Ok… mega catch up blog entry. Ok… well what I might do I might attempt to re-cap from last Sunday the 20^th of January 2008.

Xingqitian (Sunday) 20^th January 2008

Today despite feeling exhausted as hell I got my butt up at 6.30am to meet everyone else at 7am to go to the slopes for skiing/snowboarding! So… I got ready. Went to Michelle’s and Fern’s room… knocked on their door, and yes… you guessed it, they were still a sleep. Everyone was still a sleep. So… our day actually started at about 8am. We took a bus to the mountain… forgot its name, which took about 2 hours. It was pretty close!

The cost… crazy cheap!!! We had to put down 200 RMB for the day pass, and equipment. At the end of the day we were given 50 RMB back which means we paid about 25 AUD. The bus ride there 12 kuai, meaning it cost us only 2 AUD to get there. CHEAP!

Anywho…I decided that I was going to work on snowboarding, since my experience in Shanghai was not really “proper” snowboarding. I didn’t know how to carve or board down the slope properly. I just went straight down, which is pretty dangerous. So Lincoln was my Laoshi for the day. He taught me and Michelle how to do “falling leaf” which is just boarding down the slope horizontally across the slope, and not just vertically straight down the slope… which would have led us to the end of our short lives.

Falling over is pretty tiring. I did not fall this much when I had skied in Switzerland! So my wrists, lower back and butt was getting pretty sore. By lunch time… I was dying for something decent to eat. The sandwiches at the lodge there was awesome! Club sandwich… YUM!!! Afterwards, Lincoln took me to the middle part of the slope… to bring my game up a bit.

I was still shitting myself. Ok…I had the general gist of what to do, but not down pack. I packed it even more when I saw that I was not going to be alone at this part of the slope, but about 30 instructors were just standing in the middle of the slope for some filming. Lincoln snowboarded to the other side of the slope so that we could go down around them… but I… well… I didn’t know how to go across the slope. It was mega steep and… I could just imagine me bowling them over…. But… I amped myself up and did it. The biggest hurdle was my fear. After that… it was easy street.

What really got me to turn my fear around was Kenny. Kenny was like me, never snowboarded in his life. For lunch the girls told him accidently that the lodge is at the very top of the mountain… yea… not cool. So he had to snowboard down himself… BUT he did it, and learned how to go down falling leaf all by himself. My inspiration!

After going down from the mid point and hearing that Kenny made it to the bottom alive… I “man-ed” up and took the plunge. Went to the very top of the slope… and I never looked back! It was scary, invigorating and a great way to learn to snowboard! The slope is long, and since I was only going down one way my legs burned like hell!!! I ended up having to try to forget the pain of lactic acid in my thighs by singing while I snowboarded down… ahahahah… but by the end of the day, I would just make myself fall over to let my legs rest!

The day would have been perfect if the next part didn’t happen. I was super cold and tired, so I changed and returned my clothes and gear. When I walked out to see everyone again and I went to buy some Nai Cha (Milk Tea) I realised I had no money in my wallet. I had taken all my money out and put it in the pocket of the snow jacket I had borrowed! I ran to everyone and told them and we made our way to the hiring desk. I had only JUST returned it, and I wore a green jumpsuit in size small which was not that popular. We told the people there, and they let us look in all of the pockets of the size small green. But… all the pockets had been opened and my money was no longer there. The people there were asking whether I had kept my pocket open and perhaps I had dropped it. But I knew this was not the case. I saw that every time they received the snow gear back they checked the pockets then and there. Someone… blatantly lied to me and someone got themselves an extra 400 kuai. *sigh*

Lincoln, Michelle and I eating some Lunch on the slope

Xingqiyi (Monday) 21 January – Xingqisi (Thursday) 24 Janurary

We pretty much continued having classes in the morning. But instead of going to the afternoon activities that were available to us, we went out shopping this week! We realised we only had 1 more week left. So we took the ditie (underground train) to the Silk Market and Xi dan. They are awesome places to go shopping! This holiday I did not buy a lot of clothes, but I bought a lot of “Zhongguo dongxi” (Chinese Stuff) Such as my name in a chop/seal/stamp. I had them put Xia An Na in the traditional script. I also bought some cool water paintings of the Great Wall, Huang Shan and some Pandas. I was looking for a painting of Xi Hu (West Lake) in Hangzhou… but no such luck.

To tell you the truth, the night market in Hangzhou is a lot better than in Beijing. I mean Beijing had a lot of stuff, don’t get me wrong but I think I preferred the stuff that they had in Hangzhou.

