Haircuts and picnics

Asia » China » Shanghai
October 8th 2009

Published: October 8th 2009

Now apart from a brief update, I last left you with my imminent removal from the Hanting Express, to begin my life anew in the French Concession. Although leaving the Hanting was a wrench it was great to have my own place at last in the beautiful French concession.
I nipped off to Carrefour supermarket after work on the Friday to buy some bedding and a celebratory bottle of wine. Although the supermarket was hell on a Friday evening I managed to utilise the Helliwell universal sign language. After much gesturing near the bedding we came to a common agreement that my bed was huge so I needed extra sized bedding. My keen assistant skipped off and brought me the most atrocious, flowery numbers she could find. After again signing/miming being sick she left me to make my own choice and I went for the best of a bad lot and ended up with a pink stripy number. (You should have seen the other contenders).

She then asked in English if I needed a quilt. I confirmed this and off we went to yet another huge aisle with many an assistant waiting to leap into action. Everyone became involved in the duvet debacle as it shall now be known, and eventually I was handed a lovely pink one (naturally) with many a head nodding to my gesturing as to whether it would be big enough.

After a quick foray through the food and drink section, I eventually staggered out the door, laden down with quilts, towels, pillows and the like. I managed a taxi to the FC and met up with , my Chinese Speaking friend. We headed to the house and did the exchange of keys like professionals. Or he did the talking and I did much nodding and smiling. Keys were exchanged and I was a happy bunny.

I eventually headed back to the hotel to collect my bags, and we all bid each other a rather fond and humorous farewell. The security guard actually waved me off the premises, whether through affection or fear I am not sure.

I taxied back to the FC and when I spotted the pub and restaurant opposite my apartment I paid and leapt out to heave my heavy suitcase and numerous bags to the gate. When I put my key in the lock it wouldn’t work. I tried a couple of times before deciding to use the code on the keypad instead and sort it out later. Only the code didn’t work either. I must admit I panicked a little and after several more attempts tried calling my friend to check I had remembered the code correctly. He didn’t answer.
I decided that the gate was locked from inside and tried shouting through it to the open windows I could see, thinking that someone could come and open it and let me in.
No response.
I decided that it was because I was shouting in English and not Chinese.
I spied a man on the opposite side of the road who was in a uniform so I rang the Shanghai helpline (excellent invention) which is staffed 24/7 with English speaking staff to help you out with any issue you may have like telling the taxi driver where you want to go, or whether you are buying shampoo or shower gel etc
I explained my situation and asked the kind lady to ask the man to help me by shouting in Chinese. I gestured and handed my phone over and waited while he had a conversation that sounded quite shouty (most do) before he handed back over to me. The nice lady explained that he refused to help me and had suggested I just wait outside the gate until somebody came out. At this point I became very upset and asked what I would do if nobody did come out. Lovely lady said she would try and convince him so I handed her back. More raised voices. Again he refused.
I decided he was mean and not giving a very nice impression of china to foreigners. Sweet lady said we could ring the police as a last resort and I wisely said I would try waiting a bit before that, and would call her back.

At this point my friend returned my call and I explained my predicament. I checked I was trying the correct code and wasn’t mistaken with my gate number. Yes , the code was correct and yes number 2 was correct. 2nd gate on right. At this point I had an awful thought and said I would call him back. I walked down the straight to discover that there were in fact, 4 gates with number 2 on them. I tried my key in the next one down, in like a dream. All this, with the unhelpful man looking on.
I decided that although it was a little embarrassing, it wasn’t really my fault and it could have happened to anyone and been a whole lot more embarrassing. And I know have to see the parking attendant every day. But he could have tried to help me . . .

Since then I have settled in and I love my apartment and the area. I have been meeting lots of new people and exploring new places. And, even more excitingly I have had my hair cut!

