a nomad’s travel clutter.

I’ve been here in China almost a week soon and there’s been a lot of “I don’t understand”, “Everything is different” and “Janie has to translate everything”. Don’t get me wrong though, cause it’s been a wonderful week. Don’t feel bad for me, cause of course it’s like that. For all of us here. Janie’s family has the same problem. They don’t understand me either. I speak Swedish with Janie, and even when we do use English so that they can practise what they know they can’t hear me. Apparently I talk too fast and I mumble too much. I’m working on that now. The feelings are mutual, they have the ” wo bu dong” too.

There seem to be no barriers to hospitality. They made me feel more than welcome here in Wuxi. Janie says that’s how they are, so that’s fine with me. They help me with everything, it’s hard to get a cup of water for yourself. Also they all wear slippers here, cause they say the floor is either too cold or too dirty. They don’t want my feet to get dirty. Only problem is, almost no slippers fit. At Janie’s grandparents place there’s a pair, but where we sleep none fits. I think it’s fine, cause I’m not used to wearing them at home. Then I found out through Janie that they clean the floors everyday, again so that my feet won’t get dirty from their “filthy floors” that are infact absolutely spotless. I’m trying my best now to wear them, cause I don’t want to contribute to extra work. Also, if anything, it would be me walking around barefoot that makes the floors dirty and not the other way round.

The food is great. I’ve tasted a few weird things that… well, they weren’t my thing, really… but on the whole, the food’s been great. Some things are new to me like today for example I tried some pig brain. I’ve had Japanese pumpkin soup, Chinese milk and you probably know by now that we’ve eaten crayfish like crazy. Although, they’re not cooked like we do in Sweden. Here they’re served warm and really spicy. At least I thought so. I’m not usually sensitive to spicy food, I can eat most types, and Janie’s the opposite, but I found the crayfish hard to eat at time while Janie had one after the next without trouble. Maybe she’s just used to them. Have to point out that the pig brain is nothing I recommend. Slimy stuff!

Janie’s done a great job so far. She translates morning till night so that I get by. Going to Asia by yourself, or at least without someone who speaks the language, must be hard. The younger generations learn English in school and they seem to know it pretty well actually, but they are really shy and they hardly want to try. I don’t blame them. I would probably be the same. I’m a shy guy! (hey, that rhymed! shy and guy, get it?) As proof to Janie’s skills I can say, when we went to the movies on Thursday, seeing the new Jay movie (yes Jen, that’s right, Jay’s first movie) INITIAL D in Chinese she sat there translating throughout (YES, I went to the movies, but at least it wasn’t my suggestion, I just followed along). Not everything, but the important lines. In the end, I found myself fully understanding the movie and forgetting I was watching something in Chinese. Some minor things, that seemed unimportant as they came up, linked together at the end. She passed on the important things. Great job, Janie! Thanks.

Won’t post any pictures this time. This was just talking, babbling a little. There’s been requests of that too. You know, if you have any questions or anything, feel free to ask. If I’m not able to answer, I’m sure someone here can.

That’s all folks. Stay sharp.
/ JULIAN

PS. They eat a lot here. Like a meal every hour. I gained 3 kilos the first 2 days. Has added on another kilo since then, too.

Another day, another mystery to solve. This time we were off to the Xi Hui Mountains to solve the mystery of the fit older people who hit trees, eat sandwiches at the top of the trees and the 60-year-old body builders who know about Swedish welfare system. The park has free entry for retired people in the early morning so they can get out of the city air and exercise a bit. Anyway, lots of elders go there daily to climb up the mountain… after some training it only takes 10-15 minutes. For us it took around an hour. We’re so embarassed of our bad endurance. >_< Had to sit every like five minutes and sweat like pigs. Okay, it's late now and we're posting lots of pictures since we've done a lot, incl: eating very mucho crayfish, drinking chinese tea and playing mah-jong. Julian will write a few words tomorrow about his feelings, thoughts and other ponderings over his first few days in China. And "heere comes the photos":
Xi Mountain is the smaller one with the pagoda, and Hui is the bigger. We climbed Xi by mistake, then over it and up to Hui mountain!

This “sun wu kong” (golden monkey) or treeman we found on top of Hui mountain having his breakfast.

Julian met lots of interesting men (very excited to talk to him)…

… but sometimes they made him feel very small (and weak).

These elders are playing the chinese chess.

Janie and Julian had to be pose seperately for this beautiful background.

Famous sign of the famous spring in the park.

We took a little visit to Janie’s farmor and farfar for lunch and dinner. Here’s Julian exercising with Janie’s granny in the yard, the muscular chinese guys had an effect on him.

Night walk by Tai Lake.

Then we went and ate night food…. CRAYFISH!! Here’s Janie’s cousin and uncle.

Mmmmm… lots and lots and lots of crayfish.

Today we lost 19 Yuan in mah-jong, but Julian has almost learnt how to play by now.

The neighbour invited us over for tea and presented us the extensive tea culture of China.

