Chengdu Week 6 - End of the Week

When to cross the street?

Jesse and Corey

Yummy food

Calligraphy

Bad Weather has begun

Oct. 9, 2014

    Today was a fairly hectic day. First thing was going to class as per usual, again this lesson was easy. I also received my exam back. I got an 83.5 on the exam and an A in the overall semester. I have been nervous considering how I dropped back into the language, but I feel much more confident about my ability to really get things done. Lunch was an interesting affair, Andrew (Chinese name: Tong) took a group of us to get some food at Sichuan alley. It was big group and we got carried away with the conversation and suddenly it was 15 minutes until our history class. So a bunch of us rushed off back to the University.
    History class is becoming mildly frustrating, everyday I try and give opinions and ideas, but there is such a severe language barrier between us and the teacher. On a more fun note, I am beginning to see the PRC curriculum coming through, which is glorious. Our professor straight out said the monster that a philosopher (I think Mencius) was referring to was Capitalism, it was pure magic. Many of the quotes she translates for us are very PRC approved. It’s interesting the history I am getting here, it gives me perspective for what I have learned back in the States. After class Xiao laoshi asked me some questions about a novel she was reading, it turned out to be a James Bond novel. I explained the passages, and then she tells me something fantastic, she also works as a translator and she was translating the James Bond book into Chinese. So I just helped with the translation of James Bond into Chinese. I didn’t have too much time to enjoy the thought though because I had to run and get to my job interview.
    The bus ride there was fairly painless, and the interview even more so. Everyone seems friendly enough and apparently I am starting this Saturday. We’ll see how I like having to teach more little children English. This is more of an English lesson than a the tutoring sessions I have with Cindy, but I will have more report on Saturday after the my first lesson. Going home was a bit interesting, I had my first proper feel of Chinese buses. I was shoved in the bus all the way to the door, with no way to move. The bus did eventually empty out but then I second guessed myself and managed to miss my stop. So I had to walk back from a further stop, but overall I survived. Dinner was quick, just out with Jessie and Corey, to a place that specifically caters to the Muslim population, so no pork!! Excellent food, that was followed up by calligraphy homework. Overall, a busy but fruitful day.

Oct.10, 2014

    Today began quietly, though the air quality is particularly bad right now. There is this grey mist that hangs over everything making it difficult to figure out if it’s warm or cold. On this particular Friday I went out to the student cafeteria for food, and enjoyed a 2.5 yuan meal of egg bread and spicy potatoes. Then it was off to meet Cindy for a short little meet-up, this is last irregular session before we go back to our once a week schedule. We mostly walked around while I was bit by little gnats, which quickly swelled up and then just as easily went away. I was kinda of glad that our session was so short, less time to get bitten. Then at Family Mart, I found Chiyi (She was the woman with us when Cassidy had kidney stones) who had been studying. Quickly we made some lunch plans, and gathered a few people from the dorms. Lunch was Mao Cai, or boiled vegetables with rice, which is an amazing few here, for 5.3 yuan (typically 8-12 yuan outside of campus).
    After lunch, I had calligraphy. Calligraphy is such an easy but stimulating class. The professor is obviously passionate not only about her art but about China in general. She goes around for every character and tells us what’s good and what’s bad. Even if your characters are really terrible she doesn’t really judge you for it, instead she just helps you write it better and gives out tips to improve. As you may have guessed, my artistic ability is fairly low but it doesn’t matter the class is fun. Class ended and Cassidy and I started in on a girl night. we haven’t had a whole lot of time to hang out together without a group of people so tonight was to be our night.
    This was truly a girl night creepy face masks and all. We chatted, caught up with one another while walking around the track and did some homework. It’s so nice to have a friend here that I connect with like that, it eases some of the tension of dealing with new situations. We were laughing to hard at the end of the night we were disturbing people. It was good fun for the both of us and now hopefully we will have a day set aside once a month to catch up even when things get really hectic. Tomorrow is my first day teaching at the proper school, so we will see how it goes.


Oct. 11, 2014

    Well the morning began with me getting ready to go with Cindy for our regular tutoring session. The only problem was the weather has turned foul here, cold and wet. I don’t mind it but it is not very conducive for our outside sessions. So her mom took us to a large department store, Ito Yokado (Japanese brand). On the food court level, it was still earl and the weather was generally keeping people away froth sores which allowed Cindy and I to have a normal lesson. For a form of a game we took pictures with my camera, I was her model so she told me how to place myself, it was a good exercise in vocabulary. We also met Sam, an english teacher from West Africa.  He was very nice and together he and I managed to keep Cindy fairly entertained. Sure enough two hours passed very quickly.
    Lunch was picked by Cindy, though by the time we got there she was ready for a nap. This meant a full blown tantrum in the restaurant (please remember she is only four). It was a little bit awkward for me because I wanted to help but all I could do was sit there and let her mother deal with it. Cindy did eventually calm down enough to eat, and then we were finally on our way back to the dorms. At home the first thing I did was finish up my homework only to find that one particular section I needed so help with. I don’t know what it is but translating long paragraphs is rough for me. So I contacted Chiyi and she offered to come help me later that night.
    I attempted a nap after I found out that I wouldn’t be starting teaching until Tuesday, but ultimately ended up hanging out with Dee and her friend Angela instead of sleeping. Angela is from Nigeria (I think, but I am not 100% positive), she was doing Dee’s hair. I am very excited because I talked to her about my hair and we are going to attempt something, but first we need to order a few things. I am super excited. Angela was interesting because she was full of stories and life, I enjoyed talking with her. Corey made stir-fry for dinner which was rather tasty, and convenient because I didn’t feel like leaving the dorm.
    Then Chiyi and Lin (sometimes they are a package deal) came into my room to help with my homework. I was able to finish it and I was rather pleased with myself that the half of paragraph I had translated was generally right. We finished the translation and then we talked for a long time about life and things. It was fun and I did lot’s of different hairstyles on Chiyi, which I think she liked if the pictures she kept taking were anything to go by. Then it was down to Corey’s room for some Game of Thrones watching, just something to do to end the night. Overall a pretty typical Saturday.

Cindy's picture of me

Ramen anyone?