To Julie

Dear 紫薇,

You know I always try my best to be fair enough between you and Mabel. So, these few days I had this little guilty feeling for not being fair to you lately. I know you wouldn't mind but I do. (Well you know how I am.)

Ok, now you will say, "What's now, come to the point, please?" Well, what I want to say is, I own you a page of message on my blog here since Mabel got hers. ^_^....sorry I am getting older, it does takes time to come to the point. What I want to say is...

I am happy
....you Vibered me two days ago.
... you then called me and we had a real chat instead of continuing with just the texting.
... you get the new part time job.
... you already get used of the new city.
....you taught me how to use "Snapchat" and I got addicted to it now!
... you moved back to Sweeeeden last year!

I am proud of you
....that you did it again! Every time after you went for an job interview, you would then got the job!
... that you made it through the tough times in England all by yourself in almost 5 years.
... that you are now toughter than you think you are.
... that you are confident, intelligent, independent and kind-hearted.
... that you are a good sister and best friend to Mabel.
... that you and Mabel understand me more than I understand myself.

I am going to say the same thing to you which I told Mabel:

You know I am just a Viber, sms, facebook or  just a call away whenever you need any help or need someone to talk about anything. I am happy to listen to any of your updated information about your new job, your new life, your new friends etc.

P.S.

I Miss you and I love you!

想念你！爱你！

To Mabel

I am happy

......you called just now.

......you have found a place to stay in the new city.

......you have good feeling about your new landlord who is kind and nice

......you have met new friend.

......you are excited about your new school

......things start to go smoothly for the past few days since you moved last Sunday.

......you are sharing your excitment, your thoughts, your happiness with me.

  
I am proud of you

......that you are ready to face the new challange in your new path even though you are a bit scared.

......that you have managed so much in your life by yourself for the pass three years.

......that you have grown and shined confidently in the pass three years.

..... that you didn't swear about the pains on your knees  :)... (my heart hurts though...)

......that you are my daugther who is caring, sensible, smart, humorous, creative.

You have to believe in your abilities and your strengths, have more confidence to use them, 

I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!

As I always tell you and Julie, I'm not rich enough to give you whatever you want, but I'm rice with endless love for you girls. Wishing you all the best in your study!

You know I miss you everyday, but I will not call you everyday. So, please call whenever you have time. You know I am just a phone call, a sms, a snapchat, a Wechat, a Viber or a FB away. Love you!

Chique Terre 意大利的五渔村

静悄悄地和一位马来西亚来的好朋友到意大利的五渔村 cinque-terre 潇洒走一回。先从看Pisa的斜塔开始，然后从Pisa 做火车出发到那儿。
只是短短四天的旅游， 回来瑞典后，我已经开始计划下一趟的重游。

Pisa旅馆的其中一张照片

Pisa的街景之一

Pisa斜塔

贵族的坟墓宫

贵族的坟墓宫

贵族的坟墓宫

已经好久没吃到那么新鲜的墨鱼了

ChiqueTerre 其中的一个村，Vernazza ，也是我们住宿了三个晚上的地方

要看风景，只有爬山到最高处才能享受到那种到了天堂的感觉

Manarola

我可以坐在那儿一整天看风景也不会闷。心旷神怡的感觉原来是这样的。

好像回到镔城，像中学爬升旗山时的感觉

新鲜的橙子和柠檬混合的果汁，再加上冷冷的矿泉水，欣赏水连天的景色，这就是享受人生了。

太可爱的花

好像毛虫一样的花

长发姑娘

到处都是柠檬树

温馨的老夫妇

回到瑞典， touch down 前

My clumsy Swedish pronunciations :P

I have promised to get back to this.  In general many of Chinese speaking people (who has Chinese as their mother tongue) I have met in Sweden don't really properly pronounce Swedish words which ended with a consonant like "b, d, f, h, k, l, m, p, s, t, v. (exception for those who are very good in speaking English, who are also very good in speaking Swedish).

I belong to those group who don't pronounce the last consonants properly when I am tired or careless with my speech, so embarrassed to say this but I am trying hard to control my speech everyday.  I am really so thankful to my Swedish friends and guests who have the patience to listen to me, and trying hard to understand what I am trying to tell them, and some of them will smoothly and indirectly correct me by repeating the same words I have pronounced wrongly in their conversation so that I can catch their hint and notice my mistake.

Well, we have to understand that in Chinese's phonetic system, "Hanyu Pinyin", use these consonants "b, d, f," etc as the first syllable in every Chinese word but don't end the pronunciation in Chinese word with these consonant, and that's why Chinese like me who are careless and not aware about it, will unconsciously forget to pronounce  the last consonant in Swedish words clearly and properly which in result will sometimes confuse the Swedish listeners.  Furthermore, there are long vowel and short vowel sound in Swedish, and a few other weird (to me) phonetic sounds (please read more about it if you are interested in Swedish_phonology)  which are not even closed to any Chinese phonetic sounds.

