Christmas pre preparation time

So now i am soon heading for a warmer climate once again to avoid the jolly spirit of pre christmas preparations! =) I am very much looking forward to it - I found a picture somewhere on the web that I imagine provide a good description of what I can expect.

The most Christmas spirit I found myself in was when they brought in the Christmas tree that stands in the city centre of Bergen on Torgalmenningen. The tree was being dragged by a huge truck to its destination. It was a fascinating sight and I had to take a picture of the tree blocking the pedestrians crossing as I was about to cross.. I´ve also been to the Pepperkake village (gingerbread cookies) which is supposedly the largest in the world, but I don´t know how many countries actually hosts these kinds of events in the first place =) It was great fun and I allowed myself to take on the appearence of a five-year-old that never had seen so many cookies in one place before! In addition to that the people I live with and I held a Christmas workshop where we made various candles, candy and decoration - as we played Christmas songs for eight hours! It was the best of times!

Oh well, I guess I have done a lot of christmassy things lately, and enjoyed it! I´m still gonna enjoy a vacation in 20 + degrees anyway! Have a great Christmas pre preparation time - may it not exhaust you before Christmas...!

Outside the borders..

Since I will be heading to China next year right before the Olympics I find it interesting to pay attention to articles that have been written about China as you might have noticed by now.. Most of them focus on problems that China could run into in relation to the Olympics. But, in addition to the more common angles on Chinese politics (one child policies, poverty gap, olympics reforms a.s.o) there are other views that also have caught my attention.

The most nuanced article I have read in a while on China's success doesn't concern itself with the above mentioned things in particular or other issues which concern China's situation internally. It brings attention to how China, as a rising nation, has been forced to take a stand in issues - internationally. Often, articles on China tend to focus on internal problems, but doesn't focus on why this has become of current interest. Which is why I think this is a breath of fresh air in the row of articles about China because it says something about the fact that China can no longer hide behind its closed doors to the extent it has done before by just putting a lid on tough political issues. Perhaps this development not only leads to emerging diplomacy, it could also lead to further secrecy and increased cencorship, but the international community is paying attention. Still, China is not only a manufacturer anymore, but a participant and a partner in global issues - a change that results in an increased focus on solving internal conflicts - which in turn forces it to take action within its own borders as well. Hopefully.

Its status is anyhow different now from what it used to be - not only being a booming country and a factory for the world. We are entering a new era of China.

THE GOLD IS HOME!!

GULLET ER HEME!!!!!!!

The city´s soccer team where I live - BRANN - just won the gold in the soccer series in Norway for the first time in 44 years!! It is being celebrated like only the supporters of Brann can as I write!! Congrats - you deserve it!!!

e-learning in china

E-learning is a big issue in China and can be a factor for improving many issues concerning resource, economical and social gaps in the society. Retraining people for new and different tasks that follow from the continuously changing markets has become a high priority in China. Educating people in rural areas where children not always have expert help within reach might now have the opportunity to connect with teachers and other co-students through the internet and various e-learning tools. For now this project is located in the 20 major cities in China, but it has passed the crucial seeding and has now grown roots in the chinese educational system and it will be exiting to see how e-learning`s full potential can be exploited in a country with so many differences and variables.

differentiated one child policy - a BBC view.

On BBC news they discuss some of the viewpoints of the one child policy in China. This gives a short overview of some of the issues. Some months ago China once again declared that they would sustain an even stricter one child policy to enforce the development - they say they`ve prevented 400 million births till now since the beginning in 1979 when the policy was first introduced.

Although the rich can afford having more than one child it is unfortunately an arrangement that is hitting the poorest hardest and has lead to further problems such as protests and stripping homes for valuables in order to collect the fines. This has created dislikement amongst the less economic fortunate who are angry with the rich and famous who can write a check each month without noticing much difference in their credit balance and thus plead to the government to stop them from having two and three children. Ironically it has turned out that many of the rich are government officials which doesn`t exactly send out the right message.

The rules are of course not as black and white as most people think. When I was in China I spoke to some of my chinese friends who had siblings who explained to me that if their parents did not have any siblings they could have two or more children. This is just one of the exeptions which most Westerners don`t know about. Thus there are grey areas in this policy which you can read more about here.

One of the major problems China will have to face is that the country will host approx. 40 million single men by 2020 which BBC news has reported on before. What will they do to bring on the next generation? How will this induce sustainable growth within the economy and the future job market?

