Day 83 Slovakian dinner

Today, I was being invited to a delicious Slovakian dinner. It is interesting to note that almost every dish is made out of potato, I never knew one can make so many variations out of potatoes, seems like Chinese aren't the only ones that can make variations out of cheap food!

For starters, we have potato pancake, I think it's made by Lucas, hence, a Czech dish.
(Photo: the pancake tastes soft, floury and salty, very different from those pancakes we are accustomed to back in HK. There is garlic inside, so it smells and tastes quite nice!)

Then we have potatoes with sour lettuce and goat cheese/cream potatoes. (not pictured)

And a bit of Czech/ slovakian whiskey.


It was really fun, tasting different countries' cuisines, and just tasting the difference in cultures using my taste-buds. (Photo: Me and the rest of the professional tasters munching in the garlic pancake! I think I like that dish the best!)

I stayed there till 11-ish and went back to Ida to pack for Riga (okay, I lied, I didn't pack at night). I don't think I am bringing my laptop there, so unless they have some sort of Internet and computer in hostels, I won't be updating my blog that much. But stay tuned when I get back from Riga and Stockholm!

Day 82 Feeling a bit off lately...

I am back-blogging a bit lately, mostly because I am a little busy with my homework assignments and I have written tiny bits of my blog in pen in my notebook, and have no time to update (okok, I am totally making excuses), but seriously, I am typing like two to three entries in a day, and I am not keeping my promise of updating my blog everyday. OK, no more back-blogging, unless I have no Internet connection or whatsoever.

I have been feeling a bit off lately. It feels like something is poisoning me, maybe it is the water that I am drinking. They say you can drink tap water here, and I have been drinking out of my kitchen tap. It is probably not a good idea, because there are always a lot of garbage and dirty dishes lying around the kitchen.

(Photo: a snapshot of the kitchen sink. Please don't scream mum, I know I know, it is a bit messy, but please don't faint. My roommates and I try to keep it clean! Those dishes are just around for 2-3 weeks, kidding kidding.)

The dirty dishes are probably contaminating the tap water, but cut me some slack will you? I am a ahem... busy person, not much time cleaning and doing chores around the apartment.

The impurities in the tap water might be the cause of my recent migraines and weak stomach. ARGH. hate that. I am now seriously thinking of buying bottled water.

Wooohooo! I am excited, 1-1/2-day more, and I am off to Riga!

Day 81 My Easter plans

My easter holiday starts this Thursday! WOOOOHOOOO! and I have already planned a few places to go, namely Riga and Stockholm.

I am leaving on Wednesday at 3:20 pm from Helsinki Vantaa Airport to Riga. I am feeling pretty excited! Because I heard that Riga is an inexpensive place, I am planning to eat until I cannot eat anymore and do sightseeing there. For those who are not familiar with the Baltic regions, Riga is the capital of Latvia, and is the third largest capital in the Baltic States. The almighty wikipedia says that there are a lot of historical sites there, really really excited now! I would love to see old and stylish architectures!

I think Latvia is one of those countries where if I don't go now, I might never have the chance of going, probably because this is not like a common/ popular place to visit. I would really regard this as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

I am going to stay in Riga for a couple of days and then leave on Saturday, 3rd April, to Stockholm by Ryanair. Quite frankly, I am not too excited about Stockholm, because it is quite a standard modern European country, I would think it is much like Helsinki. So, not too much expectation there. I will have to wait and see if it is like any other European countries.

Well, got to do all my homework assignments before I go off!

By the way, I think my blog entries are getting boring, mostly because I am not traveling in March, and not much to talk about, only daily updates on how I am, boring. I am so glad that I am finally going somewhere, and quite happy that this uneventful month is slowly gone!

Day 80 Easter is coming!

Europeans and probably some other cultures go wild in Easter! For me (and probably most of the people back home), Easter means holiday, which also means that I get a rest from work and school, probably your friends from UK, US and elsewhere return to HK for their breaks and you get to hang with them, and you can plan your little Thailand getaway.

