小猫小喵小年糕

说的实在太好了！我顿时眼泪盈眶啊。。。

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:05:32 GMT

摘自New York Times的一篇报道，第二段那首poem，太深得我心了。。。

By that, Ms. Dong did not mean that Chinese students had been repressed or censored by their own government. She meant that the Western news media had not acknowledged the strides China had made or the voices of overseas Chinese. “We are still neglected or misunderstood as either brainwashed or manipulated by the government,” she said.

No matter what China does, these students say, it cannot win in the arena of world opinion. “When we have a billion people, you said we were destroying the planet./ When we tried limiting our numbers, you said it is human rights abuse,” reads a poem posted on the Internet by “a silent, silent Chinese” and cited by some students as an accurate expression of their feelings. “When we were poor, you thought we were dogs./ When we loan you cash, you blame us for your debts./ When we build our industries, you called us polluters./ When we sell you goods, you blame us for global warming.”

我真是。。。sigh。。。为中华之崛起而读书！

全诗如下：When we were the sick man of Asia, we were called the yellow peril.
When we are billed to be the next superpower, we are called the threat.
When we closed our doors, you smuggled drugs to open markets.
When we embrace free trade, you blame us for taking away your jobs.
When we were falling apart, you marched in your troops and wanted your fair share.
When we tried to put the broken pieces back together again, Free Tibet you screamed, it was an invasion!
When we tried communism, you hated us for being communist.
When we embrace capitalism, you hate us for being capitalist.
When we have a billion people, you said we were destroying the planet.
When we tried limiting our numbers, you said we abused human rights.
When we were poor, you thought we were dogs.
When we loan you cash, you blame us for your national debts.
When we build our industries, you call us polluters.
When we sell you goods, you blame us for global warming.
When we buy oil, you call it exploitation and genocide.
When you go to war for oil, you call it liberation.
When we were lost in chaos and rampage, you demanded rules of law.
When we uphold law and order against violence, you call it violating human rights.
When we were silent, you said you wanted us to have free speech.
When we are silent no more, you say we are brainwashed xenophobics.

太阳村归来，号召兄弟姐妹们发挥余热

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 13:07:01 GMT

简单介绍一下这个太阳村：

位于顺义赵全营镇板桥村。最早是西安的一个叫张淑琴的狱警的idea，就是把很多小孩子whose父母犯了罪被关起来，集合到一起，给他们一个新的家，让他们在那里生活，到附近的学校上学，得到社会更多的关爱。现在北京太阳村应该是最大的，全国其他地方还有四家。网上关于之的信息很多，不多赘述。

话说我前一段时间开始整理房间，想在出国前将我无法带走的衣物、书籍、生活用品、音像制品等等东西捐赠给需要的人。书籍方面除了一定要留在书柜中的一批，我整理了一部分大学阶段需要的想传递给师弟师妹，还有一部分想送到希望工程。本来我联系了北京青少年发展基金会，他们会定期送书到希望工程。但后来我循着网友的建议发现了太阳村这个地方，于是今天跟搬家一样，用了一辆别克商务舱把所有的东西搬了过去。

那里的工作人员说，虽然他们得到了政府的关心，但他们的财政来源还是要完全依靠社会捐赠，而不是财政拨款。好在社会上很多好心人帮助太阳村在这些年扩大了规模，收纳了更多的儿童，让他们过上了不错的生活。（btw，小朋友们平时甚至还要下田干活呢，因为他们是自给自足，收成了蔬菜啥的好做饭吃）。在此我呼吁兄弟姐妹们，尽管我们还没有太大的能力捐很多钱，但我们很多书籍、文具、玩具、衣物等等等等的东西，不如多搬一些过去。特别是女孩子的衣橱，我知道淘汰的很快的，很多衣服放在那里可能你发现你已经很长时间没有穿它们了。。。所以不如送过去，因为就算小朋友们穿不上的，他们也会组织变卖给民工或是其他什么人然后换钱用的。

再有就是不如周末的时候抽出半天的时间，去郊区呼吸一下新鲜空气（btw，那里天空比城市里蓝很多），顺便去太阳村做做义工咯。其实那边经常会有大学生去帮忙教课的，听说北大团委和爱心社跟他们也有联系。Anyway，其实不需要什么人组织啦，自己过去就好了，那里的人很热心，因为他们也很欢迎有大学生朋友去帮助培养小朋友们的兴趣爱好。他们目前马上要安排一些周末的兴趣班，比如什么合唱、乐器、刺绣啦，或是英语、编辑、朗诵什么的，总之很丰富的，我们有特长的同学不如去发挥一下余热：）

下面说下交通问题：

若是自驾车，最方便的走法是上京承高速，从昌金路出口出去，过路费15元。出去后向牛栏山方向，然后第一个红绿灯（一定是第一个红绿灯，没红绿灯的路口不算）左转，一转过去左手侧先是板桥中心小学，再往前100米就是太阳村。从四环京承入口到太阳村大概30公里多一点。

当然，自驾车去做义工就不合适了。。。所以我打听了，若是坐车，从东直门坐942到河庄下，下车后的十字路口右转就是947路，一站就到板桥。下车后往前走就是上述那个红绿灯，左转就到太阳村。

联系方式：60443523/24，可以找李老师、肖彪、梁玉敏或是殷老师，这些名字都ok，总之大家都很好说话。

下面上我今天拍的PIC：

杀回来除个草！

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 04:07:35 GMT

不知道为什么，对spaces就总是不能够很上心。时而很在意，天天blog之；时而置之不理，任其自生自灭。。。

Whatever，反正来涂鸦几句也算有个交待，没让杂草繁殖过快。

近来心情翻云覆海，极不稳定中，易宅居，不易social，业已许久不见人烟。

待个三五七日之后，预计可有所舒缓，自当重新浮出水面，踏入江湖。

近来每日娱乐生活与tudou、ppstream为伴，对各类电视电影节目所知甚详，乃一收获。。。

另外通报一下，发型又有所变化，愈短，俏丽之貌溢于言表~~~

我是GEMI！

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:36:43 GMT

内容如题。

哈佛最火热的一门课

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:50:18 GMT

前两天看了一则新闻，说是现在哈佛最火的一门课是《幸福学》，选修的人数比《经济学导论》还多。那个教授说她刚开始教积极心理学的时候，只有8个人选她的课，还有2个人中途退课了。但是后来变成400多人，后来是800多人，现在甚至学生的爸爸妈妈奶奶爷爷都有来听课的。她说现在她站在讲堂上都快紧张起来了。

这则新闻有点来得正是时候的感觉，因为恰巧这段时间我在思索类似的问题。前几天还在跟鸟说，以前我是那种干坐着灵感都自己往外喷的人，创意刚刚的挥洒。但不知从哪天起，突然发现自己变得如此枯燥无聊，像是重复某些机械运动的机器一样。因为要思考毕业论文题目的缘故，我拿起本科毕业论文又看了看，突然发现我竟然无法找到比那个时候更好的题目和想法，甚至无法超越那个时候写的东西。何其悲哀。我突然意识到，当我的心思不再纯净，但灵魂被功利主义悄悄侵染的时候，上帝也收走了赋予我的所有灵感和天赋。

