Life And Times In China

elin(as always):

Dear Blogg!

Today was a good day! I went to a job interview for teaching kids english and i think i did alright=) So tomorrow i will visit a kindergarten. But thats noteverything,cause i have another intrview for another kindergarten tomorrow as well…plus they maybe want me to do some modelling for them( they have a model agency aswell). But we’ll see…

Oli is away on a trip for work. Tonight me,anna and hanna will do some pasta with tomatosauce and drink chinese wine called the great wall. Last time i had that wine was in a bar when a drunk man had it together with water, lemon and icecubes..he gave me and oliver a couple of glasses….uhhh=/

Taking a taxi to wherever i go has become a habit(good or bad?). But today i took the subway! cheaper and probably faster than taxi….

Puss o hej!

Today is anna + her travelmate coming!=) Can’t wait!! As I have a lot o free time I’m glad i will get some company…But hopefully i get a full-time job soon. Applied for 6 yesterday…

Beijing is sunny today and oliver is already at mmm(monday-morning-meeting). This weekend was pretty easy. We went out for some drinks friday at a club called vics. Saturday we went to a shoppingmall and saw a little bit of a pillow fight. But the police came and game was over. Then we went to church, cause oli wanted some pics. Only stayed 15 minutes but i was peaceful and nice.

Puss!!

elin:

Denna veckan har gått så fort, har sprungit på ikea och mataffärer hela dagarna känns det som. Men nu äntligen känns det som vi har allt vi behöver. På måndag kommer anna och hennes reskompis hit och det ska bli så kul!!!

Det sägs att de bor mycket utlänningar i vårt område men jag ser nästan aldrig någon. Men det blir alltid samma sak när jag ser nån. Vi kollar på varandra och jag vill säga hej men det känns konstigt. Många kineser kollar också och säger hello eller ni hao på gatan. Känner mig som en kändis ibland=)

Det jobbar vakter i vårt ‘compound’ 24 h om dygnet. Dem hälsar alltid och ler. Ibland hälsar dem även med att sträcka upp handen mot huvudet, vad heter det nu igen, kommer inte på ordet. Har tyckt lite synd om dem den här veckan då jag kommit hem med massa kassar och tunga saker. Då hjälper dem mig och bär det ända fram till dörren, så snällt=)

Tänkte på en sak som olivers sekreterare sa första kvällen när vi åt middag. Jag berättade at jag bodde i Paris och Berlin innan och hur jag och oliver träffades. Då sa hon ‘ Åh, dina föräldrar låter dig göra så mycket saker’.

Nu har oliver äntligen fixat tv:n och snart ska vi ut och upptäcka soho..

Glad påsk!!

elin:

phu…We just had a leak behind the washine mashine. Water all over the floor!! Oliver is working so he couldnt help me. Lucky me, we just can call down to the main office and someone is coming to fix it.

I took a trip to ikea today so tonight we will have our first dinner at home, pasta and pesto=) Maybee we will even eat with forks and knives…

Beijing is great so far! We’ve been busy fixing things for the apartment but now everything is almost done. Weather is warm, around 15 C, but dusty. Yesterday there was a sandstorm here, but i didnt see or feel it.

our new adress:

Unit 5-1403 Hopson International park ,

31, GuangGuMen Wai Ave. Chaoyang district

Beijing, China

Puss o kram!

elin:

Idag gick vi upp ratt tidigt for att ga runt en sjo som heter houhai norr om den forbjudna staden. Det fanns massa cykeltakis och trampbatar som man kunde ta sig runt i och omradet var valdigt mysigt. Runtomkring fanns nagra hutong-omradet. Det ar gamla kinesiska hus dar massor av folk bor och dar ocksa fina courtyarder finns. Det kandes lite somm vi gick runt i en liten by och overallt fanns manniskor som salde mat, hangde upp tvatt eller lagade cyklar. Det var inte manga turister alls dar och det var valdigt spannande att se hur manniskor kan bo i sana sma hus, eller mer som skjul.

Vi gick in i nagra gangar och hamnade inuti en tempelbyggnad med buddistiska munkar. Dem hade nan cermoni och sjong oh gick runt i olika sma tempel. Oliver fick nagra bra bilder och jag pratade med en man som berattade att munkarna bodde dar inne och att vi var valkomna tillbaka.

