Nimen hao !
Hey, what a day... cannot still really describe it. Have you ever seen a bird standing still in the air, because the wind is enough to carry it... I feel exactly like that today, beside the fact that I definitely needed to move forward. In other words, today was a day, where tasks just seem to pile up on your desk, without anything getting done... I cannot really say what I did, beside that we had some nice tea in my room (some neigbours and me)... Oh, yeah, there ist that one highlight: A friend of mine did some shopping at IKEA and ordered the people to put together his shelf to his room. So, there he was standing right in the middle of the Chinese workers who were putting up his shelf. A really nice picture - check out the shot:
So, as this day was neither fruitful nor exciting, and I have not even done my sports so far (but I already signed up to the fitness centre :-) ), I will continue with the topic that is keeping me up the most at the moment: my room (nest, fascilities, call it whatever you want). To understand the whole issue, a leap back in time is necessary:
Friday, 25.08.2006: Touchdown at the university. The taxi driver set me off at some place very unfamiliar to me, that I only recognized to be my university campus as we drove through the door, where it said so (A picture of that door will be available soon). Beside, I have never seen that building before and it definitely was not my student centre or dormitory, which I knew from pictures at least.
So, what I did was getting off the car, checking my look in the back mirror, putting on my sunglasses and asked the most beautiful lady that passed by in fluent chinese, weither or not she would show me where my place was and if she would accompaign me for lunch to the nice restaurant arround the corner, that I regularily go....
Ok, that's what Jonny Dept would have done. What I did was (1) not understanding the taxi driver, (2) failing in communicating to the taxi driver, that this is not my building and that he should drive me there, (3) understanding, that he would do anything but this, and (4) getting out of the taxi, where he started to talk to the next beautiful, nice and friendly girl (that was real, her name is 雪芹 :-) ) with my adress paper in the hand.
Luckily she knew, where I needed to go - it was basically the second campus at the other side of a big road... well, basically three roads: 1 six-lane ring road which is bridged parallely to two supply roads...
Anyway after a 15 min walk we were there. the building is very nice (a picture is going to appear here soon) but it seems to be, well "under construction". To put it in a nutshell (uhhh, who I love that phrases I learned in my first semester of business English :-) ) it was everything but ready, everything but quiet and everything but ready to host and support an industrious, ambitious, intelligent, smart, goal-oriented student to achieve the optimal result of his studies.
Beside that, it also did not seem to be ready to host the person of me for the next 10 month
(have you ever been woken up by a jackhammer at 8:00 on a Sunday morning? I did. Nice experience though. I thought about partying in front of the workers homes at 3 at night, just to show them how it is like, but then changed my mind, as they seem to work 24/7 three shifts anyway...check out the lift on the next picture)
I was very happy to have that girl with me, because, beside the fact, that it took me 5 min on campus and about 1,5 h in China to get to know the first chinese lady ;-) I might still sleep on the banks in front of the building which is quite common for migratory labourer:
In fact she helped me with my check-in. Well, ok she did it completly for me. By that she saved about us about 7 hours pof fruitless discussion and me a cold from the night on the bank or rickshaw in front of the university. So in that way, I finally came into my first room:
What then happend were two things: first, 雪芹 and me went out to have my first (and among the most wonderful... why, you can guess ;-) ) Chinese lunchs and second, I twice headlong dropped a brick (thanks Sassa for that nice expression :-) ) while I behaved as I always do and forgot that I am in China. But this is another story, that I am going to tell you tomorrow...
Anyway, two more words, on my first room: My final room was not ready, so they put me into the first one... positive aspect (1): the air conditioner worked and did not leak. Positive aspect (2): the room was on the third floor, which left 7 floors of buffer between me and the jackhammer. positive aspect (3): It was definitely higher standard then the rikshaws above or a bank (kidding, it was superb). Negative aspect: the sink or toilette did not come with it. So, what I had to do was using the washroom, shower and toilette on the floor. This aspect exclusively and in general does not bring anything negative with it but inconvenience...
And if you like to belt out a nice and rough and friendly "Howdie, seems like yesterday night was a bit longer for all of us!" to both of your unshaven, dark circled-eyed, uncombed, towel-only vested friends (to your right and in the mirror in front of you - I know ladies, yes, you might not understand that and yes there are differences between xx and xy here) then you even get a positive aspect from it. What definitively is negative is the user interface of the facilities. Let the pictures speak...
Yes, they were all like that. Any hypothetical correlations between a sometimes observed way to sit on a sidewalk and the layout and design of these fascilities have not stood up against empiric field research. Still...
