Days 76, 77, 78, and 79: Week 4 of Classes

 Monday started off with grading models labs for a while. I had to go back and correct my own work several times, but I got into the swing of it quickly. After eating lunch, I went to heat transfer on the bus, and I took notes there. There was an advertisement on the desk in Chinese. I figured it was an ad for a job, phone service, apartment or internet service, as most ads of that format are, and I left it there for the next person.

Aforementioned ad

Getting back to Campus D, I was pretty hungry, so I grabbed dinner, which turned out to be a chicken, lettuce, and cucumber wrap, and a sweet rice drink of some sort. I knew that there was a long night of grading ahead of me, so I decided to get some tomato bread as well to tide me over.

Walking back to the apartment, I decided to go on a photowalk of sorts, taking pictures of the beautiful campus and its greenery.

I just realized that this was a cafeteria as well

Another view of the Coldplay "Yellow" building I mentioned in the last post

Getting back to the apartment, we discovered that we were having trouble getting our different grades to show up on the other's page. Jessica was grading the first two problems of the lab, and I was grading the last two, but we couldn't see the other person's comments, so we couldn't submit it.

I went to Nick's apartment to try to get the statics lecture, and I ended up talking to him a bit. He invited me to hang out a bit if I felt like it. I thought about it for a while, but went to his room to tell him I was going to head to sleep early. Going back to his room, I saw him talking to our neighbors, and I joined in, talking about our plans for the summer semester. We eventually made our way out to the hallway after the power surged for a bit (although it was perfect timing, since he was showing off his sound activated lights when the song ended and the power went off.) Sean joined us, and then Jessica did as well. We talked for a while more, and then the neighbors had to go in and finish their lesson plans for the next day.

We all decided to go into Nick's apartment, my plans of heading to sleep early that night completely thrown out the window. I worked on the old statics powerpoint while we worked on getting the lab problems figured out despite the bad wifi. Eventually, we realized that with administrator privileges, i.e., Jessica signing in on Sean's account, we could reconcile the two grades and make them one.

After everything, we ended up playing Civ 6 for the next hour and a half. Dom came into the room soon after we started, having just finished the programming lab. Around 11:30, we headed back to our room and did some last second prep for Manufacturing Processes before heading to sleep.

Tuesday morning was pretty slow as well, grading more Models labs (since there were around 130 total, it was a long process.) I had slept in a bit, not having set an alarm. so I felt more refreshed, but grading the same questions over and over wore me out quickly. A friend made a quick Skype call to cheer me up, and then I headed out to a meeting that I had previously set up.

I went to meet Heather, the girl that I had met a couple weeks before, at the cafeteria to talk about an event she wanted me to attend on Saturday. I found out that the event she wanted me to attend was definitely an all day event, starting with an 1.5 hour subway ride to go to the art studio where she worked, which also offered English lessons. From there, we would have to take a bus to the place where the activity was being held. She told me that we'd probably get back around 9, since she was going to take me to dinner afterwards, but I said that I'd probably be able to come.

Neither of us had anything to do until 2, so we chatted for a while. I talked to her about my life back at home, including what I'm studying, what I'm involved in, and my interests, while she did the same for her life. She said that she wanted to study abroad as well, but the cost was prohibiting her from doing so. I sympathized with her, saying that I wouldn't be able to be in China right now if it wasn't paid for by JCI.

Right before 2, we headed out of the cafeteria, her to go to one of her Information Technology classes, and me to go to the Digital Design lab.

Getting to the lab, I chatted with Dom a while, and we started working on the lab that the students had for this week. It was a 3 bit adder, and Suri helped Dom understand it using a textbook and some tables it contained. I was still a bit lost, because I wasn't too used to Binary, but Dom helped me understand it. There were some parts where he wasn't sure either, but he puzzled it out with logic, and got the correct answer. Alexandra and Suri came over, and were astonished that we had figured it out without another table that we were supposed to use. We also found out that we had learned how to use 4 bit adders instead of 3 bit adders, which made things easier.

Lab got out early, and I was shocked to see an ashtray on the desk. I asked Alexandra, and she said that smoking was indeed allowed. I was shocked at it, but was glad that no one was smoking in the lab at the moment.

