Almost there...

I'm not sure how many people who used to read my blog at some point put up with the scarcity of updates.

I spent 6 weeks at home, and a few days after I came back to China, my computer decided it had had enough of being carried back and forth, and gave up on me. Perfect timing.

An improvised laptop-hunting trip to Hong Kong followed, because unfortunately, it is difficult to get by here without a personal computer. Not only does everything school-related go through the Internet or Intranet (lecture power points, homework, grades) but many of our exams include a power point presentation.
The most common sight someone visiting the dorms will see, is every student neatly seated at their desk, in front of their computer, frantically typing on QQ (the Chinese version of Msn Messenger) or watching a movie on one of the numerous Chinese streaming television softwares.

Does that make Chinese university students (and myself) anti-social introverts? Not really. But the isolation of the campus painfully limits the range of activities within our reach.

Zhuhai is a Special Economic Zone, which means that nearly everything can prosper here - except for non profitable, cultural outlets. They don't fit in the city's purpose, it seems. Zhuhai is a city of hotels, spas, restaurants, malls filled to the brim with counterfeit clothes, socks and iPods. It is a transfer zone for shopping freaks on their way to Hong Kong. It is a popular day trip for tourists in the area, who want to enjoy the coast, cheap seafood restaurants and 10 euro Gucci handbags.
So for someone who finds clothes shopping and clubbing an absolute bore, there isn't a whole lot left to do. Many Chinese students are too reasonable to go clubbing or simply too studious to go on a counterfeit shopping binge.
Taking the overcrowded bus for an hour requires a certain sense of purpose, and lately I have been yearning to be in a city in which museums, cinemas, or noteworthy areas to explore would be within my reach.

This semester will most likely be less rich in new experiences, mainly because our week of holiday in May has been cut down to one day. Then, most of the other Frenchies will take time off to visit China with their visiting families, and understandably won't go see a place with me, just to see it again a month later.
My Chinese friends will either have class when I could go travel, or won't be willing to skip it for long enough (which is also understandable.)
And since there are no other foreign students to mingle or travel with, it doesn't leave me much choice.
I would go travel by myself, but the areas I want to see are not necessarily considered safe for a girl travelling alone.

Apart from that, I'm not bored. As always, I have more to read and learn than my stress levels can cope with. There's nothing wrong with this place, and the people in it.

But sometimes, I just wish it was easier to go out and experience different aspects of China than those I have already seen too often.



I will write an entry about my day in Hong Kong, and the pictures that come with it, later.

New address!

I just created my new blog, so if the link doesn't work in the email here it is again:

http://aliceinthefareast.over-blog.com

See you there hopefully!!

Last post on this (censored) journal...

I knew I should have brought a diary with me. Or at least a sheet of paper. So much has happened in just 3 days that I keep getting mistaken and tell people we have been here for 5.
But the main purpose of this entry is to let you know that unsurprisingly, my blog is censored in China. I'm not sure if it affects all of blogspot- apparently not since I can still write, but I will most likely change providers. As you have noticed I am able to write, but I can't read the actual page, nor the comments so it is bound to become a little frustrating before long.
I will send an email to give you all the new address on top of writing it here, as soon as I've created the new one. First I need to find a provider that isn't censored, which is a harder task than it seems- out of the 4 I know, 3 are censored and I'm not too carried away by the 4th one ;)

Everything is well, more very soon ;)
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Déja je m'excuse de ne pas avoir traduit les deux entrées précédentes, j'avais une méchante infection aux dents et après le voyage a commencé...
Alors je veux simplement dire que mon blog va surement bientot changer d'adresse, parce que blogspot est censuré en Chine...Du moins mon blog l'est !A ce que vous pouvez voir j'arrive encore a écrire des articles, mais pas moyen d'ouvrir la page et de les lire...ni les commentaires. Donc ca va me scier la nouille bientot, alors hop je déménage et je mets la nouvelle adresse ici dès que j'ai le nouveau blog! Je confirmerai sûrement aussi par mail...
Sinon tout va bien, et j'en mettrai plus dès que j'ai déménagé ;)

I changed the template back to the very boring blogger template, as I've had several friends mentioning they couldnt leave comments properly. I hope this solved the problem, otherwise I'm not sure what do to...anyone ever had that problem?

Aside from that, I apparently have an infection due to my wisdoom tooth, which makes me the proud taker of 5 days of antibiotics. Perfect timing really. I just hope it actually gets better. If it happens again I'll have to get the tooth taken out. But not in China. I've heard too many horror stories from past students. *shivers*

Countdown...

The month passed by way too quickly, and I am now in London with a mere five days until I fly out. And quite a few things have evolved.
For one, I have a weird toothache which on top of being absolutely uninteresting to you, is making me curse the fact that I have to leave in a few days and don't really fancy a trip to the dentist abroad, already. But no question, I'd much rather go here than in China. So please pray for my little tooth to get better before Wednesday. Thanks.

