I have been blogging for over 10 years, this blog started 7 years ago during my first Spring in Guangzhou. There have been quieter times, but the blog has survived through them. Hopefully will survive our crazy busy balancing a toddler and business life -years as well!

I rented an office in the beginning of the year and registered my Chinese teaching business. I’ve really been enjoying working for my self and having a dedicated work space! 

At the moment I have 12 private students and 7 small groups each week. The newest groups are Chinese Characters and HSK3 which is starting soon.

Anna is 1.5 years already and running around. She has just started speaking and can say a few words. Her two favorite words are baibai (bye bye) and Lucy (one of our cats).

We still have the same ayi with us since September and Anna has a great bond with her. Anna will most likely stay at home for another 1.5 years, because the kindergarten won’t accept kids until 3 years old.

It’s been a very busy and hectic Spring. Now I know why they call these years “busy years” or “traffic jam years” in Finland!

But no matter how busy, it’s very exciting time as well to see our daughter and both of our businesses grow day by day. 

My seventh year in China is ending in a few months and the 8th year starting, but before that we have other celebrations too, like my 29th birthday today! I wanted to write a few words to look back the years and growth I’ve been going over while living in China.

I was 22 years when I moved to China, had just gotten out of a long relationship and looking for an adventure. Well, truth to be told, I had left everything back home waiting for me if I decided to go back after my first semester. But I must have known, that the chance of staying longer was there too.

I came to China at a right time, young and free to learn and experience new things. I spent three semesters at the Guangzhou University, studying Chinese, traveling and hanging out with friends. At that point I decided to stay in China long-term and started my bachelor degree at Sun Yat-Sen University.

Undergraduate years were full of fun, friends and I met my husband too. Being a student in China is easy and carefree, but I also found my passion for teaching during the years and applied for the master’s program in teaching Chinese.

Starting masters, getting married and having a baby were all steps into a more grown-up life. It wasn’t about the exciting life in China anymore, but a normal everyday living that goes on no matter where you live. The newness of it all wears off and at this point many move to a new location if they aren’t satisfied of whats left. For me it was time to start working towards my career.

Now at 29 years a new chapter in my life is starting as I am setting up a business and taking my Chinese tutoring to a new level. I’m exciting to see what this year has in store for me and more importantly, what I can make out of it!

Thank you for following me all these years and welcome to the new year!

 

Year 2016 has been an exciting year for my family and now just before Christmas it’s a good time to look back this past Autumn. I haven’t written as many personal blog posts recently, so thought it’s about time to write a bit about us.

After we came back from Finland, the first thing was to find an ayi to help take care of our daughter. I wanted to get back to working and Anna was already big enough to stay at home with a nanny. Having a live in ayi haven’t always been easy, but it makes our live so much easier. I also like that Anna can stay at home with her, and not go to kindergarten like she would if we lived in Finland.

After child care was settled, I got to work with full steam. Quite quickly I got over 10 students, most of them studying basics of Mandarin with me. My lessons take me all over Guangzhou every day from Tuesday to Saturday. Soon I started to spend more time commuting than actually teaching and I decided it is the right time to register my business and find an office.

At the moment I’m in the process of registering the business and I’ll be having my own office starting in February. Hopefully I can spend more time actually teaching Chinese than running or driving around the city. I still have lots of work to do, but I’m really positive I can be successful in my chosen career.

My husband is still working in his friend’s bakery, that they started earlier this year. They have two locations now and they are planning more for next year. In the coming year my husband will be concentrating on setting up a central bakery to provide bread and pastries to their different locations.

Our daughter Anna turned 1-year-old and has learned to walk! She likes talking a lot too, but so far we haven’t been able to understand that she is saying. My in-laws think she can say a few words already, but I’m sad to inform them that those have been just pure luck so far. Bilingual kids often speak a bit later, so I’m not worried.

Now we are getting ready for our second Christmas with Anna. I have invited the in-laws over for dinner and crossing my fingers that all will go well. Like last year, I bought small gifts for everyone, so we should have a nice Christmas atmosphere at home this weekend.

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays!

Me and our 10 month old daughter arrived back to Guangzhou a week ago, but it took us a whole week to get over jetlag and back to normal.

I felt it was easier to go to Europe, we would wake up early but it was easier to get baby to sleep in the evening. But now that we came back to Asia, she wanted to stay up until midnight no matter how tired and woke up a lot at night.

Now that we are back to normal it feels like heaven! Sleeping babies truly are the most beautiful sight!

So I don’t unfortunately have any tips for getting over jetlag. We tried to nudge the rhythm to the right direction, but it usually backfired with a crying and grumpy baby. In the end it was time that helped.

Do you have any good tips to get over jetlag? I’ll collect best tips for next year’s holiday. 

It’s the last Summer month in Finland and we are in the middle of our holiday. Next in the agenda is to visit Tampere and Helsinki!

My home town is small and one day is enough to visit all then”sights”. Now that my mother’s vacation is over and my little brother will be back to school next week, the days will be quiet for me and my daughter. Luckily in Tampere and Helsinki I’ll be able to meet more of my old friends.

We’ve already visited Lahti, Kuopio and Porvoo in Finland, also made a quick trip to the capital of Estonia, Tallinn. I’ve been concentrating on second hand shopping as China doesn’t really have flea markets yet. 

For a few days temperature rose to 25 Celsius and we head to the beach where I used to swim every Summer when I was a kid. Water was around 19 Celsius, pretty warm I’d say!

My little brother (one of them, I have two brothers and a sister) is super into sports and we have done nice long walks with him and Anna in the baby carrier.

We have also been to the forest to pick blueberries as its a must activity for all Finns during the Summer! You ain’t no Finn if you haven’t braved some mosquitos in the forest while eating and picking berries! 

Anna has made friends with two dogs and a cat so far. She is clearly an animal lover! The cats run away while dogs like her company. Let’s see what our two cats will do when they realize Anna can crawl much faster now, they need to be careful!

It’s been a great holiday so far and we are going to enjoy the last month to the fullest as well. I’ve had some mild case of reverse culture shock, but I believe visiting bigger cities like Tampere and Helsinki will at least partly cure it. 

Until next time!