Another week past

Time is going so fast here. I'm now into my 3rd week in Shanghai and I think I've adjusted very well - I'm so proud of myself! Classes are intense and there is so much homework. I feel that since I've graduated and not studied it's very difficult to get my brain into gear and tackle the work. I'm fully committed to immersing myself in the language and as much as I can I listen to Chinese radio or watch Chinese movies and programmes.

Yuyuan Gardens
On Friday after my class I went with my friend to Yuyuan Gardens. I'd heard there is an arts and crafts market so we went to find it. When we came out the station a Chinese couple asked me to take their photo. I have to say I was very cautious and did so and when they started to make conversation and said they could walk with us to the gardens me and my friend quickly said no and left in the opposite direction. That was actually lucky because the road we went down turned out to be the road we needed and we found the market. 

It is in a building with about 4 floors. The top floor has "designer" handbags, 2nd floor has gifts mostly, 1st floor has craft supplies and the basement has toys and other random bits. It was good practice as I'd just finished my class in bargaining! 

Afterwards we went to Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut in China is very different to the UK with lots of variety of foods, especially dessert (I had ice cream cake!). Pizza sizes are much smaller and made for sharing really. For two of us sharing a medium pizza with drinks, and then dessert I had cake and my friend had another drink came to 120RMB which isn't bad at all. 

We then went into Yuyuan Gardens although it started to rain a bit but we stuck with it and found a Crystal Street nearby. All the shops there were selling crystals and the floor had glass panels with different displays in sand.

Saturday
I was supposed to study but I guess loneliness kicked in and I decided to go for a walk. I walked round the French Concession which is just near where I'm staying. It was a lovely walk and hard to believe it was Saturday as it was so quiet. I found a Chinese supermarket nearby which makes things easier as City Shop has less variety and mostly imported and expensive goods. 

I also found the Marco Polo cafe which does English breakfasts so I'd have to check that out at some point! I got back to my room and did my homework.

Expat Sunday coffee meeting
As I'd done my homework on Saturday I went a bit earlier than I'd intended to to the coffee meeting in Xintiandi. I had a chocolate latte (which I'm told latte here is typically western), which didn't seem to have any coffee in it but being at this meeting we get a 20% discount there. I met a few more people and then 4 of us went to dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant. It was really nice food and very busy, apparently this place is very popular and if you didn't know where it was it ould have been hard to find. 

Monday
After class on Monday I went to try and find the Jigsaw puzzle shop nearby. As I walked I came across a DVD shop so went to buy a few more to keep me busy when I'm doing my work (I like to work with some background noise). I eventually found this jigsaw shop which would have been so easy to walk by. I loved it in there! There were so many varieties of puzzles from beautiful Japanese ones, Chinese dragons, ones with very decorative edging, stained glass puzzles, tiny ones, neon ones..... although these puzzles all seemed so expensive but so beautiful. Also there was a table set up in the middle and a little girl playing with a puzzle. Apparently the upstairs is a cafe where people can do puzzles - I'd definately check it out one day! 

Exploring the bookstore in Xujiahui
After my class I met some friends and we went to a Vietnamese restaurant which was so good and cheap (36RMB for beef pho noodles). Then I went to MetroCity in Xujiahui and found the Popular Book Mall inside. I was there for so long looking at all the books. Also inside were several stores like some selling cute gifts, another selling jigsaws, and another selling stationary. I was approached 3 times by the same man who was offering English classes with the company Wall Street English. I've heard there are many of these brands in Korea and my friend doesn't like them. I explained in my English accent I was from England and didn't need classes. By the 3rd time this same man approached me I was like "seriously?? get away!"

I bought a lovely graphic novel with English and Chinese words and a book aimed at 7 year olds to try and learn some more words (yes I got many weird looks being in the children's section!). I then had wanted to take a taxi back but ended up walking and bumped into my friend again! 

Calligraphy
Today I started my first calligraphy class. It was so relaxing but very tiring on the shoulders. I was surprised many of my classmates were there. My writing isn't very good yet but I can't wait to keep practicing. It is actually very difficult and painting the words as opposed to writing them is a very different technique. 

