別の外人

Wow. This Sunday will be the 3 month anniversary since I left the UK for a year... it's weird, the majority of the time it feels like it is going fairly slowly, but time is starting to pass much more quickly now as we've all become accustomed to China. Last week in particular flew by... Last Monday I was moaning about only having 2 kuai in my purse (20p) and this Monday I was moaning about only having 1 kuai (10p) in it. Some things, like my poorness after a weekend, will never change...

Today me, Abi, Adele, Jo and Nerys performed our dialogue thing in front of the class, and although there were one or two corrections made by the teacher (usually to do with pronunciation variations) generally it was ok. One group comprised of some of the Japanese women did an amazing one, a mock interview for becoming a zookeeper, and one of the interviewers was a panda xD The lady actually wore a panda hat, it was incredible and so Japanese.

In comparison to one of the other groups who adlibbed it as they blatantly hadn't prepared anything, we were amazing at Chinese haha. But then the teacher found that there were 3 people who weren't in a group, one of them was poor Vera who hadn't skived or anything, but actually had cleared not being in class the previous week on cause of being in Beijing. The teacher said that during our 20 min break, she could either prepare a dialogue with the other two guys (in the style of a job interview, like everyone else did) or they could dance/sing in front of the class. In the end everyone opted for dancing... fortunately (or unfortunately?) the speakers didn't play the music, and Vera told our teacher she was unable to dance without music, so she's got until Wednesday to prepare something with the other two.

I love afternoon classes :D Even though we only have an hour of proper sunlight after classes finish, it means I get to sleep more in the morning, which is definitely my priority :D Popped across towards the centre of Xujiahui, to Metro City, to the post office on Tianyaoqiao Lu which has an international parcel collection desk. Fun times, coz the woman from the post office in England had written 'small packet' on the top of the package to indicate the shipping classification presumably, but the people in China presumed it was my name. Hmm. Obviously. Had to explain that the reason my name on my passport and the name on the paper were 'bu yiyang' was coz my name is not small. Ridiculous China. Eventually got it though, with tinsel and last birthday card and other fun things :D While in town mooched into Watsons with Nerys and bought hand cream; I have never bought it before in my life so now feel positively middle-aged... and just wait til I read Private Eye tomorrow, the world shall implode haha.

This evening, went to Jing'an with Jo for food and youzi, my meal was interesting... it sounded much nicer than it actually was and I read all the characters and everything *pride* 红烧牛肉盖浇饭 but it tasted like a beef stew bizarrely haha. Had carrots in it and everything... Oh well you live and learn.

Class at 6am tomorrow >_<

...and now today is Sunday. 3 months in. Kind of can't believe it, still getting used to some things, still doing new things (like bus transport), but in another way I feel like I'm coping fine and can do whatever without stressing bout it all too much. Have figured out which foods are actually good (I tried another dish from the Uyghur restaurant, similar to the previous but the first two characters were different and vair complicated, it was gorgeous :D So having that again), have attempted cooking glutinous rice, worked just about ok, and have adapted to bus travel. Although that said, there was an utter bus fail this morning (at like 8.30am) in Xinzhuang, was trying to get to Minhang Stadium to watch the 2009 Shanghai Marathon as Connie and Jo were running in it, and the metro from Xujiahui to Xinzhuang was fine, but then got to the bus bit outside and there were loads of stops, no bus numbers on the signs, no numbers on the buses either, and... NO BUSES. *hums Arctic Monkeys*

Eventually one turned up, it was the one that said it was meant to go to Minhang Yundong Gongyuan but of course when I double-checked with the driver, nope it didn't go there at all, I wanted the 753. There was no 753. There were millions (ever-so-slight exaggeration there) of Chinese people milling about, running to any bus that dropped people off at the metro station, demanding to be let on, but the drivers didn't let anyone on and just parked the bus, sometimes with people on, and then wandered off. Great. I waited for over half an hour at the station for a bus, there wasn't even one bus since the first one, and there were about ten different queues. Unimpressed, I wandered out onto the street and flagged down a taxi, because by this point Jo has rung me saying she's just finished which was AGH annoying, the taxi driver knew exactly where to go, and took me as close as was possible what with the road being shut for the marathon. He seemed a bit confused though:
'Oh, we can't go any further... what's going on...'
Me: 'It's the Shanghai International Marathon today, some of my friends are doing it'
'But you're not?'
Me (thinking well obviously not, I'm not in shorts and lycra now am I): 'No, I'm going to watch... just let me out here'
Obviously there wasn't much information about it going around on the news, in fact according to Connie and Jo, the motorway that was shut for it had cars on it piled well back, despite the fact that it would be closed for a good 3/4 hours, and so everyone was reluctantly out of their car, waving and saying '加油' (jiayou), like the Japanese 'ganbaru'. Dodged some policemen, arrived onsite, where the girls eventually found me watching the men's marathon winners cross the line... they both did really well, with times of around 2 hours, really good for two months of training a few times a week :D