How will also the low number of young generations be able to take care of the old and elderly? Traditionally families take care of eachother and the elderly are of course provided for by their children. The results are showing already as schools are turned into old people`s homes. As it is getting gradually even more difficult for young people in the cities to move out and get a life of their own due to high living costs and crowded city spaces, they cannot start saving with only their own future in mind.

Traditions haven`t changed in the same pace as the society has changed and so these children still need to attend to many issues by themselves and feeling responsible for the "face" of the family, which previously would be shared on several siblings. The "few" children which the past AND future generations are now relying on, are facing enormous pressure and many fear they cannot live up to this. Many children feel they must live up to an image of the "perfect child", an image arisen due to the fact that the parents only have "one shot" of making it right. It`s a tuff reality.

and so its election day...

...once again, and hopefully the population will be happy when the winner is announced. Of course there is always something to complain about no matter the outcome of an election. As if it really matters in a country like ours, when most of the parties have so similar standing points on so many counts its barely going to be noticed when we change course every fourth year. I am not saying they are all the same, but lets face it: its not the most politically unstable history we have to show to. Luckily! No major surprises will pop up and no tyranns will appear out of nowhere because no one expected them to become leader. I am glad we live in a system that we have in Norway, but I wish I had a party to vote for that dared to think outside the box sometimes, foreseing some greater visions and who didnt devote the entire election campaign to minor details that have been discussed for so long.. Its important yes, to find a solution, but what solution and how do you incorporate it into our future plans for this country? Where do we want to be in ten years?

keeping in touch

I forgot what I wrote on the right hand side of my blog, claiming to keep in touch with my friends through my blog. Ijust read it and wanted to tell you that I am now sick of just doing that. I have decided that I will now do my best to actually go and visit them instead of just calling for them on this web page. So now I have travelled to Copenhagen, Lund and now Uppsala and Stockholm to do just that. I love it! From now on less money will be devoted to surviving and shopping, and more will be spent on travelling, probably mostly throughout Europe for obvious financial reasons. Just my thought of the week.

go!

And so it begins. My journey towards actually rounding off my time at university - namely finishing my masters degree.. And I am once again feeling excited about it though I am not expecting it to be an easy journey. Only two people will be writing their thesis this autumn so we need to stick together to share hours of agony when nothing will stick to the paper.. and you search for the right words and ideas to reveal the next chapter of your thesis. It´ll be great fun and I hope I can share some ideas with others who might be interested in knowledge sharing across cultural barriers with the use of technology. I hope.

lost summer

Many things has happened since the last time I wrote on this blog. First of all, I am now back in Norway and have been for a while, enjoying time with my friends and family. Unfortunately the summer hasnt shown its sunny face for a while and so it doesnt really feel like summer holiday.. BUT I have been so lucky to have friends visiting me throughout the summer and so they have brightened up my days with their smiles! =) I am very grateful for the fact that they have wanted to come here and let me show them my country, especially friends from the far east! =) Back to my studies in Bergen, I have decided to finish my masters and so I will begin to write my thesis this autumn.. I have long been quarrelling with myself whether to continue or not, but Ive come to the conclusion that I dont like to leave things in between places - and so I need to finish them. So this has been a summer of decisions, but also a summer that went by so fast due to visitors and travelling that I simply dont know what happened to all those days..

Vacation update!

After traveling now for 15 days, I figured it was about time to update you on some of the things we have done! Unfortunately, as we speak, I cannot upload pics, because our bus to Mui Ne is arriving any second.. We are now in Saigon, a hectic, chaotic and dirty city that differs a lot to other cities we have seen so far. We are coming back here in five days or so, and today was not a pitstop we necessarily wanted to make, but were forced to when it turned out that the bus wasn`t actually leaving at two pm, but at eight pm instead.. Our flight was already booked so we would be in Saigon at half past ten..

Anyway! We began our journey traveling from Hong Kong to Guanzhou first, where our train for Nanning would depart from. Then we went to Pingxiang from there after ten hours onboard, crossed the border to Vietnam at friendship pass and took a local train from Dong Dang to Hanoi which took us seven hours. All in all we traveled for one and a half day and were exhausted when we got to our hostel! The last train ride was worth it though, it was a semi cargo and passenger train and we got a close first encounter with the locals.

