Patrick's Diary - 7/31/2015

After two day's break, I went to gym again this morning. It's still full moon at 5:00am and there weren't many cars on the road. Of course, I stopped by McDonald's to have #8 breakfast first. 

After walking out of the gym, I felt so great. Looking up to see the blue sunny sky even in early morning around 7:00am, I thought about to take sick leave to enjoy the sunshine.

I did share my experiences in Sweden in the last almost 3 weeks with someone who was interested in it because I had told him that I would expect certain degree of disappointment for this trip before we went to Sweden. The reason I said it was that all of my days I spent in two periods in 90s were great, after so many years, I did expect significant changes, which might lead to some negativities. However, I told him the experience in this time was as fantastic as it had been before. I do plan to go back to Stockholm in May, 2016 to watch Eurovision. 

I just walked my son through Section 5.1 of Chapter 5 in Calculus textbook. I pushed him to thoroughly understand the Formula of Area given the curve side of y=x^(2) by hand-writing on a piece of paper multiple times until he totally caught it:

Lim Rn (n-infinite) = 1/n*(1/n)^(2)+1/n*(2/n)^(2)+1/n*(3/n)^(2)+......+1/n*(n/n)^(2)
= 1/n^(3)*(1^(2)+2^(2)+3^(3)+......+4^(n)) 
= 1/n^(3)*n(n+1)*(2n+1)/6
= (n+1)(2n+1)/6n^(2)
= (2n^(2)+3n+1)/6n^(2)
= 1/3+1/2n+1/6n^(2)
= 1/3

This formula lays a foundation of understanding Integrals. My son will take Integrals and Intermediate Economics in Autumn Quarter. In addition, he will take a Drama class because he is always confident in his acting talents. He said that he will pursue an acting career if he sees potentials through the drama class. It's very difficult as everyone knows but who knows what he can achieve. 

Ok, tomorrow will be very hot and we will go to Sounders' match at night!

Patrick's Diary - 7/30/2015

Since it's a team farewell lunch for our manager's retirement at Cheesecake Factory in Southcenter, I didn't take a photo or film a clip as I usually do. Some co-workers might not care but others might be uncomfortable or even offended, you never know. They served delicious foods for sure. Since I had been eating Scandinavian, Italian, French and American cuisines, oh once Spanish, during our 3 weeks trip in Northern Europe, mainly in Sweden, I ordered Chicken Enchiladas today. I rarely ordered it when having Mexican food but 2 months ago, when we didn't find Meatloaf at Costco, we picked the frozen enchiladas instead, and it ended a very tasty dinner at home. It's why I made this choice as soon as I saw it on menu. Sure, it's much better than frozen food, though that had satisfied me very much. This is only the 2nd time I ate at Cheesecake Factory and I bought Low Carb Cake with Strawberry at the end as well. One of the waitresses, who might be a supervisor or even manager there, was a little bit odd to me. First, when I walked in to pass their front desk, she had stared at me strangely. At the end, she made fun of me. No matter why, I don't care. You never know others' intentions, good or bad. I live a happy life myself in my own world, as I just said, I really don't care what you think. I will keep doing whatever I love to do. 

My son has a plan to start previewing Integral Calculus before Autumn Quarter starts. He wanted me to walk him through. I made a detail study proposal for him:

• I explain one section of a chapter every night for him - 30 minutes at most;
• He digests the contents and practices 3 to 5 problems given at the end of each section the following day - 30 minutes.

There are 6 chapters and totally 35 sections to be previewed, so if my son can stick with my proposal, he will be able to thoroughly finish it in 35 days. The autumn quarter won't start until the last week of September at University of Washington, so he had a plenty of time. 

However, we failed to do it the first night. When I was ready to walk him through 5.1- Areas and Distances, my son was watching a show on TV. When he came over to my bedroom to tell me he was ready, I asked him to wait for another 10 minutes because I was sleepy. Then, I fell into sleep. Of course, no one wants to study during the summer break, but my son had struggled with pre-calculus in Winter Quarter and only got a mediocre grade in Differentiation in last quarter, he does want to prepare in advance with my help for Integrals. We will start tonight.

4:25am now, I am about to go to gym. 

Patrick's Diary - 7/29/2015

I didn't write the diary last night because straightly falling into sleep after dinner but am doing it now at 3:38 am on Thursday; I didn't go to gym for the same reason but will go at 5:00 am. 

Right rear turning light bulb was broken, which caused my cautions whenever I switched the lane to the right on my way to work and home. I stopped by Napa Auto Parts in the plaza across the street of Thrashers' Corner. The lady at the counter was very knowledgable, as soon as she saw the bulb I showed to her, she recognized the model and led me to the right spot to take the new bulbs off the hanger. It's an easy replacement, I felt I could be a great mechnician. However, it's pretty hot in Bothell, I had been totally sweaty after finishing this easy job. 

Watching MLS All Stars vs Tottenham, I was impressed by these aged stars' performance, KAKA won AVP after the match and David Villa scored a clear-cut goal. Harry Kane is a great young rising star, who showed his value in this match too. It's Sounders' pride to have Dempsey and Marshall representing the club. Meanwhile, Yedlin played the last 20 minutes for Tottenham, he is also Sounders' pride as American Export, especially he is Seattle home grown. 

