祝你圣诞快乐。。。

So, as everyone in the West knows, Sunday was Christmas. Stranded in the Far East with no family, no festive recognition from the locals and certainly no Christmas meats, it was set to be a bleak celebration of the birth of Christ. We were happily rescued from this outcome, however, by a Canadian friend called Alex. Having been away from home many a year, even spending one Christmas solo in a random city in China, he understood the lonely hearts of the fellow 'the-chinese-don't-celebrate-christmas-so-we-have-no-holiday-and-are-therefore-stuck-in-china' westerners.

This is Alex

We had our doubts about how the day was gonna pan out, for various reasons. But it turned out to be a very lovely day indeed. Indeed. First of all we had to arrange some presents to participate in what will now be referred to a 'the vicious game' [wait for the explanation], as well as some treats to share with the group. For the treats we just brought a leftover crate of beer [don't ask] and some oranges [most foreigners in China haven't had sight or sound of fruit in about 1 and 1/2 years], which went down quite well. Out presents were a wallet [with a cold-weather face mask], a Tea set and an incense burner, bought by myself, Serrena and Holly respectively. Just a quick side note, Alex's house is pretty frickin' huge. It has two floors, several bedrooms 2 bathrooms and a bar. Yes, a bar. He is the only person who lives there. This is relevant to the latter part of the story.

So after we got there we were anti-social for while, you know, took a short nap whilst the other guests flowed in. Then we found out there was Bailey's and cheese cake, so we got a little more involved in the celebrations. After much chatting and socialising it then became 'Vicious Present Swap' game time [sorry, I changed the name]. So, the idea of this game is that all the presents go under the tree and people's names are picked out of a hat one by one to get a present [see above picture for name-picking example]. However, if you like a present that someone else has already picked, you can steal it. I know, right? Such an American game, just stealin' other people's sh*t like that. I got an alright present out of it, some mini-Chinese bowling pins and a push-out paper dragon from Muji. Serrena very unslyly stole back the incense that Holly had bought and, after having to choose a present for the third time, ended up with the very cool mini-Guzheng. 

I know no one knows what a Guzheng is,
so this is a picture of a girl playing one

After the presents and eggnog were all finished and the first people started trickling out to go to their overpriced [though admittedly western] dinners, people started to find different ways to pass the time. After a few comments about how awesomically large Alex's house is as well as the innumerable amount of cupboards it contains, the idea of hide-and-seek followed by Sardines came into play. It was a wonderous afternoon of play - I think the fact that it was a pyjama party helped the regression into childhood. 

In the evening we didn't really have a any sort of proper dinner...actually we just went to some overpriced Japanese restaurant with about 4 other people. Although later on I went to a bar [where Alex plays guitar, he also has a beautiful voice] and that was nice.

Aaannnd that was my Christmas. Hope everyone who's reading this had a considerably better one! Here, have some pictures, and possibly a video.

This is Tetsuya - he got my present, which you can tell is awesome
by how happy  he looks :)

The tea set that Serrena bought was eventually stolen
by Warren

Comments & Questions       ^.^     Xx

P.S The title means 'Wish you a Merry Christmas'. The 'We' is implied...

Just a quick rant

I had gotten used to 随便 [suibian, lit 'as you please', here casually] studying and going to class as I wished, sometimes going out for dinner with friends, sometimes not even doing my homework. However, in the last few weeks everything's 差不多[chabuduo, more or less] gone to sh*t. Excuse the chinglish, you will soon discover why.

So we have exams soon. 'What of Christmas?!' I hear you cry, outraged from your fully decorated, Christmas ready homes. 'What is this Christmas of which you speak?' I reply, while you try as hard as you can to ignore the single tear rolling down my cheek. Do you know what I'm doing on Christmas eve and, more than likely, New Year's? Revising. Why take it to such extremes? Maybe because the Chinese have never heard of study leave. Now, I know my mum's gonna bring up some old school 3rd world crap about how back in her day there was none of this 'study leave' business, but I've already 习惯了d [xiguanle, gotten used to, the 'd' on the end is deliberate]. You can't just take it away like that! So, generally stressed about exams, as one tends to be.

So, knowing that we haven't yet finished our courses, you'd think the study-happy Chinese people would leave us to 努力学习[nuli xuexi, study really, really hard] in peace - after all we still have homework on top of revision. But no, ooooohhh no. What do they give us instead. An end of year 外国人[waiguoren, foreigners] production - singing, dancing, acting the lot. Now, in the next case of stressing my life, I wholly blame myself. Not wanting to take part in a mundane international rendition of 'Rudolph the Red-nose Reindeer', I volunteered myself to be a bit creative and write a Kungfu Play [stay tuned for a post on that one]. Nothing too complicated, just a bit of 'you killed my father?!' here, a bit of 'Shifu, please teach me well!' there. But it turns out I'm now the director of this play. Now, you know what I'm like when I'm in control - perfection is required. From everyone.

I cast the cast, wrote the story, wrote half the lines, creative and [in places] musically directed and set up and ran rehearsals. Sorry, I'm using the past tense too much. THIS IS STILL GOING ON. This bloody thing is in two days we have a total of 1/2 of the costumes, some of it practised, most people not coming to practise, no props and too many last minute decisions. 'Why don't we add this music here' 'Why don't we fight like this' 'Why don't we make some scenery'. This is why: WE HAVE NO TIME FOR THIS BS. Just read your lines and maybe we'll get away with it being a bit on the jokes side. Please. Just...please. To be honest, thank god I'm in control, if I was just participating I would have killed a few people by now... I refuse to mention names. At least from my position I have the power to inform people they will no longer be participating.

So this has all been going on until now- I had calmed down a bit when I realised that actually the main characters were quite reliable and I'm no longer in charge of every aspect, but then possibly the last thing that I could have wanted to happen JUST happened. Baring in mind this performance is occurring on Friday, and I have a part in this play as narrator as well as having to schedule more rehearsals, my teacher just called me to tell me I would be one of the hosts of the WHOLE production. I'm sorry, what? You want to tell me this................................................................................................now? Right now, is when you're telling me? We're not talking about a week ago, or preferably when I asked my teacher in passing about a month ago and just assumed I hadn't been chosen. You tell me 2 HOURS AGO that I am the 主持人 [zhuchiren, self-exaplanatory, if not look it up]?!?!?!?!?!!?!

Screw you China. Screw you.

So, now you understand why I haven't post anything in a while - because my life, at the moment, is balls. It is so balls, in fact, that I was originally going to call this post just 'Balls', but I thought the meaning would be lost upon those of you not among my immediate acquaintances. And Shinya.
Excuse me while I have no time to go and cry in a corner.

Comments & Help!       :'(      xx

Concrete Plans

Today I'm just going to outline my holiday plans for the period before I come back to the UK. Be jealous. Be very jealous. After a lot of shifting, sifting, advice and an absolutely disgusting amount of maths, I've kinda, sorta come up with something that looks like a travel itinerary. I use the word 'concrete' extremely loosely, as - since I've just been informed that flights in China are cheaper the closer you get to the date - I haven't booked anything yet. But yeah, consider this a free history [and tourism] lesson!

