The first day I got into Wenzhou (exactly one week ago) my Chinese teacher Julie Luo and her husband helped me get settled into a relatively large apartment on the first floor of Building 12 in C District near the University's North Campus. It's not an uncomfortable room, but it has no phone and no computer. These amenities (which I made sure to include in my contract) are in a room directly above me, but another resident has made it impossible for me to move in at present.
(When I first arrived it was because he was still living there, now it's because he left the room so dirty).
And today I learned that another foreign teacher is staying in a hotel because they're supposed to live in the room I'm currently staying in. So we're all in a bit of a mess because of this last teacher, but it should be cleared up soon.
Besides the room situation I've also been spending some time hanging out with some of the upper-level students. Last night I went out walking with Jada (Zhou Ling) and a friend of hers and had a fruity-flavored beverage made with chunks of gelatin, and the day before I went downtown to a huge bookstore with an English major named "Joe" and a buddy of his named "Z". We ate some rice fried with egg and meat and individual plates of noodles in a small restaurant. The food was good stuff.
I've started compiling words for all sorts of food, and so far I know words for rice, noodles, broccoli, bok choy, watermelon and bean sprouts, and I know the general words beef, chicken and pork.
Still, it'll be a while before I'm competent enough to order in a restaurant.
Most of the students are getting into campus today and tomorrow, and all the teachers have to be here for the weekend, then classes start on Monday. But since I only have freshman students (who have the compulsory military 'training' before beginning classes) I won't be teaching until September 10th at the earliest.
Aside from the obvious cultural disparities, living in this place isn't that different from living at college back in America: long way away from family, surrounded by fellow students, trying to acclimate to a new environment, not knowing what to expect but preparing nonetheless... yep, it's a college all right.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
When you're the guest
Most of those who know me know that I don't like to be a burden on others:
- I refuse car rides if I'm within half a mile of my house,
- at a dinner party I leave the last piece of food for the host,
- if my hosts are trying to clean or straighten things up I offer to help and usually feel uncomfortable if I don't,
- and if I have money I usually try to contribute my fair share if not pay the full sum for my host and myself. At the very least I try to go Dutch.
The problem with this approach, however, is that as a guest in China, my hosts do just about everything they can to liberate me of the need to physically exert myself, pay for something, or in any way contribute more than my voice or stomach (the one exception being when I bought clothes, soap and utensils for my apartment).
Yesterday one of my hosts (Helen) made a huge lunch for me, her son and Zhou Ling ("Jada") (on of Julie's grad students) and wouldn't let me help her prepare or clean up but insisted that I sit in the living room with Jada. I didn't mind sitting with Jada, but as I said above, I hate not doing something to help.
Then later her husband joined us and we went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. I tried to pay the check and they adamantly refused. (Sigh).
- I refuse car rides if I'm within half a mile of my house,
- at a dinner party I leave the last piece of food for the host,
- if my hosts are trying to clean or straighten things up I offer to help and usually feel uncomfortable if I don't,
- and if I have money I usually try to contribute my fair share if not pay the full sum for my host and myself. At the very least I try to go Dutch.
The problem with this approach, however, is that as a guest in China, my hosts do just about everything they can to liberate me of the need to physically exert myself, pay for something, or in any way contribute more than my voice or stomach (the one exception being when I bought clothes, soap and utensils for my apartment).
Yesterday one of my hosts (Helen) made a huge lunch for me, her son and Zhou Ling ("Jada") (on of Julie's grad students) and wouldn't let me help her prepare or clean up but insisted that I sit in the living room with Jada. I didn't mind sitting with Jada, but as I said above, I hate not doing something to help.
Then later her husband joined us and we went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. I tried to pay the check and they adamantly refused. (Sigh).
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Forget the Olympics...
...China itself is where it's at.
In this country the sheer volume of civilization is something truly astonishing. The Wenzhou Airport lies a good distance from the city center, but all along the road into town are high-rise apartments and suburbs with no boundaries. So many that I feel like this city alone could house all the people in the state of Oregon - though how long before the proximity with each other would drive us Western people insane I don't presume to judge.
