24th October 2010

Bu hao!

That means 'I'm not good'. Haven't had a great day today. Ended yesterday on a high as my classes went really well but then woke up this morning feeling like death. The jet lag/new germs/general lack of cleanliness in China has taken its toll on me. As everyone knows, being ill and away from home sucks big stylee. To cheer me up we decided to go into the city centre to buy a much needed iron and to treat ourselves to some pizza. The iron buying was unbelievably stressful. We thought we would go in, pick up a box with an iron in it and buy it... simple. But no... nothing is simple here! In the store we had to go to the 'home electricals' counter and point out which iron we wanted. We chose the pink one as the exact same iron in blue was double the price....weird! The lady motioned to us to pay so we gave her the money.... and then she disappeared- for a REALLY long time. Rich was about to really lose his rag as he thought she had just stolen the money. She did however eventually come back and hand us our change (10 Yuan short....so Rich was sort of right lol) and our receipt... no iron. We looked at her confused and she held up her hand to signal '5'. We thought that maybe it was like Argos and we had to go to counter 5 or wait 5 minutes. She was jabbering on confusing us even more. All of a sudden she bends down and out of nowhere produces the iron. Whhaaaat? We think that she had just spent that whole time explaining to us what a receipt was. If she had given us the iron, took the money and then given us the receipt there would have been no misunderstanding.... but as said before- nothing is that simple in China. Rich and I calmed ourselves with a set meal probably meant for 5 people at Papa Joe's Pizza. The food was good but there was a guy sitting behind Rich eating like he was actually a horse in the wrong body. He was making the most distressing sounds. We have found that so far here in China there are 2 distinct generations. Those above 35/40 are pretty disgusting to a western eye. They spit, smoke wherever they feel like, eat like horses- mouth open, usually using no utensils and own at least 4 very ill looking dogs. Then there are those under that age who are absolutely charming. You rarely see them spit or smoke, they are always polite and helpful and seem genuinely lovely. There are obviously exceptions to the rule, such as our building manager who looks to be in his 60's who is an absolute doll. He always says hello (in english) even though he struggles and is always happy and smiling which seems to be extremely unusual for the over 50's in our part of town. He also has the most gorgeous puppy who plays in our courtyard. Rich and I want to steal him but won't as mr building manager is so nice but we have nicknamed him Yoyo as it seems to be a popular name here!! Oooo.... just remembered something very weird that I saw last night. I was walking to work down the alley next to our apartment block and I saw a blond man surrounded by some chanting chinese men. They were outside the weird massage place that I mentioned in one of my previous blogs. Concerned that a fellow westerner was in trouble I looked around but the westerner was not a westerner, but a blind, chinese albino. From what I could make out the men were performing some kind of healing ritual....in an alleyway. Not something you see everyday. We are living in a very working class neighbourhood which is sometimes good and sometimes a little scary. A lot of people own cockerels here and waking up to cockerel noises is getting to be quite comforting. A lot of music and singing goes on in our apartment block too... all traditional music- not a hint of Britney Spears, so we are constantly reminded of where we are. All the apartments in our building and surrounding buildings seem to house whole families.... grandparents, parents and children which makes for a lot of crying babies, cooking smells and singing/shouting grandma's. All of this adds up to a unique, authentic experience and even after just a week all these things are becoming normal to us. Trying to paint a picture of what Guiyang/China is like is pretty hard to do in words, and even with pictures. I had read many blogs written by western visitor's to China and none of them could have prepared me for actually living here. I hope that you guy's are getting a good sense of China from my blog. I know I may seem a little negative, and at times even a little hateful but being here is crazier than anyone can imagine. All of things that we are experiencing, good and bad are all amazing and so far, even sitting here with the sore throat from hell I am glad that we are here- sitting at home watching Jeremy Kyle doesn't really compare! As I said before, today was not a great day, but even in the UK I had s***ty days. After a phone call with my mum, a few DVD's and some crisps that actually taste like crisps I am ready for tomorrow to be a better day. Going to head out with my camcorder and get some video of Guiyang....... not going near the wild monkey's this time though lol.

Nighty night (or good afternoon in the UK!)

xkx