我在想，我到底想做什么？我到底追求什么？到底什么事情对我才是真正有意义的？到底怎么做才能感到幸福？我想到哈佛那个教授讲到的，她说幸福不是宝马别墅，甚至短暂的成就感也无法令人满足太久。是啊，这些道理如此浅显，谁人不知，谁人不晓，可又有几人能有权力和毅力去追求这样的幸福呢？也许只有在物质极大丰富之后，人们才会渐渐意识到曾经失去、正在失去和未来即将失去的东西。也或许，那便是中国十几年或者几十年后将要同样面临的情景。

我弟弟说，他现在就是彻底的拜金主义，他算看明白了，有钱就是能使鬼推磨。鸟说，只有那些第三代们才最有权力做艺术家。我说，至少现在，请还让我做个理想主义者。

我不知道这样的理想主义还能行走多远，也不知道命定要摔倒几跤和爬起几次，还是永远的攀附在阴冷的地面上长眠不醒。高中的时候，我说我会无翅前行，因为那时候看安妮宝贝，所以在感情的道路上我始终翱翔，尽管知道自己没有翅膀；现在我说我仍会无翅前行，尽管我已真正告别了薇安，告别了幽蓝文字的时代，但生活的无奈除了能折掉我的双翼，并无力吞噬我的灵魂。

我在msn上遇到了曾经在北青报的时候主管我们部门的主编，我说我突然意识到，其实金钱和权力对我而言从来都不是一种吸引力，尽管很多时候我们需要他们并利用他们。这个时候我突然想起皮最让我钦羡的地方，他永远都怀揣着自己的梦想，不论多少阻碍，不论多么艰难和迷茫。而金钱和权力，在他看来只是目标的附属品而已。也或许，正是如此，他才能一直保持着他的天赋。我说我正在刹车，我不想再偏离自己的轨道了，我应该去做我真正想做的事情。我想起在CCTV的时候主管我的领导曾经对我说过，他觉得最幸福的事情就是在他40岁的时候做了现在的工作，那才是他一生中真正想做的。我们主编说我如此小的年纪能想明白这个道理，实属不易。但我知道，其实我远没有那么清楚和明白，只不过，我是宿命论者。

鸟说，你太累了，你应该停下来歇歇。烧鸡说，看你应该挺强势的啊，没想到在感情问题上那么弱势。我弟弟说，你那弱势都是装的，你本来就应该是强势的。我说，那好吧，那我还挺能装，一装就是七年。我总觉得他们都还不了解我，当然，也有可能是我还不了解自己。但我不过在本分地做着我应该做的事情而已。我从来都不觉得自己是一个有野心的人，我只是尽量把每一件我正在做的事情做到最好。因为我把自己归为类完美主义者。很多朋友总喜欢把我的很多事情归为“个别案例”，跟我说，你的情况是particular。也许，我只是习惯了把一切事情想得好一些罢了。所以我跟烧说，我不是不靠谱儿的。

我现在突然感觉有些轻松，因为我又开始思考了。无论它们有多么的荒诞或是无知。所以我仍然觉得感恩。曾几何时，我甚至失去了思考的能力。也许我总是沿着皮的脚步的，也许我不知不觉中正踩着他的脚印前行。我们有的时候会经历同样的思想和步调，尽管我常常比他晚上很多年，尽管我永远不及他的清楚和明了。但至少这一次，我已从随波逐流的小船上纵身跳下。庆幸的是，I do swim。

庄小喵理发记

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 17:02:11 GMT

两天去了两家美发店，前前后后一共耗了7个小时之后，庄小喵同学在7年之后再次尝试短发造型。欣慰的是，这是我23年以来第一次剪完短发没有觉得后悔的一次，正式从失败的短发阴影中走出来了~~

第一次先做了离子烫，然后把头发从快及腰的长度剪到垂肩，本来还想再短点的，但是理发师说这都剪了多少了啊，于是作罢。但是回去以后竟然没有人发现我剪短发了，而且头发在脖子处堆着实在太热了。

于是第二天又去了另一家美发店要求彻底剪短。理发师说由于刚做过离子烫所以下面的头发太硬了，剪完会外翻，于是要我放弃下半部分的离子烫，于是我又做了软化。。。然后就剪啊剪，剪啊剪。

刚做完造型的时候头发比较膨胀，我自认为很像鲁豫，于是问爸爸我是不是很像一个人。结果没想到老爸张嘴就说：“小S啊？”然后竟然越看越有几分相似。。。我大汗。。。本来就被指性格很像了。。。现在连头发也像。。。而且偶也跳国标拉丁。。。偶真的不是故意的。。。

英文日志结束：强烈推荐Becoming Jane

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:07:03 GMT

从芬兰回来的航班上，Finnair放了两部片子，一部是史瑞克3，一部就是Becoming Jane。当时我困得无以复加，但因为是Anne Hetheway主演的，于是我决定瞅两眼看看。但这两眼又两眼便使我不断沉沦其中。提到Jane Austen，恐怕最大的谜团便是关于她的爱情经历。她终生未嫁，却写出Pride and Prejudice那样刻骨铭心的情感。人们总乐于相信，Jane一定经历过同样深刻而影响了她一生的一段恋情，而Becoming Jane正是关于此的。

从Jane Austen同其姐姐的通信中，人们了解到她曾经同一位年轻的律师Tom Lefroy相爱过。但可惜的是，大部分的信件都被Austen的姐姐烧毁了，仅留下其中两封。事实上，对于这段恋情，我们可以说是几乎一无所知。所以说，Becoming Jane并不是传记电影，而是完全杜撰的，是编剧根据微弱的线索和对Austen内心的揣摩演绎出的童话故事。只不过，这个童话故事似乎称不上happy ending。

当然，作为Pride and Prejudice的忠实读者，我情愿相信这就是Jane的经历，我情愿相信Tom就是我们心中的Mr.Darci，情愿相信Jane的终身未嫁就是为了Tom，情愿相信他们始终在对方的心里，生生世世。当我看到结尾的时候，心中充满了酸楚。Tom一定是希望Jane能够一直陪伴他左右，但却无法实现，只得给自己的女儿起名为Jane。在他的岁月中，永远有Jane在他的身边。当Tom望着Jane的时候，我从他的眼中读到了从未改变过的一往情深。那段年华时代的爱恋，从未在岁月的洗礼中消逝分毫。

也许正因为自己的遗憾，Austen所有的作品都是圆满的结尾，男主人公都可以用“富有”来给予童话故事理所当然的happy ending。也或许，这便是Austen对自己失意恋情的补偿吧。

影片的结尾，Jane再次在Tom Lefroy的面前朗读，只不过这一回，她朗读的是，Pride and Prejudice。我潸然泪下。

Diaries 12

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 11:44:16 GMT

8-29 Did nothing

i'm supposed to go to visit sanoma school of journalism on that day. But actually, i didn't go there because i'm so tired and i wanted do some work in the room. So, nothing to say about it.

8-30 Bullshit Nokia

Before i went to Finland, i expected to visit NOKIA as one of the most important programs here because i always thought that NOKIA is sort of a symbol of Finland which was denied by Finns. Whatever, i thought the best thing always comes last so that i had a high expectation to visit NOKIA and actually i prepared lots of questions to ask them. And you know, because i'm the campus embassador of MOTOROLA, so i'm really interested about the relationship between this two rivals. Unfortunately, the manager who received us was not competent in her position in our opinion because she seemed like not sure about lots of information. And the most importand, even the things she knew, she didn't want to discuss some meaningful but might be a little tough topics with us. Her answers were so official. Even more official than our officials.

