A quick stop to Shanghai and a trip to a Chinese hospital

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So not a lot happened in August for me to bang on about really. At work I did a travel event for the students as one of our referral events. I took the higher level students whilst Yoshie did the lower level. The TG wasn’t actually that great so I basically turned it into a geography lesson and changed the target vocab up a little. It was so good that our newest member of the KW family Annie an SFT used my plan for when she had to teach it. Shark Bait Hoo Ha ha have been rocking quiz night recently, doing very well with the uber geeky questions, and those involving Britain. I think after the great cheese debacle Frank the quiz host knows not to try me anymore haha. I’ve been planning, booking and scheduling the trips for Chelsea’s visit which isn’t far away now and trying to save money up for her stay too.

Weekend in Shanghai

So my Japanese friend Yoshie lost her bank card in August. Now in most other countries it’s not a big deal, but here in China it’s huge. They work on a local district system. Disney open an account for you in Shanghai when you onboard which is great but unless you’re staying in Shanghai it’s not that helpful as using that card anywhere else in China will incur fees. So when I moved to Hangzhou I opened up a local ICBC account there, which in itself was a task because the branch nearest my work didn’t tackle things like opening online banking or international transfers I had to get the bus to find another branch to do that. When I moved to Guangzhou apparently south region Disney don’t pay you via ICBC anymore (I was told to open a CCB account) but found out that was a big lie because they now pay me via that. On a side note, like banks don’t work outside of their little zone, banks also don’t like working with other banks. So yeah basically I have 3 ICBC accounts but they are all linked. Now Yoshie’s problem was that she never opened a Guangzhou account with any bank and only had her Shanghai card. Now if you lose the card you can freeze the account and then you have to report it lost with your passport at the local bank and then 7 days later get a new card, local this time being SHANGHAI!!!! So yeah everyone told her what a dumbass she was, but I saw it as the perfect opportunity to have some adventures again. And an adventure is certainly what we had from the get go.



We had an early morning flight booked from Guangzhou to Shanghai and a late one back the next day, so we could make the most of our weekend there. We went to check in only to discover that Yoshie’s ticket had been refunded and then told it had been rebooked but her Surname and passport were the wrong way round. We hopped from the service desk to the Ctrip desk (company I always book with here) in order to find out the issue. It got sorted and the staff were really efficient . We even had enough time to make a pit stop into Starbucks for some breakfast. Because of the ticket trouble we didn’t have seats together but I slept for most of it anyway. I can’t even start to tell you how much of a relief 10degrees temp difference including the lack of humidity. My friend Jackie who lives in Shanghai messaged to apologise for the weather because it was raining, to which I replied this is not rain, compared to our tropical storms.



It was so strange leaving the metro and walking out to where I spent most of my December. We headed straight for the bank and were very lucky to get served by someone who spoke Japanese and who magically managed to work the system to give Yoshie her new card without having to make a second trip in 7 days time. After leaving the bank we headed to take a photo outside the infamous JuJiang Inn. And then to heaven its self Mr Pancakes house. Seriously Guangzhou is lacking in the international food restaurant section. I’ve been missing my dads amazing omelettes so I ordered salmon omelette with pancakes and home fries, super yum yum yum. We checked into our hotel, choosen during booking because it had a crazy red interior. But we were disappointment upon arrival as it wasn’t like that at all. I’m in the process of complaining as we booked a ‘boutique’ room and had to ask for the shampoo holder to be refilled and there were no other products within the room either. There was a kettle but no bottled water, sugar or coffee for us to us. The room was lovely though and I wish my apartment was that big. Yoshie wanted to go shopping for some clothes so we headed to a shop called ‘Old Navy’ seriously I was in heaven again, and better yet there was a sale. Because it was an American brand I felt so happy about myself because the sizes were smaller than the UK sizing haha well apart from my shoes which now make me have bigger sized feet.

I was hoping to meet up with my friend Jackie for a bit whilst in Shanghai but over the two days plans kept falling through.

