dad's perspective

paris :)

notre dame

the louvre


eifel

taking it to the streets :)

mom's delight


梦幻 switzerland






there was one that zooms into mom's street dancing shoes de... dad deleted dy..........




mom u soooo cute ^^

netherlands



dad's uncanny animals shooting skills... erm... i mean that shooting, not THAT shooting... tho he'd also been very well trained in THAT shooting... ="=|||


belgium

london :)
west minstrel abbey

royal guard at buckingham palace

newton the wax

oxford



have i mention dad's uncanny animal shooting skills?.........




stockholm~~~~~~

stockholm's royal guards at kungslottet. which is real and which is fake? ^^

sad fox, sad me(?) ooi! i'm missing my long hair already T.T

gothenburg
walking zorro in the woods surrounding härlanda tjärn :)

and goodbye europe, tht's the islands of maldives

sri lankan buffet that spices off a relatively long journey


ya, i know i still owe you my "no fuss bergen" trip...
and "carbonization india" (in chinese, coal and carbon uses the same word. and we suspect that going to india at this time of the yr will coal-colourize our complexion) is coming up soon...
but i juz cant help showing off dad's work XD

sista sången

the last song - x japan

Watching the stars till they're gone
like an actor all alone
who never knew the story he was in
who never knew the story ends
like the sky reflecting my heart
all the colours become visible
when the morning begins
I'll read the last line

* owaranai ame dakishimeta yoru ga asa wo mukaeru
kokoro wa mada nureta mama

(translation: embracing this fine intermittent rain
night moving towards dawn
but the heart has already been drenched)

in endless rain, I've been walking
like a poet feeling pain
tryin' to find the answers
tryin' to hide the tears
but it was just a circle
that never ends
when the rain stops, I'll turn the page
the page of the first chapter

# kizu tsuku dake kizu tsuite wakatta hazu no kotae wo
doushite mada toikaketeru?
(translation: still being hurt
the answers that should have been understood
why persist with the questions?)

am I wrong to be hurt
am I wrong to feel pain
am I wrong to be in the rain
am I wrong to wish the night won't end
am I wrong to cry
but I know, it's not wrong to sing The Last Song
cause forever fades...

ki ga tsukeba mata hitori yoru no sora wo mitsumeteru
sukoshi zutsu kieteyuku OUR MEMORIES
(translation: just having discovered something
nevertheless yet again gazing the night sky alone
slowly they vanish and fade away OUR MEMORIES)

I see red
I see blue
but the silver lining gradually takes over
when the morning begins
I'll be in the next chapter

...

today, tomorrow and thursday

my last three days in sweden wei~~~
sweden.
sweden...
sweden.....
when i take myself out of my own life and look at it, sweden still sounds mystical somehow ^^ my sincere gratitue to those who make these two exhilarating years a reality, not mentioning those who gave me their blessings and supported me throughout :)

karin: what do you like best in sweden?
asa: hm... there are so many things i dont know which one to choose from. ak, right, it's probably the nature!
karin: aaah... javisst (ofcoz)! (then she started to go on and on about how beautiful is norway's landscape instead.../swt)

the woods surrounding the härlanda lake has kept me stay put in this same basement which has no doubt become a cozy home throughout my time here. the nature, with some help from the weather, has turned me into a walker. i hardly spend a week without walking more than an hour at a time. i hardly spend a week without venturing into the woods also ^^ my visitors too, get to have a taste of the nature as slottskogen (the castle forest), härlanda woods, and the islands have proven to be among the most-popular-destinations-asa-likes-to-lure-ppl-to :P

karin also wanted to know what do i hate most in sweden. but since she turned the topic to norway, i din hav to answer it XD anyway, i do have an answer to that. an easy one for me. the distance, away from people dearest to me. easy hey?

today, i shall do the second round of cleaning to make my room gleam and sparkle, do the last round of laundry, and stay away from food that might make me sick XD
tomorrow, i shall give away and post away everything that would be useful...
thursday, i shall do the final round of cleaning to make my room whitewahsed ="= no, juz some final touches... and final packing, and... yup, need to say goodbye to the woods :)

the second painting

we again let red and gold (gryffindor? hey i'm a slytherin! or at least a ravenclaw!) run riot on our face. riot is never everyone's cup of tea. so prepare to swallow XD


leemin's was a bomb XD her face painter decided it was worth taking a picture as a samples :D and de kid after her turn wanted to wear a mask "just like hers"!


