Today I woke up tired, and when I say woke up I mean at 2 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. This is actually a fairly normal sleeping pattern for me, which is good as it means I am really comfortable in my new space, and terrible because coffee is incredibly expensive here. Back in the homeland I would drink copious amounts of coffee to keep myself alert for the day. (I am aware of the health risks in doing this, but I have to survive my twenties somehow) So today due to my inability to become alive I decided I would have a cup of coffee from the convenience store. I went, got my coffee, my order was understood perfectly. I sat down to drink before class and the lid popped off in my hands spilling steaming coffee onto my legs. I have never been burned by coffee before but let me tell you I was glad I wore jeans today. It hurt so bad, I screamed and my pants of course kept the heat in so it was a perpetual cycle of pain. I managed to get back up to the 11th floor (classes are on the 2nd) and get my pants off. I had to go straight back to class because we always have a quiz first thing. I took the quiz, did the oral homework and bailed (the longest 10 minutes of my life). I sat for an hour in my room with a cold compress on the burns.
After an hour my leg no longer throbbed with pain so I went back down to finish class. It worked out well I hadn’t missed much, so I finished out class without too much fuss. I now have a mild limp, which should go away fairly quickly all in all the jeans really protected my leg. After class I went to speak with Wentao about them moving my second bed out of my room, again. We’ve been in Chengdu for three weeks and they haven’t done it yet, so I kept bugging Wentao to have them move it out. I then asked her if we could move it into the hall and make them deal with it. She said that they wouldn’t be happy about it but they would have to deal with it, and there was no way they could move it back into my room. So I made a plan that after dinner and a movie I would do so. This is actually a pretty common situation, it’s a difference in culture, as long as he staff can’t see the problem then there isn’t one. Wentao also had burn cream in the storage room, so I now have medicine to put on my coffee injury.
Dinner and a movie was fun, went to see Expendables 3 which was such a prefect ode to American ideals of Masculinity. Us Americans, were laughing often but the Chinese people really didn’t, I suspect some of the humor was lost in translation. After the movie we got back to the dorm and rounded up everyone with the door open. Together, we move my very broken extra bed into the hallway. Hopefully it will be dealt with by morning. To be honest I felt like a delinquent moving it out into the common space. Oh well, it’s finally out of my room and I have space!! I actually have a really large room. That was my adventurous Tuesday, hopefully tomorrow will be calmer.
Sept. 17, 2014
Mostly communicated with my Dad via Skype and Facebook this morning. Wednesdays are nice because they give me time to do my homework and get my laundry done. Lunch was very quick and then it was off to Chinese history. We are finally getting out of very very ancient China and into the Spring and Autumn period. Next class is super exciting for me. We will be discussing Chinese philosophy, a personal enjoyment of mine. It should be interesting to see what the Professor has to say on the subject as she is a part of the culture instead of an outside observer. I then chatted with Wentao for a little bit about life and head back up to my dorm room. I ended up having a good chat with Leah and Myeisha, who were on the Beijing trip. It was nice and kinda good to get to talk to other people. Everyone has really interesting stories about life and what lead them to China. I am happy I have such an eclectic group of people that I am spending the year with. It was then study and homework time and since my room is newly cleared out we all piled into my room. I am happy today was a quiet one, especially after yesterday. Coming up in the week there will the mandatory orientation on Friday for the University (even though we’ve been here for nearly a month) and a trip to a museum that has artifacts dating back to 2000 BCE. I am very much looking forward to venturing outside of Chengdu.
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| Look at all the space!! |
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| Messy study desk |
Did the powers that be reabsorb the extra bed?
ReplyDeleteThat cup was probably made in China.
Skype is pretty amazing. Free video calls to China for hours on end? Holy Mao Wow!
They have in fact moved the bed out of the common space. The cup was in fact made in China, as all things are here. :D
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