I went to the Lutheran Cathedral (Tuomiokirkko) at the Senate Square (Senaatintori) today. Not much, just a nice big church perched on the top of a long flight of stairs. The interior was nice, architecture not as elaborate or detailed as many others I've seen. The very special thing about this church is the ginormous organ sitting above the pews. I took a better picture of this church a few days ago and it's somewhere in this blog.

People chilling on the steps.

This is the ginormous organ. Wonder how it sounds like.

This is where the pastor preaches.

The sky looked overcast so I took the metro to Itäkeskus, apparently the largest mall in the Nordic. But oh what disappointment. The shopping here never fails to disappoint.



Me being very bored.

I saw a boutique today with the labels Prada Gucci Chloe outside. I went in thinking I could shop for some nice bags.... And I'm gonna repeat whatever I've said many times before; what disappointment... The Prada collection was okay, plenty of stuff from F/W 2007. When I went over to look at Chloe.... Oh man... They only had 3 bags. How pathetic. I saw a Mulberry boutique, a boutique selling Chanel and YSL but the shelves were packed with the bags, like 10 Chanels crammed in a small space with the glass door preventing them from falling. As for YSL, they were barely visible in the tiny shop. Oy, I didn't even see the downtown or muse!

I am tres sad.

Still Here

Bryan and CheeAik playing with their ps2

Tesse, her husband and my uncle (the older uncle, i have 2 uncles living here)

I was so happy to see Jacky Wu on tv


Heres me enjoying the tv haha

I went around exploring on my own today, I feel much better walking around alone. I feel uncomfortable walking around with people I'm not too close with because we have different preferences and I dont wanna impose on them. Exploring alone also forces me to think more about the surroundings make decisions by myself.
I went to Temppeliaukio, the Stone Church. The exterior is made up of stones with just the dome of the 'building' visible. Lovely place but overcrowded with tourists. I was lucky, someone was playing the piano when I entered. Not a big place but so serene. The photos I took didn't do justice to the place so I decided to take a video.





Sitting at the pew

In one of the walkways in the church


Look at the green roof

Then I went to the National Museum, Kansanllismuseo. I looked it up in the map before I left for the Temppeliaukio and confidently decided that I WILL NOT wield a map in my hands while walking on the streets lest I look like a dorky tourist. But the streets are pretty easy to navigate anyway.

Outside the National Museum


How thrilled was I when I saw this. I devoted a semester in school learning about this haha. Yea dork...

This is how uncrowded the streets look like

Still in the museum

Hehe love this pic

Another pic of the street

One week here feels like FOREVER I swear I am going crazy. Thank God for the power of cellphones and international network hahaha. I will head to Sweden and Estonia in late August or early September. My cruise to Stockholm, Sweden is on the 1st of Sept, cool. But my teeny boopy cousin is tagging along.... So I guess I can't do much on the cruise, boooo... I read that the parties on the cruises are real haps :(
After visiting the church and museum, I went shopping! And.... didn't get anything! omg. This will not do. The shopping here..... sucks. I can cover all the shops in Helsinki, extensively, in just one day. Haven't seen a Dolce&Gabbana or a Miumiu or a Gucci boutique. Not even Ralph Lauren...... I saw Burberry, Escada, Hugo Boss, Versace Jeans, Armani Jeans in the bigger department stores but the choices are veryvery limited. Sigh......... Boringggg....................
One happy thing today though, I saw a cute chinese boy in one of the shopping centers haha. It's so hard to see a chinese here, lest a cute chinese boy.
Word of the day: lest

Garden Party

Just a mini bbq and crayfish session at Eric and Peter's place...

me and my cousin at the central train station

tong getting his bbq on

it is true that the finnish are reserved. or maybe they're just less receptive to asians. or lame tourists like me. whatevs

a very nice strawberry cake which peter made. hes the dude in red. he and a couple of others picked 30kg of strawberries from a nearby farm.

this girl has the hugest tummy i've ever seen on a kid

one of the rare pictures of myself

***

I can't wait to go to Sweden and Estonia.... I was telling my brother that I hope to see some soccer players here and he said I'm mad cos it's soccer season now and they're not hanging around anymore. And I would think that most of them are based in England. I thought about going to England and Spain and France but I don't think that there's enough time. So I guess that will have to wait till next year.

