It is the last day of June. I am going to take my son to be on road this weekend. I am so damn happy, so is he. In 2012, I took him to France and Germany, because it was pretty hot, he wasn't very excited. This time, in Northern Europe, he won't have that concern. He asked me before dinner what tourists' attractions we are going to visit, I told him most of time we may be appreciating natural scenery, such as fantastic Vanern, breathtaking Vattern and picturesque Malaren. He actually loves wild things than man-made ones. However, we will go to Royal Palaces, Museums for sure. As I planned, we will try to catch Malmo hosting Orebro at Swedbank Stadion and may be able to go to a pop concert at Friends Arena on Saturday night before we come back home. I checked several weeks ago, an Australian band will perform that night though I prefer watching a local one.
US Women are heading to final. Though Germans got a PK first, their star player missed it by inches. Later on, US got a controversial PK and Lloyd made it. The replay showed Morgan might be fouled out of the PK box.
However, the 2nd goal was impeccable. It was O'hara's first goal as National Team player. US women was a better team in this match and I am seeing them to win the cup no matter whom are they going to face in the final. By the way, Solo has been the greatest keeper in this tournament.
Before going to gym, I drove to Safeway to refill my mom's Atorvastatin. While waiting for Tim and Lisa to get it ready for me, I had my blood pressure tested at the station. The result was fair, I was a little bit disappointed because I had expected excellent.
It's 10:48 pm now, I am sitting in my reading room to enjoy the cool breeze after coming back from gym. While taking the notes of some important information on Department of States website, such as Embassies' phone numbers, Countries' emergency numbers, etc., I was thinking about if this trip could trigger me to make some decisions to change my life again. The reason is that the trip to Sweden in 1996 was a critical decision making factor for me to eventually emigrate from China. Prior to that trip, I had lived in overseas and traveled a lot, but every time, I ended up going back to Beijing where I had an easy life. However, I finally figured that I just loved western lifestyle. Of course, in addition to it, there were some other personal reasons too. Living in my current lifestyle for many years, I start feeling a little bit bored. Should I have a change? I don't know. However, taking care of my parents and my son who still has 3 years left for his college life is still the most critical factor.
Waiting for Norton Anti-Virus Application scanning, I went back to bed to take a nap but didn't wake up. Now, I come back to the desk in reading room to finish my diary for yesterday, it is already 4:50 am on Tuesday.
I had bought adapter for our trip 2 weeks ago and hadn't realized it didn't work for my laptop until I tested it on Sunday. So, I had to stop by Fry's Electronics after work to pull a grounded one with the third round hole drilled on it. Though it can't have voltage converted from 220v to 110v, my laptop is automatically switchable itself as most of the devices are designed nowadays.
Arriving at home, I saw my dad was doing yard work. I am supposed to mow the lawn this week but would hold it until the day we are leaving.
Working out my routine at gym, I was on bike when taping this clip.
Reading a post on Facebook, I learned Eric Friberg is to be brought back to Sounders' midfield. I am glad him coming back. As I recall, he did very well in the year he played for Sounders and seemed getting along with the team pretty well too. Otherwise, his big picture wouldn't have been painted on billboard hung along Route 99 close to Centurylink Field during that period of time. I think quality players from the countries like Sweden fit MLS very well. Friberg actually has been playing for Esbjerg fB in Denmark.in this season. I am even thinking to buy a jersey with his name on it.
US Women's team is going to play Germany in semi-final this afternoon, see if I can come back home on time to catch it.
Looking out of the window in my bedroom, I could see the sunny sky on Sunday morning. However, it was pretty cool, which pleased me very much.
Approaching the intersection of traffic lights at the south end of North Road, I changed my mind to turn right to head to Ranch 99. Since we were going to leave for almost 3 weeks, I needed to buy some vegetables for my parents.
It might be because it was in the morning on Sunday, there weren't many shoppers inside Ranch 99 Chinese Supermarket. I hadn't shopped around vegetables' section for several years since my mom had been doing it every time we came here, I had to look through each shelf very carefully. Fortunately, I got all on the list my mom wrote for me.
Walking towards the entrance, I was called by a friend whom I hadn't talked for several years. He obviously came to this market to shop too. Interestingly, I hadn't seen an acquintant for many years even though many Chinese living in north of downtown Seattle shop here.
At the moment I walked to my van, it already passed 10 am and McDonald's probably had switched menu to lunch. Stopping by the Drive-through window of Big Foot Coffee Kiosk in this plaza, I ordered 20oz latte. A middle-aged lady greeted me and a young girl took my order. The price was $3.78 and I gave the girl 4 bucks. She quickly made the coffee through espresso machine while asking me if I needed flavor. The elder lady handed the cup to me and the young girl pulled coins from cashier handing to me. One dime slipped through my fingers and they laughed. Actually, I guessed they were wondering why this guy was so calculating because I believed every customer probably had driven away under this circumstance leaving 22 cents for the girl to drop into Tips mug by herself. As a matter of fact, what I was thinking was I probably should give more tips and it was why I took the small changes and dropped a dollar bill. I rarely bought coffee at Kiosk including this one, so I didn't mind giving more once a while. Were I a daily customer, it might have been a different case. Those two gals were pretty, but that wasn't the factor.
