Day 5: Happy New Year!

Day 5 started off as a strange sort of day. It was New Years 2017 over here, while back in Cincy, my friends and family were still in 2016.

I got up, worked on some stuff on my computer, heated up some leftovers with my roommate, and then found out that the water wasn't running... which inhibited washing hands in the restroom, and washing dishes. (Thank goodness there was hand sanitizer.) Jessica theorized that she possibly spent too long in the shower, and that was why the water tank couldn't fill up again. After about 15 minutes, it did come on again and it was confirmed that it was due to the water tank capacity. When brushing my teeth though, I accidentally rinsed my mouth out with the faucet water (not swallowing any, thank goodness) and rinsed my mouth out with the water bottle to make sure I didn't get sick.

We made our way towards campus D to meet the Chinese TAs and some of the freshmen. It was a meet and greet event in the TA office. First and foremost, we found that none of the four of us could get the lock to the door open at all. So in desperation, Nick and Dom opened the windows just to the right of the room, and Nick went in that way. At this point, the Chinese students outside in the booths for studying (actually outside in the air, but even though it's winter, it's still about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, or 10 degrees Celsius) had been somewhat watching us for a while, and really perked up their attention when they saw that.

Outside benches for studying

                                          The office and some decorations in it

Now our boss, Greg Brown, had wanted us to be there by 11:30 because the event was supposed to start at noon. We had gotten there by 11:30, and there was no sign of him. By 11:40, I realized that there was time to kill. I pulled out my poetry notebook and started finishing a poem, but got restless and started wandering around the close areas of campus, taking pictures of a few statues, walkways, and a nearby pond.

When I got back at 11:50, a student was sitting in the room, and I asked him if he was a TA. No, he was the first freshman to show up. So we got to talking to him, finding out his name was Vin and he was an interesting character. Greg showed up a few minutes later, happy to see this. He also brought chocolate New Year's coins for the first freshmen to show up (the largest ones go to the first ones, and then the others got the small ones.....but the TAs ended up eating more of it than we should have.) Right after, the first JCI (Chinese) TA shows up, named Celia.

The New Years coins and their marking (including the Chinese zodiac)

A few more freshmen show up, one of the name Forest, and one named Rex. Rex took a picture with the American TAs, and got a picture with us. I get his WeChat info, and then I found out that he was a class monitor, so I was happy that I got his info. By this time, two other JCI TAs, Robert and Suri had shown up as well. The last one, Alexandra wasn't back to CQU yet from her hometown.

The American TAs and Rex

Then a couple more students showed up, including two more freshmen, and a friend of mine who I was very happy to see. How do you have friends over there, an astute reader might wonder. Well, over the summer, I was a Student Orientation Leader at UC, and every year, CQU's JCI program sends over 4 students to be SOLs with us for a month so they can learn how to be SOLs for CQU. Because of this I met 5 amazing students from CQU, Sam, Apollo, Alex, and Rebecca, as well as Lotus, who was doing research at UC last summer, but was a former SOL.

The friend who I was talking about was Alex, who brought the two freshmen along. He was going to head for co-op the next day, but wanted to stop by and see me first. We caught up like it had been no time at all, and he talked to the other TAs as well. We took a few pictures, and then he had to head out.

The 7 TAs and Alex

2 Freshmen, the TAs, and Alex

(Side note: Apollo and Rebecca are going to be in classes this semester too, and later that day, we made contact and plan to meet up soon. Sam will be on co-op at UC doing research, and sadly, couldn't make it to see me, but we will still get the chance to meet up in our fifth year. Lotus will also be on co-op, but I'll see her next year at UC. )

Greg talked to all of us for a while about classes to pass the time (and I finished a poem in the meantime). Then Greg wanted us to wait even longer for more freshmen, and left the TAs to mingle. I was starving, because I had expected to eat at around 2:30, but we were informed that we weren't going to eat until after 5:30. The TAs ordered food, Korean food, some pizza, and a hot soup with pig intestines and lotus root, and we sat down to wait.

All of the girl TAs there that day, me, Jessica, Suri and Celia, got along right away. We exchanged common interests, and I passed some time drawing while talking to them. Then the food came, and all the Chinese TAs were trying to warn Dom about how spicy the soup was, but he downed it with no problem. I was more wary and stuck to the Korean food, which was really good, especially the egg on top. The pizza took longer to get there. I tried a piece, but it wasn't as good as the stuff I'm used to in America. Their pizza is a lot sweeter, from the dough to the cheese.

The 7 TAs (plus Greg in the top pic), and the food on the right side

We made our way over to the Holiday Inn, where the buffet was. Now, when you hear "Holiday Inn", in America, one thinks of a roadside hotel that's somewhat basic. This couldn't have been farther from that. The reception hall was more like a Hilton or Hyatt, with large entranceways, elaborate decorations, and gorgeous carpets and couches.

They ushered us to a large table in the back, where we started a meeting assigning us to classes for the first few weeks. The way their schedule is set up, they have 3 weeks of classes, and then a spring holiday for Chinese New Year for a month, and then freshman classes start after that. Since I was the only Mechanical Engineering TA (all the Chinese TAs are EE, and the UC TAs are other majors), and that is one of the only two programs that they have at JCI, I was pretty much stuck with all of the Mech Engineering classes during the first three weeks. I have to be a TA for manufacturing processes and statics and particle dynamics (both of which I just finished a couple weeks ago) as well as a fourth year class called Heat Transfer, which is a bit intimidating, but I'm up for the challenge.

Finally, it was time to eat, and we dug in. I got lots of different food. Some of the food (fried chicken, asparagus, potatoes, chicken wings) tasted very American, while others (prawns, rabbit, duck, a pork skewer, an unidentifiable piece of meat with too many bones to eat) were more exotic. I decided to try a mussel, and the first one was shut, which meant it was bad, so I had to get another. Trying it, it was rather flavorless, like tofu, with the faintest fishy flavor. I also got my first cheese that wasn't on the pizza since I was here (cheese is very rare in China), a bunch of different fruit, including a slice of dragonfruit, a marshmallow drenched in chocolate from the chocolate fountain, an egg tart, and a couple pieces of cake (green tea, which was WAY too bitter for my taste, and white chocolate raspberry), as well as both chocolate and mango ice cream. I almost accidentally had a chocolate banana cake, but Jessica let me know it was banana and saved me from an hour or two of being uncomfortable. I am allergic to both bananas and hazelnuts, but only slightly, so that I can eat it, but it will constrict my throat and cause me to itch for an hour or two. So I try to avoid those foods.

Asking where we were supposed to pay, we found out our bosses had already paid, and we gave them a round of applause. We started walking home, the 9 of us happily full (and I grabbed an orange and a pear for the days to come). Prof Wong biked off, and Dr Brown caught a taxi, but the 7 TAs remained talking. We made plans to meet up the next day on Campus A so that we can learn how to use the subway, find the classrooms ahead of time, and explore the area.

Going home,I was a little bit sick, but I'm not sure if it was from the food or the accidental faucet water in my mouth earlier. I recovered quickly, though. I sat down and skyped 2 of my friends for about 40 minutes, worked on my blog, took a shower and headed off to Dreamland. 

Not a bad start for a new year in a new land.
-Zoe