New friends & New Rules.

Monday 14 April, 2014 

¥6.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥25.00         Lunch
¥28.00         Drink (Peet's)
¥65.00         Dinner (Vineyard)
(¥124.00)

Tuesday 15 April, 2014 

¥2.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥5.00           Snack
¥45.00         Lunch (Peet's)
¥200.00       Tutor
¥145.00       Walmart
¥35.00         Dinner
¥50.00         KTV
¥17.00         Maccas
(¥499.00)

Wednesday 16 April, 2014 

¥3.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥12.50         Coffee (Peet's)
¥7.00           Lunch
¥9.50           Dinner 
¥7.00          Water
¥2.00          Pineapple
(¥41.00)

Thursday 17 April, 2014 

¥4.70           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥2.40           Banana 
¥10.00         Lunch
¥35.00         Gatsby Hair Gel 
¥17.00          Dinner
¥2.00          Pineapple
(¥71.10)

Friday 18 April, 2014 

¥3.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥7.50           Banana and Yoghurt
¥9.00           Lunch
¥7.00           Dinner
¥2.00           Pineapple
(¥28.50)

Saturday 19 April, 2014 

¥3.00           Breakfast (Bao zi)
¥12.50         Coffee (Peet's)
¥6.00           Lunch
¥13.00         Dinner
(¥34.50)

Sunday  20 April, 2014 

¥10.80         Breakfast
¥14.00         Dinner
(¥24.80)

Total: ¥822.90 ($147.70)

Weekly Total: ¥822.90 ($147.70)

Total Spend: ¥21728.65 ($4152.26 AUD)

- - -

I'm quite behind on all my posts so I'm going to summarise the highlights of this week in a few points:

- On Tuesday, during my Wushu class, a little boy came up and joined us and somehow got attached to me. I was quite distracted with him towards the end of the lesson as I was teaching him Wushu moves to follow along with us. Afterwards I stayed back a bit to attempt to fly a kite with him, and he kept falling or hurting himself, which made me feel bad but his mum was very cool about it. I had to leave him, and his mum said he was asking all the "aunties" (girls) on campus where I was.. very cute. He also left me a voice message in swahili on my phone which was very sweet.. again his mum had to decode it for me!

- On Thursday I walked in on my art teacher lying on the tables looking tired and I think I startled him. He's already quite shy and quiet so I think made him very embarassed! But it became a good starting point to just chat, and I found out he could understand Cantonese.. which is mighty helpful as now I can just ask him questions in Canto.

- On Friday we played Mahjong after dinner. We added some new rules to make it interesting.. for example, for one of the rounds, whoever lost had to swap their shirts with the next person in a clockwise manner (so 3 losers swapped shirts). Luckily I won, which was good as the other 3 players were boys and I did not particularly want to have someone else wear my shirt! 

They eventually all got their shirts back in the following rounds. For the last round, we wanted to do a really good dare, but after 30 minutes of trying to think of one that we all agreed on, we decided to just give up and shout supper for whoever won. Again, I won that game with a very lucky Zimo (self-picked winning card). It was lucky because.. I hadn't won any of the other games beside these two important ones!

- On Saturday we went to my tutor's house for dinner. She has a really nice place, and I had a really good time with everyone just sitting around and playing games. There is a running joke now that whenever someone chooses to do a "dare" we making buzzing noises and re-enact shavers running across eyebrows..

Anyway this weekend, I am going mountain climbing with ZZ and his classmates. I'm going to be pretty busy these few weeks as I just finished exams (actually I still have one tomorrow..) and then I'm going to Beijing for a week (Alone! Ah!) and I have two assignments due.. One lit review, one methology write-up. Busy busy busy week!

My Mahjong Week.

