Homecoming

Spending the last two days in Europe in Stockholm made the entire 5 plus months come full circle. It was just how I started my journey except that it was summer and in a different hostel then. The first day was quiet - I was exhausted after all the traveling, so I only went to the supermarket to get treats for the people back home and some dinner, then I spent all day in bed. However, I found out -thanks to Bryan - that Kata was going to be in Stockholm at about 8 to catch her train to Lulea after having gone back home to Hungary for the holiday season. Well long story short, she didn't make it in time for the train and the next connection left close to midnight, so we had many hours of catching up and hugging. It was perfect and I was thrilled to get to see her again :D

The next day I met Mel and James who were coming in from Stockholm and then went over to Emmy's for ficka before bringing all the bags I had left in her place back to my hostel. Then after some shopping (crazy end of season sales were everywhere) I headed back to pack and hit the sack.

Leaving the next morning was really uneventful. Have breakfast, say goodbye to staff and board the express train to the Airport. This time leaving was not as emotional...I guess its because I felt like I had no ties to Stockholm per se. But I love Sweden, it had been awesome to me. I spent thr plane ride befriending the lady next to me - and Iranian who has been living in Sweden for 26 years - and imagining what seeing my loved ones at the airort would be like. I couldn't sleep at all on the 10 hour flight from Stockholm to Bangkok, however the 2nd leg from Bangkok to Singapore was when I was terrbily sleepy cos it wad finally nightfall in Sweden.

But of course, I could not really catch my forty-winks. But all my tiredness melted away when I saw the beaming faces of Shaun, Rett, Arman, Sharm and Ipul waving hi to me when I was picking up my bags at belt 19. Oh it was so good to see them! Many hugs and loving words were exchanged. I missed them all so much. After lunch I headed home with Ipul and Shaun. Mum was waiting at home and I was so happy to see her...We hugged so much.

I spent a long time just sorting out gifts (Mum loved all of hers thankfully) and putting books and clothes away. Then my Cuz Lin comes over with my adorable new neice and shortly after my dad walks in from work. It was so nice to be all together just talking and sharing. Then I decided to go see my grandma and aunt who were delighted to see me :) I helped to take down their Christmas tree and was off to deliver gifts to Shaun's family before the both of us headed out for a little stroll :)

I think my first day home was perfect. Though I must say, the only downside was the realisation of my immense weight gain and the fact that I have to start dieting pronto :( Europe's cheeses, chocolates and breads did me no good at all!

The nervewrecking trip back to Stockholm

God always always comes through for me, even in the most desperate of situations. Like yesterday night when I got to Copenhagen at 6pm, I found out my 9pm train to Stockholm got canceled and there is only a 4:03am one. It was freezing outside - since I was already in Scandinavia - and the train station closes at 1am. Which means Gabriel and I would be stuck out in the cold for 3 hours. Plus I had already booked a hostel in Stockholm for the night which meant loosing $23 euros in addition to loosing my toes. I wrote an email to the hostel in Stockholm explaining the situation hoping they will not bill me for the first night in case they were the compassionate kind :s

So began the mad search online at a 2euro per hour internet kiosk for a hostel at walking distance as we would have to walk back to the station at 3:45am. Everything we found was booked and overpriced. And everything that was affordable and nearby was fully booked. So I prayed. And we found another website with the same hostel listings and guess what, the cheap and 3-min-away hostel we wanted, had room! More than enough room! In just 2 mins....however that happened I do not know, but I am sincerely thankful.

We we walked over, slept for a good few hours and caught our 4:03 am train. Im now in Stockholm in my lovely hostel called city lodge. Can guess what, they are the compassionate kind. They said that even though it is their practice to do so, they didn't bill me for the first night. God is so good :)

I have two full days of rest, last min gift buying and packing then its full speed ahead to sunny skies and warm weather!

