別の外人

To sum up, this is my list:

a) People in pyjamas on the street
b) Old men with very long nasal hair, and COMBING IT
c) Old men inserting toothpicks into their ears and looking very pleased
d) Fat men cycling shirtless
e) Fat men walking along with their shirt half up, stroking their bellies
f) Meat on a stick
g) 'Assorted pizzle'
h) Kids in arseless clothes
i) Kids in crotchless clothes
j) Kids wearing the above, scratching their bum on dirty polystyrene
k) People going to the loo in the street
l) Squat toilets, the bane of my life
m) People selling plungers and string on the street... odd combo
n) The lack of razors
o) Policemen coming up to you and saying hello, but then just staring...
p) Streetsellers addressing you as 'Xiaojie' (otherwise known as a word for 'whore')
q) Stirfry dishes which have some unspeakable substances in them
r) Spitting
s) Nose clearing into gutters
t) Chinese rubbish collection... aka the men with bells???

And this was just today. :3

But I have still been having fun times here :) Had a bit of a rubbish start to my birthday, with my flatmates LOCKING ME OUT and all, but then it picked up with my wonderful Bath friends sending me that powerpoint which was really appreciated at that time in the morning and while I was in that emotional state :)

Then also had this wonderful video made for me by Laura: Click here


It meant so much to me, so thank you so much you guyssss you're all too lovely for words. Also everyone who wrote on my Facebook page as well, I felt so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of love that was going down, really really thankful :)

As for actual birthday celebrations, had class and calligraphy, got to speak some Japanese which pleased me to no end, and then went back to mine to get ready. Then went across to the other guys' flat, which they had decked out so beautifully, with epic corkscrew balloons which we fenced with (though not as epic as me and Jo's random pole vs a pen fencing match), beer, streamers and banners :) Lovely turnout of people, both from Leeds and Shanghai, which was wonderful, and I got the very well-loved gift of ROSE AND WHITE WINE from the others, went down a treat. Also had a gorgeous 'Shanghai Survival Kit' in a box from Vera and Igor, including breakfast cereal, chopsticks, kitkats, M&Ms and a brolly :D

Then went onto M2 which was fun, and then me and Nerys headed back to her flat as I was planning on staying over... cept the small problem that she had forgotten her keys, it was 4am and the only person home was fast asleep. We tried for about half an hour, gave up, and walked towards KFC for late night junk food... It was shut :O We were very disappointed, so then walked the long way back round to get to my flat as I had my keys. I ended up also buying some sort of eggy pancakey thing, and got into mine at about 5.15. We faffed about, Nerys still moaning 'I HATE CHINA' before eventually sleeping at about 5.45... class requires getting up at 6.30, so this was so not happening. Meh it's only your birthday once a year :P

Next day realised I'd left a load of clothes round the others flat, as well as my survival kit and the WINE but Nerys came down with a cold so we just lolled about on my bed and watched BBC Three on iPlayer til Jo came over. She had apparently rung me earlier that day bout a possible job, I saw my phone ring but it was about 10am at that point and waking up was really not an option. :P

Friday went into class, which was just generally longwinded and not too difficult, saw Igor and Vera and apologised for my ridiculous behaviour and not showing up to class yesterday to say thank you to them for helping make my birthday amazing... turns out that noone in my class who went to my party turned up on Thursday, not even Jo xD Made me feel much less guilty, coz she never ever misses class haha.

And today... have lolled about again, starting to reply to an epic backlog of Facebook messages, I'm so rubbish at remembering to reply, and received a lovely email from Becca :) Also did work, which is good, doing more studying tomorrow :D Bit of a weird Hallowe'en but I don't mind :) Tomorrow also have to go pay bills and rent, agh not so fun times :\ But oh well, take the highs with the lows and all that :)

Oh, and a mention to the lovely people I chatted to recently who I'm so glad I did... thanks to Peter, Becca, Katy, Ella, Laura, Tori, Jess and Smitsi :)

So, for a recap of my life. My stupidly busy unorganised basically 'disheveled' life.
I have been once more horrifically busy aaaagh why can I never find any free time in which to write a blog... examples of how I waste my time:

one. list of disney villains
two. talking about random stuff on skype
three. finding places in Shanghai where I can buy cheese
four. looking up stuff about random languages
five. researching cults
six. trying to solve the VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT SERIOUSLY WHY EVERYONE HAS FAILED THIS IS NOT GONNA WORK
seven. buying random stickers

... so yes.

Anyway, vague recap.

