我在中国的冒险 (My Adventures in China)

A quick (and I mean QUICK) update :P

2008-12-29T08:10:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated in a while, so I thought I'd just give you a quick run down of what's going down here in Shanghai.

Okays, this weekend (Saturday... or was it Friday... i don't remember :P) almost the entire CIP program went to this club called Muse. Before going, me and the gang (who you should be familiar with now) went to a Jazz club. The singer was awesome, she was filled with soul! I was surprised, since i knew a lot of the songs she was singing (thanks mostly to blues brothers :P)

Anyways, Muse was fun. We all danced, Suzie got around in her awesome wig (she looks so much moremature with short hair!), and had Maccas when we got back to the hotel at 4.00am :P

Then, on Sunday, we had class. It was pretty relaxed, Huang Laoshi went through the text slowly. During my tute, Zhao Laoshi taught us how to say 'sexy' and the like in Chinese, because Robin bought me a present, and it was a Fahrenheit CD... and Zhao laoshi likes Fahrenheit a LOT! :P

That night, Suzie and I wondered around Sichuan Bei Lu while all the others ate at Ajisen (for the 4th time... haha, on saturday/sunday/whenever I ate at Babela's for the third time!). That night we played cards.

This morning, I watched a drama called 'Smile PASTA!'. It was so bad, it was funny. Fred, you better lend it to me when i get back, haha :P

Okays, tomorrow, getting up early to buy train tix to Beijing, and have my last class! Dunno if i'll get on net before i leave shanghai, so yeah...

Okays, mata ne minna!

CHRISTMAS~~~! RAAAAAWWWR :D

2008-12-25T04:01:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone, I am writing this to you from my hotel room, on Xmas Day, just before i get settled down and hit the books. The last few days have been pretty cool, so I thought I'd fill you in on all my Christmas news.

On Tuesday, Guang sent me an SMS during class asking whether or not I would go Ice-Skating at a Shopping Centre near Renmin Guangchang (People's Square). After some tossing up, I decided that it would be a great way to get into the festive mood... as well as a great way for me to avoid studying! (Haha, I kid... i did some work when i got back :P)

So anyways, before we went, we all went to Hongkou Football Stadium and ate dinner at Ajisen Ramen (again). Then, we broke up into a few small groups so that we could all take Taxis to the rink.

The shopping centre (New World Shopping Centre) was 10 floors of absolute awesomeness, so much shopping (all kinds of brands) and also an arcade (which we didnt go to). The ice-skating itself was lots of fun, even though my skates were too small (and they were the largest size). After a few shakey laps, I remembered how to do it, and was able to get quite fast (Guang still beat me in our race though D: ).

The day after, Christmas Eve, we all decided to go out to eat yet again. Suzie, Whitney, Rui, Seth and I went to the Babela's Kitchen (the Italian Chain Restaurant, if you guys forgot) at Chifeng Lu Zhan (Chifeng Rd Station). We all ordered a Pizza each, and it was pretty good... unlike the pasta, it was reasonable size! After eating, we walked to Sichuan Bei Lu in order for Whitney and Rui to do some shopping, Suzie, Seth and I were left behind!

We then all went to Hongkou Stadium, to a place called 'Gao Dian' (High Point) to do some Karaoke. There were 12 of us all up! The song selection for both Japanese and English was pretty crap, so I had a go at singing a JJ Lin song (I could only do the English bit... and the dance :P "Hey greedy, don't fret, what you see is what you get!"). After Karaoke, we returned to the Hotel, and I went to sleep early!

Christmas morning, I got up early, had a shower, and then waited for the phone call from Mum and Dad, spoke with them, and then went with pretty much ALL the CIP students to a buffet restaurant on Nanjing Xi Lu called Golden Jaguar. We hired buses to take us there, which I thought was cool :P.

The food at that place was amazing (well worth the 200Yuan it cost to get in)! They had 6 'stations' with each station serving different cuisine from all over the world. Naturally, my fave was the dessert one, where they gave out as much Haagen-Dasz (thats a brand here from Belgium btw) Ice cream as you wanted! Since that much H-D ice-cream usually costs HEAPS, i got more than my money's worth :D.

After we finished up at the Buffet, we explored Nanjing Xi Lu, it's SO up-market (there was an ad for Jacob's Creek Wine, lol). Seth said it was like Shinjuku! Anyways, we all hopped on the train and went to Shanghai Railway Station to attempt to buy tickets to Beijing, but we can't buy them until 5 days before departure (the plan is to go back on the 30th).

Our group split up here yet again, Rui, Whitney, David and I went to the Glasses Market underneath the Railway station, whilst the others went to some gigantic bookstore in Nanjing Lu. The Glasses place was awesome, the shop we were at had really nice attendees, who spoke english and kept on giving us free stuff! I spent at least 2 and a half hours there all up as Rui and Whitney got new frames and glasses made up.

All in all, my Xmas here has been unusual, but fun! Now, it's time to study! Mingtian, wo you yi ge kouyu kaoshi! >.<

Dajia, zaijian!

新天地和乒乓 (Xintiandi and Ping Pong)

2008-12-20T05:51:00.000-08:00

大家好！

Woohoo, this weekend has been so much more entertaining than the last... most likely because I actually decided to do stuff as opposed to staying in my room like a hikkikomori watching dramas and MTV. :P

So anyways, on Friday after class, me and the 'gang' into which I seem to have weezled my way into (thanks to Whitney and Suzie's awesome social abilities), went to Hongkou Football Stadium and had a HUGE dinner of Hotpot. I really can't get over how much we all ended up eating, and how cheap it was! We just kept on ordering more and more meat and veggies to add to the soup, and just didn't stop eating. I think we were there for maybe two hours?

After we finished eating, we split into three groups: Chun, Pat, David and Shin went to the French Concession, Whitney, Suzie and Guang went to Sichuan Bei Lu to buy some 'going out' clothes and Shuan, Rui and I returned to the Hotel to do laundry (we were the party animals :P).

At 11.30pm, the Sichuan Lu group and the Laundry group met up with each other again so that we could all go to Xintiandi (in the French Concession, lots of bars and clubs and fashion shops etc). Once we got there, we had a look around at the place (i couldn't get over how pretty it was, lots of Xmas lights and trees, Whitney has the photos). Then, after finishing the mandatory touristy stuff (read: taking photos), we went to a German style pub.

The pub was okay, we had nice drinks (I had a Tequila Sunrise, Whitney a Skrewdriver) and Banana Splits! Then, we got into the mood to go dancing. There was a band at the pub, and Guang, Whitney, Suzie and I got out onto the dance floor, but got weirded out by all the 'old people' as Suzie put it. We decided to go to a Euro-Trans club nearby called G+. Unfortunately, that club also sucked (everyone was dancing like zombies... the highlight was being able to get myself a glow stick :P).

Today (Saturday) was totally devoted to Ping Pong. After I got up (at 1.00) and had something to eat, we went to a famous Ping Pong centre, whose name I can't remember, and met up with some Chinese guys Whitney met at a club (Vincent, and some guy whose name I never catched). We all played Ping Pong from 3.30-5.30, and it was a lot of fun! My ping pong skills were naturally below par, so everyone I versed thrashed me soundly (I didnt even attempt to beat the Chinese guys, they were pro... so was Rui for that matter!).

Afterwards we, minus the Zhonguoren, went back to Hongkou to eat dinner at Ajisen Ramen (woo-hoo, I love the food at that place!). The reason we came back? Because we had all bought tickets to a Ping Pong Tournament between the Shanghai Ping Pong Club and ZheShang Bank Private Club. It was awesome, I got to see the world number one player (Ma Lin), a Shanghainese guy everyone was going mad over in the crowd (Zhang Fei Li... or something like that :P), and Japan's youngest prodigy Mizutani Jun (Shin and I were the only ones in the crowd who were cheering him on 'Mizutani ganbatteeeeee~!').

While there, something awesome happened to me! I was interviewed by a representative of the Chinese National Radio Broadcaster (whose name i don't remember). They wanted to know why a white person was doing watching a Chinese sporting event, whether I was a student here at SISU, why I was learning Chinese. They were surprised when I said I was Australian, they thought I was English! So yeah, there's a highlight to the trip... my voice was broadcast to millions of people here in China! (The interview was live, according to my interviewer :P).

So anyways, now I'm back in my room, after giving up on getting Mizutani-san's autograph (he's here on my floor of the hotel, I'll get it tomorrow). Dunno what the plans are for tonight, will play cards with the others I guess. Tomorrow is study, study study, as usual!

Zaijian everyone! :P

Update: How the last few days have been boring :P

2008-12-16T03:07:00.000-08:00

Wow, I think I said last time that, since I had finished Chinese 1 and had no homework, last weekend I was going to go spastic and have as much fun as possible. Well, these things never actually happened!

Saturday morning, I explored LuXun Park, which is Shanghai's first ever 'Modern' park (however, It is still pretty Chinese in style... a Suzhou Style Garden :P). I have a few photos, but there really wasn't anything worth seeing so I won't post them up. They will be mass uploaded to Facebook when i get back home.

Anyways, Lu Xun Park was filled with old people, either out walking their caged birds (it's true) or just sitting around playing cards. There were also a few doing Tai Chi or playing with Chinese style Yoyos. Highlight was when a man came over to me and, assuming I was an English Businessman, tried to get me to help him export dried vegetables to my 'business'. Lol

Saturday evening: I watched a Japanese Drama, almost finished it. That's all.

Sunday morning, slept in late. Then went with Whitney, Guang, Christine and David to a Church somewhere near People's Square. I was a bit annoyed because it was an 'international service' so it was English and hadn't been edited to be 'Communist Approved'. They were putting on a Christmas Pagent, so i got to get a Carols fix. Whee-hee. That's about all, except that we all played Monopoly at the Ying Bing Guan afterwards.

Monday: Classes in the day, Nightime we visited Nanjing Lu (I bought more CDs :P) and then went to Pudong so we could get photos of the Bund (Waitan). Came home relatively early-ish, i went to bed straight away.

Today, most people went on a school trip to Shanghai Museum, but I stayed behind to catch up on much needed sleep and study. And now I am taking a brief break.

Okays, that's about it for me, just wanted to prove that I'm still alive :D.

NOTE: I think Whitney has finished editing all her videos up til now and will be uploading them sometime in the near future, so look out for me in them.

End of the 3 Week Program: Exams and a Night Out

2008-12-12T22:25:00.000-08:00

Firstly, my good news: I have now officially completed Chinese Level One. Yayyyy~!

Okays, so my two exams, which I had on Thursday and Friday, were okay. My oral went really well, Wang Laoshi told me she was surprised by how much I was able to communicate after only 3 weeks of study. The written exam was okay (there was a grammar section on it that we all had no idea would be there, so we all fudged our answers :D).

Anyways, in our class we had three 3-week only students: Seonghwan, Cam and Vesha (for those who are interested: Korean, Viet and Indo). After our exam, at around 6.30, we (and our two tutors!) went to the nearby Hongkou Football Stadium to have dinner at an Italian Chain Restaurant here called Babela's Kitchen.

I ordered Spaghetti Bolognaise (because I've been craving it :P) and split a 'Japanese Style Seafood Pizza' with Seonghwan and Erica (another girl in my class). The food servings were really small, i had mine finished in about 10 minutes ('waaah, so fast' said my tutor, Zhao Yi). After that, it was time for photos XD. Here we go:

Front Row from Left: Selin, Seonghwan, Me, Erica
Back Row from Left: Cam, Robin, Lia, Stephanie, Vesha, Jenny, the other Tutor :P, Zhao Yi (my tutor)
Absent: Will

After leaving the restaurant, as opposed to meeting up with Whitney and some other friends for KTV (which was my original plan), I tagged along with these guys (plus somemore of their friends) and went to Nanjing Road. And this time, I have pictures!!!

At this point, Vesha and the others left to go and meet up with some more of their friends in some other part of the city. Some of us decided that we'd just go back to the Guest House. The majority of the girls went straight to the other end of Nanjing Lu to catch a Cab, but Erica and I went to a coffee shop first. We then tried to catch the train back to Hongkou Stadium, and then we planned to walk back to Shangwai.

HOWEVER, it seems that just like in Tokyo, Shanghai's last train is stupidly early! We were at the station at 10.30, and Line 8 had closed. So we had to walk ALL the way back to the other end of Nanjing Rd just to catch a Taxi. Naturally, the first Taxi driver didn't know where our University even is (which is quite common), so we had to wait for another. At 11.20 at night, you don't wanna have to go through that!

When I got back to my room, I went straight to bed coz I was so tired... and I ended up sleeping in quite late this morning! Still, I had time to visit LuXun Park near our uni, but I'll fill you in on that in a seperate post.

Okay guys, see you :D

Acrobatics Show~!

2008-12-10T18:34:00.001-08:00

Last Monday we went to see some Chinese Acrobats. After class, we all had to hurry to eat so we'd have enough time to get to the venue (which was about a 40 minute drive away, I think).

Anyways, when we got there, we were all hussled in to the auditorium to sit down and wait for the show to start (except for Whitney, Guang and Shaun, who sneaked off to buy pop-corn :D). At this point, I'll highlight that I dont have any photos or videos, because as usual, that was Whitney's job (that, and there were heaps of signs saying 'no un-authorised photography' :P).

So the show started with an Intro by our host. She spoke in 'English' (read Chinglish) and I had no idea what she was saying, I relied on Suzie's translation of her Chinese. She was saying something about how acrobatics is one of 'Charming Shanghai's cultural treasures' or some such.

As opposed to giving a blow by blow account of what we saw, which was a LOT, I'll just list the acts, and then talk about my favourites.

Tumbling
Pole Climbing and Acrobatics
Contortion
Hoop Jumping
Plate Spinning
Aerial Ballet
Hat Juggling (or as our compere called it: Boys just playing around with each other :P)
Chinese Yo-yo Acrobatics
Hula-Hoop Acrobatics (that girl's hips were amazing!!)
Coupled Mid-Air Acrobatics (The Titanic Act :P)
Bicycle Acrobatics (a mass of ppl on one bike, etc)
Chair Stacking
Balancing on Pipes (the boy was so cute and cheeky!)
'Ball of Death' (Motorcycles in that Anti-Gravity Ball thing)

Okay, so the two highlight were what were known as the 'Titanic Act' and the 'Ball of Death'. The Titanic Act involved a couple (thats man and woman) who did mid-air acrobatics with the aid of a ribbon suspended from the ceiling. The theme of the whole piece was the story of the movie 'Titanic' and hence the Celine Dion song 'My Heart will go on' was used as the background music. Probably the best moments was when the woman acrobat, who was connect to the man via a small brace around her neck, was spun around really fast as the swang out over the crowd.

The 'Ball of Death' was one of those typical Motorbikes go round and round the ball, upside down and so forth. They ended up getting five motorbikes into that ball, and every moment of the act I was sure one of them was gonna crash! But, they were really clever with their co-ordination, using their horns as a means to signal to the others what they were going to do. At the end of the act, they all exited the ball bar the single female motorcyclist (who was obviously their prettiest member). Then, she began to spin around the ball really quickly, and UNFURLED A CHINESE COMMUNIST FLAG! No-one got pictures, coz no-one expected it D:

After the show, we all came back to the yingbing guan (Guest house) so that we could study. After all, this week we have exams! (Actually, I have an exam today!)

Okay peeps, I'll post up some more stuff after this weekend, since I'm finally gonna go KaLa Ok (karaoke) and then hit the town! (Prolly go to Waitan or HuaiHui Road).

Fiona's 20th Birthday! (or should that be Birthady?)

2008-12-07T03:00:00.000-08:00

In my currently dazed, fever-addled state (dont worry guys, Im feeling much better now!), I totally forgot to blog about what I got up to last night, which is strange, since I think it will be one of the most endearing memories of my stay in China.

Anyways, yesterday was Fiona's (the Chinese friend we've made) 20th Birthday, and Whitney, Suzie, Suzie's cousin Ming Ming and I went along. Firstly, there was karaoke from 2.00-5.00, which Whitney and I were unable to attend because we got lost searhing for the place (for the record, I don't blame anyone for this! Suzie, I lone you :P). The KTV place, Melody, was awesome! It was huge, and I mean HUGE! We plan to go back sometime near Christmas.

Okay, so after KTV, we went to a REALLY swanky restaurant, where we found ourselves face to face with Fiona's WHOLE family! At first, we were really awkward, coz naturally we didnt know anyone who was there besides Fiona and her parents (and her friend, who we met at Karaoke). But then the 'waiguoren (foreigner)' charm set in, and I found myself inundated with people wanting to practice their English, or take my photo.

One of Fiona's cousins, who was about five we guessed, was incredibly cute and (after they gave him a small glass of beer!) hyper. He kept on asking me what words were in English (like dinosaur, chopsticks, astronaut), and went really crazy when I started speaking Chinese (the waiguoren is speaking Chinese!!!).

Fiona's mother, who knew I was sick, also took great care of me that night, making sure I ate the healthiest dishes and drank plenty of water (and Ginger Tea). Fiona's father and uncles, who were quite drunk by the end were really worried that i couldn't use chopsticks, and also told the younger cousins to address me as 'laoshi' or 'teacher'... which I naturally declined :P (Makes me sound old! [Note: If you didnt know, lao means old]).

The last highlight for me was speaking with Fiona's friend about our obsession with Kim Jaejoong :P. Her English wasn't too good, but she could speak a little Japanese, so we were able to communicate effectively. She told me that she looked forward to seeing me again, so we can sing DBSK songs together!

Okays, thats about it. FYI, Whitney and Suzie have all the photos for this night. (When we all get back to Melbourne, we're gonna compile all our pics and share them!)

Zaijian!

Suzhou

2008-12-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

This blog post is really late, since I went to Suzhou last Wednesday (and its now Sunday! :P), but I haven't been feeling very well. But anyways, I just have to start off by saying: Suzhou was such a beautiful place! If you compare it to Shanghai, Suzhou is so much cleaner and more traditional (they had heaps of temples and traditional style buildings).

Suzhou, as our guide Charlie constantly informed us, is known as the 'Venice of China', since it is built around a series of canals which are all connected to the 'Grand Canal' which was built during one of the feudal dynasties (I think it might have been the Qing?). The Grand Canal connects the Yangtse to the Huanghe and was used to bring goods from the south up to Beijing.

Anyways, we all got up really early for the two hour drive to Suzhou (and about 1 and a half of those hours were spent navigating through Shanghai... I can't get over how big this city is!) and we went straight to Hang Shan Temple, the Temple dedicated to the Buddhist Monks who brought Buddhism to the Suzhou area (or, to those of you familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Kingdom of Wu). Here are some pictures:

After visiting Hang Shan Temple, we moved on to take a San Pan ride along one of the canals (think of a San Pan as a Chinese Gondola). The ride along the Canal took us 45 minutes, and the highlights were having all the old people along the river bank wave to us and shout out 'Hello, How are you?', some of the old bridges we saw (one dated back to the Ming dynasty!), our Gondolier singing us some Suzhou folk songs (in Suzhou dialect, so we didnt understand any of it) and seeing a young bride and groom going off to their wedding. It was a lot of fun, but by this time, I was quite hungry. Luckily, lunch was just around the corner. Here are a few pictures of the Canal.

After eating lunch, we visited a traditional Silk Factory (I think it was called Suzhou Number 1 Silk Factory, or soemthing like that). If I'm honest, the silk factory was probably the lowpoint to our trip to Suzhou. We moved around in a huge group, I could barely understand what our guide was saying, and all we were looking at were silk clothes, which, though very beautiful, is not really 'my thing'. Never the less, I found a beautiful silk scarf for Grandma :D

After the silk factory, we got back into the bus and drove to the old city wall, where we saw one of the Forts of the Kingdom of Wu. But before we could enter the Fort, we had to walk down a small backstreet, where there were many, many, MANY small street stalls selling touristy crap (watches, opium pipes, etc.) I, naturally, bought myself a Little Red Book :P. I decided not to buy dad's watch, however, coz I was running out of money.

And here are some pictures of the City Wall and the Wu Fort:

The last place we visited was a famous Manor House and Garden, which is under the protection of both the Chinese Government and the World Heritage Organization. Naturally, I've forgotten the Garden's name :P (Something like: The Fisherman's Something Something). I was quite tired by this time, and my cold was beginning to play up, so I didnt really pay attention to what our guide was telling us. It was a really beautiful, traditional Chinese Garden (there are three types of Chinese Garden, with this type being the 'Suzhou' style... go figure). Here are some pictures.

Okays, that's pretty much all we did in Suzhou! We drove back to Shanghai, got stuck in traffic jams, and then went out to dinner. I then went to sleep. Woo~

See you all later!

大家好！我叫郑白双。

2008-12-02T05:52:00.000-08:00

大家好！我叫Tom Baudinette。我的汉语的名字是郑柏双。我是澳大利亚人。我今年十九岁。我说英语，也会说法语和一点儿日语。我在上海外国语大学中文系学习汉语。我想，上外很漂亮，但是不太大。Monash大学（我的澳大利亚的大学）比较大，不漂亮。我非常喜欢我的两个大学！

汉语，怎么样？汉语很难，但是非常有意思。汉语也很有用，因为很多人在中国和澳大利亚说汉语。

大家，请看一下我的blog，很有意思吧？

那，再见！

:P

(Hello everyone! My name is Tom Baudinette. My Chinese name is Zheng Baishuang. I'm Australian and am 19 years old. I speak english, and I can also speak french and a little bit of Japanese. I'm studying Chinese at the Shanghai Internation Studies University Department of Chinese Language. SISU is very beautiful, but not very big. Monash University [My University in Australia] is quite large, but not very pretty. I really like both of my univesities a lot.

What's Chinese like? It's very hard, but very interesting. Chinese is very useful because many people, in China and Australia, speak it.

Everyone, please read my blog! Isn't it interesting?

Okay, see you!

:P)

2nd Weekend in Shanghai

2008-11-29T21:50:00.000-08:00

Well, my first week in China is now officially over, and looking back at my wishlist, I've been able to do lots of the things I set out to do. I've been able to buy a magazine (not Men's Fashion though, this one is called 'Cool'), watched CCTV, bought some Chairman Mao memorabilia, buy HEAPS of CDs, visit Nanjing Road (where I bought said CDs :P), flaunt my Western wealth (people always wanna sell me shoes and watches!), seen loads of propoganda and contradictions (like the fact Nanjing Road had five McDonald's, four KFCs and three PIzza Huts and Starbucks) and make some new friends, both in CIP and in China.

Anyways, this weekend I stayed over at Suzie's mum's friend's house. After class on Friday, Whiteny, Suzie and I were picked up by Suzie's Mum and her friend (and her friend's Daughter Fiona) and we went to a Cantonese Restaurant. We ate so much I thought my stomach would burst :P. Then, afterwards, we went for a drive around downtown Shanghai, where we visited the Bund, saw Nanjing Road and lots of fantastic sights. (I didnt have my camera though, coz I was told to leave it behind coz it would be too dangerous to take due to pickpockets).

That night, Fiona and Whitney and I stayed up really late talking about all kinds of things, like Australia and... DBSK!!! (Fiona is obsessed with Dong Bang Shin Ki, like me :D).

The next day we got up really early so that we could visit Cheng Huang Miao, a market next to Yu Yuan Garden located in the area where the City Temple used to be. All the buildings were traditional, and incredibly beautiful (once again, no pictures... Whitney will upload hers later :D). There were so many shops selling Chinese cultural artefacts, but it was all really expensive. I only bought a few things here and there (The area is a bit of a tourist Trap, you even need to pay to use the toilets!).

Once we had finished sightseeing, we alked to People's Square so that we could visit Nanjing Road. We got to walk through really old and backward streets, the kind you think of when you imagine 'China'. All the old people out washing their clothes or mending their bikes were really awesome, most heavily wrinkled and tanned.

At People's Square, we visited a shopping centre, where I was finally able to buy some CDs (Top Combine, Energy and Leah Dizon for Sam). I bought so much, the shop gave me a special raffle token that I could use to play a special Christmas promotional game. You had to throw your token onto a platform and hope you got it in a circle to win a prize. Needless to say, I didnt win anything D:

It was about this time that Suzie went to her Grandma's house, so it was just Fiona, Whitney and I. We just strolled along Nanjing Road, not really doing any shopping (we'll go back later). There were lots of hawkers here too, trying to sell us bootleg DVDs, watches, shoes and exploding pig toys (haha, I kid you not :P). We stopped to get a snack at a famous Baozi shop, and it tasted really good (almost, but not quite, like meat pies back home!).

We stayed over at Fiona's one last night, and had a HUGE dinner (they kept on urging me to eat more, even though I was full!). Then we watched some TV (a variety show with JJ Lin, which was really funny). Before going to bed, Fiona and I watched some DBSK videos, and a Korean Variety Show that was hilarious (Baby Wonder Girls :P). Fiona then showed Whitney and I pictures of her friends and her school.

And now I'm back at SISU listening to Top Combine (Kenny is awesomeness!) and getting ready to do my laundry with Whitney and then study. All in all, I've had a very busy weekend.

Kay kay everyone, zaijian!

NOTE: Facebook, it seems, doesnt really work in China... so I'm having trouble uploading my photos. Please bare with me on this! :D

Oriental Tower Study Trip

2008-11-27T04:36:00.000-08:00

Many of you may already know this, but that strange looking tower is known as Pearl, or Oriental, Tv Tower, and it dominates the skyline of Pudong New Area. At night time, it's lit up to look like the 'Pearls' are spinning around, and it looks awesome!. Anyways, yesterday, we went there on a study trip.

This an image from inside the second highest 'Pearl' where there is an observation deck. Unfortunately, there was too much smog for us to actually SEE anything, but ill upload some photos (bigger ones :P)

Okays, that would be a very smoggy picture of the Bund, the main drag of Shanghai. (After Nanjing Road obviously :P)

I dont remember what this building was :P

After the observation deck, we returned to the lobby so we could visit the Shanghai Urban Development Museum, which traced Shanghai's development froma small fishing village to an 'Urban Metropolis the envy of all the world' :D

Here are some pics:

Naturally I will upload more when i have access to Facebook again (curse you firewall).

And now, last but not least, some random pics from the trip.

This is the mascot for the 2010 World Expo that will be held in Shanghai. Isn't it cute (I wanna buy his plushy, but its stupidly expensive! 太贵了!)

I call this photo: 'Brain Snap' :D

There were mirrors on the roof of Pearl Tower, so me and Sue went to town :P

Okays, that's it for me right now. Time for study! (So much work!)

饺子和我的课 (Dumplings and My Classes)

2008-11-25T02:58:00.000-08:00

大家好！我很好！你呢？

Haha, look! I'm improving :P

Waah, I've only just got my internet fixed, so I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately. I suggest you all check out Whitney's blog (keirinsama.blogspot) to find out about all my goings on.

Anyways, on the Sunday before class, I met with Suzie's family! We went to Suzie's Grandma house (which was an hour away from SISU by train and bus) to have dinner. I wasn't able to communicate with Suzie's family by myself, since I had no chinese beyond 'Ni hao' at that point in time, so dinner was an interesting experience.

Suzie's nabu (Grandma), Suzie, Suzie's Mum, Whitney and I all made wonton and jiaozi together. I never realised that soemthing as simple as dumplings were so difficult to make. Suzie's mum was like 'I know which one's Tang wu made' due to my poor craftmanship :P. I also met Suzie's half-brother (who was cute), and her cousins (the older of whom refused to talk to us 'foreigners' :P)

I think the highlight of that night, though, was when Suzie's uncle said that I was 'still a child' since i didn't smoke (Waaah, so tall, but still a child! :D)

The day after, we started class. It's sooooo intense. My teachers, Huang Laoshi (we hafta call him Xiao Huang, coz he says Laoshi makes him feel old, and he's only four years older than us) and Zhao Laoshi, are so patient with us all, and have helped me master pinyin in only two days. (Still need to work on tones though).

Okay, I'm off to have dinner now. 再见！

(NOTE: 1. Can someone look up the music of JunJun 君君 for me, I can't access Wiki in China :P. Also, will have photos of Pudong New Area tomorrow :P)

First Few Days in Shanghai

2008-11-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

Well, here I finally am in Shanghai! It's been an eventful two days I have to admit, with me going through all kinds of emotions (how emo that sounds :P).

My first ever flight on an airplane, was... so mind numbingly dull, I can't actually believe I was excited about it. I also learnt that window seats suck... a LOT! I spent the time listening to the Mando Pop radio station and watching Scrubs (haha, I love that show).

Landing in Singapore was fine, it was VERY humid. Left pretty quickly. There, that's my stay in SG in a nutshell.

After another boring flight, I finally landed in Shanghai. And talk about culture shock! Firstly, we were greeted by the Customs Officers, who were ten times as scary as ours were (they wore Communist style Black suits and some had guns!). Then we got down to the Taxi bay, and hopped in (we needed to get two in the end).

The roads here are mad. Traffic, surface, rules (or lack thereof)! Crazy! I was sitting in the back of my (seatbelt-less) taxi, hoping we wouldnt hit someone. As we drove along, I got to see first hand some of the poverty in this country. The squalid housing, the beggars trying to sell us crap at intersections. I had to admit, it was pretty depressing.

But then we finally left industrial area in the south of Pudong, and arrived in Hongkou District, where the uni is. It's so much nicer here, a LOT more modern (not as Modern as the Bund though).

Arriving at SISU, I had my first shock. My ATM Card doesnt work in ATMs here, besides those of the Bank of China. It was harrowing having to go find one just after my long plane ride, but it didnt take us too long. It gave me an awesome opportunity to get to know the local area, and visit Carrefour Shopping Centre (where I bought myself some essentials).

Finally, I got some dinner with some people I'd met (so cheap), then went to bed.

All in all, China hasn't disappointed so far :D

(NOTE: Cannot upload photos here right now, visit Facebook!)

Pre-Departure~!

2008-11-14T20:58:00.000-08:00

你好！

Well, well... a blog! I've never really kept a blog before, so this is all pretty new to me. I'll try my best to keep it interesting, and once I've got some photos, I'll post a few up here as well.

So yes, as most of you are aware, I will be going to Shanghai for 6 weeks to study Chinese intensively at the Shanghai International Studies University (SISU). After I finish studying, I'm going to Beijing for a week where I'll be soaking up the tourist sites (can anyone say 'Forbidden City'?) and going shopping. I'll also be visiting Chairman Mao~!

Hopefully, you guys will follow my adventures in China, and, for those who speak Chinese, be able to follow my linguistic growth as well.

It's five days 'til I leave, so I thought I'd write out a list of what I wanna do whilst in the Glorious People's Republic. With luck, I'll be able to satisfy them all~!

THE WISHLIST:

Take my own photo of the Pearl Tower Panorama (see image on top of Blog)
Buy a copy of Men's Fashion: China
Watch CCTV and Hunan TV
Visit Chairman Mao
Buy some Chairman Mao memorabilia
Eat crickets, scorpions and cuttle fish
Buy a Chinese Album
Cruise Nanjing Rd
Do the obligatory Tourist stuff (Visit Great Wall, Forbidden City etc)
See Chinese Acrobats/Peking Opera/Religious Ceremony
Have a 'Shanghai Christma'
Have Peking Duck in Beijing
Go to KTV/Kala OK (Karaoke) in China
Flaunt my Western Wealth in some way
Go to one of those traditional backstreets
See some Communist Propaganda
See some Capitalist Paradoxes (Chairman Mao advertising CocaCola anyone?)
Buy some nice Chinese clothing (fashionable or traditional)
Find and Watch a DECENT Chinese/Taiwanese Drama (is KO-1 any good?)
Make lots of new friends.

Haha, limitting myself to 20 things, coz if its too long, I'll never get it all done!

(NOTE: If you wanna reply to this Blog, ur gonna need to satisfy the site's criteria. You'll either need a google/blogger account or a livejournal. Of course, most of you will be able to comment on my Facebok as well).

So that's it for today, my next post will most likely either come from Singapore (brief stop over) or my first day in Shanghai.

再见！