Not being forgiving

Just as I was getting back into my life in Shanghai (as I wrote earlier this year: coming back from Australia to China was a bit of a shock and gave me the “post holiday blues”) I had to pack my bag again (this time with winter clothes and UGGs instead of flip flops and summer dresses) and head to Sweden for work. It was a long and painful airplane ride where I was seated next to a Chinese man. He travelled with a HUGE hand luggage (not kidding, it was the size of the suitcase that I had checked in) and when he tried to put it in the overhead locker I could sense a disaster.

-Can you please be a bit careful? I said. My stuff is also up there. You will crush it with your bag.

-Huh?! He looked like me as if I was an alien.

-Your bag is too big! And please be careful with my stuff! I said, a bit annoyed.

To this, he snorted. And then he started muttering that “you should be more polite to Chinese people!”

His comment really hit me. There I was, trying to save my stuff, and coming across as a RUDE laowai! Gosh, had I crossed the line? Maybe I had? I don't want to be considered rude (I hate rude people!) so I decided to apology and then spent the rest of the trip trying to be extra nice to him in order to mend the rocky start.

So, when he realized he didn’t have any headphones I handed him mine. When he was out of water he got my bottle. When I had to ask him to stand up so that I could go to the toilet I was careful to excuse myself and thank him about 1 million times. Do you think any of this helped? Oh no.

When we landed he hit me in the head with his mega bag when he tried to take it down.

-Aoooch! I said and rubbed my head.

He said nothing. I think he even smiled.

So much for trying. Oh well, at least I didn’t have to suffer from a bad conscious for maybe being too rude at first on that trip. But some situations are obviously not meant to be saved.

Anyway, now I'm in Stockholm and I just had a shower in hot, clean water (not to mention water pressure)! Ahhh.. heaven! Now sitting here, blogging in a central heated flat that is so comfortable heated that you can walk around in shorts and a t-shirt. Farewell, dry skin! Oh, and I'm drinking tap water! LOVE IT! Sure, there's a lot of ice on the streets out there bit so far, so good.

Re-starting the new year

Happy New Rabbit Year -best celebrated together with your near and dear ones and a big, home cooked meal

This year hasn’t started that great for me. Although my trip to Australia was fantastic a lot of things happened when I came back, some I mentioned and some I didn’t, because it’s personal. Point to be made: I have been feeling rather sad, negative and down lately, and I think it’s been reflected in my blog posts.

Fortunately, Chinese New Year is coming up, and what better way to shake off a shaky start of the western new year? Well, simply by re-celebrating it again, although this time I’ll be celebrating the year of the rabbit, rather than the start of 2011 (It’s not often you get a chance to re-start the year, so this opportunity is simply too fine to be missed)

Unfortunately, I won’t be in China for the actual new year (going on a business trip), but it doesn’t matter. I will be celebrating from where I am and the main thing is: this will be a new, fresh start, and it is going to be a good one.

Happy New Rabbit Year!

Painful paperwork

I think I have enough blog material soon to make a book about “painful paperwork stuff you have to do as a laowai in China.” The book could include some different sections, such as:

• Horrible experiences at the bank
• Heart attack potential situations at the Visa office
• Not being listened to at the police station
• Trying to get your deposit back from your landlord (hahaha, good luck with that!)
• Different fainting spots at the hospital when there to do a medical check

For me, the bank has been the worse by far. Before I went to Australia, for instance, I headed over to my bank (ICBC) to ask if I could use my Unionpay card at ATMs in Australia, as I had read that you could online.

-No! said the bank clerk.

-But.. on unionpay’s homepage it says…

-It’s impossible. Doesn’t work.

-Eh… OK. Not even at the National Australia Bank (NAB)?

-No!

-Eh… OK, well then I have to exchange some currency.

-Oh, that’s also very troublesome! You will have to stand in a long line for that. I suggest you don’t do it here….

-Right.. thanks for your help.

Guess who headed over to Perth, located a NAB ATM and withdrew money! And, in some stores (that had EFTPOS machines) I could even pay with my Unionpay card! This just proves that the people at the bank don’t even listen to your questions, they just say no so that they don’t have to deal with you anymore.

Yesterday at the police station, I had another, classic experience of “there is no standard as different rules apply to different people.” I have all my papers in order, but since I have a new passport since a week back, I needed to renew my police register form so that it had the same number as my passport.

“Fortunately” a friend of mine had done the exact same process just 2 days before, and told me that it was simple:

-You don’t need anything more than your old registration slip and your new passport!

-Really, it’s that easy?

-Yeah! Real easy!

Could something ever be easy when dealing with authorities over here? Sounded foreign to me. So, just to make sure (…) I packed my lease and brought my wallet along to station.

And, very well.

-We need a copy of this, a copy of this, and this, and this…

-But my friend only needed to show her old registration form…

-That registration form is the only thing we don’t need..

Of course I didn’t have copies of my lease and my visa page… so there I was again, running between the police station and a copy place down the road (thank GOD it was open! Last time I was in a similar situation it wasn’t and then I had to go into a real estate office and bribe the workers in order to get them to copy 5 document for me).

Anyway, once everything was in order I got the form that I needed. But man, this stuff is daunting! Especially since different rules seem to apply to different people. And it changes all the time. Ahhhrg!

