Went to the cinema yesterday with Vivien, Candy and Becka. We saw some Chinese comedy film that basically parodied Chinese martial arts films, and indeed featured Yoda at some point for some reason. Anyway the Chinese found it hilarious. I didn't.
I was whingeing to Vivien about how much bother teaching was and that the pay was alright but gawd what a faff. Vivien asked how much I got and I replied 130 an hour and there was a slight pause. Then she revealed that when she worked for McDonalds over the summer she got 5.8 an hour. I queried this as to whether she meant 58 but no, she really only earnt 5.8kuai and hour, the equivalent of 58p an hour while I, pretty much untrained, got £13 for muddling through teaching...
5.8! That's nothing! British workers in McDonalds also get 5.8... but that's pounds not kuai! And how could I get 130? After further quizzing I think I earn more than even a doctor! That's the equivalent of getting £60,000 a year in the UK! For being an unqualified teacher whose only virtue, a fairly standard British accent, is merely a happy chance.
So my question is: I am always told "don't take less than a 100! (I don't take less than 130:P)" and if this figure is so stratospherically high, where did it come from?
My dilemma in life at the moment is that my computer is incapable of connecting to the wireless in our flat so I was having to use my ipod all of the time. Which is annoying as it is a rather small screen. But after some fiddling it now connects if I use a cable. This isn't perfect, but by now I'll take anything...
Becka, Boram, Sara and I are definitely going to Harbin next week. EEEEEEEEEEEEEESOEXCITEDDDDDDDDDDD
Daisy came over for dinner. Becka is slightly tipsy from drinking wine. As it's Chinese wine it tastes disgusting so she has warmed it up and the flat smells all lovely and winey. I cooked and we had mash potato (OMG I MISSED YOU MASH POTATO) and carrots and bits of meat and apple sauce and it was lovely. Lovely.
The Koreans have their friend's dog over. It is a black cocker spaniel with dachsundesque body length. It is terrified of me and skittles away when I approach. As it is a wooden floor it doesn't really go very far and just slithers around in a panic. I find this hilarious and keep saying BOO so it skitters away. Maybe that's why it doesn't like me...
Boram had stomach ache last night so the Koreans decided that the best way to cure this would be to stick needles in each other to draw blood.
I don't get Eastern medicine.
2010-12-16
2010-12-15
Colds and Ideas
The thing about China is that it asks me questions that the answers to which I have not thought about before. For example when wandering around Jusco in search of somewhere to buy phone credit, I came across a life size stuffed leopard, which may or may not have been real. And I thought, do I need one of those in my life? I had no idea if I did.
Yesterday started off badly. I have had a cold for a week now and by yesterday I was getting rather run down. Plus the temperature here has plunged somewhat, which does not help! So, after dragging my achingly tired body through the blistering wind (I swear I have never felt anything that cold before!) to class my mood was low. Particularly as I knew that after the next 4 hours of class I had an erhu lesson and then 2 hours of teaching. I cursed myself for biting off more than I could chew. The teacher commented that I looked ill and recommended I take some medicine. I mumbled something about not sure where to find western medicine and she smiled and asked if I didn't like Chinese medicine. I muttered something nondescript as I thought it impolite to mention that I doubted dried bits of animal would do me much good...
After the first 2 hours of class though I came up with a plan. Instead of oral class I escaped to Starbucks and damn it was a good move! Curled up in a snuggly warm armchair with some lovely early grey tea, I felt a lot more capable! I then also had a Bright Idea. Namely that next Saturday is, I believe, Christmas and that I did not see it being much full of joy, what with it being spent in frozen Qingdao without family or turkey. Soo I suddenly thought "let's go to Harbin instead". Harbin is a city in China's far north-east and is famous for its ice sculptures. And being the coldest city in China but anyway I suddenly started reading about it and looking at prices and then started to get very excited. Very very excited. Spending Christmas wandering a snowy city, especially one as full of Russian architecture as Harbin, looking at pretty ice sculptures, husky sledding on the river, followed by a sampling of Harbin's famously raucous nightlife seemed almost as good as being at home! So I fired off text messages at Becka and may have succeeded in emotionally blackmailing her to come...
So the mere thought of a trip cheered me up no end. I faced my Erhu lesson with resolve and was relieved to find that the reason my erhu sounded so bad was because the bridge was in the wrong place. Phew! My teaching went alright as well although I was teaching some Korean teenagers who had started class at 8am and this was now their last two lessons of the day at 4:30 so you can imagine the enthusiasm... And then a nice surprise of Daisy suddenly asking to meet up for dinner. We went to Lisa's and had a nice time chatting.
On the way to class yesterday Sara, my flatmate, commented that people stared at me a lot. I have to admit, I have stopped noticing! Although when a car turned into an entrance in front of me today, it paused for 5 seconds as the driver stared at me, mouth open.
Fingers crossed for Harbin!
Yesterday started off badly. I have had a cold for a week now and by yesterday I was getting rather run down. Plus the temperature here has plunged somewhat, which does not help! So, after dragging my achingly tired body through the blistering wind (I swear I have never felt anything that cold before!) to class my mood was low. Particularly as I knew that after the next 4 hours of class I had an erhu lesson and then 2 hours of teaching. I cursed myself for biting off more than I could chew. The teacher commented that I looked ill and recommended I take some medicine. I mumbled something about not sure where to find western medicine and she smiled and asked if I didn't like Chinese medicine. I muttered something nondescript as I thought it impolite to mention that I doubted dried bits of animal would do me much good...
After the first 2 hours of class though I came up with a plan. Instead of oral class I escaped to Starbucks and damn it was a good move! Curled up in a snuggly warm armchair with some lovely early grey tea, I felt a lot more capable! I then also had a Bright Idea. Namely that next Saturday is, I believe, Christmas and that I did not see it being much full of joy, what with it being spent in frozen Qingdao without family or turkey. Soo I suddenly thought "let's go to Harbin instead". Harbin is a city in China's far north-east and is famous for its ice sculptures. And being the coldest city in China but anyway I suddenly started reading about it and looking at prices and then started to get very excited. Very very excited. Spending Christmas wandering a snowy city, especially one as full of Russian architecture as Harbin, looking at pretty ice sculptures, husky sledding on the river, followed by a sampling of Harbin's famously raucous nightlife seemed almost as good as being at home! So I fired off text messages at Becka and may have succeeded in emotionally blackmailing her to come...
So the mere thought of a trip cheered me up no end. I faced my Erhu lesson with resolve and was relieved to find that the reason my erhu sounded so bad was because the bridge was in the wrong place. Phew! My teaching went alright as well although I was teaching some Korean teenagers who had started class at 8am and this was now their last two lessons of the day at 4:30 so you can imagine the enthusiasm... And then a nice surprise of Daisy suddenly asking to meet up for dinner. We went to Lisa's and had a nice time chatting.
