Moved in!

Three days of endless fireworks! Man, I hope it's over now. They started at 9 in the morning and occurred all day long. Usually I only heard them and didn't see much (and yes, I'm pretty sure it wasn't gunfire, judging from all the people 22 floors down going on about their daily business... or maybe they're just really used to rattling gunfire here - who knows?). I think today was the last official day of the holidays, although classes only resume October 9th. We make up for missed days on one Saturday and one Sunday though.

And I moved into my new place! Got the water heater working on Sunday (turns out the wiring in this building isn't really made for the new 16 Amperes appliances, but they told me not to worry, many people have water heaters (so in other words - some don't and also go to the public showers like the poor students? oh my) and so far the building hasn't burnt down... what a comfort), assembled my IKEA furniture (only one piece is bent out of shape!), even got a fridge and washer. Check it out:

my_apartment_1

I'm very happy with my bed and living room (the view is stunning, especially at night), but the kitchen... man, I don't know what to do about that. The sink looks like it's made for bleeding not so small animals. I don't need all stainless steel luxury... but really, something a little bit nice? So I actually want to cook instead of eating out three times a day? This has become a really terrible habit. But the canteen is so cheap! And the portions are human size small, unlike in restaurant, where they think something is seriously wrong with you if you eat all by yourself anyway.

Had quite a freak-out today. I was about to go to bed and wanted to rinse my tea cup (good girl that I am, I was drinking tea and studying Chinese deep into the night), when a huge - I don't want to think the word, so let's just say - bug winked at me from the sink. Holy F***, that guy was monstrous! As long as my thumb, without exaggeration. And fast. But I got it, squashed it and - just to make sure it doesn't come back from the dead and creeps out of my garbage bin - threw it 22 floors into the abyss. Jeeze, that was a shock. Now I'm all hyper tense and need a beer (thanks to my shiny new fridge, it's cold - a Yanjing (from Beijing), which is kind of nice, a bit sweeter than Qingdao, but Qingdao makes so many different labels, it's hard to compare anyways). I really hope this bugger came in because I left the kitchen window open and it's not going to happen again. Man, I live so high up and the apartment has been empty for so long (I don't even have food around!), I was hoping they wouldn't notice me. Anyways, I'm not going to take chances - tomorrow I buy roach traps.

I already seem to have developed the Chinese habit of greeting people by stating the obvious :) Today when I went for a little Kung Fu on the physics lawn (yes, you can all envy me, I can still practice outside and this lawn is really awesome! It's like walking on carpet. I just have to be careful to not make a roll into one of the sprinklers, ehem) I ran into one of my students (the smart kid in the class actually, he was the only one who could properly define a vector space) or rather he ran into me - he was jogging. Not very Chinese is it? So, he said "hi" and I said "you're running" :) He also gets all the jokes I make in class, so I kinda think he's lived abroad. I have to be careful not to make him the standard, otherwise I will lose everyone else.

So far I haven't made good on my promise of talking about my class, have I? So, I'm teaching "geometry and topology" (again) and although the class was announced too late to make it into the curriculum, someone posted it on some kind of online forum (and said something about the professor being "a beauty" - at least that's what my boss claims, I haven't verified this due my poor Chinese) and my first class was packed! There were 42 people, maybe two more and they would have had to stand. In case you're used to 200 people lectures and don't get my excitement - this is a graduate course, intended for maybe 10 students. So, I gave them my usual "I'm tough" rundown :P "If you did not do the reading, don't bother to show up to class" and "If you think this is an easy course, because there is no exam, you're wrong here" Ehem. With the proper German accent - very intimidating (or so I like to believe :P) But I kinda think it fell on deaf ears, at least non-understanding ears. When I noticed all the blank faces I asked them "DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM SAYING?" and they all laughed and said yes, but when I asked "DO YOU ALWAYS UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM SAYING?" they shook their heads. So, I have to slow down an awful lot and use simpler vocabulary. Whew. It's quite a challenge. They're also intimidated to ask questions because of the language barrier. But I think I'm getting the class to a manageable size. The second time "only" 22 showed up and only 14 did the homework. Thankfully, I have a TA :) Don't need to grade myself. The most interesting experience so far was when I handed out a little quiz in the first class - I just wanted to know what the baseline of knowledge is they have. And it was kinda humorous - the last question was "what's the best food in Nanjing and where do I find it?" But still, they took it so seriously! There had been a lot of chatting and giggling before, suddenly they all went quiet and really went to work. And the best part - some tried to cheat! I mean, what kind of favor are you doing yourself if you pretend to know more than you do? And although I had said "when you're done, you can leave," I basically had to kick them out. They thought it was incredibly funny, that I just ended the class like that - let everyone leave when they want to. And nobody wanted to be the first to get up. Later somebody told me that no-one wanted to miss anything - maybe there would still be something interesting said at the end? But what about those 20 who never came back? What were they waiting for? That the promised beauty finally puts in an appearance? :) I have to say though (and yes, you bunch can feel flattered) that the level of the students' math education here is not up to Montreal's. But some of them are actually undergrads. And I think they are willing to put in a lot of hard work (and yes, you should be ashamed now for all the sloppy homework assignments you handed in!)

To end on a funny note - amusing signs I spotted

funny signs

And don't worry... there won't be as many blog updates as soon as my Chinese class starts again :)