So some trivial stuff has happened and some intensely non-trivial stuff also has happened. I’ve been hanging out with a lot of new people and have been settling in in my new apartment. I bought two sideboards matching the horrid/awesome eighties couches that came with the place. They’re really comfortable compared to most of the furniture at home in Sweden. Here mostly everything that’s should be soft is hard. My mattress for example is hard like a rock. I bought ergonomically not so incorrect pillows to compensate and it works pretty good. I’m sleeping some 9-10 hours every night almost until noon since I don’t plan anything before 14:00 most days.

Tomorrow is the first day of the moon festival and all the other students have the next week off. This means that most people will be traveling around in China, and so will I. I’ll probably stick to exploring Yunnan (the province where Kunming is located) because it has enough history and interesting environments to last for an expedition far longer than a week. It would be great if I could find someone with a car and a Chinese drivers license since I love road trips but I think that’s almost impossible. You who are interested in where I’ll be going can google “yunnan stone forest” and “tiger leaping gorge”. I also want to visit some minority villages around the province to see how it is and sample their food. When the Han (the dominant ethnicity of China) spread out they pushed the other peoples down south and west towards Yunnan. The result is that theere are many different kinds of ethnicities here and they all have a pretty interesting story.

Something more serious also happened. My friend Susanne came from Sweden to be my partner in business. Unfortunately things didn’t work out smoothly between us and we ended up in a heated argument with our cooperation torn to shreds. We have no contact at the moment and I believe that to be good for us both. I think we both have pretty much the same perspective on the situation and here is mine: I respect her for her good qualities but discovered that the bad ones made us incompatible as business partners and I’m glad this ended before any serious damage was done. Even if we would have been able to patch things up this time it would have happened at a later date, possibly with a lot more at stake. Maybe we can be friends some day but that is out of the question right now.

At the moment we’re some 15 guys that are hanging out and we’re all going to start studying here this semester. Not everyone will go to the same university but the unis are really close to each other. I guess the group is too big to stay intact for very long and we’ll probably branch out into smaller congregations in time. Right now we just hang out, eat and help each other with whatever needs to be done. I’ve received a disproportional amount of help from my friends here since I can’t speak Chinese yet. One thing that amazes me is that I’ve met so many swedes! I don’t know why they all come to Kunming but it seems that Sweden is overrepresented compared even to the Americans. I didn’t come here to meet swedes but most of them are really cool guys and I hang out with them. It’s too early for me to get chinese friends yet since I can’t communicate with them at all.

I’ve worked out a pretty nice deal with my university (Yunnan University locally known as “Yun Da”). I’ll attend 2 hours of individual tutoring at Yun Dan each Monday and I’ll fill the rest of the week with private tutoring. Hopefully I’ll like my teacher from Yun Da and he/she’ll have enough time to teach me the entire week. This arrangement enables me to travel or being ill without having to pay for ther classes during that time and I will be able to change teachers if I don’t like who first end up with. Yun Da are pretty expensive but the reason I go to Yun Da at all is that I need a uni to tell my Swedish student loan agency that I study full time. Another problem is that I don’t get an X-visa this way so I’ll have to leave the country on the 22:nd of December. I plan on going to Thailand for Christmas and new years eve. Hopefully I’ll meet up with Victor there, a friend who’s gone backpacking in Thailand. That’ll be awesome!

Also, something big is about to happen tomorrow. My friend Susanne is arriving from Sweden and I’m meeting her at the airport. I really didn’t expect any of my friends to visit me while I’m here in China even though a few have voiced some desire to take the opportunity to go to China. Me and Susanne really have become close friends over the last couple of years and I’m sure we’ll have great fun here. We’re already planning a trip to Shanghai and hopefully we’ll be able to do some export business from here. I’ll tell you more about that if it actually happens.

