The Journey is almost over

Ten Thousand words later and I sit here writing the description of our final
two days in Hangzhou. The last three weeks feel like a blur so I am so glad
I have made the effort to keep a record of what happened. I am sure there
will still be many things that I have forgotten and still have to share.
Thursday was a long day; we had ten 15min presentations to get through. We
started out a 9am and there was a variety of presentation.. Some were
great... others made me want to cry! I have a new respect for teachers. At
lunchtime Ashleigh and I headed off to meet our tutor assistant to be taken
to the English Corner. We had no idea what to expect or who to expect but
were pleasantly surprised when we were met with ten students that simply
wanted to talk with us in English.

The afternoon was spent listening to more presentations and by the end of
the day I was over it! We got back to the apartment and celebrated a long
day with the other tutors before heading out to dinner. We went to the
hotel next to the apartment. Far out... talk about a feast! They have a
room and you go in and point at the dishes you want or at the seafood and
they whip it up for you! There was so much food but was a great way to
celebrate the end of the course.

Today I woke up feeling better but I am still fighting off a cold and sore
throat. We headed to the College for the final time and gave back the
presentation results and helped the students fill out their individual
reflections and group evaluations. We quiet often catch the students here
taking sneaky little photos of us on their phones. I saw one girl and said
to her... do you want a photo? So giggles and all we did before a young lad
wanted a photo too. I put my arm around him and the class room erupted with
laugher. We then posed for numerous photos with heaps of different students
and exchanged goodbyes. There are some beautiful students in our class and
it was an absolute pleasure to work with each one of them. After three weeks
you become quite fond of them!
We have also exchanged email addresses so hopefully we can stay in touch :-)

We then went to a formal lunch with all the NMIT tutors (those staying in
the apartments with us) and with Pan the vice-dean of the business school
here. Once again it was a banquet of food, duck, fish, prawns, mushrooms,
chicken livers, beef (amazing!), soup, noodles and some sweet bread. I am
going to miss the food here that's for sure! Following this we picked up my
suits... the jackets fit and look amazing but the skirts need to be taken in
a little bit... my hips aren't that big! Hehe..So if anyone knows a tailor
that could take two skirts in for me I would appreciate t!

We then spent a good half hour trying to either catch a taxi or bus home.
The buses had sooo many people on them that the doors wouldn't close..It was
a hot day and I was not overly keen to play sardines! We finally caught a
taxi and headed back to the apartments for a sleep and to watch the rugby.
I helped John mark half of the individual reflections before and during the
first half of the game. We then shot down to the markets for the last time
and brought a few more socks (six pairs for $2NZD) and some eye makeup...
then to wu-mart for the last time to buy some candy and zip lock bags for
the journey home.

The good news is everything fits in my bag...although the real test will be
when we check in to see the weight.

We are ready to go... so looking forward to coming home but not to the 30
hours it's going to take to get there. I am looking forward to scrambled
eggs... (Don't ask why because I don't know!) And to not being starred at
while walking down the street. There are many things I will miss about
this city and country though.

We leave the apartments at 8am our time, our domestic flight is at 11am. We
then have about 5hours in Hong Kong before we fly to Auckland at 6pm our
time. We might have a chance to do our school work at the airport.. But
really that's not fun!

I will post again once I get home and will continue to post as I remember
things and as I actually get a chance to reflect on my experiences here in
China.

Take care lovely people xx

A Few More West Lake Pickies

West Lake

Tuesday & Wednesday - now only two more days to go

Hey you!
Sorry I haven't posted for the last few days, time is rushing past and
sometimes it hard to remember to stop and take a breath!
Yesterday (Tuesday 18th - Dads Birthday!)
John and I headed off to school without Ash and I told her she needed
another day in bed..talk about bossy..gosh! Oh well.. I cut her up some
oranges, took her a bottle of water and some napkins and told her to watch
movies until we got home. We is starting to feel better today..however I am
starting to feel unwell. Have a mean as sore throat :-( so if you pray..say
a little prayer for me! Thanks :-) I am tucking into the fruit and taking
all sorts of Asian drugs to keep well..ok so not that many but you get the
picture that I am trying to look after myself.

We taught for the morning yesterday and then headed for lunch.. I got what I
thought was mushrooms (you get one meat, two vege dishes and rice for lunch.
It's in this big hall and you kind of point at what dishes you want.. heck
you have no idea what you are eating but you still point and hope for the
best.. turns out it was far from mushrooms instead it was actually seaweed..
epic fail! Ha..

I then went up to the classroom and worked on my final report for Advanced
Applied Marketing before Steve turned up to test the reading of the
students. I stayed and helped him oversee the test before we caught the bus
back to Wu-Mart. I then walked home all by myself! (don't tell my mum..ok
yes I know she has probably already read this!). We had a much needed lazy
afternoon and watched a chick flick before heading out for dinner. I
watched the first half of fast and furious 5 before realizing it's a
massively long movie and going to sleep.

Today (Wednesday)

We got up at the normal time - which means to be 6am.. heck I have never
been a morning person. We got on the B1 bus into town and went to the Silk
Market one last time, I got a sa-weet as outfit for my Nephew... it has
dragons on it and everything, not that he needed any encouragement with the
whole ninja thing!

We then caught a taxi to west lake, this is another World Heritage Site, we
paid $12NZD each and got on a boat and were paddled out to the main Island
and around - spend an hour on the water. It was so beautiful, hardly any
people, hardly any noise just sunshine and a slight rocking motion. I have
some amazing photos (well I think) from this wee visit Ill post a few
shortly but will figure out a way to post lots when I get home. Those of you
that are my friends on facebook I will upload them here first.

After the boat ride we walked around the edge of the lake with an ice cream
(they have amazing ice creams here!) and caught a taxi back to Marriot
Hotel. Ash had found a Puma outlet store on the same road so we got dropped
off and kind of walked down the street in the general direction hoping that
we would find it. We did! Which was a success in itself but we didn't find
any shoes that fitted! They have such small feet over here you struggle to
find any shoes that fit - guess this is a good thing for my bank balance!

By this time Ash and I were hanging out for some food and a sit down, you do
A LOT of walking in this country. We found a Pizza Hut and flip it was
flash and clean! We order a traditional pizza and it was amazing! Honestly
it's the small things in life - AND THE TOILETS WERE NORMAL.. ahh :-)

We then caught a taxi back to the apartment and worked on school work for
our students. The final report is due tomorrow (or so they think) and so
they have been emailing their reports asking for feedback. We spent about an
hour working on these before heading out for dinner. I brought some cold and
flu tablets (well what I am told are cold and flu tablets). I am now gonna
watch the second half of my movie before a massive day tomorrow.

