Free Wheeling

It's true what they say about never forgetting how to ride a bike, but what I think I had really forgotten was how it feels to be riding a bike. Shaun loves cycling and he always tells me that there's nothing quite as freeing as riding a bike and how it brings him joy in the simplest, purest most unadulterated form.
Today after school I headed over to Vishnu and Bryan's place and watched the first episode of Power Rangers on Bryan's laptop! I know, how very retro right? It was so funny and after the episode Vishnu and I were reeling from how as kids we never noticed how badly made the show was.
Then I decided that the weather was too perfect to be wasted on a day nua-ing indoors, so I got changed, packed a small bag of snacks , a good classic (Things fall apart by Achebe) and of course Gordon my camera. I loaded everything onto Logan's little white side basket from the red cross, and set out for the lake on my own.The only thing missing was my ipod. But it was a great '6km x 2 'cycle nonetheless. I'm not a proficient bike rider, and cycling everywhere here is something I have to get used to...when sometimes I feel like I rather walk. Perhaps, I am getting better since I've not fallen and rolled off into some ditch. The best part about being on a bike is being pushed along by the wind, flying downhill past the woods and getting to where ever you want to go three times as quickly.
When I got to the lake, I found a nice shady spot under a tree and read my book while munching on ultra yummy Ballerina biscuits. The constantly changing lighting also made it great for some scenic shots - check em'out in full on Facebook :)

It was refreshing to be on my own in unfamiliar territory. I tend to like wandering off my own back home and having some time to myself to read and reflect was valuable time. I really felt recharged by the end of it. Perhaps I'll get a bike when I get back home so I can have even more romantic solo adventures.
There was more cycling at night too! After dinner and watching some telly....at about midnight we decided t cycle 15 mins down to this place that was 'oppet 24.00'. When We got there it was closed! I guess it meant 'opened till 12am'! Well, given that is is Lulea, I'm not surprised. So after a short while of being grumpy about not getting fries and laughing at ourselves, Dale, Vishnu, Bryan and I decided to just head to a petrol station for a bite. We had to cycle back in a heavy drizzle, but thanfully it was not a cold or windy night, so we survived!

Make-do Spinach and Seafood Fried Rice

Dale and I really wanted...no scratch that, we really needed a plate of hot fried rice in all it's eggy, soya saucy splendor. So i decided to just make do with the strange rice that is available here, some random ingredients in my pantry and of course spinach (cos I have a 1kg bag of it to finish).
I loved my dinner, it was so yummy! Needless to say, you can get way better fried rice in Singapore so don't bother with this one. But if you must know, this is how I did it:

1.Cook a portion of rice with ample water, a pinch of salt and a few drops of oil
2.. Meanwhile defrost spinach, crabsticks and fish sticks. Spice and salt the spinach (I used corriander powder, salt, and chilli powder).
3.Heat some oil in a pan add chopped garlic and an egg, stir and when egg is almost well done throw in the rice, spinach, 'seafood', salt, soya sauce and curry powder and stir well to mix everything together.

That's all there is to it =D

Spinach and spiced oil pasta

I've been lumped together with British kitchen goddess Nigella as someone from the 'Gastroporn' genre. According to Vishnu, I'm very expressive when I'm eating and that look of pure bliss on my face after every mouthful just cracks him up.
*shurg* I dunno, I just love food and I'm hungry all the time here. I tell myself I'm walking and cycling a lot so I can eat big portions around the clock.

So this section will be dedicated to my culinary thrills and spills. The good, the bad the inedible...they'll all make it here :)

1.Spinach and spiced oil pasta
I have so much pasta and spinach here that I came up with my own recipe which has kept me very satisfied for two nights now. Here's how you do it :)
1. Throw in a portion of cooked pasta into a pan of hot olive oil (i used lemon infused olive oil) add in some salt to taste and a handful of chopped spinach (mine comes frozen in a bag so I just defrost them first).Give it a good stir until the pasta is evenly coated with oil and spinach.
2. Lower the heat and add in any kind of chilli powder, a pinch of cumin and a sprinkle of dried oregano (skip the oregano if you don't like the strong almost minty tatse, I know the boys here find it too strong, but i love it).
3.Transfer onto a plate and serve with cheese (either a slice put on top while the pasta is still hot so it melts, or grated cheese sprinkled on top)

Last week of ignorant bliss

Hi again guys! It's orientation week 2 and it's the last week before school starts, so I'm having as much fun as I possibly can. The result- many late nights and futile attempts at blogging - I just end up falling asleep at my desk. But today is different. Today I'll offer you a sneak peak into my (not so) secret life as an exchange student in Lulea - no dirt, just fun stuff ;)

To begin, here are some pictures of the university.


