One Month Encounting

Somehow I've now survived my first month in China... How is it? Crazy. Things confuse me and if I see something strange, I am always just thinking to myself 'only in China!'.

So what confuses me? What's different? What's the food like? Have I experienced culture shock yet?

Well, one thing I think will always confuse me is breakfast. In China they don't really seem to do breakfast, mainly just brunch/early lunch, but if they do do breakfast (it's highly dependant on what province you are in to what you eat) it's normal to just eat a bowl of noodles or rice, something I'd consider to be a cooked lunch or dinner! Half the time now I find myself just having a small pastry for breakfast as a snack before lectures as I'm lucky most of mine don't start until 11am. Then afterwards I will get lunch like vegetable noodles or rice.

I've recently made the decision to adjust my diet for health reasons (this may be really difficult whilst in China!) but I am trying to be vegan/pescetarian, I can't consider myself vegan as I like chocolate too much and, whilst I don't eat lots of it, I'm not sure I'd be able to remove it completely from my life. I have seen strange food, my first experience was when I arrived in the airport and saw some duck tongues and the all-famous chickens feet! I try and stay away from the really strange things, I have eaten bamboo, accidentally ordered pigs ear and seen the worlds smelliest fruit (yes, it really smells bad!).

The food in general has always been pretty good and whilst I usually don't know what I'm ordering, I haven't found too much that I don't like. I find myself just going, 'well, that looks interesting so I'll try it', as the days go by I have gotten more and more adventurous. Maybe by the end of the year I will be eating something strange like brains or frog!

So far I don't think I have experienced culture shock, but I do find some things strange and (like breakfast), it just takes getting used to. There have been some days when I have been ill and I do want Western food or other home comforts, but it's been okay and I have survived (although with all the illness I have had we have had jokes it'll be a miracle if I survive until Christmas!).

When I first arrived and during International-week there were day trips arranged for the new international students and we visited some of the local attractions, including some museums and Nantong Street which is an old traditional part of Ningbo.

During the National Holiday (first week of October), on the Sunday it was super hot and I went with some friends to Dongqian Lake where I took a ride on a rickshaw, hired a paddle boat, explored a Buddhist Temple and watched a beautiful sunset. Over the rest of the week I went to a few other places sight-seeing and it was all beautiful! (Future post to come with more pictures, also check out my travel gallery and Instagram)

I have many places I wish to visit still and hopefully I will get as much done as possible in my year here. Currently we have a week off for National Holiday, thank-god, three weeks of lectures are killing me and I have a load of homework already! During the week I plan to visit many of the areas near to Ningbo and at weekends when I am back in lectures I will be going travelling to other provinces.

Apologies that this has taken so long to come out, I was supposed to post this blog about two weeks ago but I recently have been quite ill with pneumonia!