Last night at home/Fraser's early birthday/My early Christmas!

Tonight is my last night at home, sleeping in my own bed, until at least the end of June next year. My family seem to have mixed feelings about me going - wanting to support me but not wanting me to be gone so long at the same time! For these reasons my mum organised a nice family meal as it is the last time we'll be together for a while. My 18-year-old brother, Fraser, is off to Mallorca for three months on Tuesday to begin his gap year so there will soon only be three people living in our house. 

One of the toughest things about me being away is that I will be missing a family Christmas this year for the first time in my life. My mum suggested doing Christmas dinner for my last night but ended up doing a normal traditional English roast instead (with rice as well to make it a bit more oriental! I've never been much of a fan of potatoes). I haven't owned a camera for about 9 years so we've been discussing how I'd need one and it was decided that my parents would make it an early Christmas present. However. my mum also surprised me with a few smaller presents to be unwrapped on Christmas day!

Fraser's birthday is in October so we decided to celebrate that tonight too whilst we were all still together, birthday cake and everything! He was also treated to a camera, but as a birthday present rather than a Christmas one, so that he can document his time in Mallorca and other destinations on his gap year. You can follow his blog at fraserontour.blogspot.com

My flight to Amsterdam leaves at 9:15am so I'll be off to Manchester Airport in a few hours. After that first flight I'll fly to Guangzhou and, finally, Xiamen. I might do a short post from the airport but otherwise the next one will, hopefully, be from China! 

Fraser with his birthday cake (a month and 9 days early)

Three siblings (Ethan, Fraser and I)

My Christmas presents on top of my suitcase

China preparations: Travel vaccinations and airport pickup

After getting nowhere with getting my health check done in the UK, I decided that, after being made to re-register at the GP I was at for 10 years before Southampton, I may as well look into getting some travel vaccines done. Although I've travelled to China before, I've never bothered with any vaccinations. The Confucius Institute suggested we got them done before the trip at Easter but as everything was so last-minute, there simply wasn't time. 

I filled in a travel form stating where it was I was going and how long for and handed it to the receptionist. She told me that the nurse would look at the form, work out which jabs I needed and that they would phone me to organise and appointment for the travel clinic which takes place every Friday. I waited and waited but never received a phonecall, I realised this on the Friday before we were going to France and knew that I'd need to ring up and enquire to see if I could get an appointment for the Friday when we were back as it was the only Friday I was available due to leaving on Friday the 13th! I spoke to a receptionist on the phone and agreed on an appointment time for Friday 6th. She told me that I would need Hepatitis A (free on the NHS), Hepatitis B (£37.50) and Malaria tablets (she didn't know how much they would cost).

I went off to France and didn't think much more about it until my return. I drove to Marple Bridge for my appointment (I've got car insurance on one of my parents' cars for a week which means I've turned into my brothers' taxi service!) and went straight through to the nurse's room. She asked me if I'd had any travel vaccinations before to which I responded that I didn't think so and I certainly hadn't had any in the last few years. She then turned to her computer and was surprised to see that there were absolutely no records about me on the system! She thought it was particularly strange seeing how long I'd been there before but she simply didn't have any information. The nurse told me that she simply couldn't administer any vaccinations without my records and asked for details of my previous GP, the University Health Service in Southampton, so that she would be able to phone them and get the information she required. Seems like my records have got lost somewhere between the two! 

We then chatted for a bit about what vaccinations I would actually need. Recommended for all travellers to China is Hepatitis A. Other vaccines are offered to higher risk people (I come under that heading as I'm going to be there for a long period of time) include Hepatitis B, Typhoid and Malaria tablets. We decided that if I were to have any of those it would be Hepatitis B as the risk of Typhoid and Malaria is considerably lower as well as there being a shortage of the Typhoid vaccine. However, Hepatitis B is a course of three injections, £37.50 per injection, and it wouldn't be possible for me to get it done with the limited time I have before I leave. The conclusion of our discussion was that if she could get hold of Southampton and find out about my details, she would give me the Hepatitis A vaccine later that day.

