Get ready for some tear-jerking laughter

Ultimate Frisbee Seeding Competition
23 Feb 08

It's different from outdoors, the indoor competition is 5-on-5, much faster and way more high fancy throws (no wind to blow it away mah). Anyway it was pretty exciting, and although there were only 4-5 teams playing round robin...gosh, it taught me that size really does matter @_@

The Flying Circus after their 'pep-talk'
(of which Jiamin understood nothing, because they were speaking in Danish all the time :p)

Their post-game with Ragnarok's II (second team in blue)

Ragnarok I, Copenhagen's seeded top team.
The guy in the foreground's like 2m tall @_@
He came for Flying Circus training once, and he was THE MAN I tell you. Caught EVERY single thing that came in his way...even during drills.

The Spinners

Post-game; Ragnarok I vs Spinners.
It wasn't a close score, but Spinners fought really hard.
And just to give you a rough sense of the size of these players, I'm up to no. 2's armpit.

Post-game: Flying Circus vs Spinners
(the young guy in blue pattern pants looks like Harry Potter! :p)

Biased videos of Flying Circus vs Ragnarok II heh.

Flying Circus team-talk

The Flying Circus Jersey
(Jiamin & Oscar)

Aaaand finally, the best thing that happened at the game :D

Dinner with Poo Chu, 21 Feb 08

Was invited to dinner by Godma's friend. She's a bubbly Malaysian lady, who married a Danish and has been here for the past...13 years or so. I expected to be having dinner at her place, but when I got there, it turns out that she was bringing me along to a dinner with her girl-friends heh. So after finding out the directions to her friend's place (and also after taking a quick snap shot of her and her family), began my cycle up north to Østerport.

Poo Chu & her family
(minus one boy who was in school I think)

Poo Chu in the background
Karen hiding somewhere in the middle
Thora in the foreground

It was Karen's place that we went to, also a Malaysian. Her bunch of girl-friends are all working in Unicef, and it's been by far the most intriguing and captivating dinner company that I've ever been in. Thora's from Baghdad, and the whole night I was just listening to her stories...stories of when she was a child, where and what kind of environment she grew up in, what her work in Baghdad entailed, the friends she lost in the war...gosh, it was never-ending. I wish I could have stayed to listen to her talk the whole night. I wouldn't be able to document it all here though, but I will one of these days...I hope she gets to write the book (about her life story) that she has been wanting to do :)

Scrumptious dinner

Hyggelige
(ask Su Re! :p)

And more Hyggelige...

Dinner at Orsi's, 16 Feb 08

The wonderful meal Orsi [Hungary] cooked/baked from scratch.
Main dish: Hungarian Goulash
(which I unfortunately didn't take a picture of as we were busy eating :P)

Our host(ess) making drinks...

Dimo [Bulgaria]
I thought he was posing for me, but it turned out he was holding out the glass asking me to help as the drink was overflowing...oops, miscommunication! :p

This dinner was organised by my Hungarian friend, Orsi whom I met during our first week of school orientation. She's a fantastic host, and the dinner company was really quite international :) Heh. It made dinner all the more interesting, as people were trying hard to understand each other, and it was quite funny in some instances. But, it was real heartwarming to see that all of us were trying, and enjoying the company, and not just some 'forced social gathering' :) The Europeans are really quite friendly and very willing to come out of their comfort zone/social clique...those not in their home country anyways! :p

Was completely bemused by the interesting cup designs that Orsi had!
Left: A coffee cup that you hold by rim
Right: A ceramic cup molded to look like a crushed plastic cup
(I almost bought that for you Jie! :p)

Dimitri [Greece] trying to get Dimo to try his concoction

'

L2R: Dimitri, Orsi & Dimo
With Dimitri looking set to make everyone drunk with his drinks.

Orsi lives in this really nice (and expensive) apartment with her Danish boyfriend

So, story is that she's already been in Denmark for the past year or so, but only just decided to transfer to CBS...as her uni in Hungary bored her to tears :/

Wanted a picture with us and the host(ess), but the
French dudes decided they wanted to 'chap' in haha.
Both French dudes are Thomas.

The dinner company! :)
L2R: Thomas, me, Annika [Netherlands], Jiamin, Dominika [Poland], Dimo & Thomas

TOOK PART IN A FLASH MOB and a STREET MARCH TODAY!

:D

seriously exciting.

Where everyone froze in their tracks for 4mins when the clock struck 1pm,
right in the middle of busy shopping street [Stroget] on a Saturday.

No to 'buying' women!
(that's Jianfeng & myself...being overly-enthu :P)

People say the darnest things...

In response to Dimo's comment on how tough it is to be a guy, especially on days like International Women's Day (where it is tradition that women receive flowers).

Annika: What? You guys are so lucky, you get to pee standing up! Just for one day if I were a guy, I'd pee the whole day!
.....

In response to Annika's comment that in some countries, tomas means tomato.

Thomas: [matter-of-factly in his frenched-english] Well you can eat me.
.....

Day trip to Roskilde 15 Feb 08

Departing from Hovedbånegardens Station
(a.k.a. Grand Central Station) to Roskilde, the previous capital of Denmark.

