Hey!
1. The Han Ban Confucius Institute has invited Sofia, Anna and me to participate in their annual world conference on the 10th of December. I was invited last year to sing as well, but my school wouldn't let me go, and I regret that I listened to them. However, I now have another chance and I'm already in Beijing so no one can stop me this time. It is an honour to be invited to such an event, and I'm looking forward to it very much. To perform together with Sofia and Anna is amazing, we have done a lot of things together in China now.
2. My mother was supposed to visit me between the 3rd and 7th of December, but the rehearsals for the Han Ban conference will take place on the 1st to 10th of December which means that I will probably be locked up in an assembly hall somewhere during that time and won't be able to show her around in Beijing. Therefore, mum is now coming on the 10th to watch the performance and sightseeing for a couple of days after!
3. Tomorrow I am going to see Sofia and Anna again! When I left Shanghai we were so sad because we wouldn't see each other for so long, but then we came up with te brilliant idea that we should meet somewhere in between Beijing and Shanghai. So, this weekend we will meet in the coast city Qingdao 4 hours from Beijing. It's going to be Sofia, Anna and I and also Robin, Max and Mike from my class.
18 November 2010
10 November 2010
Tianjin!
Last Sunday Robin, Josh, Philip and I took the high-speed train to Tianjin, a city close to Beijing. Tianjin is one of China's five national central cities. National central cities are described as a group of cities in charge of leading, developing and performing tasks in political, economic, and cultural aspects.Tianjin has a long history, it was settled ca. 340 BC and has many old temples and museums. We found the city very different from Beijing. It is a smaller city with "only" 12 million inhabitants, and it has a much calmer atmosphere. The cab drivers were for example very happy and talkative. Even though Tianjin is only 130 km away from Beijing, Tianjin people have a completely different accent, so we struggled a lot with communication. We went to two temples, a bell tower, one museum and a water park. More photos will appear on Facebook!
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| Philip, Robin and Josh |
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| The Bell Tower |
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The four of us |
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| Water Park by night |
9 November 2010
Cupping, meeting with Wang Laoshi and class dinner
Nothing special has happened lately, life is pretty normal here. And with pretty normal I mean that something new happens every other day.
A couple of days ago Robin and I decided to go to a massage place to try cupping, a Chinese traditional medicine which involves placing cups containing reduced air pressure on the skin. It was a very interesting experience to have 16 glass cups stuck to the back, it felt like 16 vacuum cleaners. This is what it looks like:
Another fun thing that has happened is that my Chinese teacher from Sweden came to Beijing! It was so nice to see her again, she is the reason why I'm in China right now. Without her I would never have found the Chinese Bridge Language Proficiency Contest and won the scholarship that currently I'm here on. Wang Laoshi was as energetic and bubbly as always and I showed her my dorm and the campus and we had lunch together with two of her other students. Later at night we went to a hotpot restaurant. I like her very much and will always keep in touch with her and have her as my Chinese mentor!
Last Friday some people in our class planned a dinner for the whole class, and we were 12 people who finally went. Pim, a dutch guy in our class, has a Chinese girlfriend so she guided us to the fancy restaurant and helped us choose the right dishes. It was a fun evening with very nice food and good company!
A couple of days ago Robin and I decided to go to a massage place to try cupping, a Chinese traditional medicine which involves placing cups containing reduced air pressure on the skin. It was a very interesting experience to have 16 glass cups stuck to the back, it felt like 16 vacuum cleaners. This is what it looks like:
Another fun thing that has happened is that my Chinese teacher from Sweden came to Beijing! It was so nice to see her again, she is the reason why I'm in China right now. Without her I would never have found the Chinese Bridge Language Proficiency Contest and won the scholarship that currently I'm here on. Wang Laoshi was as energetic and bubbly as always and I showed her my dorm and the campus and we had lunch together with two of her other students. Later at night we went to a hotpot restaurant. I like her very much and will always keep in touch with her and have her as my Chinese mentor!
Last Friday some people in our class planned a dinner for the whole class, and we were 12 people who finally went. Pim, a dutch guy in our class, has a Chinese girlfriend so she guided us to the fancy restaurant and helped us choose the right dishes. It was a fun evening with very nice food and good company!
1 November 2010
Johnny Johnny
Johnny is amazing. I have so much fun before, during and after my workouts, even though he pushes me to the limit and I'm ready to throw in the towel after every session. He is just so funny in a very Chinese way. Today for example, when I was warming up he pointed at the girl next to me and said "look at her!". I didn't understand anything, I thought it was because of my lacking Chinese skills. "But look at her face!" I still didn't get it, and he looked at me as if I were an idiot. "Don't you see how small her face is?!" I didn't know what to say. I just hoped she didn't here what he said.