 Yuyuan Gardens

 Crystal Street

 Xujiahui stroll

 Cookie crumb Beard Papa cream puff!

 Hand pulled noodles

 The size of a medium pizza

Chocolate ice cream cake

My first calligraphy work

Chinese knot class (Zhong guo jie)

This morning I went to a Chinese knot class which was really fun and great to learn from a teacher rather than using Youtube videos and a Chinese book that I can't read! It took about 2 hours to tie this pan chang knot although I didn't get enough time to finish the 2nd knot but I hope to get some materials out here to try again.

Afterwards I took the Metro to Jiao Tong station and right outside the door of the carriage I was standing was a guy from my other class - small world huh! Especially since his class finished an hour before mine was about to begin and that of all places to stand was right at the carriage door I was at (I saw the bag from outside the window and thought I recognised it!).

It was a bit unnerving being the new student of the class as everyone had pretty much spent the week getting to know each other. However, I'm glad I moved to this class as it is so intense in learning Chinese characters I'm very motivated to do a lot more studying in my own time. There is also a lot of homework with this teacher so I can't really go out as much anymore.

In the evening I went out with my flatmate, Anna, to a nearby restaurant. We had Chinese food, some chicken, cold cuts of beef and spicy beef with vegetables. For 2 of us it came to 96RMB which is pretty cheap for 3 dishes and 2 bowls of rice! Especially considering it was half a chicken.....

Now I'm back in my room and watching Kung Fu Panda in Mandarin and without subtitles to try and force myself to listen rather than to read (yes I like a challenge!).

Shanghai Expat meeting at Xintiandi

Today I went out to the Shanghai Expat meeting in Xintiandi. It was really good and met some interesting people and it makes me feel less lonely out here. There was also some kind of event happening nearby with a Taiwanese band doing a signing so the amount of security was amazing I have to say. I managed to stay until 4.30pm before I headed to get some dinner at a nearby restaurant and then took the Metro back to the flat.

A clear day in Shanghai

Yesterday I spent all day at uni. I didn't pass the exam to move up a class but I've changed classes at the same level but this class they mostly use characters rather than pinyin so I thought I'd like this challenge more. I just hope I don't regret this!

This morning I decided to walk to Shanghai library as nearby I read there was a place to get eyebrows done. Just outside where I'm living were several people with clothes laid on the floor and what looked like maybe tiger feets! Claws and everything! I was pretty horrified.... and there were also some antlers of another animal and I just walked as fast as I could....

The walk was quite pretty and such a mixture of buildings. Highlight of my day was outside Jiao Tong station and this guy is walking around looking a bit lost and walks next to me before asking in Mandarin which is the way to the university. I was surprised I managed to give him directions in Mandarin! I was also pretty glad I knew the directions as I have become quite familiar with this area.

Shanghai Library is huuuuuge! I didn't go in this time but there were quite a few people gathered outside.

It was a long trek and took me about 45 minutes non-stop to get to the place. They kept trying to get me to do some kind of tattoo thing to make my eyebrows longer but I didn't fancy doing that and also it cost almost 2000RMB but they claim it lasts 2 years.....

I took a taxi then to Huaihuai Zhong Lu where I remember there being an electronic plaza. I really hate being in those places as you just constantly get hassled to look at their products and they start with demo's and then pull out more products etc and pressure you to buy them. I was looking for an electronic dictionary as the guy in my class has one and showed us how it worked and that it helped him so much with his learning. I didn't have any luck and took the Metro to People's Square.

If you thought London tube was packed, this was so much worse! People pushed you onto the train whether you wanted to be on it or not. People don't hold the hand rails as you are so tightly packed every breath you can feel body parts pushed against you..... When the doors opened and people rushed off and pushed so hard people were tripping up.....

I tried to remember how to get to Fuzhou Lu to the Foreign bookstore as I knew that was where my classmate got his dictionary. I got a bit lost so went to ask directions - entirely in Mandarin! As she explained the way and I got sidetracked there was this alley of shops and stalls selling mostly phone cases and iPad cases so I went to browse.

