New challenge

Hi all,
It looks most of you have been experiencing a cold winter. Spring is just around the corner. Spring is time for starting something new. So, I am going to take up Spanish lessons from March.

I have already taken a brief test at a small Latin cultural institute here in Fukuoka and I was allocated to the intermediate level (Level 3 in five levels). To be honest, I had studied it on my own for five months, borrowing some textbooks from a library and watching Spanish TV. In the beginning my brain almost exploded with chaiotic mixture of the three language knowledge;Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Now, I am getting along.
I had an interview session with a native teacher whose name is Ruth from Salamanca on Thursday. It was my first open conversation in Spanish. It went all right but I could not find a word; HEAR in Spanish and I asked her in English. Unfortunately, she does not convey any English. So, I had to use my fading knowledge of Italian to express the word. It was an aweful moment. Maybe I will have a little difficulty at the course....

By the way, how do you learn a new language? Some of you are learning or has learned French. Do you use the scheme to translate your own language into the language you learn in head in order to speak? Me? me no! I use English instead at this stage. Using Japanese is horribly long process and I won't get things right.

Tell me what's new in your life.

Cheers, Yasu

Snow in London

cheers, buddy

Thank you all for your best wishes. BTW, where is my voucher for a hair cut? :)
Some bad news for you, I can not open the pictures you posted. If they are no bigger than 2 MB?please send them to my hotmail email box.

Cheers, buddies.

Thanks!!!

(Since Michael says he is not able to read any comments due to some unknown technical problem...)
Thanks Juliane and Nuno, my birthday's on 17th of February and this week's my birthday week!
Went to several celebration meals with friends (will post the photos later!!!)
And Happy birthday to Michael, too! Wish you also had a good time and a rewarding 27th(?) year of your life.
On the day of my birthday, I finally finished reading the thick now-very-popular novel "Da Vinchi Code".
A challenge to the firm religious belife of most western people. I'm not in any religion, so the reading's really fun, but the ending's just to quick and rough, which is the only thing I cannot accept.

Speaking of Chinese New Year, nice photos, Nuno. Really was very Chinese-New-Year!
Hope you enjoyed the atmosphere.
Next week (23rd of Feb) will be the Chinese Latern Festival, considered to be the official end of CNY.
Have a great time then!

Linda
(ready to plan the trip in summer, yeah!!!)

Chinese New Year in London

Dear Friends

You asked for photos and you will definetly get them in this post!

Before that, we (Nuno and Lu) would just like to say VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Michael and Linda and wish all the happiness to them!!!!!!

Concerning the theme of this post, last Sunday we went to celebrate the 5th day of the Chinese New Year (related to wishings of abundant money) in Central London. There were several main places for the celebrations and we visited three of them: the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Chinatown and the Trafalgar Square.

The first spot (V&A) didn't have much to offer, just some lion & budha dancing with music playing outside the main door,

and demonstrations inside the museum of how to make traditional tea, noodles, caligraphy and crafts. We didn't stay there for more than half an hour and headed for Leicester Square to see some daily fireworks (it looked a bit of a waste in daytime...), which sounded like explosions of heavy artillery!

With a lot of smoke and burning smell on our lungs we (me, Lu and a friend of hers) went for lunch, where we were met by my two Portuguese friends, Silvestre and Sofia.

The streets were completely crowded in Chinatown, more lion dancing was going on and we just immersed ourselves in the crowd with our fine roosters :)

(this is called cock fight!!)

Check ot the endangered bear :)

The next stop was Trafalgar Square, here a stage was set and performances were going on. Most of the artists came from Beijing, check them out:

As you can imagine it was a very nice day, the five of us had a lot of fun and we now feel very "roostered" for 2005 :) I finished my day in the pub thinking about the misteries of chinese culture...

Big hugs for all of you

(Late) happy Birthday wishes to Linda and (early) birthday greetings to Michael

Either my calender is telling me something wrong or I'm the only one who remembered: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Linda! Sorry for being one day late, but I wasn't in at university yesterday. I wish you good luck for the new year, a very good start for you PhD and loads of fund and love!

And tomorrow? My calender is telling me that it'll be Michael's birthday! I also wish you all the best and a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It's great! You have birthday on a Saturday and you'll hopefully celebrate and enjoy it with friends!

Yes, I'm 'hard' working on my PhD. And to be honest, I feel quite sad, that my time in Newcastle is coming to an end. :-( it was and still is a great time. I decided that I really have to make a big deal of progress during the remaining months now and gave my supervisors a list of 'self-made' deadlines to increase the pressure. I'll see how it works. And the moment I can't complain. I'll be back in Germany some time in August. But the thesis won't be finished by then. It's just easier for me to work part-time there and I'll hopefully finish by the end of this year.

Who of you will come for the football world cup to Germany? I don't know where I'll finally get a job but if I'm in Germany you're welcome!!

Juliane

rainy holidays in shanghai

Dear Yasu, from my point of view, Japanese team got a lot of luck to win the last match. I don't think they worked hard enough at that time. I don't know whether Asian team can compete against European teams at present, especially against western European countries.
You mentioned your club. You mean, a club to support Japanese team or a local football club?

