Stockholm: (Farewell)

Super fast Arlanda stockholm train @ 200km/h that brings me from Stockholm to the Arlanda airport in 20min



Strong snow storm again. The plane delayed departure for at least 1/2 hour



Deicing the wings of the plane



Farewell, Sweden



Bangkok. Haven't seen greenery for a long time



Transit in Bangkok. Good to see the sun again. The humid and hot weather hits you the moment u get off the plane.



In time to see off Changjie & Junxiang who are flying off to Linkoping, Sweden. Sigh, it's their turn for SEP.

Stockholm: Flemingsberg (Flottsbro, Roger's home)

Flemingsberg train station



It was the biggest snow blizzard I've seen in Stockholm so far



Roger's dad kindly drove us to Flottsbro, which is home to Stockholm's highest ski run



Me with Roger's ski blade



Roger and his brother, Joakim who's holding the snowboard



After that we went to Roger's home. All the cars in the carpark are all locked up in individual cages. Apparently, there've been too many cases of car thefts.

Their home is in a flat which is like our HDB



Roger wearing his high school graduation cap in his room



I was very shocked to see Sun's CD album here. Roger explained that she went to his church and gave out free CDs



The traditional Santa Claus in Scandinavian folklore: A tomte gnome who is believed to take care of a farmer's home and barn.



Roger's family who cordially treated me to a fantastic dinner

Stockholm: (Last few days)

Last few shots of places in Stockholm

Galleria at Kista



Kulturhuset



This is what Maxime Vidier, one of my team-mates in the Swedish Culture module said abt Kulturhuset: "I have been in the Kulturhuset and I know no other city in Europe that has such a nice meeting point for people of every generation. The old, retired people can play chess there, the children can play in the Barn Rum, while their mothers can drink a coffee one floor downstairs and the teenagers can read books in their own library and sit in their own Café. There are also libraries, art exhibitions, three Cafes and music rooms in the Kulturhuset. Many countries have copied parts of the Kulturhuset for example the public library or the music rooms, but I could find such a big house for culture and entertainment nowhere else yet. "



Drottingatan street full of tourist shops



Gallerian @ Kungstradgarden



Kungstradgarden where there is a open-air ice-skating rink with music being played over the loudspeaker. If u have your own skates, u can skate there for free.



Pre-Christmas dinner with corridor-mates



Koohan, a Korean who grew up in Sweden. He always joked with us, joined us for our late night instant noodle dinners and left jokes for us on the fridge. The Swedish flag is the gift I got from Christian during the pre-christmas dinner.



My last lunch with my chinese friends



To be honest, I felt quite depressed during my last few days in Sweden. I had only 'kill bill' for company. Henry had left for Singapore earlier. Lappis was almost empty cos almost everyone went back for christmas and those who didn't went to tour other countries. The sun was down at 3pm and the lack of daylight really made a significant impact on one's emotions.

Sweden: (Modules)

Here are the modules that I took:

EE2001 (6): Project (4f1141 Mechatronics)
EE3001 (4): Project (4d1521 Ideation)
EE2007 (4): Microprocessor (2b1446 Embedded System)
EE2011 (3): Engineering Electromagnetics (2d1274 Computational EM)
EE3204 (3): Computer Communications Networks (6b2940 Computer networks)


Jesper who so kindly taught Henry & I only even though the course wasn't available

KTH has a limited number of English courses. Such courses in Sweden are usu for Master's students, so the courses we took were for Master's students, except ideation and computer networks.

In addition, I also took one very interesting course "Swedish Society, Culture & Industry in a Historical Perspective" which basically gives me a overview of Sweden including aspects of political history, economic history and history of technology and architecture.

Besides lectures, we got excusions to skansen, suburbs(Vällingby, Alby), Pythagoras factory in Norrtälje, Nobel Museum...

pythagoras factory

Moreover, during some lectures, we could have fika(sandwich & drink) and watch Swedish movies, eg House of Angels, Show me love(Fucking Åmål) and Wild Strawberries. I feel that most of the films have a strong portrayal of the swedish society. Their characters are memorable and their stories are usu heart-warming, meaningful and has subtle humour in them.

