I feel it is time to take this debate now, to explain myself, argue my point and elaborate how I think: I don't believe in global warming! Or rather that global warming is due to human activity.
a. I don't believe that human activity affects the weather on a global scale. I find it narcissistic to believe that we can, no matter how much we try, affect something that big. I find the arguments of proof of this to be lacking; mainly the statistics of temperature change. The thing is that we only have widespread reliable measurements since the late 19th century, i.e. less than 150 years. And the temperature of the earth is something that varies on a geological and astronomical scale, i.e. in periods of thousands or even millions of years. People today often speak of how weird the weather is and that each year has some extreme; last year for example it was the coldest winter in like ever and this year it was the warmest winter in like the same ever. For me this is definitely true, I have in my lifetime never experienced a colder winter than last year and neither have I experienced a more temperate winter than this year.
But I’m only 30 years old and I remember when I was young how people talked about the wicked winter of 1979 when snow piled up so high you could ride your sledding from the rooftops of Bjärred (in Southern Sweden). Not to speak of the winter of 1658 (often spoken of as the little ice-age) when it was so cold that the Swedish armies of Karl X could walk over the straits between Scania and Denmark and took the Danish king Frederik III by surprise.
b. And then there is the supposed relation between human activity and geological activity. I’m talking about how some people draw parallels between pollution, global warming and earth quakes. How people as soon as there is news of a natural disaster comments that there are more natural disasters these days. The hint is actually in the name, they are natural! I found it ridiculous and again extremely narcissistic that someone could believe that we humans could actually affect how the continental platforms move. And I shouldn’t even have to argue that even on as short a period of time as a hundred years the average frequency of earth quakes of various powers is followed pretty accurately. And again these are geological effects which should be viewed in periods of hundreds of thousands of years rather than decades. The only thing that is more frequent is the information we get about these disasters.
c. Notice that I’ve completely left out the fact that the ice around the poles of the earth are melting. That is because I don’t see any proof of the relation between the melting of the global icecaps and human activity. Earth is getting warmer though; there is no doubt of that. The changes to the sea-ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic region affects mainly the local fauna which is not really noticed by us unless you watch nature shows. But the indirect effect of melting sea-ice is that it accelerates the warming; ice is white and reflects sunlight while water is dark and absorbs it, basically creating a vicious circle where the more ice that melts the warmer it will get and the more ice will melt.
Directly worse for us is the melting of the land-ice in these regions. Most prominent is the land-ice of Greenland which all in all would raise the sea level of the world seas by over 7m (which would probably put my family home underwater!). And this is nothing compared to the ice sheet on the Antarctic continent which is ten times as much as the Greenland ice sheet. The Greenland ice sheet is melting/flowing into the sea at a fairly fast rate, but this process will still take hundreds of years, by which time the trend might have changed (in either direction).
Another secondary effect of the melting ice is changes to the ocean currents. The only reason the area I live in, and actually most of Europe, is at all habitable is because of the Atlantic Gulfstream. Sweden is actually so far north that it far north the American border, way into Canada by comparison, or similarly in Russian Siberia, areas that are nearly completely inhabitable. Not to speak of the Swedish capital Stockholm which is already on level with the Northwest Territories in Canada, Alaska and, well still Siberia. And Europe is still habitable even far North of Stockholm and people live far into to Arctic Circle. Southern Europe is also affected; take Madrid for example, which is on the same Latitude as both Beijing and New York, both cities with cold winters (I’ve been in Beijing when the temperature was below -20 centigrade), while Madrid very rarely have temperatures below 0 (average temperature in Madrid in December and January is just below 10 centigrade).
So back to that secondary effect, how the warming up of the polar caps and the melting ice (both sea-ice and land-ice) could potentially change the ocean currents over time. This is also very much a geological phenomenon and will most likely be a gradual change over hundreds or even thousands of years, but even small changes to these currents can cause great changes to the local climate in some parts of the world, like for example here in Sweden.
d. Having said this I still believe pollution is bad and that we should be more environmentally concerned than we are. Pollution is bad and the way I see it there are more direct effects than global warming. For example there are local health problems; I’ve noticed while living in severely polluted areas that people seem sicker, they age faster and feel worse. There could of course be other factors to this, like overwork and stress, which seems to be coinciding with pollution more often than not.
I have a personal experience however; I seem to have contracted an allergy to some kind of pollution. I noticed a couple of years ago that I had a constant cough and runny nose that I at the time blamed on a cold. After seeing a doctor who stated that I did not have a cold, that it was probably an allergy and gave me antihistamines. The drugs worked and I got better. Now that is not much of an argument that it was caused by pollution, that argument is that while I needed to take the drugs daily while living in a polluted there is no effect at all where I’m living now. This could of course also be attributed to other factors.
My main argument is then that pollution feels bad. After living in an extremely polluted area for nearly a year, where the local geography and climate made it even worse, I could feel the harsh treatment of my throat and lungs and there were few things I craved more than fresh clean air.
Even in places that are not considered comparably polluted you can feel a difference. For example while going on skiing trips to northern Sweden the air feels cleaner than it does at home in the South. The South of Sweden is still like a polished white surface compared to the sooth-black air many other places in the world.
e. I don’t believe in global warming but I do believe in local warming; I have lived in a big city where in the city itself the temperature very rarely drops below 0 degrees centigrade, outside the city, only a couple of tens of kilometers, however the temperature seems to be several degrees lower. And this corresponds to historical readings, where only a few decades before it used to be that cold where the city is too.
Another very obvious effect of pollution is sooth. When you have to wash of a thick layer of sooth from your balcony at least once per month there is obviously a problem.
f. Having said all this I think there are things we can do about it. For example when it is cold in warm places (does that make sense?) it tends to “feel” much colder. I’ve discussed this with local people and argued that where I come from it is much colder but I will still be warmer, for which I’m always (yes always, every single time) counted with that we have central heating systems. Actually, we don’t. Apartment complexes often have, but not always. We do have heating though. But, to be honest I had eating in those warm places that were cold too. The difference is not about heating, it is about insulation. Warming up places with heat pumps, infrared heaters or various other heaters doesn’t help much if you don’t have any insulation to speak of. I still don’t understand the idea to build huge buildings without any insulation, sure it is more expensive to build but you must make up for that in reduced heating, and cooling, costs. Yes, cooling costs too. When the outdoors temperature is 35 centigrade and the humidity over 98% every single household will start blasting their air conditioners, and with poor insulation a lot of this cooling goes to waste. The best way to be warm is to stay warm, not to heat up.
Like I said in the beginning, I don’t believe in global warming from human activity. Earth is getting slightly warmer though and the polar caps are melting. And pollution is still bad and we should do all we can to not waste energy or materials.
Showing posts with label Chengdu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chengdu. Show all posts
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
How I lost my passport in China. Part 3 - The hot pot, the karaoke and the morning adventures.
We met up with Paul, Tiff and the others at the usual place where you can get everything you might ever need for a wicked night out. We started with hot pot and our friends had managed to both get me some gifts; a new backpack, some clothes, a Swedish movie and a porn (????), to cheer me up as well as getting themselves pretty drunk already. My mood was low during the whole dinner but there was no point in moping so I participated as well as I could. By 10pm we had managed to get both full and drunk and it was time to head over for the karaoke next doors.
The karaoke was awesome and wicked at the same time. I can't say much more than that we sang a lot, drank a lot and had a lot off fun.
I left at about 4am when most people were passed or passing out. I took a taxi back to where I used to live, with the regular communication problem. Weirdly the driver could not understand me saying renmin nan lu but he did get babaogei... I guess it comes down to tones and dialects...
Arriving near my old place I found to my dismay that I was out of money. In pure desperation I tried to get hold of anyone in Sweden and finally got both Maja and later Ville who could tranfer me some money, which was much needed as I had to buy some flight tickets in the morning (when it would be late night in Sweden). After all that hassle I once again calmed down and started walking around the area and found a new chaokao place just outside my former building entrance. Happily I bought some bbq sticks and was suddenly invited to sit down with the owner and two guys, of which one could speak a few words of English and the other two nothing. We still communicated well enough though and they bought me beer while I told my passport story to an interested but not in the slightest comprehending crowd.
After a while I went back to the hotel across the street but once I reached the door I realized I wanted massage (nothing dirty), so I headed back to the guys and asked them if they knew of any. They of course assumed I meant something dirty and gave me directions for both that and regular massage, I couldn't find that though. I did suddenly remeber about a proper massage parlor just a block away from my old home so I headed over there instead. Arriving at the place I just pointed at the longest and most expensive massage I could get (it is a proper massage parlor and most expensive does not mean sex as it might in some locations) and got the most amazing massage I've ever had for about two hours. It was a full body massage and the reason it was so good was probably because I was pretty drunk and tired which made me extremly relaxed. And it only cost me 130rmb!
When I left the sun was up and once I reached the hotel again it was already 8:30 in the morning. I passed out immediately and got about 4-5 hours worth of sleep before I had to check out.
The karaoke was awesome and wicked at the same time. I can't say much more than that we sang a lot, drank a lot and had a lot off fun.
I left at about 4am when most people were passed or passing out. I took a taxi back to where I used to live, with the regular communication problem. Weirdly the driver could not understand me saying renmin nan lu but he did get babaogei... I guess it comes down to tones and dialects...
Arriving near my old place I found to my dismay that I was out of money. In pure desperation I tried to get hold of anyone in Sweden and finally got both Maja and later Ville who could tranfer me some money, which was much needed as I had to buy some flight tickets in the morning (when it would be late night in Sweden). After all that hassle I once again calmed down and started walking around the area and found a new chaokao place just outside my former building entrance. Happily I bought some bbq sticks and was suddenly invited to sit down with the owner and two guys, of which one could speak a few words of English and the other two nothing. We still communicated well enough though and they bought me beer while I told my passport story to an interested but not in the slightest comprehending crowd.
