Beijing may not be considered a small pond. With it's masses of people, a vast ocean rather comes to mind. However, if you narrow it down to Norwegians in Beijing, the pond shrinks dramatically. Having met the ambassador and his wife Eli once before, it was still a surprise, yet somewhat more understandable when the hospital got a phone call from the embassy, asking if it was correct that they had an American physician with a Norwegian wife. A nice invitation for dinner at the embassy with 16 other people arrived, and we had a lovely meal with the elite of Beijing Norwegians. Although, there is a subway entrance right across the road of the embassy it was nice that the hospital offered to drive us there in one of their black, shiny sedans- we did arrive in style. Above you can see Philip and me with the Norwegian ambassador to China,Svein O.Sæther and his lovely wife Eli.
Another small pond consist of Jewish medical people, so a meeting with the Israeli ambassador happened shortly afterward as the Israeli embassy celebrated their 18 year in Beijing by donating 18 heart surgeries to 18 Chinese orphans. For those of you who may not know, the numeric value of eighteen in Hebrew is the word "life"
From the Israel's Embassy celebration we went directly to a meeting of BIS, or Beijing International Society. This is a forum where interesting talks are arranged by a club of ambassador’s spouses in various embassies every two weeks; all foreign passport holders are invited. (The Chinese government does not allow Chinese nationals to attend, as the Embassies are technically on foreign soil) This last meeting was in the Norwegian Embassy, so below is a photo of me with the wives of the ambassadors from Norway, Sweden and Luxembourg. Even minnows get to swim with sturgeons when the pond is small.- Astri
