Heya all..

This is going to be my last post for 2007!!! I am in Hangzhou at the moment.. Oh yea... how did I get here?

Well On Sat morning, Jesse, Megan and I went for some Dim Sum in Shanghai for breakfast... after that they took me to the Shanghai South Train Station where I hopped on the train to Hangzhou! I was kinda nervous but ok at the same time. I knew how to read the ticket so I knew what cabin and what seat. I slept most of the time there..

Once there I took a taxi back.. use my Chinese yeaaa!!! it was funny as like he wouldnt understand what I was saying so Id get my dictionary and thenshow him... and then he would say something which I did not understand so he would take my dictionary and then show me the word he meant... ANNND he did it while driving!!! crazy CHinese taxi drivers!!! Wo ai Hangzhou!@!!! love it to the maxxx...

Last night James, Quentin and I got tanked on Champange before heading out to celebrate Gulliaume birthday at his apartment... tonight...same thing... we drank champange before heading out for our new years eve celebration. I am currently typing now under the influence while we wait to go to bon bon club...

HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYSSS!!!!

Love u heaps!

xXoo!!!

Labels: China, Culture, Friendship, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Travel

Heya guys...

It is 1.41am on a Friday night. I have packed my bags, talking to James on msn and reading a stupediously long email from Age!!! (Xie xie niii Adrian! Wo ai niii!!!! Wo ai eeeemmaaaillss!!) I dont have a lot of time on the net, so I cannot reply as much or as fast as Id like dooude... so the chances are I will reply once I get to Beijing.

Will: Yes I have been online on "normal" times like... say... 1pm 3pm, 10pm etc... ur just avoiding me... i know... i know when I am not wanted... Boo hooo.

Mom, Dad, Scott: I missed you guys at Christmas. I wished I was there to set up the Christmas tree as the tradition would have it... but yea. I was there in spirit! (Oh yea Scott... you met Adrian on the WRX forum... WEIRD!!)

Anywho... Shanggers... my time in Shanghai has been pretty good. The hostel where we are staying is perfect for students. In the common room you meet all the most randomness people from all around the world. We met 2 frenchies here who we watched a French movie called "taxi" with... pretty cool movie indeed. One of our friends on the tour met this Chinese girl and she came out with us last night.

Last night we went to Windows... which is a smallish bar with stupidly cheap drinks 10 Kuai ($1.60 AUD). It was pretty fun, it was all of the crew from the study tour, and some of our friends from the eastern states who were in my Beginner's Chinese class!!! We met these 2 Asian guys from Melbourne at the club too... one of them asked whether I knew chinese and said no... not a lot but I knew how to sing Tong Hua... so yea... we sung tong hua together despite the fact that the PCD were on!!! These Melbourne-ians were studying Chinese too, but were on a different program and at a different uni. Windows last night had quite a lot fo ex-pats actually... so it was pretty alright.

The thing about Shanggers what I like is... 1. the shopping and 2. the food,. I looooove the shanghai dumplings... they have this sauce in them so when you chew on it, the sauce just oozes out in your mouth..... *drool*. I am also loving the tawianese pancakes... actually they taste really good in Hangzhou... but hey... I still love them.

Shopping wise... I bought another jacket, a black one!!! Its not as puffy as my Whitchery white one and it looks soo cool. My whitchery one is now no longer white... its like grey and disgusting!! I am going to dry clean it in Hangzhou or Beijing I think. I also bought a pair of skinny jeans... Yea i NEVER thought id buy a pair but i needed to so i could wear boots! Which is a must here coz the grounds are soo muddy.

I also got a hair cut!!! Um yea... needs time to get used to. I showed the hairdressers a picture of penelope cruz... i wanted her fringe... but yea... it turnd out... different-ish.... AUGH!!! CHINAAAA!!!!

Anywho.. I better go... ill seee ya all lattersss!!!

Labels: China, Chinese, Clubbing, Culture, Friendship, Shanghai, Shopping

AUgh!!!!

Last night we went to a club, BabyFace.. and augh!!! the music was alright... but it was the first night where I left disappointed.

First and foremost, the guys there are all old sleazes!!! they are soo annoying! It makes me miss Hangzhou even MORE! the guys here would be like 40 years old and would be trying to dance with you!

