Enthusiasm for Art

Before I start, I shall apologize for no pictures taken during my last trip to Scotland. I forgot my camera. =(

Aron and I went for Monika's 30th birthday celebration in Edinburgh Aug 10-12th. It was great timing because Fringe Festival (check out the link) is on throughout the entire August which added a lot of charm (or just population) to Edinburgh as a city. The city itself is also incredibly gorgeous with all the carstels, old buildings, tiny alleys (usually called XXX close, indeed narrow).

We had a great time walking up and down the 'Royal Mile' - one of the 2 main streets in the city. (The other one is a shopping street called Prince Street.) Since there is no traffic on Royal Mile, it is a natural stage for all the artists. Magicians, comedians, acrobats, theatre actors and actresses... There are 'free' shows going on one after another exhausting all they can to win applauses and cheers. The 'free' shows aren't entirely free. They usually ended with some calls for donations.

We also had some great fun participating in the shows. In one of the standup comedy shows, Aron was on stage 25% of the time. I think he enjoys the attention because he used to play theatres. So he volunteered himself under the risk that his head might be chopped off by an amature magician. =)

What struck me the most is not the quality of the performances - most of them are probably students or amatures on their way to 'broadway'. But the ENTHUSIASM touched my heart. Some of the artists standing on the Royal Mile trying to gather more audience for a show were very dedicated. They tried to approach everyone passying by. They patiently explained to people what the show would be about, where and when and kindly asked them to show up. Totally different from the usual flyer distributor who just care how they can give away all the flyers ASAP.

The pity was that we did not stayed there long enough to check out the carstels and highlands nature. But we have got reasons to return.

After Edinburgh, we went to Glasgow to visit my university best friend/roommate Lynn who is taking her master degree together with her husband. Aron had a bit of 'Chinese adventure preview' along the way. The first day's dinner was quite normal Chinese home-made dishes and spring rolls which Aron enjoyed very much. Second day, Lynn prepared dumplings and chicken feet (I have never found one foreigner who loves chicken feet which is an all-time love for most Chinese). It is indeed hard for Aron because Chinese don't say no easily while being invited or offered something. He boosted his adventurous spirit and recognized that chicken feet does not taste bad, with some time, he can probably get used to the idea of actually eating chicken's feet!!! Hahaha.......He has a lot more to adventure in eating Chinese cuisine! =)

A more serious Christian Wedding

This time, it was my friend Johan Pettersson - an intern worked in Shanghai 5 year's back. He stayed there until 1.5 years ago and now living with his wife Anette - a german girl, in Dublin. This time the wedding is quite different from last time for a few reasons:

1. They used a real church instead of the 'skogan kykan' (forest church) unlike Aron's high school hippie friends. It was exacly like how it is in those hollywood movies. Except that, the bride's dad did not excort the bride. ;-)

2. The priest speak both Swedish and English. So I could understand the entire ceremony. The priest is quite hilarious. He always adds 'wonderful!' abruptly each time they finished one step.

3. This wedding is a bit more serious compared to Aron's friends' hippie wedding. I guess it is just different social groups I am encountering. Most men dressed up in suits though without a tie because in the invitation booklet, everyone was threatened against wearing a tie - you can even see the big scizzor lying there on the wedding day. However, most women only dressed up a bit because the dress code was meant to be casual. I really think this is a 'win-win' idea! A. All the guests can feel a bit more relaxed about what to wear to attend a wedding (I remember my flatmate Maria bought a new dress for the wedding she went in July!!!); B. The groom and bride do not need to investigate hugely for their wedding dresses either to 'stand out' in the crowd. Though Aron and me stupidly dressed up a bit too much because we did not get the invitation letter. :P

3. A quite international wedding. It is not just because the groom is a Swede and the bride a German, it is also because that both Johan and Anette have lived in quite a few different places: e.g. Shanghai, Dublin apart from their home countries. On top of everything, the bride's sister married an American. She really wanted to bring some American touch to this wedding. (As if it has not been enough with how much USA is everywhere! Just kidding! :P) So we had a few different details arranged to reflect the internationalism of this wedding:

a. Bells on the table. Ring it if you want to see the groom and the bride kissing. (American)
b. There is a song booklet with Irish, Swedish and German songs. This is orignated from the Swedish tradition called 'snap songs' which Swedes sing when they are drinking snaps. I love those snap song lyrics - they are mostly about how much drunker they wanna be though they are already 'shitfaced' (my favourite Swedish word: skitfull). There was no Chinese song though. I guess the couple have not mastered singing in mandarin yet. Though most foreigners speak mandarin like singing anyways because they mess up the intonations. :P

4. This time we were served with a very nice 3 course meal - saved our energy of cooking and brining pots and pans. Food was nice but mainly Swedish: salmon, steaks, meatballs and sausages. I love Swedish food though I would expect a combination between German and Swedish (or even Chinese, hehe...) cousine. =)

5. Everyone is a crap dancer!!! It all started from Johan and Anette's walts demonstration. It was a combination between sliding, trippling and stepping on each other. Aron and me were immediately relieved. If there would have been some more space, we would have danced all night! Laurents (another old SIEMENS intern worked in Shanghai for quite some years) and his girlfriend dressed up in traditional Bavalrian dresses and jumping in and out of the dancing pool. It was fun and relaxing to both dance and watch.

6. Meeting my old friends: Johan, Laurents and Martin. The 3 of them have all worked in Shanghai for SIEMENS. (I am not advertising for MT internships in Shanghai with SIEMENS here!) It was wonderful to meet them again and feel amazed how life reconnects you after a while. Though I was not very active in AIESEC 5 years back. Hardly hanged out with interns - shame on me! :P At least, I can start to keep in touch with all of them from here on.

Enough about the comparison, highlight of the wedding for me personally:

The Christian wedding vows are very beautiful. I really appreciated that the priest spoke English thus I was able to understand the entire ceremony. I was very touched by how sweet, cozy and beautiful the entire ceremony was. I looked around, there were only family and close friends present. It is the kind of thing you only want to share and celebrate with those cloest to your heart.

Gotland

I forgot to blog about my trip to Gotland. It is an island which has the largest amount of sun exposure all year around in Sweden. Though it is meanwhile quite windy all the time. Aron and I only visited this city called Visby which is an ancient time military fortress. You can see from the pictures: