23Februar
2013

At least cats and dogs look the same...

...as in Germany. Everything else is entirely different here in China. I´m overwhelmed by all the new things that I keep coming across and that have already made me feel a little desperate at times. The first thing I realized was: The majority of Chinese people don´t speak a word of English. Even at my international student village, only two ladies at the front desk speak English, which unfortunately is limited to "please pay" and "internet card". Fortunately, we were picked up by students of Fudan University on Monday who helped us communicate with the staff so that everyone was able to find their apartment. Arriving at my new home had the second surprise in store for me: Chinese apartments are poorly heated. My apartment had an approximate temperature of 2°C when I arrived and the small heater in my room didn´t exactly improve the situation. So I had no choice, but to spend the first night sleeping with three pairs of pants, two long-sleeve shirts and buried under my blanket and all my clothes and towels trying to stay warm. What can I say: it didn´t work and the first night was probably one of the most unpleasant ones of my life. The next day, I met Oliver, a friend from Germany, who had spent 6 months at Tongji University in Shanghai and showed me around the city all day. Here are some of the places we visited:

The Bund 

Yu Garden 

East Nanjing Road 

The next day, we had the first meeting with all students from the program, which are about 35 and mainly come from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. I´m sharing my apartment with two lovely girls from Paris and we get along very well. When we´re at home we speak French most of the time, which is great because I can improve my pronunciation and vocabulary.

The following days, we had some more meetings, presentations about the university, a campus tour and several other activities to help us settle in and get used to the new environment.  We also had a lot of Chinese food, which I found to be quite different from the Chinese food I had had in Germany or the US. It´s actually quite tasty and always includes a lot of vegetables. This is a typical Chinese lunch with dumplings, vegetables and some other delicacies:

lunch

Today, we went to Taikang Road Art Center, a maze of small alleys with art galleries, shops and restaurants where we walked around and found this jewel: A small candy store, that produces amazing hand-made candy. See for yourselves:

at Candy Lab

Classes are starting on Monday and I´m already really excited about them. Although the beginning was rough, I already feel at home here in Shanghai and I´m very excited for the semester to start.

 

Sending you lots of love from China,

Marie