Okay, regular blogs should return soon, but at the moment we have no internet in our apartment, so it means fniding time to come to an internet cafe (or wangbar as we now call them, as the chinese is pronounced wang ba).
So last weekend we didn't really do much of interest, so I'll skip over that. Monday was more classes and then Nikki and I ate at a restaurant we call "Sore tummy." We have nicknames for all the restaurants, such as gobby waiter (who came out into the street, cleared his throat very noisily and messily onto the pavement then went straight back to serving), australian daughter (where a couple tried to get us to teach their daughter english before her move to australia), lunch place (which does an AMAZING dish called basa pingguo, and is like toffee apple, but not as you know it in the west). Anyway, we knew it as sore tummy because Tracey and Tobin had eaten there the week before and felt unwell afterwards, but not food poisoning. They also said it possibly wasn't, as they did eat other places that week, so we gave it the benefit of the doubt. The rice was really horribly, like when you overcook rice, leave it then reheat it to serve to westerners, saving the good rice for the Chinese people. So Nikki got food poisoning, as her rice wasn't as horrible as mine so she ate it (mine was too bad, I didn't eat it). Fun.
On Tuesday, we sat an exam to check our Chinese level as we complained our reading class was too hard (I forget if I posted about this already), the texts were about China's achievements before the 13th century, or the time the American equivalent of the Royal Mint printed loads of bank notes wrong, something about the watermark or something. So we sat this exam which places you in the correct class. If you're a beginner. But at least they're changing the books now.
Speaking of books, the other day I went to the Xinhua book store to find a dictionary, and stumbled across a section with English books (but the type with Chinese on one page and then the English on the other) so I bought Little Women, Les Miserables and a collection of Edgar Allen Poe stuff, total: 20 kuai. About 1.30GBP. I also bought the textbook that comes before the reading book we'll be using, for extra study material. And one big dictionary and two small dictionaries. All of my purchases came to about 120, so about 8 pounds/16 dollars. I love China.
Last night we went out again, I think it may become a regular Friday night thing. We went to this amazing restaurant and ate so much, and it came to around 90p each. However, I didn't have to pay, as Nikki and I are having a pool tournament, and one game we decided to make interesting, by betting dinner on it. That one didn't count for the tournament (which I'm currently winnig 7-4 btw).
Not much else to say really, we've just been really busy with classes and homework, but there's a national holiday at the start of October when we get a week off, so we might go to Kashkar for a couple of days. Or actually explore this city.
Oh, one last update, my residence permit will be ready for collection on the 20th, at which point I can leave and enter China as much as I like, and go absolutely anywhere in China, including places not open to foreigners. Hurrah! But I don't plan on returning to the UK, 500 pounds return is a bit much for how little time I'd get to be there. But if any of you want to come to China...
I'll put my address on here when I remember what it is. It's really long and I forget which order it goes in (we're like the third floor in building three on street two in a complex on such and such road etc.).
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