Snapshots of Aarhus

A Sign of the Times

What Remains

A Philosophy for World Domination

Streets of Aarhus

Winter in Aarhus

Colours of the Neighbourhood

Typically Aarhus - Simple but Beautiful

Introduction Week at ASB

My first week officially on exchange at Aarhus Business School (ASB) was an entire week of orientation kindly arranged for us by the school. I was rather impressed and thankful that they had such a program in place as i thought back to how things were like back home in SMU where exchange students would basically have to live or die with their assigned Singaporean buddy.

The whole exchange program group was really something of a mini United Nations with people from all over Europe, the States, Canada, China and even Kazakhstan! So, yeah, a large part of the week was spent getting to know people and their homelands better and hopefully have a few contacts to count on when i travel later on.

My orientation group! It was a nice friendly group. I liked the fact that there were spanish gals with whom i could practise my limited spanish with. It was also nice that one of them tried to learn a bit of Mandarin from me....lol. Alvin teaching Manadarin...*cough*

The orientation program was pretty fun, with buffets, bowling, pubbing and clubbing all thrown in. I didn't really enjoy the clubbing as the only music they seem to play here is R&B and no matter how hard i tried to get myself drunk or at least a little high, my ass simply did not want to move to the sound of Black Eyed PeaSai. Oh well, Enjoy the photos my friends!

Night out at a local bar...vaxies or something like that...

Hmmm, beeerrrr...

Colourful people, colourful balls

My buddy Alex, from France, buying the group one round!

"The Old Town" - An area of Aarhus where the houses have been preserved and spruced up as so that today's generation can have a rough idea of how their ancestors used to live...

Nice little channel running along the main road of the city...

A semi-frozen pond we passed by on our guided tour of the city...

Just for their toughness in wading on that icy water, those birds deserve to be fed!

Anyways, here's a quick Gong Xi Fa Cai to all whom i have not been able to wish personally so far! Hope the pickings this year are good! I just pray that my pickings will be collected on my behalf and reflected in my bank account statement at the end of this month...

The Bumper Update

Nabei, pulled out the plower plug to my laptop because i thought the battery was in. Turns out it wasn't and I just lost an hour of hard writing just like that. reminds me of why blogging can be such a pain. Ok anyways, I thought i'd give everyone a quick heads up as to where i am. Please see below.

I am in Denmark but i am not in Copenhagen (or Kobenhavenas they call it here) as many people have assumed. Instead, I am in

Aarhus, officially the second largest town in Denmark with a population of over 250,000. It's marked on the map with a little star there. Ah, while i have a map, i might as well fill everyone in on what i did on my first weekend here in this freezer of a country.

DAY 1

So we arrived safe and sound in Copenhagen sometime in the wee hours of the morning on the 19th of January after a 16 hour flight. Tired but excited, the first thing that we did upon clearing customs was to walk out and check the weather. Damn sua gu right?

Anyhows, Princess' (huiling) dad came to pick us up from the airport an hour later in a nice Saab space wagon which he took from his company. Her dad works for a swedish company by the name of trelleborg, which manufacture seals used in oil pipes, suspension systems of Airbuses and all F1 cars. Pretty cool eh?

By the time he came, snow had begun to fall and it was seriously a most interesting a surreal sight for someone like me, who last saw snow when living in Toronto and Tokyo some 20 dog years ago. After packing in the insane amount of luggage we had, my hands were honestly frozen to the bone. I wish i had a photo of the packed state of the car but unfortunately, my camera was somewhere in that packed state.

So, we drove and we drove... and we drove, all the way starting from Copenhagen (Kobenhaven), then across the 2nd longest bridge in the world that connects the town of Odense (pronounced ooonz or something like that) to Copenhagen or rather Copenhagen to the rest of Denmark. Then up we went past Kolding and finally into Aarhus. All along the way we experienced a constant snowfall and each time we stepped out of the car, it felt as though we had walked into hell during winter.

I think that the 3 of us, Princess, Xiaolongnu = serene (Princess' idea to call her that) and I, were extremely lucky to first have princess' dad come fetch us and then subsequently, have a local by the name of Michael who lives in Aarhus come pick us at the outskirts of the town. Michael is a colleague of Princess' dad's colleague, conincidentally also named Michael. So, Michael, good friend of Michael who is Princess' dad basically tells us that all the addresses given to us by the school are wrong as he lives just 5 minutes away from the school. I could only imagine if the 3 of us had to lug our luggage via public transport into the town and then struggle to find the place in the snow BLIZZARD that was developing, all because the address given to us was wrong.

Did i also mention that they subsequently closed off the airport and all roads leading into Aarhus? And that the day later, airport staff at Copenhagen went on strike? Yup, lucky we were indeed.

