New blog, new business

Hi All,

If you've visited this blog and noticed I've not updated it for some time (which is bit of an understatement!) then it's because I have a new blog on the role.

I have started my own freelancing business in Shanghai, China providing freelance English proofreading (or do you spell it proof-reading?), copy-editing (or copyediting if you are in the U.S.) and translation services. The new blog is tied into my business website so if you visit www.proofeng.com (or more directly www.proofeng.com/blog) you can check it out.

Happy blogging!

Nick

Mr Whippy

It is always good to know that no matter how far around the world I go I can always get a 99 with a Flake and strawberry sauce..lol

I saw this icecream van on HuaiHai Road, one of Shanghai's busiest streets for shopping. MacDonalds and KFC I'd understand but I didn't think Mr Whippy was a multinational!

Bicycle! Bicycle! Bicycle!.....da da da da..da da

I want to ride my bicycle,

I want to ride my bike,
I want to ride my bicycle,
I want to ride it where I like

Any Queen fans out there? Those or you who are may recognise the lines above from one of their songs, or you may not....lol But yes this post is about the bicycle in China, well Shanghai at least.


Transport via pedal power is probably one of the most important inventions for China, and other developing countries, as it's use is so wide spread I shudder to think what the effect would be on the environment if it didn't exist. But the bicycle/tricycle isn't just used for transport as many goods are carried this way and services provided.

Bikes come in many varieties from the standard style to electric motor assisted types. Mopeds and scooters are also very popular and, unless they are old, are often run on LPG to save money and the environment. On most roads bicycles, tricycles and mopeds are catered for with lanes of their own and, although some roads (usually the busiest highways) are restricted access for bikes, often oneway roads are two way for bikes. Having your own lane doesn't stop the cars and buses from making use of it if it looks empty or you are the only bike in it!


Parking isn't a problem either, everywhere there are designated parking places for bikes and many have attendants who, for only 5 mao, will keep an eye on you bike. Often though the parking areas are simply the pavement, which makes it a bit dangerous for pedestrains.





If you have a problem with your bike it can easily be fixed at one of the many roadside kiosks. The kiosks will specialise in either bycycle or moped repairs and will even pump up your tyres for a few mao.

Bikes are used to carry almost anything, be it on two or three wheels,












and often health and saftey is not the main concern, I have seen plates of glass being carried flat on the back of a tricycle with edges exposed to cyclists flying past and even saw one guy struggling in the middle of a crossroads with a demi-john of petrol which was falling off his bicycle's panier rack!


But all said and done , you need alot of bottle to cycle on the streets of Shanghai.

New posts coming soon

Sorry for not making any new posts in the last week or so but I have been quite busy moving to a new apartment as our old one was flooded by a storm we had a week last Wednesday and we could not live there any longer, too many squatters, what with the ants and mosquitos.

Anyway, Yaning and I have found a really nice place not too far from the old apartment. It is much cleaner, will be warmer in winter and most importantly is mosquito free! (Pictures to follow) The flat is also in a good area which is full of artisan based shops and laid back bars. There was a national holiday last week so we spent it unpacking and getting ourselves sorted. There are still a couple of jobs to do to make the place nicer, like cover the inside of the kitchen cupboards with plastic to prevent dust and deter the roaches, but other than that things are in order.

Our landlord is a bit of a pain though. Trying to get him to do anything is quite hard, he had some stuff in the flat we did not want and it took a week of calls to get him to move it, plus we are not on the phone and there is legislation stating that only the owner of the house/apartment can engage a phone contract so we have to wait for him to sort that (plus wait for the usual beaurocracy to take place to make it happen) before we can have a home phone number and maybe internt access at home. We even had to get the letting agents to convince the landlord to get us connected with a home phone as he didn't want to have it done, according to him no one uses them anymore as we all have mobile phones, what he really meant was that he didn't want a bill in his name in case we skipped town!

At the moment I am using the internet access at Yaning's office to make posts and check my email so things may be happening a little slower until we get online at home, but I hope to make a few posts soon that I wanted to make over the last couple of weeks so keep checking the blog for updates.

Real class

So today I emerged myself once more into the bliss of administration confusion at Shanghai Normal University, this time to find out my class, class schedule and buy my course books.

Drawing up to the ICCS building there was a small crowd of people around several boards outside which seemed to look like our course details. Whoa! There was hope yet for good management!

My enthusiasm was shortly lived as I walked up to the board to see that everything was in Chinese and there seemed to be a mystical system to work out your schedule. Who'd have thought the Krypton Factor was alive and well in Shanghai!...lol

After finding my name on a piece of paper pinned to a board I stood and stared at it blankly for a few minutes until I noticed Arthur, one of the Newcastle uni students I had met on Wednesday. Looking like he knew what he was doing I asked him how to work out my details, which he thankfully took me through:

1. Find your name on the lists, at the top of the page will be your level and group number
2. With your level and group number find your class timetable on another board, also find a friendly and knowledgable student to translate your lessons into English and Pinyin for you
3. Just to be on the safe-side copy all the Chinese characters to get your wonderful Chinese girlfriend to confirm their translation
4. Find a third board which has a table of times corresponding to the numbered rows your lessons were on (why they didn't just put the times on the timetable, hence the development of the word 'timetable', I don't know, the word 'templates' comes to mind...lol). Again, more dismay as you realise your schedule is not 8-11 as stated on the website but a lovely mixture of times spread across the day just to keep things interesting
   
5. Finally, once your friendly student has departed, stare blankly at a map (again all in Chinese) on a fourth board for several minutes as you realise you don't know which building(s) the classes are to be held in