Tomorrow all the groups have to deliver a 15min presentation. We will be
working from 8.30am -3pm which doesn't sound like a lot but heck in China it
is! Ash and I also have this thing as lunch time with the first year
students.. who knows what that will turn out to be. We also think Pan the
vice dean wants to take us out for dinner.. we are hoping this is tomorrow
night and not Friday as we will need to pack to come HOME!

I also hope our tailor made clothes from Shanghai arrive tomorrow.. I am
holding out to see my suits!!!!

Two more days before we leave.. our domestic flight to Shanghai leaves
Hangzhou at 11am on Saturday but we have to leave the apartments at 8am - I
figured out its going to be a 30hour journey home between airport waits and
flights.. just as well it's worth it hey!

Love to you all, take care, look after one another..

xx

Once again please excuse any spelling or gramatical mistakes - we have
decided that in China you get a 'China Brain' much like a 'mummy brain'.
Even the simplistic things are so hard here. I was trying to figure out how
much change out of 100 after dinner one night.. took me 30mins! Hehe xx

Not long until we are home!

Hey Hey
So the mighty All Blacks were victorious! Nothing like a convincing ABZ win
to make you sleep well at night :-) we headed into the city and arrived at
the sports bar, it's under the Marriot Hotel. We were really worried that
we need to get there early to get a good seat.. Well we were the only ones
there! It was sweet! We watch the game on a big screen while enjoying some
drinks and nibbles.. yum! So proud that we won.. we then played some pool
and darts before heading back to our apartments and heading out for some
dinner. We had an incredible banquet of food, a full fish bones and all
cooked in a red sauce, dumplings, rice, crispy pork, an assortment of
mushrooms just to name a few.
Content and tired we came home and went to bed around 10.30pm.

I still can't get over how tired I feel. Even spending a day teaching can
make you feel so wasted! We got up this morning and headed to the College.
Ash came with us although she is still feeling average. We brought her some
Chinese drugs and cough medicine which could kill the bugs. We taught in
the morning and then helped Steve the English language tutor oversee the
reading test he had set for our class in the arvo. We then caught the B1
bus into Wu-Mart, 40 cents NZD! We met up with John and headed back down to
the shoe market. This is my favourite way to pass time :P

We headed home and rested for a few hours before heading down stairs for a
farewell drink with Di as she is heading back to New Zealand early tomorrow
morning. We have just got back from another fest at dinner. Prawns,
dumplings, rice and many other veges... yum!

We are looking forward to coming home. It's strange the closer it is before
we come home the harder it is to stay here. We love our time here and don't
want to leave yet the last few days are feeling really hard. We have a full
on week, tomorrow conduct the last lectures before a much needed day off on
Wednesday. Then Thursday we are assessing the team's oral presentations all
day. Lisa has also arranged for Ash and I to speak to the first year
students. I think they want to practice their English or something. I have
no idea what to expect or what we will be doing but I will be sure to let
you know on Thursday night. Friday will then be the individual reflections
before packing to leave the apartment at 8am on Saturday.

We are going to check out the local hotel to see if we can catch the game on
Friday. Would be kind of ironic if they are showing it considering we went
all the way into town to watch the last game.

Hope everyone is warm and well :-)

Much love New Zealand

xx

Blue Sky!

One week until we come home!

Time just flys by and the shopping is seriously starting to mount up… Hmm where did I learn this trait from? MOTHER! Hehehe J

Today John and I headed to the school and taught in the morning on APA referencing and on group dynamics, we had lunch and then I was keen to get back to see how Ash was feeling.

We got home about 12.30pm, Ash had a good sleep but was still feeling average so John went and got her some drugs.  I Skyped my family and Melissa, Kim and Han before doing some more school work. I can’t get over how tough it is to study in this country, it’s so hard to get into the head space to do your work, and it’s also difficult because you are battling with tiredness.

We headed to the supermarket and got a few essentials for the game and then came home to see the kick off via Skype.   After the game we went for a walk and found somewhere for dinner.  We found this cute little place with a picture menu (very important) and had a plate of dumplings, a drink each and a meal of pork, veges and rice.  All for $8NZD- Not each .. TOTAL! Crazy!

I am gonna have a shower and jump into bed to watch a movie.  I think Ash will stay home again tomorrow.  We are going to head into the city at about 2pm tomorrow in time to get a sa-weet spot for the big game!  Can’t wait.  Might be a long taxi ride home if we don’t get the desired outcome.

And R & R to answer your question… we are just eating the bread plain.. I wanted to find some meat or cheese or something to put on it but it all looks so suss that I am not keen to try it!  But they have really yum yoghurt here so I have been having that in the morning.  The fruit is also beautiful here, we have found a ‘dragon fruit’ which is pink with layers on the outside but when you cut into it its white with little black pips like kiwi fruit.  It tastes like a weak melon mixed with a kiwi fruit.. But of course not as yum!

Off to watch my movie, might be Monday before I write again... could be a late night getting home from the city tomorrow.

Take care, look after each other… Much love

Lucy xx

Watching the Rugby

Thanks to Christine Inglis that set up Skype to point at the TV so that we could watch the Wales vs. France Semi-Final.

 

Shopping - Open Air Night Market

Hey Hey

Time if flying past in hours and in days, only one more week before we head home.  Far out time has speed by!

Yesterday we taught in the morning and worked with our groups on the content of the proposal which was due later that day.  Before we knew it we had been told that Tony Gray the CEO of NMIT was arriving at 11am and our class was to head to the meeting hall at 10.30 for his arrival. We knew that Tony was going to be at the College but we didn’t know what was planned. 

At 10.30am we walked into this hall with our class to find a big banner that said something like… Welcome to President Tony Gray from NMIT.  There was also another banner at the front of the school that said Welcome to Tony Gray and the NMIT Delegation.  Ash and I decided that ‘and delegation’ must be for us!

Tony arrived and gave the students the chance to ask questions about life in New Zealand and student life at NMIT.  Then they decided it would be a good idea to get Ashleigh and I up from the front row to answer questions.  Well this was a good idea and I didn’t have a problem with it however the questions we got asked were very hard to answer. The first was… how much does it cost to get laser eye surgery in New Zealand?  The second was along the lines of how do international students meet kiwi students. Aside from interaction with the students in our classes I do not know the procedures or systems that are in place to care for this student. I know they exist and we have them but I don’t know what they are.

After this the Tony and the party accompanying him left to go to lunch while Ashleigh, Steve and I were hosted by Lisa and Nissy members of the student communist party.  I think they are involved in a student council as such but heck they know what is happening more than we do sometimes!

We ate locus which was yum, prawns, we left the duck and of course  ate rice.  We also had this dessert thing that was made of egg, milk, wine and it also had some coloured sprinkles in it... kinda freaky lol. But I made a promise to myself that I would try everything at least once.

