home, but sometimes still away lah.

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hrmm, self-explanatory. haha. go kua kua there too if you getting sick of all this delayed action retro-posting here lah.

madrid, spain (aka where we spent a night on a rock) // early early 26th june 2007.

we missed the train to valencia. thus we spent a night on a strategically located rock somewhere between the prado and another big building not too far from the train station. oke maybe the rock was more of a granite pedestal yet unoccupied by a monument or statue. but in any case, for this mostly sleepless and particularly memorable night on a rock, we blame and thank mango sales, ourselves, and the super strict madrid train station. we arrived 15 minutes before departure time but they functioned like an airport with security check gantries and gate closing times and so we could see our train but we were not allowed to board it. haha it was a long night with accounting, paranoiding, postcardwriting, randomdancing, feelingcoldandhungry, fightingtokeepeyesopenandhandsonallbags, and wahlaoinghaha, but thank God we survived.

madrid, spain // 24th to 26th june 2007.

hun mentioned again today the giant half of a watermelon that we ate with two tiny red gelato spoons somewhere in italy and that reminded me that a retropost on this blog was really overdue. so here i am picking and posting again.










we nearly fainted from the scorching heat after we landed in madrid but we managed to make it to our first hostal, hostal miguel angel, albeit the major lack of lights going up the pitch dark stairs with our backpacks and two other girls lugging suitcases. we walked a fair bit despite barely sleeping that first day but madrid was actually nicer than expected (based on friends' reviews). we ate at a local bar-cafe thing standing up at the bar with all the power grandmas and some uncles and aunties and the occasional gentle grandpa, saw a museum and walked around a heckload and sat in plaza mayor. after talking to an elderly indian man we met at the hostal on the first night we discovered many other places we could go to on the second day and even did some strategic bus hopping after killing our feet walking everywhere the first day. because of what he told us, we got to check out the real madrid football stadium, jumped madly to grab on to sculptured bulls outside a bullfighting stadium, found some interesting architecture, ventured into a semi atas neighbourhood, found a patch of park-fountain-monument where there were actually more locals than tourists, and even dipped our feet in pools amidst trimmed hedge mazes in royal gardens and of course met many power grandmas along the way.

sheep and bear adventures : brussels-leuven, belgium // 23rd to early 24th june 2007.

in brussels we met up with zhijun who was then doing a one month stint in a supermarket outside of brussels and he brought us around and occasionally carried our bag(s) too. we did the necessary brussels then headed to leuven, a sort of university town away from brussels and it was quite a nice place. there was a street festival going on (seems like this was the start of many coincidental street parades/festivals/parties we would unexpectedly run into later during our great trip).

i remember staring at this little girl on her father's shoulders while we were in a crowd that was watching abit-too-young-for-their-moves(but who's to say nowadays right..) dancers on stage. even when i first started shooting some years ago, i had always been fascinated by people's backs and what that revealed or concealed about them if you'd look closely enough. sure, a head-on face shot of someone may be punchier or be much more direct sometimes but from time to time, or maybe alot of the time, i still like to keep looking on even when people turn away.

solo sheep sojourns : eindhoven, delft, amsterdam, den haag // 19th june 2007 to 23rd june 2007.

i left london on a surprisingly sunny afternoon and landed in a freshly rained on eindhoven in the evening. it was still sunny though and i quite enjoyed walking around despite having heard about it being a rather industrial little town. there i stayed a night at president's place before taking the train to hun's place in delft the next day.





hun the brownbear was amidst rushing for a submission when i arrived so after a quick but wonderful bike tour of delft in the evening i was pretty much free to and very much encouraged to make my own daytrips to amsterdam and den haag (the hague) in the next few days before we left delft together for our sheep and bear adventures.





amsterdam was confronting. shops and signs and people everywhere - you really don't know where to look and where to go. the weather left me drenched to the core too so that didn't help. i did make it to the van gogh museum on foot though and i really enjoyed it.

