Christmas In Beijing!

Ni hao everone!!

I hope everyone had a great xmas!! i definately did. It was hard to take in the fact i wasnt in oz for xmas no family no pressies and none of my mums christmas brunch!! Luckily one of my classmates has a really nice apartment and held a bit of a do at his for xmas eve. It was a 'potluck' and for all the 'non americans' out there or people like me who had no idea what a potluck was when i first got here its pretty much a bring a plate thing... we had everything going from ham,spanish meatballs,salad,pigs in a blanket,chicken parmigana, pasta,curry oh and lets not forget the garlic bread!! and for dessert pumpkin pie,2 types of chocolate cake, banana caramel pie and brownies with haagens daaz ice cream!!!!!:) i never knew such food could be made in china but i was wrong!! DInner then was followed by a movie 'Love Actually' funny as movie never watched it thou and i may have fallen asleep a couple of times... cause the couch was so damn comfortable plus i was nice and warm sqished amongst everyone on the couch!! After the movie we all did a shot of whiskey wish def warmed the body:)
The weather got pretty bad towards the end of the night the wind picked up and may i say -10 plus gale force winds.... yeh not good i have never felt so cold!

Christmas day was spent mostly sleeping in and then went to church in Wanfujing which was def interesting the church was built in the 1600's and burnt down 3 times!! The church was packed!! by both chinese and foreigners i was really amazed at the amount of chinese that were there as most of u would know there is really not any christianity in china. Most of them were not even baptised and couldnt take communion but i was really taken away by it all. Afterwards me Cyril and Ju headed in to Sunlitun or as most of us like to say it in the Beijing accent Sunlitwer ( roll that r people!!) for dinner to my amazement it was all you can eat indian.... not as good as the real stuff but it was good!! After dinner i went on to my classmate Jo's apartment to watch everyone else eat dinner no-one wanted to inform me we were actually going to go out for dinner!! And as per tradition in China the night always has to end with KTV (kareoke) and we were there till.....3am....haha yeh i dunno where time went but we had an awsome time!!

So yeh thats it my friends my exciting xmas!! once again i hope everyone had a great xmas and i wish everyone all the best for the new year!!

whoo hoo 4 weeks till home!!:) xo

China and a little bit of India!

So what has been going on....well i ALOT!! So i really dunno whnere to start....

Well the past 3 months have gone by pretty fast i really cant believe it and its been great fun!! ive def improved alot and def been a good challenge!! as of late been starting to feel pretty home sick and been fighting with myself about not continuing next semester but i have alot of great friends which are helping me push on and remind me why i'm here (thanks guys you know who u are) i mean it would be hard to opt out now as all my flights are booked and next semester is already paid for plus i think quite a few ppl wouldnt be happy with me cause ive been going on about doing this since forever!! but i can def say its been a hard few weeks. Im coming back home for semester break end of jan for 4 weeks so i really cant wait to see everyone!! So im counting down the days already!!

The other week i went to India for one of my friends weddings in Bangalore! It was fantastic and def a rewarding experience as i know ill prob never experience another one!! I travelled the Golden Traingle (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur) which was also pretty awsome there was like no way i was going to India without seeing the Taj Mahal. Its been a recent desicion of mine to visit the 10 wonders of the world i just have that travel bug now!!





All of us at the wedding donned in borrowed sari's and Jesus wear



My sari i got made for the reception



At the Amber Palace, Jaipur



Me at the Taj Mahal

Sorry i have to keep this blog short but have to do some study.... lol but will write again soon!!
Only 5 more weeks till home!! Wishing everyone a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!!

xoxo

1st week of the uni life!!

Hi all hope everyone is well considering the shit weather that Adelaide is having at the moment!!

All is well with me. I did my placement exam last week on Fri... I think.... and i spent like 3 hours studying the day prior and let me say that that did not help at all!! We had been told by a friend that the exam had questions in it and that it would get harder but no that was not the case. It consisted of a million Chinese characters that i didn't know i think i knew like 6 all up and u either had to write the pinyin next to them or add a Chinese character that corresponded with the character given to make a word or sentence, then there was a listening part in which was a multiple choice question. The speaking was so fast that by the time i read the answers the question was over and that completely did my head in!! So i am in beginner class 1 which i didn't want to be in as that's like beginner beginner level like ill be learning "ni hao" all over again and phonetics n stuff. I got my text books today and had a flip through and I reckon ill sit one class and see how i go then if its not suitable ill move up a level to beginner level 2 which I wanted but the books looked a little harder as my reading is not that good but i should apparently know 800 characters....

So I had some news to share a couple of posts ago but ill mention it now. I have a friend Klara and she didn't know how to ride a bicycle and i know she's gonna hate me for mentioning her age but she's 27!!! so she bought a bike and me and my friend Cyril taught her how to ride in 2 hours!! I'm feeling quite proud!! It was difficult cause as kids we don't ask questions we just get on the bike and ride it but as adults there are so many bloody technical questions which i had to answer!!! so now she's going well but still wobbling all over the road!! but I'm sure she will be a pro soon!! we had a little accident the other day where her nose was itchy and she's like Kim I need to itch my nose and I'm like no don't even think about it cause she hasn't fully sussed out the balance bit yet and what does she do itches her nose!! and then she fell off and grazed her leg it was pretty funny.

Anyway campus life is pretty fun most of it is spent drinking in the lobby cause beers are 3 kuai (50cents) from the vending machine!! Now that class is starting I'm thinking we will all take a bit of a break for a week when we have a week off for national holiday. Planning to go to inner mongolia and live in a 'yurt' for a few days not quite sure yet but it sounds like fun!!

