Thursday 28 June 2007

The Australians have left


Michelle has gone home for good. She only intended to stay for one year. It was rather fortunate that there was a schedule error that left her without classes for about eight weeks. This gave her the time to tour Asia.

She returned and within, what seemed like, a few short weeks was preparing to be on her way out again.


The Brown went home for the summer as have Des and Lynn. The result is that the Foreign housing building seems pretty quiet.

Wednesday 27 June 2007

Another visit to Xian


Seeing as I did not have to prepare for my exams, I had decided to reuse my preparation material; I had a weekend free and arranged to spend it in Xian with Debra. I made reservations, purchased train tickets and off I went.

Having gone to sleep, on the train, early I awoke at 05:00 ready for the day. My train arrived in Xian at 05:30 and, as has become my habit, the first thing I did was to purchase a return ticket. The Chinese tend to wait until they are ready to go before purchasing a ticket. I like to get one as soon as possible in order to reduce the amount of time I spend in the train station and to be sure I will get the ticket I want.

I got to the hostel and stowed my pack but Debra was still in bed so I went and played on my computer for a while. When she got up and we went walking through the Moslem quarter looking for breakfast. We actually found something that was a lot like a doughnut bar. We snacked a bit and went to a Mosque but it was not open that early so we continued on the Giant shop. I wanted to look at the model I had purchased and check the price. I had purchased mine in Xinyang for just under 2000RMB and in Xian I discovered that they were asking over 2600RMB, I had suspected that the Giant shop in Xian was over priced. Now I have verification.

We then returned to the Hostel and contacted one of my students, who was also in Xian but not staying with us, to go shopping with us, as we had previously arranged. There was some confusion as to where we would meet but we finally did meet up in front of the Xian China Post building.

We went to some shops that were nearby, including the large mall that is next to the Bell tower. There were three problems with those shops. First, they didn't have anything that Debra liked (she was looking for some skirts), second, they did not fit her and third, I consider those mall shops to be over priced. I finally convinced my student and her friend that we were not going to find what we were looking for at these shops and that we needed to try the Bazaars.

They finally understood and took us to the places that typical Chinese shop for clothing. Truth be told, there was a much greater selection than in the tourist area, but the prices were also a lot lower.

We finally got one skirt for her ant the first shopping building we went to. As you have seen in the past, these are large multi-story buildings (often seven to ten floors) filled with small ten by ten or twenty meter shops and all of the shops are independent of each other. One thing that never ceases to amaze us is that most of the shops close up for lunch and the staff stretch out on the floor for their siesta. We almost got a second skirt, at the second building, but the shop keeper saw westerners and raised the price beyond what we felt was reasonable. Then Debra was getting tired (I had not realized that we had been out on the shopping trip for over five hours until we returned to the hostel) so we started heading back.

(To get to these shopping centers one would go north [toward the train station] from the Bell Tower on "The North Street" until arriving at the last major intersection before passing under the wall, "Xi Wu Lu" on this street you will turn right, or east. You will know that you are on the right street as you pass under the circular pedestrian walkway as you cross the next major street heading to the train station in the north. Continue East on this same road. You will leave the walls and in about three kilometers you will reach the shopping buildings.)

Later, after naps, Debra and I had lunch, where we were pleasantly surprised that the Pizza at the Bell Tower was really pretty good, better than the only other Pizza place available to us, Pizza Hut, and also cost a lot less. We then went looking at iPods and pricing them and visited some other computer stores. This is the first time I have actually seen Red Flag Linux (the Chinese version of Linux) on a computer in China. There is a popular myth in the west that computers are cheap in China. We have not found this to be true. After currency conversion they seem to cost the same, and often more, for similar units. We checked the price online and determined that the iPods here cost slightly more than they do in the US and decided to think about it.

That evening we went out to watch the street carnival, which is common the Xian. However, the weather put them off and there was not as much happening. So, mostly we sat around.


Wandering at night in Xian

The next day Debra and I went and she did get her iPod. We checked several dealers and determined that the authorized Apple Dealer was the cheapest. It did sort of surprise them that she had a Chinese bank card; but the transaction went smoothly.