I think my cousin's hormones are taking over her, she's like "abc said that I'm so pretty", "Your friend is so cute", "Can I be his pen pal?" WTF??! Hahahaha I know this is quite mean but I really do need some place to bitch!

I had an amazing dream last night about an old flame. Not rated or anything, just very sweet. And he was driving the fairlady z! Haha! Nice combination made me happy for awhile although it was very bizarre.

I've been invited to another lunch\dinner tomorrow at Tesse's house. Will take more pictures.

Hmm.... After 3 odd days here, I think I'm done with the city center. Feels like Australia but twice as foreign cos most signs are in Finnish. Does not feel like the states AT ALL. Not many shops here and the boutiques carry the same designs as those in Sg. Boring... Ah, but I've got my eyes set on a Longchamp bag and a few pairs of shoes. Gonna get those in the last few weeks. Expenditure has been okay although I still have that crazy surge of adrenalin whenever I step into a shop. Dining out is okay too, if I feel poor I can always drop by my uncle's restaurant haha.


My worries about the fashion here were unnecessary, thank god. It's pretty warm too, so there's no need for sweaters or jackets yet. Summer wear, baby.


Will probably head to Sweden and Estonia.




me and my cousin enjoying some ice cream at the esplanad park


this picture is supposed to be funny cos water is spraying on my head

nice chips

just a few more pictures! no mood to type cuz i was eating a sandwich for lunch and instead of peeling the food into bite size like i usually do, i decided to bravely bite into it. and it being the first time ive bitten into food since ive got the braces, i feel intense pain whenever i drink cold water now. it sucks.

and this is me sitting by the window, duh. just wanted to show how bright the sky is even at 8.45pm. sun sets at bout 10

I survived 8 hours in the Amsterdam airport yo! I arrived here at bout 5pm yesterday, didn't do much, chilled at my uncle's restaurant and now I'm at the other uncle's house. Which is good

cos his children are really amusing. Alrights gotta go ciaoz

So many matters to attend to on the very last day! Sigh a couple of issues left. Guess they'll have to wait till I return.
And I'm still not feeling the excitement. Bleah.

Pre-Trip Rush

HOHO! From the day I bought my air tickets, I've been caught in a mad rush! From studying for the GRE to going back to school to kiss my professors' asses so that they would be nice and write nice things on my recommendation. I have also been busy packing, buying random stuffs to bring on the trip and spending time with some people so that I wouldn't miss them as much when I leave.

I know it's not a big deal, I'm going for only a month. But when you're alone in a foreign country, all you long for is the warmth and comfort of familiarity. I spent some time away before and after only 2-3 weeks I was *dying* to taste local food. Yeah, it was hard.

So anyways. I'm leaving on Tuesday, the 7th of August. Not feeling the excitement just yet. I remember a couple of years ago a few friends and I were just hanging out and we decided to go to HK for a holiday. We got our tickets and within a week, we flew over. I had an amazing time there and that it was executed on such short notice added to my happiness and sense of fulfillment. Uh back to my Scandinavian story. I don't mind long flights but devilishly long transit hours?! Wtf am I going to do for 7 hours?? Early in the morning?? My ETA at the Amsterdam airport is 0545. I will have to wait till 1330 before I can get on the flight to Helsinki. I can only hope that the Dutch are early risers.

I packed for cool weather and please, don't let the temperature fall below 12 deg C! I packed shorts and summer dresses and I do wanna be able to wear them! I'm still deciding on the number of pairs of shoes I should bring (3? 4? 5?) and whether or not a pair of heels is necessary (probably not).

I still have some very important errands to do before leaving, sigh. Okay, so as the title suggests, I will try to keep the contents as relevant as possible and I will dutifully update this with pictures when I get there. If you're looking to read about the scandals, I'm sorry bumblebee, you're on the wrong site. My other site is www.*********.com. Haha!

Ciao for now!