Next on Fox Sports 1, the replay of International Champions Cup was present. PSG played Manchester United earlier in Chicago. My favorite player, Ibra, the captain of Swedish National Team, was in the field and PSG won 2 to 0 at the end. Unfortunately, I only glanced several times in the first half because of falling sleep time from time and turned it off during halftime break. 

The summer soccer tournaments are so active, I just realized that Real Madrid is to play AC Milan in Shanghai in an hour. Should I stay at home to watch or go to gym as planned? 

While watching MLS All Stars, I noticed that starting from 8/14, FSN1 will televise Bundesliga. Soccer becomes hotter and hotter in the States. NFL probably doesn't like it. I do love watching American football as well, football game is an event with which fans have a lot of fun. Obviously each game generates much more revenue than a soccer match. However, soccer is an international popular sport, in addition to universal communications with the rest of the world, soccer can have Americans making money globally as well. But American football probably rarely makes money from foreigners. Given that we are no longer independent from the rest of the world economically, Americans may not be able to absorb the cost of Football any more. Talking about less revenue per match, each team can play two or even three matches a week but football team probably only can play one, this will make up the differences, in addition, total teams in a league can be significant more than football teams because it is much easier to build a soccer team from the scratch. 

Facebook had another great quarter, if buying stocks is still to buy future, its price should go much higher. However, It adopts a very conservative approach in terms of stock price promotion. Facebook probably is the most shining spot in technology sector nowadays. Twitter and Yelp will be acquired in near future. 

Patrick's Diary - 7/28/2015

I went to gym pretty late tonight, so finished my weekday routine at 11:40pm. Walking towards the door to go out, I was called back by the guy at the front desk. He reminded that my membership need to be renewed though the expiration date is set in October. He said I could wait but every time when I check in, yellow sign will be flashed on their screen, which may trigger them to ask me about renewal and I may start getting phone calls from them as well. 230 bucks is a pretty reasonable rate for another year, I went ahead to give him the credit card. 

Someone will go to Mariners' game tomorrow afternoon, I got some updated information about the team and club from him. I haven't gone to Mariners' game for several years because they have been continuously disappointing me since mid-2000. However, I was told that they are pretty promising now though the standing is still poor at AL West. They are playing exciting games and getting pretty close scores even they may lose at the end. I probably should go watching at least one game before the season ends. They are going to play Diamondback, which triggered me to share that I drove to Phoenix to watch Diamondback hosting Tigers at Bank One Ballpark in 2005 when I shortly lived in Southern California. It was pretty hot though still in late Spring. I recalled that the roof was closed and air-conditioning had to be turned on. 

Twitter's stock price dropped more than 4 bucks after hours due to slow users' growth. I insist that sharply increased revenue be credited more. The meaningful metric should be Revenue per User instead of # of Users. Many Users may generate zero revenue for quite a long period. Yelp's dropped to the level of 20s, I bet both of these two become really attractive targets for acquisitions now.

Ok, I need to sleep now. I probably will write my diary for 7/18/2015 tomorrow, I plan to write two sonnets then. 

Patrick's Diary - 7/27/2015

While eating three pieces of bread my mom bought at Ranch 99 as breakfast, I spontaneously turned TV on to notice the news of 8.5% market crash in Shanghai. It's not a surprise to me that I had always heard the term of "猴市(Monkey Market)", which describes its market acting like a monkey jumping up and down illogically when I was in China in early 90s, 

It's been another super long day in terms of loads instead of hours, I almost always keep 8 hours unless need to flex time sometimes. I did have some valuable conversations with others too. 

Jet-lag came back at the moment when I was waiting for the last traffic lights before arriving at home. Pulling a bottle of beer in the box in garage, I went up to my bedroom to lie down on my bed. While drinking the beer, I turned on TV to lock the channel on Bloomberg for several minutes to watch an economist talking about Chinese market crash, then switched to CNN to watch Anderson Cooper's 360 for another several minutes. Anderson was interviewing several campaign associates, they were debating about Trump's running. It's such a surprise that Trump is leading the poll with 18% approval rate, the highest amongst Republican candidates. In my eyes, Trump is a funny figure, but this may bring him the advantages given Republicans' unfavorable positions for so many years. 

Not going to gym tonight but sleeping until 11:00pm, I managed to complete the diary for the day on the way to Stockholm, I felt greatly when I finally went to bed at 1:00 in the early morning. Now, I am ready to leave home on road for work again.

If Trump can run and lead the poll, I should do it too. Unfortunately, I am a naturalized US citizen, so is my son.

Patrick's Diary - 7/17/2015

We had a wonderful dinner in Lilla Torg last night and slept heavily through the night. Checking out at the front desk in the morning, I filmed the last clip of the hotel I randomly selected through Expedia Mobile App yesterday. Other than receiving an unfriendly parking ticket during the only 5 minutes while I was checking in, Elite Hotel Plaza itself was a great choice. It's not large but decorated elitely, the location is very convenient within walking distance to the center of the city of Malmo. 

