From Philippines to China; FEU to ZJGSU

I posted this in the FEU Community Blog...

Day 1: May 15, 2006.

We were at the airport as early as 7am. We checked in at around 9:30 a.m. and boarded at 10:45. Before, 11:30, our craft took off. Everybody was excited. "THIS IS IT" as many of us have said. It was my first time to ride an airplane and to leave our country as well.
Viewing some part of the Philippines from the top wasn't really pleasant to the eyes (just my personal comment and Tanya's as well).

Inside, I observed eagerly, how the plane moved, the other passengers and the crews as well. I was lucky since my seat was assigned right next to the window. I could not forget the view where all i could see was a sea of clouds. 12:30pm, they served the lunch. "Fish or pork?", the steward asked, I chose fish. Haha! It's almost tasteless but the side dishes tasted good especially the mocha cake. By the way, thank God because Typhoon Caloy never hampered our trip, but according to the news, the typhoon's next destination is at China (and Hangzhou is included). Oh my!

Around 2:30 pm, we were at the Pudong Shanghai International Airport, as we approached the land, viewing China from the top was a great sight since it looks like a big "game board". The airport was really fascinating (big, clean, and deadly cold). We lined up at the immigration, foreigner's counter (haha! we're foreigners at last!) to have our passports stamped. But the counter where Jellyn, Gino, and I lined up at moved so slow and it took us approximately 30 minutes just to have our passports stamped. The three of us felt lost and helpless, most of the people don't speak English and when we heard a German spoke in English, we felt a sense of relief and let out a big sigh. JOE from Zhejiang Gongshang University met us at the airport and he was able to identify us easily since we are wearing the FEU jacket. We rode the University's bus and we travelled for 3 hours all the way to Hangzhou from Shanghai (guess what! no traffic jam!). The sight going there was also beautiful, from the buildings to the trees! hehe.

After the energy-draining travel, we finally reached ZJGSU. The place is so big, with 107 hectares! Wow, isn't it? I dream of seeing a heavenly place like this but not so soon! The weather is chilling... I was assigned to Room 217 (of Building #21, the Guest House) with Bam, the magna cum laude from FEU-IE. The room is clean and spaceous with 2 single beds and a rest room. It's like a studio-type condo unit with a terrace adjacent to the University road. After 30 minutes of rest, we went to the cafeteria for our dinner. Foods served were pork (i think it's their version of ADOBO), steamed bean sprouts, sauted eggs with tomatoes and a chinese soup with extracted dried veggies. It all tasted good. We asked for cold water but we found out that they don't serve cold water due their chilling weather, so, we had hot water instead. Shwei is water in chinese and Ping shwei is water with ice. Haha! We learned about this from Miss Angela, the coordinator. By the way, Giesa and I set a goal for ourselves, we have to learn to use chopsticks effortlessly before the term ends! Haha!

After the dinner, we met the Chinese students who live in the so-called English Dormitory of ZJGSU, these students can speak good English and they are going to guide us in our stay here. I met Rock, Rambo, and Cristina, etc. (these are their English names). They toured us in some portion of their university while chatting about China stuff. They are really accommodating and nice.

Around 10pm, am back in my room. I stayed at the terrace for some time, just looking around, I couldn't still believe that I'm finally in China. but since it's cold outside, it made me believe that i really am in China already (haha!), after the long preparation before going here (from our NBI clearances to our Visas).

After some minutes of chat with my roommate, about our insights toward China and overwhelming encounter with Chinese youngsters (like us), I signed off and took a well-deserved rest. Though it's cold in here, we still turned on the aircon. Haha!

This was my first night in China!

Thanks for reading. Knowing that you have read this would really make me smile!

Take part in our journey in the Socialist country, China, through this FEU Community Blog! Thanks again!