Arrival

English

Ni hao from China!

Here are pictures from the flight and first impressions from China.

The flight was surprisingly enjoyable and relaxed. We flew from Hamburg via Munich and Beijing to Nanjing. Since I am used to the longer flights to the US, did this flight feel rather short and the seats were comfortable and everybody had a personal TV. Therefore, the time passed quickly, eventhough I did not sleep as much as I planned to. Luckily, the time I did sleep was very restful, thanks to Valentin and Konstantin, two boys I used to babysit, who gave me a very comfortable pillow, which was extremely useful on the plane. At the airports I had company from Paul and Georg, who came to China with the same organization (NMZ) as I did. Unfortnatly, during the flight we sat far apart. In Beijing I also had the opportunity to use the Internet and could chat with a friend so the waiting time of 5 hours passed more quickly.

                      And than came the first shock. Paul and Georg and I had the idea to step outside and get some air, but when we did,  it was like walking into a wall, a very hot wall.  The air was so thick and humid that it felt like you could not breath and although we only walked a few steps we were sweating as if we had run a marathon. As you can see on the picture the view was also not very nice. The pilot had said that it was a nice, CLEAR day but we could see nothing from the city because of all the smog. I didn’t believe that smog actually was as thick as in the pictures. I assumed it had to do with the way the cameras worked. Guess I was wrong, already something learned .Anyway, when you are in the city you do not see the smog anymore, except as a always grey sky. We did not go into Beijing, but Nanjing is hardly less smogy. The weather over all is something we Germans have got to get used to: although it is grey it is not cold and rain does not cool down the air but rather makes it more sticky and heavy.

               Continuing on with what we actually did in China. Robert Li, our contact person with the chinese organization Amity, picked us up at the airport and brought us to a very nice hostel   right downtown. Paul, George and I went to get something to eat and drink. We saw a lot of exotic foods and are excited to try them all. A little story about the supermarket: I was walking down an aisle and heard somebody running behind me so I turned around to be able to move aside if necessary. The moment I turned, the little boy which had been running after me, froze in his steps, got huge eyes and ran back to his father and hid behind his legs till I was gone!

 When we returned to the hostel, we finally met all the other volunteers including the two girls that will be going with me to the same place and school. We all get along very well, even after only such a short time. One of the girls , who is going with me to Yumen studied Chinese and already lived in China for one year. This makes me very happy because I am hoping she can teach me lots of Chinese.

Today, Friday, August 8th we all drove to a city nearby called Yangzhou, where we will have an orientation for about two weeks. We did not do much yet as we arrived late in the evening, but already we were introduced to our tutors, who will help us get adjusted. My tutors name is May (at least her European Name) and she is very small and shy. At night we went to Walmart to get some necessary things and I can say it’s the same as in America!

Generally, I can say that everything really is as it is depicted in pictures and on TV, which irritates me a little, but not in a bad way. But I have to say it is not as dirty as everybody says and as I had consequently imagined it.

ByeBye

Nina