My first day at university

Krriiing!!! Kriiiing!! went my alarm o'clock. It's Monday morning, the day I hate the most especially after having a well spent out weekend. But this Monday is a special Monday to me; it's the first day of the semester and the first day of my life at the university.

My first day at university

I am very excited that finally I shall start classes after one month of waiting for my Chinese classmates to finish the military training compulsory for them as per the Chinese education curriculum. At the same time a little nervous because I am going to meet new people, people I have never interacted with before. I have a million questions in my head like how are they going receive me? Am I the only alien in class?

Anyway I get myself ready for class. I check on my timetable and my first class is calculus. I have never studied calculus my whole 19 years of lifetime despite being in an international school back in my country. Despite all that I am excited for my new day at university.

The university is very big, at first I get lost trying to find my class and arrive in my class five minutes after the class has begun. I walk to my professor with my timetable in hand and he tells me, "you are in the right class son, please have a seat". I take a look at the class and damn it, I am the only alien in class. A black in the midst of 65 Chinese students. At once I wish I would just disappear like how they do it in the super hero movies. The students are very excited to see a foreigner in their class. I decide to take a seat at the back of the class because I am a little shy.

The teacher continues teaching calculus.

At first I try to read the presentation on the wall projected from the teacher's computer. It's all in Chinese; I try to understand what the presentation is about. With my one year learnt Chinese language at Tongji University up to level five, nothing makes sense to me that’s on the wall. I turn to my desk mate and ask him what the teacher is talking about; he turns to me and politely tells me 听不懂 (sorry I can't understand you). I try paraphrase the question and ask him again, but this time he tells me "对啊， 他是我们的老师" (Yes, he our teacher). This time is really confused. I wander what's wrong with him!