Lantern Festival

14/02/2014 - In the morning the hostel is very nice, especially the common room and the outside. The girl at the reception is very kind with us, and she seems happy to speak Chinese with us (all Chinese people are happy to speak Chinese with strangers). We slept till 12 o-clock, then my roommates went out to buy some things, but I stayed in the hostel because I’m not very well. In the evening we went out for dinner, I ate 牛肉炒面 (salted spaghetti with meat, cabbage and carrot) for 20 yuan, but they were disgusting. Then we went to the beach, because it was the lantern festival (last day of spring festival, better known as Chinese new year) and we watched traditional dances and drums. It was nice, but I think all around the city had something more beautiful. I wanted a horse teddy, as this is the year of the horse, but I didn’t buy it. 

Antelope Inn

Common room

Let's go!

12-13/02/2014 - The trip started well: I got a terrible flu, I forget my ring at the security check (so I had to run back, go through the customs again, ask for help and get it back, thanks God nobody stole it) and I nealy missed my flight (I was the last to get aboard). The trip with AirChina was quite nice, I slept for six hours in the first flight and for the whole time in the second. By the way, the food was awful, one of the worst in/flight food I have ever eaten. Changing flight in Beijing was complicated, you have to go through security check again and so on. We (oh, sorry, I use “we” because actually we are three girls) arrived at Xiamen on time, the weather was good more or less. And here we realized we were in China: three on a taxi! Yeah, three girls, five big luggages, three backpacks and three bags. We spent 65 yuan to reach our hostel (22 per person, more or less 3 €, and it was more expansive because it was night!). reaching the hostel was not so simple: it is in a really nice district, but there are a lot of small streets all around! Finally, we made it. The name of the hostel is Antelope Inn, and we weren’t very happy to spend the night here. The room (for four person) was so cold! And also a tap leaked in the bathroom, and if we adding the time zone...terrible night. We went out for dinner (luckily the district, 曾错案cengcuoan, is full of restaurants opened till late in the evening) and we managed to find a dish of 炒面 (Chinese spaghetti) with cabbage, carrots, eggs and soy sauce. It was 25 yuan, and we ate in three from the same dish.

曾错案

曾错案

Moving to China, part 2: get your visa

Oh my gosh, this is so difficult. From September 2013, everything has changed, starting from the kind of visa you can get. The X visa (for students) split into two parts, the X1 and the X2 visa. I will stay in China for 178 days, so I need to have the X2 visa (less than 180 days). It is just for one entry (this sucks, I'd love to go to Hong Kong!) and it is 86,30 €.

WHAT YOU NEED TO GET AN X2 VISA: when you apply to a Chinese university, it will give you (by mail) all the documents you need for the visa. 
So, now you need:

1. passport with at least 6 months of validity
2. a photo (like the one for the passport, or even bigger)
3. the form for the request filled in by computer (otherwise they will be bother you)
4. the copy of the documents the school has sent you
5. the copy of the passport (the page with all your details)
6. a copy of the flight reservation

BE CAREFUL: the price for the visa changes according to your nationality, so check the prices to be sure. And if you are an italian citizen, remember to put the "marca da bollo" (tax) on your passport, otherwise police will bother you and won't even get you in (or out). The tax is 40,29 € (thank you, Italy.)

The regular procedure will take 3 days, but you can also choose the express (2 days) and the urgent (1 day). Of course this will cost you more.

So, let's fly to China!

Those black stripes are to protect my details,
they will not be on your visa!

Follow me on Instagram!

Moving to China, part 1: choose the school, book the flight

Hello guys, this post will be about how I arranged my trip.

First: HOW TO CHOOSE A CHINESE UNIVERSITY?
My chinese professor at the university suggested me to choose among Xiamen, Qingdao, Dalian and Hangzhou. I had already been in Hangzhou, Dalian is too far north and Qingdao didn't excite me. So, I opted for Xiamen. However I think that chinese courses are more or less the same in all university, so better if you choose the place in where living for six month! I don't like the north of China, I prefer the south. So, there are few cities in China further south than Xiamen! Here is the Overseas Education College website.

Second: BOOKING THE FLIGHT
I suggest you, if you live in or near a big city with a chinese community, to book the flight with an asian travel agencies: they are also more convinient than booking online. I spent 880 € for a non-direct flight, Milan-Beijing, Beijing-Xiamen, with AirChina. I also have two luggages included, which I reccomend you if you will spend for six month in the other part of the world. My travel agency is SNZO Travel in Milan (you can find more information on the internet).

And that's all for the moment. Remember, follow me on Instagram!

I'm moving...to China!

Hello guys, a short post to inform you that on February 12th I'm moving to China. I will stay there 6 months (or so I hope), to improve my chinese. I chose Xiamen University, in the Fujian province, near Hong Kong and Taiwan. I can't write now the last two posts on my trip in Berlin (here you can find the first part), as I have to study the whole day to pass my exams and to graduate as soon as I come back. So, soon I will write some tips on "how to move to China" (hoping they will help me too) and then a sort of daily (more or less) diary on how difficult is for a 外国人 (waiguoren, foreigner) to live in such a beautiful (and strange) country. See you soon!

Click on the image to zoom!

Ah...follow me on INSTAGRAM!

Instagram.

Hi guys, just a short post to share some news with you. It's not something exceptional, don't be excited. If you want, from this moment on, you can find me on Instagram. Just look up for laura_waitforit_pagani (the link takes you to my profile). I chose this name because of an "How I met your mother" episode, when Barney chooses the middle name for Marshall and Lily's baby. I think it's something funny, isn't it? Maybe one day I will change it, who knows.

One hundred and one...muffins!

Hi everybody. This Christmas we have decided to save money on gifts, as in Italy with the crisis we don't have a lot of money to waste. So, we gave as Christmas presents some muffins to our neighbors. We packed it with a small glass dish, bought at Casa, a nice shop that sells things for the house. They cost us 89 cent, because it was an offer; then we added a Gabel dish cloth (2,8 € with the 3x2), or a Gabel pot holder (1,45 €).

Then we have to prepare a looot of muffins! I made 5 different kinds of muffin: with blueberry, with coconut and dark chocolate, with banana and milk chocolate, with cocoa and white chocolate, with carrots. For the first four kinds the dough is the same, then I add the different ingridients.

Here's the receipt for the first four kinds of muffins:

WHAT YOU NEED (base):

• 125gr butter
• 150gr sugar (the finest the better)
• 3 eggs (2 whole eggs and a yolk)
• 380gr flour
• 1 packet of yeast with vanilla
• a pinch of salt
• 250 ml milk

HOW TO:

• mix the softened butter with the sugar, then add the eggs (one by one)
• add flour, the salt and the yeast with a sieve little by little, and sometimes add some milk, so the dough isn't to hard to work.

Blueberry: add blueberry as you like.

Coconut and dark chocolate: add shredder coconut and the dark chocolat cut in small pieces, as you desidered.

Banana and milk chocolate: add the pureed banana and the milk chocolate cut into small pieces, as much as you prefer.

Cocoa and white chocolate: add the cocoa powder with a sieve till the dough becomes brownish, then add some white chocolate cut in small pieces (not too much white chocolate).

All my muffins!

And here are my presents:

Presents

Present

As you can see, I hve added a small sticker with the addressee (Primark, 50 x 1,5 €) and a clip (Casa, 6 x 1,29 €): I attached a note with the name of the different kinds of muffins.

And these are muffins packed in muffins boxes! I found these at Casa, and it was 1,99 € for two boxes.

Muffins boxes

So, maybe it could be a good idea for next Christmas, isn't it? Have fun this Christmas, bye!