Discipline

Yes, well, I was supposed to start the new job on September 15th.

Yeah, right.

After I went in on monday to sign the contract, I have barely left the office to sleep a few hours at night. Seems like I was sucked straight into the machine.

But in a way, though it's been really busy and fairly confusing at times, having been thrown straight into the deep end of legal matters, it's also fun in a way, learning new things and especially having something challenging to do. I realise that I feel much better now, not spending all my time just pottering around, just thinking of how to spend my days.

So, here is the new and improved career woman version of me!

Bow Down, Mister

Although living in the 'village' inside the city, it is nice sometimes to get out of the urban area and out into the green of the nature. With this in mind, yesterday morning we took the subway to the westernmost stop at the end of Line 1, and from there took a bus to a temple in the mountains west of Beijing.

Though as we arrived, seeing this sign I wasn't quite sure that we had taken the right bus, and for a moment I was confused of whether I really was west of BJ or had somehow ended up back in Europe. ------>

Green hills, fresh air, plenty of sunshine.... :)

Still, as we walked through the various halls and shrines in the temple area, we ended up in a small temple room that seemed to serve the purpose of putting the "fear of God" into people. The walls were decorated with colourful and detailed depictions of various punishments given out in hell, supposedly trying to coach people into living a 'good' life. This, in my mind, goes to show how far the organised Chinese buddhism has come from the simple philosophy taught by Siddharta Gautama --- the ideas of compassion, forgiveness and love.

This also shows clearly in the way most people coming to the temples to bow down in front of the statues of various buddhas and boddhisattvas don't seem to have the slightest idea of ther teachings. Ritual usually takes place of thinking, you come to the temple to offer incense, money and fruit for good luck, riches, fertility....whatever you need most at the moment.

But as one of these worshippers what originally was behind all of it? Did Gautama want to become a golden statue? Didn't he say that he can point the way but everyone must walk it themselves?

Just some thoughts on seeing what the temples and the visitors represent. But that being said, everyone has their own way, and waving insence in front of the statues just might work for those people. We all have our own ways of finding what we choose.

Career Move

The universe seems to work quite like a Chinese city. You keep looking for something, and you might be looking for a while, but once you find one, you find plenty of other at the same time.

In a Chinese city this applies to shops, restaurants and other businesses. You might be trying to find a music shop for hours, and once you find one, you realise that all of the music shops are right here on this same street, right next to each other.

For me this week, this has applied to work. Although I've been teaching English since we moved to Beijing, I've been constantly looking for other work, something more permanent as well as more 'official'. And suddenly, after I was called to my first interview last week, the opportunities have been popping up like mushrooms. The whole week, jobs that I would have great chances of getting have just appeared.

However, I've accepted that very first one that started this avalanche. From September 15 I will be a trainee consultant in a legal office that deals with IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) issues here in China, as well as working with European countries. And if all goes well, after three months I'll be made a permanent employee.

It's all a little mad, I could have never imagined myself working with legal issues, but all things considered, it seems the most attractive offer. It's a small office, in a fantastic old courtyard house by the lake not far from our place, with a friendly team of people to work with. And best of all, it sounds like the job will be a nice combination of freedom, chance of personal development, and challenges.

Watch this space...

Sunset

The sunset as seen from our window a couple of days ago.

Listed

When you stay in a country long enough, you start to identify with certain habits and stereotypes. Lists of 'You've been in XXXX for too long, when...' are popular among expats in various countries (here's one about Finland) and China is no exception. Here are a few chosen parts from a longer list about China, most of them I personally identify with, some I just see around so much that they cannot be left out of the list.

You know you've stayed in China too long, when...

...you no longer need a handkerchief to clean your nose.

...you go to the local market in pyjamas.

...you always try to be the first in a line and do not understand why other people are properly lining up.

...you can sleep everywhere in any position.

...you do not ask for somebody's age, but for his year sign.

...you start calling other foreigners laowai.

...you have no feeling for traffic rules at all.

...you stop directly at the end of an escalator to do your daily planning.

...you think its fun to enter the subway before the other people got out.

...you smoke a cigarette before, during and after dinner.

...you no longer wonder how somebody with a yearly income of US$ 4,800 can own a Mercedes-Benz 500.

...you accept the fact it's necessary to stand in line to get a number for the next line.

...you think the best time to stand up and get your hand luggage is directly after the airplane leaves the runway.

...you ask for somebody's income and excpect an answer.

...you always talk louder than really necessary.

...asked for the way, you explain how to go, even if you do not know the place you've been asked for.

...you wonder why the folks at home do not buy 10 DVD's per week.

...you look out of the window and think "so many trees", not "so much concrete".

...you think air pollution - what air pollution?

...you think it's cool to attach flashy lights to your mobile phone's aerial and carry the phone on a coloured strap around your neck.

...you do not need diapers for your baby, as the open-seat pants are so much more handy.

