noiamnotaladyboy

Time is Running Out..

2012-02-06T15:45:00.000+01:00

.. for Snowball

Yesterday I went to my mom's house to pay a visit to the dying one.

I got Snowball when I was nine years old (and I didn't even know about the Simpsons at that age, so I don't know where I came up with the name), though the past few years he's mostly been referred to as "the grumpy ol' fella" - and who can blame him, really - living in a household with three squealing women.

He has been healthy throughout his fourteen-year-old life.

A couple of weeks ago he disappeared, and after a couple of days mom found him hidden away in a room in the house. Mom took him to the vet and it turned out that he had suffered from a hemorrhage in the brain. He is blind and not eating on his own, so mom feeds him.

A little grumpy and frail

He is weak and skinny, but he is purring and seemingly not in too much of a pain. Mom doesn't have the heart to put him to sleep, and will probably put it off as long as it doesn't seem like he's suffering too much.

I don't blame her. It's easy to say "just put the old cat to sleep, and take it out of it's misery already" - but I think it's both a cultural thing - believing that animals too have a desire to live, and who are you to decide whether or not it should live? - and of course a selfish point of view: how can you kill a family member who's still purring and responding and showing it's personality?

She will do anything for that cat and has taken him to the vet several times the past few weeks.

Poor old fella

Edit: On Sunday February 12th mom came home from work and found Snowball all curled up and snug in my little sister's old bed, where he had finally found his peace.

Trip to London

2012-01-30T20:08:00.001+01:00

The past few weeks I've been studying for my much dreaded oral exam that I have on Friday. I even had a small melt-down yesterday - even though I'm pretty well prepared, and will be even better prepared by the time I actually have the exam.

But sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed, by the fact that all my hard work and effort throughout these past six months will be judged based on how I perform during an 15 minute oral exam. Six months away from home, away from my job and everyone I love - and the grades I got from Beijing University don't count for anything, other than that I passed - and now hundreds and hundreds of hours diligently studying is supposed to boil down into a 15-minute performance.

Oh, the pressure.

So then I cry.

And then I pick myself up and try to put everything in perspective, and even write myself a little note that I keep in my pocket at all times, basically saying that everything is going to be alright.

I'm smart and I've studied hard, still it doesn't mean I'm spared for a few pre-exam anxiety attacks now and then, haha!

(And any attempt to consolement I easily consider as patronizing, unless YOU've studied Chinese yourself - and are familiar with the horrendous curriculum I'm being tested in)

Anyway.

A couple of weeks ago Dag and I went to London to shop for makeup.

Dag, especially, loves shopping for makeup, as you can imagine.

And buy outrageously expensive food at the airport in Oslo.

I'm telling you, the prices in Norway make me embarrassed to be Norwegian and thinking that we even have tourists coming over here... Poor people. This baguette cost the same as a week's worth of groceries in China.

I remember the first time I met my speaking partner, Zhou, in Beijing, she was talking about how she wanted to study abroad in either the US and Norway, and I was like "don't come to Norway, it's too expensive!!", and I immediately got the feeling that one of my fellow Norwegian classmate that heard me saying it thought I was being rude. But I think it would have been even more rude not to warn her - considering that a bottle of water at 7/11 in Norway cost as much as four meals at the campus cafeteria at Beijing University. I almost feel ashamed. I feel bad for the Chinese students in Norway.

.. escaping a world of snow and ice..

England!

I've never been to England, so I was pretty excited.

Unfortunately I make a lousy tourist, practically uninterested in seeing any touristy sites.

I was there to shop for cosmetics!!

Spent way too many of these..

I was looking forward to get my hands on some cosmetic brands that we don't have in Norway, like Urban Decay and Too Faced - sure, I can buy it online, but it's much more fun to get my hands dirty, which I literally did, constantly having the back of my hands covered in swatches throughout the stay.

And they've got a Mac Pro store in London as well! That I didn't knew, and it was a big treat, since I got to buy a few items that they only sell at the Pro stores (- and I'm talking about Mac Cosmetics - not, Mac as in 'Apple', hello)

We stayed at a nice hotel with a bath tub! Hallelujah! So we went to Lush to stock up on bath bombs and bath melts, and-bath-whatever-they-had-that-I've-always-wanted-to-try-but-I-don't-have-a-bath-tub-stuff.

God, I wish I had a bath tub

At some fancy Indian place

I don't know this lady

Omg! Metallic-bronze colored

Ferrero Rocher pie thing!

Dag bought a couple of cupcakes,

but we didn't have time

to eat them before we got on the plane heading home,

and they'd been in his bag the entire day, lol

I bought so much stuff at Lush.

I'm a sucker for products and cosmetics in general, and you'll be able to sell me anything - just throw it at me, my arms are wide open!

I've fallen in love with this scrub

from Lush,

luckily we have Lush shops in Norway as well

- even though it's a lot cheaper in the UK!

I hate my new camera.

I don't enjoy taking photos anymore.

So I don't.

My idiot proof Nikon D60 died a couple of weeks before leaving Beijing, and I got a new one, D5100, which also is supposed to be for idiots. Seemingly I'm too much of an idiot, because I can't seem to just switch it on, set it on idiot-mode and immediately be able to take photos that I'm happy with.

In England I even had a dream that I was so depressed that I wasn't able to use my new camera and that I cried - I even think I cried a little IRL while dreaming.

I don't want to learn any technical stuff! I hate technical stuff! I just want to take nice photos. Bah

Making Mozartkugeln

2012-01-06T00:13:00.004+01:00

Dag and I figured we hadn't been binging enough during the Christmas holiday, so today we made our own Mozartkugeln.

Shaving the marzipan into thin layers

with a potato peeler

Soft nougat cut into small pieces

Wrapping pieces of nougat

in sheets of marzipan

.. rolling them into balls

- gotta work fast before it all melts in your hands

and start to get messy!

BTW; Dag is single and looking.

He's a bit short (next to me, anyway),

but aside from that I'd totally vouch for him!

*Pretending to help out*

Sprinkled with Dag's "secret ingredient"

The finished product:

Kidding!

The chocolate balls are still chillin' in Dag's fridge (*mozartkugeln, mozartkugeln, mozartkugeln!* - I love saying it with an exaggerated German accent!).