On the way to class yesterday Sara, my flatmate, commented that people stared at me a lot. I have to admit, I have stopped noticing! Although when a car turned into an entrance in front of me today, it paused for 5 seconds as the driver stared at me, mouth open.
Fingers crossed for Harbin!
2010-12-12
B2 Ban
A week or so ago I'd had the bright idea of organising a party for my class, B2, as I felt that as we all came from different parts of the globe, noone really knew each other. I organised it for Friday and dilligently advertised it on the board and in my best Chinese only for Friday to come and I have a raging cold... However, these things are sent to test us so I dragged myself over anyway- and was glad I did.
We started off at a restaurant on Qingda Yi Lu, the street where we often go. We were put in the private room. Chinese restaurants all have these small rooms with circular tables for large groups. Despite it being a circular table, and thus to my Arthurian mind a denoter of equality, there is in fact a strict seating system depending on who is the guest, who is the host and who is what seniority in the company. Our Oral teacher spent a long time telling us the correct order but I've forgotten most of it, except that the head host has the seat facing the door and the second host has the seat nearest the door so he can order. As I'd been the one doing the organising I got the head host's chair as well as the responsibility of ordering. It was quite encouraging how much more quickly I can deal with ordering now! When I first got here it would take several hours to order rice but now I just leafed through nonchantly ordering some 锅包肉 here and some 地三鲜 there, maybe a bit of 糖醋里脊 for good measure.
Then we happily set to munching. The Japanese girl with us, who is best described as cheeky, appeared to be the sommelier for the night and kept filling our glasses with beer. Bizarrely the Russian didn't drink- odd for a Russian no? It was good until... well we'd spent that afternoon waiting for the internet man and he hadn't come so we'd been annoyed etc but then at 7:30 he rang wondering why noone was waiting for him in the flat... so Becka raged back to the flat to sort it out.
Then we all headed to LPG and more chatting in our stilted, uncertain, almost certainly painfully discordant Chinese. But it's still pretty cool how much you can get across! I was chatting to a Korean, who is very cute, and he had heard of Margaret Thatcher, which impressed me. He said he liked Washish. I wasn't sure what this meant so we spent several minutes going through any possible pronunciation in his mind before he wrote it down. He had meant Oasis, the band. The Koreans also taught me the dice game, which I had been curious about for a while. This is where you have some dice, and you shake them in a cup and then other people have to guess what value you have. Or something lol. After a while we peeled off into language groups and I started talking to some Laowais I hadn't met before. One was wearing a Loughborough shirt and he turned out to be a student there. He was in Qingdao on a placement for international business or something, although he's returning to the UK this week. He was a keen rugby player and as such, took up rather a lot of space for his bulging biceps. I was a tiny bit in love.
I also got talking to an American, from Tennessee, who was basically just living in Qingdao. He hadn't heard of evolution until he went to College. Nonetheless he seemed very sensible!
I enjoyed chilling with everyone over a beer but that night I had a vision of a future that I want to avoid. There was a girl who was off her face, wrap dress rapidly unwrapping, complaining about the quality of the weed and how much she hated China. "I hate it!" she slurred, looming into my face, eyes wide open. "And they've been pissing with the Catholic Church!" China has a state run Catholic Church that isn't "in full communion with Rome" or whatever pompous phrase it is and they've recently chosen some new bishops and made rebel bishops agree or something. This girl was a Catholic, but not a Catholic "soul" whatever that means, and asked what I thought. "I think China's been through enough without Catholiscm so that's a good thing" I replied. She reeled a bit and then carried on about weed again.
So yeah, I hope I never become a drunk, high, arrogant, half-dressed, whining expat!
I mean, what would you rather have, a system that means you can grow up thinking the world was invented 6000 years ago, run by multi-millionaires (and you can only win election in the US if you can afford the campaign), or one that bans facebook but refuses to expose its citizens to Jewish myths and Roman letters? I pick China! Sure they are lied to about Tiananmen Square, but that was 20 years ago now.
China's government's sole concern in economic prosperity. If that involves freedom of speech, enshrined in the Chinese constitution as is the right to voice criticism, then China will let that happen. Give it time
Boram and Sara very kindly cooked Becka and I dinner today. They cooked banfan, which we already like, and something that sounded like tapichiki or something. It was bits of vegetables, and something fishy, in a spicy tomato sauce. Nice, but for the spice. They've made me some Korean type tea which appears to be flower buds in hot water. Weird but wonderful. When the flatowner's son came round he said it was funny we British were using Chinese to talk to the Koreans. He lived in Canada for a year which explains his excellent English.
We started off at a restaurant on Qingda Yi Lu, the street where we often go. We were put in the private room. Chinese restaurants all have these small rooms with circular tables for large groups. Despite it being a circular table, and thus to my Arthurian mind a denoter of equality, there is in fact a strict seating system depending on who is the guest, who is the host and who is what seniority in the company. Our Oral teacher spent a long time telling us the correct order but I've forgotten most of it, except that the head host has the seat facing the door and the second host has the seat nearest the door so he can order. As I'd been the one doing the organising I got the head host's chair as well as the responsibility of ordering. It was quite encouraging how much more quickly I can deal with ordering now! When I first got here it would take several hours to order rice but now I just leafed through nonchantly ordering some 锅包肉 here and some 地三鲜 there, maybe a bit of 糖醋里脊 for good measure.
Then we happily set to munching. The Japanese girl with us, who is best described as cheeky, appeared to be the sommelier for the night and kept filling our glasses with beer. Bizarrely the Russian didn't drink- odd for a Russian no? It was good until... well we'd spent that afternoon waiting for the internet man and he hadn't come so we'd been annoyed etc but then at 7:30 he rang wondering why noone was waiting for him in the flat... so Becka raged back to the flat to sort it out.
Then we all headed to LPG and more chatting in our stilted, uncertain, almost certainly painfully discordant Chinese. But it's still pretty cool how much you can get across! I was chatting to a Korean, who is very cute, and he had heard of Margaret Thatcher, which impressed me. He said he liked Washish. I wasn't sure what this meant so we spent several minutes going through any possible pronunciation in his mind before he wrote it down. He had meant Oasis, the band. The Koreans also taught me the dice game, which I had been curious about for a while. This is where you have some dice, and you shake them in a cup and then other people have to guess what value you have. Or something lol. After a while we peeled off into language groups and I started talking to some Laowais I hadn't met before. One was wearing a Loughborough shirt and he turned out to be a student there. He was in Qingdao on a placement for international business or something, although he's returning to the UK this week. He was a keen rugby player and as such, took up rather a lot of space for his bulging biceps. I was a tiny bit in love.
I also got talking to an American, from Tennessee, who was basically just living in Qingdao. He hadn't heard of evolution until he went to College. Nonetheless he seemed very sensible!
