I have a chance to attend Christmas party which organised by Turku Centre for Biotechnology. Of course I need to pay 10 € but worth it.

The party was held on 1st Dec 2005 (so early, right?) Thursday night at Åbo Akademi Hall. The party was so formal, everyone with very formal dinner suit until you thought you were attending a wedding dinner, haha. However, I did not come with this formal suit therefore I became an alien in the party. Luckily I got companies later.

Finns start the party with drinking traditional Finnish mulled wine, Glögi and traditional cookies. The main ingredients of Glögi are wine, spices such as cinnamon and cloves. Glögi is served with raisins and almonds. It is a warm drink during the Christmas. You can drink it with alcohol or without but don’t forget raisins and almonds. I drank it with alcohol to keep my body warm.It was cold outside, man……

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On 22 Nov 2005, I attended seminar organized by Turku Centre for Biotechnology (the place where I work) on a cruise,Viking Line. This was my first time attended seminar on the cruise. We on board Amorella from Turku harbour to Mariehamn harbour, Åland. Then, we changed to the other ship, Isabella at the Mariehamn harbour back to Turku harbour. The whole journey took about 13 hours. When I’m in the auditorium room (Deck 10, the highest level of the ship) I can felt the ship was shaking (correct me if I’m using wrong description) because of the waves……

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I went to Euromarket (one of the supermarkets here) today for my next whole week’s dinner. When I was in the frozen department, something drew my attention. It was common for me to get this wok frozen vegetable in the supermarket. There were several verities you can have like Wok Vietnam, Wok China, Wok Mexico…… but

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There are few Malaysians in Finland, but I managed email to several of them. Most of them were married to Finland. Besides, I understand that USM has student exchange programme with University of Helsinki, Finland. Malaysian undergraduate students will be here for one semester or two under this student exchange programme. So, don’t miss this chance, USM students (you are lucky). There are several restaurants operate by Malaysian…….

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On 1st November 2005, (Tuesday) my group and Microarray group went for jungle tracking. This was my first time walk in Finland’s forest. Weather on that day was a bit cold, about 8°C and shower sometime. I need to put on my windbreaker jacket (new bought at here) and sweater all the time. The walk took about 7 hours, it was 9km long. During lunch time, we stop at the place which allows us to put on fire to cook our meal. We are not allowed to make fire at any place in the forest. Finns really care about their natural resources. Now, guest what kind of food their have for their lunch?……

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First snow, first snow I saw in Turku was on 25 October 2005. It came so suddenly. I still remember it was shower in the morning. Before lunch I saw first snowing from my laboratory. However, snow was melt on next few days because the temperature turn to warm again. According to Finns, October 2005 was the hottest October in Finland history although the average temperature was 10°C. 10°C consider “hot” ,what say you?

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I have experienced my first “real” winter on last November in Turku, Finland. Before this, I only can “playing” around with the human-made snow at Mines Wonderland in Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia. My girl friend and I have our very first 2 weeks “winter” holiday in Turku, Tampere and Helsinki, Finland this January.

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It is summer now in Finland. Just in time when I return from Malaysia. My Finn colleagues remind me not to forget buy some Finnish Strawberry several times. Yup…I bought some this morning. They are good though and sweet.

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This is a blog I would like to share my travel experiences. Thanks to digital camera nowadays, I can take photos as many as I want without worry about film (but have to concern about the camera memory card :P). I went to several places (not so many yet) and I have snapped some nice pictures (I believe) and I sincerely wish I can share these with you.

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