Monday 7 April, 2014 

¥6.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥13.00         Snacks (For train ride home from Wuxi)
¥30.50         Lunch (Maccas)
¥19.00         Pudding (Welcome Home Pudding!)
¥20.00         Dinner
(¥88.50)

Tuesday 8 April, 2014 

¥3.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥3.50           Latte
¥42.00         Lunch (Peet's)
¥200.00       Tutor
¥13.00         Dinner
¥14.00         Milk Tea (Coco)
¥5.00           Street Performer
(¥280.50)

Wednesday 9 April, 2014 

¥6.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥6.70           Exercise Books
¥12.50         Coffee
¥11.20         Lunch
¥45.50         Dinner
¥2.00           Pineapple
¥7.00           Taxi
(¥90.90)

Thursday 10 April, 2014 

¥6.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥20.00         Payment for Class Excursion (To ShaoXing)
¥10.00         Laundry Coupon
¥4.00           Lunch
¥50.00         Cobbler
¥23.80         Tissues
¥3.00           Pineapple
¥20.00         Dinner
¥8.00           Yoghurt and Water
(¥144.80)

Friday 11 April, 2014 

¥6.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥3.50           Latte
¥6.00           Lunch
¥9.00           Dinner
¥9.00           Milk Tea (Coco)
(¥33.50)

Saturday 12 April, 2014 

¥3.00           Breakfast (Zongzi)
¥28.00         Cafe (1897)
¥4.00           Lunch
¥19.00         Dinner
¥2.80           Vitasoy
(¥56.80)

Sunday 13 April, 2014 

¥4.00           Breakfast (Fujian)
¥12.50         Cafe (Peet's)
¥12.00         Lunch 
¥45.00         Fruits 
(¥73.50)



Total: ¥768.50 ($137.90)

Weekly Total: ¥768.50 ($137.90)

Total Spend: ¥20905.75 ($4004.56 AUD)

- - -

Actually the highlight of my week was Sunday, when my auntie here invited me to her house for dinner. But I forgot to bring my phone cable so I can't upload any photos from that.. hopefully I'll update that soon.

Next week is exam week, which means 4 exams. I also have my speaking presentation on the Monday, so I'm feeling a bit stressed and busy. Although really I shouldn't be feeling that worried, since none of my marks here count towards anything. But I really don't want my teacher to think I'm not a good student.. so I really want to do well. That's a lot of pressure on myself I know.. seeing that I also have my UTS assignment (which actually counts towards something) due the week after. 

Anyway this week we spent a few nights learning and teaching each other Mahjong. There are many different ways to play Mahjong, depending on what style you learnt. I grew up with Cantonese Mahjong, which is a slower game as it requires more strategy. We also learnt Wenzhounese Mahjong, which according to my friend is all about the "win" as there is a big gambling culture there. It's much more fast paced - sometimes you spend more time "washing" the tiles than actually playing. The main differences between Wenzhounese Mahjong and Cantonese Mahjong are that:

Wenzhounese Mahjong has:
- each person starting with 16 tiles
- there is a wildcard tile that can stand for anything
- the "whiteboard" tile is played immediately as a separate tile (sort of like a flower) and gives you an extra point
- there are no flowers in the game.
- you can win with a basic hand (no special requirements)

Cantonese Mahjong has:
- 13 starting tiles
- most games don't allow "chicken soup", which is essentially a basic hand
- flowers (and other more complicated point systems)

 ce also don't have a Mahjong table, so we play on the communal tables in level 2, which are a tad too small.

 This week I also received mail from my lovely cousins again! Thank you guys :) It's my goal to start writing some letters and things to mail back after the end of April.. because of exams and UTS assignments!

I'm also starting to enjoy my elective classes more now. (Remember how I said I really didn't like both teachers?) Well now we all kind of poke fun at how serious our calligraphy teacher is (he's quite receptive to these jokes so that's alright), and I find how shy and quiet my art teacher is quite endearing - I imagine every time he takes initiative to correct us he's facing this huge internal dilemma over whether to talk or not.

We learnt how to write "Wan Shi Ru Yi" which means "Best wishes" or "May all your hopes be fulfilled." The style on the left is Chao Shu which is a fast calligraphy style, and the style on the right is Zhuan Shu which is the original (ancient) writing style.