I went off to pick my brother up from school and phoned the GP when I got home to see if the nurse had left a message for me as she said she was going to do. The receptionist I spoke to this time told me that she'd managed to speak to University Health Service and that the vaccine was going ahead. I brought Ethan with me in the car as there wouldn't be time to return home before taking him to his swimming lesson, and went back to the GP. Ethan wandered around Marple Bridge and sat around in the waiting area while I had it done. The nurse asked me if I was ok with needles and wasn't going to faint on her (yes, don't worry) and the injection went smoothly. She then gave me an information sheet about the vaccine and asked that I waited 10-15 minutes before leaving the surgery. The sheet gave information about the virus, the vaccine and the side effects that are "relatively uncommon" and "last no more than a day or two". It seems that I am unlucky as on Friday my arm was hurting and I felt a bit queasy. Now the queasiness had gone but the pain's still there! Hopefully it'll go soon. If I get a booster in 12 months time it'll last for 20 years so it's probably worth having. My mum got out my baby book with my baby vaccinations in later that evening and we found out that I'd had Hepatitis B as a baby in Hong Kong so maybe I'll still have some protection from it anyway?

On Wednesday I emailed Xiamen University to request airport pickup, following my mum's advice. After three flights and waiting around inbetween, I probably will be very tired and not wishing to deal with a taxi driver who could potentially not understand me, take me to the wrong place, charge me extra or just refuse to take me to the new campus as it's not in the main town. When I went to Nanjing last summer we weren't offered a similar service so it was a good thing I'd got someone on the plane to write the address out in Chinese characters for me and had plenty of money for a taxi. The taxi driver chatted away in Chinese for most of the hour-long journey and at the time my level of Chinese was so basic that I didn't even know how to say "I don't understand!". He seemed to give me a bit of a tour of Nanjing before taking me to the university hotel as well, the taxi I got to the airport on the way back was quite significantly cheaper! I filled in a form stating my name and flight details and attached it to an email, immediately receiving an automated response that it would be replied to within 3 working days. Thankfully I got a response and the driver should be waiting for me when I arrive on Saturday.

It still hasn't quite sunk in that this is happening, this time next week I'll have been there for more than 24 hours!

China preparations: Flights

Yesterday I finally got round to booking my flights to 中国 (China). I probably should have done it earlier but I wanted to get my visa first to make sure I would be able to get into the country. The last couple of times I've been to China I've flown with China Southern/KLM and it turned out that they were still the cheapest. I rang a couple of travel agents to see if they could find me a cheaper deal but they didn't so I decided to go ahead and book it before it got any more expensive! 

I leave from Manchester on Friday 13th September, not the luckiest of days! My flight to Amsterdam with KLM is bright an early at 9:15am. I then have to wait about an hour and a half before my China Southern flight to Guangzhou, southern China. Unfortunately my wait in Guangzhou is a bit longer, 5 hours, before my final flight to Xiamen. The whole journey will take about 24 hours with getting to the aiport early before I fly and getting to the campus in Xiamen. I will be exhausted when I finally get there!I booked a return flight as well as I'm not sure whether I need it for my residence permit or not but it's probably better to have one booked. Surprisingly, it was actually cheaper to book a return than a one-way ticket anyway. 

It cost me £818 so at the moment I'm feeling quite poor... Looking forward to student loan next week! As I'm going abroad as part of my course I'm entitled to a bigger maintenance loan, the first instalment of which comes at the end of August to help with year abroad costs such as travel. 

I found out something about my 4th year in Southampton yesterday too: my brother's going to be there! He received his results and found out he's been accepted by Southampton to study BA Modern Languages, the same course as me. It was already going to be strange going back in 4th year. As most degrees are 3 years, a lot of my friends will have already left. I will still have some friends there with other linguists, engineers and medics having longer courses and of course, I'll have swim team, but it won't quite be the same, particularly as I'll be bumping into my brother at Avenue campus and at swim training and socials! That's right, not only is he doing the same degree but he'll be joining the swim team as well. Now all he needs to do to completely follow in my footsteps is live in Connaught halls for his first year and study Chinese as his third language! He hasn't yet decided what his third language after French and Spanish will be but is having a gap year so will have plenty of time to decide. I suppose this means that if I'm bored of life as a 4th year I can go and party with my fresher brother!

China preparations: Visa

Today I picked up my passport with my China visa which means the only thing stopping me from going to China now is that fact that I still haven't booked my flight, should probably do that soon! 

