And the beat goes on...

Me and Catherine in our favourite Western haunt, Fubar.

Time now for yet another probably-not-brief round-up of life in Urumqi, this time from coming back from our Golden Week travels, up to November 11th. Yeah, I guess November 11th seems a pretty arbitrary date, but it is in fact the day that Michele left us to go back to the States and also when we first noticed winter creeping up on us.
So what happened during this time? Seeing as it's now mid-March, I'm going to have to use my photos to do this, so it will be strictly chronological!
Firstly, on return from Hotan, Frankie had a few days left with us to explore Tianshan (Heavenly Mountain) and we also took her to the Uyghur club we know and love: Kabana. Pure joy. Though Frankie did hit a guy in the face. Well, if he's going to be silly, what can he expect. That was our big night out for a while, and may in fact be the last time we went to the club - that really needs to be rectified because we love it so much. Though I've heard tell that there's a better Uyghur club out there...
The next notable night out was the night we discovered the Scottish bar. Oh my. The bar was basically a bar-cum-restaurant and was decorated with shiny Christmas decorations and tinsel. The male staff were all decked out in kilts. Well, their interpretation of kilts, which were really just very long skirts. The women were inexplicably dressed as angels. It's traditionally Scottish, y'know. The tables had tartan tablecloth, and then it was about there that the Scottish theme ended. The beer they were trying to push was Coors Light... American. It swiftly became apparent that not only was this a Scottish place, but it was also a singles joint. They were running people's lonely hearts messages on LCD screens with contact numbers. For a laugh my friends secretly put mine and Nolan's information on... I doubt Chris would be overly happy about that but I would never respond : ) Later that night (at 5am, when I was safely ensconced in bed) I got a text message from a mystery fellow in Chinese saying: "I understand foreign cultures and languages implicitly." Nothing else. Then literally 15 minutes later, "and WHY haven't you text me back??" Wow. No wonder he's single.
Next chronologically was a trip to our landlady's apartment, where she fed us up good and proper. Mmmm. More on our landlady and our apartment at a future time though I think.
And then back to the nights out! Later in October we discovered the delightful Mongolian bar. Land of joy and dreams. I now seem to spend a bit too much of my time here. Perfect mix of music: slow dances and quiet music for a good chat and relax, then traditional Mongolian music (pure dead mental, as Tobin, the resident Glaswegian, would say), and then crazy Eurotrash dance music, with strobes to accompany, then back to the slow and quiet again. Slow dancing in China is totally different to in the west. In the west it is pretty much only acceptable to slow dance with your partner, but over here, dancing with someone doesn't have the same connotations. Plus it's not 'slow dancing' as we know it. It's just dancing, but more slowly! You assume a ballroom dance position but stand very far apart so you aren't touching, and basically turn in circles. It's kind of dull actually unless you are having a conversation with your partner, but it's also rude to turn down anyone who asks for a dance. So at the bar, I found myself dancing with any number of old drunken men. Which is okay for a laugh. Oh and also lots of girls too. Including one who followed me to the bathroom (I didn't notice this until too late) and had a conversation with me as she watched me pee (no doors in this toilet haha). Then when I was done she made me dance several dances with her. Crazy bint.
On Nolan's birthday we went out for a meal at our favourite Sichuan restaurant, where I tried baijiu for the first time. Baijiu is normally 50% and it doesn't taste that bad, but it is pretty powerful (by the end of the night, Nolan had passed out!) and is the Chinese drink of choice. They drink it at any time of day and it is not unusual to go for lunch and see baijiu toasting going on at the next, very raucous, table. 'Persuading' people to drink, normally through toasting them, is a Chinese national pastime. They say that the more people you can get to drink, the more that like you; if they refuse, it means they dislike you. And so, for this birthday occasion, we decided to adopt the sport to see how much we could get Nolan to drink through toasting and general persuasion. It wasn't that hard actually, as Nolan has a special place in his heart (liver) for baijiu. After the meal we moved on to the Mongolian bar, now our bar of choice, and there the persuasion continued, not so gently, with glasses of beer. Every time I am in that bar I am made to neck beer! I have learnt now that I can get out of this in one of two ways: playing up the fact that I am a girl, and therefore unable to consume alcohol like all these manly men around me (makes them feel good. Neanderthals.) or making my friend Bayindala drink it for me : )
I am not an alcoholic you see.
Though you wouldn't know this from my description of general life so far eh?!
Ah yes, my photos tell me that this was around the time we discovered that Urumqi has a Pizza Hut. That makes pizza JUST like the Pizza Huts in the west. Result! Far too much of my not-so hard-earned cash has already been spent in this establishment, though we do our best not to go there.
So up to this point, I had pretty much just been going to class when I wasn't ill, and going out on weekends in a big group to a variety of places, eating out at the usual places, and generally just settling in to a very comfortable life here!
