December 8
Wow. What a day. I headed down to the AF-building to check in with my advisor, but she wasn’t there. I returned two Lund University t-shirts cause they were the wrong size but didn’t replace them cause they did not have the right styles. Will check back next week. At 1pm I met Christian and Frieder at the electronics store and we picked up the projector. We rode the bus back to Lund.
See, today was the big premiere for Klovvika, the movie we filmed in Norway. And of course when Frieder, Christian, and I set out to do something, we’re going to do it right. Which means renting a projector and setting up Christian’s speakers in the lounge so as to have a movie screen 12 feet across. It was pretty awesome. We were playing hockey and FIFA on it and such during the afternoon. It was very funny to see people come in the lounge, say hello, then as they turn their heads to look at the seating area, their eyes widen and jaw drops as they see the huge screen. 
Frieder and I had finished the DVD late last night. Adobe Encore DVD has been the MOST frustrating program to use. It does not feel or act like any of the other Adobe programs, and we found out later that Adobe had bought the program from another company. There were so many bugs that Frieder had to overcome. The last one was that for each subtitle track we had, Encore would add in a 2 second delay between menu transistions. Why it would do this is incomprehensible. But Frieder was brilliant in fixing it. So we had our DVD (though still not finished completely…the French and Japanese subtitles are coming soon).
We also started to cook, because it was going to be a big dinner. The whole dinner started out to be a good-bye dinner for LiShuang, who will be leaving tomorrow for some European travels. However, the scale and quality of the dinner increased by the hour, so we elevated its status to be one of the big official good-bye dinners. LiShuang asked that I make pizza, and I happily obliged here. The dough was troublesome though — I added too much yeast (I hate the American system of cooking measurements…it’s so inconsistent!) and so it was like working with inflatable dough.
It was crazy. But what was truly amazing is how everyone came today to contribute something. Never before, out of the five months we’ve been here, has the kitchen been so full of activity!
In every inch of the counter dishes were being prepared. LiShuang and Wenyuan were cooking Chinese food for their professors, because whenever these professors come to Shanghai, they dine at the home professor’s house. So LiShuang wanted to do the same. 
They later came in an cooked Chinese chicken with mushroom and some cucumber and eggs for me. I was tossing and kneading my pizza crusts on various pans while Laure was making a ham and onion dish. Christian was baking his wonderful Red Wine Cake, while next to him Yuko and Masao were assembling an elaborate Japanese sushi dish, with seawood rolls, Japanese rice, salmon and tuna and these interesting tofu like pouches.
Marion mixing together a French quiche and by the stove Amalia was stirring a traditional Greek soup made with lentils (I recognized them from a dal my mom makes), tomato, onion, garlic, and spices. Next to her Judith was coring apples for a festive looking (and great tasting) Apfel dessert, served warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. 
Eddy came in and carefully made a French rolle cake, and Frieder was able to find some stove space to make his German Milk rice. Pablo and Pepe came in and made a Spanish potato dish with cream and ketchup and some toast with potato-salad like topping for appetizers. 
As all the dishes were nearing completion and everyone’s mouth was watering, some desks and tables were brought in from the rooms and a long banquet table was created. Candles, flasks of cider, and a running picture slideshow from our Norway trip projected on the wall perfectly accentuated what was turning out to be an impressive show. 
The movie premiere was special so many of the girls dressed up and were all looking radiant. Eddy wore a sharp blazer and I took the opportunity to actually use the nice set of clothes I had brought.
As the elected President of the Corridor (that’s a whole other story I should tell) I happily announced the opening of the buffet and everyone began. It was a great dinner, with many different types of foods. I was happy that my pizzas came out ok despite the trouble I was having with the dough. Amalia’s soup was excellent and the sushi was remarkably good. 
Despite everyone feeling full, we then brought out the desserts. Judith and Christian started to warm up the apples and top them with ice cream and we passed them around the room. At this point it was around 10:15pm, past our scheduled premiere time of 10pm. More and more people were coming at this point for the premiere, but it was ok because they got to have some dessert. Nancy from digital communications came and brought some friends, and Franz from the hockey team was there too.
As dessert was winding down, we began to clear away the the tables and start getting the room in order for the premiere. The projector was a little strange in that it would tilt naturally upward, so we had to keep it quite low in order for it to fit on the wall properly. Couple this with 40 people crammed into the room, and we had some problems. Christian, Frieder, and I worked up a solution using Christian’s large law books (rather, tomes) and we were in business. Our great DVD menu was on the screen and before starting Frieder and I addressed the crowd to say a few words. As we navigated through the menu to turn on the partial English subtitles, the crowd oohed and awed. The movie then began with a raucous applaud. Frieder and I stood in the back with Christian to watch it, though we were more watching the crowd. The three of us, along with of course Paul, had spent a great deal of time watching over the movie. It helped that the crowd was comprised of friends of all the actors, so there were cheers when they got to see their friend’s on the screen. They responded perfectly to the budding romance between Paul and Marion, and exclaimed when they saw our top effect shot — the Frieder mirror scene. As the credits rolled we got a huge applause, and afterword we navigated to the outtakes reel Frieder and I put together and everyone had a great laugh watching all the mistakes people made.
As the lights came up the reaction was positive. Eddy said some great words for Frieder and I and we got a nice applause. My thanks and admiration goes out to everyone who was part of the movie, cause we all helped make it a success. We used the opportunity to take cast photos that we might be able to use for an eventual DVD cover.
Afterward people mingled with the ‘actors’, and came up to us and said encouraging words. A word I heard often that gave me great satisfaction was ‘professional’. I learned a lot while working on this movie (indeed, it was like my fifth class here!) and had a blast doing it.
I had to tend to some things in my room, and the French left to go to Malmo nation for a party. I came back later to the lounge and felt bad I had missed out on the starting of the clean-up. We tidied up the kitchen to the tune of a Strauss Waltz, and after the floor was dry Judith and Frieder did a waltz for us. Some called it a night, but we still had the project until 1pm the next day, so the rest of us decided to watch a movie. We picked The Fellowship of the Ring, and in the beginning I asked to see the German dub. The voices are pretty good, though I’m so used to the originals it’s a little weird hearing something else. I also found out that some names are changed, which was funny to hear. Also, it’s not as distracting as one might think of hearing German though the actors are speaking English. After the movie ended, it was 4:20am and I was quite sleepy. I learned later that Frieder stayed up the entire night and watched all the extended editions back-to-back. I came in the lounge in the morning at around 11:45am, and the final battle at the Black Gate was underway.
In about an hour I’ll be going with Christian and Laure to Copenhagen. We will visit Tivoli (the amusement park) for a while then go to the Franz Ferdinand concert at 8pm. So far I had done pretty well at spending my money. But now I’m seeing my spending accelerating. The football game last Sunday, the projector, Tivoli, concert, and of course shopping for back home. And this is all before I leave for the European trip! Heh, I had better keep an eye on it. :)