On my way to gym, it started raining and the weather was so comfortable of which I had been hoping. I worked out my weekend routine until 12:30 pm. On my way home, the sky was kept cloudy and I could tell it would be a nice and cool Sunday afternoon.
After lunch, I took the shower and cleaned up my reading room in which my son's stuff brought back from his dorm had been piled for two weeks.
I learned on Sounders' website that they were going to challenge Timbers in Portland today at 4:00pm but forgot on which channel the match would be televised. While searching on TV, I found NYC Rivalry's match being televised on ESPN, so I started watching its 2nd half after figuring out Sounders' match to be present on Fox1.
I learned that NYC scored first, but only 2 minutes after I'd locked the channel on ESPN, NYRB responded one goal and the match was tied.
The advertisement board of "Heineken" triggered me to go to the garage to pull a bottle of it. While I climbing the stairs, I heard the cheering on TV in my bedroom. Rushing into it, I found NYRB had scored 2nd goal.
NYC owns several star players such as David Villa and Mix Diskerud. However, they seem having a long way to go to prove themselves a MLS contender. NYRB scored a third goal to close the match.
It wasn't very exciting at the beginning of the match between Sounders and Timbers. I didn't see if Sounders were able to organize effective offense today. Neagle scored in 2nd half to tie the match, which had me even foreseeing a win.
Sounders' defense had already been very venerable today before Timbers' No. 9 made a unsavable curve ball to get back their leading position. Frei saved several balls but eventually Sounders lost 1 to 4. It's a bad one.
Drinking two bottles of Heineken, I didn't feel hungry, so didn't want a dinner. Noticing an action movie sounding pretty impressive on TV guide, I decided to watch it to close my weekend. It ended up a right Choice. John Wick is a good movie with a lot of actions in it and Keanu Reeves played a very cool retired killer who revenged for his dog. When he lost his wife, that dog sent to him became a medicine for him to regain the interest of his life.
Feeling the cool breeze through window screens in reading room, I want to say this will be a night of Sleepiness in Seattle.
Of course, Celine Dion is always one of my most favorite singers all time, but I had totally forgot she ever sang this "When I fall in Love" until I searched songs related to "Sleepless in Seattle".
Though many memories are no longer worth mentioning, I still remember a video tape was brought to me after I had lost contact with one gal for so many years. It was "Sleepless in Seattle". It was probably 1994.
Romance should be forever beautiful, so I want to keep the last one in my dream without bringing it back to reality... Anyway, love might only happen in 20th Century no matter where.
Getting up at 6:30 am, I drove on my way to gym. It was a little bit chilly as soon as I was out but after turning onto Filbert Road, the sunshine was pretty warm already. That had indicated a relatively hot day. Anyway, the morning around our area was so quiet.
Turning onto Bothell-Everett Highway, I still didn't see many cars on the road. No wonder, it was close to 7:00 am on Saturday morning, it would have been odd if I had seen the road crowded.
Stopping by McDonald's, I had the breakfast, then worked out at gym for an hour. I planned to jog on the track at Lynnwood High after dinner but I wouldn't go. On my way home, the sky became a little bit of cloudy, which even triggered my wish of having rains later the day but it never happened.
After lunch, I watched the first half of one of the quarter finals between Japan and Australia but none of them made threatening scoring opportunities. During the halftime break, I drove my son to one of the salons where I always get my haircut. Sitting in the couch waiting for him, I watched the most part of the 2nd half of the match. Japanese was a better team and made several scoring opportunities but hadn't been able to capitalize until the last couple of minutes. Aussies were complaining it an offside goal but I did think it legit. However, a couple of hours later when I watched another replay, that goal seemed controversial. The better team advanced anyway. The boss of the salon had made the beautiful curls for a lady before she took care of my son's hair. That lady said the hairstyle was too fancy but she seemed liking it very much. My son hadn't got his hair cut for a long time, so when his was done, a great deal of his hairs spread all over the floor. The boss's husband who was at the cashier said my son looked younger with super short hairs. I know sometimes people might be confused if we were brothers because I looked not like at 49 years old if they didn't stare at my wrinkles and my son looked older than his actual ages because of his size especially with long hairs. As a matter of fact, our age differences are 29 years and 3 months, which is a pretty large gap in my opinion. Many fathers have their children before 25 years old.
