Shopping in Wuhan

06 Jan 07

As many of you know, I ended up working this weekend. The reason really made no sense to me, or the other westerners; however, it seemed to make perfect sense to the Chinese.

We worked Saturday and Sunday so that we could take Tuesday and Wednesday off, following the holiday on Monday. The thought, on the minds of all of us westerners, was, why not just take Saturday and Sunday off? Instead, this goofy approach messed up all of our schedules, their schedules, and, undoubtedly, the schedules of millions of people across the country. I really think that the reason was just to do something different; whatever the reason, I worked Saturday.

I would have also had to have worked on Sunday, except that I traded classes with another teacher. Julia has several of the same classes that I have.

Remember, the students are assigned to a class group at the beginning of their college life and that class group is given a number (easy enough, I have classes one through five). They then attend all of their classes, and many out of class activities, as a group.

Because she, Julia, also has classes one through four, we were able to make a trade in the classes. This left us both with classes on only one day, I did Saturday and she did Sunday. (And no, Julia is not her real name. However, her family name sounds a bit like Julia, it is a name that I can pronounce, and the students know who I am talking about when I say, "Julia." [Even if they do laugh when I say it]).

An example of the, out of class, activities, that are attended as a group include the Friday that immediately preceded this weekend, in which I had to work. The student classes reserved large rooms at the college and held various parties. As a teacher I moved between the groups that were, generally about two classes, or about a hundred students. Some of the parties focused on, student produced, skits and dances. There were a lot of song and musical instrument recitals. Some of the classes got together and watched movies on the large, projection screens (there is a… um… "Free" web site there in China that allows a person to watch any of hundreds of movies, there is a reason that this site is unusable for my classes; however, it allows anyone with web access to watch them. So, the students start the projector and the movie, and then they enjoy free theater.).

On Saturday I then showed Titanic. I used some discs that were purchased here in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />China. So, to no surprise, they did not work well. They are copies and are not good ones. Toward the end of the movie the disc froze. The good part was that it really was the last scene, I still was irritated. One part of the movie was sort of funny. I have mentioned the disregard for heat in the classrooms; as it happened, there has been a bit of a cold snap and the classrooms never got above 40f all day. So, at the end of the movie, when everyone is in the water and freezing, I looked around the room and observed that everyone watching the movie was freezing, right along with the actors on the screen.

I ended up showing the film twice, this allowed me to show it to four of my classes; like I said, I was doubling up my classes. I first showed it at 10am and a second time at 2:30pm. It really felt like I was running a theater.

On Sunday, because I had made the arrangement, I had no classes. Instead I went to the usual meeting with some of the westerners, which we hold on Sundays and then returned to my flat in order to do some writing; I also did quite a bit of lounging around and reading. (Wow, it is hard to type this, my fingers are cold; thus I am producing a lot of typos. Therefore, my usual, very slow, typing, is slowed even more by the number of corrections I am making.)

Monday was a rather normal shopping trip. Ellen, a female student of Michelle's, went with us and provided quite of bit of help. It is always funny when you ask for help finding something. All I wanted was some spices and vinegar. I ended up being brought vegetables, soup mix, and other things that I can not remember or identify (they seem to be food), in the pile were my spices and vinegar; so, I did not complain.

It was at that time that Michelle and I discussed the possibility of an upcoming trip to Wuhan. We are both considering purchasing backpacks for our, upcoming, winter break. We were initially planning to purchase them when we arrive in Xian, while we are on vacation, and still may do that. However, there is some logic in purchasing them ahead of time so that we are not left carrying two pieces of luggage. I would also like to visit the museum in Wuhan. One thing that has disappointed me, in China, is the lack of museums. According to the travel guide that I borrowed from Debra, there is one there.

That night I went to dinner with He Zhi Qing and some of her dorm mates (There, a real name for those of you who complain that I do not include real names. She tends to ask me to call her HZQ because I often mangle her name so badly.). Even though her roommates are not English majors, instead they are majoring in Chinese, they speak English well enough to communicate.

We did not go where we had planned because the place was full. Instead, we went to another nearby restaurant. From her I am learning to identify restaurants (not always as easy as it sounds) and going to more "authentic" places. She is the same student that took Debra, for several hours, and showed her what the student dorms look like.

