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Some of you have asked how I have the time to write so many notes, so here to clarify is...
A day in the life at Beijing Language and Culture University (Beijing yuyuan wenhua daxue--I just learned how to say that today!)
6:30 My alarm goes off. Why is the alarm set for 6:30 when my class, which is in the building next door, is at 8? For Huan Zhong. (That's her Korean name; many of us go by several names. I, for example, am known as Jin De Feng in class, as Debra by the Westerners and, for the Asians, I introduce myself as De-be-ra.) Huan Zhong found that one hour was not enough for her to put on her makeup. Seriously.
7:30 I consider breakfast. Sometimes I even walk past the (outdoor) cafeteria. I stop considering breakfast and I go to class.
8:00 Class. The Japanese students on either side of me help me with my Kanji (Chinese characters). In class, whenever there's a word that's difficult for us to say , the teacher has us go around the room and each say the word [side note: I've been cutting and pasting this letter with the "edit" button at the top of the page. Not a problem; it's in English. For a change of pace, I used the right button on the mouse. Suddenly I'm faced with Chinese options. Eek!], so we hear the word 17 times. Seventeen "chu"s. Try it at home and see why I giggle a lot. My other favorite is "ba." But that's because I'm an animal lover.
9:15 I regret my breakfast decision.
9:50 20-minute break. We all rush to the women selling bao-zi; chinese breakfast steamed buns, like the ones Mark and I make you eat at the dim sum restaurants. Hot steamed buns on a cold Beijing morning. Ah. We stand around, all the young Westerners smoking, and we chat about class and make lunch plans.
10:10 For some reason, it's the policy of this school for each class to have two teachers. No, not together and not one for reading and one for writing or anything like that; Professor Zhang teaches from 8 to 10 and Professor Niu picks up right where she leaves off from 10 to 12. They must confer in the hallway between classes. I like them both and the change is rather nice.
12:00 Lunch. See my earlier note about street food and restaurant food. I've made a promise to myself that I would try the pizza at the "Foreign Student's Restaurant" before I leave Beijing. But not today.
1:30 I meet with Vivian, my English/Chinese partner. This wonderful woman puts up with 45 minutes of me trying to say lu cha (green tea) in exchange for me discussing Julia Roberts movies with her (more on that later). Language exchange is very popular here. And I am a very hot item. Native English speakers are very much in demand. Many are disappointed when they learn that Carmen is Swiss. At any rate, I've been approached in my dorm, on the telephone, on the street--one woman even printed flyers with her phone number on it looking for language partners, hoping I'd talk to her about Julia Roberts in exchange for her listening to me mangle her language. Vivian is very nice and she and I are talking about her taking me to her home town (two hours away by train) to meet her family and have a look around.
3:30 Errands. Post office, bank, laundry, whatever.
5:30 Tai Ji. See my earlier note.
6:30 Dinner and, after that, my trip to the in-ter-ne-ta. Followed occasionally, but not often enough, by a hot yam.
8:00 The 15 minute walk (it would be five minutes, but for some unexplained reason, all but two of the gates to campus are barred and chained shut) to my dorm is very adventurous. Street lighting on the commercial road outside campus and on the paths on campus is minimal. Mostly I rely on the lights from the stores and street vendors. The flower sellers have bright spotlights on their flowers--it's a great effect. (And, Mom, it's perfectly safe. Crime is unheard of on this campus and no one would ever consider accosting a western woman for anything but language lessons, so it's a nice change from US cities.)
Except, of course, that most of the streets are unpaved. Or, rather, underpaved. What paving there is is often cracked and uneven. Construction sites abound and large holes along the road are not only commonplace, but appear to be intentional. A new pipe hole appeared in front of my dorm just yesterday morning.
So, no, I don't read as I walk.
8:15-11:00 Increasingly more successful attempts at conversation with Huang Zhong, schoolwork, exhaustion, and sleep.
Next time: Beijing Opera and why I'm teaching the word "pimp" to a Chinese man.
Stay tuned.
My correspondence list is growing longer. Welcome, Elizabeth.
Debra.
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