Remembering 9/11

Thursday, September 11. Today is 9/11 so am thinking about that. Of course, as I'm writing this, it's still September 10 in the US. I'm sure there will be articles in the NY Times, which I've been trying to look at online everyday, even if just briefly.

One class this morning and one in the afternoon. Both go reasonably well. I clearly over-planned for this week - too much material. So I'll have to put some of it off to next week.

In between classes, a frenzied trip to the train station to buy tickets and to pick up packages at post office near train station. As we were told during orientation, you should go to the train station to buy tickets once, just for the experience. After that, you'll never do it again. We definitely need to find a travel agency in Zhuzhou where someone speaks at least a little English. Take a taxi home with all of my packages. It takes me 3 trips from the guardhouse at the gate to get them all over to my building and up 3 flights of stairs!

So here's the water bottle story I referred to in an earlier post:
When we arrived in Zhuzhou, one of the first things that JuJu arranged for us was the delivery of a large bottle of water and its "installation" atop the "water cooler" in each of our apartments. I put this in quotes because we can't figure out how to cool the water so we just leave them unplugged but at least we had a good supply of filtered water without having to boil the tap water. They look like regular office water coolers.

Over the course of the last few weeks, naturally, we have been drinking the water. At one point, we asked our liaison, Mr. Zhang, how we could get another bottle when this one is empty. He said, blithely, that there was a number on the side of the bottle that we could call. Well, of course, we can't call it; we don't speak Chinese and I'm sure the person at the other end doesn't speak English.

So earlier this week, when I was in the school office, I asked him again about it. Again, he said to call. This time, I looked at him and said, "We can't call." I honestly don't think it had occurred to him before. I said that I was perfectly happy to pay for the water but obviously I needed someone to deliver it. He wasn't sure, I think, exactly who to call, so he started speaking in Chinese to some of the other teachers. The next thing I know, he's suggesting that I can bring a container over to the classroom building where there are water "fountains" with purified water (in fact, most of them are tall spigots that you can use to fill a water bottle or pitcher). This way it wouldn't cost me anything!

So here I am, 60 years old, living on the 4th floor, carrying all my groceries (not to mention the five packages that arrived today from home!) up more than 60 steps, and going every day to a classroom building where the office is on the 4th floor and my classrooms are on the 5th and 6th floors, and he wants me to carry my water up too! I think this is hilarious. I'm sure none of them understand why we don't just boil our water. But I'm going to carry my water for a week or so and then, just maybe, play the age card and tell him it's too hard on my knees!