Chengdu, 2014-09-19 21:56:06 +0800
Day 26 in China
A few days ago, Ricky, an Austrian-Australian friend from the dorms, came back from school and told a story:

‘So we were playing Pokémon and that guy got a Charizard and named it Red John.’ He said.

The guy he was talking to burst out laughing.

‘What does this Red John mean?’ I asked. ‘Does it have any hidden meaning? Like a part of a man’s genitalia or something?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘It means taking a girl’s virginity. You see, there is an American guy in the dorms who took a girl’s virginity during his first week in China, and now everyone keeps calling him Red John.’

‘Oh, I see.’

It was a bit funny to hear that, because the previous day I bought a bicycle. It is brand-new, as opposed to the bikes from the black market, euphemistically called second-hand bicycles here (第二手自行車 di4 er4 shou3 zi4xing2che1.) It’s probably the best bicycle I’ve had in my life, and I’m pretty sure I could never buy such a good bicycle for that price in Poland. It’s as quiet as a hobbit; shines bright like a diamond, and, most important, it’s red. Choosing a name for my bicycle couldn’t have been easier. The next day I simply took a marker and wrote on it it’s new name in both English and Chinese: Red John and 紅色的約翰.

For the last few days, I’ve felt just like on a skiing holiday, except that instead of skiing, I was cycling. Every time I went skiing, it was always just for a few days. Every day I would get up when I wanted, have breakfast, and go skiing as soon as possible. Then I would ski for as long as I wanted, go back to the hotel, and sometimes I could also go to the sauna or swimming pool, to make the day even more pleasant. Then, every day I could have a huge dinner without having to feel guilty for the calories, as I had already burnt so many of them. Lastly, during some of the trips I could also happily drink a few beers with friends and talk about life and stuff.

2014-09-25 01:30:55 +0800
Day 32 in China
I’ve had mood swings over the last weeks, a phenomenon that I never really experienced so strong in my life. There are moments when I am more or less satisfied with a student’s life in southwest China, Sichuanese food, cycling around, and the multilingual community of expats in Chengdu. And there are days when from the moment when I get up, I am angry, sad, and sleepy at the same time. Maybe it has something to do with a change of diet.

Sichuan University sucks when it comes to teaching Chinese to advanced students. I have five classes every week. One subject is called 綜合高級漢語, or something along the lines of “Comprehensive Advanced Chinese”, with a good teacher, but all we do is just talk about words and their uses. Then there’s 現代漢語語法 or Modern Chinese Grammar, which is more or less the same thing we call in Poland descriptive grammar. The teacher of this subject requires the students to interact, asks them questions and tells them to read something out loud from time to time. This would be cool if the classes didn’t take place so early every morning. I have something like a prolonged jet-lag that gets worse and worse with every day. It’s nothing unusual if I fall asleep at 3 a.m., and I have to get up shortly after seven if I want to get something to eat before school. So, of course, I fall asleep during the classes. And the grammar teacher says things like “Ha, ha, Moroz still didn’t wake up”. There was one optional course I wanted to take, Translations, but the classes were cancelled. The first time I attended that class, there were about 6 people in the group, including one Italian, one Californian, some Koreans (there are Koreans everywhere) and me. The teacher even told us to buy a textbook, which I obviously didn’t do. The second time there was just one long-legged blonde with curly hair from Ukraine. The teacher made the impression that she didn’t want to be where she was, leaving the classroom for fifteen minutes at a time, and in the end she came and said that the class was cancelled and we have to find something else if we want to get credits for optional courses. I am a lazy bastard with a Confucius Institute Scholarship, and I don’t need any credits.

The next thing: the exam in Modern Chinese Grammar is on December, 29th. Which means that if I want to prepare for it at all, I won’t be able to have any Christmas fun (and a part of my family was planning to visit me in China.)

2014-09-26 23:14:42 +0800
Day 33 in China
Mission for the next week:

• memorize 100 basic words and expressions in Korean (using Memrise,)
• maintain a 5-minute conversation in Korean, make a video of it and upload it to YT,
• do yoga every day,
• not go crazy (I mean, can you go crazier than I already am?)