Days 55, 56, and 57: Back to Classes

On Monday morning, I did get up bright and early, but for a call, not for a class. This way, I was sure to start off my week on a good note. After that, I hung around the apartment for a bit longer, working on blog posts, and various other things before heading over to Campus D with Jessica. She walked me to the bus stop, and then went back to the dining hall.  I had a ham sandwich, chips, and a pear packed for lunch, and I ate it on the bus while I read a book on my e reader.

I had gotten on the early bus, so I still had about an hour and a half before class started. It was a nice day, so I decided to stay outside for a while, and then go to class about 30 minutes before it started. Most of the time outside, I was looking or planning different class things for the week, so I decided to count myself as still "on the clock".

During that time, though, Chris, the Australian guy we had met in Xi'an messaged me about trading poetry back and forth. I wasn't sure what to say at the moment, so I decided to reply later.

 A bit before class started, I headed inside. I went to Heat Transfer, talking to the three students who were already in the class about how their break had gone, as well as describing my own. They were a bit worried about the homework that was due that day, because Pablo had made several last minute changes, but I reassured them that they would be fine. Sure enough, when Pablo came in, he gave the students an extension until Wednesday, but told them that their questions should have been asked earlier than the weekend before it was due, since they had had a month to complete it.

But anyway, I sat through heat transfer, taking notes, like normal (as it is a 4th year Mech Engineering class, and I am a 2nd year Mech E), and then sat through the other newly arrived professor's class. His name was Professor Wei Wei, and he had taught at CQU several times before (including the semester before, but visa issues with another professor necessitated he come back this semester too). It was an electronics class, but most of what he was teaching was basic vector notation, so I zoned out for most of it. There was no wifi, so I started going through my philosophy book to pass time.

After that class, I asked Robert what he was going to do, and he said that he was going to go for dinner at a dining hall that I haven't been to. I was tempted to go along, but knew that I needed to get groceries, and I declined. At this point, I was tired and low on blood sugar, but I knew that cooking when I got home would save me money. I saw that the bus left in 30 minutes, and I figured that I would be able to get the basics of what I needed and get back, at least to Campus B, in that time.

However, when I walked off campus, I immediately started walking the wrong way, and I laughed at my foolishness when I realized it. Walking back toward the store, I knew that time was ticking down, and as time progressed, I realized more and more that I would either have to catch the subway back or just wait for the next bus. Going all the way to the subway station with the groceries seemed tedious though, so I decided to just take my time at the store.

I went in, finding some of the stuff through visual memory. My main mission for going was to try to find peanut butter, which is very, very rare in China, unfortunately. Apparently, the guys had found peanut butter on a previous mission to Wal Mart near the cookie section. So I made my way back to the cookie aisle, picking up a large pack of regular Oreos (since they had more in them than the chocolate cream ones), and being indecisive on breakfast biscuits and blueberry Pocky, as well as moon pies. After a bit of pacing around, I decided to get the first two things, but not the moon pies.

Very grateful for signs in both English and Chinese

I went over to the vegetables after getting one jar of peanut butter (and I eventually went back for a second one). It wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be, only a little bit over two US dollars. I picked up some small potatoes and looked around to see if there were any other familiar vegetables. I saw some things that looked like carrots, but they were suspiciously long and narrow. I sniffed one, and it did indeed smell like a carrot. I got two to supplement my diet.

As I walked around, I didn't see any fresh eggs anywhere, only frozen quail eggs in a bag, so I decided to go ask the lady who was giving out free samples. She was talking to someone, but I asked her via the translator where they were, and she shook her head no at me. I thought they maybe they had ran out, and moved on, but found them soon after (although in an interesting bag your own eggs concept). I decided that I could put the eggs into my lunch container to make sure they wouldn't break. I was somewhat offended, but talking to Jessica a few days later, she said that maybe the lady worked for another company giving out the samples.

Interesting looking carrots, to say the least

Whole unpackaged raw chickens for sale

When I was wandering around trying to find the fresh eggs, I saw that they had live frogs and turtles for sale in the "seafood" department. One of the turtles was desperately clawing at the barrier, trying to escape, and it broke my heart. I had half a mind to take it home as a pet, but I didn't have any place to put it, and I walked away, broken hearted.

After I had gotten everything I wanted/needed due to going back and forth within the store (two jars of peanut butter, twelve eggs, a bottle of blueberry Gatorade, 4 small potatoes, 2 carrots, oreos, breakfast biscuits, blueberry pocky, and some more packaged ham) I started to head to the bus stop. Getting there, though, there was a sign with Chinese writing on it, and I assumed it meant the stop was closed, so I walked to Campus B's bus stop for about 20 minutes to try to catch it. I got lost for a few minutes, but made my way there.

After I got to campus, I had to walk the rest of the way home. I was texting a friend and a girl stopped me all of a sudden. She said she was from France, which surprised me because she appeared to be Chinese. I confirmed with her twice and she did say that she was from there. At first, I thought I had already talked to her before, but when I asked her name (which turned out to be Elsa) I realized she was a different person. She started making small talk with me, and I talked to her about her different interests. She said that she was interested in sports, and asked me what sports I played. I told her I tried to stay in shape, but I didn't really play sports since I'm a bit uncoordinated. But she went on, saying that I looked athletic, and she asked if we liked to mountain climb, and I had told her about just climbing the mountain. I mentioned that we were going to possibly climb the mountains in Chong Qing, and I told her that if we went, I'd invite her. She told me that she was studying English here, and I told her that she could practice English together if she needed help. We exchanged Wechats and she took a picture with me.

