live from the clay courts of the Stade de Roland Garros

so i watched my very first live Grand Slam tournament today.

wwwhhhhhooooopppeeeeeedo.

and it so happened that when we got past the hallowed entrance of the Roland Garros, who should be playing at the famed phillip chatrier court, but the spaniard rafael nadal?

and could it be that we were actually in a 10m radius of the australian lleyton hewitt coming out from court 11?

i am so very very fortunate.

paris is tres shiok!

hullo from roshni's place in normandy!

its been a whirlwind of a trip in paris so far and just made it rosh's place, where i'm being fed boisson pepper cheese which is seriously good. there is so much to say about paris i dont know where to begin, but the fact that im in a dilemma about whether i am more a francophile now or an anglophile tells you that i am indeed enamoured by the french capital.

its not easy not to fall in love with paris, really.

one more thing! pierre herme macaroons, darlings. laduree has the prettier box and the opulent and decadent-looking teahouse, but pierre hermes melt. in. your. mouth.

of all people...

WHY DID SANTOS HAVE TO DIE!


&^&*^!!! sorry for those who have yet to watch the season finale of ugly betty (go to fanpop NOW, thanks rosh!) i think i just put a mega big spoiler on my blog.

im truly truly sad for hilda and justin, especially when the earlier parts of the finale featured really tender moments between santos, hilda and justin (the finger snapping father-son moment really touched my heart).

and this is second to the (irritating! two-timing!)charlie-betty confrontation. im like eh! can there at least be one thing in betty's life that goes smoothly?!

this finale has got to be the champion of the most-number-of-cliffhangers-in-one-episode contest. but i shall stop now.

go watch!

and to ell: hey i'm ok with it, just send me a link to your site too alright?

the things you learn

thanks taryn for the tag! sometimes i dont say things as articulately as i like them to be, so its affirming to get response from you!

rosh, cooooool! but that trent also said that some insiders said that they're always "on-offing". as much as i love john mayer (or used to love him), i don't trust him anymore! what a terrible and preposterous take in judgement!

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anyway, ave's here to visit right now, all the way from... across the oresund hurhur.

we just came back from the little mermaid, the last time i'll actually the big old farce. and tomorrow, it will be all the touristy spots i hit over again, like i did with all those of you guys who came to visit both sam and me for the past year. my goodbye round if you know what i mean.

anyway ave is sitting next to me know, intent on learning katamari on her boyfriend's psp. she is the first person ever who has come to visit copenhagen and totally forgotten that the little mermaid exists until i told her about it. and when we were actually in front of the statue, she didnt want to take a picture of it! and then she said she pretty much liked just being where the mermaid was (which is overlooking the sea) and soaking in the peace.

which prompted me to write down this travel tip for travellers in general:

sometimes when we travel, we get too caught up with trying to best capture the moment on camera because we believe that once we capture that moment, it will remain with us, the memory etched loud and clear in photographs. plus this whole need to have physical proof to show people that "look here, i was actually in this place, this time" kind of mentality.

when we get too kiasu in phototaking, we totally miss the point of coming to a place and experiencing its maximum value when we try to reduce it to a photo. photos can only capture what the lenses tell them to see. they cant reflect anything else if you dont have an emotional or sentimental attachment with the place to begin with.

ok, that being said, im such a serial photowhore you might think im being contradictory. you can take all the pictures you want of course, but sometimes slow down and smell the flowers for a bit while travelling. like how we take 5mins for our pre-meals food shot, one plate but several different perspectives and in different lighting, flash no flash.

remember, photos cannot tell you how those flowers smelt like.

2 days to france, 18 days to home

with my excruciatingly long haul exams finally over with, the last days of my la vie de la copenhague are reaching to a close. 18 days and counting down to be exact. yep for those who have been seeing me on msn, its a different local dish everyday as D-day looms closer.

and there is nothing to update these days except for the fact that ive finally finished with all 3 books of the Lord of the Rings! which means i get legitimately watch peter jackson's movies (and sniff hoity-toitly at how-the-book-is-better-than-the-movie and all that purist-talk). but in my humblest opinion, films and books are different genres to begin with, so as far as humanly possible, each should be considered for its own merit.

anyway for those of you out there who've watched the movie and yet read the book, do attempt at trudging past all the hobbit history and description of the shire in the earlier chapters of the fellowship of the ring and i guarantee you the book will read as easily as anything from enid blyton. generally, ive never been much of a fantasy reader, except for the entire harry potter series, stuff from neil gaiman (must die die read that ok), and a susanna clarke's jonathan strange and mr norrell. (wah i can actually count all the fantasy books i read.)

one of the other reasons why its worth going through the ponderous stages of the battles (in two towers) is because you really get to understand why is it that the LOTR is the classic that is. tolkien writes the book in such minute detail that even though you want to strangle him for being so lor-sor (half the time im like 'can you get it over and done with?' or 'how many situations do you want frodo and sam to get into?!") you love him for being able to raise an entire universe from mere words. he's a genius flat out. after i read him, and then i compare to jk rowling's harry potter, hers reads like a weekly entertainment magazine.

