I went to school for the first time since I broke my leg. 8am. Valentina is so great. She wrote to me last night whether I want to go school today. It was an 8am lecture. I said "ok". "well, see you at 730am at your building?". I didnt realise that it was so late already last night. I ate dinner at 10pm (i dont know why i din feel hungry). And then eventually, I bathed and brushed my teeth at 1230am. I had to, haven done that for few days since I broke my leg already, and Im gg school tmr.
I've been sleeping alot since I broke my leg, and well, it seems like my body needs more rest to recuperate. But then, I slept only 6 hours and woke up at 645am. I am so lazy. I knew that I had to get up earlier to prepare my cast and bandages to go school. but I kept pressing the snooze button, convince myself that I'll be done quick. Esp, since I've packed my breakfast and lunch already. And then I forgot my gloves and yada yada. And I realised it was 740am!! Damn it. I felt so bad. Did Valentina waited out in the cold for me? I didnt really need someone to go school with me, sometimes, I feel worse, because I feel that that person had to walk slower for me bcos im on clutches. (I wonder why no one ever tried calling my room from below, maybe they did, but the connection spoiled. Anne, Nerea, Chase, Ludek, it seems they all tried that. Damn it, I'll complain) I really dont want anyone to wait for me in the cold winter. It really sucks, I know how that feel.
I rushed down, and saw from afar, Valentina leaving. (Oh my, she actually waited for 10mins.. that's really long and cold). So I shouted her name. Felt so bad, so I apologised profusely. She was so nice to say that its nothing, but then, its obvious that she caught a cold already.
8am. Econs lecture. Damn it, this is like the toughest module I've ever taken in my life. Valentina, who took this module b4 in Italy and is retaking this mod now in English, finds it so hard to catch up and understand (eh wah lau, then me how sia.)
After lecture, I walked out and saw Peter sitting at the table alone. So I said bye to Val and sat with Peter, who was, obviously surprised to see me in school.
We sat there and talked. You know, I actually cldnt recognise him today. I was looking and thinking whether this is Peter, cos he looked different and realised that he did his hair! Srsly, I recognised him from his shoes and how he sticks his skinny pants into his socks. Hilarious.
Me: "Do you actually learn Norwegian, or do u know norwegian bcos Danish is v similar to it?"
P: "Danish is v similar. We use the same writing system"
P: "But sometimes, they talk so fast in Norwegian, I cant understand. And when they ask questions in class, they have this really bad dialect"
And this conversation took me by surprise..
Me: "What sports do you play?"
P: "in Denmark, I play badminton"
Me: "Really! I play it too in Sg. I actually brought my racket from Sg, 17 hours into the plane, this racket sticking out of my backpack"
P: "Thats funny, I didnt know you can do that"
Me: "Yea, but its so expensive to play here. 700 kr for the sports card and the membership fee for the team is another 450Kr."
P: "1150 Kr to play badminton here, its crazy"
Me: "Yea, I emailed them, asking if I need to pay, and told them that I played for like 9 years in Sg already, so if there's any suitable level for me to play with. I saw there were some beginner classes and Im not going for that."
Me: "And then they replied, saying that they think that Im too good for them, and that there's a club near some metro, which plays better. I think its much cheaper to play at that club."
P: "Yea, we can go there"
Me: "Yea when my leg recovers. and you can use my racket. And I know that denmark is really good at badminton"
P: "Yes it is. And its so strange, cos badminton is dominated by all the asian ctys, and then the last half decade, all of a sudden denmark springs out. These big clumsy europeans on court"
So cool! There's a badminton buddy!
Peter went for his lecture (his whatever political + socio + socio anthropology class)..
Im just gonna sit outside there for the next 4 hours, waiting for my whatever soci + econs + geog seminar to start. And the bonus is that Peter's gonna come out every break for the next 4 hours to chill.
Im just reading, and waiting for Peter to come out of that door every hour.
So I took shots of the Social Science (minus psy) building.
I was looking at my specs and realised that its slanted. Rmbed that Peter Molnar (not the same Peter, this one is slovakian) stepped on it when I slept in his room during my tour in Bergen. And I was having such a bad time trying to straighten it and in the end, right now, its really really uncomfortable, and stressful.
I realised that my reading speed is probably 2 times faster than the rest of the europeans, cos Im used to reading in English. Peter realised it commented that I read really fast.
So his whatever complicated class ended. And he had another geog class. This time, he came out during the break and was like "shit, its so boring, im falling aslp in class" Everywhere's the same I realised.
I dont like my soci+econs+geog seminar. I have a presentation, a 10-12 page essay, and exam. And I, again, have so much thoughts of dropping it. And then I thought that I'll continue taking it, in case I fail my econs.