Debra getting a new toy

They included a number of extras but the one thing that they did not include, because they were out of them, was a screen protector. Debra does not want her iPod to end up looking like mine (in my defense, mine is about three years old and she has used it more than I have). We then went to another shop, which had the screen protectors, and tried to purchase one. For whatever reason, this caused them an incredible amount of consternation. We just wanted the screen protector, nothing else. It was in the locked case so I was not able to pick it up and wave it in their faces; instead I was reduced to pointing and saying "that" in Chinese. I finally gave up and phoned another Student, Gao Jing and had her talk to them (I knew she was awake because she has sent me a "Fathers day" note on my phone). It just seemed that the transaction was much more complicated than it needed to have been.

We then walked over to the artists' corner of the city and I purchased some drawings to put up in my flat. This particular shop had about the lowest prices I have seen on the Chinese scroll prints. They add a bit of color to the walls (well, the map adds color to the walls, but it looks a bit overly functional).


We then went back to the book store where some Chinese students were asking what they should read to work on their English over the summer and I would up back in "teacher mode." From there Debra retrieved her bag and headed to the train station and I sat in the lounge and waited until about seven in the evening, when it was time for me to go.



This time the VIP lounge was full and because I did not have a soft seat ticket (it is not a straight charge, it is a percentage of seat, so for Debra's trip to Ankang it is only a 20RMB upgrade, for me it is almost a 200 RMB upgrade) I had to wait in the general lobby, the cattle pen. And, as usual, it was filled with rude people who, with hundreds of people standing, had their luggage piled on the few seats and others lounged across several seats napping. The degree of public rudeness in China, from people of all ages, is something that is often shocking.



Upon return I took a cab back and then rode up to class.

Tuesday 26 June 2007

Exams

(No pictures on this one; after all, what would the picture be? Me hunched over a desk?)

Well, the exams are over. The trouble with my exam was that I intended it to be easy. It turned out that my plan was anything but that.

My reasoning was simple, I teach an easy class (lets face it, the class is pure fluff), so I should have an easy exam. Using this as a guiding principle I thought about a way to evaluate them on something that they do well. The trouble is that I mistook, "claim to do well," for, "do well."

My plan was to use VOA Special English news and play a few one minute segments and have them summarize them. I have not used VOA special English in class because the students tell me that they all listen to both the Special English and the Regular English broadcasts, daily, in their dorm rooms. I had no real reason to disbelieve them.

I came to class about a week before the exam with some samples, four of them to be exact, in order to insure that there would be no problems. One thing I can say that helped was that this first trial class was a class of about six. It was a disaster, they were simply unable to tell me what the news stories were about. It was not a case of getting the details wrong; it was a case of being unable to give any summary whatsoever. We have been summarizing NPR stories all term so I thought that they were prepared for this considering that NPR is much faster; however, I have been walking them through the NPR stories. So, I walked them through the VOA stories too. My big problem is that by the time I realized that this was not going to work, I had already reported that this would be the format of my exam. In a sense, I was stuck.

(There are about fifty enrolled in this first class; but, it seems, about six who bother to come to class, and yes, you can hear the difference in their speech. I can talk to a student and, generally, tell if they cut class on a regular basis without even looking at the role. Keep in mind that a student who is cutting my class all term is also cutting other classes all term as well.

One thing I find interesting is a student that I often talk to, at this point. She told me that at the beginning of the year she was trying to decide if she would continue coming to class after the first week, I was so hard to understand; however, some of her roommates decided that they didn't have anything else to do and they would come to class so she made the decision to attend regularly also. She was very proud to tell me that she now understands me, and other English speakers, well and has been told that her English is now the best in her class. Very simply, it is. I hate to say it but the reason that her English has improved so much is that she made the decision to go to all of her classes, not just mine.)

By the second class I was doing test prep with I knew that the one class was not just a single problem, I had the makings of a disaster. My solution was to tell the students to be sure to bring the notes from the exam prep to the exam, that they would be useful beyond compare. Of course I recognized that this would turn my exam into little more than a roll call. That is okay because that is something I needed to do; to get an accurate roll of who was still in my class.

