Day 84: Observations

Today's post is mainly observations and amusing things (or at least, things I consider amusing) about China.

Firstly, food. Food here is incredible. Before coming, I was convinced I would be eating the same couple of dishes every day, and get so sick of Chinese food, because the only Chinese food I've been exposed to in the west has, quite frankly, been very same-y. And while there are dishes I eat fairly often here, they aren't many, and I eat them because they're seriously good. For example, 抓饭 (Uyghur: polo, I think that's what it's called in English too, but I'd never heard that before coming here). It sits in big dishes outside restaurants, and is really quite amazingly good. I will learn to make it before coming back to the West, and will make it for people regularly :D


Also, rice. It doesn't get as boring as you think, and in the North, they eat more noodles than rice anyway. I've become less fussy since being here too, it's quite good. I now cannot get through the day without tea, and things that I didn't eat before, I tried again here, and now eat (so there's a chance I won't like the western version, but still). Examples include Brocolli, Aubergine (eggplant), Fatty meat (yum), various vegetables I don't know the name for etc. This came largely from one of the games we like to play at dinner: Me: "What's this?" Dinner Parter: "I don't know." Me: (after eating it) "Huh, me neither." Happens a lot.

Another change I've noticed I no longer care about a lot of the things I used to care about. For example, for lunch yesterday, we went to a little Hui restaurant which was, to put it nicely, somewhat dirty. But we still ate there with no issue. And at lunch today, there was a dog running around the restaurant, and nobody batted an eyelid. The only thing I can't get used to is the spitting. It's constant, and it's everywhere. Although it is now quite amusing, as it's much colder, so now the spit on the streets freezes. I realise that's quite disgusting, but it amuses me nonetheless. My attitude to public toilets is also considerably different. Before coming here, I was like, squats I cannot cope with, nor dirty toilets. But since getting here, I no longer care, and in a lot of cases, I prefer the squat. And toilets that I once would have considered completely ferral I now consider really quite nice. If there's soap and doors, it's luxury. Bodily substances everywhere, a smell so bad you can taste it and flies are 可以 (not bad, okay, passable).

I had heard that there is quite a lot of racism and discrimination in this part of China, but I have to say, it is exaggerated. I mean, it does tend to be Han people in the 'better' jobs, but on the streets, you don't notice it. And it's not just Han people being anti-Uyghur, Uyghur's are also quite anti-Han and make racist comments too (although it's only around people they know, or at least people I don't know don't tend to make anti Han comments around me).

Also, the employment issue here is very noticeable. Almost every restaurant and shop is overstaffed ridiculously, meaning every time you walk in anywhere, you get a chorus of 欢迎光临 (welcome to shine your light), and some people are employed purely to open a door. In department stores, you have to take a little slip of paper from the bit from which you want to purchase something to a cashier, then take a slip back. Which makes sense in the big department stores in a way, but then when they do it in the very small stationery shop opposite the university, you know there's an issue. But in this stationery shop, if they're all standing next to each other and someone wants to buy something, they move so they are further apart. Literally. Also, street sweeping is different here. There are no machines, it is people with little brushes doing it. Loads of them. It's very strange.

The attitude to personal space is also very different here. In that, they just don't care. On buses for example, it's perfectly normal to have people pressing against you on all sides. When I first got here, I found it weird, but now it's actually somewhat comforting, especially with the way the buses drive here - if it crashes, there are 143695 people between you and the windscreen, even if you're near the front. When people walk down the street, it's not uncommon for friends to walk with their arms around each other and things, regardless of age/gender, which is quite nice. I have now realised that western people are way too prudish and precious, so now we talk about "having a western concept" which loosely translates to requiring personal space.

Day 81: How time flies

Long time no post, but not many hugely important things going on anyway. On Thursday morning, Michele (one of our neighbours) went back the US, leaving her partner here to still be our neighbour. So on Wednesday night, we all went out for Sichuan food, then a nightcap as a goodbye thing.

When we first met Michele, I wasn't sure if I liked her, as she seemed to not like us very much. But the more we saw her, the more we realised she was actually just really shy, and was a really nice person. This realisation came a few weeks before she left. But at least we realised, and weren't celebrating her leaving.

On Friday night, we went out (not uncommon) to Fubar (福巴，公园北街), where we played Absolute Balderdash, had a few drinks and chatted away. Then a guy we know came over, Will, and he met Paul and Tobin, who he hadn't met before (he had met Tobin very very briefly outside a class, but that doesn't count). Within a matter of minutes, Will and Tobin were in the middle of a very heated argument about International Relations, and the world's view on Jewish people. We saw Will's true colours at this point, he was constantly, "We Jewish people think this" or "We Americans believe that" etc. He also refused to listen to anyone else's point of view, and if someone proved him wrong, he wouldn't accept it, and would just keep repeating his argument (which was invariable flawed). It gets worse.

