News, news, news!!!

Yey! Changes for the better!

Today the exam frenzy kicks off, with an essay exam. Funny this thing with writing essays in Chinese. I used to hate it. Now I kind of enjoy it. As long as we can use our dictionary while writing I don’t mind it. It’s kind of fun now when I can experiment a little bit more with the language than before, and also don’t need to look up every single little character that I want to write (yeah, because believe it or not, but I have actually managed to learn quite a few by heart! All those endless hours of character writing has finally paid off. Yey!).

Yesterday I went into the office and asked for a graduate certificate after this semester.

-OK, write down how long you’ve studied here on the back of your photo, said the woman with a tired voice. (Wow, they really keep track of you… not!)

I did.

-So, what’s next for you, she said in an attempt to be polite.

-I’m changing university.

-Oh that’s great.

4 seconds of silence.

-What do you mean you are changing university?

-Well, I have found a new university where I am going to continue my Chinese studies!

-Oh, you are moving?

-No, here in Suzhou.

-What?! We are the only university here in Suzhou?!

-Not anymore….


And yes, this is true. And yes, this is my latest news (that kind of make me happy thinking about!). I’ve found a new university in Suzhou. It has one of the longest and most silly names, mainly because it has a lot of exchange program with other universities. But I think the actual name goes: Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University.

It’s quite a new place, that’s been open for only a few years, so all of their facilities are new. It’s also more expensive than Suzhou uni. But with a complete different approach to learning compared to where I have studied before.

For instance, I’m going to study together with max two other students! And I’m very likely to have a few private classes a week. And, last time I spoke to one of the uni’s the teacher she suggested I would take a weekly Chinese History/Culture Class together with a bunch of Taiwanese students. (The reason why I will get so much ‘alone time’ is because I am the only ‘gao ji ban’ –high level class- student at their uni atm. So I guess all of this is party because of luck/timing too. But from what I was told the other students study in small classes. I think the max is 8 student/class, or even less)

I almost fell off the chair when she told me. Private classes + small classes + classes together with natives!? It’s simply too good to be true. And, what a chance for me to finally, really improve my Mandarin!! Ah, I’m so happy about all this!!! And I seriously cannot wait for next semester to start!


-So why are you changing uni? The teacher at Suzhou uni asked me, mouth still not quite closed.

-Well.. where do I start. I’m not very happy about my last semester, and especially not about the teachers. Like our spoken Chinese teacher. He spends the whole lesson speaking, but doesn’t give us a chance to say anything. If I need to listen to Chinese I can turn on the radio or the TV, I don’t need to pay for 4 classes/week of listening to a man reading our textbook.

-Oh I see.

-I believe many students have already told you guys this. And the students from last semester too.

-Eh… I don’t know.

-Well anyways. I’m looking forward to something new!

-I see. Good luck.


Yeah, good luck to them too! I’m off to new challenges!


And I guess that also answers the question of what I am going to do this fall. I’m going to give Mandarin one, final big go.

Who said anything about dressing for the season?

Body pump last night. I arrived early to get a hold of some of the smaller, 1 kg weights, and fixed up my little ‘corner.’ As usual, the class was delayed 15 minutes, which normally doesn’t bother me, although when it’s supposed to start at 8.10pm and end at 9pm, it’s already quite late. Oh well. Soon the instructor came running, apologizing at the same time for being late. Although by then I had already stopped being annoyed by her not being on time. I was too busy staring at her. Poor girl, because she must have felt like a ZOO animal.

But I couldn’t help myself:

Tight, black, stomach short singlet.

(If possible) tighter black super, mini short hot pants showing off a lot more than what’s considered to be flattering. Oh, and a bit ‘YUM!’ in white text on the bum!

And then….

Leather boots!

Yeah baby.

(It’s around 34 degrees and quite humid outside but who cares?)

Let’s get pumping.

It was one of the more interesting classes I’ve ever taken. And it also explains all the men in the class. Normally we are just girls fighting over the lightest weights. This time the men joined in. (I wonder if it was because of the hot pants or the boots)

Market research over dinner

Not your average bibimbap lunch

Last night I went out for dinner with the Korean family whose daughter I have been tutoring since I moved to Suzhou. Nowadays her English is so good that she doesn’t really need a tutor anymore, but over the years I have become good friends with her family (mom and 2 daughters. The dad is always away working), and since I discovered my love for Korean food I’ve enjoyed numerous dinners together with this family.