After that, I started heading home, and she sent me a voice message saying that I was a very beautiful girl. I was shocked, but not overly shocked. I sent her a message asking if we could practice French, and she said that she didn't speak French very well. Through another series of messages, I realized that I had misunderstood her, and that she was simply working in Chong Qing and learning English. Jessica suggested the next day, when I talked to her, that maybe the girl had only visited France at some point.

I finished myself dinner, read some more, and headed to sleep.

On Tuesday, I stayed in for a while, and tried to get my blog updated, as well as the Astronomy Club powerpoint for the meeting later that night. Around 11 pm though, the wifi in the apartment went out and I went to campus to grab a bite to eat. I ran into Alexandra, and she told me about the digital design lab later that day, and that I could head to the lab with Suri to find out the location of it.

I sat down in the main dining hall, and the wifi was running too slow, so I eventually went to the dining hall next door, and got a blog post published, and most, but not all of the Astro powerpoint. While sitting, I was sipping on juice that I randomly selected from the menu (which turned out to be lemonade) and at the end, I tried to eat the tiny green fruits that were in the lemonade, but I gave up quickly because it tasted like a lime.

I then went to the TA office to meet Suri and get the digital design labs because I wasn't able to download them with the bad wifi. The office didn't have wifi either (and even the Ethernet cable didn't work). I told her about my wifi struggles all day, and she told me about a coffee shop on campus that I could go to.

I sat through digital design lab, learning a bit, and passing out gates for the students' circuits. Suri led the class, because she had taken the class before. It turned out that lots of the desks had been thrown out over the break (literally, thrown out, looking out the window, we saw lots of discarded desks) and the equipment no longer worked with the power outlets (American equipment and Chinese outlets) and at first, we thought they would have to trade our power adapters around the classroom. But Alexandra found a couple power strips, so we only had to use one.

The room was unnaturally cold, and as I had expected the weather to be as nice as the day it was before, I didn't have my coat. During the lab, Prof Wei Wei asked if we could go ahead to the next lab and try to get the materials together for the next week's lab. I didn't know how to do much of it, so Dom helped me with his knowledge of circuits and truth tables. Eventually I figured it out, and I was very proud that I had learned something from it.

For the rest of the 4 hours, I worked on my curriculum vitae, and chatted with Dom to pass the time.

During the break, Dom, Suri and Alexandra went to eat, and I made my way over to the coffee shop to use their wifi. I ordered a rose tea (with a bit of difficulty) and sat down to use the wifi. Unfortunately, the wifi was even worse than other places on campus, and after I finished the tea, which was delicious, I headed to a place outside that the wifi had worked before.

I froze outside, but managed to get it sent (although not completely finished). I got to the lecture part of the class about 3 minutes before it started, and all Nick and Jessica were also there. It turned out that the others had been on Campus A all day sitting in on other labs.

During the class I learned more about binary and was wondering how much I could learn from this class. However, the professor ended the class early because he was really sick for the first time in 15 years (which is against CQU rules, but none of us were complaining). Everyone else went home and I went for dinner. Jessica also told me that my lips were purple before leaving, so I realized just how cold I actually was.... But at dinner, I decided to save most of the rice for breakfast in the morning with blueberry jam.

After getting home, the wifi was fixed, thank the heavens (everyone else had had trouble getting it too), and I finished the powerpoint, and sent it in.

Wednesday wasn't much of an adventure. I went to statics first thing in the morning with Nick, and realized that just like the students, I was out of practice, as evidenced by the .

After statics, the rush of people in and out of the class and surrounding hallways caused me to be separated from Nick. I took it in stride though, and I just decided to practice French through chatting with my friend, who was a native French speaker, until it was time to go to campus A for heat transfer. After he went to sleep, I graded some papers, and got on the shuttle to campus A. I got there early, but as it was cold again, I decided to go to the classroom, review my notes, and work on other paperwork.

About 20 minutes before the class started, a strange professor came in, and started a conversation with me. He knew I was a TA, but knew nothing of the TA program with UC. I explained to him how the program worked, and how long I was here for, but his English wasn't the best, so I had to explain some things several times. Pablo then came in, and joined the conversation. The man was from CQU, and was there to observe Pablo's class for an hour, and asked us how we liked the country, not understanding at first that Pablo had been there last semester too. He mainly asked about the food, because he said he had visited UC for a month once, but didn't like American food, and it was way too expensive. He asked where the students were, and I said they would be there. He scolded that they should be on time (this was still 10 minutes before class started) and I said that they would be.

Unfortunately, a few of them were late, but the rest of the class ran smoothly. I took notes, as per my normal, and during the break, the man pulled Pablo out to the hallway, and took his leave. After class was over, I collected the students' second homework and ran to catch the bus back. It turned out the bus stop that I had thought was closed before wasn't actually closed, but moved a bit, and I was very relieved that I had found out for next time.

Getting back to Campus D, I got dinner, taking some home for later, and then heading home, doing some grading, reading (I've done more reading this semester than I have since I started college) and going to sleep.

-Zoe