Spring, where art thou?

A note in the elevator told me that from the 15th of March, the central heating will be turned off. This means that there is no heating in the apartment and I'm waking up ice cold every morning. I'm just waiting for the weather to become warmer, it is nice during the day, around 10-15 °C, but night time the temperature is sometimes below zero.

One thing that I'm not particularly looking forward to are the sandstorms that occur in Beijing during springtime. During a couple of weeks, usually in April, there are masses of sand swirling around in the city. It will be the first time I use the famous mask you've probably seen Asian people wear.

Ps. My mask is not from Hello Kitty

Apart from going to school I'm not doing very much, the days are pretty much the same. Last Friday though, I celebrated my first St. Patrick's Day. The party was at a friend's apartment, we were all dressed in green and there was a fun mix of people at the party, we mixed all languages and had a lot of fun!

Dear China

Today my mother went back to Sweden after spending a week in China. Our Shanghai trip was great, we stayed at a nice hotel and experienced a lot, Nanjing Lu (shopping street), Yu yuan garden (temple/park), dinner at the 45th floor spinning restaurant, jazz band at Peace Hotel with 70-year old men who had played together for decades. Below are some interesting pictures from China in general, starting with the old jazz band.

Spring cleaning - time to get rid of all the bikes

A woman washing her hair in the back of the restaurant. Nothing strange at all.

I'm back!

I'm back in Beijing and have registered and completed my first school week. It's good to be back and the studies are already tough, I'm at a higher level and this term I have one elective course, and I have chosen a speech class.

My mother is in Beijing for a conference and tomorrow we are going to Shanghai. It will be my mother's first time in Shanghai and my second, so we are both excited and will hopefully have a good time there.

Life here is getting normal again with school, homework, trips, chop sticks and VPN connections. I will try to update my blog frequently.

再见！

Sweden

I'm back home. It felt weird coming back after almost 5 months, but it's nice to be back and meet family and friends. I will be back in China February 20th, and will continue my blogging then!

I've got my results!

Today was the day for picking up test results. Between 9 to 10:30 am Zhao Laoshi waited for us in the teaching building with our test scores. I was excited, pretty sure that I would pass but it was thrilling to see what scores I got. The results were: Grammar 96/100 Listening  94/100 and Reading/Writing 98/100. I'm very happy about that and excited about next term.

Tests are over

After three days of finals all tests are now over. I had grammar, listening and reading/writing tests, the oral test was last week. I think it went well, I felt pretty confident about all four. We will get the results back on the 14th. Until then I will enjoy being free in Beijing, I just have some things to clear up before next term. I'm looking forward to a holiday at home, but I'm happy I will return to Beijing soon again.

I'm staying

Now when it is certain I will announce that I will stay in China until July. I have enjoyed my time here a lot and improved my Chinese immensely. I feel like I just start to understand China, I'm able to use the language now and I just want more, I don't want it to end so soon. Therefore, I will stay another semester.

In order to continue my studies here I have to extend my visa. To do that I have to have a valid physical examination form. I did mine in Sweden in April, and it got stamped in China in September, but it was only valid until March. My school sent me to the hospital to change the date, but that did not work. I had to do all the tests again. So I just got home from half an hour of 3 blood tests, X-ray, ECC and some other tests. Interesting China experience. Now I can finally get my visa and legally stay in China for another semester.

On the 19th of January I will come back to Sweden and stay for a month. It will be nice to have some Swedish food and enjoy the western world for a bit. I need a break!