After almost two months of travelling, I arrived back in Nanjing with mixed feelings. The weather was great, sunshine and blue skies. Nanjing was welcoming me back and it almost felt like ‘home’.

The downside though, was that I had to attend classes again. Back to the routine life of getting up in the morning, attending classes, doing homework, eating and sleeping.
Yes, I know I shouldn’t complain. But after intense 2 month travels where I saw and experienced other parts of China, it was a very difficult task getting up in the morning and motivating myself to go to class.

And so we spent our days organizing little trips and fun stuff to do. April first, we went to Xuanwu Lake and had a picnic. I’ve been meaning to do this since the first time I went to the lake. The surroundings are quite beautiful and very relaxing, especially in contrast to the busy streets of Nanjing City. The grass and trees are actually green and with some luck, the sky is blue. We brought along some games, bought some snacks, Lorena even made some cold pasta and tuna(!). Eventually some 20 people showed up, we were over 10 nationalities.The afternoon was a success!

That weekend we also went to see a soccer game at the Nanjing Olympic Stadium: Nanjing versus Beijing. I didn’t expect much of it because I thought Chinese weren’t into soccer that much. I expected a semi-empty stadium with just a few Chinese and us four expats. But little was true! The stadium was pretty full. Fans were buying t-shirts and scarves and even brought along huge drums to get the party started. One particular part of the stadium was loaded with hard core fans, dressed in the Nanjing Team colors, blue and white. They were waving flags, singing songs, shouting ‘green devils’ at the Beijing fans, and throwing toilet paper around! And even the Beijing team had brought along 20-some fans, dressed in green, and who by themselves out sang the blue team. It all looked promising…until the match actually began. Besides one black guy (we called him the black arrow because he was so damn fast!), the players didn’t seem to want to play. The game was pretty slow and eventually Beijing won with 2-0. The Nanjing fans kept on going anyway!

After the game, we decided to get a good meal somewhere. In china, good food isn’t that hard to find, but I was kind of craving for something non-chinese. Ever since my brother came to china and we ate so much dumplings, wonton soups and much more…my appetite for Chinese food had begun to slender. I was sick of the rice, the noodles and the very very little pieces of meat.
No, no Chinese food for me… I wanted pizza! And so I persuaded my friends to go to Bisa Pizza, a new place in Nanjing, on Shanghai Road. I had heard they served the best pizza in Nanjing! We went in, got a table and ordered three pizza’s for the four of us. About 15 minutes later, a huge Quattro Fromaggi with actual cheese was looking right at us! We took off a slice, one by one, the cheese still melting and sizzling as we took it! After seven months in china, I had forgotten how good real cheese tastes! Unfortunately, my hunger for western food has not yet diminished. Although I love Chinese food, I’m craving for a good steak, some fries and mayonnaise or a good home-cooked meal. I already know what my first meal back in Belgium will be!

Since the Chinese were celebrating Qing Ming Jie, or ‘tomb sweeping festival’, classes were dismissed for two days. Tomb sweeping festival is literally what it says: tomb sweeping. Chinese families go to temples, do offerings and sweep the tombs of their ancestors. I spent my Monday by learning and my Tuesday by going to the Nanjing engineering university with some friends. Our teacher had told us this university is well known for its beautiful scenery. And so, on Tuesday, we went to take a look and found out our teacher was right. There were blue flowers everywhere, growing on the roots of these huge trees. It almost looked like a scene from a movie. There were many people off course: Chinese love flowers.

I also spent a lot of nights at Ellen’s, the international students’ home away from home! It’s such a nice place to just sit and relax, talk to friends, have a cheap beer and some tasty apple pie. I will miss this place.
I’ll also miss the evening markets, the late night opening hours, the availability of almost everything and also the crazy Chinese people. I feel blessed to be in china, walking around in this huge country which is developing even more. And although sometimes, disliking china is very easy, most of the times, China amazes me.

A man on his little electrical scooter, in his basket carrying a live goose…how can this not make you smile? Seeing young Chinese woman doing their best to walk on their ridiculously high and furry heels, seeing little kids stare at you, overhearing a Chinese conversation that is obviously about you, seeing people dance in the morning or playing chess together. These are the things that make me love China. Yes, china can be ugly. It is a country with a lot of history  and culture and it can be hard for us westerners to understand this. But once you get past the spitting, the little children peeing in the street, the cutting in line, it can be so much fun!

But no time to think about goodbye yet, still 3 months left and I’m taking advantage of it! Further travel plans ahead!

Stay tuned!

Magali