June 2006 Archives

Just a short message for all of my blog fans: tomorrow there will be no new blog entry,till next Wed.

OK,everyone have a happy weekend! Thanks for all your supports!

This friday I will go to iceland, first in Reykjavik and then drive around. Luckily I have a "private driver".
Iceland for me like a pure land,no pollution,not much people. Mountains,grass,snow.....It is one island so far from other places. It sounds like from another world. Of course I will go to the blue lagoon and enjoy the hot spring....
I will be back next Wed. So will write more about the trip. Hope the weather there will be good!

Now in Finland the shops are already started the summer sale,every year after the midsummer day the shops will start the sale. Well, it is a little bit early for me to call it summer sale,but it is real. Yesterday I went to some shop and saw much more people there choosing things. Now in the begining of the sale some things are about 30% off,later it will be 50% off. But really good things will not change price.
Here every year about 2 times this kinda sale,one is after new year and the other is after midsummer day. But in China,there are at least four times sales : after the chinese new year, during the May labor day,summer end ( about in August),during the October national holiday.
I do not know about other countries,but when these times come, I all always can see lots of people in the shops!
Finnish means "on sale"

Yesterday we were riding our bicycle again,since the weather is good. We went to a park not too far from where we live now. Well, park in Finland is not the same as in China, the park here is more like natural forest things, not like in China,park means lots of man made things.
But the park is big,big forest without lake. I like the summer here in Finland, but only for June,July and August three months. The rest are cold and boring. If I can choose then I will choose to stay in Finland for these three months and go somewhere else during the winter time.
Then where is that ideal place? I am still looking for.

Yesterday we went to the seurasaari at about 23:30, while we were walking there we saw lots of people walking out,got little bit confused at that time? We assumed that the fire will be started at 24:00. Then we bought the tickets (12 euro per person, and normaly the island is free). Then We saw the introduction said that the fire is from 21 to 22, after that there are almost nothing left.

Well, I wonder why they still sell the ticket? for what ? do not understand that ? So anyway we bought the ticket,we still went in and saw the left little bit fire still.
That is really a good Juhannus day and a pleasant thing.

This weekend will be the midsummer day,juhannus in finnish. That the day that the sun will shine almost all the day, and after that the day will become shorter and shorter,also in Finland that the summer is going away.

People will light a big fire in someplace,especialy in some island, and sit around it and drink and enjoy it. This is a quite traditional festival among nordic countries.
Here is one link from Wikipedia about midsummer-- Midsummer

Well, next month will be my traveling month,since it will be the best season in Europe. We will start from Iceland then go to France,Luxmberg and Germany.
But there are still so many places I have not been and have not seen! The world is big and life is short.
Let's enjoy everyday of our lifetime!

God! I am sick again, a bad cold and so suddenly. The weekend was nice and good. Then from yesterday my nose started running and headache also started. Today it is getting worse,the temperature is hign,especially for the rooms in Finland,no air conditioning and fan.
Hope I can get better soon! Do not like this time, already the second time this year and the last time was just 2 months ago.

Today Nokia and Siemens agreed to merge their communications service provider bisunesses. Well in the news it said that it will be a 50-50 joint venture.In a way someone said Siemens wanted to sell this department for awhile because of the profit problems, and also Nokia is not very good at its own this part either.
Hope this merge will be good and hope they will not lay off too much people,but think there will be about 10% of that department employees lose job.
This is the trance for the big companies...

Yesterday was really good weather, lots of people and turists gathered in front of the big white church in Helsinki. Well also some of the Samba girls, not sure Samba is only for woman to dance,but I really did not see men dancing this time.

Sun is shining,I can say it is hot for a northern country like Finland. I and my friends waited on the stairs of the church. At three O'clock the carnaval started. Lots of beautiful girls ( finnish girls) and very colorful costums. Some of them were dancing quite good,can not imagine that they are finnish,traditionaly finnish is very quiet,but some of them showing this dance quite good.Lots of people also gathered along the street. Well,first time to see in Finland also have so many people! Music is loud,dance is high and people are happy!
As one of my friend said that this is one easy way for finnish people to get happy without alcohol.
I went there with the brazilian girl and she knows some brazlilian people whom gave the performance, one of the black singer was really looks like Samuel Jackson.(the Holywood actor)
The carnaval took quite long ( 2 and half hours), then I met my mother in law and also aunt. We went to a korean restaurant ( the only one in Finland). It was a really good day and happy day!

This weekend I will be alone,in such good weather.
Well,I will go to the Samba carnaval tomorrow and will meet my mother in law also. So the weekend will go very quick.
Hope everyone have a good weekend!

This Saturday I will go to see the Helsinki Samba Canaval,well all the dancing girls will be finnish,let's see how the finnish girls can express this dance.
Well, in the summer it is good that to have some event like this,to attract more turists and make the local people more happy. As I heard that all these girls went to Brazil to learn Samba dance and they also had preformed in China once. I missed that time but this time I will go to see their performance.

Today I am just thinking that some of my friends we already known each other for 10 years! Really long time for me. I still can remember in Sep. 1996, when all the new students together went to the army training, I got to know my friends since that time, and we had a very good time during the 4 years in the university. After we graduated,everybody got busy with work and family, and now most of us were married and some had babies....
So fast,still like yesterday we were joking about who would get married first....
Good luck to all my good friends!