I enjoyed chilling with everyone over a beer but that night I had a vision of a future that I want to avoid. There was a girl who was off her face, wrap dress rapidly unwrapping, complaining about the quality of the weed and how much she hated China. "I hate it!" she slurred, looming into my face, eyes wide open. "And they've been pissing with the Catholic Church!" China has a state run Catholic Church that isn't "in full communion with Rome" or whatever pompous phrase it is and they've recently chosen some new bishops and made rebel bishops agree or something. This girl was a Catholic, but not a Catholic "soul" whatever that means, and asked what I thought. "I think China's been through enough without Catholiscm so that's a good thing" I replied. She reeled a bit and then carried on about weed again.
So yeah, I hope I never become a drunk, high, arrogant, half-dressed, whining expat!
I mean, what would you rather have, a system that means you can grow up thinking the world was invented 6000 years ago, run by multi-millionaires (and you can only win election in the US if you can afford the campaign), or one that bans facebook but refuses to expose its citizens to Jewish myths and Roman letters? I pick China! Sure they are lied to about Tiananmen Square, but that was 20 years ago now.
China's government's sole concern in economic prosperity. If that involves freedom of speech, enshrined in the Chinese constitution as is the right to voice criticism, then China will let that happen. Give it time
Boram and Sara very kindly cooked Becka and I dinner today. They cooked banfan, which we already like, and something that sounded like tapichiki or something. It was bits of vegetables, and something fishy, in a spicy tomato sauce. Nice, but for the spice. They've made me some Korean type tea which appears to be flower buds in hot water. Weird but wonderful. When the flatowner's son came round he said it was funny we British were using Chinese to talk to the Koreans. He lived in Canada for a year which explains his excellent English.
2010-12-09
Phone Calls AAAHHHHHH
So Becka and I have finally moved in to our new flat! It was a fairly laborious process as not only has my stuff expanded to fill several suitcases but we also had to lug over my microwave, sword and bronze statue of a horse. So that took several taxi trips.
I've had to cope with several phone calls recently. This shouldn't be news but I do dread phone calls. I see an unknown number, my heart sinks, I answer it with a nervous "喂, 你好?" "Wei (what they say when answering the phone), hello?"and then hold the phone away from my ear as a cacophony of syllables blares out. After a while I interrupt with a "你好， 我听不懂""Hello, I don't understand". There's normally a pause. Then more Chinese. I listen in the vain hope of trying to pick out a clue. Sometimes I get it and sometimes I have to inquire as to who it is. I got a call on Wednesday that took me a while to figure out. He said he was "快递""kuaidi". I asked him to wait a moment while I looked this up. Turned out it meant "express", he was delivering an express letter, and wanted to know which student building I was in. I wasn't expecting a letter so it took me a while to get this but eventually I trooped downstairs to where a man on a motorbike was waiting. He gave me an envelope and pointed at my name with a quizzical expression. I opened it and realised it was my YHA membership card.
Another tricky call was from the internet man. I'd gone to buy the internet, and I was rather proud of myself for navigating the conversation, but that was face-to-face and with an educated Chinese lady, so she spoke Standard Mandarin, putonghua, 普通话. The internet installer man spoke with the Qingdao accent, which involves speaking like you have a hot potato in your mouth, and was over the phone. After a while I gathered he wanted to know when I could be in the flat. After a long while.
The problem is they are not used to dealing with foreigners so very rarely make concessions, like speaking slowly and clearly. When checking out of the student building the woman asked after my "chuardar", (bedsheet) or that's what it sounded like. A newsreader would have said "chuangdan", which is what I understand. Cue frustration...
I miss being a native speaker of the local language...
I had my second erhu lesson on Tuesday. I dislike the boss of the music school as a) she takes 30 of the 60kuai I pay for my lesson and b) is rather hard to understand and gets annoyed when I just stare back blankly. I don't do it on purpose!
At the other end of the spectrum, whenever we go somewhere posh they are amazed when we can say nihao. Last night we went to Q bar, which is a rather swanky cocktail bar in Shangri-La Hotel. To get free drinks (it was ladies' night) we, of course, had to fill out a bloody form. Becka and I filled it out in Chinese characters and the waiter was like "OMG WOW YOU SPEAK CHINESE????" "er, a little...". Fairy, a colleague from work, rang up and I answered with wei, nihao? and she spent the next few seconds spluttering "wow you said nihao! Haha!""Haha...".
My erhu teacher is lovely. We are now best friends. Next semester I am going to teach her English in return for erhu lessons. This means the boss won't get anything yaya. She is from Mao Zedong's hometown and is studying at Qingdao University (the poly to Ocean's redbrick). She helped me haggle for a bowl. I got it for 13kuai instead of 15. I saved 20p woohoo!
I have a man who is desperately trying to make me teach his kid English. I feel rather guilty as I just don't have the time but he is rather desperate. The Chinese are crazy about learning English they really are!
In other news I have a cold :( The weather here has got cold lately, -2 yesterday, plus I have been rather busy moving flat, sorting out internet (predictably in China not very straightforward), going to class, revising for an exam, planning travels, and teaching so it was inevitable I'd get something. I wimped out of class and teaching today and am now snuggled in Starbucks listening to music and planning lessons. I would find some paracetmol but they are quite rare here. They tend to use Chinese medicine for sniffles etc. But I have been told that Chinese medicine "doesn't work on foreigners" so I might have to Earl-Grey-Tea this one out.
That reminds me, my boss tried to get out of paying me for one hour as it was a "party hour" (playing games and things). I replied that if I was there I'd bloody well better be paid. I got the money :D The good news is that I am going to Yishui next week so I may be having Christmas day off after all! And now we have a kitchen, and soon an oven (you can buy microwave sized ovens quite cheaply), THERE WILL BE CHRISTMAS DINNER. Although maybe not turkey.
I've had to cope with several phone calls recently. This shouldn't be news but I do dread phone calls. I see an unknown number, my heart sinks, I answer it with a nervous "喂, 你好?" "Wei (what they say when answering the phone), hello?"and then hold the phone away from my ear as a cacophony of syllables blares out. After a while I interrupt with a "你好， 我听不懂""Hello, I don't understand". There's normally a pause. Then more Chinese. I listen in the vain hope of trying to pick out a clue. Sometimes I get it and sometimes I have to inquire as to who it is. I got a call on Wednesday that took me a while to figure out. He said he was "快递""kuaidi". I asked him to wait a moment while I looked this up. Turned out it meant "express", he was delivering an express letter, and wanted to know which student building I was in. I wasn't expecting a letter so it took me a while to get this but eventually I trooped downstairs to where a man on a motorbike was waiting. He gave me an envelope and pointed at my name with a quizzical expression. I opened it and realised it was my YHA membership card.