We (He Zhi Qing, her roommates, and I) made plans to go on Tuesday and walk around the city; however, it was snowing so we called it off. In all, the vacation was too cold to enjoy.

That night, I had a slight problem. The house phone rang, I differentiate that from my cell phone, which is used for almost all communication. The house phone is primarily used for calling people on campus, and in the dark, while stumbling to answer it; I stepped on the power supply for my computer. Not only was it a wrong number, as most of my house phone calls are, but I broke the power supply. Breaking the power supply prompted me to write this letter to my good friend from High School; and all around Mac Genius, Mike.

Last night when getting up to answer the phone, it was a wrong number, I broke the connector on my Macally power supply, I long since replaced my Apple supplied one.

This power supply has a plug in the end that connects to the supply; so, the cord that plugs into the computer also unplugs from the supply. It uses a non standard plug. However, I am first going to look for the plug, if I can not find it I will solder the cord directly into the supply.

My question is this; the cord that connects to the Mac has one strand and a shield (thus, two conductors). I am assuming that the shield is negative and the core is +24VDC@2A. Looking at the tip I see it as having three elements, a shield, as is found on an RCA audio connector and a plug in the center that is similar to a stereo headphone connector, just smaller. This very small plug has three elements. What should the voltage be at these various points? (Yes, I checked the apple site, it has no real useful information on this that I was able to find)<>

I got a response from him that advised that, seeing as the part is made in China, that I should replace it in China. He also included some helpful information. However, by the time that I received his response (remember, the time is almost opposite here [gmt +8]) I had already gone into town and gotten it, sort of, repaired; prompting this letter.

The really funny thing is that a lot of the stuff made here is not available. When it is, it costs more than it does, after conversion, in America. As an example, I saw an iPod Nano (4gb); after conversion (of course, it is priced in RMBs [aka, CNY]) it would have cost $280USD. What I was told is that the stuff is first shipped to the states and then shipped back to china, where it becomes an import and is subject to very steep taxes.

I did manage to get it fixed. There is no "do it yourself" culture and near all tools are only sold to licensed repairmen. As such, I took it to a computer repair shop and HE ZHI QING (my student, I can not pronounce or spell her name) was having trouble telling them what I wanted done because the idea of fixing something was totally unknown to her.

Finally I walked behind his counter (with permission, if he understood what I was asking) and picked up his solder sucker, soldering iron and Multimeter and started working on it myself. After I had it all positioned I let him solder the parts together (and he did a terrible job of it). She was laughing the whole time; it seems that this is not the way things are done here

I suspect that I will hear about this in class... However, it is now working.

That Wednesday, after we had canceled our plans to wader about the town on Tuesday due to the snow; He Zhi Qing, more of her roommates, and I went to go and get this done. To go into town she first tried to hire a three wheel cab; however, the driver would not budge on the price so we took the bus. We then went to get the repair done, which was the, afore mentioned, ordeal.

After we did that she insisted that I go and eat lunch. While I had not eaten lunch I could have done very well to miss that meal (I have lost about seven Kilos since I got here, then I pretty much stopped loosing weight). However she was very uncomfortable with my having not eaten (she, and her friends had eaten before we met) so I had some soup that she ordered for me at a lunch counter.

[Then people ask why I hate using windows. Here I was typing along and I get a message that the windows OS had encountered yet another error and has closed word. I only lost a little because I save often; however, this does not happen on my UNIX, a real OS, based Mac …oh where was I…]

After we did some shopping, I decided that I needed more long johns, we went for a walk. The only problem with wearing the long johns is that it tends to reduce my level of empathy with my students. After all, I am not freezing, there is no reason that they should be acting like they are (other, possibly, than that the room really is freezing).

The walk we took led through one of the larger city parks and a small bamboo forest that had several footpaths leading through it. It was, obviously, a popular place for young people to stroll.

We then walked along the river; stopping at a playground to enjoy the exercise equipment (me v. them on the teeter totter was funny, if not a bit embarrassing). I took some pictures of the old city wall and we also did a bit of other shopping (I needed some eggs, which are not sold in cartons as they are in the west) and I returned to my flat.

