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Life in China: Observations #2

Deodorant what? I order mine from taobao, as I've yet to meet a deodorant out in the wild. Seriously, none of the beauty or health stores carry it, so taobao has been a great help

The bathrooms The public bathrooms tend to be the squat kind (malls and places frequently patronized by foreigners excluded) and you'll have to bring your own toiletpaper and other hygiene items with you. Some places do have the odd western stall amidst the squat stalls, but nonetheless they are the expection. This is in a pretty big city, so expect western style bathrooms to be more rare in more rural areas.

VPN can be a hit or miss It's good to have a few vpns as backups in case one starts glitching and doesn't work (it actually happened a few days ago and after 15 min I caved in and bought the premium version for my free backup only for my current one to start working later). Not all vpns work in china, so it's important to do some research before buying any.

Getting stared at It happens everywhere, even in big cities, but after a while you get used to it.

Food is affordable My uni canteen breakfast costs around 1-2 euros, whereas the same meal at a local cafe would be 7-10 euros back at home

Eating out is common Sure you can cook, but it's much cheaper to go out to eat, especially to the local non-touristy places. In a lot of them you just scan a code that's on the table and order and pay from your phone so there's not a lot of in-person interaction other than saying thanks when the food is brought out to you.

Taking the initiative with friends Making friends with people is always great, but ever so often you will have to take the initiative to do things especially with your Chinese friends.

Bottled water is the way to go Everyone drinks bottled water. Local people, tourists, expats, pretty much no one drinks tap water. The explorer in me wants to try it out, and maybe see how much sips I can have before something (probably bad) happens but past experience says no :/

Private hospitals are more convenient Yes, they may be more expensive but if you can afford to pay a bit more it's always worth it. The staff speak English, which is very useful if you don't speak Chinese or if you have a complex issue that requires very specific vocab that you never learned.

Life in China #9 The microwave saga

Dorm life has had its ups and downs so far, but the absurd shenanigans that people get up to has been kind of worth it.

We aren't allowed to use and store our own electrical appliances like mini-rice cookers, or self-cooking stove things outside of the kitchen, so some people have been sneakily using them because you need to sign up for your own kitchen storage space and have all your items properly labeled.

However, someone got busted using a microwave in the men's bathroom last week. Points for creativity but the bathroom??

Apparently the dorm staff are cracking down on illegal cooking appliance use, and the microwaves are the first to go.

Life in China: Observations #3

Vitamins/supplements are necessary Especially Calcium and Vit D. Dairy isn't really that big of a thing here (milk boba tea does not count!!), and with cheese being a mythical creature Calcium and vit D are quite useful.

The city never sleeps The big cities at least are always loud and active.

Sugary drinks Sugar is everywhere. From milk-tea to coffee, everything is pretty sweet. Even some of the bread is sweet as I discovered when eating a sandwich.

Interesting flavours Cucumber-flavoured crisps to cheese-flavoured coffee. Whatever flavour combination you deem too outlandish to be true, chances are its real.

Face masks People wear masks for a few main reasons; Fashion, against the cold, against illness and against the air pollution

The aforementioned air pollution It's a thing everywhere. The AQI index thing does not play about. The cold months are the worst, so you'll see people wearing masks very often.

Taobao I mentioned Taobao previously, but seriously. You can buy anything on Taobao. Literally. Clothes, makeup, household items, vitamins. I even saw some people selling rabbits. And other animals, but you get my point.

The New Year isn't that much of a thing here. It's celebrated but not to the extent that the Lunar New Year is celebrated from what I've heard.

The transport/travel system is pretty well connected. Getting around China has little difficulties. The only issue is getting out or into China especially if you're from a european country that doesn't have that many international flights.

Life in China : The Zoo 🐯🐠🦩•°•°•°•°°~

Life in China Observations #4

It's been a while since I last did this, so let's go again!

