Wrapping Up

Back in Singapore for a long while now, the journey home was relatively uneventful, consisting of a 100 dkk taxi ride to the train station, 4.5 hour journey by train sitting next to someone with a severe case of OCD/paranoia/some psychiatric condition, dropping off my load of 3 bags weighing about 45 kg total at the airport without paying extra, having the plane to London delayed by more time than the transit window, getting my flight switched to Lufthansa instead, making the journey home via Frankfurt. Piece of cake.

As you may already know, the purpose of this blog was my exchange. And now that its done, the show's over so to speak.

Thanks for being a great audience.

How do you measure a year

D-day, H-hour.

In just a few hours I'll be having my room inspection and then its all systems go out of Aarhus.

Not really in the mood to reflect right now cos I'm exhausted from all the packing and cleaning. Oh yeah, and the amount of waste I generate is astonishing.

So a year has gone by. And some people measure it by the skills attained, relationships formed, job promotion.. the tangible stuff. As for me, I honestly do not know what I have to show for the past year, probably nothing significant to the outside world. Yet I know deep inside me that this entire exchange experience has probably transform my life for good.

It all sounds like hogwash, I know. And I shall end on that note.

See you people in Singapore soon. And to all my fellow friends from exchange, thanks so much, it was a very excellent ride :)

Breaking Up

Breaking up with her is that much harder when she looks this good.

I always imagined that I could be perfectly chill, calm and at most slightly wistful in the last few days of our relationship. Instead I seek to distance myself from her, to harden my heart, and to focus on her miserable points. How unbecoming.

Obviously I knew this time would come. But still, I ought to pause and reflect on this for a while, since our fates were after all, intertwined for over ten months. Admittedly I was often unfaithful, choosing to have flings with other exotic places. Yet I always felt safe when I returned, and she always welcomed me back.

Of course there are negative aspects to her - frequently cold, high maintenance, sometimes emotionally unavailable. But in that way she helped me to grow stronger and more independent. I shall not blame her for being an alcoholic, that I shall attribute to my lack of willpower.

And so it is, Aarhus, or in your language Århus, that we must move on, without each other. I shall forever remember you, but for my sake and sanity, please do not call or write to me, and I in turn will reciprocate this kindness.

Perhaps, as a fitting closure, the burning of notes:



All good things come to an end!

The Final Trip

And so the final trip on exchange was to be Marrakech, Morocco. It was just a total different feel - the houses made of clay, sahara desert, tiny windy streets, cuisine of tajines and couscous comprising a lot of vegetables, stew, grilled meat.

Jemaa el Fna square, orange juice at 3 dirham a pop, dozens of stalls selling identical cuisine and produce. Its too bad I didnt get to try the goat's head.




Bulk of the time was spent on a 3D2N tour to the Sahara Desert with really fun travellers. Oh and there was a cameraman on board too, cos his boss Hassan wants to make a promotional video of the desert tour. Haha if only I could see the final product. Let me know if any of you stay in one of Hassan's Riads and get to see the video.




LJ holding a Highland Rose.




House where they filmed a scene in Gladiator. There was also a poster of Drogba in there somewhere which is quite retarded and seem all the more touristed.




One of the many "panoramic" views of the Atlas mountains we got en route. The guide kept using the word to describe every view until we started to mimic him.



Viewpoint from an outlook. Think it was at the top of the Casbah after climbing past the gladiator house.



Valley of Human Bodies along the Dades gorge.



And our painful bumpy ride on the dromedary. We were so excited when we first saw the camel but the next day when we had to ride it back, everyone was kind of dreading it and wishing we had a jeep or something more comfy.



Night in the desert with music and campfire. Felt like being in a field camp all over again, but with sand getting in my face throughout the night.


I'm actually a lot more excited than I seem to be about the trip. Just that right now I'm in the final few days of my time on exchange and the waves of sadness is seeping in. Not that I do not want to return to Singapore, but the magic of travelling and being on exchange is something else, something I will miss dearly.