i didn't have much time in den haag so i pretty much just walked down the main street while nursing a major and chronic craving for soto ayam....and then i found soto ayam! i was really happy and even had chendol after that too. haha. little joys.





delft actually also reminded of lund quite a bit (except it had alot of canals), so it was heartwarming though a little heartachey too.

solo sheep sojourns : london // 12th june 2007 >> 19th june 2007.

i left lund to travel on 12th june. my first stop was london for a one week transition between the lundlife and the summer backpacking trip. many of my friends and some of my family work/live/play/study in london so it felt like a good place for a relaxed extended stopover before i met up with the brownbear in delft for our sheep and bear adventures in europe (mostly in the countries along the mediterranean)...





in that one week in london i stayed with maner, aida, olivia and met james and barbara (cousin and his wife) for lunch too.

and so, i was always living at friends' places (thanks thanks thanks you all!!) and went out with them sometimes but i spent a fair bit of time walking all over on my own too which was lonely at times yet mostly rather rejuvenating too. spent alot of time in museums, parks, flea markets and maybe a little too much time in the underground. felt like a worm after all that tube-taking from the first few days so i made it a point to walk more instead of taking the tube in the last few days.

home and away.

yesterday president asked me what i missed most about lund and what was my most precious possession from lund..

i told her that at that moment of asking, i was really missing the running places behind sparta. strangely, i hardly took any pictures of it. the neighbourhood behind sparta was where i went walking and running, sometimes with friends and sometimes on my own. it was where i went to get away when the going away got too rough. it was where i could see the horizon when i ran, literally had more space to breathe(and this translates almost directly into emotional space) and felt safe even though it was hardly a familiar place. i guess it was a really open hiding place.

as for my most precious possession from lund, it's hard to say... things don't make sense without the memories and people they are linked with. i treasure the little gifts i got from friends there, memories of many meals shared, crazy self-invented trips, pictures i made throughout the six months on my own and with friends, and i still wear the bracelet that the girls in class got me at the end of the mad and wonderful semester i had together with them.

in other news, i went jogging with my brother at east coast park the other day, it had been a long time since we went on a jog together. after our run, we both felt like eating something, and it funnily turned out to be the same thing! sotongheads on a stick from old chang kee! (i still don't get why they call that bit of the sotong the head, aren't those tentacles legs??) and then i finally had bubble tea (honey ice blend!).

oddly enough, all my food cravings kinda dissolved when i got back to singapore, maybe cos i know that i can now eat the food anytime. but all the same, i was glad to finally have teochew muay with the eastern muay gang after so super long! the food is one thing, but the makan togetherness that is the essence of teochew muay was more the main thing lah. but i was also very happy to eat chai poh neng, fresh sotong, chai buay, and kiam neng again!! oh forgot to order fishcake!! haha nevermind, next round! soon!

hrmm, some of us are still on europe time in all senses of it, a little living in the six hours behind past and all but i guess we will adjust back to life here soon enough. i don't think i will be writing here much anymore, except maybe for lund related stuff. and to post up shots from the great backpacking trip with hun!

as for the friends i made on exchange that are all over the world now.. i know some of you want to know how i'm doing in singapore and all....so sorry that i won't be blogging much but do contact me on facebook or via email to counter the timezone barrier and stay in touch!!

the flown away days and the liao shang walk back.

alot was in my head as i went on my final walk. some words and images probably fell off my thought train along the way but here is what is left of it...

i spent the last few hours of sunlight in lund on my own walking from sparta back to marona's place. i had taken the bus to sparta feeling quite lost. i just recalled that i had wanted to take a few of those cute egg paper bags and also buy a few more little swedish picture books from ica-tuna, the supermarket that fed me for half a year.

as i walked i remembered paul saying that his last two stopover days in lund would probably be terrible cos he would literally see shadows of all of us, the people he had spent his time in lund with, everywhere in this street and corner with no one familiar around. i thought that was quite drama, but wah, tis true siah.