There was these bunch of guys who kept on dancing around our group (we consisted of mainly all girls and lincon) One of them, as he walked past me, grabbed my singlet strap and pulled it down! I hit him and was like "What the... F***!" and he just gave me this pathetic grin. After that I was ready to hit home. It was too much.

Not only that, I bought a green necklace yesterday... beads and all and it was soo pretty! I have a matching ring... but at Babyface... It broke!!!!! = ( The girls helped me find most of the beads, so hopefully when I get to Beijing or when I go home, I can maybe fix it... or make the necklace again but use fishing wire or something.

Anywho... At the moment I am going to live cheaply. This morning, I went out for breakfast with Fern and Lincon and had dumplings which were like 3 kuai... and hopefully for dinner I will get to have Taiwanese pancake or maybe some noodles from next door which is el cheapo and el yummo bummo!!!

Labels: China, China Gang, Clubbing, Food, Opinion, Rant, Shanghai

你好朋友！你好吗？我很好！ 我们在上海和我爱上海。昨天我们去 Megan's 的朋友 home。他叫 Sam。我们吃好多迟误。今天我们去商店 (Pearl Market) 我买好多东西。(Heineken Shirt, boots, jewellry and more).　我也卖汉语书。

Ok enough Hanzi, I wanted to try it out! I want to get the program on my laptop! It rocks.
I pretty much said:

Hello friends! How are you? I am very good. We are in Shanghai, and I love Shanghai. Yesterday we went to Megan's friend's home. His name is Sam. We ate a lot of food. Today we went to the shops (Pearl Market) I bought a lot of things. (Heineken Shirt, boots jewellry and more) I also bought Chinese books.

Anywhoo... yeaaa where did I leave off? On Saturday night ( 22 December) Megan, James, Gao and I went out for dinner at some Jap restuarant. It was pretty alright. Have not had Jap in a while. Afterwards we returned to Zhejiang to get ready to go out. We ended up going out to G-Plus and spent a while there. Its a club that is mainly dance stuff... but pretty cool.

Sunday Megan and I left for Shanghai. So far Shanghai is pretty awesome for shopping!! But to tell you the truth I miss Hangzhou. Its become my home, all my friends and our room... augh... miss it!

The coolest thing about Hangzhou and going clubbing is the random people you meet! On the Thursday night post exam where we went to S.O.S I bumped into a girl who I had met on my first night in Hangzhou at S.O.S. Her English name is Laura, and I had not seen her since!! But she rememebred me! That same night, Quentin introduced me to a group of guys that he knew, who all turned out to be gym instructors at the Gym where I played badminton and table-tennis. I hung with them for a while, and one of them asked for my number! He put is number into my fone under "King Will." HAHAHAA. Then on the night we went to Coco's, I bumped into Laura again and she introduced me to her friend Cherry. All these randoms I have been able to practice my Chinese! Me smsing to them in my poor Chinese, and they all sms me back in thier poor english!. And for some odd reason I can speak Chinese and sing in Chinese better when I am drunk.

Anywho... i better be off... Merry Christmas guys!!! Been thinking of everyone heaps!!!

Labels: China, Chinese, Clubbing, Food, Friendship, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shopping

Zuotian went very quickly. We woke up, it was noon, we went out for a healthy lunch which consisted of fruits and bread and then we headed out shopping. I bought some singlet tops and a new jumper!!!! Its kinda huge, but its the coolest thing on earth. It cost me 35 RMB... which is like 5.80 AUD. It is a "Baby Milo" with the monkey dooude playing badminton!


Anywho... time went by so quickly and before we knew it, we had to return to Zhejiang Daxue because we had to meet in the lobby to go to our farewell dinner.

The farewell dinner was awesome!!! We had a Chinese Banquet (the costs were included in the tuition fees I think) and the food was awesome!!! There was shark fin soup, there was abalone (I probably spelt that wrong) there was this famous Hangzhou dish where there is this meat... and a thick ass layer of fat which though very unhealthy... was delicious! There was this sweat and sour fish which was niice!!!. There was more food!!!!