Saturday, we went to Nolan's house, as he is organising a Speaker Series (getting people to talk about their specialist subjects because we don't know anything about it) and yesterday, Eric talked about Language Planning Policy in Xinjiang in the 30s and 40s, which was really interesting. I didn't understand everything, as it was a paper he wrote for his masters, and I'm not a linguist nor do I know huge amounts about Xinjiang in the 30s and 40s. But it was interesting, and I learned something. Afterwards, he said that comments and questions would be gratefully received. The questions I expected were things like, "Could you give me some background about this one thing? I'm still slightly unclear" or "So what was the role of this person in this area?" And from Tobin and Nolan, that's what the questions were (I felt too uneducated to ask questions, as did Nikki and Catherine). But from Will, he basically critiqued the presentation (saying it was waffly, unfocussed etc. And to be fair, had it been a proper presentation at a conference, he would have been 100% correct. But for sitting in someone's living room talking to your friends about something you know and they don't, I don't see the problem), then he mentioned certain sources that Eric should have used (at which point Eric butted in, saying he had read the sources and thought they were crap) and then started basically trying to be his tutor. The best line was: "I wrote a paper on this I think you should read."

So we don't like him. But Eric's presentation really did spark my interest - I never even knew that was a possible field of research (possibly because no one has actually done any work on the topic of his presentation except Eric). So I might do some more research into it myself (not like academic research, just finding out what more there is on the topic), and consider going down the linguistics route as opposed to T&I. But then, we were told by the head of our school that we should look for cohesion in our degrees, and I did a literature module and an extra language last year. But the literature module was basically a culture and society module, but with the information coming from novels, and the language one included history of the language, so I suppose if I did a culture or a linguistics module(s) next year, there is still cohesion. And it works with the linguistics and history (including political history) modules I did in first year. Huh, I think I'm on to something.

Day 67: Tales of Birthdays and Hallowe'en

So, it's been far too long since I've written in here, I do apologise. I kept meaning to, and then realising I had no time etc.

So anyway, a week ago Friday/Saturday (I forget which day exactly) Nikki and I got a text from Eric who said, "We're going to a Mongolian Bar, wanna come?" So we did. And it was BRILLIANT. Easily the best place to go out. There was a nice mix of quiet background music so you could chat, then live Mongolian music, then a random bit where the lights went out, the strobes came on and they placed some really cheesy Europop dance music. Brilliant fun. We ended up staying 'til about 5am, but it was totally worth it, and it was really cheap. Because I drank...wait for it...BEER. Yes, I, Liam, drank beer. Partly because there was no other choice, and partly because it's actually okay. And it was Wusu (乌苏）, which was described to me as "probably the worst beer [he'd] ever tasted." But at 10 kuai a bottle, you can't really complain (okay, so it's 2.50 in the shops, but still).

Not much else of note happened really until Wednesday, when it was Nolan's birthday. His do was on Thursday, so I didn't know it was his birthday until we bumped into him at lunch and 戴熙涵 said, "Happy Birthday!" So then on Thursday we went to a restaurant quite near our house and had a big dinner, and I drank 白酒(Baijiu) and beer again. Then we went off to the Mongolian bar, and partied until the wee small hours (read:5am). Nolan had to leave early, as he had been toasting too many people. We also befriended a Mongolian guy called 巴音达拉(Bayindala), and one of the singers who works there whose name completely escapes me right now (this will be relevant in a bit).

So, as Tuesday is Hallowe'en, but that's a bad day for a party, we had a Hallowe'en party last night. Well, our friends upstairs hosted it. Loads of people we knew were there, absolutely none in costume, and Eric and Michele (the hosts) had made paper ghosts, little signs explaining Hallowe'en in Chinese and Uyghur, and loads of snacks and things. We bought the drinks, and we were scared they wouldn't be enough, as we had been told up to 40 people would be there, but it turned out there was plenty to go around, and it was all fun and games. Although one guy and his girlfriend kept fighting (which has apparently been going on for ages, as she might be carrying someone else's baby). Oh, and I was told I look like Prince Charles by a Chinese girl, which I think is probably the most offensive thing anyone has ever said to me.

That kind of takes me up to date I think, so here's some photos from the birthday do on Thursday:

LTR:Me, 巴音耷拉,戴熙涵

LTR:Me, Nolan, Eric

LTR:Catherine, Tobin, Paul

Still day 52: Just a quick question really

Google is being most unhelpful, so those who have been to China and posted things home, how long did it take on average? It's been around six weeks since I first sent postcards, and I know about the UK postal strike, but still...

Also, I was planning posting some parcels (see previous post) and I have no idea how soon I need to send them.

Day 52: Back to the madness

I can't remember if I've talked about my classes much on here, so I'm going to now, and if I've already told you, sorry.

Okay, so every week, we have 18 hours of class. These are split into 汉语中级 (comprehensive), 听说 (speaking and listening), 阅读 (reading) and 文化 (culture, which is an elective for intermediate students, but it's interesting, and it's helping my Chinese (it's entirely in Chinese (as is the textbook))).

