Changes…
Yup, a new blog. I quickly discovered (after I logged into my contraband Internet) that many blog sites are not accessible in China. In my case, I could access it, but it was in Mandarin. Hopefully this one will work.
So, China. Well, the journey that began about a week ago got off to a very rough start. From the beginning, my first flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems, so instead of going from Minneapolis to Chicago to Shanghai to Kunming, I went from Minneapolis to Denver to San Francisco to Shanghai, spent a night in Shanghai and flew to Kunming, sans luggage. When I finally got here, I was pretty much dropped off and left with my non-English speaking building manager who I desperately tried to tell that if nothing else, I needed the Internet to survive in this place. No success. The next 24 hours were pretty harsh. I couldn’t really settle in to my apartment, which I liken to dorm life and camping, without my luggage, not to mention wanting my few allowable cleaning supplies before touching anything. Thankfully, the next afternoon brought my first Chinese meal (their take on spaghetti, which was heavenly), the other girl from Drake and my luggage. What I ‘m quickly learning is that China doesn’t bring fast results. For example, the required Internet equipment was promised Wednesday and showed up today. No promised cafeteria cards yet. Not complaining, but just pointing out that little things do eventually build and become a major source of frustration.
Well, once my bags showed up, Pine-sol flowed freely and I attempted to make the best of my arrangements. Bear in mind that this is my first apartment on my own and the first time I haven’t had roommates. In the way of space, I’ve got more than I’m used to. Basically my apartment has three main rooms: a bedroom, living room and kitchen/bathroom. I have a toilet (yes, a real Western-style toilet, complete with corduroy toilet seat) in a tiny closet and some sort of extra room that appears to be where I hang my laundry to dry. Right now it currently houses one of my four desks. Yes, four desks. Impressively, I also have a shower, although it does resemble some sort of time travel capsule and it is next to my hot plate, microwave and fridge. It’s still better than a spout out of the wall. Figuring out the hot water machine was a bit of a challenge, but several cold showers have led to the right combination finally. Other than that, the place needs some love and adjusting to.
In terms of teaching, I found out I teach four sections of “Advanced Viewing, Listening and Speaking” and two sections of “Academic Writing” for the foreign language department. My schedule was looking pretty sweet until I was informed tonight that I need to go meet with the International Business School tomorrow (another section of Yunnan University) to find out about the classes I teach for them. Mind you, school starts tomorrow, however, no one teaching for the Int’l Business School knew anything about their schedules until tonight…why couldn’t the foreign language department just find more classes for me?? Anyway, so my first two classes are at 8:00 and 9:50 tomorrow morning, and on one hand I have a little anxiety and on the other, I’m like “whatever.” I just want to get settled into a routine.
Tags: Travel