After some days in beautiful Hanoi we went to Halong Bay to enjoy a nice island all to ourself (and the rest of our party of twelve). Oh, bus outside, have to go!

siste post fra HK med mac'en

ja... Idag blir siste dagen jeg har med mac'en min før jeg kommer hjem igjen. Min kjære bror har vært så snill å tilby seg å ta noen av tingene mine med seg hjem neste gang han besøker HK! Vanskelig å bestemme seg for hva man skal ta med og hva man skal sette igjen og hva som skal få være med på turen videre til Vietnam. jupp, det var alt jeg ville si! =)

Hot pot dinner with girls in my hallway

This hot pot was really HOT, and even some of the girls shed tears from eating the spicy food, but I did it and ate till I was stuffed - it tastes fantastic - if you can get over the fact that it is insanely spicy..
I will miss these girls..

GRATULERER MED DAGEN

...til alle kjære fellow norwegians!! =)

Vi feiret med lakse bagel og nytrukket kaffe, kledde oss i røde t-skjorter og veivet våre små medbrakte flagg i den varme vinden her nede! =) Camilla hadde planlagt det som en overraskelse og det kunne ikke vært en bedre start på dagen =) Takk Milla!

...bilder kommer senere!

outdoor-good-bye-barbecue

keep reading..

I know the last post was kinda looong, but I got complaints about not telling anything about the trip, so I decided to release the first chapter of my new book. LOL - enjoy!

Everything from Shanghai!

The story of a trip to Shanghai I wish lasted for at least two more weeks... I travelled with the fantastic four: Andreas, Christian, Daniel and Juan and we ate, walked, talked, slept, laughed, nagged, danced, partied, and explored Shanghai together for five days that seemed like one day cause it went by so fast!

Thursday April 26th
Met up at University kcr station at 6.00 pm after dinner, took train to Shenzhen, crossed border, took taxi to airport, checked in, got on a turbulent plane ride, landed, maglev train closed, tried to take taxi, but they wouldn´t take five people, took the bus, met a Moroccan couple, got off at a stop in Pudong, got ripped off taking a taxi to the Beehome hostel, couldn´t find hostel, stood in dark back alley at three in the morning wondering what to do, met three Chinese people who wanted to help us, found hostel, but gate was closed and no one answered phone number written as contact number at night, shouted a little through the closed gate, a tired man came and opened for us, we got our fantastic room and went to sleep.

Friday April 27th
Slept till twelve and thought that this was going to be the day we would sleep long unlike other days when we were going to get up early and see everything in the city... We talked to the people at the hostel who knew English and found out that our hostel was only one month old – the reason for why the room and the bathroom, free Internet access, and bar was so incredibly nice! They told us how to get around in Shanghai and that the metro station we lived by was Dongchang Lu (Lu means road). After buying a csc travel card (resembles an Octopus card in HK), we went for our first discovery walk on the Puxi side. We lived in Pudong, which is the new grand commercial centre and skyline of Shanghai. Puxi is situated on the other side of the river which divides Shanghai into two – old Puxi and new Pudong. Traffic is horrible either you go by car, bus or walking, but the metro is superefficient. We got off at Nanjing Donglu (donglu = East road) which is an all pedestrian shopping street in Shanghai, with the exception of the tourist trains that run back and forth bugging the hell out of pedestrians…We weren´t sure of were to begin sightseeing because the city is pretty big! The government estimates that there is somewhat in between 18 and 30 million people living in Shanghai, but no one really knows.

I was recommended to see People’s square and park where you can relax and feel like you are in a small haven in the middle of a roaring machine. Beautiful lakes and trees surrounding every piece of building around you makes it a nice place for people in love, bench sleepers and everyone else who appreciates some silence and privacy. When the afternoon came we wanted to eat something and ended up in a Hawaiian restaurant in Nanjing Lu. Good food, very small dishes and not cheap. Juan was not happy. I would have preferred something a little more Chinese. We continued down to Huangpi Lu and found, close to this, a place called Xintiandi, which I was told by my Shanghaiese friend Jo (who lives in my hallway in HK) is built of old bricks from a low rise building from the early 1900’s. It has been added a modern twist and is packed with bars, restaurants and classy shops. Most of the places had a nice price tag on them too.. Anyway, we contacted Martin (friend of Peder) to hear if he could show us some restaurants or take us out somewhere in the evening. He brought us to Zapatas – a place where they have tequila hours. If you hear the music – go to the bar and open your mouth and the bartenders will pour a shot of tequila directly in your mouth.

Saturday April 28th
Got a late start on the day – started sightseeing around one.. But it started good as we went to the place that our local hostel people pointed us to. It was a tiny house where two women sat and made dumplings behind a window that covered almost all the wall. Outside they were steaming dumplings in towers of wooden baskets. Locals occupied all the tables. One basket with eight dumplings cost 3 yuen. We bought four baskets and two soups and sat down at a table in the sun outside. It tasted marvellous.

