Yue Hasaam Yue Hao

Day #16
Funds: $6150ish

Location: SISU Guest House, Shanghai, China
Michael has developed his Comfort Zone

So it's been a little while, huh? It's been pretty busy and I've been making a point of holding onto my cash and my time as both are precious commodities. Since I got to Shanghai, relaxing has been a priority over going out to do touristy-type stuff, it's a really good thing that I've been here before so I've basically done it all before, a second reason that's awesome is I did it all when the $AUS was worth over 6RMB instead of the measly 4 and a bit it dropped to since the market crash - for those of you playing at home, that means last time I paid $AUS600 for my total accomodation here at SISU (Shanghai International Studies University) last time, and at pretty much the same price this time it cost around $AUS900. Fortunately food is still basically cheap enough that I can still eat insane amounts without feeling it too much wallet-wise (belt-wise may be another matter I suppose). I promised to go up the stairs (18 flights) at least twice a day, and right now I have to do both goes in a row in the morning before my shower since it leaves me a huffing sweaty mess - hopefully this cancels out the constant barrage of rice and ice cream and such, maybe I'll even get the added benefit of being less of a heaving sweaty mess in the future if I can keep it up (oh who am I kidding, damn genes, thanks a lot Mum!!!).
My last night in HK was pretty peaceful, sat around helping Debbie and her friend compose poetry for their English class (it had to follow this god-awful format, so restrictive) and had a nice quiet meal. Nice and relaxing.
On the train I met a guy who caught me trying to speak Chinese with the ticket lady, she didn't quite get my accent and was in a hurry so just assumed I was speaking some other crazy language. Eugene introduced himself with the line "I'm quite good at understanding foreigner's Chinese", heheh. He's this Indian dude who spent a year in Taiwan on a program similar to the one I'm about to embark upon, only it was much longer and so his skills are awesome.
Found Shaun (from my Chinese tutorial back home) pretty quickly, turns out we're right next-door to eachother, very cool. He came with friends so we all hung out for a bit, one guy called Seth is a bit fond of his Lonely Planet and has been ticking boxes since day 1. I believe he'll fit it all in, he doesn't seem to get as distracted by Shiny Things as I do. Anyway this guy had us walk from the Guesthouse to Nanjing Road, which I had never done before since trains were always so convenient in the past. I'm glad he did because I had no idea it was so close! (Okay, 30-40minute walk, but still, not exactly like Cranbourne to Melbourne as my memory seemed to think it was.)
People started pouring in on Friday, which was terrible timing considering the fact that this was the day Joy was here in transit to Qingdao, where she's visiting family for a few months. We should have stayed away from the campus because sometimes people I've been looking forward to seeing count as Shiny Things, so I feel like I may have let her down a bit as I did pretty much intend to spend the day doting on her and stuff. She'll be back at the very end of December if all goes according to plan and I really hope to make it up to her then. We were all very excited and I may have gotten a little bit carried away acting as The Guy Who Knows Where Everything is, but I think it was generally appreciated and I don't think I came across too much as a know-it-all. I showed them a couple of my favourite places to eat as well as the local version of a sort of Massive Kmart+Coles-in-one, called Carrefore. Actually I couldn't believe how much I DID remember, it really was as simple as thinking, "Okay, now I need to get my picture taken for a student card" and letting my feet just take me there. I'm very comfortable here and although bits of the scenery have changed a bit, all the important bits are the same. Just walking around for the first few days was incredibly nostalgic, we made so many memories last time and I'm sure we will this time too.
My Chinese has definitely improved, I'm able to communicate a lot better than last time in taxis and restaurants and I seem to be picking up random words I find incredibly useful (eggplant, corn, pineapple sundae, mushroom, etc etc) a lot quicker than before. I hope this is a good sign and that I will do well in this course. The roads still make no sense (especially the drivers on it) but I'm not afraid anymore!
Finally got to see Miranda again, met her at Church and she saved me a seat. My coursework looks a bit full-on so I might not be able to go every week, but I think I'll definitely go a few more times, it's a nice place. She's a sound technician at a bar/restaurant now! It's called Melting Pot and it's actually quite nifty. It was fantastic catching up with her in person and hanging out like old times. (Miranda was my knight-in-shining-armour last time around, she showed me a lot of interesting places, particullarly quite a few Muslim-run restaurants, one of which I impressed my classmates with earlier.)
And of course, class is starting. Every day I'm meeting new people involved in this program, and I'm getting to know people who were previously just faces, not even names in some cases, much better. Everyone here is awesome, really friendly types, and everyone's here for slightly different reasons, there's a wide range of interests and skills and random knowledge just spread out amongst the groups. The fact that I actually knew people before I left this time has been kind of nice, but it seems like there are tons of people who had nothing to do with my Chinese class who I'm connected with through other means as well - like this guy who just walked up to me today and said "You're gonna think I'm really weird, but do you have anything to do with this Buddhist temple in Narre Warren? You probably don't remember me but I came and checked it out with my Mum once." Absolutely nuts.
My course is pretty intense (hence the name "Shanghai Intensive Summer Program"), but I think it's not too bad. I need to study as hard as I said I would, and I'll be fine. I also put my hand up to be class rep, which is a bit of responsibility but it won't be so bad because two girls in my class also volunteered and one of them drew with me in the votes, so we agreed to share the role. I figure I can make myself useful if only because I have been here before and all that (so has Claire, my co-rep, she was here last year). In addition to that I've started composing the new piece I'm going to play for the talent show this year, I think it's going to be a lot better than last time since I've developed a few new interesting techniques, but maybe I should stop talking like that in case I raise everyone's expectations too high, haha, and I'm going to keep an eye on all the labels of any "water" I drink beforehand so I can be completely sober this time around (last time as many of you already know I inadvertantly consumed a large mouthful of a totally clear and infinitely foul liquid known as bai jiu just a half hour before going on stage).
The room Dylan and I are sharing has already become horribly filthy. This is primarily a result of our joint compassionate nature and the fact that Dylan stashed all the booze in our minibar, so everyone keeps popping in from time to time for some reason. The maids hated Dylan last time, I believe they may hate me this time too. For reasons too idiotic yet mundane for me to be bothered getting into, there is salt and a deck of cards just spread out all over the carpet =[
So yeah, I think I'll have plenty to keep me occupied over the next 6 weeks! Dunno how many photos are gonna make it up, but I think I'll try to get back into the habit.
Mmm ... yeah that should probably do it for the moment =P



(So you guys know, the red circle is Hong Kong)