Oh I’m on my Way, I know I am, Somewhere Not So Far From Here

September 6, 2008

While the weekend period was slow, I’ve hit my stride in the past few days and feel pleased for it. Here goes:

Monday

I woke up at 8am on Monday morning and decided that getting out of bed earlier would help cure the weekend procrastination. It seemed pretty quiet next door, so I assumed that the Nigerean guy (his name is David) had gone off to do some english tutoring. With his absence I decided that I should wash my clothes.

I figured that it’d be more convenient if I just hand-washed all of my clothes, since they weren’t ever going to get dirty, just smelly from this humid weather. You might have noticed the basin below the mirror in my previous photo of the conjoining hallway. I pulled a chair up infront of that basin and began hand-washing my clothes. With the exception of to pairs of shorts since they were fine.

I washed, rinsed and then hung everything up in about an hours time. I decided that I ought to clean the toilet next but before I could get the equipment together David woke up and headed to the shower.

We talked for a bit before he got in. I then decided to re-route my plans and head off to go and quiz Mrs. Hua on some of those pressing questions instead and then grab some lunch (everyone over here eats their meals 30 minutes to an hour earlier than in Australia). As I was leaving Mr Bao - Lao Bao as he is called, he is the landlord - stopped me in my tracks along with the two female gate keepers - the ones that watch TV all day in their pyjamas. They spat a whole bunch of super-fast, super-difficult-to-understand Chinese at me. All I could catch was that they wanted to do something with one of my beds.

They took me upstairs to me room - David still showering – and then started moving my furniture around. Then they took my second bed and shifted it and the bed head out of my room. Mr Bao did some more of his own arranging - moving my bed to the centre, so that I couldn’t see the TV - and then they all walked off.

Dumbfounded about the alienation, I sat around staring at the new arrangement for a while. By then David had got out of the shower and I explained to him what all the racket was all about. Keen on making as much progress as possible, I ensured that I asked him as many questions as I could about the bus card I had bought the day before without looking like a suck-up. He explained to me how the bus cards worked and said that he was leaving in about half an hour to buy a suitcase for when he leaves, so we could go together. Even though I wanted to clean, and quiz Mrs. Hua on my questions, I couldn’t pass on this opportunity up so I accepted.

While I was waiting for David, I rearranged the room back to its usable state. David was then set to go and together we left, taking the same route as Mr Guo had written down for me.

On the way David and I talked a bit. As much as he was sporting about letting me tag along, I still felt that he saw me as a nuisance who should already know these things – unreasonable, I know but people are like that. He went along with it though, his difficult to understand english and lack of proper explanation didn’t help things much either.

We then caught the bus to the subway, I added credit to my transport card and moved down to the station area. The whole subway system is incredibly efficient. Basically you add money to your card, rub it over a spherical surface to enter the gates and then when you exit the station it clocks in the distance and subtracts that from your total balance. So when you transfer between lines you don’t need to enter and exit the station again. The same works for buses except you just use the card once and all bus fares are 2 yuan.

Everything is also colour coded and marked very clearly. There are voice overs between each stop as well, both in Chinese and English. If it wasn’t for not knowing how to clock in/clock off and add credit then I could have easily done this on my first run with no hassles.

David got off a few stops before me and left me to it. I then waited about 10 minutes, got off at the People’s Square and then transferred lines, again all very easy, you just go with the flow. The subway stations are pretty busy but definetly bearable at this stage, particularly when waiting times are minimal.

I exited the subway to a very up-market area, surrounded with shopping facilities and littered with people. This place was a stark contrast to where I was staying at in YangPu and was more in line with the ShangHai I remember from my first trip. There were cosmetic demonstrations going on out the front of the exit, people wore trendier clothes and the place was tidy and well looked after. Things are stepping up indeed.

From there I followed David’s turn-left-turn-right directions which I eventually rejected and just followed the signs to the respective roads. The way the signs were orientated were a little confusing and it caused some mindless wandering but I eventually arrived at the school and took a short scoot around.

