The Adventures of Crappy Chinese Computer

Well, here I am in Xinxiang

It is quite different from Beijing...it's real China.

The city is small by Chinese standards, but roughly 750,000 people call it home. Of which I would say around 50-75 are foreigners...mostly students or teachers from within Asia itself. So being white, I stand out pretty obviously.

Ok, back to when I first got to Xinxiang...we arrived by speed train (so it took us 4 hours from Beijing). We were picked up at the train station and were off to the school. Now when I mentioned the driving in Beijing, I think I spoke to soon. The road is a dangerous place in Xinxiang...honking becomes, in essence, the lovely melody of the Chinese car. When the Chinese car is treatened, scared, angry, happy, wounded...and all the other emotions that one feels, a honk will signify it to the world. You hear it so often that you begin to block it out. This can be bad, as crossing the street is as close to an extreme sport as you can get in China. It is like "Frogger" on meth.

The campus for Henan Normal University is relatively big...or atleast bigger than I expected. HNU is located on the edge of the Northeast coner of the city. Most of the foreign teachers are located together next to the Office of International Programs. The foreign teachers' apartments, the office, and a small dining area all surround a small courtyard that is gated off. Right when we got there I met Mr. Li (the man in charge of foreign teachers). He showed me around the area alittle. While he was doing this, Po-lin and Bob came out to greet me as well. However, we couldn't talk that much because I had to go to my apartment...

How to explain my apartment? ...Um, I like the apartment now, BUT when I first came in I was a little hesitant. The fluorescent lights gave off a dilapidated look to everything. Dusty and old is the best way to describe it, with bars on the windows, the walls were bare and dirty, and the bathroom was eerily pink with corrosion built up on any hint of metal. Rather depressing if you ask me.

Well, everyone left so I could get settled in a little before grabbing a bite to eat. I was standing in the middle of the room, under the flickering fluorescent light...and out of nowhere I hear Celine Dion bolting out "All By Myself."

...Okay, so I didn't quite hear Celine Dion sing to me. I just thought that up while I was in the shower a few days later. I felt like it would spice up my story...add a romantic subplot between me and Celine (Yet I can't do that...I hate French canadians).

My apartment doesn't look as depressing anymore...I just needed to put my stuff away, and dust off everything. Plus I noticed if I don't use the main florescent lights, it helps a lot. I do have a refrigerator, a TV, a little washing machine, a water cooler, as well as odds and ends for furniture. Besides those items, I have a shower that spews out very very hot water...you have to watch out. Bob has told me about students who missed his class because they burn themselves in their shower. I am sure there are people laughing..."oh, come on phil, how hard is it to work a shower." You have to remember this is a Chinese shower, not your simple-minded American shower. There is a spot on the valve that is perfect temperature...however if you slightly touch it, the temperature of the water will get extremely hot. This has happened to me twice...luckily on both occasions I was outside of the showerheads wraith. On that note, the shower water also smells like rotten cabbage (yummy)...that alone should warn you not to drink the water from the tap. I also do have an old desktop computer they provide me...it is the bane of my existence, and I will talk about it further down in this entry.

Getting back to my first day in Xinxiang, after I was settled in I went to go eat. I was met by Po-lin and Bob...who sat with me while I ate (they had already eaten). Afterwards I went to their apartment for a few drinks. They have been very nice to me since I have gotten here; telling me things to watch out for, showing me around, and just trying to make me feel comfortable.

So it has been nice to have familiar faces to talk to...however, what's not nice is Crappy Chinese Computer. So I have a laptop, however, for some odd reason I can't connect to the internet in my apartment. Since it couldn't connect, I tried the Crappy Chinese Computer that they provided for me...yet it is not going to happen, as it shuts down while it loads up. Notice how I capitalize Crappy Chinese Computer, that is because it has become a full fledged entity that destroys anything around it...I hate it so much (not so loud though...because in a Ironic twist I am using it right now to type this blog). At the end of my contract, they are going to find me in my apartment in nothing but my underwear, huddled over, drinking a glass of scotch, my eyes glazed over with insanity, hairs all a mess, I'm unshaven...and on the opposite side of the torn apart room sits an omnipotent computer, with rows of ling's and yi's covering the screen, staring right back at me. Damn you Crappy Chinese Computer!