Don't try to understand the system: just accept it for what it is

Our air cons broke down around the same time we came back from Australia. One simply wouldn’t start, and the other one started producing so little heat that we started questioning if it was useful or not. For a few days we walked around with a mini-heater, bringing it with us wherever we went (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom… it had to come, otherwise it got too cold). Obviously we also told our landlord, who promised us “two new air cons, a.s.a.p!” After four days of misery we decided to tell him that a.s.a.p better be now, or we were going to freeze to death (being dramatic really works over here so I made sure to use sentences like “cannot stand this any longer!” with a high-pitched voice when I explained to him). That did the job. Some hours later he called us and said there would be a delivery with 2 new air cons the next day. Could we skip out of work in order to greet them?

My bf did, hoping that it would be quick and smooth. It wasn’t. They were supposed to come at 4pm but at 1pm they called him, saying they had been waiting at our door for 45 min. China in a nutshell.

He rushed home and was greeted by the delivery guy + our landlord’s dad. The dad told him that he needed to give 2 new dates and times: one for them to come and remove the old air cons, and another time for them to come and install the two new ones.

Couldn’t they do it at the same time?

Absolutely not!

Was it possible to come after working hours?

Definitely not.

Eh… righty. So my bf managed to negotiate them into coming to remove the old air cons at 4pm on Thu, and then we would have to wait until the wknd for the installation. We simply cannot skip out of our offices every now and then.

Thursday came and at 12pm our landlord called my bf:

-We are here now!

-Eh… right..

He rushed home to let them in and then our landlord told him that he would stay and supervise it all, and that they would also install the new air cons. Riiiiiight.

When I came home yesterday, around 6.30pm, we had 2 new air cons and a filthy, muddy floor. Still, I could not have felt any happier.

Think something will ever be smooth/go the way you have been told in China? Oh no. But don’t worry about that. Main thing is that it happens. Also, never trust comments like “it is not possible” because it always is, but they won’t admit that until they know themselves for sure. Also, come to peace with the thought that you will never fully understand the system over here. I have. And it makes life easier. And gives you less headache.

Now we are going to enjoy living in a heated home! Who said that small things don’t matter?! It’s the small things that make your day!

Sharing a city with 23 million people

That's what I do. According to this recent article in Shanghai Daily. Apparently some 9 million of those (that's just the whole population of Sweden) 23 are migrant workers. No wonder the metro feels so crowded every morning. No wonder Perth felt a bit small during my recent visit.

Scandinavian fashion boutique Göte Göta opens in Shanghai!

Ann-Sofie Back
Ann-Sofie Back
Odeur
Gorjan and Petter -the designers behind Odeur

Now you can shop Ann-Sofie Back, Odeur, Noir & Blanc, Säby, Camilla Norrback, VITA and much more here in Shanghai! Göte Göta is located on the 2nd floor, 174 Xiangyang Lu, near Fuxing Lu (just above Awfully Chocolate -so basically you can shop first, and then treat yourself with chocolate afterwards... or the other way around -I'm not yet decided on what would be the best way?). It ain't cheap but it's not outrageous either. And the clothes do look really nice! So proud of the people behind this: great job and hands up for you!

I can also tell the truth (even though it may hurt)

My gym membership is about to expire and I seriously cannot wait. I’m going to join a new gym. A nicer gym. A fancier place. Somewhere where exercising doesn’t feel like a punishment.

I’m not the only one who has noticed that my card is up for renewal. Last night when I went inside I was greeted by no eye-contact, no smile and no “hello!” by the receptionist. Then he scanned my card, realized, and ran after me:

-Hello, hello, HELLO!

(I had to stop myself from saying “my name is not hello!” Could have come across as too rude.)

-Yes?

-Oh, hello! Your gym card will soon expire. Would you like to renew it?

Oh, here we go! Eye contact! Smile! Politeness!

-No, I don’t.

-No?! Uncertain giggle. Eh… just like that, no?

-Yes. Definitely a no!

-Eh… why?

-Why?! Oh…. well...

For a moment I stopped short. Should I tell him the truth? Should I say that I don’t want to go there anymore because:

1. The gym opens at 6.30 am which is way too late for a gym when you start working early.

2. That the gym staff seem to enjoy keeping you outside the gym until 6.35am, just to piss you off.

3. That all of the receptionists are insanely rude! They never greet you with a hello, they never look you in the eye. Once they threw my gym card at me.

4. That you need to rent a towel… at 15 rmb!! Most places give you towels for free.

5. That they quite often say: “we don’t have any towels” and then you have to nag for 15 min before they finally give you one (WTF?!).

6. That women in the changing room uses the hairdryers for drying everything but their head hair.

7. That there are cockroaches in the showers.

8. That there are sometimes orange peal in the shower.

9. That 5 out of 10 treadmills are out of service.

10. That there is no aircon during summer and so hot that you feel as if you’re going to explode when you run.

11. That the gym staff laugh at you when you try to ask them for something.

12. That it’s dirty.

13. That the music is so loud during spinning sessions that if you don’t wear earplugs you might run the risk of getting tinnitus.

Then I decided to put it all in one, simple sentence:

-Well, this place sucks.

-Eh… hehe, eh… haha… OK!

-Yeah. This place sucks! So no, I won’t renew my membership. Thank you!

With the risk of sounding a bit bitter, I have to say that that felt good. Farewell, stinky ol gym. I deserve better.