Happy New Year

I've been in Beijing since a couple of days. The city is cleaner, much more modern than Nanjing. It reminds me of the capitals in the West. We live in a really pleasant hostel. There are always people sitting in the common room/cafe downstairs. The food here is excellent, and overall spending time in the hostel is without a doubt something that might make us prolong our stay in Beijing. So far we've seen the Summer Palace, which is probably meant to be seen in the summer. It was very pretty in the winter scene, but most likely the flowers would make seeing the Summer Palace, much more interesting. Then, yesterday we went to see the Lama Temple. It was really chilly, but the sun was shining, and I took lots of photos ^^.

And today I'm very excited to see Mao's dead body, the Tiananmen square... I just hope it'll all be open. I'm not sure because it's the New Year today, and everyone is at homes with their families.

But on such an important day why would they disable people seeing such an 'important' person?

Shopping

So today was a really pretty day. I think that pretty is a really good word to describe it. The sun was shining and the clouds were gone some place else. The snow covered all the palm trees, all the green trees. It all looked so warm, especially with a little bit of sunshine. And the campus was full of 'snowmen'. Not just 3 big ball ones. The biggest one on the bottom and the smallest one on the top. There were huge, fat guys with tiny Chinese eyes, and even mice (as the year of the mouse is here) And then we went shopping, and I have a sweater and leg warmers: black and yellow stripes so that I look like a bee.

How I survived.

The trains in China are very fast and efficient. They start at a given time and overall it's not too hard to find your way. If you have any problems you can always find one of the hundreds of guards who will gladly help a foreigner. This all turns to hell around the spring festival when there is a little bit of snow. The Chinese people are afraid of snow. They think that it's romantic, they like throwing snowballs but snow paralyzes them. They think that snow is a good reason for buses and trains to stop running, or that it's best to stay at home and sleep through the 'winter'. I couldn't believe that snow could be a reason to turn a perfectly disciplined nation to a chaotic mass of blood eaters.

It all looked like people screaming for fresh meat, and pushing forward, without any regard to anything. It is like that normally, the Chinese people don't know the concept of a queue, but imagine that, and about one million people pushing forward to ask the policemen where the hell to go, and why the hell they blocked the entrance. After some disoriented pushing I asked the policeman:

'Why is this entrance closed' – 'It's because of the snow, some trains aren't running' – 'Where should I go (I showed him the ticket)' – 'forward'

So I went to this other entrance where all the village people were sitting on the floor, on their huge Russian-style bags. Rather than like passengers they looked like beggars. They have already waited for hours in this tunnel that was supposedly a passage-way. There were no guards there, and everything looked dirty, hard to imagine this squatter is the train station of the grand city – Shanghai. The notice board didn't have our train on it, so we went out again to ask the police what to do. I said:

'Where am I supposed to go?' - 'Go straight' – 'Straight where? What am I supposed to do, I've already been there!' - 'Go straight' – 'Straight where?' and he looked at me as if I cracked the joke of the century and said 'Do you have any more questions?'

I think at that point I started swearing at him in Polish, and I went to ask another policeman. Who of course didn't care either. All the time there was a constant babble being broadcasted, people rushing and no one to answer any questions, while we started asking ourselves one. Is China really going to match the standards of the developed world?

Shanghai once again

So once again I'm in the city of Shanghai. I start feeling like I could update the guidebooks, or write my own. But more about this later. It's snowing, and a little depressing. We asked the cleaner where we should go when the weather is like that, and she said to stay in and sleep. And she pointed out that we have a TV so we can watch it. But I really wanted to show Shanghai to my mum, so we went out. First we went to the People's square (again) and although it was pouring with rain, I still really liked it. This time we discovered a Starbucks and had a nice coffee. Oh then we set out for the Shanghai Museum, which I have never seen before. Unfortunately, (here starts the guidebook) you can only buy tickets till 4am, and it was already 5, so we never got to see it. Normal tickets were 20 kuai, and student tickets were 5. I am very very disappointed not to have seen old vases and paintings. Then we took the metro to the Pudong area, and went into the big shopping mall. Even if you are set on spending money, a thin T-shirt for 400 kuai feels like a 'slight' exaggeration. So we went for food, and I must say that the place we chose wasn't the best choice either. Afterwards we were heading for the Jin Mao tower, and a bar on the 87^th floor. Jin Mao tower has 88 flors. And the 88^th floor is an observatory for 88 kuai. (88 in China is pronounced ba ba, somehow similar to bye bye, and therefore it's widely used online to say bye. Funny that in Europe it can mean Hail Hitler (H being the 8^th letter in the alphabet.) and neo-nazis use it.) That's just an interesting thing, I wanted to write. Well, so, on the 87^th floor there is a bar. You have to spend at least 120 kuai there + 15% service fee. The drinks they serve aren't outstanding, neither is the coffee nor the ice-cream. Surrounded by businessmen and rich people, it's easy to feel a bit 'out'. The bar's atmosphere is a bit scary, but definitely something worth experiencing. Being so high up, you can't really see down, Shanghai is a very polluted city, and you'd have to be lucky to experience a clear day. I don't really like the skyscrapers, I really prefer the pagodas and temples. Shanghai is a little bit pathetic I think. Showing the enormous economical success, building towers to show it's greatness, having expensive western shops, while there are beggars just around the corner from all this richness. And all I see is the huge economical gap instead of thinking 'wow, this city really is awesome'. No, I don't think so. And I don't think it will be able to impress me in a long time. But then, who am I to impress? I'm not sure a businessman, who gets to live in a hundred star hotel, on the 80^th floor is able to see outside the world he's used to. But hmm.. I got into this whole discussion with myself.

I hope this all doesn't sound too pessimistic. Even if I am rather disappointed, this day was a good lesson for me, and gave me a lot to think about.

But in the end, all I really want is just a nice, sunny, warm day to enjoy, and not to freeze.

I'm happy.

Yes, I'm finally done with them. Goodbye Bellamy. I wish you (the boss especially) all the worst. I hope that your shit company will reach the bottom, lose all the money, and you guys really suck, and the kids don't learn anything. Despite the obvious anger displayed in the last sentence, I'm not angry at all, I'm very happy that they will not cheat me again, that they will not order me to come in and work without getting payed.

I'm so happy now :) And my mum's coming tomorrow!! Yay :)

A big surprise today: It's snowing! Not just some little snow, but it's really snowing A LOT! Right now it's something like 4 cm snow. Since I woke up early, I feel like studying a bit. And THAT doesn't happen so often nowadays. ^^