So I have gotten back home with an hour before I should think about sleeping, nothing to do and a somewhat talkative mood. I suppose that means I should put another entry into what is becoming a very thin blog. It’s not that I don’t enjoy writing for this thing. In fact I do. Whenever I can force myself to begin something, it doesn’t take long before I’ve put down an entire page or two, still wanting to write more. The problem lies in getting myself to start. See, I really have to have a perfect combination of free time, the right mood, and an interesting topic to begin with that is immediately on my mind. I always end up having plenty of weird stories to tell, but it never seems worth it to write any of them down unless I have one particularly important subject on my mind. After that, it just takes a moment before all the other strange tales come out.
The topic that is on my mind isn’t really that immediately interesting, nor is it even a very concrete subject. I was just thinking on my way home tonight that it would be a good idea to write about my general observations of my situation here, now that I’ve had plenty of time to get into the swing of things. There has really been so much going on that I feel it’s time for a state of the union sort of entry.
The first thing to mention is time. I have so much less of it than I expected (btw, I always felt it wasn’t correct to say “so much less,” seems rather oxymoronic, but oh well). Before arriving I had big ambitions about all the things I would do while here. Study Chinese, read loads of books, do some writing (meaning besides this blog), exercise, travel, see the city, meet the locals, start a barbecue restaurant (just you wait!). The sad thing that I have realized is just how limited my time really is. Teaching at the school leaves has left me pretty much exhausted by the time I get off work, which is usually a little after 4. Once I get home to change, it’s already time for dinner, which usually means quite a long expedition at a restaurant. After that I might as well start getting ready for bed before too long, since I have to wake up at 6:30. I probably have a little time each evening to study some Chinese, read some of my book, or talk to friends online, but not for all three. Whenever I try that, I just end up staying up too late and making myself exhausted by the end of school, something that already happens even when I get enough sleep. Then on the weekends we all go out and do something fun for at least one of the nights, if not both. Saturday or Sunday we have been going on some sort of day-long trip into town. One of the things that has really been taking up my time is playing football…er, soccer. Sorry, I am indeed becoming British. I of course enjoy every second of it, but it has become the biggest part of two of my days each week. Wednesdays we leave pretty much immediately after school is over to travel to literally the opposite side of town, where we play against another international school. Saturdays we play on a field a good bit closer. For both days we end up going out to eat afterwards, so the whole endeavor really ends up taking up almost the whole day.
What is most frustrating about my time limitations is that it means I really have to force myself to include the things I really feel I should be doing, or else the day could easily slip by without me doing them. This is mainly a problem with Chinese. I underestimated how much work I would have to put into the language to be able to improve a lot. My interactions with Chinese people could be incredibly minimal if I really wanted it to. With all the westerners I work with, it isn’t hard to keep myself in a foreigner bubble. While at work I make sure to talk with the Chinese teachers as much as I can, but even then I only get to say a few sentences back and forth. My pronunciation is also apparently horrid, and I find myself having to repeat the simplest phrases literally six times before I am understood. Part of it is the different dialect in Nanjing, but mainly I picked up very bad habits with my tones. I think this has come from me being a bit careless and lazy without having a teacher who would yell “WRONG!” at me every time I pronounced something slightly incorrectly. Maybe the traditional Chinese way of teaching, where anything less than perfection is totally incorrect, is what I needed all along. I actually seem to have switched around my ideas of what each tone sounds like, so when I know I am supposed to use a falling tone and try to say a falling tone, what comes out is a strange rising tone. I’ve been trying to practice this as much as I can, and already I can see what I have been doing wrong. I think my pronunciation has improved a good bit now, but it’s something I have to constantly concentrate on, or I will quickly slip back into my poor habits. This is a bit disheartening because I feel like I’m suddenly 10 steps further back from where I thought I was. When I thought I was ready to perfect my grammar and use complicated sentence structures, instead I’m back practicing the things people learn in year 1 of Chinese. I have hardly even been able to begin working on grammar. Yet, I think this is only a minor setback. I am constantly surprised at how much I do remember, although it may be buried deep inside my head. Once I improve my tones, I feel it won’t be long before I can do a lot with the language. Also I have managed to make some friends around town, which is the best way to learn the language. I think this has just been a snap back to reality on how much work it will require to really improve my Chinese. I am making sure to study every day if I can, and if I am serious about this I am going to have to continue doing that. Fortunately in a day I do spend a good deal speaking Chinese. Whenever I am not working or at home, I am using Chinese. As one of about three people who speak Chinese among the westerners at my work, I have pretty much become the translator for any outing. This of course I don’t mind, because it gives me plenty of chance for practice. The only real problem is that speaking and thinking in Chinese has made my English pretty unbelievably bad. Already re-reading some of my sentences has made me cringe a bit. But you know what? My time is precious, so most of the time I’m going to leave it how it is.
So yes, time. It’s an issue. So much so that I’m going to have to stop things here, much sooner than I wanted to. I will try to write some more in the next day or two, just to make sure I jot down the rest of my observations about things here. I will just say that overall things are amazing and I am extremely happy here. I couldn’t think of a better situation for me to be in right now, in more ways than one.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
China blog 4
Teaching! It has finally begun, and oh what fun it is. I am really happy with the age group I have. Not only are they painfully adorable, but they are at the age where learning is exciting to them. Every single one of our students is eager to show us they can do something right, and they are all very capable of doing so. The only behavior problems we have are usually from over-excitement. Sometimes they may be talking out of turn (okay, lots of the time) or lose focus, but it is never because they refuse to do the work. They will always obey you when you ask them directly to do something, it is just sometimes difficult to keep the entire group on task at the same time. But overall they are very good. One of the most common ways they misbehave is merely by shouting an answer out rather than raising their hand, which I think is the best type of bad behavior. At least they are eager to learn and show us what they know.
Coming into the first day, I was a little nervous because I did not feel very prepared for the lesson plan. However, it seems that I do not really have to be very prepared, as Miss Neely is well versed in teaching and has plenty of ideas already thought up for the class. I merely have to help her and have a good time working with the kids. She is in fact quite the disciplinarian, which actually makes things even easier for me as I become the good guy by default. The kids are all really sweet and seem very excited just to have a big person to talk and work with them. This job has made me understand already how much I really do love being around children. Although both days required a lot out of us, I actually felt full of energy by the end of the day. My body was tired, but my spirit was pumped. I look forward to each day.
So yes, I am writing this after the second day of teaching. Both days have been pretty similar, with lots of light lessons interspersed with mostly organized play time. It makes me remember how fun school was at the beginning.
I am surprised at how well behaved the children are. Of course, they are young and wild and energetic, but that is to be expected. Like I said, they all do what they are told immediately when you ask them, so long as they receive the message you are giving. The “trouble child” that I was warned about, Yahya, doesn’t seem to be any different from the other kids, really. He has a bit of a snatching problem when playing with the other children, but other than that he is not nearly as bad as I was expecting. He does things that you ask him to do and is eager to help. He really wants to do the right thing, and I think proper communication and patience with him is all he needs. He is also incredibly bright and seems to know the answers to almost all the questions we ask of him.
