Chinese people are nice

For June 20, 2007

Never again let it be said I don't spend money wisely. I have officially managed to live on $14 for three days. While that is in deference to how cheap things are here, I've managed to make two meals and a snack out of it. Plus shampoo, conditioner, soap, face wash, coat hangers, a wash cloth and kleenex. But bragging aside, I'm now broke. It has also been impossible for me to get internet in my dorm room since last night (no facebook, I don't know what to do with myself). All of this, however, has made for a rather interesting debacle.

Today was the first day of classes. We had an opening ceremony where we were warned not to eat food from street vendors (I'm still alive) and not to bike outside of the university (that story to follow). Then we broke into different level Chinese language classes. We will have Chinese every day from 9-12. It's good that our teachers don't really speak English. It's also good that I'm being forced to listen and learn--I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I can pick up here and there and also how much from previous lessons I remember. Lunch is at noon and every day we will eat with teachers, in theory to practice Chinese; in reality to gossip about people who look like fetuses at NU (yes, that was an actual discussion. And the person who supposedly looks like a fetus is Alex Panco.) I've learned to eat as much as I possibly can, being on the "no money" diet. After that was our history class for which the big book of Mao I'm supposed to have read comes into play.

Now, this is the part of my day that gets interesting. I already determined that my ATM card still did not work in the morning despite assurance from U.S. Bank people that it would. So I started off in search of internet so I could write the p-units again. I saw that there was internet in the Main Building and began to walk in the general, not really, direction of the place. It was far--the campus is the size of Texas. On the way, I asked a woman where it was and she gave me, not really, an answer. I kept on wandering and after a bit the same woman pulled up to me on her bike and asked if I wanted a ride. I was never so excited to hop on the back of a bike. It was one experience I had yet to try here and it was quite exhilarating. Chinese people are the best multi-taskers on bikes EVER. For example, I saw someone riding a bike with a passenger on the back while also guiding another bike next to him with one arm. But I digress. She dropped me off in front of the building and I went to the computer lab only to be turned away because I didn't have a student ID. Never mind that I was obviously a harmless ignorant foreign student with a slightly Southern accent. The problem is that I can't pull the "cute little Asian girl" act here. The computer lab nazis told me to go to the library instead. I had no clue where that was. I asked this guy to point me in the right direction at least 10 times, perpetuating the dumb American stereotype, and started off again. On the way, I saw another woman walking her bike. Having no tact, I went up to her and asked where the library was and if I could ride with her. I really don't know if she ever understood that last part of my question, but she was randomly going to the library as well. She was the cutest electrical engineer grad student you'll ever meet. I explained my sob story to her and she told me that one needed an ID to get into the library and even if I did get in, the computers might not be able to get on international websites. Fuck you, computer lab nazis. I went anyway and she was able to sign me in but we couldn't get on the international web. Then, this sweet angel of a woman, instead of staying at the library which was where she was going in the first place, brought me to another building where her boyfriend was with his computer. They tried to get me on, but we ran into the same problem of restricted access. Jon Kent, this would be an interesting issue to look into. So the woman and I left to go to her work building. Her boyfriend caught up and she let me use her bike while she took a running jump onto the back of her boy's bike. Turns out this office building was way off campus, thus leading me to disregard the second warning Gu laoshi gave us earlier that morning of biking off campus. It's cool. Just follow other bikers and hope the cars and buses are going slower than your depth perception is yelling at you. She led me into this very nice office building and finally got me online where I sent a rather frazzled SOS to my parents. A quick thank you to all who wrote on my wall--I really needed that after the past couple of days. We finally returned to campus where they dropped me off right in front of my dorm. I'll never be able to thank those two enough.