We decided to walk to Puxi instead of taking the metro. The buildings surrounding us were enormous. Everything was under construction and there are probably many, many more to come of the same type of skyscrapers – all looking like something pictured in futuristic portrayals from the 50’s. All of it is new and it seems like a prestigious area for new companies to settle. Our mission was though to go up in the tallest building in China - JinMao Tower. It was situated next to the almost erected World Finance Building, but not finished completely and seemed frighteningly close to the building we were about to climb. We took the elevators up to the 54th floor first when we had to change elevator to get to the 86th floor before we ended up on the 88th floor! It made me a little anxious that there was an air balloon flying right above the building and around it all the time, but the boys calmed me down and we stayed and took a lot of pictures of the city from our bird view.

Our walked continued to the famous TV and radio tower (that looks like a spaceship), but we never went inside as we thought it cost too much. However, we found out that there was an under the river sightseeing tunnel which seemed interesting. Unfortunately we got ripped off badly as it turned out to be a tunnel filled with changing lights that you crossed in a wagon. It got us to the Bund in Puxi and so we got to see this old and majestic harbour area of Shanghai, which was the heart of the former international settlements. Tailor of silk products and expensive restaurants and banks were what we saw in addition to the actual architecture. We headed back to our hostel and found out that we would eat at the restaurant that Martin had recommended to us for great Chinese food- South Beauty. Only thing is that it took us 1,5 hours to find it.. Cause the five tourist forgot to bring the map.. and had to guess what direction to go in. It did not help that locals couldn’t speak English and kept pointing us in different directions. BUT we found it and had a HUGE and fantastic gourmet dinner for five people for 900 yuen (6-700kroner?). Not insanely cheap, but very, very affordable considering how much food we got! After that we went to BonBon – a nightclub with 120 yuen cover and open bar till five in the morning.

Sunday April 29th
Late start again! Daniel was always the first one to get up and kept us on the right track so that we actually got to see anything this trip. This day however, was not spent getting up early. Around three all of us where still exhausted and just wanted some simple cheap food. Ashamed to say so – we went for pizza right across from our hostel, walked a little around in Pudong and went home again to have an early night.. Had a good time with the group though as we only talked and joked all day long.

Monday April 30th
Wanted to get the most out of the day, so we got up relatively early and went to the dumpling place to have breakfast again. It was raining this day so we sat inside. The dumplings were still amazing. On this day we wanted to see the French Concessions and the famous neo classical buildings and art deco – supposedly the best architecture in Shanghai. We strolled the area for a couple of hours just to look at the contrasts of old, new, small and huge buildings. it was a good walk and it took us to some nice back alleys where we could really smell and feel the atmosphere of this place. I will agree with Lonely Planet when they say it is one of the most interesting places in Shanghai. Walking back towards Huaihai Lu we passed by a restaurant recommended by the book just mentioned. When we finally found it turned out that the chef had gone home and they weren´t open until another two hours. Still, when we said it was too bad and we had been looking for this particular place he called the chef and made him come back so that they could serve us! Once again, we ate good traditional Chinese food at a low price.

Tuesday May 1st
We saw the old town of Shanghai as the last thing we really wanted to do before we left. My flight to HK was at six thirty pm and the boys’ flight to Beijing was at eight pm so we had the whole afternoon to go sightseeing. Old town is a remarkable place that collides completely with the new identity of the biggest city in China. Here, people are poor, they live in filthy, smelly back alleys, have nothing, live in the oldest buildings in the city and still seemed so happy. Food and handmade artefacts were being sold side by side in the streets. Traffic was roaming through the main street and wedding dresses from the numerous wedding shops in the wedding street were hanging down from the electric wires to dry together with people’s laundry in general. Whenever we talked to someone (or the guys tried to talk to them, I just watched) people just smiled and seemed so cheerful. It is also a charming part of Shanghai and the hours flew by as we realised we had to leave again. It is a part of the city you can walk in for hours I think, always something to look at and always something to take in and include as a part of the Shanghai atmosphere. That is what I did in general I think. Seeing absolutely all of the sights isn’t necessary here, but catching the essence of the city through looking at it, breathing it (so much pollution!!), smelling it, walking through it and dining in it is what paints the full picture. It is a city that needs to be explored and discovered by being in it. And I would love to go back.

