So much to organise!

As with studying abroad in any foreign country, there's been plenty for me to organise here. As soon as I arrived I was taken to registration where I seemed to have to complete and sign a lot of forms, queue up for various desks, get given various documents and photocopy my passport photo page and visa page, all whilst feeling utterly exhausted and disgusting after a long journey and struggling to understand Chinese having not done anything since my exam in June. The first desk I went to was where I got my e-card. Xiamen University has a system in which every student has a card they can put money on to pay for food in the canteen, buying things in the shops and having a hot shower (we have to put the card in a machine before the shower, take it out while showering, and then put it back in so that it charges us for the amount of hot water we use). They'd somehow managed to put the wrong name on my card which caused some confusion! Instead of POSFORD I have POCINKA on my card, it's my student number though. At first I thought they'd just completely spelt my name wrong but I have since found out that this person does actually exist and that they are also a scholarship student. Maybe they have my name on their card? Maybe it would have been better if I'd given them my Chinese name but I like to change them and am now on my third one. At another desk I was given a passport-like student card which seems to be how they do them in China, my one in Nanjing last summer was similar.

POCINKA e-card and front of student card

Front of e-card with picture of the main campus (even though we're on the new one) and inside of my student card

After that I was finally allowed to go to my room, I already mentioned in a previous post how I found out who my roommate was! I was so tired that it didn't matter that there weren't any sheets on the bed or that I had to have a cold shower as I didn't have any money on my card yet, I slept soundly lying on my towel and using a hoodie as a pillow on top of my mattress still wrapped in plastic! The next day I bought sheets, a pillow and towels from the 超市（supermarket) though, you can get most of the basics there which is handy as it's on campus. I've also bought a bike (picture to follow) for about £35 including lock and basket. This campus is so big that it's almost necessary to have a bike to get around! I also got my phone and phone/internet contract that day (see last post).

Before that I got the shuttle bus to Bank of China to set up my Chinese bank account which is connected to the e-card and is the account into which my scholarship will be paid so is very important! To set it up I had to have a Chinese phone number which I got for free at the bank before I even had a Chinese phone or contract. Setting the account up was fairly easy as in China you just fill in a form and they give you the card the same day. Seeing as I'm a scholarship student I didn't bother putting much money into the account, just £2.50 which is the minimum, but am having to put more and more into it for my e-card as scholarship money's not coming through until mid October. I looked into transferring money into it from my HSBC account but they won't transfer to China. I suppose I'll just have to get a load of cash out of that and put it into my Bank of China account.

Last Tuesday I had to go to the Xiamen Quarantine Bureau to get my health examination done. This is one of the requirements for obtaining the residence visa to stay in China for more than 6 months. I had tried to get this done in the UK but doing it here turned out much easier, simpler and cheaper. We got on a bus from campus to the hospital where we had to fill in a form and provide three photos before a series of tests: blood (HIV and Syphilis), urine, blood pressure, eyesight, ECG, ultra-sound (even for males) and chest x-ray. Hilary (my room mate) and I made sure we filled the forms in quickly and were the first to go through. She'd managed to get someone to write all the different room numbers down which was really useful. The whole process probably took about an hour and then we were free to eat! We hadn't been allowed to eat anything that morning or after 9pm the night before so were quite hungry. We went to the first restaurant we could find despite the health warning on the wall! All restaurants in Xiamen have to display their hygiene rating A, B or C. So far the best I've eaten at is a B and apparently As are quite rare! I picked up my health certificate from an office in the Overseas Education College on Monday and was happy to find out that I didn't have any horrible diseases!

That guy does not look too happy but we thought the food was tasty!

My health certificate with a load of information about me including blood type, height, weight and results of all the tests

This morning I went to apply for my residence permit. A bus left from campus at 8:30am to take us to the police station. We had to bring our passport, copies of passport, visa and admission notice, health forms, accommodation form and JW202 visa form. When we arrived we were led to a room where we had to have our picture taken. They had lots of rules about how the photo should be. People with long hair had to tie it up so that the whole face could be seen, they had a box of elastic bands on the table in case people needed them, and if you were wearing a white t-shirt you had to put on a rather stylish dark purple and black striped men's shirt. After that the photographer put a sticker on our residence permit form and we had to queue up to hand all the documents in along with our passports. Residence permits take 2-3 weeks to process so I'll have to wait a while to get my passport back along with permit to stay in the country. 

I think I'm pretty much up-to-date on everything I need to do now so am quite proud of myself. Looking forward to settling into a normal routine!

ADVICE FOR ANYONE GOING TO STUDY IN CHINA: Bring plenty of passport photos with you, they seem to want them for everything. I've used 7 so far!