Week 4: 第四周
Class has started!
I haven't gone to school in about 3 months. I forgot how to sit in class and be a student. I was told I would have "20 class hours" per week. Apparently, a "class hour" is 45 minutes, so I'm only in class for 3 hours a day. I wake up at 8am, leave my room around 8:25, then head to building across the street. My first two class hours are 8:30 - 10:00am. I get a break 10:00 - 10:15, and then I have my last two class hours 10:15 - 11:45. By noon I'm eating lunch and done with classes for the day. I wanted to take electives like Chinese calligraphy and painting, but apparently they don't have them this semester. So my afternoons are wide open for being lazy and having fun. After dinner, I study then sleep.
Monday and Thursday we work from a speaking textbook. Tuesday we work from a listening textbook. Speaking and listening are taught by Teacher Miao 缪老师. Wednesday and Friday we work from a reading textbook. Reading is taught by Teacher Wen 文老师.
There are 3 rows of 8 desks. There are a dozen students in my class. There are students from Italy, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Korea, and Indonesia.
The classroom policies are great. It is a pass/fail class, and you need a 60% to pass the final. I need to attend 2/3 of the classes in order to take the final. If you show up within an hour and a half of class starting, you're not counted absent. Teacher Wen told us to "try to be at class somewhere around 8:30-8:45". Teacher Miao said she would sometimes be late too, as evidenced by the fact that she was 20 minutes late the very first day. This is polychronic time.
My dorm is better than and cheaper than OU. The walls are a pale blue color, the beds are full sized, and it is pretty clean. I was worried about the room being gross. I get free room and board, so they put me in the cheapest room, but it's much nicer than OU. OU's dorms cost about $5000 a semester, but without scholarship this dorm costs less than $800 a semester.
All classes are taught completely in Chinese, which I love. I got placed in the level 4 Chinese, which is the harder of the two classes that the teachers here were considering placing me in. I think they made a good call. I like it so far, so I think the rest of my semester at East China Normal University will be great as well!
My roommate
My roommate is perfect for me. She is Chinese since her parents are from Shanghai, but she grew up in Japan. Her Chinese has an adorable Japanese accent. We use Chinese to speak, but we stick English words into the conversation. I think I'm most comfortable using Chinglish anyways. Even when I speak English, sometimes Chinese words come out.
The first night I stayed in the dorm, we stayed up until 1am talking about random stuff like pork jerky and Hannah Montana. This is actually the first time I've shared a room, and it's going well.
She has picked up on the fact that I like to eat and sleep a lot. I ask people here to call me "Li Li" but instead of calling me "Li Li" she sometimes calls me "sloth sloth" which I don't mind.
So many holidays to be happy about
Today is Nu Shen Jie, or International Women's Day! I wouldn't have known except for this cat character standing outside and people handing out flyers and selling flowers.
Last Friday was Yuan Xiao Jie, which is the end of the Chinese New Year celebration. I stopped celebrating at around day 5, but it apparently goes on for 15 days.
Apparently it's also a time to celebrate Christmas...? Christmas isn't exactly a Chinese holiday, and it was a couple months ago. But I keep seeing Christmas stuff. Even the international student office here has two small Christmas trees that have "Merry Christmas" ornaments.
A+ presentation
I went to an international student presentation on Chinese laws and Visa regulations. It was in English, and it was great. I remember some of my favorite parts of the presentation:
"Hello. Be quiet. We will start presentation now."
"Keep away from DRUG."
"Prostitution and whoring are illegal in China. No, it is ILLEGAL."
"If you are a handsome guy and you see a beautiful Chinese girl who says 'I like you and you can teach me English' or whatever well if you are a guy who can speak English and you follow her to a place that you don't know and your phone does not know and you have a coffee and you look to see the bill and it's 2000 dollars and you're like 'what the f***? I just order coffee' and they say 'you have to pay or you cannot leave' okay then take a picture of the place or mark the place with your phone with your apps so you know the place."
"Drugs are illegal in China. Even marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, even these are no."
"If you do drugs, you might be thrown in jail, expelled from school, or expelled from the country."
"If you are drug dealing, you might have more than just jail or expelled from the country. You might be put to death. Thank you. *bows head and smiles* That is the end of the presentation. You may go."
Buddhist temple
While I was visiting some of the Buddhist temples, I first felt a bit weird being at these sites. But eventually, I felt the same feelings that I had while visiting gorgeous Catholic and Protestant cathedrals in Europe. I realized that these buildings are essentially the same. Part of the original reason they were built is because people want to become better versions of themselves, connect to something bigger than themselves, and come to a deeper understanding of the greater truths of life. Rather than being religious, the majority of people in modern China seem to be a mixture of being atheistic, feeling superstitious, and following tradition. I watched people offer burnings of incense, bow, and pray at these temples, and as an outsider looking in, I found it beautiful.
See ya next Thursday :)
Thanks for still reading about all my random thoughts and adventures. It's been a good first month. See you next Thursday for Week 5!
"Don't live the same year 75 times and call it a life." -Robin S. Sharma