Got up early this morning and made some phone calls to see if I could get into the Beginner Japanese class,but SADLY it is all FULL. :-( Darn, I should have signed up right away when I got here in July. Oh well. The next session is in January and I will then be going back to MN and Honduras so I guess I am out of luck with that one. The lady at YOKE told me, they too have some volunteer classes that meet around the city and so I shall try to get in touch with some of those. Perhaps they might be better for me, as they seem to be more of a drop in type of deal and perhaps I can go to a few different ones and then I get to meet more people. :-) We shall see. I will do more investigating when I get back next week from China.
I met CJ in the afternoon at the Diamond shopping center in Yokohama Station and then we grabbed a Jumbo-shu before boarding the Narita Express train to Narita airport. Enjoyed the delicious buffet in the Northwest World Club before our flight and I even ate more of that sushi with the crackling fish eggs on top. :-)
We got to China with no problems and I had a ball with the self proclaimed "baby faced" 26 yr old, taxi driver Chemfei. He was very intent on teaching me some Chinese while he drove us to our hotel. I loved it and could not write the words or phrases down fast enough. Am sure I do not have all the spelling correct either, but I write it how it sounds to me when he says it. I did remember a few words from my Chinese class back in 2003 and 2004 before our trip here with the Present Music group from Milwaukee, WI.
Xie Xie, bu xie, Ni hao, Ni hao ma? Wo hen hao, zao jing, Family-lagong, lapo, baba, mama, gugu, dete, gege, meimei, How much-Duo shao?,dachao, cha,beya, he, shui, shimaio, chaotung, omitofo, amen, eefos, chuchuche, che, kongchaochajiaoche, Animals-gou, mao, ji; yachi, nalei, shui, yuan, shijing, shouji, Mitz zu?, wa ming ts chou da, chen tao ni you,wa, hei, calmen, women, yiun, jo gian,Shapes-quan, san chao shi, chen fung shi,ling shi, chan fung chi xing, Colors-hong, lanca, lu, deng, hay,...
When we arrived at the hotel I thanked-"xie xie" Chemfei for my Chinese 101 class.
As we rode along in the taxi,we had a nice glimpse of the night lit Pudong skyline across the Huangpu River with the new and very tall Shanghai World Financial Center skyscraper towering above the other buildings before we arrived at our hotel
We then checked into the very fancy high rise hotel room which is right downtown..YES!!! Had a nice visit with the young german man who came up to our room with us and did all the paperwork right there, not at a desk in the lobby? That was something different. Rouven has lived here 4 years and now has a fiance from Japan. He is going over to meet the future in-laws next week. We had fun sharing stories of how the Japanese and Germans are alot alike and teased him as to who was the most organized and clean of the two of them.
We also asked him if they had lots of tourists in town after the Olympics and he said "No not really as China visas are very hard to get right now and so that kept alot of people away". I did by the way see more Olympic advertisements on the ride from the airport to the hotel then I did all over Tokyo and Yokohama. I am sure that is just the beginning of many I will see once I start walking around here.
Our room has a king size bed, lots of mirrors, a chaise lounge which I can lay on and look out over the city landscape. The bathroom has a glass wall with blinds that close it off from the room. In the bathroom there is a big tub that I know will be a nice thing to come back to after walking all over town tomorrow and the rest of the week. That is going to be put to good use I am sure, for soaking my very sore and tired body/feet each day or night when I return to the room. It also has a large corner shower and a real cool sink with a very different way in which the water comes out in two streams from each side and then joins to make one big stream. No bidet toilet like at home though, which surprised me.:-)The turquoise carpet with lots of colored green gold and black dots made me feel like I was in the ocean when I first walked in.
CJ got his clothes all laid out and organized in the drawers,ironed his shirt for tomorrow. Not me,I leave mine all in the suitcase, as I do not want to have to repack everything again later next week. We watched a bit of the news before heading to bed in the midst of all the white fluffy pillows and comforters. Yikes, I always get so nervous when the bed is so crispy, clean and white, white, white. I always wonder how they keep things so clean in a hotel. It must be that ancient Chinese secret?
Goodnight from Shanghai
Karla and CJ
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