Secondly, I think I am nearing the tolerance threshold regarding my university. It appears that they "forgot" to tell our Chinese partner university about all of our required credit-subjects. As a result, they didn't have the slightest clue we were supposed to attend management, law, or economy classes, all of which have started about three weeks ago. Translation classes started at the same time too. That leaves the students that are there with a couple of weeks of the driest possible subjects to catch up on, but thankfully some are in English. Thankfully. And it leaves us with the perspective of catching up a whole month of classes. Some teachers don't understand why we are arriving so late, some don't understand why this or that student is even going to that university as they don't teach Vietnamese or Hindi as a third foreign language.
Both universities clearly have a communication issue, but that wouldn't be a brand new discovery.

On a happier note, we are getting there right at the start of a week of national holidays, revolving around the Chinese National Day on October 1st. I had originally planned on going on a trip a little further away, but that was when I still thought I was leaving at the end of August. Now it will definitely be too short noticed to plan anything big. Some of my classmates are going on a rather expensive organized trip to Guilin, one of the most visited scenic spots in China. It looks like this:
However it being the most touristy place in China after Beijing, combined with the national holiday context gives me visions of hords of chinese tourists excitedly roaming the place and ruining all of its charm. So I would rather wait and go at a (relatively) quieter time, knowing that it probably never looks quite as peaceful as it does on the picture.
So my other option is to stay at a Chinese friend's place in Guangzhou, follozed by a short trip somewhere with her, her (British) boyfriend and a Russian friend of hers. Quite international.
That sounds much better, the friend in question living on the university's gorgeously Cambridge-like Guangzhou campus. (The university is made up of 4 different campuses, the one I will be studying at being in Zhuhai.)
Her dad is a Russian teacher which explains why they live on campus. And he apparently loves to cook and share his skills. I will be forced to speak Chinese as both her parents don't speak English, so I will call this a perfect introductory kick in the ass. I'm excited!

I stocked up on insect repellent and all kinds of little useful things that I am glad to have with me even if I never use them. Water purifying tablets for example.

Aaand we will have to stop in Guangzhou for two days to complete our university registration, before heading to Zhuhai to get settled.
The trip from Hong Kong to Guangzhou will be an interesting adventure in itself as we will have to catch a total of 4 underground trains in Hong Kong, followed by a two hour train ride and a late night taxi ride to the campus. And that's if we're lucky and actually catch the direct train to Guangzhou. If we don't, it'll be an additional underground ride, a stop in Shenzhen to pass customs and then another hour long train ride to Guangzhou. If my suitcase didn't have a "heavy" label stuck on its back it wouldn't be so bad.

I'm amazed at how much I can write about even though I havent even left Europe yet. I hope it's not all too boring for you to read. ;)

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J'ecrirai la traduction plus tard, la pour le moment j'ai vraiment trop mal aux dents ;)

Where am I actually going?

I'm starting to think that I should maybe start packing, to avoid the pre-departure stress that *ahem* some people seem to be experiencing a day before leaving for Taiwan. ;)
I'm procrastinating.
Oddly enough, I started setting everything aside and weighing every little pile of clothes (on my just as little weighing scale) shortly after I came back from London. The larger scale accepted the suitcase, but wouldn't let me read the dial- not overly useful.
And the fact that I plan on taking *a lot* of books in my carry-on backpack, gives me these funny visions of myself bowing under its weight like a donkey with a packsaddle.

I apparently forgot to even mention where exactly I was going. I guess saying "China" means a lot more to people than the small-in Chinese terms- city I'm going to, Zhuhai.
I added it to the map so you can have a general idea of where it is. For the Geography lesson, it's situated in the Pearl River Delta, south of the huge and overly polluted city that is Guangzhou, and just across from Hong Kong.

For any of you who don't know, I will be studying there for the last year of my Bachelor Degree, and will attempt to solve the tricky issues of translation in Chinese at Sun Yat Sen University's school of translation.
That sounds nice.
I'm sure it will sound less glorious once I start my classes. Thankfully this year we will have a proper Chinese class, with an actual teacher. (That didn't happen for last year's "recruits".)

After a few attempts to find accomodation outside campus, it looks like I will have to stay in the dorms. The campus is veeery isolated (about an hour by bus to the city centre), and therefore doesn't favour living independently. According to those that are already there, we will be in great shape in no time since everything is far away, in that pretty seaside campus.
Since apart from us, and maybe a few German students the campus is basically foreigner-free, we share the room with other Chinese students, instead staying in a dorm specifially made for foreigners, that can be found at most Chinese universities.
So I will experience the joy of squat toilets and sharing a room with 3 other people. ;)
I will post a few pictures in my next post.