So first off I'm planning on going to Xi'an.

Here be 西安

Xi'an is, essentially, where a lot of sh*t went down in the past, and  one of the most important places you have to go to if you actually want to be taken seriously when you say 'I've travelled around China'. It was the capital of China for about 1000 years, and is where Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor of China, reigned. If you've forgotten who that is, just watch Hero or The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. So, as the paranoid, I'm gonna say slightly superstitious 1st Emperor of the whole of China from 221BC, Shi Huangdi had his Terracotta Warriors commissioned from the weapons he confiscated from his enemies. Today, they are the number one attraction in what some tour guides and even historians are calling western China. Looks pretty central to me, but I'm just gonna roll with it. I suppose it's pretty west compared to everything else going on in China.

Besides the Terracotta statues, there is also the Ming Dynasty tombs and Drum and Bell towers to explore. Xi'an city wall is also the oldest, most complete CITY wall [yeah, we all know what other wall I'm referring to here] still standing in China, having been built during the Ming Dynasty [1368-1644]. Apparently Xi'an also has a great Muslim quarter, the Muslims having arrived very early on as Xi'an is the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, an ancient trading route running from Europe to China through Asia. It's mainly the street food that everyone raves about though.

From Xi'an I will be taking a really long night train [roughly 13 hours] to the modern capital of China Beijing.

Thar' be 北京

We all know what Beijing is and what it's about, but a little reminder is always nice. China's second largest city after Shanghai, Beijing has been the seat of power in China since the Ming Dynasty. Another nice little fact Wikipedia informs me, is that Beijing is really flat and only has 3 hills. I guess that's why so many people cycle there. Obvious top attractions include the Great Wall, the Forbidden City [the largest ancient palatial structure in the world], Tiananmen Square and the more recent Bird's Nest Stadium.

There's plenty else to discover in Beijing of course, as there always is with a major city. The city has many narrow, winding streets called hutongs, something only found in Beijing. Apparently very nice for a wander, but very easy to get lost in as many are not marked on maps. The Southern Gong and Drum lane is one such street and is the most famous and one of the oldest hutongs in Beijing, as well as being very popular with foreigners. The Beijing Ancient Observatory also caught my eye, but that's mainly because I'm a history geek. Also I think it's free to get in. As I'm only in Beijing for 4 days and 3 nights, I found Wikipedia's travel guide very useful for organising my trip, especially in terms of prioritising - 3 Days in Beijing.

After a quick zip back to Dalian and a few days rest, I'm off to my final destination in the frozen North of China, Harbin.

Here lies 哈尔滨...and 北京 again

China's northernmost major city, Harbin has a lot of Russian influence, as well as being famous for being the best place to study in the north-eastern part of China. It's really cold in winter though. If you read one of my previous posts [下雪，下学] you would know that my reason for visiting such a place in the middle of winter is for Harbin's famous Ice Festival. 

I don't really feel the need to show you anymore pictures, so I'll tell you what else there is to do, you know, in case you're thinking of visiting for some reason. There are a suspicious amount of religious buildings, such as the Synagogue [it's actually called the New Jewish Synagogue, but I thought it's Jewishness would be evident from...Synagogue] the St. Sophia [Orthodox] Catherdral and a Confucius temple or 文庙 [wenmiao]. There's also a lot of Russian architecture, which I have absolutely no interest in as well as the Stalin Park, which I'm strangely curious about. Also, I've heard people go swimming in the Songhua river during the deep winter. Now that I gotta see.

Comments & Questions      ^.^   Xx

News and Culture: All the Brains in the World

We all know there's a sh*t load of people in China, but did you know they're all really smart? Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, but that must be what it seems like to every Chinese parent, high school student and soon-to-be graduate. In a recent lesson, a teacher asked us whether we thought a Chinese student's life was fulfilled. We, of course, replied that we didn't know, we hardly ever see them. The teacher laughed, "Of course not" she said, “Chinese students only go to lessons, to the canteen and back to their rooms to study". And it's true - the university I'm at has no adverts for extra-curricular activities, and as far as sports teams go it seems you're either in them or you're not. There's not even a collegiate Hoodie for crying out loud! 

The point I'm trying to make is that this week's post is going to be about why the Chinese are so obsessed with studying and getting good grades. I feel that this is relevant as I seem to have entered into an educational system where 70% is considered slacking. "Why is China so mean?!" asks Sophie, when I tell her this. Well, this is why.

In 2011 [so I'm gonna say now] there will be [are] 7.3 million University graduates in China and in 2003 alone the number of people in higher education was 17 million. In 2009 in the UK, the number of graduates was almost 335,000, whilst the number of people applying for university in 2011 was 633,811 for 490,000 places. Bai Yong, a teacher and expert on graduate employment [no, I don't know what that is either], points out that it's just as difficult for companies as it is for students concerning employment. It's all fine and dandy for those with no education, but graduates expect something for having worked so hard, and that's where they're running into problems. He stays positive however, it's always nicer to have a smart population [Interview]. The point I picked up on however, is that noone wants to end up in a job where the wages are low, the hours are long and the work tiring as opposed to tiresome. Or at least, their parents don't want them to. Therefore everyone wants to get into university to avoid this problem - but surely it can't be that easy? So why is it that so many people are getting into Higher education? Why, it's all that hard work of course.

According to a China daily article, Chinese children have no time to play, to the extent that they spend more time in the classroom than their parents do at work. The story of one girl, Zhuzhu, is actually quite disheartening - she, like most Chinese children, has extra-curricular activities on the weekend as well as tutoring [some people get home tutoring, others go to day school]. All this because her mother is so aware of the competition for University places and, later, jobs. "She'll have time to play after she enters University" apparently. Mate, not from what I've seen.  Another girl apparently committed suicide because she didn't get into the Highschool she wanted. And you thought the job market in the UK was tough. [Article]

My favourite segment from an article I just read about a 'wolf-dad' who has brought up 4 'stereo-typically successful children' reads: "Xiao’s children’s life before college was an endless round trip between school and home. No extracurricular activities, playdates, or sleepovers were allowed. At home, TV, soft drinks, free access to the Internet, snacks and air conditioning were all banned. Even visiting a classmate’s house involved a complicated application procedure, including getting the signature of the kids’ headmaster." Lol? [Article]

In one of our listening lessons, our teacher showed us this video clip:10 Minutes to learn about China [Watch it 0.o]. It's a great intro to China if you've just been perusing my blog without actually knowing anything about the place I'm living in, but the main part I want to highlight is at 3:28, the bit about education [although at 1:50 something hilarious and kinda sad occurs. Just watch the whole thing, it's quite interesting and mainly accurate.] For those of you who didn't bother, it basically says that Chinese kids can memorise a lot of info, but don't have the ability to analyse this information, or do anything else basically. They don't participate in extra-curricular activities, mainly cause they're too busy preparing for those exams they seem to have at every second of their lives. It's actually something you notice in China too - you don't see any children over the age of about 7 out playing, or even out! You'd be surprised how many listening exercises revolve around people's kids not getting into a good middle school because they only have a 75% grade average.