Follow this we came home and worked on our research before heading to the mall.  I brought a long sleeve top / dress thing, a singlet and a pair of long tights for $20NZD.  We then got the reports printed, ate dinner and then sat down in our apartment to start marking them.  There were 10 proposals all about 10 pages long. John marked and Ashleigh and I went through and wrote feedback sheets for each team. We finished about 11.30pm and jumped into bed for a much needed sleep.

Today was similar in that we headed to class and worked with the groups for the first two hours. Returning proposals, discussing feedback and overseeing team meetings. All those that handed in their proposals past!  After lunch we returned to class to answer any questions for one hour before heading back to the apartments for nana naps J

At 5.30pm we headed into the city on the B1 bus – it cost 60c NZ for a 45min bus ride into town. We then sussed out the sports bar in which we are going to watch the All Blacks winning game on Sunday before heading to the open air Night Market. 

The night market was full of people but awesome!  I brought a bag, wallet, three perfumes, three pairs of socks, a key ring for my dear friend Michelle, a gift for Sarah and a birthday present for my beautiful friend Renee Christieson.  All l for about $80NZD.  I now have lots of bags and lots of clothes and presents to bring home!  Just as well I didn’t bring lots of clothes over!

That’s all for now folks, love to you all

Lucy xx

HIGHLIGHTS:

Shopping in the night markets

Seeing the faces of students when they understand a concept and when they get good marks

Subway for dinner! Ye-ah!

LOWLIGHTS:

We are all feeling a bit sick; I have ordered Ashleigh to stay home tomorrow as she has a cold. John and I will teach instead. No problem we just don’t want her to get so sick she doesn’t enjoy the rest of the trip.  I think the shopping tonight helped.

I am also being bitten by mosquitoes... I think when I am sleeping at night. So tonight I am wearing tights to bed and have sprayed my room with fly spray... if its not cockroaches it’s something else!  Thankfully we haven’t found any more!

INTERESTING:

John was wiping down the chalkboard after he had written on it (at the end of class).  A student that was still in the class room came up to John and insisted that he stop cleaning the board as its wasn’t his job and that there was stuff to do that.  Each time we return to the class after lunch the classroom has been cleaned and the board is clear.

Quiet often we will either Ashleigh or I will here ‘Dam it’ coming from the bathroom.  We keep forgetting that you cant clean your teeth with the water from the tap.
 

The lights in the city tonight

School Work and Rain

Hey Hey

And just like that another day bites the dust.  We are still up marking 10 proposals and providing students with a individual sheet of feedback.  I will update you on today in the morning :)

Not long until the semi-finals! hehe..

Sleep Well x

Lazy Day

Hey

Once again thanks so much for all the emails and comments – Jessie, R & R, My Aunty Jane, Georgie, David, Deb, Melissa just to name a few.  Love it!

Today has been a very lazy day – a much needed one and as I write I am still absolutely stuffed.  I woke up at 7am (which is a sleep in) and did some study before getting up and having a shower.  Had just got dressed when we heard this massive sound – like bombs going off. Luckily John has warned us that in China they set off fireworks to celebrate weddings.  Flip they were loud and if I didn’t know what they were I would have been freaking. Apparently they chuck them out the window of the car as it travels too.. go figure. We heard two more sets of fireworks before the day was done.

We continued to study and did some housework before heading out for lunch. We ended up back at Wu-mart and brought some Sushi for lunch, ironic hey.  Then we did some more school work and decided to watch a movie.  Trouble is we have a wooden couch so we had to pile the duvets on to be able to sit on it for any length of time.  We popped down to get dinner at about 7pm, its always interesting ordering dinner.  Although there are pictures sometimes what you think you ordered and what you get are completely different! Ha.

Tomorrow we start the home stretch with teaching. We have 9 days of straight teaching before we come home.  Its China and each day you just have to take it as it comes.  Tony Gray the CEO of NMIT will be in Hangzhou tomorrow so we hope to meet up with him even if it’s just briefly.

Take care my cool cats.

Hopefully I will have more and exciting adventures to share with you tomorrow.

Much love

Lucy x

P.S its a mission to post photos so will upload some at a later date :)

Our Trip to Shanghai Yesterday

Shanghai

Our day two days off and our shopping trip had arrived. We were both super
excited, although we had to leave at 6.45am!
We walked to the taxi stand and got a taxi into Hangzhou city to the train
station (an hour's taxi journey cost about $15NZD), we then brought our
tickets for the 'G Train' into Shanghai. This cost all of $16NZD for an
hour's journey. The G train is awesome, it travels at 300km and it's a
quick way to see the sights between Hangzhou and Shanghai. Once we arrived
at the Shanghai we walked up two floors to catch the subway a few stops to
the city centre. Once we got there we jumped on a bus tour - for $20NZD we
could take three different routes around Shanghai. It was a double Decker
bus and we got to sit up the top in the uncovered area to take photos while
listening to the commentary.

We went through the French area with tree lined streets and beautiful old
apartments, saw some old temples before changing buses to be taken down to
the bunt. This looks out across to the 'new Shanghai'. The buildings and
skyline are truly breath taking! The reason why it's called this is because
15 years ago this area was swamp land and they have now built a whole new
city on the other side of this massive bridge. We got off here and took so
more photos like true tourists, grabbed and ice cream and make a quick
comfort stop. October is the month for weddings up here so we quiet often
see brides getting photos at prestigious locations like the bunt. What
impressed Ashleigh and I was we saw a bride come out of the toilet fully
dressed in her bridal gown. She had managed to do her business with streams
and streams of fabric and walked out like it wasn't a problem. Ash and I
battle to use the Chinese style toilets at the best of times, let alone with
a flippn wedding dress on. SORRY if that's an over share but I was totally
impressed!

We took the bus around the spiral of the bridge that joined the old Shanghai
and new Shanghai before getting off and making our way back down into the
subway to find the shopping mall - which is within the subway but a few
floors up. The shopping was A-MAZING! We got our bearing and began in the
jewelry section. Diane knows a specific shop so we went in and met Cindy,
they gave us bottle of water and cute little baskets as we made our way
around the shop. Brilliant Marketing FYI! I brought a pressie for my Mumma
and a few earrings and a bracelet which cost me $11NZD!!

We then headed to the clothes section and to the tailor. Peter (another NMIT
lecturer) wanted to get a coat and I ended up looking around the store and
saw a blue suit - blazer and skirt. Before I knew it I had been measured up
and she was going to send me a tailor made suit for a very good price. I
then decided I should get another. So I walked away with a blue suit and a
black suit, tailor made for $260NZD. They will send them to the college
next week once they have been made. Both of mine are cashmere. Stoked! Now I
just have to find the job to wear them too once I graduate! Ha!

I also purchased a north face jacket, a carry on suit case, a new handbag
and pressie for Rog (no not the golf club sorry rog!). By 5pm we were all
stuffed and decided to make the long trek back to Hangzhou. We caught a
packed subway train back to the train station. This train station is one
rugby field wide and four rugby fields long! 24 trains come into this
station carry about 1000 passengers each time. The subway trains also come
into this transport station but on another floor. Its HUGE!