We then got an incredibly expensive taxi back to Jing'an via Panyu Lu, like 90kuai (£9) which when you're used to paying only £2, £3 at most, is a lot... shows how far away blooming Minhang is from everywhere. Dropped Connie off, I accompanied Jo back to Jing'an as she asked me to, not really that sure why though xD We then headed to Starbucks for coffee (or in my case, yummy hot chocolate) and chilled for a bit, before me and Jo headed off for Grand Gateway mall to try and find her a coat... like it did for me, C&A pulled it off again :D And it's really nice :D

I could have gone out last night, because Abi, Robbie and Nerys did, but if I had gone it would only have been to see Abi's outfit, which I heard consisted of hotpants, a waistcoat, high heels and a hat. I hope Nerys helped to fend all the men off her and her leggyness :P Instead got an early-ish night, once I got back from Jing'an by bus. Didn't do any work last night though, but since I have been working this week it should be fine. Also had a bizarre job interview, got my friend a job offer because she's more mature than me and I am not v suitable to teach middle-aged businessmen English...

Tonight will be a night of relaxation and sleep, as it's starting to get cold again. Currently sitting huddled in a hoodie on my bed, planning tea tonight (people be impressed with me please) which will probably be 蛋炒饭 (egg fried rice) accompanied by vegetables on a stick with nice spices on them :D Yay warming and healthy food. My water is all working again, no building works hopefully for a few weeks, even though there is someone with a gong a few floors down... I hope it is a gong not a man with a hammer. And then tomorrow is Jing'an Monday Studying yaaaay ^__^

Once more, well done Jo and Connie, very very proud of you both for your fantastic achievement :D xxx

Last two weeks have been weirdly busy, despite doing very little indeed, I do apologise. Well I have done something every day, but usually that something has turned out to be hanging out with Jo, eating youzi and watching British comedies. That little reminder of home is really helping :) Thinking about my daily routine, most days have been spent either in Jing'an with Jo or here with Jo, woo :D

Everyone is still struggling a little atm with missing home, especially with Christmas approaching, and lots of people are talking about going home for the week we get off for Christmas. On the other hand, my plans are to go to Beijing to stay with Rosie, Bonny and Egle and see Jess lots :D Which should be really fun if it works out. Can't wait to see Jess, I wish she had come to Shanghai, as it seems that she's a bit left out there in Beijing; her 'crowd' as she put it are spread all over East Asia but come February when Laura arrives and we go visit her, it'll be a bit more like the old crowd reunited :) Been looking at a lot of old photos as well recently, well I say old, as in pre-China photos. Watched the epic video of Becca with the pepper grinder haha as well as the amazing one of Laura dancing and stealing my phone... haha.

Currently got a picture of the White Horse at Cherhill (pronounced Cherrill) set as my background, love it :) It is such a gorgeous view, and brings back memories of my Dad with disastrous kites, my brother climbing the obelisk or threatening to run down the ridge at full speed across the White Horse. Ah memories... Also watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, loved how it was filmed in Lacock, was literally bouncing up and down on my bed in my excitement 'ahhhh me and Jess stood there... ahhhhh me and Laura went to the pub just down that road' :D Made up for the fact that loads of people met up in London WITHOUT ME which is most sad... looking at their pics on Facebook made me quite jealous.

So, events here in China... Connie and Jo are still in training for the half marathon which takes place on Sunday, good luck to them :D It's blooming nasty trying to train now, we've had some rather epic torrential rain and it has definitely gotten cold now. On the plus side I discovered (after spending a while with Jo's aircon before getting it to become 'warm') that mine also acts as a heater :D I have also now officially shut my curtains to keep in the heat. Have written a long itinerary (or in Westcountry itiner-rary) of my planned travels of the next few months. I need to book Cambodia flights THIS WEEK AGHHHHH

We went to Suzhou, it's about an hour away by train, it was pretty but empty. Actually properly empty... we went to the temple of mystery, and ordinarily I love temples, I love the sense of spirituality, of peace and tranquility, the same as I get in old churches in Britain to be fair, but yet in this one, there was nothing. It gave me quite a feeling of unease, as if something quite horrible had taken place. I know that the temple is all reconstructed in the design of the original temple that stood on that spot pre-Revolution but there should have been something left of the original in terms of atmosphere, but no, not one thing. The other thing is that I have decided that I really don't understand Taoism: Shintoism has bowing and clapping yes, but I don't know, it feels right? At Nikkou it felt how it should. But here people properly kowtow to these hundreds of statues, and I hope the reason it felt weird was just because it was all artificial. We also got horrifically lost somewhere in the vicinity of a main road and Suzhou University down a backstreet, and found some more fake pagoda things. Least we didn't get ripped off by rickshaw people... unlike some people mentioning no names Abi : It would have been nicer were it not RIDICULOUSLY cold, with epic amounts of rain, and were I not suffering from some horrific cramps. We had to walk from one side of the city to the other, which took about an hour and a half, in the cold windy rain. Fun times.