In sort of other news, but along the same lines, a phrase that keeps popping up in my life more and more often nowadays is 'networking'. Not really sure of what it means, I panic less for myself and more for my already graduated/ soon to graduate friends.

"I need to network!" Exclaimed Eva, graduating from the LSE this year.

"I don't want to enter the real world!" I exclaimed in return. Why can't we just continue studying forever? We agreed.

And if we feel like that, how do Chinese students -  who have done nothing their entire lives besides studying -  feel? Do they have this concept of networking? And how easy - in a country famous for corruption - is it for those without connections to work their way to the top? Well, if you continued to watch the video, at about 7 minutes in  when it starts talking about 面子 [mianzi, lit. face] and 关系 [guanxi, relationships/ connections], you'll see that they do have this concept, in fact possibly to a further degree than we do in the west. It's all about keeping/saving face in China, as our teachers constantly remind us.

So something to think about, when you think that it's all going horribly wrong for you at any particular point in your career, or you're finding things a bit 'hard': Life for Chinese children is a competition. An uphill struggle. I would even go as far to say it's a fight. From the minute they enter school, everyday for the next 12 years is going to be hell... Wow, ok that was a bit much, but yes. Life is hard for Chinese children, and now you know why. Pray for them, because they don't have the time to.


Comments & Questions           :(     xx

下雪，下学 (Xiàxuě, Xiàxué)

As you can see from the title of my post, I'm now good enough at Chinese to make my wit international. The literal meaning of the title is 'Snowing, Finish school', which, conveniently enough, is what I want to talk about. Oh, and for those of you still in awe: that's right, I punned in Mandarin.

So Dalian is 冻死了【Dongsile, essentially 'cold enough to kill a person'】at the moment, to the extent that my teacher actually thanked us for coming into class today. The Belarussians just nodded gravely - they're used to this sh*t. But not me, and certainly not at this time of the year. You can all see the date, right? On Tuesday [the 22nd, depending on when I post this] it started snowing. S-n-o-w-i-n-g. It's f***ing November! As Serrena would say "Are you sh*tting on my face?!" Today I was actually raped by the wind on my way to school, to the extent that a normally 15-20 minute walk took just over half an hour. They wouldn't call a snow day, not even in the UK [the snow will not settle with these gale force winds] but it's already -3 degrees. But that's ok, it won't stay like this. It will get colder and colder every month reaching [declining to?] a peak [how do you say this?!] of -15. Excuse me? People actually live like this? Until APRIL?! Needless to say, I'm not 一直 [yizhi, continuously, always] staying here.

I'm planning to 回国 [huiguo, return to the motherland] for a few weeks between Jan and mid-Feb, but besides that I've decided that Dalian is just too... anyway, I can't stay here. Holly and Serrena are going travelling and so am I. Having complained about cold for this long, I feel now is the right time to tell you that I'm going to Harbin for a few days to see the Ice festival at the northern-most region of China during the coldest part of the year... ^-^! In my defence, being an Ice festival it only takes place in winter, and I'm only going to be around at the beginning of the holidays [when it will be all nice and fresh] or at the end [when it would have been trampled down into slushy brown puddles of something-that-used-to-be-a-statue-of-Mao-but-now-looks-like-something-my-dog-threw-up-ness]. And look how pretty and extravagant and Asian everything is:

And look how nice my Hostel of Choice sounds.

I also wanted to go Dandong to wave at some North Koreans from across the border, but I was informed that Winter may not be the best time for that. 'That' being going outside. I may also squeeze Beijing in there somewhere before I return to the UK. In February, I may take a trip down south to Hainan Dao [Dao = Island] a place in China where there is no winter [why am I in the North again?] or somewhere else warm and fun. We'll see what the funds are saying.

Sorry about all the Chinglish today guys! I'd just finished doing my homework - you're lucky I didn't write this in Chinese first then google translate yo' ass. 

Comments & Questions  ^.^     Xx

P.S. I was recently informed that the URL for my blog was incorrect, as I do speak Chinese, and that my blog was, indeed, not as witty nor as entertaining as I thought [or think] it was [is]. Well, to that person, 1. I do not speak Chinese, and you know this! And 2. Find something better to do with your time then, and stop wasting it reading boring things. Hmph.

News and Culture: China is Taking Over the World

I thought I was having trouble finding something to write about this week, as everything I was reading was about this G20 and APEC [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation] meetings and you know... I don't really get economics. But I eventually realised that that was the story. You know how we all know that China's going to take over the world? Well, apparently it's happening a lot sooner than we thought.

As you may or may not know, depending on your outlook on international politics, the G20 summit took place at  some point in Cannes, as did the APEC [in Honolulu, that's right, the top dogs got a holiday to Hawaii] and the big news was meetings between China's current paramount leader Hu Jintao and the man himself, Obama. You can read more about that on your own time. At the summit in general, Hu talked about the need for development in the APEC and the need for equal economic development opportunities. The article is available for you to read here, but the gist I got from it is that China is going to try and develop with a bigger focus on balance and green energy, and countries need to back-off with the protectionism.

If you don't know about Big Hu, here's a little bit for you. Coming from seriously humble origins and rising to power despite his father's denunciation during the Cultural Rev,  Hu was a bright pupil and managed to rise through the ranks of the Communist party. Although he's not got much going on in the sparkle department, he has presided over a period of continuous growth in China, cementing it as a world power. And, you know, a scandal free government's always nice. He seems like a sweet guy.

Anyway, during the APEC all eyes seemed to be on China. In the G20 as well, China couldn't help but take the centre stage as European countries look to what is essentially still a developing country for some bailout: China Daily article. And why is this? Why, because China is the most important country in the world all of a sudden. "Yuan to replace Dollar in 10 years" and "US vs China: Who rules?" are just a couple of examples of headlines that have popped up after the first few weeks of November [China - rt]. Being one of the only countries in the world whose economy has not taken a hit but, on the contrary, has steadily increased for over a decade, there are rumours flying that China is going to be number one sooner than we all thought and that the Yuan might soon be the world's reserve currency. Though that might get a bit irritating as their largest note is the equivalent of a tenner.

And the US? Well, apparently they're on the way out and [surprisingly enough] aren't taking it too well. But before you pin me as a sensationalist, here's the article that I'm summarising for you to glance over: http://rt.com/news/us-china-yuan-tension-229/, as well as China post's front page http://www.chinapost.com.tw/china/. So yeah, just so you can't say you weren't warned, China's comin' to get ya'. Good luck to you, westerners!

In other news, here's some Interesting Shorts I found whilst perusing, enjoy!

