Marie in Shanghai

This week I finally met my language buddy Nicole for the first time. She is a lovely girl, just a little shy. She told me she´s learning German right now, so we´ll definitely meet for some German lessons every now and then.

This week, I participated in a traditional Chinese tea ceremony which was surprisingly fun. A local tea farmer introduced us to the different kinds of tea and what kind of effects they have on the soul and spirit. He also showed us how to prepare tea in a traditional Chinese way. It took about 60 minutes until we had the first cup of tea in our hands! At first, all the cups and pots are being washed with hot water. Next, the tea leaves are being put into the cup and everything is being rinsed again. Afterwards, hot water is being poured over the tea leaves and the tea is used to rinse everything again. At that point I would have been totally fine with just drinking the tea that came out of the pot, but our teacher explained to us, that this procedure had to be repeated 2 or three times until the tea leaves would unfold their full flavor. And all the waiting was worth it! The tea we got at the end was delicious.

Friday was student club recruting day. Fudan University has so many different student clubs! Unfortunately, most of them are (of course) in Chinese, but we were nevertheless invited to about 20 clubs at once. So now, I´m a member of the European Investigation Association, where current European topics are being discussed. The Chinese students thought it would be fun to have me comment on some of the topics, so I guess I´m their expert on European economy and politics now...I also joined the choir and I will start doing ballroom dancing again, given that I find a Chinese guy that´s taller than me. 

This week, I also went to the fabric market, a place where a lot of tailors offer custom-made suits, dresses and business attire for little money. I found a beautiful business dress and the tailor took all my measurements. I´ll be able to pick it up next Thursday and I´m already very excited to see what it looks like! I also practiced bargaining a little more and got her to lower the price from 550 kuai to 320 kuai (about 38€ / 50$).

On Saturday, our Chinese language buddies taught us how to make dumplings. It was a lot of fun and very yummy! The two Chinese girls I made dumplings with praised my dumplings and said they were very beautiful and they reminded them of the petals of a flower. Well, see for yourself:

One last thing I´d like to tell you about: Chinese weather. I feel like I´m in a rollercoaster that goes through all four seasons within a week. The beginning of the week was about 6 °C and rainy. During the week it got a little warmer and rainy days and sunny days were taking turns. Today, the weather is beautful, with about 20°C. The next week is supposed to go back to rain and cold. I have never in my life wished for spring to be over, but I really can´t stand the weather anymore. I hope summer will be here soon...

All the best,

Marie