Another tricky call was from the internet man. I'd gone to buy the internet, and I was rather proud of myself for navigating the conversation, but that was face-to-face and with an educated Chinese lady, so she spoke Standard Mandarin, putonghua, 普通话. The internet installer man spoke with the Qingdao accent, which involves speaking like you have a hot potato in your mouth, and was over the phone. After a while I gathered he wanted to know when I could be in the flat. After a long while.
The problem is they are not used to dealing with foreigners so very rarely make concessions, like speaking slowly and clearly. When checking out of the student building the woman asked after my "chuardar", (bedsheet) or that's what it sounded like. A newsreader would have said "chuangdan", which is what I understand. Cue frustration...
I miss being a native speaker of the local language...
I had my second erhu lesson on Tuesday. I dislike the boss of the music school as a) she takes 30 of the 60kuai I pay for my lesson and b) is rather hard to understand and gets annoyed when I just stare back blankly. I don't do it on purpose!
At the other end of the spectrum, whenever we go somewhere posh they are amazed when we can say nihao. Last night we went to Q bar, which is a rather swanky cocktail bar in Shangri-La Hotel. To get free drinks (it was ladies' night) we, of course, had to fill out a bloody form. Becka and I filled it out in Chinese characters and the waiter was like "OMG WOW YOU SPEAK CHINESE????" "er, a little...". Fairy, a colleague from work, rang up and I answered with wei, nihao? and she spent the next few seconds spluttering "wow you said nihao! Haha!""Haha...".
My erhu teacher is lovely. We are now best friends. Next semester I am going to teach her English in return for erhu lessons. This means the boss won't get anything yaya. She is from Mao Zedong's hometown and is studying at Qingdao University (the poly to Ocean's redbrick). She helped me haggle for a bowl. I got it for 13kuai instead of 15. I saved 20p woohoo!
I have a man who is desperately trying to make me teach his kid English. I feel rather guilty as I just don't have the time but he is rather desperate. The Chinese are crazy about learning English they really are!
In other news I have a cold :( The weather here has got cold lately, -2 yesterday, plus I have been rather busy moving flat, sorting out internet (predictably in China not very straightforward), going to class, revising for an exam, planning travels, and teaching so it was inevitable I'd get something. I wimped out of class and teaching today and am now snuggled in Starbucks listening to music and planning lessons. I would find some paracetmol but they are quite rare here. They tend to use Chinese medicine for sniffles etc. But I have been told that Chinese medicine "doesn't work on foreigners" so I might have to Earl-Grey-Tea this one out.
That reminds me, my boss tried to get out of paying me for one hour as it was a "party hour" (playing games and things). I replied that if I was there I'd bloody well better be paid. I got the money :D The good news is that I am going to Yishui next week so I may be having Christmas day off after all! And now we have a kitchen, and soon an oven (you can buy microwave sized ovens quite cheaply), THERE WILL BE CHRISTMAS DINNER. Although maybe not turkey.
Those "vehicles" I mentioned a few weeks ago. Literally an engine with a light in front. And clouds of black smock behind. Not built for speed.
2010-12-04
Ants on a Tree
So on Friday afternoon Becka and I went to see our new flat and decided that we definitely wanted it. Becka was getting cold feet as we were leaving to see the flat but when she nipped back for her passport and reappeared again she'd encountered some annoying Koreans and was once again set on moving out.
The flat is rather comfy. It's on the 1st floor but with grills over the windows so it seems secure. There is a large living room with a big bay window. Through some rather pretty sliding doors is the kitchen, of course without an oven but with a fridge and rings. On one side are two bedrooms, mine and Becka's, with the bathroom inbetween. On the other side is our new flatmates' shared room and a bathroom that has no bath or shower. My bedroom faces south, so gets lots of lovely light, and has a larger than single-sized bed with a surprisingly soft mattress. Mattresses here, at least ones I've encountered, tend to be rather hard so that was quite nice although I've kinda got used to the hard... I get a large wardrobe but no other furniture. Becka doesn't even get a wardrobe. This has provided me with a perfect excuse to go and find me some lovely antique Chinese furniture so I'm not complaining!
Our new flatmates are called Boram and Sara. Both are from South Korea and are in our class. I'm not sure how old they are exactly because when I asked they said they were born in 1989, "year of the Snake, like you!". (Technically I was born in 1990 but as it was in January it was still the year of the Snake as it was before the end of the Chinese year). What I know about Sara is that she has a boyfriend in South Korea and is very pretty. Boram has a younger brother who is just about to go into the army (compulsory in SK) which must be a daunting prospect given the situation there.
So today we headed off to the 派出所, local police station, to register that us aliens were moving house. Did it work first time? As expected, no. We all trooped in and handed over a tree's worth of paper but the snag came when we found that only Sara's name was on the lease. Apparently all our names had to be to prove that we were going to live there. Which is silly. Because whether our name is on the lease or not makes no difference to where we live surely! Anyway this took a while to be communicated but after the policewoman started to get annoyed we rang the owner's son who spoke English who translated. So then we trooped off to the Estate Agents and told them the problem and they muttered that some other Germans had also had this problem and then proceeded to make many phone calls. They had a sign on the wall in English commemorating their work in "promoting the System's global expansion". I think this estate agent has plans for more than just 3bed flats! They also had the door to their toilet open. I dislike Chinese toilets.
After waiting for a while the agent asked for our passports and then copied our names from them. Or tried to. When he got to my passport he stared at it for a few seconds and then asked me which bit was the name. I then tried to explain that Louise Elizabeth Jones really was my whole name yes I know it's long but that's laowai for you haha no it doesn't mean anything no Jones is my family name not Louise here let me write it. Then we did the same thing with Becka's name. Then we put a fingerprint on the lease and then we headed back to the 派出所 and lo! everything was all done.
麻烦, mafan, means bother. There's a lot of mafan in China.
The policewoman's son was hanging around playing computer games on the police computers. He looked a bit bored.
I've found out why the street vendors disappear every now and then. Some of them, or most, don't have licenses so the police occasionally wanders around and gathers them in to tell them off. Annoying.
Last night Becka and I headed off to the night market in 台东路，Taidong Road. (A lot of roads here seem named after areas in Taiwan- I think they think it strengthens their claim). We bought a bag of popcorn and sat on the bus happily munching away. The passenger next to Becka was eavesdropping our conversation. I think he was enjoying the chance to practise his aural skills. Near the end he asked Becka for some help with some question he had. The guy next to me just seemed annoyed by my constant munching on popcorn.
