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Placement Test /Old Town

Today has been a rather long day for me. Got up at arround 7 to go and have the placement test over at Fudan. The test was really short, I just had to talk to a teacher for about 5 mins - then she said I was lvl B and that was that. Considered to change to lvl C instead (wich is one lvl higher, A is the lowest and J the highest), but decided against it because we will be racing thorough the textbook in only 2 weeks learning about 50 new words every day. While waiting for my turn I got to know two German girls; Vicki and Ruth. They were both really nice so we hanged out with them while waiting on the lists of who was to go to what classroom and such. We had about 3 hours to kill, so we went to the mall close to Fudan and did some shopping plus lunch. Ruth, Iman Irene and Vicki were all B-level just like me, but I didn't end up in the same class as any of them.. because it turned out there are 3 classes at B-level. When I got to the classroom it was just me and the teacher there for what felt like ages, she kept on talking to me in both english and chinese, asking tons of questions about me and Norway and my school, etc.. luckily some of the others showed up eventually though. In the end we were about 10 people that showed up, while we were maybe 20 on the list. After buying textbooks we all went on a campus tour. Fudan is definitely a big university - so big the people that work there normally send us a map of where to meet them etc.. hehe. I know the way to my summer course classroom at least, thats a start.
After shool I went to check out the Old Town with Cathrine, Katrine and Iman Irene. I liked this part of the city, closer to what you think China will look like sort of.. what is kind of sad is that they have modernized even the buildings in Old Town and it's full of shops and stuff inside several old buildings. They had even put starbucks and mcdonalds in there. I still liked it though, it was very different from the rest of Shanghai and it was a cool contrast seeing the skyscrapers in the background.

Quiet time

So today we had been told to stay inside all day because of the supertyfoon Muifa possibly landing on us, but as it turned out Muifa wasn't interested and it moved up to northern China instead. The wind was definitely stronger than normal, but not fatal - Miu could even take the plane back to Norway today. We still stayed inside most of the day, just in case.. but nothing really seemed to happen outside and after a while I could even see the sun going down - only a few clouds. The weather has been worse here several times already, this was nothing. Today was a really slow day for me, I mostly studied chinese characters, watched some shows I have on my computer, talked to people on msn and listened to music. In the evening we decided it was lame staying inside when there was hardly any wind so we went down to the store and got some more food - there was tons of hyperactive chinese people outside, walking their dogs, playing badmington and shopping at the mall, guess they were tired of staying inside as well. The three of us had dinner together, Cathrine makes awesome noodles, and then it was back to chinese characters and the internet for a few hours before going to sleep. Tomorrow we are going back to Fudan to have our placement test and be divided into classes for the summercourse, its so exciting! So yeah just wanted everyone to know Muifa didn't affect me whatsoever, but I guess you all probably know that from watching the news. Oh and by the way, the wiew from our balcony looks even cooler by night, especially when the picture is taken with Iman Irene's awesome camera:

Registration Day

We were kind of worried about how the weather would be today, but since we didn't hear from the university we decided to head to registration day anyhow. Unlike the others living here in Rainbow City we decided to take the subway and then walk rather than take a taxi. This wen't great and we found the way and everything, we did however calculate a bit too little time to walk from the station to Fudan. We got more and more stressed out while walking there in the heat, even ran for a few meters trying to make it on time. We were about 2 minutes late, but everyone were still at the main gate so we did sort of make it. Registration Day was mostly about filling out forms (in chinese, but we got help), getting our temporary student cards and our schedules for the summer course plus some maps and stuff. The Chinese told us that the placement test we were supposed to have tomorrow have been postponed to monday due to Muifa (the tyfoon) and that we should all stay inside tomorrow. The weather today was pretty warm, some wind and rain every now and then, but nothing I would call a storm yet, then again if the tyfoon does hit it will hit in the evening/night. Now they are saying on the news that the tyfoon might actually pass China and have its landing point in Korea instead though, but I guess we should wait and see inside just in case. Miu was supernice to us and made us dinner - it all tasted really awesome and it was great to all have dinner together in our new appartment. I guess tomorrow will be a really slow day, I guess I will try and study some chinese - seems I will be very safe though, not freaking out about Muifa anymore.

Wooooot?

Ok now Im kind of freaking out a little bit. When Iman Irene got home from the store a few hours ago she was all "ok girls, crisis meeting!".. apparently there is a super tyfoon coming this weekend called Muifa or something, strongest that have ever hit Shanghai. We wen't down to E-mart again to get supplied for the weekend - 5 kilos of rice, vegetables, water.. and I got some cola as well, hehe :P I really hope it won't be as bad as Im affraid of right now, and that my building is strong enough to withstand it - I live on the 37th floor so if it falls over and Im inside I guess Im pretty dead. I have been reading quite a few articles about Muifa and how strong it might be, seems like there will be tons and tons of rain at least and stormy weather, hopefully that's all it will be.. guess we will be evacuated if there's any risk of buildings falling down. I sure hope so! We're supposed to go to school tomorrow as well, to registrer for the summer course, but if it's full storm outside Im not sure how that will work. The predictions are now that it will hit in the evening though, so unless we hear anything else I guess we should go to school as planned.

At least I got to try hotpot before this pretty scary weekend - we decided to treat Miu to dinner because she has been so nice helping us out our first days here in China. Having her here have really made things easier as she knows the language and stuff! Hotpot is pretty amazing, you get a small cauldron to boil stuff in and well yeah - stuff to boil. We had tons of different things, vegetables, meat, fish, etc - was a great dinner, really.

Looking outside now everything seems so normal, was a lot of people down at e-mart getting tons and tons of food though - so I guess they are all worried about Muifa. Ah well all I can do is wait and see what happens I guess.

Big Change

So today we all dedcided to go to the hairdresser - it is way cheaper in China than Norway, and I really needed to do something about my hair.
I got to admit it was sort of scary for me going to color and cut my hair at a place where I could hardly even explain what I wanted, etc.. but it did turn out pretty cool, so it's allright. I told the people working there I wanted some light golden brown color (pointed at it and everything), and they got to work. Two of the hairdressers spendt ages on my hair - maybe because it's kind of long, who knows.. As the color started to take hold I realised it was a little lighter than I thought it would be and I got kind of ancious. The Chinese just smiled and threw me a "hen hao - very good!!". For a second I thought it was all bright yellow, but luckily it's not - it's not golden brown either, or well the bottom is, but the top is blonde, hehe. It's such a huge change I don't even know what I think myself yet, but here it is - my new hair:
The color and cut cost me 978 yuan, so that's about 800 something NOK I think - I had to pay more because my hair is long apparently, hehe ^^ Anyways, thats my new hair, laters :)

The financial district

After we had checked out the neighbourhood and then relaxed for a few hours, Cathrine and I decided to go check out the financial district. I really loved it there, it's so modern with tall buildings everywhere, the pearl tower, etc. It was even greater when it got a little dark and we took tons of great pictures. We found a few cool shopping centres in the area as well, and I found a huuuge Uniqlo - wich is one of my favorite stores in the world, so Im pretty happy ^^ Now Im going to sleep in the new appartment for the first time, after making some sandwiches (yaaay I can find real bread in China) and surfing the net for a few hours :)