how do i love hk? let me count the ways:

quality lap cheong and sah-poh fan
TST
the best choi sum on planet earth
the huge huge malls (after too many pedestrian shopping streets in europe, mall shopping has never been so good)
city'super supermarts
sweet dynasty's char siew pao
the ultimate fresh liver and kidney congees
milk tea loaded with 3/4 evaporated milk
ngoh lam mein
thick slices of butter toast at lock st
MONGKOK!
yungkee's preserved eggs
the hilly streets of central
the MTR with its extensive underground network that beats citylink, dhoby gaut and raffles exchange combined...

and the fact that the HKD is 5 times less than SGD. :D

zao an, singapore!

here i am, with the sun shining down on my shoulders, lounging on my sofa outside and using my new macbook.

life is good in singapore.

enjoy life only! (its one of those once in a lifetime experiences)

ohh the liberty! of travelling on your own AND with a credit card! (plus blessings from parents to use them) heh.

right now im sitting extremely comfortably at my hotel room near the zurich airport, just touched down not too long ago and this place totally totally rocks. actually thats an understatement. or perhaps ive been travelling so much the backpacker style, that i'm back to being suakoo about hotels. then again, it teaches me to treasure and appreciate every single bit of this hotel. it has german mtv, a nice long bath (YEEESSSSSS!!!!!), room service (!) and of course wireless lan, that i pay very fancily via the credit card and then it automatically switches on. but i only bought time for 30mins, so im typing this rather quickly.

the funniest thing about this place, is that it has a dimsum restaurant, which serves takeaway through the room service and one of the items happen to be chinese fried noodles singapore style. lagi best man.

ohohohohohohohohhohoh. i love this life!

i am going to order my room service now. HAH!

visit a new blog!

Oei Singapura!

on the spur of the moment, with barely a day's worth of thought processes gone into this idea, ive started a new blog focused only on (drumroll) Singapore! i really have nothing to do, in case you're thinking "God, she has nothing to do!", except catch my flight to zurich soon. do check back on that blog, i promise to post on it, especially on food, while im back on the sunny island, because people like jo and shuz arent coming anywhere close to sambal stingray, duck rice, chye tau kueh, laksa, bak chor mee like i am in a few hours time! HAH!

time check

in the next:

24hrs: heellloooo zurich!
48hrs: hellooooo singapore!
72hrs: helloooo christmas!
96hrs: hellooooo hong kong!

aieeee. i feel so dead tired. but there's still stuff i need to be persuaded, ok, SHOVED into the luggage before i can get some shut-eye. i'm going home already!!!

but first, a sampler of what i did in budapest and vienna:

#1: visit every available christmas market

#2: get to know the environs of the river danube at budapest as initmately as possible

#3: totally fall in love with the river danube

#4: have i already said fall in love with the river danube?

#5: see above

#6: have fun exploring with my travelling buddies, eleni and maria

#7: sample traditional christmas dishes

#8: revisit same christmas markets because we just cant get enough of the christmas bounty

#9: doing the culture-vulture thing in vienna

#10: doing the cafe rounds in vienna. this is THE cafe central.

but one of my highlights was definitely seeing shuz, jo, adam and cuixian in budapest! it made going back all the way to budapest with a crazed eurolines bus driver all worth it. i hope you guys get over to london safely! :)

one never goes hungry in hungary

its a downright lame title, but i just had to put it down!

currently sitting at the caterina hostel in budapest hammering out this blogpost on the hostel computer. i appreciate this place for the cheap lodging, free internet and free breakfast! hoh seh ah! walked and walked and walked and climbed and climbed for a good 8 hrs today from the steambaths to the christmas markets and to buda, up the castle hill, down to the chain bridge and to the christmas market again...

budapest is awesome (even tho the keyboard also sucks, but not as bad as the german ones taryn!) its magnificently pretty, especially viewing it from the high points and looking at the danube bend. it is NOT dodgy and dingy, and it has a feel-good relaxed vibe about it. and yes, hungarian christmas food is incredible. ok, 7am bus ride to vienna tmr morning. shall get some rest now.

