Work's catching up with me

Things are brightening up - my boss arrived and finally there's movement in the matter of getting me an office and maybe even an apartment. Although I might have to stick it out in the hotel for another week or two. Laundry is becoming an issue (everyone told me I should just buy new clothes here, but so far I haven't seen anything I would like to buy - I'm really not a fan of pink with glitter and laces or hearts and teddy bears or nonsense English words on a shirt, or if it is wearable it's some ridiculously expensive brand that would probably cost me less in North America; no sighting of a fabric store/tailor yet). But I have found out about a place on campus, where they wash a basket load full of clothes (standardized size) for 7yuan. Better then the hotel option, where every single article of clothing is around 10yuan.

Time to say something about the campus, isn't it? It's actually pretty nice, especially the northern half (the campus is divided by a road and a very communist looking gate in the middle). The southern half is pretty much only dorms and the cafeteria, the northern half is full of old, romantic buildings and neat little parks. Most of the parks are landscape architected, but there are also some lawns that would be perfect for practising Kung Fu on them... if it wasn't for the "keep off the grass" signs. Damn. Well, maybe I could pretend I have no idea what they're saying, as they're all in Chinese. As soon as I have my own place I will get a bike, which will make parks much more accessible. There are quite a few not too far away. Hopefully I'll post pictures soon, I finally managed to buy a USB cable for my camera, having left mine at home, how clever. I need to take some more pictures of the dorms though, they are quite - ehm - impressive. Obviously (from the laundry that's hanging in the windows), the dorms are single-gender only and don't come with much comfort. I have often seen people with wet hair (sometimes in their pyjamas), carrying a basket (they all have the same, there is apparently only one place here that sells them) with towel and toiletries across campus; so apparently they don't have showers in their building. Also, I've been told that 7 undergrads or 4 grads share a room, which only has enough space for the required number of bunkbeds and maybe one or two desks (that's why you see students sitting in empty class room to study and do homework). Another funny observation - at lunch and dinner time there are armies of thermoses assembling in front of the cafeteria, waiting to be refilled with hot water and carried back to the dorm. I once stayed in a hotel in Beijing, where they also delivered a thermos with hot water to your door every morning. But nowadays, these fancy places have electric kettles.

Work is interesting. At least I feel useful. I have a list of four of five grants to apply for, I've turned into THE money maker for the group :) One of them is called "Foreign Expert Grant" - don't I feel special now? :) It's about serious money, at least by Chinese standards. It's really impressive how far 5000yuan/month can get you if you don't need to travel out of the country or have to buy delicacies like cheese and chocolate. A plane ticket Nanjing - Beijing, for example, is about 600-1000yuan, the luxury sleeper car train is 700yuan (divide that all by 6 to get Canadian or roughly American dollars). Decent imported chocolate, on the other hand, costs 35yuan/100g. Belgian beer (Chimay) is 40yuan for one tiny bottle (but I won't complain, it's nice to know that I can get it!) and, funny aside, among the German beers they have Koestritzer Schwarzbier :) Maybe this is my chance to try it! Speaking of German food, I paid a visit to the famous German bakery, recommended by so many people (they actually made it a selling point of their job offer!) with the very German name "skyways bakery." I didn't try their bread, but - low and behold - they have German style cheesecake (Quarkkuchen) and sour cherries! They also sell cold cuts (not made there but plastic packaged) and there was a sign "fresh mozarella every Friday! Fresh cottage cheese every Saturday." Well, if I ever start craving Western food (apart from coffee and chocolate), I now know where to get my fix of liverwurst and the likes.

My boss has already sent me to three conferences, all still this year and in Shanghai. So I'm leaving next Wednesday for a for four day trip, hopefully by the time I get back there's news about my apartment (which will be totally empty anyways, thank goodness there's IKEA here). But until then I'm busy with preparing my first class and writing another grant proposal.

Sorry, no exciting news about food today. I had another cold, which kinda spoilt my appetite, so I mostly ate in the cafeteria. Today we went out for lunch because it was one of the student's birthdays, but instead of choosing a fancy restaurant (the professor was paying!) he chose a simple Wonton place. The wontons were pretty good (thin dough) and came in a tasty soup with some veggies or noodles. But the prof was almost disappointed that she got to spend less than 10yuan/person. She would have liked to go to the hotpot restaurant just south of the campus, which, incidentally, is a branch of "Little Sheep" that also has branches in North America. Some day I have to find out if the food is really the same.