It was an hour back to Hangzhou on the train and then an hour back in the
taxi to our apartments. Was pretty sweet that I brought a carry on cause I
just carried all the shopping in there! Was well worth the three hours
each way to shop though! And the taxi ride was fun back as we were trying
to race the other taxi with Peter and Chris & Di in it. By this time it was
9.30pm but we were still hungry so walked down and got some KFC for
dinner... yum! We got back to the apartment and looked at our purchases
before much needed sleep :-)

Had a good sleep in and today I think I will work on my study and watch some
movies. Might pop down and get some more bread too! It's a half loaf and its
sweeter than New Zealand Bread.
Very happy we have the day off today!

Much love my peeps

Xx

HIGHLIGHTS:
* SHOPPING!
* Sightseeing around Shanghai
* Seeing other westerners in Shanghai! Ha!
* We have some sweet haggling skills now! Ash and I are awesome. You
give them a realistic price and start walking out of the shop if they want
to sell it to you they will chase you or say yes before you leave the shop.

LOWLIGHTS:
* Would have been awesome to spent the night in Shanghai but we don't
have enough time to do so. Doing the sightseeing and shopping in one day
was better than not doing it at all!

INTERESTING:
* The population of Shanghai is the size of Australia!
* You get random smells of sewage in China, you can be walking down a
clean as street but then suddenly there are some fowl smells!

I will upload more pictures when I get back to New Zealand or in Hong Kong
with our five hour wait for the flight home.

P.s I still need another handbag and more shoes before I return home!

X

Shanghai - Day Seven?

Hey
Had an amazing day in Shanghai today.  We have been awake since 5.30am so I will update the blog with all the details tomorrow.  Shopping was amazing! Very happy and content.

Sleep time.. Take Care, Much love x

Day Six - So Hot!

Today started in the normal fashion of waking up ridiculously early.  I normally wake up at 3 am, 5am and then get out of bed between 6-6.30am.  I bet my body clock will be sorted just as we go to leave.

We head to the classroom with an addition of Steve - an English Language Tutor from NMIT. Great guy!  We spent the first hour in class going over the contents of the research proposal in detail.  I am so impressed at how fast my groups are picking up and running with this subject.  The second hour the four groups I have met in one classroom them broke into their own groups to have team meetings and talk through what needed to be done and by whom.  I went around each of my four groups and made sure they were on track and asked them if they had a question for me.  I have one group- the bottom of the streamed class that I hope to drag through!

We decided not to teach in the afternoon as the students need time to actually carry out the work.  We walked out towards the cafeteria and were greeted by a student called Shirley.  Her English language teacher had set homework to talk to Ash and I.  She was very nervous and we had to encourage her to slow down.  We took photos with her and then she insisted to Bluetooth the photo across to Ashleigh's phone so that we had a copy.  We walked down the four flights of stairs to be greeted by another mob of students with the same homework!  We just wrote our names and that we were from NMIT in their books and they were happy as... it was a fast walk / run to get away!

We had lunch... and the best part was I was able to find POTATOS! yusss... but it was soo hot!  About 26 with 90-95% humidity.  This meant it was flippn hot in the lunch hall.  The thing is that this is getting cold for these students; Hangzhou has past summer so this doesn’t feel hot to them. so NO aircon?!

We got back to the apartments and worked on our own school work for a few hours before going for a stroll around the apartment complex. The kids here are sooo beautiful.  Their faces light up when you say hello to them - in English of course.  We saw Chris and went to the bakery with him... we found normal bread and chocolate cake... score!

We heading to See Straights for dinner and had pizza again before doing a wee shop at a busy Wu-Mart.

We managed to run into another westerner on our walk back to the apartment. Turns out the hotel he is staying at has a Kiwi Chef and they are showing all the RUGBY LIVE! So we are planning to head down there to watch both semi-finals on the weekend.  So thrilled about that!

We are heading to Shanghai tomorrow for some serious shopping. I am so excited about it. John has asked that I take a moment before I go shopping crazy! Ha funny!  We are leaving at 6.45am so it’s an early start tomorrow.

Shower time and then sleep.

"Stay Classy New Zealand"

Lucy

HIGHLIGHTS:

Potatoes, bread, chocolate cake and live screening of the RWC on the weekend!

LOWLIGHTS:

INTERESTING:

• The College plays music at random times throughout the day to relax the students so they remain calm.
• Your not allowed a boyfriend / girlfriend until 21
• Traffic drive on the right side of the road so we have nailed the keeping right in the hallways but are still remembering this when we cross the road!
• There are some awesome 'chi-glish' t-shirts over here.  English that has been translated wrong. So awesome!
• I have caught a few students taking sneaking photos of us in class - kind of weird being a 'celebrity'
• Students when they enroll at the college can decide to have an English name.  They name themselves.  Kind of cool but today Tim decided he wanted to be called Jason and they guy that was Jason decided he wanted to now be called king.  Hard to keep up!

The Water College

Our first lunch out

Wetlands

Love this pic!

Typical Phone call

Day Five

Hey all you lovely people

Once again thanks so much for all your kind emails.  Its the little things that make you feel special and receiving all your emails is flippn awesome.  Its amazing how in a city that has twice the population of New Zealand you can feel so isolated when there is only a few 'westerns' around.

Today we were back at the Water College to teach.  We spent the morning in the class room going through research questions and ensuring that the concept of the proposal was understood. Its not that these students aren’t smart - flip they are, its more they need an understanding of the method and concept of this paper. They understand the content just fine! 

At 11am went walked across the road out of the College and into the student area - this has two three story cafeterias that feed 7500 people everyday for lunch and dinner.  Students have no cooking facilities in their rooms so they rely  on the campus to feed them.  We has our traditional one meat and two veges with rice.  I am getting awesome at eating everything with chopsticks - rice, whole pieces of meat. ye-ah!

After lunch we found a shop and brought a drink and some note books to be able to record the progress of each of the groups we are working with - I have three groups which is about 17 students.

We drew up a game plan for the afternoon in the library on the fourth floor as there is aircon and its was 26degrees today!

We then met the students and sat out on the grass under the shade and worked with each individual group to finalize research questions and objectives before letting them loose to work as a group independently of us on their proposals.   It was intense hour but we are really happy with the progress each group is making.  There are however some groups that havent even turned up for class and that have no chance of passing at all.

We got a taxi back to the apartments and managed to watch the All Blacks game on skype as John's wife Christine of Astrolabe (go check them out in mot!) pointed the computer at the tv.. was awesome!

At about 7.30pm we walked down the street and found a restaurant that has a picture menu and ordered some dinner. I got prawns.. so yum. We got fried rice but not as we know it in NZ, some other form of meat, a fish dish and a vege dish.. yum!

