...that taxi drivers here are definitely not hired to be knowledgeable about the city and to take you to a destination. I would equate taxi drivers here with people who are hired because they can drive. Not because they know where they're going, or even that they can drive well - neither of those are true. I've had taxi drivers take me down dark alleys, turn directions I tell them not to, miss streets I tell them to stop at. Is my chinese bad? No - because the first two weeks I was here, I used one set of chinese grammar that I continue to use today, and only the past week am I starting to have problems.
I guess for the maximum fare being around $2 [sometimes round trip], I can't really complain. That's cheaper than a bus fare in most places in the states.
I'm actually not complaining - to be honest its a lot of fun. =D
I've been kinda busy the past few weeks. My Tuesday through Friday day-to-day schedule has been typically...
8:55 - Wake Up
9:00-11:15 - Chinese class
11:30-1:30 - Call people back home/figure out why my banks aren't letting me withdraw money occasionally/stay in touch with home base.
1:30 - possibly run quick errands or buy groceries
3:00-8:20 - Work at Joy
8:30 Come home and study chinese so I'm ready for class the next day.
10:30 Go to bed early.
Weekends are absurdly busy. I usually end up teaching 6 hours and doing prep work and other things at joy from 8am - 7:30pm.
Mondays are my only glorious day off, most of which I spend being as lazy as possible or seeing local historical attractions.
For some reason, my body gets much more tired much more quickly in China. I can't really attribute it to the extra walking, because I probably do the same amount here that I did when I was in Ann Arbor. However, the air is much much much more polluted. I generally feel like I need to go to bed earlier or else I won't get adequate rest for the following day.
Apparently pollution also makes you sick. One of my friends, Melissa, was telling me that she when she goes jogging around Mudan Square, just about every time she comes home she wakes up sick the following morning. I believe I fell victim to the same fate. A couple days ago I jogged around Mudan square and woke up the following morning with a terrible cold.
Outside of working a lot and being a little sick, everything in China is great! I've really enjoyed being here the past month, working on my chinese, and learning about the culture and the people here. My chinese is apparently improving, because I'm getting to the point where I'm conversational with my Chinese instructor. I really think all I need to do is build my vocabulary and I should be on my way to testing out of third year chinese at UofM when I return. Everyone tells me my pronunciation is excellent.
I've got vacation coming up soon. October 1st to October 8th. Me and my friend Brian have been trying to figure out what to do. We've narrowed it down to a few cities or countries: Laos, Mongolia, Tibet, Taiwan, Vietnam, or Nepal. Nepal is both of our first choices, but it looks like all the flights are booked for those dates. This is odd, because I don't know who would be going to Nepal and for what reason traveling there would be so important. I've heard that most chinese can't afford flying, so this kind've suprises me.
I'm getting the teaching part of my job down, and I'll have more details on what I specifically do in a later journal entry.
