A whole year in China.

In fact, it's been a year and just over three months now since I stepped off the plane and began my new life. Lots of things have changed since- my professional situation, my diet, my views...
A reflective review of my 15 months here and how they have affected me and who I am is definitely in order. However, I'm feeling a bit lazy so that won't happen for now. Instead, how about something a little more lighthearted - funny names!

To make things easier for their international teachers, friends and business partners, many Chinese people choose an English name (and vice versa- my Chinese name is 娜娜 Nana ). They name themselves, and there are no regulations or limitations as to what kind of name they can choose. Many people base their name on the sound of their Chinese name (for instance, a girl I know called Jie named herself Jennifer), others chose a name that reflects their (desired) personality traits (thus this young man at our school named himself Earnest, as he likes to think he's very hardworking.) Others go for the name of a famous person, or a character from a TV series (all these American shows are insanely popular here), while others still come up with their very unique ideas of what constitutes a name. Hilarity ensues.

The following is a list of names that some of our students have given themselves. WARNING: Cringeworthy stuff ahead!

Tonic (A Schweppes drinker, perhaps...)

Summit

Beer (Got the right idea!)

Benz (How chav!)

Bin (He quickly changed it when he learned what this transcription of his Chinese name means in English. He now calls himself King. Hmmm...)

Candy, Cherry, Angel - all very popular choices, and the poor things have no clue that they're all hooker names!

Kitty (Yes, that's a reference to that white toy cat. A former colleague of mine insists that he once taught a girl who was actually called Hello Kitty)

Schofield, Serena, Phoebe - did I say they love these TV shows?!

Johnson (Just what isthat a reference to...?)

Nanny - another phonemic transcription as her career aspirations are definitely higher than her name might suggest.

Swift

Coffey - named after the character from that awfully sappy Green Mile movie. That said, I am grateful not to have met any Forrest Gumps so far.

Lemon

Snowy, Snow - a translation of their Chinese names, no doubt.

Warrior - ooooookaaaaaaaaaaaay...

Sword

Season (Which one, she didn't say.)

Hart (This guy has said to me, "Hi, my name is Hart, because I'm very hardworking." Ehm...)

Pharrell (Yes, that is inspired by that rapper.)


But my favourites have to be...


Cloris (Did she mean Doris?)

Seleven - This girl proudly explained to me just how much she loves 711... true story!

Titi - I did explain the meaning to her, and she said she didn't mind, she loved the sound of it. Some people just don't want to be helped.

Google (?!)

Zebra (?! ?!)


Amused? Shocked? Confused? Now you've got something of an idea of what it's like teaching English in China.

Have a nice day!

Bis dann

Nadine

Not a happy post.

So it happened again. Another desperately angry (lonely? disturbed?) teenager took out his rage on his fellow students, teachers, and three passersby. Sixteen people have died. Again. Young lives were ended before they had properly begun. Again. And again, people are shell-shocked, astonished at how this could have happened so close to home, in such a quaint little town as Winnenden near Stuttgart. As with the equally terrible 2002 incident in eastern Erfurt, my heart goes out to the pupils, teachers, friends, family and Winnenden citizens- they have my sincere sympathy. As with Erfurt, the search for answers is beginning- how could a 17-year old be filled with such hate as to go on such a bloody rampage? How will life in Winnenden go on? And, most importantly, how can these crimes be prevented? How can we make sure we'll never see these images of crying children, of roses being laid down outside a school, ever again?

The media are always a popular choice when it comes to casting the blame. All those terribly violent movies and computer games, and heavy metal music of course, leave our youth terribly depraved. Don't they? As I'm writing this, I'm reading the first article claiming 17-year old Tim enjoyed playing Counterstrike. Well done, WELT Online. Gotta ban'em all, those evil games. Don't we love those easy explanations.

Another popular related issue is the guns law. Now, in this regard, Germany certainly isn't anything like the US or somewhere like that. In order to legally own a weapon, one has to obtain a license by demonstrating sufficient knowledge on weapons, mental capability, and by buying a special insurance. This license is limited to a three-year term.

Most civilian weapon owners would have to be members of shooting clubs, hobby shooters who have obtained a license in order to be able to keep a firearm at home. In the Winnenden case, the boy's father was a member of a shooting club and owner of 16 (!) weapons. (How that is legal - or normal- I don't know, but that appears to be part of the investigation.) In Erfurt, 19-year old Robert Steinhäuser was a member of a club himself. After Erfurt, the minimum age for gun ownership was raised from 18 to 21. Now one could say, luckily there's not that many people in shooting clubs. One could even say it's a coincidence that those clubs played a role in both cases, and that either kid could have just gotten a gun off the street if he'd wanted. But, as a reverse conclusion, what if more people had a Waffenschein and legally had guns in their homes? Would we possibly have considerably more cases where their offspring finds the key to the secret cupboard and goes on a rampage? How many Tims and Roberts are really out there, so lonely and so frustrated that their dearest wish is to blow the heads off all those who bully them every day? How many schoolkids would simply love to show them all?

For the real problem if you ask me (and not just me, but rest assured most politicians won't be asking) lies within our rotten old school system. In a system where it's laughably easy to become a teacher, where becoming one is all about academic expertise and pedagogic aptitude is worth next to nothing, where teachers are un-fireable civil servants with a very comfortable payment structure and where "teacher" is a lazy job choice for many simply out of lack of a better option, are our children taught and looked after by capable, motivated and caring individuals? Do their teachers provide them with real-life advice, sufficient support and motivation? Do the teachers still care after a few years of doing the same thing, with no incentives to improve or change at all? Of course not! Being a pupil in Germany means intimidation instead of encouragement, constant judgement instead of fair evaluation and opportunities, and resignation where there should be extra effort. On a day-to-day basis. And I'm solely talking about teachers' treatment of students here- I haven't even mentioned the bullying. As long as there's a three-track system where children are put into categories of smart, not so smart and dumb as early as age 9, as long as any imbecile can become a teacher, and as long as going to school means fear and competition instead of community and perspectives, I'm giving us a few years before the next incident of this sort.

