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I have to admit that I was looking forward to the end of the winter holidays. I was getting very bored. My classes resumed on Monday, which explains the lack of updates. (also because my darl is back!)

I have many classes now, compared to the first semester of my first year at Tongji. (I had only 8 classes a week back then. ) I already got my results for the first semester of my second year and they are good. The second semester is going to be a challenge. I’m not complaining. I know that the third-year students have even more classes. However, the fourth-year students have only around 4 classes a week.

My time-table for this 2^nd semester is as follows:

Monday
Intensive Chinese 08:00 – 09:40
Listening and Speaking 10:00 – 11:40
Computer Studies (Basic) (in Chinese) 13:30 – 15:10

Tuesday
Listening and Speaking 08:00 – 09:40
Newspaper Reading ( and understanding) 10:00 – 11:40

Wednesday
Intensive Chinese 08:00 – 09:40
Extensive Chinese (mostly Reading comprehension + Answering Questions)
10:00 – 11:40
HSK Guidance 13:30 – 15:10

Thursday
Intensive Chinese 08:00 – 09:40
Survey of China 10:00 – 11:40
Newspaper Reading 13:30 – 15:10

Friday
Writing (essays,letters,etc) 08:00 – 09:40
News listening 10:00 – 11:40
Intensive Chinese 13:30 – 15:10

hmm.. two new classes for this semester.
However, I still want one more class, ‘Learning Shanghai hua’ (Learning Shanghainese, the Shanghai dialect.).
That class is only for the third-year students who are in their 2nd semester. I don’t feel like waiting one more year to learn some Shanghainese. I want to attend that class. I’ll go find the teacher before next Wednesday (first day of that class) and ask her if I can just sit at the back in the class and listen. I hope that she’ll let me. If she gives me the go-ahead, then I”ll have Shanghainese classes on Wednesdays from 15:20 to 17:00 .
Total number of hours of classes would then be 25 hours.
Yes, I must really be crazy for wanting that. The only bad thing is the amount of homework. ah well….
Better look on the bright side instead:
Less time to think, less time to torture myself with those doubts I’m having,
my written and spoken Chinese will be better,
Less time to go out and spend money,
I might get to learn Shanghainese (if the teacher lets me join the class) which will be useful (after all, I’ll be here until August 2008) ,
Less time to pig out (*pokes stomach*).

I’m most likely not going to study once out of class. I’ll be doing my homework, going to all my classes regularly but that’s it. Last semester, that was enough for me to get 90+ on each exam paper. I hope that it’s going to work that way this semester too. My spare time will be spent with my loved ones and my (*cough*) beloved computer instead. Oh… and some time outside on the track field to get fit.

Pics taken on Dec 24th, 25th in my classmates’ room at Tongji University’s International Students Building 2.
Finally the last part to ‘My Chirstmas 2005′!
———–
The two Bulgarian gals cooked yummy Bulgarian food that day.

After eating, we drank a bit, talked,took loads of pics and danced. At midnight, we wished everyone Merry Christmas, opened the gifts (we had a ‘random gifts exchange’) and then more dancing & talking. Biliana also sang a French song for us. :party:

There are 3 Bulgarians in my class. They are all very nice. The two Bulgarian gals are very straight-forward and not afraid to say what is on their mind. I guess that’s one of the reasons I like them so much. Sometimes, I don’t agree 100% with what they say but everyone has his/her own way of thinking, ideas,etc and I respect that. I try my best to understand their point of view. Their fiery temper sometimes get them into trouble but still, that’s what makes them so ‘different’.

I have a terrible tummy ache right now.
Very painful. I don’t feel like doing anything but since I won’t have much time to update during my exams period , I’m going to update today and maybe during the weekend too.
My exams start on the 16th Jan and will end on the 19th. I’m going to start my revision today.
———-
Our faculty had organized a Special Christmas 2005 Show on the 23rd Dec.
The seats were limited and only those who had a ticket (which the teachers gave us) could attend. However, no one checked for tickets at the door so anyone could get in.
It was very badly organized and more like a KTV session (because of the music videos playing on the screen) than a Christmas Show but still, I had fun.

