High as a kite

Yes, it’s another update and another add to the ever growing wall of text that is my blog, but bear with me as I experience so many new things each day.

I stayed up very late tonight keeping track on football matches as my team – Lyngby Boldklub – was playing. Sadly they played like crap and lost (which is not a new thing, sigh…), but another Danish team qualified to the Champions League, so that was good.

Today I got up early and went to the Xixi-campus of Zhejiang University where I was to meet my philosophy professor. Zhejiang University is divided into many different campuses (yes that the plural for campus) and they’re all quite big. My language course will be held at Yuquan-campus that we live close by. It took me some 20-25 minutes to walk to Xixi-campus which is a really nice campus decked out with lush green trees, bushes and grass. As I tried to find my why around I passed students reading in the shade of the trees and the area seemed so tranquil.

After a bit I found the teacher that was supposed to introduce me to the professor and I got a chance to see the attendee-list for the class: It was all Japanese, Korean and Malaysian students doing Chinese philosophy as their major – yikes! The professor – called Dong Ping – turned out to be such an incredibly nice guy! I went to his office and we talked about my plan for my year here and what I wanted to do – and in Chinese! He advised me to wait with the philosophy class till springtime (Here at Zhejiang University they have 4 semesters on a school year) as it might be a bit too high for my current level of Chinese, but I might attend a lecture just to see how it’s like, but haven’t decided yet. Professor Dong also told me that I could do a self-study on Daoism (one of my big fields of interest) and then he’d give me some questions to answer each week and in the end I’d get a grade/credit that can be transferred to Denmark . This would be really great to do (if I can find the self-discipline) because then I can focus more on the language course and improve my Chinese for the philosophy-class in spring. So that’s my plan so far and tomorrow I’ll go find a bookstore and find a copy of Laozi (Dao de Jing) and start reading that in Chinese. The whole conversation with professor Dong was just such a nice experience both due to classes turning out great and due to having a conversation with a Chinese professor in Chinese! I was so incredibly happy and high as a kite as I walked back.

We had dinner tonight again and tried a new restaurant where we definitely will not be returning! Once again we got dishes without any meat, ordered the wrong dish and ended up with a broth kind of thing with chicken bits, shrimps and vermicelli in it. To top that off one of the restaurant people’s little kid was running around yelling her lungs out and stomping her wooden heels in the floor very loudly. This is the downside of the one-child-policy, you get these spoiled little brats. I felt really bad for Pablo who had a headache.

A German girl has moved into the dorm so more life is coming in, which is good. Tomorrow all the new students will have to attend a compulsory lecture on the laws and regulations on Zhejiang University at 9am and they’ll do it in English, Korean and Japanese, gah! According to Pablo it’s probably going to be 3 or so hours and to make matters worse its on a campus 30 minutes away from here. Tomorrow we’ll also be going out for beers and mischief, so should be a fun night hopefully.

Casper

Now with broadband!

Today we finally got broadband at our dorm room – I feel civilized again! After having used the wireless at SPR Coffee we went and talked to one of the teachers at the dorm that helped us with getting Internet. Then we went across the street to the electrical department of China Mobile and bought a 2mb broadband connection. They arranged for their technician to call me the next day to arrange for when they could come and set it up.

We had dinner at the same little restaurant as the night before, but they really don’t put a lot of meat in their meat dishes, though I think it might be due to the rising prices on food all over the world. The night was spent watching another DVD at our room – I’m now up to 6 DVD’s that are going to get returned due to being of too poor quality.

Today I slept till noon and enjoyed being lazy one last time before school starts again. I headed out to find a guitarshop that I had read about in our local magazine called “More Hangzhou” (same as That’s Beijing for those of you who know that magazine). Think it took me a 45 minute walk from our dorm to the shop in Hangzhou ’s unbearable summer heat, which was really hot today. I found the shop and they sold a half-crappy western guitar for 780 kuai, but as I’m not the greatest guitar player (yet!) it should probably do just fine. So once I get my last paycheck and SU I’ll most likely go buy it, so I can start practicing again.

Walking around the city and reading my map you notice that the Chinese use very poetic names for their roads and all that, but if you say it in Danish it’s just not the same… For eksempel gik jeg ned af en vej I dag, som hedder Yugulu på kinesisk, men på dansk bliver det mere til “Gammeljadevej”. Jeg kunne godt tænke mig at spille matador og eje Gammeljadevej med hotel på!

