Side Note I: Hotel/Apartment repairs and quirks. Being in a partially converted hotel has its advantages. There is a restaurant on the second floor, a canteen on the first and a front desk to help you when you lock yourself out of the room. During the holiday there was some sort of mishap where we lost a part of our glass roof that covers an atrium that is open from the 3rd floor to the 6th floor. So until the new glass panel came in there was a lot of running around the halls with buckets whenever it rained. The above picture is of the workmen installing the new panel.
Plumbing seems to be a problem here. The water cut off yesterday when I was trying to do a load of wash. The pipes make some interesting sounds every now and then and sometimes the water has a questionable color. I had to buy a plunger and I use it frequently. Don’t worry I only drink bottled water and always wait for clear, quiet water before climbing in the shower.
Side note II: I badly needed a hair trim. I had already been given the ‘go ahead’ by Nicole because she said she could fix my hair if things went bad. There are probably about 8 beauty/barber shops ON CAMPUS that are located under a lot of the dorms. In China first floors of almost all buildings (including some houses) are shops, stores or restaurants. I got Rachel, one of my post-grad students, to pick a shop and a stylist she knew had a good reputation. Rachel actually stayed with me the whole time for translation and any panic purposes. I paid 10 Yuan (a buck and a quarter) for a shampoo and trim. The stylist spent about 45 minutes working on it and it looks pretty good. I showed Nicole on my SKYPE camera what it looked like and I didn’t hear any major groans so I guess that means it looks acceptable. There are a couple of drawbacks. There is more of my gray showing because he cut out a lot of Nicole’s great cover-up work (he actually asked Rachel if Nicole’s dye job was my natural hair color) The second drawback is that my ears look much bigger and droopier. Maybe I am getting to the age where the ears are growing or maybe my 3 earrings are pulling my lobes down. Barb, my sarcastic sister, recommended that I should just get 3 or 4 more piercings cause I have so much more room for earrings. It’s a pain getting old. PS. A lot of these college kids already have gray hair. The Chinese seem to get gray pretty early.
Side note III – As I walk around the crowded campus not understanding any of the conversations I wonder if it will feel really weird to come back in July where I can actually understand what everyone is saying. Barb said that when she was in China, she used to gravitate toward anyone that looked like they spoke English and rudely butted into their conversation. I think I am getting to that point.
Side Note V – I had 4 students come over Wednesday to try and teach me how to play Mahjong. Maybe after a couple more sessions I might be good enough to teach others. Starting out the game is probably the hardest with a complicated version of deciding where you get your tiles from. There are 144 tiles and 3 types of ‘suits’ and a bunch of extras. With your tiles you try to make run of 3 of the same suit or a 3 (pong) or 4 (gong) of a kind. When you take someone’s tile you are “eating” it. I won a couple of sets with the help of a student coaching me from behind. But of course the students won the most cause they actually knew what they were doing. The game sort of reminds me a little of Gin Rummy. After listening to the students’ stories it sounds like there is a lot of ‘paying up’ when you make mistakes or when you lose. I paid up with some of my peppermint patties and a couple of bonus points on their midterm.
