I think I'd better spend the best part of this morning here in my room, preparing exam questions or assignments. But before I do: when I was describing Peter Hessler's book "River Town" yesterday, I forgot to mention a couple of other parallels to my own situation here. Firstly, he was in a 6th-floor dormitory which commanded a good view of his surroundings - my room is on the 6th floor too, though I suppose my view is less attractive than his was. Second, he talks about the morning sounds. Here's a quote from Page 13 of the book:
'My appartment was on the top floor [mine too] of a building high on a hill above the Wu River [mine isn't] ... that was the view from my aerie - high on the sixth floor ... I heard the students as they ... did their morning exercises. The exercise music started shortly after six [here too], broadcast over the loudspeakers - morning-cheerful, workout repetetive music, the same day after day [here too].'
Now I have no idea whether this will work for you, because when I tried it out I was told the video was currently unavailable. At any rate, I've uploaded this clip (below), taken from my bedroom window earlier this morning. The images are not so informative, but somewhere down there, in the mirk, those exercises are in full swing. Listen, if you will, to the music. I guess it is typical of every city and town in the land. It's the same every day. Not unpleasant, and actually quite a gentle alarm clock!
More later, but for now I had definitely better get to work!!
Ow, my back! It's now almost noon, and I've been sitting at the laptop since breakfast. But the good news is I've written some essay assignments, six exam questions, and tidied up the School of Materials Presentation I intend to give later in the week. The not-so-good news of course, is that I will have to mark the tests. Never mind. That's why I'm here, is it not?
And I've got the "graveyard" slot again today - 4.00 pm till 7.40 pm - so I may not have much more to add to this post.
Righty-ho. Time for lunch. It will have to be downstairs as I don't have a great deal of time.
It was a lot quieter in the dining room than usual, probably becasue it was that much later.
Above: note the chopsticks. They don't offer knives and forks, so I'm getting more skilled now. No green tea today - just the lemon variety. That's in the glass. I was somewhat appalled to see from the bag-tag that it was Lipton's!
While I was down there I thought it would be a nice idea to nab as many staff as I could find for a photo. As I suspected, they were overjoyed to be asked ...
The lady centre is the manageress, I think. I asked her for an email address so that I could give them copies. I sent them earlier this evening.
Then there are the Reception staff ...
I continue to be bowled over by the people here. They're abolutely smashing.
So then it was the bus down to south campus for my classes. I got through all my topics early, so we had a question-and-answer session. All the questions were to do with either their coming to Manchester, or else whether I would be coming back next year - preferably with my family. And that was after they'd been told they'd be sitting an exam on Wednesday afternoon!
They would really like to see me again before I leave, so I will pop in again on Thursday for the usual time-slot (4 pm). How can I possibly fail any of them?
Meanwhile, Jennifer will deliver their exam scripts to me here at the hotel around 5.00 pm Wednesday. I'm determined to complete the marking before I leave Zhengzhou. It would be a pain to have to carry it with me - especially given that I will be back into the hurly-burly of teaching again in Manchester on 12th November!
After my class, we (Jennifer, Judith, Gao Xiao Yu and Yang Le) enjoyed "home"-cooked (but out of fast-food bags) dumplings. Very nice they were too. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've mentioned Judith. I believe she is an English-language teacher (although she is Chinese), whereas Jennifer teaches textiles. She is also, she told me, in charge of visa extensions. Now there's a thought ... Only joking!
I have a Chinese name. Given to me by the "dumpling chef" (Gao Xiao Yu). It's a combination of phonetics and a description of my obvious qualitities of learning, wisdom etc. Listen, I only report what I'm told, in good faith. OK, in reality it probably means something like "daft bald old git".
Waiting for the bus back this evening I could definitely have done with my woolly hat, scarf and gloves. I think the time has finally come.
Good night one and all,
Wěi Bó
(If any of you can translate it, please let me know the awful truth!)
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