Hello everyone,
Our apologies for updating you all so late… No News Is Good News!
Thanks everybody for your interest, it is always fun to read your comments.
In short our high lights, there is a busy schedule every week. 24 hours a day is not enough!
Once I arrived on 17 October, my lovely sister welcomed me with a smile from ear to ear.
When we got outside, I had the feeling it was foggy, because it was still early: 9 am in the morning. (later, it stayed foggy for two weeks)
And there I was, in the center of Beijing, with some cash and a Chinese bike.
Parks where elderly people are coming together to have a chat/ playing Chinese chess, doing some Tai Chi etc.
Green traffic light means Go. Yellow light means Go. Red light means Go. Traffic rules are guidelines, not necessary to follow.
Chinese elevator in China can host 20 people (1.5x1.5 m2), this same elevator in western countries would host 6 – 8 people!
Esther set me up with a private tutor for private class Mandarin J It is awesome.
That evening Esther and I were invited to the Grand Opening of the Westin Hotel – there was no time for jetlag.
The next day we went to a Dutch Cabaret, they flew over two Dutch comedians.
The first month was kind of summer-ish. People were wearing long sleeves and autumn jackets. I still walked around with flipflops & t-shirt 
.
Nowadays it’s much colder. Luckily Beijing’s central heating system went on half of November.
The weekend after (25 Oct) we had a chat and a drink our Dutch Prime Minister JP Balkenende.
The Great Wall was in the agenda. We rented a van + driver. On the way to the Great Wall the V-belt ‘V-snaar’ broke while driving. The driver said – “What is the use of that thing, can’t we drive without it?” and so we kept going for 90 more minutes.
One word, the wall was breath taking (Jin San Ling – Si Ma Tai 10km) – muscles ache for 1 week.
A Fiat Test Drive – in the newest Fiats. I think it was the first and last time we’ll ever drive in China. It was awesome. Fiat hired 10 professional Ferrari drivers. Just hop in, and buckle up they shake you literally through the car. After the test round you do the same thing… so we did, inexperienced off we go in separate brand new cars.
“Snack-street” with all kinds of food & snacks. There were nice snacks, meatballs & corn on a stick, coconut drinks, but also weird things we rather do not see on a stick like bugs /insects, sea-horses, sea-stars and scorpions…
On the streets people sell various kinds of snacks, grilled sweet potatoes, Chinese pancakes, fresh popcorn, boiled corn, fruits and much more.
Gala Ball – it was great, we were lucky that evening. For charity purposes we could buy lucky draw tickets, and so we won for two persons a return ticket including hotel, meals and activities to Si Chuan – Chengdu (where the earthquake was).
Grand opening and wine-party, lots of people and models walking around in tarzan/jane suits.
Our housemate’s mom visited her daughter. She made us traditional typical noodles, to celebrate Lisa’s birthday – long noodles, long life – it was delicious.
Busy busy busy, we totally forgot to top-up our electricity-card… which means,… no electricity… so it happened again. We really have to get used to this
Thanksgiving in Beijing, feels like the US again. Good memories huge turkey (not easy to find in China), pumpkin pie, etc. ect.
