Morning of September the 13th,
I give my school contact a call to notify them I will be traveling to Jinhua from Shanghai on this day. My contact
does not know English well at all. In order to ask me to practice repeating
after her the name of the University so I will be able to tell the taxi driver
she says, "Please follow me." pause. "Wongchongchingchong." pause.
"Please follow me." frustrated.
"WONGCHONGCHINGCHONG."
Me: "Wait, where do you want me to meet you?"
This was just the beginning of my day without
my China guide Emily, who I was dependent on and already attached to as a sense
of comfort in a foreign nation. It was to separate, time for reality. Time for
me to start a new year of school and begin to learn a new language, a new
culture, and new people. So off I went into the metro station heavy luggage and
all. When I say it was heavy luggage I mean it. I packed as much as I could fit
in my suitcases in order to satisfy me for 10 months. As I was going up and
down the stairs of the metro to transfer subways, in addition to getting lost
and having to back track a few times, I was wishing I could have traveled
lighter. Finally after heaving and puffing through the subways across Shanghai,
I made it to Shanghai South Railway Station. It felt like heaven when I
arrived: escalators.
The stairs were over with but
the stares had just begun. Everything about mypersona screamed look at me to
the traveling natives. My height, my hair, my eyes, my skin color, my clothes,
MY BAGS. I wanted to dye my hair black and lose the bags. I will be dealing with this
the next ten months so I better just get use to it.
I caught the 11:30 train to Jinhua.
Feeling a bit more relaxed. At least I had made it to transportation that ended
in Jinhua and
my school would be somewhere close. The next couple hours I spent observing.
The train was crowded as it had seats crammed in to seat as many travelers as
possible. It was a bit dirty too. Instead of coming by to pick up our trash the
attendant pushed it all onto the floor and swept it up. Odd.
Time was passing slow. Actually time was
passing fast but the ride was taking a lot longer
than I anticipated. I started seeing mountains and I got super excited for such
beautiful scenery, but at the same time my stomach dropped thinking about how
far from Shanghai I was actually traveling and if Jinhua would turn out to be in
the middle of nowhere China.
Five hours after boarding the train we finally stopped at Jinhua
Xi, my station (come to find out later on, I had taken one of the slowest
trains). It was go time again. I got my bags and headed to the train station
exit to find a taxi.
Once again stares in my direction, except
this time from the desperate taxi-motorcyclists seeing a "rich"
foreigner. One went as far as taking my suitcase and trying to put it on top of
his bike! I was like, "NO, no, no, no, NO!!!" Even after I walked
past them they continued to yell at me like they were going to be able to
convince me to come back. After much frustration with not
being able to speak the language I was able to find a taxi to take me to Zhejiang Normal University.
Campus: safe zone. Wrong! I saw some
African Americans and raced towards them to ask where the international dorm
was. They were African not African Americas. Another reminder I was not in
America, I am in China and I do not know Chinese. They knew Chinese and assumed
I did. The conversation didn't go very far. Luckily, they assumed I needed
something international and at least they leaded me to the correct dormitory.
There I met my roommate who is from France but she knows enough English that we
can converse. I was able to breathe again. She took me to the office and I was
able to say, "Hi, I am Shailee, I don't know Chinese
but I made it." just before closing time.
During the process of checking in the dorm, I met a sweet girl
named Nastia from the Ukraine. She has been here at the school for four years
studying while her mom teaches dance in a nearby city, Hangzhou. Nastia knows
English and Chinese quite well, so she was an angel when I needed help with the
ladies at the dorm desk checking me in.
She also showed me to my first dinner in Jinhua.
She has muscle memory leading her to all the tolerable eateries in town. To her
I am sure none of them are tolerable as she has been here so long.
Finally, after a day full of up and down emotions: scared,
frustrated, hopeless, helpless, fearful, excited, eager, impatient, yearning,
and head-throbbing, I was able to call it a day and fall asleep.
Fall deep asleep in my new bed as if I were going to wake up from
a bizarre dream the following day.
---I suggest everyone to do what they can to meet up with the student group at the airport so that you do not have to figure out how to get to ZNU on your own.
--- Shailee