After the guitar search Josh and I headed home to wait for the Internet technicians (who were half an hour late!) and got Internet set up at our room. It’s 2mb but it’s a bit dodgy, unstable and downloading stuff is a nightmare, but in China you always suspect this kind of hassle – I’ll say it again: Things are NEVER easy in China ! But we’ll probably upgrade it to a 4mb connection soon and see if it changes anything. After that was sorted we headed to computercity to get a router so we can both be online at the same time. I also traded the crap DVD’s to some new ones, but the lady at the shop was NOT happy that I came there complaining and claimed that the DVD’s were fine. Well if they were fine I bloody well wouldn’t be coming to get new ones would I?! Hate Chinese women and their drama…

We went out to eat with Pablo again and tried out a new restaurant that did some very nice shrimp and shuizhuniurou – a dish of very hot soup and beef and also aubergine (eggplant for you yanks), which I’ve been eating almost every night since I got here. The Chinese just do wonders with aubergine and I can’t get enough.

Pablo is moving rooms into a single dorm room and had taken over some old teaching materials that we borrowed so we can practice for the level test on the 10^th . Its been almost a year since I last did Chinese language learning, so it’s going to be nice getting started again – hard, but nice.

Tomorrow we’ll be going to register for our other courses. For me it will be getting information on my philosophy class and all that. I really wonder what it will be like.

Enrolling as a student

Time for another update on my new life here in Hangzhou .

After having used the wireless connection at SPR, Josh and I headed down to computercity where he had to get a cover for his iPhone (which I must admit is a pretty sweet phone). I made the grave mistake at computercity of falling into the DVD-trap and ended up buying 19 DVD’s. When I lived in Beijing in 2006 I came home with 300 DVD’s so I’m not even going to think about how many I’ll be bringing home this time around. Four of the DVD’s were of such appalling quality that I’m going to return them – one of the benefits of living here.

That night we went out for dinner with Pablo and his American friend, Danielle. Pablo took us along some hidden alleys till we found a restaurant that was quite secluded but very cozy and the food was great and cheap. The staff was watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics, which was quite a show although I think the London part was a bit weird apart from Jimmy Page – that was awesome! You can really feel how incredibly important the Olympics are for the common Chinese people and they’re very proud of having done a great show and I think they should be too – even with all the China-bashing they get from the West. After dinner Danielle, who’s a lesbian, was going to meet up with a Chinese at some gay bar and Pablo were supposed to tag along. She asked if Josh and I wanted to go as well, but we politely declined. A straight guy going to a gay bar for lesbians is like hunting polar bears in the Sahara (sorry for the analogy ladies, but it fits the bill!). Pablo later told us that the Chinese girl that Danielle was meeting was quite butch and due to being older than Pablo she had told him to call her “gege” (big brother)…

That night the rain started pouring heavily again – and when it rains here in Hangzhou it’s almost like a tropical storm, but it keeps the heat under control so rain is quite nice as long as you don’t have to be outside during the downpour.

The next day Josh and I slept till noon and then headed out to try a new café with wireless down near the tourist area of the West Lake . The West Lake is a quite famous spot in Hangzhou and very tranquil and beautiful so living near it is quite nice if you want to go for a quiet stroll. As we arrived at the café another down pour began and the sky was darkened by black clouds and the wind was heavy. Had a nice tuna-sandwich at the café, which was a nice change since I haven’t eaten fish for quite a while. The wireless at the café was crap though compared to the nice stable connection of SPR coffee. When we went home the clock was around 17:00 and rush-hour combined with the bad weather meant that it was impossible to get a cab home – think we walked around for almost an hour before we finally found a free one.

Thins are quiet at the dorm room and at the moment Josh, Pablo and myself are the only foreign students there since the language courses don’t start till mid September, but after that the place will hopefully get filled with a nice group of foreign students so we can go out and drink and raise hell.

At night we went out to eat with Pablo again. He’s a really great guy and he’s been here for so long so he knows how things work and can introduce us to new restaurants and answer all our questions. I have also, much to my horror I assure you, that they simply can not make a decent gongbaojiding here in Hangzhou . Pablo confirmed that they always fill it with tofu and very tiny, tiny bits of chicken, which is hell when you’re used to the wonderful gongbaojiding of Beijing , but there are some Sichuan restaurants here, so I’m hoping that they’ll be able to make a decent gongbao.