Okay I need to grab some lunch before my afternoon class now. Hopefully I will be up to date soon with blogs because being so behind is stressing me out too!

No. 10: My First Bad Day.

Thursday, 10 April 2014

Today was definitely not my best day.

1. I forgot I had an extra class (and arrived 1 hour late).

In China, if a teacher is sick and misses a class, they reschedule it. Today I forgot I had class until I checked my phone messages at 2pm. I immediately rushed to class, thinking I wasn't too late as it "started at 1:30pm" but after class finished at 2:30 I realised I had missed more than an hour. It actually started at 1:00pm.

2. I forgot my elective class started at 3 and not 3:30pm.

I've had class for two weeks already. I should have known.

3. My bag broke.

The screw that locks in my strap to the strap hook fell out. I can bash it back in so it looks fine, but it keeps falling out now. CRY.

4. My bottle leaked in my bag.

Wow, at this point I wasn't really disappointed or anything, I was just feeling very indifferent and somewhat bemused. Today had gone so badly, I was really curious to see what else could go wrong. Bring it on!!

5. The cobbler shrunk my favourite shoes.

I've had them for almost two years now and they are so ratty they make me look like a hobo wearing second hand leather shoes. But I loved them so much, so I brought them to the small cobbler's shop on campus to get them fixed. Another customer was saying they're so old I might as well buy a new pair! But I was determined. The cobbler said he could resole them, so I left them there and when I saw them again, polished and resoled for only 38 kuai I was pretty happy.

I took them home to try them on again, but something didn't feel right. 
I immediately noticed that not only did he chop off my old soles, he had to pull more of the leather in to stick on the new ones. And he didn't even stick it on well, because I could feel the bubbles of air trapped in my soles from where he had not glued properly.

FML.

I was really not happy, because they are my favourite, favourite shoes. But I guess it was a sign that I have to buy a new pair. I just didn't want them to die this way.

6. Tissue fail.

So because I was having such a bad day, at the supermarket while buying tissues I decided to spend a bit more buying the 'unique' tissues. I saw a pack of tissues labelled "Black Tissues" and I was so intrigued by it, I had to have it. Imagine that!! Black tissues!! So Cool!!
But when I went home and opened it, I realised the tissues were in fact normal, and it was just the packaging that was black.

Not only that, they smelt of man deodorant.

NEVER REST YOUR SPIRITS ON A PACKET OF TISSUES
THEY WILL ALWAYS DISAPPOINT YOU!

Wuxi Day 2: How Much Would You Pay?

Sunday 6 April, 2014 

¥9.00           Breakfast
¥10.00         Bus
¥200.00       Souvenir (Buddha Beads)
¥8.00           Snack (Bing Tang Wu Low)
¥15.00         Honey Lemon Drink
¥12.50         Chips
¥35.00         Entry into .. gardens
¥18.00         Squid Stick
¥190.00       Ocarinas
¥10.00         Book Rack
¥15.00         Dinner
¥24.00         Hand warmer

Total: ¥546.50 ($98.11)

Weekly Total: ¥2730.55 ($490.22)

Total Spend: ¥20137.25 ($3866.66 AUD)

- - -

On our last full day in Wuxi, we decided to visit Huishan Ancient Town.

Huishan ancient town is this huge neighbourhood that retains its historical feel - so there are pebbled pedestrian roads, 19th century merchant houses and architecture and beautiful stone bridges and canals streaming through this 1 km squared community.

The main street sells a lot of touristy goods and has a lot of small, unique eateries and shops.

The main entry into the community.. but since it's a real neighbourhood with people actually living here, there are many ways in and out.

Huishan is like a huge, real life cultural museum. Even though there are heaps of shops selling goods to tourists, there are also museums and temples inside, just like inside a real neighbourhood.

