During the rush hours in Shanghai, the metros are as full as they could possibly get. Imagine the tube wagons being stuffed completely full – and then double the amount of people in each wagon.

Seriously, it’s almost unimaginable. There are people everywhere, and it’s not unusual for someone to get stuck in the doors – or get their bag or foot stuck. Sometimes the doors need to open and close three times before there’s no obstacles between them. And everytime the door opens, more people press themselves on. Some even run and jump through the doors. Just waiting for the next train, which usually comes within 5 minutes, is out of question. Some times you stand som close that it’s impossible to move an arm. Breathing is a no-go, unless you’re taller than the rest of the crowd. Which I’m not, by the way.

And so I wonder – what will it be like during winter, when everyone’s twice their size because of their coats?

I’ve taken pictures of it, but I think I’m going to try filming it instead. The pictures just don’t do the rush hour any justice.

When I’m going back to Norway, I’m going to bring back lots and lots of tea.

Rose tea, ginger tea, fruit tea, lemon tea, tea flowers, and so on. I’m drinking so much tea here, and sometimes I make myself ice tea with honey while doing nothing (read: homework) in the apartment. Right now there’s a large jug with rose tea getting cold on my table. It smells really nice when you stuff your nose over it, but I really wish it would smell stronger – or at least leave a scent in the living room. Like the fruit tea.

Got any suggestions on what kind of tea I should try? There’s so many different types! And do you know about any use for the rosebuds after making tea with them? Can they be eaten? (Rosebud yoghurt! Mmmmmm..)

I had what I’d like to call a minor clash with the Chinese sizes today.

I was shopping casually around the market in People Square, looking for shoes, clothes, gifts and other stuff, when stumbling over a nice pair of skinny jeans. Nice price, nice pants, but one small problem. Size. The shopkeeper simply took a look at me and, after searching through the jeans rack, said; “Don’t have this large size”. Don’t completely word for word, of course, there were a lot of stuttering and searching for words. But still! I wear XS at home (all right, small in jeans), and in Shanghai I’m too large?

It’s not a new thing that the Chinese females are small. Incredibly small. So small that I sometimes feel like a whale. The Chinese sizes are smaller than the European ones, but this small?

I did find some jeans in the end though. They were also nice skinny jeans (although falsely labelled “Miss Sixty”, will remove all stupid tags later), but not as nice as the too small ones. Size 28 was kinda tight, but usable – and I only have three other pants here.

I’m really trying to update my blog at least once each week. Easy, no?

Well, obviously it’s not for me. Posting new things, finding things to post, is not a problem at all. I must have more than 50 topics I’d love to write about right now, about my new friends, the weird happenings, the Chinese people’s mini-trends (too tight, see-through ankle socks – need I say more?), the food here, the place I live in and so on.

The largest problem, however, is that the internet in my apartment isn’t stable. While I’m writing this, I have absolutely no connection and haven’t been online (unless you count checking my email on one of the school computers) for four days. (Edit; Posted two days later.)

Abstinences? Yes. Much? Oh yeah.

Tomorrow will be the fifth day without internet, and tomorrow the internet-fixing people MIGHT come. Like both today and yesterday. I’ve been two evenings, from 6 and out, at home so far, just waiting for those slow pokes. The internet hasn’t been good while I’ve been here either. It came and went on it’s own accord during the first three weeks – and now, one day after my one month anniversary in Shanghai, it has disappeared completely. Even though there were internet-fixing people here just two weeks ago. Anyway, during the last few weeks, we’ve only had net access in the afternoon. And the net is slow. Really slow.

Enough complaining though, I know I’m being boring. Just a small heads up for the people who are planning on studying Chinese, Japanese and other languages whom usually doesn’t use romanised letters (for other than making foreigners understand easier, that is) is going to take more work than you think. Getting used to the characters takes quite much time, and so far I see most of the characters the different teachers write on the black-sorry-whiteboard as ants.

They might as well have been ants – I’m almost not able to read them at all. I’m getting better, of course, but the teachers have so far been expecting us to pick up the Chinese characters just as fast as the pinyin. And while the pinyin doesn’t exactly go fast either, the characters are really difficult to recognize and use – until you’ve seen them more than 50 times before. Of course, you might be incredibly gifted with the ability to learn at rocket speed, but if not it will take much time to learn. Let’s just say that I’ve always been fast when it comes to learning everything from languages to maths, but when it comes to the Chinese characters I so far feel dyslectic. From speed number 10 to 0 in less than a month. I’m not trying to scare anyone, it’s really fun to stay in Shanghai and learn Chinese (even the characters) but it’s nothing you sail through gracefully. Oh my. I sound really pessimistic. xD

Languages = Love. But it does take quite a lot of effort. And you just can’t go out drinking on every weekday, no matter how much you wanna.

Honourable mentions;
Rose tea, free Shanghai city magazines, Stieg Larsson and his Millenium trilogy, spicy & good looking Chinese food, Norwegian chocolate, the old room mate, the new room mate, new friends and the school’s computer room.

When a person is looking to get married in Norway, you can say they’re on the spouse market. In Shanghai however, there is an actual place where people can advertise.

Usually, it’s the persons mother (or in some cases grandmother) who are caring (not sure if I really agree though) enough to put out their kid’s height, weight, age, preferences, work type, current income, hobbies, and if the person’s not bad looking – a picture, on a paper sheet and hang it on the nearest bush or bench.

Their children are usually too busy working and making a career to look around for a boy- or girlfriend, and so I suppose those old people (with a wish for a grand kiddo) see it as their duty to find someone for them. There was a huge flock of elderly people in the park nearby Barbossa (a quite expensive place) on People’s Square, all of them looking to find someone – although not for themselves.

