This isn't the best of pictures, but it gives you a sense of what it's like being on campus. The view is facing East, and at the end of the pool/fountain is the East Gate (in Mandarin, dong men, or if you're from Beijing, dong mer). The building on the far right with the curving balconies is where my apartment is located. The buildings straight forward are off campus. Oddly enough, the view doesn't show how in every direction there are huge apartment buildings sprouted up from the other buildings that don't reach more than 5 stories or so. Unlike Chicago, where downtown is filled with building that are all seemingly higher than the last, Shijiazhuang will have a development of 3-4 ( sometimes more) apartment buildings dramatically taller than anything for a good ways.
The school is quite modern, though they are still in the middle of rehab and cleaning. For those of you reading familiar with the nicer Chicago suburban schools, it's nowhere near a New Trier or anything like that. But, it certainly blows Rockford schools out of the water. It is a private school, and according to one of the girls from the Foreign Affairs Office, enrollment is around 13,000 for Kindergarten-High School. I think I have been through about half of the campus, though only through parts of my building. The picture at the top is a panoramic from the seats at their track. From what I can tell there are a couple buildings in each direction surrounding the track and field area.
A story before I finish this post.
Since there have been a few things that needed work in my apartment (kitchen sink backed up, gas for the stove not working, air conditioner dripping water onto a power strip located underneath it), my floors are badly in need of a good clean. From the bottom of my black socks, you'd swear they were grey. So, I went to the Foreign Affairs Office to ask them to write out the characters for some floor cleaning solution. The girl that was there is not the best with English, though we can communicate pretty well and she is the one to talk to if I need something fixed; she's got everything in order. I didn't anticipate that describing floor cleaner would be hard, I should've remembered all my other interactions when dealing with specific vocabulary. After getting the characters for broom and mop, and something her phone translator didn't have an English equivalent for (always a terrifying prospect), she wrote down a couple sets of characters that she said the people at the store would understand. So off I went to the nearby grocery store.
After wandering around a few sections collecting different odds and ends, and spending far too much time trying to figure out what exactly the other things were, I found myself by the home cleaning supplies. I am proud to report that it only took me a couple minutes to pick out laundry detergent, though when it's right next to the Tide it's an easy puzzle to solve. The floor cleaner was a different matter. I thought I was in the neighborhood, but all the bottles turned out to be bleach. How was I supposed to know that the Muscle Man brand didn't also make floor cleaner? It seemed a logical assumption on my part. It was then that a kind and foolish lady came up to help me. The poor woman didn't know what she was in for. I pulled out my trusty pocket notebook, complete with Chinese characters, and showed her. I was only half an aisle off when I was thinking Muscle Man might be my solution.
I was not anticipating that I would be led to a bottle of Pledge. Granted it was a fully Madarinized(?) Pledge, but thank God for brand recognition. It was at that point, with me feeling happy that it is so simple and ready to walk away, that she pulled down a separate bottle of floor cleaner. Then came the explanation as to why I needed both. I tried my best, but I had no idea what she was saying. I gave her my well practiced smile and shake of my head to no avail. She started drawing a square in the air in front of her (maybe she meant tile?) and pointed to one bottle. Then she drew lines (maybe wood flooring?) and pointed to the other. Again, I had no idea what she was trying to convey. I shook my head and gave her the smile a second time. After about maybe the 4th explanation, I took both bottles, realizing that if they turn out to be the same thing I will just have to clean my floors more often to use up the cleaner. It was then that I wowed her with my "xie xie," (Mandarin for "thank you"), though I think she just found it funny that I go shopping with only that in my linguistic toolbox.
Of course, then came an oddly similar experience when I went to get shampoo. The lady grabbed a second bottle and did the same thing as happened with the floor cleaner, point to one with an explanation, point to the other with an explanation, and me standing there absolutely puzzled as to why I need the second bottle. I deployed the ever useful smile and shake of my head, hoping maybe someone nearby could throw out a couple English words to help. No such luck. After a little more time, I resigned myself to two bottles of shampoo and went to the check out lanes. As this was my third time checking out in 4 days, I now know that the question they ask is whether or not I have a VIP card. The first time was not that simple. I'm just glad that the younger generation seems to know some English, otherwise I would be completely lost. It would be like the train station all over again.