its an amazing fairytale. and there are all these quote-worthy words uttered by gandalf and frodo and sam which i just love. sam's one of my favourite characters because while he's seemingly simple, he does say very astute things like

"a nice pickle we've gotten ourselves into Mr. Frodo!"

haha that didnt sound so intelligent, but its cute and it tempers the foreboding future in a light-hearted way. i mean, who says pickle these days!

i'll round off this post with a favourite song of the hobbits that i found in the book, and very fitting to write for the End of Exchange. i will only write that down when its really my last day in copenhagen sob sob.

to the rest of you guys still piah-ing (or trying hard to, anyway) away for exams, all the best! you can do eeett!!

devastated.

john mayer and jessica simpson.

WWWWHAAAAAAAARRRRTTTTT IS HE THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

like that also can ah!

I SMITE YOU, PIGEON! -brandishes kitchen knife-

this morning has got to be one of most eventful mornings of my life.

a stupid pigeon actually managed to squeeze its fat ass through one of the gaps in my window and tromp around my kitchen.

HOW SERIOUSLY DISGUSTING AND UNHYGENIC AND GROSS AND DIRTY IS THAT! *&%&£$@!~~@~@~

totally spoiled my morning.

i cleaned and washed and scrubbed and cleaned and washed and scrubbed my entire morning away.

my dad would be so proud that ive got his hypochondriac genes floating around inside me. i used his sure-fire germ elimination method and poured hot boiling water on all exposed pots, pans, cutlery, crockery whathaveyou.

and used up one whole packet of NTUC antibacterial wipes, all 40 of them in one sitting. i knew they were going to come in handy one day on exchange.

STUPID PIGEON!

gee! i really hate pigeons lah. they make too much noise in the morning when they roost at my window sill and they're just damn disgusting and eeuwww. yuck. it was a total nightmare to see this big fat stupid bird in my appartment. and in my KITCHEN!

you know, my kitchen is like the inner sanctum.

i felt duly violated.

this foreign entity just prancing around nonchalantly on my food totally killed me.

i hate pigeons! and together with that other mangy household birds, insects etc etc.

but mercifully the bird managed to retrace its steps and squeeze back out of my house into the open. i was so close to calling some pestbuster company for help. it was a hostage situation. and the victim was my kitchen.

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i sound seriously dramamama here, but its how i really feel. no one or no THING messes with my kitchen.

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in other news: i'm finishing the return of the king!!! i'm actually finishing up the Lord of the Rings!

skagen- where denmark practically melts into the sea

indeed.

i obviously didnt take that picture above, but where you see the bus and alot of people standing was where i stood yesterday. i finally made that trip up to nordjylland (north jutland) and all the way up to the tip of denmark, a little town called skagen. skagen's famous for grenen, the spit created by the meeting of the two seas, the kattegat and the skagerak. ok its also famous for the so-called tilsande kirke (the buried church), whose picture graces the lonely planet guide to denmark.

i made that trip to skagen for 2 reasons. because skagen was the first picture i ever saw of denmark, when i went to the danish embassy a good 10 months ago to apply for my student visa and because i wanted to replicate the photo of the church on the lonely planet guide. sorry ah, sentimental! while i didnt manage to do the church, going to grenen was more than enough.

it was surreal to watch seas crash into one another in the middle of nowhere. and to be able to walk as far as i dared on the wet sand with waves coming at me from the left and the right. like so:





i dont think my pictures actually do justice to the sight, but you can see the v-shape of the waters coming together i guess. and i thank God that even though the weather was pretty erratic when we were at skagen, it didnt rain when we made that trip to grenen. more pictures here:

the sunny skies along the road leading to the lighthouse and grenen.

'danger of death!' - quite true lah. grenen might be totally underwater in high tide.

evidence!

10kr polser! it was a steal. thats the skagen town behind me. its made up of a single cobbled street (sct laurentii vej). only ONE street. this is one very small town.

adelyn looks pretty at peace with the world here.

not our hostel. but cute nonetheless!

now, this is innovation.

our hostel.

lunch at skagen fisketrestaurant: when your floor is sand-covered for decorative purposes, you have an excuse not to clean it.

the awfully long road getting to grenen.

so ive come a full round. last semester i made it to the east of denmark, to bornholm, this time i made to skagen in the north.

and in the words of my very wise mother:

"and its time to go home".

i will follow you into the dark

please please please watch this video.

it reminds me of a more traumatic version of the children's book (one of my all time favourites) sam mcbratney and anita jeram's 'guess how much i love you'.

a peek inside:


its something about spineless rabbits that make you go all gooey inside. my sister has a very dirty "pet" rabbit we call paunchy at home, but we still love it all the same.

