Showing Classes Dr. Horrible

I kinda did this video more meanly than I’d intended when presenting it to my class . I meant to have the Chinese subtitles on, but for some reason they wouldn’t work in the program. Sorry guys. But for the most part, the students could follow along okay- maybe not the particulars, but they certainly got a few of the jokes. Strangely, my weakest class was the only one who laughed at the “hammer is my penis” joke.

For the most part, Dr. Horrible is quick, difficult to understand due to all the important bits happening through the singing, but the humor and idea of a man being in love are easy enough to get. The physical comedy- not even people hitting each other with pies, but something like Dr. Horrible pretending to serve soup, really super-fast costume changes, and the atmosphere of both music and lighting, the gist of the singalong blog was understood. We also worked through what was going on, and I explained that this was a blog (not understood at first), that e-mails were being read (what is he talking about).

And of course, like Mr. Whedon does in most of his directions (as far as I have seen, anyway), the show started fun and silly, and as I broke between each section to talk about what happened in the previous (partially to emulate how it was released) they seemed to be enjoying it. And after the final act… they seemed a bit bummed. Mr. Whedon always likes to kill off characters you enjoy, to the point where it’s not really surprising anymore. I fear getting attached to any of his characters because I assume automatically they’re scheduled for an unrealistic, melodramatic death.

On the upside, none of my Chinese students had seen his work, so they were not as jaded as I about viewing it. We talked about how Dr. Horrible doesn’t seem like a bad guy, Captain Hammer is a jerk, and how Penny is a nice girl. We also talked about Bad Horse today, and I asked the class what they thought he looked like before he appeared.

The first response? A girl jokingly said, “A horse!” The class laughed at the response. I smiled and asked for other ideas.

“Ugly!”

“Mean!”

“Black!”

“Black?” I asked.

“Yes, a black man.”

…I added “black” to our list of words. At this point, I’m aware that this is a stereotype in China, and there aren’t many black people around to point out how wrong this is. And what am I fighting? Am I fighting a Chinese stereotype? Or am I fighting how black people are often portrayed in movies and TV? Especially American ones? And if it’s the latter, how do I, in a class like this, say “That’s not the case”? When in most of the movies and TV shows from the US, there’s always a token black guy who is, if not the boss, the boss’s right hand man?

In “Blink”, the Doctor Who episode, there was a black man as a police officer, who flirted with Sally Sparrow, our main heroine. And that went over well.

In Northern Exposure, there are just no black people, but we talked about the Inuits who live in the town, and we talked about the racism against Jewish people presented in the film.

Luckily, I guess, Dr. Horrible also presents us with an absence of a black bad guy. There’s a black woman Captain Hammer flirts with. But even more upsetting than an absence of a black villain, we have a lack of black characters.

Also a lack of a strong female lead (she’s essentially Dr. Horrible’s ideal of a woman, and we’re never allowed to see anything about her other than how she fits his role as an ideal woman. She’s given no faults, no problems, and is actually a one-dimensional good guy. I tried to find a fault with the character, and I could find none. None at all. It’s really creepy when you think about it, and I think the strongest, best characters have faults).

But the main issue- how do I try and let my students know that black people are not scary, evil thugs, and actually really awesome people? Do I attempt a direct approach, with my tiny evidence versus what they’ve seen, what they know and have experienced? Or do I subtly show them shows where black people are really the same as Chinese people, white people, holding the same jobs and involved in the same relationships? Or do I show them that sometimes, though black and white people have different cultures, just like Americans and Chinese people, we’re all people, and these differences do not make us less equal as humans?

Really, it’s a question of whether or not I bring attention to the stereotype. And the girl seemed embarrassed when I called her on it; perhaps it was the look of disbelief on my face. The rest of the class giggled at our interaction, so I’m not sure what they supported.

I know it’s not up to me to change their mind. They already have option about black people, the same as they do gay people (I’m staying in the closet here for the first few months, at least, so they see me and get to know me before they judge me).

Not all students follow this stereotype, of course, and I can only encourage them to not do so. I think the day we, as humans, realize that other humans can have differences, that they don’t have to be completely like us, will be a very good day indeed. Until then, I guess I’ll have to keep showing examples, not force-feeding them, so they learn it by themselves.

EXCUSE ME WE'D LIKE YOU TO GO TO AN IMPORTANT DINNER

Today I didn't have class, and I did.

Here's what's going on.

The 3rd years of the Foreign Language College (I teach at three different colleges on campus) are in charge of cleaning up the campus today. And yesterday. And Monday. (These students are of the movie class).

But my freshman class did not have cleaning, so we had class. I talked about things we can say if we're well, and I talked about "safe topics" and "dangerous topics" to discuss with people. Safe topics are things no one will get angry about, like the weather, or how your family is doing. Dangerous topics... well, I came up with six or seven. I had them think, too, on what a dangerous topic might be. "Politics" and "Money" were the two they came up with. I added "age", "weight", "sex and sexual orientation", and one other that I cannot remember right now. How can I not remember that?

Then I had class. The normal class was cancelled, but one of the Friday ones wants to leave early, so I arranged to have class at my normal class time. So they and I met. I showed them Dr. Horrible, then arranged for them to go, as it's their only class today and I wanted to enjoy parts of the day and next week is break.

I REGRET NOTHING

Then I picked up my passport from the police, telling me that I'm allowed to stay in China until July 31rst. My visa was cancelled but now I have a residence permit, which means I'm allowed to leave the country and come back as many times as I want. Yay~.

On my way out, Jin, one of the helpers in the office, asked me if I knew I was going somewhere tomorrow. He received an invitation on my behalf, and I had no idea.

It seems, tomorrow, I need to dress up because I'm headed with all the fancy people (President, leader of the foreign teacher's service) to the capital of this provenience to hang out with all the high officials of Henan.

I'm...scared. Think I'm the token white person, but I'm really suddenly very nervous and so really glad I brought my dress even if I do look really fat in it (This isn't a woman thing, no, I do look huge in this dress). I had no idea I needed such formal attire. (I dunno if I can get pictures, but I'll try).

Ann and Will will be going with me. Beloit people unite!

I'm glad to have fellow people with me, and fellow Beloit people as well.

Hey more topics about sexual education and sexual slang terms and you won't learn any here

(Here's a warning: in this post, I talk about sex again. Probably things on how I view sex is taught, how I explained sexual terms, and insights to the Chinese teaching of sex ed. If you aren't comfortable, don't read the following.)

