tongliao tidbits

so it has now officially been a week since i got to china and while there are some aspects that are becoming familiar (i.e. the fact that i have to get used to the fact that every meal will be an adventure in itself, the fact that i do not understand anything anyone is ever saying to me (or more commonly, at me), cold showers, the smell of manure and sewage, getting up at the ass crack of dawn, and the fact that i feel like a bumbling idiot when it comes to trying to respect cultural customs), there are still so many aspects of life here that i have not grown accustomed to, but i know that that will come in time. it is strange to think that this place, tongliao, will be my home for one year, as it is completely different form anything i am used to. so here are a few observations and experiences i have had during my first few days here in my new home.

tongliao is quickly growing as a regional center of commerce, agriculture, and development. the city itself is bustling and is much more developed than i had anticipated. while i do not know what any of the stores carry, what kinds of nightlife the city has to offer, or what kind of restaurants/bars are available as every sign in the city can be discerned as having little more meaning to me than "*#$%)@^&", i am comfortable in stating that the city is of growing importance and a burgeoning cosmopolitan center. as any foreigner will quickly realize while walking/riding through the city is the lack of stop lights present at any intersection. there is a small stool in the middle of each intersection on which a police person is to stand, but i have rarely seen one such police person and when i have, they have been doing little to lessen the confusion wrought by cars, bicycle rickshaws, mules, and pedestrians all trying to maneuver the same intersection at the same time. speaking of bicycles . . . i bought my own bicycle for the equivalent of $20 US, as i obviously enjoy the constant anxiety of wondering whether i will be hit by some speeding toyota or some out of control mule-cart. the bike, however, is conspicuously made with the sole purpose of being ridden by a chinese person who will statistically be much smaller in stature than me. needless to say, my knees come dangerously close to hitting my chin every time i ride, but i know that this paints a very humorous picture for you all, so why would i try to remedy it?




riding one's bike out of this confusion and bustle of the city for little more than ten minutes, however, and you find yourself right in the middle of miles and miles of corn fields dodging mule-drawn carts overflowing with crops and people riding on top of the harvested plants. about 30 minutes out and an oasis of sorts can be seen off to the left bearing the name of the Northeast Hope International School. this is where i work and reside. after passing through the gates (which are guarded by camouflaged "security" guards) the visitor is presented with a beautiful setting of tree-lined walkways, well-constructed buildings, and the ever-humorous fountain show complete with chinese classical music. each time i experience this spectacle i can't help but wonder how much a fountain system like this cost and where that money could have been spent elsewhere, but that is not my place, nor in my control, so i must just accept it with a smile (and a chuckle).


i will include some pictures of the facilities of the school following this paragraph, but i would just like to say that i was blown away by the modernity and scope of the resources available to students here. there are facilities here that any US school could only dream about. the TV studio (yes, a full service TV studio for high schoolers) is nicer than any i have ever been in, the planetarium (and yes, a planetarium complete with telescope and constellation/planet projector) is as nice as any museum's i have ever been to, and the physics lab has more equipment than a physics lab at any major research university. all in all, these students are very lucky . . . the tuition of the school comes at a meager RMB 12,800 (about $1500 US). i am understandably jealous of these students and excited to take part in the second year of a revolutionary school whose educational philosophy will hopefully spread to other parts of china.



i'm sure that there will be many more revelations about the city and school in the future, but let me just talk about some interesting (and anxiety-inducing) experiences that i have had just briefly. first of all, as most of you know, i have not eaten beef since seventh grade. due to the lack of protein available here, i have had to resort to eating it again but not without some complaints from my stomach. i do not like the fact that i am eating precious little cows again, but with the number that i have seen blocking traffic on the roads outside the school, i guess a few can be dispensed with. secondly, yesterday we were told that we had to go to the local hospital for a "complete physical" to receive our residence permits. the idea of a "complete physical" caused our stomachs to flip, as we were not sure exactly of what that meant (and neither was our boss, mr. zheng). with some trepidation, we arrived at the hospital which consisted of a small building bordered by filthy alleys on either side. walking into the lobby of sorts, the smell of sewage that i have grown so accustomed to stood stagnant. i may have become accustomed to the smell of sewage, but i don't think i will ever be able to ignore the smell in a HOSPITAL. well, not to go into too much detail, i was put through a battery of tests which included the usual height, weight, blood pressure . . . and the not so usual being hooked up to a machine with clamps on my ankles and wrists and electrodes on my chest (i'm not really sure what they were measuring, but i wasn't really able to ask questions) as well as a chest x-ray in which i was to step into a dark room with a strange man who moved this panel around my chest giving the strange sensation of being groped (i couldn't really see what was going on and felt strangely violated afterward, but i will just believe that it truly was a panel moving around and not some strange chinese doctor's hands). we also went to the local public pool which served as a daily reminder of how ignorant we are of local customs. supposedly we were supposed to wear swimming caps which we were very blatantly yelled at to wear by some of the patrons. "unclean", "unclean" being yelled in chinese while being pointed at is never a pleasant experience, but one that warrants laughter later in the privacy of one's home.




well that is all i have for now. i am going into the city today with some of my fellow mongolians (as we like to call ourselves) to scope out any nightclubs or bars that we could go to in order to get our requisite cultural embarrassment in for the week. i will report back about any stories that come out of attending an inner mongolian club (as i'm sure there will be many).