CHINA
I will rewrite this part and tell the whole 15 months in China story,...but one step at a time!
This was written like a year ago and a lot has changed!
Almost at a half point
OK!!!now it's finally time to say something about my trip to Asia/still China and about the country...i have got to know the country much better since the last time we talked, especially the people!!
My number one goal for this trip was to get to know some people and to learn more about their culture, language and just to see the country!!Since I last wrote, a lot of things have changed...Since i listened to my friend from Korea n the first three weeks and observed not actively participate...I figured out that this really isn't me and i usually just jump into things with both feet!!!well my last month and a bit more have been exactly that!!
I have done two trips since that time...
One to Hangzhou with is the capital of our province Zhejiang. The place is just amazing...they have a
beautiful lake in the middle and a lot of forests and temples around the city center, not so far from it!
This trip was with my host family, it was a 2 day trip and i spent the night at a couch-surfer from Malaysia/China with a rich traveling experience!!It was just an amazing time to talk to someone who thinks the way i think and is open-minded!He is also creating a learning languages app which i really want to use...sounds really interesting!!Here are some highlights...
This is little of Hangzhou...now i also went to an island in Ningbo, with some other friends and swam in the dirty brown sea :P
OK...now let's talk a bit more about the my time here in things i did and I'll finish the post with the pics of Shanghai and my bday pics:)
In this month and something i totally went crazy and tried like 5 different social Chinese apps and it is amazing how many people wanted to meet me and how many have been texting me!! My goal was to know more about the people and how they work, what the like,...
Well in China everyone used WEIXIN (wechat) and its like our facebook for the phone!Other apps like momo (translation: touch touch :P) is a flirting app for the Chinese, but also some foreigners are there as well and the QQ (more international) and another app which is used for Chinese speaking ones...an app for people who want to meet other people either for friendship or something more... :P
The last one yield especially interesting results, because it seems that I'm the only white guy on the app and everyone wants to meet or talk to me...at the beginning i got like 70 people who wanted to talk to me, from which only 15 could speak english and 5 of them actually seemed normal enough :P. So obviously i started meeting there people for drinks and sometimes for dinner and I have learned sooooo much about the culture this way!!it is crazy how good this idea was and people i meet are surprisingly open minded and want to explain everything to me and just want to talk...:D, some had higher expectations :P, hahaha :/...and what did i learn?
PRESSURE rules China!!The pressure for the majority is too much and how much they suffer from it is just crazy!!what kind of pressure? Because China has over 1,2 billion people, the pressure for work, education, getting the best job, best high school test results, to get married, have a family, support the family when you have a job,....there are countless things!!!
This biggest one would have to be the pressure to get a good job and to get married!! Since there is so many people, it's easy for employers to take advantage of educated people or those who aren't!!doesn't matter, some get payed around 3000RMB, which is 400EUR...people with a university degree!!! They work really hard and follow other people, not to stand out of the crowd!! They usually work 9h a day and sleep 8h and are still veryyy tired through the day...in my opinion mostly because of pollution...I never had this little energy in the morning when i wake up!!it's crazy!!
OK...going back to the topic...people i've talked about live for this life or work and sleep and don't have any other ambitions. These are the educated people...let me not talk about the people without the education who earn 5x less and work many more hours!!It's just because there is so many people and it's impossible for everyone to get a "fair" life or a normal life! Life is all about work here!!!
The second would have to be the pressure from the parents to get married with someone who is wealthier!!!The pressure is crazy here, because once the kids have a good life, they will need to support their parents financially and provide for them, so money is really important to them!!! The saddest thing i found out is when i had a talk with one of my Chinese friend who is gay...and the pressure he has from his parents to get married, the saddest thing is that he told me that there are sooo many man in China who have families and kids, but still go out with other man cos they are gay...It was a big shock for me, because I can't imagine what kind of pain this has to be for the wife, kid or the husband...to live in such a lie and to deceive the ones closest to you. My friend explained that being gay is not excepted in China and some parents would throw their kids on the street and forget about them,...basically the whole story is really sad!!!
A lot of things are happening here, and they are not good!!! It's kinda sad how bad life can be for people who follow the crowd...you really have to be different here, to have a good life...and just let go of what other people think!!!but this applies for the whole world!!
Me..I have been deeply involved in a couple of self improvement books and trying to improve myself/ sort of an upgrade!!!I really have to thank Pal for introducing me to that way of thinking!It's really special (Ask and it is given is the books name!)...I also met some really nice people here, some Chinese too :P...haha
I'm really loving it here....oh and i got another full time job at a private English teaching school...so i'll be staying in China three more months :))Time to have a good time!! ;))))thanks to Janette and Pal, Nan,Tony, my two Angels Lucas and Franky and Stanly as well :)....