There are two ways you can apply for a China visa: by post or by going to one of the centres in London or Manchester. Last year when applying for my visa for Nanjing, I didn't really have the time to go to either of the centres whilst busy in Southampton with coursework/exams so did it by post. I'm not entirely sure why but I hated the idea of my passport being sent off in the post. I was constantly checking Track & Trace to find out its whereabouts which meant that I knew that it should have arrived back for me in Southampton and Monte reception. It was a Wednesday so I went along in the afternoon to pick it up. However, when I asked if it had arrived I was surprised to here that there was nothing there for me even though according to Royal Mail it had arrived at about 10am that morning. Fortunately, I glanced down at the list of parcels and signed-for envelopes (which mine was) and saw my reference number which I knew so well from typing it in to track it on the website. Next to the number was the name "T Postpant". I almost didn't get my passport with my visa inside because someone had written my name down wrong! I know my handwriting's bad but it can't be that bad? The Xiamen visa application was done by courier which was much less worry. 

I decided that this time, seeing as I live on the outskirts of Manchester, the best option would be to go to the centre in person and I'm glad that I did! When I got back from Madrid last week, I went on the visaforchina.org website and booked myself an appointment for the Friday afternoon as that was the earliest they had available and I wanted to get it sorted. I then filled in the form online without too much difficultly having made two other visa applications fairly recently before printing it along with the declaration and signing them both. I had to sign then photocopy my admission notice and visa form from Xiamen to take with me as well. The only thing missing was a photo and after searching my room for a while, knowing I had some passport photos somewhere, I gave up, packed a glue stick in my handbag (but forgot scissors)  and planned to get some taken in Manchester before my appointment. Thankfully Manchester Piccadilly train station has a couple of photo booths (which I'd never really noticed before but then again, I'd never had to use them) so I paid £5 to get 5 photos done there - I swear it used to be cheaper? The hilarious results of this are displayed below, why do I look so orange? I usually look white as a ghost in these things! Safe to say that passport/ID photos are never attractive. 

So serious.

I then realised I'd forgotten to bring any scissors with me but had the bright idea to go into Boots and ask if I could borrow some scissors where they give out the prescriptions. I don't think anyone's gone into Boots to do that before! With one of my new passport photos cut out, I left the station to walk to 75 Mosley street where the centre's based. I had to press a button and speak to someone to let me in before going up to the first floor. A lady at a desk asked my name and gave me a queue number. I went and sat down to wait for my number to be called. I chatted to a couple of the other people waiting about where they were going etc. There was a girl there going to China for the first time who was asking me lots of questions: What do you fill in for local ID card number? (n/a - we don't have ID cards in the UK unlike the Spanish who seem to use theirs all the time!) Do you need to get any jabs done for going to China? (No, don't bother. She was only going for 3 weeks and I've never had any done. Thinking I may get some done before my YA though). There was a photo booth there all along so I needn't have worried about finding one. I only had to wait about 10 minutes to be called up to a desk. I handed over the various documents, the guy checked them and handed me back the originals for the admission notice and visa form, gave me a slip with the collection date on it (today) and that was that. Nice and easy!

I went back today and it was even easier. I arrived at about 2pm and had to wait about a minute before I was called over. I paid the £66 by card and the lady handed over my passport complete with my third Chinese visa, a receipt and a slip that the holder of the visa needed to obtain a residence permit for aliens within 30 days of arrival. I love being called an alien! They call foreigners aliens on the arrival and departure slips you have to fill in when you enter and leave China as well. The visa itself is an X visa (student visa) valid until 13th November for me to enter the country. For duration of each stay it says 000 days which is a bit odd, it's probably because I need to change it to a residence permit asap when I arrive. This is also the first of my three visas to say 曼彻斯特 (Manchester) for the place of issue rather than 伦敦(London) which is less exciting. Looking forward to being an alien for a year!

China preparations: Foreigner health examination

I'd known for some time that I would have to have a series of tests done in order to gain my residence permit in my first 30 days of entering China. Any foreigner there for more than a few months needs to get this, it's like a kind of visa, and the health test is compulsory, whether you do it in your home country or once you arrive in China.

