Took the overnight train back to Beijing on Friday. When I arrived at
Tsinghua again on Saturday morning, I was told to take the shuttle bus
to the registration area. Since the driver had a bit of an accent, I
couldn't make out everything he was saying. Thus, I was petrified
that he was going to drop me off in some sort of place where the take
all the people who don't speak Chinese. Though, I guess that would
have been the international students' dorm so maybe it would have been
okay either way. Anyways, I did get to the right spot and I was met
by my exchange student partner. I also met up with some of the other
Purdue students who had arrived. Now, let me tell you about some of
the places where I had to register. I already registered at the
school on my previous trip to Tsinghua, this time I registered for my
dorm (which is a single with a bathroom, chaching!), my laundry card,
my dining card, and a bicycle. Now, at each of the places I had to
present my letter of acceptance as well as my passport. But, here
comes the good part. Even though my given name is in English, as it
appears on all legal documents, they exclusively use my Chinese name
here. In fact, they pretty much have a strict, no non-Chinese names
policy when registering. Therefore, when one of the students (who is
Indian) went to get his dining card, the man at the desk asked him if
he had a Chinese name. When the student said no and asked if he could
use his English name, the employee said what would translate roughly
to, "absolutely not." So, the Chinese students in a pinch, thought
him up a Chinese name on the spot, and that was what he used. What's
even better is the name he was given had the same surname as the one
that was given to another student so we inadvertently made them
brothers. Also, my air conditioning does not get activated until June
first. It's extremely hot here.
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