Here are pics from Shanghai (together with Pal), a couple pics from my birthday and some other events :))...till next time...love NICK <3
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. It .has passed around three weeks since i spoke :), I'm back :)
.y
W.ell there is a lot of new things happening since than! Things are more fun and they are going in the right direction! I just got the approval of "my parents" that i can go to Shanghai for 3 days with my best friend here- Pal from Hungary" and also that we will be going to Hangzhou this weekend :)...I think it's time for celebration! This is why I came to Asia, to travel, to see and to experience life on the other side of the world! Ok...lets get back for three weeks :)
Well If I remember correctly three weeks ago is when "my parents" came back from the Hong Kong. Well week days have been pretty much the same, as usual I just do my stuff in the morning and in the afternoon i take care of the kids...well the last weeks i've been hanging out with my friend Pal more and we have been going to lunch, shopping, coffees and drink in general. I got the chance to meet him more during this time and I have to say we hit it off quite well, we think very similarly on a lot of things and his open mindedness. Well i met him in the main square in Ningbo, just by accident....him and his friend Jennette from Philippines. He lives in the other part of Ningbo and it takes us 2h to meet! It's a bit annoying, but its worth it!Pal has been living here for the last 8 years, he is 22 now, and he is a really smart person. He will also go back to Hungary by the end of the year. He will go and work as a tourist organizational something for the Hungarian government, basically helping Hungary to get more tourists. I think he is a perfect person to do it, has a lot of experience and know his way around people and cultures....Keeping my fingers crossed for the Hungary!!! :)
OK, enough about him...let look at the things I've been doing...
So i went to the zoo with the younger one (Lucas)
OK!!!now it's finally time to say something about my trip to Asia/still China and about the country...i have got to know the country much better since the last time we talked, especially the people!!
My number one goal for this trip was to get to know some people and to learn more about their culture, language and just to see the country!!Since I last wrote, a lot of things have changed...Since i listened to my friend from Korea n the first three weeks and observed not actively participate...I figured out that this really isn't me and i usually just jump into things with both feet!!!well my last month and a bit more have been exactly that!!
I have done two trips since that time...
One to Hangzhou with is the capital of our province Zhejiang. The place is just amazing...they have a
beautiful lake in the middle and a lot of forests and temples around the city center, not so far from it!
This trip was with my host family, it was a 2 day trip and i spent the night at a couch-surfer from Malaysia/China with a rich traveling experience!!It was just an amazing time to talk to someone who thinks the way i think and is open-minded!He is also creating a learning languages app which i really want to use...sounds really interesting!!Here are some highlights...
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| Temple in Hangzhou |
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| Tea plantation in the temple.. |
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| Fancy meal at the temple |
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| My friend from Malaysia |
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| Me and KL in the morning at la qi lu (rubbish street) |
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| West lake in Hangzhou |
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| Beijing duck |
This is little of Hangzhou...now i also went to an island in Ningbo, with some other friends and swam in the dirty brown sea :P
OK...now let's talk a bit more about the my time here in things i did and I'll finish the post with the pics of Shanghai and my bday pics:)
In this month and something i totally went crazy and tried like 5 different social Chinese apps and it is amazing how many people wanted to meet me and how many have been texting me!! My goal was to know more about the people and how they work, what the like,...
Well in China everyone used WEIXIN (wechat) and its like our facebook for the phone!Other apps like momo (translation: touch touch :P) is a flirting app for the Chinese, but also some foreigners are there as well and the QQ (more international) and another app which is used for Chinese speaking ones...an app for people who want to meet other people either for friendship or something more... :P
The last one yield especially interesting results, because it seems that I'm the only white guy on the app and everyone wants to meet or talk to me...at the beginning i got like 70 people who wanted to talk to me, from which only 15 could speak english and 5 of them actually seemed normal enough :P. So obviously i started meeting there people for drinks and sometimes for dinner and I have learned sooooo much about the culture this way!!it is crazy how good this idea was and people i meet are surprisingly open minded and want to explain everything to me and just want to talk...:D, some had higher expectations :P, hahaha :/...and what did i learn?
PRESSURE rules China!!The pressure for the majority is too much and how much they suffer from it is just crazy!!what kind of pressure? Because China has over 1,2 billion people, the pressure for work, education, getting the best job, best high school test results, to get married, have a family, support the family when you have a job,....there are countless things!!!
