Views Of Campus

Hello everyone!

I'm going to keep this post relatively short because I've got much to do in the next couple of weeks. For those of you who don't know, I'm returning to Canada on 21 July and I'm trying to secure employment before I leave China.

Classical Chinese (Gudai Hanyu, 古代汉语)
On Tuesday I wrote the final exam for my Intro To Classical Chinese 1 (古代汉语上). The course required learning little grammar but many new words. I had to learn Gudai Hanyu words, many of the modern meanings of which I had also to learn. I think that taking such a course is a good way to learn vocabulary; however, in my case, it may have been too little, too late. With any luck, I passed the course. :)

That I've studied Japanese and Korean was somewhat helpful because modern uses of some of the older Chinese vocabulary, which may not be in use in modern Chinese, have retained their meanings in modern Korean and Japanese (albeit with different pronunciations). For example, one Chinese verb for 'drink' is '饮' (traditional form: '飲'). The character representing this verb is still in use in Japanese to mean 'drink' ('飲む') despite not being in common use in modern Mandarin. I'm not able to say anything about other forms of Chinese; perhaps someone in the know about Fujian Chinese (福建华，闽南华) can shed some light on the modern use of this verb in 'Fukinese'. ('That Fukin language.' I never tire of that joke. :D)

Visit From An Old Friend
Several weeks ago, a friend of mine from UW, Qin, with whom I shared my first work term, came to work for a week in Google's office in Beijing. It's a ten- or fifteen-minute walk down the rod, so I was able to hook-up with him a couple of times. He gave me a short tour of Google's office in Beijing at lunch one day, then we went for dinner at a local Japanese restaurant.


Housing
I have an update on my housing situation. It turns-out that I'm going to have to move again, for the last six days of being in China. I'll probably be travelling throughout most of that time, to Datong (大同) and Qingdao (Tsingtao, like the beer, 青岛). Although that technically leaves me without a place at which to store my stuff, I think I can find one or two inexpensive storage spaces. That said, the housing situation isn't any less stupid.

Class Photo
Yesterday, a class photo was taken. Not everybody was present for the photo. For that matter, not everyone who'd attended lectures that day was present for the photo. Take a look at the girl in the middle, Maria. For those of you who know my sister Melanie, don't you think they look a bit alike? :)


Calligraphy Class Photo
Well, another semester of calligraphy has just wrapped-up and we got a class photo. Students in the photo have come from Japan, Viet Nam, Sweden, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and, of course, Canada.


Campus Pics
Despite how much I have complained about some of the silly situations I've encountered in China, I want to share with you how beautiful our campus is. I hope that University Of Waterloo can look this good at some time in the future.










Despite the fact that this university specialises in the teaching of languages (not just Mandarin), the campus's signs are rife with misspelt words.

Is this Popeye's travel agency?

WTF?

On-campus Restaurants
Our campus has many cafeterias and restaurants. My favourite is a place called 'Momoya' ('桃屋'), a Japanese-style restaurant which also serves some Chinese dishes. It's not overly expensive (except for the cheese sticks ;D) and the Japanese dishes are more authentic than most of those in Kitchener-Waterloo. Below is a photo of me with the current cast of regular fuwuyuan. They like me and I love them. :D

Student (whose name I haven't yet learnt), 杨大山, me, 梅子, and 红波

I fear that this is only one of the misspellings on the various menus at Momoya

Another of the restaurants on our campus is the restaurant at our campus's conference centre. the service there is sometimes barely passable but, most of the time, is outright poor. However,some of the dishes served there are tasty, so we sometimes tolerate the crappy service and somewhat high prices.

One of the last times we went, we were greeted at the front door be a fuwuyuan who was gracious enough to open the automatic door for us. Yes, she extended her hand for to activate the motion sensor, which then caused the door to be opened. I have yet to see a more useless job, but I have no doubt that such a one exists in China. Oh, when we left the restaurant after dinner, we witnessed her watering the plastic plants (which are native to Gansu and Xi'an, I think).


Japanese Language Partner
Some of you may know that I've also been trying to reclaim some of my Japanese. Since last Fall, I've had a Japanese language partner named Rie (理恵). I'm afraid that our meeting yesterday may have been the last one before we return to our respective countries, although I hope we can meet again for a meal before we both depart. A couple of times, Rie brought her Korean former roommate, Juhyun (주현), including to yesterday's meeting.

Juhyun, Rie, and me

Well, that's it for now. I hope to be able to post again soon!

Housing Mafan

Hello again, everyone!

I have updated information about my housing situation. However, the update is really only a clarification of the situation, not the resolution of it.

The date '15 July 2007', the last day of my programme, according to my acceptance notice, is a magical date decreed by the C.S.C. ('China Scholarship Council', not 'Computer Science Club'). From what I've learnt the school has no say in the selection of that date. However, the school had the opportunity to make the last day of our programme coincide with the last day of the scholarship.

That the administration for my year-long programme for international students chose not to do so shows a marked lack of concern for said students. Many of the students who are here internationally are studying here on scholarships precisely because they are unable to study here otherwise. Some students, such as myself, were unable to specify the return dates for their return tickets because some governmental organisation may have purchased the tickets on their behalf, specifying as the return date the last day of study on the admission notice.

Forcing students to change their plans for travelling at the students' own expense is, in my opinion, not the most fruitful way to improve or maintain one's reputation. By not starting the semester one week earlier than it did, this school has demonstrated that it is unable to cope with the pressures of planning the most essential dates of the school year with its international students in mind. Based on that alone, I can recommend that a student may find a better programme at other universities in the neighbourhood. (I have other reasons for making that recommendation, but this administrational gaffe is sufficient.)

The administration for the educational wing of this university did not inform the administration for the housing wing that our programmes do not end on the last day indicated on the admission notice but, rather, until seven or eight days later. The situation with my housing has not changed because a summer programme is scheduled to start immediately after I am currently scheduled to vacate my premises, and the school has to make available enough rooms for those students. I need to wait until 29 or 30 June to be able to ask for a six-day extension and learn whether a room shall be available.

Neither I nor my classmates need absolutely to remain in China until our grades are distributed. However, that option was not made clear to us until yesterday. Because of that lack of information, the school effectively forced me to shell-out 540 RMB ($75 Cdn) to change my flight.

T.I.C.