A lesson on Chinese culture

China is weird. Everyday I see more things that are just so different to England. People told me that moving here would be a culture shock, but that is truly an understatement. So, I thought I would share with you all the 15 weirdest things I have seen so far/just the things I have noticed quite regularly  Just so you can see for yourselves what my life is going to be like for the next few months here, and for me to reflect on this list in July and see which of the things I will in the future be doing or be finding completely normal.

1) Pollution = face masks: Some days you can't even see the tops of buildings, you can feel it in your lungs and the air is just not like the country air in Brackley. People say living here for a year is the equivalent to smoking for a year, so considering I don't smoke, my poor body is going to have to put up with it for 5 months. I have a stupid cough because of it, it's frustrating. I'm nearly tempted to buy one of the masks!

2) Bikes: Everyone here has bikes. It is almost a necessity even though the walk into uni is only 20 minutes. I have nearly given in to peer pressure and bought one. Although the one Brad bought for £10 initially broke so many times, he is now on his 2nd bike and has been to get repairs 7 times in 2 days. I will certainly invest in a proper one if I do, but I feel my coordination is not yet good enough to be able to ride a bike on the crazy roads here. They are literally everywhere, everyone has one!

3) Mopeds: Similar to bikes, yet faster and more powerful. But the thing is, people ride them along the pavement. You'll look behind and see one coming up behind you. Quite scary, and a little dangerous!

4) Supermarkets: Chicken feet, dead scrawny chickens, feotus eggs and things that smell so bad that you can't even explain. Walmart is an experience you need to be a bit brave for. I would not wish it upon any vegetarian to go into the fresh section.

5) Beggars: Not as many as Malaga, which is great, but the things they do here is quite upsetting to see. We've seen a few that take their children around, and basically use them to beg. A woman singing into a microphone on a train and making her child shake her money jar, that was the first time I'd witnessed them using their children to beg. This has happened a few times on the subway since. But the worst, was definitely at 4am when we were all drunkenly stuffing our faces with McDonalds, and a little child comes and taps each one of us on the back, to get some money. No child should be dragged out at 4am to get money for their family. So, although we didn't give them money, I gave the child my chips and drink, and someone went and bought her a burger. She was no more than 4 years old, but she just seemed so happy doing it. Really messed up.

6) The westerner glance: Always enjoyable, you just make friends and smile at people because you share the fact you are both westerners. Even from across the street, you just smile at people, and people just smile at you as they can tell you are from relatively near where they are. Very random!

7) Markets: The fake market. A place where you should only go, when you are in a fit state of mind. People just yell at you, 'you want ties, you want the high  heel shoe, you want new bag gucci prada, you want new phone'. Every stall you walk past yells to get your attention. Then once they finally have your attention, you have the next challenge of bartering with them to get a crappy phone case from 100kuai to 20. They all speak English, and we try Chinese to get a few bonus points/kuai taken off. Ends up in a little chinglish argument until one person gives in!

8) Karaoke: Your average Saturday night out. There is just no shame, you just have to embrace it. I did however, get asked where I learnt to sing (haha), best compliment all year. I just conveniently knew all the words to Hound Dog and did a cheeky Elvis impression at the same time.

9) Chinese drivers: Driving in Shanghai is the scariest thing. They don't stick to red and green lights, they lane hop and they beep about 10 times a minute. So many near death taxi experiences already. Drivers here are so illegal. There was a taxi last week, we opened the door and it was a van with a bench inside, which wasn't even attached to the floor. That, combined with the way they drive on the roads is a very unsafe combination!

10) Smoking inside: If the pollution isn't bad enough here, people smoke everywhere, dinner, nightclubs, streets, lifts. Even children smoke. Going to deal with enough second hand smoke to last me a lifetime!

11) Upper class clubs: From the second you walk in,  you just get so much respect. Ladies in the toilets waiting with towels to dry your hands, endless alcohol on the tables for being sexy westerners, even fruit and french fries to nibble at. Just soo different to Fab. Everyone puts on this pretentious act, yet we are probably all as poor as each other.