But here in Helsinki, people do take Easter seriously. For starters, they actually have Easter eggs. And I'm not talking about those kinder-chocolate tin-foil wrapped egg shaped chocolate, I am talking about Chocolate eggs, with real egg shells, but chocolate inside. I would imagine there is a professional egg sucker in the factory taking all the liquid egg white and yolk out of the shell, I would recommend that person to check his cholesterol...

In my Finnish class, my teacher also said that in Easter here, there will be children running around and blessing you on the street by hitting you with a twig 3 to 4 times. Quite unbelievable, but it seems true.

Oh and what's really wonderful is, Easter also calls for some high-calorie pastries. Apparently in the past, Finnish people go on a fast for a month or so before Easter, and so, during Easter, they need to eat high-calorie pastries to re-nourish themselves. Nowadays, the fast is gone, but the pastries, haha, still there! Quite amazing really.

Okay, time for me to experience some real Easter!

Day 79 Feeling trapped?

Feeling trapped lately? Well, ask this little guy here.



This fly, which I call Steve, has been stuck inside my double glazed window for quite some time now. Now you might wonder, how did Steve get in there? I have no idea myself, but I suppose there is a hole in my double glazed window and Steve flew right into it. I really want to free Steve, but I don't know how to. The mechanism in my double glazed window is quite complicated and requires a screw-driver to open, so I better not touch it.

Considering that flies have a mean lifespan of 25 days, Steve has now wasted almost 1/5 of its time in my window, just climbing the blinds and occasionally looking at me, begging for food or begging for me to set him free.

I hope Steve finds his way out!

Day 78 MW Petroleum corp case

I am currently doing another case for my risk and derivatives class, and I find it fascinating using different kinds of methods to evaluate a project.

The case I am doing is a Harvard Business Case on MW Petroleum corporation. In a nutshell, it is about Amoco trying to sell its subsidiary MW petroleum to another company called Apache, they are natural resources companies so to value the acquisition price, I need to use real options approach to value each reserve that has the option to be delayed.

To a certain extent, I think that I learnt a lot from this case. Reason is that this is one of those cases which you are not required to bullshit strategies for the corresponding companies, i.e. no Michael Porter's 5 forces or anything like that. This is solid calculations and some assumptions, it is also one of the cases which I have to use all of the extra info, i.e. balance sheet, income statements, in the appendices.

One thing I find about this school is, what you learn in class is not what is expected of you in exercise sets and sometimes, you have to learn ahead of yourself to finish the assignments before they properly teach you. I guess that's because it is a Master's course and they don't baby-feed you anymore. I quite like this approach because sometimes you learn more and you read the extra stuff. And then, when they actually teach you in class, you are only revising and eliminating the extras that you learn, and you get the big picture.

I am quite surprised that I am actually learning here. I thought, before I go for exchange, that I wouldn't do much studying here, and I would just "hea" my way through. But the courses are really interesting here that you cannot "resist" to learn ... oh gosh, I sound like a nerd ...

Day 77 Still bright here!

7 pm here, and the sky is still bright!

(Photo; This is a photo taken at around 7 pm at night. I was so surprised to see that the sky is still bright!)

Summer is coming! yes, I can feel it! Summer is coming!

Came across this hilarious video.


hahhaaaa, EPIC FAIL. I hope he's only sleeping, and not dead or otherwise.

Day 76 Kahvi, Finnish word for Coffee

Guess which country consume the most amount of coffee? USA? France? Italy? ALL WRONG! As it turns out, the Fins consume the most amount of coffee in the world! No wonder I learnt the world "Kahvi" (meaning coffee in Finnish) in my first Finnish language class!

Quite shocking really, I have always thought that the Americans are the largest coffee consumer in the world, hence, the chainstore Starbucks, but nope, Americans can't top the Fins.

So what is the daily drinking schedule like for the Fins you ask? According to my Finnish teacher, the Fins would wake up with a coffee, go to work, and have a coffee break or two. Then lunch accompanied by a coffee. Most people would then also get coffee after work, with colleagues. Then after or during dinner, coffee again.