Espen, a new seminar friend, asked "which state of Sg are u from?"
Me: "Sg has no state. Its just 1 city"
Im the only Asian, and the only Exchange student in class. And I have no backgrd in geog or soci. Well done. It seems like if pple heard abt sg, its "u guys have v strict laws. I heard, no chewing gum, no spitting on streets and u get killed for taking drugs into sg." Well, at least they know smtg abt sg and not "which part of sg is china in?"
Anw, I bet the tutor was really really surprised to see me in class, since I emailed her that I broke my leg and probably wld not attend.
Went to meet Peter after the Seminar and went to International Coffee Hour.
I didnt realise how much a star I had become. Going to International Coffee Hour on clutches. Everyone's like "John's here. Its amazing. Im gonna go talk to him."
Well, Im actually getting used to pple making fun of me these days.
They were like "John, I heard u need to be in cast for 6 weeks. Well, I hope you can get out of it faster"
Ludek: "Well, KNOWING JOHN, I WOULDNT ADVISE IT EVEN IF HE CAN GET OUT IN 6 WEEKS, I'LL JUST FORCE HIM TO WEAR THE CAST FOR 8 WEEKS, HE'S GONNA DO SMTG TO KILL HIMSELF AGAIN"
Thomas came, and saw me, opened his eyes and was trying to look under the table for my leg. Everyone's like "Its still there thomas. His leg"
Tho: "Its still there. Its a miracle."
Then Carmen saw me and came over to talk. Kinda appreciate it, people pulling chairs for me, getting coffee and cookies for me, and standing talking to me while I sit. People hearing that Im gonna move house in broken leg and offering to help me, even though they live far away.
Some jokes:
"Shall we take ur clutches and run away with it?" - lud
"If you take his clutches, John will chase after you with his broken leg. He's that crazy"
"Wanna go sledding this sunday?" - Peter (every other hour he asked me that)
"Your leg's still there?" - thomas
"You can be the goalkeeper" - Nathalie
The Latvian girls are becoming predictable. They just come up to me and "Oh John." And show a sympathetic look. "How long are you gonna be in this".
I saw Kristina, to my surprise. Haven seen her for so long. She came up to me and asked "Hi John, Do you rmb me?" Yes of cos. You are the first and only girl to come up to me and ask me to speak Singlish to you.
K: "What lang do u speak at home?"
Me: "English. But our english is abit weird. We call it singlish"
K: "I wanna hear it. Talk to me in Singlish"
Me: "We dont say ' have u eaten already?' we say 'u eat already?'"
K: open eyes. "thats totally different. i cant understand"
I realised. In Sg, Im attracted to Asians who have sharp angmoh features. Here, Im attracted to Angmohs who have delicate Asian features. Its weird.
We were discussing about the Loftoen trip. Anna and Anne booked their flights on Friday. Peter and I decided that we should just book it on thurs or weds cos its much cheaper and then we'll pon lessons. Spontaneously, we ^5, reminds me simply of Sg boys. Anne didnt want to miss her lessons, so they booked friday ticket. Anne wasnt at international coffee hour today. Anna was. Surprisingly. Further probing revealed that Anne wasnt in a good mood, because they went to 5 supermarkets looking for the CORRECT MAYONISE. Omg. Cos Anne wanted to cook the PERFECT GERMAN DISH for her floormates. Srsly, Im getting more and more impressed with her. She cldnt find the perfect Mayo, was so pissed about it, and esp when they were met with bad customer service, so she decided to go home. You can really have such a wrong judgement of people, and when u spend time with them, u realise that they are actually, not so pampered, not so snobbish, not so atas and princess like and...
Every european here can cook good food, cos they are used to cooking back home. Me, sadly, the singaporean, eats out all the time. I wish I cld cook good food and treat all of them to my new house.
We were having such a great conversation today, because there is supposed to be a party tonight, at chatuea Nuef, a traffic light party. (In Norway, traffic light party means you have to wear either red, yellow, or green. Red means taken. Yellow - its complicated. Green - Available)
Some jokes: "well, you can wear green, and prepare a red jacket. if the person isnt interesting, just say 'im sorry, its getting abit cold, i need to move a little' and put on ur red jacket" - thomas
"I dont have a green one. They are probably gonna ostracish all the red ones and give cheaper beers to the green ones" - peter.
And it seems like, they have this traffic light party for the next 3 weeks.
Carmen says she gets free movie cos she volunteered to sell movie tickets for the movie club. Just 30 mins. And she already watched 2 free movies, w/o starting on her job. Great, carmen, i'll join you when I recover.
