Wow! What a week! So many crazy things. I was supposed to go to Beijing to hang out for a couple of days but guess what?? I got sick! Yes, I swear I am allergic to China….I keep getting sick and new things pop up every day! Right now I am contending with these new eczema like spots randomly around and Lucas Paw Paw oinment has become my new best friend! I think I am going to have to buy it wholesale from Aus!! Not sure wether I am just still getting used to the sensory assault on my body or this is just how it's going to be! It's all good! I am still alive!
The last week and a half has been a lot of bike riding and market perusing, park hopping and attempts at Western cooking with Chinese ingredients! So far I have managed Spag Bol, Chicken Curry and Omelettes (probably more chinese)…and it's been fun and mostly successful. Kasey did a trip to Beijing and she found a western restaurant. So coffee, mozzarella cheese, hot sauce and bacon were on the agenda and so Kasey has been whipping up some American style breakfasts…prob not as healthy they should be…but a nice change from my porridge! Oh, and my porridge is because I couldn't bear to eat Chinese food for brekky as well! Oh, and there is no cereal! There is bread….but no toaster!
But the food thing has been working out alright! We do ok! We work at nights so dinners are annoying at night so we try and eat during the day and not much at night! But sometimes we forget THAT…so end up eating ridiculous amounts of food at about 10pm cause we are so starved! We are getting used to the routine!
Fruit here is everywhere and in abundance. My big fresh watermelon at the markets cost me a dollar and that has been my fruit of choice this week! There are also tonnes of bananas - a fav!
I hit the gym pretty hard this week - I have been trying to work my way back into it! It is sooooo sad that I am back to lifting piddly weights compared to what I was lifting not long ago! How quickly you forget some of the muscles you used to use!! I did legs yesterday and today I could barely walk, let alone run around with the kids! Haha! It was tragic! But it won't take me long to get back to the tank I was! Haha! I wish! Thanks to bodybuilding.com I have some supplements on the way and it's time to rock and roll!!
This Sunday we leave for Xi'an!! ! A 16 hr train ride! Oh Yay!! I am going down there to meet my girl ANGIE!! YAY! I am so excited to see one of my own here! She is family to me! So it is a very special time! I only just left Sarah in Europe not long ago so I feel I am being spoilt on the visitor part!
We will check out Xi'an - the terracotta warriors etc and then head back to Beijing for the day! Then Ang will come back with me to meet my Wed class (who are ADORABLE) and hang with me in Cangzhou so she can get a taste of the real China…not just the tourist trail! So can't wait!
Then next on the Agenda is Hangzhou where my girl Martha is! I met Martha in Prague while doing my TEFL and became super good friends! We rendezvous at the end of May. Also another very long train ride but all good! I am excited to see her and see Hangzhou! It is apparently beautiful! They call in Heaven on Earth and is supposed to be China's most beautiful city. I can't wait to see it for myself!
China is such a contradiction everywhere you go! From one street with all the glitz and glamour and large western like shopping centres…you can turn the corner and are met by carts of street food, dirty old little huts and cookers and chairs and tables with stray dogs sniffing around. It is a complete assault on your senses and you wonder how you went from one extreme to another so quickly!
In the supermarket you can pay some ridiculous price for apples and then walk outside to buy the same, if not better quality for a fraction of the price!
The women seem so composed with complete decorum and then the next minute someone is hawking up a generous amount of spit to deposit on the ground!
I live in this fairly nice high rise apartment. Not really thinking it's anything different to anyone else…but then I ride my bike around the corner on the way to the gym and there is community after community of rabbit warren style houses that are derelict and falling down. It is amazing how much contrast happens right in front of your eyes! But that's what makes it so fascinating.
It's also amazing that all the things I perceived about China or new are now either completely false or now my 100% reality. Just before I left I was researching the One Child Policy known as the Birth Control Policy. It shocked me to the core just reading about it. But now I see how real it is and how it's just normal here. I have one adult one to one lesson each week! She is a nurse in a hospital. She has one daughter my age and another son about 6 years old. She asked me the other day what I thought about the birth control policy here in China. All I could say was it made me sad. Already I have heard stories of forced abortions because they can't afford to pay the fine. But then I have also heard stories of people evading it. However, Julie can't tell anyone at her work that she has two children. How sad is that. She can't even be openly proud of the achievements of BOTH her children. Only one. But then, if you have friends in high places in Government here, you are able to easily avoid paying the fine and have another child. It is crazy! It comes down to who you know and what favours you can call in just to have a child. It was a revelation to Julie that we had the choice to have as many children as we wanted in Australia and that our government even paid us as an incentive to do so. How this world is so diverse.
This week I had a couple of complications with work and my contract etc. How different doing business is in China. It is all fine now. But a confidential email that I sent to head office in Shanghai was immediately sent to my boss without any consultation with me. I thought to myself, if that happened in Australia and the HR department breached confidentiality there would be hell to pay and a nice law suit to follow. It's amazing what they can get away with and what they think is professional. My business dealings have so far been very far from unprofessional. But I do feel like I have been looked after and I do trust my boss so I know it will work out. We are all just about protecting number one where we come from, no one else will do it for you! But China doesn't seem to see it that way….mmm….maybe a slight shadow from a previous China looming there somewhere!
But it's all good!
I have a couple of trips planned….amazing friends to see….study soon to kick in to keep me well enough occupied…and soon enough an amazing trip to India which I am so looking forward to.
Life is good!
As I ride my bicycle around each day and immerse myself in the Chinese culture I am thankful for the opportunity to be doing what I dreamed of doing. There will always be hiccups! But we all know that a few tricks always make the hiccups go away!
Love to you all! All the way from China!
HJ xx
P.S. More photos up at http://s1107.photobucket.com/albums/h397/hrjones86/?albumview=slideshow
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