LUND! Really like the first impression of the city (though I arrived dark and foggy but the next morning showed a much nicer side of the city). It's kinda like a U-Town since 60% of the population are students and more than half the geographic space is devoted to Lund University. Did I mention that Singaporeans make up the 5th largest group of foreign student in the school? How often you get the little red dot as the majority...
Lund is more a town than a city but officially it's a "commune" (I have no idea what that means politically). Finished the main part of it the next morning before and after walking with Huiwen to the Economics campus where he headed for some 20-min discussion while I stayed in the library with nice books and Eduroam. This was ALMOST the place I would have studied in had Stockholm University not accepted me (but module mapping would suck if I were to come here... Met another economics student, Zac, here but the kind of modules he mapped kinda limit what he can do when we go back)
Met Hweeting (Zoey) and Yixi (Hannah) for fika in this nice (and cheap, relatively) cafè that Hweeting brought us to. Anyway, it was kinda confusing cos they didn't know each other's Chinese name when I asked whether they know each other by their Chinese names! So it took Hweeting one day to figure out I was talking bout Yixi to ask her out for lunch together. But well, she did and we had! Really nice when your friends made friends and you find nice fika company; so I brought them over to Huiwen's place for dinner! Chicken rice was SUPER awesome, especially with the new Vietnamese chilli I got Huiwen to buy.
Next morning was a lazy one, woke up late in the morning and went out for a walk on my own as Huiwen's already left for school. Honestly, I felt kinda lonely when I was wandering around getting lost; the usual company I had on the mini adventures into the unknown alleys was missing, and suddenly, I felt kinda insignificant. Kinda made me doubt whether I'll survive the solo trips I'm planning...
Stubborn me also refused to use my map so I went on to wander and get even more lost (going in circles kind of lost) when I'm supposed to meet Huiwen after his class. Knew he was nearby so I gave up and asked him to meet me where I stopped. Sat down and suddenly this two guys with pushcarts stopped by and I just waved them off without giving them a chance to speak as I assumed they were selling me stuff they were pushing around (just like what many in Singapore do and I just did what many Singaporeans are so used to doing) but nope; ICA was celebrating their anniversary and were giving out one free item. How nice! Guess I became more skeptical and less welcoming of kiasuism as I stayed longer in Singapore (mainstream aunties would have asked if they were giving out free stuff immediately upon approach, I guess... Later in Copenhagen will expose us to the european's version of kiasuism which I think is kinda similar to what we have back home... It's everywhere!). Lund kid came to the rescue and Stockholm kid brought Lund kid to a Lund cafe (yesterday's) and had kids meal, which was kinda like a regular meal in Singapore. Then off we go for a day trip out to Malmö!
MALMÖ. Quite small; not as nice but bigger and has a more cosmopolitan feel. Visited the usual city hall and stuff around the city centre then, guess what, Lidl! Grocery shopping everywhere, as usual. Went to some rundown castle/fort and saw the Turning Torso from afar. It's... just another OCBC tower to me; I think Sentosa has nicer buildings but like what Huiwen said, "it's a touris attraction cos it's in Scandinavia, where tall buildings are rare." So yeah... Went on to wander and chanced upon a botanic garden which was really nice; and the windmill that Kathy (the Hongkong girl in Malmö U) recommended was also here! Surreal place, and Huiwen took his Kannelbullar (Cinnamon bun) shot here cos it's National Cinnamon bun day... Naise.
Went back to Lund for dinner with Zoey, Hannah, and 3 other Singaporean guys (including the Econs guy), and also met some other Singaporeans along the way... Fifth largest yo.
