Argh! No credit in my phone!

Today I got to experience topping up my mobile phone. I received a SMS at around 6.30am which scared the life out of me! (note to self not to leave my phone on vibrate on a hard surface). I'd received so many SMS in Chinese which had all been junk which is surprisingly common even when the phone number is brand new.... advertising huh. I wasn't too sure what the message was so I asked my listening teacher who confirmed I was down to 10RMB.

I always find listening class so difficult but I've been trying harder and listen to the recordings at night to try and catch up and familiarise myself with the next lesson. My teacher says that its normal to find listening class difficult and that the more we listen and practice the better we will be (at least I think that's what she said seeing as she said that entirely in Chinese...)

After class I went to search for a shop to top up my phone. My housemate told me the store "Alldays" topped up her phone and she is on the same network as me. So I headed to one of these stores and asked in Chinese if they could help me top up my phone. The lady in the shop understood what I meant but said she couldn't do it, I need to try a different store.

The next store I tried was a Family Mart, and they looked at me like I was an alien and refused to help. The next one I went to was a Lawsons and the guy there did speak English but told me he could only top up a China Mobile, not Unicom which is the one I have. When I asked where I could, he wouldn't say and so I left. I walked another 15 minutes and went into 3 more shops, one of which told me to go next door to get a card and come back to him. I went next door but they wouldn't give me a card so I left. I was so close to tears. Its a nightmare when you have no phone credit to even call for help and nobody is helpful!

I went to the Crowne Plaza which is like my haven, I know someone there must speak English as it is a hotel. The man there spoke English and said he had some phone cards he could do it for me. I was so thankful and so grateful for someone to help me!

I then went to Starbucks and grabbed a coffee and a croissant (a giant ass croissant!) which is a little expensive but guess not compared to the UK Starbucks. I had a medium coffee and croissant came to 45RMB. I have decided to try and spend more time out of my room to study so I can interact more with Chinese people and just generally hear more spoken Chinese. I desperately want to improve.

I did some work and then headed to the bakery and I bumped into a classmate so we had a chat. I bought some cakes for tomorrow breakfast since I have an early start and came home and did some work.

Yesterday

Yesterday I found a notice on the bulletin board at uni, a Chinese guy was advertising a language swap so I thought I'd try that out. We arranged to meet after class and we went to a small canteen place and he bought me a drink. It was the first time I tried Suanmeitang which is a plum juice drink here in China. I was expecting it to be quite sour as it was described in class but it wasn't really. We arranged to meet again on Friday and I explained I'd rather he kept speaking to me in China to get me used to hearing it. I get so nervous speaking Chinese I get the giggles a lot!

Afterwards we left and I went back to the cafe place near me and had some noodles with Japanese style beef which was quite good. I went to City Shop and bought some more noodles and I'm enjoying these seaweed crisps a lot. ^^