First week (and a bit)

09/12/2010

First Week (and a bit)Wow, I have been lazy for a while
Well, I made it to Ocean University 中国海洋大学， other than the predictable fumbles with accomodation staff, due to the fact that they speak no English, enrolling was relatively simple~ China is very big on bureacracy, I have realised this and by god (any god) I hate it. I met Louise at the airport on the Thursday, so since then I've had someone to pester ^^ It makes it ever so much more fun~
Unfortunately last Sunday my purse got nicked whilst I was on the bus. It's a zip-up bag and was behind me for literally 5 minutes whilst Louise was looking at me... and they still managed to take my ourse out my bag without anyone noticing. Anyone meaning me or Louise, I sincerely doubt none of the Chinese people behind me noticed -_- Unfortunately out here i will never be a student, I will always be the white-girl (white=rich idiot), so whatever happens I'm always going to be targetted by scam-artists and pick-pockets. It's frustrating. Fortunately there was a total of 3元 in the purse, so he maybe got a dumpling out of me, but generally Chinese people operate in cash and foreign cards won't look right if a Chinese person tries to use them...
The annoying thing is that I was steadily withdrawing money from my account every day in order to pay the school fees. So I have muchos monies in zee bank... I just can't get at them. Arrrrrrghhhh!!! The accounting secretary was very happy for me to pay the fees next month, but the problem is: in order to get a student visa (I'm currently on a tourist visa that expires in 20 days) I need a receipt for payment of school fees (proof of student-ness).... PROBLEM. Fortunately my parents (LOVE) have sent my replacement bank card out, but there are problems, like the fact it's sent via special delivery - I spent 10 minutes trying to ask the receptionist in our accomodation building whether I'd have to sign for the package (UK practice, god knows what happens in China) and she just repeated over and over: No, you just write your name in our mail-book to show you've taken the parcel *head-desk* People are pretty self-obsessed here. Everything either relates to them or it's completely untranslatable