Wuxi: It's All About The Journey..

Tuesday 2 April, 2014 

¥5.00           Breakfast
¥25.00         Cappuccino
¥200.00       Tutoring
¥12.00         Dinner
¥2.00           Pineapple 
(¥244.00 ~my wonderful friend Diana noted that I had missed a day 
- such amazing attention to detail, thank you!)

Friday 4 April, 2014 
¥2.00           Pineapple
¥6.00           Laundry Ticket
¥188.00       Train Tickets (Return to Wuxi)
¥5.70           Breakfast
¥6.90           Lunch
¥7.50           Convenience Store
¥2.00           Bus
¥240.00      Ibis Hotel (3 nights)
¥35.00        Dinner
¥2.00          Water
(¥495.10)

Total: ¥739.10 ($132.70)

Weekly Total: ¥1736.05 ($311.67)

Total Spend: ¥19590.75 ($3688.15 AUD)

- - -

Where do I begin. It's been over a week since I went to Wuxi.

So last week, me and my 3 UTS friends, along with another person from UK (J) caught a train after class to go to Wuxi during Qing Ming Jie (A public holiday for people to pay respects to their ancestors).

Wuxi is considerably close to Hangzhou - only a 2 hour ride on the high speed trains. But since we organised our trip very last minute, it was really hard to find train tickets and we were left with "hard seater" train tickets on the 6 hour slow train. 

Waiting for the gates to open so we could board the train.

Traffic in Hangzhou is so bad, it took us 1.5 hours to get to the station by bus and we only had 5 minutes to spare. Still, I had to risk it to take this photo.. those vectors were too good!

We were on a local train in the most basic carriage.. but even then I can't complain because 'basic' carriage also has seater tickets and standing tickets (can you imagine standing for 6 hours!?)
But since the train stops at many stations, most people standing usually get off after 1-2 hours. When standing passengers see a free seat e.g. someone going to the bathroom, they'll rush to it and sit for a while until the returning passenger tells the to move off.

I really can't complain.. I brought Tim Tams to share, and Arnott's Shapes so it felt just like a long journey on an Aussie train... (Thank you NomNomNormsauruses)

What I rely on to make friends.

I was sitting on the inside seat of a 6 seater so I was sandwiched between a dirty, stained wall, a stranger who was radiating heat, and this table. The kidney dish metal pan is for everyone to chuck their rubbish on.

I was quite preoccupied by this mystery hair for a long time. I don't know how it got there, everyone around the table had long hair.. and... moving on.

I really can't complain. The 6 hour journey went by really quickly, given that I slept through maybe half of it. The only issue would've been the inconsistent temperature inside the carriages - air con would be turned on until the carriages reached say 18 degrees, then it would stop until the carriage reached a stuffy and humid 25 degrees before the air con blasted on again. 

The views were beautiful though, and we got to see the glow of sunset fall on the countryside. (/ hidden-from-the-city industrial production side?)

The highlight of my trip would probably be two events:
1. When we arrived on the train there was a dirty old 1L milk container already on the table. I thought it was rubbish, so when the rubbish man came around half way into the trip, I handed him all the rubbish in the kidney dish, as well as the container. After a while, I noticed the passenger sitting on the outside of the 6 seater holding the container.. it was actually his!! I felt so bad for thinking it was rubbish, and also now I made him hold his own container (he was already holding his manbag, and the seats are tight so it's not that comfortable). I was very embarrassed, but I worked up the courage to apologise to him and I offered to put it back on the table. He refused. Awks.

2. I was leaning on the wall sleeping, but got woken up by something really warm leaning on my arm. This woman was in deeper sleep than me! I was happy to support her but after a while the heat got unbearable so I had to softly nudge her awake.

You can see the yellow and black milk container in question at the bottom left of the photo.

My Class Excursion and Mini Home Renovations.

Wednesday 2 April, 2014 

¥5.00           Milk (For ma Cereal!)
¥100.00        Wifi (Two Months)
¥12.00         Dinner
¥20.00         Laundry Coupons
¥2.00           Pineapple(¥139.00)

Thursday 3 April, 2014 
¥6.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥45.00        Shoe Rack
¥7.50           Snack (Hand Held Pancake)
¥7.00           Dinner
¥9.80           Convenience Store (Bulldog Clips)
(¥74.50)

Total: ¥213.50 ($38.35)

Weekly Total: ¥996.95 ($178.98)

Total Spend: ¥18851.65 ($3555.45 AUD)

- - -

Let's start with some beautiful shots of scenery!

