About CHERYL MARIE CORDEIRO

Born in the vibrant city of Singapore with a unique Eurasian blend of Portuguese and Chinese heritage, my journey has taken me from the bustling streets of Singapore to the serene and open landscapes of Sweden. My educational pursuits in Singapore culminated at tertiary level with two separate Master degrees, after which I embarked on a new adventure in 2002, moving to Sweden. In Sweden, I pursued with deep interest, the knowledge field of applied linguistics, particularly corpus linguistics research methods, earning a doctoral degree from one of northern Europe’s largest universities, the University of Gothenburg. I currently work as Project Manager, focusing on EU and international projects, at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, at the Division of Bioeconomy and Health, Department of Agriculture and Food. My office is located in Mölndal municipality. Mölndal, known also as the Valley of Mills, is located about ten minutes by bus ride from the city center of Gothenburg to the south. If you’re ever traveling south from Gothenburg to Malmö, whether by train or car, you will likely come by Mölndal municipality. In these pages at cmariec.com, you’ll find my lifestyle musings on culinary and travel adventures from Singapore to Sweden, and from when I lived and worked the Arctic City of Tromsø (2018 to mid-2022). SINGAPORE | SWEDEN | NORTHERN NORWAY Life in Singapore Pursued all academic interests in Singapore, of which the post-graduate years were founded in two separate disciplines. In 2000, graduated with two separate Masters Degrees: (i) Master of Science in Information Studies at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore (ii) Master of Arts in the English Language at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In 1999, represented the Republic of Singapore at the Miss Universe Pageant in Trinidad and Tobago. With this came a variety of film, educational TV, media, and ambassadorial work for the Singapore Tourism Board. Life in Sweden In 2002, moved from Singapore to Sweden in order to pursue a PhD in Gothenburg, where a number of international corporate head offices were located that all had a substantial business presence in Singapore and also Asia in general. In 2009, graduated with a PhD in applied critical linguistics from the faculty of humanities at the University of Gothenburg, with a cross-disciplinary thesis entitled, Swedish management in Singapore: a discourse analysis study, looking particularly into the concepts of assimilation, integration and hierarchy, at top management levels of Swedish-Asian corporations in Singapore. 2013, as research fellow at the Centre for International Business Studies (CIBS), School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, researching the future implications of increasing Asian-Swedish cooperation within the field of international business. The project is entitled Gothenburg in Asia, Asia in Gothenburg, funded by the Anna Ahrenberg Foundation. The project is aligned with the 400 years anniversary of the city of Gothenburg in 2021, and falls under the broad category of Kunskap Göteborg 2021 initiated by city representatives of Gothenburg, Göteborg & Co, University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. 2015, was granted the Flexit post-doctoral scholarship by Bank of Sweden Tercentennary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, RJ) for a three year project together with the Swedish-Swiss multinational enterprise ABB. From 2015-17, the research will take place at ABB Corporate Research Sweden HQ in Västerås, and at CIBS during 2017-18. The research focus of the project is how new technologies are perceived and accepted by users and customers, using linguistic methods of data analysis. More information can be found at RJ’s website, at Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) Felxit 2015. Life in Northern Norway (2018-2022) 2018, late summer. I acquired new work as Market Scientist at Nofima. Having moved to the county of Troms in August, I’m currently enjoying myself, exploring the island city of Tromsø. From the 1900s, this city became known as Paris of the North due to how the people of Tromsø were exceptionally stylish and sophisticated in contrast to the fishing village preconception that many might have of a city located in the Arctic Circle. In my years in Sweden, I have known Sweden to be called the land of the midnight sun. During the long summer mights, it was beautiful to sit and watch the sun’s languid pendulation between east and west, touching the horizon out at sea before going up again. Northern Norway takes this languid pendulation of the sun to the extreme. It is not only known as the land of the midnight sun, but it is also the land of polar nights and the northern lights. This is my new adventure. And in these lifestyle blog pages, you’ll find my personal thoughts, insights and musings. Cheryl Marie Cordeiro | PhD MSc MA ACADEMIC REFLECTIONS | CV LIFESTYLE BLOG

Be-Bop-A-Rhubarb

Posted on July 30, 2015July 30, 2015 by cheryl

It’s my baby!
Rhubarb pie from our garden’s harvest 2015.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2015

Just before spring, a neighbour called for anyone interested in taking care of some orphaned rhubarbs. So we picked up about five or six plants already dug up from her garden, and wheelbarrowed them back to our garden. Traditionally in Sweden, rhubarbs are harvested in the autumn, allowing the stems to get slightly thicker but not so thick that it becomes all fibres and impossible to make that crumble-pie.

