Random musings

Apart from studying, my mind had been in Europe for most of the past two weeks. Firstly, there was one flight that wiped out a country's most influential. And then suddenly, all metal birds are grounded. Bad year for aviation?

Fine, I will truthfully admit my mind had never really left Europe since my SEP. I missed flying (I took 3 stopovers to return home). I missed Trondheim so much and talked about Europe so frequently I am starting to irritate myself. I blame the hot and humid weather, the unpredictable downpours, the overloaded modules, the distance NUS is from Tampines, the light and noise pollution, and the busy city life.

As a parting post, I want to share bits and pieces of my most glorious days of SEP. If anyone reading this is still considering to go for exchange: JUST GO! It will be the best decision you can ever make. Take my word for it.

This is NTNU, Trondheim. Gløshaugen campus. Old buildings with hundreds of years of history in them. Houses the engineering and science faculties. However due to unforeseen circumstances (the biology department did not give me any modules), I had no classes here. I went for lessons in the medicine campus instead.


Dragvoll campus. A cluster of 4,5-storied buildings on a small hill. We froze ourselves on the open fields nearby trying to see the Leonid meteor showers.


And this is how a Science library should look:


Blue sky, white clouds, deep fjords, Autumn time, mountains = hiking trip.


1001 things to do before I die: glacier hike. Damn it was tough! They provided a shoe strap-on that had metal spikes; so every step I took I had to kick hard to 'stab' the ice. If not I could slide off the ice and pull the whole string of people down since we were roped together.


The first snows were expected in October, but this only happened in December. This is the view from my room, which was approximately 12 square meters big. That is like...2 PGP rooms? I would give everything to wake up to this view everyday:


Last place I want to showcase before I divulge too much about myself: Warsaw. It is such an unbelievably beautiful place. The sad kind of beautiful. How did this city pull through what happened 70 years ago? The Russian Wedding Cake still stands strong (and aesthetic-wise, pretty, in my opinion). Their central station is extremely communist-style; beside it stands a brand new, modern shopping mall. On one end, Nowy Świat (New World Street) houses high-end shops rebuilt in neoclassical style. On the other end, the street runs through residential areas typical of the Eastern Bloc. Ah that's some mixed feeling.






The Presidential Palace. I did not know what this building was at that time since there was barely any marking. But I knew it was some place important because it had the Polish flag, EU flag and NATO flag flying. I was really saddened by the plane crash two weeks ago even though it had nothing to do with my life. Either I am too sentimental, or I have gone mad.


University of Warsaw:


Holy Cross Church on Krakowskie Przedmieście (street name), which houses Chopin's heart:


Singaporeans in front of the Copernicus Monument:


And finally, I want to share that the best reward you can get from an exchange is friendship. We had a Pole to lead us around in Warsaw! He was an exchange student at NTNU too. =)


From Warsaw, my friends went to Krakow and Auschwitz. I didn't.

P.S. If anyone would like some unconventional Europe tour recommendations, I could help with Warsaw, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki, Norway and Sweden. =)) Study hard everyone!