Dreaming away

Early morning, breakfast in the open cockpit under clear blue skies.
The seagulls are crying in the distant as they hunt for their own food. Perfect weather, no wind in our bay and you can almost hear the wasps buzz about a few meters up shore, it’s postcard perfect.
You secure for sea, and lose the beam lines, raise the anchor and prepare to make way; it’ll be clear beautiful day at sea.
Clear the deck and ease out on the throttle, remove the main sail cover and take her up in irons.
Hoist the mainsail, and bear away as you let the jib out, let the colors fly in the wind and shut the engine off. Set your course and adjust your tack angle and beat south. The silence set’s in as the wind fills the main and the jib, the speed sets in and a pull on the main sheet brings her up to come about around the outer reef markers, grab the wheel, feel the sea pull a little in the rudder almost as a welcome, you’re in control, freedom ahead. Perfection, the sea the sun, nature at it’s best and purest form, hearing the water beat against the beam, ahh perfection ahh freedom…..
Beeep beeep beeep,(mp3 out of batteries)  “xia yi zhan shanxinan lu (下一站陕西南路) next stop shanxi road”
Who said that? What!!
Where am I?
Right,
on the subway on my way to school, on a Tuesday morning, and I’m actually not alone… Was I singing along to old Louis “wonderful world” as I was dreaming myself away to a, let’s call it "a more peaceful place" than the number one shanghai metro line on a rainy Tuesday morning during the Parksson sale (the department store on top of my station)?
How embarrassing, the older lady across from me smiles when she sees my confused facial expression as I realize I've been singing out loud and I slur out some mix of Chinese, English and Swedish, would that be French(?) and explain that I’m not awake yet.
Her smile turns into a giggle and a few others join her, thank God this is my stop. I spend the rest of the day feeling completely out of place, not knowing what is up and down, actually, I spend the whole week felling like that.

Shanghai is great, fantastic and the best place in the world to be, but this time of year with the constant rain, the cold northern wind, the fact that I always manage to catch the rush our on the subway, and the otherwise high paced life that you live here (that I normally enjoy and really, can’t wait to get back to when away from it), sometimes, these last few days, makes you want to take a break and spend a few days down on some beach where you could read a book under a warm sunny sky.
You know reading a book that’s in English or Swedish, that’s not about Chinese history or grammatical rules, a book you can read and comprehend as you down drinks that could only be described as what a rainforest would look like if it would turn gay and decide to come out strong,lot's of sparkling stuff and green leaves, never mind, they get the job done  right? Oh, to be allowed to doze off on some tropical island and just forget about the world for a day or two just to recharge you know.

God how I hate the fact that at the time you feel like you need a vacation the most, is also the time when you can’t take it, well, that is sort of a given isn’t it? The rule of wanting what you can’t have applies here too. I guess you are just going to have to come up with a way to cope with the everyday life and push on through until the next vacation, the next time you can lay down on a warm beach and just read.
Well in the meantime I guess you’ll just have to learn to appreciate the smaller things in life like the color of the sky or the feel of a cool spring breeze on your face……….

what was that?

 the sky is as grey as the berlin wall and the breeze is bloody freezing!                                                          Send me off to a Thai beach at once please!

Well be well out there!

Cheers!

Rain

It's raining in Shanghai, last week we had 23 degrees up here, sun and no wind.

This week it's 5 degrees, rain and windy.

Last week I was just about to take the bike out and start biking to school again, but just listening to the rain outside my window now,, well I don't want to think about it.

I've kept my self rather busy lately, had a TOEFL test,(english proficiency test), tuitions and test fees to pay that sure takes it's good old time in China (spent at least one and a half working day in banks during the last two weeks), at same time I'm preparing for a HSK test that's in April (need to know how to write 3000 characters they say now). On top of that I'm trying to make like a hundred study plans for all the universities that I'll apply for soon, as well as trying to obtain all the documents, certificates and letters of recommendation that I also need for that. And being a complete idiot, I of course combine all this with a couple of late nights out in the ever so lovely shanghai bar scene,,, you know, just to add a little hangover to the pressure. 