The Long Goodbye (and a bit arriving in London)

Finally it was 6pm on 16th Dec. I knew it's arrival could not be avoided. My friends started filling the my apartment to spend the last hour with me before my taxi came to whisk me away to the train station. Everyone was exclaiming how empty my room was, giving me hugs, and doses of optimistic thoughts. Kenza and Lucie were blocking the main door so I could not get out =D
I left a note on my desk for the next person who would be getting my room. I simply wanted to tell them that Lulea was an awesome choice and to use the room well, cos it was good to me.
Then shortly after, Micheal from upstairs came down and told me that the guys upstairs had prepared the Sustromming (fermented herring that smells awful) for me to try before I leave. So we all went up and boy oh boy, the smell of the open can of fish that hits you in the face. It smells like poo, literally. I'm not kidding you.
To eat it the 'right' way you need Swedish tunnbrod, boiled potatoes, sour cream, onions and dill. So you pile it all up, and take a small amount of the fish and dot it around. Okay it was bad, but not impossible to eat. I finished the portion I made and did not go back for seconds.
And was fun though, everyone was screwing up their noses and faces, making weird noises, looking sick in the face...
I went down shortly after eating my share and saying goodbye to the kind boys who opened the can of fish in their home - I seriously don't know how long it will take before the smell leaves their apartment. Back at my place, more people had come to say goodbye and it was getting really sad. I was proud of myself for not crying. Reticlyve was especially sad, but at least I'll see him again in Amsterdam!
And of course, dearest Katalin, came with me in the cab to the train station and we were just standing and talking in the carriage until just before my train had to pull out of the station. It was heartbreaking to say bye to Kata, we had a very long embrace before parting. She gave me a letter and a friendship band and I gave her my word that I will see her again.

On the train, the movies and my sleepiness from not having slept much the night before, helped to make sure time flew bye. I woke up right on time to gather myself and my stuff and alight at Stockholm. Frederick from LURC was also in the train, so I could not escape one more goodbye :)
I made my way to Emmy's home to hang out with her and her adorable baby girl for a while. We had lunch and I practiced my Swedish. Then it was time for me to make my way to the airport for my flight to London. Stockholm was having a snow storm, it's rare that they have snow so early and in such large quantities. This slowed down traffic and delayed my flight by 2 hours.

In London, the landing was so rough I really doubted if we were all going to make it. Apparently London is having freak weather right now with the strong winds and snow too. But thankfully God saw us through and He helped me get all the way to Fullham Broadway station, where Rachel Berry (a secondary school friend) and her dad were to pick me up and take me to their home. I'm so blessed that I have such a lovely place to crash in London and save so much money too. They are a lovely family and I really really like them.

More London updates to come in due time!

Coming full circle

Last night was the farewell dinner. Can you believe it? I felt like I just had the welcome dinner a a month ago, but 4 and a half months have whizzed by....

Something exciting that I've had to keep secret since 3 weeks ago is that I and my good friend Victor have been asked to be the Toastmasters for the dinner =D It was a little nerve-wrecking, but we did well I think. Well at least everyone was really really encouraging and sweet. My close friends here were especially surprised and they were like "no wonder you were always running away to do some project even though you already finished all your work!". It was hardest to keep it from them becuase I couldn't talk to anyone if I was feeling scared about it. But Victor and I were a good team. He's a wonderful brother in Christ too, so we also prayed before going up onto stage.

The farewell dinner was great. There was a real 'party atmosphere' and I had so much fun, which made it bittersweet. After the farewell dinner, we remained behind the school nightclub - STUK and partied it up till 3 in the morning. There was an awesome live band that did covers of bands I love like ' The Kooks', 'The Sounds', 'The Killers' etc. And the DJs were awesome too, great stream of music, can you believed they played 'London Calling' by The Clash! I really wanted Rett to be there at that moment.