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So.

So tonight for dinner I went out with different people than I usually do; Adam, a Chinese student I'm calling C and Ben who's been here before. It was a most tasty dinner. I didn't have eggplant, even though I know it is tasty. So tasty at this place.

It comes up that someone has a book of Dirty Chinese that some other teacher left (no longer at Henan), and C wants to take a look. She's curious, and she doesn't want to seem stupid. So we head back after dinner and we get's the book.

On the way there, I ask her if she ever learned about sex, and it turns out no, nobody taught her. In school, no sex ed. Her parents told her she was brought in from the country side. Until she was 16, C thought people reproduced like plants or trees, without sex.

I think this sort of thing is really dangerous. Here's why: When she would learn about sex, it would probably be in the act, and would she be able to keep herself safe? Maybe not. Maybe there would be nobody to teach her about condoms, nobody to tell her that if she doesn't orgasm it isn't her fault, nobody to tell her what orgasming *is*. There's no one to help her understand a side to herself that she has yet to discover, nobody to tell her how to be safe, nobody to tell her how to take care of herself even emotionally. Nobody has prepared her for the bedroom, which I feel, while probably not as mind-blowing as the modern media portrays it, still a huge cesspool of emotions and feelings and awkward (well, at least the first time) that happen. And you don't want those emotions and feelings stuck on, "Is this right? Is this normal? I feel disappointed. Maybe I'm supposed to?"

Or, "I can't orgasm, it must be my fault". Yet she'd never know if it was her fault, or maybe she doesn't orgasm through penetration, maybe she doesn't know herself well enough to help the guy she's with help her achieve orgasm. There are so many things, I feel, that are to be learned to have a really fun, enjoyable time together- but I don't think this sort of thing should be left only for the man. I think women are also responsible for their own sexual knowledge. I'm not saying C should go out and have sex. I'm saying C should read about safe sex practices, like wearing condoms, birth control (not available in China), spermicide, ect. Things that help her against disease and pregnancies. I'm saying C should know enough about her own body to know if something is going wrong in sex (first times hurt, but should they hurt that much? Is my hymen breaking? Am I bleeding too much?, ect.).

And I wonder about China, even with their one-child policy, how does a government inform its people on how to have safe sex? When you don't talk about it in school, when your parents don't want to talk about it, this leaves a huge gap where children, essentially, are left to experiment on their own. Without any guidelines, experimentation can be dangerous. Even if you were a virgin, and your partner were a virgin until you married, things can still go seriously wrong in sex, and it's uncomfortable to talk about.

So I wish it were more comfortable to talk about. I'm not talking about sharing your personal experiences (unless you and your partner are cool), but mentioning things like condoms, mentioning things like some people have what are called kinks, mentioning things like sex happens and you should learn about things that can make sex easier if you're having a difficult time (lube, for instance, or pillows for some easier access to places). Finding things on the internet is difficult. Who's giving good advice, and who's just trying to sell you something?

So I didn't mind explaining terms to C. Apparently I was really blunt. The teachers joked about Beijing trying to copy the "I <3 NY" shirt, with Beijing creating a shirt that says "I <3 BJ". And I had to explain what a "BJ" was. I think I explained it as simply as possible- "when a person puts a penis in their mouth."

C was disgusted.

But still curious.

So we ended up reading the book.

Not all of it, but It was interesting hearing the terms and explaining them "Ejaculation? Is that a disease?"

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Then we went to English corner. I try to come up with questions to ask the students (today, far too few foreigners went and we got swamped by Chinese students), and a bunch of girls were around me. It comes up that, as it does in Chinese, I am beautiful ("thank you" I always reply, even if I'm not so keen on believing it), and Do I Have a Boyfriend?

I answered honestly, which is "no."

But you know, I'm not going to let this opportunity slip by, because this could be a fun topic of conversation with an all-girl group. So I ask them the qualities they look for in a man. "Kind," was an option, as well as "tall" (sorry shorter guys), "polite", "friendly", "humorous". This was at least more interesting than "What kind of sports do you like", because many mentioned they're still too young to be involved with someone.

So then, students exhausted, I went to Will for some help. Partially to be annoying, partially to hear his response. "Will!"

"..Yes Eaaf?"

"Will, what do you look for in a boyfriend?" I asked, pausing. Then I added, "If you were a girl, that is." This caused the group he was with to laugh, but he looked thoughtful and replied.

"One who's not masochistic."

I laughed. I laughed so hard because I'd been explaining things like this and now I had to explain again. He didn't understand at first, but as soon as I laughed he understood well enough. "I'll leave it to you to explain," he retorted.

So I did. I explained (wrongly, at first, I missed sadism and masochism up but I fixed it), that sadists got sexually excited by making other people feel pain, and that masochists get sexually excited when they are in pain. Because Will brought it up, he was my example.

Then I explained why Will would be uncomfortable with a masochistic boyfriend if he had been a girl. Sadists and masochists are kind of an ideal situation- if they have each other. But that's not always the case, and you can't put people together just because one is the other- look at the class and the foreign teacher example I lived through on the first day of teaching.

I explained, we moved on to where the train station in Kaifeng was, and where to buy envelopes. I've not seen any since being in China. Granted, I'm still terrified of China Post and don't know when I'll write letters, but it's nice to know where things are.

Like socks.

I found out later, Will had meant to say "Chauvinistic". When I had laughed, he realized he'd said the wrong thing and there was nothing he could do after it left his mouth.

I cover for everybody, I guess.

Excuse Me Today I Had an Adventure

I’m trying to think of where to start today, with students texting me in the background. At least I’ve seen pretty, pretty dances.

Today started with a trip to the Yellow River. It’s kinda the lifeblood of China. So, we left at 8:30- everyone but Will, who wanted to stay home and work. The rest of us piled on the van to Zhengzhou, the biggest city close to us. (This is where our closest embassy is, for those who care).

An hour and a half later, we arrived at what I am going to call the Chinese Mount Rushmore.

Except you can climb the Chinese one.

And there are no rails. And limestone steps, and they aren’t regulated at all. So sometimes I was stepping steps that should have really been three. With no railing.

I don’t even know if I was terrified, disappointed, or kinda excited. I’m pretty sure I went “Well, that’s China, and I have to make it up this mountain” and the physical excursion took all of my mental capacities. Then I saw a woman climb this mountain… in heels.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU CHINA

(China snickers).

So we went to the top, and saw more sections of the park further away, and the yellow river.