Instead of going home directly, we stopped at Safeway where I often shopped prior to 2005 when I lived in a development then in east of Thrasher's Corner. The cashier was pretty polite and asked me if I would enjoy the nice weather. Definitely I would and hope he would too. I always wonder if some people from that neighborhood may still recognize me when I shop at either Safeway or Fred Meyer. For example, some of the youth may remember me because many of them came to our house to play very often more than 10 years ago and knew me very well but there is no way for me to recognize them. They are at their 20s now.
After getting back home, I waited for the last quarter final to kick off. People were expecting Canadians to advance to face Japan on Canadian National Day but it was a surprise that English girls scored twice within 3 minutes.
Before the first half ended, Sinclair responded one goal for Canada, which illuminated fans' hope. However, Canadians fell short at the end and England advanced.
It didn't rain as I had wished, so it had been pretty hot even after sunset until a several minutes ago. Now, the breeze is cool. Listen, someone is playing Scottish bagpipes. Is it a Scottish holiday?
Ok, let me find a piece of music played through bagpipe tonight.
Oh, maybe because England advanced today, some Scottish descendants wanted to show their own prides as well. This world has become so interesting. By the way, since I am going to go back visiting Sweden after 19 years since I was there last time, I have practiced Swedish National Anthem several times in the last two days. I don't know if that irritated people who might hear it or not. Just kidding. Let me post it too, the scenes are beautiful anyway.
On my way home from work, I listened to the weather report on Spirit 105.3 that today's temperature reached 85 degree at that moment and tomorrow would be over 90 degree. No one can blame it is beautiful in Seattle now but a bit too hot for Seattleties in my opinion. Anyway, the beauty in Seattle is after the sunset, the weather becomes cool immediately. I have covered myself in comforter every night.
When I arrived at home, the match between US and China had been played into 5th minutes in first half and my dad was watching it. I assume he supports China even though he is US citizen. To my surprise, he kept making the comments pretty objectively, In his opinion, Chinese girls wouldn't be able to compete with US girls in this match. However, he did prefer Chinese and I don't blame him because his friends are all Chinese and in China. For myself, I have my own reason to rooting for US team because in the past almost 20 years, my jobs and personal life have been always tied to US domestically, so almost all of my co-workers and friends have been US-born Americans and US teams' fans without other options, it is very natural for me to root for US National Team even when they face Chinese. However, if Chinese play others, in general, I am at their side because I was Chinese Citizen and I still remember in 1981, when Chinese Men's Soccer National Team advanced to Final Stage in Asia for 1982 World Cup, I rushed to Tiananmen Square to celebrate with tens of thousands fans through the night,though eventually they lost to New Zealand and didn't qualify for the cup final in Spain. However, It is also possible that in 200 years, no one will really care the definition of countries when the entire world integrates into one.
Lloyd made a beautiful header at a very sharp angle and the ball hit the ground then bounced into the net, it wasn't a surprise for US to advance to semi-final to face Germany, which went through France's tough challenge in the last second of Penalty Kicks. That match will be a real test because Germany ranks #1. However, they may not be as dominant as they had been portrayed given their struggling with French.
I didn't go to gym tonight but plan to be there as soon as they open at 7:00 am tomorrow morning.
It is 9:28 pm and early, but I will find a beautiful song then wrap up... My initial attempt was to pull one of the top 5 in this week's chart to post but while searching, I suddenly thought about Dirty Dancing, which impressed me so much when I watched it in Bahamas in 1988 when I lived there. Even today, I still remember the voice in the trailer: "Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Dirty Dancing!"
As I said in my first diary posted on this blog, it is purely personal, so I don't write anything about my professional life and nothing in my diaries should be related to anyone else and any organizations. I can't take any responsibilities for what I write except obeying the laws and regulations. However, most of our daily lives are tightly related to work, it is so difficult to avoid it. Rule #1, strictly don't write anything incurring in daytime during the weekdays.
Coming back home, we had a pretty delicious dinner my mom cooked and I even drank a bottle of Heineken. Sleeping an hour and getting up to take care of some bills online, I was on my way to gym. The sun had been set and sky turned dark.
I really want to watch an Allsvenskan match and it looks like the only possibility is Malmo hosting Orebro on 7/11. I didn't find out the ticket place online but we may be able to buy the tickets at Swedbank Stadion when we arrive in Malmo. I am pretty positive the match won't be sold out.
I am not sure if I need to have dirty clothes washed and dried in Malmo, so haven't decided to book a hotel with laundry facilities. Since this is a purely leisure trip, all of our clothes are very causal. It would waste too much money to use cleaning services at a luxury hotel. I did find a 4-stars hotel close to Central Station with laundry facilities and may book it this weekend.
It ended up that I didn't go to work as early as I planned but not late either. However, it was another intensive day. Though I had so many on my plates today, a fire drill interrupted my plan for half an hour. It's good to have a morning break anyway, especially hundreds people piled in the parking lots chatting under warm sunshine.
