Pictures!

Today we're having another beautiful fall day... but just in time for November it's supposed to get cold (below 15C) next week. On the down side, it's a bit rainy, but that rain was much needed because during the last couple of weeks without any drop of water it had become so dry, that it was incredibly dusty. The air quality here is really getting to me. If you look at this you'll know what I mean

my_apartment_2

But to be fair I have to say this was mostly fog, I took the pictures this morning after the rain when it was warm and wet. On some days I can smell the coal dust though. And if I leave my windows open the whole day, the floor collects enough dust to grow dust bunnies within a day or two. Oh well, I never smoked, so I'll make up for it with Chinese city air.

I know some of you must be sick of my kitchen stories, but for those who aren't here is the before-and-after photo line.

kitchen_project

Tonight I'll put it through the first real test (I only made simple things for myself so far, still need to stock up on supplies). I promised my language partner some European food. Now, I found pasta and olive oil, but no cream or cheese that deserves that name. So, it's just gonna be mushrooms and bacon with lots of olive oil I guess. Making Italian desserts without cream is also somewhat a challenge... mh, I could make Zabaione, I suppose, but what liquor do I add? I don't think sake is such a good match...

No more fear

I have started socializing with my neighbors. There is this one little girl, she's maybe 6 years old, who often runs up to me and asks "do you have time to play?" According to her mother, she wants to learn English from me, but I am not sure how much of that isn't wishful thinking from the mother's side. And my, the mother is nosy! She already walked into my apartment once and remarked what a big fridge I had! Way too big for one person! And recently I let the little girl into my apartment, she kept bringing me fruit and other snacks, and of course I also had to let the mother in. And she was absolutely not shy to inspect my furniture, test the softness of my mattress and ask how much I paid for this and that. This lack of privacy is something I have to get used to, especially after six years in North-America. I don't really mind though, I don't perceive it as unfriendly. Even in my Kung Fu class (yes, I finally found a school), where I am clearly the attraction and people come and stare at me or eavesdrop when I talk to the teacher. And it's so funny how offering a piece of information (like "I teach physics at Nanjing University") creates a satisfied murmur in the crowd :) Of course, another reason they stare is that I am making a complete fool of myself there. The students are mostly kids, with beginners as young as 5 and the majority younger than 12. Some of the older kids can do pretty amazing stuff, they are all extremely flexible, can do splits, somersaults, jumps... one guy can even jump and kick while he's flying through the air (like in the movies!), but since I am a beginner there, I have to march in one line with the 5-year olds. Well, there's not so much of a march or a line, usually they run from one end of the hall to the other or roll around on the floor. It's kind of impossible to copy what they are doing (well, I could just wave my arms like mad and topple over, but I don't think that would get me very far), so I have to send a helpless look to Teacher Xu (he's not a 师父 "shifu" just a 老师 "laoshi" which might be an expression of the fact that this is not a very traditional school, it's more a sports club, but I also find it very down to earth - I have to say I am slightly annoyed with Westerners who run martial arts schools and call themselves(!) "Sifu", even if they don't speak a word of Chinese), then he drops his bamboo stick that he uses to keep the kids at bay and shows me which combination of jump, kick and slap your foot with your hand I am supposed to do.

On weekends training gets really crowded and all the parents sit around watching their kids and me - the new attraction! Good thing I had my ego already broken, I guess :P Once I had a twelve year old showing me a sweeping move, it was quite humbling to have her tell me to keep my back straight :) But man, did she have flawless stances and posture! That this is much harder for me because I have to move about three times her weight was of course not obvious to her. So, I was pretty much dead when she was done with me. In the meantime her mother stopped by and wanted to go home saying "you've been here nearly two hours!" to which she replied "but I'm teaching her!" (and yes, I actually understood all of that in Chinese, but talking to teacher Xu I need a translator, which means I talk to someone else in Chinese and they repeat it (with the right accent) to him... oh well, I am used to being treated like an idiot by now, thankfully that doesn't hold me back from talking to strangers anymore). One of my students found out about this school and sent me the address, which was still hard to find. I biked around quite a bit in this huge sports complex; there are tennis courts, basketball courts, old ladies doing some kind of dance in a big parking lot, table tennis and badminton halls... but i couldn't find the 武术馆 "wushuguan", until someone I asked pointed upwards; then it occurred to me to check out this seemingly abandoned sports "theater" (if you're from East Germany think "Kulturpalast") - turns out it's not so abandoned at all, they are using the lobby for martial arts! well, it would be a waste not to make use of the parquet, wouldn't it? It's really funny, there are punching bags hanging from the open stairways, and below people train Kung Fu or kick boxing.

