Brooms at the ready!

April 4th is a National Holiday here in China, marking tomb sweeping festival.  This combined with redecoration at our school, re-scheduled classes and the fact I’m not aware of any tombs in the area that require sweeping, leads to 4 consecutive days off and two ‘days’ of very light admin duties!  With two of my old university friends in town, this couldn’t have come at a better time.  Add to this the fact that Mother Nature appears to have forgotten about spring and leapt head first in to summer things could not get any better.

Day 1 saw us visiting The Jade Buddha Temple, this is the largest and most impressive temple in central Shanghai.  Having seen a fair few of these whilst in South East Asia, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away, but it turned out to be rather nice.  The two largest jade Buddha carvings, each made from a single piece of jade are very impressive, it’s just a shame you can’t get up close to them.  From here, we ventured down to Nanjing Road, the main pedestrian shopping area of town, before strolling down The Bund.  A few metro stops away lies The Yuyuan Gardens, our last stop for the day.

Jade Buddha Temple

 

Yuyuan gardens tea room

The following day saw us venturing out of the city centre on a daytrip to Jiading Ancient Town, which lies at the end of metro line 11.  Aided with a map and common sense we navigated our way to the bus station and clambered on to the right bus.  It’s a nice little place, with lots of old buildings, pagodas, bridges and canals.  Similar to the town of Xitang I visited last month, it made a refreshing change from the skyscrapers of the city.

Jiading Ancient Town

All in all an incredibly enjoyable few days, which makes me even more appreciative of my two consecutive days off each week, as I now know just how much I can do with this time and how many places lie a short journey from central Shanghai.  Off to the fabric market now to pick up some bargains and exercise my bartering gene!

A xx

Taste bud tantalisers

As you all know by now, I have a love affair with food, Asian food in particular.  My time in South East Asia saw me trying all manner of new and exotic foods, whilst gaining a slightly unhealthy obsession with fish sauce.  Here in Shanghai, your taste buds tingle as you walk down roads, past vast arrays of food and beverage purveyors.  In contrast to Vietnam, however, temptation lurks around every corner in the form of corporate giants such as McDonalds, Burger King and Starbucks, temptation that is a little easier to avoid once you’ve sussed out where to buy my old favourite, street food.

I’ve maintained for a long time that the most flavoursome food is found on a tiny budget.  Chow mien, roasted sweet potato, all kinds of skewered meat and ham, cheese and egg filled crepes can be found just a few steps from my apartment block.  A vast variety of street food awaits you here, from corn on the cob to freshly squeezed sugar cane juice and a whole host of things yet to be identified, which makes me like them all the more!  Every weekend I make a slight detour before heading for work.  Just outside the metro station lie rows of shops and stalls selling freshly made breakfast goodies.  I usually opt for an omelette-like light bite.  I point, say I want one of those (in my best bad Chinese), a lady points to random sauces, I nod, job done: and it leaves my purse a mere 30p (50 cent) lighter.  I have no idea what the sauces are, but they’re damn tasty, with a subtle early morning wake up spice kick.

Besides the street stalls there is a row of local restaurants near my apartment selling all kinds of rice/noodle based meals, most of which also sell my favourite discovery since arriving here: dumplings.  All shapes, sizes and fillings can be found here; my favourites are soup filled and made famous in the area.  They’re also the trickiest to eat, requiring care and precision.  If you bite into them you will be showered with soupy goodness, no doubt squirting you neighbour with some too!  The trick is to grasp firmly with your chopsticks (which I’m loving using again, incidentally), make a small hole in the top of them, suck out the soup, then dip the remaining dumpling in a spicy mix of vinegar and chilli flakes, before devouring devilishly!

My love of spicy food hasn’t gone unnoticed.  Both western and local colleagues have commented how they love my love of chilli and the like.  Eating out is a social affair and dishes are usually shared; my ability to eat foods drenched with chilli sauce has become common practice, shocking a few people whilst amusing others.  After 2 months of reasonably bland food in the UK, I’m back in my element here – the spicier the better!

