'Red Tourism' in Chairman Persson's Footsteps

Don't miss CHTV, China Public Television, going on 'Red tourism' [chinaembassy.org] in Sweden. Brought to you by Swedish Television's Faktum. In Chinese with Swedish subtitles.

Episode 1: Vingåker, birthplace of great leader chairman Göran
(Win, Real)
Episode 2: Kathrineholm, the first powerbase of the leader
(Win, Real)
Episode 3: Stjärnhov, the modest home of Göran
(Win, Real)

Also check out the latest episodes of FNN, Freedom News Network (Win, Real)

(The Swedish prime minister since 1996 is Göran Persson, the leader of the Social-democratic party. CHTV is a parody of the Chinese Central TV, CCTV)

Johanna & Jakob Engaged

My sister Johanna and Jakob are engaged! Wonderful news indeed!! I wish them all the best and I am really happy that they have found each other!


This marks a new era in the family of Gustafsson, being the first of my five sisters to reach this stage of life! Putting pressure on the rest of us, particularly the 3 older of us!

;-)

Swedish Election 2006

Yesterday was election day in Sweden!


I was down at the city library of Göteborg and voted. I'm holding up the ticket for the famous Pirate party of piratebay fame. But no, they didn't get my vote. I went down with Jiegen, a Ph.D student from the business school in town. He's held residency in Sweden for more than 3 years, meaning he could actually vote in the regional and local elections (not the national)! I wonder how many mainland Chinese who has actually participated in a free election!

In Sweden you are actually not allowed to put in your vote yourself, so this is someone else's hand putting it in.

As probably most people did, I tested my symphathy with a bunch of online tests. I voted green (mp) in the last election I was quite surprised that they were far down on what should be my preferences. Made things so much easier for me since I wanted a change.

The election was mainly about choosing one of two blocs. The left (S+V+Mp) or the alliance (C+Fp+Kd+M). Who would have thought I would ever vote for a former farmer party (C) !!?

The left which is currently in government lost and the alliance will form the new government.
Today our prime minister will hand in his resignation!

The election results:
Valmyndigheten
Wikipedia

Majiang and Dinner

Majiang in the sun.

Spending Sunday relaxing hanging out with some of my Chinese friends here playing majiang and having dinner together.

I couldn't help asking if they really played majiang back in China, and of course... they didn't. At least where I have been it has mostly been older people doing that. :-) Why not. Come to Sweden to play majiang. I have to admit I have practiced a little playing on my computer, so I actually won this afternoon.
Wuhan doupi, 豆皮. Hard to find in Beijing. Zhang Chi's been craving for some Wuhanese food and spent most of the afternoon cooking together with the girls. Great stuff.

Me with mouth full of food.

Chinese Mass at Landala

New students this last Sunday at the Landala church. Lots of people! Yours truly at upper right corner.

These students are almost all new students from mainland China and it is only a part of all the Chinese students currently studying here. Most of them studying at Chalmers, my Alma Mater, some at the business school in Göteborg, and yet a few study at the Göteborg University. Ten years ago there was hardly any mainland Chinese student coming here to study! Chalmers will offer 44 different Master's programmes in the fall semester of 2007, all tought in English!
(Interested in studying in Sweden? Study in English! No tuition! Blond girls!)

Pastor Li preaches every Sunday and I find it pretty interesting. The last weeks he has been talking about eastern and western thinking. Some have been uploaded on Google Video.

Learning Swedish?

Just a little tip for those of you out there who are learning Swedish.

Radio with easy Swedish: Subscription and downloads

About Klartext

Klartext - news easy to understand.
You can listen to Klartext every Monday to Friday between 18.00 and 18.10 on the Swedish Radio channel P4. You can also listen to Klartext here on our webpage.

Klartext brings you news from Sweden and other countries. Klartext tells the news at a slower pace, with words that are easier to understand.

A webbased course
Nationellt centrum för flexibelt lärande
(easy and quick registration necessary)


Let me know if you know other useful links so I can update them here.
Lycka till! (Good luck!)

Stockholm?

The plans has changed a little.

Me and Wen are planning to move to Stockholm early next year. She is applying for a program at Stockholm University and I have begun to look for a job there.

Wen is back in Beijing even earlier than expected, but she has got her mother to agree to go to Stockholm if she would have something useful to do there. Her grandmother is in hospital and might need some serious surgery so she decided to go back. As it looks like now she will have to come back to Belgium in October to finish some paperwork, and then again return to China, and if all goes well, be back in Sweden around the new year.

The only hope for me going to China right now is if I manage to find a job AND a place to live in Stockholm really quick, and then still have some time. That is not really likely to happen. Well, I wasn't that keen on returning under present circumstances anyway.

Right now I'm staying with Zhang Chi in Göteborg.