Hi everybody!

Hope you're alright :) Wo hao :) Yes, I have improved my Chinese while I am here! I started last week with my first classes and it was very enjoyable! My teacher (laoshi) can get her message across in a very amusing way. For example, when she was trying to explain how the character of 'to ask' was written (which is with two characters, one for mouth, kou, and for door, men), she said that she will show it to us and left the room. Some seconds later, someone knocked on the door and then the teacher appeared in front of the door but the first thing that you saw was her face, pushing her lips forward. Haha, everybody had to laugh! But it's a very good way of learning a language, since you'll remember the context in which you have learnt it :) Unfortunately, I can't stay in her class... after class, I had to go to her and she asked me about my cultural background. Due to my upbringing, she believed I know more Chinese than I reckon and requested me to go to the intermediate level. I was quite shocked about it, as it sounded like the intermediate level might be too difficult for me... But I talked to the teacher of the intermediate level, and she said that I could at least try. She was very kind and talked a bit of Chinese, in order to know whether I know more than what would be taught in the beginner's level. And to be honest... yeah, I did understand her, even though I would have never imagined that.. The teacher said that my 'hidden Chinese language' will be quickly activated once I start taking her classes. I hope she is right :) Haha, I met a good friend here, who is from Singapore, and she doesn't mind learning me some bad words, like 'you are very ugly' (ni shi hen nan kan) and 'you smell' (ni chou). Yes, in Singapore most people speak Chinese (their main language is English). During my language classes, I also met a German girl, who has lived her for some years now and tomorrow I am going to meet up with her, so we can practice Chinese together. Tomorrow will also be the day when I start the classes for the intermediate level.. I am pretty nervous about it... I have looked through the textbook and everything is written in characters, with hardly any translations... while the textbook for the beginners was full of english translations... let's see if I can keep up the pace!

I have also gotten my own space on campus! It's a really nice space, I share it with two PhD students :) We have airconditioning in there, and my desk and computer are brand-new! Today was the first time I used my space, very relaxing and I felt really 'privileged'. I told my friend from Singapore about this and she was really flabbergasted. She said that I am a 'lady boss'... haha, she was really impressed, and she was happy to hang around with me, so she could also profit from the privileges that I have :P

Yesterday I went to Greenwood (to have a picnic with a teacher and his family and watch a movie: the North Face) and took the train for the first time. In Perth, they use this electronic travel card (Smartrider), which you have to swipe along a device for every service (bus, train), very similar to the newly introduced 'chipkaart' in the Netherlands. It was a very lovely evening. I got to meet the teacher's daughter, who is about my age. She gave me her phone number, so I'll defintely give her a call one day to meet up once again and have some fun :) We had a picnic on the campus of a university and while I was chatting with the daughter, suddenly a bone fell on the floor! From out of the air! It almost hit her! She was really disgusted by it and when I took a closer look, it was indeed a bone! :S There was a bit of meat left, and when we looked up, we saw a crawl in the tree, which probably first enjoyed the bone and then got rid of it by letting it go. It was really really funny! I just couldn't stop laughing... It was such a strange experience! Really crazy! And the daughter was telling this story to her father, who wasn't there at the time it happened. And then she said: '... a bone chasing after me' (something like that, can't remember but very funny!)

The North Face was a very good movie. It's about German people at the time of Hitler's regime. German men had to show they are physically strong and undefeatable by climbing one of the peaks (Eiger) in the Alpines. Two men did that but of course they had lots of trouble underway... Unfortunately, none of them survived it... but you should have seen their equipment! And they were not even really trained for it! It was an emotionally moving movie but very realistic. The contrast between the scenes where the two men had to climb the mountain in louzy weather conditions and the scenes where some people were inside a building, having a fireplace, and eating delicious soup, was very obvious. The movie was really well-compounded!

Soon I'll get a bike from my colleague and then I can cycle around! Of course with a helmet on! But first I have to find a place where I can buy locks. There are hardly any bike stores here! I just found one only because my housemate told me where it was :S Well, I am in a different world now, I'd better get used to the way of living here :P I really like being here :) It's nice to rediscover things that were so familiar to me in the Netherlands. I'm here already for 3 weeks now... time flies by!