A small update

Being a student at BLCU and in Beijing is fantastic.

All the people you are meeting, the great food you eating ( or cook-me and Yilin are getting better and better in cooking!), enjoying the spare time you have with friends, doing homework in one of the many cafés on campus or in Wudaokou, shopping cheap and nice things, biking around (if you have a bike), walking through the many Hutongs, and so much more!

Right now the weather is lovely in Beijing, sunny and 15-20 degrees celcius. I love to ride around on my electric bike ( btw, I finally got new keys), feeling the wind blowing in my face, being faster than all the walking and bicycling people, not worrying about traffic lights or traffic rules..

But the good weather will not last for long, because the sandstorms are coming, along with its horror. Beijingers says that people can´t go out, or drive, because they can not see anything. In the recent years, it has become much better because of tree plantings, but still, the sand from the deserts in Inner Mongolia and Mongolia is still there and coming closer and closer to Beijing. And after the sandstorms, the heat and humidity will come and kill us all with overwhelming hot weather. So I´m enjoying the weather we have now to its fullest!

This semester has been good so far, and I have actually been studying and doing all my homework. I got new teachers and new classmates, and they are all really nice and fun. And I´m surprised that so many got Chinese girlfriends in my class! (3!) I was asking my Australian classmate the other day how he and his Chinese girlfriend met, and before he even got to answer, I jokingly said : in Sensation?  (a club in Wudaokou), and my other classmate was laughing so hard.. because it was true. Well, the best way to learn a language is in bed, as Ricardo´s father told him..

Speaking about love and Sensation, there are so many new couples on campus! And even my flatmates have some romances going on. It must be the feeling of spring coming :) I guess Sensation is a place for love seeking people to go to. I have a few friends who found their girlfriend/boyfriend there, and some are still together.. Looking at all the couples kissing and hugging around, I envy them a lot. Being apart from my boyfriend is hard, because we lived together and did everything together.  Luckily I´m going to INDIA(!!!!) tomorrow to visit him for two weeks!

I also welcomed two mini turtles and one beautiful rabbit into our family! 

Me and Yilin´s cooking skills are getting so good!! 

But even though our cooking rocks, burgers at Bluefrog at Mondays is a must.. :) 

Marte visiting me in Beijing! In two days we visited 6 different tourist attractions :o  

After Marte left, Runa came. She visited me for 10 days, so more time to check out Beijiing :)

I love seeing a blue sky. We live in the 7th floor of this building.

My two baby turtles. The darker one is the male, lighter one the female. 

My cute bunny. The race is called Belgian Mango Rabbit

And we call her Mango, because when we got her she was the size of a mango, and her nice color reminds us of a mango

The next day my good friend got the same rabbit, but a male, hoping to make some babies.. 

Now my bunny is so big!! No more the size of one mango, but two mangos! 

India, tomorrow <3

Dorm 6

I lived in dorm 6 for two months, in a big single room, with my own bathroom. (Room 213)

*Positive things: 

- Super comfortable bed (people living in the same dorm were jealous of my bed, their's were really hard)

- Close to everything: classes, gym, dinning hall, supermarket, cafes

- Everything was clean, and the room was actually really nice

- It was nice to have an own room, my own personal space.

Negative things:

*Fuwuyuans are really bitchy and strict.  (The ladies ''guarding'' the building)

- You have to show student ID everytime. My boyfriend Ricardo came to my room everyday, so they knew him well. But sometimes, he forgot his student ID, and they wouldn't even let him come in for 5 minutes. Also, the rule is that guests can only visit after 4pm, but they do let some come in earlier, just not my boyfriend. 

- They never smile, and act as they don't know a word of English (but they do)

- They won't come and clean your room every week, they will only take out the trashbins every morning (including saturday and sunday). If you don't want them to come in and disturb your beauty sleep, put the trashbins outside your room every night, or at least during weekends, because they will come really early. 