Taidong road, and environs, are covered in stalls selling pretty much everything. We spent quite a while walking among them. Some guy brushed against me and dug his hand against my pocket but couldn't get at my phone. I glared at him but as it could theoretically have been just an accident and if I picked a fight it would very quickly be one of me against every Chinese person there, I didn't do anything else. Becka bought a woolly hat and I nearly bought a jumper but decided against it (too much glitter). I bought a bowl instead. At the end of the road was a square. Here in China, which I admire very much, in the evening the adults go and congregate in squares to dance and play music. In every corner women would be doing some strange dance in unison, with or without fans, that I couldn't work out were just well-known steps or if someone had choreographed it or if it was a rehearsal for something. The odd coupled were dancing this almost salsa-like dance, except it was very slow and sedate and to Chinese music. In other corners were a group playing the drums and cymbols. In another some people were "playing" on the playground-like equipment you see here and there. As a whole it was rather nice to see adults doing something other than drinking to socialise. Keeps them fit as well I imagine.
Then we walked back down to meet Daisy and go to Beer Street. Beer Street was a tad disappointing as when Daisy had last been it had been hustling and bustling but last night was a bit empty and forlorn. Not really peak time I suppose. So we backtracked to Taidong to another restaurant. There we ordered 蚂蚁上树 which is literally translated as "ants on a tree". This aroused our curiosity so we ordered that, some deepfried chicken and some 红烧茄子, aubergine in brown sauce. Sadly the ants on a tree turned out not to be ants but noodles made from potato starch with miniscule bits of animal here and there. Ever had potato starch noodles? They are a bit jellyish and I can't say I recommend them.. We also slurped our way through some beer and started chatting about weird Japanese things (bit of a tautology there- everything Japanese sounds weird) and our most embarrassing moments. Great topics of conversation and I was so glad noone else understood us in the restaurant!
The restaurant loo was disgusting.
Then we went on to LPG for more beer and to see if our future husbands were there. No luck so we went to 88 bar, but not before I'd dropped my new bowl and smashed it. Daisy swore she'd fix it and ended up carting it around for the rest of the night. I had never been in to 88 before and was very glad we did as it was priceless. The decor was 19thcentury Dutch brothel meets STROBE LIGHTS. It was filled with Chinese, and one westerner who was a classic example of someone who has found that the looks and intelligence he was born with fetch a better league of woman in the East. There were some uninhibited dancers on a platform near the bar (must be Korean- I can't imagine a Chinese girl like that) and a cute guy in a gangster-type suit and hat singing. After a while Daisy, Becka and I got given drinks by a group of Chinese men which was great for the free drinks, but not so great as we figured that we didn't want these guys as our new best friends. So Becka faked being sick and we ran away out of the bar, Daisy waving the broken bowl. Then we tried Feeling Club, which is shiny and has metal detectors. It also was equipped with pole and possible Phillipina, as well as tvs showing the Victoria's Secret fashion show. After 5 minutes we had again made friends with some drunk man which again led to a hasty "Oh I don't feel well" exit. At this point we called it a night and headed home...
Confusing moment of the week: Passed a man and his dog waiting to cross the road. The dog was standing on its hind legs and the man was holding its front paw like a hand.
Confidence-boosting moment of the week: drunk sleazy guy telling me my Chinese wasn't very good. He didn't really seem to cut me slack for being a bit tipsy and having to hear him over some very loud music!
Eavesdrop of the week: some guys brushed past and although I didn't hear it, Daisy said they said the 2nd laowai was the fittest- which was me:P
Unexpected Price Tag of the Week: tried a jacket on in a shop. It was furry on the inside with hide on the outside trimmed with fur and lace. It was lovely and snuggly to wear even if I would argue that it wasn't the most tasteful garment I've ever seen. We wondered if it was real fur and asked the price. It was 450 pounds. Must have been unicorn fur or something!
Rarist Item in China: none of the supermarkets near me sell bowls. Only one stall in the whole of Taidong sold bowls. And I broke it. And Taidong is 30 minutes away by bus. All I need is one bowl!
The flat is rather comfy. It's on the 1st floor but with grills over the windows so it seems secure. There is a large living room with a big bay window. Through some rather pretty sliding doors is the kitchen, of course without an oven but with a fridge and rings. On one side are two bedrooms, mine and Becka's, with the bathroom inbetween. On the other side is our new flatmates' shared room and a bathroom that has no bath or shower. My bedroom faces south, so gets lots of lovely light, and has a larger than single-sized bed with a surprisingly soft mattress. Mattresses here, at least ones I've encountered, tend to be rather hard so that was quite nice although I've kinda got used to the hard... I get a large wardrobe but no other furniture. Becka doesn't even get a wardrobe. This has provided me with a perfect excuse to go and find me some lovely antique Chinese furniture so I'm not complaining!
Our new flatmates are called Boram and Sara. Both are from South Korea and are in our class. I'm not sure how old they are exactly because when I asked they said they were born in 1989, "year of the Snake, like you!". (Technically I was born in 1990 but as it was in January it was still the year of the Snake as it was before the end of the Chinese year). What I know about Sara is that she has a boyfriend in South Korea and is very pretty. Boram has a younger brother who is just about to go into the army (compulsory in SK) which must be a daunting prospect given the situation there.
So today we headed off to the 派出所, local police station, to register that us aliens were moving house. Did it work first time? As expected, no. We all trooped in and handed over a tree's worth of paper but the snag came when we found that only Sara's name was on the lease. Apparently all our names had to be to prove that we were going to live there. Which is silly. Because whether our name is on the lease or not makes no difference to where we live surely! Anyway this took a while to be communicated but after the policewoman started to get annoyed we rang the owner's son who spoke English who translated. So then we trooped off to the Estate Agents and told them the problem and they muttered that some other Germans had also had this problem and then proceeded to make many phone calls. They had a sign on the wall in English commemorating their work in "promoting the System's global expansion". I think this estate agent has plans for more than just 3bed flats! They also had the door to their toilet open. I dislike Chinese toilets.
After waiting for a while the agent asked for our passports and then copied our names from them. Or tried to. When he got to my passport he stared at it for a few seconds and then asked me which bit was the name. I then tried to explain that Louise Elizabeth Jones really was my whole name yes I know it's long but that's laowai for you haha no it doesn't mean anything no Jones is my family name not Louise here let me write it. Then we did the same thing with Becka's name. Then we put a fingerprint on the lease and then we headed back to the 派出所 and lo! everything was all done.
麻烦, mafan, means bother. There's a lot of mafan in China.
The policewoman's son was hanging around playing computer games on the police computers. He looked a bit bored.
I've found out why the street vendors disappear every now and then. Some of them, or most, don't have licenses so the police occasionally wanders around and gathers them in to tell them off. Annoying.
Last night Becka and I headed off to the night market in 台东路，Taidong Road. (A lot of roads here seem named after areas in Taiwan- I think they think it strengthens their claim). We bought a bag of popcorn and sat on the bus happily munching away. The passenger next to Becka was eavesdropping our conversation. I think he was enjoying the chance to practise his aural skills. Near the end he asked Becka for some help with some question he had. The guy next to me just seemed annoyed by my constant munching on popcorn.
