Hi everyone!

We were supposed to go hiking to the mountains this weekend, but because of the bad weather we unfortunately had to postpone our trip. Well, it doesn't actually matter; mountains are very near so we have plenty of time to go there. Now we will just enjoy the city and see what it has to offer us. :) Now while the others are still sleeping I write you little bit about my feelings after two weeks in China.

Well, even though I could not ever imagine, the fist week here in China was actually quite difficult and it took some time to adapt here. At first the food didn't taste very good and everything felt undeveloped. At first I was quite disappointed to China but also to myself, because I had lived abroad before and I thought that for me it would be easy to come and live here. But now when I have been here 2 weeks, I can see a huge process in my attitude towards China and my mood has gotten better a lot. I have started to love the food and found my favorite places to eat. I have also been much happier during the days and I am very glad that I can see myself learning little bit of Chinese every day. I am getting more and more interested about the culture all the time and it starts to feel, that three months is not at all enough to be here, I just want to know so much about this country! Also I have found couple of local friends which is very great! After studying a bit more Chinese, I have someone to practice it with. Locals are also very happy about getting a foreign friend and to practice their English also.

So, now the first school week is over and I could not be happier: All the teachers were amazing, we already learned many practical things how to behave here and our group spirit among Finnish students is great. The best part of the week was this time our reading lecture. Teacher asked us whether we wanted to know some grammar or other things. We asked her to teach us food-words, because we had troubles to understand in restaurants what are we actually ordering. Few times we had gotten a very unpleasant surprise in cantine, because we had accidently ordered guts and other very disgusting stuff. The teacher was very happy to help us, so we practiced the vocabulary of the Chinese menu. After that one lecture, everybody has liked the food they have ordered and suppertimes have been the best parts of our days! :)

Discovering China:

1. You shouldn't ever put your chopsticks to stand up from rice. It foreshadows death.
2. It is not good behave to point out people with your finger. For example when taking a taxi, you should wave your hand in a way that your palm is down towards the street.
3. When eating a whole fish, it is not allowed to turn the fish upside down. You are supposed to eat the meat under the fish with your chopsticks. If you turn the fish over, it foresees that the ship will fall next time in the sea.
4. "Nose" of the teapot will never point any person sitting aroung the table