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...

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...

Time flies...

We're leaving China in less than a month. I can't say I'm sad about it. Especially in the last few days - in which we met the Chinese bureaucracy again. To make things short- Rob needs a new visa, and we need a registration form for him, which is hard to get coz without knowing we "broke" the law- he didn't register again after coming back from Germany (in China you need to register as a resident - and let them know exactly where you are all the time). This means that he needs to pay a fine and show our contract to the apartment. Problem is that the contract ended yesterday, and we're staying here with the landlords permission. No prob you say? just get the landlords to get us a new contract or something? true. But we couldn't reach them in the last 2 days. Well we got them today, but this story isn't over yet... Not very interesting I know- but my point is that I'm really getting sick of this place, and now- as the cherry on top-blogspot is blocked again in China. At least that's what I understand- coz I can't go into any of the blogspot blogs. If I had to say how I feel about it today it would be a mixture of frustration and anger. I thought about the question whether I'll ever want to live here for more than a short period of time, meaning- more than a year, and I must say that now the answer will be "no". There's tons of good things about living in China, if its the cheap prices, or the interesting challenges you meet everyday, the great food (just pay attention to what you're eating - to not be surprised...), and even the occasional nice Chinese person you meet outside (and I admit- most of them are nice ppl) all of the above do not make me feel it's worth all the rest. I'm tired of being stared at, tired of dealing with the system all the time, and that's even though I'm not naive: I know that bureaucracy is the same shit anywhere on this planet. Here it has another dimension to it: The big brother knows all. I can not deal with that. I'm such a person of live and let live - and I just can't live in a place where someone above decides for me what websites I'm allowed to see. I can't wait to be back in Europe, and later Israel- to read in Wikipedia (I miss you my love!) or just click my favorite blogs list- and not get a page that sais "Action Cancelled"...
I still want to travel a bit, when you travel you usually don't see these little problems, or they just don't annoy you as much, but I am ready to leave.

Getting colder...

Until last week the weather was pretty much alright. There were a lot of sunny days and the temperature was nice at noon. But since this last weekend the temperatures dropped even more, and today I hardly woke up to a very grey rainy day... My dad is arriving tomorrow with a suitcase full with my winter clothes- and my feet can not wait to be in my boots... I hope that the fact the weather is only gonna get worse is not gonna disencourage me from going to uni- coz I really enjoy the classes there and the atmosphere.

***

Last weekend we hosted Rob's best friend's girlfriend. She's Chinese and she lives in Chengdu the capital of Sechuan province. She's working now for the same company Rob does (different division) meeting customers all over the country. Here it's very normal to take the train for long coz of the huge size of this country. She takes the train for more than 40 hours (!) to get to Shanghai from Chengdu. These are numbers we usually can't even imagine... She told me a story about a girl who used to be a friend of hers in uni. This girl came to study in Chengdu from a place far away in the north of china, roughly close to Siberia. Her family are all farmers and they obviously do not have a lot of money. She was granted with the tuition by a rich relative of her family's. The university- placed in Chengdu Is located more than 52 hours away, on 2 different trains from her home. Due to her family's situation she could not afford to go home more than once a year- between the semesters in the holiday. When she did go home she used to buy a "hard seat" ticket - meaning she would sit on a hard seat for 52 hours each way to go home. She got this kind of ticket coz it was the cheapest obviously. (The ranking of tickets in China goes like this: Hard seat, Hard sleep = sleeping on a bed in the big train cart, soft sleep = sleeping on a bed in a room with another 3 ppl). Apparently one time this girl had missed her train from Beijing home and the next one was in 24 hours. She had nowhere to go, and no money to stay anywhere- so she just slept in the train station with 2 big bags... As well- she used to send the little money that was left from the allowance she got- to her family... Today this girl has a good job in the municipality of Chengdu - and earns enough money to visit her family a bit more often. This story is probably one of thousands but it still sounded so special to me.
Just wanted to share here some views on normal daily life in China... When I hear about these kind of things- I feel really lucky with what I have.

(The answer to the last post's question is: Yes. It is.)