12) Spitting: Just like Jack teaches Rose in Titanic. Hock it right back, and just spit it. Whether it be in a restaurant or just on the floor in front of you, or even your taxi driver. I know having phlegm isn't good for you, but pleeeaaase, a little bit of politeness or cover your mouth, anything! It is honestly DISGUSTING. I must look like such a snob when I frown at them doing it. But really, it is vile.

13) Eating: They eat as disgustingly as they spit. Not chopsticks to mouth, but mouth to bowl, slurp slurp slurp. My first lunch in the canteen I was sat opposite a Chinese boy. My family know how much I cannot stand loud eaters, but this pushed me to the max. Couldn't quite enjoy my lunch until he had gone. Maybe this is the only way to master chopsticks though, instead of carrying the food all the way to your mouth, you just gotta get your face all in your tray. Ewww.

14) Prostitution: First night out, we went to a place with a mini prostitution ring at work. The pimp was sat in the corner, was interesting to see him overlooking what all his girls were doing. I don't think we will be going back to Judy's anytime soon. International perverts and dirty local girls, not our kinda scene!

15) Medical physical exam: I was lucky enough to avoid the blood test and majority of the physical as Dr Babe Harrison had sorted me out at home. But Charlee was injected 5 times before they even found her vein to get some blood (proffesional?). They also had weird gobstopper size suckers put all over them, boobs out and everything. We also had the pleasure of undressing in a room with girls we didn't know for our chest x-rays. Just had to get your boobs out, no questions asked. The best quote however; 'Hi, I'm Charlee and these are my boobs, what's your name, it's nice to meet you!'. Weirdest experience ever, thank goodness I didn't have it all done!

So, they are my 15 key weirdly different things about China so far, and I haven't even been here 10 days yet!

Wonder what is in store for us next?!

你好上海！

Greetings from Shanghai, what is my new home for the second semester of this crazy 3rd year abroad. I have been here for exactly a week now, and it already feels like forever ago that I was last at home, no idea how that will feel by the time July arrives! In the first few days, although I haven't done that much, I have seen a little of the city, and so far I think I like it. Don't get me wrong, I still am a little homesick and overwhelmed at the completely different type of life here, it's not like Spain or England, so I think it'll be good to enjoy something completely different for these upcoming months. But, we've met some pretty cool people so far, and have also been lucky to have the other Brum students who were here 1st semester to show us around!

The first thing that me and Charlee noticed when we got here (after hours and hours of travelling and trying to manipulate our body clocks) was the little English that people knew here. Even in the international dorms, there was only one girl and her level of English was similar to that of mine in Spanish. So we were completely tired, bewildered and just overwhelmed when the taxi dropped us, and somehow only managed to get there by showing the address in Chinese which I luckily had saved on my phone. However, he dropped us by a gate and was rambling in Chinese so we had nooo idea where to go. We got out, it was rainy, windy and absolutely horrible, we had all of our suitcases and just didn't know which way to even walk. So, I then used a slight bit of intelligence and looked for the tallest building there was, I knew our rooms were floor 18, so I figured not many buildings would be taller than that, and success, first time lucky, we found it.

Walking into the dorms was a crazy moment, they resemble the Mason layout slightly just with much older furniture, and no installation so absolutely freezing. The bed, a wooden box with a mattress no thicker than an inch, had no bedding so looked pretty bare and uncomfortable...similar to a prison bed. I know I can sleep anywhere, but this is seriously going to take some getting used to. My heater also didn't work, really annoying considering I couldn't get it fixed for 2 days after. However, we have our own bathrooms and balconies, and I have double doors to mine as my room is slightly bigger, so by the summer hopefully it'll be lovely!

