Arrival/Orientation and First Week of School (22.8-31.8)

Arrival and Orientation

August 22^nd

I got up at  8:30 and put toiletries into my suitcase. Then I ate my last European breakfast (I already miss bread a lot!). My father came from Germany to bring me to the airport. I was really happy he came J. We left home at 11:45, my mom, my dad, Markus, Naomy and me. I wasn’t nervous at all, just a little excited. At the airport we met the 2 others – Samuel and Pascal (actually we are 4, but one didn’t get his visa).

I didn’t cry when saying goodbye, I still think that it ‘s really strange that I was neither sad nor nervous. In Schipol (Amsterdam) we met 3 other people from Switzerland (French part) – actually they were in the same plane from Zurich too but we didn’t recognize each other haha ^^.  Two of them flew with Samuel and me to Beijing and one of them with Pascal to Shanghai. The flight to Beijing was long 9:15h, but we had our own entertainment system and I got my veggie food :D But still it was cramped and as usual – I don’t like flying. I’m never able to sleep on a plane, so I slept for only 3 hours. I was tired as hell the next 3 days in the camp.

August 23^rd

When we arrived in Beijing two volunteers came to pick us up. One of them was my local volunteer from Chengde J We drove to the hotel by bus with two girls from Sweden. It took us about 30 minutes to the hotel which was in the middle of nowhere (Beijing circle 6), that’s why we didn’t see anything of Beijing L

We were split up into Groups by region, I was in group No. 11.

We spent the first day waiting for it to pass and trying to stay awake, because there were students arriving throughout the day. I spent the whole day with Hedwige, the Swiss girl we met in Schipol. We talked to maaaaany many other exchange students that day and met new friends :))

Everyone was really nice and open-minded! There were 80 Thais, 60 Italians and 17 Germans and the rest were from several other countries. – a total of over 200 people.  

August 24^th

The second day we had orientation in the morning including a ‘Chinese lesson’ with Didi (Volunteer). In the afternoon we went to the Great wall ‘changcheng’. Our missing Swiss student arrived that morning so he could join us. We went by bus, it took us about 1.5 hours I think (I slept). We had to climb up the staircase and it was SO HOT that day. I died :D But I succeeded anyways and it was really awesome! The Wall is an amazing masterpiece! And you have a really great view. Poor workers / slaves 2000 years ago who had to bring every single stone up there. it’s so exhausting!

After the trip we ate in a Restaurant. Every group had it’s own Table J The food there was much better than the food in the hotel!

August 25^th

At the third day we had to say goodbye again. This time I was actually a little nervous and anxious about meeting my family. It was funny - all the girls suddenly wore long trousers (because of the families). A Bus from my School picked me and Carola up at 15:00. We drove 3 hours to Chengde where we met our families and went straight to a restaurant with them (Carolas family and mine). My sister was really excited to see me and my māma and bāba were very nice too! Especially the father is very warm-hearted.  

After dinner we went to the apartment of the family and I unpacked my suitcase. I’ve got a room for myself. It’s very small but nice J. The apartment is brand new, they moved in in July. I will publish a little blog post about it sometime J.

I gave the presents to the family this evening too. They didn’t show that much reaction but I think they liked it though.

First Week of School

August 27^th

On my first day of school I set the alarm on 5:50 AM, far too early! We ate breakfast (bread and milk (wähh)) and left home at 6:30 AM. We always go to school by car. I met Carola at the school gate Miss Jiang (our guardian– responsible for foreign affaires) picked us directly up to go to the police station to renew our Visa. It didn’t work our because the scanner was broken..

Then we went back to school where we were informed about school life. She told as about the school uniform and about the timetable. Class is from 7:00 to 11:55 – 14:30 to 18:20 – 19:10 to 20:50. School is 6 ½ days a week. That is so horrible. I still can’t believe it. And worst is that their skills aren’t better than ours.

Luckily we only have to attend school on Mo-Fr and don’t have evening classes.

Then we met our new class. We are in class Nr. 5, Senior 1 – same age as us. The teacher gave us a little time to talk and every one lunged at us, as if we were some famous actresses, so strange. We interchanged QQ Numbers, all of the students are very very friendly!

At lunch I went to nai nai (grandma – fathers side) with Siyang. She cooks lunch for us every day. And I eat MEAT (lovely). Then I slept 1 hour, all of the students do so because the lunch break is so long, but mostly because they’ll have to attend six more hours of school.

