I arrived back in Brisbane on Thursday afternoon. It's hard to believe my China adventure is over after all that build up! I had twelve hours in Hong Kong before my flight back to Brisbane on Wednesday night, and I was determined not to spend them in the airport, but in having a last look around Hong Kong, which I love. I also had some last ( Read more... )

Just realized I haven't posted since Friday, before my Big Scary Interview (TM). Which, I might add, couldn't have gone better. The director, Peng Xiaolian, was absolutely wonderful and gave me quotable quote after quotable quote which I will be able to use in my thesis. She was really opinionated and very happy to talk about not just her films ( Read more... )

Today is Peng Xiaolian day for real. I have to call her in five and a half hours before interviewing her. I'm approaching the blindly terrified side of nervous about the interview ;) Funnily enough, yesterday afternoon while browsing in a bookshop in the Duolun Lu Cultural Street, I found a film magazine from the 80s which talked about her first ( Read more... )

Here I am at Sculpting in Time - for one of the last times *cries*. There are so many things I'm going to miss about Beijing not least of which is this place! I'm so used to having a wireless connection - how can I go back to dial-up?? One of things I love about Sculpting in Time is that it feels like a break from Beijing - once I've done the ( Read more... )

Just came back from a visit to the post office - at which I sent home over 8 kilos of books *groans*. I still have more books I want to buy yet - but they can wait till I return to Beijing as I don't want to be lugging them all around Shanghai. I had a big Beijing Bus Adventure yesterday. I realized that during my time here, I've taken the light ( Read more... )

I've booked my flights to Shanghai and Beijing. I changed my mind about when I wanted to leave Beijing and am now leaving on Wednesday early in the morning, and I fly back to Beijing on Saturday night. I wish the Saturday flight could have been earlier, but that was the earliest time available ( Read more... )

I'm at the lovely Beijing Bookworm restaurant/library/cafe after a very enjoyable dinner with koalathebear. There are bookshelves reaching almost to the ceiling full of all kinds of books. I was amused to see an Australian Joke Book in the middle of the Chinese language books! I do love places that have bookshelves like these - although they are somewhat ( Read more... )

It would rain the day I decide to go out and do things *laugh*. I'm still going out though :)

What else can I do to procrastinate? So far I've ( Read more... )

One thing I will NOT miss when I'm back in Australia is people shoving calculators in my face instead of telling me the price of things. I am so sick of this happening - after we've discussed the complicated stuff in Chinese, they assume I won't understand the easy stuff - the money - and point to it on a calculator/receipt/cash register. I have ( Read more... )