As I shared, I took trains at Central Station in Malmo twice in 90s but wasn't able to recognize it very well this time. My impression back then was that it looked like the train station in the movies depicting 1930s to 1940s. I recalled that I exchanged US dollars to Swedish Krona at a Forex Kiosk in 1992 just outside the station what was the first time I did it in Scandinavia. I did want to film a clip across the street of the station remotely but my son blocked it, he wanted to be on road to Stockholm as early as possible. Actually he had been tired of such a long trip and wanted to go home. While frustrating with his attitude, I knew I shouldn't expect that he had the same passion as I had about this country. Almost 3 weeks away from his bed and video game console at home might be too long for him. 

Getting back to freeway, we were heading to Jonkoping where I planned to stop by Vattern to wander around for half an hour. The sky was light blue and sunshine was pretty mild. It's a great morning to be on road in Southern Sweden. 

Last time, we drove from Goteborg to Stockholm, so hadn't gone through this part. We did stop by Jonkoping to walk along the lake. This time, I might miss the best exit to approach the lake, so decided to drive up the hill to take a remote view. First of all, I stopped the car at a bus station to film the lake. From this point of time, my son became increasingly inpatient whenever I stopped to film until the end of this trip. He really wanted to go home. 

Taking a U-turn by borrowing someone's front yard, we drove back toward E4. Since my son didn't like filming, I had to film while driving all over this trip. He kept blaming me doing that. It's not safe, I knew it, but why couldn't he do it while sitting on passenger's seat? I did feel frustrated with him about this. Anyway, we both agreed that this viewpoint was the best place to park. 

I created my first sonnet for this trip by watching the clip of beautiful Vattern, which is the 2nd largest one in Sweden and it was my 3rd time to be around it:

Standing up the hill to view Vattern in distance, (a)
Digging deeply in my soul back to two decades ago. (b)
Starting from the west edge of the paradise, (a)
Approaching the lake having only seen on video. (b)
Walking along the blue water with my past beauty, (c)
Putting on the yellow shirt against wind in May. (d)
Looking through your eyes to pull out the purity, (c)
Holding me tight to go through our milky way. (d)
Waking up by the breeze under the summer sun, (e)
Wondering if this is the place we had been together. (f)
Pulling back by the memory of the spring rain, (e)
Questioning if that was the dream I can't get back forever. (f)
Vattern as a witness is always here, (g)
But you like a mirage were no longer there. (g)

Heading back to E4 and driving for a couple of minutes, we sought the first and the only accident on Freeways during this trip. Fortunately, it was on the other side. The freeways in Sweden are generally two-lane with very narrow shoulders. Whenever the accident incurs, it will take a super long time to have the road cleared. This one was pretty serious by Swedish standard. After we passed through that area, I could tell the traffic jam had been extended probably 10 kilometers. 

Next significant city on E4 is Linkoping. While passing by, I could see the tip of the cathedral remotely. 

Driving another 40 kilometers, we were passing the city of Norrkoping. I am impressed by this city for two reasons: I demanded to take over the wheel close to it on E4 to drive her brand new Volvo 850 in May; This city has a nickname of Peking where I was born and raised until 18 years old. You can imagine what kind of feeling I had.

In the next almost 200 kilometers, we experienced heavy clouds and rains up to the point where it is probably 50 kilometers away from Stockholm. Though the road might be renovated in the past 23 years, I couldn't recognize the exact spot, however, this is approximately where I gave the wheel back to her and sat back onto passenger's seat. Actually, from this point, the sky became gradually clear, which removed my concern of a rainy night in Stockholm. 

Though I didn't have chance to take the clips when I drove into the city of Stockholm, I was amazed by all the attractions along the roads, Again after 19 years since I was here last time. I am not sure if it was because I was fairly familiar with this city, it was the only one with which I didn't waste even a second to arrive at our destination straightly. However, learning the lesson of getting the ticket in Malmo, I drove the car into the Q-park garage across the street of our hotel to park it at Section H, then we shouldered the bags to go to the lobby to check-in.

Scandic Clara is a very nice hotel, I could tell it as soon as we walked in. In addition, it is near Kungsgatan and within walking distances to Sergels Torg, Kungstradgarden, Gamla Stan. The receptionist was a young woman who spoke very well English. After asking her about how to pay for parking, I shared my stories of getting tickets in Malmo and Goteborg, she was even willing to help resolve the problems. At that moment, I left the tickets in the car, so didn't have chance to bother her. Though she was wearing a pair of glasses, I could tell she was very pretty. This actually was proved when we checked out 3 days later, then she didn't wear the glasses. 

Taking the rest briefly, we walked to Kungsgatan within one minute after getting out of the hotel. As soon as we reached the edge of the street, we caught a restaurant across it. Without looking at others, we decided to dine at this one. 

The young girl was sweet and explained the menu to us patiently. My son was pretty hungry and ordered the big starter and main dish. I appreciated that the girl tried to be nice to imply that it might be too much for my son, but my son said he could eat a lot. During the dinner, my son was bothered by the smoking coming from both tables behind him and me. I can't say it is bad or not, I found many more smokers in Sweden than in States during this trip. Last time when I was here, I smoked too, though not a heavy one, so I might not pay much attention. Since I have quit smoking for 17 years, I was pretty sensitive this time. It might be as my son said, air in Sweden may be too clean, people want to add pollution into it. 

