Home Sweet Home

Welcome. Come on in. Let me give you a little tour...

It's daytime in our timeline - just after noon, I think. But because I often get things like this done late at night, these pictures would have you believe that it's night time.

First stop:

The place that I live in is officially named 烛光小区, or “The Candle Neighborhood.” This little plot of land is owned by the university. Its homes are given out to teachers, some retired teachers, and their families.

Mr. Kou pulled his car right up in front of my new home. It's kinda hard to see because it's dark. You couldn't see anything in the original picture, but I used some computer magic so that you can at least see it. Please excuse the fuzziness:



The second set of windows on the right is a part of my house. Just take a couple steps forward and turn right. And please ignore those spooky white spots on the picture. I'm blaming them on bad image quality and trying hard not to think about how the Ghost Hunters of America might tell me that those fuzzy white things are ghosts.

Erm..

So turn right.



Yep. That's the entranceway that I was talking about. That light that you see there? At night, it turns on when I walk in and stomp my feet. It's sound activated. Pretty neat, I think. Turn left.

Unlock and open the door.



When you go in, the first room that you see is my living room.



Yes. The first thing you see is my living room. But the first thing you notice - or, at least, the first thing I noticed - are the concrete floors.

"What happened?" I asked.
"The last teacher messed up the carpet, so we decided to throw it out."
"Oh... I see."

Yeah. So you see. Concrete floors.

Here's another shot of the living room from a different angle:



Yes. The map of China is crooked.
Yes. According to that map, Taiwan is part of China.
And yes. Those are Pringles potato chips on my coffee table. One tastes like black pepper steak. The other tastes like tomatoes.
And those couches? The covers are removable. I washed them before using them... It's very weird. Imagine my phone call to my parents that day:

"Uh... yeah. Give me a sec. I need to go take the couches out of the laundry machine."

Concrete floors aside, my apartment is HUGE for one person. In addition to the living room, I have two bedrooms, an office, a dining room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Here's the main bedroom (aka my bedroom... aka the messiest room... aka please excuse the unmade bed):



I've attached some hooks onto the wall. And yes. Those are my monkey pajamas on my bed.

Opposite the bed, there's a little closet. I got it about two weeks in... after I had grown tired of living out of my suitcase. I bought the display closet from a nearby supermarket and built the closet with my bare hands.



It's... a closet. You can open it up and put things in it.. and stuff like that.

Yeah.

The curtain on the wall covers the windows to my balcony. I'm on the first floor... so I'm not sure if it's actually a balcony - but it's like a balcony. It's more of a sunroom. Since there aren't really any dryers available in China (not that I know of, at least), most people dry their clothes in the sun. See the clothes that I put for display?



In this particular room, I have a neat pulley system set up. You twist the handle, and one of the hanger things come down into reach. You twist again, and it rises up into the air so that I can reach the other hangers. Neat, eh?




The second bedroom smells kinda musty. There's a closet in it... but I bought a new closet just to avoid going into this moldy-smelling room. Here, you can actually see how hard the mattresses are. There's a picture of Chairman Mao on the inside of that door - I forgot to take a picture of it, unfortunately. I might get to it another time.

For the most part, though, I keep the door to this second bedroom closed. It scares me a little, you see. Because... look at that fuzzy white dot there. Yeah.



*shivers*

Let's get out of that room, yeah? Out of it. Shut the door. And enter my office.



That's my bike. It's blue like my car. I like my bike a lot. You can see the yellow helmet in the basket. There are two desks, a very old desktop, and a book case to the right. I do a lot of my prep work for class in here.

Head back out. Through the living room.
OH! Stop at the door.

I have two main doors. One opens inwards. The other opens outwards... and a little collection of locks and combinations ensures that no thieves can get inside. There's also a chance that I could lock myself outside AND INSIDE the house. You see the combination-looking thing? To open the door, I need to input a combination and use my key. No one knows the correct combination anymore. If I touch it, I will change the setting, and my key will not be able to get me in or out.

So? If I don't ever come home to the US of A, it's probably because I locked myself in my house in Baoding.

...Yeah.
Oh? Picture.
Here:




Across from the main door is my bathroom. The bathroom floor isn't concrete. It looks pretty good, actually. Looks like this:



See the wooden toilet seat there? It's not actually wooden - it's foamy.. ish.. but I wanted to point it out because I put that in myself. The old one had a bend down the middle of the side. I think someone in the past may have used it as a squatter. It also absorbed a lot of moisture so I went out, got a new one, and installed that wooden-looking one there.

Under the sink, you'll see this little tub. In the past, that was used as a place for the mop. You'd do your mopping, wash it in that tub, and let it dry out there. It's not used for that anymore.. mainly because someone built a sink over it.

Then... on the floor, a big drain.

Something seems to be missing, yeah?
Hm.
What's that?

A shower? Oh. Just look to the right.



That is my shower. There's a water heater on the top. I have to turn that on for half an hour before I want to shower, or I don't get any hot water. The other options is to leave it on all day and waste a lot of electricity....

But yes. That's the shower head. And when I turn it on, the shower shoots water right onto the bathroom floor.

Remember that drain?