Of course, we dealt with the famous Swedish model. Here are a few links: 1(a good one), 2, 3, 4

The course compendium even includes a section that compares Singapore to Stockholm!

-"Societies that suddenly start feeling rich, but in which a majority still feel themselves living poorly, will tend to support high egalitarian social policies, which redistribute income and provide a basic decent minimum for all; later on, as most find themselves exceeding the minimum, the consensus will fall apart. In this sense, perhaps the Swedish miracle was just an extreme example of a general phenomenon in the evolution of capitalism."

-"nations of South-East Asia enjoyed their econmic miracles a little later than those of western Europ; but to an even more extreme degree, they launched themselves from abject poverty into real affluence within the span of one generation."

-"...in Singapore, some faithful reflections of the Stockholm model. At least in the physical manifestations: the same uniform, well-designed but finally monotonous apartment blocks, developed on government-owned land; the same impeccably efficient subway system that links them; the same rebuilt high-rise city centre; the same emphasis on extraordinarily high standards of public design and public order. And underlying the superficial physical manifestations, many of the same political features: a party that identifies its own ideology with that of the nation, indeed which claims to embody the spirit of the nation; a party that remains in
power for 3 decades; a party with the same emphasis on social harmony; a party that stays in power through delivering economic performance and rapidly rising standards of living."

-"may seem at first sight an outlandish comparison...Singaporean polity has never claimed descent from the liberal tradition, on the contrary, rejecting many of its features as examples of western corruption; or the fact that in 1994, Sweden and Singapore stood at opposite poles in the percentage of GDP taken for public spending, 68 against 20 percent."

-"..further point of difference: Singapore, so far, has experienced no real crisis, no fundamental break in its remarkable economic progress...At some stage, Sweden tripped and fell; Singapore seems determined to avoid that fate....."


KTH

Kiruna: (Iron ore mine)

LKAB iron ore mine in Kiruna is the world's largest underground mine. Underneath the 2 step hill is the mine.



"God Jul" lit up on the mining office means Merry Christmas



Within the mine is a huge network of roads, so many that one can get easily get lost. The bus that we took into the mine.



Due to the huge demand for iron worldwide, especially in booming China, Kiruna's iron ore mine is doing very well. In fact they are increasing the number of employees and is one of the major employer in the small Kiruna community.

The iron ore is transported by train to either Narvik in Norway or Lulea. Narvik is favoured cos the warm Gulf stream result in the Norwegian Sea not freezing up in winter.



The kiruna iron ore mine has certainly come a long way. Compared to the days in the past where miners work in dirty and dangerous environment...



Nowadays the miners work in clean and safe environments. In fact, some loading operations are now completely remote controlled from far away. Like what the guide said, the miners no longer need to subject themselves to loud drilling noises and can listen to music while they remote-control machines as if they are playing computer games.



The safety record of the mine is also very impressive. No serious injuries like loss of limbs or deaths for many many years. Most injuries they have nowadays are just bruises when the workers trip and fall on the rocky surface. It's just amazingly safe and conducive to work in Kiruna's iron ore mine.



Our hostel had a crazy Portuguese man whose mental health is seriously questionable. He had been boiling pots and pots of food for the past few nights. He used up all the pots(4-5) in the kitchen boiling food that turned out to look disgusting.



Kiruna kyrka(town church) that resemble the shape of a lappish tent.



Inside the church



A tower beside the church



Central part of town lit up by simple christmas lights



Forest near the town

Sweden: Kiruna (Snowmobile, Dogsled)

Next day we went to the 2-day, 1-night "northern light" tour led by Henrik as the guide



Here we were given thicker shoes and pants



So we took turns snowmobiling...



...thru the wilderness in the arctic circle...



...until we came to a lake.



A chain of dogs nearby, belonging to Henrik. Apparently, the dogs are chained apart from one another to keep them from attacking one another. Won't they be vulnerable to predators? What predators? The bears are hibernating.