Fuzhou Lu was so busy but I remembered which way I went before. I guess its a blessing in a way I have a good memory and can remember my directions and landmarks.... I also try to remember by looking up at the tall buildings so if I'm ever lost I check upwards.

I bought this electronic dictionary for 1290RMB and it has all the software installed. It teaches how to write, and even has Chinese menu's in case you need to look it up. It also comes with Japanese dictionaries and can translate words and sentences into 13 languages so I'm sure it'll be useful for the future.

I then stopped by to get some squared paper as writing Chinese on lined paper is quite messy and difficult. Afterwards I went to a restaurant called Forever Young where they have rice in stone hot pots which was pretty good and only 27RMB for beef rice. I called a taxi and directed him back to my place where I have spent the evening doing my homework.

Chocolate Wonderland

This morning I decided to have breakfast at the bakery which was a nice change and I was the only one there but sadly there were no hot drinks available today. I went to the wrong classroom but luckily I was early so I quickly found the right room. Today's lessons seemed to go a bit faster although I'm finding my listening skills aren't so good so I'm trying to listen to more Chinese movies and concentrate on the dialogues.

After class I walked to Hongqiao Lu station and took the Metro to Huamu Lu station. I got stopped by people trying to sell me tickets to the chocolate wonderland but I ignored them and went to the actual kiosk. It cost 100RMB to get inside and I seriously felt like a big kid I was so excited at so much chocolate!

The music was rather repetitive and I'd actually hate to be working there all day... The exhibition was up 3 lots of escalators and I had to go through a security check. I was then handed a free chocolate seashell and a free chocolate flower ^^

The first part was mostly things behind glass cases and behind ribbons although it was fascinating to see a lot of things were made of chocolate shaped into Lego made into buildings! There were huge slabs of chocolate for "decoration". I guess they give you a free chocolate to stop you trying to nibble on the exhibits......

I loved the Chinese dragon - the detail was amazing! The replica Terracotta army was impressive and each soldier made of solid chocolate and the ground covered in chocolate shavings. Then the exhibit changed and showed chocolate from different parts of the world, like Swiss chocolate, German chocolate etc. There was a man showing how to make chocolate although I didn't stay long enough to see if he was handing any out.

I saw a violin made of chocolate, even a scooter, some works of art and even South Park characters. Past this part of the exhibit and there was a stage with one of the mascots waving around. Then it became like a small village with stores set up. Inside one called "Mini Bites" were cupcakes on display - I was surprised people weren't eating them because they were just left out for show!

There was a store with chocolate made from camel milk, a more familiar Lindt chocolate (handing out free chocolate), Guylian chocolate, and then some very fancy expensive stuff. And then there was the shop. 100RMB was quite a lot for this as I only spent about an hour. Outside of the main exhibit was a small area set up for foods (chocolate) but this was full of kids. It was a good idea to come on Thursday as it was less busy and I could spend as much time as I wanted looking at things.

I then headed back to the flat and contemplated going to the cinema but got too comfortable at home and have homework to do ;)

 Yah....Wihdows......

 If I ever get married I want this cake =p

Speaking class and a trip to the DVD shop

My class wasn't until the afternoon but the Ayi comes in at 12pm so I had to find somewhere to go until my class. I ended up in the DVD shop across my road and spent a good amount of time in there. They had so many I thought I'd not buy too many since chances are in the next 6 months I could be there quite a lot. I bought mostly cartoons which have Mandarin so I could try and become more familiar with conversational Chinese.

I then headed up Panyu Lu to the Shanghai Arts building. It is actually a cinema inside but downstairs is a City Shop. Inside they have lots of imported products which are very expensive but its good to know if I'm ever really homesick and want some comfort food that I can get some just down the road from me.