After realising my lack knowledge of the location of my classes I decided to buy my course books and work that out later, as we were provided with a map on registration day. This part was actually easy, being so far down the educational scale I surmised that I should ask for elementary level one course books. Arthur and his other uni friends didn't have it so easy as the boards outside did not publish which stage you were at, only your level, there being elementary, intermediate and advanced stages (and many levels inbetween each of these). Also, in traditional Chinese style, no receipts were issued when purchasing the books as an outside shop had provided them and were on a tax dodge...lol



So, books in bag I ventured out to solve the mystery of the classroom location. By the boards I got chatting to John, a young Australian from Melbourne, who had managed to coerce the only English speaking faculty member about out of his role of assisting the book sales and out to the boards to aid him in his solution to the problem. Once he had his time table sorted he got the guy to find the buildings to go to for classes, so I strung along for the ride. Shanghai Normal University has two campus's, both facing each other on opposite sides of Guilin Road. It seemed that both our buildings (South Building and Building No 5) were on the East side campus so we ventured across Guilin Road. After some walking we managed to find the South Building but Building No 5 was eluding us. After questioning many people, students and teachers alike, no-one seemed to know were it was so we decided to go back to the map and check the details again. On the way our guide decided to ask the guards at the main gate if they knew No 5's where abouts and it turned out that the ICCS building was No 5! They have been refering to it as the ICCS building all week and now they decide to change tack, wonderful!



Well, the final piece to the puzzle was put in place so, tired and hungry, I decided to cycle to Yaning's office to grab some lunch and pay her a visit (not in that order of course!;o) ). After getting home I remembered I was going to use the map provided in my welcome pack to find Building No 5, it's a good job I didn't as the numbers were all different to those we encountered during the day!...lol

Let's get physical

So, today I had to turn into uni to get a physical examination done for the transfer of my holiday visa to a resident's permit.

As usual it was the disorganised fiasco I have come to expect. I collected my form from a lady at the entrance to the ICCS building (the admin building for foreign students learning chinese) which I dutifully filled out. All your ususal details with a few 'unsures' thrown in for good measure, just to keep the confusion going...lol

The next step was to work out which room I was supposed to go to next. Three room were being used, one had people clutching at their arms where they had just given blood, one had a queue of people clutching their examination form and photocopies of their passports (with passport photos attached) and so I reasoned that I sould go to the last as I had none of the above. Having made the right choice I went in to collect my photocopied passport details and passport photos which I had handed in on registration on Monday. The admin officer there asked my for my pink slip (my copy of my registration form) at which point I noticed that instead of having 'sex' or 'gender' on the form there was a box labelled 'sexuality', what kind of examination was this!...lol

Moving onto the next queue I waited to enter the room people were exiting with a plaster their arm, so I was to give blood, step one of the exam sussed. Whilst waiting to enter door number two I got chatting to the guy infront of me (Chinese, with the accent, had an American passport but had spent the last 17 years in Germany) and we noticed that those who had just given blood were being escorted in threes to a large bus with blacked out windows outside the building. Again, with no information available as to what was to happen on the bus we began to speculate, urine and stool samples being brought into the conversation from a note at the bottom of the examination form. I'd be buggered if I was going to drop my kex and take a dump in a small paper tray, I have a hard enough time peeing in public toilets!...lol

Entering room two we had our forms checked for correctness and moved through a series of laptop equiped stations, each one performing a single duty, and not too accurately! Although my passport photocopy clearly said 1969 as the year on my birthdate the card that was produced to accompany my many other forms had my age as 36 and when I brought this error up I was told not to worry as it didn't matter. If only they invested so much enthusiasm into everything else they do here things would be very different, wait a minute they do!...lol Moving on I paid my fee, which seemed to vary according to the country you were from (or maybe I got an OAP discount due to my age;o) ), and was ushered behind a curtain to give blood. Thankfully, there was a box of clean new needles infront of me, but it was a little disconcerting to see the rack of blood filled vials next to it.

Blood sucking out the way I was shown to the third room to await my turn on the magical mystery bus. Getting to the door of the bus the previous three student were spat out and we were ushered on and prompted to slip on blue paper foot covers, which got me wondering what they were going to do and why would they not want me to make a mess of my trainers. Moving to the first station (yes more stations to attend) I was laid on a bed, hooked up with electrodes (maybe they were going to test my conviction to learn Chinese) and given an EKG (electric cardio gram) and my internal organs were checked with a mobile ultrasound unit for fitness, I was pleased to hear that they were all present and correct. The next station was a sight test and blood pressure, which I blitzed with flying colours (the £999 spent at Optimax to get my eyes lasered paying off again...lol). Finally we had to have a chest x-ray. Having spent some time working for a medical imaging services company all I could think about was kVs, mAs, entrance surface doses and all that backscatter. Hopefully the Chinese medical industry has well trained radiographers and engineers, if not I could always start a consultancy company and introduce them to quality assurance, but then again I want to enjoy my life and work in China so I may leave that as a last resort...lol

Once everything was done I was shown the door to street level. Again I was lost as what was to happen next so I just sauntered about until it was obvious that was it and I made my way home.

Opening Ceremony

Well, today was the opeining ceremony of the language course. There was supposed to be an exam too, to test my level of chinese, but being on the first level of the elementary course they said I didn't need to do it, nice of them to tell me before I rode 40 mins in 30deg heat...lol

The ceremony was held in the university auditorium, a fairly large room full of aircraft like chairs, including the white covers over the headrests. Speaches were made, all in Chinese of course and all urging us to be good dutiful students. As the speaches went on people moved around the room taking publicity photos and one guy had a camera to tape the precedings, strangely enough they all seemed to concentrate on the westerners in the crowd, I guess any of the Asian nationalities present didn't interest them.

To be honest, the only benefit I got from going into uni was getting chatting to some other students, one from Aus and the rest from Newcastle Uni. I did take some pics but they didn't turn out too well, ho hum...lol