We had walked quite a bit, including the entire return trip, however, it was fun. Even better, when I plugged in my, newly repaired, power supply it worked!

This week was obviously a short one for classes, consisting of only two days. We talked about many of the terms used in Titanic. I discussed the, upcoming, exam in my class. However, I was not able to use the material that I normally use in the second half of my class. I normally use a podcast from a pair of Doctors in Linguistics in Los Angeles.

I use the audio skit in their program and then build more lesson material around that. I was not able to do this for one of the very reasons that you have not received these blogs in some time. The internet connection to China has been very slow as a result of a damaged cable in Taiwan. This is making the access to may websites, the sending, and receiving of both audio and pictures nearly impossible.

I hope that this is repaired soon and I will be able to send pictures of Wohan.

This afternoon, this being Saturday, I got a call from He Zhi Qing asking if I wanted to go on a bike ride with them. They are, of course, her and a couple of her roommates. One of her roommates did not want to ride and, apparently, claimed that she did not know how to ride a bike. So, she rode on the rack on the back of the bike. It is amazing, to me, to see how often people ride on the cargo racks on the backs of the bicycles. They are clearly labeled that they are not capable of holding people; however, many of them are padded and there are often handles and footrests on them. We are not talking of carrying small children, we are talking of full sized (well, fill-sized means something a little different when talking of Asian women) adults.

They generally ride on these racks by riding side saddle and mount after the bicycle is moving slowly. I have a cargo basket on my rear rack so I have not carried any passengers.

So, we rode the three bicycles, with one passenger, to the local lake. However, none of us wanted to pay the entrance charge so we then headed back on the other side of the river to see the construction on the Pagoda that has been in many of our pictures. When finished, it will be a temple.

While riding we noticed that He Zhi Qing's bicycle had a flat tire; so, as I rod off in search of a WC she went and borrowed an air pump from a repairman. I was under the impression that she had the tire repaired until we had ridden several blocks; only to discover that her tire was flat again. At that point we went looking for a repairman and were unable to find one and ended up back at the same person that had loaned her a air pump earlier.

By the time we returned, it was too dark for the repairman to see well enough to find the flat, he was completing the work he was doing by the light of nearby cook fires. I quickly dismounted the tire form the rim, it is normal here to leave the wheel on the bike while going the here, and located the hole by wetting my hands with water he provided me. I than roughed the area of the hole and he put the patch on for her. This was all done by the light of my torch (silly Brits' insist on calling a flashlight a torch). Instead of using the patches we are familiar with, he used a section of tube that one of the girls cut to the shape that we needed, he then poured some cement on the tube and used the cut portion for a patch. All I can say is that it worked.

While we were doing this it was getting darker rapidly. In addition, I received a phone call from Ilwn, a graduate student, reminding me that I had planned for him and Merry, one of my students, to have them over for dinner. So, once repairs were completed, we rode back, rather quickly, in the dark. I will point out that I do not recall seeing a single bicycle light in the country. Other bikers, in the dark, are the real scare when riding this way.

At that point He Zhi Qing and one of her friends joined us for dinner. They cooked, which made it a very easy night for me. However, I was getting a bit tired, and I expect that I was looking it. We also looked at the on-line train schedule and determined what train we wanted for the trip to Wohan.

Today, Sunday, I went to our Sunday meeting. After that, the Browns and I watched a movie, "The Bodyguard." I then went for a bike ride with Walik. I prefer to take my bike to the store and on local trips, instead of relying on the bus service. It just leaves me with a bit more freedom to do what I want.

After returning to my apartment and watching another movie, "timeline," Walik and I went to dinner. It was pretty much a slow day. Most of my Sundays are slow, which is just fine.

Finishing Jigou shan and preparing to leave for Shanghai

At that point we all returned to our hotel in order to dress for dinner. Seeing as none of us had any dinner clothing, we, essentially, returned as we were. I did wash a shirt that I had managed to splatter during lunch and borrowed a spare from Collin.

We then all headed off for dinner. Dinner was standard Chinese fare. The foot of some chicken was sticking out of the soup; it looked shockingly like a little hand.

Because the table was not large enough for us all, the Chinese ended up sitting in a larger, less ornate, room and coming to visit us at our table from time to time.

