My Class Excursion and Mini Home Renovations.

Wednesday 2 April, 2014 

¥5.00           Milk (For ma Cereal!)
¥100.00        Wifi (Two Months)
¥12.00         Dinner
¥20.00         Laundry Coupons
¥2.00           Pineapple(¥139.00)

Thursday 3 April, 2014 
¥6.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥45.00        Shoe Rack
¥7.50           Snack (Hand Held Pancake)
¥7.00           Dinner
¥9.80           Convenience Store (Bulldog Clips)
(¥74.50)

Total: ¥213.50 ($38.35)

Weekly Total: ¥996.95 ($178.98)

Total Spend: ¥18851.65 ($3555.45 AUD)

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Let's start with some beautiful shots of scenery!

This was taken at the South side of Xihu near the Tulip garden. 

Tulips of all colours in full bloom!

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This morning I was very excited to have my first Australian breakfast. It took me a while to decided which cereal to open though but eventually I decided to have a childhood classic. 

White water + Coco Pops!

It was so deliciously good!!

I then couldn't resist.. I had some milk left so I decided to do my favourite thing: suck milk out of my Tim Tam biscuit like a straw! Definitely did not disappoint. What a great start to the day.

Today was actually a really good day as I didn't have class. Instead, we were going on a class excursion! This meant I also got to sleep in a little as we were meeting up at 1:00pm. (still woke up at 8:30am though sadly..)

First we all had to collect our food packs. Isn't that just the cutest concept!?

The boys carrying their lunch packs. It was actually quite heavy, and nobody wanted to carry it. Some of the girls tried to palm it off to the boys to get them to carry it for them but none of them did it... ha. Gentlemen.

This is what we had in each pack. Coke, water, two muffins, a pack of oreos, chinese biscuits and Danish butter cookies. 

We arrived at the Tulip gardens and were fighting through crowds to get a look...

 edsd It was a good fun trip to get to know my classmates. We ended with a nice picnic and a game of Mafia in Chinese, with two doctors, two assassins, and two police officers. 

After the trip we had dinner again at the Fujian restaurant, and after that went to the supermarket next door. I walked past the soy sauce section and noticed there was no Maggi!

<This is for ma cousin>

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Also another photo for my cousin.. today I had vegetarian for lunch! Actually I was just feeling cheap and cheap = vegetables here.

No meaaaattt :'( Ooh by the way my portion of rice costs 19kuai! That's literally 3 cents!

 I rushed lunch because I thought painting class was at 1pm, but when I arrived at the classroom and saw Chinese boys sitting in a row I realised something was wrong. Turns out class was at 3pm (Callig class is at 1pm.. woops!) So I decided to clean my room.

Wow what a mundane post. Anyway, cleaning is a pretty big deal for me because my room is a shitstorm back home. 

I swept, then vacuumed, I have my sheets in the laundry, I tidied my desk.. this is truly a brand new me! I'm also collecting glass bottles here (See top right). They're super cheap, say $2-3 with a drink or food. They're a bit heavy but I'm trying to find things to do with them.. 

Finally went to painting class. Painting class is the bane of my existence. I took this sneaky of the teacher showing a student him copying the picture. He didn't teach us any techniques though, we kind of have to go in blindly and just copy a picture to the best of our ability. I completely lost motivation. Luckily I was sitting next to a pretty cool German girl today so I had good conversation to keep me company.

I copied another picture of some root vegetable. I chose the picture because it was hairy. 

Fascinating news!! I was so swept up in this cleaning routine that I decided to organise my shoes by buying a new shoe rack!! I am in love with tidiness. I actually had a sea of shoes scattered all under my wardrobe before this came along.

No more messy cords!! 

 I'm so proud of myself. Today has been a good, clean day.

This weekend is a national holiday, so we have decided on a last minute trip to go to Wuxi, which is in Jiangsu Province, not far from Hangzhou. Going to be there for the weekend, so my next blog will be when I return! Good bye human beings!

No. 7: 5 Tuhao Room Upgrades.

1. Shoe rack.

To display your shoe collection outside your door. 

