Day 69, 70, 71, and 72: 3rd Week Back in Classes

Monday morning started pretty lazily. I got up and fixed breakfast in the morning, worked on my blog post, philosophy homework, read a bit and various other online things before I made a quick call. I had a bit of homesickness, so the call really helped me feel better.

I went out of the apartment for the 1:00 bus to Heat Transfer, and made my way to Campus A, eating a PB & J sandwich I had fixed for myself. I was also feeling sniffly, and I realized that I was coming down with some sort of illness, but I really hoped that I got better soon. I also realized that my phone had run out of data, so I needed to go put some more money on it soon.  

I went to class, and I took notes, and then I headed back to Campus D, walking around campus for a bit, seeing the flags that we had taken pictures with the other day, finding out that they were there due to partnerships with those countries, which I found interesting.  

 I went to the JCI office to pick up the exams for the Manufacturing Processes exam, and I found out which room that we would be in as well. It was a room that I was not familiar with, so I knew that I needed to go there early in order to ensure that I could find it on time. The I continued walking around, taking pictures of many of the flowers, including the magnolia trees, which I decided to take a souvenir petal from.

The front of the magnolia petal

The back of the petal

 I walked into the cafeteria, getting dinner, and break my 100 quai bill so I could pay my phone bill.  I ordered something random at a restaurant that I had really liked before, and it turned out to have chicken, small bits of tripe that didn't taste bad for the first time, and a piece of tofu all over potatoes, peppers and rice. I also went into the snack shop, and bought a grape flavored water to break my cash. I ate about half of the food, saving the rest for later, and went to pay my phone bill.

 Going there, I ran into Hardman, who was going home to study for the test the next morning. I made some small talk with him, telling him that I didn't think that the test was too hard as long as he studied well for it. I went into the store, putting 30 quai on my account, and then went home.

 I had been working on learning JavaScript, a new programming language, and I continued that that night. I also decided to watch some manufacturing processes lectures to pass the time and get some more hours. There was a knock at our door, and I got up to answer it. It turned out to be Nick, with several things for our apartment, including a large area rug, which cheered up our room a lot.

 Tuesday started with the Manufacturing Processes exam. I was still a bit sick, and it was a bit rough riding my bike with the bad weather and a cold. It took me a bit to find the classroom, but I found it relatively quickly. The door was unlocked, thank goodness. Bella, one of the workers in the office, had warned me that the doors could be locked, and I may have had to ask one of the students to help me out.

I messaged Apollo to double check that the email I had sent the night before had the right room number, since no students were showing up. I waited, and waited, prepping the blackboard and the tests, and eventually the first student showed up at 8:45. I started passing out exams, face down, at 8:55, and checked their formula sheets to make sure that they were one-sided. I had my own calculator as well, and I gave it to a student without a calculator to borrow for the exam. I counted to see if there was everyone there, because I had told everyone that I was going to start exactly at 9:00, but I thought that someone was missing. They told me that he was in the restroom, and I started the exam. About 2 minutes later, another person walked in, and I mentally kicked myself for not trusting my initial judgment. I checked his formula sheet, and settled in to observe the students at the lectern, while working on philosophy homework. I got up every so often to put the amount of minutes left on the board, and set my alarm for 10:00 to collect exams.

The empty exam room

Hearing the alarm ring, I got up to collect tests, as well as their scratch papers with their work on it. A few of the students told me that there were too many problems for them to finish, and I promised to tell the professor. Another student of mine, named Black, also told me that my office hours were directly conflicting with their class schedule. He showed me the schedule, and I told him I'd fix it. After everyone left, I gathered everything up, making sure the room was together, and messaged Black to send me the schedule so I could look at it. He asked if I could read it, and I told him that I couldn't, as much as I wanted to, but I would be ok just looking at the time blocks. He helped me with reading the days of the week on the sheet, and I thanked him.

After gathering everything up, I went to the JCI office to ask them if I could use their scanner to scan in the completed tests to send to the professor so he could grade it. They said that they were very busy, and that I should go to the print shop to get it done. I said that no one had ever shown me where the printing office was, so they sent an assistant with me to find it. I quickly found out that she spoke very little English (although her English was better than my Chinese), so we spent much of the walk in silence, with her saying a couple words in English occasionally. It was raining again, so she did let me share space under her umbrella, and said that the "floor" (by which she meant ground) was slippery. We went inside the yellow building closest to the building in which the JCI office was in, and we headed upstairs.

The print shop was more of a closet, as many people had noted before. There were plastic strips that together served as a door, and a few printers, scanners, and copiers shoved into a room about the size of a small bedroom. I organized my papers, and they scanned the relevant papers into the machine, putting it on my flash drive. Afterwards, the assistant said goodbye to me, but I told her that I was going back to the office with her so I could ask Bella a few questions about things in English.