One child that has seemed to have the hardest time adjusting is a boy named Alex who is new to the school. He comes from a very unique situation, as he is from Denmark and looks completely European to me, yet his first language is Chinese. His mother is from China and his father must speak the language fluently, since from what I hear that seems to be the only language they speak around him. At first I really suspected he may have some special needs issues, as he was extremely shy and spent most of the first day completely off on his own. During P.E., he refused to join the circle or do any of the activities the other kids were doing entirely. We weren’t sure if he was really receiving the information we were trying to communicate to him. Yet, it turned out he is just really, really, really shy. He apparently had a hard time at his last school, a Chinese kindergarten, and has some separation issues with his parents. But I have already been pleased to see him warm up a bit. By the end of the first day, he was obeying directions and seemed to be much better settled. Then, he gave me a smile the next morning as he arrived. It was the first one I had seen him give! It quickly became apparent that he did not have any special needs and was in fact very bright. Near the end of lunch he did crawl back into his shell a good bit during an activity where we were trying to gauge everyone’s writing ability. The assignment was very difficult, and he seemed to be discouraged by the fact that he didn’t think he could do it. Almost immediately I saw him erasing on his paper, and it turned out that he had written his name very well but erased it. Then, he refused to write anymore and went away from the children on his own. Eventually, he actually went out into the hallway, squatted down and cried. When I told Miss Neely about it, she told me to go bring him into the room, but he absolutely was not willing to do so. So instead I sat with him and comforted him a bit, talking to him about being a new kid and how things will be okay. I stayed with him and began to talk about other things, like a bug that crawled across the floor and a poster on the wall, and he seemed to warm up a bit. Then, lunchtime arrived and he was willing to go into the bathroom to wash his hands before walking down with the class to the cafeteria. He seemed much better by that point. I began to realize what was needed with children this age. Sometimes you are not going to be able to get them to do what you have planned for whatever reason. The best way to deal with a student like this who is shy is not to force him into anything, but to be patient and build a good relationship with him. Hopefully he can learn to trust me and will be more willing to join in on activities. At the end of lunch I sat down next to him and talked to him for a bit as he finished his lunch. All of the other students from our class had already finished, so he was sitting next to only people from other classes. I was able to get him to respond at least with nodding and shaking his head by asking him which foods he liked. I think I made some big headway when I asked him in Chinese, “Are you full?” which led him to smile widely and nod his head. We are supposed to speak English to all the children to encourage them to do so, but in his situation I felt it was something that would help make him feel more comfortable. I had only an hour or so earlier first learned that Chinese was the language he spoke, and I was glad I decided to do that. It seemed to have a good effect on him. After that I helped him clear his tray and asked him whether he wanted to go play outside or in the library. He nodded at library, and so we went there, where I let him choose a few dinosaur and animal books for us to look at together. He seemed much more excitable, and said things like “Look at that!” to get my attention while pointing at pictures. Some of the other students were in the library too and came over with books for me to read to them. I read some of a book while still looking at the animal book with Alex, and it seemed to help him get gradually more comfortable with the other classmates. When we returned to the classroom I drew a dinosaur on the Smartboard while we waited for our first activity, and he excitedly shouted out “Dinosaur!” with a big smile. I was very happy to see him opening up more. He seemed to be making progress making friends with the other students as well. I noticed some of the Chinese speaking students speaking with him, and he responded well to that. I think it is only a matter of time. As he left I was able to meet his mother, who was very nice. She said he had told her about “Mr. William” the day before but couldn’t remember the head teacher’s name. It was nice to see him appear happy as he left.
One last thing that I find remarkable is the amount of Chinese the students know. On the first day I saw two students, one American and the other Pakistani, speaking to each other in Chinese as they played. In fact, that is the language those two prefer to use while playing. The same is true for two other students, one of whom is Chinese but the other of whom I do not think is. Several other students are amazingly competent in the language as well. I am extremely impressed, and I think these children are growing up in a great situation.
Coming into the first day, I was a little nervous because I did not feel very prepared for the lesson plan. However, it seems that I do not really have to be very prepared, as Miss Neely is well versed in teaching and has plenty of ideas already thought up for the class. I merely have to help her and have a good time working with the kids. She is in fact quite the disciplinarian, which actually makes things even easier for me as I become the good guy by default. The kids are all really sweet and seem very excited just to have a big person to talk and work with them. This job has made me understand already how much I really do love being around children. Although both days required a lot out of us, I actually felt full of energy by the end of the day. My body was tired, but my spirit was pumped. I look forward to each day.
So yes, I am writing this after the second day of teaching. Both days have been pretty similar, with lots of light lessons interspersed with mostly organized play time. It makes me remember how fun school was at the beginning.
I am surprised at how well behaved the children are. Of course, they are young and wild and energetic, but that is to be expected. Like I said, they all do what they are told immediately when you ask them, so long as they receive the message you are giving. The “trouble child” that I was warned about, Yahya, doesn’t seem to be any different from the other kids, really. He has a bit of a snatching problem when playing with the other children, but other than that he is not nearly as bad as I was expecting. He does things that you ask him to do and is eager to help. He really wants to do the right thing, and I think proper communication and patience with him is all he needs. He is also incredibly bright and seems to know the answers to almost all the questions we ask of him.
One child that has seemed to have the hardest time adjusting is a boy named Alex who is new to the school. He comes from a very unique situation, as he is from Denmark and looks completely European to me, yet his first language is Chinese. His mother is from China and his father must speak the language fluently, since from what I hear that seems to be the only language they speak around him. At first I really suspected he may have some special needs issues, as he was extremely shy and spent most of the first day completely off on his own. During P.E., he refused to join the circle or do any of the activities the other kids were doing entirely. We weren’t sure if he was really receiving the information we were trying to communicate to him. Yet, it turned out he is just really, really, really shy. He apparently had a hard time at his last school, a Chinese kindergarten, and has some separation issues with his parents. But I have already been pleased to see him warm up a bit. By the end of the first day, he was obeying directions and seemed to be much better settled. Then, he gave me a smile the next morning as he arrived. It was the first one I had seen him give! It quickly became apparent that he did not have any special needs and was in fact very bright. Near the end of lunch he did crawl back into his shell a good bit during an activity where we were trying to gauge everyone’s writing ability. The assignment was very difficult, and he seemed to be discouraged by the fact that he didn’t think he could do it. Almost immediately I saw him erasing on his paper, and it turned out that he had written his name very well but erased it. Then, he refused to write anymore and went away from the children on his own. Eventually, he actually went out into the hallway, squatted down and cried. When I told Miss Neely about it, she told me to go bring him into the room, but he absolutely was not willing to do so. So instead I sat with him and comforted him a bit, talking to him about being a new kid and how things will be okay. I stayed with him and began to talk about other things, like a bug that crawled across the floor and a poster on the wall, and he seemed to warm up a bit. Then, lunchtime arrived and he was willing to go into the bathroom to wash his hands before walking down with the class to the cafeteria. He seemed much better by that point. I began to realize what was needed with children this age. Sometimes you are not going to be able to get them to do what you have planned for whatever reason. The best way to deal with a student like this who is shy is not to force him into anything, but to be patient and build a good relationship with him. Hopefully he can learn to trust me and will be more willing to join in on activities. At the end of lunch I sat down next to him and talked to him for a bit as he finished his lunch. All of the other students from our class had already finished, so he was sitting next to only people from other classes. I was able to get him to respond at least with nodding and shaking his head by asking him which foods he liked. I think I made some big headway when I asked him in Chinese, “Are you full?” which led him to smile widely and nod his head. We are supposed to speak English to all the children to encourage them to do so, but in his situation I felt it was something that would help make him feel more comfortable. I had only an hour or so earlier first learned that Chinese was the language he spoke, and I was glad I decided to do that. It seemed to have a good effect on him. After that I helped him clear his tray and asked him whether he wanted to go play outside or in the library. He nodded at library, and so we went there, where I let him choose a few dinosaur and animal books for us to look at together. He seemed much more excitable, and said things like “Look at that!” to get my attention while pointing at pictures. Some of the other students were in the library too and came over with books for me to read to them. I read some of a book while still looking at the animal book with Alex, and it seemed to help him get gradually more comfortable with the other classmates. When we returned to the classroom I drew a dinosaur on the Smartboard while we waited for our first activity, and he excitedly shouted out “Dinosaur!” with a big smile. I was very happy to see him opening up more. He seemed to be making progress making friends with the other students as well. I noticed some of the Chinese speaking students speaking with him, and he responded well to that. I think it is only a matter of time. As he left I was able to meet his mother, who was very nice. She said he had told her about “Mr. William” the day before but couldn’t remember the head teacher’s name. It was nice to see him appear happy as he left.