Comments & Questions

News and Culture: Singles Day

In order to force myself to read more about Chinese news and culture I've decided that I'm going to do a discussion/homework style post every week - this way we can all be well informed :-). Don't worry though, I'll try and include all the usual levels of wit and academically profound writing style.

This week's post is going to focus on the Chinese 'pop-culture' holiday Singles Day or 光棍节 [guangunjie], which takes place on the 11th of November. No, they don't celebrate Armistice Day in China. Although 节[jié] in this context means 'festival', as you don't get any time off and Hallmark doesn't make a card for it, I think just 'day' or even 'evening' would be a much more appropriate translation. Originating in Nanjing University in 1993, Single's Day is meant to be celebrated with single friends either eating dinner or going on 'blind dates' to bid farewell to their single lives. It's also a day where Chinese people depart from their usual manner of trying to pay for everyone else and everyone pays for themselves instead, sort of as a show of independence.

According to Wikipedia [look, it's not coursework ok?]: "For breakfast on Singles Day, singles often eat four Youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks) representing the four "ones" in "11.11" and one Baozi(steamed stuffed bun) representing the middle dot." See, you learn something new everyday. Did you know they were planning on making a card for it? Although, someone pointed out "who would send a card to a single person?"...Slightly harsh.

We went to our usual haunt [if you don't know it's Hopscotch, you obviously haven't been reading the blog very carefully], and I saw the most Chinese people I had ever seen there. We had remarked that the number of Chinese coming to H lately had been more than usual, but seriously. It's like they had all been at home being too busy and single to ever come out before - but here they all were, all at once. DJ Jiaozi [you remember him?] was going around handing out glow-stick wristbands to all singles, so that they were easily identifiable. However, as some of my Chinese friends told me, there weren't any 帅哥[guys, specifically good-looking on a day like this] to tempt them. We went to a Chinese club later as well and, as expected, that was packed too. Although it could have just been a typical Friday night.

So, to sum up: Singles Day, get involved! I think it would help liven up Armistice day as well: a sober day followed by a not-so-sober evening. To be honest, from what I've seen the Chinese one is pretty tame so they might be a bit offended by a western take on the whole thing, especially if there's a Geordie Shore Special on it.


A couple of other news items:
1. The Chinese seem suspiciously excited that Berlusconi is resigning - 'Berlusconi resigns, crowds in Rome celebrate'. Also, I love how the new guy in charge is called Mario - go Italy!
2. Did you know they're opening an Angry Birds shop?! Come on now people... '1st Angry Birds shop
3.Pandas coming to Edinburgh! Now I will actually have to go to Edinburgh Zoo...again when I get back - Pandas coming soon to UK
4. For those of you who actually care about China's economy [Tim], a little light reading about the woes of protectionism - China's boom a boon to US business


Aaaannnnd finally, I couldn't be bothered to find an article about it, but congratulations World on containing 7 billion people! Random interesting fact, did you know the population of the world has more than doubled in the past 50 years? Another fact, 25% of the world's population is on the 406 bus that I get to Uni every morning.

Comments & Questions    XxX

Curry! (Amongst other things)

Many of you are probably questioning the exclamation mark in the post title and, as usual, I've taken it upon myself to explain what all the hub-bub is about. So, on Wednesday night we went out for curry - Indian Curry. It was incredible. Now, I don't want to be one of those blogger-dicks who talks about how amazing all their experiences in the country that you're not in are [I'm already one of those two laptop-dicks], but I need to talk about this Curry. Why? Because it wasn't Chinese food. It could've actually been sh*t [the butter chicken wasn't that great], but if it doesn't come with rice, noodles or some very suspicious cuts of meat it usually tastes like it was made by the gods to us ex-pats. You're probably thinking "But Chinese food is great!" Well, I resent your 'but' and throw back in your face the point that not only is Chinese food not  the same as what you get from 'down-the-road', but even you [yes, you] would get sick of it if you had to eat it everyday.

Chinese food back home [wherever that may be for you] is usually made by some well-off restaurant owning Cantonese family, who cater to the western unadventurous palate and don't use MSG. In China, they list MSG as one of the ingredients in their dishes, and even have some on the side next to the Salt and Pepper pots. Sure, the rice is cooked to perfection and the sauces and vegetables different and often delicious, but the meat is usually suspicious. If you want non-suspicious meat you're gonna have to cough up for it, but if you wanna eat for under 10 kuai [1 Brit Pound] don't question anything. But make sure you learn the character for dog.

So anyway we ordered about 5 or 6 different types of curry between us [there were 6 of us] as well as rice and some naan bread. And they had this amazing, cheese-filled Naan as well - I don't know who came up with that but they're a legend in my eyes. The meat was, of course, suspicious, but the rice as I mentioned before was beyond perfection. I had a small food coma after, always nice. Also, beer goes really well with Curry. Wow, I'm becoming more British everyday...


In other news, remember that speech competition I was complaining about [see 'Speech!'], well the school one was held today and I got Second place :-). I should explain that I wasn't the only one to get second - the competition was divided into classes, but out of 30 people I was 1 of 4 to get second. My Flatmates helped me film it, although they kept flipping the camera around and the sound on my camera isn't very good. But it's shot in black and white so it looks quite cool. Here's the link if you're interested:

My Speech

My Certificate of Awesomeness - 二等 means second place

After practising it to death everyday for a week, I found that it wasn't actually that difficult speaking in a language I don't speak in front of some hundred people. My teacher hugged me afterwards [I'm her favourite] and my Korean friends took more pictures than was really necessary, so it was all good fun in the end. I kept telling everyone I didn't want to do it and how annoying it was, but between you and me, I carried my prize under my arm all the way home.

My Prize- A collection of Beijing Opera Costume Make-up  panels

Comments & Questions     ^-^         Xx

Speech!

Ok, so remember that Speech competition I mentioned in my really boring post about studying Chinese? Well, I've decided to go for broke here and post a video of myself reciting my speech, as to help me get over my fear of people actually seeing/hearing me speak Chinese. For many of you, I imagine this will be the first and last time you ever hear me speak Chinese. Especially if I don't actually know you, and you're just some stranger reading my blog...[that's right random people in Vietnam and Finland, I'm talking to you]. It's awful by the way.

The Video just launches straight into it, as I was using it before to practice memorising my speech, but I'll add a little explanation. Below the video is the transcript in Characters and Pinyin [English alphabet with tones, so you may be able to read along...Eva], followed by the English translation [probably in really bad Google Translate-style English]. The Pinyin has a few mistakes, but that's the gist of it, and I really can't be bothered to edit it.

I'm not planning on posting this on facebook, so don't be offended if you just stumble across without me telling you about it - I'm still shy! Although I'm sure my mum will find a way to send it to everyone she knows, including her Chinese friends -__-. That's another thing - if you're a native Chinese speaker [or just better than me] feel free to leave comments about my pronunciation and phrasing! The tones should be alright...as I'm reading off a sheet of pinyin, which is also why I'm not looking at the camera. Well, that's all I have to say about it - it's not very interesting [I'm not trying to win] but I feel like somehow, in some way, this will help me improve my Chinese...or at least my communication skills.

