冬天快来 . Winter is coming

Hello everyone!

Sorry once again for letting you wait this long, but I've been kind of busy and I'm gonna explain why.

Firstly, at the beginning of September we went to Changbaishan (长白山), which is a place on the border with North Korea, to see a famous volcanic lake called Tianchi (天池). But nothing really went like we had planned. In the first place, the mist. We couldn't see a damn thing haha

In the second place, our hostel was kind of horrible: everything was dirty, common toilet where you couldn't close the doors and so stinky that in the morning we all felt like throwing up. In the third place, the unwanted guide probably screwed us over several time, taking us to the most expensive places and so on.

But still, we had fun (not to mention the nudist hotsprings adventure...)!

On the 18^th there has been Mid-Autumn festival - I ate so many mooncakes haha

For the occasion, we had a small holiday of a couple of days and we went visiting ShenYang (沈阳). We went to Emperor Kangxi's funeral palace, to the city's Imperial Palace and visited a Taoist temple. The problem is that everywhere we went, the attraction for Chinese changed object from the place to us, so there were these crazy people trying to take secret pictures of us or asking us to take a picture together with them - or even runnning to get on the train before us to photograph me without asking (useless to say I sneaked away immediatly). All of this irritated me a lot; I just wanted to quietly visit a city and all I got were a pretty buddhist bracelet and a stress-caused apththa.

Then winter arrived, basically skipping Autumn.

I've looked for a coat, but my card had problems on that day (当然！), so I'm probably getting through the first snow (tomorrow) with my leather jacket! Cool!

In these days we've had our first test session, we already had two conversation tests and tomorrow there's gonna be the grammar one – yay!

Aaand I'm looking for a UK university where I'd study for a Master's Degree; my aim is Scotland - Ewan McGregor here I come ** (yes, I'm still dreaming about Trainspotting, problems?)

Books corner: Journey to the Centre of the Earth (in English) - I swear after this (and Wells' Time Machine) I'm never reading 19^th century books in English NEVER AGAIN.

Movies corner: recently I've watched a lot of bad movies (or good movies which I don't like at all, your choice). On the good ones side I count Apocalypse Now Redux, it's not what I expected, it was just a lot better! And Shark In Venice - no need to comment this haha

Byez ~

欢迎 . first week!

Hello! Sorry for not posting sooner, but I really haven't had much time (and also a good connection)!

So, last week I got to Venice to take the plane for Beijing and once there I took another one to Changchun.

The flight went quite well, I watched an English movie and then listened to KLM's whole OST collection – I must admit flying over Mongolia with The Lord Of The Rings' OST as background was kind of epic!

When we landed in Beijing, I almost cried suddenly remembering the old good memories!

It's funny how, when checking-in, the Chinese flight company pointed out I had a crochet with me, but didn't say anything about my extra bag.

Some students majoring in Italian picked us up at the airport.

The first night we went out to have dinner with these girls and I ended up singing Chinese songs – which I can't really sing, since I can't remember a word! – with them.

The campus is really big, there are two buildings for us foreigners and countless for Chinese students, four canteens, a lake with geese and lotus flowers and bridges and everything, there are two supermarkets and a huge tv screen on the main door vault.

In these days we've been hanging around in the city, expecially in supermarkets to get what we couldn't bring from Italy.

On Tuesday I found a street full of sport stuff, I was surprised because every little shop was just for one sport in particular. I bought my first pair of “fei yue” (kung fu shoes), but couldn't find anywhere a Shaolin vest. I think I'll just get some taiji clothes.

I saw several swords, shuangjiegun, chains and even a halberd – my mum said I can't bring it at home :(

On Wednesday school started and we had a placement test which was really hard, but then I found out I'm in the highest level, so I guess it didn't go that bad :b

Classes are ok, so far they aren't difficult to understand.

I'm stuck in bed with the flu :( I think I'll just watch another movie...

Cya!

Visa, kung fu and stuff

Hello!

I'm writing today, the 21st, and it's not random, but exactly one month before my leaving.

I received my invitation letter from Jilin University and last week I went to Milan to apply for the visa. I should get it tomorrow or the day after.

I hope I didn't make mistakes >.<

I'm already thinking about the luggage: I can't forget this, should I bring that?, maybe those will be necessary. Then a voice in my head whispers "it's f***ing early, calm down" haha

In these last days I've been practicing kung fu with some new friends and it's been both fun and tiring, but I'm loving it :D We've been also talking about Chinese culture, philosophy and literature, which are really fascinating me. Cool!

Books corner: I've started reading Orwell's 1984 and I like it a lot, so far!

Movies corner: watched Hitchcock's Birds and... it's weird. I mean, I liked it, but there isn't really an ending...? And I've started watching Under The Dome, which is pretty interesting; I like how female characters have been defined.

I guess that's all for now, see ya ~

介绍 . introduction

Hello, my name is Cecilia, 白兰 for the Chinese (and those who met me for the first time in China).

I'm 21 years old (actually not yet, at the moment of writing); currently attending the second year of Chinese Language and Culture at Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

During the second year of high school, my English teacher kept on talking to me about the chance to study abroad for even a year. With "abroad", she probably meant an English speaking country, not China for sure! But that's where I ended up going: a whole scholastic year spent among interesting people in "small" ShiJiaZhuang (河北，石家庄). Thanks to this amazing experience, I decided to keep on studying Chinese.

In January 2013 I won a contest, getting the opportunity to spend a semester in an extra UE country.

So here I am, plane tickets bought and leaving for China in the middle of August!

Sure I'm looking forward to be back there (and meet some of my old friends, hopefully!) :)

中国，我快回去，等等我！好想你！

PS: please, forgive my many mistakes, since English is not my first language!