We’re a few weeks into the Chinese school year, and I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of this new schedule.  Last semester, my classes at the University of London SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) only met twice a week and I thought that was odd coming from Wellesley but Fudan’s classes meet just once a week.  They’re also heavily lecture-based although that’s probably the norm at bigger institutions, anyway.

This semester, I’m taking Survey of International Economics, Chinese Financial Development, Chinese Society: Past and Present, and a psych class on Marriage and Family, plus Mandarin classes provided through TEAN (these meet three times a week).  One of my favorite parts of study abroad is taking classes I otherwise couldn’t access.  I’m enjoying broaching new topics like the differences between beifangren and nanfangren (Northern and Southern Chinese people) in Chinese Society as well as how to calculate a nominal effective exchange rate in Chinese Financial Development.

Okay maybe the latter isn’t quite as riveting, but I’m sure it’ll help me out later on.

On the non-academic side of things, Fudan’s campus (I’m mainly on the Northern Handan side) is gorgeous.  The North Star of the campus is Guanghua Tower, two skyscrapers of offices and classrooms placed smack in the middle of campus, between a wide green lawn (we Americans would call it a quad) and the main canteen.

Guanghua Tower

One of many lovely tree-lined lanes at Fudan

A grid-system of tree-lined roads winds its way around Guanghua and various offices, student dorms, and shops.  When not in class, I like strolling around campus although I’m occasionally knocked over by the wind.  (The wind is surprisingly ferocious; I would love to see it go head to head with Chicago wind someday).

Fudan canteen. Massive, right?

Not to mention, the canteen is amazing.  (No offense to Wellesley Fresh, haha).  The massive three-story building holds at least a half-dozen stations where you can order rice and three sides: things like whole crispy fish, steamed bok choy, and xiangla huasheng jirou (spicy chicken with peanuts) for 10 rmb.  That’s $1.50 USD.  And that’s just the main canteen; there are at least two more by my last count.

Sangha practicing calligraphy

And finally, like any good university, Fudan has tons of student orgs.  Yesterday, I tried out two: calligraphy and mahjong.  Calligraphy was nice and relaxing; I went with my friend Sangha and together we perused a few character books and practiced copying several pages of words.  Mahjong was also a lot of fun, but a different ballgame.  When I arrived, there were sixteen guys present and I was the one and only girl. When I sat down to play, a few of the boys tried to “mansplain” the game to me until I beat them four times.  Then they stopped.

Wellesley women who will, am I right?