My Life in China

2 ½ weeks ago Rebecka said she had sent something to me, and since I didn't get anything last week I had more or less given up hope and we were both pretty sad about it since it supposed to be something personal. So yesterday I walked into our admin staff to make a formal complaint to China post. When I had explain everything to our admin staff I walked to our pigeonholes and found this:


It had finally arrived the same day I wanted to form a complaint! So I happily walked back to our admin staff and said that there was no need to contact China post.. Inside the package I found something wonderful:


Rebecka sent me a love letter, 35 photos of us together, her top with the smell of her favourite perfume "Dolce&Gabbanna Light Blue" and I also got some jelly hearts!

I've looked through the photos several times now, I can't believe it 2 ½ weeks until she arrives! My baby is the best girlfriend ever!

This weekend I went to Macau, a city which is along with Hong Kong a SAR (special administrative region) of China, it was a Portuguese settlement until it was transferred back to China in 1999, but it will not be until 2049 that it will fully belong to mainland China. Macau has a very interesting history, more of which you can read here. Macau is interesting because in only a few years it has become the Las Vegas of the east, and it has actually long passed Las Vegas in amount of money spent in the casinos! However, I didn’t go there to gamble, but to see the mix of Portuguese and Chinese culture and architecture.

 

View of Macau from Penha hill.

 

It takes roughly two hours on a bus from Guangzhou to Zhuhai, which is the border city and where you have to pass the two custom controls, one going out of China and one entering Macau. Customs took me about 1 ½ hours. Straight out of the customs building there are several casino shuttle buses that will take you to their casino for free. Not knowing exactly where I wanted to go I jumped on going to Sand’s. Arriving there I was greeted by an expensive looking car park, with massive chandeliers in the ceiling!

 

My future garage?

 

Close by is the Fisherman’s wharf which looks more like a theme park than anything else with its Roman amphitheatre and Aladdin’s cave.. The remainder of the day I spent wandering around the city, passing by the famous Grand Lisboa building and numerous small churches.

 

I didn't know the Romans ever settled in China!

And the Arabs settled right next door to the Romans, fascinating!

 

The Grand Lisboa, certainly an interesting structure.



A cosy square with some of that old colonial Portuguese charm.



All the old buildings look really new.. Hmm...



The famous Ruins of St. Paul's church.



A cannon at the Monte Forte is strategically placed for taking out the Grand Lisboa if it poses any threat.



The north side of Macau.



Sun is setting over Macau.

At 8pm I was to meet up with my Couchsurfer host, Dan and at his place I got to try chicken feet for dinner! They look gross but they weren’t that bad actually, after the chicken feet the Tequila bottle made an entry and the rest of the night was filled with tequila shots and lots of laughs.

 

Grand Lisboa at night.

 

Eating chicken feet!

 

The day after Dan took me on a tour on Taipa which is the island south of Macau. On Taipa one will find enormous casino buildings such as The Venetian (fourth largest building in the world), the Hard Rock casino and “The city of Dreams” casino. I think these buildings and their interior looks so surreal that it’s hard to consider it real because of all its luxury fakeness but it’s definitely a great experience seeing it all!

 

Me and Dan outside the Hard Rock casino.

 

Inside the Venetian, which has the canal's inside and a permanent blue sky!

 

Even the Gondolas are here!

 

After the casino tour Dan took me to the Hac Sac beach where we planned to have lunch but the famous restaurant Fernando’s wasn’t open so we had to settle for a few egg tarts by the beach. Since I had a dinner and karaoke night waiting for me in Guangzhou I left Macau around 2pm and I’m looking forward to returning with Rebecka and show her around.

 

Last weekend I went into Zhujiang new town, which is the district where the Asian Games opening ceremony took place and also where a promenade dedicated to the Asian Games have been laid out. It was beautiful with massive flower decorations and sculptures. At night impressive light shows and buildings dressed with lights in changing patterns. Untold hours of work has been put into making this area the showcase of the Asian games and Guangzhou! Unfortunately I forgot to bring the proper camera and only had my mobile camera to take the photos below, my bad.

It's been four years since mine and Rebecka's magical second date and the date we hold as the beginning of our wonderful relationship. It seems so long ago but at the same time as if very little time has passed, I feel that there is so much more I want to know about my lovely girlfriend. I'm still madly in love with her. My brain has a hard time formulating what my heart feels when I think of Rebecka.


Rebecka had a big and beautiful bouquet delivered to my school, I was really surprised! I have had a big smile on my face since our receptionist gave them to me.