The campus was basically like the one in YangPu except it was smaller and there was a lot of reconstruction going on from inside the buildings. Infact almost half the buildings on campus were having their innards removed. A little strange considering school would start in a weeks time.

It didn’t take long until I found the building I’d have to go to for classes and then I returned home. On the way though I stopped off at a few shoping centres just for interest. Many of them were quite up market stores, similar to Myer or David Jones. I also popped into the ‘Sony Style’ store that I crossed on the way in. I wanted to pick up a blower brush for my A100 DSLR. I didn’t find the brush unfortunately - I later realized that there weren’t any offical cleaning kits from Sony, no big deal really – what I found instead were all of the lenses in the Alpha range on display. Including the $AUD14000 lens!! I stopped and marvelled at the lenses for sometime. Phew, very impressive.

From there I went home the same way that I’d got there. Unfortunately I’d got off at the wrong stop (I swear David told me the wrong one!) and walked to the campus which was only 25 minutes away. The walk took considerably longer though as I lost my way a little. The signs indicated that JunGong road was only street away (and so it was) but the street strecthed out a long way.

Once I got back to the campus, I figured that I’d better see Mrs. Hua since I had the time. As usual I asked more than a few questions, I also asked about the bus which I didn’t catch on the way home, she said that it should be on the otherside of the road, I wasn’t too sure. Then we went down to the student store and picked up a recharge for the phone, which after some poorly spoken english translation I got working. From there I called home, went back to my room, organised what I needed to get online, had tea and then went to the internet cafe before heading to the supermarket for supplies. Once I had left the Supermarket I got a call from Mrs Hua to tell me that tommorow morning a teacher from the Downtown camps would come down to meet me and help me get set up for the new semester. Cool.

Tuesday

I woke up at about 9:00am on Tuesday and figured that I’d ought to get ready quick smart before Mrs Hua called me to prompt my meeting with this teacher. I was mostly organised when she called and headed out shortly after. She was waiting out front for me of the office as well and told me to wait inside. I think she was waiting for someone but I wasn’t sure who.

Anyways, I headed inside and waited. Mrs. Hua then came in and introduced me to this teacher - Ms Ji. Mrs Hua said some words and then left us to it. Together Ms. Ji and I walked down to the bus stop and then went through the motions of getting to the campus.

Ms. Ji was very easy to talk to and the two of us talked the whole way to the campus (mostly Chinese). She is a Chinese teacher for the college teaching the beginner and elementary classes. I explained how I had trouble figuring out the age of Chinese people (as they all look so young), she felt the same way for westerners except looking older. I guessed 21-22, she is 25. She guessed 22-23, I am 20. We talked about a whole range of issues as well as the regularities. I also remembered to prod her with questions relating to self-expression and openmindedness (!).

The last sentence is important as I’m trying to gage the real opinions and ideas of Chinese people while over here. I mean, this in contrast to the censorship, communism, old vs new, the massive population and basically how Chinese people will never tell you how they really feel in order to be polite. I would like to dig in under these issues to get a much clearer more accurate picture, beyond “You’re not Chinese, you’ll never understand”…blah blah blah and all that nonsense.

Anyways we got to the campus alright and she took me to the same building I found yesterday. Then she said goodbye and placed me in the hands of someone that Mrs Hua pointed out a while ago. From there, I sat down, filled in some forms and then had to read aloud some text which was overall pretty easy. They then helped me discern at about what skill level I am at. The book they said would be my text book seemed slightly easy (mainly in terms of workload) but they were sure to point out that this is only one part of my studies, I will also have listening and speaking classes. I am weary if this workload will be just right or not - most likely too easy but I’m not too sure since I haven’t done Chinese classes for a few months now.

After the test, they gave me a calico bag (free propoganda yay!) and set me on my way, telling me that I just rock up at 9:00am on Monday and the rest is all sorted. Sweet.

