a roaring 20ies epicness

I mentioned this many times before. I have the most amazing friends. And they make the most amazing parties!!

Especially Sven and Stefanie (>>her blog)! They are the masters of Beijing house parties (partly because of amazing house *cough* *cough*, but especially because of their never ending passion in organizing the best house party YET. After I was not in Beijing at their first themed party (dead celebrities), I vowed I wouldn’t miss any other, they have topped themselves with an incredible Hawaii party that nobody thought could get any better. However, they still managed to up their game and threw this amazing 20ies Gatsby bash! It was also a late birthday party for Stefanie, including champagne pyramid, drop hems and even burlesque dancers from our friend’s group Moonglow Burlesque!

Check out these great pics taken by our talented friend Laurent Hou:


What I loved the most is that all of our friends (we were probably around 50 people in the end) made an effort to dress up! Even the boys – you know guys are usually not too much into dressing up – were bow tie clad and rocking those suspenders! Everyone looked so glamorous and fancy! A truly amazing party. I am dying to see what you come up with next guys! :P

xxx

 

my ups and downs 2014

I wanted to do a little recap of 2014, but instead of doing a general rundown of my year, I decided to thing of the moments that made 2014 special and that will stand out from the rest. Here are my little highlights 2014:

The Highs:

Adopting our dog Ally who had been literally scarred by life by her previous owner who made her fight other dogs for money. She developed from a shy and scared-by-every moment to a loving, playful puppy. It shows once more that the owner determines what the dog is like.



One of my highlights of 2014 were the amazing events I was working at with my company – the best one being the AMG and G-Class Test drive in May in the desert of Ordos, Inner Mongolia. Driving through the sand dunes and riverbeds with the G-Class will be something I never forget. The SLS on the racing track wasn’t half bad too… ;)



2014 was the year of trips – I got to get out of Beijing and explore the area around the capital a lot more. I climbed two different parts of the great wall and went hiking in the mountains north of Beijing every other weekend. The landscapes in China amaze me time and time again.


Another thing on my bucket list of 2014 was to see some more cities in China – and the Ice and Snow festival in Harbin was on the very top. A city carved out of ice and gigantic snow sculptures – only in China! Qingdao was one of my favorites this year two. Probably my most fun weekend 2014 with my German roommates in a German-Chinese beer city!

 

2014 was most definitely the year of amazing parties! My favorites are house parties – all your friends together, cheap endless booze and music you can choose! Better than any club in my opinion! Endlessly grateful for my friends in Beijing. Love you all loads!



THE ONE AND ONLY most amazing thing that happened to me was being able to go and live 2 months in the US. From July to September 2014 I got to live one month in New York and one in LA. I had always dreamed about living in the big apple one day and didn’t even know how much I would fall in love with Los Angeles. Wish I could go back ASAP!

The lows….

Unfortunately 2014 was not just the year of travelling and happiness. Of course there are always days you’re feeling down but there are those days that just make you want to lay down and cry. 2014 I lost a dear friend, a brother… I will always remember you.

xxx

sunday update #2

Hey lovelies!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend! I’s been around one and a half weeks since I am back in China and it’s been hell busy as expected.

 

I am back at my new job and dived right into many new projects so it’s all very exiting and fun! I sure hope it stays that way because people keep telling me that every job starts out great and then the routine catches up with you and once the excitement cools down it gets a bit boring after a while. I am however determined not to let that happen… and fortunately there are some business trips and cool events lined up so I guess it won’t be boring for a while!

 

Meanwhile the weather is bad. Really bad. And when you are talking weather in China you usually don’t mean the sun and rain but the pollution. January is famous for being one of the worst months in the year pollution wise and it just hit a year’s high of over 600 – the highest score since January 2013. Just to put that into perspective for you – that’s 52 times the recommended score by the World Health Association. So going out is not that fun (plus it is really freaking cold) so we spend most of our time indoors…

 

…which still doesn’t keep us from having fun! Last weekend we celebrated a friend’s birthday with a day on the go-kart course, Japanese munchies and a wild night in the clubs - and the next curing our hangovers with manicures and martinis. Oh and I got my hair cut – finally! About 10cm are off and I got blonder but I’ll show you the results another time…

 

This weekend my French flatmate moved out. It was sad to see him leave and not knowing who will move in next – but we celebrated it worthy of the time we spend together.

I am off to go Ice skating on Houhai now. Enjoy your weekend!

Saw -  The emperor’s groove – we love this for a movie night in, Pretty Little Liars – I got hooked! 

Listened -  Tom Odell – Another Love

Learned -   Chinese

Ate – Typical Chinese breakfast, and a massive French cheese fest at my French friends house!

Read -  Game of Thrones

Drank -  Too much at the farewell party…

Thought – I need to work out…

Wished -  That my boyfriend was back from his business trip already!

Bought -  nothing! I am resisting the Sales by just not entering any shop!

 

Sunday Update #1

Thought I’d start doing a little weekly update on life and what is happening and what day would be more suitable than Sunday? (Of course I know that this is not a new idea but it’s not like I could care less.)

