Life in the city

2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Beijing City International School

On 3 December the 2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar was held again in Shuangjing. Proceeds for the Migrant Children Foundation (MCF) of our Rotarian Helen.
Great job Helen!See: http://mcfchina.org/

Rotaract and Rotary both present

This 2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar both Rotary Club of Beijing and our Rotaractors were present with a table.
Rotaract sold crafts that were handmade by the kids of MCF school. They raised over 2000 RMB.
Great job by our volunteers Julia, Peter, Vasko, Péha, Elaine, Yvonne and others.

Beijing Tai Koo Li Fantastic Beasts

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The movie

On 7 December I visited the exhibit Beijing Tai Koo Li Fantastic Beasts, the promotion house for the movie.
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is a 2016 fantasy film directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. A prequel of the Harry Potter film series, the film was produced and written by J. K. Rowling, in her screenwriting debut, and inspired by her book of the same name. It is the first instalment in the Fantastic Beasts series, and the ninth overall in J. K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. (WIKIPEDIA)
The year is 1926, and Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident, were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
See the pics of the house inside and outside.

The promotion exhibition

Pretty nicely done. As the master Wizard of the location I instructed my new students in the art of wizardry. And then my magic.

4

The funny thing is: the clip is sent to your email address, all free of charge. But you can’t see it without a VPN… So downloaded it.

In Beijing a real Sinterklaas

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Yes, we still celebrate

In Beijing a real Sinterklaas, never mind all the misplaced hoopla around it all,
see this post:
Stand up for our values: http://www.unirizon.com/2016/11/22/stand-up-for-our-values/

So thumbs up for our Belgian and Dutch community.

Belgian Sinterklaas

Some pictures by Sofie show the creative arrival of Sinterklaas at Nearby The Tree, The event was organized by the Belgian Embassy on 27 November, way ahead 0f 6 December, to allow our good Saint to be on time in Belgium. Our ambassador was there to welcome the many children and parents.

The Embassy of The Netherlands

The Dutch also had their Zwarte Piet and … a Blauwe Piet (creative, maybe coming from Mars?).
See their video clip:
“Het Sinterklaasfeest georganiseerd door de Nederlandse Ambassade, de Nederlandse Vereniging en De Rode Leeuw”
http://tigertube.wab.edu/video/Sinterklaasfeest-3-december/6ef24a2b89f527527997008e7b963302

Well, it seems all “races” present were enjoying it.

2016 German Christmas Charity Bazaar

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A yearly grand event

I have been trying to visit it yearly. The 2016 German Christmas Charity Bazaar was as always a blast. This time I bought the entrance ticket in advance, at the German School. Good because otherwise it is near impossible to enter. I understand last year there were 5,000 visitors, most being Chinese and not just foreigners.
I arrived too early, 10:30. It opened 11 am. The good things was, I was quickly inside and could try some of the food with queuing. The VW curry sausage was great.

Rotary present

Rotary had again its coffee corner. I met a number of Rotarians and Rotaractors and it was just great fun for all.
We were lucky with the weather, not so cold nor winday and even the pollution levels came down a bit.
The 2016 German Christmas Charity Bazaar has a great marketing machine; the British Bazaar instead was left unnoticed by most.

Thierry Beer Mania shaved

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The bet

Thierry Beer Mania shaved or not? That was the bet for the Maovember action. Guests could put money in either the shave or no shave container. I had put in the no-shave. Well, I lost!
But no panic, Thierry has decided to grow his beard again. I gues, will take some time to reach his previous record…

Maovember

A charity event that teams bars, restaurants, vendors & customers in Beijing. This year’s charities: Library Project and Good Works. Beer Mania was one of the participating bars and raised a total of far over the 20,000 RMB of just for the shaving event.
See: http://www.maovember.com/

For Beer Mania:
http://www.beermania.asia/

Beer Mania has not only Belgian beer: also snooker and more.