today i headed downtown with birget, kiku and justine for some shopping.. though i am preserving my cash for athens, i had to buy a sunblock spf 50+ and a new umbrella because it is an astounding 29 degrees celsius during the day in greece.. it is going to be HOT HOT HOT.. here in copenhagen, though its the end of may and i am still wearing three layers during the night..

we came across an open exhibition by steve bloom, titled 'spirit of the wild'. it was a great collection of photos from the wildlife.. many AWE moments..


my new brolley to the rescue



despite the somewhat serious undertone of the exhibition, i managed to snuck out a couple of candid shots.. haha.. then i had to rush home because my parents were going to call for the first time in a couple of weeks.. however despite the lack of communication, our conversation lasted less than ten minutes.. haha..

nothing much happened today.. OFF TO GREECE TOMORROW. back on wed.
take care guys!

someone asked me today if i would ever be returning to copenhagen after this exchange program and i answered, "hmm.. maybe for vacation in summer.. because it would be sucidal to experience another scandanivian winter.." he then proceeded to say, "well if you would like to return for good.. i would readjust my plans and put off moving to california.."

i was stunned beyond belief. thank god, another friend saved the situation by laughing it off and then changing the subject. however, at the rate i am going, this is probably the closest i will ever come to encountering a marriage proposal. heh heh. hmm maybe i should have said i wouldn't mind moving to california...RELAX -ONLY KIDDING- RELAX!

today after the last table was cleared, we hung out in the restaurant for for a good couple of hours sipping wine, having sushi and thai food (thanks to the 'green papaya' our next door neighbour)..





this pad thai sure brings back memories of my chiang mai trip back in january. and there were spring rolls and at least three different types of curry..

junior and xing
christina and junior






i know we look terribly civilised, chopsticking our way through the picture but really, these guys were such jokers.. bobbing along to the music and entertaining us with their dance moves that were more usher-out-of-room than usher himself. it got even funnier when a police car drove by, prompting them to throw their hands up in the air almost as if they were caught for possessing less than slick dance move..

if this is how crazy they are like on a normal friday night, i can't hardly wait for next saturday's staff party!

ready for a photo overload?

presenting: club venue 24th may.










a night to remember.

at work today, we had pizza! thea, xing and i arranged to have pizza for lunch and we fetched a family-sized 'romano' from the nearby pizzeria.. hmm a real fire-wood pizza topped with mozarella, bacon, pepper, onions and egg. it occured to me that this is probably the first time i have had egg on my pizza and it did taste a little odd initially.. felt like i was chewing on an indian egg roti prata..

then again, that didn't hinder the relish-score and within minutes, it was now-you-see-pizza-now-you-don't.



of course the ubitquitious sushi platter was present.. i really appreciate the makis jay creates for us staff because he always seems to create the specialty makis.. for example, the above picture is that of the 'alaska' which is essentially an ura-maki made out of salmon, shrimp, the usual greens and for the extra touch, roe-crowned. ladies and gents, this row of 'alaska' (6 pieces) costs a good 85kr, which translates to about 22.70 sing dollars. cough. and it was my bed time snack.

vanessa just emailed to ask if i would like to catch an opera in milan when i am there at the teatro alla scalla.. i took like two seconds to decide hell-yea! and even better, austrian elena told me she will be in milan, visiting her boyfriend when i am there.. life after exchange: on one hand- cannot wait to welcome but at the same time, i am refusing to face up to reality. sigh.

yupadoodles! repeat after me in eliza doolittle style: the EXAMS are OVER! and iwth my last paper on tuesday, my incredibly-short stint as a "hardworking studious nerd" has finally come to an end.. haha. i don't mean to brag but considering the amount of 'work-related stress' i was under this semester, i think i did pretty well for most of my exams (damn you outsourcing!).. bwahaha.. then again, it doesn't matter how well i did since the grades aren't get transferred.

party time? you bet. the exchange crew organised a farewell party at club venue last night. tons of familar faces and regrettably-unfamilar get-your-mumbo-jumbo-hands-of-me antics.. all in the name of good fun, of course.

i think ALOT of people were drunk.. or at least pretending to be.. i saw one of my french groupmates and he was totally whacked out, telling me that i was a party animal (when hahaha he couldn't even walk straight).. then he proceeded to carry me- as in crane-boulder-lift me?! i figure he must be suffering from a roaring backache.. should have passed him the number of a physiotherapist..

