Update from China!

Mon 8/24/2009

Greetings from China!

So we've all been out of quarantine for over a week now and its nice to get off the campus and explore Beijing. We're finishing up our final week of training this week and we officially start teaching on September 6th. Each session is 24 days and then we get a few days off in between sessions. So we'll basically get new students every month. They're expecting approximately 300 students per session.

So a few of us just bought train tickets tonight to go to Inner Mongolia for our break. We leave on the train @ 9pm on Saturday night and its a sleeper train so we'll be sleeping through most of the ride and when we arrive, it'll be 7am. This will be a new experience sleeping on a train for 10 hours. I'm so excited about going to Inner Mongolia because we'll get to go sand boarding/surfing, ride on camels and see plenty of temples. We'll get back to Beijing University on Thursday morning.

So we've had over a week to explore some parts of Beijing and here is what I can tell you so far:
1) It is so crowded. Beijing makes NYC look like a suburb.
2) The traffic and people driving are crazy. There is no sense of logic or concern for safety. Crossing the street has become a game of Frogger. Now I understand why Chinese people have the negative stereotype of being bad drivers. This goes for the bus drivers as well and the buses are so crowded. There is obviously no regard for personal space in China. We've been taking the bus everywhere and trust me when I tell you, this makes the NYC Subway seem like a luxury. Wow, I miss driving my Mini Cooper!
3) In China, the men show their mid drift. They pull up their shirts on hot days and just let their stomachs hang out. Yeah, its not a pretty sight at all!
4) People spit all over the street.
5) The pollution is pretty bad here. There's trash all over the street and the air pollution is horrendous. The smog is so bad that some of the teachers are having a hard time adjusting to the air quality and getting sick.
6) You have to pay for a plastic bag when you go shopping at a supermarket or any store for that matter. That is ridiculous!!! Even though its like less than a nickel...its just crazy!
7) Cost of living is obviously very cheap here, so food is real cheap. Dorothy and I go out to eat when we can and we eat a decent size meal and it usually comes to less than $3 U.S. dollars.
8) We don't need to tip here in China. Saves a lot of money!!!
9) We drove past the Bird's Nest and Aquatic Cube where they had the Olympics last year. Those two places are huge. We haven't gone to see it up close yet, but will one day soon.
10) The people in China loves them some Karaoke. In China, Karaoke is called KTV. Don't ask me why its called KTV??? The staff took us to one on Saturday night as a team bonding thing. Yeah, it kinda failed miserably!
11) Pizza Hut is a high class restaurant here. Seriously, it is considered high class dining and its quite expensive. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some Pizza Hut pizza, but high class dining...seriously?!?
12) We had Peking Duck on Saturday night. I haven't had it in a long time. I forgot how good it is!!!
13) We found a laundry service that washes our clothes and folds them...all for less than $2 U.S. dollars. When I do laundry in Jersey, it usually costs me about $7 dollars. Better yet, I got a pair of my jeans hemmed for less than 50 cents. In the U.S., they wanted to charge me almost $18. Yeah take a second to think about this one.

So as you can see, there are the good and the bad when it comes to living in China. We've all been adjusting to the culture shock of China and I think I'm doing alright. My Mandarin is getting there. I'm not a pro, but I can order some of my favorite foods in Mandarin. Cmon, you knew that was a gonna be a priority!

We're still using a very slow 3G network in another dorm building, but they are talking about getting high speed internet put into the new dorms we are living in. So hopefully that will be ready soon so I can e-mail updates on a regular basis. Speaking of new dorms, we are all loving our new dorm rooms. The bathrooms have regular toilets and the beds have a real mattress. Thank God because my back was killing me sleeping on those hard wood beds!

The food isn't very good in the cafeteria, but we found there is a connecting restaurant on the other side of the cafeteria that we can order dishes from and they will accept our meal passes. The food is much better so we've been getting our meals from there instead.

Our trip to the Great Wall got postponed last Sunday because it was an extremely hot and humid day. We all decided we would go to the Great Wall in the fall when the weather is cooler. Heck, the Great Wall ain't going no where. It'll be there in a few months.

Yesterday, (Sunday) we went to the Summer Palace. Its where the Emperor went during the summer months...hence the name. Its a beautiful place with many palaces built around a lake. Its huge and we didn't even get to see all of it yesterday. We took some photos yesterday, but I'll save the photos till we get the faster internet connection because with this current 3G connection, it would take forever to upload the photos.

Alright, that's it for this update. No worries, I'm doing well in China and excited to begin teaching real soon.

Take care for now. Another update to come after my excursion to Inner Mongolia!

Timothy Wong