Days §24-27§

Pretty sights in Beijing

It's three fifteen in the afternoon and I'm lying in my bed, about to sleep. Why, may you ask? Well, it's the end of month one here at U. school and that means people are coming and going- such as my beloved Polish roommate and a (crazy) Polish friend of hers. So she managed to convince me to go out with her on wednesday AND thursday, which is easy for the rest of my roomies since they have afternoon classes, but waking up at 7.30 in the morning after going out is no fun. In fact today I was philosophising about writing a book called 'What a human can and can't do with 2,5 hours of sleep'. 

A man selling goods.

It seems I can function quite normally- my afternoon-class roommates are skipping school as we speak, and I went to both classes in the morning (writing and speaking)! I also have a new roommate (so there's four of us now for two more days). The new girl is Ecuadorian. She arrived a few days ago, so I led her around a bit because she doesn't have much with her. How amazing is it that now I'm the one taking someone around, showing how to get to school on a little self-made map, asking Chinese people where I can find certain things in Chinese? 

The things we must get used too...

It felt good, in any case. Another thing I've been working on is the extension of my Chinese visa for a month. To extend a visa her you have to have more or less  2000 euro's on a Chinese bank account, so first step was actually making a bank account and 'borrowing' a lot of money from the U. school to have in there for one day. Next step was visa office- since next week is a national holiday, everyone is extending their visa NOW. I'm only getting my passport back after the holiday, and to book & get a train ticket you need a passport, so the chances of me getting very far out of Beijing are highly diminished right now.

MEGA SALAD.

()=)

We'll see about that later. As it is with every official thing in Beijing it was a bureaucratic and sloooow business- it took me at least 5 hours to get my visa extension request done. Anyway, around here we Westerners are getting so crazy that one day (on tuesday) I got together with some classmates and we made a HUGE salad. Mindblowingly big (see the pic). We also visited the (*shame*) McDonalds once. Ah, it's part of the China experience, all of it.

The...thing?

I added a little video of my German classmate, A., and me playing... a uhm, a game. It's typical Chinese- on parks you can find old men and women as well as young children showing off their skills. We are not quite as accomplished. We are really, really bad is another way of putting it. But we have decided that even if we don't learn ANY Chinese, we will at least be able to play this game decently by the time we leave this city. Underneath that is a video of biking in Beijing, but it might be too long and boring for most of you. Maybe sped up it's interesting! Love, Sophie

The full weekend (days 20-23)

This weekend was filled with going out and partying! On friday we started off with a party at the English people's house (they're leaving soon, they stayed only for a month). It was a Chinese-history themed party, so people were supposed to get dressed up for it. And, to my surprise, they actually were! Most people anyway. I myself was wearing a Mao shirt, there were others who had done the same, some wore panda hats and shirts and some took it a bit further back, wearing typical Chinese dynasty clothes. I got my shirt at the Silk market, where I went on friday (I also got some 'allstars', which are nice). Anyway, the party started out great, and we were just really getting started when we heard a knock on the door- the old neighbour, asking if we could keep our party down. I guess we didn't do much of a job, because ten minutes later the police came (well ONE policeman) and told us party was over, everyone had to go. 

Chinese characters on the floor!

Someone who wanted
 a picture with me...(??)

Luckily we had someone in our midst that actually spoke Chinese. Then again, I guess the point the policeman was trying to make was pretty clear. We slowly evacuated the building, waking up the entire neighborhood as we went (oops.) after that we *tried* to go out, which wasn't that much of a success since getting a taxi is not very easy in China- if you are an obvious foreigner, that is. Some cabs just don’t stop, others won’t take you, and sometimes when they do, they’ll stop randomly and decide that they don’t feel like taking you any further- in one case a taxi driver even took us to the wrong place and shouted at us to get off because it was the right place. Anyway, in this particular night, no one wanted to take us. A few taxi drivers pretended not to know the Sanlitun area (by comparison: A Dutch person not knowing Amsterdam). 

One guy even had the nerve to tell us he wasn’t going to Sanlitun, only to suddenly change his mind when we stepped away and a Chinese girl asked to go to the same exact place (yes he took her). I really cannot seem to understand what’s wrong with taxi drivers here. I’ve heard theories on how they might not like driving Western people around because they get mad when not understood (which might actually be plausible), but honestly mostly I’m too annoyed to feel that way. Anyway, in the end we took a riksja which was a lot more fun, if slightly more dangerous. Although, since these days I use my bicycle I guess I shouldn’t complain about danger.