A few words about the farewell reception. I met my host family again on the reception which was the memorable moment for me. And also, we got our diplomas from the ministry. But the best moment in the reception was watching the video made by Angela. She did a really amazing work. Everybody looked nice on the video and all our best memories were showed in front of us. I can't help weeping with Mateja and Zeynep. Finally I realized I'm leaving soon.

8-31 Last 44 hours in Finland

I feel so sad when I realized this is my last two days stay in Finland. I'm not reluctant to leave the place but the people here. We spent the whole day together exchanging our pictures and videos, discussing our trips, presenting our own individual projects, having a sauna and the most important, seeing our videos. Angela filmed the video of each one. We talked about our funniest moments here and our best moments as well. After that, Michael played guita and sang his newly composed song. Manuel played his saxophone and Judy sang a goodbye song for us. I was deeply moved by these lovely guys. As usual, we went to the night club together in the evening, but i didn't have a lot of fun there. I can't believe I will leave them soon. I can still remember the first day when we introduced ourselves. I can still remember the laughing on the bus and tram. I can still remember our singing and dancing everywhere. And now, I can understand the saying "How time flies". We left the bar by twos and threes in succession. We gave each other a big hug for a long time and said goodbye to everyone painfully.

The next day, when I got up, some of us had already left. I went downstairs to say goodbye to someone waiting for the 11:30 car outside. About 5-6 of us would take the 11:30 car to the airport together. It's too difficult for me to say goodbye in the last minute. I just wanna say "see you" to them all. "See you wherever." When I watched their car leaving, I can't hold my tears off.

My flight was the last one of ours that day, around 8pm. I sat in the hall at the airport and watched our videos and pictures. It's really weird to stay without them and I felt really empty. I knew my trip was over.

Goodbye, Finland. I'll never forget my moment here. It's a great experience to spend a month with all my lovely colleagues. You're always in my heart, everyone. Miss you all the time. Kiitos!

Diaries 11

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:50:11 GMT

8/25-8/28 Excursion to Lapland

I'm coming back from Lapland just now. I feel so exausted from the travelling thus I have no extra energy to write articles about each day's tour. But it's really an amazing experience in Lapland so that I'd like to say sth briefly in my diaries.

First of all, I still wanna say sth about astrology which I mentioned several times before. Because these days, we talked a lot about it and I've almost knew everyone's star sign already. I found we had so many Geminis and Scorpios in our group. Andris, Aurelien, Mosheh and me are Geminis and I can find some similarities among us. Zeynep, Ingrid and Bhekani are Scorpios. But it's out of my imagination to believe that Bhekani is also a Scorpio. Because Scorpio is supposed to be calm, rational and aggresive, but Bhekani seems so talktive and emotional although he insisted he's shy inside. And the most funny joke these days is the argument about whether Bhekani's sexy or not. I said'You might be sexy in South Africa'. He was totally frustrated. And I told him'You will be sexy in the future'. Thus, everybody talked about the possibility from 'might be' to 'will be' and asked Bhekani not to lose hope. And I said'I have a dream, that one day I would be sexy all over the world, not only in South Africa', hehe. Otherwise, Michael and Manuel are both Sagittarius. Angela, Urike and Laurens are all Cancers.

Back to the tour, when we arrived Rovaniemi which is the capital of Lapland, I was much impressived by this beautiful city. The sky is so clear and the air is so fresh although it's a little cold there. And actually, the temprature of the first day is the highest during our exursion. When we went to Kakslauttanen, Kiilopaa and Inari, the weather was really cold and windy. We can't believe that's the summer time of Lapland and I almost wore everything I took in order to survive...

We had two smoke sauna in Lapland, one was in Kakaslauttanen where we lived in Igloos, transparent glass houses. And the other one was in Kiilopaa where we lived in log cabins. Smoke sauna was more hotter than normal sauna. And the most amazing part was to go to swim during the sauna. The temprature of the lake was around 7 or 8 degrees which is really freezing and chilly. Especially in Kakaslauttanen, nobody can stay in the water more than 30 seconds which was Michael's record and we came to sort of consensus that he's not human being but a robot or fish. Actually, everyone got into the water just for 5 seconds or less and then rushed back. And most of us even can't go inside. I hesitated along the river for a long time and Angela persuded me to try it and said 'Only two seconds, you'll feel the whole life'. Finally, I jumped into the water and climbed out with the scream 'Angela, you ruined my life'. But whatever, I did it and even tried twice in Kakaslauttanen. In Kiilopaa, I went to swim 5 times and I'm the only girl who swam a whole round in the lake. Sara said I was so tough and she believed I can even swim in the ice hole in the winter time.

In Rovaniemi, we went to the Santa Claus' Office and took a picture with him. Santa spoke in Chinese with me but just some simple sentences like 'Ni Hao' or 'Gong Xi Fa Cai'. That's it. But Santa can greet people in different languages. By the way, in the Santa's Village, we can come across the Arctic Circle.

We went to two different farms in Lapland which raises Huskies and reindeers. Reindeer is the symbol of Lapland and the most important property of Sami people. Never ask a Sami how many reindeers he has because it's just like you ask a person how much money you have.

A few words about making pancakes and our new game. In Kiilopaa, we made pancakes ourselves around the fire and I'd like to write down the recipe in order to remind me how to cook it later. It was the combination of powder, eggs, salt, oil, butter, milk and jam. Otherwise, when we were in Rovaniemi the first night, Andris, Aurelien, Zeynep and me went to the river bank together and sat in a private boat. We developed a new game that everyone speak in their own language but pretend to understand the others and communicate with each other. And later, we translated it into English and to see what the others said. It's really funny that after they spoke a lot and turned to me, I was really confuse and didn't know what to say so I said 'Wo wan quan bu ming bai ni men zai shuo shen me' which means I totally cannot understand you. And they said 'Yeah yeah yeah yeah'. Ha, what a coincidence.

Diaries 10

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:04:17 GMT

8-24 Military Defence and Argument with American

We got a general picture about Finnish military defence today by visiting the Defence Command and naval defence territory. In Finland, they have three main targets in terms of military defence. The most importand part is national defense and 90% of their military budget are spent on this aspect. Their overall military budget is about 2 billion euros a year which equals 1.3% of Finland's GDP. Comparing to other countries, Finland doesn't spend much on military. Their aim is "cost efficient". Mosheh told us that in US, their military budget is about 8% of States' GDP. The second target is to assist other authorities in Finland, such as fire alarm and so on. The third target is international cooperation which means response the demand of UN, EU or NATO. Comparing to the Finland's territory, they have only 5 million people. Although there is only 1 soldier in a square kilometer in Finland, their personnel strengths will cut down to 350000 in the beginning of next year due to the downsizing of the military budget. In Finland, their conscription is compulsive for men but the majority serve the army just for 6 or 9 months, some others may serve for 11 months. Anyhow, it's not very long comparing to China's 2-3 years.