The first time I went I just wanted to check this place out, but I happened to get there just before class started and after a little chat with the teacher he agreed to let me try (I got a little speech that I have to be willing to train the basics and will not start off with forms - at least I think that's what he was saying :) so I think they are serious about what they are doing) and was apparently satisfied with what he saw. He says that I should train the basics (what they do is slightly different from what I learned before, much more about flexibility and jumping, it's a much more open style than) and in two months or so we'll see. He says he would teach me the Chinese Lohan style. They train six times a week, so this could be potentially intense, but I certainly won't go there every day. So far I went four times in one week. It's a bit weird, I haven't quite figured out what *their* style is, but when I asked one of the older students he said they all do something different. At first I had no clue what he meant by that, but then I saw that some of the adults who hang out there (and most of the time chat and smoke) from time to time take one of the kids to the side and teach them something individually. There is this one girl for example, she's learning Tai
Chi, and to me her moves already look pretty close to perfect, but they keep criticizing her. I still don't know what to think of those guys... they always show up in sports gear, but I have never seen them actually do anything! Teacher Xu, who is the oldest, runs the training with the little ones, and he's still pretty flexible for his age (I think he's between 60 and 70, not sure). He still makes a flawless split and his posture is really good. Although I am sometimes reminded of ballet by the kind of steps and jumps we are doing :)

Remember me complaining about fireworks? Well, they actually never stop. People are getting married every day and apparently close to my language school, because every day we have to pause class for a couple of minutes because of the mayhem outside. And that's not the only one of course. Sometimes I also see fireworks in the evenings. They really love them!

Kitchen Stories

7:30 - I get an SMS from my boss (they asked me for a Chinese speaking contact when I bought the kitchen) - the IKEA people are supposed to come in an hour

8:30 - I got my breakfast and am now waiting

9:05 - They're here! Three men in blue overalls (but not IKEA blue - they're contractors) invade my apartment and start to rip open IKEA boxes. Very thoughtful - they put blue plastic bags over their shoes to protect my floor. They seem very professional, brought cordless electric screwdrivers, jigsaws, a level and tons of other stuff

9:24 - All 4 base cabinets assembled. To those who complain IKEA furniture is a hassle to assemble, I say to you "that's just because you don't do it for a living!" Two of them (one is clearly the boss) are really fast, the other one seems new to this. Now they're cutting holes for the pipes into the back of the cabinets

9:32 - Oh no, one of the electric screw drivers' battery is empty! Will they make it to lunch despite this setback?

10:17 - All base cabinets sawed to fit and installed. Slow guy turns out too incompetent to adjust two cabinets to the same height. They sent him out into the hallway to unpack doors

10:28 - They're starting to work on the countertop. The blue shoe bags are seeing the first holes

10:32 - Incompetent guy figured out that there are two doors that don't seem to go anywhere. I explain to the boss I want them beneath my stove. Turns out they don't quite fit! Also, they have the hinges on the wrong side, they're made for hanging cabinets

10:35 - The boss doesn't give up so easily, he's now taken to the impossible task to get those doors under my stove somehow

10:42 - The countertop is in place, now guy number 2 is starting to work on cutting a big hole into it for the sink

10:57 - The boss seems to have a plan for making these impossible doors fit; at least he's developed activity with some leftover plinth (the board that goes around the base of the cupboards)

11:08 - Indeed, he screwed some plinth to the inside walls under the stove; now the doors would fit, but what is he going to do about the hinges being wrong????

