別の外人

BEFORE I POST ANYTHING, MAIN THING IS THIS:

Click to view my photo album from Shanghai

PHOTOS OF SHANGHAI SO FAR :) Enjoy :)

Right, so once again LIFE has gotten in the way agh why am I so busy this makes no senseeeeeeee... I thought people said the Year Abroad was like a holiday, but it so isn't, there's always something important to do. Or people to see, or emails to write, or people to ring, or places to go... yeah I imagine you get the picture.

So, last week.

Monday:

IT RAINED, SRSLY. Very surprised, as it's pretty much been consistantly warm here since arriving (although smog has made the blue sky non-existent, but then again this is China, not THIS IS SPARTA and should be expected). Got all wet, realised I left my Converses in the hotel (though John and Claire have them in their apartment now) so I wore some flats, and the top of my feet got all wet... Plus it was too warm to wear a coat or even a cardi, so going out into the rain in my epic

GURT LUSH

t-shirt seemed a tad foolhardy, but there we go. Ate muchos food which was definitely needed, shenzhen bao (or however you write it in pinyin) were awesome even though once again Nerys spilt hers everywhere. We went into uni and tried to sign up for optional classes during the break, but we weren't able to for some unknown reason. It said on the sheet of paper (yes another one) that it would take place in Room 222 but that grumpy-arse woman said in Chinese that only HSK stuff could be registered for today. Meh.

Had my first proper speaking class, and it was AMAZING I felt really positive and proud of my Chinese level for the first time. Now I know anyone who sees this is gonna bring me down, but I do honestly feel myself improving here and I'm so happy about it. Eeeeee ^_^

Went to buy cakes from Croissants de France as a treat, and also to do homework out of the rain. Sitting on the chairs, I almost fell off mine with laughter when some really fat Chinese man proper walked BANG into a glass wall that he thought was the door, looked confused, touched it, then tried to regain dignity and walked away. Hahahahaha

Tuesday:

Adele came round with her laptop and we had a geeky moment of her on her game on my bed, me downloading an update for Ether Saga and on my DS playing Phoenix Wright, yays :D We're just that cool, obviously.

That evening, we went round to Jennie's to meet her flatmates, but as it turned out we wouldn't be going for tea with them as they were a bit afraid of us, presumably coz there were SEVEN GIRLS who suddenly appeared in her living room. It was fine though, we ended up going to this hotpot place which looked really expensive, so we didn't pick too much food as we were afraid it'd end up costing us like £10 each, which we didn't have... Nerys thought it'd cost us £15 including drinks and optional extras. We had to pick the sauces, meats, vegetables, dipping sauces, noodles as well as drinks, though we did turn down

'SHEEP PIZZLE' (never seen Jo laugh so much)

and duck blood for 60p. Oh and we could have had a frog too... It was really good, though we didn't quite order enough due to our fear, but it only cost about £3 each, result :D I was satiated but not full. On the way back from Jennie's we walked past a live animal supermarket... well, amphibians and fish mostly, with the occasional reptile. Nerys was freaked out.

Wednesday:

Finally signed up for optional classes :D I am studying Calligraphy which starts next Wednesday, on the 30th Sept, and Taijiquan which starts after National Day Golden Week holiday. We went shopping for new shoes, I bought some gorgeous high heels which aren't too high, amazingly fit perfectly (though I am the largest size it is possible to buy for in China) and only cost £5, then went to an expensive shopping mall but found some good stuff there in the sales, got two tops for about £3 each and one top for £13 but it's really nice and good quality so it's ok. Adele went and bought a DS as she's wanted one ever since seeing me play on mine, while people discussed arrangements for going out.

I got dressed up, went round to Connie's... but in the end realised I was just too tired to go out, and ended up going home and sleeping. Definitely the right choice; it sounded like fun, but I would have been no fun at all.

Thursday:

We had class starting at 8.30, like every day except Monday and Friday, and... only me and Jo showed up in our class, the majority of people who went out the previous night ended up sleeping in to try and recover from the hangover. Jennie who's in the other class managed to drag herself in on 2 hours sleep, while Adele who went to sleep at 10pm I swear, didn't even come in til 10.20... Very very funny seeing everyone in such pain xD We bought them a BLT, while we ate baozi or xiao long bao. Yum.

That evening, everyone came over mine and we ended up having a random conversation about us being like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, continuing it on from another day in CDF, but then it got onto the topic (probably from Marco 'he's so sleazy') of a new Snow White for a more mature audience...

