2017: ¡Dos! ¡Sverige!

  I guess it's time for the meat of the part two of this three part three part thing! 

  For the first part of Sweden, I guess I am mostly studying. Sure I went out with people from time to time, for drinks and what not, but mostly I go out because of uni. 

Figure 21.1: Why is it all Asians? :hmmm:

  Luckily, during my stay, I was able to attend lots of the days, such as Easter's or Midsummers, and also, my birthday! For Easter's, the giantess even treated me to a movie she does not care about. It's a movie about cars fighting a submarine or something like that. There's also something about a baby and Jason Statham. 

  One of my more consistent going-out activities during my stay would be watching Juventus games with some Italians. I guess that year, we got till the finals, that's why we get to have this thing going on for so long. 

Figure 21.2: Watching a game

  Somewhere during my stay, the Giantess went to Estonia for a week long teacher's thing. I don't know what is it called and I'm too lazy to elaborate. It's not really a vacation as it's a university thing.
That week is also the same week as Valborg. I've been constantly hyped up about Valborg, a day in which you go to a park, and eat and drink. Her friends invited me out to the park, and boy oh boy, Swedes do love their sunshine and beer. We just sat around and talked. At times like this, I don't know, if I should have went with some of the other exchange students or not. For one, it's super nice that they invited me out and stuff, but I was the only one who does not speak Swedish. Feels kind of bad that I kind of had to make the entire group (there's like 6+ people) speak English. But for what it's worth, I had fun. After 5 months of living with someone, it feels super strange when they're suddenly not there anymore. I simply just walk around the apartment and do stuff. 

  Most of the activities are done after the semester is done (because there's more time duh). One of the activity I really liked was going to the nearby airplane museum (or war museum? It feels more appropriate). One of the coolest thing I find about the airplane museum is that they have these time rooms thing, where you enter these part of the museum and they redecorated the place to look like an average home of that time period. Especially after WWII, pretty much all of the West are in the Cold War, and obviously Sweden is stuck in it too. Sweden is situated pretty close to the Soviet Union, so there's always that threat. Not only that, Sweden was (and still I believe) not part of NATO, because of some reasons that I can't remember, so reading whatever English pamphlet they had was super interesting. Also, I suck at airplane simulation games.

  A month after that, we did this journey thing where we went to Jonköping, Gothenburg, and the hometown of the Giantess, somewhere between Växjö and Ljungby. Apparently, Jonköping has some amazing ice cream but we didn't get any from the famous stall because the line was extremely long, so we just walk around the place and stuff. It was also really hard to find parking. We went to Gothenburg after that. I'm amazed I didn't take any pictures in the Universeum, I absolutely love that place with all the animals and stuff. The tropical part of it is so humid that it reminds me of home and showers. We also went to Liseberg in which I dumped so much money into this candy gambling thing and I won nothing, but she did! We also rode this spinny card ride thing that my parents will definitely not ride. The spinny ride thing was apparently her favourite ride in the park. I didn't bring contact lenses and I was afraid of my glasses dropping off, so we didn't go to the roller coaster ride unfortunately. BUT, I DID FIND AN ARCADE! I can't believe they have a DDR machine! My pockets were basically jingling with coins and stuff!

Figure 21.3: Night lights @ Liseberg

  We also visited the Botanical Garden. I also like gardens. They're nice and soothing (but don't forget to bring a bottle of water!).

  After that, we then head down south to her hometown. Over there, we had one of the more peaceful trips. It was also very sunny, so most of the chocolate we (or more accurately, she) got from the candy gambling thing in was in a semi-melted kind of state. It was peaceful, I met some of her extended family and helped fixed a chair. We also went geocaching but had to turn back because of fear of rain. Also, I am afraid of snakes. We went to this lake place where lots of locals were swimming and I almost immediately noped out when I saw a water snake. Unfortunately, I saw the water snake when I was on a platform that is a distance away from land, so I got kinda panicky. Somewhere in the middle, we went to this museum thing and now this song is stuck in my head forever.

  We went back to Linköping and spent most of our time there. We had some day trips, and as my trips is getting close to the end, I sold my bike, and we went to Stockholm for a few days and bid each other farewell. Kind of sad, there may or may not be tears, and then I flew and she had to rush back for work. And thus, my Swedish journey ends. There may be some stuff happening in between but I don't wanna bore ya. 
 