Updates and whatnot

3 weeks of exams over, happy to report that I passed everything, although not getting mad grades like Khelvin (spoil market!).

Decided to host a dinner party together with Nunthiya, partly as a reciprocal obligation of our clandestine group known as The Food Club (Madklubben?!). Yea it involves forcing down strange concoctions of food down other people's mouth and seeing when they'll give up and cry for help. Ok no seriously, I am thankful for this Food Club group cos of all the great people in it, and as a born-and-bred Singaporean, the best way of cultural exchange is of course food. Although sadly I was not around often enough to attend every dinner.

So off we went to do grocery shopping for our meal that evening... Prior to that I had to lug my huge sack of stuff (rice cooker, sauce, meat, more sauce, mixes) over to her place. Great success!




Bazaar Vest! Came here to grab fruits and vegetables, ended up buying some junk like nuts as well. I think I would honestly come here a lot more often if it wasn't that inconvenient. The prices are way better, the stuff is fresh, and the atmosphere of the market is just great.



Haha the selection of water pipes were great too.



Nunthiya posing with... i dunno, something. Note her attire - thats how warm it is around here. im wearing more because at night it gets cold again.

All right there is a lack of photos regarding the food so I'll just say what it is we cooked up:

Dumpling soup with seaweed, vegetables, mushrooms
Chicken rice with cucumber, eggs, tomatoes
Stir fried vegetables

And finally, chocolate fondue provided by Pieter!



End result - EVERYTHING got eaten. I am quite pleased that it turned out so well, but a bit angry for not churning out more rice / chicken / vegetables. We were just quite worried that everybody would give up eating ala fear factor.

It was crazy tiring bustling about in the kitchen but in the end its just worth it. This has been our market research and now that it seems a success, I guess its time to start thinking about opening a restaurant in Europe, eh. And not those crappy chinese nonsense with sweet sour sauce either.

Oh yea some of us ended up watching Borat after the meal with a shot of Absinthe. To anyone who cares, I think I found a minor contradiction within the show. I've actually watched it quite a few times :|

Ho well. Tomorrow I leave for Morocco.. just Marrakesh. To all the folks back home, see ya real soon. To all the folks right here, hope to see you all again before I leave!

The Cravings

Things to do when I'm back:

1) Eat all that is tasty

2) Lose weight

... that can't be right


Just as an additional footnote to anyone who cares, my sg number has been suspended/not used from August last year. So if I did not reply your sms it is not because I dont love you. But I'll be back to reclaim my number so dont delete it just yet

Student House - Where It All Began

Going to the Student House on your own is both a joy and a dread. Its a joy when you see lots of familiar faces and people you can catch up with; its pure crap when no one you know is around. And the sheer anticipation of not knowing what you'll get.. priceless. I dare say I'm not the only one with such a state of mind (cant remember the word i was looking for) which explains why people start going there later and later as the semester goes by.

So anyway I was there last night for the Farewell Party, lured by promises of free food. Food in the cultural context means hot dogs and potatoes, in many ways Denmark is not too far off from Germany. And while thankfully there were a few people I knew, more than half of the people there were unfamiliars. Or, Semester 2 people. It's a bit like JC days where the people who were together for the "first three months" did not readily integrate the "2nd intakers". In this case, said Semester 2 people (hereafter S2P) had formed their own groups, cliques, bunch and were quite settled. Me on the other hand, most of those I knew from the previous semester were either home, or had outgrown the childish idea of meeting in the student bar on Tuesdays.

Sure enough Student House was where the socialising began, since there was an (almost) infinite amount of beer to satisfy everyone. At the beginning when groups had not formed, and people were all cheery and excited at this magical realm of exchange, it was wonderful. And I'm happy for the S2P who had it too.

And as much as it would be great to know more people from all over the world with the simple step of saying hi, I guess it seemed sort of meaningless to say Pleased to meet you and farewell in the same evening (one night stands excluded).

So there. Thanks for the memories Student House, you were a great place with the right company.