Not another China update....

My week has been the laziest week of all time, in my life, ever. And its been glorious despite being not overly interesting. I didn’t even bother leaving my house over the weekend, with everywhere shut and a huge thunderstorm causing havoc. However, come Monday I was going slightly stir crazy and ventured out for the supermarket. With the supermarket being the ONLY place open, I had to get everything from here and their packaging ideas astound me. I wanted two cloves of garlic not the packet of 8, so the shop assistant calmly ripped open the packaging for me to get two. Also, I only wanted a tiny bit of ginger, so she just hacked some off another piece. This would definitely not open in England. Anyway, a tenner lighter and I finally had exciting food to eat.

In the afternoon, I decided to make a potato and leek soup and use my posh blender. I was obviously having one of those days as the soup went EVERYWHERE when I turned the blender on. I was cleaning soup from the walls, floor and myself for a very long time. I ended up eating my remaining soup that stayed in the blender with cold compresses over my arms and legs after burning them. Sticking to tinned soup from now on.

The incriminating soup....

On Tuesday afternoon, Brooke came to mine and I introduced her to the delights of a roast dinner. We even had stuffing – the whole pack between just us two. She loved it, obviously and then we watched films in the evening. I couldn’t sleep that night until 4am and woke up at 8.30am on Wednesday. This made Wednesday seem like the longest day of my life. To make it go faster, I made us a stir fry for lunch, with what I thought to be beef. Even the shop assistant confirmed it was beef. One bite later and to my dismay, I realised it was lamb and I could eat no more. It was vile. Brooke happily got to take the remaining stir fry and pack of lamb home with her. That day, my lunch consisted on some German cake (stollen) and 3 gummy worms – my life.

Roast dinner!

I love my panda poncho

Horrible lamb-ruining stir fry

My 'alternative' lunch

Thursday was supposed to be a productive day, venturing out to get fresh veg and draw money out from the bank all ready for starting back at work next week. Oh no.....8 days after Spring Festival, everywhere is still shut! The ATM machines are in little cupboard things and the doors were locked, the mobile shop for topping up my phone (Yes I am reliving my teenage years on PAYG) was closed and the vegetable market had huge shutters across it. What a nightmare and total inconvenience. The only shops open (1 noodle shop, 1 supermarket, 1 fruit shop and 1 corner shop) are also fast running out of stock so my late night trip out for ‘snacks’ on only resulted in some terrible version on Pringles and water.

Friday was exciting for the fact that I started watching ‘Prisoner’s Wives’ and it’s amazing! I wasn’t overly excited about it, but I decided to give it a whirl and I am now obsessed. In fact, after finishing this up, I am going to watch the season finale! I ended up venturing out to Prison bar on Friday night and even though the bar was quiet, I met a lot of people from England....where have these people been hiding for the last five months!? Just as Dean and I rolled in around 3am, it started to thunder and lightning so I was relieved not to be caught out in that!

The only photo from the night...

This weekend is being spent mourning my time off being nearly over and having a huge Subway sandwich tonight! Also, Charlotte is staying at mine tonight as she only paid her rent until the 27^th February and so she is worried about returning to her dormitory after a mammoth journey from the UK and being locked out her room. Unfortunately, that’s all that has happened this week, however, to make up for my lack of excitement and choosing to stay in and cook and clean, I’ve composed a list of ‘Things I love about living in China’ and ‘Things I miss about living in England’. Enjoy!

12 Things I love About Living in China

1) How good your chopsticks ability gets. During first few days, I resorted to stabbing the majority of my food but now I can eat most things with ease.

2) Being able to navigate the Wuhan metro like a London Commuter (still can’t pronounce any of the stops though).

3) Having 39 ‘wechat’ contacts and feeling like Miss Popular, because when I first moved here, I knew nobody. (Wechat is a Chinese Whatsapp)

4) How easy it is to make friends in daily life. Most foreigners hang around in places like Starbucks or bars and it’s perfectly acceptable to strike up a conversation and become bezzie mates whilst ordering a Caramel Macchiato.

5) The advantages of being the only female laowi (foreigner) in my neighbourhood. Everyone from the restaurant owners to the vegetable lady knows me and remembers what I will eat / buy / ask etc. Customer service at its finest.

6) Haggling is acceptable for every single thing. I have been known to barter the price on blankets, Ugg boots, my weekly veg shop and even a seat cushion. In addition, being a foreigner, who is trying to haggle, gives you extra kudos and they’re normally so surprised that you’re attempting it, they just give you it cheaper.

7) Most of the cocktail menus are in English. So despite the fact that the food menu is in Mandarin, the cocktails are always easy to order #liquidlunch.

8) Burger King is so much cheaper. Like £3.50 for a large Whopper meal cheaper.

9) Random people will come up to me and tell me how beautiful I am. Nothing like a 7.32am compliment to make my day (they don’t know I’m wearing yesterday’s make-up).

10) Everyone loves me because I’m British – even other foreigners. Apparently, our accent and our obsession with drinking tea makes us adorable. Excellent.

11) There is always somebody looking worse than you in China. Their fashion sense is incredibly questionable and many of them are currently favouring quilted pyjamas and slippers as daywear. Therefore, nipping to the shops in trackie bottoms and a pyjama top is perfectly acceptable.

12) And finally, something makes me smile everyday. The culture is so different that even though the country sometimes drives me insane, there is always something to stare at, laugh at or smile about #becauseitsChina.

6 Things I Miss About Living in England

1) The food. Of course this was going to be number one. I am aiming to be shopping in an Asda or Tesco within an hour of arriving in England. Pie, Yorkshire puddings, casserole and dumplings, scones with jam and cream, Nandos and toast are what I dream about most nights *dribbles*.

2) The social normality of my own country and having everyone around me doing the same cultural things like queueing and being polite. A particular bug bear over here is the way they eat – it is like feeding time at the zoo with vomit, various bones from meat and fish and general snot being let out freely over dinner. Not cool.

3) The general level of ease when wanting to get something done. I could only get my foreign medical exam done between 7am (yes you read that right) and midday but then had to sit and wait outside the building, whilst it closed for lunch. At 2pm, I was allowed back inside to get my results. What. A. Pain.

4) The countryside and nature. There probably are lots of beautiful species of animals in China but with the pollution, constant construction and general untidiness of the people (oh, the litter), these animals have absolutely no chance. Also being in a huge city – the most populated city in South East China to be exact – feels like I’m always on the go. The streets, shopping malls and public transport are always busy whatever the time of day.

5) The language barrier. Yes, I’ve learnt enough to get by in daily life and can order taxis, buy food and order drinks in a bar but when my bathroom gets a leak it just becomes a lexical nightmare. And before anyone says to learn Chinese – have you tried reading this language?! After battling through their 6000 characters, you then have to learnt the appropriate tone......never gonna happen.

6) Finally, probably the most important one....seeing friends and family. The first month is the hardest as you’re thrown into a completely new culture and despite the jetlag, trying desperately to figure out how an 8 hour time difference is going to work. But it does, you get a routine with the ones you love and Skype becomes your best friend. And it actually never feels like I’m 6000 miles away when you talk face-to-face...I still feel like I’m away at University and hungover on my bed. Sadly, the hangover situation is still the same...