Month of december. First month of real winter.
Even if we don't have any snow here (yet?) you can really feel that it's winter here more than anywhere else. Because here, the coldness follows you wherever you go. It is cold everywhere, except for maybe starbucks.

 

The problem here is that they don't have any heating system that works inside the house and the walls aren't that good isolated either.
Some rooms might have kongtiao/热空调 (like air conditioner which makes hot air) but it's on very few places. My home doesn't have any at all, or does not use it anyway. In school the classrooms it is the same, the school is so tight-fisted and only use it some of the teachers office. And what makes it worst is that in the classrooms they also leave the windows open...

This air condition is too expensive, that's why people not use it. But they should really invest in better build buildings and some better heat system which is not as expensive and much more convinient than AC.

I now sit in my room, wearing three shirts and two par of trousers and when I breath it comes smoke from my mouth. The winter here is much worse than Sweden, because you can't escape the cold....brr.

 

This saturday I spend time with my sister and two of her classmates!

Every saturday, they have to go to school and watch a movie and after they have special clubs such as dancing, handwork, speach class, math club etc. I don't go to it but every other student in gao 1 (grade 1) have to go, every saturday. And after that they usually spend the rest of their weekend doing homework - typical chinese student's life.

However, this saturday I could actually spend time with my two chinese friends and my little sister. We first went to eat hotpot which is a special chinese dish were you have a big pot in the middle, often one part that is very hot and the other part not as hot. It's boiling water with some oil in it and you put different kinds of food in it and wait til it's cooked. Meat, vegetables, fish, mushrooms - it is delicous! 
After that we watch a movie at my friends house - but she went away right during the movie to do homework, chinese students and their studies, crazy...,

Often in the weekends, we visit my father or mothers siblings' homes or other relatives. Here in China, even how small one's house can be, they always find room for hosting someone.
Last weekend we visited my father's bigbrother. We all had lunch round their small table and on the coach, or low chairs. We ate crab and the rests of the crab you just put on the table, you always do that with fishbones too and meatbones - the table manners here are something else, often not in the better way.

A month ago, my school had such an intresting visit - a school from Sweden, from Stockholm, from a place very near to where I live and go to school.
I was so happy to meet some people from my "own" country again but I noticed that I almost got a culture shock from meeting them, I am feeling really like China is a big part of me and that I actually was hosting them in a country I belong to.
Anyhow, this school, Rosstensta, have an exchange with my school and they usually go visit them once a year, and my chinese school have also been on a visit to Sweden.
I shared with them all the differences I have discovered between the swedish school and chinese school, there were some students there who was writting a project about that. We were together all day, went to visit a restaurant and the famous tempel here in Changzhou, which is placed in Hong Mei park.

I will keep contact with the swedish school and visit them when I am back in Sweden, hopefully I can join them and visit my chinese school next time they are going!

Today it was Victor's birthday, so we went after school to eat dinner together - him, me, Omid and Cordelia!

This saturday we celebrated his birthday for real at his house, his parents cooked a huge dinner and served us cake. Here in China, they never bake the cake, instead they always buy a cake from the same cake place. Most chinese househoulds doesn't own an oven, so it is difficult for me to make them western food since I am used to use the oven a lot.

So now when it's getting colder here, really cold, we change from the summer uniform to the autumn uniform. We only wear it on mondays and I couldn't be happier for it's not really the most good looking one. My pants are way too long, big and wide, but everyone looks the same so I shouldn't be so uncomfortable in it...Anyway, happy that the school give me the uniform and that I don't need to pay for it, my school is taking so good care of me! Really happy.

I started to write in swedish instead of english but now I will change back, no reason why. Or yes, but anyway.

Today it's wednesday, I just arrived home from school, it is around six o`clock in the evening here. Today I hade almost self-study the whole afternoon, except for my special chinese lessons, because all the students now are practising for the midterm exam which is next tuesday. It's apperently very important (but everything they do here is important, even the everyday homework) and now they litteraly do nothing else in their free time but studying. Maybe some weekends they can at least have a few hours of fun, but this weekend I don't think I will meet my chinese friends at all haha...

They study so hard here, and so much. It's way too much, but I will explain more about that in another post, otherwise this will be too long.

 

Today I met up with my friend Fan Xin who is also my helper here in China - she's the one I can contact if I have any problems with anything. Last year she went as an exchange student to Czech republic and her english is great!

We visited a big park here in Changzhou that I haven't had time to visit before today but I am defintly coming back, it was so incredible beautiful! And next time I'll be sure to climb the two towards they have there. One very big and one smaller one that is older. We had a nice long walk in the park and today I fell deeper in love with Changzhou, my wonderful city.

