I will need to pay for my room and board, which is 85 yuan a day for 65 days for the term, plus a 600 yuan additional fee. This is due within three days. I will have to get the bank set up in order to pay them. Tomorrow, I will have to stop by the register’s office in building 2 to get registered.
So my roommate is Korean and her name is YunSoo Cho. She is studying some sort of Korean university to Chinese University relations? She got here on March 3rd because I guess that was when the semester started. I was a late arrival and people found it weird that I came so late when school started a couple of weeks ago haha. Everyone who asked me where I came from was surprised that I was from the US. They said I don’t look the part.
At the airport after I got off the plane, all foreigners had to get in line to get our visas and passports checked. The line was enormous. There were a group of Korean travelers that were having trouble communicating with a Chinese officer that picked on them to get their passports/ visas checked and they brought copies instead of the originals and almost got denied entrance. It was funny because since there was a language barrier, the Korean people were just laughing because they couldn’t understand and the Chinese officer just got pissed…it was very funny. All of the Chinese officers “randomly” picked all of the dark skinned people to ask to see their visas/passports. The guy behind me appeared Indian so he got picked on, and then the guy across from me was African American who was from the US. After the official went away, he turned to the American lady behind him and said “I thought this was going to be the beginning to a bad movie”…where the black guy gets pulled aside and investigated hahahaha. After that, you go down the escalators and take a lightrail train to the carosel for baggage claim. After that, you walk straight to customs, but when I went by, no one even did anything for “customs”. You just walk right out of the door to a crowd of people holding up name signs.
For taxis, you go down to the B1 level and get in line. Then you just go to a taxi that looks open and tell the driver the location. The taxi ride from the airport to school was about a 20-25 minute drive. He was very nice and asked around to help me find my building. Unfortunately, since all of the dorms were full because the semester started on March 3rd, I had to walk all around campus and see people give me weird looks because I was walking around with two large luggages. When I first got here, I showed them my passport/visa and register papers, then they asked if I wanted to room with a person from Kazahakastan, but I didn’t want to so I asked for a Korean.
They give u a “key” which is this plastic thing with a metal circle plate at the end. You put this metal end on the corresponding metal portion on the door and the door opens. All electricity was on when I got into the room because my roommate was studying. She already got internet through her Ethernet cable because she got here early. Shes been studying Chinese in Korea for 2 years, but she is much more advanced than I am. She has a mini netbook and she also has a water boiler, some kind of pan thing she bought, and all of her toiletries set up in the bathroom. The bathroom is a bit weird. There is no separation between the toilet and the shower. There is a drain on the ground, a maneuverable showerhead and a drape that you can pull so the toilet won’t get all wet.
Oh and then my roommate just went out to get something to eat. It seems like there may be somewhere close with food because she was just in her lounge dorm clothes…not sure. Ill ask her tomorrow.
On the plane, I got seated in the middle part of the plane by the wings. To my left was a Chinese man, and to my right was Ester, an 86 year old lady from Indiana who was going on an Asia cruise with her husband, who was a doctor at Purdue University. They were both old and she said they lived in a retirement nursing home. She said the last time her and her husband came to China was 20-25 years ago because her husband worked on a hospital ship as a doctor during a war? So they decided to take this trip to see China during the times of no war. They will begin their cruise in Beijing and make certain stops, then eventually stop in Hong Kong. I am assuming that they will also go back to the states from the HK airport. She was very nice.
During the plane ride, the movies “Precious”, “Pirate Radio” and the tv show Family guy were on rerun over and over and over. I went to the bathroom once during the entire trip. My butt got achey and sleeping was a little difficult at times. I also took Dramamine after 6 hours after my first tablet in Minneapolis. The first airplace snack was a bag of pretzels and a drink. Lunch was sesame chicken with rice and steamed vegetables, tea biscuit with butter, oatmeal chewie snack thing, pretzels and a salad with sesame garlic dressing. I couldn’t finish it all because I was afraid that if I got air sickness, id puke it all up. The guy next to be ate all of his food in 5 minutes. Then there was the choice of noodles or a ham sandwich for the “midnight snack”. I chose the noodles and it turned out to a mini cup of instant noodles. The ham sandwich was on white wonder bread and it was just half a sandwich.
Then “dinner” was a choice between teriyaki beef noodles or a turkey and cheese sandwich. I got the turkey and cheese sandwich. It was on a sour dough bread with some kind of cheese with dark things in it…it was good. I only ate half so I can save the other half in case I got hungry later and it was too late to go out searching for food since I am so unfamiliar with the school. It also came with yogurt and a pecan cookie. I saved all of that so now I have a sprite, a bbq pork bun from home, a yogurt, an oatmeal chewie bar, mini pretzels and a Symphony chocolate bar that Heather from church gave me. I need more water but I’m not sure where to go for that. I will have to wait until tomorrow . Outside gets dark around 6ish.
Hmm… I guess my roommate is uncomfortable with me sleeping in a way where my feet will be towards her head even though there is a big wood divider between our beds along the wall…maybe it’s a Korean thing or something. I’m gonna go to bed early, I feel sort of dizzy. It’s probably from lack of sleep and dehydration. I basically have been up for 24 hours because it is already 7:02 am back at home. Goodnight!
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