But shedding established systems and reforming dusty old structures hasn't been a strongpoint of any German government in ages. In the election year of 2009, this tragedy will surely be in the focus of many an eager politician. Unfortunately, I have a suspicion that any change we'll see will be limited to banning a few games, and perhaps a couple movies.

Real change? Nein danke.

Bis dann

Nadine

We're about ten or so days into the Chinese New Year now...

... and I think I've got some sort of new year blues. I haven't been feeling any great motivation to do anything, obviously haven't written here for ages, have been neglecting my friends and reviews at the IMDB, and haven't really been doing much apart from working, sleeping and eating (though, alas, of the latter I've been doing a good bit). Himself is living with me in Beijing now, in our wonderful, big, gorgeous apartment, and it's not like either of us are unhappy with that fact- it's just that we seem to have fallen into this sort of comfortable couch lethargy. I suppose that celebrating the new year twice may have left me in some sort of emotional jetlag? And the twelve-day trip home to Wuppertal in Germany probably didn't exactly help establish any routines either. (Though I did have a wonderful time with the family, doing pretty much nothing but talking, catching up, drinking and eating my mum's divine food- I just haven't been able to make the transition from holiday mode back to normal, it seems.)

I came back the day before the Spring Festival (春节- chun jie, as it's called here) and had another week off as part of the public holiday. During that week the most exciting thing Himself and me did was to go to Tianjin, which is 120 km from Beijing and, like Shenyang, was an Olympic venue. Unfortunately, however, the train journey there and back was the most exciting thing about the whole trip, as we found the city to be quite the soulless kip. It wasn't terribly dirty or anything, just the parks and old architecture that we saw didn't appear to be very well looked after- and they were the only thing to really see there (apart from the Olympic venue, which did look kind of impressive, even for us Birds Nest-spoiled Beijingers.) The train was brilliant though- half an hour on a brand new, lightning-fast, fully staffed bullet train for the equivalent of about 7 Euro each way. A fantastic deal indeed, especially when considering how, on my way to Frankfurt airport to catch the plane back to Beijing, the ticket inspector was going to charge me the full price of a single journey (60 Euro!) because I didn't have the exact same credit card that I used to book the ticket. He didn't in the end, but this incident makes the discrepancy in service (and price!) between the two just seem painfully ironic.

Anyway, I better get back to my mysery and will leave you with the few nice pictures I got in Tianjin.

Until I feel like writing again,

Nadine

This willow sure must be doing a lot of weeping, sitting in that sorry excuse for a park...

To quote Himself, "Nothing says Nature to me like a plastic bag in a tree."

That's nice though.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Or, Gongxi Facai （恭喜发财）as they say here- wishing you prosperity for the coming year. I've only come back yesterday from a 12-day break back home in Germany, and I came back to these battlefield sounds of firecrackers being let off everywhere around the city, all day and night, and it won't stop for another two weeks after the Spring Festival (or 春节- the Chinese name for this most important holiday of the year.)

As you may know, 2009 will be the year of the Ox, who stands for fortune and prosperity through hard work. I'm amazed at how well this fits with the current global situation- in the year of the crisis we'll all have to roll up our sleeves won't we? So off you go- get workin'!

Myself, I'll make sure to fill you in on the events of the past days, but not until I've had a nice feed of Spring Festival dumplings.


Bis dann,

Nadine

Nadine

Happy Year of the Ox!

I can now buy drugs in Chinese.

That's not a joke. And I don't mean medicine, either. Yep. For some inexplicable reason it came up in my Chinese class yesterday, and I was so delighted at this new, odd discovery that I spent the rest of the day asking everyone at the office whether they had any stuff, just to delight in the absolutely flabberghasted looks. It's 有货, by the way, if you ever feel like confusing the hell out of a Chinese person. That's you(3) huo(4) ma. Mmm-hmm.

Apart from that, Happy New Year! Hope you had a good and happy start into 2009. I decided to have a quiet New Year's Eve at home as the last couple of weeks have been extremely stressful, what with the move, Christmas and all that. It ended up being even quieter than I'd planned: I'd lots of silly German comedy on my computer, and a couple cans of precious local German beer that my parents had brought over back in September. About half an hour into my nice and quiet night, however, I spilled said precious beer all over my even more precious laptop, which ended the TV programme instantly. I was so disappointed and annoyed that I went to bed immediately and slept through til the next morning.Very quiet indeed.

Tonight I'll be going to the National Concert Hall for an event that I've been looking forward to for weeks, and one which I'd never dreamed I'd be able to see: The Spirited Away audio-visual symphony concert. That's right, they're going to be playing all those gorgeous tunes from all those fabulous Studio Ghibli classics- Laputa, Totoro, Sprited Away, the lot. Will of course post a detailed report tomorrow, or whenever I get to.

That's my new year's resolution- blog more!

Bis dann,

Nadine

Been a while, eh?

Yes, it certainly has. In the 22 days since my last post, I have...