Celebrating on New Year's Eve 2011

2012-01-02T21:21:00.002+01:00

Wearing the necklace

I got from the party game

at Anette's

New year's eve I spent with a few close friends at Dag's house.

Making

Waldorf salad..

.. to go with the turkey!

Yum!

Vidar's best friend,

Jakob

My good friend,

Dag

Then "Japaner'n" arrived

- Asaki

Asaki has spent several months

working on a Japanese guide book on Scandinavian big cities,

doing research for the part about Oslo,

and could finally show off the fruits

of her labor; Dag even contributed with

a few photos for the book

Wictoria showing how Norwegians

are crazy about barbecuing in the parks

in the summer

*Sigh* I know some of the next photos will cause my mom to worry, since she herself does not consume alcohol and insist that it doesn't take more than just smelling a glass of alcohol-containing beverage to get you drunk and stupid.

I'm a very responsible drinker, ma!

Hei, mamma!

And for desert:

chocolate fondant with

vanilla ice cream

and berries!

A few minutes before midnight we went up on the roof:

Japaner'n was given something sparking with fire,

so she was kept entertained for a several minutes

.. who am I kidding,

we were all kept entertained for several minutes

After welcoming the new year we went back in and drank even more responsibly.

And then Vidar and I walked hand-in-hand for one hour in the snow and got home by 4 am.

Happy New Year!

Pinnekjøttlag & Blinged-Up Nike Shoes

2012-01-02T12:30:00.000+01:00

Christmas is over and here's a few photos from the past week.

Chocolate-covered balls of marzipan

In between Christmas-binging

I made several batches of

vegetable soup

We went to my best friend Anette's house for pinnekjøttlag - "stick meat"; salted and dried lamb ribs that are steam boiled over birch sticks in a pot, and served with potatoes, mashed rutabaga, sauerkraut, sausage, beer and aquavit.

Daniel and Latif

Linn, who's just gotten back

from a semester studying in

Ghana

Anette and Thomas' two kids

We played this fun party game where everyone attending the party had brought a gift each - everyone was supposed to bring something they'd received for Christmas and didn't like.

Then, using two dices, all of the gifts were divided among the participants, and then by a certain time we had to battle for the gifts still using the dices and set numbers, and if you had any gifts when the time ran out, they were yours!

A really funny game. Getting so competitive over stuff that you knew were other people's "trash".

Bah, makes us sound so ungrateful, haha!

Joachim testing out

the vomit-green

nail varnish I got

from my sister

Daniel holding the necklace

Linn won, but then gave to me!

I even wore it on new years eve!

One of the cats suffer from

anxiety

- can you tell?

Last week my dad also came over together with my sister and her boyfriend.

Christer and Veronika

We had the traditional Christmas roasted pork ribs, again.

I made carrot cake!

LOL,

my 57-year-old dad's blinged-up

"Nike" shoes 'with'

VELCRO

Celebrating Christmas

2011-12-26T11:13:00.000+01:00

This year I've celebrated a highly traditional Christmas together with Vidar and his family.

On December 23rd we went to his mother's house and had the traditional Christmas rice porridge for lunch - consumed with a healthy sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar, a big dollop of butter in the middle and a glass of 'husholdningssaft', also known as "household juice" (only to google translate, and not the rest of the world, of course).

According to tradition, hidden inside the big pot of porridge is one single blanched almond, and the one who finds the almond inside the porridge on their plate receives a prize, usually marzipan in the shape of a pig.

Marzipan-pig

Butter-crisis?

What butter crisis?

It was so embarrassing

being approached by foreign friends

when still in China

who had heard about the

"big butter crisis in Norway"

Forget about world hunger

and war

Norway has no butter!

The entire house had been painstakingly

decorated in years worth of

accumulated Christmas decoration,

including decoration

made by Vidar and his brother

when they were kids

Thanks to my x-ray vision,

I found the almond

But since Vidar and I are living together now,

I have to share my marzipan-pig,

hmpf

Cuddling with Linus

Decorating the traditional,

and picture perfect,

spruce tree

'Rebel'

Old Christmas decoration

Lotte and her man Thomas stopped by

Jolin sniffing the finished tree

- maybe getting a whiff of the heart-shaped

gingerbread

Inger-Lise pouring the traditional

Scandinavian booze,

aquavit

I had made "delfiakake"!

Delfiakake is a traditional Christmas confectionary cake

made of coconut fat and chocolate,

beaten egg and sugar, sweet biscuit, marzipan,

walnuts and, ehr, 'geletopper'

Very unhealthy and very tasty!

On the morning of December 24th, Vidar and I got up early and watched all of the traditional Christmas shows on TV. And I got to open a present!

Body butter from the Body Shop,

hallelujah!

Then it was time to get ready and look presentable before meeting up with Vidar's mom at the cemetery to say 'hello' to some relatives.

Family reunion

Ready for Christmas dinner!

Traditional roasted Christmas pork ribs

Vidar's dad

and Christmas dinner..

.. roasted pork ribs, medister sausage, pork patties,

sauerkraut and lingonberry jam

Vidar's brother Lars

Cloudberries with whipped cream

for dessert

"Coffee and cakes"

Then we opened a bunch of Christmas presents and went home.

Seeing Mom and Getting My Junk Back

2011-12-23T00:25:00.003+01:00

Snowball,

the 14-year-old

Vidar and I went to my godforsaken hometown today, to see my mom and kid sister, and to get some of my stuff that I've kept stored at my mom's house while living in China.

Veronika,

the 17-year-old

together with

Snowball,

the grumpy 14-year-old

Me, sister, mom, cat

Mom has a lot of stuff growing in the living room window

Chili, mint and aloe vera - oh my!

Snowball,

taking a breather from all the crazy women

Godforsaken.

Mom-food

Mom-Christmas rice cream with

strawberry/currant sauce

My sister's hair is so long

I can't help but wanting to comb

and braid it

Enormous persimmon

Cheezy self-playing-music-Christmas-lighting

.. wanting to come back in,

but doesn't get any attention

.. starts yelling

Kid sister on the phone with boyfriend,

mother a little bit too clingy

Getting some of my stuff back was like going shopping! And like seeing old friends, especially my makeup and nail polishes.

75 bottles of nail polish on the ground..