Class: interesting, good for my characters, but otherwise too much, too slow, too boring. Apart from calligraphy which is hysterical because everyone else there basically is Japanese and can already do it, while we are still not that confident in holding a paintbrush. And taichi involves mosquitoes and looking like an idiot in some abandoned storage area in an abandoned area of uni hidden from the natives.

Food: not enough of, probably... I keep forgetting to eat ^^;; half the time I'm busy, the other half I can't decide what to eat til 3am and then it's a bit too late. I need to buy a rice cooker really but I again can't be bothered and don't have the time. But have had fun corn on the cob from a street seller, gongbao chicken (yum yum) and a 'flabby thing on a stick'... the best policy is actually not to ask what you're getting.

Also wanted some dried banana chips the other day, and didn't know the word for gram, only knew the Chinese measurement 'jin' which is like half a kilo or something and that was obv not what I wanted... so just said 'a bit of that please' to the guy... he gave me the right amount to start with but then he kept adding more, I asked him to stop but he carried on. I ended up with like 300g which was quite a lot and I was a bit worried but then I only ended up paying 50p so wasn't too worried :) Yay :D

Friends: really really REALLY REALLY REALLLLLLLLY miss everyone in Japan.

a lot.

more than I can say.


Already in a way looking forward to going back to Leeds in order to see everyone... :)


But then at the same time, am really enjoying getting to know everyone better... yes there have been problems, a fair few problems I will admit, but I don't think it's time to go back yet.

Plus there will soon be Beijing people coming to visit, us Shangers lot going to Beijing, Laura coming over, which is something I seriously can't wait for, going to Cambodia, going to various Taoist places in late February, doing the tourist thing in March with Tori...

This introspection is probably a result of the fact that it's nearly my birthday, and I'll be the furthest away I've ever been from home. I had my 18th in Leeds, and it was fine, but still this is so foreign and there is an 8 hour time difference and everything.

We are starting to make Chinese friends now, which is great and all, and really improving my oral language ability, but all the same it's not anything near the same as having my other friends with me. I want my best friends here with me, I want to be able to ring them up, go round theirs, text them, without having to think about the time difference or whatever. But I am in China for such a relatively short period of time that I shouldn't be moaning bout it, I should just get on with it, surely?

But before anyone feels neglected, I also miss all the Bath lot and then just other random UK friends in general. However, it's in a completely different way, as I didn't really see the Bath lot during termtime, I only saw Leeds people. At Christmas, I reckon I'll miss you lot so much more, although at the same time I mostly missed you lot when I was in a familiar place, like when I was in my room, as that's what I associate you lot with. You are missed though.

Introspection over :P Well at least until my birthday.

Nights out: Large amounts of nights out but a very limited amount of money spent on said nights. We have now found Western things, even Cadburys :O It's quite expensive but in an emergency it'll be amazing. Oh yeahhhhh

We seem to be in a pattern of going out on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, so much less than I did in Leeds, but still really fun. Last two nights I have spent in the other guys' flat, quite looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

Speaking of the other guys' flat, it still saddens me a bit... they're all living together til the end of July when we leave the country, and they said it was they couldn't find a shorter lease contract and maybe but the people were seemingly desperate to rent and short term rents here are still quite common... ah maybe this is silly. I'm actually writing this from their flat but it's like, the entire time I'm here, I still feel awkward coz I know I don't belong here, and then in the morning I just knew I needed to be out of there, they seemed a tad uncomfortable with me lurking around. And I know I shouldn't keep coming round but being stuck alone in my flat isn't that appealing, and then like Jo who also doesn't live with the others is often around here so I come round here partially because of that. Looking forward to when Laura comes, we can live together as long as she still wants to by then :P Might have a word with Jo and check she doesn't want to move out of her place in Jing'an early.

Thinking now about living arrangements for third year... Jo has offered, as has Dan, and I know Rakhee and Laura want to as well, but atm it's still all up in the air, depends on whether people are going to continue doing a second language or not. Fingers crossed something will get sorted soon, I just wanna know who's definitely not gonna drop another language so will therefore be around for the whole of third year, not just the first two semesters.

Right, I need to go and buy food now. Sorry for the rubbish update, will PROMISE to update properly more regularly from now on. Honestly. ...maybe.

QINGDAO PHOTO GALLERY :D Click here to view :D

We were all ready to go on holiday, then, two days before class ended, I started to feel really rotten, started to get a fever and aches... the following day, I had to miss class as I was not really able to move, had a fever and stuff which was really unpleasant, I ended up ringing NHS Direct (I was not gonna go to a Chinese doctor, come on :P) who over the phone were pretty certain I had swine flu. I quarantined myself, stayed in bed for two days without moving or seeing anyone, and looked up info about it on the internet... apparently once the fever has been gone for twelve hours or something you're no longer contagious. I was still in bed when I realised I was going on holiday the following day :O Fortunately the fever disappeared during the night, so when my friends came round to collect their food and me, I was no longer contagious, although still a bit snuffly. We left at 10 for the train which left just after midday.

At Shanghai train station, we had two randomers stop us and ak for a photo with us, very bizarre. They came over when we were sitting down later and started chatting, and then literally every Chinese person within earshot was staring at us and listening to this conversation, and there were about 20 people in a circle surrounding us bearing witness to this conversation with the foreigners :O We got on the train, it was really cheap (£15) for a 800km journey, so we got a hard seat each. We all sat together, but there were a lot of people standing who kept asking to share our seats, as they had't paid for a seat, and there really wasn't much room. This train was an overnight train, arriving at 6am. Oh the pain. We hardly slept, and when we arrived in Qingdao at 6.30am, we were just all dazed and half asleep. Nerys rang the hostel owner who said he'd come pick us up, though she didn't believe he understood her so we tried to get a taxi from the rank, got a non-metered one and, even though we haggled, still got ripped off, and taken to the wrong place. We were all tired, dirty, hungry and needed a Western loo (the squat on the train was the worst thing I've EVER seen in my life) and we couldn't find this hostel... we wandered down backstreets past fruit sellers just putting their wares out, and... eventually...

there it was :D

Some people showered, I just kinda slumped and stretched my legs, then we went to the first place that was open for breakfast, which turned out to be McDonalds xD We went to the beach then, me Abi and Jennie were sitting there and there were a load of guys on like a viewing point above the beach staring at us, a group of teenagers asked for their picture taken with us... We went back to the hostel at midday and slept. It was wonderful.

That evening, there was the Shanks incident; there was this random Scottish British-Indian guy who used to go to Leeds Uni, and he was chatting with us even though this wasn't his hostel. Most of us weren't keen on him so when Nerys and Connie were talking about going out, we decided we'd rather sleep. They went out and got back safely, after having put him in a taxi to his hostel since he was very drunk, but then, about 5am, there was epic banging on the door.

He was OUTSIDE the hostel trying to get in. The hostel owner is woken up by this and goes down to see, and Shanks forces himself in and was saying that he needed somewhere to sleep and he'd just sleep in our room (I was quite worried by this point), the hostel owner grabbed him and pulled him down the stairs away from our dorm room, he then tried to get into bed with the two female staff members, and when he was stopped, started getting really verbally abusive. At this point, the hostel owner called the Chinese police xD who came round and took him away. In China, if you're arrested and you're a foreigner, you're usually deported with your visa revoked... guess his teaching job is gone now then.

The following day we went to another beach which involved getting a bus to it. The bus was fun, I gave a positive impression of English people to people by giving up my seat to elderly and kids and pregnant mothers etc, they looked shocked but pleased. The beach itself was beautiful, big waves, sandy beach... apart from the jellyfish, was perfect. We again had people, Chinese tourists, come up to us and ask for a photo with us, I still find it bizarre.

The following day was our final day in Qingdao, and we went to the brewery. It was amusing coz of the omitting of certain historical events... We also got free samples and then we bought some Chinese stout. Fun times. That evening we went out with a random German guy from the hostel to a club with a bouncing dancefloor, met up with another German guy when we were out, and also found some SJTU people in Qingdao, coincidentally. Was a fun night :)

The next day, our train back was at 10.30am, so we woke up at 7.30am... only to have Abi run into our room and tell us Jennie had collapsed and she was going to the hospital by ambulance. So we packed, packed Abi's stuff too, tried to contact Leeds, find insurance company, get hold of team leader etc etc, and then ran to the train station. Fortunately Jennie was let out of the hospital in time so her and Adele made it to the station in time. The train back was much more comfortable, and much faster, as we got home for 9.30pm. I was in a bad mood, but after spending time alone, was fine :)

For the next few days basically all I did was try and sort out my bank stuff and locate my money which had gone missing during the transfer of it from the UK to China. Very worrying stressful time, but it's all sorted now :)

Had my first T'ai chi chuan class, it was awesome and I loved it :) Apart from the mosquitoes though.

Got class again this week, the holiday time is over until Christmas now, will update again soon :)