Woo! Another weekend... how delightful! It's been a rather long week, but a really good one. More on that later.
For now, here are two more Facebook photo album links. These are not chronological... aiya! Both contain photos taken before I left Beijing this July (hence the scruffiness of my general appearance).
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12712&l=029a7&id=507326991
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15254&l=e9b4c&id=507326991
I hope the weekend's kind to you!
Bec
x
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
A summer in snapshots
Maybe this is the lazy person's way of showing holiday snaps, but I see no point in uploading photos twice, sooooooooo... I am slowly putting my summertime collection on Facebook and, even if you are not signed up to the site (which I reluctantly suggest that you be: it's horribly addictive, but there are too many contact-worthy people on there to resist) you can view them using the following links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14879&l=fb48d&id=507326991
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14881&l=6bad7&id=507326991
Please be patient when it comes to missing photos, or photos minus captions - I am plodding on with them!
Here are the links to some earlier photo albums from my last year in Beijing too:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2643&l=f8bc6&id=507326991
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1339&l=62685&id=507326991
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1634&l=7c2d6&id=507326991
There are many yet to be added... one day!
Okay, now I'm really going to do some work in preparation for Monday (first teaching day! Argh!)
Happy weekend.
x
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14879&l=fb48d&id=507326991
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14881&l=6bad7&id=507326991
Please be patient when it comes to missing photos, or photos minus captions - I am plodding on with them!
Here are the links to some earlier photo albums from my last year in Beijing too:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2643&l=f8bc6&id=507326991
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1339&l=62685&id=507326991
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1634&l=7c2d6&id=507326991
There are many yet to be added... one day!
Okay, now I'm really going to do some work in preparation for Monday (first teaching day! Argh!)
Happy weekend.
x
Here we go again
In what may be a slightly confusing way of doing things, I'm going to work backwards from now in my account of what's been a-happening. When I reach the point at which I no longer want to reverse, I'm then going to leap forward to the present once more, and start working with time again, rather than against it. Hmm. Good luck to us all.
I knew that this journey was not going to be the smoothest I'd had when Jet (my pal Zhang Zhe 章哲) called from Beijing airport a day early to ask me where I was. Uh oh.
I then realised that my beloved orange coat with the HUGE buttons had been misplaced during our Proms in the Park escapade and I would be leaving Britain without it (I was rather lucky to acquire a replacement green one, however, with striking lime green lining, but no GINORMOUS buttons!)
I later listened, without surprise, as a bodyfree voice (with a rather lovely Irish accent) told me that my flight was at best delayed, and was in fact more than likely not going to leave at all (that day). Luckily I'd forced seven books into my hand luggage so I dug in at my Heathrow departure gate and, after informing us that the fault had been with the plane's anti-collision system (too, too, TOO much information), the kind Irish man allowed me to board my Air China flight after all and leave the UK only two hours later than planned.
For the first time ever I had a talkative seat buddy. This has always been a DREAD of mine on long-haul flights, but in fact, partly because he's the first Chinese I've met able to take off an array of British regional accents, and partly because I was tired and verging on hysteria, he kept me entertained and reduced my flight-induced terror considerably! We nattered until the man in front told us to stop (!), and woke up in the morning only to resume our conversation. Jolly.
Descending to Beijing involved passing through a familiar cloud of gunk, and at this point my sense of impending doom returned. The air was smelly and stuffy, and I was sent back from every airport desk I approached (a total of THREE times), to complete forms - the necessity of which I had somehow blotted out of my consciousness.
Walking into arrivals I discovered that neither of my mobile phones was working and that I was surrounded by fake taxi drivers trying to rip me off left, right and centre. The real taxi queue was astoundingly and horribly long, so when an official looking lady (why will I never learn?) with a shiny gold "We are the taxi finding department" (or something suchlike) badge on approached me, I was hot, tired and stupid enough to indulge her enquiry by confirming that I did want a taxi and telling her, in Chinese, where I wanted to go. She proceeded to point to a card in her hand and tell me that they would be kind enough to drive me to my destination for 450 RMB (it's an 80 RMB trip). I laughed/snorted in her face, which was the kindest I could manage when what I really wanted was to spit in it (even this pacifist can be pushed too far), and stomped off in the direction of the airport bus.
For a mere 16 RMB I acquired an airport bus ticket without a hitch. Unfortunately, when the bus arrived 20 minutes later, I was not allowed to put my suitcase in the luggage compartment underneath the coach (which contained only one suitcase and had the capacity for at least ten), but was informed via curt gestures and a steely stare, that I was to take it on the bus with me. I dragged my 32 kilo (yes, 32) case to the bottom of the bus stairs and, as fellow passengers shoved me aside in their eagerness to get a seat, wanted to do one, or both, of two things:
1. Cry
2. Go home
Okay, melodramatics aside, the bus driver eventually took pity on this pathetic person and helped me lug the damn thing on board.
We then got wedged in the rush hour traffic. Somewhere between the airport and Wudaokou I discovered that my Chinese mobile was receiving texts and calls, and a few well wishers managed to lift my spirits from the depths of extreme irritation and gloom. Approximately two hours later I reached my beloved apartment and, generally, all was well (with the exception of a cockroach in my bed), and has been ever since.
But that's another story.
Love to you all!
Bec
x
I knew that this journey was not going to be the smoothest I'd had when Jet (my pal Zhang Zhe 章哲) called from Beijing airport a day early to ask me where I was. Uh oh.
