Shanghai-ed

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Shanghai-ed
	Sunday, 9th November
	Howdy doody! I am going to Shanghai on the 21st of November and I thought it would be nifty to design my own online journal that I can report my daily adventures to. So, I interrupted my busy study schedule to teach myself HTML. ( Mum and dad, if you are reading thisEI am not procrastinatingEthis page is just something I am working on between my intense, productive and ever-so-frequent study sessions.) I will have access to a snazzy little digital camera whilst in China so I plan on uploading my pictures onto the journal daily. The site isn’t anything too sexy yet but I am quite proud of it. Enjoy it!

	Monday, 10th November
	Well! Today I put in my application for my passport, got some shots from the doc and bought the Lonely Planet guide to Shanghai. I have been told by a roving friend that the LP guides aren't so great but I have really enjoyed reading about Shanghai's history. I probably won't have any time to pick the book up until I am on the plane... OOHHH!!! I am so excited!

	Thursday, 20th November
	Oh wow! 8 hours till take off :) I feel so excited but am sooooo tired. I have had exams up until now so packing didn't happen till 2 hours ago. Fun. Am really looking forward to seeing my dude again and getting to meet his students! I stop in Tokyo for two hours tomorrow night which is quite exciting. Anyway I really can't write well at the moment. I am sooooo tired. I have messed up the aesthetics of my page but will make it all pretty when I am not deliriously tired :) Next post will be from China! Ciaociao! Bed time!

	Saturday, 22nd November
	Second day here an this I the first chance I have had to write anything. I think the most appropriate word to sum up my feelings on the trip so far would have to be WOW! So many wonderful things have happened since I arrived here on Friday evening. I might fill you in on my flight! What a small world it is! Whilst waiting in line to receive my boarding pass, I recognized a mother and her two daughters in front of me. The used to own market stalls and shops in Darwin (where I was born) and they had stuck in my mind because their most popular product when they had shops in Darwin, were their sequined slippers! As a little girl, these slippers were the objects of my desire. I think my sister and I were always haranguing mum about getting us a pair! I didn’t consider talking to them as both them and my mum and I were going through the motions of an international departure!!! Once I had made it through customs, I ended up inline behind one of the daughters, Malaika! It was then that I introduced myself and embarrassingly admitted that I remembered her from Darwin. She didn’t have a clue who I was but she said it was quite common for people to run into her family and recall them as the “sequined slippers peopleE We ended up sitting next to each other on the plane and it was lovely to chat reminisce over Darwin and chat about our journeys ahead! I had to stop over in Tokyo (Narita Airport) and that stop is probably a memory I will hold on to for my life time! Much of what I had heard about the Japanese was highlighted by what I saw in my short two hours in Tokyo. Getting off the plane was like being herded off a livestock vessel. It was very funny. We were loaded off onto the tarmac which I found quite odd. I thought that in the hyper techno city of the world, you would use an air bridge! I was quite happy to be on the tarmac though. All of the tarmac workers were running around in a manner not unlike that of worker ants! They were precariously ducking and weaving past all of the jumbos and mini vans! Within seconds of getting of getting off the plane, huge passes started pulling up to take us to the main terminal. Narita is a fascinating airport. Two huge terminals completely separate to each other and the only way you can get between the two is by bus and subway. On the bus, I couldn’t get over the size of Narita. It was bigger than I had ever imagined it to be. There were people running around and jumbos coming and going and more chaos than the mind could really compute! Whilst waiting for my next plane, I “ooh”ed and “ahh”ed at all the special Hello Kitty products on offer! JILLY HEAVEN!!! The flight was nothing terribly exciting. I forced myself to sleep so that I didn’t stare at the seconds ticking by on the clock! By the time I had arrived in Shanghai, I had been flying for 15 hours! Shanghai airport was quite beautiful from the outside. Lots of intricate metal work that made the building look as though it was covered in scaffolding Ethat may sound ugly but it was actually quite pleasing to the eye! I won’t go into my first impression of the interior of the airport till I get back to Australia but let’s just say that what I saw freaked me out and made me wonder what on earth I was in for. I was greeted by my father and some of the other Australian teachers who are working here! Allen, who is one of dad’s students also popped along to welcome me into Shanghai and he and dad had bought the most BEAUTIFUL bunch of flowers I have ever seen. They were all Dutch blooms! Beautiful roses and lilies. I stepped out of the airport onto a pedestrian crossing and experienced my first taste of Shanghai road rulesEdon’t count on there being any! I was nearly collected by a car! The weather here is quite cold but I love winter so it is really great for me. Anyway, my flights were so wonderful. I was scared of getting bored or having problems with my ears but I can say that it was all quite good fun! This place is TOTALLY amazing. Absolutely AMAZING. I will try and pop some of the pictures that I have taken up on the site. More to come tonight! Ciaociao!

