I... AM... FINISHED!!!

I have officially finished my year of study - which also means I have finished my degree! All I have to do is send ANU my results from this year, and I can graduate.

My last exam was on Friday - Listening Comprehension. It was quite easy, so I am quite confident I passed everything. I now know two of my results - the 90-something for Character Knowledge, and 88 for my Reading Comprehension (Sorry Mum, I told you the wrong mark). So my final end of year mark for Reading Comprehension is 77, because my mid-semester mark wasn't that great.

Anyway, after our final exam, Andri, Candra, Olly and I went to Yong'anli to go shopping for winter warmth. We spent nearly two hours there, and we came out with pairs of wool-lined snow boots (apart from Olly because he has clown sized feet), and big warm coats. It took us over an hour to get the price of the boots down from 320 to 120 - $20 seems very decent. I got a knee-length down-filled coat that is almost too warm for Beijing - I can wear just a t-shirt underneath and be warm enough. At one of the stores, they had the most fabulous motorcycle helmet, so Olly and I posed:




We then went to Guomao, as Andri wanted to discuss a possible party - to cut a long story short, the manager at LV (Louis Vuitton) offered Andri the use of their conference/party room as a goodbye present for him! So we went and had a chat to Andri's SA (Sales Assistant), before catching a taxi home.

Then... the celebration began! Olly and I met up at Lush, Wudaokou's premier night spot for some dinner (wedges with sweet chilli sauce and sour cream - I've been dreaming of them ever since I left Australia, and I only find them now!), some bourbon, and some live music. Rich, the guy playing guitar demanded people request songs - so in one of his breaks I went up and asked for anything Aussie - and turns out he is Aussie! And from Melbourne no less! We had a bit of a chat about home, and then he dedicated 'Land Down Under' to me! Many bourbons ensued, we made some new friends (actually a lot of new friends!), then we headed to Nan Jie - a nightclub just near Sanlitun for more drinks and more dancing - THEN we headed to Bar Blu for more drinks/dancing. We finally made it home at about 5am, ending what was then a 12 hour celebration. Needless to say, I spend the entirety of Saturday in bed.






Rich the Melbournian