Well here we go then, first blog. It’s been a long time coming and I’d like to say that’s because I planned to make it the best ever, with loads of interesting anecdotes, but, it wasn’t planned although it will be amazing...

                This first week has thrown up some very interesting questions about peoples personal views on some very strong subjects. These have been discussed and hopefully we have come to some sort of agreement, even if it is just to agree to disagree. The first of the main talking points has been the severe contrasts in wealth and just how close they are to each other. We have moved from 5 star hotel foods, to areas where people can’t afford a basic meal of rice all in a matter of minutes. We have attempted to get ‘doggy bags’ from restaurants, then hand them to children in the street instead of money, but it feels like we’re fighting a losing battle.  Another major talking point has been our interaction with ‘street’ children. At the train station on our way back from Agra and visiting the Taj Mahal we played a few games with children on the platform. You could quite easily tell that this was the most fun they had experienced in a long time. It was great to watch, and it really brought home just how young they are. They specifically asked for food as the money would be taken straight off them, and you could see their ‘owners’ for want of a better word watching us play with them. This topic threw up so much debate as we wondered the repercussions of the kid’s actions later on. After all, it’s a business to them, well, their owners (god what a horrible word). Would the children be beaten? Have disability thrust upon them to so they are more profitable? One child already had the lower half of his left leg missing. Or will it give the kid’s the bit of inspiration that not all adults are bad and that there is another life out there?

                Its not all doom and gloom though, the general attitude of people in this city is that of pride and passion. There are mixed thoughts on whether the city will be finished in time for the commonwealth games, but the majority view is that is a great thing for this city. Providing employment and really getting the basic infrastructure ready.

Well I have loads more to post, but it’s late, and I’m tired, so will continue my thoughts tomorrow. Namashka everyone and I promise the general tone of the blog will be much more upbeat tomorrow! I’ll also try to go into greater depth of the issues raised in this blog. 

MUMBAI:

Day 5

Confusing start involving some weird ancient dancing and visiting an environmental centre, clearly specialising in scare-mongering. Evening was grea though: eating and watching a dance and song show in an ancient Moghul garden

Day 6

Went to AGRA to visit the Taj. Apart from being thrown a baby (TII moment, see below) it was a peaceful and exciting trip. The Taj is beautiful and its architecture is awe-inspiring. On the train journey back, chatted pretty much 3 hours non-stop to an economics professor about a one child policy, tourism, arranged marriages (he wa a living example) and the penal system.

Day 7

Travelled to MUMBAI. The sleeper trains are amazingly hectic and frantic. People running up and down the corridors. I enjoyed some sleep though and the experience as a whole

TII (THIS IS INDIA) moment of the week: Whilst looking at the Taj, I was offered a baby to which I rejected, citing 20kg baggage allowance as an excuse. As I walked away, the mother lobbed the baby 3ft into the air, and as I caught it took hundreds of photos, to which the baby was crying and I was bewildered. But as I said, This Is India.

Day 8

Visited India gate and had a look around where the bombings had taken place a couple of years ago (all patched up to be honest) Some kid tried to get his hand down a pocket and take my wallet, to which I responded with a clenched fist and banged down where his hand was. He squealed and ran away WITHOUT my wallet fortunately. You've gotta be so careful here.

Day 9

Did a City Hunt and hence saw some historical buildings and modern areas. Went to a lecture at St. Xavier's College (best in india they tell me) entitled 'from bombay to mumbai.' Was interesting to find out about the history. The students are very bright and hardworking, so I am getting a feeling as to why this economy is growing at 8.5 pc year on year

Just a quick few comparisons between the countries to prove how much cultural immersion I´ve been doing...

Dogs

In Rio, there are a lot of dogs! Certainly in uptown Ipanema where we are staying, there are plenty of those annoying little handbag dogs, as well as plenty of massive ones. I´d say there´s probably more than in London.