There is a very small square on our way back to hotel, it might be the dirtiest spot we had seen in Sweden: trashes were all over it. But there might be a reason because the very next day, we would find a fair like a flea market being held there. 

As I said in this clip, I was so glad to come back to Stockholm at that moment and I knew I still love this city so much...

Patrick's Diary - 7/26/2015

Stopping by McDonald's to have the breakfast before working out at gym, I hadn't gone there for almost a month because of the vacation. Sitting at a table where I could watch a program about cruise on TV, I was so relaxing while sipping the large cup of coffee. 

I didn't come to gym to workout yesterday, so did it for two hours today. It's my routine during the weekends anyway. After one hour on treadmill, 200 times weightlifting and 20 minutes on bike, I felt so fulfilled.

After lunch, I kept on sorting out the photos and clips. At the end, I saved all of them onto CD and DVD discs.

The sky became bright and sun popped out, though it was still pretty cool. I did hear the sound of thunders, so the storm might be coming. Driving to Safeway to pick up the medications, I actually felt a bit too warm by wearing the Sounders' jacket. Oh, I bought the tickets for Sounders taking Whitecaps on Saturday night. It's a surprise that my son wanted to go too. 

A new face was at pharmacy today, her name is Chris. Because I had dropped the refill requests yesterday, the medications were ready for me to pick up. It might be because of Sunday, so Chris was the only one there and I didn't see any other customers. 

My plan was to write the diary for 7/17 while I drove on the way to Stockholm from Malmo but I spent too much time on reviewing the related clips I filmed on the road, eventually, I was tired, so went to bed to watch TV. I will write it next week. I don't want to wrap up those days in Stockholm in rush, I may write several Sonnets for different circumstances. 

It's 10pm now, I am about to sleep in the next couple of minutes, hopefully, the jet-leg has been totally gone. 

Patrick's Diary - 7/25/2015

I just noticed that Google had my clip uploaded well delayed. On Thursday early morning, I got up to write my diary and filmed the burgers my dad bought at 7-11 close to our house. Let me show it now.

Yesterday morning, I drove my parents to buy grocery at Ranch 99 after not going there for more than a month, they ended up with buying a lot. Normally we go there bi-weekly when my son is at home. Hopefully we won't need to go back until at least 3 weeks later.

As usual, while my parents were shopping, my son and I drove to Costco to buy other stuff. At the cashier, the lady glanced at my photo at the back of my credit card and asked me if it is me. I think she knows me, maybe just joking. She said I didn't look like myself on photo. Yes, the real me doesn't look like the one on photo very well, I don't know why. However. compared to the photos on which I wore glasses, the differences might be even more significant. I made a selfie with my son's glasses because mine is frameless, it wouldn't make much difference. 

Before going back to Ranch 99 to pick up my parents, we went to Safeway to refill the medications. Lisa was busy doing something, Whitney came over from the back to the counter to take my request nicely. My son made the dry joke again by saying jobs at pharmacy boring, which led to a friendly debate. Tina was the pharmacist today. We didn't wait for the refill but I would come back to pick them up on Sunday. 

Stopping at Szechuan Garden in Lynnwood, my son had his long time waited "Gigantic Chinese Meatballs". The dishes here are always extraordinarily authentic. 

My plan was to go to gym to workout after the lunch but didn't make it. While drinking two bottle of beers, I sorted out the photos and clips we took in the trip, copied them to a disc and consolidated them into two folders on my laptop as well. I haven't done but will keep doing today. 

I totally forgot USA playing Panama for 3rd place of Gold Cup but learned it on Twitter. They lost at the end. It's not for champion anyway, so I care less.

I watched Sounders' playing Impact from time to time, they lost at the end as well. I know they brought back Friberg for commercial reason, though I don't know Friberg, I hope he can help Sounders at his capacity. When I popped my photo in front of Gamla Ullevi on Twitter, someone immediately followed up. Haha, as a Sounders' fan, I am totally fine for whatever is good for this club. 

Yes, I am still missing Sweden, especially Stockholm. I can't wait to go back. However, I may need to start enjoying Seattle again since it is definitely my home. From next weekend, I will start having lunch or dinner at popular restaurants in downtown before or after a Sounders or Mariners' game. I have experienced a lot before but there are many attractions I haven't tried after living here for 17 years. 

Patrick's Diary - 7/24/2015

It's the first gym workout after coming back from Sweden, though we did go to Norway, Denmark, Germany and Netherlands, I still want to say it was for Sweden. However, I can't deny that I did enjoy the days and nights in Copenhagen, Odense, Amsterdam, Tilburg, Oslo. It was a little bit rusty around Hamburg in Germany this time because of the traffic collapse, but driving on Autobahn is always exciting, especially when I reached 100 miles per hour for quite a few times. 

Coming back home from work, I was a little bit sleepy on the road due to jet-lag but not as bad as yesterday. The issue is gradually gone. Stopping by Optical Reflection to pick up my son's contact lenses, I chatted with Gail for several minutes then drove away. 