Vidar's best friend Jakob,

tempted to nick one of the sparkly ones

Home at Last

2011-12-21T19:44:00.000+01:00

Finally!

Back in Norway.

Back in Oslo.

Vidar and fresh air

.. and Norwegian supermarkets. Where I finally can get my avocados. Ironically enough

.. a new home

.. together with my man!

.. preparing for Christmas

Jolin the doggie

- which I get to celebrate Christmas with!

Vidar's momma stopping by

I'm a happy camper!

Final Supper & Going Home

2011-12-21T16:50:00.000+01:00

Sad about going home?

Ich don't think so!

On Saturday Lotte and I had a farewell dinner together with two Japanese friends, Ayano and Natsuki.

It's been a great semester in Beijing, but I suspect that those of my fellow Norwegian class mates who are single and unloved have enjoyed it a bit more. Lotte and I have both been counting the days until we could return to our loved ones. Still that doesn't mean we haven't enjoyed our time in China!

School has, as mentioned, been hard and demanding, but at least I feel that I've got my money's (and time's) worth.

As a Norwegian student in China you're rich, so we've enjoyed a fairly "luxurious" lifestyle, living in a nice apartment and being able to go out whenever we had the time.

But now it's finally time to go home!

At my favourite restaurant in Beijing

- a Thai all-you-can-eat-and-drink-for-48-kuai joint

Ayano

Goodbye, Chinese beer!

(It's QINGDAO, not tsingtao, argh Wade Giles..)

Natsuki

Thailandsk tress-is, haha

- strawberry, pineapple and taro

Ueh, taro flavoured ice cream

Being at the Thai restaurant

was like being at my mom's house:

all decoration for every kind of festivity

out at all time during the entire year

Yum, yum, YUM

- LOVE this restaurant!

Awesome Tom Yum Goong, Som Tam and Green Curry!

I could eat here every day!

The Thai chef and I

- he's been living in China for the past six years

No wonder I get mistaken for a ladyboy whenever I'm in Thailand

- LOOK AT THE SIZE DIFFERENCE!!

God, I'm more manly than Thai men are

Early Sunday morning Lotte and I were super hyped about going home!

So, at 8 am our sweet landlord arrived, we returned our keys, said our goodbyes and went to the airport.

Lol, we arrived at the airport five and a half hours before our scheduled flight.

But the time flew and suddenly we were boarding.

However, despite everything having gone so smoothly, something was wrong with the aircraft and we had to wait onboard for two hours before we could take off.

And then awaited 9 slow hours before we got to Stockholm.

Both Lotte and I were being slowly driven mad after a while.

And let me tell you, the food they serve at Air China, suck, suck, SUCK!!

I was so hungry and the first meal we got after almost waiting for four hours was pretty disgusting - the "side dish" even suspiciously reminded of cat food (though I don't think most cat owners would even serve that to their cat), I even gagged a little. And I eat everything.

But I was so hungry, I wolfed most of it down.

Then, for our final "meal" almost four hours later we got some super dry "sandwich" and I was like "this cheese doesn't taste of anything" *Eats the entire thing*, and then Lotte was like "that's not cheese, it's ham!" - I mean, when it's next to impossible to distinguish cheese from ham, then it must suck.

Luckily we were given some crackers and some cream cheese, which we apparently were supposed to spread on using a spoon, so we survived.

Still, the worst food I've had since leaving Norway six months ago.

Goodbye China!

My Speech about Indifferent Chinese People

2011-12-21T07:34:00.000+01:00

This is a video I taped in the starting phase of practicing my speech for the final presentation in yuedu class, so there's a few charming mistakes and hesitation. (You try speaking for ten minutes straight in Chinese!)

Below I've added the speech in writing with a very rough translation.

大家好

Hi, everyone

今天我的题目是跟中国文化有关系的，但是更突出得可能是跟中国社会还应该解决的问题有关系的一个事情。

My topic today is related to Chinese culture, but perhaps even more prominently it's related to a matter connected to problems in China's society that is still in need of being solved.

为了学习汉语，我来到北京。

I came to Beijing in order to study Chinese.

因为是我第一次在中国，我对中国社会和中国人的想法的了解还不多。

Since it was my first time in China, my understanding towards Chinese society and the mentality of Chinese people still wasn't that vast.

不过，不久以后中国人留给我的印象是，中国人爱聊天儿，开玩笑，而且，不怕在路上嚷嚷地吵架。

However, soon the impression that Chinese people left me was that they love to chat, crack jokes, and they're certainly not afraid of having loud arguments in the middle of the street.

我很享受北京的热闹和中国人有时候比较暴躁的性情和脾气。

I truly enjoy the "chaos" of Beijing, and the sometimes bad temper of Chinese people.

中国人很喜欢看热闹儿，相比之下在路上发生的意外会吸引很多人的注意。

Chinese people love to watch the commotion, particulary when something unexpected occurs in the streets, it will really attract a lot of people's attention.

但是，在路上发生的一种事情却不寻常地会导致中国人的忽视。

However, a certain kind of "commotion" in the streets will strangely enough cause the ignoration of Chinese people.

来到中国两，三个星期以后，我已经遇到了我在中国的最难忘的经验。

Two, three weeks after arriving in China, I already encountered what I consider to be my most memorable "experience" in China.

当然，那时侯对我已经是一个难忘的经验，但是后来我会发现跟中国社会有关系的事情，让那个经验更难忘。

Of course, at that time it already felt like a memorable experience, but what I would discover later about the Chinese society would cause that particulary matter to become even more memorable.

一天，刚下课以后，我跟我的同屋骑自行车回家。

One day, having just finished class, me and my room mate were riding our bikes home.

她在我的前面骑着，但是突然停了。

She was riding in front of me, but suddenly she stopped.

”怎么了? 你把什么在路上丢了吗?”，我莫名其妙地问她。

"What's going on? Did you drop something?" I asked her.

她只说 ”我们应该帮她”。

But she just said "We should help her"

在道路的对面有一个开机动车的女人，刚跌倒了，现在伏在地上。

Across the street a lady driving an electrical moped had just fallen down, and she was now lying on the ground.

但是连一个人也没有管她，虽然在道路有很多人。

But no one seemed to care about her, even tough the street was full of people.

他们都只是匆忙地过去。

They all just busily hurried past.