Last summer, when taking part in the Nanjing summer programme, I remember Elliott, a student starting his year abroad, having to go to and from the hospital for these various tests without much of an idea what was going on. I decided that I didn't really like the idea of that and would try to get them done in the UK where I trust the health system a bit more and can understand the language! My friend Izzy had had to do it to even apply for her scholarship (different scholarship to mine) and it had cost her £230 which didn't seem too bad considering what the test involves. She did it back in Southampton and it had taken about 3 weeks to get all the tests done and receive the results. 

As part of the information I got from Xiamen University through the post, I needed to either get the tests done in the UK by printing off the "PHYSICAL EXAMNATION RECORD FOR FORERGNER" form, getting it all filled in and bringing it along to the registration as well as the test reports to submit. However, there would still be a 60RMB (roughly £6) charge for verifying the records. Knowing that Izzy had done it all through her GP in Southampton, I went along to my local GP on Thursday morning to enquire. 

I had no idea how hard it would be. Firstly, I was no longer registered there as I was registered in Southampton instead, so I would have to re-register and wait for at least 2 weeks for my records to come through so that they could fill in some of the parts of the form. I agreed and filled in the forms, alcohol questionnaire and all, to register again at the GP I'd been going to since the age of 8. The receptionists wanted to ask the doctors about what to do with the form so I left it with them. 

My form probably provided the entertainment for the day! It's a two-page grid in English and Chinese requiring basic information such as name, sex, date of birth, address, nationality etc. along with a photo. It wants to know your blood type, height, weight and blood pressure which all seems fair enough. However, it goes on to ask if you've had any of a list of diseases including typhus fever, poliomyelitis and typhoid and paratyphoid fever as well as eight others, the majority of which I've never heard of. The next question is similar to do with "disease or disorders endangering the public order and security". This list include toxicomania, mental confusion and three forms of psychosis: manic, paranoid and hallucinatory. Then comes a series of boxes with one word in them: development, nourishment, neck, vision, corrected vision, eyes, ears, nose,... etc. Not really sure what the doctor's supposed to put in those, would a simple "OK" do? The next page is for the tests including chest x-ray, ECG and blood tests for HIV and syphilis. Finally the doctor needs to sign to say that cholera, yellow fever, plague, leprosy, AIDS, psychosis, venereal disease and opening lung tuberculosis were not found during the examination. Seems very thorough considering I'm not going to be there that long!

Anyway, I got a phonecall back from the receptionist later in the day to tell me what the doctors had said. Bad news. Apparently they would be able to fill in about half of the form (once the records from Southampton had been transferred) but that I would have to get the x-ray, ECG and blood tests privately, they couldn't refer me for it like Izzy's GP had done. I looked into getting it done at a local private hospital but it would have cost about £600 so really wasn't worth it! I told the receptionist on the phone about how my friend had got it done in Southampton and she genuinely suggested to me that I go down there to get it done. Ridiculous. 

It seems now that my only real option is to get it done once I arrive in China. From the information Xiamen have given me, it looks fairly organised. It's going to cost 550RMB (about £57) to get it done over there at the Entry-exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. I will have to go along on the 17th September with my passport, 4 photos (what is their obsession with photos? I already have to take 10 to the registration and they're going to take another one of me for my e-card) and the money. I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything before in the morning before the blood test. 

Hopefully everything will be fine, it does sound quite organised! It would have been nice to get it done and out of the way before I went though.

Here are some photos of what I hoped would be my only visit to a Chinese hospital in Nanjing last summer. Taken by my friend, Jean. 

Hospital toilets, nice and hygienic!

Room we waited in while my friend has a CT scan

It's a long story...

China preparations: Xiamen information pack

Now that I'm back in the UK, it's time for me to get back to preparations for my year abroad. So far I'd managed to get my place and scholarship confirmed at Xiamen University but there was little more I could do while I was in Spain. 

When I got back on Tuesday evening I had a look at what Xiamen had sent me through the post. For some reason they'd sent me two packs: one with an admission notice and visa form (needed to apply for visa) with a map of the old campus at Siming by the beach and plans of what the new campus would look like, the other with another admission notice and visa form, a map of the new campus and a double-sided information sheet about visa application, physical examination, financial management, arrival to the university, registration, accommodation and contact details all for the new campus. It seems that I'm going to be based at the new campus like I'd feared. 

