OK, I realize that I will not be able to write about everything that has happened since March last year... It was such an eventful time, my vpn was on and off all the time and I was too busy to share all the fun staff I did :)
And suddenly it turned out that it is time to pack and go back home to Three Crowns... You are never ready for this moment...
So, what happened during last year? Let's see...
1. I took an amazing trip with to GuangXi province with charity organization
2. I run a half marathon on the Great Wall
3. I run a half marathon in Cambodia (Angkor Wat)
4. I tried skiing in Korea (South one...)
5. I took the most amazing trip to Yunnan province, backpacking with two girlfriends
6. I run full marathon on the Great Wall
7. I took HSK exam to check my Chinese language skills and it feels like I passed (official results in a month)
Just to name a few... I didn't event realize how many great things I got to do, try new things... not even mentioning all great people I got to meet.
There was obviously a few down moments... And some things I will not miss a bit, but I am sure when I am back home, I will not even think about them... But I will for sure cherish all the 'goodies'...
17 June 2013
04 April 2013
The real China was really real Day 1
It has been an amazing experience. Few days in the world that is so different from everything i saw until now.
We flew to Naning, main city in Guanxi province with cheap airlines called Spring Airlines. The most interesting part was when before descending stewards came out and started running exercise for all passengers. It got even more interesting when we saw that most of the passengers followed. Me and F were so surprised that we had to work hard on withholding our laughter out of pure respect for people on the plane. I have promised myself to do all exercises on the way back. But unfortunately I didn't get a chance to do that because of turbulences that were so strong that shortly after stewards started exercises captain asked them to sit down.
At the airport we were picked up by one person from MaiTian (the most dedicated person I have ever met), one guy who was on his business trip (the company he is working for supports Maiatian and his boss asked him to go and see what and how actually is being done) and a driver. The vehicle we were sat in was... yes... old and broken in so many ways...
The hotel was ok. We got to meet a huge group of volunteers from Naning and a group of people that was going to go with us. Well, not so many of them were speaking English.
We has some food with us. We ate instant noodles for dinner and after having a short talk with Chinese girl who was kind of responsible for the trip, we went to sleep. The best part was ahead of us....
We flew to Naning, main city in Guanxi province with cheap airlines called Spring Airlines. The most interesting part was when before descending stewards came out and started running exercise for all passengers. It got even more interesting when we saw that most of the passengers followed. Me and F were so surprised that we had to work hard on withholding our laughter out of pure respect for people on the plane. I have promised myself to do all exercises on the way back. But unfortunately I didn't get a chance to do that because of turbulences that were so strong that shortly after stewards started exercises captain asked them to sit down.
At the airport we were picked up by one person from MaiTian (the most dedicated person I have ever met), one guy who was on his business trip (the company he is working for supports Maiatian and his boss asked him to go and see what and how actually is being done) and a driver. The vehicle we were sat in was... yes... old and broken in so many ways...
The hotel was ok. We got to meet a huge group of volunteers from Naning and a group of people that was going to go with us. Well, not so many of them were speaking English.
We has some food with us. We ate instant noodles for dinner and after having a short talk with Chinese girl who was kind of responsible for the trip, we went to sleep. The best part was ahead of us....
It's been a long year....
I want to start with saying, that I have come back from Guanxi last year :) And the only reason for such a long silence was very intense times :)
A lot has happened and there is/was a lot to write about, but there was not enough time :)
Lets see if I manage to catch up :)
A lot has happened and there is/was a lot to write about, but there was not enough time :)
Lets see if I manage to catch up :)
11 March 2012
The Real China
After many months of civilized life in Shanghai, it is time for me to see something more Chinese... more real... and even more interesting...
Next week I will go to Guangxi province, south China to visit children in rural mountain areas together with a Maitian organization. They are helping really poor children to go to school and who knows... hopefully for some to change their lives... They go to most remote villages and look for kids that are not able to get any education. There are three main reasons for why they do not go to school:
1. The closest school is 2-3 hours hiking away from their homes.
2. Their parents need them at home to work in the fields or simply doing daily chores.
3. They do not have money.
And do you know how much one year at school cost there? Less that 25 EUR per kid...
And do you know how much it cost to build one school there? Less than 6.000 EUR...
Me and a friend will accompany big group of Chinese volunteers. We will visit two schools that earlier received school materials, toys, clothes etc We will also visit number of families to either check if the kids are going to school (got money and actually are willing to hike hours to get to school) or to convince parents that education is important and they should let their kids go and learn...
