Nanjing

Last weekend we went to Nanjing, which is the old Capital of China and still quite razzle dazzle! Although my cold has come back with a vengence and is thriving on the cold weather, so a lot of the time was spent snuggled under a duvet. Luckily because I only had a cold I still had the ability to eat. Oh and eat we did! I don't care what you say about experiencing the good food of China, I now live here, and I figure if Chinese people live in NZ they are allowed Chinese food! So we had indian, mexican German, hotdogs and early morning Maccas. Which I'm sure you'll all be insanely excited about serve McChickens for breakfast.... ok well I was pretty pumped having a McChick with hashy's definitely goes down smooth. Other notes about Nanjing other than food... the hostel we stayed at again lived up to the reputaion of the fun amazingness of hostels and their owners. Although we did get locked out for coming home to late and having to scale the wall in heels, difficult at the best of times! But no, the hostel was kitted out with fussball pingpong, a lassie and a bunny, which is my going to be my newest impulse purchase when I return home, this thing was totally sweet! It would just cause so much havoc! I know you just can't wait Gezza! Although we didn't get to see many of the sights of Nanners (trying it out, don't think its got the same ring) we did get to see a fair few bars, and I can tell you they are pretty rocking, one of the bars was an ex-pat Aussie bar, which was cool, unfortunately the 3am Soccor game we were FORCED to watch before bed was not quite so much fun! So to the train ride home, which we thought would be 6 hours. Oh no no, after booking the only ticket I could with my basic knowledge of train services and chinese, we ended up on a 9 hour train ride, which broke down for 2 hours all up the 11hours was not fun! Plus the only books we had was Emma (Jane Austen) and The three Musketeers, both very intense books which we were thoroughly sick of after 11 hours of sword fights and sordid love affairs, If only Charl was there to lend me her HP. Back to Yiwu which a lot has been going on here as well. The foreign affairs minister for Zhejiang came to inspect us and the flat last week, which was a BIG deal! Trying not to be too rough on ole Uncle Pete we managed to get the money the school was owing us and a new shower within the same day! This guy was obviously a big deal, we went out for dinner with him, the pricipal and vice principal and the Mayor of Yiwu, pretty insane. It was hotpot and unfortunately the fish was added to the pot rather early on and after that I spent an eventul tea trying to look like I was eating without actually taking a bite, oh but don't worry there was things for me to drink, apparently it was our "honour" to ganbei the Mayor, and it had to be done quite regularly. So after a night of a fair few cups of red wine and no dinner, McDonalds was mightily in order! This past week did not really ease up on the business factor, Casey after a night in Yiwu, jetted back to Shangers for a night to catch up with one of her Aussie friends, so for the first time in the history of China I was alone... for a whole two days! But it was fine got a blind massage, lucky they were blind to be honest because I have a bad cold at the moment, and during the massage your head is in the hole, its actually impossible to blow your nose... This weekend heading back to Quzhou for some good old quality time with the Zhejiang crew. Xmas getting extremely close and therefore the Whanau trip is also not far away, cannot wait to see everybody. Keep me updated with the haps at home. Xx