Our teachers are of varying qualities. 张雪梅老师 (Zhang Xuemei) teaches us the comprehensive class, and she is a brilliant teacher. She's from Shandong, so has an accent that I'm not used to hearing in these parts, but I still understand. She's big on discipline (which is good, see below) and is very fair, and can be a good laugh. We went out for lunch at Mid Autumn Festival with her, which was nice, and she only has a few words of English, so it had to be Chinese the whole time. In fact, that's kind of normal for this part of China.

Anyway, then for listening and speaking we have 易红老师 (Yi Hong). She's absolutely lovely, although her accent is a little strange (for example, 问 (wen) she pronounces with a 'v'). Not too good on discipline though, and not big on correcting mistakes either. Non Chinese-speakers may move on to the next paragraph now. Say if someone reads the sentence 还有什么？对了，有空儿的话，欢迎来我家玩儿！ as "hei yao shi ma, yao kong de hui, huan yin lei wo zha wanr", she'll still say, "非常好！" Which is annoying.

For reading, we normally have a teacher called 周册老师, but she's currently on leave. And for this, we are grateful. Our temporary teacher is called 阎(I think)新艳老师. She's a much better teacher, although her characters are not fun to try and decipher. The first teacher tries to get us to read at 100 characters a minute, when we know about 50 of them, and bans dictionary use. After we got the book changed to one that wasn't ridiculously hard (aimed at people who had had over 250 hours, we've had about 150, if that), she calmed down a little and explained things better, although still using more complex vocabulary than is needed. But oh well. When we changed book though, the bookstore from where the university buys the textbooks didn't send them for ages, so we had no books. Then, when 周册老师 suddenly 有事 (we think a nervous breakdown, in all seriousness. She was the most tightly wound person I have ever encountered. And she was 30 and Chinese, yet still gave herself a Croydon Facelift)
the new teacher wasn't told we had no books, so we spent one two hour reading class telling stories. It was actually a really good class - everyone got to speak (and the Kazakhs weren't there, more below), and it turns out that Korea, China and the UK all have the same stories they tell their kids.

Okay, so that's my classes. Now for the people. There are five westerners in my class, the four of us from Newcastle (Rachel, Catherine, Nikki and myself) and a guy who is doing postgrad (possibly PhD, apologies for forgetting) at Manchester, and has to do a year in China learning Chinese as part of it. Then there are three Koreans, a couple in their early forties and a guy of about 18. Then Galina, a Russian girl whose name is probably not spelt like that. Then there are the Stanleys. The Stanleys is the name we use to refer to all those people from the countries which end in -stan. Now, I am not a racist person as I'm sure you all know, but these people have put me off Kazakhs, Tajiks etc. for life. In class, they are noisy, disruptive and disrespectful, and spend the entire time chatting very loudly in Russian, making phone calls etc. There are one or two who do work, and I feel very sorry for them being tarred with the same brush, and I'm sure that outside of my class, there are some really nice Kazakh people. But these people are so bad that Tobin (the guy from Manchester uni (but he's Glaswegian, I forgot to say)) wrote a letter of complaint to the head of our college demanding that they be moved from our class or that he be refunded his tuition and he would move to Beijing and study there. The next day, she came into our class and shouted at everyone saying that this was a place of study, and those who weren't here to study would be expelled, because 师范大学 (my university) does not want that type of student. Which worked for the rest of that class. Then yesterday, the good news.

(English is below)"这个班的学生太多了，所以下星期二分开了。英国人，韩国人和Galina在其他的班，别的都在这个班。"(There are too many students in this class, so from Tuesday, you will be split. The British and Korean students and Galina will be in a different class, everyone else stays in this class." Our timetable is the same and we have the same teachers, so I don't know on whom they're inflicting the Kazakhs.

This was great news, but I was confused. Why Tuesday? Then I remembered, this uni gives all the Muslim holidays (no Christian ones, so no Christmas :(), and today is the last day of Ramadan in China (elsewhere, it was yesterday), so Monday is a one day holiday for Eid ul-Fitr. Yay! It's also the day Frankie goes back to Shanghai, after travelling with us then a stay in the infirmary here (Nikki and Catherine were both ill, both better now).

Today I shall go shopping, and some of you might get packages from China in the post. If so, please don't open them until the 25th of December. They're not Christmas presents like, but just wait 'til that day :P

Oh, and only Ross has sent me his address, any more postcard requests?

Day 48: Back in Urumqi

Okay, so I'm back, so I'll pick up where I left off with the tales of my voyages. So, we got off the train at Kashgar at around 11am, and were harassed by hundreds of taxi drivers wanting to charge us extortionate amounts to get to the centre, so we got the bus instead, then found the hotel we had heard of (the Seman Hotel), because we had heard it's next to John's Café, which does travel advice and things. The hotel ended up being cheap and really really nice, so we stayed there.

That day, Catherine wasn't feeling well, so she stayed in the room while Frankie, Nikki and I went to a Uyghur restaurant across the road for lunch, then went back to see how Catherine was. I think it was most likely a minor illness (I got a slight cold on our travels) and the exhaustion from the travelling made her feel much worse. But anyway, she still wasn't well, so she stayed at the hotel, and we got a taxi to 东湖/東湖 (west lake) park. Which is in fact just a giant lake. But our taxi driver wasn't too clever. We told him where we were going, and he headed off. Then part way, pulled over and ran out, to somewhere across the road, then came back. We assume he went to ask directions. Then, he took us to the International Bazaar. Not quite right. We told him the new place, and again he stopped, and asked someone, who spoke to us in Chinese and translated into Uyghur for him. Eventually we got there, paid to get in, and discovered there was nothing there of any interest.

