11 Days Later

We finally arrived in Jiaozuo after 2 days of travel. Our flights were fine, except that we had to run to make each connection, because each flight ran more and more behind schedule. Fortunately, we had 20 minutes in Norita to catch a smoke (or two). The worst part of the flight over was the 8 hour layover in Beijing. We arrived in Beijing at 10.30 PM, and our flight to Zhengzhou wasn't until 7.30 the next morning. We stayed in the Beijing airport, found a 24 hour "cafe", where we bought popcorn and coffee while we read to pass the time.

We were met in Zhengzhou by Shirley, who is a recent graduate of Jiaozuo Teachers College. She is our immediate go-to person for our apartment and living needs. She is very friendly and easy to talk to, and we have hung out with her a bit already. The drive from Zhengzhou to Jiaozuo is about 1.5 hours. It isn't especially scenic, mostly flatlands or prairie type landscape, with trees every now and then. There was a lot of corn on the sides of the roads, in the lanes for bikes and peds, since it is the end of the harvest time.

Our apartment is 2 rooms with a door between them, and they are pretty long and narrow, a lot like our living room/computer room back in Louisville. We have a nice huge bed, 2 outdoor enclosed patios for hanging clothes (and smoking when it is cold!), 3 sofas that are semi-decent, a PC w/ printer, coffee table, eating table, fridge, washing machine, bathroom w/ shower, 2 desks, plenty of wardrobes for our clothes, and some shelving units. Also, we have a TV, though we haven't watched much yet. We did watch a hilarious game show type program where the contestants had to run obstacle courses to try and win a cell phone. We learned 失败, or "fail""defeat", from the show.

Our living room. Map of China hung, Kim hanging some clothes to dry.

Free flowers the school was giving away!

 

Jiaozuo has a population of around 4 million, roughly the same size as the state of Kentucky. However, when we got on campus and settled into our apartment in the Foreign Teachers Apartment Building (Building 5), we had a chance to see the campus a little. When we are on campus, it feels like we are in a small city. The campus is located on the east side of the city, about 15 minutes bus ride from downtown. A few days ago, we took the bus to downtown Jiaozuo, and did some shopping -- downtown Jiaozuo was busy, and felt like a much bigger city. However, there is only 1 McDonalds and 2 KFCs, and no Starbucks (that we have seen yet). So, you can clearly see the city is still developing =p. 

There is a ton of construction happening all around and in the city, and lots of large fields undergoing development. The city feels like it is rapidly growing. Hopefully over the course of the year we can see some of that growth.

The public transport here seems great so far. There are a number of different bus lines and stops, and it is 1 kuai to ride the bus. But, we bought a bus card for 40 kuai that you can swipe when you get on the bus that will give you 50 rides, dropping the price to .8 kuai per ride. 

There are several bus stops right outside our campus main gate, along with a little night market every night that sells some snacks, clothes, bags, fruit, and very random assortment of items (for example, we are most likely heading back tonight to nab a cactus we saw there). Just beyond that, across the street, is a block of restaurants and convenience shops and a morning market. The morning market is pretty awesome, selling fresh meat hanging up in stands, vegetables (the carrots here are the size of my forearm, ridiculous!), and other food every morning.

Campus life is pretty active. There are about 20,000 students, and two campuses that are connected to each other; Jiaozuo University and Jiaozuo Teachers College. We are mainly teaching at Jiaozuo Teachers College, but we may have some classes on a third campus, which we can get to via shuttle. Our campus is mainly women, probably 90% -- there are 5 women dorms and half a dorm for men. Each room in the student dorms sleeps 6 people. The freshmen are undergoing military training for the past couple weeks, so it is pretty fun to see thousands of women and a few men dressed in fatigues running around all day.

We were given one schedule for teaching so far, for the sophomore classes, but only the even week schedule. One week is even, the next odd, and so on. The schedule confused the crap out of us, and I think it also confused the head of the English department who was assigning it to us. They let us decide who was teaching the sophomores and who would teach the freshmen, so Kim took the sophomores. She has already taught 3 classes (each class is 2 hours long, 2 segments of 50 minutes each), and she likes her classes, but it will take a lot of prep work to think of fun activities to do each time. Her students have excellent vocabulary, but for most it is their first time hearing a native-English speaker, so she is fielding requests to slow down her speaking. Most of the students are very active and want to participate.

We haven't had to do much actual work yet, with only 3 classes and another break coming up this week (National Holiday, from Oct 1 - 8). We had a break for Mid-Autumn Festival the week we arrived, and we went to Kaifeng for a couple days. After Oct 8, no more breaks until New Years (US) for us. This week is an odd week, and since they don't have our odd week schedules yet, and no Freshman schedule for me (until after Oct 8), we are free until Oct 8. Pretty sweet way to start our time in China!

Chomping on a chicken leg in Kaifeng. It tasted juicy and delicious. So juicy SWEET!

Our trip to Kaifeng was great. We took a bus for 39 kuai each, and stayed in a hotel whose bathroom smelled like a sewer pipe exploded. Right outside our hotel, though, was a lively night market that had plenty of lamb, local specialties, and ice cream that Kim loved. We saw several historical sites and parks in Kaifeng, including Iron Pagoda (铁塔）, Long Ting Park (龙亭公园）, Chief Ministers Building (大相国楼）, and the city wall (which was a little disappointing, especially when compared to Nanjing). Also, we had requests for photos with Kim and me, and I decided to snap one as well. Here is some random Chinese girl with Kim!

Kim has a theory that snapshots of foreigners are traded like baseball cards. It has yet to be disproved.

Yesterday we went to Zhengzhou for our medical examinations, part of securing our residence permits. The whole exam took about 30 minutes, and we were whisked from station to station to do things like ENT tests, ECGs, Xrays, ultrasounds (turns out I am not pregnant, thank god), blood tests, and a urine sample. To get a medical exam, you have to give them a 2x2 inch photo of yourself with your submitted paperwork. They take more pictures as your paperwork is processed, and the whole exam was a little under 300 kuai each. Pretty impressive and painless, overall.

Our favorite part was the plastic shoeguards we had to put on to go into the ultrasound room. Our best guess is that they help keep the cot you lay down on clean....