The coffee here, according to my professional coffee taste-buds, is quite weak, no wonder they can drink up to 6 cups a day. And there are a lot of conversation starters related to coffee, according to my Finnish teacher, "Kahvi?" (might mean, consuming coffee, but other meanings, might include, I want to speak to you about something).

One speculation on why the Fins binge on their coffee is that, during the winter time, it is dark, from early to night, so people gets sleepy and they drink coffee to brighten up. And one thing I notice, practically no one sleeps on public transportation, I think the coffee is working for them!



According to my teacher, the most famous brand here is Presidentii. I think I will bring home some!

Day 75 Sami musicians

Today at Finnish language and culture class, we were introduced to the Sami people.

The Sami people are quite mysterious actually, no one can really say for sure where they originate from. My teacher actually said that it was believed that the Sami people has some Asian genes in them. They have lived in the Northernmost Swedish region (really chilly there) for almost 7000 years. They are nomadic and follow reindeer up into the mountains and live with these animals together in the summer months. But from what I heard from class, the Sami people now is divided between Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.

What's interesting about the Sami people, is that their music is actually quite easy on the ears! It greatly resembles Mongolian songs and those nomadic songs. The music is, I would describe, quite raw, and most of the songs describe the nature, how wonderful it is, and how we should protect it.

There is this Sami musician that I quite like, called Mari Boine. She has been quite active since the 80s, but is still popular among the Fins. She mixes the traditional sounds of Sami into modern Techno.



The song praises the nature and warns people not to destroy it. Above is the music video of "Gula Gula".
Lyrics translation: Gula Gula (Hear the Voices of the Foremothers)

Hear the voices of the foremothers
Hear
They ask you why you let the earth become polluted
Poisoned
Exhausted
They remind you where you come from
Do you hear?
Again they want to remind you
That the earth is our mother
If we take her life
We die with her

Day 74 Someone pour Slushie all over Helsinki

One thing about living through the transition period of winter and summer here in Helsinki is, everyday you have to be mentally prepared that you will slip and fall on the melting ice and snow on the streets.

3 months here and I have slipped and fell more times on the street than I ever do in 1 year back in Hong Kong. On average, the magnitude of slipping and falling is moderate, meaning, not everyday do I have my rear-end on the ground, but almost everyday I have to pull myself up from the ground using my palms. One possible reason is that I have to walk on a slope everyday to go from my apartment to the bus-stop, and they don't clear the ice/snow often in the small alleyway near my building (since it is not like the main road).

Especially now it is the snow-melting period, it's like someone pour Slushie all over the streets of Helsinki.



The roads are a bit hard to walk on, not only do you need to skip through puddles, you also need to maintain your balance when walking on the dangerously slippery ice/snow. But I am mentally prepared for this, well, not really, I just assume that I will fall.

Day 73 At Crush

After Yang's birthday dinner at Pasilla, I was a bit tired and planned to go home to do my assignments. But it was Friday night, and I didn't want to appear like an anti-social nerd, plus Yang's friends are interesting, so I decided that I would go for drinks with them.

We went to this place called Crush, it is essentially a cocktail and lounge bar. Funny thing is, the music is ridiculously loud for a lounge bar, it's almost like they want everyone to get off their feet and dance; but everyone there was just sitting down, sipping drinks and talking (or more like shouting).

The thing about loud music and talking is, even if you ask the person you are shouting to to repeat what he/she shouted, you wouldn't hear it, so whenever we don't understand, we smiled and nodded. but it was fun!

(Photo: The bar itself is quite nice, just the music is too loud to sit down and chat.)

(Photo: I think the drink Katja is holding is something called "longari" or "longara", not sure of the name. I had the same drink, and it's quite tasty!)
[Correction, it is called "Lonkero", thanks Katja!]

(Photo: Nancy and Miriam, shouting across the room so I can hear what they were saying. oh and I learnt how to speak "no" in Australian, "no" is prounced as "naeiooooo", you have to run through all the vowels to say it.)