Dear Friends and Family in Sg, I m going to the party, in clutches, but I will take care of myself, I promise. Worry not.
I dont expect anyone to pick me up and I dont want to be picked up. Yes, they had jokes about me getting picked up by other girls while being on clutches. Making a new friend is nice. Im just gonna go there, chill with friends, and people-watch-the-single-and-looking-people-try-to-pick-each-other-up-and-laugh-at-them.
Meeting Peter, Anna, Anne (possibly) at the bus stop at 2150.
Today, I realised, Peter is always making fun of Anna's English and accent. Ok her english isnt good, but its quite easy to understand. But she's really funny and Im acquainted with their jokes now. Last week, I completely cant understand their jokes.
Anna: "now we have to wait for John, cos he's so slow"
Me: Open big eyes
Anna: "No. John, you're so great and funny. I'll wait for you"
Peter: "Stop trying, you're making it worse"
Everyone's making jokes about me. When I recover, I'll think of something to get back at all of you.
We were walking to the busstop at majostuen, and it seems like the bus is leaving. Anna ran for the bus to ask the driver to wait for me. THE DRIVER DIDNT!!!
Anna returned, said "I asked the driver: can you wait half a minute, for my friend. and the driver said "Half a Minute! That's insane" and drove off"". Anna was really really pissed. So we stood at the bus stop, the next bus is in 10 mins. And we camwhored. A Norwegian passer by who was waiting for the bus offered to take pictures for us. And we talked. He was kinda weird. I said "Can I take a picture of u?"
He "No. Bcos u're gonna put it on facebook, No facebook for me. Its a dangerous place cos whatever u put there isnt urs anymore"
Fine.
Some jokes while waiting.
Peter: "When I get back, I'll see you again, and then shower"
Anna: "What. Did u just asked me to shower with u?"
Peter: "What"
Me: "Yes he did. We all heard that"
Zuzcha: "Yes"
So While waiting for the bus in the freezing cold.
Anna snatched my camera, and snapped this pic of myself.
And I was checking my camera, with the lens facing the floor, when Anna decided to bend down and put her head under my camera and smiled. It was so funny, I cant believe it, so I took the picture.
Later, I realised that not all europeans are fond of people talking to them on the streets. Some find it irritating, esp if its someone that just wants someone to talk to. Peter, Anna and Zuz all find the Norwegian man that talked to us while waiting for the bus Irritation and Weird. I find him ok. In sg, pple will just think u are siao and bo hue u completely.
I've been sleeping alot since I broke my leg, and well, it seems like my body needs more rest to recuperate. But then, I slept only 6 hours and woke up at 645am. I am so lazy. I knew that I had to get up earlier to prepare my cast and bandages to go school. but I kept pressing the snooze button, convince myself that I'll be done quick. Esp, since I've packed my breakfast and lunch already. And then I forgot my gloves and yada yada. And I realised it was 740am!! Damn it. I felt so bad. Did Valentina waited out in the cold for me? I didnt really need someone to go school with me, sometimes, I feel worse, because I feel that that person had to walk slower for me bcos im on clutches. (I wonder why no one ever tried calling my room from below, maybe they did, but the connection spoiled. Anne, Nerea, Chase, Ludek, it seems they all tried that. Damn it, I'll complain) I really dont want anyone to wait for me in the cold winter. It really sucks, I know how that feel.
I rushed down, and saw from afar, Valentina leaving. (Oh my, she actually waited for 10mins.. that's really long and cold). So I shouted her name. Felt so bad, so I apologised profusely. She was so nice to say that its nothing, but then, its obvious that she caught a cold already.
8am. Econs lecture. Damn it, this is like the toughest module I've ever taken in my life. Valentina, who took this module b4 in Italy and is retaking this mod now in English, finds it so hard to catch up and understand (eh wah lau, then me how sia.)
After lecture, I walked out and saw Peter sitting at the table alone. So I said bye to Val and sat with Peter, who was, obviously surprised to see me in school.
We sat there and talked. You know, I actually cldnt recognise him today. I was looking and thinking whether this is Peter, cos he looked different and realised that he did his hair! Srsly, I recognised him from his shoes and how he sticks his skinny pants into his socks. Hilarious.
Me: "Do you actually learn Norwegian, or do u know norwegian bcos Danish is v similar to it?"
P: "Danish is v similar. We use the same writing system"
P: "But sometimes, they talk so fast in Norwegian, I cant understand. And when they ask questions in class, they have this really bad dialect"
And this conversation took me by surprise..
Me: "What sports do you play?"