At CQU, since they are accountable to China's Department of Education, they have to keep records of all documents, and, consequently, they want records of all paperwork associated with a class. I went to ask Bella if she wanted the paperwork now, since I scanned in everything for the professor to grade. But she said she needed copies of marked papers, which complicated things, because then the professor had to scan and send back a PDF of the graded papers. I also asked how to communicate I was with JCI next time, so I could put the charges on JCI's tab, and she said that I should just say JCI.

After scanning everything in, I went back home to eat the leftovers from the day before, and sent a message to the Manufacturing Processes professor saying I had scanned in the exams so he could grade them. He sent back a message saying I could grade them if I wanted. I needed a few more hours of work this week, and it would simplify the logistics with the office, so I agreed, and he sent me the answer key.

I chilled out in the apartment until 1:45, and then I biked like a madwoman to the digital design lab. I worked on some more digital design stuff, some philosophy homework, and talked to Dom for a bit. The lab got out early again, so I went home and reviewed more digital design stuff, and some manufacturing stuff so I could stay on the clock. I contemplated going to the 7 pm lecture, but I was feeling way too sick to go, so I decided to look over the statics lecture for the next day instead to get my hours that way. I fixed an omelet for dinner, and I got to it, going to bed right afterwards.

 Wednesday started with going to statics, and I was feeling a bit too sick to bike, so I walked to class. I sat through class, chatting with Nick occasionally, and doing a sample problem on the board for the students, and then went back to the TA office. To my surprise, there were Post It notes scattered down the wall, inviting students to come in and get help. I sat down, chatting in French online for a bit to strengthen my abilities while working on philosophy homework.

After a bit, I realized I needed to get lunch before heading to Campus A, so I went to the cafeteria, grabbing one of the multitude of to go containers that were pre packaged. They were a bit more expensive than regular meals (13.5 quai as opposed to 10, 11, or 12 normally), but I thought I'd give it a try. I knew that restaurants often charged more for to go containers, so I realized that that may be why it was more expensive. There were to go chopsticks as well, which I didn't notice at first, so I put them in my bag for the future. Trying some of the food, it reminded me of teriyaki chicken, but I ended up saving most of it for later so I could catch the bus.

I got on the early bus to Heat Transfer, so I was in the class over an hour early. I started grading some of the Manufacturing Processes exams, and put the rest of my lunch into my reusable container, as the other container had leaked a lot. It was a bit annoying sitting there for so long, because there was a constant pounding noise from the speaker for most of the time, but I put on some music, and proceeded to ignore it. As it got closer to the time of the class, the noise slowed down, eventually stopping all together.

I checked my emails, and found out that I had been confirmed to sing the National Anthem at the May 14th UC baseball game! Needless to say, I was very excited, as a lifelong dream of mine was finally coming true. I also decided to finally declare the philosophy minor that I had been going back and forth on for months, so it was a pretty good day.

After class, I had to go back to Campus D for the weekly meeting. Pablo and the Chinese TAs were going to video call in from Campus A, so the only two people who were going back were me and Wei Wei. We got on the crowded bus, making our way back. We saw a JCI student who I thought I recognized, and then he said that he had been there at the party the other night. He asked Wei Wei to sit next to him, and I sat behind them for the ride.

Getting into the room for the meeting, no one else was there yet, and we chatted about our experiences here this semester, and our different cases of both physical sickness and homesickness.

About 5 minutes before the meeting was going to begin, they all showed up, Sean bringing Moon Pies, which he shared with everyone. Dom was able to connect to the others on Campus A (although it disconnected at some point, and he had to try again), and we started. We mainly discussed grading issues, and CQU policy with that, as well as other policies for our various classes, and things that we needed for the apartment once the others had signed off. We also discussed the trip to the Buddhist stone carvings that Dom wanted to take next week.

After the meeting, we had to go help Wei Wei pick up stuff for our apartments. He grabbed his scooter, and seeing Nick's interest, he offered to let him ride it. We joked around as we headed back to the apartment. The guards didn't allow Nick to take the bike through the gate, even walking it through. Wei Wei told the guards in Chinese that the battery was dead (although it wasn't), and they still refused. He had to go out of the sight of the guards to ride the scooter down to the other gate.
He actually still beat us to the apartment!

Wei Wei told us to go down to the next gate, where the pick up station was for our goods, and he rode his bike inside the main gate. Will and I were a bit confused, but the others set us on the right path quickly. I chatted with Will about the need to not eat the food outside of the school, and then we were soon at the place to pick up deliveries. I grabbed a box, and we went to our apartment building. We unpacked the boxes like kids on Christmas day, and found that there were bath mats, desk lamps, and lots of pictures to hang on our wall. We got two desk lamps, four pictures, one for each of our rooms, and two for our living room.

