"North Korea"

Actually, we went to Dandong, not real North Korea, and we actually went about two weeks ago, so this is a seriously late post [sorry Martha]. Moving swiftly onwards...

Dandong is the small city that people go to so they can catch a glimpse of the Border between The PRC and DPRK. While not the most exciting place in the world, it provides a nice break [you know how I love those city breaks] from normal life and a chance to see something new. If you count staring a strip of land that you wouldn't know was a different country if someone hadn't posted half an army there as something 'new'. It's a nice little place though, and at only 4 hours away from Dalian, hardly an arduous trip by China standards.

The place towards which Martha is indicating is, indeed, North Korea

The river that separates China from Korea,
the city on the right hand side is Dandong

Martha also, god knows how, persuaded me to climb the Great Wall, once again. Dandong boasts the most eastern part of the Wall, or as the sign said, 'The most furthest eastern part of Wall end', or something to that effect. Renovated just so you can climb up one side and down the other, it's only real allure is getting a better look at North Korea and getting some exercise. It was a lot easier walk than the Great Wall at Beijing I might add, despite being almost entirely uphill.

The Great Wall...again

There aren't a lot of foreigners in Dandong, so
we were quite the novelty

We ate some dishes that were apparently of Korean origin. One was a type of 冷面 [lengmian, cold noodles] that looked like a bowl of pond water, but was actually quite tasty. Another was this suspiciously cheap sweetcorn broth thingy which also came with an assortment of Korean sides, like Kimchi and tofu skins. Good times. Martha also had a really suspicious snack thing that cost the equivalent of 10p, and lords knows you can't buy anything edible for 10p anymore. Needless to say, I didn't buy one.

And that's about it from my travels in the Northwest. The only other thing to add is we stayed in a dodgy motel down a dodgy side street for the night that cost about 3 pound fifty and probably used to be a brothel. But the landlady was really nice [probably used to be the 'madame' of the brothel] and gave us a discount because we were foreigners. All in all, a good trip.
Xxx

The Beginning of the End

Right. We've started wearing shorts to school, we've gone back to spending Friday's drinking at hopscotch and trying to kill each other on the bumper cars, we've had a barbecue at the beach, there are giant ants everywhere, we eat meat on sticks outside again, chubby middle-aged Chinese guys are rolling up their tops and letting their guys hang loose. I'm calling it, it's Summer. Summer in Dalian turns the city into a completely different place. After a bleak and frankly desolate [and frickin' windy] Winter, it's nice to have rays of hope shining through the classroom windows. Instead of hustling home or to a cafe after lessons, we eat lunch outside and frolic [yes, frolic] on patches of grass. It's no Greenwich park, but it'll do.

Pictures of  劳动公园 [Laodong gongyuan, Labour Park]

The whole feel of Dalian is different too. Despite being in the grips of boredom, you find that you're more likely to be arsed to do things when the weather's nice. We go to the [the] park and drink beer during the day like the foreign hooligans we came abroad to represent in the first place, and some of us have even started exercising. To be fair, some people were training for the sports fair [see Sports Day for more crazy China details], whereas I'm just starkly aware of the fact that I've put on a few, and have decided to jump on the sports-zeal bandwagon.

Our campus turns into a lovely little wilderness in the Summer

In other news, you know your year abroad is truly coming to an end when people you've spent your whole 9 months with start leaving. I'd like to semi-dedicate this post to my good friend Warren, by far one of my favourite people in Dalian, and one of the few Americans who doesn't irritate me just because of his nationality. His sharp wit and sarcasm will be missed, as will his blunt remarks and 'love' of teaching. God, I'm really selling him aren't I? It's alright, he's quite good-looking though which makes up for it. Anyway, I'm gonna miss him, we're all gonna miss him. But I'm mainly jealous that he gets to leave and I have to stay here. He may be leaving during the period of best weather, but at least he's leaving on a high.