One last thing that I find remarkable is the amount of Chinese the students know. On the first day I saw two students, one American and the other Pakistani, speaking to each other in Chinese as they played. In fact, that is the language those two prefer to use while playing. The same is true for two other students, one of whom is Chinese but the other of whom I do not think is. Several other students are amazingly competent in the language as well. I am extremely impressed, and I think these children are growing up in a great situation.
China Bog 3
So I have an idea about this blog. First off, I’m not sure how much time I have and I don’t think I want to be slaving away for a long time tonight retelling everything that’s happened since my last entry. Secondly, I feel like this thing has already become way too much of a recap of events than a real journal, and that’s making it a little dry and a lot less fun to write. So how about I try to just start writing down what I’m thinking and see what happens.
I’m tired. Not quite sleepy, which is a good thing because it’s still a bit early to sleep if I want to wake up later than six am, but I’m tired. Fortunately my room is an amazing place to lounge. Comfortable bed, nice couches, A/C, whatever you need. Anyways, it’s late and I’ve had a pretty good day so far. Things that were funny about today:
-We went to an arcade and shot around on a basketball game, a group of six of us. After playing one game I turned around and noticed there was a crowd of about twenty Chinese people standing behind us, just watching. Apparently we had drawn a crowd. I was not expecting that, but hey, that is China. Foreigners are still, well, foreign to them. I still find it interesting that they are really that fascinated in what we are doing. I don’t mind it much and just find it amusing. I’m glad that we are able to entertain them that much just by existing. I suppose I would feel the same way in their situation.
-Today we went looking for used bikes at a place that Daniel I. had found on Sunday. The guy had a lot of selection, but he was asking a little too much for me, 250 kuai. While $35 for a used bike ain’t a bad deal, I still feel like we could find something better. So we went next door to what turned out to be a bootleg China Mobile store. Daniel A. still needed to buy a phone, and this was exactly the kind of cheap backdoor place that I had been waiting to find. They had quite a lot of options, from NOKLA to Monterolla. Daniel decided on a Monterolla, only 100 kuai! And it actually worked! We will see how long that lasts. I found it odd, however, that the salesman was unwilling to bargain. He told us 100 kuai and would not change the price. It honestly was a good deal so I didn’t push too much. I found it odd, however, that they asked us how much we made at our job after we bought it. They seemed really interesting in knowing that, but we wouldn’t tell them.
-On the way back we found what we thought to be a gym—a giant building called “Milky Way Spa.” Instead, it was a bathhouse that also offered massage. That explained why the employees wiped the floor and laid out a towel for us as we approached. It really didn’t seem that sketchy, though. It was a huge place that had to make a lot of money to stay in business. Bathhouses are supposed to be a common old Chinese staple. I think it may actually be a legit spa for relaxing and not just getting yourself a happy ending. If that’s the case, then I might be interested. We will be back.
-This morning we went in for our physical exam, which is required to get a professional’s visa. The process was amazingly quick and painless. The international health center we went to was very well done. All the doctors spoke good English and were very good at what they did. I found it strange they gave me an ultrasound, though. It’s a girl!
-On the way there our bus driver knocked into the side mirror of a much larger bus, and boy was the driver not happy. She proceeded to drive next to us and yell at us through her window, then eventually got out and stood in our way until we stopped and fixed what we had done. Funnily enough, the police were right in front of us but never got involved. Apparently if your car is hit in China, you don’t call the police. You just yell at the driver until they come fix what they did by hand. Sounds very Chinese to me.
-Last night we went to a Cultural Revolution themed restaurant. The waitresses were all dressed like soldiers and the walls all had Mao Zedong pictures on them. The waitresses seemed particularly amused by us, though. They burst out laughing over and over while interacting with us. Eventually it started to get a bit annoying. They also lost points for lying to us about which dishes had meat. We had a vegetarian with us who was barely able to eat anything at all. Yet, I feel like she’s fighting a losing battle anyways. If you came to China, you might as well just accept that your life will be loads easier if you eat meat. I’m sorry but it’s true. She said something like “This is the last time I’m going to eat at restaurants, sorry. That’s just ridiculous. The food was really tasty, especially the eggplant! They had the kind I absolutely love, which I found out is called “san wen yu qie zi,” or three fish sauce something or another eggplant. I’m glad to finally know the name.
-School training has started and I’m getting a little nervous. This is going to be a lot of responsibility working at this school. The parents are very demanding about the education their children need. We will have to wear a tie everyday, something I find a bit pointless and irritating. But I feel similar to how I did when I first was training for waiting tables at Carol Woods. It seemed like something ridiculously impossible that I can’t imagine ever doing, but I’m sure I will get used to it soon. It’s only because I’m doing something new. This happens often in life, and it only increases your skills to get through it. It will happen.
I think I like this format, a little more stream of conscious-like. Hopefully it will keep me sane by giving me a vent without feeling like homework. I’m sure I will do some tweaking soon, but that’s it for now. Goodnight!
I’m tired. Not quite sleepy, which is a good thing because it’s still a bit early to sleep if I want to wake up later than six am, but I’m tired. Fortunately my room is an amazing place to lounge. Comfortable bed, nice couches, A/C, whatever you need. Anyways, it’s late and I’ve had a pretty good day so far. Things that were funny about today:
-We went to an arcade and shot around on a basketball game, a group of six of us. After playing one game I turned around and noticed there was a crowd of about twenty Chinese people standing behind us, just watching. Apparently we had drawn a crowd. I was not expecting that, but hey, that is China. Foreigners are still, well, foreign to them. I still find it interesting that they are really that fascinated in what we are doing. I don’t mind it much and just find it amusing. I’m glad that we are able to entertain them that much just by existing. I suppose I would feel the same way in their situation.
-Today we went looking for used bikes at a place that Daniel I. had found on Sunday. The guy had a lot of selection, but he was asking a little too much for me, 250 kuai. While $35 for a used bike ain’t a bad deal, I still feel like we could find something better. So we went next door to what turned out to be a bootleg China Mobile store. Daniel A. still needed to buy a phone, and this was exactly the kind of cheap backdoor place that I had been waiting to find. They had quite a lot of options, from NOKLA to Monterolla. Daniel decided on a Monterolla, only 100 kuai! And it actually worked! We will see how long that lasts. I found it odd, however, that the salesman was unwilling to bargain. He told us 100 kuai and would not change the price. It honestly was a good deal so I didn’t push too much. I found it odd, however, that they asked us how much we made at our job after we bought it. They seemed really interesting in knowing that, but we wouldn’t tell them.
-On the way back we found what we thought to be a gym—a giant building called “Milky Way Spa.” Instead, it was a bathhouse that also offered massage. That explained why the employees wiped the floor and laid out a towel for us as we approached. It really didn’t seem that sketchy, though. It was a huge place that had to make a lot of money to stay in business. Bathhouses are supposed to be a common old Chinese staple. I think it may actually be a legit spa for relaxing and not just getting yourself a happy ending. If that’s the case, then I might be interested. We will be back.
-This morning we went in for our physical exam, which is required to get a professional’s visa. The process was amazingly quick and painless. The international health center we went to was very well done. All the doctors spoke good English and were very good at what they did. I found it strange they gave me an ultrasound, though. It’s a girl!
-On the way there our bus driver knocked into the side mirror of a much larger bus, and boy was the driver not happy. She proceeded to drive next to us and yell at us through her window, then eventually got out and stood in our way until we stopped and fixed what we had done. Funnily enough, the police were right in front of us but never got involved. Apparently if your car is hit in China, you don’t call the police. You just yell at the driver until they come fix what they did by hand. Sounds very Chinese to me.
-Last night we went to a Cultural Revolution themed restaurant. The waitresses were all dressed like soldiers and the walls all had Mao Zedong pictures on them. The waitresses seemed particularly amused by us, though. They burst out laughing over and over while interacting with us. Eventually it started to get a bit annoying. They also lost points for lying to us about which dishes had meat. We had a vegetarian with us who was barely able to eat anything at all. Yet, I feel like she’s fighting a losing battle anyways. If you came to China, you might as well just accept that your life will be loads easier if you eat meat. I’m sorry but it’s true. She said something like “This is the last time I’m going to eat at restaurants, sorry. That’s just ridiculous. The food was really tasty, especially the eggplant! They had the kind I absolutely love, which I found out is called “san wen yu qie zi,” or three fish sauce something or another eggplant. I’m glad to finally know the name.