Taidong road, and environs, are covered in stalls selling pretty much everything. We spent quite a while walking among them. Some guy brushed against me and dug his hand against my pocket but couldn't get at my phone. I glared at him but as it could theoretically have been just an accident and if I picked a fight it would very quickly be one of me against every Chinese person there, I didn't do anything else. Becka bought a woolly hat and I nearly bought a jumper but decided against it (too much glitter). I bought a bowl instead. At the end of the road was a square. Here in China, which I admire very much, in the evening the adults go and congregate in squares to dance and play music. In every corner women would be doing some strange dance in unison, with or without fans, that I couldn't work out were just well-known steps or if someone had choreographed it or if it was a rehearsal for something. The odd coupled were dancing this almost salsa-like dance, except it was very slow and sedate and to Chinese music. In other corners were a group playing the drums and cymbols. In another some people were "playing" on the playground-like equipment you see here and there. As a whole it was rather nice to see adults doing something other than drinking to socialise. Keeps them fit as well I imagine.
Then we walked back down to meet Daisy and go to Beer Street. Beer Street was a tad disappointing as when Daisy had last been it had been hustling and bustling but last night was a bit empty and forlorn. Not really peak time I suppose. So we backtracked to Taidong to another restaurant. There we ordered 蚂蚁上树 which is literally translated as "ants on a tree". This aroused our curiosity so we ordered that, some deepfried chicken and some 红烧茄子, aubergine in brown sauce. Sadly the ants on a tree turned out not to be ants but noodles made from potato starch with miniscule bits of animal here and there. Ever had potato starch noodles? They are a bit jellyish and I can't say I recommend them.. We also slurped our way through some beer and started chatting about weird Japanese things (bit of a tautology there- everything Japanese sounds weird) and our most embarrassing moments. Great topics of conversation and I was so glad noone else understood us in the restaurant!
The restaurant loo was disgusting.
Then we went on to LPG for more beer and to see if our future husbands were there. No luck so we went to 88 bar, but not before I'd dropped my new bowl and smashed it. Daisy swore she'd fix it and ended up carting it around for the rest of the night. I had never been in to 88 before and was very glad we did as it was priceless. The decor was 19thcentury Dutch brothel meets STROBE LIGHTS. It was filled with Chinese, and one westerner who was a classic example of someone who has found that the looks and intelligence he was born with fetch a better league of woman in the East. There were some uninhibited dancers on a platform near the bar (must be Korean- I can't imagine a Chinese girl like that) and a cute guy in a gangster-type suit and hat singing. After a while Daisy, Becka and I got given drinks by a group of Chinese men which was great for the free drinks, but not so great as we figured that we didn't want these guys as our new best friends. So Becka faked being sick and we ran away out of the bar, Daisy waving the broken bowl. Then we tried Feeling Club, which is shiny and has metal detectors. It also was equipped with pole and possible Phillipina, as well as tvs showing the Victoria's Secret fashion show. After 5 minutes we had again made friends with some drunk man which again led to a hasty "Oh I don't feel well" exit. At this point we called it a night and headed home...
Confusing moment of the week: Passed a man and his dog waiting to cross the road. The dog was standing on its hind legs and the man was holding its front paw like a hand.
Confidence-boosting moment of the week: drunk sleazy guy telling me my Chinese wasn't very good. He didn't really seem to cut me slack for being a bit tipsy and having to hear him over some very loud music!
Eavesdrop of the week: some guys brushed past and although I didn't hear it, Daisy said they said the 2nd laowai was the fittest- which was me:P
Unexpected Price Tag of the Week: tried a jacket on in a shop. It was furry on the inside with hide on the outside trimmed with fur and lace. It was lovely and snuggly to wear even if I would argue that it wasn't the most tasteful garment I've ever seen. We wondered if it was real fur and asked the price. It was 450 pounds. Must have been unicorn fur or something!
Rarist Item in China: none of the supermarkets near me sell bowls. Only one stall in the whole of Taidong sold bowls. And I broke it. And Taidong is 30 minutes away by bus. All I need is one bowl!
2010-12-02
I've Changed My Mind
I woke up this morning prepared to stay in the student accomodation but two of my classmates, two korean girls, approached Becka and I about sharing their flat. It looks nice from the pictures and has a kitchen. We are booked in to see it tomorrow but have pretty much agreed to share it with them already. I know it doesn't really make sense seeing as we paid a month's accomodation only yesterday but a) this flat is a lot cheaper in the long run (£600 for everything for 6 months as opposed to £750) b) there's a kitchen (although an oven is not necessarily guaranteed in a Chinese flat...) and c) I'm young and can do nonsensical things if I want to.
And you never know, the student centre might give us a refund...
The two Korean girls seem fun. I think one is called Boram and the other Sara. I only really know them by their Chinese names that our teacher calls them so I should probably find out their real names. I've seen them out and about in LPG and I think we'll have a great time together. Plus we'll probably only speak in Chinese so that will be good practice. Although of course they speak English, albeit tentatively, having studied it at school. So annoying that everyone bloody speaks English.
I waited for a bus opposite the government's building today. Every now and then black cars would ooze in and out.
If you think that Christmas is commercialised in the West you should come here. Not one non-Christian Chinese will celebrate Christmas, or even take the day off work. And yet every mall has a fake Christmas tree outside and special offers inside. We've seamlessly moved from Halloween decorations to Thanksgiving and now to Christmas. Without a single secular Chinese person celebrating either!
Christmas is literally just a mechanism to sell more stuff.
And you never know, the student centre might give us a refund...
The two Korean girls seem fun. I think one is called Boram and the other Sara. I only really know them by their Chinese names that our teacher calls them so I should probably find out their real names. I've seen them out and about in LPG and I think we'll have a great time together. Plus we'll probably only speak in Chinese so that will be good practice. Although of course they speak English, albeit tentatively, having studied it at school. So annoying that everyone bloody speaks English.
I waited for a bus opposite the government's building today. Every now and then black cars would ooze in and out.
If you think that Christmas is commercialised in the West you should come here. Not one non-Christian Chinese will celebrate Christmas, or even take the day off work. And yet every mall has a fake Christmas tree outside and special offers inside. We've seamlessly moved from Halloween decorations to Thanksgiving and now to Christmas. Without a single secular Chinese person celebrating either!
Christmas is literally just a mechanism to sell more stuff.
2010-12-01
China, Tchaikovsky and Dumplings in One Handy Package
Yesterday brought a reminder that everything is twice as hard in China. Becka and I had been booking flights to Hanoi, in Vietnam, for our travel in January but while we had successfully organized flying from Guangzhou to Hanoi, the leg to Guangzhou from Qingdao was proving rather tricky. As NatWest had helpfully blocked my card and sent a new one I am temporarily without plastic and Ctrip, the ubiquitous travel booking website for China, just could not handle Becka's card. After several calls to Ctrip, then Nationwide, then Ctrip then Ctrip again we had ended up with no flight. I tried again yesterday and tried to use Paypal which in theory pays money direct from your bank without the need for a debit card. Huzzah, I thought. I have a cunning plan. However the bloody Ctrip website requested that you enter in a debit card number as back up just in case...