Me and Warren

Warren being manly [in a Chinese way]

运动会！！

Ah the scent of Patriotism in the morning. I do love China. You know how I always say bitches be crazy? Well, you know who else be crazy? China. Just so you're aware, 运动会 [yundonghui] means Sports Day [bold intended]. You remember Sports Day, right? That day, or couple of days, where all the athletic kids were forced to do the competitive races like 100m and relay, the people whose defences could be worn down were forced to do the horrible things like shot-put and 1500m, and the moaners and chubbsters had to sit on the sidelines for the whole day and pretend to give 2 thirds of a shit? Well, that is exactly what sports day in China is not like. Lemme walk you through it, that way, you can make an impartial, unbiased evaluation of China's level of insanity.

The actual event took place on the Friday of last week, so of course the Chinese students had been practising for about a month or so, training up and preparing for the Opening Ceremony [yes, Opening Ceremony, don't do a double take, it happened]. Here's some prep evidence:

Just some casual frog-marching practise. Oh yeah. That actually happened. Then there was the actual ceremony. Well, first, we all have to show up at 7a.m to receive our free departmental T-shirts. We weren't as organised as some departments, which had come up with chants [accompanied by those big Chinese Drums you saw at the acutal Olympic opening ceremony], costumes, marches, mascots and some had even learnt these flip-card routine things so the audience spelt out characters Like 'Go DUT!' [Dalian University of Tech.] and '加油!' [Good luck/go for it!]. I don't think I'll ever be able to do the atmosphere justice - just imagine a Man city vs. Man U game, but with less hooliganism and more organised, communism style 'fun'. Seriously, most of the audience was made up of freshman, who weren't allowed to leave otherwise they failed 1/4 of their credits for that year. Brutal. Most of the foreign students had f'ed off by 9:30.

Reppin' the Foreign Students'  Orange T-shirts

our motley lot 

Just an example of how other departments were better than ours

Yes, their signs make a picture. As you've
probably guessed, this is the history of art's section

The actual sporting events weren't quite so organised. In typical Chinese style, the bulk of the effort was put into making the whole thing look good, whereas the quality was just left to be 差不多[chabuduo, more or less, but in a bad way]. It was still a good day out - even though it was 28 degrees, with no clouds and no breeze from about 8:30. The true sports fans stuck it out though.

Some foreign students in the relay, action shot!

Some of our teachers...

...more teachers [and the one on the right's son]

Men's 400m relay...we did not place. But I don't think we came last...

Martha in the women's 3k...or was it 5k? Whatever 7 1/2 times
round the track is

Marth came 3rd in her race! There she is rockin' some Bronze

As you've probably guessed, I did not participate. Hey, if I had, who would have written the awesome blog post about it? Get some perspective people.

Xx

News and Culture: Tidbits

I don't really have an overall message in this post, I've just found and been shown a few interesting things that I thought ought to be shared and, to be honest, I just haven't used the 'News and Culture' title in a while. The first piece of 'news' is regarding myself and, of course, my Chinese. I had been complaining that my 口语 [kouyu, Spoken Chinese] wasn't quite as good as my other skills and, as if it heard my calling, the Universe sent me a series of tests and morale boosts in quick succession.

The first test was in the form of a taxi drive at roughly 2 a.m. after having consumed a substantial quantity of alcohol - I had had a bit to drink too. I can't really get his accent across in Characters, but I'll give it a go in the transcript. I feel the need to include the characters, just so you can get a feel for how complex it got at one point. The conversation went a bit like this [I missed out quite a lot of slurs, 'excuse me's and nonsense]：

D: 你是哪个国家的？[where are you from]
Me: I'm from England
D:英国啊！你汉语说得挺好，学了多长时间了？[England, hmmm, your Chinese ain't bad, how long you been studying for?]
Me: About two years
D: 是啊？那你觉得英国和中国有什么差别？ [What's the difference between England and China]
Me: eeehhhh...there are quite a few, for example the food is completely different, also everything's much cheaper in China-
D: 中国对你来说很便宜吧！现在英镑和人民币是什么汇率？[China is obviously cheap for you! What is the exchange rate]
Me: 10 to 1, taxis are quite expensive
D: 在英国你们谁都有车，对吧！你们的领导是谁？[But you've all got cars in England！Say who's your 'leader'?]
Me: *ok, that topic changed quickly* Well, we have two leaders. A Prime minister and a Queen
D: 为什么？
Me: Well, the Queen is more for ceremonial purposes, whereas the Prime minister makes the actual decisions. But technically he can't pass any laws without the Queen's permission.
D: 好复杂雅！[How complicated!] 那，你觉得[and this bit I can't actually write in Chinese], how long do you think it will take for the Chinese economy to catch up to Britain? [Yh! I know, right!]
Me: Ehhhhh......Well, in my opinion between 5 and 10 years. China has the ability to catch up and the materials, it's just that the quality is lacking. I feel if the Chinese were more innovative [创新的, yes, I know the Chinese for innovative] then they could catch up faster, but they definitely have the man power and education system to overtake the West soon. Boom.