After a while I went back to the hotel across the street but once I reached the door I realized I wanted massage (nothing dirty), so I headed back to the guys and asked them if they knew of any. They of course assumed I meant something dirty and gave me directions for both that and regular massage, I couldn't find that though. I did suddenly remeber about a proper massage parlor just a block away from my old home so I headed over there instead. Arriving at the place I just pointed at the longest and most expensive massage I could get (it is a proper massage parlor and most expensive does not mean sex as it might in some locations) and got the most amazing massage I've ever had for about two hours. It was a full body massage and the reason it was so good was probably because I was pretty drunk and tired which made me extremly relaxed. And it only cost me 130rmb!
When I left the sun was up and once I reached the hotel again it was already 8:30 in the morning. I passed out immediately and got about 4-5 hours worth of sleep before I had to check out.
How I lost my passport in China. Part 2 - The police, the registration and the hotel
My passport was in that backpack. Actually it might still be as far as I know, because who whould ever need my Swedish passport, excepting me of course?
We looked around everywhere we could think and asked bartenders in bouth Paname and the bar next doors but was met with nothing but indifference. We soon headed back to Tiffany's home far in the South of the city. I immediately called home for some assistant and after mom had contacted the Swedish foreign minestry I managed to calm down and get some sleep. From that point on and through the next 48 hours the only thing that was going through my mind was "it is only monetary".
In the morning I called the Swedish embassy of China's emergency hotline and got the advice to file police reports and make sure I got an official report which I could bring to either the Swedish embassy in Beijing or the Swedish consulate in Shanghai. I went out to meet my friend, Li Min (to whom I was supposed to give about fifteen hundred Swedish kronor/Hong Kong dollar/Chinese yuan worth of eye creams that was in the bag), and together we went back to Paname where we once again looked around, tried to talk to the staff of the bar and called the police.
The police here was actually very helpful and with Li Min's assistance I soon had a written report to take to the something something ministry of something something in Chengdu (I can't even remember what it was called to be honest). There we encountered our first major problem; it was already near 5pm when everything in China would close and remain such for the following four days, I basically had 15 minutes to finish everything or I would be a sitting duck in Chengdu for until the end of the holidays. And this is where the woman told me I need to go to my friend's home, find the closest police station and register there as I was staying in a local home and everybody visiting China must register where they stay within 24 hours. Now the problem of course was that she lives over an hour from where we were to her home, and even then we had no idea where the police station would be, and even if we did know that it would take slightly more than 10 minutes to finish that registration. This is not even counting that I had only been in Chengdu for about 17 hours, apparently that didn't actually matter, everything else had to be done by the book though.
She was not completely impossible though, actually she was fairly nice when it all came down to it; she suggested I check in to a nearby hotel immediately and she was willing to stay for another 30 minutes to help me out. So Li Min and I ran off to a hotel, that turned out to be outside the window of my old flat in Chengdu, checked me in and ran back to get the police report.
Calmed down now that we had done everything we could I went for clothes shopping, took a much needed shower and headed towards another night of wicked adventures with Paul, Tiffany and others.
We looked around everywhere we could think and asked bartenders in bouth Paname and the bar next doors but was met with nothing but indifference. We soon headed back to Tiffany's home far in the South of the city. I immediately called home for some assistant and after mom had contacted the Swedish foreign minestry I managed to calm down and get some sleep. From that point on and through the next 48 hours the only thing that was going through my mind was "it is only monetary".
In the morning I called the Swedish embassy of China's emergency hotline and got the advice to file police reports and make sure I got an official report which I could bring to either the Swedish embassy in Beijing or the Swedish consulate in Shanghai. I went out to meet my friend, Li Min (to whom I was supposed to give about fifteen hundred Swedish kronor/Hong Kong dollar/Chinese yuan worth of eye creams that was in the bag), and together we went back to Paname where we once again looked around, tried to talk to the staff of the bar and called the police.
The police here was actually very helpful and with Li Min's assistance I soon had a written report to take to the something something ministry of something something in Chengdu (I can't even remember what it was called to be honest). There we encountered our first major problem; it was already near 5pm when everything in China would close and remain such for the following four days, I basically had 15 minutes to finish everything or I would be a sitting duck in Chengdu for until the end of the holidays. And this is where the woman told me I need to go to my friend's home, find the closest police station and register there as I was staying in a local home and everybody visiting China must register where they stay within 24 hours. Now the problem of course was that she lives over an hour from where we were to her home, and even then we had no idea where the police station would be, and even if we did know that it would take slightly more than 10 minutes to finish that registration. This is not even counting that I had only been in Chengdu for about 17 hours, apparently that didn't actually matter, everything else had to be done by the book though.
She was not completely impossible though, actually she was fairly nice when it all came down to it; she suggested I check in to a nearby hotel immediately and she was willing to stay for another 30 minutes to help me out. So Li Min and I ran off to a hotel, that turned out to be outside the window of my old flat in Chengdu, checked me in and ran back to get the police report.
Calmed down now that we had done everything we could I went for clothes shopping, took a much needed shower and headed towards another night of wicked adventures with Paul, Tiffany and others.
How I lost my passport in China. Partt 1 - The wine, the flight and the theft...
It's been a long time since I last wrote here but the past few days events definitely qualify for something to write about. Actually I think it qualifies so much that I will have to be cutting stuff out for anyone to bear reading it.
Last friday me and my American friend Paul caught a flight from Shenzhen BaoAn international due for Chengdu, actually the "fun" started already before the flight when Paul in his eager to bring gifts for his friend Tiffany in Chengdu neglected the fact that you are not allowed to bring wine on the flight. We swiftly took care of that mistake in the taxi ride from Shenzhen bay port to the airport though. But this was of course not enough as he also considered it a swell idea to bring a couple of small bottles of wine on the flight, which of course was not allowed and the contents of those ended up in our bellies in about 30 seconds per bottle (there were two for us each) while trying to pass the security check. We then managed to, my fault admittedly, walk to the wrong gate and had to run for the last call, which for me meant a sprint like I haven't done in years (not saying too much as I never actually run).
In Chengdu we met up with Tiff herself and appologized for the missing wine. We had chaokao (bbq) and a couple of beer then headed to a nearby bar called Paname (I think I might have mentioned that place among my Chengdu blogs). The place has turend quite shady recently but it was cheap drinks and we had a good time. We were all sitting together talking to some people when I headed off to talk a bit from the bar, leaving my backpack with Paul and Tiffany. After a while they joined us and told me my bag was still over at the tables we were sitting at and we joked about how no one would steal a Swedish passport. Fittingly to the just past fools day I found the bag missing when I walked over there a moment later.
And that was of course when everything became a proper mess...
Last friday me and my American friend Paul caught a flight from Shenzhen BaoAn international due for Chengdu, actually the "fun" started already before the flight when Paul in his eager to bring gifts for his friend Tiffany in Chengdu neglected the fact that you are not allowed to bring wine on the flight. We swiftly took care of that mistake in the taxi ride from Shenzhen bay port to the airport though. But this was of course not enough as he also considered it a swell idea to bring a couple of small bottles of wine on the flight, which of course was not allowed and the contents of those ended up in our bellies in about 30 seconds per bottle (there were two for us each) while trying to pass the security check. We then managed to, my fault admittedly, walk to the wrong gate and had to run for the last call, which for me meant a sprint like I haven't done in years (not saying too much as I never actually run).
In Chengdu we met up with Tiff herself and appologized for the missing wine. We had chaokao (bbq) and a couple of beer then headed to a nearby bar called Paname (I think I might have mentioned that place among my Chengdu blogs). The place has turend quite shady recently but it was cheap drinks and we had a good time. We were all sitting together talking to some people when I headed off to talk a bit from the bar, leaving my backpack with Paul and Tiffany. After a while they joined us and told me my bag was still over at the tables we were sitting at and we joked about how no one would steal a Swedish passport. Fittingly to the just past fools day I found the bag missing when I walked over there a moment later.
And that was of course when everything became a proper mess...
Thursday, May 13, 2010
May 12th
It was a Monday 2 years ago, I'd just come back in to town the night before and come back to work after a few days off. I'd had morning classes outside town but got a fierce belly ache and the driver took me home at lunch so at 2:28pm I was in bed and just woke up feeling a bit queasy. I got out of bed and found the cabinet doors over it shaking and realized the whole room, and in fact the whole building, was shaking heavily. At first I thought it was the subway construction going on downstairs but when I looked out the widow from my apartment on the 20th floor I saw the cranes on the construction across the street swinging back and forth with a swing angle as high as 90 degrees. I tried to call my friends but all lines where down, I tried to message friends but I got no replies. At this point people had started evacuating the building; people were running down the stairs and the streets were in chaos. The first shake only lasted about 3 minutes but there were several aftershocks, actually the aftershocks came back frequently over the next few months, and people all over were terrified. I decided this was it or it was not, either it will fall down or it won't, turns out I was right, so I went back to bed and fell asleep.
It took several hours before I knew what had happened; I finally gathered my energy and walked the 20 flights of stairs down to the ground and found a Starbucks which was closed but had left its wireless router on, I could finally let my friends and my family know I was still alive (it had never actually occurred to me that I wouldn't be).
In memory of the 68.636 dead and over 370 thousand people injured in the 7,9 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan, May 12th 2008.
It took several hours before I knew what had happened; I finally gathered my energy and walked the 20 flights of stairs down to the ground and found a Starbucks which was closed but had left its wireless router on, I could finally let my friends and my family know I was still alive (it had never actually occurred to me that I wouldn't be).
In memory of the 68.636 dead and over 370 thousand people injured in the 7,9 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan, May 12th 2008.
Monday, November 17, 2008
yao ling ling
Last night they had a fund raiser for the local rugby team at Carol's too, for this they had hired a pole-dancer who did a 10 minute show in the evening, a MALE pole-dancer; black leather west and tight fitting black briefs, very sexy and extremely gay. To make money for the team they had a lottery going on so the players and other people involved with the team were running around convincing people to buy lottery tickets to win the big price; a bottle of wine, or a small price; random funny stuff.
Ryan and Andrew (US and Aussie friends) were convinced early on to get a ticket but I wasn't so easy to convince, eventually I also came through and bought number 21 from a guy with a panda hat. Not long after I paid my 20 kuai for the ticket Kelly showed up and complained that I hadn't bought a ticket from her so I ended up paying another 20 kuai for number 100. So when they started drawing the first round of tickets we sat there with four tickets between us, the girls with us only seemed to care for dancing so they hadn't bought any.
In the beginning they mostly gave out the funny stuff but the last one of the first round was a bottle of wine but of course I didn't get it, I think that one was for 007 actually. They did several drawings through the night but my numbers never came up, I heard 23, 19, 18, 010, lots of 00x numbers also; there was actually a lot more numbers drawn than actual gifts because two numbers out of three were never claimed. And so it came to the last drawing; they still had several bottles of wine left and we still had four potential winners. Of course there were several misses first, I heard 102, and 103, and for Andrew's 62 there came a 61. At this point Andrew was standing behind me yelling 62 and suddenly he got the reply he wanted, 62!!! Andrew was the winner of a 2006 Bordeaux and as soon as he knew it he announced wine for everybody.
When he got up with his bottle they had already started drawing for the next one, yao ling yao (101), dammit so close! But no one came to claim it, another one: yao ling ling, say again?!? one zero zero, oh yes box!
Not long after we had gathered a load of wine glasses, but even sharing a few glasses with other friends; Kelly got one for selling me the ticket of course, Aaron had one too, and Andrew and Ryan had some other friends, the girls with is are not much of drinkers so there was a lot of wine between the three of us. I got pretty well loaded before I left that night.
Ryan and Andrew (US and Aussie friends) were convinced early on to get a ticket but I wasn't so easy to convince, eventually I also came through and bought number 21 from a guy with a panda hat. Not long after I paid my 20 kuai for the ticket Kelly showed up and complained that I hadn't bought a ticket from her so I ended up paying another 20 kuai for number 100. So when they started drawing the first round of tickets we sat there with four tickets between us, the girls with us only seemed to care for dancing so they hadn't bought any.
In the beginning they mostly gave out the funny stuff but the last one of the first round was a bottle of wine but of course I didn't get it, I think that one was for 007 actually. They did several drawings through the night but my numbers never came up, I heard 23, 19, 18, 010, lots of 00x numbers also; there was actually a lot more numbers drawn than actual gifts because two numbers out of three were never claimed. And so it came to the last drawing; they still had several bottles of wine left and we still had four potential winners. Of course there were several misses first, I heard 102, and 103, and for Andrew's 62 there came a 61. At this point Andrew was standing behind me yelling 62 and suddenly he got the reply he wanted, 62!!! Andrew was the winner of a 2006 Bordeaux and as soon as he knew it he announced wine for everybody.
When he got up with his bottle they had already started drawing for the next one, yao ling yao (101), dammit so close! But no one came to claim it, another one: yao ling ling, say again?!? one zero zero, oh yes box!
Not long after we had gathered a load of wine glasses, but even sharing a few glasses with other friends; Kelly got one for selling me the ticket of course, Aaron had one too, and Andrew and Ryan had some other friends, the girls with is are not much of drinkers so there was a lot of wine between the three of us. I got pretty well loaded before I left that night.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The China probrem!
Quoting Southpark is fun but I really don't have the same problem with China as Cartman, my problem is more in the sense of my own planning this time; I arrived in Shenzhen in the afternoon and met my friend at the border we went to the train station together and she helped me buying tickets to Shanghai for Saturday. But oh see there are no tickets to Shanghai for Saturday, neither is there any for Sunday nor Tomorrow. SHIT!! Going on Monday would be too late since it takes a night and half a day to get there and I should leave on Wednesday anyway. DAMMIT!!!
Well fortunately for me when we found my hotel, which I by the way could never ever have managed without my friend's help either
* It's actually pretty amazing how much difference there is just walking those 200m across the border (YES THERE IS A BORDER BETWEEN HONG KONG AND mainland CHINA, doesn't that mean they are different countries?) suddenly no one can speak or understand English anymore. From being able to talk to most people and at least communicate with the rest to nothing at all; actually even my friend had a hard time understanding me. *
, I got online and found a cheap flight from Shenzhen to Shanghai on Sunday evening, all was relatively well again. I still started to worry about my other train tickets, would it be just as hard to get a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing and from Beijing to Chengdu? So I started to try to get hold of Wenying and Linna in Shanghai and Nini in Beijing. Beijing is actually not so urgent since its still nearly two weeks until I'm going there, but the Shanghai ticket should be in less than a week and I have hostel reservations in Beijing already so that might be a problem. But in the end that isn't the problem, the problem is instead Wenying and Linna, well not them themselves but their works; my main reason for going to Shanghai is to visit Wenying and Linna, I will see two other friends there but that is not why I'm going to Shanghai, and now it turns out that they are working really late next week, I mean REALLY late, we are talking home at midnight here. This basically means that I will be alone in their home from 7am to 12am for 2 days and from 7am until I leave on the third, great fun! - not.
So what I'm trying to figure out now is if A: I should leave sooner than Wednesday; call my hostel in Beijing and move the reservation forward one day (two won’t be possible), B: Leave later than planned; call and postpone the reservation so that I can stay in Shanghai until the weekend when Wenying and Linna are free to do something or C: leave it as it is and just live with it? Since my time in Beijing is pretty much fixed, due to the fact that I don't want to spend too much money staying in hostel and still want to have enough time to meet up with some friends in Beijing which makes 6 nights perfect, I will just move the arrival day in Chengdu, and since my departure date from Chengdu is fixed to the 21st, flight ticket already bought, I will shorten or lengthen the time there.
Well fortunately for me when we found my hotel, which I by the way could never ever have managed without my friend's help either
* It's actually pretty amazing how much difference there is just walking those 200m across the border (YES THERE IS A BORDER BETWEEN HONG KONG AND mainland CHINA, doesn't that mean they are different countries?) suddenly no one can speak or understand English anymore. From being able to talk to most people and at least communicate with the rest to nothing at all; actually even my friend had a hard time understanding me. *
, I got online and found a cheap flight from Shenzhen to Shanghai on Sunday evening, all was relatively well again. I still started to worry about my other train tickets, would it be just as hard to get a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing and from Beijing to Chengdu? So I started to try to get hold of Wenying and Linna in Shanghai and Nini in Beijing. Beijing is actually not so urgent since its still nearly two weeks until I'm going there, but the Shanghai ticket should be in less than a week and I have hostel reservations in Beijing already so that might be a problem. But in the end that isn't the problem, the problem is instead Wenying and Linna, well not them themselves but their works; my main reason for going to Shanghai is to visit Wenying and Linna, I will see two other friends there but that is not why I'm going to Shanghai, and now it turns out that they are working really late next week, I mean REALLY late, we are talking home at midnight here. This basically means that I will be alone in their home from 7am to 12am for 2 days and from 7am until I leave on the third, great fun! - not.
So what I'm trying to figure out now is if A: I should leave sooner than Wednesday; call my hostel in Beijing and move the reservation forward one day (two won’t be possible), B: Leave later than planned; call and postpone the reservation so that I can stay in Shanghai until the weekend when Wenying and Linna are free to do something or C: leave it as it is and just live with it? Since my time in Beijing is pretty much fixed, due to the fact that I don't want to spend too much money staying in hostel and still want to have enough time to meet up with some friends in Beijing which makes 6 nights perfect, I will just move the arrival day in Chengdu, and since my departure date from Chengdu is fixed to the 21st, flight ticket already bought, I will shorten or lengthen the time there.
Friday, October 24, 2008
China
So I have to wait for three to eight weeks to get my working permit and two birds with one stone I will save money and visit friends in China I have made a travel plan; for about 23 days I will travel around, mostly by train, and stay with friends, at least most of the time, in China.
First I will start off by going to Shenzhen, depending on any Halloween plans here, of which I think there are none for me, I will either go on Thursday, Friday or Saturday next week (29th, 30th or 31st) and stay there in a hostel until Saturday afternoon when I will take a train to Shanghai, it is probably best to be there at least a day early to make sure I can get a ticket, and I will try to meet up with an online friend there that I've missed every single time I've been to Shenzhen.
Train to Shanghai is ONLY about 13 hours so I will arrive sometime really early on Sunday morning. The plan is to stay with Wenying and Linna in Shanghai but it seems rather complicated, in worst case I will have to skip Shanghai completely. The plan though is to stay there for about 3-4 nights, hang out with the two of them and meet my other Shanghainese friend and finally catch a train in the afternoon on the 5th.
To Beijing it's a bit further and the train takes about 17 hours but arrival is also in early morning. There I will stay in hostel though for a few days, I might do a night in Tianjin too to visit two friends there, and I will try to meet up with Nini and Mei and possibly some other friends too. I will leave Beijing with a train to Chengdu on the 11th, spending six nights in the same hostel I was in January.
