Facing the wall

In the last 4 days I've been a slave to the new apartment. We put all the lights up (Rob was the main driller, and I was the one who told him how straight things are), and I wanted to paint some walls too. As I told you guys before- Rob's mom gave me some colors and paint, and I was intending to use them- coz they seemed really nice colors. I wanted to paint one wall in the living room in something that looked like a shade of terracotta, so I started mixing the powder with the white paint. But oh my god- it turned out to be pink. At the end- the shade of pink wasn't too bad, and Rob himself said that it's actually nice. So we painted the wall in a shade of pink that we call "antique pink" in Hebrew. The day after that I took some leaves from outside - and made a pattern on the wall with them (Pictures soon), so it actually looks alright now. Needless to say that the moment I realized the wall was going to be pink- I panicked a bit- just like I can panic. The next day I painted the bedroom, only two stripes of two walls, parallel to each other. It looks cool. We went everywhere to look for a cheap but not ugly kitchen, and we found one place that offered what we want. We're still gonna try to get one for cheaper on ebay, and if we don't get it for the price we want- we'll buy the new one.

***

Sometimes I feel a bit mute here. When I walk in the streets alone, I feel as if I can't say anything- coz I don't speak the language. You're probably wondering what's the big deal- coz I've lived in China for a year of my life, and I should have felt the same there, but it's not the case. In China it was obvious to the Chinese that I'm a foreigner. It made things so much easier. It sounds funny that being different on the outside makes things easier- but it's true. This way no one tried to approach me in Chinese, and the fact that I spoke Chinese to them at some point made them appreciate it coz it's so obvious I'm not from there. They would try harder to make me understand (most of the time, obviously there were the annoying ppl that didn't make any effort) from the first moment they saw me. Here it's different. I look like someone that can speak German, just like anyone else here. I've been approached twice already, in the first time I asked the person in German- if he speaks English, he said yes, and that was that, but in the second time, it was when Rob was just next to me, and a girl approached me to ask a question. I had a confused look on my face, and pointed at Rob coz he was just there next to me- luckily she was an intelligent girl and she turned to him and asked him the question, understanding that I don't understand... So this whole situation makes me feel mute. And if you know me just a bit you know that mute just ain't my thing. I depend on language, language is my thing, my strength, the thing that gives me confidence, makes me better than others sometimes. I'm a person of words, words are my best friends, comparing meanings in different languages is my small hobby- and being mute takes all this away. Without being able to express myself I'm not me, I'm not the same person anymore, I can't show ppl exactly who I am. And yes, it gives me motivation to learn the language, but it also makes me feel as if I'm facing a wall. From all sides- there's a wall- a transparent wall I need to break as soon as I can.


***

Tomorrow we're going to Rob's parents' again, and on Monday we're renting a big car to take the rest of the big stuff back here. We're gonna pack it up in the evening and head back here on Tuesday morning. My back already really hurts, gone back to the terrible pain I had last time I came back from China, and this morning I started doing a little bit of Yoga again, and it helped a bit -so I guess I'll do that every morning from now on. In the bag I gave my dad was my Yoga book- and now I kinda wish it was here... But in 2 and a half weeks I'll be in Israel again and I'll try to get in shape again, at least for the sake of my back.
I miss Israel, I've said that here before, but now as time comes to leave here soon, I start understanding that I'll miss Rob very soon after I get there. Haven't decided when I'll come back here yet- but I'm definitely gonna check the flights as soon as I get there, if not coz I'm gonna miss him, then coz of the prices...

Hope to write here soon, peace to you all, and a late happy Independence day to Israel!

