A busy busy bee, that's me!

Don't panic everyone, I'm still alive! Well overdue for an update, but I haven't been able to find time in the last few weeks to blog, been a little busy! I'll start with Shanghai, and hope that I can remember everything!

One of the last times I wrote was about the apples, a few hours before I left for the train. That train got me to the airport by 4.30am, an airport which wasn't quite open yet! A few others and I managed to get the attention of some security guards, who let us in, to sit in one area, with one light on, until the airport opened proper. It's fun to see airports opening up. I always used to like Aber at 7am, when the day was just getting started. Flight was grand (although I'm not overly impressed with Korean Air's food!), and I was met at the other end by brother Peter and his girlfriend, Miki. It had been 18 months since I had seen Pete, so it was great to see him again.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, it was one of the biggest Chinese holidays while I was over. October first is a national day - the anniversary of the day the communists took over - and les than a week later was Mid-Autumn Festival, so the whole week was a holiday, which meant an incredible number of people descending on Shanghai and surround touristy spots for the duration. The first evening I was there was a massive fireworks display, as celebrations. I've seen a lot of fireworks in my time, but the biggest ones never fail to impress me. However, once this was over, the few thousand people who had been in the area to see it then obviously had to get home. And it was raining. So you couldn't get a taxi for love nor money, and thus you can just imagine the sights at the nearest subway stop! I couldn't quite get over just how many people were around; it was all I could do to keep my eye on Pete so that I didn't get swallowed up by the crowd! But it was during this stampede at the subway station that I witnessed one of the most amusing incidents ever.

Anyone who has ever been to China will know that they don't really understand the concept of queuing. And on the subway, that just makes life difficult. People don't seem to grasp the idea that if you let people off the train first, more people can fit on it. We decided to hold back for a minute, there were just too many people squeezing on, but as we were waiting, so many people tried to pile in that the doors couldn't close. So along comes a Subway worker, who starts peeling people away from this door. He reaches out for this one girl, and instead of pulling her away as we were expecting...he pushed her in! She put her arms out, crucifixion like, and just let herself be pushed. The doors were finally able to clost, with her stuck in this position with not even a tiny bit of space to move. I doubt she was able to move until the next station, where she probably fell out! It was crazy, never seen anything like it.

The next day was fun - we went to the Shanghai Formula One! Man, was it loud! Don't tell Mum, but it took about three days for my ears to recover! It's loud anyway, but we were sitting under shelter, which not only kept the drizzle off us, but amplified the noise. But it was fun. I know some people don't like F1 and don't see the point of it, but it was amazing to see these super-fast cars, and the overtaking on the corners. This photo is Schumacher on his victory lap....promise! I know, they weren't even going slow enough on the victory lap to give a non-blurry photo! It was a good day, something I wasn't expecting at all, it was a surprise to me.

The rest of the week went by in a blur of food, people and, "hello, hello, bag, watch"! We went shopping, tried out the foreign markets, where Pete used his handsome Western self to barter, persuading Chinese women to take lots of money off the prices. Bought a cheap small Chinese MP3 player to use when I finally start running (whenever Mum sends me my trainers!), a few cheap DVDS - some good British comedy and the latest series of Scrubs. China is unbelievable for pirate DVDs, they're everywhere. You go to take a look, and the vendor shoves pile after pile of English language films and series' into your hands.

We visited Yu Gardens, as well, which is a rather large garden area in the centre of Shanghai. As far as I remember, it's not actually original, and was created as a tourist attraction, but it's still a good example of traditional Chinese gardens. But it was amazingly crowded. Actually, I don't need to say for every place we went there were millions of people as it was national holiday, so I'll say it this last time, and from now on it will be a given: there were millions of people! The photo on my previous blog, the taster photo with the many people, that was the "traditional" shopping area around Yu Gardens. So that's how many people were around! The shopping area has all the tourist-y gift shops, and an underground antiques market, where you can pick up all the great retro communist memorabilia. (Mao would be turning in his grave.)