Labour day

This is news about what is going on in China on Labour day.

big growing country, TONS of pollution

Black days of coalminers in China. The situation is getting worse and there doesn't seem to be too much evidence that the government takes this development seriously enough, and most importantly, that they do so quickly enough. The country is running severe risks of permanently damaging farmland, air and the people on its steady course of becoming strong economic power, but it is not willing to give that up just for the sake of cleaner air. The report (mentioned in the last link) states that China feels that greenhouse gas is caused and must be paid for and repaired by wealthy western countries. Might this be because China is feeling held back when being asked by western countries to take care of their greenhouse gas production?

Then you can start wondering what our primeminister can do to change it. This is from the talks they had when he was visiting China on March 26th:

"Both sides also exchanged views on environmental protection and climate changes. They agreed to set a cooperation framework on environmental protection to better scheme long-term collaboration between the two countries. Stoltenberg said the environmental problems in today's world were largely caused by the industrialization of developed countries which have obligation to fund developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Norway would like to help China achieve this goal by increasing investment and technique transfer, he said. Wen said China supports the Kyoto Protocol, though it does not set gas emission reduction targets for developing countries. "China has always observed its obligation with a responsible attitude," Wen said, pledging the country is ready to work with the international community including Norway to cope with climate change and green house gas emission, improve energy efficiency and tap clean energy."

When our primeminister says he wishes to help paying for China, will China then ever stop hiding behind this argument and take responsibility for what they are doing?

Farewell party!

So, this is good bye. This weekend we had our farewell party and already now have folks left the country to go travelling.. Except for us who are stuck with writing our final papers. There are actually quite a few of us. I had no idea a term could end this quickly. It feels strange, yet at the same time I am looking forward to leave HK behind and bypass vietnam and thailand in order to reach my final destination - home. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE being in Hong Kong, but it gives you a certain feeling of being restless, not really being in a place that you would stay put in forever. It gives you an exhilirating feeling of fantasticness as well - always giving you input and new impulses - always driving you to move on - which was a feeling I was searching for when I came here in the first place. I found it here and will bring it with me back home.

Nevertheless, it is a little sad to say goodbye to people, but also its left me with many extraordinary memories and experiences that I will never forget. The city has in a way outplayed the role of the people here, but there are a few amazing people I´ve met here that I will truly miss a lot. Having a big whooping final party evening with everyone was soo much fun and a good way of concluding these four months of rollercoaster cultural experiences!

Marcus, meg og Aoife
Sarah og Arnout
Dronning Marcus og Kong fabulous Jamie
Gaelle og Eefje
Meg og Misako

Housearrest for humanitarian work...

I am trying to read up on news of "my" province and I found some news about it today.

"Just this month, in the southern province of Guangdong, police broke up an unsafe blood-selling racket involving homeless people illegally donating blood for cash up to 15 times a month.
It is not thought they were screened for HIV or other diseases."

The quote is on the state of blood transfusions in China and the high risk of running diseases when given blood. It is Dr Gao, an old woman who have been batteling the government to provide better healthcare and blood transfusions to avoid a greater epidemic of HIV and AIDS in China, but who is put in house arrest and keeps struggling to continue her work. She was kept from leaving the country to get acknowledgement for her work in 2001, but was allowed to leave eventually.

The problem is huge in China. It is estimated that 650 000 people have HIV in China.

From BBC on Asian-Pacific conditions.

High death tolls in China industry

It is not the first time I´ve read about it since I first came to Hong Kong, but the article I refer to here states that 127 000 Chinese workers are killed annually in industrial accidents. Not too long ago tens of men were killed in a coal mine accident, and we hear about them almost on a daily basis. It is tragic and disturbing that this many people in a country undergoing so rapid economic development have to work under such poor conditions. This is of course the biggest and one of the many obstacles that China has to face in its transformation towards change and what many people here are worried about. The gap between the poor and the wealthy is only getting wider and it seems nearly impossible to assemble the nation as a whole to prepare for the future. Hopefully the workers in industrial areas will meet a better tomorrow.

A perfect night out

Thursday - went out dancing in LKF after being to an incredibly cool jazz concert at the philia lounge seeing and hearing Eugene Pao - apparently one of the best guitar players in Asia?! He was truly fantastic and the band members (a contrabass player and a pianist) were also amazing! After the concert we all went out clubbing and me and Jay danced four hours straight untill they actually kicked us out of the club! =) Had a goooood time!

litt huminf faktisk!