Smoking is allowed in the labs

I went to grab some food before going back home, and got a chicken, tofu, and beef mix, with some tang yuan for dessert, as well as a chocolate drink from the convenience store (which I thought was a coffee drink). Not bad for randomly pointing at a menu! I had forgotten my to go bowl, so halfway through my meal, I had to get up and ask for one. I used the translator app, but they didn't get it, so they went out and asked a girl who was sitting there who knew a bit of English. She helped, which was a bit of a debacle, because they offered the small bowls at first, and I had asked for two. Eventually, I got the larger bowl, but the lid didn't fit very well, and I had to be careful with my food in the basket of my bike on the way home.

Getting back, I tried one of the ramboutan fruits. It had a center seam, so it was easy to peel, and the middle fruit was reminiscent of a grape with a pit in the middle. I worked on other things while I waited for time to pass to go back out for my office hour at 7.

Around 6:45, I biked out to the office, and settled in for my office hour. No one came for a while, so I worked on reading my philosophy books to try to write the abstract for my final paper. I checked my phone around 7:30, and realized that Black, one of my students, asked where the office was. I told him, and he said he'd be there soon.

When he got there, he asked me about a formula in Manufacturing Processes that I had never seen before. It puzzled me, but after a bit, I figured out what it meant, thanks to the graphs in the PDF with the notes. He thanked me, and we went our separate ways. Later on, he asked if we were able to meet up and practice English together, and I had that we definitely could.

Earlier, Dom had told me that there was a space exhibit on campus, a little bit farther down from the TA office. I wandered off in search of it, and I wasn't disappointed. There was a room with a mock space rover, and other space equipment that was pretty cool. There was also a light show on the pond right next to it that was completely beautiful.

Jessica said that the others were going to get slices of pie for Pi Day, and to meet them at Sunny Block. I made my way there via bike. I accidentally went out the wrong gate, and had to circle around, but I still ended up getting there at the same time as the others.

We wandered around to all the bakeries in Sunny Block, only to find that no places served pie. We went into a Chinese traditional dessert place, and used the pictures on the menu to order. I got a mango flavored cake that had a crepe on top, which tasted pretty good, but in Chinese fashion, was a bit too sweet.

My mango cake

Sean got a banana split, Jessica accidentally got hot chocolate (mostly because the purple drink she wanted was unavailable), and Nick got a mango ice cream dessert, and they all enjoyed their desserts a bunch.

Afterwards, we were wandering around, and we wandered into the area that contained the supermarket. I found out that there was very cheap origami paper, and I was very happy, because it's pretty hard to find. I resolved to come back another day for it. Sean and Nick started looking at liquor, and the barbells (yes, they sold barbells). I grabbed a barbell, thinking it wasn't that heavy, but I couldn't bring my arm up any further! Looking at the different types of liquor, we found the Moutai liquor that I had tried in Hangzhou, and an awful type of liquor that was supposed to taste like soy sauce (only in China, folks, only in China could such a gastronomical travesty happen).

The awful tasting liquor that was at our dinner in Hangzhou

Now this is really just a bad idea.....

Wednesday, I started off with getting up early to review statics notes for the lecture. I took about an hour to do so, trying to work through the problems before looking at the solutions (and not always succeeding). Going to the lecture, I went through two different sample problems for the class. They were friction problems, so they were relatively simple.

After class, I sat down, practicing French, and I waited a bit, but decided to go to Campus A early so I could work on grading more of the models lab. I grabbed a chicken sandwich and a orange drink (which I had thought was lemonade). On the bus, the cup broke, but fortunately, because there was a bag around the cup, as always, here. All the liquid got in the bag, and as the bag wasn't as weak as the cup, the liquid stayed in it. I stuck the straw into the bag, and not wanting to waste it, drank it that way.

Getting onto campus, the trees had pink blossoms, and I couldn't help but admire them before I went inside.

For the next hour and a half, I worked on Models grading, and then Heat Transfer lecture began. I took notes, and then afterwards, I went back on the bus to get to the other campus for the weekly meeting. I saw Wei Wei go out of class, but I didn't see him get on the bus, which confused me. I got to the other campus, and found out the meeting was going to be held in the apartment, so I headed back. I found that Wei Wei had gone to Beijing for visa issues for himself and his family at the meeting. We summarized our respective weeks, sitting in Nick and Dom's apartment, with the people on Campus A connected via WeChat video call. Sean was on his way back from Campus A, so he didn't get back until after the meeting was over.