The first day we went to Walmart, another strange experience, didn't look at all like walmart though so wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. Charlee didn't get much sleep on the plane so was falling asleep every few minutes, so we were all trying pretty hard to keep her awake. We were pretty chilled the first night, bed by 10pm and despite having a mini breakdown when I got to my room alone and was ready for bed, bulad was there with hugs so I soon got over the tears and the tiredness made me crash out pretty quick.

Orientation was first thing Tuesday morning, it was so early and it was so strange to even be up at 7am! We had a reading exam too, absolutely hilarious how little we all knew. We then headed to this street called daxuelu for the first time, its a nice little strip of western restaurants and cafes, a bit more upper class, yet still only max £4 for a nice meal. In the evening we went downtown, yet didn't really know where we were going so ended up somewhere completely random called Judy's, the music was good, but the crowd was weird. And the amount of prostitutes was insane, the pimp was literally sat in the corner agreeing to whether sleazy men could take the girls back. I didn't actually realise what was going on until the end, and at that point it suddenly made so much sense why the crowd was the combination of people it was.

Wednesday we had oral exams first thing, slightly challenging on a hangover but also the easiest oral of my life basically going through the options I had of groups to be put in. In and out, easy group to start, see where it leads...done! We headed to IKEA with a big bunch of Swedish people, grabbed lunch and spent a few hours buying too many things that I really didn't need! We went out with Sarah and Emma, who'd come from Beijing, and to be honest it was a pretty fun night. Just us four girls, which meant there was quite a few free drinks, and even maids in the bathrooms waiting on us with a towel, to dry our hands. Classy.

Every night we've eaten out, and every day too, normally brunch as we aren't up early enough or are up too early and head straight to class. The food is just so cheap that it works out better to eat out than in, which is kind of nice, and very social. We found this cute little chinese place where they have all their special dishes for the equivalent of £1 or £1.50, and they come with endless tea, which is something else I also know I'm going to grow to love. We had a bowl of soup here for 80p, which was enough for at least 3 people to be full. Sharing dishes here makes it so nice and cheap for a great variation of classic chinese dishes. We've also been to a few other quirky places, a little shop where they show you a fridge of skewers, you pick what you want and they barbecue it on the street, simple, cheap and very tasty. However, I do have to admit that pizza hasn't fully removed itself from my diet yet, and I am not sure it will either. We've also given in to  KFC and McDonalds already. Oooops.

The days from last week are pretty blurry, so obviously I can remember the evenings more. Thursday night when we went out for the first time as a big group was prettty good. We went to Doug and Gid's for drinks and met up with all of their friends they've made over their time here. We headed to a place called M2 and thanks to Henry, and the fact we're western, had tables of free alcohol and food for us. Apparently being western and going to places attracts rich and older people to go and spend their money. The pure grey goose vodka and tequila shots, was only made better by the fact it was free and there were french fries and a  selection of on the table too! The music was pretty good, and it was cool getting to know the guys that have been here the last few months, even the ones that have been in our class for 2 years who we haven't really known. It is quite fun actually how the year abroad brings so many different people together, and is probably going to make some pretty awesome friendships. We ended the night in McDonalds, which I have heard is a tradition for the guys when they go to M2, and it is a tradition I am completely fine with!

Over the weekend, and thanks to our tour guide bulad (Brad), we went to downtown to see what it was like, and to actually see the Bund, although it was an awful day to do it as the pollution was horrible. We walked the length of Nanjing road, a shopping street with literally everything on. We had a little look in the fake market and bought a few little bits. And, we basically all decided that when we leave China it will be with one extra suitcase than before we started here. Everything is so cheap in comparison to home, it is very, very dangerous! Some of the fakes are genuinely quite convincing, so when I come back all kitted out, probably don't fall for it.

Saturday night was Karaoke night at KTV. Now, I've never really done it before other than once in Thailand so it was hilarious, but we were all drunk and had our own room so it was great! As a result of 6 hours singing karaoke, on Sunday we chilled in bed all morning before  heading to Walmart for more bits and then on to Nadia's for sushi and pizza. Sooo much food, and so much fun.

