4th week in Hangzhou!

Hi Everyone,

A month down! Feeling good about my experiences so far. This has been another interesting week!

We are preparing for 'bachelors day' at work. In China, bachelors day is a celebration for single people, it's like a minor holiday, and is celebrated on the 11th  day of the 11th month, this year will be especially huge because it is 2011! 2011.11.11, all the ones represent being single! There will be a LOT of bargains and sales in China and Chinese companies between the 11th and the 12th, so we are preparing to sell a lot of clothing and make a lot of money! Taobao.com and tmall.com will have a lot of advertisements and banners on the main page of the sites, hopefully many people will see us there! After the 11th, i will let you all know how successful we were!

So on Monday i met with my new english student-to-be and her mum. We had an interesting dinner, a coffee with a quick practice session with the kid so i could see what i was working with, then we agreed that our first lesson will be on this coming Wednesday! Very exciting, a good opportunity to try something new while i am here. For dinner we had a hotpot. This seems to be a fairly popular way to eat in China. You can have either a group hotpot, or single hotpots, group ones are better! You get served a large dish or 2, filled with a soup of your choice, as well as some herbs and vegetables for flavour. Then you get served a lot of raw ingrediants, vegetables, meat, fish, including some other things i can't quite figure out, but they taste good! You pick the item you wish to eat, say some long-stalk mushrooms and a roll of beef, plop it into the soup with is on top of a stove inside the table, wait for it to cook, eat and enjoy, then repeat as many times as you like! The meat is thin so it cooks within a couple of minutes. This is a very fun way to eat, everyone cooking their food together in the same dish, then at the end after the soup has absorbed all this delicious flavour, many people take a ladle full into their bowls and just eat it with a spoon as normal! Very tasty. Later in the week i had another hotpot dinner with my team from work, and the team we work with from the Netops office! It was a very enjoyable evening!

Friday evening, i decided it was time to go out on my own and expose myself to some Chinese night-life! I ripped a map of Hangzhou from a magazine Karl gave to me, marked out a couple of interesting looking destinations, put on something smart and walked out the door! I flagged down a taxi, pointed where i wanted to go, 12 minutes later i am standing at the door of the Maya bar! The place was overflowing! Many people had resorted to standing outside, but i had come here tonight to meet people, so i pushed my way in, bought a drink, and started looking for somewhere to sit. Firstly the atmosphere was great, there was roughly a 50/50 ratio of foreigners (like me) and local Chinese people, both young and old. Lots of talk and laughing, and the music system was even playing some familiar songs from back home. I felt a little more comfortable hearing some blink-182 in a place like this! I noticed a table full of people who looked my age, there were about 10 of them, i really had to step out of my comfort zone to be able to drag a chair over beside them, plop myself down and introduce myself. I let them know that i was knew in the area and had come out to meet people. They were very happy to add me to their table! I had found a group of Romanian students who had come to China to study Chinese, so some things were as new to them as they were to me, which again was very comforting. I got introduced to a couple of VERY pleasant people, that i am sure to stay close to during my stay in China. We drank, talked, laughed, and generally got along very well. A couple of hours passed and i was invited to join them at a different bar. I happily accepted, and we grabbed a couple taxis to our next stop.

This place was amazing, i stood before the Reggae bar! You walk in the door and are met with dim lights, a mellow mood, and smooth relaxing beats coming from the live band on the bottom floor, as well as paintings of old Bob all over the walls. We went upstairs to the third floor where we met some more new people! Everything was very laid back here, some people played pool, while others lay around the sofas and tables chatting, eating, drinking, and playing dice. I think i could get very used to this atmosphere. A few more drinks and it was time for me to start heading home. I gathered a couple phone numbers, said my farewells then went on my way. I am pleased with my progress on the night out, making friends has been one of the biggest issues I've been having while in China, i feel more confidant now! On Saturday, Milo, an Asian guy i met the night before invited me out again, just for a repeat of the night before. We met some new people, laid about having a bit of fun for a few hours, then everyone began to get hungry. Back home this normally happens and people fire out to the chinese opposite the bar. I guess you could say its the same deal here! Except, it looked like we were going for a 3am hotpot! I was shocked by how full the restaurant was! There must have been at least 50 people in there getting a feed. This was the best hotpot i've had as well, we picked a half and half soup dish, half spicy, half tomato. Delicious, i couldn't believe how good it is, i cant say i miss too much of the food i would normally eat back home when i compare it to the high quality and large variety of food i can have here. After we all filled our bellies, it was time for home again. I am sure to be hanging with Milo, Chris, Dan, Joanna, and the rest of my new friends, again very soon.

I rounded off the week with a hard cycle around my area on Sunday after dinner, good exercise! I am pleased with myself for this week, i am still doing a lot of new things and experiencing more and more of my surroundings and immersing myself in the culture. I don't know yet what my plans for next week are, but whatever happens. I will be sure to let you all know!

Thanks for reading all of this, i actually find it difficult to make short posts with the amount of things that i go through in the week!

Keep well and expect to hear again from me soon!

Michael