Do What? (June 18th)

It was a drizzly kind of morning when Erin, Tom, and I went outside to get a taxi to school. Erin’s final was today, Tom needed to get a haircut, and I had to do some paperwork. I called Allison to ask her where she was around 10:30 since she knew I would be in around 8. She told me she was “too busy” and she would be at the office around 1:30. Erin was to get her finals as soon as they were finished (she wasn’t allowed to proctor them) but the lady who had them locked them in her office when she went to lunch and to have a rest. Here’s something I’m not sure if I’ve told you or not, but the Chinese take 2.5 to 3 hour lunch breaks and they still work 8-5. How does that work?!?! They would never make it in the States. So, we had an early lunch while waiting for her finals which didn’t arrive until nearly 12.

We spent the afternoon and early evening grading like crazy people! I helped her grade a lot of them. I was good with the true/false, multiple choice, matching, and even tackled the fill in the blank while I left the short answer and essay questions for her. I also entered the grades on her computer. It was a team effort and I’m sure at 11:00 p.m. she would still be grading if I hadn’t helped her. We left the office close to 7:00 loaded down with the things we asked our students to go out and buy for souvenirs for our family/friends. I still have things to find, but I’m holding out for Beijing.

Sometime throughout the grading frenzy, Allison came to talk to me about this one student, Tom, whom I had seen maybe three times the entire time I’ve been here. She said that he is failing the course. You think?!?! You really think that he’s going to pass when he hasn’t been there? I think not! So, she says something to me about him brining in the work from practice week so that he has a chance at passing. I immediately say no. I have no problems helping students who actually attempt to try! So then I tell her that if he wants to do the work, he has to come to the office with a laptop and do the work in front of me because I know if he shows up with a flash drive, he would just have gotten it from someone and he wouldn’t have done anything. That is not how this is going to work. I told her he wouldn’t show up. So, she has a student call Tom and he says no, he’s not going to come in. Apparently, Allison went and told Gary because she came back to the office saying, “I have good news”. Here I am thinking that I don’t have to go in tomorrow. Nope, she said that Tom has decided that he will come in now because Gary called him and talked to him. I am so not happy about this. Allison also told me that she changed some of the grades on participation to help the student grades. The grades were not bad at all. Then she proceeds to tell me that we don’t have a bell curve. Well, maybe if you wouldn’t change the grades, we might have more of a distribution! I cannot stand the way the Chinese do things!

I almost forgot to mention that I had a message my QQ when I got home. It was from Allison. She asked me to make a supplementary exam. I thought I had already completed that. She tells me it is for Corporate Finance and the guy who was here before me. I flat out told her “No, I will not make a test for Corporate Finance”. I proceeded to tell her that I didn’t feel comfortable with that because I have no idea what they did and did not cover. She told me that she understood. Good thing because this girl is not going to make one!

I swear, I am not going into that office on Wednesday on my own free will. The only way I will get there is if they come and personally pick me up and take me back to the apartment at the end of the day. They don’t understand that it is not convenient to just go into school. I have to get a taxi, carry my ridiculously heavy bag since I have to take a computer with me, and then walk to the office only to turn around and walk back to get the bus to come home.

Dinner tonight seemed to take forever. Maybe it was because we were so hungry and Jackie was so busy making food for the security guards or something. There was a guy who walked up and ordered and then came and sat with Erin and me. Jackie asked if he was our friend because he knew English. Nope, this guy is not our friend. We find out he is doing business in Jinhua and has lived in China for 6 years but he’s from Greece and his family is still in Greece. It was quite odd. Erin told Jackie she was leaving tomorrow and I told him that I would still see him for a few more days (before I head out to either Hangzhou or Beijing).

