busy busy busy

ok so i've been super duper busy for the past few days - i don't even remember when i made my last post but it probably wasn't that long ago? tuesday? or wedensday or something

but i feel like it's been FOREVER

ok so thursday was the aquarium and honestly, the exchange program is really disorganized and it's hard to meet new people since they didn't exactly force you into small groups to meet new people - you just sort of stuck together with the people you already knew

we got off the bus near town hall and they gave us an hour to walk around so we walked around the entire harbor after we ate lunch on the steps of town hall

anyways - all my pics from the aquarium are up on fb

i have a whole bunch of cool videos of animals though but too bad for you since i don't plan on uploading them =P

after the aquarium, we walked to The Rocks to The Argyle for happy hour but i didn't get anything

then we took the bus back to IH (international house) and ate dinner

then it was Pancakes on the Rocks! really good pancakes/crepes =) just in case you didn't see my picture on fb, i'm going to post my Devil's Delight pancake and crepes picture again
then yesterday was orientation again except it was cold and rainy - bleh

they told us 9:45 am but it started at like 10 something and it was FREEZING in the auditorium - crazy

and we sat there until 12:20ish and so we went back to IH to eat lunch and then it was back to the auditorium at 1:20 - then we sat there some more until 3

i went to the exchange office and successfully got into a new lecture time =) so it's not from 6-8 pm on tuesday now

and there was a free bbq! interesting since it's different than texas bbq - they had sausage and chicken that you could put in your bread - it was kinda weird cause the chicken looked like thai satay and then went to get insurance stuff done

then ate dinner and talked to peeps and took a shower and read and slept lol

there was a party yesterday night at Soho but i decided not to go cause i was really really tired lol

good news: my study abroad advisor sent an email to gigi (the lady who needs to approve of my economics course)...and i sent some emails to her too lol so she's basically getting bombarded by emails...BUT oh well at least i have a good chance of getting into the course now =)

and as promised, here's pics of my room

it's quite small and a little messy at the moment since they gave us SO MUCH papers/brochures/forms and stuff and i have no idea where to put themmy key! the little tofu was only like $1.75 cause it was on sale at that morning glory story =)there's masking tape cause the yarn started to fray lol

today i woke up - went to lunch and stayed and chatted with people and now i'm in my room with no plans except going to see hp tonight =) relax day yay

Food part 2

yay - you guessed it! more food - cause really, that's what i've been doing for the past two days - eating and more eating

beware: this is a freakishly long post - i am sorry if i lose your interest in the middle

ok so yesterday i went to the fish market

and saw lots of fish
and ate some pretty good food - the huge shrimp and the sashimi you see in the backgroundoh yea, and one of these =) you can ask them to cook one fresh for you so it was really really good! but i cut myself on the shell..they don't give you one of those crab claw openers (i forgot what they're called) - they just crush it and give it to you even if they didn't really open it for you really well
and so all these people saw me digging around in the crab claw with my bare hands - very messy and not a pretty sight, but you know i didn't really care cause it was really good

then we went to The Rocks - some area part of Sydney

and we visited Sticky - people are making little pieces of hard candythese green ones were for a wedding - they had like jean ♥ elizabeth on it

next stop - off to see the view
for mommy: auntie cat said we would eat here when you come cause apparently a lot of people go there and you need to make reservations
and then there's this amazing chocolate cafe - Guyliandidn't eat in there but auntie cat (family friend that i'm staying with) bought me one small cake
they're soo expensive o-o

i got this one and have yet to eat it cause i was too sleepy/full when i came back yesterday and i'm still insanely full from today - you'll see why later
but i do plan on eating it tonight - yes it's called 100% pure pleasure
i'll see if it lives up to it's name haha

here's some more cakes
so pretty!

ok next we walked into Chinatown and Darling Harbour

due there was this HUGE line waiting for these little emperor's puffs or something - idk whats so great about them
apparently they're pretty good but idk if it's really worth waiting in line for
you see all those people? they're all waiting in line for those little puffs

then we walked into the city and was going to eat some siu long bao (in case you don't know what it is) at this place, but it was closed =(
so we went somewhere else to eat some and i didn't take pictures cause i was too busy eating

Darling Harbour - well walking to the harbor

yay the harbor!
and the lindt store near there
walking into the cityand into Queen Victoria's Building (QVB) next where all the rich people shop
chocolate shop! didn't buy anything there but just oogled at the chocolate for a little while
it's really pretty inside!

ok i know this is stupid but i just had to take a picture of it after all these years of "what's your secret, victoria?"
see, there's some store other than victoria's secret!

then we went to passionflower for some tea
elderflower tea in a nice little tea set

and one of the aunties i was with told me scary stories in order to tell me to be careful - making me waay too paranoid o_o

ok i shall tell you some stories - maybe the scariest first cause she told it so well and it totally freaked me out (melinda, if you're reading this please do not read this paragraph or you'll likely get nightmares and blame me lol)