But what do the couples who end up marrying through this market say to their kids?
Kiddo: Daddy! How did you and mummy meet?
Daddy: Oh, eh, yeah. They were advertising for her at the spouse market..
Probably the worst explanation to give a kid.

I actually wanted to take a picture of one of the advertising sheets, but were told not to (by hand movements), and since I’m polite I only took one. Too bad that picture didn’t become readable.

Stuff on topic;
- I Spy Shanghai; Marriage park.

My beloved little bank card stopped working today, way before the day it was due.

Why? I dunno, really. My mother told me the bank said my card would stop working on the 15th of October, even though it was supposed to work until sometime in 2011.

Weird? Yes. And even weirder; it’s only the 11th today. Which basically leaves me with about 420 yuan until my new card arrives – mum said she’d try to send it as fast as possible about a week ago, but I have no idea if she sent it yet. And just to make the situation even worse; it takes at least two weeks to send things to China.

I guess I’ll have to take my passport and find a bank to retrieve some money on Monday, since I was actually supposed to stock up on cash today (that’s how I found out the card’s dead).

And I barely have any food left. Guess I’ll be living on cheap noodles and hamburger buns in bread shape for quite a while. I don’t even have money to buy fruit or go clubbing if I’m going to make the money stretch enough for two weeks.

Today was the first day of school after the vacation.

Although we really only got our books and the class schedule. I now obviously have to pay around 200 yuan for the books too, even though I was told they were included in the course fee I paid! I complained, and so far I haven’t needed to pay – but I guess time will come. The people who didn’t end up in my class, or with an intensive course, started their classes today – but mine doesn’t start before tomorrow.

I don’t really have a lot of classes, so I’ll guess I’ll have to study some on my own to get to my desired goal. Which is as simple as being able to talk about basic things in Chinese. So far I can only understand the “how are you?” type of conversations. And diverse words and characters.

So here’s how I will be spending my school week;

Monday:
9:00 – 10:20 “Computer learning”. Not sure what this is yet, but it obviously contains learning on computers.

Tuesday;
9:00 – 10:20 “Listening skills”. I’m guessing we’ll learn some words too.
20 min break.
10:40 – 12:00 “Listening skills”.

Wednesday;
9:00 – 10:20 “Intensive reading”. Although I’m guessing it won’t be very intensive at my level.
20 min break.
10:40 – 12:00 “Intensive reading”.
1 and a half hour lunchbreak.
13:30 – 14:50 “Oral practice”. Or talking lessons if you like.
20 min break.
15:10 – 16:30 “Oral practice”.

Thursday;
9:00 – 10:20 “Intensive reading”.
20 min break.
10:40 – 12:00 “Intensive reading”.
1 and a half hour lunchbreak.
13:30 – 14:50 “Oral practice”.
20 min break.
15:10 – 16:30 “Oral practice”.

Friday;
9:00 – 10:20 “Intensive reading”. Although I’m guessing it won’t be very intensive at my level.
20 min break.
10:40 – 12:00 “Intensive reading”.

I seriously need to find myself a new hobby. I’m so used to school taking up the entire day, and now I have more spare time than ever. Unless they decide for us to “have fun” with the class assignments. xD

Or ballet flats if you like. And of course you do.

After all, who does not love a good pair of shoes? Or a pretty pair if you’re not that much into comfort, like me. If I can get a pair of both pretty and comfortable flats/heels/sandals/you-choose, that’s great, but I value the good looks a bit more. Which is probably why I almost always wear and bring along those nifty heel band-aids in case of a blemish or two.

I think my love for pretty shoes is border lining fanatical some times, but after watching the Sex and the City series, I get the feeling a shoe obsession’s rather normal for girls? And if you add the number of females one usually sees when entering a shoe store, it can be too far out either.

But let’s get back to the main topic; my new, pretty ladybird flats. Yes, ladybird. Bow-ladybird.

Please ignore those socks. Wait, do you have an opinion of the crossed socks?

This picture was taken before I managed to buy my self new, white ankle socks – which by the way gets dirty already on the metro station to school over here. There’s so many people rushing, and stepping on your feet in the process.

And no, not a doggie bag or a dog in a bag (like we’ve seen so incredibly many times before).

I was sitting in a metro train, along with some friends, on my way to a night club when I noticed: the girl sitting behind Nini had a dog on her lap. Not a real one, and not a stuffed animal (though I thought so at first). I actually had to poke it’s owner and show my camera to her before I could take some shots – both because of the angle and me wanting a good picture).

I’ve seen people brutally stuff their dog into a purse down here, so I think this is a good solution if you absolutely need to carry a dog. That, and it looks even better in real life. I haven’t seen any of these before though, and so far I’ve seen quite a lot of purses so far (bags? shoes? watches? DVDs? xD ).

So does anyone know where to get one of these? Is it a brand or something? Because the thing looked damn expencive.

I love pandas. Pandas, cats, hamsters, cute pigs, Hello Kitty things, basically everything cute.

But I’ve never seen something like this one before. It’s adorable, and backpacks usually aren’t all that, so it’s nice to see something uncommon every once in a while. Also, I’m amazed she’s wearing it on her back. In Shanghai, most people wear their backpacks in front of them – like a stomach pack!

Sorry about the quality though, I’m not fully compatible with my cameras settings yet, and I really don’t like to use the flash.

Reminds me, I used to have this really cute, small Pikachu backpack when I was 10 or 11.. I wonder where it went..