evesamuelsson

Pictures from Saturday. A very chilled Saturday that started with some shopping malls, beer on the beach and dinner.

Later at night we went to the highest al fresco bar in the world; 1 altitude. The view up there is amazing. It is a big terrace with 360 degree view, 282 meters above sea level, officially the highest point on Singapore. However, we were not amazed by the choice of music and interior.

So we decided to move on and went clubbing with Nico’s Italian coworker Tommaso in Le Noir.

Oh dio

What a nightmare. I just had my first hair salon experience in Singapore, and what a mission it was.
When I first came to the salon for my appointment they sat me in the chair and all of the sudden a war started. The entire staff were involved in a crises concerning that I have to pay more than what we decided when I booked the appointment. The guy in the reception screwed it up; Too bad for Evelina!! 

After carefully explaining that I wanted highlights in my hair and not a yellow color she started mixing the chemicals. But since they all seemed pissed off already, I thought it was best to be quiet and pray to god. It is not very appreciated to have opinions in this country, since they see everything as an assault.

Before I knew it I had three ladies around my head, brushes, color and aluminum everywhere!! After a mishmash of hands on my head I finally looked like the biggest radio satellite in Singapore.

Then came the time for cutting. Of course I got the hair stylist that did not know a word in English. She just waved her arms and spoke in blurry chinese while I tried to gesture how I wanted my hair.

Getting closer to the finish line I finally felt like we found some good collaboration and understanding. But what happens?

The lady brings out the wax and hairspray, as if they were her sharpest weapons and starts firing. My hair went from newly washed and fresh to a stone hard, stiff condition.

Even though I was laughing and crying on the inside I just gave the lady a smile, paid the increased price and went home to wash my hair.

Anita,my private hairdresser, I miss you!!   

This week’s look-a-like is not about me, but about Nico. 

We constantly hear from people that Nico looks like different nationalities. Very often it is a new nationality and often very fun and surprising.

The latest comment about his nationality: “You are Singaporean right?”

People think he is Mexican, Brazilian, Asian, Moroccan.. But never ever Italian..   This time I found it was innovative!! He is like a kinder egg my guy; many surprises in one man!

To make our tuesday night more excited we decided to take a quick trip to sentosa.

We took a tour in the tiger tower which is a 110 meter high tower spinning 360 degrees to see singapore from above.

It was really beautiful to see all the lights from the city under and around us.
We also walked passed the merlion- a famous singaporean statue which is a mixture between a fish and a lion.

Hey hey hey

Now it is monday again and time to schedule the coming week. A lot of school, assignments and groupworks are on the schedule, which is not the most exciting. But life cannot always be holiday, shopping and sunshine, although I wish that was the case…

This weekend we have spent two full days on the beach in Sentosa, a kind of island belonging to Singapore. Two full days in the sun.. I understand the concern.. “Is she now dating a piece of barbecue coal, a gingerbread man, a Seal copy?”

Don’t worry. Heavy use of the highest sun protection that they offered in Mustafa; sun factor 70 + saved Nico from burning up in flames. He is still in one piece, happy, alive and a bit tanned.

More worrying at the beach however were all the Indians walking along the beach fully dressed with timberland boots and heavy jumpers with cameras in their hands and one mission; taking pictures of girls in bikini.

Disgusting..  Tip of the day; Ladies put some clothes on if you are going to sentosa beach. Better to be white as a mozzarella than end up in the indian web community.  

End of sad topic.. Continue with the weekend story…

The Saturday evening was really cozy and pleasant and started with a dinner in Brotzeit, a german bar and restaurant belonging to Nico’s internship company. The staff was very nice, the service was great, the food was delicious and the beer was big, tasty and bubbly, a real mood booster. To add the pleasure of the visit, I was so proud seeing the art work of my darling hanging on the walls. He had designed the poster for the Brotzeit chain’s October fest which will be held in the restaurants in October.

Completely full and happy (and a big promise to come back soon) we continued to the New Asia Bar; the best bar for an amazing view. Great music, brilliant location and a lot of Scandinavians.. Although we found some ugly fishes also here. This time it was old, fat,bold and creepy men buying their Asian entertainment for the night. It was not the most relaxing and pleasant view to see these old grandfathers trying to sway their hips and look sexy with their escorts to the beat of beyonce.

somebody ate a bit too much german food? ;)












Well oh well. We live in a wacko world. This gave us yet another reason of being thankful for our reality. So we just smiled, cheered and enjoyed the night!