As most of you will know I had my long locks shorn prior to departure (Carla didn’t know what she was letting herself in for) so as not to swelter any more than I had to. This all seemed fine and an excellent plan, and when I arrived I congratulated myself on my clever thinking. But, as time went on and it began to grow a little bit, my hair’s tendency to kink at the back, combined with high humidity produced disastrous results.
My hair began curling and expanding upwards and outwards until I was starting to look like Patty or Selma (Marge Simpson’s sisters) unless I spent ages sweltering under my hair straighteners. Not good. Something needed to be done but my usual fear of unknown hairdressers combined with my lack of Chinese was giving me real cause for concern.
My friend Jo (yes, it does get confusing) took me along to her hairdressers and I was settled in a chair before being given a fab head, shoulder and neck massage. Then my hair was washed there in the chair, upright with a small bottle of soapy liquid which they squirt on bit by bit whilst lathering you up. Then you are taken to a backwash to have it rinsed. Novel water saving.
My stylist didn’t speak English but the manager did so he translated as I used my mime for emphasis. And the fella did good so I was quite relieved.

Later that night I met up with some friends from the climbing club to go to a German beer festival. This was a massive tent with hundreds of excitable Chinese folk drinking watered down lager. But we were there and it was an all you could eat or drink affair so we decided to make the most of it. A German band played some dubious numbers and then the Chinese speaking hostess had 5 men onstage downing a pint (or litre maybe?!?) As the winner returned to his seat with his prize German hat my friend pointed out that they were asking for women and she wanted to go up. Being a supportive friend I agreed and we were selected to go up. The rules passed me by as they were in Chinese but my friend helped by pointing out that you were not allowed to spill any.
And we were off.

Now call it natural abilities, cultural differences or just the result of lots of training, but I was an out and out winner. I had much support from the crowd and I thanked them all. As I left the stage to loud applause people stopped me to offer their congratulations. A proud moment for England I thought. And for my efforts- a small battery operated fan that had LED lights with the name of the beer festival.
So I was the women’s champion beer drinker in a German beer festival in China. I was justifiably proud of my achievement and texted friends and was looking forward to ringing my dad with the good news!

Since then I have been out and about meeting up with friends to sample the different food and drinks shanghai has to offer. I have been to a dance class, an ethnic art exhibition and sat up late in a ‘British’ pub to watch some premiership football (time difference a bit of a killer). I have been and haggled at the fabric market and had some clothes made to measure and seen the various wares on offer at the ‘genuine fake’ market. And in my bid to learn the language I have started my twice weekly Chinese classes. So now I am learning my letters and sounds for pinyin (European letters rather than Chinese script) Chinese.

Last Wednesday we finished school for a week for the national holiday. This incorporates the anniversary of the founding of the people’s republic of China (60yrs) and the mid autumn moon cake festival (something to do with moons, funny little cakes and seeing family?)
I have spent that time catching up with sleep and some reading, meeting friends for dinner and general wandering around the city. Lots of people go away for the holiday to visit family etc, but then lots of Chinese people come to visit the city.
I walked into Shanghai to the bund waterfront and I have never seen such a sea of people, most carrying little Chinese flags. At some points it felt as if I were swimming against the tide trying to walk through the crowds, and then the metro was heaving on the way back home. I did manage to get a small Chinese flag myself which I’m going to send back home for Cameron who is doing a project on China at school. I have already posted him some things- how useful am I for his teacher???

Anyhoo, to bring things to a close, today I have been for a picnic in Centuary park, in Pudong. One girl brought her puppy, and my friend Haze brought her giant rabbit. Yup a rabbit. On a lead. Everyone brought a contribution to the picnic and my traditional English Cheese and tomato sandwiches went down well. Then we had much fun chasing after the escaped rabbit, and trying to wrestle chicken bones off the sharp toothed puppy. A good end to the holidays, although I did find the journey home a little stressful as the rabbit kept trying to escape from its bag on the metro.

Finally when I returned to the FC I went and purchased A BIKE!!!
Yes indeed I am now the proud owner of what I would call an old fashioned bike (think Holland not mountain), complete with bell and basket. Most people have these here and I wanted one for my general wanderings and explorations. I won’t be using it to go to work or anything mad like that, roads far too scary, but I am going to use it for getting about locally and perhaps for racing pensioners around the park. (joking- they would easily win)
Have been out tonight (after it got dark so nobody could see me wobble) and had a little tour round. I think I need to buy some trouser clips and perhaps get some practice in when the roads are quiet, but . . .
Life is good

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