Goodnight for now, farewell kiss to everybody. Hui tou jian! (See you later, a word Julian has learnt by now)

We’ve now spent two nights over here and it’s getting easier to deal with all the differences. We couldn’t post any pictures yesterday but here’s a few for catching-up-purposes:

Julian is a fish-out-of-water whether he wants to or not. Here he tries to blend in on the bus into town.

Janie’s nice supervising her cousin doing her English homework. Tests are coming up and there’s loads to learn here. No pathetic homeworks here, sir. And the English is weird. If they know for a better translation or correct ones, as opposed to the ones they get on paper the teachers get pissed, sort of. For example, you have to say “to make the air dirty” instead of POLLUTE. Dictatorship all the way!!!

So today we’ve taken some time off and organised a sort of flashback-field-trip. We went together with Janie’s best friend over here, Wendy, and visited some places that meant a lot to them.

Local street with market on the corner. Close to Janie’s old neighbourhood.

OK, people! Just a splash of paint, but this is where Janie went for her first and only term in Chinese school. Children were of to lunch as we came.

On the surprise visit to Janie’s kindergarten. Wendy and Janie in the middle with their teachers on each side.

All the kids were having afternoon naps as we came, sleeping away in bunkbeds.

Janie and Wendy have grown quite a bit. Long time since they could fit in those red armchairs.

As the children woke up, it was time for porridge…

…and some more! Just look at the sweet, innocent eyes of those childern.

And also, it’s true! Chinese people are short. Or maybe Julian was tall. Anyways, there’s a clear difference in height.

PS. Get those comments over here. Disappointing feedback so far, but thanx to those who have sent us tidbits.

Cheers to you all / Julian & Janie

We got our first email (from somebody we know, not including junk) since we have arrived to China. It’s wonderful to hear from somebody from home.

Jen’s Email:

hey! bet you guys are having a lot of fun!! nothing happening much
here, we had like monsoon rain last night, it was pouring rain and
scary lightning. >_< hows julian holding up with the weather? haha, but i got great news for you guys. gandpa has booked the hotel by our house from the 2nd and he got a discount of 130RMB per night. he already put in a deposit for you guys so its pretty much set. well dont have too much fun before we get there! love, jen

Exerpt of our reply:

haha heey, we are sitting here in the dark evening (its so dark here
like six). i’ve taken julian to xiaochi places and we went to town
today looked at some shops. its so hot outside though, i dont know how
we’ll manage when we have to go to forbidden city and stuff… oh he
tasted dnd chicken, its like kfc, but he didnt like it. otherwise he’s
tried green bean soup, u know cold, like the ice cream, he didnt like
that either. anything else? oh yeah, zhen zhu nai chai, pearl tea, he
spitted the pearls out. (hey, those were blueberries he says). haha
but although the things he think is weird to eat he has still gained
THREE kilos haha. but maybe that’s because my family keeps telling him
to “duo chi dian, duo chi dian” (eat more, eat more ) oh we went to bbq
in the nite yesterday, he liked that. the owner was all excited and
wanted him to come back everyday and give us discount. like one yuan,
but anyway.

julian feels a bit lonely though, he says i ignore him, but i try my
best. i’m all mixed up in my head with the languages, it’s so difficult
to translate ALL the time. gah, but that will be better when you guys
come at least we are two who can translate and two who can sit
together and not understand anything hehe.

love, janie and julian

So people comment, comment… write something to us in the far away land. At least for Julian’s sake so he can read something he can understand on his own. Jay has a concert first of July in Shanghai!!!! Janie so wants to go, and we must obviously see his first movie INITIAL D that premieres tomorrow! ^O^

So, we’ve stepped our foot finally on the land of China. Everything went very smooth, we got our luggage, Julian survived the horror and we even arrived half an hour before schedule.

First meal in Wuxi, China. Fried rice with duck, duck soup with blood clots (it’s really common in China, Julian thought it was weird though). It was a local duck xiaochi (small eat) place.

Yesterday we went and picked up Janie’s cousins from school, which they found very embarassing. We passed by the outdoor market for some snacks.

Julian by the market, and center of attention.

The snacks.

Dinner in the evening with the whole family. All the cousins with their parents, only people missing was Janie’s mom and dad and sister.

Slept until 11:00 today, if it wasn’t for Janie’s grandpa we would still be sleeping. So basically we’ve slept 15 hours out of our first 25 hours in China. Anyway, now we have to do something more constructive, so we are planning to go into the DOWNTOWN. It will be warm, very warm. We’ll update next when the internet works, yesterday night it didn’t. Hope you guys are cool up in Sweden!!

So we are leaving in an hour, can’t believe this. Julian why don’t you edit this entry? I don’t have time to write it…

EDIT by Julian at 1.10 PM:
Yes, we’re leaving in like 10 minutes when I write this. Or more or less when I’ve finished this entry. The packing on my part was a mess and wasn’t done until right now. I’ve been out now before lunch to fix some last things, getting some drinks and sweets for the trip… and of course some magazines to read.

