Busy Bee

Again I've been lacking in my blogging duties, but this time at least I have a good excuse! I've just been tooooo busy! (Aint nobody got time for that)

On Wednesday I met up with a spanish girl, Angela, and we went for dinner and then ended up meeting two Australians and going for cocktails, and then before we knew it, it was 2 AM and I had to be up at 7 for work!! So I grabbed a taxi, a surprisingly easy task, and was tucked up in bed by 2.30. I was so glad to have a bit of a night out though, after a year in Newcastle my body was starting to go into shock!

The guys we met were working out here, and I reckon probably had a lot more money than a poor student like me, so they took us to some really nice places, unfortunately they obviously weren't rich enough to pay for our drinks too, so it was a bit of a pricey night! Beijing may be cheap, but head to the western expat areas and youre paying almost London prices. One of the places we went called Migas, had a roof terrace which had an amazing view over Sanlitun, and the terrace was really nice. Unfortunately I didnt get my own picture but here's one I found online:

We went to a couple of other bars too in the same building, called Fez which had a roof terrace too and Apothecary. It was a nice evening weather wise, not too humid and clear skies so was lovely to sit outside. We even saw some stars which in Beijing is a rare sight!

I stayed at Simons thursday night, and was treated to a dance show by Nat and Imi before dinner, there were tickets and everything! Then just relaxed and went to bed. The good thing about staying at the boss' house is when he is going in late, I get to too! So this morning we dropped Natalie off at her first day of school and we got shown her classroom(s). The school was really impressive they have a science lab in infant school!! As well as a cooking classroom, and music studios, I wanted to stay for the day!!

So we didn't get into work until about 10am, which made my day go much quicker, although I've actually been quite busy doing a marketing project at the moment which has been really interesting. Simon said today that I could have some time off every day to do intensive chinese classes if I wanted, so I'm going to look into finding a school near work so I can learn a bit more!

In the car this morning, Natalie decided I needed a chinese name so after much hilarity and laughing her head off making up silly names like curly head, but in chinese, we decided she wasnt allowed to pick! But when we got back in the car Simons driver had thought of one for me. I find it so bizarre that you can just make it up but its what they do, normally you would go to an elderly, respected chinese person and they would spend a lot of time to think of it, but Mr Tang will do for me! So my Chinese name is Wang, Ying Xia. The second name always goes first for some reason, he described it as my first name meaning english sunshine, and then the second name literally means King, but is often added to make the person sound more important, and he also decided Wang sounded a bit like Wilde and that the lion is the king of the jungle!! Some logic behind there somewhere. Simon told me about his name I can quite remember what it is but its something like born again, because he wanted it to reflect renewable energy - like I said bizarre! My next challenge is learning to write it, most of it is simple, wang and ying are both simple characters but xia is a 17 stroke character, so will probably take a while to learn that one!

Got a busy weekend ahead of me, tomorrow I am waking up early to go to the Zoo Market, which is a wholesale clothes market, and you have to go early because its where all thee boutiques go to get their stock and it gets very busy and sells out quickly. So my aim is to leave here at 7AM!! But I'll hopefully be able to get back and have a nap before the ayi comes to clean, and the market is only one subway stop away so I dont have far to go. Ill probably go to the gym in the afternoon, and then in the evening I am meeting up with Angela again and another Australian, but a different one! Then hopefully we are going to meet up with some other expats and have a bit of a night out which will be fun.
Sunday I am off to the country side for the day, I think its some kind of gorge, Adrian - Sarahs brother -  asked me to go, theyre camping there saturday night but because I already had plans Im going out on Sunday with some other people. I don't really know much about where we're going but I will tell you more when I've been!

A long post today to make up for all the missed ones! Been here 4 weeks now, gone so fast, and its just getting good!
xxx