The first day I arrived in Wenzhou (Saturday) my teacher, colleague and host Julie took me to buy some essentials for my apartment as well as some underwear and a T-shirt until my luggage arrives.
After my shopping was done (at the THIRD Wal-Mart-like store (hisssssss) that I've been to this week), we went to a department store where Julie's husband (Mr. Mu) tried on some Playboy(c) brand sandals. While sitting with Mr. Mu I had an "Adrian Monk moment" when I looked at a wall of sandals and saw that one of the labels (among perhaps forty) was upside down.
(For added effect I even cocked my head to the side and winced like Tony Shaloub).
While Julie sat with her husband and he continued to try on sandals I got up, went over to the wall, pulled out the label and reinserted it right-side up.
...it's good to hang on to some of your obsessive qualities even when you're this far from home. It's a small part of you that doesn't change.
In this country the sheer volume of civilization is something truly astonishing. The Wenzhou Airport lies a good distance from the city center, but all along the road into town are high-rise apartments and suburbs with no boundaries. So many that I feel like this city alone could house all the people in the state of Oregon - though how long before the proximity with each other would drive us Western people insane I don't presume to judge.
The first day I arrived in Wenzhou (Saturday) my teacher, colleague and host Julie took me to buy some essentials for my apartment as well as some underwear and a T-shirt until my luggage arrives.
After my shopping was done (at the THIRD Wal-Mart-like store (hisssssss) that I've been to this week), we went to a department store where Julie's husband (Mr. Mu) tried on some Playboy(c) brand sandals. While sitting with Mr. Mu I had an "Adrian Monk moment" when I looked at a wall of sandals and saw that one of the labels (among perhaps forty) was upside down.
(For added effect I even cocked my head to the side and winced like Tony Shaloub).
While Julie sat with her husband and he continued to try on sandals I got up, went over to the wall, pulled out the label and reinserted it right-side up.
...it's good to hang on to some of your obsessive qualities even when you're this far from home. It's a small part of you that doesn't change.
I made it...
There is a certain inconvenient/serendipitous quality that one could ascribe to me when it comes to airports and making connections in the midst of travel.
At PDX over a year ago I missed the shuttle back to my college campus and had to pay $40 to get another shuttle to drive me to school. Inconvenient no doubt, but serendipitously I had a really great driver named John with whom I conversed the whole way back.
I mention this because on the way to Shanghai I had a similar misadventure when I missed my connecting flight to Vancouver in Seattle, but ended up in the front row of the next airline, where I got to talk to a very nice flight attendant named Stephanie.
True my luggage didn't get on the flight to Shanghai and I had to buy a new T-shirt and underwear my first day in Wenzhou, but I choose to place a higher value on the inflight conversation than on the absence of my extra clothes.
Admittedly I did learn one valuable lesson from this event: always pack an extra pair of underwear in your carry-on, no matter how much you trust the crew.
The flight over the Pacific was surprisingly pleasant. I sat next to a young African-Canadian woman from Ontario named Aya who was going to medical school in Hubei. She's a returning sophomore in a five year program of combined Traditional and Western Medicine. I think she's Moslem because she wore a black hood that covered her head and neck.
On my little TV I watched "10,000 BC" (weak plot no doubt, but I was having trouble writing lesson plans and needed a distraction) and listened to the radio. I found a really catchy Jamaican song called "Take you there", and listened to "Bleeding Love" (my brothers' most-listened-to-song of the summer), so it was a nice way to depart the continent.
For my one-night layover in Shanghai I was instructed to sleep for a few hours in the afternoon if I was tired, get up for a few hours to eat dinner, then sleep for the rest of the night to avoid any jet-lag. I went to bed around 17:30 local time and slept the rest of the night. I woke up several times, but stayed in bed with my eyes closed until around 7:00 in the morning.
Not quite as I was instructed, but it worked.