Every time we are out somewhere we attract curious stares from other people. I guess they don’t really get our connection. I don’t speak any Korean, the mom doesn’t speak any English, the youngest daughter is 5 and rarely speaks at all and the other daughter is 10 and speaks fluent English, Chinese and Korean. Yep. Bit of an odd bunch.

Yesterday the family took me to a (to me) new Korean restaurant where we ate everything from cold, spicy soup to BBQ and bibimbap. Delicious. I simply cannot get enough of kimchi!

I noticed that the waiters were watching us with curiosity mirrored in their eyes, and in the middle of our dinner the Korean manager suddenly came over and introduced himself. He spoke in Korean to the mom of the family, telling her that I was the first ‘western laowai’ to visit their restaurant and that they wanted ‘more people like me’ to come in the future, however, that they didn’t know how to ‘attract westerners.’

He then turned to me, and asked me everything from what Korean food I like to what Suzhou expat magazines I read (all in Korean of course, the daughter translated). Then it turned into asking me for personal advices of how he could market his restaurant. I was just sitting there, listening, nodding, and answering his questions with whatever came into my mind. When he was finally done he thanked us about 35 times and then sent in free dessert as a thank you!

When I rode my bike home later I couldn’t help but thinking “what on earth just happened?! Since when do I become an expat expert just because I have blonde hair?!” And since when do restaurants perform live market research at the dinner table with their restaurant guests?!

Got to say that people never stop to surprise me over here. And no day (or restaurant visit) is like the one before.

Another (lovely) visit to the bank

Banking in China: YEY!

I’m going to have nightmares about banks when I eventually leave China…

Last week’s Friday morning I went to an organization to pay a fee and was met by a phrase that you don’t often hear in China: “Oh, sorry. We don’t accept cash. You have to put the money into our account!”

“I have to put the money into….. but that means that I have to go to the bank?!” Yikes!

But wait, it gets better. Because I couldn’t go to just any bank. I had to go to the 农业银行 ‘Nong ye Bank’–the farmer’s bank. Wohooooo!

This bank isn’t as common as Bank Of China, so I jumped straight into a taxi and told the driver about my mission. He turned out to be a friendly, happy man who was totally up for the challenge of going for a “Nong Ye bank” hunt with me.

We passed around 83468346 other banks (or at least it felt like it) before we hit jackpot. As soon as I stepped into the bank I knew it was going to be a painful experience: Long lines of people that were standing disturbingly close to each other, and my presence resulted in the usual giggling (what IS it that is SO funny about me?! I keep wondering! A self-conscious person would die over here).

Since I’ve had the (un) pleasant experience of visiting banks in China before, I was determined not to commit the usual mistakes. I had a bagpack full of documents (everything from flight tickets to lease contracts to passport and student ID –you NEVER know what they want to see at a Chinese bank!), and, instead of simply lining up, I went to a bank man aka security guard sitting at a desk and told him about my errand. He stopped giggling as soon as he realized that I could speak Chinese, and just like that, I went from a ‘freak’ to a ‘smart laowai.’ (Love how that tends to happen more often nowadays). I presented him with my papers from the organization: some official documents with name, account number and so on. He glanced at it before he pulled out a drawer and handed me a slip. Tam-ta-daaaaam!

But his friendliness didn’t end there. Now when the ice was broken and he had realized that I was practically a local (…..) he wanted to ‘help’ me fill in the slip. Meaning: find out everything about my errand: Who was I paying to? How much? Why? Did I often come here to pay? Did I think the sum was appropriate? (there is no such a thing as privacy in China!)

We filled it together and then I went to line up. There were about 3 people in front of me, and 2 minutes after joining the line, there were another 6 behind me. The girl next to me was standing so close that when she coughed I could feel her breath in my neck. Mmmmmmm…. Fresh!

When I had been lining up for 10 minutes an old man suddenly arrived, and placed himself next to the line. He looked at us all, giggling nervously, showcasing some cash and a bankcard in his hand. He obviously wanted to put some money into his account, but, he wasn’t keen to line up. So he simply stood next to the line. It didn’t matter that the security guard came and told him. He still just stood there, giggling and waiting. And, when it was the man who was standing in front of me turn, the old man cut in:

-You don’t mind do you?! He said. It’s OK if I go first?!