-School training has started and I’m getting a little nervous. This is going to be a lot of responsibility working at this school. The parents are very demanding about the education their children need. We will have to wear a tie everyday, something I find a bit pointless and irritating. But I feel similar to how I did when I first was training for waiting tables at Carol Woods. It seemed like something ridiculously impossible that I can’t imagine ever doing, but I’m sure I will get used to it soon. It’s only because I’m doing something new. This happens often in life, and it only increases your skills to get through it. It will happen.
I think I like this format, a little more stream of conscious-like. Hopefully it will keep me sane by giving me a vent without feeling like homework. I’m sure I will do some tweaking soon, but that’s it for now. Goodnight!
Monday, August 10, 2009
From Bei to Nan
From Bei to Nan
It looks like I finally have some time to add another entry to this blog. This bit of free time wasn’t exactly planned, but waking up at 5am rarely is. Apparently I’m still feeling the jetlag. And since we don’t need to be ready until 9:45 today, why not jot down the many things that have been happening? I can assure you they are many.
So I have made it safely to Nanjing. My week in Beijing was fun, though a bit slower paced than I had expected. I didn’t accomplish very much, but I suppose I didn’t have many big things to accomplish anyways. The first day I ran most of the errands I needed to do. I bought a cell phone (though not a SIM card, since I would need a Nanjing one), some new flip flops and got my watch readjusted. That evening another friend from my last China experience came to have dinner with us. Her name is Tian Tian, and she along with Zhuang Ning and Jason were the people I hung out with the most outside of my study abroad program. Jason apparently had just left for Germany before I arrived, but I was glad to see Tian Tian. She speaks English very well and was in fact preparing to take the TOEFL, a very difficult, high level English exam. Afterwards she was going to work in England for a year. I told her to make sure to eat some Indian food while she was there, since English food would be the worst thing she had ever tasted. Zhuang cooked dinner for us that night—spicy pork with vegetables and a much milder green bean and chicken dish, as well as some sticky rice of course. The food wasn’t bad, but I still can’t get over the Chinese way of leaving bones in meat. The small bits of pork were really small bits of bone with a little meat around it, not my cup of tea. Immediately after dinner I straight up passed out, only to awaken several hours later when Tian Tian had left and Zhuang Ning had gone to bed. I cruised the internet for a few hours and then went back to sleep. This pattern of sleep seemed to repeat itself for the next few nights.
The next day I went to see a movie—a Hong Kong film called “Overheard” about police spying on a stock trader, was very exciting and interesting. It was all in Chinese with no subtitles, so the details were hard to fully understand, but I was happy to be able to understand the general idea of what was going on the whole time. That evening I went to Wudaokou, the downtown area near Beijing University campus where I spent oh so many nights on my study abroad trip. I did the usual routine, which was to go to Pyro Pizza for beer and then to Propaganda next door for some clubbing. The difference between Wudaokou and the area I was staying was like night and day. Doing my errands around Beijing and just walking around Zhuang’s apartment neighborhood, I literally saw at most one or two foreigners in two days. At Wudaokou, they were all over the place. Pyro especially was full of them, where they had beer pong and a very sports bar-like atmosphere. I talked to a few of them, but mostly I sat back and enjoyed a beer while I smiled at the fact that this place was much more of a bubble inside Beijing than I had ever realized. After an hour or so I headed to Propaganda, which had a lot more Chinese locals and was just as hot a club as I had remembered. The music, however, was a little lacking that night so I left before too long. Overall I was really glad to have made the trip to that part of town. I was surprised how nostalgic it was and how familiar everything felt.
On my final full day in Beijing I looked in my Lonely Planet guide to see if there were any interesting sights I had never seen before. Immediately I found just what I was looking for, an underground city built during the Cultural Revolution! I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Let me read you some of the description:
“By 1969, as the USA landed on the moon, Mao had decided the future for Beijing’s people lay underground. Alarmist predictions of nuclear war with Russia dispatched an army of Chinese beneath Beijing’s streets to burrow a huge warren of bombproof tunnels...English-language language tours guide you along parts of this moldering warren, past rooms designated as battlefield hospitals, a cinema, arsenals, other anonymous vaults and portraits of Mao Zedong.“
I was pumped. So Zhuang and I took the hour-long bus trip across town to check out this strange place. It was apparently near a very busy tourist spot—an old-style street that was very pretty looking but filled with little more than high-end clothing shops and restaurants. Still, I liked it a lot. I had spent many afternoons on my study abroad trip walking through touristy spots, so this reminded me a lot more of the Beijing I remembered. Unfortunately, however, after walking around and asking several people, a group of old Chinese men and women sitting in chairs on the sidewalk told us that the underground city had been closed during the Olympics and not re-opened. Nooooo! Quite a disappointment, but it had really sounded too good to be true anyways. A little bit more walking suddenly brought us to Tiananmen Square, and I decided I wanted to see the Maosoleum where I could take a gander at the fearless leader himself, preserved just like Lenin. Yet, once again I was let down when we found out that viewings could only be done between 8am and noon. Oh well. We took a subway back and had some delicious Peking duck for dinner. The subway had actually been well upgraded since I had left. At the time of my first arrival in Beijing, there were only three subway lines. Now there were ten, including one that went right up to the gates of Beijing University, something that would have been helpful for my twice a week subway trips across town for my internship during my study abroad trip. Once again, oh well.
I can say that the one thing I was happily able to accomplish was to eat my share of good Beijing food. I made sure to get a jianbing from the street (a crepe with an egg spread around one side of it, covered in herbs and sauces, wrapped around a crunch wafer), eat hot pot for lunch (Chinese fondue), have jiaozi for breakfast (crescent-shaped dumplings), and of course the wonderful Peking duck. Unfortunately I never got a chance to eat any baozi (another style of dumplings with a thicker, softer breading), but those can be found pretty much anywhere in China, so I wasn’t too disappointed.
Saturday brought on the train trip to Nanjing. I took with me my leftover kaoya (Peking duck) to eat for lunch, as well as my enormous suitcases that I somehow managed to close once again. I had to take a taxi to the Beijing south station instead of the closer one in the center of town because the train I wanted only ran out of the southern one. It was quite a worthwhile tradeoff though, as this 8-hour ride was the only one under 14 hours that I could take, and it also ran during the day so I could actually see the countryside. Boarding the train was pretty painless, although I was the only one with such a horrendous amount of luggage. I had to store my guitar case and suitcase in a closet at the end of the car. I lucked out with a window seat and a friendly woman who sat next to me. She appeared to be in her 30s and was traveling from Beijing, where she currently lives and works, to Shanghai. We seemed happy to talk and even spoke a bit of English, though it was clear it was something she had studied long ago and hardly used. Most of my time was spent either reading or looking out the window as I listened to music. The scenery was beautiful, and it got noticeably greener and less polluted as the trip went on. By the time we arrived in Nanjing, there was plenty of blue sky and greenery was everywhere. I couldn’t believe I would ever see blue sky regularly in China, but apparently Beijing is the exception to the rule. I was thrilled to learn that, since Beijing had been even more polluted than I was expecting when I arrived. When I got off the train I quickly found Jennifer and Mr. Jin from the Nanjing school, and we took off on a drive to my apartment.
Nanjing is beautiful in ways that I was not expecting. As I said there are trees everywhere, even in the downtown areas. The streets reminded me a lot of Chengdu, my favorite city in China. The one difference, however, was what made Nanjing even cooler. They apparently are in love with bright, color-changing lights. High-rise apartments would have streaks of bright colors running up and down the sides of the building, and bridges had strips of the same lighting running along the outside. All would gradually transition through a number of colors. It made the whole city look like some racing video game. Our neighborhood was no exception. We actually turned to live a bit far out from the main city area, in more of the “suburb” of Nanjing. Still, it looked like just as big a city to me. The only difference was that the streets were spotlessly clean and there weren’t nearly as many cars on the road. It is my kind of place. We luckily pulled up to the apartment just as the entire group of TAs was leaving to go out for the night, so I was able to meet everybody at once. They headed out to the downtown area, and we met up with them in an hour or so for some dinner and a night on the town.