It's a very interesting discussion of pronunciation of "L". Asians might not be able to pronounce it easily. I never paid attention to it. As I shared, I was born and lived in Beijing through all the years until going to college at 18. Beijingers are notorious to judge others' accents because mandarin is based on Beijing's dialect. Probably English should follow my accent as a standard. Just kidding.
It's another pleasant discussion of our trip to Scandinavia next month. It triggered me to recall the last time I went there in August, 1996. The bridge hadn't been built, so I took ferry from Kastrup to Malmo. After I passed border control, I just walked to the hotel by dragging my baggage. That was a three stars hotel only 10 minutes walking distance from the ferry dock. Though I am not able to remember its name, I will definitely recognize it if it is still there next month. I plan to take a picture in front of it. My memory is that it was a 3 stars hotel with many glass windows on it. There was a tall flag pole in front of its entrance. The officer at Border Control was a young man at the similar age of mine then. His polite smile gave me a very pleasant impression. I have great memories about Scandinavia especially Sweden and high expectations of this trip. I may be disappointed because things could be changed after 20 years. Back then, I had a very bad experience with US immigration but Swedes treated me so well after I went back there. Today, as a happy American, my perceptions may be different. However, I always treasure Swedes' hospitalities during my difficult time. I often think if I had become a Swede as planned 20 years ago, would my life be totally different today?
Ok, let me practice my Swedish for another 15 minutes. I will keep reviewing my son's calculus textbook before going to bed.
4:19 am in the morning on Wednesday now. I just got up to write my diary for yesterday and will take a shower, then go to work. I have a lot of things to wrap up and leave early.
On my way home after work yesterday, at one moment I read a piece of my son's post on Facebook, which happened to pop on mine since he is one of my friends while I was waiting for traffic light near our house. He wrote that he had a chit chat with a neighbor and realized the friendship with human was so pleasant after staying online so many hours. I agreed and liked it. When I was approaching our house, I saw Jeff who lives in the third house on our right holding a baby in his arm walking to his house after picking up the mails at mail rack. He turned his head to greet me and I stopped my van to chat with him for a minute. Obviously, I could tell the baby must be his but it was still a surprise that he already has a 3 months old daughter. I even didn't know he got married. Though, I am pretty close to several of other neighbors, how could I miss such a piece of vital information about my neighbor. His daughter is very cute.
Watching Japan playing Netherlands, I just realized that Japan is one of the powerhouse in Women's soccer now. At the beginning of each program of this Women's World Cup on TV, I could see Japanese player's image with several others from Brazil, USA, etc in FIFA's promotion on TV. I was wondering if it was intentionally designed to have Japan representing Asia. Now, it makes sense to me because Japanese is defending champion. I haven't followed Women's soccer very much for more than a decade. Japanese will meet Aussies at Quarter Final, correct?
On Sunday when we came back from Green Lake, my son stopped by Best Buy to buy a video game for his portable game console. We happened to talk about PS4. He had been owning and playing PS3 for quite a long time when he was a teenager but hadn't bought PS4 because it wasn't very convenient to bring it to his dorm to play. The conversation triggered his desire of owning a PS4. While watching the soccer match, I promised to drive him to Best Buy to buy it afterwards. The match ended around 9:00 pm but I just realized that Best Buy was about to close. He almost cried as a little baby because his enthusiasm of playing it tonight probably had reached boiling point. He referred to Target and we checked out online the store's closing time would be 11:00 pm, so we went. In Target, I sat in an armchair away from electronics section to watch him buying the console, I could tell that he was so excited while talking to the salesperson. I taped a clip of that scene but it couldn't be played on my cell when I attempted to upload. Target might monitor me to take this clip and suspected that I might have a bad intention of doing it, so informed T-mobile to disable it. Am I imaginative?
When we almost arrived at the exit, my son realized that he forgot to buy a new case for placing game discs for PS4 console. I pushed the cart to the parking lot alone first.
On our way home, he pretended caring about the progress of my review of his calculus textbook because he plans to preview integral calculus with me after our trip. I knew he was just trying to impress me that he cared about academic study in addition to playing video games. Anyway, I told him that I was a little bit behind the schedule, only finished Chapter 1 when I was supposed to start Chapter 2 on Monday.
He connected all cables from console to TV and set everything up by himself, so would play the games on PS4 through the night. He did grow up because I did everything for him for PS3 a couple of years ago.
Ok, it is dawn and sun is about to rise. Oh, I am not sure because it is pretty cloudy. Seattleites are adaptable to rains, without it every 10 days, we start feeling uncomfortable anyway.
Before taking shower and getting ready to be on road, I will practice Swedish for 15 minutes, which I didn't do last night either. In addition to short phrases, let me review Veckans Dagar:
I didn't go to gym tonight but had slept after watching USA winning Columbia until ten minutes ago. It was a great match, though Ambach missed the first penalty kick. My parents were watching the match as well and they were shocked by it.
