I’ve been in this alien land for more than a month now and settled in I guess I had. Life is slowly getting to be a routine again, wake up, stare at clock in disbelief, clean up, go lab, work, work, work, boss comes in at 5pm when everybody’s leaving and starts talking, leave late, get back, cook dinner and lunch for the next day, eat, meet a few floormates, complain about the weather, bathe, read some devotion and bible, find something interesting and cant stop reading, sleep past bedtime.
Life goes on wherever you are. Life is about progressing, about learning hard lessons and absorbing other’s experiences. Life is something you have to go through for yourself. I’m about almost feeling complacent now. Like this will cruise on for a long time.
Waking up to reality, I find myself in a land of opportunity, in a place that is a higher level than my previous position. And I ask myself why do I sink into this boh-chap-ness so easily.
Just found out that the unit I am studying at is a special program with special funding (read: rich), for special people (erm, let me rephrase that). I am in an elite community of researchers who are really there for science. Some of the best minds in their field, top scholars from different countries. My direct boss is the grandson of someone famous, whom I shall not reveal in public. Famous for her pioneering in primate study. By supervisor is one of the 50 persons who vote for the Nobel prize winner in medicine and physiology. Imagine that level. I’m up there with the big boys, the top dogs, the fat cats, the big fish. Erm, enough of this.
I just found out that every year there are more than 100 applications to this unit and hardly anyone gets in. That there are collaborations with universities and hospitals around the world, that the publication strength of this unit rivals some big departments. My supervisor is stressed, and stressed because he has too much data to write up to publish. Which one do I do first?
And I ponder over where I am now over lunch (rice with fried leeks and mushroom with roasted chicken with potatoes, onions and carrots).
How the heck did I get in here. The odds are against me, I shouldn’t be here. I’m not a top scholar from where I come from, I don’t have influential links, and my masters work was at best crappy. Where’s my isolated corner for me to rot for the rest of my life?
But God is able to do far above what you can ask or imagine
His grace is sufficient, His strength perfect in my weakness
Some labmates I have talked to call me lucky.
‘do you know how hard and long I tried to get into this university?’
‘you mean you just apply directly to your boss and got the scholarship? Can meh?’
‘how did you get in?’
I have found out the secret of getting ‘luck’. Everytime I go one step closer to God, luck happens, like my job in singapore. After finishing my pledge to my church, I got that job. And now, after I became more active in the church, helping out in various things, luck happened again.
And now I’m stressed, because I cant find a good ‘luck’ source here. God I need a church.
so after church i went to walk around the town, hmmm, yea, town. not that big to call it a city. almost everything is in walking distance (except the church)
visited other churches. most of them were actually roman catholic churches and when the reformation swept the country, they changed the churches to Lutheran, so its all still very traditional during services but the buildings are all catholic cathedral style.
church of the holy trinity. the tower contains some very cool stuff like the robes of some bishop 100 years ago and a nobel prize medallion. will go up one day to see.
the uppsala cathedral, huge.
the king, Gustaf iii, and carl lineaus was buried here.
at the uppsala castle. king gustaf iii's
another view of the castle.
view of the town from the castle
the back-side view of the castle
dunno where
the botanical gardens
gustaf iii's canons
the canons pointing in the direction of the cathedral. coz the king is afraid of the power of the bishops in the church as they own so much land and are such a great influence on the people. the canons serve to remind the church who's in power.
bell tower of the castle, has some histroy to it but forgot what
no more leaves!! winter is at hand.
the castle from ground level
evening reflections
one of the grand uppsala uni buildings. must visit the library is its the biggest in scandinavia and has some really old books on display.
took the train last week to get to the next city up north, Uppsala, to get to church.
so it was the local train from my room to city center, then a intercity train for 40 minutes to uppsala, and then a 10 minute bus ride to the church. its not the travel time that bugs me, its the waiting in between. the intercity train ride was enjoyable because the trains are fast and quiet and clean. every seat has its own trash bag by the side too.
final destination, Word of Life, Uppsala, the home church of pastor Ulf Ekman.
ok, enough of this series,
there's this part of the park called the enchanted forest with alot of small houses or areas of attractions.
one of them is snow white, and here's the mirror
a souvenir shop. yea, couldnt find my shoe size...
some local sory about little dancing maidens in water lilies.
tom thumb
inside you can watch a holographic show of the little match stick girl.
the lighting inside.
started in 1958, the flying fakir, tells a story, plays his pipe for the flowers to bloom then floats on his carpet to the opposite tower.
some shop.
rides for kids, no idea whats inside them, but very well decorated.
entrance to some ride, cant remember which, felt the presentation was good,
so from this day trip, i found that the standard of theme parks here is above what i've ever seen before. much pain had been taken in presentation and outlook. the customer is not kept in the 'real world' while waitng for his ride when suddenly he relizes he's in a 'different world' only to be jerked back to reality at the end of the ride, but the whole park is 'themed' every nook and corner oozes this fairy tale feel, even when you are walkign from one to the next attraction, fairy tale music is everywhere, and little attractions pop up everywhere. and even though the wait for a ride is long, just stand i line and wonder at the details of the decorations around you.
what i think was the best attraction in teh place, the haunted house.
at first its boring, coz they bring you into a first roomwhere they talk some dutch about some story of the haunted house, blah blah blah.
then they bring you into another room and continue the dutch story of the haunted house, blah blah blah
after some research back home, i found out its a story about this man who stole some holy relics, probably from the church, so he got cursed and trapped in his house his whole life, and weird things were reported to happen in his house. moral of story: dont rob God. enough said.
only here does the adventure start. you sit in these benches, get locked in and the show begins.
your seat rocks like the pirate ship, but the walls around can also turn, so you dont know if you are going upwards or downwards or stationary. its a very confusing but interesting experience.
the narrow wall area tht spins around the seats.
more gentle things, the carousel
lady with two ill mannered ducks
chicken that lays plastic eggs
puss in boots
the cock on cat on dog on donkey statue
the weird tree with lots of pre-used gum stuck on it.
the pagoda that brings you up high to the sky
piranha, the boat ride, didnt get wet, so quite boring
pagoda, takes you high up to see far beyond the park grounds.
the maze, a hedge maze, not that big, and no dead ends, and no exit. you come out the same point as you got in.
the maze
in the maze there's this bridge you have to cross and there's water spouts along it. try to not get wet.
indoor roller coaster, the bird is from sinbad.
the second thing that impressed me of this park is the care they took to make every part of it look fun. to get to an attraction, you had long winding passages to follow, basically coz in summer and weekends, the place is overpacked and you have long waiting lines, but while waiting, the surrounding keeps you in the mood. you wont just see boring railings.
one of the old slow rides originating in the 1950's. quite amusing to go on them. a different sort of fun compared to the roller coaster fun.
you sit in these capsules that turn you around to face the different displays.
the python
silhouette
below the python, waiting for coins to drop from people's pockets.
getting to the flying dutchman. long and winding way
yes, this is the place ppl queue up to wait for the ride, and there are quite a few of these rooms in a row.
one of the lights along the way that i found very nice, the blub flickers
the end part of the flying dutchman.
the loading/unloading. isnt the planing and detail just amazing?
the bobsled
