2/05/09

Today was the first day of class. Somewhat tough. I've been waking up early since I've been here. I can't tell if it's jet lag, my uncomfortable bed (which I've become used to), or other people waking up early too. The dorm is really loud. The doors don't really form a seal with the door frame. I'll come back to my room and think I didn't shut my door. No, it's just light coming through the shoddy construction. A lot of stuff in China was built with the phrase "good enough" very much in mind. Everything works, but it looks pretty crappy.

The previous night I had memorized a new set of characters we were given a few days ago. I woke up, brushed my teeth etc and took a look at the words again. I thought all my classes would be upstairs on the fourth floor but my main class is in a building next door. IES, the program I'm in, has a building on the BeiWai campus all to itself. The first 3 floors are housing and the 4th is administrative and classrooms. IES, supposedly has it's own jurisdiction in the building. I hear things like political discussion/dissent are allowed as it's all foreigners. Perhaps I'll know more about that later...

I dressed lightly as it was only a short stroll to the bailou, the white building. All my language classes are entirely in Chinese. Everything from grammar and vocabulary explanations to homework assignments are in Chinese. It's sometimes tough...really tough. It'll be even harder next week when we can't speak English in class.

After the hour of main class with our zhongwen ke mama, chinese class mommy, we split off into smaller classes with a younger teacher. This class was a little easier, as it just went over in more detail and slower the topics we covered in the previous hour.

After class we ate some jiaozi, and came back to the dorms.

I went for a walk on my own this afternoon. I discovered a long line of restaurants - useful to know about. I walked into one which I quickly found out was a very western. Pizza, chicken wings, burgers etc. I saw my favorite example of Chingrish at this restaurant so far. Chingrish/Chinglish is usually the english translation of Chinese on signs, restaurants or labels. Right under Apple Juice and above Pineapple Juice was the ever enticing Love Juice.

Right now I don't have a Chinese roommate, but I will. The Chinese students are on the equivalent of Christmas break, chunjie. Chinese new year, it seems, is more of a celebration of the coming of spring, chuntian. During this holiday the Chinese are given free reign to use a seemingly unlimited amount of explosives to light up the sky. Literally...LITERALLY, no exaggeration here, I hear a firework every 30 seconds. I have been told a week or so ago it was like the fourth of july for 72 hours straight. Kids and adults alike love firecrackers. The other day I saw an electronics store clerk take a smoke break, light a pack of 1000 crackers and throw them onto the sidewalk where the people walking barely noticed. It sometimes sounds like a warzone. The big yanhua sound like mortar shells and the bianpao could easily be mistaken for machine gun fire. 

WOOO. That's all I have for now.

Word of the day:

洗澡 － xizao  － to shower