Where else if not in China?

Weekends in my Chinese family are spent doing things together. The mornings are always lazy, nobody is doing anything, but then after lunch is when it all happens. Hence, Sunday afternoon was spent in a karaoke bar. But a karaoke bar as you would imagine it. This place was much bigger than any karaoke bar I have ever seen. We rented a VIP room, which basically meant that we had a room the size of our living room in Denmark to ourselves, with a massive gold upholstered couch, comfy pillows, our own Western style toilet, flat screen and a glass coffee table. Where else if not in China? They love their karaoke too. Fortunately, they had English songs, but in China Britney Spears' Baby One More Time is still big and Ke$ha and Justin Bieber are something near to God. So I was forced to roar Tick Tock and Poker Face, until I for a second overtook the touch screen catalogue and found the real deal, such as Beatles and REM. I am pretty sure I introduced them all to the Beatles, and it wasn't really their style, but I enjoyed it tremendously.
After singing our souls out, we went for dinner, and shopping, which was pretty much just chocolate shopping. Will and I had a conversation about iPads, iPods and iPhones, and he told me how a lot of people in the cities have iPads, because they are so easy to use and so brilliant. I told him that I haven't really seen many around in Denmark, which he found weird. But then I told him that iPhones are common back home, where to he said: "But they are so expensive and not easy to play games on". And where else if not China can they actually make an iPhone out of your iPod for just 100 dollars? I laughed so hard when he told me this, not because it's particularly funny, but because it is absolutely genious!

Yesterday I had my first Chinese class, which I had been looking forward to. I don't understand anything of what they're saying, I mean I sort of make sense of a sentence when my name is mentioned, but other than that I am lost. It's the first time I have ever been this lost.
Anyway, my class was in the other district. I live in the Nanshan district, which I have just been told is the new center of the city and hence the more expensive area. My classes are in the Futian district, the old center, but now more the economical center.
My hostmum said that she'd take me there. I had been told my class would begin at 1pm. But in the meantime this had been changed to 1.30. So there we were in the car on our way to Futian. She dropped me off at the building where I met Joe my coordinator who took me up to their office.
Kaitlyn, an american girl, who is also an au pair came around at 1.30 and we were ready to begin.
Chinese is probably the most complex language I have ever had to learn. I am struggling with the tones. The numbers are my best friend at the moment, same with the countries. Hopefully I will pick up a bit of Chinese before I go back. Fingers crossed.

Having the world at my feet

By the evening Michelle was all good and cuddly when we watched Harry Potter. I think she realised that I don't really care if she doesn't like me, I will not try and consolidate our relationship.
Yesterday morning we went to the foul market again. This time it wasn't as hot but the smells still get to me. Especially the smell of poultry, yuk, makes me want to become a vegetarian. Anyway, new observation from the market: guy standing topless behind his meat counter, smoking a cigarette while cutting up meat for his customers. Hungry yet?
In the afternoon we had a delicious lunch, not even the market can alter my appetite it seems. I have truly comed to love Chinese food. Well, most of it anyways. I love the seasoning they use, which is so different from ours. I love how they prepare, in ways we would never dream of. I just love it. However, I think I have reached the point where I no longer love rice.
After lunch Elisa took me to the post office so I could post some of my stuff back to Denmark, as I have way too much. Not even 40 USD for 7kg, something different from Qantas' 70 dollars for 2kg. I wanted to post everything that I won't need here back, BUT I was not allowed to send my adidas hiking shoes, or my D&G bikini back without their receipt because it could be fake.
One thing that truly fascinates me, is how they have people hired to do absolutely everything. In the parking lot, there is a ticket machine and often an employee who is there in case you can't reach the ticket machine. At the post office, there were three guys packing things into boxes, three girls sitting behind the counter to handle payments, two guys who would deal with post within China, two people selling books and postcards, two guys sitting immidiately as you entered the door doing whatever and one guy walking around just checking that everything was okay. So 13 people and the post office was really not that big. But then I have to remember that there is so many Chinese, so of course they need jobs.
In the afternoon we spontaneously decided to go out for dinner. We drove to another plaza a bit further away than our regular one. This was even bigger. There was some kind of talent show on for kids and it was ghastly and yet very entertaining. I think I was really amazed how five year olds can act and look as ten year olds, and how excited the parents got, and how much make up the kids were wearing. It was really horrible, even a five year old boy was wearing make up!!

Anyway, we had dinner at an outstanding restaurant where the staff spoke English! A rarity in China.
After we had ordered the waiter began bringing the dishes to our table. He brought in a bowl covered with a lid. He opened the lid and I saw living shrimps. He then poured something over them, which my host dad told me was a sauce made out of red wine, ginger and something else. This sauce would drug the shrimps and hence make them unconscious, while you ate them. So pretty much you eat the shrimp while they are still technically alive, but they are not conscious. Of course I had to try it! When will I ever have such and opportunity? It was interesting but in a good way. Overall the dinner was so delicious. The best meal I have had for ages. I didn't eat a lot and there wasn't a lot of dishes but the ones we had were just amazing.
Oh and at the restaurant they even had a Western style toilet! In case you didn't know, in China they wee in holes. Seriously though, I am not kidding.

At dinner Will told me about how there was an event on at the theme park next door, so we went. The theme park is called Window of the World, and it is things like this theme park that is the reason why I have come to love China. Basically, as the name hints it, you have the entire world in one park. They have made replicas of world famous icons. So yesterday, I went up the Eiffeltower, walked down to Arc de Triumph, visited Munich and Octoberfest, went sledging in the Alpes wearing a light jacket, wellies and shorts, went for a walk at Marc's sqaure in Venice, before finishing our tour somewhere near the pyramids.
It's all good fun for me, because I have seen most of these places in real life, so I had a big laugh about it all, but for them (not my host family, because they are educated people and they have travelled a fair bit, mostly in Asia though) this is somewhat like the real deal. They were posing for photos in front of the Eiffeltower, or the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
While we were up the Eiffeltower I looked down on all the mini replicas of icons I had been and seen, and those few I haven't been to yet. There was the Notre Dame, next to it the Operahouse in Sydney, and just there was the sfinx, and the windmills of Holland .. I quite literally had the entire world at my feet. It made me wonder how many of those Chinese, who were pushing me from both sides in order to get to the elevator, would actually make it to any of those places. How many of them will just settle for the view from the 1:3 scale Eiffeltower replica, with parts provided from Germany but otherwise made in China. Maybe it's just because I am the way I am, but I could never be pleased with just that. Something even worse I thought about was how many of them HAVE to settle with Window of the World. How man will never have the opportunity to leave China, to go travelling and explore places. This is the scariest of all. I know that some of them have no desire to leave China and why should they? Everything you want, you can find in China, even Mount Matterhorn. But then there is people like Becky, whose heart was broken when I told her that I had been to Paris thrice. I can't describe the look on her face, but it made me really sad. I didn't dare tell her that those three times had been before my 18th birthday. I guess the reason why it makes me so sad is because I love travelling as much as I do, and I can't imagine how my life would be if I had to spend every day of it in Denmark.
I looked up from those haunting thoughts and looked straight at the lattice surrounding the viewing platform at the top of the tower. But I didn't see a lattice. All I saw was a cage.

Some days we just spend doing absolutely nothing, which is alright by me.

Other days we decide to do nothing for the day and end up at the plaza. Like Wednesday night, when we just casually went to the plaza, because we had nothing better to do. That's all good, because plaza usually means milk tea (yum, I'm in love). Becky and I dropped off Michelle in "Fundoland" which is an indoor playground sort of thing. Then we went off shopping. I am trying to live off the money I am earning here. Partially, because I want  to save money for "adventure 2012", yes Emma Fisher, this is for you, but just as much because I know that what I am paid is what an average Chinese is paid for a part time job. I am paid 150 dollars a month. 

Becky was so excited for shopping! One thing I love about China, is that you can find everything here. The shops sell so many quirky things, I love it! Though I haven't bought any yet, because I know it will end up in my drawer and never see sunlight again. Anyway, I was looking at a wallet, which I thought was pretty cool, when Becky said: "You can buy it, you have money, I know." It made me feel really awkward. I just said that I didn't want to buy so much stuff. Which is actually true. It was a bracelet which I will probably never wear back home, but I liked it at the moment.
Becky told me how she really wants a Louis Vuitton bag, but how expensive they are. I asked her how much they are in China, 900 yuan, which is roughly 180 dollars. I knew instantly that she must have been thinking about the replicas which are to find in every shop, yes even proper shops. I went into a shop and grabbed a "Gucci" wallet, just to see the price. 90 dollars, and it wasn't even a nice replica, but here they believe that that's the real deal. Well some do, because I have a vague idea that my host mum is actually running around with a proper Gucci bag, but to be honest I am no longer certain, which is really unlike me.
Instead of buying completely useless stuff I invited Becky for milk tea, and she loved me and I loved my milk tea. She is always surprised when I finish off my milk tea within in instants while she takes her time drinking hers.
Another thing I have noticed and one that I am sure will annoy me during my stay, is that the Chinese can be really selfish. Michelle bought a bag of sweets and didn't offer any to me or Becky. But that's their culture I guess. I am affraid of saying anything, because I don't want to offend them and I don't think they'd understand it if I told them that this is how we are in Denmark.
This is just another thing I will have to get used to.

Yesterday we spent the entire afternoon at the plaza and there is really not a whole lot to do there except shopping, which is starting to bore me. We began our afternoon with a milk tea, of course. After walking around the plaza for several hours, I was sort tired. We left home at 1pm and met Elisa and William at 6.30pm so 5,5 hours of walking around doing nothing. We ate out last night and then went to the movies, where I scored my second milk tea for the day, oh yeah. The people at the shop know me already and among  the little Chinese I know is the sentense: can I have a milk tea please.

My patience has definitely been tested while I have been here. Today Becky asked me to teach her English grammar. I first dragged her through all of the tenses, then tried to explain to her how to use them, and when. It is difficult because I just speak the language and pay no attention to which tense I am using. She understood me, fortunately, but a timeline became her best friend.
After lunch Elisa told Michelle to join our English lesson. Michelle finds grammar boring, so I had to switch to something completely different. I tried teaching her a song, but she didn't want to do anything and was being so grumpy! I was so annoyed, especially when she began crying and acting like a two year old. It was so hard holding all of my anger back. I was exploding! But I tried to act cool. I was relieved when the lesson was over and had to tell poor Becky, who was so keen on learning more that I needed a break. Fortunately, she understood. Luckily, Becky is quite happy just talking in English, so she came into my room and we had conversations about everything. I can tell that she is thinking about which tenses to use in her sentenses and her English has definitely improved since I came here, which makes me really proud of her.
As to Michelle, well she has been moody all afternoon and hasn't spoken to me since, but she'll come around.

Right, so the weekend went by quickly. Just me and Michelle having fun and practising magic and doing other fun stuff.
Yesterday Becky came back to Shenzhen. She came in to my room after lunch and spent a couple of hours with me just talking about everything you can imagine. I like Becky. Right now, she is my only friend here. Her English is far from perfect, but she still manages to get her statements and opinions across. I showed her photos of my friends and family. When I showed her a photo of my brother and his girlfriend and later my niece, she looked at me rather puzzled and asked: "Are they just boyfriend and girlfriend?" When I said yes, she asked whose child it was. I told her that Lykke is their child. She looked at me quite shocked and said: "But they are not married, how can they have a child?" So I had to explain to her how getting married is not necessary to have a child. She was just shocked. She simply could not comprehend how that is possible, which shows the difference between our two cultures.
We then began talking about boyfriends and girlfriends, and she told me that in China first you are friends, then a couple and then you get married. This is why she is in no rush to find a boyfriend because she doesn't want to get married yet. She wants to wait at least another two years. She just turned 18.
This world is so far from mine. I am constantly reminded by the cultural differences. I told Becky that I am too young to even think about marriage now, where to she replied: "But you must find a man who can take care of you." I told her that I can take care of myself, which she found hard to understand. It is so strange how she is almost two years younger than me, but her mindset is light years ahead of mine.
The reason why I really like Becky though, is because she is an ambitious girl. Moreover, she would love to go travelling and explore different places, but she is too scared to go on her own, which is understandable really. To be fair, I don't think she has ever left this country.

Anyway, we were having a really good time talking and I really enjoy her company. However, I certainly did not enjoy it when she began biting her nails and spitting the nails onto my floor. I didn't know how to react. I just kept quiet. But it is really gross. So is it when she showers before me and the bathroom floor is transformed to lake Taupo and her long black hair is everywhere.

After dinner we went to the cinema. As soon as I heard that we were going I went in to my room to grab my iPod and earphones just in case the movie would be in Chinese. Fortunately, it wasn't! It would have been weird watching Nicholas Cage in Season of the Witch in Chinese. I enjoyed the movie, but poor Michelle got scared and I could tell she wasn't enjoying it at all.
Once I got back I felt the urge to Skype my mum and tell her about my first normal movie experience. I was so psyked and the fact that I had watched a new movie too. Of course my joy was shattered when mum told me it had been released on dvd a month ago back home.
After discussing the movie with my mum I discovered that parts of the movie has been censored, which I found quite interesting. Of course the movie came with a milk tea!

Chinese living

Wednesday in Shenzhen was rather quiet. I had an English lesson with Michelle, where I tried to do something a bit more entertaining than just talk about verbs, which she doesn't understand anyways. Instead we drew animals and described them and talked about what actions they were able to do. Michelle's favourite sentense is: "wauw, so beautiful!" She is lovely!
In the evening we yet again ventured to the cinema. This time we were watching a Hong Kongese movie. It was better than the Chinese one, for sure! It would have been even better if I understood anything of it as it was in cantonese with mandarin subtitles. Anyway, the thing I like most about going to the cinema is when the host family buys me either a milk tea, which I love so much, or a mini cup of Häagen-Dazs. Yum!

Friday turned out to be somewhat hectic. Before I continue let me inform you that the average temperature is 32 degrees and high humidity. So anyways Friday, I was sitting and chilling youtube, when Michelle came into my room and said: "Barbara, Barbara let's go!" I asked where. This was her reply: "It will be good!" So I grabbed my stuff and off we went .. to a theme park. In a gazillion degrees, with heaps of people and queues to everything. Fortunately, we only spent a couple of hours there. I was dying it was that hot.
I took Michelle home and waited for Elisa to ring us, because the same night we were going to the swimming finals of the Universiade.
We went for an hour in a taxi and it cost us 120 yuan, which is around 24USD. Pretty cheap if you ask me. I was really excited for the finals, seeing as I have never been to any major sporting event. There was a lot people there, most of them Chinese. Nor Denmark nor Hungary was represented at the finals, so I either cheered for Australia or New Zealand, occasionally a European country, mainly Italy. But then China was represented in one of the disciplines! Man, I have never seen anything alike. People we're jumping out of their seats screaming and yelling, and when she won a rush of joy went through the hall. It was amazing and scary at the same time. I guess the reason why I found it really scary is because I suddenly remembered everything I was taught in school about how the communists would treat their athletes. Impregnating girls so they would perform better, not paying them unless they won, not giving them food etc. I couldn't help but wonder if any of the above had been relevant for Sun Ye, the winner of 100m breast stroke.

Scary or not, I really enjoyed the competition. I took a few photos with my iPod, which I will try to upload later.

Friday morning Becky, an 18 year old girl who has been here since I arrived, left to go back to her hometown. She is a really nice girl, so I was rather sad when she left. Will, my host dad, went with her. Yesterday morning Elisa went to Guangzhou, leaving me alone with Michelle. I feel like she is my nanny and not the other way around. For a 9 year old girl she is incredibly independent! In the afternoon she decided that she wanted to go shopping. So we did. For her shopping is really just an excuse to go to the plaza and chat with whoever she meets. She is always asking people questions, and she is genuinely interested in .. well everything. We went into a magicians shop and stayed for 45 minutes while she was trying to learn a card trick. The good thing about her is that everybody loves her and think she is adorable.

While I have been here my host family has started to get to know me slightly better. For example they know that they can't tell me what I am going to eat. They let me try it or do as Becky did the other day, walked up to me and popped something in my mouth, which at first tasted a bit like pork rinds. Turns out I wasn't too far off. It was pork ears. It was alright, but after I learned what it was I didn't touch it. It wasn't that good.
The other day for breakfast we had "black eggs". It tasted alright, not much flavour really but it was good in the soup we had (yes, soup for breakfast is normal). Anyway, I googled it afterwards to find out what exactly it was. Click here to see what I ate.
I still don't get a whole lot of meat, but neither am I hungry. Yesterday we skipped breakfast and it didn't even bother me. Opposite to my days in New Zealand where I was hungry all the time. Whenever meat I like is served, I stuff my face like a greedy pig. Like the other day when we had KFC.

Another funny story that I have to share with the world is what I saw when we went to Toy'R'us yesterday. They have all of these toys on display that kids can play with. Michelle wanted to play with this swimming pool something for something like Duplo figures but not quite. It was meant for smaller kids, so there was a lot  of them playing with it. At one point a boy, who must have been only 2 years old, if not younger, who was sitting with his grandma, started weeing. See, they don't really use diapers here. They cut the kids pants instead, exposing everything. So the boy casually started weeing on the carpet in the toystore. Then, his grandmother turned him away so he would wee on the floor instead which resulted in his rays hitting not only his grandmother but other kids too. How's that for hygiene. I wonder if you see this anywhere else in the world.

Something else I have been thinking about, is how observed I feel. I am not talking about people in the streets, who obviously notice me because of my race, no, I am talking about the police and military who is on every corner. I am not even lying, they are everywhere, watching every single move you make, listening to every single word you say, and not just me, no the Chinese too. It's scary, but hey, I am guessing that's communism. The word "freedom" has been given a whole new meaning. I don't feel free, at all.

Sometimes I forget that I am caucasian which makes me wonder why people are staring at me.

And that's all for now!

A whole other world

After 6 days in China, I have realised that this is like a whole other world.
The other day me and Michelle had a splendid time! We went shopping and had KFC for dinner, and just enjoyed ourselves. KFC is not the same here. They sell Chinese soup, noodles and rice and the amount of people who actually go there the for chicken is small.

Yesterday I had my first English lesson with the family, which just assured me that under no circumstances will I ever be a teacher. Unfortunately my patience is too low. But that's alright, at least now I know that I am unsuitable for that profession.
After dinner we went to the cinema, where we went the other day as well to watch a kids movie, in Chinese of course! My host family loves going to the cinema, but as far as I can tell it is just as much a matter of prestige as actually watching the movies, as the cinema seems to be for the upper class. So off we went yesterday to the cinema, to watch yet another Chinese movie, but this time with English subtitles. The translation is Chinglish, so nowhere near grammatically correct. The movie was absolutely horrible, but my host family seemed to enjoy it tremendously so I just smiled and nodded when they asked me if I liked it.
Man, a whole new world, this is. In the cinema my host dad was joyfully playing on his iPad, and when his phone rang, he casually just picked it up and began talking in the middle of the movie. Nobody told him to be quiet or anything. Nobody gave a shit, to be fair. The movie had barely ended when the lights came on and everybody began walking out of the cinema at once.

Today we went to a market, which my host mum described as "very dirty", and yes it was dirty, but the dirt as such wouldn't have bothered me. Just be careful where you step - no, it was the odours of raw meat, combined with fresh vegetables and sweat which made me feel sick. I quite literally got nauseous. Pretty much, the market was covered, the stands were inches away from each other, one selling meat, the other one selling fruit or veges. It was hot and people were sweaty and the smells couldn't escape the covered area. I guess I am a bit to European for this. Moreover, the butchers were gutting the animals, cutting up their stomachs in front of me on a very unhygienic surface. Interesting to see if I will eat at all today because I definitely lost my appetite. Having said that, this is all just a part of the adventure. But next time my host mum, Elisa, asks me if I want to go to the market with her, I'll probably say no.

Welcome to China!

I arrived in Hong Kong early in the morning of August 11. Hong Kong is not quite China, it is currently self-governed, and will only officially be a part of China in about another 40 years.

After getting my luggage I sat down and waited for my host mum to come pick me up. The Shenzhen bay doesn't open until 8, so I had to wait quite a while. She finally found me and had brought Michelle too, my new little sister. She is adorable! 

After brekky in the airport we headed to China. It is not easy to get in to this massive country. An older passport photo is enough to cause three policemen running around you, looking at you from every angle to see if it is really you on that photo, or if you are just some imposter trying to get into China. After having been checked from left to right and from every possible angle, they finally decided that it was me on the photo and I was allowed into Shenzhen. Yay! 

It was so hot and I was wearing my jeans and flannel shirt from when I departed Melbourne.

Shenzhen is host to the summer universiade this year and they have posters everywhere with the mascot UU. There is therefore also a lot of tourists, but I still only see asians everywhere. Whenever you see a caucasian you smile and nod. We finally got to my home for the next three months. 

My host family is absolutely lovely, but they really don't speak a lot of English. Sometimes communication goes through a translating programme on their iPads. They each have an iPad even Michelle, who is just 9 years old. Welcome to China!
I was really scared at first, when an older lady entered my room, which by the way is purple ( ..), but then I learned that she is just the cleaning lady, who comes everyday to clean the house. The family also has a chef to prepare all of their meals for them. Very different from what I have ever been used to. 

My first evening in China, my host family took me to a very fancy buffet restaurant to introduce me to Southern Chinese cuisine. You can tell that Shenzhen is the gateway to the Western world. In the restaurant you'd have forks next to chopsticks, which a first time tourist may not pay attention to, but when you have travelled around China, you know that this is a very rare. 

The Chinese culture is so different and it has been one big culture shock. Smacking is not considered rude. In fact the louder you smack the better. Spitting on the street is just a casual Chinese thing. Be careful where you walk, I almost had a Chinese lady spit on me today. It is so weird though, because women walk around in fancy dresses and nice shoes, but spit as if they were men. 

Another thing I have to get used to: I am too masculine for this country. When my host family realised that I didn't bring any dresses with me they almost fainted. How can you be a girl without having any dresses? 

Observation no. 4: the Chinese are dead on honest. I showed my host mum some photos from New Zealand, to which she said: you are fat. Thank you! So then she said: you must lose weight. 

Which, to be frank, I probably will too. They eat a lot of fish here and I am not too fond of seafood, so I don't really get any meat. 

Saturday they took me rafting. I was the main attraction for our fellow rafters. Basically how it works is that a bus takes you up a hill from where you jump into a rubber boat and follow the water stream down to the bottom. It takes about an hour and you get wet and bruised, but it is so much fun! Safety is low, so you either survive or you don't, pretty much. You end up in flat areas where you have to wait to be pushed further down, and this allows time for water fights. Being non-asian I was, of course, targetted by everyone. This girl yelled: WELCOME TO CHINA, where after she splashed water in my face. But I just laughed. I just think they are cute! 

The same night we had duck tongue for dinner. At first I was slightly disgusted, but then I tried it and I loved it! 

I still haven't adjusted completely to life here. However, the family makes it really easy to feel at home. Michelle has become like my little sister. She takes good care of me and always remembers to ask if everything is okay. 

Even though the first couple of days have been a bit hard, I am sure that I will have a wonderful time in China. Especially now that I have my blog, youtube and facey! 

peace out

It's all gone by so fast.

August 7 .. Initially I was meant to fly back to Europe in three days, but I found that three months in China would be way more exciting. A spontaneous decision which arose one April morning when everything in Australia had become way too monotonous for my suffering of wanderlust. So into Google three simple words went: work in China. One thing lead to another and before I knew of it I had a Chinese visa in my passport. And on Wednesday it is happening. I am off to China. I am excited and I am nervous and I have too many thoughts to be written down here.

I don't know if I can manage to use facebook whilst in China, but if I can't, just follow this blog and I'll let youse all know what the lowdown is in the country of rice, bicycles and Chinese.