11:18 -Ah, they also brought a circular cutter, he actually made new holes for them - the size they use to cut a hole into the countertop to install the water tab also fits for hinges! My dining room has turned into a sawdust strewn battle field, they have even taken over the hallway outside

11:22 The blue shoe bags have dissolved in the heat of the battle into rags

11:25 - Guy number two has installed sink and water tab. I am quite amazed at the almost perfect circle he managed to cut, while incompetent guy can't even hold the countertop straight - they seem to be getting annoyed with him

11:35 - Yay! It seems I can actually get my custom-made doors; maybe he could have made the ugly insides facing the bottom, not the top, but well...

11:50 - The cabinets are anchored to the walls, now the drawers are being installed. The boss is angry because someone got grout on a door

11:55 - It's past Chinese lunch time, the tension is rising

12:05 - Incompetent guy has to scrape the grout off the door

12:10 - Putting on the final touches

12:25 - Installing handles on doors and drawers while incompetent guy is sweeping the floor... someone should tell him that sweeping up a step doesn't work so well

12:45 - Done! And they're gone! And I have a shiny new kitchen!

13:45 - Sawdust is a bitch to clean! I need to go out get some fresh air and clear my lungs... wait, I live in China! Darn...

It must be fall, because most of the girls have taken to wearing short skirts with high boots... a nice sight (certainly better than the fills and laces that dominated the summer, also the colors have changed to much less pink... apart from the Russian girls in my language school - who ever spread the lie that pink hot pants with leopard print and matching suspenders is an acceptable fashion statement should be severely punished). I'd totally follow that trend (well if I had such boots, but more importantly) if it wasn't still friggin' 27 degrees out there! The Americans on the other hand are still wearing tank tops and flip flops. Speaking of which... how is it that Chinese girls wear ultra-short skirts but never show any cleavage? Most shirts are made in a way to hide whatever is going on in the chest area - buttoned up to the neck and a huge bow or some other frizzly stuff on the chest. So, when I walk around in a tank top I get lots of stares (disapprovingly from elderly women)... eliminating them from my wardrobe would mean tossing half of what I can wear at these temperatures, so... stare away!

I also found out why nobody here bothers to lock their bikes to a fence or railing. Apparently people here don't steal parts. They only steal bikes if they can pick the lock. So I was told by my students and, well, also experienced first hand... I am lucky, I've still got my bike since I invested in a good lock... but by trying to pick it they destroyed the locking mechanism and I could for the hell of it not get it to open. I had to go to one of these little bike repair shops that are at pretty much every street corner and had to have it broken. It was impressive. Even with excessive brutal force it still took a good twenty minutes to open it. Of course, this guy also sells locks... which makes me wonder if he is the one going around destroying locks so people buy his (I wouldn't be surprised if he has a spare key to the lock I bought from him, but maybe that comes in handy if I ever lose my key). This happened on the second day I had my bike! I had locked it in front of the language school. They have a guard there in the mornings who watches the bikes, but I guess he was taking a nap in the afternoon. In any case, I am not taking my bike there in the afternoon anymore, which is only once a week anyways. If I have to buy a new lock every week, it will very soon exceed the price of the bike.

This weekend I'm having my kitchen installed... exciting. First I have someone tearing out the old sink and demolishing the little walls it sits on. This guy, 王师傅 Wang shifu (where 师傅 "shifu" here means someone with technical skills, like a handyman or cab driver; 师父 - also "shifu" is respectful for teacher, like a Taichi or Kungfu instructor) is quite funny. He already drilled holes for me to hang up my shelves and refused to take any money, because he is a friend of my boss. So I plan on slipping him some money this time together with a bottle of brutal liquor (the shelves in the supermarket are flowing over with this clear 50% and more rice-schnapps, there are so many varieties, it's mind boggling). He can't refuse a gift, can he? He always treats me a bit like an idiot, I mean, clearly, anyone who doesn't speak Chinese is an idiot! Instead of talking to me, he starts to mimes things when I don't understand. It doesn't help that he has this accent where "s" sounds exactly like "sh." Many people do that here. I really don't understand how they can communicate. Chinese already has so many homophones, why add a few hundred more by not distinguishing between "z,c,s" and "zh, ch, sh"? It's insane! In the end I usually catch his meaning, but he doesn't believe me (although he even wrote it down!), so I have to call Lingfei to translate. Turns out he told me exactly what I thought he did. So, I'm looking forward to an entertaining evening today.