When Yoshie was here onboarding she never got to explore because of her back. So I said that we should go to Yu Gardens and checked out The Bund at night as well as visiting a American Chinese restaurant called Fortune Cookie. OMG the food there was awesome and tasted even better as breakfast the next morning.

On the way home we hand another airline debacle, it turns out there was a number missing from my passport so we had that fun to deal with and just made it onto the plane on time. But overall the whole trip was worth all the hassle that we came across, including getting run over by a police car.

Trip to the hospital

Those of you who have kept in touch recently will know that I haven’t been so well recently and have been trying to discover what’s wrong with my stomach. The doctors have been great and the nurses are finally getting to know my humour quite well including comments such as ‘aren’t you going to buy me a drink first’. After different medicines and things getting quite serious one week, I was admitted into hospital for surgery. I thought it was going to be a routine thing and turns out I needed an IV and was put to sleep. For those of you who know me very well you’ll know that I hate needles/injections with a passion so having to deal with this situation in China pretty much freaked me out completely. But I did actual remain calm, only cried a little and was very relieved to wake up after without any pain. Charmaine came and slept over at mine that night to keep an eye on me and we watched lots of movies from my sofa bed. Having had to drink a disgusting mixture to completely empty my stomach that morning I was relieved when she brought over a yummy McDonalds for me to demolish.



Thankfully I was ok but had to skip work the following day because after I hate I seriously bad cramps and my stomach was moving around like it had a baby kicking me from the inside. The results came back and we now know what was causing the issues and I have to go back in 6mnths for another procedure to check on things. I also had to give blood so they could have a baseline for future checks, they wanted to take it on that day and I told them ‘there's no way you’re taking my blood without someone to hold me down’ so the next week Charmaine came with me and again I was very brave and only let out a squeal with a few tears. My main disappointment was that it wasn’t a fun plaster that they gave me. Least they know for next time haha.



But anyway I’m not going to die yet just in case you were panicking.



Games night

In Hangzhou every Wednesday I attended games night in the city and made lots of different friends from outside of work, it was a nice break. Although I have quiz night I wanted to feel more human with my busy weekends. I’ve made some more friends from the quiz group and we got chatting about doing something else so I suggested playing board games on a Saturday because I finish work at 1730 so its ideal. What started out as an idea has now resulted in often twice a week meetings with more people joining in at various stages.

Our favourite game to play currently is Settlers of Catan, now no one in the group is really an expert in playing but we’ve been getting there and learning as we go.

It’s certainly been a great experience to get to know others in a different situation and I’ve asked my mum to send over some different games when Chelsea comes over because its so hard to find the English versions of games over here. This wouldn’t be an issue if China post wasn’t so fucking lame. My mum sent a parcel in May with two games I’d ordered on Amazon and had delivered home, it disappeared for all of June and then showed up on the tracking system July 29^th and then appeared back in the UK in August because ‘no one came to pick it up’ the second parcel full of sweets and magazines then turned back in the UK this month because of ‘insufficient address’. Both these excuses are ridiculous because I had a parcel sent from Dorothy Perkins with just the English address and it arrived without any hassle. The excuses surprise me because the address is from the company business card which everything is sent to; my mum has both the English and Chinese version label to send things with including my mobile number. It’s such a shame because now my sister’s suitcase is going to be filled with more of my junk because I don’t want things to be sent now because I’m fed up of not getting them when they should arrive. But still I don’t have to wait long and my sister will be here and not long after that I’ll be back in the UK with a pretty much empty suitcase because I don’t have many winter clothes here so I’ll be sure to stock up on stuff when I’m home.



Anyway onto October where there will sure to be lots more adventures and stuff to write about J

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Photos

Outside the infamous onboarding hotel
This hotel was both of our first homes when arriving here in China although at different times.

Mr Pancake house how i've missed you
Salmon omelette

My fortune reading
This resulted in a whole discussion in working out what the PHD stood for.

Tea tasting
We each brought our LP's some yummy tea

Goodbye Shanghai Mr Pancake house
Cheese and bacon crepe