29 June 2011

The End Is Near

I have been so busy the last couple of weeks and my vpn has decided to stop working. I have studied like crazy for the past two weeks and today I had my last exam at Beijing Language University. I have had two oral tests, one listening comprehension, grammar test, reading comprehension and essay writing. I am finally done.

It feels strange that the year is almost over, the time has passed extremely fast. What awaits now is a trip to Hainan, an island in southern China, a popular Chinese holiday resort. It's to China what Hawaii is to America. Robin and I are going together and will meet up with some friends down there. I'm looking forward to the trip very much, after the past few weeks' intense studying I feel like I deserve a week on the beach.

We are coming back on the 7th of July, the following day is our "graduation ceremony" where we will be handed our marks and a certificate. On the 9th I will celebrate my birthday and then I have three more days to enjoy China before I go back to Sweden on the 13th.

I will now enjoy a week's vacation and will write something on the blog when I get back to Beijing!

7 June 2011

The Culture Week Performance

I have had some trouble accessing blogger.com, but now I'm finally here to tell about the culture week performance! Among the 12 programs in the show I was the opening one. My song "I Love You China" was supposed to set the theme; students performing Chinese cultural programs. I am very happy with my performance, it went well and the audience seemed pleased. I was wearing my new red qipao, and I had two background dancers from Georgia, two girls I know from class and my old dorm.

The other programs were performed by students from all over the world. There were singing, dancing, skits, Chinese traditional instruments etc. What was interesting was a skit about the Beijing Olympics 2008 that the Chinese loved. I wonder how long China will praise that event, we are reminded about it every day; commercial on television, logos all over the city and now as a play in school.

After all the performances we were called up to the stage. The headmaster and officials from the school management handed out certificates to some performers. My name was called last, and I received the "最高艺术奖", the "highest skill award", or as google translate would put it; "top art prize". It is a beautiful certificate, a silk-covered red book with the certificate on the inside describing the award. I am very honoured, this is a wonderful item to bring back home as a memory of my participation.

Now it is back to studying, next Friday is the last day of class and then the exams start. These are the final exams here in China, so I really want to perform well. On the 8th of July there will be some sort of "graduation" ceremony where we will receive our results and certificates.