Thursday, December 8, 2011
7am ish


My circadian rhythms are still confused, since I want to pass out at about 9 and have been wakeful since about 4, up since 6. (Not like me!) But I don’t feel bad, just a little off.

Things to bring (or ship ahead? Or get them to install in apartment?) next time: a humidifier. Long extension cord for same, since there are only two places I can plug things in. (I am being careful not to plug in and run multiple things at once, although the power strips look pretty substantial.) A reading lamp. The only lights are overheads, and none is positioned very well for reading or doing work. Flipflops for shower (can buy those here – and will, today). Also want to get, if possible, a small rug and something like a shower curtain – the sliding door between the shower/toilet part of the room and the washer/sink part of the room has not moved in, I’d say, a couple of years, and it’s hard to keep the floor dry. (Have to figure out how to hang said shower curtain.)

When everything is so different (dare I say “alien”?) it seems important to have this little nest of things that work in a way I expect them to. I have had only positive interactions with all the people I’ve met, but still there is this constant sense of being a little on guard, of having to watch out. (Well, that’s justified when crossing the street. That’s downright scary.)

NOON update: finished this week of class, and the 121 students are great, better than I expected. Today we did a short reading from a freshman comp reader --- with some preliminary vocab and discussion – and they didn’t seem to have any trouble with it. (They could answer questions about it, not just say “yes” when I asked if they understood.)

Tomorrow night, dinner and shopping with a friend of a friend; Saturday morning, sightseeing with students. Sometime in the next couple of days, I sincerely hope, getting the washing machine to work! Later today, will try out the vocabulary my students taught me today: rice, lamb, beef, vegetables, dumplings, steamed buns, and “no spices”!

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Friday, December 9, 2011
9pm ish


It’s been another great day in China! This morning I relaxed over Starbucks instant and NPR; discovered that I’d lost a nosepiece from my glasses. Mei wenti, there’s an eyeglass shop across the street from school. The man fixed it and sold me some cleaner for about 16 cents. No English was spoken – you can get a long way by smiling and pointing : )

Then I went to the supermarket (which is becoming a daily event) for a bathroom rug and other niceties. Also got a fork and spoon in case I’m at a restaurant which can’t find one for me and there’s something really difficult to eat. Went back alone to the place that students took me the other day, armed with the list of words they had provided for me, and only needed to get translation help on one item (“not spicy”!). I had the translator write that one down for me, so I’m good to go.

Later I read student work and washed some clothes in the sink – no fix-it person has showed up for the washer. At 4:30 I met Yimin, Lily’s good friend, and we went shopping at a big indoor place, something between a mall and a flea market. Good bargains, crowded, narrow aisles, ALL kinds of stuff. A mechanical Santa playing a saxophone.

OH NO – I’m just now hearing about today’s shooting at Tech. more later --

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Saturday, December 10, 2011
6pm ish

Lots of news today. Up at about 8:15 to temperature of ONE DEGREE, and out with students at 9:30 to go sightseeing. Vivi and I took a bus across the city (about 40 minutes to city center, and then about 10 minutes past that) to the Gansu Provincial Museum, where we were met by Carl and Keith and Oliver, who are from Lanzhou and were home with their families for the weekend.

Spent a couple of hours in the museum: geology, fossils, skeletons of giant elephants (photo opportunity!!); pottery, Silk Road trade items, musical instruments; Buddhas smiling, laughing, sighing, sitting; one exhibit room devoted to the Glorious Revolution.

Lunch at KFC: fries perfectly normal, but chicken in sandwich cooked with different sauce. Not bad. Chinese teenage boys chow down just like any others.

Then a bus ride and short hike to Baita (White Tower) Park and several museums there. We went through the Qin Opera Museum and the Museum of Folk Culture: costumes, drums, flutes, harps, looms, tea, silk, swords, and stretchy noodles. Crossed the first modern bridge across the Yellow River (the one they light up in multi-color swoops at night), another good photo op, and then a long bus ride home.

Throughout the day, I was meticulously shepherded and cared for: watch your step, sit here, be careful, cross NOW! on the crazier streets.

Outside our building on campus, have not seen a single other Western face. I make a point of smiling and waving at children, as an entrée into conversation with adults. The bus ride through busy city streets is sometimes just a bus ride through a busy city; other times I am struck by how incomprehensible all the flashing signage is: lspelekmvei acsz.z,eiwond SHOES lmclakjeav;q aen NIKON alkfnxoi mvefc verptiyab, ABC cwomeinvjpwapeiutbxm BABY CARE.

The traffic is, I cannot emphasize strongly enough, completely insane. In the busier downtown areas there are elevated crosswalks (and what do you do if you’re in a wheelchair?), and at some points there are street-level zebra crossing with a flashing “walk” sign and everything – but if you don’t make it across in the allotted 10 seconds, you’d better step on it, because no one will wait for you. On the historic bridge, a big tourist site even for locals, there is a slightly-elevated pedestrian walk to either side, but people also walk on the bridge itself. And cars just drive down the middle, splitting the two lanes. They honk and keep going.

Saw three homeless people begging; each knelt on the cold sidewalk and put his/her head down, almost touching forehead to the ground. A box nearby for donations (all small change). How cold, how sad. A silent, shamefaced appeal.

Long walk today put a little stress on knee/ankle; sitting under comforter now w/icepack on knee. (Thank you, Uncle Mao, for turning the heat down, I don’t think.) May soon crawl in bed to keep warm, brrr.

Photos, my students, Gansu Provincial Museum