  Picture time!

Figure 21.4: Valborg!

Figure 21.5: Airplane museum, with those rooms thing in the back

Figure 21.6: Jonköping

Figure 21.7: Spinny car ride

Figure 21.8: Botanical garden

Figure 21.9: Some place around her home

Figure 21.10: My trusty bike (has no gear though)

Figure 21.11: Alvastra Abbey

 

The Good?

  This is a follow up of "The Bad". I bet one of the things you are wondering is, "why the '?'?" Well, what I believe, is that if you are to compare the content of this and the other one, you may feel like: "Hey, this isn't really good.... it's like superficial good! Like, feeling good after watching a Disney movie, only to go back home to your mountain of assignments, kind of good." Well, I do what I can, if you have read the other one, you probably would understand more.

  The thing I will list is very.... as I said... superficial. But, as my physio said, "your outer muscles have to recover first, only then we can work on your inner muscles." So let's just stretch what she said and interpret it as, "we gotta fix the outside first (the physical part), then we can move on to the inner part (emotional, mental, I dunno.... not physical?) 

  Well, for starters, I got a Polaroid camera. I've always wanted a Polaroid, I've been researching it for months. I guess maybe it's like an impulse buy or something to try and soothe myself but hey I love it, and now I have it. 

  I guess the other thing that keeps me sane is my room. Over the past few weeks, I've been constantly working on my room. Cleaning, tidying, getting rid of stuffs, and more tidying/cleaning. I have considerably little material things (for a university student at least). Ever since my exchange in Sweden, I have picked up the habit of living with fewer things. I realized I don't need that many things to be happy. (Kind of cheating in the 21st century, as the computer can do so many things, which makes me not require much other stuff)

  Due to my ankle injury, I'm kinda chair-bound, which means I have been reading a lot. My "to-read" pile of literature (books/comics/whatevs) have finally seen more progress in this past few weeks, in comparison to the whole year. I bet some of you might think, "hey, you're just trying to distract yourself/block yourself from whatever inner pain you're enduring." Well, you're mostly right, but I am still reading, and reading is good. 

  I've also began to try and pick up Python (the programming language). I've been looking up on jobs in which my degree is acceptable (BSc in Statistics), and I noticed that many of these job offerings want candidates who knows Python. This at first, made me regret that I did not pick Computer Science as my minor, then I think back and actually, I had lots of fun with my German minor. My German minor helped me made lots of friends, I learnt some new physical language, and most importantly, I had lots of fun during those classes! So no! No regrets there! 

  I know that lots of these are activities, but hey, it's what I need. Next up would be the neutrals then. I wouldn't call them neither good nor bad, but it's more of they're both good and bad for me.

Figure 20.1: My room!

  

  

The Bad

  So, I've been not in a very nice place lately. Many things has happened so maybe I thought by writing about it, it would help in one way or the other.

  Where to begin, it started around a month ago. Assignments were piling up and exams were coming up. Not only that, I sprained my ankle horribly during my weekly football games. It was so bad that I couldn't stand, and needed 2 people to carry me around my own house. I didn't change or brush my teeth or anything that night, I could not physically do it, that's how painful the ankle was. The next day, my girlfriend broke up with me. The day after that was exam week. It was a well coordinated three-pronged strike between my university, my ex, and my body I guess. I didn't stand a chance.

  I did not break down immediately though. I told myself: "Jeez, what a weekend. If I were to break down, I'm gonna do it after the exams." So I went through the exam week as normal, except with one less habit of speaking to someone beforehand, and also on crutches. Boy oh boy do crutches catches people's attention. My professors and employers were super nice and accommodated my condition. I was given the seat right next to the door and my work does not involve any of the "mobile" parts. I finished my exams and went to work. Not 30 minutes into it, I could feel it creeping up. I told my boss that I would like to go home and rest (having crutches helps misdirect whatever emotions I'm feeling). I called a cab home (I spent so much on taxi that week), and just weep.

