Posts Tagged ‘Cold’
January Cold
January 13th, 2010 | 
Author: A well-used phrase, possibly considered a cliche, is “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I know from experience how this goes, as per my relationship with China and more specifically Wuhan. Every time I leave Wuhan/China for a long period of time, I begin to miss it and wish to return. The only downside is that when I return, I feel like I want to leave again. The reason for this is that sometimes the weather is terrible and there is no sky or sun for days at a time. I’m told that I’m lucky to see the sun every few days, as some cities see the sun once a month or even once every few months.
While I was on my trip, I managed to lose about half of the numbers in my phone, so after I returned I began picking up the pieces and trying to get those numbers back by any means. These last few days have been extremely hectic, as I’m in the process of calling all my friends, Salsa students, and English students. It has also been extremely cold, apparently the worst winter in 60 years here (I’m aware it’s about the same back in the states).
I found out that my school goes on break starting the 20th of January, so I’ll be off from work for another month or so, but without any real significant of money left over to attempt another trip. If I do, it’ll be a short trip for a few days, especially since it’s so damn cold all over China. Look for my posts about Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore coming soon on here and my travel page.
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Winter Has Arrived
Yesterday marked the beginning of the Chinese winter. We know this because the temperature does another crazy dip. Not to mention that autumn lasted only a month. When it became autumn (from summer) the average high went from 100 to 70 within only a day or two. From autumn to winter it went from 70 to 55 within a few days. The average low now is 45.
On the bright side, I got paid today, so this evening I’m going to Metro (a German warehouse store like Costco and BJs) and Walmart (yay, Walmart!) to buy space heaters, a comforter, a dresser, and some thermal underwear/wool socks (if they have them). I’m tired of freezing to death every day and night.
On another note, I ate pig’s heart soup for dinner yesterday. Cost me 5rmb (still about 75 cents) and was very tasty.
Things at work are somewhat better, at least this month I didn’t get paid in cash (reserved for those being fired). I didn’t appreciate being asked to teach a Culture Salon about “Strategies for Keeping your Job” though. I also have to teach a Culture Salon about “Fad Diets.” I don’t know who came up with these topics, but they should be fired. I think all of the bosses sat down and thought “let’s come up with the stupidest, most outrageous topics ever and see how many we can get these idiot foreigners to teach without bitching to us how stupid the ideas are.” Well, they’ve succeeded.
They also had one of the office employees sit in and take notes on my Culture Salon “Dance and Music” that I just completed 2 hours ago (2.5 hour class). That speaks volumes about their faith in me, seeing as how in all the time I’ve been here I’ve never heard of a staff member sitting in on ANY teacher’s class (they reserve that for the new teachers, as part of class observation so we can get an idea of how to teach the classes properly). But, once again, at least I didn’t get paid in cash this month, lol.
Off to buy myself warmth. Go Gators!
My Cold
One of the downsides of being suddenly in the market for a new apartment is that of being careful what you wish for. I wished for an apartment big enough that we could each have our own rooms with lockable doors. In pursuing this, we took over our friends Matt and Nick’s old apartment. We failed to realize, however, that the construction in certain areas of the apartment is shoddy at best, as is usual when dealing with Chinese-built structures.
Two of the 5 windows in our apartment were poorly designed, and so they can not close all the way. Now that it is winter, this means that the apartment is freezing cold all day, every day. On top of that, China is too poor/doesn’t believe in centralized heating. Therefore, I am constantly under a blanket when I’m in the apartment. I can’t seem to shake my cold, because it’s so damn freezing in here.
Since I’m still flat broke and haven’t been paid yet (4 more days!!) I still don’t have a comforter for my new bed. So I’ve been sleeping on my old bedsheets I brought from America. I have the flat and fitted beneath me, a blanket on top of them, and then I sleep under a heavier blanket than that. Then I have to wear pants, socks, a shirt, and a jacket… all to stay warm at night.
But on the bright side, I’m only working about 2.5 to 5 hours a week.. so I’m getting paid to sit at home… in the cold.. lol.
Enter Mark
Another morning in the great city of Wuhan. The temperature has dropped from an average high of 90 to an average high of 70 within only 3 days. People are freezing when they go outside (namely me), and the crowd of old women that usually dance in the evenings are slowly thinning out. Winter is upon us and people are hunkering down.
Tomorrow is National Day, which is actually a 10 day holiday meant to give Chinese work off and a chance to spend their money to boost the local and national economies. What will the foreign teachers at New Oriental be doing? They’ll be teaching, because they don’t get holidays off. But during the meal breaks, this person will be running to the stores to buy winter clothing, lest he freezes to death in the wake of it.
In other news, my friend Mark arrived from America yesterday. I got him a job at New Oriental a month ago, and after Hurricane Ike closed down the Consulate in Texas, he managed to get his Visa processed and returned to him the MORNING of his flight. He’s really quiet and relaxed, even though he is sick and had problems hearing out of his ear due to the flight. I’ve been used to hearing his voice on the phone, and had seen pictures of him in the past, but it was weird to put the face and voice together. I’m just glad he’s finally here so we can move along with our plans.
The school has found us a two-story, three bedroom apartment on East Lake. It’s a VERY nice, quiet area and would be great for us, however all the action is over here, where I live right now. My school is claiming it doesn’t have the budget to buy a big apartment where I currently live, even though they purchased 2 apartments recently which are the same size as we want. Because of this, I’m going to find an apartment myself and get a cheaper price, because the school is too unorganized and lazy to do it themselves (or were just hoping I’d accept being moved to a place THIRTY minutes away from where my friends and job are located). As if.