Friday, 10 September is a public holiday in Singapore Calendar. The holiday is to celebrate the Muslim and Malay Hari Raya Aidilfitri Holiday. In Malay it means "Celebration Day of Fasting" and is the muslim holiday that works as the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting.

Okey. That sounds like random crap. But it also meant that everybody was off work and school, including me and my partner.
We had a full friday to enjoy, which was the easiest task of the week.

After taking a long breakfast we headed to downtown for some shopping. For me it was time to increase my weekend and evening wardrobe, and for Nico we had to work on the "respectable office man appearance".

Luckily we found a brilliant tailor and negotiated for awesome fabrics and "italian design" which hopefully will result in 3 pairs of new trousers for mr. Cosmai. 

Dinner was enjoyed in sushi-tei where they serve the best tuna sashimi in the entire world. The prices are really good and the fish is of the best quality i have ever eaten... at least in sushi (dont want to make comparison to the ones me and my family fish ourselves, which is ofcourse superb)


 







After dinner we took a walk along the riverwalk to be dazzled from the incredible views. We ended up in Clarke Quay where another festivity was displayed, the chinese mid- autumn festival. This is a time for chinese family reunions and food and is similar to the western thanksgiving. And of course the chinese population goes all in.. Weird colourful animals, lamps and figures everywhere. And sooo much food and mooncakes..








  
In the middle of the chaos we sat down in our new favourite bar; Le Noir, to enjoy a glass of wine and admiring the poeple around us.  

Yesterday my professor came up to me in the break and asked me if Marie from Roxette was my aunt.
He had been thinking about this since the first lecture he told me..

Honestly??


 

Evelina?                                                                       Marie?


Do I really look like Marie Fredriksson?
Dont know if I should laugh or cry..

Due to the weekday he was a bit more relaxed though, and came to school in a Hawaiian shirt. He looked so funny that I had to take a picture of him. (this of course made him really proud)

The lecture itself was a bit tiring, especially since we went out to a club yesterday with Nicos workmates and did not sleep very much last night.

After school I met up with Nico for some hours of shopping malls and a nice sushi dinner. After that we continued the Saturday to Marina Bay, where “Ben & Jerry”- the favorite ice cream company had a big event and advertising festival. They were introducing 12 new flavors of ice cream that is still not on the market, and had gathered live band playing while people were walking around trying different delicacies.. lovely!!

After enjoying two new cinnamon and walnut ice-creams we headed for a glass of Prosecco in an Italian bar/ restaurant next to the water. Sweet ending.

Now we’re back home for some good 5 hours of sleep before heading to Malaysia.. Tomorrow at 6 we leave with the bus. wiie.

Good night.

Just been a really good girl and swedish citizen.
Just came back from the swedish ambassady where I left my vote for the swedish election.
Now, time for some friday pleasure...






Pictures from the Tanjong Beach club website. Taken on the crayfishparty.

I have a very big issue and question that I want to investigate. What is it that makes everybody here in Singapore puke, or kind of coughing hairballs all day long?

First I thought it was just a coincidence that all of the people I met seemed to have something stuck in their throat and making vomiting noises. Like if there was an epidemic or flu or something.

Now, Im not so sure anymore. There has to be something else. People in our flat, in school, in the underground, on buses… the list can be made very long of people that seem to have digesting or eating problems. They are behaving like cats that are trying to spit out hairballs.

I wonder why. Is there a clinical linkage between eating the same food every day and vomiting? Can it be the fact that they eat the same thing all day long, everyday? The fact that they eat rice and noodles for lunch and dinner, but ALSO breakfast!?

Or is it all the spicy food that is the villain in this case? The garlic that they eat in everything?

Trust me, I am a fan of garlic. Even though I don’t love the smell when it is rooted in somebody’s mouth, I love garlic in food. But there is a limit. Garlic for breakfast is not my cup of tea.

If anyone thinks they have the solution to this problem, PLEASE let me know. At least I could try to cure the people in our house, since I am getting fed up by hearing people puke and make disgusting noises all day and night long.

Please someone, give me an answer before me and Nico starts puking like the rest..