Once I left I decided to check out Xujiahui which is ShangHai’s electronics capital, not too far from the campus. On arriving, this place just blew my mind. It is so swish, so modern, the ShangHai CBD really does remind me of another Tokyo. I’m not going to try and describe this to you, instead you’ll have to wait until I upload the photos.

Once I left the station I went to another department store and enquired about blower brushes - kettles were too expernsive. The Sony rep pointed out a Best Buy store pass the giant glass globe in the centre of the shopping hub, so I headed down there after eating lunch (sweet bread with smatters of Vegemite).

Best Buy is an American store and it was the first time I’d ever been to one. Unlike my assumptions these stores are electronics stores and not regular department stores. Inside it was much like any Harvey Norman store, except the store looked new and modern. Everything that you could find in a regular electronics store you could find here with the exception of video games, funny that.

I found a cleaning kit in Best Buy and decided to buy that as it had everything that I needed. In Best Buy I asked one of the staff members where I could find games, he pointed out to another direction - otherside of the globe, same side of the road though. He also thought that I’d been studying Chinese for ½ a year and said I was very good. Grrr…I wanted to fist him in the stomach.

So I went to this area that he was talking about and found two buildings full of electronics with some areas seemingly brand sponsered. Around here it was packed from head to toe with computers and electronics by every manufacturer in existence. No small appliances though, just laptops, USBs, phones and the like.

It didn’t take long for me to get fed of people calling ‘Hello!’ to me so I wanted to finish up quickly. I remembered that I also needed to buy a USB so I bought a 4gb stick for about $AUD 20 which wasn’t much of a deal. I did get the lady to demo it to see that it worked. I also asked who taught them to call hello to us, she said that it just came about naturally. She didn’t know anymore than ‘hello’ herself.

From there I decided to go to the other building and eventually found myself in a Chinese arcade with plenty of classic arcade favourites. I watched some matches of King of Fighters ‘98 and then headed home.

Again, much like the time before I couldn’t find the bus stop and was adament to go back and try the station which I thought was the right one - Mrs. Hua later confirmed that I was at the wrong one all along - I asked around for the bus but everyone just pointed me in the direction of another bus that went to the same spot.They’d guilted me into catching this bus, particularly this guy with a lisp that said he could point out where the University was for me. So I caught this bus with the guy and his lisp -despite his kindness, I was pretty fed up by then.

From the bus stop it was a 10 minute walk to the University. I walked back to my room, tested the USB - came with a virus and a worm, cleared them off, USB doesn’t always work properly, works now though after I formatted it - and threw a map of the subway stations on there so that Mrs Hua could print them off for me.

Went to her office, got a print out. Again confessed that I feel like a major nusiance and apologised about guilt tripping her the other day about exchange students making friends. Explained how my Chinese friends in Australia don’t have any Australian friends (except me, of course) and how it makes me feel guilty, got talking about Universities too. She seemed amazed that I could study at two Universities for the one program – I mean she found it incomprhensible. Then we talked about blogging and how I feel games are more of an emotional experience than physical – this was accidental. Again she seemed compelled by what I was saying, adding in her own determined opinions about why this was important. I know, this almost scared the shit out of me too. Usually by this stage I’m cast off as the village idiot for thinking such nonsense. It’s taught me to try and avoid talking about games to anyone anymore, even the enthusiasts but she seemed pretty engaged, often leading the conversation at times. I guess she just wanted an excuse to stop working.

Anyways from there I did the usual round of tea, internet cafe, bit of blogging, some TV and then bed. I’d also noticed that David had left as well.

Wednesday

I didn’t have the best sleep on Tuesday night so I woke up a little later, still feeling okay. As I was sorting out my underwear into the various hues of gray I got a phone call from someone from the office who wanted to know if I was interested in getting a coffee or having lunch with them. Not knowinging that there was anyone working at the office besides Mr Guo and Mrs. Hua and having no plans for the day I happily accepted and arrived to the office in 20 minutes.

