China in pictures...

Now that I finally caught up on the crazy first days, I'll be a little more detailed  about my life here on this utterly remote campus.

Like I said in my previous post, we are the only foreigners on the campus. Well technically, there are a few foreign teachers, but when it comes to students, there's only us. It turns us into a living form of public entertainment, and it isn't all that rare to have a Chinese student come up to you and ask for a picture, and even less uncommon to be waved at, greeted or just pointed at. Ma Jin told us there were about 10 000 students on the campus, but given that it is the size of a small town, it is more similar to a sleepy village most of the time. Most students will spend their days at the library when classes start, right now it seems like the main activity for many students (including my roommates) is to while away time in front of the computer, watching movies or chatting online. They actually are worse than me...


The advantage of living on such a huge campus is that it really is like a city, and we could definitely live in complete autarcy if we wanted to (but we don't.). There are two or three supermarkets, a building full of useful (and less useful) stores such as a computer/hardware store, a hairdresser, bookstore, fruit market, an accessories store and more I haven't seen yet. We can eat at three different canteens offering all sorts of food from the various Chinese provinces, and because we eat quite late we miss the masses of students rushing to the canteens aroun 11 am or 5.30 pm. The supermarkets have pretty much anything a student here could ask for: all kinds of food obviously, but also matresses, tins, cups, lamps, fans, pens, clothes pins, detergent, and so on.  We get biscuits, bottles of water or juice, or even yoghurt or ice cream in all flavours and sizes, many being the Chinese version of famous brands such as Tropicana, Oreo or Danone.


What amuses me is that everybody basically buys exactly the same products. And everything is very childish, and most accessories are adorned with cartoon character designs. For example, when I bought my tupperware dish I had to choose between a cute Hello Kitty or two bouncy frogs. Same with the mattress and pillows, spoons, mirror, umbrellas...And talking about umbrellas, they seem to be a very popular trend here. I still haven't figured out if girls use it to avoid tanning, to block the heat or as a sun shade...maybe all three. But it certainly is an odd sight to see dozens of girls walking around with umbrellas over their heads on a bright sunny day. I'm telling you, new trends starts here...

Students can also buy their washing machines, mobile phones or bikes on campus, and can be driven around in those little buses I previously mentioned.

The campus is incredibly calm and peaceful, with lush mountains on one side and the South China Sea on the other. It takes from 45 minutes to an hour to walk from one end of the campus to the other, but the surroundings are so lovely it really isn't a big deal. Little ponds and lakes are scattered all across campus, with benches on their banks which make for nice romantic nights. As for me, I would love to explore the little mountains around it, but I was told they were full of snakes and hard to get to...

it takes about an hour by bus to get to Zhuhai, but that hour can sometimes seem like 3, because the buses are very Chinese- almost always painfully crowded. If you're lucky you'll get an AC bus, if you're not, well...The hardest part is to get out, so we always try to stay by the doors...but the downside is that we get the flow of passengers getting on or off full in the face. The other day an old man fell asleep on my shoulder. And all the other times, I didn't get a seat. ;) I haven't seen much of Zhuhai yet, except for the medical clinic and Mc Donalds...we also saw the border to Macau, which in fact is a giant mall right underneath the border control post.

Now the dorm. We were put in a typical Chinese 4 bed-dorm room. They put the 11 of us French students together in pairs, with boys and girls having their own dorm and very strict rules to abide by regarding visiting the opposite sex in their dorm...

I was placed with Emeline, whose parents are Chinese/Cantonese, and two chinese girls named Olive and Gwen(they only told me their English names. I was surprised at how often the students insist on you us calling them by their "Western" name, maybe because they think their Chinese names are too hard to remember for us (which is sometimes true when you meet so many people at the same time).

The room is very...basic. You can see for yourselves on the pictures, it is going to be a very interesting year. We already had thorough debates about the technical issues related to the squat toilet, and were also introduced to the joys of handwashing laundry. But all in all, I had expected worse - the one thing I  will obviously miss the most is my privacy, but this is just for a year and my roommates seem to be of the quiet type. I am all settled in with my kettle, dehydrated noodles, coffee, biscuits and hopefully soon an electric plate to cook small meals if I'm too tired of the canteen.

                                                               My view from the balcony....

                                                          The dorm just opposite us, with everyone hanging their laundry on the balcony.
                                                           The glorious toilet/shower...
                                                                 And the sink...my Chinese roommates always close the bathroom door so  there is a constant stench of condensed heat  and...it just smells bad.
                                                                  The  room...with our beautiful dorm phone...
                                            ...and my little corner of  the  woods.                                        What it looks like when Alice handwashes her laundry...

                               And my humble...uhm...kitchen accessories ;) Please note the pink tupperware, and you haven't even seen the design on the lid. And the mug is Mickey mouse. The only non-flashy thing are the chopsticks...

The heat seems to have slackened a bit lately, and I have heard a typhoon is on its way...it definitely is a breath of fresh air, literally. When we first arrived, we were sweating faster than we could drink to make up for what we sweated out , and living on the 6th floor didn't make matters easier. The weather should only start getting colder around early November, so we should face another rough month...the worst time of year starts in May though, with the beginning of the monsoon. I bought a mini fan for my bed, but I rarely seem to use it...and when I wake up I am literally dripping with sweat. Ugh.

As for the classes, they start on Monday and we still haven't solved our schedule problems. As of now, we have a few Chinese classes, Kung Fu, Calligraphy and a few English and International Trade classes. And Japanese for me, and that is the problem. Cross your fingers for me please...

Tomorrow I am off to Guangzhou to visit my friend Bernice, who kindly invited me to stay with her and her parents. For now the plan is to go to Ikea and a couple of bookstores, and maybe I will try and get some of the sights in...On Saturday we are heading back to Zhuhai to go to the Chinese Medicine Valley, a sort of Spa resort with hot springs, therapeutic meals and massages.

That's it for now...