Back to China - Shanghai

As I was telling you after Philippinas I came back to China - Changzhou, as my relationship was in the end and Changzhou is a small chinese town and not many foreigners, not much there, I was already felling bad there and why not move somewhere else as the college. I was working has 9 schools in China, in different towns and also colleges in other countries.

I thought about Mumbai - India, I did a research about and I found out if I was feeling bad in China at this moment, go to India shouldn't be the right choice, then I thought what you mainly complain about Changzhou, it is a small chinese town, why not go to bigger one? I decided to ask to transfer to Shanghai, has a bigger college and it is a bigger city than Changzhou.

And yes, it was a relieve to be in Shanghai, basically you could find anything you want there. The school there also was great, I was working with 20 foreigner teachers just in my department - Visual Communication, all them specialized in interactive media and graphic design and I was working with other 2 Brazilians there, could speak a bit of Portuguese sometimes.

Always is great to move to a different environment, you feel yourself like a discoverying this new world around you. Funny enough even if all those foreigns and Chineses around me, I was feeling pretty lonely. But I discovered many things like the only Chinese girl friend I made there Elena, truly a good friend in the sense of the word friend. Well but we got on so well I believe because she lived in Europe for almost 10 years, it helps alot to interactive with someone from the western culture.

And found out again my deeply interested in music.

My brief story with music: I studied music when I was kid, classical music; when I was 18 years I was in a rock band in Brasilia (my hometown), pretty much experimental rock called Animais dos Espelhos.

Well everything about my own music production started when I lived in UK, I will talk more about it when I tell you about my story when I lived in Europe. Now lets centralized in my story with music in Shanghai.

As I said before Im living moving around the world now for 10 years, and I always wanted to produce music as I did before in Brasilia, but because my life style I needed to adapt what I want to do to the moment. As I'm a multimedia lecturer, I thought, you can do music by yourself now asday and I had a got in touch with many people doing it in UK, yes, electronic music as I already love it from my time in UK.

I bought some equipment to do it in China and I started to do it there as I was very lonely and not much interested in China anymore. Basically quite a few weekends I stayed at home producing music. In the college I was working has a Fashion course and I met a lecturer half Brazilian half Chinese that did 2 fashion shows and invited me to do the music for the show, experimental music, and wow it was a great chance for me to produce more seriously my music.

The link of a bit of these musics
http://www.icompositions.com/artists/Snevols

Each music had a concept based on the design of the clothes, was a amazing experience, as I needed to direct the sound of the composition to the idea of the clothes, it is just design, clothes+sounds and for me it was a very rich experience and apartt from working in the college, I was working with something that I love as much as interactive media, the subject I was teaching. Through the network websites, well not Facebook, Twitter, they are blocked in China, but a local one, I met quite a few people, mainly guys and I met a Malaysian one, sound designer.

We got on quite well, he loves experimental music as much as me, and we shared our experience composing music and... I thought I was in love for this guy because our such similar musical taste and I was...wrong!

Music is a connection, but it is very different from feelings like love.
Even attraction, you can have but is more attraction for the music.
Well I always had this dream that one day I would find a guy that like to produce music with very similar musical taste as mine. But yes it is a dream, but why be so fix on it? After this experience that I just told you, I detached more of this dream or illusion?

I guess I have it because since I know myself as Raquel, my life has a strong connection with music.

How everything started

Here I'm back my hometown Brasilia and it is not being so nice, I have this disease, Multiple sclerosis, Im taking the injections that avoid you have attacks, but this the only good point to be back Brazil, I've trying to get work here and nothing, may be because I'm too specialized for Brazil, but I just tried in Brasilia, maybe I should go to bigger cities like Sao Paulo, but even there I'm not sure if I can find work.

Brazil developed a bit, it is true, but still a lot of work to be done to step up to a second world country, for me still a third world country.

Anyway without work and a life here?
I don't think I will stay longer here.

Anyway, my purpose for this blog, it is tell my story around the world

For me make sense start all from the last place I was living


CHINA!! Changzhou

China was a very interesting experience. Quite different from any culture I've ever imagine. And working teaching Interactive media for the Chinese guys was a great experience, I can say I would not go back to live there, but as a life experience was amazing, I've learned about the world and myself as person.

I've lived in 2 towns there: Changzhou and Shanghai, my first 2 years I spent living in Changzhou, teaching there for the same school - Raffles Design Institute.

Do they speak English? A little, they speak as much English as majority of the population in Brazil, almost nothing.

Did you need to learn Mandarin? No, I've always had a translator with me in the classes. All my classes always were in English.

But it was very interesting to see the interaction between me and the Chinese students, firstly they were coming to try to talk with me and of course I've answered in English and they look at me as they are understanding but NO!

But if you look their faces you think they are, this something I've learned from them; they never never can be ashamed! Its a very bad bad posture in China, I've heard about it, in all Asia, but I just perceived it in China.

Physical living conditions in Changzhou, first apartments I've lived there not very good, but after I situated myself there I found what is not too bad and cheap (it is cheap because Changzhou is a small town).

Life was not bad by this time, good apartment, good job ah I found a boyfriend, not Chinese, but French. Many foreigners going to China to work, as you get paid well and live well and for men you can have all those Chinese girls surround you. In my first year in China I completely hated all those girls, for me they were going around the foreigners, almost attacking them to have something with them, aarggghhh!!

And Im a woman, as anybody around the world, you can be alone for a while, but after a while we need to find a partner, someone to share life and in case Chinese men was not for me at all, but the foreigners were going to the Chinese girls aarrrgghh!!

Then luckily I found this French guy Ronan, he is working for a Belgium company in Changzhou.

We spent one year and a half together and it was a good relationship, I don't have complain about.

I had a few serious relationships lets say 4 or 5 ones, and this one with Ronan was a very good one, almost no arguments, we are very similar kind of people.

I can see after a few relationships that I'm stepping up in this aspect, has a evolution, you dont do the same mistakes and silly things that you did before, definitely a evolution and I can say that next relationship ( Ronan was the last one) will be better as I'm 37 years and all the time I'm learning better to deal with live, so....

Relationship, a man, a partner forever??? I sometimes miss it, but I ask myself. does it exist? I'm still checking out...

My problem is, I built up myself to be very independent, so after sometime specially after 30 years, you feel you need to settled down and stop somewhere alone?? Loneless is not nice now, it was a few years ago but now, I don't feel anymore in this way

But anyway it is just life, lets come back to my story.

I had a different experience with Ronan in Changzhou, may be just different for me; surprisingly one day going holiday with him to Hong Kong I found out I was pregnant.

I never expected this in my life but I didn't think was a bad situation, I was with a good job, good boyfriend, why not have the baby?

First thing that really scared me 'has a baby to live in China???!!!' Different culture etc...

But I didn't have time enough to think about it, I had a miscarriage in the second month of this pregnancy and then I felt really bad, that is normal and my relationship with Ronan started to go down to the hole.

I think now I should talk a bit about my holidays in Asia.
I didn't travel to all the countries in Asia just, Malaysia, Phillipinas and Thailand.
You can check the pictures in my FLICKR website, ah and in China I went to travel holiday in many towns