We figured out how to hang the pictures, using the hammer in the guys' tool kit, and the guys got help from Wei Wei in putting the new lightbulbs in at their apartments (there were more wires involved than I would have expected). After hanging everything up, we settled in for the night. Soon after, I heard a knock at our door, which was Will bringing strawberries for us that he had bought from an older guy that grew them in his garden. I washed them off, and they were absolutely delicious!
It was a great ending to a great day.

Picture happily hanging in my room

 Thursday morning, I went to Models lecture for the first time, and saw half of the freshmen, as well. We were talking about the symbolic toolbox, as well as data interpolation, which is very useful, but somewhat boring to sit through a lecture for if you already know Matlab well. Sean introduced me to the students as "the mysterious 4th American TA who would come when she can because she is already swamped with work", which was a pretty accurate description.

During the second half of the lecture, the same guy who came to observe during the Heat Transfer lecture a few weeks before came in, talking to Sean for a bit, saying that he was only there to observe. I waved at him, surprising him. I said that it was good to see him again, and spitting out similar sentiments, he quickly sat down. I explained to Sean what he was doing there.

After lecture, we all walked around the pond to put money on our student card so we could eat lunch. I grabbed my bike, and walked with the others. Dom decided to grab a coffee afterwards, and then we made our way back to the lunchroom, wandering through the flower garden on our way.

At the cafeteria, I ordered something random, which turned out to be pork with potatoes, peppers, rice, and cabbage soup, all for only 10 quai.

After lunch, I went to go get some more money out of the ATM, and I then went to the TA office to work on philosophy homework and manufacturing processes grading. I told the others that I would see them later on Campus A for the Lego Batman movie we were planning on.

 I caught the 12:30 bus and made my way to campus A, eating a bit more of my lunch with the to go chopsticks I had, and then I went into the classroom to grade some more Manufacturing exams. At 2:20, a student who needed to make up their Heat Transfer exam showed up, and Pablo showed up soon after. After he was done, I stayed in, continuing grading.

I was a bit tired after another hour, and made my way outside. I realized that I forgot to take pictures of the gorgeous view, and went back upstairs to get some pictures. I got a bit turned around, but figured it out quickly.

Needing some fresh air, and a break from grading, I sat outside, typing my philosophy homework for a while. I also went to grab a Coke, so I didn't have to pay the high prices for one at the theatre. I went to a different part of the garden to eat some more of my food, and read a bit on my E Reader. Someone walked up to me soon after, and I looked up to see Sean and Dom.

We decided to make our way to D Café to find Nick and Jessica, but ran into Suri and Robert on the way. I asked for their help in getting movie tickets, and we found out that buying tickets online was much cheaper. We also found out the theatre we went to before didn't have any tickets left for the Lego Batman movie tonight, but there was another theater that had it in the square. I messaged Nick and Jessica to see where they were, and found out that they had already gone home (which I later found out was due to Nick's judgment). I insisted that we still go to the movie, and Robert and Suri generously took us to the theatre, even though they had plans to have dinner with their friends that night as well.

Getting there, we found out the tickets were more expensive than the other theatre, as well as the popcorn (25 quai for a small bucket of sweet caramel corn), and after settling our tabs, we bid the others goodbye, and went upstairs to go into the theatre. We went in, finding that they weren't seating yet, and when heading to the restroom, I caught sight of a sign saying that "ticket evaders would be charged a fee of 10 times the amount of the ticket". Hoping they wouldn't stop me at that moment (since I left my stuff with the others), I hurried back. My Chinese phone was saying stuff to me over and over for some reason, even though the phone was on silent. I sent off some last messages, and turned it off for the movie, which permanently solved the problem.

The movie was in 3D, and it was great! The traditional humor of the Lego movies was intact, and they made lots of references to other TV shows and movies (like Doctor Who and Harry Potter, the old Batman movie, and the comics. I would definitely recommend it highly and watch it again!

 Afterwards, we walked around the movie theatre, admiring the different statues, figurines, and posters that they had from different movies.

Iron Man throughout the years

Antman and Captain America

They called Captain America "Every Captain", even though it had a Captain America poster right on the wall next to it....very interesting

Star Wars posters from all over the world

Chinese Star Wars poster

life size Kung Fu Panda

After we satisfied our curiosity, we made our way back home on the subway, and then walked from the station the rest of the way home, joking with each other along the way. After getting everything settled, I headed to bed for an early morning the next day.

-Zoe