Baaaaaaaaaaaack in Qingdao|

Well, back in Qingdao after a good, not-long-enough holiday at home.

After Shaxi we hit Lijiang, which is 8000 ft above sea level but only a wee bit north of Shaxi. In contrast to most tourist destinations in China, Lijiang caters to Chinese tourists, which, it turns out, translates as ridiculous prices for goods and food, apparently the Chinese rich are more numerous than previously suspected. The Old Town is protected by the local government, so no building there, unless it's in the traditional style. Actual Lijiang is way bigger, there's a huge city grown up around the Old Town, which, as the taxi driver from the station informed us, is now full of Naxi 纳西 minority peoples who've been kicked out of Old Town, Old Town having been filled with Han Chinese business peeps opening restaurants and shops.
We met up with Caroline and Stacey, a Brit and an Australian we'd met in Shaxi. They were so friendly and took us with them on searches for drinkable wine around Lijiang ^^ The Old Town paths are all cobbled with a tiny brook/ stream running alongside the paths in some areas. Caroline and Stacey have a friend in Lijiang called Keith, who seems to be the Chinese version of a pub-owner: he knows everything that's going on in Lijiang and everyone involved. He even managed to give me contact details for a man building an eco-hotel in Shaxi (me doing a 4th year project on sustainable tourism and all). The food at his cafe was brilliant -> Never eat western food in China unless you see that western peep slaving in the kitchen. In this case it was a guy called Kevin from Seattle. Lou and I went back the next day and he made us crispy bacon, eggs and beans. It was the best meal EVER. (minus the Dali apple pie <3).

Stacey came around with us quite a bit, she took over slightly as surrogate mother, especially as I was getting stressed out with Lou (there's only so much lecturing one can take), so she mediated quite a bit. Lou had managed to leave her mobile charger and adapter in Dali, the Dali hostel being saintly as a ... saint, mailed it to the hostel in Lijiang. Unfortunately we changed our hostel on recommendation from Caroline and although Lou told the Dali hostel the new address, they still sent the charger to the original hostel. I got an exciting call from a Chinese postie, it took approx. 20 minutes to understand what was going on. The next day we went to the main postal centre, found it closed, asked around and were directed around the back. After sneaking through the gates and looking as lost as possible we got the parcel when I called the postie from the day before and he explained the situation. Success! All they wanted for verification was my phone number as well, I'm always shocked when there's minimal bureacracy.

We took an overnight train to Kunming, where the plan was Lou's twin would meet us the same day and go with Lou around Thailand etc. when we all left after Chinese Spring Festival (New Year). Lou had gone on about how ditsy her sister was and how she always said her sister should have auditioned for Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films. This being the case, I expected a normal person to get on with, as it turns out Lou's sister is a carbon copy of her, except Lou is even more dominating and interfering with her sister. Sometime after her sister (Sera) had finished lecturing me about child psychology (analysis she'd read on the internet) and the two of them spent half an hour quoting lines from the Daily Mail and Dylan Moran () I decided to cut my losses and flee home the next day. Drastic, one might say, but I figured exhaustive 24 travel beat listening to those two try to talk each other in to submission and analyse everything the Daily Mail had to say. As it was I spent a brilliant extra week at home and got to see everyone for longer ^___^

Having stuffed my face with tasty food for one month (I don't care how the world thinks British food sucks, no one else can do roast lunch.) I got back to Qingdao on Tuesday, having departed the UK on the Sunday -_- If there's one thing that kills your enthusiasm for China it's the time it takes to get here *dies*

Since being back I've made a schedule of what I must achieve each day, basically daily character revision and getting a start on these essays all due for the first day of the September term. A student from our course in Edinburgh turned up in our flat on Friday, along with our Korean flatmate, Sara, who spent the entire Spring Festival holiday at home with her boyfriend (D'aww). Reina does Chinese & International Business, so has been studying in Dublin for the past semester on a Business course, now she's doing the Chinese part in Qingdao. Weirdly enough she cornered Sara on the bus back from the airport and decided to follow her home when she found out Sara had two English friends. I wouldn't have had the guts to do that, purely because there could be any English people living in a pair, but Reina figured it was us, and she was right. Very surreal seeing her, didn't know her very well in class and haven't seen her for nigh on 8 months.

Relations with Louise are stressful this semester. Basically she's figured I'm a pessimist (well done -_-), so whenever I speak she immediately jumps down my throat for either being pessimistic or arguing with her. I think she now simply registers noise, then starts arguing. Luckily Reina is here now, Lou is out with her most days, and Daisy, a girl from Cambridge. Of course, it means I'm totally on my own doing work in my room, but it means she's nowhere near me, which is what I want. As fussy as it seems, I don't want friends around who interrogate me as opposed to chat with me. I don't want to talk to her, I don't want to hang out with her, purely because every conversation is a stress, usually involving her intensely discussing world politics or the state of today's society. Or, her favourite topic at the moment, how rubbish I am. Actually I'm feeling more well-disposed towards China this semester, purely because Louise is being so insufferable, all my animosity is directed at her. I feel this is a good thing.