Romme Alpin

I spent the weekend at Romme Alpin. It’s a 2 days skiing trip (30 Jan to 31 Jan).

On the 7.30am bus to the slopes.

The slopes are filled with people by the time we arrived. We went to the equipment store to collect the ski equipments we rent through dq. yep… The skis, helmet, boots and poles. The pair of skis is almost as tall as me. The boots are very heavy. It’s rather difficult to walk properly with those ski boots as the shins and ankles are tightly locked in.

We had our beginners lesson at the very gentle slope. Although it seems gentle, it is not that gentle once I put on the skis. It is horribly slippery. I thought the stopping and turning are suppose to be easy, as the instructor had made it seems so. Well, I’m wrong, very wrong. As I find out from the number of falls and tumbles, I have to exert significant amount of pressure on the skis in order to come to a halt or negotiate a turn.

I spent the first day trying out on the baby slope. Although it’s gentle and many small kids (mostly age below 6) can clear it perfectly, I fell down every time I tried to go down the slope. It might be the psychological barrier that I had, or it could be that I could not stop properly so the best option is to fall and halt. Come to think about it, falling numerous times helped. It made the fear of falling vanish.

The lunch was a simple burger (90g). The serving is kind of small as I was expecting something more from that 67sek meal. However, the dinner was good. It’s a nice buffet in a decent restaurant. As observed, there were several salmon dishes. I guess the Swedes love salmon, both raw and cooked. There were sausages, meat balls, wedges, drumsticks and hams.

The club was very kind to make a rookie ski certificate for me, although I wouldn’t even consider myself to be one. Many thanks to the committee, I really appreciate the amount of effort they had put into this. It’s very heart-warming.

The first day ended with aching limbs and numerous muscle sores. LOL. Although Michelle offered the group for some after dinner shots, the bed was too inviting for me to get out of it once I sank into the soft mattress.

The second day of the trip began at 9am, when the bus took all of us to the slope for another day of thrill down the slope. Morning was good. The slopes were nicely prepared with line patterns and it’s easier to ski on it.

I followed the group to the next slope. Oh mine, that slope is a lot steeper than the beginner slope. I fell down twice of my way down. Each fall was a painful tumble. Luckily, I suffered no injury. However, my gloves were all covered with snow and ice when I reached the bottom. A bad experience, but thrilling.

For the rest of the day, I spent my time coming down from the half way point of the slope.

Thanks to the club, I’ve met many nice people (Carolyne, Joanne, Joakim, Michelle, May, Andreas, Nurzian, Kian Chye, Hui Zhen, Joyce). Thanks for the wonderful experience.

It’s snowing

When Stephane and I were trying to crack our heads to solve the lab 1, it started to snow heavily. LOL… It’s beautiful to look at it from inside of a building. However, it’s not that pleasant once I step out of the building. I found myself surround with snow and unless onslaughts of mischievous snowflakes nudging into my eyes.

The wind made it tougher for me to walk along the pavement. And it got colder as well… Sigh… Once I got back into the building, it’s sheer wetness that awaits me. The snow that collected on my clothings soon turned into water. Argh…

Getting insane workload

The avalanche of work is pouring in. 2 assignments due on Wednesday and 2 more on Thursday. LOL… Who says exchange students can relax?

Back to work…

Tough period

Linear algebra, coordinate systems that involve matrix manipulation for various transformation and projections, discrete time Fourier transform, filter application, business idea creations…. More assignments and labs to come.

This period is insane for me.

God, please help me!

Trekking around the woods in Lappis

The four of us decided to have a walk around the woods in Lappis today.

It’s a pity that there wasn’t much sun light. Else the pictures would have turned out to be nicer.

Standing on the frozen pond.

In twilight…

Salsa

The classes during the day wasn’t exciting at all. There was histogram equalization from EN2401 and viewing perspective from DD2423 (vanishing point).

In the evening, dq, kh and me went to the Salsa night. Initially, we thought there were not many people in the Nymble hall. So, we went to the lounge at first floor to chit chat. As the time passed by, many people started to arrive. Hence we decided to venture up to the hall. As we stepped inside, there was quite a crowd already.

The group was divided into 2 groups, the beginners and the intermediates. I was, naturally, in the beginners. We started off with the basics. The forwards, side steps and turning. Frankly, it wasn’t that fancy when the instructor demonstrated. When the music started, it was another story. I had a hard time trying to follow up with the tempo of the music when the real thing comes. Haha… I guess it’s the bad thing about me, no sense of limb coordination. The beginners were lined up in 3 rows and each row took turn to move forward and the front row would be moved to the back.

