I have come full circle in terms of how I feel about the accommodations. At first, they seem better than we thought. Then you start to wonder ‘how will I make this work for the next 8 days?’ and now, it really is all I need and is working fine. The art of improvising and the appreciation for the air conditioner make this room into a living space I can be ok with. I am not sure what I would do without my hot water pot and instant coffee every morning- Nescafe can almost resemble a Stumptown Americano if you put your mind to it. So, my clothes are drying on my line, my coffee is hot and I can reflect on yesterday and anticipate today.
We successfully brought the Pacific Northwest rain to Suzhou and, as I sit here now, I don’t think it has stopped in 24 hours. So, our day started out with a wet walk to Mandarin class with Xu ChenChen. She was fantastic again and we are all in love with her, her humor and her patients with us as student. Prof Cooley presented the gifts to her at the end of the last class. Traditional Chinese will not open gifts in front of you but take it home and unwrap it. I wonder if the younger generation has that same tradition as ChenChen didn’t hesitate to take a quick peak in the bag and look at those unwrapped ones. She was happy.
Our Law professor, Sun, oh he was a crack up. With 103 slides he put so much effort into teaching us everything there is to know about the laws in China. In a way it was sensory overload and in another it was highly repetitious of our legal section of international business. I am hopeful we will get a copy of the ppt-it was loaded with information. Once I get a picture of the chalkboard, it is clear that it was also loaded with information.
While Cooley continuously teaches us the nuances of socializing with the Chinese and Donahue coordinates our classes and events so we get the most out of it, I used my wealth of knowledge showing our youngest traveler how to open a beer bottle without an opener. My work here is complete.
A new kind of taxi ride. They tell you to never get into a private car that offers you a ride in China but there was not a taxi in sight. A van kind of thing pulled up and Chenchen said “trust me” and we all jumped in. As we pulled away, she said “I have never done this before!” and our real life roller coaster ride began. Only the video can illustrate the experience – I hope to be able to post it.
Saturday night out on the town and ChenChen took us to a Cantonese restaurant. Ate some chicken, pork, some kind of stomach, some frogs, tofu and eggplant. Of course, some of us would not have likely tried it if we had known what it was but we asked her not to tell us so we could dive in. The food was amazing as always.
Since my group left the restaurant while I was in the bathroom, I found myself lost and the most nervous I had been so far. I knew the taxi drivers did not speak English and I quickly forgot the any Mandarin I had learned. The restaurant staff- no English. I remembered that I had Julie’s business card in my wallet. She had written in Chinese where we are so, in a situation like this, we could give it to a taxi driver. Nervousness went away and I was out on the hunt for the rest. When the 2 guys on the corner responded with a “We sure do” with a Texas drawl when I asked if they spoke English- well, it was like they dropped out of the sky. One was from Houston and the other from Cincinnati. Now there were three of us on the hunt for my “friends” that included a 6’1” Asian kid, a red head and a bunch of white people- how hard could that be in China? Fortunately, it wasn’t. I wish I had asked them to join us on our night out but I was so busy making sure the others knew just how I felt about that little experience that I only said Thank-you and good bye. I think I was pretty clear and nobody will get lost again.
Within minutes of that minor set back we found ourselves upstairs in some local bar in a private room with a bottle of Chivas and a karaoke machine. I think ChenChen was having as much fun as we were and when she started singing- we all kind of shut our mouths in hopes she is not expecting any type of musical talent out of the rest of us. I wanna hold your hand, lady lumps, a little bit of Brittney, Close to you and more- finished off with country roads and raced back in time for curfew. The boys got in a bit of a scuffle with ‘the lady’ at their dorm- they were not entirely in agreement with the set curfew time.
………a complete day- all in safe.
Tip of the day
When you get the business card from Julie on the first day with your Suzhou home address in Chinese, treat it like your passport!!
For gifts, it would be good to bring gift bags and tissue paper so some gifts can be put in the gift bag unwrapped. Personal opinion really- not sure about right or wrong.
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