Identity is complicated The question "where are you from" can be just as complicated as it is simple. For many people, their country of birth is where they're from, which is usually the case here. However, if you happen to be born in country A to parents from cultures B and C, immigrated and became a citizen of country D and now attend university in country E and are now on an exchange program in China, the question "where are you from" is not that easily answered. From what some of my friends told me, where you're from is actually the place where your dad was born in even though you may have been born in a different city which is a pretty interesting concept known as the "ancestral home" - 祖籍 (zǔjí) or 籍贯 (jígùan).

You have to make the first step I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but people are constantly doing something and unless you specifically and intentionally reach out and work on your friendship, you may end up drifting apart. Maybe this is a specific thing, but back home I could go a few weeks without really reaching out to my friends and then someone would suggest grabbing lunch together and it would be like no time had passed at all since we last saw each other. Here? Quite different.

Beauty and pop trends There are all sorts of weird and wonderful trends that you can come across in China. From using bread as a study tactic to decorating your workplace with banana plants, I feel like the more I assimilate here, the bigger the reverse culture shock will be when I go back home, and not just for me. dr.candiselin covers some of these trends on Instagram (not a promo post!), and I recommend checking out her content, it's quite brilliant.

Taobao You can buy anything on taobao. Literally. I saw someone selling a house there. I was previously a little shocked to see animals such as cats and bunnies being sold, but after seeing houses and cars being sold I honestly don't know what else is there to surprise me with.

Prepare in advance (foodwise) for the lunar new year During those 8-12ish days during the holdiays a lot of stores were closed. The convenience store outside my campus was open thank God, because otherwise I would have been living on instant porridge and instant soup which was my main food source 2 weeks prior due to being ill and there is only so much instant oatmeal that you can eat before slightly losing it.

Being ill is a nightmare And I mean the mandatory-bed-rest-no-going-out-for-at-least-5-days ill kind. You need to go to the hospital or a clinic to get a note to give to your school otherwise the day's you're absent will be counted, and once they reach a specific percentage you won't be allowed to take the exam (which can seriously mess with your grades, even more if you're there as an exchange student).

The weather can change at the blink of an eye I remember back in December the weather was in the negative digits and then suddenly the next day it was around 20 celcius?? The very next day it went to 3-4, and even now in March it's very all over the place. The weather forecast is not that useful because I'll leave the dorms wearing my coat in the morning only to return carrying my coat, jumper, long-sleeved shirt and wearing only my t-shirt.

More affordable beauty products I saw some products go for around $80 online?? And here on Taobao they cost under $10? I'm assuming it's the shipping costs that drive up the price so drastically, and now I'm pondering whether it would be cheaper to order online or to travel to China every couple of years just to stock up on beauty products.

I was walking back to my dorm and I saw a group of students carefully following this cat and taking photos of it in an almost paparazzi way, and the cat just looked so exasperated? Like, yes you can take a picture but just this once I have places to be and things to do.

I wish I had taken a photo, it looked just like something out of a comedy still.

豫园 (Yùyuán Gardens)

Class shenanigans #6

Or in other words how I could have failed my speaking exam.

My speaking teacher decided to create a separate groupchat for our speaking class so that the material wouldn't get all mixed up, and she sent me a request to add her on wechat, so that she could add me to the groupchat. I added her back, but she didn't add me to the chat so I thought she'd add me later and forgot about this matter.

But as it turns out she didn't, and now less than a week away from the exam I started worrying because most of the information such as the exam time, content etc. was being shared exclusively in the chat so after class I asked her about this issue.

Turns out she thought I didn't add her back (I did) because she didn't recognize my username (my actual non-chinese name), and my profile picture, which was of this cheeky smirking cat 😭

It ended up being resolved, with me joining the groupchat but it's just a tad hysterical that all this was because of my profile picture.

Moral of the story: If you don't use your actual picture and insist on having smirking cats as your profile pics, use a name that everyone else can recognize.