When we arrived Upiniemi Naval defence territory, there was a military world championships. I met a person from Chinese DOD there coincidently. He was sent to Helsinki three years ago by Chinese military and studied in a Finnish military university for 2 years. Now he lives in Embassy of China in Finland as a permanent delegate of Chinese DOD. I asked him why China didn't attend this competition. He said we were invited by Finnishi military but he guessed maybe our government didn't consider it as an importand and influential event . The most interesting thing is when a Finnish military officer introduced this championship to us, he explained why US was not here. He said "as you know, they're busy elsewhere". By the way, Germany won the champion finally. In the afternoon, we went to the Uusimaa Brigade which is the only swedish speaking brigade of Finnish Army. In Uusimaa, two landing craft took us sailing in the sea. It was amazing! They turned sharply at the speed of 70km/h and it seemed like the wave would blow on your face!

Additionally, I argued with Mosheh about Taiwan issue today and I repeatedly emphasize that Taiwan is part of China. But Mosheh thought it was an "offical statement" and insist they are defending Taiwan's democracy. I pointed out unreservedly that it's none of their bussiness and It's Chinese interior problem. But he said they just did what Taiwanees asked them to do and they hope Taiwan can be everything they want no matter part of China or independent. In my opinion, it's really a tricky problem. If they want Taiwan to be what they like to be, why Bush so annoyed with Chen Shuibian when he wanna declare the independence of Taiwan. I thought Taiwan is only a weight of US to negotiate with Chinese government. However, Mosheh defended that they just want Taiwan to calm down because no one in America is willing to see a war with China and they thought if Taiwan declared independence, Chinese army would start the war. So you see, it wouldn't be any result of the debate between Chinese and American towards such issues.

Diaries 9

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:49:13 GMT

8-23 Finnish Education

Today's main topic is about education in Finland. First of all, we had a lecture about Finnish education system and I'll write down some brief words about the impressive items. In Finland, their education policy is strongly influenced by the government because they have no private universites in Finland. Actually, their ministry of education makes the policy and under the ministry, there is a national board of education which implements the policy. In general, the ministry makes decision about educational policy and legislation and FNBE decides the national core curricula and carries out development work, national evaluation and information services. Btw, in Finland, there isn't any ranking list of universities or schools which is different from US or some other countries.

Considering of issue of the tution fees, the speaker said if you're single student from abroad, you don't need to pay something. But if you're a group of internaional student for exmaple sent by your government, you should pay for your master's degree in Finland although it costs little. The interesting thing is although this policy is toward foreign students, Finnish students feel unhappy with this policy because they fear this is the first step of government to collect fees for everybody.

After the lecture, we went to an comprehensive school, similar to elementary schools and high schools of ours. We had a school meal there and it let me feel back to my school time. Two things wanna mention. One is I met a Chinese girl there who is the only Chinese student in that school. Actually, she came there only a couple of months so that she still cannot speak Finnish and is even not good at English which means she will experience a hard time there. I tried to talk to her, but she's so shy and even didn't wanna talk with me. No matter I asked her what question, her reaction was just saying "en" to me. So I really have no idea how to continue our conversation.

The other thing is they have some students who have "mental difficulties" in the school and they are arranged by special schedules of classes. Actually, we met some such students there but they didn't start to learn English untill now so that we can't talk with them. It's very funny that the guides of the school may not know the exact and appropriate term to discribe these students in English, so they just called them "retarded students". But it seemed very very weird for someone from English countries, e.g. UK. Michael told us basically nobody calls them "retarded students" and even "mental challenges" is not respectful either.

Our last stop today was Helsinki University of Art and Design. Related to my future article, I asked the presenter some questions about internaional students. She told us according to the newly figures in 2007, they have overall 1089 students in MA degree and 28% of them are international students. But it's very hard to get into the university and about only 6% applicants can get the admission. There are few Chinese students there. Most Asian students are from Japan.

Otherwise, after the dinner, we several guys chatted on the ingrid's balcony which is on the first floor and we mentioned astrology issues again. I found there are many Geminis and Scorpions in our group. Mosheh, Aurelien, Andris and me are all Geminis which seemed exciting for me.

Diaries 8

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:06:48 GMT

8-21 International night

Something wrong with my alarm today and I was late for the first lecture. Whatever, I took part into the lecture as soon as I entered the office and raised several questions about Finnish media environment and condition. Btw, the theme of the lecture is "Finnish news and media". The trainer said nowadays, a trend in Finnish journalism is news are getting more and more simple. Although it has some negative influence, she thought it would be a good thing considering of the audience and readers. The more simple your word is, the more easily they can be understand. She thought one of the dangerous things is the speed. Because more and more newspapers or broadcastings they pursue the speed of releasing the news in stead of the depth of the news. It means you have less and less time to think about what you will write and what you wrote. What's more, sometimes, news are getting more and more entertainmentalized which means the sensational issues replace lots of meaningful and serious issues. And you can hardly find any information in this kind of entertainment news. And we also discussed about digital tv today which is actually my focus during the last semester.

We went Helsinki Sanomat which is the biggest newspaper in Finland this afternoon. I didn't stay there for a long time because I had an interview with the admissions adviser of Helsinki University. A few words about the AD issue of Helsinki Sanomat. Almost every foreigner is shocked by the front page of Helsinki Sanomat and also some other Finnish newspapers whose front pages are completely occupied by advertisement. The explanation of Helsinki Sanomat is because the largest proportion of their circulation depends on subscription which means it's unnecessary for them to attract their clients by front page news. Instead, they can gain lots of money from this AD business. Yes, it makes sense, but still seems strange for me.

By the way, we had an international night today and everyone took one dish of their own food. I fried some different kinds of peppers, onion, mushroom, chicken wich black bean sauce. And I would say, I'm not boasting, it's really tasty. And actually, everyone liked my Chinese food except the vegetarian. Whatever, we had a wonderful night together and the Spanish guy Manuel played saxophone for us. I drank some Irish coffee as well and it's nothing but Whisky...really strong...Actually, I drank Whisky, Austrian wine and French cidar at the same time...a little drunk...

8-22 STT

We seventeen different participants spent the day as guests of seventeen different media in Finland. My media placement is STT(Finnish News Agency). I arrived at STT at 9:30am and two of their stuffs showed me around their offices. Like other news agencies, STT produces a real-time and comprehensive news agency services. But different from Xin Hua News Agency or some other news agencies, STT is a private company owned by Finnish media companies and I think that's why STT can be neutral and objective toward different issues especially political news. And to some extend, we have to say the Finnish politicians more or less depend on the media to get more expositions in order to gain the support from their voters. Fortunately, Finnish media today are not that interested in the private life of powers. Besides their prime minister's love affairs, most serious newspapers or broadcastings have no such desire to dig out this kind of scandals. They pay much attention to political scandals in terms of political issues themselves.

STT is an independent, national news provider which means they have seldom foreign customers. They mainly provide their products to Finnish media and companies. And it's a little weird that actually some of their customers are also their shareholders which means their customers own them but should pay them for the products. Whatever, considering of the profit, it might be a good thing for them because they needn't think a lot about the profits and stare at the stock exchange all the time. In this sense, they have more time to do good journalism in stead of business.

