johannainchina
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China
God Life Is Dull!
Well, after faffing abbout for a few weeks and catching up on my daytime tv, have finally found myself a job and am starting to question my return to the uk. Aside from being back in time to see the last few episodes of Sex and the City everything is pretty dull and everyone is just going about their dull little lives complaining that everything is dull and bad and evil (which it is!) and little else.
Maybe the problem is that I have returned back to my previous workplace. This is the third time I have been working for the RAC doing temp work, and I seem to be doing the rounds of the different departments, and yet little has changed. The people that call in (I am on the phones - and all the people either have received a very simplified form which clearly states what they should do and they are incapable of following instructions (eg, "I just got this form and it says to fill it in and send it back. What should I do?" Duhhh! And these ones always speak in heavy Westcountry or Glaswegian accents!) or want to yell at me (again in Glaswegian accents! Why they all seem to come from Glasgow is anybodys guess!) Needless to say its not very exciting, but I know that when I hand in my notice all that would happen is that i would go back to the agency and end up in a different department here. Such is my exciting life! Long live free tea and coffee!
I suppose the upside of being in work again is that I get paid. Hooray! And I am having the weirdest experiences of deja-vu and freakiness that my head just cant cope. Not only have I spent the last 45 minutes listening in to an old biddy going on and on and on about something (I fail to remember what, but I dont think it really matters that much if she receives a free brolly or something!) but I have had a blast from the past.
You know when you meet someone and you think you recognise them but are not sure from where or why? Well, I was on my coffee break and there was this guy that I recognised and he recognised me, but I couldnt quite place him, but thought he was someone I used to work with last time I was here. Turns out he was an ex who I havent seen for about 5 years and it was so satisfying that I could be really smug in that he recognised me and I couldn't recognise him. Is that wrong?
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Spaced Out
Well, Jo is no longer somewhere exotic and weird but has made it back to Thornbury for the weirdest experiences and spaced out-ness that have ensued.
I dont know why supermarkets are the scariest places, especially since most young people in the UK, including me, have worked in one at some time before the age of 20, but they are scary. Walking into my local one was just as if I had never been away and had just woken up from the weirdest dream. Maybe it was the long flights and lack of sleep and the lasting effects of sleeping tablets combined with allcohol and the jet lag, but i was such a space cadet on returning and couldnt stop giggling like an escapee from the local looney bin. And the supermarket was the cherry on top - just so completely overwhelming that you could choose from 97 different types of cheese and 10 types of muesli and all such weird and wonderful edible food with no dog heads in sight.
One of the weirdest things about being back is that there is so much that I wasnt expecting. Like the weather. I figure its almost March, it should be getting warm by now, but no - the day i return its freezing and I am wandering around heathrow in my sandals, accentuated by my airplane socks. A fashion statement Im sure, but one that will catch on? And then it started to snow. In a really mad way, the entire town i covered in a heavy layer of snow and there are kids everywhere making snowmen and having snowfights. And I was expecting spring!
Then there is the food. My parents are still on the Atkins diet, which involves not eating anything besides meat and vegetables and only some vegetables at that, so since I have been back all I have been eating is salad and stir fry and I am still craving that bacon sarnie three days after my return!
I went shopping today, which has been fantastic. Not only can i actually fit into the clothes here, as most of the clothes in asia come in two sizes - tiny or very tiny, but now I feel all 'normal' as in the shops not only are there clothes that actually fit me without having to go to the boys section, but they actually fit me well and I have somehow managed to go down 2 clothes sizes since I left last year, which can only be a good thing. Yippee! (Here's hoping it lasts!)
In the same way that everything has changed, nothing has changed. The pubs are all the same with the same people, just fewer of them as everyone has slowly moved away, and driving is something that I had forgotton but picked up again, just like riding a bike, but scarier when all these cars come at you from nowhere.
After watching Neighbours twice i feel that i have caught up on everything of importance that has happened in the last year, although it might take a bit longer for Eastenders!
Its so weird to be home, and so nice, but my stir fry is calling.
Take care
Love and sunshine
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Bye Bye to China?
I am afraid this will probably be the last china-related article (and its not even that!) for the time being as Johanna is no longer in china and is currently somewhere in Asia on her way home.
I am sure there will be more to come shortly, as anyone who has been living in China knows it will be a place to return to again and again, but for now, take care of yourselves and happy new year!
p.s. happy birthday ben and lisa!
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Harbin
Well, in Harbin - Hooray!
This place is so cool (well, freezing, but I am British so i'm allowed to complain about the weather when i am wearing over 20 items of clothing and its -20 or so outside!).
Today we managed to knock off a few more items on the "things to do when its cold outside list". Having been skiing in Changchun, today we "skated" across the HJ river (no iceskates needed!), went for a ride in a slegh (pulled by a horse - they had dog drawn ones, but didnt fancy them - the poor dogs looked healthy enough, but they seemed content sitting on their blankets and not being eaten - in the supermarkets in Changchun -and probably here- they had prepackaged dogs heads for sale - yummy!) and went bobsleighing. It wasnt really bobsleighing exactly, but it involved sitting on something while careering down a big icy slope.
We went around the ice festival park and tried the same trick without anything to sit on but the seat of my pants. It didnt work quite as well and left me feeling a bit numb and cold!
