Please not be ill

Asia ~ China ~ Qingdao & Beijing

‘Please not be ill’ is the only English message on the fast moving public buses of Beijing. But that’s jumping forward a little – cast your minds back a week, when I was just about to leave lovely, civilised warm Japan…

The boat trip from Japan to Qingdao was easy enough – no where near as luxious as the boat from Shanghai to Kobe, though. The boat obviosuly used to be fairly important in its day – from the huge dining hall to the lavish dancing hall you could see that it was used to lots of important guests. Unfortunatly, that wasn’t the case for our trip. Although the boat can hold 350 people, we only had 12 people on board, including an American family teaching English in west whoop-whoop China and a Japanese painter importing expensive Japanese dolls into China. I had a 12 bed dorm to myself and was over the moon…

Sunset from the boat

I arrived in Qingdao, hoping to organise a train ticket for that night… Ha! The entire city of Qingdao is under construction for the upcoming olympics – the main train station was closed, as were many of the other main buildings. Luckily, my friend the Japanese artist had already told me this, so I managed to get a taxi to the correct station. And -woooosh – I had to swap back to Chinese mode to try and secure myself a train ticket. Luckily the language part of my brain complied, and I was able to comunicate my desire to the railway staff… Only to be told no tickets. And none for the day after… Finally got myself a ticket for two days later and made my way back to the local hostel.Where my slight cold that I’d been nursing in Japan turned into a full blown cough-all-night, blow-nose-all-day ukky cold. The weather in Qingdao was so incredibly totally and utterly cold that I went to sleep of a night wearing my full body suit of thermals, my pjs, my gloves and scarf. And the heater was on. Of a day I sported my new face mask – fantastic in keeping out the bone-chilling wind. After spending two days wandering Qingdao I caught my train to Beijing and walked into my old hostel, what a relief.

Beautiful, if slightly freezing, beach at Qingdao - notice the crazy guy running into the water brrrr

First day in Beijing was spent at the hospital, after being convinced I needed to go there by a variety of people. I was right – despite what I looked and sounded like, I wasn’t dying, just a bad cold. The doctor loaded me up with a suitcase full of pills (really, there are heaps of them) and off I went… Shopping… Where I’ve been every day since I got here, loving it. It’s also how I managed to experience the warning to foreigners to ‘please not be ill’ – a little late! Being at an international hostel is nice as well, our room is full of Swedish, American and Australians, so getting to chat to a lot of people who are starting their travels in China…Well, tomorrow I’m off to Thailand, to grab some sun before heading home…

xoxo Bobbi!

All over red rover

Asia ~ China ~ Shanghai

Well, I’ve done it, it’s all over. 6 weeks of intensive study in Shanghai have finally been pulled off – not without the occasional hiccup – and I’m ready to move on…

Last week was the craziest it’s been in Shanghai, beginning with New Years eve. We started off at an all-you-can-eat steakhouse, which had the best steak I’ve ever eaten, ANYWHERE. And no, I’m not just saying that because I’m steak deprived, it really was that good. 76 kuai (about $12 AUD) for as much steak and vegies as you can fit – and the best part was, they bring the steak right to your table and carve it up for you. Delish. After dinner we roused ourselves from the table (not easy given the fact that we were delirious on meat) and went off to find a cab. Given this city has more cabs than it does people, you’d think this would be easy enough – not so on New Years Eve. Eventually we got one (involved our tall foreigners running up and down the main road, I think we scared the other Chinese into thinking we’d mug them if they didn’t let us have the taxi) and headed back to the hotel, to meet up with the other group.

And that’s where the troubles really began. Jumped into another taxi with a different group of ppls and off we went. Despite having a Mandarin speaker with us, we ended up at the wrong place. As my clock struck 11.20pm, and we hadn’t managed to find another taxi, I realised I was going to spend New Years on the corner of a crazy street in Shanghai, with an even crazier group of people, AND I couldn’t see and vodka in sight… That was enough to spur me into action and off I bounded to find another taxi. We got one – a dodgy one mind you, but we got there. Who cares if we pay a dodgy taxi driver $9 Australian instead of $5 – at least I got my vodka!