So we left, and went to People's Park, opposite which is the biggest statue of Mao in China/the west of China (delete as appropriate). Once inside, we discovered a mini theme park. Which was fun. We also stopped and had some whippy ice cream on the way, because we could, and because it was 2 kuai for a big tub :D At the park, after the theme park, we went into the zoo. Big mistake. I had heard Chinese zoos were bad, but nothing prepared me for this. It was worse than the RSPCA adverts (for the Americans out there, the RSPCA is the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a UK charity who show you horrible pictures of mistreated animals to get money from you so they can try and stop animal cruelty). There was a lion in a cage about fifteen foot by fifteen foot (around 5 metres). It was so skinny you could see the bones, and when it tried to roar, it was the most depressing, pathetic crying-like noise I've ever heard. There was a tiger in a cage the same size, who just lay on his side in the shade, and didn't move once. The bears, in ten foot by ten foot cages just paced side to side constantly, and the eagles were in a cage so small they couldn't even stretch their wings at all, never mind fly. All of the animals were mangy and underfed, and the few that did have water, had really scummy old water. And the people at the gate were quite happy to take your five kuai to see that.

So, shellshocked, we left the park and headed up one of the main streets, arriving (without our knowledge) at the Idkah Mosque, famous for its size (on festival days, it can hold up to 100,000 worshippers), and the old town.



We wandered up the old town, and bought some comical hats (see below), then walked right up the old town, coming out at the city walls. However, we were oblivious to any of this, and just walked on home. It was only when we looked at a map and tried to go back there that we realised we'd been there. But we hadn't gone into the mosque or taken photos, and Catherine hadn't seen it, so we went back anyway. The city walls were an anti-climax, in that we couldn't decide for a few minutes if what we were looking at was indeed a city wall, but the rest was good.



The following day, we went to the tombs at Apak Hoja (sometimes spelt Abak Hoja) where we wore traditional Uyghur dress and had photos taken:


We say the big Mausoleum (just behind us in that photo), which has a really big dome, and it's the biggest in China I think, but then these claims I never believe anyway. After checking out the mosque and museum, we went to the orchard, where we were given free fruit grown there and there was a traditional Uyghur dance show. They did a few dances, then they invited people from the audience. Nikki and Frankie went up, and did their best:



After the tombs, we headed back into town and got our bus tickets for Tashkurgan. Then we wandered again up to the mosque, and this time went in, where we saw some hilarious propaganda, which I will post at some point. Then through the old town again, and to the city walls, which were a huge let down. We went back to the hotel and met a friend of a friend, who is a tour guide here, but I don't know how much I trust him, as everything he said turned out to be false (of the things I remember).

On Friday morning, we got on the bus to Tashkurgan, and five hours later, arrived. Now, Lake Karakul, according to China, is in China, but according to all maps, is in Tajikistan. Furthermore, we stopped at a place where they checked our passports, but didn't stamp anything. No matter, we got to Tashkurgan, which is really near the Pakistani and Afghani border, had lunch, wandered around the town and the Stone City and marvelled at how the cows and goats just wander around the streets and no one bats an eyelid. Then at 6:15, we boarded a bus to Karakul Lake, which then left at 7:30. We arrived and were greeted by a Kirgiz family who had a yurt we could stay in. We had dinner with them (rice and lamb, really nice) but not until after they sold the three girls some jewellery. Then we slept in the freezing cold in a yurt, which I'm sorry, but is a glorified tent. The inside looked like this:



It was amusing though that the man was so creepy. We were lying there going to sleep, and he suddenly came in, lit the candle, poked the fire, then went back out. We wondered if he was going to come back, so we waited, but no. Then, in the middle of the night, Frankie heard someone moving around, and had a blanket thrown on her. It was warm, so she didn't care, then she realised the man was next to her. She grabbed her bag and he just said, "sleep" in a very strange manner, and left. I wasn't aware of any of this happening.

The next morning, after a breakfast of bread and tea, we got on some camels to ride around the lake. Although just before this, we went to find a shop, and while over at the main bit at the lake, we were told we had to buy tickets, 50 kuai, 25 for students. So we bought tickets, and then went to head back to the yurt to wait for our camels. The creepy Kirgiz man then spent fifteen minutes basically shouting at us for buying tickets. He was like a broken record, and I was so close to shouting at him. He seems to hate the Chinese though, he was being very racist. Fair enough if they're claiming that part of Tajikistan as part of China.

That over, we got on the camels. Two hours later, my legs were so sore and I was cold, so I got off and walked for the next hour and a half. They tried to make me pay for three hours, but the distance around the lake is doable in two hours, they just took their time, and I got off after two, so I refused. Hired car back to Kashgar, and back to the hotel. And a very early night - the lake is spectacular, and the stars at night are absolutely breathtaking (there's absolutely no ambient light, and there are literally tens of thousands of really bright stars), but it was nice to be indoors where there was a toilet, a shower, and a real bed.

