some catch-up
now i have a half hour before class. my first adult class. i brought my laptop to school today so i could make use of the wireless connection they have set up here. i'm sitting next to barry, from england, and rhodri, also from england, is teaching. my two classes today are a conversation class and a mid-level adult class.
let me tell you about my co-workers. you know how i said they were mostly british? yeah. they are:) jenn, barry, rod, claire, gary, and aaron are from england, and rachelle, barry, and karen are from ireland. laurie's from canada. clara, ben, michael, and leslie (the last two are married) are from america. i spend most of my time hanging out with rhodri and/or clara thus far. i would guess i'll hang out with him a little less once his girlfriend gets here, which is in a week. --several hours later-- but yeah, i often find myself the only non-british person when we're out to eat or whatever. i find it ironic that i'm spending more time with british people here and now than i did when i studied in britain:) i'm finding there's still a wealth of british words i'm unfamiliar with (e.g. "mozzie" for mosquito).
oh! i can post a few pictures, since i'm on my laptop! cool:)
so let me back up. i flew into beijing sunday morning. i got through customs, bags intact (thank goodness) and started looking for my friend jason. didn't see him. i walked up and down the huge group of people standing outside the gate. still didn't see him. frick. and i didn't even have his cell number so i could call him. i swear, i always do things like that (go unprepared). i never did find him:) so instead, i accepted a taxi ride from a taxi guy who'd been trying to help me find jason, even offering to let me use his cell phone. i shouldn't have taken the ride from the guy, but i had around 100 pounds of baggage and didn't want to mess with them alone. i made the same mistake i've made SO many times before and didn't bargain for my taxi price (i don't remember if i asked the cost before we left). it was outrageously expensive. it was 400 yuan. it should have cost maybe 100, 150 tops. a shuttle bus would have been 20-50 yuan i think. but i didn't feel like being cheated out of money bother me. i told him to take me to the harmony hotel, which is near the train station, and where i've stayed many times before. i tried to ask the guy to wait till i saw if they had any rooms before he left, but he just took off once my bags were in. of course, they didn't have any rooms and i was stuck with my impossibly heavy bags to lug to some other as-yet-unknown location. the hotel people told me there was a youth hostel just a few blocks away, so i headed in that direction.
100 pounds is a lot for luggage. a lot. a lot lot. i got about a block before i started running into people advertising their hotels. these people stand around sidewalks, usually around train stations, and wave around brochures advertising their hotels. daniel and i took them up on that once and ended up in a very cheap and rundown, but adequate hotel. i looked at this woman's brochure, found out it was just 120 yuan for a private room, looked at my bags again, and said "xing"--ok. the lady immediately grabbed one of my bags, halving my load and making my walk possible again. we walked a block or two to their van, which drove me and several other people to the hotel. none of these people spoke any english. i was using my chinese for the first time in forever, and it was working. oh frick yes.
i got to the hotel and the main nice lady helped me get things figured out. i asked her about train tickets and she ran straight downstairs and booked me a hard sleeper seat to jinan the next afternoon. that was a fabulous idea, since then i had a bed to put my bags on and didn't have to worry about finding someplace on the crowded hard or soft seat cars. the lady left and i collapsed on my bed, utterly exhausted from the plane rides and layovers and everything. i didn't let myself fall asleep yet, though. instead i unpacked one of my bags a little to find something, and discovered my shampoo AND conditioner had spilled all over a bunch of my books.
i needed a shower, but decided to hold off on that till i got to jinan, because my hotel was EXTREMELY chinese, which meant a shower that was pretty much on top of the toilet. those are awkward and annoying. oh, and i didn't have a bath towel with me:)
so i got out my chinese/english dictionary and looked up words, watched part of "the monkey king" on tv, and looked at my awesome view out my window. my hotel was within easy walking distance of tiananmen square, but down a hutong, which is basically like an alley. they're only just room enough for one car to drive through, and it's mostly residential, people whose families have lived there forever.
i held off as long as i could, then headed off to find an early supper. i was told if i turned right out of the hotel, i could find one. i ended up asking at least three or four random chinese people if they knew where i could find food. as in, i was asking old hard-of-hearing chinese woman staring at me already as i walked by. i was very conspicuous. i found a place to eat out of the hutong, on a busier street. i got there just as the restaurant opened and i ordered xihongshi chao jidan, which i've talked about missing before on here, and... what else? probably sweet and sour chicken. tang su liji. again, all chinese. i left that place on cloud nine, feeling like i owned china. my chinese was SO functional and i was seeing things i'd forgotten about or that had been relegated to places just from photos in my mind. oh yeah, signs that look like that. oh yeah, walking down streets with this many people. man. it's hard to describe. going back to england after being gone was cool, but this was.... elating. i happily wandered back to the hotel and basically passed out.