... planned, spent an estimated 1000 years hunting for material for, and held four extracurricular events for each of the four Advent Sundays at our school. On each of those four Sundays, a group of students and I lit another candle on an Advent wreath I'd managed to put together, munched a lot of Christmassy sweets and did some Basteln- a god bit of it in fact. We made colourful Christmas stars, Christmas cards, lanterns and even cookie houses. The cleaners at the school weren't too happy, but the students loved it.

... looked at 29 apartments as part of Himself's and my flathunt. He is moving to Beijing from Shenyang, and our search for the perfect 2-bedroom flat involved all of the good, the bad, and the ugly. There were places that were too big, some to small, none too cheap unfortunately but a good few of them too expensive. There was the dirty, there was the messy, the traditional Chinese furniture (Emperos's new sofa) and there was the wetroom. And, there was one place that was still inhabited- with the Waltons! When we came to have a look at it around 2 in the afternoon, there was about six or seven people in this 2-bedroom flat, some of them on the couch, a couple still in bed and many in their pyjamas. They were very nice, and the place was clean (though covered in the Waltons' personal treasures), but we still fled pretty quickly.

... found and signed the lease for a new place. We eventually decided on an apartment situated in a new development right next to the metro with two bedrooms, brand new furniture and appliances including a flatscreen TV. I sounded like an estate agent there didn't I? We weren't so sure about it at first as the location, despite the handy transport links, isn't as lively as the student district of Zhongguancun, but after another eight or so viewings decided that this was the nicest place we'd seen and that we could just catch a train or cab to the more vibrant spots. So I called the agent, who happily informed me that we'd be able to get this flat with a 10% discount no problem. I happily agreed and arranged to come and sign the contract over the weekend. This was Wednesday afternoon gtwo weeks ago, and Himself was set to fly back to Ireland for Christmas the next morning, the lucky sod. On Wednesday evening, the agent calls me saying that there was another person interested in the flat who was willing to pay the full amount and that she could show us another few places instead. I objected, saying that this was the place we wanted and that I'd do whatever it takes to get it. Whatever it takes was exactly what I had to do, and more- early on Thursday morning I went over and gave them part of the deposit to secure the apartment, late on Thursday evening I went over again and paid the remaining deposit along with three months rent and signed the contract. The negotiation and the million times that everyone wanted to go over the contract took over two hours, so that by the end of it it was near midnight and I was exhausted.

... moved house. Last Thursday morning my crazy Chinese friend and I moved all my stuff to Himself's and my new house, which took us over an hour and two taxi rides due to the amount there was to move. I apologised to my friend for this, saying I was sorry we had to go twice. The response I got was something like, "I move, need four taxi. Haha!" Ah well. Needn't have worried.

... lost the key to my new (!) house, my credit card and my bank card. All within one week. During the move, one of the two keys I was given was suddenly gone. I nearly had a nervouos breakdown trying to understand how on earth even I could have been ditzy enough to do this before I'd even moved in. Again, it turned out I needn't have worried though: It turned up a few days later, mysteriously intertwined with the lining of my bag. Phew! Wasn't so lucky with the two cards though. They had both been lost in ATM slots because I'd forgotten that you had to press a key to eject them.

... fully unpacked and settled into my new place. It's lovely. And it'll be even nicer when my boyfriend returns and we'll be living here together. After a year apart working in different cities, it'll be good to return to, well, a normal life again.

... realised that not being home for Christmas does hurt a little more than I'd thought. Luckily though, I have managed to make some good friends in the year that I've been here, some of which I'll be meeting for Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow, and some of which will come over to be my first guests at the new house on the 25th. I'll be preparing a big, Mama-style Christmas dinner, including my mum's own special fillets in creamy sauce. (By the way, did I mention I was a vegetarian?) That meal's a surefire success. Ahem.

Anyway, Frohe Weihnachten, 圣诞节好 and a very merry Christmas to you and the yours!

Bis dann,

Nadine

My Advent group with their stars...

... and some of the utterly gorgeous candy houses they made...

... and finally, my new living room- yes, that's a flatscreen TV. Muahuahuahua.

Happy Holidays!

The most hilarious thing happened the other day.

Well, actually it was a couple weeks ago, but the hilarity factor prevails so I deemed it a tale worth telling. One of my students, who goes by the English name of Aaron, had learned a new word that he wanted to tell me about. A high level student with rather good English and a knack for discovering preferably bizarre lexical items, he announced his findings at the beginning of a Saturday afternoon conversation class where a group of 10 or so students plus me just sit in the lounge and have a chat. So Aaron comes up to me and says, “Nana, I have a new word!”
I says, “Great, what is it?”
He goes, “E.D. Do you know what that is?”
“E.D.? Never heard of that- what's it supposed to be?”

Without so much as a flinch but visibly proud, he says, “Erectile dysfunction. I found it on a medical website.”

While I was sitting there with my mouth open trying to figure out just how this guy keeps coming up with this stuff, Aaron proceeded to tell the rest of the group about his discovery, producing a few giggles and more open mouths.

So much for part one of the story. Now part two involves our only senior student, a gentleman well beyond fifty who calls himself Uncle Liu. The former owner of a couple of companies, Uncle Liu is wealthy in wisdom, experience, and the desire to express himself. A very nice guy, just sometimes a bit hard to handle in class with all his questions and remarks.

Having attended Saturday's conversation class, on Sunday Uncle Liu happened to meet for the first time a colleague of mine. This teacher hails from South Africa and is called Edmund, or Ed for short. (Can you guess what happened?)

The polite and chatty fellow that he is, Uncle Liu introduced himself and asked my colleague for his name. Ed, of course, said, “Ed.” Like all Chinese students, Uncle Liu went, “How to spell?”

“E. D.”