as i walked i was flooded with moving images of all the people - passerbys, friends, family and everyone in between - with whom i had walked, biked, driven, stumbled, laughed, ran, jogged, skipped and passed through these streets with.

as i walked i was thankful. for everyone and everything i have been blessed with in lund. days are impossible to re-live. we can only fondly remember and keep in touch.

leaving home was not easy. but going home hasn't been easy too.

home is where the heart is lah, but your heart fixed one meh? here, there and everywhere.

and so, this is goodbye to the goingawaydays. as for the people, we shall meet again someday! let's hope the world is as small as we all say it is. although i know i'm also the one who said the world is small but still not small enough sometimes.. ah well.

take care, be well, God bless and see you all here, there and everywhere.

posting back in time part two >>> 11th june 2007.

last big breakfast + last sunset. see you again in about a month dear lund! it is my last night in london now, will be off to see the president (of tpgg) soon tomorrow evening in eindhoven!

posting back in time part one >>> 6th june 2007.

my healthy family flying above lund on a wonderful little hill.

and....happy father's day papa!!

far, and a little away again. // 14th june 2007

heyos.

i am now in maner's apartment in london. wanted to post up pictures from the final days in lund with the family and friends but haven't had the time or state of mind. will do that later on maybe at olivia's or hun's.

the first day in london after leaving lund was kinda hard, it was only a 1.5hour flight yet it felt like i had gone so far away from it. i missed the place, the people, but these you can still revisit and reunite with. it is that certain time in your life when all these places and people came together quite magically, that certain time that you miss intensely and will still miss from time to time in the future because you will never relive them again. so how leh? be glad that you were blessed with those places and people during that certain time and treasure those
great memories lah.

otherwise i am quite enjoying london so far, especially the afternoon rambles into museums and random streets that i have been doing on my own the past two days.

and there are really alot of singaporeans in london it seems. i can hear them everywhere haha.

sommarhus // 1st to 3rd june 2007

last weekend we were at johan's family's summer house somewhere in blekinge, above skane. no drinks, no laptop, no traffic, just alot of trees, assorted nature sounds, five portions of great company, four rare cocoa bean cards, three floating flowers, two beautiful lakes and one fish. goodstuff. i quite miss it already, unexpectedly.

the last party with the classmates at OG's last week was also quite heartwrenching! and thanks for the dear bracelet. will wear it almost everywhere i go!

the family is here with me now and i just cooked the usual sesame oil chicken and chinese veg dish for them...looking through the abandoned food cupboards for cooking stuff made me suddenly emotional. arhhh. i never knew onions could make me tear without even having to chop them first!! onions kept so carefully in an airtight container somemore!! haii.. i miss the midnight bakery..

but i will be oke.. i will survive the final days in lund!!

last picnic // 1st june 2007

last picnic with the classmates at the city park. happy belated birthday anna!

"where are u sheep??" answer part three - Stockholming // 28th to 30th may 2007

flying hun in skansen..

we were in stockholm for two days and the weather was wonky but the food was great. haha kudus hostel is the best siah!! looks like exchange has turned even a big guy like kudus into a proper market auntie haha cook and watch soap opera... oke oke but we were really thankful for him being a good host! on the last night in stockholm we met more nice people...first a lady from the presbyran (a convenience store) near kudus' home drove us all the way to central station at 1am in the morning because the metro had stop running and we had to catch the first train. the central station was still closed so we wondered and wandered around in the rainy cold for a while then finally went inside a 24 hour apoteket and the lady was nice enough to let us sit there quietly too as long as we didn't lie down and sleep heh. and so we survived! the parents and brother were in stockholm at the same time as us but time was too tight to meet up but no worries, just 5 days more before the chialets reunite in Lund!!

