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Published: October 6th 2006
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our flat
This is going to be our garden for the next few years...more like a concrete jungle, but kids seem happy! We have survived one month in Beijing, so we should be able to survive for long... Biggest problem so far was to find a 4 bedroom flat, which are much more expensive than 3 bdr flats and fewer. So, as the girls do not wish to share a room any longer, we had to make all sorts of compromises (far from school, close to park, in busy aera, on 25th floor!!! etc)...in the end, we are going to live in a new tower block, called 'Windsor Avenue'! Nothing to do with her majesty's hangout but very nice...and our flat is 'only' (thanks god!) on the 2nd floor (so we don't feel like rabbits in a cage!). It is 340 Sqm, huge for Beijing and for many places on the planet probably! The kids each have a bedroom, it has a huge living room (marc still wonders how we are going to fill it up!), one big dining room, kitchen is tiny but personnally I don't care, as I am not doing the cooking during the week!!!! (one GREAT FANTASTIC FABULOUS thing about Beijing which is going to make a number of you very jealous: we have a cook and cleaning lady
Chopsticks
First diner with chopsticks! working for us!), our bedroom is also big with a big bathroom with bubble bath and we even have a corner space for an office!!! so can't ask for more...3 mns walk from our building is the oldest park in beijing, Ritan park (prononciation is more like 'DJETAN') where the emperors used to do sacrifice to the god(des?) of the sun...all that is finished of course, but the beautiful old pine trees, bambous, stones and fish ponds are there...lots of running in there for the children! In the next building, there is a very big pool and gym (I am back at the gym every day, finally!!!) and a big playground for kids. We had to give up on living close to the school and office (for Marc) however, so Marc will cycle (15-20 mns) and a driver will go to and from school every day (20 mns when traffic is bad, which is, I guess, most of the time!!!)...still, it is a very good compromise! We are in the heart of what is called here the CBD (China Business District), high tower buildings have come out of ground like mushrooms, a lot of them are still under construction, but
Léo visiting Great Wall
Léo was first in the family to discover the great wall, on a school trip there is nothing just in front or behind our windows (...yet...there is however an empty space at the front, so who knows!! we are told no more construction permits are granted until after the Olympics, but who knows!)...We are almost opposite the american embassy aera (not good news, but at least, there is less traffic as the yankees block most of the roads around them!!!!), about 4 kms east of Tianamen Square and Forbidden city, which is very close in terms of Beijing distances!!! Strange enough, our bedroom and living room windows face old style chinese low rise buildings with small common gardens and trees, and very peaceful, most people walk around or cycle...100 metres behind that is the very busy and noisy Jianguomen Street, heading towards Forbidden city...but from where we are, we cannot hear that noise!!! No doubt however that we breath in all the pollution!
The idea is to get out of Beijing, not every weekend, but at least twice a month, for a day out in the contryside. There are lots of places to go to...but we don't have a car, nor a driving licence by the way!...so for the moment, taxis or private drivers are
Longqing Gorge
See the yellow dragon on the cliff, in his belly is the longest elevator in the world (258 m)! fine!!!! Driving here is mad, much worse than in Nairobi guys !!!!
Marie has started '6ème', first year of junior high school, with 4 hours of english bilingual class and 4 hours of chinese for beginners every week, also taking ice-skating classes (the ring is 5 mns walk from our new flat) and flute (I managed to find a teacher, which was not easy!!!). She is doing well at school and has a good friend, she already had a sleep over at her house. She's shed a few tears recently saying she misses her family and friends, but she is smiling and having fun most of the time. Sports is quite intensive for her at school, they run a lot and on top of that, we are swimming almost every day after school, there is a pool in the building! I can see her body transforming fast!!! She can already say a lot of things in chinese, more than I can, for sure!!! She has also joined the school choir.
Leila is her usual self, happy and talking a lot, she adores her (male!) teacher, 'he is so fun and nice' she says! I can imagine how she charms him
Climbing
we saw a nice long red and black snake on our walk uphill! all day long!!! She has lots of friends and also enjoys her chinese and english classes. Actually, Marie and Leila fight over who of the 2 has the best accent in chinese!!! I can't help much on that one yet!!! I found a piano teacher for Leila, a guy playing in a traditionnal orchestra, so we might learn more about chinese music also. She will start football practise, 2 hours a week...she has been wanting to play football for so long!
Léo seems happy, has started primary school, usual easy going, wanting to play in the sand pit and fight for the football more than anything else! but so far, he is doing well, has a woman teacher who is not letting him take over, so he understands he has to concentrate and listen! I can see his writing and reading abilities developing very fast. He is starting Taekwondo and Chinese sword classes next week...handling sword, his dream!!! I am hoping the swords are plastic ones!! but that will help him with concentration. He is also learning chinese from scratch and getting back to english, 3 hours a week. He will take an 'introduction to music' class, which might help him decide if he wants to start playing an instrument, next year maybe. This week, his class had a day out on the great wall and I went with them. Lots of walking, picnic on the wall, climbing (a bit dangerous for 6 year old little ones!) and dangerous bus driving!!! Byt hey, it is all worth it!
Marc is very busy with work, too many things at the same time, on top of getting used to the local 'ways of thinking', a whole new set of behaviours and relations! but he is enjoying it...once we settle down in our new flat, he will cycle to the office, 20 mns on a wide cycling path, used by thousands of other bikes and even sometimes by cars!
So far, I have spent most of my time finding a flat, finding my way around which is not difficult after all and settling the kids in their new life. I like it here, a lot. Of course, traffic is bad, pollution is bad (not every day however, there are some clear weather days which are really enjoyable!). Life is full of surprises, just trying to understand what is going on is an adventure! We should be moving to our new flat in 2 weeks time and after that, I am planning to start intensive chinese language classes for a few months and look for interesting jobs. Daily life here is not possible if you don't speak good chinese, people just don't understand english !!! so here we are!!! I have met a number of interesting people, 1 or 2 chinese, rest are french (nobody's perfect!)...
I hope you are all having great fun wherever you are!
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nathalie
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pas mal...
super ce blog mais comme une impression que je connais cette charmante famille de globetrotters!!! bisous nat