=)

In the end we got to the place where we wanted to go (me and the roomies) and joined some people at some kind of a latin bar with great music (really my type), great dancing, and VERY annoying creepy guys. Oh well you can’t have everything I guess. It’s actually Western guys who get annoying- Chinese guys are waaaay to shy to do more than stare, in general that is.

Well we stayed there for quite a while, so the next day I was exhausted, but my roomies wanted to go to a park. Due to a misunderstanding with a taxi driver, we ended up at the New Summer Palace. We got in with a student’s fee of one and a half euro’s- it was the non-touristic area of the Summer Palace complex. 

One of the cuter mini-
buildings of the Summer Palace.

It’s a huuuuge place with a few connected lakes- we walked around the biggest of them, which took a long time but was worth it- it was very soothing, after such a busy night, to be able to relax in a nice open space. That night we were supposed to go to another party (a good-bye party for someone) but we had decided not to go, on account of being absolutely exhausted. In the end though, my roommate decided that she really wanted to go, and not alone, so I tagged along, and actually had fun (and then got asked for a date the next day by someone from the party, which was flattering if nothing else). On Sunday I slept for most of the day, and I kind of… sulked for the rest. Well, in my defense, it isn’t easy to be here. It feels like a dream- a dream in which food is completely different and always gives you a slight stomach ache, crossing a road is narrowly escaping death every time (and biking is, if possible, even worse), taxi drivers are evil and people stare at you endlessly. Where if you walk into a room you’re the movie star (and girls stare at you jealously and angrily even if you do nothing at all) and you can never be one of the crowd. 

Characters that take
my teacher a dictionary
and 5 minutes to write.

Awwww!

Even the language difference means there’s no rest- everything and everywhere is in Chinese, and in Chinese if you don’t try to speak EXACTLY how you’re supposed to you have no chance of anybody understanding anything (chances are slight even if you DO manage to speak perfect Chinese…).  Some days are bad, and you don’t manage to get a word across- some days, like today (Monday) are better, and suddenly the entire take-away (food) goes fine, without you or the waitress having to say ‘what’ or ‘shénme?’. Life here isn’t perfect- there’s a lot to get used to really, not only Chinese and China but ALSO living on my own for the very first time and being far away from everyone over there… Oh well, I get by. This was my choice and for now I’m sticking with it! Love, Sophie

Writing Characters with.. water? At the Summer Palace

More dancing Chinese people! =D

Days 17, 18 and 19 (wow!)

(Sorry for the crappy self-picture!)

I got my hair cut on tuesday! Big, big deal. I was afraid of cutting my hair, but when I talked to O. about it, my Italian friend, she told me she wanted to cut her hair too. And paint the tips of her hair brown (she has black hair). So we set off, into one of those evenings that go so wrong that you can only wonder at the ingenuity of it's failure. To start with she had arranged for us to meet a Chinese co-worker so we could explain what we were trying to do. The place was on the other side of the city, and we left at 5.30 so it was rush hour. People being pushed into subways? Myth confirmed to be true. People stuck between doors? Yup. People pressed up against the subway windows because of the lack of space? Right again. All in all, it was a hectic and very uncomfortable trip, since we also had to take 2 subways and a bus. Once there, we tried explaining what we wanted done (which took a while). And that was the moment, standing between 5 Chinese people and one black-haired Italian, that I realised how Extremely light my hair colour is. Seriously, you shall not believe it, but I'm practically blonde. And my face is so pink and white... I'm a freak casualty of nature here. Anyway, my Chinese hair cut was easy (and cost €1,50) but O.'s treatment was somewhat more complicated. I found out that here in China people paint hair by adding colours to it- first her hair was painted red, then they added purple, then green then blue. The resulting colour, however, stayed reddish. Meanwhile, I had nothing to do so I started studying my Chinese, and soon had 4 Chinese haircutters who had nothing to do sitting around me perfecting my execution of the Chinese language and laughing a LOT. 

O. and her new hair!

I always just assume that Chinese people are laughing with me and not at me, so I just laughed a lot too, and it was actually great for my Chinese skills. Being 18 here seems to equal being a toddler- so naturally they found me 'cute'. I can come back any time if I need to practise, haha. Actually, even at the U. school, most people are older and have finished studying, so I feel like a child there too. The overall profile is: 21-28 (mostly 24) years old, on average having lived in 2/3 different countries, having 1,3 nationalities each and studying a language OR some kind of business OR law (no exceptions to that last point!). Many of the people here are artists, and the rest are certainly creative (except for me of course. Damnit.)