I was playing around with some photography props so I was carrying this mirror on an easel with me everywhere, but in hindsight I realised they were both too small in scale. It was fun watching how other people interacted with the prop though. (A lot of people would stop and look into the mirror.. thinking there was something inside, or they would walk really far around it, like in this photo.)

Huishan is definitely worth visiting. If you wander away from the two main tourist streets, you'll come across the real neighbourhood areas, where there are wooden tables and straw seats lining the pathways and locals old and young sitting around drinking tea, snacking on sunflower seeds and chatting. It was a really lovely atmosphere.

Also if you are interested in architecture, this area is full of unique buildings. I particularly love this one - so full of character! Definitely one worth sketching.

In one area there was a courtyard with people setting up stalls selling lots of vintage, jade, and old knick knack items. I love looking at second-hand shops so I was curious and went in to take a look.

I love these sort of stalls so much!

 There were maybe 10+ stalls, so not many. As I walked in, something immediately caught my eye...

I saw this necklace of 18 buddha beads, with a different drawing of a buddha and a poem inscribed on each bead. Everything around it was plain jade or glass beads, but this was something really different. It was really ratty and disgusting to be honest, with lots of dirt stained on the ends of each bead. I was immediately raptured by it. 

So I asked for the price.

"1000块"

Holy crap. It was so expensive, and I could not justify dropping one thousand on a necklace. Even if I bargained it down 50%, I still could not justify it.

But personally, I love collecting statement necklaces, and from my travels and just spotting prices in stores, I know that if a piece of jewellery is unique I would be willing to pay a bit more for it. I've learn my lesson buying cheap jewellery, and there's something nice about having a special item in your wardrobe.

After quick mental calculations, I reasoned I would be willing to buy it for 200块, nothing more.

So with my best puppy dog eyes and quivering voice I told him I'm only a poor student, but I really like this piece, and all I have on me to spare is 200 kuai.

First he said no and walked away, but I continued to crouch there and hold it and admire it.

He shouted 500, and said it is worth 2000 but 1000 is already a very good price.

I said I could only part with 200.

Then we made eye contact again and he gave a quick nod. 

I quickly understood (I know no shopkeeper wants their other customers to find out that they just sold an item for 1/5 of the stated price) so I quickly opened my wallet and handed him 200.

But the MISTAKE I made was that I opened it and he saw the many 100块 bills I had in my wallet.

He said "你骗我！你有很多钱！” (You lied to me! You have so much money!)

But I said "No! This is money that I have to use to get back home!" But already I could not wipe the grin off my face.

I was incredibly happy with my purchase, and the friend I was with was quite shocked at the discount he sold it to for.

But, when I went to my other group of friends and asked them "How much would you pay for this?" one girl looked at it and said 10块.

Immediately I felt disheartened. 

I looked at it again, and saw it in her eyes. It looked like a plastic bead necklace with inscriptions all over it. 

But I know it isn't. I wish I had stopped for a second before I decided on 200块 to yell out 100. I wondered how cheap I could have got it for, or how much it was really worth.

Not only that, I realisd I had my DSLR hanging around my neck the whole time, so it was a dead giveaway that I was some loaded foreigner.

But in hindsight, I paid $35 for this necklace. In 块 standards, that is a lot of money, and I could probably live off it for a week.

In $ standards, $35 is pretty expensive, around the price you'd pay for a necklace full price at a common chain store.

To me, 200块, $35, is a lot of money, and I did feel a bit bad. But I love it a lot. I have never seen anything like it before, and I know I would have regretted it if I left it and walked away. 

I love wondering who had it before me, or what kind of adventures these little beads have had. How did the seller obtain it? I wonder if he stole it...

All that's left to do now is restring it, as I would like to wear it as a necklace. I've washed it clean (it was disgusting before), and now I can touch it without having to disinfect my hands right after. I'm proudly hanging it on my jewellery rack next to my other favourite pieces that I've collected during my travels. I've realised I don't care what other people think of it, or how much they think it's worth, because to me, it's my new treasure.