Additionally, as mentioned above, because STT mainly provide national news so that their main focus is domestic news, including politics, economics, social affairs, culture, sports and so on. Everyday, they have approximately 300 news items in Finnish and 140 news items in Swedish. They have only 5 correspondents abroad, one in Brussels(because of EU), and the other four are in their most related countries, including Stockholm, Tallinn, St.Petersburg and Washington. By the way, their foreign desk usually follow the news from Reuters, AP, AFP or some other foreign agencies instead of doing interview themselves. In another word, the journalists there haven't lots of chances to go abroad but edit the others' news and translate them into Finnish.

I found something interesting there. Although everyone in STT thinks that yellow paper is a bad example of good journalism, almost all the departments read ILTA SANOMAT which is sort of yellow paper as their entertainment even gain some information for work from that paper.

A few words about meeting with the chief editor of STT. I don't used to meet this kind of "somebody" so I felt a little uncomfortable about it. To some extend, I felt like an interview and the "interviewer" kept asking me hot questions, such as the attitude toward media freedom in China and so on...

By the way, we went to an "European Chinese restaurant" for the lunch. I would say not bad. And on the way home, I found a shop selling crystals, really nice.

Diaries 7

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:03:12 GMT

8-17 Go nuts!

I wanna write an article about chinese students who study abroad in Finland so that I had an interview with two students in Helsinki University this afternoon and missed one lecture in our program at the same time. I wouldn't say I missed it on purpose, but more or less, hehe. One of my interviewees is the boy came from PKU who I mentioned in the diaries before and the other one came from Wuhan University. Both of them planned to apply for universities in US at the beginning, but finally they went to Helsinki due to some different reasons. So, you see, I think the universities in Nordic countries are just kind of alternatives as spare choices for students, not the dreaming destinations. Whatever, to some extend, it's not a bad idea to study in such countries. At least, you will learn how to be independent and know more about western countries in terms of the trend of globalization.

When I went back to office of MFA, there was another lecture about Finnish Family Life because we will spend this weekend with Finnish host families. In most Finnish families, fathers are not good at talking with guests even with family members and they seldom cook. Most chores are conducted by women. And whenever they finish their dinner, they will say 'Kiitos' which means 'Thank you' to each other. And as you know, sauna is one of the most popular things in Finland and most families serve their guests with sauna. But the difference is when they have sauna among family members, they are naked in the sauna. But if there were guests, they may ask them to wear swimmingsuits if they want or let them enjoy the sauna alone if they feel much more comfortable.

After the dinner, we decided to go to some interesting bars so that some finns led us to a bar-street. We spent some time in a Karaoke Bar first and I sang three songs for them, including Shania Twin's 'You are still the one', Spice Girls' '2 Become 1' and Christina's 'Beautiful'. Their Karaoke Bars are not the same as our Melodies or Cash Boxes. Actually, it's a public karaoke. As long as you pay for the ticket of the bar, you can sing whatever you like on the stage inside the bar. So I feeled like a pop star there, haha. And it's really funny that Mosheh, Thomaz, Manuel and Bhekani sang together as a boys' group. It's a new 'Backstree Boys'.

When we left the Karaoke Bar, we wanted to find somewhere to dance so that we went to a Disco Bar as well. The ticket of the Disco Bar is to stamp a butterfly on your hand. It's so cool. I drank some cidar at the bar and danced all the time. We had a ball during our dancing time. It's really marvellous. And unexpectedly, Michael was not as quiet as I thought before. He has another side which was not showed in some kind of formal or offical occasions. But when he danced with us, he was full of passion like the other extrovertish guys. To some extent, it's not completely out of our imagination. After all, he's a Sagittarius. By the way, Manuel said I was a good dancer, haha. But unfortunatelly, we were caught in the rain when we were on the way back and I hadn't any raincoat with me. I was totally wet. Whatever, it was really a wonderful night with all of these nice guys.

8-18 City gril in the countryside

Because I went to bed so late yesterday so that I didn't go to today's program although it seemed interesting more or less. So you see, I missed "the Finnish Design Day". I woke up at about 13am and went to the railway station to meet my host family directly. When I saw Sanna who is the hostess, I found she's very nice and kind. We went to Espoo where her husband works by bus and went to their house by their car after some shopping in Espoo. Btw, I bought a new small suitcase which was 50 euros. Although it's more expensive than that of ours, it's still relatively cheap considering the others which mostly cost more than 100 euros.

My host family lives in the countryside, a small village named Pauni where is about 50 kilometers from Helsinki city. Basically, their house located in some sort of the middle of the forest and it's a lovely pink two-stored house with their own green house. Sanna told me that most of her relatives live nearby and I saw her parents', uncle's, and cousin's home as well. Actually, the forest of a large area belongs to her father's.

Sanna and Sakke, her husband, travelled a lot all over the world and lived in Vietnam in a couple of years. Also, they have been to China twice and that's why they're familier with Asia. Sakke told me they missed the days living in Vietnam even more than in other places. Although they had some difficult time there, they still wanted to be back there again. And Sanna told me they had applied for adopting a Chinese child but it might take them several years on the waiting list and the processure is very very complicated. Whatever, they love Asia and Asian food as well. We cooked some Chinese food in the evening and I had a good sleep on the soft bed they prepared for me.

8-19 Finnish family's weekend

In the morning, we went a small town named Lohja and went some shopping there. Once again, when I tried to buy some clothes there, they are made in China. I found the efficient way to take care of your money here is to check their label. If you found sth is really really expensive, you know you can't afford it. If the price is acceptable, you'll find it made in China and you can give it up. Btw, I found a super market where has lots of relatively cheap but good stuffs in it and I bought sth really nice for family and friends.

After the shopping, we went to the library of the town and there was a classical band playing some music at the hall. Near the library there was a market square. Besides selling, there was a local festival and some bands were playing on the stage of the open air. We also went to the small church of the town where Sanna and Sakke got married. It's really a distinctive and delicate church with lots of frescos on the wall. Later we went to a lake where was a water-ball game carrying through there. The game was between Finland and Russia and the Finnish group got a fiasco finally.

After we went back home, we had a barbecue together on the balcony of the house. And during my short rest in the afternoon, Sanna and Sakke was preparing for the little party tonight. Actually, they invited Sanna's cousin Anna and their friend Nina, Philips couple to the party and the theme of the party is to eat delicious cramfish. Anna married a swedish man several years ago so that she lives in Sweden now. She came back for just one week vacation and the good news is she's pregnant. Nina and Philip travelled a lot because of the philip's work. Philip comes from Belgium and works for Nokia now. Philip is really a funny guy and I talked a lot with him. He complained about the strange accent of his Asian colleagus. And of course, especially his Chinese or Singaporean company. He said he couldn't understand their English. I said whatever, you did a good job, you can understand mine. He thought although he can still hear my Asian accent, my English is less Asian and in his opinion, very nice. Hopefully, it might be the truth more or less. But actually I'm not such confident about that. Because there always be somebody shaken your confidence. Like Nina, she is really a talent on languages. She can speak Finnish, Swedish, English, Deutch and German. Wow, I can see the Mariana Trench between us. Whatever, all of them are very very nice.