I graded pretty liberally, it was a 90% to just write what I said in class, that dropped to 85% if the student tried to copy me and managed to butcher it. The score rose to a 95% if the student wrote something original (indicating that they were listening) and they got 100% if they wrote something original and got it right.

I still had two that left me in a quandary. For review I had played four pieces. In the exam I played three (Lets face it; the election in Senegal was no more interesting for me than it was for them). I told them that if they were not sure about what they wrote then they should write about all three but that they only needed to write about two. I got two papers that had two summaries, direct copies of what I had written on the board as I reviewed the material, and one of the two was the one I did not play. It is one thing to cheat; it is another to be downright stupid about it.

So, my exams are done, my grades are turned in (which I am sure that all can guess by recent increase in output) and I am preparing for the summer.

Monday 25 June 2007

Just a comment

Just to tell, info about the cycling club is at www.xyqj.net , then click on "cycling and about"

Sunday 24 June 2007

A Sunday ride

Sunday morning, the morning after the 59km ride, I got up early and prepared myself for another ride. I must say that I am no fan of the idea of setting an alarm clock on a weekend; however, I did not want to be the person that held everyone back.

As it turned out, I remembered that I was not wearing my helmet when I was almost at the start point and felt that there was not time to return for it. In this I was wrong. When I arrived at the start point there was only one other person. The result was the even though we had committed to leave at 07:30 we did not pull out until slightly after 08:00. I have to say that this sense of time is very common in China. About the only thing that is generally, but not always, on time is the train.

We left and went directly to the highway that leads from Zhengzhou to Wuhan. After about 10km on this road the pack separation was already pretty evident. I was with the front runners vying for second and third (out of about 12) and often held back due to the lack of clear directions (I have no doubt that they would have been clear if I had understood what was being said). A few slower riders and a person on a lower grade bike were in the rear, followed by the mechanic on his bike.


Some of the riders

One thing that was interesting was an experiment done to see what the impact of the lower grade bike was having. That rider was permitted to swap bikes with the mechanic on a single leg (the distance between rest stops). He went a lot faster on the better bike. I think a lot of riders on more expensive bikes were glad to see this. After all, when one buys a more expensive bike there is a certain satisfaction in seeing that it really does make for faster riding.


At a rest stop (waiting for the stragglers)

We turned off the main highway at about 15km and then at about 35km we turned on to an even smaller road. While it remained paved, it was a single lane (both directions) road that, after passing under the freeway, meandered through several small villages. At 50km we turned off of even this road and began traveling on dirt.

The dirt road quickly went from being a road to a path. Once it turned to a path we left even the small villages and the only other person we met was a shepherd with a small flock. By this time we were fording small creeks and packing the bikes over short sections.

Eventually it was clear that this path had been more at one time. At one point it had been paved with flagstones; however, at this point it was simply a rough path. This took us to appoint where we parked out bikes by the method of leaning them against the brush and we began to walk.


Where we started walking

The walk was not far and took us to a creek and series of small pools that were surprisingly clear. Part of the reason for the clarity was the waterfall that we walked to. It provided movement that caused a significant amount of air to enter the water. I noticed that this was a very seldom visited place and there were almost no signs of other people: including footprints, broken foliage, and litter.


After resting on the rocks near the waterfall we walked back to the bikes and continued the direction that we had been traveling. This is where the weight of my bike was slowing me down, carrying it. The path turned out to have many unused and overgrown staircases on it. There was no way to ride these sections and we all ended up packing.

I managed to stay second so when we got to the rideable portion the lead rider and I went ahead until we found a nice shaded spot to rest. While there we ate some berries that tasted a lot like green apples (sort of looked like them too).


Back to the ridable sections

It wasn't far from here that the trail turned to a section of double track and allowed for faster riding. This took us to a village where lunch had been planed at a farmhouse. The tree in front of this farmhouse was claimed to be over five hundred years old. One interesting thing was the number of relics at this location. It seems that a small temple had existed on the site and, while it was about three thousand years old, it had been ordered destroyed.


