Favourite Things...

LOOK WHAT I GOT IN THE MAIL!! :D

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens;

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens; 

Brown paper packages tied up with strings;

These are a few of my favourite things!" 

Eeyore loves 'em. I do too. :D

Thanks Michelle!!! :D I really love it. Not just because you wrote me a letter, used your really nice paper to do so, posted me a box of my favourite biscuits (and postage must have been ex :/) - but mostly because it was really thoughtful of you :) You made me smile and tear at the same time. I miss you! Made me think of all back at home too...:/ I'm really glad and excited about this year's church camp (which you all are in right now) - I'm hoping and praying all goes well, and the experience would be priceless. Exciting times :) I'm also really glad that some of the young adults got to go too! Like Justin & Louis ;) I know the preparations must've have been hard on you guys :/ Wish I could've been there to help too. I miss Shalom.

International Friendship Day :)

I can safely say that today was one of the best days I've had in Copenhagen :) Not because of anything else, but just hanging out with people I've gotten to know here, eating great food, enjoying brilliant weather and having fantastic conversation. I'm gonna miss the group that I've met in Danish class so much. I think they're really great friends, not only because they're fun to be with, but they are truly down-to-earth people that just make me feel so comfortable to be around. We've been through an entire course of Danish language - and it has been fun practicing together :) Assia (Bulgaria), Cornelia (Austria), Yurong (Taiwan), Louis (Canada) and of course Carol, you guys are the best. My only regret is that I didn't get to meet up with Louis properly before he left! :/ Too bad I'll be missing you when you get back dude.

There were so many pictures for today - but I like them all equally as much! So I decided to post up all of them heh :)

Assia's risotto rice - rice cooked in wine and spices :) 

And her sister's boyfriend, Nick, tending religiously to the barbeque. 

Laying the table for the wonderful spread of purple rice, salad (with absolutely delicious Bulgarian cheese), pasta, mushrooms and the meats!

It was funny because Assia insisted that although their slightly salty Bulgarian cheese tasted like fetta-cheese, it was different and the Bulgarian cheese is the original one of the two :) Just like how it was recently proven that the Bulgarian slavic language was the original language that other Eastern European countries had stemmed from - even the Russian language! The Bulgarians (or maybe it's just Assia) are really patriotic eh? :)

Having fun in the sun!

It got so blazing hot that both Assia and Cornelia decided to change to their bikinis. They even resorted to putting on sunblock. And I decided to sit in the sun to hopefully get a tan haha. Can you believe it - that it was probably high 20s degrees? I mean, we were told the hottest it would get in June was 10deg! But I'm really glad for the weather...I heard it's gonna be sunny the entire week! :D Yay...I decided from now until I leave next Tues, I will force myself to get out of the house and enjoy the sun while I can...and not rot on the couch in front of the T.V. Let's hope that happens.

Our confused looks are thanks to our camera-man, David, who made us all giddy by circling us and taking pictures without warning us -_-

After a real full and fantastic lunch (err...a really late one at that...by the time we ate it was nearl 3pm! :p) We decided to head back to Assia's to eat somemore! :) While we had some coffee, Cornelia was busy whipping up (literally) an Austrian dish called kaiserschmarren! The poor girl worked so hard in the kitchen while some of us bummed in front of the T.V. :p Well, apparently Carol has learnt the recipe - so maybe she'll whip it up one day for us hehe. But I'll definitely try it when I get home - it was delish :) So...yeah, do remind me someone - if you'd like to try kaiserschmarren!

I said she was literally whipping up the dish because the electric mixer didn't work, so we had to use the whisk and try to whip the egg white ourselves. After whipping for like more than half hour Assia's sister had a brilliant idea to but it a bottle and get her burly boyfriend to shake it to death to get the froth hehe.

The 'shaker' and the 'bummers'! 

(Although I would exclude Yurong because she worked hard in the kitchen too!)

The final product and the ever-happy host :)

Did I mention the food was delish??

The end to our never-ending day of eating! :D

Britain's Got Talent Fever

Yay I'm so glad George Sampson won!! :D Totally deserved to win. 

Stockholm - Helsinki - Moscow - St Petersburg - Riga - Stockholm

We had a one-day stop in Helsinki, real quick but honestly, quite sufficient. The highlight was going to naval fortress, Suomenlinna. The rest of city was pretty small, but rather interesting.

Our boat - the Gabriella!

Where we got off at the habour

Captain Haddock day??

Nej! It was May Day! :) A good excuse for a big party.

At the Market Square where a carnival was going on.

Fun with dog-doo! heh

L: For reasons I did not know, people dressed up in real weird racing-like costumes

R: The streets were littered with confetti! 

The palace - where something was going on, but we couldn't see what as we were too short to peer inside! :(

On the boat on the way to Suomenlinna

A nice couple picture! :)

All of us 'cept for Jiamin got off the boat - he felt like bumming around, so decided not to join us for our day chiong-ing around Helsinki! 

View from the boat. 

(people actually live on that small island??)

Suomenlinna

Otherwise known as Castle of Finland - a sea fortress

It was this naval fortress that helped Finland develop its major city status in the 16th century period.

L2R: Carol, Ansen, Yocksong & David

Suomenlinna Church

Suomenlinna Church was built during the Russian regime, by order of Czar Nikolay I, to function as a military church in 1854. Its church bell is the largest in Finland - cast in Moscow in 1855 weighing 6,683kg! The following text, in Slavic and inspired by the Psalms, is cast on the church bell of Suomenlinna:

"Praise the Lord upon the loud cymbals.

Shew forth His salvation from day to day.

Give unto the Lord glory and strength.

Fear before Him, all the earth.

Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof.

All the earth shall worship Him."

Too bad we didn't get to go to the bell tower because of the construction.

How it looked like then - with 5 onion domes

How it looks like now

The interior is really modern and stylish!

Many picturesques views of the fortress 

Cannon and the mounds

HUGE anchor-ring.

David & I being touristy

I was sooo freaked out on climbing the cannon! It IS actually really way above the ground okay.

Haha I really like this shot.

AHOY!

Afterwards I went back to the boat to see what Jiamin was up to while the rest headed to the stadium (that held the 1952 olympics). After dragging his bum outta the bunk bed, we walked around the city area with our bags for a short while before heading off to the train station to meet the rest of the group.

Uspenskin Katedraali (Upenski Cathedral)

Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Helsinki

with people picnic-ing at the base!

Helsingin Tuomiokirkko (Helsinki Cathedral) in the distance.

Built, in neoclassical style, in tribute to Grand Duke Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia.

A little peek into the inside - while a choir was singing during service.

On the steps outside of Helsinki Cathedral.

I was pretty curious as to why Helsinki had so many connections with Russia, regarding their architecture and history. Whilst reading up found out that Russia had defeated Sweden whilst Finland was part of Sweden in the 1800s. And in order to reduce Swedish influence in Finland, Tsar Alexander I moved the capital from Turku to Helsinki, and the city was rebuilt in neoclassical style to resemble St Petersburg. It was really awesome to take in so much of their rich and long history, and make the connections to the other places we were headed off to :)

Goodbye Helsinki!

Hello Russia! :)