Sorry that this post is late. My internet is on the blitz and sometimes this page won't load. In the event that it doesn't load at all, then I'll have to ask someone in the USA to update the blog for me. We'll see what happens.
University Woes
We've been here 1 month without pay. We've pretty much run out of money. We're supposed to get paid sometime between the 18th of this month and the 1st of the next month. That's a huge stretch to wait. The rest of the teachers haven't been paid either, so at least we're not alone. It's tough. The cost of living here is much higher than it was in Jingzhou. One prime example is that to eat out here costs about 60-80 rmb, while eating out in Jingzhou would cost about 30-50 rmb. The price of everything is pretty much higher. It's still affordable IF we ever get paid. Until then, we have to use any money that's left in our bank account. We're trying hard not to do this, but we're down to about 20 rmb, which is just barely enough to buy us a bag of apples.
We even looked into getting bikes. The school gave us bikes, but they're very painful to ride. The bikes are made for much shorter and lighter people (like our children). Whenever I finish riding my bike, my knees hurt so badly. I have to ride with my knees pointing outward (away from the bike) so that I can even pedal because my knees end up near my chest otherwise. The tires don't grip the road, so it always feels dangerous to turn a corner. We only use these bikes to get to class because otherwise we'd be late. Once we get bikes that are large enough for our bodies, we'll be able to drive around the city and save money on taking a taxi whenever we want to get off campus. Some of the teachers have just refused the bikes because they really are not made for adults. Julie, the single mom here, gave her bike to her daughter and then bought herself a real bike.
It costs about 2,500 rmb for a 10 speed bike. In Jingzhou we both bikes for both of us and it only cost about 800 rmb for the two of them together. Colonel went online and found that we can buy some bikes from Taobao (a Chinese site like Ebay) for much cheaper than 2,500 rmb, so we'll probably do that once we get a little money saved up and find a trustworthy student to read over the Taobao ad to make sure it's exactly what we need.
Traffic
When we first arrived here, we were pretty amazed at how organized traffic was. People mostly obey the lights, there's not a ridiculous amount of horn honking, and the police really crack down on folks here. That was our original impression.
Since we've been here a bit longer, we've seen some pretty messed up traffic. It seems that around 6pm the traffic at the main gate gets really bad. Normally the police come through at about that time and clear off all of the food carts. We've even seem them pull out the old paddy (patty?) wagon, but I don't know if they ever put anyone in it. I've only ever seen one of those on t.v., so it was kind of cool to see one for real.
As usual, the police are never around when you truly need them. One prime example happened just a few nights ago. We went out to Tuanjie Road to get some food. Just as we got across the street we heard a loud crack. It sounded like a car accident. I turned around a saw a girl fall off the back of a bike and her boyfriend was trying to hold her arm as the whole bike tipped over. The girl hit the ground and landed in something that was wet on the road. The guy got the bike balanced again and he stared off down the road with an angry look on his face. That's all I saw. Colonel saw a van that drove by and hit the bike. The bumper from the van fell off and was laying in the road. The girl seemed ok, and the guy's bike was seemingly unharmed. They both stood there for a while as did mostly everyone on the street. Then everyone just left. I guess in that situation there's nothing you can really do. Every part of me wanted to run over and help them, but what could I even do? I don't have any Chinese vocabulary that pertains to accidents. In fact, no one came over to help them or check on them at all.
We went on with our hunt for food and noticed about 15 minutes later that the police were finally coming to check out the site of the accident. There was nothing left there as proof of the accident besides the crunched up bumper from the van.
More Traffic
On last night we went out for some dinner and found the traffic was out of control. It was blocked in every direction, horns were honking, and people were risking their lives just trying to walk across the street. I felt as if we'd just walked into a totally different city from the one we were used to. It was daunting. We grabbed the kids hands and joined a group that was inching towards the road. We swerved in and out of traffic. At one point I was pretty terrified as Colonel and Cyprus were walking in front of a huge construction truck. They were trying to get in between it and another car when the truck started moving forward. I was beside the truck stuck in front of a small madi waiting for the old lady to move it. I called out to Colonel several times but he couldn't hear my hoarse voice over the horns beeping. When he finally did hear me, there was nothing that either of us could do. The truck did stop, but it was a scary few seconds for me. The traffic was really that ridiculous.
If there were any other place we could go to eat, we would, but this is the only road from the campus that leads to food. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the traffic because words cannot explain it. I even found myself placing my hands out and pushing on the cars and carts to keep them from inching up on Aolani and myself as we crossed the road. The pedestrians are just that close to the cars as we all try to get across the street.
We made it safely across and decided to eat in a restaurant because the traffic was so crazy. After about an hour sitting in the restaurant, the traffic outside had totally cleared up. What a difference an hour can make. Colonel and I reflected on the number of accidents we've seen in our short 30 years of life and realized that the majority of them happened while we were in China during the last few years.
English Corner
I couldn't attend English corner, but Colonel went. He told me that they had some very good conversations there about the Book of Life and the Father. The students had lots of questions and Colonel willingly answered them. It should be only a little while before we're able to have some meetings. I'm looking forward to this.
Bug Bites
I got a pretty bad bug bite on my leg. It never fails in China that I get some nasty bites. Anyway, this one itched for days. I thought it was a mosquito bite, but I never could find the bite marks. There was a large circular area on my leg that was bright red and very swollen. After several days, I couldn't even stand to wear socks on it, so I used my old home remedy for bug bites. I mixed peroxide with salt and rubbed it on the whole area. Then I covered it with a band aid for 24 hours. It worked like a charm. The itching stopped almost immediately and it was better the next day. I still have a dark spot on my leg where I think it's a little bruised from being so badly swollen, but I'm so thankful that the itching has stopped. Kelly - 3, Bugs - 0!