	Sunday, 23rd November
	I had a wonderful day! Today I visited the old French Concession which quite honestly, did nothing for me. Historically it is quite a fascinating place but the European trendiness of it all was a tad annoying. It was all Western pop stars, Starbucks, MaccaD's and Haagen Daas (sp?). We then moved onto the Huahai clothing markets. The walk there was more interesting than the actual markets we went in search of. It is difficult to take much in because you are surrounded by this crazy swarm of people all chatting, spitting, begging, peddling, laughing, arguing, pushing and teasing!!! One of the main things to shock me today was the importance that marriage seems to have in this society. There were wedding stores and stalls all over Xintiandi. Some of them are like department stores dedicated to anything wedding. There were models taking part in photo shoots whilst promoting the wedding products up and down the strets, string quartets promoting wedding photography... I just couldn't get over it. My Chinese friend Allen explained to me that marriage is terribly important for Chinese families. The parents main goal in life is to make sure that their children marry well and all children are under quite a bit of pressure to find a suitable partner... whoa. For lunch we ate at the same place we ate yesterday and once again, it was lovely. I tend to react badly to MSG - flashy vision, dizzyness and feel completely LOST! Unfortunately it was in the food I ate today. I discovered that the best remedy for the bad reaction is to drink BEER! Worked wonders. We ate seafood custard which was quite yummy, jellyfish which was just like cartlidge and pretty average, river fish, baby bamboo soup which was hella yummy and marinated asparagus! Besides the curative beer I had a glass of fresh watermelon juice which was garnished with cucumber?! An interesting day was had. When I can compress the pictures I have been taking, I will load them up onto this site! There are some really stunning shots!
	Monday, 24th November
	Ahhhh!!! SHOPPING!!! Ohmigod! What a day! I haven't done any shopping up until today and what a mighty fine place this is to spend money. I went out with one of the teachers from Queensland, Vivienne. She is in the know on all the shopping hot spots. I can’t get over the ridiculously cheap prices here. I bought a few jumpers, a pair of shoes ($6 AUD) and the most adorable Kitty and Melody purses. Shopping is the national sport in China. Bartering is great fun. I get to utilise my drama talents when bartering. You pretend you are disinterested in a product if you cant get the right price, screw up your nose, start to walk away and then wait for a shop assistant to start chasing you with a calculator in hand showing the price you really want! I went into one of Dad’s classes this morning. The welcome I received was wonderful - giggles and clapping! I still can’t get over how much attention I attract here. People sitting in front of me on the bus kept turning around and gawking at me. When I got off the bus after our shopping adventure, I turned around to find about thirty sets of eyes watching my every move. Transport here is unbelievably CRAZY. The metro (subway) is definitely an experience. I have never been so close to other people without having really liked them. You have elbows sticking into you from every angle and I have been too nervous to turn around in the subway (it is barely possible) incase I end up lip to lip with the person behind me! Once you are trapped in the subway trains you can’t help but wonder why there aren’t more major health epidemicsEpeople are always sooo close together. When you first enter onto the train, it is like you are in some sort of rugby scrum. You get pushed in and then you are firmly wedged into place! You rarely need to hang onto anything because you are jammed in so tightly that it is impossible to fall. Shanghai’s equivalent to the car in Australia is the pushbike! Everybody, barr the really wealthy, travels on a bikeEeven my dear daddy! It is a scream! Dad looks so cute on a bike. When you step onto the road, I think you are in more danger of being hit by a bike than a car. I was hit a bike today and it didn’t tickle. People ring their bells furiously and it means “I know you are there and I will TRY to avoid you but if I get you, it is not my problem!E The road rules are a complete joke here. Cars don’t stop for youEthey speed up. Red lights mean nada. You really have to laugh at it all! Anyway someone has returned to the dorm. Had better start my next adventure! Ciaociao This site is a mess but the net here is so difficult to use. I will tidy it up when I have nothing to do. Ciaociao!