I did not say boom at the end of that conversation.

The other morale boost was the fact that a lady who works in a shop on campus said that my Chinese was very 标准 [biaozhun, litt standard, in this context bangin'], much better than most of the foreigners that go in. MWHAHAHAHAHAH. ha.

Also, Holly and Shinya went bungee jumping, which was suspiciously cheap, but apparently very fun. I have yet to be convinced on the 'fun' part, but they're still alive which was a better outcome than I had anticipated, especially on Shinya's part. It was also suspiciously cheap. You know how I feel about suspicious things.

This is Holly shittin' herself

This is Holly being pushed off a cliff by a Chinese man

This is Holly diving gracefully into a good time. Or just paralysed with fear...

The following items of News and Culture were lovingly donated by Tim Graham, ever aware of the fact that I'm in China, and taking an active interest in my education by helping me keep up with what's going on. He's surprisingly good at it - much better than I am, and I live in the bloody country.

The first is the story about this girl growing up black in China, which is a genuine tear jerker and a youtube video.

The other is an article about how Chinese people are a bit crazy about education, which isn't really news but still an interesting read.

Good day all xxx

Too Much Focus

To avoid becoming one of those bloggers who gives daily 2 paragraph updates about the food I've eaten/'experienced' that day, I'll try and keep on developing new neuroses/ privileged girl problems to b*tch about. Today's problem revolves around the direction of the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people in the unfortunate position of 'about to graduate but have no direction in life', no no noooo. If anything, I've got too much direction, but have recently discovered I don't have enough/ the right qualifications to fulfil these 'directions'.

Lemme break it down for ya. To avoid confusing myself/ exploding, I've decided to apply for two routes. There is The Law Route and there this The Stanford Route. Yes, both absolutely ridiculously competitive at the best of times [which is not right now] and both requiring dedication on a level never before witnessed by one such as myself. I'm talking, no video games for the next 3 years sort of dedication.

The Law Route involves applying to about 15 different City Law firms hoping that one of them will give me a training contract, pay for my law conversion and Legal Practice Course, hire me for at least two years, and give me a starting salary of roughly 35 grand. No, I don't think that's unrealistic. Oh wait, unrealistic for me? Oh yeah, definitely. I don't do 'extra curriculars' [speaking elvish does not, apparently, count], I'm not on-track for a 1st from Oxbridge [they say '2.1 from anywhere, but let's get real for a moment] and as amazing as my mother thinks I am, convincing Freshfields that I've wanted to do law since I was 5 and 1/2 may not be as straightforward as all that, even if I tell them in rap.

Ahhh Stanford. Set in the beautiful land of California, somewhere close to San Francisco, it's a dream and a half away. The application process itself won't be too bad I think - it's mainly just long-winded, probably to weed out the half-hearted folk. But, it is expensive. But American Universities have that Scholarship thing going on, I hear you clamour. Correct, but this is also another long-winded and infinitely more confusing process, the best ones being applied to by people who already have 1sts from Oxbridge [and occasionally UCL]. I think that will just take time though. I'm more worried about the fact that everyone seems super keen for you to have done stuff outside of your study, even though when you start working for them, you won't have time to do anything but what they want from you.