People

The whole of the city seems to be obsessed with fitness. There are pullup bars and parallel bars dotted every few hundred metres along the beaches and in other locations too, there is an entire lane next to the beach dedicated to runners and cyclists, and even most 50 year old men seem to have better pecs than me. Despite this culture of fitness and perfection the beaches are still full of people of all shapes and sizes and nobody seems to wear a shirt and tiny tiny bikinis are the norm. Compare this to Britain where we have a rising obesity problem and for the most part anyone who isn´t the size OK magazine tells us we should be wouldn´t dream of donning the swimming cossy and going for a dip in the sea.

On the whole the city seems to be a whole lot laid-back than Britain. Nobody is in a rush and people on the street will quite happily go through ten minutes of sign language and fractured portuguese to tell you the way to some obscure grocery shop. Britain on the other hand, especially London, and people are always in a rush for their next meeting, manicure etc and try make small talk to someone in the street and you´ll be flat out ignored or given a look as if you asked to lick their face.

Smoking

In Brazil smoking is at least 4 times cheaper than in Britain- although from what i´ve seen this doesn´t increase the amount of people who smoke, as logic would suggest. This surely confirms that putting higher taxes on cigarettes will not make a significant difference to whether or not people choose to smoke, as economics tells us, they are a very inelastic good.

Police

The police here are suffering from a long-term association with corruption, hypocricy and violence- none of this is undeserved. I´ve mentioned in a previous blog visiting a district where 21 civilians were killed by police, and it is not unusual for areas, predominantly the poorer favelas to have stories such as these. Speaking to the local chief of police was certainly an eye-opener- he spoke about trying to repair the bond between the people and the police. So deep runs the mistrust that most people are more likely to turn to their local druglord for help than the police. Certainly, however progress is being made- there are partnerships in place from the police with Natura and Afro Reggae, and bridges are certainly starting to be built. However in my opinion there is still a long way to go- speaking to our reggae friend, apparently in his experience being caught taking drugs on the beach at night can be overlooked by a R$50 bribe to the police officer who catches you.

 

The last few days have been brilliant- free time on Sunday morning yielded a self-organised trip (thanks lauren) by most of the fellows to see Corcorva/Christ the Redeemer, the huge statue of Jesus which stands on the highest mountain near Rio and is visible from most of the city. This was simply mind-blowing, and from the top there was not only the chance to stand by the simply enormous statue- must´ve been over 100 feet tall- but simply staggering views, the city laid out in front of us like a map.

It was an early start today as we had a tai chi class starting at 7. After the initial shock of having to be up and functioning so early, it was actually really relaxing and a nice start to the day. It was hadn’t got to hot by that time in the morning, and the exercise itself was not too strenuous so all in all it made for a chilled start. There was time for some breakfast after, and then onto our Mandarin class. As soon as we got in, Steven gave us our Chinese names, mine is Zhou yi da (pronounced Jo - ee - da). Yi means graceful, abundant and da means flourishing, achieve. We also started working on our song Beijing huan ying ni (welcome to Beijing) which was really good fun. The second half of the morning was taught by a different teacher, Tiffany, who had a very different style, much faster, and also she writes almost entirely in the Chinese characters. It makes more challenging, but at the same time it means that you’re always totally concentrating and so we’re still able to learn lots. 

 

After class a few of us went for lunch in the restaurant across the road- The Green Place (because of the colour of the sign!). It also marked quite a momentous occasion because we were able to order without using any English, and only using a bit of finger pointing; we even got our three bowls of rice which wasn’t shown in the menu. As always it was excellent quality and very cheap! In the afternoon we had a class in the art of Chinese paper cutting, which is deceptively hard. The lady teaching us has been doing it since she was six, so she was able to create incredible patterns with such ease. When it was my turn though, I was struggling just to fold the paper at the start so it was ready to be cut! The final outcome was.... unique, but probably not enough to get me a career in the art!

 

In the evening my plan to try and spend less money went totally out the window when I heard another group of people were going back to the Peking Duck Restaurant from last night and I couldn’t resist tagging along! Again, it was fantastic! When I got back to the hotel my other plan for an early night also went out the window when I caught a few guys watching Toy Story 3, and then suggest a late night McDonalds, I was powerless to resist! So it’s not getting on for midnight, and I have to be up at 6 in time for Kong Fu tomorrow morning! I think a midday nap might be in order for tomorrow!