So although some Swedish people think I speak fluently but I know I'm still struggling with this Scandinavian language everyday. I have the best Swedish teacher at home, my darling, Mabel who has been trying very hard to guide me and teach me the Swedish pronunciation in many years, and yet, sometimes my mouth and tongue are too tired and too stiff to hit the right tone. Ok, let's cut the story short.. let me start with the best part of today's title.

In Swedish, "kort" means "short"  ( it can mean"card" too but the pronunciation is different)

Let's focus only on the first one which pronounce as "k-or-t" . the "or" in between sounds like "O" in English with a slight "r" sound after before ended with the "t" sound.

The word "kåt" means "horny" in Swedish, which sounds like "k-O-t", the "å" sounds like "O" too.

Swedish people in general are super tall and in their eyes I am super short. So, many many years ago I always tried to practice my Swedish with the following line when I met a tall Swedes,

"Hej, du är väldigt lång, jag är väldigt kåt" = "Hi, you are very tall, and I am very horny"

Oops! my "kort" easily became "kåt" sounds. (The problem was I didn't even know what "kåt" meant at that early years when I just started to learn Swedish!)

So, I don't know how many guys' (perhaps) women's sexual imagination have been turned on by me every time I hit that word "kåt" until one day a guest told me I have pronounced the word "kort" wrongly.  We have a Swedish karaoke song called " Sommaren är kort" (The Summer is short).  I have to pronounce it with microphone every time a guest wants to sing it. So, one night,  it was very honest of that one guest who approached me and told me after he sang that song, "The Summer is not horny, are you?" 

Tomas Tranströmer

Tomas Tranströmer 是瑞典最优秀的诗人之一，也是个心理学家和翻译家。 2011年获得了瑞典的诺贝尔文学奖，我也是在那年才知道他的存在。他在两个月前去世了。留下了无限值得读一读的作品。

我不是个狂爱读诗句的发烧友，但是当年他获奖后，我好奇地上网搜了一搜他的诗集作品。那年心血来潮，诗瘾蠢蠢欲动，把他其中一段我很喜欢的诗翻译到中文。昨晚收拾旧文件时，在我那堆积了几年的、一些当年上哥德堡大学中文系时的手抄功课课本中，找到了我那年的一点点诗情。应该是我那时上课时不专心，在课堂上诗瘾兴起，偷偷地写下翻译的。也或许当时心情不好，有点诗人悲情的冲动，但是又没有诗人丰富的幻想构思才华，所以只能翻译Tomas的诗来过过瘾。。

虽然现在是五月了，但是心情还是一样能和Tomas的这段诗齐共鸣。重读我的翻译，很想更改一些些，但是还是喜欢我当年直接翻译的心情，所以还是把它放上来献丑一下。

The Swedish Language

I must admit that after staying a quarter century in Sweden, my Swedish is still like what the Chinese says, "ban tong shui 半桶水", meaning "Half a bucket of water.". Still don't get it? :) It means not good enough

It's amazing though some Swedish friends find it charming when I hilariously pronounce a word or a phrase without even notice that I have said something which is hilarious, wrong or inappropriate. They will laugh it out loud even though I was not making a joke or I really express the pharse seriously. I know they don’t mean to be rude but they can’t help not to have fun with it. 

Well, What can I say? I started learning Swedish when I was 21 years old.. (Linguistics experts say it is easier to master a second language if one starts learning it before puberty. Of course if I have been very hard working and ambition enough, I could have mastered the language long time ago, but since I could use “puberty” as an excuse, I can actually tell the Swedes why I cannot really master their language because  I came to Sweden after my puberty, just that simple. ^_^

On the other hand, I have to say that Chinese is far easier than Swedish! I am not the one who makes this assumption. It is professor Lars-Gunnar Andersson, who is the expert in Linguistic typology at the Gothenburg University confirmed this at his lecture. 

So, Swedish is harder to be learned and the pronunciation is beyond my Chinese accents level to handle it beautifully.

I am going to save the best stories about of my hilarious pronuntion today.  I am not going to talk about the grammar either. First, I would like to share with you one of the most fun mistakes people always make (even the Swedes) when writing the language. Swedes likes to join their words together. If you don’t join them together, it will mean differently.


At restaurant
1. Smoking is totally forbidden inside a restaurant/café in Sweden, but what would you do when you see this sign “Rök fritt” inside a restaurant while “Rök fritt” means "free to smoke"?  and the correct one is of course “rökfritt” (non-smoking)

   
2. Dagensrätt “kyckling lever med kul potatis” 
(Today’s menu: Chicken is alive with fun potatoes, do you want to order one? :)
Correct one: "kycklinglever med kulpotatis" = Chicken lever with potatoes (potatoes are served in its original form)

Description on a contact advertisment.
 Jag är en mörk hårig sjuk sköterska. = I am a dark hairy sick nurse.

The correct one should be : ”Jag är en mörkhårig sjuksköterska” = I am a dark-haired nurse.