My Chinese is making big progress. I have also found a language partner. It's not quite fair, because her English is already much better than my Chinese (and I feel like my English has deteriorated in the last couple of months, I'm starting to use some phrases I pick up from Chinese that don't exactly have the right Grammar!) but I think it's going to help a lot. Usually I only practise speaking with the people in my class whose accent is just as bad as mine. It's easy to pronounce the tones correctly in a single word, but to string them together to sentences fluently is a challenge we consistently fail to live up to. Liu Xing, my language partner, is the first Chinese with siblings I meet who was born after the introduction of the one-child policy. So I asked her what punishment her parents had to face and she said they only paid a small fine and probably lost some job opportunities, but they didn't experience it as a real hardship. And she never felt discriminated or encountered any problems because of that. She thinks today the punishment would be much more severe though. And another interesting fact about this topic - in Jiangsu province couples are allowed to have more than one child if they both don't have any siblings. But that's not true for everywhere in China. Oh, and ethnic minorities are also exempt from this rule, I was told.

Meeting Liu Xing was fun. My writing teacher introduced us and we met in this western-style cafe. They wanted to have dinner, but ordered only sweet stuff! Apart from a salad. But in true Chinese fashion, all the food arrived at once and we ended up eating salad, cheesecake, crepes with ice cream and grilled cheese sandwich all at once :) I just can't understand why one would want to eat mediocre western style food when one can get really good Chinese food, usually for less money. And I firmly believe that me eating Chinese food three times a day is what has prevented me from catching the virus everyone else in my Chinese class came down with. Must be the soy milk :) But Liu Xing is really interested in Europe, so I guess I should cook some European food for her some day - when I have my awesome, awesome kitchen! :) Can't wait. Still need to buy a wok and a cleaver. I have been putting of this purchase. It's an important decision that should not be rushed. I mean, we're going to spend a whole year together! I don't want some cheap impostor in my kitchen...

That poor duck!

Disclaimer: Vegetarians might want to skip the first paragraph.

I caved in. After almost two months here and my not very fruitful attempts to befriend some of the Chinese Graduate students (I think they are a bit scared of me) I started to socialize with the other foreign students from my Chinese class. Oh my. I had forgotten how depressing it is to go out for dinner with people who cannot tell good from bad food even when they are chewing it! It was one of the guy's birthdays and he wanted to go for Peking duck. A noble endeavor, no question, but I should have been skeptical when he told me the price - only 50yuan for a whole roast duck? It's twice the price pretty much everywhere I had it before. And sure enough, what arrived at our table was a poor excuse of a Peking duck. The skin was not crispy at all! It was just fat. It was actually unpleasant to eat. They clearly had neither roasted it at high enough temperature nor inflated the skin before baking. They didn't even slice it at our table! It arrived half-cold. The other dishes tasted mostly like vinegar - the German version of sweet&sour. But pretty much everyone praised the food, apart from a couple of girls who were grossed out by the fat. Even the French guys who had done most of the ordering! What happened to the good old cliche' that the French are food snobs?! Well, they were from Marseilles...