1. Swedish Lessons!

Hej (hey)! - Hello in Swedish :)

This whole week we have intensive lessons from 10:15am to 11:45am then a listening exam on Friday and a written exam on Monday. I can say a few things I guess, but can't quite type them out... I don't have the funny symbols on my keyboard. But it's manageable and I'm having fun :)

2.Bikes!
Meet Logan(athan) Pentasport...

I'm so happy I found him :) Everyone had gotten bikes except Bryan and I, so we kept going down to the recycling center to find bikes but never found any that fit right. It really was love at first sight - well for me at least. I even got a basket from the red cross so I can put my groceries and books in it when I cycle.

And for those of you who are wondering, yes I can ride through the woods to school, Mel's place (5km away), and back. It's quite fun but it gets really cold when you cycle against the wind at night, so I take gloves and an extra sweater when I know I'll be back late. The many slopes also mean I'll have well-toned legs by the end of my exchange so I'll just have to grit and bear with aching thighs for now and reap my rewards later.


3.Dinner/Dim Kopi sessions
My kakis, like me aren't really party animals, so we haven't been going to the nightclub on campus all week. Instead we stay in, cook our own dinners and da bao to one of our homes to eat together.
Then we usually play a game of Tai tee, watch some trashy MTV reality show and have hot chocolate or Owl 3in1 coffee that Dale brought from Singapore. Bryan has been hanging out with us so much that he speaks Singlish like a pro now and beats us at tai tee.When We go over to Song or Mel's place - there they have a kitchen shared by everyone living along the corridor - there is a wall with basic phrases and swear words from languages from all over the world. It keeps us entertained for hours on end.
Here's Mel contributing to the Mandarin/Hokkien/Cantonese section.
I love my nights in with these guys :)

4.Ice Cream
We also like going out for ice cream (glass in Swedish) in town...yeah it's cold but our cravings get the better of us :)
5. Lancing! Lancing!
No doubt about it, I've saved the best for last!
On Wednesday night, there was a no alcohol dance party called dirty dancing. And before the party there were dance classes to teach us the foxtrot and Jive (or bog as the Swedes call it). The classes were free, so Song and I decided to go even though we weren't going for the party later.
It was immensely fun! The guys formed the outer circle and stayed put, and the girls formed the inner circle and got to move to the right every 10 mins or so to switch partners. I was alright at the foxtrot, but Jive was easier and way more fun. The foxtrot was sexier though, haha, cos it would not work unless you and your partner were pressed against each other :p I had some really good partners too, especially this German guy who had been classically trained so he led really well. And then there was this very intense Swedish first year who was a bit scary...But the most fun I had was with a Swedish girl named Julia (Yu-lia), who had been taught the dance by her dad and prefers to lead. Needless to say, Song and I were grinning and very dizzy from all the spinning by the time it ended.
Best week ever? Oh yeah.

p.s. I got a Skype plan to call back to Singapore landlines or mobile phones and I get 6 hours a day for a very very low price and you'll only pay local rates. So if you want me to call you, please leave a comment with the time you want me to call you and I'll try to get home in time to get to you. Sweden is 6 hours behind Singapore. Missing you guys back home!

I get by with a little help from my (new) friends =D

Okay guys, I know is really really overdue, but I just haven't been bringing Gordon (my camera) around much this week. So I'll quit procrastinating and introduce you to the great new friends I've made in Lulea!Vishnu (s'pore), Bryan (Puerto Rico), Dale (s'pore), Me, Song (S'pore)

These are the people Mel and I usually makan with and usually in the evenings I'll be at Dale's or Vishnu's for dinner or some kopi and trashy MTV reality series. Bryan's even picking up Singlish cos he's around us so much. It's nice cos everyone kinda looks out for each other and I think I couldn't have asked for better company :)

More neighbours.....Fredrick (France), Reticlyve and Marco (Brazil)

They dropped by Vishnu's place while the rest of us were watching TV after dinner and got ready for a pajama themed party. Don't they look spiffy?
Marco is one of the first exchange students I met here and he's a real sweetheart, always so cheerful and making sure everyone's having a good time.

More pictures to come in due time I promise!

GodStop.

Today, I finally stopped. And I think God was waiting all this while for me to stop, but you know Him, He's a gentleman. He waited about three weeks for me to stop and the moment I did, He rushed out to meet me. Kinda like when the prodigal son returned and his father ran out to meet him. It was glorious, serene, overwhelming, humbling and uplifting all at the same time. My God knows exactly what I needed and He met me. All I needed to do was stop.


