Another week has come and gone. The exciting news that Spurs'manager resigned was not welcomed, grr. This week's achievementsmostly fall into 2 categories: 1)shopping and 2) partying!
Shopping, me? Yes, well, after the expenditure of suits and all, Ididn't want to get too carried away, so yesterday I boughtsome.....gloves! oh yes, 2 pounds worht (they are v. nice!) Flic isgoing to buy some for about 30pence, but mine are obviously worthit! we found a small market nearby us that is kinda useful.Seriously though, I also bought a coat, cause its now around 3-10degrees outside, with a bit of a wind (more than 2 pounds though,unfortunately).
The latest excuse for a lack of exercise is that noone has trainersin any size bigger than UK 9, bummer. I'll keep looking whilst Icontinue to put on weight from the oily, fatty foods! However, thepartying (since the ball, been out 3 times and going out againtonight!!) normally requires a trek up the 14 flights of stairs aswe get home after the lift shuts down. The negative side is thatthings can be expensive. The positive side is we discovered someunbelievably nice places to go.
Once you venture through various roads being dug up, over and undera combination of alleyways, pipes, construction sites; I haverealised you can find some great places. I presume the land ischeap, but the 2 we went to this week were a bit like cafes, butwith gardens, traditional decorations, nice buildings, nice chilledout music (hey, the 1 even had beds in separate rooms, ha ha).
This weeks observations are around cabbage (for the full story seehttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/05/content_388874.htm), in short cabbages used to be THE staplediet for the Beijingers in Winter (now there is much more choice).Still the taste and history continues with people stacking cabbagesup on their bikes to take home, filling the lift with cabbages androlling them to their appartments. Its kinda funny, believe me,never have you seen so many cabbages!
Tez (ex AIESEC Australia, trainee in london) was in town this week,and at dinner we all launched into an interesting discussion withmany of the AIESEC students here, finding out what they thoughtabout reciting Mao at School, their views on brainwashing by thegovernment (is it just me, or are we brainwashed in the west too? Inwhich case, the chinese are way ahead of us by not beleiving halfthe stuff their government tells them. Having said that, who trustsour government in the UK any more?), and also their general views onthe goverment, power and the party. Kinda cool, and we hope to getinto those conversations again.
Its in the last few weeks that I have realised how much of a cultureyou miss out on by not speaking the language, and this isencouraging me to stay longer to learn some Chinese for a few monthsnext year whilst investigating any job opps here. I bought a 'learnchinese' book recently and will attempt to read it frequently.
Word of the day is 'lang' (I think) meaning 'cold'. Hell you can addin 'hen', meaning 'very' too!
Hope everyone is well studying, working, freezing or whatever youare doing...
Adam
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