Morgan quickly scored at a very sharp angle. The goal was a little bit lucky because Columbia's keeper didn't expect her shot, was away from the pole. However, it was a smart shot.
Earlier, England won over Norway, they will meet Host at Quarter Final while USA will play China.
My son asked me baking the enchilada we bought at Costco yesterday, it tasted very good, so my son said if we can't find meatloaf in future, we will buy this instead. Yes, it was better than Ground Beef in Peppers we ate yesterday, though that one was ok.
In the next couple of days before our trip starts, to intensively pick up Swedish I have forgot the most after 20 years is probably the most important thing I should do. Though even 20 years ago, I was able to communicate in English when traveling across Sweden on my own in most of the time, being able to understand Swedish is still very fun. While I was practicing the alphabets, my son walked into reading room to ask me what I was doing. He should start taking Swedish 101 if he decides to pursue a Master of Science in Economics in Sweden. I will let him make the call after our trip. I think that experience will be very beneficial for him if he wants to become an economist because Swedish Economic Model is a combination of Capitalism and Welfare, a third solution to curing the global issues.
Ok, next, let me catch some basic phrases, such as Good Morning, which I do remember:
So, everyday, I will repeatedly practice and gradually pick up. Ten days later, I may be able to get back to the level I was at.
Let me find a Swedish song to wrap up. Fan Va Bra was ranked No.9 in last week Charts:
2:54 am in the morning on Monday, it was an intensive Sunday, so I had been falling into sleep since 8:00 pm last night until one hour ago. Now, I am finishing my diary for yesterday.
As a routine recently, it was sunny with clouds and a little bit chilly in early morning, especially when I wore shorts to head to gym. On the way, I saw several cars and few of people walking the dog or jogging. As usual, I stopped by McDonald's, today, I ordered Big Breakfast with a large cup of coffee.
Only working out my weekday schedule for one hour, I went back home to watch Brazil playing Australia. It was somewhat boring in the first half because both of teams couldn't make scoring opportunities. I was about to switch to Fox to glance US Open held at Chambers Bay but just learned it wouldn't start until 11:00 am. However, I hadn't called customer services at T-Mobile, so it was perfect time for me to do it.
The purpose for me to calling was to find out if there was a better option other than Simple Choice Plan to have roaming functions hooked up on my cell. My current plan was 70 bucks per month as base rate. Simple Choice Plan will be 80 bucks but I don't really need roaming functions after our trip next month until at least a year later. However, after talking to customer services representative, I figured my current plan was a grandfather one, so I wouldn't be able to downgrade back to it the month after our trip. According to the nice representative's recommendation, Simple Choice Plan was the best option for our family. I didn't mind to pay 10 bucks more with roaming functions to covering 120+ countries and paying only 20 cents per minute per call, but my concern was if my phone worked without going to any local T-Mobile store to upgrade. Representative dismissed my concern that my phone would be automatically switched to local network as soon as I arrived in those countries, so would my son's. The time of plan switching would be perfect as well, which would start the day we would be leaving for the trip due to our current billing cycle. Things worked out perfectly after the conversation.
Coming back to my bedroom to watch the match, I just caught the moment Aussies scored through a counter-attack with only 10 minutes left of the regulation. It sounded Brazilians had dominated the match but they would lose at the end.
After lunch, I watched the first couple of minutes of the match France playing South Korea but fell into sleep. By then, French had scored a very early goal.
After I woke up half an hour later, I drove my son to Green Lake to walk around it per his request. In the afternoon, the sky was fully clear, Green Lake was stunningly beautiful. Walking around it is my son's only exercise when he stays at home. He does walk around the neighborhood including Lynnwood High where he spent 4 pleasant years everyday, but it is way not enough.
There weren't many people at the Lake today, maybe it was because of so many entertaining events being held in Seattle. However, I still saw quite a few of boats on the Lake. After passing the little theater, my son sought a couple of raptors flying above the lake. He is interested in animals very much and has a lot of knowledge in that field.
Before going home, we stopped by Costco because my son wanted to eat meatloaf for dinner. As expected, we didn't find it in freezers, it had been out of stock for at least a month, so had lasagna. Eventually I pulled a box of enchilada and a box of ground beef in peppers in stead. While walking in the Costco before pulling the boxed foods and after, I saw a beautiful woman with the pretty typical Dane's appearance twice. I had thought she might be from Denmark until she stepped up to be right behind me at cashier because when I pulled my stuff a bit ahead on the conveyor belt in order to give her more room to place her stuff, she said "it's ok" to me with perfect American accent.