我们俩赶忙地过了道路为了帮她的时候我在想着，”在这儿这么多人，为什么没有一个人帮她? 为什么需要我们两个外国人才管她?”

When we hurriedly crossed the street to help the lady, I thought to myself "There's so many people here, why is no one helping that woman? Why does it take us two foreigners before she gets any assistance?"

”您怎么样，受伤了吗?” 我们担心地问她。

"How are you, did you get hurt?" We worriedly asked her.

看到她的脸很明显她的心里一惊，因为她差一点不能说话，衣上都是泥土，她的手和腿都蹭破了皮，流着一些血。

Seeing her face it was clear she was in shock, because she could hardly utter a word, her clothes was covered in dirt, and her hands and legs had bleeding scratchmarks.

好在她伤势不重。

Luckily her injuries wasn't that serious.

我还记得我和我的同屋讨论那个事情，觉得很奇怪因为没有人帮她。

I still remember discussing that matter with my room mate, thinking that it was very strange that no one helped her.

”也许是一个偶然吧” 我只好这么安慰自己了，但是这个事情让我开始对中国的社会有疑问。

"It was probably just a coincidence", I had no choice but to console myself in this way, but this matter would cause me to start having doubts about China's society.

我知道不能一概而论，不过说来惭愧，这样的经验不由得让我认为中国人没有人道。

I know I can't generalize,but shamefully I have to say that experiences like this would unavoidably cause me to think that Chinese people didn't have any sympathy.

三个月以后我看了在报纸上写的一篇文章说到一个二岁的女孩子在广东让两辆汽车给撞了。

Three months later I read an article in the newspaper about a two-year-old girl in Guangdong province that had been run over by two vehicles.

还有个录像表露有好几个人走过她，但是没有一个人帮她。

There was also a video tape showing how so many people walked past her, but no one helped her.

还是小孩子哪！

And she was just a child!

后来我听说大概十年以前在中国有个老女人跌倒了，然后有一个人帮她，那个女人而说是那个帮她的人的不是，所以他必须付很多钱给她。

Later I heard about how approximately ten years ago in China this elderly lady had fallen down and a person helped her, however the old lady wound up blaming the person helping her, so that he was forced to pay her a lot of money.

本来是想帮一个人，结果是遭到嗔怪。

Your original wish was to help a person, but the result is you receive the blame.

好像中国人不愿意帮别人因为怕会受到不利的后果。

It seems like Chinese people are not willing to help other people, in fear of suffering unfavourable consequences.

但是那个在广东的故事，这是小朋友呢，怎么说也应该帮她！

But the story in Guangdong province, that was only a young child, no matter what, someone should have helped her!

看起来中国人宁可有一个小孩子会死，也不会帮急需帮助的人。

It looks like even if a child would die, Chinese people still won't help a person in need.

想到这样的事情让我很痛苦。

Thinking about this would make me really troubled.

我知道中国很大，中国人非常多。

I know China is very big and that there's so many Chinese people.

我听说在中国看病难，看病贵，中国人大多数好像也没有医疗保险，可能会让遭到失事的人没命地找个替死鬼。

I've also heard that getting medical care in China is both hard to come by and expensive, and that most Chinese people don't have medical insurance. This might cause people in a pickle to desperately search for a scapegoat to give the blame.

我知道不是只是中国有这样的问题。

I know it's not just China that has problems like this.

但是，将来中国会越来越强大，还有可能会变成世界上最显要的国家。

But, in the future China will only grow stronger, and also might turn into the most influential and powerful nation in the world.

但是，中国还有很多非常严重的社会问题急需解决.

However, the Chinese society still have a lot of serious problems in great need of being solved.

谢谢

Thank you

Last Day at School in Beijing

2011-12-19T18:43:00.000+01:00

A couple of days left in Beijing,

suitcase already packed

Last Friday we had our last day at school.

The class with smart Norwegians who get the competent Yuedu-teacher..

.. and the rest of us

Who seemingly wound up with the sparable 24-year-old secretary working

at the administration office

Nah, I'm sure she's a completely competent

language teacher,

just not very good at showing it

For our final exam in Yuedu class, she was so worried about saving her own face, considering she thinks we're the most stupid students ever, that she gave us the test beforehand. Yeah.

We had the final exam when it was a little over a week left of the semester, so she desperately tried to find something to fill the rest of the time. It felt just like being back in junior high shool when you spend the final week doing your own kind of chosen project, and you have to give a presentation at the end.

Yuedu is a reading class. A class where you're supposed to read challenging texts, and figure out how to get a basic understanding of it, without necessarily knowing every character or vocabulary.

So when she presented this "project" and pointed out how important the powerpoint presentation was - "lots of pictures, your fellow students won't understand what you're talking about, anyway.." - I felt the urge to boycott the entire thing.

But when she threatened to not give me any end grade, despite the fact that I had participated at all, and aced two out of three previous exams in that class, and despite the fact that the end grade technically had already been set, I didn't have any other choice than to give the lady what she wanted.

So, as mentioned in the last blog post, I adapted my qualification essay for the next semester, and just presented that instead, and added some stupid photos from google so that she'd get her powerpoint presentation.

I was the last one in our class to give a presentation, on the final day even, due to my stubbornness.

Getting ready to give the presentation

.. haven't started yet. I don't give presentations

with my arms crossed, duh

The three photos above belongs to Lotte

I taped my self practising the "speech" that morning before going to school, so for the next blogpost I'll add a video of that, together with the speech and a translation of it. It's a pretty good speech, 'cause I'm fairly smart.

Then we received our diplomas and suddenly the semester at Beijing University was over.

Lotte

After the final class was over, Lotte and I walked around on campus and took some photos.

It was SO freaking cold!!

Then, we found some cats

.. tried to get some heat from 'em

"You're a handsome cat"

"What are you talking about, my girlfriend's right here,

you'll get me into trouble!"

"What did she say?"

- "Uhm, nothing, give me a kiss baby"

Cute girl wanting

to pet the cats, but being a

yittle scared..

At the big lake at school, crazy people were stepping out on the ice, even though most of the lake hadn't even frozen. I know what I said about helping people in need, but if you go through the ice, you're on your own!

Remember the first day Lotte and I went to check out the campus when we first arrived back in July?

