When to flirt. And when not to.

The trainers at my bf’s gym (we go to different ones) make it no secret that they really adore his tall, blonde, blue-eyed look. Since he started going there he has been nicknamed 帅哥 (=shuai ge = handsome guy) and despite the fact that he has made it clear he’s got a girlfriend the trainers keeps on trying to set him up with other female gym-goers. (Luckily I’m not the jealous type!)

Two days ago he was asked to participate in a body building competition. Both my bf and I found this hilarious, because he’s definitely not the body building type. Quite lanky and thin.. hahaha… but I suppose that’s regarded as ‘fit’ over here where people in general are so skinny!

The best moment, however, must have been yesterday when he went to the gym and was greeted by a trainer and the trainer’s girlfriend.

Trainer: Shuai ge, let me introduce you. This is my girlfriend XX
Bf: Nice to meet you XX
Girlfriend XX: Nice to meet YOU! Wow, you are really hot!

(Right in front of her own bf?! Aooooooch!!????)

Then later, my bf was doing weights when she alone came up to him:

Girlfriend XX: I always thought my boyfriend was strong but you are so much stronger!

Lady, lady, lady….! Slow down! At least choose your timing! Advice number one: don’t hit on guys that already have girlfriends. Advice number two: don’t hit on other guys when your own boyfriend is standing next to you!

Today: 口语考试

I know I shouldn’t be blogging now, I should be studying. Today I have my first mid-term exam: 口语考试 (kou yu kao shi =spoken Chinese exam). Normally this is my favourite test because I don’t have a problem to jabber away about anything and nothing. I don’t even worry so much about the 15 minute presentation I am going to have (only for my teacher though?! How weird is that?! But many of my classmates are too shy to speak in front of the whole class so this is how it’s got to be). No, today’s ‘worry-of-the-day’ goes to the first part of the test. The written test. Filling in the blanks, changing sentences, spotting mistakes in sentence structures and so on. I am so bad grammatical rules. In ALL languages (including Swedish). So I am sensing this is going to be a bit of a mess.

I’ll head straight from the exam to the gym to release some energy after 3 hours of serious brain activity (or OK, at least I hope that the activity will be lively?!). I’ve made yet another trainer-friend at the gym, this one is highly impressed with my choice of training: the skipping rope. When I was younger I went to a basketball collage in Sweden and our American coach made us do skipping rope for at least 20 minutes every day. Although I stopped playing basketball some years ago, I have kept up the skipping. It’s such a great work out and u don’t even have to do it long to get results.

Anyways, yesterday when I was skipping away a trainer came up to be and told me he had seen me doing skipping rope before, and that he thought I was very smart using such an efficient training method, adding at the end that I was 很厉害！(hen li hai =gosh, how do I translate this? Very… hardworking? Have good endurance? Hm.. doesn’t feel like the right word. Anyone who can help?! My dictionary suggests “terrible, devastating”… ehum) Then he asked if he could borrow my rope. It ended up with him and me practicing double jumps for the next 10 minutes. He could definitely jump much faster than me although I beat him when it came to endurance. I am starting to like the gym more and more as it is becoming my new base for practicing Chinese. And, I get fit at the same time. Perfect!

This afternoon I should also study again as I tomorrow have something a bit bigger coming up: Chinese grammar exam. Aooch. Well that’ll be the worry-of-the-afternoon then. Wish me luck!

Me and Taiwanese men

There’s something about me and men from Taiwan. I generally speak of Chinese men as quite shy, at least when it comes to approaching a western woman (especially one of my height… seeing I am taller than 80% of the men down here) but Taiwanese men are definitely exceptions. Three times (!) in only 2 months have I been stopped on my way out of my local Starbucks by men from Taiwan who want to: A. Ask me to join them for a coffee. B. Chit chat. C. Do language exchange.

Well actually, two men have suggested the language exchange, but only one of them was honest about it (the other one started sending me sms:es about that he was single and felt happy he had met me? Say whaaaat?). Obviously I am a bit suspicious when someone suggests language exchange (especially if they are male and if their Eng is already quite good) but the last guy that stopped me, and that I’ve now met twice for 2.5 hours of language exchange (1 hour Chinese, 1 hour English and then 30 min mix) has been really great! During our first meeting he even assessed my Chinese level by asking me to read a paragraph in a Chinese book and then explain the meaning of the text to him (I almost managed!). Anyways, it’s really good to meet him and practice everything I learn at the uni, not to mention to practice my listening skills. The hardest bit for me right now is to hear what people that I meet on the streets are saying because they speak so fast (obviously our teachers at the uni slows down a bit for us during class) so regular chats with someone local is essential in order to improve.

Also, I am finding it really interesting to learn more about Taiwan. Apparently this summer will see some direct flights from Shanghai to Taipei (right now there are none, you have to fly via Hong Kong or Macau) and then the flight connections are said to gradually increase. Cool! I’d love to visit Taiwan at some stage. From what I’ve heard and raid it’s a quite beautiful island.