There was a Starbucks in this building too and a Subway as well as an Italian ice cream parlour and what I think is a cafe/restaurant chain. I went into Starbucks and a green tea cost 20RMB. The mug was cute though with a leaf design for the tea bag string to be wrapped around. I also managed to work out how to connect to the wifi there so hopefully it works in all Starbucks without me needing to register my phone again.

I went to my class  which I was quite nervous about but it actually wasn't too bad. Maybe because it was the first class but it was a lot of repetition which got a little frustrating. Afterwards I went to a restaurant near my place and had some rice with roast goose and chicken which was quite nice and only cost 30RMB. And now I'm back in my room watching Megamind in Mandarin which is quite amusing I have to say from what I can understand!

Back to morning classes tomorrow and I'm hoping to go to the chocolate wonderland in the afternoon ^^

Happy Valentines to me!

Listening class this morning was so difficult - I guess I should get used to the speed of normal conversation in China! The class is rather hi-tech with computer monitors and headphones built into the desks that can be controlled by the main computer used be the teacher. After this class I had another reading class which helped break up the day a bit as yesterday we had a double reading class got a bit too much. Tomorrow is speaking and probably my weakest area as I haven't had much opportunity to practice in UK.

Class is still changing as during this first week is the only time students can change. I spoke to a guy in my class from London too and he says he misses it there and has been in Shanghai for 10 months now. 

After my class I went back to the flat to drop off my books and then trekked to Hongqiao Road station to get to Changshou Road. I'm still trying to stay calm at the attitude of people here that will keep walking and not give way at all, and they will block the train doors and not let you off that you have to barge past.

I didn't realise how far it was to the hairdressers from the station and I walked down a long long road. Don't underestimate the distance from looking at the Google Maps - it is actually very far and most places aren't walkable to. You also need to keep in mind it could be about 15-20 mins to walk to your destination from the nearest Metro station....

When I reached the hairdressers they could speak English which was a relief. In fact they seemed most catered to foreigners and most people in there were foreign. I wanted to get my hair straightened after the huge ordeal when I first arrived. One of the guys doing my hair was learning English so we were talking a bit. In total I had 3 guys and a lady doing my hair! And seemed to cause some stir as other hairdressers came over to touch my hair or watch what was being done it felt a bit like being a superstar! Throughout my stay in Shanghai I do get a lot of comments about my hair colour.

This hairdresser did try to get me to buy some treatment for my hair but I knew I only had the same stuff put in my hair last week so I didn't fancy spending 200RMB for a tiny bottle. I also still have this other box of treatment I walked out with from the other hairdresser that charged me like 3800RMB for!

It took about 3-4 hours to do my hair! They did it very differently to how the other place did it for me. They washed my hair, put in some weird gunk and waited and kept testing strands of my hair that became very stretchy! They washed out the gunk, blow dried my hair, straightened it (had two people at the same time tugging in different directions was rather painful), then more gunk put in and I had to wait about 20mins. They then washed it out and blow dried it and told me I couldn't wash it for 3 days. All in all I'm really happy with this place, they weren't at all pushy, they brought me hot tea and had foreign magazines (although I'm not too sure why they handed me a German one I couldn't read and told them I was from England...)

I then went across the road to a noodle bar and had a huge hot stone bowl of rice with Japanese style beef, soup and a drink came to 20RMB! Couldn't believe how cheap and it was so good ^^ I then decided to take a taxi back as it was raining and I knew how long it would take to walk back to the Metro and couldn't stand the idea of ruining my new hair.

I was very lucky that a guy was getting out a taxi right where I was standing so I hopped in. I managed to speak to the taxi driver entirely in Mandarin and he understood right away and took me (thank you to the English guy who gave me the advice about giving the cross road that joins makes it much easier for the driver to find!). We were stuck in traffic for ages and here I was thinking I would avoid the rush by leaving at 5pm....

Finally got back and did some Chinese character writing as next week I have a dictation in my reading class. Tomorrow is an afternoon start which is a relief actually although I need to be out of here by 12pm as the Ayi comes in to do the housework. So I need to find somewhere to make myself scarce until my class.

