Frustration turned to Excitement

I’m really frustrated right now. I would kill to have someone to talk to, but that proves to be more difficult than expected. I bought a phone card this morning. See, there are two phones in my room, and both have ring tones. After dialing more than 4 digits on one of the phones, I get an error signal. The other phone has a card slot, and my documentation tells me to go buy a 201 card from the front desk to make the phone work. So I went to the front desk; they tell me that they don’t have any. So I go to a street vendor and buy an IC (Integrated Circuit) Card, which doesn’t work for my phone in the room. Means I have to go to a pay phone to use it. The payphone wouldn’t allow me to enter more than about 15 digits, which meant that I was able to dial the number for my long distance card, but not the access code. I tried 3 times then gave up to find a different pay phone, all of which were out of service. Then I tried to go back and call a local number for someone looking for ‘Western Waiters’ (pays 2000 RMB), and the phone card is apparently out of money. I spent 30 RMB on the card- my travel guide tells me that a 50 RMB LONG DISTANCE card (I bought the local one) should last for 20 minutes for a call back to the States. I don’t know who to ask, because getting answers around here is so difficult because of the language barrier.

My TV is working now. It hasn’t worked since I got here, so I asked the front desk to send a maintenance guy- he hit one button and the picture came up. My remote doesn’t work, so I’m probably going to have to buy batteries, but I just don’t want to leave my room right now. I think I might search out a kung fu school today, because at least I would be able to communicate with them, at least if not in as so many words.

I’m not home sick, but I do miss my friends and family. It would be easier if I had some friends around here, but it’s a big city and I don’t know where to look.

My day has improved considerably! I went to the store after writing the first entry today; bought some hangers, snacks, rice wine (… eww …) and an alarm clock. Along the way I realized that I’m stressed and need to blow off some steam. I put on some workout clothes and headed over to the soccer fields, which has a nice long track around it. After 5 laps, my lungs were fatigued and I decided to do some kung fu. This is where my day became a good one. Two girls approached me, asking why I was “playing kung fu.” Thus I started with the spiel: I’ve studied for two years, traditional wushu exists in America, I’m here to study “Han Yu” (Mandarin), etc. They wanted to practice their English on me, which is what they both study here at SISU. I was talking about some of the language barrier difficulties I’ve had around town when I used hand motion supplement my explanation that my phrase book has come in very handy. This was my best misunderstanding yet- the motion looked like writing on some paper and that’s when Corona said ok and grabbed a pen and paper. I now have two very pretty Chinese friends who want to take me to the Bund (a tourist destination). Then they asked me to play some more kung fu, so I started into Form Basic 3 when a family of 3 approached me. The son, Zhou Chengyu, studies Tai Chi (and ‘Ying Yu’ -English) so we talked about martial arts for a while. Now I have 2 sets of friends, and even a ride to Yu Gardens tomorrow afternoon with the Zhou family. Who knew that kung fu would help me make friends in China… lol. It’s a good day!

---

---