My first day of school...

was a near disaster. First of all, I woke up way later than expected for my supposed 8am class and rushed out the door w/o really stopping to prepare. I met up w/ Elin (who changed apartments and now lives in my complex!) and we walked to school together, about a 10 minute walk. Along the way the lovely overcast skies opened up and started to rain on us. Good thing I brought my umbrella b/c I'm wearing my favorite tan suede boots today. Oh wait, no I didn't. That was part 1 of the waking-up-late-and-not-being- prepared disaster. No umbrella just an uuber thin sweater w/ a hood. Still, no reason to panic yet. We made it to the building we assumed our classes were in, b/c everything has happened here. The day before, our class schedules and locations had been posted for us to copy down...all in Chinese btw, and which I did not do b/c I saw one room number and decided there was no reason to look at anything else on this schedule. All my classes were in rm 306. Great. Easy enough. I walk down the hall eager to start my Fudan career when, I kid you not, Rm 306 was the MEN'S BATHROOM! Not only was this comical b/c it's the men's bathroom but also b/c who gives their bathrooms room numbers?!? So I go back and luckily Elin is there too b/c her room # doesn't even exist in this building. We ask a very kind looking Chinese woman where ours are, b/c she seemed to be helping people to their rooms. She shakes her head as if our classes are not in this building and goes to the window and points. To where is still TBD. It seems to me that she is pointing to the nice, shiny towers. So I ask, "oh the big building"? And she does some sort of shake and point thing that I take as no and rather to a very old, scary looking building. Hm...ok. So Elin and I go to said building and this time Rm 306 is there but filled w/ all Chinese students and a very large screen that says "Welcome to Organic Chemistry". (Am I back at UCLA? ;) Anyone who knows me, knows I have no business being in an Organic Chem class. And again Elin's room doesn't exist. Frustrated, wet and tired Elin and I walk around a bit and by now its about 8:30am.

We decide the first class is lost and instead go to the nearby Starbucks for coffee and to call our liason, Carol, to see if she can help us. And then it starts to HAIL. Of course it does. We finally make it to Starbucks and indulge in it's warmth, plush couches and very satisfying lattes. Eventually we call Carol and she meets us back where the schedule postings are and looks confusingly at me and says, "Ni-ke-er (my Chinese name romanized), your class starts at 10am. Why are you so early"? Ha..eager beaver that's me. Oopsie! Elin's class didn't start until 12:30 so she was safe too. Carol escorted us to where our classes were, not unlike a mom taking a first grader to their first day, and along the way I realized part 2 of the waking-up-late-and-not-being-prepared disaster: I have no pen, pencil, or paper. Great. Carol shows me to a stationary store that Hello Kitty barfed on and after finding the only non-"cute" pen, pencil and notebook..I think I am ready for my first day!

Ahh...with all disasters averted I settled in. Bring it on. Our laoshi (professor) comes in and immediately begins speaking Chinese. Oh dear. I understood..maaayyyyybe 5 words and begin to panic when she starts calling roll and asks every student to introduce themselves. Not just Hi My name is...I am from... NO...she asks questions and cracks jokes (which everyone seems to get but me) and these interviews last about 3 mins each! We were listed by country in roll call and the Japanese students went first and I swear they were fluent to me. But as she went down the list and got to the Europeans I felt a little better and felt pretty good by the time she got to me. Now, not only am I older than everyone, if not the oldest, in class but I also had more experience studying Chinese than everyone. It was slightly embarrassing when the 3-5 month kids were speaking w/ more fluidity than me and my 3 years experience (even though it was 5-7 years ago when I was in college, but I couldn't date myself!). I got through it though and it was quite interesting to hear all the different places everyone was from: Khazakstan, Turkey, Korea, Germany, France, Texas. There are only 4 or 5 of us from the US. It took me a while to dust the cobwebs from the Mandarin section of my brain but eventually it started coming back and I felt really good by the end of class. I have homework (awesome) and an actual 8am class tomorrow (awesome-er) but Elin and I are going to share some wine tonight and study together :) Yay China!