(Photo: with the birthday girl! we look so good in yellow!)

Day 72 Finally ... hotpot in Helsinki

Today I was invited to Yang's birthday dinner, and we had hotpot, or known as steamboat in some East Asian countries. Ahhh... finally, HOTPOT! oh man, I missed it so much.

For those who are not familiar with this, hotpot is arguably the most popular thing in Hong Kong. As the almighty know-it-all wikipedia puts it, hotpot was "invented" more than 1000 years ago by Mongolians. During that time, Mongolian warriors were fighting wars and the easiest way to cook food was to boil some soup in their warrior helmets and put food inside the boiling stew until cooked (ew... imagine putting the helmet on again, their hair would smell like food.) And that's how the story goes...

Yang got a really nice soup base for the hotpot, and it was called the "Mongolian pastures" (no idea why it was called that) and it was extremely spicy! Andy sweated so much that he nearly had to take off his shirt when eating! (Photo: Andy eating! it was soo spicy but soo good!)

(Photo: that's the hotpot. see all the orange-ish red colour of the soup? that's all the spices!)

(Photo: We were so full after the meal!

But the eating didn't stop there! Later on, Dong and Andy planned a surprise for Yang! After the dinner, I was instructed to force Yang to stay in her room to see the photos taken in Turku while Dong and Andy lighted the candles and pulled out a birthday cake. Then, when Andy phoned me that everything was ready, I was instructed to guide Yang out of her room into the dinning area.

(Photo: The cake was made by Andy and Dong, and assisted by me. It was a "sponge" cake with cream on top and a cute teddy bear drawn with dark chocolate!)

(Photo: Yang cutting the cake. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I wish all your birthday wishes come true!)

We then met up with some of Yang's friends and went for drinks! I will blog about that in the next entry, stay tunned!

Day 71 1 Euro Champagne & the Mayan prophecy

Today at around 4 pm, just as I thought I was going to spend the entire late afternoon and evening revising, I bumped into Ronald, Barbora and Martin at the main building, and we decided to go to the oh-so-popular-among-exchange-students place called Baker's where they serve 1 Euro per glass of champagne.

I was a little doubtful of the kind of champagne they serve (I mean, they might as well put ethanol in carbonated syrup water and call it champagne), but as it turns out, it wasn't crappy at all!

Seats were nice, although you would have to go there early (at around 5 pm), get your drinks as soon as possible (because it only lasts till 7 pm and there is a long queue). Level of noise is moderate, you don't need to yell or anything to a person's ear only 1 cm away from your mouth. But that place can get Lan-Kwai-Fong crowded very soon, because there isn't a lot of place where they serve 1 Euro per glass of champagne.

(Photo: the bar.)





We were drinking and talking, and the topic of the Mayan prophecy came up. According to Ronald, the Mayan's 2012 prophecy says that the world is going to end on December 21, 2010, and several other civilization, such as the Egyptians, support this theory. Quite frankly, I am a bit worried about this. And I was even more worried when Barbora told me she and Vladko have already made plans to "welcome" that day.

Okay, so my plans are to go back to Hong Kong and build a basement made of atomic-bomb-indestructible metallic walls and start collecting some animals to bring into my basement and of course, a year's worth of food and drinks, some music and download all TV dramas there ever exist in the world (I will get bored when everyone's gone).

Day 70 Vitasoy! 維他奶!

There are quite a lot of things I miss about home, my family, my (imaginary) cat, my (imaginary) dog, my (imaginary) friends, dim sum, HKUST cafe food (ahemm....), cha siu, rice (cooked in a rice cooker) and one of them is Vitasoy, also known as 維他奶. For those who are not familiar with this product, Vitasoy, also known as 維他奶, is a brand of soymilk and has been around in Hong Kong for decades. We basically grew up with it. You see kids drinking them, you see teenagers drinking them, you see adults drinking them, you see elderlies drinking them.

