our train was a bit late in so i was late for first class. exhausted but i went (though i didnt need to as the first class was looking at corrections) i pleasantly came back to a huge amount of my taobao items and thoroughly enjoyed looking through them! though i stupidly got sent 1 contact lense which was meant to have been cancelled. oh well. I napped briefly in the afternoon and tried skateboarding haha. i was awful, and fell and cut my elbow but at least i was actually on it and not just sitting on it sliding about. I randomly got photoshopped for a chinese company on street wear (though i was in comfy clothes with no makeup looking far from glamorous!) i then got offered by another chinese student to get my hair cut during the week in the Vidal Sasson hairdressers for free with a voucher, however i had no free time and couldnt.
classes this week were intense in Oral as we re preparing for an oral test on friday. we have a new student from another class. he is from Laos but you would think he was Amercian from his excellent english and accent.
the oral test on friday was hard and a disaster even though i stayed after class on Thursday for revision, it seemed that everything on the test was not what she got us to practice! she didnt give us much preparation time with the sheet either, 3 minutes to her in reality only a minute! I enjoyed a delicious lunch in a nearby restaurant with Kat and her Latvian friend Dace, it was so huge i had to take away, excellent value for 12RMB.
In work this week we also had a new intern, she will be working part time alternative days. she studied fashion in Beijing, and although chinese her english is good as well as her accent and pronunciation. she is friendly and i practiced some chinese with her. I spent my week making pattern for headpieces, creating them (complicated folded pieces) and then starting a necklace piece, made of small square pleats along with going to the clothes market and accessories market. they'll know me quite well soon enough, and here i also practice my chinese.
Friday night was our class night out, the majority went, well the ones that are always in class that is, Xie Laoshi came too! we tried to go to perrys but it was crowded, we had a small table and it was loud, so we went below to space bar, much better! we had a large table for all, it was quieter but still playing good music, it was nicer looking, cheaper, and there was table football as well! we got laoshi to get a drink after much persuasion, people got pizza's and shisha and drinks. more classmates arrived, we danced and chatted. took photos. Leeray (the most likely gay guy from Laos) made bubbles with shisha smoke that when burst evaporated in a puff of smoke which was an awesome party trick! we even gt laoshi to try shisha, skeptical at first but not as shocked as when she saw people do tequila shots! the Japanese guy (who is apparently 27 and married!) got drunk which was hilarious (he then did a rendition of an earlier charade game in class which we all found hilarious of him riding a bicycle!) laoshi was a bit drunk and unfortunately so was the 16 year old Indonesia boy. he had to be spent home with another student however the rest of us went to sky bar, getting in for free with a promo code, usually 100rmb in and free drinks, it was very busy and packed. however the class got up to the dance floor . very sweaty but fun, i think it will bring the class closer! even the Russian "cool guy" and the Korean (who may be accidentally going out with a ladyboy!!) went, the Russian looking very suave dressed up in a suit! (hes still ugly and irritating all the same though) left early with kat due to work, but a fun night indeed!
Saturday 22nd - Wednesday 26th November
busy day in work, started making pieces for a necklace having created a pattern. again like origami its all squares pressed into pleats, folded and attached together to make diamond/butterfly like shapes. very fiddly, and I was doing it until today. I spent the afternoon trailing the fabric market unable to find the exact Georgette silk i needed in grey, and had to make a quick dash to the accessories market where the majority of things were closed. sunday was a relaxing day, found a park with loads of chinese bridal photo's being taken nearby the school and found a great bakery too, a warm 18* for late november randomly, i was in a tshirt and shorts! that evening after dinner with my Chinese Friend and fashion student Linda I helped her set up and attended a mentor class for fashion and business where business woman attended and spoke about what they did and and brief explanation fo what they did and answered questions. Although all in chinese (making me very tired from listening!) i was able to understand some of it which was good, great practice for my chinese skills! I met Linda on tuesday and we talked more about it then.Chinese roads are soo stressful. i've found out ever since i've been cycling to work that the chinese road rules are very different and unpredictable, just like the drivers! red does not necessarily mean stop, though pedestraians may cross, taxi, buses and the odd car still turn in. so crossing is often a life or death choice even when you are supposed to cross. cyclists and mopeds have a lane beside the footpath, which especially near the shopping malls cars and especially taxi's dont care about and use as a lay-by and parking spots, meaning i have to go onto the main road and dart in between. SO stressful! and annoying, nearly bumped into things a few times! so i've started to take a leaf out of their boos and if other cyclists/mopeds are crossing no matter what the colour, I cross too haha!