New apartment in Dresden

We were at Rob's parents for the weekend, un-assembling his furniture so we can take it next weekend with a big car, and packing boxes to take with us today. We actually took most of what we wanted to take, except for the big stuff. The weather is so nice here now (knock on wood!!!), and over the weekend we took a few drives out in the country side. I wish we had more time to actually go there and have a walk or just take a bicycle and wonder around. The highlight drive was with Rob's dad old Mercedes - a 1964 Mercedes - SO COOL!!! After that nice break- we kept going with the packing, which I obviously didn't really like- especially coz of all the dusty things we took out of Rob's closet- that made me itch and scratch all day.
So today we drove up to Dresden with a full car (there isn't room for another penny in that car now- and it's not a small one), and went to see another apartment, it was nice- but the kitchen and the bathroom were with no windows, and coz we already saw something nicer we decided to go for the other one. So we went to the office of the company who owns the apartment we want (it used to be owned by the government - in east Germany, but they sold these kind of old communist buildings to outer companies- who renovated them and they're renting it out to ppl) and we signed the contract for our apartment. I'm so happy about it!!! It's on the second floor, all full of light, and has a really nice bathroom. The kitchen, as I mentioned before, we'll have to buy, but we already started looking for things both in stores and on ebay. We got loads of stuff from Rob's mom who took our move as a project for her, and I can't wait until I paint some walls in it with the beautiful colors she gave me, and put everything as we like. I also can't wait to come back here after Israel- and bring here all the nice stuff I have to put in the apartment- so I'll feel at home...
So that's it for now,
Oh- and tomorrow, or as soon as I have time again- I'll obey The Big Guy's meme...

First days in dresden

We got here 2 days ago, and rented out a small apartment, to have a place to stay. This place is a one room apartment- that is so full of stuff it's a bit disturbing. It looks like the woman renting it out - still lives there some times, it's her personal place, and when ppl come to stay there- she just goes to her boyfriends house... She's Russian and it totally looks like a Russian grandma's house. Lots of little stuff everywhere, you can hardly see the walls. But the place is rather comfortable, it's close to uni and all so it was useful. The first day, Wednesday- we saw 2 apartments: one was in the center of town, where all the pubs are, in a really old building, with lots of character. But- this place was not renovated since the 1930's probably, and that's how it looked like. The bath was in the kitchen, right across from the sink... Very weird. The second apartment was a bit far away for us, but not terrible, and it was lovely. It had a full kitchen in it (in Germany the apartments are usually totally empty- and you need to buy the whole kitchen including the cupboards and everything), and big nice rooms. The building was a really nice European building, but the price of the apartment was a bit too high. We were both really tired that day, I was a bit overwhelmed with coming here after China, it's very weird to move- and not to where you know. It's all new to me here, and it's a bit confusing for me. I'm still dealing with the language barrier, and with the unfamiliarity of the city. All that adds up to the fact I was almost 7 months in China, and that I haven't been to Israel for that whole time. I miss Israel, especially my family and friends, and even though I'm happy I came here- I know myself well enough to know that it's gonna take time until I get used to this. The problem was to explain to Rob exactly how I felt. He understands me on the one hand, but on the other- I think he just really wants me to feel good here, and get along, and I felt as if he's pushing me to do things I'm not ready to do yet. Thursday was a bit better, I came here (I'm at Rob's uni now) and read a bit online, walked here alone a bit, and started getting used to the language around me. Still I need time, and as always- there will be a certain point where I'll be more independent, and try to do things on my own. We saw another apartment yesterday, was in a nice building, and nicely renovated- but it was very small, and the kitchen- was just tiny. It was also on the 4th floor- in the attic, which was a lot of stairs to climb- but had a special something about it- coz it was under the roof. But we said we'll keep on looking and that's what we did today. We saw 4 more places this morning- 3 of them in the same area- and they look the same, just different buildings, they were perfect. Big, a lot of light, renovated, and there's 2 of them on the 2nd floor. We're probably gonna end up taking one of them, just that we have 2 more to see today, and 2 more on Monday- so we still have some choices. Now, for the time being, we're a bit more relaxed about it- coz we know we already saw something that will easily suit us.

***

I found out that I accidentally put my papers from learning German in summer in the bag I gave my dad. So that means I'll have to learn that again online- but that might actually be a good thing, coz I don't really remember most of it- and it'll be a good occupation for me until I go back to Israel. It's so nice that the sky is blue most of the time, and even if there are clouds- you still feel that the air is clean, and the streets are clean, and the ppl are normal! LOL China is so different than here.
For the first day or two, and maybe even now a little bit- I felt a bit misplaced, as if someone took me as a little doll and picked me up and put me in a different country again, not my own. It's a weird feeling, that makes me very unfocused - it makes it hard to understand where I am and hard to learn the streets and how to get from one place to another. I'm still a bit shocked by the move, and I'm still very jet-lagged. Every morning I wake up early- as if it's the middle of the day, but when the afternoon comes- I feel so tired, and the fact that there's a lot of light (until almost 21:00!!!) makes me even more confused. Usually I love it that the sun goes down so late, but now it's making me feel like the day is so long, and I just feel more tired.