I have been craving for Vitasoy since the beginning of February, to the point where, I made a promise to myself that I will drink Vitasoy instead of eating or drinking anything when I go back to Hong Kong. Yep, it's that serious. Well, I mean, I have tried looking for those soymilk products in grocery stores, but one thing I learn about buying soy products (soymilk and tofu) here is, you have got to trust Asian brands for it. They taste so much better!

Back to the Vitasoy topic, so today I got a lovely surprise from Boon Sun and Vivien, who came back from London yesterday night. Guess what? they got me Vitasoy!!!

(Photo: Boon Sun with the liquid gold.)



So I have now 6 Vitasoys to last till the end of May. I better make a schedule of when I should take a sip of Vitasoy so they would last!

Day 69 A right decision made

Today I was supposed to go on a Fazer Chocolate Factory tour with KY, but seeing that if I go on this tour I would have to miss my risk and derivatives class (and the prof for this class is quite good), I decided that I wouldn't skive and attended the lecture instead of going on the chocolate factory tour. I know I know, nerds will always be nerds ...

But I heard from Barbora (who had visited) that the chocolate factory tour wasn't really good anyways. No oompa loompas roaming the place, no chocolate rivers and chocolate grass around, and by the time you munch on your 2nd free chocolate bar they distribute there, you feel sick. So, I save calories and become more intelligent by attending the lecture instead.

As it turns out, today's lecture was really important and really worth going, I made a right decision of attending the lecture! Now I know how to price options, replicate portfolios and do dynamic hedging! Woohooooo !!!

Talking about courses here, I found that I have a lot more assignments and readings to do than the courses back at home. Right from the beginning of the semester, I found myself constantly doing assignments, writing papers and doing readings, instead of studying, say, for mid-terms. Workload here is actually heavier than at home!

Assignment due tomorrow. There are only 5 questions in the assignment, but with a lot of a, b, c, and ds ... that's how they trick you into thinking it is an easy assignment!

Day 68 A portrait of me

Today I got a lovely surprise in class! Barbora brought me a drawing... of ME, my very own Tanya Tse portrait drawing. And the artist who drew the portrait, you ask? It is Vladiko!

Ahoy Vladiko! Thank you so much! Hope you are having fun back home in Slovakia, I am sure you are doing something cool! And sorry I couldn't sit still for that portrait at the dinner, I was too busy laughing my head off at the jokes!

(Photo: Barbora holding the portrait.)

(Photo: The artist, Vladiko! You draw so well! But you know, admit it, you are my secret admirer (wink wink), you have millions and millions of drawings of me in your sketchbook, and Barbora just showed me one of them. ARR. Stalker alert! But don't worry, except writing on this blog, I didn't tell anyone.)

I met Barbora's friends from Slovakia. They gave me that famous European cheek greeting gesture. Interesting interesting. I looked it up in the internet, and the website which is always right and knows absolutely everything in this universe, i.e. Wikipedia, says "Cheek kissing is a ritual or social gesture to indicate friendship, perform a greeting, to confer congratulations, to comfort someone, or to show respect. Common in Southern, Central, Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Latin America). I hoped I wasn't acting awkward or shocked or anything in front of them!

Day 67 Hungarian dinner + Polish pudding!

Today, I was invited to a European dinner night! I think my taste buds experienced first time some authentic Hungarian dish! It was interesting and delicious!

(Photo: I don't really know the Hungarian name, but what you see is delicious and moist pancakes wrapped with meat, with sour cream and herbs topping the masterpiece!)

(Photo: The Polish pudding! Delicious! And they eat it when it is warm!)

(Photo: The birthday boy, Happy Birthday!)

(Photo: Edit the cook! And the rest of us, Professional tasters!)

It was a very lovely meal! thank you so much for inviting me!

On a serious topic, I think I have pushed someone's limits today. I mean, for that person to say such things, I think I know the kind of emotional state she is in. And I was quite shocked at myself as well, I was literally paralyzed when I read what she wrote me, completely paralyzed, my mind was racing but thinking nothing.