Then… it came the couple dancing. All of us were standing in a big circle, alternating between man and woman. Like most technical schools in the world, there were fewer ladies than men. So some of us, including me, started with out a dance partner. The instructor was kind enough to let the group rotate dance partners, such as passing the lady to the next man standing next to you, so that I won’t be standing there like a fool throughout the night. LOL…

Again, the basics of the couple dance wasn’t hard without the music. However, the men were supposed to remember the dance steps to lead the ladies. This was something I wasn’t good at. Anyway, as we rotate dance partners, I did get to talk to many girls, mostly exchange students. There were Lisa, Veronik, Veronica, Maut and many others who I couldn’t really remember the names. My sincere apologies to them for being so bad with names. There were serveral exchange students from Czech, Austria and Belgium. It was fun trying to keep up my own pace, but it was chaotic when it came to leading the lady. Because I wasn’t sure about my own steps. LOL…

There were quite a few occasions that I stepped someone’s heel or foot. When it comes to the guys turning part, the height difference manifested in the most interesting way. LOL… It felt like having a little toddler trying to spin a huge top that was much taller than her. LOL… It’s technically feasible but difficult to execute.

Had great deal of fun that night. I didn’t regret going to that event even though I was quite reluctant at first.

A Day Wasted

It wasn’t a good day to go out. There’s no class, but the intention to step outside of my tiny room wasn’t there.

Anyway, I did went out to pay the rent. And it just took me under an hour. Thereafter, it’s back in my cave, fixing my phone’s software and setting up some random programs to download a map program, which I don’t find it useful. My mouse is acting strangely. The scroll isn’t as smooth as it used to be. Hmmm…. Software corruptions? Hope not.

Tried my best to force myself to start reading some notes. The reading supposed to start when I returned from rent payment. But somehow it was delayed to 20.00 in the evening. Evening then, I was alt-tabbing between windows.

I need to stay focused. Really focused.

Missed the Swedish movie night, shall I turn up for the Salsa night?

Day 2 of school, rent payment and ice skating

This is the day one of ME2025 lesson. Haha… The lecturer seems knowledgeable and interesting, though the he had given me a very easy-going impression. Even though this day is day one, the assignments to the course have been distributed. There’s one group project where we are required to do a brand portfolio analysis. There’s one individual assignment that is due next week. We have to write a brand portfolio about ourselves or describe how brands in the current market affect our purchase decisions (consumerism). In the lecture, brand drivers, brand energisers and product defined roles were explained. Although I’m not quite sure about these terms, I’ll try my best to google them. LOL…

I went to the Direkten near Stockholm library to pay the rent for January. However, the machine went offline. I guess I’ll try my luck tomorrow.

Evening was spent at the ice-skating rink at Kungstragarden. Many exchange students turned up. This is my first time skating on ice. It’s rather ‘dangerous’. Walking on ice is hard enough, let along skating on it with thin blades attached to the shoes. Alex told me I was ‘walking’ for the first few rounds. Stephane was kind enough to show me some tips. Well, I guess my balancing was still weak and the shoes were not fitting. LOL… It was really clumsy of me to ‘walk’ around the rink. Most of the time, I was relying on my ankles to support myself because the way I stood on the ice and I positioned my feet in an ‘A’ shape slant. It’s tiring to maintain balance and that stance. Yes, I fell down at least 4 times. Embarrassing, but it’s the fun to be moving on ice that kept me going for few more rounds. I stopped after having perspiration soaking my inner garment and aching back.

Unforgettable experience.

Day 1 of School and Snowing

Today is the first schooling day at KTH. Morning was spent in DD2423 lecture. DD2423 is also know as Image Processing and Computer Vision. I was surprised that Stephane is taking this course too. Haha… There’s someone I can chit chat with during the lesson breaks. Anyway, I got to know Thomas, a Swedish Master student. A pleasant gentleman who was very kind to explain to me the academic credit system in KTH. Thomas also highlighted to me that I can download a copy of MATLAB from KTH website to do the course labs.

The lunch was spent at the Nymble, where many students gather to heat up their lunch. Stephane and I chose to have the lunch (sandwiches) unheated because the queue in front of the microwave ovens was too long.

Stephane told me that he had purchased one apartment in Paris and took a 30 year loan. Wow… Amazing. I wish I can buy one property. Anyway, he’s staying with his girlfriend in that apartment. At the moment, his girlfriend is ill. Hope she’s recovering quickly.

We ran into Thomas during lunch time at one of the benches in block D. Haha… He’s taking Hybrid System with Stephane at 1pm. Since I have no class till 3pm, I retired to the upper floor and rest at one of the benches. In the mean time, I tested out the WIFI connection with my mobile phone.