Thus, after barely making it into Aarhus, we went straight to our school, Aarhus School of Businesss (ASB), to collect our room keys and other hostel stuff. To our delight, the hostel was located but 5 min away from school and was newly renovated and refurbished although princess might not agree with the refurbished bit. She had the shock of her life upon discovering that her assigned dorm had nothing in it - no bed, no lights, no desk, zilch, zero...nada. Upon notifying the international office, they promised to get it rectified as soon as possible.

That's Princess looking not too pleased standing in the snow after seeing her room. Beside her is the awesome car that we drove around in.

Oh well, Michael took us shopping for essentials like pillows and blankets which were not provided by the hostel. I got one of those Tempur pillows that cost like $100+ in Singapore for slightly over $60... not Tempur but like Tempur. Aiyah, one should not scrimp on good sleep.

Michael had to return home but he made sure he gave princess' dad the directions to his hotel beforehand and even took a longer route so that princess dad would know how to get back to our hostel from his hotel. Truly a nice chap who went out of his way to help people he barely even knew!

Dinner that night gave us a real insight to the ridiculous cost of living in Denmark. A simple but nice meal at a small Italian restaurant cost something close to $50 a person!!! Luckily, not all the nice guys had gone home as we had Princess' dad with us and he really treated all of like royalty.

That was our dessert - flaming italian flambe! A tasty end to a rather hectic and eye-opening day...

DAY 2

The day started off with a trip to the international office to see the housing officer there so that something could be done about Princess' room, which now had a worn out table and chair together with an even more worn out mattress. her dad was not happy at all and neither was Princess, thus they did what they could, ie: to complain - a singaporean talent that comes in especially useful in such situations. Princess' dad is an expert when it come to squeezing people's balls, for example:

Princess' dad: My daughter's room has nothing in it, no bed, no lights and no cupboard! This is not right...
Lotte (housing officer): No, she has a bed and table. The caretaker put it in this morning...
Princess' dad: The bed is so old and so is the table. This is not right, the others have got new stuff, so everyone should be equal.
Lotte: We promised a bed, table and light. Not new ones, so it is fair.
Princess' dad: (thinking *this woman is damn guai lan)--> WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Is there SOMEONE ELSE I CAN SPEAK TO? Like your DIRECTOR?
Lotte: I am ME... there is nobody else to speak to here. the director will not be able to help you...

Well, this tough talk went on for awhile till there was some compromise in the form of "okok, i will see what i can do" from the Lotte bitch. Figuring that there was not much more to do and that we would have all the time in the world to see Aarhus, Princess' dad took all of us to Helsingor where his office was. That was north of Copenhagen so we had to travel all the way back from where he had first come... (-_-)

Instead of retracing the route we had taken previously to get to Aarhus, we decided to drive the car onto a ferry and ship ourselves to Copenhagen instead. Once there, we drove north towards the town of Helsingor... and i got to drive in the snow! Quite exhilarating i must say for not only was i driving in never before experienced conditions, i was also driving on the left side which was really weird at the beginning.

The hotel Princess' dad's company had booked for him was really nice. Probably at least 4 star. it is called the Marienlyst and it has a casino to boot. Another great thing about the hotel was that it was right next to the sea and had its own beach, albeit covered in snow. The room was really huge, so all 4 of us managed to fit comfortably into one room.

That night, we drove along the coast line of helsingor to one of the many homely restaurants that littered that stretch. Once again, the food was costly but tasted great although the service from our waitress left alot to be desired. I had a most delectable lobster soup together with some really exquisite veal...yummy. I even ate up the decorative green bit. lol.

After an amazing dinner, we were then lucky enough to be caught in an amazing blizzard. Snow was falling down in droves and the wind was threatening to blow the car off the road as we cautiously crawled back to the relative safety and warmth of our hotel...brrrr

DAY 3

The hotel breakfast was really nice but the scenery that set the backdrop for breakfast was totally amazing. All that white ground is snow-covered sand believe it or not.

So after all the fun in the snow, we decided to take the car across the river via ferry and go into sweden. We had originally thought that that plan was doomed as the gals had forgotten to bring their passports but to our delight and relief, we discovered that you don't need your passport to travel across borders in scandanavia! Thus, off we went to the town of helsingborg (we were in helsingor... yeah i know its confusing)

Helsingborg was basically more of helsingor, only bigger and slightly more lively. But like helsingor, it was freezing and covered with snow. Here's how we decided where to go next after arriving in Sweden.

Princess: Yayy, we're in Sweden... oh wait, Ikea is from Sweden... let's go Ikea to eat Swedish meatballs!

So after consulting the local tourist office, we took a short drive to Ikea which was on the outskirts of the town. The meatballs in Sweden taste THE SAME AS IN SINGAPORE IKEA. Not bigger, not better and certainly not cheaper... And actually, after walking around the store, i felt that it was no bigger than the Ikea in Singapore, nor was it better stocked. After hanging around for a while more, we took off from Ikea and headed for more shopping at a mega mall next door.