It's ok though, I've got a plan. This plan, however, means that if you're a good friend of mine, or even live in Edinburgh, you're not going to see or hear from me for literally 1 year, starting in August. I can give my flatmates 4 hours a week, tops. Better make the most of those contact hours kids. Anyway, the plan is to, whilst aiming for a '1st' [hey, you gotta start somewhere] in Chinese, to also:

• take my HSK level 6 [highest level]
• continue with Calligraphy [to show I'm cool and shi']
• continue teaching myself Japanese on the side [just...don't]
• Volunteer for at least an hour a week
• join some sort of society [probably a generic one full of dickheads like Lawsoc or Debatesoc, hoping to rope someone into that one with me..................Sarah]
• not die.

Hahahaha. Yeah I know. I'd like to be buried with my Wii please.

Xx

I'm So BORED

Oh, hi guys, long time no see. Me? Oh, I see, you think I've been off having fun and carousing with my playmates. No, what actually happened is that I was dying of boredom, languishing away in  a corner of my room, staring blankly of the pages of my textbooks. 'How?' You ask. Maybe even 'Why?'. Well, I'll tell you. I'm bored. I am soooo bored and, if it pleases the court, I'd like to go home now please.

I was briefly revitalised by a city break Serrena and I took to Beijing [you know how I love those city breaks]. It was completely spur of the moment, not mention on school days, and was really nice mainly because I wasn't in Dalian.

Dalian's just really dry at the moment, literally and figuratively. It got the rain out of its system over two days and it's well on its way to Summer, but there really is not anything to do here. For me anyway. I'm not teaching English, I'm not involved in any sort of activities [except for calligraphy, once a week for one hour] and, to be blunt, there are no mans. Unless you're into that whole 50-year-old-english-teacher-with-no-direction-and-a-few-too-many-trips-to-the-'massage'-parlour thing.

Don't get me wrong, I've got a sh- load of worky-work to do and, as I'm fast approaching my final year, have to start planning my life [surprisingly stressful, see next post for more info]. But this. is. what. is. boring. Maybe if I was in a more exciting city or got to move in my second semester I would still have some interest in my life in China. But Dalian has nothing. Seriously, I don't know how people have been here for 3 years, even 7! Just teaching English! I'm dying, basically, and that is why I haven't written anything in a while. Because nothing has happened. At all.

So be prepared for the next however many posts to be long rants about my life, cause that's all there is kids. You'll regret asking me to update my blog.

Oh, and as an end note, I'm not just restarting my blog because Sarah has got back to Germany and started hers up again...[http://theonlyquestioniswhy.blogspot.co.uk/]...Seriously...I was receiving complaints.

Xx

Attack of the New Leaf

Having decided that last semester was largely wasted and much more Chinese could have been learnt through better employment of our time, we, as a group of three [but mainly me and Holly], decided to turn over a New Leaf. Note the capitalisation. This proverbial New Leaf includes such additions as All-Chinese Wednesdays, where we speak Chinese even at home, and such subtractions as western television. It's actually going well so far [baring in mind it's the second week of term]: I've successfully made and stuck to a new timetable, making my working day essentially 8-till-8; found and begun watching semi-OK Chinese programs; and going to bed super early whilst going out less on the weekends. It all sounds wonderful.

This preamble, however, leads me to my material point and the crux of this post: Can you be too hard-working, and therefore over-productive? The answer, of course, is yes, you can. I know this because at exactly 16:21 this afternoon (GMT +8:00) I ran out of things to do. I can hear you, though, protesting, clamouring to tell me that when learning a language such as Chinese there's always something to do. Read a book, practice some characters, watch some tv, translate some song lyrics, preview the next 42 lessons. There are two things wrong with the point you're trying to make.

First of all, you have mistaken this post for some sort of discussion or debate. It's not. It is, in fact, me forcing my opinion on to you. So shut up and read.

Second of all, I've actually already done most of these things - being one of those people who puts doing and being above and beyond at the top of her list, I've even marked all the tones on the characters for lessons we have yet to come to. But, if I preview any more lessons, I won't actually understand what I'm reading; if I read any more  'above my level' Chinese my head might just fall off; if I practice any more of the same characters, they'll be etched into my eyeballs for eternity; if I watch any more tv, I'll finish the good series too quickly and have to move onto the truly terrible ones all too soon; if I listen to any more Chinese music, I'll just throw up. And so herein lies the problem.