It's supposed to drain. That's what it's called. That's it's function... but whenever I take a shower, about an inch or so of water covers up the bathroom floor. When I'm not showering - sometimes, water would come up out of that hole in the ground and leave a small puddle in the middle of my bathroom floor.

The good news?
A lot of my colleagues' bathrooms smell really... really bad. That smell usually comes from that drain. In my case, my bathroom normally smells OK.

It doesn't smell bad.
So yeah. I really like my bathroom.

Now, back up out of the bathroom. Back up, turn just a little bit... and BOOYAH!
My dining room and kitchen!






The floor in here is really clean.
I've swept and mopped it. Every time I mess it up, I clean it up. So that means... I can walk around without my shoes in this room. I like that.

...Why am I telling you this?
I just want to stress how.. nice.. it is to have a room where I can pace around in without.. my shoes on.

...Yeah.

See the toaster oven? That is my toaster. My stove is a hot plate. My washing machine is there too. I have to manually adjust the settings to make it go through all the cycles that it would normally go through by itself (in the States).

It drains into a pipe under the sink...
And.. speaking of that pipe (you can see it in the picture above) - a couple of days ago, one of my drains backed up and flooded my kitchen. Water just started guzzling up out of the ground, bring with it tons and tons of sewage... stuff.

I had to call someone from the school. He called a plumber, and everything got fixed up fairly quickly. But still.

...Yeah.

Well. That's my tour.
More to come on Day#1 in the next post.

And then... some more interesting day-to-day stuff.
I've also taken a couple of trips... but it's the day-to-day living stuff that interests me. You'll get to hear about everything later. For now, though-

Signing off.
Talk to y'all later.

Baoding: First Reactions

The bus was a bus ride. Not too much to say there, except for what we could see through its ginormous windows.

The scenery changed gradually:
-In Shijiazhuang, there were loads of tall buildings, huge crowds, and trash everywhere.
-Very quickly, we hit the highway. All around us, we could see fields and fields of farmland, hills of yellow corn, and hills of trash.
-About two hours in, we passed a toll both, and the farmland morphed into small city buildings. Dirt sidewalks lined the edges of the roads. Men sat on low stools - almost as though they were squatting - and guarded empty storefronts with their bellies exposed. (What does that mean? Lift your shirt up. Roll it up above your belly button. Now just keep the shirt right there and walk around town.) Instead of the rectangular patches of grass that organizes American cities, there were little patches of trash here that did the same thing.
-I don't know why my writing voice tone thingy (yeah, deal with my vocab. I'm an English major!) just changed.
-Then the low-roofed run-down buildings got a little taller, the roads became a little (note: little) cleaner, and the streets became more and more crowded.
-Oh neat! Vegetable markets! Everywhere!
-Street food!
-Construction. At this point, Hannah made a comment: "It's like the whole city is under construction."
-Downtown Baoding is busy. It's bustling and city-like... but it's unlike any city that I've ever seen. Pictures to come... but not quite yet. I need to bring my camera around next time I go out.

I was getting more and more excited as I realized that Baoding was going to be very much... unlike Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong.

I was also having an... interesting time watching Hannah's expressions as we got closer and closer to the city. To put it simply, she was not happy.

And if you've ever watched Lie to Me and can figure out what this expression means:



Ahem. We got off the bus. Went into Mr. Kou’s car – it’s a very small car that just barely managed to hold our combined luggage in its trunk and its back seat. He didn’t buckle his seatbelt, so the car beeped at him every five minutes or so…

In other words, there’d be a couple minutes of silence – then BEEEEP BEEEP BEEEP! – or a couple minutes of quiet conversation – then BEEEEP BEEEP BEEEEP! – then maybe a swerve here and a serve there to avoid oncoming traffic – and then… well, you get the picture.

Twenty minutes or so later, we were home.

Home sweet home.

Welcome. Let me give you a little tour...
Stay tuned for the next post!
It'll be only a couple of minutes, trust me.

Some Random Thoughts

Here's a question for anyone who cares about this sort of thing:

Is it cultural imperialism to teach your students about anorexia and bulimia?

Many of my students skip dinner because many of them think that they are overweight. From my perspective, most of these students who are skipping their meals are as skinny as I am. As a teacher, I am worried about their health. They have food available to them, yes - they just want to diet.

I made the decision this past weekend to make my students aware of anorexia and bulimia. Today (Monday), I gave a small lecture on eating disorders in the last twenty minutes of class. I am not used to this kind of lecture... mainly because, well - the class is usually a discussion-based course focused on getting all students speaking English.

So I lectured. And it felt weird.
Any thoughts?

Is it cultural imperialism? Yes, I am just giving knowledge in this case - I'm not directly asking my students to eat all their meals. Still, in a lesson like this one, it's unavoidable that I am at least suggesting that my students eat more food.

---
On a side note, a student today told me that I looked, I quote - "stupid" - riding around on a bicycle with a helmet on. "Stupid" and "funny." I am glad my activities outside of class is... something that they can wonder at. I'm learning how to ride a bike better - and I think I'm getting the hang of it - but I'm still going to keep the helmet on.
---

That's it. Just some side notes for now. I'll jump back into the correct timeline in my next post.

The Flight Experience

Looking back from where I am now, the plane ride over here doesn't seem like a big deal. Not at all - I mean, it was the first time that I had to actually use use my Chinese. It was the first time that it actually mattered... so, at the time, it was actually kinda thrilling.

In the morning after our farewell dinner at Shanghai, CIEE dropped us off at the... plane station.

Plane station?

What?

*thinks*

Airport! AH! I'm losing my English!
Not good - cuz I'm supposed to be teaching English.

So voila! There I was at the plane station with one giant luggage bag thing, a smaller one, a backpack, and two other Americans who didn't know a word of Chinese. I knew the name of my final destination (Baoding), but I didn't know what city we were flying into.

All I had was a piece of paper with my name and the flight number on it. After showing someone that piece of paper, they directed the three of us to a line with a big D.

When it was my turn, the guy at the ticket countered looked up at me.

"Where are you going?"
"I... uh. This is my flight number."
"Blahblahblahblah... Where are you going?"
"Sorry. My Chinese isn't so good. See this piece of paper? That is my flight number."
"Uh... you don't know where you are going?"
*points*
*sighs... takes passport, prints out a ticket, and hands everything to me*

He then weighs my bag, proceeds to tell me that they're too heavy, and points for me to go somewhere else. I nod - I have international luggage after all, and this was a domestic trip - then go to help the other two Americans.

More Chinese. More trouble communicating.
We take care of our baggage.
Rush to our gate.
And, finally, onto the plane to a hard-to-pronounce city called Shijiazhuang!

---

Three of us got on the plane.
Only two of us got off at Shijiazhuang.

May he rest in peace....
Or, eh, may he have a good time traveling to his final destination further out east.

In other news, during this two hour flight, I picked up a plastic spork.
Just in case you don't know what a spork is...

FORK + SPOON =



World's greatest invention since cardboard coffee cup holder thing...
Though I think the spork came before the cardboard coffee cup holder thing. Hm.

What came first? The cardboard cup holder, or the spork?

*thinks*

Yeah... It's just that those things don't exist here. I'm at a coffee shop trying to drink coffee, and... without those little cardboard holder things, the cup's waaaay too hot.

We miss the strangest things, huh?

Anyway, like the good old days in the US of A, flight attendants served entire meals to everyone in short, two-hour flights. Knowing that I'll be using mostly chopsticks this year, I decided that a spork would be an essential addition to my home. So I took it.

And, boy, am I glad I did. We will talk about the adventures of this handy spork another time in the future.

We got off the plane. I really really REALLY needed to go to the bathroom. Right by the baggage claim, there were - like in the States - public restrooms.

I went in.. and very quickly I learned two very important lessons:

1. I need to remember to bring my own toilet paper. I knew this before I came... I had just forgotten.

2. Public toilets in China are, for the most part, squatters.
SQUATTERS! I knew that before coming too. I just forgot. I had just gotten off the plane and I was half-asleep... so.. yeah. Understandable, I think.

And just in case you don't know what a squatter is:



And that is a very nice one. It's very clean, you see, and it flushes automatically. The ground around it is dry and not wet or covered with brown.. stuff... or with toilet paper and...

...You get the picture?

It is, however, supposedly very good for your body to relieve yourself that way - it's easier, I think. Scientifically and all that, whatever that means.

So what happened?

Simply put, I didn't go. Not right then.
I decided to hold it.

Got my bags. Hannah (the other American teacher going to the Agricultural University of Hebei with me from Baoding) and I stepped out and... stood.

And no one came to us.

People stared, yes. Hannah has blond hair. I blend right in, but Hannah has blond hair, you see, so we got a lot of curious glances. Still, we were confused - someone from the University was supposed to pick us up, see... and no one was there.

I asked around for a phone, gesturing just as much as I spoke... before I was directed towards a little convenience type... store-like-thing where they let me use their phone. I called the school up.

It'd be ok, I was told. The person coming to pick us up was stuck in traffic. He'll be there in a few minutes.

Ok. OK. Breathe. Hannah and I sat down at a little coffee/tea shop type thing. We got waters... and JACKPOT! They had a box of tissues on the table. I grabbed a bunch and bailed for the bathrooms.

On the other side of the welcome gate (outside of the baggage claim area), I peeked into each stall, looking for one that didn't smell as bad as the others. All the way to the end and... once again...

JACKPOT! A handicapped stall! And a western toilet!

Then... we'll skip over some details. Back at the coffee shop. We're worried that the guy from the university wouldn't be able to find us, so we decide to step back outside into the main area by the doors. We figure... Hannah's blond hair would make us easy to spot.

Mr. Kou - someone from the university who works at the Foreign Affairs Office there - found us. We hopped onto a bus and headed for Baoding.

The trip from Shijiazhuang (the capital of our province, Hebei) to Baoding (our future home and final destination) was fairly uneventful. I slept. Watched bits of a Chinese movie (it involved intense martial arts, fantasy, and old costumes), noticed that there was a hot water boiler and tea available on the plane, and slept some more.

Next post? Arriving in Baoding and settling in.
Stay tuned until then.