Swedish/Suédois/Sueco
A bit of vocabulary and a small dictionnary between swedish and english, french and spanish!
I didn’t put how to pronounce each swedish word, cause i don’t know phonetics.
Characters introduced by the Swedish alphabet / Caractères spéciaux de l’alphabet suédois / Caracteres especiales del sueco: å - ö - ä
Special characters on a swedish keyboard
Small dictionnary of Swedish / Petit dictionnaire rapide de suédois / Pequeño diccionario de sueco:
- Hej = Hello / Salut / Hola
- Jag heter Nicolas = My name is Nicolas / Je m’appelle Nicolas / Me llamo Nicolas
- Hej då = Bye / Au revoir / Adios
- God morgon = Good morning / Bonjour / Buenos días
- Gröt = Porridge
- Håll Käften = Shut up / Ta gueule / Calláte
- Skål = Cheers! / Santé! / ¡Salud!
- Puss = Kiss / Bisou / Beso
- Pussar = Kisses / Bisous / Besos
- Sverige = Sweden / Suède / Suecia
- Jag tycker om Sverige = I love Sweden / J’adore la Suède / Me gusta Suecia
- Kram = Hugs / Je t’embrasse / Abrazos
- Hur mår du? = How are you? / Comment çà va? / ¿Que tal?
- Jag saknar dig = I miss you / Tu me manques / Te echo de menos
- Jag älskar dig = I love you / Je t’aime / Te quiero
- Tack = Please / S’il te plaît / Por favor and Thank you / Merci / Gracias
- Varsågod = You’re welcome / De rien / De nada
- Jag är hungrig = I’m hungry / J’ai faim / Tengo hambre
- Ge mig en hamburgare tack/snålla = Please give me a burger / Donne moi un hamburger s’il te plait / Dame una hamburguesa por favor
- Bra = Good / Bien / Bien
- Du är snygg = You are good-looking / Tu es joli(e) / Eres guapo(a)
- är du full? = Are you drunk? / Es-tu bourré? / ¿Estas borracho?
- du är ful = You are ugly / Tu es moche / Eres feo
- Kom hit = Come here / Viens ici / Ven aqui
- Frankrike = France / France / Francia
- Trevligt att träffas = Nice to meet you / Enchanté / Encantado(a)
Enjoy, and come to Sweden!
My homepage finally updated!
I have been talking about this for a long time, but recently i procrastinated a lot… Anyway, now it’s over, i’m done and i can proudly announce that the new version of my personal homepage is online!.
www.nicolasdaudin.com is now under PHP5. For you it’s a very slight change but for me its a gain of time in the content administration (now dynamic) and in the internationalization of my page. Plus i got to go over my basis in PHP.
I also took this opportunity to update the layout of my page, removing some items from the menu, to leave a clear menu leading to the most important: my blog, my personal profile and my profesional profile.
Updates are not over yet, especially in the content of these pages. Besides, i am thinking of adding a section concerning the design of web pages similar to mine… but i’ll let you know on that matter.
Anyway, feel free to go to my page have a look, and please give me your feedback, positive or negative.
Nicolas.
My trip to Sweden
[disponible ici en français]
I’m now back from a whole week in Sweden, spent between Stockholm, the capital, and Uppsala, one of the major student city of the country. My trip had two main reasons: meet up with some friends i met in Salamanca (Spain) – two Swedish and one French; and of course discover Sweden.
It was my first time in Sweden, and i really loved it. I actually fell in love with Sweden. Nice museums and monuments, really authentic and typical cities, a good mix between urban life and nature, amazing student parties, a nice and singing language, very warm and welcoming people. Sweden really kept me voiceless for one week.
Stockholm under the snow
I was really helped by my two swedish friends: i lived in their parents’ place and then in their student flat. So i was in total immersion in Sweden, and that’s the way i like to discover a country: find out about hidden places, go around with people who have memories and know their way around, discover and share the daily life of the people.
Weather also had his important part to play: the all country was completely coverd with snow. It is obviously very cold, but the snow everywhere gives the city and the countryside a particular charm. I’m convinced that there are two Stockholm: one in summer, one in winter; and both are worth the visit.
Pictures are already available on my FlickR account, and in a few days i’ll also post on this blog some pictures and articles about Stockholm, Uppsala, the student life, some differences with other countries… So please come back soon, you’d be surprised about what you will read and see.
Nicolas
Homemade Paella
[disponible ici en français]
I told you in my list of objectives for 2010, among my wishes i wanted to cook more and at least one spanish dish every month.
For January, it’s done. With my friend Ludo, who was visiting me here in Madrid a few days ago, we cooked a homemade Paella.
Homemade paella
Most people think it would be hard, but a paella just requires patience and… patience. But it’s really not hard to get a good paella.
Without any further ado, here is the recipe, the way i cooked it. You can share it, change it, add ingredients, comment something… it’s now all yours!