It will be a rough time. Rough accommodation, cold and a lot of hiking. The last part I so do not mind :)
I get butterflies in my stomach just from thinking about what's ahead of me...
Next week I will go to Guangxi province, south China to visit children in rural mountain areas together with a Maitian organization. They are helping really poor children to go to school and who knows... hopefully for some to change their lives... They go to most remote villages and look for kids that are not able to get any education. There are three main reasons for why they do not go to school:
1. The closest school is 2-3 hours hiking away from their homes.
2. Their parents need them at home to work in the fields or simply doing daily chores.
3. They do not have money.
And do you know how much one year at school cost there? Less that 25 EUR per kid...
And do you know how much it cost to build one school there? Less than 6.000 EUR...
Me and a friend will accompany big group of Chinese volunteers. We will visit two schools that earlier received school materials, toys, clothes etc We will also visit number of families to either check if the kids are going to school (got money and actually are willing to hike hours to get to school) or to convince parents that education is important and they should let their kids go and learn...
It will be a rough time. Rough accommodation, cold and a lot of hiking. The last part I so do not mind :)
I get butterflies in my stomach just from thinking about what's ahead of me...
16 January 2012
When does IKEA become less Swedish?
Living so far away from Europe, you start treating places like IKEA like piece of a home land. The same way as embassy legally is treated as its country, entering IKEA you feel like you travel between places.
Usually when I go to IKEA, directly from the entrance I feel like I am in Sweden (kind of).
But last time it was very different. When I came the first thing I saw was a lot of products related to Chinese New Year, read kitchen towels with yellow dragons, hot pot pads and many other things. And the music... Very Chinese... The charming part was people singing and swinging to the rhythm. Both adults and kinds where singing "Happy New Year" when looking at the couches or kitchen furnitures.
It is only one week left to the celebration of the Chinese New Year and we are still struggling with ourselves if we should stay here and try to see how Chinese people celebrate or should we get away from here... Why do we consider leaving China during this time? One reason never ending fireworks... 24h around the clock.
According to the very old tradition New Year has been perceived as a man-eating beast that was afraid of red colour and loud sound. When people realized that they started placing red paper decorations in their windows and put bamboo wod to the fire (old time fireworks). So, the louder it gets the safest it will be in the coming year... And believe me, Chinese simply love fireworks. They do them for any occasion they have; birthday, opening a new shop, buying a new car and so on... And with these "small" occasions they go wild. So with a new year... God help us all... :) They call New Year celebration "Spring Festival". According to lunar calendar the spring starts then.
And strangely enough you can feel in the air spring coming and the birds are sing in the garden from early morning :)
But last time it was very different. When I came the first thing I saw was a lot of products related to Chinese New Year, read kitchen towels with yellow dragons, hot pot pads and many other things. And the music... Very Chinese... The charming part was people singing and swinging to the rhythm. Both adults and kinds where singing "Happy New Year" when looking at the couches or kitchen furnitures.
It is only one week left to the celebration of the Chinese New Year and we are still struggling with ourselves if we should stay here and try to see how Chinese people celebrate or should we get away from here... Why do we consider leaving China during this time? One reason never ending fireworks... 24h around the clock.
According to the very old tradition New Year has been perceived as a man-eating beast that was afraid of red colour and loud sound. When people realized that they started placing red paper decorations in their windows and put bamboo wod to the fire (old time fireworks). So, the louder it gets the safest it will be in the coming year... And believe me, Chinese simply love fireworks. They do them for any occasion they have; birthday, opening a new shop, buying a new car and so on... And with these "small" occasions they go wild. So with a new year... God help us all... :) They call New Year celebration "Spring Festival". According to lunar calendar the spring starts then.
And strangely enough you can feel in the air spring coming and the birds are sing in the garden from early morning :)
06 January 2012
Hello World!
Long time, no read... And there was so much to write about... Truly eventful time. Vincent turn 5 and had a great birthday party with all his classmates and some siblings. That was what I call FULL HOUSE. He was very happy and all the kids as well. Pure success :) Especially that grandma was with us then. Kisses grandma!