This biggest one would have to be the pressure to get a good job and to get married!! Since there is so many people, it's easy for employers to take advantage of educated people or those who aren't!!doesn't matter, some get payed around 3000RMB, which is 400EUR...people with a university degree!!! They work really hard and follow other people, not to stand out of the crowd!! They usually work 9h a day and sleep 8h and are still veryyy tired through the day...in my opinion mostly because of pollution...I never had this little energy in the morning when i wake up!!it's crazy!!
OK...going back to the topic...people i've talked about live for this life or work and sleep and don't have any other ambitions. These are the educated people...let me not talk about the people without the education who earn 5x less and work many more hours!!It's just because there is so many people and it's impossible for everyone to get a "fair" life or a normal life! Life is all about work here!!!
The second would have to be the pressure from the parents to get married with someone who is wealthier!!!The pressure is crazy here, because once the kids have a good life, they will need to support their parents financially and provide for them, so money is really important to them!!! The saddest thing i found out is when i had a talk with one of my Chinese friend who is gay...and the pressure he has from his parents to get married, the saddest thing is that he told me that there are sooo many man in China who have families and kids, but still go out with other man cos they are gay...It was a big shock for me, because I can't imagine what kind of pain this has to be for the wife, kid or the husband...to live in such a lie and to deceive the ones closest to you. My friend explained that being gay is not excepted in China and some parents would throw their kids on the street and forget about them,...basically the whole story is really sad!!!
A lot of things are happening here, and they are not good!!! It's kinda sad how bad life can be for people who follow the crowd...you really have to be different here, to have a good life...and just let go of what other people think!!!but this applies for the whole world!!
Me..I have been deeply involved in a couple of self improvement books and trying to improve myself/ sort of an upgrade!!!I really have to thank Pal for introducing me to that way of thinking!It's really special (Ask and it is given is the books name!)...I also met some really nice people here, some Chinese too :P...haha
I'm really loving it here....oh and i got another full time job at a private English teaching school...so i'll be staying in China three more months :))Time to have a good time!! ;))))thanks to Janette and Pal, Nan,Tony, my two Angels Lucas and Franky and Stanly as well :)....
Here are pics from Shanghai (together with Pal), a couple pics from my birthday and some other events :))...till next time...love NICK <3
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| Drinking with my two friends |
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| Shanghai... |
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| famous dumpings |
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| The hot pot!!! :)...so interesting, ate cow stomach,.... |
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| Shanghai continues |
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| At a party...rope pull |
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| Me and my friend Nan |
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| Janette and I and conopyy |
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| My bday....with family :) |
.
.
.
.
.
. It .has passed around three weeks since i spoke :), I'm back :)
.y
W.ell there is a lot of new things happening since than! Things are more fun and they are going in the right direction! I just got the approval of "my parents" that i can go to Shanghai for 3 days with my best friend here- Pal from Hungary" and also that we will be going to Hangzhou this weekend :)...I think it's time for celebration! This is why I came to Asia, to travel, to see and to experience life on the other side of the world! Ok...lets get back for three weeks :)
Well If I remember correctly three weeks ago is when "my parents" came back from the Hong Kong. Well week days have been pretty much the same, as usual I just do my stuff in the morning and in the afternoon i take care of the kids...well the last weeks i've been hanging out with my friend Pal more and we have been going to lunch, shopping, coffees and drink in general. I got the chance to meet him more during this time and I have to say we hit it off quite well, we think very similarly on a lot of things and his open mindedness. Well i met him in the main square in Ningbo, just by accident....him and his friend Jennette from Philippines. He lives in the other part of Ningbo and it takes us 2h to meet! It's a bit annoying, but its worth it!Pal has been living here for the last 8 years, he is 22 now, and he is a really smart person. He will also go back to Hungary by the end of the year. He will go and work as a tourist organizational something for the Hungarian government, basically helping Hungary to get more tourists. I think he is a perfect person to do it, has a lot of experience and know his way around people and cultures....Keeping my fingers crossed for the Hungary!!! :)
OK, enough about him...let look at the things I've been doing...
So i went to the zoo with the younger one (Lucas)
Been eating...again... A typical Korean style restaurant
And of course partying with my new friends and creating great stories :)...MaiBach is the crime scene!
This is when Pal, Tim and I went for a drive on a motor bike at 3am to this BBQ place for breakfast...i love it, you choose your food they cook it and bring it over!
Cu Song and I out for drinks...She is my really nice and cool friend from China :)
Lucas and his sports day!This was a really nice experience for me. I will explain more later..
