We'll do an update soon!


I'm sick of sitting in front of the computer and am off to read under a shady tree overlooking the DaMing lake!

xoxo

Things are different here!

First, I'll answer Annie's comment from a previous post. Yes the shower is extremely difficult to use! We don't have to sit on the toilet to take a shower, there is a bit of space in between it and the sink. I do have a habit of moving around though, and turning the water off with my elbow or something!! It's fun.

And, no matter how much I scrub with foul tasting chemicals, it always looks this dirty! (I don't actually eat the chemicals, they smell so bad that you can taste it for ages). That was the hard part to start off with...not feeling clean after a shower coz it was so dirty.

It takes a while to realise, but as we walked down to the rubbish bin (pictures following) we realised how lucky we are. The student dorms, unlike our apartment, are rooms that house 8-10 people. They don't have access to a kitchen and they share one bathroom per floor. I think we're pretty lucky to have what we do. I've also seen girls washing their hair outside using hoses and buckets and men in their undies having a bath with a bucket in the crowded and filthy streets. I don't know what they do in winter! I'm glad I have my own bathroom as I get stared at in the streets enough let alone showering there too!!!

This is the short walk from our apartment block to the bin or dump. There are no garbage bin days here!! These are the students dorms right next to it. I cannot explain how much this thing smells. It is everyone's rubbish from the whole school block (there are at least 2 of these student blocks and about 3 blocks of the ones that we live in, and also the school). Also remember that we can't flush toilet paper...it all ends up here too. The cats scavenge around here ripping up the bags and I don't understand how, but heaps of the rubbish ends up all along the road, instead of in the shed. I've also seen a couple of people looking for stuff in here too. There are a lot of people (some don't look homeless or anything) that look through the bins around town. Some get food out, some get out recyclable bottles etc and put them in huge dirty bags.

I have noticed our dump gets emptied fairly regularly, I'd say almost every 2nd day. It still smells, but not as bad as it could I suppose! It's really bad when it rains as the water washes heaps of stuff out...yuck.

I didn't want to get too close, as it was I was standing on eggshells and brown things!! I still can't believe that someone lives in the room that is right next to it. That would be their only window too!

This situation is normal for students who go to university. They also have at least 30 hours of school to attend a week. This does not include homework and assignments.

Some other differences:

We have to brush our teeth with bottled water!

We live and breathe in air-con.

The bread is sweet! (Paul met an aussie couple who are teaching at his uni and they have imported a bread maker...they made us a loaf and let us borrow their vegemite!)

The meat section in the shopping centres in a full-on butchery. You want chops? I'll hack it off the beast for you right now...it disturbs me. Not much of the meat is packaged like at home either. It is all sitting in the not-so-refridgerated shelves. There's everything you could imagine too...heads, hearts, intestines, feet, and while your looking at all this you're hearing the butchers hacking through bones all around you. For me, this is a nightmare. Paul says I have to get over it. I'm becoming a vegetarian!!

On a better note, the fruit and veges are really fresh and really yummy! We have to wash them all in purified water first, but we always have a lot of exotic fruit on hand! I bought a pomegranite the other day, and dragon fruit, and nashi pears and grapes and apples (with writing on them!!) YUM!

大明湖 Da Ming Lake

DaMing Lake is an oasis! I didn't know what to expect after the amazing West Lake in Hangzhou. Hangzhou is the 'Tourist City' of China, so it's a little prettier than the rest of China. In Jinan, the Springs (namely, Baotu Spring), the Lake, and the Thousand Buddha Mountain are it's tourist sites. The Springs, as you saw were nice, but...I wouldn't have come to Jinan just to see them. We walked through and enjoyed the sights. I spent 5 hours at the Lake yesterday though...and I didn't even realise! It's really relaxing and beautiful. I met heaps of people too, they just came up and started talking to me! Most people can say hello and how are you, and then when they realise I can speak Chinese, they start speaking a lot...really fast! When I'm speaking to someone too, lots of others crowd around to hear me speak! When I don't pronounce something right, everyone giggles!

Here are some of the sights:

This is the little barge that you can catch to the islands in the middle.

This is how picturesque it is...This is a pavilion with lotus' on one side and the lake on the other, the smell of Jasmine in the air.

There are heaps of little red ribbons tied to the trees in this area.

They're hopes and wishes!! People buy a ribbon and write down their wish and tie it to the tree!

After walking around for hours, I went and sat outiside one of the gates to wait for a taxi. I'm sooo good looking that as I was sitting there, two guys came and asked if they could have photos with me!! I can't leave the house without Paul for protection against the papparrazi!! ;)

I ended up chatting with the guys for ages, they were from Xian and also tourists. They actually helped me with my chinese a bit. We learnt a lot, they kept saying they had 'chinese english' and I had to help them! It was a fun day!

