Last weekend has been a long weekend but I'm back in Shanghai now.

Let me start at the beginning.

Last week we had exams and we got already 2 exams back. I had an 8.0 for Speaking and Listening and a 9.1 for writing so I'm pretty proud of myself.

About the trip we made this weekend:

On Thursday we took the train at 20:25 so we had to leave class more early as normal but that was no problem. Really I don't know how the explain the train but it was crazy. So full of people and stuff but you can see that on the pictures. Really Chinese and I would say "you have to see it ones". In the train some guy started to talk to us and because everything was in Chinese he helped us because we had no idea at what time we would arrive in Tai'an.

We arrived in Tai'an on Friday at 07:45. At the exit we met a guy who could speak very little English but enough to help us to put us on the right bus to the Tai shan (the mountain). Climbing a mountain is very different from what I used to because here you almost only have stairs. Well we arrived there around 08:30 and we just started to climb. Half way we took the cable car to the top because we didn't book a room and we wanted to be sure we would have one to spend the night. When we arrived there my stomach didn't feel good. I already had that problem in the train but after a while it faded a away but then it came back even worse. I really had to run to the toilet so that afternoon I stayed at our room and Anouk walked around on the top.

The next day (Saturday) we woke up at 4:30 to see the sun rise but my stomach was still not feeling ok but at least everything stayed in my stomach. So we took it easy and went to see the Sun rise which was beautiful. After that we took our stuff and walked down. It was a pretty long trip. But half way we met a group of 5 Chinese Students. They studied English in Qufu so we walked down with them which was very nice. My stomach was already feeling much better so that was good.

We had to take the bus to Qufu but we didn't know where and how so they helped us with that. At 13:00 we took the bus to Qufu which took us 1 and a half hour. It really looked like we were in the middle of nowhere but again we met 2 Chinese students who also came to visit Qufu. They also had to look for a hotel so we asked if we could join them and that was no problem. We went with them to look for a hotel and that day we also went to the Confucius Temple. We had dinner together and for the next day we would have breakfast together.

The next day Sunday we woke up at 7:00 and went together with Mia and Nancy to have breakfast and visit the other 2 Confucius sports. When we finished they went to an university because their teachers had graduated at that university and we went to walk around a little bit. After that we met again and they helped us with the bus ticket back to Tai'an. Back in Tai'an we had dinner and went to the train station because at 17:45 our train back to Shanghai would leave. This time I could sleep very well on the train. At 05:00 we were back in Shanghai and by metro we went back to our dormitory.

Well on Monday I was very tired of our trip but I still had to arrange some things for this weekend. I bought my last train tickets so that was then finished. I only had to arrange a plane ticket but something went wrong but with the help of my friend Sally I bought another one today. Stephanie, Christine and Sally are in my HRM class and I had lunch with them and Anouk a while ago when they only where in the Marketing class of Anouk. I'm happy that I made some friends here because sometimes it gets a little bit lonely. Especially Sally helped me a lot for my trip. She helped me with the train tickets and the plane Ticket (which wasn't that easy). She helped me with some Chinese for my trip and Christine helped me with some school stuff so after all I'm very happy with my new friends.

About my trip for coming weekend.

On Thursday I will take the train at 17:35 to Changsha. Then I have to miss my class but there was no other train available. In the morning I will arrive in Changsha and than that evening I will stay there. On Saturday afternoon I will take the train to Guiyang and I will arrive there really early in the morning. In the evening I will take the train to Chongqing where I will arrive on Sunday morning. The next day I will take the train at 8:00 from Chongqing to Changsha 9:59 where I first will visit the Panda and after that just see the city. On Wednesday I will take the plane back to Shanghai and if everything will go right I will be able to follow my class in the evening.

It is a pretty busy schedule but I hope it will be a great weekend. I really look forward to it. On Friday , Monday and Tuesday we are free because of holiday so than I will only miss my class on Thursday.

When I'm back from my trip I will also post some pictures of my trip to Tai'an and Qufu.

See you soon.

Xx