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我们刚才回宿舍时,看到一个女人在校门附近卖帽子。
我的同学,Hiroo (日本人) 走过去，拿起镜子，照一照，说:
“没想到我这么帅！”

女: :confusion:

北京 2008 年奥运会吉祥物发布暨倒计时1000天活动

Today is the 1000-day countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and there was an evening show in Beijing to mark that day and also to unveil the official 2008 Olympic Games mascots. They just showed the mascots on TV. So cute.
They (also called the Five Friendlies) are:
福娃贝贝
福娃晶晶
福娃欢欢
福娃迎迎
福娃妮妮

福娃贝贝 the Fish, 福娃晶晶 the Panda, 福娃欢欢 the Olympic Flame , 福娃迎迎 the Tibetan Antelope and 福娃妮妮 the Swallow.
(贝晶欢迎妮. The pinyin is bei jing huan ying ni = 北京欢迎你 )

My favourite one is 福娃晶晶 the Panda. It was so cute and seemed so ‘blur’ in the short animation they showed.
I’ve just learned that ‘mascot’ is ‘吉祥物’ (ji xiang wu) in Chinese.
Photos and information about the mascots here and here.

I’ve been quite busy lately. Des was staying at the hospital and had surgery. He got injured during his P.E class. They were playing soccer and he was the goal-keeper. Some guy kicked his hand when trying to get the ball. Ouch. I’ve met the guy . He is quite nice and seemed genuinely sorry about the whole thing. I guess guys get a tad excited when playing soccer.
Some info about hand fractures here.
Fortunately, architecuture students don’t have 期中考试 . Still, he won’t be able to work on his projects or write for 3 more weeks because his right hand has been put in a plaster cast after the surgery. (Note to myself: 打石膏 )
Doing everyday things with one hand only is frustrating. Poor thing.

I had accompanied him to 上海长海医院 and 同济大学附属同济医院.

上海长海医院
(according to the 就诊卡, 上海长海医院 地址：长海路174号 ,电话: （021）25072000)

According to its 眼屈光外科中心 website, the main website should be www.chhospital.com.cn but I cannot access the website right now.

We took a cab to go there. It was near Wujiaochang. There were a lot of people in the hospital. I didn’t know where to go and what to do. I guess I got a bit lost. The hospital procedures are a bit different from those in Mauritius. Anyway, I just followed Des. We asked around and learned that he must have a 就诊卡 made. I forgot how much he paid for it but it wasn’t much. Then there’s the 挂号 part. Des told the woman that it’s for 骨科 (Orthopedics) , paid the consultation fee (around RMB 14) and then took the piece of paper she gave him. We then went to look for the 骨科室. There were beds in the corridor. 很糟糕! The patients have no privacy. I suppose that there were no free beds in the 病房. The 骨科室 was a small room. Quite bare. Only two tables,several chairs and some books on the tables. I had to laugh upon seeing the wooden chairs inside. They had tied the chairs to each other using a metal chain. I suppose it’s to prevent thefts. The doctor was alright. It’s rather the condition of the hospital which surprised me.
I have seen only one section of that hospital. Maybe the rest of the hospital is alright. I don’t know and maybe I won’t ever know or see for myself. I couldn’t help but wonder how the hospital was like during the SARS outbreak period.
Anyway the doctor told us that the surgery and all other medical expenses will cost around RMB 10 000.
Good to know :
The hospital’s 住院手续 according to the Orthopedics website.

Also,
交通： 61、75、325、537、538、758、817、842、854、942长海医院站下或28、139、147、228、大桥三线、522、577、726、813、870兰花村站下穿过二军大校园即到。
门诊检查时间（手术时间另行预约）
周一至周五全天
(08：00—16：30)
双休日上午
(8：00—11：30)

同济大学附属同济医院
website
地址：上海市新村路389号 　电话 :（021）56051080)

We took the 937 bus to go there and got off at the 志丹路 stop.
This hospital was nicer but there were so many people there. Des decided on this hospital instead of the previous one after a phone call from the guy who injured him. The guy and his gf went with us on that day. I don’t know the exact details but it seems that the guy knows some people. Phone calls have also been made to the International Students office and the head of the Architecture department and it seems that part of the medical expenses will be paid by our uni. After all, Des got injured during class and it was the teacher who told him to be the goal-keeper. The fact that Des is also a 留学生 could also be the reason why the teachers have been so nice to him. Some teachers have visited him at the hospital and bringing gifts of fruits for him.