Fake snowflakes hanging from ceiling

Santa stickers

Those who presented the show

Click the link below for more pics
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Around 14 people from our faculty got to attend this special New Year’s show in our university.
The show wasn’t very nice. We were sitting too far from the stage and people all around us kept talking and not listening to the speech ,etc. I was thinking “poor guy, he went to all this trouble to prepare his speech and no one is listening” .
After the speech, some people performed ; singing, dancing and also what seemed to be a short pantomime.

A few pics:
the speech

view from where I was sitting

the woman who was serving us tea and coffee

the flowers, fruits and snacks which were on every table

(Kyle, if you are reading this, close the window right now. Please don’t make me eat old dumplings… lol … I love taking pics of food. )

Everyone got a small box of cakes (from Croissants de France) when we were leaving the building after the show. Yummy.

(Note: I was asked what I did for Christmas. I’ll post the pics soon. There are so many pics and I need to resize them. Christmas was great. )

It seems like they have finally realised that we think that there are not enough activities which have been organized for us and that we sometimes feel ‘left out’. Whenever we enter the main gate at Siping road and walk near the Chinese students’ buildings, we can see some ads or notices on the boards about some events which are going to take place in Tongji. However, when it comes to our buildings, nothing. The only notices on the board are those about parties or HSK, calligraphy classes. I think that it would be nice if they let us know what’s going on at Tongji. True, some of the international students don’t care about what’s happening at Tongji but many others do.

There’s a soccer tournament going on now and surprisingly, International students have been asked/invited to participate. The International students’ office chose some guys from our faculty to make up a football team and the team members were all given a pair of soccer shoes as well as a tshirt with ‘国际文化交流学院’ written on it.

Some guys didn’t get shoes though and that’s because the shoes didn’t come in sizes big enough for them. awwww.
I noticed that the team against which our faculty has played so far don’t have their faculty’s football t-shirt.
——
Some pics of soccer match which took place last week on the 11th October.
We won 5 – 0.

Some pics from the match.
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We saw the Chinese students perform already and they were good. But us, international students are way better. hehe

Last Friday (24 th June 2005) ,during the 留学生结业典礼, it was the international students’ turn to show what they are capable of .
There’s a short article about it in the Tongji University website.
I couldn’t get a seat close to the stage and I managed to take only a few pics and recorded a few secs of some of the dances, songs,etc.

A few photos:

1. The Thai students’ dance was one of my faves.
There was a guy(the one facing the camera in this pic) among them and he dances really well, better than the girls. There are about 20 or more Thai students in Tongji University. Some of them are quite young (17 or 18) and they are very friendly. They always say a big “Ni hao” with a smile when they see you.

2. The 4 students who presented the show.

3. Students from B4 class sang 甜蜜蜜 (a song by Teresa Teng)
Go Richard (far right) !

4. Students from C2 class sang 对面的女孩看过来.

5. Learning chinese by some Japanese students.

Very funny. hehe. The guy on the left in this pic used his body to make ’shapes’.
Examples:
for the chinese character 大 , he jumped and made a ” 大 ” with his body,
for the chinese character 一，he ‘threw’ his whole body in the air and made a very horizontal line for a few secs before falling on the ground. He did it twice too.. Ouch. I think he can do karaté or something.
for 火，he used two lighters, one in each hand.
I was watching him and clapping along with the others and forgot to take pics. argh…

Tongji University’s 98^th anniversary was on Friday 19th May. There was a concert that night on the football playground.
The concert was to celebrate the anniversary and also because there was a big batch of students graduating from Tongji.

I couldn’t switch on my camera at first. I don’t know why it was like that. So I just sat there and enjoyed the concert. It was only when the concert was ending that I could switch it on. Just in time to take pics of the last few fireworks. I haven’t been able to take pics of the nicest ones.

Seeing all those people perform on stage makes me miss high school a lot.
I miss performing on stage.
The last time I danced on stage was for the Prize Giving ceremony & concert at my friends’ school. Seems so far away now.