Wednesday, April 26, 2006

A happy trip

The day I left Belgium the American gals living in the house wrote me a good-bye note wishing me a 'happy trip'.

Thanks a lot!! Really a pleasure meeting you! And.. hey.. don't use computer software to do the translation next time. I won't do a more accurate translation of that card because future employers might run a search on this site.


The guilty bunch.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Spring and blooming tree


Spring coming to Leuven, maybe it is even possible to go back to Sweden now without freezing my ass off?

Cultural export: Snus!


Cooking dinner together at the house. ZhangJun has been cooking in restaurants for a long time and immediately took charge. Not content with our utensils and available ingredients, he still managed to fry together a great meal!

As a Swedish nationalist and cultural imperialist I imposed one of the exotic products of Sweden on to the to be cultivated crowd, the SNUS.


ZhangJun with a 'prilla'.


Potential advertisement material

With a market potential of 1.3 billion snus consumers, someone ought to pay me a big bag of money. In the future a Chinese model worker will definitely have to use snus.
(Note. Yours sincerely is not a real man and can't take it. I really ought to be criticized and re-educated)

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Cycled home

Tempting, but I think I will still take a plane.
Andy Clapperton (lt) and Jon Smith
The pair left China last July
Two cyclists have arrived in London after riding 10,000 miles (16090km) from China for charity.

Andy Clapperton of Bunbury, Cheshire, and Jon Smith of Great Shelford, Cambs, have raised over £6,500 for Diabetes UK since starting out in July last year.

[]

I studied together with Andy in Beijing and he sure is a cool guy. You can read about their amazing trip on their site Cycle Home.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Birthday cake!


Wen baked a cake for me! So sweet!

Thursday, April 13, 2006

New Topic For My Thesis?

When I stayed in Göteborg, I shared room with Xie Ding for a while. Yeah, one of the guys that went with me to my parents home. He wrote following on his blog:
两个小笑话

上周跟导师喝咖啡,他跟我说了一个关于咖啡的笑话,如果你笑了的话...小子,你学坏了!
在西班牙,人们非常喜欢喝Espresso(一种超浓超苦的咖啡),而且一定要非常烫的喝,才能够品出Espresso的美味。正宗的Espresso 是非常浓的,一般也就喝那么几滴而已,所以西班牙有一种专门喝Espresso的小杯子(类似国内喝白酒的那种),塑料的,很薄。
于是,当你拿起这杯滚烫的Espresso,手就烫伤了。一口喝完这小杯咖啡,舌头也烫伤了。Then, you loose your sexual ability.

第二个是临时室友Johan讲得,属于原创笑话。
Johan喜欢趴在床上睡觉,也就是身体的前面贴床。我跟他说,这样睡对身体不好,特别对男孩子。他马上哈哈笑起来,说他在中国的时候别人也这么说过他。我告诉他我从小就被教育小男孩不要趴着睡觉。他说瑞典没这一说。过了一会儿,Johan突然得出一个结论:
终于知道为什么瑞典人口少,中国人那么多了!
我顿时无语。得,这一重大问题的根源就这么被发现了,是否足够写一篇Master Thesis了呢?
So... maybe this is what I should write my thesis about...
(I apologize to anyone who doesn't read Chinese, but I won't translate this.)

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

CHTV - China Public Television

CHTV - China Public Television

No, not CCTV, CHTV! The Swedish version!
This ought to be one of the more bizarre TV programs I have ever seen. It is a parody of a CCTV (China Central TV) style newsprogram praising the Swedish Social-Democratic party. The thing is, they actually do speak in correct putonghua about current Swedish events, and interview folks in China about them. Must be a pretty small clique that can appreciate that! Check it out if you know Chinese, or are slightly interested in Sweden. Just do it anyway. Crazy to see old people in some park in Beijing praise the fitness of Per Nuder.

Check out the shows!

CHTV Home Page

The games are put under the not so culturally sensitive name "Den lilla Kinesen", The little Chinese.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Back in Leuven


Sunburned, tired, hungry, and happy.