On Sunday, the day we were going to the famous livestock market, sunday market and the old Uyghur housing museum, Nikki was ill. She had food poisoning, so she stayed behind. It was raining a lot, and was really cold, and because it's still Ramadan, the livestock market wasn't on. So we went to the Sunday market. Dead. Only half the stalls open. So we went to the museum, which was interesting, but there purely for tourists. When you leave though, you get a ticket with a prize on it, so I won a can of Sprite.

This was supposed to take all day, and it was now around lunchtime. So I dossed about, read Gulliver's Travels (abridged) and three Shakespeare plays (VERY abridged), then dinner. Nikki was still really unwell, so we booked flights to Urumqi for the next day (yesterday, Monday). As we'd done everything we wanted to do, on Monday I went to the bookstore and bought several maps and books on China, and we started planning our plan - to visit every province in China. Harder than it sounds. There are 34 (including Taiwan, Tibet etc.) and by Christmas we'll have covered 6 (for Christmas, we're going to Shanghai, then a two day trip to Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, followed by a trip to Suzhou and Nanjing in Jiangsu province then on to Hefei in Anhui province to fly back to Urumqi), and at Spring Festival we hope to cover another ten at least.

So we flew back, and that's it. Catherine and Frankie have gone on to Hotan, to then take the bus across the Taklamakan desert (Taklamakan means once you go in, you can't come back out), and should arrive tomorrow or the day after.

So today I'm doing all my laundry, homework etc. and relaxing before classes again tomorrow. I'll leave you with a photo of myself and Nikki on the bus on the way to Karakul Lake from Tashkurgan:

Day 46: Korla and Aksu

So, I'm still on my travels, so this will be a short update.

 

So, on Sunday midday we got on a train headed for Kashgar, and 11 hours later got off the train at Korla.  After finding a really cheap hotel (20 yuan per night), we went to bed on a board (literally) and slept not very well on account of the train station being next to us and the trains using their horns (are they called that on trains?) as much as possible.  The train journey wasn't that bad, we had seats and a really nice Chinese couple opposite us.  That evening though, outside Korla train station, a homeless woman ran up, snatched my bottle of Sprite and necked it.  I wasn't bothered, it was mostly empty and flat, but still not much fun.  So on Monday, we jumped in a bus to the city centre, and explored.  What we didn't know is Korla is a very new city, set up by the Chinese government purely for the sake of economic growth, so everything was big, shiny, new and nice.  Then the fun part - we went to what we thought was a park, and it turned out to be a theme park.  Many exciting rides later, we were tired and hungry, so a cheap lunch followed by a wander around.  Frankie had a bumbag on under her t-shirt, which made her look pregnant, so we decided to go into a baby shop for a browse, which amused us all greatly. 

 

Then, back to the train station to board the train to Aksu.  We were told our tickets were absolutely fine, but around ten minutes before the train arrived (and the train waits ten minutes at the station), we decided to double check.  Turns out, we had to get the back of our ticket stamped and signed, so Catherine had to take all four tickets and run downstairs.  While she was away, the train arrived.  But we made it onto the train, and as we had no booked seats for this train, sat on some of the steps in a carriage.  Two things about the Chinese train system: stations are like airports, with security checks and specific waiting rooms for specific trains.  The trains are also two story, and have free hot water, for instant noodles (which are really good in China).  On the train, Nikki and Catherine played card games with some Uyghur men (including one which couldn't possibly every work, mathematically) and Frankie and I sat and taught English to a Chinese girl and her friend(?).  At Aksu, we got off the train, got ripped off in a taxi and tried almost every hotel in the city, but none had beds (read: it was 5am and the sleeping hotel staff couldn't be bothered).  Eventually we found one, and it turned out to be crawling with bugs.  But it wasn't bad for the price.  Word of advice: don't go to Aksu.  There's NOTHING to do.  Seriously.  What a wasted journey.  We got back on the train at 5am the next day, but only after sitting in the waiting room opposite two Chinese people who were talking about us in Chinese.  It was amusing that sometimes, if I stressed a word, he would repeat it in my accent.  Then at one point, when they were talking about us, she said, "They might understand."  He said, "No, they don't."  Then a woman standing next to them said, "Of course they understand" and then we laughed.  He was embarassed, but it was funny for us.  We managed to get seats on the train (it was now the middle of the holiday week, so the train was quieter).  We sat next to a Chinese couple who we chatted to for a few hours, with a break to eat the blandest noodle-soup-breakfast-thing I've ever not-tasted.  The guy made me taste Baijiu (for those who don't know, it's Chinese rice wine, about 50%), which wasn't as bad as expected, but not what you want at 8am after 4 hours sleep.

