The first week I was here, I met one Mr. Yu outside our apartment. Since he was fixing a bike, I asked him where I might be able to find a used one to buy. He took me to the 5th floor of his section of our complex, where I met one Mr. Zhang, who dusted off the seat of a very very old bike and offered it to me for 50 yuan. Not wanting to immediately buy a bike that I was afraid to ride (being spoiled by comparatively nice bikes my entire life), I stalled for half a week until he ran into me buying vegetables and asked again. The bike seat was too high and one of the tires was flat, so I went one a long jaunt around the neighborhood, Mr. Zhang wheeling the bike all the way, to find someone to fix it. No such luck, so Mr. Zhang told me he'd get it fixed and call me when it was ready. No way to back out at this point. A few days later, I got my new (old) ride for 63 yuan (about US $9), complete with basket and bell. I am happily, although somewhat cautiously, riding it around campus!
That was last week, which also saw the beginning of my first classes (the ones I teach). I will write about that soon. But first, today was the first day of classes (the ones I take - Chinese). I arrived at 8am sharp for my first class, only to find that the teacher was out of town and class was canceled. A motley group of 3 Belarussians, 2 Russians, 1 Kazakh, 2 Japanese, 1 Thai, and 1 American (myself) went to KFC for coffee to pass the time, Chinese being our lingua franca. I actually really enjoyed myself, and am pleased to find that most of my fellow students are graduate students here at DUT, rather than the study abroad students who populate the majority of Chinese classes. My parents will be pleased to know that I tested into the highest level class, but when class was finally convened at 10am, I faced a challenging day ahead of me. I will need to take a cue from my brother, buckle down, and study Middlebury-style to keep up!
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