Everyone holding thier favorite thingHeya all, long time no see!!! Now I am in Beijing. We arrived
jintian shangwu! But before I tell you how we got here, let me recap on the week that just passed… the last week in Hangzhou.
Xingqiliu 29 December 2007Megan, Jesse and I had dim sum for chi zao fan, afterwards we rushed to the Shanghai South Train Station in order for me to head back to Hangzhou. I must make a special thank you to Jesse for looking after Megan and I whilst in Shanghai for the week! So I hopped on the train, found the dui cabin and seat and enjoyed the ride back. People are very helpful in China believe it or not, for an example, when I arrived at my seat I had my little suitcase (compliments of Melissa) and this man who was sitting across from me took it and placed it in the overcarry thingo. He then took it down when we arrived in Hangzhou.
I was soon awoken by a phone call from Quentin, he was wondering whether everything was alright and whether I wanted him to pick me up from the train station. It made me smile = ) A few days before when I had told James that I was coming back alone, he offered the same thing. Awww I feel loved. But yea… they were looking out for me, knowing I barely know Chinese. But yea anyways, I told Quentin I would be fine, I mean I have successfully directed the taxi driver
“Wo yao qu Zhejiang Daxue, Yu quan Xiao qu, Xixi lu Hou men”
When I got off the train, I followed the crowd like a sheep to the exit. I found the taxi line and waited in it for a looonnng time. When I did get the taxi, awww I was lucky! I had gotten a really nice taxi driver. Initially after I directed him where I wanted to go, there was silence. He then said something which obviously I did not understand. So I smiled nicely and said
Dui bu qi, wo ting bu dong. He then laughed and said something which I assumed he asked where I was from. I told him I was Australian and our conversation started from there. I tried stringing words together like
Wo xihuan Hangzhou, Wo juede Hangzhou hen hao kan… Wo xihuan Hangzhou-ren. Heheheheee poor Chinese, but he understoold. He asked where I came from (which I only understood after he asked 3 times) and I told him I came from Shanghai and I was there for yige xinqi. I told him I preferred Hangzhou. I also told him
wo shi xueshang, wo xuexi Hanyu zai Zhejiang Daxue. There were a lot of times where I had NO idea what he was saying, and there were a lot of times where he had no idea what I was saying, so majority of the time we were passing over my English-Chinese dictionary!!! While he was driving too!!! He was soo cool.
And yes… I successfully reached my destination.
Walking the streets through the campus was sooo nice. I appreciated it a lot more. I felt like I was coming home, because wo ai Hangzhou! It made me sad as well knowing that I will be leaving in one week. I made my way to Quentin’s room where I was greeted by the frenchie! AAAAH I had missed him. I had missed James and Quentin whilst in Shanghai. There were so many “in jokes” which I wanted to pull out, but no one would have understood. Quentin was nice enough to give up his spare bed for the week for me. Hes my hero!!!
Wo meiyou qian!!! (I had no more money).
Oh yea… what is it like staying with a guy? Well its ok. Quentin as a roomie gave me the insight of a typical guy. 3 things. Messy, unorganised and carefree. I thought it might have been weird… but it was ok. It was pretty fun, a bit ma fan when I wanted to change and stuff, like I had to go to the bathroom and change, I mean when staying with Megan we get to the point when we don’t care anymore and just change our top or bottoms and make sure the other is facing the other way. Quentin had clothes everywhere, rubbish that had accumulated after months, and yea. But he was sweet enough to have his room and bathroom cleaned by the
Fuyuan.Xingqitian 30 December 2007
That night James, Quentin and I went to CarreFour where we bought some champagne for Guillaume whose birthday party we were going to that night. It was some really nice French Champagne recommended by Quentin.
Afterwards, we wanted to go for dinner, we ate at a place that opened up near
Zhejiang Daxue zai Xixi Lu. It was pretty good. Like we chose a plate and they heated it up and served cooked and all. Quentin got James and I on beer, and over dinner and the beer we decided that we wanted to drink the Champagne ourselves and then get Guillaume another drink from the convenient store… we were like “Yeaaa, why not.”
When we arrived at the dorms, we got ready and then popped open the Champagne. The weather is cold enough now that all we did was put the bottle outside on the balcony for an hour or so in order to chill it… yeaaa… all natural coolness! We then got stuck into it… it taste sooo niiiice despite the fact that we drank it out of plastic cups!!! But yea, we had so much fun!!! Afterwards we walked to Guillaume's and Gabriel’s place for the party… that walk was really fun too! Just the shenanigans and the conversations that emerge!!
