A long blogpost – The Angry Vs. The Happy list (China Edition)

Since you know how fond I am of my happy lists, I decided I should dedicate one to our trip to China. (Shame on me for not writing anything about that already). Though, China didn’t always made me happy. The first email I sent to my friends and family back home started with the sentence: Do I like China? I find it hard to answer that question with just one answer. So, that’s why this time there’s not only a happy list.. but, also a ‘angry’ list! Let’s kick off with the negative one right ;)

1. Okay, maybe this is a bit more our fault since we totally underestimated this as a potential problem, but: why doesn’t anyone in China speak English? For instance, without the name of your hotel in Chinese for the taxidriver you’re totally lost. Asking for directions, wondering what kind of meat is inside your noodles (bullfrog? Snake?), asking if you’re room is ready.. forget it. *Deep sight*
2. Angry list China Edition  a.k.a. the things in China that I didn’t like
3. Their manners. Spitting, gurgling, farting, burping, sweating, smelling, scratching and any other dirty verbs ending with –ing. Constantly! Everywhere!
4. The way they drive. One hand is either holding a phone or is pressing the horn, the other one is either stirring or using the handbrake (why is that anyway?). They pass fully loaded trucks while we’re approaching a hill or a dangerous bend in the road and I just close my eyes. Seriously, do Chinese people have the infinite life, without us knowing it?
5. I just love my breakfast. And I also really need my breakfast. But nooooo I do not want rice, pork chops, pickled vegetables, smoked fish, seaweed or any other inappropriate food as the first thing I eat in the morning. I’m not totally a culture barbarian, so I tried some dumplings, sushi, sate and even some of their ‘delicious’ hot orange juice. But nope, it’s not my cup of tea.
6. Okay, this may sound really rude and bad, but why are there so many Chinese! And why do they always want to visit the same things at the same time? They clearly don’t mind waiting in long, long, long lines (since they’re obviously used to it), but I don’t! When we’ve visited the Forbidden City, I really wanted to make some pictures of the beautiful temples and squares. Think again, when you take a picture, it’s almost 90% filled with Chinese people and hey isn’t that little dot the top of a temple..  Great photo!

Hmm, I could go one with this list for a little while, but that’s not the right state of mind. So let’s move over to the positive side okay? (I just had my first yoga lesson, so I’m totally into this *homm.. positive thoughts and feelings.. hommm*)

Happy List China Edition  a.k.a. All the things I loved about our trip

1. Without any doubts the number one on my happy list, the moment I caught my breath again after a heavy climb and realized: I’M STANDING ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA! The view was so awesome and it was just the two of us (well, at least for a while) standing there, jumping up and down, taking pictures.. Amazing.
2. Going back to Hong-Kong to find out that the sweet and sour pork at Spicy Crab at the Temple Street Night Market was still so good.
3. The hours I spent at the back of our motorcycle, watching hills, dirt road, villages, markets, people, water buffalos and palm trees passing by. With the sun in my face, the wind running through my hair and my arms tightly wrapped around my boyfriend.
4. The Taichi lesson in Yangshuo. Even though it was early in the morning, it was already so warm, we slithered through the room. It was really intense, but it was so much fun. And the way your body feels afterwards, so flexible and relaxed.
5. Sitting underneath a palm tree, drinking milk out of a coconut, listing to the sound of the waves and feeling the hot sand between my toes at Hainan Island.
6. The view from the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai
7. The moment we’ve finally fixed ourselves two train tickets from Beijing to Shanghai (Train? Shanghai? Tickets? Anyone? Help!)
8. The great restaurants we’ve had dinner at. The delicious Thai food in the French Concession, the amazing Indian food at Yangshuo, the tasty (and expensive!) Chinese food at Ghost Street Beijing, the great vegetarian restaurant and hmm.. the Italian restaurant with an actual Italian chef in Sanya.
9. All the times we’ve laughed our asses of because of all the silly things we saw and heard and the wrong English translations (A rape sandwich?).
10. Like I said, our trip trough China wasn’t always that fun. There were many struggles, problems and difficulties. But being together, fixing those problems together and still being able to laugh about it afterwards is what totally made my vacation amazing. Thank you J

Happy List V

Even though the weather isn’t perfect, there’s still so much to make you happy right? These are my moments..