After dinner conversation seemed to drift to how to go about refocusing the English club. It is our desire that the students spend more time talking to each other, in English, and less time with us, the westerners, talking. On a cultural note, the Chinese do not talk business after dinner; they talk business during the meal. So, if there is a lot to talk about then a lot of food is ordered (remember, all meals are shared) and once the food is done then it is time to leave.

This cultural difference was notable at this dinner because the Chinese finished well after us; but, when they saw that we were done eating and were talking they quickly announced that it was time to leave.

Shortly after we returned to the hotel a storm fell upon us. It was fine all day and walking back; but, within a half an hour of our return to the hotel, a string wind came and, with it, brought heavy rain.

The rest of the evening there was little to do but sit and watch a Chinese horror movie, it did have English subtitles. The balcony on my room was covered however the wind blew the shirts I had hanging outside onto the ground and I had to go and retrieve them the next morning.

By the next morning the weather had not improved. So, after breakfast in the village that Colin, Brawnie and I had been walking toward the previous morning, when we were stopped, we returned to our hotel and waited, drinking tea and chatting, in the hotel lobby, until it was time to return to the school.

After the test I went to dinner with some of the students, something I have done very little of this semester. Before dinner they wrote to the Hostel (in Chinese) and asked them to call me so that I could make a reservation; of course, the call came in while we were eating dinner. That actually worked out well because Sam was able to talk to the woman at the hostel. Then, on Tuesday, which is my afternoon that I have off, I went with Gao, Sam, Lee, and Walick to get my train ticket to Su Zhou, seeing as I now had a confirmed place to stay.

Wednesday, Sam, Lee and I made some scrabble like pieces and a game board; in total, we made three complete sets. A real Scrabble set costs over 375RMB here, if you can find one, and it was quickly decided that if I wanted a scrabble set I was going to make it.

The scrabble issue can up in an attempt to decide what to do during the week after the test. Because the test was followed by a week of classes and then a week of vacation, as stated, a lot of the students left early. I wanted something easy and fun to do in class; however, it still needed to be educational. It is interesting to see how competitive they get and to observe their sense of fairness.

Friday morning I had one class (two sessions) and there were no students at all. Julia came by and told me that all of her students were also gone; so, after waiting a while to see if any stragglers came in I left to start packing for my trip.

Going to Xian

Thursday in preparation for my trip to go see Debra, and some travel in China, I went with Michelle and Ellen to do a bit of shopping. About lunchtime, before Ellen was available, Michelle and I went and looked at the various shops in the alley that is off the East Gate, the alley that we often call Diagon Alley (I have later learned that the correct name is Haiyuan). We located some things that we wanted, including mess kits and flasks. At that point we went and ate.

After lunch Michelle contacted Ellen, and informed Ellen that she was requested to come along for a shopping trip. There were several elements of this trip. First, Michelle and I wanted some sheets sewn in a particular manner that would make them more useful at the hostels. Second, we wanted to return to the alley in order to purchase the items that we had identified; which we did, with Ellen arguing the prices for us.

We then took a bus into town. It seems that when Michelle purchased some mp3 players she received some bonus points to use in the store. She wanted to go back for a mop. We also went to the supermarket for some snacks and breads. One other thing we were looking for were zip-lock bags. We have seen them in some places, containing goods for sale, so we know that they exist; however, we have not been able to find them.

We went to a pharmacy, where they have bags of potpourri for sale in zip-lock bags and asked them where they got the bags. What we were told was that there is a person who comes through the business district in the morning, on a three-wheel bicycle (This is differentiated from a tricycle due to the existence of a large cargo box, it is intended for hauling goods rather than a single person.) and sells zip-lock bags. The only advise that they, and the other shops that use the bags, had was to wait at a shop on the regular route, in the morning, and see if he rides by, selling bags, that day.

We then took a cab and returned to our block. Shortly after we arrived back in our flats Ellen cooked dinner for us. And the teacher from South Africa also came up and discussed a laptop computer that he was looking at. It was somewhat low end. However, all he wants to do is use MS Office and email. For under $400usd it looked okay. That amount does not get anything special. It had a 1.8g Pentium processor, 256 Mb of memory (which I advised him to have upgraded to 512), a 40gb HD (upgradeable to 80 for about another $8usd), and a 14.1" screen. I am not sure what a similar computer would run in the states; however, I expect that, if purchased used or closeout, it would be about the same.

