Sharing: The Second and Third Weeks in Guangzhou

I went to our canteen for the first time on the beginning of second week. It’s a big canteen with so many choices of meal for breakfast （07.00 am – 09.00 am）, lunch （11.00 am – 1.00 pm）and supper （5.00 pm – 11.00 pm）. As I didn’t have the student card yet, I paid for a package of rice (two portions), meat and vegetable and then went to the meal area to choose the meal. It’s a quite a big portion. Later on, I knew that I can buy the meal coupon based on the price of the meal.
After Sunday mass at Cathedral, I had lunch with the Indonesians at a Vietnamese restaurant and went around Beijing Lu.
I attended Bible Sharing in English and Mandarin in Cathedral on Sep 12 evening. As it’s my first time, I was sent to the beginner group. There were cakes and coke afterwards.
After going around at Sanyuanli, the wholesales area of bags, I picked up the medical verification from Guangdong International Travel Health Center on Sep 14.
I went to Divisions of Aliens & Exit-Entry Administration of Municipal Public Security Bureau on Sep 15. After my all documents being checked at 5th floor, I was allowed to go to 6th floor to submit my application. I will pick it up on Sep 29. I bought the books for conversation and listening in the school after getting my class placement. My classes are on Mondays-Tuesdays 08.55 a.m. – 12.25 p.m. and Wednesdays-Fridays 2.45 p.m – 5.55 p.m. There are two sessions of 45 minutes with ten minutes break in each class. Even though I wrote my Chinese name 黄 莉 莉in my application form, it didn’t appear in the list of students, so I asked the staff to input it in their database again. My niece invited for supper at a Brazilian grilled and BBQ. There were Chinese and Brazilian live music by three Brazilians.
I started the first two classes on Sep 16. There were 18 students (later on, there were 20 students on the 3rd day and 23 students on the 4th day as we could change class latest on Sep 22) in the class from Vietnam, Indonesia, France, Japan, Turkey, Yemen, Rusia, Morotania, Italy and Tanzania with different background of education/working experiences. There are three Indonesians including myself. The first class was reading and writing and the second class was conversation. We learned about the initials, finals, the tones and new words. I made many mistakes especially on distinguishing “p” and “b”, “d” and “t” and also the tones. I could recall several words. The teachers asked us to have Chinese name as it’s easier for them to pronounce it. They call me “Huang Li Li” as my Chinese name. It’s raining during the class and I left my clothes outside. I only could pray “God, it’s ok to be raining as long as my clothes would not be wet.” I went home and my clothes weren’t wet by the rain. Thanks be to God.
The second two classes on the next day were listening and then reading and writing. We still learned about initials, finals and the tones. There are two teachers for reading and writing, one teacher for listening and one teacher for speaking. All classes use “Pinyin” (=Chinese Romanization) and “Hanzi” (=Chinese characters). I planned to attend a Mandarin prayer service for several calamities in the evening. The two young women who distributed the Mandarin booklet couldn’t explain it in English so another woman helped to explain it but then she asked me to join another group in English and Mandarin. It’s a continuation of the Bible Sharing.
There was a trip to Chen’s Linneage Hall and Yue Xiu Park for new international students on Sep 18 in two busses with an English and Mandarin speaker guide in each bus. I didn’t have enough time to see the statue of five goats, the symbol of Guangzhou based on a legend about five immortals who rode on the backs of five colored rams to bring an ear of rice with the wish a happy life without hunger forever. I saw the statue on my visit to Guangzhou in 2005.
I went to Cathedral on Sunday evening as I got information that there would be a Mass for mid-autumn festival. It’s a celebration in the hall instead of a Mass. There were dances, songs, magic performance, and door prize.
There was the first dictation in reading and writing class on Sep 21. I attended the optional class in “Han zi” on Mondays 12.55 p.m. – 2.15 p.m. Sr. Michelle and Sr. Agnes helped to prepare all the paperworks to open an account in a bank but they asked the original passport. We went out for pizza and visited Sr. Agnes’s nieces.
I brought three out of six moon cakes from Sr. Agnes for my classmates as my niece’s boyfriend also gave one moon cake.
There were no classes on Sep 22-24 for mid-autumn festival but there were replacement classes on Sep 25-26. It’s cloudy on Sep 22 evening so I couldn’t see the moon. The MTR line 2 near campus didn’t operate on Sep 22-24 as it would be changed to line 8. I went around computer city and wet market with my niece and then cooked kangkoong with shrimp.
I attended the Indonesian Charismatic prayer meeting and led the prayer for the birthday celebrants on Sep 25.

Guangzhou, Sep 25, 2010


Sr. Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.
Let’s do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible