So How Am I Doing?

August 29, 2008

Rounding up everything I’ve wanted to say, I just want to quickly mention how I am finding all of this. I’d say rough is probably the most appropriate word.

The standard of living here is obviously lower and therefore less comfortable. My room is fine and I think that this is the important thing. I found a cockroach in my shower last night so I will try and start looking into detergents and cleaning agents. All of the buildings in my street, my shared bathroom and conjoining rooms are all pretty fowl. It all looks very make shift and underdeveloped. I don’t think that I am snobby or anything like that but that’s just how things are, pretty derilict.

Everyone speaks Chinese to you and everything (rules of the dormitery, my mobile phone etc.) is in Chinese. This is fine and what should be expected. This situation is very diffcult to live in though, no doubt I have enough Chinese to survive but I only have one person at the school who can speak english to me (Hua) and we only speak it half the time. This makes everything harder and there is so much Chinese around me that I often want to get away from it.

People on the street always stare at you too. I sometimes catch them talking about me as well. Not everyone seem to be very polite either, it’s probably because of my alien status. I’d probably say that everyone is quite friendly but I am the foreigner after all so at the moment it’s like 40/60 with 40% being friendly. I also consistent catch people doing stupid things, whether it is standing in the middle of the road, throwing rubbish out the window or just honking their car/bike horn everywhere they go.

To conclude, basically I have the weight of being an ‘outsider’ as well as living in a lower standard of living. I’m settling in but so far I don’t feel very optimistic. I don’t think that I’ll return here and my enthusiasm to learn the language has wanned. I feel much more comfortable now that I have almost everything down (money, food..). Once I figure out how to manage internet access, laundry and public transport then I will be all set.

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Interesting Things that I’ve Learnt About China while in China

Shanghai is about as modern as it is underdeveloped

If you average out the country and city standards of living then the average standard of living is quite low

Roads are filled with cars, busses, trucks, bikes, bicycles, scooters and people none of the people on the road care about anyone else

Street vendors sell those zany looking watermelons, yes, those ones…

…No I haven’t tried one

A lot of basic words such as keyi and yisi have a heaps of alternative deffinitions

People usually emphasize the ‘wei’ when they answer the phone – ‘weeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiii’

They’ll say it a few times as well and dribble their confirmative speech

People have dogs and cats as pets…

…And they look very clean and cute

Everyone stares at you, most try to not make it look obvious but fail…

…Others just stare blankly

People are quick to assume that you’re an idiot if you mess up one sentence and just as hasty to assume you are a genius if you get it right

The birds here don’t sound as pleasant as they do in Australia

In Australia you can arrive as a foreigner and people can assume that you might be a local, in China this would never happen and they’d never want it to happen…

…I’m sure they’ll come around

You can’t exchange Australian money at the bank

People in houses with smashed windows and tin sheds also have computers

There is an ashtray in my room

Smoking is also allowed in Internet cafes

Almost everyone that I say hello to and ask how they are never answers the question

My taxi driver knows the word ‘peasant’ and was quick to point one out to me as we were driving – I think he thought it was funny

I’ll probably have more of these in the future

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Interesting Things I learnt About Melbourne, From Melbourners and Observation

I figured that I’d be pretty nosey when it came to the state that boasts-the-most-roast and asked a bunch of people about the what life is like over the border. This is all in order of happening:

Friendly Passanger

Some Staff at the Melbourne Airport can be extremely rude

Airport Staff

The Melbourne Airport is about 20-25km from the CBD

Items bought before the Terminal 2 identity checks don’t get given to you until you reach the otherside (lounge)

Ben – Guy who sat next to me

Victorian’s don’t all drink VB, they prefer anything as long as it tastes good

They don’t really look down on South Australian’s, they just believe that their city is better

They are aware of the problems in Melbourne like gangs and underground culture

They like South Australian wine

Observations

There are plenty of Asian people in Melbourne