Thou I must say that, letting go of the things that you in the weeks try to control and just be for a few hours and do some crazy stuff where you just don't care,  is what I think is keeping me sane, but maybe that is just because I've already gone insane I think that?

Anyway, it's been a few busy days, weeks, eh a month...

and it'll continue that way for a while I suppose, with the upcoming wedding of Hans and Jane, the tests, and the 400 000 forms that needs to be filled in for uni, but I shall not complain, life is still to good for that!

All the best and hold on out there, the heat will soon come back to us!

/Gus

Speaking my mind

Good morning!
 It is here anyway, morning, or will be soon. I just woke up, and it’s 04.40 right now and I just can’t go back to sleep.  I’m going to be a bit blunt, and speak my mind today.  That so wasn’t my intent when I started this blog, a whole two days ago but well, I don’t care! Maybe this could be a place for me to vent a bit and speak my mind. In doing so I’ll probably end up offending one or two people out there, and I suppose I should apologize in advance for that……well……

 What’s on my mind today, and maybe what’s keeping me up at this unholy hour is a conversation I had with a guy, just so happened to be an American, yesterday, places and names left out but let’s call him “Tom”.
I think me and “Tom” had a pretty normal conversation for being two foreigners living in Shanghai at first.
“the weather is shit right now”
“yeah really crappy, but it’ll get better soon”
“how long have you been here, and what are you doing here?”
The usual crap really, well for starters.
After a while thou Tom started listing all the things about China, and the Chinese that he didn’t like and that he thought was wrong. Yes, China isn’t perfect, but hey we (foreigners) are all here voluntarily. And Toms list was a long one (the longest one I’ve had to listen to so far).

Not seeing any point in arguing with him nor stating what should be the obvious, that if he didn’t like it, as I’m sure nobody is holding a gun to his head forcing him to stay, he could just leave China and go work someplace else, I just listened.
A bit amused by his take on China, and the Chinese as well as surprised at how little he knew about China and the culture he lives in, I was becoming more and more annoyed and frankly on behalf of all my Chinese friends and family offended by his choice of words, when referring to the Chinese (those are my friends and family you are talking about). He used words that, well you just don’t use them. What bothered me the most with Tom was his total lack of respect for his hosts, and that he so sincerely expressed his dislikes using racist terms, condemning an entire people, but at the same time he was ok with living and prosper in the same country, among the same people he so obviously dislikes.

Maybe it’s not such a big thing, I’m sure he doesn’t call a Chinese person by racist terms to his or her face, and would probably never use those words at all if a Chinese person would have been present at the time of our conversation and would never make the kind of implications that he did with me with a Chinese person, so they wouldn’t really have to suffer his bigotry. But it bugged me that he got to be here and enjoy all the perks of Shanghai while being this to put it in plain english Jackass. In my humble opinion it’s a privilege to be living here, and even if you don’t think so, as a voluntary guest in a foreign country you should consider it that, and act there after.
And then this guy comes along and tells me this place is no good, which to be fair he’s entitled to think, and I guess say as well, but insulting my friends and family as well as his own hosts I just can’t take. Yesterday I didn’t say anything and for that I’m ashamed, I could probably just have mentioned that my aunt and my cousin are Chinese and he would have stopped, but I didn’t (and I’m kicking myself for it) so this is me telling all off all the Toms in at least China.

I don’t say that just because you live in a different country you should take any kind of crap the locals are throwing at you, I don’t and I don’t think I should, all I’m saying is that while not taking any crap, you shouldn’t throw any either. Tom does.

The reason I felt that I needed to get this out is that this is not the first time I’ve met a Tom.
If this would have been a one time thing, I just happened to run into a ignorant bigot from “who cares where”, I would have let this go, but it wasn’t the first time I’ve met a Tom weather be from Sweden, the states, the UK or someplace else here in Shanghai, and it surprises me to be honest. You would figure that somebody that has the experience of living in another country would be more open-minded, that is at least what I think it has done to me.

