March 2; classes begin and hot pot with the professor

Day 26

In Korea, I was a legit foreign exchange student. And I loved it. In China, I have the same opportunity to be a foreign exchange student every Fridays for the comparative literature course we're all taking.  

Today was the first day and the Canadian girlies arrived (un)fashionable late because we got lost-ish. There were about 25 students in the seminar style class, which almost all of which were Chinese from different parts of China --there was actually another exchange student from America.

As the professor was going over the Chinese stories we’d be reading and referring to the images in the text, the student sitting beside me kindly explained all the Chinese references mentioned throughout the lesson. I realized I needed to brush up on my Chinese geography/history/general Chinese knowledge… Everyone in the class just seemed so nice and helpful. So excited to start the class!

For lunch, Professor Geng took us Canadian girls out to a grade A hot pot place where there was free dessert for the ladies, all you can drink plum rice/soy bilk, beer, and liquor. To top that off, we were given free popsicles (probably because some of us were visible foreigners). Food was absolutely fantastic. I look forward to the next visit.

Eating lunch with professor Geng --he's the best!

my pescetarian diet.  

My broth, similar to the great lakes in Canada

Tanjin's (meat) broth, similar to the waters in China

The hot pot place was located in a hugeeeee mall with 6 floors of stores, a movie theatre, arcade and a skating rink. 

In the middle of the arcade, there were two random doors that were useless as you could walk around it. 

We ended up spending four hours wondering up and down the mall window shopping. The only thing we really wanted to buy was a pet. Ya, no I don't think the residence would appreciate that very much.