P: "in Denmark, I play badminton"
Me: "Really! I play it too in Sg. I actually brought my racket from Sg, 17 hours into the plane, this racket sticking out of my backpack"
P: "Thats funny, I didnt know you can do that"
Me: "Yea, but its so expensive to play here. 700 kr for the sports card and the membership fee for the team is another 450Kr."
P: "1150 Kr to play badminton here, its crazy"
Me: "Yea, I emailed them, asking if I need to pay, and told them that I played for like 9 years in Sg already, so if there's any suitable level for me to play with. I saw there were some beginner classes and Im not going for that."
Me: "And then they replied, saying that they think that Im too good for them, and that there's a club near some metro, which plays better. I think its much cheaper to play at that club."
P: "Yea, we can go there"
Me: "Yea when my leg recovers. and you can use my racket. And I know that denmark is really good at badminton"
P: "Yes it is. And its so strange, cos badminton is dominated by all the asian ctys, and then the last half decade, all of a sudden denmark springs out. These big clumsy europeans on court"
So cool! There's a badminton buddy!
Peter went for his lecture (his whatever political + socio + socio anthropology class)..
Im just gonna sit outside there for the next 4 hours, waiting for my whatever soci + econs + geog seminar to start. And the bonus is that Peter's gonna come out every break for the next 4 hours to chill.
Im just reading, and waiting for Peter to come out of that door every hour.
So I took shots of the Social Science (minus psy) building.
I was looking at my specs and realised that its slanted. Rmbed that Peter Molnar (not the same Peter, this one is slovakian) stepped on it when I slept in his room during my tour in Bergen. And I was having such a bad time trying to straighten it and in the end, right now, its really really uncomfortable, and stressful.
I realised that my reading speed is probably 2 times faster than the rest of the europeans, cos Im used to reading in English. Peter realised it commented that I read really fast.
So his whatever complicated class ended. And he had another geog class. This time, he came out during the break and was like "shit, its so boring, im falling aslp in class" Everywhere's the same I realised.
I dont like my soci+econs+geog seminar. I have a presentation, a 10-12 page essay, and exam. And I, again, have so much thoughts of dropping it. And then I thought that I'll continue taking it, in case I fail my econs.
Espen, a new seminar friend, asked "which state of Sg are u from?"
Me: "Sg has no state. Its just 1 city"
Im the only Asian, and the only Exchange student in class. And I have no backgrd in geog or soci. Well done. It seems like if pple heard abt sg, its "u guys have v strict laws. I heard, no chewing gum, no spitting on streets and u get killed for taking drugs into sg." Well, at least they know smtg abt sg and not "which part of sg is china in?"
Anw, I bet the tutor was really really surprised to see me in class, since I emailed her that I broke my leg and probably wld not attend.
Went to meet Peter after the Seminar and went to International Coffee Hour.
I didnt realise how much a star I had become. Going to International Coffee Hour on clutches. Everyone's like "John's here. Its amazing. Im gonna go talk to him."
Well, Im actually getting used to pple making fun of me these days.
They were like "John, I heard u need to be in cast for 6 weeks. Well, I hope you can get out of it faster"
Ludek: "Well, KNOWING JOHN, I WOULDNT ADVISE IT EVEN IF HE CAN GET OUT IN 6 WEEKS, I'LL JUST FORCE HIM TO WEAR THE CAST FOR 8 WEEKS, HE'S GONNA DO SMTG TO KILL HIMSELF AGAIN"
Thomas came, and saw me, opened his eyes and was trying to look under the table for my leg. Everyone's like "Its still there thomas. His leg"
Tho: "Its still there. Its a miracle."
Then Carmen saw me and came over to talk. Kinda appreciate it, people pulling chairs for me, getting coffee and cookies for me, and standing talking to me while I sit. People hearing that Im gonna move house in broken leg and offering to help me, even though they live far away.
Some jokes:
"Shall we take ur clutches and run away with it?" - lud
"If you take his clutches, John will chase after you with his broken leg. He's that crazy"
"Wanna go sledding this sunday?" - Peter (every other hour he asked me that)
"Your leg's still there?" - thomas
"You can be the goalkeeper" - Nathalie
The Latvian girls are becoming predictable. They just come up to me and "Oh John." And show a sympathetic look. "How long are you gonna be in this".
I saw Kristina, to my surprise. Haven seen her for so long. She came up to me and asked "Hi John, Do you rmb me?" Yes of cos. You are the first and only girl to come up to me and ask me to speak Singlish to you.
K: "What lang do u speak at home?"