High hopes for the flight, I just wish for some extra room for my legs. There’s never enough and I feel squeezed in like a piece of tuna in a can. Will watch some films, read, eat, sleep and… yeah, you know, basic needs, for the most part.

My suitcase was only 15 kilos with 5 more to go to maximum 20. But of course, 5 of those were presents and stuff so I guess I have around another 10 kilos for my return trip to fill with fun things from China.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a pic of my luggage like Janie’s [above], but mine is bright red and nicer. Janie’s soooo jealous of it. She asked if she could have it, but as the gentleman I am, she wasn’t allowed to.

Leaving now! Wrapping this up and next entry will be posted from the mysterious, oriental, exotic, and oh-so-sunny [apparently like 35°C and sunny] CHINA!!! Cya later, tell the waiter [… there’s a fly in your soup]. Bye!

Sitting in café trying to alter the plan that did not get altered. Emelie holding MANDARIN phrasebook.

Planning for this trip has a been a (if I may put it myself, I being Janie) h-e-l-l. It started of with me and Julian talking about going to China together, then one day I joked (but had some seriousness in it) that Emelie should come with us, at that time (ages ago) Jen wasn’t very interested since she just got back from China in the winter. The problem was the money. It was going to be a expensive and BIG trip for us just-graduated students, for me it didn’t matter, being the spoilt brat my parents would pay everything, but it was different for them. Emelie got a job though, which she later lost again due to bad planning by a stupid guy. Jen desperatly looked for a job and to her luck she caught the fish by the hook on the first try, and obviously now she works with dead fish (ie Sushi restaurant). Julian already had a job at 7-eleven. Me? Haha, I tried… to look for a job, I really did. But that’s another story.

Anyway during the same time as money problems, we had to fix in the time and book flight tickets. We preliminary booked Air China first when they were the cheapest, until one day SAS released very cheap “only” 4770SEK to Shanghai tickets. Then we had to hurry and make a plan. Now came the whole problem of me and Julian leaving earlier because we wanted to stay longer… or actually this problem was when Emelie had a job (she couldn’t be gone for 4 weeks). Confusing isn’t it? I can’t be bothered. So we came to the decision we did after many toils, and few shedding tears of frustration on my side. We wanted to go to FIVE places in 20 days. Hangzhou, Huangshan, Shanghai, Beijing and Wuxi. The problem was which city to go to first and how long, so we would not waste time and energy. At that point I must have been the only one having a real insight in the Plan, because only later (a week ago) did Jen come up and say can’t we change and go to Shanghai last. Humph.

So here’s what it looks like, and hopefully will look like in the end:

In the end you can’t plan everything per-say, but this is rough. We will have many spontaneous outings along the way (I hope), although i can just imagine the “oh no, I don’t want to do that..”, “can’t we go there instead…” etc. No, just kidding, I think it will work out very well. ^O^

Jen trying to explain to Julian (in vain) cities we will visit and when, but the chinese is just too complicated

This one-week trip during January 2005 was of “charter” as we say in swedish. Lots of pale white swedes shipped (or aired) from icy cold, dark Sweden to sunny, but not-as-warm-as-we-thought Egypt. Hurghada was a city of only huge hotels that you never had to leave because they were like towns. Awful, but hey, what else can you expect for that cheap ticket?

Oh, that hair! Julian’s hair was violated many times by Egypitan men who could not help touching it.

The glory and glam of jet-set life. Suntanning in a not very exotic and elegant way.

The couple by Nile. Awww….

Smile we are in Luxor, wonderful picture. And Luxor was wonderful, just a wee bit much tourists. We don’t like the old ruins being trampled on that much, it’s becomes so artificials. And the long tour-bus line driving from Hurghada to Luxor, my God, 50 buses in a row. Guarded by police, we were like the pharoahs and queens themselves.

Julian by a pole/tower/very old architectural thing in Karnal Temple. Wait, it’s a flower i think. There supposed to be 154 of them or something, maybe this wasn’t one of them… Now i’m confused.

Janie in snorkels, ready to do a slick back dive into the red-orange-yellow fishes of the under water world. The water was very salty, Julian was scared of water and cold. Otherwise I look a lot Life Aquatic-ish don’t I?

One day a talkative, open, wannabe-bohemian, straight-haired, chinese environmentalist bumped into a quiet, shy, wannabe-james bond, half-british, curly redheaded film freak. That day was three years ago, and all the stars in the sky collided to form a path for their unison. (haha) Anyway, as things sometimes go, they ended up the same High School, and not only that… the same class even! So three years of seeing each other at least 5 times/week took place, and as they couldn’t get away from each they decided why not get together then. And they decided to hold hands on the 24th of June, 2003.

Today, almost 2 years after that decisive day they have both graduated from High School. Yes GRADUATED! Now both are eighteen (or Janie will be in 2 days, by the time somebody actually reads this thing she will be 18). They have shared many moments together, and now that one phase of their lives have ended they must celebrate.

…and could anything be better than a trip to CHINA?