Its hard to describe the feeling I had in my stomach as I rode away from the hotel with Mrs. Huang and her husband. It was kind of like a tightening knot of excitement and curiosity and sheer terror. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh or just stare off into space...though I quickly settled on staring off into space, as it was the easiest to do.
After driving for about a half an hour we got to the area of Longgang where the school is and Mrs. Huang had her husband drive around for a little bit so I could see the area. Immediately surrounding the school is a factory that makes most of the eyeglasses sold in the world, various types of housing, a handful of stores and street vendors, and a lot of construction. There is clearly a lot of poverty in this area because of the factory workers, but buildings and arenas for the 2011 Universitad will literally be across the street from the school, so apparently this neighborhood's days are numbered. Not all of the housing is bad though, some of the teachers live off-campus in nearby buildings and those buildings look alright ("alright"on the scale of China housing, of course). The downtown area is about 10 minutes from the school via public bus and it has a decent amount of department-type stores, restaurants, and grocery stores. Because I mentioned my deep love for black coffee (which you cannot find in China), I was also shown the two coffee shops in town. I have not tried either yet, but I'm not holding my breath because I'm sure it will either be the Chinese idea of coffee (cream and sugar...blech!) or too expensive to be worth the habit. It didn't take too long to see the highlights of downtown Longgang, so we quickly pulled up to the school grounds, drove through the security gate, and Mrs. Huang said, "welcome home!" We pulled my stuff out of the car and lugged it up the the 6th floor and into room 603.
The view from my balconyMy first impression of my room was similar to my first impression of many places in China: why is everything always dirty and just a little bit wet? There was a small puddle of water in the middle of a dirty room with a tile floor and filthy walls. The bed is a bunk bed with a mattress on top (dirty from the air conditioner above it, of course) and one of those "mattresses"that's really a board on the bottom. There is a "closet" that's really a free-standing wardrobe (the kind that zips closed), the "kitchen" is a metal table with a microwave and a hot-plate, and across the room is a refrigerator and a desk. On the balcony there is a washing machine (which, from what I hear, mostly eats clothes) and a rack for drying your clothes (no one has a clothes drier in China). The bathroom is very small and the "shower" is just a hand-held shower head hanging on one of the walls with a drain in the middle of the room.
My dormitory
The closet
The kitchen
The study
I was instructed to "sit and have a rest" (I am given this order a lot around here) while these four people set to work on this apartment. After a brief flurry of activity, the bathroom was cleaned, the floors were swept and mopped, my bed was set up and they were leaving me with the promise that "maybe after some minutes have passed we'll be back". And then, I was alone.
I started to go through my things and unpack, deciding that this place really isn't so bad when it's cleaner. I put all my clothes away and did a load of laundry (a "load" of laundry is different when you wash your clothes in the sink). As promised, Mrs. Huang reappeared after some minutes had passed and handed me a few bags of groceries (including some coffee - cream and sugar already added of course) and told me that dinner is at 5:30, and she would see me tomorrow because she does not live at the school. A little bit later there was another knock at the door, and this time I was greeted by a the principal, Mr. James, and the small woman whose job it is to follow around any man who is visiting a female teacher's dormitory. He was very nice and asked how I liked the room and told me to make sure and talk to him if I had any problems or needed anything. I must say, based on the things I have heard about Chinese headmasters, I was pretty impressed that he made a house call on my first day!
As instructed, I had a little rest until about 5:30 when I wandered down to the "canteen" for dinner. I'm not really sure why it's called that, but I think it has to do with the fact that the Chinese word for cafeteria is can1ting1. Anyway, I walk into the canteen and am immediately greeted by about 6 people who do not speak English. A man appears out of nowhere who claims to be an English teacher (though we were still not able to communicate particularly well) and he tries to help me. I'll spare you the painful details of my learning curve on this one, but basically the way the canteen works is this: you have your own dishes that you can keep in a cupboard in the dining area, every meal you put rice and some vegetables and clear broth into your dishes and the lunch lady adds a few ladlefuls of whatever the main dishes are. When you have finished eating you wash your dishes in a trough outside and put your dishes back into the cupboard. Theoretically, the dishes inside the cupboard are disinfected between meals...but this is China, so who knows.
After dinner I headed back upstairs and decided to take a shower, watch some Chinese television, and call it a night. This plan was quickly foiled when I realized that the biggest towel in my possession was the size of a kitchen hand towel. The sleeping thing also didn't go so well because it turns out my air conditioner was broken. Eventually I got to sleep, and as I write this a few days later, I have since had the air conditioner fixed, acquired a towel, and taken a shower...but I'll save the shower story for another time.
The bathroom
1 comment:
You're right.. I would kill myself. :)
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