Friday I rode my bicycle to the bank and withdrew some money. Part of the reason that I did this was to make sure that I would have no trouble making withdrawals using my ATM card from China Construction Bank, the bank in China that I use. I then went for lunch at a place that I am a bit of a regular and returned to carry my bicycle, the five floors, up to my flat. It is now sitting in the bedroom. While I have taken to chaining it to a tree in front of my stairwell I did not want to leave it there for almost three weeks while I am gone.

Shortly after that, some students started showing up. Ilwin arrived and while he was there Michelle came over to see what I had packed. She, of course, wanted to insure that we did not double pack anything that we only needed one of. Walik came over and visited for a while and, shortly after he left, Merry arrived. About the time that HZQ arrived it was getting time to leave. She finished checking to insure that everything was turned off, in order to conserve energy, and we left for dinner and the train station.

Dinner at the restaurants near the train station are always more expensive that is reasonable, and this one was no exception. After we got out of the cab Ilwin insisted on carrying my pack, I think he was surprised on how much it did weigh. One thing is that it is hard to find much lightweight stuff here. The almost all packing information says not to bring jeans; they just weigh too much. However, there are no real good alternatives, it is jeans or polyester dress pants. After dinner I put the pack on, correctly, and it was much easier to pack.

Going to the waiting room was somewhat funny, HZQ was trying to steer me to the waiting room that she typically uses and I was going to the VIP lounge. So, it was the picture of us, at the entrance, both pointing in different directions with her telling me that we go that way and me insisting that we needed to go the other way. It does not help that that VIP room is not even marked. Like many of the students, she had never been in that room and was not aware of its existence.

While we were waiting Ilwin and Merry wandered off and got some snacks. During this time we worked on some of our other plans for the vacation. After Debra and I return to Xinyang, it is likely that we will then head for Kaifeng. This is not far from Zhengzhou and is considered to be one of the more interesting historic cities. As it turns out, HZQ is familiar with this city and I made plans to contact her, at her home city of Xin Xiang, when we get to that stage of our trip.

About that time Merry and Ilwin returned and a short time later the train arrived. It was a short run to the correct car, one must remember that the trains only stop for a few minutes at the smaller station and there is boarding in cars all along it's length. As I was stowing my baggage, HZQ was writing something, in Chinese, on a note, with my passport number, for the conductor. At that point she left, Merry and Ilwin had already gotten off the train.

Once the train was moving the conductor came and wanted more information. This was a problem due to language issues; however, I gathered that, in addition to my passport number, and whatever HZQ had written, he needed my county of origin and full name written down. I made it that far when he through the hard one at me; it needed to be written in Chinese.

When it was clear that I was not able to do this the conductor went and got someone else to assist. He brought a Chinese Air Force officer. This resulted in the person who had been in the bunk next to mine being moved so that the officer would be able to stay nearby (and, presumably, keep me out of trouble). He was helpful and stated, the next morning, that he enjoyed a chance to practice his English. There is no doubt that he was very helpful in giving the conductor the information that he needed.

It was well after dark when I boarded and by the time that the paperwork was completed, it was well after 10pm; so, I was pretty quick to go to sleep and stayed that way well into dawn. I then got up and made myself a simple breakfast. About this time, the officer woke up and we chatted for a while. The conductor then came and switched my bunk card back for my ticket and I made my way to the doors.

Debra had described the Xian as having a huge train station; compared to Zhengzhou and Hankou it did not seem to be much at all. As soon as I exited the station I saw Debra. I was surprised by how close to the city walls the station was. We then went to the bus stops and rode back to the Hostel that Debra stays at.

From there we walked around town for quite a while and finally went through the Moslem quarter and visited the Grand Mosque, one of the oldest Mosques in China. From there we returned to the hostel and rested. Then we went on a long bus ride and walked back (never finding the shower slippers and pajamas, for me, that we were looking for). On the ride we saw a foreign language bookstore and, after again resting at the Hostel, walked back to it. I have to say that in this area, around the Hostel, the number of westerners that I saw amazed me. I saw more westerners here than I saw in any other place in China.