"where are u sheep??" answer part two - Saving Private Paul aka Rebel Tiger // 26th to 27th may 2007

hun the brownbear arrived to visit and we headed out to a cottage stay with other brave souls : paul "rebel tiger" ho, john, yvonna, weizhi, kellie, hanway and yang. i guess we all agreed that it was more a cottage madness adventure than a cottage stay... braved rain and muddy slopes and lighthouses that refuse to be found and bikes that are good only for one person and had one heck of a time in kullaberg and molle and later on in helsingborg too at the mysterious tree tunnel, favourite hangout spot of the rebel tiger..

saving private paul... the journey to molle from the cottage was madness enough already but the journey back was almost impossible cos we were all super tired and tompanging (ferrying) someone else on your bike is really much tougher than it looks. me and paul kept falling quite badly into the grass at the sides.. really shang hen lei lei ( injuries all over) mans....so in the end paul decided i should ride ahead first on my own, also so that i can pass the rest the key he was carrying. haha rather dramatically his bike helmet was in the basket so really macham saving private ryan.... when i reached the rest after at least 20 minutes of riding, we decided we must go back to get him and so off we went, me and john with paul's helmet still dramatically sitting in my bike basket haha.

and thus, we saved our dear private paul aka Rebel Tigerrrrr!! haha.

it was a real blessing in disguise (despite all the giant bruises and scratches) cos the light was really wonderful on the way back and we got to see that bit of the country just a wee bit more.

"where are u sheep??" answer part one - Family O4 exhibition // 23rd may 2007

this was really wenxin (heartwarming). as i walked around the exhibition space curated by Therese as her industrial design project for this semester, i confirmed for the nth time that i am really going to miss this place. it has become my 3rd home and my dear IKDC classmates - my 4th family.

but my 1st family is on the way to see me, 5 days more!

the re-realisation that people are leaving or have left lund is slowly but surely getting to me too.. trying my best to keep my spirits up and believe that the world is really getting smaller so it's not totally impossible to meet up again but perhaps it is still not small enough. hai. :/

norwaynutshelling // 16th to 20th may 2007

and so we went, there and back again. tried out many modes of road, river and rail transport, tested out the ergonomics of the oslo train station tiles, ate weird fish balls in a can, saw man u lose to chelsea (simultaneously across oceans with my brother) while wondering what happened to prince william, tried some really tasty wild smoked salmon, saw little houses on a hill, climbed down that hill, and shunbian saw a heckload of stunning fjords along the way. beautiful and expensive norway.....haha i think once is all we can afford for now.

much work to do now. not many days left in lund too. :/

peiting arrives // 11th-14th + skånetripping // 13th may 2007.

wah i think i haven't been so tired after a submission, usually i would hibernate for a few days after but this time round, i immediately had someone visiting after the submission on the 10th so it was mad fun but super tiring days right after submission! 累 beyond belief sometimes until surreal siah. ( lei - tired ).

we did the around the sound pass thing on saturday and then went skåne tripping on sunday. extreme tiring but memorably enjoyable stuff.


sun screen printing


the tripping route as illustrated by johan the mostoftheway driver. haha eh i drove a wee bit too oke!

a fairly accurate jog through my (design) journey.

we had final presentation for the main studio project today and i had been going through quite a rough time before it, hadn't been sleeping much the nights before and totally didn't sleep last night. usual stuff actually for ID. and throughout all that i kept wondering to myself if i can really handle this sort of crazy lifestyle for my whole life if i am going to become a designer. it is really madness.

i was totally shakey and sleepy and wonky when i biked to school this morning having not slept at all....hardly knew what i was doing when i reached school. thankfully i was third in line to present and the presentation was received surprisingly well. the night before i had been worried and feeling really insecure and dissatisfied with this and that, and thinking how i could have done it all better if i had just managed my time better. then suddenly after i finished presenting and got the feedback and comments, all the pain and trauma from the past few nights and weeks and months just suddenly melted away and i totally felt like design was worth all the pain and madness again. this is like some version of the post childbirth pseudo amnesia i remember mrs ban telling us about in secondary school. it is how you forget all the pain and trauma of childbirth the moment you see your baby.. and then go ahead and have another kid! [haha i should check with june since stan and june are parents twice over now! so fast! heh congrats again and thank God!!]