Yes, there are a lot of beautiful women in our area. I forgot to mention after I bought the Chinese Wrap of Sticky Rice at Ranch 99 yesterday, I drove back home on Route 99, a gal in front of my van on the other lane kept touching, tossing and swinging her beautiful long and curly hair to show off to us driving behind her. It's a sort of funny but I have to admit that all the men were attracted including me. Though I am no longer interested in pursuing gorgeous women because being single is so convenient as I shared before, it doesn't mean I don't appreciate the beauties. So, ladies, you can keep showing off, I do notice and enjoy.
Baking ground beef in peppers took almost an hour, it tasted not as good as meatloaf but fine enough.
Anyway, baking is a relatively easy job if you have a good oven and meal has been well prepared.
It was not a big meal as we had at Fatburger on Saturday night before watching Jurassic World, but it fed us well enough. Oh, Fatburger hired a bunch of new guys who were pretty enthusiastic, they seemed having fun of working there. The gal who took care of my order at the cashier was new to the job but she picked up pretty quickly.
While waiting for the meal being baked, I came back to my bedroom to catch the 2nd half of 50,000+ fans attended Canada-Switzerland match and caught the goal by Canadian. The BC Place was boiled.
Though I am not a golf fan, US Open being held in Washington State is an honor. The first day, a Goteborg-born swede co-led the tournament with an American; The second day, a young guy happening to have the same first name of mine co-led. However, I spent a hour to watch the last hour of the tournament. It was a dramatic finish.
After getting up to wrap up my diary for yesterday, I got out of the house to climb onto the driver seat to go to gym. It was sunny but a bit chilly since I was wearing shorts, low temperature might be driven by cloudy sky in eastside. On my way to gym I did hope the sunshine to remove all clouds and didn't mind to have a hot day.
As usual, I stopped by McDonald's first to have the breakfast. The large cup of coffee could help me go through the day more consciously.
I followed my weekend schedule to work out two hours but didn't run much on treadmill. As I shared, I didn't feel very well last night, so was cautious not to do too much. Today is Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, so my parents asked me to buy Rice Dumplings. After working out, I drove to Ranch 99 to buy it, by then, strong sun rays did dismiss all clouds and the sky was washed crystal clear.
As I said in my clip, I hadn't known how to describe this holiday in English because I hadn't known English translations of all the terms. While buying the rice dumplings at Ranch 99, I learned English translation on price tag. However, I just checked on Wikipedia, it seemed more appropriately translated into "Balls of Sticky Rice".
My mom made delicious soup but my son didn't like it due to a special flavor added. I drank most of it because I did like it.
It wasn't a good match for Swedes because Germans had been dominating it from the beginning. After missing several opportunities, Germans scored the first goal and the following penalty kick was a bit controversial but Swedes seemed not caring much.
After first half, I went back to my bedroom to watch Sounders' match for several dozen minutes, so missed the responding header by Swede of which was very spectacular I caught in highlight. Anyway, it's a bad tournament for Swedes but Germany National Team was really powerful. They are both my favorite teams for different reasons.
Sounders lost to San Jose. I slept for half an hour, then kept watching China playing Cameroon. Cameroon was the first several African countries I had known when I was a kid because probably in 1976 or 1977 when I was in forth or fifth grade, their President visited China. I was elected to attend a welcoming event being held at Capital Gymnasium Beijing.
It was an entertaining match and I was happy that Chinese kept the result to the end to win the match. It is very possible that they will play USA in quarter final. As Chinese-American who was born and raised in Beijing, one was my national team 20+ years ago and another is my national team now. However it is not difficult for me to make the choice to root for USA on next Friday.
Finally, I drove my son to watch Jurassic World tonight. Though it is second week after the new release, auditorium was almost packed. Compared to old versions of Jurassic Park, the special effects were at totally different level. I guess there will be more sequels coming.
While walking to our car after the movie, I could see clear sky with visible stars. Moon Crescent was hanging amongst stars smiling. I just wished to keep this peaceful moment forever.
11:33 pm now, I want to find a pleasant song to wrap up the day. Yes, Maroon 5 sounds a pretty good band.
5:34 in the morning on Saturday. I didn't feel well last night, even was a little bit of short of breathe, so didn't write my diary. Now, I am doing it before going to gym to workout, oh, I didn't workout last night either.
Before going to work yesterday morning, I drove to property management office to drop a check for monthly due of my rental townhouse, then drove onto I-5 to go to office. Road was very crowded and it was raining. However, after passing certain point on I-5 South, rain stopped.
It became perfect weather later the day, sunny with a little bit cloud and temperature is not high, probably was around 75 Fahrenheit [(75-32)*5/9= 24 Celsius]. I learned many golf enthusiasts going to Chamber Bay to watch US Open, it's good for them.
It's a busy day for many of us today, I had three meetings and several urgent requests to fulfill. Almost at the end of day, a guy asked me in the restroom if I was going to watch World Cup, I was overwhelmingly excited to concur because it was the most exciting soccer tournament in this weekend despite it was women's matches, which might be less combative then men's. Later, I realized that his initial point probably was US Open but he knew I was a super soccer guy and wasn't interested in golf, so he changed his words, it's why he paused for a second before delivering the term of "World Cup". Yes, he must watch the US Open and I heard many people would go to the golf course in University Place near Tacoma to witness this significant event.