I en artikkel i Aftenposten om spill for skoleelever i Oslo blir det skrevet at utviklingen av læringsspill for skoleelever Oslo kommune foretar seg nå vil føre til mer effektiv læring. Jeg håper de klarer å utvikle noe som faktisk er interessant og bra å spille, hvis ikke vet de ikke hvor mye tid og penger de kaster ut vinduet. Spillmarkedet er ekstremt vanskelig - uten at Oslo kommune skal begi seg ut på det - og enorme summer brukes for å utvikle og teste nye spill. Det sier også noe om hvor raffinerte spillerne er og hvor høy standard de setter før de setter seg inni et nytt spill. At de nå setter fokus på nye læringsmetoder er godt og at digitale hjelpemidler blir tatt i bruk er enda bedre, men jeg håper de har tenkt gjennom en god løsning før de nå begir seg ut på spillteknologiutvikling selv.

(lack of) Easter activities in HK

Vi vara toorristaa
To all of you at home in Norway who have been enjoying horrible snowy, cold or warm sunny Easter weather at a remote cabin in the mountains of Norway - they don´t celebrate Easter in China. It is coincidental that their festival to honor the dead falls on the same weekend as the Western Easter holiday. Wednesday 4th of April was the day when all Chinese go to visit their ancestors graves - og which most of the mainlanders in HK need to go to the mainland to do so - which fell on the same day as we chose to cross over the border to show Camilla´s parents who were visiting, what China is like. Well, needless to say, they got a funny experience of what a crowd of about 250 000 Chinese looks like. They were practically running like "five year olds in an amusement park" (camillas quote) whenever they saw an opportunity to sneak further ahead in the sea of people who all wanted to cross over simultaniously - no queue culture here..

A practical thing about being a city in between two cultures like HK is that they can choose the best things from both cultures - including holidays it seems, a benefit which they apparently are taking advantage of, by adding Easter as a holiday where they can get extra days off from work, but thats about it. So, not too many things that resemble a normal Easter as most Western people might be familiar with except a few weird things imported from our culture such as waitresses wearing bunny ears and stuff. I was pretty happy when Camillas parents presented me with an Easter egg of good tradition filled with Norwegian liquorice! =)

As a result of us lacking a travelling plan during Easter and having visitors, we´ve been guides most of the time (thus we finally managed to take a photo of us with the famous HK Island as background - see the top photo). When we haven´t been guides, we´ve gone out and looked at the nightlife of HK. That lead to some fantastic photos of me and Camilla smoking cigars in a bar called Castro. Behold!

Dance event at CUHK

There was yesterday a big dance show at CUHK - apparently it is an annual thing that everyone in HK know about (fact retrieved from a local CUHK student, so who really knows?! ) Anyway, I went to one rehearsal to be in this show, but realised that I had been put in the wrong class.. Hardcore Hip Hop.. AND I would be away three out of four weeks of rehearsal because of my travelling to china and malaysia.. It was nice going to the actual show to watch it though! It lasted from 7:30 untill 11.30 which a bit too long, but okay and every hour was packed with choreography - not just the dance acts in themselves, but even the two guys talking in between in mandarin, of which we couldn´t understand anything... The whole audience seemed to like it, so I took it as a sign of them actually hitting their target and being funny. So I just enjoyed the show and the bits of things I could extract as wisdom about cultural differences. One pic is of the four best dancers that were on stage performing the coolest hiphop - pop´n´lock choreography to 70s music, and the other one of two excited spectators!

Tribeca

A big big party was arranged at Tribeca - a cool club in HK. We of course attended it, unfortunately Camilla fell ill that very same day (or the one before) and so she couldn´t come! Here are some photos I manage to get hold of from Marcus - a Swede that had brought a camera with him and was willing to use it.

taking a piss...

sorry, no offense, but this is kind of funny... not gonna display the video here, but click on the link below to witness imense harsh reality.. Not that this can´t be found elsewhere.

Americans aren´t that dumb!

Rainy season...

It is actually raining in Hong Kong.. Good thing is that it is hotter and more humid than ever!! Well, the hot part is nice, the humid part of it means breaking a sweat just by turning around when you wake up in the morning. Hehe, have been told by HK chinese that june and july and august is intolerable and they hate it due to humidity. I don´t care, I´ve lived so long in Bergen, I hardly notice it if my clothes and hair gets wet. =)

Stolten' jo!

Jøss, leste at statsministern var i dette landet gitt! Skal proklamere miljø og menneskerettigheter her borte. Blir nok lite coverage her om det..

