Jinan

in front of the Shandong U's medical school

Shandong U's West Campus

at the Quangchang Square

Day 1: 8/30

Our wai-ban (Chinese contact), Mary, took us out for a stroll. We walked through the campus and it was quite beautiful. Then we walked to the Quancheng Square with lots of space for people to walk, sit and just visit. Remember, people have very small living quarters (like in Mexico) and the government provides parks and squares for people to go relax and visit. On the outer perimeter, there are lots of shopping strips. We went to the grocery store to check things out.


We only bought necessities, like toilet paper, slippers, fruits, etc. Dad got a pair of "crocs" for about 20 RMB or $3 US. Since the shower here is just a room with a shower head and you get the floor all wet, you need to have some type of slippers. Mangoes cost about $1 US. In the afternoon, our wai-ban came by again to take me to another super market and I bought a jar of Skippy's peanut butter for $17 RMB (US 2.5) and some little things. I needed to buy a watch as I lost mine somewhere in Provo, but haven't been able to find a place to get it. We'll find one somewhere, I'm sure.

It rained most of the day. The streets were muddy with lots of yucky water and I walked into the water many times. It's quite gross. Sometimes cars come by and splash on you. The traffic is horrendous. Motorcycles come the wrong way b/c they didn't want to waste any time turning around. I almost got hit a couple of times already. I'm learning the pedestrians have no rights. Traffic operates on the principle that the bigger you are, the more right of way you have. I'm sure that over time the traffic will mature giving pedestrians more consideration.

Food-wise, since we didn't have milk for breakfast, we thought we'd go out and get some soymilk and you tiao (like a Mexico cherro), but breakfast was over 9:00 AM. So, at the store, we bought some milk (1 cup size) and came home to enjoy our granola. It was great! For dinner, we thought we'd go out to a restaurant to have some real food. It was a ziao tze (dumplings) place. We thought we'd just order some ordinary dumplings, but they were horrible. One was filled with basil, the other some type of onions. I think I'm going to try to make spaghetti tomorrow.

The bed is pretty hard, but it has a foam pad on it making it bearable; Dad likes it. The bedroom has an airconditioner and feels very cool and nice. We also have A/C in the living room, but the other rooms just have fans. They tore down the wall and made 2 apartments into one. Other than having 2 bedrooms, 2 toilet rooms, 1 kitchen, I don't see how they could have been 2 apartments though. We are on the second floor and the entry way from the main arch way was long and filthy. I don't think people take care of their environment very well; perhaps it's because they don't own it. They depend on the government to do things. There are people all over fixing the roads to make things better. When we first came into the university compound, we stopped at a guest house. There were around 10 people working on the pipes. This was after 9 PM. My heart sank to think we were staying at the inn with an herb shop on the bottom floor. But that wasn't it, we were supposed to go to the other side of the building and the apartment was ready for us. The school had it cleaned pretty well and it was a lot better than what we expected. I think we'll be okay here.



We are here to teach and I think we'll enjoy our assignment. See some pictures at our blog site, http://davisatsdu.blogspot.com.