Training Continues

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Jadd continues to be sick. Yesterday the ambulance came and gave him an IV (the needle looked almost like a real needle, and the stuff that the IV fluid was coming from was like a baby bottle in a plastic bag, it was kind of freaky). Fortunately Sheena (the girl who Cat moved in with who is Chinese) was there to translate for us. Then Sheena went and got Jadd some medicine to reduce his fever by making him sweat. After he had taken the IV he was feeling a lot better - he took a shower and even walked down to the corner store to use the phone. We found an English channel on the TV and he watched it for a little while and ate an egg. Then we both fell asleep pretty early (like 10pm). Apparently he woke up at 1am and started throwing up but he only woke me at 5:30am (after yelling at me a lot - for like 15 minutes - most of us know how heavy of a sleeper I am). Then I took care of him for a little while. After a bit he was finally able to swallow and he took the fever reducer again. He started feeling much better and asked me to get him some gatorade. Unfortuantely the Wal-Mart was the only place that might possibly have that and they didn't so I got him some Fanta, Pepsi and orange juice. He was really psyched about the Fanta. Then I went to class - pretty much usual basic training in Chinese and teaching again. For lunch Cat and Craig (an older man from Australia who also will be teaching at Rockies) and I went out to a really awesome Asian place that's down in the mall next to Wal-Mart. It's underground, pretty fancy. The food there was really awesome we had rice and spicy noodles and tofu soup (which we put on the rice). It all tasted really good. During another of our breaks Russell and I walked down to get some water from a little stand nearby.

Craig, Russell and I were all talking about our Chinese. It's very frustrating for Craig and I to not know very much Chinese. Craig says that unfortunately he tunes it out and so he has a hard time learning it. Unfortunately I don't tune it out and sometimes it makes me feel really bad because I am so frustrated with it. But Craig says that it's best to pay a lot of attention to it and listen as much as possible (which I know is true). Russell says that he uses hand signals a lot of the time because people don't tend to know what he's saying even if he uses the language. Craig and I explained that this happens all over. Unfortunately when you look like a foreigner people tend to treat you like one and assume that you can't speak the language. A lot of the time it's best to say "hi" in their language and then say whatever you want to say or repeat what you said a second time because it often throws them off.

Later I was sitting with Craig and Russell while they were on their smoking break (a lot of people here smoke so you can pretty much smoke anywhere you want to). Craig and I got to talking about anti-Wal-Mart stuff and how a lot of those places are really bad with things. Russell was kind of ambivalent. I was very wary about going to the Wal-Mart mall for lunch because people often say "Let's go to Wal-mart" instead of "Let's go to the mall next to wal-mart" because it's the biggest store in that mall. But all of the places in the mall besides wal-mart are owned by locals so it's definitely not the same.

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Comments

[Dwight Morris]

Wal-Mart
You need to try to form an opinion about Wal-Mart; but, you should try to get real information first. How do they pay their employees, there? Do people like working there? We know the impact of Wal-Mart on other retailers in the U.S. But, we don't know if the impact to the Chinese is good or bad. It would be really interesting to know. Keep working on learning the language; you know you can get it, but it will take time. Dad