我觉得我在中国的生活很好。我与室友相处得很融洽, 我们每天一起上课,做作业,吃饭什么的. 值得一提的是，我们每天都在同一个地方吃晚饭。可能你会问，“这有什么奇怪的？”但你知道吗？我们每天吃同样的东西！我们刚去的时候，服务员不认识我们，我们不认识他们，但是现在他们一看到我和我的朋友就开始微笑。他们不再问我们“要吃什么？”，反而当我们招手点菜时老板就笑笑说， “我知道呀！干偏豆角，菠萝故咾肉，三碗米饭，三瓶水！”真了解我们！

有时候我们点别的菜老板留意地看了我们一眼，可是她一句也没说。上完菜以后我们尝一尝，不过正如所预料的我们不喜欢它！有时候我们问老板“你可以推荐一道新菜吗？”可是，她推荐的新菜味道跟我们吃过的菜的味道差不多一样！服务员心里比我们更清楚。

最近我在镜子里看自己，就想“哎呀， 我是不是变胖了？为什么？”当然啊！每天吃那么多米饭，一定变成胖子了。我告诉自己，如果你每天继续吃猪肉，你可能会变成一只猪！

Pinyin: Wǒ juéde wǒ zài zhōngguó de shēnghuó hěn hǎo. Wǒ yǔ shì you xiāngchǔ de hěn róngqià, wǒmen měi tiān yīqǐ shàngkè, zuò zuo yè, chīfàn shénme de. Zhídé yī tí de shì, wǒmen měi tiān dū zài tóng yīgè dìfāng chī wǎnfàn. Kěnéng nǐ huì wèn,“zhè yǒu shé me qíguài de?” Dàn nǐ zhīdào ma? Wǒmen měi tiān chī tóngyàng de dōngxi! Wǒmen gāng qù de shíhou, fúwùyuán bù rènshi wǒmen, wǒmen bù rènshi tāmen, dànshì xiànzài tāmen yī kàn dào wǒ hé wǒ de péngyǒu jiù kāishǐ wéixiào. Tāmen bù zài wèn wǒmen “yào chī shénme?”, Fǎn'ér dāng wǒmen zhāoshǒu diǎn cài shí lǎobǎn jiù xiào xiào shuō, “wǒ zhīdào ya! Gàn piān dòujiǎo, bōluó gù lǎo ròu, sān wǎn mǐfàn, sānpíng shuǐ!” Zhēn liǎojiě wǒmen ! 


Yǒu shíhou wǒmen diǎn bié de cài lǎobǎn liúyìde kànle wǒmen yīyǎn, kěshì tā yījù yě méi shuō. Shàng wáncài yǐhòu wǒmen cháng yī cháng, bùguò zhèngrú suǒ yùliào de wǒmen bù xǐhuan tā! Yǒu shíhou wǒmen wèn lǎobǎn “nǐ kěyǐ tuījiàn yīdào xīn cài ma?” Kěshì, tā tuījiàn de xīn cài wèidào gēn wǒmen chīguò de cài de wèidào chàbùduō yīyàng! Fúwùyuán xīnlǐ bǐ wǒmen gèng qīngchu.


Zuìjìn wǒ zài jìngzi lǐ kàn zìjǐ, jiù xiǎng “āiyā, wǒ shì bùshì biàn pàngle? Wèishéme?” Dāngrán a! Měi tiān chī nàme duō mǐfàn, yīdìng biàn chéng pàngzile. Wǒ gàosu zìjǐ, rúguǒ nǐ měi tiān jìxù chī zhū ròu, nǐ kěnéng huì biàn chéngyī zhǐ zhū



Translation: I think I live a good life in China. I get along well with my flatmates: everyday we go to class, do our homework and eat food together, amongst other things. There's only one thing: we eat dinner at the same place everyday. You may ask "Why is this weird?" but did you know? We eat the same thing everyday as well! When we first started going, the waiters didn't know us and we didn't know them, but now whenever they see us coming they start smiling. They no longer ask us "What do you want to eat?", but instead when we start to order, the boss smilingly says "I know! [something like] Fried beans with meat, sweet and sour pork, 3 bowls of rice and 3 bottles of water!" They really know us well!

Sometimes when we order a different dish, the boss looks at us funny but doesn't say anything. When they bring the food over we try it but, as expected, we don't like it! Sometimes we ask the boss "Can you recommend something different for us?", but the dish they recommend tastes almost exactly the same as the dishes we usually eat! They know our hearts better than we do.

Recently I looked at myself in the mirror and thought "Haven't I put on weight? But, why?" Of course [you've put on weight]! If you eat that much rice everyday you will surely get fat. I told myself, if you continue to eat that much pork everyday, you will probably turn into a pig!

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Btw, I'm not usually this serious [you will know this if you've been reading the posts], it's just because I'm concentrating really hard on not making any mistakes [which I do...lol]. Please don't judge me for my terrible Chinese - I did this in one take and I've only been learning for...ok, ignore the last bit, but seriously I only read it over once before recording. I will now never watch the recording again.

I'm going to check and double check this post now as my parents seem to have become the KGB of grammar, when what they should actually be doing is sorting out people's taxes...or making some sort of financial breakthrough...or something. What do my parents do? That's not actually relevant; until next time!

XxXx

Disconnected

Did you know that they've changed [or are planning on changing] the British Royal family succession laws? I didn't. That's because I have no idea what's going on in the world. Although I wasn't amazing at keeping up with what was going on when I was living in England, I still had a sort of sense of what was occurring. It's a bit hard to avoid when you live in London really, especially when people keep asking you if there are rioters on your street, or if the royal wedding procession will be anywhere near Lewisham Highstreet. I had feelers out, you know? Or rather my mum used to bring the Guardian home with her from work. Also, I had the type of friends where if you weren't up to the minute with current affairs you looked a right twat. Also, Made in Chelsea used to be on just after the news.

But anyway, my point is that between the shit that China keeps throwing at me, Chinese homework that takes up the time that Chinese class doesn't and manufacturing a social life, I really don't have time to give a crap about what's going on in the UK. As if it weren't bad enough that I'm out of touch with my own land, I also have no idea what's going on in the country I currently reside in. At least I'm better than my classmates, who didn't even know that Hu JinTao is the President of the PRC, but that's really not saying much. If you were looking for an update on China's political climate, or how the country's politics/international affairs/affairs affected everyday life, you're not gonna find it here.

I've had a couple of people tell me now that I don't talk about China enough in my blog, but I'm sorry guys, I really don't know what to tell ya. There really isn't an excuse - this stuff is directly related not only to my degree but also my day-to-day life. Well, at least I think it is. To be honest, I travel between home and class [a 20 minute walk] everyday, each lunch with my classmates, do work in my room, eat at my local [3 minutes away from my room], talk to my flatmates [in English] and go to the same [English speaking] bars and clubs on the weekends. Besides the shockingly obvious fact that corruption in China is really holding back on any form of efficiency, I can't say that China's news is having an effect on my life at all. Remember - China's a big place!

