Updated decorations

Mom brought me a lot of stuff and food from Finland, now i have been enjouying Oltermanni and Reissumies for breakfast :) Also got a finnish flag and updated my appartment decorations, Finland & China!

On the world map i started to pinpoint all the locations and cities ive been to, dunno if it can be seen on the picture...

愚公移山 - Yu Gong Yi Shan

Went to listen to a friends band, there were also some other performances which were really BAAAD. Some girl was screaming, jumping and complaining really loudly on stage...Too bad i cant upload the video of that here but will post a link to youtube later. Cant upload it on youtube now because the Chinese Government has banned youtube, they do it now and then when there is some content they dont like. Mostly its something related to Tibet...

After the consert we went out driving and passed the Forbidden City, it looks pretty cool in the night - picture

English Class

Had my first english class for some 8 year old kids. They were really noisy and didnt really want to pay any attention...Their english level was close to zero so i had to explain everything in Chinese first and then the english meaning, but as long as it pays i dont care :)

McDonalds just lowered their prices to the same level they were 10 years ago in China, now you can get a meal for 16.50 kuai which is about 1.8 Euros! Picture

Mom is coming tomorrow and i feel great! Been gone exactly 3 months now but i feels like a really short time...I havent even had time to miss home and now home is bringing me some lovely finnish bread,cheese and other goodies! :)
Hang in there with the snow, its 18 degrees in Beijing today!

北京公园 - Beijing Park

Beijing has many parks with amazing scenery! Went to one by the mountians just outside downtown. From the park its possible to climb up to the montain and enjoy the city views, will do that next time! Should take around 2h to climb it...There was a guy in the park folding or making dragons out of leaves, they looked really amazing and i had to buy my own leaf dragon for 10 kuai which is around 1 euro.
Park pictures added!

Chinese Rock

Saturday! Time to check out some nightlife. Went to a Chinese rock konsert, some small bands album release...the music was soso, i never got to know in which language they sand because i couldnt hear any words. The music was REALLY REALLY LOUD!! The bad was called Golden Driver. In the toilet of that place they had a turtle with a really shitty cage, poor thing...

长城

Today we had a fieldtrip to the Great Wall with my class...this is the third time i saw The Wall but its always as amazing, great mountain scenery and a lot of rocks :P

Was great this time coz the weather was about 20 degrees and sunshine! When done with the Great Wall climbing you can come down with a Chute riding a small sled...this time i went down with the cable carts becasue there was a huge cue...Took some pictures of the wall and the sled track.

Early summer reached Beijing!

Finally summer in Beijing!
Today it was 22 degrees and the rest of the week around 26 degrees! No more cold or snow!
Mom, you dont have to take very thick clothes with you, its warm! Niko and Mr.Jones will also have it pretty warm here, i stocked up some booze for your arrival as well :)

Its almost as if ive seen this brand somewhere before with a different name on this picture...

BLCU 北京语言大学

The name of the school im studying in is Beijing Culture and Language University.Now ive been there for about 3 weeks and my vocabularity and chinese writing has improved a lot! I have class every weekday from 8 - 12. Next week i have a test with about 300 chinese characters, hoping for the best...

The people in my class are from all around the world: USA, Guatemala, France, South Korea, Mexico, Hong Kong, Malesia, England, Switzerland. The funny thing is that most of them look asian or are of asian origin. I also met many mixes in the school with 1 parent asian and the other western. Most of the mixed asians look almost western and i was really supriced when they told me their mom was chinese because they dont look chinese at all. Not even Asian.

Never before have i been surrounded by this kind of international enviroment. All people come from different countries and some of them have lived all around the world because they always followed their parents work. I feel so NOT international from time to time here because i spent my entire life in one single place...A picture of my classroom added.

China #1 in Recycling and Logistics!

When you trow stuff away in China there is always someone who is sorting it, nothing goes to waste here. People are actually employed here as trash pickers and they check all peoples garbage, some things they find can be re-used or even sold.

I took a picture of this on guy on a bike with a huge pack of random stuff. The stuff is being taken to the recycle center and the guy can collect a small amount of money...

25 Years Today!

Im on a good half way to 50 now! Dont feel old at all...These past few years have gone by so fast that i cant tell them apart. Highschool, Army (kungliga schaffisana), Arcada, Shanghai 6 months, Luottokunta, Drumsö, and now living in China...

Today i we went to a really exclusive and the highest ranked buffee restaurant in Beijing called West In. They had the best meat i ever eaten and 3 flowing chocolade fountains where you could dip and cover strawberries and other fruits. The best restaurant i have been to so far EVER! Thank you Hyan so much! West In gave me a pack of their own made exclucive chocolade after Hyan told her it was my birthday :)

After that huge meal it was time for a walk and i took some pics from the SOHO district. In SOHO there are a lot of fashion stores, western restaurants and other cool shops, its worth checking out if you come by!

Seba the english teacher

Today my friend hooked me up with a job! Im gonna start teaching english to chinese teenagers and adults. There are no books or other material for the class, only practising daily life speaking. Im gonna teach english each weekend for a few hours to get some of the rent paid.

When i did the interview for the job the guy asked me where im from, i said FINLAND but i think he got me wrong and thinks im from England. I guess im Brittish now...

Downtown

Went for a walk in downtown where the main shopping street is - Wanfujing! It is comperable to our Mannerheimintie but a LOT bigger. Here they sell all kinds of exclusive products and there is a large variety of street barbeque food, even seastars and other exotic stuff! (picture with the small tents)

I passed Chairman Maos Memorial Hall, picture added. Around the memorial hall there are a lot of statues of the "Peoples Liberation Army" to remind us all how great Mao was...hmm :P