So back to square one.
Then I remembered I was a twin and promptly lay in wait for Sara to come online on Skype and then mugged her for her details and yea, Becka and Louise shall go to Hanoi!
Conveniently our Oral teacher spent her lesson yesterday teaching us about Chinese geography. This included slides and short movies on various areas in China. First off she introduced Shanghai (Shanghainese are not very popular in the rest of China apparently. I suspect their attitude matches Liverpudlian Becka's towards London) with all its fancy skyscrapers and neoclassical archicture. All very interesting but Been There Seen That.
A map of China for you to see. I'm in Qingdao in Shandong province. Qingdao itself is not marked but we are just above the n in Shandong.
Then she moved onto to the Loess plateau in Shanxi, Shaanxi and parts of Ningxia. The loess, the yellow soil, is very soft and erodes very easily. As China, over its long history, has cut down so many trees there is nothing holding it back from slipping into the rivers and seas. Indeed the Yellow River, which has its mouth not far from Qingdao, and Yellow Sea, are both named after the silt caused by erosion. Originally this area was the birthplace of agriculture but millenia of human degradation have turned it barren, something which the government is now planning to rectify with ambitious damming and reforestation plans. It is an area the size of France and also home to 50 million people, among them the Ningxia minority. The traditional style of house here are in fact cut into the plateau hillsides as cave dwellings.
So now I really want to go there...
Next was Yunnan (see above, south-west China). This is a very popular destination in China for several reasons. One is its diverse topography, from mountainous ethnically-Tibetan towns in the north-west to lush jungle in the south. It is home to a great many of China's "56 Ethnic Minorities" and our teacher introduced us to a couple.
First were the 摩梭, Mosuo, minority. They are famous in China for being a Matriarchal society, and for their "walking marriages". The emphasis appears to be on the matrilineal line and normally a house consists of a family from one matrilineal line. Adding a female suffix to a word makes it stronger, while adding the male makes it weaker, hence the female word is "boulder" but "pebble" for male. In a walking marriage, there is no marriage as such. The man and the woman never have a ceremony and both sides can leave whenever they wish. Normally they do not live together, hence the "walking" part by the man, so within one house there will be a grandmother and her brothers, her daughters and sons, and her daughters' children. (N.B. the one child rule does not apply to minorities). Men look after their mother and sisters' children rather than their partner or own children. Our teacher mentioned that some women do not know the father of their child but apparently this is rather overexaggerated. Whilst in theory one could have as many partners as you want, in practice they tend to be very monagamous. I believe this society may have evolved from when the men would have all been far away hunting, serving as monks etc leaving the women in the village to look after themselves.
According to a quote I found: "Our Friend Marriages are very good. First, we are all our mother's children, making money for her, therefore there is no conflict between brothers and sisters. Second the relationship is based on love, and no money, or dowry, is involved. If a couple feels contented, they stay together. If they feel unhappy, they can go their separate ways. As a result, there is little fighting. The system is good because we help our families during the daytime and only come together with our partners at night, and therefore there are few quarrels between us.” One 32-year-old Mosuo woman told the Los Angeles Times, "Outside Lake Lugo, marriage is like a business transaction. The women worry, 'Does he have a good job? can he take care of me? In our village, the girls are strong and take care of themselves. Everything we did is for love."
Which puts an interesting perspective on the institution of marriage.
Doesn't everyone look nice.
They all live around 泸沽湖, Lugu Lake.
Next were the 白, Bai, White, Minority. They like to wear white.
Last but not least, and not really least considering there are 50 odd other minorities, are the Miao. They, er, have a magpie-like penchant for silver.
As you can see, they like to wear a lot of it!
Another group, the 纳西, Naxi, have their own writing system of around 1500 symbols, not unlike hieroglyphs. They resemble Chinese characters from oracle bones, found several thousand years ago.
The 2nd and 4 rows are Dongba and the 3rd (平安一生, "lifelong security") is Chinese.
Becka and I are spending 3 weeks in Yunnan in January, with Sara joining for the last week in Kunming. Needless to say Becka and I are now even more excited!
Our teacher also talked about Tibet. Apparently it is a wee bit dangerous to go if you are, or look, Han Chinese as you might get beaten up. Us Laowais are alright though!
So after 2 hours of talking we had hardly covered even a third of China. When you consider that there is also Hong Kong, who still think of themselves as British apparently, and Macao, yum Neoclassicsm, and Sichuan, remote mountains and spice, and Xinjiang, oases in the desert on the Silk Road, and Qinghai, "Green Sea" i.e. one big lawn, and Inner Mongolia, more deserts and prairies with small horses and big eagles, and Beijing and Xi'an, Terracotta Warriers, and 黑龙江, Black Dragon River with its ice cities and not forgetting Guangxi and Guangdong and Amoy and Hubei/Hunan and Henan/Hebei... how am I going to fit it all in????
Last night Becka and I got a pleasant surprise when Vivien, my language partner, and Candy, hers, took us to a concert. Or rather Vivien's parents took us. It was the Macao Symphony Orchestra who performed a mix of Tchaikovsky as well as accompanying someone on the 琵琶, pipa, which is like a Chinese lute. I know nothing about the pipa but even I could see that the musician must be one of the best. Her fingers moved so fast and accurately and yet with such emotion. However, one tiny thing. I am all for innovation and fusion but I didn't think that the pipa, which is a fairly staccato instrument, went very well with a Western orchestra. There would be sweeping strings, honeyed brass and then this twanging sound. I think it would sound at its best as a solo instrument. The rest of the performance was fantastic and I'm very grateful to Viven's parents for taking us. The tickets were free, but it was lovely of them to drive us back. Vivien's mum has invited us to her house which has got us all excited as we studied visiting a chinese home a few weeks ago. I'll have to revise beforehand but I remember you have to compliment them on how big and clean their house is and how lovely the furniture.
The soloist was wearing a qipao but with cut away sleeves. Again, this fusion of western style didn't really work but the fabric was beautifully embroidered. While I'm here I'm intending to buy me a nice a qipao-one full length and a shorter one.
There were a lot of speeches by various people throughout the performance and because they spoke slowly, I actually understood rather a lot. It was mostly, oh I'm so glad to be back in Qingdao this is my 2nd home town blah blah (audience enthusiasticly claps). The head of the Qingdao government was wheeled out in a sharply ironed suit. He looked a bit nervous. I have noticed this with many top Chinese politicians and businessmen is that they all seem rather self concious. Why?