We are now working on some course work for our students before heading to bed.  We also have to start thinking about our own research projects that are due a week after we get home. I havent had a chance to look at it yet but hoping to get on to this tomorrow.  We are heading to Shanghai for the day on Tuesday as Tuesday and Wednesday are holidays in this area as Hangzhou are hosting the 'special games' of china.  Wednesday will hopefully be a muck around day where we can sleep and do homework.

Apparently the shopping in Shanghai  is crazy.. I am so looking forward to it. More than happy to add some kilograms to my baggage on the way home!

Thanks for dropping by to read :)

Thats all for now.

Lucy x

HIGHLIGHTS:

Watching the All Blacks Play!

LOWLIGHTS:

INTERESTING:

We have seen numerous people with umbrellas when its not even that sunny, finally realized that they want to keep their skin white all the time as it is a sign of status.  The whiter you are the higher up the food chain you are.. sa-weet deal for me!

Day Four - The Teaching Begins!

Today was our first day teaching, once again we had no idea what we were
walking into but yet that seems to be the common theme of this trip! We
arrived at the College at 8am and were greeted by the vice dean of the
Business school. We was lovely and John was stoked that we remembered how
to receive a business card - with two hands standing and then to place it on
the desk face up. Apparently this showed huge respect, was nice to know we
did this correctly.

We then went to the class to meet the students. It was crazy as we didn't
know the level of English or their names but they started to warm up to us.
There was a lot of starring at our hair and laughing when I was introduced -
maybe my name means something funny in Chinese? Had a little insecure
moment! We talked for about two hours about the course and what was expected
before lunch. Over here its two hours long, we walked across the road to
one of two cafeterias and walked to the third floor. I had twice cooked pork
with a bok choy and picked swead maybe and some rice.. and a coke of course.

Following this we returned to the class room and broke into groups. The
class has been streamed on academic results and then given one of three
topic areas. I am helping the groups that are looking at 'Innovation and
Imitation Strategies' used by companies in business. So I had groups
1,4,7,10. It took a wee while for each student to get their head around the
fact that this was only the topic subject not the actual research question.
We then spend the next hour working this through hoping to form these
questions as we are on a tight schedule. It was good, I can understand how
teaching can be rewarding :) By the end of the day we were all really good
friends and any anxieties I had about teaching were gone.

At 5.30-6pm so we decided to head to the western restaurant 10mins down the
road as I was not going to eat noodles for dinner again! Well not this week
anyway. We ordered garlic bread, chips and pizza. It's crazy how much I am
craving our food.. it's not like I don't like Chinese food. I guess it's the
little comforts of home?

This country really makes you think. I almost feel guilty that I haven't
made the effort to get to know those students that are in our classes back
home. I appreciate that there are hesitancies on both sides yet each
culture has so much to offer the other. I will never be able to teach these
students to the same degree that they have taught me already. I am hoping
that I can play my part back home to be more engaging and to further help
NMIT with this venture until the duration of my study.

Tomorrow we are back in the class room but not until 9am so a wee sleep in.
Haven't even looked at my own marketing research project but will attempted
to get on to that tomorrow night now that we have wireless sorted in the
apartment.

Happy Holidays to all you NMIT students!

Lucy x

HIGHLIGHTS:
Meeting the students and seeing the 'ah-ha' moment when they understand what
it is they have to achieve
Having Pizza for dinner
Clean toilets at the college - a strange highlight I know, yet compared to
the ones we have used previously these toilets look like thrones!

LOWLIGHTS:
We are not going to be able to watch the Australia, South Africa quarter
tomorrow as we will still be in class. Its gonna be an awesome game!

INTRESTING:
I was explaining to some of the students here that in New Zealand Blonde's
are made fun of and are often called silly or stupid. They were absolutely
shocked that this was the case but loved that we had both topped this paper
when we had taken it.

Sore Feet & Shopping, Day Three

Hey Hey

Thanks to all those that have stopped by to read my blogs. I know that are a
'Novel' (M. Laing, 2011) but I hope you are enjoying hearing about my
experiences.
Today we heading to the World Heritage site - The Wetlands. We were
escorted and shouted by the Water College and had a lovely translator and
guide in Elaine, a first year student doing business English.
We spend two hours walking around this site. Was beautiful and peaceful
which made a change from the craziness of the city. The wetlands are
beautiful in context but New Zealand kicks butt when it comes to landscapes
and beauty. However I am told that China also has these sites but just not
where we are.
The Wetlands was filled with lots of domestic Chinese tourists. The kids
over here are sooo cute and they love saying hello to you, some follow you
and others point you out to their parents. The people are so genuine,
hospitable and accepting. We got many photos of this ancient wetlands and
the buildings within it.

After finding our way out of the Wetlands (not as easy as it looks) we got
back in the van and next thing we knew we were at this Chinese Restaurant.
Ashleigh and I exchanged looks of panic as we walked in and had no idea what
was about to face us. John and our driver went and selected the food while
Ash and I scouted out how the rest of the people were eating and what they
were eating with and what plate belonged to what meal etc. We ate bamboo
shoots, mushrooms, cucumber (a saving grace), rice, octopus & spring onions
- which I thought was duck.. yeah nah it wasn't.
The food just kept coming, deep fried prawns (AMAZING), a whole fish, a bowl
with a soup filled with dumplings, ham and god knows what else! We also had
these crispy pumpkin thing. Even though our driver could not speak English
he was the most amazing host, always raising his glass to us, ensuring that
our glasses were never empty, showing us how to eat stuff, clapping when we
used the chopsticks for something that was hard to pick up. He was lovely.
It was an experience using chopsticks to eat the whole meal but It was good
practice and gives us an insight into what to expect for lunch at the Water
College tomorrow.

After we got back to the apartments we skyped and had a wee nana nap before
meeting up with Chris & Di and heading down to the local markets. Di is the
most amazing barterer, she has a PHD is shopping so we were keen for her to
show us around. We went back and I got one of the two jackets I liked. I am
a LARGE! Ha! The other one had sold in two days. We then went to the shoe
market and I brought a pair of try hard adidas running shoes for $14NZD. We
grabbed some food from the supermarket and headed back to the apartment.

Its 9pm and we are going to go over the course work as tomorrow is our first
day in the class room. It was great having Elaine today as it gave us a bit
of an insight into how to interact with the students that will be in our
class. Looking forward to it but not sure what to expect.. mind you that's
the theme of this whole trip!

I love how everything we have done is building upon itself to give us an
insight into what is coming next. The trips to the supermarket, the trips
on public transport, the shopping, eating out. As we take in each of these
things it starts to prepare us for the next day. Love that!

I have sore as feet.. all we do it walk all day and every day. Hoping these
new shoes will help with that.