	Wednesday, 26th November
	Yesterday was another wonderful day in Shanghai! The day started off with a quick visit to one of my fathers classes and once again I recieved a wonderful welcoming! The students are absolute crackups! They are just sooo funny. They were presenting their group assignments and to watch them was a great experience. It was quite different to an Australian class setting. There is never a moment of silence. My lecturers in Australia should feel blessed to have such quiet students. Part of the yabbering is the students helping each other to figure out the language translation but there is also a lot of chit-chat and game playing going on. The mobile phones don't stop either. No one dares to leave their mobile on during class at Griffith but here, the students don't care! The phones are going off all class. People sit up the back and make phone calls while the teached is conducting the lesson.... WHAT CHEEK!!! Anyway after that great experience, I was invited to go for a massage. I went with Annie, one of the Australian teachers. Traditionally, Chinese massage is performed by blind men which makes quite a lot of sense if you know much about massage To those of you who don't know I LOVE massage therapy - studied it a little. Anyway so Annie and I toddled off to have our bodies rubbed only to discover that the parlour was not going to be open for another hour... so what do you do when plan A fails? SHOP! We went wandering along a road (thats name has left me) and looked through some rather beautiful and some rather boring boutiques. I picked up the most beautiful ring with Purple jewels on it that is just DARLING! Anyway back to the interesting stuff - we finally got in to have our massage and it was so perculiar. It was performed by a blind man and he did a brilliant job. I couldn't help having a critique running in my mind on what they were doing - I was comparing it with my own massage style and what I had been taught. It was stupid for me to do that - the massage styles are TOTALLY different and run of different principles. It was quite painful at times. I was shocked to see that I didnt have a big fat lip at the end of it because I had chomped on it so hard to stop myself from yelping out in pain!!! The therpaist mainly used his thumbs with a kneading movement and he used his palms a little. He did quite a bit of deep tissue work (ohh the PAIN) and used some tapotement. He also grabbed me and jiggled me around the table which felt wonderful. I am sure it would have been hillarious to watch. He held my legs and arms and swung them around as though they were skipping ropes - felt awesome! The massage was not really like anything you would get in Australia. Well... the style may be but the atmosphere and ambience (hehe) of the place would never be met in an Australian parlour. Our background music was initially some tinny old Chinese dance music with the dulcet overtones of the receptionist (a rather matronly middle aged woman) slurping her noodles and soup and burping. The music then changed to some traditional sounding Chinese opera which was a tad more soothing but the receptionists harmonising continued! It was great :) We then headed back to the college by metro and taxi. The taxi trip was once again, an experience! I saw lots of police bikes trying to stop traffic - supposedly this is to let motorcades (sp?) through. They travel up the road with their lights and sirens going and wave their arms furiously at the drivers of other vehicles to signal that they must pull over. In Shanghai, it seems that Police cars have their lights all the time which doe not mean that you are to pull over - when they start waving their arms at you, that is the signal to pull over. Anyway, back to the car trip. I am quite sure we saw four near misses between cars and atleast one accident. Every taxi trip that I have made from the city to Pudong (where I am staying), I have seen atleast one car crash. I am sure the road fatality rate is verrrrry high here. YOu just have to take one look at the mayhem on the roads to understand why. I wish I could capture the real chaos of this place in a picture! In the afternoon , I was invited into Annie's class to speak to the students. They all prepared questions to ask me about univerity life and my impressions