Wander Life

Conversations

I went to the track and field to watch the students practicing for the sports meet - marching, mostly. It's only about a 50-foot walk from my door to the track, but by the time I got there, I had quite the little following. Mostly, students just say, "Hello," and then burst into fits of giggling and either run away or hide behind their friends. This went on for a while, but eventually, some built up their courage and beganning trying other phrases (the usuals). Our conversations went something like this:

Them: "Hello."

Me: "Hello. How are you?" (I know the textbook conversation that they are made to memorize, so I try to play my part to encourage them that what they studied does actually make some sense, even though it's pretty formal and stiff).

Them: "Fine, thanks. And you?"

Me: "I'm fine, too. Thanks." (Sometimes I'll say, "Good," and give the thumbs up...just to mix it up).

Then another student will want to try, and maybe we'll switch parts:

Them: "Hello. How are you?"

Me: "Fine, thanks. And you?"

Them: "I'm fine, too."

Then they'll get even bolder and try something like "How old are you?" or "Are you a teacher?" "What is your favorite color?" "How do you feel?" "I am a student." "It is hardly hot." "Are you cold?"

Of course, the biggest question on everyone's mind was, "Where are you from?" I had heard them consulting each other, practicing what to say and the like, and the word "Canadian" was constantly peppered throughout. Finally one boy decided to give it a try and stepped forward and said, "Where from you?" I figured that was close enough. My reply of "America" was quite a thrill for them. They all turned to each other and repeated, "America." "America." More kids came running up (by this time there was a crowd of about 25), and the new ones would, apparently, ask in Tibetan where I was from because their classmates would quickly tell them "American." (In Chinese, there's a different word for "American," but in Tibetan, they just use the word "American." Same for "Canadian.")

So, that was the thrill of the afternoon for them.

My apartment

I hope your night is going well. It's morning for me (and the annual spring sports meet is charging full steam outside - it's similar to the one we had in Changchun: some marching, some sports events, dancing, blaring music...but they don't have the teachers participate, so I just watched some yesterday and might catch some more today). Anyway, I guess it's time for a update, so I'll try to fill you in on the last couple of days:

I'm still getting settled, but it's certainly beginning to feel more like home. I've been exploring the apartment, and I must say that I like this Dave fellow (the guy whom I replaced). Amongst the things he left behind: a half of a bag of chocolate chips (which I immediately scarfed), two packets of Quaker Oats instant oatmeal (also scarfed), a box of mac and cheese, a half a bag of taco seasoning and cinnamon! He also left a bunch of supplies like a stapler, dictionary and hammer. And there's a bike in my storage room that belongs to the Organization and is for my use. As you can see, I'm pretty well set.

The apartment is cold (blasted concrete buildings!), but other than that, it's really pretty nice (plus, I have plenty of warm clothes and blankets and even a space heater, so I'm plenty warm at night). My toilet has some plumbing problems, but hey, at least I have one. And there's even a shower with a water heater (though the water supply is hit and miss). It's one of those European/Asian style bathrooms - nothing seperates the toilet from the shower: everything in the bathroom gets wet...basically, you're taking a shower with your toilet. But like I said, there's a water heater, and on those freezing mornings, that's all that matters. I'd take a shower with the tv if it meant staying warm.

I definitely have plenty of room: a bathroom, which I described (shower and toilet, no sink); a kitchen (sink, propane stove, microwave and washing machine [naturally] - no oven); a storage room (fridge, bike and some teaching resources); a bedroom (with a double-size bed, space heater, desk, cabinets, night stand and lamp); a hallway; and a living room (which is something not even my apartment in Changchun had - although the kitchen was much bigger and had a toaster oven), which has several chairs, a water dispenser, a couch, coffee table and tv (there is one English channel - CCTV 9, which is China news).

I'm still in the process of moving in, like I said. It seems that I should have had a lot of time to do it, but at the same time, I feel like I've been keeping plenty busy. The altitude never did have too much of an effect on me - I just get winded easier (which I really discovered last night while riding a bike...but more on that later). So, I've been able to be up and around for several days now.

32 hours later

Well, it's just about 10pm here, so I've officially been here for about 32 hours...and I could probably write just as many pages, too!  But, seeing as how I've been awake since 3am, I think I better cut to the chase.

