Life as a BLCU student is pretty hectic at first because you don’t know what you’re doing, where you’re going and who to go to. This post has been slightly edited because in hindsight, there wasn’t enough detail in this post. For more posts on BLCU student life stlye, go to the category: Travelling in China.

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My first worry is my blocked website, I can’t believe China blocked my website!! My brother helped edit out some stuff and now for some odd reason I can’t access the site again?! It might be that the Chinabots picked up some “bad” keywords in my last post. I’m thinking/hoping that it was just a once off that I couldn’t access it but if it does happen again, I supposed I can always update twitter on the side just so you all know I’m still alive.

I know it’s been a while since the last update, but I’ve just been worn out with all this study and homework they give us! I’m doing about 24hrs per week of classes and every day after class I seem to need a nap for about an hour (I’ve adopted the Chinese custom to nap!).

It’s not just me, It seems like a lot of people I talk to over here, do the same thing! And then homework will take at least 1hr (there is homework everyday) and finally eating, (grocery) shopping, and walking/travelling will fill in the rest of the time >_<

Orientation

So anyway, we had the BLCU orientation the day before classes began (5th Sept) for all English speaking students (apparently, because there’s so many Koreans, the Korean students get an orientation of their own). There was an introduction to the Principal and staff, a welcome talk, an award ceremony for scholarship students and all that boring stuff which I don’t remember well because it was all done in Mandarin.

The interesting bit was when the immigration/police guy talked to us (in English!!) about the laws in China.

Here are the key points I remember:

• Always get a receipt from the taxi driver: This is so that if you leave anything in the car or you lose something, the police have something to follow up on
• Don’t fight: Physical violence is avoided because they can take you to jail for 24hrs or more
• Prostitution is illegal: Everyone seemed to laugh at this since we all know that it isn’t hard to pay for a bit of attention…
• Don’t drink too much: I now know that this is because bartenders don’t stop serving you alcohol until you can’t pay for it! It can seriously damage braincells and other vital organs…
• Motorbikes are illegal: There is only a handful of legal motorbike plates. If you get a motorbike, you do it at the risk of having your bike impounded.
• Drugs are bad: The police guy repeated this one a few times, just think that Drugs = Death!
• ….

There was a lot more but I can’t remember.

Classes and Classmates

My classmates are mainly Koreans, not too suprising because the whole 五道口 Wudaokou area seem to have a large Korean population. There’s a bunch of girls from the UK which we’ve been trying to avoid because we don’t want to get stuck into speaking English all the time, some Japanese students and others we’re all just slowly getting to know.

These classmates of mine are REALLY GOOD with their Chinese, so that’s why I’ve been studying so much to catch up. Another reason for my actually studying (yess I’m actually studying!) is because of the China Teaching Style! I’ve already been called up TWICE to do dictation on the blackboard in front of the class! Luckily I haven’t been called up to do dictation with sentences yet! The teacher likes to randomly pick on people, quiz us and make us participate in exercises so you have to know it all or else you’ll just look stupid =(

The teachers that we have are all female and they all seem to be really really nice, although a little strict. The only trouble we have in classes is the 听力 teacher…. She speaks VERY fast (too fast), has messy handwriting, uses a lot of words we don’t know (our vocabulary is still simple!) and kinda scares us all. Even though we’ve told her to slow down, she forgets and goes on speaking at full speed (Beijing normal speed).

An incentive for us to attend classes is that if we miss a percentage of hours, usually 14hrs of classes, we automatically give up our right to sit the exam (one of the classes is only 7hrs!) And that sucks because China doesn’t have holidays so that means I’m not going to have much time to go site seeing outside of Beijing =(

Excursions

TJ and I have signed up for the one of maybe two activities that BLCU actually organises for the long term students. We pay 20RMB for a ticket to Badaling 长城 (Great Wall)! I’m hoping they’ll go drop by the Ming Tombs but I don’t think that’ll be happening. I’ll blog about that when it happens in a few weeks!

I’m going to go head to 天安门 (Tiananmen) on Friday and then maybe visit 颐和园 (Summer Palace) on Saturday with my roommate and her friends. It kinda sucks because you have to walk EVERYWHERE over here. I’m thinking a bike would be quite handy but biking is kinda scary on the road =S A red light means you can still turn right!!! I almost get hit by a car/bike at least 10 times a day around 五道口 Wudaokou (depending where I walk around).

Beijing Lifestyle

Last weekend, I went to eat dinner with my cousin near Sunlitun at this really nice traditional Chinese Courtyard restaurant. The menu had English and pictures (which I’ll put up on facebook when I remember to d/l it off my camera!).

That day was also the first time we went into Beijing central via public transport, we encountered old pervy men, a crazy man with a cane which made even the local Chinese stay away, and everyone kept hitting on or staring at TJ (but she can’t help that she’s a beautiful eurasian~). I swear, if she wasn’t with me, I’ld get a lot less unwanted attention LoL! The locals think that I’m her Chinese translator so they always approach me to ask me where she’s from!

Something that I wish I had from the start so we could avoid getting lost or walking more than necessary is a Map of Beijing!!

**Note to all non-Asian looking people (including the hybrid Eurasians!)
If you’re going to go to China, EXPECT people to stare. Chinese people have no shame and WILL stare at you (especially the older aunties). Even when going to the big cities like Beijing and Shanghai who are used to having foreigners around, there will still be people who can’t help but stare.

Anyways, that’s all for now. I’ll update again and let’s pray that my blog won’t be blocked again =S