... and back again, again

I'm back again. Both as a (semi-regular) blogger, and in China.

The fact that this is my fourth time in this country is absolutely mind-blowing (I didn't blog last time since I only stayed for three weeks, during which I had the privilege to introduce my boyfriend to China and China to him).

For anyone who doesn't know: I arrived in Shanghai on Monday, I'll be living and studying here for the upcoming semester, and I won't be back in Austria until mid-February.

Right now, I'm living with Skye, her husband ("Shushu"), and her son Xinxin, whom I've stayed with every time I've been in Shanghai so far, but I'm moving to my university's dormitory next week. (Looking forward to the bureaucracy. There are at least 5 documents I need to pick up from various places within Shanghai until I can move.)

from left to right: Shushu, Skye, me, and Xinxin in 2012

I'll try to write new blog posts on a somewhat regular basis this time (emphasis on "try to"), I'm going for once a week (although I'm fairly sure I won't be able to stick to that), so if anyone bothers to check once every two weeks, there's (hopefully) going to be new content.

The format is not quite clear yet; probably a mix of my impressions of Chinese culture and whatever is going on in my personal life. Depending on how many things I can think of to write about, I'm hoping it's going to be more of the former than of the latter, but anyway, I am confident that there will be something for everyone. If there's anything in particular you want me to talk about, please tell me, I'll welcome them with open arms. Now that this culture has become so familiar to me, I have somewhat lost the frame of reference for what Europeans might consider to be strange or unusual.

In a little more than a month, I hope to do a really interesting story, because, the way Chinese people are, in the first two days I received two wedding invitations to Chinese weddings, one mid-September and one early October. For me, this is really exciting because I have heard so much about Chinese weddings, so it's going to be fascinating to be there (and, in your case, hopefully fascinating to read about.)

Lots of love to everyone, I'll be back next week.