I was just about to roll my eyes when the man in front of me said:

-Yes I do. Go and line up like everyone else.

The old man frowned and looked at me.

-Oh no no no…. not in front of me! I said.

(seriously?!)


When it finally became my turn I handed over the slip, a bag of documents and the money. The bank clerk clicked and clicked, looked at the slip, clicked a little bit more, and then started saying something into the microphone, which, by the way, must be the worse bank idea ever here in China. It’s simply impossible to hear a word that people who speak into it says?! People speak so fast anyways and when they speak into the microphone it just becomes a mash of words that sounds like “shshhshshshhshshshssssshhh.”

Fortunately, my new friend, the security guard, was keeping an eye on me and it didn’t take long before he came to my rescue.

-She’s saying that the account number you’ve filled is wrong. There is a 0 missing. You have to re-fill the slip.

At first, I refused, thinking everybody were up to some huge scam. But then, the clerk handed over a new slip where I saw the name of the organization I was supposed to pay to, and their account number. And she was right: the account number they had given me, was indeed missing a "0". The organization had given me the wrong number. Nice.

Some slip-filling, lining up and waiting later I finally handed over a slip with the correct account number. But the clerk still seemed to be having problems reading my numbers. In the end, she took a new slip and filled it herself. Then a nod and the magic words: Haode (=OK).

Done, for this time.

I immediately phoned the organization and told them about them giving me official papers with the wrong account number. At first the woman on the phone didn’t believe me, but 5 minutes later she called me back, laughing nervously and apologizing.

Well, that only took a good 1,5 hours of my Friday afternoon. And you want to know the best bit about it. In 2 months of so, I have to go back to the same bank. I seriously cannot wait! 

Repair time = circus and price war

Oh please dear receiver, don't ever break again!

There was a minor circus in our flat last Friday afternoon. As a result of both one air con and our receiver giving up we had no other choice but to call our landlords (something we try to avoid otherwise, anyone who’s lived in China knows what dealing with landlords is like) and ask them to send some repair people. Of course the landlords didn’t just settle for sending repair people, but they had to come themselves too (both of them: it’s a middle-aged, married couple) to inspect everything.

Starting with the TV problem, the repair guy received some serious gibes from our landlord because the receiver had broken only 1,5 years after it had been purchased (and, the warranty had expired 6 months earlier, leaving the landlord no choice but to buy a new one). Why had it broken so soon? Why had our neighbor’s receiver no problem? Why wasn’t it possible to repair the old one?

At first, the repair guy tried to actually explain the problem (“these things break sometimes!”), but when he realized that the landlords didn’t settle for that excuse he started pointing fingers to us.

“Oh it’s the laowais! They have broken it! They don’t understand how to use these things.”

Too bad for him that I was sitting next to him, understanding about 96% of everything he was saying.

“What are you talking about? Why would we purposely break our own receiver?”

The accusation went on like that for a while, but soon I was pulled out of the discussion (it got more and more heated and I simply couldn’t keep up with my level of Chinese).

Soon people were standing up, screaming and pointing fingers at each other and when the landlord found out that he needed to pay 800 rmb for a new receiver I feared that he was going to start throwing things around.

He didn’t (phew!) although he kept yelling and arguing about the “poor quality,” saying that he “refused” to pay that much for that kind of bad quality.

I eventually left the room (get a headache from all the screaming, and also, it wasn’t fun when I couldn’t participate anymore) and when I came back I found out that the landlord had made a deal with the repair guy and that he was going to pay 600 rmb for the new (exact copy of the old) receiver.

I can’t help but thinking, that how can people over here expect a good quality when they always want to pay as little as possible? There’s this constant strive for buying cheap stuff in China. “Zai pianyi!” (“Come on, cheaper!”) is frequently used in price negotiation, and then still, the buyer expects the quality to be good?! It’s like they are constantly contradicting themselves, saying that “Oh we need this as cheap as possible!” and then when it breaks they get surprised, angry, and want compensation! Why not just pay some extra kuais and buy something decent? Or, make sure that you get an extra long warranty rather than a cheaper price? Because really, what’s the cheapest in the long run: Buying cheap things that break every now and then or paying a little bit extra and get a more decent quality?