of course, there are tales meant to be kept shush. but don't worry mum, i was too much of a wuss to try out anything remotely adventurous or unsanitary.. haha.. but it was great fun dancing with the girls and my only drink courtesy of chris was a baby-clubber drink- bicardi apple with sprite .. tangily tasty!

my camera battery ran flat after four pictures.. so i got to go consolidate the rest from everyoe esle.. pictures will be up soon!

i like bring. it. on. there! i said it.
nothing like bubblegummy chick-chirp flick to lift me out of the exam doldrums.
but of course there's a deeper meaning to the movie.
just because you are american, maybe blond, with a kick-ass figure doesn't mean you don't have problems too.
i realise i miss having a crush. haha.. i know this sounds absurd but watching kirsten dunst and jesse whathislastname giving each other the 'eye'.. the 'smile' plus all that jealousy-induced quibbles.. arh, jc days.. of course, nobody gave me that 'eye' or 'smile'.. but looking back, jc crushes are such fun.

lizard boy, ll cool j, guo tie..

if you noticed, i dropped the student on budget description from my profile. -grin

shakira's hips don't lie is embaressingly catchy. and i probably spelt 'embaressingly' wrongly but it is just one of those words i never bothered correcing myself- like disappointment too. haha..

sunday equals work. hoorayyy.. it wasn't very busy today so i got to stand behind the counter and watch jay maki away.. that guy can multi-task.. we were discussing about thai kings while he wrapped, bamboo-tightened and sliced his sushi orders faultlessly..

tonight's platter: salmon maki, salmon nigiri, ebi nigiri, california maki, phillie maki and spicy ebi maki. i like the way they make their california maki.. though the ingredients aren't any different from other producers, i like the minced crabstick feeling, instead of the whole crabstick..





but i think i found a favourite.. the "phillie", short for "philadelphia". in singapore, we only have the california roll, but here at sanshin, there's the phillie, san frankie, boston and new york.. and though the idea of naming after different cities was mildly amusing with a hint of unauthenticness, on hindsight, i thought "hey why not??" after all it does add a fun element when ordering, "send san frankie here.. "

lucky for me, jay made the "phillie" bacause he knew i had never tried it before.. the "phillie" is an inside-out maki roll which contains smoked salmon and cream cheese. the flavour is characteristically distinct and who would have thought cream cheese in sushi could be such a lethal combination?

jay and thea!

haha, these guys are such jokers. as he has a day off tomorrow, thea intends to head on down to tivoli to try out the new roller coaster. he then told me a story of how he once stood in line for the vertical-free-fall ride for about two hours but when there were only three people in front of him.. he decided his nerves could not take it and he just walked away.. haha..

oh last paper on tuesday, hurry hurry...!

mum and jie have finally returned from new york.. for lunch one day, they popped by mary's fish farm and saw juliana moore with her husband there! what a treat..

today i headed over to library to escape the dispiritedness that came with spending too much time in my room. however, only a couple of hours later, even the library reeked of ennui. with time to spare, cash to burn and shops that closed too early, it was a terrible thing to be bored on a saturday evening..

since it was only a short ten minutes walk from school, i decided to head on down to my work place, sanshin..boy did that turn out to be my salvation. both junior and thea were on duty and as it was only about five, the restaurant was quite empty, i got to snuggle comfortably by the sushi bar with the danish equivalent of elle and homes&garden to occupy myself with.. barely fifteen minutes later, a plate of sushi assortment, compliments of the chefs, found its way to my humble gastro-abode. now that's wow.

it was pretty interesting to see what went on in the restaurant throughout the night. when i could eventually tear myself away from the seamless automation of the sushi chefs, i observed an oddity. men like sushi. at around six, there were four occupied tables- a family of four and three pairs of male friends. i am about to give these guys the benefit of doubt. but seriously, HMMM. due to the limited exposure that most danish have with such foreign food, sabine the waitress had to provide a brief description of just about every dish she served up.. to reduce the squirm/shock element i suppose? i somehow get the feeling that having sushi must be quite a stretch on their scandanavian nerves.. haha..

oh what was to be a couple of hours turned to be an all nighter at the restaurant.. haha to think i will be spending another seven hours there tomorrow again!

here are some pictures from my residence hall. the flowers bloomed with such sprightliness and in abundance, it looks as if late one night someone had crept into our courtyard and scotch-taped the bountiful branches on.







beautiful, ain't it? and to think that it was a potrait of woeonly a couple of months back.. but PLEASE stop drizzling..

this morning we had brunch with steffi, who was leaving for good today. though steffi had thought that it was a normal meal, the rest of us decuded to surprise her by sprucing things up a little.



