mooncakes

There we go, I've just complained about studying like crazy and got a week of holidays. Completely forgot it was the 15th day of 8th month in the lunar calendar! Moon festival, you are amazing :)

You know guys, I may have turned into a compete geek, but I started to learn how to manage my time. I got used to it! It doesn't take me >that< much time to prepare for everything, and on weekends I even find spare time to check out another cool place down town or just chill in bed with skype for an hour or two. If I have Internet, haha (you don't even want to know about Chinese connection, trust me). It's crazy how much I miss people back in Lithuania or England and how little I get to talk to them... One thing I'll never get used to for sure is the time difference!

....and the lack of fresh vegetables. I get a lot of questions about Chinese canteen, and it actually isn't that bad. Just everything is deep fried, baked or boiled, and as you may already know I'm a salad person! Nah but it's fine. I can't believe how much my food-related vocabulary improved since coming here (I used to recognise like 2 characters in a name - like chicken and noodles, and ignore the rest five, which often meant chicken claws or its head... Now I know what to avoid! Hah). Also, dumplings and pastries and basically anything is super delicious. And cheap! You get a huge bowl of delicious food for literally cents on the street. And in super-posh restaurants you leave 10-15 LT which is pretty amazing too. It's just literally impossible to be a vegetarian in China. You're lucky if you don't get raw meat or a heart or A FACE of some poor creature! I'm doing my best to stick to poultry, which is still a challenge for me as I haven't eaten that in ages.

What also surprised me was the nightlife. I only went out a couple of times (I'm telling you, I >did< become a nerd), but I've never ever seen more exclusive clubs in my life! Red carpets, leather sofas, crystal glasses of champagne served with seafood, millions of chandeliers... And wherever we go we're VIPs. Free entry, no face & dress control, free drinks all the way... Promoters fight for us! So strange, but I really can't complain :)

I'd love to have something to say about shopping in China, but I haven't had time for that since I came which was over a month ago. At first it scared me, seeing only either designer shops where I couldn't afford a pair of tights or cheap-and-oh-so-Chinese shops (there is literally another world underground!), where all the clothes look simply ridiculous. You can get panda caps covered in glitter, plastic heels you would normally see in red-light districts, jumpers made of feathers and anything else you can imagine. Thankfully, later I came across an endless number of normal western shops  (way more expensive than in Europe, sadly), but at least I'm safe, haha.

I realised I've been quite selfish and have been using my lack of inspiration as a reason for not posting, but hey, I'm in China! If anything else interests you, feel free to ask :)

In the meantime, I'll pack my textbooks (yeah, first day of holidays will be spent studying just like the rest of them), and head to Starbucks. I really really need a cup of good coffee and a change of environment, as my desk in my room is slowly starting to make me feel sick.

I think I'll grab a mooncake on the way as well, it's a festival after all! :)

Have a great week, you all ;*