At the party, everyone was there, and I had a really good time!!! Ive taken some cool photos of the Terrific trio (James, Quentin and I) sharing the love =)
After that we all went to G+ (another club) where I must admit I was sooo exhausted by then, that I didn’t really dance and all I really wanted to do was sleep. We left around 3am and yea…
wo xuejiao!!!Xingqiyi 31 December 2007New Years Eve!!! Awww… Quentin, James and I awoke really late.. at about 3am we had lunch at a place near
Xi Hu where we ordered pizza!! It was really cool, we chilled out, talked and yea… some of the conversation involved Quentin and James going Geek style, talking about physics and shite. (James is studying engineering and Quentin used to study engineering). Hahaha its funny, sad and cute at the same time.
Anyways… it was around this time we got a phone call from Megan who had arrived in Hangzhou with Sam. We then quickly ate our food, and tried to get all the shopping we needed to get done quickly. James bought his Nike Airforce 1s and then we went again to Carrefour to get more Champagne to drink before heading out for new years eve.
After getting ready and drinking the Champagne, we all had more pre drinks in James’ room. Afterwards we all headed off to “In Club” which had an open bar. This club was James’ favourite club of all time which had been closed, and was open only for new years. The club was pretty swish, not as nice as SOS but still pretty swish. I guess the only downfall was the countdown. It was not made as a big thing. Usually in Australia, the music would stop, and then the DJ would be like “10, 9, 8, 7…” But here, the music just ended and then some girls started shooting out these streamers and like spraying this stringy shit on the crowd. People were hugging each other saying happy new year, and so I assumed that was it. This is where I automatically looked around for Will, even though I knew he wasn’t going to be there. But yea… Hugged everyone!!! James picked me up (the crazy boy) even though his back is fractured!!! (actually James still does crazy physical stuff even though his back is a bit fractured… JEEEEEMMES!!! CRAZY!!!)
After some more crazy dancing and partying we all left at about 4am. The best part of the night though, was being able to talked to all you guys in Australia! Even though I could barely hear you all, I still really loved talking to all of you!!!
Xingqier 1 January 2008Today, we recovered, and then went out with Sam. We took him to get sticky pictures done, and we then went to
Xi Hu to take some more pictures and show Sam around. It was really beautiful, different to how it was when Megan and I arrived, but nevertheless beautiful. I can never get tired walking around it. It is so tranquil. I love it! Quentin has taken one of my artistic shots and used it as his wallpaper on his laptop for a bit. (YAY for my camera skills and for my sick camera!)
We then had dinner at the Pizza place that Quentin, James and I went to yesterday and ate Pizza. I was really full at the end of the day, yet we had to take Sam to SOS to show him what this club is all about.
SOS was ok. I have had better nights, but then again it was one of the better nights overall. Going to SOS in general is always good! There were a lot of performances this night because it was new years day. I scored myself a cowboy hat from one of the dancers while they were dancing to Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West.”
Xingqisan 2 January 2008We awoke, and then had brunch at Grandma’s Kitchen, the place where Megan and I ate the first night we arrived in Hangzhou. It was pretty alright, the food we ordered I think was better than the first time we went. Afterwards, Megan and I took Sam to the train station so that he could make his way back to Shanghai. Megan and I then headed to
Hangzhou Da Xa (not sure of the spelling) in order to take more sticky pictures but this time have James in it too. But… James and Quentin being lazy asses did not want to come. So Megan and I quickly bought sweaters from Zara (which was having a sale) and then we returned to the dorm. We then did our washing, Megan moved into Melissa’s room, and then Quentin, Megan, Deddy and I watched a movie I bought in Shanghai on the recommendation of Gulliamue. The movie is called “Shanghai Kiss” and it was pretty interesting. It was just about a Chinese American guy going to Shanghai with no Chinese Skills whatsoever. It made us remember our time in Shanghai, and it also reminded us of all the experiences we had with the language barrier.
Afterwards, Megan, James, Melissa, Jose, Qiao and I went to the French restaurant for dinner. Our lasssst time!!! I love French food. I had the goat cheese again and then I had this chocolate cake as a dessert. YUMMMMM!!!
Afterwards, Megan, James and I tried to watch Blood Diamond, but we were all pretty tired so we did not get a chance to finish it.
Xingqisi 3 January 2008For breakfast we all went to the other Canteen (Not shitang, but the canteen with the sick dumplings, jiaozi). Here I just ate the dumplings… I eat nothing else in this canteen, just the jiaozi with the vinegar and garlic sauce… YUMMM!!! Heaven! I will definitely miss the jiaozi!!!
Quentin and I then broke off from the group to go to the
Zhongguo Yinhang (Bank of China) to get some money. Quentin needed to check his bank account so he needed a bank teller. (He couldn’t use the ATM) and for some reason, this day, the Bank was packed! So we took a taxi to another Bank. Afterwards, we decided to walk back to the campus as it was about a 15 min walk… and hey… its China “yeaa why not!” The walk was fast. We were singing songs and stuff. We sung
Pour Qu Tu M’amies Encore which is a French song sung by Celine Dion, but Il Divo did a version of it too. Me loving Il Divo, I knew the words off by heart, and Quentin being frenchie, well he knew it too! It was cool! We had sung it earlier in the first few weeks of our time in Hangzhou, but yea. We also sung “Be Prepared” from the Lion King, as it is his favourite song from the movie. He sung it in French, I sung it in English. Its funny as some of the English words sound similar to the French words.