Another time we saw two girls talk to each other while walking on the treadmill. Later they did the same thing on a rowing machine. It wasn't much rowing, of course. They were wearing jeans and regular shoes. I wondered why they even bothered to go to the gym, and Johnny said: "They just pretend to workout, they are here to find some good-looking guys (帅哥) with nice muscles".
I have been meaning to upload a photo of Johnny, but it has not been easy to get a picture of him. After one of my workout sessions I asked him if I could take a picture of him and raised my camera. "不可以!" he replied, which is a very strong way of saying no in Chinese. I was shocked, but he simply said "next time!". So, the next time I asked once again if I could take a picture of him. "Not now, I'm not very good-looking at the moment!". He asked me why I wanted a picture and I told him that I wanted to upload it on my blog. "Well, even more reason to be good-looking then!". He asked if he could send a picture in an MMS to me, but since my phone barely has a colour display I replied "不行", not possible. Now this simple picture thing has become a big issue because he wanted to send me pictures where he's tensing and flexing (he showed me samples), and I didn't have a USB and it didn't work to send them by mail. Why does he have to be so vain, can't he just let me take a picture?!
However, Johnny is amazing and we have many interesting conversations. Last time I got my first compliment ever (he has previously only told me that I eat too much), but now he thinks that both my strength and Chinese are improving. I will get back with another Johnny-update as soon as I have a picture.
Another time we saw two girls talk to each other while walking on the treadmill. Later they did the same thing on a rowing machine. It wasn't much rowing, of course. They were wearing jeans and regular shoes. I wondered why they even bothered to go to the gym, and Johnny said: "They just pretend to workout, they are here to find some good-looking guys (帅哥) with nice muscles".
I have been meaning to upload a photo of Johnny, but it has not been easy to get a picture of him. After one of my workout sessions I asked him if I could take a picture of him and raised my camera. "不可以!" he replied, which is a very strong way of saying no in Chinese. I was shocked, but he simply said "next time!". So, the next time I asked once again if I could take a picture of him. "Not now, I'm not very good-looking at the moment!". He asked me why I wanted a picture and I told him that I wanted to upload it on my blog. "Well, even more reason to be good-looking then!". He asked if he could send a picture in an MMS to me, but since my phone barely has a colour display I replied "不行", not possible. Now this simple picture thing has become a big issue because he wanted to send me pictures where he's tensing and flexing (he showed me samples), and I didn't have a USB and it didn't work to send them by mail. Why does he have to be so vain, can't he just let me take a picture?!
However, Johnny is amazing and we have many interesting conversations. Last time I got my first compliment ever (he has previously only told me that I eat too much), but now he thinks that both my strength and Chinese are improving. I will get back with another Johnny-update as soon as I have a picture.
29 October 2010
Busy week
This week has been really intense. Mid-terms, KTV, job interviews, soccer game...
I found an English teaching centre that was looking for English teachers, native or "experienced European", and I wanted to consider myself experienced. I was booked for an interview and when I got there I had to make a demo class for 20 minutes! "You can take 5 minutes to prepare". I had no idea what I was doing but it went well, asking my demo students (3 adults judging my teaching) to repeat the sentence "I got to school by bus", etc. Suddenly they asked me if I could start teaching 5 hours/week at a middle school with 40 pupils per class. I considered it to be too much responsibility, so I politely declined. Then they referred me to another centre, called "Easy Best English", that needed on-to-one tutors. I just got back from an interview with them and I now have an appointment with a 7-year old Chinese boy on Sunday!
Tomorrows appointment is an audition for recording 20 children songs. They were looking for "a young, bright but schooled voice" and I volunteered immediately. For my audition I was requested to perform "Twinkle twinkle little star". They say that you're always supposed to audition with pieces that you know very well so... If they want me the recordings will take place next week. Interesting!
What I also forgot to mention is that I got a new room mate! (Again, and not the Colombian one). This time a Taiwanese girl knocked on my door, and she moved in the following day. At first she came with a suitcase. And then with another. And then one of her friends brought some books. Followed by another friend with more books. Followed by my room mate with bags of food. So suddenly three Taiwanese girls were arguing in my small room. They started to unpack and clean her desk and wardrobe, and after an hour I had to leave for an interview, and asked her if I could take the key and I could, because she had got one as well. I left her with piles of stuff that covered all of her bed. When I returned two hours later, she was gone. So was all of her stuff. NOT A SINGLE ITEM OF HERS WAS LEFT IN THE ROOM: What do I do to scare room mates away before they have even moved in?
After the room mate mystery no. 3 I continued my life as usual. On Wednesday night I went with a couple of friends to watch a soccer game, which was interesting. It wasn't the best game in history, the level was barely Allsvenskan (the Swedish league), but it was an enjoyable evening! We were all cheering for the home team, our Beijing Guo An's, when they won by 2-1 against the visiting team. Jiayou!