Everything started out pretty nastily with a 6 hour postponement of my flight to Beijing. This made me hopelessly late for my connecting Kunming flight so I had to catch the next one after a 4 hour wait in the Beijing airport. I spent the original delay watching Sopranos and cooling down from my agressions against my mother. She and my grandmother gave me a ride to the airport and even though it was good to say goodbye to my grandmother my mother pisses me off all the time.

I lost track of time while travelling. I managed to get some 4-5 hours of sleep on the Stockholm-Beijing flight but after that I was awake and ate when I could. Next time I’ve got to plan it better!

When I finally board the plane I happen to sit next to one of the few westerners in the plane and he turns out to be quite helpful. He’s a businessman and helps me get through the worst the Beijing airport. Later, when I’m buying my first noodles in China, a big western guy going by the name “J” helps me out when I try too make the order. He’s also headed for YNNU and we end up at the same dorm. He seems like a good guy and we watch each others luggage and chat for the remainder of the trip.

J and I have been hanging out with some other guys since we all live at the same dorm. We’ve also had some random encounters with other westerners and they all seem to be studying at Yunnan Normal University. It’s a really nice crowd so far and it’s great to have them around. I would be totally inefficient if not for them since I don’t know any Chinese at all. I can’t even order food so everything I get tend to be oily and extremely hot. When someone accustomed to the food orders for me I get really delicious and interesting food that I’ve never tasted before.

Everything is dirt cheap but you still get what you pay for. I wouldn’t even have entered most of the places I’ve visited the last few days if they would’ve been in Sweden. Still I want to try new things and you can’t be too posh for you own good.

It seems all I’ve heard about the Great Firewall of China and it’s censorship is grossly exaggerated. I found a statement made by a Chinese official at a UN summit that contradicts all the research, second hand stories and rumors I’ve heard.

“In China, we don’t have software blocking Internet sites. Sometimes we have trouble accessing them. But that’s a different problem. I know that some colleagues listen to the BBC in their offices from the Webcast. And I’ve heard people say that the BBC is not available in China or that it’s blocked. I’m sure I don’t know why people say this kind of thing. We do not have restrictions at all.”

It’s a relief to know that there’s no need to harass my more knowledgeable friends about how to mask my internet traffic and circumvent the officially non-existent Great Firewall of China.

Allright, now I’m just about set to go! I’ve got someone to rent my apartment, tickets and Visa are done and my financial aid is secured. Everything seems to work out just fine and I hope that have the same flow when setting things up in Kunming. I’ve decided not to pay for the entire semester or year up front, and I’ll try to get a free period of a week to try different schools out. It’ll be one intense week if I get what I want but hopefully I’ll also get the better of he two schools. I was planning to go to Yunnan Normal University but then this guy that went to YNNU for a couple of years and seems trustworthy enough tells me that they’re no good. He recommends Yunnan University (see the difference?) and I’ll give them both a chance if possible.

I’ve also bought myself a used iPod video 30 GB which I really like. It fulfills my every material need at the moment and it’s got a world warranty. I just hopa I won’t need to use the warranty…

I’ll throw a farewll party for all my friends over here on saturday evening and hopfully I’ll have som pictures for you. I’ve been looking forward to this party for a long time and it seems that everyone can make it there, it’s going to be great!

The departure date is closing and I feel great! The couple was here yesterday to sign the contract for my apartment, now it just has to be approved by the landlord and we’re set. Lot’s of other small issues we’re also solved and I’m just about to go get my visa. I finally booked my airplane ticket and bought myself a digital camera yesterday, it’s a Samsung L700 and even though it’s priced one notch down from what I thought I really need I do have to know my limits, the 700 skr (700 RMB, 75 EUR or 100 USD) I saved by buying this model will have greater value in China than here.

Something really fantastic and unexpected happened the other day. My friend Susanne was planning to go to the USA to study politics and propaganda but there was a problem with her old grades from high school so she said, -Fuck it, I’m coming with you to China. I’ll study to improve my old grades from there and we can live like kings!