The internet is a trusty source of information, with plenty of recipes for good rabarberpaj, even rabarberkräm which is a lovely rhubarb-porridge dessert to have with just milk over. One could go full exotic with the recipe for pie filling, adding five spice, cloves, ginger, orange zest, and bake it with a crumble of oats, crushed hazelnuts, demerara sugar etc. But I was curious about just that rhubarb pie. So I reached out for a Swedish cookbook publication I have on the shelves at home, that began its first print run in the 1930s entitled, Stora Kokboken. Page 418 of the 1963 print reads a rhubarb pie recipe from the 1940s. It is a no fuss recipe, and sounded perfect for a late night baking: Continue reading “Be-Bop-A-Rhubarb” →

Chasing marbles

Posted on July 15, 2015July 16, 2015 by cheryl

Swedish summer fruit cake made with layers of tigerkaka. Tigerkaka is a variation of the Marble Cake.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2015

As a child attending school in Singapore at the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ), I thought the convent was good at putting together one thing, a fundraiser event. The convent had fundraiser events at least once every year where the monies collected were allotted different purposes. In a good number of years, they were to go to the building of our very own new convent and school grounds. In other years, they were to go to the vicinity’s Catholic Church or a designated children’s charity.

A large part of the fundraiser event consisted of nuns, teachers and parents putting things out to sell to an open house public. To this end, the foyer and the school sports field would be lined with the wooden benches and tables taken from the school tuckshop / canteen. The tables were then covered over neatly with various items. It was a school fair where you could find odds and ends, from old clothes and used school books to handcrafted works of art, embroidered decorative items. My favourite items were the homebaked breads and cakes, much like the kind still available at a small neighbourhood bakery in Singapore. Continue reading “Chasing marbles” →

Project Atman

Posted on July 12, 2015July 22, 2015 by cheryl

Carnival! was the first thing introduced to me the minute I touched base at the airport in Trinidad back in 1999, as Singapore’s delegate to the international Miss Universe Pageant 1999.
Text & Photo © R Yong Cordeiro, JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2015

2015

The seminar ended and a colleague, Stefan, and I walked out of the room. The topic of the seminar was about Southeast-Asia (SE-Asia) and its developing context in the latest wave of globalisation.

“What did you think about the ideas from the seminar?” I asked.

“Well it was interesting. All very interesting.” Stefan said.

I knew Stefan to be of a brilliant mind, and knowledgeable on the region of SE-Asia, “But you said not much at all in feedback.” I queried.

“Yes, well there is not much to say. The entire perspective is different from how I see it. So the departure point for argumentation is different. I would not have approached the topic of SE-Asia from that point of view.” he said. Continue reading “Project Atman” →

That vintage blue dress

Posted on July 1, 2015July 1, 2015 by cheryl

In a vintage dress, brought home from Maastricht, Netherlands. Looking out across the very departure point of the Swedish East Indiaman ships in the 18th century.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2015

In April 1750 Olof Thorén, disciple of Carl von Linneaus and Ship’s Priest on board the Swedish East Indiaman Götha Lejon, wrote in his diary while enjoying a short stopover in Cadiz:

“Portugueze ladies are not common birds in the streets. But as far as it could be discerned when they spectature and spectande pulled up their window grills, they appeared to display a fine fair complexion and merry eyes. Those, who are seen in Cadiz do not appear to be able to count to five, are tall and brunette. I noticed there, that the Virgin Mary had correspondent air, complexion, and shape in their pictures; and judged from thence, that this was the taste of the nation with regard to beauty.”

Continue reading “That vintage blue dress” →

Finally, a strawberry harvest!

Posted on June 28, 2015June 28, 2015 by cheryl

Enjoying strawberries, the Swedish old fashioned way.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2015

This year, Sweden saw one of its coldest and rainiest Junes in twenty years. Between 1920 and 1991, it has happened only once that temperatures in the month of June had not gone upwards of 25 centigrade, until now. The Västerås cucumbers know this, so they’ve refused to grow, insisting on a bedding temperature of at least 14 centigrade before showing themselves. It was a pleasant surprise however, to have found that the strawberries thought it was alright to unfold their leaves, flower and produce fruits that are now ripening heavy on the soil beds.