Some of us went over first to help unload the things we need for tonight's stay @ lappish hut--food, bags and wood. Henrik explained that this area's trees are protected. So he actually brought the wood all the way to the lappish hut. Wah...



A male snowman was there to welcome us :)



We heaved the stuff up the slope...



...to the lappish hut



The P corner



Dear Mr P-man...




We had our lunch...



...consisting of reindeer meat, which is well-known for its low-fat(gd for losing wt) and tender meat. Anyway all our drinking water is directly fetched from the river that we rowed our boat across. No, the water isn't boiled.



During lunch, Henrick shared w us a few interesting stories. When he was younger, he used to hike around w his friends. Once in Greenland he and his friends were chased by polar bears. For a moment, he felt that he was nothing but dinner for the polar bear. No it wasn't a humourous thought but a solemn, grim and macabre thought. Just like how we look at chicken and pig as dinner for ourselves, the polar bear looked at us this way too.

He also taught us some basic survival tips. Eg It is always impt to wear a bigger shoe rather than a one just nice in such cold environment? Why?

Basically it all boils down to what we learnt in pri. school: air is the best insulator of cold. So u can wear less layers but as long as they trap air, it's better than more layers that trap less air.

We spent the rest of the afternoon chopping up wood for the night. Well, it was kinda ODAC or rovers, except that we were in the Arctic circle. And Henrik showed us how to chop the wood with a single stroke of the axe. Note the thick layer of snow on the roof.



Dinner was barbecue pork and rice



After dinner, Tim and I went for a walk around the area. Tim is this great Aussie whom I knew from the Russia trip. He's now probably somewhere in Germany and finishing off the rest of Europe b4 his Egypt tour.

The snow is really thick and soft so the snow is up to your knees most of the time.



I feel that walking around in the Arctic Circle is quite an experience. It's just deafening silence all around u and if u close your eyes, u'd think that u've placed earplugs in your ears. It's places like this when & where u question Man's ability to survive out here. Just miles & miles of emptiness in a cold, dreamy state. Yes, u feel like lying down, but there's the question of waking up.

We saw footprints made by some animal so we followed it all the way, arguing what animal it could be...(the left footprint is the animal's while the right is mine)



...until we came to a hole. I tried digging but it was too deep. The guide later told us it could be a weasel



Tim's Angel wing



Ice Stalactites are damn hard and there have been cases of person in Sweden being killed by dropping stalactites from the roofs of houses. Hence, the govt's decree that it's the responsibility of the house owner to remove the stalactite



I didn't want to go the Sauna so I stayed back to talk with 'Alnet'.



We managed to see glimpses of Aurora Borealis or northern lights but it was quite faint. My camera wasn't able to capture it, but this pic I found on the internet more or less shows what I saw, except it was fainter and the green lights were in streaks. Not that sorta fanciful ones that danced thruout the entire sky but at least I managed to see one.



Our cabin where we slept in reindeer fur



Next morning, I tried to ski but fell down a few times. :S



Everywhere around u is blue and u feel as if in a dream. A beautiful one.











Attempting to walk near the river is suicide. You never when those ice under u is just 1mm thick.



We dogsled the way back. Dogsled is v simple. All u have to do is to nudge your sled slightly forward. The dogs will sense it and they will start moving. If u wanna stop, u just use 1 foot to step on a brake at the back of the sled. The brake should always be pressed down if u dun wanna move. Only 2 things to watch out: 1.) if the sled catch up w the sled in front too much, the dogs might attack the other sled's dogs and it will be v hard to separate the dogs. 2.) if the string is slack, it might sometimes entangle itself around one dog's legs or neck, which will lead to devastating consequences when the other dogs start pulling



The dogs are really enthusiastic whenever they see u and will start howling and jumping around, eager to go. Here is the sound they make. Link

The dog sled way back was really really cold with the wind blowing on u. Some of us started to worry abt frostbite on the feet. Even my face, which never turns red no matter how drunk I am, does so this time.



Do u know that abt half of swedes have access to a second home? A second home far away from the city and out there in the woods. Swedes simply love nature.