Sen gick vi vidare runt sjon och njot av solen. Nar det inte blaste var det nog runt 20  grader idag, jatteskont=) Nar vi blev hungriga at vi lite mat och sen drack vi kaffe pa ett cafe i solen. Senare ringde min nya chef ocg ville att jag skulle komma ner till restaurangen en stund och prata med de svenska gasterna som var dar. For er som inte vet har jag fatt ett litet jobb pa walders restaurang som innebar att marknadsfora restauranger for att locka dit fler svenskar. Jag givk dit och stannade 2 h ungefar. Drack nagra ol o pratade med svenskarna. Inget jobbigt alltsa. Nasta vecka ska jag runt och kolla pa lite hotell dar manga svenskar bor nar dem ar har. Som min chef sager: business is everywhere!!

Nu kom vi just hem fran ett steakhouse och imorrn ska vi nog till forbjudna staden och sen kika pa lagenheten. Tydlingen ar dem pagang med mobler o sant men eftersom vi vill veta sakert sa ska vi titta till den imorrn.

Trevlig helg allihopa o hors snart!!!

Puss puss

elin:

We didnt have some much time today to go somewhere far so we ended up walking around in our area. All of a sudden we found J.O Walders swedish restaurant and bar. He’s manager was there and showed us around the place and ordered meatballs for us=) Hopefully I could also get a job there….Let’s see what happens..

hugs from Beijing

Dear family and friends!

Here we are, in Beijing! From time to time we will write a little bit about what’s going on over here…

elin:

First days have past by very fast and first impression is very good! For the moment we are staying int the swissotel but hopefully at monday we can move to our new apartment. After seeing almost 20 apartments we finally decided for a brand new one in a compund called Hopson. 2 bedrooms and huge livingroom with floor to ceiling windows. as it was empty we got to choose some furniture in a showroom and the rest we will probably find at ikea. The area is very nice with a lot of small noodlebars, restaurants and a big fitnesscenter. We cant wait to move in!!!
Oliver has already been working a little bit, mostly paperwork but also shooting a congress meeting. At that time I’ve been exploring the city a little bit, but mostly just the area around our hotel. Beijing is huge and what looks so close on the map is in reality very far. But as it is so cheap with taxi here(2 yuan/kilometer) you can get around pretty fast.

The air is different here, a little dry and dusty. I guess we have to get used to it. Both me and Oli are very tired all the time. We get tired very early here and falls asleep early. Which resualts in that we wake up in the middle of the night and cant sleep. At least today we are still up and its around 9pm=)

Food food! We had a lot of good food so far, and cheap. Tonight we ordered 4 dishes plus rice and beer and it was 200 yuan. And than it was way to much to eat! Last saturday we took our first bar tour and went to the sanlitun bar street. Seems to be a tourist trap and overpriced but we had fun. Had some beer and vodkatonic. Oliver got a massage in the bathroom for 10 yuan and I had to pose with some different guys who wanted to take picture with their cellphone. The evening ended in a dance club which seemed ok. We were just a little bit confused where to go because everything seemed to be v.i.p and all the time came a guy saying something in chinese and getting us out of the room…

Today i took a little shopping tour which ended pretty bad. Started at a market mall with 4 floors of copy clothes and bag. Both some things i needed and understood after a while how it worked. The salers started with the price 350 whick in the end went done to 80. For the first time so far i wished i were looking chinese cause everyone whanted to sell me something ALL the time. Then i went to another shoppingstreet, one on beijings biggest. Very soon two cute chinese girls started to talk to me and were very friendly. We went together to a shopping store and i thought they we’re just two of those young chinese that like to practise there english with foreigners. Then we went for tea, in a chinese tearoom. We tried about 10 different, all very good, sorts of tea. i learned how to hold the cup and got tea for loosing weight, become succesful, stay happy etc. Then came the bill…3000 yuan for 3 persons. I was chocked!! As i only had 200 yuan on me and needed a cab home i paid 150 and they paid the rest. i felt stupid and confused. How could 10 small cups of tee be so expensive? The place didnt even look special. I went back to the hotel. Sad and confused. Talked to oliver and to his college Bailou,which is chinese. She was also chocked and told me that next time i should call the police. Probably those girls were hired from somewhere to trick foreigners….First bad experience so far. But as oli said: you live and learn. I guess i have to be less blue eyed and more carefull from now on…But im alive and i got my passport and my money..=) (So no worries mum)
Tomorrow is a new day and maybee we are going to the summer palace or the zoo. Looking forward!!

Talk to you all later!

Vielle Grusse and Kramar/ Elin and Oliver