I just love her style, she can go with an impulse completely and make it into something great. And somehow she always ends up making money on these wierd dicisions. She and I are fundamentally different in political views and ways of leading our lives but I get a kick out of hanging out with her since she constantly challenges the way I perceive reality.

So now I’ve joined facebook since everyone else I know seems to have a profile there. At present the name there is Micke Micke (Swedish for Mike).

Today a guy came over to buy a pair of speakers that I’ve had in my closet for a year or so. For the last two years I’ve had a one-man company selling Chinese Hi-Fi here in Sweden through the Internet and lately I’ve been selling everything I’ve kept in stock. It’s looking good at the moment and I think I’ll end up roughly around zero win/loss ratio. It hasn’t been a great earner but It’s given me a lot of self-esteem knowing that I can accomplish something if I try like hell. I’m closing shop before I leave and that’ll be a relief! Once again I can be an irresponsible student, carefree and oblivious to all the bureaucracy involved in leading a normal life.

Also, a nice young couple stopped by to have a look at my apartment. They just left and are considering whether to rent it from me when I’m away or not. I’m confident that they will take my offer since it’s a very nice apartment with a pretty low rent in a good neighborhood close to the city center. Check out this sattelite photo to See where it is. They were quite nice and DAMN, she was a looker. Anyone burdened by the prejudice that Swedish women are slim, blond, busty and really cute got it right for a change.

I heard that there was a shitload of rain in Yunnan this week and that 60 people died. That’s tragic and I’m a bit worried that the rains will provide a great environment for bacteria and viruses just in time for my arrival. I’m not deterred though, I’m just going to stock up more heavily on medications before I go. I almost expect to loose 5-10 kilos from eating bad food and adjusting to the new bacteria of the region. The thing was that when I was trying to get more info on the rains I had no luck with the Swedish news agencies. They are all streamlined and broadcast the same things over and over. This brings me down and I hope that Chinas economic expansion will force the European medias to take an interest in the region.

This weekend I’m just going to chill out with my friends. I want to spend as much time with them as possible before going to the land at the center of the world.

I’ve been working like a madman to raise funds for the trip and all the other expenses. Two 11 hour shifts this week because I had to get half the day off today to go to the Chinese Consulate and then to the doctors’ to X-ray my lungs. Wierd test but as long as it gets me to China I’m happy. I’ve been poked with a few more needles and have two more visits to the doctor to look forward to before I can go. The only thing I see now that can thwart my efforts is that the Consulate won’t give me my visa but that seems unlikely. I’m a stand up guy after all.

Last weekend me and my friends went to Karlshamn in southernSweden to a festival to have some fun. At first I told them that I wouldn’t go since I couldn’t spare the money for the trip so they all paid for my part of the gas expenses. What friends I have, don’t you think?! I love these guys and it’s going to break my heart to leave them behind for a year. I’ve met a lot of people and made a lot of friends that I’ve left behind as a student roaming the shools and universities of Sweden but I guess I’ve become more sentimental over the years. I do know that they still will be there when I get home and that’s comforting.

The preparations continue. Today I took the first two of six or maybe seven injections. It was a long time ago since I’ve even seen a syringe and I kept telling myself that it wouldn’t hurt that much and that I could stand the pain if it did. The funny thing was that it really didn’t hurt at all. I didn’t even feel it when it pierced my skin. Great!

I’ve also been checking up on a lot of stuff. Electricity, phone, someone to rent my apartment for a year and so on. It’s been intense but I still had time to relax with a friend at a café downtown. Tomorrow I’m going to try to find a dentist who can give my teeth a final check before I go.

Shit, I’m really going to go there and it feels so good!

So now it comes to really start studying som Chinese at home and fiddling about with plane tickets and vaccines. I bought some post-it notes that I plan to litter my home with just to get some basic vocabulary. Also I plan on drawing Chinese letters over and over until I learn them.

The less amusing part of my preparations is calling my grandmother asking to loan money until I get my student loan from the Swedish agency handling those things. I really love her and she’s a bit worried that I’m going to China. Awkward.