Midnight Sun

Ever heard of the midnight sun? It's a natural phenomena that occurs in summer where the sun never sets. So it's basically a 24 hour daylight for certain areas. More info can be found here.

Anyways i've been having some trouble sleeping these few days not because of stress or insomnia. It's because of that the sun rises too early and wakes me up. Yea the sun rises about 6am here and sets around 8.30pm and it's not even summer yet.

One good solution would be using curtains but sadly I don't have it. So i resorted to a few ideas. First I tried to move my bed position to avoid the sunlight but it didn't exactly worked out for me.

Next was just to cover my whole head with my beanie but then after a while during the night, I will unconsciously twist and turn and the beanie eventually falls off.Fail again.

Then I tried using eye shades or I call them tiny bras wrapped round the head. It did work out for the first few nights but the feeling of something wrapped round your eyes is still kinda scary.Especially when you wake up and all you see is dark surrounding and later only you realized that there's something covering your eyes.

Maybe I should just splurge a few bucks on cute curtains or just sleep earlier and get my 8 hours of sleep. Or maybe I should just wake up and eat my breakfast.

10 weeks!

10 more weeks till get step foot in my home again. Sometimes I wonder if I really did everything I could whilst I was here. My friend said that I was the most dynamic and well rounded exchange student he has ever met and probably experienced almost everything. Apparently, he even said that his first words to me would be, "Where were you yesterday?" or "Where's your next destination?" Oh well, one thing is for sure, I'll never get to experience this once I head back home.

Somehow for the past few days I've been feeling a little homesick and for the record, I think I'm dreaming almost every night or at least I know i'm thinking of something in my sleep ;S

I'm gonna miss wearing my Russian Hat

Note to self: Think less, sleep and exercise more, getting fat :(

Perfect Timing

I ended my two week job as a 'tour guide' to my parents bringing them around Scandinavian cities, Central Europe and a typical Baltic county. Like mum said travelling is all about timing and we are really blessed to have such great timings and friends;

1) On the first day, their baggage got delayed which clearly frees the burden of lugging it around Helsinki and Suomenlinna Island.

2) Our backs did not touch the floor as my friends offered extra mattress

3) We did have to stick to a bread and potato diet with the help of my friend's rice cooker. My mum behaves strangely when she doesn't eat rice for more than 3 consecutive meals

4) Managed to 'kop' an extra bus card left by my ex-roomie

5) Welcomed by Frankfurt with a 10 minute dash to catch the bus to Heidelberg

6) Met a local Latvian on the flight to tell us tips on places to eat/go without getting slaughtered

7) Bumped into an Indian who was wearing a T-shirt that mum was looking to buy for my little brother

8) Stayed with a German who reminded me on the importance of mastering multiple languages; for in my case, buck up my embarrassing Mandarin xD

9) Snowed heavily on the final day of their two week holiday.

I can't ask for a better break with them. In fact it's the longest I've spent with them since my university days.

Lazy and relaxing days in Tampere

ps: forgive my bad colour codings (:

Exercise Regime in Finland

Here's short clip for a quick warm up in Finland before a golf game in Malaysia (:

The day the Chuah's invade Finland

I'm really glad and blessed to have my parents visit me while I'm in Europe. Their presence really makes a difference although I have to literally revisit all the places I've been already. I can still remember the first day when I stepped out of the airplane and saw snow for the first time in my life. Today, I managed to capture that moment on my mum's face. I could sense her excitement, snapping every image of the white surrounding whereas my dad was busy asking all about the lifestyle in Finland (:

For once we were thankful that their luggage got delayed. It was definitely a blessing in disguise as we were planning to tour Helsinki before heading to my place. Imagine we had to lug two big luggages in the cold around city centre. We even had our luggage delivered right to my door step in Tampere (2.5 hours from Helsinki). I guess no matter how much a person plans in life, God still has the final call for everything.

Suomenlinna Island, World Heritage Centre with the half frozen Baltic Sea

Bye Bye Winter?

For the first time in my life I walked out early for my core papers. The difference is I'm in TUT and and NTU! I'm not going to brag but I still can't believe that the exams were a little to easy from what i expected. What puzzles me more is that some students were struggling to figure out the questions.

On the side note, it's getting warmer here. I think it's the warmest (4 degrees) since I first came to Tampere. The pine trees are covered with snow anymore but the roads and buildings are. Puddles of water are starting to form from the melted snow. The thought of spring approaching excites me and I really want to experience the smell of green grass

growing again.

This weekend will be a different one for me. I'll be experiencing my first Finnish traditional cottage getaway. It is basically a cottage located far far far away from the urban area. It's just you,the green grass (in summer), lakes, no wild animals and nobody else. Perfect getaway from civilization (:

Snowflakes, this may be the last time I'll be seeing it in my life (: