It’s been a while, but all of a sudden the programme needed for accessing blocked websites stopped working.

So there’s quite a bit to tell. First of all, Hangzhou was really good. We arrived semi-late on the Friday and went for a late supper with some of my hostmum’s friends. They were really kind buying me beer and such. We then arrived at our hotel, where I had my own room, with a massive bed and a bathroom with glass walls. Many things came to my mind when I saw that room, but I better not write them down.

Anyway, I had a great sleep, where I was having this weird dream about being Bones and solving a murder, when the phone rang at 4, and woke me up. Some drunken Chinese man who obviously got the wrong room number. Needless to say that I didn’t solve the murder in my dream! Buhu.

Next morning Elisa’s friends picked me and Michelle up at the hotel and we went to West Lake, which is pretty much what Hangzhou is famous for. It was so beautiful. Even though it was overcast, the water of the big lake was circled by shaded green hills with pagodas popping up from between the trees. It was so beautiful. I really loved it. We sailed out to an island which had traditional Chinese pagodas and little huts or whatever they are. This is the real China and definitely more cultural than Shenzhen. Having said that, if I didn’t know that this was Hangzhou, I would easily have figured that it was one of the places I visited last year on our roundtrip in China. Everything is really similar. I experienced this the next day too, when we went to Wuzhen. I was convinced that I had been there before until Elisa told me that this was in the other direction of Shanghai than where we had been. Again, the houses, the atmosphere, everything is so similar to each other.

In the afternoon on our first real day in Hangzhou we visited a little town which has been made for tourist to revive the time of the Song dynasty. Now this was something else. Even though most of the “remains” were clearly recreated, it was very interesting to walk around surrounded by so much history. We watched a show, which again was incredible. The Chinese can really put on a show. At one point rain actually started pouring down on the stage, of course intentionally. At the end of the show an elegant Chinese woman handed me a cup of tea special for their region. Ah, you have to love these aspects of China.

Another thing I got to experience and which is an experience I will never forget is a traditional Chinese dinner with friends. There was me, Michelle and Elisa, Elisa’s friend with her son, three of Elisa’s male friends and the wife of one of them. We had a private room where we all sat and ate and drank. Every other minute (if not every minute) someone would shout “gambei” (cheers) and point his or her glass towards someone. Then you drink, and you are expected to finish your drink. Being the foreigner and cheerfully drinking beer, I was targeted by everyone.

I love how they get together and have such a great time. It would have been even better if I could have participated in their conversation.

Monday, our last day in Hangzhou, we went to watch some wave which was really big on that particular day. I don’t really know why it was so special, but it was pretty boring. Maybe if I knew what I was looking at it would have been more interesting. There was heaps of people there, though, pushing and crowding from both sides. There are so many Chinese, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.

After having visited a small café where we had our own little room and drank tea and ate rice, we drove to the airport and that was Hangzhou. It was very nice to get away from Shenzhen. Shenzhen is a very young city, only 30 years old, so culturally speaking there really isn’t much here, which is why it was great to go to Hangzhou.

But back to reality, Tuesday morning I sat out for Chinese lessons, which are now twice a week. I enjoy going to lessons, because it makes me feel like I have a life. I actually have somewhere I need to be. It makes me feel a little important too.

The next day I spent with Harika, going for breakfast and then shopping at Dongmen. This is one thing I have definitely missed while backpacking. Not the shopping bit, but spending time with friends, going out to eat and just chilling. True that when you backpack every day is just about chilling, but it’s a different kind of chilling. Anyway, what I want to say is that I really enjoyed Wednesday with Harika! Especially buying cheap stuff that probably won’t last long. Except for my earrings, I really love my new earrings!

This weekend has been rather uneventful to say the least. Other than going to the movies in the evening we didn’t do anything. So I finished off the last season of Bones, which left me with a smile on my face, craving for the next season!

And that’s all there is from here. 

It's hard to believe that one year ago exactly, I was running around somewhere in Beijing, and now I'm back in China. That's how far I have progressed in my life, haha. So far I am liking China round 2 better than round 1!
Shenzhen is actually a cool place. There isn't much cultural stuff to do, but that's okay.
Wednesday I met the au pairs at the office from where we were going to Felix' goodbye lunch. It actually makes me really sad that all of the people I have met are leaving, well excluding a few. It was nice spending time with them again. They were actually in class, but Harika and I had planned to go to Dongmen, and tricked Felix and Mariana from México(!!) into coming with us. Dongmen is mainly shopping, which we didn't do a lot of that day, but I had the best mango smoothie/drink ever. Wauw! I'd move here just because of delicios mango smoothies and milk tea!
In the arvo I went to pick up my passport with my new visa. My passport is slowly turning into a miniature book with something on every page. The most educating book I have ever read, that is for sure!
Of course I only remembered the metro stop where the immigration office is, but not where it is once you exit the metro. So I was wandering around trying desperately to remember something, but I couldn't. I went down to the metro station and looked at a map, when a lovely Chinese lady working there, came over to me and looked at me with a questioning look on her face. I showed her the receipt for my visa and she told me the correct exit. This is why I love China. The people are so friendly. They want to help you even if they can't communicate with you.
There was so many people in the immigration office and I had to wait for just about an hour to pick up my visa. Something else from 20 minutes at the consulate in Melbourne!

During the days I usually take Michelle to school at 7, pick her up at 12 and then she goes back at 2.30 and I pick her up at 4.30. It is very different from schools I have seen. Firstly they wear uniforms, but that's not so strange. I have seen uniforms before. The following takes place when they exit the school: the class lines up in two rows in the school yard, which is fenced with guards standing at the fence so nobody can enter or leave. Their teacher stands next to them. One of the kids is holding a sign with the class name on it. Michelle is 5.2. Fifth grade, second class. Then they simultaneously walk outside, line up on the pavement, turn around so that they are facing their teacher and bow and say goodbye to their teacher. It's like a mini ceremony. Quite fascinating!
Today is teacher's day in China, when you show your appreciation of your teachers. Hence, yesterday I was helping Michelle making cards for her teachers and we went down to buy flowers. She only has three teachers which makes it easier, and as far as I understood her, she only has three subjects. Chinese, Math and English. Anyway, Michelle wrote me a card too. In Chinese obviously. I wrote her one too, because she is my Chinese teacher.

Yesterday afternoon deserves some mentioning because Michelle and I really bonded over Chinese emperors, Hangzhou and Chinese traditions. Basically we were just playing around but I was so happy and so was she, and that made me even more happy. It was particularly funny when Elisa was telling me a legend from Hangzhou and Michelle tried to say buddhist munk, but it came out as boogie monkey. I laughed so hard.

Tomorrow it will be exactly one month that I left Australia to come to China. Sunday marks my first month in China, round 2! So this weekend will be celebrated in Hangzhou, which is said to be the most beautiful city in China. A Chinese saying goes "above is paradise, below is Hangzhou".

It's been a while since my last entry, but believe it or not, I have actually been busy! Well sort of, anyways. Wednesday Becky and I went back to the HHS Center office, to meet up with my coordinator to get my visa extended. In the office I met some of the other au pairs, which was really nice. Becky was amazed by them all! She was running around taking photos with her phone and especially was she impressed with Lindsey, an american, who has blue eyes. Becky turned to me and whispered: "is there something wrong with her eyes?" Bless her, she is adorable. She was so happy despite the fact that her new shoes had given her blisters on her heels and that she was whinging almost the entire way.
In the afternoon we reached the immigration office. Turns out that they can only extend my visa for another month. We spent some time there before heading back, by taxi, because Becky's feet were hurting too much.
We went to KFC for dinner and then to a department store, where we in the toy deparment spent some time. Michelle got really upset about something, hence, Wednesday night was a bit hectic in the Wang household. Michelle was in the living room screaming her soul out, Becky locked in the bathroom crying, and me on my bed, listening to my iPod, while desperately waiting for Becky to vacate the bathroom.

Thursday Michelle started school again, so it was all very quiet during the day. In the evening we went for one of our weekly movie nights watching the Source Code. Turned out to be quite an experience. In the middle of the movie, the screen went pitch black. Next the screen went white. Then all you could see on the screen was something burning, like a piece of paper or something. Everyone turned around looking anxiously whether this was the time to evacuate the cinema or not. The movie continued and it was I good movie, I thought. But Becky was definitely not fond of it! There was too much in the movie she couldn't comprehend.
Of course we had milk tea! The people at the stall actually know me by now.

Friday night I joined the other au pairs for dinner and later briefly for drinks. It was my first night away from the family so I made it an early one. It was good hanging out with people around my age and with the same interests as me. I met some absolutely wonderful people, however, most of them are or have already left.
It makes me a bit sad.

My host dad is always back on the weekends, otherwise he works 100km away so he is only back every other night, but stays all through the weekend. This is why weekends are spent doing family things. Saturday evening we went to Shenzhen Bay Park and rented tandem bikes and biked around. The Chinese might be brilliant at business, at numbers, technology, but they were definitely not made for biking! Becky was controlling our tandem and I was clinging on to my seat. My hands were red. I was terrified. She had no balance what so ever, and had obviously not biked a lot. She kept saying: "don't worry" but I couldn't help it. It was really thrilling when we were going rather fast and a boy jumped out in front of us and Becky couldn't steer the bike around the boy but had to brake really hard. Nothing happened except for my heart beating a gazillion times faster than normally. No serious accident occured though, and we all survived, fortunately!

Then, early Sunday morning Becky woke me up. We were going to the movies to watch Oceans. The Disney movie which was released last year, but which I still haven't watched. It was so amazing, but again neither Becky nor Michelle liked it. After the movie we went to the arcade to play games. Becky wanted to play this dance game of some sort, Michelle was beating everyone's high score on every single machine in an IQ game, and I wanted to race.
So then after having done all of the above, we went for lunch which consisted of frog together with lettuce and  noodles. Lamingtons for dessert and then we ventured to a little fake Dutch village, where we were looking for gold fish. We found them and brought home two turtles too. Just to make it more fun.

And yesterday I set out for another Chinese class. This time we touched upon more political issues. Kaitlyn told us about the US and I told them about Denmark, and it was a really interesting session. I swear I should be given some kind of medal or something from the Danish government for my excellent promotion and representation of Denmark. I was convincing both Kaitlyn, the american and Joe, my Chinese coordinator, to come to Denmark!