I guess I’m still very used to living in Beijing , which is a big melting pot of different parts of the Chinese culture and you can always find a different provincial restaurant depending on what kind of food you’re in the mood for. Naturally Hangzhou is different in that aspect, not bad but just different, so will take some getting used too. Hangzhou is quite beautiful city though and we’re surrounded by small forest-clad mountains that I’m looking forward to go hiking on, a botanical garden nearby and then, of course, the famous West Lake .

Today Josh and I went to the university and got registered as students and got our (very fancy) student ID’s. The language course doesn’t start till mid September and on September 10^th there’ll be a language test so they can see what level your Chinese is it. This means I have around two weeks to get my written Chinese up to par, which is really needed since it’s been ages since I’ve last done any writing in Chinese. Have also started making flashcards again and filling up my vocabulary with new words. My Chinese philosophy class starts on Monday and I think I’m going to be the only foreign student there and the class will only be in Chinese. I think it will be extremely hard at first, but it should boost my Chinese a lot – either that or I’m gonna be totally screwed! But at least it will give me an opportunity to befriend a lot of Chinese who can help me as the language courses will be only foreign students. We had a lunch at a type of canteen where I ate a bowl of rice noodles with beef for 5.50 kuai – so cheap and still quite tasty.

We’ve also befriended a lot of the people who work at the dorm and will be talking to the woman who’s supposed to help us get Internet in our dorm room, which I hope we can get either today or tomorrow. The day after tomorrow I’ll also sign up for the philosophy class and hopefully get some more information.

That’s all I have to tell for now, but will keep you all posted. Take care!

Casper

Exploring Hangzhou

Another day – another experience

The weather here in Hangzhou is very hot and very humid and it actually reminds me of being back in Hong Kong again although it’s not as bad as that. Yesterday it rained in the morning and most of noon which helped cool things down a bit. The sun is also hidden away behind clouds, so haven’t seen the sun since I left Europe, but I don’t mind since direct sunshine would just make the temperature even worse.

At the Internetcafé I also discovered that my blog is actually blocked in China so have to work around all that in order to be able to post, but so far it’s going ok due to knowing a few tricks. Thanks for all the comments aswell, makes me smile and feel at home!

After we were done at the Internetcafé Josh and I went out to explore our new city. First we had lunch at small joint (danish term would be "snask" ) on our street where I had a bowl of noodle soup with beef, which was quite ok and cheap. Afterwards we tried finding a gym that Pablo had recently joined, but we only ended up finding the place to play badminton, pool, pingpong and the local golf-driving range (Josh is an avid golfer unlike myself), so the gym will have to wait for now. Then Josh took my to the local electronics-markets where you can buy everything electronic from legitimate computer brands to the more dodgy copies. Will probably go there and buy some speakers for my laptop and an external harddrive. As we walked home our sense of direction complete failed us and we ended up taking a huge detour, but it did take us by a place that sold maps. Our feet were quite sore by then so we tried taking a cab, but couldn’t find any free ones and the only free one didn’t want to take us for whatever obscure reason!

Our dormroom is quite small perhaps 2½x4 meters, but once we get some plants and posters it will probably be quite a decent home. I also wasn’t expecting much of the doorm and living there is quite cheap. Our room also has aircondition, which is a godsend in this unbearable heat!

Later that night we met up with Pablo, two Italians who’d lived at the dorm and were now heading home, a German guy who’s here for a couple of weeks doing an internship and a Dutch. We went to a really nice Indian resturant with an all-you-can-eat buffet with very nice Indian food. The waiters also made sure that your glass NEVER ran out of beer. On top of all that they also had a bellydancer with a snake and the whole buffet and all you could drink only cots 88 kuai which is aorund 8€, so very cheap for such a nice meal. I also learned that they have a Teppenyaki restaurant here in Hangzhou, which is a really nice japanese restaurant where the chef cooks everything at the table and you can eat and drink all that you want for 150 kuai. Used to visist that restaurant often when I was in Beijing in spring.

After eating we went to the bar called Maya where we’d also gone out yesterday. We met a lot of people who were friend of the Italians and the bar seems to be a place where lots of foreigners hang out. Also met a really horrible baby-face like Chinese girl who’d donned an American accent for God knows what reason. She was so phony and horrible that it was unbearable. You could have deeper conversations talking to a drywall.