I then realised that my beloved orange coat with the HUGE buttons had been misplaced during our Proms in the Park escapade and I would be leaving Britain without it (I was rather lucky to acquire a replacement green one, however, with striking lime green lining, but no GINORMOUS buttons!)
I later listened, without surprise, as a bodyfree voice (with a rather lovely Irish accent) told me that my flight was at best delayed, and was in fact more than likely not going to leave at all (that day). Luckily I'd forced seven books into my hand luggage so I dug in at my Heathrow departure gate and, after informing us that the fault had been with the plane's anti-collision system (too, too, TOO much information), the kind Irish man allowed me to board my Air China flight after all and leave the UK only two hours later than planned.
For the first time ever I had a talkative seat buddy. This has always been a DREAD of mine on long-haul flights, but in fact, partly because he's the first Chinese I've met able to take off an array of British regional accents, and partly because I was tired and verging on hysteria, he kept me entertained and reduced my flight-induced terror considerably! We nattered until the man in front told us to stop (!), and woke up in the morning only to resume our conversation. Jolly.
Descending to Beijing involved passing through a familiar cloud of gunk, and at this point my sense of impending doom returned. The air was smelly and stuffy, and I was sent back from every airport desk I approached (a total of THREE times), to complete forms - the necessity of which I had somehow blotted out of my consciousness.
Walking into arrivals I discovered that neither of my mobile phones was working and that I was surrounded by fake taxi drivers trying to rip me off left, right and centre. The real taxi queue was astoundingly and horribly long, so when an official looking lady (why will I never learn?) with a shiny gold "We are the taxi finding department" (or something suchlike) badge on approached me, I was hot, tired and stupid enough to indulge her enquiry by confirming that I did want a taxi and telling her, in Chinese, where I wanted to go. She proceeded to point to a card in her hand and tell me that they would be kind enough to drive me to my destination for 450 RMB (it's an 80 RMB trip). I laughed/snorted in her face, which was the kindest I could manage when what I really wanted was to spit in it (even this pacifist can be pushed too far), and stomped off in the direction of the airport bus.
For a mere 16 RMB I acquired an airport bus ticket without a hitch. Unfortunately, when the bus arrived 20 minutes later, I was not allowed to put my suitcase in the luggage compartment underneath the coach (which contained only one suitcase and had the capacity for at least ten), but was informed via curt gestures and a steely stare, that I was to take it on the bus with me. I dragged my 32 kilo (yes, 32) case to the bottom of the bus stairs and, as fellow passengers shoved me aside in their eagerness to get a seat, wanted to do one, or both, of two things:
1. Cry
2. Go home
Okay, melodramatics aside, the bus driver eventually took pity on this pathetic person and helped me lug the damn thing on board.
We then got wedged in the rush hour traffic. Somewhere between the airport and Wudaokou I discovered that my Chinese mobile was receiving texts and calls, and a few well wishers managed to lift my spirits from the depths of extreme irritation and gloom. Approximately two hours later I reached my beloved apartment and, generally, all was well (with the exception of a cockroach in my bed), and has been ever since.
But that's another story.
Love to you all!
Bec
x
Friday, September 14, 2007
Supplies supplies!
Well, well, well... just when you thought it was safe to turn on your computer, I have returned to shatter your sedate surfing experience once more! Helloooooo!
Regarding my year-long non-stony silence: it seemed a smidge self-important to assume the world would want to read accounts of my life in China for more than a year. However, I stand corrected, so thanks to all of you who bemoaned the absence of my nonsensical scribbles! I also love writing. When I don't write, I rapidly morph into that person in a party that you sit next to and quickly wish you hadn't because I'm busy rummaging around inside my head for the answers to questions which really, truly are not appropriate party thought fodder.
What I'm trying to say is that I'm writing my blog again and I'm glad! For those of you fortunate enough to have dodged my dodgy emails for the last year, it was spent teaching at a university in Beijing and was a great year (more on that later). I returned to Britain for a spectacular summer (more on that later also), and now find myself back in Beijing, at the same university, for one more year! Pheeeeew!
I hope you are wonderful on this DAMP Friday. Welcome back one and all! I am truly disgraceful at keeping in touch, but I will get there in the end, and I look forward to hearing from you very much... regardless of time lapses!
Loves and hugs and jujubes,
Bec of the East
x
Regarding my year-long non-stony silence: it seemed a smidge self-important to assume the world would want to read accounts of my life in China for more than a year. However, I stand corrected, so thanks to all of you who bemoaned the absence of my nonsensical scribbles! I also love writing. When I don't write, I rapidly morph into that person in a party that you sit next to and quickly wish you hadn't because I'm busy rummaging around inside my head for the answers to questions which really, truly are not appropriate party thought fodder.
What I'm trying to say is that I'm writing my blog again and I'm glad! For those of you fortunate enough to have dodged my dodgy emails for the last year, it was spent teaching at a university in Beijing and was a great year (more on that later). I returned to Britain for a spectacular summer (more on that later also), and now find myself back in Beijing, at the same university, for one more year! Pheeeeew!
I hope you are wonderful on this DAMP Friday. Welcome back one and all! I am truly disgraceful at keeping in touch, but I will get there in the end, and I look forward to hearing from you very much... regardless of time lapses!
Loves and hugs and jujubes,
Bec of the East
x
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