Tietomaa Trip

It was a frantic morning as I rushed to prepare breakfast/lunch in 45 minutes right after waking up. Boiled potatoes and a fat sausage go exceptionally well together, and they cook fast too. Don't even have to wait for the sausage to thaw. Just throw the frozen sausage into the water. I had milk too, so it was a nutritious, filling, tasty meal.

I saw this poster at the notice board at the hostel. Seems interesting. Maybe I will go take a look.

Paper plane competition. Sponsored by Red Bull some more..

The entrance fee to the science centre (Tietomaa) was EUR 10, which I feel is fairly expensive. I thing EUR 5 would have been a more reasonable price. Then again, everything in Finland is expensive, and this sort of touristy place would jack up the prices more. However, I think that it is possible to enter without paying the fee. Oh well..

I think this clock is very nice

ferromagnetic liquid

the last gear takes 16705 years to complete a revolution

some polarized light thing

I too pai seh to try it..

walkway



Narrated by Christopher Lee ok..

We watched the above in the theatre in Tietomaa. It is the largest screen in finland, measuring 12 x 16 metres. The documentary was nice.. I enjoyed it alot..

List of the previous documentaries

I tried lying on the bed of nails. Comfortable.

Cockpit of flight simulator

Making this puzzle should be as tough as solving it

Me with Robert Wadlow (2.72m) I'm so short...

Jukka-Pekka with him

Next we took a glass elevator up the tower where I took pictures of the view. The tower was much much much colder than the other parts of the science centre.

Model of Tietomaa, located inside the tower

Random poster in the tower

The lightings in finland ah... cmi lor.

It's a hologram!

Need to stock up on biscuits for the Stockholm trip next week.. So tomorrow got to go do a bit of shopping and some packing. The most expensive part of the trip is probably the train ticket that is WITHIN Oulu. Feel so.... Dunno how to describe la.. I'll be leaving Oulu on Monday morning and I'll be back in Oulu on Friday, probably at night.

need to complain

It is possible to sweat in sub zero (-10 degrees to be exact) temperatures.

I went jogging last afternoon, for about 25 minutes. It took some getting used to, because the air is so cold and dry! I think I will try running again when the temperature rises to about 0 degrees.

At about 5.30pm, Samuel rang my door bell and started chatting with me. I guess he had nothing to do... He casually leaned on HIS door and closed it (better be accidentally), and it was automatically locked. To my horror, he told me his key is inside!!! So what can I do but to invite him into my room while waiting for his flat mate to come back? Only some people can understand the sai feeling that I had when I imagined the hours ahead. Hor, Xiao Hui?

We spent the time folding paper cranes and balls (si bei sian).

Flapping bird, as he calls it

Then we went to sauna, and I had to lend him a towel. At least this was more fun than awkward silences in my room right? Wrong. Li Kang joined us in the sauna too. We were looking forward to a relaxing time in the sauna, gradually increasing the heat and feeling good. But Samuel had to throw so much water inside because he wanted to feel his shoulders burning. I decided to leave first. Of course he came along too. No key, remember?

We started talking about French food and Singaopore food. Then I decided to watch Korean dramas. Can't entertain him the whole day ma.. And he dozed off. 我的食物没那么多, 不可能在他面前烧菜, 对不对? So I had milk and an apple.

He woke at about 10pm, and I asked if he needed some food. "Why not?" he replied. Fine, I toasted 2 of Remi's bread and gave him jam. 大错误. 他一片面包 bua 的 jam 可以让我 bua 三片面包 lor. I didn't want to look and went back to my show. And I lent him a finnish book to read.

His room mate returned at midnight. Of course he went back to get his keys. Just that something totally unexpected happened. He actually came back with his keys and started reading here. And I said I was sleeping soon.我要吐血了. And that was the end of 260209.

I was greeted with a beautiful morning today. It was sunny these few days. Love it.

Remi had anticipated this beautiful sight since there was a fog last night

In the evening, my door bell rang again. Getting scared of it lor. Haha.. Yes, it was him again. Asked how I was doing, any plans for the evening etc. I was kinda busy at that time.. So the conversation was quite brief. Remi told me he rang our bell in the afternoon while I was not around. The way he described it was damn funny. He buay tahan him 整天过来 and saying all the bo liao things already. And still need to ying chou him. So when he actually stepped in, my roomie asked, "wat are you doing? Wei is not here.". Needs the facial expression and tone of his voice for it to sound comical. Haha.. Laughing as I think about it.

Ah! dinner was a fat ass drumstick that I just bought today. 5 in a packet for EUR 1.99. It was curry flavored, but I don't taste anything spicy leh. Just normal nice taste. Got to cook it slowly over very low heat so that the inside will be thoroughly cooked. Don't want to end up sick eating uncooked food here.

Typing this halfway when he came over again. 我快要疯. He wanted to study together. What sia..... 不久后我跟他说我要睡覺了. Wa, typing in chinese very 辛苦 ah..