i kinda like mine, tho i think the lady with the brush hadnt really finished her job yet XD a few more swirls down the side of the cheek would look nicer ^^ we were there when the face painters had no other customers, it was serbia vs belarus, two teams that are relatively unsupported in sweden? guess that's why my face painter decided to have her artisticality(?) unboundedly expressed on the top left of my face ^^ it was when a few others came queueing that she decided she'll stop swirling her brushes on me.

and we were booed many times that night. spain was playing finland XD i applauded the finnish fans in return. they were simply awesome for their country, or their neighbouring country, since many of them actually speaks swedish and are presumably swedes...

action packed!

woooh~~ blessed~ ^^ sunny til sunday and 20 odd degrees til next tuesday!

two things, one is blackle, the black google,
www.blackle.com
absolutely the same function as google but an energy saving version. since it is energy consuming to display the white (therefore brightest) background of google, they decided to make a difference by doing a simple thing, i.e. launching blackle :) my dear friends and loved ones, pls help them help us save energy :)

the 2nd thing is the U21-EM pics ^^ posted loads of them on facebook, now here for your perusal ^^

should start with my 串样, haha... a very confused girl, spain face and england jersey?? nOnO, i wear on your behalf de...

this was how it was done...
step 0: smooth smooth clean face

step 1: yellow~~~

step 2: red~~~

step 3: done!


and mine... the fire of spain! ^^


game 1: spain vs germany


Gamla Ullevi stadium and the crowd

game 2: spain vs england

see walcott? he's de one in red boots :)

game 3: finland vs spain, my camera mati XD all pics in leemin's. funny i know both national anthems well enough~~^^ the blue and white suomi are so scary!!! they are invading sweden in numbers! S.U.O.M.I

fan zone, our zone ^^

leemin airwalk ^^ the goal kicking place where i won de lanyard v^.^


we also watched sweden trashed belarus 5:1 at the fan zone, where the atmosphere was fantastic ^^ then we watched them lost to italy 2:1 in my favourite local bar. again a wonderful experience as we shared one of the best desert i'd ever tried~~

the swedish team's football sent such a positive message that no one will be able to not like them! skillful toivonen (suspected to be a spy from finland... so so so skillful), clinical berg (scored 5 already in 3 games!) and elm! that crazy rasmus elm! he is good! big clubs, grab him!

oh, and we kept bumping into the spanish players on the streets. 4 times... ="= uncanny? some big names we met: bojan, raul garcia, miguel torres. and some we predict going to be big: sergio asenjo, sisi (he added and chats with leemin on facebook nowaday ="=) too bad the likes of cesc, da silva, mata, busquets and pique are playing in south africa... otherwise... otherwise...

anyway, ericsson presentation on friday! then it's end of business! :D

midsommaren

the midsummer festival, as lisa said, it is the most swedish of all swedish festivals :)

they celebrate it differently from all other countries, where the danes and finns burn witches XD in sweden, leaves and flowers are gathered to place on the may-pole, and also to make wreaths. they then dance around the may-pole along their traditional songs, with their taste buds enjoying boiled fresh swedish potatoes, herring, and juicy strawberries and cream as desert. they dance and dance til night falls, although the day doesnt really get dark at this time of the year.

it is believed that herbs and plants are most potent on this particular day. girls and young ladies are supposed to pick seven different species of wild flowers on their way home and lay them under their pillow and they will dream about their future husband ^^

may-pole infront of crystal palace

the making of flower wreaths ^^



simply awesome :D

dad and mom in stockholm :D

good enough reason to abandon the blog for half a month? ^^

cuping every last drops of life in sweden :) how fitting to have the U21-EM to drape the last weeks... gothenburg, host city to an international tournment :D and midsummer fest coming up!

went to the spain-germany game with a few friends. which ended goaless in the chants of "espana *clap x3*" and "deutschland *clap x3*".