To be flexible

Yesterday I went to buy some train tickets at the local ticket selling office. I really like the ticket selling woman as she understands me perfectly and always praise my Chinese language skills (something that doesn’t happen too often, so this is simply a –kinda pathetic but still- way for me to boost my confidence) and yesterday I got another reason to like her: she’s so flexible! I ordered loads of ticket (the line behind me growing steadily) and when it came to pay time I realised I didn’t have enough cash in my wallet! And the ticket selling office did not accept cards. So what can do you do? I looked at her helplessly, asking if I could run down to the ATM… Sure she said with a smile, you just go ahead but come straight back!

Turns out the ATM downstairs was broken so I had to jump on my bike to go to the neighbourhood centre. Still, when I came back 20 min later, panting slightly, she was all smiles and happily handed over my tix, adding that ‘it really wasn’t a problem it had taken me so long’.

To do something like this in my native Sweden would definitely have caused some serious irritation and nasty comments from the person behind the counter, so I’m quite baffled with how flexible this lady was. Normally when you ask for a service ‘outside the box’ of Chinese people’s working habits, you get a straight ‘no’ and it feels like they are not even listening to you. At least if you try in English. But what can I say? Life in China is indeed getting a lot better the more Chinese I learn!

I take it back -I love the sunnier days!

Misleading photo maybe.. this one is taken during a bike ride (for a magazine article) in Shanghai in Feb 2007... so it wasn't really warm then. But anyways, u get the point?

OK I take back what I said yesterday. I AM indeed ready for sunnier and warmer day! Yesterday I managed to convince my bf to buy himself a bike (that venture is a story of itself, however. He came back from the bike shop with something so small it’s close to a children’s bike–yeah, don’t ask why- but after some serious saddle raising it was actually okay to ride, even though he kinda looks like a fool when he does) and today we went exploring Suzhou.

I managed to get both a tan and some great views of the city that is impossible to get via car. Sure, you can explore by foot but it’s definitely easier on a bike. Obviously because it’s faster but also because on a bike saddle, it’s somehow easier to deal with noise, traffic and people in general. On bikes you’re on the same level as the Chinese. You can be completely selfish and just ride however you want (like everyone else does) and ignore pedestrians, cars and red traffic lights. It’s great. I love it. I just wish my bike had a real car honk rather than just a bell, but I guess I have to work with what I’ve got.

We rode down Shiquan Jie (Suzhou’s infamous bar street) and chose the little lane alleys rather than the main street. Those alleys eventually took us to the quite new Bookworm café, a great and well needed addition to Suzhou book lovers, which is located between Shiquan Jie and Shizi Lu. It’s basically a café/book shop where u can browse, read, shop and eat at the same time (a heaven for me!). From there we rode Wusong (I think it was called??) Lu down to the city centre Guan Qian Jie where we did some window shopping, bought some fruits and returned home. Lovely! Next time I’ll bring my camera so I can share it better with you guys.

What happened?!

Two weeks ago it was raining heavily, I was wearing a scarf and the heater was still on in our flat.

Yesterday I woke up a bit sweaty, and then made a huge mistake by walking out wearing jeans, a short sleeved shirt and pumps… I thought I was going to pass out of the heat shock!? What’s going on? What happened to ‘slowly heating up outside’ and the sweet days of spring when u can leave your jacket behind and roll up your jeans during the days, only to grab a jumper and roll the jeans back down at night? Now it is already so warm we have to consider using the air-con?!

I am not ready for shorts and mini skirts yet. I need some time to acclimatize!

Sports -a male thing?

When they are small they do sports in school... but then what?

The more time I spend at the gym, the more I start to wonder… why Chinese girls seem so reluctant to sports? None of my Chinese female friends do any sort of sport. It’s not like they ‘need’ to, they all look amazing anyways (with petite body types I can only dream of!) but I still just wonder why the interest for sport in general seems to be so low?

I know that because of history Chinese people haven’t really got a chance to bother about sports and such things, but now, when the country is opening up and being exposed to (and influenced by) western standards, then why is it still regarded so odd to put on your joggers and go for a run? I mean, those times when I have been out running, I have received so many odd looks and gibes from the Chinese girls that I almost feel like turning around and screaming: “What?! Come on! I am just running! It’s not bad for you, you know?!”

I get the feeling that in China, unless u are fat, u shouldn’t do sport? Or are girls simply just not interested? Is it considered too masculine to sport?

When I am talking about girls not being interested in sports I am obviously not talking about people living on the country side, but about the city girls, the fashionable, trendy it-girls. For me sports have always been a vital part of life and although I know many people don’t enjoy sporting or sweating, I still think the general interest for body and health is bigger in for instance Europe than it is over here.

The women I meet at my gym are seldom younger than 40 and almost always overweight, which makes me think they are there because the doctor told them so. But what about the ladies in their 20ies and 30ies? Too busy too shed some pounds? Or simply not interested?