We walked into our venue for the night – a rave in a Chinese Art Gallery – at 11.50pm and I got my drink in time for the count down. Small miracles. The rest of our night was primarily spent at the rave, before heading off to another club and then a different bar. Arrived in my bed at 9.30am New Years day, not a bad effort.

Class Photo

Other than that, my week was crazy, studying like mad for the final exams on Thursday and Friday. Exams are now over, it’s kinda sad but I’m ready to move on. Last night (Friday night) was spent celebrating and packing, ready to move on. You wouldn’t believe how much rubbish I’ve accumulated over the past 7 weeks, it nearly all fits in my bag. Kinda. Other than the hour it took to pack my bag, I spent last night farewelling all and attempting not to drink – I have to catch a ferry to Japan in 3 hours. Despite the determination not to drink, I managed to not get any sleep, which has the same effect, so I’m desperately hoping for good weather on the trip, do not want to be sea sick!

Next blog will be from Japan, woohoo!

xoxo Bobs

Shengdan Kuai Le!

Asia ~ China ~ Shanghai

Merry Christmas to one and all – or, as we say it in Chinese ‘Shengdan Kuai Le!’. Christmas in Shanghai has been an interesting affair…

My friend Matt from Australia arrived last week in time for the weekend, and provided a great reason to go out and see more of Shanghai. So I finally got the chance (I’ve been sick for the past 3 weekends, so haven’t been able to go out with the Monash group) to go out in Shanghai at night. And what a night we had! We went to a club called BonBons, where entry is 80 kuai (about $13) a head – unlimited drinks. Unfortunately, they were a little too generous with the drinks (75% vodka with a dash of sprite and a sprinkling of ice), and the quality of the alcohol wasn’t the best – not a great combination, which lead to me taking a ‘sick day’ the following day…

We spent Christmas morning recovering from our late night the night before, and opening all the pressies that came via Australia from Santa… Bon-bons with kaluah certainly impressed everyone. A 9am wakeup call from Australia was not well received – 3 hours sleep is just not enough anymore. After being pestered by everyone else on the floor, we got up and headed off to the restaurant where we were to have lunch. And what a lunch – we were on a table with some of the more ‘interesting’ people on the course, but that didn’t deter us from enjoying the lavish Chinese Christmas lunch – bowls of noodles, rice, fish, mushrooms, sweet and sour dishes, black bean dishes, chilli dishes, you name it, we had it. After lunch, we headed off to Carrefour (supermarket) to work on Matt’s Christmas wish.

Which lead to Matt and I wandering down Nanjing Road – a street a little like Bourke Street Mall (for the Aussies) – dressed head to toe in Santa suits, giving out lollies to the little kids. The people of Shanghai didn’t really know how to take us – some kids came rushing up to us to grab lollies – some parents hid their children away from us. Then again, the ones that were scared by us might have had something to do with the fact that Matt’s pants kept falling down because the pillow he had stuffed down them (gotta look like a legit fat Santa :)) was a little too big. On top of that, all the normal hawkers trying to sell silly foreigners DVDs came racing up to us, started to say ‘you want dvd, i got dvd, you want watch, i got…’ got all confused and would just splutter before racing off again. Despite the lack of sleep, we had a great time, and I can now cross that one off my list:

~~walk down a main street on Chistmas Day dressed as Santa~~ – DONE

Well, that was the craziest thing we’ve done – for the rest of the week we’ve been sightseeing and exploring the area more and more. Matt took off on Thursday to Beijing and I’m left here to finish up my course. New Years Eve tonight and I’m absolutely wrecked (Bon bons again last night and a different club the night before), but it should be a good night. We are going out to an all-you-can eat steakhouse before we go out tonight, everyone (even the semi-vegetarians) are extremely excited… real meat!

