Hey guys,
Sorry for the late post, but the past weeks have been very busy, which is awesome! I’ll elaborate some of the things I’ve done in the past weeks:
First off we had the welcome party for the new arrivals of March. It was a very relaxed evening in Kokomo bar, alongside my new flatmate Marco (Italian, awesome guy). He arrived the very same day so we took him to the party to have him introduced to the other HS students. I also met some of the new students who are as interesting as everyone I meet here!
Last week however was the really crazy one! REDSTAR organized two comedy shows for Saint Paddy’s day, presented by Irish comedians. The first one was close to my school, the other one was in a compound in the suburbs of Beijing. So Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening I got to enjoy two incredibly funny shows, alongside a couple of nice beers!
Thursday we had a leaving party for one of my colleagues who now lives in Miami for a while! So we went to a Mexican restaurant and enjoyed the happy hour and some good food for a while. Later that evening we decided to go to a bar close to my school. The awesome part about this is that the bar is an ‘Archery Bar’. Yup, this means you get to shoot some arrows while you are enjoying some more beers. I mean… Shoot arrows whilst drinking beer and having fun with friends? Count me in every single time!
The next day we went to another Mexican restaurant with some people of HS, celebrating the birthday of one of us! It was nice and cosy. However I couldn’t stay too long as after that I went to a gig of my boss. I might have told you before, he plays in a band called the Beijing Beatles. So I got to enjoy a couple of covers and a drink or two! It was really good!!
Saturday was pretty standard, somewhat more relaxed than the previous days. I woke up, studies a couple of hours, had private class, went back home and studied some more J! I thought I’d go to bed early as my sister arrives the next day, but no, instead we had a movie night with my flatmates and the people from the other apartment in this building!
So Sunday my sister and Loïc arrived in Beijing! I went to their hotel around 9AM to meet them and start off their first day! I was extremely happy to see them, and got somewhat nostalgic! Once they settled in we left to visit the Heaven Temple, eat some nice hot pot for lunch, visit the lama temple, visit Sanlitun (the area of my school and work), enjoy some beers in Heaven Supermarket (a cool bar) and finally get over to my apartment and have some dinner with some friends! Yes I did manage to tire my sister and Loïc quite well on the day haha!
The next day (Monday) we visited the Great Wall (Mutianyu). As it was a very clear day, sunny and hot, we got to enjoy it to the maximum. I arranged a private driver for the whole day (thanks to my colleagues). Upon arrival we walked towards the cable car to get on top of the wall, and walked around for a couple of hours. Loads of stairs by the way! Pfew! But I’ve never seen such a sight in my life, wonderful!
Tuesday was the last day I got to enjoy with Loïc and Daphnée as after that I got back to work. We started the day off with visiting the Summer Palace. This place is as incredible as I had hoped for and we wandered around for several hours! For lunch we went to a cool dumpling place, then we visited the Drum and Bell towers. After that we walked in some hutongs (typical Chinese alleys). Finishing this walk we went over to Beihai Lake and got ourselves a little boat for an hours enjoying sunset and lastly we ate some Peking Duck in a delicious little place!
Again, I was really happy I got to see them for 3 days, it was really lovely to be able to show them around ‘my life’ here in Beijing J. And they were also quite happy having someone who can take them to some places and who can speak a little bit of Chinese as it makes it easier for their first days!
Wednesday I had a pretty standard day at work. After work however I picked up my first tailor-made suite and to celebrate that I went to a bar, the Trouble Bar, with my boss. We had a couple of beers there before heading out, in quite a happy mood ;).
The days after that we’re pretty normal but I was SUPER tired hahah! Yesterday however, I participated for the first time in teaching migrant children for MFC (Migrant Children Foundation). It was quite eye-opening to participate and I got to see a whole new side of Beijing. I will be teaching these children (who are aged 9 – 11) every Saturday henceforth. After that I went to my private class and to finish my day I participated in a charity dinner at the Hilton Hotel (with MFC).
That’s pretty much everything for now! I tried not to make it too long ;).
Hope to see/hear from you soon!