***

We're gonna go back to Rob's parents' place tonight, for the weekend coz we don't have anywhere to stay in Dresden in anyway, and we have no plans here for this time. We're gonna come back here early on Monday morning to see the other 2 apartments, and then we will be able to decide for sure- which one we wanna take. We already took a lot of our stuff here in the car, and we'll leave most of it with one of Rob's friends here- and this way next time we can bring even more stuff to put in our new apartment as we move.

A post from a plane

This post was written on the airplane between Shanghai and Frankfurt:

After packing our suitcases we were sure we each have more than the 20kg limit. The problem was that I really had nothing I could throw away or leave behind anymore, in my suitcase were my clothes and shoes and that's it. Even after sending boxes to Germany, and giving my dad a very heavy bad of mainly books and presents, I still had lots of clothes I wanted to have with me in Germany now, and I just could not dispose any of them. So after sitting on our suitcases to make them close and taking all of our heavy things on our backs we left Andrew's place at 09:00am and headed to the airport. It was raining and cold, perfect weather to not make you want to stay another day.We called a taxi from upstairs already- but coz of the time (rush hour) and the rain we ended up waiting for 30 minutes. We were already thinking about taking the subway, when a taxi arrived. There was a lot of traffic, but we still made it for Rob's check-in- which was first. We separated, I went to my check in counter and stood in line. Rob was done first, and came to meet me- he told me that he had 29kg but they let him through with no prob. Probably coz with British Airways the new regulations don't allow you to take a big carry on so they're more understanding about weight. It was my turn and I went to the desk. They weighed my suitcase and it was 28kg. Then- the mean insensitive Chinese guy in front of me said: "you have overweight". I asked how much, and he replied: "8kg. You're only allowed to take 20kg." FUCK. I asked and begged and tried to reason with him (even though I knew that there's no reasoning with Chinese ppl), but still this SOB kept on saying the words: "8kg" "overweight" "I can't help you" "regulations". The tears started coming out of my eyes, and I got really annoyed. By that time Rob took my suitcase aside and opened it to see what I can take out of it. I kept saying that there's nothing more to take out, and in the end we put my other coat and hiking shoes outside, and tied them to my backpack. We took 2 other things out, things I can try to get in Germany again, and put my suitcase on the scale. It showed 25kg. I was so annoyed and upset I kept telling the ppl behind the counter that coming here i was allowed to take 26kg, and that only in China I see this kind of thing. Rob convinced the guy to "only" charge me for 4 extra kg and the guy let us put the 2 thing I was about to throw- back in the suitcase (I still think he's and SOB). You're prob wondering why I was so upset with the overweight issue to begin with. So I'll give you a few reasons:
1. It costs 30€ per kg!!! That is about: 300RMB, 45$, 180NIS. PER KG!!! Wankers.
2. All the stuff I took out of my suitcase ended up on the airplane anyway. So why does it matter where???
3. My carry on baggage consists of one backpack with my laptop and huge camera, one small backpack with lots of books , one small bag with my wallet, passport etc. one "The north face" Jacket attached to my bigger backpack, and a pair of hiking boots- dangling from it too. This sucks!!! And it's very heavy. Very. And I have to carry it through a connection in Frankfurt.

Anyway, for the time being the last few hours in China left me with no will to return...

***

On the airplane now... It's different to take a morning flight, the scenery is beautiful, I could see Beijing, and the deserts beyond, places that I would prob never reach. The one road on the ground was so alone, it was so easy to spot. Big factories in the middle of no-where, maybe nuclear plants, who knows.

***

I'm listening to some Chinese music I downloaded from Andrew. Mostly things from the last few years. The idea was to bring some Chinese pop songs to my mom and sis, who showed an interest in how it would sound like. So now I'm listening to the Albums so I can tell later on what's a better representative for Chinese kitch cheesy love songs.

***

I fell asleep for like 10 minutes with departure, but then I woke up when they handed us the flight menu and a snack. It was little pretzels (Beigale- as we call it in Hebrew) something I missed and dreamed of for months now. Funny to fulfil my dreams on a plane...

