Super Woman Adventures

Whilst walking home the other night, I came across a tiny little girl, no more than 4 years old, and her grandparents.

My initial response was…’it’s 9 o’clock! She should be in bed asleep!’

Then I saw what was happening. This little girl was running an exercise routine for her grandparents. It was the cutest thing! She was calling out “yi, er, san” and swinging her arms around and bending and dipping. The grandparents were copying her crazy moves and laughing the whole time.

In China, many grandparents end up having to look after their children’s babies because the parents have to work extremely long hours. I’ve heard of some parents who only see their children a couple of times per year because the commute is so long.

So I thought to myself ‘who cares if it’s 9 o’clock and she’s not asleep!’ The joy and delight on this little girl’s face and on that of her grandparents was worth staying up for!

xx

The phrase “to go with the flow” now has new meaning for me.

At about 6am this morning the rain started, then the lightning and thunder. This is not unusual; we have had some fantastic storms in the couple of weeks that I have been here. So I got dressed and ready, made sure I had my umbrella and off I went to catch the school bus.

What a surprise to find that the bottom floor of our apartment building had flooded! And that was only the beginning…

My entire street was flooded! The girls and I began our usually short walk to the bus stop on Hong Mei Lu. We squelched and trudged our way up the street, sometimes knee deep, other times only ankle deep. Then we came to the main intersection and had to cross to get to the bus stop…I couldn’t even see the pavement anymore and the road was completely submerged!

We practically swam to the bus stop, laughing and giggling the whole way. Lots of photos were taken (see Facebook account). 40 minutes later…no bus…it is stuck in traffic (surprise surprise). Finally we are given the news we expected…no work today.

So we trudged back home, hypothesizing which diseases we may have caught (thank goodness for immunization) and finally made it to our apartments. I showered in an effort to scrub all the ‘I don’t know what’ off my legs and feet.

It is still raining as I write this update, the roads are still flooded and we’re not even sure if we’ll be able to get to work tomorrow. But, as our Director Alfonso always says “this is China”. Things are different, the drainage system doesn’t work so well, but we’re all safe, happy and have a great story to tell!

Have a great day!

xx

The First Week….technical difficulties!

I’m streaming live from Shanghai…well not really. I have to type this into a word document, email it to Mustang who then will post it on my blog. Apparently, the Giant China Firewall blocks most blog sites! That would have been good to know before I arrived!

So…the first week.

Sunday – Arrived in Shanghai at about 7am and was greeted with a little written sign saying “Superwoman”…hehe not really. But was taken directly to my apartment. I had completely forgot the ‘Asia’ smell, there’s something about it, I think it must be the humidity. I’m used to it now but it was an unfortunate surprise when I left the airport.

I was extremely tired from the worst flight on record…why does Nonna need to go to the toilet a million times a night? And why must she bump my chair each time she goes?

Anyway…left the airport tired but running on extreme adrenalin…thank goodness, what a full on day! I arrived at the apartment, had a little look around (hopefully people have taken a look at the FBook pics?). Then we went to grab a coffee and the fun began!

Spent 4 hours in Carrefour/Carreforre…hmm..not sure how to spell it. I got ironing boards, sheets, food, conditioner…blah blah…you name it…they have it! $400 later and I had an apartment full of stuff!

Then off to organize my Chinese mobile! Bought the mobile from one place, then had to travel to another place to activate my sim card! Very different way of doing things over here, lots of paperwork still, I can’t even access internet banking! Anyway, after the mobile was sorted out I went to open my bank account…who would have thought that would take the shortest amount of time?!

Finally arrived back at my apartment, only to find out the air conditioner wasn’t working and my internet had “issues”. Amazingly, these problems were sorted out within 24hours!

After all this it was time to sit down…wait no…4pm…buggar! Time to go out and do the meet and greet with the other staff…jump in the shower, pack the make-up on to hide the bags under my eyes and off to the Blue Frog! Had a few drinks and something to eat, said hello…I think…it was a bit of a blur, then home to bed.

Monday – Medical Examination! Oh my goodness, I’ve never experienced anything so odd. You get shunted into a small cubicle and told in broken English to take your clothes off and put on a robe…BUT…you need to keep your shoes on…reminds me of a song…oh hang on no that was a hat. Then there is a long hallway (like something out of a horror movie) with doors on each side. Each room was dedicated to a different ‘science experiment’. So I had the usual blood test…although when I walked in there was a man snoring on the bed! Apparently he had passed out! But that was okay. The eye test was fairly normal…although I think I am more blind than I had thought! The more interesting examinations came in the form of an xray…well a type of xray…dirty room, two wide eyed young men, one of whom was in charge of pushing me up against the xray machine! Not quite sure what they were looking for!