If you can remember my foodie blog from Vietnam (see ‘Food thoughts’ post – Friday, 17 June 2011), my one bug bear was the unsatisfactory sweet stuff in South East Asia.  It is with great pleasure I can inform you that the chocolate and cakes here have met with my approval!  Not quite on par with Belgium, but not half bad.  The bread is quite sweet, but I kind of like that, even when they stuff it with pork floss… yes, it’s like pork flavoured candy floss, sounds wrong, tastes amazing though.

It can be a bit of a carb fest at times, but the local greengrocers are on hand to top up your vitamin and mineral levels.  Pineapples on sticks for 10p are always in favour to maintain those iron levels.

So thumbs up for food in Shanghai, and the booze is better than in ‘Nam: bonus!

A xx

Chinglish!

For a country that has a tonal language and uses a character based form of writing, the Chinese don’t do a bad job of using English, here in Shanghai at least.  I have, however, spotted a few funny mishaps, which I have posted below for your viewing pleasure… enjoy.

A xx

Cherish it, people!

A different kind of garden

Worryingly, they love number 822!

Pert posteriors preferred!

Not the words that immediately spring to mind...

Knockhead!

Always

Familiarity

Unbelievably, over a month has passed since I arrived in Shanghai, and although I’m loving all aspects of my new life here, there are a few things I miss about Vietnam.  Personally, I find there are countless plus points to living here, but the flip side of the coin also leaves me missing the quirky, unfamiliar things that ‘Nam offered up on an almost daily basis.

I don’t know, perhaps my experience of travelling South East Asia has dumbed down the differences I now notice.  Less travelled fellow newcomers seem to find a whole array of things unusual and a little illogical, whilst I look on and don’t bat an eyelid.  I’m hoping my travels around this vast country in the coming months will provide me with some quirky new experiences to satisfy, not only my travel bug, but also my culture cravings!  If not, I may begin to lack inspiration for blog posts, and we can’t have that now, can we!

A xx

Optical illusion

Whilst sitting on the metro last week with a friend, I found myself starring at the young man opposite, for a longer period than usual.  Not because he was good looking, or western (because he was neither!), but because his spectacles didn’t appear to have any lenses in them.  After consulting with mi amigo, I discovered this is common place in China and people wear frames as a fashion statement, accessorising their outfits accordingly.

As someone who has worn glasses from a fairly young age, I wasn’t sure whether or not to be offended by this, although imitation is supposedly the most sincere form of flattery, so it can’t all be that bad.

For those of us who really require gigs, we can give ourselves added specs appeal by visiting Optical City: where a good quality pair of scratch resistant prescription lenses and frames will set you back as little as $10 – wonderful: I’ll be sure to get a different pair for every day of the week!

A xx

Anything goes

Anything goes; something I was recently told on a night out in this wonderfully cosmopolitan and diverse city.  And it’s true: anything really does go here.  Since my arrival I have been surprised by few things, but fashion is something that has fascinated me since I set foot off the plane.

All texture, print, fabric and colour combinations can be found on any one individual at any given time.  Some look, quite frankly, awful; others pull it off in their own unique and quirky way.  A few of these I can accept, but one trend I am struggling to appreciate is the puffer jacket.  Everyone here wears them: everyone.  They are found in all colours, lengths, and patterns on people of all ages.  A couple of my colleagues stumbled upon a shopping mall a couple of weeks ago and decided to explore out of curiosity: window shopping never hurt anyone, after all.  Not one, not two, but three floors of puffer jackets were to be found in one of the city’s most centrally located malls.  Heaven for puffer jacket lovers everywhere: hell for the rest of us!

Granddad style ‘slippers’ are totally acceptable footwear in public places.  Don’t get me wrong, they obviously serve a good purpose during winter months, but they do make the wearers look like invalids who have recently escaped from secure/sheltered accommodation!  Ugg boots are also extremely popular here: during my time in Australia I found it baffling that I could never source a pair of genuine Uggs; only finding the Emu brand on offer.  Here, however, every man and his dog have a pair… Speaking of which; doggy fashion is also quite a big trend here.

Out on the streets I’ve also seen a fair number of people riding scooters.  Nothing compared to the number of scooters on the streets of Vietnam, but still a larger proportion than you would see in the west.  Something they have here that were never required in ‘Nam, however, are moped mittens.  Like giant oven gloves strapped to the handlebars of your scooter, they keep your dainty digits safe and snug during winter journeys.

