pictures

pu'er tea and blueberry cheesecake

so here i am. back in my room. my parents left beijing about a week ago. strange to think they're on the other end of the world again. they were just here. 

we did loads of fun stuff. we had a silk suit made for my dad at wangfujing, one of the most famous streets of beijing. in the end about half the orchestra had gone there to have their suits, coats, blazers and pants tailored. we went to see the great wall, which was great indeed. the weather was a little foggy and we were rather late, so there was absolutely nobody there. what a view! much better than the crowded with tourists piece of wall i had been to a few years ago. i went shopping with my mum. i had never seen her shop till she dropped like she did last week. many presents on the plane home. we went to buy tea on several occasions (my dad = tea addict). we went to the expensive tea shop "ten fu's tea" on wangfujing, where we could try out different kinds of tea poured in tiny cups by giggling chinese girls. we went to a tiny shop across the hotel where the orchestra stayed, where a woman told us all about wulong and pu'er tea (the best kinds of tea for the winter). we went to the summer palace, nice but very touristy. and we ate many many delicious things, from peking duck to wonton soup. 

i also went out a few times with some members and two other daughters of the orchestra. new friends, new fun. i took my friends and roommate to the concerts, showed my parents my dormitory and tong's place, and took them to our favorite restaurants. all in all: a busy week. it was great fun :)

and now they've all gone home. i'm left in beijing with a few pieces of cheese and a box of liquorice. i'm going to school again (skipped all my classes last week), making homework again, eating blueberry cheesecake at the bridge cafe again...

all is normal again.

or is it?

first song today: "drive my car" by the beatles

parents

today my parents came to beijing. it's weird to see them here. the good kind of weird of course, but still... my dad's here with the orchestra of the 18th century, they have two shows in beijing this week, and my mum just came along. tomorrow i'm going to the rehearsals (i love rehearsals) and after that we're going to go see the great wall with the entire orchestra: fun! me happy :)

first song of the day: 'winning a battle, losing the war' by kings of convenience

chinese wind and australian waves

i finished reading my book today ('the wind-up bird chronicle' by haruki murakami). it was great, maybe the best murakami i've read untill now. it took me about two months reading it, spending every few spare minutes in my room reading a bit. now i have finally finished, i'm sort of at loss, i feel kind of empty now the story has ended. don't you ever have that? you get so caught up in a story that when it ends it sorta takes you by surprise. in your head it all seems so real you think it will go on forever, just like any real story in the real world. i don't know, maybe it's just me and my somewhat excentric imagination..

this week was like any other week. it was rather cold the first few days, but it's fairly warm again now. we've been having a lot of wind, i can hear it howling in the streets when i'm lying in bed at night. friday was halloween, and my friend kian's birthday. so we celebrated, we bought him some books about design, ate korean food, drank cocktails, and after that a few of us went out to a club. i didn't feel so well though, so i went home early (i'm such a geek, i know).

my aunt from australia is in beijing this week, so this morning i showed her my school and dormitory. we went for a bit of shopping, and i finally succeeded in buying a winter coat (yay!). after that we had lunch. it was nice :)

tomorrow i have a small oral exam, so i'm turning on the nerdy mode again..

first song of the day: 'scream' by deserts (張懸）