Then, as I stood in exhaustion, we had to climb down. (At this point, it becomes relevant to note I had a bottle of water with me but didn’t want to drink it because I was trying to not use Chinese bathrooms. Every time I’ve used squat toilets it never ends well).

So we went down, which was scarier than going up as there was nothing to catch us.

Then we took golf carts to a restaurant. What kind?

This kind:

And here’s the meal we had:

And this is about the point I got heat exhaustion, because I was seated in the sun.

I asked to go home, knowing I didn’t have much water available and I wouldn’t be keen on drinking it, knowing we still had half a day ahead of us and if I didn’t get huge amounts soon I was going to turn into a very unintelligible mess. I suppose that’s the upside to having experienced heat exhaustion before?

So we head to the van, but we were done with this place anyway. I’m not sure if anyone Chinese believes I’m getting worse, because we head off to a place full of peacocks.

I suck it up and buy a water, knowing that if I’m not going home shade and water will be helpful. Ben (been there before) tried again to talk to people, and they agreed to let Ann and I go home on a bus if Ben would direct us. But it was obvious they thought we’d get lost and be unable to find our way back to campus, because in the van they came up to me and said it would be better if I stayed and went to the museum with everyone because the museum was air-conditioned, and they thought the bus ride would be too tiring.

I agreed, mainly because I didn’t want to fight with anybody at this point. At least the Van was air-conditioned, and I got to cool down. I also had finished a liter of water at this point. So we wandered through the museum, and I found some interesting things, though Ann and I wandered from the group and ourselves (I went to third floor first, and she went to second floor first). After an hour, though, I was exhausted again.

That meant there was a half-hour left to kill, so I went more visiting. I think I’m not big on museums or galleries. I can appreciate the things before me, but I like knowing what they were used for, any history that people have behind them, I like touching them and knowing what purpose they served. I don’t always get that in museums, and often there are a lot of repeats. Essentially, while I like museums, I get tired of them quite quickly. I’m amazed and impressed (think of all this archeology that has happened since the 1950s, as this stuff was all found after the Cultural Revolution), but there’s only so much amazement and impression that I can do in a day.

So at 4:30, our meeting time, we hopped outside where the teaching department took our picture, telling us it’d be on their website (I found out when I expressed my usual distaste at being in pictures) and I went, a-ha. That’s why the trip was funded by them, I guess, to entertain us but more importantly to show that they take care of us and we had fun.

And you know what? I did have fun.

Hey, remember that I’ve now been drinking water? When we got on the bus I thought to myself, “it’s okay, we’ll be home soon, so I can drink and then I can pee”.

Guess if we went straight home.

Your guess, it is correct. We stopped- for dinner. Where there was tea, and wine.

I finally used my first official (non-drug-testing) squat toilet in China. And….

AND IT WENT WELL! I DID NOT PEE DOWN MY LEG!!

This is great cause for celebration, I assure you.

Even if there was no toilet paper, this restroom actually had soap. So.

Then I had tasty, tasty sandwiches. By this time, Ann and I had traded physical states- I was feeling fine, and Ann was now exhausted and tired, which is kind of amusing, because this happened the last time we went into this chain of restaurant.

But she’s in bed and I am now watered up, so that’s all good.

WORMS ROXANNE! I'M AFRAID OF WORMS!

Today as I ate lunch, I found a worm in my rice. I don’t even know how it got there, but there it is. My appetite was gone afterwards, but at least I didn’t feel sick. What was more surprising was that while this wasn’t a good restaurant, it wasn’t like a stall or some place I had expected something like that.

I took a picture, so it will be placed on this post at some point.

:(

On the other hand, I thought I taught my 90 person class at 5, but it turns out I taught them at 3, so I was 15 minutes late. At least it was intro day, so no set-up was needed. :) 90 students isn't actually so bad.

Did I mention there were worms.

Because I think I'm coming off my initial shock, 5 hours later, and going straight into disgust.

I'll focus on something else: one girl asked me how I keep my skin so clear (I got lucky in genes, child, yaaay no acne), and eight others told me I was beautiful, and one said I looked like a Chinese movie star and one girl thought I was English. Not that being English makes me inherently beautiful, but it was a nice add-on.

On the upside, today I had a blackboard and it came ever-so-handy. I wrote my Chinese name, I wrote down Daisy's name, and I wrote down many characters.

But introductions for 90 people tire me out.

Worms.

Meeting the Freshman

I had class with my Freshman. Their English is…very poor. Very, very poor. So I’m requiring English Corner, and I try to get them to speak to each other, to introduce each other, and to speak to the class. Today was introductions, like the book was introductions, and so introductions worked really, really well. But I need to send them a syllabus because I’m quite sure not everyone understood what I said, even through I tried to be slow and clear, even more than yesterday.

That class will be much more slow than my other classes. It’s strange from people who can hold a decent conversation vs people who are only, essentially, first year students.

Today as I had Audio-Visual (class 2 of 4 for this subject) watch Northern Exposure, I wanted to know if they had any suggestions. I know it was a risky move, because it’s saying “I’m not sure how to run the class”, but the risk is weighed against the fact that I don’t know what these students best need, and I don’t want first pancakes, if you will. If something needs to be changed, I want to know it while I have time to change it. Essentially, as I see it, it’s a request so that I understand better what the students understand.

I got a really good suggestion I’ll use for out of class work, but I’m not going to post it here. Official nonsense and all that. That was the only one, from Jasmine, who didn’t tell me directly, but a very good idea indeed, and so I’ll implement that. That, plus, I want to make sure that this class is okay with printing out scripts monetary wise. Nobody said any differently, so.

As per usual, anyone who has a question is told to send me an e-mail or qq me (Chinese instant message) or text me. I’m here for them. Or at least, I try to be.

Which reminds me.

LA, my Chinese name is: 艾夏冰。

The first character is my family name, ai, and the second character, xia (fourth tone), means summer. The last character means winter, and is bing (first tone). So my given name is like “summer ice”, which is actually a medical poison.

It’s so coooooool.

WHOOPS

I don’t even know what to title this right now.

I’m sleepy, and flushed, which probably isn’t so good but I’m not sure why I have been flushed at night lately. I’m not sure what it is. But the important thing is, today I got a package! From home! So mail time is about 2 and a half weeks. And in the package, I received my most important item…..

Guess…..

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MY BLOOD PRESSURE CHECKER!

(The worst part is some of you will not have guessed that. Or anything close to it).