 

I'll stop there because this keyboard is a nightmare and my arms are sore from typing, and also I must go and book flights to Urumqi (Nikki is ill, so I'm flying back with her (to her family if you read this - not serious, but in a "I want my own bed and a western toilet" kind of way)).  Postcards are on their way to Mum, Dad, Alice, Nicki, Fran, Lady Faye, Franck, Zona, John, Carole and David, God and Gogd, Starbucks (Newcastle and Inverness) and Rachel.  If anyone else wants one, I need your address :D

Day 37: I'm online!

Long time no post, sorry! But the reason for not posting last week was my illness. I was ill for an entire week, it was awful, I could eat, and it stayed down, but it worked through me rather quickly. But that's all fine now.

I'll just discuss the main things: Last night, we were invited to some party for foreign students. So we turn up at the scheduled time, and are told by the guy that invited us that in fact, we're not invited. Then he disappears, and tells the one student from our group that was invited to make excuses to us. But then the lady that was organising the whole thing said of course we could go, so we did. It turns out, it was the National Day Reception for Foreign Experts, with awards and all sorts, really really posh. And the dress code was formal. So of course, Nikki and I were in dark jeans and t-shirts. Because we didn't realise what we were going to. But it was fun, and then of course we went for a drink afterwards, which was fun.

Then on Saturday (coming), Frankie (a girl studying in Shanghai) is coming to Urumqi, and on Sunday we're all taking the train to Kashkar, a city in south Urumqi, which should be amazing. We're not sure how long we're staying there, and to be honest, I don't actually know what our plans are, Nikki and Catherine are arranging it and I'm following.

Wow, so long without blogging and I've run out of things to say. Oh well. I'll start updating more regularly now that we have internet in our apartment :D

Day 24: Finally registered!

Okay, regular blogs should return soon, but at the moment we have no internet in our apartment, so it means fniding time to come to an internet cafe (or wangbar as we now call them, as the chinese is pronounced wang ba).

 

So last weekend we didn't really do much of interest, so I'll skip over that.  Monday was more classes and then Nikki and I ate at a restaurant we call "Sore tummy."  We have nicknames for all the restaurants, such as gobby waiter (who came out into the street, cleared his throat very noisily and messily onto the pavement then went straight back to serving), australian daughter (where a couple tried to get us to teach their daughter english before her move to australia), lunch place (which does an AMAZING dish called basa pingguo, and is like toffee apple, but not as you know it in the west).  Anyway, we knew it as sore tummy because Tracey and Tobin had eaten there the week before and felt unwell afterwards, but not food poisoning.  They also said it possibly wasn't, as they did eat other places that week, so we gave it the benefit of the doubt.  The rice was really horribly, like when you overcook rice, leave it then reheat it to serve to westerners, saving the good rice for the Chinese people.  So Nikki got food poisoning, as her rice wasn't as horrible as mine so she ate it (mine was too bad, I didn't eat it).  Fun.

 

On Tuesday, we sat an exam to check our Chinese level as we complained our reading class was too hard (I forget if I posted about this already), the texts were about China's achievements before the 13th century, or the time the American equivalent of the Royal Mint printed loads of bank notes wrong, something about the watermark or something.  So we sat this exam which places you in the correct class.  If you're a beginner.  But at least they're changing the books now. 

 

Speaking of books, the other day I went to the Xinhua book store to find a dictionary, and stumbled across a section with English books (but the type with Chinese on one page and then the English on the other) so I bought Little Women, Les Miserables and a collection of Edgar Allen Poe stuff, total: 20 kuai.  About 1.30GBP.  I also bought the textbook that comes before the reading book we'll be using, for extra study material.  And one big dictionary and two small dictionaries.  All of my purchases came to about 120, so about 8 pounds/16 dollars.  I love China. 

 

Last night we went out again, I think it may become a regular Friday night thing.  We went to this amazing restaurant and ate so much, and it came to around 90p each.  However, I didn't have to pay, as Nikki and I are having a pool tournament, and one game we decided to make interesting, by betting dinner on it.  That one didn't count for the tournament (which I'm currently winnig 7-4 btw).

 

Not much else to say really, we've just been really busy with classes and homework, but there's a national holiday at the start of October when we get a week off, so we might go to Kashkar for a couple of days.  Or actually explore this city.

 

Oh, one last update, my residence permit will be ready for collection on the 20th, at which point I can leave and enter China as much as I like, and go absolutely anywhere in China, including places not open to foreigners.  Hurrah!  But I don't plan on returning to the UK, 500 pounds return is a bit much for how little time I'd get to be there.  But if any of you want to come to China...

 

I'll put my address on here when I remember what it is.  It's really long and I forget which order it goes in (we're like the third floor in building three on street two in a complex on such and such road etc.).

Day 17: Urumqi so far

Okay, apologies for not blogging, I've been mentally busy and now for some reason Blogger doesn't seem to be working.  Oh well.  This update will be seriously long, so now is the time to go to the toilet and make yourself a cup of your beverage of choice.

