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| November, the month of travels! With Europe at my doorstep, weekend trips are really very difficult temptations to resist. With my Korean "family" here in Halmstad, 13 of us made a day trip to Helsingborg, Sweden and Helsingør, Denmark last Saturday.
We start early in the morning, and having had dinner with some friends and classmates till late the night before, I woke up with 15 min to get ready for the trip, before rushing to the train station. Here's the puffy-eyed me with Yoosun, my companion on the ride to Helsingborg.
Helsingborg is a city near Halmstad and is slightly larger too. The train ride down takes less than an hour so it may actually be one of the nearest to us here for comparatively better shopping. My Swedish neighbour, a gorgeous blond nurse-to-be, Hanna, is from Helsingborg and she's promised to bring me around if she can make it down the next time I head there.
Straight out of the train station, we can see the magnificent City Hall, that houses a number of operations, including the Tourist Information Centre. The huge red-brick monument is starkly different from the rest of the main street in the city, that is peppered with boutiques and coffee houses.
Not far from which is the Kärnan, which means The Keep, and from the looks of it, a definite touristy landmark. That doesn't take away any bit of its glory or significance though. Blessed with clear blue skies and a warm sunny day, climbing up to the Kärnan was simply pleasurable.
 
As if The Keep wasn't enough to make us happy, we relished the bird's eye view of the city from the heights of Landborgen. Still, nothing could compare to the prettiest tree, standing tall at the top of the hill, bare but proud, on a warm autumn morning.
Breathing in the cool crisp air rejuvenated us and we went on to explore the city a little more. I had lunch at MEX, the Swedish fastfood place, aka the Macs equivalent. IMO, they serve better burgers and fries than McDees too, albeit a little tiny. To maximise the limited sun hours we get these days, we headed back to the Central Station to hop on the ferry service that shuttles between the two towns in their respective countries. Honestly, I've never been on board such a huge ferry. You walk straight into a huge room that branches off into a restaurant, a DFS, a bar and various stairways leading up or down the 5-storey ferry. The most deluding aspect has to be the floor. Tiled with marble in some areas and the common white ceramics in other rooms, you feel like you've walked into a small mall, and not some huge-ass ship. It is only when you get to the open deck and see the waters surrounding you that makes the ride a little more believable.
Nonetheless, it was a mere 20-min ride and we barely had time to explore before we sighted Denmark.
It is difficult to put in words or explain the difference, but Denmark is quite different from Sweden, even when we compare it to a town like Halmstad that was under the Danish rule for a number of centuries. Although it was still early in November, some of the streets were already showing signs of Christmas, but of course lacked the extravagance or commercialism displayed in Orchard Road.
After stopping by one of the famous churches, we walked through this street with the most colourful houses on our way to Kronborg Castle. And in this pretty yellow home, I spotted the gleaming eyes of a cat, watching us as we fussed around the street. Can you spot it too?
Kronborg Castle is a small but beautiful place and none of my pictures would do it justice. The first one, however, is to show you babes that I love my birthday present! Ha ha.
 
All in all, I had more fun than I expected, especially since it was 11 Koreans and 2 Singaporeans, and I seriously understand minimal Korean, despite living with so many of them. If anything at all, I do know more Korean than Swedish right now. And if it's obvious, my brain isn't working well at 5 am so I can't remember what else I wanted to write. :p So I'll just end off here, and blog again next time..
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| the number one irony of my blogging life.
when I haven't got time to sit and write (or at least, I shouldn't be because I should be studying or sth), there's just so much to appreciate, like the green leaves on the rows of trees I walk past everyday to get to school slowly turning gold or brown or a glorious deep red, in the midst of the evergreens that never shed their crown. or how the misty rain feels like an evian spray on a hot afternoon. and the crisp wind whipping your hair as you walk down the path, with adorable, little children playing in the park next to the walkway.
and when I do, I haven't got the inspiration to sit my arse down and do it. okay, yes, I'm still sitting, but watching Season 2 of Friends (because I finished Season 1 last night). Can you believe that? I prefer to watch really old sitcoms instead. even though they're really funny and very classic. That aside. My exams are finally over! I hope they're really over, because if I don't pass any of them, I'd need to do a re-paper in January, which means I need to study (even more) over Christmas. Please don't let that happen, please. 5 papers post-Christmas is really more than I can handle, thanks.
Okay, happy things now. I've just uploaded the pictures I took in Poland a couple of weeks ago. So I'll just post a handful here, with a little more than a 5-word caption.
Right, so I had a never-before long weekend during my term, with a Thurs-Monday off-school period. That's when we (Jiaxing) and I decided to take a short trip to Poland. Alright, I wanted to go somewhere and he offered to plan, so we went. Minor technicality, that's all. Anyhow, we took a train from Halmstad to Mälmo, where we caught the plane to Gdańsk.
now Gdańsk is a really pretty city, check out this gorgeous street that's parallel to where I stayed.
even the architecture is so adorable and toyland-like! you know those wooden block things you used to have when you're a kid? these buildings really made me think of those..
and of course, breakfast at Ferber Cafe! I didn't just have juice of course, check the rest of my meal on Facebook yes?
and of course, the view across the river (which includes this really cool ship museum thing) and it costs like $0.50 for the ferry ride to get over to the other side!
and just look at those pretty little things they have in this amber museum! it's seriously amazing, how everything from battleships to dressing tables and chess boards and jewellery!
 