The builders are still faffing round but fingers crossed they are at last DONE, PROPERLY DONE HUZZAH. They came round at 6am this morning (which isn't even funny), rang the doorbell at 7am which made me distinctly unimpressed. It said on the board downstairs the water would be back on by 7.30pm, but I checked at 8pm and not only was there still no water, but also a massive space where the final pipe was supposed to be. Which even to my unmechanically minded brain didn't quite make sense... Went and rang the landlord, had a whinge at him, located some plumbers (called them 'shui gongzuo ren' haha) and had a whinge at them, result being... WATER FINALLY HALLELUJAH. I'm getting quite irritated by everything constantly being under repair. I swear the whole of China is under repair.

Some things give me hope though, such as a 25p corn on the cob, all hot from being freshly cooked in the skin, yum yum yum eating it while wrapped in a big coat, walking down a Shanghai street :D Getting on a bus and understanding when the stops are announced in Chinese. Going for food at a nice restaurant with my language exchange partner and her roommate, even if they did insist on ordering nasty tofu dish. Curling up in bed and sleeping for 12 hours, as I did on Friday night. Yay :D

Last night (Saturday 21st November) went to a flat party for a classmate's surprise birthday party, which was really nice as there were loads of our classmates there who are mostly Japanese and Korean, so it was necessary to speak for the most part in Chinese. I can feel myself very very very gradually improving (as my exam results also would seem to indicate, yay 62%, 60%, 80% :D) at speaking Chinese... who knows, maybe by the time I get back to the UK I might be able to hold down a proper conversation ahaha.

Have to do a group presentation tomorrow in class, well it's more a dialogue, our version of a job interview. It might go ok, who knows, but me and Nerys (and Abi before church) spent the day writing it and writing it out, so fingers crossed that our grammar is up to scratch. Have spent a lot of time also buying lots of random cute stuff while Jo bought the best thing I have literally EVER seen. Discovered the joy of Nutella hot chocolate too, purchased from a foreign supermarket in Jing'an metro station. Need to buy an advent candle and go to the post office tomorrow to collect a parcel, and also have to buy some last stuff to send to England as part of my 'Secret Santa' so watch out, Bath people :D Hopefully this impending cold will hold off long enough to let me do everything I need to do... also need to speak to Laura soon, has been too long. Miss you all xxx

A quick summary of last week: studying. That's basically it, all in preparation for midterms (well also went to a bar and had a cocktail, and spent much time in Kesongfang with Jo but that's it really) which are all this week.

This week, the one word summary is:

Builders.

EVERYWHERE I LOOK THERE ARE BUILDERS.

THEY BUILD ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT.


I have had the grand total of 5 hours sleep in the last two days, due to builders waking me up early/building late. I don't even know what they're doing... There's a sign downstairs in my block which says something but the handwriting is so messy and there are so many handwriting variants it's ridiculous. It said something is going on on my floor...

So yesterday was in bed, then the door goes, and my flatmate lets them in, they ramble on in Chinese, she calls me over so I'm trying to speak Chinese to them while ridiculously tired, it fails, we call the landlord who of course isn't there, while all the time the builders are STANDING IN THE BATH gesticulating at the wall hinting that they want to drill a hole. No apparent reason why they would want to do that... I just say 'bu keyi' (you can't) til they go. They however have now done the same to every flat on my floor, there are all these pipes sticking out of the walls and stuff it makes no sense... they want to come back and do my flat but I don't want to be home when they come agh >_< They were doing stuff out in the hallway til 4am last night, this is getting stupid now.

It has also been raining horrifically today and yesterday, and of course yesterday it was also a thunderstorm. I was wearing jeans, a tshirt and thin shoes, and have not been that drenched in quite some time. It was quite dramatic though, with thunder and lightning overhead and torrential rain... though I swear every single Chinese person we walked past on the twenty minute walk to the others' flat laughed. They must have been thinking 'hahaha stupid waiguoren can't use an umbrella'. I tried to make the best out of the situation by saying to the baozi shop lady (before she could say anything) 'I think it's raining a bit today...' while looking like a drowned rat. She laughed.

Then was in a bad mood on the walk home with my shoes leaking water (but I now have new waterproof boots :D) and cyclists and motorcyclists everywhere splashing me, so kept shouting at them in English 'FINE JUST TRY AND CYCLE RIGHT INTO ME I DON'T CARE' or 'OF COURSE YOU MAY DRIVE YOUR MOTORBIKE INTO ME EVEN THOUGH IT'S A RED LIGHT FOR TRAFFIC WHO NEEDS TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE RULES ANYWAY'. Made me feel better.