Coming back home, I did watch US Open on Fox from time to time. I recall when I was a kid, I hadn't known anything about ice hockey until a Level-C Ice Hockey World Championship was held in Beijing in 1981 and I went to Capital Gymnasium Beijing to watch the most of games. Chinese National Team lost to Austria in the final but still was promoted to Level B after the tournament. I became an ice hokey fan afterwards. However, because I don't play Ice Hockey, eventually it was dropped out of my list for sports. If I keep following US Open this weekend, I may become interested in golf for a while. However, I will mainly watch Women's World Cup today.
Before coming home after work, I stopped by Bank of America financial center across the street of Thrasher's Corner to pick up the foreign currencies I ordered for our trip. I was familiar with Swedish Krona pretty well in early 90s but wasn't able to recognize it now. Even I used Euro in France and Germany four years ago but wasn't able to recall how it looks like very well. I couldn't tell Denmark and Norwegian Kroner at all, maybe only used once or twice in my whole life. Next month, I probably would have to recognize them by reading the name of issuing institutions on the bills. Anyway, I will try to use credit cards as much as possible, though the transaction fees would be higher but it would be more convenient. However, after paying for air and hotel in advance online, I don't see much money to be spent.
Having been with Bank of America and its predecessor in Seattle - Seafirst for almost 20 years, I hadn't had a banker until yesterday. Because I needed to have my bank account upgraded in person, Ryan helped me do it and we had a very pleasant conversation. When he walked me out of his office, he asked me to contact him whenever I needed because he was my banker. This reminded me a commercial on TV recently: "He is my banker".
I happened to read my son's comments and debates with his friends on Facebook, which popped in my account. They were debating about Racism of which was driven by killings in Charleston. My thought is that Racism will be totally removed one day, maybe in 500 years, when the entire human beings are fully integrated. By then, human will have the similar color of skins and compositions of blood, the term of "race" or "ethnicity" will be eliminated. The color of skins of the people may be darker if they live close to Equator but may be lighter if close to Polar Circles, but they won't have significant genetic differences. This will happen when the entire global economy becomes fully balanced and social status won't exist anymore.
So, to raise poor's living standards to match rich's is the most efficient way to eliminate the racism. Anyway, this topic reminded me a song in 80s - We are the World.
Coming back home around 5:00 pm, I switched from channel to channel. Senseless massacre in Charleston was followed up on CNN. US Open was televised on Fox. I don't play and watch, even am not interested in golf, but because it is being held in Washington State, I would like to show my support.
Trying to catch the scene when I was working out, I forgot to turn flashlight off, so I had to dazzle my eyes to have my facial reaction present so funny.
Approaching my house, I could see it drizzling outside my van. It's only cloudy around the gym, which was only two miles away. Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow, then we will have another perfect sunny day with comfortable temperature.
My reading room is pretty messy now because I am sorting out the stuff my son bringing back from his dorm. After having all dirty clothes washed and dried, I will put the clean clothes for winter into one baggage and the ones for our trip into another baggage. There are only two weeks left, so I start packing.
In this trip, I am going to drive through five countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Netherlands. However, we will stay in Sweden most of the time, so I plan only to hook up roaming function on my cell there. I haven't found out the best program of having it.
I probably should call customer services tomorrow to get their advice on the best option. This Simple plan Choice seems pretty convenient but it will add another 10 bucks monthly. I don't really need international roaming function regularly.
Ok, as usual, let me find a song to wrap up the diary, this song actually is topper on Swedish Charts and I have listened to it for several days in the last couple of days.
As I shared that I didn't go to gym last night. After writing the diary for yesterday, I went back to sleep and got up at 6:30 am to go to work.
Not going to work out made me feel short of something, so I couldn't wait to go tonight. Now, I am fulfilled.
I did start reviewing my son's textbook of Calculus because I plan to wrap up the first 5 chapters before I start tutoring him on Integral Calculus after we come back from Scandinavia next month. I haven't touched this subject for 15 years, so have to review from the scratch. In addition, I warned my son that one more challenge was waiting for him: JAVA Programming, which he took in his first quarter of freshman year but had to drop in the 3rd week because he didn't have clue about it. Though it is not a required course for BS in Economics, mastering a programming language is recommended by the program and very crucial. He seemed pretty confident in taking it when he pulled the textbook he still kept on the shelf to show me.
Round of 16 of Women's World Cup will kick off on Saturday, the first match will be Germany playing Sweden. Wow, it will be a brutal one. Following it, China will take Cameroon. On Sunday, there will be three matches in row. US match will be on Monday, I am not sure if I can watch it. However, I will shift my workout schedule to watch as many matches as I can this weekend.