Yeah, when you’re normal BP is stroke-level BP, you kinda need one of those around. It is so beautiful. So beautiful, I could cry.

(When I went for the med check-up, my BP was a bit lower than normal, so I am still okay with having it shipped. With this I want to make sure my BP does not drop horrific, horrific levels when/if I loose weight. And I’m already loosing, so I need to keep track of my BP for that).

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Ah, today I finally taught one of my classes- the one that no one showed up to two weeks ago. It is about 50 students. So huge. So huge. Forgetting I am not a teacher in Law School (I can dream sweet dreams so long as I know they're dreams, right?), I assigned 74 pages of reading. In a foreign text.

Do I need to point out this was a mistake?

Then someone afterward pointed out this class might be a year long, not a semester long, and that they might have more time, and that that was unusually cruel, and I remembered I’m teaching what’s in the book anyway right now and I sent a text to the first person in the class I could reach to cancel it. Suddenly, when I tell people, they already know.

How fast is communication in China again?

I’ll talk more about the class tomorrow, and videos and pictures should also go up if they can. It might be 48 hours or so before that happens, too.

Tomorrow is freshman conversation. I’m going to give them an assignment of talking to cleverbot. They must write down the first five questions they ask and responses they get. And turn them into me. Also, they are required to go to English Corner once a week (English Corner is MTWTF, 20:30-21:30). I think these are fair assignments.

Chinese Update

Well, I feel like I should somehow say how I feel about my Chinese.

Since it's still coming along.

I know I have picked up some Chinese. I've learned words. Mainly things like "Hello", "thank you", "meat", "this", and "goodbye". I've also learned "waiter!". But these are not quite sentence structures.

I'm trying to learn words, but I guess what happens more frequently is since I'm a teacher, I can get away speaking English, and since I'm not studying Chinese, I can let a whole day pass without going to review my Chinese programs. It's frustrating, and mainly a whole level of frustrating that comes from being where I am.

I am learning. I had a student help me, and now she tutors me for learning Chinese, learning some phrases, learning some culture, learning some history. And I finally got a Chinese name. But. But.

I'm still not comfortable eating by myself with my limited Chinese- restaurants scare me if they don't have menus, if I don't know how to pay. Eating at stalls scares me when it's crowded dinner time and I don't know how to communicate.

What's really easy? Shopping at supermarkets. The problem is, their food is more expensive, and I have few places to cook food here. It is most sad.

So while I feel like I'm learning Chinese, I'm stuck between "useful" and "not at all useful", between "grammar" and "phrase", and I feel like I'm still not learning enough.

It'll come, but it's still a long way off.

In the meantime, please have a video (I know the ipod has crappy cutting) of Mrs. Wong, our gate-keepers wife, as she plays with a top.

The Sirens at 9:00 AM

Well, I’m sorry for the video of me talking to my parents, but as I was talking to them I forgot to grab a clip of the sirens. So there’s a clip of the sirens, and my parents. (I went with the tiny video where the sirens are louder and I'm not arguing with my parents over feeding Daisy people food).

Why are there sirens?

Why, because on Saturday, the Japanese invaded China. I’m not sure why the sirens go off, or when or where exactly it was, but that’s why they go off. They go off in the Henan Province, and this day, Sept. 18, they went of at 9:30 for 15 minutes, then 9:50, 10:00, 10:10, 10:20, and 10:30 every two minutes.

Candied Apple Stall and then Fun things

Today the exchange students started their classes. Ann went to sit on them, but I stayed in bed. One student is having issues with his visa. I'm just really glad I didn't have to do so.

We ate at the swing place again.

Remember what it looks like? Swings and Santa Claus?

Well, now I have a picture, taken with my iphone.

After we were done, we found a candy apple vendor, selling crabapples coated in caramel stuffs. Here’s a few movies of people and them.

Then we found the other teachers, and went back into the school via South Gate.

Which looks like this.

Mostly, today is a day full of very clear, clean weather and I am enjoying it very, very much. I’m going to talk a nice walk later, and enjoy the sun and the clear skies (instead of traditional 90% humidity, today is 67%). And sadly, this is the first nice day we’ve had in a very long while. Maybe the second since I’ve been here?

Afterward, I played some frisbee, which was a lot of fun. Then we had dinner at West Gate, mainly stall food, and I ate a dinner that more than filled me up for less than $3. I mean, I was stuffed. Fried chicken in a pita for $.78. Choose your own soup for $.63. Then bubble milk tea for $1.25.

Lunch was also about $1.25.

I enjoy the prices and good food- I think it might be because Kaifeng is so tiny, it can't afford to have bad food. If you have bad food no one will eat at your restaurant, and there aren't enough people in the city to survive on newcomers who have never been. So the size of the city helps the quality, and the monetary status of the city (poor) affects the price.

On the upside for me, it means I can save myself a lot of money.

Sorry

Sorry for not posting often.

I have some movies, but I'm trying to think on how to work them. Since I don't have much to say, other than night-time here is really cold, and how I wish my comforter did not smell like year-old urine, and how I'm hoping to wash it tomorrow, I'll just mention some techy stuff instead about the blog and less about China.

I really wish I had my camera cord. When I get it, I’ll update all the old blogs with pictures and videos that I have on my camera. Until then, I’m having to substitute my ipod for a camera. That’s not bad, but it isn’t the ideal situation, either. You'll see in the next few videos.

I’m realizing with all these videos that I’ll need a new place to put them, if I want my pictures to hold all of the room on the site, as blogger only allows me a few pictures. So I’m putting the videos in youtube for now. I want them to be as private as possible, so if something doesn’t load on this blog, please let me know.

Also, it takes forever to load videos. I dun know why. But it does.

Buses

Today I was undercharged for copies. I realized after the fact. Copies should realistically be cheap- a penny a side, but you know, I’m printing… well, 1300 sides and 640 sides, so…

A lot of sides. I’m going to get the class e-mails and have the kids print out their own scripts, I think. That’ll be easier on my wallet, and I’ll choose parts of the script to have and other parts to ignore so they don’t have to print the whole thing.

Because each time I print things, I feel like I kill a tree. And while waste is not a concern in China (did you see in the previous movie, my Sunday plastic falls through the opening at the bottom of the trash can?) (Well, not a major concern in Kaifeng, anyway), my good ol’ American guilt kicks in. At least I can perform well in this circumstance.