The afternoon lesson was Image and Video Processing (EN2401). The professor is an gentleman with a gentle voice. Luckily, the class size is rather small. Even the lecture is conducted in a seminar room, unlike the lecture hall back in NUS. I guess the student to teacher ratio in KTH is much lower than NUS. This is a good thing.

These 2 courses use same reference text, which I brought over from Singapore. The projects and labs in these 2 courses will be done in MATLAB. Hopefully, the similarities in these two courses will lessen the extend of preparation works for me.

Time to download the course materials.

Lidl

DQ and I went to Lidl to shop for some groceries. The items sold at Lidl are cheaper than ICA.

Finally bought the rice, milk, cabbage, cereal and minced pork. LOL. This time, I did not get the butter milk. Hahaha…

Also bought a pair of thermal boots for 179SEK. Haha… I’ve decided not to torture my feet anymore.

Zj and KH came to visit us in the evening. Chit chat and talk cock… LOL

Boule and Asian Marts

We spent out Saturday afternoon at the Boule Bar. Boule is a rather “boring game”. It seems like the marble game during my childhood. However, it’s played with bigger metallic balls.

It’s a game played by two opposing teams. A team is to start of the game by tossing the jack, a small red ball, out onto the lane. Then that same team is to toss one ball towards the jack and try to bring the ball as close to the jack as possible. The other team is to try and either bring their ball closer to the jack than the opposing team or knock their ball away. The team gains score with the number of balls closest to the jack.

The people were being split into teams of 3. Each lane had 2 teams playing. So a total of 6 people took turns to toss the ball. Initially it’s fun toss the ball, but it got boring as the game went on. In my team, there’s one Australian and a German. The Aussie was quite quiet and the German was reserved. Maybe he did not have the confidence to converse in English.

Anyway, we left the game at around 2.30pm and went to Gamla Stan to meet Michelle, a fellow Singaporean studying PhD in virology Sweden. She’s a DSO scholar. Very pleasant and friendly lady. Thanks to her, we finally found some marts that sell Asian food. Haha… And thanks to her, we finally found the location of the Hong Kong trading! LOL… Anyway, we had nice coffee and sweet Swedish dessert (which I can’t recall the name) in a coffee house that is located in an underground cellar. Very unique and cool cellar.

Vasa Museum

Vasa is a sunken ship in Stockholm that has been recovered. This big naval boat sunk on its maiden voyage due to design flaws. It carried 120 tons of ballast, which were not enough to hold it steady in slight wind. This ship was one of the first naval boats with two gun decks. The builders of the ship were experienced crafts men, but non of them had built such a ship before. Complicated by the political climate (war with Poland) and the King’s eagerness to have it joining the theatre of battle, the ship was hastily constructed from 1626 to 1628. Lack of scientific knowledge in ship building, the war, heavy arms on board, and the passing of the master shipwright resulted in this poorly designed ship (top heavy), which eventually capsized after cruising one nautical miles out of the Stockholm harbour.

After the ship had sunk, the Swedish divers constructed diving bells to recover the cannons from the sunken ship. This was some amazing feat and a good evidence of innovation for the Swedes. In the 17th century, recovering cannons from a sunken ship at 30m below water was really a ‘miracle’.

After the cannons were recovered, the ship was forgotten for 333 years before it was recovered by the Swedes in 1950s.

I am indeed amazed by Sweden’s effort to retrieve this sunken ship and conserving it. It was a technical challenge for the divers to dig tunnels underneath it to set cables to hoist the ship to surface. They spent 9 years to conserve it with chemicals and 5 years to dry it. During this process, many new techniques in conserving historical artifacts were developed. I have to admire at their innovations and commitments to preserving their own history.

About 50 people went down with The Swedes studied meticulously each retrieved item from the ship and they discovered a good deal of information regarding the society and economy of Sweden in the 17th century. During that time, Sweden was plagued by war. It had conflicts with Denmark, Poland, and several neighbouring countries. In one battle, Sweden lost a fortress to Denmark, who asked for one million from Sweden as ransom redeem the fortress back. As a result, the Swedes were taxed heavily to fund the war. Farmers were commissioned to make weapons and young men above 15 were conscripted. During a battle, 2000 men left Stockholm and only 665 of them returned in the next year.

The sailors commissioned to work on vasa were rather small in build. the average height is 1.6+m. Hence, the clothing recovered were quite small in size. The boots and gloves looked miniature.