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At the bookstore we both purchased a set of textbooks to help us with our Chinese. Later that evening we walked through some of the alleys and went to a small restaurant for dinner. I noticed that in the city center there are not the number of small shops and vibrant alleys that are seen in other places in China. It is almost as if there is an effort to make Xian look like a western city. The only places that approached looking like the China that I am used to seeing were the streets outside of the tourist portion of the Muslim quarter.

At some point during the day Debra purchased a new battery for her film camera. It came as no real surprise that the battery that was sold to her was dead. This is a common problem in China. The batteries are sold so seldom that they die before they are sold. If a person were coming with something that uses an odd size battery I would recommend bringing the spares that you will need. Other than that, for frequently used batteries, plan on using rechargeable batteries. The NiMh batteries are widely available, as are the chargers.

The next day involved walking to several outdoor shops in Xian. Debra was looking for some camping gear. A large portion of that camping gear that is available is imported; thus, it, by Chinese standards, is very expensive. We still looked at several places and walked along the moat, that runs outside of the city wall, for a ways. We were also getting some food to eat while on the train.

About this time it was necessary that we begin preparing to head for the train station. So, we returned to the Hostel and picked up our bags, that were being stored there, and started hopping on buses in order to head for the train station.

We had soft seat, or first class, tickets so we waited in the lounge, which was somewhat filled. This is the time of year that many students are returning home and families are traveling for the holiday so even these waiting rooms are nearly full.

The train ride from Xian to Ankang was uneventful. I did notice that there were some rather long tunnels on the route. The entire ride was about four hours.

Upon our arrival in Ankang we took a cab back to Debras Apartment. At that point we had dinner, which was, largely, the food that we had not eaten on the train, and pretty much called it a day.

The next couple of days were generally just me puttering around the flat while Debra was in class. We went for dinner together on Monday evening and walked to a market.

Tuesday I went for a bike ride by myself and found a small, nearby, shop for dinner. So, other than doing laundry, sitting around and some bike rides, I am doing very little in Ankang.

Christmas Shopping

Sunday afternoon I decided to fix some of the problems that I was having with my bicycle. Most of these were simply matters of maintenance.

I was getting tired of some issues with my bicycle. However, as tools are not generally available, I tried going to a local repairman and was not satisfied with the quality of the work. They are great for repairing things that are broken. There seems to be an issue when it comes to tuning. It is more a matter of different expectations than a matter of ability. Having raced, I have very high expectations so far as what I expect the bicycle to do. Most of these are matters of smooth and secure shifting and noise reduction. Remember, it takes energy to make noise; thus, any noise is wasted energy.

The basic issues were rust and a need for cable adjustment on the derailleurs'. The rust was pretty much covering the chain and all of the chain rings and gears. The obvious answer is to oil them. That leaves the problem of finding oil. Of course, I tried a bike shop. I also tried a bike parts shop; these are not the same places. Neither of these shops had oil. Aside from the presence of rust, the bike was also making a lot of noise

There was also the adjustment issue. The bike was shifting poorly. When in a relaxed position the cables had a lot of slack in them. There was also a problem with one of the cables having wound itself around an idler gear. Basically, the bike was covered in rust, making noises, and shifting poorly.

Having given up on finding the right tools (The Park Tool site is a great resource. However, it assumes that you have Park Tools.)I decided to work with what I did have. I had a multitool made by Gerber and a small adjustable wrench. For oil, I had cooking oil; which I find to be a great improvement over no oil.

The first thing I did was to remove the idler in the rear derailleur and deal with the cable that was wound around it. While I had it apart I put some oil on the bearing parts (stamped steel and plastic). I then loosened the bolts on the front and rear derailleurs' (one at a time) with the adjustable wrench and tightened the cables before re-tightening the bolts.

At this point I started to put some oil on the chain using a piece of paper as a brush (I had looked for a small paintbrush for this part but did not find one). Once the chain was oiled I ran it through the gears in order to get oil on all of the gears and the chain-rings. Because I do not have a bike stand, and I have not seen a single one, not even at the bike shops I tipped the bike so that it was supported on the front wheel and the kickstand for this part. I think the rear axle is bent because the gear-set has a wobble; however, there is nothing I am going to be able to do about that right now.