My current wardrobe has a healthy stock of UK-bought clothes, but I shall be sure to let you know if I purchase any odd outfits during my stay here.

A xx

Step it up

The city is huge and the metro here far exceeds any sceptical preconceptions I may have had.  Spotlessly clean, it puts its London, Paris and New York (especially NYC) equivalents to shame.  Not only is it spotlessly clean, it’s also very cheap.  I have a rechargeable metro card, which I swipe over the turnstiles upon entering and exiting the system, and a journey (regardless of distance) sets me back approximately 30p.  Mobile phone signals are fine, even when in the deepest, darkest tunnels: it’s great.  All signs, maps and announcements are in Chinese and English, and my work schedule means I never have to travel during peak times.  Even during peak times, commuters are guided by arrows on platforms and steps, indicating where you should and shouldn’t walk/stand.  It is quite funny watching people race for seats during busy periods; I witnessed an elderly man and woman, strangers by all accounts, race from opposite ends of a carriage towards a spare seat.  To my surprise, the man got their first and didn’t sacrifice his seat to his fellow pensioner: there’s no chivalry here!

During my second week in the ‘Hai my commute to work from the hotel consisted of an hour long Metro journey, navigating two lines and dodging hundreds of fellow commuters.  My new apartment is situated half way between the main CBD and my school, which reduces my commute to a mere 25 minutes, whilst eliminating the need to change lines.  Also eliminated is the need to pay attention, I can happily sit there listening to my iPod or reading my Kindle without fear of missing my station: because I exit at the end of line 1.  If the mass evacuation of people at this stop wasn’t a good enough indication that I’ve reached my destination, there’s always the 30 second blast of Kenny G which serve as a reminder it’s time to leave!

A quiet commute

The metro was also where I saw my first baby bum!  It’s not as perverse as it sounds, honestly.  Little ones in China wear crotchless pants, enabling the children to relieve themselves quickly.  One little boy the other day thought he would take advantage of the space around him in a near empty carriage and decided to try a spot of pole dancing in the aisle, before toppling over and revealing all to anyone who happened to glance his way!

With so many people travelling around the most populated city in China, it’s inevitable that you will encounter a few ‘interesting’ individuals.  One young man followed my flatmate and I the whole length of an interchange (a lengthy one at that); telling me how I looked like… wait for it… his Australian English teacher, a mermaid and Snow White!  Thankfully, after feeling the need to escort us to our platform he didn’t pursue us any further.  He did, however, feel the need to embrace us both and attempt to kiss us; something we both reacted to very swiftly; pushing him away and running for the opening train doors!  Thankfully, for now, my repertoire of random metro incidents stops with that over-affectionate individual and an anti-corruption preacher who entertained myself, my friends and some English speaking Chinese passengers one evening.

There is, however, one thing that really niggles at me… the number of steps I have found myself climbing over the past few weeks!  As a fairly physically fit person I have no aversion to walking.  After gaining all 3 levels of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, carrying a handbag on a short walk to work poses no problems.  If anything, it’s quite a novelty after a year of living in ‘Nam, where I did anything to avoid working up a sweat in such a hot and humid climate.  But steps stop my stride, slow me down and cause bottle necks at busy times.

On the plus side, all this walking is keeping my quads and glutes fine and firm, so I can’t complain too much!

A xx

Down to business

The inevitable occurred the other day, whilst eating lunch with friends in a small restaurant – I needed the little girls’ room.  Having avoided using public lavatories here since my arrival, the thought wasn’t a pleasing one.  Opening the door revealed what I suspected, something far from a western water closet.

Unfortunately, squaring up to this porcelain plateau wasn’t an alien concept.  They are commonly found in Vietnamese roadside service stations and thankfully I’d only had to acquaint myself with one once before.  To my surprise, there was toilet tissue, a sink and soap.  To my dismay, there was also an oversized plunger!

After carefully weighing up the situation, I left in search of a more familiar receptacle.  Luckily, Burger King lay only a few blocks away, preventing the use of primitive potties and the appearance of wet patches.

With an abundance of western fast food chains strewn around the city, I should be able to avoid such scenarios a wee while longer!

