Another week goes by
Trip Start
Aug 23, 2008
1
25
26
Trip End
Dec 12, 2008
Beijing,
China
Friday, October 10, 2008
We had a meeting telling us about what was up with the Chinese roommates. We finally we got new roommates this week. I also had to learn a lot of new words for my vocabulary test on Monday.
Monday
We had to listen to the same lecture from Ai-laoshi that we had heard last night.
IES wanted to make sure that we really understood why following the rules is so important this year. It is because this specific roommates program is brand new. It is really special because we are with the best students in the department instead of being with people that bought their way into the school.
Tuesday:
Today after Lit class I had to run to the apple store so that my apple could get fixed. I wish I had gotten a photo of the rush hour traffic because it was really insane and dangerous to be trying to cross. When I got to the apple store they told me they could fix my apple while I waited for them to fix it. This made me really happy but I had to run back across Beijing so that I could meet my new roommate.
When we got there I was a little bit late for the mixer but it was ok because I was able to meet my roommate. She gave me the impression that she was really quiet right off the bat (so far that impression has not been wrong even though I have not seen her much at all.)
Wednesday
was a crazy day. I woke up and had to move rooms to the entire other end of the hall. Once all the construction is done I will be really close to the kitchen and the laundry machine but for now I still need to go down to the other end of the hall.
After I moved I had to go buy my train tickets for the weekend because this weekend I am going to go back north to Chengde! ^^ Yay! But it was an adventure. I found the shop with minimal problems. But once I started to try to buy the tickets I stated to have problems. The problems was I thought he was asking me one question but he was in fact asking me a different question. I managed to get my train tickets with minimal problems once a nice Chinese person and translated what he was saying to into Chinese I could understand. But I got my tickets going both directions.
After that I had to go back to see doctor Barry again about my foot. I am beginning to get really tired of dealing with my foot. But I need to deal with it. He treated my foot. I got a really quick dinner at restaurant. Then I stated to try to go home. I just parked myself on the bus and waited to get on one. At this point a guy came up and started talking to me. Foreign guys are kinda annoying in China. Ok well the first bus came and it so full it didn't let anyone one. The guy told me what bus he wanted and it came and went and the guy was still at the bus stop telling me that I should take a cab. Then the second 967 bus came and it was also so full that no one could get one. Now there was a long wait for the bus. The guy kept talking to me (I was giving minimal responses but he just didn't get that I didn't really want to talk. Finally the third of my buses came. I jumped on the bus. By the time I finally got back to school it was like 2 and a half hours since I had stared trying to get home.
After that I studied for a while. Then I talked on Skype with my mom, Chris and Kristen.
Thursday
I went to classes as the day progressed things got worse. The entirety because I thought I was getting another kidney infection. Plus the fact that I could not read the practice test at all.
My Thursday afternoon class is my Chinese Lit class. While I admit I had not read the text as that point in time, that class still felt like a waste of time. My Chinese Lit teacher spends a lot of time teaching politics. But at the same time he does not seem to know the history that he is trying to teach the class. As I am reading the texts we are discussing but the teacher is saying that the texts are helping to push political changes that had already happened when the books were published. My Lit teacher said two things one Thursday that made me really unhappy to be in class. 1."I would rather teach a politics class." 2."China needs Jesus Christ." (I'm not good with a teacher that is trying to preach his religion to the class this is not the first time that it has felt that the teacher is saying that Christianity is better than traditional culture)
After class I really was worried that I was getting another kidney infection so right after class I decided to go to the doctor/hospital. Well I jumped on my bus. My bus started on the way. Shortly after I got on the bus the bus ticket person started telling the entire bus that we needed to get off. I did understand that I needed to get off but I had not heard why. The Chinese people made sure that I changed buses but then they wanted to know where I was going. I know where I was going but I also know that I can not say the name so they started to try to find someone that spoke English and knew where I was going.
That put me sitting next to the second guy that was talking at me while I didn't want anything to them. He kept talking to me and being the nice person that I am I kept responding. As time passed I got more annoyed and really wanted to get of the bus. The guy decided to focus on the fact that my reader was out of date. My teacher is telling us how the culture has changed as time has passed since the book was written but he didn't believe that I really just needed to study my test. He finally got off the bus and I was able to study in peace until I arrived at my stop.
Then I walked the two blocks to the hospital. I was hoping that somehow a normal doctor would be in but sadly I was out of luck and had to go to the ER. They did all the normal tests and everything came back normal. The doctor had no way to explain my symptoms but said I was free to go and travel this weekend.