So, that was kind of sad. Incidentally, I didn't really find anything to talk about with my table neighbors. Them not being foodies wasn't the only reason, it might also have been the fact that I don't have much in common with 20-year old Americans. Well, we were actually a pretty mixed group - 20 people in total (my class has only 14 students but they brought friends and friends' friends), with a large number of South-Americans (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Columbia) and North-Americans, but also some French, Vietnamese, Nigerian/British and one Chinese - our teacher. Unfortunately, I ended up at the table with the "kids." And afterwards we went to a - you'll never guess - Karaoke bar! It was like the ones I had only seen in Japanese movies so far. It's not a bar, looks more like a hotel (and yes, there were windows in the doors, thanks for asking) and you rent a room with big-screen TV and karaoke machine by the hour. It was kinda cool to see one of these places from the inside, but the party didn't really get going until the loudest girl got drunk and some of the "cool" kids showed up who had not been to the dinner. Well, I left when the girl dancing on the table started to kick over beer bottles. I am clearly too old for this. It's funny though, that I find the American and Chinese kids both immature or infantile, but in totally different ways. Ok, I might be totally off with this, but somehow the Chinese seem more innocent. Maybe that's just because I don't understand most of their jokes or because I only know nerdy physics students :) But I think I can relate to them better than to binge-drinking college kids... What annoys me most about them is that they even bring their attitude to class, so they talk loudly in the back if the teacher doesn't have enough authority. And she's this skinny little Sichuanese girl who always wears clothes 3 numbers too large and has this tiny, tiny voice... so, her class is mayhem. The other teacher (we have one for speaking and one for reading/writing) manages to excise some authority over them. It feels like middle school sometimes. Honestly, I think my high school was more sensible than that. I mean, the kids here pay a lot of money (I think 9000yuan/semester) for this Chinese course. What's the point to come to class if you are not paying attention? I swear, one of these days I am going to strangle the Vietnamese kid who is always on his cell phone during class!

It's the total opposite of my Chinese students who are so eager and disciplined. They call me "Miss A..." and "teacher A..." (I didn't bother to teach them the pronunciation of my last name, thankfully my first name is easily transcribed into pinyin) and they always thank me when I answer one of their questions :) I think it's going well. They did really well on the first homework. I think the only problem they have is understanding my English (and I don't think it's my German accent, as one American guy suggested to me... no idea what he's talking about! accent? What accent?!) and getting over their fear to ask questions in English. But they can read English alright. So, good thing I'm using a text book. Otherwise this would probably be a disaster :)

cozy_afternoon

Yesterday I had a fun day... where does a European go when she feels homesick? Exactly - IKEA! :) Isn't it awesome how it works the same pretty much everywhere in the world? Delivery always costs 50bucks... in other words it's a sixth of the North-American price here. And labour is of course cheap, so when I have my brand-new kitchen installed next week, the labour is only a small fraction of the total price. Yes, yes, I know... what does she need a kitchen for if she is only there for a year? Call me crazy, call me a snob, but if I can't cook I am not happy. So, about $500 (or 3000yuan) for one year seems like not such a bad investment. It's the cheapest IKEA version that probably millions of people have in their homes, but well... it beats the butcher-shop ambiance my kitchen has now.

Another funny story from my Chinese class... we came across the word Taiwan in one lesson (translated as "one of China's provinces") and our teacher asked us if we knew about the history of Taiwan. The loud girl said "yeah, they are those who hate all Chinese!" and our teacher got really flustered, saying "well, I don't think that is quite true" and then went on telling us about the war with the Japan and the Guomintang and the civil war with the communists, which, as far as I can tell with my so-far pretty limited Chinese history knowledge, was pretty much identical with the Western version of the story. I still ave this huge Chinese history book on my shelf, but haven't made it past the Warring States Period and the first kingdom around 0AD yet. So, my knowledge is limited to the Lonely Planet's 20page summary, but even that is more than a lot of pepople here have (apart from this one guy in my class who wants to do a Master's in East-Asian history). And even more shockingly - at least to me - some of them still take a fork to the restaurant!

Back in the saddle and random kindness

I got a bike! Yay! It even has gears, not that one really needs those in Nanjing, but I am so used to using them, I didn't want to go back to a one-gear only bike (frankly, I don't know if I ever had one since I was 7 or so), and it was less than 600yuan. So far I'm rather happy with it, but I only took it out for a ride once. Funny thing, all the bikes here are sold with stands. There are usually designated "parking spots" for bikes. Not like in Montreal, where bikes are locked to every railing, lamp post or whatever is available. No wonder there are so many bikes stolen. The guy in the store I bought the bike at looked majorly confused when I wanted the biggest lock they had. He said it would be way too big for this bike. Well, yes, if I just want to lock the tire to the frame, but isn't tat kind of retarded? When I tried to lock my bike in front of a store to it's railing, I was told off by a security guard. So, it's gonna be a challenge to start a new trend here :)

Just about time, I get back in the saddle; it's starting to get cold here (I would have thought after three Canadian winters I'd never say this again, but 22 degrees feels kind of chilly), I have even seen some brown leaves on the ground, but there's no overall foliage change. It's just that every tree decides to throw off a few leaves. That's fall. And sunshine! Today the air was so clear, I could see the TV tower close to my boss' house as if it was just across the street.

