Being International

Time for another update as a lot has happened since I last wrote.

We got up early Friday morning and went to the lecture at Zijingang Campus and it probably took us 15 minutes to get there in cab. The campus is the main campus of Zhejiang University and also the place where all the new fancy buildings are being built. The place is huge with many big and impressive buildings, but the atmosphere was a little too sterile for my likings. On the pavement there were little toadstool shaped speakers that played very loud marching music – very Chinese! An American we met, who lives on the campus, told us that the music starts at around 5.30am which must be extremely annoying. The lecture took place in a small auditorium and we were almost the only white foreign students there among a lot of Korean and Japanese, so we could easily have skipped the whole thing. We did, however, meet our contact person from the university there so perhaps we scored some easy brownie points for our efforts.

The lecture was mostly just the Chinese praising the university and letting us know that it’s one of the best universities in China and all that. Then they showed us a lot of famous people they’ve given honorary degrees – this included a picture of Stephen Hawking getting his degree and in the background was written with big red letters: “Brane new world”… those Chinese and their English. After that some policemen told us about getting resident permit and all that, but they basically just read aloud from a pamphlet we’d already gotten. Good thing was that it was mostly done in Chinese and English and not translated into Korean and Japanese. Also one of the people opened with a little joke which the majority of people chuckled or smiled lightly at, but the previously mentioned American burst out laughing as if it had been one of the funniest things he’d heard in his life. It was so obvious that he did that only to illustrate that he could understand the Chinese… in a room full of people who study the language… what a tool.

The visit to the campus also made us greatly appreciate living where we live near Yuquan Campus where things are more relaxed and down to earth.

At night Josh, Pablo and I went out to eat some Japanese. I had some Japanese dumpling and some grilled salmon and it was nice to eat fish again. We also sat talking about how the world has definitely become a smaller and more global place. There we were an Argentinean, an Australian and a Dane from the very far apart places of the world and we were talking like we’d been friends all our lives. After eating we went for a quiet beer at Maya, but headed home early as Pablo had to get up and teach in the morning.

Saturday was the day I tried out our washing machine! As with almost all washing machines here in China it doesn’t use hot water so your clothes will never be fully cleaned (which means being very careful of not spilling when you eat). And to add to that, there is also no lid on it, so when you washes water splashes everywhere. Anyways, I boldly ventured forth and got my clothes washed, but when it was time to spin-dry the clothes it was as if the machine had been possessed by the devil and was now very fed up with being a slave for humans and being filled with dirty socks and underwear. It let forth some loud cacophonic “Clonk! Clonk! Clonk!” noises and was trying to escape! Had to hold it down with my hands which seems to calm the bastard down a little bit and then not put as much clothes in the spin-dryer, which helped. So even doing laundry is an adventure here.

After that I went out to get myself a guitar! It should be noted that I am in no way good at playing the guitar, only having been practicing for roughly a year, but I need the practice and have loads of fun with it. So I walked big Chinese roads down to the music shop and got myself a western guitar, a capo, a pick and a bag for 495 kuai and the guitar sounds lovely, so I think it was a bargain and it feels great playing again.

At night Pablo, Josh and I went out to dinner with two Lithuanian girls who has just moved in to the dorm, can’t remember how to spell their names though. They’re only doing the language course and people just doing that only have to register before September 8^th , so soon the dorm should fill up. We went to a Chinese restaurant chain called Grandmas Kitchen and it turned out to be great food! It reminded me of the food in Beijing and it was quite cheap as well, but their beer was absolutely horrible and was just water really. Then we went to Maya again and talked about our different cultures and countries and how they differed. We also met Danielle and another American there.