Thai Honey Mango

Outside; A rather big yellow mango 

Inside; Golden yellow fruitmeat

Taste; Really sweet. Much sweeter than a “normal” mango, with a touch of honey  

Consistency; Very soft and almost mushy

Nico’s judgment: 8,5/10 stars “The skin makes me puke (2,5). But the inside is good.. juicy.”   

Eve’s judgment: 9/10 stars “Mmmmm. Really really good.This is how mango is supposed to be, rather than the green ones in Sweden. Melting in your mouth. But really sweet”

Sitting in shool with my morning coffee. Waiting for the day to start. I have 15 (!) hours of school ahead of me.


Boring as it is, i thought i could share some pictures with you.
Here are some pictures from Saturday afternoon when we decided to check out the art museum of Singapore. It is a really nice museum with a lot of modern and contemporary exhibitions, which is something that interest both me and Nico more than traditional art.

This weekend the museum had one exhibition focusing on relationships & friendship, and another one with the theme of Cinema.









funny guy no?










After the visit we went up in one of the tallest shopping malls in center and checked the view. You can never have enough of nerve thrilling views. Beautiful.






Have a good day!

Yes indeed, Really high. As high as 71 floors actually.

We decided to cool off after my first (but rather tough) school week and another one of Nicos ambitious work weeks (btw, he has done great and received some great work offers. Im really proud! ). We decided to celebrate the weekend with a well-deserved drink in “New Asia”, a club/bar in Swissotel, a skyscraper hotel in the middle of the city.



 

To add some information; drinks and alcohol is not cheap or easy to get hold of here, so we haven’t been able to take a good glass of wine since we arrived. A glass of wine or a beer is 4 times more expensive than the food in a restaurant, and due to their religion, not many places offers alcohol on their menu at all.

Anyways, back to the main point.. 71 st floor. As you can imagine:

The bar was amazing. The view was amazing. The evening was great. The couple was happy and pleased. The couple will definitely come back there soon.    

Oh my god. I came to my first real lecture in SMU, which was Marketing Research. I can start by saying that Singaporean students are really focused and serious and the professor requires us all to have a name tag on our desk every lecture so that he/she can address you at any time. My name tag is a piece of paper, ripped out from my block notes…

This is not the way the Singaporeans do it. Everybody has printed a colorful, stylish name tag, which they have thoughtfully designed and covered in plastic. All of the sudden I found myself in a complete name- mess.

Names like “Xion Phiang Khlo”, “Yhling Mwjo Lee Jan” etc appeared everywhere and when they were called from the list the pronunciation of some names were amazing; Names like “my tree” “yahoo” “one” “theory” “sunny” and “waiting” was read out loud.  Often when names were called by the professor the response from students were similar to; Yes my name is Kiangh Loi Meh, but you can call me Melissa..(Adam, David etc)

What? How did you come up with that nick name?

My name appeared on the list, and oh my god. It took the teacher 10 times to try to say my name, or at least something similar to Evelina. How difficult can it be? Next time it is probably better to respond; Yes my name is Evelina, but you can call me thunder.

Anyways, starting the lecture we were straight away required to calculate probability, mean values and other statistics that I put way behind me. The panic in my head was incredible. When the time came to team up with somebody for the project I grabbed the first available student, hoping that faith would give me a good partner.

What happens 20 minutes into the lecture?? My new team member falls asleep? WHY? HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN TO ME? And she did not fall slightly asleep, but she was dropping the entire head on the desk over and over...Case of sleep sickness? The panic in my head was now enormous and the only thing I could think was; “how the hell will I get through this without Monika and Swedish coffee?”  

I have still no god answer and I am just hoping that my team member slept through the lecture because she thought it was toooo easy.

Monika, if you see this, grab some Gevalia coffee and come to Singapore and rescue me.

Sunday morning. What could be more suitable than heading for some religious celebrations? After breakfast we decided to go to Chinatown for the first time. We took the train to Chinatown station and it actually felt like if we arrived to China. The streets were full of shops and markets who were selling all different kinds of “luck-bringing” objects and lots of weird dried fruits, food and insects.




