No #2

The photos are all taken around my apartment...the view of the city is no more than 3-5 min walk past the school and behind my building
It seems that 4.00-5.00 am the street outside begins to awake and begin the day.I am laying in bed writing this listening to someone with a broom sweeping the pavement outside, others pushing things up and down and talking, whilst the traffic is getting more frequent after the nights rest. I have the bedroom window open to let in the cool breeze. It's nicer than the air conditioner. Sometimes I get up to have a look at the vehicles trundling up the road during the night. I hear something coming that sounds so unusual, I have to look. This morning in the sky I notice a bright round China moon as I look out my window. I took a walk through my district yesterday. Many people on the street where I live have shop fronts for various businesses. They live much of their daily life on the pavement outside, cooking, eating, playing sport, exercising and playing mahjong. It's all very interesting. Many smile and say hello. When I speak to them in Putonghua, I have to explain that I only speak a little as they start speaking back to me and I mostly have no idea what they are saying other than "you speak very well", the obvious greetings and questions etc.I often have to say "wo bu mingbai, ni shou shenme"(I dont understand what your saying" but they smile and indicate everything is good. I am finding the money difficult to get used to. My maths isn't good at the best of times and combining that with a new language is problematical.
Part two
So today I was brave...I decided to go into the city all by myself. Now I know you probably think whats the big deal, but when you cant read Chinese characters and only speak some essential Chinese and are living in a totally different culture, believe me, it's a challenge!
I have to say though, that my China shock only really hit me big time when I arrived at Guangzhou airport, I questioned just why I was there and felt very scared at the prospect of what lay ahead and how I would cope BUT, from the moment I stepped of the plane and was welcomed into "Yichang" by Swallow and friends, I have felt relatively calm and am enjoying seeing a whole different lifestyle. By the way, I have still not seen one other foreign person and many of the locals are keen to say hello and try to chat. Anyway...so today I trotted across the road to catch the bus to the city. They run every few minutes. The first one arrived and basically had people hanging out of the doors it was so full, so I opted out and waited for the next one...Yeah really clever, the next one was worse, so I took a deep breath, sucked in my tummy and basically stood with my face against the door...and still more squashed in, quite an experience and you do feel a little paranoid at the amount of eyes looking at you! When I got out in the city I took a while to get my bearings, the bus had stopped at a different place to when we had gone in previously. Swallow did warn me of this, so basically I wandered around and found lots of interesting shops, markets (selling so fresh it's still alive) vegies, bits and pieces stores, huge modern department stores, had a "Yichang" cappuccino (interesting) had McDonalds for lunch (I know!!but I couldn't resist I had to see how different it tasted)
I bought many items I needed quite easily with the vocab I have. The locals really do seem to love it when you can speak Putonghua and they constantly praise you. It's great fun ! I don't know how people living or visiting here would go if they had no speaking skills, it must be extremely difficult, I would think.
Swallow rang me on the mobile and then met me in the city and I ate again, this time very good spring rolls. We then went to a department store and I purchased a new camera. The trusty old canon didn't make the journey, so tomorrow I will start taking some snaps.