The farmhouse A fellow rider

The result was that the farmhouse had stones that made no sense for a farmhouse, things like multi-ton monoliths being used as foundation stones and ornately carved stones with dragons reaching out being used in the walls. We walked a short distance to a monolith lying on the ground that the farmers were unable to lift and move somewhere more useful. One of the paving stones was covered with centuries old writing.


Look closely at this paving stone, we sure did

We then had lunch in the farmhouse. It was interesting that the farmhouse still had a large screen TV, a satellite dish and a DVD player. The dinner was typical Chinese fare. This means that I did not eat most of it. It simply was heavy in things that I, and most other westerners, simply find unpalatable. There was enough and I did get some food that I was willing to eat; however, it was still a very light lunch for me.

After lunch we lounged about for another hour, one must remember the Chinese habit of sleeping in the afternoon. Most of us did find the latrine and in a reasonable amount of time the guides started asking the owners of the farm house about the way to the next valley.


Lounging after lunch

This is where things went wrong, the farmers think in terms of walking with all loads on their back or across their shoulders. Very simply, they did not think of bikes. The route we were given included narrow levies between rice paddies with deep drops into stagnate water on each side, and steep climbs up dry, seasonal, watercourses. Very simply, we wound up carrying our bikes over the hill and into the next valley. The state of exhaustion was incredible and as a front runner I ended up not only packing my bike, but helping stragglers with theirs.


We finally came out in a small village, where it was possible to start riding again, and were pleased when a man on a tractor told us that we were near a road the would lead to a two lane road. We scooted down that road and eventually did end up in a small town along the road that had a shop where many of us, me included, were able to replenish our rapidly dwindling water supply.


Outskirts of the village where the trail started to improve

While resting here we met another group of riders, from the same club, that had gone on a different ride. The two groups combined and we were off again.


Small town where we rested

It was on this stage that I bonked. I simply ran out of steam. I was unable to keep up and fell to the back. It was a long 10-15km stretch and found myself in the back with a straggler. The mechanic then fell back and pushed the other straggler by putting his hand on her back as he rode, thus forcing her along, and I fell in behind them drafting. I made it to the next rest stop and he insisted that I have two ice fruit bars, they were good and it turned out that it was just what I needed. I left with thee pack as we pulled out of the roadside shop, there were now over twenty of us, and quickly pulled into second place where I stayed for the rest of the ride, about another 10km into town.


You can see where we went trekking from the destination point on the map (Lotus Pond) to road Y030, for that matter, you will also notice that there is no road from X032 Lotus Pond.

It was a good Sunday, exhausting but fun. Total distance not counting the distance from my flat to the shop where I started and ended, which is just at 5km each way, was 97km.



If you noticed a change in style in the middle of this post it is because I interrupted it by going on a 20km fitness ride (with a crazy Dr. who thinks he is going to make me loose weight) and dinner (the reason riding with the crazy Dr. will not cause me to loose weight).

Saturday 23 June 2007

Reservoir Ride

Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Reservoir Ride
From Robert C


It has been some tine since I have expanded this chronicle of my life in China. As many of you have read, I have visited Debra in Xian. I do not visit her there often as it is a four hour train ride for her and a twelve hour train ride for me. However, as all readers have gathered, I tend to take a night train and, after crawling into a bunk, sleep, pretty much, the entire trip.


The semester and I have made plans to stay another year. This leaves me with the summer, which scheduled itself surprisingly fast.


Debra informed me that my account of my trip to Shanghai was not as entertaining as my writing in the past. I do have to say that even I noticed this transgression. I know what went wrong. There were two things. First, I was using the Belkin Keyboard on the Toshiba Pocket PC. I have to say that it is not a very good keyboard. As all of you know, I am no typist; however, a bad keyboard just makes it worse. I was getting frustrated with all of the corrections that I was making.


So much for blaming a mechanical device for human failings (something I hate about Stephen Kings writing); the real reason is that a travelogue is best served cool. The best writing is not done while one is doing. First, the stories do not move smoothly and the days do mot fold into each other smoothly. The second is akin to the first; there are no stories, the account becomes just that, and account, or report, of events.