One more word to the "Howdie...." thing. Yes, it might be the right formal way to approach a known male individual from your own culture in that situation in the morning. The cleaning lady that every (!) day was busy doing something very important in that washing room exactly at that time when we were having our morning ritual and revamp did not seem to be familiar with that customs. One the one hand, she looked away, (what, since my days in Russia, to me is a very subtile way of exactly examinating and observing the objects of interest... anyway) on the other hand, she did not want to insult us by leaving that room (my 2nd theory)... Somehow, you might be able to understand that, because, she (1) was a lady, (2) was Chinese and (3)... well... OK... you can fill in (3) on your own :-)
But what really irritated me was that Chinese (male!) worker, that was sitting (in that particular way to sit) in the door and working a part of the floor where the flagstones have been removed... for three days in a row and he always started when I was in the shower. I mean, hello, can you imagine me, comming out of the shower, wearing nothing, and seeing him there, working industriously? I decided that there was no correllation between his presence there and the strange sign which was written in Chinese characters (did I tell you that I cannot read them? I did not. So: I cannot read them. Ignorance only sometimes is power.) and had some dates on it and which hang on the door of the showers from the first day I saw him until I moved out...
One more word to the fuwuyuan (employees of the student hall): There must be a necessity to them to talk (shout?) across the whole floor AND to clatter and rattle with keys and carriages AND to keep their radios (what do they need radios for... anyway) on max. volume at 7:30 in the morning... if he jackhammer does not get you, they do ;-)
Stop. I now have to take up the cudgels for the fuwuyuan: they are very friendly, very helpful, you can go to them 24/7 if you have a problem. Really. They are nice people and they cannot help the rule to charge a foreigner 20 yuan when his key card is expired, not re-programmable and he needs a new one. No, really. they are very nice and friendly. It is just..a cultural difference here?
Anyway. The day where we wanted to move to our final rooms arrived. It announced itself nice and friendly, with the wind of change in the air (beside the dust in the wind...Beijing's biggest problem right after free flying cockatoos, who keep fuwuyuan busy) and the outlook to a really big upgrade in living standards. At the end of the day, it sneaked away like a thief without saying goodbye leaving me a bit out of balance and in the same room as where I woke up. Our rooms were still not ready and we had the option to upgrade to rooms with bathrooms, prime-located right under the construction works (construction: 10th-14th floor, rooms offered: 8th floor). In short, after a short 1 hour discussion and after the depreciation of some of the fuwuyuans' goodwill, I decided to stay where I was (Wo yao zhu zai wo de lao fanjian... My first complete Chinese sentence, made up and proudly presented all by myself exclusively :-) )... until yesterday. Yesterday, I won my lucky game (sorry Andi) and moved into my new room:
This one is far bigger (+) has proper toilette (+) and is on one floor with my collegues (+). The air-conditioning is not working (-) and the waterpressure of the shower beggars all description (-). So, we had some tea in my room (I bought a Chinese pot and cups and green tea :-) ) right after the workers came and (1) started fixing the air-conditioning and (2) took down the flagstones in my bathroom to reach the water tubes. They said they come back tomorrow to finish it off...
And coming back tomorrow is what I now do as well to tell you some more nice stories of China. Hope you all got to here and enjoyed it. If you did, please let me know and tell your friends :-)
Cu tomorrow, zaijian,
Yours, Cockatoo
PS: 雪芹 and 峰客 (that is my Chinese name. I am going to tell you tomorrow, what it means) in a park next to the forbidden city:
Ok, that's what Jonny Dept would have done. What I did was (1) not understanding the taxi driver, (2) failing in communicating to the taxi driver, that this is not my building and that he should drive me there, (3) understanding, that he would do anything but this, and (4) getting out of the taxi, where he started to talk to the next beautiful, nice and friendly girl (that was real, her name is 雪芹 :-) ) with my adress paper in the hand.
Luckily she knew, where I needed to go - it was basically the second campus at the other side of a big road... well, basically three roads: 1 six-lane ring road which is bridged parallely to two supply roads...
Anyway after a 15 min walk we were there. the building is very nice (a picture is going to appear here soon) but it seems to be, well "under construction". To put it in a nutshell (uhhh, who I love that phrases I learned in my first semester of business English :-) ) it was everything but ready, everything but quiet and everything but ready to host and support an industrious, ambitious, intelligent, smart, goal-oriented student to achieve the optimal result of his studies.
Beside that, it also did not seem to be ready to host the person of me for the next 10 month
(have you ever been woken up by a jackhammer at 8:00 on a Sunday morning? I did. Nice experience though. I thought about partying in front of the workers homes at 3 at night, just to show them how it is like, but then changed my mind, as they seem to work 24/7 three shifts anyway...check out the lift on the next picture)
I was very happy to have that girl with me, because, beside the fact, that it took me 5 min on campus and about 1,5 h in China to get to know the first chinese lady ;-) I might still sleep on the banks in front of the building which is quite common for migratory labourer:
In fact she helped me with my check-in. Well, ok she did it completly for me. By that she saved about us about 7 hours pof fruitless discussion and me a cold from the night on the bank or rickshaw in front of the university. So in that way, I finally came into my first room:
What then happend were two things: first, 雪芹 and me went out to have my first (and among the most wonderful... why, you can guess ;-) ) Chinese lunchs and second, I twice headlong dropped a brick (thanks Sassa for that nice expression :-) ) while I behaved as I always do and forgot that I am in China. But this is another story, that I am going to tell you tomorrow...