Today I had a genuine shopping experience :) Man, I can't believe I have been spending all that money in the supermarket! I went to a home depot kind of store, because I needed screws and the likes, and above it there is a real Chinese-style mall. Instead of the western open-floor concept, it feels more like a market or bazaar. Every little stand has their own 2 or 3 walls. It's kinda crammed and hard to orient oneself in, but so cheap! I got a blow dryer for 20yuan! And the kind of foil I am using to "decorate away" the worst of my furniture costs less than a quarter of the supermarket price. Also got a bathroom shelf for about a quarter of the home depot price. Sure, it will rust soon and the foil doesn't stick as well as the other one... but I am not building a home for the next 20 years. So, whatever. It was a lot of fun. People there clearly don't get to see many westerners, I was not harassed at all with "hello lady!" (unlike in the fabric mall or western style malls downtown) instead there was a lot of giggling and hand-waving in the negotiation process (actually, most of the time I was so taken aback by the low prices that I couldn't even bring myself to haggle). I now also know where to get cheap kitchen ware. They actually had woks that are round at the bottom, whereas the supermarket only sells the flat-bottom variety. I wonder why - most people do cook with gas, as far as I could observe so far.

Speaking of cooking with gas - I think I mentioned the jet-engine style burners on my gas stove? Well, it turns out they are way too big to use the little espresso maker I bought at IKEA (for an insane amount of money - 250yuan?!), it doesn't even fit on the stove. I had been looking for a metal inset to use on top of the big grid, but no luck so far. I was told they only sell these together with stoves, not alone. So when I saw one in the home depot store today, I made sad eyes at the salesperson and explained that I don't need a stove I just need "this" (most of my communication consists of pointing and saying 这个"zhe ge" (this) and 那个 "na ge" (that)) and I asked her 可以不可以 "keyi bu keyi" (can I?) buy only this. She said she can't sell only this, but - looking left and right making sure nobody hears her - she can give it to me for free (good thing my Chinese vocabulary includes the term 送 "song" (to give as a gift)! She made me turn around and stuffed it into my backpack :) I thought that was pretty awesome. And the best thing - it even fits! I can now make coffee at home (well, still need to buy espresso coffee, but I know that one can get Lavazza here). As long as I can afford it, I will probably still have my daily espresso at my favourite cafe though (it is also the only place at the moment where I can circumvent the great firewall and post this, for example). It would be sad to give up one of the two places where they know me :) The other one being the bun shop I go to almost every morning for a stuffed steamed bun (with meat, veggies or sweet bean paste) and a soy "milk," which doesn't even remotely resemble milk and has nothing to do with what they sell in the west as soy milk - it's simply delicious. Tastes like soy beans, not like sugar and additives. Also, the consistency is not as artificially creamy. I always end up buying from the same woman (people here really work every day!) and today she asked me if I am here for long term. So, I'm getting somewhere. Maybe in a couple of months I can have an actual conversation with those people.

I also got to try the German bakery's bread today, because I bought a loaf for my boss. It's really not bad. So, even if I had an oven, I wouldn't be tempted to bake my own bread here. But to be honest, I prefer the steamed buns :)

So, that was my Sunday. Tomorrow it's back to the regular schedule of Chinese class, grant writing, giving lecture, doing physics (not sure where to fit that in yet!). Happy Canadian Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you're having some ducks instead of turkey ;)

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 :)

Mooncakes and politics

Happy mid-autumn festival everyone! Fireworks! Everywhere, all the time, even in bright daylight! Today we eat mooncakes (man, they're so expensive! I think mostly because of the fancy packaging. Chinese are the masters of kitschy boxes, I might just stay here forever) and gaze at the moon as it rises over the Yangzi... Sorry my blog has been all about me, me, me lately (well, it is my blog) and not about China so much. I guess I haven't gotten out all that much yet. The commute hotel-Chinese class-office-canteen-office-canteen-hotel didn't take me out of campus apart from my occasional trip to the supermarket for water, beer and yogurt (need to get my calcium somehow - the yogurt is actually pretty decent and there are way more milk products on the shelf now than 2 years ago). Right now I'm pretty broke, but with my next paycheck I'll get a bike and hopefully get out more. It doesn't exactly help that I'm moving even closer to the office, I suppose :) My walk is now cut from 5 to 3 minutes.

