. So I am one of the blessed few to have met darling 'Timothy Testimony Oluwatimilehin Awe' in person.

Next week the service will be in a church in town. They usually book a small room in a church, but this week the church needed the room for something so it ended up being at a home. So guess I know my how my Sunday mornings are going to be from now on :D

Jag är tjugotvå år nu

The title means, I am 22 years old now, in Swedish. It's pronounced: Ya [I] are [am] shu-go-to-war [22] oar [year] nu [now] =D

I turned 22 in Santorini, Greece. I thought it would be really awesome...but I missed the guys back in Luleå so much more that day and then I started to miss everyone back home in Singapore too. It was kinda lonely though I was with two friends. I'm not used to birthdays like this...no hugs or cakes or songs...

I think the saving grace was when I got a flood of sms-es on the monring of the 10th from so many different people. I was literally lifted up, it was an amazing feeling to feel so loved... And coming home to check my Facebook wall to see all the lovely messsages...I'm so blessed. Plus there was Vishnu who was so sweet and gave me a note before I left, to open on my birthday because he could not come with us. Big brother I never had eh?

Anyway, I can't help feeling so old. I mean 21 was great. I wish I could be 21 forever. Now everything will go downhill till I'm 40. Hahaha =>
But I'm thankful for the 22 years God has blessed me with and all the people and experiences he has filled them with. I honestly, would only want to change one thing...something that happened when I was about 7 or 8 years old. But apart from that, everything was been worth doing or learning from.

Thank you mummy and naina for bearing with me for 22 whole years and giving me the absolute best you had to give me! I appreciate you both so much =) Wish I could have been home with you to celebrate.

This is why I'm now on a Diet

A great deal of the trip to Italy and Greece involved eating. To be clearer, by eating I mean, really really yummy, sometimes overpriced, cheese, sugar, carbo ladden foods. So now, I'm sticking to museli, yogurt, soups, fruits and veggies. I'm not kidding when I say my pants are getting dangerously tight.

Italy





























Pear and Gorgonzola Focaccia, bought from one of the many evil bakeries and pizzerias



Even the plain ones were delish







Sweet treats! I love the citron tart, its like Kueh tart, just with lemon instead of pineapple...but somehow more luxurious





Nutella Crepe in the making





Every bite was a great big hunk of awesome. I. Kid. You. Not.





Gelato! I must have have tried at least 7 flavours =x






Without a doubt, the best Pizzeria in Cinque Terre







Farinata....chickpea and cornflour creation which I totally <3











4 Cheese Pizza. OH YEAH BABY!


Ricotta Quiche. No words can describe this rich, creamy godsend. No words.





No, I did not just buy shoes.

I bought a 4 cheese calzone from hell. Really, this monster was delicious but there was a mountain of cheese in the middle and it was impossible to finish...I ended up leaving behind enough cheese to make another 4 cheese pizza with. Never. Again.


Venetian sweets. I loved them so much I bought a Venetian Dessert cookbook =p

Greece



Feta Cheese Pie, I would do close to anything to get one now




White eggplants in olive oil, no one else liked it so I had the whole plate!






Grilled slab of Goat's cheese. MMMMMMMMMMMM



Tomato balls, called Keftedes. Oh so good.




Sesame seed encrusted bread ring bought from an uncle by a street corner. Best breakfast on the trip, considering that it was only 0.50 Euro.



The nice uncle even posed for a photo =)



Stockholm




My all time fave in Sweden, Falafel!



So now if mummy tells you something like, "Shila girl has become fat" or "Shila girl looks like a plum"...you know who the culprits are =p