The ice festival thingy here is really cool. We got to the park at 3-25, paid our Y10 and entered just before the prices trebled. It was really amazing - all these really cool sculptures made out of pure ice - and loads of them. We walked around the mini Collosseum/ Ampithetre thing from Rome, the Parthenon from Greece (my spelling isnt so great today!) and a miniture version (still large) of the forbidden city. After an hour or so, we still hadnt managed to get round half the park (its not big - just so many things to look at) and it was getting dark. It made the stuff really hard to see, so they had all these lights in the ice, or under the ice to illuminate them. They had either drilled holes (most likely) or built the sculptures around them. It was so magical. There was this really big ferris wheel which went so high I was petrified before we were even 4 foot of the ground. I must confess i dont really have much faith in Chinese engineering, and less so when i can see into peoples apartmnents on the 27th floor! But, once I had calmed down a little I managed to enjoy the view, and the guy running the thing was really nice - he asked if we wanted to stay on for another go for free, bless him, but we were a little scared by the first go so we decided not to push our luck!
There was also this HUGE ice sculpture of the Shenzhou 5 rocket (the one the chinese sent up to space). It was done in such a way that you could climb this really huge ice staircase and slide down it, except it looked really dangerous from far away and they had blocked the entrance to it to prevent foolhardy idiots (like myself!) having a go. There was a maze and just everything was really cool.
The weird thing about being up here in Harbin is that it is really close to the border with Russia. Vladivostock (sp?) is only about 150 miles or so from here and everyone keeps talking to me in Russian. It they are not talking to me in russian or calling me a "lao moazhi" (sp?) - a "hairy one" as the Russians are known here! - they are laughing at my trousers. Now, i know my jeans have two large rips in them belkow the knee, but if Im leaving for warmer climes soon and wont be taking much with me, whats the point of gettiong new, badly fitting (chinese!) jeans? Especially if Im wearing 2 or more pairs of thermals underneath them? Yes, i have been using this argument for the last 6 months, but still . . .!
After looking at a decent map of China I realised that on the train it will take a long time to get down to Vietnam from Harbin. I am about as far north as anybody would want to go in China and then I'm off tp the southern most part. i am NOT going by hard seat for four days on a train, so I'm off to Guangzhou for some SARS on a plate. Bring on the warmer weather!
Keep sane!
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I hate really slow and crap computers!
Still not in Harbin yet - will go tomorrow. Have been skiing though - nothing like having the life scared out of you when going down the "baby slopes" shouting rude words to the wind. Thankfully, i have all limbs still attached and in working order - I only fell over once and that was on the ski lift! Oh dear. Maybe I wont take it up as a professional hobby!
Its still cold here - it snowed yesterday evening, but Harbin will be even colder. I dont think ill be venturing too much outside! -30 is a little scary! At least eveywhere you go inside is warm, and it isnt really as bad as you might imagine!
Anyway, take care! And Happy New Year (again! - the year of the monkey!)
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Its grim up north!
Well, its cold, um, colder and then a little colder than I ever thought possible. Currently in Changchun in Jilin province I would not consider leaving a bilding without wearing at least 7 layers of clothes, two hats and a decent pair of mittens. At least up here although its cold places have heating.
Staying at the college where Andy will start teaching next term. Its really weird - they have more than 2 foreign teachers (from many places) and there are lots of really strict rules like no smoking anywhere on cmpus outside the flat, no sitting on desks, no drinking alcohol before the lesson/ coming to teach hungover and being seen as "presentable". Our other college actually seemed to encourage all of the above (except the sitting on desks thing!). They have rules here - very weird!
Getting here was a nightmare in itself. Seeing as although there are 2 direct trains to Beijing from Suzhou every day, it was surprising that only 3 sleeper tickts were available for a population of over a million. These three tickets could only be sold on the day in case someone "important" needed them!!! We forced the college to make a car available to take us two hours up the road to Xuzhou. We had finished our contract, needed to get to Beijing (my passport was there) and didnt want to wait around for goodness knows how long untill tickets could become "available" (we had been trying ourselves for a week!). We managed to get all the luggage (about 14 bags/ over 100kgs! between three people (not all mine - homest!) into the car and onto the train which was a mission in itself, as far as a night in a hotel in Beijing and then back on the train again. I am never helping Andy and Nancy move house again - ever! (They still have twice as much stuff at her mom's house!)
We got to beijing, got stuff sorted like marriage certficates/ embassy stuff for A and N, visas for me, vso stuff, visiting people, changing chinese money into travellers checks (a nightmare but possible at the really huge bank of china, not too far from the friendship store if you can handle ridiculous amounts of beurocracy and walking from one counter to another with no apparant reason you CAN change the money - hooray! It did involve bringing out every peice of paper and receipt and experts card/ resisdence permit, contract from work passport and photocopies of all the above and my dental records. You just have to smile as to how anything does get done, but I suppose it gives people jobs!)
A night involving far too much beer, vodka, baileys, bijou (ths one confused me - why did I voluntairiyl choose to drink the stuff? Why did I suggest getting a bottle?) and far too many tequilas later, a bad hangover was starting to form as I made my way onto the train north.
So here i am for the next few days. Going to try out skiing at some point soon, then Harbin's ice festival and then (hopefully!) some Vietnamese sunshine. Yeah!
Feeling happy
Love and sunshine
Jo
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