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