This was taken at the South side of Xihu near the Tulip garden. 

Tulips of all colours in full bloom!

- - -

This morning I was very excited to have my first Australian breakfast. It took me a while to decided which cereal to open though but eventually I decided to have a childhood classic. 

White water + Coco Pops!

It was so deliciously good!!

I then couldn't resist.. I had some milk left so I decided to do my favourite thing: suck milk out of my Tim Tam biscuit like a straw! Definitely did not disappoint. What a great start to the day.

Today was actually a really good day as I didn't have class. Instead, we were going on a class excursion! This meant I also got to sleep in a little as we were meeting up at 1:00pm. (still woke up at 8:30am though sadly..)

First we all had to collect our food packs. Isn't that just the cutest concept!?

The boys carrying their lunch packs. It was actually quite heavy, and nobody wanted to carry it. Some of the girls tried to palm it off to the boys to get them to carry it for them but none of them did it... ha. Gentlemen.

This is what we had in each pack. Coke, water, two muffins, a pack of oreos, chinese biscuits and Danish butter cookies. 

We arrived at the Tulip gardens and were fighting through crowds to get a look...

 edsd It was a good fun trip to get to know my classmates. We ended with a nice picnic and a game of Mafia in Chinese, with two doctors, two assassins, and two police officers. 

After the trip we had dinner again at the Fujian restaurant, and after that went to the supermarket next door. I walked past the soy sauce section and noticed there was no Maggi!

<This is for ma cousin>

 - - -

Also another photo for my cousin.. today I had vegetarian for lunch! Actually I was just feeling cheap and cheap = vegetables here.

No meaaaattt :'( Ooh by the way my portion of rice costs 19kuai! That's literally 3 cents!

 I rushed lunch because I thought painting class was at 1pm, but when I arrived at the classroom and saw Chinese boys sitting in a row I realised something was wrong. Turns out class was at 3pm (Callig class is at 1pm.. woops!) So I decided to clean my room.

Wow what a mundane post. Anyway, cleaning is a pretty big deal for me because my room is a shitstorm back home. 

I swept, then vacuumed, I have my sheets in the laundry, I tidied my desk.. this is truly a brand new me! I'm also collecting glass bottles here (See top right). They're super cheap, say $2-3 with a drink or food. They're a bit heavy but I'm trying to find things to do with them.. 

Finally went to painting class. Painting class is the bane of my existence. I took this sneaky of the teacher showing a student him copying the picture. He didn't teach us any techniques though, we kind of have to go in blindly and just copy a picture to the best of our ability. I completely lost motivation. Luckily I was sitting next to a pretty cool German girl today so I had good conversation to keep me company.

I copied another picture of some root vegetable. I chose the picture because it was hairy. 

Fascinating news!! I was so swept up in this cleaning routine that I decided to organise my shoes by buying a new shoe rack!! I am in love with tidiness. I actually had a sea of shoes scattered all under my wardrobe before this came along.

No more messy cords!! 

 I'm so proud of myself. Today has been a good, clean day.

This weekend is a national holiday, so we have decided on a last minute trip to go to Wuxi, which is in Jiangsu Province, not far from Hangzhou. Going to be there for the weekend, so my next blog will be when I return! Good bye human beings!

The Highlight of my Day, Nay Week!

Tuesday 1 April, 2014 

¥5.00           Breakfast (Corner Shop)
¥22.00         Cappuccino
¥200.00       Tutoring
¥12.00         Dinner
¥10.00         Casa Miel (Pu'er Tea)
¥2.00           Pineapple

Total: ¥251.00 ($45.00)

Weekly Total: ¥783.45 ($140.60)

Total Spend: ¥18638.15 ($3517.10 AUD)

- - -

Wow I just realised how fitting half of the contents are for April Fool's Day. It seems almost too good to be a coincidence.

