Train Ride and Yangzhou

We had a 5-hour train ride yesterday to get from Shanghai to Yangzhou. Daniel mostly slept, but I really enjoyed watching the scenery out the window. I feel a certain enchantment with places where there are more bicycles than cars on the road, places where paved roads are scarce, places that are definitely not in my travel guide; they're just so far away from my own experience. I'm looking forward to the longer train ride we're going to take later in the trip.

We arrived in Yangzhou last night and took a taxi to the University. No one was in the office, so we went to find a hotel for the night. The hotel by the campus was full, so we ended up at the Yangzhou Sports Hotel, apparently so named because it sits in front of a large stadium and beside a gymnasium. Daniel opted for the couch over the bed; he's decided that the beds in China are too hard for his liking. He slept well on the couch though. I, on the other hand, was awakened at about 6 a.m. (this is Saturday!) by the old people fan dancers/exercisers gathered en masse behind the hotel in the stadium parking lot. For an hour and a half they danced/marched around the parking lot to alternating patriotic music and what sounded like a workout tape with counts for the exercises. Must keep fit, you know.

Early-morning exercisers aside, Yangzhou is a really a delightful place. As we were driving in last night, Daniel was marveling at the LED lights that lit up trees, buildings, etc., in greens and blues and yellows. This morning we took a stroll along a canal where there were little shops selling ceramics, plants, and pets. Pets! I've never seen so many animals anywhere in China. Dogs, cats, fish, turtles, rabbits, and all kinds of birds, barked, sloshed, and chirped as we passed. And this city is clean! The guide book said it was nice, I suppose; it just came as kind of a surprise. My thoughts have gone something like this: "wow, this is nice!" then, "oh no, this is really nice...this was supposed to be the less-developed city for my research..." It seems I may need to make arrangements to visit a third university.

There doesn't seem to be many foreigners here though, and I have yet to see a McDonalds or a Starbucks, which leads me to hope just a little that this place might not be too Westernized. We haven't met anyone yet who really spoke English. Well, there was a Pakistani man at the hotel last night who spoke some English; as Daniel and I were leaving to find a late dinner the desk clerk stopped to ask if I could translate for her for a minute. She was having a little trouble communicating with the Pakistani man, who only spoke a few words of Chinese and who was trying to pay the remainder of his bill in U.S. dollars. That struck me as a little strange. Anyway, we got it figured out I think. Dinner was noodles at a restaurant by the hotel, and then we turned in for the night.

We made it to the University and got checked into the little motel there. It's definitely not the Marriott, but it will do for a couple of weeks. Daniel finally figured out how to make the air-conditioner worked. I have a lot of stuff left to figure out for my research. I need to have someone go over my questionnaire and make sure it makes sense, find a way of getting respondents for the questionnaire, find someone to help me translate interviews, find interviewees...should be fun. At least I've got two weeks to get it done. Something will work out.

So far my Chinese has been good enough to get us where we've needed to go and feed us decently well, so that's been nice. I sure do wish I were fluent, though; it would make everything, and especially my research, a whole lot easier. I finally got my Chinese test scores back from the Navy; out of a possible 3, I got a 1+ on listening fluency and a 2+ on reading fluency. Who would have guessed? Certainly not me; I can usually only read about half of the menu in any given restaurant, and newspapers are a real challenge, usually requiring extensive use of the dictionary. I suspect the difference on the test was that I could re-read what I needed to of the passages and spend a few seconds trying to figure it out, whereas the listening was a one-shot deal--listen once then answer the questions. I'm pleased (pleasantly surprised, really) with the reading score. But I can't help thinking about the things I should to do improve my listening fluency. I try to remind myself that being in China will probably help this without too much extra effort on my part--the necessities of communication and my own curiosity will by themselves lead to improvement. Still, I'm impatient with my limitations. Ah...the joys of foreign languages...