There are still constant fireworks going off here that should end by tomorrow I'm told. I actually can't wait because they are making me rather jumpy..... Also the streets have a lot of red paper from lighting firecrackers. 

First day at uni

I must have been really excited and woke up at 6am. I stayed in bed watching some Big Bang Theory and then started to get ready for uni by 7am. I left a bit earlier than I had planned and got to uni in good time to climb to the 3rd floor.

The classrooms had laminate flooring, light wood desks with tiny chairs and the teacher stands on a platform. It is quite high tech with a computer set up to work on the projector but most of the time she just wrote on the board.

I found that I am in the 2nd level of elementary class and there are around 12-15 students. Although this first week students are allowed to swap and change to other classes (lower - higher classes need to take another test this Friday). The class is quite varied and at this level there is still pinyin used. I found it hard to concentrate for 90 mins straight - guess because in UK we have 50-60 mins at a time. Then with a 20 min break and another 90 mins after was quite tough going but then I knew I signed up for an intensive course.

Already we were given homework but I didn't find it too tough it was putting the words in the correct order for the sentence structure. Tomorrow I have my first listening class and another reading class. It is quite strict and we will have to do dictations and attendance and behaviour alone add up to 20% of our final scores, 30% to mid-term exams and 50% to the final exam.

The guy I met yesterday did encourage me to take the HSK in April even if I wasn't ready, just to get a feel for what to expect and then sit it again in May. I do think he may be right about that.

After my class I went to the bakery and then headed to the flat to do my homework since I had to wait until 2pm for my housemate. When she arrived we took the Metro and I picked up a travel card from there. To get to Xujiahui we had to change lines and even though it was one stop on one line and one stop on another, to walk between stations and to wait for trains it took us 45 mins to get there!

So we went to the electronic plaza so she could buy a camera, and I'm actually quite used to people now asking me where I'm from and why I can't speak Mandarin but look Chinese. I think that is as much as I can answer now. As typical in these places people are very pushy and loud to try and sell you things. I'm also getting quite used to people being rude that I can't speak Chinese but look Chinese and I hear the odd comment but am unable to respond. It gets frustrating.....

Afterwards we headed into Metro City which is this huge glass sphere building that can usually be seen if you look up for Xujiahui. We found some Japanese sweet shops that had lots of imported goods - for Maryland cookies (the kind you can get for 40p in Tesco) costs 37RMB! Although did make me miss home seeing a lot of brands..... (btw PG Tips costs 59RMB out here! That's like over £5!)

Bought some stationary from Muji and then we went to a place called Nana's Green Tea. We had some tea and some noodles. Also in this shopping centre is a Beard Papa's, a mochi dessert place, an udon place and a French bakery ^^

We then walked back to the flat in the rain - it was drizzle but after 30-40 mins it gets quite wet! We bought a Hello Kitty fleece blanket and intend to curl up on the sofa watching some Chinese TV tonight. We were going to a pub quiz but we under-estimated how tired we would be after shopping!

I have been trying to put up a photo a day but I didn't take any when I was out but I did put up some panda pics in my room ^^

Finding Fuzhou Lu

I must have been exhausted as I slept over 14 hours... I decided to try and find Fuzhou Lu which I heard from the forums as having a lot of stationary shops. I walked to Hongqiao Lu station and tried to use the ticket machines. I was probably doing it all wrong and nobody was there who could help me so I bought a fare for 3RMB to Zhongshan Park and then had to exit the station and buy a new ticket to get to People's Square.

I must have come out of the wrong exit and walked in the wrong direction. I saw a foreign guy in Costa coffee so I went to ask if he had a map. I think also because I was just so frustrated and needed a conversation. He was kind enough to check online on his laptop and drew me a map too. He also handed me an English copy of Time Out Shanghai which has been really useful - I need to find where these are so I can pick them up for myself. He also told me I was really brave to be out here on my own - I sometimes wonder if I am so brave or if it was stupid.... there have been times it has been so trying. To think I've only been out here for a week and I'm mentally exhausted from trying to communicate....

