Day 142 More sightseeing in Bratislava!

Today was an extremely pretty day in Bratislava, the sky was blue, sun was shining as brightly as it should...

Barbora decided that we should pay a visit to the castle in the suburban area in Bratislava.

(Photo: We were so lucky that Barbora was driving us to the castle, or else, we would need to take the bus and everything, which will probably take an hour to get there.)

(Photo: The castle from down the hill.)

(Photo: Across the water is Austria! Bratislava and Austria are really close!)

(Photo: And of course, I couldn't hide my excitement.)

(Photo: Then Barbora took me to the city centre. This is taken from the tower high up.)

(Photo: Juraj brought along his skateboard, but he was too tired to skate, so Vladiko showed me some tricks! I was a bit worried because he was wearing sandals.)

(Photo: Our dinner with the Sedova family. Thai curry and Kung pao.)

After the dinner we were extremely exhausted, but Barbora persuaded me to "grab a beer" in the city centre and go back and sleep. Turned out, we didn't just "grab a beer"!





I met up with Barbora and Vladiko's friends, they are all very cool! It is such a pity that it was my last night there and couldn't talk more.



We crashed at Becky's place after the drinks, because we were all too tired to go back to Barbora's home and Becky's place is really near the city.

Day 140 Bratislava, finally!

I have been extremely interested in the country of Slovakia and in the city of Bratislava, ever since I befriended Barbora.

So after much anticipation, I am finally here in Bratislava, Slovakia!

Early in the morning, we took CD, the Sedova"s family dog for a walk near the woods.

(Photo: We were walking and CD was playing in the mud.)

Then we had a really good home-cooked lunch of pasta with mushroom white sauce!


After the meal, we went for some sightseeing in the city.

(Photo: The famous communist bridge.)

(Photo: The castle.)

(Photo: At the parliament.)

(Photo: Some cool graphics on the wall.)

Then Barbora and Big V took me to the Slovak pub for a Slovakian dinner.

(Photo: Garlic soup.)

(Photo: Fried cheese.)

(Photo: Then we met up with Barbora"s friends in one of their hangout places! It was very near the market square.)

Day 126 The farewell party

A farewell party was organized, for all the exchange students to say goodbye to each other (some left early though), and to collect the exchange students spring 2010 yearbook.



(Photo: Me and the rest of the HK-ers! And yep, we are part of dear old China!)

As usual, alcohol was provided, and the party took place in the KY building. A usual party spot for any KY organized events.

I think there was an election in the party, voting, who is the cutest couple, the playboy etc etc... didn't stay long though because we went to something much more exciting!!!

Day 116 Vappu celebration continued!

And of course, Vappu isn't Vappu without the drinking.

(Photo: At a bar near Jenny Woo, forgot the name of this place! Barbora and I looked so cool when we arrived with our paper sausage glasses, it simply wowed everyone.)

(Photo: oh man, I am going to miss you soooo much when this exchange ends...)

(Photo: with Nancy and Mia! Nancy left Helsinki to another exchange in Italy, and on the way to Italy, she went to France! how cool is that! Mia's cute little white hat is worn on this day, apparently, you can't just buy it on the street, they give it to you when you graduate high school here. What a cool tradition!)

When it was around 11pm, the bartender told us that we had to hang our coats for 2.5 Euros, because the bar is turning into a night club and it is a Finnish law that night clubs must "force" their customers to hang the coats. hm.. Strange... since no one wants to spend 2.5 Euros, we went into another bar.

(Photo: The problem with this bar was, no overalls allowed! And Mia had to hide her overalls! This place has really nice music! They had California dreamin on!)

(Photo: And finally, it was time to say goodbye ... to Nancy! All the best Nancy! Hope we bump into each other in the future!)

(Photo: This photo reminds me of Tsim Sha Tsui! I have never seen so many people here!)

Day 19 Finnish class & "mbar"

I was told that Finnish people pride themselves in being punctual, but same couldn't apply to my Finnish teacher in Finnish Language and Culture class. Class was supposed to end at 7.45 pm, but she went on and on and on and on and on until it was almost 8 pm and the class was extremely exhausted.

So what did we learn in this Finnish class? well, today we covered some Finnish names and numbers. She went on for about 60 mins about Finnish names, and made the entire class spell Finnish names. After this class, we pretty much know her family background and history, as she used his family members' names to illustrate the pronunciation of Finnish names.

To sum up: His son Mikka Knuuttila went on exchange in the United Kingdom, and there he saw the famous Finnish soccer player called Sami Hyypia, "Hyypia" is not pronounced as "Hipia" but as "Hupia". Mikka said the entire standium pronounced Sami Hyypia's name wrong. Interestingly, "Knuuttila" is not her husband's name, but her ex-husband's name, she was divorced and vowed to hold on to her maiden last name, so today she is known as Merja Hietaharju-tuuri, Hietaharju is her maiden last name, and Tuuri is her now-husband's last name.

After the class, Barbora and I went for a drink in at an interesting and sheek bar near the Central Railway Station, it is called the "mbar". (photo: I like the atmosphere of this place, it is so nicely lighted and the picture hangings are nice.)

(photo: I wish in Hong Kong I have time to chill and relax in places like this!)

Day 9 One of the best parties: Sitsi party!

We experienced a very traditional Nordic party, called the Sitsi party. Basically everyone sits at the table, eat, drink, laugh, talk, sing, drink, sing some more and drink (oh did I say drink already? sorry, yes, Finnish people drink A LOT.)

So that is what we did. We sat together in long tables, there was a toastmaster, basically like a MC (master of concert), telling people stuff to do, e.g. sing drinking songs, or kippins (cheers in Finnish). I heard from the party that this is the only Sitsi party that is opened to the exchange students, normally these parties only includes KY subs (my school's student union) and other local students, but not exchange students.

