OT: Hellboarder in China

[Mikolaj]

Hi everyone!
Since I'm living in China for the next month and some [xuexi hanyu(learning chinese) in Tianjin - a biggest city in the world no one heard about ;) ]and I'm making photos like crazy I thoight that some you might enjoy these bits of my current life - here's my blog: www.brukselka.blogspot.com - unfortunately for you it's all in Polish, so here are some of the best photos i've managed to snap so far:
http://bp1.blogger.com/_xC4XAzf_Gjg/SG3HoHLy8EI/AAAAAAAAARA/urThAr9dg68/s1600-h/8-road-warrior.jpg
http://bp0.blogger.com/_xC4XAzf_Gjg/SG3HoX2Qj_I/AAAAAAAAARQ/3JQLkIbRv6I/s1600-h/8.-campus-2.jpg
http://bp1.blogger.com/_xC4XAzf_Gjg/SGec3vVaWlI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/BgBf-JpxnR4/s1600-h/3-798.jpg
http://bp1.blogger.com/_xC4XAzf_Gjg/SGTVDf7m1qI/AAAAAAAAAPo/5Bf9OAh_PnU/s1600-h/2-za-tian-2.jpg

[Mikolaj]

http://bp3.blogger.com/_xC4XAzf_Gjg/SGTW4RIkUMI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/HNcXrxt50X8/s1600-h/2-patrz%C4%85.jpg

[Pangaea]

What are you in China for?

I've always wanted to travel but I've been nowhere.

I would love to go to China, Japan, Europe and most of all, Iceland.

[kidfromhell]

very cool ;)

[SpydaWeb]

http://bp3.blogger.com/_xC4XAzf_Gjg/SGTW4RIkUMI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/HNcXrxt50X8/s1600-h/2-patrz%C4%85.jpg

Big brother is watching.

[Ambassador Curt]

The first picture of the bike frightens me. It looks like it could start chasing you at any moment.


Pictures are awesome.

[Mikolaj]

I'm here to learn chinese. The university in here has a summer language course and since the 韓愈 (chinese ;) ) is a well... horribly difficult [I know what i'm saying - I know my share of languages and this one's the most challenging yet] the place in which you can't talk with any one without it seemed the best for it.

The Big Brother pictures is from Tianmen square - the entire Beijing is wired like that!

The bike is my pride - i use it all the time, as it is the most convinient transport in china. Althought I do get a lot of "White man on a bike!! Really?!" stares from the people on the streets. As to the picture- not a single drop of it was tuched by photoshop - it's my campus and it does look like that every night - magical!

[Pangaea]

The first picture of the bike frightens me. It looks like it could start chasing you at any moment.


Pictures are awesome.

It's very David Lynch.

[Kees_L]

It's very David Lynch.

I think the pics look rather 'Spirited Away'...! So I'm assuming you're having a good time?
Or else just come here, we are always here :wink:.

Maybe you could post like a summary from your blog, on how you're living and what's been up so far? I'd like to visit Asia some time, especially Japan, Tibet & China, Mongolia. I would be also interested in lesser urbanized China, it's country-side and forests.
Are there many more international students?
Did you make some buddies yet? Eating well, study enough? - be well & hope to hear from you, mr. Miko :biggrin:.

[plut]

great flicks!
and i can actually read the blog too! yay.
china would be awesome to visit.

[Mikolaj]

I'm studying in the Tianjin Normal University [they give the "normal name" to these universities which train teachers]. Here for 6 weeks of studying and than I'm gonna travel the country for a bit.

Tibet is, unfortunatley still of limits [plus it's hellishly far away from here].

As to how it is in here. Life's very very very different than anything I've experienced so far. You get to know what a "cultural shock" is first hand.. And it's not a myth - this thing realy exists and when you're in a country where everything works differently and you just can't communicate with other language than chinese - it show's it ugly head. Transision is not that tough, though. You're not alone - you get to meet loads of people who are like you, lost in the new world. Althought in the scope of officialy 10 million city [unofficialy 24 mil] there's a relatively small gorup of us expats. ;)

After the transision... It's just shere fun. There's something new, intriguing and interesting around every corner.
Food's good - although a bit too greacy for my taste and people are realy nice [for the most part :) ] and everything's relatively cheep. :)