The Zoo and the Orientation
On the first Friday after arrival, I had to attend a work orientation with the other newly arrived teacher. We were met at the main entrance of the apartment complex by a different student, who booked a taxi to take us to the main gate of the university campus. Situated about 2-2.5km back along the wide thoroughfare of Daxue Lu, my new workplace is ranked in the top 100 universities in China and is a household name locally. Once through the entrance and not before photo ID was registered with security in order to get through the barriers, it was announced that one of us would have to use a motor scooter, while the other would sit behind the student on his own personal one. Finding a scooter wasn't the issue - they're everywhere in Xuzhou, and pools of different coloured ones, depending on which company owns them, are found near every apartment, interesection, and conveniently near the university gate. They also run through either We Chat or Ali Pay, the apps that power society here. It was decided at first I'd be sitting behind the student. This I didn't mind, as up to that point I'd never ridden a scooter or any electric-powered 2-wheeler. I did have plenty of opportunities back when I lived in Beijing, but had fears of being crushed under a speeding bus on my first day.
We zipped along an empty road and then down some paths and parked the scooters near what we were told were the teaching buildings. We then doubled back along paths towards the perimeter of the university. The scenery was quite woody, like some kind of semi-rural woodland with little paths winding around. Our first stop was the campus zoo, because, why not? Held in various enclosures were peacoks, ostriches, deer with big antlers, chickens, geese and more deer. I did ask some pertinent questions as to whether peacock ever features on the menu in the cafetarias or if students had ever broken into the deer enclosures. We then continued along the tree-lined paths, up an embankment, and came to a large pagoda and pavillion. it was explained to us that these had been built only last year, despite their ancient look.
Our next stop was the teaching building. As it turned out we didn't have any security passes, we were unable to grab a card to operate the classroom computers. I'd specifically brought my work laptop for this purpose, to test out the classrooms and work out what was what before teaching the following Monday. After some polite indignation, I convinced the student that I had been promised to see the clasrooms, and so after cautiosuly mortgaging his phone with the building security, we headed up to the fifth floor. My legs weren't quite used to walking four flights of stairs and I was somewhat puffed out when we reached the classrroom. I was pleasantly surprised though, to see the room was far more modern than I'd been led to believe, with a very nice large monitor on a flexible swivelling arm and a large TV screen for duplicating my laptop onto. All was good in the universe!
Boss Hogg
Outside the teaching building, it was my turn to ride a scooter. This was quite daunting yet exhilirating, as it has always been my dream to ride some kind of motorbike. At first, the throttle was quite sensitive and it took some adjusting for my brain to coordinate that the handbrakes on both handlebars are for stopping while rotating the throttle is used for acceleration. I got the hang of it though within a minute and we went on a loop around the university initially passing the lake in the center. The student kept pointing out various landmarks such as 'Cafetaria #1,' all of which I forgot instantly. At the other end of the university, we crossed over a bridge, then weaved between some administrative buildings and came to the building where the English Teacher's office was located. Up the stairs we were greeted by a chatty lady, whom I ascertained would be our go-to person here, and I gave her some nice gifts from Australia. She left soon after, and Orientation was thus over.
The Big Chill
The other teacher had to do some errand with the student, and I setup a computer monitor in my desk cubicle. I then decided to ride a Hello Bike blue electric scooter again, and try to get my bearings. I wanted to see how long it would take to ride from the office to the classrooms but also to work out how to get back to the office from near the main gate. Unfortunately, as we'd kind of entered from the rear, I got hoplessly lost and kept ending back in the same place. Once I worked it out, I did my own loop around. The outide temperature was a frosty 2 degrees, and I was soon chilled to the bone. I then spent another 20 minutes riding around, trying to work out how to get from the back of the campus to the main gate. By the time I arrived and parked the scooter in one of the bays, my hands were purple and I could barely move. I'd been riding around in the chill for over an hour. Not the smartest thing to do a few days out from the start of teaching. Concerned I might get pneumonia, I manged to book a ride and went home and defrosted under a hot shower.
The Giant Bowl of Noodles
Having spent the rest of the afternoon prepping for classes, I needed to eat something and stretch my legs. I walked the length of the shopping stip, about 300 metres, then settled on the Lanzhou Pulled Noodles place again. This time I pointed straight to this meat and potato dish which looked quite familiar. After a few minutes, one of the staff made some kind of noice in my direction, signalling that the huge plate on the counter was my order. I took it back to my table. Yes, it did have the meat and potato stew, but this was served on top of a mountain of noodles, with the consistency a bit like al dente spaghetti but even chewier, that was swimming in a savoury broth. There wewre enough noodles for at least 2-3 people. I was up for the challenge anyway, and procedded to eat away. I triumphantly polished off the entire bowl, paid the grand total of A$3, and waddled back to my apartment out of the cold. Motor scooters and a big feed.....
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