9 Sep 06
Category: Life
Yesterday was moderately interesting. First, the freshmen were returning. Second, it was national teachers day. Third, there was an interesting incident with the chairs (well, interesting to me).
It seems that the freshman do not start school at the same time as the rest of the students. I am not clear on all of the reasons for this, I can think of some good reasons to stagger the entry of the students. It probably works better administratively.
It is interesting that with the return of the freshmen, the street traffic is way up and the number of vendors (people selling on the streets) is greatly increased. Last night we were surprised to se that we had some trouble finding seating at our favorite restaurant. The college is decorated to welcome the new students and many of the people that we regularly meet with or request to assist us, such as Susanne and Kennie, are working all weekend.
A few of the 7000+ freshmen being processed in
I spoke to Susanne as she unlocked the staffroom for me. She, and the other administrators, will be working from 07:00 to 23:00 each day this weekend processing the new students. Each students record is processed and recorded manually. They use an entirely paper system. Further, due to a reluctance to waste paper, it seems that each student¡¯s entire record consists of a single sheet of paper. All of this is done by hand. There is no automation, or use of typewriters, at any point in the process. As teachers, our biggest concern is if we will be assigned more classes. We are already carrying a full load of ten one and a half hour classes as it is.
The second thing that happened yesterday was that it was national teachers day. It was described to me as being something like Christmas. It is a day that teachers are recognized (Well, we are always recognized. People look at us so often that we sometimes feel that we are akin to a group of Art Bell¡¯s Grays, or the crew of the Enterprise in, federation uniform, walking about Manhattan.).
The first thing that happened was that a group of my students, at the end of one of my classes, stood up and read something in Chinese while the rest of them all watched me. I am glad I had some idea as to what was going on. I was thinking that if I had not been informed of the tradition that I could have easily suspected that they were reading some pre-teacher killing manifesto. As I thought this I reminded my self that I was on the fourth floor. As such, the window was not a viable means of escape. This brought about a smile, which was the reaction that they wanted from the letters that they were reading to me.
In another of my classes I was given a very nice tea mug. Here in China everyone carries his or her drinks around in tall glass jars with a screw-off lid. I had not yet purchased one of these drink jars, and intended to. I had not mentioned this to my students. However, it had been mentioned in the staffroom that I did not have a jar to make my tea in. There is the possibility that they were told what to purchase. The one they gave me has some writing on it (that, of course, I can not read) and some decoration. I am hoping, and concerned, that I meet their expectations as a teacher.
The other interesting thing had to do with a couple of chairs. It seems that a few nights ago, the night that we went out with all of the teachers and the Chinese couple, that the South African went and looked at some chairs. The, so-called, chairs that we use here are simply folding, backless, stools. Most of us decadent westerners find them to be uncomfortable.
The South African found some chairs and thought that he had agreed on a price, thirty Yuan, that very night, in a shop that was near the college. When we returned to the shop, the next afternoon, when all of us entered the shop, ready to buy, and the owner was not present, that price had suddenly risen to fifty Yuan. Very simply, we stormed out.
This afternoon, two chairs were delivered, as a gift, to the foreign teachers. We were given an apology and it was explained that the salesman had not been informed that we had already agreed on a price and was trying to pad his commission. I haven¡¯t yet, because of the crowds of new students; however, I intend to go and purchase one soon.
Today was Saturday and we, the teachers, had no classes or other duties. So, we went into town on a couple of errands. The first thing that we did was to catch a bus and ride to an easily recognizable location, a KFC. It is the only recognizably western franchise establishment that I have seen in town.
We went and got our cell phones turned on. They are set so that we can make local, in China, calls, and so that we can dial internationally. From there we went to bank, only to find the office, of the bank, that we needed to be closed. We then wandered pointlessly as the South African looked for the best deal that he could find on a rocking chair. He seems to be intending to remain here as long as he can. As a result, he is trying to fully equip himself with all of the fixtures that he feels are necessary to live a comfortable life.
After the great rocking chair quest, we wandered back to the area of the bus stop. From there he and Michelle went to the supermarket while Zeneta and I went to KFC. By local standards, KFC was very expensive. The cost for Zeneta and I to have lunch was over forty Yuan. I was surprised to see how much it did cost after haven eaten at many of the street cafes for about three to four Yuan per person. I will say that the cleanliness was up to, of possibly surpassing, normal western standards. However, it was still very expensive.
We then went to a supermarket to do a bit of shopping and caught a bus for the ride home. We are getting comfortable with the local bus system. However, it was rather funny, I group of soldiers were on the bus (they finally got off at the base in town, which is before our stop) and they could not take their eyes off me. Somehow I doubt I lived up to what they were expecting.
Upon my return I helped Collin take the crank arm off of his bicycle. He is a big guy and he was standing on the pedals and ripped one clean out of the crank arm. So, we were removing the crank arm so that he could take it in to the shop and try to get a warranty replacement. It would be a nuisance to try to take the entire bicycle in to town.
Later Zeneta and I went to his apartment to watch a movie with Him and Brawnie. This was after Zeneta and I had dinner. Making dinner turned out to be a bit of a mess. Zeneta wanted me to make a stir-fry, after all, we had our new rice cooker and she wanted to use it. The trouble was that she only wanted to get a, very, small bottle of cooking oil. So, she got a bottle of mustard oil. I used this for the pan as I cooked the meat. I can say that it turned out well. However, it is good that this is not winter; as we still have the apartment opened up in an attempt to air it out. The mustard was so strong that, for a while, neither of us could go into the kitchen for more than a few moments at a time. We have written it off as another lesson for living in China.
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