Sunday, April 30, 2006

Random pictures!

This is going to be a fun post, cos I will just post pictures from all over, from before the Russia trip till now.

First, let's start on my trip to (boring) Rovaniemi on April 22. Apologies to Jin Fu cos I didn't know (or I didn't remember) he wanted me to get him a Finnish flag from there. SORRY!

One of the northernmost located universities, if not the most northern. University of LAPLAND! 65degN. 66.25degN (at the border of the Arctic Circle)! Beat that. By the way 65 degN is where I am now (Oulu).

The Arktikum. One of the most boring museums I have ever been to. Well we were just unlucky to hit the time where they had half the exhibits closed. And it was said that that was the more interesting half. So there!


My first northern lights picture! W00T!!!!!!!!!! See that red? WAHAHAHAHA! It's so cool! Lalalalala! Who say I didn't see northern lights?

Santa Claus Village. Really interesting place? Yeah sure. TOTALLY NOTHING IN THERE! Unless you REALLY need to take a picture with Santa Claus ("Joulupukki" in Finnish), please don't go there. Over commercialized, too touristy, and nothing to see there. Just some pictures, maybe.

Just another picture for you starved folks back home. You know something? In Europe they call all Asians who take too many pictures Japanese tourists. So I risked my reputation and my ethnicity to take some more pictures for you guys. Be grateful eh?

Singapore is an important city. Don't believe? You can find Singapore on this pole, but there's no Malaysia, or Thailand, or Indonesia for that matter. Some of the smaller European countries are not even listed. And Singapore is even more tiny than them! So I conclude that SIngapore has a really good reputation. And it is very far away from where I was taking this photo. Like 9000km++ away.

Boring place. Nobody. Nothing. Are you convinced now?

This photo is for my mum. She loves to see me in pictures! There you go, mum!

I'm going to smack Santa Claus since I didn't get my Xmas present last year.

Relaxing in Santa's chair. The only thing to do here is to take photos.

Group photo with Santa Claus. 19euros. So cheap right? This is a picture of the picture we took (with flash, the other one without turned out worse). SUCKY scheisse.

My homeland, where my heart belongs. 9394km away. My heart is torn into bits.

Then there was Vado's and Markus' farewell party at night.

Look at this guy, he is so happy and carefree. Mr Vlado or Vado or Vladimir from Slovakia. Damn friendly guy. Gave me lotsa bear hugs that day. He was just drinking and drinking, like maybe 10 beers or something. And this was at 9pm. Actually this is his farewell party, so I can't really blame him eh?

Markus the Austrian. He's a really funny guy and fun to hang out with. Cool face he has.
Markus: "WTF? I'm cool?"

The kids and the teacher. C'mon Vladik, give us a smile!

Grooving to the beat. What's a party without dancing and music? International crowd.

The girls asked me for a picture, and I willingly obliged. It'd be rude to reject, right? =P

Then of course I have to show what work I've done too. My circuit designs for the 2001 project in Oulu. Electronics Construction Exercise. Urgh. And it had to be modified. WA LAO SIAN JI BUA! (Sorry for the Singlish. Just had to say it.)

Some pics from Helsinki trip with CJ.

Posers indeed.

Standing on the river. This is really a miracle. I'm a miracle kid!

On the ferry to Suomenlinna Sea Fortress. Frozen sea. The frigging sea is frozen. I wonder how much heat was absorbed from the atmosphere!

Taking the path less trodden. Less trodden, more fun, more excitement.

The courageous move forward, the rational people take the stairs. Courageous != rational?!?!

Me: We go up there by this path.
CJ: I scared leh!
Me: You from Guards leh (an elite military unit in the Singapore Armed Forces). I am just a Military Policeman. LET'S GO!
DISCLAMER: This conversation was made up by a hyperactive mind (guess whose?). And like all disclaimers, they're just really tiny in the hope you won't read it.

Khoo Swee Chiow is not the only Singaporean (who was born in Malaysia, incidentally, so he is not full-blooded Singaporean) who can climb mountains. CJ and me can prove our climbing skills too. No safety rope some more. HUMPH!

"CJ to Control. Target on sight. I repeat, target on sight, permission to fire. Over."
Control: "... what are you seeing? Seagulls? Aint nothing to shoot here, at least not with a cannonball."
CJ: "I don't care. I'm just going to shoot anyway."
Seagull: "Kua kua kua!" *poof*

Emerging from exploring the inside of a war bunker. Dark, dank and damp. Ewww. Lucky I had my boots on.

Let CJ demonstrate how Finns kill themselves. Like, er, this. Someone light the cannon please!

I'll do it. WHERE'S CJ with his head inside?

Seawalls surrounding the Fortress. Solid rock. Cannonballs couldn't pass through all this. Like real.

Copy ZM and company's pose on this solid chain. Really solid, I find it tough to even lift it.

King for a day. It's cool. The hat is kinda tight though. I'd become retarded if I wore it any longer cos no blood can get to my head.

Some new pics from Russia.

Sailor boys and the duke.

Clowns.

I look pretty serious in this photo I think...