My theory is, you have to get something out of every situation in life, good or bad or worse. So, I would not say it was not a learning experience for the both of us, but it certainly "opened" some doors that lead to the real world. I do wish her all the best but at the same time, I want to say, welcome to the real world, my friend.

Day 66 Introducing my newest 160 GB HD

Ever since my trip to London, I have been increasing paranoid about my computer not turning on again. If you have not guessed already, my computer refused to operate on the second day of my trip and I freaked out, big time (i.e. screaming on the top of my lungs so the entire London could hear me, grabbing and pulling my hair out and having that "why didn't I" moments, why didn't I back my computer up??)

So I went on, using other people's (Delphine's) computer to search on the world wide web how my computer could be fixed, and they listed out all these only-computer-geeks-will-know methods, which I decided that I should probably leave it to the professionals.

On the third day, I decided that I would give my computer another go by turning it on again, and the most miraculous thing happened, my computer worked! (I give thanks to the lucky shampoo that I used that day, the lucky penny I picked up that night, and okay fine, I thank God, Wong Tai Sin, the Buddha and some other idols, it must be their collective power that helped my computer heal!)

From then on, I have tried to back everything up with my 4.0GB USB, but since I have so much stuff in my computer, 4.0GB is not enough. So today, I went out to the Stockmann department store, and got myself a 160GB external hard-drive. Problem solved! But still, I could not use the Time Machine (a software that backs everything up), because there is simply not enough space.

(Photo: Presenting, my SAMSUNG S1 Mini external hard-disk)

And this baby costs 85.9 Euros. I know I know, I said in my last entry that I will not spend too much. Bu this is necessary expenses! you know how they say, "save for the rainy days", this is one of the rainy days!

Day 65 Doing my expenses

I had a drawer in my desk where I put all my receipts inside. It has been piling up with receipts starting from January and I didn't have a chance of recording them in a file. I have been procrastinating with this process because I am a little scared of opening the drawer and pulling out all the receipts and discovering that I had spent huge amount of money. I know, I know, it doesn't really make any sense, but it is always nice to suspect something (i.e. I suspect that I have spent quite a lot of money), than to actually know if it is true (i.e. I have really spent a lot of money).

My parents have been urging me to take a look at the expenses, mostly because the credit card company sent them my bill, and they want to know if I have really spent that much of money. So today, I opened that drawer, and pulled out all the receipts that I have skillfully stored (out of my sight). It was scary. It is like finding out how much you score in your exam, finding out how much you weight. It was time to face the reality.

(Photo: what you see here in just part of it.)

Well, looks like I am a spender. But I assure you mum, I spent what I need to spend to get the most of this exchange, so it is worth it!

Day 64 How to do case studies right?

Business cases, ah, business cases ... After all those intensive Harvard business case studies that I had in last two semesters (no kidding, 1 case analysis write-up per week and sometimes more), I still cannot say for certain that I know how to do them right.

The thing about case studies is, they are case studies. No two case are the same, and there is not just one but multiple evaluation methods that you can use. There is always one main point about a case that once you found it and you crack it, then you solve everything. But there are also little details in the case that gives you hints that some solutions will work, and some methods won't.

Also one thing about evaluating a case is, it is so much different from the theories that we learnt. Sure you know the financial ratios, you memorize the formula, but the problem is, you have to make assumptions, evaluate these assumptions, and then find the correct data, or the most logical ones, and plug them into those formulas.

I am currently doing a case study for my Advanced Corporate Finance course about the comic company, Marvel. Marvel was in financial distress in the 90s and had to file for chapter 11 and later on a restructuring plan was proposed. This Advanced Corporate Finance course is my 3rd Finance course I have ever taken in my life and to be frank, I am struggling a bit with the income statements and the balance sheets. The thing is, I cannot properly link my "limited" financial knowledge to evaluating Marvel, and I am not sure which ratios I am supposed to do so I can properly evaluate the restructuring plan.