I honestly didn't think this trip would amount to anything much, after all it's just another town outside of Copenhagen that is probably hyped-up for tourists. Well, it is semi-true, while they kept highlighting the fact that Roskilde was a place of the vikings, it was one of the most important cities in the 11th century...and is 'home' to the body of King Harald I (those of you who know the anglo-saxon literature, or movie for that matter, Beowolf). I was really impressed with their materials for tourists...really tourist-friendly with excellent maps. Funny town.

A very pretty graveyard...serious.

Beautiful skies :)
and yup, that's David & Carol on the left

Inside the Roskilde Cathedral,
where all Danish kings - and almost all queens - have been buried since the Reformation.

Before the Reformation in 1536, the cathedral was Catholic (evident from the Catholic-looking High Altar) but they later removed the side altars and new furniture was installed for the new Protestant service.

That section of the Cathedral was funny, because they had actual scratch marks on the pillar to indicate the height of the kings...and one of the Christians (either I or III) was only a few cm taller than the visiting Thai king at that time...no taller than 1.63cm. Looks like they saved some marble from making his coffin.

Tombs

Frederik V (1746-66)
One of the tombs that awed me the most.
[with our 'tour-guide', Rasmus, at the far-left corner]

Amazing work of art.

Loved how this coffin was 'decorated', so sombre yet stately.

The view of the sanctuary, with Harald Bluetooth lying in the foreground.

Sarcophagus of Queen Margrete I
(surprisingly there are only 2 queen Margrete-s to this day)
They say a special bell is rung twice daily in commemoration of this queen....
but I didn't hear nothing. Owells.

The 1554 grand baroque organ.
We were trying to see if there was anyone up there playing...
but figured it was probably a tape playing.

Roskilde Palace

I know what you're thinking - THIS? is a PALACE? I had the same reaction. But it's no longer a real palace, it's the bishop's residence, since 1923. And today it also houses a few museums (that we were too kiam to pay to enter)

Inside the Viking Ship Museum...
Oh yes, let the mighty viking alpha-males roar.
(Although David looks quite happy to be a viking)

These ships displayed just outside the Viking Ship museum are exact replicas from the ships that made years ago. They built these ships from scratch with the tools and materials used from that time period...yeap, that means with old fashion tools such as axes to cut the timbre.
Such hard work!

Haha...'tis for me waddles.
Can you believe they managed to fit 30 vikings in one of these ships??
Oh boy, the smell...

The original viking ships from the 11th century.

While we were in the museum, the lake froze over...and the excited boys (yes, I emphasize the choice word of boys :P) scurried to throw whatever they could find, into the water.

The evidence caught on tape.

Us...uh, blocking the Roskilde station in the background :P

Day trip to Malmo, Sweden 9 Feb 08

Waiting for our train to Malmo, Sweden







Wind farm



The old post office

The same symbol we saw in front of the UN hq in NY!

In front of Stortorget (1536) with Ubah.
The biggest square in Malmo...with King Karl X Gustav who historically took Skane from Denmark :P
And yes, ice-skating! :D This was where part of the movie (from student movie night) was filmed heh.

Norway & Finland
In Tromsø, the guy at the visitor's centre told us (off the record) that the Norwegians have a love-hate relationship with the Finnish.
Denmark & Sweden
And the fact that many Danes live in Sweden (due to lower currency exchange rate) but work in Denmark have irritated the Swedish government regarding their tax system.
Singapore & ...
I guess we're not the only ones dealing with neighbouring relationships :)

Yocksong & Jiamin in front of the City Hall (1546)

The streets in Malmo are oh-so-pretty :D
And thank God for a wonderful sun-shiny day! It really felt like Spring was coming...just for that one day.

Pausing for a touristy shot


Lilla Torg, Malmo's charming square, surrounded by buildings from the 16th century.
Pretty, pretty, pretty.




Charming building-cum-house-cum-art gallery.

Inside the 19th century warehouse where Scandinavian design, architecture and art are displayed.

This is my absolute fav :)

Walking along the moat of Malmohus Castle.
Jiamin with his obsession with duck rice.

The oldest Renaissance castle in Scandinavia. But disappointingly, the interior was quite modern :P

This is the largest dog park I have ever seen. Trashes Bishan's dog park 100 million times :P But yes, that means lots...and lots...and lots of dog poo.

And yes, the obligatory SMU jump...except I was the only person from SMU in this picture haha.

The Turning Torso, one of Malmo's architectural pride. An apartment building which is Sweden's tallest building at 190m. Haha telling of how short the buildings in Sweden are...OUB Centre at Raffles Place is like 1 1/2 times taller. But it's pretty neat, considering it twists 90deg from base to top.

Did I mention that it was a beautiful day??

Took this especially for you Dad :P

St Peter's Church / S:t Petri kyrka

Oldest building in Malmo, dating from 14th century, built in "Baltic Brick Gothic".

The interior with Renaissance-styled pulpit, baptismal font and retable (although it's kinda small in this pic)

Being such foodies, while the rest went shopping, Jiamin & I tried walking a few km away from the city centre to Mollevangstorget square to find the fruit & vegetable market, cheese specialists and their bakeries. But everything was closed by the time we reached...(it closes at like 4pm! So darn early -_-)
But managed to catch the setting sun rays on one of the buildings :)

One of Jiamin's 'award-winning' shots. Right.

Randaom bell tower we passed which looked like they had at least 50 bells of different sizes. It looked like grapes on a string heh.

The Malmo crew :)