of Shanghai. I stood at the front of the class and they sheepishly asked me questions. I was asked about the freedom of students in Australia, the weather, whether or not I worked, what perfume I wear, what the fashions are like in Brisbane, if I had pets, if I like Chinese boys (I blushed at that one), how many classes I took, what I wanted to do in the future and the funniest of all was who I lived with. When I told them I lived with two boys, they all gasped and started giggling and whispering to each other. I had to explain the platonic nature of the living arrangement but am sure they would have died if I had told them I did live with a boyfriend once! It was nice to meet some of the students. I haven't had much to do with them but they are seem quite friendly and those who I have met, have helped me with my mandarin pronounciation. Anyway... last part of the day. I went on an adventure with Allen (chinese friend) and Aarryn who is the youngest (22) Australian teacher here. We were initially going to go the the local gym club (jim crub) so the boys could work out and I could experience an Aerobics class. We decided to ditch that plan for a trip to Time Square. It is a shopping aread and to tell you the truth, I do not know an awful lot about it at the moment. Allen said something about the shopping center being the biggest in Asia - the small part of the center that I saw was okay but had Starbucks and all of the European brands that do so little for my interest. We went to dinner at an awesome restaurant and I had my favourite meal so far!!! We had two types of pork, crab and crab uterus (mmmmm?!), fresh dates and lotus, fried chicken and peanuts (fave dish EVER) and the most amazing fruit salad I have ever had! It was your typical fruit salad mixed through lemon custard, shaped into a mound and then covered in yellow jelly! I took a photo and will load it up later. I drank fresh watermelon juice which is fast becoming one of my favourite drinks here. Another favourite it coconut juice. It is a very light coconut milk and it is great for your skin and I have been told by Allen that it is low fat but I really don't believe that. I really love going to the restaurants in Shanghai but one thing I have to get used to is the people staring at me. It is absoluetly hillarious. We went and had beijing duck (like peking duck) in a little village down the road the night before last and the whole cafe was watching my EVERY move. I swear I had performance anxiety with the chop sticks. My chopstick skills are brilliant now but because I had the whole place watching me eat and I had been drinking Budweiser (most popular beer here), I kept flicking food all over the place, dropping it as it got to my mouth, spilling stuff all over myself and generally just making a fool of myself and entertaining my audience. Last night I also had an audience but I managed to perform well :) On our way out of the restaurant, which was quite plush, I spotted the live food tanks. Ohhhh welllll. There were definately some interesting things waiting on death in those tanks. I saw lots of interesting fish, different types of clam looking things, eels, bullfrogs, mega crabs and not so mega crabs, abalone, lobster and the worst of all, TURTLES :( Ahhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just couldn't look at them. They had such hopeful, naive and innocent eyes. The other captives looked as though they knew where they were heading to but, those poor turtles looked oblivious. We then ventured back towards Time Square past all of the blue movie pushers and I took some lovely photos of the buildings and a very un-Chinese 'MERRY CHRISTMAS' sign. I will post them later. We decided that we had to try some Chinese McDonalds. I really wouldn't have been missing out if we had left it. I had a cheeseburger and it was just as gross as the ones you find in Brisbane but atleast it only cost about 70cAUD. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to get it. Anyway... that was a bit of my day yesterday. It was a great day :) I am glad to have had it! I am sure this site is littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors but I am sure you can understand that there are so many more exciting things to be doing other than proof reading all of this! Aplogies!