 

Okay, so we arrived in Urumqi on Friday, and had planned to wing it.  We had the names and addresses of a couple of cheap hotels, and were going to jump on a shuttle bus and head to one.  Slight issue.  Urumqi airport is not unlike Inverness airport (in terms of size and helpful staff).  So we were looking at a map, when a friendly man approached us and tried to help us find out destination.  He even gave us a paper map and pointed out the locations we were looking for.  "Okay, thanks" we say.  Then we decide to take a taxi.  So he takes us to his taxi, and charges us 100元 to get to a hotel.  Ripped off.  Another girl paid 60, and another paid 50 (and she went even further, more about her later). 

 

So we get to the hotel, and with our fairly limited Chinese tell them we want a room for the night, cheap please.  We are told 320元, okay.  Plus a 500 deposit.  Right.  Then we hand over our passports (the police track your every move in this country).  Our visa says it is valid for 000 days because it's a student visa and we get a residence permit within 30 days (the minimum validity for a visa) anyway.  They didn't understand this, and the girl behind the counter was so rude, every time we tried to explain, she just giggled and starting talking to her friend behind her hand about us.  Not impressed.  We got to the room which wasn't even that nice, where the little book thing informed us our room should have been 288.  So clearly the taxi driver got a cut (he was hanging around for ages after we got there) and they were fleecing us.  So far, our impression of Urumqi was not good.  We both missed Beijing (which we absolutely fell in love with) and we were in a not very nice part of town, and were generally not happy.  So we did what any westerner would do in that situation.  We went to KFC, where we met the only sensible person we had seen in this city until that point.  The girl behind the counter.  She gave us a pointy menu, spoke slowly and pointed at things when she had to ask something.  We liked her.  The next morning, we got in a taxi to the university where things went from bad to worse (don't worry, this post isn't entirely miserable)

 

So we got there, went to the office and were taken to meet the man in charge of international students, who spoke English!  Hurrah!  He welcomed us, chatted to us for a bit, then got a bilingual (apparently) girl to take us to the dorms.  Wow, the dorms.  In a word, slums.  Each room had two beds with mattresses around 2 inches thick and made of straw.  And a desk.  Well, two of these as we shared rooms.  The toilets were holes in the floor that...well, to put it politely, some people had some bad food and couldn't aim.  There were no showers.  There was no hot water.  There were no laundry facilities.  It was horrendous.  Nikki cried, I was too stunned to.  We went back to Anniwar (the guy in charge of international students) and spoke to him about moving off campus, that was too awful.  He told us to think about it.  We then went and saw him again saying we refused to live there.  So he put us in touch with a Uyghur lady who owns a flat near the campus.  So we went to see it.  He kept telling us it was so expensive, and it was better for our learning to live on campus.  Not quite, I would have been sharing with a Russian, and this landlady speaks only Uyghur and Chinese.  Anyway, the apartment is 600USD per month for everyone living there, and there are now three of us.  And we had to pay up front.  So to the ATM every day to get out money so we had enough to pay her.  But then we read the contract, realised instead of 27000元 each, which would be for a year, we needed 11 months, minus the difference between the deposit we gave her and the amount we should have given her (less), so it was 24250元.  The apartment has three decent sized bedrooms, large living room, kitchen, western style bathroom with a washing machine, DVD player (soon), internet and phone (soon, because it's a new build, we haven't been wired up yet, hence my sporadic internet access), TV, everything really.  And no curfew (you'll see why this is good soon)

 

Hurrah!  We moved in, all was well.  We just had to finish our forms for registration and then start classes.  Three copies of this form, passport, get a medical (again (but this one was only 322 元)), done!  NOT.  You need four copies.  Oh.  No wait, five.  Oh.  We finally get everything together (including copies of our landlady's ID and things, and a temporary residence permit), when they suddenly inform us it's actually six.  So we've still not registered.

 

Classes:  On Wednesday we had our listening/speaking class.  It was kind of hard, but not so hard I couldn't cope.  There were bits I just sat with a blank look on my face, but I got the general meaning.  Then on Thursday we had a "Comprehension" class (which seems to be more just general Chinese, with a little extra grammar).  The teacher was SO nice, and I understood a good 90-95% of what was going on.  Like that class.  Then we had reading.  Wow.  In the texts we read, between us we new around 50% of the characters, at most.  She won't teach us new words, and she wants us to skim read the texts.  Can't do.  We sat and basically cried for two hours because it was so difficult, then toddled off home.  We have since confronted our BanJuRen (the woman in charge of our class) about the reading class being far, far too difficult, and they're putting on an exam on Tuesday afternoon to check our level, so we can change book (hopefully).  The head of the school was not happy about this, but she never seems to be happy about anything, ever.  She looks like a Chinese wicked witch of the west.  And acts like one.  But anyway, she was saying a couple of people could cope - that was because they spent a good day or two days preparing the texts, and they had Pinyin (romanization of Chinese) and translations into Korean (they're Korean, not mental) on almost every character.  Then we had a culture class, which is aimed at the top level of students here.  But we went anyway, and while we didn't understand everything, we understood enough to now know the complete history of Chinese characters, despite it being taught in Chinese.  Which makes me feel incredibly proud.