I walked along East Nanjing Road, recognising many places I'd been before. It was a little strange that I got to the same store when it started to rain, exactly what happened to me last year..... I found a side street with some stationary shops so I went into this small shop. The lady there also had a cat in the shop it was rather cute sitting about my feet and jumping up on the counters and such. The lady was also very nice and polite, running the cost of each item to me. All in all it came to about 80RMB.

When I left I found more stationary shops although these were much bigger and more expensive. It seems quite difficult to find a whole box of pens and I'm having to buy them one by one. The rain got more heavy and as I waited to cross the road this woman crossed and got hit by a man on a scooter and they both were on the floor. It was quite scary to see but luckily neither of them were seriously hurt. I know people look at me odd sometimes that I wait until the green man light appears before I cross but I'd rather spend more time waiting than nearly getting run over. I'm also so tired of near misses by cars that insist on going even on a red light and people are crossing the road!

I found a noodle place and was quite proud it was my first time in an actual restaurant since arriving in Shanghai. Some places like this have buttons at the table you can push for services which makes is helpful instead of waving your hands around (although some people still did this). I had some won ton noodles, beef satays and a coke came to about 80RMB.

I left and started heading towards what I hoped was People's Square but I came across this cute store called Keyroad. Inside was very cute cartoon things, from school bags, to hair accessories, to stationary, photo frames, mugs, soft toys etc. It was so busy in there but I bought a few things for my room and left. Next door was a toy store with lots of models, soft toys, keyrings and rows and rows of gatcha machines.

As I left I by chance got a taxi (its hard to catch one in the rain). I used the advice the guy in the coffee shop gave me and gave the taxi driver the cross road my road was at and he seemed to find it without too much of a problem (I still had to give directions once).

So finally made it back, have packed my bag and all ready for my first class tomorrow. It is exciting but I'm also nervous.....

Stressful day in Shanghai

I pretty much passed out last night and got some decent rest to the point where as always I'm awake 2 minutes before my alarm is due to ring and I don't want to get up this time.... But I manage to pull myself out of bed and get ready to go to uni for the opening ceremony.

It took me 20 minutes to walk from door to door and my Korean friend was already there. We were all whisked into another building to a big hall with the stage set up. During the speech they had 3 translators sitting behind a desk so each sentence was translated into English, Korean and Japanese. It did take quite some time... I ended up watching the girl a few rows in front playing Fruit Ninja on her iPhone.

Different people took turns in welcoming the new students and giving slide show presentations on rules and how the university is run. If you are absent for more than 1/3 of the course you can't sit the exams. I think some of the translations were erm..... not right..... for one there it was written "do not patronize prostitutes" ???

Then there was a dragon dance on the stage and it was quite an experience to be able to watch properly, comfortably sat down (although a little cold) and to appreciate the actual dance.

After the ceremony I headed back to the flat and grabbed some Portuguese tarts from the fast food joint just outside my flat ^^ I have to say these are much better than the ones from KFC which are much greasier.

I then took a break and then took a taxi to ZhongShan Park to the shopping mall. I went into Uniqlo and got some more heat tech clothes which have been a lifesaver out here that I'm even sleeping wearing them it gets so cold! I also bought some boots from Skechers for only 199RMB (yeah they probably are fake but at least they are pretty and cheap!).

Then I met my housemate at the hairdressers because I'd been having such problems with them I believed I got overcharged or something. It turns out they think "bu yao" is meaning "ok" and making me buy things I didn't want. Also for foreign products there is 100% tax and therefore they charged me an insane 3000RMB just for this product and "service" i.e. they would let me come in up to 5 times to get it done. Yet I'd checked online this product can be done at home. My housemate was getting quite annoyed at their attitude and at one point suggested I called the police. But I just felt it was my own fault anyway as it was such a misunderstanding. I did hand over the money before because I was made to believe they already applied it into my hair. So in the end I got the box from them and walked out. As much as my housemate said they should at least do it once for me, I just felt they were so pushy and rude I had to get out of there. I was almost in tears by the time I left it was such an awful experience. So now my hair is already not straight and I have this box I might just wait until I get back to England to use.