A xx

I fear IKEA

In the words of the cult folk band The Lancashire Hotpots, I fear IKEA. After moving to the apartment last week having spent a fortnight in a hotel, we were faced with the challenge of making an empty shell look slightly more homely. A trip to IKEA was inevitably on the cards. The place is massive, even by IKEA standards. Located one metro stop along line 1 from my new pad, it can clearly be seen from our apartment complex, a large imposing figure of blue and yellow in an otherwise grey and murky wintery scene.

Armed with an oversized yellow and blue plastic bag, I make the mistake of entering the showroom. This myriad of mazes and floor mounted arrows led me through scenes of living rooms, bedrooms and the like, complete with Chinese customers poignantly posing for photographs with the furniture. My only saving grace was the fact that it was mid-week and the store was relatively quiet.

Having successfully found the correct size of bedding, I walk out armed with a duvet protector, duvet, duvet cover, pillows, pillow cases, sheets and the oversized blue nad yellow detailed bag I was charged for taking away with me. You can hear them at IKEA HQ “sell these fools oversized items in an inner city area and they’ll have no choice but to buy our colossal carriers to shift their stuff home via taxi or metro”!

Hey ho, mission completed in a relatively stress-free and short space of time and with a bit of luck, a return visit won’t be required.

The apartment itself has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large living room, open plan kitchen and dining area and balcony. On the 25th floor, we have some decent views of the local area and are ideally situated between the city centre and our schools. The ‘we’ I refer to are my housemates; a totally laid back Aussie guy and quirky little Polish lass who are both teaching with the same company as me. Much fun and frolics to be had I’m sure and all in all, a very good place to call home for the next year at the least.

A xx

Spit & polish

Nose picking and public urinating – two things common to Vietnam; here in China, they go one better: the Vietnamese may spit in public, but the Chinese do it with real gusto.  Whilst exiting a metro station on my journey home some days ago, I passed a young Chinese couple, conversing happily.  No sooner had her partner stopped speaking, than the ‘lady’ did something virtually unheard of in the west.

I’d like to think I have a way with words and can adequately paint perceptive pictures in the minds’ of my readers.  However, I neither want to, or feel I can, do so with this scenario… but here goes.  ‘Hocking’ – a slang term for a sharp intake of breathe, designed to dislodge nasal nuisances, which are then very ‘eloquently’ disposed of with a swift outward breathe through the mouth, landing like paintball fire, hopefully avoiding passersby.

Upon witnessing this, my colleague and I starred first at her, then at each other: aghast and wide eyed, whilst her Romeo continued their conversation seemingly oblivious to Juliet’s public performance.  Numerous friends had warned me about this prior to my arrival here, but I hadn’t anticipated it being so far removed from the ‘hockers’ of the UK and Vietnam.  Luckily, we were outside and I’ve yet to witness anyone repeating such an act indoors.  The city on the whole is very clean and the honour of hosting Expo a couple of years ago seems to have contributed greatly to achieving this.  Hopefully, the Shanghainese will take more pride in their sensational city – which might in turn rub off to their public behaviour.

Whilst walking around People’s Square last Saturday afternoon I noticed a short, stout, scruffy old lady loitering with intent.  Carrying a wooden box she observes passersby, before carefully making her move.  Her aim, to mark your shoes with her cream cleaner, so you have no choice but to let her shine your shoes.  It is at this point I should mention, I noticed her too late, my left foot now appeared white and I found myself sitting on a small wall whilst she buffed my black boots; much to the amusement of my converse-wearing colleague, who was all too eager to catch the moment on camera.  Luckily, my work shoes are suede, so I shouldn’t be approached too many more times!

A xx

Pinyin power!

Last year I was faced with 6 tones, unnatural and unfamiliar consonant clusters and more vowel sounds than Countdown could shake a conundrum at.  Needless to say, my progress learning Vietnamese was slow, my motivation plummeted and lessons came too little too late, moving at a phenomenal speed few could keep up with.

This year, however, Mandarin offers 2 fewer tones (all of which I can not only recognise, but can also accurately mimic), more natural sound sequences and pinyin.  This is the written form of Mandarin that uses our ABC’s to create phonetic versions of words: a saving grace in a world of unfamiliar and often very intricate Chinese characters.