After that we had to do a performance... all the classes did! We performed a Chinese song and an english christmas song... the funny thing was... the chinese song we performed pretty alright... but the english song was shocking!!!

Here are some photos!

Labels: China, China Gang, Chinese, Food, Hangzhou, Shopping

Howdi do,

Yesterday was our last day of classes... and it was filled with... de de DEEEE... exams!!! Zhege xingqier he xingqi san, wo xuexi hanyu... very hard!!! hahaha.

Anywho, I have some cool random photos from the week.

Labels: China, China Gang, Chinese, Clubbing, Food, Friendship, Hangzhou, Shopping

Yesterday was my birthday... and awww what an interesting and special birthday it was!

First of all, I had my birthday wishes from Will who gave me a surprise!! I was checking my bank account after Shanghai thinking... crap man I got no more money now... But then when I checked it... low and behold... I had money! I was like... oooh dear... did something funky go wrong??? Anywho... it turns out that all you wonderful people had given me my birthday present!!! Thank you guys soooo much! I really appriciated it... it made me feel might special especially the e-card/powerpoint presentation!!!! I had been feeling quite... well unsure about my birthday... feeling kind of lonely in China. I have made heaps of friends.. but you never know where you stand with them...my birthday morning was awesome!!!

The day after class was pretty slow... I had lunch with James and Quentin in the shitang where they sang me happy birthday... (ooh embarassing) and then sometime in the afternoon James was thinking to go th the hospital just to get his back checked out. After lunch I pranked my parents to say hello and get the gossip on what was going on there. I checked emails again... recieved a nice long one from my brother... = ) And then I thought I better nap.. but before I napped I quickly smsed everyone to meet in the lobby at 6.30pm so we could head off to L96 Italian Cafe. I also smsed James to see when he was going to the hospital so I could accompany him... but didnt get anything...

Soo yea... quiet day... was good though needed the sleep. At 4.30 I walked to the Bank of China to get some moola for the night and then got ready to meet everyone at 6.30. Everyone was punctual!!! I was impressed... and what also surprised me... was the gifts people had gotten me! I was soo not expecting it!!!!! It really... made me feel all warm and tingly inside!!!! This is what I got:

James got me the Big Doggie which I had seen at the shops a couple of days ago! Its soo huge and cute and soft... I have named him Xiao Dabian. HehEHhee.. He also got me a Wang Leehom CD because I love him!!!! Qiao gave me a pillow which has a photo of our crew on it when we had gone to Huang Shan and a little dog with a birthday cake... on the bottom... the personalised message... which which is an inside joke... "Ni xi huan wo, wo ai ni" Quentin had bought me a Celine Dion CD which she recorded in French (we had sung Pour Que Tu Maimes Encore together, which was a song that Celine Dion had recorded but this CD doesn't have it on it), and a French movie called Les Choristes which he had recommended me to see while on the train trip hom from Shanghai. Melissa and Jose got me a bottle of Cointreau because they knew I enjoyed drinking it at Qiao's birthday and Gulliaume and Gabriel got me a little shoulder bag which is really handy for class! Personalised gifts!!! I was really touched!!!

We made our way to the restaurant where the food was good and the dessert was... lets say... tasty = ) There was no break in the China tradition!




We also finished the bottle of Cointreau... people taking a mouthfull and then lighting it up with a lighter! Tastes soo good! Qiao, Gulliaume and Gabriel (the Frenchies) showed me another way to drink Cointreau. They poured me a shot int a shot glass and then lit it up (Gabriel is the pro at lighting it up) once lit, they told me to quickly cover it up with my palm, which I did... there was then this suction like feeling!!! It was SOOOOO werid!!! it freaked me out... they were like... okk shake it.. which I did, and the I was told to shoot it. = ) ITS sooo COOL! I got video of footage thanks to Megan of it!

After that we headed off to Karaeoke!!! which went OFF!!!!! Loved it... was like a mini party there... 17 people, music, plasmas and party lights!!! yeaaa!!! all from dinner came except Quentin... (Boooo him)

Labels: Birthday, China, Chinese, Food, Friendship, Hangzhou, KTV

Heya all!!!

The last few days have been busy busy busy...

