DAY 2

May 25, 2009

Woke up at 5:00 am and after a nice shower-crap made my way down to the convenient store, which it turns out is not so convenient. My roommate and I bought some Korean Corn Flakes and Jolly Pops (Korean cereal). ‘How does one eat cereal with chop sticks?’ You might wonder. Well, I don’t know. What do they do? Stab their Cheerio’s through the Cheerio hole with the chop-stick? We actually found some plastic spoons that were probably created for elves (not the Tolkien kind, the Santa kind). They were about 2.5 inches long and the scooper part was the size of a penny. How does one eat cereal in China? Very slowly. The miniature spoons were ok considering the fact that we were eating out of a 2 inch Dixie cup. It all evened out.

We went to the bank where. I told them I didn’t speak Mandarin and then they gave me money.


LUNCH

We got our cafeteria passes today and went for lunch at 11:45 which is pretty much exactly when every single Chinese student at our school eats lunch too. They were brutal. They stacked themselves in line like a fat woman’s boobs bulging out of her undersized bra. It was stressful. And when they moved in line, it was like getting caught in a rip tide. There was no fighting it. I finally made it to my seat, though I didn’t really get the food I wanted. I’m not sure what I got but it was chewy.

Some Americans sat at the table beside us and- I know we really look Chinese, especially me with my dark hair- but they didn’t realize we spoke English.

“So what are your symptoms?”
“Well my urine is kind of weird and…oh shit they speak English”
“Oh well, they don’t care they’ve heard it all before”

We’ve really learned how to blend-in in the last day. I’m sure I look Chinese.

CLASS

We actually had to go to class for 3 hours. Who wants to go to school when you’re studying abroad? Seriously.



DINNER

I had Chinese Japanese food. Like their plastic spoons, the portion was miniature. To avoid utensil culture shock, Eun-Young nabbed some plastic forks and spoons. However we had a real scare when we got stopped by the guard at the gate to our dorm. He put up his hand and would not let us enter. So I said my line, “I do not understand the words you are speaking. I don’t speak the language of the common people.” The paradox of this is, that when I say this in Chinese, they assume I speak fluent Chinese and keep talking. He wouldn’t let us pass. We really thought we were busted for taking those forks. Finally we realized he wanted to see our keys. We spent about 5 minutes “talking” with him. I think he is our friend now.


THE BATH HOUSE

I saw The Bath House on the map and got really excited because I might have a chance to pamper myself in a Chinese Spa. It turns out that most of the dorms here don’t have private shower-crappers. People take public showers here. That’s just the way of life for the Chinese.