The water in Shanghai is hard and even straight after washing my hair its like covered in some gross oil. Yet the stores don't seem to understand it - guess they are used to it by now. Looking up things online the only solution is to change the water pump which is pointless since I don't live here for good.

The more time I spend here the more I realise how undeveloped a lot of things are that I've taken for granted in Western countries. Plumbing is awful here, roads are so dangerous and I feel so many times people take advantage and quite sneaky. I get so frustrated at being followed by the store workers when I go into a shop. I'm sick of people spitting in the streets. I'm tired of having to avoid piles of dog mess in the street and scared of being attacked by stray dogs.

I can't wait until my course starts and I have something to concentrate on.

This side of Shanghai is so different from the tourist areas....

At the bar

Tonight I got a taste of the Shanghai nightlife and went to a bar called Dada. I made some new friends ^^
The bar had really good reviews and was located down an alley and had some neon lights. Inside it was quite cosy and not too busy and reminded me a lot of this bar in Tottenham Court Road. There was a projector with some strange art animations, stacks of Jenga blocks, a foosball table and even a very old computer game system I didn't recognise set up.

Some of the barmen could speak English and some couldn't which made it difficult as two different ones served me and in the end had to ask the guy next to me to translate. Drinks weren't too bad, 3 drinks came to about 60RMB. Its also worth noting that there is no law against smoking indoors in China so lots of people were lighting up. Also there were a lot of foreigners and just generally a good atmosphere. I also think alcohol here is much stronger - I only had one drink and it feels like I had 3!

I also learnt the hard way to not get into a red taxi. It seems these taxi's aren't suited for foreigners and they drivers don't speak any English. I tried to take a taxi back to my place and the driver was speaking in Shanghainese and kept circling back and forth and getting rather annoyed at me for not being able to direct him! Come on he is a taxi driver! How would I know the directions?! I ended up being charged 20RMB and being kicked out at the bottom of the road so I had to trek back and hope I was going in the right direction.  

Lesson learnt - don't take a red taxi.

Officially enrolled for the semester at Jiao Tong

Yesterday I enrolled at university. I thought it would take me half an hour to walk there so I left at 8am only to realise there is an entrance just down the road from me!

The campus is pretty old and run down and I thought I was going the wrong way but I saw a girl with a map so went to see if she would let me see. It turned out she was enrolling at the same building so we waited outside together. There were two other guys standing there we figured were also enrolling but we had 20 minutes to wait. As we waited and waited and a man with a briefcase turned up and unlocked the door, and the two guys followed so we went too.

Then they turned around, stared at us, and asked in Chinese where we were going. Luckily my new friend is quite good with Mandarin and responded and we were told we were at the wrong entrance. At this point we both breathed a sigh of relief to know we weren't studying at this paint peeling, wood rotting, cracked tiled building.

The other building entrance had a marquee set up and the whole registration process was like a conveyer belt. Let's see; first we had to hand in the letter of registration, pick up a bag with info pack (different colours for different language papers inside), pick up a t-shirt (really thought it was a uniform! pink for girls and blue for boys), and then handed a raffle ticket with a number and piled into a room.

At this point I thought we were going to watch a presentation video but found out we were in a waiting before the waiting room.....! The registration room there was a tv and the numbers of the raffle tickets were called up to a desk. So the paper we were handed from the front desk became the most important paper we needed for the whole day. We then had to hand this paper to the payment desk where they stupidly had two sides - one for payment by card and one for cash - but since most were paying cash and there was a girl in front holding up the entire process! So after that we were told to go to the 4th floor for tests.

First was a spoken pre-test test and questions were being asked and then she pointed to characters and I was asked to read. Then I had to do a computer test which took 40mins and was pretty hard and entirely written in Chinese. I'm not sure if its a good or bad score but I got 53.

Across the hall we had to do a speaking and listening test followed by some reading. In yet another room we were told which class level we were going to be in, to sign a paper to agree to it, and handed class schedules. Classes are either morning or afternoon, starting 8.30am - 11.50am for morning classes and 1.30pm - 4.30pm for afternoons.

