Now that I have internet... what should I write?

I mentioned in my last post that it took a while to sort out an internet connection in my room which is why I haven't been posting much since I've been here. I do finally have it now so this is a post explaining why it took so long before I gradually update you on everything that's been happening in 厦门（Xiamen). Really not sure where to start as it already feels like I've been here for months! If there's anything that anyone particularly wants to know about then feel free to ask in the comments section. I've already had a request for some photos of the campus so I'll try to do that soon!

The way it works is that internet is not provided with the dormitories, you have to buy a phone contract and it's included in that. The day after I arrived I went to sort this out. I've got a year long phone contract with China mobile costing roughly £8 a month with a phone (I chose a Samsung Galaxy Trend II which meant I had to pay an extra £33 on top of the contract as it was a better phone than the Lenovo or Coolpad ones I could have got for free), minutes, texts, mobile internet and internet for my room. It makes sense to buy a phone in China, particularly if your phone doesn't display or allow you to input characters, as these things are essential for reading the numerous texts from China Mobile and chatting to your new 中国朋友（Chinese friends) on 微信（Wechat - a Chinese version of Whatsapp that everyone seems to use here!).

 I bought an ethernet cable from the 超市（supermarket) on campus a few days later and excitedly plugged it into the port behind my desk thinking that I'd done everything I needed to do to get an internet connection. Unfortunately not. Absolutely nothing happened. I realised that I would have to wait a bit longer to go back to civilization (having an internet connection!). A couple of days later I got excited again at a text from China Mobile. They'd sent me my user name and password for my internet! I tried the internet again but still nothing happened. The other international students all seem to share my frustration with the internet so I knew I wasn't alone. On Sunday I went in to the China Mobile branch on campus to ask when it was going to start working. They added my name to a list of people who needed it setting up which makes me question whether I was on the list in the first place! I got told that a man would come round to set it up in three days. 

That evening as I was walking back from the canteen, I got a phonecall from a Chinese man who was saying something about internet. I panicked at having to speak Chinese on the phone and passed it to my friends to speak for me! We told him we'd be back in 5 minutes but when we got there there was no one to be seen. I even texted the guy to tell him I was back in the dormitory but he didn't reply. 

I won a "Snails-fan" in a dice game at China Mobile after getting my phone contract!

On Monday I had my first day of classes and, embarrassingly, my phone went off in my second class. I got a friend whose Chinese is considerably better than mine to call the number back (China Mobile again) as well as ringing the guy from the night before on mine and another friend's phone until he agreed to set up both our internets that evening. Several phonecalls and texts later, after the guy had come and fiddled with some cables on the ground floor of the dormitories and set it up on our laptops, we both had internet!

They offered me an umbrella instead but snail fan definitely wins! (not that we need it as we usually keep our window open to let the breeze in and there's air-con if we want to use it)

Since then I've been too busy catching up on emails and everyone else's blogs as well as generally being busy with life here that I haven't had time to post. I hope you'll all forgive me!