After the whole thing was oiled I then started making the adjustments. I put the bike in its lowest gear and adjusted the set screws on the derailleurs' until they had resistance and then I did the same for the highest gear.

Going for a ride I can say that the difference is like night and day. It really does ride and shift better then it did when it was new. There is no more, chain-throwing, over-shifting and the shift on to the small chain-ring is smooth; I no longer need to reach down with my foot to push the chain onto that ring.

None of this should seem amazing to anyone with good tools and a set of basic shop equipment. Heck, back at home I have a bike stand and a Nashbar copy of the Park Tool basic set. What amazed me was the degree of improvement that could be made to a cheap bike with very simple tools.

As far as the wheels, they are not so far out of true that I cannot continue to use them. However, I can see that I will need to true them soon. I think the attitude toward wheel truing is one of the reasons that drum brakes are so popular here. I have seen wheels with over two inches of play on each side. One suggestion that I got, from a bicycle forum, regarding truing the wheels, considering that I do not have a truing wrench, was to remove the tyre and tube and turn the base of the nipple with a screwdriver. I expect that this will work; however, it will put the bike out of commission for several days so I will wait until it starts to snow before doing this.

Recently Zeneta and I have having our Tuesday night dinner with students and no other teachers. We did the same this week. I allowed the students to take me to a place that they have taken me before. I am under the understanding that the name, when translated, is, "the old colleagues restaurant." The food seems to be reasonable inexpensive (which is good, considering that I frequently host large numbers) and is quite good. However, all of the dining rooms are not entirely private and the other group, seen in some of my pictures, was not a part of our party.

Upon return I met with one of the other teachers and she commented that she would like to return to having herself, and some of her students, joining me for my Tuesday night dinners. So, I suspect that the size of our dinner parties is due to grow. This is workable. What I have found is that a ratio of one westerner to every four Chinese students works well. While two to one is ideal, up to five is tolerable; a ratio beyond that leaves some of the students being neglected. Having Michelle at these parties will allow dinners of twelve to fifteen; parties larger than that will be hard to seat.

Zeneta got herself a new desk today. She has been fighting with the people to get her computer connected to the Internet, instead of using the school supplied computer, pretty much, since she got here (I have entirely given up on making my Mac work with the network here, it just isn't going to happen). It has been a matter of one little problem after the other. In order to connect her computer to the network here so she can access the internet she needs to install a piece of software from the school called, "ruijie supplicant," (for which, it appears that there is no OSX version, and I am still looking for BSD version that I will not have to compile myself). To run this she needs to have the full Chinese version of Windows, which she does not have.

So, she called to the office for a computer DISC, the disc for Windows XP (they think that they are running Vista, they are not running Vista). They were very cooperative and agreed to send one. In very short order someone knocked on the door bearing a computer DESK. Of course they would not take it back because they had been sent to bring a desk, not to return with one. So Zeneta now has another desk and is still unable to connect to the Internet with her Toshiba.

Note the textbook seen while visiting the school canteen.

Wednesday evening Zeneta ad I went to dinner with just the two of us. We went to a place that we often eat and Zeneta enjoys playing with the cat at the restaurant. She has wanted a picture of the cat for some time.

Before we went to dinner, I had finished playing, "Star Trek: Generations," for the assembled students. In a word, they hated it. I have tried other Star trek along with other Sci-fi with them. They simply do not like it. They liked Star Wars (of course I did not bring that with me); however, as everyone knows, Star Wars is technically not Sci-fi, it is classed as a space opera.

I just find it interesting that they do not like it at all. One thing I think is very off-putting is that there is a lot of plot jumps. Anyone who has seen this, and many other Sci-fi movies, is aware of what I mean by plot jumps. These movies, and others, like Serenity, also suffer from being part of an evolving story. It is interesting to see how these movies fail to work with people that have not been raised with this, evolving, story around them. Even people, in the west, who are not fans of Star Trek series have a basic understanding of the story and have seen the terms introduced into everyday life.

