Trip to London

The past few weeks I've been studying for my much dreaded oral exam that I have on Friday. I even had a small melt-down yesterday - even though I'm pretty well prepared, and will be even better prepared by the time I actually have the exam.

But sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed, by the fact that all my hard work and effort throughout these past six months will be judged based on how I perform during an 15 minute oral exam. Six months away from home, away from my job and everyone I love - and the grades I got from Beijing University don't count for anything, other than that I passed - and now hundreds and hundreds of hours diligently studying is supposed to boil down into a 15-minute performance.  

Oh, the pressure. 

So then I cry.

And then I pick myself up and try to put everything in perspective, and even write myself a little note that I keep in my pocket at all times, basically saying that everything is going to be alright.

I'm smart and I've studied hard, still it doesn't mean I'm spared for a few pre-exam anxiety attacks now and then, haha!

(And any attempt to consolement I easily consider as patronizing, unless YOU've studied Chinese yourself - and are familiar with the horrendous curriculum I'm being tested in)

Anyway.

A couple of weeks ago Dag and I went to London to shop for makeup.

Dag, especially, loves shopping for makeup, as you can imagine. 

And buy outrageously expensive food at the airport in Oslo. 

I'm telling you, the prices in Norway make me embarrassed to be Norwegian and thinking that we even have tourists coming over here... Poor people. This baguette cost the same as a week's worth of groceries in China.

I remember the first time I met my speaking partner, Zhou, in Beijing, she was talking about how she wanted to study abroad in either the US and Norway, and I was like "don't come to Norway, it's too expensive!!", and I immediately got the feeling that one of my fellow Norwegian classmate that heard me saying it thought I was being rude. But I think it would have been even more rude not to warn her - considering that a bottle of water at 7/11 in Norway cost as much as four meals at the campus cafeteria at Beijing University. I almost feel ashamed. I feel bad for the Chinese students in Norway.

.. escaping a world of snow and ice..

England!

I've never been to England, so I was pretty excited.

Unfortunately I make a lousy tourist, practically uninterested in seeing any touristy sites.

I was there to shop for cosmetics!!

Spent way too many of these..

I was looking forward to get my hands on some cosmetic brands that we don't have in Norway, like Urban Decay and Too Faced - sure, I can buy it online, but it's much more fun to get my hands dirty, which I literally did, constantly having the back of my hands covered in swatches throughout the stay.

And they've got a Mac Pro store in London as well! That I didn't knew, and it was a big treat, since I got to buy a few items that they only sell at the Pro stores (- and I'm talking about Mac Cosmetics - not, Mac as in 'Apple', hello)

We stayed at a nice hotel with a bath tub! Hallelujah! So we went to Lush to stock up on bath bombs and bath melts, and-bath-whatever-they-had-that-I've-always-wanted-to-try-but-I-don't-have-a-bath-tub-stuff.

God, I wish I had a bath tub

At some fancy Indian place

I don't know this lady

Omg! Metallic-bronze colored

Ferrero Rocher pie thing!

Dag bought a couple of cupcakes, 

but we didn't have time

to eat them before we got on the plane heading home,

and they'd been in his bag the entire day, lol

I bought so much stuff at Lush.

I'm a sucker for products and cosmetics in general, and you'll be able to sell me anything - just throw it at me, my arms are wide open!

I've fallen in love with this scrub

from Lush,

luckily we have Lush shops in Norway as well

- even though it's a lot cheaper in the UK!

I hate my new camera.

I don't enjoy taking photos anymore.

So I don't.

My idiot proof Nikon D60 died a couple of weeks before leaving Beijing, and I got a new one, D5100, which also is supposed to be for idiots. Seemingly I'm too much of an idiot, because I can't seem to just switch it on, set it on idiot-mode and immediately be able to take photos that I'm happy with.

In England I even had a dream that I was so depressed that I wasn't able to use my new camera and that I cried - I even think I cried a little IRL while dreaming.

I don't want to learn any technical stuff! I hate technical stuff! I just want to take nice photos. Bah

My Speech about Indifferent Chinese People

This is a video I taped in the starting phase of practicing my speech for the final presentation in yuedu class, so there's a few charming mistakes and hesitation. (You try speaking for ten minutes straight in Chinese!)

Below I've added the speech in writing with a very rough translation.

大家好

Hi, everyone

今天我的题目是跟中国文化有关系的，但是更突出得可能是跟中国社会还应该解决的问题有关系的一个事情。

My topic today is related to Chinese culture, but perhaps even more prominently it's related to a matter connected to problems in China's society that is still in need of being solved.

