November, December, January and February.

Hello All!

Sorry that it's been a while since I've written. I've been busy, and I wasn't sure that any one has been keeping up with the blog, since I had been getting very few comments. Well, I've gotten a few complaints, so I figured its time to get my act together and start writing again.

Whew. Where should I start? I've been up to so much these past few months!!!

November:

- I quit my job at the Ambassy Club. 12 yuan an hour wasn't enough compensation to be sitting in the "Kid's Room" chatting with the Ayi (maid) for 4 hours a day. I still occasionally do "hosting" for the Ambassy Club - basically being the English-speaking MC for the events that they have.

- I took an interesting trip to Guilin with three of my friends. We went in a Chinese tour group package and were stuck with 3 older Chinese couples (who we promptly named the Smokers, the Grandpas, and the Playboys based on the characteristics of each couple.) Basically, the tour package included staying in the cheapest hotels, eating the cheapest food possible, and going to all the special "tourist attractions" for a special extra fee. They also used the opportunity to try to sell things to us in every way possible. Knife demonstrations, tea markets and "crystal displays" were mandatory "tourist attraction" stops which were really just infomericials in disguise. It was terrible, but we made the best out of it.

December:

- I finished lessons at my private school around Christmas time, and applied to Jiao Tong University (which is supposed to be the best university in Shanghai by the way... not that I'm bragging or anything!!! )

- Two girls I knew at Jiao Tong University also were looking for an apartment for second semester, so with the help of my dad we found an agent and rented an apartment together. The whole process of renting an apartment in China is incredibly stressful. First of all, the agent takes you to many terrible apartments and only a handful of acceptable ones. So its hard to find a good apartment to begin with. Secondly, the landlord has to accept your offer. (Even when we offered over the listed price of the apartment, the landlord still didn't accept us because he claimed that he wanted a family to live in the place, and not three students. We had to increase our offer by $100 a month for him to accept). Third, there is the whole annoyance of paying the agent, paying the landlord, signing the papers, registering with the police and so forth. And finally, the landlord is terrible about fixing things (our bathroom door has no handle, our shower door has no door)... It's a huge headache. But at least our apartment is quite comfortable - aside from all the broken things.

- Over Christmas I took a trip to Hong Kong to visit my aunts and uncles. I also got to see some friends from Shanghai. Overall it was a great trip - I was spoiled rotten by my family, got to see some of the HK nightlife, and ate a ton of HK food (hooray for dim sum!).

January:

- On January 1st, us three girls moved into previously mentioned apartment. I love it. One of my roommates (Marta) is Italian, and one of them (Sara) is English. We all get along really well. We have movie nights, going out nights, and mornings where we all sit at the dining room table on our laptops, drinking coffee. Marta and I are attempting to learn Esperanto for fun. So far we are terrible at it! We also sometimes cook together. Our apartment thankfully has a nice kitchen - and it even has THREE gas burners (which is a rare luxury here). One of the gas burners shoots flames about a foot high, and for some reason its flames are green! ...I usually don't use that one.

- I took private classes for about a month in order to learn how to read and write (since my private school only taught speaking and listening). So far, I can write about 400 characters and I can read perhaps... 600? Maybe more.

- I've been salsa dancing quite a lot. One of my friends used to be a salsa teacher, so you can imagine how amazing he is! A group of us tend to go out once or twice a week to salsa.

- Chinese New Year started on Jan. 26th and lasted 15 days! During that time, fireworks went off every night and every day, all around the city. It sounded like the city was being bombed.

February:

- Three of my friends from Sweden also applied to Jiao Tong University, and we all registered together. Our classes start next Monday! We are all very excited! I also got my health exam yesterday in order to apply for a resident's permit. This allows me to come and go from China as I please!

- I think it's funny that I'm not only learning Chinese here, but also bits of many other languages. I now know a few Swedish phrases, some Italian words, and some British words that we don't use in the US. When I first arrived in China, I suffered from "American Syndrome". Basically, I thought everything centered around the US.. For example, I thought that IKEA, Nokia, and Ericsson were American companies. I'm finally beginning to learn otherwise.