We then had to do to the 2nd floor to get our books with many people complaining about the costs although for 8 books and 2 cds I paid about 230RMB. We had to get student cards made which I found really odd that the lady actually told us to smile for the photos. It makes me wonder why I was told to bring 8 passport photos with me when not one of these were used and cost me around £20 to get done in UK!

After me and my new Korean friend had finished we went to see where the library was on campus and then to register at the police station. After treking all that way she was told she was at the wrong station because she lives in another district, and I was told I needed some paper from my landlady. So we walked to the shopping district and stopped by Aijisan Ramen for some noodles. Tried to go to the toilets there and people don't seem to lock doors out here, and she screamed and slammed the door and it was very gross as she had thrown up in the sink! So got out of there and went to the mall.

Went for a walk around and stopped by Haagan Daz for some coffee and to check our schedules. I can take some elective courses and have been thinking of learning some Chinese painting or calligraphy, and maybe either wushu or taijiquan. I was looking it up on Youtube last night and quite like the look of taijiquan (shadow boxing). I'm a bit annoyed because I wanted to do the course on Chinese idioms but it says I have to be intermediate or advanced level and I'm at elementary level.

As for today, 3rd time lucky I managed to get my "alien" visa permit thing for residents which is one less thing to worry about.

Tomorrow I have to attend the university opening ceremony and officially start classes on Monday. If it is anything like the test I did, it is going to be intense.....

 

Ice cream fondue

 Ice cream dim sum!

 My "uniform" ;)

 

Snowing in Shanghai

Exploring Xujiahui

Today I left quite early - I didn't sleep much maybe it was jet lag or being homesick but I need to get back to normal times and get up before lunchtime!

It seemed to have been a mission to get a sim card and I stopped by a convenience store to ask. I asked in English first then tried a bit of Chinese, the lady there didn't speak English and kept saying something to me that I didn't understand. Then the bits I did understand I felt she was mocking me to her colleague about me being English and not speaking Chinese. So I left and headed to the road towards the uni.

I found a small stall where a man was selling calling cards and sim cards etc. He didn't speak English either but I could communicate enough that I wanted to be able to call UK as well as in China. He was kind enough to set it all up for me and test it was working. I thanked him and headed to the uni to see how long it would take me by foot.

I took a wrong turn and ended up on a road with markets that led to a residential estate. It wasn't very pleasant I have to say and it was just so busy and crowded you had to walk on the road then then with cars and scooters coming past it was quite frustrating! Then someone in the restaurant just opened the door to toss out peanut shells into the street! It was just a huge garbage mess in the street...

After this I had to take a pause and went to the park there. I'm not sure why when I went there everyone seemed to be staring... There were some exercise machines and I could see people using. When I decided to leave it was just as this guy was walking past and he must have thought I was following him and he kept turning around and then hurried away.

I got back to the main road and needed to ask directions again. As I was crossing this huuuuuge road and someone set off firecrackers at the corner of the road which made the dog next to me go crazy! It was very scary. There are a lot of stray dogs around and therefore the streets are full of dog mess. So avoiding that and big lots of spit its rather grim.....

The uni gates are huge and I spoke to the security guy. I have to say, for somewhere with international students it must be so difficult for those who know no Chinese at all to get by because he didn't speak a word of English. I left and went for a walk, looking for something to eat and rest. I came across a mall that seemed full of designer brands.

The cafe was something like Versace Cafe and I had some pasta and saw lots of foreign people there. It was quite expensive at 120RMB for pasta and some tea and I didn't like the fact the waiter stood over me to pay the bill then swooped in and took it, waited for me to get my coat on then clear the dishes....

On the 5th floor is a book store and from what I remember the book stores also have CDs and DVDs so I managed to get the new Jay Chou, JJ Lin and Lee Hom albums. I then headed back to the flat, stopping by the bakery to get something for tonight.

So tomorrow is the big day when I start my course.

(no trip is complete without Jay!)

Some goodies ^^