Well- If you have read my last post- you know that I can't see my blog. Fortunately, Knock on wood (I'm still Jewish- can't stop the habit) I can still write new posts. If that ever changes- I promise I'll do my best to write new posts and publish them somehow here.
After being personally affected by the policy of this country- negatively may I say- I must admit that even though I'm happy with my life here as it is- being a student, having blue skies a few days a week (that's gonna end in about a week or two...) living with Rob and so on, even though I'm happy here- I can't not think about all the ppl here that don't know what they're missing. I'm not sure that they should know what they're missing- coz I seriously believe that here- it will just bring to chaos. After living here for a short time, adding the 6 months I spent here 2 years ago- I must admit- that for the Chinese ppl- this may be the ideal solution. But how far should this go??? I obviously dislike being affected by it- especially coz I AM NOT CHINESE. And I do know what's behind that big wall, and I do know other things- And: I do have my own ideas, my own thoughts and judgments. Therefore- I really don't appreciate being censored like this. I don't care if the Chinese ppl can't read this blog. It's not for them specifically. Its for me, and for whoever is interested in my life. I really respect the government here- otherwise I really couldn't have lived here for a while. Maybe not even travel. But they have to decide- either they close all their doors to the outside world- or they open them in this way that ppl like me - from the outside world- don't feel entrapped in their decisions. I'm usually not the type of person who sees it all in black or white, but the gray area here- is really hard to see through.
I hope this blocking of my blog's website will be over soon, as I understood- it had been blocked until a year ago- then they unblocked it. I seriously thought they are making good changes- but maybe I was too naive, or maybe (and most probably) I just still haven't figured them out.

Is it really censorship???

For the last few hours I've been trying to log on to my blog, and another blog of a friend of mine (in Blogspot as well) and it just doesn't let me log on... What is weirder (but maybe good) is that I can still log on to the page where I add posts... Rob has tried to log on at work- and couldn't as well, but Dorian (the one I was trying to read her blog) who's in Germany - told me she can log on no problem... I'm worried that the stupid Chinese might have blocked the pages ending with .blogspot.com - their censorship is just outrages. I really cross my fingers they haven't done such a stupid thing. Just 2 weeks ago or so- I found out that they unblocked Wikipedia- which was a really great thing- and I thought: "oh! they're actually advancing!!!" I hope these thoughts wont be proven false...
So let's hope together- that I didn't just move to the dark ages!!! (well at least lets hope it's not gonna be so dark...)

No privacy

Literally: NO PRIVACY. There's no such word as "privacy" in Chinese. REALLY. They have no word for it.
The girlfriend of Rob's best friend is Chinese. When she went to Germany last year- the first thing she told her boyfriend was: "where are all the people in the streets?". When she showed her father the pictures from Germany the first thing he said was: "Meiyou ren!" this means in Chinese- "no people!".
When you walk in the streets of Shanghai, there's so many people around you- no matter the time of the day. Well, in the middle of the night or really early in the morning there are less, but still- there's a lot of ppl, compared to any other country I've ever been to (well... Maybe in Thailand its almost as crowded in the big cities). This is very overwhelming and energy draining. There's lots of noise and you get touched all the time- by ppl you don't know, and lots of times- by ppl you don't wanna touch... The subway is so full you hardly get a seat, and most of the time you stand between dozens of ppl in each car.
We thought about going to Suzhou today- a small city- which has lots of canals and water around- suppose to be beautiful. In the end we obviously slept in a bit, and until we actually left the house- it was 11:30. We got to the train station after 45 minutes, and found out that the next sitting tickets are at 14:00 and there are no tickets to go back from there tonight. So we decided to stay in Shanghai, and go to the Shanghai Museum. As students it cost us 5 RMB (0.50 Euro) and there are a few different galleries inside- spread out on 4 floors. It all has something to do with Chinese art and culture. The problem with Chinese museums is that they don't have a lot of information about the displays. Rob really doesn't like that- Me? I don't really care. I just like looking at the nice stuff!!! LOL!!!
after the museum we met this 14 year old Chinesee girl outside- she approached us and asked us if she can practice her English with us. We said sure- and we talked to her for 45 minutes... Apparently as a Chinese school student she studies Mondays to Fridays 7:20-16:50, then goes with her mom to her grandma- then goes home does her homework and only then she has a very short time to herself- and then to bed.On Saturdays she wakes up at 7:30 (AM!!!) cleans, has breakfast (this girl was very informative) plays on the computer for about an hour, then goes to a math class for about 2 hours (her school decided she has to take it every Saturday coz of her grades or whatever) then she goes to English class (which she actually enjoys- its in her teachers house- with anotherr 6 kids). On Sundays she would wake up at 8:00-8:30 (I already said- she's VERY informative...) go to The English Corner (apparentlyy there is one) in People's square in Shanghai (some Chinesee ppl meeting up to practice their English) and then have some Chinesee snacks for lunch and then her mom would come and encourage her to approach foreigners like us to practice her English with. She said that when her mom told her to maybe approach us she told her mom: "but they look so much in love... I don't wanna interrupt them..." LOL. Anyway- if there are any young ppl not from china reading this- how do you imagine a life like this??? This is not an exception!!!They all live like this: work work work, study study study!

I would have moved to a different country a long long time ago if I had been born in china...