On the Train to Yantai

Wow, it’s been a while since the last blog post. Part of it has to do with not having the Internet for a few days. But lots of updates are coming soon because a lot has happened since we made it to Yantai. On Sunday night we got an email from the wise Sun zhaoshou (Professor Sun). The context of the message was to uphold the language pledge and that major class changes were taking place. Our class was cut to 5 kids, which turned out to be great because we got a lot more practice and individual attention this week. Other than class, one night I went with a few friends from AU to meet our friend from AU’s boyfriend who goes to Beida. He was a really nice guy and will be a good person to know come fall semester. Later in the week we tried to meet up for some basketball, but it didn’t work out. Other than zai lianxi he fuxi Hanyu ne (practicing and reviewing Chinese), we didn’t have much time outside of class. So our last day in Beijing we had another kaoshi (test), packed a little bit, and made our way over to Yao Fangzi (Medicine House) for the last time (for most of the kids on the program). So after the test, we all took a bus to the train station. It was a wild scene. People seemed to be growing out of the ground. The only way I can describe it is how my Chinese professor at AU described China, ren shan ren hai (people mountain people ocean). Now we’re on the train to Yantai. It’s a 14-hour ride with about 25 stops along the way…we should be in Yantai at 6:30 am tomorrow. It is really crowded and cramped but we’re making the best of it. I’m thinking I won’t be able to sleep too much tonight.

Alright we finally made it to Yantai after a long sleepless night and we are now in the Yantai University dorms. It already feels a lot different than Beijing. On the drive from the train station we saw lots of beach areas and huge freighters off in the distance. The temperature here is a lot more comfortable than Beijing. From what I’ve seen of the campus it looks really nice. I’d say it’s about 15 times larger in size than my school. The living situation will be a lot different here. We’re only allotted a certain amount of electricity and Internet use per month before we have to pay for it. I do like that we have a washer in the dorm so we don’t have to wait 2 days before our laundry is done. Now I have to get re-acclimated to a completely new place. The program will be a lot closer here than it was in Beijing since all of our professors are living with us. It will be a whole new adventure.