Chapter seven: An ordinary week

Because of the national holiday we had a lot of work these weeks, so nothing too interesting to write about. That's why I would like to take this opportunity to share the 'normal' Tsinghua student life. Ordinary for me, maybe not for you.

Daily schedule

So, let's start with my schedule. I have design studio on monday and thursday, for which I'm working most of the time. On wednesday I have almost all of my other courses: Chinese language (unfortunately this one starts at 8 am), Regional Architecture and Building Energy Efficiency Diagnostics (unfortunately this one starts at 7.20 pm). So wednesday's quite a full day. On friday I follow Interior Design, but since it's a chinese class and I don't understand a word it's okay for me to skip it when I go on a weekend trip.

After 8 weeks we will have midterm exams. Some courses will end (interior design and regional architecture), and some new ones will start after (History of chinese architecture).



Daily life

My dormitory is actually quite big, I even have my own bathroom including a normal toilet, yay! But as all rooms it could use some improvement. Luckily we have taobao in China: online shopping! You can order literally everything you want and it will be delivered at the campus the next day(s): I get a text message when it arrived and it's 2 minutes by bike away. I bought some hangers, a rack, a router and most importantly a fridge for my room. I admit, someone helped me to transport the fridge from the pick-up point to my room. ;)

Aside from those things I cleaned out one of my desk shelves completely when I arrived. Its new purpose: souvenirs. Right now I have quite a few already! :D

The food here is really really cheap so I never cook, but I do keep some snacks in my fridge. The canteens provide good food for 10-20 rmb (so 1,5 to 3 euro) per meal. Breakfast is amazing: cake, cake, churros, cake, warm milk. Hmmmmm. For lunch or dinner I have a new favourite Chinese dish: gong bao ji ding.

Last but not least I'd like to tell you about the staff and rules of university dormitory.
Positive:
- they clean my room every two days
- I get clean sheets every week
Negative:
- when they come to clean my room, even when the 'do not disturb sign' is outside, they knock, say something in chinese, don't wait for a reply/don't listen to the reply and come in anyway. Really annoying.
- every visitor has to register at the lobby (I once wanted to drop off some stuff at a friends room and they wouldn't let me go up for 2 minutes without the whole registration thing which took 5 minutes)
- visitors have to leave at 11 pm (once after movie night at my place they called my room telephone to tell me my friends should leave, it was exactly 11 pm)
- I cannot host people. :'(

Fun fact: I only have hot water to shower from 7 to 9 in the morning, and 8 to 12 in the evening. You know, Chinese government really controls everything...

Fun fact: when I booked my room in advance the university told us we had kitchens in every building. So, the 'kitchen' is an empty room on every floor. My floor doesn't even have a kitchen.

Daily communication

Wechat. This app is soooo amazing, it really deserves its own spot on my blog. It is a 'chat app' like whatsapp, you can text/speak/call/... it has an inbuilt translator, includes its own version of facebook, you can order taxis... and even better: almost everywhere in China you can pay with it!

Chinese. The language is not that hard, but you really do have to invest your time to learn it properly. Unfortunately my Chinese friends speak English too well!! So we always communicate in English. As almost all of my courses are english courses, my classmates and I communicate in English as well. Conclusion: I don't have that much time too study it intensly, but I do try to keep my eyes open and to learn new characters which I see in daily life.



Fun fact: even Chinese people don't know every word or character... reading it is like solving a puzzle. A character on its own means something, but together with another character it means something entirely different! Example: kai (open) + shui (water) = kaishui (boiled water).

Daily friends

Before the classes started we had our little 'Commander Gonzalo' group, but now I usually hang out with Siyu, Yangyang and Ivan, all architects in my studio. Two chinese, a german and a belgian having fun. I would upload a picture but for some reason we don't have a picture of just the four of us. :') I love them all so much!

Fun fact: Siyu and Yangyang are chinese, currently study architecture in Gent and are doing erasmus in their home country.

Daily China

Everything works with QR codes, especially wechat. It's sooo convenient! Want to know more? Scan QR. Want to join a club? Scan QR. Whant to share something? Share your QR. The whole country runs on it.

Everything looks old and 'broken'. Not because it is broken, everything works. But when they make something they don't make it to last forever, it will break down in a few months. They create things very fast and repair things very fast. It's far from perfect (e.g. you're lucky if the power plugs work in public buildings) but the system works. Typically China.

Fun fact: NEVER ask a chinese for directions . EVER. Their orientation is terrible so they never know, and instead of saying 'I

don't know' they want to be friendly and help you so they just tell you something. I experience this every week.

Daily THU

Tsinghua University is working hard to create an international image. Luckily for us this has some benefits! This week a South Korean filmcrew visited our studio to interview Tsinghua's international students: why we came to THU, our expectations, how we like it, what our plans are for the future... The program (Big Bang China) will be broadcasted on South Korean national television: EBS.