One of the most common used words,  " jätte"

 Jätte means "giant" but it also means "very much" as an adverb to describe a situation or thing etc.

Ex 1) jätte roligt = Giant fun, or "jätteroligt" = really fun!

Ex 2) jag är jättesur på dig! = I am really piss at you! , so if you write " Jag är jätte sur på dig!" what do you think it means? 

That's all for now. 

Have a Fun Day! Hugs

我怀念的故乡

最近突然又想过回学生生活，所以就去哥德堡大学报名修一个冷门的课。其实很多瑞典的年青人都在哥德堡大学学习初级和中级的中文或汉学，可是到了最高班时总是剩下小猫两三只，最主要的是 advance lever读的是中国历史文学，很多学生就会失去兴趣了。 我报名修读这个课程，是想乘机练习中文，同时也练习和学习瑞典文。因为大多数的作业是要把中文翻译去瑞典文的。整个课程是由两位瑞典汉学教授，用80%瑞典文和20%中文来讲课的。

不好意思，好像有点离题 了， 其实没有。教授上个星期要我们用1000个字，手写一篇有关一个我们喜欢的地方或家乡的文章。我第一个念头就是想写槟城。以下是我已写好的稿，明天会把它抄到四方格的纸上。现在先让你们过目，看看我有没有写错，如有别忘了告诉我哦！

"我出身在马来西亚半岛的西北部一个山明水秀的小岛。小岛的首府乔治市是马来西亚的第二大城市，也是最多华人居住的城市。这个我怀念的故乡就是在世界上有点小名气的旅游胜地 - 槟城，也被称为称槟榔屿，因为很久以前这岛上种满了许多槟榔树。

槟城在15世纪时已经和中国通航，这个有历史根据的航行被纪录在一部中国舟师使用的海道针经《顺风相送》里。后来在17世纪马来西亚被英国占领了，而槟城在那时成为了一个重要的海峡殖民地港口和一个商業活動中心，这些有历史性的记载和演变给槟城留下了丰富的文化遗产和古迹。做为一个重要的贸易港口，当时的槟城提供了就业和做生意的机会，让槟城也成了早期中国人移居的地方。乔治市在2008年荣誉地被联合国教科文组织列为世界文化遗产地。

近年来槟城在一些著名的生活旅游网站和杂志中，被评选为“亚洲10大最佳小吃城市”之一、世界第四大退休后最适合居住城市，以及“在全球40大最佳旅游景点”的排名中獲得第八名。可见得在槟城已世界旅游业上获得了一个被肯定的地位。

槟城还有个吸引游客并让流连或居住在外国的槟城人怀念的特点，就是它应有尽有的丰富的美食文化！在英国之前马来西亚也曾被荷蘭和葡萄牙统治过，再加上以前槟城是个重要的海峡殖民地港口，在货物交换和贸易的流程中，来自不同国家的人同时也留下了其他的文化，其中就是他们的美食文化，这些美食的烹饪传统方法世代相传下来，让槟城的美食文化融合了中国、荷蘭、葡萄牙、马来土著、印度等多元化的特色，所以2014年槟城被《孤独星球》杂志中评选为全球美食城的冠军确是实至名归。

好奇的瑞典人常问我一个问题，既然槟城那么好，为什么我不搬回去而留在哥德堡这个小城市。我自己有时也会自问为什么，而且还一住就住了二十五年呢?

最主要的原因是我父母亲都不在了，在槟城除了亲戚朋友我没有其他社交的联络网，而且在瑞典落脚了那么多年，我已和槟城脱了节。再加上我每次回去所看到的槟城都离我童年记忆里的印象越来越远，而且槟城近十年来的迅速发展，到处建了高楼大厦购物中心，造成人口周密交通阻塞，空气污染指数恶化，有时达到不健康的水平，这些种种问题让我打消了搬回乡的念头。

如果你是爱好文化的旅游美食家，那我还是会推荐你到槟城游览一趟。如果你想把槟城全部的美食都一一尝尽，那么就在这小岛呆上一个星期吧。除了享受美食，别忘了也要同时享受槟城的热带海边风情和游览历史古迹。

边走边看边吃是在槟城享受假期的最好方式，也是我每次回去家乡渡假时最爱做的事！"

我在电脑中找到一些旧照片，在此回味一下，解解思乡之愁。。有很多和亲戚朋友一起拍的照片，没经他们的同意，不敢放上来，只能在这里跟他们说，除了想念槟城，我更挂念他们。

我妈的宝贝之一，阿红

妈妈当年的拿手家常便饭

我的母校 槟华女子中学

我的好友昌铭带我到大山脚吃的潮州粥

除了这张照片我不必问,顺风不会介意的，因为他太可爱了，所以要把它放上来。

韩国料理。。

昌铭带我去吃的泰国甜品，不是槟城道地的，但是是我想念的

我想念的琪琪，那年她才五岁吧。还有另外三个小宝贝，没有他们戴太阳眼镜的照片，没问过父母，不敢放上来。

我的老家