  After that week, mysteriously, the traditional summer came. Hot weather, no rain, no SNOW, sunny skies, etc. Oh, what did I do in my previous life to deserve this? People say that exercise is one of the best thing to do after a break up, but I couldn't do it as much as I want to. Every time I limp by a football field and see people playing on it, it makes me sad. I want to run around chasing a ball and stuff too. It's an extremely emasculating feeling, that after a break up, you literally could not physically stand up, that you need someone's help to even go down the stairs. It was horrible.

  I don't know how well you know me, but I tend to keep people away with a "stick" of sorts. I tend to not get too chummy with people around me. Trust issues or something? I don't know, but that's just how I roll. The only people that I kind of not poke them too hard with the "stick" I guess is the people I date, and with that gone, not only it gets kind of lonely (obviously), I don't really have anyone to share this kind of sorrow with. I know some of you might think, "Hey, just go talk to your other friends" or "Come talk to me!", but it's not that simple. It never is that simple.

  And till this day, my ankle and myself has not yet fully recovered. Although I can walk, my physio (and myself) advised me not to do any sports first. All I could do is walk. I couldn't even do those fast walk, because that would hurt my ankle. Every time there is a stinging pain, it reminds me of the break up. All I'm doing is sitting down indoors in a sunny day, living an extremely sedimentary lifestyle. I feel absolutely worthless. Like I'm this fat pig who couldn't move on (physically and emotionally) or something. I have not went to sleep with a smile (or even a neutral face) in a while. It's the absolute worst.

  I'll try to write some good things about my life in the moment, but I guess that'll take some time.

2017: ¡Dos! Trip with Mom

  Throughout her life, my mom has always wanted to visit Europe, or more specifically, London (funnily, she has been even further west, to the States and Canada, but not Europe). And now that I'm here, I constantly coaxed my mom to come to Europe. After many weeks of deliberating, she finally accepted, and here she comes!

  She came for 2 weeks. The original plan was for her to visit Sweden, Denmark, the UK, and Finland. That idea was immediately shot down by everyone but my mom (more specifically, Finland). We all think that Helsinki is a bit too far (and troublesome) for a 2 weeks trip, if we still want to visit the rest of the places I just mentioned. So, the itinerary is: Stockholm > Copenhagen > Linköping > UK > Stockholm. I went to Stockholm and meet up with her at the central train station, and then off we go with our adventures! 

  We are only in Stockholm for 2-3 days. I believe the main point of this part of the trip is to let her settle in to the time zone, because she is probably jet-lagged. We didn't do much touring in this 2-3 days, just walking around the touristy area and eat. We get to our airbnb pretty early and sleep pretty early. I do know she sleeps around 7pm and wakes up around 4am in these days, so that kinda sucks. Anyway, after that, then off we go to Copenhagen (by train)!

  

Figure 18.1: Copenhagen!

     We spent a few good days here (4 I think). We visited lots of the main attractions of the place. We even checked out the Carlsberg museum/factory, rode horses, took those hour long boat tours. I drank lots of beer in this city, because I like to experience all these new kinds of beers. My mom likes to drink too, but she controlled herself and only take a few sips from my pints. She says she's no longer in that age to drink like I can anymore (all the more reason to skip Helsinki!). This trip was mostly walking around and faffing about, nothing much too. We then take the train back to Linköping, introduced the Giantess to my mom, stayed there for just a night I believe, and then off we go to the airport!

  Apparently, we came in the hottest summer in the recent history of London. It was floating around 36-40 degrees Celsius everyday. Our little "hotel" has 1 power plug, extremely poor wifi, and a bathroom with no vents I believe, but hey, it's cheap! For the first time in awhile, I get to eat some proper Chinese food! The Chinatown here has some really delicious Chinese food (and I believe ALL of our meals in London was at Chinatown). I missed that part of town very much already. Anyway, we did some mini excursions to some other cities while we're at London. We went to Oxford and Bath. Bath was my personal recommendation, I believe my mom wanted to go somewhere else but I insisted we got to Bath instead. No regrets for me! We went to Oxford but we didn't really visited the university grounds (ex: that Harry Potter place), because we didn't want to pay for the entrance ticket. We decided to go to the Oxford botanical gardens instead. My mom really loves to look at flowers, so we spent lots of time there.

