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Published: April 15th 2007
Well, not really back to work until my first lecture at (OMG!) 8.30 tomorrow morning.
The train last night was fine. A comfortable silence among four strangers in a four-person compartment. The rocking of the train put me to sleep at about 21.00. I awoke in the middle of the night and gazed out the window at what countryside I could see. Sometimes freeways bathed in lights, sometimes small villages, often a blur of shades of gray. Fell back to sleep and awoke at 5.30. The train was fast and we were in Beijing in 12 hours.
Manhandled my luggage down the steep stairs and up the steep slope to the outside world and my first look at Beijing. People and more people. I knew to look for the taxi stand and wait in the line. I asked a nearby person for the word for airport. It sounded like chi chan, and I guess the taxi driver understood me because he got me to the airport with no problem. Of course, then I had to wait for four hours before I could check in. The airport has European prices and after 5 days in China I didn't like
that! So I had a fruit plate. They called it small. To me it was more than I could eat and beautiful to boot. A strong cup of coffee and bottle of water finished off my breakfast.
The flight was uneventful and short . . . only 1 hour. I was met by the QTC contact, Quehong Lee. Sweet lady who explained my agenda and told me about the school and the area. The school is large with 8,000 students and they are very proud of it. It's brand new and there are still buildings under construction. I'm staying in a huge apartment with 2 bedrooms and WCs on the campus. And, thank God, with broadband access.
I REALLY wanted a hot shower, but the hot water had not been turned on and dinner was scheduled for 5.30. So a cold spit bath had to do. Looking as presentable as possible, I was picked up by the dean of the Foreign Affairs Department, Ms. Jinyu Huang, and Mr. Suun (I know I'm not spelling the rest of these names right as I don't have their cards yet), David (who will guide me around), and Ms. Liu, the marketing teacher.
Dinner. Unbelievable. Private room (with private bathroom!). The food was incredible. Fish in a spicy sauce. Incredible aubergine (eggplant) cut to look like flowers with shrimp inside, pork chops (cut up), noodles, rice, fruit, scallops, mussels and some glutenous looking stuff that was quite good! We ate and they talked. Only David and Quehong speak any English at all! They are so kind and accommodating, they are really wonderful. And I learned about campai (I know that's not how to spell it, but it's phonetic, OK?). Campai is a toast and when you say campai when you toast it means that the toast is very important and you expected to drink all the beer that is in your glass. I was warned about this by Henk, so I knew what was expected. Fortunately, the beer glasses are very small! We did a few campai's . . .
Back home, David, Mr. Suun and Ms. Huang all helped me get my internet up and running and turned on the heat in the bathroom. They showed me the kettle to boil water and lowered the blinds in the apartment. The hospitality is staggering.
The students were given my PowerPoint slides a week ago and have been studying them! I will have an interpreter. This should be fun! Now to bed.
PS: Not many pictures worth posting today, sorry!
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alex
non-member comment
hey sally - good luck lecturing tomorrow! xxx