So today I had a pretty typical day but the definite highlight was receiving this care package from my beautiful cousins Normasaurus , Normanasaurus, Charles & Mei. Thank you guys so much! 

Right after Wushu class I found this taped to my door. I had heard of the "Guest Notice" and I was super excited to receive my first one!

I rushed down to reception, signed my name and picked up this big parcel. I was incredibly excited to open it, but following my usual tendencies I tried to cut it neatly first to save the wrapping. After a bit of cutting I realised the wrapping was too plastered with words and stamps and sheets to really reuse for anything at all. So I just tore in!

Second layer... double wrapping? I like the dinosaur stickers. Definitely appreciating the attention to detail!

A butterfly for me.. I have a feeling my little cousin Mei did this? 

I opened it all quite slowly to savour every little detail. I like that they sent All the Stuff in a battered cardboard ginger beer box! I won't lie, I was a bit excited to see the words ginger beer. 

My cousin's beautiful handwriting, carrying with it the kind of backhanded compliment that only a family member can deliver with such poise.

Box opening.. so much stuff!! Ahh!!! Wrapped things!!! Much excitement! 

I wondered what they meant by 'taxed'...

Lotion? Cream? How thoughtful!

This was heavy and it was from Norman. I had no idea what to expect... I was imagining some object, like a statue or something.

My first thought was soap! 

I put the wrapped things aside and decided to look at the other things first. The writing was a bit smudged.. what is num um ums? Is it not noms? I was a bit confused. 

Miso Soup!! Now I can be lazy and not go out of my dorm to get food!!

Caramello Koalas.. I loved that it was sticky taped and that they took some chocolates from the packet first. How very fitting.. I think this explains my relationship with my cousins quite well!

Same with these Eucalyptus Drops!

Tim Tam box opened. Not sure if it was the customs officers or my cousins. Just did a quick count and there are still 9 in there, so I'm thinking customs wanted to take a sneak peek. 

Anzac biscuits! I think I'll eat these on Anzac Day. Maybe I'll tie one of the cookies to a string and try make a friend.

What is this amazingness! I can't believe I'm missing out on these in Australia at the moment! (Definitely not sharing these.. pretty sure the 5 packs aren't marketed as share packs) 
wtf as if 1 serving is 1 biscuit. Who stops after 1 biscuit!!

I'm actually very excited about ALL the Tim Tams. (They are prized over here..) I've been missing Tim Tams and Australian Milk together, you know how you drink it through the biscuit like a straw? Wow I'm craving that now. I think I'll have it for breakfast tomorrow.

Since I have 5 in each pack I need ideas on how to eat each one in 5 different ways...
I really should share but I'm quite shellfish.

Actually I should probably have this for breakfast instead of the Tim Tams. Ohh mann I should not be writing this blog at midnight because I'm getting a serious case of the munchies.

Muahahaha I am incredibly keen to share this sucker. Actually I love vegemite with butter/avocado on toast.. but avocados are super rare and I need to taste-test the breads here to make sure they're not the asian super-sweet type. I need that vitality!!

<This was the lotion/cream that I thought I was getting.. N.B. The attached message was "Charles this you need to do your personal hygiene regime with this."  Thanks Charles!! Will definitely be incorporating it into my bedtime routine. >

Second mystery gift: decided to open Mei's one because I thought surely this would be safe and innocuous. (She is still a child after all!) I was glad that 2/3 of the products weren't taxed already. This forced sharing routine is actually quite nice. I feel like I should share the chocolate with Friends because it does say 'Friends' on the packaging... Anyway thank you Mei!! 

Opened Norman's gift second last because I never know what to expect from that guy and I wasn't going to leave my last impression of this box on him. (I've been trolled enough to have learnt my lesson...)
The weird, heavy shaped object ended up being soy sauce!! I was so happy because I thought it was because he remembered that when I was abroad in Nepal, all I craved was for white rice and soy sauce. (I did wonder whether I told him that story ever..) Then I thought it was very thoughtful that he would send a trusted brand of soy sauce to me, because I do worry a bit about how much fake food I'm putting into my body here. At least this is authentic! Anyway I found out not long after that it was a very troll move. Sending Soy Sauce. To China. Main motivation. Sigh. So much hope. Should've seen it coming.

