This past week, I’ve been doing something resembling registering for university. I filled out a form the other day, stuck some photos of me on pieces of paper, and got people to sign things. Today, after a couple of sessions of grammar cramming, I took the placement test to decide which class I’d go into. I knew what class I wanted to go into, but I could only move up one class without taking the test. Since getting back from Linfen, I’ve noticed just how much my Chinese has improved. A few days ago, I went shopping and realised I understood things people said that I never used to understand, and replied a lot better. In one shop, the assistant asked me to translate for an English girl who was trying to get them to write down the word for “candle” for her, and kept praising my understanding. Registration is the same process I went through at the start of last semester and I’ve noticed how much more of what people are telling me I’m understanding. And when I took the placement test, I feel I did a lot better.
What I need to do now is to improve my speaking. I’m half way to a conversation! Understanding spoken Chinese was a bit problem for me when I arrived.
Today I also went to the market up the road for the first time. It was fun. I bought vegetables. Then I made some vegetable soup in my rice cooker, and put egg in it. It turned out pretty good, just lacking salt, which I’ve not been able to find, for some strange reason. I also realised once I’d made about a week’s worth that I have no fridge to store it in, so had to eat it all in one evening.
Yesterday I went to the bakery next to the uni gate, and was served by the sweetest man ever. Anyone’s preferable to moody teenagers, but he really was lovely. If I didn’t already go there every day, I would start.
Ooooh yeah, yesterday morning I heard a crack of thunder, opened my curtains and saw it was raining. When I went out in the afternoon it was dry again, just quite cold. In the evening, I heard another crack of thunder, opened my curtains and saw it was snowing! I think I must have taken the snow back with me. This is supposed to be the City of Eternal Spring. People were going a bit mental outside. Possibly because of the snow, possibly because of the thunder and lightning. Today, the sun came out in the afternoon and melted the snow that was left. I got soaked because the snow on the trees and rooftops was melting and falling off in large chunks.