Contrary to many contemporary portrayal of medieval Europe, the coins minted back then were thin and “flimsy”. Copper coins were more common. The most sailors on Vasa were commoner. There were 2 females corpses recovered from Vasa. The first one is named Beata (B represents she is the second corpse discovered). They were believed to be guests on board.

A fruitful trip. For those who love history, Vasa museum is a good place to go.

Finally! I tried to cook Swedish meatball! Though they looked burnt. Will try again with smaller fire. LOL..

But they taste good, trust me. Even DQ (one of our group of 4) said so. LOL

Automation

It’s time to set up a bank account in Sweden where most payments are done through internet banking. With each bank account, there is one ATM card reader issued for online payment. This is useful for security purpose.

In my view, this is quite an advanced country with a lot of automation and wired information processing. So for those EE people doing this specialization, Sweden might be the country for you.

The supermarkets have self-service payment kiosks, where leaving customers scan the items and pay the balance themselves. The group of kiosks is manned by a single staff. It is quite an efficient way to save manpower. These kiosk machines are quite easy to use. ATM payment, notes payment, and coins payment are made all-in-in.

Besides having many automated machines to mitigate the manpower issue, Swedes are adopting a rather environmentally friendly way of life. Everyone uses his/her own shopping bag to bring groceries home. Unlike Singapore, where plastic bags are given generously to the shoppers.

Another thing that impressed me is the manifestation of independence in the Swedish culture. When alighting from the newer bus, the commuter needs to press the exit button. On the bus, the middle section is reserved for mothers/fathers with a pram or commuters with big luggage. The door at this section has an opening button at the exterior to facilitate these people from boarding the bus. Very neat idea.

I’ll be observing more of the interesting things and update soon.

Registration

We went down to the school for the registration with ITM (School of Industrial Engineering and Management) today.

First, we dropped by the Nymble for a guided tour around the main campus. It’s quite a neat place. Though the major concern for us would be to getting to classes at the right places. I hope it’s not going to be too difficult for the first 2 weeks.

I was pleasantly surprised that the ISS gave out sandwiches to the new exchange students.

I got to know Stephane from Paris during the guided tour. Very pleasant gentleman. Really appreciate that he used English to converse with me instead of French, unlike some French I came across before. Hope will meet him again in school. Hmm… He’s taking courses from several disciplines. Electrical Engineer by training, but he’s reading subjects from Biology department. Seems like our Bioengineering course.

At around 12.49pm, DQ and I left for the registration at ITM office at Brinellvägen 66. It was a long way in from the entrance to the campus.

We came across Steffanie and Alex, whom we met yesterday at the library. Another pleasant surprise that they (ME students) are registering to the same school as we do.

I met Federico Zavanella from Italy at the registration. A nice gentleman that has been to Singapore 2 years ago. He gave me some tips regarding visit Italy. Though I believe he meant going there at some warmer times.

During the ISS briefing, I met Alex Haid from Austria. He’s a master student having exchange at KTH. Wow. Does NUS have this? Anyway, I had much fun talking with him. Interestingly, he’s in the Bioengineering field too. Haha… Is KTH famous for Bioengineering?

Arrival Day

I’ve gotten the welcome pack, finally! Collected it at Nymble in school.

Well… The most important thing in it is the SIM card by Comviq and a detailed map of Stockholm.

The group of us went for a stroll around the campus. Indeed, it’s a beautiful place. Nostalgic. Swedish knows how to preserve buildings and inject new functions into them.

Amazing…

 

Coin Museum, Gamla Stan

Gamla Stan is the Old Town of Stockholm. It’s a beautiful place with a lot of well preserved medieval buildings dating back to about 700 years ago.

For those who has me as contact on facebook, you can view the photos I’ve taken at Gamla Stan.

The journey from Amanuensvagen to Gamla Stan was a short 20 minutes ride on bus and metro. If we did not arrange to meet Kwong How and Zi Jian at T-Centralen, De Quan and I could just carried on one more stop on red line to alight at Gamla Stan station.

The streets at Gmala Stan are laid with cobble stones. Nostalgic indeed. I felt walking right into a story book. Although there’s one tricky part… I couldn’t walk properly on these icy streets because I’m wearing runners. Geez… I fell down just outside the train station, painful hit on bum as my arms are in my pocket and I could not break the fall. Sigh…

The Nobel Museum is located at Gamla Stan. However, we did not visit it because it is closed on Mondays! At the same time, we could not visit the royal palace as it’s closed to public from 11 Jan to 31 Jan. Sigh… Although we snapped some pictures from outside. The facade is majestic enough.

