The First 48

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Well I am back online! The Great Firewall of China has been creating a number of problems for me as far as blogging is concerned, therefore I will be using this blog address for the remainder of my time in China and I will be switching back to my other blog upon my return to Canada.



It has been almost 48 hours now since I landed in China and a lot has happened in that short amount of time. The flight was, well, long is the best way to describe it. Amnah and myself were quite lucky to have an empty seat between us for the longest part of the flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong and our transfers went smoothly, unlike the flight that Dr. Perrins and two students from Acadia were on, which was delayed for five hours in Toronto. I was very surprised as Amnah and myself waited in line to order ferry tickets in the Hong Kong airport to see Dr. Perrins walking over to us! We all made it to Zhuhai in the end despite some confusion from students who had arrived early and were staying in Hong Kong before heading to Zhuhai.

Everything was so familiar and welcoming when we arrived. I recognized that warm humidity the minute I stepped off the ferry and immediately regretted not changing into shorts the minute I got off the plane! We landed pretty late in Zhuhai and by the time we arrived on campus the supermarket was closed and the majority of the options in the canteens were also closed, luckily I had packed some granola bars in my suitcase so it didn't matter for me, I was more concerned about water, which the language partners had waiting for us which was very appreciated! My language partners name is Estella and she was unable to meet us the night we arrived because she was sick with a cold but she sent me a nice post card with another language partner apologizing and I was able to meet her the next day!

Orientation was the day after we arrived at 11:30am, I was awake long before that though as the air conditioner was very quite and I had been expecting one louder like last year (I need white noise to sleep like a fan) so I went to Madeli Cake and got a tart and some mango tea, wow I forgot how good mango tea tasted! Afterwords everyone walked over to the international student center for orientation, they have free wifi there and a western restaurant with real coffee 😊 we ordered some but they only brought enough for three people when there was nearly 10 of us haha! So needless to say, no coffee for me! Orientation went well and the students got to have their first taste of real Chinese food, it was very good and Amnah commented on how the Coca-Cola tasted different here, its true, the soda pop here is quite flat and not as sweet as the stuff we get in Canada.

After orientation the rest of the day was a free day, some students wanted to go down to Gongbei (the underground shopping market) but apparently now the bus drive is over two hours to get there because of construction in the city! I did not feel like spending two hours on a bus! Plus the language partners had to be on campus by 7pm for a meeting so we all decided to take one of the golf carts down to the student dorm area of campus and check out the little shops down in that area. The little shops are cute, some clothing stores, and one store where people can rent a cube (like a wooden box in the wall) and display the things they want to sell in them, we spent awhile looking at all the different types of things and found one very interesting phone case (see pictures below), a quick stop at another shop on campus that actually has coffee! then back to our residence to have supper, unpack and sleep, everyone was exhausted!

First day of classes resulted in me mixing up schedules and attending Dr.Beaupre's class in the morning instead of the Atlantic Canadian Studies course I was supposed to be in! After attending the second class (taught by Dr. Perrins) we agreed that although I should go to all the Atlantic Canadian Studies classes (since I have not taken the course before and will need to know what is being taught to help the students) I would not need to attend all of his classes again this year, instead I will come when the students have quizzes and will be available to them whenever they need help outside of class. After classes I was pretty tired, more tired then I remember being in the beginning last year, but perhaps it was because I had just spent about 6 hours listening to lectures I have already heard! Regardless I wanted to have a nap after class, which would have probably been stupid anyway as it was 5pm and I would probably not have got out of bed till the next day, and they say the best way to fight jet lag is not to let it win by napping because that will keep you messed up longer! Amnah, Megan and Rachel decided they wanted to go down to Gongbei after class and I had originally said I was too tired to go but I would go another time if they would wait, however I found out that they had still planned to go, without me, and without a language partner with them! So automatically that got me into my shoes and out my door pretty quick! Estella had come over to have supper with me and together we took the girls down to Gongbei via taxi cab and it was only a 25 minute drive via cab versus a two hour drive by bus. The taxi driver was quite enthralled with us Canadians, he did not speak any English really, except to say "Hello, taxi?" and this like ok, yes and no. Thankfully Estella translated for us, he wanted to know how long we had to be on a plane to get to China and he also asked us what the air was like in Canada, if it was cold and was the sky clear. He requested for us to pay him in Canadian because he wanted some Canadian money, Amnah had a $10 Canadian bill and he accepted it eagerly.

Gongbei was a lot of walking around and the girls trying out their bargaining skills, it is not really my kind of place so I just tried to help out Estella as the poor girl had to do all the translations on the bargaining, we refused to let her pay for any of the cab fare as she had done so much for us but this seemed to embarrass her a bit. It is a custom in China to refuse a gift a few times as it shows good manners, perhaps this is why she wanted to pay so badly but we would not let her. As a good Canadian recognizes someone else's efforts to help us! I passed out pretty quick when we got back had a hard time waking up this morning for class, but I managed to drag myself to the Atlantic Canadian Studies class in time, it was a good class, very interesting actually! The Chinese students taking this course are coming back to SMU in the fall and three of them are going to Acadia, I look forward to helping them out as much as I can. They were having some trouble with the language used in class by the prof, such as the word fog, we tried explaining it as best we could but in the end the Chinese students asked us if we meant like in Beijing and then there was a large discussion on the difference between fog and smog which just seemed to be more confusing for them! I am sure they will understand once they arrive in Canada!

After class I returned to my room to do some laundry and really unpack since I have been so busy and tired I have not had the chance to do so yet. I had a bit of a headache so I laid down for a little bit after taking my clothes from the dryer and hanging them up. The sun was so bright through my window that I thought about closing my curtains but in a matter of minutes the clouds rolled in making it so dark I needed a light on and the thunder started rocking the building it was so loud! I ran to get my clothes inside and then the sky opened and it poured! This usually happens in the morning but it didn't rain this morning so I guess it is making up for that now! Soon I will head to dinner with my language partner and then there is a night lecture by Mr. Bill Bu tonight. The students are lucky this year, their exams were scheduled for Dragon Boat Festival, however the administrators decided to cut their classes short by two days so they can attend Dragon Boat!



Lets see what the next 48 hours bring..

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