Once the receiver was fixed it was the air con repair guy’s turn to arrive. Fortunately, the air con’s problem was fixable without a minor price war breaking out, but, as the guy took the air con apart I was told to go and clean the different filters (and man, were those filthy or what?!). I went out to our sink on the balcony where one half of the landlords later joined me. We cleaned the filters together and it didn’t take long before the sink was flooded!

Again, came the silly questions:

-Jonna, do you throw apples and stuff in your sink?

-Eh no. We put our trash in the bin like normal people. We actually don’t use this balcony sink. Only the ayi does when she cleans the mop.

-Oh, so the ayi must have put something into it!!!

Yeah, sure. Our ayi has nothing better to do but to stuff our sink with cotton pads. Of course. That has to be it.

Anyways, as a result of the sink being clogged the landlords had to call an additional team of repair guys who soon came to fix the sink (in total, there were three team of repair guys in our flat. And then every ‘team’ brought some of their ‘people’ –you know in China you should always arrive in a group of at least 3 people: So there can be one repairing and 2 extras, observing. Then it was me and the landlords. Yes, it was a circus). The clogging team arrived quickly and unclogged the sink with a bit of effort and laughter.

(However, the mystery of WHY the sink suddenly became clogged still remains unsolved. The landlord still blames our ayi).

Then it became pay time. The un-clogging team wanted 5 rmb for their instant arrival and problem solving. Five, single rmb coins.

-Oh my God so expensive! The landlord whined. Can we make it a bit cheaper? How about 2 rmb? I mean, when I first called I thought this sort of service was free?!

Not keen on having another second world war breaking out in our flat, I decided to step in.

-You know what, I will pay for that.

-Oh will you?! Well that’s great then, the landlord said, his whole face breaking into a smile for the first time since their arrival. (Man, it’s easy to make people happy over here).

Anyways, around 1 hour and 86493692634 cleaning and dust remarks later (another reason why I dread calling our landlords), plus some complaints because we don’t want to open our windows and allow the ‘fresh air’ to sweep through our flat (“Why not Jonna?! You know that fresh air is good for you, don’t you?” “Yes, but the air in Suzhou is everything from fresh. You can smell the pollution!” “Oh no it is not that bad! It is good with fresh air! They have made the air better lately!” –who are ‘they?’- “Well yes it is but trust me, this air is not fresh!” …..and so on), the landlords finally left. Oh man! I had to go and lay down after their departure, totally exhausted from 2,5 hours of defending myself. Let’s hope it’ll be a long while until something else breaks again. 

The umbrella people

Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s good that people over here are keen when it comes to protecting themselves from the dangerous sun. However, there’s a time and a place for everything, right, and when people start brining umbrellas to the beach and walk around with it while wearing their bathers (when the weather is cloudy) I feel that they might be contradicting themselves?  

Also, while we are on this subject. It’s fine that people walk around with these things in the city, although I wouldn’t mind if umbrella carriers paid a little bit more attention to how they carried their protective shield, or, to whom they pointed it at? I don’t know how many times I’ve been hit in the head by stranger’s umbrellas when crossing the street. And do people apologize for the fact that they almost umbrella-poked you in the eye? Never.

TGIF

Thank God It’s Friday!! This week has been a bit mad, as a result of my Hainan trip. I’m so behind with everything (exercising, quality blogging, work, studying, preparing things for my upcoming trip, replying to people's emails... and so on. Sorry everyone who's awaiting replies!). My significant other went on a business trip before I went to Hainan and recently got back, so we haven’t seen each other for ages, hence why we are planning to spend some time together this weekend. I have no idea what we are doing, since he’s been responsible for the planning this time. And, he’s been very secretive about it all (highly unusual for a Finn of his character!) so to be honest with you I am not quite sure what is up, but I might be whisked away somewhere? (So if I don’t blog you know the reason why). 

Anyways, it will be nice to have one last relaxing weekend before the exam madness starts. Next Sunday = HSK exam and the following week, Monday-Friday = final exams in listening, speaking, grammar and writing class. Yup. I have some serious catching up to do. But let’s first enjoy the calmness before the storm. Have a great wknd everyone.