Luckily, the coin cabinet (museum) has free admission on Mondays. So, it’s sort of a compensation for us having to miss out the royal palace and the Nobel museum for today.

There are A LOT of money in that museum. HAHAHA… Glittering metals. BLINK BLINK. There are some jewel studded pieces on display. Dazzling.

Hmm..

After the coin museum, it’s Big Mac time. LOL… 56 SEK for one Big Mac meal. Not bad… Considering I’ve spent 90 SEK on average meal (grilled chicken set at Kista when we visited Zi Jian and Kwong How yesterday) However, it costs me 5 SEK to use the toilet. LOL… Expensive way to piss!

Took some photos from the Elevator. Good view of the city hall, Gamla Stan and the island nearby.

River side

-7 deg

day 2

Geez...

Day 2 is terrible. The temperature decided to take a plunge into -19 in the morning. Haha... I could not feel my mouth when I want to speak.

The 30 day SL pass costed 690SEK... Gosh... Half of my weekly allowance is gone!

The ICA store at my hostel area is over-pricing a lot of things. The detergent, shampoo, toilet paper, bread, etc. Haha.. I guess I have to make purchase at alternative locations.

Zi Jian, De Quan, Kwong How and I paid a visit to IKEA at Skarholmen. I bought dustbin, pillow, quilt, quilt case, pots and cups. Total = 303SEK! Anyway, the lunch was settled at IKEA... The famous meat ball!! Though it's not that fantastic, the sauce is nice.

Next stop... ICA mart next to the Skarholmen station. The plastic wares are selling for 10SEK each. So I picked up some tumblers, pail, water jug and trash bags. HAHA... First time buying trash bag! Anyway, this is the ICA that I found out I was over-charged at the mart in my hostel area. Hmm.. Not bad, I got one box of washing powder (1 kg) for 16SEK... This seems reasonable. LOL...

HAHA! We bought a set of 5 Findus meal sets at 20SEK a piece. Not a bad deal for a decent dinner.

day one in sweden

I didn't expect my journey to Sweden to be so smooth. Thank God for that.

After hearing all the "I-lost-my-luggage-at-Heathrow" stories, my travel buddy and I were a little worried at the beginning. Well... Thank God, nothing we thought would happen never happened. Though it was not so pleasant to be greeted with a -3 deg wind when we stepped out of the departure terminal at Heathrow 5 onto the shuttle bus that was going to take us to the flight to Stockholm. Anyway, the snow in the dark seemed to be countless cotton candy being scattered mindlessly on the ground.

The arrival at Arlanda is smooth sailing. Initially we thought we would be flying into -12 deg weather. Thank God again, the day temperature wasn't that hash. It's a warm -2 though.

The standard of living is crazy! A train ride to central Stockholm on Arlanda Express is 120SEK. Luckily I could pass it off with a ticket meant for people below 26. Though this privilege will soon be gone.

Snow, snow and more snow...

Plentiful of snow fallen on the ground. Everywhere is covered with snow. Beautiful sight, but freezing temperature. Will try to get use to it ASAP.

For those who wish to come to Stockholm for free and easy trip, you can consider buying 7-day SL pass. Each trip will cost 30SEK if you purchase separately.

People here are well-mannered. So that's good for me.

Thank God the bus driver was kind enough to let me have a free ride to my hostel area as I did not have the electronic pass and the bus service can't take cash as payment. Interesting, they are using something similar to Singapore's EZ-link. Haha...

The trip to my room was quite eventful. The Swedish way of displaying house number is quite interesting. The signs were not big, so I had to move from house to house to look for each sign. LOL...

It's kind of tricky and tiring to drag my 23kg luggage, 10kg backpack and my notebook case in snow covered pavement. Challenging and trying on my arms, which were trembling in the cold. HAHA.

I like my room. It's pleasant and cosy. I think the previous owner did a good job in cleaning it up. So I'm happy with its cleanliness. At least, I don't have to buy detergent and brush to scrub the toilet.

Haha...

The heater is good. Thank God for that.

Not bad, there is a small supermarket in my hostel area. Although the items are kind of expensive, I believe I should be contended with the instant noodles available there. HAHA...

Anyway, a loaf of bread is 24.50SEK, which is about 4.90 SGD. HAHA... Amazing! Luckily I brought a re-usable shopping bag. The mart doesn't provide any plastic bags. Hmm... it's time to buy some trash bags. LOL...

Let me see...

I was careless when I left Singapore. I left my shaver in the bathroom before stepping out of the house. Sigh... I should have brought a cup. Sigh...

Oh well... My shopping list has extended.

Shall visit IKEA on day 2.

Hopefully I won't fall on slippery ground.