Something about over dinner. The cramfish were very very dainty and we ate with delicadishes and cups and different kinds of wines. We ate outside of the house, in a camp near it. And along the road from the house to the camp, Sakke put on so many lights and firebrands and candles as well. It was an amazing picture when it was getting dark. So romantic~After the dinner, we had some wines and cakes together and kept on chatting. I was so sleepy so that I went to bed first at about 2am. The left of them stayed up till 5am in the morning. Wow~~

8-20 Monday never comes

pending~

Diaries 6

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 21:58:20 GMT

8-13 Demilitarized Aland

pending~

8-14 Finnish Aland or Swedish Aland?

We went to Aland's Autonomy Building today to see their own parliament and meet their governer. Aland is autonomy of Finland but in retrospect, both Finland and Aland belonged to Sweden for couple of years before Russia took charge of them. In 1920, under the intermediation of UN, whiAland became a part of Finland. And this Aland Islands Question is the only case in history which was peacefully solved by the arbitrament of UN. The most interesting is no matter Sweden or Finland or Aland, they said nothing at that time, just accepted calmly...But I have to say it's really strange that although Aland is Finland's Autonomy, it has more intimate relationship with Sweden. Swedish is their only offical language and the majority of Alanders even can't speak Finnish. Moreover, most of young people there usually continue their study in Sweden instead of Finland after graduation from high schools or universities. And if you look at their different flags, it's easy to find out which country Aland is close to. Whatever, nowadays, Aland has their own rights on election, law, flag and some other issues. But they still can't decide their won taxation policy which they demand to and negotiate with Finland government at the moment.

Additionally, I will say a few words about the shopping today. Before we departed from parliament to airport, we have some time to look around at market region and I bought some souvenirs for my family and friends.

We took Aland Air to Helsinki and it's really the smallest plane I've ever seen. It seemed like a private plane which was prepared only for us. I think there wouldn't be more than 30 seats on the plane. After we arrived Helsinki Vantaa Airport, I found my suitcase's handle was broken. I compained with the staff of the ariport and she told us they needed more information from Aland's Airport and then called me about how to deal with this problem. The processure may takes a couple of days and untill now I didn't received their phone call yet.

8-15 Atenuem

It's our second free day in Finland. I slept till the lunch time and cooked some chinese food myself. Later in the afternoon, I went to the art museum 'Atenuem'. To be honest, I don't understand the paintings which means it's not easy for me to figure out which is better and what's its value. I'm really not an expert. However, I really enjoyed some sculptures there, especially the one about Cubid.

And I went shopping again today. But actually, I didn't buy anything although I checked more shops this time and almost every shop along the main shopping street. Because I found the clother and shoes are so common comparing to ours. In my opinion, this kind of stuffs are more fashionable in our country but less expensive or at the same price at least. Actually, I found sth nice here, but all of them are Italian or French or British design, such like Max Mara, Max & Co, Burberry and so on. They're quite expensive, more than 400 euros per one skirt or sth.

8-16 We're mentioned

we had three lectures today, nothing interesting actually.

by the way, we're mentioned on the Helsinki Times which is an English newspaper here. They wrote an article about our program.

Diaries 5

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:04:43 GMT

8-10 Naked boys

After 9 days in Helsinki, we left this city in time in order to avoid of getting bored here. We took the train to Turku which is known as the Finnish candidate for European Capital of Culture 2011. When we arrived Turku, we took a guided bus to have a sightseeing in order to get an overall picture of the city's history and scenery. In this traditional and cultural city, which impressed me a lot is Turku Cathedral, located on Unikankare Hill. The church is considered to be a national shrine in which the monuments and hundreds of details describe the history of the Finnish people.

in the afternoon, we went to Aker Yard where produces cruise ships. So far as we know, they have the biggest cruise ship all over the world which is three times larger than Titanic. Fortunately, we got a chance to get into the cruise ship 'Independence' which is still in construction.

When we came back from Aker Yards, we went to our hostel. It's my first time to live in a hostel and i didn't think i like it. It's too narrow to share a room with some others and have no private at all.

In the evening, we went to Volla Solin where seemed like the heaven to have dinner and sauna. I would say the tour to Volla Solin is the best part during our stay in Turku. That is really a luxury place to spend your vacation. In this quiet, delicate and wonderful place, you can feel the power of the nature.

After the meal, we girls went to the sauna first while the boys were waiting in the garden. In front of our sauna room, there is Baltic Sea. You can swim with the fish in the sea after the sauna and then get back to sauna, and then get out to swim again. That's an amazing experience. It's so funny that the boys had sauna after the girls finished because all the girls sat in a line along the seashore with wines in the hand and saw boys come in and out from sauna. It seemed like we bought some VIP tickets for the show. And some boys even went to swim without swimming suit. I mean they were naked! We thought they were really enjoyed the attention from girls and that might be the reason why they did that. Whatever, I have to clarify I didn't see anything because I sat behind them and there was a big bushwood in front of me which veiled my vision. I promise.

When we came back to the hostel, some of us went to a bar. I intent to order some orange juice, but Bhekani said 'You suck.' So I ordered some Apple Cidar instead. Anyway, it's kind of alcohol.

8-11 Nuclear power plant

It's really frustrated for me to attend a boring lecture early in the morning. A professor from Turku University kept talking about policies and relationships among Baltic countries which seemed none of my business. The only thing I did in the conference room was enjoying the fruit and coffee they offered.

After that, we went to TVO which is a Nuclear power plant. The significant issue toward nuclear power is how to deal with the waste. According to the Nuclear Energy Act, all nuclear waste generated in Finland must be handled, stored and permanently disposed in Finland. In the plant, we got an oppertunity to see the repository of the low level waste silo which is 60 meters lower underground.

We had a get together party with young summer journalists in Turku. Most of them are still university students. This summer job is kind of an intern for them. After the dinner, we moved to another bar on the ship where Bhekani and Swati danced with the music there. And I filmed it with my video camera of the cell phone. We had a lot of fun there.

8-12 Sailing

we have lots of fun today. first of all, we departed from turku to aland by viking line and it's my first time to take a voyage on a cruise ship. our viking line which named Amerolla is really a luxury ship and you can find lots of entertainment during the trip. they have a disco bar, a night bar, karaoke rooms and lots of gamble machines which make me feel like in Las vegas. these on-board activities and experiences suit different tastes of the passengers and stimulate them to consume on the ship. and also, we got a chance to visit the operationg room of the ship where we met the captain of Amorella. after the buffet on the ship, i went to the tax free shop and bought a couple of make-up things, including Dior's perfumes, lip gloss, powder, Lancome's lotion, Moschino's perfume and Clinique's masks and cream.

when we arrived Aland, we rented some bicycles from Ro-No and cycled to our hotel. it's a long time for me not to ride a bicycle since i drove cars, but i still can manage it very well. By the way, this hotel is not bad, much cleaner and more private. The only problem is the room has no internet connection.

the most interesting part today is our sailing on the sea. we took a ship which looks like the one in Pirates of the Caribbean to a small island to have sanna and swimming there. and during the sailing, we had our dinner together inside the boat.this sauna is a traditional sauna, without modern shower system. i found some fun there by taking others' pictures. because the sea is really really freezing and has lots of jellyfish in the sea, so their faces are really funny when they jumped into the sea.

on the way back, some of us sat and sang together inside the ship. Each of us should sing a song from our own country with our own language. And the Lativian guy Andris always sang some funny songs with his facetious face which made our "international concert" more interesting. By the way, during the shipping, everybody enjoyed the peaceful, calm, easygoing and harmonious time there. If i have enough money one day, i'll buy myself a ship as well and get round to ship several times per month.

