First encounters

Sticking with the theme of this blog - I really can't promise I'll manage to do that with every entry - I had duck dumplings today (tasty) and the Nanjing famous "duck blood soup" (weird). Now, that's not actually a soup based on the red liquid, but the congealed blood is cut into slices and goes together with some rice noodles in a soup stock, beef in my case. The whole thing was topped off with a chili sauce, that they squeezed out of a plastic tube - my least favourite part. It wasn't too spicy, but a bit sour (a bit like tabasco, I suppose). Well, considering I ate this in the campus cafeteria, I shouldn't be too surprised it wasn't gourmet food. But I think my plan of just pointing to everything with the character 鸭 (duck) on the menu will pay off in the long run.

My foreigner count (i.e. sightings of other caucasians) was really low ever since leaving Shanghai (I'm confident I was the only "white" person who stepped off that train), but suddenly jumped because I came across a group of a dozen Germans (of all people). They seemed to be visiting the campus with a guide - prospective language students maybe? And when I went to the office for foreigners, I saw a whole pile of applications (for resident permits), all with German passports! They are everywhere! :) People in the university are definitely used to foreigners, nobody stares (ok, I don't exactly stick out, as I'm black-haired again at the moment and not exactly tall). And even off-campus I only encountered one old and obviously confused guy who seemed intrigued by my different-ness and kept following me around a store. In general, there are two different reactions when I try to go out shopping or eating - either people are very eager to help the foreigner (I am often enthusiastically greeted with "good morning" - at all times of the day) or they ignore me in the hope I will go away. I think the latter behaviour is an attempt to "save face", because that person feels embarrassed that he or she doesn't speak English. They usually become very friendly when I tell them in my poor Chinese what I want (or simply point). Often I am showered in a lengthy explanation of what I ordered there, to which I can only smile, nod and say "好阿 hao a" (that's ok). I bet the lady at lunch was trying to warn me about the duck blood :) Unfortunately, my Chinese is now at a point where I can formulate questions (and practise them for a minute in my head), which makes people believe I actually understand Chinese! So, from the answer that follows I often catch next to nothing. Oh well. Not too long ago that's how I felt about my French :) So, there's hope! Ok, limited hope maybe...

One funny thing I noticed about the other foreigners (apart from that group of Germans) - they all seem very eager to ignore me (so, ok, I am the one who's staring at the "white devils"). If I might venture a guess, I think we'd all like to believe we are the first, the rare exception, to go out and seek the "real China." We'd like to pretend the others don't exist. Let alone do we want to associate with them and fall into the trap of only hanging out with other Europeans or Americans. Sounds all like a noble and romantic idea, but frankly, if the university here wasn't prepared for foreigners, if the students didn't speak such good English, and if the authorities hadn't already implemented procedures for foreigners to set up residence here... I don't know how long all that burocracy would have taken. I would have to study Chinese for at least two more years before I'd be able to understand and fill out all the forms that were placed in front of me. So, yeah, I hate you other 外国人 waiguoren (foreigners), too, but deep down I'm grateful for those who paved the road.

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note - I solved the secret of the individually paid water bottles. They're on sale! 2.20yuan instead of 2.80. And I supposed to prevent people from stockpiling, there's a limit of one bottle per purchase. If I wanted two, I'd have to pay the full price for the second. So, the nice cashiers always get impatient, but still charge me for every one individually, so I can save 6mao (10cents). Maybe I should be nice and avoid the rush hour for my shopping. Today I got some promising looking fruit at the supermarket and guess what, it's all locally grown ;)