Chengdu is actually not much further from Beijing than Shanghai is, the problem is the mountain range that the train has to go around so that trip actually takes 25 hours, which is the fastest train they have where the slower ones take 30 and 35 hours, so I will arrive sometime in the evening in Chengdu and then I will probably stay with Li Min when I'm there, either with her or Aaron I guess but I haven't talked to him much and I like her place better actually. I will try to meet up with as many friends as possible and since I have about 10 nights there it shouldn't be that much of a problem. I might go out of Chengdu for one or two nights but we will see about that.
Finally on the 21st I decided to fly back to Shenzhen instead of taking another 30, or even 50 for the slower one, train to Guangzhou and spending another few hours and 250HKD to get back to Hong Kong, the flight ticket was only 700 Yuan including all costs so it actually turned to be almost the same price as the train ticket.
This date is set because Deming will come to Hong Kong that day too and I might go with him to Macau for a few day and stay with him and his parents there. After that I'm not sure what happens, I have been considering looking for some place to live but if the working permit application still have a long time running I might as well go back to China for another few weeks.
First I will start off by going to Shenzhen, depending on any Halloween plans here, of which I think there are none for me, I will either go on Thursday, Friday or Saturday next week (29th, 30th or 31st) and stay there in a hostel until Saturday afternoon when I will take a train to Shanghai, it is probably best to be there at least a day early to make sure I can get a ticket, and I will try to meet up with an online friend there that I've missed every single time I've been to Shenzhen.
Train to Shanghai is ONLY about 13 hours so I will arrive sometime really early on Sunday morning. The plan is to stay with Wenying and Linna in Shanghai but it seems rather complicated, in worst case I will have to skip Shanghai completely. The plan though is to stay there for about 3-4 nights, hang out with the two of them and meet my other Shanghainese friend and finally catch a train in the afternoon on the 5th.
To Beijing it's a bit further and the train takes about 17 hours but arrival is also in early morning. There I will stay in hostel though for a few days, I might do a night in Tianjin too to visit two friends there, and I will try to meet up with Nini and Mei and possibly some other friends too. I will leave Beijing with a train to Chengdu on the 11th, spending six nights in the same hostel I was in January.
Chengdu is actually not much further from Beijing than Shanghai is, the problem is the mountain range that the train has to go around so that trip actually takes 25 hours, which is the fastest train they have where the slower ones take 30 and 35 hours, so I will arrive sometime in the evening in Chengdu and then I will probably stay with Li Min when I'm there, either with her or Aaron I guess but I haven't talked to him much and I like her place better actually. I will try to meet up with as many friends as possible and since I have about 10 nights there it shouldn't be that much of a problem. I might go out of Chengdu for one or two nights but we will see about that.
Finally on the 21st I decided to fly back to Shenzhen instead of taking another 30, or even 50 for the slower one, train to Guangzhou and spending another few hours and 250HKD to get back to Hong Kong, the flight ticket was only 700 Yuan including all costs so it actually turned to be almost the same price as the train ticket.
This date is set because Deming will come to Hong Kong that day too and I might go with him to Macau for a few day and stay with him and his parents there. After that I'm not sure what happens, I have been considering looking for some place to live but if the working permit application still have a long time running I might as well go back to China for another few weeks.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
The journey
My travels started early on Wednesday morning with meeting the landlord and return my keys then taking my over 30kg luggage, some 7kg backpack and a small paper bag with two gifts that was not light at all (remember this when you think of me struggling through the Hong Kong metro system later). I started off with going around Chengdu a little to say a final goodbye to Li Min and then I went off to the airport, I taxied all the way so at least I didn't have to worry too much about the luggage carrying yet. For once I was not late to the airport, which was very fortunate since I was over 10kg overweight and had to pay a 210Yuan fine to get it onboard, that was totally worth it. Once through the security I had some time so I had my breakfast, a 45yuan sandwich. Then of course I nearly missed my flight anyway (exaggeration) because I thought it was from gate 9 and delayed but it was from gate 7 and on time, but I found that out quickly enough and boarded well on time.
Two hours and another half -breakfast later we landed in Shenzhen and I decided (against better judgment) to investigate alternative means of travel to Hong Kong, it turned out to be a great idea, they have an express shuttle bus that goes all the way to Hong Kong and makes several stops and it costs only 90yuan, and to this they actually had quite good service, really helpful staff and stuff like that. So I took the bus to Hong Kong instead of dragging myself to Shenzhen and around on the metro there to get to Hong Kong and take trains and stuff there to get to Central, instead I got to Jordan, only two three stops away from Central but that was more than enough.
Getting around in a very crowded metro system in Hong Kong is troublesome enough without luggage, and with the previously mentioned luggage it is not easy at all, I did get to Central easily enough but the in town check-in I was looking for is in Hong Kong station, about 5 minutes walk (read 15 minutes with luggage) from Central, and with some minor judgmental errors I had to walk back and forth a few times and pay entrance (buy a ticket to another station) again before I finally got there.
British Airways is great actually, they have at least until November this year no fine at all for luggage under 32kg, and after that they will have a fixed fine of £25 over 23kg or something like that, which is not too much, compared to those that have like €10 per kg too much, which sucks. So I got through with my luggage without any issues and stored my hand carry there for 200HKD and was off to meet with Joyce. First I went to Mong Kok to buy my graduation gift for my cousin Sandra though, can’t tell what it is or how much it cost but it was fun to barter for and I think I got it for a fair price, and really quickly too, this was after a brief complication to exchange money first though, were I accidentally went to the stock exchange instead of the money exchange but I soon found a bank that could help me at least.
Then it was finally off to TST to meet Joyce, but since I had been so quick with everything that I got there about 30-45 minutes too early, and in that time I managed to distract myself with looking at some “name card”, a small paper card where some guy wrote a Chinese version of a western name and sold it for 25HKD, of course I couldn’t find Johan so they insisted I’d tell them my name and soon I had told them my Chinese name too and they had written it down and I had to pay the 25HKD for it. Eventually Joyce got there and met me and we went off and ha dinner with Almen and Ariel, after which they followed me to the check-in to get my hand carry and take the airport express, which I first missed because Almen insisted we should take photos together first.
So I got to the airport a little bit late, but it was OK, I was not late for the flight only had Charlotta wait for me a little there, I think she survived that with and major troubles. That was pretty cool though, a pretty much chance meeting on a big international airport with an old friend from the time back at electro engineering. This is around the point where my brain stopped working properly and I was thinking I had a bit more time than I had, so after I’d left Charlotta and gone through the security I went to wash up and stuff and I was ready just in time for when I though the gate was opening, but of course that was the time when the gate was closing, which I realized when I was walking to the gate and found the signs saying final call for my flight. I even met some ground staff urging me on to hurry there. I did (once again I have to say) get on the flight just in time, some of the attendants seemed a bit annoyed at me but they will survive too.
12 hours later I had finally seen National Treasure 2 and slept just about enough to be happy I landed in London Heathrow and struggled my way through the airport to my connecting flight and a close to 2 hour wait. £3 for half an hour internet by the gate and some rest later I boarded yet another flight and was nearing the end of my over 32 hour journey home, I tried to sleep on the plane but it even though it was 5am local time it was closer to 12pm in China and my personal time so that was basically impossible. We landed a bit early and I had to wait a bit for mom and dad to come and pick me up, and as usual they had problems finding the right terminal and which parking lot to go to but at least they finally found me and could get me home.
Around 11.30am on Thursday morning Swedish time I finally got back home, after over 32 hours of which most was spent on a BA flight between Hong Kong and London and in Hong Kong itself I was finally home. And nothing had changed, it still feels like time has been standing still since I left on August 8th 2007, almost 10 months ago.
I’m home!
Two hours and another half -breakfast later we landed in Shenzhen and I decided (against better judgment) to investigate alternative means of travel to Hong Kong, it turned out to be a great idea, they have an express shuttle bus that goes all the way to Hong Kong and makes several stops and it costs only 90yuan, and to this they actually had quite good service, really helpful staff and stuff like that. So I took the bus to Hong Kong instead of dragging myself to Shenzhen and around on the metro there to get to Hong Kong and take trains and stuff there to get to Central, instead I got to Jordan, only two three stops away from Central but that was more than enough.
Getting around in a very crowded metro system in Hong Kong is troublesome enough without luggage, and with the previously mentioned luggage it is not easy at all, I did get to Central easily enough but the in town check-in I was looking for is in Hong Kong station, about 5 minutes walk (read 15 minutes with luggage) from Central, and with some minor judgmental errors I had to walk back and forth a few times and pay entrance (buy a ticket to another station) again before I finally got there.
British Airways is great actually, they have at least until November this year no fine at all for luggage under 32kg, and after that they will have a fixed fine of £25 over 23kg or something like that, which is not too much, compared to those that have like €10 per kg too much, which sucks. So I got through with my luggage without any issues and stored my hand carry there for 200HKD and was off to meet with Joyce. First I went to Mong Kok to buy my graduation gift for my cousin Sandra though, can’t tell what it is or how much it cost but it was fun to barter for and I think I got it for a fair price, and really quickly too, this was after a brief complication to exchange money first though, were I accidentally went to the stock exchange instead of the money exchange but I soon found a bank that could help me at least.
Then it was finally off to TST to meet Joyce, but since I had been so quick with everything that I got there about 30-45 minutes too early, and in that time I managed to distract myself with looking at some “name card”, a small paper card where some guy wrote a Chinese version of a western name and sold it for 25HKD, of course I couldn’t find Johan so they insisted I’d tell them my name and soon I had told them my Chinese name too and they had written it down and I had to pay the 25HKD for it. Eventually Joyce got there and met me and we went off and ha dinner with Almen and Ariel, after which they followed me to the check-in to get my hand carry and take the airport express, which I first missed because Almen insisted we should take photos together first.