Yesterday, Saturday, it was my mothers younger brother's birthday. He turned 30, so he had a party which we went to. And, wooow, it was so much food. 30 dishes. Too much. And we ate cake of course and then I was full for the rest of the day. We also picked oranges that they grow on their own! Then we got a gift to take home, apparently that's something you always give to the guests who come to your birthday party. And one thing you ALWAYS do in China, for every event, it's fireworks. I wake up every weekend by the sound of thousands of fireworks and the sound is terrible loud.
I had a lot of fun, spending time with my family and I went for a walk with my sister. Every place here is different - we had the birthday party, in a garage or something by their house which is next to a road. Then you walk 50 meters away and you are at a farm where they catch fish by themselves and grow their own vegetables. China is modern in so many places but still many people are left behind...

So today it is 2 moths since I said goodbye to my friends and family in Sweden an started my new life here in China. By this time, my chinese has improved a lot, every week I am improving but I am not very good but I though I would show you a little how it is.
In the video below I am telling you my daily life here in China, but I guess you will listen and understand so I don't have to write what I am saying. Enjoy haha..

Today I went out for lunch with my family. They said we were going out to eat steak, or "牛排" which is the chinese word. We went to a restaurant that was Italian and I though it was kind funny how the food looked, an "Italian" steak. It was a steak, but it's cooked on a very different way than I am used to, served with an egg (?!), very little pasta with ketchup on it, and the little amount of vegetables as you can see on the picture. It looked like something I would have done at home, not what you are used to see at a "restaurant". But it tasted good and I am happy that me and my family go out to do stuff together, it is so much fun!
After that I met up my exchange student friend, Cordelia, and we went to Starbucks for taking a coffee and chatting (here I really want to use the swedish word "fika"!). We sat for a couple of hours since we almost only have time to meet one a week, IF.
When I came home we had some guests over, the same family we went climbing with - which I haven't told you about. Now the time is almost 10 PM here and it's time to go to bed - tomorrow waits another long schoolday which I am looking forward too. 晚安!

So yesterday I met my host mothers parents for the first time, my grandmother and grandfather! We had lunch their which was nice. We ate duck (which I love), dumpling and something extremly strange - SWAN. I didn't know you could eat swan - it tasted kind of normal. But still, another culture difference haha!

So last saturday, my amazing classmates arranged a birthday party for me at KTV. KTV is when you go and sing kareoke which like eveyrone in China LOVES - and I like it a lot too haha!
Anyway, they really wanted to celebrate my birthday and I didn't expect anything from them but they bought me present and arranged this whole thing which was so much fun, I am so thankful! Also my teachers from the military camp came, which made me so happy. My exchange student friend Cordelia was with us to and we ate dinner out and went aroung in the city before we had to be home, which is ten o`clock in the evening haha...Anyway, a great day!

On my real birthday, 23rd of September - I changed host family.

It was a really weird day, I was so sad but at the same time happy. I couldn't sleep at all the whole night because I was really nervous for meeting the host family.
The last breakfast I ate with my sister and my friend Cordelia. We ate something thas was so good and sweet, but it looked like eyeballs. Anyway, everything worked out well - I meet the host family and I felt like a part of the family from start. We went "home" and since it was my birthday we had cake and birthday noodles - you always eat noodles at your birthday, then you will have a long life.
I am just really thankful that they celebrated my birthday even if we had just met. A good, but weird day.

I have done a lot of dangerous things here in China, like making videos during classes to show you all these different things I face here. This is one of the things:
     Here in China the teacher has a lot of respect. The teacher always beging the lesson after the bell rings with saying "Lesson starts" and one student in the class screams out "STAND UP" and everyone stands up. Then the teachers says "nimen hao" which means "hello to you" and we answer "Laoshi hao" which means "hello teacher" and the teacher tells us to sit down.
     In the lessons the teacher stands and talk the whole time, and throws out questions to the different students who has to stand up when they are asked and they can't sit down until the teacher says they are allowed to. And you also stands up when the lesson is finished, but some teachers are more chill with that then others - but in the begining of the lessons, you always have to stand up and bow.
     Everytime you meet them in the corridor you say "Laoshi hao"  when I in Sweden would greet the teacher as anyone else and just say hello. But here the title teacher is something very good and important not to miss out on.

This is how it looks when the class starts:

On the day I got home from the military camp, my old host family wanted to host a birthday party for me since I was going to move the next day and I had been a part of their family for over a month.
We celebrated with so good fish, a birthday cake and my family and 2 of my exchange student friends. My last night in their family couldn't have been any better and I was so thankful for what they organised for we!

Today I went to my grandmothers house for lunch and we made our own dumplings! It was so delicious and they taughed me how to make them, mine wasn't so pretty but I had so much fun - my family is great and I am extremly happy here!
Tomorrow it is school again after having one week break since it has been the mid autumn festival which I will write more about! It has been a great week and I had a lot of fun travelling with my family but I am also looking forward to meeting everyone in school tomorrow. Everything . Is. Great.