But really, I'm curious. What do you think of it?

Wuxi Day 1: Mystery Meat.

Saturday 5 April, 2014 

¥10.00         Map
¥8.50           Breakfast
¥10.00         Bus 
¥22.00         Entry into Liyuan
¥15.00         Bracelet
¥75.00         Entry into Sanguo City + Water Park
¥20.00         Lunch (Mystery meat and (non)Stinky Tofu)
¥160.00       Calligraphy Poem
¥10.00        Archery
¥8.00          Taxi
¥6.00          Taxi
¥32.00        Dinner
¥65.00        Shopping (Belt + Pens)
¥6.50          Taxi

Total: ¥448.00 ($80.40)

Weekly Total: ¥2184.05 ($392.11)

Total Spend: ¥19590.75 ($3768.55 AUD)

- - -

So these first four photos were taken at Li Yuan, and I must say, it has to be the most beautiful garden I have been to yet. <No disrepect HZ, I haven't been to the botanical gardens inside my own city yet!>

On the way there though we encountered a 毛病 (problem). Half way to our destination the bus driver yelled "I'm late! I'm going straight to the last stop!" so almost all the passengers got off. I wasn't sure whether this was common practice, but it was pretty suspicious since he stopped us off at a bus stop where there were many black, unregistered taxis waiting.  

Wuxi isn't a big city, but traffic and bad transport systems can make any small city seem like a whole county. It took us another hour to get to San Guo city, which should have been only 5km away.

- - -

San Guo City is a major tourist attraction in Wuxi. It's a huge complex which was originally created to film historical movies (almost like the Universal Studios of China). The most famous film made there goes by the same name (Romance of The Three Kingdoms) , and it is one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature (四大名著）。 

The book is set during the late Eastern Han Dynasty (184-220CE) and the Three Kingdoms period (220-280CE) so the architecture and surroundings all reflect this period.

Nowadays, it is no longer a filming studio and instead has been open to the public to explore. 

The sign welcoming you to the complex.

Entry into San Guo City.

It's a very popular tourist attraction as you can see.. here are all the people crowding up to see the demonstrations and performances on.

San Guo City is only a short stroll away from Water Margins City but we were dumb and decided to take the bus one stop away. It was the most crowded experience of my life.

I'm pretty sure the concoction of body odours infused into my soul. We were one smell.

We were so packed I counted 10+ people in 1m² space. Anyway I talked more about this in my other blog so I'll move on.

Traffic truly is the bane of my existence. We spent at least 45 minutes on each bus, so we wasted a lot of the day just on public transport. By the time we arrived at Water Margins it was already 5, and they were closing up at 6:00pm. Luckily these places don't kick you out, so technically you could stay all night there (if the security guards don't catch you). Everything was pretty much closed or closing up when we went, but luckily there was still some light so we could recreate some awesome kung fu scenes in the forests. 

This photo is for my cousins who all love scary looking baby toys.

Actually I must say, we were pretty lucky coming so late as we caught this 书法家 (Calligrapher) without a crowd. He was offering to write poems of our names for only 10 kuai, so of course I went for it.

After he wrote the poem, he offered to write it on a scroll for 220 yuan. I told him I had to think about it while my other friends got their poems written. He had an assistant, who was telling us that a poem on a piece of paper is worthless, but if we buy the scroll which has his stamp and symbol, suddenly that had a price. Apparently he is very famous (he had photos with celebrities and scrolls everywhere). I was very happy with my worthless poem anyway, but as we were finishing up she said they'd cut the price to 160 yuan since she saw we were filthy poor students. (maybe not those words)

I was happy to pay 160 yuan (around $30) for a personalised souvenir, so I ended up buying it.

The calligrapher transposing his poem onto the scroll.

Finally as the sun set, we quickly decided to take some jump shots in the forests. The first day was definitely rushed and tiring, but it was a great glimpse into Wuxi.