Once arriving at the dorms, everyone else was chilling, so Quentin and I chilled too. We pretty much just Youtube-d it for the afternoon. After that we attempted to get a massage with the others at the massage place we went to earlier (near the stadium) but it was too expensive at this time. So the group disbursed. Quentin and I had not eaten dinner so we went to Maccas… *Sigh* I tried ordering. I said “
San Hao Tan Can” which mean pretty much “Meal number 3” which was the double cheese burger. But I didn’t get a cheese burger, I got a McChicken!!! Augh. The meal was so unsatisfying, and I asked Quentin what would be the first thing he would want to eat when he returned to France. He said he would go out, and then his mother’s cooking. I was thinking at the time that HrmMmM French cheese and bread would be nice… and then Quentin asked whether I wanted to go to Carrefour to buy some French food. HAHA… “yeaa why not” It was an expensive feed, but soo worth it. We have had hardly any dairy products whilst in Australia. We ate French cheese with bread, and then this fromage yogurt thingo with sugar and Banana (a dessert that Quentin loves). It was friggin niiiceee!!!
The experience in Carrefour was pretty good too. Like there were things we wanted to get but we didn’t know the Chinese word for it. So me being a geek took out my dictionary to find the word for Sugar.
Tang is the word, but in my dictionary it had
Shatang. We got frustrated when some of the
Fuyuan did not understand us, but we found one who did. She said “
Ah! Baise Tang” meaning “White sugar” and yea… we then found it. We also looked for bowls. I again took my dictionary and found that the word for bowl is “
Wan” this was easier than the sugar, we then had to find paper bowls as the plastic bowls were kinda pussy (Quentin’s term) so I found the word for paper
Zhi and we eventually found it. This day… I learned a lot of new words. Pointless words, but nonetheless, words!
Xingqiwu 4 January 2008Today we did 3 things….
Massage, K-TV and SOS.
All were really good! Massage, well not much to write except it was really nice! Qiao, Quentin, James and I were the ones who ended up going. It freaked me out when it turned out that my massage person was a guy! Usually I get a girl, but yea… I was kinda freaked out… but he ended up being really good. He massaged me in ways that the other girl didn’t do last time (ok… that’s not supposed to sound dirty… but honestly, he was really good. The other time, I felt like the girl did a rushed job as I would always finish before the others).
After our foot massages were done, we had to take separate rooms (2 ppl in each room) for the body massages. It was during this time that Quentin and I got to know our massage people better. Quentin did most of the talking. I am pretty shy around James and Co. when it comes to speaking. But by the end of the massage, Quentin had invited the massage people to come out to SOS with us tonight.
Me enjoying massage
The Boys
After massage, we then got ready for K-Tv…K-tv was FUNNN!!! I loved it! I sung
Tong Hua which symbolised the realisation of my goal which was to learn that song by the time I left Hangzhou! Megan and I dedicated “Stop” by the Spice Girls to our Hangzhou Crew, James and I did a crazy duet for “I don’t wanna miss a thing” by Aerosmith… and then at the very end, Quentin and I were able to squeeze “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls. It was really cool! Afterwards we headed to SOS which was open barr! But it was a very quiet night. Not a lot of people there, but still I had heaps of fun!!! Everyone was there!
We went to Maccas after SOS… just as a token “goodbye” I started getting emo around this time… I hid it pretty well though. No one knew. It just… well I realised there and then that this was it… I was leaving Hangzhou forever. I will never see these people again (a part from James). *tear*
Xingqiliu 5 January 2008Our last day. It was really really quick and rushed. Everyone woke up late. I packed away all my stuff and we were all out by about 1.30pm It took forever for everyone to decide where to eat. We ended up going to Myth Café which was recommended by Gabriel and Guillaume . It had a nice friendly atmosphere and yea… it was cool as we were joined by everyone.
On the tables, there were handwritten messages from patrons of the restaurant. One of them said “Girlfriend Wanted.” hHAHAHAh the guy sounded so desparate. So we rang him up, Melissa did the talking… she sounded so sweet on the phone.. it was hilarious especially since her boyfriend (Guillaume ) was sitting next to her.
We then decided to leave our message there. We got a piece of paper, wrote “
Hangzhou – Ni xihuan wo, Wo ai ni” and we got everyone to sign their name and where they where from! Megan and I then got everyone to write us a message which was pretty cool…. All heartfelt messages!!! *tear* Those who joined us were:
James, Gabriel, Deddy, Quentin, Guillaume , Melissa, Yongyong, Hannalee, Qiao, Jose, Yukes and Willy.