Figure 18.2: I think this is the botanical garden

  Some other day, we visited Bath. We checked out the Roman Baths, the Royal Cresent, and just simply walking around the place. In the evening, I attended Bath's Comedy Walk. Boy oh boy was it funny. 

  When in London, of course we did the tourist thing such as visiting the museums, checking out a Broadway show (Wicked). Funny thing about Wicked, my mom didn't want to go. She said that her English is not good enough to enjoy all these things. While arguing, I kinda led us to the place where they sell tickets. And since we're there, we might as well just ask about it. Tickets was extremely expensive, but there was this last minute ticket, right at the front row, for like £10 each? Really cheap! We got it and the show was that night itself. Turns out, my mom has no idea what the hell is happening, but she enjoyed it very much. She said she was just enjoying the choreography, music, and the costumes. If she likes it, she likes it.

  I also recommended the Camden Market (or at least, the Giantess recommended it to me). I figured, "hey, if she likes this place so much, it must be cool!". Camden Market is not a place for a conservative Eastern mom to visit. She felt extremely uncomfortable during our entire stay there. I think we were only there for a few hours before she wanted to bounce. A funny thing happened though: there's this really techno-rave thing in the market. It has a giant robot decoration outside and all the things. I honestly thought it was an arcade, I was so psyched that I could finally play some arcade games. The place where you go in has like people dancing in cages or something up there (oh yeah,  my mom did not follow me in), and they were selling lots and lots of accessories, like, hardstyle shuffling accessories those kind of things. I'm like ok, where's the arcade? So I kept on going down and down, and it gets more and more fluorescent/TRON-y, until I reached the most bottom floor, still looking for the arcade. It seems like I have entered the area where they sell some BDSM, kinky stuff. I did a 180 and basically speedwalk back out. 

  After the London trip, we went back to Stockholm, stayed for awhile, and then I send my mom off. And thus, the trip with my mom ends. Here are some pictures:

Figure 18.3: Dim sum = Asian Tapas

Figure 18.4: Streets of Copenhagen

Figure 18.5: The first fried chicken I had since entering Scandinavia

Figure 18.6: Copenhagen

Figure 18.7: At Oxford. Kids chilling under a tree

Figure 18.8: Buckingham Palace

Figure 18.9: The Queen!

Figure 18.10: Assyrians got no chill

Figure 18.11: Defying gravity

Figure 18.12: The Masonic Museum @ Bath

Figure 18.13: Tea and scones @ Bath

Figure 18.14: Our tour guide for the comedy walk

Figure 18.15: Notting Hill Market

Figure 18.16: The Royal Djurgården

  

2017: ¡Dos! Italy & Spain

  So part 2 is supposed to highlight what happened in mid 2017, but too many things happened mid 2017, so I'm gonna split part 2 into 3 parts. It's a bit convoluted but it's my blog!

  Now that I'm residing in Europe, I believe it was a good opportunity to finally visit Turin, the home city of Juventus FC. There are no cheap direct flights to Turin, so I have to stop by Milan Bergamo. It's this quaint little city outside of Milan, not really big, but really beautiful.

  I know that Italians don't really speak English, but I was not expecting this. Pretty much NOBODY speaks English (unless you're in a tourist area, then prepare to pay). It was a horrible "social" experience, where I could not communicate with anyone at all. All I did was walk around, smile, and take pictures, like a typical Asian tourist. 

Figure 17.1: Thankfully, due to life experiences, I know Patata = Potato

 So I spoke almost to no one in Italy, except for like gelato people and McDonald's staff (McDonald's has and will always be a safe haven). It's pretty cool that the McDonald's here has an espresso bar. People come in, drop €2 or €3 on the counter, take a shot of espresso and leaves. Usually these people that take the shots are working class people (I assume because they usually wear business suits).

  After that, then off I go to Madrid! Madrid was not really a planned thing. There was also talks of meeting up with this friend, Maps. Maps was studying in Strasbourg, and was constantly asking me to visit her there. Fortunately, she went back home to Madrid for the summer, that's when I decided to pay her a visit. She brought me around the city of Madrid, and just like Italy, no one speaks English. Thankfully, I have her as a translator. 

