The First Month of School

The first month of school is now over and it has been quite an experience that started off with registration.  The initial acceptance letter I received stated that registration would take place between 1 and 15 September and recommended that I show up to the school during that period to get signed in.  I found out, when we first got here, that most of the registration for foreign students is taking care of student visas, residence permits, and student IDs.  I figured that explained why the registration period was so long.  Since I had already gotten all of the residence permit stuff taken care of, I figured I could show up on the first day or registration, get all of the other paperwork taken care of, and then have almost 2 weeks off before classes started.  Chinese college registration is much different than at an American college.  More specifically, it is much different than West Point which is really my only college registration experience.

I later found out, before the registration period started, the guidelines were much more broadly defined.  I stopped by the office to make sure I had everything correct.  I asked if registration was still set to take place the 1st through the 15th.  I was told yes.  I asked if we would need to come in every one of those days.  I was told I could come in any day during that period.  "You mean I just have to come in sometime between the first and the 15th?"  "Yes, any day is fine as long as it isn't a weekend."  "Ok, I'll come in to register on the 1st.  What time should I be here?"  "Whenever we're open is fine."  Needless to say, this was quite strange to me after 14 years of military life where everything has a set date and time for when it starts.  However, it looked like I would have quite a bit of time off between registration and the start of classes which was a good thing.

Jump forward to the 1st of September, a Thursday.  I show up to the office about 30 minutes after it opens with all of my pertinent documents on hand, ready to register for classes.  Instead, I'm handed a student-university agreement to read and sign, asked to fill out a survey for the international students office, and told to provide two pictures for my library card and student ID.  That done, I ask what I should do next and I'm told I can go get a meal card which can also be used to pay for bus fare.  That took about 10 minutes and I again found myself in the foreign student office asking what the next step was.  At this point, the lady helping me told me that maybe I should ask my professor/dean which classes they recommended I take since they would begin the following Monday, the 5th of September.

Here we pause for a moment.  Now, the letter of invitation stated that registration period lasted the 1st through the 15th, and I was later told I could show up to register any day during that period.  Why would the registration period last a full 10 days after classes started and why could a student show up 10 days after the start of classes and still be able to register?  We'll call this, "Mystery #1."

Mystery #1 still unsolved, I headed to the dean's office and asked which classes I should take.  He asked me a few questions about my goals and experience with anthropology.  I told him I would like to get a MA if possible and that I had no prior experience in anthropology so if he thought I should take a few undergrad classes the first semester, I was fine with that.  He asked if I wanted to take classes in English.  I told him that the Olmsted Foundation discouraged it, but one or two were okay, especially the first semester.  He then took my schedule, circled 5 classes and told me when they started.  After this, I asked him where I needed to go to register for the classes.  He looked at me a little funny and then took me down to the anthropology department's foreign affairs office.  There he introduced me to a nice lady and told me that she would be able to help.  I explained the Olmsted Scholarship and what my goals were and showed her the classes the dean had recommended.  She then introduced me to a student who would show me around campus and explain where all my classes were, as well as show me where I could get a bus for my one class that is on the college's new campus about an hour away.  Before we left, I asked if I needed to sign up anywhere and asked where I could pick up books.  I was told that I didn't need to sign up anywhere, I could just show up to the class and that I wouldn't need any books because all of the classes were taught through lectures from the professors and didn't use books.

Pause once again.  After explaining to the dean that I have no prior experience with anthropology and aptly demonstrating my listening issues through the use of my favorite phrase "请你再说一遍" or "Could you please say that again," why would he choose to put me only in classes that rely on listening?  I also forgot to mention that 3 of my classes are graduate classes and that the other 2 are post-graduate classes.  No undergrad classes at all.  This is "Mystery #2."

After that experience I headed back to the foreign students office, all the while wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into.  I told the office I was done and asked when I could pick up my library card and student ID.  I was told that everything would be ready once all of the students had registered somewhere around the middle of the month.  No issues there, I already had a memo from the school stating that I was studying there so I could get my household goods through customs and all the books in the library are in Chinese so who needs a library card anyway.

The next four weeks are pretty much a blur of 3 to six hours a day of being lectured in Chinese.  I have had a few days where I actually feel like I understand the majority of what is being said, but most of class consists of me writing down every tenth word (which is about all I understand) and trying to look up the words that I don't understand as fast as possible.  The two PhD level classes I have are fairly interesting.  Both have a student who used to teach English and she has volunteered to help me out.  During class, she'll write notes down in English so I can keep up with what's going on.  The other three are still a little rough but the other grad students help me out so I'm not completely lost.  Everybody was a little perplexed as to why I would want to study a foreign subject in a foreign language until I explained the goals of the Olmsted Scholarship.  After that they were much more understanding, but still wondered why I would want to torture myself like that.  The professors are all pretty optimistic.  They keep telling me to stick with it and by the end of the semester, my Chinese will be great, even if my grades aren't.

As for Mystery #1 and Mystery #2, I don't know if those will every be solved, but I still have almost 2 years to figure it out.  Now that I'm settling into a little more of a rhythm with my schedule, I'll try to keep a little more diligent about keeping the blog updated.  We just got back from a 3-day trip to Chengdu so expect more (with pictures) soon!  再见！