Saturday, December 5, 2009
My second day in China. And I didn't manage to sleep whatsoever the previous night because I was attacked by the flu monster. Deprived of any semblance of rest, I was pretty sure I was going to die the next day, having woken up at one hour intervals the entire night to clear my sinuses.
As of now, however, I'm in the bullet train.
It's punctual, left the station on the dot at 1.21 pm, unlike most public transportation; which was a pleasant surprise; though not entirely unexpected knowing how perfectionist some of them are.
The weather feels strange, considering I have never been out of SEA before. It's like being in a very well air conditioned room, where you constantly feel cold, but the option of turning off the air con doesn't exist, so it seems like a perpetual state of torture, considering my paper thin against cold. (and by paper thin I mean relatively non-existent)
The people here look at me strangely as well, as if they can't decide where I'm from. I suppose it's because I neither look local or foreign and probably also because I'm accompanied by my blatantly Chinese looking family but don't quite look oriental.
Also, communication is like playing charades.
POOR charades, that is.
I was trying to ask the temperature and with my poor vocabulary, only managed to say "Today" "very cold" "what" and a lot of English inserts of which my listener only looked blankly at until I was forced to go into my room, go online, type the English word into my laptop, google it in mandarin, point desperately before I got an answer that was only a poor approximation. I'm pretty sure the lady has never been so baffled by another Chinese before. But hey, I suppose I can say I'm pretty resourceful. =D
And once, there was this taxi driver who asked us where we were from considering we had no grasp of Mandarin whatsoever. My dad managed to reply that we were in Malaysia and that our Chinese population reached 6 million. Surprisingly, he understood very chim stuff like when the taxi driver enquired about the government of Malaysia, which I totally didn't understand. Note, atypical of most PRCs he didn't know that Malaysia held any Chinese.
The funny part came when he asked my dad what generation of immigrant my dad was. My dad answered that
"I'm the second generation, my mother is the third."
The taxi driver's face....
Priceless.
Of course, he was trying to say that his father was the first generation whilst his mother was the third generation. But he managed to garble everything until the driver was so frustrated.
And oh, I see farms! Seriously interesting to see neat little squares of green, peppered with hints of vegetation slowly making their way out of the soil as I pass by with the train. And the scenery! Willow trees crouching over the glassy like lake, it's drooping leaves swaying slightly in the soft breeze; as if guardian to the lake before it.
So pretty!
Reddish leaves are also seen throughout, leaving an autumn-ny feel, despite it being late November. The houses are different as well, there's no terrace houses or the usual fleet of houses I'm so accustomed to, every house seems to be surrounded by its own plot of land, most of which is converted into farming areas. Or so I can see through the train window.
Also, Winter fashion is gorgeous! I'm really looking forward to shopping and stuff. =D (of course, aside the flashy, garish looking ones with cartoons printed on it)
If you managed to finish reading this absurdly long series of posts of my trip here, congrats! It's more of a record than anything else, really. Well, since it's only the second day and I have ten days in China, hang on for the loooong ride.
My dad just randomly gave a random guy a random RM1 note in a random manner!!!!
....
...
My parents are so weird.........
....
...........
(as you can see my blog is somewhat like a live telecast.)
okay, not so random.
the guy was someone we changed seats with.
and he wanted to show the guy a part of Malaysian culture. (money?)
but still.
okaaaaay.....
okaaay....
whatever.
shall go take a nap now.
.
.
.. that girl sounded like yihua!
...
oh, all china girls have extremely high pitched voices.
and some of the aunties seem very fierce. =/////
scary. (they're shouting at the conductor now)
***
Went to my cousin's place by a van. Learnt the many virtues of haggling. Place is g o r g e o u s!!!! 'Cept the freezing cold floor. (We have to wear fluffy slippers)
Walked around Shanghai, saw Shanghai city lights.
Took the sub twice.
Took taxi many many times (and it's still relatively cheap, less than RM10 each go)
Took a boat across the river. (dunno what river?)
I wasn't really interested, considering city lights can be seen everywhere.
And oh, in People's Square, there's like a MacDonalds every ten steps. I saw about seven McDonalds, five KFCs, two Pizza Huts (I couldn't recognise if it was Pizza Hut aside from the red hat. The words "Pizza Hut" was replaced by Chinese characters) three Starbucks, two Haagen Dazs, one Yoshinoya and assorted other fast food restaurants.
The place was pretty crowded despite it being a Thursday night.
My dad bought this laser pen thing that allowed people to point to things very far away. And by very far, I mean across a huuuuge river, and at a top floor of office buildings. My cousin brother could even use the pointer to tell us which room he worked in in a sky-scraper-ish office building. Apparently, it was military grade (or so my parents surmised).
The person who sold it to my dad initially offered RMB150, an insane price for a measly pen.
Most of the money would go to the operator's pocket anyway. Then my dad mused that he was given the opportunity to buy it at RMB120, but still he refused. So the guy dropped the price to RMB80, almost half the price initially stated. But my parents haggled it down to RMB60.
Er...
Is that normal???
The guy was kinda cute, though....
(and he spoke English!) <- which is kinda sad, that it's now a feat worth admiration
And I felt super guilty that my parents bullied him off a good deal. But hey, whatever my parents save is my gain, I suppose.
And Ee One said that people will never sell things at a price that will cause them to make a loss!
....
Right????
And oh, saw a lot of historical-ish German built buildings fruit from the Opium war dozens of years back. Apparently those were the remnants of a pier, hence the name "The Bund." Or I might have confused piers with ports, I didn't really pay attention. I would definitely like to go in one of the buildings but my parents were to entranced by the city lights to give anything of historical value a second glance. Anyway, it seemed that a lot of those buildings housed expensive brands like Dolce & Gabanna, etc. etc.
Definitely a high end area.
Still haven't seen any schoolkids around. Dad and cousin brother struck up a conversation about how today's generation's kids (including me) have no future whatsoever and how they (including me) will bring the country (Malaysia/China) to its ruin considering that they (including me) and spoilt terribly by their parents (which also coincidentally includes my dad) and that they (including me) will not be able to take responsibility for whatever projects they might do in the working world. In front of me.
...
Tact is underrated. Drama, however, is much overrated.
And whilst I was sitting in the train, there was this four ang mo guys that struck up a highly explicit conversation about this girl one guy was trying to hook up. Conversation items include, "hand did job you f*** suck" not necessary in correct order. There were more, but I was trying hard NOT to hear.
And they spoke all this in the top of their voices, with most of the PRCs oblivious to the content of their conversation, other than the fact that it was loud and violent sounding as they. cannot. understand. English.
Bloody hell.
My parents didn't realise because they were so enraptured in their own conversation in which involves the critical analysis of the economical and political status of China and America. And Expo Shanghai 2010, which involves China officially opening China up to the world. (Jackie Chan is one of the stars ic i think)
And throughout all this I was listening blankly, having nothing interesting/useful to contribute.
Yeah. The love.
12:47 AM