Josh and I went back to our dorm around 1am. Officially the dorm closes at 23:00 and then you have to ring a doorbell and then I very sleepy-eyed Chinese in pyjamas will come and let you in. When we did it yesterday we were met with a very disgruntled man who said "bu hao" (= not good), but what are they honestly expecting? It’s a dorm for foreign students and surely by now they must now that no foreign students come home before 23:00 on a saturday! So think we’ll have to make some kind of arrangement with them otherwise they’re gonna end up hating our guts, because we’ll certainly come home late again. 1am was early!

Back in our dormroom we discovered that we could leech a very crappy unsecure wireless Internet connection. Suddenly the power in our room went out. Seems like our power-credit had run out, which meant a night without aircondition – bloody hell it was a hot night! I went to talk to the clerk at the door and he gave us power again, but I have a feeling we’ll run out fast again and we’re only using the aircon when we sleep. I also hope we’ll get Internet in our own room soon. I also discovered that we have a nice little courtyard where I think I’ll go down each morning to start practicing Qigong and taijiquan again if I can find the discipline to get up that is.

Today I slept till around 11 again, got up and had a shower and a shave and then Josh and I went out searching for a Starbucks downtown where we might be able to find some wireless Internet. But it turned out that the two Starbucks cafés downtown didn’t have any internet at all – so no my view of Starbucks haven’t improved. Instead we went to a Starbucks-copy called SPR Coffee close to the stadium where we live. So am now sitting here enjoying a mug of Longjing tea, a nice airconditioned room and a nice wireless connection and the place is even more classier decorated than Starbucks! I have a feeling that this will be a nice get-away when I want to be by myself.

Tomorrow I’ll head into campus and get myself registered as a student. I’m curious how my classes are going to be. I have a class on Chinese philosophy and then some language and culture classes both of them taught in Chinese, so it will probably be a challenge in the beginning, but hopefully I’ll manage. I also need to start (re)learning loads of Chinese characters and build up my vocabulary again. Have already bought a big stack of paper so I can start making flashcards and fill my brains with Chinese.

Another thing I need to get used to here in Hangzhou is the dialect. So far my eyes have gotten used to the coarse Beijing-dialect and here they pronounce stuff a little differently. Also have to get rid of my own Beijing dialect when I speak, but thats coming along nicely – though I must admit that I do enjoy speaking Beijing dialect. I also plan on going to Beijing during the national holiday in October to meet up with friends there.

Phew, I’ve only been here 2½ day and already have so much to tell, but I’ll keep you all posted.

Casper

Hangzhou – Here I am

My China adventure has begone – and it’s already an adventure!

Got up thursday at 4:30am after getting 2 hours of sleep and got a ride to the airport from a friend, which I was very happy for. Had to wait for a couple of hours before I could check in and then I had to wait a couple of more hours before my flight to Dusseldorf took off at 8.25.
I slept through the entire flight and was in Dusseldorf after 1.25 hour. Not the most exciting airport and there were no powersupply for my laptop so I couldn’t watch movies on a laptop. So not much left to do, but read a bit, stare in the air or listen to music for 7 hours as my flight to Shanghai was due to take-off at 17:35. Roughly an hour or so before take-off they announced what gate I was supposed to go to, so spent some time waiting there. A little Chinese kid was passing time by trashing a newspaper all over the floor while his father sat sleeping.
When I checked in at Copenhagen the lady at the counter asked me if I wanted a window-seat to which I said yes, but what good are window seats when they’re placed right at the damn wing! Did get a view of the Rhine river when we left Dusseldorf. When the plane took off a little kid decided to serenade us off by crying his lungs out – classic airplane scenario.
Again I slept through the entire flight only interupted by meals and reading a chapter in my book.
I arrived in Shanghai at 10am local time and it was very hot and very humid! I withdrew some cash from an ATM and then went to find the bus that was supposed to take me to Hangzhou. But lo and behold! On that day there were no busses going from Shanghai airport to anywhere and for no apparent reason – I was certainly back in China. Found a Spanish guy and a German girl who where going to Hangzhou with their two Chinese guides, so I asked if I could tag along with them. We then took a bus from the airport to the southern railway station in Shanghai to catch a train to Hangzhou. We gave one of the guides money and then he went to get tickets. At this point I was travelworn, sweaty, smelly and quite tired having been travelling for 24 hours. Of course it turned out that there were no available tickets to Hangzhou that day so we had to walk for a bit and take a bus to Hangzhou – things are never easy in China!
The busdrive to Hangzhou took about two hours and they showed a nice theatrical Hong Kong movie with the volume turned up to max – I slept through most of it though. On our way we also passed through trashing rain with thunder and lightning. The bus stopped at the trainstation in Hangzhou and the time was now 16:00 so it had taken my around 6 hours to get to Hangzhou – and takes about an hour on train… I said goodbye to the other Europeans and took a black cab to the university to avoid waiting too long.
Arrived at Zhejiang University around 17:00 and started looking around for the place where I could get my room and all. At this point I was so warm, sweaty, tired (had been travelling for 25 hours then) and just wanted to get settled in. Finally I found my contact person and he arranged for a guy to take me to my dorm, which is located just outside the campus. Went there and signed papers at the dorm and got the key to my room for the next year. Then I had a shower and a shave and by God did I feel like a new man – words can’t describe how nice it was!
Then I went for a little stroll and got some food at a local canteen. Got a gongbaojiding (Kong pao chicken) that contained more tofu than chicken… but at least it was cheap. When I came back I met my roommate – a nice Australian named Josh who’ll also be here for a year. Have a feeling we’re going to get a long great, though I wouldn’t have minded a room of my own, but that’s all part of the experience. Later we met up with an Argentinian named Pablo and went out for beers at one of the local bars. I was a bit surprised that I wasn’t more jetlagged, but guess I’d slept enough on the plane and busses.