So it’s the first Sunday of the year and I just drove my sis to the rail station to catch her train back to Vienna. In two days I will be leaving for Beijing again and it felt like these couple of weeks went in a blink of an eye. I managed to see all my best friends, spend a lot of time with my family and even sneaked in some nice little shopping (Primark hehe) but I always feel a certain melancholy when I pack my bags and leave for another place. When I am in Germany I don’t want to leave, when I am in London I want to stay and I never want to say goodbye to Beijing. I am still waiting desperately for a teleport so that I can finally be at all the places and with all the people I love…

I am starting my new job in a couple of days which is very exiting (I did work there for a trial period of a week already to see if it suits me) and I am looking forward to a couple of interesting projects. Of course I am also missing my friends in Beijing and can’t wait to see them again.

Unfortunately a new job always means that you have fewer holidays and it might be a while until I am back home again. Thinking about the future always troubles me a little because I didn’t really choose the easiest path and there are always sticks and stones in the way that you have to get past in order to achieve your goals. But I guess it will all be worth it in the end and there are so many great things that are happening on the way so stick to your dreams and make it happen. 2014 is going to be a great year.

2014 is going to be my year.

What I did this week:

• Saw -  Doctor’s Diary – An awesome German TV series from a couple of years back
• Listened -  Lorde - Royals
• Learned -   a bit about HTML/Design, a little bit Chinese vocab
• Ate – Sushi, sushi, sushi.
• Read -  HTML/Web hosting/design tutorials
• Drank -  All the (non alcoholic) leftovers from NYE
• Thought -  Why do so many things go wrong when you really need them to work
• Wished -  to be at home for one more week
• Bought -  a couple of bits and pieces from the sale + Primark craziness

Happy new year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014!

 

Hey Lovelies! I hope you had a great start in 2014!

 

I celebrated the new year with my closest friends and of course we had to play around with the sparklers haha! We had a great night with Raclette, silly games and lots of drinking till 4.30am… now I am a little bit dead (and ill – seems like I brought a cold into the new year) but very happy and looking forward to an eventful 2014!

 

I am planning to travel a lot and make the most of what is to come; I hope you are looking forward to what 2014 has to offer as much as I do!

All the best!

 

xxx

 

Almost forgotten…

Just found these pictures on my external hard drive! They were taken around the same time last year with my lovelies Kerstin from Mademoiselleroy and Van Ahn from Chopstick panorama when we went to a market in London… kinda can’t remember which one it was… was it Borough Market?

Anyways. It made me miss London a bit and especially all my friends who I left behind when I moved to China. I found many great new friends in Beijing too but it’s sad that you can’t have them all around you at all times.

In this regard a big hug to my friends in London – I miss you! <3

xxx

Hello... from China!

The Temple next door: Yonghegong.

 

Well... I guess it has been a while... hasen't it?

So where do I start?

I guess the title gives it away: I am in CHINA. Beijing more specifically. When I first got here I was faced with 2 major problems that prevented me from Blogging:
1) No laptop of my own (only from my company), therefore:
2) No VPN (which you need in China to get access to websites such as Facebook, Twitter AND Blogger.
For the ones who haven't heard it yet: China likes to block websites. Nuff said.
After I had solved 1) - remind me to tell the ordeal of buying a laptop in China one day - and finally even 2) I was simply so busy enjoying my life here that blogging was always on my mind but never on my schedule. But today I am off so instead of enjoying the glorious weather I finally get around to explain.

If you have been reading my blog carefully you will know that I had been planning this for a while but if you don't here is the story:

Last year I graduated from Uni in June. I partied for one month and then decided to get serious and find a job. And so I did... After a couple of months it just so happened that I got offered an internship in Shanghai and when I told them they offered me to work in our office in Beijing. So in February 2013 the day finally came, I packed all my belongings in about 400 boxes (give and take 300), locked it in storage and flew off to Beijing.

Now I have to say I am not someone who plans things through and through; I wanted to live in Asia... so I took the chance I got. I did have a crash course of Mandarin but it was nowhere near sufficient as I found out soon enough - when I tried to check into a Hotel. None of the staff spoke a word of English and if it hadn't been for my lovely colleague I would have been lost from day 1. Said colleague helped me with everything (which I will be forever grateful for); getting a 3G sim card (don't even ask), finding a flat, registering stuff and principally surviving in China.

I have decided that I will not tell the whole story in one post because that would take forever and I doubt anyone has the patience to read it so here is just a first batch of Instagram pics of the journey:

   

On my first plane at Heathrow Airport and sunset in Amsterdam before boarding an incredibly big Airbus filled with 90% Chinese travelers. I guess I have to get used to that. As well as getting used to using hand signs instead of language because the flight attendants don't seem to speak English... sigh.

   

Finally relax at the hotel... Chinese water is my highlight of the day.

And because I am particularly lucky I got one of the first flu of my life the next day. Struck down in bed for 5 days while there are fireworks outside like the world is ending. Happy lantern festival!

Enough time to watch Chinese soap operas. Needless to say I have no clue what's going on. Not that it matters in Soap Operas anyways.

   

Best thing to settle in: Start working! My savior and little angel: My colleague Lucky aka Little Panda. | The view from our office on the 16th floor. | Work.

   

Time to start exploring the city. My first visit: Tiananmen square! Hi Mao! | Just 5 min from my house: Great restaurants and old traditional Chinese houses: Hutongs!

 

 

Queuing for IKEA. | People where actually sleeping in the beds and on the sofas. The Chinese take "Try before you buy" very seriously.

 

LUNCH. Ususally between 1-2 Euros. Can get used to that.

   

SMOG. Will never get used to that.

 

COMFORT FOOD.

New friends. It’s starting to feel like home.

 

Don’t forget the parties!

Finally feel like I arrived in China.

 

xxx

 

Ines