Forestry Uni here we come

It’s been something of a big week. Last weekend I packed up my stuff and moved out of the international student dorm. I wasn’t too sad to be leaving the dorm, but leaving my roommate, Song Lailong, was tough. I really liked living with him, and will definitely miss talking to him everyday. We will have to make a point to meet up for dinner weekly to catch up.

I put my bags in a cab and took the 15min drive to my new university. The Northeast Forestry University. 东北林业大学. My new apartment is part of the graduate student housing and on the 6^th floor. I arrived and placed my bags in the middle of a large stark room wrapped in bright white walls. The bright white walls have just been re-plastered/white washed and were a stark contrast to the visible deposit of dust on all horizontal surfaces. After some sweeping and mopping, the place was a bit nicer. Although the supplied mop consisting only of a stick with a shredded tee shirt attached really only got the floor wet.

There wasn’t much in the apartment even though it is furnished. There are two single beds, two chairs, three desks, two wardrobes, a tv, washer, fridge, and a single burner gas stove. After cleaning, I went to get some dishes, pots, and food. I got an amazing amount of veggies for $3 and spices for another $3.

On Monday I presented myself at the engineering college to arrange classes, register and meet the relevant officials. It was really interesting and everyone was very nice. I start class this next Monday. Casey arrived Tuesday morning.

We spent most of the week touring around Ha’erbin. We also made the decision to buy a second single burner stove and splice the gas line to hook it up. Now we are cooking in style with two burners. We also outfitted ourselves with an iron wok for all our stir frying needs and a cast iron griddle for griddle cakes and omelets.

After a rather awkward introduction in which building manager tried out his English, I was handed to phone to talk to one of the American English teachers on campus. Thursday night, Casey and I went out to dinner with 3 of the 4 other Americans on campus. We talked for about 3 hours about Ha’erbin.

Friday was Halloween and not much of a big deal in china. Casey, I and two other guys went wearing blue and yellow factory worker uniforms. After dinner at a traditional Chinese dinner and some homemade mead, we went to the one western bar in town to meet a bunch of foreigners ‘celebrating’ Halloween at the bar. Celebrating didn’t consist of anything more than a bit of drink and chat wrapped in costumes.

On Sunday I met the three Sudanese guys living in our building. They are all here studying civil engineering. Two speak some English and the third speaks some Chinese. Their first language is Arabic, but that doesn’t help them very much in China or at the university. They take one semester of Chinese and then 4 years of civil engineering. The only catch is the civil engineering courses are all in Chinese and one semester of Chinese doesn’t get them anywhere near able to understand. So instead they learn mostly in English from the internet. I have not found out yet why they are here or how their Ph.D. here is a good idea, but I will keep it in mind to ask.

Today there were snow flurries, but everything just melted on the ground. The forecast has a week more of mild weather and then a dive into 6 months of sub-zero temps.

Tomorrow on the menu: griddle cakes and hawthorn berry compote.