Why not do some other timetabled activities, like Dissertation reading perhaps, or maybe some light post-graduate research? BECAUSE IT'S A SCHEDULE AND YOU CAN'T DEVIATE FROM THE SCHEDULE. Hmph. It's OK. I'm sure my HSK [Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi - Chinese Level Test] book gets more interesting the more you read it...

Xx

News and Culture: A Place to Work

Back in the land of the Starbucks and the home of the small, private-owned cafe, finding a place to study in peace is a easy as leaving your house, spinning round in a circle and walking straight for 10 yards in whatever direction you're facing. As westerners we love studying outside of our own residences. Whether in the oppressive silence of the Library or the twats-with-ipads filled chain coffee shops, towns and cities are filled with places to suit your needs, from a socket for your charger to some afternoon Norah Jones.You may be thinking how's she going to make a post that's essentially about a good cup of coffee and a cosy chair into a 'cultural' discussion, but bare with me, there is some relevance.

The Chinese, however, don't seem to have caught on to this happy phenomenon of studying away from the bedroom/living-room/bed/kitchen table. I've never seen a Chinese student bending over textbooks in local Amici cafe, and the waiting staff all look slightly curious when you sit down at 11, spread yourself out and set up for the afternoon. This is probably because, overall, it's not all that easy to find a good place to study, at least in Dalian. I'll give you some examples to illustrate my point.

The afore mentioned Amici is probably one of the only 'ok' places, but is unhappily well-known amongst foreigners, of which there are about 13 in Dalian, and so you're very likely to walk in and recognise pretty much everyone there - not the ideal study environment. It doesn't help the the coffee and music are below-par too. There are also Starbucks and Costas around town, a nice blast to the past and very rarely filled with westerners. What they are filled with however is a lot of loud-talking, cigarette-smoking Chinese people. Even having gotten used to this, one then has to adapt to the Chinese take on 'atmosphere' which usually means dim-lighting and too-loud 80's hits. Added to this multitude of complaints is the lack of toilets, even in these western style cafes. Having to run to the nearest McDonalds every 2 hours isn't ideal, and therefore rules out half the cafes in Dalian.

Of course, there are some places that are perfect. Unfortunately, they're either quite expensive [3 or 4 pounds for a cuppa] or already 'belong' to someone. I'm a great believer in personal space, and also tend to be easily distracted, and so finding my own place is of great concern. I would, of course, just stay at home, if my bed weren't there, or just go to the library, if it weren't literally the most depressing place in the world. So the search is well under-way for a perfect place this semester. First on the list is the well-known but little visited Central Perk cafe. Yes, it is in immitation of 'Friends' eternal meeting place. No, it's nowhere near as good, but as good as the Chinese version was ever going to be. Yes, they do play 'The best of the Noughties' on repeat, but I brought my own ipod as a contingency. So far, so good I would say. The big-screen showing of series 6 of 'Friends' is slightly distracting, but at least it's on mute.

Xx

Shanghai

A few things have happened to me during my city break to Shanghai [yes, City Break, that's my story and I'm sticking to it].

1. I found out my mini-laptop has an SD drive, meaning that I can upload photos much easier. I don't think I would ever have found that had I not been bored.

2. I considered joining Twitter, then quickly changed my mind back. I think I was just hungry and had had a flashback to my cousin Kenneth trying to convince me to join just days before.

3. A Chinese friend offered to cook me dinner when I finally rejoined the Dalian community [absolute win].

4. I discovered that 'Mob Wives' is one of the best shows. Ever.

5. I had a day out on the town.

Now, not to offend any Shanghaiese fans of my blog out there, but, to put it nicely, Shanghai is the land that brick forgot. The land of skyscrapers, it's one of those cities where one building strives to top another, everything is made out of glass and concrete, nothing is more than about 10 minutes old [seriously, I think I'm older than some of the towers here], and, as Serrena once said, 'Everything's about money'.

