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Published: March 15th 2011
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Hello again from China! The past couple days have been quite busy, but I will do my best to remember the highlights. Sunday was my day off work, and I took full advantage of it! I attended Bible Study in the morning, and there were many new people there who I had not met before. The little room we meet in was completely packed full, and some people even had to sit on the floor or on the random broken bunk bed that is in the room! Everyone was planning on going out for lunch afterwards, but I was short on time because I needed to get back to my dorm to pick up my bicycle for the afternoon's trek to the mountain. At 2:00, I met up with several people from my lab and some friends I had invited from Bible Study at the north gate of the university to bike to the mountains. It was a 30- to 40-minute bike ride across the countryside to get to the base of the mountain we were planning on going up. We were very blessed because it was gorgeous weather that day! It was a beautiful bike ride on winding country roads
without a car in sight the entire time.
Once we got to the base of the mountain, we parked our bikes and began the long climb up. Many people were out climbing that day, and at the various "check-points" throughout the mountain there were people from the neighboring villages selling corn on the cob and oranges. Frankly, corn on the cob really didn't appeal to me that much- if it were ice cream or cold drinks, then I might have been more tempted to buy! I was SO tired by the time we got to the top! At one point, I thought we had reached the top and I was so happy, and then someone said, "No, this is only the half-way point!" It was very hot too! One of the guys in our group was wearing his fur-trimmed winter coat the entire time, and I have no idea how he was surviving. When I asked him how he wasn't roasting, he said, "One of my super powers is the ability to be in a fire and still be cold." (When I asked him later what his other super powers are, he said riding his bike really fast and
mispronouncing English words, haha.) Anyway, we finally got to the top after a 3-hour climb, and we got there just in time as the sky started to get cloudy and it looked like it was going to rain at any moment. The climb down was much faster, but our group got a little split up, so when three of us arrived at the base of the mountain, we had to wait another 10-15 minutes until everyone else showed up. Then, we hopped back on our bikes and rode another 30 minutes back to campus. It ended up pouring that night, so it was a good thing we got back when we did! We stopped at a restaurant once we got back in the city and had a huge feast because we were all so hungry after so much exercise. My use of chopsticks is steadily improving, and it's a good thing because the food at the restaurant was some of the best I have had here and I would have been really sad if my slow eating would have prevented me from trying all the dishes we ordered. (Here, when you go out to most restaurants, you order as a
group and they bring out tons of dishes and put them on a circular glass disc that you spin around to get to the various food items.)
Last night (Monday), I went shopping with my American friend Angela in Nan Men and we ended up buying some new clothes that are more suitable for the climate here. I have reached a most exciting place in my learning of Chinese- I now know my numbers and how to say, 'How much does this cost?" This has opened up a world of shopping possibilities for me, and I don't look like so much of a fool when I go to the market to buy fruit and bread. While shopping, we stopped at my favorite street vendor, where I introduced her to the flat bread I have become obsessed with over here. It's so good, and it only costs one yuan (about 20 cents)! She is now hooked on it as well. Before coming here, I was warned about buying food from the street vendors as it often makes foreigners sick, but I haven't had any problems with it and I'm glad because it's so delicious!
Other interesting items to note...This
past weekend, I somehow managed to break my bike. I have no idea what I did, but it started to make this rattling noise that then turned into a clanking thunder that resounded every time I peddled. The bike still worked okay, but basically with each pedal, I was announcing my presence to everyone in a 300-foot radius and it was very embarrassing. Thus, on Monday afternoon, I had to take my bike to a repair shop, and, let me tell you, it was very hard to explain how my bike was broken with my very limited Chinese. I eventually had to get my friend LiYang to talk to the repairman for me. I think the repairman took pity on me, though, because he didn't even charge me for fixing my bike!
Yesterday, as I was riding my bike back to my dorm, another international student (from Ghana) rode up beside me and starting talking to me in Chinese, and I quickly told him I don't speak the language. He did not speak English, but he did speak Spanish, a language I took all throughout high school and a little in undergrad. I tried communicating with him in Spanish,
but he probably thought it was the most boring conversation in his life. I basically have the understanding of an infant in Chinese, a toddler in Spanish, and an actual adult in English. This thus makes me an extremely dull conversationalist in Chinese and Spanish, haha. I should probably stick to the language I know best so as to not put the entire population of Jinhua to sleep!
I am now back in my dorm room, bured under many covers because it is extremely cold out today. The weather here changes very fast and very often. On Sunday, I was wishing I had packed my shorts and a swimsuit, and today I sat in the lab, shivering the entire time. It's hard to predict what I should wear each day! I hope all is going wonderfully at home, and I am pleased to hear that CUPE did not go on strike and thus my fellow TAs' jobs are secure. Peace and blessings to you all from China!
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Tom
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did you
did you ride the carousel in the background there! or is it just a lame gazebo?