Here is the first in a series of posts from Zachary Larson, Borlaug Summer Intern at Nanjing Agricultural University in China:
It has almost been a week since I came here to China, and it has been quite an incredible week. I have experienced enough in this city in just five days to easily make this the most memorable trip I have been on, but I still have almost three months more of activity here in China. I was expecting to be welcomed with a streak of hot weather much more comparable to Texas or Louisiana, but my first initial day here was also the day of a large cold rainy spell.
Beyond the weather, I was pleasantly surprised when I was finally able to see Nanjing Agricultural University. This university, while still perhaps lacking in some areas compared to our own agricultural universities, is still quite good. The campus scenery in and around Nanjing is quite incredible. While the buildings around here range from incredibly old to just constructed, the hodge-podge scenery of this place gives it a certain character that every university seems to develop.
I quickly got used to walking around and saw many unique places in and around the university. Just like any university, this place has a gigantic library, several incredibly scenic student buildings, cafeterias, surrounding restaurants, and plenty of sketchy (but yet very tasty eateries). But, compared to American universities, the landscape is obviously different, and this shapes the students lives in and around the university.
The first difference you can notice within this university is that the campus contains the main administrative and class buildings, and surrounding these lie the cafeterias and dormitories. Within the campus also contains several eateries and essential services, but the difference between the inside and outside of the campus is clearly marked with entrance gates and low-lying walls. While these gates were built to seclude the university from the much larger surrounding city of Nanjing, the gates now and the officials manning them are solely concerned with too many cars clogging the interior campus.
Beyond this, the campus life and, and I guess the city life around the university, is incredibly active. The city of Nanjing is just a bit less than the size of Chicago or Houston, and is highly compacted into districts surrounding Nanjing. While stepping inside the campus one might feel a fake sense of peace and quiet, but this is quickly removed when one moves just a half mile away up to to the Northern or Southern shopping districts that ring the campus.
Going shopping in China is certainly an experience in itself, but certainly much more tame in the stores now than before and the open markets on the weekends. Still, the task of trying to navigate and buy items with out a sufficient grasp of the language is an interesting experience to say the least. While it is easy enough to go into a store and point at something and say I want this (我要这个）or I want that (我要这个). But, it clearly proves hard if you want to know anything about the product or if there are many people impatiently waiting for you to finish so that they can buy their own products as well.
These and many more experiences have come up in the last week. The kind of life change pace here is incredible, and I am still trying to adapt. I have already had my share of frustrating, happy and also some boring experiences. As I become more settled to the pace, I will be able to give a much better and in depth view of my life around here, and especially the agricultural background surrounding the current lab I am working in.