2. Shower rack.

This is probably one of the room upgrades I want to have for convenience...

3. Mini-fridge.

Other option is the disgusting communal fridge.

4. Full length mirror.

5. Extra storage.

Probably more necessary than tuhao. 

N.B.1. Tuhao(土豪) was one of the first new terms I learnt here and it refers to the new age of the uncouth rich kids. These examples are probably more luxurious upgrades instead of "Tuhao"... tuhao would have to be some seriously expensive and pointless stuff.

I'm considering getting a shoe rack (but I don't want to put it outside in the corridor because I really like my shoes and would be heartbroken if anyone stole them...) & maybe a shower rack (one of those suction ones that go on the wall). I really want a full length mirror ..jumping up and down in front of the bathroom mirror gets tiring.

Why An Emergency Food Drawer Is Rarely For Emergencies.

23 February, 2014 & 24 February, 2014

¥14.00      Breakfast (Casa Miel Bakery)
¥2.00        A quarter of a pineapple on a stick
¥10.00      Laundry and Dryer
¥7.70       Bottle of Chilli Sauce
¥4.50       Lunch (College Dorm Restaurant)
¥18.00     Emergency Chocolate (Meltykiss)
¥175.00   Walmart
-
¥40.50      Breakfast (Cafe - Cappuccino and Sandwich)
(It was raining today so I had instant noodles for lazy lunch)
¥14.00        Dinner (Beef bone soup + Veggies + Rice)

Total: ¥285.70 ($54.40)

Weekly Total: ¥3971.40

Total Spend: ¥3971.40 ($756.45 AUD)

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Today was the first day we had rain, and apparently it's like Melbourne's weather patterns here. It's going to be raining for a few days which is a bummer. Anyway this is my emergency food drawer. After today's ordeal with setting up internet in my dorm, I can confirm that half of what you see here is gone. You think I'd know by now that having an emergency food drawer is probably not the best idea for me since I have zero self control.

I had also been struggling with the hard mattress for the past few days. I had resorted to stuffing a chair cushion under my hip, but I realised that sounded like a dumb thing to do for one whole year so I ended up carrying a mattress back home. 

This is what a good night's sleep looks like.

Tomorrow we'll be doing our oral and written test to see what level our Chinese is at. I was going to study but it's tomorrow and I really haven't looked at my book enough. I'm not too worried, it's only a placement test and I'm curious to see where my general level of Chinese is at.

Why a small dorm room is good for me.

¥6.90    Emergency Groceries
¥25.00  Breakfast at Panini (Coffee + Panini)
¥2.00    Lunch (Curry Potato Beef Bun) 
¥22.20  Groceries - (Tea + A4 Folder)
¥4.00    Transport (Bus + Train)
¥26.00  Dinner (Beef Noodle Soup)
¥5.00    Taxi

Total: ¥91.00 ($17.35)

Weekly Total: ¥2890.50 

Total Spend: ¥2890.50 ($550.60 AUD)

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Anyone who knows me well knows that I consume space. It just happens. I take over any empty horizontal plane with stuff. 

In Sydney, I have two rooms of stuff.

So arriving in my new little 7m² dorm is like going into rehab.

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This is the view when you walk in. I'm glad that it's quite bright, and some wonderful soul before me has stuck opaque contact onto all the windows so people can't see in. (The other dorms aren't so lucky)

What hit me first was how empty it looked. We aren't allowed to stick things onto the walls, so I've been brainstorming things I can do to this room to make it more homey.

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(Photo below) I was sitting at the top of the bed for this photo. My wide angle camera stretches the room out a bit so it might look bigger than it actually is.

I am glad that we get our own bathroom though. Sharing a bathroom with two other girls last time on exchange was an eye-opener.. cleaning a bathroom used by three girls is a nightmare.

Quite basic, but it's got everything I need.

So that's my dorm. It's starting to feel better now that I've unpacked and bought some new sheets and covers for my bed. My next project is to find some coloured contact to stick on the windows so I can bring some colour into my room and stop it feeling so sterile. I really want to put things up on the walls, but I can't leave a mark... so I'm taking all suggestions at the moment!