It's hard to be away from each other this long, definitely a trial by fire of our relationship but so far so good, and I count the days until December 19th when I will be able to hold my love in my arms once again!

Yesterday I went to Shamian Island which is a very small island by the Pearl river in Guangzhou, it was here that the first trading companies from Europe set up their business and the colonial style of the buildings remain, unfortunately the "old street" is not very big, but what's there is beautiful!






The old building street is a very popular place to get one's wedding picture taken or to have an advertisment photo shoot.


Yes, I do look cool in my new shades.


Lady of Lourdes Chapel


The sun sets on the Pearl river.

Considering the fact that I haven't had a proper haircut since July, it was about time I went to a hairdresser! I was all prepared with a photo that I could show and my Cantonese phrase book for instructions on how I wanted it. I went into the salon and asked for the price, and for a simple haircut the price was 30 RMB (35 kr), nice price, eh?

 

Taking a walk in the Bai Yun mountains (hills) with my new haircut.

First, I was taken upstairs for hair wash but apparently hair wash includes a massage because after a few minutes of washing, my temples were being rubbed and later my neck, arms and shoulders. I even got an ear wash! I didn't expect the massage but I wasn't complaining! After the massage I was taken down stairs and a hairdresser went to work after I showed him my photo and how short I wanted it. I didn't have very high expectations because what would you expect of a 35 kr haircut? Plus that there is a lot of difference between cutting asian haircuts and western haircuts. But my hairdresser was good, it took a bit of time but did a great job. After the haircut it was time for some more hairwashing and a bit of scalp massage. With this kind of treatment for 30 RMB, I'll be going to the hairdressers every two weeks!

This Monday I flew out with the year eights to Hainan for a few days of school camp. As I mentioned in a previous post, Hainan is an island just off the Chinese south coast. It’s been treated like a backwater province for years but with the Chinese growing capacity to go for vacations, Hainan is seeing some rapid development as a tourist spot. Sanya, the largest city on Hainan has for some years gotten a lot of Russian tourists, and some signs in the touristic parts are written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

 

Our hotel had a very nice pool.

 

My hotel room, nice but stone hard beds as usual.

 

The beach were we had a lot of our activities.

 

On the Monday we landed at Sanya aiport after about an hour’s flight from Guangzhou and had checked in around lunch time. After lunch it was time for some teambuilding activities on the beach. It was great to leave kids in the hands of the Hainan Adventures leaders during activities, they were great and enthusiastic. On the Tuesday we left for a camping trip in Yanoda rainforest, though it was more of a “rainforest garden” than a proper rainforest, it was a very tourist friendly place. Before camping we did some gorge climbing up some waterfalls, it was great fun!

 

Yanoda, the rainforest garden.

 

 

Yanoda from above.

 

On Wednesday it was time for some "hiking" but it was more of a walk around a very comfortable path around the “rainforest garden”. By lunch we were back in Sanya and the kids did some more teambuilding activities such as raft building and constructing their own catapults.

 

A tent above a tent?

 

The winning team in the raftbuilding contest "Hot Tuna!"

 

On Thursday we went surfing and “coasteering” which is walking by the coast and climbing the rocks there. Before surfing we also did something called the vertical challenge where we climbed up a 12 meter high platform where we had to jump to other platforms.

 

The vertical challenge!

 

On Friday it was time to go home, it was a great week with lots of fun but I was exhausted by the time I got home. Even though the Hainan Adventures leaders managed the activities it’s not an easy job keeping track of 60 students who are 13-14 year olds.. I’m glad I teach the older kids!

 

The full group.

 

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to post this the day after the Halloween party but I wasn’t feeling too good that Sunday. Might’ve been a sudden and severe cold or it might’ve been that vodka buffet on the party.. Anyway, the party was good, we had a pre-party at a friend’s place before taking the metro to the China hotel. While taking the metro we were somewhat of a moving theme park attraction. The Chinese were taking pictures like crazies, they are a very curious people I’ve found and have none of the restrictions that I’m used to. Here are some photos!

 

An evil wizard, an evil clown and an evil witch! Lots of evil!

 

A very pale vampire, with a mobile phone, not even vampires can do without them..

 

Always fun to see your colleagues dressed up!

 

We were popular amongst the Chinese on the metro. Bless the mobile camera!

 

At the China hotel, the entrance fee was pretty expensive but inside there were "free" beer, wine and vodka. I should've stuck with the beer as I usually do. It's always a bad idea to mix..