Things will get better

Okay, so last week I forgot to post a blog post, but I’ll give you a short summary of what I did.

I went to class, studied, met up with some friends to chat about life, studied some more, and went to bed. I also met with my language partner, taught the three kids on Sunday, which was okay but a bit hectic since the two youngest kids have trouble paying attention.

This week, I have a lot more information for you all.

On Sunday I went to teach the three kids English, and was told that a fourth student would be joining our little session. I thought “Okay, this should be alright,” but boy was I wrong. The newest child was very hard to teach, seeing as he only wanted to scream at the top of his lungs every other minute, and only when his mom agreed to sit with him to ensure that he paid attention (since he wouldn't listen to me), he would scream every other five minutes. After I finally got the kids moderately focused again, the new student hit Tom, the other four year old boy in the class, which led to them starting a fight where Tom’s older brother, Jerry, started hitting the new kid and yelling that he should pay attention to the teacher. I had to break up the fight and tell them all that they aren't allowed to hit each other because hitting is bad, etc., but then the mom of the new kid said “Don’t tell my son he can’t hit other people.”

…you read that correctly, she said “Don’t tell my son he can’t hit other people.” This was the last straw. Teaching had been tolerable up to this point (it’s always difficult to teach little kids since they don’t always understand the need to follow instructions and all that), but being told that I can’t keep a student from hitting another student was unacceptable. How is a teacher supposed to keep order in a classroom if they aren't allowed to tell their students to not hit other students? How is that fair to everyone else in the class?

Anyhow, since that really was unacceptable, I decided to quit my teaching job.  I also had less time to study because of this job too. I was under a lot of stress, and my goal is to study Chinese while I’m here, and since my job was interfering with that, it was best to quit.

So this week, other than quitting my job, I also had to study a lot for what is essentially midterms here at PKU. I was also doing a lot of that last week, which is why I forgot to write a post last week (sorry about that).

Also, I had to deal with some major hassle from the front desk workers at building 4 in the Global Village. My mom sent me a package of smart wool clothes, because it gets very cold here during the winter. On Wednesday I got a phone call at 9 pm from building 4 saying that my package had arrived (this was after two and a half weeks of waiting).  I asked if I could go to the building the next day since it was so late and I had to study for a test, so it would be more convenient to pick it up tomorrow. The woman on the phone said that would be fine and I would just have to bring my student card with me. So Thursday afternoon I went to building 4 to get my package, and the people working there said that it wasn't there, and fervently denied that anyone had called me last night, saying that I was wrong. I showed them my student card and asked if they could check, and they said it wouldn't help to have it and wouldn't look for my package.

This made me very angry, so that night I asked my roommate to come with me to help me get this figured out, because the last time I received a package from home, I got the same harassment from these employees. After I persistently told them that I had received a phone call from them and that the package most certainly was there, they looked at a package that was hidden in a drawer under the counter. Sure enough, it was my package. It was only after I told them that my room number, along with my cell phone number, and my dad’s name on the return address, that they finally believed me. They didn't even apologize for accusing me of being wrong.

So Thursday was extremely frustrating. Dealing with those people whenever I receive packages is always irritating, especially when you are told that you are wrong when you know you are right. But that’s not the weirdest thing that that happened. No, the weird thing that happened was what happened Friday morning.

On Friday morning one of the cleaning ladies knocked on my door, asking if a package was mine. It was, and it had more smart wool clothes in it. This was bizarre though, since students are supposed to go to building 4 to identify their packages before they can pick them up, so I really don’t understand how the cleaning lady got my package and knew it was supposed to come to me. I’m very grateful to her, since this is the first time I've received a package without any hassle, but it worries me about how it was delivered, since this isn't how it’s supposed to be done.

Well, besides package woes and test stress, I've been doing pretty well. I went out for lunch with my language partner Kim Yong Bum the other day, and we ate at a hot pot restaurant, which had a lot of really tasty food (no pictures I’m afraid, since I forgot to bring my camera). It was a lot of fun, and we talked for a long time about politics in the US, since he was curious about the shutdown.