I have concluded that one should keep a journal and attempt to avoid the loss of details and facts. A great writer with a name that that I can not longer once gave an important bit of advice, “never let a fact get in the way of a good story.” This admonishment should be taken with temper and caution, it does not mean that one should be fast and loose with the facts and turn a story of something that did happen into a story of something that did not; however, one should not bog a story with such details that the story itself becomes lost in the telling.


Here we have the difference between a travelogue and a trip report. Either recount a journey or, as the name makes so clear, a trip. However, one appeals to the little account in many of us; the other, it speaks to the artist in our soul. (So much for the mindless drivel that you can find of any one of ten-thousand blogs, on with the show).


I see that the last thing I have mentioned is the local riding group. I have continued riding with them.

Rather funny, to me is that I have be delegated to the “fast” riding group. One thing that the fast group tends to do is to ride faster; however, they also ride further.
Almost immediately, I noticed the twenty kilometer rides stretching to thirty.

On one of the long training rides it was mentioned to me that they also go on long weekend rides. I was told that on that very weekend there was a 100kim ride planned. Of course, I agreed to go. I was told that all the information I needed would be found on the website which, of course, turned out to be in Chinese.

I was able to make enough sense to get a start time and on Saturday I was there. However, it was not a 100km ride. We only went 59 Km. However, most of it was off road and the destination was a seldom visited reservoir. The group consisted entirely of men and it was at a bit of a competitive pace.

While we rode hard the ride was enjoyable. We turned off the main roads rather early in the ride and continued through several small villages. I discovered quickly something that has continued to be a trend on these group rides. I am a front runner. I do not ever want to be in front simply because I do not know where we are going; however, I am not many places back. I find this interesting because of the popular idea of the Chinese as a bicycle riding culture and my knowledge of where I placed when I was racing (there is a good chance that when I return I will also return to racing, I am as healed up as I will ever be). Generally, on all the rides, I finish second.


After passing through these villages we turned off the roads to single track paths and continued ridding hard (I had to stop once because I got tangled with a rope that was attached to a goat). There is the normal resistance to being the first one to start walking (…yes, the walk of shame) and the times I ended op doing so were generally the result of a missed shift or someone in front to me stopping.


We finally reached the reservoir which prompted a photo moment (note that when I took the photo I did not realize that not all the straggles had rolled in) and a couple of the guys walked down to the water to splash it on them selves. This is something interesting; it was about 30-32c we had been pushing hard and no one got in the water. The Chinese do not swim. I have seen one person swim the whole time I have been here. While the poor water quality would be seen as part of the reason, the other is that they simply do not swim. The students have told me that it is very uncommon for a Chinese to know even the basics of swimming. As a result, even on this very hot day they just sat on the shore and splashed water over themselves.

We left on a slightly different route that also involved both single-track and narrow single lane roads. When we finally reached a highway (a different one than we had started on) we waited for the stragglers and the shop mechanic made any needed repairs. I was the last one for repairs, my headlight had vibrated loose and was flopping, and so I left the rest stop last. As luck would have it, a small, slow, truck passed me as I was starting a hill and I was able to draft (to use another vehicle to break the wind making it much easier to go faster) him and quickly dropped right back into second. In all, it was a good afternoon.

One thing that is making these rides hard for me is that I made the decision to get a touring bike. In its essence this bike is a compromise. It is not a high speed road bike, it is not a mountain bike, it is made for durability over long distances. As such, on the off road stretches I am at a bit of a disadvantage. However, the disadvantage is not as much as one would imagine. The gearing is still quite low and while the tires are 700s (700mm) instead of 26inch they are wider than some road tires and work pretty well off road. I would say that the biggest disadvantage is the weight. Because I am using only one bike, not a large stable of bikes, I have fenders and racks and plenty of other things on this bike. Also, due to the road focus, the frame is also larger than a mountain bike would be and for durability it is made of heaver materials. This all adds up to a heavier bike.