The water damage is… growing. Today it stopped raining, but my 25cm has grown into 37cm, and it’s taken over the wall. It’s visible outside, too. I’m not sure what is going to be done about it, if the leaves on the trees have been removed (apparently they were blocking the gutter). And now, it’s gotten the carpet damp. I already had black mold on my toilet, I don’t want more in my carpet. When it rains next, if the damage continues, I’ll ask Jackie if anyone has done anything about this leak.

The last iris is blooming while other flowers are dying in my bouquet. It’s so sad. I’ like to maybe buy one each week or something to have fresh flowers. They’re so pretty. And they liven up the room, they really do. I’m only sorry they have to…die. Maybe if I hang some upside down, they’ll dry out. Hmm. Hmm.

Went to the police station to get our foreigner’s thing, found out I have a “foreign expert’s certification” which means I don’t have to pay duty. Sweeeet. Sweet. The police station thing is essentially our permission to stay in China. For longer than three months. It acts like a visa, and is yet another thing to put into my passport.

Then we ate at McDonalds, and I was sleepy.

Today I want to talk about buses. Buses. Some people in the states know them. Some people in the states do not know of them. But buses are these box-like vehicles which have many people on them. In public buses, you also have poles and handles that run along the length of the bus for people to hold onto. In Japan, you’ll even have little circles hanging from the hooks to help the old ladies.

So in Japan, buses pay when you get off the bus (honesty policy, I dunno). If you’ve been on a while you have to pay more, and you get on in the middle and you exit through the front. There are bus drivers who are fit, and look like bellboys- usually male, and usually in uniform with white gloves. Truly, these buses are as close to on time as buses can be, and they follow the rules to a T. Like all public transport, they are well used and kept clean and tidy.

American buses- I don't ride them that often. They are not as tidy, you pay up front, and the drivers are usually seen as making ends meet, overweight (though not all are), and they supposedly drive aggressively. After being in Kaifeng, I can safely say nobody in the states drives aggressively. I promise.

Well, in China, buses…act like this video. They plow through anything, come up two centimeters from your bumper, march on through you- they are big, angry, and they know it. They take no prisoners in the vehicle world, and since semis allowed in the city are smaller ones, they are the King of the Rock, and they know it. Since they own the streets, gangs of buses sometimes drive by to make sure pedestrians don’t cross the streets, nobody U-trurns, and people on their bikes move in single file. They keep order. They don’t have time schedules- maybe officially, but the buses are such a well-kept group of thugs they can afford to have many buses so you aren’t kept waiting long. You pay up front for their “services” of course, which include: Standing room, sudden breaking to test your reflexes, calf workouts (again with the breaking), grip building (on the handles), flexibility (those seats are smaller than the economy class of any plane, and are made of hard, unforgiving plastic), ear training (can you hear the driver?), quick reflex training (get out get out get out get out get out noooo the doors why didn’t you move old lady), and mental map creation building. Like most things, these services are more effective during rush hour.

The drivers of these gang buses? The tinest, cutest young women (early twenties) you could ever find. Sometimes there’s a dude. Not often.

Not often at all.

Exciting Exciting Wednesday

This morning started with a nice ‘bout of sleeping in. I freaked myself out by thinking I might have class at 10, but I did not. Instead, as I returned to the bedroom, I found a huge water stain on my wall.

It was at most 25cm wide, and at least 12cm wide. As water, the points varied. Oh, yes, it was over an electrical socket. So I called Jackie about it, who had someone come over to look at it. It was determined that it was not a threat (really, guys, but I’ll admit I called you so I wouldn’t have to pay for this damage) and it was caused by poor gutters filled with leaves. They’d call the department to see what could be done, but you know what? Nothing’s changed. I don’t even have a fan to use to air it out. (not like I’d use that outlet right now). (Also, if I die after this post, you all know why now. If a fire starts, it’s sadly at a place where I’ll have difficulties leaving the room. Love you all).

And then, the comforter… it hasn’t been cleaned. I found it, but it has strange stains and it smells like urine, and the person who lived here before me liked to drink a lot, and now I have to wash this comforter. I’m waiting for a sunny day. We won’t have one for a while. And in fact, we haven’t had one for a while.

So there was that in the morning. Then, I had to print off things for my class, and I needed 64 copies of what I thought would be originally 12 pages, front and back. With the formatting, it turned into 20 pages, and the printer would only print on one side. I ended up spending far more than I thought I would, out of my own pocket, and I still have 64 more to go. Maybe next time I can ask the lady at the print shop to help me do front and back, but we didn’t understand each other and she had to grab a student to help translate. That’s always a good sign, you know, not being able to communicate.

However, I went by myself. And I bought it by myself, no group to fall back on. And I knew it would be expensive. I did. Not quite that expensive, but it is done.

I came back with… 1300 pages of paper. I came back with 1300 pages of paper, in the rain. The lady wanted to tie it up, but the stack was too big. Too big. I told her don’t worry about it and stuffed it into my briefcase bag. That bag is magic, Japan. Thank you.

I then went to class, and at the end we watched music videos. I had them ask me questions for about 25 minutes after we watched the movie, but no one really wanted to ask, and no one was comfortable talking. So I kept prompting for questions, and I told them to keep the scripts (in case more questions arise), and I was afraid that if we moved forward the same amount of time would be taken. It was not, but I didn’t know it at the time. So I cut the questions, seemingly dead short and made up for it with music videos. It was not the best choice, but I explained it was just for fun. “Weapon of Choice” was a big hit. (It is also not as horrific as it sounds, it’s a man dancing by himself in a hotel, and that’s all the video is). But still, as I’m supposed to be the teacher, I feel frustrated that I couldn’t have waited longer for them to ask questions. I didn’t know, but it was an err on the side of caution, better to have time left over than to run out of time. I’ll get this down one day. I will.

Then I came back, and I wanted to ask if anyone had a fan. I headed over to Adam’s room (Adam is a different teacher), and he and Ann were playing twenty questions, a game Ann is having her conversation class play. Then we hung out in Adam’s room.

Ann had invited a student to dinner, so Shou Ben and I and Ann went with the student to dinner. It was a long dinner, and the student did not catch a lot we said, but she tried her best. Afterward we went to English corner, where a few teachers showed up afterward (they’d been drinking previously). We introduced ourselves, left, met someone practicing the speech from “The King’s Speech”, another guy looking for an English partner, and finally we retreated to our dorms. Luckily one teacher has been given a key, so we’re no longer locked out at 10:00pm….if we’re with the teacher. They won’t give the rest of us keys, though.