The end of October hit, and we just had to celebrate Hallowe'en! We went up the two flights of stairs to Eric and Michele's, which had been very creatively decorated with paper ghosts and explanations of Hallowe'en for those not in the know. Our flat brought the drinks, and Michele and Eric had cooked up a storm. For the while we were all very distracted by the appearance of cheese, bought by Tobin and Tracey from Carrefour (yeah they have Carrefour here - it's like our European link) Real cheese. It didn't last long. But that was okay, because by then the cooked food was ready, and it was absolutely delicious. Well done to Eric and Michele for making my year with all the nummyness : D The party was full with everyone we knew, including Eric and Michele, Liam, Catherine, me, Rachel, Tobin and Tracey, Nolan, Jonny, Balindala, Ivan and Angelika, and a few others I haven't yet introduced: Andy, who was Nolan's friend from somewhere or other, is now our mutual friend and is one of the funniest guys ever; his then girlfriend (they've been forced to split up because his parents think as he is Muslim (Hui ethnicity) and she is not (she's of Han ethnicity), they cannot be together, even if she converts to Islam) which has really upset him and which I find completely unfair and unreasonable); Rachel's Uyhgur landlady and housemate Zohra; and Squeaky Voice Girl who is a Chinese Russian teacher at our uni and has a voice so unbelievably squeaky that it is actually incomprehensible. Liam remembers her as the girl that said he looked like Prince Charles, which really made us laugh, but is pretty cruel.
We loved the party as it was such a good mix of people. It was quite a small gathering so everybody talked to everybody (except I did not talk to Squeaky Voice Girl as I discovered fairly early on that I just couldn't deal with her voice, and Liam didn't talk to her because he hates her forever and ever). We also particularly enjoyed the Uyghur influence on our party: nobody was wearing shoes! When you enter a Uyghur house, the shoes come off. So at the party everyone automatically took them off. It felt genuinely strange to be at a party without shoes, but then also oddly right. We commemorated with a photograph. Also at the party, Eric and Nolan gave us a live performance with Eric on the guitar and banjo and Nolan on the erhu, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument, and with singing too. It was pretty good! Then Bayindala and Eric tried to teach me some guitar, but gave up pretty soon when they discovered JUST how unmusical I am.
So that was Hallowe'en. My photographs inform me that November before Michele left was fairly run of the mill; as you now know, run of the mill means eating out, studying, and bars at weekends. Our favourite is, as ever, Fubar. Fubar is just so fabulously Western, plus now they know us by name. I'm not sure if that's something to be proud of, or very ashamed about. One exciting happening at the start of November was the discovery of the Pakistani restaurant. How I wish we'd found it earlier! Amazing amazing amazing. I think I will do an entire post about food though so I will leave it till then.
Other than that very little happened. They increased the security on our apartment, so once we got well and truly locked out. Riveting. We went out on night to Fubar and I found a group of old British businessmen, mostly Liverpudlians, but one of them was from Burton-upon-Trent which was quite exciting. It was great to hear that Midlands twang! Nolan started up a 'speaker series' which was basically our very clever friends giving a casual talk once a week about their specialized topic. Eric went first with Language Planning Policy in Xinjiang in the 1930s and 40s... needless to say I knew nothing about this, but it was actually really interesting. And so I feel here I must introduce Will. Will is a South African, Jewish, gay, American Republican. I daresay he is one of a kind on that alone, but he also separates himself from us mortals through his impossible attitude. He is one of the most obnoxious people we have ever had the displeasure to meet, though if I'm honest I kinda miss him - every time he was there, you knew something interesting was going to happen! He argued with practically every person, though in fact he never did anything to cross me so I only dislike him for his treatment of others, particularly Catherine who he seemed to take pleasure in patronizing. Anyway, Will kindly ripped Eric's talk to pieces. Idiot. It was annoying that his talk, the following talk, was so well put-together - we all wanted to hate it! The problem with Will was that he was incredibly knowledgeable and clever, but he used that as a reason to look down on people rather than inform them. Anyway, after that the speaker series pretty much died out, though it was a good idea and it might be nice to start it back up again, so us stupids can learn stuff with the eggheads.
Then on 10th November, we went out for a goodbye meal as it was Michele's last night. The group of us had a meal at the Sichuan opposite our uni (there are three Sichuans of note: Prawns-and-Chips (our favourite dish of theirs, which Catherine and I always fight over) where Nolan had his birthday, the Sichuan near Fubar which we frequented at the beginning of our time here but now don't really ever go to, and the one opposite the uni gates which is kind of acceptable but not ab-fab). It was sad to see Michele go but she generously left Eric with us.

Authentic Scottish kilt with some authentic Scottish people (Urumqi's Scottish Contingent, which seems to be growing day by day).

Crazy Mongolian dancing: It's incredible to watch, but alas! When we foreigners come to try it, it seems genuinely physically impossible to move our body that way!

Some of the men at Nolan's Sichuan birthday dinner (l-r): Paul, Kader, Ahmad, Andy, Nolan and Liam

Nolan the ladies' man! Plus all the women at the party (l-r): 2 Uyghur women whose names I have sadly forgotten, Tracey (standing), Donna, the man himself, Catherine, Michele (standing), and yet another Uyghur girl whose name I can't remember. I suck : (

Our commemorative shoeless party photograph.

Hallowe'en shenanigans. In this photo you can see (l-r or as close as I can get!) Jonny the Kiwi in the foreground, Andy's girlfriend, Liam, me and Andy talking back left, Zohra in the foreground (Rachel's landlady and now my Chinese grammar tutor), Tracey, Tobin, Catherine and Paul talking in pairs back right, and Rachel - unmistakable with her green hair!

Nolan on the erhu and Eric playing banjo, performing some hits for us!