I took these couple of photos of some guys working on a big building at school:

Well, it finished weeks ago. It's really crazy how fast stuff get built in this city. I guess it's no wonder when there's so many people arriving from rural areas, desperate for a job and willing to work 24/7.

Oh, I'm going to miss Xiabu xiabu!

At this joint you get a pot of soup of your choice in front of you, and then you order a bunch of vegetables and some meat and boil it yourself. Truly a great treat after being out in the icy, windy Beijing cold!

Indifferent Chinese People

2011-12-14T08:56:00.002+01:00

(Zhou has nothing to do with this rant,

she was just correcting my paper)

Today I met up with my speaking partner, Zhou, getting her to help me take a look at my qualification assignment for the exam we're having back home next semester. It's due in mid January, but I'd like to finish it before I leave China on Sunday.

The topic is "My most memorable experience in China", and I wound up writing about how the state of today's society in China (in one of many ways) forces Chinese people to indifference.

Serious stuff, but hey, I figured since I'm going home soon anyway, there's no point for them throwing me out for being critical of the Chinese government.

The essay was only supposed to be approximately

1000 characters, so it was very

limited how in-depth I could go anyway

Zhou proof reading

my essay

Since I have to give a final presentation for my yuedu class

on Friday, I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone

and just perform my essay and show some graphic images

in honor of my beloved Yuedu teacher

One of the first few weeks in China, Lotte and I were riding our bikes home from school one day.

Right at the spot not too far from our house where you have to cross the train tracks, a lady driving a motor bike had just fallen flat on her face and was laying in the middle of the lane, in the opposite direction of where we were heading.

We immediately parked our bikes without locking them and rushed across the street. The time it took us to get off our bikes and cross the street at least 20 people had passed her; in trucks, in cars, on motor bikes or riding bisycles – they just past her, making a little turn to get past.

She was clearly in shock, still sitting in the middle of the street, stressing to find out if her cell phone was alright. She was all dusty and had bruises and bleeding scratch marks full of dirt. We asked her if she was okay and if she needed to go to the hospital. We tried to clean out the scratches on her hands and knees a bit with some water from our bottles, and she was very shaky and wailed from pain in her leg when we helped her get back up, but she assured us she was alright and thanked us profoundly.

Still no one else had stopped to ask if they could be of any assistance.

That day I tried to console myself, telling myself that if we hadn’t stopped, surely someone else would have stopped seconds later. Right?

Then a few months later I read in a Norwegian newspaper online about this 2-year-old girl from Guangdong Province, who'd been run over twice, and that nearly 20 people passed by, completely ignoring her.

(Not my photo)

I even watched the very graphic video, but still my first reaction was a kind of amazed denial.

I'd been feeling for a long time that whenever China was being brought up in Norwegian media, or Western media perhaps, most of the time it seemingly was to point out something worth ridicule or condescending criticism about Chinese people or Chinese culture, either telling about how they would fit 64 small school children into a van in order to drive them to school, or how Chinese people skin dogs alive in order to make winter coats, portraying Chinese people like uneducated, uncivilized savages.

Yeah, I guess I felt somewhat protective, wanting to defend Chinese people and their ways in a kind of a social anthropological way, I don't know.

Naturally I was appalled by this horrific incident, yet somehow I was still desperate for someone to confirm that Western news seemed to be slightly unfairly critical of China, seemingly only reporting when something was worth critisism or ridicule.
I was also desperate for some kind of explanation that would justify this despicable inhumanity.

I discussed it with Lotte.

But she just simply said, ”this is China, every man for himself” – as we earlier had made jokes about, when talking about jostling in the queue at the cafeteria at school, or on the Beijing subway.

Surely this couldn’t be used in this way? Could Chinese people really be that apathetic, so indifferent and heartless?

I felt so frustrated and was eager to ask my teacher about it the next day at school.

(Lol, the teachers at school must be so used to the foreign students considering them to be omniscient beings, constantly bombarding them with questions about issues we come across as foreigners living in China).

Right after a small break in between classes I called for the teacher's attention and said ”Teacher, I have a question which is kind of off-topic, but it is really important for me and my understanding of Chinese culture and society”, and the entire class fell silent. I suddently felt nervous, because I had so much I wanted to say, but so limited ways of expressing myself (in Chinese).

I explained about the story about the 2-year-old, which both she and most of my fellow class mates had heard about, and I was almost pleading for an explanation for how so many people could ignore a fellow human being so desperately in need of help like that.

Her face turned very serious and admitted that this was a problem in China’s society. Then she told us about a story from around ten years ago, where this lady had gotten in an accident, and the good samaritan that helped her to the hospital suddenly got all the blame for the woman's injuries and wound up having to pay a lot of money. After that the so-called peng yu effect spread,
resulting in people not being willing to help in fear of themselves getting pulled into trouble.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I thought this was only a myth often directed towards the US and Americans, seemingly being very fond of suing everyone at any possible chance; suing the man giving you life-saving CPR because he unfortunately broke a couple of your ribs performing the deed.

Besides, she was only a baby!

(Off topic - yet on topic, yet a complete other topic at the same time: in the video above, the lady picking up garbage that finally comes to young Yue Yuem's "rescue", pulls her up in a very violent manner, like she wants the kid to somehow stand up straight or something - after being run over be two trucks, that makes me think "first seriously injured, now most definitely paralyzed for life". God, Chinese people need to learn basic first aid.. )

When I rode my bike home from school that day, my heart was filled with sadness.

Sadness and desperation for a society that could possibly be this apathetic and indifferent. How could someone refrain from helping a little baby in fear of themselves getting in trouble? What has this world come to? I could never live with myself after that if it was me.

Furthermore, what kind of society is this where people take advantage of the goodness of people’s hearts and try to scam them when helping them?

Later I learned that getting medical treatment in China is both hard to come by and expensive. Very few Chinese people have medical insurance, so if they get in an accident they would need to pay for the expenses out of their own pockets. This causes people in a pickle to desperately point out a scapegoat. Can't blame 'em, really.

China will only grow bigger and stronger, being one of the most influential and powerful nations in the world. But, boy, do the Chinese government have their work cut out for them, finding solutions for prominent problems in Chinese society, so that Chinese people won't be forced to put their inner "moral guidelines" aside, in order to survive.

