Beijing 北京 (4)
Finally the mid-term exams are over, I think that I did pretty good. At least I’m pretty happy with what I have learned so far but I still have to study much more. We are still advancing very fast in class but sometimes I think that it is getting a little bit easier in terms of remembering new words (I actually worry more about grammar now but it seems logical that you first need to get a minimum vocabulary to even start to worry about grammar) But still Chinese as probably every language has it’s finesses and I doubt I will get behind them very fast.
If you wonder what Campus life is like here I can tell you it is very very different from what I know from Uni.lu or Innsbruck University!
Let me start with the most important : FOOD! We have 5 canteens on the campus ground and 2 Restaurants!
One canteen for the teachers, the other canteens are for students, 2 very large ones, one large Muslim canteen, one smaller canteen which is actually more like a restaurant, one Muslim Restaurant and one Korean Restaurant.
For breakfast I often go to one of the big canteens, for lunch and dinner I usually go to the smaller canteen. There you can choose between 6 different kitchens (from different Chinese Provinces) where you then order the dish you want to eat and which is then freshly prepared! (you can look in the kitchens as they are behind a glass window and it looks great when they cook). And at each stall you can order more than 20-30 dishes if not even more at some of em. This canteen is open from 9 am till 9 pm.
The big canteens are only open during certain times (breakfast – lunch – dinner time) and in the big canteens you have also an unbelievable choice of dishes.
Now the best part about all of it is that opposite of what I tasted in the Innsbruck canteen everything here is delicious! And on top of that it is not even expensive. Also the staff is usually very friendly and helpful (I don’t know if that is usual or because I am a foreigner). In the small canteen it usually works the way that you first try to get a seat (Usually at lunch time or at main dinner time it is very crowded) and put your backpack or bag on a seat or if you don’t have anything to put on the seats you put chopsticks on the table to mark that this seat is reserved and then you proceed to order your dish. After you ordered you can then sit down again and 3-5 minutes later you can go back to the place you ordered at and get your dish. It’s absolutely delicious! I will put in some pictures of different dishes.
