Animals In Our Neighbourhood

With plenty of people, comes plenty of animals! Here are a list of animals which we regularly see when we go for a walk in our neighbourhood!

Beag

Beag was the sweetest wee dog we have met here! We think he was a Corgi/Pug mix, and he was so friendly! We would regularly see him outside our building and of course he would follow us up to our apartment, where we would give him some ham.  Ha I know we shouldn’t have but just look at him! Unfortunately we don’t see him anymore, so we think the owner moved, but he is definitely our favourite!

Cat-Dog

The first time we saw this big fellow, we didn’t know if it was a dog or a cat!! He was quite far away, and all we just see was this big mass of fur! His ears are shaped like a cats, and he sort of has a cat like face, so we just ended up calling him Cat-Dog. We always see this guy slowly wandering about the neighbourhood, either sniffing at things or just lying about.

Smelly Cat

This poor cat! It lives outside our building, and we usually find it lying among the trees or beside where it sleeps. I don’t think it’s ever been washed, but some people give it food and it even has a scratching post beside it’s bed! Poor thing, I’m sure all it wants is to be cuddled.

Beags Nemesis

We generally see this dog everyday in our community. We call it Beags Nemesis because one day we saw this dog being chased by Beag and another dog. So I don’t think he is very popular with the local dogs! When Beag was here, he always kept away from this one. Every time we see it, it always looks as if it’s looking for something or someone. He’s also quite skittish so maybe he’s not very used to people.

Blacky/ Charcoal

This dog is quite new to the neighbourhood! He seems quite cute though, and we usually see him in the same area. I don’t think he explores as much as Cat-Dog. When I saw him first I called him Blacky, but my fiancé likes Charcoal.

The Beast

Source; google images

The Beast is an absolute monster of a dog. His owners can hardly take him out for walks he is that strong. We presume he is an Alaskan Malamute, and he’s so hairy! We don’t see him that often so we didn’t have a possibility to take a photo of him.

The Patrol Dog

Behind our building there is a small open area where people do early morning tai chi, grandparents take their grandchildren to play or to play ping-pong (or rather play on the ping pong table). Here we have found this cute dog usually sitting with it’s owner in the square. He always looks like he’s patrolling the area, so we named him The Patrol Dog. There used to be another dog called this; his owner was a security man for our community, and he would always be sitting near the entrance to our community. But one day he just disappeared! Maybe the owner left, or maybe the dog passed away.

Arsehole

Source; google images

Unfortunately we couldn’t get a photo of an arsehole here; they are constantly with their owners, and I don’t want to just go up and take a photo of their dog… but basically arseholes are poodle dogs. I just don’t like poodles. I understand why many, if not most people have them here; they are loyal, small and never ever stray from their owners. But to me I feel like they have nothing going on inside their heads!

One time we were eating food in our school canteen and in front of us were a family with their poodle pup. All of a sudden we hear a terrible crying/squealing sound which rang through the whole canteen. It sounded like someone was in pain. We look up and the dog was on the seat, squealing it’s heart out,  while the owners were walking away…. it couldn’t jump off the chair. Jesus the noise of it, it was like it was dying! The chair wasn’t even high!! So the owners had to come and lift it off and cradle it. It was so helpless that it literally was in shock that it’s parents were abandoning it! So that cemented my dislike for these dogs.

Thong Dog

Thong dog is a recent arrival here! It’s owner works in a shop that sells drinks, and I spoke to her one day while I ordered. Her English is good so we found out that the dog is hers, it’s name (I forget it now) and why it has that ridiculous thing on the dogs bottom. Apparently it’s so the male dogs can’t get their way with her! The owner must not want any wee puppies running about! The dog seems quite friendly and it allowed us to pet it!

So these are some of the animals which we see in and around where we live! It definitely makes us want a pet of our own sometimes though!

再见

爱玲

Why are you always looking at me?

The longer I have lived in China, I’ve noticed that less and less Chinese people stare at me here. When I first arrived, everyone on the subway would gawk at me, some might even take photos! Now however, with the influx of more foreigners, this (thankfully) is disappearing!

But not completely!

So yesterday, myself and my fiancé decided to go to Walmart to pick up some things for home. We were looking at some flasks and I turn and see a worker down the bottom of the aisle looking at me. So anyway, I continue browsing.

I look around and he’s still there. Staring.

So I say to my fiancé “That worker over there keeps looking at me, we’ll go to the next aisle and see if he follows”.

We go to the next aisle and low and behold he appears!

I’m getting a bit annoyed at this stage. So back I go to the flask section, waiting to see the worker.

What a surprise, he appears again….but this time at the other end of the aisle.

That’s it, I decide to walk over to him. At this point he’s looking at me while talking to another lady, but I don’t care. I go up to him and ask him in Chinese “Why are you always looking at me?”… He replies he’s not. Haha the face of him when he realised this foreigner was coming over to him!

I think he was shocked that I actually confronted him. But it worked! I didn’t see him lurking around again!  haha well maybe he was but did it with a bit more stealth this time! When someone is standing right in the middle of the aisle gawking at you, it’s not very conspicuous!

For me, it drives me mad when people do this. I just want to go and browse… and not have someone staring at me thinking I’m going to steal something. I hate that feeling. I’m not going to take anything. Just leave me alone and let me shop.

Did he think I was going to steal something? Was he just curious at what I was looking at? Was he just looking at me?? Do I even look like a thief????

Usually this sort of thing doesn’t really bother me, but when someone is constantly staring at me and making me feel like I’m doing something wrong, then that needs to stop. If he thought I was stealing, then keep an eye on me through the security cameras. Just don’t make it obvious!

That’s why I never go to markets here; every time I pick up something I feel as if the worker is thinking “Oh… oh she’s going to steal that!!!” Haha plus they would most likely rip me off with their hiked up price.

So anyway, that was my shopping experience in Walmart. Usually there’s no problem, but maybe yesterday I looked more a thief than other days!

Check out my other (not so nice) Walmart (yes, the same Walmart) experience here: Skipping The Queue = One Angry Irish Girl

再见

爱玲

The Unorganised Chinese Company

I swear to god, some Chinese companies/ institutions can be so so so unorganised!!

And I’m definitely not the only person to point this out.

Especially when it comes to visas; they need to be on the ball with this. We are trying to sort out visas at the moment and I tell you, they certainly don’t rush…but they make you have a nervous breakdown!

Having gathered some things for our visas, we were pretty confident that we had everything… everything seemed to be going smoothly and with no problem. Then they say ‘Oh you need to get this notarised.’

What?? Why the hell did you not say this to us from the start??? And typical; the one thing that needs to be done early because it needs to be sent to Beijing…. it’s this that they fail to mention to us!

It’s just so annoying when they could have told us this a week ago. We leave China in about 15 days. God knows what will happen if this document doesn’t arrive back in time.

From the get-go we have been making sure to get all the things we needed to get done done. It’s just frustrating that people don’t seem to care/notice about these important issues, and it will inevitably be myself and my fiancé who will suffer for their negligence.

What’s more, we have to do all this ourselves. No one from their side will come and help us. We have to get this document, that document, do this, do that. I thought we would be getting a bit of help from them… but apparently not.

So myself and my fiancé are a bit annoyed at the whole thing now. I swear…. if they tell us we need to do/get another thing then I’m going to go mad!

I hope everything will sort itself out…. I don’t want any more grey hairs!

再见

爱玲

I Don’t Like Changes

I’m a person that really doesn’t like changes…. if there’s nothing wrong, then there’s no need to change it.

But then…. that’s the problem. You’re stuck in the same rut for years on end…..too comfortable to move, change and adapt.

At the moment we’re in the middle of changing our lifestyle and way of life here. As nothing is 100%, I won’t say much more about it until it’s definitely happening. But yeah…. this past week has been tough on the ‘change or not to change??’ dilemma.

I like to think that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes it’s very hard to think of it like that! But I suppose it’s my way of comforting myself!

Some people itch for change, but me…. no no no!

Haha maybe this is why I’ve been stuck in Chengdu for the past 4 years!

再见

爱玲

Re-watching KungFu Panda 3 In Chinese: 1 Year On

About a year ago, I wrote a blog post about our experience going to the cinema and watching Kung Fu Panda 3… all in Chinese. We didn’t realise it was the Chinese version of the film until it started! You can check out my blog about it here:A Cinematic Surprise

Anyway, I said in my post that I would try and watch it again in one year and see how much more I could understand of it. So we successfully found the film on a Chinese website and we decided to watch it. And low and behold, I could understand about 60% of it!!!

This time round, I understood the storyline, most of the conversations and pretty much all of the jokes! The first time, I really had no idea what the storyline was about, and why the antagonist was so obsessed with finding Po. I didn’t understand pretty much any jokes, and I could only understand the gist of a sentence by a word I knew, such as ‘food’.

During the second time I watched it, I realised there were quite a few words which came up in the film were words that I have just learned in this semester of class!

The film also had Chinese subtitles so we can read the Chinese characters as we listen. I think pretty much every TV programme, film or drama will have Chinese subtitles. I think it’s because some older people actually have never learned the common Chinese language Mandarin; they have just been brought up learning their local dialect. So it makes it easier for them to understand what’s going on in the show. (I think this is the reason why, but I’m not 100% of it!)

But anyway, it was great seeing how much Chinese I’ve picked up in a year, and how I can actually understand the story! Now my speaking is still atrocious, but at least this shows me I’m improving in some area at least!

So I have to say I’m very proud of myself that I can understand this film now. It’s not a very difficult film with regards to the conversations and the words in it, but it’s a stepping stone at least.

I’ll have to find something else to watch and then in another year I’ll re-watch it and see how much I’ve improved.

再见

爱玲

Chengdu is becoming more expensive

Having lived in Chengdu for nearly 4 years now, we’ve been noticing that Chengdu is sadly becoming more expensive. Of course it’s still incredibly cheap to live here, with regards to food and that… but I’ve definitely noticed that the cost of living is gradually becoming higher and higher.

One thing that I’m sure every expat in Chengdu is aware of is how rent has increased in price. With the new metros popping up everywhere, that of course means that the rent nearby these metro stations will go up. Our rent has increased by 200yuan a month, and this is only because of the new metro that has opened up nearby us.

Also, today we visited a jiaozi (dumpling) restaurant for lunch, and we saw that they have upped the cost of their portions by 2元 (€0.26). I know it’s not by much, but it’s still an increase… every little counts!

Here in Chengdu, if you want to buy some foreign products, most foreigners head to Metro. This is a huge supermarket which sells a lot of foreign products in bulk.. like milk, cheese, Chinese products and so on. We haven’t been there in ages so we decided to go and have a look around!

And of course the prices have went up there too!

Since coming here, foreign teachers salary has been getting higher and higher, but I wonder is this the same for Chinese workers? Have their salaries increased I wonder?

But anyway, that’s the reality of living in a constantly growing city like Chengdu! I wonder is the rest of China getting more and more expensive or if it’s just here?

What will the cost of living here be like in 5 years time… Will there be anymore expats living here, or will they have all decided to move on to somewhere cheaper? China is an attractive place for foreigners to live because of it’s low cost of living… but if it increases, I’m pretty sure many will leave!

So we’ll have to keep an eye on what else has gotten more expensive!

再见

爱玲

Where Is The Time Going?

I’ve suddenly realised I only have 6 weeks left of studying! Time is flying by at an amazing rate! When I was in Ireland my Dad would say to me ‘When you get to my age, a week just feels like one day’. And the more I get older, the more this is starting to apply to me.

So anyway, we have two months of holiday until we start back to our next semester in September… and we’ve no idea what are plans are.

As my fiancés sister and boyfriend were coming to China for one month, this time last year we were busy planning our travels around China.  So we knew we would be busy during the summer… but for this coming one, we really have no plans.

My fiancé may have a job opportunity during the summer, so we may travel to a city nearby for work… but pretty much that’s it. With our lack of income, we can’t exactly plan on doing anything too exciting or expensive!

I’d have liked to have gone home for the holidays, but it’s just too expensive. So I guess we are stuck in Chengdu for a while! Maybe when we get jobs we might visit a city in China…Qingdao perhaps? My private Chinese teacher is from there so I’d like to visit it, plus it’s supposed to be a nice city!

But anyway, the weather here has been fantastic, so both of us don’t mind staying here for a bit!

再见

爱玲