We are still working on how we are going to view the All Blacks game this
weekend. Not so fussed about this one but really want to see the Semi Final.
John told me SBW is on the wing and Zac Gilford is injured? In some ways
it's nice to be removed from the pressure of the build up to these big
games.

Looking forward to sharing how tomorrow goes..

Does anyone have any questions they would like me to answer?

Much love always

Lucy xx

HIGHLIGHTS:
The amazing food at the restaurant
The awesome jacket I brought
The price of everything here!

LOWLIGHTS:
Sore feet.. guess that's the price to pay for good shopping

INTERESTING:

Cute girls at the wetlands

Wetlands

Ashleigh, Elaine and Me at the wetlands

Farewell To Steve Jobs

What Blog would be complete without a tribute to Steve Jobs?

I found this quote from him which I think is powerful and certainly a
reminder to all of us to live each day as it presents itself.

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die
to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever
escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the
single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the
old to make way for the new. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living
someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the
results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions
drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to
follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly
want to become. Everything else is secondary." - Steve Jobs

:-)

Silk Markets

Bus Stop

People like to park where ever!

Shopping

Day Two

Its only day two and we have seen so much.. once again it is hard to
distinguish where the day begins and ends.
We had a reasonably good sleep last night, I slept into 5am (which is 10am
NZ time) so the body clock is still adjusting and despite jetlag tables I
still feel a bit Jetlagged especially when I am sitting still for periods of
time. Hopefully another good night's sleep and that will change.

Once again thank you for the emails! So nice :-)

We left the apartments just after 9am and caught the B1 bus into Hangzhou
City, this is a 40min journey and cost approx 60cents NZD. It was a new
experience to say the least! Figuring out where to pay and how much to pay
was just the start. They have one dollar notes and coins over here.. it's
really weird trying to figure out which ones to use and when. The bus was
filled and there was only standing room.. a great way to be introduced to
the locals. This coupled with the random breaking to avoid other vehicles
and presidents was intense. Oh and did I mention no air con?

We got off the Bus and had a brief look at the upper class shops, the likes
of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Tiffany and Co. Even in China these
shops are not cheap so it was window viewing! We then walked to what is
known as the Silk Market. As far as I know it is where Marco Polo used to
bring the silk into China. It was an older looking street with lots of
shops holding silk scarves, dresses and nightwear. I had my first experience
at bartering, I had found a cool scarf with different shades of brown in
it. She wanted 80 Yuan for it.. which is about $16 NZD, we agreed on 55 so
I am okay with that. It's kind of weird, not something we are used to as
Kiwi's. They use the calculator to talk about prices which is kind of cool.

Following a break and an orange drink we finished the silk market and
crossed the road to a mall that isn't really known to 'westerners'. It was
in here I found a pair of brown boots.. nothing flash but a standard
wardrobe item ( I can hear the girls agreeing with me!). We used the
calculator to figure out my size which is in USA sizes. I am a 40 which is
a size 8, which is large over here! The lady wanted 280 Yuan, I had 200,
she said 260 and I said no and got up to leave. She walked away - I thought
it was all over.. was really keen to buy them! Next thing I know she has
them in a bag and is handing them to me.. felt kind of stoked about that.
Many of you know that I am competitive so now I am thinking about how much
cheaper I could have got them for! Mind you that works out to be $40NZD so
not bad!

Antique street was where we heading to next, it is just that a very old
street dripping with heritage and culture. Lots of cute shops and old
sculptures. I brought a bling ring and Ash brought some sunnys. I then
needed to go to the bathroom.. which brings with it a sinking feeling. If
you think the public toilets or NMIT toilets are bad.. you have NO IDEA! We
found a Mc Donald's in this old street.. this speaks volumes in itself but
that's another story. We went to the second level and joined the line for
the female bathrooms. Well there were two.. it turns out one was a
traditional one and one was a hole in the ground. It wasn't until afterward
that Ashleigh and I compared notes that I realized I got the short end of
the stick! The hole in the ground made me feel like I was going to vomit
the smell was soooo yuck! Let's just say it wasn't the cleanest toilet and I
am pretty sure that I got Pee on my shoes through no fault of my own!!!
Yuck! John just laughs at us as we relive each toilet experience. Hand
sanitizer is our best friend!

After that delightful experience we caught a taxi back to where we started
by the bus stop. I was craving French fries so we found a KFC. Have you
ever tried to order a zinger burger in a language you don't understand?
There was a lot of pointing at the pictures and hand gestures... I got a
combo.. it wasn't a zinger burger (which Ash successfully ordered) but it
still had chicken in it and it tasted good! Yum! By this time we were so
stuffed as we had been walking for six hours. More than that it is very
tiring being in a different place with basic tasks like using the bathroom
and ordering fast food being a mission!

We wanted to make sure we caught the right bus home so we waited for four
buses to pass by before we got on. Yeah Nah it was the wrong bus we ended
up two blocks over from our apartments. This wasn't a problem in theory as
we could just hail down a taxi to zip us back. Well we couldn't, every taxi
that went past was full so we ended up walking half way back. We finally
caught one and ended up back at the apartment eight hours after we started.

Chris & Diane and Peter are tutors that are up here also, staying a floor
below us. So once we had got home we went and said hi and spent some time
socializing with them. By 7pm I was ready for some Kai so ventured out back
to Wu-Mart. We brought some noodles for dinner, some strange looking fruit
which I am told is a melon, a pot plant to try and make our apartment
somewhat more ours and a bunch of other stuff. The city is very pretty at
night so we walked back looking at the trees and high rise buildings.

It's now almost 10pm and we have opened the Cadbury chocolate and I might go
make a Milo before bed. We are heading to a World Heritage site tomorrow -
The wetlands. Some of the students from the college are going to show us
around as this has been organized especially for us. Should be fun!

I hope you are enjoying hearing the day to day events of my trip.

Although I am loving it here this makes me appreciate New Zealand in such a
greater way! There is NO place like HOME... especially when you're the
future Rugby World Cup Winners!

More tomorrow.

Much Love xxx

Luce

HIGHLIGHTS:
We are on the 9th floor and there is a high rise next to us that is 28
stories. We saw a man in his underwear washing his apartment and just
generally cleaning.. ha!
The people! We saw a man on a scooter today with four LPG bottles smoking..
ironic huh? We also saw a man that had an eye patch on one eye. As we
walked past he lifted up the eye patch to get a better look at us..
priceless! There was also a lady that is one of many employed to clean the
streets.. she stared as us for about 100m before we past each other and
didn't take her eyes off us the whole time. She was driving some sort of
cleaning vehicle. I turned around and saw she was still looking so waved
and said Ni Hao... she LOVED it! So cute.

LOWLIGHTS
... Public toilets... No further comment.
Still haven't got my phone working, I think it's the sim card? I took it
out and put it into Ashleigh's phone and it didn't work. Which is strange
because it worked in Hong Kong. Any further ideas people?