Benytter anledningen til å si - hvor er alle kommentarene!?????!!!!

Camilla and talked about this and agreed that we won´t write anymore posts about the trip unless we start seing that someone are reading them!

Takk for meg og dagens syting..

chinese cooking

shaomai

I finally decided that it was about time to learn how to cook these fab chinese dishes we have been served the past two months. I actually bought some vermicelli in the store and shaomai which is very hard to buy due to the labelling in chinese. Hence, the time it took me to build up the guts to go and buy it. I ate some extremely good homecooked rice, corn and veggie shaomai in Shantou, but they only had shrimp, fish and chicken in the store, so I went with the latter one. I put vegetables and the shaomai, into the vermicellis and made a wonderful soup! Hooray for chinese cooking!! =) When I got to the eating part of it, I realised I was out of wooden chopsticks that we always take with us from the cantine. I don´t find it easy to eat noodles and shaomai with a fork, but searched for it in order to find out that it has been lost somewhere unknown. I knew I should have bought chopsticks for myself sooner. My conclusion today is that I have to invest in a pair of my own chopsticks. That is for sure.

pictures say it all..

teaching in Shantou - part 3

Next day we left early in the morning to go for a city tour before our bus returned home to HK. Hau came to see us off and Joy came with us as we sat in the minibus. They drove us through a hundred years old part of the city, which probably won´t be there in ten years due to the lack of money to rehabilitate them. They are deteriorating and a looong history will disappear. They apparently didn´t want to show us this part of the city so they took us to Walmart instead! We said we wanted to see more of the busy everyday streets of Shantou and they took us there after a while – though a little reluctant and not really understanding why we wanted to see that part of town. We saw what we came for though, chaos in the streets, a thriving street packed with bicycles, motorbikes and cars and buses all of were going around each other on whatever side was convenient. Along the streets there were merchants selling vegetables, salads, meat and everything else you can think of – fairly unaffected by the busy traffic passing them only half a meter in front of them. Joy was like a shepard, making sure that we wouldn´t get run over by traffic or got stuck with a salesperson somewhere along the street. She was sweet and took good care of us. As we were departing she took out a handful of jewelry she had bought for us and they were all especially chosen to each and everyone of us and none of them were the same. We were all so grateful and surprised that she had made such a gesture to us. Next time a class will come here we will send something for her with them. Filled with all of these impressions, we entered the bus – which turned out to be a business class bus with leather seats and tv – what a contrast to what we just experienced!

teaching in Shantou - part 2

We ate breakfast at 8am. I had a good nights sleep in the warm beds and enjoyed the big breakfast we had with porkbuns, egg, pai, porridge and salty and bitter vegetables to have in the porridge. The classes then started at 8.30am. We divided into two groups. Arnout, Bonnie and me functioned as one teacher group for the less well speaking students. They were between 16 and 18 years and were in total 30 people. Most of them seemed interested in what we had to say, but many acted like teenagers most and were too cool to pay attention to the teacher. Still, I think we managed to keep their attention through the whole three hours to a more or less high degree. We taught them about our countries, what Europe was, their hobbies, we played my ship contains, hang-man and strayed through many other topics when they started being impatient.

Afterwards though, they came up to us and wanted to be taken a picture of together with us! So we spent ten fifteen minutes being taken a picture of, which was sort of cute and we got the chance to talk a little bit with them. We had lunch for two hours and went to see the garden that was lying next to the school. Newly built Buddhist garden with trees and lakes and bushes and small houses and pagodas created a small oasis in the middle of the half dry grass and dirt roads that surrounded us.





Coming back to the classes at 2pm was allright, but tiring. We took over the class of the better speaking English class consisting of 10 girls. No surprise huh? Guess it works like in our own classes in Norway? Anyway, they were more interested in our countries (Holland, England and Norway respectively) and asked frequent questions about our nature, animals, people and such. It was a giving experience, but drained us from energy. We had to wait until six to have dinner, and I wanted to have a nap before that. The others decided to visit the local nearby market and were followed there by the same girl who took us to the garden - Joy. Only thing was that when the clock turned six, they had not returned yet. I was awaken by two Chinese speaking girls in their Pjs, telling me that my friends were late and told me to wait in the kitchen/restaurant. I went with them and sat down and waited for the rest of my group to return.

