Asia | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity

My troubling joints led me to Shanghai East International Medical Center in Pudong. I felt been well looked after although I had thought they’d x-ray or do a sonography. According to the doctor the problems might be caused by a virus and should vanish at most six weeks after they began. Let’s hope so.

Tea that you get for free at most restaurants (if they don’t serve hot water). I’m still unsure whether it’s bottled or tap water. The tea makes it hard to taste the chlorine but I often think they just cook the tap water. That might kill bacteria but not remove the chemicals.

It’s also not so easy to drink only the fluid not the tealeaves. A Chinese friend suggested to blow on the surface. Works. Kind of.

KFC closes at 10 pm. Very strange.

On walking to one of the cafeterias we passed several booths. I was asked to take part in a survey. At least that’s what I understood. I thought why not, filled in my name, email address and telephone number and they promised to contact me. I asked what we’d do then and they said something about an interview and that they’d be happy if I’d join them. Join what? Seems to be some kind of student council. I’m not sure. But I have no intention to join.

We walked on and found more clubs in front of the cafeteria:

I left my number at a dance club. Thought that could be interesting.

Next day:

My landlady’s grandson just came in, crashed his remote control car against my water bottle and left. Perhaps I should start to lock my room.

It’s so good to have Chinese friends. They can read the menus and bus schedules, know all the strange things in the supermarkets and find out how to tell an air conditioning to use hot instead of cold air.

That had taken me about an hour yesterday. And today I walked to university because I couldn’t find the right bus. Not the most comfortable thing with my hurting ankle.

Had to move again. Now I’m staying here until at least the beginning of July. Living out of the suitcase finally has an end.

Because most foreigners can’t pronounce the Chinese names correctly many Chinese get themselves an English one. Today I met Zyclops…

I wanted to take a picture of the McDonalds menu but the lady tore it away quickly. No idea why. Particularly because she handed it back to let us order. And then they gave us the take-away menu. I could have taken a picture of that…

At least I could try the Banana Pie that’s advertised all over the city:

I don’t have to have it again. Too sweet filling and a strange sour crust.

This was never intended to become a food blog and I promise to stop. But finding something to eat isn’t that easy and the things you get may not be what you expect them to be. So, another restaurant that seemed a little bit more exalted than the ones before:

I’m feeling like an old man. Elbow and jaw are getting better but now I can’t put pressure on my left ankle. Last night, I had to turn off the air conditioning because I didn’t know how to tell it that I wanted hot instead of cold air (works now). It got ice-cold, my cold that’s been on the mend got worse again and I got a cough as well.

I know I was completely healthy when I left Germany.