I have pretty well written off Star Trek for showing to the students for the rest of the semester. I am hoping that when Zeneta returns to the states that she will send me some acceptable movies. They seem to really like modern films (As defined by a characteristic film and direction style, very simply, the quality of the recording medium has improved in the past thirty years and films older than about fifteen years, just plain, look old. There has also been a change in the style of directing. People no longer talk to the camera; this can be attributed to improved audio post processing. There is also the fact that modern sound stage work looks… well, less like something that was shot on a sound stage).

They also like complete stories. They dislike stories that assume that the watcher has seen a previous movie or read a book; because, it is unlikely that they saw the previous movie or series, and they probably did not read the book.

They do not mind if it takes several films to tell the story. They liked the completeness of Lord of the Rings and are loving the Harry Potter movies. As I mentioned earlier, light romance goes over well. "Fifty-first dates," was very well received. Another movie that I showed, "Ice Princess," was greatly enjoyed. I can safely say that, "Ice Princess," contained all of the elements that they prize. It had very good quality film and lighting, it had popular music, it featured pretty girls, It had the classic mothers expectations verses the daughters desires plot conflict, it had a very light but nice romance; and above all, it was G rated.

It is necessary to remember that my observations are being biased by where I am. For those who are not clear on the point, this is essentially a girls college with a male / female ratio of one to five or six, if there are even that many males. It is also very conservative in regards to dress and decorum. There is tremendous concern for avoiding, even, the appearances of impropriety. Quite simply, it fits the stereotype of a catholic women's college, if the catholic women acted like they are supposed to and sometimes portrayed, as a matter of practice and choice.

Thursday English club was canceled. This was due to the cold. With there being no heat in the college there was just no way that the students wanted to go out in the cold for a club meeting.

When I found out about this I invited some students at the last minute. The class, early in the evening, was not particularly well attended; I was told that this was due to the cold. However, one of the students who was not in class, reportedly trying to stay warm in her dorm room, managed to make it to dinner; which I teased her about.

In a classic state of misdirection, I gave the students instructions to meet me at a particular gate. They took me to have meant the gate by the hospital and were waiting for me there. I, of course was at the gate before that one. As a result, we were all standing outside for about twenty minutes waiting in 0c degree weather waiting for the other to arrive. They phoned Zeneta and me and I walked down the hill to the gate that they were at, met them, and then we walked back up the hill for dinner.

We had dinner at the same establishment that I mentioned on Tuesday. However, there are really two restaurants in this particular establishment and so we were able to secure a private dining room. I felt a bit silly when I asked for something that was not on the menu so one of my students (Kelly) left. After Kelly was gone I discovered that she had gone to another restaurant to have them make what I wanted and brought it back for me. I like it and definitely thanked her, this is normal in China, and it is very different than America.

Saturday was another shopping day (what! Did Robert just skip Friday… yep, pretty much). I did some of my usual Christmas shopping (you know… that looks nice, I'll take ten). There are a lot of Christmas trees in town and red Christmas caps being worn.

We went with three other students and spent a fair amount of time in the electronics mall looking for a toy for Zeneta. She has now opened one of her Christmas presents a bit early.

We then walked to KFC for lunch. We now seldom eat at KFC, by local standard it is quite expensive and we have found a lot of local food that we like. However, this was not a usual day and we decided to splurge a bit. I think that the students who were with us enjoyed it.

After lunch, instead of taking the bus back to the school we walked to the river, crossed it and walked along a nearly empty street that runs next to the river and crossed to the side that the university is on at the next bridge. While crossing this bridge we saw a group of fishermen on their boats. What was interesting was how they were fishing. It is a form of falconry. They went out with a large number of birds, similar to kingfishers, and had the birds catch and bring them the fish.

We then returned to our flat and spent several hours trying to send the pictures that we had taken during the day to the students email. It turns out that the problem we were having was widespread yesterday and today I was able to send the pictures with a minimum of fuss.

We then went to dinner, hosted by one of the students, and while we waited we shot some pool. As you can see, the tables are simply lined up along the alleyway and are seldom level. Zeneta took a picture, inside of the restaurant, of some of the wiring. It you let things like this bother you, you won't last a day in China.