6 Hasaams Go So Fast

Day #55
Location: SISU Guesthouse, Countdown!!!
Michael is done. Ball's in Monash's court now. Gimme Graduation!!!

Gotta clean up ... geez this room is in an awful state ... finished the course yesterday. Because we were allowed dictionaries this time the exam was much easier. Although, to be fair, there were no ridiculous surprises in this one so it's possible I could have done nearly this well even without one (ok who am I kidding the mini-essay q's at the end worth 30% featured a bunch of words I didn't know I couldn't have begun answering them without it!!!"

So today's the last day in the SISU Guesthouse. Everyone's bailing really quickly and really abruptly, we've labelled it the Mass Exodus because this place is gonna feel like a ghost house for those 2 or 3 of us who choose to stay here after the student discount is gone. Lots of people are hopping on a train to Beijing today, a handful of others are heading west to find some mountains so they can get some peace and quiet and breathe some fresh air before they head on to Xin Jiang, which is where our favourite Chinese Ethnic minority habituate, the wegar food here is kick-arse so I can't imagine what it's like over there. One or two people are actually just going home in the next two days.
As for me, still one of the least-travelled in the lot of us, I'm leaving the guesthouse with Joy but I'm not leaving Shanghai. Lenny, Sue Kim, Eric and Lian will all be around somewhere over the next couple days and so will I. Joy's family insisted on figuring out my plane ticket to Qingdao and it's less than $AUS100, so I certainly can't complain about that. Depending on how cheap a place me and Joy end up staying in in Shanghai, I may not be online until the 15th, when I rock up in Qingdao. Hopefully I'll have at least another entry in by then though. I just caught a spare moment, Dylan hasn't packed his laptop yet, Joy's in the shower, in an hour and a half the guesthouse people will be checking out our room so I better get a wriggle on.
Oh and today's Miranda's birthday! I'll send her a text soon. (Eric's bday in a couple days too, we'll have to dinner with him)

I'm really glad this course is over. I'll miss the people, I'll miss my teachers and definitely my tutor, who would have been such a great teacher if it weren't for the fact that we had that silly silly curricullum. My Chinese level has barely improved at all. Even my confidence hasn't risen that much because I've actually spent way too much time relying on other students who were better than me, and trying so hard to remember all the useless crap seemed to leave little space in my head for the stuff I wanted to learn. No more though, no more whinging, course is over. I can already feel my Chinese ability improving!!!

Last night I saw a Broadway musical with Joy's family, it was pretty good! I like her Mum, hadn't met her before, and I get a good feeling from her Dad too. Kayson, the 4-year-old brother, is the best. Why can I relate to 4-year-olds so well??? Anyway as a result I missed out on the craziness of the last night, having already missed the craziness of new year's eve. My understanding is, both involved a lot of people randomly hooking up drinking far too much and dancing like crazy. Some of those things I'm not allowed to do, and others I'm not really much good at =P We're all gonna do a brunch thing to see ourselves off though. That'll be soon after we all suddenly lose our rooms.

New Year's Eve me and Joy walked to the Bund from the Guesthouse, that was pretty nice ^^

________ = 1kmish



So I have officially completed all of my prescribed learning. Even if I go back to uni it'll be for a postgrad that'll be something I can finally study in my own way. From now on I can relax and properly enjoy this holiday, without too much pressure beyond the stress that might come from having to survive. On the other hand, it'll be an adventure!!! Yayyyyyyyy! Charrrrrrlieeeeeee!!!

Love you all, will send out new postcards soon I hope.