First I should say something about my apartment. Coming to China with a promise of an “apartment provided,” I was a little nervous of what to expect and made sure to keep my expectations low. I figured I would have some small, cramped bedroom that maybe had a kitchen attached to it. After all, China is crowded. Their living spaces are a lot smaller than what Americans are used to. Yet, what I ended up seeing blew me away. I walked in to a gorgeous, modern apartment, with a living room complete with large tv and dvd player, L-shaped couch and glass coffee table. The ceiling even had some more bright, color-changing lights. I have a large bedroom with what I would guess is a queen sized bed and an entire wall of window overlooking the city. Simply amazing. I will be more than happy living here for more than a year.
We met up with the group at the main downtown area in the most expensive part of the city. We ate at a restaurant in the mall which turned out to be not bad, and while it was expensive the total per person was still less than $6. Afterwards we headed to a fancy bar district. Most of our first hour was spent drinking beers from convenience stands and walking around the area. Everything was very nice looking, and it was obvious this was the most high end part of the city for night life. We went to the upstairs of a bar and had some drinks as we all got to know each other. They all seem like really great people. It is nice to be around a much older crowd as well, as most of the people are in at least their mid-twenties if not their thirties. I very quickly have left the college life. But that’s not to say we didn’t have a good night on the town. We left the first place and went to a very nice looking club. As we entered, there was a guy and a girl dancing (not together) up on a sort of platform in the back in front of a wall of bright, color-changing lights. It reminded me of the nicest clubs in Beijing. The drinks were unbelievably expensive, however, so Daniel and I (the other guy from W&M) grabbed another cheap beer from an outside stand and came back in. For the rest of our time in the club, I still can’t believe what happened. A couple of us sat at the bar, which ran around in a square with the bartenders in the middle. They were a group of six or seven young, cute Chinese girls who seemed to be having a great time themselves dancing with each other and drinking with the customers as they served them. Usually one of them was playing some sort of dice game with a customer that I could not for the life of me figure out. As we sat there, they began to just hand us drinks. First it was a beer, then it was a couple more, then they were giving us cocktails. Then they started giving us shots of whiskey. Most of the group went around to different parts of the club, but Daniel and I (different one, this guy was from the UK) stuck around. We stayed at the bar for a good two hours drinking nothing but free drinks the whole night. I ended up not paying a cent at probably one of the most expensive clubs in town! I still have no idea how or why this happened, but hey I’m not going to ask any questions. We all had a great time and eventually headed back at a very late hour.
That was when my night turned into something else I couldn’t believe. I rode the elevator up with a couple people, but I was the only one of our group who lived on my floor so I said goodnight to everyone as I exited. I went to my door, but for some reason my key would not open it. I had a ring of three keys, all of which I tried over and over again, but to no avail. I tried the other rooms around me, thinking maybe I had gotten the number wrong, but the keys were even less close to working on those doors. On mine, at least I could get the key into the hole. I just couldn’t turn it. I went downstairs to tell the woman working in the lobby my problem. She called somebody, who went up to my room to open the door. However, he demanded 120 kuai to open it. First of all, I didn’t have that much money on me at all. It was all in my room. Secondly, I didn’t see why I had to pay to enter my room when it seemed like it was a fault of their key that I couldn’t get in. Yet, they would not budge. He demanded the money, and neither he nor the woman had any sympathy for me. They actually started to laugh at me the more I talked with them, when I asked, “What can I do? Sleep on the street?” Somehow the apartment had no list of who lived in what room, nor did they have extra keys. They couldn’t even verify that this was my correct room. All I did learn was that the key I thought went to my front door was not the right one. They told me it was supposed to be longer and shaped differently. But how had I gotten in in the first place? Jen showed me to my room when I arrived. The keys I grabbed had been in the door to my bedroom. They were the only ones I saw, so I figured they must be the right ones. Had she accidentally kept the key? Was it in my room? Since at this point I had no phone and didn’t know what room anyone else lived in, I had no idea what to do. After an hour or so of arguing with the man and the woman, they eventually just grabbed their things and walked away. I couldn’t believe this was happening. My first night at my new apartment, and I was homeless. I didn’t even know what options I had. The only thing that I could do was to wait. Wait for what I wasn’t sure, but I could do nothing but wait. I figured that eventually Jen would walk outside and I could ask her what the problem was. By the time I went downstairs the sun was coming up. So I went outside and I sat. I sat on a marble wall right outside the door. And I waited. I waited. And I waited some more. People started to come out, but none of them were from my group. Since we had stayed out so late, it was entirely possible nobody I knew would come outside until close to noon. And it was barely past 5am at this point. So I laid back on the wall and fell asleep. That’s right, my first night in Nanjing I slept outside on a wall. I couldn’t have slept for more than an hour or so before I woke up, when a friendly Chinese man started talking to me asking why I was there. I explained to him my situation, and he, unlike the two people who had worked for the apartment, was sympathetic. Yet, there was nothing anyone could do. Some old women even came out and pitied me, offering me some fruit that I declined. I simply waited. Eventually, at 8am I had had enough. Actually, I had had enough by 4am but it didn’t really matter what my I decided was enough at this point. I went back into the lobby and loudly plopped myself down on the high desk. A man (the head person at the hotel I figured, he had only recently arrived) told me I couldn’t sit there, and when I told him my story he was actually very sympathetic as well. Since I thought Jen had my key, I asked him if he knew her or where she lived. Fortunately in China, “foreign girl” is the only description you really need for a person to know who you are talking about. There aren’t too many of them around. He actually knew the room she lived in, and took me there. She was horrified to hear what had happened, but she didn’t have the key. She did come downstairs with me to help, however. All that could be done was to call the man again to open the door. He was pretty cheeky when he arrived, and I must say I was a being a bit of a smart ass back to him at this point. This time he told me he would open it for 80 kuai, which turns out was the actual fee, not the “I’m going to cheat you because you’re in a bind and I can, plus you’re a foreigner” fee. Fortunately I actually had 80 kuai on me, so I could have him do it. Yet, his expensive method merely entailed taking a card and jimmying the door open. Great. If I had known I could do that, I would have done it six hours ago. So finally I made it inside and fell asleep, at 9am, a good six hours after returning home. What a night.
I realize I should try to write in this every day if I can, so I can actually do a good job of retelling things that are going on with me in a more accurate way. I feel like I had to rush through this one and merely repeated the things I have done without providing much insight. But hopefully I will find some time soon. We start work today, so I’m off to find some breakfast before I have to be ready in a little over an hour. Zai jian!
It looks like I finally have some time to add another entry to this blog. This bit of free time wasn’t exactly planned, but waking up at 5am rarely is. Apparently I’m still feeling the jetlag. And since we don’t need to be ready until 9:45 today, why not jot down the many things that have been happening? I can assure you they are many.
So I have made it safely to Nanjing. My week in Beijing was fun, though a bit slower paced than I had expected. I didn’t accomplish very much, but I suppose I didn’t have many big things to accomplish anyways. The first day I ran most of the errands I needed to do. I bought a cell phone (though not a SIM card, since I would need a Nanjing one), some new flip flops and got my watch readjusted. That evening another friend from my last China experience came to have dinner with us. Her name is Tian Tian, and she along with Zhuang Ning and Jason were the people I hung out with the most outside of my study abroad program. Jason apparently had just left for Germany before I arrived, but I was glad to see Tian Tian. She speaks English very well and was in fact preparing to take the TOEFL, a very difficult, high level English exam. Afterwards she was going to work in England for a year. I told her to make sure to eat some Indian food while she was there, since English food would be the worst thing she had ever tasted. Zhuang cooked dinner for us that night—spicy pork with vegetables and a much milder green bean and chicken dish, as well as some sticky rice of course. The food wasn’t bad, but I still can’t get over the Chinese way of leaving bones in meat. The small bits of pork were really small bits of bone with a little meat around it, not my cup of tea. Immediately after dinner I straight up passed out, only to awaken several hours later when Tian Tian had left and Zhuang Ning had gone to bed. I cruised the internet for a few hours and then went back to sleep. This pattern of sleep seemed to repeat itself for the next few nights.