Anyway, so after O.'s hair was 'finished' (it's still red and she hated it at the beginning, they really messed it up) we went to have dinner locally and misunderstood the waitress so that we got 3 plates instead of 2 of Chinese food ('omg... we keep eating but the dishes just stay the same size!') so the meal was 'expensive'. 

During dinner we suddenly realised we were going to be too late to take the bus and subways back home, so we would have to hire a taxi. Then O. found out she had no more money, so that by the time we almost got run over on the road we were laughing so much about the ridiculous situation that we couldn't breathe. Best way of dealing with letdowns!

The next day, on wednesday, I finally got my bike fixed properly, so that it is now a relatively good bike WITH pedals. And air in its tyres. Which was another gruelling experience, since people GATHER to watch you mess up when talking to the fixers. And then stay on to watch you duel with the air-filling-machine you can use (until some guy decided to show me how it worked). I've been biking a lot more now. I actually know how to bike to school, someone who lives close to me showed me yesterday! Biking is a very challenging thing to do. Listening to music would be very, very stupid. But again I'll owe you that explanation: food and traffic, coming up next.

Yesterday I also had a kung fu class of two hours on my own, because no-one else showed up. When I realised that I was going to be alone I just wanted to leave again because I felt soooo awkward. Being in China really tests all my personal difficulties this way! xD. Anyway, I stayed, which was great because I don't get a lot of sport here otherwise anyway, and I learnt many new ways of kicking ass! Now my entire body hurts. A lot. Two hours of private kung fu are more than enough for a simple half-latin american-half-dutchie. 

 I added a little extract from a typical character class today! I'm very sorry, I have so much more to tell but my arms are too sore to type any more. What a lame reason not to keep up a blog properly. Good night! Love, Sophie.

Arts & Parks (days 15 and 16)

Ah, the end of my second full weekend here in Beijing. 

And what a great weekend it was! Friday just relaxing, saturday Black Rabbit and sunday 798: The Beijing art district. It didn't look very promising from the outside, but the further in we went, the smaller, cuter and more original the little shops and galleries became. 798 is a labyrinth of galleries displaying all kinds of artists and art outside as well as inside. Some gallery owners didn't mind us taking pictures, so I included a few that I took. There was a lot of extremely original art, it was really a nice place to visit (and I'm not that much into museums...). There were also a few small shops that sold hand-painted little paintings and lots of other really original design things. 
Such a pity it was quite expensive! I bought a little present for a friend on that side anyway, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog so it'll still be a surprise =). I also (finally) took one of my typical little pictures (to the left around here). I hope you like it. Anyway, after the art district I ate a hamburger at (=O) McDonalds. 
No, I'm not ashamed to admit that I was quite craving McDonalds. You would be craving for something like that too if you had been eating Chinese food for a full 2 weeks after 18 years of not having one bite of it. It was a good hamburger xD. I might also have been annoyed at some people we were supposed to be hanging out with at 798: the school/internship people are very nice and open, but also just do their own thing without thinking too much about other people, which sometimes makes it difficult to arrange doing things together. Like this time: we spent a lot of time looking for two friends who just didn't really bother looking for our group. Oh well, frustration every now and then was to be expected. I guess I feel better today, since it just was a really nice day, very active, and the weather was sooo marvellous (AGAIN!).

This is just some graffiti I found ;-).

After school some classmates and I first went to the Beijing Zoo Market, a market full of really random and very cheap clothes and... well actually, you can buy anything, from make-up to suitcases (no food- it's not that type of market). We walked around for a while, but it was so full of people we kind of gave up on looking for things we wanted. I want to go back someday by myself- it's really close to my place and I prefer shopping on my own (no-one needs to wait for you then...). 

Me in the Park.

Afterwards, we walked towards a park in Beijing called the Purple Bamboo Park. It's described on an official site as being 'a large park of 14 Hectares just to the west of Beijing Zoo and the National Library. It has three connected lakes with two islands, lotus flowers, small hills, streams, bridges, pavilions, rock gardens and about 50 varieties of bamboo. The Bamboo Park also features boating, play and exercise areas, teahouses and cafes, and a small crafts market.' Which describes it better than I could- it's a 
beautiful little park with people dancing to music and practicing their sword fighting abilities (see the vids) whilst other people are fishing, pedalling around or simply chilling. The cute little bridges, together with the blue skies, music playing from speakers around the park and the huge amount of green meant we felt a bit like we had gotten out of the city again- which was perfect, very soothing. I took lots and lots of pictures of the sunlight in the trees- but I guess overall it must not be as interesting to people who live in a wonderfully natural place (but are not aware of it. Look around you!).


