My bike!!!

Yesterday I got a bike.

Elizabeth and Rechard helped me look for a used bike that I could buy, so we asked around in the village, and this man (on the left) just gave it to me. So nice!

By now it has new breaks and a little basket. Not made for long rides, though. Too small.

Lunch at my new place

Yesterday Ted invited us to have lunch with some of his friends. By now, I also live in the same building.

The lady serving the soup (with all the possible chicken parts one could possibly or impossibly have for chicken soup) and the man right behind her are my new landlords. I love the way they enjoy spending entire days in their pyjamas. That's so Chinese, and I heard it's because in the past people couldn't afford pyjamas. Now you see them going for walks in them etc.

:-)

During the photoshooting

As we were blocking the entire street for the little family picture shooting this afternoon, the busdriver decided he wanted to have his souvenir, too, and decided to simply stop between the family and me. There we go!

more Dongbei Family pics

I decided to upload these two pictures coz I think it's interesting how they compose the pictures. The lady in blue is my Ayi (aunt) who told me that she sees me as her daughter now :-)

Staying above the Dongbei Restaurant

Two days ago I moved to Boao. Finally. And I got to stay with the Dongbei People, which was fun. They would have kept me for my entire time here, but yesterday I found another room with a bit more privacy (my own bathroom), less noise (my window facing the beach rather than the noisy street) and without three Chinese meals a day ;-). And they said that if I don't like it in my new place, I should just come back an stay with them. Very sweet.

The three women in the one picture are sisters who all came down from the Chinese north to open restaurants here. Today in the afternoon we had a photoshooting with their families and staff. It was fun!

Zhang Yimou in Hainan

After somewhat boring speeches and an ok buffet we got to see Impressions Hainan, a huge show directed by Zhang Yimou, the guy who did the Olympics Ceremony things in Beijing.

I was impressed, it was a great show, though one might say a bit sexist for some parts and not all the realistic at times...But still, it was great.

The pics feature impressions from the show and Elizabeth and Rechard (and me) later with the actors.

Haikou / again

Last Saturday I went back to Haikou for a tourist conference or something like that (am still not sure what it was for)...

Anyway, before heading to the 5*-hotel that would host that event I got to see cute Benjamin and his parents.

Trip with Rechard

Rechard, a journalist for the south china metropolitan news, took me on a journalistic trip the other day. first i got to see a daoist temple and the wanquan river, and then we went to a book donation something in Wenchang.

Ted 李金文

Eating fish head with Ted.

Ted is helping me a lot with all sorts of things here in Qionghai! That makes life so much easier.

Local Journalists from Qionghai

Yesterday on my way home from the English Corner, THE place to meet the approx. four western people who live in this 400.000 people city (and also to meet some Chinese, of course!), I met a group of local journalists who invited me to sit and have coconut juice with them. It was an interesting conversation and they gave me a couple of leaflets and books about the area :-)

Very nice!!!

Pictures of me were taken, (and - as you can see - the other way round). Will I find myself in the Qionghai Paper these days? Let's hope not.

More impressions from Bo'ao

Bo'ao, one day after the forum. Everything is clean and decorated, a bit over the top...

Auch ist ein Mann durch die Strassen gewandert, dessen Aufgabe es offenbar war, vom Wind umgedrehte Fahnen wieder gradezurichten (siehe eines der Fotos).

Fazit: Sieht alles sehr schoen aus, wirkt aber fuer mein Empfinden uebertrieben... Mal schauen, wie lang die Deko bleibt. Angeblich aber laenger...

Ab dem Wochenende wohne ich dann hoffentlich in Bo'ao :-)

Obwohl mir Qionghai auch sehr gut gefaellt.

Today a Chinese friend took me to the local library to search the newspapers for articles about Bo'ao. I liked the quiet atmosphere with old people enjoying their sunday afternoon with a bunch of newspapers.

I can't say all that much about Qionghai yet... it has about 400000 inhabitants, there are hardly any foreigners here (a handful, all of them older than me, as I was told), people speak Hainanhua mostly (and Putonghua to mainland Chinese and me), and I get stared at a lot. But the city has a nice feel to it, and is to be explored in the next couple of days...

"My" apartment in Qionghai

"My" apartment in Qionghai. I got a teaching job here (one lesson/week), and the appartment is the nice extra!

Well, after cleaning for 3 hours to make it inhabitable (chlorine!!) and using my best (toxic) friend, the cockroach killer (it killed about 30 yesterday and today, unfortunately I'm not exaggerating...) I had a quiet evening without them (knock on wood). I got to collect a few dead ones this morning, though.

The other pictures show the rooms, I even have something like a guestroom (though I doubt that the bed is very comfy).

It's fun to be in a new city, and not just for a night or two as a tourist. Will hopefully move to Bo'ao next week, though (2 places to stay!)

2 kleine Gschichtn

Die Fritzl-Affäre ist auch in China bekannt. Letztens als ich in Qionghai war, wurde ich von einem Motorradtaxler vorm Busbahnhof drauf angeredet! Schon krass...

People would ask me for directions. That has happened to me twice so far, both times at Hainan University... Well, I couldn't help them...
But isnt't that weird?

炒冰 chaobing - yeah!!!

Finally! I got to eat chaobing on Chinese territory :-) - with Weikeshuai and Jiawen

Farewell Dinner for Sinan

Sinan, a German who did an internship in Thomas' factory, is gonna go back to Germany, soon. So Thomas invited us to a lovely Xinjiang Restaurant for dinner. Four Austrians at one table in Haikou! Isabella from my university (didn't know about her, but apparantly it was my presentation about Hainan University one year ago in Vienna that gave here the idea), and Kathi from FH Krems (doing an internship in a hotel), plus Thomas and me.
Vivian, Thomas' translator, also joined us. She always teaches me Chinese slang :-)