    


We were really interested in visiting the different temples of the area, and started off with the indian Hindu temple, called Sri Mariamman Temple which is Singapore’s oldest. It was really beautiful and we were really lucky to enter the temple (barefoot!) while they had their Sunday ceremony. The Hindus played typical Indian music and sacrificed gifts (flowers, corn, rice& fruit) and lit candles and scents for Krishna at the table of sacrifices.     

 

 

   

After the Hindu ceremony we continued our religious journey to Buddha Tooth Relic Temple to please the little Buddha in us. Also this temple was amazingly beautiful with all the colors and gold sculptures, and as well in this temple we were lucky to attend the Sunday ceremony. It was completely different from the Hindu ceremony. Here, the monks all dressed in orange costumes were reading the Buddhist texts loud together while facing a big gold statue of Buddha. Also here people sacrificed fruit and flowers and lit candles while praying.

 

 

Feeling completely religious, pure and wise but also very hungry we decided to sit down for lunch. To be extra adventures we ordered frog for the first time in our life. This was the worst idea we have ever had. Not because of the frog, which was actually good meat and tasted like a mixture of chicken and white fish. But the frog was served in a pot with sooooo much pepper and spices that we were on fire. The sweat was running down our faces, backs and legs. At the end of the dinner it looked like we both took a swim and we could not stop laughing at the whole thing. We felt like two pale Europeans, trying to fit in, but ending up completely wet and crying because of the spices.

After the fire in our mouth cooled down we decided to go to the cinema. We saw “salt” with Angelina jolie which was actually a really nice movie. Great Sunday!

Yesterday we finally visited the zoo we have been longing to see for ages; The Singapore night safari.

This is the world’s first night zoo where you both go by a little train and walk around among the animals (120 different species) in the middle of the darkness. The zoo is build up with very tiny fences, so it gives you the feeling of being surrounded by the animals. And in some cases you really are!! During the train safari you are actually facing the animals with no fences or anything, just like in the real safari. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we were not allowed to take any pictures with flash, since we had to respect the animals by being quiet and calm and try to melt in. (Therefore we have no good pictures to share)

It was completely amazing, and I recommend every one that ever goes to Singapore to go there. You are walking around in the “natural” environment for the animals, and you hear their sounds from all over the forest. The bats are flying over your head and suddenly you find yourself one meter away from an indian crocodile.

Except from the usual elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, rhinos, leopards etc. there were some really cool animals for example the flying squirrels, hippos, black and white tapirs and the dotted huge hyenas.

Both Nico and I love these things and behaved as two silly kids. What a great Saturday night pleasure.

So, the first school day was finally here. Yesterday at 8,30 I was in my university for the first time to have my introduction day. And what an introduction. ..Information, information and some more information for a couple of hours. I met all 3 of the other jibs students for the first time and of course all of the other 420 exchange students from all over the world. After the heavy information we took a round trip in the university to find the way around.

I was astonished! The university is made up by plenty of different schools; school of economics, school of accountancy, business, law, etc. which are all connected on the basement floor. The university has its own underground station, several banks, coffee places, a gym, swimming pool, shops, dance studios, restaurants, dentists, and even nail and hair salons!!! Unbelievable. The university is a world of its own.

During the day we met a lot of other Swedish and foreign students, and were invited for a barbecue in one of the swedes condo. Me, the german and Swedish guys, Patrick and Marcus and Nico went out together to the little party.
Everybody was gathered around their pool area where we enjoyed a couple of beers and got to know each other. Later on we continued to another condo with the coolest pool area for a “middle- party” before taking the train in to downtown. We had a really good night, and we met a lot of new and nice people. It was a really funny gang and I’m sure we will have plenty of more fun evenings to come.

Heaven for every girl. Hell for all dads or fashion uninterested guys. You cannot imagine the supply of shopping malls here. Every street is full of shopping malls, and within every shopping mall there is a world of clothes, shoes, bags and other shops. Almost every shopping mall is at least 4 floors, with one floor dedicated to food and coffee places.

They have most of the brands we know about in Europe; Zara, mango, bershka, topshop/topman, Dorothy perkins, river island, new look, pull & bear etc. But no H&M??? Not that I am complaining, since they also have an abundant of other Japanese, chinese and Australian brands.

 


yesterdays bargains; 2 dresses for me and shirt,shorts and suspenders for nico.

 
One thing is for sure. You do never have to get bored. Shop til you drop!