Today I’ve bought a sim-card for my phone and am now at an internet cafe writing this as we haven’t gotten internet at our small dormroom yet – we will though. Other than that I now have a week to get to familiarize myself with my new city and home for the next year before classes starts in September. It’s all very new, very unfamiliar, exciting and a bit overwhelming.

Casper

This is it

So… It’s almost time to depart from Denmark and start out on my next China adventure.

After getting my medical certificate filled stating that I had neither AIDS, leprosy or plague I could apply for a visa, which I did last week. Yesterday I went to pick up my student visa from the Chinese embassy without any hassle at all though a lot of the Danes applying for a visa there where having trouble getting a tourist visa into China due to the very strict rules that has been implemented during the Olympics. For example one guy was first told he’d filled out an old application form and had to write a new one, when he’d done that he came back, showed his flight reservation (which is needed when applying for a tourist visa to China these days) and then the Chinese clerk asked him where his hotel reservation was? Well the poor guy didn’t have any since he was going to stay at a friend of his in Beijing to which the clerk replied that they then needed a copy of his friend’s passport and an invitation from him – man the look of despair on the poor guy’s face… hope his flight wasn’t leaving any time soon. All this being said it should, however, be noted that it is much easier for Danes to get into China than it is for a Chinese (even a very wealthy one) to get into Denmark – so we have it easy…

Last week was also spent moving the rest of my stuff out of my flat and all my stuff is now spread around my mother’s place, my father’s place and some of their friends. Also filled holes and painted a bit and gave the whole place a last big clean. Yesterday I met with my landlord to hand out the keys and he didn’t have any complaints so I should hopefully get my depository back soon, which is dearly needed since paying my travel insurance set me back by almost 7000 DKR. (around 930€).

Today have been spent getting my laptop ready with music, some films and all the important documents needed for my year in China. Right now I’m packing my bags with not too much clothes since I’ll be buying a lot in China. So will probably be packing more books than clothes and of course 3 huge packs of Danish (salty) liquorice (should last long enough till new supplies can come through at Christmas when my mother is coming to visit.

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day: Have a dentist appointment at 11:30, lunch with my father and brother at 13:00, then I need to get 8 photos taken for the university, getting a final vaccination at 15:00, then to a friend’s place to say goodbye and home to have a big farewell dinner with my mother and brother. I hope it won’t be as hectic as it sounds.

I’ll be leaving Denmark at 8:25 (have to be at the airport at 6:00 in the morning – yuck!) and then I’ll have nearly 8 wonderful hours in Düsseldorf airport in Germany… Hope I can find a power supply and watch movies on my laptop otherwise time will be spend sleeping and reading books. I’ll be landing in Shanghai friday noon and then I’ll have to find a bus to take my to Hangzhou. Only thing I know is the name of the bus that my contact at Zhejiang University provided me with.

I also still have no idea how I’m going to live at campus except that I’ll be living at an international dorm and might get a roommate or a single room – only time will tell.

Anyways that’s it for now, will write more when I’m in Hangzhou and can find some Internet.

Casper