There were also some encounters with assorted European boys which made the night even more um....interesting. And then I found out someone had been in love with me the entire exchange period but had been too 'big-boy, macho-man' (according to his best friend who spoke to me) to tell me. I felt really bad that I had to find this out 3 days before I leave :( And he's hot too ;) But yes ok, that's besides the point :p

At 3 we all gathered at Vishnu's place with the Brazlian guys (Marco, Retti, Lauro), Juan, Marcel, Bryan (who lives at Vishnu's place), Katalin and a few Swedish friends. We danced, talked and giggled the night away. But I couldn't shake the depressing feelings I'm carrying around as a result of my impending departure. At least I'll be meeting the Brazilian guys again in Amsterdam...

At 10am after throwing my laundry into the dryer I went to bed...got up at 4pm, wrote this post and now I will begin to pack up my room and live out of a suitcase. Wow. I never thought leaving here would be harder than leaving home. I'm right where I started but I'm different all the same.

St. Lucia's Day

13th December is the celebration of St. Lucia in Sweden. A girl form each family is supposed to wake up at the crack of dawn, adorn her hair with candles, wear a white dress with a red sash and sing to awaken her family.

I of course, did not make it for the 6:45am live telecast on TV this morning. But I went to the university on Thursday morning at 7am for our school's St Lucia celebration.

(Sorry for the bad picture quality. I was very far away from the stage.)

The choir sang beautifully and there was free gingerbread cookies and a special Christmas drink called Glogg.

A life long dream fulfilled

Ever since I saw the ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi it has been a dream for me to visit it. I just want to run my fingers along its cold, sturdy, clean-lined structure. I never imagined I would see it before I hit 40, so when we arrived at the ice hotel, I was literally jumping up and down saying I can believe we were actually there.

The doors opened on the 10th of Dec, and as I was leaving next week, leaving lulea on the 9th by train to Kiruna and seeing the hotel on the premiere was the most feasible plan. Not only were we in the first guided tour of the season, we were officially the first customers of The Ice Bar.
The hotel is built on the banks of a frozen river and every march the ice is harvested from the river while the erected structure of the ice hotel slowly melts back into the river by May. It is a marval of a different kind, this hotel. Picture really do say it best, especially since each suite was designed by different artists.
I had so much fun with the guys, couldn't have asked for anything more...except maybe walkways with friction, cos I fell on roads outside the ice hotel...twice :x
More pictures on Facebook folks.

Jul Marknad i Gammelstad!

We found another Christmas market, this time in the Unesco site Gammelstad that I visited when I first arrived in Lulea. I think it is pretty in the summer, but in the winter it is quite stunning. It felt like a totally different place.

Kata bonded with the sleigh pulling horsie =D
Interior of a cottage complete with fire.
Fresh baked bread made by very experienced hands.
Smoked salmon, which Dale declared exquisite =D

Ending with a Bang

It was my turn to make the flatmate dinner tonight. It was the third and last one. How quickly the months have flown by. I wanted it to be extra special. So I made Chapatis stuffed with potatoes (Aloo Parathas), Butter Chicken and a Tomato Chutney. For dessert I, I presented them with Chocolate Fondant Cake drizzled with vanilla cream......oooh it was the best part of the meal as far as I was concerned. Moist cake that just gave way to a warm, liquid chocolate center.....
OMNOMNOMNOM Indeed! And I was so stressed so that I would not cook everything on time, that I forgot to take pictures :( Oh well, just gives me reason to recreate it in Singapore then.

There was a bit of drama it the dinner as I was cooking midway when the painters came (to paint the ceiling and the walls that had water stains) and said they needed to cover the entire interior with plastic, so they needed me out of the kitchen. I was rightly annoyed, but could could I do except knock on the door right in front of mine (Katalin's door) and ask to use her kitchen instead. Thankfully Claudia and Nina, her housemates were cool with it :)

So dinner was half an hour late, but they said it was worth the wait. And to celebrate, I opened my bottle of sparkling wild strawberry wine to share with the girlies during dessert. It was perfect when paired with the fondant cake.