1. A big pile of fine magazines and travel books (plus a comfy couch and lots of green tea!)
2. Having spaghetti with tomato sauce for lunch ánd dinner
3. My grandparents visiting me in Amsterdam (granddad wore his safari jacket, since Amsterdam is some sort of exciting jungle for them ha-ha)
4. Buying overpriced but totally delicious macarons in Paris
5. Still being absolutely in love
6. The combination of puff pastry, tomato and mozzarella out of the oven..  Need I say more?
7. The thought of our trip to China getting closer and closer (we’re leaving this Monday! Aah!)
8. Spending a couple of days in France, just drinking wine, eating cheese en doing nothing. Perfect!
9. The enormous fireworks next to the Eifel tower on Quatorze Juillet (oh, and the overload of man in uniforms in the streets because of the Défilé)
10. This might get boring, but: eating cupcakes! (hello.. they were pink with colored sprinkles..)

Did I already reached ten? Damn, there are so much more happy moments to share! Well.. next time then. There’s only one I’d still like to highlight, that makes me very very happy:

* My debut as an editor at P.C. Hoofstraat.nl! *

Happy list IV

Because of my final exams the past two weeks, I haven’t been able to update as much as I want to. But I can always sneak in some time to create one of my happy lists. Even though most of my days have been filled with studying, there are still so many (little) things that make me happy:

1. Going to a bar with some friends only to find out there that it’s Mojito Night.. What a nice coincidence!
2. Strawberry & blueberry French toast for breakfast
3. Waking up with the sun in your face
4. Fitting in a pair of Levi jeans I bought 3 years ago in the US, yaay!
5. Buying a new bikini (umm.. or two)
6. The fantastic high tea my mother and grandmother prepared for us
7. Buying myself a big bouquet of tulips (and receiving one a week later, with peonies this time, pretty!)
8. Fantasizing about the future and making exciting plans 
9. Laughing so hard with my sister that our bellies ached, but we couldn’t seem to stop!
10. Giggling when the dental assistant tells me I have an appointment with a dentist called Elvis.. 

Happy List III

1. Planning a sweet little trip to Paris this summer
2. Wining and dining with friends on a Saturday night
3. Strawberry breakfast
4. Daydreaming about macarons at Ladurée, having a picknick at Jardin Luxembourg, eating this pizza, cycling along the Champs-Élysées, shopping here and here, strolling around Montmatre, having breakfast at Paul.. *sight*
5. Reading exciting travel stories from people who travelled through China
6. Drinking freshly squeezed orange juice and green tea, sitting in the sun, starting my day properly
7. My attempt to make home-made macarons.. Difficult! But fun J
8. Watching the craters on the moon and the ring around Saturn with a very good telescope, breathtaking!
9. Buying new All stars (even though they’re still so white they hurt my eyes ha-ha)
10. Painting my finger- and toenails in the same pretty color

Happy List II

Things that put a grin on my face last week:

1. The celebration of my sisters birthday on a beautiful sunny day
2. Having prosecco and blueberry pancakes for breakfast
3. A fountain filled with soap
4. Trying out all of my delicious new smoothie recipes (they taste great, even though they look quite nasty sometimes)
5. Homemade pizza with Mozzarella di Buffala from Perla, woah never tasted anything like that!
6. Drinking a fine glass of wine while the sun slowly sets
7. My mum’s mouthwatering pie’s, one with courgette one with tomato and brie, hmm!
8. Singing songs around the camp fire, accompanied by the guitar (and me pretending to play the guitar …)
9. Taking a little nap in a park in the evening sun in Weimar
10. Buying myself one of my favorite summertime treats: frozen yogurt! @ Frozz

*Oops, while reading back my list I realize I mention food very often when it comes to happy
moments in my life. Hm, it’s true. I’m not even ashamed of it. ;)

Happy List

With so many horrible things going on in the world right now, I think it’s important to realize sometimes how blessed I am (we are). And to count your blessings, to reflect on the things that really make your life worth living. So every once in a while, I write down the 10 things that made me incredibly happy that particular day. It makes me smile and sometimes I even find it hard to just pick out 10 happy-moments. I scrolled back trough my note book and picked out a few of them I wrote down the last couple of days, as a start of sharing my ‘things that made me incredible happy today’-lists with you.

1. The smell of rain on hot pavement 
2. Having a tv-dinner with delicious pizza and wine (and eating left-over pizza for breakfast, just because I felt like it)
3. The discovery of even more freckles on my face
4. The way you feel after a long sunny day on the beach (and how good a cold beer tastes afterwards)
5. The snoring of my grandmother 
6. The sight of my two favorite men in the world together
7. Eating cupcakes, drinking tea and talking for hours with a friend at the Teabar
8. Starting a new book with very promising first pages
9. A little Ben&Jerry’s truck parked in front of my house. Hello message from above!
10. When a lovely memory just pops into your head and gives you butterflies in your stomach all over again

Before you go to bed tonight, make a mental lists of things that made you happy today.