Longest day ever

I met my roommate this morning, he seems pretty cool, but the weird part is that his name is Andy, he just graduated with a degree in Management Information Systems, and he speaks Cantonese! We like the same kinds of tv shows and video games and the cool part is that he speaks 6 languages and even puts me to shame. Indonesian, Japanese, English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Fujian dialect. He brought his xbox 360 and PSP so I think we’re going to get along just fine…

Today was a very productive but long day. Breakfast was at 7. I’m not quite used to the Chinese idea of breakfast but it was filling and cheap. A bowl of rice water, hard boiled egg, and a steamed bun with meat for 1.30 rmb.

Went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks and stuff because I know that I’ll be up late tonight doing stuff so naturally I’ll be hungry.

My Chinese was put to the test today while looking for the Agricultural Bank of China. People here are either really nice and helpful or really rude and won’t even talk to you. After walking about 15 blocks and asking 4 people for directions, I found out that the bank was only 3 blocks outside of the East gate, but to my disappointment I got there at 8 and expected banks to be open at 7 in the morning like at home but apparently Chinese banks open at around 9:30…

I know I could have opened up my checking account in Chinese but since I’m dealing with money, I’d like to have the least amount of confusion as possible. 45 minutes later I was finally out of there. I walked over to the finance office on campus to pay tuition and found out that they take American credit cards and my US Bank check card worked fine.

The bank exchange rate right now is 6.95rmb/ 1 usd, and tuition cost about 1,800.

Walked over to the Cernet building right next to the west gate to get legit internet on my computer, cost 140rmb a month plus a 50 rmb fee. I didn’t have much cash on me so I only paid enough for 2 months. Unfortunately its through Ethernet cable, but turns out my roommate doesn’t have a laptop so we don’t have to get a router.

I haven’t paid my room fee yet but I think its about 60rmb a day, but by this time at 5 I was really tired from walking and scrounging for Chinese vocab so I went back to my room and fell asleep watching Harry potter and the Goblet of Fire with Korean subtitles, wish I stayed up to finish it cuz I like that movie.

Tomorrow we have the placement test, I’m hoping to place in Level C or D so I can get challenged and take something out of this trip.

Several realizations occur that I wish someone told me ahead of time

Not all phone cards work. I bought a 100RMB phone card for 35rmb but it was with some other company and I already scratched the back so I couldn’t return it.

I think Chinese people are grumpy in the way they are because they haven’t experienced the feeling of drying their clothes with a dryer and the amazing smell of dryer sheets or sleeping in fresh blankets that just came out of the dryer. China desperately needs the fresh scent of spring rain.

Pretty much everything shuts down during lunchtime for about 2 hours, so between 12-2 you can’t get anything done around school.

People think something's wrong when you step aside and let them through the door first.

Here it never seems like I can bask in the glow of self accomplishment because after I finish one seemingly difficult task in Chinese, I have to literally walk half a mile and take care of something else on my huge list of things to do.