INTERESTING
People hang their washing outside the windows of their apartments. Kind of
looks like a modern slum on some levels.
Babies over here sometimes don't have pants that cover their bums. There is
a triangle missing so you see their bums.. when the wee ones need to go to
the bath room they just place them near a drain and let loose.
We are starting to learn some more of the language. Tonight I learnt how
'excuse me' is said (for the crowds), I also learnt that if you emphasis
different parts of the word and / or different tone it can mean SEX.. mhh
not sure If I want to risk walking through the city attempting this!

Outside our apartment at night

Hangzhou City

A few Pictures From Day One

Hey Folks,

Thanks so those that emailed me to say this update worked :-) it's so nice
to get your emails so please keep them coming! (lucyryan@clear.net.nz).
We are off to the Silk Markets shortly. So far this morning we have found
two more cockroaches! One in the shower and one the lining of Ashleigh's
bag. I need to point out though that our apartment provided by the Water
College is beautiful and that the cockroaches does not reflect the standard
of the apartment! In the five years John has been coming here he has never
seen any.

Will post some more photos later today after we have been out and about.
It's meant to get to 23 here today.. nice!

Photos:
1) Shoes anyone?
2) We are trying to buy washing power.. can you tell?
3) Shopping
4) Another great sign

Sorry if the photos aren't rotated.. sending them from my phone

The FIRST Day, it was a long one!

Hey There Lovely People

I am hoping that this update is actually posted as the blogger website is
actually band. I apologize in advance if this update doesn't make a whole
lot of sense. I have seen away for 26 hours and had 4 hours sleep since we
left Nelson yesterday at 7pm. Where to start. I feel like so much has
happened, it's hard to distinguish between where the day starts and ends!

How about the start?
We left Nelson at 6.50pm yesterday heading to Auckland. Chelsea Whyte
(Chelk) was also on the same flights with us through to Hong Kong, which was
super cool as we got to hang out in Auckland and get some Kai together! Our
flight was a midnight departure.

Luckily after establishing a friendship with 'Ralph' the air hostess John
was able to move to row 53 which had extra leg room. This meant that Ash and
I were able to have a bit more room. We were served dinner two hours into
the flight and shortly after we attempted to sleep. It's kind of ironic but
I had forgotten how long a 'long-haul' flight actually was. The only way I
knew I had been sleeping was when I woke up. Had a weird as dreams too! I
think we got about four hours sleep. At 3.30am Hangzhou time we were woken
for breakfast, this was scrambled eggs! Yum! It was only soon after this we
were preparing to land.

At 6am (Hangzhou time unless stated otherwise) we arrived at Hong Kong
International Airport. It was still dark so we didn't get to see much as we
landed. We said goodbye to Chelk as she transited for her flight to London
(WHAT A TROOPER!). We then cleared security and walked for about 2k to our
gate for our domestic flight with Dragon Airways to Hangzhou. We had to
catch a bus across to the Island at the airport.. was kind of weird. The
flight to Hangzhou was nice, we had a second breakfast - I opted for dim
sun? I guess that's what it's called.. was yum!

At 10am we arrived at Hangzhou, had not problems clearing customs, although
there were a few tense moments. It's funny how another country and a
completely different language can cause you to feel uneasy at times. We
collect our bags.. they all turned up!!! We were met at the gate and driven
to our apartment. Our home away from home for the next three weeks. The
driving over hear is completely crazy. Kim Lyon warned me about it but
nothing can prepare you for it. It's like there are NO road rules and
everyone changes lanes and shifts between the two at pace.. crazy!

We then checked out our apartments, I also discovered that my phone will not
connect or recognize the carriers over here. Its set to automatic but also
gives me the choice of CHN-UNICOM or CHINA MOBILE. Neither or which will
give me service. Which is weird because I had service in Hong Kong? If
anyone has any advice or knows how to fix this it would be soooo
appreciated! The other strange thing is that Ashleigh and Johns phone's
connected fine, with telecom also but don't have an iPhone! How does this
work.. not cool.

Anyway.... We then had a shower and started to feel slightly human again,
was 23 hours in flights / airports / transit etc before we arrived here! We
then decided to go for a walk to Wu-Mart which is the supermarket here.
John took us through one shopping mall.. It was filled with shoe shops as
far as the eye could see, cheap ones that come in every shape, size and
colour. Although we have noticed that EVERYTHING has bling on it. It's
crazy! We went looked at female fashion and males fashion, bags.. you name
it we saw it.. crazy!

Following this we walked back towards Wu-Mart and found another shopping
mall that was slightly more up class.. found two cool as jackets.. SO going
back to get them tomorrow. Hangzhou are heading into winter and there are so
many cool jackets and blazers here! I like almost everyone I see.. We
decided that today was the information gathering mission and that tomorrow
we will purchase. We then entered the supermarket... oh wow! Imagine what
it's like in our local supermarkets when its Christmas time and multiply by
about 100 and then your close to the amount of people that were there. It
took two escalators to get to the right floor to purchase food. We that was
another experience all in itself. Have you ever tried to buy everyday items
in another language that you don't understand! It was awesome.. I brought
two 2 litres of juice, a six pack of coke, two packets of what I think are
potato chips, some yoghurt and a duck meal from the deli for dinner which
totaled approx $12 NZD!

The struggle for today is to stay awake to a reasonable time to reset the
body clock. After eating some chips and realizing that there is nothing to
do in the evenings (the tv channels are all in Chinese and most the awesome
websites are banned :-() we went down and hang out with John. This lead
into a walk around the block, it was about 7pm and a nice temperature. We
ended up back at Wu-Mart and looking at more clothes! Mum I think I have
found a sweet present for you!

We then walked back to the apartments. I then went to make my bed and got
the biggest fright and a cockroach greeted me! I ran down stairs and made
John deal with it.. we found two and threw them off the 9th floor... ha! To
clarify they were under the bed not in the bed.. although I am still a big
scared about going to bed!

HIGHLIGHTS:
* Arriving safe with our bags
* Seeing the city and gaining a taste of what it's like for our
International students at NMIT
* Talking with my Mumma on Skype (Mummy's girl if you haven't already
gathered)

LOW LIGHTS:
* Cockroaches!
* The mopping of the shower to stop the water running out of the
bathroom!
Takes like an extra ten minutes to shower.. the drain is raised so the water
battles!
* Cellphone not working :-(

INTERESTING:
John warned us that we would be looked at as we are Blonde.. I got this but
I didn't get this! It's like we are celebrities.. seriously everyone is
looking at you when you walk down the street or in the supermarket. Some
pretend they aren't looking, others acknowledge you and ask where you are
from other yell hello. Something to get used to I guess.

People spit over here.. they clear their throats and spit. It's so sick and
I hate hearing the sound.. But they when in Rome.. who am I to judge?