Sunday was a very lazy day, where I didn’t do much. We got our Internet upgraded to 4mb so now I can listen to Danish radio without any problems. But that didn’t helped much as my local football club, Lyngby Boldklub played like crap once again, sigh. Josh and I also arose to the role of knights in shining armour when we helped Anni, the German girl, and her roommate Clare, from the Czech Republic , with their questions on sim-cards and internet. Anni speaks no Chinese and is just doing the language course as a hobby taking a year off from Uni back home. I can’t imagine how much a challenge China is when you don’t know the language – hell, it’s a big enough struggle when you know it!

At night we went out with a Mexican girl called Laurindra, who also lives at the dorm and is doing her Masters in communication, Mark the Dutch also joined us again. He’s doing physics at Zhejiang , but lives at a dorm inside campus. Again it was wonderful to meet people from cultures you don’t really know a lot about and I am so glad that I’m living at the International Dorm – wouldn’t change it for the world! Have also found out that all the newcomers, who landed in Shanghai , took the bus from the airport without any problems. Why I was denied such luxury I will never know, but that’s China

Yesterday I had lunch at a little Muslim restaurant close by, that Pablo (who else) introduced us to. Here you can get a big dish of noodles, some beef and aubergine for 12 kuai, so it’s a good and cheap place to get lunch. Afterwards I went out on a quest to find a big bookstore where I could possibly find the book needed for my self study on Daoism. Think it took me half an hour to 45 minutes to walk there and the place was HUGE! I think you could easily fit all of the bookstores in Copenhagen into this one. But of course they didn’t have the book I was after – typical… So then I went on another semi long walk to another bookstore that was also very big, but didn’t have my book either. Then I took a taxi home – the hunt will continue another day.

In the afternoon we went to the gym for some workout and Josh and I got a free trial before having to pay for full membership, which we’ll most likely do. Was nice working out again, but was totally spent afterwards, but in a good way.

We met another newcomer when we came home, a Belgian guy named Neil, who’s also here for the language program. A lot of us went out to eat at the little restaurant that is hidden away back in some alleys. They should be from the north-eastern part of China so the food is excellent, very cheap and most importantly they put plenty of meat in their dishes! One of my favourite places so far!

Tomorrow I’ll be meeting with a taijiquan (tai chi) trainer that I’ve gotten in contact with. I will be finding out if he’s the real deal and if he can teach the martial art aspect of taijiquan. He’s a bit expensive so will be exciting to meet him. Have also gotten in contact with a Shaoling gongfu and Qigong instructor, who might be willing to accept me as a student, when I go to Beijing . So a lot of interesting stuff is happening.

The traffic here in Hangzhou is very Chinese and a bit chaotic, but I have experienced worse in Beijing . So far I’ve seen three mild traffic accidents all involving bicycles and Chinese who aren’t looking where they’re going so they bump into each other. One day there’d been an accident and a Chinese woman was very angry and switching between yelling at a cop (who was just smiling) and sitting on the sidewalk sulking. There was a big crowd of Chinese spectators gathered and it was hard to tell who’d done who.

Other interesting observations: Hangzhou has some kind of water truck that drives around pouring water on the streets (even when it rains for some dumb reason) and it plays some weird bingely-bongely type music like the birthday cards you can buy. So a big water truck playing vivaldi, happy birthday and other weird songs as it waters the road – so obscure.

As I’m writing this there’s been a car honking for the past half our in 5 minute intervals and then it goes “HONK! HONK! HONK! HONK! HONK!” and I’m tempted to get up, open the window and scream at the top of my lungs: “Oh for crying out loud will you shut the fuck up already!!!!”. China will either make you very patient human being or make you kill someone or yourself. So far I’d like to think I’ve just become a more patient human being – though I wont rule out murdering the guy honking his brains out if he keeps going at it for much longer!

As I’ve mentioned some time ago I’ve brought some Danish liquorish called “Piratos” that is extremely salty. I offered Josh some, but he didn’t like it – as a matter of fact he called it disgusting, hehe. I’ve yet to meet a non-Danish person who likes Piratos, but this is a good thing as I can have them all for myself.

Guess that’s all for now, will keep you posted.

Casper