Another word she used, 'Souless', may seem a bit harsh, but I can see where she's coming from. One of the places I went to on my wander was where the big TV tower thing was. Look here's a PICTURE [sorry, I'm really excited about my SD drive]:

oops, forgot to rotate.....well, you can just google it if you really care

I also went to the big, expensive, famous shopping centre in that area. Just to look around though - I ain't got dollar for Gucci. I didn't take any pictures, as there were security peoples everywhere and I felt that being a non-Chinese, non-White person in China was already suspicious enough. Even the people working in the shops didn't look happy - that might just have been because the weather was shite though. The Bund was also an interesting point to look at, but at the end of the day everything was drab and uninteresting to me, and I decided to take Holly's advice and  settle into a nice cafe in the french concession. Hours later, I returned to my hotel.

I spoke to my parents and some friends, which was nice, then took a bath, complements of my plush hotel. I've resolved to check out at 12 then head straight to the airport - I WILL be the first person in the queue, and there will be NO 'Sorry, you standby now.'

If I don't get that flight tomorrow, I will just die on the spot. Not to be dramatic or anything, but it has been a nightmare journey.

Xx

Cancelled

I was so determined that China wouldn't screw me over this term. I'd already done everything in terms of living and uni - I'd paid my rent and electricity bills for at least 3 months, I had a bank account with money in it, I knew all the teachers at uni so I could just stroll in having paid my tuition fees. I even had things to look forward to, such as seeing all my friends again and swapping holiday stories, as well as meeting people to talk about potential  jobs. In my eyes, I had it all sorted. What is it they say again? Something about smug dickheads being kicked in the arse because fate was bored?

Having traversed the whole of Asia to get to Shanghai, I was in for a surprise. My flight, as well as all other internal flights, had been cancelled. Something about fog and thunder storms. This wouldn't have happened had I gone to Beijing. Just sayin'. I was then told to come back in two days - unperturbed but slightly upset, I asked where, exactly, I would be staying for these two days. The attendants kindly informed me that they would not be paying for hotels. Everyone's flight was cancelled, so everyone would have to deal with it. Of course, that wasn't what they'd told me an hour before, but I was determined to remain unperturbed and just booked the first hotel I came across.

Not too far from the airport, getting into town would have been difficult had I actually tried. I was going to go into Shanghai, but I had readily forgotten the weather preventing my flight from taking off, which turned out to be the same weather preventing me from going outside. That was fine though, as my flight was at 11, so I didn't really have time to mope anyway.

Oh wait sorry, did I say that was fine? What I actually meant to say was my life is bulls**t, because when I got to the airport they told me the flight was full and I would have to wait on standby till a seat was available. About 10 false hopes later [literally everyone was in the same position as me, and it seemed the only people not getting on any flights were the people going to Dalian] I started looking for alternate measures of transport. Full trains to Dalian, Beijing and every other city between Shanghai and Mongolia showed that everyone had had the same bright idea as me.

Listless after hours of crying [yes, I cried. Shamelessly], not eating, queueing and running around Shanghai Pudong Airport like a mad woman, I finally settled for what they could guarantee. 9:45PM on the 26th. IF the flight leaves on time, I still wouldn't get home till midnight, which in my eyes places me firmly on the 27th, when I was meant to be home on the 22nd. Fml.

My parents - love me they do - booked me into a hotel in the centre of town so I could see Shanghai proper. All my friends that I spoke to told me to make the most of it. If one more person tries to console me, I might claw my own face off, but I'm sure that feeling will pass. Those of you who know me know that I hate not being in control. Heck, those of you who read my posts from when I first got to China probably know that too. I think this would probably count as the epitome of controless...ness. One friend told me to, essentially, f**k it, chill out and watch some pay-per-view. I don't think they know how much they cheered me up.

Ah well, I suppose I will have to get off my arse and go and see Shanghai. But not too much - I'm staying in the nicest hotel.....

My hotel room is bigger than my rooms in London and Dalian put together

Xx     *sigh...*

Playtime is Over

Having spent the entire of my holiday playing [and completing] the new Legend of Zelda game, I have woken from my reverie to discover I have under a week left till I return to China. I'm looking forward to going back, of course, though I will miss the comforts of home. And the fact that reality is coming crashing down around my ears all together and all too soon. I haven't even touched the myriad of revision and HSK [lit. Chinese Level Test] books that I brought with me, and I'm probably going to go through a whole new bout of culture shock involving cheese withdrawals and the frustration of forgetting characters I've already learnt as soon as I get back to China. Safe to say my panic-mode has well and truly kicked in, and I'll probably start desperately trailing through my textbooks sometime this weekend.

