I've been enjoying life in Yantai
(North-East China) for about a month now. For a treat I find myself going to the
brand new KFC which just opened up down the road; the rest of the time I stick to
the BBQd rotten eggs and pigs penises on skewers. Wash these finger lickin' good
morsels down with formaldehyde ridden beer, and the local delicacy 'Three Penis
Wine', made from two fermented dogs penises and a donkeys penis, and trust me, you've
got yourself a night to remember (and all for about a quid!).
I have class everyday from 8am. Learning the Chinese language (and I won't beat
about
the bush) is about as easy as tossing the first pancake on shrove Tuesday, without
any butter and no hands.... or even a frying pan for that matter. Each character
is like a Leonardo da Vinci, but drawn in an orange flavoured tic-tac sized space,
and many characters (despite looking totally different) are pronounced the same
but with one of the 5 different tones.
The University is a whopper, and is inhabited by 30,000 students; all living on
campus.
They live 6 to a room in three bunks, its literally mental. Oh, and bro's are strictly
separated from hoes (you know what I’m sayin’). Anyway, imagine 30,000 students;
each the only child and only grandchild of two parents and four grandparents; that’s
a lot of pressure to work your ass off and ensure you do some impressive sh*t with
the last few thousand years worth of your ancestors genes! This pressure to work
dayym hard coupled with the library closing at 10.30pm makes finding tens of people
studying in the 24hr Mcdonalds at 4am on a Friday night more understandable.
However, this does not mean that the Chinese students at Yantai do not know how
to have a mighty swell time. Oh no. Not when you can visit the number 7 (of 9) dining
building and head to the 4th floor (of 6) to the 'Roller Skating Disco'... for a
mere 12 yuan you can hire some top of the range skates and get your freak on to
the very best 70s Chinese Disco flavours. [I'll be honest, seeing this place for
the first time brought a little tear of happiness to my left cheek]. - Failing this
there’s always beach and beer; which is only a few minutes walk from my dorm.
Towards the end of Alex's Programme ...:
The course is going well, I have
exams now for it. I think I'm staying in Yantai until nest Tuesday then going to
Beijing with a friend from the US for Xmas. We're going to spend it sitting on the
great wall!!!!! After that I’ll be back in Yantai for New Years and to grab my bags
then I’m heading to Shanghai to start an internship with the McCann group which
will be interesting. Since I’ve been here I entered a Chinese speech competition
which I did in front of loads of people and won an award for. I also joined the
United Nations club, and had meetings once a week.
Me and 7 other members from the club applied to go to the Hong Kong Model United
Nations in Jan, we all had to write a 500 word essay, and we got accepted. So we're
all meeting up there in Jan. Should be interesting, but a lot of work. Other than
that, a bunch of us went south to Qingdao, where there beer is made, and celebrated
my b-day which was cool.
One more thing, the speech I did was one I wrote myself (as opposed to the Korean
and Japanese who just read a pre written poem), and it was called An Englishman
in Yantai (A play on the movie 'A Beijing Man in New York' which is very famous
here). I made a 5 minute movie with a bunch of my Chinese friends about my average
day in Yantai and it seemed to go down well. I’ll find a way of emailing it to you
because I think it pretty much sums up the life here, from food to class to entertainment!!!!
谢谢 (Xie Xie) (Thanks) Ya Li Shan Da (Alex!)
What experience do you feel you are gaining?
Experience of living as a student in China. Understanding Chinese culture first
hand - as a resident and not a tourist.
What is the best thing about your placement so far?
Interacting with the University Students. Learning the language is very interesting
despite being very demanding.
Would you recommend this placement to anyone else?
Yes. Definitely. Not only does one experience all aspects of Chinese culture, enjoy
the location and situation of the University (by the sea etc) and interact with
many friendly students, but on leaving the University one can take away a good knowledge
of Mandarin.
What type of person do you think this placement would suit?
Someone that is determined to learn Mandarin and has a real interest in Chinese
culture. They should be prepared to work hard and begin classes everyday at 8am!
Also, a degree of adaptability is required in regard to the very different food.
Can you describe a typical day?
Get up at 7am, shower, pack books, grab a banana and a coffee at the dining hall
behind the dorm. Start class at 8am (either Spoken, Comprehensive, listening or
writing). Break at 9.40am for 20 minutes. Grab a fried egg sandwich! Go back for
final class until 12. Go with classmates to number 7 dining hall (6 floors). Munch
some noodles etc. Play some pool. Go back to room. Do my homework/study for a bit.
Play ping-pong with some Chinese peeps. Tutor a couple of Korean children for an
hour. Go to night market with either American of Chinese friends. Eat some reet
tastey food, slurp on a couple of Tingdao beers for 2.5yuan each. Go back to room,
read a bit (maybe), watch the English channel (BBC24!). Go to bed at about 12.