the next morning, the hotel people gave me a ride to the train station like six hours before i had to go. i tried to get my luggage to the doors, but it felt like a MILE, even though it was just a city block, maybe. i kept stopped to rest, and my hands hurt a lot, and my arms were starting to shake from muscle exhaustion. a guy approached me and asked (in chinese) if i wanted help carrying my bags inside. i was so happy for help, since it would have taken me a really really long time on my own, and i said yes. once again, i was a stupid laowai and didn't negotiate the price first. he got me all the way to the waiting area, which was unspeakably great, but he way over-charged me. he asked if i wanted him to come back to get the bags onto the train later, but i decided i was tried of overpaying for things and said no. that meant i had the next few hours to make friends with another passenger so they could help me instead:) i also had to call the school to tell them which train i'd be arriving on. after several attempts, i found a chinese person who figured out what i meant when i asked for help making a phone call. i got that done and the girl ended up helping me carry my bags onto the train. super nice girl. by the time i was on the train, my arm was visably shaking and really weak.
soon after getting on, a young chinese girl started peaking looks at me and grinning. i smiled back, so she came to talk to me. she was a junior higher with pretty decent english. her cousin came in to join our conversation. her cousin was in high school and had better english. they ran to fetch their pictures to show me, and i used up my laptop batteries showing them my pictures of europe. we talked the whole seven hour train ride, sometimes with me in chinese, mostly with them in broken english. they peeled two pears for me and gave me some watermelon. i gave them some chocolate from america. they gave me a huge gorgeous silk wall hanging and their phone number, insisting i join them for chinese new year. i'm kind of hoping margaret will invite me over for new years, but i didn't tell them no. i somehow squeezed the scroll into my baggage and they helped me get my stuff off the train at my stop.
i guess i should leave it at that for now, as this post is getting lengthy. i'll pick it up at my arrival at jinan next time, i suppose. maybe by then i'll have pictures of more of the people i'm working with:)
let me tell you about my co-workers. you know how i said they were mostly british? yeah. they are:) jenn, barry, rod, claire, gary, and aaron are from england, and rachelle, barry, and karen are from ireland. laurie's from canada. clara, ben, michael, and leslie (the last two are married) are from america. i spend most of my time hanging out with rhodri and/or clara thus far. i would guess i'll hang out with him a little less once his girlfriend gets here, which is in a week. --several hours later-- but yeah, i often find myself the only non-british person when we're out to eat or whatever. i find it ironic that i'm spending more time with british people here and now than i did when i studied in britain:) i'm finding there's still a wealth of british words i'm unfamiliar with (e.g. "mozzie" for mosquito).
oh! i can post a few pictures, since i'm on my laptop! cool:)
so let me back up. i flew into beijing sunday morning. i got through customs, bags intact (thank goodness) and started looking for my friend jason. didn't see him. i walked up and down the huge group of people standing outside the gate. still didn't see him. frick. and i didn't even have his cell number so i could call him. i swear, i always do things like that (go unprepared). i never did find him:) so instead, i accepted a taxi ride from a taxi guy who'd been trying to help me find jason, even offering to let me use his cell phone. i shouldn't have taken the ride from the guy, but i had around 100 pounds of baggage and didn't want to mess with them alone. i made the same mistake i've made SO many times before and didn't bargain for my taxi price (i don't remember if i asked the cost before we left). it was outrageously expensive. it was 400 yuan. it should have cost maybe 100, 150 tops. a shuttle bus would have been 20-50 yuan i think. but i didn't feel like being cheated out of money bother me. i told him to take me to the harmony hotel, which is near the train station, and where i've stayed many times before. i tried to ask the guy to wait till i saw if they had any rooms before he left, but he just took off once my bags were in. of course, they didn't have any rooms and i was stuck with my impossibly heavy bags to lug to some other as-yet-unknown location. the hotel people told me there was a youth hostel just a few blocks away, so i headed in that direction.