In traditional Swedish farmlands, strawberries as with most other fruits, were summer luxuries. Their presence at all on the outdoor tables depended much upon the proper amounts of rain and sun. As soon as the strawberries were ripened and picked, it would also be customary to go into the barnyard and get some fresh cream straight from the cows.

If there was a favourite way of enjoying freshly picked strawberries, it would be that time honoured manner in having them with cream, generously dusted over with sugar.

That, and curling under the bed covers with a good book and a hot chocolate. Best summer evening doing. Continue reading “Finally, a strawberry harvest!” →

Visiting Maastricht, the oldest city in the Netherlands

Posted on June 25, 2015June 25, 2015 by cheryl

St. John’s (left) and St. Servatius at Vrijthof Square Maastricht, Netherlands.
The St. Servatius cathedral is in complement to the Cathedral of Our Lady in Maastricht, which constitute the two main cathedrals of worship for this city. St. Servatius contains a large number of church treasury and continues till today, to draw Roman Catholic pilgrims to its ground. Beginning in the 14th century in a seven-year cycle, in collaboration with Aachen Cathedral and Kornelimünster Abbey, a Heligdomsvaart is held for pilgrims, the next being in July 2018.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2015

The invite card from the 10th Ph.D. and Post-Doc Seminar and Conference: Global and Cross-Cultural Organizational Research hosted by the Hofstede Chair, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), Maastricht University, read “Basilica”. Basilica was the venue for the group’s first evening meet. Continue reading “Visiting Maastricht, the oldest city in the Netherlands” →

Markt Maastricht, Netherlands

Posted on June 23, 2015June 28, 2015 by cheryl

Something I had not expected to do much in Maastricht was shopping and marketing. But as circumstances have it, it was one of the more entertaining daily activities outside of the post-doc programme at Maastricht University that filled some hours of each day.

There are several ways to sightsee in the city. One that caught my attention was an old yellow School Bus, that toured the city streets. Bicycle rentals from hotels or hostels are also available, else the city centre of Maastricht is quite small and walking can get you to many places of interest within minutes.

A memorable place of interest where I had spent quite some hours browsing its shelves on different floors was the Domenica bookshop. The building is a 13th century Dominican church converted by Merkx+Girod Architecten into a gorgeous bookstore, whose contemporary space is sometimes used to showcase creative arts projects. Continue reading “Markt Maastricht, Netherlands” →

In a corner at the Vrijthof, Maastricht

Posted on June 22, 2015July 15, 2015 by cheryl

A landmark of the city of Maastricht at Vrijthof square: the old post office building that currently houses 19 gorgeously designed apartments for rent.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2015

Close to parts of the Maastricht University at the heart of the city of Maastricht stands the old post office building in the corner of Vrijthof square. This great old building has now been done up to house a collection of 19 apartments called Urban Residences.

Besides the proximity to the University a number of numerous places of interest are in walking distance that include the Museum Aan Het Vrijthof and the beautiful as imposing Saint Servaas Basilica, that dates back from 1000, holding gold artwork from the 12th century.

Impeccable in combining function with design, Urban Residences Maastricht won the Victor de Stuersprijs in 2013 for best monumental renovation in the city. Continue reading “In a corner at the Vrijthof, Maastricht” →

The chocolate room, Helsinki

Posted on June 14, 2015June 15, 2015 by cheryl

It was lunch hour, and a break in the 2015 GEM&L (Groupe d’Études Management & Langage) conference schedule. Across the road from the Aalto University School of Business located in the Töölö Campus in Helsinki where the conference was held, stands a pastel seated chocolate boutique. I’ve always found pyramids of macaron on display in confectionaries attractive. Maracon coupled with chocolate pralines and chocolate cakes in the colours of cocoa heaven proved impossible to bypass and ignore, so I stepped in. Continue reading “The chocolate room, Helsinki” →

Bicycling through Helsinki

Posted on June 13, 2015June 13, 2015 by cheryl

I took one last look at the map before stepping out of the door. Kasarmitori Square. Right. I wasn’t sure if I was going to find the place, but thought to try, because that was the meeting point where I read a bike tour of the city of Helsinki would begin. The tours leave in a group of maximum eight persons twice a day, at ten in the morning and at two in the afternoon. I made no prior online bookings at the company’s website, but noted that their bicycles were single geared of Finnish make, and in an identifiable cobalt blue. Easy! All I had to do was to make it to their office, locating it by spotting a row of conspicuous looking chirpy blue bicycles parked just outside. Continue reading “Bicycling through Helsinki” →

Author: cheryl