Thanks for all the congratulations. I had a good birthday. I was still in Nanjing at Yue Yings place so that was nice. When I came back, Anouk bought some cake and bought me a bracelet with a small Buddha on it. So I had a little birthday over here. To celebrate my birthday we went out. The friend we made before, Khalled went with us to party. In the club was DJ Chucky so that was very nice. We also meet a group of 25 Dutch people. They are from the hotel hoge school and some already work here and others study here or have their internship. We got the number of one of them so probably we will ones go out with them.

On Sunday we had to register for our courses. In the beginning it was all good organized but we had to follow steps and when we had to start with step 5 it was getting messed up. There was nobody or they didn't know what to do. Everybody started to tell us something else. At that time they told us that we had to stay at the campus Guoding Road (the same campus as where we had to register). We were from the beginning on, on another campus because when we arrived at Guoding Road the 11th of February they told us that they didn't know anything off our stay and then they send us to the other campus because there are all the international students they said (like I told before). Because we have all our classes at Guoding Road we moved to Guoding road in a few hours. We already bought stuff to clean and some food so we had more stuff to take with us than when we first came so we went 2 times by taxi to get all the stuff in our new room. It was good that a student from registration helped us with translation and bringing the stuff over. The new room was even more dirty as the other one. The good things are now that we are close to our classes, we have a separate bed room and the building has a kitchen, washing room and a living room (where I have access to internet now. We arrived in our room on Sunday evening and on Thursday we could finally use our toilet because there was water coming our when we flushed the toilet and everyday they fixed it but every time is was still the same. So that was very frustrating.

On Monday and Tuesday we went out to see around, and to shop a little bit, because we are now in a different district of Shanghai.

On Wednesday we had our introduction. It was not really something special. Just a dia show and some people where talking about how happy they where to see international student and where we have to think off. For example visa and stuff like that. This took us like 3 hours.

On Thursday we had a tour around Shanghai. We already had seen a lot of Shanghai because the two boys already showed us around and also because we were here already for like two weeks. After all almost all the places we went to we had already seen but it was still nice to get to know other people. We went to the Shanghai museum, China Town, and the other side of the river. It was reaning so that was a petty. In total we are with 9 Dutch people and there are also like 10 France or something and some other but that I don't know.

On Friday we went to the shopingmale that is around because people told us about that is was very big so we wanted to see. When we arrived we thought this is ok but when we entered the building we find out that is was huge. I think when you have one moth to go there you still haven't seen everything. There are a lot off Chinese shops but also Puma, Nike, Mango, C&A and Italian ice cream.
In the evening we made a delicious salad with crab, tuna, paprika, apple, and more stuff. Since we came to China we didn't eat at our place and we didn't like it anymore.

On Saturday my friend Yue Ying and her friend Sino came to my place to see around and we lunched together. Our lunch was Hot Pot. That was very good. In the middle of the table we had a pot with hot water and some stuff in it for the taste and in there you could but all the food like we had meet and tofu and mushrooms and stuff. In the evening someone helped me with getting internet in the living room of our building so now I'm writing a blog again.

The weather here is very nice. We already could walk on the street without a jacket. I think it is around 10 C but the sun is very nice. Only the last 3 days it is not that good anymore. On Thursday rain and furthermore just more cold.
Furthermore I really like it here. The food is good and not very expensive and most people are nice.

Although everyone tells you China is very cheap it is not with everything. A lot of clothing shops just have the same prices as in The Netherlands but in some places you can find cheap stuff. The candy like chocolate is pretty expensive over here because they don't have Chinese brands but only European but it's still ok. We already fount Heineken bier and other really Dutch stuff so they even know that on the other side of the world.

On Monday evening our Chinese classes will start. We will have Chinese every Monday- Thursday evening and on Monday starts the second week of this semester and in week 6- 12 I will follow the class HR management on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. We have classes until week 17.

Sorry that the story is pretty long but now I have internet I will more often post something when I have something to tell.

Xx