I just finished my first week in Nanjing. Fortunately for me, I had a friend that I had met in Taipei ICLP who was already finishing up his semester here help me settle in and I finished everything in about 4 days. Within these four days, I nearly got scammed (black taxi) and almost got hit by a motorcycle but on the up side I set everything up that I needed to including my residence permit. The toughest thing to set up was probably the bank account because I had to sync my bank account with a few apps on my phone including wechat pay so that I could say goodbye to the barbaric days of lugging around my 2x4 in wallet. What a beautiful concept! 太方便了吧。
All administrative tasks aside, I met my cohort and teachers, as well as Mace, the American administrative go to. He's who you ask for all housing, tutoring and everything else help. The teachers are there for classwork only (for the most part). It seems that most of the cohort (total of 14 people) somewhat know each from previous programs at ICLP, CET, ACC or PIB so we get along quite nicely.
I really appreciate how convenient and cheap everything is here, I have to say. After a month of traveling in LA, this was a huge relief. All ride share, takeout, metro, shopping, deliveries and general payment methods all can be done through 支付宝 or Alipay as the 外国人 call it. Safe to say I've been in my home making the most out of the takeout deliveries ($0.30 delivery cost), it would be peasant like to even step foot out of my house to eat anymore.
夫子庙
瞻园