I am going to make more of an effort to read more about Chinese current affairs though, and then tell you about how I'm so up-to-date with Chinese current affairs and then find away to link Chinese current affairs directly into my life cos, you know, I'm living in China now. I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am ^-^ . Of course none of this reading will actually take place in Chinese...You try reading a Chinese newspaper - it's all dots and dashes! If I could even read a headline that would be a really good Mandarin day for me! But seriously, I'm going to get out there and see more of Dalian - you know go some places and take some pictures - if only to stop this blog from becoming a gossip column!

Comments & Questions        Xx

Balance

It's just occurred to me that as much as this blog is meant to be about my experiences in China, it's been a long time since I've written about actual Chinese. Inspired by my upcoming midterms and the opportunity to participate in a speech contest, I though I'd take the chance to update my avid readers on my developments. If you're not so avid a reader, feel free to skip this post. This is gonna be a serious ramble.

Every term our University holds a speech competition for international students. Aware that even the bravest of students would really rather not talk in front of however many hundred [or thousand] people, our teacher informed us today that our class would be holding a mini elimination competition in which everyone would have to participate. I don't really want to do it. I'm not exactly lost for ideas, in fact I already know what I'm going to talk about, and I'm certainly not afraid of losing, in fact I'd rather I did! It's that age old fear of getting it wrong that's holding me back. Obviously, it's not so easy to hang on to when you're in a country where you don't speak the language, and I'm slowly beating this ridiculous fear out of myself, but I find that the more I learn the more I'm afraid to practice [seriously, you can't get me to shut up in a language I don't speak] and of course the less I practice the worse I get.

So, essentially, upon hearing the news we were all in horror  - especially the Koreans for some reason. But, in what I expect was a Chinese attempt at a morale boost, my teacher said two interesting things to us. She told us that those students who had participated in previous competitions had developed a completely different attitude towards studying Chinese. It wasn't just that their level had increased, or that they were more confident [although both those things did occur], but more like they had had their outlook changed. I guess it's something like how a magic trick doesn't make sense until the magician reveals how it's done, and that was what intrigued me. I had thought about doing the competition before, but obviously if I had been given the chance I would have turned it down. Like an Agoraphobic, I know that all I have to do is step outside to know whether or not I can do this - it's just taking that first step that's the hardest. Now I'm being pushed out the door, I'm kind of interested to see whether or not I can overcome my fear of saying a fourth tone instead of a first.

The other thing my teacher said was that we needed a better balance when studying Chinese. Obviously this competition would involve us speaking out [with confidence I might add] what we had written, but the key is that we would first have to sit, think about and then write out what we wanted to say. "Being in China you get to practice speaking a lot" she said, "but there's not a lot of essay writing. The grammar, tone and formality you use when making a speech is the same that you use for writing an essay. This competition will certainly be beneficial to all of you." [Sorry, that's a direct translation from Chinese, I'm losing the ability to speak English]. I found that quite ironic actually, as the same teacher had commented on the fact that all Edinburgh students preferred to write down what they wanted to say before saying it, which was absolutely right.

In Edinburgh, as with most educational facilities in the UK, you're really only taught how to do one thing - pass exams. I'm an excellent rote learner - I once took an English exam about Pride and Prejudice and managed to quote entire passages without even opening my book. I never understood science, but in every test I managed to get an A*. In Religious Studies I got the highest mark in my year and it was not because I was the brightest pupil - not by a mile. It's because in school you're not taught about the subject, you're taught the answers to the questions on the test that's going to be about that subject, and I got that very quickly. That's why when I started learning Chinese and found that what they really wanted was for you to memorise a certain grammar point [much like you would learn a maths formula] and learn how to read and write a specific list of characters [the same as memorising a bunch of history facts], I thought it was going to be a cake walk. I never went out of my way to practice my Chinese with the abundance of Taiwanese people at my Uni because I knew what I was doing was enough for where I was. I could write everything that I needed to know and get an A on every test. In two years of studying Chinese, I probably spoke Chinese for about an hour altogether. This is where the balance aspect comes into it, and probably why they hand you over to the East for a year - to make you realise that you can get 100% on a language test and not be able to speak, read or understand a word.

We also did a lot of translating into English which, unless you're going straight from 2 years of study to interpreter, was next to useless in preparing us for  our year abroad.

If you're actually planning on learning to communicate in Chinese, you absolutely must go to China/ Taiwan at some point, and for a good stretch of time. Learning in your home country [especially if it's the UK] just ain't gonna cut it. In Edinburgh, we have the luxury of having several actual Chinese people as our teachers. Having native Mandarin teachers is an excellent resource, one that most people would be so envious of, and yet they never spoke to us in Chinese. One teacher started, but gave up after two lessons when we just didn't get it, neglecting to mention that when we got to China all lessons would be in Chinese. Also, we never spoke a word of Chinese outside of our oral exam, and even then we could prepare in advance what we wanted to say. People here are genuinely shocked at my level when I tell them I've been studying for two years, to the extent that I'm embarrassed and feel like I've wasted two years having 300 characters and 10 grammar points drilled into my skull.

It's not all bad though. I once had a long conversation with Eric about how learning from textbooks gives you absolutely zero communication skill. He swears by Podcasts [which are actually really good if you're interested: Popup Chinese] and meeting real Chinese people and talking to them. I agree, of course, as do most people - I hate going through every page of my textbook, going through every example sentence and new word, only for exact replicas of them to appear on my test. But you can't knock them off completely. My one saving grace when coming to study in Dalian was that although the majority of students in my class had only been studying for, on average, about a year, my grammar and comprehension was quite a lot better than theirs. I found I could understand everything much quicker, despite not necessarily having all the vocabulary, and had studied all the grammar points before, whereas they struggled to get the meaning after several explanations. AND [this happened to me just today] it turns out that sometimes real life situations that don't include talking about the weather come straight from the textbook. If you're familiar with NPCR, you may have studied the lesson about going to the bank: NPCR Book 2 Lesson 15. This situation actually happened to me - part one, about LiNa going to 用英镑换人民币 [yong yingbang huan renminbi, exchange Pounds for Chinese monies] . Using the vocab and grammar points from this lesson [not to mention correct intonation] the clerk not only understood what I wanted but was actually impressed with my fluency. I have no Chinese fluency. NPCR are the greatest textbooks ever[?]. 

