Lectures have started and the best days I have classes from 8 to 5.30!! There is of course a lunch break but with this heat it seems like the longest study day ever. My Chinese class is good and the teacher is really nice. She has also been teaching in Helsinki so right now I’m the only one she remembers from the class. I chose intermediate level since advanced seems to be all about the names of the strokes and history of the characters. We have useful words and phrases we can use daily. I’m becoming better in ordering food at restaurants; in the beginning I had trouble with finding dishes with no meat. But my new tactic is to talk to the fuwuyuan (waitresses) and just ask what they have. This has worked out quite well so far. I have been taking some new people shopping couple of times and had a lot of fun bargaining for them. Today I go to see Lama temple and some Taoist temple as a part of my lecture. It should be interesting since we also get a guide with us.

Here finally some pictures:

My friends moms restaurant opening in North Beijing

A beautiful hot day by Houhai lake

My very own room

Opening ceremony of the Summer School