The first few days after my
arrival went by in a bit of a blur. Of course there was some adjustment to the
time, and I was tired from the long journey, but there was much to be done to
get me settled at the university, and since I arrived first thing in the
morning, there was a full day’s work ahead.
In
order to help me get settled, I had one of the boys from the lab, YZ, was assigned to help me get set up in China and settle in. He will be the second
guy from the Shanghai side to take part in our exchange, and is due to come to the UK in January. He is a bright, young
boy of 24, and I think he was assigned to help me, not only because I will
inevitably return the favour when he comes to Leicester, but also because he
has by far the best English out of anyone I have met here (that
includes the professor). And thank goodness, he has been such a great help.
During
my first day YZ took me round such an array of places, I lost count!
Basically, we got my student card, which is the general currency on campus,
paying for everything from food to showers, went to go top it up, went to the
accounts office, went to the Bank of China to set up a bank account so that I
can receive my scholarship from the government, got a new Chinese SIM card for
my phone, went to get basic food shopping, and generally help get me settled
in. What most of these steps basically involved was going to an office, having
a photo taken or needing to procure a passport photo, showing them my passport
and some vital piece of paper, or going to another place and photocopying a
vital piece of paper.
Generally, I was surprised at the
level of bureaucracy, coming from a place where I could easily pop into any
Phones4U, and come out with a new pay as you go sim card in about five minutes.
Here I had to show my passport, and residence details, and so much more
problems which was all said in Chinese between Yingzhou and the staff, that it
seemed like an age. And they gave me loads more bits of official paper. I also
couldn’t even order water for my water cooler without giving my passport number
down the phone to the water company! (Well, Yingzhou did that, since the water
company didn’t even have any English speaking staff, despite supplying the
international student accommodation with water!). The bureaucracy level reached
its craziest heights at the visa centre, but more on that later.
Settling in to my room I have to
say was a very pleasant surprise. Having heard about Chinese university dorms
and seen the pictures from Chinese friends and also Monika on her exchange, I
had pretty much expected the bog standard desk/bunk bed combo shared with a
room-mate. Before I arrived, I was informed though that actually I would be
getting a single room, and I thought this may be because I was staying in the
international student’s building. However, I was genuinely surprised to get a
spacious room with a nice big bed:
 |
| The massive bed all to myself, next to my desk |
My water-cooler, microwave, fridge and TV
(Although I'm not sure what is the point of having a TV,
since all the channels are in Chinese anyway).
Despite not having my own sink, we have a shared bathroom on each floor.
This might not sound much like luxury, but the home students in the other dorms
don’t even have bathroom facilities in their building, and they have to go to
an outside building for showers, and even this is only open between the hours
of 3 pm till 10 pm, so if you've missed the time, you've missed your shower for
the day! I have heard that one fifth of Shanghai’s population still does not
have indoor plumbing and they use bed pans at night, so I think I've gotten
very lucky here! I am most surprised to find that I don’t have to share, since
I've seen that some of the other rooms on my floor have two international
students in. But I guess I just have to be thankful for the special treatment.
Although there is a funny smell in here that my lab friend seems to think
might be a fungus that would be very difficult to remove.....ah well, swings
and roundabouts!
love the pics!
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