A Let-Down For My Loyal Hasaam?

Day #66

Michael considered returning that empty-shelled peanut and demanding his money back but then realised to his dismay that this wouldn't work - once it's opened, how can I prove I didn't eat or lose the contents?!

This is the last day in Shanghai ... just been chillin', it's been pretty good for relaxing by myself, totally different vibe living basically in the dead centre of the city as opposed to the outskirts where SISU was ... honestly I'm not sure I prefer it though. Near the university locals tended to only speak Chinese and were sort of used to foreigners being able to speak a little bit, since we were all students and such. Here, they're far more used to tourists, so those who don't feel like they can speak English well just do all these weird hand signals and it takes a little effort to convince them that I can speak any Mandarin at all, haha. Far more Leather Jacket Men offering the usual - "Hello friend! Socks-watches-DVDs-ladies-hasheesh hasheesh!? BEAUTIFUL ladies, very nice sock!!! Friend, just come a-have-a-look look!", but then I have been wandering Nanjing Road (think Burke Street times 100) a bit so I shouldn't expect much else =P

Hung out with Eugene Saturday eve and Sunday arvo. Eugene is the Indian guy from the HK train who spent a year learning Chinese in Taiwan. He's pretty cool and may actually someday wind up living in Sydney, so it's possible I may see him again, which would be awesome. Anyway his gf Rui is Japanese, speaks less English than I do Jap so as a result the two of them converse pretty much exclusively in Mandarin. Saturday they also brought along a Chinese friend called Jin who'd spent 4 years in Japan and spoke superb English to boot, as well as HER friend visiting from Japan who spoke no English or Chinese. So across the table we had me and Eugene chatting in English, which would then be translated into Chinese for one Jap girl and then into Japanese for the other one, or directly from English to Japanese by the Chinese girl. Confused yet? =P My Chinese has definitely overtaken my Japanese, and I found it incredible how I couldn't even remember the most basic of stuff - although some words came back to me when I tried to listen to them, there was no way of predicting what I was gonna understand. They seemed to think it was really funny to watch me trying to say anything, but at least they were nice about it haha. I think after a week or so of practising certain things will come back to me. Anyway it was a fun night. Jin's friend Mikako will be in Tokyo when I go there with Shannon, I may find her again and that could be pretty fun, they were all nice people, just depends whether she has time and if I didn't scare her off =P

Sunday we went to Yu Yuan ("Yu Gardens") which is a massive tourist hotspot where the "Most Famous Shao (Xiao?) Long Bao Restaurant" is located. Shao Long Bao is basically a sort of dumpling that also has soup in it with the food. You dip it in vinegar and try not to pop the fragile skin before you put it in your mouth. (Not too different to wontons, but they're shaped slightly differently and are a lot more delicate.) I'd been told they were awesome, but pretty much all of them have meat in them so I'd never been able to see for myself. This place happened to have vegetarian options, and I am very happy to say that they pretty much did live up to the hype. Then I suddenly remembered a Japanese song and Rui knew it too so we sang a little bit in the street and I think we sorta confused Eugene xD

Monday was a total write-off, and I was glad for it. Barely spoke to anyone or did anything, just read a chapter of this Chinese comic book I bought, wrote down all the new vocab I didn't know (a bit over a hundred words XO) and wrote the last blog while eating far too many peanuts. Oh and possibly pissed Joy off by being half asleep and quite unresponsive when she called, but as far as I can tell we're ok now!

Tuesday was my last chance to see Miranda for a while. If all goes well for her, she may be off to Ireland soon to study there, which I'm very excited about and I really hope things do work out. There's nobody more deserving than her for an opportunity like this, she's just such an awesome person. We were going to try and record a song together but the cold meant that my flute was way out of tune (the metal contracts and expands very slightly depending on temperature) and by the time I'd warmed the bloody thing up my fingers had gone numb from the cold so I couldn't cover the holes properly. Instead she secretly recorded me singing the Arabian Nights theme from Aladdin after I was so surprised she'd never seen that movie. I sounded terrible xD Sat there listening to her playing a few of her original songs, they're sooo good I can't wait til she gets them recorded and online so I can share them with you guys. Don't ask me why, but there's one I really want Nana Joyce to hear ... I'm really gonna miss Miranda. For a little while, neither of us is going to have a permanent address so we won't be able to write eachother for a couple months either. We don't even know what country we'll see eachother in next, but I hope she can find her way to Australia someday, even though there's very little reason for her to come since our Student VISA conditions suck.

So I found my way back to the same hostel I lived in last time I was here, awesome! I planned to look it up on the internet but couldn't understand the map or recognise any street names, so instead I got off the train at People's Square (sort of like Melbourne Central I guess, but again, bigger and more densely packed) and let my feet show me the way. It was pretty weird, just like how I knew how to get back to the Uni after the first time and knew that area so well. Funny how some things are still hiding in the old grey matter somewhere. The place is as cool as it was last time, and most of the staff speak above average English relative to outside, as well as being really friendly awesome people who started speaking to me in Chinese once they realised I preferred to practise. Except for this one girl who was here last time and remembered me. When I tried to speak Chinese I got two words out before she just interupted me and said "You can speak English, I'm not a very patient person" haha. Maybe I should try and work in a Youth Hostel in Japan ... ?
Oh yeah and some of you may remember me ranting about how I discovered my allergy to cats once I became very attached to a cat in China. That cat lives here. And had babies. Not quite 500, only 3 or 4, but geez they still love me. My whole face pretty much flared up in hives last night, very unattractive, but that TINY KITTEN IS SO CUTE WITH ITS ITSY BITSY MEWLING - *cough cough, AHEM*.

Uhhhhh see you in Qingdao???