Semester 1

Chapter II: Fuck You (September 10 – September 15, 2016)

They don’t really give a fuck about you. I guess it’s the ridiculous number of people in the country… There’s no time for acting nicely, there’s no time for explaining, there’s no way to organize shit in an efficient way one would expect from one of the top ranked universities in China. Nobody really knows shit and 90% of events I've been to were 100% Chinese. Having experience from working for an international office of the second largest university in the Czech Republic, the local approach is just beyond me.

no idea what's going on

very rough idea on what's going on

You don’t receive sufficient info, it’s virtually impossible to find responsible persons for your administrative and academic matters and if you finally think you got one, it turns out shortly that he/she actually knows jackshit, and the info you’ve received is completely wrong. The number of WTF moments I’ve experienced since my arrival has been just too damn high. At least you you don't get bored - at the end of the day it's kinda fun. I enjoy chaos.

 

On another note, my dorm roomie is a completely neutral Japanese guy. He wrote down my name as the very first thing and addresses me properly ever since. I didn’t write down anything and still don’t have a clue what his name is. You know how you got two types of Japanese men? Either it’s this super swaggy anime kinda guy or super nerdy engineering dude. Mine is the latter. His English sucks but he cleans and he probably thinks I’m in a gang, cause he treats me very nicely, does not disturb me and lets the lights on when he goes to sleep – he’s a G.

Dorms suck though. Haven’t ever lived like this, never will again. The type of people you meet in halls is just bizarre. They seem like a specific species who hardly leave the place and the whole building smells like weird depression. Plus you cannot really hang out with your friends at your place, you cannot really bring girls over, they lock up the door from midnight till 5:30 and there’s no proper kitchen in the building. It just sucks. On top of that, the campus is super far from the city center and so far I haven’t really tasted the real Shanghai. Gonna move out asap.

 

The campus itself is huge. Lots of people use bikes or scooters to move around and everything around here is cheap. You can get a decent (after some struggle even vegan) meal for around 1 EUR. Stores are pretty cheap too, fruits look shitty as hell, but hey – this is China. Pollution in the air, chemicals in the food, let’s get it! Gym is like 30 cents, there’s an athletic oval right in front of the dorms plus and I got myself a road bike too - I’m covered. I also managed to get hammered on the first international student party in a bar nearby which led to a foundation of what appears to be my first circle of fellow fuck ups. Eventually there was just four of us left drinking at the table.

What’s next? Let’s find a room in the city center and kick off the big city life!

Highlights:

• Chinese receptionist hysterically screaming at me and my friend for about 10 minutes, cause we arrived around 2 a. m. from a bar. Not understanding a word she said, we gave her our student cards and she wrote something down. I guess that was the tipping point – no more dorms.
• Getting a pack of real coffee! Took me forever. French press in da house y’all!
• Travis Scott’s and M.I.A.’s new albums, Die Antwoord’s new single. It has nothing to do with China but still….