Back at the apartments, Tom wants to weigh his bags one more time. I swear he has weighed his suitcases more than anyone I know! I could swear he said the last time he weighed them the heaviest was 33 pounds. When Erin went to help him she said the bag was 58 pounds! He’s got to figure out how to take some of that weight out or else he will be paying some more money! Apparently when he was weighing his bags he put them on the scale rather than weighing himself and then him and the bag. He gave me the rest of the water from his water tank – I know I’ll have plenty to get me through! Tom and I exchanged emails since he is heading out at 8:30 tomorrow morning. He is getting to ride to Shanghai by private car for his flight back to Canada tomorrow afternoon. Erin is heading out tomorrow afternoon to head to Shanghai by train to spend the night before her flight out on Wednesday. It’s going to be lonely around here for the next couple days! 

Winding Down (June 17th)

I woke up this morning to Phillip Phillip’s song, “Home”. I’ve been able to download some music on QQ (the Chinese version of instant messenger). I haven’t listened to that song in days. Maybe I’m just singing it because Erin and Tom are leaving in a few days to go back home. I have less than two weeks and I hope that it is going to fly by!

It’s the final coffee Sunday for us. It was raining just slightly this morning on the walk there. Two coffees (Erin and Tom) and two egg sandwiches (Erin and me) were ordered for our table. We were the only ones in there at first. There were three couples each with a daughter who staggered in after we did. The men sat outside to smoke while the ladies and children stayed inside. Those women could talk … and when I say talk, I should say yell! They were so loud! I had taken my Kindle with me so that I could download some more books while we were there, so I used the Internet to get on Google translate to be able to tell the staff at Amy’s that we appreciated their outstanding service. They smiled and said thank you. Erin asked for a coffee mug for Tom and they gave him one as well. Later, our waitress came out with another mug so I took that one. We thought it was so nice that they gave us all a mug. The owner then brought over his business card for each of us. His name is Eric and now we have his email address and we plan to send him some pictures of us enjoying our Amy’s Coffee. Maybe I should wait to go back home to send him a picture of his mug in Pennsylvania!

We were still sitting at Amy’s when I saw this guy walking towards the front door and I thought it looked like Jackie. Surely, our friend Jackie wouldn’t be at Amy’s! Sure enough, he walked in and looked over at our table and came and said hi to us. He was meeting his friend there for coffee. When we left and were standing outside, we looked up to the second floor and saw him, so we said bye to him.

The afternoon was spent again doing nothing exciting! I am actually quite bored. I looked at some of the pictures from our student group pictures and tried to name all 96 of them. I think I only screwed up or didn’t remember 6-8 of them, so that was really good! It’s not like I can remember someone because of their hair color – they all have the same hair color! There are fewer boys, so I can remember all of them. It’s the girls who sit in the back of the classrooms that gave me trouble when it came time to remembering their names!

Dinner tonight was the noodle place. We wanted to continue the picture frenzy yet again. Hey, we want to make sure that we don’t forget anything. No lie, we have a list. The only thing left on that list is to get a good picture of a split pants baby and maybe the park area close to the mall. I might venture there on my own after Tom and Erin leave. I’m sure I can find my way, it’s just a couple of turns and it’s fairly close to here.

Oh, back to dinner. Goodness, I can get on a tangent sometimes. There were no unoccupied tables when we had arrived at the noodle place, so we stood and waited for a moment while we ordered our food. The lady motioned for us to sit with this one guy who looked as though he might be finishing up his meal. When Erin and Tom went to sit down, the dude just got up and left out of there! He looked like he was in a hurry! I guess we may have scared him off. Oh well – the woman told us to sit there. We asked to take a picture of the lady and she didn’t want to until we walked outside to take a picture of the front of the store when she came out and jumped into the picture. She was so nice!

I was able to Skype with my Dad since it is Father’s Day. Skype is amazing! I was actually able to see the whole family. Funny how it’s nearly 9 p.m. and it’s just 9 a.m. there. I know I’ve been here for 5 weeks and it still seems crazy to me. I don’t however walk around and say, “I’m in CHINA!” as much as I used to. I guess you could say I’m finally into the groove of things here – just as the time is winding down.