Actually it's very useful because now I can live off a white rice with soy sauce diet!! I didn't get to eat it for dinner today, but next time, next time!! ALL THE WHITE RICE!!! ALL THE SOY SAUCE!!!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!

Lastly I opened Norma's mystery gift, and received my favouritest chocolate in the whole wide world (so thoughtful, thank you Norma!) and SPAM! Because I made a comment that she spammed my facebook a lot with all her likes, and then it sort of became a running joke after I posted an image of spam on her wall. I am very excited about this can of spam! 

So many things! I am truly spoilt to have such amazing, generous and thoughtful family members. Thank you guys so much! It truly made my day. It would've been quite a silly sight if anyone would have seen me. I was just sitting on the floor after I had unwrapped everything, surrounded by brown paper and food products scattered all over the floor. I had spam in one hand and soy sauce in the other, and I was just feeling so happy and overwhelmed with love for my cousirinos! Definitely made me miss home and all our family gatherings where much stupidity occurs. This mystery box with all its goodies and ridiculousness definitely encapsulates our relationship! Thank you guys so much! The whole experience has definitely made my day  week year top 5 moments in life!

My Stroll in Hangzhou.

Monday 31 March, 2014 

¥3.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥4.00           Lunch (Buns)
¥50.00         Paper (For painting
¥25.00         Easel
¥10.00         Scarf (Viscose, all 10RMB along Hefang Jie)
¥9.75           Carrefour (Pea snacks and Reeses)
¥399.00       Nike Free Runs 3.0 (2012 make?)
¥42.70         Overpriced Fruits (4 mangosteens, 4 bananas, two pears)
¥15.00         Dinner (Uni Restaurant
¥4.00           Yoghurt 

Total: ¥532.45 ($95.60)

Weekly Total: ¥532.45 ($95.60)

Total Spend: ¥18387.15 ($3472.10 AUD)

- - -

I started off this chilly Monday thinking this would be the week that I would be on budget. Suddenly a wild Nike Factory Outlet appeared and I found a pair of sneakers that were exactly what I needed and then that thought quickly disappeared.

After my hectic weekend in Shanghai, I thought it would be nice to take a stroll in Hangzhou to really soak up the difference between the two cities. (Actually I just really needed to go back to the art store to pick up paper, and it's close to He Fang Jie ~ a typical tourist's haunt).

Two interesting things happened today:

1. I was walking down He Fang Jie with my camera out taking snaps, when suddenly a local chinese couple (in their early 20's) approached me and asked to take a photo. The girl was quite shy at first and stood next to me, which made me confused as naturally I thought they wanted me to take a photo of them. Then she ran back to her boyfriend and was shaking her head and refusing to, all while the boy encouraged her to. At this point I was very confused. Then the boy explained that the girl's mum doesn't like her going out with him, so she needs to send her mum a photo of her with her ''friends''. I gladly took the photo with her.. if only I could hear what story she made up about me in front of her parents!

It was an interesting encounter because I didn't think this sort of thing was such a big deal, especially when you're in your 20's already. I guess it still happens in China.

2. I decided to detour and go into Carrefour to check out the international goods there. As I walked out I saw a small Nike Outlet store and it was selling shoes for a lot cheaper than store prices, so I went to try them out. I ended up getting a men's size (how embarassing.. not really, everyone here has baby feet / also I was the smallest men's size so nyehhhh) , and the guy working there was very helpful. 

As I went to pay the guy asked me if I was going to buy a pair for my boyfriend (I never mentioned no boyfriend before..) and I think it was a very cute and subtle way to ask if I had a boyf already. Sheeeeez..

Anyway one bad thing about Hangzhou compared to Shanghai is the public transport system. Hangzhou relies a lot on buses, which also means you end up getting stuck in traffic a lot. Even though the city centre is only 5km away, it takes 45 mins on the bus to get there.

I really could show better photos than food and shoes since I took some on my camera today but I'm a bit lazy. Also what is better than food and shoes!

Hey look it's orange!

Hey look they are the same kind of orange! This is a sign! Actually I just get excited by matching colours very easily (especially when my socks match other things) ... I really like socks.

Ma shoes!