A couple minutes later, a very confused Edmund comes into the office and says, “Guys, in your classes, was there anything said about an erection or something?”

Priceless. Absolutely.

Bis dann,

Nadine

By the way, my flat is still there and intact after Friday's “Thanksgiving” party. About 25 or so people managed to cram into my place and consumed mountains of Chinese food (and my very own Greek salad) as well as a good bit of beer and mulled wine. And to the reader who asked (thank for your interest!)- on Friday I opted for a card-stroke-drinking game, but we have played Truth or Dare Jenga many times at the school. In fact, I've had to propose marriage to a colleague of mine after managing to collapse that evil, shaky tower. Just your every day business at EF, really.

They've turned on the heating in my building at last.

That's the final, definite sign for the change in seasons. (As if the bloody cold outside wasn't enough!) It's getting decisively close to zero degrees now, and the musky aroma of autumn leaves is slowly being replaced by the crisp haze of the oncoming winter.

For the past few weeks, I've been running around between classes, overtime, and sourcing materials for extracurricular activities. In other words, I've been working, working, and working. And whenever I'm not I'm usually just about ready to collapse into my bed and go for a big long sleep. Don't get me wrong- I'm not complaining. I love doing all this work for the school, to the point of exhaustion. That's what's been worrying me just a little (and friends and family a little more, I think): am I a workaholic? Not sure. Too busy to think about it, I guess.

The only break from this routine has been Himself's visit last weekend. He came down from Shenyang for our anniversary, which we celebrated by indulging ourselves in lots of eating out and even more drinking. I enjoyed myself immensely, fully soaking up this little break. We checked out a few bars in Beijing's Sanlitun district, which I don't really frequent otherwise. I was also very proud to show Himself my latest discovery, the German bakery near (predictably) the German district of the city. It's a haven for all bread and cake lovers (and I'm talking about real bread here, not the sweet cardboard they normally have here.) The upstairs is a Southern-style restaurant that does everything from pork knuckles to Spätzle and crispy salads, while the downstairs part is a staggeringly authentic German-style bakery. There's a little cafe part to it, the shop assistants wear aprons, and the fragrance if thick, savoury, fresh bread wafers through the air. The first time I had one of their cheese rolls I think I shed a tiny tear, that's how good it was. Here's their web site- avoid if hungry!

Now, however, my man is back up north in his place, I'm in mine, busy as ever, waiting for the next break. Same old I guess. Next year should hopefully see the end of this distance relationship as we're trying to move back in together. Where, how and when exactly is still wide open, but it will happen. Until then, it'll be more of the same- classes, overtime and extra stuff.

Bis dann,

Nadine

I'm having a bit of fun with this lesson.

One of the culturally-focussed classes this week is on drinking culture. There's some comparison between Chinese and Western drinking (yes, they do drink- a lot!), and some language practice on how you can ask people to go for a drink. As it happens most weeks, however, the materials people have managed to drain the lesson of everything that is interesting or fun about the topic and made it into 50 minutes of boring conversation and irrelevant readings without even explaining different drinks that we have in the West.

I therefore decided to completely redo the lesson and created an entirely Powerpoint presentation myself. This one is a lot more relevant to everyday situations and much more fun to teach (unless you're someone who prefers to talk about the downsides of alcohol consumption, which neither my nor the original lesson touch upon). I'm explaining different types of drinks and measurements, drinking idioms, and, with the help of another beer-loving colleague, have managed to dedicate an entire slide to synonyms for the word drunk. There's not much exercise or anything to it, it just presents you with about twenty words and expressions that all mean pissed, or hammered, or off your face. Tell you the truth, I was a bit nervous going into the lesson yesterday as I wasn't sure how the class would react to being presented with a slide full of rude language. And guess what- they loved it! Never have I seen twenty-five English learners write faster and with more enthusiasm. The final activity in the class is to create a story using a selection of rather random pictures (including one of my colleague drunk) and all the new language to crate a story about drinking. Worked just as well as the rest of the lesson, which means the effort has paid off and it's been successful so far.

Which is why I'd like to expand on that synonyms slide. Your input would be very welcome and much appreciated- do you know any interesting words or phrases to say drunk? if you do, please send them in!

Prost!

Nadine

I think I'll have to request a few weeks' hibernation leave.

Lately I've been tired morning, day and nite, and I don't just mean a little tired but proper exhausted. I sleep for Germany but still don't seem to run out of energy by lunchtime every day.

Must be to do with the change in weather. Ever since I saw my parents off in late September the temperature has been constantly dropping, a steady wind has been blowing, and the air has been fresh and crisp. I remember the day they boarded the plane back to Germany was not only miserable but also the first time I had to wear a jacket since... April, probably. At least.

As if that weren't depressing enough, this week has seen a rather unusual rise in temperature back to over 20 degrees around lunchtime. It's almost been Ssptember weather again, and it feels like summer's come back just to tease us for a bit only to then disappear when we least expect it and be replaced by the freezing Beijing winter.

This weather inconsistency could be the cause of my recent fatigue- in Germany half the workforce would probably take this as a reason to call in sick for a week!

Anyway, on my day off this week I went to Haidian Park for a little stroll, and while it's not Beihai or anything, it does have a little lake and lots of trees which were glowing in lovely autumn shades, making the place a lovely, peaceful hideout from the hectics of the city. (I'll upload some photos later.)

So please bear with me if I'm taking my time updating this- I'm just too wrecked to write.

Bis dann,

Nadine

Haidian Park



This is one of the moments when it really reminded me of Munich's English Gardens!

I sat down on a big rock by that lake and just relaxed- nice!

