This past week we had skype meeting with our supervisor regarding the thesis. We're now half way through and this experience has been truly interesting. We'd be lying if we said we haven't been struggling. We are in a quite unique situation and we're truly greatful to have been given this opportunity. But conducting a research without access to neither a library nor a supervisor has been proven quite a challange. Obviously we were aware of that fact before coming here and tried to prepare as much as we could. But, when you've never written a thesis before it's hard to know what to expect. Along the process we've changed our focus once, twice, three times... We've lost count. However, this change is a natural part of the process. If you run into issues, which most likely will happen once or twice, you need to adjust thereafter.
 
 
 
 
It makes us wonder, if we would have chosen to write this thesis at home, with unlimited access to books and supervisor, would it have been better? Of course our theoretical framwork would have been deeper and better but how about the research? We would have lacked in the invaluable experience we have gained at Yabroad. We wouldn't change this for anything in the world. And for our fathers Bosse and Micke, and our friends thank you for all your help and support! We could not have done this without you. I, Thamwika, always say that you're only as great as the people around you and you guys makes us the best.
 
And as for our thesis, the first 50% is approved!
 
Sightseeing in Yuyuan Garden, a classical garden in the middle of Shanghai, which stood finished in 1577. 
 
 
A boat! What should I do with it?
 
 
Paddle around the dam of course!
 
Watching the crowds of tourists...
 
 
...feed the fish. Look at the one in the lower left corner. Omnomnom bread!
 
 
Pretty houses
 
 
Natural posing
 
 
and covered walkways packed with souvenir stands.
China, Chinese Culture, IheartChina, Shanghai,
On Friday morning we got up early to get a head start on the thousands of Chinese people we suspected would compete with us to get on the bus to the Terracotta Warriors. We got to the bus station at about half past nine, only to discover that our efforts had been in vain. The square was already full of people who all had the same plan as us. 
 
 
However, I've have to say that this was the most well-ordered line I've seen so far in China. Mostly people push, shove and do everything in their might to squeeze past you. Not here though. The queue coiled across the square in perfect two people-wide loops, under strict supervision of guards with megaphones. There would be no skipping here. Thankfully, queueing only took about an hour and we were soon on our way. 
 
 
Well in the museum, the crowd was thick. The museum is divided into several buildnings, located around a huge square. Before getting to the actual sights we had to pass through a long stretch of souvenir stands and restaurants. With the thought that we had to carry everything we bought up a mountain in mind, we skipped buying a life-sized replica of a Terracotta warrior. As our co-worker Rina said; we can always buy them online. Kind of missing the point of buying souvenirs though.
 
 
Since we were going directly to the mountain afterwards, we did't have that much time to walk around the museum. Therefore, we went almost directly to Pit 1, which is the pit that has been most thoroughly excavated. It was here that everything started in 1974, when seven farmers found the head of a warrior when they were digging a well. The 8000 warriors were buried with the emperor Qin Shi Huang 300 B.C.
 
 
Terracotta pony!
 
 
 Proof that I was actually there. Pit one is about 200 meters long. That's a lot of warriors!
 
 
The excavation is still going on. Digging is still going on in two other pits that we unfortunately didn't have time to see. 
 
 
Taking a rest! 
 
After this morning of speed-sightseeing we continued on to our adventures in the mountain. More to come!
 
China, IheartChina, Life in China, terracotta warriors, xian,
Well, I guess it's about time to tell you all about our amazing weekend off.
All packed and ready to go!
 
Typical tourist, anyone?
 
We started off by taking the night train to Xi'an. The train was clean, the beds were comfortable and the kids in our coupé were well-behaved. 5 points out of 5 possible! We arrived at eight in the morning, ready for some intense sightseeing. 
We started off by attempting to take the bus to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a temple, which is the symbol of Xian. However, stupidly enoogh we didn't have the Chinese name of where we were going, so we ended up getting off way too early and having to take a taxi there. Well, no harm done, it only set us back about 10RMB. The Pagoda was surrounded by a beautiful Peony garden.
 
 
Buddhist temple
 
Lisa's new best friend.
 
After walking around the Pagoda for a couple of hours it was time for lunch. We got some dumplings accompanied with this drink, which was the only one the restaurant offered. It tasted kind of like flour and sugar dissolved in water. A quite peculiar taste...
 
 
After lunch we quickly moved on to the city wall. It was finished in 1644 A.D and is the world's largest city wall. As you can see from the picture it had started to rain by the time we got there. Don't worry though, we came prepared. 
 
Awesome rain capes! 
 
After walking around the wall we made our way to the hotel. 
 