Oh yeah that's right we had a campus tour the other day its been delayed cause there is a bit of a flu pandemic going on in the uni!! we all got split into 4 groups and everyone else's tour finished early and mine went for 4 hours and I was stuffed afterwards cause we walked the whole thing. And my group asked way to many questions and they were just weird... lol I met another Adelaidian which was weird i cant tell you how long it feels since I last talked to someone with the same accent as me i completely freaked out and couldn't hack it lol, I mean I have met quite a few Australians from Sydney but their accent is just not the same... and amazingly there is no 3rd degree of separation!!

Oh and I know now my address if ppl wanna send me anything just fb or email me and I'll let you know!!

Here are some photos out of the window of my dorm:

Tsinghua!!!

So as of last fri im finally in my dorm!!! i would post photos BUT i cant as this program im using to access fb and blogspot wont let me!!!:(
Alots been going on! i was lucky enough to meet one of the guys i met over facebook when i first arrived and then over 3 days we have now formed what i like to call a "gang" of 10ppl lol! I bought my self a brand new bicycle for 20 bucks BRAND NEW!! but chinese made so yeh not the best quality but its gets me around campus!!The weather is topping 27-29 deg everyday which is awsome finally my white legs get some sun!! ive already managed to get a tan:)

Im currently just checking out the campus on my bike and studying for the placement exam on thurs then we start class the following tues and have a week of class then a week holiday for the 60th anniversary of communisim mao, thinking about checking out tianamen sq for the celebrations which is gonna be huge apparently 52,000 ppl are in the festival alone!

Sat night we all went out to a bar opening with free beer and cocktails till 12am ended up being boring and the chinese have a thing for luke warm beer which they think is cold.. ewwww so we went to a big club in the city called vics which is undergound mainly an expat club and it was bloody awsome!! yeh we all got pretty drunk had the best hotdog at 3am!! Cant say i remember the ride home... which..yes i know i never thought id say but I CANT REMEMBER!! what i can remember is photographers taking a million photos of us on stage... oh and lets not forget these 2 asian guys trying to grind me...ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww funny shit thou

Been feeling a bit home sick i keep having dreams about home and waking up and having to remind myself where i am which im hoping will pass cause im like getting no sleep:(

Well i best be off gotta figure out how to use the damn washing machiene!!

China blocks everything!!

So you would not believe i had to do to access my blog OMG!! ive just spent the last hour learning about proxy settings and VPNs!! and have finally been able to access my blog through a proxy what ever the hell that is!! Due to a recent riot, china has officially blocked facebook,twitter,you tube oh and blogs indefinately!! im completely cut about it being fb the main source of communtication these days especially being overseas!!

I dunno where to start....flights were all good got picked up by my uncles driver at the airport in which she cant speak ANY ENGLISH so that was interesting since i havent spoken for a while!! but we got there then i had to wait another hour for my dad to arrive from qingdao where he works! Im currently staying at my uncles in the city which is really nice thou i swear we have elephants living upstairs with the amount of stomping and noise that goes on especially at 3:30 am!!

I regestered at uni yest and checked into my dorm today which is so small its not funny and my bed consists of a 1 inch piece of board and a 2cm matress which i do not look forward to sleeping on!!

Dad is flying back to qingdao tomorrow which leaves me being a total loner at uni till the 17th (my exam)i havent really seen any foreigners in the way of westerners there are plenty of koreans and japenese around thou. There is a a huge flu pandemic going on here so everytime i enter a building i have to get my temperature checked!! and all the lifts get disinfected hourly....

Ive faced being killed in a taxi quite a few times and had my fare share of language barriers which i guess should only gets better when i start class and start learning some new words!! So OVER chinese food and its only been 3 days had to beg for maccas!!

Its been good spending some time with dad amazing never thought i would say that. Its been quite funny cause we went shopping at the Silk Market where u can barter for "fake" brands and everyone assumed dad could speak but he couldnt!! so i had to do most of the conversing!! oh and how everyone thought i was his wife/friend. I bought a new bag there and the lady was like "is this ur friend" and "im like no thats my dad" loved watching their reactions!!

Havent had the chance to take any photos yet but i will get there when i settle in as things are still pretty hectic!!!

Zai jian xoxo

My first blog post!!

First of all i want to thank one of my best friends Bee (apparentlyjessy) for taking time and having the patience to get my blog up and running and teaching me how to use it!!! Thanks Bee!!

How exciting to do my first blog post i havent done this for ages!!! First of all i want to say thanks to everyone who has chosen to follow my blog and read about what im going to get up to within the next year at uni in Beijing,China!!!

I thought id start of with how bloody nervous i am! packing really seems to be a bit of an obstacle at the moment as im one of those ppl who doesnt like to pack till all my clothes are washed and in front of me so you could say im a last minute person...which sometimes doesnt sway in my favour! Im currently doing my last load of washing, then ill finally be able to collate everything together!

So dad rang me the other day and wanted me to take 2 bottles of wine in my suitcase which really takes off 4kg of what im going to have to take, oh and lets not forget a bag of CIBO coffee! I swear dads have no idea when it comes to a female packing for 1 year away i wanna take the kitchen sink!!
My next post prob wont be till im in uni and settled into my dorm and have all this internet stuff sorted which always proves to be interesting in another country!! So till then catchya!!:)