blog season re-opened~~

Dear friends and random blog-readers,


It has been half a year ago that I have written in this blog. Some very special people keeps on reminding me that I should start blogging again. First I didn't feel like to..


However, last week, I told Linn (Norwegian & roommate) I was so afraid of getting settled. With the frustrations of the 9-to-6 schedule and the daily hassle in the traffic (and elevator), I suddenly realized my freedom is over! I'm not a student anymore!


Goodbye flexible student life... no sleeping till in the afternoon anymore, no skipping classes anymore, no sudden holidays anymore...now it's reality!~

And this is reality: It's sunday afternoon 4:45 and i'm sitting in the office... writing blog as a sign of protest.
The blog season is re-opened!! gnagna~~

Development and progress~

Reflection of the Chinese society in a picture. ~

This picture is given to me by a Belgian girl who studied in my last year at EHSAL. It's taken 1 year ago: Some random people in the front with the famous Shanghai skyline in the background.

我的 AIESEC-心~~

Yesterday I’ve been invited on a “Cultural evening” to present myself and to do a little game, together with Tony, an Austrian aiesec’er. As an Alumnus I do my best to H4TF and stay involved in @ once in a while.

And it was nice, more than nice. Going to this cultural evening was the best I could do, because I saw students with involvement, team spirit, leadership, enthusiasm, professionalism and “twinkling aiesec-eyes” : )
In fact it was an information session in Belgian @-terms. I asked them how many people they expected for this activity. 40? 50?
They said: “maybe around 150.”True, this is not a surprise, I thought, China is a big country and Fudan is a big campus.
But then, when I arrived in this class room, there were at least 300 people. Because the room could only fit 200 people, people were standing outside, the windows and doors were remained open, to let them follow the 2 hours-long info-session.
The session itself was a success. Congratulations, @FDU, you did a great job! And every time, I see these little @-movies, I feel my heartbeat going faster in my chest. I really do care @ in my heart. How I wished to do it all over again! :D I had an appointment at 8PM that evening but I didn’t leave the room until 9:30PM.
I’m sure of it!! AIESEC MoC is going to rock in the future!

PS: A SN-returnee asked us: why don't you add an "s" at Aiesec, more people will join! :) My last EB knew what Ai in Chinese means... right?

The Year of the hog~

A new (Chinese) year (to be exact: the year of 2031), a new city, a new environment… a new life is beginning. ~

Some people ask me why I moved from Beijing to Shanghai. Then I say them: "It's too cold in Beijing! ~" :) But didn't recon on the fact that the government doesn't provide heating to all the geographical territories in the south of the Huanghe (river). So in the night it is freezing here. People try to heat their houses with electronic air-conditioning.
Again, I leave behind again a lot of values in Beijing: especially my close friends, they are unforgettable and I will visit them for sure (it's only a train ride of 12 hours!! ~)

Shanghai is glamorous! Totally different then Beijing. Somehow I smelled the political (and cold) air in Beijing… it smelled like the great China’s power. Here in Shanghai, it smells like capitalism. It smells like “money is power!” and I love it!~~ (McDo.) :) Hahahaha.

So after the ugly Chinese underwear, we have the ugly Chinese pajamas. Because of the under-heated houses, people wear very thick colorful pajamas at home watching TV… or when they buy food in the supermarket, when they let their dogs out, when they do a little walk. I often see two aunties in pajamas talking to each other on the corner in the street. Shanghai is the most prosperous city in China, and the people wear pajamas on the street!! ~~

moved to MY place finally~

3-3-07
Since yesterday I moved to a rented apartment next to Fudan University. I will share my stay there with Aska, a lovely Japanese girl, also here to study Chinese. I met another Aska yesterday, also Japanese. So I got to think about my name. During spring festival, I got to know 2 other girls named Yali. It seems that my parents were not very original by choosing my name! hehe :P
I still remember that during my elementary school and high school, in the beginning of each school year teachers would ask me how to pronounce my name. Some of them were even afraid, not knowing how to handle me!~ But soon they found out that I’m like an ordinary Belgian child, with a lot of need for attention!~~ :P

At least 700 students at Fudan University are studying the Chinese language. The bigger part is from Japan and Korea, but I have seen some white people around. I think I will have a great time in here! Fudan University is a very famous university, and the campus and the buildings are impressive. I live next to campus but still from my home I need half an hour to go on foot to the teaching buildings

Today I had a Chinese test to verify in which class I would have to go. After a walk of half an hour, I arrived in class. The teacher asked me to sit down, and put the exam form in front of me. I recognize the types of exercises … sigh. This exam is going to take 2, 5 hours… A girl came to sit next to me. When she got the exam, I saw the worries on her face. I smiled to her, hoping to make her feel better. But she looked even more worried. So I didn’t dare to look to her anymore. After 2 hours (poor her!) she gave her exam in, only answered half.

After the exam, I went for the first time to Wall-mart, the well-known American detail retailer. I was excited, buying everything I (might) need in my new home. After 2 hours shopping, because the place is enormous, I realized I was on my own, and put far too many stuff in my carriage. While paying, I asked service guys to help me putting my stuff in a taxi, and at home I made my fresh roommate coming downstairs to bring my stuff up to the ninth floor… our first team building exercise! :)
I changed my mind about Carrefour being the best detail retailer in the world. Wall-mart gave me excellent service today! :)
And I thanked my roomy by treating her with Belgian chocolates; the best there are in the world!