Enough of my bullshit, I was able to get an IT person from the university to come over and help me. While I waited, I decided to open up the tower to the Crappy Chinese Computer (CCC) and see if anything was wrong. Well, everything was covered in a thick layer of dust...pretty disgusting. So I managed to clean up the inside of the CCC and it was able to start without any problems, but before I could do anything the IT person showed up. After a few hours trying different things, she decided to take my laptop the following day and work on it in her office. So I was stuck with the CCC until then. The network for HNU is...errr, difficult at best. Since the network accommodates so many students, it tends to crash often and is extremely sluggish. Tie that information with a crappy old computer that is in Chinese...you have one pissed off Phil.

As I mentioned the computer is in Chinese (characters)...that is a treat trying to figure out. Not everything is in Chinese though, once you get on the internet you can get to English sites. This also gave me the opportunity to answer a question I have always had...how to write in Chinese (characters) on the computer, especially since the keyboard is in English. I went to Microsoft Word and played around a little bit. This is how it works (as I understand it), underneath the cursor is a little box where you type the word (in Pinyin, without the tones...I haven't figured out how to put the tone marks in)...but after you put the word in, it gives you the common character associated with that word. If it is not the right character you can go through a list of all the other characters associates with that word. I am sure hardly anyone cares about this, and I most likely made it sound more complicated than it really is. I just always wondered about this, and since I found out, I thought I would share it with everyone that reads this far (I am guessing at least half the people that started reading this entry got bored and dropped out long ago; it is like Mt. Everest of Blog entries).

Okay, moving aside from explaining the Chinese heritage I bestowed on CCC, I feel like I am a pompous ass complaining about the internet situation. To be honest, the only reason I wanted to connect my laptop to the internet was to video chat with my girlfriend. Laugh all you want...but when you have seen someone almost everyday for the past three and a half years...you become very homesick for that person.
It hit me out of nowhere right when I got to Xinxiang. So that has been difficult to deal with...luckily, on CCC there is skype (which I use anyways), so I can at least instant message with her.

As for CCC, I have gotten the hang of it now, I just make sure to save often and make sure I don't do anything until I check the connection. My laptop, after working on it for two more days, still can't connect to the internet in my apartment (although it was able to connect in the IT office). We are still trying to get it working, but until then I can't upload pictures...so this is just going to be a boring written blog until then or until I find another connection source.

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Enough complaining...the campus is big; a majority of the buildings are dorms though. The main feature of the campus (a point of reference I use to get around) is the library. Right when you turn into campus, on the main gate, it is the first building you see, and possibly the tallest on campus. In front of the library sits a big square and a statue of Mao. Also worth mentioning, of which I stumbled upon (literally) one night, is a fountain in the square that is turned on some nights (it is also accopanied with music)...not something you would think to find on a school campus.

They also have atleast 30 basketball courts (I am sure there are more courts someplace else). It is amazing how popular basketball is in China...Yao Ming is China's hero. When people find out I am American, one of the first questions they ask is about basketball. They are usually some-what disappointed when I tell them that baseball and American football are the most popular sports in America though.

Another interesting feature of the campus is that none of the teaching buildings are heated or air conditioned (luckily my apartment has both). It can get cold during this time of year teaching (especially when the window in the classroom is stuck open, and it is snowing out). This is also why during the summer, they move the afternoon classes back 20 minutes because there is no air conditioning and it gets pretty hot in the classrooms.

I guess that is it for now...I have gone out to explore the city a few times and have taught 5 classes so far, but I will talk more about this in my next entry (this weekend).

I will say this though about teaching...it is a lot more difficult to teach English majors then I thought. It becomes a struggle to get the students to talk. Another Canadian teacher told me a horror story of a teacher who talked half a class and could not get any students to say a word, so she simply told them that she will be right back...and never came back. So it is a little stressful, but still fun.

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