Christmas Table at The St. Regis Beijing

2011-12-03T00:52:00.001+01:00

Christmas table, or "julebord", is a very near and dear tradition among Norwegians.

This is the annual event where you usually get together with your colleagues binge on food and get really drunk and stupid.

This year other fellow Norwegians in Beijing and I had the opportunity to attend the Christmas table hosted by "Club Norway" at St. Regis Hotel.

At 400 Yuan per person, most of the Norwegian students thought it was too expensive, considering that we're in China. But considering the location and the FOOD, I thought it was well worth it. Normally even having brunch at this hotel costs more than 500 Yuan, and at the Christmas table they even served imported traditional Norwegian booze, "aquavit", and traditional Norwegian christmas food like pinnekjøtt ("stick meat" - dried and smoked lamb/mutton cutlets), ribbe (roasted pork belly), turkey, pickled herring , raw reindeer meat, smoked salmon etc, etc. They also had a separate pastry room with traditional Norwegian Christmas dessert and other traditional dessert like riskrem (rice cream), tilslørte bondepiker ("veiled peasant girls"), marzipan cake, cheese cake, and so on. As much beer and wine as you wanted was also included.

Awesomeness.

Lotte

Thea

Of course it turned out to be a charity dinner, collecting donations for kids in Mongolia, filled with "important" business people.

I think among most of the students from the University of Oslo, not being used to this "oh, we're so rich, lets have spend a bunch of money at these charity events so that we can feel better and also so that other people can see how god-hearted we are"-spirit, took turn in rolling our eyes a few times during the evening.

This might seem overly critical, it's just that we're not used to attending fancy charity events like these, and the whole "spend 20 000 Yuan on auction for a dinner for eight at the best restaurant in Beijing to buy coal for the poor kids in Mongolia"-thing seem a little.. American?

Oh, God, and some of the "important business people" that was there were so boring. People were ceremonially handing out business card left and right, and I could see in the corner of my eye classmates receiving them, and I could practically hear them thinking "what the hell am I supposed to do with this?".

Oh, and the mingling. Snooze, snooze, magooze. These people don't know how to talk with people without reciting their entire resumé, making me want to repeatedly bang my head against the table. Luckily I had my friends there.

Soon everyone got too drunk to be bothered to try to seem smart and successful, and of course started to show their true colors.

Ugh, I hate that. I hate people who (think they) are "smart and successful" when sober, turn into complete asses when they're drunk. It's like they've got so much suppressed idiocity bottled up inside from always keeping an appearance that they completely switch personalities when they're drunk. Ugh.

I'm mean and crazy both sober and drunk, at least there's no surprises.

Like this guy, for instance. Probably think he's a big shot with and up and coming future, being a trainee at the embassy and everything, but then turning into a complete fool when he's drunk.

Get a grip! (- and not of my ass, I'll kick you in the face). Being drunk is no excuse for acting like an idiot.

This lovely photo series was shot by Lotte.

Dinner at the Embassy & Speech Contest at Beijing University

2011-11-30T23:17:00.001+01:00

Yay, Beijing subway during rush hour

Normally I just ride my bike everywhere and stay close to the comfort zone of Liudaokou/Wudaokou area.

Once in a blue moon I have to move out of this comfort zone and go to other parts of town, and I tell you, I'm sure glad I'm not depending on riding the subway everyday - especially not during rush hour.

It's like a zoo!

China is truly a dog-eat-dog (ehr, or was it man it dog?) society, and if you want to go somewhere, you gotta hustle (seemingly like an American football player)! When you need to get off at your stop, make sure to be close to the exit, or else you won't be able to get off at all. And people getting on sure won't wait for people to get off, so you really gotta hustle your way out. Naturally, I've actually gotten pretty used to this by now, being fairly able to adapt to tough environments that requires, ehr, hustling.

Hopefully I'll be able to quickly acclimatize once I get home, or else I won't be very popular when commuting.

On Wednesday all of the Norwegian students studying in Beijing were invited to a fancy dinner at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Sanlitun.

Luckily I'd brought reinforcements, also known as Isak, and somehow he was magically able to clear some room on the subway, despite it being in the middle of rush hour. (And I know it couldn't have been me, because I had taken a shower that day).

I love Isak

Hey, my nail polish matched

the subway thingamajig!

Isak and Christian

Haha, we've all been living in

communist China

for too long

Lottis

When we arrived at the embassy, I immediately felt out of place.

The first thing I did when I got through the door was clasp my hands and exlaim "Right, so where's the free booze?", not realizing that the two people right in front of me was in fact the embassador and his wife waiting to greet their arriving guests. It might sound like a cliché, but if you know me you know it's plausible.

I mean, I'm a simple girl with a very big (and loud) mouth - at fancy shindigs like this, I feel so stupid and unsophisticated. I get the urge to say whatever is completely inappropriate in any given situation, and the problem is that I act on those urges most of the time.

Anyway, a lot of important people in suits were there and a lot of mingling was expected. Ugh, mingling.

Silje

(Found the free booze, btw)

But, oh, the food!

It was super awesome.

- all a Norwegian student after five months away

from home could wish for

- like lasagna,

which after all seems to be

our staple food,

haha

Thea

Lurch from the Adams family's

Chinese relative

So cute!

Klara

The Chinese "Silje"

Also invited to the dinner was a class of Chinese students studying Norwegian. They had only been studying for three months, but I tell you, the language skills they'd accumulated after such short time was really impressive! They were so sweet, and each and every one of them introduced themselves with a "traditional" Norwegian name and a Norwegian "hometown".

And Vidar, you've got fierce competition!

My 18-year-old Chinese "Vidar" - from "Sandefjord"

(Maybe a little too young for me)

They performed a Swedish folk song called "Who Can Sail Without Wind?" with Norwegian and Chinese lyrics. It was really great.

Flan!

Jell-O!

(They sure knew what to serve the

Norwegian students, haha)

Kai

Normally the party aint supposed to be over until the fat lady sings, but in lack of any fat ladies I kind of took the hint when they sadly took away my wine glass..

.. and Christian started to play with the table decorations.

But it had been a great evening!

The pin that I got at the embassy

On December first

I got a small bar of Norwegian

milk chocolate

in my advent calender

provided by Dag

Waa, only two weeks left of this semester

Thank God.