Well, one thing I did not mention, there is a DRESS CODE for this. We are all dressed in dollar-green overalls. From what I heard, overalls are like, well, if you want to put it this way, like tracksuits for different schools, each school must have a different colour of overalls. And Helsinki School of Economics has it dollar-green. You can decorate your overalls whatever you like, e.g. sew badges onto it, and in order to get the badges, you need to join in events.

(photo: well, this is me, in my dollar-green overalls, this overall costs like 22 Euros, but I think it is really worth it, because it is unique here!)

(photo: this is us, sitting on long tables, ready for the party!)

(photo: Since exchange students were there, different nationalities had to perform something. I was a little upset when they call China, and not Hong Kong. humph... I guess we are part of China, but still, would be nice if someone calls us Hong Kong! Anyways, those nationalities stand up on their chairs and perform! Well, guess what we performed? yup that's right, "Under the Lion Rock!")

I am heading to Estonia this weekend, so I might have to blog this Sunday. Please don't miss me that much.

Day 5 Helsinki Designer District

Today was the first day of school. Didn't quite expect myself to learn a lot from the exchange, but still want to get something academic out of this. I went to class, but discovered that the class was cancelled for the first day, so I didn't need to attend the class at all this week! well, more sight-seeing for me then!

After class at around 3 pm, we went to the Designer District in Helsinki. It is really nice. Some of the shops were slightly more expensive than others though, but we thought we would look around first, and decide what we want to get later on, because we have 5 months here. So no hurry at all!




(photos: stores of the designer district.)


(photo: It was really cold outside, so we went to our favourite place in the designer district, a bar which has a nicely decorated interior. I had a warm wine, it tastes really good!)

Tomorrow we are going to the flea market! SO EXCITING!!!

Day 3 The city that never sleeps

I was taking the bus at 1:30 am in the morning back to our dormitory, when I realized that the city centre Kamppi is still very much alive. We all say that Hong Kong is a city that never sleeps, well, it is not alone, Kamppi Helsinki never sleeps as well. At 1 am, the bus was almost full, we passed by clubs/ pubs/ bars, which were loaded with people inside. And for some reason, with the chilly wind and unpleasant weather environment, I felt safe (or maybe it's just because I was traveling with someone else back to the dormitory).

Today the tutors took the exchange groups to city centre, and had a really exciting sight-seeing tour. The program started at 2: 30 pm, but I went to the city centre alone 2 hours early to get the general sense of direction of the city centre, Kamppi. I was fiddling with the map, and struggling to find the way, when a man approached me, with a "GUIDE" badge on his chest. He was a guide for tourists. He was extremely kind, showed me the best pharmacy, the stationary shop, the place to get sim cards, where to shop, the bank, the post-office, and basically the general sense of direction. I was so grateful!


(photo: Seriously? this strange religion, being banished from China, promotes their religious beliefs in Helsinki. I think it is ridiculous.)


(photo: although we don't get much sunlight here, everyday is guaranteed blue skies, and when it is morning at around 9 am and 3 pm, the sky is especially pretty, blue with a redish/ purple-ish shade highlighting. So pretty!)


(photo: this is how many exchange students we have!)


(photo: I carry the survival guide everyday. Why? for survival. but I think I left it somewhere today. ARGH.)


(photo: Barbora. A lomo-photographer!)


(photo: at the Olema Club.)

Day 2 In search of a universal adapter

I felt so incapacitated and a little depression/ anxious when I discovered last night that the plugs in Helsinki has 2 round-legs instead 2 rectangular-legs. The only converter I have brought was the Hong Kong tripod to 2-rectangular-leg adapter. Damn it, the entire night, with jet-lag, waking up at 12:00 am in the morning, I decided that today, no matter what, I will get a converter.

So after the orientation lecture and some introduction, my tutor Henri and I both embarked the journey of finding an adapter. It was a little later than 4 pm, but the sky was dark like 8 pm at night in Hong Kong. And the icy and chilly wind just went seeps through my jacket, then my fleece, onto my bare skin and into my bones. We went to one department store, and found that it does not sell these kind of adapter, only sells those that goes the other way (2 round leg to tripod). So again, out in the cold, we went to Stockmann, the largest department store in Helsinki, and finally, we found a universal adapter. which costs [see photo below]:




(photo: 24.90 EUROS, that is like HKD 250! =.=!!! this is so expensive!)

But then the orientation day was pretty fun, except that I was crazy jet-lagging, and wanted to fall asleep all the time! We first met at around 10 am and was given lectures about the exchange situations of Helsinki, then they introduced us to their campus, which consists of 3 buildings (and I suspect 3 buildings only), they are the main building (yellowish building with weird drawings on the outer walls), the red building (Arcadia), and the white building (Cheynedia). the White building is where all the finance classes will be held and the dinning area, so I suspect that I will be going there a lot! Although they have shown us around, I don't think I remember a lot of them :( argh, why didn't I take pictures so I can remember them?




(photos: on my way to school, it took a really long time to wait for the bus ... and an even longer time on the bus, the view, however, was spectacular, seeing the sunrise on my way to school)


(photo: Me inside the HSE computer lab, their computer labs are so nice! It's not like HKUST's computer slums that can stuff half the school in there, but really nicely designed, wide-screened monitor computers on glass tables, together with wooden office chairs! I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of my studying time there! LOVE IT SO MUCH!)


(photo: Map of Helsinki, given by the school)


(photo: the orientation continues at 7 pm, the KY student union went on talking about their plans for exchange students)


(photo: On my way back to Ida 1C, it is so freakishly far, damn it)


(photo: A doggie on the bus!)