Ever since I arrived my days have been long, fun, hectic, packed with activities. Even on Sundays, yes there were no English services though I must have asked a dozen people, but I realized that even if there had been, my Sundays were spent traveling on trains. Probably that's why I felt like the prodigal son, I've not been at a worship service in what feels like an eternity. Especially since in Singapore church was not a Sunday morning slot, it was my Fridays to Sundays and it spilled into my weekdays, and I loved it.

But here, I've learned that being involved at church was not a want, it to me now feels like a need. It taught me how to depend on God and be constantly thankful, constantly praising. I've just had so much going on that I didn't notice that all-too-familiar God-shaped hole forming in me. And tonight at about 11pm, in the quiet and stillness of my empty house I was prompted to worship...truly worship not just read the devotion like I usually do, but to sing and reflect as well.

It's strange because tonight is the only night I've decided to stay in for the evening so far. I've been coming home past midnight a lot and because I start my day early I am just too tired to really take time to be with God. And the only reason I stayed in is because I am the only one among my roomies who doesn't have a bike and I didn't want to walk alone to the party. And I had actually spent the whole day looking for a bike and was quite bummed out that everyone managed to find one except me.

But now, I'm glad I had a quiet night in with three friends and a simple dinner. And once everyone had left I obeyed the prompting and listened to 'Indescribable' by Chris Tomlin. I was immediately reminded of my initial reaction when I arrived in Lulea, one of wide-eyed wonder at how beautifully God had crafted this place with its lakes and forests and wild flowers. And as I began to pray I was reminded that I worship God because I was meant to do it, when I don't, that is when that feeling of lack that is so easy to ignore and so hard to put your finger on surfaces. The need to worship is extremely real, it is a balm to the soul and I think the song 'From The Inside Out' by Hillsongs puts it well - "My soul cries out to worship you from the inside out". It couldn't be truer, I needed to say "Lord you are awesome and I praise you", I needed to sing "And I found myself in You, Lord". I'm going to just worship like this on my own until the English service at the end of September.



I'm so glad I skipped the party and just stopped tonight. The others may have gained a reputation for being cool (but yeah, who said partying is the coolest thing to do), but I met God. And though He didn't say very much, He spoke into me and reminded me of the reason He created me- to worship Him. Not because He needs to be worshiped but because when we don't, we will eventually realise an emptiness that nothing else can fill...we're just wonderfully wired to need constant interaction with our creator. How awesome is that?

On Culture

Being here in Europe and traveling with Mel has been an eye-opener in many ways. People always wonder how this girl from India and that girl from China came to be such good friends and converse so fluently in English with one another. I like it when they ask, so that I can clarify that we are both from Singapore, that we were both born there, our families have lived there for generations and that the country is made up of 4 main ethnic groups so we need English as a common language. Because whenever we tell them "Oh I'm from Singapore", they go "oh but you look like you're from India" or "China"...which i guess is technically correct.

Anyway the above paragraph is just a 'by the way' kinda thing. What I really wanted to muse about was my culture and identity. What got me thinking about this was an Indian guy at the Copenhagen train station who stopped to talk to me becuase he thought he had found a kindred Tamil spirit . He had moved there with his parents 20 years ago to escape the civil war in Sri Lanka.

So he was talking about Indian culture and language and how the modern Indian girls in Denmark speak Tamil very well and know traditional Indian dance. And when I admitted that I could barely speak Tamil and and hardly in touch with Indian culture, he began to lecture me about the importance of preserving my culture. I patiently listened and nodded for the entire length of his 'talk'. Then I realised that what he was saying made perfect sense for someone living in a country where his/her ethnic group is still seen as a migrant community and not an official people group. But in Singapore-and please, feel free to disagree with me on this but this is my sincere opinion- I don't need to preserve Indian culture.

I pride myself on being Singaporean first, then Indian. So the culture that I hold dearest to me is the Singaporean culture. Singlish, Chilli Crab with fried mantou, Bengs&Minahs, struggling with your mother tongue at the O levels, national day songs, supper clubs...these are the things of MY culture. And if I ever were to migrate, it would be this Singaporean-ness that I'll take with me. Of course being Indian will colour who I am to a certain degree but it does not get much more than that.

Let the mainland Indians carry on thier cultures where ever they are because it is their culture. If they don't preserve it, who will? Likewise, as a Singaporean I should preserve Singaporean culture. Why should I preserve a culture I don't even fully grasp just because that is my ethnic group? It's not that I'm not proud of my Indian-ness, I don't have any problems with it, it's just that the Indian culture is not something I am acquainted enough with to want to fiercely preserve. I'm more concerned that collective Singaporean culture doesn't die out some day.

But that's just me, the stubborn and opinionated one....Always having to be against the grain.