Daily Life

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First, some demographics. Of the 15,000 students at my university, five are from Finland and studying here in the fall. That's it. Next semester there will be zero international students. There are eight foreign teachers including me: two other Americans (one of whom is Chinese-American, and both of whom have a Chinese wife and child), two from the Philippines, and one each from England, Canada, and Japan. Five are around 30 years old, two are in their 50s. So I am the anomaly here in many ways. The city's demographics are similar but not quite as drastic. Changzhou is conveniently located for transportation to other places, but is no tourist destination itself. The first three times I went to the downtown area, I did not see a single foreigner. Since then, though, I have met several expats and begun to see the who-knows-who web of this relatively small community.

The foreign teachers and international students live in the campus hotel. This might be the biggest bedroom I'll ever have, with a huge (though rock-hard) bed, floor-to-ceiling bay windows sticking out to form a miniature balcony, a radiator on wheels and an air conditioner, and a big TV with 40 stations...none of which are in English. I was relieved beyond belief upon sight of my Western-style (i.e. not a squatter) toilet. The five of us on the sixth floor share two kitchens and two laundry washers, but we have to hang-dry. The poor students, however, must room with the same 4-6 roommates all four years in small quarters with hot water available only during certain hours, and no heat! And this is one of the wealthiest regions in China. Makes you thankful, to say the least.

The foreign teachers here have been supportive and caring beyond my wildest expectations. Jing and Rezen, the Filipinas, showed me around a lot at the beginning and have given me lots of useful advice. Neal, the head foreign teacher (who has the cutest seven-month-old baby you can imagine), has provided indispensable guidance and help. He's been here for six years and taught himself Chinese; his fluency is beyond impressive. All the other teachers are very friendly too, which makes our meetings fun. And the Finnish students (Jyri, Jouko, Jukka, Mikko, and Riku) have been great as well They range in age from 22 to 27, four engineering majors and one tourism major. I've become quite good friends with Jyri (pronounced like Yuri), who opted a few times to stay in Changzhou to integrate with the locals rather than join the others on trips around the country, as well as Mikko, who's emerged as a swell guy after starting off a bit on the wrong foot our first afternoon here when he stated that while he loves sports he finds baseball and bowling "too boring" (we've since gone bowling twice and he's actually a very eager learner). They're all nice and we've hung out, played poker, and gone out all together many times.

As for the locals, some of my braver sophomore students have been taking me up since the beginning of the semester for office hours over lunch or dinner. Some of them took Mikko, Jouko, and me to the big Halloween event at Changzhou Dinosaur Park. My freshmen invited me to their mid-autumn festival holiday party, and there are periodic English-practice events (called, throughout China, "English Corners") on campus. The international office got some student volunteers to show the Finns and me around the campus and city during our first week, and some friendships have stuck: one of those students took me around Suzhou, Tongli, and Wuxi during my October holiday, which was crucial because few people speak English in those places, and two invited me, Jyri, and Mikko to celebrate a scholarship at karaoke, known here as KTV. I've become pretty good friends with an adviser in the international office named Mr. Wang, and a senior on the ping pong team (I'm taking lessons!). Two teachers in their 60s at a nearby university got me in touch with one of their students, who took me to a basketball game there and then out to dinner with some of the team. And I think the local bowling alley staff and I are approaching first-name status (they let me bowl with my street shoes because the largest size they have is -- get this -- 11).

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