China - settling down

I finally have internet set up at my grandparent's place in Shanghai so I'll be able to update on my doings in China! And blogspot works here which is good. No LJ but I'll live without it.

I'd like to write something interesting about first impressions etc but then I've been to Shanghai a few times now, so it's not really first impressions at all. I had forgotten what China was like though and from reading my Lonely Planet I guess I'd recreated a very different Shanghai in my head. In reality, Shanghai, although modern, is still a Chinese city, making it VERY different from other, Western cities. I guess because New York, LA, San Fran, although they weren't the same, all had that essential Western city look to them that made me almost feel like I was at home in Australia. Even Mexico City, despite the armed guards with guns (eep!) and the street stalls selling tacos and other various tasty Mexican street meats, was kind of European looking.

But Shanghai is... well you definitely know you're in China. Because it's so quickly developing I thought that perhaps a lot of the inequalities between rich rich and poor poor had disappeared, at least in terms of buildings and infrastructure. However you can still find tall skyscraper apartment buildings next to little shanty type hut things. Although I guess there are less than there used to be. And then you've got all the little fresh food markets, with people selling a whole range of vegetables (yum) and then big slabs of meat just hang out on wooden blocks (not so yum).

So far my classes are ok. I'm in this weird situation of having much better spoken and listening skills than written and reading skills but because of the way the system works here I am all on the same level for all. Not very well organised I suppose, although I have been told some people mix and match classes, but generally have to figure it out on their own. It's good to learn some proper grammar having never really properly studied Chinese before. Just dribs and drabs of when my mother and grandmother tried to teach me, as well as the very uninformative lessons I took at a Chinese school back when I was 11.

Haven't properly made friends yet, but have a few people I talk to in class who are quite nice. I already have family and other connections in China so it's not too lonely. Also meeting up with Xixi in Qingdao was good. It did make my slowly developing Chinese a lot worse, as I didn't have to speak Chinese for about 5 full days! Every day you speak you gain so much, and every day you don't you lose so much. Probably the internet is a bad thing too as it means I'll spend more time in front of it and less trying to talk to my grandparents. Oh well, I'll try to limit myself, and anyway they always vegetate in front of the TV every evening.

Now should study for a dictation test tomorrow!