My odyssey

Where do I start?! Seems like I have so much to say!

I finished packing up my stuff the afternoon before my departure "yeah, I think I had something to do today... oh yeah go to China", had a last meal with my family then headed up to the airport. In the "puddle-jumper" that did Quebec-Toronto, I was sitting next to a guy named Rejean who is a recent U of Ottawa grad, just like I am! The world is small I guess... We swapped stories about Father and son's (U of O's main student drinking hole) and drunk 18-year old Ontarian girls, it was nice. Plus, he was my last realistic chance to actually have a full conversation in French for a long time, even if his Franco-Ontarian Georgian Bay dialect can hardly be called French. Haha just kiddin'!

Got to Pearson airport and my connection flight, the plane is huge and all filled up with Koreans. I could plug my own headphones (unlike for shit companies like, let's say, Zoom, who request that you pay extra to get their headphones which are the only ones compatible) and listen to the variety of music channels. Korean pop music is awesome, so catchy and upbeat, but nothing can beat the cheesiness of the Japanese selection! Most choruses were half English half Japanese "I wish you was here takina na sumara, so so speciar nanaki ma aguna", I was laughing out loud several times alone, much to the concern of the nice old Korean man sitting next to me. Korean airplane food is awesome, the best meal I had in altitude by far, but I could have done without the Korean condescendance. Since I am a stupid white guy, the hot flight attendant also gave me an instruction sheet explaining how to eat, the only instructions being "mix all the contents, add some hot sauce and eat". They played the movie Iron Man, and right now I am still debating which movie was the biggest shitfest I saw in 2008 between this overrated piece of horsecrap and Hellboy 2. Goddamn, why do the UN still allow Hollywood to release such crimes against humanity on the big screens?

Anyway... I managed to sleep for what seemed to be a pretty long time in the plane, landed in Seoul, sat around for ages (at least there was some FIFA soccer on TV and I could play NHL99 on my laptop 'til my battery died) then got in the plane to Zhengzhou. 2,5 hours later, as I walked out of the plane, I suddenly got very nervous. It was 10 AM, but still the airport was virtually empty except small Chinese men with big Russian guns staring at me as I got through immigration, got my luggage and proceeded to security. I changed some CAD to yuans in the bank, and as soon as I got out, a Chinese woman ran up to me holding a sign with my name on it. She is Jessie, the Chenggong College Foreign affairs employee with whom I have been e-mailing back in forth for a few months now. It was nice finally meeting her. We got in the van, and during the 1,5 hour drive she told me a few things about the College and other cool info. Chinese highways are nice and wide, but the drivers are ruthless. By the time we got to the gates, I saw one car crash and twenty that went very close, thanks to these slow three-wheeled trucks on the highway and the crazy cowboys on motorcycles.

The campus is surprisingly pretty similar to what I was used to in the U of O. There are buildings, trees, sidewalks, and a homogeneous Asian population. For some odd reason I thought the students would be wearing uniforms, from the College pictures I saw on the internet, but they are just dressed normally. Most likely these pics were taken at a graduation or some other formal event.

Jessie brought me to my apartment, and it's HUUUUGE. Seriously I was expecting shared accomodation and it was fine with me, but I have a huge flat all for myself. 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a Western-style toilet, an incredibly large living room, a TV/DVD, even a computer with internet. Pretty much all the furniture is brand new and sometimes even with the plastic wrapping and styrofoam. I feel like a king, and I have so much storage space but nothing to put in as I brought only a duffle bag full of clothes and books.

The foreign teachers all live in these two six-stories buildings on campus, a stone-throw away from everything. I've met most of them so far, and I am the only Canadian. Most of those I've met are American, young, laid back and seem to be having a good time here.

For the food, I just go to one of the dining halls on campus, the closest being 20 m away from my front door. I just point the food I want since (for now) my Mandarin is limited to ni hao and xiexie. So far, I've never paid more than 4 yuans for any meal (around 7 yuans = 1$). The food is OK, but it's very salty. I'll have to make sure I drink lots and lots of water I guess. And surprisingly, I suck less than I thought with chopsticks. It actually forces me to eat slower, which is a good thing because I have this bad habit of polishing off a full meal in 2 minutes without even tasting it, military style.

The campus is at the end of the city, which means we have a nice view of the countryside. Henan province is pretty flat, but there are still a few hills. Yesterday, the sky was blue and it was sunny, however as I am writing this it is pretty foggy and the sun has this weird aureolae (spelling?). In a country with that much population, black cloud expelling trucks and thermal power plants, this is not very surprising.

I am in a city called Gongyi. According to the Chenggong College website, it's a small city... with about 900 000 people. Zhengzhou, a short ride to the east, has 9.2 million. And it's a medium sized city!!! Chinese people have different views on population density... I haven't really been to any of these two cities, after all I've been here for less than 24 hours, but I plan to do so very shortly.

So far, I absolutely love it here. But still, I have yet to start teaching, which is the reason I came here to begin with! All the other foreign teachers told me not to stress... The school has a curriculum, so basically I just have to follow the textbooks they provide me. I got my schedule, 18 hours of class a week, teaching sophomores (2nd year students) and I start Tuesday (Monday is a Chinese holiday so we have off... yesss!). I'll keep you informed!

So yeah, that's my life now! I'll keep updating this blog every few days, since like I said I have internet in my room. Until then, write me!-