After a long but unsettled night’s sleep, I woke up at 06:30 to get ready for our first Tai Chi session on the square outside the main university building. Anybody who knows me well, knows that I am one of the worst people to be around in the morning, however dressed in my Man Utd shirt, shorts and clumpy trainers, I followed the slow and elegant movement of our trainer. It was only half an hour long, but we learnt a basic routine, which I can still remember now 15 hours later. It seems it is also a very good cure for my morning grumpiness and it might just do the trick back home! Tomorrow morning, we are going to be learning some Kung Fu, which will give us something to compare with. 

I managed to do a white wash in between the Tai Chi and our second Mandarin session, which went on for nearly 3 hours.  We went over numbers and introductions today, which meant I didn’t learn too much more than I had already prepared for; although we learnt some characters, a poem and the beginning of a song.  In the second part of the Mandarin lesson, we played a few word recognition games in groups and the winner was able to choose a punishment for the losing team. The winning team decided it would be funny for the teacher to get them to say something embarrassing in Chinese and then us reveal to them what they’re actually saying, therefore completely empowering the teacher with the task of choosing these embarrassing quotes. It seems the Chinese haven’t quite mastered the art of insulting, which is definitely not a bad thing! She gave the boys the saying “I am a beautiful girl”, Bridget had to say “I don’t like Adam”, others had to say “I don’t bath” and they all had to admit that “I like to go to the toilet”... yes I’m sure you all found it as hilarious as we did, albeit for the wrong reasons! 

For lunch a few of us went to a street stall a few minute down the road, where we bought some rice noodles with vegetables in a soy sauce with some chilli flakes for an expensive 3.5RMB (35p!). It was even more delicious than my previous experience of street food and it filled me up 10 times more. My chopstick skills are becoming a lot better than they were back at home and I am managing to eat my food a lot quicker, which allows me to eat more in the space of time we have to eat! 

After lunch, we went for a class in paper cutting. It seemed quite a tedious task, however as always I went in with an open mind and came out very impressed. The first hour was spent listening to an old woman being translated, telling us about the art of paper cutting and its origin, with a few “Art Attack” style examples.  Then came our turn and it seemed a much more difficult task folding it into a cone shape than actually cutting it itself! We made three each all together and I was shocked at how easy it was to make something that seems so complex. All it takes is a few snips here and there and you can do virtually whatever, so everybody’s was different. I felt slightly sorry for Sierah, who not only managed to get it wrong once, but twice! No matter what she did, it always seemed to have a break in the pattern! I have uploaded a picture of mine so have a look. 

So that concluded our activities for the day so for the afternoon I practiced some Mandarin, read and slept. At 17:30 I met Owen, Ollie, Katie, Bridget and Zac and we went off to Tiananmen Square, where we ate at a 5-star, internationally acclaimed Peking duck restaurant. As you walking to the restaurant you past the kitchen and a rack of skewers with freshly skinned duck waiting to be cooked and fed to our hungry stomachs! We ordered two ducks between the six of us, a beer and a few sides and were surprised by how quickly it arrived! I was initially disappointed by the lack of my favourite plum sauce, however it did not prevent this being the best meal of the trip so far, as well as the best Peking duck I have ever tasted! Unlike in England there was no crispy waste, which actually takes up half the dish, we were all given a plate of tender, fresh meat and on a separate plate, we could also eat some of the skin, which tasted a bit like pork crackling. Not only was the meal impressive, but the service too. Chef’s brought the whole ducks out to our table, carved the meat in front of us and showed us how to wrap the pancake using chopsticks and a spoon- completely finger free! Naturally we expected the meal to cost more than we had paid previous nights, but by splitting the bill each of us had to pay 110RMB (£11). This was our most expensive meal yet, however all things considered, for a five-star restaurant it is ridiculous! Pizza express would cost much more back home and you wouldn’t be half as satisfied as you would, had you been to this restaurant. When we came out, Tiananmen Square had been evacuated and lit up which set a beautiful scene for some more pictures. We could just about see Mao’s face on “The gate of heavenly peace” and we were directly facing his Mausoleum from outside the restaurant. 

The journey home was a lot cheaper, as there was no traffic and we all went straight off to our rooms to either blog, read or sleep. I’m sorry that today’s blog hasn’t been as exciting as at the weekend, but it is going to be difficult to match it with the activities for the week being more work based than tourist. I hope that regardless of this it will still make for interesting reading!  Tomorrow we have Kung-fu and a session of Chinese painting, which I am looking forward to VERY much, even though I cannot paint! Until then, Zai Jian.

Highlight of the day- Peking duck at its best!

PS I will try and get a photo of us doing Tai Chi at some point!

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Well you probably won't be reading this. But my mam who may be the only one too - I still cant get my phone to work and you havent replied to the emails! Anyway...

Before I get into a bit of haggling here is how the day went

Tai Chi - I am rubbish and have no coordination and can't remember any of it. Should be fun tomorrow trying to do it all again and more

Language lesson - Again, sooo difficult. Mandarin has so many characters to try and recognise, bright side I learnt how to write one. Just like 489 to go now

Paper cutting - we made little babies with our paper cutting techniques attached at the bottom are some pictures. VERY frustrating at times as mine first one turned out awful, but massively improves later.

now, onto haggling. So we're in the Silk market, I dont k now what to expect but they have these blatantly fake goods which they are selling to us. Now, I can handle that as they are cheap but when they come and are like "You buy for 240, this good price" We're all like erm....Now, as you walk past they grab you and shout at you to come into their shop and tell you you are so handsome. But then when you refuse to buy you become Crazy, another fellow got called poopy head and stupid by Chinese hagglers.

I got a armani belt for 20 rmb (£2) a puma sports shirt for 34 and another for 35. They even try to keep change away from you. And when I had 15 rmb left and shouted anyone have anything for it they offered me paper, or used tissues. Lush. Chinese never missing at opportunity.

On way back we got well...Lost. Wanted to go to Peking duck but tianamin square closed for flag lowering and it took AGES to go around so we ended up in this other restaurant where the food was SO MUCH more exensive, can of coke for 85p which is bad by British standards. Hagaan Daas had 1 scoop of ice cream for 31 yuan which is £3.10 and chinese families were shedding their money like it was nothing. China definately has a rich section, very wealthy with large disposable incomes splasing thousands on their "Little emporers" Their children who got whatever they pointed at.

I seen 2 very different sides of China.

Still in love with this Place

CYA :D

- Braden

 

This blog is going to be one for the whole week as some of the days were quite repetitive so I didn’t want 4 or 5 small blogs and 1 or 2 large blog so I thought would put it all into one! Monday seen the first stage of the Tai Chi class this involved getting up at 07:00 to begin and master the art of Tai Chi. Well this was a struggle for 40 tired fellows but we began strong ! If someone ever said you would be doing Tai Chi I would have probably turned around and said that’s easy but well it isn’t. Trying to master the steps and co-ordinate your body and hands well let just say it wasn’t easy ! But it was fun and relaxing. After Tai Chi each morning we would then go back to the hotel and have a bite to eat and then get all our stuff together and begin our language classes. These classes are so fun trying to learn mandarin is so funny you find yourself thinking you doing amazing then after you have finished speaking you teacher goes that is really good and deep down you know there are thinking hmm that is Chinese. Each afternoon after language class we have organised culture courses barring Thursday. Monday we began with the Art of paper cutting. Well for someone who has no artistic bones within I think I did pretty well. We made a complete random pattern inspired from within then we made another pattern which was the snow flake and then finally we were taught how to make pairs of animals in this case a Panda maybe umm wasn’t to sure but we will go with panda. I was surprisingly quite good at this but I don’t think I could say it is my forte in life :D. Tuesday we had the chance to learn Chinese painting we felt really fortunate to be able to have a go at something that has been passed on through generations. Well I knew i would epically fail at this class and well I did to a certain degree but regained it slightly. The guy was teaching us how to paint a orchid and the technique then he gave us are materials and we began. After failing to draw leaves I decided I would paint Chinese characters instead which I didn’t do to bad at doing and the teacher was impressed. Wednesday we received a lecture about the global economics in china it is hard to really comment on this time of topic so I will just tell you what it is about “Development of Chinese Society”. After the lecture we then got changed and went to watch a Kung Fu Show and o my god it was amazing the people within the show we absolutely amazing and so talented also the kinds that were acting and doing flips was something that surprise you but it was awesome and if anyone ever visits china you must see this it was awesome ! Thursday was a pretty quiet day with all the standard stuff we have been doing all this week but we Friday was completely un predictable. All the information the fellows was given was 30/07/2010 Fellows leave for Humen Village, Lunch in Countryside and Visit silver Pagoda Loop which that last bit meant nothing to me well when we left we were briefed to bring trainers because we were walking up a mountain well that was a nice shock for everyone. But yeah we left for the village and we climbed the mountain and a good 1 hour we made it to the top such a sense of relief and the fact you could rest easy. After the mountain trek the fellows were organised a party to celebrate what happened so far and also put on a show for our teachers it was really good and we enjoyed ourselves after the party we went to the village centre and celebrate with the villages and had a dance around the camp fire which was a great experience. So yeah that pretty much it for this week it went so fast and been fin I also missed out we went to the Zoo ! See Ya! X

So where to begin?!

Well instead of going on loads and loads telling you about every moment my blogs will be short and straight to the point....run-down of the main events, best memories and funniest moments of the days so far.

Day 1 – 6

Main events

*Arrived in Beijing!!

*KAROKE

*The Great Wall of China

*Olympic stadium (Birds Nest and the Cube)

*Taste of Beijing Night-life

*The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

*Language Lessons

*Scary market shopping

Best Memories

-          Singing along to West Side Story of the plane with Jordan

 

-           Karaoke was AMAZING. We had our private room and spent hours and hours singing along to the best karaoke classics. Everyone had so much fun!! It was laughs the whole time as well as MAJOR sweating.

 

-          So many laughs on the best coach journey I’ve EVER been on the way to the great wall.

 

-          Actually getting pretty far up the Great Wall (before nearly falling off from epic exhaustion

 

-          Sitting at the very top of the Birds Nest BRILLANT view

 

-          Getting up on stage and singing with a live band in a Beijing bar whilst playing the tambourine!!

 

-          Seeing the most fantastic buildings and breathtaking place in the form of the Forbidden City

 

-          Have a seriously hilarious language session where NO ONE in our group could speak/sing properly due to lack of voices!

 

-          My first shot at haggling....got myself some Abercrombie and Fitch tracksuit bottoms for a £5 ~ very pleased

Funniest Moments

-          Luke telling the air hostess on the plane to Beijing ‘Yeah we’re all going to China’, and the classic face she gave.

 

-          Seeing Vivek slip on the floor in the sweaty karaoke room – definite highlight of the entire trip!!

 

-          Hearing a guy shout ‘PARAMEDIC PARAMEDIC!!’ on the Great Wall in a very strong Spanish accent after he had just got up about 10 steps

 

-          Singing ‘I’m your Venus, I’m your fire...you’re desire’ with a proper professional band...loved EVERY minute of it

 

-          Doing the ‘Macarena’ in front of lots of Chinese people whilst waiting at the Forbidden City

 

-          Simply watching Vivek haggle.

 

-          Being asked for picture and photos all the time....felt proper FAMOUS!!

 

-          “How do you say tomato ketchup”, Vivek in weird Chinese voice “SAAUCCEEEE”

 

-          Joe being trapped in a market stall by crazy Chinese women hitting and kicking him for asking for a lower price

 

-          Jason literally being beaten up by a Chinese woman and her calculator at one of the market stalls...”Your mummy dresses you funny!!”

-          MAJOR HIGHLIGHT:

 

So in China Basketball is MASSIVE. They love Michael Jordan. We have Asher in our group who is seriously tall and looks just like a basketball player.

So normally when we’ve been out he gets stares and pointing.....but at the Birds Nest some of the guys thought screaming NBA at him and pretending to ask for photos would be too funny. AND IT WAS.

Seriously. Never laughed so much. Picture after picture, whilst the crowd around us grew and grew all completely believing that a famous basketball player would hang around with 39 other random English teenagers. CLASSIC.

 

And so to finish......I can honestly say I’m having the best time of my life. The people here I know will be friends for life. I can’t believe how well we’re getting on. I really have never laughed so much in my life!!

 

Off to bed now thanks again and keep it touch...the next blogs will be shorter with fewer days to talk about!!

 

Byeeeeeeee J

 

Day 1,2,3

So far I have spent 3 days in New delhi and curently i am enjoying it ive notived there is a major diffrence from where im situated in the West Midlands

I found the people really lovley and always ALTHOUGH!. we need to avoid people who say there foreign language students and say that they are going to take us to a nice market. but REALLY they take us to back of the alley.

The food is amazing its very diffrent to the curries we have back at home we noticed there are added flavours and spices and they take great deal in making the curry to perfection.

so far we have been running round New delhi in the heat. even though the site were amazing we both agreed that it was difficult to adapt to the heat and concentrate on the diffrent buildings and historical places.

weve also  been to the CCRT (centre for culture relations and training) we was given a warm welcome by dancers and indian drummers plus much more. lots of guests were watching us from diffrent parts of the buildings and made us feel very much at home with there entertainment.

we then got performances from other fantastic performers who gave us a sense of traditional indian. In the night time we decided to go to chandna chouk erm not the best of days to be honest for some of the female members of the team you needed to be rather physical to get on the train and some of the people were quite aggressive and rude to even the girls which made them feel scared. all in all its been a good trip so far looking forward to giving you more blogs on a regular basis.

Shattered after the climb from the Great Wall and dreading more steps, we set out yesterday to visit Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City. They were such contrasts. Tian'anmen Square was very plain, with concrete and paving slabs only decorated with 2 statues of soldiers and the colourful umberellas of tourists trying to shield themselves from the heat of 36 degrees at just 10am. The Forbidden City contained 9000 colourful, ornamental palaces with lots of intricate detail, although we had no guide we still learnt it's called forbidden because only the Emperor could allow people to leave or enter. We saw where the Emperor entered in and out as well as hearing a folklore that at night in the rain a ghost appears. It is said that although most Emperors have many wives, one Emperor loved only one, however his mother did not love her so threw her down a steep precipice, and it is the Emperor's wife who is supposed to haunt the palaces.

　

　

After this we went to the Beijing silk market, where the salespeople were scarily persistent, after attempting to haggle and the price being double what I wanted I walked away but found my wrist being grabbed by the saleswoman who refused to let go, as I attempted to get away she dropped the price to what I asked for, so accidentally I got a price I was happy with. I think I'll leave haggling to others around me in the future though!

　

　

Today we started our first taiji lesson. blurry eyed at 7am, without knowing what to expect, I found myself thoroughly surprised with how much I enjoyed myself, although not finding it relaxing as we were supposed to!, I have found I am missing running so any exercise is most welcome, after learning part of a routine, I can't wait until tomorrow to learn some more and some kung fu!

　

　

At 8.20 we started our second Chinese lesson, although I'm struggling to remember the words, picking up basics is key and I do not wish to fail the final test so after many repeats the words are becoming easier to remember. We started to learn the dong my class will sing at the completion ceremony and although beautiful it is extremely high pitched so we had many funny attempts at trying to get the tune and the words right. When asked to sing individually, myself unfortunately first!, we began to pick the song up. Although we only memorised the first two lines, which have the same words but a different tune.

　

　

In the afternoon we had a paper cutting class. Being known for my lack of artistic skill I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable it was. We started off making what we'd call snowflakes, moved on to snow drops and then attempted a lucky chinese symbol of a baby, it was difficult but I managed to get something which looked vaguely like what it was supposed to, which for me was definite success! In China they start paper cutting around the age of 5 and it's nice to see that, despite the fact they are developing, they are still keeping their cultural activities, with paper cutting originating 2000 years ago.

　

　

xxx