China Update - More

Well it has been a fascinating few days.

 

I learnt to play Ba Shi Fen (80 points). This is, I am told, China's national card game. It is played in pairs, like bridge, but can take a long, long time to play. I have now had three games. The experienced players remember all the cards that have come out and the future possible combinations. I don't.

 

As mentioned previously I have been trying to do more Chinese writing practice, but the weekend didn't really present much time. The exchange student group that I spent a few days with flew out on Saturday. So on Friday night the Chinese students arranged a night out to KTV (a type of karaoke, which is extremely popular here) and a banquet (yes, more food!).

 

On Saturday morning we bade farewell to the exchange student group, then had a china in the world tutorial, which I left early to go for a chinese language tutorial. I am keen to get up to the level of a 3rd grader, so I took along a Mickey Mouse comic. We got as far as the cover and the first bit of the contents, so the 3rd graders aren't in any danger yet.

 

I then headed out to St Peters again for music practice and Mass. My 10 Kuai ($2) capo lasted about three songs! Perhaps I will need to buy the 40 kuai one. The practice was fun. I am learning a lot of new songs.

 

Then it was back to the hotel because the lady who runs the shop had invited a few of us for dinner. Their unit is just across the road, and while it is only small we managed to squeeze in. Men seem to do a lot of the cooking here in Shanghai. Living in the unit are the husband and wife, his sister, and two boys (one for each lady, I think). So it must be a happy family! We had a great time, played some songs on the guitar, played ba shi fen, and chatted - fortunately the others spoke Chinese well. I put in a few phrases here and there. Probably things like "How are you? My cat is ill.". They think I am a funny guy :-)

 

On Sunday we had an organised day with the Fudan students to go to their homes. As it turned out, there were four of them, three girls and one boy. One of the girls took two of our people while the rest of us headed to Nan Jing Road to look at the shops. It appears we were being tailed by some wierd guy who got on the bus with us, got off the bus with us, followed us, stopped when we stopped, went forward, backward and sideways with us. The Chinese students asked him to go away but he just ignored them. Richard even took a few photo's of him. Eventually a couple of police came along so the Chinese students told them about this guy. We then had the comical procession of us, followed by the mystery man, followed by the police. Eventually, when the police were satisfied that he was, indeed, tailing us, they spoke with him and then all walked away somewhere else.

 

We continued with our shopping and lunch, and then split into two groups to go to the girls homes. The unit was very nice with very modern decor. Her dad had cooked up a storm, so after watching a little TV in the lounge room we headed to the dining room and more food. We rounded off the night with a game of ba shi fen - boys vs girls. The boys did very poorly, and I don't think the father was very impressed with my play, despite my vast three days of experience with the game. He drove us back to the hotel and I must say is a much better driver than the taxi drivers.

 

Yesterday I went to the Oracle APAC at the convention centre, although for some reason they didn't start until quite late in the day. There didn't seem to be anything very interesting there, though, and looking through the programme for the coming days there may not be much to go to. In the afternoon I had an appointment to see a fellow at IBM in the Jin Mao Tower. This was much more interesting and he had a wealth of knowledge about China and India, as well as a good understanding of Australia have worked at a high level in Citibank. It turned out his daughter has studied at UTS. Small world.

 

Somewhere in all this I talked to Dad, Robert and Dianne.

 

I finally got some Chinese practice last night, but flaked out pretty early and passed to the land of dreams.

 

Less than two weeks to go in Shanghai!