Pal and I at 7am , after a party...there is a Slovenian flag in the background
The park next to the best bar in the city...MAIBACH!! <3
This is for my love...my younger brother Mark
Well I have noticed some thing i really like about the people here: The last time when I went to the sport day of Lucas I found out that family is really involved with the kids. There were almost more family members on the field than the kids. It was really interesting how the kids had sooo much attention from the family members, they would follow the kids everywhere and cheer for them and also other kids....i didn't matter if you win or not, their grandma or grandpa or anyone was there to cheer them up...it was something really surprising and nice too see. At the end of the competition everyone got a medal and they all celebrated. I also notice the same thing when I went to pick up the older Franky and seen so many grandparents their to pick them up, waiting for them was some food prepared and a nice smile from their family members.
This showed me that there is a big emphasis on the kids and to make them feel happy. Having someone there when you need is really important and It's nice to see that in China they really stand by you for these events! In Europe this would never happen!! haha
One night I had a really nice conversation with the kids father. I have to say i really admire him, seems like a really open minded and understanding person. We were talking about the law of attraction, the differences in the two kids based on the different schools they go to...one to international and one to traditional and how this effects them....Basically we have both notice that the international school provides the kids much more creativity and ability to express themselves and enjoy their time while they are younger as well as that they are treated as individuals. while the traditional school groups them and considers them all the same, no encouragement, no rewards and they start to push them to grow up earlier. There is a big difference in their confidence levels, take a wild guess which one is more confident???....
But what i seem to noticed the most is that the father is only worried about their kids happiness and not his own, he puts every last drop of sweat into their happiness but doesn't do anything about his own and goes through the days with little happiness and really doesn't know how to relax and let go!! Which is why i can notice that he really isn't as happy as he wants...not even closely!!!But it's like he needs to suffer and there is no other choice...well it's not as bad as it might sound! but still...
But in general i have to say I love the culture and people! I'm falling in love with the people, i love the kids, the world is to materialist for me, food is good, I HATE THE SMOG because it really makes me sleepy and tired most of the time, I really want to learn to speak Chinese,....
I'm loving ASIA...and this is before I actually started traveling....It's like an energy from the inside and every while i just think that i'm in China and I just glow on the inside
THIS IS MY LIFE, THIS IS WHERE I'M AT HOME...TRAVELING!!! <3
P.S.: Dejan, my older brother, just passed his driving license and bought his car...I'm REALLY PROUD OF HIM!!!<3
FIRST THREE WEEKS
Hi, everyone!! I'm finally back, it's nice to be back :)
I've been little disconnected the last couple of days and just tried to enjoy the culture, country and the people and try to stay as away as far as possible from the internet/ Facebook and other things i "can't" use in China! But of course i need to stay in contact with my friends and people i love :)
What has happened in the last three weeks with me? Well i'll start from the beginning and tell you why i decided to go to Asia and why go to China first...
As you know I got my master's title one month and a half ago and for this master's i really put a lot of effort and i did it successfully. My desire to go to Asia started when i was in France (if you read my previous blogs than you know that) and i know the exact moment i knew i was going to go travel to Asia! It was around one month prior to my leaving Reims, France and there were like 8 people in my room, as usual, and Olga told me about her friend who went to China as an Au Pair...to keep the story short... since than i had to go to Asia to experience this, before i start working and family, etc... and most of Asian people i met I really liked in France, So i had to go!!And i did :)
I'm currently in China, Ningbo (a small city 200km south of Shanghai) and I'm here as an Au Pair. What is that? Well it's something like an English teacher who also takes care of the kids. Why did someone with a master's degree decided to be a nanny? Well I love kids, I need a break from the hard work back in Slovenia, I need some time to plan for my future and the most importantly I wanted to experience the culture shock (China because it's has a harsher regime than other countries) and get to know the Chinese culture from the inside!! Being here for the last 3 weeks i have to say i haven't experienced the culture shock yet, I'm getting to know the people more and more and my planning for the future is not going to well (Don't have to much time to apply for internships, but this will change from this day on!!!FOR SURE!! and I've been learning Chinese a lot, also read a couple of books...).
The question now is...do i like it here?? Well I do and I don't!! There are good and bad things...let me start from the beginning.