The particularity of Chinese dorms is that there is no kitchen to be found anywhere. The canteen and its sometimes dubious food is the compulsory place to eat if you want to eat. That, or restaurants around campus. Maybe dorms in other countries don't have a communal kitchen either, but I was rather surprised. I already made a pact with a Chinese friend, who also wants to cook, to join forces -and electric cooking plates- in order to make a proper meal. One of my first purchases will have to be an electric plate.
Of course I know all this from other people, so I might find it to be different when I actually get there. I will let you know. ;)

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Quand je vois le stress que subissent certaines personnes partant pour Taiwan demain, je me demande si je ne devrais pas me mettre à remplir ma valise, rien que pour éviter de me retrouver en plein excès de poids un jour avant le départ.
J'avais bien commencé juste après être rentrée de Londres, à peser chaque petite pile de vêtements sur ma mini-balance, à défaut de pouvoir tout peser d'un coup sur le pèse-personne (pas vraiment élégant ce mot) , qui ne me laissait pas voir le cadran... Alors 2 kgs par 2 kgs, je pèse. Et la perspective de ressembler à un âne de bât le jour du voyage, avec un sac rempli de bouquins sur le dos n'est pas excessivement réjouissante.

J'ai visiblement oublié de préciser ou exactement je pars en Chine, comme la plupart des gens n'ont jamais entendu parler de la petite ville (en ordre de grandeur Chinois) ou je vais passer mon année. Zhuhai. Pour la leçon de Géographie, elle est située dans l'embouchure du Delta de la rivière des Perles, juste en face de Hong Kong et à une centaine de kms au Sud de l'énorme (et bien trop polluée) ville de Canton (Guangzhou). Voilà, vous savez (presque) tout. Et la carte est au dessus.

Pour ceux qui ne le sauraient pas, je pars Chinoiser pendant un an pour terminer ma licence, et j'aurai la joie de tester les limites de mes compétences de traduction chinoise à l'Ecole de Traduction de l'université Sun Yat Sen. Ce qui sonne vraiment pompeux. Et le sera surement beaucoup moins une fois que j'y aurai mis les pattes, bien que cette année on aura la chance d'avoir un prof de Chinois attitré et des cours un minimum adaptés à notre "petit niveau"; dixit mon prof de grammaire chinoise de l'an dernier. Les étudiants "cobayes" de l'an dernier n'avaient pas eu cette chance...

Après plusieurs tentatives pour trouver un logement en dehors du campus, je me suis résignée à devoir rester dans les dortoirs. Le campus est si isolé (environ une heure en bus) , et de surcroit dans une zone quasi-industrielle, que cela rend épique la recherche d'appartements proches du campus...D'après les échos de ceux qui sont déjà sur place, on va se faire les muscles car tout est loin dans ce joli campus du bord de mer.

Et comme à part nous et peut être quelques Allemands, le nombre d'étrangers sur le campus est quasi nul, il n'y a donc pas non plus de dortoir spécifique pour étudiants étrangers, comme dans la majorité des facs chinoises. On partage donc une chambre de 4 lits, avec toilettes turques (je trépigne d'impatience) avec deux ou trois étudiantes Chinoises. J'ajouterai des photos la prochaine fois.

Ce qui me semble assez particulier sur ce campus, c'est l'absence totale de cuisine, même commune. Le passage obligé pour manger est donc la cantine, à la nourriture parfois douteuse, ou les restaurants avoisinants. J'ai déjà fait un pacte de cuisine avec une amie Chinoise...on va réunir nos forces et partager nos petites plaques électriques pour faire la cuisine du mieux qu'on pourra. Un de mes premiers achats sera donc la dite plaque...:p
Evidemment je sais tout ça grâce à d'autres personnes, et ma propre expérience sera peut être différente...

It all starts somewhere...

Like most of my friends going on a year-long journey to China or Taiwan, creating a blog seemed like a pretty good idea. Writing dozens of emails always seems like the last thing that comes to mind when experiencing life in a foreign country.
With less than a month to go until I land in Hong Kong, I seem to spend most of my time investigating to find out the various information our dear university omits to give us, and attempting to solve the unavoidable red tape issues. Perhaps a glimpse of what expects us over there?
I will do my best to make up for the lack of emailing that wil most certainlyl ensue once I am in China, by posting pictures and videos to show you what my life looks like there. After all, that's what I made it for...
Until next time, then...

Comme pour la plupart de mes amis en route pour une année en Chine ou Taiwan, la création d'un blog semblait inévitable...et c'est une alternative au mail quand même carrément plus pratique quand on essaie de profiter à fond de l'expérience.
A moins d'un mois avant le départ pour Hong Kong, je passe le plus clair de mon temps à tenter de grapiller par ci par là les infos que la fac ne nous donne pas, avec en bonus les inévitables problèmes de papiers! Un aperçu de ce qui nous attend là bas, peut-être.
Je vais tenter de combler le manque de mails qui s'ensuivra très certainement en mettant des photos et videos sur ce blog, après tout c'est à ça qu'il sert !