Strange in chinese class Pan Laoshi (oral) let us watch a movie! "lost in China" its hilarious, a bit like a chinese version of trains, planes and automobiles. its about an idiot and a 老板 Laoban (boss) one is trying to collect a debt and the boss is trying to get home for new years. lots of hilarious moments, disasters and some heart warming morals, a great movie! especially since we had english subtitles. we also got to watch a short movie about the "chostick brothers" the chinese band who do "xiao pinguo" 小苹果 they make it big on chinese pop idol. pretty good too! Visited the Tesco near my work and was presently surprised to find mini xmas trees, tinsel and xmas hats for sale! I will be getting some!
Thursday 27th - Sunday 30th November
told that we will have another chinese test in 2 weeks and that we are meant to finish the book by the end of the semester, we're on chapter 19, there's 30 in the book! and a1+ redo it and even they arent finished it and they've been studying it the whole semester! Xie Laoshi pretty much said that if you dont do well, and some wont, we cant go into the next level, and if we do and its too hard we have to move back to a1+. awesome not!
spent the afternoon cutting strips of organdy for a dress for a client to design which style she wants, soft and floaty or dramatic (alice did the floaty look on half while I did the dramatic) Friday was spent searching for a ribbon that of course could match the colour i was searching for, in the end i went for a slightly darker double faced satin ribbon which went well. We didnt have class on Friday, it was a student mixer, our class and a1-1. mainly Americans (with the blond who always wears tight skimpy clothes and lots of makeup to class, this irritates me but anyway) we had music. people had made some food from their own countries and the Russian girl Elina brought vodka and taught us how to do it Russian style with bread and gherkin pickle (do vodka shot, sniff bread, eat gherkin, eat bread) it went down well and the vodka wasnt actually nasty! got to have some thai food which was fantastic, spicy noodle salad, papaya salad and thai red curry, even practiced some thai! try some Indonesian dried banana, some chinese foods and and African french chicken dish full of country veg,, little bit spicy but delicious (I only had the vegetables of course) Xie laoshi tried some vodka and German beer (we've created a monster!) spent ages talking with the girls, finding out about the different cultures, i'm the oldest, with melia at 17 and kat and Elina at 18! was interesting to know the Russians don't really celebrate Christmas and hearing her views of Ukraine and other neighbouring countries. (if they think speak and act Russian then be Russian, if they dont, do not)饺子jaozi making was fun, we experimenting with different shapes and layers, making vegetarians dumplings, they took a long time to make and in the end we brought some home with us to cook.later that night was the talent show, full of some fun dances (the group dance had the Korean in our class) and a fantastic colored girl who won, she had great talent!
some of the singers weren't so good, the Russian guy did an amazing "love me tender" and some others doing english or Chinese. the guy from Iran came first, he sang in chinese and was very good. the girl who came third also sang in chinese but it wasnt as good as another girl, and the guy from iran, though he acted up and had lots of friends in the crowd was not good! the russian guy show have came first or second, we were very annoyed!
as for the fashion, there were only 5outfits. one girl did 2 designs and she was fantastic! she only came 2nd though which the older girl with the strange "innovative" design that look awful - coming First. Chinese talent shows annoy me!
we wanted to celebrate Dace's (the Latvian girl)successful performance in her choir that performed last, and being in a mood for dancing having watched the show we headed out to look at the new perrys meeting Melia there with her boyfriend. A nicer area we found it was near my work, new with hardly any graffiti, we made our mark, as the opening weekend we got free cocktails (if you could be bothered waiting long for one) white Russian was delicious and even tried some of Kat's Mojito which was actually nice! spent so much time dancing! was great fun. was sort of introduced to some irish, but they were a boring bunch who didnt speak and sat at the table. a drunk Australian started stealing flags and took his shirt off (lovely beer belly) and danced with a girl, it wasnt particularly nice to see. meet a guy from Plymouth and lots of latvians. was a fun night.spent the Saturday in work finishing off the origami next piece created by Alice and started on a head piece.
my phone froze yet again so I went to the Apple store to get it looked at. i waited for ages to be told they couldnt do anything as it was bought in Ireland...though it says MADE IN CHINA on the back. she offered a system restore and update but no only would i loose all my images etc it would perhaps make my phone slow.thankfully after work Gar suggested a phone/computer/watch fixing shop. I talked to the guy in chinese, he gave me a new screen and stand by button, and haggled down i got it for 450! success!
all my meals on Sunday were disappointing however i did go to the canteen twice. i walked across the road without properly looking and walked straight into a moving scooter. thankfully he only clipped and bruised my shin, I was lucky!
went to新天地 Xintandi mall and visited the designer boutiques taking pictures and taking business cards. I plan to do a q&a about their careers via email and perhaps blog about it.
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