One of the most useful things that I have bought so far is a new cell phone and a contract with China Mobile. It is very cheap compared to Germany. We pay 2.70€ per month and we have got 160 free short messages. No matter if you call another cell phone or a home phone, it only costs about 0.2 cents per minute. I think it is essential to have a cell phone in such a big city and it has been very useful so far. If you want to call me, just write me an email and I will tell you my number. I just don’t want to post it on this website.
I promised to upload some pictures of our apartment. We like it a lot and it already feels a little like home. Don’t worry, I have already decided that I won’t stay here for the rest of my life. However, this doesn’t mean that I don’t like it here!
On these two pictures you can see my room:
The living room with a huge TV (it was already here before we moved in):
The kitchen:
Here you can see the four of us while having breakfast:
So much for the apartment. One other thing that I have not talked about is school. I am taking both engineering and Chinese language classes. The engineering courses are called “Design and Manufacturing II”, the corresponding project and “Fluid Mechanics”. I really like Fluid Mechanics. I am even thinking of doing something similar later for a job. But that’s just an idea. The language courses are tough. I feel like I have understood the basics of the language, but now there is so much vocabulary that has to be memorized. I got to know a Chinese girl (Annika is her German name – Chinese students often give themselves English or German names in order to make it more convenient for none-Chinese people to pronounce their name) who studies German language and she gives me private lessons in Chinese. Today was our first lesson and it helps a lot. She is very good at explaining the grammar. Unfortunately, our teachers at the university don’t speak English well enough to explain the complex rules of grammar. I am glad that I met Annika. She is also planning on telling me more about Chinese culture which I am already looking forward to.
You can see my university schedule in the next picture. The yellow courses take place at the campus in the downtown area. We can walk there and it only takes about 20 minutes. The green courses are on the campus which is situated a little outside of the center of Shanghai. We take the subway to get near the university and then our bikes in order to get around on campus. It takes us about 80 minutes to get from our house to the lecture hall. If class starts at 8am we have to leave our apartment at 6:30am which is way too early for me. While being in the metro, I read a lot. This way, I don’t waste the time and additionally it doesn’t seem to take so long.
University is much different compared to Germany. The first thing that I had to get used to is the compulsory attendance. And because in the engineering classes we are the only four western students, it is impossible to skip the class without the teacher noticing it. Furthermore, we have to hand in homework once a week and there is not only one exam at the end of the semester as we are used to, but there is a midterm exam and also some quizzes. My first thought was: “Welcome back to school…”, but by now I feel like I have successfully adapted to the new system. Hopefully, the grades won’t be too bad at the end, but we will see.
By the way, these are the bikes that we have bought (next picture). Everyone has got the same one because that way we could get a better price. We paid around 15€ which is very cheap, but I have to admit that it is not the greatest bike that I have ever had. At least they are not likely to be stolen because of their low value.
IN: I imagine that I have gotten better at the Chinese language
OUT: homework and studying vocabulary
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