[start of paranoia stories]
ok so apparently this girl was walking back to her car after classes at night and then used the remote to unlock the car. she put her books up in the trunk and when she got into the driver's seat there was an old lady sitting next to her in the front and was like "oh, do you think you can give me a ride somewhere?"
and the smart girl was like "oh...ok well i'm a bad driver, so do you think you could get out of the car and help me see if there's enough room to get out?" and so old lady gets out of car and once the girl gets out of the parking spot, she drives away and goes to the police station to report it
and this old lady has done this before to rob people and the girl has heard it before - and you know what the police found in the car?
an axe - cause the old lady would use it to rob you
and it isn't really an old lady but a man
so lesson learned, at night, don't unlock your car from far away and just lock your car once you get in
...and ok it might not sound scary just reading it but seriously i think that auntie has told it many times before cause seriously, she told it really well and freaked me out!

other warning stories pertaining to only mainland china people (well, won't this be interesting?):

1. so you know mainland china people are spoiled right? especially since they come here to australia to study and they all drive these nice cars and have nice stuff, so the auntie tells me - if they say hi to you, just say hi back - don't ignore them or act all high and mighty cause that'll just encourage them to bother you some more until you acknowledge them
2. apparently this applies to chinese people in HK as well - if you see someone that dropped some money on the ground, don't pick it up or once you do, these people will come out yelling that you stole their money and such - and they especially love using old ladies and little kiddies for this dropping money act
3. if someone steps on you, you say sorry or else some people might pop out and beat you up cause they seriously think they're not in the wrong
4. don't let chinese people borrow your phone or once you do, they'll press a couple of buttons and all of your personal info will be sent to them (well i guess this prob happens sometimes in the US too)
   

ok, this really just puts all chinese people in a bad light and makes you paranoid of all asian people - at least that's how i felt after i heard all these stories lol

i'm hoping not all people in the uni are like this....
[end]

ok and then i ate dinner at a jap restaurant and i actually forgot the name but here's how the inside looks like lol
and you know, this being a food post, of course i'm not done yet - we proceeded to go to meetfresh to eat taiwanese dessert
it was pretty good - although i think i still prefer eating ice with fruit :p

OK now onto today - i only have a couple of pictures!

first, went to Temasek in Parramatta to eat Hainan Chicken with rice and chicken satay and a noodle dish with shrimp in it that was really good
oh and there were lots of white people eating there too - isn't that awesome? it's kind of sad that i still think seeing non-Asian people in Asian restaurants is awesome but hey, it IS awesome - kudos to aussies for being open-minded and knowledgeable about what is actually good Asian food

then i followed the aunties while they did grocery shopping around Eastwood

and after that, we went for some afternoon tea at some 香港茶餐厅 (direct translation - hk tea restaurant?) - i don't know the precise name of it though

i ate french toast with some hot milk tea ♥ it's like being in hk even though i'm not
the french toast had peanut butter in the middle - which was quite interesting...

OK and i'm done - and i'm still full (that toast was around 3-4 pm) and it took me approx 2 hours to actually write this post with pictures and all

tomorrow will be my last day staying with family friends until i move into the dorm on sunday - which will be a whole other bother cause i have to make an effort to make friends (you know, it's actually hard to find the right friends to hang out with - some people you meet at first might turn out to be weird and stuff) but here's hoping things will go well =)

TIVOLI!

yay went to Tivoli yesterday (and was gone the entire day)

i have a feeling this post is going to be super long - i'll try not to bore you! lol

ok first things first - lunch!

then took the metro and then the s-tog (another train...a nicer one) to Kobenhavn station to meet up with friends - they were late so i just played on my iphone haha

S-tog

it's a reallly big station!

isn't that a lot of stuff?? the lady carrying all that was old - macho old lady eh?

then we walked to burger king since some of people were hungry

they have carrot sticks on the menu! so healthy -
i think we have like..those gross apple "fries"

then off to Tivoli!

we just basically walked around Tivoli for a couple hours taking pictures of stuff and everything since we decided not to ride and of the rides (cause they're not that exciting/fun and it costs too much money)

but there's lots of stuff to see! all the restaurants are really nice and it looks so relaxing to just sit there and eat!

anyways - there's an entire Asian/China section of the park - we were all wondering why and thinking that it was a waste of money to come to an amusement park with all this Chinese stuff lol but we figured it was because not many Danish people go to China? i mean it makes sense - there are very very few Asians
and if you do see an Asian, they look Southeast Asian

anyways - kept walking around and saw lots of cool/pretty stuff

then we took a break and sat down and rested/ate cause it was only around 4:30 and we already walked through the entire park (it's pretty small!) and Claire gave me one of her sandwiches =)

then we went to the aquarium! apparently it's the longest aquarium in Europe - 30 meters long with 1,600 fish

apparently you're not supposed to take pictures, but i took some =P

they have lots of interesting fish in there! an employee came down and told us about some of the fish they have - they have sharks (apparently they feed them a lot so they don't eat the other fish), that japanese puffer fish that people eat, sting rays, Picasso fish, green eels (i totally forgot what they're called haha), spotted eels,...just to name a few

and the glass was fitted by the Japanese (i was not surprised haha) - if you look really closely, you can see where they fit the pieces of glass together - the glass is 13.5 cm thick (or was it 16.5 cm? i think it's 13.5 cm - but anyways it's really thick!)