If I were starting out with the intent to stay a while I would have quickly built a stable of bikes (ah, the benefit of hind sight). First, I would want an electric bike (or a beater) for going to class and local trips. Second, a road bike for, you guessed it, road riding. I am not talking about shopping here, that is covered in the first category, I am talking about high speed trips around the lake and long trips on local roads. The third category to be filled is a mountain bike. These are all unique and distinct roles that cover not only basic transportation, but also recreational riding.

Friday 1 June 2007

Shopping in Wuhan

06 Jan 07

As many of you know, I ended up working this weekend. The reason really made no sense to me, or the other westerners; however, it seemed to make perfect sense to the Chinese.


We worked Saturday and Sunday so that we could take Tuesday and Wednesday off, following the holiday on Monday. The thought, on the minds of all of us westerners, was, why not just take Saturday and Sunday off? Instead, this goofy approach messed up all of our schedules, their schedules, and, undoubtedly, the schedules of millions of people across the country. I really think that the reason was just to do something different; whatever the reason, I worked Saturday.

I would have also had to have worked on Sunday, except that I traded classes with another teacher. Julia has several of the same classes that I have.


Remember, the students are assigned to a class group at the beginning of their college life and that class group is given a number (easy enough, I have classes one through five). They then attend all of their classes, and many out of class activities, as a group.


Because she, Julia, also has classes one through four, we were able to make a trade in the classes. This left us both with classes on only one day, I did Saturday and she did Sunday. (And no, Julia is not her real name. However, her family name sounds a bit like Julia, it is a name that I can pronounce, and the students know who I am talking about when I say, "Julia." [Even if they do laugh when I say it]).


An example of the, out of class, activities, that are attended as a group include the Friday that immediately preceded this weekend, in which I had to work. The student classes reserved large rooms at the college and held various parties. As a teacher I moved between the groups that were, generally about two classes, or about a hundred students. Some of the parties focused on, student produced, skits and dances. There were a lot of song and musical instrument recitals. Some of the classes got together and watched movies on the large, projection screens (there is a… um… "Free" web site there in China that allows a person to watch any of hundreds of movies, there is a reason that this site is unusable for my classes; however, it allows anyone with web access to watch them. So, the students start the projector and the movie, and then they enjoy free theater.).


On Saturday I then showed Titanic. I used some discs that were purchased here in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />China. So, to no surprise, they did not work well. They are copies and are not good ones. Toward the end of the movie the disc froze. The good part was that it really was the last scene, I still was irritated. One part of the movie was sort of funny. I have mentioned the disregard for heat in the classrooms; as it happened, there has been a bit of a cold snap and the classrooms never got above 40f all day. So, at the end of the movie, when everyone is in the water and freezing, I looked around the room and observed that everyone watching the movie was freezing, right along with the actors on the screen.


I ended up showing the film twice, this allowed me to show it to four of my classes; like I said, I was doubling up my classes. I first showed it at 10am and a second time at 2:30pm. It really felt like I was running a theater.


On Sunday, because I had made the arrangement, I had no classes. Instead I went to the usual meeting with some of the westerners, which we hold on Sundays and then returned to my flat in order to do some writing; I also did quite a bit of lounging around and reading. (Wow, it is hard to type this, my fingers are cold; thus I am producing a lot of typos. Therefore, my usual, very slow, typing, is slowed even more by the number of corrections I am making.)


Monday was a rather normal shopping trip. Ellen, a female student of Michelle's, went with us and provided quite of bit of help. It is always funny when you ask for help finding something. All I wanted was some spices and vinegar. I ended up being brought vegetables, soup mix, and other things that I can not remember or identify (they seem to be food), in the pile were my spices and vinegar; so, I did not complain.


It was at that time that Michelle and I discussed the possibility of an upcoming trip to Wuhan. We are both considering purchasing backpacks for our, upcoming, winter break. We were initially planning to purchase them when we arrive in Xian, while we are on vacation, and still may do that. However, there is some logic in purchasing them ahead of time so that we are not left carrying two pieces of luggage. I would also like to visit the museum in Wuhan. One thing that has disappointed me, in China, is the lack of museums. According to the travel guide that I borrowed from Debra, there is one there.


