post olympics

coming in post olympics to beijing i can notice that the city changed a lot in one way: buildings are finished, houses are painted in & outside, prices gone up, and the city is still flagged . dvd shops & pancake shops have been closed (but sold under the counter), und outsite sitting in the bars was not allowed.

but on the other hand everything goes on as usual and gets back to normal: busybusy, and now even traffice & the air is also back to previous levels.
so yesterday beeing in the olympic forrest park for a eco-toilet inspection the view of the olympic center was smoggy as usual , and you can guess the birdsnest, swimstadium and co.

busy beijing

jippe, back in beijing, super nice here. 4 days passed already in rapid high speed, and it seems i am pretty occupied with having a lot of dinners & lunches with the friends & colleagues. and i am starting to get already "busy" - beijing style.
the most fun part: meeting vicky & alex, who have a nice atelier now in the hutong, which we explored by bikes. so fun!

my new Love....

...i call him "Javier".
this is the most successfull love affair of this year, the little car I rented untill end of the year: the RAV 4. and hey, it is just like me: small, lots of power, and a fat ass :) i just dont run automatically....

chinese visa

oh dear , here my little re-cap of HOW TO OBTAIN A CHINESE VISA... or at least how it went for me






step1. go to chinese embassy in Kampala. wait some 2 hours without beeing served. then sit the ugandan staff in the face, say that you are foreigner and want to go as a tourist. :oh, we have to wait for our boss, mr. Xu'. after another hour, Mr. Xu is still not coming, and still not available per phone... then the office is about to close, not serving some 6-7 other ugandans who have been with me since the morning. officer to me: "You indian girl, you come back other day" eh, i am not indian. i am a german wanting to go as tourist. " you have your flight" - yes " you have your invitation? " - no i dont need. " hotel booking" aehhh, no. " now stricter rules, you come back next month" ...???!!!!

Step 2: trying to book a hotel. via elong its an easy job, but rumours make it that one need a direct Hotel reservation. so thos hotels dont give me one. so moilized a lot of people in China (thanks again to all of you!) to check local hotels. at least 3 choice hotel didnt book LaoWeis. uh, just like the old communistic times. Matthias finally succeeded, cuase time is running short, and i am also travelling upcountry. Thanks so much to his huuge effort.

Step 3: call chinese embassy, cause apparently the day where i wanted to apply fopr tegh visa is a spontanious publuc holiday. "sorry, our computer programm is broken, we cant issue visa for non-ugandans" ????? - and now? " we cant do it" - when will it be repaired? "we dont know...- so change your holdidays" but ive done my flight & hotel booking as you requested! ' sorry, maybe you go to kenya or germany" ARGHHH!!!

so what to do?....

Step 4: luckily i am so smart and could send my passport to germany, engageing a visaexpress-service. and luckily i am flying via germany anyway to participate in a conference in october. and luckiyly emial, online banking, fed-ex and ingeborg all is in place, and now i have my chinese visa in my passport!!!!!

so, i am flying from 24th Sep- 12 Oct to BJ, looking forward to meet the best friends among the 16 Million people there, and spending time with them, doing serious shopping of flashlights and shoes, and and and. BEIJING, WO JIU LAI!

i pack my luggage....

for 3 weeks holidays in china!! end sep- mid october. jipeeee!!!

wonderful westnile

again apologize for very unfrequent postings the last months, but i ve been busy busy busy, and also travelled upcountry to nothern most Uganda to prepare the DEDs interventions in the energy sector. so i ve been travelling for the last 4-5 weeks with a colleague who helped me substaintial to achieve it. travelling there is on the one hand stress (raods transport and lack of emials) on the other hand it reliefs from daily management stress in Kampala. so i am going early to bed and sleep some more hours.
i like the West Nile, did i memtion this earlier? Arua , the local capital is a very busy town with population officially around 50,000 but raising during daytime up to 200,000. business with sudan and kongo are doing good. although suffering from insurgency the last 10-15 years, the people are very friendly once you adressed them in local language Lugbara:
how are you- MEGONE
i am fine- MAMUKE
no- IYO
yes - EEEEE

there is a such nice market in Arua, with lots of stalls with fabrics from kongo and uganda. i love to stroll around and look at the different patterns and creative local clothes design.