My new school and home

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  Taiyuan, China
Sunday, August 22, 2004

We sleep in late and go to the hotel restaurant for some food. Again, no English whatsoever, stares from everyone like we walked in naked or something, but luckily the menu has pictures, albeit really, really bad pictures, so we chose what is obviously ribs and then just pick a random plate, which actually ends up being this tasty sausage and vegetable dish. Mark heads off into Xian and I catch my plane to Taiyuan, the city where my university is located. I'm picked up in the airport by Paul Zhang, for all intents and purposes my boss. He's very friendly and we drive 30 minutes to the school. I'm worried now...we're pretty close to the school and the roads look like they've just been bombed! It seriously resembles a few roads from Cambodia and then I remember that China is still a developing country, Beijing and Shanghai withstanding. It's dark when we arrive so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to check out the university campus.
We have dinner at the university hotel (a very common thing in China, the hotel that is) and I meet Paul's boss (Mr. Chen)and Paul's boss' boss (mr. Tian) and a few others. The table is a large round one and in the middle is a smaller glass table top that spins, so we're definitely eating Asian style, which is everyone shares the dishes. So, they bring out tons of dishes, not able to recognize any, I just dig in and (most) everything tastes really great. When you want something, just spin the glass top until it arrives in front of you! Then after eating this massive amount of food, just completely stuffed, Paul asks me what I want for my main dish!! I just look at him incredulously and try to explain that I can't eat anymore and he can't believe it! But apparently, that's just the normal thing here, everyone shares these huge plates and THEN you order your main dish...I honestly do not know where they put all that food!
After dinner, I'm taken to my apartment, which is pretty nice and fully furnished. I have a nice pleather sofa and two chairs, queen size bed, computer with internet, desk and phone, TV and VCD player, washer...pretty much everything I need with a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and small sun room, mainly for hanging clothes to dry. So, I settle in a bit and fire up the computer and just check the place out.

Taiyuan hotels Slideshow Share

More Pictures

2Prison or Apartment?

3Living Room

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