Jen: Eating in the Caf. It's a process!

I'm all settled in at the University. It's so gorgeous I can't even breath! No that's not the pollution either. The uni has thr cutest little strip of stores ranging from haircuts to baozi. To bubble tea as well! It's so cool!

I've had my first meal on campus and lemme tell you... It's an ordeal!
No English anywhere! We had a team member w us that spoke some Mandarin but he couldn't read it. Gah. So here's the process:

1. Get in line and fight to the front
2. They ask if you want rice
3. I pointed to which buffet style item I wanted and said: 请你给我这个。 Please give me that. DIshes are set up in rows but some are too far to point to. I chose a bean and chicken one. Rebecca had chicken marrow. Kinda eeeps...
4. Then you put your meal card on a sensor and it takes off the balance you spent.
5. Take your tray and grab chopsticks from the large container.
6. Eat (duh)
7. Put your tray on the conveyor belt after wiping off excess food.
8. Throw chopsticks into bin.
9. Realize you could of had free soup and walk away full but sad. FREE SOUP.

Over all I looooooove loooooove looove China. This uni is overwhelming for now but I'm sure it will get easier soon!

I'll write about Shanghai adventures later!

Jen: Getting on a Plane in 4 days

Slowly coming to the terms that I'll be leaving the country soon. There's just a few things that need to be done. I just got back from an overnight meeting in another city for a trip to Japan that immediately follows the China trip. HELLO JETLAG CITY. It's a 13 hour flight so that's what? 13 albums or 3 books or 100s of bad puns that Rebecca is gonna have to live thru. MUAHAHAHA. My bag is actually mostly packed! Most of the daily stuff I'll get in China!

I bought a book today that has pictures of Canada from Newfoundland to B.C. It should be pretty helpful to tell the students about Canada! I'm still pretty nervous about the language barrier but I've had a few chances to practice my Mandarin lately!

In 4 days I'll be on a plane and on a new adventure! Can it just be next week? Ahhh!

Jen: China Visa Madness

Hello world!

My visa has finally been sent in (after much stress). Oh my goodness. I was freaking out because my passport does not have my middle name but I wrote it on my application. Then I wrote my SIN number where my health card was suppose to go. So, fingers crossed I'll get it back soon along with a gauge into my credit card. Yayyyy.

In less than a month I'll be in China! I promise these posts will be much more frequent (hopefully daily) when I get there! I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to spend 14 hours on a plane. Movies probably. I've been watching a lot of those lately:

• Farewell My Concubine
• Raise the Red Lantern
• House of the Flying Daggers
• Painted Skin 1 & 2

I'm really impressed with them so far! Now to get Rebecca addicted to them too (hehehe). My next order of business is to make a list of what I want to pack... Any suggestions to those who have been? Guess we'll find out!

Jen Collins

Jen: Learning the good ol' 普通话

So naturally, since we're going to China I'm brushing up on my minimal 普通话 (putonghua). I'm in the unique posistion where I see a fair amount of Chinese students in a given day. All of which, upon hearing that I was going to China, were interested in helping me study. I've also downloaded the app WeChat which a lot of Chinese friends have to talk to each other. A lot of them told me I was the only Canadian they had on the app. Too funny! I also have a very extensive Mandarin Dictionary on my phone called Pleco. I've also added a Chinese keyboard to my phone so hopefully with all these resources I'll be a little further along then when I started. I usually just ask them about vocab or phrases that I think would be handy to know. Then I send them messages using what I've learned to make sure I'm applying it correctly! I have until April to practice so... 
加油!!! 加油!!!
My resources:
http://www.wechat.com/en/
http://www.pleco.com/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputmethod.pinyin&hl=en

Until next time,
Jennifer