Had first midterm today, listening exam, which was to be fair the exam the least likely to go well... Didn't help that the teacher is technologically inept so we use cassettes, there is only one player so she plugs in a special headphone thing so we can hear it through our individual headphones. It's worse than GCSEs, sound quality is awful, like someone speaking underwater through a gas mask with a bad head cold, and no control over the tape, so you can only hear it once. She arrived 5 mins late, everyone groaned in unison which was hilarious xD She also didn't get the tape working for about fifteen minutes xD so we were just sitting there in silence, looking confused, til Snow said 'laoshi, bu xing' and she looked all shocked that it wasn't working. The teacher kept faffing for ages until eventually it works. As for the exam, the first bit was ok (but it was multiple choice which always helps) except you hear the passage and then you hear the question (no the questions aren't written down, that's far too sensible for China), but the second bit made no sense, there were three questions so I thought there would be three passages, but apparently nope only one. So that was two answers guessed. The third part involved writing, but I had no idea what the question meant let alone the answer so I just wrote 'dui' and 'bu dui' haha. One exam down, two to go D:

I bought boots, they are very Chinese but they are waterproof so definitely needed in this weather. Also got phone topup card, had a conversation with the woman who sold it me's friend who seemed very shocked that I asked for a topup card in Chinese haha. Then went and 'revised' (did characters but also listened to music and chatted) with Jo, fun times :)

She's given my details to her boss who wants someone to do tutoring, but this also involves tutoring GCSE equivalent level Maths so I'm gonna quickly look over the syllabus and get myself back up to scratch haha. Speaking exam tomorrow, wish me luck :D

Today has been... fun? No that can't be the right word for it. Bizarre. Yes I feel that sums it up nicely.

Woke up this morning at 9am even though I didn't have class til the afternoon, with a phone call from a weird unknown, unidentifiable number, so of course my poor confused brain wasn't ready to speak anything, let alone FAST CHINESE with just a touch of Shanghaihua. I have NO idea what he said, except there were a few words...:

Him: 'blahblahblahblah haven't given me the money yet blahblahblahblah haven't paid blahblahblah' (when blah represents how my tired self hears Chinese)

Me: '... shenme shenme????? -_-' *feeling stupid*

Him: 'blahblahblahblahblah'

I think I just gave up at that point and said 'dui dui dui' and 'hao de hao de' til he shut up and went away. Forced myself to get out of bed... and realised it was a bit chilly. Bit weird considering it was 27C (80F) yesterday and today it felt more like 15C (58F)... though it quickly got to 11C (51F) :O

Could no longer hear any bird sounds either, which is either good or worrying as a bird got stuck in my air conditioning pipe earlier. Yay just my luck *unimpressed*

Went to ask my block lady where I should pay the electricity bill, as the phone call had freaked me out, she told me to go to my local 'youju'... oh joy, the post office of the GLUE incident. Massive queue coz of course the woman in front of me doesn't want to pay bills, she wants to complain and moan and faff and take about half an hour. >_< Then the assistant looks at me, tells me I have to pay with cash and serves someone else, so I run to an ATM then return, queue again before finally paying the sodding bill. But now I will have electricity for Nov, yay :D

Then it was time to go pay rent. Just in case the phone guy was my landlord pretending to be Chinese I dunno wtf but heh better safe than sorry. Once more epic queue, a very fat assistant saw me and laughed (I like to think in nervousness and awe of my sexy AS Leeds hoodie which is purple and says LEEDS UNIVERSITY on the front just like that, in biggggg letters :D) and then I filled out the form WRONG like the noob I am aaaaagh I suck >_<

Class was... class, long, bit boring, the teacher I don't think registered me coz I was 5 mins late >_< but it's good for my Chinese ability so heh just gotta keep going. Also had hot chocolate naicha which went down a treat :D No jinjus though thank heavens :D

Went to the post office after class, the bigggg one down Tianyaoqiao Lu where you have to go to collect international parcels, Abi sent a parcel and wrote every form out in triplicate heh, I had a gorgeous parcel off Chloe, I adore her so muchhhhh :D <3333 Then walked to Kesongfang in the freezing freezing cold (can't wait to wear my coat) for a cake, faffed, 'studied' (well did a bit but not enough) before going back to the others' flat to watch Spooks (two seasons down now :D), study and then went home.

Popped by the barbeque stand men to get some bean things on a stick and a glutinous rice, yum yum, though did have to wait in the freezing cold for ages as I swear everyone, their dogs and random assorted stray animals all wanted to buy like 20 things each, and then there was me with my 3 measly sticks, yay.

Now, SLEEEEEEEEP kthxbai