Bastian and I will be in China for the next couple of weeks and will be staying in Kunming with a Chinese family. During the week, we will have four hours Chinese lesson a day, but we have planned many exciting trips for the weekends including Guiling, Dali and Shangri La. We are feeling like little students again, but at the same time are totally excited about this adventure ahead of us.
Time to say goodbye to Singapore
- The first day, we wake up at 5.30am, pack the rest of the luggage (Bastian of course forgot half of the stuff). We are starting to get nervous - we only know the family does not speak english at all and works in the hospital.
- In the plane - we have a crash course in Chinese and are trying to learn as much as possible before we arrive in China. Bastian is the only "waiguoren" (foreigner) in the plane - we are getting even more nervous now.
- At the airport we encounter the first challenge - the visa officer asked me in chinese where in Kunming I will be staying and why I do not have a chinese name (???).
- We are picked up by Fei Fei from the Yunan university - she speaks good english and we do not have any communication problems with her.
- On the way to our family, the taxi driver does not find the place. We are stopping infront of a very nice apartemnt (according to Bastian). There is the risk that the next one is not as good as this one, but I am anxious to see a better one.
- Unfortunately we are stopping at a side road, let's call it middle class housing - at least for Chinese standards in second/ third tier cities.
- We are nicely welcomed with oranges and green tea by the host father - from now on also called our ShuShu. Yes, he cannot speak a word english, we try our best to communicate with him. But his daughter Dandi speaks a bit english and is a great helper in translating.
- At the airport we encounter the first challenge - the visa officer asked me in chinese where in Kunming I will be staying and why I do not have a chinese name (???).
- We are picked up by Fei Fei from the Yunan university - she speaks good english and we do not have any communication problems with her.
- On the way to our family, the taxi driver does not find the place. We are stopping infront of a very nice apartemnt (according to Bastian). There is the risk that the next one is not as good as this one, but I am anxious to see a better one.
- Unfortunately we are stopping at a side road, let's call it middle class housing - at least for Chinese standards in second/ third tier cities.
- We are nicely welcomed with oranges and green tea by the host father - from now on also called our ShuShu. Yes, he cannot speak a word english, we try our best to communicate with him. But his daughter Dandi speaks a bit english and is a great helper in translating.
- Evelyn has already the feeling that the toilet might be noting more than what our chinese teacher described as "dunde cesuo"- aka a hole. And oh my god, she is right, there is nothing more than a hole in the ground and a shower on top.
Otherwise the apartment is spacious and we have our own "little" room.
Our room
- Went to the Park nearby their home,everybody looked at the waiguoren aka Bastian.
- We then had some quick food at KFC. Not allowed to eat more, since we will have dinner with the whole family. Nevertheless, we had the very strange feeling, that we may become a very regular customer here.
- Went home, the mother came back from work. She is very nice and chatty, but talks way too fast and sometimes with a weird dialect. We all went for dinner to eat the traditional Guojiiao Mixiang. Back home, the Shu Shu seemed to have promoted us into the family already, as he left the door open,when he did his business in the hole.
- Overall, we had to overcome our first challenges here, especially the culturual difference is extreme.
- Once we closed the door to our room, both of us had to start laughing, a mixture of being shocked and exhausted- and we are just at the beginning of our journey.
- Once we closed the door to our room, both of us had to start laughing, a mixture of being shocked and exhausted- and we are just at the beginning of our journey.
- Tomorrow we are leaving for Chinese New Year celebration to the host family in Weishan, a city which is even more rural and remote than Kunming.
No comments:
Post a Comment