Advertisement
Published: April 18th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Dinner at Jennie's grandmother's
With my dad, sister and Jennie's family Hi all!
I hear the weather in Sweden has been gorgeous! Blue sky, sunny weather...what more can you ask?! That's everything Guangzhou is not! Or has been lately. The fog (no, rather smog...) keeps haunting us. So does the rain, and the humdity is getting to everyone's nerves. Apart from that, everything is good! 😉
Visitor after visitor after visitor... Starting with my dad - arriving almost a month ago now, staying for ten days. We got a lot of work done - visited factories, had meetings, discussed the business and the future. It's all very exciting! My sister made it down from Shanghai, and stayed one weekend - which was great!
My dad boarded the same plane Malin (my friend from Uni) arrived with! And once again I was there - in the arrival hall - waiting excitedly. She travelled to Guangzhou only to see me 😊 and a little bit of China, hehe, and stayed at mine for two weeks. I had classes and work, but apart from that we spend our time hanging out in Guangzhou. Chatting away, going for dinners, meeting up with my friends, shopping, going to a spa, singing karaoke... lots
Sister and dad
Touring Guangzhou, here in Martyr's Park of fun!!!
Also spent one weekend in Beijing. We were living just next to Tiananmen Square (Himmelska fridens torg) and did the touristy stuff you have to do when visiting Beijing;
The forbidden City, The Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Beijing Duck and shopping. The Great Wall was truly amazing! As if anyone would have expected differently 😉 Also the forbidden city was definitely worthwhile visiting - with its architecture, history, colours, gardens...
The Chinese though, seemed to be just as amazed with two white chicks as we were with the sights, hehe... Not even asking for permission before squeezing up next to us grinning away in front of their friends' cameras.
The day before Malin left my neighbour from Halmstad, Johan, and his girlfriend Charlotte came to visit for three days. Since one of Malin's China missions was to eat snake - we ticked that off the list of
things-you-have-to-eat-when-going-to-China - along with crocodile! As Malin had left I took Carlotte and Johan to EF to join one of my former kids classes (since Charlotte works with children). Also went out for dinner (frog this time, and yet another tick, hehe) and to Veronica's bar.
My
Chinese is improving little by little, and today on my way home from coffee with Sansan I managed to have a pretty decent conversation with the taxi driver. We talked about were we were from, the English versus the Chinese names of different types of cars, what I do in Guangzhou. Hmm, yup, that's about it. Well, everything is relative... hehe. A tiny step for humanity, but a huge one for me!
The Chinese charachters are hard though! No, unfortunately
IT IS NOT A MYTH. And there are no short cuts... So frustrating when writing them over and over again and still forgetting the next minute. But great when finally getting it and being able to read and write short texts! Work is going ok; just haven't had much time lately to really focus on it. I'm visiting our cooperating factories once in a while, finishing the web site, and setting up routines for my work.
At the moment masses of foreigners are crowding the streets of Guangzhou, due to the Canton fair that is held here twice a year, during fall and spring. Town goes crazy and today I spent half an hour looking for a cab.
When finally getting one the driver wanted to charge me 100 yuan, when it's normally 25. I tried with don't-try-to-fool-me-I-(bloody)-live-here(!!!). But it didn't work so I spent another 20 min looking for another taxi 😞 aaarrrghh... But I can live with prices rising on everything for two weeks, since I do get to
lay eyes on some decent looking (and well behaving) men for once, haha.
On Friday I'm off to Hong Kong to extend my visa. On Saturday I'll be joining Ogilvy's (my internship) launch of Puma's new shoe selection. The PR event is going to be at a fancy club, á la Saturday night fever style! I've already got my disco-70's-costume and am of course
aiming to be the Swedish dancing queen! Wish me luck 😉
Early May we (myself and the tiny crowd of Chinese people) have a week of holiday. Since I've spent all my money when having lovely visitors and is completely skinned by now, I'll be stuck in Guangzhou while everyone else flees town. Weeping on Cinqo de Mayo, eating a whole birthday cake on my own, opening the gifts I bought for myself... Hehe, no just kidding - some people will
Malin and I
At Tiananmen Square still be around! 😊 And I definitely need to catch up on both work and studying!
In the end of May my dad is coming again, for a week. I've also booked my ticket home!!! Am dying for the Swedish summer!
Flying to London on July 16th, coming to Sweden July 19th. Going to Gullholmen with girlfriends over the weekend, then spending a week in Halmstad. After that I'll spend most of my time in Gothenburg, with some trips to Jönköping, Stockholm and Halmstad! 😊 Going back here in the end of August.
Can't wait to see you!!! Love em
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0457s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ingemar
non-member comment
Sååå stolt över sin dotter!
Vill bara säga att jag är så stolt över dig...! Ser fram emot att ha dig som tolk när jag kommer i slutet av Maj. Kramar från Papps