IKEA....some pronounce it 'ai-kay-ya' but now let it be known, the proper swedish pronouciation is..."eee-kay-a"...hahaha!!!!! over here in sweden, the IKEA is considered the cheapest place if you wanted to get home furnishings and deco. unlike back home where its consider middle to upper class, here its for the common. almost every student gets their stuff for their rooms from IKEA. and just for your information IKEA stands for Ingvar Kampar Elmtaryd Agunnaryd(Ingvar Kampar Home Furnishing retailer) and dear Mr Ingvar Kampar even donated money for the whole ID building(Ingvar Kampar Design Centrum) on our campus which covers the Architure House behind it in its shadow....though they have delicious lunch buffet there daily=)
the most windy day since we arrived in Lund. In front of Block K of another international corridor as we set out of our IKEA Quest. left, Sir Ivan 'Tan' of Copenhagen Business Sch, and Lady Ling of Lund Faculty of Business...hahawaiting for the bus at Malmo...Sir Ivan 'Tan' having a break with his KIT KAT
MEEEAAAAATTTTTBAAALLLLLLSSSS!!!!!! evenly oven baked meatball,crisp and firm on the outside bursting with mouthfuls of breadly and meatly insides with a every slight but noticeble scent of nutmeg, complemented perfectly with hot creamy sauce and sweet cold jam. together with the freshly boiled baby potatoes, every bite was a savoury, and blissful piece of heaven....ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
mission accomplished!!
Sir Ivan 'Tan' reenacting the role of the mothers of his home land, the SamSui women....this is the Sweden's Sam Sui Man!!!!

Two saturdays ago, we were bumming around in Copenhagen...after much deliberation, we decided to try and get a picture with the castle guard....these guys just march continuously in front of the entrance the whole day...and they have a dun-mess-with-me-face always, but it was just too tempting!!! haha!1
Florian and i almost got SHOT!!! really, we were trying to get as close to the palace guys as possible the he just suddenly snapped his rifle and growled: "1.5 m away!!!"....phew....on top of some tower...note...both center guys are has the same name.....FLORIAN though they know nuts bout construction....haha
Group Pic(note there is another Florians in this pic, guys with cap looking in wrong direction, is also a Florian)
YAR YAR!!! Diego, a Swiss German, and Ole a German German....the Jokers in my swedish class.
Ann-Sophie...my fellow photo crazy french friend...don't mess with the girls!!!thats the worlds tallest man....oh man, i feel so short...

fresh food market
city hall?
note the person cracking the whip, its a LADY!!!

copenhagen opera house....no durians here..haha!


a random flower!!!

outer space bubbles in the middle of town square??


kings castle.....this guy has a garden the size of 8 soccer fields i thinkhe even has a tree casted into concrete and put on a wagon...funny, i think Mr Fong did say he patented this...hahaha
what??
all tired after the whole day of walking...



2 really crazy street bashers....they were screaming more then singing...haha
the best showcase of the crazy swedish wind!!
wow wow and WOW!!!! a definate project runway winner...and the second runner up...they even make there own shoes.....funky hippy-flowerpower colours...haha
a person i noe back home?? maybe that how she would look if she was a he...haha


another familiar name...comes with a matching set square too...how appropriate
ohhhhh!!!! lets worship the golden cow..NOT!!!...i sure ain't want cow dung over me....haha

Hans Christian Andersens, The Little Mermaid(1836)...one of my favourite story. The Little Mermaid Statue at Copenhagen.

P.S. Lapbie's back...more post and photos to follow=]

due to unforseen circumstances(ie MY IBOOK BROKE DOWN,andireallydunnohowiamgonnasurvivewithoutinternetathomeforthenexthalfamonth......crap!!) this blog will unfortunately be close for the next 2 weeks...

a package from home...a perfect surprised that was awaiting for me at ICA parcel collections
the goodies that this package unfolded..THANKS JULIET...you're the best...=]

malmo castle...now an art museum=]

Asian Potluck!!!

Tonight was the Asian Potluck. One of the Taiwanese master student decided to gather all the asian students in Lund at his apartment. Though a little apprehensive initially, Avril, Andrea Huiling and I finally decided to go, and i manage to whip up Red Bean soup to bring as an entry offering...hahaha!!!! but it turned out pretty well, the party was great, and people there though all Asians, were as havoc and as fun as the previous international corridors parties that i have attended...i guess most asians here, since they are keen to leave asia and travel all the way to europe for an exchange, they tend to be more loud, open and crazy as compared to the stereotypically quiet asians in the eyes of the common europeans.

Taiwan, Taiwan, Malaysia, China
Japanese

Kengo(like Kengo Kuma) and me
Singapore trio(Andrea, Huiling and Avril)
Hiro(like Hiro Nakamura??) was both a superb residential cook and a fantastic musician.
Singapore, Japan, Malaysia

Calatrava's Twisting Torso

Water front warehouses...the industry beginning of Sverige(Sweden)

Today was a day of shopping in Malmo for chinese spices and seasonings mainly. however, while my rice-craving Malaysian friend and Pluto-loving chinese friend were going GAGA over their chinese sauces and stuff, i was busy looking for my Lentils, Mustard and Cummin seeds and Masala spices...haha!! i'm pretty sure i'm part indian somewhere...haha!!!!

anyway, the best part of the trip came after the shopping...me and Vivian decide still we had no happening parties to go to tonight, we migh as well go to *drumroll* THE TURNING TORSO, by Santiago Calatrava...Wooohoooo!!!!!! hahaha!!!! my first visit to the great architects work which i have only read in books...it was like a pilgrimage...hahaha!!!

it was actually not as big as i seemed from far, but it was really TWISTED!!! and it seemed to lean slightly too. i guess the rational for the steel spine that runs along one of its sides is sort of justified by Calatrava's TWISTED intention, plus the wind load is pretty heavy there. but well, apart from it being twist, it didn't look much different from normal skyscrapers...same boring surface treatment and stuff...maybe all the budget was spent on resolving its from structure. too bad we couldn't get in...

Malmo Art Musuem

Malmo Art Museum...now this is a real castle...haha

golden section in the real world...

Foreigners?

Lunch outdoors on the grass during our Tomelilla site vist...studios should be outdoors=]



phenomena: foreign student gathering together eating, chit-chatting and basically occupying our space, breathing our air and contributing to the sound pollution.

response A(locals): stares and grumblings amongst themselves.
response B(Foreign students): carrying on occupying space and making noise

realise some time ago while having dinners with the NUS Business peops, that we were doing exactly like what 'Ah Tiong' do in singapore, gathering amongst ourselves and partying in a foreign territory...hahaha!!! and we think that the local sweds might actually be feeling like how we feel when we see a bunch of 'Ah Tiong' doing that. But well, there was one thing different, we invited a complete swedish stranger who just happened to wonder into the kitchen to have a pitiful bread and jam dinners...compared to our MEATBALL Fiesta, think it not just that we over-estimated our belly-capacity, but also out of courtesy i guess=] bet he was pretty happy...haha!!

anyway, first week of sch, and we have a 3 week project to convert a SLUGHUS(ie. slaughter house(ie. where piggys become porkies)) into a community center. in my entire 2 yrs of archi, i had the longs site visit ever...2 full 8am to 5pm days. and it was not the best experience since its an ex-piggy-massacre site...those who watch SAW, imagine the toilet where the 2 victims were trapped in, after the guys sawed of his leg.....freaky right...
this little piggy when to to the market, this little piggy wen to town, and this little piggys...became BACON

where piggys rode the freezing carousel.