A couple of days ago I managed to invite some of the students (who had helped me re-arrange my furniture, although they're all fragile little creatures; I think it's them who need a Kung Fu school more urgently than me!) out for a beer. Well, Fanta and beer, only one of them drank and turned bright red after the first sip :) But we got talking and it was quite interesting to get their view on China. It's amazing (at least to me) how critical the cultural revolution and Mao are portrayed everywhere. I mean, even on the State media. I don't think we in the west have a good understanding of the relationship the Chinese have with their past. They can perfectly well understand the cruelty and stupidity that happened under Mao, but still admire him as the father of China. And it's not just about "he did 30% right and 70% wrong." But it doesn't compare to Germans saying "not everything was bad under the Nazis" either. I don't really know how to express it, but I think there's less of a black/white attitude here. Or if there is white, there's also always black, you know, yin-yang. I also think it's a matter of pride. The Chinese know the cultural revolution and great leap forward were catastrophes, but it's not our business to judge that. I think it would mean a great loss of face to have Westerners tell the Chinese they were "wrong." I mean, think about it. Germany after WWII was certainly a humbled and defeated nation. But they inflicted mass murder on other people, the Chinese did it "only" on their own. So, I think a lot of the "not everything was bad under Mao" attitude is really a "stay out of our business." But I'm really intrigued by the notion that maybe Chinese culture is better at accepting wrong doings of the past and live with them instead of just denouncing them as overall bad. But well, what do I know? :) Maybe some of my Chinese friends should tell me whether I'm wrong?

I don't remember there ever being a negative portrayal of the early East German leaders, like Ulbricht, in later times. Well, maybe I was just too young, but I had the feeling the GDR system was more continuous. One of the Chinese students said that it's ok to criticise the cultural revolution, because Deng Xiaoping came to power later on and he had suffered from it. They seem to view the leaders of their country more as monarchs and say a lot of their governing style (like eliminating enemies, but also banning supporters) is like that of the old Chinese emperors.

Ok, enough politics for today. Gotta go enjoy the 27C and sunshine :) after a rainy spell we're finally enjoying a really lovely late-summer here. Funny aside, as I type this I'm sitting in a cafe (where I get my daily fix of Illy espresso) and the guy next to me is from Montreal! :)

I ended up spending 中秋节 zhong qiu jie (mid-autumn festival) with my boss and her family in the really beautiful (but expensive to get into) Wochou Lake Park. Then we went for dinner and had amazing crawfish. The day ended with me barely stopping the 2-year old daughter when she wanted to try my hammer on my laptop... I think I've had enough of small children for a while.

Happy Birthday!

It's China's 60th anniversary today! And there's a big parade... which I only caught glimpses of on a TV screen. No foreigner is allowed around Tiananmen square today. But I already got a whole month of parade rehearsal on CCTV, so thanks, that's alright with me. I've actually stopped watching CCTV because I couldn't take it anymore. Interviews with soldiers about their great achievement of only being 5cm off when marching a kilometer in evenly spaced paces. Dedication, discipline and hard work - that's what 60 years China is about and that's what this parade is about... ehem.

