A lot has happened since I last wrote. I started my stay in Shanghai at the Ming Town Youth Hostel - not exactly Ming dynasty, but not minging either. I had a lovely few days walking around the city by myself - just getting to know where things are and how they work - I then realised that I was passing each day without speaking to a soul. As if by magic, I had lost my nerve in speaking not only Chinese but English too! Feeling shy has to be the worst affliction for the lone traveller and I needed to shake it off - FAST!
It didn't take long - and I was back to my chattering self - the phrasebook came out at every opportunity to use a new word and I even mustered some enthusiasm for the tedium of "backpacker chat" - whose been where, whose had the worst stomach upset, whose got the most horrendous travelling horror story etc, who can better the horrendous horror story with one that cost less money etc etc.
I soon found my new friends, Pip from Australia, and Marc from France. We are all studying at Fudan University together - so before we came to enrol in our classes we went to visit a Confucian temple in the city where we could follow in the footsteps of many Chinese students. It's traditional to write studious wishes on to red ribbons and tie them to the trees in the temple courtyard. This brought out the romantic in me - temple court yard filled with smoke from an incense burner, two large rubber trees and thousands of red ribbons blowing around in the breeze. I was really moved by so much hope hanging from each branch - and it's nice to know that my hope is tied there too to flutter around in the wind (or, as it turns out today, get soggy in the Shanghai rain).
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