First Day in Hangzhou

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Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy learning a little about China through my experience!
This is my first full day in Hangzhou; we arrived last night about 9:00 after a 2 and a half hour van ride from Shanghai Airport. I’m sorry to say, I saw little of our journey to Hangzhou because it was getting dark, and more so because I fell asleep. I feel a little bad about missing the trip, but I had been awake for 23 hours and I could not keep my eyes open. I must say, I’ve never tried so hard to stay awake in my life. We would have been there earlier, but we waited for 2 hours at the airport for Justin to get there. We finally gave up and left only to find out Justin had already landed and found his own way to Hangzhou. But we made it to Hangzhou and got checked-in to our rooms. One of the language assistants bought each of us a bag of American snacks with a can of Coca-Cola, Chips Ahoy, Snickers, and potato chips. It was very comforting. Our rooms are a nice size for one person. We each have our own bathrooms which is wonderful. The showers are a little different than at home. There is just a curtain separating it from the rest of the bathroom, so the water runs all over the floor by the sink and toilet into a drain in the floor. It was difficult trying not to track water into the rest of the room while trying to get ready.
This morning, Carey, Kelsey, and I went downstairs to eat and were introduced to a Chinese breakfast. It was a little confusing figuring out how to get the food. We had to pay 5 yuan and were given a strip of paper with 10 little sections on it. Each section is a coupon for a food item, and the cafeteria ladies tear off a section for each item you get. We didn’t really know what we were getting because nothing but some fried eggs looked familiar. As you can see by my photo, I ended up getting rice porridge (basically rice in water), an egg, some dumplings, some strange, green, stringy vegetable, and some sesame bread rolls. I wouldn’t say I liked everything (I did not like the vegetables), but it wasn’t bad. Just something I’ll get used to. After breakfast, we met Miss Li at 9 to go to the Central Abroad Apartment.
The apartment is only a block away from our dorm. This is where the classes offered by Central, like business and history of China, will be conducted. We found out we’ll be taking about 30 hours of class a week—four hours of Chinese a day plus our other classes. And I thought taking 18 hours was a lot! (Jason, I told you I’d be working hard!) There are shelves full of books about China and the language that we can borrow anytime and use as resources for class. I took a book about Zhejiang Province and a Chinese dictionary. We also have wifi there if we don’t want to buy internet for our room.
By then, it was time for lunch, so we all headed back to the cafeteria. Lunch was a little different than breakfast. We had to go to the counter and pay for a dish. Luckily they had pictures of the different plates of food so we knew what we were getting instead of taking a wild guess and asking for 鸭血豆腐汤 (yaxue doufu tang) which is soup with duck blood and bean curd. They brought out our food with bowls of rice. I really enjoyed what I ate, although I’m not exactly sure what it was. I ordered sweet and sour chicken, but my food looked a lot different than Peter’s, who ordered the same thing. Balazs arrived after lunch, and all nine of us were here. We walked around for a few hours, seeing some of the campus then venturing out to the city. It is so different from any American cities I have seen!
There are so many bikes, and they have their own lane that is separated from the driving lanes. I think I would be a lot more comfortable biking here than in Chicago where the bikes have to go next to cars. Drivers are a lot more pushy, and they don’t really stay in their lanes, especially when turning at an intersection. There are shops all along the street selling wallpaper, hardware, and random assortments of metals and tools. A lot of times, I couldn’t even tell what they were trying to sell; they just looked like messy rooms packed to the ceiling with products. These shops are very narrow and open right onto the sidewalk with no doors or anything. It’s a little hard to explain so I have provided a picture for you. Once we were more in the city, the little shops disappeared and it looked more like an American city, except for all the Chinese characters. We walked by so many hair salons! I stopped counting after 10. I don’t remember having that many in the states, but maybe I just ignore them at home. Much to our delight, we found a Subway and bought some water. The girl at the counter giggled after every attempt of mine to speak Chinese. We stopped in a drug store right next door and looked around. One of the workers very happily waved at us and said “Hello!” and told Carey “You are very beautiful!” She was the first Chinese person to speak to us in English; it was strangely comforting.
We headed back and showered again because we were all pretty stinky. The humidity is horrible here! I’ve been relaxing in my room but now it’s time to go to dinner. We’re meeting the language assistants tonight.
Until next time! 再见！

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Photos

First Meeting
Kelsey, Brittany, Carey, and me

Room 1
A view of my room

Room 2
Other side of my room

早饭 zaofan
My first breakfast!

Spa
Cool artwork

The First Meeting
Kelsey, Brittany, Carey, and me

The First Meeting
Kelsey, Brittany, Carey, and me

Comments

[jfox960]

Food?!
I would starve....