Heilongjiang University, Fall 2009

[jess.ylz]

Feeling rather isolated at the moment, just moved into a place further off campus than I had planned. Anyone here at Heida for the fall semester?

[abcdefg]

I don't mean this to sound critical, but one option is to get off the computer and out of your room and meet all the local people you can. I found people in Harbin to be really friendly to strangers and generally very approachable. Much more so than in other parts of China as a rule.

Go out and do some things that are of interest to you in the city and take the initiative in starting conversations with people you meet as you go along. Social isolation can be a bear, and taking conscious steps to combat it by such mundane tactics can often help a lot.

New acquaintances and friends really don't need to be school-based even though that's where we often turn first in our search. I like getting to know ordinary working folks who have nothing to do with the educational establishment.

[jess.ylz]

I'm working on it... it's just nice to have someone in the same boat to do all that with.

Edited September 1, 2009 at 11:26 AM by jess.ylz

[jacki]

Hey Jess!! Haha. This is Jacki. And no.... I am still without internet, I'm just using my roommate's computer. I can't figure out how to get my mac on the network

And don't worry, we'll make friends. And you can come hang out in the 留学生公寓 whenever you would like

[jess.ylz]

Hey Jacki! =)

[abcdefg]

I'm working on it... it's just nice to have someone in the same boat to do all that with.

You're right about that. I hope you find someone local who can explore with you. Best wishes in your studies and in getting integrated into daily life there.

[HangingClowns]

Are you guys still in Harbin? I'm at HEU. Is everyone in this thread an American? How long will you guys stay here? Sorry to crap. I thought it was interesting to know that some people are on this forum are in Harbin, also.

I've been running into a lot of Russians, but not much else that are here for more than a week.

[Ming Taizu]

Hi Everyone:

I'm an American who is doing research at Heida for nine months and wanted to give a shout out to those who are doing language study here at Heida. These past few months I was doing the CET Program at HIT and have been getting into the groove of things at Heida over the past few weeks. Now that I'm slowly getting into the flow I decided that it was about time to post on the forum's walls!

Hopefully you are all doing well and that you have a most wonderful 感恩节.

Eric

[aboud]

Talking about nationalities .. where are the russians from ? eastern western Russia, are they sociable ?

I can talk Russian fluently, but not all of the Russians I meet in Moscow are open to other cultures.

[jess.ylz]

My Russian classmates from Vladivostok mostly hung out with each other, but other Russians I knew (from all over the country) seemed fairly open to being friends with people from different places and I think there was a lot of interaction between Russians (even Mosovites) and people from other post-Soviet states where people can speak Russian (Azerbaijian, Kazakhstan, etc... the same goes for my new school in Beijing). Relations also seemed pretty okay between ethnic Russians and Siberian (like Turkic/Monglian-related groups).

I did know a girl who had an inexplicable thing against Muslims/Arabs which she described as an "attitude" thing (theirs or hers, I don't know which she thought was the problem), but she also qualified by saying she did like her Muslim Central Asian friends... and I also think by Arabs she meant Pakistanis... these conversations were extra complicated in our mutually non-fluent Chinese.

I know there are many problems related to xenophobia and racism in Russia (and also Europe in general), but if I were to go by the general impression I got from my classmates at HeiDa and in Beijing, I really wouldn't have guessed. I think for the most part, the type of people who go abroad to study are the kind of people who are eager to meet people and experience things different from their own.