All settled in
Trip Start
Aug 09, 2006
1
9
35
Trip End
May 2007
Yantai, China
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Buying the bikes
. I called her right after the tutor and so far we've met twice and have just hung out, speaking an extremely interesting mix of French, Chinese, and English. Her English isn't as strong as my tutor's, and her French is just beginning level, so we really get to practice Chinese a lot. I had my first case of food poisoning on Sunday, which meant I spent the day in bed and lying there I realized that even laying alone in my room, with my eyes closed, it is impossible to forget that I am in China. The sounds that float through the open window are as strong as the smells from the public toilets. First of all, I woke up to a less than cheery rendition of taps being played from the bell tower (well.. is it ever cheery?). Considering the pain in my gut, I felt like they were playing it exclusively for me.
After that, the bell tower played the recorded tune that plays every hour, on the hour, from 6am to 10pm. This tune has quickly gotten very old. i don't know the name of it, but i've heard a lot of clocks playing it in the US too. I wonder if its composer had any idea that it would echo hourly around the world when he wrote it. Hm..
Almost as soon as the mechanical chiming faded, my ears were assaulted by the robust shouts of the freshman military drill teams. I think that was when I groaned out loud. The freshman have several mandatory days dedicated to military training, and on these days the soccer fields, basketball courts, and every inch of open space is filled with track pants and camouflage t-shirt clad freshmen marching halfheartedly and yelling loudly enough to make up for their less than enthusiastic facial expressions
Campus sunset
. Something about hearing them yell that day made me feel a bit better, because then I just started thinking about how I, stomach cramps and all, was not outside marching in circles at 6 AM (haha.. I gave that one up after high school band camp). Just when I had almost started drifting off to sleep again, the clang of a pickaxe shook me from dreamland. On Sunday? Yes. They've decided to tear up the pavement outside of my window using one pickaxe and 2 shovels, and this work has been going on from 7am to 6pm 7 days a week. I heard one of the workers hack an impressively strong louggie(sp?) onto the sidewalk (really, if you haven't heard a Chinese man spit before, you really can't understand. I think it's an art form for some, and no one but the foreigners seem to flinch when someone does it). At that point i dragged myself from bed, grabbed my i pod, and hoped that the noisy bubble tea lady didn't start yelling as well (i'm yet to understand, but it sounds like she's calling for the calvary). Right now, someone is outside practicing what sounds like a tuba and drum duet. Kinda catchy actually. Ok time to get back to studying!
PS Andrew, thanks for the email last week. I will formally apologize for publicly bashing you on my blog, but it did get you to email!
