“We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfilment”.
– Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953).
Well…I did it…I made it all the way over to China in one piece (*award show clapping*). Having already survived one week here in Shanghai I’ve already learnt so many new things and met some amazing new people, this is how my first week was mapped out:
Day 1 (9/9/2018)- Arrived at Pudong International Airport
After a gruelling 11-hour flight we FINALLY arrived in Shanghai…which is an experience…I’ve never had my fingerprints scanned so many times. As we made our way through security and collected our luggage, we entered what can only be called MAYHEM! There were so many people waiting for passengers: taxi drivers, drivers from hotels, drivers from companies, it was crazy. From there we found one of our friends who had been on an earlier flight and attempted to locate our guides, which took a while, finally we saw them, with the other new international students, received a piece of paper which pointed out which building we would be living in and, together, we made our way out to the coaches that were waiting outside (it was sooo hot, luckily everywhere in China is air-conditioned, Hallelujah!) to take us to the university.
As soon as we arrived at the university we were split up into groups according to the accommodation we were staying at and from there we walked to our buildings, paid accommodation fees for the semester and the room deposit, got our keys and settled into our new rooms and introduced ourselves to our new roommates and vice versa (luckily mine was a friend from my uni back in the UK).
And that’s when I was greeted by an old nemesis…JET LAG. It felt like I was just punched by Muhammad Ali and shot with a poisonous dart AT THE SAME TIME, I have never felt that ill before in my life, I couldn’t eat, didn’t have any water I was able to drink and it was only 10-11am here in China. I think I slept a total of 13-14 hours and woke up at 4 am and watched the sunrise over Shanghai, which to be fair is an unreal experience because I’m a person who usually doesn’t wake up until 9-10 am but it was beautiful to watch.
And with that, day 1 was over.
Day 2 (10/9/2018)- Registration
Day 2 was a very long day. In the morning (8:30am) we walked to our registration building and were greeted with several very long queues, so we got into the queue for the photocopier and then moved into the long-ass queue for the material collection, we were stuck in the registration process for about 3 hours because of the masses of people who all wanted to register on the same day.
After we collected our materials, were given our campus cards and had been put on the system we then had to go pay for our classroom materials such as textbooks. We then sorted out getting SIM cards and bank cards and after this was done we were supposed to go and take our placement tests but we decided we’d do that the next day.
Following this we went to Global Harbour which is the biggest shopping centre in Shanghai and believe when I say its HUGE it is also underground so you can easily get to the metro station. The Global Harbour building is so tall I can see it from my bedroom window and every day it is lit up like a Christmas tree, it’s beautiful.
In the evening we met up with old friends for hotpot and a catch up. The hotpot was SO AMAZING and there was SO MUCH FOOD it was crazy, it was the perfect way to kick off our adventure.
Day 3 (11/9/2018)- Placement Test
Day 3 I was dreading. The placement test consisted of an oral exam to see how good our Chinese speaking was, and a reading and writing exam to test our skills. That was one of the hardest tests I’ve ever done in my life and I’ve done a 2-and-a-half-hour exam on just English grammar. It was a pretty disheartening experience since the majority of us haven’t had to use our Chinese for 3-4 months so a lot of our knowledge had disappeared.
After that test we needed some cheering up so went to the International canteen and bought food and milkshakes, which are SO TASTY. However, we did find some funny translations for foods and that’s when we started a list of funny food translations and funny T-shirt slogans.
After that we went back to Global Harbour, shocker. But what else are we supposed to do when it is literally only a 10 to 15-minute walk away.
Day 4 (12/9/2018)- Campus Tour
On the Wednesday afternoon we went on a campus tour and our tour guide was lovely and explained everything to us like how to use WeChat Pay and where we could go for food and how to use our campus cards.
In the evening, we decided to go to the Bund which is famous for its amazing landscape of the Pearl tower and other buildings. After we got there we took loads of photos and then walked around trying to find somewhere to eat. We ended up deciding on going to another shopping centre and getting dinner at their food court. When there, we split into 2 groups depending on where we wanted to eat. I ended up going to a Japanese fusion restaurant and got a sizzling (and I mean spitting at you sizzling) squid and noodle dish was really yummy and after we all ate some of us bought ice teas and then headed back to the university on the metro.
Day 5 (13/9/2018)- Medical Exam…eww
This was the other day I was dreading. For those students staying in China for more than 180 days, we had to wake up at 6:30ish to get ready and go get on the coach that would take us to the medical care at 7:10am. Once we got there, some people, myself included, had to go photocopy a few documents for the exam. After that we had to fill in a consent and registration form and were told to queue up to go through the payment procedure. Then we were told to go to a changing room and remove our tops and top underwear (like bras) and made to wear a dressing gown.
After they had checked our weight and height, they moved us to different rooms. Each room had a designated test attached to it, from sight tests all the way up to blood tests.
The whole experience wasn’t bad but I did feel a tad vulnerable since I was naked from my neck to my navel haha, however it was such a relief to have it over and done with.
When we got back to our rooms the majority of my friends decided to go to the Yu Gardens and look around whereas I decided I would fully unpack my cases and tidy up the room and go back to Global Harbour to pick up some essentials.
Later on, in the evening we all went out to James’ bar and I met my friend’s new mates, who were actually lovely humans, we drank some free beers and then headed home to rest up before our friend’s birthday drinks the following evening.
Day 6 (14/9/2018)- First Night out on the Town
In the morning, we had to go to an orientation meeting where one of the teachers explained lots of stuff about our university and what apps we should download that would make our lives in China sooo much easier. After that some of us picked up our bank cards and then we met up with some of our new international friends and went back to the international canteen on the campus for “breakfast” and whilst there we mapped out what we were going to do during the day.
Afterwards, we walked back to our rooms and those who had their bank cards walked to the bank to get them activated, which is such a confusing process, first off, it takes a while to wait for someone to call your number and to go through all the paperwork before having to create a 6-figure pin, yep you heard right 6-FIGURE PIN. Once everything was activated we put money into our accounts and walked to Global Harbour for some light shopping.
We then picked up some food from the convenient store for dinner and walked back home to eat and get ready for a friend’s birthday night out. The plan was to go for some drinks at James’ bar and then go out to a night club called Mint, however the majority of us ended up staying at the bar and then walked back home and, for me, went straight to sleep.
Day 7 (15/9/2018)- Chill Day with Air Sirens?
Day 7 was my recovery day from the night before, and trust me, I needed it. Pretty much spent the entire day in my room but it was what I wanted. When my roommate came home, I showered, used an eye-mask since mine was EXTREMELY puffy, put on a mask and went back to bed to…mend myself.
But, then came the sirens, which was very off-putting since we had never heard them before since being in China. They kept going off and we started to worry that something was wrong since these sirens sound like old-school WW2 air raid sirens. Later on, we found out through an online article that those were siren tests, so we felt better after reading that.
Yeah, not much happened that day, but after having a hectic first week I think it would have been a calm day anyway.
So yeah, that’s been my first week, its been crazy in some areas but overall its been super fun and interesting to experience.
Beautiful Rice in China 