I’ve noticed that there’s this “门急诊病人意见征询表” on the website where we can make suggestions , rate the service and the attitude of the doctors, nurses & other people working in the hospital like those who press the buttons in the elevator, etc. Nice information in the 住院须知 section. (tip: Hover mouse over 住院须知 on the menu on the left)

—-
新华医院 (website)
I went there yesterday with some classmates to visit a classmate of mine. She has pneumonia.
She is undergoing treatment right now and hopefully she’ll be out of hospital soon. It’s going to cost a lot for the medical fees and the room. Her room is RMB 200 per night. She didn’t ask for such a room. They just put her in that room. Apparently, foreigners cannot be put in the shared rooms with Chinese people. They had originally told her that she cannot be admitted to their hospital because they had no rooms and made her go to 上海第二人民医院 but it’s even more expensive there; RMB 800 per night. Then somehow, they managed to find a room for her when she went back there. The room is like a hotel room.They have two beds in the room, a big TV, a microwave oven and a small fridge. No one told my classmate about the microwave oven and the fridge. She found out by herself when she opened the cupboard and also because there was someone (a nurse? or just a cleaner? i forgot to ask) who came into her room to warm his/her lunch. My classmate also told me about the person who went into her room at 6am to say “Hello”. She told the person to leave. Strange people there. Anyway, I got to watch some documentary about Beijing while I was in the room. I’ve never been to Beijing but from what I’ve seen on TV, Beijing, esp. the hutong area , looks very grey. Where did all the colors go? This I have to see for myself. Maybe next year during the winter hols.

I got my HSK results on Friday 24th June. I didn’t know that the results were out already but my classmates excitedly told me that the results were out and urged me to go get my results slip (成绩单) and certificate (证书) .
Frankly, I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to ruin my good mood.
I was expecting a 5 because of my poor preparation for the HSK exam. I’ve talked about it before. (link is here)

I thought about what to do throughout my morning classes and finally went to get my results in the office during the 30mins break.
I got Level 7 ( the highest for the intermediate level is 8) with 334 points. I need 3 more points to get an 8 (something like 1 more point for 听力 and 2 more for 综合 ) .
My Grammar teacher seemed pleased upon hearing that I got 97 points for the 语法 (Grammar) exam in HSK.
I was quite surprised myself. Like I’ve said before, many of the words I saw in my HSK exam papers were words that I’ve never seen before. I had to do some guessing work for some words. I guessed the meanings according to the context in which they were used, etc.

All undergraduate students studying Chinese language at Tongji university need to get HSK level 6 by the end of their 2nd year so I guess I should be satisfied since I’ve done it by the end of my first year.
Still, I plan to take the HSK exams again this December and maybe also next year in May. I’ve been told that the May exams are the most difficult. HSK exams can be taken 3 times a year.
I probably won’t be satisfied until I get around 350 points. yes, 加油 !I can do it.

I’ll start to be more serious about my exams now. No more spending hours playing computer games when I should be studying for important exams , no more surfing on the net till morning. I do that so often.
I was going to say no more procrastination but really, it’s hard. I’ll just say “Less procrastination”.
My only other classmate who attempted the HSK exams with me also got a 7, with 328 points. Congrats to Jiachong. He prepared well for this exam and I’m happy for him.
Too bad my other classmates didn’t want to attempt the HSK exam…

It’s a pity that we don’t have compulsory HSK preparatory classes this year. The 2003 class had it during their first year. My Grammar teacher suggested having HSK classes during the 1hr 40mins class we have with her on Tuesday afternoons but some of my classmates didn’t want to. They plan to take the HSK next year only so it would be a waste of their time. ah well..
We do have HSK revision classes but they are optional and I think there’s a fee of 50 kuai. Not sure. I didn’t have to pay since I’m a scholarship student and 50 kuai is not much anyway. I’ve been to some of those classes last December and stopped after some time because I got bored. So did my classmates. I didn’t like the teacher much and the classes were so slow. There were people of different levels in that class, even those who studied Mandarin for 3 months. They should have more classes and should divide the students according to their levels.

Some people asked me whether I’m happy about my results. Well, I’m not happy but not sad either.
I can even say that it’s the first time that I’ve done this badly for a Chinese exam. I wonder what my parents will say. They’ll probably be disappointed. I was ranked first in Chinese language when I took the C.P.E (in primary school), O level (in secondary school) and AO level (in high school) exams in Mauritius. They expect so much from me. If they know that I spent most of my time playing computer games instead of preparing for that HSK exam, they’d probably kill me. I’ll have to find something to say when they phone me next week.

I won’t waste my time thinking about the May 2005 HSK exams. I need to revise. My end of the semester exams start tomorrow and finish on Thursday. I’ll soon be on hols.