Waiting for the traffic lights to turn onto North Road, I almost missed it because the guy in front of me might be distracted and hadn't proceeded for at least 20 secs, he accelerated to pass but the light had become yellow, I sped up to pass through anyway. 

Driving is fun for me, though I don't rate myself a super aggressive driver, just enjoy controlling the car and managing the roads. Yesterday, I wrote that I had driven through 44 States in my life, let me recount to see if they are more or less. 

From Miami to Jacksonville: FLORIDA - #1

(X'mas in 98, 2nd time in Florida - Epcot)

(in South Beach, Miami)

From Seattle to San Francisco: WASHINGTON #2; OREGON #3; CALIFORNIA - #4

(At Golden Gate Bridge in 97)

From Seattle to Fly to Las Vegas then drive: NEVADA #5; ARIZONA #6; COLORADO #7;

(2010 In Grand Canyon, probably the fifth time in my life I was there)

From Seattle to Chicago: IDAHO #8; MONTANA #9; NORTH DAKOTA #10; MINNESOTA #11; WISCONSIN #12; ILLINOIS #13;

(Chicago 2007)

From Chicago to Key West: INDIANA #14; KENTUCKY #15; TENNESSEE #16; GEORGIA #17; 

(At Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1998, this was the first time I was in Indiana)

(At Parking lot on top of a building near CNN Headquarter in Atlanta in 98)

From Key West back to Chicago: SOUTH CAROLINA #18; OHIO #19; 

(at U of South Carolina - Columbia in 98, don't want to show other's image w/o permission, so cover her face)

From Chicago to Galveston: MISSOURI #20; KANSAS #21; OKLAHOMA #22; TEXAS #23;

(In Space Center - Houston in 99)

From Galveston back to Chicago: ARKANSA #24; 

From Chicago to Toronto: MICHIGAN #25; 

From Toronto back to Chicago: NEW YORK #26; PENNSYLVANIA #27; 

(Can't recall if this is downtown Buffalo then)

From Chicago to DC to NYC to Boston: WEST VIRGINIA #28; VIRGINIA #29; DC #30; MARYLAND #31; Delaware #32; NEW JERSEY #33; CONNECTICUT #34; RHODE ISLAND #35; MASSACHUSETTS #36; 

(By Charles River in Boston in 98)

From Chicago to Mississippi River in Iowa: IOWA #37;

From Chicago to Omaha: Nebraska #38;

From Chicago back to Seattle: SOUTH DAKOTA #39; WYOMING #40; 

(At Mount Rushmore in 99)

Fly to Boston then drive around East Coast: NORTH CAROLINA #41; VERMONT #42; 

(My son at Duke during that trip in 2011)

From Seattle to San Diego back to Seattle: UTAH #43

(My son in the center of Salt Lake City when we stopped) 

Yep, the correct numbers should be 42 if excluding DC. Of course, I didn't only drive through these States once but multiple times because I didn't count all the road trips, for example, I crossed over the country twice; I have driven between Seattle and Southern California numerous times.

In addition, I did go to the following States but never drove in them:

Alaska; Hawaii; Alabama; New Hampshire; New Mexico; Louisiana.

(at Riverwalk in New Orlean, Again, don't want to share other's image without permission)

The only two States if excluding Puerto Rico I have never been are:

Maine and Mississippi 

I should drive in all these States I am missing someday. 

Patrick's Diary - 7/23/2015

Jet-lag didn't happen in the first day but the second day after we came back from Europe. On my way home yesterday evening around 5 o'clock, I started feeling sleepy. It's why I didn't eat much for dinner and went back to bedroom to sleep. 

It's 3:44am on Friday now, I definitely will go to gym at 5:00am. 

I heard my dad calling Chinese local officers  in master bedroom at one point of time last night when I might wake up for a minute. He hadn't followed up about the final assessment of compensation of my property in Beijing I bought and my parents built in early 90s until last night. As I shared, he was tricked back there for half a year and came back with nothing in May. After even we agreed to a well-reduced amount of compensation, my dad was told that Assessment Corporation hired by National Lands Administration of China denied the resolution. Our family lives a frugal life compared to those with the same living standard, for example, I could afford a luxury car like Volvo XC60 I drove in Sweden but I won't spend money to buy it, so I don't care when the compensation will be granted and won't compromise more.

In 2004, when I went back to Beijing to see my son and my parents, I filmed the property and just extracted several minutes by my camera:

My son was still sleeping on a bed in one of the rooms

The entire yard was gorgeous by Chinese standard then. 

It sounded that the finalization will be reached pretty soon, I don't know if this is another bullshit or not. However, if I get the reasonable amount at the end, I will go back to China for another 3 weeks next year to drive around the country to have fun while promoting Chinese tourism as a byproduct of my enjoyment for free as I always do. I have driven through 44 States in US but only done 10 provinces including Central Administered Metros such as Beijing, Shanghai in China. It will be an exciting road trip. I owned a VW Santana stationwagon when I lived in Beijing in early 90s, the price was sky high then: RMB 189K. As I heard, half of that price can buy a better car there currently. I probably will just buy a new one, then give it to a friend after the trip. 

