RLPF.ar

Things run a lot differently over here. I've now had two class sessions (when I should have had one) and three small group sessions, without getting such insignificant details as, oh, the students' e-mail addresses. So it's interesting, shall we say. It's very good practice for me in letting go of expectations and just rolling with the tide.

The extra class session is a funny story. The department chair had told me that my Thursday morning MIDI class would not start until September 23, when the first year students have finished their mandatory military training. So I was settling down in the office for a morning of e-mail and composition, when I got a call from the chair's assistant asking why I wasn't in class. What? It would have been nice to know the day before. So I raced over and improvised for the rest of the class period -- and then found out later from the chair that in fact students should not have shown up, but nobody told them!

This is classic China for you -- rigidly bureaucratic at times and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants at others -- sometimes both at once!

I haven't said much yet about living quarters. We are presently in one of the faculty dorm rooms. One could almost call it an apartment, as it does have a separate "kitchen" (that is, room with a refrigerator, counter and sink but no range) and bathroom. But that would mislead about its size. It would be livable for one person (with a bit more cleaning), but for two, it's cramped. Internet isn't available in the room -- a problem for my current situation, collaborating with artists in the US. Professor Tao made some calls and, if I need to get online at night, one of the students will escort me over to a student room that is only 3/4 occupied. That means seeing perhaps a bit more of student life than I should see -- though it was interesting to see that many of the students in that part of the dorm, probably all electronic music students, had their own studios setup in their rooms. That would have been technologically (not to mention financially) impossible while I was in college.

Finding a real apartment is difficult. Real estate agents in China seem to be even less scrupulous than those in the US. We have a couple of leads but nothing concrete yet. Watch this space...