別の外人

A quick summary of last week: studying. That's basically it, all in preparation for midterms (well also went to a bar and had a cocktail, and spent much time in Kesongfang with Jo but that's it really) which are all this week.

This week, the one word summary is:

Builders.

EVERYWHERE I LOOK THERE ARE BUILDERS.

THEY BUILD ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT.


I have had the grand total of 5 hours sleep in the last two days, due to builders waking me up early/building late. I don't even know what they're doing... There's a sign downstairs in my block which says something but the handwriting is so messy and there are so many handwriting variants it's ridiculous. It said something is going on on my floor...

So yesterday was in bed, then the door goes, and my flatmate lets them in, they ramble on in Chinese, she calls me over so I'm trying to speak Chinese to them while ridiculously tired, it fails, we call the landlord who of course isn't there, while all the time the builders are STANDING IN THE BATH gesticulating at the wall hinting that they want to drill a hole. No apparent reason why they would want to do that... I just say 'bu keyi' (you can't) til they go. They however have now done the same to every flat on my floor, there are all these pipes sticking out of the walls and stuff it makes no sense... they want to come back and do my flat but I don't want to be home when they come agh >_< They were doing stuff out in the hallway til 4am last night, this is getting stupid now.

It has also been raining horrifically today and yesterday, and of course yesterday it was also a thunderstorm. I was wearing jeans, a tshirt and thin shoes, and have not been that drenched in quite some time. It was quite dramatic though, with thunder and lightning overhead and torrential rain... though I swear every single Chinese person we walked past on the twenty minute walk to the others' flat laughed. They must have been thinking 'hahaha stupid waiguoren can't use an umbrella'. I tried to make the best out of the situation by saying to the baozi shop lady (before she could say anything) 'I think it's raining a bit today...' while looking like a drowned rat. She laughed.

Then was in a bad mood on the walk home with my shoes leaking water (but I now have new waterproof boots :D) and cyclists and motorcyclists everywhere splashing me, so kept shouting at them in English 'FINE JUST TRY AND CYCLE RIGHT INTO ME I DON'T CARE' or 'OF COURSE YOU MAY DRIVE YOUR MOTORBIKE INTO ME EVEN THOUGH IT'S A RED LIGHT FOR TRAFFIC WHO NEEDS TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE RULES ANYWAY'. Made me feel better.

Had first midterm today, listening exam, which was to be fair the exam the least likely to go well... Didn't help that the teacher is technologically inept so we use cassettes, there is only one player so she plugs in a special headphone thing so we can hear it through our individual headphones. It's worse than GCSEs, sound quality is awful, like someone speaking underwater through a gas mask with a bad head cold, and no control over the tape, so you can only hear it once. She arrived 5 mins late, everyone groaned in unison which was hilarious xD She also didn't get the tape working for about fifteen minutes xD so we were just sitting there in silence, looking confused, til Snow said 'laoshi, bu xing' and she looked all shocked that it wasn't working. The teacher kept faffing for ages until eventually it works. As for the exam, the first bit was ok (but it was multiple choice which always helps) except you hear the passage and then you hear the question (no the questions aren't written down, that's far too sensible for China), but the second bit made no sense, there were three questions so I thought there would be three passages, but apparently nope only one. So that was two answers guessed. The third part involved writing, but I had no idea what the question meant let alone the answer so I just wrote 'dui' and 'bu dui' haha. One exam down, two to go D:

I bought boots, they are very Chinese but they are waterproof so definitely needed in this weather. Also got phone topup card, had a conversation with the woman who sold it me's friend who seemed very shocked that I asked for a topup card in Chinese haha. Then went and 'revised' (did characters but also listened to music and chatted) with Jo, fun times :)

She's given my details to her boss who wants someone to do tutoring, but this also involves tutoring GCSE equivalent level Maths so I'm gonna quickly look over the syllabus and get myself back up to scratch haha. Speaking exam tomorrow, wish me luck :D