So I got to the airport a little bit late, but it was OK, I was not late for the flight only had Charlotta wait for me a little there, I think she survived that with and major troubles. That was pretty cool though, a pretty much chance meeting on a big international airport with an old friend from the time back at electro engineering. This is around the point where my brain stopped working properly and I was thinking I had a bit more time than I had, so after I’d left Charlotta and gone through the security I went to wash up and stuff and I was ready just in time for when I though the gate was opening, but of course that was the time when the gate was closing, which I realized when I was walking to the gate and found the signs saying final call for my flight. I even met some ground staff urging me on to hurry there. I did (once again I have to say) get on the flight just in time, some of the attendants seemed a bit annoyed at me but they will survive too.
12 hours later I had finally seen National Treasure 2 and slept just about enough to be happy I landed in London Heathrow and struggled my way through the airport to my connecting flight and a close to 2 hour wait. £3 for half an hour internet by the gate and some rest later I boarded yet another flight and was nearing the end of my over 32 hour journey home, I tried to sleep on the plane but it even though it was 5am local time it was closer to 12pm in China and my personal time so that was basically impossible. We landed a bit early and I had to wait a bit for mom and dad to come and pick me up, and as usual they had problems finding the right terminal and which parking lot to go to but at least they finally found me and could get me home.
Around 11.30am on Thursday morning Swedish time I finally got back home, after over 32 hours of which most was spent on a BA flight between Hong Kong and London and in Hong Kong itself I was finally home. And nothing had changed, it still feels like time has been standing still since I left on August 8th 2007, almost 10 months ago.
I’m home!
Obviously
Well obviously I made the decision already since I'm in Sweden now and staying in our summer house with Alexander for a few days, I can still update a little bit about the very hectic week before and the adventures of travelling home:
I actually made my decision earlier than planned which was pretty fortunate, it turned out late enough as it was anyway, the tickets I had found back home was from Chengdu to Shenzhen for no more than 800yuan and then from Hong Kong to Copenhagen with a transfer in London for about 4500HKD, which adds up to about 4000SEK or a little bit less in Chinese Yuan. These had of course 3 days later (Wednesday two weeks ago now) gone up in price, the one from Chengdu to Shenzhen had maxed out at 1500yuan and the other one changed to around 5000HKD instead ending my price at about 5000SEK instead. I really couldn't have waited anymore or the prices would probably have doubled after that, since I really had to go home for my dad's birthday party or half the point of going home would have been wasted.
So the adventures began and I had to start packing, it was really though in the beginning, mostly I spent the first few days after my decision meeting up with some friends and say goodbye to them, I managed to squeeze in lunches and dinner just about every day and even joined a birthday party of an American friend on Friday night but after that I really had to start packing up my stuff. First I packed all my excessive clothes and blankets and stuff that I wouldn't need urgently in Sweden, all this added up to two big boxes of 11kg each which I sent to Joyce in Hong Kong so that I have some stuff already when I get there, in the high hopes of actually going there, the funniest part of this to pack was some vacuum bags that I put my blankets and pillows and some towels in, they pretty much turned hard as rocks after a few minutes of pumping, very cool. I managed to send all this on Monday, plus cancelling my apartment contract getting me some money back, getting salaries for almost all my work and still have time to meet up with friends.
Tuesday was another hectic day with loads of new problems, this time I packed stuff to send to Sweden and it soon turned out that I couldn't send some things that I really wanted to send; my magnets was in a too big box and couldn't fit in the largest box China post has for international service, I bought a bigger rice cooker for mom and dad that they refused to take because it was an electric device, the same went for my own smaller one of course, so basically the only thing I could post was soft stuff, the magnets had to stay in Chengdu with a friend there and the rice cookers went with me in my luggage. Finally I ended up sending one big box of 11kg by ship or over land and one smaller box of about 5kg by air, where I had some stuff that I wanted more urgently back in Sweden.
Another problem I ran into on Tuesday was my China Telecom deal, I had apparently signed to have Internet and telephone for 12 months, even though I was quite clear with them that I might not even stay for more than 5 months, so instead of giving me the deposit and one month's worth of internet back they wanted me to pay for two more months, this ended up with them not getting the modem back at all and me not paying or getting any money back. I also managed to get my third hepatitis B shot before I left; it's really a lot cheaper in China than in Sweden so I really had to use that opportunity.
I managed to finish up my packing and with a friends help even clean up my apartment to a pretty decent level. I had sold my oven to Aaron, an American friend, and basically given him all my kitchen supplies. Aarons also got a lot of other kitchen stuff, as did Li Min, my very close Chinese friend who helped me out a lot all my time in China and especially the last few days, and Jiao, another close Chinese friend, got some too and she also got to take my magnets for safekeeping and my router and gym membership to try to sell them.
And then on Wednesday morning my journey started so I must say goodbye Li Min, Aaron, Lily, Nicole (Yin XiaoLin), Jiao, Bella (Tingting), Luna, Kelly, Aileen, Betty, Ivy, Alon, Rabia, Anna, Vivian, Ryan, Andrew, XiangXiang, Monica (Duan Shuang), Elizabeth (Tian DanZhi), Lucille, Nicky, Lily (another Lily), Linger, Sue, Yaya, Tina, Paul and Tiffany and the other peace corps people, Linda and the other bartenders at Paname and other places and of course all the teachers in and kids in all the schools I've been working and everybody else I might have forgotten to mention.
More about the journey itself in a coming post!
I actually made my decision earlier than planned which was pretty fortunate, it turned out late enough as it was anyway, the tickets I had found back home was from Chengdu to Shenzhen for no more than 800yuan and then from Hong Kong to Copenhagen with a transfer in London for about 4500HKD, which adds up to about 4000SEK or a little bit less in Chinese Yuan. These had of course 3 days later (Wednesday two weeks ago now) gone up in price, the one from Chengdu to Shenzhen had maxed out at 1500yuan and the other one changed to around 5000HKD instead ending my price at about 5000SEK instead. I really couldn't have waited anymore or the prices would probably have doubled after that, since I really had to go home for my dad's birthday party or half the point of going home would have been wasted.
So the adventures began and I had to start packing, it was really though in the beginning, mostly I spent the first few days after my decision meeting up with some friends and say goodbye to them, I managed to squeeze in lunches and dinner just about every day and even joined a birthday party of an American friend on Friday night but after that I really had to start packing up my stuff. First I packed all my excessive clothes and blankets and stuff that I wouldn't need urgently in Sweden, all this added up to two big boxes of 11kg each which I sent to Joyce in Hong Kong so that I have some stuff already when I get there, in the high hopes of actually going there, the funniest part of this to pack was some vacuum bags that I put my blankets and pillows and some towels in, they pretty much turned hard as rocks after a few minutes of pumping, very cool. I managed to send all this on Monday, plus cancelling my apartment contract getting me some money back, getting salaries for almost all my work and still have time to meet up with friends.
Tuesday was another hectic day with loads of new problems, this time I packed stuff to send to Sweden and it soon turned out that I couldn't send some things that I really wanted to send; my magnets was in a too big box and couldn't fit in the largest box China post has for international service, I bought a bigger rice cooker for mom and dad that they refused to take because it was an electric device, the same went for my own smaller one of course, so basically the only thing I could post was soft stuff, the magnets had to stay in Chengdu with a friend there and the rice cookers went with me in my luggage. Finally I ended up sending one big box of 11kg by ship or over land and one smaller box of about 5kg by air, where I had some stuff that I wanted more urgently back in Sweden.
Another problem I ran into on Tuesday was my China Telecom deal, I had apparently signed to have Internet and telephone for 12 months, even though I was quite clear with them that I might not even stay for more than 5 months, so instead of giving me the deposit and one month's worth of internet back they wanted me to pay for two more months, this ended up with them not getting the modem back at all and me not paying or getting any money back. I also managed to get my third hepatitis B shot before I left; it's really a lot cheaper in China than in Sweden so I really had to use that opportunity.
I managed to finish up my packing and with a friends help even clean up my apartment to a pretty decent level. I had sold my oven to Aaron, an American friend, and basically given him all my kitchen supplies. Aarons also got a lot of other kitchen stuff, as did Li Min, my very close Chinese friend who helped me out a lot all my time in China and especially the last few days, and Jiao, another close Chinese friend, got some too and she also got to take my magnets for safekeeping and my router and gym membership to try to sell them.
And then on Wednesday morning my journey started so I must say goodbye Li Min, Aaron, Lily, Nicole (Yin XiaoLin), Jiao, Bella (Tingting), Luna, Kelly, Aileen, Betty, Ivy, Alon, Rabia, Anna, Vivian, Ryan, Andrew, XiangXiang, Monica (Duan Shuang), Elizabeth (Tian DanZhi), Lucille, Nicky, Lily (another Lily), Linger, Sue, Yaya, Tina, Paul and Tiffany and the other peace corps people, Linda and the other bartenders at Paname and other places and of course all the teachers in and kids in all the schools I've been working and everybody else I might have forgotten to mention.
More about the journey itself in a coming post!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
A tough decision
Because all of these aftershocks and the general mood here in Chengdu almost all public school are still closed, this of course leads to me not work which renders me rather worried about not getting enough money for my travels later. I have tried to budget things but if I start working on Wednesday I will still only have about 500 yuan left for my flight ticket back to Sweden, and given how easy it is to do good budget plans for travelling, at least for me, I would say I'm pretty much screwed.