  She brought me to visit the sights such as the palace, some church, the Bernabéu, and other stuff. She introduced me to this magical summer drink called "Horchata", it's one of the greatest non-alcoholic drink I had during my stay in Europe. We hung out, ate food, and stuff. Maps, if you're reading this, sorry for flooding your handbag. 

  This Italy-Spain trip is a very short trip, in which my main goal is simply just: visit Juventus Stadium, visit Maps. This isn't one of those highly planned, super precise kind of trip, more of a "eh, sure" kind of trip.

Some pictures:

Figure 17.2: You know it

Figure 17.3: My Italian cousin?

Figure 17.4: Streets of Turin

Figure 17.5: Graffiti of Turin

Figure 17.6: Lovely little road of Bergamo

Figure 17.7: Ditto

Figure 17.8: Bergamo

Figure 17.9: I THINK this is the royal palace of Madrid

Figure 17.10: 100 Montaditos. It's a great place, hard to find a seat though.

Figure 17.11: I didn't go in, wasn't willing to spend €30 just for the entrance.

Figure 17.12: Now you know what's GoT in Spanish

Figure 17.13: Refugees Welcome

2017: ¡Uno!

Zzzz.... oh hello. I guess it's long overdue.

  Right after the Christmas party, I took a totally unspontaneous trip to the Scandinavian land of Sverige. It's not like I'm going for an exchange or anything! Baka! I took Air Canada and my goodness, the in-flight dinner was pretty nasty. There wasn't much choice on the in-flight entertainment system too, but it was an overnight flight, so I guess I just slept through majority of it.

Figure 16.1: Airplane food!

  I first arrived in Denmark, before transiting to Sweden. The immigration was surprisingly chill. When they asked me what is the purpose of my travel, I told them I here for an exchange. They then ask me for the documents, I told them I don't have them, but I'm gonna collect them once I'm in. They said okay, and let me in. I was pretty shocked, it is definitely a huge difference compared to the time when I first entered Canada to study.

  Many people constantly tell me, "But Jerry, why are you going to another place which is snowy and cold? Don't you wanna avoid the lousy Newfoundland weather?". Well, I am here to fulfill a promise I made, and also unless I go to Siberia or the South Pole, I don't think anywhere else has as lousy of a weather as Newfoundland. Yeah sure, Sweden might have snow and is also, well, cold, but it's not NEWFOUNDLAND COLD and NEWFOUNDLAND SNOW. I don't have to climb hills just to go to university or to do my groceries. Now imagine it with knee high snow, that's St. John's.

  The Friendly Giantess picked me up from the train station at the dead of night. Being Asian, I picked up on Asian-related things more easily. Unfortunately, she is not. So when I told her: "Hey! I am right opposite this Thai restaurant: XYZ", she has no idea where that is. Can't blame her, train station Thai food isn't exactly the most trustworthy of places.

  Even though I'm supposed to be here for an exchange, I still have to collect the documents, as I promised to the Danish immigration officer. So, I have to get to London, because they don't allow you to pick up the documents in Sweden itself. Kind of makes sense I guess, they expected you to have the documents first, then enter, and not the other way round, so off I went!

  The Swedish immigration officers are much more strict and suspicious. They were super dubious of my story, of wanting to go the UK to collect my student visa, and then back. It doesn't help that my passport photo then looks like an inmate. I think I was the last one to board the plane, because they asked me to step aside, served everyone else, while they got additional officers to vet my passport and me. It was a very stressful situation. The officer at London however, is very friendly. When he saw my photo, he just laughed, and said something around the lines of: "Boy! Your hair grew!"

  I have some friends in London at the time (still do, but fewer), so I rang them up to hang out. One of em came all the way from Warwick, it's one of the bros of Liga. We killed some time in some weapon museum, had ramen, watched Les Misérables, and them some bubble tea (in this exact order) before sending him off back to Warwick. The next day, I hung out with my other friend whom I met in one of the Model United Nation I chaired back in 2016. She brought me around Chinatown, and then we visited the Sherlock museum. Also somewhere in between, I picked up my documents, and off I'm back to Sweden!

Figure 16.2: Friend looking at cannon in some weapons museum.

  So I guess my Swedish journey officially starts! The trip back from the airport is also the first time I met the Giantess' friends. Unfortunately, I was tired (and also a tad bit intimidated, heh). So we went home and slept. 

