Monday, January 28, 2008

Lithuanian Potato Pancakes for my Singaporean Friends

Once upon a time I promised I'll let my friends here try out Lithuanian cuisine. Our famous potato pancakes! Ok, they became Lithuanian only a few decades ago, but we are so proud of them :) I should have though before opening my mouth, as it took a few hours of peeling, grating and baking, with the help of potato team - Bridget (she even contributed with a piece of her skin), Eugene with a friend, Zaiming and Haniffa (did I miss anyone)? Big appreciation guys! But, at the end, they liked it, even without being born in Lithuanian. More than that - apparently, these pancakes are Chinese! Yep, that's what my Chinese friend used to eat as kid.

It was so much fun, once again, with wasted Irish girl messing around, crazy Candy Apples-Bridget transforming Chris to Christina, well and all the rest. I got printed pictures from all good times in Singapore, finally it is me who's leaving :) I'm going to miss so much all people I met here, oh but the world is small, so let me know whenever you pass Europe!

It was all like Erasmus #3, and I'm a bit different person now, definitely for the better :) Well but I missed my Aalborg family as well, see you very soon there!!! You'll have to try out my Asian cooking experiments, but that's not gonna be potato pancakes :p

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Border crossings

Every time you cross a border in SEA, you'll have to fill in a form with your name, passport number, address, etc. Half will be stamped and will go into a pile of paper waste, and another half will go there when you depart. In these times of electronics, the only practical use is to help you memorise your passport number and expiry date.

Yesterday, I had to cross to Malaysia and backwards, cause I was about to become illegal in Singapore after I had returned my trainee pass. And - nice surpirse - no more forms from the 1st of January! Hurray to Malaysia, thumbs down to Singapore - it does not seem they are going to stop collecting paper.

JB is quite a big city right across the border, and the only "attraction" is royal palace with a big garden (Istana Besar). Of course, plenty of nice street food in the center as well :) Malaysia is definitely my favourite, people are not fed up with tourists yet, they talk to you and wave you and make you feel of some importance :D Even the guards in the palace!

Some last sunny pictures here.