Diaries 4

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:31:48 GMT

8-9 Economy Day

this morning we visited Neste Oil which is the biggest oil company in Finland. Neste Oil is based in Espoo area where has some other hi-tech corporations as well, such as microsoft and nokia. the main crude for neste oil is from Russia and they export their refining to US in a large amount. their strategy is based on two key growth drivers, one is oil refining and the other is biodiesel. in most european countries, it's quite often to drive diesel cars not gaseline cars, because the former ones are more saving. but basically, diesel cars produce more pollution to the environment and that's why we rarely use diesel cars except some buses and tracks in our country. however, if we look at the trend of the world, the diesel cars are more and more popular these days. take US for example, its consumption of diesel cars keep increasing these several years and it seems to increase even faster in the future. and that's why neste oil pay much attention to the technologic development of diesel oil. now they have developed their renewable diesel which is their 2nd generation production. they said it's more cleaner than the 1st generation thus they'll produce less emissions than before. back to china, we can't promote diesel cars at the moment for the reason that our diesel oil still uses the traditional technics which is harmful to the evironment.

when we left neste oil, we went to a beach for a short rest there. because we didn't know this before hand, so we didn't take our swimming suits. but the latvian guy just jumped into the sea with his underwear. so cool! i sang with indian girl Swati at the beach and we looked like a girls' group at that moment.

we had a lecture about finnish economy in the afternoon. though the speaker spoke so so fast, even faster than american boy, we can't deny it's an unexceptionable speech we had since we were in finland. in the lecture, i asked about the finland's attitude towards china's full market economy status because china is their biggest trade partner in asia so far as i know. and also, swiss government recognized china's full market economy status last month which is the fifth european country who gave china such recognization. but at the moment, EU still denied china is a market economy country. but the speaker said he's not sure about this issue and he thought it wouldn't be the problem between china and finland in terms of their favorable bilateral relationship. and actually as i know, it's one of the most important issue between china and EU as well as between China and US in terms of the dumping problem. however, it's quite a big issue, i won't develop it here this time.

after the lecture, i went some shopping with some other girls and bought two sweaters and two scurfs. i found the clothes here are not expensive, just like that of in beijing. but i won't buy some little stuffs here, i mean rings, earrings, clips and sth like these. though it's only 1-10 euros here, but it must be crazy for me to buy such thing as almost ten times as that of ours.

now i'll join to the barbeque with some other guys downstairs on the grass. and tomorrow we'll take a train to Turku and fly to Aland from there. this journey will be 5-6 days and probably the internet is not available there. so, see you in five days~

Diaries 3

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 21:27:19 GMT

8-7 Boring lectures

nothing special today. just some lectures which were really really boring and i almost slept during that time. in the afternoon, we went to the sightseeing by an old tram and then came back. like yesterday, we cooked something from our own countries and had a dinner together. but we had different persons today. indian girl, turkish girl, kenya girl, latvian boy, british boy, american boy and me. i cooked better than i did yesterday and they liked my corn soup. after we finished dinner, we chatted for a while with some beers and juice. that's all.

8-8 Formal Day

it's kind of a political day today because we visited the parliament house and took four lectures relating to politics as well. basically, we haven't such things, i mean parliament in my country, so it seems interesting for me to know how it works and what's the difference between finnish parliament and the other countries'.

i heard from the indian girl Swati that although most countries open their parliament to tourists, indian parliament doesn't. and for finland government, they often open the parliament to the public and everyone can watch the discussion in the parliament, but proposals and comments are not allowed for common people. if you wanna propose something or complain on sth, you should talk to your minister before hand. and only the MPs have the rights to propose and vote in the parliament. they have 199 MP-seats in the parliament, and the other one should be the speaker. that means if you propose sth to be decided by the parliament, you lose the chance to vote at the same time in order to keep objective in terms of your issue. and also, it's interesting that you can't see many or we can say any national flags in the parliament which is quite different from other european countries. the guide told us that might be related to the history of finland. because it was really difficult for finland to be independent at that time, so finns respect their flag more. and their idea is the more you think it is, the less you use it. that's interesting indeed. by the way, there are 8 parties in finland and one named green party which mainly focuses on environmental issues towards nature. and we had a lunch with Ms Anni Sinnemaki, chair of green party together.

after we left the parliament, we had a lecture called finnish security policy debate somewhere. i've thought it must be a boring lecture for me because i'm not interested in these security things at all. however, i have to admit this is the best lecture since i'm here. the point is the presenter who is the editor-in-chief of finnish institute of international affairs gave us a very lively picture about security policy in finland. and he also shared his own opinion as well which really attracted me a lot into the lecture. the most interesting part i found in the lecture is they have a hiding school in the security policy debate. and the persons belonging to this school think finland should hide itself in terms of security policy which means finland should be keep silent on crisis management and pretend to be not exist at all. so funny. and i found lots of finns are still worried about Russia these days. some of them think they're living in the jungle which means they're not sure about the actitivity of Russia and they don't know what Russia would do tomorrow. the idea is not only from the memories in the history but also from the view of most european countries towards Russia nowadays. they think Russia is less democratic today and they're quite aggressive. that's way most european countries support the idea they should build up EU defense to against Russia in terms of national security. additionally, we had a lecture about constitutional EU as well. but it's totally boring for me as a result of two reasons. firstly, i can't see the significance for me to know anything detailed about constitutional EU; and secondly, the speaker is not good to push me into the lecture which i think is the keypoint of the problem.

tonight we spent some time with a couple of young journalists in helsinki and had a sort of private party together. i met a petty girl named Maria at the party who works for STT at the time. by the way, STT is the mediaplace i would visit some day during this program. back to the topic of Maria, she can speak finnish, english and spanish at the same time and the amazing part is she speaks all of these three languages quite fluently. that's so cool. i like this girl.

Diaries 2

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 22:19:51 GMT

8-5 AnkkaRock Music!

we went to the AnkkaRock Music Festival today and just came back. i don't like rock, so for me, it's just ok. i think birdy would have much more fun there. there were some bands from finland and other european countries as well. and the most interesting thing is Dir En Grey from Japan will be there tomorrow. lots of young finns went to the ankkarock and most of them dressed so weird. of course, rock guys. during the festival, it's really funny that wherevey i go, there must be some finns talking to me. they usually recommended their bands and asked me to join their rock parties at night...ft...whatever, i think the band "the sound"(from sweden) is really great, they gave an amazing live. and "the gathering"(from netherlands) is good as well.

on the way to the ankkarock, i chatted with the guy from UK named Michael and that's the first time i enjoyed the talking here indeed. he is so british, gentle and elegant, really a nice person to talk with. we talked tens of things of china and britain, such like chinese movies, olympic games, michael owen, prince william, spice girls and so on. it's really interesting for me. basically, i think Michael pay much attention to others' feelings.

the girls are interested in my mobile phone and said it's really advanced and cool. but basically, i think it's such a common phone and you can buy it everywhere. just moto A1200. see, we chinese also have something ahead of the fashion and technology. Ingrid wanna buy mine, i refused, haha.