Chop Suky

*NOTE - Read Caitlin's post that appears before this one*



A little more on cat food...



I also made a great call regarding what was left over after the poor kittens met their demise and pointed out to Caitlin that I hoped we wouldn't see any Kitty litter in the trash when we take our garbage out. I got in lots of trouble for this and will proably get in lots of trouble for this post too.



When I get back to Australia I am going to remember what I've learnt in China and maybe cook up a little Peking Kitten...

Mmmm...Gizmo Burgers!

P.s: Not really Gizmo...you're awesome...and so tender....mmm

p.p.s but seriously...no

Edit:

PAUL DOUGLAS GOLDSTON! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD WRITE SUCH A THING. I'M DISAPPOINTED.

Gizmo, it's ok, you're continents away at the moment. I'll make sure that you are protected from this monster.

C

Just a couple of extra things...

Firstly, the tea set! I know your all dying to see it!! hehehe If you aren't bored of tea yet, read on...otherwise, I'll let you know when it's over!! :)

TAA-DAA!

This set is made from the famous Yixing clay. This clay is prized for teapots as its great for developing the flavour of the tea. There are two pots, the first is the one on the stand. The leaves are placed in here and then the tea is poured, almost straight away into the pot with no handle. This one has a strainer inside and is the one that you use to pour the tea into the cups. The tea is poured into the tall cup first and then the small cup is placed on upside down on top of the big one. Then the drinker flips them around and gently removes the tall cup. This is a great party trick! The tall cup is for the aroma. Most, actually I think all, tea in China has distinct fragrances that are important. My favourite is 茉莉花茶 jasmine tea. You've never smelt jasmine tea until you come here! It's amazing.

The other things that are behind the tea pots are the utensils. They are used for measuring the tea and picking up the hot cups etc.

This is the other little present that Pauly got me! You know how you want a cup of tea, and you have a plunger or a tea pot and you have the first cup of tea and the rest is either too cold or too strong and bitter? Well this little gadget is for you! You make the tea in the top and then when it's ready, press a button on the lid and it pours into the bottom! Then you can make more tea when you're ready! The top part, with the tea leaves, also comes out completely (and doesn't leak) so you can have it waiting for you while you're drinking your perfectly brewed tea!

**Start reading here if you were skipping the tea part!!**

The second thing I wanted to say was that I miss my little kitten! OK, so you've all heard that before too! We were really happy when we realised that there are cats running all around our apartment block. They are a little mangy and feral, but they're still cats! We talk to them when they're hiding in the bushes and a couple of them meow back. There's a lady we have seen feeding them and although she's a little crazy, we try and chat to her. She only speaks Chinese, and mostly in the Shandong dialect. Last time a saw her, she was surrounded by about 15 cats and I said to her that they were cute and that Paul and I have a kitten back in Australia. To this she said "ni chi le ma?" As she was holding cat food in her hand, I thought she meant 'do you feed it'. As I walked away however, it dawned on me that 'chi' is 'to eat'. I looked it up later and it definitely does not, in any context, mean 'to feed'. This was quite an awful discovery. I told Paul it was best to leave Gizmo in Australia!!! I actually felt a little stupid as I'm always cooing over these cats...she must think I'm a crazy western girl! We just have to convince ourselves that they are chickens, not kittens, wandering round our yard...

As Paul said...this gives a whole new meaning to 'Hello Kitty'! (etc. Hello Kitty...have you seen a cleaver before???)

祝你生日快乐！ Happy Birthday to me!!

So, yesterday was my birthday and it all started with brekky in bed!! Pauly even made me a cup of tea! Yummy! There were two things that we had decided to do: buy a traditional tea set (Paul's pressie) and go out to dinner at the famous "Quan ju de" Roast duck restaurant.

So we went out on the town in search of a tea set. While travelling over the last month, these tea set's were everywhere. They have the traditional tea pot(s), cups, and it all rests on a wooden tray that you can pour the water on and it's caught inside it, to empty later. This is all part of the ceremony. (Yes...I do love tea!) We have been looking at several different types of sets, especially in Shanghai, and I was holding out till we got to Jinan so that I didn't have to travel with it. BUT, we spent all day looking...and couldn't find one anywhere!!! So we just had to keep shopping!

We also found our way to the most famous of the many springs in this 'Spring City', Baotu Spring. These springs are famous throughout China as they are so pure that you can drink them. People from all over China visit Jinan to see these springs. They are quite pretty, although there was so many people there!