I try not to be confined by my textbooks though, even though I'm seriously lazy and tend to just learn everything off by heart [see above example. I take other people's textbooks [people in a higher class obviously], I try and talk to my friends in Chinese, as a way of breaking myself out of my 害羞 【haixiu, shy] shell. Learning a language is as much the teaching as what you do for yourself. You can ignore your teachers telling you to go home and 复习 [fuxi, revise], but they're right. If you want to get it perfect you have to give 100% [I was gonna say 110% but that just sounds American and lame]. I hope my cousin who's just started learning Chinese this year reads these words of wisdom and remembers that, though NPCR is hilarious and useful, you should not rely on learning a language through reading without communication, and you won't get far reading or writing [or even speaking] Chinese if you never learn your grammar points and 生词 [shengci, new words]. I guess that applies to anyone reading this actually, no matter what you're studying; all forms of study need balance.

Speaking of words of wisdom, I'm gonna go off and revise for my midterm exams. Wish me luck!...Wow this was a really serious post - I'm really sorry if you have no interest in Chinese and sat through this whole thing waiting for something interesting to happen...

Comments & Questions    :-)   Xx

The Love Lives of Others

There's nothing new going on in my love life at this particular point in time, but I still feel the need to update my blog. So instead I'm gonna take some time to talk about my....'friend's' respective love lives. No, no, they are actually my friends but, well, you'll see what I mean... or you won't.

So we'll start with Sabrina. Yes, Sabrina. Just roll with it. So Sabrina was going along with Keith [YES Keith], and it was all going fine until they hit a 'where are we' bump in their relationship. So Sabrina wanted to have the standard 'are we boyfriend and girlfriend' talk, when Keith started avoiding her. Feeling that he was avoiding the said 'talk', she finally cornered him and asked him wtf was going on - did he not like her? Was it him? Or was it something else? Turns out, it was something else. Someone else to be more precise. So Keith has known this girl from Beijing for four years. And by known, I mean they started talking to each other online and had never actually seen each other in real life. Yes, you're right, that is weird. What was weirder [is that a word?] is that she had suddenly decided to come up to Dalian for Keith's birthday, and now Keith was in a dilemma because he felt that he liked this random hoe, but didn't want to leave Sabrina in the lurch.

Well, needless to say it just wasn't gonna go down like that. As you haven't really been introduced to Sabrina, let me reassure you that she's really, really fit. In her and Veronica's words [don't worry, we're getting to her] "I'm a f***ing 美女!!" [Essentially, I is buffting].  Turns out she was much fitter than this Beijing chick, who was seriously 马马虎虎 [remember that one? No? Well look it up.] and dry beyond words - she didn't even dance to Keith's music [he's a DJ....DJ Keith.....no?] and it was his bloody birthday! Well, no matter who Keith 'chose' it was clear to us who the real winner was. But anyway, so Keith goes off for a walk with this girl down to the beach, hand in hand. Now, we get Eric to go and spy on them, but nothing is discovered besides the fact that they seem to be sitting awfully close together. Then, Keith comes back and has the nerve to start avoiding Sabrina again! Eventually, we leave. Dick.

Or is he? This was all last weekend [time moves fast here], Friday to be precise. Having not heard from Keith for a few days, Sabrina suddenly gets invited out for coffee - a perfect opportunity to break out her brand new vocab list, including such gems as 花花公子 [huahuagongzi, playboy] and 躲开 [duokai, avoiding, to avoid]. Well, it turns out that she didn't really need all of that, because Keith didn't like this Beijing girl [who in retrospect I feel kinda sorry for] and was just trying to comfort her after breaking the bad news to her. Well, 当然 [dangran, obviously]. But they still hadn't figured out where they were - Keith likes Sabrina, but she had grown bored of his 幼稚 [youzhi, immature] behaviour. Funnily enough, she did actually tell him that went they met up for the coffee talk and he knew immediately that she had looked it up. He's Chinese by the way....if you hadn't got that.

Anyway, talk part 3 still had to occur in Sabrina's mind, so they could finally discuss where they were and see if things could settle back down into comfort blah blah blah. So, yesterday we went to Keith's...place of work, they chatted for a while, and later on [much later, we'll get to that part] Keith came back to... Sabrina's. Now, leaving Keith at work, Sabrina and some others went to a club called Suzy Wong's, and this is where sh*t really went down. So, Ernest [look, are you gonna ridicule the names or are you gonna read the story?] is Sabrina's classmate. They're good friends and well, I thought there was something there before but then obviously the Keith thing went down, so I thought nothing of it. That is until Sabrina informed me that she and Ernest had kissed [he's not some lame, Southern British twat  btw, he's Japanese this is his....English name...] and he's now informing his girlfriend back home of this, in his words, '高高兴兴' [gaogaoxingxing, happy] event. And then she went home with Keith. Needless to say, she's confused herself thoroughly. That's all there is on this one, let's move on to Veronica.

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Aaahh Veronica. Where do I begin? No seriously, where? This drama is looonnng, but it's good so lets get started. So Veronica likes Vladimir [LOL, the names are getting ridiculous] and, as we recently discovered, Vladimir likes Veronica. But it's complicated. Very complicated. But before we get to that there is an extremely amusing filler story. So, after Veronica had told Vlad that she liked him [for the first time], he said that he just wanted to be friends. In a semi-rebound fashion, Veronica decided to give our new acquaintance [wait for it] K-dog a chance. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Sorry. I'm done now. So Big K was at this party that I attended with Veronica and a few others, and basically he and Veronica shared a kiss. Infatuated thusly [I believe his words were 'I thought you were the most beautiful girl in the room the first time I saw you', yeah, ok lover boy] he then proceeded to invite Veronica out for a drink. Now, the next morning, when I inquired as to why Veronica was not attending class, it turns out she was otherwise occupied. With K-d. That's right.

But turns out K-to-the-d-to-the-o-to-the-g did not perform as well as one had hoped. In fact, it was a major fail. I won't regail you with the details, but lets just say he was...attentive in a way that Veronica was neither accustomed to nor interested in. And he's a gazer. Noone likes a gazer. That's just creepy. And then came the texts - which got no reply I should say, poor K-dawg. But bare with me, this is relevant to the overall story - also it's amusing...I think he still likes her bless him.

But her real focus is Vlad. Vlad is in Ver's class, but she didn't decide immediately that she liked him. That is until he started bringing her food...this story's starting to seem a bit similar to one I've told before, so I'm gonna cut to the chase and skip out the long boring details, otherwise we would be here all night. Ver went in for a smooch, but Vlad didn't take the bait. He said he liked her, but for reasons undisclosed to this day, he does not want to do the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thang. Seriously, I think that's the most repeated phrase said by guys since I've been in Dalian. It's like some kind of disease. He offered the 'special friend' status, she rightly refused. But there was still this flirting thing going on - Veronica had half-heartedly agreed to the 'just friends' status, but she was becoming slowly obsessed with him, and to be fair Vlad wasn't really sticking to his word, flirting away like a naughty boy. He even convinced her to skip class with him - as if she wasn't already unfocused.  Then they really did kiss. In Subway. It was all very romantic I'm sure. But he's still holding back on the goods - and now she's unsure whether she even wants to be friends with him.

