Nanjing, Day 6

The over night train ride from Beijing to Nanjing was a great
experience. I had never ridden the train before, any train actually,
and it was pretty much what I was expecting but even better. Talking
with all the other Chinese passengers was fun, they were all really
interested in what we were doing there. Just having a bed to sleep on,
no matter how hard or soft it was, made the trip fly by. I'm not sure
about anyone else, but I know I slept like a baby the whole way to
Nanjing, only being waken up 3 minutes before arrival.
We haven't had the opportunity to explore Nanjing at all yet, but it
seems like a great city. The first thing I noticed was how much less
hazy the sky is compared to Shanghai and especially Beijing. We could
actually see the blue sky over our heads coming out of the train
station. Our living situation is nice, and in a great location. The
bathrooms are kind of funny - more of a bathroom inside of a shower
rather than a shower inside of a bathroom if you can imagine what that
is like. We got our text books and and most of us got to meet our
language partners that we will be spending an hour a day with for the
next four weeks. Nanjing University is really cool, and I am really
excited to be spending the next few weeks studying here. There are a
lot more foreigners studying here than I originally thought. There is
plenty to do in the immediate area around where we are staying and I'm
sure there is much more out there that we haven't had to opportunity
to find yet.
We had a really great discussion led by Andrew Kuech going over the
main topics of what we have experienced our first week in Beijing.
Personally, I found it very helpful for us to all share are thoughts
and opinions about the huge mass of information we have been given in
the past few days. We will be doing the same thing once a week for the
rest of our time in China, but the next sessions will be led by the
students.
I feel pretty nervous about starting class in the morning since I'm
not quite sure what to expect. I know it will be very intense, and
will cover a lot of material in a short amount of time. However, it
will be nice to get back into a routine, having class every morning
and other activities during the day. I guess we'll see how it goes
tomorrow!

Mike McLean