One of the coolest buys was… I bought a Zhongguo MP3 player!! Because what happened was the day after snowboarding, my ipod died on me!!! I plugged poddie into megan’s computer and it just froze… I didn’t know why. I waited for ages but nothing happened so I unplugged poddie from the laptop. Since then, I cannot access my music… itunes will not pick up poddie, but the laptop will detect a mass storage space connected. *sigh*

I was hell depressed. I pretty much have lost 3 years of music! It had everything on it! Mandarin, French, Japanese Lessons… My European trip OST, my China trip OST, my Il Divo, Maroon 5… everthingggg!!! So when I had a look at the mp3s in Carre Four with Lincoln, we saw this hot little thing. Chinese branded though, but it is no bigger than a credit card man!!! It has touch pad, big screen with great resolution!!! I bought it for 799 kuai… which is about 130 AUD. And It has been the coolest buy so far!!! I have put all my Chinese music on, I have downloaded all my favourite Chinese ktv vid clips and have put it on there so I can practice reading the Hanzi, and I have put lyrics onto it, so I can learn the songs!! AHH!!! Sooo cool!!!

My new Zhongguo pod

I also put got my Sony Ericsson w660i flashed!!! Its soo cool!! I got them to put Chinese characters onto it! I love it! It also has Bahasa Indonesia dictionary on it, so now I can write and receive sms’s in like 3 languages that I can understand!!! Writing hanzi is pretty fun, and really helpful for learning it.

We also went to Vix/Mix. These are 2 clubs in Beijing which are next to each other. They both are pretty sick! Hahaha… we went on the Thursday, and then we went again on the Friday.

Xingqiwu (Friday) 25 January

We had a free day, but as usual it was taken up by an excursion. Today we went to the Tian’namen Square and the Forbidden City. It was really really really cold!!! You could not believe!!! There was no sign of snow, but I think it was really cold because of the wind! The wind cuts right through you. Especially at Tian’namen square as it is just one big open square with no buildings.

There is nothing really much I can say about Tian’namen Square of the Forbidden City really. It was just cold. I was a bit disappointed with the Forbidden City as some parts were closed down for renovation for the Olympics. But it was ok. All of us were just ready to hui sushe (return to the dorms) as we were all suffering hahaha.

The cool stuff I bought from the Forbidden City was 2 books. One of them showed you how to write characters and the history behind them, and the other was a calendar where you learn a phrase a day!

Later on we hit Vix/Mix again!

Our Crew at Tian'namen

Xingqiliu (Saturday) 26 January

I was tired… exhausted to the max from clubbing and the lack of sleep from the past 2 nights. But… I still woke up at 8.30am to go to our next excursion. We went to visit the new Olympic Stadium! Unfortunately it was not open for the public, so all we did was take a bus to it, to see it, we took some happy snaps and then we headed back home, which was fine for all of us. The Olympic stadium is pretty awesome! Has some pretty sick architecture… why couldn’t our silly Convention Centre look anything like this. The stadium looks like a birds nest, which is supposed to mean something… but yea.

Duncan and I at the New Olympic Stadium

That night we hit Propaganda… BIG night. It was probably the best night I had in Beijing! Lincoln and I earlier one were like… “ok.. we will make a pact… this is THE night… because next week all of us will be studying...” The cocktails are really cheap for us! Mojitos are like 25 Kuai (4 AUD) and other “stronger” drinks are 35 Kuai. I think this night was my best night because I practiced my Chinese. Other nights in Beijing, as just been about our group and that is about it.

This night I ordered drinks, talked to the bar tender (who was a newbie but still really cool). Like for example, I ordered a round of drinks… and Lincoln was like… “Anna get him to put more vodka in.” So I did! I asked him and he just kept the vodka going! Another cool example was when we were at the bar, I accidently bumped into this guy. I said dui bu qi (excuse me/sorry). And he was like mei guan xi (no worries). I then thought… eh… what the heck, lets practice my chinese… “Ni jiao shenme mingzi?” (what is your name?) He answered with his Chinese name which I cannot possibly repeat or remember. I then explained to him that I couldn’t speak Chinese very well. He then said his name was Sean… (I think). Anyways… I spent a good few minutes conversing with him…explaining I was in China to study Chinese, and I had studied in Hangzhou for a month and was in Beijing for another month. He told me he studied marketing (I think) and I told him I had studied law… after a while I ask him “Ni de pengyou zai nar li?” (Where are your friends)… guess what he said in reply??

He said he came alone! Hahahahaha oh well at least he was a nice guy..nice enough guy to humor me and my bad Chinese.

The night ended… well… yea.. it ended good… lets just say… not as bad as Shanghai… but close hahha.