I came to China on April 11th, arrived to Shanghai were the family came to pick me up. We were all a bit shy at the beginning accept for their driver who was singing Celine Dione songs, haha!! We had a 3h ride back to their apartment in Ningbo. Riding to my new home and looking outside the window I felt like i was trapped in fish bowl, well because there was smog everywhere and everything looked grey and I could only see tall buildings everywhere! Well when we arrived to their home it looked a bit scary, but only because the building is brand new and they were still decorating, but BOY is the apartment fancy!!It is decorated as the times Napoleon (the French leader) lived in, everything looks really old and has this really rich feeling, the sofa is huge and there are like 100 pillows, marble everywhere, fancy bathroom and a button you press that washes your butt (i really like that :P),... just amazing! I didn't actually pay much attention to jet leg and i just didn't go to sleep until they did. I played with the kids a bit to see how they were and of course talked English with them. Ohh and they have their own made and cook! The father has is own company producing "luxury pens" called Silver and his name is Stanlee, mom is ????...i still don't know, Younger son in Lucas and his English is really good and older son Franky whose English I'm working on!Really cute boys!! :)
Their lifestyle is quite rich and they also have a lot of good connection with other rich people from this area, which is something i really have take advantage of!! The first couple of days is always like you are floating on a cloud and it actually was. We went to take the kids to ride horses outside of the city in this fancy park, we went to their friends "house" well it was more like a castle where we had dinner prepared for us by 5 cooks and served by two butlers, basically like KINGS!!We also went around the city, parks and seen most of the surroundings. Really nice :)... time for some pictures...i will say more things later...
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| The rich friends house from the inside out |
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| The dinner in the friends house, made for us! |
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| Dongjian lake just little bit outside from the city |
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| My breakfast every morning (cooked for me) |
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| The horse riding place |
Well this seems pretty harsh, I think it's mostly my imagination, but... lets start from beginning.
The first week with them is really nice. My normal week is like following: From Monday to Friday i usually take Franky to school and come back to have breakfast and till 3:30 i have my own time and can do what ever i want, but usually i study Chinese and practice some trading. I pick up Franky from school and w go home, i'm with him while he does his homework and at 6pm we have dinner. After dinner Lucas and I read English books and Franky does his homework, after i read one book with him and after that we play until they have to go to bed at 9:30. It's pretty straight forward...
The last week the host's family went to HK and i stayed alone with them for 10 days. Basically I spent the whole day with them for the past 10 days and we had a really good time :). Basically we went to see all the tourist places i wanted to go...really fun :). We went to the Tian Yi Ge library, main shopping square, zoo,...
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| One of the restaurants we went to |
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| Nitrogen icecream |
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| Lucas and I at the Tianyi square |
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| Pavilion |
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| Tian Yi Ge library |
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| Mahjong history |
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| The ningbo museum |
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| We went to the outskirts of Ningbo by my friends family and they made me this amazing lunch and dinner and at dinner we drank a traditional Chinese alcohol (60%), called Baijiu, and i drank tooo much, mostly because he wanted me to drink and drink and... and basically I got so drunk that when i came back home i just fell a sleep and had an accident in my bathroom :/ |
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| Outskirts of the city |
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| Green tea plantaion |
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| Random town |
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| The family that hosted me |
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| Baijiu! |
This is my day to day life...well what i want to talk more about is what I'm learning from the culture and people:
BEFORE COMING TO CHINA: Well i didn't think to much of Chinese people before coming here. I considered them to be quite close minded, really materialistic, close relations with family, have a special connection with food,business is the most important,...
WHEN IN CHINA: Well for now i don't have the best things to say, but also not bad as well. Everything that i say is only from my standpoint as what i like and don't. I also have to admit that I am not someone who kinda prefers normal life over the life of rich people. I have my planted taught about rich people, quite dirty, .... however....
I found that Chinese people are quite nice people, much more open minded than i taught and i feel quite safe in Ningbo. I have two good examples: The other day I was in a park relaxing when an old Chinese man came to me and wanted to show me something, really nice guy...but i don't know Chinese that well and the other when our driver invited me to a jam session in his friends place...really nice place!! The host family also always takes me places and things to do! I have to say that the rich are really materialistic and always have money as their main priority, being rich and have the right to brag means a lot to them, they mostly treat their employees in a degrading way (like they are below them!). Regarding relatives, i guess it depends who...some really do and some don't! Like everywhere, but i do still think they are much closer than in Slovenia, jealousy is not an issue here...i haven't noticed that yet!! They love their food and really treasure the amazing food and really like to eat. Well the rich have people to clean after them, but the poor seem to be quite dirty by our standards....but i really don't care about this petty little things...for me it's more important who you are as a person!
Well this is just my intake in these 3 weeks, but of course i will revise this in time!!!
AFTER CHINA: ??
The family I'm staying with:
Well this will stay a mystery for a while...
