Why it still hasn't hit me yet.

¥2300.00  1 Month's Rent
¥4.00        Lunch
¥200.00    Sim Card (With ¥100 bal.; 500MB, free calls & 100 free texts in China p/month)
¥264.00    Groceries (Cleaning products, bed sheets, etc,)
¥6.00        Dinner
¥25.5 0     Convenience Store (Mug + Milo)

Total: ¥2799.50 

Total Spend: 2799.50 ($533.25 AUD)

- - -

It still hasn't hit me yet.

I don't know what I imagined the feeling to be like, but I was expecting it to hit me when I arrived. That sense of acknowledgement that I will be away from home for one whole year. Living in China. Speaking another language. Missing family, home, familiarity.

But it still hasn't. And I'm starting to think that it never will.

Which I don't quite understand, as I don't feel at home here at all - well not yet anyway. There is a huge language barrier, but luckily I am here with 3 other students from Sydney who are much more fluent than me in Mandarin. I'm getting all my explanations in Mandarin or very broken English, and we don't have any support from university here in terms of settling in until orientation starts next week. 

But I am grateful to have 3 things:
1. Experience
2. Patience
3. Optimism

From experience, I know settling in will be difficult (although it was much easier when I went on exchange to Finland).

Getting all the important tasks done, such as starting a bank account, getting a sim card and figuring out the services offered in my university has been a great test of patience too. Also being in a new country in a group with 3 others has also taught me to value patience, especially as we all run on different times and we all have different interpretations of punctuality. 

Finally I am grateful for the most important thing anyone should have when on exchange - optimism. Life's tough, but I know it'll get better. It's freezing, but I know Spring will come.

And I can't wait!