Step 7 - Maybe I should Bathe more?

 

 Tuition money, or as I like to call it, 'Big-wad-o-Cash'.

Maybe we already knew that, but it seems be particularly pertinent right now. My Nepalese medical student room-mate (Did I ever mention his name? I don't think so; it's Dilip. Apparently his nickname is Liam. Spooky.)  has moved out. This was not entirely unexpected - he had mention that he was trying to get into another dorm that was closer to his classes, which from here are about a 20 minute bike ride. The way he told me was interesting though.

"So, I am thinking this will be my last night here."

Cheers for the warning..? But it was all good. He didn't even sleep here on that night anyway - So basically he was the room-mate that I saw maybe... for 1 to 2 days, from the 18th of August till the 1st of September. Feels kinda like a bit of shame really, but as they say, one door closes and another opens. In the morning Dilip collected his stuff, and in the afternoon Patrick moved in. He's from Canada, I'm not sure how old. Let's just say approximately my age, and pretty tall. He's also a language student, though I'm not exactly sure what kind of level his Chinese is at. Oh, and he's not around at all either. He came across with some buddies, who apparently spent the last year in Beijing, so they've been out somewhere a lot. Mike and somebody Jonas ... I forget his name. Anyway, maybe I'll get to know them more later on.

Fun job there, sport.

Speaking of Chinese skills/level, this morning we had the placement tests. Basically this is a written test and a quick ( <=5 minutes ) chat with a teacher so that they can figure out what class you should be in. I think I went... okay? Obviously it's not a test that you exactly get a grading on, but a few people think I should be in level two (intermediate). I think I should be too, but the problem is that I'm not confident enough, I'm rusty and my listening has always been poor. The results will be out on Sunday, with classes beginning Monday.

I've been thinking of getting a bank account here, so I don't continue to get pummeled with fees. Bankwest currently slug me $5 per withdrawal, on top of a 2% charge on the amount I withdraw. I have no idea on the amount, if any, charged by the Chinese bank/ATM owner.

Small parks like this are all over the Uni campus.

Part of the problem at the moment is choosing a bank. China has like a billion it seems, though there are a few major ones. I'm trying to pick between Bank of China (BoC), China Construction Bank (CCB) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). I've had CCB recommended to me by Dilip, because it has a branch on campus and has plenty of ATM's around.  The same goes for the two other banks I'm thinking about. CCB has an agreement with Westpac that means no transfer fees, but I'm not with Westpac so that's pretty moot. I'll check with Terry and see what she thinks...

That's a wrap.