I read from Forbes.com that they have a list of 25 the best and 25 the worst paying jobs in the US. Do not know if it is true in the other coutries,but it seams in China it has the similar situation. The 25 best paying jobs are most medical practitioners. And the 25 worst paying jobs are related to food,like fast food cook,waiter...

Well, the most interesting thing is I found also they have a list of new jobs will exist in 20 years,I am interested to be like animal guardian(more like a lawyer for the animal) and space tour guide. They are sounds more interesting to me.
Ok, the most important thing is to practise from now on,then when there is chance then there will be this job...

Well, today is really a summer day! Sun is shining and birds are singing and with little bit wind. All the people here hurrying to wear the summer clothes, who knows 2 months later it will be autumn. Summer is so short!

Today is really a good summer day,temperature is about 20 degrees,nice! Just went out for running,saw some of the girls just wear bikinis sit in the sunshine. Yes! the sunshine is the most expensive thing here,well even you have money you can not buy it.
The world cup began again,well there is no finnish football team in the match, so not so much big funs around the neighbourhood. But I am sure there will be lots of people in the bars in the city to watch the match together.

Well, it is not really summer temperature. But I still feel tired during the summer time.
The weather report said that it will break into 20 degrees next week,who knows! hope it will.
Happy weekend to everyone then! Have a happy summer weekend!

Summer is coming? I am not sure,since now I still need to wear like what I wear in the spring.Now in China some place is already 40 degrees,well I am not really like it,but summer like just 10 degrees I do not like either.
As what I feel that in Finland is only two seasons: half year with white snow or dirty snow&ice, that is the snow season;half year without snow but temperature is not high enough to call it summer,that is the no snow season. So only two seasons.
I think I prefer a place that have more differeces,not only temperature differences but also...

Today in China is a very important big test day, 10 years ago I was in this test too. 10 years!! so long ago! It was for the university entrance test,every high school graduate will attend this test ( when you are about 18yo).
Well this test is in July for a long time and lately changed into June,because the weather is pretty hot in July and also because of the stress,lots of students fainted during the test... Well , I say it is test maybe better say it is a battle, and I was the soldier and together with all the other students we were fight with all the difficult tests. Normally it last 3 days and incluiding Chinese,Maths,English plus 2 others things( you can choose from the combination of chinese&world history and politic or physics and chemistry).
I am not very good at physics, then I had history and politic. For this test,preparation time is about 1 year, it was really a hard year!
Ok,maybe this is not easy to imagine for students from other countries. But China is like such education system that we had so big and important test every year.

So quick! It is already half year of 2006 passed. Never imagine it can go so fast, so many things need to do but time is so little.
Anyway we planed our trip in Europe during next month quite good, hope the trip will go good too.

Well today was funny that one of my classmate whom from Belgium, he gave a good Chinese tea demostration during the class. He brought some of the Pu er tea ( Chinese black tea which only in Yun nan can be found) and some of the Chinese tea pot and cups.
He is very interested in the Chinese tea culture and Chinese handwritings. Well, I have to say that he even knows more about tea things than I do. Even I am Chinese and suppose I should know more,but ....
I am still happy to see that people interested in my culture and language....
Weather is also good today,sun is shining but a little bit windy...temperature still not like in summer,only about 18 degrees.

Today it is the 17th year for the Tian an men protest in China. 17 years ago I was about 11yo,not really knowing the reason of all this things,but I got pretty scared at that time. There was no school during that time and not allow to go outside home because it was suddenly became so dangerous. But I was at my grandparents' home,then my parents decided to let me go back to them, there was no public transportation and my father rode his bicycle to get me back. On the way we saw lots of soldiers with guns and lots of tanks in the city. It was not like the city I used to see any more.Everywhere just soldiers and people,shops are closed and no one looked happy any more.
And at that night,I heard lots of big noises like fireworks. But my parents told me that is not fireworks and I should not look from the window because that was dangerous. The second day (5.Jun.1989) my father still went out, but soon he got back and told my mama that he had to run back because everywhere is bullet and dead people....
So scaring days,now it is already for 17 years. I hope that the government could choose a right way to solve problems.
Here is a link about this event in wikipedia 6.4 Tian an men protest

Mate is pronounced like [ma:te],it is kinda herb tea from South America. I was lucky since I have one classmate from Argentina,and yesterday she brought some of this herb tea and some of the special cups and straw for this tea.

It tasted a little bit bitter,a littlbe bit like Chinese medicine.But she added quite much sugar then it still tasted like medicine,but it was that kinda nice medicine.
This products is hardly found in Finland and quite expensive,do not know if you can find in your palce.I have never seen it in China.
Here is one link I found from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mate">Yerba mate.

Today is the international children's day. But not every country celebrated it on the 1st,June. When I was little,this day I will get some extra candies and some children books...I always thought that it is good to be a child and did not want to grow up, and the children in the world were so lucky and happy.
But slowly I know that not every countriy celebrated on this day,it can be on different date.
Anyway still wish all the children in the world are happy and have a great day today!