If this plan can be implemented, I will update the travel journal daily in Chinese on WeChat and Weibo, and write in English on my blog later because no access is allowed in China to Google+, Facebook. Some Chinese might be able to write better journals in Chinese than me for such a trip but I don't think anyone else can write in English more exciting than me due to my unique background and experiences. 

Can I trust Chinese government to settle with me reasonably? I am truly unsure. 

Patrick's Diary - 7/22/2015

It's 2:27 am on Thursday now. Sleeping for 4 hours, I got up five minutes ago to write my diary. I didn't really feel starving but wanted to drink a bottle of Heineken. My dad bought some sandwiches and burgers at 7-Eleven while we were in Sweden, I pulled a burger from the refrigerator. My plan now is to go to gym at 5:00 am and I don't need to eat breakfast at McDonald's then.

Yesterday morning, I left home at 6:30 am and followed the heavy traffic to go to the office. It's a long day but I felt pretty energized.

Since I started at 7:30 am, I didn't leave until 8 hours later, I had known that I would miss the most of the match USA playing Jamaica, but at that point of time, I was thinking that I wouldn't miss the final on Sunday anyway.

Generally, when I saw Dennis hanging outside his garage, I chatted with him a little bit. But this time, I wasn't sure if people like me bragging my trip to Scandinavia or not, so didn't talk to him until he shouted to me after I parked my car into our garage. 

I briefed my trip to him, he was impressed and happy for my enjoyment. I did tell him that I revisited most of the places I had had many great memories and am glad that Sweden still can keep their social stability after absorbing so many immigrants. I felt very safe in each city as I had experienced 20 years ago. 

Actually, it was the best timing to talking to him because I had planned to bring his family a box of chocolates as gift. He actually told me that his wife would fly to Pittsburgh to see their son's family tomorrow. She might bring that gift from Sweden to her son. However, I had planned to buy a Swedish one but at Duty-Free store at Arlanda, I couldn't find any, so bought this well respected Danish brand instead. 

I explained why I couldn't bring him a Swedish brand, Dennis said he liked it anyway.

I forgot where I learned the bad news after coming into the house, probably on Twitter: I couldn't believe it that US lost to Jamaica at home. Darn, I won't watch the final on Sunday as I had planned even before coming back to US.

After dinner, I read through the diaries I had written for this trip for a while, then went to bed to sleep. 

Ok, I may sleep for another hour or two next. 

Patrick's Diary - 7/21/2015

It is 2:35 in the morning on Wednesday at home in Seattle now. I hadn't seen such a dark sky for almost three weeks because it is always sort of bright in Scandinavia during the summer. I had been sleeping after lunch until one hour ago. Yes, I am adjusting jet-leg.

The wake-up call and my cell alarm both rang at 3:00 in the morning on 7/21 when I had already woken up. I just needed to take a shower because I had packed up all stuff earlier. My son even didn't take the shower. After filming the room at Radisson Blu Skycity, which is inside Arlanda Airport, we checked out, pulled a cart to load our baggage on, and walked to Terminal Two. It is so convenient for the travellers who need to catch an early flight like us, oh, our flight with KLM to Amsterdam was at 6:30am. 

At night on 7/20, I had walked over to check out the process of check-in. However, I didn't notice it is self-served process of baggage drop off. The staff at the counter helped me wrap the tags correctly on our check-in bags and scan the barcodes to let the bags go through. This was the first time for me to go through this kind of process at the airport. 

I hadn't bought enough chocolates at Gamla Stan in the morning on 7/20 because the specialty store wasn't open. Fortunately the duty-free store at the airport opened after 5:00am, so I had chance to buy several boxes. 

A girl at her late 20s, maybe early 30s, tried to put her bag into the bin up in front of our row with a little bit difficulty, which caused my attention to her. She is very pretty in great shape, however, I thought she probably would sit in front of me. 

Fortunately, she actually sat by my side later on and tried to put a fairly large size of backpack on the floor between the seats, which gave me the opportunity to talk to her. 

This girl traveled in Sweden with friends in the last 12 days, actually started in Copenhagen, stayed in Malmo, took ferry to Gotland and ended up in Stockholm for a couple of days. She was raised in a town in Northwest Chicago, sounds pretty close to Schaumburg. 

After chatting for several minutes, she told me that she was living in Columbus, Ohio because at the beginning, she probably thought I wouldn't know a smaller city in Midwest. As soon as I heard the city's name popping out of her mouth, I followed the end of her words to mention "Buckeyes". She is a buckeye for sure. 

We exchanged the observations and opinions of Sweden, and I told her because of my personal experiences in 90s, I always view Stockholm the greatest city in the world, which even myself admit very subjective. She told me that she works for a software consulting company as business analyst, the interface between clients and programmers and works a lot of long hours. As a matter of the fact, she would have to go back to work to catch a lot of the stuff after the trip. I can imagine how demanding her profession is. She majored in Biomedical at Ohio State and might already get a Master degree as well because she mentioned she wasn't able to get a job in medical area since it generally requires a PhD, or of course, a MD if you want to be a doctor. 