8-6 Gossip

we're free today, so i got up late in the morning, maybe around 10am. and then, i went to the zoo with the turkish girl. because we have students cards, so it's only 6 euros for us to taking the ferry go and back to the zoo and also entering the zoo. it seems like a big zoo but actually it's quite small comparing to ours and in my opinion, they haven't lots of species there. we even cannot see any cats in the cats' valley. the tigers, the lions, the leopards or some others, they all slept in their caves. so you see, only human beings were in the zoo.

after we left the zoo, we went to kiasma which is a mordern art museum in helsinki city. and when we tried to go some shopping in the downtown, every shop was closed, so we just came back. we had a dinner with the other 3 guys together, indian, south african and brazilian. i cooked some chinese food, but unfortunately, they all don't like my food. whatever, we had a good time together and talked about some gossip things as well, such like our bf and gf and the feeling about other guys. actually, i like the british boy most in our group and i mentioned the reason yesterday. and the turkish girl Zeynep thought the spanish boy is quite nice. the most interesting thing is i've just thought i'm the only one who cannot completely understand the american's talk here, but actually they said sometimes they cannot catch his words either because he speaks really really fast. all of us considered the british guy is so gentle because he always speaks slowly. but english is his native language as well.

whenever i talk about love affairs with the others, i usually show my ring to them and tell them i'm engaged. but actually, not really, just kind of, haha. whatever, everyone here thought i'm engaged and my 7-year-relationship is quite unbelievable to them. ha~cool~

The DIARIES these days

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 07:53:51 GMT

8-1 I'm in Helsinki

It's my first day here and I'm really tired now. It's 9pm in Helsinki but already midnight in Beijing. I met someone from India and Austria, and even more tomorrow. Fortunately, I happened to know a boy from PKU too, who studies chemistry in Helsinki University. He helps me a lot otherwise I'll be crazy in this place without any English names for the bus stop, and also, the stores, just Finnish. However, I have to admit it's really a good place to live in with its fresh air, green eye sight and some other natural powers. My adventure begins. Good luck to myself. And the most important, I miss all of you.

8-2 frustrated

Seventeen participants in my program from Seventeen different countries and with different accent of English speaking. I'm really confusing in this situation...And the worst thing is, i'm the only one came from Eastern world except the girl from India. But India was the colony of Britain decades ago, so their people are really good at expressing in English. As you see, i'm the worst one to speak in English in this program. I don't mean the pronounciation but the expression. We do not familier with the background they have. i don't know the band, the food, the books and almost everything in Europe they're talking about. So it's really hard for Chinese student to join them. Whatever, i tried my best. At least, they think my English is much better than some other guys they met from China.

However, Helsinki itself is really an amazing place. One thing surprised me is that when we guys took some beers at the bar, it's nearly 8pm, but it's still bright outside. And when we were leaving that place, it's not dark at all though it was 10pm. It's some kind of 6 or 7pm in Beijing now. Really interesting.

8-3 Should I go to the live show on TV in Helsinki?

someone in charge of the program wants me and the indian girl to join in a life show for their local tv station YLE in a morning news program. however, i'm really poor in english relatively, how can i manage the interview then? and the topic is about being a reporter in China. Wow, i'm afraid to make some political mistakes...it's hard to watch your words on condition that you're not good at it...on one hand, it's really an excited opportunity for me to know finnish media system and also flash my resume especially when i intend to apply for the master's program in US. but on the other hand, it's hard to hold the proper limits for my speech. so what can i do? accept it or reject it? i'm really confusing about this stuff.

8-4 i rejected it!

i just refer to the tv thing yesterday and i rejected it finally today. i intended to accept the invitation and also gave a phone call to embassy of china to ask for some help. but after talking to the producer of the program, i think the only thing i can do is to quit. she told me there must be some really sensitive topics and i don't want to involve in the politics. that's why i rejected it. and then, they asked the guy from south africa to be in the show instead of me. so, you see, that's it. whatever, i feel better now.

i just came back from the national park and i'm really tired today. because of the car sickness, i feel so bad now. so i didn't go to the bar with the other guys. they went there everyday, actually. i sometimes join them but not a routine for me. whatever, it's really a great day because we have our first finnish sauna today. i have to say it's really really amazing. i begin to understand why it's finns' tradition and why they're crazy about it. and we took some reindeers in the dinner, it's not bad. basically, i don't like finnish food in terms of everything, the material, the flavor, and something like that. but reindeers, ha, it's fine. it tastes like lamb, actually.

tomorrow is saturday and there will be a music festival in helsinki. i heard we got the vip tickets. it's nice. i think i can see lordi very closely and find out how silly they can be. and on sunday, we're free. most of the guys will go to Tallin, the capital of estonia. but some of us have visa problems because estonia is not a Schengen country and also, our Schengen visa is just for a single trip. so, we plan to go to the helsinki zoo and some museums instead. anyway, we'll get lots of fun as well for the reason that we can take the ferry and tram to go there at least.

Vitas演唱会，太High！

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 14:48:29 GMT

昨晚一直沉浸其中各种难以自拔，今天出去了一天，现在才想起来发贴感慨一下。我只能说，太High，实在太High，太宜将剩勇追穷寇了，太火树银花不夜城了，太一行白鹭上青天了，各种风生水起，难以名状。。。

发现Vitas超级爱穿西服，但他的每身西服都帅气得不得了，银光闪闪的。还有必不可少的服装就是他那个教主似的大袍了，下半场开场穿着那个上来的。Vitas统共学会了一句中文，用了两次，因为挺长的，估计学会也不容易，心想用一次太亏了，于是唱《幸福之鸟》和《第七元素》那块儿用了一次，最后唱完《Opera 2》谢幕的时候又说了一遍：“亲爱的朋友们，感谢你们的爱戴和帮助，我爱你们！”要特别一提的是最后的时候，Vitas突然闭上双眼在舞台上静默，仿佛正在接受神谕一般，台下都在静静期待着什么发生。然后只见Vitas从乐队手上接过一条红围巾系在脖子上，台下观众立即反应过来，那是Opera2响起的信号！于是台下掌声雷动，欢呼声简直要掀翻人民大会堂的天顶。而此时，果然背景音乐响起，世间最玄妙的嗓音真实再现，演唱会也步入了高潮！他，就是他，那个让人永远无法忘记的Vitas！

总之，Vitas果然是本世纪我见过最天才的歌手，我为能跟他生在同一个时代感到自豪，O yeah！可惜的是本来以为不会让带DV进去的，结果竟然没管，早知道就去录实况了，结果只用手机录了声音，但还是很满足了，一边听一边回味现场，太enjoy其中了！史上我最陶醉其中的一场演唱会，因为Vitas的存在，感恩ing~~~

Photo Album: HK

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:59:46 GMT

HK with Gemi 113

HK with Gemi 116

HK with Gemi 117

HK with Gemi 121

Minnie Miao

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Photo Album: I'm in Finland

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 04:12:24 GMT

I'm in Finland

if it's mine...

in Aland

in turku

statues

Aker Yard

AnkkaRock

AnkkaRock~

Sailing

Castle

Castle2

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