Xingqiwu
Friday we went to Shanghai for the weekend! It was pretty cool!!! The crew that went included:
Me
Megan
James
Quentin
Qiao
Melissa
Deddy
Amy
Jose
Gabrielle and Guillaumes (who we met up with later on)

The train ride there was pretty alright, though I slept most of the time. When we arrived we took the subway to get to the city centre... and WOAH Shanghai is huge!!! Busy busy busy... hussle and bussle all the way! We all carried our stuff around with us (Megan and I being the noobs and bringing a suitcase whereas everyone else had brought backpacks) while we were finding accomodation. This actually took longer than we thought as the place that we had intended to stay at was closed down. So... Megan and I took everyone's stuff and went to starbucks while the group split up to find accomodation.

Eventually... we found a place which was near by to Starbucks... and we checked in. The weird thing about it was that they only really preferred people with Chinese passports. I was like what the hell? But it ended up being ok. Quentin, Megan and I had to stay outside the hotel while the others arranged the rooms just in case... yea...

It was already late... about 5ish or 6ish when we decided that we were to get ready to go out to Bonbon Club but to go have dinner before hand. Megan's friend Sam came to our hotel to hang with us that night. Hes a pretty cool fella... he really made me miss Australia... the humour and everything.

Anywho... dinner ended up being quite troublesome. We couldnt find a place where we wanted to eat in this food court... so I ended up eating from "BreadTalk" (they have it in Singapore). It was still quite early when most of us had finished so I went back to the hotel with Melissa, Qiao and Jose. At about 10.30pm we get a call from the others saying they had already arrived at Bonbon, so off we went. Deddy and Amy arrived at the hotel and went to the club with us. The club is pretty awesome from what I can remember. Open Bar once again... and Yea... I felt like I really needed to catch up with the rest... so I went hard... I danced for a little while, and then went to get a few more drinks. I remember trying to speak some mandarin with the barman... saying "Wo yao ni he dongxi!" eventually he drank with me. hahaha. after that Jose took my drinks for me... and the night pretty much ended for me at 1am.

The rest stayed out till about 3am... I was awoken by Sam who jumped into the bed next to mine and we talked for a bit.

Xingqiliu
The next morning... I was really really really tired! Stories of what happened at Bonbon made me so jealous and annoyed how I K.O so early!! C'Mon!!!! I never K.O and the night I do... THINGS HAPPEN!! Like Megan had this voice recording of James being an Indian Telemarketer...

We all ended up going out for brunch at the foodcourt where we attempted to eat the night before. Afterwards we explored this department store with all these brands like Roxy, Evisu at a semi cheaper price. I didn't end up getting anything. We then went to this Market which is in a trainstation where I bought these cute dog toys... (sad I know) and then I bought this black clutch. This clutch is pretty nice... though I didn't really want it. The lady at the store said the price was 280 Kuai... I was like... hell no... tried to walk away but she clutched to my arm... Better price she said... I was like... eh what the hell.. 50 kuai... she was on be for ages saying that 50 was nothing and blah blah blah... eventually though she said 60... and I was like hao de.

After that... we all had dinner at beloved KFC and then headed to Indoor Skiing!!!! It was soo fun man!!! We all went snowboarding... except for Gabrielle who skied (which was smart because he did'nt end up having a wet butt), but yeaaa snowboarding rocks!!! I find that it is hard getting used to going down side on... and you need to be able to shift ur weight to turn... that was the hardest part. Oh the interesting thing... is that if we are talking skateboarding terms... I am not regular. I am... weird. In that I prefer to snowboard with my right foot in front instead of the left. So yea... I am weird.

I made my first attempt down from the middle of the ski slope which was ok.. cause I did not fall over. Afterwards for my second attempt I went to the very top. It was awesome!!! but frekking scary shit! I was like... Yea baby lets go! I shuffled my board and off I went. I started picking up speed and I was like heeeeeelll yeaaaaa... Anna... pro!!! but then I realised that I started getting too fast AND I could not stear properly. So it then hit me that shiiiiit... I am going to crash into people so I started screaming and swearing my lungs out... I was going down sooo fast... people where turning around and like jumping out of the way... eventually when I reached the bottom I didnt know how to stop, so I made myself fall over. I was pretty proud that I did not fall over... but thats not skill.

