A full day and a load of laundry

August 25, 2011

Scott Sorell suggested that the two most powerful weapons are courage and persistence. Nothing can stop a person armed with both.

Today I woke up at 4:30 a.m. (CST) I am beginning to wonder if this will be my normal time to wake up or if I am still in Ontario time somehow. Today I took over as Principal. There is no time for sight-seeing at the moment. In fact I will be working full days both Saturday and Sunday in order to get ready. School starts August 29th. Only four more sleeps!

Before I went to school today, however, I did my first load of laundry. This is a courageous act because all the instructions on how to use the machine are in Mandarin. I believe it is important for people to try assembling items, doing tasks or going places without reading the instructions or maps. Why? Because when you find yourself in China you have no choice. I am happy to report that all my clothes turned out well.




Today, I had hoped to get the Internet hooked up. Bob, my assistant, is doing everything possible to get a provider. There is some kind of confusion. I am told that we can’t use one provider over another because the building I live in is committed to one of them. It is not as simple as using Rogers or Bell. It is a difficult experience when all I know is that I want Internet today in order to stay connected to friends and family. Sylvie has agreed to let me use her Internet at her apartment tomorrow morning. I am very grateful. Hopefully I will be able to connect with everyone soon. I was informed that hook-up will be no sooner than August 26.
I went to a government office and the hospital in Tianjin with Krissy, the Visa office assistant. Downtown Tianjin is a 30 minute car ride away from my school. The population of Tianjin is around 12 million. You might say, it is slightly bigger than Tillsonburg. The majority of residents in Tianjin are Han Chinese. Minorities include Hui, Korean, Manchus, and Mongols.

People from urban Tianjin speak Tianjin dialect, which comes from the mandarin subdivision of spoken Chinese. Of course I can’t tell the difference. I realize though that I really need to begin to look closely at the language and learn key phrases. Once more, I find it strange to be in a municipality where everything is written in characters I don’t recognize. It makes me empathize with how a non-reader feels in Canada.

Once in Tianjin, I had my picture taken at a government office and then went to the hospital for my Chinese check-up. What an experience. The Chinese check-up consisted of the collection of chest x-ray, ultrasound, blood pressure, height and weight, drawing of blood, ECG, urine sample, and a general checking of the lymph nodes. It was truly an assembly line of exams as they did not all happen in the same room or from the same person. I felt like a product or specimen who walked to several rooms down a long hall to be examined by a person charged with the assigned task. It’s all business, and bedside manner is out the window. Sadly, somehow I lost my gold chain and cross that my parents gave me in all the hustle and bustle. We called to see if anyone turned it in. Unfortunately, I am told the likelihood of anyone turning it in is zero to none.

I returned to the school and I met my Chinese co-principal, Mr. Sun. He seems very gracious and respectful. He invited me to dinner this evening to meet other Chinese school leaders. Unfortunately I had to decline, as I had to pick up the new teachers from the airport. On our way to the airport, I learned that one of our teachers will be arriving later than expected due to a personal issue. I now am going to have to problem-solve the issue and rejig the timetable. It is not like I can call human resources in a Board and ask if they could send in a supply teacher.

Once at the airport in Beijing, I bought House Blend coffee (30 RMB) and a French Press coffee maker (240RMB) from Starbucks. I can’t wait to have a good cup of coffee for breakfast tomorrow. At the airport, I welcomed three terrific new teachers: Al, Karen and Yulia who I last saw August 4th. It was exciting to see them again. Knowing that they were in Canada 13 hours ago, gave me a feeling of home.
We all returned and I showed them to their apartments on campus. We went out for dinner to the same restaurant from the night before. We had pork, tofu, spinach, broccoli, rice and beer. It was delicious.

I crashed at 22:00 (CST). I am looking forward to having my first cup of coffee tomorrow.