We made the obligatory pilgramage to Wai Tan, or The Bund. We popped up the Pearl Tower, luckily decided to go up on what was probably the clearest day I was there (Shanghai is sort of known for the haze/smog). There it is there, the Pearl Tower. Looks fake, doesn't it? I don't quite understand all these towers that get built in big cities; I get the feeling it's all just to get the biggest one. In fact, the Pearl Tower isn't the biggest building in Shanghai; the Jin Mao Tower is. And currently, right next door to that one, construction work on....the biggest building in the world!! There's an awful lot of construction in the city at the minute. Actually, from what I gather, there's a lot of construction all over China at the minute! Same with most places I've visited in the last few years. I want to go somewhere, someday, where there is no construction, or at least, where it's not very obvious. I know that's highly unlikely, but a girl can dream...

Right, I digress. What else happened? On my last full day, Pete and I went to Suzhou, which is a town about an hour out of Shanghai, and it's got lots of famous gardens and pagodas and whatnot. There is a Chinese phrase that reads, "Shang you tiantang, xia you Su Hang", which means something like, "In the skies, there is heaven, on earth, there is Suzhou and Hangzhou". (Thanks to Pete for the Chinese.) It was quite lovely, and it was a nice laid back day. It was the day Chinese people went back to work, so the crowds were a fraction of what they would have been earlier in the week, which made it a lot more pleasant.

In amongst all that, we had loads of great food. I mean great food! Oh it was tasty. So I'm on a starvation diet now! Pete had gaelic training a few times during the week, went to watch one day. There are so many Irish ex-pats in Asia that there are gaelic teams everywhere, so much so that there's an annual Asian Games. Pete was training so much in preparation for said games, which were in fact this past weekend, and I will pass on the happy news that his team won the whole tournament! Congratulations to him and the Shanghai Saints. So all the training was worth it. While he was off at that, Miki and I went out for dinner, shopped, and one evening had a lovely back massage. Oh twas nice. We also lost a day thanks to the legend that is Windows (most anyone who has been to Shanghai will know of this establishment).

Oh, one evening we had dinner with Miki's parents, and it was proper homecooked Chinese food. I always wonder how Asian people manage to cook at home, as they have so many side dishes, and countless main dishes, that it must be quite a skill. The food was amazing (especially the home-made spring rolls), and I tackled a whole crab for the first time! Not just any crab....a hairy crab, currently in season in Shanghai. They're not kidding when they say it's hairy. Now, I have a problem with bones, and shells, and hair. And so I'm a bit squeamish when it comes to cracking open a crab and sucking out the meat! But it was an experience...! I also tried frog while I was in China. Bit slimey, and a lot of bones. Other than that, I suppose it was fine! (Speaking of eating strange things, I have also in the last week had chicken feet - off the bone thankfully! - and some form of sea snail.)

Right well that's an awful lot written about my Shanghai adventure! There's probably lots that I've forgotten, but I think that's the bulk of it. It was a great week, nice and relaxing as well as being a new experience in a new city. I'm amazed at China: "red" China they say? It was hard to find any signs of communism in Shanghai at least (I'm told that it has always been the most Westernised city, and that it's not real China...whatever that is!). In fact, it's probably the most capitalist country I've ever seen. It's bizarre, as it's the very fact that the country remains communist that makes it so capitalist: there don't seem to be any restrictions on trade that I can see, whereas completely free market capitalism rarely exists, governments usually have some sort of restriction. Sorry, I've spun off into my politics and economics now, but as you know, that's what I find interesting. Honestly, the only hints of Chinese communism in Shanghai were in the underground antiques market! There didn't appear to be any propaganda at all, as is usually found in communist countries, a la Cuba. I just found it interesting....sorry...I'll shut up now!

Well, I've spent a lifetime and a half writing this, and I still haven't even fully updated everyone. I have yet to talk about last weekend's island adventure, what I've learned about Korean students throughout the 200 interviews I've conducted in the last few weeks, and, of course, discuss my view on the North Korean shenanigans! But, for now, I'm tired of typing, and I haven't eaten dinner yet and it's getting late! So now I'm going to go cook some dumplings, and settle down to watch the latest episode of LOST (thank goodness for illegal downloads!)

So ta ta for now, I might write again this evening, but if not, I'll do it as soon as I can (that is, before I have more things to write about and it all gets on top of me again!) Hope you've enjoyed my ramblings. xx