After the park we went to the Chinese National Library. We could basically just walk into the place (we weren't expecting that). It was extremely modern and had a very special type of layer-architecture, which allowed you to look down from above upon a scene of hundreds of students just studying at tables, with or without computers or drinks. It was so quiet that you could actually hear the air conditioning. Suddenly I really felt like studying- I think I may be starting to understand how it is possible that Chinese students do so well in the West, too... it will take more time to figure it out completely though. From the outside the library isn't very impressive, but here's a picture of it just in case.
And tonight I finished off the evening by going out for dinner with another girl- we had pizza! Actual pizza. Why this is so special? I'll explain next time- I've been meaning for a while to explain how food works here to you guys, I'm sure you'll enjoy that. For now, good night, and take care.

Dancing! I was wrong, Chinese people DO dance.

Just not exactly in the way that I'm used to!

And this is just a girl practising. Random,

but quite cool I think you will find!

Beijing Black Rabbit Festival (2 weeks!)

Black Rabbit Festival!

Wauw! <3

Today was a b-e-a-utiful day in Beijing. That is extremely unusual here. The sky was blue instead of a grey, polluted shade of cloud and the sun was shining. Damn I miss unpolluted air... Anyway, it was a perfect day for the Beijing Black Rabbit festival. There are rumours that the Chinese government can control weather a bit by making it rain before great events with certain chemicals so that the air is cleared. Personally I don't think that this particular event was important enough, but oh well.

Beautiful sunset too =)

The festival was amazing. I loved Yellowcard, had crazy fun dancing to Ludacris with my more Latino friends and even went to listen to Chinese rap... Not to forget, obviously, 30 Seconds to Mars. Here are some short clips for those who care =).  Note: Chinese people are even more boring than Dutch people.

South Americans FTW!

 They don't dance at all if they can help it! Luckily I've got my South American and Italian friends... 
I won't bother you here with my opinions of the music, but it was highly entertaining that for example the lead singer from Yellowcard said that he was not allowed to use 'bad words' (I guess the theory is that there are younger children that should not be confronted with these terms because later on Ludacris and the Chinese rapper just said whatever the hell they wanted.

Guy from 30 seconds to Mars

Then again, the children are Chinese and therefore probably did not understand a word the Yellowcard guy was saying anyway. Hmmm... what logic?). And later on, the lead singer guy from 30 seconds to Mars announced that for a certain song he would have liked to invite people on the stage
'we can't do that here in China' (which was followed by angry shouts of &%#* China, since there were many foreigners, which was then followed by some guy walking up the stage and telling the singer *something*). All in all, very dodgy. It just shows, I guess, that however normal life in China seems, there is always a shadow, an invisible hand you could call it, affecting people's business. I haven't quite made up my mind how I feel about that- I mean, life here is also incredibly safe.

To finish: I'll call these cases Chino-Western Confusions (CWC): On friday we were taught the names of body parts (such as face, nose) and ways of describing their size and shape. I immediately asked our Chinese teacher what the colours were called, but she told me we would learn that later. She then asked the Dutch guy in my class to describe his mother. He had not heard my question, so he started by saying: my mother has long hair... how do you say brown? So I told the teacher that if we were to describe a person, we would never think about the size of the bridge of their nose (it's considered beautiful if this is wide xD) but we would start by describing their hair colour and eye colour. 'Really? Eye colour!?'

(Chinese rap! xD)

(Ludacris)

Bike! (days 11 and 12)

Hey! I’m aware that my blog yesterday was non-existent, but that was because I’m thinking of turning this into a once-every-two days thing, which would mean a lot less reading for you!

Bikey!

