How I live: a photo essay.

I live at Biens Allè 9, 2300 København S.

This is my house.

The entrance is the little door you can barely make out at the end of the white wall.

The living room...

And from another angle.

The kitchen.

Since we're talking about the kitchen, here's a stir-fry I made. A fairly typical meal.

Moving upstairs, this is my room.

My table is as messy as ever...

As is the rest of my room.

I live with three cats. This is Filip.

Daisy's curled up against the heater for the turtles. You'll get to see them in a moment.

This is Panther, but everyone calls him Pansy. Look carefully - he's drinking from the tap.

These are the turtles. One of them is the Million-Dollar-Turtle: I'll tell the story another day. And for all you perverts out there, no, they are not trying to mate!

There's also a rabbit in the house which is 11 years old, and gets a room to itself. Truly a welfare state. However, since I don't have a photo of the rabbit, I'll show you my bicycle instead. Again, there's a story behind this set of wheels. It'll come next time.

I was going to upload pictures of my housemates as well, but I don't have a single decent photo of them. So, that will come next time too.

Living independently is a challenge, but has its rewards. It's an enlivening experience to have to cook your own food, do your own grocery shopping, do your laundry, clean up after yourself, and perform all the other assorted chores that form the bedrock of our daily lives. In a way, it gives me a fresh respect for career housewives (and househusbands, if there is such a word), as well as domestic helpers. It's not an easy job, even with washing machines and vacuum cleaners.

My life has changed in other ways too. I cycle everywhere now. It's a bit more than 5.5km to the University, but on average, I cycle at least 15km a day thanks to trips to others' houses and assorted errands. It wasn't so bad when I first started out, but the autumn temperatures and winds are starting to make it heavy going.

Still, it's an experience, and it saves me money - a monthly bus pass would cost me 420 DKK, or about SGD$126. That buys me enough groceries for almost 3 weeks. I'm pretty much getting used to cycling almost 10km in the rain back to my place at 1:30am, at a temperature of 12°C but with the strong winds making it even colder. I have to; winter approaches, and it's going to get worse.

So, for those still back home in Singapore - move to Copenhagen if you're complaining about the heat. You'll get more than you bargained for.

Things are good, but...

It's just the small niggly problems that you can never predict until you're facing them.

The problem with saving money on food by buying groceries in cheap family packs:
you end with too much of the same thing. I am SO SICK OF CARROTS. Bought like 1kg of carrots, and now I'm clearing them by throwing a carrot or two in every time I cook. And I still have tons of them left. Just great.

The problem with saving money on food by loading up at cheap buffets (yes, there's a certain theme to all this):
You look for the buffet which has the most value for money. You eat there three times a week. And then you get really sick of the food there. I'm not going back to Samos for a week or two - it's tremendously good value, but I'm tremendously tired of eating the same fricking things.

The problem with meeting new people from all over the world:
It can be a little hard to understand everyone, with all the different accents and intonations. And don't get me started on having to remember so many names. Still, this is the once aspect of life here that I'm not gonna whine about too much - it's actually sort of fun.

The problem with escaping the heat in Singapore:
It's fricking cold here. Like, it's supposed to be summer still, but it was HAILING a few mornings ago. And I'm getting rashes, due to the dry air. It's getting a little annoying.

The problem with living in a nice cosmopolitan city like København:
It comes at nice cosmopolitan city prices. SGD$15 for a meal out (and it's just fast food or something similar). SGD$3.50 to get on the fricking bus for just 5 minutes. SGD$30 for a week's worth of phone bills. You get the idea.

The problem with being in København:
I'm missing friends, family, and a certain dear girl in particular.

Don't get me wrong - it's all been pretty good so far. Things are as well as can be expected. It's just these things that are sorta bugging me. Oh, that, and the fact that the wireless doesn't really work, so I have to go to the study every time I want to use the Internet. But other than these things, everything's more or less hunky dory.

Till next time.

The touristy student thing.

I would blog more, but I'm too busy actually experiencing life here. And I'm suffering from Internet connection problems, and so I have a good excuse to get out of the house, instead of sitting in front of the computer the whole day.

Incidentally, my shaky Internet connection means that I won't be uploading any photos. Let's hope the problems are resolved soon, then.

Last Saturday, we went to Weihan's landlord's place, where we cooked curry. Obviously we didn't do it from scratch; we used one of those pre-mixed packets. Just add water and chicken and potatoes, and hey presto, curry. Dined with Christian, the landlord, and Jan, a Polish gentleman who's moving out today.

On Sunday, we had a dinner party of sorts at my house. We cooked curry. Again. Hey, we had to finish up the half-used packet! Joining us for dinner was Tove, my landlady, Martin, her brother, Louisa, Martin's girlfriend, and Yulin, my Taiwanese housemate.

On Monday, I spent the day doing administrative things, like applying for a bank account and all that jazz.

On Tuesday, Maurice came over from Aarhus. We walked around.

On Wednesday, we took city bicycles to the statute of the Little Mermaid. Our verdict? Entirely overrated. Checked out the International Students' Night at the Student House also; not a great success.

On Thursday, we cooked chicken rice for Anna, Christian's friend.

On Friday, Mau and I went to Tivoli Gardens to check out the place, and for a Danish rock concert in the evening. We went to the Carlsberg brewery first though. Walked around town pretty buzzed for the whole afternoon. Let's hope we don't make a habit out of this. Freaking cheap beer though - 25 DKK (about SGD$7-8) for 2 beers.

On Saturday, we had another dinner party with Yulin's friends. Got an invite to a party at the student's dorm not too far away after that, thanks to Eva, Yulin's friend. Decent music, cheap beer, friendly people. Some were a little too friendly, but let's just leave it at that.

Today, I woke up, did the laundry, cooked lunch, ate lunch, came up, and here I am.

The funny thing is, there's actually so much more I did, but I'm too tired to post it all up. These are just the highlights of each day. The hours we spent just wandering the city, the buffets we ate, the casual conversation just throughout the days... It's a memory I hope to hold onto for years to come.

School starts on Monday. Wish me luck.

The heart of Copenhagen.

Copenhagen's a beautiful place. When walking down the street, you can just feel the history emanating off the very cobblestones you're stepping on. The old buildings, the haphazard layout... There's a tangible link to the past. Just something in the air. It's so unlike Singapore, where everything is just steel and concrete and glass and sharp-edged and oh-so-new and modern...but lacking a soul.

This isn't the interior of a museum. This is the main foyer of the Law School, which dates back to 1475 A.D.. Roman influence, I'm told.

The exterior of the Law School, and a flea market in the courtyard.

We had lunch here - it's a little courtyard in the centre of the building. Apparently, all buildings have a little yard in the middle, for the purpose of barbeques and just sitting in the sun.

A not-very-good shot of the entrance to Christiania. It's a fascinating place, and unfortunately, I cannot be as comprehensive as its Wikipedia entry.

Christiania has declared itself part of the EU; hence the sign.

The interior of the Metro trains. Fully automated, they run through the night. Not to be confused with the S-train, which consists of overland trains on tracks.

So. I know this collection of photos doesn't really quite explain what exactly I've been doing with my time, but be patient with me. More will come soon.