Like any good student, I've taken up studying whilst watching TV as a way to slowly ease myself  back into the process of learning. Turns out copying out characters once learnt is much like riding a bike that you were never really good at riding anyway. So we'll say skiing, for those who can ski. Recalling characters however, is much harder. No matter if it's the simple 是, or the slightly more complex 警察 [jingcha, Police], looks like everything's going to have to be memorised... again.

Don't even get me started on speaking. My mum introduced me to some of her Chinese friends during my holiday period. Honestly it was like a bloody oral test. Though my listening comprehension level never seems to vary, I find that speaking ends up as spluttering syllables with tones that 'feel good' as opposed to 'sound correct'. They were impressed, the Chinese friends I mean. Of course they were. Not to call them easily impressed, but I once saw a group of 30 Chinese people standing around filming 2 dogs shagging in a park. Now think of the effect of my being able to say 'I have been studying Chinese for 2 years' in Chinese would have. Please.

Well, besides downloading all the TV my hard-drive can carry and buying Western products for Western friends in China, it's not like I've got anything else to do in the 4 or 5 days I've got left.

Oh hey, my gameboy! Haven't seen that in a while...

Xxx

She's not dead

To my avid followers,

I'm very sorry for the delay in between my last post and...these ones - why, it's been over a month now. What happened was I went travelling, got back from travelling, then did nothing but drink for about 2 weeks. As if that weren't enough, I then had to pack for, and come back to, the UK, where I have been for just over a week.

So you see, I've had pressing matters to deal with, but never fear! I have included some posts about my travels [nothing else, as that's all I've really done], the links for which you can find here.
Xi'an Part 1
Xi'an Part 2
Beijing

I'm very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you three.

Yours,

Edi x

The Lone Wolf Travels Part 1 - Xi'an

Look at that title, you know you love it.

Xi'an, the root of history in China. I knew I was going to have a lovely time here when the girl who worked in the hostel told me I was beautiful, despite being sniffly and dishevelled from a day of travelling and being surrounded by Chinese people in a small space. My room is frickin' freezing, but lovely and, hey, the heating works so I'm sure I'll live [if there are no more posts after this one, disregard that last statement].

My Room

The day I arrived it was 9 o'clock before I got settled and I was far too tired to even move so I went straight to sleep after having booked my tour to the 兵马俑 【bingmayong，Terracotta Warriors 】. I woke up with a full cold but determined nonetheless [seriously I've been ill like 7 times since I got to China]. Looking probably as ill as I felt, I set out with my guide and, obviously, two handsome German guys. They were nice, good German humour, and the guide was lovely and gave us many a history lesson as well as a lesson on 西安话【xi'an hua, Xi'an dialect】which was just far too difficult and will never be remembered nor used by myself.

The Warriors themselves were interesting, but not overwhelming - they are just statues after all. The whole place is really interesting though, and I definitely recommend going, especially with a tour guide, otherwise all you're gonna see is a lot of holes in the ground. After that we were treated to some local food, which was very nice, and were then taken home where I took a nap after a long morning. I hope you guys are enjoying the story of my life - I'll try and intersperse it with some pictures.

Saving up my shopping and the famous Muslim Quarter for day 2, I decided to take an evening ramble to a park that I found on my map, not too far from the hostel. It turned out to be beautiful - Dalian is a very modern city with no ancient sites or generally picturesque locations just lying about, so I'm probably exaggerating slightly, but it was still nice. Afterwards, I went to a local restaurant, instead of eating at the hostel like a real 外国人【waiguoren, foreigner, she says sitting at the bar using the free Wifi. After confirming the fact that I was, indeed, not Indian, I got recommended some splendid local food and then returned home.

All in all a pleasant first day on holiday. Alone. Let's just hope it stays this way.

XxXx