The next day I went to see a movie—a Hong Kong film called “Overheard” about police spying on a stock trader, was very exciting and interesting. It was all in Chinese with no subtitles, so the details were hard to fully understand, but I was happy to be able to understand the general idea of what was going on the whole time. That evening I went to Wudaokou, the downtown area near Beijing University campus where I spent oh so many nights on my study abroad trip. I did the usual routine, which was to go to Pyro Pizza for beer and then to Propaganda next door for some clubbing. The difference between Wudaokou and the area I was staying was like night and day. Doing my errands around Beijing and just walking around Zhuang’s apartment neighborhood, I literally saw at most one or two foreigners in two days. At Wudaokou, they were all over the place. Pyro especially was full of them, where they had beer pong and a very sports bar-like atmosphere. I talked to a few of them, but mostly I sat back and enjoyed a beer while I smiled at the fact that this place was much more of a bubble inside Beijing than I had ever realized. After an hour or so I headed to Propaganda, which had a lot more Chinese locals and was just as hot a club as I had remembered. The music, however, was a little lacking that night so I left before too long. Overall I was really glad to have made the trip to that part of town. I was surprised how nostalgic it was and how familiar everything felt.
On my final full day in Beijing I looked in my Lonely Planet guide to see if there were any interesting sights I had never seen before. Immediately I found just what I was looking for, an underground city built during the Cultural Revolution! I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Let me read you some of the description:
“By 1969, as the USA landed on the moon, Mao had decided the future for Beijing’s people lay underground. Alarmist predictions of nuclear war with Russia dispatched an army of Chinese beneath Beijing’s streets to burrow a huge warren of bombproof tunnels...English-language language tours guide you along parts of this moldering warren, past rooms designated as battlefield hospitals, a cinema, arsenals, other anonymous vaults and portraits of Mao Zedong.“
I was pumped. So Zhuang and I took the hour-long bus trip across town to check out this strange place. It was apparently near a very busy tourist spot—an old-style street that was very pretty looking but filled with little more than high-end clothing shops and restaurants. Still, I liked it a lot. I had spent many afternoons on my study abroad trip walking through touristy spots, so this reminded me a lot more of the Beijing I remembered. Unfortunately, however, after walking around and asking several people, a group of old Chinese men and women sitting in chairs on the sidewalk told us that the underground city had been closed during the Olympics and not re-opened. Nooooo! Quite a disappointment, but it had really sounded too good to be true anyways. A little bit more walking suddenly brought us to Tiananmen Square, and I decided I wanted to see the Maosoleum where I could take a gander at the fearless leader himself, preserved just like Lenin. Yet, once again I was let down when we found out that viewings could only be done between 8am and noon. Oh well. We took a subway back and had some delicious Peking duck for dinner. The subway had actually been well upgraded since I had left. At the time of my first arrival in Beijing, there were only three subway lines. Now there were ten, including one that went right up to the gates of Beijing University, something that would have been helpful for my twice a week subway trips across town for my internship during my study abroad trip. Once again, oh well.
I can say that the one thing I was happily able to accomplish was to eat my share of good Beijing food. I made sure to get a jianbing from the street (a crepe with an egg spread around one side of it, covered in herbs and sauces, wrapped around a crunch wafer), eat hot pot for lunch (Chinese fondue), have jiaozi for breakfast (crescent-shaped dumplings), and of course the wonderful Peking duck. Unfortunately I never got a chance to eat any baozi (another style of dumplings with a thicker, softer breading), but those can be found pretty much anywhere in China, so I wasn’t too disappointed.
Saturday brought on the train trip to Nanjing. I took with me my leftover kaoya (Peking duck) to eat for lunch, as well as my enormous suitcases that I somehow managed to close once again. I had to take a taxi to the Beijing south station instead of the closer one in the center of town because the train I wanted only ran out of the southern one. It was quite a worthwhile tradeoff though, as this 8-hour ride was the only one under 14 hours that I could take, and it also ran during the day so I could actually see the countryside. Boarding the train was pretty painless, although I was the only one with such a horrendous amount of luggage. I had to store my guitar case and suitcase in a closet at the end of the car. I lucked out with a window seat and a friendly woman who sat next to me. She appeared to be in her 30s and was traveling from Beijing, where she currently lives and works, to Shanghai. We seemed happy to talk and even spoke a bit of English, though it was clear it was something she had studied long ago and hardly used. Most of my time was spent either reading or looking out the window as I listened to music. The scenery was beautiful, and it got noticeably greener and less polluted as the trip went on. By the time we arrived in Nanjing, there was plenty of blue sky and greenery was everywhere. I couldn’t believe I would ever see blue sky regularly in China, but apparently Beijing is the exception to the rule. I was thrilled to learn that, since Beijing had been even more polluted than I was expecting when I arrived. When I got off the train I quickly found Jennifer and Mr. Jin from the Nanjing school, and we took off on a drive to my apartment.
Nanjing is beautiful in ways that I was not expecting. As I said there are trees everywhere, even in the downtown areas. The streets reminded me a lot of Chengdu, my favorite city in China. The one difference, however, was what made Nanjing even cooler. They apparently are in love with bright, color-changing lights. High-rise apartments would have streaks of bright colors running up and down the sides of the building, and bridges had strips of the same lighting running along the outside. All would gradually transition through a number of colors. It made the whole city look like some racing video game. Our neighborhood was no exception. We actually turned to live a bit far out from the main city area, in more of the “suburb” of Nanjing. Still, it looked like just as big a city to me. The only difference was that the streets were spotlessly clean and there weren’t nearly as many cars on the road. It is my kind of place. We luckily pulled up to the apartment just as the entire group of TAs was leaving to go out for the night, so I was able to meet everybody at once. They headed out to the downtown area, and we met up with them in an hour or so for some dinner and a night on the town.
First I should say something about my apartment. Coming to China with a promise of an “apartment provided,” I was a little nervous of what to expect and made sure to keep my expectations low. I figured I would have some small, cramped bedroom that maybe had a kitchen attached to it. After all, China is crowded. Their living spaces are a lot smaller than what Americans are used to. Yet, what I ended up seeing blew me away. I walked in to a gorgeous, modern apartment, with a living room complete with large tv and dvd player, L-shaped couch and glass coffee table. The ceiling even had some more bright, color-changing lights. I have a large bedroom with what I would guess is a queen sized bed and an entire wall of window overlooking the city. Simply amazing. I will be more than happy living here for more than a year.
We met up with the group at the main downtown area in the most expensive part of the city. We ate at a restaurant in the mall which turned out to be not bad, and while it was expensive the total per person was still less than $6. Afterwards we headed to a fancy bar district. Most of our first hour was spent drinking beers from convenience stands and walking around the area. Everything was very nice looking, and it was obvious this was the most high end part of the city for night life. We went to the upstairs of a bar and had some drinks as we all got to know each other. They all seem like really great people. It is nice to be around a much older crowd as well, as most of the people are in at least their mid-twenties if not their thirties. I very quickly have left the college life. But that’s not to say we didn’t have a good night on the town. We left the first place and went to a very nice looking club. As we entered, there was a guy and a girl dancing (not together) up on a sort of platform in the back in front of a wall of bright, color-changing lights. It reminded me of the nicest clubs in Beijing. The drinks were unbelievably expensive, however, so Daniel and I (the other guy from W&M) grabbed another cheap beer from an outside stand and came back in. For the rest of our time in the club, I still can’t believe what happened. A couple of us sat at the bar, which ran around in a square with the bartenders in the middle. They were a group of six or seven young, cute Chinese girls who seemed to be having a great time themselves dancing with each other and drinking with the customers as they served them. Usually one of them was playing some sort of dice game with a customer that I could not for the life of me figure out. As we sat there, they began to just hand us drinks. First it was a beer, then it was a couple more, then they were giving us cocktails. Then they started giving us shots of whiskey. Most of the group went around to different parts of the club, but Daniel and I (different one, this guy was from the UK) stuck around. We stayed at the bar for a good two hours drinking nothing but free drinks the whole night. I ended up not paying a cent at probably one of the most expensive clubs in town! I still have no idea how or why this happened, but hey I’m not going to ask any questions. We all had a great time and eventually headed back at a very late hour.