When I left my hotel this morning, I couldn't help but notice how quiet it was, the streets were all empty and clean as I've never seen them before. Seriously, I think they started a major clean-up effort for the big day. And if I was thinking all those people were glued to the TV screen watching the parade, I soon learned better - they all went to the mall! Because October 1st is not only the National holiday, but also the National Day of Sales. I went to a big appliances mall (everything here seems to be concentrated in malls, which makes the shopping around easy, but it's also pretty intense, because every vendor is fighting for your attention. My boss and her family went with me (I think they're adopting me) and my boss haggled for me :) You can't really haggle in those malls, but you can always ask for a discount or a gift. When buying a water heater, I ended up with a 1,000yuan discount (almost 50%) and a free water kettle. For the fridge I had to cough up the whole promotion price of 1,300 yuan. And I will finally have a decent washing machine, after 6 years of North-American crap! I can't wait! I think I'll be doing laundry every day for the first month :) Picking out the stuff only took an hour, but paying and arranging delivery took up another hour. Fighting my way through the cell phone buying crowd was almost too much afterwards. Shopping is serious business here, not for the faint-hearted!

In case you're wondering why I'm buying stuff as if I'm moving into a completely empty apartment... well, that's because I am moving into a completely empty apartment. All it has is a stove, or rather two jet-engine style gas burners, a sink in the kitchen, a sink outside(!) the bathroom, toilet and shower. No hot water. No heating or A/C. But this is all not as bad as it sounds, because the connections are all there, even for the washing machine. It's just the way it works here - when you move out you take your hot water with you :) Thanks to the big discount I got a fancy water heater with remote control and timer... whoo. The place is the postdoc apartment I had been waiting for for a month. It turns out I could have moved in earlier. They were waiting for me to get my residency permit. But the foreign personnel apartment had told me, I should wait till I have a proper address before applying for the residency permit. So it was a hen-and-egg problem. I got the luxurious foreigner apartment, which was really built for the provincial government, but they never use it, so the university got part of the building as a postdoc residence. And the really awesome part (apart from it being on the 22nd floor with an amazing view) is that it's basically brandnew! The building is 7 years old, but nobody has ever lived in this apartment. The furniture (two bed frames, two desks, dining table, some wardrobes/shelves) are definitely used though and look like from the 70's. The hilarious part - I'm not allowed to throw any of the furniture out, because the management wants to "keep the standard" of the apartment. Well, I understand if you think IKEA furniture isn't the greatest in the world, but believe me, it tops the stuff that's in there! Oh well. I just have to paint the old furniture over or something... Nobody said I can't disassemble what I don't want and store it. The only real problem is the kitchen. It's tiny. And stove and sink are at a height of about 60cm. They must have thought whoever lives there gets a midget as a nanny. I'm contemplating to throw everything out and have a proper kitchen installed... just have to be careful I don't spoil the standard.

Last weekend I got an impression of the free housing market. My boss seemed to get worried about my housing situation and took me to check out a few places. We saw two agencies downtown (one of them was really creepy - sweaty men in a stinky office hidden in a back alley, cockroaches crawling on the floor and they wanted 500RMB before even showing us anything - we just ran) and - holy shit - that was an experience. First we saw a place for 1,300/month, which was really a hole. There was no proper floor, leaks in the bathroom and everything looked really run-down and dirty. The second place would have been 1,500/months and looked acceptable (the 70's style furniture prevailed also here), but the staircase wasn't exactly inviting - unless you're a rat maybe. I was told to keep the door shut at all times to keep the rats out. Charming. Finally we visited a place close to where my boss lives in a luxury condo building. Here are pictures of all three places (I have to say the scary factor doesn't really show in the photographs):

Apartment hunt

I would have felt a bit like cheating if I had moved there. Like "that's not the real China." But it is! Most of my neighbors would have been Chinese. Just the kind who can afford condos. And it seems there are not that few of them today. Anyways, I didn't want to live in just one room with someone else's furniture. So, when I got the news that I can have the postdoc apartment (which is almost free, the rent is 100RMB/month + electricity and gas; if I would have rented somewhere else, the university would have given me 800RMB subsidy) I was relieved. I'll probably spend all the money I save on rent on furnishing this place, but at least I can fix it up how I want. And this is what I started out with (this is already after cleaning the worst of the 7 years of dust):

My Apartment - naked

Next time I'll show you what it looks like one IKEA trip and 10,000RMB later... (I'm in serious debt with my boss, but I can pay most of it off when the university reimburses me for my flight. 1 plane ticket = 1 apartment furnishing, crazy!)