Hong Kong Movie Locations: Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

Located in Sha Tim district, it was built in 1951 on one of Hong Kong's many high and steep hills. The mad trek was more than worth it though, as the small temple is gorgeous, the view is stunning and the narrow path is lined with hundreds of Buddhas in all shapes and forms. (In fact, I probably liked the difficult but quiet way up there a little more than the temple itself.) However it wasn't until I saw all the tiny figurines inside the main temple that I began to believe that there are really ten thousand of them. Tucked away high up in the mountains, this is a truly special, magical little place.

Now let's have the pictures do the talking!

Bis dann,

Nadine

For the full set of photos, go here.

The path up to the temple

Steep central!


The square outside the main sanctum


... and this is how the camera saw it in the movie

Hong Kong Movie Locations: The Chungking Mansions

Made famous by Wong Kar-wai in his quirky classic Chungking Express, the Chungking Mansions are, well, a shithole. A right shithole.

A massive, atrium-style compound with 17 floors, their lower levels house a bazar-like maze of small shops selling electronics, phone cards, cheap souvenir and clothes. Most of the shop owners are Indian or Pakstani, as are many of the residents of the Chungking Mansions. The upper levels have flats, "businesses" of various sorts (some trustworthy, others less so), as well as countless affordable hostels and guest houses. "Affordable" here means not necessarily cheap of value for money, but certainly small and miserable.

Why do I know so much about the place? Well, I regret to say that Himself and me stayed around the corner in the equally shitty Mirador Mansions! Since we went during one of the busiest weeks and didn't book far enough in advance, the tiny, sweaty confines of the USA Hostel were the best match to our budget.

We therefore got the full Chungking Express experience, coming in and leaving through the bustling market every day to the beat of Arabic music, the smell of Indian food and the sounds of countless Indian, Pakistani and Middle Eastern gentlemen approaching us: "Sir, care for a suit?" "Ma'am, handbag?" "Copy watch?" "Copy bag?" in their unique accents. Every time you came into or left the mansions, no escaping them.

The regularity with which they would pick us to approach was stunning, and thus we ended up creating the Copy Song: take any fancy pop tune and keep half-saying, half-singing, "Copy watch, copy suit, copy bag?" "Copy suit, copy bag, copy anything!" (Don't forget the accent!)Anyway, here are my photos of the Chungking Mansions. After living in their companion hole for a week, I must say that the film captured the crammed, noisy, colourful multicultural bustle very well. Hang on- you haven't seen Chungking Express? Simple- watch it, now!

Bis dann,

Nadine

Panoramic exterior view

Funny enough, the time that I went in there to take photos, the place was suspiciously quiet. Must have just been raided by the immigration cops or so.

Takeshi Kaneshiro chasing some illegal immigrant in a fantastic shot from the movie

Brigitte Lin in Chungking Express- she plays a drug dealer who is using Indians to smuggle her stuff over the border. After having spent even a day in the Mirador Mansions, I could totally see how such activity is possible in this kind of place.

The, ehm, view- not actually from the Chungking but the Mirador Mansions, but I imagine they're broadly similar.

Hong Kong Holiday

The first of October was the Chinese national day, and the whole week from the 29th to the 5th is a holiday and thus one of the busiest travel periods of the year. (Like us Germans, the Chinese aren't mad into their national day- they simply appreciate the time off.) My boyfriend and I decided to spend that week in the city, the myth, the dream factory- no, not Hollywood, silly! We'd booked ourselves a week in Hong Kong, home of many a Chinese superstar, the church of shopping and, well, home of the stars.

Our excitement, therefore, was barely curbed by the fact that we had to set off for the airport in the middle of the night in order to catch our 7:55 am flight. It wasn't until we arrived at the check-in desk that the dream holiday threatened to turn into a nightmare before it had even begun. The friendly clerk took ages looking at our documents, then made a phone call then told us that he was sorry but he didn't have us on the reservation list. A moment of complete shock and painful disbelief later I was on the phone to the company we'd booked through- at this early hour they didn't have anyone in the office who could speak much English, and I was too upset to produce anything intelligible in Chinese, so all I could get out of the girl on the line was "Cancel, cancel". Her response to my question as to why in the world our booking was cancelled was to put me on infinite hold, so after a brief discussion Himself and I ended up in front of the little airport ticket sales window.

Since this was the first day of the October holiday week, all flights to Hong Kong were booked out, the girl there told us. After what must have been another five minutes we were informed that the same was true for Tuesday, and Wednesday morning. At this point I couldn't contain my disappointment anymore, and broke into tears there and then. As if on command, the girl then told us that there were to seats available with Dragonair today at 12:55pm- first class and 5900 RMB (almost 600 Euro) per person, one-way. We swallowed hard at the price but of course ended up taking those. That way at least we were rewarded for our early-morning scare with a pre-flight lounge, incredibly comfy seats, great service and lots of free booze.

So after a few hours of luxury on the flight we finally approached Hong Kong. When I saw the bay with its sparkling blue water and its hundreds of slim skyscrapers, I squealed with excitement- this is what I'd seen in all these movies! (Well, I had had a good bit of champagne at this stage.)

Around five o'clock, when we finally stepped out of the plane and into Hong Kong's sunny 30 degrees, the hassle of the cold Beijing morning was finally forgotten.

A short and convenient train ride brought us to our destination Kowloon, which is on the peninsula part of the city and connected to Hong Kong island to by underground.

Here we were faced with a crass contrast to our in-flight luxury, as the guest house we'd booked turned out to be far more of a kip than their web site makes you believe. Sure, we knew we'd booked cheap and all (and not that cheap at almost 40 EUR/night), but we weren't quite expecting the 6 or so sqm that we got, with half of them taken up by the massive bed and everything covered in what must have been the smell of mothballs.