I found an English teaching centre that was looking for English teachers, native or "experienced European", and I wanted to consider myself experienced. I was booked for an interview and when I got there I had to make a demo class for 20 minutes! "You can take 5 minutes to prepare". I had no idea what I was doing but it went well, asking my demo students (3 adults judging my teaching) to repeat the sentence "I got to school by bus", etc. Suddenly they asked me if I could start teaching 5 hours/week at a middle school with 40 pupils per class. I considered it to be too much responsibility, so I politely declined. Then they referred me to another centre, called "Easy Best English", that needed on-to-one tutors. I just got back from an interview with them and I now have an appointment with a 7-year old Chinese boy on Sunday!
Tomorrows appointment is an audition for recording 20 children songs. They were looking for "a young, bright but schooled voice" and I volunteered immediately. For my audition I was requested to perform "Twinkle twinkle little star". They say that you're always supposed to audition with pieces that you know very well so... If they want me the recordings will take place next week. Interesting!
What I also forgot to mention is that I got a new room mate! (Again, and not the Colombian one). This time a Taiwanese girl knocked on my door, and she moved in the following day. At first she came with a suitcase. And then with another. And then one of her friends brought some books. Followed by another friend with more books. Followed by my room mate with bags of food. So suddenly three Taiwanese girls were arguing in my small room. They started to unpack and clean her desk and wardrobe, and after an hour I had to leave for an interview, and asked her if I could take the key and I could, because she had got one as well. I left her with piles of stuff that covered all of her bed. When I returned two hours later, she was gone. So was all of her stuff. NOT A SINGLE ITEM OF HERS WAS LEFT IN THE ROOM: What do I do to scare room mates away before they have even moved in?
After the room mate mystery no. 3 I continued my life as usual. On Wednesday night I went with a couple of friends to watch a soccer game, which was interesting. It wasn't the best game in history, the level was barely Allsvenskan (the Swedish league), but it was an enjoyable evening! We were all cheering for the home team, our Beijing Guo An's, when they won by 2-1 against the visiting team. Jiayou!
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| Worker's Stadium |
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| Mike, Robin and I in our supporter scarfs |
27 October 2010
Fragrant Hills field trip
Today my alarm was set on 6 am. The bus to the Fragrant Hills left at 7.30 and it was a cold morning, so I wore several layers of clothes, something I later regretted. It took us about 1 hour 40 minutes to reach the top, it felt like a million steps but it was really beautiful. I took a lot of pictures and you can see some of them below. We took a cable car for 50 yuan on the was down, it was just like a ski lift for 2 people and it was an amazing view! The trip took the whole day and on the way back all of us took a much needed nap in the bus.
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| Parts of our class with Zhao Laoshi |
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| At the top |
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| Amazing view from the cable car |
26 October 2010
The test is over!
The test yesterday went well, which is a relief. Since I had studied a great amount before, I didn't find the test too difficult. The listening test was definitely the hardest part.
When the test was over we watched a Chinese film, which was interesting. It was a comedy, and I found the humour geeky, but I have to admit that the whole thing was pretty weird and funny. While we were watching the film, called Crazy Stone in English, Zhang Laoshi corrected the tests and handed them in to the school administration. I asked her when we would get the results back, and she answered that we could get them right away. "Chen Lisha (which is me) had the best result in the class. Fu Rui (Rachel from U.S.) was number two."
That was all she said. It was not exactly what I asked about, and when she said "right away" I thought she meant she could tell us one by one in private. But no, that's apparently not how it works in China. But I'm so happy!!! It was such a relief to hear that the test went well and to have the best result in class felt amazing!
Last night we definitely celebrated that the test was over. It was my classmate Max's birthday, so a group from our class went out together to KTV and sang and had a lot of fun. Today we started a new book on the next level, that is a bit tougher. It's just to start prepare for the final exam!
When the test was over we watched a Chinese film, which was interesting. It was a comedy, and I found the humour geeky, but I have to admit that the whole thing was pretty weird and funny. While we were watching the film, called Crazy Stone in English, Zhang Laoshi corrected the tests and handed them in to the school administration. I asked her when we would get the results back, and she answered that we could get them right away. "Chen Lisha (which is me) had the best result in the class. Fu Rui (Rachel from U.S.) was number two."
That was all she said. It was not exactly what I asked about, and when she said "right away" I thought she meant she could tell us one by one in private. But no, that's apparently not how it works in China. But I'm so happy!!! It was such a relief to hear that the test went well and to have the best result in class felt amazing!
Last night we definitely celebrated that the test was over. It was my classmate Max's birthday, so a group from our class went out together to KTV and sang and had a lot of fun. Today we started a new book on the next level, that is a bit tougher. It's just to start prepare for the final exam!
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