Sami - Towards the Last Days

It is soon time to depart from Singapore. There's about a week left, but I have already started to make preparations to be ready for my trip back to Finland. It's been an experience I am not likely to forget any time soon. Practically everything is different here when comparing to home, from traffic to architecture, nature, how you queue in line and how communication works.
Speaking of which, something rather amusing. There was quite a long span of time when we had no idea what to do with rent. Two months in we were informed of how it can work and got our bill for the first two months, but even then we needed to do some questioning with the company. And we noticed uncertainty there as well. It basically seemed like everyone knew we needed to get this rent paid, but no one knew how, including the company we needed to pay.

Anyway. The thought that I have mere two days in Finland before I move on to my next destination is very stressful, But I'm sure it'll be alright even if I don't have much time. More on that later.

A house at a beach

Social interaction with the locals lead to us being invited for food at a local student's place. That is our flat as well as the French game project students from one floor above. Her family would cook for us and we could take a look at the nearby beach and play games.

While eating out over at food courts is great, I've always thought that home made food is best, no matter where you are. And this was no exception, the dishes were really good. Something that resembled a spicy, sweet version of Karelian stew, rice, beans, chicken curry, chicken wings, among other goods and a dessert that tasted like traditional Finnish apple pie with the addition of vanilla ice cream.

I am very thankful for the cooking and hospitality, it was incredible to visit. The house was very nice too, and clear that a lot of time and funding was put into it's construction and decoration. Our host mentioned a collection of plates on one wall, and talked a bit of history about them. All in all, those thirty or so plates were most likely worth more than all my life expenses put together.

We headed for the beach. Being a person from a land with over a hundred thousand lakes, the sand and beach itself didn't interest me as much as the scenery itself. I decided to stand ground and look around, enjoying the slowly changing lighting, the clouds which act a bit differently to Finland, at least upon my observation. Watching air planes show how deceivingly close the clouds are as they flew between the giant formations. Seeing the sun slowly rest itself behind rippled clouds and the silhouette created by palm trees.

We ended the day with chatting and a few different card games. On our way back us Finns and the French students talked about our languages. Both having their subtleties that seemed peculiar to the other side.

Truckin' again

One day BG suggested we head for lunch outside school on his truck. A bunch of us agreed, even though the break ended up taking a bit long. Showed us a food court that has some very nice noodles served on banana leaves. Included prawns, squid and pork with a noodle and egg mixture, on which you would squeeze a lime to add flavour. Had some grass jelly as well. Similar to jolly in texture, mildly fruity in flavour.

Another day I and Teo would venture with BG and his girlfriend on another after-school adventure. Had more barbeque which included squid, cockles, stingray, chicken among other things. One peculiar new flavor was something they called "smelly bean" which lived up to it's name. The bizarre thing was that it didn't smell at first and it tasted like a mild bean, but once you had eaten it, a strange smell would rise up to your nose. Not bad, but not a fan either. Definitely something to experience.

After my humongous failure to pay BG back in a more fair manner, he saw through my bluff and punished my soul by walking in a bakery and buying something. He bought two green cubes that had a cold exterior, and a mushy interior. I tried to pay for these as well, but he would reject my offering. In addition, he bought a moon cake which I would split with my flatmates later on.

Non-European movie going experience

We decided to head for a cinema to watch the newly released Shingeki no Kyojin film. Or as some would know it better as, Attack on Titan. This film apparently will not see a release in Europe at all, at least a cinematic release. Not going to spoil the film, but lets say the experience wasn't much different from Finnish cinema. I guess I got lucky, as Teo and Jussi, the two engineers I went with, had experienced literally ear-shattering cinema experiences earlier. This one didn't really live up to the quality of Finn Kino, but I wouldn't say the quality was bad. Some people reacted to things happening in the film rather strongly as well, which would be unheard of in Finland.