Leaving Canada was extremely difficult. Leaving my friends and family in Ottawa and Toronto was definitely the hardest. They made my 2012 summer amazing and that alone made leaving unbearable, but moving on…
China has been pretty amazing so far! Great infrastructure, great food and great shopping! To begin, the most stressful part of my whole journey was actually getting to Nanjing. My flight came into Shanghai which is about two hours away from Nanjing, so I ended up taking the train to Nanjing. Travelling by train myself was definitely interesting. People stared and took pictures. It was like they had never seen a black person before!
Upon getting into Nanjing, I ended up on the wrong campus, which is about half an hour away from mine and then had to take a cab for about 50 kuai ($8). Once I go there, I met up with the other exchange students and all was good!
We Canadian students definitely don't have it easy in comparison to the international students in China. I have 3 classes taught in English and all I can say is that it's definitely going to be a chill year. For example, the teachers dont seem to mind that the students are super noisy. My midterms and finals are open book!
AMAZING! (I think an exchange buddy ate dog though 狗肉) On a particular night, the Canadian, Australian and Danish students went out to dinner at this hot soup restaurant. They bring out raw food and you cook it in the soup. First we had to pick out a chicken. Literally a live chicken! 20 minutes later our chicken was cut up and cooking in front of us. They also brought out a plater with its testicles, liver and gizzard. Altogether is was pretty amazing. I can't say that I have ever done that before!
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So as great as their infrastructure is, their road signs are more like guidelines, not rules. People drive on the other side of the road and go when they are not supposed to. I have almost been hit by both a car and a bike twice since I have been here. In order to join in the Chinese road madness, myself and all the exchange students ended up buying bikes, so we can get around at night and take pictures of all the amazing things Nanjing has to offer!
Since you guys are about 12 hours behind, I have been super get lagged for the last week. I am still on your sleep schedule and it's horrible, but I'll get used to it soon!
That is all for now ...
xo