That was when my night turned into something else I couldn’t believe. I rode the elevator up with a couple people, but I was the only one of our group who lived on my floor so I said goodnight to everyone as I exited. I went to my door, but for some reason my key would not open it. I had a ring of three keys, all of which I tried over and over again, but to no avail. I tried the other rooms around me, thinking maybe I had gotten the number wrong, but the keys were even less close to working on those doors. On mine, at least I could get the key into the hole. I just couldn’t turn it. I went downstairs to tell the woman working in the lobby my problem. She called somebody, who went up to my room to open the door. However, he demanded 120 kuai to open it. First of all, I didn’t have that much money on me at all. It was all in my room. Secondly, I didn’t see why I had to pay to enter my room when it seemed like it was a fault of their key that I couldn’t get in. Yet, they would not budge. He demanded the money, and neither he nor the woman had any sympathy for me. They actually started to laugh at me the more I talked with them, when I asked, “What can I do? Sleep on the street?” Somehow the apartment had no list of who lived in what room, nor did they have extra keys. They couldn’t even verify that this was my correct room. All I did learn was that the key I thought went to my front door was not the right one. They told me it was supposed to be longer and shaped differently. But how had I gotten in in the first place? Jen showed me to my room when I arrived. The keys I grabbed had been in the door to my bedroom. They were the only ones I saw, so I figured they must be the right ones. Had she accidentally kept the key? Was it in my room? Since at this point I had no phone and didn’t know what room anyone else lived in, I had no idea what to do. After an hour or so of arguing with the man and the woman, they eventually just grabbed their things and walked away. I couldn’t believe this was happening. My first night at my new apartment, and I was homeless. I didn’t even know what options I had. The only thing that I could do was to wait. Wait for what I wasn’t sure, but I could do nothing but wait. I figured that eventually Jen would walk outside and I could ask her what the problem was. By the time I went downstairs the sun was coming up. So I went outside and I sat. I sat on a marble wall right outside the door. And I waited. I waited. And I waited some more. People started to come out, but none of them were from my group. Since we had stayed out so late, it was entirely possible nobody I knew would come outside until close to noon. And it was barely past 5am at this point. So I laid back on the wall and fell asleep. That’s right, my first night in Nanjing I slept outside on a wall. I couldn’t have slept for more than an hour or so before I woke up, when a friendly Chinese man started talking to me asking why I was there. I explained to him my situation, and he, unlike the two people who had worked for the apartment, was sympathetic. Yet, there was nothing anyone could do. Some old women even came out and pitied me, offering me some fruit that I declined. I simply waited. Eventually, at 8am I had had enough. Actually, I had had enough by 4am but it didn’t really matter what my I decided was enough at this point. I went back into the lobby and loudly plopped myself down on the high desk. A man (the head person at the hotel I figured, he had only recently arrived) told me I couldn’t sit there, and when I told him my story he was actually very sympathetic as well. Since I thought Jen had my key, I asked him if he knew her or where she lived. Fortunately in China, “foreign girl” is the only description you really need for a person to know who you are talking about. There aren’t too many of them around. He actually knew the room she lived in, and took me there. She was horrified to hear what had happened, but she didn’t have the key. She did come downstairs with me to help, however. All that could be done was to call the man again to open the door. He was pretty cheeky when he arrived, and I must say I was a being a bit of a smart ass back to him at this point. This time he told me he would open it for 80 kuai, which turns out was the actual fee, not the “I’m going to cheat you because you’re in a bind and I can, plus you’re a foreigner” fee. Fortunately I actually had 80 kuai on me, so I could have him do it. Yet, his expensive method merely entailed taking a card and jimmying the door open. Great. If I had known I could do that, I would have done it six hours ago. So finally I made it inside and fell asleep, at 9am, a good six hours after returning home. What a night.
I realize I should try to write in this every day if I can, so I can actually do a good job of retelling things that are going on with me in a more accurate way. I feel like I had to rush through this one and merely repeated the things I have done without providing much insight. But hopefully I will find some time soon. We start work today, so I’m off to find some breakfast before I have to be ready in a little over an hour. Zai jian!
China1
Touched Down
So I have indeed successfully made it. I am back in the land of great walls, giant dams, and banned internet. In fact, I’m going to have to figure out how to even put what I am writing online, as I cannot seem to even access blogspot.com. Last time I was here, I was able to post things but just couldn’t read what I wrote. Now I guess they’ve stepped it up a notch. I should still be able to find a way to post on my blog, but I may have to do it not as often. I’ll probably do what I’m doing now and just type up a bunch of entries on Microsoft Word, then put a bunch of them up at a time. We shall see.
I have also learned that in addition to Youtube and Wikipedia, I am also unable to see Facebook and Twitter! Curses! How am I supposed to live the cool college-age life now? Those are pretty much the only two ways people communicate with each other these days. It looks like I’ll have to live with real, non-watered-down interactions instead, sigh.
The reason for said recent banning (of Facebook at least) is apparently the trouble they’ve been having with these “wiggers.” Yes, I know that’s not how it’s spelled. I actually talked with my Chinese friend about the situation last night, and she was surprised I had even heard of it. I guess they expect to be able to keep things secret from the world. Good luck with that.
I suppose I should backtrack a little bit to tell more of my story so far. The plane ride was long but not so bad. I flew into Toronto on a short, uneventful flight, ate some overpriced nachos while I still could, and then hopped on a plane to Beijing. I made sure to reserve a window seat this time, after missing 6 hours of a constant sunset over the Arctic Circle last time. This time the sun actually never went down, which made for a rather creepy 24 hours of consecutive sunlight. I feel like I’m either in Alaska or witnessing the apocalypse. Either way it has made me quite disoriented.
On the plane I sat next to a very nice Chinese couple coming back from visiting their daughter who was starting school in Canada. Apparently it was their first time out of China. They spoke no English, so I had a good time chatting with them and even helping translate to the flight attendant for them. I can say I successfully acquired them alcohol! Quite a feat. It was actually really interesting being on a Canadian airline going to China. All announcements were done in English, French and Chinese. So I was somewhat able to understand everything that was ever said. It was the first time I’d ever been anywhere that was using all the languages I spoke, no more, no less.
After the plane, I went through a very easy customs area, and then I was off! My friend met me at the airport and actually has given me a place to stay while I’m here. Apparently one of the bedrooms in her apartment isn’t being used by anybody. So hey, no spending money on a hotel. Her apartment is on the 14th floor of a high-rise building with all young people living in it. Funnily enough, though, is that her floor is actually labeled 12B. Like many places in the States, there is no 13th floor (labeled 12A) because it’s bad luck. But 14 is also bad luck, because the word for 4 in Chinese, “si” has similar pronunciation to the word for death. But I’m pretty sure there still was a 4th floor…I dno.
So like I said, I was pretty disoriented when I got off the plane. I had slept for a few hours during the flight at some random time in my day, and when things started getting dark I just did not feel right physically. Just like last time, I was not hungry at all, but I forced myself to eat. We went out to have some tasty fish (and other things) absolutely covered in spicy peppers (lajiao) and even more delicious Chinese peppercorns (majiao) that make your mouth tingle for 5 minutes after eating one. I enjoyed, and I felt a lot better after eating. By then I felt ready to pass out, so I headed back from some surprisingly restful sleep. We will see if I can still sleep past 4am in the next few days, though.