I left my N95 8Gb in the laundry room... :(

And I got it back. Phew.. I went to pick up my laundry at 9pm when the clothes were dried, and absent mindedly forget to take it back with me. I did not realise my phone was missing until 2 hours later, when Remi told me that I had called him. He asked where my phone was, and I confidently replied, "In my room..." Where else could it be right? Seconds later, my door bell rang, and there was a French girl standing at the door, with my phone in her hand. I'm so glad I was spared the 2 hours of worrying and sadness. I was so grateful to the two of them!!!

The senario could have turned out so very differently. Here's how...

At about 6pm, Remi and I were talking about phones, and I remembered I haven't got his cell phone number yet. So he gave me his number, and I gave him a missed call. (So he is the last person I called today) The French girl, upon finding my phone, checked the call log to see if there was anyone she knew, and saw Remi's name!!! Si bei heng sia.. They actually know each other pretty well. Imagine if I did not get his number today.. So glad my precious phone is back with me now..

This afternoon, armed with a map, Li Kang and I set forth bravely downtown. The journey should not take more than an hour. We wanted to collect our student ID card and to exchange some money for our Stockholm trip next Monday. Some pictures I took on our way there:

scenery

So nice lor... Can see the tiny bridge?

Small playground

I dunno what this river is called. Oulu River?

I'm a sua gu who has never seen ducks like these on a river before, so more pictures and videos dedicated for them.

Salted vegetable duck soup

Something wrong with this video. It will stop loading after 4 seconds. but it will continue after about a minute..

And some shots from downtown...

Dunno if I have taken this picture before

Souvenir from London!!

Remi remembered that I probably won't be going to London, so he got me this nice keychain when he was there last week to meet his family. How nice of him right?? So touched. Haha.. The Big Ben on the side can rotate along the vertical axis. Cool lah..

Ah! I just remembered that I should have taken a picture of the cake and cookies that Xiao Hui baked for us yesterday. It was banana cake! I hardly eat cake here. And it was good lor... She should be proud of herself. I don't think I will be able to bake cakes here cos I don't have the metal container to place the mixture in. We are going to pester our parents for an oven when we get back to Singapore. Haha..

I prepared dinner tonight for Li Kang, Xiao Hui, Remi and Jose this evening. I think the meat today was not as nice as the one we prepared for the international dinner party.. But I think still can pass la. Hope they enjoyed it. No pictures of that either. Oops.

Butter Biscuits

Li Kang gave me some coke-chicken that he prepared himself today, and I made him biscuits in return. It was my first time baking biscuits, and they didn't have the buttery taste that they should have.. no scales and measuring cups is like that one.

First batch of biscuits

I think I did not add enough sugar into the dough, so I had to sprinkle some on the biscuits after they were done. It seems like I sprinkled alot, but they were not too sweet for me. And I dunno why they turned out so hard. Haha.. The second batch of biscuits were slightly burnt, so I kept them for myself. Still edible and alright la..

Laskiaispulla Baking Evening

Finally a post after a week.. Nothing special happening recently, that's why.. My room mate is in London to see his family and his girlfriend for the week, leaving me all alone in the apartment. I really should master the dish I'm gonna prepare for him before he comes back.

The Survival Finnish Exam held yesterday was alright. Everybody should be able to pass fairly easily. The Beginner's Finnish course will begin on 9th March, meaning there is about 2 weeks of break.

The Laskiaispulla Baking Evening which we signed up for was conducted this evening. The cost was EUR 3 each, which wasn't that expensive. It was conducted in a building about 10 min walk away from our apartments.

Introduction to the session

We then divided ourselves into groups of about 5 or 6. I think there were a total of 16 groups.

My group mates, Olga, Beata, Frosyini, Xiao Hui

Recipe Pg 1

Recipe Pg 2

They didn't really teach us.. They provided us with the ingredients and we just had to follow the instructions on the recipe.. But the instructions were simple enough.

Just dump everything together

Let the yeast do its job

Group picture

Korvapuusti

Should have taken more pictures for the process of making the korvapuusti. But ours ended up very small. They are supposed to be about the size of a fist I think. But smaller means they cook faster, and we get more of the crispy skin. And you won't get sick of them easily. And they're so easy to eat. Bite sized. Very happy with the way they turned out. :)

Can put some jam. Plain's good too.

Pulla!

Nice right? The white bits are coarse sugar.. And they are almost of the same sizes, courtesy of me. Haha.. Then, we cut each pulla into 2, and add generous helpings of jam and whipped cream.

Made a mess

Very tasty!!

The whipped cream seemed to melt under the warm pullas, so we had to eat some of them first. I must have ate around 4 of them at a go.

Can't resist adding special effects

There were some leftovers, so we distributed them and I took these home. Breakfast for tomorrow is settled. Yay...