The unbearable pain...

Did you know that 6 hour exams are common in the Norwegian school system?

Well, now you do.

Blog will not be updated until after 16 December 2005. Wish us luck: I got 2 to go and Jose K has 1.

Absolut Stockholm (I)

We just came back from a 4 day trip to Stockholm. It was wonderful and I have decided that Stockholm is one of my favourite cities in the world. Fun Fact: Did you know that Stockholm is made up of 14 islands connected by 57 bridges? See the following link from Visit Stockholm (official tourist website) for other interesting facts: http://www.stockholmtown.com/templates/SimplePage___8895__EN.aspx

The people we met were really nice and friendly. A really sweet lady who was pushing a pram even stopped to ask us if we needed help as she noticed that we were looking at our guidebook. The Swedish are cool- This is after all the country that produced Alfred Nobel, ABBA, IKEA and H&M.

We went to Skansen which is located on the island Djurgården. It's an outdoor park with houses and farmsteads brought from all over Sweden. The fun part was getting to see Scandinavian animals like the....

Scandinavian bison! (wisent). I can't believe that an animal this size could be content with just munching on dried up branches. But it was. It just chewed and chewed while we were busy taking its photograph.

Scandinavian elk! Otherwise known in America as the moose. Only the males have horns.

A harem of females....

The Big Daddy himself.








Jose K will continue with part II of our Stockholm experience. In the meantime, I will leave you with this photo...*sigh* I miss Stockholm already.

Birthday booty!

Look at the stuff we received for our birthday(s)!

Receiving parcels while you are overseas is one of the greatest joys in life! It does make one feel extremely loved.

This came all the way from Singapore. Thanks Mei. We tried the Thai Green Curry. Didn't manage to get coconut milk so we substituted yoghurt. Turned out fine.

This came all the way from Japan. In a huge box! Thanks Brendan. We now have enough spices to open a mama-shop in Oslo. At the time of this entry, we have already finished the milk tea. We tried the Kung Pao stir fry and made a fusion spaghetti thinggy with egg-plant (yes, left over from Thai Green Curry day).

Thanks for feeding us. To a great year ahead!

Norwegian wood(s)

The last few days were really gloomy and it rained and rained and rained.

This morning was really lovely though and we decided to make full use of it by walking up to Lake Sognsvann.

Apparently, everybody in Oslo had the same idea!



According to the "Use-It" guidebook to Oslo, "Solitary walking in the woods" is a favourite Norwegian past time. It is true! There were young couples with baby prams, old couples with walking sticks, joggers with their dogs. The only demographic that was missing were the teenagers who probably were still sleeping in on a Sunday morning after a wild night of partying. So, yes, the 'solitary' aspect was not quite fulfilled today although everybody was taking care to walk a few feet from each other, studiously pretending that they were the only ones in the woods today.

That being said, I do believe that this is something that I will definitely miss when I leave Oslo. I mean, look at this and imagine the brisk cold autumn wind on your face.

Lovely, isn't?