To start with, I have a bike! I was talking about buying a bike with some classmates, and they mentioned that they had in their apartment that they never used. So after school yesterday I went home with them and checked it out. It was missing a chain and a pedal but I took it with me anyway. Next step: fixing it. I looked up ‘to fix’: it turned out to be xiūfù. A bicycle storeowner couldn’t help me, so I found someone who spoke English and she asked someone and they knew a one place where it could be fixed. Since the issue was pretty clear I managed to get a guy to fix the chain. I also bought a lock, so now I own a bicycle that I can actually use. I spent 5 euros on it. I even managed to tell the fixing-guy I was studying Chinese, which made me more happy than it should xD. Funny thing about Beijing people is they seem to be annoyed/angry all the time when they talk, even when they turn out to be in a good mood which is really frustrating. I guess it has to do with not understanding how intonation works… Anyway, same thing happened with the bike fixer: He seemed annoyed at me for some reason, but then seemed just really happy and nice and even wondered why I could say more in Chinese than most Western people (I THINK he was wondering that. Maybe he was just telling me horrible stuff. Oh well). Problem after that was, I actually had to bike home, and this place was at the other side of the city. Well not really, but it took me an hour and a half in the confusing, polluted messy city. I could really feel my lungs afterwards… and my knees too. It is such a terrible bicycle compared to my nice little Dutch bike! Well, no matter, bike achieved. I also had a 2-hour class of Kung Fu, by a master whose master is very well known or something in Beijing. Kung Fu is AMAZING. I can do all kinds of things already, like throwing people on the floor who try to hold your hand. There are 5 more classes. They’re quite expensive, but I’m very sure I want to do that. That would be a nice thing to learn. Like, I learnt Chinese and Kung Fu. Yep, sounds good. I walked back home with E., my German friend, around Hou Hai once more (damn I like Hou Hai).

What the??
Shopping in China...

Today was less immediately interesting. I actually slept in the middle of the day when I got home, I was so tired (to everyone who knows me sleeping during the day is a BIG thing). Chinese is getting better, although I keep forgetting the spoken words and I keep messing up things like ‘God’ and ‘on the ground’ (one is shang di and the other di shang…damnit Chinese!). Today we went for Hong Kong food, and afterwards out. It was fun, in a basic simple kind of way. It was raining really bad when we went home and you could just feel the filth of the city washing off. My god this city is so dirty. And also not very beautiful. I mean, sure, there are nice-like areas, but even then you have to be able to see past the immediate ugliness. I don’t know what the charm of the city is exactly… maybe it’s just it being new to me? I’ll find out soon enough =). Good night guys!

P.S.: I made a few little recordings of everyday life here, so I'll try to upload those later... right now internet isn't cooperating! 

Day 10: Day-by-day

 Hey everyone! I think this post will be another short one. I guess it's time I settle down into a more boring routine: sleeping, school, studying and eating every now and then. Today I walked over to Hou Hai, the lake I was at yesterday night. It was pretty nice in daylight too. On a Beijing map it looks like a 10 minute walk, but no chance. In fact, I hate Beijing maps. They ignore certain streets completely, such as the one I live in. And the smaller Hutong streets. Result: I walked straight into one Hutong street. People stared. Worst of all, it was a dead-end. If you can picture the human anxiety you feel when you suddenly realise you're walking the wrong way and you have to turn around (because people MIGHT notice) imagine walking into a narrow street with people (who look completely different to you and don't see your type of person often) sitting on the streets watching you. Now imagine reaching the end of that narrow street and having to turn around. In front of said people. 
Needless to say, quite an experience. The funny thing about Hutongs (and in fact about Beijing in its entirety) is that no matter where you end up, you don't feel really threatened or afraid. It might have something to do with the grandmothers playing with their children outside, or maybe the cute guy teaching his girlfriend how to ride a motorbike. In any case, I wasn't intimidated. I walked around half the lake, and then on to the subway for the ride home. Maybe you aren't aware, because of my cheerful posts, but Beijing isn't a very pretty city, especially not when pollution/fog is as prominent as these days (check the pictures... no sun). It all looks kind of harsh and unkept in this light. So I hope there's better light tomorrow ;-). After coming back home I ACTUALLY cooked, because I basically only had relatively healthy food left (hehe). And then I ate my food- with chopsticks! Guess it grows on you =). Good night for now!

Day 9: Hou hai lake

A canal

Hotpot

Another relaxed day! Today I slept. For a looong time =). That was really good. Afterwards I studied (without really getting very far, to be painfully honest. I hope next week will be more productive than this week). At night we went for dinner with a big group of people and had hotpot, a kind of meal they make on your table in front of you. It was really good, and, again the food was made in an extremely clean way, it wasn't touched at all. I'm quite impressed. The food was good, although it was juust a bit too spicy for me! Afterwards we went to a lake (the area is called Hou hai) full of little bars where people were using pedalos and just being together. It was extremely nice and romantic, you couldn't see any modern apartments or other signs of the lake  being in a city. I even felt kind of lonely seeing all those cute little pairs =S. I couldn't take any good pictures because of the light (and because I'm using my little camera which is easy but not very good), but I hope you see something of what I saw in these pictures. Anyway, I'm going to bed- tomorrow is another busy day- so good night. I hope you appreciate the shortness of this post! I'm sure you do =). 

