In preparation for leaving Sweden, my friends insisted that we should party our butt off. Here are some pictures in our last parties. The nicest part about these parties is that I got to see all my friends whom I’ve met a while back, but never really see them around in town. Otherwise, it’s all typical party scene, people trying to get drunk and falling all over the place. It’s entertaining to watch them, until they pour beer on you, or fall on you, then that’s not so cool…

Goodbye Sweden, I’ll miss you!!!

Anyhoo, here is where I will be for the next 2 months:

Nov 10-15: Stockholm, Helsinki with Mint, Maha, and a gang of people
Dec 7-12: Berlin, Hamburg with Mint and Maha
Dec 19-26 Prague, Rome, (London) with Dawn and Roger
Dec 28-Jan 13 London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Nuremburg (wahhh…=( no Cairo) with David !!!! =)

To save money for my trip to Prague and Rome, I’m flying from Rome to London, then London to Sweden on my return flight (instead of flying directly from Rome to Sweden). Because of the transfer, I would have to stay at London Stansted from 11pm to 7am. Yes, that means I will be sleeping at the airport.

For now, I’m pretty down with it, but I’m sure when the time comes, I’ll be thinking that this is the worst idea ever. Most interestingly, I’m flying from London to Sweden on Dec 27, pick up my stuff from Lund, then fly back to London on Dec 28 to meet up with David. Flying out and in of London within 28 hrs might seem like it’s a waste of time, but:

1) I booked my flight from Sweden to London long before I knew about this trip to Prague and Rome
2) doesn’t make sense for me to carry about 100 lbs of luggages while I’m traveling
3) tickets are booked already, not a very good reason, actually, not a reason at all, oh well =)

Even I have studied so much, the exam for Corporate Governance was still pretty difficult. There is much reliance on self-study in Sweden, which raises my appreciation to all the hard works my Berkeley professors have done to a historic high. I’m not joking but, would someone please kindly enlighten me, that what is the point of self-studying in an university, when you can self-study at home? Forgive my ignorance, but the only difference I’m detecting between reading books at home and reading books that your professors told you to read is the piece of certificate I get upon graduation. Shouldn’t the professors take on an active role in the student’s learning, or they are just there for their research or other self-interest? The following is pure complaints, readers beware. Actually, what I said before were also complaints as well, reader beware.

Even if I didn’t procrastinate, there was simply an overwhelming amount of information we needed to know/memorize. I don’t know how the Swedes do it, or maybe they just don’t care and fail their classes???!!! I’m loving Sweden, loving the people I meet here, but no offence, the university simply sucks (subjective) or is not my style (objective). It’s probably the only thing I detest the most, and would make me want to come back to the States sooner, besides David =).

Meaning of procrastination in Berkeley: hang out in the library, eat some chips, and review your notes.
Meaning of procrastination in Lund: GODDAMNIT WHY IS THERE SO MUCH READINGS?

The ride to Denmark took about 1.5 hrs, and we first arrived at the ARKEN Museum of Modern Art. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the art works in the museum, so I took a picture of the bathroom. The sink in the middle of the bathroom weights about 2 tons, and looked like it was made out of marble. We had a guided tour to the exhibition of Chagall’s work (Chagall’s World of Love), then we had about 45 mins to wonder around the museum. Afterwards, we went to the city center and had a fabulous vegetarian lunch.

After overfeeding ourselves at the lunch buffet, we visited the Rosenborg Castle. The castle is located in the heart of the city, surrounded by a garden/park that is still green at this time of the year. Inside the castles were paintings, furniture, and other usual items you can expect from a castle. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take pictures when I was inside the castle because 1) I had to buy a camera permit, and 2) I would have bought the permit, but I was with a large crowd of people. Being pretty much the shortest person the crowd didn’t really give me any chance of taking any good shots, so I gave up. To make up for the losses, I took many pictures (many of them repeat each other) of the castle from the outside instead.

Afterwards, we had about 1.5 hrs to explore the city. We went up to a tower in town, and got some really good views of the city of Copenhagen. I saw a horse carriage while I was eating icecream.

Indeed, I was very much intoxicated that night, and it was not cool. Searching through my barely exiting memories pertaining to that so called party, I think it involved a lot of Vodka, Absinthe, chips, people speaking in Swedish, me sitting down on the floor, me somehow ended up in my bed, then my friend Helle saying something to me.

Those Swedes with their alcohol!!! =)

To conclude the evening, Harp, Mint and I watched Crash together. It was pretty good.

On Sunday, we were invited to Maha (from Jordon)’s place to have a traditional arabic meal. We weren’t too involved with the cooking process, but the consuming part instead. For dinner, we had a normal salad, rice with lots of nuts (almont, chickpea, etc…) and spices, and baked chicken with lots of spices as well. Don’t bother asking me what kind of spices they put in, I just know it was very yummy.