Shin nian kuai le (Happy New Year)

Love, Bobbi

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

Asia ~ China ~ Shanghai

Well, maybe it’s more like I’m nightmare-ing of a white Christmas. I can tell that all blogs here-on-in (not including Thai ones) will be comparing how cold it now is over here. So to give you an update – we have now reached the ‘it hurts to go outside’ stage. My ears are still ringing from the freezing temps out there – we just walked back from the supermarket, what a stupid thing to do, ow ow ow. Gotta get me some ear muffs.

Since I last wrote – we have been shopping, studying, shopping, doing exams, eating, shopping, Chinese acrobats, shopping, eating, went to Suzhou and shopping. As you can see, shopping is playing a major part in our life here in Shanghai. We have been to the Yuyuan bazaar twice now, the Long Hua Lu Markets 3 times and the Museum Metro (great underground market) 3 times. We have also been to Cyber Mart twice – a fabo place full of electronics, you can get every fake version of the various iPods there for a fraction of the price – some of them may even work. I haven’t bought all that much stuff, due to the planned travels after China, but I’ve still managed to get some good bargains 🙂

Kylie and Joni & I, exhausted from a day of shopping

We went out on Friday night to celebrate my birthday – spent the night at a Thai restaurant, it was delish. Very fancy, we stood out, this time not because we have blonde hair, but because we look like students (which, of course, we are!). Desert was Haagen Dazs ice cream, yum!

