"Everything you need, nothing you don't"

"Everything you need, nothing you don't" - Sign

Time remaining in Shanghai is 1.5 months, from a maximum of 4 months and 28 days. Here are my top 10 updates from Shanghai.

1. Am going to Tianjin and Guangzhou for a week to watch Melbourne Victory play Tianjin Teda and Guangzhou Pharmaceuticals (respectively, and what a name!).

2. Have stayed up all night more times than times before combined, for karaoke, and similar things. Have also karaoked more times than times before combined ever, because it is so cheap.

3. When i get into the elevator, i sometimes feel the elevator bounce up and down, just a little bit. My weight is maintained at 72kg.

4. Have consumed more alcohol than ever before.

5. Have been able to use singular projects for multiple subjects' research projects. Basic reason for that is because all my subjects are almost the same. In one combined subject, my subjects are called: Marketing Economics and Pricing.

6. There's a smell of Shanghai inside my nose. The smell comes from fumes, cigarette smoke, and certain foods. It is activated most when i drank coffee.

7. Hahaha. I had a crush on my cell group leader. She took out a significant portion of my check list, but i have to admit that it was a little irrational. Cell group still rocks.

8. I won't be able to buy clothes back in Melbourne, not that i really bought much. A few days ago i bought 4 quite nice shirts for $15. And it's even cheaper on the Chinese version of eBay, called Taobao. This site is much better than eBay, because most of the clothing listings have models wearing the clothes in many pictures.

9. I take pictures everyday to use as a picture diary, because it's much easier than writing a text one!

10. Considered that Shanghai is not the best place to find English grammatical mistakes, because Shanghai is the most westernized city in China. I do believe that there is a significant market for English grammatical mistakes, not in the sense of correcting it, but in the sense of viewing it!

Love you!

Chinese Photography

[Zoom into this]

And my personal favourite:

Chinese Underground Cells

My brother observed this when on the first few days of his stay in Shanghai: that Chinese people generally had a 'beaten down' look on their faces.

It's the facial look of long hours of work, pollution thrashing against the skin, good hard facial muscle workouts from shouting, putting on the resistive face when getting shouted at etc.



The Chinese still, are lovely people.

I was privileged enough to attend a Chinese underground Church cell in a remote suburb of Shanghai. And i saw a group of Chinese Christians gather for the first time.

The pastor's face shone like an angel. It was bright, and the smile was heavenly. It was very unlike the face i identified with 'Chinese'. The other people who went up to the front to speak and serve looked not at all beaten down.

The keyboard, which was the only instrument used to accompany the singing worship part of the night, had not one note in tune. Yet the group worshipped God in the singing. At certain times of the night, a lot of people prayed in a row. They prayed a long time, and the prayers were passionate, from their hearts.

The meeting was present with people who were hungry for God. I was very attracted to this atmosphere. And this taught me that in order to attract newcomers to meetings, it is more important that God is present in manifestation in that place, than good welcoming, connections and friendship building (which are also important).

No photos available to upload for underground activities.

Roommate!

Before i came to Shanghai, i already knew that i was going to be living in a double room. Before i checked into the room at the dormitory, i had a certain expectation of my roommate. He was from an Asian country, for certain. BUT, when i checked into the room on my first day, i received a shock! He was so not the type of person i was expecting, and so not the type i wanted to have as a roommate.

Here is a photo of my roommate:

From left to right: Adrian, Xiu Yan, Gerald, Sam, Malik, Ann, Zhao Rong, Geoff - pretty awesome group.

And check out his profile! I was to live with this for 5 months!

Roommate Basic Profile

Name: Adrian Bosner
Hometown: Wernigerode, Germany
Languages: German, English and some Chinese
Age: 26
Relationship Status: Single

However once more, after living with him for about 7 days, everything changed. I could no longer live without him. My room needed him to feel complete. It would be so normal, if i went to some hotel somewhere in the world to stay, and to wake up with him on the next bed down.

Roommate Attributes

Likes to throw out rubbish, likes to mop the floor, cleans the bathtub, makes the bed, washes clothes regularly, keeps his area tidy, folds his clothes, helps me with homework, scrubs the windows, buys cleaning supplies, likes to chat regularly, is considerate for sleepers in the room, likes to watch TV, likes to imitate Chinese people, has been nominated for best 'movie trailer guy' voice.

Does not snore (unlike me), does not smell, does not overuse deoderant, is not stingy, does not invade private space, has not barged into the bathroom while i'm having a shower, is not annoying, does not over eat, does not dirty the bathroom floor (and asks me to close the shower curtains to maintain the bathroom floor's cleanliness).


There aren't many people in the dorm whom i think could potentially be better than Adrian as a roommate. He is the first German i have come to know.

Plus, i like his humour.

Surprising Chinese Business Tactics

At a ‘shao kao’ restaurant, a group of non-Chinese friends and myself were sitting outside. A truck came reversing from a street and almost knocked into our table. A few of the girls screamed. The boss quickly ran from the inside to the outside the shop, and said to us: “Ah ah! Zhong guo ren mei you shui zhun. Bie gen ta men yi ban jian shi ~ heh heh heh.” ("Chinese people have no manners. Please don't mind them. *feeble laugh) I was amused by that because he would rather offend another Chinese, than let the situation affect his business.

Another time, my friend was making a short film, which required a few shots inside a fruit shop. We asked if we could film at that time, which was 3pm, and the shopkeeper said that we certainly could. But he added this interesting comment: “Please wait until about 4pm, then start the filming. Hao ma?” I was at first confused by that comment, because I thought that the less people inside the fruit store, the better, since we would not have to disturb their business so much. But what I realized later was that he actually wanted a lot of people inside the store during the filming, so that on the short film, it would look like his store was very popular, as opposed to nobody else being in the store. I found that funny.

A girl with a beautiful talking voice rides on the back of a bicycle.

I have heard and experienced a few of these incidents: A group of friends go to a restaurant to eat. They pay the bill and walk outside. They start to walk away from the shop. Wait 10 seconds. A waitress wearing high heels runs out from the restaurant shouting 'wait wait wait!' Group waits. She catches up in about 30 seconds, and says in a huff and puff: "I forgot to give these to you. These are VIP cards. If you come back next time, you will be able to enjoy 20% off the whole menu." Group says thank you and feels good about receiving discounts for the next visit. The first time i heard this happen, i felt quite normal. But the second and third times that i heard or had the actual experience, i considered the possibility that these restaurants forget to give out VIP cards on purpose. Which is not a bad business strategy, since by doing so, customers feel more valued by the restaurant - that a staff would give up herself to shout and chase after customers on high heels, just so that they can get a discount for the next visit. Not a bad business strategy also, considering that most of the waitresses just stand there and fiddle with pots. May as well send a few out to run around.

What amuses me the most for this case, is what the manager says when teaching the waitresses how to be effective in the waiting, shouting and chasing.