Why I'm becoming the Ultimate Zheda Fangirl.

Wednesday 5 March, 2014 

¥25.00    Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥23.00    Lunch  (Uni Restaurant)
¥20.00    Taxi 

Thursday 6 March, 2014 
¥2.00      Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥30.00    Lunch (Uni Restaurant)
¥2.00      Pineapple
¥20.00   Taxi
¥6.00     Coconut Jelly Milk Tea
¥11.80   Every Sticky Tape In The World
¥15.00   Dinner (Pai Cu Fan)

Total: ¥154.80 ($29.50)

Weekly Total: ¥341.80 ($65.10)

Total Spend: ¥5113 ($973.90 AUD)

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Let's all begin by just taking a minute to process what's going on in this picture.

Yup. Normal.

A quick internet update! I bumped into a technician fixing wires in my dormitory corridor. He asked me if I had any issues with my internet, and we had a lovely exchange of confused looks due to my broken Chinese. But I think he understood me, because my internet has not dropped out for the past 30 minutes!

Yesterday after my afternoon class, I went to join my friend at Baochu Temple, a 4km run away from uni.

Unfit. Smog. Struggling after 30 minutes. And then I reach this. 

Strong English.

There are giant boulders near Baochu Temple that you can climb. This is the view from the top! (Baochu Temple in the background)

View of West Lake. Can you smell the smog?

There were 14 of us rock climbing, so afterwards we went to the city centre to have a nice meal together. The highlight of the meal for me was having ice-cream bread served at the start of dinner.. such a beautiful moment! 

This is literally just buttered bread with a scoop of ice cream on top. I don't think you're meant to eat it with your main meal, it was probably just a misunderstanding.. (probably because we didn't say we wanted it as dessert so they just served it all together.)

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Even though uni has started, I feel like my routine hasn't really been set yet. Today (Thursday) I would say was pretty typical though.

A Typical Day

6:30am - Wake Up Alarm

7:15am - Breakfast

8:00-9:30am - First Class

10:00am-11:30am - Second Class

12:00-1:00pm - Lunch

1:00-6:30pm - Free Activity (Usually I start with exercise (a run or a game with friends), then study for 2-3 hours (there is always homework due tomorrow))

6:30-8:00pm - Dinner

8:30pm - Return home, blog, 等等

11:00pm - Sleep

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So after class and lunch today, my Australian friends and I went to apply for our Residence Permit. Approximately 2 weeks after you've registered for class, they tell you to go to Room 3504 in Building No. 2 of the International College to pick up your Residence Permit paperwork. You have to bring your passport and student ID with you.

After they give it to you, you have to go and deal with the rude reception girls there to get a slip of paper confirming that you live in the International College. (Someone gave me the tip that you have to be stern with them and say "Do it, it's your job so stop mucking around." I just try to smile a lot and be nice and polite, but really they are very rude and unhelpful.)

After that, you have to travel to 35 Huaguang Road (Not Shuguang, which is where the office worker told us. It's the Public Security Bureau Exit and Entry Administration Service Center. Once you get there, you fill out another form, get your photo taken to get a barcode, then line up and give them your passport for 3 weeks. It's also 400RMB (which you pay when you collect your passport).

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It was raining again today so we took a taxi back to our uni. I also indulged in a little retail therapy (stationery shopping only) and my friend E told me about the Zhejiang University merchandise being sold in the uni supermarket. I totally completely fell in love with it all... I want the Zheda Varsity Jacket, the Zheda trackies... sadly they are out of smaller sizes at the moment so we left our name and phone number so we could be notified when stock comes in. 

The pants that I want need.

 It must be International Student Syndrome, because I know I would never do this back home with UTS merchandise. But here, I want everything with the Zheda name on it. So far I have an umbrella with the logo on it and workbooks with the university name in calligraphy script.. and I even bought this packing tape with the logo and name.

 No, I'm not obsessed.

It rains on average 155 days of the year... so I needed this, truly!

I'm thinking it might have something to do with the fact that I cannot shop for clothing here at all, because the shopping here is bad for 3 reasons:

1. The exchange rate is really bad so everything is really expensive (not worth it)

2. People shop on Taobao (which is like Chinese Ebay) and I need to set up a "Chinese Paypal" account to shop there - which I am trying to avoid doing

3. Chinese fashion is not my style la

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Other very average aspects of my day:

Today at lunch we were obsessed with saying 'yam rolls' (山药卷). We ordered them because we saw another table had them and we thought they were Spring Rolls. They're quite sweet and delicious (but pricey at 22RMB - most dishes are around 10RMB) 

Giant apples at the fruit shop. Scary GM foods.

This is my usual classroom, but instead of having class, we are studying in here. We usually study in the classrooms because we can do it together and there is free heating (electricity bills add up in the dorms)! Sadly only one classroom is open 24/7 for the whole building of international students. We got kicked out of here by 5pm.

And I'll end this very long blog post with this photo. 

Like traditional Chinese script, this has to be read Top-Down, Right-Left.

Smoking indoors really sucks here.