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Thank God for Skype. With it I spend many hours every day studying together with Wen.

It's better than our dorm...

I was chatting with Wen about a picture I saw in a newspaper. The story is about an executive who is going to jail. Anyone living in Sweden will know what it is about. Let's say that he is not a very popular person. The picture is from the prison where he might spend the next two years. I asked her what the stuff scribbled on the wall means. She said something that is pretty bizarre, but true; the prison cell is actually better then the student-housing at the best university in China.
The prison cell (from an Expressen article)

Here is a link to some pictures from the girls dorms at Peking University. These are pretty nice compared to the guys dorms! And much better to how it was just a couple of years ago.

The writing on the wall.

生無盡 (Simplified characters:生无尽)
Maybe the meaning is "Endless life"?

The character below is probably written incorrectly, because I can't find it in the dictionary.
The closest I can find is 龐 (Simplified:庞) 龐巴
Could it be a name with the meaning "Huge bar"? The radical that is incorrect usually implies something related to disease. Would be interesting to find out who wrote it.

UPDATE(29th May): Tian from Hanzi Smatter told me this:

you are correct about the "endless life".

the two lower characters, the one on the left is a very old one, that means "puss". It is no longer used and replaced with 癑。

癑巴 is a slang term means "whimp" used in various parts of China.

Strangely, when I search for "癑巴" in Baidu I don't get a single hit.

Back from Gotland

Back from Gotland.

Departure

My grandmother has died.
I will got to Gotland for the funeral.
My uncle, my mother, her twin sister, and my grandmother. My grandfather died a long time ago and I have no memory of him.

1.3 billion Potential Believers

Last night my ZhangChi asked me if I wanted to come with him to church. I have to say that I was rather surprised.

Sunday morning we slept in until 11 something and then slowly got up and out. When we entered the mass it had already started. Some 15 people, all Chinese, were sitting listening to the priest. Since I'm not very familiar with religious terms and because a pretty strong accent I can't say that I understood even half what he was saying. After the preaching there was some singing backed up by some music from a laptop and an overhead with the lyrics (I must say it was a little karaoke-like). When it was about to get really boring, it ended and it was time for the reward: food. Well, more like the usual church grub, such as sandwiches, cookies, tea, and coffee.

Kyrk-fika


There is a mass every Sunday for the Chinese students in the Eklanda church. Here is how it works. People from the church let ask senior students pick up the new arrivals when they come to the airport in Göteborg. They will be the first people they meet in Sweden. Later on they will be invited to the church, of course with the promise of some free food. Some students join, and according to the priest there are now groups of former Swedish students in major cities in China. Pretty good missionary tactics I must say.

ZhangChi made Mr Li, the priest, very enthusiastic when he said my dad is a pastor, that I can speak Chinese, and are going back to China. He started talking about makeing plans together and cooperate. It sure looked like he had great hopes for me and he looked very disappointed when I finally managed to get out the fact that I am not a believer.

Well, the whole thing was quite nice and I wouldn't be surprised if I turn up next week as well. If not for the preaching, maybe for the good coffee. I suppose that is what they all say at first... :0

Back in Göteborg

I received my new laptop on Tuesday, and today (Wednesday) I'm back in Göteborg. I've decided to wait for the mountain to move her cute little ass over. Until then I will sit at the department and prepare my thesis as much as I can.

Meanwhile I'm staying with ZhangChi, a friend of Allan and writing thesis together with XieDing, the guy I stayed with the last visit.

Ella

My youngest sister

My mountainous girlfriend

I've been home for almost a week already, and I'm to say the least eager to get going again. A couple of things still keep me here, perhaps the most important is that I don't know where to go.

Maybe some of your are saying something like "Wait, haven't you been saying that you will go back to Beijing like forever and your blog has a really weird name for someone who is hanging around anywhere BUT Beijing". I will try to make it as clear as I can. I was thinking that maybe I will let the mountain come to Muhammad this time, particularly since the mountain is pretty close. "What the hell are you talking about and you are way too close to Denmark to be allowed to even say that M word" you might say then. Well, if I say that I'm Muhammad and Wen is the mountain, maybe both Wen and all Muslims will kill me, or maybe you will understand that Wen (representing Beijing) might come over to Sweden. To study Swedish. So... I was thinking it would be nice if Muhammad and the mountain could stick together.

Since the spring semester rapidly is coming to an end, maybe there is just not much point going right now. But.. what am I supposed to do then?? I'm not going hang around here. I will decide the coming few days. Hey Edward!! Where are you when I need to get really drunk and make decisions?? By the way, do you have an Arabic name? If not, why not?