Pepsi chicken crisps??

For the last few mornings I've awoken at 8am due to loud drilling and hammering that actually causes my floorboards to vibrate! This morning 8am went by and silence... I thought I was safe until 9.30am came and the drilling started again. Defeated, I got out of bed and headed to KFC as it is halfway between my house and my class.

I still can't order without a picture menu here and when there are 5 cheery women standing there greeting me and I'm flustered asking for a menu and they look at me a little funny - she looks Chinese but needs a menu? So I explain to them I'm from England and they start chattering to each other in Mandarin, too fast for me to catch.

So ordering and one of the women asks me in broken English and when I respond her colleagues seem to congratulate her on her English speaking skills.

I don't know if it was because I was there early but the price was different as normally I pay 28RMB but today only 15RMB. I'm not sure what time breakfast is finished serving but according to what I could read on the signs they have 12 kinds of breakfast for only 6RMB.

I went to my class and my teacher tells me there is nothing wrong with my grammar at all, I just need more confidence to speak so tomorrow we will do an hour of speaking. I'm quite nervous about it but I know this is something I should have been doing more of for the last few weeks.

As it was finally not raining today and not humid I decided to go to Yuyuan to the market place that I couldn't get to the other day as it was closed. Walking to the Metro and a woman behind me was talking and I assumed she was on the phone but she walked up next to me and was still talking like I heard her from the start! Finally she asked me again and I worked out she was asking where the station was so I managed to give her directions. Even Chinese people are asking me for directions - I really must blend in well here!

At Yuyuan I went to Fuyou Lu to the market. Again, when I'm on my own it seems I blend in and people don't keep hassling me to come to their store to buy so I felt some relief to browse in peace. I'm able to understand what people say to me and can respond now very basically but my confidence still is quite low that when it comes to bargaining I can't do it very well and have to give in. I hope by January I will be able to haggle much better with them!

I bought a paint by numbers which wasn't bad at 60RMB and is a really cute piece of kit. I also bought some cross stitches in case I get bored here. I'm unsure what a Shanghai winter is like but it already is quite rainy.

There has been an advert showing a lot lately for a new flavour of crisps. The advert shows a young Chinese guy being sent to the store to buy some Pepsi. He comes back home and the girl takes the bottles and pours them into her wok where she is cooking some chicken wings. He then eats these crisps. So I guess they are Pepsi flavoured chicken wing crisps! I haven't tried them yet but I'm looking at them quite curiously as my local shop stocked them...