Well, the moonlight walk they took on the beach would appear to contradict everything written above, but I assure you the situation really is unclear. It doesn't help that Ver has absolutely no idea how to play it cool - she analyses every text received to death and sometimes I have to switch conversations if I'm in danger of hearing the same thing I've heard repeated 6 times about one thing that Vlad said in an off-hand sort of way. But she's a versatile lass. Now she's locked in some sort of texting love-war with Bob [tall and hot, that's all you need to know], so I'm not really sure what's going on there. But who knows - it's only Sunday...

You know what, this is pretty complex, so...

In conclusion, this post is completely ridiculous. I think I'm gonna have to make my next post a bit more serious- this blog makes it seem like I have a lot more spare time than I actually do. Seriously, it took me three days to write this nonsense! I hope you're entertained.

                                                                                

Comments & Questions  <*-*>    Xx

I have a Stalker

Are you allowed to tell someone who has technically done nothing wrong besides want to be your friend, to f**k off and leave you alone? Well, may not in those exact words, but why is it so hard for me to just be like "Look, leave me alone" when I want someone to leave me alone?

So this guy comes into my classroom one day - clearly African [he has that 'fresh' look about him] and looking for something. I just didn't know that something was me. He came over and started conversation, he seemed normal enough, and then he asked for my number....and I gave it to him. NOW I know what you're thinking - why? A good question, but let me explain. China has lured me into a false sense of security when it comes to giving out my digits. In London, or anywhere in the UK, as a stranger you'd have to tie me down and steal my phone [I'd like to see you try] to get my number. But, when you're in a new place with a small community of English speakers and meeting people who go to your university, you don't think twice about these things. I still don't know what came over me though - Holly and Serrena had been handing their numbers out like candy until this point and I had sniffed, sniffed at them. What, in God's name, had convinced me to be nice at this point. I am not a nice person!

My mother had warned me to stay away and be generally wary of African men, ever since I told her we'd met up with some Angolan guys. I thought she was just being racist, as all Africans are, but she was right. I should have listened to her. She's a wise woman. A wise woman.

So now this guy's texting me 3 times a day, just wanting to ask what I'm up to, even though his English is appalling and probably wouldn't understand anyway. And get this - he's notorious! And not in the B.I.G. way. He's stalked a number of people, some of whom I am acquainted with, including one girl from my uni. In fact, after he had finished talking to me for the first time my friend Anitra told me, and I quote, "THAT'S THE CONGOLESE STALKER". So. When you saw me talking to him, why did you not inform me of this. Call me over. Do anything. Scream?! There is no excuse for letting me walk into a well laid trap!

And today he actually called me.
"Are you free this weekend?"
"No. I have plans."
"What plans?"
Not that I actually need to inform you but..."Some parties, work."
"I se. So could we meet up, maybe in the afternoon?"
"No, because I'm busy."
"Oh. I wanted to meet you for lunch."
"Well, I can't, because I'm busy." Man I'm polite.
"So I can't see you this weekend?"
"I,"
"Yes?"
"AM BUSY"
"Ok, keep in touch"      GRAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHH

You'd think after my abrupt but polite dismissal and not returning any of his texts, he would get the hint. But no. He text me again. Wanting to see me. Even though I went out of my way to lie and say I have a boyfriend. You know when you don't want to blanket an entire race of people for the sake of being PC, just let your instincts run free. Learn from my lesson. So then I sent him a text, essentially saying "I'm busy. I don't want to be your friend. Please stop contacting me" And he sent back something incomprehensible. So if he texts me again, I'm just gonna come out and  say "Leave me alone." Yeah I'm a b*tch, but what would you do?

And before you go all on his side remember - he has a record. He came into that classroom fishing for his next victim. So wipe that pitying look off your face [unless it's for me].
It really doesn't help that we have lessons in the same building. If he pops his head round that door one more time I'm going to cut it off.

Comments & Questions   [And by that I mean what do I do?!]   -__-          Xx

This Week...

...has been hands down my best week in China so far.

Remember how I kept b*tching about how nothing was going my way and I was sick and tired of it and blah blah blah? Well, things have suddenly taken a turn for the absolute better - let me explain.

So you remember how the University took our passports for all of three weeks without giving anyone sight or sound of them. Well, I went to the student office, asked for it back and they gave it to me. Right there, and then. Just handed it over. With a student card as well! I was more surprised they hadn't lost it than overjoyed at having it back, but still, just having it allowed me to do all the things I had wanted to since I got to China.

I opened a bank account [a relatively painless process considering I don't speak Chinese and the clerk didn't really speak English], got out the rest of my money and, wait for it, bought a laptop! I actually bought it today. Do you want to know the best thing about this laptop? The fact that I'm writing this post on it as...well as I write. That's right - it has the internet. OMG - Anime, Doctor Who, CSI, Merlin, Law and Order here I come! Holly jokingly said to me 'So I suppose we're not gonna see you for a week then?' I laughed but it's true - I'd forgotten what it was like to have the internet at your fingertips, to be able to waste hours flicking through funny demotivational posters or having a casual stalk of someone on Facebook. It's pure euphoria. I'm never going back. I may cry.

It's a very cute laptop as well, so cute that I'm going to include a photo so you can see it. It's extrodinarily light and is about half the size of my regular laptop, which means I can carry it around with me in the nifty free laptop bag they gave me! I do love the 电子城 [That's 'electric city' for those of you who have't been paying attention]. I can't really use it for typing, as the keyboard is ridonkulously small and all the keys are in the wrong place because it's an American keyboard. It also has no CD drive, so the other laptop will have to be used for playing the sims. But besides that it's exactly what I need. Rest assured I've already downloaded Utorrent and Google Chrome.

With my new student card i can now actually visit the student gym. I've already made plans to go swimming tomorrow, dragging Serrena along with me to do some physical ...anything really. Holly will not be attending as she will be waking up at the crack of dawn to climb a mountain. Good luck to her I say. Good luck.

Finally, at the risk of further inflating his ego by mentioning him in a post, I've been spending more time with Eric recently, which has been nice. We've a couple of hmmm...sleepovers already which have also been...nice. Wow, I am really not very good at this. Anywho, that's all i'm saying so you'll just have to infer what you will. Actually, don't infer anything - this blog is rated PG.

Just a note, you haven't yet been introduced to all the characters in the photos I've included. Jaro and Shinya are Holly's classmates. I've mentioned Yumi before [ in the Getting to know dalian part 2 post], but I think this is the first picture I've put up of her. She's also classmates with Charlie, the Korean guy in the red hat - he's hilarious. Anya is Serrena's classmate and also my friend, I really like her. Jenny is her roomate. I'm not sure what class Elliot's in, but he's been here for a while and knows everyone. Anna is an Edinburgh student and in my class in Dalian. And.. finally there's Gigi! She's one of our actual Chinese friends -she's a really cool girl and so blunt that it's just too funny.

So, In summary, China's not looking all that bad all of a sudden.

Questions & Comments      ^_^   Xx