I wish I could have done this earlier but better late than ever. I am glad , I am finally doing this. This blog post is a monthly recap of my life and what I have been upto in September in China. I will also be comparing it a little with my last year so that I, along with you all, can see how one year has changed me and my experiences and what I have been learning along.
September has been a very eventful month for me. I have done so many things, been with so many people, felt so many emotions that It’s so hard to even organize my thoughts but nevertheless, I ll try my best and thank you so much if you are reading this.
This is my second year in Nanjing and my third time in China. For the first two times, I have been so excited and happy to go back to China that I can’t even explain. But this time, the THIRD TIME, it was different. My feelings on leaving my family, friends and country were different. After 2 months of such a comfortable summer break in India, I really didn’t want to go back and again be on my own. It’s not that I don’t like to be independent. Being independent has it’s own pros such as, I can never get the amount of freedom in India that I have in China, but leaving the people whom you have seen and lived with, almost all your life, is SUPER SUPER HARD. Now, if you ask why it wasn’t hard for the first two times, because that time, I really didn’t know the importance of family and friends. All I wanted was freedom and do something different. That was all in my mind. Of course homesickness kicked in during that time too, but it was pretty late, like after a month or so, but this time it wasn’t like that.
FIRST WEEK
Homesickness kicked in the moment I reached Nanjing on 29th August, 2019. So, this time for the first one week, I was really struggling to do anything. My goals and purpose was lost and I find it hard to do everything – unpacking my bags, being alone, eating Chinese food, talking to people, Chinese language. But at the same time, I was experiencing some great things like
- A family lunch with my Chinese family along with their 30+ relatives,
- meeting some old familiar faces and catching up along knowing some new faces ,
- registering for another year and getting done with formalities,
- Vlogging my days and experiences before even starting the Youtube Channel. (You ll see those videos soon).
The good things really kept me going and I somehow found my focus and I really worked hard for straight 3 days to do something I have been wanted to do for a long time – STARTING MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL. And I did it. I posted my first video aka Channel Trailer on 6th September and things changed from there on. I got so many positive feedback and messages from people. I was really overwhelmed. It just made me believe that I am going in a right direction in my life.
Also, I got an opportunity to go on this free event organised by my university where we went on a food tour of the district I live in. I made new friends over there too and ofcourse vlog my experience.
SECOND WEEK
My second week was a blast! like so so so good. I would say very EVENTFUL! WHY?
- My classes started and I am finally in advance level of Mandarin Chinese now. After learning and teaching for 5 years and still feeling like an elementary student in a language is so not a good feeling. So, this long wait was really worth it.
- My teachers are great. I love my main subjects along with the extra subjects. Talking about my classmates, I really like the fact that people are pretty active in my class and it has a very positive vibe to it.
- Talking about making new friends, It was pretty smooth and effortless this time. I remember last year, a lot of lunches and dinners I had were alone or with other people but never with my classmates. I feel classmates are always going to be the closest people to you because you see them in class everyday for 4 hours. So being in connection with them even post classes was something I never had in first year but it happened in second year.
Kenji from New York and Miranda from London are my very 2 first new friends and I absolutely love their company. It’s hard sometimes to dwell yourself into different cultures as a lot of times, you don’t get the context or a joke or a sarcasm but I am working my way out by always being loud and honest if I don’t get anything and that happens after every 2 minutes with my new friends, but they are very patient to make me understand and Ofcourse, now it’s been a month so now I understand them more. 🙂
Apart from that, I attended 3 events this week out of which 2 was around Mid-Autumn Festival of China.
- First event was an free event where we got a feel of Chinese traditional Culture back in Song Dynasty.
- Second was the Mid-Autumn Festival lunch with my Chinese family which was pretty cool. I had a lot of yummy food.
- Third event was related to the expat community of Nanjing where they organised a picnic for foreigners in China. It was fun and I took a lot of interviews for the first time for my Youtube and it really boost up my confidence on doing more of these things.
Some things which I have started this week onwards:
- Physical Exercise (Running + Yoga + Meditation)
- Teaching Mandarin Chinese
- Organising my Social media
THIRD WEEK
By the third week, I started getting in routine. Things I did this week:
- Teaching English & Mandarin
- Making more new friends and catching up with the old ones
- Working on my Youtube video whenever I get time
- Started my own blog
- Studied Mandarin language
- Attended my classes
This week I did a lot of things but somehow my mood was pretty off whole time. I realized I am not really in touch with my Indian family & friends. I guess to gain something, you always have to loose something and I felt like I was loosing connection with my own people which is a not a good feeling. Though, we all are trying to be connected to each other but sometimes it’s just not enough. Apart from their life updates, I like to know small things too on which I just can’t because – HELLO! LONG DISTANCE.
FOURTH WEEK
I did pretty much the same things as my third week but 3 really good things happened to me.
- Because I love promoting and market myself, half of Nanjing knows I do Vlogging and so does some teachers in my Department. So, I got an opportunity from my university to enter into a competition on making a video on “Study life in Nanjing” in Chinese language and I accepted it and it turned out to be pretty good actually. Let’s see if my video gets selected. I will keep you updated.
- I met more Indian people here. Last year, I just knew 3 Indians in Nanjing. This year I know 3 more and they are like minded people so it’s fun to talk and hangout once a week. It makes me feel less homesick too. 🙂
- I went out on a picnic with my university friends. This never happened last year too. Like you know, making a plan and going out somewhere. I loved it. I really wish, in future we make more random plans like going to ice skating or watching a movie together. P.S we are camping this Friday as well!!! so cool, right? I gotta tell you I am really loving my social life this year.
Well, That’s pretty much about September. If you have read till here, thank you so much, it means so much to me. If you have any questions, suggestions or advice, Please do comment or PM me on it. Your feedback are really valuable to me and I keep looking forward to it. It really motivates me and helps me improve my skills. Thank You. See you with next blog soon. 🙂
living the china life 