anyways and then i wondered if i would experience the same dissolving away of all the tiredness and madness of the past days if i had gotten less than positive comments... not really sure, i definitely have had crits where my concepts were less well-received. but i think even during those crits you still experience this same release and rejuvenation to find the energy to be able carry on in this not so smooth path, through watching other people's presentations and being inspired and spurred on by them as well. listening to all the comments and feedback also really helps put a broader perspective on concepts and designs and where those could take us.

oke lah, not gonna quit this journey anytime soon yet. still quite inexplicably and almost inextricably addicted.

.
.
.
.
.
. . . . . haha so addicted that someone even had to buy new underwear today cos they ran out of clean underwear cos they were too busy doing this design project to do laundry!! haha that is dedication man...

valborg // 30th april 2007

valborg! or the day everyone went to the park... it celebrates the official start of spring and in the day pretty much everyone or at least almost all the students are picnicking in the park, with a bonfire in the evening and then funfairs and parties at night.

i'm not really sure why but staring at the bonfire and the sparks fluttering all over, i thought of home, and then for a little while, relived the fireworks chasing nights.

höganäs playtime // 28th april 2007

haha even though there was almost nothing to see cos everything was closed and we couldn't meet up with the guide of the walking tour we were supposed to join, we had much fun and madness with our own imaginary tourist attractions, observed friendly pets who ate toy monkeys and did some indepth research into the playgrounds of höganäs..

it's truly the company that makes or breaks a trip and this was definitely one fun and mad trip!

milan milan // 16th to 24th april 2007

in milan we stayed on a farm
cows teenagechickens dogs horses
p l e n t y o f g r a s s
did us much good and no harm

breakfasts in the sun
swings in the wind
songs in the volvos
all add up to big fat fun!


oke enough random rhymes....

Milan was really quite an experience....roadtripping there and back, seeing so many different exhibitions, getting inspired by some, walking more than i have ever walked before in my life, living on a farm with crazy classmates and crazy teenagechickens and cute mushrooms, having an IDiots reunion many miles away from home, sitting on oldschool trams, and of course, eating a lot of affordable and super wonderful italian food!

i think we all missed home a wee bit more in milan cos we were doubly displaced, but then again it was also a much needed break from Lund too. i realised it was the first time i've been out of Sweden since arriving in January so it was a really fresh feeling, abit of a get away from the main get away.

far, and a little away... in milano!

i had initially wanted to blog about the week past, and try and sum up all the stuff that has been happening between the last post and today before i head off to milan..but i'm feeling a little frazzled so not quite in the blogging mood. i've realised a certain pattern to the way i blog.. usually it's on a sunday, or just before i go off for some trip....i open photoshop, look at pictures in my filebrowser and in some sense that is the visual summary of my week. some years (whoa!) ago, i watched the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind with two photographer good friends, and one of them commented after the movie that perhaps why i always take so many pictures of everything is because i am afraid i will forget everything again...some kind of fear after i once lost my short term memory for a day due to a concussion. i guess that might just be true..to some extent. so how i usually go about my blogging is that i come up with a visual summary of either events or feelings, find words to further express them then finally put them together into what you are reading now as a blog post on my yan-wei-is-oke blog.

so i promise to do more proper post-posts after i get back from milan! take care meanwhile, and see some of you all SUPER SOON!! TGMM! :]

Good Friday // 6th April 2007

Blessed Good Friday and Joyous Easter! we went for a walk to all the churches in and around central Lund on Good Friday and it was a great experience. and good to know that the true meaning of Good Friday and Easter is still remembered around these parts at least by some.

