Regarding dining rooms

This week began, as weeks are prone to doing, on Sunday. As is usual for us, while we are here, with Zeneta and I deciding to go to eat in the evening. One of the places that we often go to, and the place that we decided to go to on this evening, is an Islamic place. It is very near the main gate of the school and we are generally happy with the food. It also has the advantage of having the menu on the wall, with pictures. This makes it very easy for us to order.

In general, at this place, we sit in the rear dining room. However, there was a rather large party that was already in that room. So, Zeneta and I sat in the front of the restaurant. Generally we do not sit in the front as it is unheated and is the furthest from the kitchen. As I have stated in the past, it is no surprise that this place is unheated. That is the norm in China. It seemed a bit odd to be sitting inside and to still have our gloves on; however, the food was slow in coming so we were only able to warm our hands by wearing our gloves or holding our water; which, as I have also stated, is always served hot.

As we were waiting, we watched the man in the front of the restaurant. He was making the noodles. It was interesting to watch the process of hand drawing the noodles. There are no machines (as we would use the term), other than a knife that is used for cutting the noodles to length, used in the process. As we watched he made, by hand, both round and flat noodles. He then put them in a large steamer that was next to him and the waitress then came up and got them out of the steamer and took them to the cook who put the various sauces on the noodles.

Regarding dining rooms, it is interesting, as a fan of Russian literature I was often interested in what the authors were trying to describe when they mentioned the characters going to a restaurant and going to a dining room. I recall a particular scene, in a book that I cannot name (I think it was Brothers Karamazov) where one of the principal actors called out from his upstairs dining room, to the protagonist, who was walking down the street, to come join in his dining room. While, clearly, I understood the passage, it has much more meaning to me now that I have sent the type of environment that this would have occurred in and have sat in those small, upstairs dining rooms.

In other news, I have been having some trouble registering for my classes, this semester, at UCDH. It seems that the on-line registration form is broken and the other option, calling from a touch-tone phone, will not work, as our phone does not send touch-tones (DTMF) once the connection is established. I have written the school and I expect that it will be fixed soon. (For those of you who are reading; yes, they liked my last essay)

Later in the week, on Tuesday, I arranged for dinner with some students, three of them. Instead of going to the places that I typically go, I asked them to choose the place. I was hoping to go the place that I had gone with He Zhi Qing; however, she was unavailable to go with us. So I was directed to a place that the students informed me that they often go to for dinner parties, such as birthdays. It was a typical Chinese place where we walked through the kitchen to get to the dining rooms in the rear.

Zeneta and I allowed the students to order and had a very good meal. Both of the young ladies are in my classes and provided me with their names in Chinese and I do not remember them well enough to type them in. They both speak very good English and, other than being a bit camera shy, were great dinner company.

The following Thursday the English club had a birthday party. It was the celebration of the first anniversary of the English club. It was held in the new teaching building and was the first time that Zeneta or I had actually been in the new building. It is a much larger building than the building that I am currently teaching in, and the building that I am teaching in is a very large building, as I have described in the past. The new building is shown at the top of the page.

We were, of course, expected to sit in the front and, as a teacher, I was expected to speak. As those of you who know me know, this has been a real shock therapy. I cannot say that I am better at addressing large groups of people and being in front of crowds; and, at times, mobs. However, I am more used to it. It got extremely crowded as one of the other teachers was expecting to use that room for her class and saw me and asked if she could bring her class in too. I was not teaching, as this was a club activity; however, I was present and a teacher. Therefore, I was in charge, by nothing but default.

When I reached my seat (and I was not permitted to stand in the rear) Collin Brown was busy delivering a speech. Following his speech were a number of riddles with candy rewards and several musical numbers. A couple of girls in the club had intended to dance to the music of MC Hammer. However, the stage was too small. They gave it a very good try and, considering the limitations, did a very good job. A student playing a traditional wood wind instrument and several songs provided some of the music. Toward the end was a line dance that several of the students and teachers joined in that was called the "butterfly dance." This is one of the dances where the people hold each other and perform the steps as directed in the music.

At the end of the party I delivered a short speech and thanked everyone for coming. As usual, when speaking without a plan, I spoke too fast. It was funny; this is one of the few times that my students told me that I was speaking too fast. In unison, nearly everyone in the room said, "too fast!"

After the meeting, Zeneta and I were invited, by several of my students, to go and see their dorm room. I will admit that I have been very interested in seeing the rooms. However, I was concerned that I would be permitted into the women's dorm. I was preparing for Zeneta to go by herself and return with pictures. It turns out that I was permitted; however, I had to sign in, and out when I left. The only real inconvenience was that the WC had no door, and a rather large opening. Dividers that are only about a meter high separate the stalls; so, I made sure that it was clear that I was averting my eyes as I walked by.

The halls, of the dorm, are wide with the high ceilings that are so common here. Other than that, they were quite stark and devoid of adornment. Like other buildings in China, the dormitories have no heat. The rooms were surprisingly large and are shared by six students. Under each student's bunk is the student's desk area. At the end of the room is a doorway to a balcony where the bicycles are kept. Generally, all six students in the room will have a matching class schedule and end up spending a lot of their time together.

[This paragraph was added after the initial posting because, rather simply, I have intended to include it and forgot] I mentioned the lack of heat in the dormitories. However, that is not the whole of it. There is also no hot water. The hot water is provided in a building about two to five hundred meters away. It is in this building that the students fill their thermoses with drinking water and carry them back to their rooms. It is also in this building that the students get their showers. I often ask questions like these (i.e. Where do you go for showers?) even when I, or other westerners, are pretty sure of the answers. I know my asking simple questions irritates some of the westerners, after all, they are pretty sure that they already know the answer; and as such, they see no need to ask. However, I am trying to not work on assumptions but to insure I know based on questioning or observation. Thus, the reason for some of my, seemingly, stupid questions.

Friday was another day of classes. However, that morning Zeneta and I walked to the river and took same pictures as we walked. I had scheduled to meet one of my students at lunchtime and go to the school canteen. The upstairs dining hall is primarily for the upperclassmen and teachers. I was told that it is a lot cleaner and the food is better than the general student canteen. The food was pretty good. It was a spicy beef noodle soup.

Saturday I went looking for a coat with one of the graduate students. We went to the large market in town. The coat is something that goes reasonably well with the type of clothing I wear. Although I have lost over 7 kilograms since arriving here, I am still having trouble finding clothing that fits well; short and fat is just not a common Chinese size.

Saturday evening all of the westerners went to dinner together, at the Moslem place again, and planned our Christmas activities. We decided that we would not cancel our classes for the day. It just was not something that would be useful. It is not a holiday for our students so we would have to make the day back up on a Saturday. This would interfere with the weekend for both the students and us. Instead we will have our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve, a Sunday. We also planned the westerner gift exchange.