I was lucky enough to visit the university for a week in the Easter holidays as part of a student delegation for a special Southampton Day to celebrate the universities' partnership and the signing of a new partnership agreement. I was very lucky indeed as everything - flights, accommodation, food, activities,... - was paid for. I really enjoyed my week there and loved the old campus, despite all the tourists (the university campus is one of Xiamen's main tourist attractions). Lu, my Chinese teacher at Southampton, was part of the professor delegation and I got to have a brief conversation with him on the way to Gulangyu island for a sightseeing trip. I wanted to know how things were looking for my year abroad and he said that everything seemed to be fine apart from the possibility that I may have to go to the new campus. On one of the days we were taken to look at the new campus. We got a bus from outside one of the university gates which took about an hour as the new campus is in Xiang'an, on the mainland, whereas the old campus is on the south of Xiamen island. The campus is built in the middle of nowhere, they've built a few shops next to it but that's about it and the roads the bus went on to get there didn't even seem finished! Everything there is huge, looks the same and doesn't seem quite real. This probably wasn't helped by the fact that it still wasn't finished, there was work being done on several buildings as well as a huge sports stadium. I instantly hoped that Lu was wrong and that I wouldn't have to go there. We were shown where the Overseas Education Centre was going to be built and I was relieved it wasn't built yet, perhaps it wouldn't be ready in time? However, it seems that I will be going there now and there isn't much I can do about it. 

University of Southampton Day at Xiamen University 26/03/2013

Main building from across one of the old campus' lakes

View of the old campus with th sea in the distance from the hill behind Nanputuo temple

I'm probably overreacting about it anyway. Once the campus is complete, it will be its own mini town including swimming pools, shops, sports pitches, a health service, canteens and dormitories. If I'm busy studying I may not have time to leave the campus much anyway and the city centre is still accessible by bus if I want to go for whatever reason. The accommodation sounds quite nice. Overseas students get a four-bedroom appartment with four balconies, sitting room, bathroom, air-con, washing machine, sofa, coffee table, safe, cooking table (whatever that is. Worktop maybe?), water heater (boiler?) and internet access for eight students max. I'd always known I might have to share a room with someone so we'll just have to see how that goes... Compared to Chinese students this is luxury as they're four to a room! 

Buildings at Xiang'an campus (new campus)

Basketball courts with dormitories in the distance

Sports stadium under construction (probably finished by now), basketball and tennis courts

More of the new buildings and surrounding grass and plants

I need to arrive no earlier than the 14th September as the accommodation is not available before then. Registration is on the 14th and 15th at the Overseas Education College where I'll need to bring my passport, admission notice, visa application form (which ones? They gave me two of each!), 10 two-inch photos (why so many?) and physical examination record for foreigners (I'll talk about this in another post). I then need to get a registration form, update information on student system, have a photo taken for my e-card (even though I've brought 10 with me?), collect my ID card, map and other documents and have a brief interview with Chinese teachers. It's safe to say I will be shattered by the time I've travelled there, gone through this whole process and finally be granted my free accommodation (covered by scholarship)! On 16th September there will be an opening ceremony (I've learnt from my trips to China that the Chinese enjoy events like these), Chinese placement test and campus tour. On the 17th will be the physical exam for those who didn't get it done in their native country and on the 18th the class lists will be published, we meet our teachers and buy any books we might need ready for class beginning on the 19th. I'm sure it'll be a loooong week. 

I'm actually quite impressed with the information I've been given and actually having some idea what's going to happen when I arrive, nice and reassuring! It's all becoming a bit more real that I'm going to China for a year very very soon but it's all exciting as long as everything goes ok. Fingers crossed!

I'm not just going to China, I'm going to China for free! (well, almost)

Those of you who have me as a friend on Facebook may have seen that I've  not only finally got confirmation of my place at Xiamen University but have also found out that I am one of the Confucius Institute scholarship winners! As I was going to go to Xiamen as part of the Xiamen-Southampton exchange scheme anyway, I already didn't have to pay tuition. The scholarship will pay for my accommodation, insurance and give me an allowance (not sure how much) each month. Not bad! It won't pay for my flights there and back but it will be free once I'm there. 

