My goal this week was to attend every single one of my Chinese classes. This goal has gotten quite a variety of reactions from those I've told, from "don't you usually attend all your classes?" to "why on earth would you actually want to attend them all?" Almost daily my own reaction to the Chinese courses here sways from one extreme to the other. But to briefly answer both of those questions, for any of you who are wanting to ask, I usually attend 4 of the 5 days in a week because it is surprisingly draining to spend 17.5 hours in class in a foreign language and managed to study every night on top of that. So my sanity has occasionally required that I miss a few hours. But obviously, my purpose for being here this semester is to learn Chinese, and a Chinese language class is a logical place to spend my time in order to try to achieve that goal. Hence my wanting to attend every class this week.
Now I just have to say, it's not my fault that I am falling short on that goal this week! Turns out I will not personally be in every one of my Chinese classes, but does it count anyway since my books were in all of them? Here's what happened... Wednesday morning I faithfully got up and went to class. All of you are aware, I believe, of my lack of internet in my dorm, which is starting to really drive me nuts. So two of my friends from the dorm - also without internet - joined me during the last 10 minute break (before the final 45 minute class) to go bring up the issue again with our head teacher. Her office is just two floors below my classroom, and I often go see her during the break with no problem. Not this time.
Just imagine this. Our teacher was upset to hear we were still having this problem, so she called the head office for the dormitory. (She's the head of student affairs for the foreign students.) There was a significant amount of yelling - all in Chinese, of course. Then she called another office - the network office - and there was more yelling. She turned to us again and asked us to wait with her for the top people of those two offices to each come join us in her office to discuss the matter with the appropriate people (since she has more clout with us sitting there, of course). And this was when I realized I would not be making it back to my class.
The two other bosses showed up, and there was even more yelling. It's really entertaining to watch Chinese people argue. I also figured it was okay that I was missing class, since I was having lots of fun practicing my tingli (listening comprehension) with all the excitement in that room. From what I picked up, most of the yelling was centered on casting responsibility onto other offices and refusing to accept another office's authority to tell them what to do. I was amazed at how little coordination and cooperation there was! But, somehow things must always calm down. For these three bosses, the solution was coffee. Three coffees were ordered, and as soon as they arrived the yelling all but stopped. Who knew coffee had so much power?
The conversation moved more productively from there, and after nearly an hour in that office they finally decided they could have someone come to our rooms to check the problem. Yes. That was the solution. Seems to me it shouldn't take so much time, so much yelling, and so much money spent on coffee to get such a simple thing done, but who am I to say how things should be run here? And I won't complain. As promised, the gentlemen from the network office came to our rooms that afternoon to check out the problems.
Problem solved? Unfortunately, no. The others' have internet again, because they apparently had a fairly simple problem. Mine, however, is not fixed and will not be fixed. Because all of this took place in Chinese, I'm not entirely sure what the actual problem is, but I was told it was a "very serious and very old problem" that is not specific to my room but affects a large portion of the dorm. And when I asked if they would fix it, they responded "meiyou banfa" ("there's nothing we can do"). Hmm. I don't really believe that... there clearly is a way to provide internet in every room of the dorm if they really wanted to. But as much as I tried to use my limited Chinese to argue that point, they weren't moved to do anything. And I didn't have any hot water to make coffee to try convincing them.
I was impressed with my communication skills, however, when the gentlemen gave me a few options of what I could do myself for internet. DSL is apparently an option, as is something through the cell phone companies that is put directly onto my computer, but both cost a decent chunk of change. So we'll see. For now, my friend has internet again, so I'll just use his. (Which, by the way, was the first suggestion the gentlemen had for me.)
In other news, I have learned several interesting things recently. First, China has a fairly extensive use of solar power, at least compared to that in the U.S. Many houses and buildings here have solar panels that are used to heat water for showering. According to one of my students, the system only costs about RMB2000-3000 ($300-450) to install, which is quite cheap when considering how much money will be saved in the long term.
The second interesting thing I learned is that the number 8 is actually not a traditionally favored number in China. Nowadays, eight is a lucky number because the pronunciation is similar to that of "get rich" (which is a desirable thing around here). However, I just learned that in traditional Chinese thought (before the concept of getting rich was widespread among the people), eight was an unlucky number. The reason is still slightly unclear to me, but it has to do with the way the digit is written - everything centers on one point.
Other interesting bits of information related to numbers: Never call someone "250" because it is apparently a terrible insult. You should also never call a women "three-eight." The more-or-less equivalent for a male would be to say that he has a green hat... which apparently means that his wife has slept with another man. (Okay, I don't think calling a woman "three-eight" means her husband has slept with another girl; I think it means something more like she's easy. But I'm not quite sure. Either way, I don't plan on using it.)
That's all the interesting tidbits I have for today. I have more English classes tomorrow, so perhaps there is more to come. But I will leave you with this: wholesale fruit markets are amazing. I have to walk right by one on my way to/from the school I'm at in the evenings, so I stopped today to pick up some juzi (something like a tangerine - delicious!). I asked for 5 kuai of them, which is less than $1. To my surprise, I came home with more than twenty juzi! Gotta love cheap healthy food!
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