I am quite disappointed at myself, really, because I thought I won't have much problems after all those case studies that I did in the past. But still, I am glad that they use business cases here because I think it will make me learn. Plus the Professor knows what he is doing so I am looking forward to some high quality case analysis tomorrow!

Day 63 Not another cliche post ...

I suppose the most cliche thing to do on a birthday is to make a wish of all the things you want to have, list out all your goals you want to achieve and make a deathly vow that you are going to dramatically change your daily habbits or something like that for the rest of your life.

But based on past experiences, I have come to a realization that most of the times, these promises fall short and a week later you will find people saying how they cannot meet their goals or their promises to oneself. And they become severely disappointed at themselves, wished that they didn't make that deathly vow and worried about their safety because of that vow.

So instead of making a list of things that I want to achieve or making empty promises to myself, I thought I would list out all the things that I am happy about and grateful for, and see what experiences in 2009 that I can take to 2010.

So here it goes.

I think I am happy and grateful for a lot of things. I am happy that the days in Helsinki are getting brighter and brighter each day. I am happy that the snow is melting and spring is coming. I am happy that I am out of Hong Kong, exploring the world and experiencing other cultures. I am happy that each day here I started with a smile on my face. I am happy that I am out of HKUST, away from everything related to that school. I am happy that I am in Helsinki School of economics and not in anywhere else in the world. I am happy that this school has such high-quality Finance professors and decent Finance courses. I am happy that I am actually learning in classes and happily revising. I am happy that I meet so many interesting and different people here and get to know what they were doing before, that really inspires me a lot. I am happy that I am in the program that I am in back in HKUST so that I have this chance of going on exchange. I am happy that my 20years in this world has gone by quite fine. Although there were some unhappy and confusing moments, I went on with it, and did not take any shit from anyone.

I am grateful for my parents financing me in this exchange and fully supporting me in any other ways. I am grateful that my parents are understanding and I can confide my doubts and fear to them. I am grateful that my sister is who she is, and not anyone else (not that I don't want a puppy in exchange for her disappearance, muahahahaaha). I am grateful that my family in Hong Kong are missing me, and me them as well.

2009 did not start well, it had its usual ups and downs on the way, but I think it ended in high note. I think 2009 was also a year which I made a lot of discoveries about my personalities and thought a lot about what I really want to do in life.

So what I want to say to my 21st year here on earth is. BRING IT ON! I am ready for any of the challenges it is going to throw me!

Day 62 The best day ever!

My 21st birthday is a day which I don't think I will ever forget in my life! It was really really amazing!

The day started at around 9 am, which I woke up and was panicking a little because I am getting one year older, and I don't feel like getting older at all. As I was starting to get a bit nervous about my age, I checked my e-mail and found an e-mail titled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" from my parents. Then I got a phone call from them wishing me a very happy birthday. This cheered me up a lot and after a quick shower, I headed out for school.

The weather today was amazing! The sky was so bright and blue, and there were sunlight everywhere! (Photo: Isn't this just the prettiest weather you could ever experience? It was so warm under the sun that I actually felt like taking off my jackets!)

To celebrate my birthday, I decided that I should throw a Japanese taemaki sushi dinner party, where everyone would try making hand-rolled sushi! So after my derivatives class, Andy, Vivien and I decided that we would go to the Asian market in Hakaniemi to buy materials for the sushi, some soba noodles and some other materials for the dinner party tonight.

We got soo many things! I initially thought it would be a bit difficult to buy raw fish for the sushi, plus I don't know if the raw fish will be clean or what, I don't want to risk a massive food poisoning. But we went to the fresh market near the Asian market, and there was this fish stall selling raw fish for consumption! I don't know if it is actually Japanese style, but still, we got some sashimi (raw fish!).

Then from about 4pm onwards, we started preparing food. (Photo: Vivien helping me prepare the food! And Andy too for accompanying me to the Asian market to get all the materials! Thank you so much!)

Preparing food for 13 people was quite tough. The whole time I was so stressed that there will not be enough food and people would not like the food etc etc. But I have to say, it turned out quite fine!

