Sept. 13 - Right Back Where We Started From

Finally, after nearly two weeks traversing northern China, I returned safely along with the rest of Group B to Building #6 in Beijing, looking more ragged and similar to a filthy hobo than I usually do. Fortunately, it was nothing than a shower, a shave, and a load of laundry couldn’t fix, and by 2:00 PM I was all set for the faculty reception in the TBC offices.

Now, the intended purpose of the reception was so students could meet their new teachers … but to be frank, it’s hard for a TBC student to achieve that intended aim when his or her professors don’t show up. Two out of five isn’t so bad, I guess….yikes, who am I kidding?  That’s not much of a turnout at all.

Fortunately, at least I didn’t incur a similar woe later on in the day, when I showed up at the main gate and my Chinese tutor was there, just as we had agreed on earlier that day. Wang Hao (or Harvey, which he chose as his English name), turned out to be an extremely nice, easygoing fellow as I learned over our dinner together. Most importantly though, he assured me that he could be very patient as a tutor, as he claims to have been with the other two TBC students he’s personally assisted in the past. This of course is a dream come true for me, because personally I feel like a two-year-old born in Beijing could probably speak better than I can at this point.

So, the evening went along quite pleasantly … with a bit of an interesting twist at the end. As soon as we returned to campus we had an exchange that went basically like so:

Harvey: “So… are you going to go drinking now?”

Me: (Blank stare) “…..Um….no.”

Harvey : “Wait….really?”

Honest to goodness, he didn’t mean it as a joke or anything of that sort. He ask the question in the most casual of tones, and once he received my answer, Harvey was as genuinely surprised as could possibly be that I didn’t have any plans to go out to a bar anywhere.

Needless to say….I’m not exactly a fan of this image the native students have of the Americans on their campus. Or, rather I should say the Ugly Americans on their campus.

Ugh.