Anyway, two more words, on my first room: My final room was not ready, so they put me into the first one... positive aspect (1): the air conditioner worked and did not leak. Positive aspect (2): the room was on the third floor, which left 7 floors of buffer between me and the jackhammer. positive aspect (3): It was definitely higher standard then the rikshaws above or a bank (kidding, it was superb). Negative aspect: the sink or toilette did not come with it. So, what I had to do was using the washroom, shower and toilette on the floor. This aspect exclusively and in general does not bring anything negative with it but inconvenience...
And if you like to belt out a nice and rough and friendly "Howdie, seems like yesterday night was a bit longer for all of us!" to both of your unshaven, dark circled-eyed, uncombed, towel-only vested friends (to your right and in the mirror in front of you - I know ladies, yes, you might not understand that and yes there are differences between xx and xy here) then you even get a positive aspect from it. What definitively is negative is the user interface of the facilities. Let the pictures speak...
Yes, they were all like that. Any hypothetical correlations between a sometimes observed way to sit on a sidewalk and the layout and design of these fascilities have not stood up against empiric field research. Still...
One more word to the "Howdie...." thing. Yes, it might be the right formal way to approach a known male individual from your own culture in that situation in the morning. The cleaning lady that every (!) day was busy doing something very important in that washing room exactly at that time when we were having our morning ritual and revamp did not seem to be familiar with that customs. One the one hand, she looked away, (what, since my days in Russia, to me is a very subtile way of exactly examinating and observing the objects of interest... anyway) on the other hand, she did not want to insult us by leaving that room (my 2nd theory)... Somehow, you might be able to understand that, because, she (1) was a lady, (2) was Chinese and (3)... well... OK... you can fill in (3) on your own :-)
But what really irritated me was that Chinese (male!) worker, that was sitting (in that particular way to sit) in the door and working a part of the floor where the flagstones have been removed... for three days in a row and he always started when I was in the shower. I mean, hello, can you imagine me, comming out of the shower, wearing nothing, and seeing him there, working industriously? I decided that there was no correllation between his presence there and the strange sign which was written in Chinese characters (did I tell you that I cannot read them? I did not. So: I cannot read them. Ignorance only sometimes is power.) and had some dates on it and which hang on the door of the showers from the first day I saw him until I moved out...
One more word to the fuwuyuan (employees of the student hall): There must be a necessity to them to talk (shout?) across the whole floor AND to clatter and rattle with keys and carriages AND to keep their radios (what do they need radios for... anyway) on max. volume at 7:30 in the morning... if he jackhammer does not get you, they do ;-)
Stop. I now have to take up the cudgels for the fuwuyuan: they are very friendly, very helpful, you can go to them 24/7 if you have a problem. Really. They are nice people and they cannot help the rule to charge a foreigner 20 yuan when his key card is expired, not re-programmable and he needs a new one. No, really. they are very nice and friendly. It is just..a cultural difference here?
Anyway. The day where we wanted to move to our final rooms arrived. It announced itself nice and friendly, with the wind of change in the air (beside the dust in the wind...Beijing's biggest problem right after free flying cockatoos, who keep fuwuyuan busy) and the outlook to a really big upgrade in living standards. At the end of the day, it sneaked away like a thief without saying goodbye leaving me a bit out of balance and in the same room as where I woke up. Our rooms were still not ready and we had the option to upgrade to rooms with bathrooms, prime-located right under the construction works (construction: 10th-14th floor, rooms offered: 8th floor). In short, after a short 1 hour discussion and after the depreciation of some of the fuwuyuans' goodwill, I decided to stay where I was (Wo yao zhu zai wo de lao fanjian... My first complete Chinese sentence, made up and proudly presented all by myself exclusively :-) )... until yesterday. Yesterday, I won my lucky game (sorry Andi) and moved into my new room:
This one is far bigger (+) has proper toilette (+) and is on one floor with my collegues (+). The air-conditioning is not working (-) and the waterpressure of the shower beggars all description (-). So, we had some tea in my room (I bought a Chinese pot and cups and green tea :-) ) right after the workers came and (1) started fixing the air-conditioning and (2) took down the flagstones in my bathroom to reach the water tubes. They said they come back tomorrow to finish it off...And coming back tomorrow is what I now do as well to tell you some more nice stories of China. Hope you all got to here and enjoyed it. If you did, please let me know and tell your friends :-)
Cu tomorrow, zaijian,
Yours, Cockatoo
PS: 雪芹 and 峰客 (that is my Chinese name. I am going to tell you tomorrow, what it means) in a park next to the forbidden city:
posted by cockatoo @ 7:19 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Yeah, the toilets... Never managed to use these in Korea or Thailand. Luckily i could wait for one western style most of the time. The other rare occasions gave birth to some spectacular acrobatics of mine^^
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