leemin and i then went to de fan zone on de 2nd day, to watch sweden demolish belarus by 5-1 with the locals under a warm bright sun, and under a big outdoor screen. at the game stands, my pitiful shooting skill somehow won me a laneyard by scoring one, unexpected ^.^ we then met bojan and co having dinner in nordstan XD and took pics wf him and another guy we suspect is their man of match keeper sergio asenjo (a.k.a. casillas II), lagi unexpected ^___^


hopefully more updates of the tournament, midsummer fest, and pics from bergen and mom and dad will come soon :) u ppl be happy, good luck, jiayou and stay away from hospitals ;)

sista månaden

done :)

thesis defence yesterday. it was such an adrenaline filled day. as lisa put it, "the best day i've had since discovering that the RSAII machine is not broken (by us, i shall add)". again, with all the adrenaline rush, the day felt so long... 24hrs is hardly enough for all to sink in, and thus i'm not prepared to write too much about the events yesterday. all in all, i am now officially a master graduate. for now, it's more a relieving "sigh" than a jubilent "yay".

sista månaden, the last month. my last month on this soil of spring flowers, summer breeze, autumn colours and winter snow. it is not to be wasted, and therefore it can only be action packed, with mom and dad visiting (T.T always the best...), which will end with my short trip to legendary Bergen in norway (sista solo?), and immediately followed by the UEFA U21 championship, where gothenburg is going to host (and i'm going to watch) the likes of theo walcott, agbonlahor, bojan, mata, gerard pique et al., where also a friend will be travelling south from sandviken while another flying over from malaysia for a little more than a week to celebrate the games. cant help anticipating :)

then there shall be a company presentation in ericsson somewhere before my goodbyes, where lisa and i will need to present our thesis again. ericsson also confirms their promiss to donate a tensile tester to chalmers, which our supervisor, dear o' rodney, is considering to name after us... "the L&T tensile tester". well, u might or might not know that lisa is a Lundberg, and i'm a Tan. i personally only care about how much are they gonna pay us... XD

taken at chalmers station.
dont u agree this gentleman looks a bit too much like our tan-gonggong? ="=

the CL final

a well writen article from eduardo alvarez, a soccernet.espn journalist, gave me a lashing. i should really stop producing crappy posts, no excuse! XP

Winning over one of the madridistas (click to read article), was the title of the article. madridistas is a collective noun for the real madrid football club supporters. both eduardo and i are part of the noun :P i love to read eduardo becoz his articles give an inside view of how spaniards celebrates their futbol like a religion; how battles in politics are transfigured into battles on the green fields in the country. this particular article is about barcelona's wonderful win over manchester united in the champions league final.

doing it the benitez style:
fact 1: madridistas love to hate barcelona. arch rivals, politics, it's red hot...
fact 2: for goodness sake, i AM a UNITED FAN!
fact 3: the article is all and all pro-barca...
fact 4: but... i enjoy the article so much i'm dedicating a post to it.
fact 5: like eduardo, i enjoyed barca's futbol so much i had to applaud Pep (their coach) even as my heart breaks seeing them beat united...
no kidding, i skipped thursday morning and lisa later asked if it was "a barcelona induced headache".

the catalunian Ruth in our department has the words "viva barca" on the message board on her office door, looking down proudly on the passerbys. she's got an annonymous united fan adding congrats in a small corner of her board.

:)

long live football!

really final Anders version of report

thriving thriving~
mental stamina was a thing that i wanted to train when i first arrived in sweden two years ago. it's amazing how ppl can have the endurance to sleep 4hrs in total in two days and still have full concentration on their long tasks. arent those attributes of the famous morrocan assassins and taliban soldiers when they are drenched in hashish and other kinds of drugs? in my case, i suppose the drugs are "harmless" coffee and adrenaline? well, adrenaline doesnt sustain, so wot is de other hormon now? anyway...

task: re-write the whole thesis report according to comments and suggestions from both supervisors.
time: 48hrs.
outcome: the "really final Anders version of report".

Anders is the main opponent who we are going to defence our thesis work against :) a really brilliant guy doing his thesis building rockets XD he should be proud that he has his own version of our thesis ;P it so happens that our supervisors sent us their comments on monday while we need to submitt the thesis to anders on tuesday, how typical? anyway, that's out of the way now, presentation next! ^^

now it really catches up with me...
the emotions...
why do things end together in bright summer?
sigh, at least that prevents facing it during winter...

shouldnt have visited the old posts...
you ppl are drop dead awesome...