toodles!

randomiser

in about 15 hours time, i shall board a sterling flight to budapest and it marks the end of half a year of exchange. even though there's still another half a year of AGreatManyThingsToDo and ALotOfTravelling, just for posterity, i'm just marking today down and blogging about it. and because im narcissistic, here's some pictures to look at:

this is how we take photos: frightening people with closeups and placing tripods on rice cookers (the horror)

this is how we take recess from studying: visit the bookcafe next door for lattes and photowhore while we do it. ive recently found a new cafe stretch filled with MANY MANY MANY MANY lovely little cafes and eating places! store kongensgade, here i commeeee!

this is how we share cultures: by breaking bread with them. dinner at eleni's and maria's (greek girls whom im gg to budapest and vienna with) the other night where they cooked a typical greek meal!

this is how we enjoy life after exams: head over to a classy cafe (cafe norden) and pig out on their daily specials. for the quality of the dish, the price was pretty affordable. i did just finish a gruelling armed conflict oral anyway, so i deserved it.

this is how we mug: within the hallowed walls of the royal library. just being in the library ups my scholarly quotient by 1000.

this is how we party: by cooking copious amounts of food and with generous help from "asian home gourmet", "prima taste", chicken stock and kitchen gods. doreen's 22ND bday.
and this is how we say goodbye: by having a laptop party where millions of bytes of photos are transferred haphazardly from laptop to external harddrives to ipod videos to usb drives, having our own awards ceremony (yours truly got second place in the 'next jamie o' award :)) and then concussing on the floor.

its been so great you guys. it really has.

auld lang syne

funny how all my recent posts are all titles of christmas/new-year-ish songs eh?

anyhow, its been a very busy busy week having finished with those terrible exams. meeting up with people, going shopping for christmas presents and souvenirs to play santa claus back home etc etc. had a sleepover last night with the usual bunch, sort of like a farewell gathering because after tomorrow, lots of us will go our separate ways. it sounds terribly fatalistic and final, but having to think about not meeting my copenhagen circle esp the non-singaporeans: wendy (oz), emily(oz), eddie(hk), eunice (hk), kameron(us), pook(thailand) on a regular basis, for classes, coffee and cookouts makes me a pretty darn sad person.

nothing's ever constant is it :) but, even though we've come from all different nooks and crannies of the earth, we did cross and interwine our paths at least once. and i only have God to thank.

do u hear what i hear?

ohh yes. its the sound of freedom!

pure and utter liberation after today's law of armed conflict orals! after those long ardous weeks of mugging, being cooped up at home, NOT travelling beyond the limits of copenhagen, we are finally free free free!

btw, how come no one tags anymore. pfft!

sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'?

in the land,
snow is glistenin'

a beautiful site

we're happy tonight
walkin' in the winter wonderland

feeling especially chirpy now, because 2 exams are down and its one more to go for tomorrow and im HOME FREE! and because the latest ugly betty episode is out and its 'warm-your-bones' awwwwww. its such a lovely show. anyhow, pictures from tivoli last friday:

you haven't experienced christmas in copenhagen unless you spend 75kr to enter tivoli.

everything's so purrrtttyy! even the ornaments, dont let me get started on them. but they're terribly expensive, even those they're so nice and delicate, so hands in my pocket, teeth gritted, i walk on. :(

magnificent light engineering :)

FFOOOOOODDDDD! the quinesstential drink yule drink is called glogg and its a nasty concoction of hot red wine and funny bits of idontknowwhat. and its a revolting smell that takes your breath away before you even take a sip. but it makes you nice and warm in the tummy though.

dont you just love those lights! the spinning kids carousel.

one. more. exam. to. go.

we've got a long way to run

there's only so much that one can consume of international environmental law in one night. unfortunately, even though i'm up to here (raises hand to chin) with env law. i can't stop. if i dont finish the next 50 pages by tonight, my schedule's screwed majorly. but, there's always time to blog, because its the one thing that i write that's not a rehash of my textbooks. anyhoo, id like to blog about the second song, apart from Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" that has shot to the top of my itunes "Top 25 Played Songs" in a span of like a week. its a pretty old song, check out the spiffy long curly hair in the mtv, then you know. click eet!