Well that's all for now. I've got plenty more embarrassing stories on tap. I will try to update as frequently as possible. Zai jian (good-bye) for now!
The school is quite modern, though they are still in the middle of rehab and cleaning. For those of you reading familiar with the nicer Chicago suburban schools, it's nowhere near a New Trier or anything like that. But, it certainly blows Rockford schools out of the water. It is a private school, and according to one of the girls from the Foreign Affairs Office, enrollment is around 13,000 for Kindergarten-High School. I think I have been through about half of the campus, though only through parts of my building. The picture at the top is a panoramic from the seats at their track. From what I can tell there are a couple buildings in each direction surrounding the track and field area.
A story before I finish this post.
Since there have been a few things that needed work in my apartment (kitchen sink backed up, gas for the stove not working, air conditioner dripping water onto a power strip located underneath it), my floors are badly in need of a good clean. From the bottom of my black socks, you'd swear they were grey. So, I went to the Foreign Affairs Office to ask them to write out the characters for some floor cleaning solution. The girl that was there is not the best with English, though we can communicate pretty well and she is the one to talk to if I need something fixed; she's got everything in order. I didn't anticipate that describing floor cleaner would be hard, I should've remembered all my other interactions when dealing with specific vocabulary. After getting the characters for broom and mop, and something her phone translator didn't have an English equivalent for (always a terrifying prospect), she wrote down a couple sets of characters that she said the people at the store would understand. So off I went to the nearby grocery store.
After wandering around a few sections collecting different odds and ends, and spending far too much time trying to figure out what exactly the other things were, I found myself by the home cleaning supplies. I am proud to report that it only took me a couple minutes to pick out laundry detergent, though when it's right next to the Tide it's an easy puzzle to solve. The floor cleaner was a different matter. I thought I was in the neighborhood, but all the bottles turned out to be bleach. How was I supposed to know that the Muscle Man brand didn't also make floor cleaner? It seemed a logical assumption on my part. It was then that a kind and foolish lady came up to help me. The poor woman didn't know what she was in for. I pulled out my trusty pocket notebook, complete with Chinese characters, and showed her. I was only half an aisle off when I was thinking Muscle Man might be my solution.
I was not anticipating that I would be led to a bottle of Pledge. Granted it was a fully Madarinized(?) Pledge, but thank God for brand recognition. It was at that point, with me feeling happy that it is so simple and ready to walk away, that she pulled down a separate bottle of floor cleaner. Then came the explanation as to why I needed both. I tried my best, but I had no idea what she was saying. I gave her my well practiced smile and shake of my head to no avail. She started drawing a square in the air in front of her (maybe she meant tile?) and pointed to one bottle. Then she drew lines (maybe wood flooring?) and pointed to the other. Again, I had no idea what she was trying to convey. I shook my head and gave her the smile a second time. After about maybe the 4th explanation, I took both bottles, realizing that if they turn out to be the same thing I will just have to clean my floors more often to use up the cleaner. It was then that I wowed her with my "xie xie," (Mandarin for "thank you"), though I think she just found it funny that I go shopping with only that in my linguistic toolbox.
Of course, then came an oddly similar experience when I went to get shampoo. The lady grabbed a second bottle and did the same thing as happened with the floor cleaner, point to one with an explanation, point to the other with an explanation, and me standing there absolutely puzzled as to why I need the second bottle. I deployed the ever useful smile and shake of my head, hoping maybe someone nearby could throw out a couple English words to help. No such luck. After a little more time, I resigned myself to two bottles of shampoo and went to the check out lanes. As this was my third time checking out in 4 days, I now know that the question they ask is whether or not I have a VIP card. The first time was not that simple. I'm just glad that the younger generation seems to know some English, otherwise I would be completely lost. It would be like the train station all over again.
Well that's all for now. I've got plenty more embarrassing stories on tap. I will try to update as frequently as possible. Zai jian (good-bye) for now!