If things are not getting back to normal very soon I have started considering an option, I might actually go home now, well at least within 2 weeks there are still a lot of things to take care of.
Cons for this is that I won't be able to go to Singapore this summer, I won't go to Shanghai either to see Linna and Nana, and Wenying of course but at least I saw her last week. Also my plan was to stay here until June 28Th and leaving a month early I have to quit all my classes, which might make my employers here upset but considering the circumstances I guess they wont argue too much about it. The worst thing is still leaving prematurely, it's on pretty short notice and I will hardly have enough time to say goodbye to my friends here.
Pros for this is that I will be able to join dad's 60Th birthday party, I will make it to cousin Sandra's high school graduation and I might be able to take an exam or two in June. I might also be able to get a summer job, which is both a pro and a con because I had really been looking forward to my first free summer in about 7 years.
I will make this decision before Friday night.
The biggest thing is still my plans for next year, I have for long been considering going to Hong Kong next year and work there for some time but as it is now I will hardly have enough money for it, if I do get a good summer job I might be able to get enough money to actually do it, and not only that I might also be able to visit Singapore on my way there after all.
If things are not getting back to normal very soon I have started considering an option, I might actually go home now, well at least within 2 weeks there are still a lot of things to take care of.
Cons for this is that I won't be able to go to Singapore this summer, I won't go to Shanghai either to see Linna and Nana, and Wenying of course but at least I saw her last week. Also my plan was to stay here until June 28Th and leaving a month early I have to quit all my classes, which might make my employers here upset but considering the circumstances I guess they wont argue too much about it. The worst thing is still leaving prematurely, it's on pretty short notice and I will hardly have enough time to say goodbye to my friends here.
Pros for this is that I will be able to join dad's 60Th birthday party, I will make it to cousin Sandra's high school graduation and I might be able to take an exam or two in June. I might also be able to get a summer job, which is both a pro and a con because I had really been looking forward to my first free summer in about 7 years.
I will make this decision before Friday night.
The biggest thing is still my plans for next year, I have for long been considering going to Hong Kong next year and work there for some time but as it is now I will hardly have enough money for it, if I do get a good summer job I might be able to get enough money to actually do it, and not only that I might also be able to visit Singapore on my way there after all.
Between earthquakes and storms
We just had some drinks at the Hemp house garden, Hemp house's own little outdoor serving area, when suddenly a heavy wind rose and started shaking all the parasols and not long after it had started raining heavily. We, who had been considering giving up for a while already decided to ditch the place and go home so we headed down for the street to get a taxi. We stood there looking for a taxi for about 30 minutes in the rain, there were not many out and most of them were taken and the few that weren't ignored us for some reason.
The rain was still very heavy but rather than just standing there in it we decided to take a walk to a "nearby" McDonald's at TianFu square, only about 40 minutes walk it turned out, actually the goal was not TianFu square, I thought there was another one on the way there but that one was not a 24hours one. The one at TianFu was though but they were closed anyone, the staff was there and it was lit, but they had locked it up and when Aaron asked about it they claimed they were "preparing" for the 5am breakfast, it was only about 2am then.
We finally did get a taxi each then and not long after that I was home, just about 2 hours later than expected. Turns out there was a rather big aftershock just before the storm started, I guess it was just strong enough to be felt where we were but all the taxi drivers must have felt it.
The rain was still very heavy but rather than just standing there in it we decided to take a walk to a "nearby" McDonald's at TianFu square, only about 40 minutes walk it turned out, actually the goal was not TianFu square, I thought there was another one on the way there but that one was not a 24hours one. The one at TianFu was though but they were closed anyone, the staff was there and it was lit, but they had locked it up and when Aaron asked about it they claimed they were "preparing" for the 5am breakfast, it was only about 2am then.
We finally did get a taxi each then and not long after that I was home, just about 2 hours later than expected. Turns out there was a rather big aftershock just before the storm started, I guess it was just strong enough to be felt where we were but all the taxi drivers must have felt it.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Day after
Today has been really really boring, first I hardly got any sleep because people kept messaging and calling me, I guess it was hard to sleep anyway because the weather has been really bad, this high pressure humidity that just makes you feel sick. And then all my classes were cancelled today, I suspect they will be tomorrow as well, so I basically slept until 11am and then had like boiled eggs for breakfast, since I actually didn't have anything else and the elevators were still turned off so I couldn't really go out anyway.
There were a few more aftershocks expected during the day and one of the actually managed to make an impression, I was watching a movie then though and it only lasted for like 10 seconds but I think it felt as powerful as the original quake. I spent the day watching South Park and a movie and I baked bread, which turned out great by the way.
In the evening I decided to go out to find some Internet, which the lack of is basically the reason for my extreme boredom these days, and to my extreme joy some of the elevators were up and running again, this made me happy mostly because I ran into some human fesis on my climb up last night, that was NOT pleasant.
Anyway, news has changed and the quake is now deemed to be 7.9 instead of 7.8, there are around ten thousand dead instead of the mere 100, which is horrible by the way, and all of Chengdu is basically stopped, not that anything has happened here. Mostly people has been treating themselves bad, they don't dare to sleep and hardly even stay inside the buildings, I personally find it perfectly fine though.
There were a few more aftershocks expected during the day and one of the actually managed to make an impression, I was watching a movie then though and it only lasted for like 10 seconds but I think it felt as powerful as the original quake. I spent the day watching South Park and a movie and I baked bread, which turned out great by the way.
In the evening I decided to go out to find some Internet, which the lack of is basically the reason for my extreme boredom these days, and to my extreme joy some of the elevators were up and running again, this made me happy mostly because I ran into some human fesis on my climb up last night, that was NOT pleasant.
Anyway, news has changed and the quake is now deemed to be 7.9 instead of 7.8, there are around ten thousand dead instead of the mere 100, which is horrible by the way, and all of Chengdu is basically stopped, not that anything has happened here. Mostly people has been treating themselves bad, they don't dare to sleep and hardly even stay inside the buildings, I personally find it perfectly fine though.
Monday, May 12, 2008
The world is shaking
It was about 2.30pm, I had gone home from my classes early due to a really bad stomach ache that nearly prevented me to stand up in class, in later reflection I think it might have been a warning sign for what was to happen later but I rather think it's just because of my recent travels to different food cultural places. So I was lying in my bed when suddenly I heard squeaking machinery and suddenly my room started shaking in an uncomfortable wobbling way. I was wondering to myself what the hell was going on with the subway construction or whatever and rose out of bed to check what was going on; the crane outside was swinging back and forth and that looked pretty scary, I saw people running around down on the streets and I started hearing the voices of my neighbours as they where gathering up and running out.
I did actually bother to go outside my door too but didn't bother to go any further, I was tired and from what I had seen on the street I figured that it would just be safer to stay, so I went back to bed and started to try and contact people, which didn't work out too well. Staying in bed worked perfectly fine actually, but contacting people was harder, the only one I managed to get a reply from was Joyce, and she couldn't find anything to tell me.
The main shake was actually pretty big, they say it was 7.8 in the epicenter and around 5 here in Chengdu, and on the 20Th floors I could feel it quite heavily, the only lasting effect I saw in my apartment though was my cutting board that fell over from it's standing leaning position over the sink and into the sink instead, that took about 2 seconds to correct, so basically no, I didn't feel scared: if my shelves with classes could hold up I figure the concrete building must manage as well.
I have no prior experience with earthquakes so I have nothing at all to compare to, the time it lasted seemed pretty long, like a few minuets, but the power of it didn't feel so bad to me, compared to what I've seen in movies and stuff at least, haha. I stayed in my apartment for a few hours after the main shock and there was an almost constant vibration in the building, I though it was just the building keeping shaking out of pure resonance or something but it turns out there have been as many as 44 or even more small aftershocks.
At about 5.30pm a friend messaged me and told me there would be another big shock at 7pm so I figured it would actually be safer to leave before the chaos started again, I got a pretty good view of the traffic chaos from my window, so I gathered up some stuff, like my passport and laptop and other important things, and headed down the 21 stairs (since the main entrance was blocked for some reason and I had to go down to the parking spaces under the building to get out) and went out for lunch. I had still not found anyone who could speak English so I had my hopes on a Taiwanese guy that has a small restaurant near my place, but of course he was closed so I went to the next door restaurant instead.
Then I went out to where I am right now, outside a closed Starbucks where I have both power and a wireless connection to play with (the biggest reason I went out at all was actually that my Internet at home was disconnected when I got back from Shanghai, probably because I haven't paid for it in a few months). Here I finally met some people speaking English and I managed to get my Internet running and got the information I felt I needed, so right now I'm pretty satisfied.
The quake itself had it's center around 90km northwest of Chengdu and about 10km underground, it reached a maximum of 7.8 and about 5 here in Chengdu at 2.28pm local time. The official death toll right now is 107 people and more than 37 more are injured, the first numbers we saw was 4 and 5 dead students (I think primary school or middle school students) somewhere, there are also new about some 900 students are buried under their school buildings but it doesn't say much more. From BBCnews.com
I did not experience any problem with power and water, out of the ordinary that is, my building loses power once in a while and when it did today it was nothing that couldn't happen any day, except perhaps that the whole building was out of power and not just my apartment, which is partly why I decided to stay in my room since I actually get light from the windows there. It might be that I actually live in a pretty good building, considering I had power all throughout the quake and when I lost it I actually got it back in about an hour or two.
I have actually been a lot more afraid than this, and probably with good cause, just experiencing the normal every day traffic here, I've had more than a few near death experiences so far. Saying this probably doesn't sooth the mind of a scared mother but what I'm trying to say that this is not really anything to worry about.