Our first though was to look for another place to stay, but a quick look at the flight receipts helped change our minds quickly. The less time we spend at this place, the better, we thought, and headed off into the adventure.

The first place we went to was Mong Kok where we spent Monday night, and which I only knew as a seedy hellhole from Derek Yee's splendid 2004 film, One Nite in Mong Kok. As you can imagine, I was quite intrigued.

One of the world's most densely populated areas, Mong Kog is inseed full of people, neon lights, and funk. Its narrow streets are packed with the young, the hip and the trendy, and above their heads hover the flickers of a thousand neon signs, just like you see it on postcards and in the movies. The funky folk rush through the streets from shop to shop, buying electronics, clothes (funky, of course) and CDs and DVDs by the dozen. On our first night there, I treated myself to a few of those as well.

Mong Kok by night

On our second day we went up to one of Hong Kong's top tourist attractions: The Peak, or Victoria Peak, to be more precise. Or to be even more precise- a massive tourist trap. While the view from the top of the mountain is gorgeous, and while the walk around the top is quite scenic, "herding" was the first word that came to my mind when the uphill tram stopped right inside a huge shopping centre full of overpriced "Chinese" rubbish. We were hungry, but prices at Dublin level and above quickly managed spoiled our appetite. We ended up having dinner outside after fighting our way out of the massive centre and still paid far too much, but at least we were right on the scenic spot. Aside from the gorgeous view, one highlight on The Peak was Madame Tussauds Hong Kong. We posed with lots of Chinese and international celebrities and had heaps of fun. See photos here.

Bruce Lee's wax figure at Mme Tussaud's...

On Wednesday we went down to Victoria Harbour and took a walk on the sunny promenade along the Avenue of Stars. It's exactly what it sounds like- a Hong Kong Walk of Fame, with signatures and hand imprints of Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, Jet Li, Tony Leung and many others embedded into the concrete and free for everyone to pose with. (And pose we did. And so did half of mainland China.)

... and his statue on the Avenue of Stars.

Thursday ended up being yet another movie-related day as we put on our hiking shoes and climbed all the way up Hong Kong's steep hills to visit the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. This gorgeous temple with its countless statues is featured in one of my favourite films from Hong Kong, Infernal Affairs. Though the hike up there was rather exhausting, the site was absolutely worth it. This place deserves its own blog entry, which it will soon get.

The incredibly steep path up to the monastery

Friday and Saturday were dedicated to one of life's great pleasures: shopping. And though everything is not as conveniently laid out as I'd hoped and many malls feature too much luxury and not enough high street for my liking, both of us more than got what we wanted, and more. Shopping in Hong Kong is hugely attractive to many mainland Chinese as the former colony doesn't only feature a number of brands unknown up north, it also comes without the nasty tax the mainland government put on all these fancy bags and cosmetics. Like everything in Hong Kong, shopping is pricey, but it's no later than the moment you find yourself surrounded by all these Japanese styles, Korean accessories and general funkiness that you forget all about what money even is.

Sunday was spent preparing for our flight back, the tickets for which we'd been able to aquire in Hong Kong, and we passed the last few hours before take-off in a conveniently located shopping centre just next to the airport line.

Is that the end of the story already? Of course not! There's much more to tell- about the nightlife, for instance. We spent three of our evenings on a set of streets called Lang Kwai Fong, a little party district full of restaurants and bars of all sorts. Its diversity of people and venues reminded me very much of the Altstadt in Duesseldorf, as did the pully, heated up atmosphere. in many places. Even on a Wednesday night it seemed that many people were out solely to be picked up by someone, or simply to show off their latest threads. Many of the patrons are foreigners, among them many British and Americans, many more than in Beijing. But the locals also know how to get it on and join in the merry partying and posing, also in much higher numbers than in the capital.

This is something I've noticed about Hong Kong in general- just how Westernized it is. Of course I had expected the century of colonial rule to show off somewhere, but I wouldn't have ever thought the differences between here and the mainland to be this big. As already mentioned, both shopping and nightlife show strong influences of Western culture- where it's markets and teahouses in Beijing, it's M&S and snazzy cocktail places in Hong Kong.

Victoria Harbour in the evening

And it's not just the city that's quite different, but naturally also the people. The first thing I noticed when stepping out into the streets was that everything appeared much more civilised than in Beijing. There was no pushing when getting on the subway, no jaywalking (and they certainly didn't learn that from the Brits), no loud talking in public, and no spitting. (Well, there was some, but that's how you'd spot the mainlanders.)

At the same time I also noticed how much colder people are. They may dress more fashionably (or rather, more people dress fashionably then in Beijing), but they also pose a lot more, and in Beijing you probably won't find as many girls sitting on the subway staring into a mirror adjusting their make-up over and over. Service is more like what you're used to from Europe- much slower, and if you have a query or request, they don't exactly rush to help you, whereas in Beijing, if the person doesn't have a solution, you'll have three people rushing over to assist. Also I generally didn't get the same friendliness or enthusiasm from the Hong Kongers I spoke to- like your average central European, they're usually polite but reserved. In Beijing that's quite different. And I'm not just talking about people who are excited simply because you're a foreigner- I find Beijingers are generally much more neighbourly to each other.

Another thing which Hong Kongers must have adopted from their colonisers is cynicism. On our first night at Lang Kwai Fong I ended up being a little underdressed- you should have seen some of the sneers I got! All in all I didn't appreciate the general arrogance, which I'd quite gotten used to living without.

