Photo 2: Model of the Hopkins Nanjing Center complex
After eating some delicious fruit cake (蛋糕）during discussion time
bought by Dong Laoshi and Alex, to celebrate Molly's 19th birthday on
Sunday all sixteen of us ventured into the city of Nanjing in search
of hot pot. We made it to the restaurant and ate an amazing meal.
Luckily with HoChiang's high level Chinese speaking skills, he was
able to get us a deal of buy two meats, get one free. We were all
satisfied and completely shocked when the bill only came to 300 yuan
(basically $3 per person). No where in America have I received a meal
so delicious and so cheap. You can't even get three dollar menu items
at McDonald's for $3! After the meal, we settled in for the night and
prepared for our first Chinese Language class tomorrow at Nanjing
University.
We awoke in the morning and all went out in little groups to find
breakfast by ourselves. I personally ate two large red bean steamed
buns (红豆包子）bought from a food cart outside the hotel for only 3 yuan
(less than $0.50)! As you can probably tell already, I am a huge fan
of the good food for little money. Our classes started at 8am and went
on until 12pm, but we had about three 15 minute breaks. The class went
faster than expected, but I know that my Intermediate 1 class has a
lot of homework. We have to memorize how to write the 50 characters we
learned today and recognize about 50 more characters for tomorrow.
Today was a beautiful day in Nanjing, about 80 degrees and sunny. We
all ventured back to "Bird Flu Alley" for lunch. Some people tried a
new restaurant, and others, like myself, stuck with the restaurant
Dong Laoshi took us to. I purchased six dumplings filled with pork and
soup (汤包）for 7 yuan (a little over $1). After eating we all went off
to study or take naps before our next group trip.
Our next group trip was over to John Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies (SAIS) in Nanjing. Here students can receive a
masters in Economics, Political Science, Law, Energy Resources,
Chinese Studies, and American Studies. They have a one of a kind
program that seriously integrates Americans and Internationals into
Chinese Academics. International students are taught in Chinese and
Chinese students are taught in English.
We heard from two current students who are taking classes in Chinese.
One student said his biggest struggle was getting to practice Chinese
with the Chinese, because they want to practice their English and the
English speakers usually crack and speak in English. Both students
agreed that the best part about about the program is having access to
the Chinese perspective that you can not necessarily get in America or
other countries.
After touring the campus and hearing all about admissions, we all set
off to purchase sim cards for our current phones or for little
flip-phones we plan to buy this week. That took a very long time and
it was also quite discomforting. It was discomforting because now the
government requires sellers to take pictures of the sim cards they
sell with the buyer's passport. This shows how the Chinese government
is tracking its people and those who visit. In America the process is
simple and anonymous � just go to Walmart and buy a TracFone.
By 5:30pm we were all pretty tired. It was a long day of classes and
adjusting to our new surroundings. Most of us have a night of studying
ahead with all of us having classes and our language pledge beginning
at 8am tomorrow. It shall be interesting to see how we all feel by the
end of this week.
- Rebecca Dodier
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