***

I just asked the old lady sitting next to me how to read the name of the Chinese album on my i-pod (she's Chinese). I could read the first 3 characters but the forth was a mystery. I think she was a bit impressed. LOL

***

I just talked to her a bit (in Chinese). She's going to Spain, coz she works there for the past more than 20 years.

***

That's it- that's what I wrote on the airplane. I'm in Dresden now, Germany, and I'm sitting in Rob's uni, using his log-in to connect to the wireless internet. He's gonna come here in about 30 minutes, to meet me after class, and we'll continue the hunt for an apartment. Tomorrow I hope to write again here- I have lots to say about only one day in Dresden...

Last day in Shanghai

Qingcheng hou Shan (Qingcheng back mountain)
On the way up

Last week in Sichuan was great and the weather was nice to us. On Sunday, as I already mentioned, we went to see the cute and adorable Panda bears in the Panda breeding center in Chengdu. I could watch these animals forever!!! Here's a picture that kinda sums up what they do all day, and how lazy and cute they are:

Lazy and sweet
Panda.

On Monday we took a bus to a place called Qingcheng Shan (read it like tsingcheng, Shan = mountain). There are two main places there- the main front mountain- which has a few temples on top, and some cable cars, and the back mountain- where we went- a bigger nature reservation, with one temple on top, and a few villages. We got there just after noon, and started climbing up. It was so beautiful! They did put stairs all the way, and from concrete of course- but they did it really nicely and even made the concrete look like real wood. The vegetation was amazing, a bit subtropical, and lots of it, it was so great to breathe such clean air in China.

Lots of waterfalls and fresh air

It took us about 3-4 hours to climb to the first village, and since it was already getting late, we decided to stay there the night and go down the mountain the next day from the other side. The village was obviously for tourists, most of them come there just to have lunch and then they continue going down. The room we took cost us 80 Yuan a night, which was the price after negotiating… It wasn't a nice room and it was cold there all evening (we slept with the sleeping bag on us and 2 more blankets to be warm) but we referred to it as just a place to sleep in and leave first thing in the morning. We had an expensive dinner as well, but at least it was quiet there and we were the only tourists there at night so it was nice. The next day we woke up (I already fell asleep at 20:00, and slept all the way to 08:00!!!) had breakfast and headed up to the top of the mountain- so we can go down the other side.

The bridge might look like it's made of wood,
But it's made of concrete.
Still- it's nice work.

Up on top (about 1600 meters high) the air was actually a bit thinner, and I found it harder to go up these last "few" stairs, even though the last day I had climbed so many of them with almost no prob. The way down was just as beautiful as the way up, if not more in certain spots. Again- it was all green, with lots of waterfalls, streams and the sound of beautiful colorful birds.

At the bottom of Qingcheng Hou Shan

We got back to Chengdu on Tuesday evening after trying to get there the shortest and fastest
way- but obviously in China that doesn't work, in the end you find yourself sleeping on a van for an hour- just to find out that the driver doesn't have enough ppl to go to Chengdu with, so you get off, after wasting so much time, and take the normal bus through the bus station, that brakes down in the middle of the highway, the driver goes to the back of the bus, with a screwdriver, does whatever he has to do, and keeps on going…

The last two days in Chengdu we basically enjoyed the nice weather, and met Kevin and Wang a lot, and had good food. We booked a flight back to Shanghai, with e-long (booking company online), and found out that they didn't reserve the tickets for us with the discount price (the prices change every day) coz we didn't send them a confirmation with a signature by fax. We called them and explained that the problem is that they sent us the e-mail requesting a signature in Chinese- and what can we do- we can not read Chinese, and the woman in their call center, who spoke English to us on the phone when we booked the tickets- should have known!!! After a big mess, and a lot of stress they agreed to give us the discounted price, and we could relax until Friday afternoon- the time of our flight back.

We spent the last few days here at Andrew's place, which is great – coz it feels so homey. My dad was here for a really short visit yesterday, he made so much effort to be able to be here while I'm still here, that he took a flight that goes through Istanbul and Bangkok as well… it took him about 40 hours to come here…. We spent the day together, and had a Chinese dinner at the small restaurant we went to with Kevin and Wang (the one with the old lady who speaks English, and never moved out of Shanghai). Today he already flew to his next business stop, taking with him a small bag full of stuff I have no room for, and want them to get to Israel. Thanks dad!!!

