Welcome to China

Now, I am in China. Yes, I landed safely at BaiYun International Airport, GuangZhou, China on July 19, 2010. Now I live in Dongguan City, which is a nice city.

With all my appearances, I blended with local people and NOBODY believes straight away that I cannot speak Chinese. I will speak Chinese, but not in my first day here. So every time they speak Chinese to me I just shake my head and tell them I'm not Chinese. If they ask some other questions in Chinese, I will continue to say that I come from Indonesia. Then I start to explain that my family is Chinese but we don't speak Chinese at all.

Well, I learnt some Chinese at a Mandarin course. But only for months. And that happened years ago. What did you expect from that? I watched a lot of Chinese movies at home before I went here, but I read the subtitle which is either in Indonesian or in English. 

I know some words now. I have to learn it quickly so that I don't make the local people disappointed with me. I look like Chinese (actually I am), but don't speak Chinese YET.

My plan is, after I get a job here, I take a private course (if I can afford it) in Chinese lesson. So at least, I can speak a little more, and hopefully master it when it's time to go back to Indonesia.

My first night in China was full of nightmares. First, I missed home. Second, the bed was HARD (not anymore now, still hard but not as hard as the first first time). Third, all the menus are written in Chinese characters (yeah...what did you expect?), so I have no idea what it is. So I just point to picture and be surprise of the food that is served. 

Wish me luck in finding a job here. They all said that it would be a lot easier to find one if you are already in China.

• China