Arrival in Shanghai~~ 6 February 2007

6-2-07

I’m landed…well-landed in Shanghai. After a heartbreaking goodbye with my friends in Beijing, I took the train to Shanghai. In fact I made my first big mistake here in China: I didn’t realize I booked a seat-ticket in place of a bed-ticket to Shanghai. The result was a painful ass and 12 hours bad sleep. But in all bad things, there is something positive: I got to know this very friendly girl, her name is Kiki. We talked a lot during this journey and she even taught me some Shanghai-dialect: Yongho means Nihao (hello) and Sayanong means Xiexieni (thank you).

Arrived in Shanghai at 6 o’clock in the morning, I got to know that my friend overslept and couldn’t pick me up. So there I stood, overloaded with my everything and a bit lost. The whole bunch of taxi drivers at the station seemed not to know the address I showed them and talked to me in a sort of Chinese I barely could understand. And suddenly I wondered how my stay in Shanghai will look like… After some more calls and right directions, a taxi driver offered me to bring me to the place for 70 Yuan. I told him to put on his counter. But he made a sign like “Go to hell!” Another taxi driver brought me to the place. I was so glad, that I gave him a tip, which is not very usual in China.

And finally… when I saw my friends’ smiling face in the door opening, I knew I was home again! =D Although I still blamed him of having slept over~~

James and Judy share an apartment. From the first day Judy made sure that I would feel home by showing me everything in her apartment that I might need during my stay. Besides that she is very friendly and very talk-active, she cooks wonderfully! =D

Yesterday after having done some administration issues in Fudan University, I walked through the famous Nanjing road. I realized how many foreigners were walking and talking to Chinese people. It made me think of Kim who once said to me that she wants to be in an international environment. Then she showed me her pictures with yellow, white and black people all together, I told her: “You are already in an international environment.” So she answered: “But they are all Australian!”
Maybe in 20 years, we also can say to this international environment: “But they are all Shanghai'nese people!” =D

My first impressions of Shanghai are good. Although the evenings here are cold (no heating in Shanghai) Shanghai makes me feel I’m in Guangdong, the second place I identify myself with.
The weather is nice, the people are southern, there are lots of motorcycles in the city and the electric cables in the streets are a mess.
And maybe… this city IS the city of the future: I have never ever seen so many finance-looking guys eating crap in KFC! =D

First trip of 2007: Inner Mongolia

On the last day of the year 2006, me and Kim (see below) got this crazy idea to go to Inner Mongolia. As Beijing was not cold enough, we wanted a bigger challenge: an average temperature of -15 degrees Celcius. And half a day later, we booked our ticket. The next day, we were in the plane.

This is the host family. From the left to the right: Ah Xiang, Tong Tong, Aunty (Jason's mother), Kim, Uncle (Jason's father) Jason, and me. The father of Jason is a very good artist/calligrapher His specialty is the handwriting of the Qin dynasty (200 years before Christ). We went to a Lama-tempel in Hohhot (city). The lama's are a variant of the Taoism. In fact the tempel was really beautiful, but I really don't like their gods, coz they were big and scary and in colors like black, gold with red lips. The atmosphere is very scary in general.
This is me and Jason, outside the lama-tempel. The wall behind us made me thinking of Tibet.
Halleluya, we saw sheeps!! In fact, it was too cold to go to the grasslands and the desert. But we haven't been to Mongolia, if we haven't chased after the sheep, am I right or not? .. They were just crossing the street! :D

This is a very typical old street. I loved this street. Of course, inside the little houses there are lots of souvenir shops. And there was no heating in the most of them, only those blocks of coal in an iron bucket! :D
We had lamb every meal we were in Inner Mongolia. Jason brought us to the most special restaurants: from a jungle restaurant till the traditional Mongolian hotpot restaurant. This picture was taken in one of the restaurants.~~
We couldn't see the grasslands, but there was a parc that looked like it in Boa'tou (City). We went there to ride on the camels. Now THAT was an experience. I got seasick on that hairy anymal.

Fruit after exams~~

I just finished one of the most difficult exams and I’m eating pomelo while writing this blog... For those who don’t know what is a pomelo: It’s a sort of a big grapefruit.
Once in Belgium, I was eating pomelo in my room, while expecting a friend coming to visit me. Maybe that was a bad idea because when Ari entered the room, he looked to my table and yelled: “Yalai, what’s this? It looks like a monster!” =D

I felt quite embarrassed to have a monster on my table. But they are so tasty! However, I never feel being a lady whenever I’m eating these monsters, neither when I’m eating watermelon, spare ribs in tomato sauce or noodles with chop sticks. After eating, I always look like I came back from war~ ^oo^

Anyways, one more exam to go, and than my duty in Beijing is officially over. I will move to Shanghai next month, after spending Chinese New year in the little village of my grandma. Normally, I wanted to travel during this period, but grandma absolutely needed me to come “home” at Chinese New year.
… Well, I WILL get my traveling… in the train. As I need 12 hours to go to Shanghai and another 10 hours to go back to Guangzhou.

Ok… that’s it for now. I need to clean up this war~~ =D