* The kitchen

- On the website, it says there is a ''kitchen'', but in reality, its not really a kitchen.

- There is also specific opening hours, but sometimes the fuwuyuans forgets about it

I really like to cook, but couldn't do it in that kitchen. However, I used the microwave oven quite often to make sandwich with melted Norwegian cheese :)

* Strict rules
- The doors are closed from midnight to 6am. If you want to come in, you have to ring the bell. In the beginning the fuwuyuans used a big lock, so they had to get up and come to open the door themselves. Now they use a magnetic thing, which opens when they push a button which is inside their room, so they don't have to come and unlock it.
Edit: When I lived there, they did not write down your name every time you came late. However, I have heard that they started doing that now. If you have more than 10 times or so, you might get kicked out..

- Visitors can only come from 4pm to 10pm in the weekdays, and 10am to 10pm in the weekends. No one can sleep over. Me and my boyfriend found a way to sneak him in.. but got caught twice, always the next day when he tried to sneak out again.

* The shower

- I couldn't take showers in the mornings, because of the lime ( calcium-containing inorganic materials ).

It made my hair really dry.

lime

* The refrigerator and closet
- Too small. I couldnt fit all my clothes in the closet, and I couldn't buy much food and drinks to put in the fridge. 

I really liked living there, but I couldn't stand the fuwuyuans. The fuwuyuans in the other dorms are much more nice and not strict at all! They let people in after 10pm, people can sleep over, and they do actually smile.

Now I live in an apartment with my boyfriend and 2 other guys, 5 minutes from school with the bike. I think it's much better :)

Third week

Wangfujing

Scorpions on a stick

Stinky tofu

Donkey penis

Night market

Fried ice-cream

Dancing in front of the gym

Picnic at Beida (peking uni) park

Norwegians!! 

Second week

The truth is that I don't really remember what I did during my 2nd week here in Beijing. I just know that I had too much fun hanging around with my friends! Biking around with my lovely blue bike (which cost only 280yuan), eating cheap and good food on campus, or in wudaokou and taking dancing classes ( belly dancing, hiphop, latin). One thing I know for sure, which is that I didn't really study much Chinese.. and I'm always tired during class!

Helen's Cafe- love it there! 

Juicy club. Wet t-shirt contest- the girl to right won. 

Open bar night means too many shots...

First week

I can't believe that I have been here for over three weeks now! The days pass away so fast.
I had some problems with my internet and proxy, but it's fixed now so I can start to blog more :) I will do three seperate posts about my three weeks here, starting with the first week.

The first few days were used to the loong registration process and just getting to know campus. I had a placement test and were placed in elementary class (600 words). I did the physical check up (read about this here http://theblcublog.blogspot.com/ ), signed up for the gym (1200RMB for one year), and were just chillin around with Yilin! We met at the placement test, and on that day we didnt sleep for 24 hours. We were on our way to eat Korean food, but instead I became a hairmodel and we went out clubbing with the people working in the hairsaloon, and didn't get back to campus before 06.00 am! We went to MIX, on a monday, and it was so much fun :) (Partying in Norway is nothing compared to Beijing. The first week I went out three times, and came back 06.00 each time.. it is very tiring, but really worth it :) )

One of the things I like about BLCU is that it is easy to make friends here! I have met people from all over the world. Sweden, Norway, Hungary, England, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Marocco, Belgium, Costa Rica, Brazil, Columbia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, USA, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, Canada, Russia, Kazakhstan, Micronesia, South Korea, Japan, India and Turkmenistan!

I've been to a rock music festival in Chaoyang park which was awesome! Ever seen Chinese people headbanging and doing moshpits? Chinese screamo? It was crazy. I have also tasted food from different Chinese cuisines, Muslim, Korean, Japanese, Italian and Mexican food. soo yummy!

Me and my latino and Italien friends

Intercity music festival in Chaoyang park

(I'm writing in English so my international readers can understand what I'm writing about. )