Pauly loves sightseeing!

This is the Baotu Spring. The water is really clear and I think it's cold (we didn't get close enough..)

Everyone brings bottles to fill up. This is where the spring is pumped through so it's easier to fill up the bottles!

The spring is also used for cooling down! It's still pretty hot here!

The pollution was pretty bad yesterday...although it only got worse throughout the day. After hours of walking round town and looking at springs, we caught a cab home and got ready for dinner! Peking duck was the only meal I remember so distinctly from last time I was here...it was fantastic! I'm not really one who'll eat the meat from anything that still looks like the animal either...even things with bones in it is a bit hit and miss with me too...I still ate so much last time! Even though they bring the whole duck to the table and slice it in front of you...it was just soooo good!!! You get thinly sliced shallots, the warm juicy duck meat, and sauce (I think it's hoisin?) and you roll it all up in little pancakes.....amazing!!!





Anyway...I was excited. 'Quan Ju De' Roast duck restaurant is so famous it's in my chinese textbooks...it's listed on the stock exhange...there's an outlet in MELBOURNE!!! We rocked up and as we were working order the whole duck or only half...they told us that they didn't have any. NO ROAST DUCK AT THE ROAST DUCK RESTAURANT!!

So, we ordered from the pictures (I couldn't read what the stuff was) and we think we ordered a lamb curry and bits of lamb deep fried. What came out was yummy little morsels of lamb on toothpicks and what looked like deep fried ducks feet. They said it was lamb, I think it was some part of lamb...probably a tendon or something. It was a chewy, squishy deep fried texture...that we decided to miss....it didn't taste like lamb. As we waited for our meal too, we realised that the only other people in the restaurant worked there! Most were watching the olympics on the tv, but others were doing the books, counting money, and cutting their fingernails. yep.

So we decided to have a look for some ice cream coz that's always good! (Mag-num?) But we found ourselves to be in the dodgiest part of town!!! It was crazy...it was like the end of the world! The smog was really bad so all the lights were shining through the haze and at times there was no one else around except us and a lot of rubbish all over the place. This is really unusual too, there are so many people that pick up after everyone (even someone who sweeps the massive roads!!) so it was really weird. We found our way back to a main road to realise that it was our main road, the one we live on, and that everything was closing up anyway. It was quite an adventure!! We got a cab home and I made tea! A lot of tea in my new tea pot!! :)

The spots aren't on the camera...that's the flash catching the smog!

We can't see the end of the street!

The start of our street.

After all that, I forget to mention that Paul learnt how to say 'it's my girlfriend's birthday today' in mandarin and he kept telling everyone! The lady in the coffee shop up the road played a hilarious bilingual rendition of 'Happy Birsday'...and when I was looking at some clothes, the ladies got on the microphone (they were yelling out the sale items etc) and said happy birthday to me..and then they all came to the change room and said I was a 'white beauty' lol Yep...everyone thinks I'm a supermodel over here!! I mean, people think that where ever I go...but here they keep telling me!! And they say Paul is handsome and charming, and that he has 'intelligent eyes on his head' hehehe that's a saying in chinese. The other day as I was going up one escalator and a little boy-about 9 or 10-was going down, his jaw dropped and he said 'hen piao liang' really loudly and stared as we passed each other! hehehe It means really beautiful!! I had to laugh at that one!!

Anyway...all in all, a really special birthday!! It's pretty cool to be in China! I remember saying this last time I got back...no matter how many bad things I see, do and experience, there are a million more beautiful people, places, or things. We're just getting started!

Peace!

Something bought, something new

Hey all,

I bought a cheap acoustic guitar today for AUD $100 and it really sings. It's a real no name brand (star sun?) but it is good value seeing as i will only use it for six months. I might get a chance to use this in some english classes down the track, we'll see hey.


I've been smashing the Tsingtao and catching up on the rugby leauge. Caitlin has just come running in all excited as it has just struck twelve oclock and she has just struck 22...Happy Bday Caity!

Anyway, yep trav Terry Campese is smashing it at the moment for the raiders. As someone said, i think it is great that Carney had everything and pissed it all away.

The Broncos St. George game was pretty close...silly Denman Kemp Rd. passing it over the sideline on that last ditch effort for a try. But seriously, how funny was it that all the Brisbane fans were cheering each time the Dell got a bit of a run. They forgot themselves (I did too!). It was good to see the big man score though!


Anyway we are going to have peking duck today-night for Caitlin's bday and I am getting her a fair dinkum true blue original oriental chinese tea set so she can invite other foreign and native noobs over to have tea with them at our apartment.