After a bit of rest we went out to get dinner. We got to order the food from an iPad. Pretty hih tech. Sadly, the food wasn't all that. After dinner we went back to the hotel to sleep. We had a big day ahead of us!
China, IheartChina, Life in China, qingming,
Nantong has a population of over 7 million people, almost as many as the entire Swedish population. The only thing is, we're not really sure where they all are.
 
Hello?
 
China, Life in China, nantong,
Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Qingming festival here in China. Qingming is also called the "tomb-sweeping-day", as many Chinese people take this day to honor the memories of lost relatives and friends. Other than paying their respects Qingming festival is also a popular day to enjoy a day outside in the (hopefully) lovely spring weather while flying kites or having a picnic.
For us, Qingming festival mostly means having three days off this week. Therefore, we have decided to take a trip to Xi'an. Xi'an lies 10 hours away from here by train, proving yet again that China is a huge country. We will be going on a night train, in a so-called "hard sleeper-carriage". Hard sleeper carriages have rows upon rows of bunk beds, and, so we've heard, come with a minimal amount of privacy. Even though this may not sound so tempting, we are actually quite excited about travelling by train in China. It's probably going to be a really interesting experience. However, you are free to ask us again how we enjoyed it when we come back. 
 
 
 
In Xi'an we will visit the Teracotta Army and city wall and on Friday we are travelling to Huangshan Mountains, which are famous for their beauty. We will take lots of pictures, so stay tuned for more updates!
 
Chinese Culture, IheartChina, huangshan, qingming,
It's early saturday morning, Lisa is still sleeping and I'm sitting here with a cup of instant coffe of a questionable character and looking out our window. We've been here in China for some time now and time has really flown by. Next week is Qingming holiday and Lisa and I are off to Xi'an for a little cultural experience. Before we're off to our holiday we have to finish 50% of our thesis. I don't know if we're putting to much pressure on ourselves? We do have another 6 weeks to go before we have to submit our draft. We have a lot of expectations on our thesis and we have a lot of expectations on ourselves. But then again, ambitions has never been a bad thing, right?
 
Morning dew over a city that's slowly waking up
China, Life in China,
Easter is, for explainable reasons, not really a big thing over here. Therefore we decided to bring a little easter joy into the office today.
 
An entire basket full of...
 
 
Candy! 
 
Although we haven't seen any kids begging for candy, and we reeeeally doubt that the easter bunny is going to find us here, we're starting to get into the easter spirit. It doesn't hurt that it's been almost 20 degrees warm here today too! 
 
 
IheartChina, Life in China, easter ,
 
 
Just a regular day at the office.
China, IheartChina, Life in China, Shanghai, social media, social media marketing,
 

... you can join old ladies dancing in formation on the street at night

... you offend people if you tip them

... it's colder inside than outside

 

 

... you can by your clothes at A&M and carry it home in a Dior bag

 

... t-shirts carry deep, but totally confusing, messages

... you have to bring your own toilet paper if you want to tinkle

... life is simple and food is cheap

 

 

We took this weekend to do a little exploring in our new city. Shanghai can be described in one word, crowded! And of course very very beautiful. We got to enjoy the city skyline from a fantastic lounge called Jade on 36, which is on the top floor of hotel Shangri-La. Grooving Tiffany was singing and we ran into other Swedes with the most interesting stories.
 
I can really recommend Jade on 36 for anyone who visits Shanghai. I think I might like it even more than my all time favorite place 230 5th ;-)
 
Crowd at Nanjing Road
 
 
Lisa and the Skyline 
 
A dream for a jazz-lover like me
 
China, IheartChina, Life in China, Shanghai,

It's about time to tell you what we have done here in China so far.

We got here, after almost a 30 hour trip because of delays in Moscow. Since we were delayed we missed the bus that would take us straight to Nantong, and because we had three HUGE bags plus our cabin bags we had to take a taxi. The trip from the airport to Nantong is normally about 1,5 hours with a car, however it took us a bit longer...

Our first taste of chinese air

The guy who picked us up didn't speak a word of english, and had a car about the size of a peanut, with Tom and Jerry painted on the side. Getting our bags in the car was like a giant game of tetris. During the ride he jabbered on in chinese (we answered in swedish which made him look really happy), drank cupious amounts of tea and stopped at every intersection to look at the signs. Despite that last precaution ha added about ten km to our trip with every turn. We thought we would never reach our destination. Thankfully, after about two and a half hours we got to our place and even got help carrying our bags up the six flights of stairs. We see the driver at the gates to our neighbourhood sometimes and he always looks really happy to see us. Now that we know we made it here alive, we're really glad to see him too! 

For the last days we've just been learning how things work at Yabroad and started working on structuring our thesis. We've been to dinner and to the gym with the people we work with, and so far everyone's been really nice! 

Lunch in the park outside the office