Routines

It has been getting more difficult to come up with topics to write about. Things have been fairly routine with the average, ordinary, every day craziness. Like this:

Last Monday, I was up fairly early because I teach the first class so it was around 6 a.m. when I was on my computer, checking my email and all that when the power went out. I was only annoyed, not surprised, because this happens every now and then. Its not that there is a problem--there is no storm or problem with the state grid--it is just something they do once in a while. Usually it will be back on in a couple of hours or once, during the summer, they turned off the power at around 9 in the morning and it came back on around 3 in the afternoon. When I got to school, however, I learned that the power would be off until 10:00 that night (it was actually 10:30 when it came back on) throughout the entire city. So, I couldn't take a shower and I couldn't entertain myself with my computer but it really didn't get too annoying until the sun set...which was at around 5:00. The people here take it all in stride, which makes laugh when I think about how Americans would react if someone said, "Oh, by the way, the city will be without power today, guys."

I did buy my plane ticket home last week. It has been very difficult to make plans because, of course, "the school didn't make a decision" about when the term would end or when the students would have winter classes, which I thought I would be teaching. Ricky informed me, however, that because Spring Festival, which is the Chinese New Year, would be earlier than usual, classes would end at the end of December and the winter classes wouldn't start until around mid February. To be on the safe side, I assumed that classes would be in session the last week of December that runs into the first week of January so I booked my flight home the following weekend. The flight is direct and leaves Beijing at 7:00 pm on Friday the 9th and actually arrives at Dulles at 7:20 pm on the 9th because of the time difference AND it will be less travel time as a direct flight because the plane flies north over the artic rather than south toward LA, which I did when I flew out.

I had a student break down in tears when I told her class I was leaving. They work the students very hard here. Their day starts around 7 and they will study late into the night. They took a test recently and I could see the anxiety, and afterward the disappointment. In the conversations I've had with some of my students that is all that is drilled into them: study, study, study. When a student told me she wanted to visit Japan and be a writer after school, I was encouraging her goals and she said to me that if she told her other teachers they would tell her to stop dreaming and study. Another student wrote me a letter in which she was saying what a failure she was because she couldn't stick to her goal to stay up until midnight to study every night.

It has been very cold out and today has been the coldest yet. There was snow and ice outside this morning, which I was pleased to see but it did make walking to school a little perilous. It is hard to get an accurate weather forecast or temperature because Anshan is the closest place that I can find online with weather reports but I'm pretty sure we are in the low teens at night and low to mid twenties during the day. Of course, it feels much, much colder with the wind factor...and it is very windy here very often. One weather report I saw said it felt like four degrees with the wind chill. After walking to school this morning I would have to say "at most!" At least the heat is on in my apartment now.

Miscellaneous Part 4 (Average, Ordinary, Everyday Craziness)

China is a country in the throes of development. Here in Taian, things are just getting going and it gives me many occasions to laugh. Trevor and I went to a place near the apartment complex to get something to eat. There was nothing extraordinary about this place—not too fancy, not the biggest dump here—just your average restaurant. Like many of the restaurants here, dining is done in a private room but unlike in some places where we go with a big group that give us our own room, this place has booths with a curtain. As we are talking, I look around the booth and notice how dirty the walls are. Fifty or so years of grubby hands and God knows what else smeared all over it. The second thing I notice is how ugly the lamp on the wall is. The third thing I notice is that the curtain for the booth is similar to the car seat-covers I have seen: pink, lacy, embroidered with flowers. It is such a mish-mash, juxtaposed collection that is so China!

I mentioned in a post shortly after I arrived that I had a solar heater for hot water. When I returned from Greece, I found that the pipes (or something) were broken because I would send the water up to the heater but it wouldn’t hold it; the water leaked down the walls and onto the floor in my bathroom. I called my go-to guy for issues with my apartment and he came and took a look. I got no assessment of what was wrong or when it would be fixed so after a couple weeks went by I inquired again. This time, he brought the owner of the apartment and they both looked around; again, no assessment, no information about fixing it. Yesterday, I found out that the owner has decided that the problem (whatever it might be) would be too expensive to fix so I must go without hot running water (though I still have the electric heater for my shower). I had never learned this before but apparently, hot water doesn’t exist here—its not considered a necessity—so unless a person has a solar heater or an electric heater, boiling water is the only option.

I’m also waiting for the heat to be turned on in my apartment. It has been getting colder here, often dipping below freezing at night but the heat in buildings is not controlled by thermostats in rooms. Heat is all state controlled. My heat was supposed to come on the day before yesterday but it has yet to be turned up. So for now, whenever I’m home, I’m usually wearing my sweats under my robe, some thick socks and my slippers, and I sit at my computer curled under a blanket. This way, the only part of me that is cold is the hand on the mouse.

The heat is not on at the school, either. This is not really a problem in the classrooms because they place them all on the side of the building that gets sun in the afternoon and there are 60 or more bodies to keep the room warm. My office, on the other hand, is not populated nor on the sunny side of the building so it was freezing. It didn’t really bother me too much because I didn’t spend too much time there and I figured I would just have to wait till they turned the heat on because the radiator was right next to my desk but they had other ideas. On Thursday, they had me move all my stuff, and they moved all the furniture to the fifth floor so the office would be on the other side of the building. I have to say, I’m not really thrilled about having an office on the fifth floor!

Over the summer, my assistant got married. I, unfortunately, missed the ceremony because the people I was riding with to get there got lost but like in America, it is popular to have a film of the wedding made and I borrowed the DVD so I could see it. It was very shocking, but perhaps unsurprisingly so. The first part was Ricky and Janet at the park before their wedding day, running through the field, him pushing her on the swing, that sort of stuff. The next section showed pictures taken at a studio where they would dress up in different outfits and be put in different scenes like dressed as private-school children at a subway station or dressed like they were going to Hawaii on a boat. The day of the wedding had some interesting rituals. They greeted each other’s families like we have a receiving line but they gave and lit a cigarette for each person. Perhaps the most shocking thing, however, was during the ceremony, Ricky’s cell phone rang (he had it in his pocket) and he answered it!! It is true that there is no cell phone etiquette here but I couldn’t believe he paused in his own wedding to answer the phone! (Actually, I think it was us telling him we were lost.)

There are three parts to the following video. The first is a refreshing hint of culture. Every night during the summer, some musicians would play at the park entrance and women would come with fans (some in traditional outfits) and do a dance-like walk. I think it was mostly for exercise. Trevor called it the senior citizens dance club. The second part of the film is a shot of the restaurant I described above. I had to go back with my camera so you can see what I’m talking about! The third part took place earlier this week. Whenever someone of importance dies, there is this really depressing music playing. It will play all day. Then, at night, we get an even more depressing song. I only caught a little bit of it but you’ll understand. Lucky us, someone of importance dies once every two or three weeks.