Tianjin Struggles
It feels so long since I packed my bags, or rather mum did, said my goodbyes and boarded a plane to China. After 25 hours of travel, thinking we lost our bags, going up and down the same elevator 3 times and enduring a 3 hour long bus journey to Tianjin. I was one of 21 other scholars from Scotland that found themselves at the steps of Tianjin Foreign Studies University about to embark on 10 months of study in China.
Few things can prepare you for the move to China. Moving here comes with a vast array of challenges. These daily difficulties or 'Tianjin Struggles' may be irritating in the moment but now looking back its easy to laugh at the fact that maybe you don't fit on the bus, or know what you've ordered in a restaurant, or understand why you need a passport to get a SIM card.
Within the first week I had managed to settle in. My roommate and I stuck flags on the wall and scouted out the most reliable wifi connection. Confronted with such struggles as visas, university registration, health checks, getting lost repeatedly, getting a sim and hours of bus journeys we still managed to find plenty of time to explore the city. Here rental bikes are very popular. We found them particularly useful for seeing the city and escaping the bubble of university life. The struggle however is our inability to pay for them without having a Chinese bank account. Getting around this isn't easy but the rush you get when finding an unlocked bike, despite it perhaps missing a peddle or two, is fantastic. The 954 bus takes us right to a major shopping destination here BinJiang road. However, it's a bit difficult fitting into a seat when you're perhaps a bit too 高.
University starts at 8 which, for me, is hard. To get up, shower, pack bags, have breakfast and run up 9 flights of stairs to get to class on time means we have to get up very early. The first day I slightly underestimated how early I needed to get up which resulted in me running to class with a plastic bag full of dumplings 饺子 constituting my breakfast.
The cafeteria is excellent and not expensive at all. In the beginning we had trouble because we didn't have a prepaid card yet so we couldn't pay. Luckily we could always find another student to pay for us and we gave them the cash. Through my first month here local Chinese people have always been keen to help with anything we're struggling with.
A few of us went out to watch the football that was rumoured to be showing at a bar some while away. When we arrived it transpired the rumours weren't true. However, we managed to find a place to have traditional hot pot which was a brilliant experience. We didn't know anything about what we had ordered but enjoyed all that we had.
It's approaching Golden Week in China and three of us are planning on traveling to Beijing to get right to the heart of National Day and Mid- Autumn festival celebrations. I'll keep you updated in my next blog post.
再见