Food was a similar experience- we had lots of lovely salads and sandwiches, but not a lot of Chinese food. The restaurant scene in Hong Kong could be found in Dublin, or Frankfurt, or anywhere in Europe- you get the Japanese, the Thai, the Lebanese, and the Chinese places almost appear like yet another foreign cuisine. Don't get me wrong, all the food we had was delicious, it just didn't feel quite as authentic as the spicy barbeque or Hot Pot we'd have over here.

So, with all its star power, shopping opportunities and Western comforts, Hong Kong is not somewhere I'd live, but it sure is a bloody exciting place to visit. So, get your bags packed already!

Oh, but don't book through elong.net- bastards may just feck up your reservation.

Bis dann,

Nadine

Here's all the pictures:

Hong Kong by night

Avenue of Stars

Madame Tussaud's

10 000 Buddhas Monastery

And here's me posing with the hand imprint of my favourite actor and absolute idol, Tony Leung!

All alone again.

I saw my parents off yesterday. After eight days of exciting trips, lots of shopping (and haggling!) and mountains of gorgeous food, I'm homesick as ever. Though I got a very warm welcome back at work today, having this great time with my parents, whom I've been longing for for months now, has only made me miss them even more. Ah well. Guess I'm never quite satisfied.

We went to a number of fascinating places, including the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Great Wall, where I took heaps of photos (though not as many as my dad, who managed to fill several GB of disk space.)

I will write more over the next few days- for now here's a few impressions:

The Great Wall, 18 September
The Summer Palace on the 19th and...
... Beihai Park on the 20th.

Enjoy!

Nadine

This weekend is Mid-Autumn Festival.

That means three days off and mooncakes for everyone. These devilish little delights are pastries with a lotus seed or red bean filling. Quite small, but very sweet and rather heavy. I had two yesterday and had to pretty much roll home. And I have another pack of them sitting here! Where shall this all end. Oh well.

Anyway, for me it's not just a long weekend, but I won't return to work until the 24th (I think). My parents are coming on Monday morning and will be staying in Beijing for a week. Hence I've spent this entire day off dusting, scrubbing and mopping until I couldn't move. I haven't seen them since the 27th of December and am missing them terribly, so I cannot wait. For the same reason I'm also a tad (read: extremely) nervous- so much has changed about me and about my life, how will they react? What's my mum going to say about those little water stains on the wall? And how are they going to deal with the noise? The traffic? The squatter loos? It'll be an adventure, that's for sure.

And when I'm back at work I'll only be there for a few days- the one-week National Day holiday begins on the 29th, and Himself and me will be off to Hong Kong. Oh, and my birthday is going to happen at some point, too.

Wouldn't you hate to be me. Hehe.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Nadine

Why, just why are you so tasty?!

Film review: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008)

http://www.ghibli.jp/ponyo/ponyo_mainimage.jpg

Yes, I've seen it! After the epic fairytale worlds of Howl's Moving Castle and (the underwhelming) Tales from Earthsea, Studio Ghibli's latest is a return to good old 80s Ghibli.

The brainchild of Master Miyazaki himself, it lacks the elaborate plot of the likes of Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away and makes do with far less characters. Instead we finally go back to seeing the world through the curious, wide-open eyes of a child.

The story is based on Andersen's The Little Mermaid, but as the film progresses it becomes its own dreamful vision. Ponyo is a 5-year old fish princess living in her family's underwater kingdom, and when she meets Sousuke, a boy of the same age, decides she wants to become human herself, much to her father's dismay.

The underwater scenes are spectacular; as one would expect in a Miyazaki picture, they are full of strange, wonderful creatures that resemble something we may have seen in reality but yet are completely unique in their own right. During the first sequence that's set in this colourful, mysteriously illuminated realm, the first point of comparison that came to my mind was the impressive ocean setting in Finding Nemo. However, where the Pixar film uses 3D graphics of all sorts to create stunningly realistic and impressive images, Ponyo uses a wide range of colours and shapes to create an equally, if not more, stunning fantasy kingdom. There is not a single CGI pixel anywhere in this film, yet the textures are lavishly rich, and the movements of light, the sea and its inhabitants incredibly fluent. The underwater scenes alone are a stunning artistic achievement.

The rest of the film's visuals, however, impress just as much with their lovely but never kitschy pastel palette and the ever-loving detail that can be found in every single frame. The casual drawing style of Sousuke’s house against the lavish green field in the background, the gorgeously peaceful town, or a glowing, golden moon are only a few examples of the many memorable images.

Like in the now-20-year old classic, My Neighbour Totoro, the protagonists are young children, and a large part of the film’s charm lies in their portrayal. Ever since I was a child and watched Heidi or Anne of Green Gables, (though I’ve only realised now), what’s fascinated me about Miyazaki’s animation is the accuracy in which it replicates children’s movements, mimicry and mannerisms. Ponyo is a stubborn girl who, like any little princess, can get quite angry if not given what she wants ( though with more serious consequences than with most other children). And when she does, she behaves and moves in the exact same way that you see little kids do it every day in real life. 8-year old voice actress Nara Yuria also does a fantastic job in bringing Ponyo to life and making her the unbelievably lovable, cheeky little sh!t that she is. While she is delightfully hilarious in her half-fish, half-child shape that defies classification, Ponyo never becomes boring once she assumes her human shape. One of the most (literally) heartwarming moments of the film is when, as a human child, Ponyo tastes milk with honey for the first time, truly savouring the experience. The delighted expression on her little face reminded me of my own childhood firsts and gave me that warm fuzzy feeling in my chest. In many ways, Ponyo is very reminiscent of Mei in Totoro.

