Kiwi in Kunming

Arriving in Kunming after Hong Kong was a pleasant shock to the system - people here A) don't speak much English and B) aren't unfriendly but also aren't as helpful. It's taken a while to get used to but I actually quite like it now, it forces you to work harder at speaking the language and also to try and put yourself in their shoes and understand the difference in culture and way of life.

Here are the basics of my life here:

CLASS: entails 2 hours of written and 1 hour of spoken every morning, Monday to Friday. It's slightly too advanced for me and I am well behind everyone else as they have all at least studied Chinese for a full year at university, but I'm catching up quickly in the characters and slowly getting more comfortable with speaking Mandarin. It's hard but rewarding and I hope I'm building a good foundation that I can work on once back in NZ.

Having 'crossing-the-bridge noodles' with my classmates and our lao shi (teacher) *See bottom of blog for story that goes with this name.

HOMEWORK: is given every day and usually requires at least 3 hours work so most afternoons and/or evenings are spent at the library or on campus with heads leaned over books and eraser close at hand (for removing inevitable character writing mistakes). There are also mini tests throughout the week and last week we had a 2 hour mid-term test as well. Definitely out of practice since finishing my degrees at uni!

Visiting Green Lake - waaaay too many birds for my liking, but pretty otherwise!

ACCOMMODATION: the 36 of us here on the Hanban/Confucius Institute scholarship (almost all taking an Auckland University summer paper bar 5 of us) are living on campus in the International Students Hostel. It's two to a room and they are a good size and pretty comfortable, despite the hard-as-wood mattresses and noisy street next door. There are no cooking facilities so every meal is bought but food is so cheap here that it barely matters.

Pre-beer pong beers lined up outside the hostel - watch out summer drinking friends, have been honing my skills!

FOOD & DRINK: breakfast most days for me is a hong dou (red bean) hot drink that's slightly sweet and very filling, and sometimes something from the bakery or an omelette-type thing. In total it usually costs me no more than 5 kuai, which is equivalent to NZ$1! Lunch is normally a noodle soup or rice dish for less than 10 kuai and then dinner varies but is never normally more than 40 kuai max. So eating is very cheap, and my goal of losing weight whilst here is most definitely not going to be achieved!! Alcohol here is mostly cheaper and focused on weak beer and very strong rice wine. We had an excellent night out clubbing in the party district of Kundu the first weekend here but that's a story for another time...

Hotpot with my awesome Asia:NZ fellow scholarship recipient, Nick

ACTIVITIES: outside of class, there is lots to keep us busy here. We each have a Chinese language buddy that we've been paired up with so they're often keen to do something. There's also been a school performance (2 hours of my life I won't get back but some very amusing 'sex dancing' and communist victory reenactments included), English corner (further amusing conversations with local Chinese studying English - try explaining Hokey Pokey with limited Mandarin!), calligraphy and painting classes, tai chi, football games with Vietnamese students, karaoke, weekend trips away, and much much more.

My first go at Chinese painting (fact of the day: panda in Mandarin is xiongmao = bear cat)

So that's the basic overview of things here on a day-to-day basis. The first few days felt like weeks and now the past couple of weeks have felt like a few days! I can't believe it's less than 20 days until Christmas and therefore until I return home. Lots more to do between now and then!! Will try to keep you posted...

• Guo qiao mi xian (or 'crossing-the-bridge noodles') are a local Yunnan dish that is essentially a super-fun noodle soup. The story goes that a scholar was studying hard for his imperial exams on an island. So his wife took him a large earthen pot loaded individually with soup along with fresh noodles and other ingredients that were kept in another container. When she has crossed the bridge and arrived on the island, she combined all the ingredients just before eating so that they became a fresh, nutritious bowl of steaming noodles, which allowed him to study harder. When we were served this we had a huge bowl of hot stock and over ten individual dishes containing wood ear mushrooms, quail eggs, fresh veges, fresh rice noodles, chicken wings, beef slices and lots more. Needless to say, it was both delicious and filling!!

I arrived in Hong Kong early Friday morning after a surprisingly good flight where I even managed some sleep (note to self: DO book midnight long-haul flights in future). Having successfully located the A11 bus to the city, I jumped in a taxi and arrived at my Aunty Nancy's apartment in Happy Valley. It's a great location and she's on the top floor so the views were amazing. After a shower, nap, and local breakfast I wandered down to Causeway Bay to check out the malls.

The view from Aunty Nancy's apartment

That night I traveled the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui to meet my cousin Deb for dinner. We found a local seafood restaurant and had delicious prawns, scallops, and bamboo clams followed by some late night shopping - I can't believe how late retail shops stay open to in Hong Kong!

On Saturday I met Deb at her hotel in North Point where she had a fab view across the harbour. From there, we jumped on the bus to travel to the south of Hong Kong Island to see Stanley Market via Repulse Bay, which had some amazing scenery and houses. After some bubble tea and siu mai on the waterfront we wandered the surprisingly pleasant (and air-conditioned!) market and then headed back into Wan Chai to meet family for dinner.

Cousin Deb at Stanley Market waterfront

A fav shop at Stanley Market - a shop selling dog outfits (it's crazy how many people had their dogs dressed in these!!)

Dinner was a delicious Vietnamese meal with my Po po (grandmother), Aunty Nancy, Aunty Yvette, and Cousin Deb. The amazing spread included salt and pepper soft shell crab, big head prawns, prawn and pomelo salad, and a local specialty beef soup. It was utterly superb! Dessert was a local favourite of cooked egg white pudding with ginger syrup - hen hao chi (yum) :-)

[disclaimer: much of these blog posts will be about food seeing as it's what my days seem to revolve around whilst traveling!]

After a lovely tram ride home and some fresh cherries and longan, I turned in for the night in anticipation of a long next day as I prepared to travel to Kunming...

Family dinner and tram ride home

postscript: a very big thank you to my Aunty Nancy and Cousin Deborah for their wonderful company and hospitality during my limited time in Hong Kong. It was great to go back after over a decade and I can't wait to see more of Hong Kong someday.