I woke up at 8 AM this morning (or, okay, at 8:30), cheery, content and unable to sleep any longer. And then I started studying. Out of character?

I’ve never been a morning person, I won’t even deny it, even though I have my days. Today, I got up, got some tea and breakfast, and started studying my Chinese characters for the chapter 1~30 test (a whole book) without a complaint. Except talking a tiny bit to my flatmate, I was more or less studying the entire morning, just writing strokes and remembering different characters. And I actually felt quite good about it. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that?

I feel much better in general – I guess all bad moods come to an end (and then return later, but hey). Had a long talk with my mum yesterday, and she provided a quite good solution to my school-tiredness problems. So, since I obviously aren’t going back home, I’ll go travelling instead. Sure, I’ll “waste” a whole lot of school money on not being there, but I think seeing both culture and other parts of China will be a good experience. It’s not like I’ll have another chance to see it any time soon. =3

Travelling plans are still being created, and there’s some plans about maaaybe going on a trip to Japan, but we’ll see. That, and I need to get my ass into gear and post pictures.. Maybe next week.

Completely Unrelated;

- Making Latex Clothing. I want to try this sometime!

I’m really trying to update my blog at least once each week. Easy, no?

Well, obviously it’s not for me. Posting new things, finding things to post, is not a problem at all. I must have more than 50 topics I’d love to write about right now, about my new friends, the weird happenings, the Chinese people’s mini-trends (too tight, see-through ankle socks – need I say more?), the food here, the place I live in and so on.

The largest problem, however, is that the internet in my apartment isn’t stable. While I’m writing this, I have absolutely no connection and haven’t been online (unless you count checking my email on one of the school computers) for four days. (Edit; Posted two days later.)

Abstinences? Yes. Much? Oh yeah.

Tomorrow will be the fifth day without internet, and tomorrow the internet-fixing people MIGHT come. Like both today and yesterday. I’ve been two evenings, from 6 and out, at home so far, just waiting for those slow pokes. The internet hasn’t been good while I’ve been here either. It came and went on it’s own accord during the first three weeks – and now, one day after my one month anniversary in Shanghai, it has disappeared completely. Even though there were internet-fixing people here just two weeks ago. Anyway, during the last few weeks, we’ve only had net access in the afternoon. And the net is slow. Really slow.

Enough complaining though, I know I’m being boring. Just a small heads up for the people who are planning on studying Chinese, Japanese and other languages whom usually doesn’t use romanised letters (for other than making foreigners understand easier, that is) is going to take more work than you think. Getting used to the characters takes quite much time, and so far I see most of the characters the different teachers write on the black-sorry-whiteboard as ants.

They might as well have been ants – I’m almost not able to read them at all. I’m getting better, of course, but the teachers have so far been expecting us to pick up the Chinese characters just as fast as the pinyin. And while the pinyin doesn’t exactly go fast either, the characters are really difficult to recognize and use – until you’ve seen them more than 50 times before. Of course, you might be incredibly gifted with the ability to learn at rocket speed, but if not it will take much time to learn. Let’s just say that I’ve always been fast when it comes to learning everything from languages to maths, but when it comes to the Chinese characters I so far feel dyslectic. From speed number 10 to 0 in less than a month. I’m not trying to scare anyone, it’s really fun to stay in Shanghai and learn Chinese (even the characters) but it’s nothing you sail through gracefully. Oh my. I sound really pessimistic. xD

Languages = Love. But it does take quite a lot of effort. And you just can’t go out drinking on every weekday, no matter how much you wanna.

Honourable mentions;
Rose tea, free Shanghai city magazines, Stieg Larsson and his Millenium trilogy, spicy & good looking Chinese food, Norwegian chocolate, the old room mate, the new room mate, new friends and the school’s computer room.

Today was the first day of school after the vacation.

Although we really only got our books and the class schedule. I now obviously have to pay around 200 yuan for the books too, even though I was told they were included in the course fee I paid! I complained, and so far I haven’t needed to pay – but I guess time will come. The people who didn’t end up in my class, or with an intensive course, started their classes today – but mine doesn’t start before tomorrow.

I don’t really have a lot of classes, so I’ll guess I’ll have to study some on my own to get to my desired goal. Which is as simple as being able to talk about basic things in Chinese. So far I can only understand the “how are you?” type of conversations. And diverse words and characters.

So here’s how I will be spending my school week;

Monday:
9:00 – 10:20 “Computer learning”. Not sure what this is yet, but it obviously contains learning on computers.

Tuesday;
9:00 – 10:20 “Listening skills”. I’m guessing we’ll learn some words too.
20 min break.
10:40 – 12:00 “Listening skills”.

Wednesday;
9:00 – 10:20 “Intensive reading”. Although I’m guessing it won’t be very intensive at my level.
20 min break.
10:40 – 12:00 “Intensive reading”.
1 and a half hour lunchbreak.
13:30 – 14:50 “Oral practice”. Or talking lessons if you like.
20 min break.
15:10 – 16:30 “Oral practice”.

Thursday;
9:00 – 10:20 “Intensive reading”.
20 min break.
10:40 – 12:00 “Intensive reading”.
1 and a half hour lunchbreak.
13:30 – 14:50 “Oral practice”.
20 min break.
15:10 – 16:30 “Oral practice”.

Friday;
9:00 – 10:20 “Intensive reading”. Although I’m guessing it won’t be very intensive at my level.
20 min break.
10:40 – 12:00 “Intensive reading”.

I seriously need to find myself a new hobby. I’m so used to school taking up the entire day, and now I have more spare time than ever. Unless they decide for us to “have fun” with the class assignments. xD