The day.

15/02/2014 - This is the day. Yes, we have to go to school and we don’t know what to expect. We take a minibus instead of a taxi, as it is cheaper than a taxi (this time we should have taken two taxis) and they took us to school. It was 150 yuan, so 50 yuan per person, not bad. On our trip we start realizing that around the campus there is nothing. We would like to live outside, but where­­­?? We arrive at the campus an it is all so confused. You have to go to certain procedures, so difficult to understand. Step one: have ready 200 yuan, you will need them to your temporary card. Two girls will give you a brown envelope with a lot of documents inside. Step two: get your room. We would like to live outside the campus, so to have a room just for few days and at the beginning they told us we can’t, then we manage to have one. We also bought a sim card, a China Unicom one. It is 50 yuan, plus 36 yuan per month for 1.5 giga of internet. Step three/four: pay the tuition fee. For this step, you have to go to a bank (by a free minibus, because it was fifteen minutes by car, but in few days they will open a bank on the campus). Once in the bank, there was a nice girl of the university that help us. So many time to open this bank account! You need to get your room first because you have to have an address, and you also need a telephone number. After I think an hour we went out for lunch with this Chinese girl and we ate in a small “restaurant” near the bank. The owner suggested us a carp soup with many other things inside, I didn’t like it very much. It was a C restaurant: this mean, a very bad restaurant for hygiene. In Xiamen they have to display which letter the inspector gave them, an most of the restaurants are C restaurants. Just to tell you, the B ones are KFC and Pizza Hut, maybe they are too strict with marks. I also bought a blanket and a sheet for my bed for 80yuan, but they are too small, or the bed is too big, but it doesn’t matter, I will use it for just a couple of week. I’m happy I save money on this, because on the campus the cheapest was over 100 RMB. Step five: you must buy an insurance (even if you have already one) only if you stay here for more than six months. Step six: get some copy of your passport (it’s free). Step seven: you have to fill in a very short document an stick your photo on it. Step eight: have a digital photo taken. Now, after at least five hour going here and there, you can imagine how beautiful my face was. And there was also some wind. Step nine: give the documents to a girl, and she will give you back your student ID card, a sort of passport. Then, finally I can reach my apartment: fifth floor (for Chinese, fourth floor for European) with no lift. Again, shit. Keep in mind that I have two pieces of luggage of 20 kilos each. Once arrived in the apartment (so dirty, someone save me), I realize that there were already two people in my room. I ask for help and the girl at step number two told me that everything was ok, that maybe one person put her things on two beds (why?!). So I waited for her, but nothing. I went to the supermarket to buy some things, like toilet paper, water and tissues, and when I came back she was not in the room. I went out for dinner with my Italian friends and a polish girl living with Fabiola, but the canteen was already closed. So we went out of the east gate to get some food in the only “commercial street” near the school. There are a lot of small restaurants here, and we spent just 14 yuan each. When I came back I met my roommate finally! She is 19, and she is from Sweden. Perfect! In the night it is too cold, I don’t sleep.