Arrival and
Orientation
August 22nd
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 23rd
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 24th
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 25th
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.