My Mandarin experience started over 18 months ago, when I took a few lessons on the off chance I accepted work over here.  Writing the words in pinyin aided language learning, assisting my ability to retain my growing, but still limited repertoire.  Needless to say, after a year of ‘Trời ơi !’ in Vietnam, most of the Mandarin was forgotten.

This year, I have more motivation and incentive to learn.  Few Chinese people speak English and I was keen to learn the basics before arriving here.  Cue the mandarin lessons on my iPod, which I listened to repeatedly during workdays in the UK.  And to top it all: Chinese people understand when I speak Mandarin! I was very impressed I didn't have to repeat myself when asking a taxi driver if he could give me a receipt in what was only my second day in the city.  This is going to be a far easier language to get to grips with.

A xx

Medical matters

What now seems to be an annual event – the obligatory medical examination: something that somehow escaped my blog last year.  Foreign hospitals are not the places you want to be at the best of times; Asian hospitals especially so.  Prodded, poked and jabbed in all sorts of places, by all sorts of people, for all manner of reasons.  You are not a person, you are a lab rat on a conveyor belt, pushed from pillar to post until every blank box on your health form has been completed with figures and stamps.

Memories of the 2+ hours spent in a sweltering Saigon hospital last year didn’t fill me with enthusiasm when the Chinese medical was mentioned.  However, after 20 minutes I came out unscathed following a blood pressure check, eye test, ECG, chest x-ray, ultrasound and blood test.  Hoorah for the Chinese, why the heck isn’t it that straight forward in Saigon… oh wait, because it’s Vietnam!

A xx

Sky Mall has it all

My current school is situated at the end of a metro line, inside a modern mall.  Alongside Starbucks, H&M, Marks & Spencer and Zara (to name but a few), EF Minhang Zhongsheng is wonderful.  Working alongside 8 other foreign (native English speaking) teachers and 4 local teachers, makes a refreshing change.  A personal and welcoming space, which is in stark contrast to the sea of 90+ teachers I worked alongside in my previous school.

My Director of Studies, a typically laidback Sydneysider, couldn’t be nicer; breaking the ice in true Aussie fashion by taking me to a local bar moments after meeting!  It’s a high tech school, with interactive whiteboards in every classroom and courses specifically designed by the company to incorporate lots of PowerPoint presentations, videos and audio to lessons.  The students love it and I’m sure I will too, once I get the hang of which buttons to press! More tall tales from school to come I’m sure…

A xx

Hi from the 'Hai

So here I am again, full of vigour and brimming with enthusiasm.  A new country, different company (in more ways than one) and cooler climate; I find myself in Shanghai.  I’m feeling surprisingly spritely after a long flight, which incidentally reminded me of an amusing story that, until now, has escaped my blog…

During my flight from Vietnam, I spent 4 hours between Istanbul and Manchester watching my eastern European neighbour.  Perched next to me, he persisted in pressing his TV screen in the hope of watching a movie, oblivious to the remote control neatly stored in the armrest of his chair, which controlled the device.  Occasionally, he would get a little excited when his repeated stubby finger stabs coincided with the screensaver moving, alas to no avail.  Having watched a couple of movies and mediocre American drama series on my equivalent device, I sat quietly chuckling at his technophobic ways.  Wrong of me, maybe – but after a year of offering help, advice and directions to western damsels in distress in Saigon, I needed a rest!  Anyway, I digress…

Shanghai: cooler, cleaner and more cosmopolitan than Saigon, or indeed anywhere in Vietnam.  I can already tell I’m going to love it here.  After a year living in a developing country, this seems like heaven.  So far I've signed the usual paperwork, had a tour of Head Office, a welcome lunch with our recruiters, been introduced to a local bar by my new boss (who is a very easy going Aussie guy), had a tour of my school, met my colleagues and successfully navigated the metro (which is far cleaner than the London, Paris or New York equivalents) whilst sightseeing.

Happy days. More to come…
A xx

2012 announcement

Hello faithful blog fans!

I am super excited to announce that the year 2012 will see my return to Asia, this time working in China.  From February onwards, I will be based in Shanghai, teaching young learners and will have the luxury of two consecutive days off – hoorah!  More tall tales from the Far East to come… depending upon Chinese internet connection and access to Blogspot!

For now 再见

A xx