Activism

It was really cold outside during the Christmas market, so we ran into a museum of sorts for a while just to warm up. And it was a really cool place because all the exhibitions and posters were related to making the world a better place. The issues tackled were sustainable fashion, closure of Guantanomo Bay, HIV prevention and non-discrimination, making health care accessible to the poor and the war against terror & the propaganda surrouding it.

Sustainable fashion never quite looked so good. I think I could be persuaded to wear that denim gown for my wedding....
Found peace?
A critique of health care inaccessibility to the poorer nations
This is my favourite, the caption read "we can heal the world"
This is really beautiful, considering that they are just a bunch of condoms. The caption read "First date? Bring me flowers."
Too funny!
More posters related to HIV/aids.

It's beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

After the let-down of the Santa village, I was really looking forward to the Lulea Christmas market in town on Sunday. It was the first Advent yesterday. So after church to meet up with the guys. The weather had had gone from 2 degrees to -11 degrees overnight, made it even more Christmas-sy :)
Nothing beats body warmth in times like this.
Cute little stalls selling lovely handmade items and yummy treats :)
Carolers! Singing traditional favourites so beautifully and in the cold some more! So amazing!
We were there for slightly over an over, and then at 2.15pm, the sun set. It's so beautiful :)
The giant tree in the center.
Real wreaths! Handmade by a nice old woman.
Hot Glogg boiling over an open fire. It's a traditional Christmas-time drink, they were giving out some...it's quite an acquired taste :s
My home-made caramel pop and the streetlights.

We all agreed that the Christmas market was exactly what we were expecting the Santa village to look like. It was much better because it was cosy, non-commercial, really festive yet simple and you could feel yourself getting into the Christmas spirit without even trying. The decorations were nothing like the elaborate ones back home at Orchard Road, but somehow I felt this was so much more beautiful without even trying.

Party like a Hippie

We arrived back in Lulea after our Finland road trip at 8:30pm and there was a party at 10pm next door. So after fixing myself a nice bowl of oatmeal for dinner and making myself look as hippie as I could I ignored my body's cries for SLEEP (since I did not sleep the night before) and ran over next door with my chocolate flavoured beer =D

Marco and I
I think Olivier would give Gene Simmons a run for his money
Limbo Rock anyone?
I love this photo, and yes, Vishnu merely arranged the bottles and posed =p
Katalin and Minttu make a sandwich outta me
I got picked up
So did Song.
And rolled around on the icy grass

Okay then I really had to get to bed. Pronto.

Day Trip to Finland - Arctic Zoo and Santa Claus Village

I was never this excited about any trip to tell you the truth. Seeing Arctic animals in their natural environment and then going to Santa's workshop! Wowee! But alas, the Arctic zoo was a major let down, it was so poorly maintained and the exhibits were not really reflecting the habitats of those animals. Besides, the animals all looked so sad and bored. I seriously think that the polar bears in the Singapore zoo are much happier, at least they look like they are enjoying themselves from time to time.

It was really icy, and many people slid and fell.

This deer was the highlight of the trip, she up really close and we all got to pet her. She loved the attention.
Pretending to be some animal with antlers with the help of Katalin =D

Next Stop Rovaniemi, Santa Claus Village!
Well this place was a huge let down too. I guess I went there with expectations of seeing the process of how Santa gets his job done, but all we were met with were shops, shops, and more shops. There was a show with santa in it, and you could pay 30 Euros to take a photo with the jolly old rip-0ff, so I didn't.
But there is one really valid reason to still go there if you visit Finland...
Santa's Post Office!
Here you get to see the elves at work, stamping the letters and cards people send from this post office with Santa's official seal.
They keep stacks of letters from all over the world, I found Singapore's :)
The central square in the village. The blue line indicates the polar circle boundary.
Well all in all it was an okay trip I guess, but if you don't see the need to send post cards from Santa's post office I wouldn't recommend going to Rovaniemi. And Just skip the Arctic Zoo :/