So yeah. Kinda an eventful day.

I am sleep now.

M. F.- Moon Festival & Military Freshman

Here are some mooncakes. They often have different fillings. My favorite is pineapple, but I had the pistachio filling, some other filling, and sesame seed filling, the one in the picture. I’m not too thrilled with those.

I’m not sure of what else happens on the mid-autumn festival. Maybe tonight I’ll go out and look at the full moon.

There have also military training. Freshmen in blue and green cameo have overtaken the college. They’ll start in two weeks for classes, In the morning, at 7am, they yell and march. Sometimes we’ll get stuck as they go along marching!

I’m not sure why they do this, but that every college does it. And like all freshman, sometimes they’re really silly and act….unprofessionally.

Here’s a movie of students using the university flag (we made sure to see if it was the Chinese flag, but it was not) to knock off crabapples from the trees. So, go, freshman, proudly wave our university flag!

(I think only the real members of the military are allowed to handle the Chinese flag, and there are some, so I think it is two weeks of military service?)

Happy Teachers' Day

Yesterday, Saturday, was teacher appriciation day. I shall instead of update in my words, tell you what my students wrote to me:

“HAPPY TEACHERS’ DAY! LIZY!”

“Happy Teachers’Day! Jane~”

“Happy Teachers’ Day!:) Kathleen”

“Elizabeth, Happy Teachers’ Day! And Happy Mid-Autumn Day! ^0^ Melody”.

(Mid-Autumn festival is tomorrow.)

“Elisabeth, Happy Teachers’ Day! Enjoy your holiday! Island”

“hello,my dear teacher,I am Aaron,monitor of the class4,today is the Teacher’s Day in China,so please let me say “thank you for teaching us!” by representing class4.Happy Teacher’s Day!”

(Aaron seems to have missed the grammar point on apostrophes, but oh well).

“good afternoon Elisabeth!happy teachers’ day!our class are going to send you a bunch of flower,so where are you now?and is Will with you now?”

(It so happens Will and I share students. They had bought us flowers. He couldn’t find our apartments, so I ended up having to go fetch both my flowers and Will’s flowers from them. But they are very pretty, don’t you think?)

Friday Classes

Well, I have only a few classes, but today I had two back to back- because I’m the AV teacher, the students all come to my room. This means I have a home base room. And today, one of my classes came early, so I think I’ll play music videos for them when they come next week.

My questions for today were things like, “What is your opinion on gays and lesbians”, “What is your dream house?”, “Does William have a girlfriend” (I ratted William out), “Do you have a boyfriend”, “What do you think of Chinese boys”, “Would you like to get married”, and “Will you continue teaching?”

While it is far too early to decide whether or not I like teaching (now I’ve got to get serious lesson plans, and I’ve got to get worksheets done), I do like interacting with the students. They are fun and mostly inquisitive. There are some that are really shy, and some that are terrified of this TV show I’m showing them (but you know what, a scary TV show where nobody dies violently? On a family TV show? That’s pretty good, I think) but I can usually tell, and I give them permission not to watch if they are scared.

I have seen this episode so many times now. So many times. This is why I need to choose my movies carefully. Yay movies.

I share students with another teacher, William, so I got a warning on some of the questions.

Apparently today was teacher’s day. I had an e-mail from a student who is not on one of my name lists- perhaps she’s actually from the time I taught the wrong class. But I sent a reply, a thank-you.

...And when I woke up this morning, I had acquired 5 more. When do these people sleep?

Third Day of Class (Sex Education)

As I'm in room 414/413 and not my original 411, like I had written down, and on the schedule, I'm assuming tomorrow I'm also in this same location. The upside: This class manage to make me a list of names, I was asked questions like the physical difference of Japanese and Chinese people (there is little difference, I think). Apparently my other class told them that I sing, so one of the first questions was about singing a song. So this time I sang Greensleeves, much lower than my other song had been.

I want to point out, the door is never closed all the way. I close it mostly so that I can hear the class. So I'm probably singing in the hall. HEY OTHER TEACHERS HOPE YOU LIKE MY VOICE!

This class managed to understand more about the show than the previous class, which is good.

(I meet with 4 different sections of a class once a week. In a few weeks, I'll meet with 8 different classes for 2 hours, covering three topics total. Lots of repeat material).

Oh, and I got a question about how common it is to talk about sex in America, because a girl sees it on a TV show. I told her that there are two types of people: Conservative, and Liberal, and where she goes in America can determine how comfortable people are talking about sex. I said most people don't actually talk about it, and in polite and sophisticated society, sex is a taboo topic. But when people need ratings on tv (I made this point pretty explicit, saying it was more talked about on TV than in real life by a lot), or are in informal settings among friends and are probably more liberal (like in college), sex can show up as a topic. Personally, I'm not that uncomfortable with the topic of sex, but I know other people can be, and that's why it's a taboo topic. I finished with, if she's talking to someone and they bring up sex, tell them that you don't want to hear about it. They'll understand.

She apologized for asking such an embarrassing question, and I told her I wasn't embarrassed. It was actually a fun kind of question- talking about taboo topics, who they are taboo for, why they are taboo, and how to approach taboo topics and say "I'm uncomfortable". It wasn't talking about sex directly, either, which made it less awkward. It was more, "Are conversations really around that topic?"

So a good question. I have to also answer why I'm not a composer and why I just teach classes.

And why I'm not a singer.

I think I'd like to instead keep answering questions about taboo topics.

Second Day of Class

This week is full of introductions. I'm teaching currently 4 classes. In two weeks I'll add 4 more (one has been added together for a mega-ultra big class).

Well, as I got to my room, there was a lady who spoke Chinese, and only Chinese, but she helped me set up. I was a loss of what to do because the setup was one master computer and all the students then saw the master-computer. Three screens, a lot of confusion, but I think I understand how it works.

I managed to get everybody to speak where they were from, their names, their ages, and I told them to ask me a question. I was told a lot of questions, but someone requested me to sing. So I did. I should probably learn Greensleeves.

Then, I had them watch a TV show. There wouldn't be enough time for discussion, but next week I'll have a script and we'll talk about things in the TV show that might have been lost in translation.

The TV show in question was "Blink", one of the scarier episodes of Dr. Who. It's suitable for children, so I'm not concerned, but it is very suspenseful. The idea of the episode is that there are beings that send you through time. When anything living looks at them, they turn to stone. Even themselves. But when you aren't looking....

So you can't blink, or they'll send you through time.

There are some things that didn't quite make it through the heads of people, and they didn't want to ask questions, so I encouraged them, and explained about the angels. At the end, the angels are in deadlock- they're looking at each other, so the people are safe.

It's a very scary episode, but I feel this class went really well. I was called cute and beautiful twice each. But there are only two dudes in the class, so I'm sure it's just my huge eyes.

Then at the end, I forgot my cell phone. Yup.

But at least class went well this time.

I have a student named Page 11.

First Day of Class

On Tuesdays I have a class at 3pm (which will eventually change into 12:30pm, but hey, not now). It is in room 401 of the south building. So I tried to get into the room, but someone had to bring me the keys. And then when it was time for the class to be there...

There was no class.

So someone wandered in and spoke Chinese, and I didn't understand, but he went to go find the class I was supposed to teach. So these girls, the monitor and another girl, found me, made sure I had locked up, and took me to room 404 of the North building. I realized there was no map, no projector, and thought, this will be difficult to teach in, if I have to draw all the maps. Still, I did my best, and I filled those children's (young adults, really) full of the differences between Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales (poor Wales) and England (CONQUERER OF EVERYTHING), when someone asked me a question. "What was your college like?"

A strange question, especially because I had had them introduce themselves and if they had any questions, to ask me. And I quickly wondered, and kept tabs on, the fact that I was still in the wrong class. They continued to ask questions until it was break time, and when break hit, I found out: These students were second years, learning conversation. I looked over the book. I'd heard a teacher talk about the particular dialogue over being in Salt Lake City.

I was not sure if I was actually in the right classroom, still, because I didn't think they'd suddenly change my class from Juniors to Sophomores without telling me, let alone change the subject. So the next hour was spent improvising- I did dialogue, where I was one character and people took turns being the other. Then the class and I switched. Then I had them make up their own dialogue, where one was a student and one was a teacher. Finally, I had a group be the example group, and they of course, chose me "I am Eaaf. I am lost."

Oh, guys, you don't know how lost. When I was done, I met Ben, teacher who had been her before, and he took me downstairs. Turns out I had just covered for a teacher who didn't show up to their class, and my classes aren't starting right now as there are transfer students. He pointed out the transfer students, and said someone else's TA said that the transfer students arrive the 19th, like the Freshman. He'll tell the class I'm not their teacher, as he teaches them right after me.

What's really frustrating about this, is when I tried to call my TA she didn't respond, and when she did, she thought she had read the schedule wrong. She has no idea about the transfer students, and she had just assumed things had worked themselves out. I don't know how to best explain to her that no, this is not the case. She was completely right, but we just missed an important detail.

And I'm kinda upset that it got missed, and I'm kinda upset that I had to cover for someone (if I didn't, it'd be easy to say, okay, I'll figure out where it is when my TA gets back to me). I'll find out later how upset I should be at this, I'm just really thrown.

Restaurant Culture

So. There are three types of restaurants (on a sliding scale, so maybe more like three points of recognition to Chinese restaurants) in China.

The first is a stall. These restaurants are usually brought by some electric tricycle and set up complete with tables and stools to eat at during the evening. They range from Baozi (meat/filling wrapped in rice bun), steamed dumplings that are served about 5-10 in a tray, noodles, choose-your own soup, and other things, like pita bread or skewers of meat. Most of the Chinese, I think, eat here for two reasons. It is cheap, and it is convenient. Food is quick, right there, and you can sit down. You have to bring your own drink, but for a cheap meal, it's plenty filling and there's enough budget that you can afford to buy one somewhere else(or you brought one ahead of time).

It's fair to say that these aren't legitimate businesses. They don't deal in reciepts, and they probably don't pay taxes. If you aren't careful, you'll end up at a stall with a lesser reputation and you might find your stomach angry at you in the next morning. A safe way to eat would be to see if other people eat there. But like most things in China, as Tamir points out, you must have NO FEAR and eat there anyway. (NO FEAR includes things like crossing the street, trying new, strange food, and talking to people or buying things).

I have found these cheap stalls to be filling and tasty. At a choose your own soup, I can even get some vegetables!

Picture, if you will, a hole-in-the wall establishment that if you laid down, your body length would fit half the restaurant. Those are the low end of the second type of restaurant. Some of the higher end include private rooms, upper floors, and drinks! These establishments are well varied, but are everywhere (China has a lot of people to feed). They may have really big advertising, or they may have just a few ads for Cola outside the shop- these mystery restaurants show up everywhere. They're cleaner than stalls, at least, and the food comes quickly- at most 5 minutes. We timed it today. You have fast food if you ordered individual dishes, and you'll have at least a dish out if you ordered for a group of people. Individual dish options, though, are usually a sign that the restaurant is one of these restuarants second-type (not always, like if the restuarant specializes in Western food which is individual anyway).

These restaurants also have tasty food, but much more varied. In fact, one we visit has 178 menu options! What they do is they list rice dishes, noodle dishes, hot pot dishes, ect., and then they name the things in the dish. So instead of "Maggie's famous soup" they'll have "Potato, carrot, onion soup" next to "Potato, celery, and carrot soup". Often you can ask for something off the menu, so long as you see the ingredients somewhere! Well, at least for individual dishes.

The bigger ones are more Chinese traditional eating, and thus treated less like fast food (but all food in China is fast, I've found). You'll have a dish early, but the others will arrive like courses in a meal. You spin the dishes around so that everyone can have some of what you have ordered. (You can tell a "everyone" dish from an "individual" dish at these restaurants by the price. Individual dishes, at least in Kaifeng, have all been single digit Kuai (really, really cheap). Group dishes are in the double-digits, but the price really depends on where you go. Always go cheap, I think, because all the food here is delicious and once you've had cheap, good food, if you find food of the same quality but more expensive you'll think to yourself "NEVER AGAIN THIS MEAL WAS SO MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE!! BY ONE AMERICAN DOLLAR!" and then you'll feel bad but justified. You adjust to kuai pretty quickly.

And in traditional Chinese dining style, you shouldn't eat everything. The Chinese will think you were foolish and opted to be still hungry instead of understanding that you are full. At some higher-tier restaurants, the servers will tell you your choices are not nearly enough and then recommend other things to eat as well- they want you to be happy and not even your own stupidity is going to get in the way of them making you happy. If you're one of those people who will eat everything on their plate, you'd better order giant dishes for the group so you can at least rationalize "that's not mine to eat".