To Lulu, why not join us here in the blog? I haven't heard from you for a long time and really miss you so much.

Linda, I gave 'Red bag' to my little sisters during the spring festival. I am so poor now. How you? :)

I just came back to work from 10-day holiday. I feel very uncomfortable on my first day sitting here working on excel spreedsheet with more than 1000 rows rolling up and down. :(

Friendly is just friendly.

Hi guys,
This is my second contribution to our blog. Linda seems to have had a great new year at home. What about you, Micheal? Congratulations on passing a driving test, Lu. Nuno, you seem to enjoy meeting interesting people with various cultural background at Mexican restaurant. Do not eat too much britos and tortillas! Julian, you are studying hard, aren't you.

Today's topic is "football". Sorry that some of you are not very much interested in this topic. It is a pity that China is already out of competition. I am not sure if Taiwan has ever participated. If you like, Micheal, Linda, I will arrange a brilliant red shirt or scarf to join our club. Lu, you are obliged to support the selection national de Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo is better looking kid than Italians. So, there is another reason for your support.

Well, Japan snatched a narrow victory against North Korea. The winning goal was made in the lost time in the second half. Our players' individual skills has not come up to the European level. The game against Germany proved that. Japan probably will go to Germany but it would be lucky enough to go through group league.

Watching and analysing preliminary matches, the following teams are at their best: Portugal, England and Sweden. These countries have already established their system at Euro competiton. Especially Portugal and England have a lot of talents. Nuno, this is my best possible team for worldcup. I am glad to hear comment.
Goalkeeper: undecided, maybe Moreira who played in the olimpic team
- Ricardo De Pollo is not very much convincing.
defender: Ricardo Carbalho, Jorge Andrade, Nuno Valente, Miguel
Possible subsititute: Paolo Ferreira
defensive midfielder: Maniche, Costinha
Costina is getting old. Need a possible subsitute
central midfielder: Deco
substitute: Hugo Viana. But he is not yet convining.
windger: Cristiano Ronald, Ricardo Queresma
forward: Pedro Pauleta De Quejo Rosa
substitute: undecided. I only have seen Postiga playing against England. I can not judge if he is good enough. He is not a regular player in Porto as well. The one in the Olympic team is just tall and dull. Nuno Gomes is not in a good shape as well.
Anyway, Portugal do not need a striker with Golden boots. Three attacking midfielders who regularly change their positions can do well enough to produce an excellent last pass or cross. The system should be 4-2-3-1. Queresma and Ronald frequently change their position and exert dribbles and cross balls. Portugal should only change their system to 4-1-4-1 to face a very defensive team in case they could not score in the first half. Costinha should be out then and put The King Figo, paralelled with Deco.

I can not wait another round in the late March.

Un abrazo,
Yasu


PS. Horrible defeat against Irland. Missing many key players. (No Carbalho, Manche, Costinha, ) Friendly is just friendly. Who cares.

Calling for photos!

Anyone? Any photos?

In easter holidays

Remember my best friend, Ellen? whose boyfriend's a Turkish, or more precisely, a Kurdish with very high-pitch voice ^^
The one she said was the last one she would be with in the world before they got together.
Sometimes you just can't be too stubborn or too resistant on something; otherwise they come to you.
After three years being together through sweet times and hard times, they're getting married next month in London.
My dear friend I guess will forever settle down in the UK and be a Turkish wife.
Just want to report on the news about someone who we all know.
A happy-ending to the couple.
Best wishes to them!!!
Who will be the first one to get married among us? Looking forward to good news!

Chinese New Year!!!

Tomorrow (8 Feb) is Chinese New Year's Eve
Firstly, Michael, Gong Xi Fa Cai!!(Congratulations and wish you make a fortune)
For Nuno probably still in London, wish you a happy CHINESE New Year with Vivia, too.
This is the Chinese New Year I can finally spend with family after three years abroad.
I particularly cherish the time when I can bathe completely in this atmosphere and of course, the one-week holidays when I don't need to get up so early every day!!!
Just feel like saying HI to all of you, whether you're in Chinese New Year or not, I miss you much!
I will be quitting this boring and bureaucratic current job in two-month time.
Then I will restart (just still at the very preliminary stage) my PhD again
But this time in an university in Taiwan. (Cannot gather enough money back to Newcastle)
Will have to attend a competitive entrance exam before I can restart again, if I can ever pass.
Then in summer, I will go to my trip of friend-visiting in Europe and UK.
Nuno, will you still be in London in July? I really do want to realise my promise to you in Lisbon.
If not, meeting you in London will also be kind of great.
Cannot wait any longer for the day to come. Will be a very important annual plan.
(Yeah, you know, Europe's kind of far and costly, should have enough savings before I go)
Well, dear friend,
Linda wishes you all a Happy New Year of Rooster!!!
(My tandem partner Rufus once said Year of "Chicken"'s kind of weak, so we decide "Rooster" is a more powerful and masculine word!)
Talk to you later.