Hard Chairs (May 16th)

This morning, Erin went with me to get a taxi and told them where I needed to go and then she went back to her apartment. It was my first time out by myself. She did however give me her cell phone to call someone in case I didn’t end up where I should have been. Everything worked out fine – thank goodness!

I had one class at 8 am today and that was it! The rest of the day, and I mean the REST of the day, I spent in the office. Here’s the reason I call this post “Hard Chairs”. Our office is not a typical college campus office. We have to bring our own computers but have a printer that I FINALLY got to work today for my computer, there are three smaller sized wooden desks (not those big long desks with lots of room), a window, and two other chairs for “guests” to sit in. The chairs in our office for our desks are so incredibly hard. They are not those nice plush rolling chairs with arms. Nope, this is a small wooden chair.

I sat in that chair for hours determining what to teach these students. I could have gone back to the apartment but I was afraid my Internet still would not work and the unsecured wireless network I was using the previous night wouldn’t work either. So, I stayed at the office. I stayed until 5:45ish. I only had one class today from 8 – 9:20. I think these chairs are going to help have a flat behind. Seriously. These are the most uncomfortable chairs and I have the same thing at the apartment. To be positive about the situation, I’m thankful I have a chair and not a stool like the computer lab.

At some point throughout my long day on that chair, a girl came into the office and told me that she needed to use my Internet. Erin looked at me and said, “Do you know her?” I for sure don’t know her if Erin doesn’t. So, Erin proceeds to tell the girl that my Internet doesn’t work. She offers her phone to this girl who needs an address. In the meanwhile, I pull the Ethernet cord out of my computer so it really does make it look like my Internet doesn’t work. It was quite funny that she thought she could just come into our office and tell me that she needed to use my computer.

I had lunch and dinner at school. Lunch was rice and carrots, they were out of potatoes. Dinner consisted of rice, sweet and sour pork (or some meat), and potatoes. By no means am I a master of chopsticks, but I am doing pretty well for a beginner. I seriously have to go into “tourist mode” and take pictures of everything. There is quite the selection of food in the cafeteria. Most of it is unidentifiable to me, so I stick with what I know. If you haven’t already noticed – we eat rice at every meal! White rice – not brown, wild, flavored, or buttered – white sticky rice is what we eat.

After dinner, I ventured back “home” on my own. I took the bus, the K26, and counted the turns. Three turns and the first stop after, I was off the bus. Thank goodness I had that information because that stop didn’t seem too familiar and I probably wouldn’t have gotten off. From the bus stop it’s a 5 or so minute walk to the apartment. There was no way I was going to sit in that chair once I got there, so I laid on my now not-so-concrete bed and drifted off to sleep in no time. I was tired. Erin came to check on me when she got home and then I went right back to sleep once she went to her place.

Here’s what I’ve learned about the these Chinese: they are loud, incredibly loud when they talk, they love their cell phones and use them ALL the time, they drive crazy, they stare at tall blonde Americans, the women love to wear heels, they don’t drink when they eat, they are pushy, they are usually “busy”, they eat a lot of rice, males have odd hairstyles, and they wear the same clothes for two or more days sometimes.