These Past Ten Plus Days

It’s been a long time since I last wrote a blog post. I’ve been at Nongda (an agricultural university) for over 10 days, and a lot has happened. Before I went home, I had thought about writing this article many times, but now that I’m actually writing it, I don’t know where to start… so I’ll just write as I think of things.

September 3rd, Registration Day

After arriving at Nongda, I walked through the main building to the registration office, where I saw my class advisor, Yang Laoshi, who is a bit on the heavier side. He’s a first-year graduate student, only four years older than me. I have a special fondness for people who are a bit overweight . Then, a sophomore senior led my dad and me to buy bedding. When we arrived at the dorm, I sent my dad off and started setting up my own little world. Our dorm room has six people, and each person has a combination bed with a desk, wardrobe, and drawers underneath… I don’t know what to call it, so let’s just say it’s a combination bed. After some struggles, during which I made many mistakes, such as using the bed sheet as a quilt cover and the pillowcase as a towel, I finally got my bed set up.

Now, let me introduce my roommates

Wu Yutao is from Xingtai, Hebei, and looks a lot like my middle school class leader, Li Fan, and also a bit like my high school class leader, Song Xinfei. Hmm, basically, this guy and I are always teasing each other, hehe, that’s a story for later.

Ren Lixian is from Gaomi, Shandong, and is a hometown friend of the author Mo Yan. This guy is very honest, but has a lot of intimidating muscles. Fortunately, he’s half a head shorter than me. Although he’s all muscles, he loves literature and speaks in a very refined way. I’ve had several arm-wrestling matches with him, and the result is always a “feeling of defeat”… One evening, I forgot to arm-wrestle with him, and he said, “Don’t you forget something today? Want to experience the feeling of defeat again?”

Wang Yue is from Tianjin, and this guy has a special talent in certain areas… but I won’t say what it is to avoid being indecent. He has a great voice, though. At first, because of his bad leg, he couldn’t climb up to the top bunk, so he left the dorm on the first day. But after a few days, he came back and changed to a lower bunk bed. This guy always makes our dorm room more lively. Every day, he and I team up to tease Tang Bangyan.

Who is Tang Bangyan (from Yibin, Sichuan)?

He’s a super idiot. Wang Yue and I have found evidence: he actually stuck a piece of tape on his water card with the words “water card” written on it. His meal card also has a piece of tape… and he still can’t tell them apart… sigh. However, this guy also has his moments of glory: on the night of September 29, 2006, he became the leader of our dorm room. That’s a story for later…

Wu Fengjun is a brother from Dalian, and he doesn’t talk much. When he does talk, he has a strong Dalian accent that makes us dizzy. But this guy refuses to speak slowly… actually, he often says surprising things, but I don’t always understand what he’s saying.

Hehe, everyone is very casual and united. Remember our united dorm room 0641! We’re also members of the 0641 Card Collection Society… if you want to hear more about that, wait for the next episode…