別の外人

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 :)