So I have to say it was really nice to actually have somebody I know here. It made the transition very smooth, and I actually do feel surprisingly at home here. That makes sense, considering the time I spent in Beijing. We will see if that still sticks when I’m in Nanjing, a place I’ve never been before. I started to think on the plane about the fact that I have actually left everybody I know for at least a year, a rather scary thought. It took until the plane touched down for me to actually realize it. But while I am certainly out of my comfort zone on the other side of the world, it is a strangely good feeling. I think having friends here has made things easier, but mainly it is because I am doing something I really want to do. Straight out of college, I’m going on a traveling adventure to a new city all by myself for an indefinite amount of time. This is the kind of thing that I can look at from an outside point of view and be really happy about. I think of the Third Eye Blind line that I heard on my flight over here, “I’ve never been so alone…and I’ve never been so alive.”
So I have indeed successfully made it. I am back in the land of great walls, giant dams, and banned internet. In fact, I’m going to have to figure out how to even put what I am writing online, as I cannot seem to even access blogspot.com. Last time I was here, I was able to post things but just couldn’t read what I wrote. Now I guess they’ve stepped it up a notch. I should still be able to find a way to post on my blog, but I may have to do it not as often. I’ll probably do what I’m doing now and just type up a bunch of entries on Microsoft Word, then put a bunch of them up at a time. We shall see.
I have also learned that in addition to Youtube and Wikipedia, I am also unable to see Facebook and Twitter! Curses! How am I supposed to live the cool college-age life now? Those are pretty much the only two ways people communicate with each other these days. It looks like I’ll have to live with real, non-watered-down interactions instead, sigh.
The reason for said recent banning (of Facebook at least) is apparently the trouble they’ve been having with these “wiggers.” Yes, I know that’s not how it’s spelled. I actually talked with my Chinese friend about the situation last night, and she was surprised I had even heard of it. I guess they expect to be able to keep things secret from the world. Good luck with that.
I suppose I should backtrack a little bit to tell more of my story so far. The plane ride was long but not so bad. I flew into Toronto on a short, uneventful flight, ate some overpriced nachos while I still could, and then hopped on a plane to Beijing. I made sure to reserve a window seat this time, after missing 6 hours of a constant sunset over the Arctic Circle last time. This time the sun actually never went down, which made for a rather creepy 24 hours of consecutive sunlight. I feel like I’m either in Alaska or witnessing the apocalypse. Either way it has made me quite disoriented.
On the plane I sat next to a very nice Chinese couple coming back from visiting their daughter who was starting school in Canada. Apparently it was their first time out of China. They spoke no English, so I had a good time chatting with them and even helping translate to the flight attendant for them. I can say I successfully acquired them alcohol! Quite a feat. It was actually really interesting being on a Canadian airline going to China. All announcements were done in English, French and Chinese. So I was somewhat able to understand everything that was ever said. It was the first time I’d ever been anywhere that was using all the languages I spoke, no more, no less.
After the plane, I went through a very easy customs area, and then I was off! My friend met me at the airport and actually has given me a place to stay while I’m here. Apparently one of the bedrooms in her apartment isn’t being used by anybody. So hey, no spending money on a hotel. Her apartment is on the 14th floor of a high-rise building with all young people living in it. Funnily enough, though, is that her floor is actually labeled 12B. Like many places in the States, there is no 13th floor (labeled 12A) because it’s bad luck. But 14 is also bad luck, because the word for 4 in Chinese, “si” has similar pronunciation to the word for death. But I’m pretty sure there still was a 4th floor…I dno.
So like I said, I was pretty disoriented when I got off the plane. I had slept for a few hours during the flight at some random time in my day, and when things started getting dark I just did not feel right physically. Just like last time, I was not hungry at all, but I forced myself to eat. We went out to have some tasty fish (and other things) absolutely covered in spicy peppers (lajiao) and even more delicious Chinese peppercorns (majiao) that make your mouth tingle for 5 minutes after eating one. I enjoyed, and I felt a lot better after eating. By then I felt ready to pass out, so I headed back from some surprisingly restful sleep. We will see if I can still sleep past 4am in the next few days, though.
So I have to say it was really nice to actually have somebody I know here. It made the transition very smooth, and I actually do feel surprisingly at home here. That makes sense, considering the time I spent in Beijing. We will see if that still sticks when I’m in Nanjing, a place I’ve never been before. I started to think on the plane about the fact that I have actually left everybody I know for at least a year, a rather scary thought. It took until the plane touched down for me to actually realize it. But while I am certainly out of my comfort zone on the other side of the world, it is a strangely good feeling. I think having friends here has made things easier, but mainly it is because I am doing something I really want to do. Straight out of college, I’m going on a traveling adventure to a new city all by myself for an indefinite amount of time. This is the kind of thing that I can look at from an outside point of view and be really happy about. I think of the Third Eye Blind line that I heard on my flight over here, “I’ve never been so alone…and I’ve never been so alive.”
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Getting in Gear
So my trip has yet to begin, but I'm already antsy enough about it that I figure I should start this thing up already. Plus, I'm not sure if I would even be able to start a blog once I'm in China. They don't let you view any blogs--though for some reason I can still post things--I guess they don't want me to know what I'm writing. Sounds fair enough to me.
Anyways, this is mostly a testing post so I probably won't have much to say. The idea of leaving everyone and everything I know for an indefinite amount of time is starting to actually register in my brain. This is a good thing because hopefully it will make me enjoy while I can all of what I have here in Chapel Hill...North Carolina...the US....the Western Hemisphere...wow that's a lot to be leaving. Lately I've been stuffing my face with as much NC BBQ and Mexican food that I can, so I'm happy with the use of my time. Does anyone else have any suggestions?
I've started the gradual process of packing, which means that I have begun to consider almost thinking about contemplating halfway figuring out what I should maybe decide to bring. It may take a while. At least I'm doing better than I was for my last China trip--my packing began at about 9pm the night before I left. But it still worked out pretty well. There are few things I really need to bring anyways. Clothes, books, camera, ipod, guitar...anything else? I think not.
Speaking of books, as I was rummaging through my room figuring out which ones I would like to bring, I noticed that I have two interesting-looking books written by the Dalai Lama. They could help provide me with interesting insight into the world as I take a monumental step in my life, or they could get me labeled as a counterrevolutionary trying to undermine the liberation of the Tibetan people. Hopefully I'll be alright. Notice I'm talking about this on my blog BEFORE I am in China. I may have to use some sort of fancified code to discuss certain things while I'm over there. We shall see.
So I've been sitting on my couch long enough for one day. I'd better end this thing. Have a good day.
Anyways, this is mostly a testing post so I probably won't have much to say. The idea of leaving everyone and everything I know for an indefinite amount of time is starting to actually register in my brain. This is a good thing because hopefully it will make me enjoy while I can all of what I have here in Chapel Hill...North Carolina...the US....the Western Hemisphere...wow that's a lot to be leaving. Lately I've been stuffing my face with as much NC BBQ and Mexican food that I can, so I'm happy with the use of my time. Does anyone else have any suggestions?
I've started the gradual process of packing, which means that I have begun to consider almost thinking about contemplating halfway figuring out what I should maybe decide to bring. It may take a while. At least I'm doing better than I was for my last China trip--my packing began at about 9pm the night before I left. But it still worked out pretty well. There are few things I really need to bring anyways. Clothes, books, camera, ipod, guitar...anything else? I think not.
Speaking of books, as I was rummaging through my room figuring out which ones I would like to bring, I noticed that I have two interesting-looking books written by the Dalai Lama. They could help provide me with interesting insight into the world as I take a monumental step in my life, or they could get me labeled as a counterrevolutionary trying to undermine the liberation of the Tibetan people. Hopefully I'll be alright. Notice I'm talking about this on my blog BEFORE I am in China. I may have to use some sort of fancified code to discuss certain things while I'm over there. We shall see.
So I've been sitting on my couch long enough for one day. I'd better end this thing. Have a good day.
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