This week I’ve been studying Mandarin in Shanghai! I moved into a shared apartment with 6 others – Dutch, Belgian, German, Italian, French, America/French and moi! I lucked out because my room is easily twice the size of any of the others. The apartment is on the 20th floor of a building one block away from Nanjing Lu (main shopping street – much like Oxford Street, but only for pedestrians) and right next to the Meridien Hotel. Swank-y ! I’m on the Summer Study Tour which is supposed to be 2 weeks study in Shanghai, 2 weeks in Beijing, plus all sorts of extra activities and guided tours around both cities
. When I booked, I was told “you have to hurry, there’s only one space left”... I didn’t believe it at the time, and it turns out there are only 2 others on the same program. Winfried – Dutch, ALMOST 21, wants to move to Shanghai and has been studying Chinese at college, and Sandra – American/French, mum of three, age withheld because no one will believe me when they see her pictures anyway...she looks about 35! There are lots of other students, but they’re only doing the classes, so it’s just the three of us who bought into the whole “we’ll take care of everything” routine! 
Since I didn’t follow many of my lessons in England (I think 5 out of the 11 held while I was still in the country!) and of that, not much stuck around to be useful now... I enrolled in the “total beginners” class. The first 4 days were ONLY pronunciation... ad nauseam. Repetitive to the extreme, and sleep-inducing by nature, it is only because of the sheer will-power of our amazing teacher (Ren Fu Li) that I came out halfway sane at the other end. I may not yet know any useful phrases... but put some PinYin in front of me and I can read it like a pro. Unfortunately, PinYin isn’t really used anywhere... hmmmm...
Part of this whole Summer Study tour is that we have a lot of activities thrown in “for free”. Riiiight. I know, I know, I’m usually more sceptical and my instincts were clanging loud and clear, but I ignored them. The “free activities” include such exciting things as having a teacher walk with us down Nanjing Lu (yep – you read it before, Oxford street located just outside our apartment building). We went into a Chinese pharmacy to 
contemplate the purchase of all manner of beatles, dried bits of animal (don't look too closely), and even silk worms in coccoon... they're excellent for curing something - unfortunately explanations weren't included in the tour! At the end of Nanjing we finally came to the Bund. And opposite the Bund? The Pearl tower - standing proud and pink in all its glory... bless. :)
We also had a King Fu lesson – admittedly the teacher was good, even though it was a teeny-looking female language teacher who was essentially showing us her hobby... unfortunately the location left a little to be desired. Picture 4 tourists, one teacher, a classroom about 3 x 3 metres big, August in Shanghai (41C) and no aircon. Combine this with lots of running, kicking, punching... the sweat stains notwithstanding the sheer WHIFF of the classroom at the end attested to our 2 hours of hard work!
Last activity for the first week was a Chinese calligraphy lesson. Following 1.5 hours of painstaking painting of dots and slight horixontal lines with a pointy edge on the right... mind the start on the left is a boxy shape and the line is even throughout.... Nope, I didn’t get it either. Every line looked the same, loads of do
ts on lots of paper, gigantic mess of black in and she finally gave up and let us loose on big sheets of rice paper. I managed to learn to write my “Chinese” name – Ma Rui Sha. Depending on who translates it anywhere from horse, mum, divine, snow, pure, intelligent, mountain...or just sounds like Marisa. I prefer to think of it as a pure female divine being :P I think that’s what’s called Artistic Interpretation!
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