4.30pm came around sooo fast. I had to rush eating my meal, and Megan and I ended up having to leave early before everyone else was finished. It was a rushed goodbye. Hugs here and there photos… I really would have preferred a nicer way of saying goodbye… but… yea… it was still a nice send off.
James, Quentin, Megan and I now had to rush to find a taxi. It is hen ma fan to find one at this time. We were lucky to get one quickly though, and we were even more luckier to find a nice taxi driver who had agreed to wait at the back gate of the uni for us to take our luggage from the dorms and then to take us direct to the train station.
We got there 1 hour early, but it was good as we didn’t have to rush. Megan and I brought so much shit it was not funny. The boys helped us with our suitcases but even they were complaining about how heavy they were. Quentin made a comment “
Girls, you bring more things than me and I am staying here for a year.”
We sat down in the waiting room where we were able to just chill and say our goodbyes. I was really annoyed that Megan and I didn’t have enough time to buy a nice gift for James and Quentin as they had looked after us soooo well! I gave them a little dog toy each as a token of thanks from Megan and I (I had bought them in Shanghai). The dogs are so cute! Small and pocket-able… I hope they look after them! Soon… (too soon) we had to board the train. It was again a bit of a rushed goodbye… it was surreal as it didn’t seem like we were leaving. But yea… *tear*
Quentin and James with our dogs!
had SO MUCH SHIT its not funny. We were struggling. I had my big uni bag, my laptop bag, my suitcase and I was also hand carrying Xiao DaBian. We had to go down a flight of stairs!!!!!!!!!!! Augh! Megan ended up getting a guy to help her most of the way down… I was struggling and then another guy who could speak English helped me down. We then found our carriage, but when we were getting on, Megan drop her chicken little teddy (Falong, named after Quentin as it was his toy initially and he gave it to her) and it fell onto the train tracks under the train! But the train guard guy was nice enough to pick it up for Megan!!!
Walking down the corridors of the train was cool! It reminded me of Harry Potter when they are on the train to Hogsworts. The cabin we had was a soft sleeper meaning that there were beds. The train ride is about 12 hours long, so we were definitely getting the soft sleeper. Some of our friends took another one, I think its called a hard seater, where you sit for the 12 or more hours. Apparently THAT is epic! It was pretty comfortable, the only thing that concerned Megan and I was… who were the other 2 people going to be. Our luggage alone took up 1 bed. And if the other 2 beds were taken then we were going to have to share a bed, or take turns sleeping! We were lucky! As little Jack a 16 year old Chinese boy walked into our cabin and put his stuff down. He had a big smile one his face, and as it turns out, he was travelling to Beijing alone to compete on this TV competition. One part of it was to speak English to Foreigners. He was very happy to see us, and we were very happy to see him! We talked to him in Chinese and he corrected us, and he spoke to us in English. It was SOOO COOL! We were using our dictionaries and everything! We shared food, we shared music… he is a little genius! He wants to study computer science… I assumed this much as he said he wanted to write computer programs.
Xingqitian 6 January 2008
Anywho… we slept at around 11 and then were woken up by Jack around 6am as we were to arrive in Beijing very soon. Jack then said “I think, I need to help you get to your hotel.” = ) What a sweetie!! We then got off the train (hen ma fan man!!) And jack bought us a map of Beijing. We then had to hunt for a taxi…the taxi drivers all wait outside the train station and then they try to cheat you into offering you trips for a set price. We were soo exhausted that we accepted the 2nd offer which was for 60 kuai. But the dooude agreed to take us to our hotel and the Jack to his hotel for a total of 80. Which was cool. Jack instructed the taxi driver, but the thing is, our hotel is a place where not many taxi drivers know about. Its in this little road. But luckily this taxi driver knew. Talking to our other friends who have arrived, mentioned that some had to be dropped near the hotel and walk the rest…etc…
I didn’t want Jack to leave without knowing how much we appreciated his help. So we gave him a bag of candy, a little toy dog (again I had bought in Shanghai) and a handwritten note in English to him. We also paid for the whole taxi fare. We have his email address and all so we can catch up with him and see how his show went.
Me and Jack lost in translation
The school here are ok. There is no exciting buzz as there was at Zhejiang. It is pretty empty and depressing. The rooms are ok. Not as ghetto as I thought it might be, but not as nice as the rooms in Hangzhou. The coolest part is that Our door has our names on it!!! EhEhhEhEhEhee…
Anywho… that’s about it for the massive blog. I’ll see you later!
Labels: Beijing, China, Chinese, Clubbing, Culture, Food, Friendship, Hangzhou, KTV, Movie, Music, Party, Shanghai, Shopping, Sightseeing, Travel
posted by anna at 7:28 PM