Class started today though was nice, I moved up after 15 minutes as it was far too easy so now we are all together, with a new Australian girl too. Despite the fact that 6 hours of class was draining, I feel like I learnt a lot, and that it is all coming back to me even though we've had 11 months without studying any Chinese language! Just got to study hard this semester and I think it will pay off. I bought some pretty notebooks and lots of new stationary, so that should keep me motivated for a while.

So, that's basically the first week here in China. Daunting but fun, and I do like it and think I will love it by the end. Let's just hope that doesn't change! I have already started compiling a list of the weird and crazy things I have seen, along with a lot of phone photos which have caught these random moments, give me a few more days when the list is a little longer and I will happily share them all will you, so you can all imagine how weirdly wonderful my life is going to be for the next 5 months!

I'm off to sleep now, got class at 8am - so trying to get used to some early nights once in a while. Despite the fact how crazy it is that when I wake up, my English friends are still awake and messaging on Whats'app, and when I get in from class the crazy Spanish ratchets are still up too, Lucy Jayne Jones, cough cough. Constantly having to figure out what time everyone else is on is a strange thing to get used to! Slowly getting there, and besides, it is probably a good thing nobody is awake to text me before 3pm, I will have no distractions in class!

Anyways, I will keep updating you when I can. Missing England and the family lots already (even though I am still randomly dreaming about my cat). Lots of love to you all...

丁莉莉 - Ding Li Li

xxx

I LIVE IN CHINA NOW

And this is my address:


Elizabeth Callaghan-Smith
Foreign Students Dorm (North district) ,Fudan University
WuDong Rd, No. 57, Building No.0 Room No.1809
Shanghai 200433, China

OR, if you are brave enough...


中国    上海    武东路57号  

复旦大学留学生公寓0号楼1809房间      

ELIZABETH CALLAGHAN-SMITH  同学收

I shall blog soon, when I actually get a break in this crazy, tiring little chinese life of mine!

Lots of love x

Gracias a mis Malagueños

It's suddenly dawned on me that tomorrow is my last full day here in Malaga. I have a lot of packing to do and a lot to still tick off my to do list before leaving. But I'm so sad, it's actually coming to an end and it's time to take the next big step.

This post is going to be somewhat soppy, and you may laugh or judge me however you want, pero no me importa. It is hard to thank everyone individually and tell them how much I've appreciated their presence here in Malaga so this is why I'm doing it this way!

Guys, every single on of you, from my absolute closest friends, to friends we drink with, people who we spent the first few weeks at el palo with, or to people that I just say hello to whilst walking through the city, this message is genuinely from the heart (and I havent even been drinking!)...

I'd like to thank you for all the help and support you've given me over the last few months. Without realising it, you all made coming back to Malaga, after the worst few weeks of my life, something that was challenging but so much better with you guys around. You all have helped me feel so much like this place is home and I can't express how great that's been at times when all I wanted to do was give up and go home completely.

I know it sounds ridiculous, and you all think I've been incredibly strong but I couldn't have done it without you guys, just the company, boring classes, and even the boozy nights out, you all have made me constantly smile and laugh since. You kept me on a positive track, enjoying the year abroad just how Dad would have wanted me too.

I'm so unbelievably sad this half in Malaga is coming to an end. I've made so many friends here and I love you all so much. I genuinely hope that for those out of the UK, it really won't be long until we see each other again. It's such a strange thought that people who have shared the craziest 6 months of my life with me, may not be in my life in the near future, or even ever again.

I don't care how cheesy it sounds but I do want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. You've been the best and your support and happiness has made me the inspiration you all say I am.

For those of you staying, enjoy the rest and party hard ratchet style, and for those of you leaving too, good luck in your next adventures. I am going to miss you all so much, and have made some unbelievable memories with you guys.

Muchos besos guapos xxxxx