Dear colleagues,
Now I'm in Helsinki, Finland, staying at The Olympic Stadion Youth Hostel.
Copenhagen is the port where I first set foot in Scandinavia on November 6, 2007. Living off hot dogs everyday is not that bad, actually. Probably, the best hot dog I have ever had, with the French dressing cream, and also the most expensive one ever tried as well. Though tough for me, I found myself living for a few days without Thai fish sauce and rice. On the same day, I had to hurry to catch the train to Lund, the small friendly university town in Sweden which is located an hour away from the capital of Denmark, to present my paper at the ASLA conference 2007 at Lund University.
The conference went well with quite a few comments and questions from the floor. I happened to talk with Professor Sylvianne Granger, the conference plenary speaker and the founder of learner corpus ICLE who was sitting next to me. Having spent two nights at the unique hostel which has been renovated from the old train bogies, and one night at the bed and breakfast homestay, I headed off to Kouvola in Finland for another conference 'AFinLA Conference 2007' organized by the Department of Translation Studies, University of Helsinki.
I was welcomed by the cold winter breeze of Finland with the temperature of 2 c. In spite of the coldness, I had to wait in the freezing rain for an hour for a train at Tikkurila railway station. The wind was strong enough to blow away a 10 euro note right from my hand. Lucky me it is not a 100 euro one. The train to Kouvola finally arrived and it took me to the town at midnight. Lucky enough, i was helped by a Finnish lady and two men who offered me a ride to the hotel where I had booked the night. Now... this is my first impression for the generosity of the Finnish. Very impressed, indeed! I would have standed there for ages waiting for taxi at midnight in the rain, had they not offered me the ride.
November 10, 2007 marks the day of my second presentation, and the second day of the conference. I woke up and saw the first winter snow from the hotel room window. That was the first time when I see snow falling. Arriving at Helsinki University one hour late as I was a bit confused with time lapse between Sweden and Finland. Still, I managed to present my paper in time and everything went well. After the conference, a volunteer girl walked with me to the main street as the land is all covered with snow and you can easily get lost in direction in the weather like that. Kouvola is a small homey town and I regret having a chance to stay there longer to meet more nice people.
I headed back to the capital Helsinki again and booked 4 straight nights at the Hostel Stadion where I am now writing this blog. The weather gets worse than before with the whole city looks foggy and misty. Houses and cars are all painted in snow white under the temperature of -4 c. That was not so bad as it may sound as the Finnish have their way of cooking themselves up in the sauna. I did tried staying in the 85 c. sauna, but could not stay there longer then 5 minutes, fearing that I will be like a BBQ chicken in the oven. Then I jumped into the cool water pool where everyone swim in their birthday suits. As well, I did not miss to try the yogurt here in the original land. The yogurt here tastes very good. Of course!
At the hostel here, I met two nice ladies, one working as a chef and the other a cleaner. The chef cooked me a yummy Thai ommelette with rice and she also refilled my bag with rice and fish sauce. Right... two important ingredients that Thai people cannot live without! Getting my bag reloaded with food from the kind lady, I am now ready for the trip back to Sweden. This time I am going to meet two famous linguists. First, I will go to Gothenburg to meet Professor Karin Aijmer before heading south back to Lund where I will meet Professor Anna-brita Stenstrom.
Now I'm in Helsinki, Finland, staying at The Olympic Stadion Youth Hostel.
Copenhagen is the port where I first set foot in Scandinavia on November 6, 2007. Living off hot dogs everyday is not that bad, actually. Probably, the best hot dog I have ever had, with the French dressing cream, and also the most expensive one ever tried as well. Though tough for me, I found myself living for a few days without Thai fish sauce and rice. On the same day, I had to hurry to catch the train to Lund, the small friendly university town in Sweden which is located an hour away from the capital of Denmark, to present my paper at the ASLA conference 2007 at Lund University.
The conference went well with quite a few comments and questions from the floor. I happened to talk with Professor Sylvianne Granger, the conference plenary speaker and the founder of learner corpus ICLE who was sitting next to me. Having spent two nights at the unique hostel which has been renovated from the old train bogies, and one night at the bed and breakfast homestay, I headed off to Kouvola in Finland for another conference 'AFinLA Conference 2007' organized by the Department of Translation Studies, University of Helsinki.
I was welcomed by the cold winter breeze of Finland with the temperature of 2 c. In spite of the coldness, I had to wait in the freezing rain for an hour for a train at Tikkurila railway station. The wind was strong enough to blow away a 10 euro note right from my hand. Lucky me it is not a 100 euro one. The train to Kouvola finally arrived and it took me to the town at midnight. Lucky enough, i was helped by a Finnish lady and two men who offered me a ride to the hotel where I had booked the night. Now... this is my first impression for the generosity of the Finnish. Very impressed, indeed! I would have standed there for ages waiting for taxi at midnight in the rain, had they not offered me the ride.
November 10, 2007 marks the day of my second presentation, and the second day of the conference. I woke up and saw the first winter snow from the hotel room window. That was the first time when I see snow falling. Arriving at Helsinki University one hour late as I was a bit confused with time lapse between Sweden and Finland. Still, I managed to present my paper in time and everything went well. After the conference, a volunteer girl walked with me to the main street as the land is all covered with snow and you can easily get lost in direction in the weather like that. Kouvola is a small homey town and I regret having a chance to stay there longer to meet more nice people.
I headed back to the capital Helsinki again and booked 4 straight nights at the Hostel Stadion where I am now writing this blog. The weather gets worse than before with the whole city looks foggy and misty. Houses and cars are all painted in snow white under the temperature of -4 c. That was not so bad as it may sound as the Finnish have their way of cooking themselves up in the sauna. I did tried staying in the 85 c. sauna, but could not stay there longer then 5 minutes, fearing that I will be like a BBQ chicken in the oven. Then I jumped into the cool water pool where everyone swim in their birthday suits. As well, I did not miss to try the yogurt here in the original land. The yogurt here tastes very good. Of course!
At the hostel here, I met two nice ladies, one working as a chef and the other a cleaner. The chef cooked me a yummy Thai ommelette with rice and she also refilled my bag with rice and fish sauce. Right... two important ingredients that Thai people cannot live without! Getting my bag reloaded with food from the kind lady, I am now ready for the trip back to Sweden. This time I am going to meet two famous linguists. First, I will go to Gothenburg to meet Professor Karin Aijmer before heading south back to Lund where I will meet Professor Anna-brita Stenstrom.
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