Wednesday, May 28
Dialog Blog (DiaBlog?)
Photo 1: Fashion Lady
Photo 2: Hot Pot lunch
Photo 3: Worrisome menu
This Wednesday morning commenced what would be another ordinary day in Nanj-… Hold on… If I've learned anything from this dialog so far, it's that there is no such thing as an "ordinary day" in Nanjing, Beijing or any other town, city or village in this country. No matter how routine our class lives try to be, I am constantly amazed by the unpredictable pleasant surprises惊喜that run that are so prevalent in this country. Below is the story of the most "normal" day possible in Nanjing, and, if you ask me, it is not all that ordinary.
I woke up in my room next to a sleeping Alvin. Occasionally I will hear his unique 特殊 laugh ring out through the night. It's pretty disconcerting. After showering and getting ready for the day, we set out for class. We no longer had dictation quizzes 听写's in class as Tuesday was our last one. This gave everybody in the class a sigh of relief, but, with the final looming overhead, nobody could really relax just yet.
After class began, our teachers decided to shake up the curriculum. We were learning lesson 5 from the textbook. This didn't really make any sense considering the fact that it wouldn't even be on our final. Nonetheless, we made the most of it. 包老师 (Bao Laoshi) assigned each of us a passage from the textbook to teach the class about. I think she was just tired of teaching herself, so she found a creative way to make us do her job. 很巧妙. I've never been too great at just reading the passages, let alone understanding and then explaining them. So, needless to say, when it was my turn I walked to the front of the room. Turned to the class, and, as the impromptu professor for the short time, made the class read the passage I was assigned. Two can play this game 包老师. After all, I learned from the best (包老师) who always made me read the passages that I didn't know. 不好意思. Class wrapped up in the next couple of hours and we made our way to lunch.
We went to Bird Flu Alley. Sooner or later, I believe that I will find out why they call it "Bird Flu" alley. I can only hope that it doesn't live up to its name… 担心. After a bowl of FDA approved and sanitary beef noodles and a tray of 饺子, we headed back to the hotel. We usually meet with our 辅导's Language partners at this time, but they were all busy with a graduation ceremony. We had time to study!
To make the most of this rare study opportunity, I went with people to 新街口 XinJieKo. This section of the city is commercialized, has a ton of stores and vaguely reminds me of a Manhattan with an obvious Chinese flare. After leaving the hotel with Alvin and Johnny we tried to hail a cab.
Hailing a cab in this country has proven to be the most difficult aspect of this dialog. There seem to be endless cabs up and down every road, but none of them will pick you up. They have this sign on the top that lights up green when there is a passenger inside, orange when they are en route to a passenger (and thus cannot pick up others) and red when they are FREE. Red is supposed to mean that they will pick me up! As green after green after yellow after green cab speeds by, I finally spotted a red cab. As he drew closer, I saw that the cabin was empty! SUCCESS. We made eye contact, he knew I wanted him to stop and then he just sped away. I'm talking direct eye contact and no passengers, but the man just hit the gas and left! Frustrated as ever, we decided take the subway.
After finally arriving in XinJieKou, we ate iced cream at cold stone. 好吃. Then we finally met up with the others at XinJieKou who were all shopping in a very feminine part of the city called "Fashion Lady". Needless to say, I was not a fan although they did have some fabulous sunglasses 极好.
Luther，Johnny, Alvin and I soon left and ate dinner at Shabu Shabu 呷哺呷哺 Hot Pot. 很好吃. Very delicious, but some of the dishes were rather disconcerting and/or worrisome.
A week and half earlier, Bobo, Mika, Johnny and myself all won Mystery Nanjing. That meant that we were entitled to one free, full body massage by blind masseuses. We cashed in on this today along with Luther, Jimmy and Dong Laoshi! The massage was, for the most part, amazing. At some points it just simply hurt. A lot. But it was, after all, 非常好. 9/10 would do again.
So this was our normal day in Nanjing. I managed to write a decent amount here. Pretty surprising considering that we all have a final in a couple of days. I guess I see where my priorities are at now. All in all, China is amazing. I'm still discovering this city and I don't want to 舍不得 leave in a week and a half QQ.
- Tyler
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