Back to Square One...Language Barrier

Oh how I forgot how it is getting around with so little Chinese knowledge. It's rough sometimes. I'm having problems with the lonely factor here, as you feel very alone at times here when you can't communicate properly. Mainland China is NOT as easy to get around as it was in "the other country" (sorry, seems as though everytime I write the name of the other country I live in for 2 years on the internet here explorer crashes, the gov't sensors these things I think... not the first time it happens since being here, can't search certain things here, it's all blocked... I just tried to save this and it gives me a page not found, so I'll try it this way). No Pin Yin, No English. Everything is a challenge here. Martin (Tits) is leaving to go back to Guangzhou tomorrow for work and I'm now on my own here in this town for the week. I'mj moving out of my hotel room to move into his flat over here for the week. I would go with him to Guangzhou but we didn't look into hotel rooms there ahead of time so It'll be difficult for me to leave now. He stays in a dorm at school so I can't really stay there. Anyway, it's weird to think that I'll be here for a week with him not around. I'm so used to being alone, but here it's much different. On top of that I think there's another typhoon on the way, it's been pouring like crazy with strong winds, so there's not much to do either. And the mosquitoes are HORRIBLE here! It's still a great place though. I'm still contemplating about Australia, must make a decision soon.
This weekend we pretty much hung out with some of his friends and chilled (the weather's to bad to sightsee). Yesterday we went shopiing for some new clothes... argh! forgot how it was shopping in China for a foreign woman! LOL BUT I did find some tops, but almost a pair of jeans.. so close.. so surprising. I'm determined to find a pair before leaving this place! And some shoes... yes mom I know... another pair of shoes.. but they're cheap adn nice here!
Martin is looking into some jobs for me still part-time just to help kill some time while here, while either waiting for my Australian Visa and medical to go through or to head back home.
Anyway, back to this weekend. Then his friend trevor from Edmonton met up with us at Chicken Alley (which is a "prostitute" alley they say) but has many shops and Taiwanese restaurants. We went for dinner... I ordered a fresh fruit salad with my meal... and what came on it... mmmm, MAYO! I forgot about the sweet mayo on everything with the Chinese.. There's something about eating bananas, watermelon, oranges and apples with mayo that just doesn't do it for me.. BLAH! We then headed to "Krispin's Bar" which is their friends regular hangout so that's why they call it that. Had some Tsingtao (beer) and then headed back to trevor's place for some more drinks. At 6am we realised it was late enough and we should head back home... somethings never change on this trip. Today was a lazy day and we didn't do much but hang out at Martin's place and then went for dinner and got caught walking back home in the typhoon-like weather. So wet and cold... Then cracked open another bottle of wine and just chatted, went through a slideshow of my pics and said our goodbyes 'til next weekend. So here I am heading back to my room to pack and get some shut-eye.

Hopefully this week I'll make my decisions as to what I will be doing in the next week or so.
Argh! Friggin' mosquitoes! LOL
Wish me luck with my wandering the streets here and getting lost... should've studied more Chinese when I had the chance.. ;o)

'Til next time my friends...

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