'Whispering Death' was a term John always used that I never understood. I do
now. He was referring to the scooters and bikes that people run around in.
You see the cars but sometimes not the bikes.. its full on you always have
to be paying attention to what's going on and where you are walking.

The footpaths and roads here lack the foundation. Apparently this is so
that the workers can come back a year later and have work to do.. It makes
sense in a messed up way. But seams to strange when you are walking down
the street.

Ok beautiful people. Its 2.30am NZ time and 9.30pm here.. it's time for me
to crawl into bed. CHINA is incredible, learning so much, seeing so much
and experiencing so much and its only been one day.

Will post some photos tomorrow.

Much love xx

Lucy

(Could someone post or email to say that this has successfully uploaded?)

The FIRST Day, it was a long one!

Hey There Lovely People

I am hoping that this update is actually posted as the blogger website is
actually band. I apologize in advance if this update doesn't make a whole
lot of sense. I have seen away for 26 hours and had 4 hours sleep since we
left Nelson yesterday at 7pm. Where to start. I feel like so much has
happened, it's hard to distinguish between where the day starts and ends!

How about the start?
We left Nelson at 6.50pm yesterday heading to Auckland. Chelsea Whyte
(Chelk) was also on the same flights with us through to Hong Kong, which was
super cool as we got to hang out in Auckland and get some Kai together! Our
flight was a midnight departure.

Luckily after establishing a friendship with 'Ralph' the air hostess John
was able to move to row 53 which had extra leg room. This meant that Ash and
I were able to have a bit more room. We were served dinner two hours into
the flight and shortly after we attempted to sleep. It's kind of ironic but
I had forgotten how long a 'long-haul' flight actually was. The only way I
knew I had been sleeping was when I woke up. Had a weird as dreams too! I
think we got about four hours sleep. At 3.30am Hangzhou time we were woken
for breakfast, this was scrambled eggs! Yum! It was only soon after this we
were preparing to land.

At 6am (Hangzhou time unless stated otherwise) we arrived at Hong Kong
International Airport. It was still dark so we didn't get to see much as we
landed. We said goodbye to Chelk as she transited for her flight to London
(WHAT A TROOPER!). We then cleared security and walked for about 2k to our
gate for our domestic flight with Dragon Airways to Hangzhou. We had to
catch a bus across to the Island at the airport.. was kind of weird. The
flight to Hangzhou was nice, we had a second breakfast - I opted for dim
sun? I guess that's what it's called.. was yum!

At 10am we arrived at Hangzhou, had not problems clearing customs, although
there were a few tense moments. It's funny how another country and a
completely different language can cause you to feel uneasy at times. We
collect our bags.. they all turned up!!! We were met at the gate and driven
to our apartment. Our home away from home for the next three weeks. The
driving over hear is completely crazy. Kim Lyon warned me about it but
nothing can prepare you for it. It's like there are NO road rules and
everyone changes lanes and shifts between the two at pace.. crazy!

We then checked out our apartments, I also discovered that my phone will not
connect or recognize the carriers over here. Its set to automatic but also
gives me the choice of CHN-UNICOM or CHINA MOBILE. Neither or which will
give me service. Which is weird because I had service in Hong Kong? If
anyone has any advice or knows how to fix this it would be soooo
appreciated! The other strange thing is that Ashleigh and Johns phone's
connected fine, with telecom also but don't have an iPhone! How does this
work.. not cool.

Anyway.... We then had a shower and started to feel slightly human again,
was 23 hours in flights / airports / transit etc before we arrived here! We
then decided to go for a walk to Wu-Mart which is the supermarket here.
John took us through one shopping mall.. It was filled with shoe shops as
far as the eye could see, cheap ones that come in every shape, size and
colour. Although we have noticed that EVERYTHING has bling on it. It's
crazy! We went looked at female fashion and males fashion, bags.. you name
it we saw it.. crazy!

Following this we walked back towards Wu-Mart and found another shopping
mall that was slightly more up class.. found two cool as jackets.. SO going
back to get them tomorrow. Hangzhou are heading into winter and there are so
many cool jackets and blazers here! I like almost everyone I see.. We
decided that today was the information gathering mission and that tomorrow
we will purchase. We then entered the supermarket... oh wow! Imagine what
it's like in our local supermarkets when its Christmas time and multiply by
about 100 and then your close to the amount of people that were there. It
took two escalators to get to the right floor to purchase food. We that was
another experience all in itself. Have you ever tried to buy everyday items
in another language that you don't understand! It was awesome.. I brought
two 2 litres of juice, a six pack of coke, two packets of what I think are
potato chips, some yoghurt and a duck meal from the deli for dinner which
totaled approx $12 NZD!

The struggle for today is to stay awake to a reasonable time to reset the
body clock. After eating some chips and realizing that there is nothing to
do in the evenings (the tv channels are all in Chinese and most the awesome
websites are banned :-() we went down and hang out with John. This lead
into a walk around the block, it was about 7pm and a nice temperature. We
ended up back at Wu-Mart and looking at more clothes! Mum I think I have
found a sweet present for you!

We then walked back to the apartments. I then went to make my bed and got
the biggest fright and a cockroach greeted me! I ran down stairs and made
John deal with it.. we found two and threw them off the 9th floor... ha! To
clarify they were under the bed not in the bed.. although I am still a big
scared about going to bed!

HIGHLIGHTS:
* Arriving safe with our bags
* Seeing the city and gaining a taste of what it's like for our
International students at NMIT
* Talking with my Mumma on Skype (Mummy's girl if you haven't already
gathered)

LOW LIGHTS:
* Cockroaches!
* The mopping of the shower to stop the water running out of the
bathroom!
Takes like an extra ten minutes to shower.. the drain is raised so the water
battles!
* Cellphone not working :-(

INTERESTING:
John warned us that we would be looked at as we are Blonde.. I got this but
I didn't get this! It's like we are celebrities.. seriously everyone is
looking at you when you walk down the street or in the supermarket. Some
pretend they aren't looking, others acknowledge you and ask where you are
from other yell hello. Something to get used to I guess.

People spit over here.. they clear their throats and spit. It's so sick and
I hate hearing the sound.. But they when in Rome.. who am I to judge?

'Whispering Death' was a term John always used that I never understood. I do
now. He was referring to the scooters and bikes that people run around in.
You see the cars but sometimes not the bikes.. its full on you always have
to be paying attention to what's going on and where you are walking.

The footpaths and roads here lack the foundation. Apparently this is so
that the workers can come back a year later and have work to do.. It makes
sense in a messed up way. But seams to strange when you are walking down
the street.

Ok beautiful people. Its 2.30am NZ time and 9.30pm here.. it's time for me
to crawl into bed. CHINA is incredible, learning so much, seeing so much
and experiencing so much and its only been one day.

Will post some photos tomorrow.

Much love xx

Lucy

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