The concert hall was the main one in Qingdao and rather snazzy. It was big and white and futuristic. I'm afraid the pictures aren't so good as I took them on my ipod.
.
And Becka eating. Behind her you can see the stacks of bamboo boxes they steam the dumplings in.
So back to square one.
Then I remembered I was a twin and promptly lay in wait for Sara to come online on Skype and then mugged her for her details and yea, Becka and Louise shall go to Hanoi!
Conveniently our Oral teacher spent her lesson yesterday teaching us about Chinese geography. This included slides and short movies on various areas in China. First off she introduced Shanghai (Shanghainese are not very popular in the rest of China apparently. I suspect their attitude matches Liverpudlian Becka's towards London) with all its fancy skyscrapers and neoclassical archicture. All very interesting but Been There Seen That.
Then she moved onto to the Loess plateau in Shanxi, Shaanxi and parts of Ningxia. The loess, the yellow soil, is very soft and erodes very easily. As China, over its long history, has cut down so many trees there is nothing holding it back from slipping into the rivers and seas. Indeed the Yellow River, which has its mouth not far from Qingdao, and Yellow Sea, are both named after the silt caused by erosion. Originally this area was the birthplace of agriculture but millenia of human degradation have turned it barren, something which the government is now planning to rectify with ambitious damming and reforestation plans. It is an area the size of France and also home to 50 million people, among them the Ningxia minority. The traditional style of house here are in fact cut into the plateau hillsides as cave dwellings.
Next was Yunnan (see above, south-west China). This is a very popular destination in China for several reasons. One is its diverse topography, from mountainous ethnically-Tibetan towns in the north-west to lush jungle in the south. It is home to a great many of China's "56 Ethnic Minorities" and our teacher introduced us to a couple.
First were the 摩梭, Mosuo, minority. They are famous in China for being a Matriarchal society, and for their "walking marriages". The emphasis appears to be on the matrilineal line and normally a house consists of a family from one matrilineal line. Adding a female suffix to a word makes it stronger, while adding the male makes it weaker, hence the female word is "boulder" but "pebble" for male. In a walking marriage, there is no marriage as such. The man and the woman never have a ceremony and both sides can leave whenever they wish. Normally they do not live together, hence the "walking" part by the man, so within one house there will be a grandmother and her brothers, her daughters and sons, and her daughters' children. (N.B. the one child rule does not apply to minorities). Men look after their mother and sisters' children rather than their partner or own children. Our teacher mentioned that some women do not know the father of their child but apparently this is rather overexaggerated. Whilst in theory one could have as many partners as you want, in practice they tend to be very monagamous. I believe this society may have evolved from when the men would have all been far away hunting, serving as monks etc leaving the women in the village to look after themselves.
According to a quote I found: "Our Friend Marriages are very good. First, we are all our mother's children, making money for her, therefore there is no conflict between brothers and sisters. Second the relationship is based on love, and no money, or dowry, is involved. If a couple feels contented, they stay together. If they feel unhappy, they can go their separate ways. As a result, there is little fighting. The system is good because we help our families during the daytime and only come together with our partners at night, and therefore there are few quarrels between us.” One 32-year-old Mosuo woman told the Los Angeles Times, "Outside Lake Lugo, marriage is like a business transaction. The women worry, 'Does he have a good job? can he take care of me? In our village, the girls are strong and take care of themselves. Everything we did is for love."
Which puts an interesting perspective on the institution of marriage.
They all live around 泸沽湖, Lugu Lake.
Which looks rather marvellous. I want to go there.
Next were the 白, Bai, White, Minority. They like to wear white.
Another group, the 纳西, Naxi, have their own writing system of around 1500 symbols, not unlike hieroglyphs. They resemble Chinese characters from oracle bones, found several thousand years ago.
The 2nd and 4 rows are Dongba and the 3rd (平安一生, "lifelong security") is Chinese.
Becka and I are spending 3 weeks in Yunnan in January, with Sara joining for the last week in Kunming. Needless to say Becka and I are now even more excited!
Our teacher also talked about Tibet. Apparently it is a wee bit dangerous to go if you are, or look, Han Chinese as you might get beaten up. Us Laowais are alright though!
So after 2 hours of talking we had hardly covered even a third of China. When you consider that there is also Hong Kong, who still think of themselves as British apparently, and Macao, yum Neoclassicsm, and Sichuan, remote mountains and spice, and Xinjiang, oases in the desert on the Silk Road, and Qinghai, "Green Sea" i.e. one big lawn, and Inner Mongolia, more deserts and prairies with small horses and big eagles, and Beijing and Xi'an, Terracotta Warriers, and 黑龙江, Black Dragon River with its ice cities and not forgetting Guangxi and Guangdong and Amoy and Hubei/Hunan and Henan/Hebei... how am I going to fit it all in????
Last night Becka and I got a pleasant surprise when Vivien, my language partner, and Candy, hers, took us to a concert. Or rather Vivien's parents took us. It was the Macao Symphony Orchestra who performed a mix of Tchaikovsky as well as accompanying someone on the 琵琶, pipa, which is like a Chinese lute. I know nothing about the pipa but even I could see that the musician must be one of the best. Her fingers moved so fast and accurately and yet with such emotion. However, one tiny thing. I am all for innovation and fusion but I didn't think that the pipa, which is a fairly staccato instrument, went very well with a Western orchestra. There would be sweeping strings, honeyed brass and then this twanging sound. I think it would sound at its best as a solo instrument. The rest of the performance was fantastic and I'm very grateful to Viven's parents for taking us. The tickets were free, but it was lovely of them to drive us back. Vivien's mum has invited us to her house which has got us all excited as we studied visiting a chinese home a few weeks ago. I'll have to revise beforehand but I remember you have to compliment them on how big and clean their house is and how lovely the furniture.
The soloist was wearing a qipao but with cut away sleeves. Again, this fusion of western style didn't really work but the fabric was beautifully embroidered. While I'm here I'm intending to buy me a nice a qipao-one full length and a shorter one.
There were a lot of speeches by various people throughout the performance and because they spoke slowly, I actually understood rather a lot. It was mostly, oh I'm so glad to be back in Qingdao this is my 2nd home town blah blah (audience enthusiasticly claps). The head of the Qingdao government was wheeled out in a sharply ironed suit. He looked a bit nervous. I have noticed this with many top Chinese politicians and businessmen is that they all seem rather self concious. Why?
The concert hall was the main one in Qingdao and rather snazzy. It was big and white and futuristic. I'm afraid the pictures aren't so good as I took them on my ipod.
Below is where we go to eat dumplings. It's rather ramshackle and dirty but they had a laptop out today and it just seemd so out of place.
The big menu on the wall:
And Becka eating. Behind her you can see the stacks of bamboo boxes they steam the dumplings in.
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