First Impressions

I made it to Nanjing and even though it's only been a few days, I feel like I've been here for weeks. If you haven't heard anything from me, it's not because I don't miss you all dearly, I've just been incredibly busy and the internet is a struggle. 

It seems crazy to think that just last week I spent 18 hours on planes from Boston to Hong Kong to Nanjing. But thinking back on my travel marathon, even in economy class, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the flights were. I flew Cathay Pacific Airlines and the service was better than any American airline I've flown. Tasty meals, a huge selection of movies, TV, and music on-demand, and we flew over the Arctic Circle which was pretty cool.

Your best friend on a 15 hour flight.

The Hong Kong airport is basically a really fancy mall with planes. As I was walking to the terminal, I had my first real "Woah, I'm the only white person" moment. Needless to say, I've gotten a bit more used to that feeling in my first week here, but it's still a humbling experience. Essentially, I have no idea where I am 95% of the time and everyone around me knows it. At the very least, I've started to get my bearings around the Nanjing University campus.

Nanjing is so much greener than I thought it would be! There are trees everywhere. Most of the city is covered in foliage which gives it a sort of "lost city" feel. Plus, I'm sure it helps with the air quality and, as my new host brother told me today, Nanjing is one of the cleanest big cities in China. The true downtown area is more like NYC with skyscrapers all around you and large open shopping areas. Plus, there's just as many shops and restaurants under the city and everything is connected with a complex series of tunnels that is also integrated pretty seamlessly with the subway system, which, by the way, seems significantly more convenient and clean than the T in Boston.

These are called Wutong Trees and they're all over the place.

Speaking of Boston, if you thought people were bad drivers in Massachusetts, Nanjing traffic is that times a THOUSAND. Oh my god, it is so dangerous. First of all, the streets are just as wide and busy as any major metropolis, but everyone is twice as aggressive so cars are constantly weaving in and out, beeping at each other non-stop, especially taxis. Plus, there are thousands of people whipping around on mopeds. These people a) don't wear helmets b) often have their child/dog sitting in their laps and c) do not pay any attention to traffic lights. Add the fact that pedestrians are constantly crossing, frequently waiting in the middle of the road like it's a median (there are no medians), and you have roads that are genuinely terrifying. Oh, and did I mention that most of the roads in between the main drag are too narrow for two full lanes but somehow carry two-way traffic? Even a masshole like myself can honestly say that I will never drive here. Luckily, as I touched on earlier, public transportation is convenient and very cheap, so I certainly don't have to.

That's another thing I've grown to love about Nanjing: the prices. Today I went out for lunch with a bunch of people in my program. We went to a little restaurant across the street from our classroom building and I had a large plate of stir fried rice with chicken and a glass of tea (tea and/or water is free in almost every local eatery). There was a ton of food - good tasting, mind you - and I didn't finish it all. I've found that the portions here are consistently larger than in the US. I paid 12 Yuan. The conversion rate for Yuan to US Dollars? 6.5 to 1. So for a large meal and beverage, I paid about what I pay for a soda at the gas station in the US.

Long story short; Nanjing is a really cool city, the dollar goes a very long way, and people drive like maniacs.

Now the really exciting part of my day today was getting to meet my host family. In fact, I'm currently typing at a desk in my fully-furnished new room that was set up with stuffed Spongebob and Patrick Star toys and a whiteboard welcoming me into "our new family." I am already in love with these people after 8 hours. But I'm going to hold off on writing about them more until the next post. I can already tell that this transition is going to be much easier than expected.

These people understand me.

So even though my placement test today assured me I'm still god awful at Mandarin, life here in China is great.