then we went back to the promenade theater where we sat before and watched Tivolis Promenade Orchestra perform

then we went to go wait for the pantomime show to start

some of the pantomime shows at the park are more than 200 years old - the one we watched is called 'The Tailor Deceived'

it's basically a boy and a girl meet (i think the tailor is the girl's father)

and she meets this guy who comes into the tailor's shop and they dance around and fall in love, but the guy who watches over the shop (the clown) sees them together, tries to tell the tailor, but of course the couple is smarter than that so they feign ignorance and stuff to mess with the clown

and then the guy goes into the forest where he meets a goddess? who gives him a magical sword (i guess to help him win the girl that he likes)


apparently when he taps it on the ground it makes the people who walk over it dance?/hop (well it messes with them haha)

as you can see - a couple came along and the girl steps in the spot and she's jumping around

and the dude totally doesn't believe her

but then he ends up jumping around too

and then the rest of the show consists of the couple messing with the clown - like back in the tailor shop, she's all sad, but then the colorful dude comes

she takes the iron board away (that the others set up) and puts the sheet over him so when the clown comes over, and tries to iron the sheet, he pops up and freaks the clown out

of course, the clown tells the girl and she's like, what are you talking about? i can iron just fine

haha so yea, they mess with the clown and stuff for some more scenes and get him in trouble with the tailor

and then in the end the tailor accepts them and they end up together! =)

yay for happy endings!

and after this Gloria and Nick left, so it was only Claire, Fey and me left

we walked around Tivoli some more and since we saw everything we decided to go look at stuff in the shops - there's so much cute stuff =D (look on fb for the photos)

Tivoli doesn't really seem like an amusement park to me - maybe more like a high-end amusement park haha all the restaurants are so nice and the souvenir stores are so pretty and nice too! and of course, the stuff in them are expensive

so at 8 we went to go see the ballet - La Ventana
i don't think this had a real story or anything like the pantomime - but during this performance i did notice how muscular the dancers' calves were o_o and the dudes' butts haha

then it was more walking around and looking at more stuff and then we watched the concert! first was Dicte - some lady who apparently is not that famous: http://www.tivoli.dk/fredagsrock/kunstnere/dicte

her songs kinda sucked and at times i didn't understand what she was singing - in one of her songs she kept singing shiver and then she would dance/shake - Claire and i didn't know whether to laugh or not haha it was so weird cause it looked like she was having a seizure

she sings pretty well but at times it's really breathy =| and like i said, her songs suck - she kept singing "i wanna cigarette" in one of them

then we waited for Thomas to come out since he was the main even i'm guessing

anyways - we saw that people had some beer cups with Tivoli on them and it turns out that you can buy drinks with them and get the hard cup for 5 dkk and then you can return the cups and get your 5 dkk back - it's part of the refundable cup system there, and we wanted one so we went up to one of the stands and asked if we could buy one, but the girl just gave us each one for free lol - there was still beer in them and they're used, but hey, they were free!

so Thomas Buttenschøn came out! unlike Dicte, all his songs were in Danish - so it was pretty cool to be listening to all these songs in Danish

here's one of the songs he sang: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy0H2YnBhi8&NR=1

yes, he has explosive hair haha

and he's pretty well-known since people were singing along and i'm guessing this song is his most well-known one - maybe? - since he sang it last and everyone was singing it with him

after listening to it on youtube i realize how different it sounded live haha it was really fun! and plus, you get to see Danish people dancing around (some of them look awkward)

on the downside though i think i inhaled enough second-hand smoke to last me a lifetime - so many people smoke here!

am i boring you yet? hopefully not cause i'm not done yet lol

sooo after this we went to see the light show - Tivoli Illuminations!

i don't have any pictures of it because my camera ran out of batteries =( but Fey recorded it

it was basically lasers flashing everywhere through fountains and water and fog with music playing - it was actually really pretty and pretty cool although i got blinded by the lasers a couple times

then we finally left Tivoli after 10 hours (we arrived around 2:30 ish)

since the S-Tog doesn't run anymore after 12 (or so we thought - some trains were still running) we walked to Nørreport station, took the metro back to Fasanvej and Claire and Fey walked me back (thanks!)

yup, so that basically sums up my day at Tivoli - hopefully this is the longest one i'll have to write...although probably not since i still have 2 weekend trips coming up!

random note: seriously, my suite mate uses up a ton of toilet paper - we only have one roll left and i bought 4 last sunday - ah but i just went to the bathroom and apparently she bought some more - geez at least she bought some - i hope she knows she's the one who uses it all up