Chinese, here - I - come!

Greetings!

First weekend is far behind us now and the actual language studies began on Tuesday.

Insofar the studies have been quite nice except for one thing: they assigned me to this afternoon group (13.00 -16.40), so that pretty much makes living a lot harder. For example, it is probable that I will not wake up at 7 A.M. to do my stuff but instead will wake at around 8.30. Then a few hours pass by doing nothing specific, maybe some studying to review what was supposed to cling onto my mind yesterday. Some Internet surfing maybe, but that's all there is to it. Then off to school, while the morning group people do their daily stuff IN THE DAYLIGHT AS IT IS SUPPOSED. So, it gets quite tiring when trying to absorb information at 16.30. After the classes it's dinner time. After that it is dark. Nice.

In the evenings we have usually watched some movies or documentaries, which by the way have become a sort of a joke, because the documentaries we have been watching are notoriously anti-American in some sense, although my view would be that they are just truthful ;). Anywheys, evening do go quickly here.

Studying consists of listening, speaking and writing. Writing seems to be, at least for now, the hardest part, because the Chinese symbols (radicals and compounds) are supposed to be derived from their actual visual meaning, but rarely resemble at all their archetype. Speaking is kinda fun, although we would need more eveyday situations than these highly formal lessons. The teachers are nice though and do have some blinking eyes, which is good. They go on about and speak mainly Chinese, and 90 % goes over the head. But you still can understand the important bits, so it's OK, I guess.

Last weekend we tasted some Korean alcohol (some 20%) and played cards, after which Ruslan, I, Jason and Alex (a guy from Belgium) went off for some night-biking to the streets near the Wudaokou metro station, dodging cars, scooters, bikes and pedestrians like hell! There were a lot of "too close" situations, but it was actually quite fun to pedal on the edge of the highway.
My bike, for example, was 14 euros, so one cannot expect much. Having said that I really like it, the way it rolls on the roads, especially when the roads here have been designed to transport mainly bikers. My bike has been repaired twice in just six days, but it's OK, as long as it is free (one year guarantee).

We visited Summer Palace on Sunday, which was quite majestic for one family.. I wonder what they did there in the heat of the summer. The place was semi-crowded and had some nice architecture and views. Especially the Suzhou-like area was original and had nice surroundings.

Some words about the placement test (for Chinese). We just filled out our names and were then permitted to leave as we did not know any Chinese. So it was very simple.

Restaurants here are quite varied. For example, yesterday me and Silja went to another vegetarian restaurant just outside the campus area. It was delicious and very filling, but also quite expensive when compared to the cafeteria prices of the campus area. In campus,the maximum to pay for a student dinner is 15 kuai, so it is one euro cheaper than in TKK. But many times the fee is something like 10 kuai. Unless you go to Qingqing pizza or hamburger, which also have been tested. Quite OK both of them, but I prefer the Chinese grub.

Now it is time to let the pictures do the talking. Pazalsta:

Kampusta ja korttipelejä

Summer Palace