Yesterday, I booked hotel room in Oslo. Let me pull another song to end my diary today. Yes, Zara Larsson, seems she is pretty popular in Sweden now.
It's 2:30 am on Wednesday now. Feeling sleepy, I didn't go to gym last night but forced myself into sleep until 20 minutes ago. I probably will do morning workout as soon as gym opens at 5:00 am.
On my way to work this morning, I followed a XFinity pickup all the way through Bellevue when it was run out of freeway. As usual, I rarely switched lanes before Bellevue but stayed in the middle, it is the safer option and doesn't have my driving speed slowed down much during heavy traffic in rush hours.
Yesterday, I heard a guy mentioning a Chinese curse "May You Live in Interesting Times" but it never rang the bell in my mind. I couldn't think about any Chinese origins close to it. However, I checked on Wikipedia, it sounded that the closest interpretation in Chinese is: You would rather be a dog in peaceful time than a human in turmoil. Recently, because someone asked, even yesterday morning, I mentioned to that person that our family isn't 100% traditional Chinese, especially from my mom's side. We know her father was Man ethnicity mixed with Mongolian ancestry, Man ethnicity migrated to Chinese territory to establish Qing Dynasty. It's why my maternal grandfather was a purely Beijinger. My mom's maternal grandfather was non-Asian who either was born or at least grew up in Ye County, Shangdong when it was a colonized territory in 19th century. He fled to a village in Hebei province near Beijing later due to unknown reasons. So, my mom only possibly has 25% of blood of Han Ethnicity, the dominant Chinese blood. When I was young, I tried to find out where my mom's maternal grandfather's origin was because I learned some countries had relevant immigration laws. After traveling internationally became easily, it became irrelevant to me. However, It is definitely an interesting mystery I am interested in finding out. DNA test can tell you the exact compositions of your blood, I may start from it someday after I retire and have free time to do something meaningless. Anyway, my dad was born and raised in Shaanxi, Northwest region in China, a 100% Han ethnicity as he knows. Leaving work at 6:40 pm, I took the perfect weather in Seattle for granted: Sunny, Windless but cool due to overcast in the morning.
Missing the exciting match USA playing Nigeria, I caught the highlights on Fox Sports I later. As expected, USA won and advanced. Nigeria head coach seemed very unsatisfied at the end but I think they played very well in this tournament within this group of death in which all the other teams are top 10 ranked. It's not a good day for Swedes, they have to wait to see if they can advance as one of the best 3rd ranked teams.
Earlier today, my son learned his grade in Macroeconomics: 3.0. which isn't as good as he expected but is acceptable. His expectation was 3.4 or 3.5 because he had maintained 3.2 before the final exam and he thought he did it greatly in final. However, his score for final exam is mediocre, which had his final grade dropped. In general, given the difficulties of the courses he selected in his fresh year, he did a good job and is on the right track to apply the major of BS in Economics in Junior year. I will keep helping him to achieve that goal. As I said, I need to tutor him in Integral Calculus and Intermediate Microeconomics, which is calculus based in next quarter. Many people think only Engineering and Physical Sciences require hardcore mathematics but modern economics is mathematical model based, a real economist is always a great mathematician. So, if my son wants to pursue a career of economist as I recommend, he will have to go through this challenging journey. However, he doesn't need to worry about physics and chemistry. That helps a little bit. 3:36 am. Do I go back to bed or prepare to go to gym?
Before driving my van out of the garage this morning, I appreciated neat lawn in our front yard under the sunny sky.
However, summer might come too soon. On my way home after work, though it was already almost 6:00 pm, sun rays were still very strong as if they could have broken through your skin. Per Anna on Spirit 105.3, the temperature had gone up to 85 degrees today. Hopefully we will experience a little bit rain during this week. By the way, the formula of conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius is C = (F-32)*5/9, so 85 Fahrenheit is equivalent to 29.4 Celsius, which was pretty high in June in Seattle.
After dinner, I cut Day Nine of Sometime in Scandinavia short from my original plan. I will leave the imagination of having decent dinner at an upscale restaurant to a reality check when I take my son to Oslo next month. So, this episode was almost full of history.
When I arrive at gym, it was already 10:30 pm. I didn't run much as I usually do at 8 miles per hour but only walked or jogged. On bike, I felt pretty comfortable.
On my way home, I rolled down the side window of my van, breeze was cool.
12:33 am, it's time to go to bed. Oh, my son wanted me to help him preview Integrals for his Calculus class in next quarter after we come back from vacation next month. I actually need to start reviewing Derivatives and Differentials first, so my plan is to read one chapter per week even during our trip in Scandinavia. Then, after we come back, I can guide my son starting from Chapter 5 - Integrals. Last quarter, I helped him in Microeconomics and I guess he did benefit from it.
