back to the normal life

it's been a week since i came home from shanghai. not much out of the ordinary has happened. once again i find myself floating in a sea of schoolbooks waiting to be opened, new word lists to be memorised and homework to be done. all of which i, promise myself, i will do in the very nearby future. not that i don't prepare for classes, i do, but nothing more than that. i'd rather read my murakami..

thursday i had my first chinese brushpainting class. i take these classes with four dutch friends at the peking university (a.k.a beida, the same university tong goes to). first we bought brushes, ink, paper, and the like. then we ate dumplings at the beida canteen (30 euro cents a portion) as quickly as our stomachs could stand, we were already late for our very first class. 

it was great fun. there was a lot of explaining to be done in this first lesson, therefore we didn't have very much time to paint and experiment ourselves. this week we'll have more time for that, so i'm looking forward to it.

yesterday one of my dutch friends had her birthday. the day before me and another friend had gone on an absolutely exhausting present hunt, that lasted the entire afternoon. but in the end we did find what we wanted, so it was all worth it. yesterday we went out to eat sushi and drink cocktails :P

the weather has been surprisingly good the last few days. despite the chilly air that has been setting over beijing, the sun keeps on shining fairly regularly. the trees are beautifully coloured. deep green, bright yellow, warm orange, and hints of brown give the streets a new paint. the falling leaves look like golden snow. and as the sweet sun warms our skin, it softens the pain of our homesick hearts...

first song of the day: "i will" by the beatles