viivakoodi

it's almost november but it feels like the end of summer in finland, it's only been getting a bit cold recently and we dont know how to turn the heating on in our flat (in fact theres a lot we dont know, for example how to pay the water bill that came one day, any ideas anyone?). Ive been spending a lot of time watching dvds in the flat lately (masterpieces like 'the devil wears prada' and 'butterfly effect 2'...) because i was very ill for a while and missed almost an entire week of classes, and took antibiotics for the first time in 21 years, but hey at least i got to experience a chinese hospital.. the amount of studying is still a pain in the ass but ive changed my attitude so im not that worried/stressed anymore. now that im feeling better again we went out on friday to shooters (of course its the only bar in beijing no?) and it was so nice to see people again, and dance and eat some of that mm so delicious nan bread from the little stall outside shooters, and yesterday we went to a house party which was full of NEW (western) people and it just made me so so happy, now i know that it is actually possible to meet people in beijing without going to those horrible flashy clubs in sanlitun, and they were interesting people as well.

for a week we had (2) guests over from finland and it was so much fun having guests again, its such a big house that it just feels so much more homely when theres people around. we taught the boys to drink baijiu and to bargain for everything (what else do you really need to know in china?), and went to see some chinese rock bands with them, and had a massive party for ellen's birthday (seriously, were talking about approx 50 people) allthough i spent most of the night on the phone directing people to our flat (and its not THAT difficult to find), the climax of the night was definitely when ellen sat on her birthday cake.. it was very sad when the guys left, and I admit im extremely jealous for them travelling for at least half a year, i wanna go to places and not be stuck here studying all the time, for a split second i seriously thought about just going with them and forgetting all the pressure and studying, but then i decided that i do want to learn chinese after all.

recently ive been thinking about sweden and that i really want to live in stockholm at some point, and about india, and about all my friends all over the world (spain, finland, the us, israel, ghana, england, scotland, austria...) and how i would like to go and see all of them feeling at home in very different environments/on the road, but now i have to stop thinking about that and start studying for tomorrow.

oh and theres pictures of our trip to guanxi on dave's page, just click 'dave is chilling out in beijing'