Tomorrow's our flights to Germany, I can't believe I have less 24 hours left here, I haven't left China in about 7 months and it feels weird to leave now- and leaving to Germany, not to Israel yet…

I'll try to get connected to the internet in Dresden again, but most likely we wont have internet for a while, at least until we're settled in our apartment- which we still have to choose (Rob's making appointments for us right now to see places when we're there). In the first few days we'll stay in a Zimmer (the German word for "room", it's apartments for rent for a few days, instead of taking a hotel) and hopefully we'll find an apartment that we like as soon as possible!

OK that’s it for now, hope to write here again soon!

P.S please see the pictures I added to the last post

In the land of hot chili peppers

We're in Chengdu now, the capital of Sichuan province in China. We got here a week ago on Saturday, and met Kevin- Rob's best friend. It was his girlfriend's b-day, and right after the flight we went to have dinner with them- and her parents and friends. When we got here the weather was warm and nice, and we could run around in flip flops and a t-shirt. But the next day it already cooled down a lot- which confused our plans. We chilled out here on Sunday, met Kevin for lunch at his favorite noodle place, and then we went to see their apartment. He was telling us how much the place needs a change- and how uninviting it is. He said he thought about getting a comfortable chair, and how they never have any time to do all those things. So when he went to work for a few hours, we decided to go to Ikea and buy them a comfy chair... We got it, and went back to his place, going through the cafe he was teaching English in, asking for the keys to his house. He didn't really understand why we want the key (I stayed outside with the big box so he doesn't see it) and we went to his place to assemble the chair. You should have seen his face when he came back home!!! Only his smile was worth the whole thing!!! After that we rearranged their whole apartment so it feels warmer and more welcoming (it's my hobby to redesign places in my head) and now it feels so much better to sit and hang out.

On the way up.
Le Shan

On Monday we went to Leshan- which is a mountain 150km away, and right next to it- on the river side there's the biggest Buddha in the world - 71 meters high. The fresh air and the nice scenery, we worth it, plus the big Buddha was really impressing.

The biggest Buddha in the World Le Shan

We went back the same afternoon, and went to the Pessach Seder that a few Israelis arranged here in Chengdu. There were about 50 ppl there, and it was nice. It was Rob's first Seder, and I had to explain everything to him- while noticing that I don't know the reason to some of the customs myself... On Tuesday we were really lazy, and we met a really nice couple to chat with, Helen and Werner, she's from England, he's from Austria, real close to where Rob's mom's from, and they live in Australia. They came to China from Japan, and the only reason they came here was to take the train from Chengdu to Lhasa- but it took them a while to get the tickets and the permit. So we enjoyed their presence for the time...
On Wednesday we took a 4 hour bus to the east- to a place called Dazu. The town is a normal Chinese town, where everyone stares at foreigners and shouts out when they see one... At a certain point we just decided to take a picture of anyone who stares or yells: "Lao Wai" which means: "old outside person" and is a not very nice way to call foreigners. The next morning we woke up to no hot water in the shower, and I found out that my daily contact lenses have a big black circle on them- to make the eyes look bigger. I wore them for a day- and every time I looked in a mirror I couldn't recognize myself. That day we went to Baiding Shan- where there are carvings in the clifs- of a lot of Buddhas. It was really amazing, and worth going there.

Until the last detail Amazing carvings in Baoding Shan

We went back to Chengdu the next day on a very crappy bus that we had to change after driving it for 30 minutes. When we came back we heard from ppl who stayed the last few days that it rained a lot- and it made us feel a bit lucky about getting away from the rain. Yesterday was Saturday- and we didn't do much, just met Kevin and Wang in the evening, after saying goodbye to Helen and Werner who took the train to Tibet in the afternoon.
Today we went to see the Pandas- and even though it was already my second time there- I enjoyed it so much!!! They're so cute!!! We're going to go back to Shanghai on Friday, and until then we'll go climb this mountain called QingCheng Shan for a couple of days.
So- If you read till now- congrats, I promise to put pictures here as soon as I can. All in all This is a really nice and relaxed holiday, but I'll be lying if I said I'm not counting the days till we leave China...