Pauline, Paulina, Kylie & I at fancy-smancy Thai Resturant

~~~~~~ ahhhh just checked weather.com – the temp is 1 degree celcius, with a ‘feel temperature’ (temperature based on wind, humidity etc, reflects how cold it actually feels) of -3 degrees celcius – OWWWWW ~~~~~~

We had exams last week, which was full on. Two and a half weeks of learning a semester’s work, and then our oral and written exams immediately after. It was tough trying to retain so much information, but I do feel as though I’m learning more and more each day. I’m even beginning to communicate with shop staff. That said, I’m still having troubles. Mum told me she sent a package a week ago, so I’ve been trying to collect it from the lobby. On the first day I went and asked (in English, it is a big hotel) if they had a package for me. The girl just stared at me – she had no idea what I was on about. The second time I went I asked again (in English) if there was a package for me. Without looking, the receptionist said ‘no’. I asked ‘Do you want to know my room number?’. He said ok, and I said my room number. ‘No’, he replied without even glancing at the desk. On my third try I attempted to use my dodgy Mandarin and was rewarded with a smile and my package. Gotta love China…

We have been on a couple of excursions with the Monash group. Last week we went to Suzhou, a cute little water town, toted as the Chinese ‘Venice’. We went off on a canal tour, and then to the local temple and gardens and generally had a great time. Our tour guide was a crackup – on the way there he told us that the bus driver was number two bus driver in China. ‘Why number two?’, he asked us. ‘Because number one is still in hospital…’ We also went to the Chinese acrobatics the other night – simply amazing. Amongst the various acts, there were the bicycle girls – a group of about 12 girls who rode around stage on the one bike, and the motorbike men – 4 guys who were put in a round cage and rode motorbikes up down and all around.

Other than venturing out shopping and studying, we have just been trying to survive. One of our group – Paulina – left yesterday, and Kylie leaves early tomorrow morning, with others leaving as well. Ling and I are left here for the long haul – we don’t leave until early January. Man, it’s gunna be soooo cold then. I’d better be off – heading back to the room to drink the cold away, and celebrate my birthday! (thanks for the vegemite mum, us aussies had a feast of bread, butter, Vegemite and cheese last night… cept the bread was sweet (all Chinese bread is sweet), the butter was fake, and the cheese was actually cream cheese – oh, and we don’t have a knife, had to use the back of a fork to spread the butter and Vegemite and cut the cheese!)

xoxo one very cold gal…

Brrrrr

Asia ~ China ~ Shanghai

My fingers are soooooo cold. What’s making me even colder is the knowledge that we aren’t even really into winter yet – it’s going to get a lot colder! I don’t know the exact temperatures, but they have definetley plummeted in the last few days. I haven’t resorted to my thermals yet – but it’s only a matter of time. Discussions on where to go for dinner, when to leave for class, what to do on the weekend all center around one thing – what will be the warmest way to do it (I can foresee a lot of 2 minute noodles being eaten in our room!). For some reason, the heating in our classroom isn’t working so well anymore, and it was almost icy today. To top it off, my cold is progressively getting worse, so I’m madly sucking on cough lollies to try and get rid of it. I’ve run out of mouthwash (dad’s suggestion on how to get rid of the cold quickly), and have – as per dads suggestion – gone out and brought myself a bottle of cheap spirits to gurgle. I forgot that I had ‘experiences’ with baiju last time I was in Beijing – I nearly throw up every time I attempt to gargle it!

As per normal, we’re continually exploring the different food options. Today, we discovered that there is an upstairs part to our dining cafeteria – and it is so much better than where we’ve been eating. We have a sneaking suspicion that upstairs is only for the 3rd and 4th year students, and the teachers, but whenever anyone looks like they are about to approach us to tell us off, we just play dumb and keep eating. I have dumplings and fresh noodles for brekky – only cost 4.5 yuan (about 75 cents Australian). Tonight we are going to head out to our new favourite local restaurant – it has pics on the walls, so we just point at what we want – 3 yuan (50 cents) for a plate of dumplings. We’ve noticed a lot of the long term students that are staying at our hotel down in the lobby at about 7pm, waiting in their pyjamas. Turns out, most of the local restaurants will home deliver for free, and it’s just a matter of meeting the bike rider (‘delivery man’) at the door – now how do you say home deliver dumplings in Chinese?! Might just be the next thing I learn…

Strange apple juice that Kylie found at the supermarket, has black jelly 'pips' all the way through it, doesn't taste too bad

We spent last weekend getting to know a little of Shanghai… I had to get a visa extension, so we caught the metro to the right area, and I left everyone shopping, whilst I went off to find the visa place. I had asked my teacher where it was – and he wrote down the address and said to catch a taxi, it would be too hard to find. Stubborn as I am (and determined not to hand over the $2.50 for the taxi :)), I pulled out my map and walked. Took me 5 minutes, and it was sign posted all the way. I think Chinese teachers, just like their Australian counterparts, think that blondes can’t be trusted with maps… After a bit of shopping, our little group (Kylie, Paulina, Johnny and me) headed off to the Pearl Tower, where we spent the rest of the day. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is a huge tower that can be seen all parts of the city (including from our bedroom window), provided the day is clear. From the top, you can see all of Shanghai and surroundings (once again, provided the day is clear, which is unusual). We managed to pick a fantastic day, and spent a great deal of time at the top, taking photos and just looking and looking and looking.

Oriental Pearl TV Tower

Classes are steadily getting harder, although I’m beginning to understand more. I’ve been feeling as though I’ve been picked on more by the teachers than anyone else – one of my classmates confirmed it yesterday. No idea why – there are heaps of people in my class the are basically fluent, but my name is easy to remember, and I’m sitting in easy view of the teachers. It means I have to always be paying attention, and am continually corrected, but at least I’m going to get the most out of this. It certainly is dispiriting when there are near-native speakers in the class (I’m only doing beginners Chinese, but some of the students have Chinese parents, and have been speaking Chinese in the home since they were kids), but everyone is struggling with writing the characters, so I guess it all evens out (I have some advantage in this area because of my Japanese studies).

Which reminds me – I have now successfully completed level 12 Japanese at Monash – woohoo! And with that note, I’m off…

xoxo Bobbi