...the footprints on the toilet seat are your own.

...you have the insatiable desire to join a large group of people following one person carrying a small flag.

...you give the 'peace sign' in every picture you are in

...you dress up in pyjamas and home slippers after work, then take your folding chair, shuffle through the alley to the next main street and settle there to watch the nightly show pass by

...you always carry an old jam jar filled with water and some green tea leaves with you.



.....and so on and so forth. Lists like this could go on forever, especially in a country as full of everything as China. Just though I'd share a few favourite picks with you :)

[source of the original text: http://bahlmann.freespaces.com/content/fs_main.htm]

Krazy Kat (a.k.a. Baron von Gatthausen III)

Our newest family member, Gattuso, can really be the most adorable, purring loveball at times, looking at me with his pretty eyes and just hoping to be cuddled. At other times, he turns into a mad werekitten, bouncing off the walls and attacking my ankles in crazy leaps with all four legs spread wide looking like the flying squirrels in Finland.

And he sleeps in the most uncatlike positions a lot of the time. Scrolling down the page to an ealier post, you will find one good example. Here are some others that we managed to catch
.

Books

One of my new favourite places in Beijing is the fantastic Bookworm. This cafe/bar/library/bookshop is a place where you can have a cup of coffee surrounded by books, but best of all, you get to take the books home!

For someone like me who LOVES reading, this place is a true lifesaver, like a breathing hole in a box I was in. Until now, I've been either reading in Chinese (which I quite enjoy, but it still is much slower and more demanding, and I haven't been able to find many books that am that interested in), or stuck with reading the few (and expensive!!) English books available in bookshops.

But now, for a small annual fee, I get to choose from over 14.000 books and take them home to read.

After my first visit to Bookworm, I have been gobbling books down like someone who has been starving for a long time. Maybe I'll slow down in a while, but for now, I'm happy to have all these words to roll around in.

yum, yum!

Tour de Beijing

Finally I feel mobile again.

After 10 months in 'the mountain city' where motorbikes were the only reasonable two-wheeled option for transportation, I have joined the crowds of bicycle people here in Beijing.

The city is great for cycling, it's all flat and there are generous bicycle lanes in most areas. In theory, anyway.

Now I am no longer forced to sit in a taxi, stuck in the endless traffic, trying to stretch my neck to see how far we actually still are from the next intersection. No sir, no I simply whizz by on the bike, speeding away.

Sometimes it really works like this. At other times, I am faced with the reality where 5.000.000 other people are also on their bikes, hoping to speed by the traffic jams, just creating another one on the bicycle lane.

But the worst problem by far has nothing to do with traffic jams, but with the way people drive. Even if I trust myself on the bike, I trust absolutely nobody else on the road. The potentially most dangerous ones are the drivers in the cars, many of whom seem to have gotten their licences by bribing an officer rather than taking any test (or lessons, gor forbid!). These drivers are likely to take a short cut through the bike lane, make completely forbidden turns at intersections, break in the middle of the street with no warning...the list could go on for quite a while.

And the cyclists. Most people prefer to ride their bikes rather slowly, and nothing wrong with that. The problems start when some of the slowest cyclists always seem to be riding right in the middle of the lane, every now and then wobbling to one side. So when you have just decided to overtake on the left, the person on the slow bike will suddenly make a wobbly "fall" to the left. Then you fall behind again, observing for a while and they seem to be going straight enough, you gather your courage and make for the right side....*wobble* --- they lean to the right.

Of course, some local cyclist solve this problem by simple shouting as they ride:"Get out the waaaaaayyyy!!!!". No one seems to have bells though. Maybe not effective enough?

But all in all, being on a bike again makes me feel free again. And nothing beats a ride through the hutongs in the evening. And what really counts, Beijing has suddenly become much smaller.

Village People

I know that out there somewhere is that busy metropolis of Beijing that people so often think about when this city is talked of. Out there are the skyscrapers and busy subway stations and millions of people stuck in noisy, endless traffic jams.

But here, in my little hutong village, it all seems so far away. Of course I visit the world of the busy city at times, to go to work or shopping, but most of my time is spent here where there are no tall buildings in sight, and where the rhythm of life seems quite a few paces slower.

There is something that the people living in the hutong alleys seems to be experts at: taking it easy -- just enjoying their days and watching the world pass by. Don't get me wrong, many people work long hours, but they do it in a way, which allows them to enjoy the days as well. A little laughter here, a few minutes to chat to a passing friend, a good nap after lunch on the bench. And of course, the older people mostly spend their time just sitting in the alleys on little stools, playing mahjong, doing exercises and streching, chatting with each other, and simply observing the world as it goes on around them.

This is something I wish to learn from living here: getting rid of the stress that we have learned to place on ourselves, to just take every day as it comes and to take time to just sit and watch, read a book, talk to a neighbour.