Entries from August 2006 ↓

Thanks to Eric at the College of Software at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics for pointing out that while the Kunming Wikipedia entry isn’t visible in China via wikipedia, you can access the info via answers.com:

http://www.answers.com/Kunming?gwp=11&ver=2.0.0.453&method=3

Ok, don’t eat fish. Not in the U.S. and not in China. I heard a horror story (Jeremy’s friend received a forwarded text message) about something mysterious infecting fish in China. And in the U.S. I guess there’s some terrible stuff with the antibiotics they feed to the fish affecting consumers. Yikes!

It’s really too bad. I like fish.

I’ve been asked to retract this crazy, alarmist, and inaccurate post.  I just heard a vague rumor about bad fish, but until some evidence is presented you really shouldn’t alter your eating habits. [Thursday, August 31, 2006, 7:24 p.m.]

Jeremy is here!  And we have a little home.  And classes are about to start. Yay!
I’m really craving a routine.   Right now I don’t seem to be getting anything done, and my study habits are miserable.  I took my placement exam on Monday.  Wow, that was scary.  I think they gave me one of the higher levels, but I think I completely failed.  Hopefully I demonstrated some ability.  It will be exciting to have new books and classmates and things.

Since I’m living off campus, I had to register at the police station.  Last time I was here, I went to the same station.  I remember it being very confusing, but this time around they had an entire office dedicated to interacting with foreigners.  Of course I had to sit around a while, but it didn’t take long.  I suppose I was a little more prepared this time.  I had all of my documents in order.  That helps.
Jeremy gave me a camera, but I still need to buy a memory card.  There is a small internal memory, but it can only hold a few images.  I’ll soon fill this site with some good pics.  I already have a few on my flickr site. I have to admit that I’m still a little shy when it comes to pulling out my camera.  Sigh.

It’s been fun rediscovering a few restaurants around Kunming.  Yesterday we walked through the rain to a place that serves “box lunch” style meals.  It’s rare that you can order a single meal.  Most restaurants are family style, so it’s nice to have a place where you eat alone without being wasteful.  Of course, you can always order noodles in single servings, but that gets monotonous.  Noodles are lonely.

Wow, I didn’t realize how stale this blog had become.  Just noticed as I wrote back to Mari (safe in Seattle).

Well, I actually have news to report today.  I rented an apartment.  It’s a two bedroom, fully furnished, with appliances for 900 yuan/month (about 115 USD).  I think it will be very comfortable.  And with a spare room we will soon be ready for guests!

There are so many crazy things about renting an apartment here that I don’t know where to begin.  I guess the most painful bit is that they require 6 month’s rent upfront, along with one month’s deposit.  Yikes!  This is strange even for China, but that’s Kunming.  And then there’s the management fee because we have 24-hour gate guard.  And then there’s the unofficial “thank you fee” to the guards that introduced me to the couple renting the apartment.  I barely had enough, but I made it.  Everything’s always negotiable, and with the incredible help of my friend Wumin, we negotiated a lot!  Rent: aking price 1000, 900 agreed price.  “Thank you fee:” asking 900, paid 300.  Not bad.

I’ve been watching a lot of t.v. lately, because my roommate has a ton of stuff on DVD.  I’m watching the “L” Word right now, already in season 2.  My god.  It’s a good way to numb my brain.  I’ve been pretty anxious about getting things ready for Jeremy’s arrival (Tuesday!), so it’s nice to just let an hour or two just pass by.

Off to chat with my sister.

I have a different view now here in Kunming.  I moved in with an American woman.  She’s just getting the place set up, but she’s doing it miraculously quickly.  I’m really impressed at how quickly she’s been able to hustle up furniture.  And the internet guy came today.  Yay!  So I’m actually writing from my new home.  Pretty cool.

This apartment is closer to a lot of the foreigner cafes and the bars and things.  There’s street noise, which I’m not used to.  It’s a little street, but a lot of activity — all kinds of little shops and street vendors.  I like the salons that dye and braid hair just outside the shop so you can observe what a good job they’re doing.  Heh.  So much to look at.  Half a block away is a full vegetable and meat market.  And it’s two blocks to Green Lake Park.

I’ve been thinking this area was too expensive for me.  I’m still not convinced I need to live right on top of all this, although it is fun.  It’s not prohibitively expensive, but I don’t think I’d mind living a little further out.  It probably won’t be much quieter though.   Quiet is one thing you don’t find in this city.

Last week was my first week without language exchange or Mandarin classes of any kind. Whew, did it affect my meeting today.  My teacher told me she was watching me progress each week, but this time she could tell that I fell off the wagon.  “You spoke English all week, didn’t you?”  Oh, man.  Well, I have more meetings scheduled this week — both Thursday and Friday.  Yay!

