After almost a year of pretty much focusing on allergies and nothing, nada, niente, noppes, niks, nil...you get the drift... else, I decided Something's Gotta Give! That didn't include me getting a yappy little dog, a foul temper, and a load of neuroses (allergic to first, have the others already).
So I'm off to China, Shanghai to be exact, to study Mandarin. "Again???" I hear you ask? Yes, again, but this time I aim to become passably advanced as opposed to just being able to command a taxi to go left or right, ordering a bottle of water and "no MSG please" and knowing names of various fruits. OK, so I knew a lot more than that, my brain seems to not have held onto this acquired knowledge in 2 years of non-practice, fancy that?! So off to Shanghai I go for 6 months of cramming!!!All my things are now in storage. In my enthusiasm, even my iPod was briefly "misfiled" in storage and had to be rescued at the 11th hour (about 20 minutes before my
last train to the airport). Bob & Bertha were temporarily lovingly adopted by Olivier and his family, my Bella (car) and plants are with Vanessa and Tim, Pauline is overseeing FedEx shipment of necessaries (including porridge, winter cardigans, and...errr....tea), and my brother will hopefully help sort out forwarding mail since the nice man at the post office surprisingly lied and I cannot do that online. It's lovely to have so many people keeping my hiney out of the bad stuff :)
So, missing iPod saga notwithstanding, I made it to Shanghai in one piece! I was loving the Emirates Airlines flights - they have little lights in the ceiling to simulate a starry nigth when they dim the lights...awwww - until I hit Dubai and went on the flight to Shanghai. I had some particularly obnoxious Iranian arab male chauvinist "pigdog" neighbours! 5 men apparently all travelling for same company, all scattered separately over 11 rows, 2 HAD to sit next to each other and decided that I should swap my first row aisle (major legroom) for a middle in the 3rd row. Methinks not. I came, I booked, I reserved one month ago, you-out-of-luck! They singled me out, didn't bother asking any of the other 4 people they could have moved. After asking three times with the same negative response, they even tried to make the stewardess move me. Luckily she kindly explained that it was my CHOICE not their RIGHT to demand a change. Hah! I was going to SUPERGLUE myself to the seat if need be! Well, joke was on me because PigDog #1 promptly fell asleep and decided to use my shoulder as his pillow...not matter HOW many times I pushed him off. I strongly suspect he wasn't so much asleep as trying to get an eyeful of cleavage! That isa, UNTIL I used my spiky hairclip to pin my scarf accross - thereby neatly closing off view from any cleavage AND creating a particularly uncomfortable landing place for his head! Double Hah! Don't mess with a (natural) blonde.
I made it through immigration despite having a visa that runs out 4 months before my return flight...by leaving return flight empty on the form. I got through customs with the many, many, many copied DVDs a certain person kindly hooked me up with. Although I'm sure I'll be able to buy versions here, my experience in the past has been less than confidence-inspiring... the English version of "Over The Hedge" turned out to be in Russian only with Chinglish subtitles :P Hilarious thought it may be, not exactly as ordered.
The school sent a driver to pick me up, it took only 35 minutes to get from the airport to their main office in central Shanghai. I've forgotten (read: mentally blocked my memories) of a lot of things about China, but not the hectic chaos that is highway driving. The driver was a pro and did not so much as flinch when buses and trucks tried to swipe us off the road - he expertly maneuvered us accross 4 lanes of traffic to hit the off-ramp with about 3 metres to spare. The new school offices are huge compared to what the school had 2 years ago, business must be good! I was met by Fiona, Joyce and Amy - all incredibly nice people who went out of their way to make sure I had everything I needed (water, keys, map of Shanghai, choice of rooms...).
I am actually now in the same apartment - different room - as 2 years ago. The main reason I elected to come back to the same school was the location of the apartments - just one block from the main shopping street, two main sub
way lines, with a mall on the corner and the Meridien hotel opposite (for when I just NEED to have a bath...). The school has moved to a building around the corner. I could quite literally crawl there if I needed to! My room is quite large, relatively clean, and my suitcase has already exploded to make it look lived in :) Being an alumnus of the area, I immediately found the bank, corner store and fresh juice shop - in order of importance! On my brief 2-block reconnaissance mission I also scoped a few new places including 2 Starbucks, 1 Costa Coffee, a subway, a McDonald's, A pizzahut and a Juice Boost. It's like I didn't even leave the UK. I also found my namesake shop so I feel right at home.
Welcome to my humble abode. Apartment 2002, room G. Since I arrived a week before the rest of the plebs, I made them give me a choice of rooms. In other words, I kicked up a fuss as soon as I saw room G and my - eeeeek - shared bathroom. This caused Joyce to call Amy over from the school 
building to show me the other available rooms. Room C was basically a coffin with an en-suite, no window = no natural light. Room E had just been vacated, had dirty towels and bedding strewn over the floor, a flooded (by overly hairy male) bathroom, and ciggy smell and left-over butts presumably thrown in gratis. Under the circumstances, G was looking better by the second! It's light, very large by comparison, has a window instead of a balcony, and no cigarette smell. I figure it's going to be freezing in about 6 weeks at most and I may be quite glad not to have a massive expanse of glass along one side of my room. There's no heating, just an air-conditioner that doubles as a heater... Yup, loving G more every minute. G is Grrrreat! 
hat's not saying much. I did, however, kill 2 of the inhabitants (not human) and had the quickest shower ever. I was trying to psych myself up to take a picture... Since then, the cleaners have been in and it looks...the same really. I'd also forgotten the requirement for Chinese plumbing to toss the loo-paper (used, naturellement) into the uncovered bin...in a bathroom with no window... Oh well, when in Rome.
The rest of the apartment consists of a large room that's sitting/kitchen/entry-hall in one. No windows, fab fluo lighting, a tv & DVD player, a washing machine, about 15 umbrellas and miscellaneous orphaned slippers, a microwave, a massive extractor fan above a single electrical hob unit, and just the one pot. I've found 5 pairs of scissors and not a single kitchen knife, which leads one to wonder... Good thing I don't enjoy cooking and I have restaurants all around. Now I just need to learn to read characters so I don't mistakenly order fried dog's bits and I'm sorted!!! 