We talked about travel and she came to west coast before and lived in Bend, Oregon for a short period of time and planned to go there for ski camp later this year. 

Maybe because of her medical background, she is on a project to revamp medicare system for State of Ohio, which sounded built in 60s. They tried to learn from the same system of State of California, but there are so many differences between the two States. I mentioned that she might learn something from welfare systems implemented in Scandinavian countries because their systems are the most complete ones in the world. She did say she was impressed by their free tuition. Of course, I mentioned high taxes, which can't be accepted by current generations in US. 

She doesn't want to be living in Columbus for her whole life, I can understand it from a girl raised in a big city like Chicago, and did mention her interests of west coast. I definitely encouraged her to put Seattle on her map and told her that rains in Seattle are generally not storms but from drizzle to mild as well as have been reduced gradually in recent years, which actually has caused the concerns by Seattleites. 

Were I 20 years younger, I would have asked her the phone number. Actually, I didn't notice it clearly because I didn't look down completely, she might pull a pen and a piece of paper but didn't really write anything, which might invite me to ask her the contact information. Generally, in the most parts of the world, women never ask the men the contact information proactively. 

Anyway, I hope this girl will get a dream life in West Coast someday. She deserves it. 

The transfer time was very tight in Amsterdam, at one point of time, I thought we wouldn't be able to make it because the announcement on board KLM Flight said it was 20 minutes past 9am if I didn't catch it incorrectly. After seeing the clocks in the airport clearly showed it hadn't been 9:00 am yet, I felt settled. 

Going through a pretty complex process to have our passports checked multiple times, we reached the point of boarding eventually. However, we got onto the airplane to fly home calmly at the end.

My son always feels sick on airplane. Learning the bad experiences before, he had had two huge meals at Arlanda the night before including two big mac at 10:00pm, so he didn't eat anything on board the airplane. This couldn't discount how great the crew's services were and how delicious the foods were compared to the standards of foods on board the airplanes. Actually, I took two sandwiches back home, and will eat one of them before going to work this morning, and bring another to work as lunch.

Towards the end of the flights, I watched two movies in row, the first one was Lucy, why I suddenly pulled that movie out on screen was triggered by her role in Avenger of which my son happened to be watching at that moment, I had wanted to watch it but never got a chance. It's a weird movie but exciting; the 2nd one was Project Almanac. IFE System worked very well, as I shared before, I worked for Panasonic Avionics in its then headquarter in Bothell in early 2000s, am not sure if this system is theirs.

Going through the passport control was very easy because Seattle also implements self-service kiosk to have the passports scanned by yourself. We didn't have any issue to go through Customs either. 

It has become second time in row we were not welcome by Asian staff at Sea-tac airport to come back home. Last time when we came back from France in 2012, an Asian man at the spot before the Customs but after the Passport Control stopped me rudely by saying;"Did you see the sign?" No, I didn't pay attention to the sign on which says to wait before proceeding.

This time, when we tried to exit the door to the train after the Customs, an Asian woman rudely blocked the door as if we were not allowed to come back home. I thought I might need to put the baggage on the conveyor to let them be transferred out and picked up there again as we had done last time coming back from Paris, this was also verified by another East Asian staff in that area. However, a minute later, that Asian woman who blocked me rudely allowed other passengers to go through with the big baggage. I don't know if they particularly targeted me and my son or not, I am pretty sure in the first encounter, that man thought we were Chinese from Mainland. 

Nothing can spoil our pleasure back home, especially my son's. After picking up my 15 years old Caravan at Masterpark Lot C, we drove on our way home on I-5. my son said that Seattle is the only city he treats as home. Of course, he was born and raised in Beijing until 12 years old, he said he is offended every time when hearing others to downplay the city of Beijing. However, Seattle is definitely the only one in his mind he wants to come back after traveling. 

I bought the artworks and two boxes of chocolates for my mom and a T-shirt with Stockholm and Swedish logo on for my dad. They were happy and had already prepared the lunch for us.

It is a little bit different from my son, I do love coming back home, no one can deny this is my home. However, I do miss the nights in Sergels Torg and Kungstradgarden, the walks in Gamla Stan, both in last week and in 90s. I will go back, maybe not a resident but definitely an enthusiastic visitor, as early as next May when Eurovision is to be held.

I caught up my diary by today but haven't completed for the days and nights in Stockholm. I will keep them in my memories for myself...Just kidding, I will catch up through this week.  

Patrick's Diary - 7/16/2015

I was so excited at Rock n Roll concert at Kungstradgarden tonight, oh, I should say last night because it is already 4:05 am on Sunday in Stockholm now. The performing band on the stage I watched is Quireboys as far as I just checked out online. They were full of enthusiasm. On Sunday night, Hamlet will be played from 7 to 9 PM, I plan to go watching and my son may want to go too. 

In the morning on 7/16, we didn't have the breakfast and were ready to leave for Malmo as soon as we got up. As I had expected, the room at Best Western is spacious, the surrounding is suburban setup.

Especially, it is part of Odense Congress Center, so you can imagine the facilities are pretty comprehensive. I am not sure if Congress is referred to local government or not.