Catching up on the last few lessons from ChinesePod: 菜鸟103 I’m here for an interview, 中级53 Teaching English in China, and 初级47 Skincare: Sunscreen. Learning a little bit, but I’m not paying as much attention as I should.

Mostly, today I wasted the day in front of the computer. I was preparing a bit for a conference call I have later this evening with some folks from St. Louis about a website. But also just fooling around — hence the changes to the blog here. Heh.

Last night I watched A Scanner Darkly, the new movie based on Philip K. Dick’s sci-fi novel. Unfortunately, the dvd I bought (5 kuai<$0.75) although it had the proper DVD menu, was totally a bootleg recorded by video camera in a movie theater. Kind of a bummer. The sound was bad, so I missed a lot of the dialogue (the English subtitles were gibberish). Still the animation was cool. I remember liking Waking Life — same director, same effect — except for the fact that it had NO plot. Anyway, this movie had a plot, but I think one of the twists was foreshadowed a bit too bluntly. I wonder if anyone else noticed (spoiler). Anyway, recommended.

A deathly glumness enveloped me again today. Of course, the computer doesn’t help, but I feel such a void. I excuse my hermit-like behavior as not wanting to bum out other people. But that’s so infantile!

I was just reminded of MIT Open Course Ware last night.  The have entire courses posted online: syllabus, assignments, handouts, and some times videos of lectures!  This includes online Mandarin courses.  Pretty cool.  Check it out.

This morning I had a lovely brunch with Mari and Ta. We ate at Salvador’s, a local cafe that caters to Westerners. I had a huge bowl of yogurt, granola, and fruit, along with a bagel and cream cheese. Mari and Ta went with the eggs, potato, fruit, and wheat roll. Good food. Ta says that she doesn’t tend to run into cafes like this in Beijing, so she was especially enthusiastic about sitting down to some Western food this morning. We are good eaters. We have had a great time consuming all manner of things together over the last few days. Lots of hot peppers, lots of fish, and always a little eggplant (my favorite).

They were both off today for Laos. So sad to see them go, especially after spending the last 5 weeks with Mari. Of course, she’s relieved I think because her time here has been packed with intense language study (over 20 hours a week in class!). I think they’ll have a good time in Laos. Getting away from China will do them both good.

I spent the afternoon scrubbing clean my entire dorm room, removing everything from drawers and shelves. I have a vague hope of moving in temporarily with a super cool woman I met the other day, Shannon, but mostly I just need to clean. Psychological? You bet. Everyone around me is in transition, and I’m really longing to get out of this dorm and live with Jeremy. I really want some movement!

Oh, by the way, I think I cured my glumness. I bought some oil paints and spent a few hours the other day painting figures from photos I found online. They weren’t my most fabulous work, since I’m totally out of practice, but it really is so rewarding to lay paint down paper. I can’t tell you why.

Happy birthday, Cynthia!  It’s my sister-in-law’s birthday today.  Yay!
I’ve been lucky catching people from back home on MSN or Google talk. Just chatted with Bev Yang! And the other day I talked to my brother. And that’s in addition to my semi-regular check-ins with Jeremy, my parents, and my sister (she’s in England). Very cool. I’m really very spoiled with the level of communication I keep with everyone. I don’t know what I’d do without everybody.

Unfortunately, I’ve been glum lately. No good reason, although I keep searching: My roommate just moved out. Jeremy’s not here. Mari’s leaving on Saturday. Sara moved out of the dorms. I’m incapable of apartment hunting on my own. No classes. Money. What am I doing here? Sigh.

Actually, my roommate moving out means I have my own room! Mari pointed this out immediately. It hadn’t even occurred to me. I haven’t had an ounce of privacy in a while. Of course a monster roommate could appear at any moment. But for now, it’s not bad.

Yesterday, I started my day determined to find an apartment, but my enthusiasm fizzled for no apparent reason. And by the time I was talking to an agent, I couldn’t remember any of the vocabulary I prepared and Mari translated everything for me. I felt so dumb. It’s probably a good idea to drag a native speaker along for the cultural translations too — I’m not even sure if we were asking all of the right questions. So hard to say. The market is a little pricier than I remember, but it’s still much lower than the U.S. I looked at a fully furnished 2 bedroom apartment (including a very large t.v. even) and it was 1800 RMB/month ($225/month) with a 6 month lease. The agent suggested I wait until mid-month for some more inexpensive apartments to come on the market. I just need to be sure that I’m not competing with the entire returning student population, because classes start up September 1. I’m sure it will be impossible to find anything near-by if I wait too long.

The weather is wonderful though. I keep reading about the terrible heat in the U.S. Nothing like that here. The rain has subsided, although we do get an occasional violent downpour. It’s cool in the morning and the evening (60 degrees F) and creeps up to upper 70’s during the day. Not too bad.