Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Where to spend summer

Shanghai....

VS

Sweden...?

I’m about to book the flight tickets for my summer holiday in Sweden and, as usual, I am having a hard time deciding on what dates. Summer in China is not like summer in Scandinavia. Summer in Scandinavia means long, bring days of an (almost) endless amount of daylight, clean air, lakes, ocean, parks, greens, family and friends, however it can also mean: rain, wind, rain and more rain (that was the case with last summer). Summer in Suzhou/Shanghai, however, means: humid, sweaty, heavy polluted air, hot, 3 showers every day and lack of places where you can cool down. Hm… so why am I even having a hard time deciding?

I only go back to Scandinavia once a year and it is always during the summers (winter in Sweden is simply depressing; barely no daylight and everyone just sits inside their homes watching TV, drinking glögg, and waiting for spring to arrive) but this time I feel so torn. Spending some time away from China is always good, at least for the lunges, but what if I miss out on everything fun that is happening over here? And what about my Chinese, that now is finally hitting some sort of breakthrough. Will four or five (!) weeks away from China harm my language progress?!

No guys, you don’t have to tell me how silly I sound, I just needed to say it myself. I’ll book my holiday now. Just wondering what I should call my blog while I am away? SHE in Sweden? But who wants to read about that?! “Oh, here I am walking on a green field, eating some salmon, and soon I’ll hit IKEA”. Yeah, that’s what I mean. Don’t worry; it’s still more than 3 months away.

(And how typical of me to start worrying about it already…)

4 comments:

Dylstra said...

Hi, nice pic of Sweden! You seem to have garnered quite a readership.
Still reading, still enjoying.

Anonymous said...

Do you realise there is a Chinese girl that lives in Sweden and spends the whole year writing about the summer holiday she will spend in Shanghai?

It's like the two of you are exact opposites of each other.

Her blog is http://siyansshanghai.com

Jonna Wibelius said...

I wouldn't call us exact opposites! I haven't spent a year writing about spending summer in Sweden. Actually, I think this is the first time I mention Sweden in my blog?

I met Siyan once in Shanghai so I know who she is and I've read her blog. I've read yours too (thumbs up!) :) You still write for Shanghaiist?

Anonymous said...

Salmon, IKEA and a shot of Absolut to celebrate it later, huh? :D