Oh yeah...and this song has been playing on all the tv stations non stop and now we're addicted to it, do u have it in Aus? check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skan0yO-qU8

Ok that's all for now.

See you later!

Pauly

Apartment Inspection

Hey noobs,



We've made a short video walkthrough of our apartment so you can see where we will be staying during our 6 month stint in China. No need to explain anymore, the video says it all.

Welcome to Jinan!

This is a little tiny post because we are soo tired! We moved in to our apartment today and then had to go out and buy a lot of stuff! Our apartment isn't quite what we've been used to over here. No 4 star styles! (I'll post a video when I get the time) It's up a dark dingy staircase on the second floor. It's a nice lounge room and a good size bedroom, but the kitchen and bathroom are very different to what we're used to! There is no oven, which isn't too bad, and gas cooker that fits the woks on them. We went out and bought a rice cooker (with a steamer) which will come in very handy I think! Oh, and Sam, we have a washing machine in our kitchen too!! But it doesn't fit in like yours...it kinda has to become a bench lol The bathroom is a little tricky, we have the shower, toilet, and basin in the space that usually would hold just the toilet. There's just about enough space for a person to squeeze under the shower head while in between the toilet and basin. We'll work it out though! I think it's like this because we are staying really close to my uni (it's about a block or two away I think) and so these apartments are for the asian teachers who teach at this campus. All the foreign teachers live at the apartments 40mins away at the campus Paul will be teaching at.

OK...that's enough! I'm going to bed!

xoxox

Sex!

...CONTINUED

Ok, so that was the morning...at night time I wanted to do the last touristy things in Shanghai. I wanted to go to the other side of the river and go up in the highest tower and take some photos. I know...lame. To get to the other side though, you take the 'sight seeing tunnel'. So we bought a return ticket on the tunnel and as the tower was closed, we bought a ticket that combined access to an underwater treasures museum and the China sex culture and sex health museum.

So...first things first...The tourist 'sightseeing tunnel'. What do you think we were going to see? Tourist sights? No. It's a light show while travelling in a little tram-like carriage. It was hilarious. That they spent that much money on something like this is...well it just is! I'll try and post a video of the start of it. We went through different kinds of lights on the walls of the tunnel and as we did, an enthusiastic voice over with accompanying music explained what we were seeing.

For example:
flashing lights - 'twinkling stars'
red colours moving around (on screens) - Magma
coloured fairy lights hanging from the roof - Heaven and Hell.
neon lines flashing down the tunnel - Swirling tunnel

Hilarious!

We didn't know what to expect once we got off! So we found our way to the exhibitions and went to the fish one first. This was terrible! It was a couple of fish tanks with 'rare and exciting' breeds of fish - really just goldfish. Really ugly goldfish. There was also a whole section of turtles; a couple of live ones in dirty tanks and some in a fake pond full of money and heaps of dead stuffed ones that people had put heaps of money on. We're guessing they're lucky. The weirdest and grossest part of this was walking through the part with stuffed animals and others in jars. It was disturbing, particularly the seal with chunks of fur missing and it's face beginning to dry a little...

Paul feeding the stuffed turtle...

A real one!

This goldfish remembers more than three seconds!!

This one...looks like something went drastically wrong!

And now for the SEX! We hired automatic english guides for this one. It was fairly graphic but really interesting! I'll put some photos up of the best bits and explain as I go....I've been told I can be longwinded....

This was the most tasteful of all of the pictures....I think it's actually pretty.

I thought this one was great. In this culture (Taipei) the women are very highly regarded in the relationship. This devi ce is to let a husband know if his wife wants sex!!! She'll put the penis up or down according to her decision and he checks it when he gets home from work!

This one was awful. It was designed as a punishment for 'unchaste' women. It's a wooden saddle with a wooden phallus attached. They were made to ride a donkey naked down the main street with the penis inside - to further desecrate her.

This is an extremely detailed census of the prostitutes in a certain area. It goes into so much detail that it explains the different types of prostitutes and levels and how much they cost and where they live etc

This one is just funny. It is from Paraguay.

We thought Paul was wearing an appropriate shirt!

Ok, before I go...we have arrived in Jinan! We are moving into our apartment tomorrow!! We're really excited!! YAY!!

ALSO...only one week to go! You should all know what that means!

OVER AND OUT

*TSCHHT*

Ancient Gardens...and ancient sex

As yesterday was our last day in Shanghai, we thought we'd cram as much in as possible! So, I went out during the day to the Yu gardens, the Temple of the Town Gods, the 'old' shopping town surrouding the Yu Gardens and then I went home to rest, and get ready for the night of touristy stuff!