Xinqitian (Sunday) 27 January – Xingqisi (Thursday) 31 January

On Sunday I kept a low profile. Lincoln and I went to eat at a place called “Lush” which had the sweetest burgers there! Aw… I miss the western food! Monday through to Thursday we were all busy studying for our exams with a bit of shopping on the side.

This week I got really frustrated with my Chinese. Things were just not sinking in. I was SO thick! I didn’t understand. I felt like my Chinese had gone backwards. I was sooo augh!!! It was horrible especially since I had my exam!

James in Hangzhou sent me photo of Zhejiang Daxue snowed in! They got a lot of snow, like most of the other cities and provinces in China. Apparently there has been mega snow… which has made it difficult for those who are trying to return home to their town for Chinese New Year. Train tracks are blocked etc. But… being typical Anna luck… no such snow is visiable in Beijing. Clear blue skies… Zai Beijing de tianqi hen leng, ke shi meiyou xue. (In Beijing, the weather is cold, but no snow) *sigh*

Zhejiang Daxue Snowed in!

Xingqiwu (Friday) 1 February

Today… well we had our graduation ceremony! It has only really just hit me that.. hey we are leaving tomorrow morning. We are leaving China for good. It is not just a 1 or 2 week holiday to another place where we will return later on for more study. This is it. No more Chinese classes!!! = (

The ceremony was pretty cool, they gave us a DVD presentation which was a movie of photos and video clips of us while out at excursions or in class throughout this month! It was soo cool! They gave us a CD of the movie as well as the photos they took!! They presented us with our certificates and along with a shirt with the School’s name on it, and a class photo.

All the classes had to give a performance. Our class just did a role play with some dialogue. But the other classes did some crazy stuff like… a “who dunnit” “Murder in the dark” role play, whereas another group did a presentation on experiences in China.

They also presented awards for the classes. For our class A1, Ke Li Si and I were awarded some prize… I didn’t quite catch what it was for, but I think it was for being good students. It was cool I got a Chinese mask thing which you can hang on a wall or door. There were also awards for the best acting in the class performances. For our class the award went to Megan. = )

I wanted to get photos with both of my Laoshi. But I was only able to get a photo with one. = ( Yea… the Laoshi here were a lot better than the ones in Zhejiang. It was an intense learning experience. Lu Laoshi was the first teacher we had. He was really good. Like he kept you talking, and I think I liked his teaching style, like I benefited the most from it. Wang Laoshi was really good too. She was patient, and had a completely different approach. She was more about the writing and the pace was slower.

The staff here are really nice as well. Like they actually care. They took care of you!!! Really! Like… ok… I was getting frustrated with my Chinese and on Thursday in class.. well I kinda randomly fell a part. I do not know why. Nothing was sinking in, things I knew I forgot. I was really flustered. Wang Laoshi was teaching that day, and she could sense I was bu gaoxing (Not happy). She asked whether I was uncomfortable… but I couldn’t answer her because… well yea… Anywho… I didn’t return after the break. I asked Megan to explain to Wang Laoshi that I was just concerned about the exam and that it was not her. I kinda had a feeling she thought I was angry with her. >.<

Anyways… this Monday I missed class because I was feeling down. But I had a “one on one” class and instead of getting a random teacher to talk about random things to, I was directed to Wang Laoshi, who went through the lesson that I had missed. It was really good. She asked me about the Thursday and whether I was ok. And I said to her… “dui bu qi… mei guan xi, wo shi mafan.” (sorry, don’t worry, I was being difficult) I thought it was the best way to say it especially since “mafan” (troublesome) was a new word which she had taught me just then!

Anyways… after the graduation ceremony we all went to a farewell lunch. But Both of my Laoshi did not turn up. I was quite… well cut. HAHAHA. I wanted to talk to them and say thank you and all that jazz. So afterwards I asked the other Laoshi for their emails, but they didn’t know. Instead they gave me their mobile numbers… siiiick = ) I got my Chinese hanzi on, and messaged them = ). It was cool! Really really cool… but I was mega exhausted trying to figure out, the grammar, the words and then what characters to use hahhaa… reading them was pretty alright.

Anyways… I better go… been writing this thing for ages and Its already 6.48… need to finish packing…need to rest before tonight…

Our Class "A1" Ban - Ke Li Si , An Na, Hui hui , Lao La, Cheng cheng

Winners of the "Amazing Race" Activity

Yu Laoshi and Me

Labels: Beijing, China, China Gang, Chinese, Clubbing, Food, Friendship, Shopping, Sport, Technology, Travel