what were the chances

Omg this is way overdue :/ But yah i'm getting to it now, while Desiree refuses to get up and get ready. Raahh. We're meant to go to the Laundromat Cafe, which apparently serves the best brunch in Copenhagen (: Oh and on a very joyous note, I am impossibly happy that Nette is coming to Europe next semester! (:

15 August 2008, Friday

So well, the international students again, trooped down to the beach — Amager Strandpark (: Was quite excited about going to the beach but erm, forgot to bring beach wear. I know, nice.

Brave souls who went into the water which was goddamn cold! It was madness, people were just diving in, not quite out of enthusiasm, but more because apparently it will be less cold if you go in all at once, or something. I don't know, they're mad. Below, one of aforementiond enthusiastic people, a classmate, in his underwear after his valiant attempt.

Planning trips for the one-week break (ie the break we're having now) after the end of the danish course (:





16 August 2008, Saturday

Trip to Ikea! To get myself a full-length mirror, so that I can stop using PhotoBooth every morning to see what I'm wearing :/ Damn loser. And a new pillow, so that I can stop having neck cramps because of the flat cushion I have masquerading as a pillow.

The Danes and the Swedes are damn nationalistic about their meatballs! But anyway, there was a recent proar about how Ikea named its products. Swedish imperialism, they all it. Apparently, "academics in Copenhagen claim to have discovered a pattern at Ikea whereby high-end items - chairs, beds, home furnishings - get named after Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian towns whereas products of lesser value like doormats, draught excluders and runners are named after Danish towns." And apparently, as retaliation, Carlsberg is considering naming one of its low-alcohol beers brewed by Carlsberg after a Swedish town - because the Swedes traditionally loathe "lite" beer.

Party at Handværkekollegiet (: Where I made my first Danish friend, ridiculous as it sounds, a first danish friend after 2 weeks here. But well... danish people don't go for beginners' danish, do they.

And because of a long episode at the end of the party, we failed to catch the last night bus. And so we walked. So here, a picture of the Statens Museum for Kunst (refer to previous entry for photo in the day) at 5am :/

Okay done! (: Desiree's finally awake, and getting ready. Hopefully we don't miss the last order for brunch haha that will be damn pathetic of us. And after that, we'll probably be headed to the Carlsberg brewery! (:

this city we live in

11 August 2008, Monday

We went on a random walkabout after danish class, around Kongens Nytorv and saw this! — Fashion Is for Idiots. (Like us) :D

Then while trying to find some building, we wandered into the cobbled central square of the Amalienborg Palace, with the statue of Frederik V in the middle, next to the water front. (You know its damn lame how I usually take photos of nice buildings/statues first, before going closer to read the plaque and finding out what it is, but aiyah nevermind.) Anyway, it's apparently the home of the royal family, which explains why there are guards. Its damn funny how they can talk to each other though, because I thought guards are not supposed to?! We saw a pair kinda doing a slow march around, and throughout the entire march/stroll, they were chatting... I don't know man.

Then we saw the Marmorkirken, which means the Marble Church in Danish. Apparently, it boasts the largest church dome in Scandinavia. Erm okay, that's that. And on the left, cyclist waiting in line at a traffic light, on bike lanes (:

12 August 2008, Tuesday

As part of our danish course, we went to the Statens Museum for Kunst, which is the Danish National Gallery.

So we had a guide, Stine. The thing is, everyone couldn't help but laugh when she introduced herself, because Stine happens to be a damn danish name for girls — like how Ali, Devi, Ahmad and their friends were from our PETS textbooks in primary school, Stine was the only danish female name that kept appearing in our danish textbooks, alongside Ivan and Søren.

And then she told us about the Danish Golden Age which really is damn amusing. Apparently in the 19th century, Denmark was a place of political and economic chaos. She said something about them being attacked by the British, the State going bankrupt, and Denmark losing Norway. So apparently someone thought of a damn good idea, to paint the country as being damn harmonious and idyllic despite it being the exact opposite, in the hope that it would become reality, and it did. It's damn propaganda-ish, I must say, but smart, yes.

After going to the DNG, we went searching for bikes. It's damn shady, this second-hand bike buying business. We went to some shop which seemed only to sell first-hand bikes, but when we asked for second-hand ones, they opened this door at the back of the shop which opened out to this huge yard full of used bikes. It's damn shady lah, they told us that they were from the police auction but oh well, haha at the rate at which bikes are getting stolen, I won't be surprised if some of them were stolen, especially when a lot of them had broken locks.

13 August 2008, Wednesday

We went to Field's! Which apparently is Scandinavian's largest shopping mall but isn't all that big actually, probably like Vivocity, maybe? Probably because unlike the Americans and Asians, Europeans just aren't into ginormous shopping malls. Anyway I finally managed to buy my rice cooker! Omg I was damn excited but erm, till now, I haven't even bought rice, because I'm too lazy to lug a huge bag of rice home. But I will soon!

Okay end of post, time for me to go tidy up my room a little before Desiree comes visiting today from Århus! (: And to plan what we're gonna do for the next 3 days here in København. Hopefully we'll do random walkabouts around the city, shop a little (just a little), and wander into quaint cafes (:

但愿人长久，千里共婵娟

THANK YOU GIRLS, FOR SENDING ME MOONCAKES! (: Especially, for knowing that I detest lotus paste and therefore sent me yam paste ones! Thanks for the love, especially since Copenhagen is a a cold windy rainy gloomy place today :/

Jeg kan tale lidt dansk.

This is a photo of my danish class because today was the last day of my danish course and... I PASSED MY DANISH TEST (:

running up that hill

07 August 2008, Thursday

We trooped down to Fælledparken for the inter-class Rundbold tournament (: Anyway it's just like danish baseball/softball lah. And yes, St Nicks PE has prepared me well, I surprisingly managed to bat properly haha. Anyway the weather was damn damn shiok — sunny but breezy. There were people tanning in bikinis in the middle of the park! If the weather is ever like this again, I shall go tanning too yay.

09 August 2008, Saturday

Day trip by train to Roskilde! For the Viking Festival at the Viking Museum (: Basically, it was the Homecoming of the Sea Stallion, which is a reconstructed Viking ship, which set sail from Roskilde for Dublin in 2007. So yeah there, we had to go to see some Vikings haha.

Below, the København H station, and the Roskilde station.

The Danes really do love their flags yeah. Anyway I only realised it was National Day when I saw these flags haha.

Inside the Viking Museum, with all the reconstructed Viking ships. Apparently they were sunk in the 11th century to block the Roskilde Fjord to protect Roskilde against attacks by sea. In the 1960s or something, the ships were excavated from the sea bed, but in thousands of pieces. So somehow, they managed to assemble all the timber fragments to recreate these Viking ships. Quite cool huh.

After going to the Viking Museum, we tried to visit the Roskile Domkirke but didn't manage to because they were having church service in there. But apparently, some 39 Danish kings and queens are buried there. But no, we didn't get to see them :/

Came back to the main city and saw an ongoing street basketball match being played at the Rådupladsen, in front of the City Hall building. Was blacks against whites huhur, but erm, the whites won, haha.

Okay that's all for now, time to study for my Danish oral test which is tomorrow :/ After that, it's a week long break! (: