Today was my Business Ethics class, which went well enough. Actually discussed the foundation of Libertarianism which I was happy about, sadly no one really wanted to discuss it, but o well. The class discussion is currently dominated by Clement, Louie, and I with a few Chinese kids piping up every once in awhile, which makes me kind of said cause I didn’t really come here to hear a western comments, but even when I just sat there and waited for new people to talk it never happened. Maybe as the class goes on I’ll eventually find a button to push and can force some debate.
There was one girl who talked who I thought was very intelligent and worked in the HR department. After class she walked by and I stopped her to tell her I liked what she said and for her to please talk more. She looked really startled but said something along the lines of “o ok I will thanks.” So I think it went over well. But Clement said that I’m really good at making people feel awkward. *cha ching* It’s a gift, and I don’t mind saying I rather enjoy it.
Side note my tea bag just broke *sad face* luckily the wire mesh on my cup should protect me but we’ll see.
So then we grabbed lunch and sat at the Mao (there’s a giant statue of Chairman Mao and a large grassy area) to eat. I left though to go see if I can get my electricity turned back on. O ya, I seemed to have blown a fuse this morning. Something about having my computer on, having my bathroom, main room, refrigerator, and hot water heater on at the same time just didn’t quite agree with the circuit breaker. But there’s was no one home on the 11th floor where our landlord lady lives. So instead I left to go exploring again.
Well not really exploring I guess, this time I went to the big electronics district in search of the elusive camera, and I've been in the area a few times. I found out though that cameras are actually more expensive here than in the states which sucks. I know Newegg.com ships to China and they might have a better deal. Instead I switched gears and started looking for an MP3 player.
For some reason though I just impulsively bought one, which is rather unusual, but I got a Teclast, which is some sort of Chinese brand, along with two pairs of headphones, and a MP3… sock like thing.
“Why did you buy two pairs of headphones!?”
Well… you know you over paid when the clerks is willing to give you one of the boxes she has for another player with needed wiring and all that, along with a free MP3 sock, AND she forgets to take out the headphones that she said she was going to switch out for the ones I bought. I only paid 320RMB ($46) and the internet said that was better than the going rate so who knows, maybe I hold a copy in my possession.
About that… it’s currently broken. I was fiddling with it, plugging it in to my computer, unplugging it from my computer, syncing it with some of my software, etc. When all of a sudden when I pulled it out the device locked onto the “Plugged into the USB cable” screen, and there really isn’t a way to force it to turn off. So I’m going to leave it there and hopefully it’ll go off and then I can plug it back in and get it to work. If not tomorrow is my day off and I’ll just run up there and put on my sad face. I’ll let you know how that works out for me.
On a more positive note my electricity is back on, AND the woman called a mechanic to fix my bathroom door, happy days!
So another weird thing today I learned, my left hand is more sensitive to heat then my right hand…
O ya I forgot I went to the store with Antoine to pick up some more supplies, a large quantity of toilet paper (why not?), some Iron Buddha Tea, honey, and a water heater. Fun stuff.
So I got sent some questions which I figured I would go ahead and answer on here:
How many students are in your class? Does your professor have a strong NY accent?
In my marketing there was around… 20-35 students and no my teacher had almost no accident, probably because he’s lived and worked almost all around the world. He did have a interesting way of talking, he would kind of add in his own emotional responses to what he was saying. Rather hard to explain, sorry.
Do you eat breakfast at the school? Does it have a student cafeteria?
The closest thing I normally have to breakfast is a large roll of raisin almond wheat bread on the way to work, I simply just don’t wake up early enough, and I have a lot things to do in the morning. Yes there are about 4 or 5 cantinas (cafeteria seems to be an American word, go figure).
How many people share a bathroom?
…I have my own bathroom, but there are giant public showers for most of the students on campus which means you'll often times see trekking around campus with soap and a towel in their hands, and it seems that each floor has their own bathrooms. The international dorms are much better than the normal student dorms.
What does Dr. McDaniel do at Hendrix?
Dr. McDaniel is a philosophy/religion professor at Hendrix, he focuses a lot on Asia.
How is your cough? What is the weather like there now?
Cough is… better, but my lymph nodes are swollen. I have no idea how to really diagnose myself, but my throat feels swollen near the lymph node area, thus concluding my observation that my lymph nodes are probably swollen. I’m treating it at the moment by lots of tea and honey. If the problem continues after next week I’ll probably go see a doctor, but I think it’s largely just due to the massive weather changes. Yester day it was around 70, and today it was in the 50s. Weather seems to be a constant change here, but it’s suppose to be warming up this week.
Are you learning any Chinese? Have you gone to the movies there?
I am in fact learning, pretty much no Chinese, which I find to be very sad. I’m picking up pieces here and there but retention is a problem as always. I simply can’t go to Chinese class and do my internship at the same time. I almost went to the movies today but me and Chris (I’ll get to him next) walked in right as it ended. The movie was on campus and was open to everyone.
After dinner Christ (the Chinese student who we ate dinner with yesterday) asked if I wanted to come check out the Chinese dorms. Of course having never been into the other dorms before I thought this was a great idea. Holy crap, it’s hard to complain about your room when the guys down the block live six to a room. I did have fun though and Chris and I talked about studying abroad, American Idol, and general costs of living. I found out that most kids that come out of a bachelors program can expect to make around $5500 yearly, a good number to keep in mind.
Alright I’m pretty bushed and tomorrow is cleaning day along with some more traveling so… zai jian.
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