I'm getting tired

The big speech contest was held on Thursday at one of the fancy hotels on campus (lol, there's a hotel on campus).

The Norwegians were greatly representing with five contestants out of around twenty in total.

Isak's speech was super awesome.

He's such a character and a great performer, and his speech about his "ideal family" (where it's necessary to beat the kids and marry Danish women because they're the most obedient, naturally) inspired by Mao Zedung, Kim Il Sung and Josef Stalin, left the judges (and the rest of the audience) in knots laughing.

I could watch him perform his speech all day long.

Gianna and I

The speech contest lasted for three hours

- luckily I'd brought lunch

Lotte was also up there, giving a speech about how it's like studying foreign languages and about her dream for the future.

She was so charming and charismatic, and I was so proud to see her up there!

I was also very happy about not performing any speech myself, because there was a lot of people watching.

Oddly enough, and to what seemed to cause a great deal of confusion among the people watching, the person who won the competition out of all of the contestants was a girl that had left the least impression among the audience. I still am not sure what her speech was about.

I realize that of course the content is very important when giving a speech - but you'd think the performance itself, and being able to connect with the audience too should be an important factor. After all, it's a speech contest, not a write and essay, memorize it and say it out loud-contest.. ?

Anyway, what a load of bull crap.

The girl who won was from Yale, and I guess it's more important to maintain the guanxi - "relationships", a central idea in Chinese society - between ivy league institutions, rather than letting someone who actually deserve it win, but hey, we're in China!

And this, ladies and gentleman, was the last photo I was able to take with my beloved (and very outdated) Nikon D60 that's been with me through thick and thin for these past almost three years.

Suddenly it died on me after taking that photos, and I think reviving it will cost more than it's current worth, sadly.

We've been through so much together, and I've been a pretty abusive owner - dragging it along with me everywhere, juggling three lenses, taking it to the beach, to the US, to Japan, to Thailand, to China.

It was my first (and only camera), and it's been a real champ - enduring every kind of abuse imaginable, except for being dropped on the floor.

It has been used to take 99% of the photos on this blog.

And now I don't have a camera anymore. Very sad!

Dear camera, you will be missed. May you now get some much deserved rest.

Being Abused in China (Gua Sha & Fire Cupping)

2011-11-28T13:33:00.001+01:00

One of the things I'll miss the most about living in Beijing will be to be able to afford luxuries like frequently going out to eat and drink, and getting a massage from time to time.

There's a massage place right nearby the place I live that is awesome.

129 Kuai (approx. 115 NOK) for a two-hour massage: one hour foot massage and one hour oil body massage. I've been there a few times, and always kind of let them do their routine on me, not giving them any "special requests" (ay, this is kind of heading the wrong way, quick, get to the point). The massage is of good quality, but I've felt frustrated that they didn't work enough on my problem areas (shoulders, SHOULDERS!!), but I didn't want to be a troublesome costumer (unlike when I'm in a restaurant - God knows I've probably consumed my fair share of waiter-saliva and pubic hair).

The other they, having just finished a hellish week of exams, I'd finally manned up to go and request massage for specified areas (still shoulders). They of course took it as a given, and I felt really stupid for not having done it a long time ago.

The girl massaging me was so funny, and we chatted about how complicated Chinese women are in relationships and how abusive they are towards their boyfriends ("you mean, Norwegian girls don't hit their boyfriends??"). Chinese girls are really feisty. And bad tempered. Numerous times I've seen Chinese boyfriends receiving lash-outs in public, even having their girlfriends slapping them, pull their hair and pinching them. One of my class mates even saw a girl spitting on her boyfriend.

Lol. Feisty.

If physically abusing the one you love is considered as normal, than something is seriously wrong, I think. I'm glad I don't have a Chinese girlfriend, even though some of them are pretty hot!

Speaking of abuse.

As the girl was massaging my aching shoulders she convinced me to try Gua Sha, an ancient Chinese traditional medical treatment, which literally means "to scrape away fever".

It's supposed to treat various conditions as fever (as the name itself indicates), muscle injuries, stiffness, pain etc. by applying pressured strokes over oiled skin with a ceramic device with a smooth edge, causing a rash which color is said to correlate with the "severity of your state". (I'm obviously dying)

It's seemingly commonly used to treat fever in China, and in 2001 it was even made a move called "The Treatment" about a Chinese boy in the US that was taken away from his family there because of a confusion of child abuse when the gua sha marks was discovered on his body.

But it does not hurt at all.

Afterwards you're supposed to feel all relieved, and stuff.

What did hurt, however, was what happened next.

When I thought we were done, she suddenly pulled out a big tong that she used to hold a ball of cotton, dipped in some flammable liquid before she lit it on fire, and I was like "What are you doing with that?!", upon which she said "It'll only hurt for the first few minutes, DON'T LOOK, PUT YOU HEAD BACK DOWN!", and I was like "Oh, I don't want to die..".

Soon enough I realized that she was doing the fire cupping thing, which I had read about, that is supposed to promote healing by mobilizing blood flow, where she used the flame to create vacuum inside a bunch of glass cups that she put on my body.

AUCH! I had 23 of them on me, every one of them violently sucking in any excess skin on my back. I've talked to other classmates who've had it done, and many of them said they didn't think it hurt, and that they rather worried that the glass cups would fall off. Mine were not in the risk of falling off, that's for sure.

Sleeping on my back that night wasn't very comfortable, having 23 bruises. I do think it might have some effect (at least mentally, if not anything else), if you do this regularly. It was interesting to try it at least once, and I don't have any special need to do it again.

Besides, it left me looking horrible.

The other day a long sought after care package from Dag arrived in the mail.

"... repacked by Beijing Post Office"

I've heard that the post office in China open any package that goes in or out of the country: not only for what might be considered as "normal" security measures, but also to check for what can be used to spread, oh I don't know, ideas. For example, if you've wrapped something in newspaper, they'll take that away and re-wrap it for you - the same goes for packages heading out of China.

Don't regard any of this as a fact, tough, I might be way off.

The care package from Dag was filled with carefully individually wrapped belated birthday gifts - none of them seemed to be opened by the Beijing Post Office, haha!

I was so happy! Dag sure is a great friend.

I've saved all of the gifts for December, when I'll be opening one every other day until I go home the 18th.