Reflections on the water of the lake.

A trip (I week & I day)

Ceremonial hall of emperor Yongle and the
wonderfully serene surroundings!

So the Ming tombs weren't that big a deal. It was hard to figure out the historical importance of the sites since there were very few signs to tell you what you were looking at. The signs that existed weren't very logical either, so in the end I can only tell you this: Of the 16 Ming leaders, 13 were buried in this area. Of those 13, only 3 tombs are available to public. Of those 3, we visited 2: One from the third Ming emperor Yongle (who was a pretty awesome dude if you believe the signs: handsome, well-groomed, intelligent, etc etc etc) and one from the thirteenth Ming emperor, Zhu Yijun. Zhu Yijun's tomb is the only one to have been excavated, so you could go down lots and lots of stairs to see where he and his two wives had lain- but down there, there was nothing at all to see, except for some (pardon me the use of this word) crappy copies of boxes that had supposedly held his worldy belongings. 

Chinese people throw money at tombs.
I'm sure it's culturally relevant!

The only interesting thing about the tomb was the stone made to click into place after the tomb was closed so no-one could go in after the emperor and his wives (actually: wife and concubine) were buried. Also the fact that, if I remember correctly, there was a sign inside the tomb that told the researchers who opened it that no-one had managed to get there yet (which by the way isn't completely true... grave robbers are quite canny). The tomb of Yongle (the great guy) was not excavated, so really you could only see some type of large temple-like room on top of his supposed tomb-mound which was at least heavily renovated, but was otherwise quite nice and not as pretentious as for example the lama temple. 

Having fun in the van!

Anyway, although the Ming tombs might not have been the best tourist attraction I've ever been to, it was good to get out of the city. We went there with a group of 14 people from the U. school- we actually hired our own van. An Australian guy, U., took his guitar and we sang the whole way there. I even sang a song all by myself (I'm yours) which I was more proud of than I'd admit to the casual stranger (shhhhh!). It was great to be surrounded by trees for a while, and walk around the tombs (there is some beautiful scenery) in serene quiet. You really don't get that much in cities like Beijing!
  

Most of the crew together!

Not that I miss it terribly. I seem to have a large capacity to adapt to this city, I am not sure whether that's the cities fault or mine. In any case, I am used to MODERATE Chinese food by now (a little spicy? What do you mean?), as well as to chopsticks (really, I mean, using two hands to eat food is not efficient!). I don't feel so troubled by people staring at me anymore, I have learnt to ignore most of it. That was hard at first: I would look at someone in the subway sitting in front of me, and notice he was looking at me. As courtesy dictates, I'd look away. If I by chance would glance back, the person would still be staring at me. Now there are few people who would survive the shame of being caught staring at someone TWICE. That would immediately mean a stop in the staring, anywhere else I've been in this world. Chinese people, however, seem to be quite impervious to this type of thing. You might catch them staring 5, 6 times. I know from sources that some Western girls deal with it by blowing them a kiss, which seems to work fine on men (yeah THAT does seem to embarrass them) so I think I might try that someday, instead of slapping the person in front of me like I really feel like doing. 
Anyway, you learn to deal with it. I've learnt to risk my life every time I cross a street in order to get to the other side within half an hour (if there are traffic lights, wait for green and then try skipping around the motorcycles and bicycles and cars that turn who are all cheerfully colourblind. If no traffic lights are available, get together with at least, say, 8 people and walk, looking as self-assured as humanely possible, praying that the car drivers don't want to kill 8 people at the same time). I got used to not really understanding what I'm buying at all (today I used milk instead of cream for a sauce, weird brownish mushrooms instead of champignons, and noodles that looked like see-through plastic strings instead of spaghetti. I have decided to christen them ghost noodles.) I'm also completely used to my room and apartment now. I guess that human beings are just extremely adaptive. Or maybe it helps to have a background in messy South America. 

Lanterns...

...lots of them

For lunch/dinner we had Beijing duck, since one of my roommates (the Austrian one) is leaving quite soon and she had never tasted it before. I must say I wasn't too keen- I keep seeing the cute little ducklings swimming in the canals in my head. But I tried some, and was almost relieved to find I don't quite like it. At the same place we found a worm in our broccoli, which everyone except for me took with a calmness of spirit I would have believed impossible. 'It can happen anywhere with vegetables..' 'Yes, of course'. Outside the restaurant the street was covered in bright lanterns, and I thought... I could be happy here.