100 pounds is a lot for luggage. a lot. a lot lot. i got about a block before i started running into people advertising their hotels. these people stand around sidewalks, usually around train stations, and wave around brochures advertising their hotels. daniel and i took them up on that once and ended up in a very cheap and rundown, but adequate hotel. i looked at this woman's brochure, found out it was just 120 yuan for a private room, looked at my bags again, and said "xing"--ok. the lady immediately grabbed one of my bags, halving my load and making my walk possible again. we walked a block or two to their van, which drove me and several other people to the hotel. none of these people spoke any english. i was using my chinese for the first time in forever, and it was working. oh frick yes.
i got to the hotel and the main nice lady helped me get things figured out. i asked her about train tickets and she ran straight downstairs and booked me a hard sleeper seat to jinan the next afternoon. that was a fabulous idea, since then i had a bed to put my bags on and didn't have to worry about finding someplace on the crowded hard or soft seat cars. the lady left and i collapsed on my bed, utterly exhausted from the plane rides and layovers and everything. i didn't let myself fall asleep yet, though. instead i unpacked one of my bags a little to find something, and discovered my shampoo AND conditioner had spilled all over a bunch of my books.
i needed a shower, but decided to hold off on that till i got to jinan, because my hotel was EXTREMELY chinese, which meant a shower that was pretty much on top of the toilet. those are awkward and annoying. oh, and i didn't have a bath towel with me:)
so i got out my chinese/english dictionary and looked up words, watched part of "the monkey king" on tv, and looked at my awesome view out my window. my hotel was within easy walking distance of tiananmen square, but down a hutong, which is basically like an alley. they're only just room enough for one car to drive through, and it's mostly residential, people whose families have lived there forever.
i held off as long as i could, then headed off to find an early supper. i was told if i turned right out of the hotel, i could find one. i ended up asking at least three or four random chinese people if they knew where i could find food. as in, i was asking old hard-of-hearing chinese woman staring at me already as i walked by. i was very conspicuous. i found a place to eat out of the hutong, on a busier street. i got there just as the restaurant opened and i ordered xihongshi chao jidan, which i've talked about missing before on here, and... what else? probably sweet and sour chicken. tang su liji. again, all chinese. i left that place on cloud nine, feeling like i owned china. my chinese was SO functional and i was seeing things i'd forgotten about or that had been relegated to places just from photos in my mind. oh yeah, signs that look like that. oh yeah, walking down streets with this many people. man. it's hard to describe. going back to england after being gone was cool, but this was.... elating. i happily wandered back to the hotel and basically passed out.
the next morning, the hotel people gave me a ride to the train station like six hours before i had to go. i tried to get my luggage to the doors, but it felt like a MILE, even though it was just a city block, maybe. i kept stopped to rest, and my hands hurt a lot, and my arms were starting to shake from muscle exhaustion. a guy approached me and asked (in chinese) if i wanted help carrying my bags inside. i was so happy for help, since it would have taken me a really really long time on my own, and i said yes. once again, i was a stupid laowai and didn't negotiate the price first. he got me all the way to the waiting area, which was unspeakably great, but he way over-charged me. he asked if i wanted him to come back to get the bags onto the train later, but i decided i was tried of overpaying for things and said no. that meant i had the next few hours to make friends with another passenger so they could help me instead:) i also had to call the school to tell them which train i'd be arriving on. after several attempts, i found a chinese person who figured out what i meant when i asked for help making a phone call. i got that done and the girl ended up helping me carry my bags onto the train. super nice girl. by the time i was on the train, my arm was visably shaking and really weak.
soon after getting on, a young chinese girl started peaking looks at me and grinning. i smiled back, so she came to talk to me. she was a junior higher with pretty decent english. her cousin came in to join our conversation. her cousin was in high school and had better english. they ran to fetch their pictures to show me, and i used up my laptop batteries showing them my pictures of europe. we talked the whole seven hour train ride, sometimes with me in chinese, mostly with them in broken english. they peeled two pears for me and gave me some watermelon. i gave them some chocolate from america. they gave me a huge gorgeous silk wall hanging and their phone number, insisting i join them for chinese new year. i'm kind of hoping margaret will invite me over for new years, but i didn't tell them no. i somehow squeezed the scroll into my baggage and they helped me get my stuff off the train at my stop.
i guess i should leave it at that for now, as this post is getting lengthy. i'll pick it up at my arrival at jinan next time, i suppose. maybe by then i'll have pictures of more of the people i'm working with:)