Life And Times In China

Beijing is hot!! Today we did a little tour..went to an antique market(my favourite), the new cctv-tower and then tiananmen square and the opera. Not bad for a lazy sunday!

This week has been fast and now its only 5 days to the olympics start!! Friday night was pink party at our new friday club Song. Then we went for 80’s night and i was dancing on the stage of course..=) Yesterday we slept almost all day…and then we went to hooters for burgers. Everyone had birthday of course and the girls we’re singing and dancing on chairs. Then we went to a club to meet up Tricia for a drink, but went home pretty early.

This week i also did some tv-shooting. They were doing a tv-commercial and i was all dressed up in red dress sitting at a table smiling and saying cheers 10 times in a minute. It took almost 6 h so i was pretty tired after a while, as i came straight from my other job. But i was fun and the clothes was really nice..i will put up some pictures later! It’s fun doing some acting, its just all the waiting that is annoying. My “agent” always says it will take 2 hours and then it takes at least 5. At least i know that now=)

Okidoki..so what else is going on? Oliver is moving the the olympic village this week=(, tomorrow is bowling and friday starts Olympics! Hopefully i can buy a ticket this week to the athletics..im so excited!!

Puss!

i forgot the blogg for a little while..

the last weeks have been really nice. Last weekend i was in a fashion show for eco-clothes. it was really fun and i met some great people. We had clothes from 3 different designers and it was all a big mess behind the scene when we were chaninging clothes. At least i didnt fall in the stairs with my high heels..phuu! After the show we went to a club called song together with some girls i met. Had some nice drinks and danced a lot! Then we contuined to the boat, which is actually a real boat on the river. nice place but not so many people. The night ended in the party district Sanlitun. Poor oliver rusched home to switch shirt and leave his bags as he was coming home from his trip the same day, and missed the fashionshow with 30 minutes.

Saturday me and oli went bowling with his collegue michael and his wife sophie. Girls against the boys and shame un us we lost and had to pay dinner..=( We went to a middle eastern restaurant with a lot of good food and also a bellydancer. So now im thinking of taking some classes with sophie..cant hurt!

So this week i’ve been working as usual accept yesterday when we(some people at my job)went to eat giant pizza and drink free beer. Tonight we actually we went out too. Every wednesday quiz night and winners free beer at an irish pub. But we were not that good…

okidoki..time to sleep…gonatt!

puss

Beijing is smoggy and everyday we have rain. I’ve seen the sun on time since i came back. But i guess at the Olympics its gonna be nice as they are trying to controll the weather.–> http://www.usatoday.com/weather/research/2008-02-29-china-weather_N.htm

At work everything is good and we started our project for real now. Its a lot to do and we ar all behind the schedule. But its much more fun now and time is going fast! Now its weekend and im thinking of what to do. If the weather is getting better i might go horseriding outside beijing. Otherwise i think i’ll go to the gym and then tonight go out for some drinks with a friend.

Recently the chinese people seem to be so much more friendly than before. The other day when i was with oliver taking photos in the rain came to people giving us umbrellas. Another night we sat down at some small stone wall outside the subway. Then came a women giving us newspapers to sit on. So nice=) Even the taxi drivers are smiling now!=)

In 4 weeks the olympics starts and im really curious how its gonna be. Everything is about the olympics and they are really trying hard to clean up and make things better here. I’ve heard that they gonna learn the taxi drivers english and also make people queue up…lets se how it goes. But there is also a sad side of it . For instance they destroy a lot of old tradional chinese buildings and houses and forces families to move from their homes. Things are really changing quick here in beijing and i guess if i would leave beijing for a month or so i wouldnt recognise things when im back.

Oliver is on a trip for about 2 weeks. For the moment he’s in the desert somewhere northwest.

Okidoki! Got to leave now!

Puss puss!

Im back home in beijing! The 2 weeks in sweden was great and i had a lot of fun! Linneas graduation,the trip to stockholm, watching the euro cup with friend and celebrating midsummer=) on my way back i stopped by berlin to see Linn and eat doener. It was short but really nice! Then i flew over Dusseldorf back to beijing. The flight was delayed and i had to wait in total 7 h in Dusseldorf. But now im here and im happy to be back!

On wednesday i started my new job at Filemaker. Im searching for bugs in the swedish version, and on monday my training is over and i will start for “real”. The people there are nice and we all have lunch together. The job is so far good but difficult sometimes, as i know nothing about computer terms and stuff. But everyone is helpful and im learning.

The weather is hot and grey here. So far i havent seen the sun but its still warm.

Tonight we are going to a concert in a club were oliver is taking some pictures. Its gonna be fun! For the moment we are waiting for the cleaning lady to be ready then i guess we go out for lunch. I feel a little bit guilty when im drinking coffee and someone is cleaning for us…well well.

It’s good to be back!

Puss o kram!

Yesterday was last day at work in school. I gave them cookies and tried to explain im not coming back. The big children understood and some of them where crying but the small ones didnt get it and said ’see you tomorrow’ when i left. When the smallest kids wanted to kiss me good bye they kissed my legs cause i wasent prepared and they are so small and couldnt reach. So cute! I will miss them! The other day one boy came to me and started to touch my hair a lot and then said ‘but your hair are yellow!!’

The weather is still great here but very high humitidy. I’ve been trying to get a tan on my lunch break but i cant stand being in the sun for a long time..so hot! All the teachers in school think im weird cause i want to get a sun tan. They think white skin is very beautiful and they put on white make up if they go to a nice party or meeting. Everywhere you see umbrellas when the weather is good. Looks kind of funny actually=)

Tomorrow im going back to sweden!!!!!I couldnt be more happy! Cant wait to see the family, friends, breave fresh air, ride my bike and eat breakfast=)

Tonight there is a swedish party to celebrate the nationalday!

Time to pack my bags and then go shopping!

Gruss und Küss!

Last week olivers parents were here! It was really nice! First night we had the greatest buffee ive ever seen in their hotel, espacially the desserts. I was home from work a couple of days, because of my tooth and pain in my mouth. Not fun at all, but now its much better! Thursday Oliver left to sichuan(earthquake area) to work and i was worried and scared at first. In school we have a lot of pictures from there which are really scary so i overreacted and started to cry in school…silly me. But Walter and Cornelia told me not to worry and we had a nice dinner in Houhai next to the lakes, very beautiful and nice! Then we went to a bar in Sanlitun(bar area) for a drink and to say hey to Anna, working in olivers company, who had invited us to join her and her boyfriend for a concert. Cornelia and Walter went back to the hotel and i stayed for a couple of beers. The concert was really good with a lot of classic rock music and the money we spent went to Sichuan!

Friday night a went to mingel with swedish people at a bar in a park close to our home. Met Linns friend Maria and some other nice people! Saturday was my birtday and Cornelia and Walter came here with some really nice gifts and i opened my presents from my parents to! 2 new dresses later and very good start of my birthday we went to my favourite market. The weather was amazing, really hot and sunny=) Later we went to the silk street market to bargain and buy bags and shoes. We had a lot of fun and me and cornelia could have stayed all day i guess=) In the evening i went out with maria and some friends of her to a nice rooftop bar in the hutongs and then some dancing in sanlitun. My birthday had a nice ending with a turkish kebab before going home.

Sunday Oli was back and we went to lunch with his parents. After that me and oliver spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in a park with a cold beer, a perfect day! Then we had some mexican food and another drink. Monday evening we went to Paulaner Brauhaus for a good schnitzel and to say goodbye to C&W.
A really good week with a lot of fun!

Puss o kram!

Finally i have a camera again…:

www.picasaweb.google.com/elinsson24/Kina2008

..nu ar jag trott pa tandvark. Den dar visdomstanden forstorde hela helgen o borjan av den har veckan. Kunde iallafall sova inatt for forsta gangen. provade att jobba igar men det var ingen storre hit eftersom mitt jobb gar ut pa att sjunga o prata, vilket gor jatteont. Sa idag ska jag vila munnen o jobba imorrn ar det tankt. Jag kanske ska passa pa o tvatta all tvatt vi har idag da. Skoj skoj. Oliver akte just ivag till kinesiska muren med sina foraldrar. Dem far skjuts med hans foretags chauffor, ganska trevligt. i mandas var vi o at internationell buffe pa deras hotell…gud sa gott! Det fanns riktigt brod, lax,sushi och klyftpotatis! Det jag saknar mest fran sverige i matvag ar nog brod med smor o ost. Allt brod har ar sott o ackligt och osten ar svindyr. Importerad mat overhuvudtaget ar dyrt, exempel ar 1 paket creme fraiche 50 kr och 1 avokado 25 kr. Sa ni kan ju sjalva rakna ut hur dyrt det blir o gora guacemole=)

Pa fredag ar det bara 2 veckor tills jag far hemat. Jippi! Sen kommer jag tillbaka o da har jag nytt jobb. Ska jobba som ‘linguistic tester’ for microsoft software technology. Vet inte riktigt vad jag kommer gora men min huvuduppgift ar oversatta eller ratta fel i den svenska versionen av programmet jag testar. Jag far lara mig hur det gar till forsta veckan. Verkar ialf som en trevligt arbetsplats med folk fran lite overallt: italien, tyskland, kina, japan,danmark mm. OCH…dom ater lunch tillsammans=)

Na nu ska jag ta o satta pa en tvatt, ringa var internetkille och sen ta reda pa var adress en gang for alla.

Puss o kram,

E

I just came back from the dentist..he took out one of my wisdom teeth. Ive never done something like that before, as i never ever had a hole or something, so i was really scared. But everything went fine and the dentist spoke english. Now i cant speak so good and it hurts…

Oliver is at the fitness center..thats right..he is actually working out!

On monday Oli’s parents are coming and im looking forward to show them our Beijing! Next weekend is my birthday and i think its my first birthday without the family. But hopefully i can manage to do a birthday cake here to, but birthdays are not as funny as they were a couple of years ago..

I think im gonna rest and watch a little bit sex and the city now..

Puss!

Right now im home on my lunch-break. Time goes by much quicker then. Im the only one having lunch at 11.30 in school from now.

So whats going on in beijing? The cat is back with his owner. He left a little suprise in the bed for oliver so now he is not welcome here anymore..=( We’ve been at 798, the art-area, last saturday. Sunday was raining and a good day to sleep. We went out saturday evening with a russian guy oliver met. The biggest talker i’ve ever met! Monday we went to ikea to have meatballs and buy some things for the apartment. no more jackets on the dining-chairs! Yesterday was a beautiful day with sunshine and lunch at starbucks. Today i have a job interview for a translating-job swedish-english for a company. Something with software, im not really sure..

Monday was the earthquake. I didnt feel it but oliver felt dizzy and some vibration when he was sitting at the desk in the apartment. Weird. I never thought about that things like that can happend. But everything is alright in beijing. Some buildings close to us got evacuated but thats it.

On friday we have our first chinese lesson! We will study 2 times per week with a private teacher at home. i wounder how hard/easy it will be to learn chinese…

puss o kram!