Speaking of the shutdown, I’m glad it’s over, and I really hope that nothing like this happens again in February.

On another note, I went with my friend Eric to explore PKU’s campus since he hasn't been there yet. Eric is a friend of my from the University of Minnesota who is also spending time in China this year. We were both in the same Chinese class for a semester, and we soon became friends. We also agreed that we would meet up at some point in China, and finally found time to get together.

He told me he’s never been to PKU's campus, so I gave him a tour, showed him Weiming Lake, some of the places where I have class, and also gave him some blueberry ice-cream flavored pocky. Then he invited me to go to his friend’s birthday party, which was in Wudaokou. Since we had a few hours before the party started, I took him to a bakery called Tous le Jours, the one that I went to with my German friends which serves pastry Totoros. He seems really happy to have some western style bread and coffee (and of course, any time you get a Totoro related item, you always feel good).

This is Eric:

and this is a fat magpie we saw (these are common in Beijing the way pigeons are common in large cities in the US):

Before we went to Tous Le Jours, we also explored one of the malls in Wudaokou (since it got rather cold outside), and saw these things hanging from the ceiling:

A short video of Wudaokou:

Us with our Totoros (yum):

Later in the evening we went to meet up with his friends, went to a Korean BBQ restaurant, and then went to a KTV lounge. KTV is a karaoke bar, only this one was the most intense one I've ever been in. you get sealed into these soundproof rooms which have a huge TV screen, several other TV screens, and lots of blinking lights, and VERY loud speakers. If I ever go to another one, I think I might bring ear-plugs because it was so loud. I did have fun though.

Here’s some pictures (and a short video) of the Korean restaurant and the food we ate there:

And here are some pictures of the KTV lounge (you can't make out all the blinking lights because I needed to use a flash in order to see anything, but it was still a very fancy place...with lots of blinking lights):

 The birthday girl:

 The lounge:

 The Ceiling (made of mirrors)

It was really great to see Eric again, since he’s a great friend. He’s also writing a blog about his experiences in China, and if you are following mine, I highly recommend you take a look at his, because he’s got some great posts about what his experiences have been like.

Check it out:

http://beijingodyssey.blogspot.com/2013/10/fall-break-happenings.html

Today I had a lot of fun. I skyped with my parents, and then went to the Beijing University Culture Festival. This is an event on PKU's campus where lots of stalls are set up, representing countries from around the world, which share their culture with other people.

I took a couple of pictures, but since there were a lot of people, it was difficult to get good shots, so I’m sorry in advance about the quality of some of these:

So this guy from the last three photos was a performer with several other dancers. There was large stage set up in the courtyard of PKU's theater, where groups would perform traditional dances, play music, or do other performances displaying their country's culture. I couldn't find out where these guys were, but I saw that their flag had black, white, and red in it. I've been trying to look it up, but I'm afraid of saying they are from one place when they're actually from somewhere else. There were also a lot of people watching the performance, so I couldn't get a very good shot.

Here's a short video of him dancing, so you get an idea of what it was like:

And here are some more countries:

There was a guy in a kangaroo suit for the Australian booth:

And then my camera battery died, and I couldn't take anymore pictures. Oh the sorrow!

Other than those things, I don’t have much to report this week. Sorry if this week sounded like a bratty rant, but the point of this blog is to tell everyone about my experiences in china, the good, and the bad. I learned a lot from these experiences, and hopefully in the future I will be more prepared to deal with problems like these. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, I did something fun last week. Last Friday I went out with some friends for dinner, and afterwards I ate this really awesome ice-cream! It was so delicious! I’m not sure which brand this is, but it’s like an ice-cream sandwich, only the ice-cream is surrounded all around by a waffle shaped like a fish. On the inside of the fish shaped waffle is vanilla ice-cream, and red bean paste. It really did taste great!

Here’s a picture of the wrapper:

See you all next time (and as the title says, things will get better).