Like Totoro, Ponyo also has a good old-fashioned opening sequence, and a title song you won’t forget too soon after hearing it. Performed by little Ohashi Nozomi, the terribly catchy tune is a perfect sing-along for any child, young or old.

And again, like its famous predecessor, some reviewers have noted (somewhat critically at times), that Ponyo is aimed at a much younger audience than the more recent Ghibli films. I’d like to phrase it differently and say that this is the first Ghibli in a while that doesn’t exclude this target group completely. This film is of course for young children, but (naturally, as with Totoro) its merit lies in its many delights – the lovingly precise portrayal of children’s behaviour, the many moments of wonder and the sheer artistic vision.

By the end of the fastest one-hundred minutes ever, I had that silly smile on my face, and I knew I’d once again witnessed true Miyazaki magic.

Of course we’ll have to see how well this one will hold up over repeated viewings and how it will be regarded in a decades time, but for now I’ll say: Move over, Totoro.

Watch the trailer here!

Sick notice.

Am sick as a dog at the moment. No, nothing to do with Qingdao or anything like that- I caught a heavy cold, in early September. Beats me. On Friday afternoon I thought my sore throat was caused by Thursday's spicy Sichuan dinner, but since Friday eve I've been feeling like someone stuck a sauna on my head. Went into work both yesterday and today but went home soon after both times (can't say I didn't try). The most annoying thing about this is that I normally don't feel like this until November- and it does suck to be sick in a foreign country all on your own.

Ah well- so apologies anyway for the lack of posts, will start bloggin' again as soon as I'm better!

Bis dann,

Nadine

Beijing Beauty, part 5: Beijing Lights

Yes, the Olympics are over. Is the Western media gonna stop whinging about China though? Hardly. So Beijing Beauty ain't gonna stop either. (Well, at least not for another four parts.) Today's edition will be all about the lights of Beijing.

So Beijing is lit up at night. Nothing special, is it? Any place that wants to be able to call itself a city should invest in some nighttime lighting at some point. But I'm not talking about street lamps here. I'm talking about a sea of lights, in all colours and shapes. I'm talking about mall fronts, entrances, signs, even the ground. Come dusk (and that's around 7pm here, .even during the summer) the place lights up like a colourful wonderland. Sure, individual signs may look kitschy, and of course they cost a lot of electricity. But together they're impressive, hard take your eyes off, and they do give you that metropolis feeling.

And it's not just the main parts of the city that they're in. And all of those lights haven't been put up just for the Olympics to impress foreigners. Most of my photos below are from my area of Zhongguancun, which has a low density in Westerners, and they've been here ever since I arrived.

So enough of the talking, bring on the pictures!

Bis dann,

Nadine

The street outside my office in Zhongguancun

The fronts of a restaurant (left) and a shop on my way home (in comparison, my way home in Wuppertal, at night, looks something like this)

A blue building against (natural!) clouds and the moon

Nothing much in the way of lights here, but I love this picture- this is the view outside my 12th-floor office at sunset (the tall building is the one with the big e in the first picture)

The Watercube against a block of buildings that, at this point, had just turned pink (it keeps changing colours all through the night)

A lit-up gate on the Olympic Green

The waterfront at Houhai lake (which will get its own edition of Beijing Beauty soon enough)

I saw Jackie Chan. And Leehom. And Andy Lau. All in the one place.

Yes, that's right. And the big bunch of celebs was only a tiny detail of the giant, no, gargantuan spectacle that was the Olympic closing ceremony. And me and my boyfriend were two of the 91 000 people who had the pleasure of witnessing it at the National Stadium. How did we manage to do that? Himself, when he was back in Dublin a couple of months ago, bumped into a friend of his dad who happens to work for the Irish Olympic Committee. That very man remembered my man early last week and gave us tickets for the Athletics on Saturday night and the closing ceremony. The luck of the Irish indeed.

Anyway, so we ended up being the owners of two of the tens of thousands of open mouths in the stadium. And we never shut them for a second. What Zhang Yimou and his thousands of artists and crew offered their audience was simply beyond amazing. The colours, the shapes, the movements, the music- it was exciting, moving, happy, sad and perfect in every way. It's two days ago now, and I'm still relishing in the memories of watching this epic show from our very good seats. I still cannot pick a favourite part or aspect of it. I loved the drums and bells at the beginning, was stunned by the flying, hopping and twirling bodies, amazed by the fireworks, left speechless by the hundreds of acrobats on the giant tower, and moved to tears by the wonderful atmosphere of all the wonderful performances.

Though there was a hint of regret to the evening, as two weeks of unforgettable events were coming to a close. All the people who made this possible (and don't forget the fantastic volunteers here!) ensured that the wonderful time that was the 2008 Beijing Olympics went out with a bang, and that people who left the stadium, the city and its people would keep them in their hearts forever.

A good friend of mine said I was blessed to have been a part of this event, and she was absolutely right. The closing ceremony with all its colours, sounds and people is an event that I will never in my life forget.

Thank you Zhang Yimou, thank you staff, thank you volunteers and thank you Beijing!

Bis dann,

Nadine


PS: Now, of course, for the photos! There are two commented galleries here and here. And I'll add some of my favourites below, including a short video. Hope you'll enjoy it even half as much as I enjoyed being there!

All in blue this time

Drummers (in red) and dancers with yellow bell dresses

All the shapes !

The athletes have marched in once again.


Images like these, to me, are a testimony of the amazing things that people are capable of .

Beautiful, quite simply.

Bye bye, Beijing 08!