First Impressions

I am staying at the university grounds, making use of their living quarters and their cafeteria. There are other buildings such as the library, gymnasium, IT building and huge stadium for track meets and soccer games that I have not made use of as yet. I find that things seem rather plain. The offices of some staff look like they have just moved in. The necessities are there, but little else; the furniture is sparse, enough to get the job done, but nothing seems personalized. There are little decorations on the walls, certainly nothing like pictures of family, or artwork, etc.

Classrooms as well, seem very basic. Our high school students in Canada are used whiteboards, Smartboards, LCD projectors, etc. The classrooms here may be equipped with flipcharts, but little else. I noticed one gal using the photocopier for a manual that she had to do. She was photocopying one page at a time and then collating as she went in order to compile this huge manual—it’s gonna take her 3 days to get it complete! The photocopier was a very basic one—it didn’t even staple or collate.

Food is still an adventure. Every meal is different and I’m still not sure what I am eating. This has been a little difficult for me. The heat is overwhelming so that does not add to the situation. Usually when it’s hot, no one feels like eating and then when you’re not sure what you’re eating, well, let’s just say that your stomach takes a slight vacation. This morning I passed on the noodles for breakfast—I just couldn’t get my head around that. So, I opted for this bread roll. It was big and fluffy; there was a sharp aftertaste to it and in the middle there was this dark brown pasty substance. It wasn’t chocolate—who knows; however, it wasn’t bad. Another thing I had was this cross between a pancake and an omelette. I stabbed at that with my chopsticks and managed to eat it all (although I must confess I did eat some of it with my fingers).

That’s the craziest thing yet—being watched while you eat. Here in China, I look a tad different than the locals: fair-skinned and blond. Some will stop and stare at me attempting to eat with my chopsticks, or encourage me to shovel it in faster, or laugh (I’m hoping with and not at) my inept attempts to get the rice to my mouth. Rice is the staple and even though I never really hated eating rice, I certainly do not love it either. I think that Weight Watchers should promote eating with chopsticks. Eating certainly takes longer and you don’t eat nearly as much. Well, it’s time to eat again—wonder what I’ll encounter next!