Becka and I finally met up with Daisy for lunch- long time no see! Her mother has come to visit, which is why Daisy has been so busy lately. I'd been looking forward to meeting Gillian, the mother, as she was a student in northern China 30 years ago. It was fascinating to hear her compare China then and now. Apparently, China is now "unrecognisable". When she was here she had a Chinese minder with her constantly. She wasn't allowed to travel independently and the roads all had signs saying "No Foreigners Past This Point". There were hardly any cars- all motorcycles. Water and electricity were unreliable and she travelled everywhere by bicycle. She went back to the town she had studied in and the bits she remembered had all been plastered in high-rises.
How things change!
Although I have received confirmation that the government does indeed control the central heating. Apparently, it will be switched on "some time in mid-November". I remember one of our teachers saying that in 黑龙江, Heilongjiang, Black Dragon River, the most northerly province in China, it is actually very warm in winter as they have heating ooh! I don't think they are allowed central heating south of the Yangtze either. Worse than my mum! The thermostat rarely went above 15 but at least it came on in October!
I found out two of my teachers' names today. Our Oral teacher is 徐晓晖, Xu Xiaohui. Becka and I have chosen to translate this as "Sparkling Light of the Rising Sun" which sounds lovely but over-eggs it a bit. 晓 is the rising sun and 晖 is sunshine so still a pretty name nonetheless. 徐 is a common surname. Our Listening teacher is 宋晨, Song Chen. 宋 is her surname and 晨 means dawn. So we have Sparkling Light of the Rising Sun Xu and Dawn Song. Chinese names are so much more fun...
We had lunch at the restaurant I shall now call Narnia-due to it being far larger than would appear from the outside. We have been there three days in a row now and every time have had 锅巴肉... We also ordered 黄瓜something蛋 which was basically omelette with cucumber in (the Chinese for cucumber literally translates as "yellow 瓜" which is odd as cucumber is undeniably green. However, not for me to question. 瓜 is the word used for fruit/veg like melons, pumpkins etc). The omelette was very tasty. We also had shredded bits of this and that as well as rice. Yum yum. Neither Gillian nor Daisy had eaten 锅巴肉 before and now are enthusiastic converts!
I've been planning my travelling at Spring Festival. The first half, 3 weeks, will be spent in Macao, Hong Kong, Guangxi, north Vietnam, Kunming in Yunnan, then Laos, float down the Mekong river, north Thailand, avoid tourists, Cambodia, avoid landmines, and then back to Qingdao with a tan and hopefully without malaria.
So excited!!!
(Yes I am supposed to be revising for exam tomorrow. Funny how much fun planning holidays are when you have vocab to learn...)
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