Paris: Staying with Samuel

Me and Wen took a Ryan Air flight from Skavsta to Paris. Now we're staying in Samuel's flat mostly bumming around while he's sitting in a library during the days finishing off his thesis. I will put up some pictures when I get the chance.

Stockholm: Quick visit

Taking the Swebus from Gothenburgh to Stockholm in the middle of the night, arriving 5:30 to the capital. We had food with us and after a little stroll around the central parts, we had a picknick and slept infront of a statue near the castle. When I woke up there were some tourists taking pictures of us!


Wen before the castle

In the afternoon we went to the East-Asia museum and checked out an exhibition called "China before China" and one about Japaneses tatoo art.


Riddarholmskyrkan. I believe the top of this church was made in Åminne, the tiny place where my parents live.

In the afternoon we took the Airport coach to Skavsta and the Ryanair flight to Paris.

2 days in Göteborg

So, we left Värnamo and are finally on the road. First stop Göteborg and Henrik's wedding. We stayed at my sister Cecilia's place two nights and I showed Wen some of the places where I used to hang out.


On the boat out to the Gothenburg archipelago




Picknick on one of the islands.


Walking in Haga. It's a little bear blowing bubbles on to the street.


Zelmas, a cafe close to my university that I often visited when studying there.


"Killer-disease is spreading in restaurants and cafes in Göteborg". If I survived SARS in Singapore and China then I'm sure I'll be alright from anything in Göteborg.


If you ever go to Beijing and Tiananmen square, go to the 7-11 right to the south-east of Qianmen and check out the poster outside the entrence. There is a picture of the 7-11 shop that can be seen in the background of this picture there!

I failed the exam and I was mighty pissed off. I think I should have a good chance of passing it in October though. They have put up all previous exams and study material on the net (I didn't know that), so now I will be able to prepare a little bit better. Only 2 people passed the exam by the way. I shall have my revenge.

Henrik and Maggie's wedding

"Tager du..."



Me and Wen attended Henrik and Maggie's wedding in Haga parken in Göteborg. I was studying with Henrik back in 96 at Chalmers.

Tina 20!

My sister Tina's birthday! Our little family tradition is to make hot chocolate, some sandwishes, and strawberry cake, and then wake her up early by coming into her room singing the birthday song.

This day was a busy one. After singing for my sister, we rushed to the train station to go to Gothenburg to attend a wedding there.

Fishing

Fishing Day 1


Jakob, me, and Wen went out with the smaller boat.


This is a cruel business if you are a little fish.


No luck that evening. But it was nice just being out on the lake.

Fishing Day 2


Dad in his baby "Ester".



Wen and the sun.


We were quite convinced that the fish in this lake were all dead.


Well, we did finally get the lunch for tomorrow.

Food

These days are pretty relaxing. Most activities have been focused on food. Picking mushroom, cooking, making coffee, and preparing dessert.


Wen putting the final touch on an omelette.


Blueberries and vanilla ice-cream


Finding another tiny-winy mushroom.


Peeling potatoes


To fulfill the Swedish stereotype...


Apple pie


Me, Wen and a bowl of potatoes. And a fish. She still hasn't gone through the fishing experience, though it is also coming up.


Making dumplings

Sofa pic

Wen arrives in Sweden!

Yesterday night I went to pick up Wen at the bus-station. She arrived 3.20 am after flying Ryan Air from Brussels to Stockholm. Today we've toured our great city of 500 people and seen all the essential sights!

More pictures on Wen's blog.

Dealing with it.

There is more than one way to deal with post-exam related stress.


高尔夫 [gāo'ěrfū] golf


Jakob, Johanna, Frank and me enjoying a sunny day with some really bad golfing.

Ouch... Bad exam

I got up yesterday at 4.45am, drove with my sister to Göteborg, and by 8.30am I was writing my math exam. I thought I was well prepared and expected to do well, but it turns out that I didn’t do well at all. Not sure if I failed, but if I passed it was close. Not at all what I wanted. Now I have to wait for the results and plan for making a second attempt. Sucks. I really only went fishing twice!