A funny picture. Obscene if you know what's in that guy's head. "Yannick, what are you doing to Fatih!"

Flattening the statue a bit. Now it looks straight.

"Look here Vicente!" (Jose and Yannick with the all knowing smile. Guess what are we doing?)

Jose: "Puta!" We were just taking a funny picture. The moment of fun was captured in eternity. To hold eternity in the palm of your hand. Or just do it on film or on your memory card.

Well during one of our dinners at the restaurants, this woman asked me to dance with her. Er, I just did it to oblige the rest. Not entirely enjoyable. Not with this grandma. Just laughing cos I was damn embarrassed. My face was red without any alcohol!

White Russian hat (from Emma)! So cool!

"Dun mess around with me!" Don't we all love these military hats.

Ok I hoped you enjoy those pics. Damn tiring to upload all these, man! Ciao and good night. Uh oh the sun is rising again.

Haka Video!

We decided to do this video some time back in January or February but I only found time to put it on today. Well, it's just a really crappy video, so enjoy it... =P


Tags: Haka, Oulu

To watch it on Youtube, click here.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Vappu

I just realized I'm getting real lazy cos I haven't been updating my blog everyday. Well, it's partly due to lack of time, but I can hardly complain!

Everywhere in Oulu now seems to have awakened. Life has sprouted up, and now we really have green grass, and green leaves on trees. A welcoming relief from the grey and white and black that greeted me each morning when I opened my curtains.

Did you know..? The number of drunk people I have seen in these two days are almost equivalent to the number I would normally see in a week or two. And the number of REALLY DRUNK people are increasing as well.

This REALLY DRUNK category is the kind which talks nonsense, sings terribly in an extremely crass and irritating fashion, can't walk properly and try to pick up girls like they're picking up beer glasses. And you know how drunk people pick up beer glasses. Normally the glass ends up on the floor. And I suppose if the girl isn't drunk, she won't want to be picked up like that.

In these few days, I have made no less than 5 new friends. Well, I guess Oulu is not as sleepy and "ulu" as it is made out to be. Well, at least not in spring!

OK, back to the main topic. Vappu! This is the celebration of Spring in Finland. I think it's called Wappu in Swedish. It's supposed to be one day of celebrations on Sunday, before Labour Day on May 1st. But of course, students being students, they tend to overdo things a little (but rather unlike what they do for their homework and exams; anyway I don't know why I said this so never mind me). The students have already started their celebrations! It's like a week long ceremony for most people (but not for bookworms, and also not for me, cos I have no stamina and I also have an important mission to complete - my project!).

As usual, I have written "too much" (what's new anyway) and so I should really show some pictures now. However, I really don't understand people who just look at pictures though, cos it is the words that really explain what's going on (although a picture speaks a thousand words, but that is based on the fact you know what is going on in the picture.) I guess there are lots of illiterate people amongst my friends who just want "PICS PICS PICS! Not so many words, lah!" Come on, did your school education bring you up just to SEE pictures?

Anyway, this is my blog area so if you can't appreciate it, there's always the option of closing this window. (Sorry just had to get it off my chest =P But I can't really be bothered if you just look at the pictures, just don't tell me. This blog area is also for my memories next time, so I want to record how I am feeling at that point in time. In words, no less.)

So now, pictures! Enjoy! (The pics aren't terribly interesting, but they do let you get a feel of the party atmosphere.)



Pic of (from left, when you view it horizontally) Patricia (Spanish) and Noura (French, but of Arab origin). We had a nice long walk to Tuira beach (like almost three quarters of an hour). Half biked half walked, to be exact. Luckily it wasn't winter already, else I would be silently cursing under my breath cos I didn't use my bus card. It was excellent weather to run, walk or bike. I should borrow someone's bike to bike around a bit.

Picture came out odd. It was supposed to come out portrait, yet it was landscape. (or was it the other way round? So pissed that this post will not be done properly now. My mood wasn't sunny to start with, cos a sleepy man will always be grumpy.)

Beach Volleyball match. When was the last time I had beach volleyball? Like er, eons ago?

Basking in the sun, enjoying the sun sand and sea. The Tuira beach was just a few steps away. Paradise indeed, though the water was not really warm, so to speak.

Smartypants me tried to invert the image the other way. And guess what? NO USE! I think it's my camera problem.Party atmosphere. All these punks are studying at the university, so yeah, they're not the real deal. Party, party, party, music, sun, sand, sea. Hauska Vappu! (Happy Vappu!)

Noura with "Elvis Presley". It really made her day!


Manu Buscher, my dear old flatmate in borrowed overalls. These overalls identify which faculty/guild you belong to and you get them in your freshman year. The patches are given/bought and sewed on yourself. The more you have, of course the better it looks. Normally it just shows how senior you are in school. As you can see, Manu's overalls belong to a rather "junior" university student. Or maybe it just belongs to one of the other exchange students.

Ok duderines, that's the end of a rather frustrating post. I hope the other pictures I take with my camera don't get inverted too, else I'd be really at my wit's end.

Till I blog again, take care!