As sociable beings we have the need to connect with others to share stories of our inner world, just to see, if it is similar to the world of others. If it is not, no worries, you just think differently and there is nothing bad about it, it makes the world more diverse and colorful 🙂 . Arriving in Yangshuo and not knowing anybody means… get to know somebody. How? Beginning with a chit chat is a good option and then seeing, where it takes you from there. Some conversations are going to be shallow, some will turn out to be so deep, that you will start thinking “wow, I have a feeling that I have known this person for ages.” So how did I start to meet people?
It was quite easy, because I stay at the dormitory and have a roommate, so this makes my first contact. What was the extra bonus? She is native, but speaks English fluently, so I also have the opportunity to have a cultural experience and for a vegetarian girl like me without any Chinese language knowledge the Jackpot, since I can eat in restaurants not worrying, that I will have meat on my plate. This makes my life in China much easier and convenient and beside that, I can see how the Chinese people are and think.
As a volunteer at Omeida I exchange two hours work per day from Monday till Friday for meals during the week and accommodation. The meals are in the canteen at Chinese College, where I found other foreigners, that are learning Chinese here. Soon you realize you made so many new friends, that it gets hard to find time for yourself and to be productive 😛 .
Then there is the volunteer work at Omeida English College, where I became a part of an institution and got to know the employees and students. The school organizes social evenings every Thursday like BBQ, Guess the name of the song, Speech contest… where I meet a bunch of new people and now I need more than one second to scroll from the first till last contact on my WeChat 🙂 . As a volunteer I have one on one conversations with Chinese students for one hour every day in the afternoon. We discuss sport, travel, ambitions… and it is awesome, because I get the opportunity to meet more natives and learn about Chinese culture. After that I have one hour of English conner in a classroom with more students, where we discuss about a topic that I prepared for them. The work is super fun and interesting, because I get this deep insight into Chinese lifestyle and the Chinese students are mega nice and open.
Of course everybody knows somebody else, so you just get to know more and more different people from all walks of life and so I ended up jamming in Kaya bar, which is super fun 😀 .
Planetina 