Stillll SNowing

ItsMarch and its still snowing.. where is Spring????

Yea and I made Minestronne Soup a couple of days ago and it tasted damn nice.. damn proud of my cooking now muhahaha..

Fireworks on 1st March

Fireworks that I could see just ouside my room on 1st March which I have no idea what they are for..

International Gasque (Spring 2008 - 29 February)

In Uppsala, there is this traditional dinner called the Gasque, where everyone has to dress formally and have a 3 course dinner. And yes this is unique to Uppsala, nowhere else. Initially I didn't wanna go because I didn't have a blazer. But so many people said so much about it and anyway I needed a blazer too next year too for interviews, so why not try to look for a cheap blazeR? I searched and searched, blazers cost about 400SGD on average here. But lucky enough, I found a nice one at slightly less than 100SGD. Don't I look good? haha It was a really classical dinner. Served in candlelight, with beer, wine and a duno what shot for everyone.
This is my very good American friend, Brad.
A German girl with her bf in the gasque too.

And they have this men's choir which was really really cool..

In between, we have to sing traditional Swedish songs and after every song we are supposed to toast to the people beside us and in front of us. For guys, its like a norm to toast to ur right-hand-side, then to your left-hand-side, then to the front and finally drink the wine. After drinking, you have to toast again to your front, then to your right and back to the person on the left before you can put down your glass.

They have this excellent violin group, nothing to say, just watch it!

This guy from Greece is really damn funny. Although he used to be a drug addict, he's still a university student on exchange here!
This guy I forgot where he came from, think he's an Australian.
This Danish sitting beside me was really irritated by the drunk guy sitting beside him. That guy even broke a plate with his spoon!
And an afterparty is always there after the gasque!

FREEze and Easy in Abisko (21 Feb to 26 Feb)

It was an 18 hours train ride to reach Abisko, the best place on Earth to see the Auroras. The train ride was damn bad, you get so tired and you just cant get to sleep on that chair. Abisko is really a 'No mans land', where its town has a total population of only 70 inhabitants. It was really just snow and more snow up there. Here is a video on the train when it was changing a 'restaurant' cabin.

And there in front, somewhere on the tip of that mountain is the Aurora SkyStation. A very pretty dog.
This is below the mountains. In the woods, snow can go up to above my knee level.
On the first day, we went Ice climbing. Look at those shoes I wear, there are so heavy and hard that I can't even move my ankle at all.
Don't I look like some China fireman?
Climbing this ice is impossible, we were really a joke haha.

German, Finnish, Turkish and a American we met there who are on exchange too.This is the at the bottom of the mountain and its the first time I ever wore this damn yellow jacket which I borrowed from my friend because they say its going to freeze like hell up there. I look like one damn banana waiting to be peeled. We estimated a -19degC up there.
There is only one way up the mountain, and it is via this damn chairlift.. scary.. have to go up 2000metres on this!!! Imagine taking just this to the tip of Genting, yes the same height as genting.


Well it was an unlucky first night, we didn't get to see the Northern lights. However, the scenery up there was exhilirating. The view of the vast mountains on the right, and a lake that is totally frozen on the left. The lake is so huge, estimated 20-15km and the whole damn thing was frozen!

On the 2nd day we went skiing! I love it so much that I really really feel like going back again.

Again I have to wear this tele-tubbie coat again so that I don't get wet and freeze.
It is what they called nordic skiing and we have to skii through woods like this.
Until we find a good place to sit and have our lunch,and with awe-inspiring views like this eating our biscuits.


A fozen river below, with skii trails on it.
Trying to act like a pro.
Look at how my friend Venki skiis, really a joke haha.

And now its my turn...

On the 2nd night, the temperature went crazy... A FREEZING -24degC. But maybe its because of this temperature that we were really lucky to at least catch abit of the northern lights.



And now the last day. Haha finally see a real snowman. Say hi to him!

This is the frozen lake, yes the whole damn thing is frozen and you can walk on it.

It is really like a tundra or a snow desert whichever you like to call it. Just flatness with snow blowing so damn fiercely. Initially abit scared to go onto the frozen lake. But walking on it awhile, I laid on it haha...
So damn cold that we are running away liao..
And sadly all things come to an end, we have to head back finally.

You can see how Sweden differs so much just in the train ride. A beautiful country, we should all just migrate here.