Ok, so Tuesday, I woke up at 12:45am, so I had plenty of time to be ready to leave at 5:30am.  A taxi picked me up and dropped me off at the Beijing airport, which was no problem for me to navigate around in because the ticket agents know enough English (though I was all ready to say, "I'm going to Lhasa," in Chinese.  Figures).  It took about 2 and half hours to fly to Chengdu; we had to get out there and wait for an hour in the airport.  Then an hour and a half later, we arrived in Lhasa.  A Chinese teacher from the school picked me up (she had a sign - they always use middle names because they get the information off the passport).  It's not like it was hard to pick me out, though - there were only a couple other foreigners on the plane. 

The airport was totally out in the boonies.  We drove an hour to get to the school, and it wasn't the liviest of roads.  There were absolutely no turn offs, no intersections - just straight, through farm land, along the  river.  Suddenly, we were at D Middle School.  It seemed that it, too, was in the middle of nowhere because there was nothing between that and the airport.  But, I've learned that if you just go a few minutes further past the school, you get to a small town, which has some restaurants and shops.  And if you keep going about a half hour by bus, you get to the city of Lhasa, which I did this afternoon.  More on that later...

I'm actually starting to fade pretty fast now, so I'll have to write more tomorrow, I guess. I slept right away when I got in yesterday.  Then Rose (the other people at this school from the Organization are an Indonesian couple named Rose and T - they're about 50) woke me up for dinner.  There's a Chinese restaurant here on the campus.  Then I came back and slept till about 3am.  I layed in bed till about 8:30 or 9am, and then I couldn't take it anymore.  I had a tiny headache yesterday, and all my movements felt a little slower, but I really haven't had any real problems with the altitude, so that's awesome.

Anyway, I better go before I fall asleep.

Tibet, here I come

I just got back from lunch - success!  I ordered my three favorite dishes, and it was as good as I remembered.  I finally got my basi xiangjou (carmalized bananas), and just like before, I couldn't wait long enough and burned my mouth.  Some things never change.  : )  I have enough left over for at least 3 more people, though - it's hard work trying to eat without my team here.  It does make miss the ol' gang.  Good times. 

Anyway, yes, my flight is tomorrow at 7:30am.  I'm excited...and nervous.  At least with Beijing, I'd been here before and knew what to expect.  Tibet is a whole new world.  I've been reading the Tibetan guide book, though, so that helps.  Ready or not, here I go, huh?

venturing out

So, as your day is beginning, mine is coming to a close, though my jetlagged body doesn't really know if it's day or night, anyway.  Yesterday, after I wrote you all, I ventured back out to wander the streets and find a bank to change money, which I did with total success.  Armed with my phrase book, I was totally ready to say, "Can I change money?" in Chinese, but as soon as I stepped up, the lady said, in plain English, "Do you want to change for RMB?"  To answer "yes" in Chinese, I decided, would only seem pompous, so I just nodded.  Oh well.  Not to be outdone, though, I elected to go to a restaurant and try my hand at ordering in Chinese.  I refreshed my memory on how to say my favorite dishes (gou bao rou - breaded pork with a sweet glaze; chan mi fan - fried rice; and baxia shang jou - carmalized breaded bananas) and chose just some little hole in the wall place (just like the places I used to eat at).  I attempted my first dish - no dice.  I tried another - nothing.  I thought, "Oh well, I must be messing up the tones."  So, I gave in and just pointed at the Chinese characters (I have a menu with it written out that the Organization provides - the same one I had three years ago).  The waitress looked at it and was still baffled.  She began prattling away, very nicely, and pointing the restaurant's menu (which was written strictly in Chinese characters - not even any pinying, which is the Chinese word spelled out using our alphabet).  I was able to make out a few words and got that just that they didn't have such dishes.  I just wanted to ask, "Ok, what do you have?" but I didn't know how, so I decided to try one more - sweet and sour chicken.  When I ordered it, she went into some explaination but then I caught her asking "chicken or pork" at the end, and I blurted, "Pork!" in Chinese - I was just excited that they did, in fact, have some dish available.  I then ordered the fried rice - no problem there.  I also made out that they didn't have bananas but had apples, but I opted out.  "I'll wait for my baxia shang jou, thanks" is what I wanted to say, but instead I just smiled and sheepishly said, "Don't want.  Thanks."  Point conveyed, anyway.  : )  I hadn't really known what I ordered, but when it came, it was good, so that's all that matters.  And I'm pretty sure it wasn't dog meat...  : )

The funny thing is that after that ordeal, I was reading some literature that the Center has about local places, and apparently the restaurant that I went to was a "hot pot" restaurant.  That's why they didnt' have any of the dishes I wanted - it's the kind of place that you order a plate of raw meat and they bring a pot full of boiling water to your table and you cook the meat yourself.  The girl probably just took pity on me and asked the cook to make me something that wasn't on the menu, seeing as how I was totally clueless.  You gotta love that Chinese graciousness!  It was a ton of food, too.  I ate it again for lunch today and still have two meals worth left - and it only cost me 20 RMB (with just over 8 RMB to the dollar - I exchanged $50 and got 410 RMB and some change).

 

Anyway, after my late lunch, I came back, e-mailed a little, began to read (I've just started "Owen Meany," which the movie "Simon Birch" was made after) and promptly fell asleep about 4pm.  I woke up at 8pm and kept myself awake, reading and journalling and staring into space until about 12:15am.  I was only able to sleep 4 more hours, so from 4:15am to 10am, I read and thought of some ideas for my first lesson plan.  Then I had breakfast (more frozen waffles) and got ready and e-mailed and read pretty much all day.  I wanted to sleep again about 4pm, but instead, I went outside and walked around, forcing myself to stay awake until at least 8pm.  It's now 8:30pm, so mission accomplished.  I'm not even so terribly tired anymore, though my head is a bit groggy.

 

Amongst the sights I saw today: I dog on top of a roof (looked kind of like Daisy) and two super skidderish cats, slinking about the coy pond out front here.  Did I mention that yesterday, I saw a tiny toddler pulling a kitten around on a leash?  I also saw a girl walking around with a chihuaha, which was wearing a jacket - reminded me of a Chinese version of Paris Hilton.  Also, text messaging on cell phones is all the rage here, at least in the cities, I guess.

P.S. The picture is of the dog on the roof - the view is from my window.  I don't know how he got up there, but he's not up there now, anyway.

First pictures

I am now able to send pictures!  I haven't taken any super ones because I've only walked around the neighbor for about an hour this morning.  Nonetheless, I can document my first venture for you with visuals.  My day began with me waking up at 5:45am, not bad considering I had slept from 5pm to 9:45pm the previous night (when I got up at 9:45pm, I took a shower and read, then went fell asleep about 1am).  I layed in bed until 7am - it was too nice and warm under the covers to get up.  Then I ate breakfast (there were some waffles in the freezer) and got ready.  I e-mailed for a bit, but then two girls came and wanted to use the internet and, seeing as how I stole the ethernet cable from the center's computer, I gave it back and decided to venture outside.  There's no one "hosting" me or anything like that (the hospitality cooridinator picked me up and is here if I need anything, but as far as hanging out, I'm on my own), so I'm kind of a lone ranger this weekend.

So, anyway, the pictures:  one is a view from my window of the Center's garden.  It's pretty, and there's even some fish in the pond.  The weather here is really nice - I started my walk with a light sweatshirt on and had it off in about 10 minutes - it's pretty warm and sunny, so the garden will be a nice place to read if I want to be outside.  Then I walked around and saw 1)  a shrine of some sort, 2) a vendor selling turtles on the sidewalk and 3) many fruit vendors like this one.  I think I will walk to the bank soon so I can exchange some money, and then maybe I'll try to recall my ordering skills and get some lunch at a restaurant nearby.   

So, that's the skinny so far.  I guess it's late Friday night for you guys, huh?  Well, sleep well, and I'll talk to ya later.

made it!

Hey, hey. Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I made it. The flights went well - 3 hours to Chicago, waited 3 hours, then 14 hours non-stop to Beijing. Bags made it fine, breezed through customs, and an elic person was waiting for me at the airport.  We just got in to the Center, and I'm squared away in my room. I'll try not to sleep until at least 8 or 9, just so I can try to get used to the time difference. Until then, I think I'll just take a shower and hang around here. The girl who picked me up offered to go out to dinner with me, so that might be nice just to get out in the city a little. Don't want to go too crazy my first night, though. : )

Anyway, I haven't tried my laptop, yet. They don't have wireless here, but I should be able to plug it in - right now I just wanted to jump on this one while I had the chance - I told you I'd let you know I made it just as soon as I could. Not bad, eh? : )