Needless to say, there is a lot of waste in China.

The third type of restaurant. Usually found near hotels, nice hotels, these are known because of two things: 1) they have expensive food and 2) your meal comes in courses. Most of the time I eat here because I've been told to visit or there has been a Very Important Meeting. Most of the time a business will call in and say "There is a meeting, we want duck" and then the restaurant takes care of what other things will go with the duck, all 20 dishes and 13 courses. I think I'm underestimating that amount, by the way. In super-nice places, you eat in a private room and even get your own bathroom and wait staff. Just waiting. In case you should need anything, like tea. Or ponies.

Nah, they just wait and refill your glass, take your plates and bring out new ones. And are more expensive than I would like to think about. I'm sure, here, I could afford it. But why eat nice when I can eat good food for cheap?

Music Times

Today worked on my syllabus which needs to be in (apparently) before we start teaching classes. Technically I have syllabi. Technically I should be freaking out over what things I am going to show my classes.

But that would be too easy. So I made very sketchy outlines, because I'll get the "official" form of what a syllabus looks like here, I will submit it, I will mention that people need to raise their hands, I will mention I received my information really late, I dunno. It'll get done tonight, as it's almost completed.

Today Ann stopped by and so we went walking and we found the music building. To understand what it was like, listen to one of Charles Ives's pieces. It went a lot like that, scrambles of music playing everywhere. We walked along the lake, turned back, found a slew of convenience stores and the cafeteria near the music school. The best part about the stores? They all sell bootleg cds and dvds. Their topics are all operas or classical music.

Still waiting to find the blue-ray disk that features Twilight and other classical horror films like Dracula and Frankenstein, but that'll come. The classical music was fun to search through.

The laundry

I was at dinner the other night, and one of the teachers who hadn’t been to China before stated, “You know the one thing I can’t get over? That you,” she pointed at me, “came all the way over here with just a carry on!” And everyone at the table looked at me.

I shrugged. “I guess I didn’t see I needed more than clothes,” I replied. “I did have a briefcase-“ This didn’t seem to be enough. I replied that I had checked the weather, I had space-saving bags, and I could get a lot of my supplies here or if in dire need, I could have them sent to myself from abroad. Someone pointed out that I get a free giant bag and I thought Well, yes, but I didn’t know it at the time and I would have brought such useless items. Books I don’t read, glass figures, things of that nature. Would I have take books, or would I have taken photos, or momentos? Actually, I would have taken a jean-blanket. But I’ll just have to buy a blanket here.

And I’m glad I didn’t take that much laundry. I do it about 2 times a week currently, because my machine is small and can’t take that many loads. I dislike having more clutter than possible, so every dirty piece of clothing makes it into the washing machine instantly (I just don’t turn it on with every piece of clothing). And while the machines, I think, are harsher on clothes than in the states, I can’t help but think that I have enough clothes.

I strongly think I have enough things here. Or at least, I brought enough things here. I needed a knife. Apartment came with one. I needed a bowl, and some more shampoo. I shopped. I needed a water bottle. Again, I shopped. Food? I ask for take out when I’m done eating. So in the end, I have managed to have enough food, enough supplies, and enough clothing to last me a while.

I don’t see that more clothes would have helped with my teaching jacket and wind/rain jacket. I don’t see that I needed to take more things. Maybe socks. Maybe. But still, I think I am okay for now.

Teaching/Medical adventures!

Teaching:

Two days ago I meet my TA, who was also informed yesterday that she was my TA. That went well. And I found out yesterday I am teaching yet another class; Freshman Listening.

Oh boy. Well, I have a schedule for all but Freshman Listening. Mondays I'm clear. Fridays I'm packed. They've consolidated two classes on Friday for a giant ultra mega class. Meep.

I start the 5th.

Nobody's talked to me about grading but the other teachers. I'm going to talk to my TA soon, I hope about it.

Oh boy.

Medical adventures:

Today for our registration we had to go get medical tests.

This was mainly: lining up.

No, seriously. Lines.

We waited in line to check-in, behind 15 people, only to find our photos weren't good enough, so we went to a brewery next door that happened to have photos. I decided for the day I would look as butch as possible, and I pulled it off really well, I think. I hope that photo ends up on my foreigner's card. I didn't even smile for fear of the femme.

We filled out our forms, got our photos, then went back in line. There were many people who didn't feel they had to wait in line, but we managed to power our way through our positions. There was a teacher whom this bothered.

Our jobs were to find the shortest lines. I got in line for one, but a Chinese doctor lady started saying things at me so I jumped out of line (waiting for someone else to translate, since I couldn't), and found the medical office. We had about 7 places to go; I had followed others into the blood pressure/hight/weight room. The lady doctor signed off on us and then we moved to x-ray. Some guy in a purple shirt attempted to cut me but the doctor was like "I don't have your paper, thus you weren't in line, you're in the wrong place". He left, angry, and I entered.

Even though I spoke no Chinese, most doctors spoke either broken enough English or just moved me to where they wanted me. I found the ECG lady earlier had said I could come in because I was a woman. I went later with other women-folk, and was ticklish. That's not fair at all, guys.

The worst line was the ultrasound, because they split you male-female only right before you entered, and you entered in small groups. You left individually.

The worst thing was the urine sample, because of.... Chinese toilets. I dislike squat toilets, and freeze whenever I need to use one. Also because I hadn't remembered to drink water. I was prepared, at least, and knew it wasn't as pretty as Japanese squat toilets, and I had tissues. One teacher had not known of lack of toilet paper/soap/towels in bathrooms (see: sink and toilet only), and so I gave her some of mine.

Then we had noodles.

But it was far too long for my tastes.

Also, needles.

And also also, I made Jackie get me a cell phone. I had to get the cheapest model I could, because I had just enough money for one.

First Day:

This morning I woke up at some hour that might have been five or six, I dunno. I figured I’d be waking up whenever. Considering I went to bed around one, I think that’s success. I think that’s what it’s called.

I saw Will out my window as I was investigating (last night I argued with my curiosity that I was in fact, too sleepy to do more exploring of my apartment), and figured the gate was open. I left and walked around the area, deciding to walk the length of the road in front of me. There was a park to my left and the road was actually quite busy. People were doing warm-ups and excersises and all sorts of things.

But the road didn’t go on forever, and so I went through the park on the return home.

Will knocked on my door as I decided to fall back asleep. Breakfast was with other students, at a muslim soup shop. Class. Lunch, noodles. Exploration. Cold.