kristianstad + åhus // 2nd april 2007

feeling random and needing a fair bit of fresh air, me and Marta got up early today and headed out not quite knowing exactly where we would go today. we ended up at Kristianstad, a city about an hour by train from Lund. it was wonderful to walk by the river, relax, eat in the beaming sunshine and simply get away for a little while. after ambling about for part of the day we decided to head to Åhus, a 20 minute busride away from Kristianstad and check out the beach. it was quite perfect yet again! although alot of things were closed the sun, sand and sea in today's perfect weather was enough to occupy us completely. i finally got to step into the Baltic sea! it was super cold but yet there were kids jumping into the water in their bikinis and all... we were rather amazed...thought that we were pretty brave to walk in the water already but oh well! see more pictures from the trip on my flickr page.

i don't know how much we walked today but it sure was alot! an enjoyable tiring yet relaxing workout though. refreshing.

solomalmö // 31st march 2007

after the photoshow hopping in Lund, i quite spontaneously decided that night that i would go to Malmö the next day, a city 15mins away by train, to catch some more photoshows that were part of the photography month in Skåne. and so i bravely went! oke actually it's not that daunting lah, not that drastically different from travelling from Clementi to Orchard to catch photoshows.. but it was still quite exciting and liberating too!

i really enjoyed the shows in Malmö especially the doublebill at Fotografins Rum, Malmö Museer by Arno Rafael Minkkeinen and Susanna Hesselberg. and i also met a fellow solomalmötripper along the way so it was even more enjoyable after that! the shot above is my layer-on of one of Susanna Hesselberg's works.

perfekt day // 29th march 2007

after that rough night, i decided that i probably need make myself go out and do things that i normally do back home that i haven't been doing for almost 3 months.. and that worked super well!

i went walking about to see photography shows in town, sent my holga rolls for development, finally got a library card at the city library which turned out to be a really nice place, borrowed photobooks, bought small boxes (which i collect) as well as super cute little tomtes (what gnomes are called in Sweden). along the way i also chanced upon yeo hiap seng soya bean milk, muruku and umbrella jelly...little spots of home!

after that i was really tired but felt so much better and finally more emotionally acclimatised to life here. thank God! :]

far and nearly faraway.

i am in school right now as today is the Kickoff meeting for the Sony Ericsson project. this means that we have a sit down consultation with Claus and Charlotte our two tutors and really talk about the project, make sure everything is set straight, (or at least any broken bones are set properly in good casts) before we move ahead into the cadding and prototyping stage for the final presentation.

when i arrived extra early in school today, studio was almost deserted except for one person who is like the usual designated music player in our side of studio. i did a doubletake...it felt rather familiar. not unlike back home when we go to school on saturday sometimes and unexpectedly find some warmth in the little cluster of people there. well, you find home at the strangest moments sometimes.

it was actually a rather rough night for me last night but thanks to timely online prods and shake-ups from great friends i am blessed with, i made it through. special thanks to my journeymate man. it was exactly what i needed to hear. thank God for you!

oke lah, time to get ready for the Kickoff liaos. take care you all. for those i'll be seeing in Milan, can't wait!! be well meanwhile. :]

helsingborg>>>krapperup : går, walk, jalanjalan..

Marta invited me to join this walk tour thingy her mentor Yang told her about...so off we went at 8am with one hour's worth of sleep (at least on my part..) to Helsingborg by car before embarking on the walking tour to Krapperup with a group of friendly warm elderly swedes. I really enjoyed the 10km walking trip tour hike thing. saw the sea, took in the breeze, bathed in the sun, smiled much, walked lagi much, sat on the grass to eat, and even managed to talk extendedly in swedish to at least one of the ladies, Ann-marie, with her cool shades in the picture above..

i was super tired, but happy. more walk hike trip things like these to come i hope!!

you can check out more pictures from the day trip at my flickr page ...