为了学习汉语，我来到北京。

I came to Beijing in order to study Chinese.

因为是我第一次在中国，我对中国社会和中国人的想法的了解还不多。

Since it was my first time in China, my understanding towards Chinese society and the mentality of Chinese people still wasn't that vast.

不过，不久以后中国人留给我的印象是，中国人爱聊天儿，开玩笑，而且，不怕在路上嚷嚷地吵架。

However, soon the impression that Chinese people left me was that they love to chat, crack jokes, and they're certainly not afraid of having loud arguments in the middle of the street.

我很享受北京的热闹和中国人有时候比较暴躁的性情和脾气。

I truly enjoy the "chaos" of Beijing, and the sometimes bad temper of Chinese people.

中国人很喜欢看热闹儿，相比之下在路上发生的意外会吸引很多人的注意。

Chinese people love to watch the commotion, particulary when something unexpected occurs in the streets, it will really attract a lot of people's attention. 

但是，在路上发生的一种事情却不寻常地会导致中国人的忽视。

However, a certain kind of "commotion" in the streets will strangely enough cause the ignoration of Chinese people.

来到中国两，三个星期以后，我已经遇到了我在中国的最难忘的经验。

Two, three weeks after arriving in China, I already encountered what I consider to be my most memorable "experience" in China.

当然，那时侯对我已经是一个难忘的经验，但是后来我会发现跟中国社会有关系的事情，让那个经验更难忘。

Of course, at that time it already felt like a memorable experience, but what I would discover later about the Chinese society would cause that particulary matter to become even more memorable.

一天，刚下课以后，我跟我的同屋骑自行车回家。

One day, having just finished class, me and my room mate were riding our bikes home.

她在我的前面骑着，但是突然停了。

She was riding in front of me, but suddenly she stopped.

”怎么了? 你把什么在路上丢了吗?”，我莫名其妙地问她。

"What's going on? Did you drop something?" I asked her.

她只说 ”我们应该帮她”。

But she just said "We should help her"

在道路的对面有一个开机动车的女人，刚跌倒了，现在伏在地上。

Across the street a lady driving an electrical moped had just fallen down, and she was now lying on the ground.

但是连一个人也没有管她，虽然在道路有很多人。

But no one seemed to care about her, even tough the street was full of people.

他们都只是匆忙地过去。

They all just busily hurried past.

我们俩赶忙地过了道路为了帮她的时候我在想着，”在这儿这么多人，为什么没有一个人帮她? 为什么需要我们两个外国人才管她?”

When we hurriedly crossed the street to help the lady, I thought to myself "There's so many people here, why is no one helping that woman? Why does it take us two foreigners before she gets any assistance?"

”您怎么样，受伤了吗?” 我们担心地问她。

"How are you, did you get hurt?" We worriedly asked her.

看到她的脸很明显她的心里一惊，因为她差一点不能说话，衣上都是泥土，她的手和腿都蹭破了皮，流着一些血。 

Seeing her face it was clear she was in shock, because she could hardly utter a word, her clothes was covered in dirt, and her hands and legs had bleeding scratchmarks.

好在她伤势不重。

Luckily her injuries wasn't that serious.

我还记得我和我的同屋讨论那个事情，觉得很奇怪因为没有人帮她。 

I still remember discussing that matter with my room mate, thinking that it was very strange that no one helped her.

”也许是一个偶然吧” 我只好这么安慰自己了，但是这个事情让我开始对中国的社会有疑问。 

"It was probably just a coincidence", I had no choice but to console myself in this way, but this matter would cause me to start having doubts about China's society.

我知道不能一概而论，不过说来惭愧，这样的经验不由得让我认为中国人没有人道。

I know I can't generalize,but shamefully I have to say that experiences like this would unavoidably cause me to think that Chinese people didn't have any sympathy.

三个月以后我看了在报纸上写的一篇文章说到一个二岁的女孩子在广东让两辆汽车给撞了。 

Three months later I read an article in the newspaper about a two-year-old girl in Guangdong province that had been run over by two vehicles.

还有个录像表露有好几个人走过她，但是没有一个人帮她。

There was also a video tape showing how so many people walked past her, but no one helped her.

还是小孩子哪！

And she was just a child!

后来我听说大概十年以前在中国有个老女人跌倒了，然后有一个人帮她，那个女人而说是那个帮她的人的不是，所以他必须付很多钱给她。

Later I heard about how approximately ten years ago in China this elderly lady had fallen down and a person helped her, however the old lady wound up blaming the person helping her, so that he was forced to pay her a lot of money.

