Today was a winner!
This morning started off great with a phone call from Claire at 5am. I was actually already awake. Yesterday I decided to take a "nap" around 2:30pm and woke up at 7:30pm. Oops. We had planned to go out to dinner, but were both so groggy that instead we just forced ourselves to stay up for a couple more hours playing cards. For dinner, we decided to try on of the exotic fruits we picked up at the supermarket. It was the size of a canteloupe, had the skin of a grapefruit and was light green. So, really, it just looked like a giant---no, I am going to go with gigantic---green grapefruit. As we ate it, I nicknamed it margarita fruit, because I thought it tasted like a delicious margarita. Around nine, Karen and Mae knocked and came in for a chat. They said the fruit was called something like "pomello". Anyone heard of it? Mmm, so good.
Back to this morning when we naturally awoke at 5am. I promise it wasn't the phone ringing, Claire. :) So after a great catch up, we had more familiar fruit for breakfast and then came over to throw in some laundry. Karen in Mae are living in a hotel next door until their apartments are ready at the South campus. Mr. Guo called to tell us that he had arranged another student to come and show us around. This time, the four of us met Liam. Liam speaks almost perfect English and was so happy to meet us. He literally cheered with joy. All his English teachers are Chinese and teach English in Chinese apparently (hmmm), so Liam was really pleased that we had come from America to teach English. It was great to feel wanted here. Liam showed us the foriegn students building (right next door to us, turns out). It has a gym, a little cafe, and a shop with all kinds of treats in it including some imports like Corona and Pringles. Nice to know its there. After a short campus tour, we asked Liam to take us to yet another...supermarket! Poor Liam, little did he know what he was getting into. We caught the bus to a part of town that was much cleaner. Everywhere in Jinan looks like a construction zone with shops and apartments tucked in between piles of bricks and garbage. This part of town looked like it was holding up a little bit better.
I have already mentioned the extreme sport of street crossing, but it was a whole new ballgame today. The cars will not stop for you. I think it's so crazy, I have say it twice: the cars simply do not stop---even if you are pushing your grandmother in a wheelchair (which I saw today), they keep rolling towards you without slowing. The funny part is that the Chinese honk their horn incessantly, just not when they are headed towards you. Usually, you can see it coming, but I felt we had some close calls today. I bet they will seem pretty routine in a few months.
In the supermarket, Liam helped us buy all sorts of things like speakers for my ipod, a kettle and some Jasmine tea. There are many places in the supermarkets where you have to pay for items in their departments and sometimes it gets confusing if they have to get your item off the shelf. Liam was such a good sport--the man is invaluable. I hope he gets paid. He spent all day with us.
On our way to lunch we ran into Olga, another foriegn teacher. Olga teaches Russian and she has been here for a year. She says she doesn't have many ties to her home country and likes it here. The 6 of us went out to lunch at a nice hotel restaurant. We had more joudza (dumplings) filled with all sorts of delights, a peanut vinegar salad and some fried rice. It was delicious. Afterward, I made a visit to my first "hole in the ground" WC. hmmm...uncomfortable and odd..
We found a bookstore with some more books in English. They had the whole Harry Potter series for $38. Josh thought that was too expensive. We had just seen big screen tv's for that price in the supermarket and we are starting to adjust, so it seemed like a great deal of money. Josh got Sons & Lovers and Pride & Prejudice for himself. He is entertaining himself with one of the two right now. I am listening to Brook Fraser on my flash new speakers ($6)and am about to steep myself some fresh Jasmine tea. Ahh, life is a solid 8.
The best part for me is that I feel like I am starting to learn the language albeit verrrry slowly and akwardly. It makes you want to try really hard when you see how much the shopkeepers and other folks really appreciate even a simple exchange of words in their language. Once my classes start up, I will look for a tutor. I really need someone to say the words for me over and over. I also am starting to feel more like we belong here. We know our way around pretty well and the apartment is starting to really come together, so life is good. And just a moment ago, Mae delivered a fun size pack of peanut M&Ms to me, so I am really--as my Grandaaddy would say--tickled pink.
Back to this morning when we naturally awoke at 5am. I promise it wasn't the phone ringing, Claire. :) So after a great catch up, we had more familiar fruit for breakfast and then came over to throw in some laundry. Karen in Mae are living in a hotel next door until their apartments are ready at the South campus. Mr. Guo called to tell us that he had arranged another student to come and show us around. This time, the four of us met Liam. Liam speaks almost perfect English and was so happy to meet us. He literally cheered with joy. All his English teachers are Chinese and teach English in Chinese apparently (hmmm), so Liam was really pleased that we had come from America to teach English. It was great to feel wanted here. Liam showed us the foriegn students building (right next door to us, turns out). It has a gym, a little cafe, and a shop with all kinds of treats in it including some imports like Corona and Pringles. Nice to know its there. After a short campus tour, we asked Liam to take us to yet another...supermarket! Poor Liam, little did he know what he was getting into. We caught the bus to a part of town that was much cleaner. Everywhere in Jinan looks like a construction zone with shops and apartments tucked in between piles of bricks and garbage. This part of town looked like it was holding up a little bit better.
I have already mentioned the extreme sport of street crossing, but it was a whole new ballgame today. The cars will not stop for you. I think it's so crazy, I have say it twice: the cars simply do not stop---even if you are pushing your grandmother in a wheelchair (which I saw today), they keep rolling towards you without slowing. The funny part is that the Chinese honk their horn incessantly, just not when they are headed towards you. Usually, you can see it coming, but I felt we had some close calls today. I bet they will seem pretty routine in a few months.
In the supermarket, Liam helped us buy all sorts of things like speakers for my ipod, a kettle and some Jasmine tea. There are many places in the supermarkets where you have to pay for items in their departments and sometimes it gets confusing if they have to get your item off the shelf. Liam was such a good sport--the man is invaluable. I hope he gets paid. He spent all day with us.
On our way to lunch we ran into Olga, another foriegn teacher. Olga teaches Russian and she has been here for a year. She says she doesn't have many ties to her home country and likes it here. The 6 of us went out to lunch at a nice hotel restaurant. We had more joudza (dumplings) filled with all sorts of delights, a peanut vinegar salad and some fried rice. It was delicious. Afterward, I made a visit to my first "hole in the ground" WC. hmmm...uncomfortable and odd..
We found a bookstore with some more books in English. They had the whole Harry Potter series for $38. Josh thought that was too expensive. We had just seen big screen tv's for that price in the supermarket and we are starting to adjust, so it seemed like a great deal of money. Josh got Sons & Lovers and Pride & Prejudice for himself. He is entertaining himself with one of the two right now. I am listening to Brook Fraser on my flash new speakers ($6)and am about to steep myself some fresh Jasmine tea. Ahh, life is a solid 8.
The best part for me is that I feel like I am starting to learn the language albeit verrrry slowly and akwardly. It makes you want to try really hard when you see how much the shopkeepers and other folks really appreciate even a simple exchange of words in their language. Once my classes start up, I will look for a tutor. I really need someone to say the words for me over and over. I also am starting to feel more like we belong here. We know our way around pretty well and the apartment is starting to really come together, so life is good. And just a moment ago, Mae delivered a fun size pack of peanut M&Ms to me, so I am really--as my Grandaaddy would say--tickled pink.
posted by B | 1:10 AM
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