I got to the room that they mentioned on the phone and inside were 3 ladies. One of them I partly recognised. They all introduced themselves and the familiar lady explained that she noticed me at the canteen the night before (yeah I notice her too!) and figurred that I looked like the Australian guy on their list so they decided to organise some sort of gathering.

They all introduced their roles and handed me cards with their details on them. One of them, maybe a little older, seemed to be enjoying the fruits of natural ageing and being successful - she was the boss. The other was a younger girl (23), a volunteer whom seemed to be a lacky to the other two but still in good relationship.

The four of us left the office and began strolling down to the main gate. The familiar lady (second to the boss) and I began talking, they were surprised that I could conduct the conversation in Chinese and so they all primarily spoke to me in Chinese. She said of her travels to the University of Tasmania which she had just gotten back from and how they are explaining a short exchange program with them. She said that most of them could barely speak the language, therefore I was quite good. I disagreed.

We then caught a taxi -I had to sit in the front as I was a male they said – to an area in YangPu not too far from the Uni which was much nicer. They explained that I could shop there. In fact they had basically assumed that I hadn’t been to the other campus, set up my phone or anything like that and had the volunteer there to help.

We went into one of the buildings and then into a restraunt which was probably the flashiest restraunt I’d ever been to – being polite Chinese people they disagreed saying that it was not that good. The two older ladies began to order the dishes ocassionally checking with the vounteer.

They continued talking Chinese but transisted back and forth between english and Chinese throughout the meal. I really do hate busy resterunats as I can never hear people, no matter what language they speak.

Anyways, a series of dishes were put out. The ladies explained each one of them to me and a bit about how they were made. They first served up a small plate of white meat, covered in soy sauce and herbs. Not too sure about this one, tasted very exotic. The dish served alongside the white meat was a dish that I was familiar with from my last trip to Shanghai. It was cold fish meat, held together in a perfectly rectangular shape by what I would describe as plain, hard jelly. I had a piece of this but knew that I wouldn’t like it.

They later served up that dish that ressembled Beef and Black bean, along with a salad of tomato, purple cabage, orange slices, bread and some other stuff. These were okay. More dishes were put out infront of me such fish opened up and covered in spices (tasted pretty good). They also brought out a dish similar to Peking duck, with the sliced veggies (cucumber, carrot, couldn’t recognise the rest) and meat to wrap into a soft taco-like base. Oh yeah, I also tried the “1000 year old egg” which is a black - yes black - soft boiled egg, served cold and tasted like moist filling.

The ladies talked more about the dishes, complained at the waiters about the taco bases being too crisp - cultural norm to complain in restaurant they said - and made a few jokes about knives and forks. They also talked more about their roles in the office and how a group of students from the University of Tasmania would be coming over in November for sight seeing and that I could join in too.

Once we finished I was left with the volunteer to help buy a spoon, shaving mirror and kettle; 3 essential items that I couldn’t find in the local area nor in Xujiahui. Well I could find the kettle but not for a suitable price.

She suggested that Wallmart – yes, another big American retailer buying into China - would have all 3 of them items for a good price, so we went there. The store itself felt more like a cross between Bi-Lo, Big-W and The Reject Shop. It also screamed generic and considering all of the good stuff I’d heard about Wall Mart in my marketing classes, I didn’t find it to be all too impressive. The staff were also beyond useless and in fact were better at telling us where not to go rather than where to go.

Oh yeah, no plastic bags allowed, anywhere in China, you have to carry them by yourself or use your own bag.

We eventually found all three items and that was all that I really needed help with. I think that the volunteer (sorry, her english name is Ariel) was expcting me to have more problems than I did but I explained to her that I had them sorted out already and together we caught a bus back to Uni. We then went up to her office which was at the top of the exchange office in a cosy, attic shaped room with three computers and a couple of desks where she wrote down her contact details and drew up a map to where we just were so that I could return by bus anytime.

After that I went back to my room, finished organising my underwear and then headed out for tea and internet. That concludes Monday through to Wednesday.

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