Except for one gift that I wasn't able to save:

Yay, my fuchsia hot-pink mac lipstick!

Reunited at last!

I gave the one I had to mom last summer,

thinking that I'd easily be able to replace it,

which turned out to be impossible

But Dag tracked it down for me!

It was one of the biggest colors

for the past summer

- that's exactly why I'll be wearing it all winter!

Speaking of cosmetic products.

Recently I splurged on a couple of polishes from OPI (from the Miss Universe 2011 collection, if you're interested).

And let me tell you, OPI is way overpriced and the quality is not any better that most of the 1 dollar nail polishes I own, but sometimes it's worth the splurge because many of their polishes are so unique.

"Crown me already" is packed with

the same glitter in three different sizes

that makes your nails look like

disco balls!

"Swimsuit... nailed it!"

Blue foil

- love, love, love this!

One of the "Black car"-drivers

(pirate taxi) outside our building

and yours truly

Yesterday Lotte and I went to the China Science and Technology Museum

We took a regular cab

Inside the gigantic museum we spent a few hours pushing all buttons and pulling every handle we could find, together with all of the other kids.

And I got to design my own roller-coaster and then "ride" it in a simulator!

(Sounds way more cool than it actually was)

Surviving Chinese Studies at Beijing University

2011-11-28T13:32:00.001+01:00

好久不见！

(hǎo jiǔ bù jiàn - literally: very long time no see, also known as long time, no see - yes, the expression's origin is Chinese!)

Winter has arrived in Beijing and the return to Norway is approaching rapidly - hallelujah! Only three weeks left and I'm off!

I've enjoyed this semester in Beijing. The classes have been hard and demanding, making me feel like I've got my money's - and time's - worth. But God knows I haven't been practicing my Chinese nearly as much as I should have been, which is a pity. But after a day of six hours of intensive classes, attentively listening to Chinese, speaking Chinese and writing Chinese, you just want to go home and make dinner, relax, (do tons of homework) and watch Breaking Bad/True Blood/Dexter, ya know?

I really like you, Beijing - but you're so damn polluted! Since the weather got colder, it's been truly terrible, and sometimes I've felt almost claustrophobic, longing to get a gulp of fresh air. Even when living in Bangkok the air quality never felt this bad, maybe the cold air is making it worse.

Fresh air is so underrated!

Klara - friend, classmate and fellow Norwegian

On her merry way home from school

Last week I had my final exams in both my speaking and reading class. I aced them both, yay! The first part of the exam for the speaking class was to perform a 6-minute-ish speech on a self-chosen topic. At the same time it was also a contest, where you were being judged by your fellow classmates + teacher, and the person who got the highest score would represent the class in the grand speech contest held at Beijing University this week.

And I won! And I was like, "lol". (In addition to happy and proud, of course)

But.

I might be an attention whore, but I'd rather have people judge me for my looks rather than what I have to say. Especially in Chinese. So I gracefully (read: cowardly) passed the crown to the runner up. Voluntarily holding a speech in Chinese in front of hundreds of people and then having to answer the judges' questions on stage afterwards - a little too intimidating.

I'm thinking of making a video of my speech, though, with subtitles. It's pretty funny. I'm pretty funny.

Despite getting an A in both my speaking and reading class, which, as mention earlier, are courses offered by Beijing University - the most prestigious university in China, I might add - us Norwegians from the University of Oslo still have to endure one other class, which is based on a compendium the program in Oslo made us bring. The teacher is provided by Beijing University, which normally would serve as a quality stamp on it's own, but in this case.. it's a complete joke.

阅读 (yuèdú)- class is yet another reading class, where the focus is on reading comprehension. We plough through everything from advanced academic texts and scientific articles, to one hundred year old fictional texts full of words and expressions no one use anymore. And most of the time it's way beyond our level after only three semesters of studying Chinese. I think they'd be challenging even after six years.

The teacher ha-ha-hates us.

She is fairly young and fairly incompetent as a language teacher. She always look at us with this hostile glare - and this is the first time I've ever experienced the teacher ditching classes! I bet she's cancelled the class equally as many times as the student with the highest absence.

We're not stupid, but the curriculum is way beyond our level. And since she's completely incompetent she doesn't know how to adapt, so she's completely given us up. She's not teaching us - just ploughing through the texts at super speed, reading every sentence out loud, and then repeating them by rephrasing them, often devoting a lot of time on the simple sentences that we very well comprehend on our own, and skipping those who are complicated and full of poetic metaphors (sometimes I suspect she doesn't get them herself).

Oh, God, I'm not able to give a vivid enough image of her and how she acts during class. I just wish I'd kept hidden cameras in the class room throughout the semester and could make a "best of" video. It'd be a real treat.

Our University back home has been very lousy at instructing the teacher, or administration, here at Beijing University on how to teach us this course, so it's all been very makeshift. And we've been seemingly been handed the "spare teacher", not being willing to waste a real teacher on this "silly" course - obviously way beyond our level - that Oslo University insist that their students work through during this semester in Beijing.

Most of us Norwegian students are both very hard-working and fairly intelligent. Still we are struggling to keep our heads above water and keep up - despite spending more time on this course than on the two other courses combined - times two.

And we have an oral exam waiting for us in January when we get back to Oslo, where we have to read and translate a part of a text from this compendium. And the last text is even in traditional Chinese characters - which they stopped using in Mainland China in the 1940s. Lol, I can't even read the damn text in simplified characters.

But I can't be bothered with stressing about that exam anymore. I'm not stupid, and I've never worked harder - so if I do poorly on that exam when I get home, despite putting in my very best effort, than so be it.

Lars

Parents waiting outside the school gate to pick up their kids

In our speaking class a couple of weeks ago we were given an assignment to go out to a nearby elementary school and interview parents regarding the education system in China and whether or not it needs a reform.

That was a hoot and a half, as you can imagine.

Silje

I'm so glad I'm not living (well, not permanently) in a country as overcrowded as China.

Screw the one child policy, Chinese people need to stop having sex and making babies all together.

Peking University International Cultural Festival 2011

2011-10-29T10:33:00.002+02:00

Today I went to school, parked my bike and took some photos.

(I was never asked to sport Norway during this festival,

guess I didn't look Norwegian - or BI-student - enough

- or have the required snus-leppe)