Vincent played his first Bingo (so did I). His patience lasted for two games and then he played with his friends. He won a little something in lucky draw. He was so happy :)
Lucia tåg - a Swedish tradition that he got to go with during Winter Concert. Of course dressed as a ginger bread man. Same concert and a great performance by Vincent's class singing 'catch a falling star'. Just lovely.
One day later yet another performance on the school stage. It is amazing that Vincent who was so shy if front of others, now he simply goes on a stage and perform as it was the most natural thing. And the most important thing, he enjoys it so much.
Vincent is training at the swimming pool and the bath tap to break his fear of being under water. He accomplished a lot last year, from being in panic when in the water, to fully enjoying playing and swimming with help of foam pipe. I hope he will start swimming by himself soon. Next lesson already next week :)
Yesterday we came back from Poland. Long trip, but sooo worth it. We enjoyed every minute of our stay there. It felt like we never left :)
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all best in 2012!
Vincent played his first Bingo (so did I). His patience lasted for two games and then he played with his friends. He won a little something in lucky draw. He was so happy :)
Lucia tåg - a Swedish tradition that he got to go with during Winter Concert. Of course dressed as a ginger bread man. Same concert and a great performance by Vincent's class singing 'catch a falling star'. Just lovely.
Vincent is training at the swimming pool and the bath tap to break his fear of being under water. He accomplished a lot last year, from being in panic when in the water, to fully enjoying playing and swimming with help of foam pipe. I hope he will start swimming by himself soon. Next lesson already next week :)
Yesterday we came back from Poland. Long trip, but sooo worth it. We enjoyed every minute of our stay there. It felt like we never left :)
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all best in 2012!
17 October 2011
Weird concert
On Saturday I went out with two Polish girls. We went to the concert of so-called jazz band from France. Concert was at the very nice place, Shanghai Oriental Art Center. The building is called also the Blooming Orchidea. Both exterior and interior are very modern and interesting.
We all were looking very much forward to listening to some jazz. But it all went wrong from the beginning.... Concert started with an Italian song, kind of from 40, 50 ties. Nothing wrong with the song as such, but it got me completely confused since I expected jazz, if not in English then at least in French.
Volume level of the band and front man was bad balanced making it almost impossible to here him. From the first song I did everything to ignore/avoid the front man who was so extremely annoying that I couldn't stand him. His way of acting on stage was weird and tiring. He danced in the way that you usually see your uncles at the wedding shortly before it is time to go home.
The energy of the front man and the rest of the band was like black and white (cloths they were actually wearing). Eight guys practically not moving and the front man being all over the stage. The band was playing very good, but you couldn't feel the passion and the front man... yes, passion of an uncle from the wedding....
They had a translator, a very attractive Chinese girl who spoke both English and French. Front man spoke mainly French which was translated by the girl to Chinese. That left us without any knowledge of what they were talking about :)
The best moment of the concert was when about 40 young Chinese came on the stage and started singing...
The whole concert was filled with Italian, Spanish and French songs, one or two English... No jazz at all (if you do not count few nice solos on piano or drums).
We did not get what we came for, but we definitely got to laugh quite much.
Chinese people have a special way of experiencing music, deep deep inside their souls, nothing is showed on the outside...
We all were looking very much forward to listening to some jazz. But it all went wrong from the beginning.... Concert started with an Italian song, kind of from 40, 50 ties. Nothing wrong with the song as such, but it got me completely confused since I expected jazz, if not in English then at least in French.
Volume level of the band and front man was bad balanced making it almost impossible to here him. From the first song I did everything to ignore/avoid the front man who was so extremely annoying that I couldn't stand him. His way of acting on stage was weird and tiring. He danced in the way that you usually see your uncles at the wedding shortly before it is time to go home.
The energy of the front man and the rest of the band was like black and white (cloths they were actually wearing). Eight guys practically not moving and the front man being all over the stage. The band was playing very good, but you couldn't feel the passion and the front man... yes, passion of an uncle from the wedding....
They had a translator, a very attractive Chinese girl who spoke both English and French. Front man spoke mainly French which was translated by the girl to Chinese. That left us without any knowledge of what they were talking about :)
The best moment of the concert was when about 40 young Chinese came on the stage and started singing...
The whole concert was filled with Italian, Spanish and French songs, one or two English... No jazz at all (if you do not count few nice solos on piano or drums).
We did not get what we came for, but we definitely got to laugh quite much.
Chinese people have a special way of experiencing music, deep deep inside their souls, nothing is showed on the outside...
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