I did actually bother to go outside my door too but didn't bother to go any further, I was tired and from what I had seen on the street I figured that it would just be safer to stay, so I went back to bed and started to try and contact people, which didn't work out too well. Staying in bed worked perfectly fine actually, but contacting people was harder, the only one I managed to get a reply from was Joyce, and she couldn't find anything to tell me.
The main shake was actually pretty big, they say it was 7.8 in the epicenter and around 5 here in Chengdu, and on the 20Th floors I could feel it quite heavily, the only lasting effect I saw in my apartment though was my cutting board that fell over from it's standing leaning position over the sink and into the sink instead, that took about 2 seconds to correct, so basically no, I didn't feel scared: if my shelves with classes could hold up I figure the concrete building must manage as well.
I have no prior experience with earthquakes so I have nothing at all to compare to, the time it lasted seemed pretty long, like a few minuets, but the power of it didn't feel so bad to me, compared to what I've seen in movies and stuff at least, haha. I stayed in my apartment for a few hours after the main shock and there was an almost constant vibration in the building, I though it was just the building keeping shaking out of pure resonance or something but it turns out there have been as many as 44 or even more small aftershocks.
At about 5.30pm a friend messaged me and told me there would be another big shock at 7pm so I figured it would actually be safer to leave before the chaos started again, I got a pretty good view of the traffic chaos from my window, so I gathered up some stuff, like my passport and laptop and other important things, and headed down the 21 stairs (since the main entrance was blocked for some reason and I had to go down to the parking spaces under the building to get out) and went out for lunch. I had still not found anyone who could speak English so I had my hopes on a Taiwanese guy that has a small restaurant near my place, but of course he was closed so I went to the next door restaurant instead.Then I went out to where I am right now, outside a closed Starbucks where I have both power and a wireless connection to play with (the biggest reason I went out at all was actually that my Internet at home was disconnected when I got back from Shanghai, probably because I haven't paid for it in a few months). Here I finally met some people speaking English and I managed to get my Internet running and got the information I felt I needed, so right now I'm pretty satisfied.
The quake itself had it's center around 90km northwest of Chengdu and about 10km underground, it reached a maximum of 7.8 and about 5 here in Chengdu at 2.28pm local time. The official death toll right now is 107 people and more than 37 more are injured, the first numbers we saw was 4 and 5 dead students (I think primary school or middle school students) somewhere, there are also new about some 900 students are buried under their school buildings but it doesn't say much more. From BBCnews.com
I did not experience any problem with power and water, out of the ordinary that is, my building loses power once in a while and when it did today it was nothing that couldn't happen any day, except perhaps that the whole building was out of power and not just my apartment, which is partly why I decided to stay in my room since I actually get light from the windows there. It might be that I actually live in a pretty good building, considering I had power all throughout the quake and when I lost it I actually got it back in about an hour or two.
I have actually been a lot more afraid than this, and probably with good cause, just experiencing the normal every day traffic here, I've had more than a few near death experiences so far. Saying this probably doesn't sooth the mind of a scared mother but what I'm trying to say that this is not really anything to worry about.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
May holiday
While everybody back home were drinking in the park for one day I got 4 days holiday here. I was planning to go to some ancient town with Jane but when we arrived at the bus station on Thursday noon we found it so crowded it was nearly impossible to get anywhere and we soon found out that all the buses to that place had left already, instead we went to the Museum of Science and Technology in Chengdu which turned out to be pretty crappy, just about everything interactive there was broken and the other display items were rather boring, but we had still a pretty nice time there, watched a short 4D movie and everybody except me was screaming of fear when the so very animated shark bit and the rats ran over our feet, I guess these things doesn't get to me.
It turned out that Jane would have been too tired to go out anyway, we were supposed to meet up with Aaron to watch The Ironman but she basically fell asleep when we were waiting so she didn't go with me, we had seen the forbidden kingdom the night before anyway, which had turned out to be quite bad. The movie was pretty cool actually and after Aaron and I went out on my first outdoor bar trip this year, which was pretty good. I spent my Friday resting and working out, and I got convinced by Jiao to visit her hometown in the weekend, she actually tried to have me go there on Friday night but I managed to get out of that at least.
I'm not regretting i went though, the trip there was horrible, she had told me about 3 hours but she really has no sense of time at all, it took 5 hours and I was cramped up in the middle of a rather small car with 4 other not so small guys that were smoking all the time, so when I finally arrived I smelled really bad. The goal of the trip was not her hometown (YiBin) though, instead we went to Zhuhai.
Now you might be thinking that I went to south China again where Zhuhai is close to Hong Kong but this is another Zhuhai. Hai means ocean or sea, Zhu in the case of the Hong Kong one means pearl, so the place is pearl sea, the Zhu in the case of south Sichuan is bamboo, so it's a bamboo sea, it is actually a mountain with lots of bamboos on it, so really has nothing to do with a sea.
Zhuhai was another 2 hours from YiBin and once we got there it was already getting rather late, we did a short walk though but found a snake eating a mouse, it turned out it was actually a rather dangerous snake so some Chinese people who lived just there killed it. Out plan was basically just to sleep there and get up early enough to get around the mountain before we had to start getting ourselves back the day after, it was quite cool, a lot of bamboo and cool scenery, so I took about 150 photos, it was rather foggy though so it was hard to get really good photos.
It turned out that Jane would have been too tired to go out anyway, we were supposed to meet up with Aaron to watch The Ironman but she basically fell asleep when we were waiting so she didn't go with me, we had seen the forbidden kingdom the night before anyway, which had turned out to be quite bad. The movie was pretty cool actually and after Aaron and I went out on my first outdoor bar trip this year, which was pretty good. I spent my Friday resting and working out, and I got convinced by Jiao to visit her hometown in the weekend, she actually tried to have me go there on Friday night but I managed to get out of that at least.
I'm not regretting i went though, the trip there was horrible, she had told me about 3 hours but she really has no sense of time at all, it took 5 hours and I was cramped up in the middle of a rather small car with 4 other not so small guys that were smoking all the time, so when I finally arrived I smelled really bad. The goal of the trip was not her hometown (YiBin) though, instead we went to Zhuhai.
Now you might be thinking that I went to south China again where Zhuhai is close to Hong Kong but this is another Zhuhai. Hai means ocean or sea, Zhu in the case of the Hong Kong one means pearl, so the place is pearl sea, the Zhu in the case of south Sichuan is bamboo, so it's a bamboo sea, it is actually a mountain with lots of bamboos on it, so really has nothing to do with a sea.
Zhuhai was another 2 hours from YiBin and once we got there it was already getting rather late, we did a short walk though but found a snake eating a mouse, it turned out it was actually a rather dangerous snake so some Chinese people who lived just there killed it. Out plan was basically just to sleep there and get up early enough to get around the mountain before we had to start getting ourselves back the day after, it was quite cool, a lot of bamboo and cool scenery, so I took about 150 photos, it was rather foggy though so it was hard to get really good photos.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
KTV
It's been a while since I wrote here and it's basically because nothing interesting at all has happened. That is not entirely true thought but it's just not interesting enough to write about. I have seen loads of small things like stupid car accidents and new born kittens and stuff, and I've been working so much that I've hardly had time to do anything else.
What I have managed to do though is to join a gym, 1200 kuai for 3 months, or it was actually 1199 but same same. I go there basically three times a week now, doing the training bike for 20-30 minutes every time and then just lifting weight, so I think I've become more fit now, after a month, but I've of course gained some weight and is again around 90kg.
There has hardly been any time left over for party, I've been out to clubs like once over the last month but at least I went out today, some friend's friend's birthday and we found them at a KTV, karaoke, which was fun, and I just got back from there now so I'm pretty tipsy, which was pretty easily managed considering I haven't been drinking properly for a month and that I just came back from the gym before I went out.
I'm going to Hong Kong again next week to renew my visa, and that has turned out to be a big problem, there are a lot of changes in the visa rules and I'll be happy to get more than 30 days this time, which means I'll probably have to go back to Hong Kong again in the beginning of June. This time I will not only go to Hong Kong though, I will also make a stop in Shanghai and visit Wenying (Sharon) again, to finally give her the pear cognac that dad brought me as her Christmas gift, better late than never I guess. Now I must sleep, I actually have classes tomorrow, even though it's only in the afternoon.
What I have managed to do though is to join a gym, 1200 kuai for 3 months, or it was actually 1199 but same same. I go there basically three times a week now, doing the training bike for 20-30 minutes every time and then just lifting weight, so I think I've become more fit now, after a month, but I've of course gained some weight and is again around 90kg.
There has hardly been any time left over for party, I've been out to clubs like once over the last month but at least I went out today, some friend's friend's birthday and we found them at a KTV, karaoke, which was fun, and I just got back from there now so I'm pretty tipsy, which was pretty easily managed considering I haven't been drinking properly for a month and that I just came back from the gym before I went out.
I'm going to Hong Kong again next week to renew my visa, and that has turned out to be a big problem, there are a lot of changes in the visa rules and I'll be happy to get more than 30 days this time, which means I'll probably have to go back to Hong Kong again in the beginning of June. This time I will not only go to Hong Kong though, I will also make a stop in Shanghai and visit Wenying (Sharon) again, to finally give her the pear cognac that dad brought me as her Christmas gift, better late than never I guess. Now I must sleep, I actually have classes tomorrow, even though it's only in the afternoon.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Traffic
I have finally seen the bad effects of Chinese driving; since last month I started to work for another school outside Chengdu and it's on the way back from there I have seen it: I've only been there two times so far but I've already seen 6-7 accidents of which at least 2-3 seemed really serious, we also had a really close call the first time.
