This week we have been exploring different high cultural activities. On Wednesday there was a Beijing opera arranged at our school and it was free of charge so not a bad bargain. If some of you have ever experienced Beijing opera you know what it is, but for the rest I can say that it is totally different from traditional western opera. It's very hard to describe so I guess you just have to try it once =) It was weird and couldn't understand anything, but in a way it was also pretty hilarious. Not a bad experience at least compared to the price =)

On Saturday we climbed even higher on cultural ladders and went to see ballet. They give pretty nice student discounts here for cultural activities (50%) and the ballet costed 90$, which I think is not bad. It was a special high heels ballet and wasn't solely jumping and spinning around in nylons. The visual effectiveness of costumes, the set and lights was very impressive. Don't understand much of the choreography etc. but it was nice to watch. So much going on in the stage all the time that you can focus your attention to a certain dancer or the whole performance, as you wish. And have to admit that the dancers were pretty good looking also ;) So all and all, I really liked it and might even go again =)

Also the wine tastings started this week. They have student training restaurant in our school for the students of catering etc. which gave a very nice atmosphere for the wine tasting. Our teacher is pretty knowleadgeable about the topic and had picked up 4 excellent white wines (Chaplis, Sauvignon blanc, Riesling and Sauterne) for us to taste. Although they all were very different I liked them all in a way. Although I haven't been much of a fan of whites before, perhaps I should try a few more after the course... In addition to the course we also had our little wine tastings at home before going to the club on Wednesday =) An AC Bordeaux 2004 and a Chardonnay 2005 from Australia were both pretty good, but nothing special... Right now I have a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau in my fridge waiting for an appropriate moment =)

What else? I had couple of presentation at school which, despite some cultural differences, went pretty smoothly. The weekend was supposed to go in writing some essays and assignements, but instead I spent it in re-installing windows because my computer went bananas... In addition, my brother with his wife and daughter were visiting HK, so I also met them briefly.