Then I had an ultrasound…not to check for babies as one teacher thought…but to check our rib cage! Quite odd I thought. Oh and a ‘chest’ examination. Thank goodness that was done by a female! Such an bizarre experience overall but one which I will never forget!

Other highlights from the first week.

- Watching the air conditioner being fixed. A man with a hard hat and a thin rope appears at the door. Next thing you know, he’s out the window sitting on this “rope” (I use the term broadly), with only the maintenance guy holding on to the other end!

- Walking past the massage parlour that provides ‘extra’ services…only to notice the large peeled banana emblazoned on the shop front window.

- Catching the big yellow school bus to work and having role call to see if everyone is on board!

- Arriving at work on the first day wondering who was building in the back paddock. Lots of scaffolding and green mesh and a large crane located very close to the school. ‘I wonder what the children will think when they return to school?’ I thought to myself. Then I am advised that the big concrete slab in the back paddock is my new classroom! I’m told we will be ready for a Sept 8 school start hmm…not sure about that!

- Meeting my wonderful Grade 4 team and getting along extremely well from the get go

- Having my first Chinese manicure…I now have little pink flowers painted on my nails!

- Finally meeting my namesake after months of emails and getting along like a house on fire! Lots of laughs already!

- Having a massage in the same room as three other mates. At one point I looked over and Steve had his ankles around his neck and Amy was being swung around like a helicopter! We all got the giggles and couldn’t stop laughing at all the strange reflexology massage moves! (insert childish jokes here…goodness knows we did!)

- Walking around and being stared at…constantly…and without subtlety! Now I just say “Ni Hao” or “Zaoshang Hao” just to freak them out!

- Travelling to IKEA and walking ‘against the flow’ on a Saturday afternoon….never again!

- Watching someone eat a barbequed budgie on a stick…poor Tweetie!

- Being shown through the local supermarket and going past the toad and eel section…they were still alive!

- Riding the lift from my apartment down to the ground floor one morning when all of a sudden it stopped in between two floors and the doors opened to a concrete wall! Very scary!

Visiting the Fabric Market…four floors of fabrics and tailors ready to make anything you could possibly imagine!

Whilst many of these may appear at first glance to be negative or scary…they make the best memories! Those events that push us outside our comfort zone, or challenge what we think we know to be true, can be deeply and significantly life-changing. After only one week I feel that I am viewing the world differently.

Take care, more updates soon!

I consider myself to be relatively organised…I keep a diary, I rarely forget things…but man…airports and flying are a nightmare!

I’m sitting in Bangkok airport as I type this, waiting at what I hope is the correct gate lounge (there’s lots of Chinese people around so I think I’m on the right track). It did however, take me a long time to be able to read through the millions of flights on the departures board to find my flight number. Then I had to trek from one end of the airport to the other…needless to say I was regretting the carry on luggage I had chosen to pack…my shoulder will never be the same!

Speaking of packing…Did anyone know that Mustang is a pro? Long story short, I packed and repacked 3 times then cracked and Mustang came to the rescue…now I know what true organisation looks like! He’s got all the tricks of the trade!

The airport day was a bit yuck…too many tears and then…organised Superwoman forgot to put her liquids and gels in a clear bag! Lucky my medication bag was clear… a quick swap and I was good to go…possibly didn’t need the drama though!

On another random note, isn’t it amazing none of us realise how much we’re loved until we have to leave? Everyone has been so beautiful over the past few weeks…it is so overwhelming to think that people genuinely care for you as much as you do them?

Oh and for the record…thanks very much airport lady for putting me on the aisle right next to the toilet! If I wasn’t hearing the flush every two seconds I was being nudged by a nonna or I’d open my eyes to see a crotch in my face! Not conducive for sleeping!

Ah well, enough randomness for now, please excuse the drivel, it’s 3.25am Melbourne time and I haven’t slept!

xx

Noone told me the last week was going to be so difficult!

I had a wonderful birthday, spent the whole weekend going from lunches to dinners to dancing with SIR House, Nabadene and the fabulous Fifi.

Then the going away drinks…what a wonderful send off…so many people came to say cheerio and have a drink with me.

And now…with 2 sleeps to go…I’m champing at the bit to leave…but hesitant to go at the same time. I’m terrible at goodbyes…really terrible. I’m also really bad at new situations…the unknown is a scary place to be!

Then this afternoon my beautiful neighbour came over and dropped of a book for me to read…the title “Recognising the fear but going through with it anyway”…That’s exactly how I feel…I’m scared as all hell but I don’t care. I’m throwing myself in the deep end just to see what will happen!

I’ve set up this blog to let people know of my overseas travels…ladies and gentlemen…the party is about to begin!

xx