Run by Collective Soul

Are these times contagious
Ive never been this bored before
Is this the prize Ive waited for
Now with the hours passing
Theres nothing left here to insure
I long to find a messenger

Have I got a long way to run
Have I got a long way to run
Yeah, I run

Is there a cure among us
From this processed sanity
I weaken with each voice that sings
Now, in this world of purchase
Im going to buy back memories
To awaken some old qualities

Have I got a long way to run [x2]
Yeah, I run [x2]

Have I got a long way [x2]
Have I got a long way to run [x2]

Yeah, I run (have I got a long way to run) [x4]

the mtv does look like it came right out of the 90s doesn't it! the funky curly long hair. aiyoh. to exchange muggers out there, take heart! we only have to pass! (ok, that's not very easy either, but still!)

that looks like a psychiatric ward

because that's what it is. took my exam today at one of the faculties of KU, that happens to be an old hospital converted to university grounds. its freaky enough to have to navigate through the basement to find your examination room, and then my friend tells me that the basement used to house the mental patients. anyway it was an agonisingly long wait for my turn, so what else could i do but take pictures?

in copenhagen, we decorate our toilets for christmas! its the 100yr old public toilet at stroget's underground and its stayed the same for the last 100yrs, according to the nice janitor who spoke to me. it costs to use it, but its definitely worth a visit because its just too purrty for words. i mean, who decorates a toilet with a christmas tree? and hangs pretty little hearts on each door?

'tis the season to be jolly

well, not really. with an exam on tuesday, and 2 more in the following week, this is not a very jolly season after all. hate the fact that exams are in december when christmas carols are on 'repeat all' mode.

taryn is right, xiuying is right, we need to study even on exchange. and especially us in copenhagen, studying for exams which we have no idea how to study for. i'm talking about those damned oral exams. 15mins is all you have to exhibit the knowledge you gained from 4months of study. in our case, more like 2wks of cramming. -throws hands up in the air-

but, we did have a little breather today as we headed down to radhuspladsen to catch the official christmas tree illumination ceremony.

santa has dibs on the firetruck ladder. he almost tripped at the topmost rung actually. oh the things you do for christmas.

isnt it spectacular! the tree literally burst into light and the crowd was stunned speechless.

this is what i call a christmas tree illumination.


pre and post illumination shots.

random photos. ok, karen isnt random :) she's enjoying her apple scribbler (however you spell that).

i'll be home for christmas

listening to a christmas playlist on my itunes makes me want to go home right now.

its definitely christmassy right here in copenhagen, the christmas markets are up, tivoli is prettily decorated and the christmas tree illumination is on sunday (apparently its 22m tall, 100years old), plus the chill factor and the warm candlelight emanating from many a danish household... you get the general picture.

BUT in no way does it compare to being at home in stuffy old singapore, pulling out our 2yr old plastic christmas tree (which i think we got from robinsons), untangling the christmas lights, deciding on what look to give the tree this year, sweeping up fallen plastic leaves, putting on the random assortment of bells, ornaments, fake pinecones and mulberry leaves, wondering how come we never got down to buying a star for our tree for the longest time, and waiting for the evening to come before doing our own serangoon garden light up at home.

wont be doing it this year, i see.

and the big hassle of going christmas shopping and making christmas lists and making last minute presents! did i mention i havent done my christmas cards yet?! travesty!!!
and listening to the home alone theme song doesn't help.

just for kicks, i'm coming back to be someone's older sister again! until you turn 15!

you're definitely going to kill me for this, but if you want your christmas present and other souvenirs, you shld keep your hands to yourself. HAH!

i love being the older sister.