Last exam of the period

ME2025 is the last paper of this period. Spent 3 hours and 30 minutes on it. Tried desperately to regurgitate whatever information that I had devoured yesterday.

I prayed to God to let me pass this course.

DD2423 Exam

I had a long paper. It’s suppose to last 5 hours. KTH has the policy of not giving students time pressure during exams so that they can perform calmly. This approach is rather inviting notion to me. However, it felt torturous as the time dragged on.

I forgot to bring food into the exam hall. So it felt terrible trying to figure out what question is asking while listening to the person next to me eating.

I decided to turn in the paper after 3 hours 30 minutes. Could not take it anymore.

Last Lab for DD2423

Examination day for the last lab for DD2423. I’m a little tensed because I’m not sure what I might end up with. After spending the weekend hosting the friend from Edinburgh, I left with very little time to prepare for the lab.

Anyway, I prayed. God answered my prayer by giving me a fantastic lab partner. He’s a French exchange student and a very efficient and diligent co-worker. God has all planned out for me right from the beginning. Amazing grace from above.

Thankfully, I passed the last lab for this course.

Today is also the presentation day for ME2025. I felt bad for not being able to attend the presentation due to the lab examination. Actually, I did not really contribute much in this course as compared to my other teammates. Thankfully, they are nice people that accommodated my special situation in this period. Things went well, so it’s indeed God’s grace in every moment of my life.

Skansen

This is a very beautiful open air museum. It show-cased many Swedish culture. I felt I walked into a traditional Swedish town in the rural. It has different thing to offer for winter and summer. Thus, I’ll come back again during summer.

This is the iconic Orange horse in Sweden.

Cutes kids playing on a huge pile of snow.

They preserved this 17 century house and relocated it into Skansen.

3 special visitors (maybe residents) in Skansen.

A traditional Swedish cafeteria in Skansen.

City Hall and Royal Palace

The first stop for today was City Hall of Stockholm, where a grand feast after Nobel Prize presentation will occur.

Its blue hall, the venue of banquet, is not blue at all. It was intended to be painted blue, but the architect changed his mind after felling in love with the warm red of the bricks used in the building.  It was mentioned that the hall will house about 1200 guests during that banquet and their food was to be served within 3 minutes. Amazing thing to happen within this limited space. It was said that the waiters had to rehearse several times before the actual day to minimize errors. The steps in the hall were designed to allow ladies to stride down them on heels with ease. On top of that, there is a faint star marked on the wall opposite the steps. The people coming down from the steps are to look at the star so that they will appear elegant and poised when they come down. Interesting design.

The Prince Gallery: The art work on the wall mirrors the scenery outside the window across  the gallery.

The blacks pillars come in pairs. There’s round and cornered pillars in each pair. According to the guide, one represents man, and the other represents woman.

The next stop was the Royal Palace. Sadly no pictures as photography is forbidden there.

The style of architecture is very different from modern designs. The chambers are linked up into a long stretch of hall way. The building has 600 chambers in total. It’s claimed to be the largest palace in Scandinavia.

Most of the exhibits are elegant paintings, posh silverwares and elaborated furniture. The main color theme is maroon and gold.

Friend from Edinburgh

Today I skipped class to go to Skavsta to pick up a friend from Edinburgh. I don’t know why I should do that, but I did it upon her request. Supposedly, that was a gesture to show welcome to her. Weird theory.

Travelled 1 hour 20 minutes to Skavsta at 79 SEK, then back again. Maybe I’m too rich.

Anyway, she’s my lab partner back in NUS 2 semesters back. At the moment, she’s doing exchange study at Edinburgh.

The first stop of Stockholm I took her to is Slussen, where there’s one tall escalator that we can take a good view of Gamla Stan and city hall bay.

It was quite windy.

After that, we headed to St. Erik’s Wok for a hearty meal.

Pool at Flemingsberg

It’s a break that I yearned for over the entire hectic week. I need a breather, an escape from the labs and projects.

We had pizza for dinner. Sam made a pot of beverage that I believed contain ginger and red wine. This drink had very unique and ‘spicy’ after-taste. Maybe I don’t really like warm beverage, thus I just tried one cup of it. According to Sam, this is a Swedish drink and people take it with biscuits. Anyway, his biscuit was very inviting, so were his chips.

The pool session was the first session I had in Sweden. Though the rules are same, it felt different playing it on foreign soil. Maybe it’s just me.

We took a picture with poses similar to a painting on the wall in the pool room.