That night I went to dinner with He Zhi Qing and some of her dorm mates (There, a real name for those of you who complain that I do not include real names. She tends to ask me to call her HZQ because I often mangle her name so badly.). Even though her roommates are not English majors, instead they are majoring in Chinese, they speak English well enough to communicate.

We did not go where we had planned because the place was full. Instead, we went to another nearby restaurant. From her I am learning to identify restaurants (not always as easy as it sounds) and going to more "authentic" places. She is the same student that took Debra, for several hours, and showed her what the student dorms look like.


We (He Zhi Qing, her roommates, and I) made plans to go on Tuesday and walk around the city; however, it was snowing so we called it off. In all, the vacation was too cold to enjoy.


That night, I had a slight problem. The house phone rang, I differentiate that from my cell phone, which is used for almost all communication. The house phone is primarily used for calling people on campus, and in the dark, while stumbling to answer it; I stepped on the power supply for my computer. Not only was it a wrong number, as most of my house phone calls are, but I broke the power supply. Breaking the power supply prompted me to write this letter to my good friend from High School; and all around Mac Genius, Mike.


Last night when getting up to answer the phone, it was a wrong number, I broke the connector on my Macally power supply, I long since replaced my Apple supplied one.

This power supply has a plug in the end that connects to the supply; so, the cord that plugs into the computer also unplugs from the supply. It uses a non standard plug. However, I am first going to look for the plug, if I can not find it I will solder the cord directly into the supply.

My question is this; the cord that connects to the Mac has one strand and a shield (thus, two conductors). I am assuming that the shield is negative and the core is +24VDC@2A. Looking at the tip I see it as having three elements, a shield, as is found on an RCA audio connector and a plug in the center that is similar to a stereo headphone connector, just smaller. This very small plug has three elements. What should the voltage be at these various points? (Yes, I checked the apple site, it has no real useful information on this that I was able to find)<>


I got a response from him that advised that, seeing as the part is made in China, that I should replace it in China. He also included some helpful information. However, by the time that I received his response (remember, the time is almost opposite here [gmt +8]) I had already gone into town and gotten it, sort of, repaired; prompting this letter.


The really funny thing is that a lot of the stuff made here is not available. When it is, it costs more than it does, after conversion, in America. As an example, I saw an iPod Nano (4gb); after conversion (of course, it is priced in RMBs [aka, CNY]) it would have cost $280USD. What I was told is that the stuff is first shipped to the states and then shipped back to china, where it becomes an import and is subject to very steep taxes.

I did manage to get it fixed. There is no "do it yourself" culture and near all tools are only sold to licensed repairmen. As such, I took it to a computer repair shop and HE ZHI QING (my student, I can not pronounce or spell her name) was having trouble telling them what I wanted done because the idea of fixing something was totally unknown to her.

Finally I walked behind his counter (with permission, if he understood what I was asking) and picked up his solder sucker, soldering iron and Multimeter and started working on it myself. After I had it all positioned I let him solder the parts together (and he did a terrible job of it). She was laughing the whole time; it seems that this is not the way things are done here

I suspect that I will hear about this in class... However, it is now working.


That Wednesday, after we had canceled our plans to wader about the town on Tuesday due to the snow; He Zhi Qing, more of her roommates, and I went to go and get this done. To go into town she first tried to hire a three wheel cab; however, the driver would not budge on the price so we took the bus. We then went to get the repair done, which was the, afore mentioned, ordeal.


After we did that she insisted that I go and eat lunch. While I had not eaten lunch I could have done very well to miss that meal (I have lost about seven Kilos since I got here, then I pretty much stopped loosing weight). However she was very uncomfortable with my having not eaten (she, and her friends had eaten before we met) so I had some soup that she ordered for me at a lunch counter.


[Then people ask why I hate using windows. Here I was typing along and I get a message that the windows OS had encountered yet another error and has closed word. I only lost a little because I save often; however, this does not happen on my UNIX, a real OS, based Mac …oh where was I…]


After we did some shopping, I decided that I needed more long johns, we went for a walk. The only problem with wearing the long johns is that it tends to reduce my level of empathy with my students. After all, I am not freezing, there is no reason that they should be acting like they are (other, possibly, than that the room really is freezing).


The walk we took led through one of the larger city parks and a small bamboo forest that had several footpaths leading through it. It was, obviously, a popular place for young people to stroll.

We then walked along the river; stopping at a playground to enjoy the exercise equipment (me v. them on the teeter totter was funny, if not a bit embarrassing). I took some pictures of the old city wall and we also did a bit of other shopping (I needed some eggs, which are not sold in cartons as they are in the west) and I returned to my flat.


We had walked quite a bit, including the entire return trip, however, it was fun. Even better, when I plugged in my, newly repaired, power supply it worked!


This week was obviously a short one for classes, consisting of only two days. We talked about many of the terms used in Titanic. I discussed the, upcoming, exam in my class. However, I was not able to use the material that I normally use in the second half of my class. I normally use a podcast from a pair of Doctors in Linguistics in Los Angeles.


I use the audio skit in their program and then build more lesson material around that. I was not able to do this for one of the very reasons that you have not received these blogs in some time. The internet connection to China has been very slow as a result of a damaged cable in Taiwan. This is making the access to may websites, the sending, and receiving of both audio and pictures nearly impossible.


I hope that this is repaired soon and I will be able to send pictures of Wohan.


This afternoon, this being Saturday, I got a call from He Zhi Qing asking if I wanted to go on a bike ride with them. They are, of course, her and a couple of her roommates. One of her roommates did not want to ride and, apparently, claimed that she did not know how to ride a bike. So, she rode on the rack on the back of the bike. It is amazing, to me, to see how often people ride on the cargo racks on the backs of the bicycles. They are clearly labeled that they are not capable of holding people; however, many of them are padded and there are often handles and footrests on them. We are not talking of carrying small children, we are talking of full sized (well, fill-sized means something a little different when talking of Asian women) adults.


They generally ride on these racks by riding side saddle and mount after the bicycle is moving slowly. I have a cargo basket on my rear rack so I have not carried any passengers.


So, we rode the three bicycles, with one passenger, to the local lake. However, none of us wanted to pay the entrance charge so we then headed back on the other side of the river to see the construction on the Pagoda that has been in many of our pictures. When finished, it will be a temple.


While riding we noticed that He Zhi Qing's bicycle had a flat tire; so, as I rod off in search of a WC she went and borrowed an air pump from a repairman. I was under the impression that she had the tire repaired until we had ridden several blocks; only to discover that her tire was flat again. At that point we went looking for a repairman and were unable to find one and ended up back at the same person that had loaned her a air pump earlier.


By the time we returned, it was too dark for the repairman to see well enough to find the flat, he was completing the work he was doing by the light of nearby cook fires. I quickly dismounted the tire form the rim, it is normal here to leave the wheel on the bike while going the here, and located the hole by wetting my hands with water he provided me. I than roughed the area of the hole and he put the patch on for her. This was all done by the light of my torch (silly Brits' insist on calling a flashlight a torch). Instead of using the patches we are familiar with, he used a section of tube that one of the girls cut to the shape that we needed, he then poured some cement on the tube and used the cut portion for a patch. All I can say is that it worked.


While we were doing this it was getting darker rapidly. In addition, I received a phone call from Ilwn, a graduate student, reminding me that I had planned for him and Merry, one of my students, to have them over for dinner. So, once repairs were completed, we rode back, rather quickly, in the dark. I will point out that I do not recall seeing a single bicycle light in the country. Other bikers, in the dark, are the real scare when riding this way.


At that point He Zhi Qing and one of her friends joined us for dinner. They cooked, which made it a very easy night for me. However, I was getting a bit tired, and I expect that I was looking it. We also looked at the on-line train schedule and determined what train we wanted for the trip to Wohan.


Today, Sunday, I went to our Sunday meeting. After that, the Browns and I watched a movie, "The Bodyguard." I then went for a bike ride with Walik. I prefer to take my bike to the store and on local trips, instead of relying on the bus service. It just leaves me with a bit more freedom to do what I want.


After returning to my apartment and watching another movie, "timeline," Walik and I went to dinner. It was pretty much a slow day. Most of my Sundays are slow, which is just fine.