and i just have to say that tonight will go down in history because samuel lim is more hardworking than me and he is pacing around the house (as i type comfortably on my bed finding youtube mtvs) spewing various articles from the UDHR and ICCPR and random cases.

hey! i am actually less of a mugger than sam! amazing!

if gyms were like that, i'd apply for lifetime membership

im not sure if this is an old mtv, (i cant keep up with all these bands!!!!!) but my cousin, serene shared with me this super-i-dont-know-why-i-never-saw-it mtv of ok go and their song 'here it goes again'. when we both we gushing over snow patrol's signal fire. signal fire's the closing credits song for spiderman 3 you uninitates.

according to her, ok go did the whole mtv in one take. GASP! I CANT EVEN STAY ON A TREADMILL THAT LONG! i love their psychedelic outfits and syncronized jumping from treadmill to treadmill. smooth!

this song is great motivation for all of you out there who desire some impetus to head to the gym and shed those fats you piled up on exchange. you know who you are. and i am one of them!

CRAP.

my busted fingers (part2)

been trying to practice the guitar consistently, at least for more than an 1hr at each stretch, for the last few days and my fingers have successfully reached a level of "busted-ity" i have never seen before. the nubs on them are hard, even as i type this, i cant really feel them and they're peeling! ouch ouch ouch.

but im happy that the guitar playing has had some headway! i still havent managed hammering yet, i think my pinky is somewhat retarded, but ive learnt a bit of sliding today with jars of clay's flood and tuning the guitar. plus, ive been a little more adventurous and tried strumming some worship songs. what pleases me most is that they actually sound decent! :D

anyway the plan today fell to pieces because we watched spiderman 3 in the morning and then the afternoon was too nice to spend indoors. so suyin and i very intelligently tried to go to the lake outside my place to study. it was obviously a bad idea after 45mins of trying to do some reading when people are just walking their dogs, sunning and jogging all around us. so i figured i would run back up to my apartment and take the guitar out to play in the grass surrounding the lake.

so exciting right!

it was quite an experience playing in public! i was perpetually busking if you ask me. people slowed down in front of me and some guy even requested i play breakfast at tiffany's hurhur. another dane even sat down beside me and asked me why i was playing the guitar in the middle of nowhere. then he took the guit from me and played a song! unfortunately, it wasn't a hot danish guy AND the song was unknown to me. but it was still cool. i was quite tempted to put my cap upside down beside me and see who might kindly drop kroners into it, but i figured it was stupid because both suyin and i were 1) munching on wasa; 2) relatively well dressed; 3) my mac was propped up in front of me so i could read my chords.

still, i never felt as much a hippy as i did this afternoon, so despite zeeroh studying done, i quite enjoyed today.

will blog about spidey3 when i feel like i have nothing to do. must. study. now.

I get by with a little help from my friends

What would you think if I sang out of tune

we just ended the last big dinner party sam and i will ever hold here in ole suhrs gade 10, 3 t.h. (ie our appartment). its somewhat ironic that the first dinner party that we had here was with the great bunch of singaporeans and honorary singaporeans (ie eddie, kam, eunice) and the last one tonight was with the international friends that we both have made throughout the two semesters.

Would you stand up and walk out on me

we've come almost a whole round with the exchange programme and i'm really feeling very wistful about it. yet i am so so so so thankful for all the people who have come into my life and been very much a part of it, especially for the other non-singaporean exchange students that ive become such great friends with. and these are friends you can really call friends, not hi-bye, but the friendship shared is warm, honest, kind, faithful, loyal.. all the virtues of a true friendship.

Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song

honestly, it's not easy to connect with people not from the same background or culture as you. for us lazy tongue singaporeans, our rapid singlish rattle easily makes us unintelligible and seemingly difficult to communicate with. and for the first two months of exchange, i was still going through the standard international student introduction protocol questions like: a) your name; b) where you come from; c) what area of study; d) when do you graduate; e) where do yo u live; f) why choose copenhagen etc etc which simply got very tiring. i mean, friends arent made this way.

And I'll try not to sing out of key

but when you make the effort to engage and nurture the acquaintance, through countless coffee and cake outings, home-cooked lunch and dinners, hanging out in the park with frisbees, commiserating over skipping classes and sharing notes, dying of boredom in class together, bitching about professors, group projects, travelling together, or just talking talking and talking together, the acquaintance naturally evolves into a deeper relationship, and one that is reciprocated.

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

so im justifiably sad and going teary-eyed that i might not see all of my friends ever again. i am more than grateful to everyone ive gotten a chance to meet and grown close to, being privy to your life is a privilege. i dont know if we'll cross paths again, and its too early to judge the directions that our individual lives will take after the exchange is over for all of us. but i'm pretty certain that our memories of copenhagen will be filled not just of KU, the metro and trinity buildings, jurahuset, international office, studenthouse, royal library, netto, stroget, but of the good times we've had through the fall, winter, spring and now summer.

thank you guys.