What a trip!

(This post was supposed to be uploaded yesterday but for some reason internet didnt work so here it is today instead)

Sea cucumber, fermented and fried tofu, and live little prawns in some wine marinande, together with warm brown rice wine! That was part of my dinner tonight at a very old and well renowned hotel in the town we are in, Shaoxing, 2,5 hours from Shanghai.

And on top of that they only spoke Chinese, pretty much the whole day and 90% of the dinner. In a way I don’t mind cause then I don’t have to worry =) If it is something important they will translate. I just do what they do and it is normally fine. The food comes in, dish after dish, and goes on the lazy susan in the middle and it is just to pick a bit of what ever you want straight from the plate and everyone shares. Nothing that the “germophobic” would be interested in! The only thing that is a bit tricky is that the guest of honor always begins to eat, and the guest of honor happened to be me quite a lot if the trip. Most of the time I am decent with my chopsticks but not when there is a whole fish, with skin and bones and head, on a plate I have reached my limit. It is very difficult to do anything but mashing up the whole thing.

Last night we were invited to join the annual dinner of the supplier that we visited. Next week is Chinese New Year and the spring festival and the annual dinners are normally just before this public holiday. It can be compared with our Christmas and New Year. Anyway, the main purpose of this thing is to eat and drink and toast. Everyone toasts with everyone. The owner of the company held a little speech to start of with, and especially presented the honored guests, miss Emma and Leef and Johnson. Me and my colleagues that is, never have I had 200 people staring at my like I did last night, the only non-chinese in the whole room. Then they started smoking and drinking and eating and the brave ones came up to our table to toast with me and my colleagues. It was quite and interesting experience. And after they had eaten and toasted with everyone they just left, it didn’t take more than 1,5 hours. I guess that is what differs from Sweden and Australia, it just keeps going to the last man standing. I am really glad we got invited as I think it is something special to join these local traditions.

Another addition to the driving skills here is that everyone has to come first and there is no way they are gonna let anyone else in if they can get in front of them. They rather speed up and honk and mutter something that I don’t understand and make sure that they get first.

And I can not remember last time I was this cold, the ice hotel was nothing and living in northern Sweden was a summer holiday compared to this. Australia has the best heating in the world! And it is not even minus degrees out side! It must be the “humid” cold. Dry cold is easy to handle but when it gets cold in humid areas it just goes through the skin and bones and it is impossible to stay warm. And there was no heating in the meeting room where we spent a few hours today, well actually there was but no way near enough. I was sitting with my jacket all zipped up and a scarf and almost shivering. Terrible! And on the way to the hotel my colleagues are NOT using the heating in the car. And they are as cold as I am. I don’t understand it. But I think there is something with Chinese people and using ventilation in the car. Almost every time we drove through toll gates on the way here he opened all the windows to get some fresh air in the car. Well, if you turn the fan on there will be plenty of fresh air in here the whole time, hello! But I don’t want to be rude so I just sit there and take it. That is who I am, so maybe I should not complain.

Another peculiar thing is that my Chinese colleagues, very lovely young men, share a twin room while I have one on my own. I don’t know if it is to save money or what but I would never share a hotel room with a colleague unless it was an emergency. But China and the Chinese are very different, very different indeed.

The food has been delicious as always, even the above mentioned dishes was not too bad, maybe they are not on my top ten list of foods I love but they are certainly not the worst things I have tasted.

To summarize it I think it is a bit of a love-hate relationship between me and China. On the one had it is such a fascinating country and such a different culture; I don’t think it will ever stop to amaze me. They are so incredibly polite. And no one can stack and pack a three wheeled motorbike like they can! I will try to get a photo from the car tomorrow. On the other hand it can be so frustrating when no one speaks the language and they can be really rude, at least compared to my standards. Pragmatic is a word a Swedish colleague used to describe them, I didn’t really know what it meant so I looked it up on Google. It was spot on I think. See for yourself here.