In the afternoon we went to do a Chinese SIM Card with Sister Li Ruo (Chinese English teacher), unfortunately we did our contract with the worst company ever, the internet connection is even worse than in Schiers :P. I pay 25Yuan for 500MB (approximately 4 SFR).

Teacher Jiang showed us our own small classroom where we have ‘private lessons’ in contrary to the Chinese students we also have a locker in there. Wi-Fi should come soon.

At 17:35 Carola went home, I had to wait until 18:20 for Siyang to finish class – we went to the schools dining hall to have supper. The food was delicious (btw hello SV group).

Then I had to wait from 17:10 to 20:50 for Siyang again. It was quite comfortable until a big insect decided to join me and my phone died. I turned out sitting for one hour in the staircase. Asia thuglife.

August 28^th

The second day started good with mian tiao tang (Noodle Soup) :D. Wo ai mian tiao!!

I got 3 presents from students, cookies, a calligraphy set and a bracelet that says Vivienne. The students are so nice to as, they all want to be our friends :D. Their English is pretty good.. well not like ours but like my host sisters, we can communicate J

In the morning Carola and I went to get our school uniform (awful).

In the afternoon we went to the city with Zekun, the Centre of the city is only 7 minutes from our school. He showed us the hospital and other important places.
In the evening (18:20) I went home by bus with my mother so that I know how to come home alone. That’s great because now I don’t have to wait for Siyang again.

We ate dinner at the neighbours. They have a 14 years old daughter, I played a game with her on her phone and then we left. The mother is extremely funny, she’s not in best shape and calls herself ‘fat auntie’ :D

August 29^th

Today we had to wear our school uniforms for the first time.

We joined our class and afterwards we had a Chinese lesson with miss Jiang.

At lunch Carola and I ate mien tiao (Noodels) with a classmate – Liu Xiona, I like her very much :)))

In the afternoon we had 2 Chinese lessons and afterwards a very funny ballet lesson with the juniors :D We only learned some moves with our hands and the correct deportment. Haha, it was so hilarious :DDD But I like ballet, so why not.

August 30^th

Carola and I played truant the first class (learning and homework class without teacher), and went jogging instead. We really missed our sports!

At lunch the grandma made Jiaozi (Dumplings) filled with vegetables and guess what… meat. My māma also came to eat with us.

After lunch I gave my uniform trousers to the courtier to make them tight (half of the school does that)

In the Afternoon we had a Taiji lesson with miss Jiang. It is SO difficult haha!! I after the lesson I had already forgotten the whole choreography (the first part out of 84 – miss Jiang told us that at the and of the year we should be able to do the hole choreography – NEVER!)

On my way home I picked up my trousers, the look way better now!

When I came home in the evening nobody was there and I got a text from my māma, that said that I should cook something for myself. The problem was that I didn’t know how to use the fireplace. I ended up putting the vegetable into the oven and cook noodles with the kettle.  

August 31^st

The day started good, with oreos from the school store. I wore my ‘new’ uniform which looks 1000 times better than the old one.

In Chinese Art we learned how to fold a frog, unfortunately I already forgot.

We joined the Sports team today. They are about 30 students, all of them want to join sports university after school. They train Mo-Sa from 5:40 to 7:00 and from 16:20 to 18:20. But we only join them in the evening from Mo-Fr. Then she showed us which bus we have to take to get to the centre of the city and we could leave one lesson before lunchtime.

We had lunch at Mac Donald’s :O And bought a few things because we had so much time (11:05-14:30).

In the afternoon we had P.E. with another senior class, but because the sports ground is being renewed P.E. is rather a game lesson than Sports. We played Pantomime, Pictionary and so on. And also the class ‘forced us’ to sing a song…

Afterwards we had a Calligraphy lesson with the nicest Chinese teacher.

Carola and I get on very well now :)

byebye

haha the last veggie meal...

Amsterdam Airport

Hedwige CH- Samuel CH- Italo - Vaïc CH

Heidi to represent Switzerland

camels @greatwall ?!

i love BJ :'D

Carolas hostsister

my hostsister - Luo SiYang

our 'balcony' lovely for reading

ide nöchi vo mim hus 

octopus

dance class

bread with cake inside?!