we made a trip to the bakery for some traditional wienerbrod and chocolate pastry.. there were also muffins, scrambled eggs, yogurt, strawberries and a decorative but sadly non-edible branch of flowers..



wienerbrod



it was a gathering most lovely.. we were just sitting around the fantastic spread, trading stories.. but it was such a bittersweet affair too.. though noone mentioned anything about farewells.. it was a death sentence hanging over us..

if you really think about it, i might never again see steffi unless we made a more than conscience effort to meet up in some corner of the world.

i have never said good-bye with such finalty.
and i am not good with farewells. i wish i didn't have to face it.

harboring such strong sentiments really made me realise how vunerable i have become emotionally. this is quite a change since i am usually very guarded. i didn't even shed a tear when i left singapore but i forsee many many heartbreaking moments over the next month.

i am thankful i had work today. as a result, i didn't have to face the actual goodbye which would have been too upsetting. truth is it won't be any easier saying goodbye to my collegues from work too.

i know it seems beyond belief that i can actually feel so much for a place which i joined barely three weeks ago. however, this probably gives you an indication of how close knit the community is. from the eccentric but madly-lovable sushi chefs to the extremely approachable waiteresses and kitchen staff, any day at work feels like a day spent in funland.

today thea and junior pimped out the sushi bar by donning identical pink polo tees. it was such a hoot just looking at them.. after the last table left, the music switched from jazz to hiphop, turning up the party mood as wine and sushi flowed.. we just stood around chatting, flipping through magazines.. nobody wanted to leave!



i love today's sushi platter. the colours were absolutely inviting and there was my favourite inari.. oooooooo, good ol' beancurd skin.. haha

mama mia

after two short left turns from my residence, there are at least three pizzerias within a fifty meter stretch of road. due to the laughable convenience of a takeaway, a handful of guys back here could consider themselves to be bona fide takeaway-pizza connoisseurs. i have never found a reason to visit one.. until today. birget and steffi needed something to "exceedingly fattening" to celebrate the end of a nerve-wrecking exam and i was definitely not one to turn down an invitation to celebrate with them.

it was pretty exciting actually. the shoebox-in-the-wall pizzeria was extremely bare. as its interior consisted of mothing more than an overhead menu and a couple of tables and chairs.. i can just imagine the owner thinking, 'heck it with glossy pizza pictures'.. haha

with more than a dozen pizza toppings to choose from, you really could not trust four girls to make a quick decision but i pulled the indecision plug by suggesting the 'house special'.. cheese, sharwarma, chillis, bacon and (tons of) garlic.. this pizza was going to taste sooo good, i told myself.. i can feel it in my cuticles.



oh yes, it was one helluva family-sized pizza.. and i placed my bag beside it for comparision.. the pizza must have been at least twenty inches in diamater!





the verdict? it was a.m.a.z.i.n.g.. on hindsight, the crust was thiner than usual and the sharwarma a little on the dry side.. but it was friggindeliciouslygood nonetheless. the chillis and garlic oomphed their way around, bestowing us with unkissable breaths and the slightly-dry sharwarma was hidden under a delicious cheese blanket.. it was as if the pizza was a propaganda tool for maschoistic binging which i fell for unquestioningly....

kiku and birget are leaving for arhaaus tonight and steffi's heading back to germany for the weekend.. i need to recruit glut-buddies!



i repeat, do not underestimate the size of our appetities..

horrible weather. windy and drizzly.
my brolly broke. got to get a new one from h&m.
two hours of reading and my brain still feels devoid of worthy thought.

after a more than disastrous 'outsourcing 'exam, i was in need of a little TLC.. but since the school was hardly an dating agency for broken souls.. i thought the company of a danish pastry would suffice..

like the pastry i had yesterday, today's atticed treat could be considered classic danish pastry.. the pastry has a delectable cinnamon filling beneath its intricate exterior. screw the fork, just rip the pastry apart from your fingers and head it into straight to your mouth.. chomp chomp chomp.. placebo effect or not.. the sugar icing kicked in within seconds and i was almost ready to forgive my examiners for their disturbing lack of cow sense. well, maybe not. UGH.



steffi's returning home to germany this friday for good. sigh. the first of many farewells.

last night, she prepared a simple dinner for ten of us.. chicken nuggets, oven-baked fries and salad. thereafter, we had chocolate-coated vanilla popsicles for dessert..











tonight kiku and i went distinctively asian. i made chicken curry and kiku prepared a braised egg dish with tons of brocoli with rice. there's kiku above explaining to steffi the spices that she used.. just take a look at the 'awe' on steffi's face.

