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.

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