The First Week in China!
Or, How I Arrived in China with my Trousers Round my Knees
Good day to you readers! Pull up a sock and sit down. I have finally arrived in China, the land of adventure, challenge and slightly dodgy food, and have now resided in Ningbo university for just over a week! Seemed a good idea to write on this blog thing I have, shame it’s blocked in China though... never one to be defeated, I emailed my first post to long-suffering brother Ollie, and nicely asked him to post it for me. Thanks bro!
First, to kick start the blog, a few statistics:
Number of Days Spent in China: 9
Insect Bites Accumulated: 8
Lectures Attended: 2
Items of Luggage Lost/Forgotten: 1 (See below)
Number of conversations started due to me being a bloke with long hair: 3
Number of days it took the Chinese students to work out and attach the Welsh stereotype to me: 8*
* I am now nongmin, a word which can mean farmer, peasant, or as one girl put it, “redneck treehugger”. Thank you world.
So yah, it’s started well!
Left home at some stupid time on Friday morning. I don’t want to go hugely into the details of my journey here, since it’s not that interesting, apart from everyone’s favourite bit of airport security... metal detectors! Yes, always a worrying time for me, and this time was no different. With so much luggage packed in my suitcase, a lot also had to be crammed into my hand luggage.
Now, you know what they’re like- anything that may be even a little bit metallic goes on the conveyor belt, and then you walk through the metal-detecty arch and hope like hell it’s your lucky day. Well, today was for me! I took off my coat, my hoodie (bulky clothing apparently has to go separate), my boots, my belt, my bag, my laptop came out of the bag, my phone, my wallet, my suitcase keys... load it all on the box, watch it pass slowly into the scanner, and hope you’ll be reunited on the other side. Well, loading that much in, it was pretty certain I’d forget something. But what would it be? My laptop cable? The keys to my cargo luggage? My phone? In a twist both fortunate and very irritating, it was none of these expensive, vital items.
That’s right, I left my belt behind.
On the day I chose to wear jeans just a leetle too big.
There’s nothing like killing five hours in Hong Kong airport while one hand is holding your trousers up, let me tell you folks.
So a typical start for me there. Nothing went seriously wrong, just a minor and slightly odd bumbling error. But aside from that, I made it to China in one piece! So far it’s been amazing- the folks here are great, everyone’s really sociable. Instead of fresher’s week being a hundred nights of heavy clubbing (not my scene, as most well know), it’s been everyone, international and local, sitting around playing pool, darts, rollerblading, and playing cards. I’ve picked up a grand new game called San Guo Sha, <<characters here>>, which was when I knew I was really at home- it’s basically Dynasty Warriors mixed with Mafia and playing cards. Damn it’s cool!
Being ever the sporting type, I also spent three hours yesterday with the Ultimate Frisbee squad training hard and then playing a game. Once again I came to realise how ridiculously unfit I am, but it’s an amazing game and we all had a barrel of laughs, especially since in this game diving to catch the Frisbee is encouraged! Oh yes, there was a lot of falling to the ground.
The fun couldn’t last forever though- lectures started today. Well, I knew they’d happen sooner or later, but actually they’ve been quite fun so far. One language class and one... other, not sure what it was about, but it’s the old ‘outlining the module aims and objectives’ kerfuffle, didn’t get much of it. But hey, language was good! Even if once again, everything I learnt last year is proving about as memorable as a piece of hay in a haystack. Knowledge, eh? It never hangs around.
The one real bummer so far is the lack of decent western food. Now, I know I’m in China to get immersed in the culture and become acclimatised to living in a foreign land, etc etc... But, speaking as someone who’s ambivalent even about British-style Chinese food, I would like the occasional break from real Chinese food. (One week, and not a single spare rib, prawn cracker, sesame toast or spring roll in sight). I mean, I like the food here, and I like the variety of it, but at the same time I’m really craving a few foods from back home. Specifially:
Full fry-up... saussies, black pudding, bacon, beans, scrambled and fried eggs, hash browns, mushrooms, fried bread, soda bread, laverbread, toast.
Apple juice. They just don’t do it properly here.
Milk. As above.
Grapes. Being washed in dodgy tap water means we foreigners have to peel them. I mean, what’s the point?
English tea. ‘Nuff said.
Puddings. Closest here is fruit, and that isn’t a patch on treacle tart and custard.
Cider. Not a hope.
(By the way, in case you didn’t know by now, this blog is as much therapy for me as it is for informing people about what I’m doing. If I start to go off on one, just skip ahead a paragraph or so).
So I’ve had it easy up to now, now the time comes to immerse oneself in student life! Joining societies is up- I’m definitely tempted by Magic Soc, Ultimate Frisbee, and Kendo, but which shall it be? Also, there’s a drama group here who I haven’t investigated, but they may or may not do a certain level of improv coaching. If not... can I have “Improv Ambassador to China” on my hoodie? J
Times are grand and time is flying. I should probably do some of that revision stuff I keep putting off, not to mention try to work out the Chinese laundry machines. Took me long enough to do the British ones, there’s no knowing what’ll happen here! Fun times as ever, no doubt. But aye, that’s all I can think of for now, and I’ll be damned if I’m re-editing this later! Cracking to write though, hope you’ve all enjoyed it! I’ll probably post something again in a week or so.