  The University helps us exchangees to look for residence. The place I was provided was pretty far from the Giantess (before I got a bike). The previous tenant was a mess, he left all his junk and trash in the room. Not cool. The room was dimly lit, the wifi was a labyrinth to access (which means I didn't have wifi for the first few days in my room), and the place was just... not worth the price tag. It was extremely expensive for such a room. At the end of the month, I simply moved in with the Giantess, while I return the keys to the lady in charge of the lodging. I made some other exchange student very happy, as that someone was said to not have a place to stay, and had to pay out of their own pockets at some hostel or something (maybe, I don't know).

  I guess this is enough for part uno, I'll post some pictures with some captions on them, describing them.

Figure 16.3: The first 7-11 I saw in years, in the Copenhagen airport.

Figure 16.4: Road to uni

Figure 16.5: Self explanatory

Figure 16.6: The BBC HQ

Figure 16.7: The greatest junk food

Figure 16.8: The uni, where the walkways were constantly maintained for pedestrians and cyclist.

Figure 16.9: "Benches" in town, Scandinavians sure do love their personal space.

  

New Year's Christmas Thing

  Why am I making this post?

  I came from a family that doesn't celebrate Christmas, so when I first came to Canada (on September 2014), I felt kinda lonely, as I have no one to celebrate Christmas with, as Christmas is a "big thing" here. Back in Malaysia, Christmas is just another day, except western restaurants will then start offering really expensive 3,4,5 course Christmas special meals. The Asian restaurants dgaf, business as usual.

  So, during my first year in Canada, I signed up for this thing that was offered by my University's International Office. Local families offer their family to these people who signs up (I'm pretty sure 100% of the people who signed up were International students), and basically invite them to their family to celebrate Christmas for one night only.

  So I signed up, and then I celebrated with this local family. I played Monopoly with the kids, and ate some really good Christmas dinner.

  So, fast forward to 2 years later, and I still don't celebrate Christmas, because why should I. But now, I have know enough international students who either doesn't celebrate Christmas, or they do, but family is too far. This year I was invited to a dinner by the latter. It's basically like Christmas, except without the real blood family part, and the totally awesome dinner because we're all students. But hey, the company was nice! Only reason why we left was cause the host didn't let us sleep in his house. We had 0 alcohol that night, by the way.

Celebrating Christmas with new friends and with the fam ❤🎄🐿🌰 #christmas #spotthesquirrel

A photo posted by Simon Yap (@sirlemoncheese) on Dec 25, 2016 at 5:11pm PST

  That was an instagram post from that night. I don't really take pictures, but that guy sure does, and I'm unfortunately in it.

  Whats the point of this post? No idea, so I'll just tell you about this other time I "celebrated" Christmas then. 

  T'was the year 2013, and I was still in Malaysia. One of my friends celebrates Christmas, and so he invited all of his bros. Upon arriving, his friends (me included) are the only people in the house not related (by blood) to anyone. So we took our food, and let the family dine in the really big table, while we friends dine in the living room, because we're shy and what not.

  The nice thing about being an "outsider", is that you can get away with certain things. My friend's mom is an excellent cook, and she made this awesome delicious HUGE turkey thing. Everyone took a piece of it, and yet, everyone just left the 2 huge drumsticks around. You know that feeling, when you're an adult, and you want the last slice of pizza, but you can't take it because you're an adult, and also because you think the people around you will judge you?

  Well, 1) I'm not an adult back in 2013 (not sure about 2016 though, what's an adult?), and 2) I don't know anyone else except my friends, so I shamelessly took the huge piece of drumstick onto my plate. My friend's mom saw it, and then she sighed: "Whew! I was afraid no one was going to take the drumstick, because everyone is too embarrass to take it!"

  Now that I've broken the silence, the last leg was eventually taken, by whom? I don't know. We just ate our meal, and proceeded to watch the Cornetto trilogy + Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Then we slept over I think, minds 'bit fuzzy wowowoowewo.

  Basically, Christmas for me is just like every other Gathering, except with better food, and dressing up in red/white/green clothing. 

  Again, there is no point to this blog, for I am the Master of Nothing. Happy New Years guys, and have a great one. Tschüß~