I’m getting a bit obsessed with everything Shanghai and Chinese. And Hello Kitty.

Or maybe I’ve been for a while, I can’t quite say. I think it might just be a part of the entire shock of travelling so far and being incredibly far away from home. According to everything with theories, it’s supposed to be a part of the phases of a culture shock. I must still be in the honeymoon phase.

Everything is so weird, so cosy. Y’know. Except the beggar children without eyelids (the kids mother was following him around in the metro train) and the beggars in general. They’re not so cosy. The architecture, the alleys, the people selling street food, the club culture, it’s so.. oh year. I’m on a honeymoon trip. Seriously, the street food vendors?

Still, even though I’m enrolled into different Chinese classes at an EF school, I still kept my subscription to Chinesepod. Chinesepod has podcasts with lessons about the Chinese culture, the language and more. So all I need to do to repeat what I’ve learnt in one day’s EF class, is to put on my mp3-player and start listening. Learn while you walk. I like that concept. And I’m obsessing too easily.

I’m always looking forward to Halloween. To the costumes, the pumpkin theme, all the decorations, to be able to dress up extra much and go clubbing in a costume.

This year I’ve celebrated Halloween twice. Once during the Bar Mural’s Halloween boat cruise on the 25th of October, and once in the new I Love Shanghai lounge on the 31st.

The boat party was amazing, and I got a really good impression of Bar Mural in general. They have this ancient look with lots of Buddhas on the stone walls. The boat itself was one of the ones you often can see on the river in Shanghai. With multicoloured, blinking lights and three floors. Oh, and an open bar. They even provided some basic costumes for the ones who didn’t dress up!

Although it wasn’t overly creative, I decided to go as a cat. I bought the ears during the Golden Week (the celebration of China’s national day) from some really annoying seller on the Nanjing walking street. Still forgot to put on whiskers though. Oh well.

I went there along with pretty much our entire EF school. There’s a lot of EF schools in Shanghai, of course, but whenever a few of the students in our school decides to go clubbing somewhere – the rest usually tags along. Let’s just say I had a great time!

_{(Picture belongs to Bar Mural, from the Halloween Boat Cruise.)
In the picture (from left to right); My new roommate Felicia, Ellen and me.}

_{(Picture belongs to Ellen.)}

_{(Picture belongs to Bar Mural.) Cute, magical Ellen.}

The Halloween party at I Love Shanghai was really fun as well. A bit more crowded (as in impossible to dance without someone bumping into you while dancing/trying to get past) but open bar and lots of creative costumes. The barmen were dressed up, or actually down, as devils. I wish I had lots of photos from it, but unfortunately I forgot all about taking pictures. On this day I was a Fairy Kitten since I fell completely in love with Ellen’s wings on the boat party – we switched costumes a few times during the night – and so I bought my own pair in red.

When I got there somewhere after 12 am (we were slow) the entire club was completely filled up. We almost didn’t get in at all because there were no more space in there.

Shanghai is definitely a great place to celebrate Halloween, and I’m hoping to celebrate in Shanghai next year as well.

While (window) shopping on Shangxi Lu, I spotted the second Dog Bag so far.

This one was chequered, but still very much like the previous one. Didn’t ask for the price though – (almost) everything on the main Shangxi road is expensive. Which is why I was only window shopping.

I’m rather happy about finding a store that sells these though – if I ever buy one, it’s the closest thing I’ll get to owning a dog.

Shanghai must be THE Hello Kitty capital. At least on 2nd place after Tokyo.

I’ve never been in a city with so much different Hello Kitty things before, and it’s weird just exactly how much you can put that kitten on.

So far I’ve seen everything from Hello Kitty car inventory, toothpaste and tampons to egg boilers and coffee machines. Great variations in other words.

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.