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Published: September 22nd 2009
Slept well, got up early and was taken around campus by a student volunteer. Perhaps they have a sense of humor in selecting these facilitators, because mine was about 4 feet 10 inches tall. At any rate she had me introduced to my boss and had me registered at the police station. Tomorrow I have my Chinese physical examination.
When I got back to my place, I met my neighboor who lives directly acrosss the hall. He is also a foreign teacher on a nine-month contract (he teaches medicine). And wouldin't you know it, he hails from a land where the people speak the fifth most spoken native language in the world. That's right folks, he's a Bengali! We were both very pleased by our mutual serendipity. Apparently there is a large community of South Asian students and teachers at Jiujiang University. I just met a Pakistani who was visiting a Nepali in the building, and apparently there are many Indians around.
I wandered the main drag. Not too many pepople stare, and if they do a broad smile and a nod will make them break eye contact. I wandered into a restuarant that thankfully had English on their menu. Four yuan for egg fried rice and another four for a large plate of peanuts. A big difference from India is that here very few people speak English. Over there everyone knows enough to try to sell you something, but here is quite different. However, seeing as I can gladly eat the same meal every day, I believe I shall survive.
On my second wander of the day I went into the main shopping mall and was treated to a big staged display in preperation for the October 1st 60th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. There were smoke machines, colored lights, bubbles, dragon dancers and a lot of flag-waving. A young man introduced himself to me to practice his English. He seemed very friendly, and gave me his phone number to trade Chinese lessons for English practice. I'll probably take him up once I have a cell phone.
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Aunt Pat
non-member comment
My traveling nephew
Brendan - great to see you are back on Travel Blog. Maybe sometime you are back in the States you will come to visit us in the wilds of Virginia! Looks as though your parents will be coming to visit next year. Because I have a new email address what do I have to do to get your blogs automatically? Have some fun for me!