A really scary looking one was one of those boxlike cars they are driving around in here, they are quite slim and high and apparently they tip over quite easily, the one we saw had been hit from the side by a car coming down a slope (from a bridge) and when we passed it in the other direction it lay upside-down in the middle of the street.
We saw another bad one today where a bike had been hit quite seriously by a car and there were ambulance and stuff (you usually don't see any ambulance actually), Sam said the ankle looked totally twisted.
And of course our own near incident, it was probably the closest thing to death I've ever been; we were driving along this super wide (like 5-6 files) road that has these giant light-guarded intersections - just imagine 5-6 files in each direction and then a crossing of a similar road, basically 12 files crossing 12 files. The traffic was really light at that time and for some reason the lights were turned off. Our driver was just going on straight ahead and I saw the other car coming in from the left well in advance and saw that we were basically on collision course with it, it's a really open area and I thought it impossible to miss it but apparently our driver did. When he finally did spot it it would have been to late if we had actually had a collision course, I think it wasn't more than 1dm from a big crash, see two cars coming in 100km/h in a perpendicular angle, someone is bound to die if it hits, luckily it didn't.
I figure that accidents in the cities aren't really that severe, it's usually a lost bumper or something like that, basically because the speed is too low, it's seldom faster then 30km/h and very often it's just a total stand still. I'm scared when we go outside like that though!
A really scary looking one was one of those boxlike cars they are driving around in here, they are quite slim and high and apparently they tip over quite easily, the one we saw had been hit from the side by a car coming down a slope (from a bridge) and when we passed it in the other direction it lay upside-down in the middle of the street.
We saw another bad one today where a bike had been hit quite seriously by a car and there were ambulance and stuff (you usually don't see any ambulance actually), Sam said the ankle looked totally twisted.
And of course our own near incident, it was probably the closest thing to death I've ever been; we were driving along this super wide (like 5-6 files) road that has these giant light-guarded intersections - just imagine 5-6 files in each direction and then a crossing of a similar road, basically 12 files crossing 12 files. The traffic was really light at that time and for some reason the lights were turned off. Our driver was just going on straight ahead and I saw the other car coming in from the left well in advance and saw that we were basically on collision course with it, it's a really open area and I thought it impossible to miss it but apparently our driver did. When he finally did spot it it would have been to late if we had actually had a collision course, I think it wasn't more than 1dm from a big crash, see two cars coming in 100km/h in a perpendicular angle, someone is bound to die if it hits, luckily it didn't.
I figure that accidents in the cities aren't really that severe, it's usually a lost bumper or something like that, basically because the speed is too low, it's seldom faster then 30km/h and very often it's just a total stand still. I'm scared when we go outside like that though!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Papa John's
Papa John's is an American pizza restaurant chain that just opened a restaurant here in Chengdu. So since the opening day was today Li Min, Aaron and I (Kelly was supposed to come too but she was apparently feeling sick, and a few other friends of Aaron's should have been there too but they went earlier) went there for dinner, a late dinner as it turned out.
In the afternoon Li Min tried to call them to reserve a table for the (at that time) four of us, but they were very reluctant to take any reservation for us but told her they would call her back, but of course they never did that so when we arrived at 7.30pm the places was already packed and we had to wait for 27 tables before we could get in. I had deliberately starved my self to the occasion and both Aaron and Li Min were really hungry too so we went next door to wait, in McDonald's.
We didn't eat very much, at least I didn't but Li Min managed to get full and I think Aaron had a bit too much too actually, and we spent a too long time there, too long being surprisingly short but I think most of the tables ahead of us had just given up because it didn't take much more than 30 minutes before we had nearly missed our chance to get a table, Li Min managed to argue us in though.
Once inside started the real problems; not so much trouble at first actually, mostly it was Li Min trying to get the most out of everything, which we eventually did and totally too. First was the issues about ordering; they had some special offer that day that we finally managed to order, like a half/half thing where you order two pizzas in one but they only had the discount for a mix of Hawaii and BBQ Chicken, then there was some special deal you could get for their special where they offered a free dessert to it, so we got that too but that on had mushrooms and black olives which we had to ask them to remove (you know I'm picky about that), which surprisingly turned out to be no problem since everything else was.
Then we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And finally got our pizza, but no drinks (I had ordered Coke,Li Min Sprite and Aaron nothing, please take not).
So we finished the rather tiny 9" Hawaii-BBQ Chicken pizza and had to wait again, at this point we were rather thirsty though so we started asking for our drinks and at least I got my Coke rather quickly after that, but Li Min's Sprite seemed to linger somewhere so we kept asking for it. Suddenly there started showing up classes of water on our table and after some minor commotion and misunderstanding we managed to get a class of Sprite for Li Min, then we got another class of Sprite for Li Min that Aaron took and a few more glasses of water, that I got because my Coke was nearly out already by then.
After being confused for a while we finally got our second pizza and when we had almost finished that we got our second pizza again. Even though they were small it was kind of hard to finish the second pizza twice so I got half of it back with me home now. By this time my Coke was really finished so I turned to my water for refreshment but my water turned out to be another glass of Sprite, this really chocked me because Li Min had actually tried it and confirmed it was only water, MAGIC!
Now we only had two issues left: What happened to our dessert and will we have to pay twice for the pizza we got twice (actually we didn't get the same pizza twice but we have no idea which one was the right pizza and why we had gotten an extra). Li Min had worked really hard to get us some chicken wings for dessert; a while lot of issues about needing a commercial flyer for their promotion to get it, and she had managed to convince our waitress (who was really pretty by the way) to find one for us. So we had to ask for that a few times and then wait for it for a long while too, even though none of us really wanted it but she had so much fun doing that so we just let her at it.
Finally we actually didn't have to pay for the extra pizza, during all the commotion there I think no one knew about it, except the couple sitting next to us who saw us hiding the extra tablet we had gotten, this is also funny because when I got back home and was going to walk into my building I hear a loud grasp to my far left and when I turned I recognized the girl and realized it was the couple from the restaurant (I live about 10km from the restaurant). We finally got the chicken wings too and Li Min took them with her home, fighting with Aaron about who would not have them (I got away from that one since I had claimed the pizza already).
In the afternoon Li Min tried to call them to reserve a table for the (at that time) four of us, but they were very reluctant to take any reservation for us but told her they would call her back, but of course they never did that so when we arrived at 7.30pm the places was already packed and we had to wait for 27 tables before we could get in. I had deliberately starved my self to the occasion and both Aaron and Li Min were really hungry too so we went next door to wait, in McDonald's.
We didn't eat very much, at least I didn't but Li Min managed to get full and I think Aaron had a bit too much too actually, and we spent a too long time there, too long being surprisingly short but I think most of the tables ahead of us had just given up because it didn't take much more than 30 minutes before we had nearly missed our chance to get a table, Li Min managed to argue us in though.
Once inside started the real problems; not so much trouble at first actually, mostly it was Li Min trying to get the most out of everything, which we eventually did and totally too. First was the issues about ordering; they had some special offer that day that we finally managed to order, like a half/half thing where you order two pizzas in one but they only had the discount for a mix of Hawaii and BBQ Chicken, then there was some special deal you could get for their special where they offered a free dessert to it, so we got that too but that on had mushrooms and black olives which we had to ask them to remove (you know I'm picky about that), which surprisingly turned out to be no problem since everything else was.
Then we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And finally got our pizza, but no drinks (I had ordered Coke,Li Min Sprite and Aaron nothing, please take not).
So we finished the rather tiny 9" Hawaii-BBQ Chicken pizza and had to wait again, at this point we were rather thirsty though so we started asking for our drinks and at least I got my Coke rather quickly after that, but Li Min's Sprite seemed to linger somewhere so we kept asking for it. Suddenly there started showing up classes of water on our table and after some minor commotion and misunderstanding we managed to get a class of Sprite for Li Min, then we got another class of Sprite for Li Min that Aaron took and a few more glasses of water, that I got because my Coke was nearly out already by then.
After being confused for a while we finally got our second pizza and when we had almost finished that we got our second pizza again. Even though they were small it was kind of hard to finish the second pizza twice so I got half of it back with me home now. By this time my Coke was really finished so I turned to my water for refreshment but my water turned out to be another glass of Sprite, this really chocked me because Li Min had actually tried it and confirmed it was only water, MAGIC!
Now we only had two issues left: What happened to our dessert and will we have to pay twice for the pizza we got twice (actually we didn't get the same pizza twice but we have no idea which one was the right pizza and why we had gotten an extra). Li Min had worked really hard to get us some chicken wings for dessert; a while lot of issues about needing a commercial flyer for their promotion to get it, and she had managed to convince our waitress (who was really pretty by the way) to find one for us. So we had to ask for that a few times and then wait for it for a long while too, even though none of us really wanted it but she had so much fun doing that so we just let her at it.
Finally we actually didn't have to pay for the extra pizza, during all the commotion there I think no one knew about it, except the couple sitting next to us who saw us hiding the extra tablet we had gotten, this is also funny because when I got back home and was going to walk into my building I hear a loud grasp to my far left and when I turned I recognized the girl and realized it was the couple from the restaurant (I live about 10km from the restaurant). We finally got the chicken wings too and Li Min took them with her home, fighting with Aaron about who would not have them (I got away from that one since I had claimed the pizza already).
A forbidden topic
A whole lot is going on in Chengdu now, in all of China actually, but I think it can be felt here more than many other places. Let's just say that due to current events there is a heightened threat level and therefore a police presence that is not normal here in Chengdu; heavily armed police guard the main areas and there are not many places you can go without spotting a patrol car or two. My friend has also been told to be careful, there has actually been a murder just outside his school. Scary things, this is all I will say.
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