"My Jiangsu Story" - Njuguna Racheal Waithira

It was a chilly Wednesday afternoon when I first landed in Guangzhou heading to Nanjing. I had to purchase a ticket at the airport to Nanjing. The struggle was real with the only Chinese I had was from Jackie Chan’s movies "Nihao" and "Xiexie". While getting on the plane I picked a local newspaper that was offered by one of the hostess. For the whole way to Nanjing I was staring at the newspaper thinking of this new chapter of life I had before me. On my arrival at Lukou International Airport I was already talking to the taxi drivers using the international common sign language to bargain taxi fare, which by the way worked, I got the lowest rate without using the taxi meter.

At 11:30pm on a cold Thursday night there I was in a foreign school with my luggage trying to settle. The next day I was busy in the morning trying to complete my registration. I could not just stay in one place; I decided to take a walk around my school. The place was beautiful, it was after the Chinese New Year I could still hear some fireworks which scared me at first, it was still snowing and so many people were carrying luggage and I just assumed they were coming back from the holiday. Later that evening I got to meet with my sister who took me out for dinner, we went to eat "Beijing kaorou" and my sister’s friends kept telling me the Beijing duck in Nanjing is better than the original one in Beijing. I didn't get the essence of it since I had not tried the Beijing one ( still hope to try the original recipe). That was my first two great days in China. One year and eight months later I feel like a local despite the fact that my Chinese is toneless.

Xuzhou

I have always liked the hot weather, on my first summer in China I spent my holiday in summer camp in Xuzhou, the most local place I've been to so far. I was the first foreigner to go to the small village of Persian. It was a kid’s summer camp; the kids were so full of energy eager to speak to "waiguo ren", "How old are you?", "Where do you come from?" these are some of the questions that seemed to be in the mind of most people I met. I didn’t mind answering them; it was a great chance for me to go on practicing my toneless Chinese. My first activity included teaching the kids the famous body parts song "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Yoes". It seemed to work everywhere they met me they sang the song. I was glad to be part of something great. At the end of the summer camp I got to visit the most classical gardens in China in Suzhou. Am now planning to visit China"s Jurassic park "China Dinosaur Park", can't wait for the holiday to begin!