keeping in line with the asian-theme.. after dinner, i took steffi and kiku to my workplace for dessert. we had chocolate cake with green tea ice cream and a triple scoop of green tea, mango and red bean ice cream..






i was really surprised by how much steffi enjoyed the green tea ice cream. for kiku and i, the concept of green tea ice cream is not much of an anomaly but it was steffi's virgin experience, also with the red bean ice cream.. and i say, "JOIN THE CLUB"..

we were really lucky to have the chocolate cake because mitzuru had just baked it today and normally we only serve it the following day after it has been chilled overnight.. but he was kind enough to let us order it.. though we only ordered two items, the total bill came up to 140kr (38 sing dollars) and i totally expected it.. i guess after living here for four months, i am no longer as easily shocked by the outrageous prices.. but another cool thing was i had a 30% discount for being an employee.

arh employee benefits, welcome in!

one more paper next tuesday, then off to greece same sunday...

i just had a two hour long group oral exam.
it was spell-bindingly tiring.. hey you try pretending you attended more than four classes (throughout the entire semester), faking your way around the lecturer for what seemed like eternity. at least my examiner was KIND. damn now i feel guilty for skipping so many classes..

i have a hole in my window.

haha a broken window..

oh, this is definitely symbolic as broken windows here are treated with amusement and apprehension.. over the past 4 months, windows at holger have been at the mercy of rugby balls, soccer balls and even kiwis.. now that summer is here, they are fighting a losing battle as people spend more time outdoors, subjecting our poor but luckily double-glazed windows to more threats (frisbee anyone?)..

i was at work when the frisbee crashed into my window..the culprit? canadian erik.. haha.. but i am surprisingly not irritated or remotely upset.. a couple of months back, i would have hunted the culprit down and given him the lecture his fourth-grade teacher would have been proud of. i have not even called up the international offic to fix it.. i like looking at it, for it serves as a constant reminder to lighten up and not act like a fuddy-mummy all the time.. haha

i am so terribly pleased because metz(from london)'s cousin emailed me a list of her favourite shops in london.. its even more exciting because she's currently studying fashion in london.. the list includes a bevy of only-if-you-are-a-londoner-then-are-ware-of places.. sos yay, no more shopping on boringboring high street ken.. haha.. but of course, HSK, you will always have a special spot in my heart..

just what i need- a 'EUROPE on a sweet tooth' checklist.

THE INTERNET IS FINALLY UP!

oh man, this day 3 of "honey, my tummy's in tumble-dryer mode". i spent the entire afternoon in the library yesterday, forcing myself to get some revision done. by five pm, i could barely stand the intense balloony effect that stood in between the table and my being and had to lay down on one of the library couches to promote 'airflow'. %#$%*(&(*. talk about un-com-for-ta-ble and un-time-ly.

at least my appetite's almost back. haha.. this morning, i was out of something decent for breakfast so i took a walk to the bakery and treated myself to the most sinful-looking item.. ok, this is SO NOT considered the most sinful because there are traditional danish pastries that look set to feed a family of five.. so by ingesting it on my own, i might as well have a dug a hole in the courtyard and wait for either death or my already-failing stomach system to claim me.

thanks to my limited danish, i have no idea what this pastry is called. but really, to enjoy this marvellous treat, not knowing what it's called won't kill you afterall, you just need to point, smile and pay the cashier -which is precisely what i did.

i would love to have created this pastry.. think of how much fun the baker must have had. first i have my thin layer of beaten-egg-lathered-to-make-it-crisp-brown-and-flaky puff pastry.. then i increase the deli-fatiness by squeezing a generous tube of custard in the middle... and as if thats not enough to send my customers salivating uncontrollably.. two slaps of icing ought to do the trick.. throw in some nuts.. VOILA. irresistable. haha..

this afternoon, it was time to recoup friday's lack of wages. surprisingly not too busy in the kitchen (can't say the same for sushi chefs and the takeaway counter)..

i had the breaded chicken kebabs for high tea.. though it was tasty with some thai sweet chili sauce, i am so going to regret my sorry ass tomorrow when the stomach decideds to get even..

and of course, i had a few pieces of sushi but i reserved my share to bring it back for the girls.. and som, the sushi chef was so thoughtful! he made more because i -gulp- told him i was study till late and i needed the stimulant/ fuel -double gulp-

i would pay for my little fib later.. but at least kiku, justine, elena and katy enjoyed it.. from the pictures you might have thought that we were engaging in something illicit..







sushi- bringing people together.