Originally,

Snow White = Jennie
Doc = Jo
Grumpy = Adele
Sleepy = Adele (she's both)
Sneezy = Connie
Bashful = Abi
Dopey = Nerys
Happy = Georgie

Hilarious xD Best new names were 'Sleazy' Connie, 'Boobful' Abi, 'Humpy' and 'Creepy' Adele, though 'Slappy' Georgie wasn't too bad :P

While we were cackling, we had my landlord appear round at my flat as well as a mechanic to fix our bathroom cabinet, which would have been fine except Jennie was maybe kinda asked out by the landlord... oh bad timesssss xD

Friday:

Eventually had a day with a 1pm start which meant a LIE-IN which was so badly needed it was ridiculous. Wait, NO, no lie-in, had to get up early as today was the day we had to get the forms from SJTU for passport collection and then get to the other side of Shanghai to collect passports before 11 which is when the exit-entry bureau shuts for lunch, and we have class every Friday afternoon. Plus the bureau is shut at the weekend, so yeah, way to make it easy for us to get our passports back...

Went to the international office at uni, gave them our receipts and they gave us our medical results as well as the form to take to the exit-entry bureau... but wait, what's this, oh, of COURSE we can't go today, of COURSE we can only go on Sunday now as that's when they'll be ready, and of COURSE it'll be shut for National Day. That makes perfect sense. We really couldn't wait much longer either as we needed to book our train tickets to get to Qingdao before they all sold out. Aghhhhhh Chinese bureaucracy annoys me. Also found out that despite giving the uni money which I thought was for residence permit, no, I need to take another £40 along on Sunday. :(

That evening, people came round for food and a beer :) Nice and relaxed, getting ready for our ONE DAY WEEKEND which we were so gonna make the most of , going out OH YEAHHHHH

Saturday:

Did my washing, yay :D Clean clothes :D As whenever I go out, I seem to come back with clothes smelling of cigarettes which is sad. Dislike. We booked the hostels at last, though we didn't have any train tickets, but at least we'll have somewhere to stay... was a bit of a nightmare booking them as there wasn't enough room for us on just one night out of 6, so we booked a hotel for 3 people for that one night.

That sorted, we went out to a place called Paramount in Jing'an. It was AMAZING:
£8 entry and drinks
Random bouncy things with a light inside them
Polystyrene glow sticks
A fake plastic syringe with a daiquiri inside it
A cage in the middle of the floor...
Falling on the DJ
Dancing on the stage in front of everyone
Really fat Canadian guys trying to find a Chinese girl >_<
A long grey-haired guy >_<
Sweaty guy
Empty bar upstairs :D With seats :D
Loos which didn't lock, so interesting techniques required
Meeting cool people from University College Dublin, including Lou from Manchester

... Got back about 3.45, bought noodles from a street seller, prob fell asleep at 5am...

Sunday:

Was supposed to wake up at 7.30 in order to shower and get ready for passport collection, but in reality woke up at 8.40 when Adele rang me asking if I was on my way...

Adele: 'Georgie? Are you ok?'
Me: '[incoherent]'
Adele: 'Are you on your way?'
Me: '...whaaaaaaa [mumble] eeeeeeeh [groan]'
Adele: '...you're in bed aren't you?'
Me: 'Uhhhhhhh sdhdkjfskdfjhksdhfks'
Adele: 'I presume you're not gonna be ready to meet us right now... shall we meet up with you later?'
Me: 'Ghhhhhhhhhhaaaa okaaaay [incoherent babbling]'

...Oops. Still, as it turned out, I arrived just as they'd finished, so they waited for about ten mins, and then we were done. Though I was so tired, I was like the living dead... I gave up on going to the station, luckily Abi bought my tickets for me, and I went home and slept. Ick.

But I now have my PASSPORT

and a YEAR LONG RESIDENCE PERMIT YAAAAY

I'M A LEGAL ALIEN :D *hums Sting*

Happy timessssss :D


And now I've been abroad for a month. This is a very weird feeling, as simultaneously it feels both like it's been much longer, but also that it's flown by. I do miss the UK, I also really miss Japan, but I like it here. I miss things like cheese and fresh milk desperately, but I am developing a liking for naicha and beer. Highs and lows I guess. *sigh*

I'll leave you with this Pudong landscape, which illustrates why I both love and fear China... answers on a postcard :P