We talked to him about models stuff, and wrapped things up. Leaving their apartment, I forgot my backpack, and headed back for it. For the rest of the night, I worked on grading, as well as various other things.

Thursday started with getting up a bit early, and working on my blog. I went to the models lecture right afterwards. After lecture, both Sean and Dom wanted to go back to the apartment, so I walked back to the gate of campus, and then left them so I could try to get food and just explore campus.

Walking back toward the cafeteria, I reveled in the beauty of the orange and red leaves and the hanging moss off of the trees.

It was about 10:45 when I got to the cafeteria, and most things on the upper level, where I went, weren't open yet. There was a rice place that had various other meats on top (I knew because their menu had both English and Chinese on it). I chose the large roast duck rice meal, which was a steal at only 15 quai (about $2). It was absolutely delicious, with veggies on top as well, a duck leg, and half of a hard boiled egg. It took me a while to plow through it, since I didn't have my to go bowl with me.

I got on the 11:30 bus, with the intention of drawing for a while on campus before heading to the office hour.

Dog of the day

I went back to the Foreign Languages garden to finish my drawing of it first. Around 12:45, I finished, and I went to the back of campus to find another area to draw.

actual view

completed drawing

As I headed back, I enjoyed the view, while I sent a few messages.

I sat down at the spot below for a while, and just soaked in the view to try to relax.

I went back towards the pagoda, deciding to draw that. I sat there for a while, the complex geometries of the area requiring me to erase things several times, but filling my time until about 2:10, perfect timing for the 2:30 office hour.

Wandering back, I loved the sight of all the orange leaves falling from trees. It's surely a strange sight to see in spring, rather than fall, but I enjoyed it enough to grab a leaf to press in the back of my notebook, lending a splash of color, since the magnolia blossom I had put in the same place had long since withered.

Getting into the classroom that we had been designated to use, Pablo still wasn't there. When he walked in, I went over to ask him about the homework solutions, and then we got to talking for the whole hour, since no students came in. A student, not realizing that we were there for a reason, yelled at us around 3:30 for talking, telling us to go somewhere else. We looked at each other, and our watches. Deciding not to argue since our time was up, we both left. We decided that we should try to have our office hours in the original office from now on despite what JCI wanted, as to not disturb students trying to study in the classroom.

We parted ways, Pablo heading home to Campus B, and me trying to go to the bus. I was stopped by two girls who asked, not surprisingly, if I was an exchange student. I explained to them what I was doing there, and they asked me if I wanted to be a part of the Chinese conversation corner that I was planning. I said yes, and they asked me if it was my first month here. I laughed internally, saying it was my third month, and I said that if they gave me the details, I would pass them along to my coworkers and the Pakistani students I knew. I told them that my coworkers and I were doing a similar thing with English, and they were pretty impressed.

We exchanged WeChats, and I found that their names were Dimple and Lemon, which were pretty cute names. They said that they would stay in touch, and they went their separate ways. Soon after, the lady in charge of the buses yelled at someone, and a girl next to me asked if I was waiting for the bus. I said yes, and she pointed me over to one of the parked buses a little bit on the right side of us. I was surprised, since the bus wasn't supposed to leave until 4:20, but I boarded. The girl asked if she could sit with me, and I obliged. She asked me the same questions about being an exchange student, and I chatted with her a bit, finding out that she was a senior studying English (and they only had to read passages, not whole books, unlike the US). Her name was Cathy, and I invited her to the groupchat for the English conversation group.

During this, Nick also got on the bus, after his office hour, and started talking to both of us. Cathy was feeling a bit sick, so she stopped talking for a while, but when Nick was singing a bit, she thought that it "wasn't good and wasn't bad". Nick was a bit insulted, but he let it go. We talked for most of the ride, and after the ride, I grabbed my bike, and headed back to the apartments with him.

Military march on Campus A soccer field (Photo credit: Nick) and a gorgeous lily on Campus D

Getting home, I had issues connecting to the wi fi to watch Manufacturing videos....but at least we get paid for our troubles. Connecting, the videos wouldn't load, so I gave up, reading some of my book, working on other things, including my blog, and philosophy homework. I got an Ethernet cable from Sean, but it wasn't long enough to stretch from the router to my room, so we decided we'd talk to Wei Wei when he got back from Beijing.  I made dinner in two parts, with leftovers first, and later a mushroom and pepper omelet, and made a Skype call before heading to bed.

-Zoe