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Published: December 1st 2005
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Bang Bang
Shoot 'em up, Chinese Style. Including the following experiences
A Hot Pot lunch
A walk around Haimen
Hanging out with old men on street corners
Being taken out for a drink by a bunch of guys...
& then accompanying one of them to the Haimen Hospital's "See Through Room"
And again, more food than I could imagine eating
First of all, a photo of the Lay's chips is below, just to prove to you that "Lemon" and "Cucumber" flavours do exist!
My last couple of days in Haimen were pretty laid back. I went to a few more of Mum and Dad's English classes, which were once again quite interesting and involved mobbings for autographs and photos. It's great to feel popular!
On Wednesday, all of the English teachers from Mum and Dad's school took us out for a Hot Pot lunch, which I really enjoyed. A hot pot basically involves a pot of boiling water on an element in the middle of the table, to which you add your chosen ingredients and then fish around with chopsticks trying to pull them out once they're cooked. We had all sorts of Chinese vegetables, fish, potatos, eggs and meat, and it was really
Mmm... Cucumber
Oddly flavoured chips. yummy. I didn't spill too much either! Someone should open a hot pot restaurant in Australia, because it's a lot of fun.
I also spent a lot of time walking and bus-ing around Haimen, where I came across a number of interesting sights, including plastic palm trees, "Birthmas" cakes, Haimen's own Eiffel Tower, and a number of badly-translated English signs everywhere. The atmosphere out on the streets is great, because there are always people about and most of them smile, say hi or start up a conversation with me.
On Thursday I went out for a walk and came across a group of people near a Hairdresser's (it's always the hairdressers that say hello first), who were all incredibly excited to see me and called me over. None of them spoke any English, and I only know a few sentences in Chinese, so we had a conversation using my phrasebook, me pointing to the English sentences and them pointing to the Chinese so that we could understand each other. After a few photos, including the one below that was taken by a man who I don't believe had used a camera before, the guy on the left and
Slightly Confused Cake
Anyone born on the 25th of December? his friends decided that they wanted to take me for a coffee. Off we went, with them looking incredibly proud to be accompanied by a foreigner.
One of the friends that came along spoke a few words of English, and he kept saying "Hospital," but I just figured he had the word confused for "restaurant," and left it at that. We went to a coffee shop, where they bought me a drink, and then decided that they wanted to go out and eat. By this stage, we had established that the main guy was a driver (his occupation - not many people drive because they can't afford cars), and as we set off again, they kept saying "Hospital" and pointing to the "go and eat" part of the phrasebook, so I figured they were going to get his car from the hospital and take me out to lunch. I kept pointing to "drive" and "car" and saying "no," and they looked confused, but I think I finally managed to explain that I wouldn't go in the car with them "because I would get lost."
Anyway, we got to the hospital, and the next thing I knew, the main
Purple Leaves
Fake palm tree, Haimen park. guy was checking himself in and heading to the "See-through Room" for an X-ray. All I could establish from his friends with the phrase book was that he had a "stomach ache," which was a little confusing. By that stage I was getting a little uncomfortable with the whole situation so I left and made my way back to the shopping area where we'd started. Quite an interesting experience though!
On my way home from the shops I was taking a couple of photos when some old guys on the street corner called me over. They were all lying in the back of their motorbike tractors and were really friendly, so I had a similar phrasebook conversation with them, and took some photos because they were all really excited to see themselves on the LCD screen of my digital camera.
Mum, Dad and I went out for dinner at an all you can eat buffet, which was great. Mum and I then did a little more shopping and then went home to pack for our bus ride back to Shanghai the next morning.
More on that to come in Episode Four!
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Laurence
non-member comment
how about the real Eiffel Tower?
hey Kirsty! I love reading your blog entries... it's a riot! thanks for sharing these experiences with us! I was in Paris last weekend and saw my sister there, she said she'd be happy to have you if you want to stay at her place while you're in Paris. she works all day but she can give you a key to her appartment so that you can come and go. I won't be able to make it to Paris though, I'm stuck in Rennes with exams all week... but you're welcome to come and see me if you feel like visiting a bit more of France than just Paris! email me and I'll give you more information!