Chapter two: Arrival and settling in - the first three days

Arrival

Arriving in Beijing made one thing crystal clear: they do not speak English. At all. Not a word. Okay, I could manage, I thought. Follow the arrows, look for English words, point at things to make yourself clear. Luckily for me, at customs control there was a seperation between Chinese people and 'foreigners', so me. In line right before me was a young woman. When I asked her a question we got to talking: her name was Sandy, she was originally from London but fell in love with China after a school trip and she works in Beijing as a translator. We went to the luggage claim together and afterwards she helped me to get a taxi. The taxi ride was silent at first. I tried to communicate, but soon learned we were not going to have a conversation because we simply did not understand one another. The closest thing to having a talk was: him pointing to the Bird's Nest and me saying 'Ah, Olympics!'. During the ride, he was constantly chatting on WeChat with (I think) other taxi drivers. We also took a selfie and sent it too them! When I arrived on campus it was 10 am, so more than a day had already passed since I woke up at home the morning before.

Settling in: the first 3 days

I tried to find my way to the dormitories, and while I was walking I met my first friend: Gonzalo. He's also here to study and comes from Peru. He was already here for a few days and offered me some help. I don't think I would've managed everything so quickly without him! He showed me where to eat - delicious and only 1 euro, perfect combination! - , helped me get a Chinese phone number and aided me in my search for a bike. We also explored the campus: it's gigantic! It takes 10 minutes by bike to get from the east to the west, the sport facilities are amazing - 50m swimming pool, here I come!- and there is amazing old and new architecture. The whole campus is alive: everyone is playing sports, and there is some weird 'summer army camp' happening: at least a thousand Chinese students are marching and shouting from morning untill midnight. To end my first day, Gonzalo and I went to the city. What started as 'Let's have a beer!' ended up as 'Let's see at how many places we can get free drinks!'. Seriously, I didn't pay anything and the parties were great! After a 36 hour long first day, we decided to call it a night and went home.

As I was very tired after such a long first day, I slept in. The second day was thus a lot shorter and I did some productive stuff: unpacking, exploring the campus, going to the store and buying a train ticket to Shanghai. Buying milk without speaking Chinese was a challenge, but so is buying a train ticket: it took me over an hour due to communication difficulties!

The third day Gonzalo and I wanted to explore the city instead of staying at the campus. Not knowing where to go or what to see first, we went to the metro station. Fortunately we got help from a Chinese guy, because we wouldn't have been able to buy a metro ticket without help. We ended up spending the day at the 'Summer Palace'. Aside from wonderful views, good weather, interesting history and amazing architecture, one other thing happened: I became famous! Suddenly, the photographers who were supposed to take pictures of the scenery noticed me and asked me to pose. I did as they asked for a few moments, but when I wanted to leave they didn't let me! They wanted more pictures, a lot more! It was weird, funny and fun at the same time. They also added me on WeChat and sent me the pictures afterwards. So cool! :)