The dinner party started at around 7-ish. We sat up a long bench for something like a buffet table, and everyone just surrounded the bench, made their temaki sushi and ate!

Thank you you guys! I had great fun today!


I think the best part of it was, people from different countries sang me different language of birthday songs! There were Hungarian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, French, English, Slovakian and Czech !!!

Thank you also for all the birthday cakes!! Too bad we can't finish all of them! I still have 2 of them in the fridge! (Photo: Cake from roomie Sharon, Adeline, Barbora and Vladimir! They were DELICIOUS! I wish I wasn't full so I can eat more of them!)

Thank you so much for coming guys! I had a great time !!!



=)

Dat 61 The first and the last

Today is the first day of the second half of the spring semester here in Helsinki and the last day of me still being under the legal drinking age in the United States.

Going onto the second half of the spring semester, the classes that I am taking are quite interesting. I had my first Corporate Risk Management class at 4pm, and in the first lecture, we have the Head of Research of Nordea Bank to lecture us about financial risk. Despite the fact that he didn't really capture the class's attention during the lecture (Andy fell asleep!), I think he is quite passionate about teaching, he said that it was his 4th time guest-lecturing this course and he had 5 years of teaching experience before he joined the Bank.

In a way, I am quite happy that we have such high quality professionals to teach us, but then I would much rather have a more animated and interesting lecturer. Oh, and he is coming back to guest-lecture us one more time this week. Hm, must drink more coffee then.

Finnish class today was so and so. Nothing special, except that Maria and Christina were both present in class and we listened to student presentations on Finnish winter war and Finnish holidays.

So after the classes, we decided that we should go and meet at the m-bar for drinks. I love talking to you guys! I had really a great time today!

(Photo: Vladimir and Barbora!)



Excited about tomorrow!

Day 60 Another nice dinner!

I cannot believe I have been here for 60 days already. Time flies. I remember when I was writing my first blog entry, labeling it Day 1, I said to myself, it will take forever to get to day 50! And now today it is day 60! Time really flies!

I am also quite proud of myself for building this blog, for writing in this blog for 60 days, never stopping. Some of my friends ask how I did it, how do I have the time to do it, how much effort I put in it. The truth is, when you write a piece each day, it is quite easy. It is not like you are writing a thousand word essay each day, it is just writing what you want to write, what you feel, what you see. And I treat it as a must-do thing everyday, like washing up, brushing your teeth and showering.

OKOK, enough talk about my blog. Today was Andy's and Barbora's birthday! Andy was kind enough to invite the bunch of us to his place for a delicious Chinese meal! The food was super delicious! There were fish in spicy soup, brocoli and chicken, eggplant and pork, beef brisket with potatoes and carrots, some seafood and nicely steamed rice! I love it sooo much!

The only thing about that night was, I forgot to bring my memory card to the dinner! I brought my camera but didn't bring the memory card because I was uploading photos before going and completely forgot to put it back in. ARGH.

Photos later then, maybe I will still some from Barbora's cool camera! +.+

Day 59 1 CSI DVD + 1 Big Mac Meal = 5.75 Euros?

Today I passed by one of Helsinki's Mickey D's branches and found that they are doing this promotion on their big mac meal. According to their promotion, when you buy a big mac meal, if you pay one more Euro, you get a CSI DVD!

Wow... this is so tempting! I mean, 1 Euro is roughly about 11 HKD, so 11 HKD for a legit copy of a CSI episode? tempting tempting. But the thing is, I always watch those episodes free on youku.com or tudou.com and I never really think I need to buy them. And if I want to own them, I can simply .. er hem.. use "other means" to get them.

Plus, you will also be forced to eat the unhealthiest food there ever exist in this world. Nah. not really worth it.

Well, today, I had dinner at Vivien's and Boon Sun's place! The meal was really really nice! Great food, great company, great jokes (love the Singaporean Coke joke!), great desserts, really good fun!

(Photo: Thanks for the meal! You guys cook really really well!)