Settling into life in Suzhou
Last Friday, Mr Norway and I decided to make the most of his last day of freedom and headed down to the picturesque Pingjiang Road in the old district of Suzhou. The old buildings on this street have been converted into shops and restaurants, and they all overlook a rather scenic canal. It was extremely muggy (as it has been since we got here), and Mr Norway’s colleagues were gobsmacked to learn that we were out and about in this weather. Like Singaporeans, I think the Chinese prefer to hibernate when it’s hot outside.

At lunch we got to try Suzhou’s famous Bi Luo Chun green tea, which came recommended for ‘this weather’. Despite its watery and colourless appearance, the tea was fragrant, subtle and very delicious. It started raining while we ate — not a proper downpour, but an insipid on-and-off drizzle. We had not brought our umbrellas out, but after seven years in Norway, walking through a few warm droplets really isn’t a big deal.

Since the classical gardens of Suzhou are on the UNESCO World Heritage List, we decided it was time to check out our first one: the Couple’s Retreat Garden, which poetically alludes to an elderly couple enjoying their golden years in solitude. It was very apt, since Mr Norway and I are definitely on our way to being an old married couple, and here in Suzhou we have all the solitude we could ask for.

Over our first weekend in Suzhou, I attended my first yoga class over in SIP. It took about an hour to get there by train, which is pretty packed on the weekends. Mr Norway and I also visited the famous pants building, also known as Suzhou Center, or the Gate to the East. As the tallest building in Suzhou, it’s a pretty impressive structure. We also attended my university’s opening ceremony, but we lasted only 45 minutes before Mr Norway wanted to leave and we sought refuge at Eslite Spectrum, which is the nicest mall I’ve been to in this city so far, and which has a large bookstore selling a decent selection of English books.

Since then, other milestones we’ve reached in our settling in and getting acquainted with the city process include eating our first Chinese hotpot meal (AMAZING), Mr Norway signing up at a very posh gym, and me cooking my first meal in our new home. I burnt the food slightly, because I’m not used to cooking on a gas stove. Luckily Mr Norway wasn’t here to eat it with me — he’s had dinner engagements two nights in a row, and it would have been a third tonight had I not protested. His workmates are a social bunch, it seems, and don’t seem to have qualms hanging out after they’ve already put in a full day at work. Maybe I’ve been Norwegianised because I feel bad for their husbands and children waiting for them at home. To be fair, I don’t exactly sit around pining for Mr Norway to come rescue me from boredom. I have been occupied with cleaning, laundry, writing (not this blog), and walking over 10,000 steps a day. In fact, I attended a second yoga class closer to home — this time in Chinese — and when in China we overachieve, because I got to do a bunch of poses I never knew existed. Nonetheless I have signed up at this studio — I have been suckered by the deluge of compliments the salesgirl has paid me, about my looks, my looks, and oh my headband, which is so cool that she wants to buy one too. Let’s see what I’ve achieved physically by the time I’m done with China.
The most important milestone deserves a paragraph of its own. Today — NINE days after arriving here — we finally opened a bank account for Mr Norway. We’d been told we could not do this till he had sorted out his residence permit (which he won’t apply for till next Wednesday, and won’t receive till at least a week from that day), but then suddenly after a bunch of phone calls, it turned out we could! I love how ‘fluid’ things are in China — not! So I took him to the bank and filled out the paperwork for him, and refilled it out when the teller said mistakes were not allowed, and asked questions on his behalf, and translated everything like a good wife does, and voila, he now has a bank account! Which means he has a bank card, which means he has Alipay, which means life in China for Mr Norway has officially started! I, on the other hand, am not eligible to apply for a bank account because I am on a student visa which is valid for only six months. No worries — I will sort this out next Monday when I go apply for a residence permit for a year. The only catch? They only accept payment via bank card or Alipay.
ps. Living in Asia again really is pretty great. Apart from missing Ailo so much that it hurts, there is actually nowhere else I’d rather be.