New Apartment and Other Jazz

大家好！

I know it’s been a long time and there is so much I haven’t written about because of it. I actually went over a full month with pretty much no internet, or internet so slow that it was useless so that was the main cause.

The dorm in general was getting inconvenient so I and another disgruntled foreign student decided to look for an apartment. Pretty much any internet time was spent doing this because we knew if we got an apartment we’d have reliable internet and hot water on demand (rather than waiting as long as 45 minutes for lukewarm water). These luxurious dorms aren’t even cheap, so needless to say, we were fed up.

The apartment is FABULOUS! We just bought the table for the living room so I use that as my computer station as the first month or so here I was on my stomach on my bed and I’m starting to get too old for that crap.

Front door

My new perch since we got a new table.. This is where I am right now

View of the dining/kitchen area from perch

The door to the left of the mirror is Renia’s room which I exclude because it’s not my space and that’d be weird

The bathroom, which is a million times better than that nasty ass dorm bathroom.. complete with washing machine..simply luxurious

The fridge and coffee room.. more accurate than “dining room”

From the kitchen looking back toward living room, the sliding door at the far end is my bedoom

Our burner.. notice no oven.. that’s life in China

Our cabinet and sink which has hot water.. again.. LUXURY!!

My room, which is bigger than the dorm was. The back is like a windowed balcony. Good place to hang we clothes and to put suitcase and other superfluous things

My room from balcony

My wardrobe that I bought and my “makeup station” ahaha

I have since moved out of the dorm and got an apartment, and then the following two weeks was spent getting it comfortable and preparing and taking exams so not much time was available to catch up here. Now I have some time, but still not so much because I have started studying for HSK 5.

HSK is a standard Chinese language proficiency exam. It will be something on paper that I can use to show for my time here. The levels range from 1 to 6. There is no way I can get to 6 before I leave but 5 is doable. The classes I’m taking contains many of the grammars and vocabularies on HSK 5, so it’s an appropriate level.

My main problem is writing. It’s BY FAR the hardest part of Chinese for me. While I don’t always make perfect sentences I usually have less problem speaking than I do with listening and writing. Reading tends to be the easiest but I think that’s probably true in most languages. So I just feel like I’m trying to learn to write so much and the more that I learn, the more I forget.

OH and I won’t post about it because I didn’t take photos or do anything out of the ordinary, but I even went home from Nov 10th – 21st. This was GREAT. Having no internet for over a month in the dorm made me crazy and I just wanted to see my George so I found a flight and booked it. It was a much needed visit and even better that I don’t need to wait so long to see him again as I will be home again in January just like last winter.

Speaking of winter, while I wanted to go to Vietnam, I am slowly backing down from that in order to save money. Instead me and some girls will do som Chinese cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong, Fuzhou, and others reasonably close. I might not even travel that long so that I have some time to devote to HSK and prepare for my last semester. Back in summer, I didn’t have so much prep time before classes so that will be nice this time around. I can also work on this sexy bod by having time to gym regularly. 😉

Anyway, I’m going to try to get my Thailand and Phillippines photos up this week. Unfortunately, writing this far after the fact means I have probably forgotten some details but I’ll try my best! If nothing else, there will be photos. 🙂

再见，

Laowai Shye