If you’re reading this, you probably saw the link I posted and took the trouble to click on it. Which probably means you’ve taken the trouble to read a few of my other Woooh-I’m-In-China! posts, or maybe I’ve already given you the lowdown. But no matter: In case you haven’t, here goes.
I am in China! (Actually, flying over international waters now, but we’ll get there). I’ve been blessed enough to get to travel a good bit with my parents and work, but aside from a month stint living out of a hotel room in Vancouver, the longest I’d been in another country was less than two weeks. While this sort of travel is an awesome way to see the world, it’s a whole lot less effective way of knowing the world. I’d talked to people on most of the continents, but that’s nothing like living with them. And so the dream was born: I wanted to study or work in another country. I decided that’s what grad school would be for: Two semesters in China, officially studying electrical engineering and unofficially studying Mandarin.
I have too many stories to write about all at once, so for now I’ll start with random excerpts of my last ~3 months.
August 16, 2017: Tomorrow’s the big day! Storage units are overpriced and my parents are good to me, so I turned my bedroom at their place into a living room too. It’s sort of like a studio apartment. Trendy, right? They could totally Airbnb it out.August 17, 2017: Quick, Jenna, I’d like to come back alive, can you teach me how to tell them that I’m allergic? (Spoiler alert: I’m not dead yet.) Also, fun fact: I’m writing this on the plane, and the Chinese woman in the seat next to me can’t read what I’m writing, but she looked over and read this and said something to me in Chinese. And I think she affirmed my well-rehearsed apology about my bad Chinese with a friendly yes, your Chinese is very bad. But alas, my Chinese is bad, so I don’t know for sure.Wow. Look at the view from my (first) apartment. My roommates are great – more about them later – and rent is way cheaper than America.Roommate picture 1! First dinner in China on Yan Hui’s birthday. He’s is one of the nicest, most considerate people I’ve met. I got to help him pick his English name: Alvin.Roommate picture 2: Max teaching me all of the Chinese words I shouldn’t accidentally say. Chinese is a tonal language, which means unlike English, sounds we would call the same word that differ only by pitch, or tone, can mean totally different things. It’s hard. You’ll make funny mistakes. Whatever you do, don’t mix up your tones when asking for strawberries.
Max and Alvin are Chinese Chinese – they learned English as a second language in school. I’m duly impressed at their ability to not only take highly technical engineering classes in English but also crack hilarious jokes in English too. I can only imagine how funny Max is in Chinese. It makes me realize that us lucky/spoiled Americans rarely even consider the possibility of having to take classes or do business in anything but our native language, while a multilingual world is completely the norm in other places.
Shenzhen is so close to Hong Kong it would be a tragedy if I didn’t make it out there at least once to visit relatives there (they were INSANELY hospitable) and hike some trails. Above: the view from my first such trip, featuring a vivacious Chinese stranger-made-travel companion (closest), a very helpful local (center), and my roommate Shipra (not pictured) who obliginglyput up with all of the mountain climbing I forced her into.Classes are tiny. Like, 3-6 students tiny. That meant that I could actually get to know my professors outside of class. This is the entirety of my management class, including our professor (my right, your left). I love the personal-ness: You learn a lot, talking to professors outside of class.Alright, I can’t end on a sappy note: I risked life and limb putting my trust in the internet and went looking for some waves, armed only with my bad Chinese and a cell phone. OK, fine, I had internet and maps and China is super safe (more to say on that in another post), so “risked life and limb” is a stretch, but it did cross my mind that I may not be able to find my way back. So there I am, prominently featuring my butt (or lack thereof). Shoulda taken the left. Leave it to the Florida kid to find a beach on the other side of the world.
Words & Things 