As time passed by and became 7pm I was more hungry than an hour ago and a little more annoyed at the others for not showing up in time. People around me were starting to be worried as if to whether I was hungry and talked to me in Putonghua without me understanding anything of course. Luckily a guy called Hau helped me communicating with the chef and his wife and their son and the rest of the people surrounding me. Before he came along I had been sitting there on my stool, drinking numerous cups of the traditional tea, just looking and smiling to these people who kept talking and laughing and looking at me. It felt strange and I made an effort to try to speak slowly in English with some of the students who were sitting next to me, but I don´t know if they were quiet because someone told them to keep me company. See, they all knew why my friends were being late and that is why they kept asking me about food. I though it would be rude to eat without them so I waited, but no one could explain to me that they were actually being interrogated by the marines in the base next to the school for taking a photo of a guarding soldier…

They came back at 10pm. By that time I had got to know Hau and his future plans and wishes, about China and my country, family and life. He even gave me a Chinese name. We talked a lot and played basketball, taught each other card games and watched the gatekeeper shooting birds in a tree for fun! Nothing is impossible for a willing heart. That was our shared motto. I learned a lot that evening and was grateful for my experience with the people at the school even though I couldn´t talk directly with them, they treated me as one of them.

Teaching in Shantou

Friday at 12.30pm was the time for Gaelle (Switzerland) and me to leave our Postgraduate hall in order to get to our final destination - Shantou in China. The rest of the group that we went with consisted of Andy (US/Taiwan), Maaike (Holland) and Arnout (Holland). Our chaperon for the weekend was Bonnie from the International office of CUHK and I was pretty happy about that since she is our age and a cool lady. We got on a bus that would drive through Shenzhen to cross the border and continue towards Shantou. The purpose of the trip was to go to a school and teach the children English by talking with them about our own countries and cultural differences and for us to learn about their lives.
All of us on the bus

My expectations of Shantou were not high. I assumed it to be a city that used to be a fishing village. I heard great things about the seafood there and that they spoke a language of their own in that region which was not anything like Putonghua (Mandarin) or Guang dong Hua (Cantonese). I had no expectations about the school or accommodation and thought it was going to be simple and rural. How wrong was I!?!?

The city of Shantou is huge!! It thrives from a blooming economy ranking it seventh best rate of commerce in all of China. It is one of the most important open-to-the-world harbours and is one of five special economic zones in China. The seafood cuisine is famous as I mentioned and so is also their special Gongfu tea, which is being served in a specific manner in tiny cups and drunk as a shot.Gongfu tea

We arrived around seven at the bus station in Shantou and were met by many people asking if we needed taxi. Everyone stared bluntly and was clearly not as used to seeing foreigners as people are in HK. We were picked up in a van by two of the schools teachers of whom one of them spoke a little English, but preferred to speak in Mandarin. Bonnie speaks Cantonese, but understands and can answer a little in Mandarin, Andy speaks quite well and Gaelle has studied Mandarin for two years, so I didn´t feel like I went with the worst group of people! I wish I knew a little as well and I now understand how important it is too know the language because barely anyone understands English. I took this opportunity to learn just a little bit when I had the chance.

We drove 13 km outside of the city centre to get to the school that was surrounded by.. nothing. It had a huge mountain in the background and other than that.. nothing. The school gate was old and guarded by the gatekeeper. We were told that there was a curfew after six o´clock. The airport was on the other side of the mountain and the extreme sound of the planes roaring above our heads appeared in intervals of ten minutes. We were lead to our rooms, the girls to one building and the boys to another. The four of us shared a small apartment with a bathroom and a kitchen – apparently a teacher apartment – the highest standard they could give us. The floor was made of concrete and the walls were of chalk and didn´t reach the ceiling, but it was clean and had four beds for us to sleep comfortably in. The toilet didn´t work so we couldn´t throw paper into it and to flush it we had to use a bucket of water, but it was an ordinary toilet and not a squatting toilet, so no one complained.
Our bathroom
The girls rooms
We were immediately escorted (yes, escorted everywhere, they were worried we would get lost) to the main kitchen on the premises were we would be served dinner. It was a shed where they had a small kitchen and some plastic tables and stools. The teachers had their own “restaurant” room inside the shed where we could sit together and discuss tomorrow’s events over an incredible meal! We got fresh fish, siu mai (sort of dumpling, but open at the top), pai, fish balls, meatballs, clams and lots of other stuff. It exceeded what I had heard about the region’s meals – it was goooood. Afterwards, we played some cards with my excellent 54-views-from-Norway cards for a while, but had to go early to bed because we were tired after the trip and we had to get up at 7.30am the next day.