Xi'an: Weeks 1 & 2

I'm not going to lie to you all, the first week was hard. Well, the first five days or so were pretty horrible, but it got better quickly after that, and I think most of it was just the overwhelming fact that I had arrived in China, and that was it. Everything was new and different, and it wasn't as though I hadn't expected it to be, but it was just overwhelming and I felt sort of hopeless against the tears that I seemed to be crying every day. I'm not a crying person usually, but clearly when things get too much, it's my only reaction. Which is awkward when you're idly sitting in class and then WHAM you start to cry, haha.

But aside from adjustment questions aside, which really cleared up within the space of a day and I was sort of astounded how quickly things turned around, Xi'an is great and I am getting back into the whole China thing. It seems stupidly obvious to say that things are different, that culture and expectations dictate different things, but I found it a real surprise to be confronted with the way that things were organized here. I felt a little out to sea, understandably, and while I knew that the teachers and the administrators of the whole program were there to help me (and did), I didn't feel like I knew what was going on, ever. For example, one day I turned up to class and they ushered me out to get a health examination at the local traveller's hospital (which is a funny story in itself)! I had no idea what was going on. Of course, it may have been a function of the fact that I'm here all by myself, having organized it myself and assumed that I would get detailed information on the way things worked, but I had no clue. Lots of people seem to be here with programs, or they've been here before, so they understand the system (such as it is), but I've felt totally out of the loop. Which finished, really, when I paid my last fee (for my room) last week.

Which reminded me to check my bank balance, and for a moment I thought I was terribly out of money. I did some calculations, and I was down to $8AUD a day! I thought, holy crap! How will I ever survive on that! Then I changed it into RMB and realized that's pretty much what I've budgeted myself to spend, which can easily be brought down if I need to. I love how cheap China is. :')

I've been out on the weekends into the city, which has changed a lot. It's got lots of big shopping centers now, huge brand name places, and everything's a lot more upmarket. It makes it more comfortable for the Western traveller, I'm sure, even though most people still don't speak English in the shops, but there feels like there's something missing. I'll be the first to admit that my memory isn't that great, and five years is a long time, but the entire stretch of Xi Da Jie has changed entirely. It used to be all little shops on a wide road, lots of trees, and all that seems to have been razed in favor of these multi-story shopping centers, and it's a little disappointing. Go down a street or two, and everything's as I remember it, but it was really sad to see all of the color gone from the main streets. Dong Da Jie is the same road it always was - shopping, shopping, and yet more shopping - but everything seems to have been been bumped upmarket a little. Nan Da Jie looks essentially the same (as far as I can remember, some big buildings instead of little ones but nothing drastic), and I never spent too much time on Bei Da Jie so I can't really tell. What I really want to do is go out to the high tech area where I lived last time - everything was always changing even while I was there, it would be interesting to see what has changed now.

I've met lots of foreigners, as you do living in dorms, but mostly people stick to their language groups. I've made a couple of Belgian friends who speak English - but one of them likes to speak Chinese to me - and a girl from California who I still don't quite know what to make of. I've gone out with people a few times, dinner and movies and things like that, but a lot of the time I'm just in my room.

The workload is fair. I get four hours of classes in the mornings - two sets of subjects, two hours each subject, with five minute breaks between the hours and then a twenty minute break between the two subjects. Then the rest of the day is free. Next month, they're starting some extra classes, and I signed up for cooking and calligraphy, which I think will be great. I don't actually know how long the classes go for, but I think they're all semester. Cooking is maybe once a week and calligraphy maybe three times - they haven't worked it all out, I guess it depends on what it popular and everything. I might go back and add my name to the Tai Chi list, even though there's the chance it might be early-morning Tai Chi. We'll see!

And the homework is few and far between. It's very relaxed, and you don't get scolded if you don't do the homework. The trouble (or the good thing, for learning I suppose) is that I'm in a class that's challenging my abilities in Chinese, so I can't just slack off like I usually do. I have to read the lessons before we go over them (tricky, when we don't always get told what we're doing next), I even read over my listening stuff so that I know what's going on. If I don't, I'm lost, and the class is much more difficult than it probably should be.

My dorm room is nice - I have some pictures up on my Flickr account, which is running dangerously low for this month, so anything else I take pictures of for the next couple of weeks might go up on the photo hosting service they have here at TP. Anyway, the room is nice - it was VERY stark when I first got here, and a bit of a shock, and though I've just cleaned it over the weekend, I seem to be settling into the place. Once I get some nice new sheets that are blue and colorful and remind me of me, I think it will feel much better. I'll also get some posters, maybe something to put on the floor, a beanbag (if I can find them??) and some more food-related things: mugs, bowls, spoons, etc. I've got the snack food all sorted, though.

So everything's taken a little getting used to, and this week still feels a little out of balance, but I'm slowly but surely getting there.

And now, I have to be off to star in a promotional video for a fitness center! Ta-ta for now!