The rest of the time there we attempted jumps! That was awesome fun! Quentin started it first because he is really good.. (damn him.. he makes snowboarding look easy and effortless) He did a jump which I thought was crazy... but then after that Deddy who was like... first timer as well, attempted the jump too... after that everyone was doing it... and then eventually Megan and I decided to try too. It was really scary... like whether I could aim my board to the jump was my main concern... but yea... that was no problem... the problem was after the jump... landing... hahaha... that I never figured out... but I did leave with videos of crazy stacks... unfortunately I didn't get the stack where I flipped over... it looked and felt pretty serious... Willy and Deddy were like shiiiitttt....

Our night ended when James made a pretty nasty fall from the jump. I was already winding down when I saw this crazy jump... and yea... the dooude did not get up... I then saw Quentin and all our friends drop thier gear and run to the guy... thats when I realised... shit... man... something has happened. It was James and he was not moving! When I got there, he was conscious but in pain. His back was messed up... but after a few mins he was ok... but it gave us the biggest scare!!! His back today is still a little sore. But ok...

The rest of the night we all just chilled at the hotel as we were all pretty buggered. Sunday was mainly just all of us returning back to Hangzhou... but in the morning Megan and I got up early to have a morning walk to the river and to see the Shanghai city skyline which is sooo cool! It made me realise how much more of Shanghai I would like to see.

Pics will be up soon... i dont have my usb!!!!

Labels: China, Chinese, Clubbing, Friendship, Shanghai, Shopping, Sport, Travel

Heya all,

yea it has been a while since I have blogged. It has been so busy and there has not been any real chance to get on the net long enough to blog.

Last week a lot of the free time I had was spent playing badminton and table-tennis... Yea..believe it or not I have played more sport here than in Australia. Geez...and they say Australia's culture IS sports. The bad thing about playing badminton or table tennis, well... after all that good work... we always...and I mean ALWAYS go to maccas after it! I kid you not, we have been to maccas so often I swear the people there know us. They probably know me and megan as the idiots who cannot speak mandarin. LOL but hey... maccas is good for take when your hungry.


Last Friday we went to see the 6 harmonies pagoda and the Linyin temple. It was a good day out as it was relatively quick ( 8am and then home by 1pm). The 6 Harmonies pagoda was pretty neat, as there is a cool legend behind it. I personally preferred the Linyin temple. It was quite beautiful. It was a place with many buddhist temples. The architecture and the natural surroundings was really really something.

Afterwards we just chilled out for a bit. That night we all went out to a a friend's place for drinks and then club called Coco's. It was pretty alright. quite small compared to SOS but yea. fun. We also bumped into some of our classmates there. They were given VIP treatment! It is because they are caucasian, they said that they were approached on the uni campus by the club managers and djs who then gave them VIP membership and stuff.

There is a downside though. At coco's our classmates were being friendly to the Djs in order to get more free stuff. But, then the Djs started talking to these guys... and apparently the Dj had "sold" them to the guys. Our classmates saw them shake hands and heard them say something like "I'll calm them down." So they left the club straight away after that. Scary stuff aye. I guess they were not careful. I say they were pretty lucky. But yea, they went clubbing by themselves and not in a group.

The next day, we went to a student talent show where our friends Willy and Andrew were performing. It was pretty cool, though I was pretty buggered so I napped in some parts of the show. We had a weird night that night. Jemes, Quentin, Megan and I had some pre drinks at the dorms. We wanted to go to a club that Jemes really likes but it was not open yet. So someome suggested to G- plus (another club). We were like "eh why not." We didnt stay there too long, but it seemed ok. It was a weird night because it was pretty random. Just the 4 of us out, Quentin got his mobile stolen... people were lost momentarily. Auuuugh... *CHINNNAA!*

Last night megan and I got our haircut...errrr.... yeaaaa.....good treatment...like it felt good...but yea...errrr....i prob wont do it again. lol

Anywho...thats what has gone down up to date. Photos...well ill try and upload them as soon as possible. =)

Labels: China, Clubbing, Culture, Hangzhou, Sightseeing, Sport