Craving more tastes of America I headed to the only Starbucks in the city which is horribly overpriced but undeniably delicious. For example, on campus I can get a whole meal for 5 RMB and my meal at McDonalds cost 25 RMB. On campus I can buy a bubble milk tea (similar to a chai tea) for 2 RMB and a coffee at Starbucks cost 32 RMB. Starbucks and McDonalds are two of the more common expat watering holes and it is always interesting to see who you will meet. One of the coolest things about traveling is meeting other people who are like-minded and other travelers are almost always willing to strike up a conversation with fellow foreigners.
Last time I was in Starbucks I chatted with a twenty-something Turk who was in Changzhou for business. This time I met three Germans also in the city on business, a student from Chicago and another from Venezuela. I was planning on listening to music and writing some letters, but as soon as I ordered my coffee and finished chatting with the Germans, the two students came right over and sat down at my table. They introduced themselves as Karl (19 from Chicago) and Else (17 from Venezuela). They are here for one year through an exchange program and actually live with Chinese families and attend one of the local high schools.
Although both of them seemed very intelligent and well-traveled they had a lot to say about the current culture shocks they were experiencing and some of their frustrations about studying abroad in a city like Changzhou. They said that their daily routines were brutal and demanding - just like the average life of any Chinese high school student. School started at 7:00 am and went until 5:15. Most students stayed at the school to continue studying until 7 or 9pm at night. Then they went home and went to bed. This was not the study abroad experience that Karl and Else had hoped for, although they are both learning Chinese at an incredible rate. Karl also lamented on the fact that since he is black, he gets stared at even more than a white foreigner. He said recently that he has been asked about 10 times a day if he is Barack Obama (since Obama is coming to visit this week).
We talked about language for a little bit too. Both Karl and Else are interested in law school and then something to do with politics and international relations. They are well on their way considering they are both under twenty years of age, have studied abroad in several countries and can speak multiple languages. Karl can speak English, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. Else can speak Spanish, English, Portuguese, French and Chinese.
After talking for awhile more, our coffees were gone and Starbucks was closing. We exchanged numbers and then headed our separate ways in different taxis. It is always nice to meet other foreigners and hear about how different their lives are even though we live in the same city. I rode home thinking how impressive it was that those students were so young but already knew several languages and vowed to study to try and study Chinese more diligently on Saturday. We'll see if that actually happens =)
Hi Sarah,
Nice blog. Are you still in Changzhou? I am moving there in a few months time and would be interested to find out more about the place from people who are actually there. I have just spent this afternoon looking up about the place on the internet but there is a dearth of info. Maybe I will spending my weekends in Shanghai??!! I am sure the place has some redeeming features, I just need to go and explore.
What are you doing there?
Cheers,
Fred (friedricey@gmail.com)