I went down to Erin’s tonight to hang out and drink the adult beverages so I can take the cans home to Shawn and Ryan. Apparently Shawn is super excited about his Chinese Budweiser can with “Year of the Dragon” on it and he’s been telling quite a few people. A dear friend’s husband wanted a can as well. So, I had two Budweisers that we just calling our names. I did tell them that there would not be beer in the cans – I don’t want to have to worry about them exploding or claiming them at customs or anything else by bringing the beer home. I figure the can will just have to do. I am going to try to protect them for the flight. I took a tissue box, cut it around the middle to make one side slide into the other side to give the cans a protective little box. Hopefully they arrive home without looking too disheveled.

Tomorrow is the last day that I am going to have to go into the school. I apparently have to sign off on the grades and write a little comment about the final results and what I tested them on. Who knows, really! I guess I will find out tomorrow when I go into the office! 

A Beautiful Restaurant (June 16th)

It’s Saturday and the last Saturday that the three of us will be together for coffee at Amy’s. Still on our picture happiness from yesterday, we continued with our frenzy this morning at coffee. The cook, who we’ve hardly ever seen before came out for a picture, he was the most cooperative of all of the folks at Amy’s. Erin went to buy a mug and the owner gave it to her. How nice!

I spent the afternoon playing games on www.pogo.com. I really have nothing else to do so it’s nice to just be lazy for awhile. I was working on my personal challenge badges (for those of you that know what I’m talking about – just FYI, that Lost Temple Poker getting to the Bonus Temple 50 times takes a LONG time)!

Erin has been spending the last several days cleaning her apartment and packing. It’s amazing how much stuff she has here since she’s been here for 11 and a half months. Gosh – I don’t think I could make it that long here!

We went to a new restaurant to celebrate Erin’s birthday. It was a traditional Chinese place and well, let’s just say nothing looked appetizing to me except the rice (which was different than the white sticky rice). This rice must have been more like fried rice with a sauce, green onions, and shrimp. I ate that and a sticky rice roll. The restaurant though was awesome. The inside made you feel like you were outside. We were seated on the left side of the restaurant that made it feel like we were in our own little bungalow. The center of the restaurant had a “river” with several bridges and there was a gazebo type structure for one table. Take the table out of there, and I could totally see a wedding happening in this place. There was a small wagon wheel in there and many green plants. When we left the restaurant, we asked one of the girls at the door if she could call us a taxi. We meant for her to use the phone, she went outside and stood by the road and found one for us.

When we came back to our apartments, Erin and I stopped in to see Kareem and Jeannie. They are getting ready to move to Beijing since Kareem found a job there this past week. They have posters up all over the walls and lots of stuff in their apartment as well. My place looks like a hotel room compared to everyone else’s apartments. I’m not complaining, I’m not here for long so I didn’t bring anything to make it feel like home. I spent the rest of the evening finishing a book called Betting on Hope before I called it a night. 

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (June 15th)

Today was a long day! It began when Erin and I left the apartment at 7:15 (that’s early for both of us)! This morning it was “picture day” with all 96 of our students! We took pictures on our walk to the basketball court, the location for the student pictures. We had made a sheet the night before of which groupings of people we wanted in each picture and even how many to put in each row. We felt like professionals! We invited all the assistants and Gary as well to our pictures. I think Gary was really excited that we had invited him. The pictures took about 35 minutes or so to complete. Erin and I could go into arranging people for pictures … I wouldn’t say photography because we’re not that professional. The students were very cooperative and did not complain about the pictures. In fact, I think they may have liked them, especially when I set up the camera on a trash can which was on top of a chair to take some self-timer pictures. They were even more amazed when my snazzy camera took 4 pictures in a row on the self-timer.

Next on the agenda was my final. The students were in three classrooms and we brought in two other assistants, Kelly and Tina, to help proctor the exam. The students had a time limit of 80 minutes to finish and the last person had used about 70 minutes. Again, I was taking pictures of the classrooms, outside, some students testing, etc.

I took all the tests to the office and started the daunting task of grading all of them. I thought it would go quickly because they had an answer sheet and I didn’t have to flip through all the tests. Actually, it was quite nice to have that answer sheet. The first test I graded was a 97% and I thought, we’re off to a great start! Overall, the students did remarkably well.

Erin was working on grading writing assignments all day but we took a break for lunch and went much earlier than we normally go for lunch. They had our favorite meat at lunchtime today! We were so excited! This meat is the most like “Chinese” food that we have in the States. I’m telling you folks, those Chinese restaurants at home are nothing like real Chinese food! We took some pictures of the cafeteria and the one chef we see every day.

Back at the office, we took pictures of us working, our office, the “Replacement Forthcoming” sign that used to occupy the place of my picture, and other random pictures! We stayed at the office until 5:30 – 6:00. I was completely finished and Erin finished grading the writing assignments – her final isn’t until Monday.

Our first stop upon leaving the office was back to the cafeteria to get a picture of the woman who smiles at us and takes our money. She would get our food if we ate lunch after 1:00 since the student workers would be gone at that time. I think she thought it was funny that we wanted to have a picture of her. Erin and I were all over some pictures of everything at school. It really is what we spend most of our time doing. This lady was an important part of our day. We noticed that they have our favorite meat again and decide to get some food to take home for dinner. I felt like a bag lady with all this stuff – I had my camera bag, heavy computer bag, my dinner, and my camera out and ready for anything and everything! We walked to the East Gate (not our usual gate) to get some other pictures of campus before heading to the bus stop to take the K37 back to the apartment.

We spent nearly a half hour at the apartment eating our dinner before we wanted to head out to Wal*Mart. Yep, Wal*Mart! Tom had asked us if we would pick him up some underwear while we were out. I guess he got concerned when I said pink g-strings and he decided to go out on our adventure with us! We had to take a taxi but the first driver didn’t understand Wal*Mart so we called Kelly to ask how to say it to the next driver. We were on our way across the river to the other side of town. This is by no means our typical stores – there is no parking lot for one thing and it’s underground. You have to take the stairs or escalators down to the store. Inside was much like the grocery store near the apartment. The employees had shirts that said WalMart and then something in Chinese below them. I saw some GreatValue products which seemed crazy! There were the typical departments as there are at home. It was neat to see a store in China!

As we were going up the escalators to leave the store, there was a girl, I’d guess at least 16 months wearing a cute little orange and white outfit which of course had split pants. Outside the entrance to the store, the girl just squatted and peed right on the sidewalk! Erin and I were flabbergasted because we’ve seen the split pants, but we’ve never seen any of the babies or toddlers actually doing anything. Apparently, this isn’t anything unusual. Squatting anywhere is acceptable. Heck, I saw a taxi driver peeing along the wall that we walk by every time we go for to the noodle place or to Amy’s Coffee. How gross!

We were back at the apartments again, this time about 8:30. I ate my watermelon I got at the store which was so good while Erin ate her ice cream she’s been trying to find for weeks! I suggested we go see our friend Jackie to get his picture and the picture of the “Chicken Place with a Pig Logo” since we were taking so many pictures today. His little helpers weren’t there with him tonight, so he was busy and couldn’t talk that much. At this point, Erin and I are exhausted but continue to wait until he’s not busy so we can cross these pictures off our list. I think Jackie wanted to look at all my pictures, but we told him that we had to go and I’d go visit him again before I leave so he can look at the pictures. His “brother” took pictures of the three of us but Jackie was not that happy with them. He thinks he looks black in the pictures. I tell ya, these folks are so concerned with being white that it’s crazy!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but there’s no way I can write that much. We seriously took so many pictures today, but this has been our life for Erin’s nearly a year and my five weeks. We want to capture as much as we could for people at home to truly feel like they’ve been able to understand our surroundings.

Thinking of One of my Angels (June 14th)

It’s Flag Day in the States which means it would have also been my Grammy J’s birthday. Today, she would have been 94. It’s hard to believe that this year will mark the 23^rd year that we’ve not had her here with us but as our angel watching over us.

I haven’t seen many Chinese flags flying like we proudly display our American flags. I suppose it makes us seem a little more proud and patriotic. I don’t know, it’s just an observation.

Today in class, I showed students five additional things about Excel that I thought they should know about. After that, I showed them more about me and what I like to do and also exciting places close to us. They do not know anything about cupcakes which nearly broke my heart. I would make them some if I had supplies and an oven! I figured that if these students are planning to go to Kaplan, I would try to make it sound like an exciting place. Actually, we live in an area that has many things close to us – I really like the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, D.C. is of course something for someone to see, Gettysburg, Hershey, and New York City isn’t too far away. I tried to tell them about Chinatown in NYC and they thought it was funny with the purses and movies. They buy those movies here too. Erin has a collection of them!

I left campus very soon after the end of class. I don’t have anything to prepare, my grade sheet is waiting for their final grades, and I thought I might be able to start back to the apartment before it got sweltering hot. I’m not so sure it’s sweltering, but it’s the hottest I’ve been for quite some time. Just to give you an idea of how hot I am, I literally have sweat dropping from my head. It falls right onto my shirt and I sometimes feel like I’ve put my clothes on while I was still wet. It’s disgusting but it is what it is. For the past two days I’ve worn my “dress” Capri pants. At this point, I don’t care if it looks good or not, I’m just trying to survive!

I am really enjoying that there is air conditioning in my apartment. Thank goodness!! I was playing games online while lying in the bed and fell asleep. This nap thing is becoming a daily occurrence. This was another nearly two hour nap and it felt amazing! I think I could get the hang of this nap idea. The Chinese folks have a nearly two and a half hour lunch break because they eat and then rest. I think they, along with some European countries, might be onto something. I guess the key to the nap in the mid afternoon is that you still get something accomplished in the evening hours – that’s not the case for me.

We, the three amigos, went for dinner. Erin and Tom opted for the place beside the noodle place (let’s call that the BBQ place) while I went next door and got my order to go. Now, I normally eat about half of my meal and have the other half for leftovers the next day. I was so hungry tonight at dinner that I ate an entire serving! Erin had oysters and green beans while Tom had wings. They both really enjoy the wings and say they are delicious. I’ll take their word for it – I’m sticking to bone-free chicken at the noodle place.

I stayed awake until nearly 2 am because I was hoping to see a precious little boy named Waylon on Skype. Sometime after 1, sis got online and I was able to see my little buddy. He looked so happy to “see” me. I think he might be confused as to why I’m in the computer, but he was just smiling!

It's a Small World (June 13th)

I only had one class today and we played Jeopardy since the other class played it yesterday. Today’s class was not as energetic and did not get as competitive with grabbing the water bottle. Still, there were funny moments. We had a boyfriend/girlfriend face off with Vicky and Erik which was interesting. We also had a girl who just came out of nowhere grabbing that bottle. Her name is Kate and she seems more like a tomboy. She doesn’t wear “girly” clothes like the others and I don’t think she’s ever worn shoes other than her sneaker-type shoes.

After class, I had to print out more copies of the final exam for the college to keep for whatever reason. We never really understand why they do things the way they do – things seem very inefficient and unnecessary to us, but I just do what they ask. I only complained about the Practice Week thing, nothing else really bothered me. I think because my assistant is wonderful and tries to explain things but she doesn’t even know why sometimes.

I went for lunch on campus and actually got something a little different. I have no idea where my carrots have been lately, but there is nothing orange on display. I decided to go with my second favorite, potatoes (like fresh cut fries but more flat) and added some green beans of course with my rice. The green beans were not the best, but it was something a little different. Also, my rice just didn’t seem good today either – what I wouldn’t do to have some salt every now and again. I don’t salt hardly anything at home, but the rice can be just plain boring and tasteless sometimes.

I reluctantly decided to start the walk to the west gate to get on the bus. It’s so very hot and humid here that I’m sweating just 3 minutes into my 12 or so minute walk. So, I walk slowly … very slowly to the gate trying to stay in the shade. I think my L.L. Bean Messenger bag with my computer probably weighs as much as I’ve lost since February (28 pounds) but I’m sure it’s probably less than that. I better have lost at least five pounds while I’ve been here!! I’ve been sweating like a crazy person and climbing stairs like a champ some days.

Once back in the apartment, I lay in the relaxing air conditioning and get so comfortable that I fall asleep but not before hearing what sounded like an ice cream truck playing “It’s a Small World”. Of course there were no words, but I can recognize that song anywhere! It really is a small world, folks. Who would have thought I’d come to China and be working with a girl who I taught her sister! Back to the nap – I slept for two hours! I usually only nap when I’m not feeling well. I feel ok but I think the heat is taking a toll on me and also there have been days where I know I’ve not had enough water.

Around 7, I asked Tom if he wanted to go see our new friend Jackie. He said he’d already eaten but he’d walk along with me. As I was outside my apartment waiting for him, I looked out to the street and there was Erin! What crazy timing! She decided she would come and meet us at Jackie’s place. Tom and I arrived at the place and Jackie wasn’t there, it was the two younger guys who seemed as though they were training several days ago. I ordered my chicken and then Tom decided he would take some chicken and fries as well. While the three of us were sitting there, up pulls this odd looking truck with boxes in the back. It was Jackie driving like a crazy person doing a sudden stop. He had ice cream to fill up his cooler (there are a lot of ice cream coolers all over town and campus). He said the ladies that work at the computer place (beside the chicken place and across the street) love the ice cream. He came to say hello to us and he met Tom but he had to leave to go back home or something, so no pictures tonight. I promise I’ll make sure to get a picture of the pig sign at the place that serves chicken and of our friend Jackie.

Oh My Word (June 12th)

Before today’s post, I have written 21,369 words in this blog. I’m currently on the bottom of page 36 in my Word document using a size 12 font (Maiandra GD – my favorite). I can hardly believe I’ve written that much! When I just checked the views on the blog and I’m currently at 1014. Wow! All I can say is THANK YOU for keeping up with me. This blog has been multipurposeful (is that a word because spell check doesn’t like it??) in that I can keep a journal of what I have experienced while in China and you all can see what I’ve gotten into as well. I know some parts are not as exciting probably for you, but that’s ok – just skip those parts! Come back in a few days and see what else has happened.

Today was a Jeopardy day in my only class of the day. When I made it to the classroom three minutes before the start of class, Allison was standing outside with no students! They didn’t know they had class today! Allison called Sharon who is like the “in charge” person of this group of students. Sharon must have QQ’d (instant messaged) or texted, or whatever to get the students rounded up and on their way to class. Amazingly, all but 2 students showed up within 25 minutes. Those other two never showed – not much of a surprise! I learned the last time that we played Jeopardy that it wasn’t easy to judge who said my name the first to “ring in” to answer the question. This time, I took an empty water bottle and put some coins in it just to shake things up a little and had one member from each time come up to be the first to grab the bottle. This was quite hysterical to watch! I think the girls were more competitive than the boys. I had two girls nearly fighting over the bottle on two separate occasions (just so I remember - Tracey and Sharon the first time and Angelina and I can’t remember who). Allison had an idea to take points away if they grabbed the bottle too soon. That cost Team 1 the game as they only lost by 200 points but lost 400 from early grabs!

I stayed at the office for a little while just tidying things up since the countdown is on for my finishing up at school. I slightly branched out with lunch today – I got potatoes and green beans! Hahaha – not really that adventurous!

Since my sleep has been so messed up, I ended up taking a nap around 4ish. I had woken up close to 6 and shortly after had a knock at the door. I knew Erin wasn’t here so I was hoping it was Tom – it was! He wanted to go for dinner, so we went to the infamous noodle place and got our usual partly because we have no idea what anything else is and she knows us so well. I’m going to have to take the camera to get her picture and the hole in the wall to the kitchen area. I’m all over some pictures before I leave this place. What a once-in-a-lifetime experience this has been!