On Tuesday the 10th the headmaster interrupted the morning training and told everyone that there will be test day instead of on the 11th. Everybody was angry and the headmaster got into an argument with our shifu and chris. Also I was told that if I don't perform I won't get a certificate, I told him that I am here for quite a while still and I'm not sparring with a messed up hand and injured knee. Later that day we just practised some sparring. We also got a new male translator from Guangzhou that speaks English pretty well.
Wednesday we trained really hard and I did a lot of weight training with the shifu. My favorite translator Linna who also happens to be a good friend of mine left the academy. After dinner at the academy Chris (Linnas boyfriend) called and asked if some of us would come to Siping to have dinner with her and say goodbye, I really didn't feel like it because I was so tired but I was happy because she was extremely happy to see us.
Thursday we just relaxed all day and returned to the academy in the evening.
Friday the 13th yes the 13th I trained a bit in the morning.
Later that after I went to Changchun with the new students, Tristan, Leila and David. The main reason for me was to help Tristan buy a macbook. After arriving in Siping we bought tickets for 19RMB, we then bought some snacks for the journey. After waiting almost 2 hours in the humid and unpleasant waiting room we boarded the train which was on time for a change. The train was fairly empty and luckily we found seats in the comfortable and air conditioned cabin.
Upon our arrival in Changchun we looked for a taxi to take us to the hotel I had found in the lonely planet. A kind Chinese man told me not to look for cabs at the station as they would be expensive, he said it should be around 10RMB. After walking a short distance from the station all taxi drivers wanted at least 30RMB, after a lot of arguing they settled for 20RMB which was still way too much. We got to the hotel (Elan fashion Inn) which was fairly nice, the rooms were well equipped but they only had single beds so we ended up going to the hotel I had stayed last time, some small fairly decent joint which was pretty central.
After settling in, it was already 23:00 so we decided to go out and ended up going to the Classic music bar which was already pretty empty as most Chinese go out at around 20:30 and go home at around 23:00.
At about 1:00 am we ended up going to the Mayflower which was pretty busy because all the foreigners in Changchun go there. We ended up back at the hotel at around 2:00 am.
Saturday morning we checked out at around 11:00, both rooms only cost 188RMB for the night which was good. We then walked down the main road to find the restaurant called curry now which serves many western dishes the right way. For example the garlic bread is made with a real french loaf, bread that doesn't taste like cake and isn't sprinkled with sugar. We had many great dishes and everybody was happy to have some "real" food again.
Afterwards we went to the large computer mall, after much looking we found some apple retailers willing to go below the apple recommended retail pricing. The best deal we got was 10% off which is 7200RMB for the latest Macbook however we couldn't use any credit cards.
We had some good food at a nearby restaurant and decided to spend the night at a Chinese bathhouse. After asking the cab driver to take us to one we ended up at a place called the Sheraton Entertainment Club, obviously not related to the Sheraton hotel group.
We got a four person room which was massive considering the price of 280 RMB for the night. The bath house was also overboard, everything was lined with gold (obviously fake) but it looked really good. There was also a fish tank behind the main pool which was filled with sharks. After a comfortable nights sleep we went to the bank in the morning to try and get the money for the laptop Tristan wanted. We were told we would need to get it from the ATM, but with ATM displaying messages like "the page cannot be displayed" and "disk boot failure please press ctrl + alt + delete" it took forever.
Luckily Chinese ATM's allowed daily withdrawals of 20000RMB and 2000 - 2500RMB per transaction, after 4 different ATM's we went and got the laptop. The Apple approved reseller then also kindly gave Tristan some pirated software like Office 2008, Adobe CS5 etc. very kind indeed.
On our search for food we passed a large hospital and David had mentioned that he needed some Valium for his flight home. So I suggested we should try out the hospital, after registering at the hospital for 1RMB we then had to go see a doctor. Because Valium is a prescription medication David had his doubts but I didn't this is China after all (TIC). After telling the doctor that it was a urgent matter she prescribed 10 2.5mg tablets of Valium, the price? 0,8 RMB.
At about 5pm we got to the train station and there were no tickets available only a train at 9pm with no seats. We waited for what seemed like an eternity and eventually boarded the train on time. Our cabin was terrible, filled with redneck farmers and drunks all wanting to start a conversation. After about 15 minutes we moved in the dining cart and sat there for about 5 minutes after which we were told to pay 40RMB or leave, I just kept uttering the phrase "bu mingbai"/I don't understand. Eventually we had to move and we just waited in the hallway of the soft sleeper carriage.
There was even an English speaking conductor that told us that we couldn't stand there. We stayed and the time passed by pretty quickly, we arrived in Siping at 23:00 and decided to stay there for the night, instead of getting back to the academy exhausted and with no electricity.
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