and just look at the Alice in Wonderland house in Sopot! It's actually a cinema, I think. But I don't read Polish, so don't quote me on that..
the longest wooden pier in Europe (which isn't so long right now 'cause there was a a storm with 12m waves the night before and part of it got wrecked).. doesn't the sky remind you of "Up" the movie?
did I mention it's called Molo? I know, the smile looks really strained.. I had to pose for a really long time and it was cold.
in Singapore, we've only got 3-arm lampposts at max, and there are only two of those in the whole island, btw (trivial courtesy of my dad) and they get 5 arms there.
colourful cafes, cheery pubs..
Long Market street, night view. fabulous to the max.
and these pretty pretty flowers, hanging from every single lamppost along that long 5-lanes-wide-only-for-pedestrians-street! 
the lonely Neptune fountain reminded me of The Little Mermaid.. pity it wasn't actually functioning in the autumn/winter period. It's probably a little too cold. 
and of course we can't forget the beer too.. Polish beer really ain't too bad! 
after which, we fly back to Gothenburg, so I soaked in some more big city air (which I really miss. Like, really. Just sitting in a mall and drinking coffee is just plain legen-wait for it-dary.. there isn't Starbucks though, seems like they tried to come in years back, but never stayed profitable enough. They're trying again though, gonna have a new outlet at the airport or sth. Maybe they'd be Round 2 lucky..) before I headed back to cosy Halmstad.
all in, I had a good time, although I was preoccupied with my then-impending exams, but that's over now. and, considering I took nearly 2 hours to finish this entry (yes, because I was watching Friends at the same time), I'll write more next time..
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| Yes, I know, I should be studying. Which I have been trying to do, but I still have to take breaks in between before my brain self-destructs, yes? So anyway, this is going to be really short. I watched the second half of August Rush (this film still makes me cry no matter how many times I've watched it) while having lunch/tea after my classes earlier and I just had to check for the name of the kid who played Evans Taylor in the film.
Freddie Highmore, English child actor, born 14 Feb 1992. The same kid who starred in Finding Neverland 2002, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2005, August Rush (& lent his voice for The Golden Compass) 2007, The Spiderwick Chronicles (as twins in a dual role) 2008 and lately Astro Boy 2009.
Wanna see what he looks like over the years?
Finding Neverland 2002 (at age 10)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2005 (at age 13)
August Rush 2007 (at age 15)
The Spiderwick Chronicles (at age 16, and a very impressive child actor at that)
 
and finally, Astro Boy (at age 17)
How can someone grow so much in just a mere couple of years?! But at least he looks better than Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) growing up.
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| As the title states, it's exactly 1 week to my first paper here in Sweden. I'm seriously freaking out. Thankfully, it's also 11 days to the end of my first examination period. Regardless, I'm now back from my short 3-day getaway to Poland, which was lovely, but more on that another time. So back to my exams. Here's just to let everyone know that photos, updates, etc. will be available in approximately 2 weeks, after the end of my horrendous impending doom.
On that note, I should declare that it really annoys me when people tell me that I should start on a particular subject (instead of following my own mental schedule) because they think it's going to be a really difficult course for me and they've already started studying for it.
Seriously.
I'm not the best student, nor the smartest around, I know that. But neither am I the stupidest or most worthless. Come on, already.
Okay, it's probably the stress and the PMS talking, but, whatever.
Oh, and for anyone who's watched How I Met Your Mother, yes, it's a great show, I'm currently hooked (and extremely up to date with the US weekly telecast). And I can't believe Barney Stinson is gay in real life. Not to mention that Scooter is his partner?! Alright, I'm not that surprised, but still.. Regardless, Season 5 is getting a little stale. Like Friends did, nearing its end, so I hope it'd get better soon.
Right, over and out.. It's 3.18am and I have class at 10am, so I should really pack up and go to bed. 
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