	Thursday, 27th November
	Yesterday was a fairly good day. I have managed to pick up a tummy bug which is making life a little more excitingE I spent most of yesterday writing and trying to find the best cure for my poor tummy. Most of the Australian teachers are getting the flu and the Australian teacher I went to dinner with on Tuesday night seems to have had whatever it is that has invaded my poor tum-tum! The weather here is getting colder every day. When I finally get to posting up more of my pictures you will notice that I look like a Gothic Inuit.. It isn’t the fashion around these parts, I am just absolutely freezing! I quite like this weather. I can’t imagine how painful it would be to have to negotiate your way through the crowds in Shanghai in summerEyucky. Last night, most of the Australian teachers and I went to the Pearl Tower for dinner at the revolving restaurant.. The Pearl tower is the third largest tower in the world and stands at 263m tallEI think. It was hard to understand what the elevator hostess was saying so my info could be wrong! The picture of me with highrises in the background features the Pearl Tower. It is a large pointy building with a purple dome/bubble. I was expecting a traditional Chinese meal but it turned out we were dining at a buffet with mainly Western food. I have never been to a revolving restaurant before and when I first entered, I was sure I would have leave early. I started getting giddy. Different parts of the restaurant revolve in different directions and trying to figure that out completely confused me and left me feeling a little illEa couple of cocktails later it was all good though. After our meal we went to the different observation decks and looked out over Shanghai at night. The view was so beautiful. Looking down on the River and watching the barge trains and ferries floating around was wonderful. As you looked across to the Bund, you could see camera flashes going off every few seconds. The Bund is a very big tourist area and it quite lovely. I will try to load a picture of Allen and I at the bund. When we were in the lift to go to the highest observation deck, the hostess was giving her spiel on the height of the building and some other stuff we couldn’t understand. At the end of it, my father announced loudly, “Jeeeez they really need some English teachers here don’t theyE not realizing that the hostess was standing in the elevator with us. Everyone went completely silent in complete embarrassment for my dad and the hostess. She sheepishly said, “Oh, ohEsorryE Poor thing!!! One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is the street sellers. As you walk down the street in most of the touristy areas, you get harassed by people trying to take you into markets for “Louis VuittonE “RolexEand “CD-DVD, CD-DVDE They are usually young guys with a heap of attitude and they are so funny. They try everything to get you to follow them to the shops. When Annie and I went for our massage the other day, we were swamped by this pack of young men. They would not leave us alone! We stopped to read our maps and they all circled around us and then proceeded to follow us up the street. It is like a game that they really enjoy. I quite enjoy it too! At the major tourist sites you also have people frantically trying to sell you kitsch figurines of the monuments you are visiting. We had that last night and I find it hilarious that you have 20 people standing around you trying to flog the exact same product. Anyway I fear that my entries may be getting a little long winded now. I will leave it here and I hope to have some exciting adventures today that I can report on tomorrow! Leave comments in the guestbook!
	Sunday, 30th November
	Oh dear. Getting drunk with your father on rum. How bloody funny. I have wonderful photos that I am sure dad will try to confiscate. I have had the most wonderful weekend! A group of us went to Nanjing which is the most fantastic place! It is about a three hour train trip north (I think) from Shanghai. It is such a great place. It is very quiet and serene compared to Shanghai. Completely fascinating. The shopping rocked my world and I can tell you that my car is going to be the funkiest looking Barina in Brisbane... Hello Kitty GALORE! We visited the Japanese Invasion War Memorial which was very gruesome and right up my alley as far as history goes. It was focused on "The Rape of Nanjing" (which I insist that you must read up on) and was quite moving. The museum featured the most graphic war photos I have ever seen. The collection of skeletons was quite moving. Everyone else was cringing and moving on quite quickly but I find that sort of stuff fascinating. My camera decided to play silly buggers on the first day of the trip to Nanjing so there are very few photos documenting my wonderful day. Yesterday I also visted the bridge that crosses the Yangzi (SP? I am drunk) river. It was AMAZING. I have some ripper photos of that. I took them on someone elses camera. The bridge is unbelievably high and has the most splendourous view. From the bridge, you can look over all of the cargo ships and boats cruising up the river full of coal and timber. I have taken some great pictures of the freight boats here. They are very cute and structurally fascinating. All along the river are little market gardens full of the yummy chinese leaf vegetables. The soil across most of China is sooooo wonderfully fertile. As my father said, the soil around Nanjing is like black silk! On a sad note, my friend Allen was telling me that atleast seven people throw themselves off the brige I visited, every day... how sad :( China has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Last night we ate at a wonderful restaurant. Chinese restaurants are not terribly calming environments. Everyone is screaming, lauging, slrurping, burping, hoiking and spitting. You can't help but get all psyched up when you get enter one! One thing I must proudly report is that I can peal a prawn in my mouth... YAY FOR ME! Last night, we went to a restaurant where you walk along a bar and select what you want. It gets cooked, then delivered to your table. Some of the things on offer were ducks heads (OH JEMIMA PUDDLE DUCK!!!), snake (Snake and Chips haha), snails, chicken embryos in the egss (wonder how crunchy they would have been), steamed blood and a whole lot of other lovelies. We didn't get anything to far out! I have still got a tummy bug and haven't worked up the courage to eat much let alone eat too much crazy stuff! For breakfast this morning, I had pork dumpling soup which ROCKED MY WORLD and only cost 90c AUD!!! It was wonderful. Very, very tasty! I went to a COnfuscian temple this morning. Quite beautiful and the pleasant aroma of incense was wonderful. I find it a tad annoying when such lovely places are turned into tourist attractions that sell disposable cameras at the door but anyway... I am yet to read up on the history and facts of Confuscianism. We arrived back in Shanghai this evening and decided to dine in Chyan Shay (SP again...drunk). I picked myself up a dead sexy mobile phone and had a little wander around the streets. We all went to dinner at the best restaurant in the town. It is an absolute cutie. Anyway the net gets cut off here in 3 minutes I had better jump off. Will finish updating tomorrow. Ciao!
	Thursday, 4th December
	I haven't got much time to write but I just thought I would report that I will be doing the rest of my updates a little later - TIME IS ESCAPING ME!!! So much to do with so little time! Some of the things I have done in the last few days have included visiting a ballroom dancing/rave hall where I danced with my father to waltz music and the boogeyed with some older Chinese people to thumping hardcore (it was a wierd but brilliant night), shopped till I dropped, played model for locals and paid a visit to a Chinese doctor. There is much more to tell you about but as I said, time is going by too quickly! I am going to get my hair cut and coloured tonight - should be an interesting experience! It is standard to recieve an upper body massage with every hair treatment in most salons in China! YAY for me! Anyway, will write more later! I cannot post any photos up till I return to Oz because I don't have the software to compress the images. Hope everyone is happy, healthy and well!


	Tuesday, 10th November
	Today is the last day of my trip! I am currently at Kansai airport in Osaka, Japan! How exciting! I have a 10 hour stop here. I was lucky to meet a lovely Japanese couple at Shanghai Airport this morning_. I helped them to practice their English and they hung out with me for a little while when we arrived in Osaka. I informed them of my Hello Kitty infatuation and they helped me to seek out the coolest Kitty stuff in the airport and also gave me a lovely little gift! It was a new release Hello Kitty Comedian key ring pair. I also bought up big on the GENUINE Hello Kitty and now have more handluggage than one girl can really deal with!


	Wednesday, 11th November
	The last post didn't quite get completed because the keyboard I was typing on switched to Japanese script and it was all illegible. I will update this when I feel recouped from my big adventure :)

	Thursday, 11th November
	I think there will probably be a few more scattered entries over the next few weeks. I didn't get to write much about my last few days in Shanghai but the experiences are all worth writing about. I did end up having my hair done and for those of you that expect to be seeing me anytime soon... be prepared! I look a little like a tortoise shell moggy - so my father tells me anyway. I ended up with a perm (what the f?) and red hair. The last few days in China were spent travelling around a little. I visited one of the Water Towns (world heritage area) that is a little town set on canals - the Venice of China maybe? It was a two hour bus trip from Shanghai and the trip was lovely. I bought some beautiful freshwater pearls which were ridiculously cheap. One of the most beautiful things about the water town were the Gondalas in the canals. The women who captain them row around singing at the top of their voices and all of the passengers are given little noise makers (like castanettes i guess) to umm make noise with! We ate at a canalside restaurant and my father got three seperate groups of people to sing for us while we ate our lunch. That night we caught a train to Hung Zhou (sp?) which is a town not far from Shanghai with a populaation of 7 million... dear god. It was a great place. Not as modern as Shanghai and no where near as crowded which was quite nice. I will update more later... bed time! Back to work tomorrow. I promise pictures and the end to this journal in the next week.