本来是想帮一个人，结果是遭到嗔怪。

Your original wish was to help a person, but the result is you receive the blame.

好像中国人不愿意帮别人因为怕会受到不利的后果。

It seems like Chinese people are not willing to help other people, in fear of suffering unfavourable consequences.

但是那个在广东的故事，这是小朋友呢，怎么说也应该帮她！

But the story in Guangdong province, that was only a young child, no matter what, someone should have helped her!

看起来中国人宁可有一个小孩子会死，也不会帮急需帮助的人。

It looks like even if a child would die, Chinese people still won't help a person in need.

想到这样的事情让我很痛苦。 

Thinking about this would make me really troubled.

 我知道中国很大，中国人非常多。

I know China is very big and that there's so many Chinese people.

我听说在中国看病难，看病贵，中国人大多数好像也没有医疗保险，可能会让遭到失事的人没命地找个替死鬼。

I've also heard that getting medical care in China is both hard to come by and expensive, and that most Chinese people don't have medical insurance. This might cause people in a pickle to desperately search for a scapegoat to give the blame. 

我知道不是只是中国有这样的问题。

I know it's not just China that has problems like this.

但是，将来中国会越来越强大，还有可能会变成世界上最显要的国家。

But, in the future China will only grow stronger, and also might turn into the most influential and powerful nation in the world.

但是，中国还有很多非常严重的社会问题急需解决.

However, the Chinese society still have a lot of serious problems in great need of being solved.

谢谢

Thank you

Last Day at School in Beijing

 

A couple of days left in Beijing,

suitcase already packed 

Last Friday we had our last day at school.

 The class with smart Norwegians who get the competent Yuedu-teacher..

 .. and the rest of us

Who seemingly wound up with the sparable 24-year-old secretary working

at the administration office

Nah, I'm sure she's a completely competent

language teacher,

just not very good at showing it

 

For our final exam in Yuedu class, she was so worried about saving her own face, considering she thinks we're the most stupid students ever, that she gave us the test beforehand. Yeah.

 

We had the final exam when it was a little over a week left of the semester, so she desperately tried to find something to fill the rest of the time. It felt just like being back in junior high shool when you spend the final week doing your own kind of chosen project, and you have to give a presentation at the end.

Yuedu is a reading class. A class where you're supposed to read challenging texts, and figure out how to get a basic understanding of it, without necessarily knowing every character or vocabulary.

So when she presented this "project" and pointed out how important the powerpoint presentation was - "lots of pictures, your fellow students won't understand what you're talking about, anyway.." - I felt the urge to boycott the entire thing.

But when she threatened to not give me any end grade, despite the fact that I had participated at all, and aced two out of three previous exams in that class, and despite the fact that the end grade technically had already been set, I didn't have any other choice than to give the lady what she wanted.

So, as mentioned in the last blog post, I adapted my qualification essay for the next semester, and just presented that instead, and added some stupid photos from google so that she'd get her powerpoint presentation.

I was the last one in our class to give a presentation, on the final day even, due to my stubbornness.

 

Getting ready to give the presentation

 

  

.. haven't started yet. I don't give presentations

with my arms crossed, duh

 

  

 The three photos above belongs to Lotte

I taped my self practising the "speech" that morning before going to school, so for the next blogpost I'll add a video of that, together with the speech and a translation of it. It's a pretty good speech, 'cause I'm fairly smart.

 

Then we received our diplomas and suddenly the semester at Beijing University was over.

 

 Lotte

 

After the final class was over, Lotte and I walked around on campus and took some photos.

 

It was SO freaking cold!!

 

Then, we found some cats

 

.. tried to get some heat from 'em

 

"You're a handsome cat"

 

"What are you talking about, my girlfriend's right here, 

you'll get me into trouble!"

 

"What did she say?"

- "Uhm, nothing, give me a kiss baby"

 

Cute girl wanting

to pet the cats, but being a

yittle scared.. 

 

At the big lake at school, crazy people were stepping out on the ice, even though most of the lake hadn't even frozen. I know what I said about helping people in need, but if you go through the ice, you're on your own!

 

Remember the first day Lotte and I went to check out the campus when we first arrived back in July?

I took these couple of photos of some guys working on a big building at school:

 

Well, it finished weeks ago. It's really crazy how fast stuff get built in this city. I guess it's no wonder when there's so many people arriving from rural areas, desperate for a job and willing to work 24/7.

 

 Oh, I'm going to miss Xiabu xiabu!

 

 

At this joint you get a pot of soup of your choice in front of you, and then you order a bunch of vegetables and some meat and boil it yourself. Truly a great treat after being out in the icy, windy Beijing cold!