I applied for the scholarship back in April when I suddenly realised I only had two days until the deadline. They were probably some of the most stressful two days of my life. There was so much to do in order to apply! I needed to scan a copy of my passport, a passport photo, my A-level certificates, reference, proof of study at Southampton, proof of study at Confucius Institute and write an 800 Chinese character "study plan" (bit like a personal statement). This required borrowing my lovely housemate Jack's scanner, asking my mum to find, scan and email me my A-level certificates, asking Fanjie Meng (one of the Confucius Institute teachers) to write me a reference, going to the Humanities office to get proof of study at Southampton and waiting for the Confucius Institute to write me something similar. Then there was just the small matter of writing 800 characters... The most I'd written before was probably around 600 so this was quite a lot to write. I made sure I did plenty of sucking up though "I think that learning Chinese is very important because China is becoming more powerful", "Xiamen University has the most beautiful campus in China", "China is one of my favourite countries",... etc. We then weren't sure exactly what they meant when they said the deadline was 25th April. What time on the 25th April? Chinese time or British time (7 hour time difference)? To make absolutely sure, Seb and I rushed to submit our applications on the evening of the 24th, just after midnight in China on the 25th, but even then we weren't sure we'd get it and had no idea when we'd find out. It seems to have all been worth it in the end though as I've been granted the scholarship!

My main concern was about whether I'd actually got a place at Xiamen in the first place. If you've seen my last post about China, it's been quite stressful applying to the university as we were told about it when it was impossible for us to make the deadline. I prepared all my application materials as quickly as I could and sent them off to China before flying out to Spain. I then kept anxiously checking the Post Office's track & trace website to see whether or not it at had arrived. It took about 5 days for it to reach China but it didn't get to Xiamen until two weeks after I'd posted it! I emailed to ask if they'd received it but didn't get a response. A couple of weeks later I emailed to see if they could tell me anything about my application. Again, no response. I'd got tired of checking my emails every day so decided to have a day of not checking them on Monday. Of course that was the day when the all-important email was sent! At 1:54am on Monday I received this:

Dear Imogen,

We posted the admissions documents for you to the address below by express mail. You will receive it in a few days.
IMOGEN SOPHIA MORLEY POSFORD   (home address and phone number)

By the way, in the documents the column of financial supports was wrong due to a mistake made when typing in data into our system. Don't worry about it since you can see your name in our CIS winner list:
http://oec.xmu.edu.cn/shownews.aspx?news_id=2531
http://english.xmuoec.com/shownews.aspx?language=en&news_id=73

Yours,
Eric Jiang

Such a relief! I checked my emails yesterday just before I was going to go out to meet a friend and couldn't believe it when I saw. Needless to say, when I met up with her we had a few beers to celebrate! (3 euros for a bucket of 5 beers, such a bargain!)

When I get back to the UK in August I'll be busy with preparations. I need to apply for my student visa and get health checks done in the three weeks I'm home before going on holiday with my family. Leaving everything a bit tight! 

Am I actually going to China?

Although it says in my first post on here that I'm going to Xiamen University in China this September for my year abroad, this is still not certain. I sincerely hope I am as I have been looking forward to it so long, but at the moment the subject is quite frustrating. There has been a bit of a lack of organisation throughout the year abroad preparation which means that I still do not have a confirmed place there. I've put this down to this being a new exchange programme and the university not being used to sending people to China, but it is still annoying. We got an email on Thursday saying "Oh, btw, you need to apply and the deadline's on Saturday", brilliant.

Bearing in mind, I was at home in Manchester and left the UK for Madrid on Saturday, I had limited time to acquire an academic transcript, fill in my application form, get a recommendation letter, write a study plan (thankfully I'd already written one for my scholarship application), get a photocopy of my passport and send all this off in the post to China. I somehow managed to get this all done on Friday and felt relieved at getting it out of the way. I emailed the contact in China with the postal receipt and explained that I'd done everything to the best of my ability. I've received emails from her since asking me to complete everything I've already done and send it all to her (which I've already done). The last one was this morning. Hopefully this will all sort itself out but at the moment it's a source of stress that I could do without. I'll write an update when I know more. Rant over.

TL;DR Everything to do with my year abroad is disorganised and it's stressing me out. Hopefully I'll still get to go to China.

Sorry for all that, I'll write some lighter posts about Spanish life soon!