Me: "English. But our english is abit weird. We call it singlish"
K: "I wanna hear it. Talk to me in Singlish"
Me: "We dont say ' have u eaten already?' we say 'u eat already?'"
K: open eyes. "thats totally different. i cant understand"
I realised. In Sg, Im attracted to Asians who have sharp angmoh features. Here, Im attracted to Angmohs who have delicate Asian features. Its weird.
We were discussing about the Loftoen trip. Anna and Anne booked their flights on Friday. Peter and I decided that we should just book it on thurs or weds cos its much cheaper and then we'll pon lessons. Spontaneously, we ^5, reminds me simply of Sg boys. Anne didnt want to miss her lessons, so they booked friday ticket. Anne wasnt at international coffee hour today. Anna was. Surprisingly. Further probing revealed that Anne wasnt in a good mood, because they went to 5 supermarkets looking for the CORRECT MAYONISE. Omg. Cos Anne wanted to cook the PERFECT GERMAN DISH for her floormates. Srsly, Im getting more and more impressed with her. She cldnt find the perfect Mayo, was so pissed about it, and esp when they were met with bad customer service, so she decided to go home. You can really have such a wrong judgement of people, and when u spend time with them, u realise that they are actually, not so pampered, not so snobbish, not so atas and princess like and...
Every european here can cook good food, cos they are used to cooking back home. Me, sadly, the singaporean, eats out all the time. I wish I cld cook good food and treat all of them to my new house.
We were having such a great conversation today, because there is supposed to be a party tonight, at chatuea Nuef, a traffic light party. (In Norway, traffic light party means you have to wear either red, yellow, or green. Red means taken. Yellow - its complicated. Green - Available)
Some jokes: "well, you can wear green, and prepare a red jacket. if the person isnt interesting, just say 'im sorry, its getting abit cold, i need to move a little' and put on ur red jacket" - thomas
"I dont have a green one. They are probably gonna ostracish all the red ones and give cheaper beers to the green ones" - peter.
And it seems like, they have this traffic light party for the next 3 weeks.
Carmen says she gets free movie cos she volunteered to sell movie tickets for the movie club. Just 30 mins. And she already watched 2 free movies, w/o starting on her job. Great, carmen, i'll join you when I recover.
Dear Friends and Family in Sg, I m going to the party, in clutches, but I will take care of myself, I promise. Worry not.
I dont expect anyone to pick me up and I dont want to be picked up. Yes, they had jokes about me getting picked up by other girls while being on clutches. Making a new friend is nice. Im just gonna go there, chill with friends, and people-watch-the-single-and-looking-people-try-to-pick-each-other-up-and-laugh-at-them.
Meeting Peter, Anna, Anne (possibly) at the bus stop at 2150.
Today, I realised, Peter is always making fun of Anna's English and accent. Ok her english isnt good, but its quite easy to understand. But she's really funny and Im acquainted with their jokes now. Last week, I completely cant understand their jokes.
Anna: "now we have to wait for John, cos he's so slow"
Me: Open big eyes
Anna: "No. John, you're so great and funny. I'll wait for you"
Peter: "Stop trying, you're making it worse"
Everyone's making jokes about me. When I recover, I'll think of something to get back at all of you.
We were walking to the busstop at majostuen, and it seems like the bus is leaving. Anna ran for the bus to ask the driver to wait for me. THE DRIVER DIDNT!!!
Anna returned, said "I asked the driver: can you wait half a minute, for my friend. and the driver said "Half a Minute! That's insane" and drove off"". Anna was really really pissed. So we stood at the bus stop, the next bus is in 10 mins. And we camwhored. A Norwegian passer by who was waiting for the bus offered to take pictures for us. And we talked. He was kinda weird. I said "Can I take a picture of u?"
He "No. Bcos u're gonna put it on facebook, No facebook for me. Its a dangerous place cos whatever u put there isnt urs anymore"
Fine.
Some jokes while waiting.
Peter: "When I get back, I'll see you again, and then shower"
Anna: "What. Did u just asked me to shower with u?"
Peter: "What"
Me: "Yes he did. We all heard that"
Zuzcha: "Yes"
So While waiting for the bus in the freezing cold.
Anna snatched my camera, and snapped this pic of myself.
And I was checking my camera, with the lens facing the floor, when Anna decided to bend down and put her head under my camera and smiled. It was so funny, I cant believe it, so I took the picture.
Later, I realised that not all europeans are fond of people talking to them on the streets. Some find it irritating, esp if its someone that just wants someone to talk to. Peter, Anna and Zuz all find the Norwegian man that talked to us while waiting for the bus Irritation and Weird. I find him ok. In sg, pple will just think u are siao and bo hue u completely.