Ingredients (For 3/4 people, and there will be some leftover)
- the half of a green pepper
- the half of a red pepper
- one onion to cut in thin pieces
- 3 tomatoes
- risotto rice
- 400g of chicken breast (or chicken wings if you want)
- 5/6 fresh mussles
- a dozen of fresh calamars
- 200g of fresh shrimps
- 150/200g of chorizo sliced thin
- safran / special paella preparation (you can probably find it in a specialized shop or something)
- white wine
Preliminary preparation of the ingredients
- cut the 2 peppers in thin sticks (5/10mm large)
- slice the onion
- cut the tomatoes in small cubes
- prepare one and a half regular glass of risotto rice
- cut the chicken in cubes
- cut the chorizo in thin slices
A bit of organization
At the same tome, you will have to
- cook the mussles (in a pot)
- cook the mixture chicken/chorizo/seafood (frying pan)
- cook the mixture onions/pepper/rice/… (frying pan, a big one) : it’s in that pan that you will finish cooking your paella
It was too much for one pan...
Instructions
Cooking the mussles:
- Boil the mussles in a mixture of water and white wine
- Once opened, keep the mixture and remove the mussles. You will use the mix later to cook the rice (don’t forget to filter it beforehand).
Cooking the chicken, chorizo and seafood:
- Cook together the chicken cubes and the chorizo slices in olive oil
- When they are half-cooked, add calamers and shrimps (don’t remove anything from them)
- Once its done, you can put everything in the other frying pan, that should already contain the rice, the onions and the pepper!
Cooking the onions, pepper and rice…:
- In a big frying pan (spanish people can cook paella for 20 or more people, in a 1-meter large frying pan), cook in some olive oil the onions. Never stop moving them with a wooden spoon.
- When they are a bit cooked, add the pepper
- Then, add the safran (or the paella mix), and mix everything.
- When it seems cooked or almost cooked, you can add the rice and the mixture from the mussles. NEver stop mixing, otherwise the rice gets stuck. Once in a while, add some water and white wine, to help the rice cooking and getting ready
- When the rice is quiet done, you can add the mixture chicken chorizo seafood, as well as the tomatoes
- Mix everything. When it’s done, add the mussles (still with the coquille)Dans une très grande poele, faites revenir les oignons dans de l’huile d’olive, sans cesser de remuer.
Aaaaaand its ready.
Enjoy!
Some tips
- Rice is better if its a bit crunchy.
- Instead of the mixture water/white wine, you can also use stock (bouillon/calvo) of chicken or beef. That will increase the tastiness of the dish.
Celebrating Los Reyes Magos in Spain
[disponible ici en français]
While many countries are probably done with the end of year celebrations, and thus many people are already back to work/school, here in Spain things work differently.
Spain celebrate three important dates (when we for example in France celebrate only two):
- Christmas: 24/25 of December
- New Year’s Eve / New Year: 31st/1st of January (more on this soon)
- The Day of the Kings (El Dia de los Reyes): 5th/6th of January
The Day of the Kings is in celebration of the Three Wise Men (or Three Kings, or Magi) – in french, Rois Mages; in spanish, Los Reyes Magos. Remember the story: the three kings are the three person said to have come from the East to visit Jesus after his birth, bringing gifts (gold, incense and myrrh) with themselves.
Reyes Magos
Here in Spain, the Kings are commonly said to bring the presents to kids on the 5th of January (i.e. on the eve of Epiphany) while they are sleeping, and the morning after they open them. Well, like for Christmas, if they haven’t been good kids, they don’t receive anything but carbon… which is usually symbolized by a sweet with a carbon color.
Adults also receive gifts, but not in the same way!
Roscon de Reyes
Roscon de Reyes
In the tradition, this cake is filled with a true dried broad bean (une vraie fève, le légume), and a Christian figure representing one of the Three Kings. The person that finds the bean has to pay the Roscon the year after; and the person that finds the figure is the king and will be crowned with the carton crown that usually comes with the cake if you buy it in a bakery or a shop.
Cabalgata de los Reyes
The other important moment of this Day of the Kings is the Cabalgata de los Reyes (in spanish). A big parade of floats (chars) going from Nuevos Ministerios square to Plaza de Cibeles (the most famous square of Madrid).
Los Reyes is a family party, so without much surprise at the parade there are a lot of kids and their family. This year, the parade is celebrating the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures, and to do so use as a recurrent them the classic Jules Verne’s book « Around the world in eighty days » (Le tour du monde en 80 jours). This path accross different continents includes the dance of the dragon, a way to celebrate the special partnership in 2010 between Madrid and Shanghai.
Cabalgata de los Reyes
At the end of the parade, the three Wise men, Melchior, Gaspard y Balthazar, arrived on their float and everybody applause them. They leave the char, go up the little stage where before circus exhibitions took place, and deliver a message of peace to the entire crowd (of course, retransmitted by television).
A final firework ends the procession and the party in a nice way, with the speakers screaming « And so this is Christmas » from John Lennon, and kids go back home to sleep, cause the Three Wise Men are about to pass by to leave the presents…
Here you can find a video from a Spanish TV channel to introduce the event.
