Thursday, May 26, 2011

China Day 1- May 9th


Today was our first full day in China! I woke up this morning with very ugly, swollen looking feet. Note to self: I need to get up and walk around a lot more on the flights on the trip home! The day started by eating breakfast- the foods were very different from anything I had ever eaten, but also very delicious! I can tell that what we will be eating will be very different for the time we are here, but I want to keep my mind open to trying everything, because I will never have the opportunity to re-experience anything I do not take advantage of. Many people have been looking at us as we go down the street, and between our complexion, hair color, and cameras, you can definitely tell we are tourists! However, everyone is very friendly, and especially when we say "Ni hao" to them, which means "hi." It is difficult at this point to understand most of the language, but we are trying our best to learn! We started our morning by touring ZUCC.
While the student leading our outdoor tour said that to them this campus seems very small, to me it seems very large, and definitely a lot bigger than UNL. The campus is divided into a north and south side, with girls’ dorms on one and boys on the other, but they take their classes together. The architecture, some very different from what I have ever seen, and the greenery here are both very beautiful, and you can tell they take a lot of pride in their campus. Our guide pointed out to us the library and the dorms, and I thought it was interesting to know that unlike in the US where you have 1 or 2 people in a room, they have 4, 8, or maybe even 12 depending on what school they are at and how large the room is. Students at ZUCC are also required to live on the campus all 4 years. We next stopped at an ice shop on the campus and tried some milk ice- it was DELICIOUS! It had a strawberry jelly/syrup, combined with shaved ice and tapioca. It was also very cheap- only 4 Yuan, or about $.60 (approx. 6.5 Yuan= $1). I have also noticed that many of the females carry umbrellas when they walk, even if it isn't raining, because they want to make their skin lighter. We then continued our tour seeing the cafeteria and a convenience store. Students have so many choices for lunch, and it is all very inexpensive. Students prepay for their meals, and then take their ticket when they get their food, paying by item. We ate our lunch at the restaurant next door. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a feast! Instead of everyone ordering separate dishes, the dishes are placed on a rotating tray in the center of the table, so that the dishes can be shared. Our lunch included duck eggs and oysters, both of which I've never had, and also an egg dish, snow peas, shrimp, potatos, tofu, cabbage, and many other good things! I think the only thing I didn't like was the beer- I’ve never drank before and don’t like the smell of beer, but I thought I would be adventurous and try it anyways. I think the only way I am ever going to like alcohol is in some fruity “girly” drink, where I can’t taste it! After lunch, we went back to the hotel and changed into business casual clothes. We then had a very warm welcoming party by the ZUCC students. It was so cool how they had a banner hanging outside welcoming us to their school. We entered the administration building and received a round of applause from the students in the room. They seemed as excited to have us there as we were to be there. Many of the students in the room will be coming to UNL this fall or next. The ceremony had speeches from ZUCC administrators and also our group. Students also spoke about the ZUCC campus and partnership program, and gifts were exchanged. After the ceremony the students gave us a tour of their library- it was a very large building, and I was surprised to see so many books in English! That evening, we walked to a Walmart-like store, to buy items like shampoo that people hadn’t brought with them. It was a nice walk, because we got to see other parts of Hangzhou we hadn’t seen before, and some of the night life that was going on. We even passed by a KFC on the way! With its success here in China, I predict that we’ll be seeing a lot of them, and I’m excited to go there at some point and see how they’ve changed their menu to become so successful after their initial failure in the Chinese market. The store we arrived at was not only huge, but also very busy! A lot of the items seemed very inexpensive compared to the US, and there were also a lot of items I had never seen before. I was surprised to see the meat sitting out on a table of ice, where people grabbed and bagged their own meat- very different from the US, where people would see that as unsanitary. We walked through the produce, some of which looked similar to the US, but there was a lot larger selection, and some fruits that I didn’t know what they were! I saw several things that were familiar, including Hunts spaghetti sauce, and Starbucks coffee! However, these imported brands are expensive, and the Starbucks was 24.88 Yuan, or about $3.80! Ouch! Guess I won’t be drinking any of those any time soon, although that is probably a good thing because it will give me a greater incentive and opportunity to try drinks and foods that are local to the Chinese culture. After our store experience we were all tired and so took cabs back to the hotel where we called it a night.       

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