One week in Sweden... & it's time for Celebration!!

So, it has been one week since I first came to Sweden. Time flies, and i felt as if I grew up suddenly. I am working now--offically i'm earning my own living. I furnished my room, I cooked my own meals, I did my laundry, cleaned my toilet and I changed my blowed lightbulb. Life is lonelier than it was in Singapore. I have great company here, but nobody close to the heart... yet... oh well, let's just leave some room for one or two life-long friendship to grow, ok? :-)

Back to the point, it has been a week... so it's time for CELEBRATION!!!

On Friday night, the Kungshamra gang (Sriram, Ruiwen n me) went over to join the Lappis gang for a cooking session. It's Dilip's turn to lend us his kitchen, and you know what? We made the BEST use of his kitchen!!

From left: Sriram, Ramkumar & Dilip
(in charge of the eggs!)

From left: Akshay & Ruiwen
(in charge of the vege)

After the cooking session, we have a new definition of the organization of our new company:
CEO : Cheif Egg Officer
CFO : Cheif Food Officer
COO : Cheif Operation Officer (as usual, cuz hav to oversee the whole cooking process)
CTO : Cheif Thief Officer (it's Dilip!! cuz he couldn't stop stealing meatballs!! )

Everybody, let me introduce u to Dilip
(he doesn't like taking photos! haha!)

There you go! our... ah hem.... dinner.
(noticed the missing meatballs)

After dinner, we had a long long long debate about India-- not in the entrepreneural India's-the-next-market sense, but in the India-men-like-to-pee-on-streets kinda sense! It's fun to see 4 Indian--Dilip (the defender) arguing against Sriram, Akshay & Ramkumar! hehe... and when we discussed about Malaysia, everyone, except Sriram & me (Malaysians), were surprised that Malaysian local officers were out catching people kissing and holding hands! haha! So much for patriotism! We then had a few sips of Baileys plus some action movies--phonebooth & Lord of Wars--to let the sleepiness kick in slowly. Well, it's a good night sleep (4 hours), at least we regenerate enough energy for the Uppsala trip the next day!!

We started our trip around 10.30am from Lappis, heading to the train station at T-centralan to catch a 40 minutes ride to Uppsala. Upsalla was a great city in the past, it is the site of the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. Carolus Linnaeus (who invented the Binary system of nomenclature for organisms ) was one of the renowned scholars of Uppsala University.

Ok, enough of history... here is a picture of the beautiful T-centralan station that reminds me sooooooo much of platform 9 & 3/4.

Hehe.. Sipei & me on the train

And after a fun ride (we played some stupid games on the train), Voalla! we arrived at Uppsala!

A park just outside the Uppsala University main office.

Me at the Uppsala Botanical Garden, the building at the back is the Uppsala Castle.

Coincidently, i'm not the only one who likes the view so much!
A beautiful couple was shooting their wedding photo there too.

Next, we went to the Cathedral of Uppsala. It is the largest church building in Scandinavia (118.7 m high). The construction of the church started at 1280s.

There's only a word that can describe the church--breathtaking. I could really hear my own breath in the church, slowly & deeply, as if i'm fighting for every intake of air. I'm not a Catholic or Christian, but still the building spoke to me. It was then when i realized the whole principal of architecture--we build because we want to talk to each and every person that sees the building, we want to tell them a message that words cannot express. We want them to feel and to understand a majestic concept such as religion. The church was magnificent, truly magnificent.

Also, there were a lot of stone tombs for kings and queens from the past. I was walking around, touching each and every tombs and sculpture, and imagined that they were sleeping within. It's amazing how even after their death, they still could impress upon people the unquestionable authority of the royal blood. All the queens had crown motives on their robes & names carved big on the stones--they were the only ones bowed to at their time. They are remembered, until this day, but what about the thousands & thousands of people that lived at their time? What about me? Will I be remembered too?

Memorial for Carolus Linnaeus in the church
This is the man that created the binomial nomenclature system!
(so proud I was there)

The viking & me in a medieval market beside the church.

This is me with the ancient equipment they used to play films. We were at a theatrette to catch the highlights of the culture night--charlie chaplin's original movies accompanied by a real pianist! He was a young guy, and I guess he's one of the few who can do this. His music was so precise that he could make everybody laugh out loud to charlie chaplin's acting. Throughout the whole 1/2 an hour, I really couldn't make out who's the main focus here--is it Charlie Chaplin? or the pianist?? Hmmm... maybe it's both!

Lindy Hop performance at the street.
Beibei, next time we learn Lindy Hop ya! It'll be a lot of fun! You'll love it!

Hehe, this one is funny--it's a Swedish rap!
It sounded cool, but yet very funny, cuz u know... it's in Swedish!

Friends back in Malaysia or Singapore... u guys won't believe this. This was a stage at the roadside, playing super hot music with a bunch of teenagers dancing around. There were

people giving out free hotdogs and water bottles too. Guess what it's for?? Election!! It's a party doing publicity here! Haha, nobody will mind a few public rally if it means free hotdogs n nice songs right?

So this concludes my day in Uppsala. Sriram was talking about going to the beach since the weather is nice today (it's sunday). But I guess i'll leave the beach trip to next week... take Sweden slowly & digest it... hehe...