Next time when I have a chance to visit Odense, I may catch a sport event at its arena. 

It took us a little bit longer time to locate HC Andersen Hus because I over passed it. Arriving at the neighborhood, I sought the hotel I had planned to book but didn't because of the increased rate within the same day. However, I can't deny its convenience of having the museum visited. 

Fortunately, we caught the last couple of minutes of summer show of Andersen's fairy tale. I wish we could have caught the entire performance though. 

It might be exaggerated of saying that I grew up with Andersen's fairy tales, but they did influence me a lot when I was a kid. It was a little bit funny when the ticket saleswoman asked me where we came from, I responded United States, then she gave me the map and guide in English. However, what really drawing my eyes was the ones in Chinese in the section of Andersen's books, I might find the edition I bought in late 70s when I was in middle school in Beijing but am not quite sure. However, let me just wish it is because the color of its cover is blue.

My son was interested in a handwritten translation of "Little Match Girl" in Chinese on a piece of paper. It was translated by someone in 19th century and written in ancient format: From right to left vertically. Of course, it is in traditional Chinese, which is much more complex. and of which I can read but not write. My son probably even can't read it.

Before leaving the museum, I bought a piece of artworks of "Little Ugly Duck" as souvenir. 

I didn't want to spend too much time to eat at its cafe because I was worried where I parked wasn't permitted. 

Next, we drove on the street in Odense to the cathedral. The town is clean and quiet, the streets are relatively wide. We did pass by the cathedral but didn't find the easy parking space around, so drove away. 

On our way to Malmo, we had a chance to drive through Great Belt Fixed Link, which is a complex system of bridges to link the two islands in Denmark. The whole system was complete in 1998, so just like Oresund, it hadn't existed when I was in Scandinavia last time. Ferry was the only transportation tool back then.

Passing the bridges and paying the toll, I only had 160 Danish Krone left. Anyway, I assumed I could pay the toll for Oresund in Swedish Krona. Viewing the beautiful Danish views along the freeway, I could sense Oresund to be closer and closer.

When we came to Denmark 6 nights ago, I filmed the half of the bridge at north side. When we went back to Sweden, I filmed the other half at south side. Driving on the bridge, I could view the city of Malmo on the left remotely, particularly noticed Turning Torso, which has become the most important landmark in Malmo but didn't exist when I visited it last time.

Darn, I tried to upload the clip but the capacity might exceed the limit. Ok, we did pay Swedish Krona at the toll booth. It was 450.

Driving into Malmo, I wasn't able to recognize it at all. I never drove in Malmo in the past, so wasn't familiar with the roads anyway. Taking several turns in one part of the cities, I followed a car with UK license plate to arrive at an intersection. The driver in that car intentionally slowed down, he seemed trying to figure out something on our car. Later on, he stretched his left arm out of the window to form a "V" shape with two fingers. I still don't know if he was communicating with me or not. 

At a roundabout right after that traffic light, the car with UK license plate kept going straight but I followed GPS instruction to get out of the first exit. This time, we didn't waste any time to arrive at the hotel I booked online last night. 

The reason I booked the hotel at Elite Hotel Residens was that it clearly indicated self-paid parking garage. I had got tickets in Goteborg, so didn't want to get another one in Malmo. While I was checking in at reception, I asked my son to stay in the car to watch. After I got the room key to come to our car, my son told someone just put a ticket on the windshield. It's ridiculous and I blamed my son why he didn't come out to stop and explain. He told me that person looked very unfriendly and my son actually was taking a nap when that a person put the ticket on. The fine is 800 Krona, If the one in Goteborg was reasonable, this one was totally insane. 

I wouldn't be bothered by this ticket too long. After taking a rest in the room, we walked out the hotel to look for a restaurant for our later lunch. When sitting down at Jensen's Bofhus, it's already almost 5:00pm. 

After having well cooked steaks, we headed back to hotel. Going through Stor Torget, we saw three street singers were performing with full energies.

We hadn't come out again until probably close to 9:30pm. Walking through Stor Torget, I suddenly wasn't sure if Lilla Torg was straight ahead or not. Asking a guy working at another restaurant along the road, he kindly pointed to the right direction for us. Actually, we could see the lights from that spot. 

Taking several photos for my son in the center of the square, we walked around to locate a restaurant for late dinner. Though some of the restaurants were less crowded, we decided to try one of the two most packed ones even we might have to wait for a while. Reading the board of the menu standing by the entrance, I decided to go to the one on the left. A security guard came out to lead us to a table for two. As soon as I was sitting down, a woman sitting next to me at the table on my left side stared at me and pulled her purse on the table to her body. Did I look like a criminal? Could I rob her in the center of such a crowded restaurant? She might be still scared of me or tried to avoid any possible confrontation, she left with her mate pretty soon.

The waitress was very nice to explain the menu for us. We ordered the pre-dinner cocktail, drink and beer for food, starters and entrees. When the foods were served, the ladies at the table on my right side seemed very impressed. It's a great meal I couldn't complain. 

We had a wonderful night at Lilla Torg despite earlier parking ticket and unpleasant moment with that woman. I love this town no matter what.