Our stomachs began to rumble, so we decided to head back to Denamrk where Princess' dad had already planned our next gourmet meal at yet another quaint restaurant along the coast.

That's my dinner that night. It's called "Black & White", 2 juicy beef fillets grilled to tender perfection with one doused in wine sauce and the other in a rich creamy paste. SHIOK.

Exhauted but satisfied, we headed back to the hotel under much more pleasant conditions this time round. Back in the hotel, I had the urge to build a snowman on the balcony but ended up taking more pictures in of the hotel in the cold.

DAY 4

Today, we promised ourselves that we would take it easy by just sleeping in a little and not travel anywhere too far as all the travelling from the previous days was beginning to take its toll on all of us. However, as luck would have it, Denmark or at least Helsingor does not believe in doing business on Sundays. Thus, when we went down to the town centre of Helsingor, hoping to get some leisurely shopping done, we were shocked and disappointed to find the entire pedestrian mall empty and closed. I mean, that would never happen to Orchard Road... just imagine... quite spooky really.

So, we travelled, albeit a short distance to the nearby Kronberg Castle which fortunately was open. The castle served as a danish fort way back in the 1700s or somewhere there and was only used once when sweden attempted to conquer Denmark. Then after, it was used exclusively as a prison which enslaved all its inmates to hard labour.

After our short tour of the castle, we decided to make a short trip to the summer palace of the Danish Royal family which lay on the outskirts of Helsingor, a short 15 min drive away. The palace as you would have guessed, was closed but we still managed to get a good look at it from afar.

That's princess and me at the entrance to the palace grounds.

A scenic looking walk down to the seaside, just outside the palace. Too bad nobody wanted to walk with me. Realiszed that there was not much more to see or do there so we headed back for the warmth of the Marienlyst. Not wanting to waste the rest of the day, i took the good ol camera out together with xiaolongnu for a walk around the Marienlyst mansion which was just opposite the hotel.

Marienlyst Mansion

The view from the top of the mansion

As the sun set

Xiaolongnu basking as the sunset

Right after this shot, my camera died. Just as i was about to take one for myself. Nabei.

Anyway, it was time for another gourmet dinner and tonight we headed to Princess' dad's favourite italian restaurant in Helsingor. Indeed, the pasta there was simply awesome although i once again made a wrong menu selection by opting fo the pizza which was not bad really but nowhere near the orgasmic perfection of xiaolongnu's seafood pasta or Princess' lamb pasta.

Unbelievable lamb pasta...*salivates*

My mistake and me

Gorgeous tiramisu....oh and Princess too! =)

And so, with that one last glorious meal, our luxurious stay in Helsingor had finally come to an end. The next day, we boarded the train and headed back to our little hostel rooms in Aarhus. No more restaurant meals, no more Saab to drive and certainly no more comfy hotel rooms to stay in. Next update: Introduction week at ASB.

Bye bye Helsingor and good life... hello Aarhus & school.

get all the photos from Helsingor-Helsingborg here!

Singapore Assignment in Denmark

It's 1:30am now in Denmark and i am still awake... why? Because i have to finish a report on my cycling expedition in Tibet so that the whole team can claim more money. The money had better be good because i have just sacrificed:

1) Dinner with my orientation group and a lot of alcohol
2) A night out at the club and more alcohol
3) MY SLEEP

Lee Lijen, if you read this you better smile. Get you your crummy report in an hour or 2...bah

Greetings...

And so it begins. 6 months of intercultural exposure, my semester long course on Living in Europe 101, my long awaited international exchange programme... and yet another brutal introduction to one straaaange language. Please see above photo for example. Somehow or another, the dude who created danish didn't really bother to think much about how it would sound like to the rest of the world. Here, they add 'o's on top of their 'a's, like a little halo and then pronounce the damn thing differently. I stay on a street called Fuglesangs Alle in the city of Aarhus V... till now i still cannot pronounce either if the locations accurately.

Anyhow, bitching about the local language aside, let me welcome u 'o wise reader/friend who has stumbled/been coerced/attracted to this pristine blog. I promised my dear friends back in Singapore that i would try to keep in touch by writing on my adventures and escapades while on exchange so that they might remember their great friend Alvin Lee that little bit better while they slogged away at their corporate prisons. In return, they promised to prepare a lavish gift as a token of appreciation upon his return for making their lives in their corporate cells that much more bearable. MAKE SURE YOU ALL REMEMBER TO PREPARE MY LAVISH GIFT!

If you notice that I am slacking off my writing responsibilities, please then write in to complain. I welcome that. =) I will do my utmost best to ensure that you lot have something nice and new to read about every other day or so. Such promises of consistent effort from a sloth like me no doubt sound too good to be true but as part of my 2006 resolutions, I have vowed to make "consistent effort" & "Alvin Lee" become synonymous with each other.

So there, entry number 1. Now i can take a day off before entry number 2 is born... enjoy =)