My teacher-now-colleague Julie and her husband picked me up at Wenzhou Airport that morning (8/23/08 locally) and after my bags still failed to show up they took me to my apartment, then shopping to get some slippers, a T-shirt, underwear (which was embarrassing) and some plates and bowls.
We had lunch in a small restaurant in Chashan (the University town) and dinner at a restaurant in downtown Wenzhou that does a lot of Northeast-style food (where Julie is from).
It's hot and muggy, I don't know when I start teaching, what I'm supposed to be teaching is still a somewhat elusive concept, I'm dehydrated, I hardly understand anything that others are saying, and to top it all off, my bags are still missing...
...life is good.
At PDX over a year ago I missed the shuttle back to my college campus and had to pay $40 to get another shuttle to drive me to school. Inconvenient no doubt, but serendipitously I had a really great driver named John with whom I conversed the whole way back.
I mention this because on the way to Shanghai I had a similar misadventure when I missed my connecting flight to Vancouver in Seattle, but ended up in the front row of the next airline, where I got to talk to a very nice flight attendant named Stephanie.
True my luggage didn't get on the flight to Shanghai and I had to buy a new T-shirt and underwear my first day in Wenzhou, but I choose to place a higher value on the inflight conversation than on the absence of my extra clothes.
Admittedly I did learn one valuable lesson from this event: always pack an extra pair of underwear in your carry-on, no matter how much you trust the crew.
The flight over the Pacific was surprisingly pleasant. I sat next to a young African-Canadian woman from Ontario named Aya who was going to medical school in Hubei. She's a returning sophomore in a five year program of combined Traditional and Western Medicine. I think she's Moslem because she wore a black hood that covered her head and neck.
On my little TV I watched "10,000 BC" (weak plot no doubt, but I was having trouble writing lesson plans and needed a distraction) and listened to the radio. I found a really catchy Jamaican song called "Take you there", and listened to "Bleeding Love" (my brothers' most-listened-to-song of the summer), so it was a nice way to depart the continent.
For my one-night layover in Shanghai I was instructed to sleep for a few hours in the afternoon if I was tired, get up for a few hours to eat dinner, then sleep for the rest of the night to avoid any jet-lag. I went to bed around 17:30 local time and slept the rest of the night. I woke up several times, but stayed in bed with my eyes closed until around 7:00 in the morning.
Not quite as I was instructed, but it worked.
My teacher-now-colleague Julie and her husband picked me up at Wenzhou Airport that morning (8/23/08 locally) and after my bags still failed to show up they took me to my apartment, then shopping to get some slippers, a T-shirt, underwear (which was embarrassing) and some plates and bowls.
We had lunch in a small restaurant in Chashan (the University town) and dinner at a restaurant in downtown Wenzhou that does a lot of Northeast-style food (where Julie is from).
It's hot and muggy, I don't know when I start teaching, what I'm supposed to be teaching is still a somewhat elusive concept, I'm dehydrated, I hardly understand anything that others are saying, and to top it all off, my bags are still missing...
...life is good.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Goodbye USA, Goodbye
The day that seemed would never come is here at last.
Seems odd, but for the last few months I've scarcely paid any thought to this coming adventure. The habit is something I only adopted within the last year - learning to live in the moment, not dwelling on the future when it seems so uncertain. Perhaps I'm making up for twenty-two years of so many imagined futures that I’m overcompensating by living so completely in the "here and now" of this one.
Maybe being engrossed in the present has been a defense mechanism for dealing with what I know is on the horizon (not thinking about it because that way I feel more intrepid in the face of change).
Whatever the case, the "here and now" is giving way to something entirely new. I'm off on an adventure so far from what I know; doing a job unlike anything I ever imagined doing... I wonder if I'm even feeling the way others feel at this stage, or if it's the way to feel...
I'll spare everyone anymore of my histrionic self-evaluations. Just thought I should write out what I'm thinking so later I'll know how I felt when I first set out.
The next time I write, I'll be in CHINA!
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