Registration is finally over! There was a big confusing shit storm over my visa, which apparently is stamped with an "L," which means translates to a "travel visa"- where I needed either an "X" or "F" for a "study visa." When I walked into the registration room and gave the guy my passport, he took a look at it, merely shook his head and said, "No, we cannot accept the travel visa, you have to go back to America."
I almost crapped myself.
Anyways, we figured out all of it. My travel visa is A-OK. Mr. Ren was really helpful in getting me situated and getting my papers in order (since Mom faxed them in.) After registration was over, we had to take the placement test the day afterwards, so I basically sat in my room and talked to myself in Chinese while poring over my old textbook. The test went relatively well, let's face it, there are going to be some parts that you just don't know. It was two parts- written and oral. The written part was fine, some of the vocab they used I didn't know, but that was to be expected. Also, somebody's cell phone alarm was going off quietly the entire time. I thought it was just me that could hear it because it was so faint, but it kept going off for the 2 hours and eventually the professor asked, "Who's phone is going off?" Nobody answered! It was ridiculous. Anyways, after the test, Matt came up to me and said, "Man, that was MY PHONE." I just gave him this blank look- I was kind of ticked. I mean, couldn't you even CHECK? Whatever. It's all over with. The oral part of the exam was alright, I just had to talk to these two women who were really curious about me being an asian-american, speaking a different dialect at home but learning Mandarin in an American college. It was pretty fun. Hopefully I get put in the appropriate level! The worst thing would be to be placed in a class level that would be too easy, or maybe even wayyyy too hard. But I don't think the latter is going to happen, haha.
I've just been chilling lately. Still exploring the city. Yesterday, the four of us took a taxi to Jinan's HUGE city square, it was absolutely fabulous. It beat Kaifeng's city square. I wish I would've brought my camera. I'll be going back for sure, though. It was so full of all these little events and people just milling about enjoying the wonderful weather. There was live music performances by groups of old people singing songs in the old-style, and even young teenagers with their guitars. There were small children learning how to skate, kite flying, wu-shu rehearsals, old people doing their nightly tai-shi type exercises, shops selling little random things, etc etc. It was bustling and refreshing. I was particularly enamored with the free-running group and the tap dancers!
Okay, I have to jet- meeting up with a soccer group. Post later!
LATER POST
So, what a soccery day today turned out to be. I didn't know this, but apparently Shandong University has a kind of impromptu intramural soccer (read: futbol- I can't really get used to calling it "FOOTBALL" but it is everywhere else in the world) team, and today, they met up at 2:30pm to go play the Shandong Normal University's team. I hop in the cab because I want to be a spectator, probably throw a frisbee around, and watch a bunch of fit people from Uganda, the French Congo, and Morocco play FUTBOL. The game was so much fun even though we lost. I thought the view around the field was absolutely breath-taking and I am kicking myself in the butt for not bringing my camera. Anywho, after the soccer match was over, word spread that there was actually a professional game going on later that night (Qingdao vs. Shandong). We ended up going, but I forgot to bring my wallet since I thought we were just going to the match and coming back to the dorm. :( It's all good though, we always end up spotting each other so it's not a big deal. We grabbed a quick dinner on-the-go and ran to find a taxi. None of us really knew how to say "stadium" so we had to circum-locute our point. "Soccer... field? Big? Um, place-where-people-play-soccer-under-lights?" He understood. Smart man.
I've never been to a professional match before, but it was awesome! The boys bought jerseys afterwards, it was that good. There was the obvious heckling and jeering from both sides, but the funny thing was- that the cheering coming from the Qingdao side included insults to people's mothers, name-calling, and a lot of very very crude cuss words. Basically, awesome. Sunday Fun-day. :)