The Yu gardens were pretty amazing. They were created during the Ming dynasty and - if you try to forget the huge amount of people everywhere - very relaxing to walk around! There are lakes and streams running throughout and buildings that have been restored and preserved that you can walk through. Everything that is there has been planned perfectly, down to the last rock, according to feng shui. It took 18 years to finish! There were a lot of little paths and doors to walk through. When looking back at the photos, I realise I have an affection for doors! These gardens have so many that symbolise different things (I know they do...I just don't know what they do!!)

I'll just put some photos in and let them speak for themselves!

There are so many fish! They really get snappy too!

I sat on a verandah looking at this view for ages. As one of the signs said, I felt carefree and joyous.

I'm getting good at taking phtoto's of scenery and me!

Here are two vase shaped doors. They are pretty famous, I have seen this picture several times in books.

This is me. Behind me is the Huxinting Teahouse, one of the most famous in China. The bridge is profoundly named - 'the zig zag bridge'!

The next thing I bumped into was the Temple. There were people there making offerings with incense, it smelled amazing. Again, pictures tell a thousand words...

I then found my way back out to the Yuyuan 'old street'. It's done up in Ming dynasty architecture. It is really good to look at, and there's good shopping there too. I bought lots...! Bartered hard! I'll tell you about that later!



The best part about the 'old' shopping centre is that Nanxing steamed bun restaurant is there. I have been craving good steamed buns for a while (these are more like little dumplings...I'm still working out the difference). I had heard about this place, and finally found my way through the crowds...it was worth it! There were sooo many people lined up it was crazy. There was a downstairs line for takeaway and I asked a lady in the line if I was in the right place (still in mandarin...no one spoke english, except the tourists and they weren't going to be any help to me!!) she recommended that I stay in the line coz the buns are really tasty. So I lined up with the other 100 people waiting! She sent her daughter upstairs and we realised that there were seats up there and that we could order and eat upstairs. She invited me to come with them which I thought was lovely! Once we pushed our way upstairs, we found out it was going to be at least a 45 minute wait till the next batch was cooked. They didn't want to stay that long, so I bought the minimum 16 buns for 20RMB (about $3aud) and then had to stand in the crowded dining room waiting for a seat. I didn't know what was going on as I had paid for my meal and was given a ticket and, although I could speak mandarin, they just pointed to the back of the room. I eventually spoke to one of the waitresses and she found me a seat with a family. We started chatting and I found out that one of the ladies were from Guangdong province and that this was her first time eating the buns too. I must admit that I stood out up there. I was the only westerner and I later found out there was a certain way to eat these buns without making a fool of yourself. Needless to say, all eyes were on me when I put on in my mouth. A collective gasp went around the tables closest to me and a lady waiting for a seat behind me actually stopped me and said "too hot, a little at a time!!", so with everyone still watching (and my mouth burning) I tried the next one. Now, these little buggers are little 'bags' of soft steamed pastry with a little bit of meat inside and a yummy liquid. It was the liquid that is the trick. So I took a little bite, not easy as they are slippery little things in chopsticks! The liquid exploded all over the table. The lady sitting next to me from Guangdong was giggling and said she was glad that I went first.......ok, so I think I learnt my lesson. They were awesome though. I wish I could go back and wait all over again!





I'm using the last of our free internet in Shanghai to write this, but we have to check out soon, so...that was the ancient gardens...stay tuned for ancient sex!

TO BE CONTINUED...

Life at the moment...

As you know...our tummies haven't been friends with us lately...and after looking at this menu, I think I know why...

(I'm not sure what happens when a peanut has been 'decorticated'...)

(Although I'm not going to order it, I get Duck Jaws...but...'as closely linked as flesh and blood'??? And although the peanut above might not be happy, the beef here certainly is.)

So, other than eating, we have been exploring Shanghai. Paul dragged me (again) out to the People's Garden yesterday...

Having to enjoy the sunshine...

Paul is loving it!

I went on a little adventure by myself today! I decided to have a look at the books at the Foreign Language Bookshop. In China everything is grouped together, so the whole street was full of bookshops. It was fantastic! I spent hours wandering through big shopping centres full of books and little tiny nooks on the street. The only english books were at the FL Bookstore, but I decided to find a book that I'll want to translate...and so I bought a book on tea! It's got history, traditions, ceremony, and then a bit about all the famous teas of China. I can understand some of it already.

My collection so far...Ginseng tea, Dragon Well tea, and Jasmine tea. A teapot/cup.

This is the view along the street.
This is in the part of the old French Concession. The streets are lined with trees and there are bakeries, and bookstores!