To assume that things would be chaotic was naive. Chaotic is an understatement. The international to domestic transfer at Beijing airport was a multi step process involving a check-in agent with no foreign language skills at all. Anyway I got through and my bags did so as well. Hangzhou airport staff spoke enough of a mix of mandaring and english for me to find out which bus to take. Yes, I took a bus with some other students coming for the language course.

Arrival at the campus was relatively straightforward. Finding the right building was easy but from then on things got more interesting. The registration process took hours to complete as there was always another paper to stamp and another queue to attend. After getting my dorm room things got a lot easier as I decided to get some beauty sleep.

Today I went for a walk around the campus area to get familiar with the surroundings. I also applied for internet access which I should be getting today after my details have been recorded into some kind of foreigner internet user list. For now I’m stuck with internet on my phone.

Last night was also interesting. I discovered that there are bedbugs here. What the fuck. Let’s see if they can do something about that. If not, don’t be surprised if you see me on AY52.

Language level test in 30 minutes. –>

So it’s the big day. I finished packing this morning after adding some items at the last minute such as a towel… I guess that I’m still feeling a bit nervous about this whole China business but it’s starting to turn into pure excitement! Anyway I just got back from Tallinn Airport where they couldn’t check my luggage through to Hangzhou and I must instead pick it up in Beijing when transferring to the domestic flight. AY thinks that there is enough time to do all that. We’ll see.

This was my plane both ways on the Tallinn leg:

We had a blast on friday at Willi Wäinö beer house during the last supper.

Fun aside, I must be careful not to relax too much with the complimentary stuff.

Next post will be from China.

-t

Since I’ve never written a blog about anything don’t expect much. I’ll add stuff whenever I feel like it and most probably my posts will be about flying and weird things.

Anyway… Getting ready to go is hopefully the most difficult part of this trip. There’s no way of knowing what I should be taking with me. I have packed all the important stuff now. A network cable and my teekkarilakki. I probably don’t have any of the stuff I’m supposed to have with me but is ok lah.

Based on what I’ve read from the exchange reports written by other Aalto Uni students who’ve been to Zheda before it’s reasonable to assume that everything is chaotic but still organized. Getting from the airport to the campus is the only challenge, unless I take a taxi. At the campus they should have nice chinese aunties who’ll be arranging everything. In addition, I’ve gotten loads of great advice from Tinska:

Feels like jännä. Flight leaves on Sunday. AY51 to PEK and then CA1595 to HGH. I’ll post more about the flights afterwards.