This is a pretty big setback for me. With one final exam left I would be able to start moving on, since it would be possible for me to ask responsible professor to give me the last exam at any time. They could even send that exam to the embassy in Beijing and let me do it there! I came back to Sweden to do this, spend the last 4 weeks reading for it, and then I’m not sure if I passed. Disappointing. Nothing to do but keeping up the faith and get on with the reading. I want to get this over with and move on. The good news is that I will probably have a new chance to write that exam in just about 8 weeks.

I will start reading on that other exam, start planning for my thesis, and start looking forward to Wen’s arrival in a week or so.

Meatball Hotpot

Me, Tina, and Liu RongZhi

Johanna's friend LiuRongZhi came to visit us and brought with her some stuff to cook hotpot. Liu RongZhi is studying her second year at Växjö University. Johanna was her mentor when she arrived. She was really sweet and brought us all small gifts from China. She came back from her hometown in Hunan just two days ago.


Hotpot is great since it is easy, tasty, and you can basically put in anything in it. In this case it was Chinese-Swedish fusion food, "meatball-hotpot". Sad we didn't have any majiang sauce.

What do I do?

With my exams just some weeks away and I'm well behind my study plan... what do I do?


I go fishing.

Heartbroken...

I was checking out a couple of blogs when something caught my attention... someone had misspelled the word God as "Ghod"... I felt a cold shiver... like a cold hand had taken a hold of my heart... I kept on reading... and then I saw it... "white Christian haters"... it was him... and he was with someone else...

I thought I was special... that he was only coming to my blog... but it turns out he was all over... sucha bastard.. men are such pigs... how could he... I'm heartbroken...

This was found on imagethief.com:

An Open Letter to "Really", the Troll on my Blog

For the past month you have commented on posts on my blog. Often your rebuttals have centered around the theme of “white Christian haters” (meaning Christians who hate others, not people who hate Christians). They have only occasionally been relevant to the posts at hand. They have become increasingly tiresome and offensive.

[]

But with your most recent comment, asking how much a blow job from my (ethnically Chinese) wife would cost, you cross the line. Probably not with her; she is more likely to be amused than offended. And I have no doubt she would eat you alive were your paths ever to cross. But you definitely went over the line with me, and with several of my readers, who have e-mailed me to complain.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Check out the comments. Or don't.
Parents article about China trip
The ultimate ignorant

Tina back home

My sister Tina came back from the States today after having spend a year there as au pair. Her boyfriend Lars picked her up in Stockholm and we had a little welcome party for her when arriving in Åminne. Tina has a blog too.

Exams

This is the view that I will have the coming weeks.

One exam the 17th of August (Complex analysis) and possible a second one the 25th (Fourier analysis). My last two exams. Wish me luck.

I study for an M.Sc in Physics Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

That's what I did before I started working and studying Chinese. Now I want that degree before I move on doing other things.

Plättar

Mum making "plättar". Tiny pancakes put in a little pile.

Fish for lunch

My dad's hobby, our lunch.

Playing games

Family, including grandparents, cousins, and "extensions" visiting this last weekend.


Playing quiz games. We are doing this quite often during our family get-together. I mean, we are all quite different from each other and we have to do something. Playing games like this is a good distraction.

I was dead tired from working 2 weeks in a row with 2 days off. Got me into a shouting row with my sister who thought I wasn't cheerful enough for her. I've been quite worried about the coming exams and I really have to get down to it to make it. Them math exams are pretty tricky. Sigh.

The only survivor

I have finished the work at the old folks howm. Worked here a couple of weeks, something I did last summer as well. This is where my dad works.


A candle is lit next to this clock when someone has passed away. From last year about 1/5 of them have. The clock has stopped, representing the ending of a life.