 

The one thing that really annoys me about my classes though, are certain students.  Now, as you all know, I'm not racist in the slightest (hence studying foreign languages and living in the back of beyond in China where the Han Chinese make up something like 55% of the population, compared to 97% nationally).  But those students from Khazakstan so far have been an absolute nightmare.  They sit on their phone in class, chatter away in their own language really loudly, and in the culture class, two boys (I swear they're about 12, one of them has definitely not hit puberty yet, but is apparently 16 - forged documents much?) sat throwing pens at each other, making phone calls and generally acting like 12 year old boys in a class they don't want to be in. 

 

More positive now - our landlady took us out for traditional Uyghur food the other day, which was amazing.  We had what I gather is Uyghur naan bread, which has bits of meat and things through it, and is AMAZING (although have you ever tried to eat a piece of naan with chopsticks?  And I'm taking like, quarter of a pizza size pieces).  Then there was strange white jelly like things in a spicy sauce, nice, although after five or six pieces, I just couldn't stomach any more of it.  Oh, and a strange little glass bowl of what looked like yoghurt and tasted really sour, not nice.  But Uyghur tea is nicer than Chinese tea in my opinion.

 

Now I'm going to totally throw the chronology.

 

Restaurants in China are amazing.  Seriously good.  The food always looks incredibly, and tastes brilliant.  Your rice to go with your dish is 1元, and the tea is free, all you can drink.  Which led to a rather unfortunate incident on Wednesday night.  Our boiler had never worked, and on Wednesday they came to replace it as it couldn't be fixed.  After they had fitted the new boiler, they scarpered, leaving a huge mess, and the mains water turned off.  Now, we thought, do we turn the water back on because they forgot, or do we leave it because they turned it off for a reason?  No idea.  When Nikki and I went out for dinner, we decided hey, let's finish the pot of tea (around 3 litres).  So we did.  Then the very helpful waitress brought another pot.  We decided we should at least drink one cup, so her work was not in vain.  So around 1.6-1.7 litres of tea later, we toddled of home, realising we had no working toilet.  Hmm.  This was probably the funniest thing ever at the time (you probably had to be there).  We weren't the only stupid ones, Catherine (our flatmate) had had three bottles of water.  So we all sat and cried with laughter at how stupid we were. 

 

I lied, chronology is back, I just jumped backwards a few days.  So on Thursday, the three of us went out to dinner together, and decided to have a tea challenge.  One pot each.  We succeeded, and again nearly cried with laughter.  But this time, we had a working toilet, hurrah!  Earlier that day, we had gone for lunch with Tobin and Tracey, a couple from Scotland who are also students here, he in our class, she in the top class.  Then a random Chinese guy approached us with his Tajik friend, and a Korean guy from our class, so we all went for lunch together.  At this lunch, Tracey had said we will be batting off people asking us to help them or their daughters with their English, in exchange for help with Chinese, which won't actually happen, nor will any form of payment.  She was right, immediately the Chinese guy offered to help us with Chinese in exchange for helping him with English, and at the restaurant, a large group at the next table as we finished our meal starting talking to us and one woman asked if we could help her daughter.  This was hilarious, as we always assume that in this part of China (where no one speaks English really) no one can understand us, so we talk freely.  We had been discussing our tea challenge and various other hilarious-to-us subjects.  Then this man (from the large group) suddenly says "So where are you from?" in a perfect accent.  CRINGE.

 

Another cringeworthy situation, when we were in Beijing at the Summer Palace, we were in one museum pretending to be from California, talking about how quaint everything was, how cute the British are and things.  For a good half hour minimum.  Then the Chinese man behind us is approached by a member of staff who blabs at him in Chinese, and his response?  "(American accent) I'm not Chinese."  Haha.

 

Anyway, moving on.  Last night (nearly done, promise) we met up with Tobin and Tracey to go for dinner and then a drink at an Irish bar they knew (see?  They DO get everywhere).  They invited along an American couple and an American guy we spoke to briefly on Tuesday.  We had an absolute blast.  Dinner was really good, and then Nolan (the American guy) called his Chinese friend who came with us to the bar, where we sat for a couple of hours, before checking out some other bars (which were all dead or rubbish, so we didn't actually get anything there).  Then Tracey said she knew of a Uyghur disco next to the night market, we should go.  So we did.  Well, we went to the night market and had Uyghur ice cream (really, there are no words to describe how good it is.  It's kind of sweet in a tablet-y way, but not so sickly, and really soft and just generally amazing).  Then Nolan, Catherine, Nikki, the Chinese guy (Andy I think his name was) and I went to the Uyghur disco.  It's amazing.  You get a table, then it's table service, and they have various live acts when everyone dances and the bits in between everyone sits back down.  We stayed there 'til four and then headed home.  Had we been in the dorms, we would have had to be back in our rooms before midnight.  So yes, Uyghur discos, definitely worth a visit.

 

And that brings us up to speed I think.  So now I'm going to go and find something interesting in this city to do (not difficult).  Oh, and apologies for not commenting on blogs/emailing and things, as I've said, the internet here is restricted, but if your blog is down the right hand side, I do read it (with google reader), and would like to comment, but just can't :(