I love this place and to be fair so does 90 maybe 95% of all the foreigners I’ve meat here too, and 90 maybe 98% of all the Chinese you meet greets you with kindness and welcome, but the Toms in this world could so easily destroy that, and to some extant it is already happening.

So what I really want to say with this, is to you Toms out there, don’t ruin Shanghai for those of us who really like this place, it doesn’t matter where you come from, if you live here, are here on vacation or just passing by, in China you are representatives of all foreigners and your behavior effects the way Chinese people look at me and my foreign friends here, that all really love this place. I suppose this goes for all countries you visit or may live in outside your own, but I’m here so this is about Shanghai. And if you don’t like it, keep it to your self while you are here and just apply some common curtsy to our host the people of Shanghai, China.

 

All the best

Gus

 

 

BTW, I have nothing personal against people named Tom, I just don’t happen to have any friends named that, so that’s why I used it.

Back home again.,,(like 3 weeks late)

Iguess this’ll be a pretty old post once you get to read it, but it doesn’t matter right? 

Anyway, this is me starting out my “blogging”, and letting “the world” know what I’m up to.

Seems like I was right, wrote this in January 12th so it's been a while, just haven't gotten around to it yet. 

Anyway (three weeks ago), 

I just made it back from an awesome christmas holiday in Sweden, it was my first christmas back home in 3 years I think (correct me if I’m wrong), so it was really nice, all though I must admit, I did miss Shanghai some, this year as all our friends here in Shanghai we’re staying in town for xmas, 

even long time Shanghai resident Kari with wife Jennifer and son Mika, who recently moved to Thailand flew back up for the holidays, so it would have been a good one here as well. 

But it was really nice to be back home for the holidays, so I’m not sorry I went home.

Sweden was just really nice and Christmassy, and it was just nice to catch up with the family again, some I’ve not seen in a very long time now.

And it was good to get to spend some holiday quality time with all my grandparents, who are all getting older. 

And it just great to play a bit with my godson Henrik who has grown up a lot. 

In the last few years that I've been away he's turned into to this funny little fellow, and I’m now able to talk with him which is great, and he loves transformers. Just had to mention that, cause all cool kids like transformers right? 

And let’s not forget about my mothers home cooked christmas-food that no matter how hard we try over here to make it the same, it just isn’t made by mum. 

Also, it was just great catching up with old friends, most of them are now leaving Sweden as well (abandoning ship or what is going on?), I honestly don’t know when I’ll get to see them all again, since we all will be on different schedules, maybe it's now we get to have those airport drinks before off in different directions we used to talk about Alex? 

 

And I got to celebrate new years eve with all my closest friends, which was great, have not done that in like 4 years, that was a real nice tradition to bring back, even thou new years eve was cut a bit short due to a real early start, to be completely honest, I don't really have any memories after midnight except for being almost home and wanting to have some Mc Donalds but is was closed at 2 am... what's with that? seriously, somebody should see to it that you can get a proper meal at 2 am after downing copious amounts of red wine, champagne whiskey and beer for like 6-7 hours. It was all in all a good new years eve.  

Well it was just really fun to just catch up and have a few beers with friends and family after not seeing them for a while. 

Which reminds me, going out for a beer in Stockholm,. what’s with all the regulations and laws regarding serving something as simple as a cold beer?

10 ID checks and you have to check your jacket in at the wardrobe for a 20-40SEK? (I’ve been away from the swedish night life way to long not to get pissed about all these little things).

Well we did have some good times despite some annoying rules and regulations. My only regret is that  I got to spend so little time with each of my friends and family.  Well that’s xmas right? If you add it all up it’s like a 100 family dinners in like 10 days and then trying to find some time when everyone is free at the same time, talk about your mission impossible.

Well leaving Sweden was a tiny bit sad as it meant that the holidays were over and it was time to go back to everyday life again as well as it’ll now be a while again before reuniting with the sweden swedes. Though it’s not to bad, in only two weeks now, and it is time to celebrate the chinese lunar new year. 

And hey going back also means I got to check out Felicia again, my newest cousin, born in december (4th), and who after not seeing her for three weeks has grown a lot.

Hope u all had a good xmas and a happy new year!

Cheers 

Gus